Why do people act so surprised at the fact that there are people who don't "get it"? Of course mainstream perception is that its weird. A lot of my friends think the snake thing is "weird", but I don't take offense to it, and usually just laugh it off. In fact, I'm usually the first to say "yeah, it's a bit of weird creepy hobby, but I love it!" Usually they love being able to look at them even if they think its weird. Lets not take ourselves so serious, I'm pretty sure they aren't trying to actually offend you