I have to explore every surface of every quick food container (i.e. bag of chips, gatorade, other snacks…) and read every word on the container.
I don’t know why.
Me too! I haven’t developed the idea that far, but it could be really interesting if you, Cervaise, could write up something about your idea and post it in GD. I think it could an interesting discussion.
::ahem::
LOOK AT ME, I’M THE KING OF NEW YORK!
Does that answer your question?
We ain’t afraid o’ him. Spot Conlon jus’ makes us a li’l noivous.
Not quite the same, but I do enjoy waking up, dreading the fact that morning has arrived, only to glance at my alarm clock and realize that I have [insert any unit of time here] until I actually do have to get up.
I’m also a compulsive bathroom reader.
Does anyone share these traits?
- I enjoy applesauce on my mashed potatoes.
- I watch The Waltons on TVLand every morning when I return from the gym. (I’m only 25, so I missed it the first time around)
- Occasionally, I find myself writing out random words with my finger on whatever surface it happens to be resting at that moment (including my wife!).
- On my daily walk to work, I sometimes close my eyes, pretending to be blind, and wonder how far I can go before tripping, bumping into something or getting run over.
Gyrate:
MP3 Disk B – live Pink Floyd from radio broadcast recording followed by Bloch’s Concerto Grosso 1 and 2. Close enough?
(I also have Deep Forest and Led Zep on a single playlist, and Creedence next to Kraftwerk on another)
Lieu,
I am also a line form a movie/line from The Simpsons freak.
My oddities are that I can memorise songs and jingles from adverts and sing them word for word.
I also have a habit of thinking everyone in a pub is singing along with whatever music is playing. But that only tends to happen when I’m getting drunk.
I think most of you are freaks. Then again I have the following:
I recognize actors and actresses in commercials. I can tell you what the Valtrex girl was doing before she contracted herpes.
I have a minor obsession with Richard Francis Burton and consider him to be the great genius of the nineteenth century. Strangely most people haven’t given this a lot of thought.
I think Olivia Newton John had the sweetest, purest voice I’ve ever heard.
I will eat any food on earth, I would probably give stink eggs a try. My exception are the fairly mundane soft or runny cheeses. Cottage cheese could be used as a torture device. In addition the thought of drinking a glass of milk can cause me to have dry heaves.
The worst smell on earth is the toxic combination of Cherrios when added to milk. I would rather live in a sewage treatment plant than experience that every day.
I do the commercial thing, too. I’m constantly saying, “Hey, that’s the guy from the Chevy ad! Now he’s in the Hallmark ad!”
And I agree about Olivia Newton John.
I’m afraid to tell you the rest, because you might take back your five bucks. I love, love, love cottage cheese. I put French dressing on it. Yes, the bright orange stuff, and I stir it up and eat it. Quite willingly. It’s just delicious.
And I love milk.
And I love Cheerios. With milk. And bananas. My kids eat them almost every day. I think they smell great.
:::runs and hides:::
Shampoo bottles: As a kid, I would while away my time in the tub by chanting all the words on the shampoo bottle, front to back, beginning to end, in groups of three syllables to see if I could make it come out even: “Suave Na-tu, rals Sham-poo, Sun-Ri-pened, Rasp-ber-ry, . . . La-ther rinse, re-peat For, best re-sults, . . . meth-yl-chlor, o-is-o, thi-a-zol- i-none D, And-C Red, Num-ber 5, . . .” What a nutter.
Fascination with letterforms: Me three. My high school notebooks are filled with elaborate drawings of letters. I must have designed a few dozen full or partial typefaces in those years.
I’m sure I have lots of other kooky things I do that prove I’m a wack job, but I can’t think of them right now.
No way! I used to do this too, only not specifically with shampoo bottles (nor only in the bath)… Took quite a bit of self training to get myself to stop. Billboard signs were a favorite target.
Argh. I almost wish I hadn’t “remembered” this… If I catch myself doing this on the train ride home tonight, I blame you! 
I do have a few idiosyncrasies, of course.
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I can’t stand butter/margarine on my food. I eat my bread, pancakes, potatoes, popcorn all butter-less. The greasy mouthfeel of butter just about gags me. (I don’t care for milk chocolate, either, but that’s easier to avoid).
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When I’m working out on a treadmill or similar gym machine, I am obsessive about the calories-burned-per-minute ratio. I also obsessively divide the workout time into fractions in my head (tenths, fifths, quarters, thirds, whatever I can manage).
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Speaking of obscure music groups, am I the only one who really likes the group Danny Wilson? I have 2 CD’s of their music, even though I never hear it anywhere, and I know all the songs by heart, of course.
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I hate when a waitress/waiter “warms up” my coffee. Dammit, I can only enjoy the taste when it’s got the perfect ratio of coffee to sweetener to creamer, and you come along and screw it up before I can stop you. There has, HAS to be a universal signal for “don’t fill my coffee cup until it’s empty”.
Is that anything like this?
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I use the Straight Dope skin for this forum, and in between each post there’s sometimes a blue space or sometimes it’s white. Sometimes it’s only half blue. I don’t really know what causes this, but whenever it’s not completely blue, and I highlight it, it stays blue even if I click somewhere else. I don’t know why I find this so fascinating, but I routinely highlight the white spaces and turn them blue while reading threads.
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This is something I’ve done since I was a kid. I have this little pattern I do with my fingers where I start by pressing my thumb and my pinky together, then my index and ring finger, then my middle and ring finger, then back to my index and ring finger, and repeat. When I think of a song or jingle, I’ll use each note to correspond to a finger pressing pattern. The object of the game is to see if it ends up on the last one of the pattern, the index and ring finger together. I’ll do this with anything, even just random things people say. It really bugs me if I doesn’t end on the last one of the pattern, so sometimes I’ll fudge the “melody” in order to make it end on that one.
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Some people mentioned corresponding songs to certain places. I do the same thing with certain times. Not the general “ah, this takes me back to my childhood” but more specific instances, like a period of a few weeks. A lot of it is recent too, I’ll wax nostalgic on something 6 months ago. I even sometimes do it on purpose, I’ll listen to a song over and over in order to associate that song to that period of time, so months later when I listen to it again it’ll be like a direct mental passage back in time.
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When standing idly in the shower, I almost always have my hands on the back of my neck. I don’t know why.
I hate that, too!
Does it really mess with your head if you see this:
2,4,5
?
I forgot my irrational hatred of the singer John Mayer. Everytime I see his face I want to punch the television screen. I am an easy going guy and this is not par for the course for me. His music isn’t the issue.
He just looks like the kind of guy who would steal your girlfriend, get here addicted to coke, and leave town with your kitten. Ugghhh!
I am down right compulsive about having a napkin under my beer at the bar. If a napkin isn’t available, I’ll find something–a scrap of paper, a bar towel, a check stub–something. The bizare thing about this (or so I’ve been told), is that it’s only at the bar (the physical bar, not the place of business). If I’m sitting at a table or in a booth, I don’t need the napkin. At my house, I don’t need a napkin.
This has gone far enough that I insist on napkins under all drinks on the bar while I’m working–again just at the bar, not at the tables. I constantly replace the coasters/napkins of the compulsive “napkin rippers.” The clientele and staff now refer to me as the ‘napkin police.’
Just me?
I have the same affliction, unfortunately it’s with a girl I have real life contact with on a regular basis. I literally want to punch her in the face at EVERY TURN. And I have NO CONCRETE REASONING for it.
So far I don’t think anyone’s mentioned these:
I have often thought that all of life is just an illusion. I used to be afraid, as a child, that I would have to “wake up” before I am ready to let go of the illusion. Nowadays I just briefly get these feelings that nothing is real, it’s all made up.
I cannot leave a doll or stuffed animal face down. I am compelled to turn them face up.
I count everything I do. I count the silverware, dishes, cups, etc. as I take them out of the dishwasher. I count broom strokes. I count how many seconds I keep the curling iron in my hair.
If something potentially bad happens, like say my daughter falls off a swing or my guinea pig gets dropped, instead of reacting in a helpful manner, I squeeze my eyes shut and cover my ears. I have no idea why.
I can’t throw away pictures, no matter how awful they are.
I think that’s enough for now!
Oh that is so getting hung up in my cubicle tomorrow