# Nerdy Things You Admit to Doing **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 1, 2003, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878 "2003-09-01T00:10:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/121 "2003-09-05T09:26:56Z")
I count in binary on my fingers too! since reading “How to Count on Your Fingers” in an old science-fiction (book or mag?) long ago. And pick up stuff with my toes. And use keystrokes not mousestrokes. And driving any distance, calculate how long to get there by driving the limit, then how long to get there by driving X mph over the limit, X being an amount that is supposed to not get me a ticket. And then how long to get there if I drove 90 mph… The good thing about these calculations was realizing for short trips that speeding only gets you there 2 or 3 minutes earlier, risk without benefit. If you want to get there 10 minutes earlier, leave 10 minutes earlier. Amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/122 "2003-09-05T12:01:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ranchoth \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally posted by Angel Heart > > I still have my old Commodore 64 from the 80s…and would find a way to use it if I had the cables. > > > > If you can get it up and running, you can even get an new GUI OS for it, now. Complete with working web browser. > > If you can get it up and running, you can even get an new [GUI OS](http://www.dunkels.com/adam/contiki/) for it, now. Complete with [working web browser.](http://dunkels.com/adam/contiki/apps/webbrowser.html) \*\* No,my friends, nerdy is that I have now downloaded the .d64 rom files for this new C64 OS with web-browser, and am going to attempt to post to the boards through said browser, running on the C64 emulator (Frodo) on my cellphone. Now that, is nerdy. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/123 "2003-09-05T16:22:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MaryEFoo \* > And driving any distance, calculate how long to get there by driving the limit, then how long to get there by driving X mph over the limit, X being an amount that is supposed to not get me a ticket. And then how long to get there if I drove 90 mph… > The good thing about these calculations was realizing for short trips that speeding only gets you there 2 or 3 minutes earlier, risk without benefit. The formula for time saved is t[sub]1[/sub]\*(v[sub]2[/sub]-v[sub]1[/sub])/v[sub]2[/sub], where t[sub]1[/sub] is the time the trip would take at speed v[sub]1[/sub] and v[sub]2[/sub] is the new speed. The faster you’re going, the less good it does to speed up by a fixed amount; that seems counterintuitive, until you recall that with a fixed initial trip time and a higher base speed, you’re talking about more distance. On a trip that would take 1 hour at 55 mph, accelerating to 60 mph will save five minutes. On a trip that will take 1 hour at 70 mph, accelerating to 75 mph will save only 4 minutes. I concocted this formula on a long drive a while back, and I still remember it. For reference, a 14-hour trip can be shortened by 64.6 minutes by averaging 65 instead of 60. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/124 "2003-09-05T16:39:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by happylittlevegemite \* > \*\*If anyone asks, I tell them I prefer open sandwiches to ‘optimise the filling to bread ratio’. > \*\* If I get a sandwich at a deli, and there’s no toothpick in said sandwich, I think to myself, “My god!! What of the shearing stress?” ---
**Author:** ![Malice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/278dde/32.png) [@Malice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malice)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/125 "2003-09-05T17:02:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BrotherCadfael \* > **I routinely pick items up from the floor with my feet and transfer them to my hands. To me this is as natural as breathing, and it’s easier than bending over, but almost everyone who has ever seen me do it tells me how weird it is.** I do this constantly. Mrs. Malice finds it amusing and people remark on it occasionally, but none have labeled it “weird.” Are you sure you’re doing it right? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/126 "2003-09-05T21:04:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Malice \* > \*\*I do this constantly. Mrs. Malice finds it amusing and people remark on it occasionally, but none have labeled it “weird.” > > Are you sure you’re doing it right? 😉 \*\* As a kid, I used to play catch with my feet. I would lay on my back and toss a tennis ball, which I would catch by clamping it between my two feet. Then I would fling it bck up using my feet to throw. It’s one of the first things I ever remember doing. To this day, if someone drops something nearby there’s a pretty good chance I can either catch it on my toe, or deflect/slow it enough that nothing breaks. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/127 "2003-09-05T21:39:18Z")
> [@](#): > > The formula for time saved is t1\*(v2-v1)/v2, where t1 is the time the trip would take at speed v1 and v2 is the new speed. Or, instead of the intensely nerdy way, you just realize that if you speed up 5%, you save 5% of the time. Of course, 5 mph gets to be a smaller and smaller percentage, the faster you go. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/128 "2003-09-05T21:51:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cardinal \* > Or, instead of the intensely nerdy way, you just realize that if you speed up 5%, you save 5% of the time. Of course, 5 mph gets to be a smaller and smaller percentage, the faster you go. None of that, now. Go post that in the “Non-intensively Nerdy Things…” thread. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/129 "2003-09-05T23:18:32Z")
More things: I, too, pick up things with my toes. I learned it from my dad, who started doing it when he had back surgery. I’m like a monkey. Another one of my arguments with my girlfriend concerned Highlander. I maintained that the guys in Highlander were aliens and she thought I was nuts. Ha! Little did she know I sat through Highlander 2…but these are the kinds of things we fight about. ---
**Author:** ![skeptic\_ev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@skeptic\_ev](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skeptic_ev)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/130 "2003-09-05T23:51:16Z")
I do 21 (product of two primes!) of the things already mentioned. Also … For the few emails I forward, I copy edit them and take all the “\> \> \>” and hard returns out before passing them on. (That belongs to a sub-category of nerdiness-- grammar/spelling/punctuation–so please forgive me if it doesn’t count here.) I will often type words and phrases in my head. It pleases me when they have an even number of keystrokes. I will spend an extra-long time in a bathroom with (apparently) randomly spaced tiles _because I know there **must** be a pattern!!_ I will read the back of a shampoo bottle (or whatever) and see how many times I can spell out my name using only the letters on the packaging in the order they are presented. I also do this with my husband’s name. Finally, and perhaps most pathetically, I am envious of all the nerdy things posted so far that I don’t/can’t do. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/131 "2003-09-06T01:03:45Z")
I pronounce words backwards to myself almost constantly. Interestingly, the little girl in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible also did this. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/132 "2003-09-06T01:11:42Z")
I collect fruit flies from trash bins and culture them. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/133 "2003-09-06T01:44:40Z")
I’ll rat myself out. My little idea about going 5% faster and saving 5% of the time is wrong. With that logic, if you double your speed, you get there instantly. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/134 "2003-09-06T02:17:43Z")
I’m shocked and somewhat outraged. Why would **Balance** acquiesce without a fight? ---
**Author:** ![Kobaltblu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/77aa72/32.png) [@Kobaltblu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobaltblu)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/135 "2003-09-06T13:15:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by green\_bladder \* > \*\*When I’m in a good mood I talk like Niles Crane in _Frasier_. \*\* Oh God! \ I thought I was alone! 1. I assist in steering vehicles: it’s usually cars I am a passenger in, mostly, but on occasion, jetliners, by subtly shifting my body and tensing the area I wish to pull away from. It helps, and has, on occasion, corrected a bad turn. 2. Correcting the spelling and grammar usage of others while they are speaking. They appreciate me doing it, as it has enabled them to go on speaking correctly afterwards and not embarrassing themselves. 3. Forcing public speakers who are idiots to have an orgasm . This last one is a very powerful one, and I’ve learned to use this power extremely rarely, and for good and not evil. It makes them lose their train of thought, and prevents them from greater evil. Dubya is one who has been the recipient of my power. Hint: watch for when he pauses, as if searching for _le mot juste_. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![NightUK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c67d28/32.png) [@NightUK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NightUK)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/136 "2003-09-06T15:01:18Z")
SOME VERY WEIRD PEOPLE!!! I ring my house phone off my mobile (cellular) when I’m on the toilet, when the mrs answers I say, “Im just dropping the lads (guys) off at the pool”…you work it out. Maybe thats why we split up? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Empress\_Jolrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@Empress\_Jolrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Empress_Jolrael)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/137 "2003-09-06T17:38:32Z")
[B[Publius\*\*, I have a friend who would worship you. Nerdy things that I am guilty of… let me see. I’m a foriegn language nerd, which seems to be a rarer breed than math or computer. Which might be considered nerdy in itself. I do word comparisons with a friend whenever we’re in the cafetaria together. In other words, we choose a word, and figure out what it is in as many languages as possible. Then we compare each result to see if there is a similarity between the results of the word in languages of the same family. I play Magic: The Gathering. I have a near-obsessive love of index cards. My yearbook page had text in five different languages. I suppose I could translate this post into another language, but that might be a bit much. ---
**Author:** ![Servo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@Servo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Servo)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/138 "2003-09-06T18:23:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by skeptic\_ev \* > **I will spend an extra-long time in a bathroom with (apparently) randomly spaced tiles _because I know there must be a pattern!!_** I do this almost compulsively. I was with a group of friends in a movie theater and the carpet was a pattern of colored triangles. One of them wondered aloud if the carpet had a pattern. After a couple of minutes of looking, nobody found one and it was declared to be random. Thinking to myself, _that’s not possible_, I kept looking…“Hey guys I found it,” relieved that everything was still right with the world. “See, it’s a square. [Drawing on the carpet with my finger.] Red, green, blue, purple, and over there red, green, blue, purple.” But they didn’t seem as relieved as I was. Also, when I’m walking down the sidewalk or through I crowd, I think about all of the information I’m processing and the little decisions I’m making that determine the path I choose. Then I think about what kind of algorithms would be required for a small robot to make these same choices and navigate a crowd of people. And people wonder why, when they ask me what I’m thinking about, I just say, “oh nothing.” ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/139 "2003-09-10T12:38:13Z")
On the PC in my office, I’ve rigged Outlook to play the sound from Monty Python And The Holy Grail, where Concord gets shot with Prince Herbert’s note-bearing arrow, whenever a message arrives. whhhhhhrrrrr…THUNK! Message for you, sir! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878/140 "2003-09-10T13:16:48Z")
Sometimes, the elevator door only opens because of my amazing Hulk-like strength. _forces the doors open with his bare hands and scampers off_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerdy-things-you-admit-to-doing/198878.md?page=8)