I always have to set my alarm clock or things like my computer schedule reminder to times like 8:03, 11:03, 2:01. Somehow, if I set a time for the :00 minute I’m convinced that the circuitry is no longer reliable and will skip the :00 minute without triggering the alarm. Setting it to the :01 or :02 gives me that safety margin for when the clock decides to skip a minute.
Weird huh?
those are some interesting little habits, but i have one of my own. sometimes, when i am very mad at someone, i relly want to kill them. i know it is a bad and wrong idea, so i do something to help alleviate the urge to murder in cold blood. what i do is get a ripe orange pumpkin (it has to be orange and ripe), and then i get a recon picture of the person i am mad at, and then i stencil their face onto the pumpkin with a blue sharpie marker (blue works the best really). when that task is finished, i proceed to carve their face out as intricately and delicately as possible to insure that it is most recognizeable. then, i stick a kitchen knife in the pumpkin to make it look like i have stabbed the person in the head, and then i light the inside of the pumpkin on fire, place it in front of the person’s front door, ring the doorbell, wait in the bushes, and watch the look of shock and horror that comes across their face when they see the pumpkin. if they appear to not be even shocked at all (and i am quite displeased when this happens), i pull out my marine combat knife and chase them back into their house and murder them there, but i have only had to do that a few times… but anyway, this exercise really calms me down and makes me feel a lot better about being mad at them for whatever reason they made me mad. thats just my little tick though.
dude, duck and cover. prepare for the torrent.
jb
[hijack]
My brother and sister used to know someone in elementary school who would eat candles… Jeas wasn’t too popular at birthday parties for that very reason. I think I saw him in action at one of my brother’s parties, eating two candles! Must have been because of the wax on them or something… weird kid! :rolleyes:
I used to know someone in elementary school who would eat construction paper, and we all thought he was weird, needless to say! Although looking at that post makes me wonder if he still eats paper! :rolleyes:
[/hijack]
As for my own idiosyncrasies:
I also sit in the shower sometimes… it’s so relaxing!
I take names from any piece of paper that I’m given as a handout (or puzzle books work fine for this purpose), and make up a family on the spot! (kids’ full names; parents’ names; maiden names; ages; any names that end in “ah”, “ee”, or “nn” sounds; the gender balance [or lack of], and the people who I know with the last name I’m using) Yes, I am fully aware that this is very odd…
I keep pre-1970 coins, and also special coins at home (foreign coins over a certain value, if I can tell what that value is)
I talk to myself too, sometimes… my sister thinks it’s really strange.
Sometimes I’ll make up words and use them in conversation.
I have this strange accent that I use sometimes (sorta like an Australian/British accent, but not really)… it drives my sibs nuts!
My alarm clock always has to be set so the last number is either a zero or a five. I can’t really stand when it’s any other way. And yes, I will do the complete “loop-around” thing if I inadvertently go past, say, 7:05 (thus making it 7:06)… I don’t care how long it takes!
I almost always eat two pieces of gum at a time (and I buy lots!)… my sister thinks this is weird, but it feels so minty fresh!
The toilet paper roll has to be in place so the paper goes OVER the roll, not under it!
I definitely like my cereal soggy! (or at least pretty wet)
I have plenty of OCD behaviors, I’m sure: like checking my hair for split ends and then taking them out of my hair (scissors preferable)
I have a lot more, I’m sure… but this is all I can remember!
I have to pee between classes, and before I leave the house. Not because I need to, because it feels wrong if I don’t.
When people are talking to me, I often repeat what they just said in a weird voice. They usually think I’m trying to be funny.
I sleep with the light on.
When I’m at work (at Burger King) I adjust my hat every few seconds. Also, sometimes I put the sauce into alphabetical order (Barbeque sauce, ketchup, mustard).
I always have to wear white socks.
I do this really weird thing with my feet… I point my big toe back, and all the other toes forward (it’s kind of hard to explain). It keeps me awake at night sometimes.
I chew things, usually paper but sometimes pens and paperclips. And clothes, but just my clothes.
Another chewer checking in. I also chew on straws, pens, just about anything.
I doodle constantly.
I have a nickname for just about everyone I know. Have alot for different people on this board as well.
I check my wallet about 10 times to make sure I’ve put my ATM card back in after using it.
I can’t start my day without a hot shower, no matter what.
I constantly run conversations through my mind. If I’m planning on talking to someone about something specific, I run it through quite a few times first. Most of the time I dont end up saying what I’ve thought of.
I collect tea pots and have over 60 now.
Habit 1. Foodwise I am the opposite of some people here - I cannot eat all of one thing then all of another. I have to try to finish all the bits at the same time. I could not, for instance let a pile of mash be left on the plate and nothing else to eat with it.
To do this I try to get equal amounts of every bit onto my fork at each mouthful. If there are too many bits, I work out a system of alternating bits.
I constantly monitor the levels of each bit. If a bit starts to develop a surplus or shortage compared to other bits I will adjust how much of that bit I put on my fork acordingly.
Habit 2 (now reduntant because I’ve moved to a house without a lock on the bathroom door) -
a)I used to enter the bathroom,
b)lock the door,
c)walk right to the toilet
d)walk back to the door and check it’s locked
e)repeat c and d once more (or twice sometimes)
f)finally - crap or piss.
Habit 3 (related to habit 2) - After I’ve been to the toilet I check my zip at least 5 times. Sometimes as much as 10 (not in quick succession, but all checks are before I settle back to what I was doing when I got the urge to go to the toilet).
Habit 4 - I zip up all my coat pockets when I take it off.
Habit 5 - (a good one) closing internet popups before they get a chance to load.
There’s one that I’ve just spent the last 10 minutes trying to remember. I know I have one (because I remember recently saying to several people “it’s a habit”) and I know it’s weird. But I can’t, for the life of me, remember what it is! So I’ll keep listing others until I remember.
Incubating a new habit - You seen that advert with the guy who answers all the wrong phones and saiys “hello?, learn-direct”? well I think I will be like that one day, but I will answer every phone with “hello, Euro-Offtrack” (the company I work for, obviously)
Habit 6 - I sit and wait for good films to start, doing nothing the whole time. When the film starts I leave the room to get something to eat or drink or to make sure lights are off and doors are shut, and that the chair is close enough etc… Why I can’t do all this before the film starts I will never know.
I could name habits all day but they’d get more mundand. such as switching a lightswitch on entering a new room, regardless of weither the light is off or not (meaining I will sometimes walk into a room and switch the light off)
I love this thread, and you guys! Habits are fascinating. what possible use could anyone have for 60 teapots! but it’s a habit.
I do the ATM thing too. And the conversation thing!
Writing the letter capital-letter B (with a pen) is strangely more fun than writing any other letter! I am left handed. I think it is probably a better letter to write with the left hand, because you get to curve outwards on the two loops rather than inwards.
There have been times when I have written a whole A4 page of 'B’s
I think if I ever lost my marbles my ‘thing’ would be to write ‘B’ everywhere!
Whenever I want my room tidied I just invite my friend round. Because he will tidy it weither I like it or not.
I used to not like him doing it. I’d say “No! I’ll tidy it, because you don’t know where things go”
And he’d say “But I have to” or he’d just ignore me and continue to tidy.
Loveably Insane!
My newest habit is posting to this thread! I’ll have to go cold-turkey for a while and not post until a considerable number of posts have appeared after mine.
I will read all the other people’s posts in the meantime.
my keys also must be aligned the same way, with the teeth facing the same direction
when I’m leaving the house, I always check to make sure I have my keys…even when I just checked 10 seconds before
my glasses must be CLEAN…I hate having a little spot of something floating in front of my eyes
another toilet-reader checking in…I do the same thing if I’m eating alone; I have to have something to read or I go bonkers
out of sheer desperation, I have to touch the side of my pickup or whatever car I’m getting out of, or I WILL shock someone when I touch them. Since this person is my fiance, we have developed the rather weird habit of touching each other on the hand before we kiss…her kisses ARE electrifying, but I prefer romantically, not physically.
…thoughts of spontaneous human combustion spring to mind…
I do something similar. I always get rid of the old paper money first, and keep the new. It’s not as if they are about to expire at any minute and be worthless or something.
I’m a newbie here (though I’ve been lurking for awhile), and I figure this is the best place for a first post. I have all sorts of odd habits. I am somewhat obsessive in the “neat freak” sense; everything has to be in the right place and I have to know where it is. Back when I was in grade school (I’m a college freshman now), I was really messy, and it caused me to waste so much time looking for stuff I lost that I got frustrated and just somehow swung myself all the way to the other end of the neatness spectrum.
I have an ingrained routine for getting into and out of my car. I get in the car, start the car, put on my seatbelt, turn on the lights (I always drive with the lights on), turn on the radio, let it run for 20 seconds, and then put it in gear and pull away. When I park, I always manually turn off everything (radio, heater, wipers, etc.) rather than just letting them shut off by themselves when I turn off the car. Before leaving the car, I also have to make sure all the seat belts are fully retracted, and I always lock the doors except when I park in my driveway, in which case I leave them all unlocked (so if anyone wants to steal my parking meter change, just wait till the car’s in the driveway 
).
I memorize license plates. Not just any one that I see, but those belonging to people I know. I know dozens of my friends’ and relatives’ plate numbers from memory. I also have my car’s VIN number, my bank account numbers past and present, and dozens of phone numbers, many of which I have not called in years, committed to memory. I don’t really try to do this; I just have a knack for remembering numbers.
I also have a whole variety of what I call “catch phrases”: lines from movies, funny things that friends say, etc. which I regularly use in conversation, but only with a select group of people who are familiar with them too. My brother has the largest vocabulary of my “catch phrases”, so we can often engage in a conversation that sounds like nonsense to everyone else.
-Andrew L
Wouldn’t you know I forgot the most obvious one. This is kind of simultaneously a habit, hobby and business. I pick up hubcaps off the road. Not just a few; I have around 5,000 of them. In high school I had a web site through which I sold them by mail. Now that I’m at college I can’t coordinate that, so I just list some on eBay from time to time. This begs the question, who here has the largest collection of something? I guess that could be tabulated in two ways: numerical quantity and cubic footage! 5,000 hubcaps take up a lot more space then 5,000 stamps :rolleyes:
-Andrew L
When my S.O. is out and I eat alone, I almost never make myself a decent meal. Instead, I buy from the supermarket a meal consisting of my favorite things. Not mixed, but all spread out on a serving plate and eaten n abut 1,5 hour, while reading or watching tv.
A few examples of those meals:
-1 can of maize, one packet of crabsticks and 2 mandarins.
-half a pot of tomatosauce, half a pot of dill-pickles and some
defrosted spinach-a-la-creme.
-a bowl of cooked spaghetti , a sandwich , an a yoghurt dessert.
-1 can of ravioli, some yoghurt, and a packet of raw sauerkraut.
Anyone who does this too?
It sure is strange to actually type this stuff out…
Having been a drummer for years I know constantly tap and drum my fingers which annoys people to no end, even when no music is playing.
When im opening my door I imagine some psycho killer is chasing me and I have two seconds to get in and close the door
I talk to myself. alot.
I bite my nails. alot
I sometimes like to pretend im some sort of spy or something and pretend im being followed and have to watch all around me for clues and signs of someone…checking for reflections, shadows
my books , i have about 700, must be organized according to size on my shelves
i never, ever clean out my fridge, then get grossed out and curse myself when I open a tupperware container and find something moving
i cannot sit through a movie if i miss the opening credits
I ALWAYS smell my hands after I wash them. I don’t know why.
Also, when I’m running or going for a long walk. I typically type out letters in the air, like I’m using a keyboard. I don’t know how to explain it, but I’ll visualize typing and do it with my fingers while I’m running.
You’re not the only one. Check out this other thread:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=161185