In the spirit of the “controversial beliefs” thread and others, but different. Whereas the controversial beliefs thread was (or was taken as) an invitation to arrogantly, smugly lay your unfounded prejudices at the feet of the SDMB (see thread for evidence) , this one is your invitation to humbly submit the things that make you a dork. Here, I’ll start.
-** The earphones from my iPod fit me much better if I put them in the wrong ears. ** I swear my ears look normal from the outside, but here’s the incontrovertible evidence that I’m abnormal.
While I thought Napoleon Dynamite was funny in a lot of places, I found it sadder than it was funny by a factor of about ten. Something about him not being able to relate to others in a normal way, and knowing it. The movie seriously leaves me melancholy.
I think that Adventure for the Atari 2600 system is perhaps the best video game ever made. The game is well-suited for beginners and is perfectly replayable for old hands. It transformed a text-based game genre into a graphical genre, and paved the way for so many other video games and the genres that they helped spawn - King’s Quest, Legend of Zelda, Doom. It also included the first known computer program “easter egg.” After reading through the disassembled source code for Adventure, I am impressed with the ingenuity that Warren Robinett drew upon in keeping the game’s size down so it would fit in a single 4k cartrige. I have the source code printed out, with the section headers bolded and my cross-reference notes penciled in, sitting on my bedroom sidetable.
First, I happen to share the ear weirdness with OneCentp above, except switching ears doesn’t matter because, in spite of them looking perfectly normal, I swear that one ear canal is a little different than the other such that canalphones/IEMs (Shure E3s in my case) with the silicone tips don’t fit quite right, tending to provide a better seal in one ear than the other. Using the foam tips has eliminated the disparity though. I can’t wear normal earbuds. At all.
Second, and like Prophet above, I do truly enjoy a good game of Adventure, but go a few steps further to admitting that for a few years I was an avid collector of Atari 2600 stuff – actually, all console stuff, but when it got too much to manage I whittled it down to Atari stuff, with focus on the 2600. I had over 800 cartridges, half a dozen systems, every major accessory, etc. I sold the majority of it a year ago for over $4,000 because I wanted to catch up on all of the things I had been putting off in favour of collecting. I may take up the hobby again. I still have a core collection of my favourites. And yes, Adventure is among them.
I’m also a severe gadget geek and love tech of any sort. I get urges to buy things I have utterly and completely no use for just because they’re cool. My computer desk looks a little like an encapsulated CES show.
I love the CSI shows – mostly. The tech stuff and focus on minutiae is awesome, even though I know more than half of it is total Hollywood bunk. I don’t like CSI Miami nearly as much because I don’t like David Caruso and I miss Speed(le).
I think Family Guy is currently the funniest contemporary show in existence, threatening even to replace my former favourite syndicated comedy, Night Court. With regards to the latter, I really want the studio to release the rest of the seasons on DVD. Season 1 was just a tease.
I write music. On the computer, using softsynths and samplers. Trance, mostly, but also dance, a bit of industrial, some pop. But pretty geeky all the same, considering I play no actual instruments. I also try to sing. Emphasis on try, with no mention of actual success.
I like dipping french fries in mayonnaise. When I was a kid, I liked dipping carrots in mustard and cheddar cheese in french dressing. In spite of these oddities, I never once ate paste. It just never occurred to me.
There’s probably lots more, but that’ll do for now.
Yeah, well, I hear voices. In my head. Not so much anymore–I am tired at night and fall asleep right away, but in a quiet room, drifting off… In that twilight zone between awake and dreaming, I hear voices. Clearly. All kinds.
I used to look forward to this and think of it as listening to mental radio.
I don’t think dipping French fries in mayo is weird. I think it’s delicious.
Get out of my head.
I can’t wear any kind of ear buds. They never fit right or they just plain hurt after a few minutes. I never thought of switching the left and right - I’m a little too OCD to do that. It just seems wrong. I might have to force myself to try it, though.
I love gadgets, too, especially kitchen gadgets. I just bought (another) vegetable peeler that fits on your finger. It’s really cool. It works best if you put it on your middle finger and let your first finger and ring finger hold it in place.
I also love the CSI shows. Yeah, I know a lot of it is glorified for TV, and I can’t stand David Caruso, but I love Gary Sinese.
I’ve always liked dipping fries in mayo. I don’t eat fries much anymore, but when I do indulge, I prefer mayo over ketchup.
For me they just don’t fit. Funny thing is I watched other people on the bus wearing them and some shove them in sideways, facing front, some facing back, and some head-on, directly into the canal. I’ve tried all of these and if they don’t sound like crap, they hurt after a while or tend to slip out as my ear sweats a bit. I find I’m constantly fiddling with them and adjust them to keep them in place properly and sounding halfway decent. That’s why I gave up and bought IEMs. With the foam tips they form to the shape of the canal and give good even sound – because uneven sound drives me stark raving bonkers. I can’t switch left and right though. I can hear the difference and drives me even more insane than uneven sound. I guess you could say I’m a little OCD about my sound quality.
Kitchen gadgets I can get into if they’re sufficiently geeky to merit a second look. We just recently bought one of those Delonghi four-slice retro toasters 'cos they’re so damn cool-looking. They work great, too, but they look awesomely retro-modern on the counter.
I actually don’t much like fries with ketchup. I’m not a big fry person in the first place, but I’ve never really care for ketchup on them. Mayo is just nice and creamy and smooth combined with the crispy fluffiness of properly-done spuds.
Oh. Probably the most geeky of my food-related quirks: When I was a kid, my mother used to feed my cod liver oil every day. I actually liked the taste.
I’m a Pagan and a biomedial researcher. Every Samhain I burn a list of the animals that have been used in my research and thank them for their sacrifice.
My best friend has the same first name I do. She is also my brother’s ex-girlfriend and they had a son together.
Music is a must for working out. If I lose my MP3 player, I can’t go to the gym.
I am, apparently, the only person on the planet who isn’t overly excited about the iPhone.
I write obituaries. I enjoy it.
I used to work at Wal-Mart, on the truck crew. I hauled merchandise off the trucks and palletized it. I was the only girl on the crew, and I got written up for being too lewd.
I have major road rage issues - I once threw a soda cup at someone for not using their blinker. I can’t stand it when people don’t use their FUCKING blinker! The cup was empty, and didn’t hit them. I felt bad about littering and went back to pick it up.
I sell Tupperware. I love Tupperware. I’m not a housewife. I don’t even cook. I just love Tupperware.
I name my cars after the vehicles in Final Fantasy, except for my first car. That was a white Dodge Workvan from 1979, and I called it the White Dragon. My mom’s car was the Buggy (FF7), my parent’s car was the Tiny Bronco (it was a Bronco II). My first car that wasn’t a big car was named the Highwind. The car I have now is named the Ragnorak.
I plan to get Cid Highwind’s Ultimate Weapon from in Final Fantasy 7 tattoed down my spine. If you saw the weapon you’d think it was pretty nifty looking.
I have slept in a Wal-Mart before. It was in Sterling, Colo.
I find tashabot really really hot based purely on what she has written above. If tashabot turns out to be a guy, I’m in trouble.
I have played every Civ game that has been released.
I used to take the outlines of the USA (and later, the world) and devide it up into imaginary kingdoms. Most of Western Montana, the top of Idaho, and a slice of Wyoming was the Kingdom of Blackmaris. I don’t remember any of the others.
I have no artistic skill past being able to write a little bit, with one notable and rather odd exception: I draw fantasy maps. Like you see at the front of fantasy books? I do that. basic ones, complex ones… you name it. In high school I had a piece of butcher paper on my wall that had continents drawn on it… I would gradually add bits and pieces to it when I was bored. All my friends think they are cool.
I love CSI a lot too. But only the Las Vegas one. I got hooked on it after noticing the ‘thing’ between Grissom and Sara…and post to a message board about it and read fanfic about it. Only my roommate and one online friend know about the fanfic part. I read it so much I often get confused on what has really happened on the show and what was from a fic. And I used to make fun of people who read/wrote it.
I’ve seen almost every episode of ‘Locked Up’ on MSNBC. The show about prison.
The movies and books I most enjoy are about farked-up people. People with substance problems, mental disorders, crime, violence, etc. My life is devoid of these so I find it all interesting.
Earbus don’t fit too well into my ears either. My iPod ones went to hell (they always fell out when it was a bit windy anyway) and I bought some Sennheiser ones and the damn things WILL NOT STAY IN. They even have a little doohickey you’re supposed to shove in to the fold part of your ear or whatever, and they still don’t stay in. But I hate big ones and continue to re-shove them in my ears whenever necessary (often).
When I download a new song or CD I enjoy, I play it over and over and over. Sometimes when I get a new CD I really like, it will be all that I play for a couple weeks. The repeat function is used often on my iTunes. I can listen to the same song over and over for hours if it’s good.
I will not drive somewhere if I don’t have precise directions. I am terrified of getting lost. And if I have to drive somewhere new at night, hell no. If it’s at night and raining, double hell no. I’m not good at navigating. I rarely drive anywhere with someone else in the car. My friends all drive if we’re going somewhere more than 10 minutes away or if it involves a highway. Luckily, our friend with the nicest car knows how to get to anywhere from anywhere in St. Louis and can figure out other places without much trouble. I need turn directions, street names, landmarks.
I am the Queen of Dorks- you will all bow before my dorkiness!
I’m the only person in the world who, if I decided I wanted to try marijuana or any other illegal drug (not likely- I’m allergic to pot smoke and scared to death of needles) would have no idea where to look for someone selling it, and that’s been true my whole life, including high school and college. At least that’s the impression I get from threads like this one.
I like Brussels sprouts, if they are fresh (not frozen) and cooked properly (not overcooked).
I have the same first name as my mother-in-law. Since I changed my name after I got married, I now have the same first and last name as she does.
I have a furry hat with a Soviet hammer and sickle on it (bought it in Prague this past summer). It almost makes me glad it’s supposed to get cold here in the next few days, so I can wear it.
I love History Channel and Animal Planet. The vast majority of the shows I watch (I have a Tivo) are on one of those two channels.
I wear slip-on shoes from LL Bean pretty much all winter. Nobody would ever call them cute shoes, but they are comfortable. I like Birkenstocks, too.
The only socks I have ever worn were white crew socks. I stopped wearing socks when my supply of white crew socks dwindled and I had a hard time finding ones that would match with my existing ones (I insist that all my socks match each other, because I refuse to spend time pairing socks after I do my laundry).
Low maintenance is the most important characteristic of any hairstyle I get.
I don’t wear makeup. The last time I wore makeup was for my wedding in 2003, and the last time before that was for my high school senior picture in 1992.
I don’t get my fingernails or toenails done. I believe the last time I polished my fingernails, Bush I was in the White House. I cut my fingernails when they break. This must make me a freak, just judging from the number of nails places I see around.
I like computer gaming, but not anything that requires fast twitch reflexes (I’m no good at those). I especially enjoy Civ games and European-history-themed games like Europa Universalis II.
I much prefer Linux and other Unix variants to Windows (and I’m much better at using them). If it weren’t for the paucity of games available for Linux, I’d switch my home computer.
Gory movies and TV shows bother me, often to the point of feeling nauseous. I also can’t look if someone on TV or in a movie is being injected with a hypodermic needle.
I like bathroom humor.
I’m terrible at navigation, too, especially at night and in the rain (I usually won’t drive somewhere I haven’t been before at night or in the rain, unless I really have to). But I prefer freeway driving to city-street driving, because all the turns are much better marked on the freeways, so I’m a lot less likely to miss my turn.
I’m a big ball of weird, but I’ll try to keep this brief:
I am about as far from a germopobe as you can be. My rule for eating food that’s fallen on the floor is “If I can remember how it got there, it’s safe.” That said, I’m TERRIFIED of tanning beds. They seem like this breeding ground for every gross bacteria that I can imagine. I don’t like standing anywhere near someone who has just come from a tanning bed. It’s a pretty serious aversion, really.
A good pimple popping cheers me right up. I used to think this was a really bizarre trait that I’d inherited from my mom, but the Dope made me realize that there are quite a few of us out there. I have to restrain myself from trying to “fix” other people’s dermatological issues.
I like ice in my milk and sour cream on my spaghetti. My dad is the same way and we’ve yet to meet anyone else who shares these oddities. (I’m sure they’re out there though.)
I get short of breath when people discuss drowning in submerged vehicles. Everybody has quirky fears, but I can’t even really talk cars plunging into bodies of water without feeling faint.
I would gladly take a good foot rub over any other physical sensation I’ve yet to come across. (Scalp rubs with those wire octopus things coming in at a very close second)
