Howcome when i’m sitting in the car at a stoplight with the blinkers on, they always go “in” and “out” of phase with other blinking things, such as the “walk/don’t walk” sign, the car’s blinkers in front of me, the beat of the song on the radio, etc. They start off differently, converge, then diverge again. This drives me nuts. But at the same time, I must admit it does help to pass the time spent at the light counting how many times they match up.
holy poo, do i ever do the same thing… and if i’m in the backseat i watch the two dots blink on the clock while listening to the tick tick of the ticker.
my, what a couple of lonely nerds we must be. 
“human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” - albert einstein
Count me in, guys.
I can picture it: General Questions, MPSIMS, Great Debates, and Sychronized Car Blinkers.
Of course, this should be in MPSIMS.
JMcC, San Francisco, JJM’s page from the Bay
If I were beaned with a fastball, fling my limp, lifeless body to first, cause, dammit, I earned it!
Well, my thing about turn-signals is why they make cars so that you can neither <blink><font color="#ff0000">hear</font></blink> the damn things blinking nor <blink><font color="#00ff00">see</font></blink> their dashboard lights, the latter because they’re very carefully placed so that the steering wheel blocks sight of them.
Ray
Hey, nanobyte’s colored blinking words are blinking exactly in phase! What are the odds! :D.
It is too clear, and so it is hard to see.
I do the same thing. It’s really frustrating when the signal lights don’t match up, yet somehow strangely gratifying when they do (for me, anyway).
It also seems to me (although this must be an illusion) that as the signals approach the point when they are blinking simultaneously, they seem to speed up. Wonder why that is?
Glad to know I’m not alone with this odd habit.
They aren’t exactly in sync, as you pointed out in the OP, but nearly in sync. This means that they will drift slowly in and out of phase with each other. The closer to synchronized they are, the more slowly they drift.
For example: Say your blinker flashes once every 1.0 seconds and the walk/don’t walk sign flashes once every 1.1 seconds. If they start in sync, both flashing on at the same time, after about 5 seconds one will be flashing on while the other is flashin off. In another 5 or 6 seconds they’ll be flashing nearly simultaneously again, and so forth.
It’s kind of fun to watch, and what you are counting is actually how closely matched they are. If the match up every 10 seconds they are timed to within 1/10 of a second to each other.
If they match exactly then you must be driving a Volkswagen.
Let’s see. I lathered and I rinsed. But did I repeat?
Blink rate depends on what the blink rate is set to. You can set the blink rate of your cursor on your computer, too…but I bet most of your cursors are blinking right now in unison.
TEST: mine is now blinking on ,wait now off, wait on…
Well, well. Here I am thinking I’m really weird, and this comes along. I do that too, and kinda enjoy it. Lifes little pleasures, eh.
Anybody else seen that commercial, for a car I think, with the music, wipers, and street action all in sync? Cool.
Peace,
mangeorge
Work like you don’t need the money…
Love like you’ve never been hurt…
Dance like nobody’s watching! …(Paraphrased)
on a side note…the song from the commercial is “slyce - jetta beat”, heh…
I also thoughtr I was the only one who actually paid attention to such mundane things…it bugs me to no end how nobody’s blinkers are at the same rate…every time I get to a stop light it drives me crazy…obviously I’m going with pluto on this
The only thing a nonconformist hates more than a conformist is another nonconformist who does not conform to the prevailing standards of nonconformity.