I came to the realisation recently that I occasionally engage in behaviours that I think are, to put it bluntly, completely stupid. These are things that defy all logic, things I try just because I once hoped that they might work, because it would be really amazing if they did. And I was wondering if anyone else here does things like this.

Let me give you a couple of examples. The first was something I did frequently as a kid, though I still find myself trying it when I'm bored and in a situation with people around. Basically, it's an attempt at telepathy. I think as hard as I can at a person, trying to catch his attention without doing anything overt like looking at him. Or I'll try to influence someone's behaviour, forcing him to walk this way around a table, rather than that way, when both are equal choices (or, preferably, I make him do something inconvenient). When I was a kid, I'd try to use telepathy to talk to friends before I fell asleep, even though I knew it wouldn't work (though it did help me fall asleep). I know it's totally silly, but I still occasionally catch myself doing it anyway!

My next example is just as bad. I have a friend who was into witchcraft -- as in, totally into it. She knew the distance to the nearest ley line at all times, she was forever writing little symbols on stuff for luck or whatever, she tried to slip people love potions, and she held seances with her friends (I was invited to one, but apparently I give off negative energy that keeps the Ouija thingy from moving, so I never had to go again). Anyway, sometimes when I'm waiting for someone, or trying to track someone down, I'll catch myself etching the little symbols she used for those things into the ground. I didn't even try to learn it... they're just ingrained into me after years of knowing her. Silly!

(These are things that I think are unlikely to be real, by the way... no offense is intended to anyone who believes in telepathy or witchcraft. They are simply things I don't believe in but do anyway... that is what I find silly.)

Does anyone else do stuff like this? Do you obsessively try to show that P=NP? Do you demand that paper be taken out of the package and placed in the printer with a certain orientation? Do you habitually cover up your nose whenever you see contrails (chemtrails) overhead? Do you sometimes break out your telescope, intending to look for flying saucers?

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"It's turtles all the way down."

A habit I picked up a few years ago is that whenever I've eaten an apple, I throw the core at a piece of open ground while saying "apples should grow there".
The careful training of dice while playing RPG's ir also a habit, ie. between the times when the result matters, I throw them repeatedly, leaving those that fall on the most desirable(highest or lowest depending on the game) and only rethrow the rest until they have all "learned" what to do when I have to use them for real. I do this knowing perfectly well that it has not effect whatsoever, but it helps me get into the superstitious worldview of fantasy RPG's.

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‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

I go to work even when I've an illness worthy of at least one day out and then when it's an exceptionally beautiful day, I call in sick.

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Teri berry...quite contrary, how does your garden grow?
Width, silver, bells, cockle, shells, and prithe made all in aureole

I spend more time gaming than doing things that would last (like actually writing down the stories in my head).

This is an interesting, never-thought-of thread. I guess all or most people do have a habit of doing silly things. I have to admit, when I was a kid I used to think there maybe aliens (ET) in small caves in the mountains. I did palm reading a lot, to my friends. Used to tell them the age they were expected to live and how rich they will be in the future. And sometimes I wondered if I can think of something strange no human has thought of before, invent a word no human has said before.

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A slight inclination of the cranium is as adequate as a spasmodic movement of one optic towards an equinine quadruped utterly devoid of any visionary capacity.

There is one stupid and pointless thing that I do. I always shake a bottle before opening it. This habit formed when I was a young boy and we would shake up our milk bottles so that the cream would mix in with the milk. Of course, these days there is never any cream sitting at the top of the milk so I have no need to do it. But I do. And I shake just about every other kind of bottle too. Which means that occasionally I spray myself with soda.

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The plural of "anecdote" is not "data".

Back about 10 years ago my friends and I used to wander around the neighborhood at night "ghost hunting". We were convinced that you could tell the presence of a ghost. And, if you listened to the thoughts in your own head just right, you could even tell what the ghosts were telling you. The trick to this is basically clear your mind and wait for any thoughts to pop into your head that isn't a thought you generated yourself. This is "spirit-speak". We knew all the local spirits, including a group of youngsters that liked to play hide-and-seek.

And now a decade later I realize it was pretty silly, but we enjoyed spooking ourselves anyway

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

I sometimes walk down the street and see a stranger in front of me. I'll yell, "Hey, Steve!" just to see if they turn around and look. Most of the time they do, even if they're not a guy!

I have to keep my fingernails free of dirt at all times. Even if this means stopping in the middle of a calculus test to clean them with a house key... dirt=bad...

Every time I see Ducky (see my signature) in the hall way, I have to stop to pet his hair. I heart his fluffy hair. Sometimes I just randomly pet people in the hall if he's not around... There's this one kid in the middle school who has hair I like, too...

I point at my friends as a greeting, rather than waving or saying hi.

--hippie

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Visit Mutated Genes, my X-men fanart site.

I heart Ducky. I stalk Ducky. His hair is quite fluffy, and he makes good cookies. (And now he's my prom date...)

I play Sudoku (and curse the vile individual who introduced me to the online website)

I stand in the rain and take photographs of locomotives

I stand in the dark, in the freezing cold, and look at little spots of light against a black background

worse, I have children!

I like to walk down train-tracks in the middle of the night. The one closest to me is elevated so you get a good view of the sky, as well as being able to peer into everyone's backyards - if that was your go. Only the occasional train to worry about, much less chance of being rudely interrupted than walking down a footpath.

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BugMeNot A portal to bypass free-site registration.

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer - renowned 19th Century German philosopher.

well, being a railfan, I used to walk the tracks... but having a sister who was in the NTSB - in particular, that division devoted to railroad accidents - I have changed my attitude. I give tracks a wide berth, I slow down and check both ways at crossings (even those with gates - they're reliable as all get-out, but occasionally they DO break, or the maintenance crew screws up) and I never never never ever stop on the tracks in my vehicles. (not that I ever did that, but now I'm adamant about it)

Now that I think about it, that is a pretty ridiculous thing to do. It's more so when I consider that I can see almost half as many dots from inside, where it's warm and there aren't small biting insects half the year and cold, wet, white stuff the other half.

But will knowing that it's ridiculous stop me from going out? Not likely.

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"It's turtles all the way down."

I tap the top of drink cans before opening them. I picked it up from my father, who does it before opening a can of pop; he insists that it prevents them from spraying. I don't know whether that's true or not, but I now tap everything from Coke cans to juice cans to cans of soup.

I used to talk to the Moon. Still do sometimes.

I set my alarm for that early Wednesday morning elective class.

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"The plan does not involve mayonaise."
"... I knew there was a catch."

You can't take the sky from me.

I smoke

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Not because it is easy, but because it is hard...

There is no way to happiness,
happiness is the way.

I continue to sleep in the buff, despite repeated evidence that the puppy will plant his cold wet nose on my posterior when he wants to go outside

I raise both hands when crossing over rail road tracks. People don't notice I do this, either.

now, that is weird...

I just realized, I count the beeps in elevators, even though I'm not blind

I do all sorts of things that make perfect sense to me, though I realize sometimes that anyone watching me must think I'm completely nuts!

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

I'll drink about 90% of a can of soda, then stick it in the refrigerator, forget about it, open a new can, and repeat the process.

I also won't study until the day before a major exam. For example, I have two exams tomorrow. I haven't even done any of my homework for my differential equations class, it's been five years since I took my last calculus class, I've been out of school for two of those years, and I can't remember how to do some basic integrations. But I'll waste time on message boards now and study later.

And very occasionally, I see an interesting news article and think to myself, "hey, maybe I can post this before ToSeek."

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The opinions expressed in the preceding message are not guaranteed to be consistent with any known universe, real or imaginary.

Strange things? Too many! Like Henrik I believe you can train dice, I frequently swear in a peculiar regional dialect from southern Italy that most Italians can't understand, I only wear black clothes, have a bizarre taste in beards (currently returned to Musketeer beard/moustache combo - somewhat singed after Sambuca incident at weekend )......

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Philip

I will not fear. Fear is the mindkiller, fear is the little death that brings total oblivion.

Frank Herbert, Dune

I put my coffee mug in the fridge once and spent ages looking for it.

I deliver the neighbor's newspapers to their front door, and I carry their garbage "cans" to the front of their garages (after trash day). I was programmed at an early age by my grandparents.

To date, I always spell threatre like the British. I started doing this in high school to irritate my teacher. Then, I would do every word possible slightly different. Technically, the English teacher couldn't count points off.

I had a friend who thought he was a much better driver than he was. I hated going anyplace with him and would often pretend I was flying a helicopter. I still do it when I'm in the passenger seat and bored.

I raise my hands roller coaster style when we I go over a hill. I also kiss my hand at pat the roof of the car if I go through a yellow, or deep yellow light. It's known as a 'perdiddle' here, and prevents the police from seeing you ru the light... somehow.

If there is something I want to understand better, I will make up a few people and 'teach' them the subject. I will ask myself questions based on their understanding and personality. Sometime 'they' will ask a question 'I' never thought of. This usually results in giving me a much better understanding of whatever it is.

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I'm not evil.
An evil person would do the things I think up.

This thread is turning out great! Thanks for sharing, guys, and keep them coming!

Examples? C'mon... you know you want to....

I have a friend who used to put his text books and notes under his pillow the night before an exam. He called it the "Jedi study technique." The idea was that the knowledge would somehow flow off the pages and into his brain while he slept. I tried it a couple of times, but I move around so much in my sleep that my notes were always flung all over the place the next morning, making it impossible to gauge if any additional knowledge might have seeped into my head.

I've thought of another thing I do. I count things, almost obsessively, because I always feel that it might one day come in handy to know how many roof tiles there are in a particular hallway.

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"It's turtles all the way down."

Urrrrrr... there's something called Obsessive Compulsive disorder. That's a major symptom...

For some reason, when we were kids we used to point three fingers down when we passed a cemetary. I still don't know what that was all about.

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The plural of "anecdote" is not "data".

When I was a teenager we did the hands in the air over railroad tracks (I grew up in Kansas, we didn't have any hills, lol). The pediddle's were cars with one headlight out, and if we saw one we had to tap the dashboard three times faster than the passenger (or driver, depending on your position) and "call it" in order to "win". And we also kissed our cars on the yellow lights

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

my kids play a variation of the padiddle game - punch buggy. First person to see a VW Bug has to call out '<color> punch buggy!' and tap the ceiling of the car. They keep score. RIght now, the 11-year-old has 137 to his older brother's 18.

I did come up with a silly thing for me! I root for the Cubs. Have done it all my life.

Like many others here, I also used to hit the roof of the car when running a yellow light, but our version was different. This applied to my high school/partying days. The rule was that you got a point if you were the first to hit the roof when a light changed as you passed through it -- green to yellow, yellow to red, or even (gulp) red to green. The points reset at the end of every night, and supposedly there was a prize if anyone ever got to ten. I actually got ten once, but no prize.

I still do it on occasion, too. Just habit.

Oh, there's no disorder to it... I diligently keep those numbers in proper order!

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"It's turtles all the way down."

We call it "slug bug" rather than "punch buggy," but wow are your kids playing it wrong! Tap the ceiling of the car, indeed.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

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