Am I the Only One?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
141

I always have to start walking with my left foot, and I count to eight repeatedly as I walk. Some of you will probably understand what got me into that habit.

Does anyone else make up stupid songs? Usually, I just change the words to a song I know, but occasionally I’ll start from scratch. A few weeks ago, I woke up with this in my head:

Repair man!
Is there something I can try, I said
Repair man!
That can make my dryer dry?

You put the lint in the garbage can
and turn the dryer on
you put the lint in the garbage can
and make the load smaller
put the lint in the garbage can
and turn the dryer on
you put the line in the garbage can
and run the load lonnnnger!

142

My mom changes the words to songs she knows all the time, and I’ve done it once in a while. I also sometimes make up stupid songs with the words “my husband” in them and sing them to my husband to drive him up the wall (bless his heart, he doesn’t pay any mind).

143

Umm… being in a marching band? The army?

Yumblie, the walking thing goes for me too, except I’m okay with sidewalk cracks, as long as there’s an equal number for each foot. It’s not that I count or anything, it’s just a rhythm thing–if I forget, it’s fine, I feel ‘balanced,’ and it starts over.

144

I thought of something else dumb that I do. If I’m holding something and I drop it, or if I notice some object is about to fall off of a table or something, I’ll throw my hands up in the air and let out a little scream. I never attempt to catch it, even if I know I will have time to before it hits the ground. Like for instance if I drop a pencil on the table and I see it rolling slowly towards the edge, I won’t grab it. I’ll just do my little reaction and let it fall to the ground, then pick it up. I’ve broken a lot of things simply because I didn’t want to grab them before they hit the ground.

Another thing: Lately I’ve been writing songs and poems in my sleep. I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and think “that was so cool! I’ll remember that in the morning then write it down!” But in the morning I only have a vague recollection of it. A couple nights ago I write a dark poem about death that had a scythe in it, but thats all I can remember. Last night in my dream I was dancing in a club and there was a song in the background that was purely from my own imagination. It had this catchy little tune that was like "What three things in a woman does every man want? Titties - - " and thats all I remember. I guess all they want is titties.

145

No, no, no, you’re doing it all wrong, you freak. You must make sure your left foot is the last one on the old surface and your right foot is the first one on the new surface.

146

Most days I am pretty certain that life as we know it here on this planet is part of some cosmic joke.

Other days, I am mostly positively certain that life as we know it is all apart of some Alien 7th grade science experience ( for some dorkwad Thargon at that.)

[puts on tin foil hat]

147

Seeing how this thread has sort of become a confessional for fixations and compulsions, here goes:

Ahhh, in the beginnings–
I remember as a child, roughly ages 6 through 10, I would count the number of times the title of a song was sung within the song. I also remember thinking, “God, this is too weird, I have to stop!” I suppose I’ve always been extremely conscious of seeming “abby-normal.” There were other strange childhood idiocyncracies in which I indulged, but I can’t think of them right now.

And now:

While at the computer, I will constantly file/trim/buff/clean my nails and cuticles.

It drives me crazy to have a rogue hair on my chin or an eyebrow hair that doesn’t belong. I have a mirror and tweezers here at my desk and will often be caught by my husband trying to get the bad hair.

I have an outlandish number of knickers. And bras. I CANNOT tolerate even a tiny hole in my undies!!! I buy 20 new pairs of underwear per year at the very minimum. Oh, and I have my favorites, too. I’m always sad to find a hole in one of my favorite pairs…

I use post it notes or business cards as tools to remove food from between my teeth.

I have a strange fetish with Sharpie markers. I often don’t use the purple ones because they are “too good to use.” :confused:

If I approach a bridge while driving, I sometimes imagine veering toward the right and driving off. I go on to wonder what the sensation of free fall is like. No, I’m not suicidal!!!

Oh, and while I’m spilling my guts… I am terrified of posting to these boards and coming off as a dumbass. I suppose I have some kind of inferiority complex about my intelligence which prevents me from speaking up more often-- note: this is my second reply. Not to say I haven’t typed many responses… I just don’t post.
You’d think that since the internet is as anonymous as you can get, I wouldn’t have a problem. After all, what is the likelyhood of my meeting any of you??? In real life, I’m quite friendly and sociable. Go figure.

Oh, and I will NOT give in to my temptation to copy and paste this message to Word and run a spell check. Not… Going… To… Do… It…

I should really get some new meds…
Christ, somebody tell me I’m not insane!!!

148

I’ve just thought of another one and I bet top dollar that no-one but me does this. I can have a conversation with myself, and myself, and sometime myself. If I’m driving in my car I can talk to 3 people consecutively in my head and sometimes add a fourth but he’s only a one word kinda guy.

Beat that!

149

Am I the only one that loves the band Pavement?

150

Unlikely if she’s a synesthesiac. You can tell what colour the numbers, letters or words are written in, but in your head they are a different colour.
It’s like looking at colours at night - you know the bus is red even though it looks khaki.
:slight_smile:

151

I do re-write the lyrics to songs too. I haven’t ever written a tune though. My best work was “Alabama Girls” (sung to the tune of California Girls.)

I sometimes have this thought as I’m going to sleep that I am in a hospital in a coma somewhere and am sort of “replaying” my life in my head.

152

I feel a bizarre compulsion to throw my keys over the rail whenever I walk across a bridge (I cross the Duke Ellington Bridge at least once a week, so this is somewhat problematic).

My M & M ritual: Sort by color into five piles. Eat one per pile in the following order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, brown. When there is only one M & M left in a given color’s pile, that pile is skipped in the next sequence. When there is one M & M of each color left, I put them all in my mouth at once. (One of my coworkers spotted me working my way through this progression at my desk and thought it very odd).

I have a collection of International Gymnast magazines dating back to the 1950s (not all the issues, unfortunately), as well as other gymnastics memorabilia and tapes. However, I don’t feel awful about my tape collection yet since I only have about 150 tapes; the moderator of a gymnastics message board I frequent confessed that he had over 700 videos. Mind you, I’ve never been a gymnast—I’m just a very avid fan.

I’m also obsessed with snakes and the bubonic plague. If you ever want to know about the latter, I have a vast library of books on the subject.

153

I used to do this a lot more when I was younger, but I hold little races at random times. For example, I always play music when I shower, and I will bet myself that I will have both feet out of the shower before a certain part of a song. Or that I will reach a certain point at the sidewalk before the next car passes. It doesn’t matter if I win or lose because it doesn’t really mean anything to me, but I will speed up drying myself off or walk a little faster just to win the little bet I made in my mind.

Also, sometimes when I am listening to someone talk, I will zone in (or out maybe) on their words and try and “hear” them in my head like an echo effect. Eventually it feels like I can hear what they are saying before they say it, like I know what they are about to say. I tried to explain this to my friend and he looked at me like I was crazy. Its hard to explain in words.

I’m glad people brought up the bridge thing. I too will imagine driving my car off the side of a bridge or tossing myself over when walking over one. I have no suicidal tendencies whatsoever. Weird.

And you can’t imagine how much this (posted by raz ammused me . . . .
I thought of something else dumb that I do. If I’m holding something and I drop it, or if I notice some object is about to fall off of a table or something, I’ll throw my hands up in the air and let out a little scream. I never attempt to catch it, even if I know I will have time to before it hits the ground. Like for instance if I drop a pencil on the table and I see it rolling slowly towards the edge, I won’t grab it. I’ll just do my little reaction and let it fall to the ground, then pick it up. I’ve broken a lot of things simply because I didn’t want to grab them before they hit the ground.
I just imagined everyone I know tossing there hands into the air and making a funny little scream as a pencil rolls off the table

154

You’re all weirdos :wink:

  • however I admit to like strange mix-tapes.

I never remember telephone numbers (back in the good old days when you had to write them down or memorize them, now my trusty Nokia takes care of that business) as numbers, but as patterns on the dial-pad. I really like numbers with 1397 in them (in that order) because those are the outside corners. Diagonals (like 159 or 753 are cool as well) and the perfect number would be 135753. I always get confused on keyboard numpads because there the numbers are arranged in a different way.

cheers

155

I used to do this with news reports when I was a kid. Sometimes I could actually half convince myself that I had ESP. Hey, I was young! :wink:

Seeing how many of everyone else’s idiosyncracies I can relate to, I’m starting to thing I’m just one, big, walking sum-total of the idiosyncracies in the world.

So tell me… Anyone else make absolutely bizarre lists?

I have a problem with self motivation, and housework is something that I loathe. But if I make myself a detailed list, complete with times, I find it a challenge to stick to it and actually enjoy the work. My ex saw the lists one day and gave me an odd look, but when he saw how effective it was, well, he rolled his eyes in private after that. Quick example: (I’m telling you, it’s odd)

10:00 Clear dishes from sink and run water
10:03 Start first load of laundry
10:06 Soak dishes
10:10 Clear off counters
10:13 Spray counters
10:15 Spray bathroom sink and tub, add cleaner to toilet
10:18 Wipe counters down
10:20 Sweep floor
10:25 Wash dishes
10:45 Put clothes in dryer, start new load
10:50 Scrub bathroom
11:00 Mop kitchen floor
11:10 Have cigarette, start pot of coffee
… etc

I’m telling you, I would take 4 pages of notebook paper just to plan out the days chores. But it worked! I was so efficient. I mean, in one hour, I had the dishes done, the laundry started, the bathroom cleaned, and the coffee started. I would build in 10 minute breaks to have a cigarette, and a cup of coffee. If a show I particularly wanted to see was coming on, I would build that into the schedule. Totally bizarre, but whatever works, right? Oh and I would “reward” myself with any “extra” minutes, so if I got a job done in 10 minutes that I had allotted 20 minutes for, I’d add it to the next break.

OK I’m gonna go pretend I’m not odd now.

156

I do the mental tetris thing. When I’m driving, which is probably bad.

I can’t eat lots of junk food normally. For example: Twix Bars. I must first eat the chocolate off the sides, then scrape the caramel off, then eat the cookie. Hostess cupcakes and the like (especially TastyKake Butterscotch Crimpets), I peel the frosting off, eat the cupcake, then ball the frosting up and suck on it. I cannot eat a hard candy or lollipop normally: I end up chewing it up.

157

If you scroll a half-blue bar up (you know, scroll down the page so some specific bar goes up) then scroll it back down, it’ll be all blue, too. I’ve figured out that I’ll get a half-bar if I scroll so that the top of a blue bar is just peeking out from the bottom of the window; another scroll brings the rest of the bar up, only it’s white. I’m fairly sure it’s an Internet Explorer bug. My theory is that displaying it the first time causes IE to draw it, and it stays drawn incorrectly in memory until you change it (highlighting) or force it out (scroll it up and back down), since once I get a bugged bar, I can scroll it off the bottom of the window and back up and it stays bugged.

My weird thing is spending an incredible amount of time researching incredibly trivial things like that. I get a real “I’m a scientist!” kick out of it.

Also, people sound weird and echo-y when I’m about to fall asleep. When my teachers sound like that, I know it’s time to shift positions or something so I wake up. :wink:

158

I got into this habit using the gum wrapper from Carefree sugarfree gum. If I don’t have a gum wrapper I’ll fold a post-it, crease it, and use the sharp folded edge (I don’t want a paper cut!). I only use this between my canines and first molars in the top of my mouth, since that’s about the only place they will fit.

159

Aint that just annoying? I’m with you. Dang Human Nature getting in the way.

My personal pet conspiracy is that Diana & Dodi faked their own death.

My obsessive quirk is counting my pours - with everything. It stared with my bartending, but now I count when filling the hot water jug, pouring rice into a pot, watering the garden and grating cheese. It’s not like it helps me figure out how much I’m pouring or anything.

Have never gone in for prime factoring, but I do notice if a floor or ceiling tile has been put in backwards. I love well-done symmetry (started with an Escher book as a kid)
I too read anything that presents itself - this especially includes foreign words & signs on TV. and, like brix11 - I’ll walk around with my eyes closed until I feel I’m about to fall off the road.

Nothing too noticable then. :slight_smile:

160

Man, now I feel like a better person and not such a freak

I count everything, especially steps. I then convert in my head how many kilometres that is, especially whilst running (40 paces = 100 metres).

I read constantly but rarely pick up a new book; I much prefer re-reading old favourites.

I buy magazines for flights, and take them home and keep them afterwards even if they are magazines that I can get at home (like FHM or Maxim)

I buy things and never use them, just so I can have them. This especially applies to outdoor kit like rock climbing gear. I just love the toys!

I smoke only the first half of a cigarette, and never the second. It always tastes funny.

I never owned a cell phone until 2 years ago, and now if I try to leave the house without it I feel like a vital appendage has been amputated.

I, too, am terrified of posting to this board and being thought a doofus. You guys are just intimidatingly smart, clever, and funny!

I read this board waaay to much