# stupid moments of brain shut off. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 13, 2012, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-moments-of-brain-shut-off/631414 "2012-08-13T22:49:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-moments-of-brain-shut-off/631414/21 "2012-08-14T13:49:20Z")
I hate it when my brain makes my body do something either without me thinking about it or while my mind is going “NO DON’T DO THAT!!” Like a few months ago when I fell asleep on the couch and my husband woke me up by sticking his finger in my nostril and I slapped his face. Weird thing is I NEVER “slap” and wouldn’t dream of hurting my husband. It wasn’t even a hard slap, just a gentle tap with my open hand, but I had no conscious thought to do that and even as my hand was reaching up my mind was like “WTF ARE YOU DOING STOP THAT”. Another time when I was 12 my Dad asked me to massage his shoulder and I punched him - hard - instead. Freaked the shit out of me because I had absolutely no reason to want to punch him at all. How does your body do stuff like that without you _wanting_ it to?! ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-moments-of-brain-shut-off/631414/22 "2012-08-14T13:57:14Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > How does your body do stuff like that without you _wanting_ it to?! It’s like suddenly your mind/body split personalities. Your mind has enough awareness to know the body’s gone off the rails, but not enough control to stop it. Maybe low level zombie virus infection? The dyslexia doesn’t sound right because it’s rarely ever repeated. It more like a one time mis-fire from reality. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-moments-of-brain-shut-off/631414/23 "2012-08-14T14:50:23Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > … my husband woke me up by sticking his finger in my nostril and I slapped his face. Weird thing is I NEVER “slap” and wouldn’t dream of hurting my husband. It wasn’t even a hard slap, just a gentle tap with my open hand, but I had no conscious thought to do that and even as my hand was reaching up my mind was like “WTF ARE YOU DOING STOP THAT”. . . If my husband woke me like that I’d have a damn body to hide. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-moments-of-brain-shut-off/631414/24 "2012-08-14T15:11:41Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > This isn’t as bad as the OP, but about once a year I go to pour a cup of dog food into the dog bowl but instead I pour it into the trash can. The dog is not amused. That very nearly made me spew water onto my keyboard. I once put a whole chicken carcass into a big pot, then filled it with water, a halved onion, some cloves of garlic, a carrot, a stalk of celery, a bay leaf, and some salt and pepper. I set it to a simmer and let go for a full 8 hours. My apartment smelled wonderful, and I thought about all of the yummy things I could make with the stock. At the end of 8 hours I strained out the solids. Do I really have to tell you how that went? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-moments-of-brain-shut-off/631414/25 "2012-08-14T15:25:35Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > Then for some reason I cannot possibly understand I turned and spit it out my mouth full of blue Listerine right onto the middle of the beigey carpet. and turned back to the screen. I don’t see the problem. Everybody does it. https://www.youtube.com/embed/K7n9m4XTH_Q?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-moments-of-brain-shut-off/631414/26 "2012-08-14T15:41:17Z")
> [@NoiseBomb](#): > > I’ve found the key to that one is to _stop_ thinking about it. I can pull the right chain on the ceiling fan to switch on/off the lights or fan if my mind is otherwise occupied, but if I let myself think “wait, which chain is it again?” the wrong one will be pulled more than half the time. As many times as I try to remember that in the **L** iving room, the **L** ight is controlled by the chain that is slightly **L** onger (and the opposite in the bedroom,) that just doesn’t work. That doesn’t work because I’ve proven that binary devices actually change state on their own to make sure you always make the wrong selection. So if you remember the L mnemonic, the chain will get shorter to keep you from doing it right. The universe is a cruel MFer. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-moments-of-brain-shut-off/631414/27 "2012-08-14T16:10:00Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > That doesn’t work because I’ve proven that binary devices actually change state on their own to make sure you always make the wrong selection. So if you remember the L mnemonic, the chain will get shorter to keep you from doing it right. The universe is a cruel MFer. This X 42 :smack: ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-moments-of-brain-shut-off/631414/28 "2012-08-14T17:24:14Z")
My best was when I was making pasta the other week. I was making a cream sauce (from scratch) with veggies and sliced chicken breast. It was coming along nicely. I had the water for the pasta all boiling and I put the pasta into the pot… …of sauce. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-moments-of-brain-shut-off/631414.md?page=1)