I don't usually do "memes," but the "weird things" one (via Janet) seems entertaining. So here are some weird things about me:
1) I carry on complicated conversations with the dog, translating her bits into English in a high-pictched voice. I started doing this to amuse/ annoy Kate, but now I do it even when Kate's not around. (This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened to me-- my freshman year in college, a bunch of us started saying "Dude" a lot to mock one guy on my floor, and it stuck. I still say "Dude" a lot, and so does the dog...)
2) I have a weird obsessive thing about light switches: all the switches in a multiple-switch box need to be in the same direction if the lights are in the same state (that is, the switches should all be up if the lights are all on, or all down if the lights are all off). I've been known to go up or down stairs in the dark in order to maintain the correct alignment when one of the lights is controlled by two different switches.
3) I hate silence, and thus almost always have either music playing, or the tv on. Or both, in different rooms. This tends to annoy Kate.
4) I never co-authored a paper with my thesis advisor in graduate school.
5) I have a fear of needles that borders on the pathological. I can cope with vaccinations or having blood drawn for tests, but anything taking longer-- an IV, say-- completely freaks me out. I can't handle donating blood at all.
6) I don't like wearing a shirt and pants that are the same color, or even too close. On those rare occasions when I wear sweatpants and a sweatshirt, I'll mix and match them, and I won't wear a light blue t-shirt with jeans.
7) When I eat plain bread, I tend to pull the crusts off, and compress the center part of the slice into a small ball before eating it. This drives my mother up the wall, but I swear it tastes better that way. I started doing it because I read about it in a book-- I think it was a Hardy Boys book, or something similar.
8) Kate and I originally met via a Usenet newsgroup. Actually, this isn't all that weird in our circle of friends-- I know at least three other couples who met via that same group-- but other people think it's fairly unusual.
9) I'm absolutely fascinated by crap paranormal science tv shows-- alien abduction stories, ghost stories, biblical archeology. If I'm channel surfing on a weekend afternoon and stumble across these on the History Channel or the Discovery Channel, I can get sucked into watching for hours.
10) I have a weakness for really dreadful Chinese food-- the highly Americanized stuff you get as cheap take-out or on buffet tables. I know it's objectively pretty terrible, but every now and then, I get an intense craving for really greasy lo mein and fried rice and the like.
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Im with you on the light switches
My wife and I didn't meet online first, but we were both part of a largish usenet group that gathered to meet in person and met there. So, well, close enough. :)
Settle a duel with ingested teaspoons of Tabasco sauce. (Feminazi Canadians are rapidly amusing. Take that to the Ombudsman.)
7) When I eat plain bread, I tend to pull the crusts off, and compress the center part of the slice into a small ball before eating it.
Yeah, but do you like your beer grilled?
8) Kate and I originally met via a Usenet newsgroup. Actually, this isn't all that weird in our circle of friends-- I know at least three other couples who met via that same group-- but other people think it's fairly unusual.
Wait ... you mean there are other ways of meeting people?
(And now I'm going to sit here, wracking my brain to come up with two of the other three couples, since one is pretty obvious).
Is #4 really weird? If so, AOL.
Heck, AOL on #5 and #6 as well.
I met my SO in grad school. Didn't everyone go to grad school to pick up on people?
I do the light switch thing too.
Hm. I've got two of the three couples (Anne; Hawk). Stumped on the third, though.
Woot! rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan 4evah!
I think that's the Usenet group you're referring to; I used to read/post to it way back in the day, and then when I discovered your blog, it took me a while to make the connection but eventually I did... It's a small internet after all!
Jordin and I are much older than all y'all. We met in a fanzine. Not unlike a newsgroup but a lot slower.
Chad: about #10, for me it's the bright red sweet and sour pork. It was the first Chinese food I ever ate and I imprinted.
My light switches also cry out for uniformity. I also found the white bread ball to be a superior texture, but I don't think I've done that since I was 10 or so. Fiber is good for you, you know. There are some nice places in San Francisco's Chinatown for greasy lo mein - I understand that. Some of the rest does reach into the realm of weirdness. Why uniformity of light switches, but not sweat clothes?
For many years, I become intent on seeing the farthest corner of the room in great detail when I have my blood drawn. It works for me.
The third, I think, would be K-J and Therese (sp?). There have also been other couplings that didn't formalize.
I'm with you on noise. My wife wonders how I can work while listening to music, with perhaps a game on the tube with the sound down.....I say how could you not?
The light switch thing is weird!
I've had 9 surgeries and chemo in the past. Didn't like needles before then. Really don't like them now.
I have a weakness for cheap crispy thin crust pizza, basically like mozzeralla, pepperoni, and tomato sauce on a cracker.....
I met my wife in a Jackson E&M class. Yeah I got out a lot.....It has worked wonderfully though!
Chad/Kate (I'm pretty sure you know these two)
Karl-Johan/Therese
Alistair/Amy
Anne/Mike
Bill/Hawk
Did I miss any?
Jamie: Those are, indeed, the ones I was thinking of.
It's reassuring to hear that other people also take a sensible view of the proper ordering of light switches.
Also, regarding item 1, see today's xkcd comic, which works just as well for dogs...
Oh, and also: I met my wife online, in a semi-private community site that spun off from MetaFilter.