By this i mean something that most people would use the right tool / device to achieve the same results – like opening a beer bottle with your teeth vs. using a bottle opener (I happen to like my teeth so I don’t use this method).
In my case, I have a woodstove.
To either open the stove to add wood, or move the damper (which is what controls the amount of air entering the stove, controlling the burn rate of the firewood), most people, including my parents and my brother (so this is not family learned nor absorbed) generally will use a poker or a potholder (the suggested method).
You see, in most cases, either one of these levers are made out of the same material as the stove (cast iron). Cast iron is a fairly good conductor of heat (think of cooking in a cast iron skillet on the stove).
I use my fingers*. Consequentially, I have large callouses and burn marks on the thumb and index fingers on my right and left hands from opening said woodstove. Sometimes, my fingers will literally smoke when opening it. Yes, sometimes it * does * hurt, but rarely. When it does, you’ll catch me shaking said hand and jumping around like a drunken monkey. However, I’m just too lazy to use the appropriate tool, even though I know the possible outcome. BTW, I have been doing this for at least 15 years now, so it’s not like i’m going to “learn”.
Anyone else have similar tendencies? I’m sure I can’t be the only fruitcake on this board.
Mine is reading magazines. Most people probably start from the front and work their way to the back. I mean that is how books are read.
Not me. I start at the back and work my way to the front. I have no idea why I do this as it makes it more difficult to read articles. If I find one I want to read I have to keep flipping pages until I find the beginning of the article and then read it front to back. Even when I am done with the article I will again start looking through the magazine from back to front.
I will be thirty nine next week so I doubt there is any hope of me changing this habit.
I always flip to the back of the magazine first. Then go back to the start and flip though.
Most magazines are useless to me. I’ve generally read anything worth reading in them within 15 minutes. At this point, the only magazines I subscribe to are ones I like, and get for free.
I also bite my nails at times. While I could use a clipper (never mind the eww factor of what’s under those nails – I’m strengthening my immune system, people!) I’m too lazy at those times to get my ass off the couch to get the clippers.
I caught my son the other day biting his nails instead of using the clippers.
I dunno. I mean the table of contents is at the start so you would think it would be easier to start there and find an article you might want read.
I think it is more of a surprise thing.
::::::Thumbing through from the back::::::, “ho hum, Ohhhhh there is something interesting”. Like a neat “surprise” article hiding in the middle.
It is like the title of the article in the contents does not grab me but the picture in the middle of the article does, so it makes me seek out the beginning and then actually read it.
Shaving. I use disposable razors. I simply wet it under the hot tap and start shaving, rinse and keep going until finished. Nothing but water and razor. I have tried oils and foam but find that all they help to do is clog the razor, the shave is no better.
Sugar. I stopped putting sugar in tea or coffee or on cereal not for dietary reasons but largely because I couldn’t be bothered. I probably last bought a bag of sugar 5 years ago. If I have any around I don’t know where it is.
Butter and margarine. I stopped putting them on sandwiches because…why bother they are just grease. Every few months I have to throw away my margarine because it is going off. I probably eat a small carton a year.
Washing. I hang my washing in one of my bathrooms because I can’t be bothered unlocking the back door to use the clothesline. The bathroom faces west and is like an oven in the afternoons. I just hang stuff on hangers and always leave the window open.
Following directions on TV dinner boxes. Most cooking instructions involve some arcane formula, like “Cook 5½ minutes, rotate ½ turn, cook another 1½ minutes, stir potatoes, remove plastic from vegetables, cook 45 seconds on lowest setting, replace plastic on vegetables, cook another 3¾ minutes, let stand 1½ minutes, oh and don’t forget to remove that stupid Hungry Man Brownie that will turn into a pile of half-burned goop no matter what you do…”
I just stick it in the microwave and type a random number. So what if it doesn’t cook evenly – the food will just have to fucking deal with it.
Doing dishes: Run water, put soap in, make sure it’s dissolved, wash dishes, rinse dishes, dry dishes, put dishes away.
PSHAW. I am one person. I rinse the dishes under running water, wipe then with a sponge, rinse again, use the scouring pad if anything is still there, wipe them with a dishtowel and leave them in the sink.
I’ve been known to - when parked facing downhill - clutch start the car in second because the ignition was already on, and I couldn’t be arsed lifting my hand to turn the key to crank over the engine.
I’ll use the clutch to move forward if I’m still going slowly backwards. Saves brake-work.
In an automatic - and I currently have an old one that doesn’t have any of that “must-have-foot-on-brake” safety-switch jive, if I’m getting in or out of a parking spot that’s on a grade, I just slide it into drive or reverse as needed, just at the point when gravity stops the car rolling, saving me hefting my leg across to use the brake. Sometimes, if I’m going slowly, I stop the car with the handbrake for the same reason (hey, I’m going to have to apply the thing anyway).
All that said, I probably don’t really abuse transmissions in that I’ve never burned out a clutch or anything, and the rules I break are small ones I reckon I can get away with in return for not doing things like leaving strips of rubber at the lights, or riding the clutch as I drive along.
Hey, I like leaving strips of rubber at the lights! You’d think I would have outgrown that by now.
Whou’da thunk that a Nissan Sentra 1.8L with a manual transmission could burn rubber in 1st and second gear? Mine does. I think I’ll probabl have to rebuild the clutch at 80k but it’s fun while it lasts.
As well, my 03 Chevy 2500HD has only 44,000 miles on the odo. I am on my third set of tires
Cleaning up my apartment. I try to stay ahead of the dishes, and the laundry, because I can smell the results if I don’t. But hey, “a place for everything” as a philosophy ignores the actual fact that everything is already in a place! Why move it?
My car is also a part of this phenomenon. Hey, it rained last week, so the outside is fairly clean.
Build a proper argument in the Pit. I can’t be bothered.
Wrapping presents. I do it, but I don’t DO it–the item is covered, and taped down, I see no reason for extra embellishments such as bows, lil gift tchotchkes, cards etc.
Tending roses. They go in the ground with a decent hole and some good dirt. After that, they’re on their own. I babysit no plants.
I often take the time to rototill my garden, plant the seeds – and that’s it. I will not be bothered with weeding. The plants will live, or not. Though it does make it tough to find the veggies when the weeds are two feet tall.
Though it makes it fun to find the pumpkins in the fall.
I only wash my commuter car in the winter when the road salt makes my blue car look white. I’ll often forget that it’s tough to wash off road salt with a pressure washer when it’s 0 outside. I just end up adding ice to the sides of my car.
Weeds are the bane of man must be fought diligently. Get up, man! Fight the good fight!
I just won’t fuss with fertilizer and spray and soil tests and the like. Probably good thing I don’t grow too many roses…
I’m also too lazy to take the time for those final touches to really look good on a daily basis. I just don’t care enough to look “stunning” in the grocery store. Some women always look pulled together–I look more like an almost completed puzzle.
The clutch thing is pretty hilarious… I would never start my car with my clutch! I’m not even sure if it’s possible considering mine has some fancy ECS thingie. But here’s one that I do which is pretty lazy.
I have a diesel VW Jetta, which means that it has enough torque to be left alone in 1st gear with no gas. This means, I can stop holding down the damn clutch in stop an go traffic for once. So what do I do? Unless I know for certain that I will get going, I’ll just leave it in gear and try to slow down early so I don’t have to get on the clutch again. Just leaving room to idle a bit. Doesn’t happen often but I do it sometimes.
Food. I’m too impatient to let food cool off properly. I scald my mouth damn near every day.
I don’t see anything wrong with your method of washing dishes, btw. That’s what I do, and I don’t consider myself lazy at all. This soaking of dishes thing? I’m not terribly sure where this came from, but you don’t have to do that.
Laundry. I never sort, just chunk everything in and wash it on cold. I’m not a child, so I don’t stain my clothes, As long as they come out clean who cares?
Yardwork in general. I hate it and in the Summer almost all yardwork plays havoc on my allergies anyway.
But I do not rake, that’s why I bought a mulching mower. And I don’t make sure every blade of grass is cut perfectly, because I don’t care. And I don’t water the grass even if it’s turning brown, because if the grass is meant to die who am I to save it?
