And we’re back, with more of People Who Look Like Things.
“Oh no! Someone taped over the end of this!”
even though i love them playing almost any videogame other than the harvest moon and story of seasons and stardew valley which are usually super chill farming games with a shoestring plot that you accomplish while playing the game out normally…
I enjoy the “stand in the hot water” part of the shower. But I hate the “get into the shower” part. The water is never quite the temperature I expect, and it’s always an unpleasant shock. That’s true even though I stick my hand in, first. Getting a handheld shower head helped me – I stand in the shower, and hold it away from me and put my hand in it until it feels about right. And then I start at my feet and slowly move it up my body, so a lot of my skin is wet before it hits anything sensitive, like my belly or my face.
And getting out of the shower is unpleasant, too, especially if I’ve gotten my hair wet. (I wash my hair a lot less often than I wash my skin.)
ASMR - it’s either noises that I want to get away from or someone whispering at a volume that makes me want to scream “TALK LOUDER!”
Same here, kinda. The smell makes me want to hurl, and living in Oregon it’s almost ubiquitous. Plus there’s almost a peer-pressure aspect to it: a vast majority of people I know smoke, and whenever I make the mistake of mentioning my anxiety or depression I’m bombarded with some version of a recommendation to start smoking grass. But the smell alone is such a turn-off that I can’t even try it.
I’ve hated eating in restaurants for most of my adult life. Fancy schmancy, MacDonalds, makes no difference.
I’ll not use the term stressful, but I’ve never seen eye-to eye with the imagery of the soothing ride in a convertible car with the top down. I can somewhat understand the romanticized idea of it, but the reality almost always disappoints me. All the irritating as hell buffeting of the wind/slipstream, the rationalization of brushing aside otherwise uncomfortable weather conditions just to have the top down. I don’t get it. OK, maybe in a slow cruise in a parade like scenario; but then there’s all the noise and hoopla of a parade.
This is an excellent point, and one I’d completely forgotten.
In my forties I finally reached the financial point where I could afford a convertible. Bought a used one, but sold it after six weeks and returned to a hardtop. My wife’s car has a sunroof*, which neither of us has opened in the entire time we’ve owned it. Wind is a PITA, traffic is loud, and there’s a reason we humans put climate control in our cars.
*bought used, it was ordered by original owner.
There’s this and also that it’s hard to lather yourself without accidentally rinsing or getting a face full of water, and getting water all over the bathroom if you’re not careful.
Jogging per se is one of the more relaxing ways of exercising to me, but is still usually not as relaxing as it could be. You still have all of the stresses of travelling: obstacles, loud noises, and navigating traffic. With other modes of exercise these are even worse, but they are still there with jogging.
I guess hiking is more relaxing than jogging because the loud noise and auto traffic are absent. Except hiking anywhere in Florida, because they are replaced by the fear of running into invisible spiderwebs.
For me, a restaurant can be relaxing as long as there is a minimum of people in there are they don’t pipe in loud music. If you have what I call “Covidmax” capacity, with around 1/4 of the normal tables fully taken, then I’d say it’s on the edge between relaxing and stressful. It would have to be slightly more empty than that to be relaxing.
Showers: I like having them now, but I had to grow into them. As a kid and even a teenager, I preferred taking a bath of any kind. Water pouring directly on my head felt aggressive and keeping it out of my eyes was difficult. However, after trying soaking in the bathtub a number of times as an adult, I found it was not all it was cracked up to be. I now like taking a shower (as a rule before bed; like you I would never want to wake up in this way - too much work for someone who’s manifestly not a morning person).
Driving: a very stressful activity for me. I learned to drive in my mid-late 30s and, having had a rather stressful life prior to that, it didn’t come easy for me. I have slow reaction time and there are so many things that you have to take notice of when driving. I only regularly drove for about 2 - 2 1/2 years during my last stay in Canada, and during that time, I had several near-misses or minor accidents. I currently don’t have access to a car and in all honesty think that for me the responsible choice is to avoid driving.
I cut my own hair. I never liked anything about the atmosphere of a barbershop/haidresser’s. I’ve always found it rather icky and I don’t like that it’s one of those places where you have to tip. I started cutting my own hair when I was 20, back in 2000. The last time I had my hair cut professionally was when I was 22; by that time I already had the same kind of hair I have now - a one-length bob. When I cut it, it should be at the same level as the tip of the chin part of my beard, thus about collar-length.
It took a great effort for me to recently learn to cook just soup. Cooking seems very much like “work”. Shovelling snow seems a more relaxing activity to me than cooking (you’re out in the fresh air, the activity requires little mental extertion, so you can just think about whatever while pusing the snow away).
Why don’t you just politely tell her that you’d prefer to relax in silence while she cuts your hair? If she has any notion of good customer service, she would understand.
I discovered ASMR about three years ago and it was a great tool for calming down for me. It helped get me through some difficult times. Not to mention ASMRists tend to be attractive young women…the thing with ASMR videos is, they’re quite a smorgasbord. Different people react to different things and the ASMRists cater to that. What would be relaxing and ASMR-triggering to one person would be irritating to another (as are all the things listed so far in thise thread). I always watched pretty much exclusively the personal attention ones (simulating a massage, a scalp check, a cranial nerve exam, a flight attendant’s service, etc.) I am completely uninterested in the ones where they just blow into or brush the microphone or make mouth noises or whatever. I do agree with you that it can be irritating when they just whisper and you can’t hear what they say.
The cool thing about cutting your own hair is that you cannot mess up. On my first attempt I was just winging it. No YouTube videos, nothing. When I realized I’d gotten in over my head I just called a do-over. I shaved my head and face smooth and started from scratch. For my next attempt I studied YouTube vids and took it seriously.
Cannot agree more. I can’t function in a room with a television on.
Being on a beach.
I love beaches if they are cold and lonely. It’s a great place to hike along and let your mind drift. Hard to get lost, and the whatever they’re called ions in the air are soothing and uplifting.
A hot sunny beach filled with oily people lying on towels, with the expectation that you are there to find your own towel spot to lie down and oil yourself? No. I can bake, steam, or boil myself for about five minutes before I am very done with it.
Yeah, the romantic/travel movies fail to mention that the sand gets EVERYWHERE. Even if you’re just sitting still, the omnipresent wind blows it into your eyes and mouth. And food/drink. Intimate activity on the beach?? No fucking way (as it were).
My in-laws have to turn the tv on, but then no one watches. When we visited, in the America that was, they’d turn on the tv and start talking to us. I find it jarring, are we watching this show, or are we talking?
If you turned off the tv, they get kind of nervous. I think some people just can’t stand a moment of silence.
I just don’t get the appeal of a beach. Besides sand getting everywhere, walking on it is a chore, and the Sun is giving me cancer. I also have a hard time laying around and doing absolutely nothing.
Amusement/water slide parks, I take Vaderling, nieces and nephew on the very rare occasion. I don’t enjoy it. Too many people, rides I don’t like going on, water slides that are poorly constructed so you feel beat to hell at the bottom, too many people.
Bars/clubbing also, too many damn people who are loud and drunk, or getting there, music set to headache inducing loudness, hot, boring, too many damn people, music too loud. Takes me about two weeks to recover from a trip to a bar to hang out
Eh, anything with large crowds that are right there “in my face” so to speak, and or loud music. Love the beach, showers, driving(mostly)
That’s nonsense, and extremely male-centered. Of course you can mess up, and you can mess up very easily. You just said you did it wrong. You were just OK with the solution of shaving your head bald.
You can request that from Uber drivers like that now, can’t you? Where tips are concerned, I think they’d be happy to accomodate.
I don’t usually get good service from hair places. Like a lot of men, I just want a haircut; I’m not super fussy. I tip $5 for a $10/20 minute haircut, but those are small potatoes compared to the women. Mrs. L spends good money on hers and tips generously. She and her hairdresser gab away…
I don’t even tan…I just burn.
Add the cost of admission and parking. Then waiting in line. It’s like the insult upon the injury.
Yep. In my younger days I thought that was where you were supposed to meet the opposite sex but trying to yell over the noise etc.? And again, the expense only adds another reason to avoid it.