I don’t talk on my cell phone a lot. It just sits turned off in my purse most of the time. Most of my friends don’t understand why I do this. In my mind, a cell phone is just an expensive walkie talkie, a tool. Plus, I LOATHE talking to someone when they are on their cell phone. It’s a waste of time trying to hold a conversation when it’s constantly being interrupted by random observations.
I create rhymes as reminders that make no sense. For example, if I need to make a turn at a busy intersection when I turn left, I say “Zim.” Turn right, “Zim.” Turning left again, “Balabim.”
I need to open computer applications in a certain order: first email, then browser, and then Excel or what have you. If that order gets messed up, I need to correct the order.
I used to bite my nails. While I don’t do it any more, when I’m clipping my fingernails if one comes off in a reasonably whole, clean piece I’ll chew on it for a while. It’s soothing, dammit.
I also occasionally eat the root ends of my hairs, especially when I’m scratching my beard and find a few loose hairs left on my hand. I also will chew off any rogue facial hairs that are long enough to get into my mouth.
Nobody IRL understands my natural sleep schedule - that is, I am a serious night owl. They say, “just go to sleep at 11 and wake up at 7.” Sorry, it’s not that easy. My body just can’t do it. I’ve tried, countless times. Heck, I don’t even understand it myself. I would change it if I could but so far, I haven’t been able to. It doesn’t help that there is the obvious undertone that I must be a lazy bum if I go to bed late and sleep late.
The only people who understand are my fellow Dopers here in different “night owl” threads.
Something I do that even I don’t understand: when eating something particularly satisfying, I let out a happy “mm” very quietly after each bite. Did not know I did this until a good friend started laughing while eating with me and I said “What’s so funny?”
Also, I’m compelled to make pretty color-coded patterns out of my M&Ms.
You know how if you step on a crack, you break your mother’s back? I take that game to an extreme. When I walk, I can’t step on any crack or any imaginary line shooting out, at right angles, from any object in or beside my path. Walk past a line of cars? I avoid the cracks and imaginary lines coming out of the tires. Sometimes, the mirrors too. Forget stepping on the *mentally continued) parking space lines. Trees, flower beds, pots, people’s previous steps, pillars, bike racks, anything. Everything has a line that comes out from any corner of it where it touches the ground (or is lined up appropriately). If I step on one, I feel a little dizzy and awkward. It makes walking very difficult.
I think in words. I thought that was normal, but every time I ask my friends, they point out they don’t do this- so either everyone I know is odd, or it’s just me. Basically- I tend to think as if there’s an internal narrator (ie: Scub’s JD- that narration style- totally works for me), except when I think of things I just picture black, and then words appear filling in the scene. So when someone says “The boy bounced the red ball” I picture those words in my head and read them. I don’t form a mental image of the boy and a red ball. I don’t need to- i just read the words! I usually force myself to think about it though in pictures, but it’s a pain. I much prefer thinking of everything as if I’m just reading it from a book or a diary and I’m the author. It’s really hard to explain, and it doesn’t really make much sense- but I think I’m explaining it correctly.
Do any of you do this? Ie: is this how people normally think? Because right now I’m the only one who seems to do this in my family and among my close friends. I also don’t really think too much with sounds. So “the bird goes tweet tweet tweet”- I don’t picture a bird making the noise. It’s just a bird, and then I read- it goes tweet tweet tweet. So I understand and comprehend what it’s doing- so why should I make the noise?
-It’s that sorta thinking that I have. =( I hope I’m not alone in this. Never made a thread about it though, maybe one day I should- because I can switch to focusing on the other way- picturing and hearing stuff, but it’s a pain in the ass, and it feels like work. I prefer my way.
Oh. And another thing i do:
And every so often, I also close my eyes and try to make it to the bathroom anytime I’m in a place that I live (house as a kid, my apartment, my dorm). I do this “Just in case”- so if I ever go blind, I’ll be able to at least get to the bathroom and pee without hurting myself. This was really useful I think only 1 or 2 times, when the power went out- I could easily get to the bathroom, while my parents were stumbling about trying to find candles. I was really proud.
But when I told my mother that basically I have a contingency plan for if I go blind suddenly and have to pee, she just put her head down and cried for me. Apparently she thought it was morbid. I feel it’s practical.
PS: Batman is my hero.
When I drive I keep both hands on the wheel and leave a half space between myself and the car in front of me. Also, when I pass men on the street I always look back as I pass them and generally scan the crowd when warranted.
I’ve been caught off guard a few times in my life and I’m not as fast as I used to be. I’d like to think with age comes wisdom but it’s probably just paranoia.
I wish I could live like this, but I’m tied to a desk. Always thought of coding freelance, but I’m always worried about quitting the semi-stable full time permanent job…
like if you were to tell me to close my eyes and picture “three” I would think of the word. “three” as opposed to “3” or picturing three things. And if I’m reading a description of something in a book, I don’t picture that thing in my mind, but if I’m looking at something in real life, I describe it in my mind.
I’m not really into careerism. At all. It’s not my thing.
But when I tell people my major is linguistics, they always ask one or more of the Big 3: “What’s that?”, “How many languages do you speak?”, “What do you want to do with that?” (Asking anything other than the Big 3 is the quickest way to my heart.)
A lot of people are visibly weirded out when I tell them that I don’t know what I want to do with it and don’t really care. I couch it in less negative terms, of course. I’m just a social science major who enjoys his field and doesn’t want to pigeonhole himself.
The other thing I do is look at everyone who walks in or out of a room. I get a good god damn look because I find individual aesthetic expression fascinating. It weirds people out and I need to stop. I’ve actually had ugly people think I had a crush on them, because I thought their looks were so interesting that I just had to examine them. It’s led to some embarrassing and unfortunate conversations.
He’s an expert assassin.
Not really, it would just be ironic considering his politics.
I’m no MD, but that sounds like a serious case of OCD. You owe it to yourself to get a professional opinion on this.
