What quirky things do you do to savor life?

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The discussion centers around personal quirks and habits, particularly those related to reading and eating. One participant shares a tendency to prolong finishing a good book, while others reveal their unique eating rituals, such as consuming food in a specific order or dissecting meals. Many participants mention counting various objects in their surroundings, like tiles or chairs, often as a subconscious habit. Quirks also extend to personal routines, such as using a lamp as an alarm clock or folding clothes in a particular way. The conversation highlights how these idiosyncrasies can be amusing and relatable, with participants sharing their experiences and encouraging each other to embrace their quirks. The thread emphasizes the diversity of human behavior and the lightheartedness of discussing personal eccentricities.
  • #51
I like to give my age in hexadecimal. I've also noticed that nowhere in the tax code is the base specified.

Turbo, what's the point gap spec for a 350?

I knew you wouldn't disappoint. :biggrin:
 
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  • #52
Often when I drive, I change the radio station about every 5 seconds. It annoys even me sometimes.
 
  • #53
I don't know what my quirks are. That doesn't mean I don't have any, it just means that I do them subconsciously and am not aware of them. One thing distinctive about me is that when I stand in a relaxed position, each foot toes out at 40 degrees from the normal. You can imagine how difficult this makes skiing for me. As a result I have a very distinctive walk, something like a waddle. Once when I was in high school, I was walking along a highway wearing a hooded jacket. A car passed me from behind, came to a quick stop in front of me and out jumped my second cousin. We hadn't met for several years previous so there was no way he could have recognized me from behind except for the walk.
 
  • #54
Ivan Seeking said:
How do you greet your friends? :confused: I know how my cats greet their friends and I don't like what I'm thinkin.

I smell them. I don't understand your confusion.
 
  • #55
lisab said:
Often when I drive, I change the radio station about every 5 seconds. It annoys even me sometimes.

You should see Marzena regulating AC and air flow in the car.
 
  • #56
lisab said:
Often when I drive, I change the radio station about every 5 seconds. It annoys even me sometimes.
Just set your radio to "scan".
 
  • #57
Ivan Seeking said:
Turbo, what's the point gap spec for a 350?
I'll have to disappoint you on this one. I'm no Mona Lisa Vito.
 
  • #58
Ivan Seeking said:
The first time I kissed a girl my own age, we were under a pig.

hmmm...:rolleyes: nope can't think of how it was done
 
  • #59
Evo said:
Just set your radio to "scan".

lolollll
 
  • #60
lisab said:
Often when I drive, I change the radio station about every 5 seconds. It annoys even me sometimes.

My wife does this.

Evo said:
Just set your radio to "scan".

I do this.
 
  • #61
turbo said:
I'll have to disappoint you on this one. I'm no Mona Lisa Vito.

Ah, I'm soooooo disappointed! :biggrin: I think it was 25 thousandths. I definitely remember that the high performance points on my Yamaha dirt bike were set for 0.015".

HeLiXe said:
hmmm...:rolleyes: nope can't think of how it was done

Donna Butler, an unusually hot five-year-old in my nursery school class, kissed me under the big pink cement pig, at the park.
 
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  • #62
There were two girls from different sides of town (large sparsely-populated town) that ganged up on me in Kindergarten. They would tackle me and take turns kissing me. One has been through multiple marriages, and the other has been through multiple degree programs and is a lawyer. The cuter one has been married more.
 
  • #63
insanity said:
my wife does this.



I do this.
lol!
 
  • #64
Does anyone else use pi as password or access code?

Many years ago I was involved in a custom motor design. The job of assigning a part number landed in my lap by default. I've always wondered if any engineers or purchasing agents noticed the part number PI314159
 
  • #65
Ivan Seeking said:
Does anyone else use pi as password or access code?

Many years ago I was involved in a custom motor design. The job of assigning a part number landed in my lap by default. I've always wondered if any engineers or purchasing agents noticed the part number PI314159

Sometimes I use an equation :smile:
 
  • #66
lisab said:
Sometimes I use an equation :smile:

I thought I was being clever until I saw Dr. Emmett Brown open his garage door lock using my favorite access code.
 
  • #67
Evo said:
So, what quirky things do you do?

I always execute an olfactory inspection before eating food or beverages :)

/Fredrim
 
  • #68
- I don't remember phone numbers easily.
- I usually confuse left and right.
 
  • #69
I have no quirks. I am a 100% normal dullard.
 
  • #70
Ivan Seeking said:
Does anyone else use pi as password or access code?

Many years ago I was involved in a custom motor design. The job of assigning a part number landed in my lap by default. I've always wondered if any engineers or purchasing agents noticed the part number PI314159
That would have been a treat to stumble on.
 
  • #71
Sometimes I scratch my head violently when I have a gazillion thoughts racing through my head.

Oh, and I have this absent presence wherever I go. I just gaze off randomly. Though not much of a quirk.
 
  • #72
After the group therapy I suggest a group hug. But okay, here goes, I am coming out of the closet too!

If I am everything above the second floor, my mind convinces me the building I am in is swaying. The higher I am, the longer lasting and more convincing the illusion.

I visited the top floor of one of the WTCs once, could stay up there for about ten minutes, and was sick for an hour.

Odd thing is I enjoy flying and don't have any illusions in a plane. But I convinced myself never to fly anymore out of ecological principle.
 
  • #73
I get vertigo. I'll never forget the first time I crossed over a stream on a swaying rope foot bridge high above it. Everything blurred and I just held on to the rope sides and forced myself to keep going. By the end of the trip I was running along that foot bridge like I was on the ground.

I still feel faint when I climb a ladder. Changing a light bulb is frightening. I ended up buying a cool step ladder that has a support that you can lean against so you don't fall. Evo Child took it for her move, I'd better get it back.
 
  • #74
lisab said:
Often when I drive, I change the radio station about every 5 seconds. It annoys even me sometimes.

I do, too. No one ever believes that I have 14 stations that I flip through constantly when I drive. I listen to them all. DAILY.

One day, I received a phone call from a telemarketer asking about my radio listening habits. I decided I didn't have anything important to do, so I decided to mess with her and took the survey. I don't think I have had a call asking to participate in a survey since. :devil:
 
  • #75
Ms Music said:
I do, too. No one ever believes that I have 14 stations that I flip through constantly when I drive. I listen to them all. DAILY.

One day, I received a phone call from a telemarketer asking about my radio listening habits. I decided I didn't have anything important to do, so I decided to mess with her and took the survey. I don't think I have had a call asking to participate in a survey since. :devil:
My Honda Ridgeline has band/channel/volume buttons on the steering wheel, so I can drive myself nuts being equivocal.
 
  • #76
I try to chew my food evenly on each side of my mouth. If I eat flavored candies (skittles or sweettarts) I have to either eat them in pairs, one on each side, or bite one in half and put a half on each side.

I'm never confident I locked a door. I almost always double and triple check any door I lock.

I strongly prefer numbers that are multiples of 2 or 5. Numbers like 31 make me cringe. When playing video games where you can distribute points among attributes, I'll make the number a multiple of 2 or 5 even if it means wasting points on a useless attribute.
 
  • #77
While driving the backroads around here, I would sometimes try to see how many songs I could sing in my mind, if you will, all at once. It seems that I managed a few bars of four songs once.

IIRC, Feynman could simultaneously track five different sequences of numbers in his head. That gave me the idea.
 
  • #78
I'm quirkless. I have one or two quarks, though.

Actually, I'm prone to analyzing things to death. As knowing my options cold has saved my life in the past, it's not a quirk I'm likely to part with.
 
  • #79
DoggerDan said:
I'm quirkless. I have one or two quarks, though.

Actually, I'm prone to analyzing things to death. As knowing my options cold has saved my life in the past, it's not a quirk I'm likely to part with.
Denial is the first sign of insanity. :-p
 
  • #80
Ivan Seeking said:
While driving the backroads around here, I would sometimes try to see how many songs I could sing in my mind, if you will, all at once. It seems that I managed a few bars of four songs once.
Often when I was riding on my motorcycle, I would sing (out-loud or sub-vocally) lots of the songs that I knew and wanted to perform at the taverns(s) the next weekend. You can't keep hundreds of songs in your head without reviewing and refreshing them from time to time - at least I couldn't.
 
  • #81
Borek said:
I count everything. I am also checking if number of syllables in a phrase I hear or read is divided by 4.

I'm a "counter" also. Counting is also aided by the fact that I seem to always have percussion cadences in my head. I seem stuck on looking for "odds" mostly... though 4/4 time gets me on 4's also.
 
  • #82
I always have to have the volume on an even number, even if I'm not in control I'll spaz out.

I won't let my bare feet touch the floor, ever!

When I use the tea jar, I have to tap it on the fridge before I put it away.

When people talk to me, I sometimes go off in my own world and spell what they are saying.

Yes I know, I have a lot of quirks :)
 
  • #83
This confirms it, brilliant people are quirky!
 
  • #84
When I get excited, I hyperventilate through my nose. Apparently it sounds like I have the dry sniffles until I settle down. I didn't know I did it until my wife made me aware...she thinks its cute and will offer to buy me ice cream just to see me subconsciously do it.
 
  • #85
When I was at school, I used to whistle a tune to myself and hum a second part along with it at the same time. I didn't even know I did this until one of my music teachers told me he had heard both voices of a Bach two-part invention as he passed me in the corridor. I later discovered (when someone challenged me to attempt it) that I could also whistle one tune and hum a different one at the same time, not even necessarily with the same time signature (that used to empty the room very effectively!).

After my voice broke, the interval between the whistling and singing became larger with the result that there was another harmonic audible (the difference in frequencies), sounding similar to the whistle part, so by careful selection of the bass line I can produce three-part harmony with myself!

When it comes to eating I have minor quirks which are based on a very logical scheme of saving some of the best to last. For example, when I'm eating fries I set aside some of the longest ones and eat all of the shorter ones first. If I'm very bored I line them all up and eat them strictly in length order. Also, when I'm eating fried egg, I eat the white first then eat the yolk, usually mixed with mashed potato or fries. My daughter has picked up a similar habit of saving at least some of the best food to last. My son has a more extreme version of the same habit, in that he often eats all of one type of food from his plate before going on to the next.

My wife thinks I'm quite obsessive about things having to have a place that they are kept and to be put away in that place whenever they are not in use. However, I think that's just a matter of wanting to be able to find them again quickly without having to keep track of where I last saw them.

I'm sure my family think I have a lot of other quirks too, but I haven't asked them recently.
 
  • #86
Wow! Amazing, too, that you hadn't realized you were doing this!
 
  • #87
Jonathan Scott said:
when I'm eating fried egg, I eat the white first then eat the yolk

So? You mean there are other ways of eating fried eggs?
 
  • #88
Borek said:
So? You mean there are other ways of eating fried eggs?
I save the yolk for last so that I'll have something tasty to dip my toast into. I don't think that's too quirky though.
 
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  • #89
Jonathan Scott said:
After my voice broke, the interval between the whistling and singing became larger with the result that there was another harmonic audible (the difference in frequencies), sounding similar to the whistle part, so by careful selection of the bass line I can produce three-part harmony with myself!

That isn't quirky. That is pure talent!
 
  • #90
Ms Music said:
That isn't quirky. That is pure talent!

Performing for you tonight will be Jonathan Scott, Jonathan Scott, and Jonathan Scott.
 
  • #91
Jonathan Scott said:
...when I'm eating fries I set aside some of the longest ones and eat all of the shorter ones first. If I'm very bored I line them all up and eat them strictly in length order
Now I know how to visualize what your are doing after leaving chat for McDonalds. :biggrin:
 
  • #92
I noticed when I skim, I jump to the middle of the page and then work upwards. After reading one/two sentences, I go the 3/4 of the page and do same.

Unlike most people I know who read material and then try to solve a problem, I read the problems and then work backwards.
 
  • #93
Jonathan Scott said:
...I can produce three-part harmony with myself!
Make a YouTube!
 
  • #94
I believe eating the runny yolk last is an unwritten law.

I also eat the least favorite parts of my meal first so that I end with the best. I'll eat the crust off of my sandwich first so that I can savor the inside.
 
  • #95
Evo said:
I believe eating the runny yolk last is an unwritten law.

I also eat the least favorite parts of my meal first so that I end with the best. I'll eat the crust off of my sandwich first so that I can savor the inside.
Life is uncertain, eat dessert first.
 
  • #96
Trick is, if you eat best parts last, you feel their taste after the meal (say, before coffee). That's much better than the opposite version.
 
  • #97
Evo said:
I believe eating the runny yolk last is an unwritten law.
Yep but you need to save the right amount of bacon and toast. Dip toast, add part of a bacon strip, bite. Repeat with some toast wiping motion until plate is clean. You should be able to clean the yolk off your plate without anything left over.

Best done with a Roger yolks.
 
  • #98
Jimmy Snyder said:
Life is uncertain, eat dessert first.

Life is too short; don't eat the bad parts.
 
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