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Strange habits you have

Started by golden eagle, February 10, 2015, 11:41:01 PM

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golden eagle

Even though I live alone, I cannot sleep with my bedroom door open. I also don't like sleeping with a light on, though I'll keep a bathroom light on if I have a guest staying the night.


NE2

pre-1945 Florida route log

I accept and respect your identity as long as it's not dumb shit like "identifying as a vaccinated attack helicopter".

Zeffy

Probably my strangest one is right before I close my eyes to go to sleep, I push my hair forward so that it pretty much blocks most of my eyesight. I'm not sure, but it definitely feels like I fall asleep faster doing that (as opposed to when I couldn't the first half of last year...).

I bite my nails. Really badly. My nails are quite possibly the worst nails you'll ever see.

I sleep with a fan on and pointed directly towards me, no matter what the temperature. The noise helps drown out my tinnitus, and the cool air makes it impossible to get hot (unless the room is warm, in which case, the air is usually on).

I wear shorts 99.9% of the time regardless of the temperature.

I'm pretty sure that's the weirdest things I can think of that I do constantly.
Life would be boring if we didn't take an offramp every once in a while

A weird combination of a weather geek, roadgeek, car enthusiast and furry mixed with many anxiety related disorders

DaBigE

Quote from: golden eagle on February 10, 2015, 11:41:01 PM
Even though I live alone, I cannot sleep with my bedroom door open.

That can actually be a good thing. If there's a fire (obviously somewhere other than in your bedroom) when you're asleep, the closed door will give you a bit more time to escape.
"We gotta find this road, it's like Bob's road!" - Rabbit, Twister

Duke87

Whenever I get in any car with anyone I immediately look at the gas gauge. If I see it is at 1/4 tank or lower I will nag the driver to stop and get gas.

Running out of gas is one of my worst nightmares, and seeing people let their gauge drift towards E without acting like something urgently needs to be done about it drives me batshit.
If you always take the same road, you will never see anything new.

Pete from Boston

Quote from: Duke87 on February 11, 2015, 01:08:57 AM
Whenever I get in any car with anyone I immediately look at the gas gauge. If I see it is at 1/4 tank or lower I will nag the driver to stop and get gas.

Running out of gas is one of my worst nightmares, and seeing people let their gauge drift towards E without acting like something urgently needs to be done about it drives me batshit.

Sounds like you need a ride with Kramer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuEdU_lrtZk

TheHighwayMan3561

Quote from: Duke87 on February 11, 2015, 01:08:57 AM
Whenever I get in any car with anyone I immediately look at the gas gauge. If I see it is at 1/4 tank or lower I will nag the driver to stop and get gas.

Running out of gas is one of my worst nightmares, and seeing people let their gauge drift towards E without acting like something urgently needs to be done about it drives me batshit.


I thought I was alone in this regard. Mom usually lets the gas tank get pretty dry and it drives me nuts.

I also can't sleep with the door open, but for me it's just a peace of mind thing with having the door closed.
self-certified as the dumbest person on this board for 5 years running

Pete from Boston

I've known a few folks low gas has bothered.  I don't go out of my way to drive them absolutely nuts, but I know there's still a couple of gallons in there when the needle dips below E, and I'm not going to go on some panic run to the nearest price gouger.  It's good to confront fears anyway.

jakeroot

If somebody got in my car and started telling me when to put gas in it, I'd throw them out. My car, my rules. And my rule is: wait until the gas light is on. :cool:

renegade

Quote from: Duke87 on February 11, 2015, 01:08:57 AM
Whenever I get in any car with anyone I immediately look at the gas gauge. If I see it is at 1/4 tank or lower I will nag the driver to stop and get gas.

Running out of gas is one of my worst nightmares, and seeing people let their gauge drift towards E without acting like something urgently needs to be done about it drives me batshit.

I know someone I have to do that to.  In his truck, he doesn't bother to think about how much fuel he has onboard till the "low fuel" light comes on.  Doesn't need fuel till then.  He will blatantly pass an exit posted, "no services next xx miles."

On his Harley, if he's got a quarter tank, he'll argue with anyone that he's got at least a hundred miles' worth.  Makes himself difficult to ride with.  I am surprised he's never ended up walking.
Don’t ask me how I know.  Just understand that I do.

kj3400

#10
While I can't sleep with anything that emits light (TVs, computers, lamps), I also can't sleep without some sort of ambient noise, so I usually sleep with a fan on, even in winter. I also can't sleep without covers, even in the summer.

This one isn't a weird habit of mine, but my cousin, when shutting the door to her room, tends to open and close it several times before closing it for good. It's really annoying.
Call me Kenny/Kenneth. No, seriously.

NE2

Quote from: kj3400 on February 11, 2015, 04:12:38 AM
I usually sleep with a fan on, even in winter.
Don't move to South Korea, where they have the opposite habit, complete with pseudoscientific explanations.
pre-1945 Florida route log

I accept and respect your identity as long as it's not dumb shit like "identifying as a vaccinated attack helicopter".

ajlynch91

I have an abundance of pillows that I sleep with, and as an earlier poster said, cannot sleep with the door open. As far as "other" weird habits, I compulsively check my bank balance, credit cards, loans, and credit report almost every day.

kphoger

I bite my nails. They might be worse than @Zeffy's.

I almost always use a knife when I eat. Not just for cutting, but also for scooping against. Those of you who live in a society where this is common don't realize it's not actually the norm here.

I arrange my closet by type of shirt: flannels together, short-sleeves together, Oxfords together, sweaters together, etc. My wife's closet habit is stranger, though: she has to have all her hangers be the same color.

Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

jeffandnicole

I have a whole bunch of habits that I'm sure are very annoying to others.  Hell, they're annoying to myself.  And many of these habits come and go. 

I am a procrastinator.  Big time.  I get pissed off with myself about it. 

On the topic of gas: I tend to let mine get low, and the light will come on.  But I also have the "Miles to Zero" displayed, and know exactly where I am in terms of fuel.  I have also learned that when Miles to Zero gets to Zero, I still have a gallon of gas left.

I'm a chronic gas price watcher. I am one of those that will seek out the best deal around.  Gasbuddy is my best friend.  But, if I find out I could've had it nearby for cheaper, I get a bit pissed off about that too...even if the total savings is less than 50 cents.





1995hoo

Quote from: jeffandnicole on February 11, 2015, 10:00:36 AM
....

On the topic of gas: I tend to let mine get low, and the light will come on.  But I also have the "Miles to Zero" displayed, and know exactly where I am in terms of fuel.  I have also learned that when Miles to Zero gets to Zero, I still have a gallon of gas left.

....

I don't use the "Miles to Empty" all that often because I know it's only an estimate and a conservative one at that. When mine says "0" I know there will be at least two gallons of gas still in the tank, which means I can go anywhere from 38 to 60 miles depending on the kind of driving. Unless we're out on the Interstate on a longer drive, I'll usually let my yellow light come on before I fill up, and if I have a large grocery-point discount I try to get the tank as empty as I'm willing to dare before I fill it so as to maximize the number of gallons purchased at the cheaper price (this isn't necessarily trivial: I had a discount of over $1.00 a gallon twice in the past two months and paid under $2.00 a gallon for 93-octane gas). If we are out on the highway I will just fill up when it's convenient to do so or when we make a food/toilet stop. I'm more interested in minimizing the number of stops than I am in seeing how far I can go before stopping for gas.

I will not, however, drive particularly far out of my way to buy gas unless I have some other reason for going in said direction. "Particularly far" varies. The stations near my house vary by a good 30¢ a gallon within a two-mile radius. In that situation, I'll absolutely go to the cheaper ones. But I won't drive 10 miles each way unless there's a mega-difference in the price, simply because under normal circumstances I'd waste more money in gas burned roundtrip than I would in money saved.




Things some people might find weird but for which I have what I consider a good reason:

–When I back the car out of the garage, I stop in the driveway and I do not drive off until I see the garage door is all the way down and has stayed down. This is because once or twice I had a problem where the door went back up because the electric-eye sensor got knocked slightly out of position, probably when I was moving stuff around, and as a result the handle on the bottom of the garage door broke the beam and caused the door opener to reverse the direction. Two of my neighbors have had that happen to them (in both cases, I found their garage doors up when they weren't home), so as a result of all this I just watch my door so I can fix the problem on the spot if it happens.

–Every time I put gas in the car I note down the odometer and trip meter readings, the number of gallons and brand/octane rating, average mpg per tank, and average speed for the tank. Then I reset the trip computer and the trip meter. Reason for all this is that a sudden adverse change in fuel economy may be a sign of a problem with the car that would prompt me to take it for service. (If the gas station is particularly busy I will pull away from the pump and stop on the curb to note this info down so as to let someone else fill up.)

–We have a couple of three-way light switches (meaning locations where more than one switch controls the same light bulb–for example, the light above the main stairs inside the front door can be controlled from three different switches). Some of those are in double-gang boxes (meaning there are two light switches in one place, each controlling something different). When there are two switches in the same box, I think it looks better to try to switch them so both are in the same position (both down or both up) rather than having one up and one down. My wife couldn't care less. I never say anything to her about it, but when I go past I will change the switches if she's not looking at the time. I'm not neurotic about it, I just think it looks better with them both in the same position.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

Pete from Boston

Probably for another thread, but I find grocery gas points a big fraud.  Based on how Stop & Shop (Giant) does it–10¢/gal off for every $100 spent– I find there is much more money to be saved by shopping at a less expensive grocery store.  The ones with giveaways are always making that money up and more on grocery prices.  Ditto the local Shaw's/Star Cuisinart cookware points giveaway–the cookware is much more expensive this way than buying it outright.

Is having a very good working knowledge of going prices for groceries a strange habit?

kurumi

I eat salad with chopsticks*. Instead of trying to stab or balance veggies on your fork, you get a firm grip, with less mess. It's a superior tool. I don't think it's strange, but I've never seen anyone else do it (that wasn't influenced by me)


* also recommended for those of you into Cheetos
My first SF/horror short story collection is available: "Young Man, Open Your Winter Eye"

1995hoo

Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 11, 2015, 10:52:20 AM
Probably for another thread, but I find grocery gas points a big fraud.  Based on how Stop & Shop (Giant) does it–10¢/gal off for every $100 spent– I find there is much more money to be saved by shopping at a less expensive grocery store.  The ones with giveaways are always making that money up and more on grocery prices.  Ditto the local Shaw's/Star Cuisinart cookware points giveaway–the cookware is much more expensive this way than buying it outright.

Is having a very good working knowledge of going prices for groceries a strange habit?

I suppose we're getting off-topic....

When I've compared the prices to other stores nearby, I find the Giant comes out reasonably competitive. I don't know how the new Wegmans opening on June 14 might change that equation, though (but I will avoid it for the first week or two due to traffic). There are a few Wegmans in our area, but none close enough to make it worth going there on a regular basis, so I haven't really considered prices there. This new one will cause me to reconsider that.

(The other two closest stores to us are a Safeway and a Shoppers Food Warehouse. I don't like the Safeway for several reasons, so I don't go there. The Shoppers is OK, but I found I wasn't saving much money by going there. I like Harris Teeter, but I find it a bit more expensive and the location can be a hassle due to traffic.)

The big thing on the grocery points is that I'm willing to play the "bonus point" game up to a point. At least once a month they have a coupon for 300 extra gas points if you spend $50. I'd spend $50 anyway, so that's no big deal. Then sometimes they'll have a special where if you buy x number of a certain item, you get y amount of extra gas points. I'm not always willing to do that, but if the item in question is something I would buy multiple times within a month anyway, sometimes I'll just go ahead and stock up since the way I view it is that I would spend the money anyway, so why not just get the gas points. (I would NOT do this if they raised the price at the same time they offered the extra gas points, however. I usually know what the things we buy regularly cost.) So last month, for example, I netted something like 845 gas points in a single trip to the grocery store, which means 80¢ off per gallon. Combined with points we already had I believe I got $1.10 off when I filled up. According to my notes I paid $1.829 a gallon (93 octane) instead of $2.929, and I put in 15 gallons, so 15 gallons times $1.10 equals a $16.50 discount. I am not obsessive enough that I would have saved $16.50 by going to another grocery store.

(Now, I have heard the Aldi commercials on the radio and I have heard from other people that they have very good prices, but their nearest store to us is a hassle to reach. The nuisance of going there would outweigh the savings unless I were saving $20 a week or more, which I think is quite unlikely to happen.)




Now, I'll try to tie grocery shopping into the "strange habits" thing.

I don't think the way I shop is strange, but some people do. I'm sure I have described this in some other thread. The Giant near our house has this optional system called "Scan-It." When you enter the store, you scan your shopper's card and take a Scan-It gun. Then you scan the barcodes as you go around the store and put the groceries directly into the bag. When it comes time to check out, you scan the "End of Order" barcode by the register, then scan your shopper's card again. It pulls up your transaction and then you scan any coupons and pay. Much faster, IMO.

So one day some woman looked at me using it and asked me why I would want to use that–"Why would you bag your own groceries when they have cashiers to do that? That seems pretty stupid." I looked at her and said, "Explain this to me. You're putting all your groceries loose in a cart so that you can go to the checkout and unload your cart so that a store employee can re-arrange all your groceries for you and then put them back in the cart. I think THAT seems pretty stupid." She didn't have a response other than to be somewhat outraged at my use of the word "stupid." (If you can't take it, don't dish it out, lady.)

This is what the Scan-It thing looks like, although current carts have the holder on the right instead of the left. You press the yellow button to scan a barcode. (There is also an iPhone app that lets you use your phone to do this, but I tried it and didn't like it. The Scan-It gun is easier to hold and operate.)

"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

J N Winkler

Quote from: Duke87 on February 11, 2015, 01:08:57 AMWhenever I get in any car with anyone I immediately look at the gas gauge. If I see it is at 1/4 tank or lower I will nag the driver to stop and get gas.

Running out of gas is one of my worst nightmares, and seeing people let their gauge drift towards E without acting like something urgently needs to be done about it drives me batshit.

I have family members who are the same way.  Personally, I run my car into reserve capacity whenever possible and have run out of gas only three times in about 200,000 miles of driving.  The worst delay and greatest expense I sustained as a result of having to fetch fuel on foot (I never carry it in the trunk for the obvious safety reasons) was 45 minutes and $15 for a one-gallon jerrycan.

After an experience with an unsigned 71-mile fuel desert (Bloomfield to Dulce) along US 64 in northern New Mexico, I take a more conservative approach toward staying fueled up in thinly populated areas where signing has not necessarily caught up to gas station closures.  And on many car forums it is recommended that you not allow a tank to get down to the last two gallons or less since electrically operated fuel pumps, which are responsible for maintaining pressure at the fuel injectors, depend on the fuel itself for lubrication and cooling.  This said, I have never had to replace a fuel pump as a result of my approach toward fillups, and I prefer to space out my visits to gas stations because most of my travel is in states without effective pump-side vapor recovery systems.  I don't like to smell gasoline at all--I dislike the odor itself and I worry about lung cancer.

Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 11, 2015, 10:52:20 AMProbably for another thread, but I find grocery gas points a big fraud.  Based on how Stop & Shop (Giant) does it–10¢/gal off for every $100 spent– I find there is much more money to be saved by shopping at a less expensive grocery store.  The ones with giveaways are always making that money up and more on grocery prices.  Ditto the local Shaw's/Star Cuisinart cookware points giveaway–the cookware is much more expensive this way than buying it outright.

Is having a very good working knowledge of going prices for groceries a strange habit?

I would say No.  I have actually been thinking that I need to determine the cash equivalence of fuel points at the local supermarket.  However, I never think of them as a ripoff because reported profit margins in the retail grocery trade are usually never higher than 5% and, when I seek an explanation for absurdly high margins on individual products, I look to on-the-job consumption in the executive suite.

The real ripoff is to pay full whack for groceries because you refuse to join the loyalty program, or once you join the loyalty program, collect fuel points and then let them expire.  I don't think boycotting is an effective response to loyalty programs; I am not sure there is one short of regulating supermarkets as a public utility and limiting their capacity for price discrimination.  I don't see that happening in the US when there are already some networked utilities (such as cable broadband providers) that operate with minimal regulation.

In this part of the country, people say you should put your money down with QuikTrip (a gas station/convenience store chain) rather than Dillons (the local branch of the Kroger tree) because the fuel rewards are much more generous.  I have local Facebook friends who brag about 10c/gallon fillups at a time when gas is around $2/gallon and Dillons fuel rewards for a family of three with three cars hardly break the 30c/gallon barrier.  I don't think these people are being smart with their money because the types of things they buy at QuikTrip (like coffee and road food) are almost certainly sold at a far higher margin than at Dillons.  On the other hand, employee compensation at QuikTrip is better, so if you believe businesses have an obligation to set a livable wage for their least-paid workers, that is one dimension in which the tradeoff tends to favor QuikTrip.

As for the OP's question:  I irrigate my sinuses.  I have found it very helpful in reducing the frequency of colds (I have gone from two bad colds a year down to having a year or two without any colds), shortening their duration, managing the symptoms (I have not had to take decongestants for years now), and preventing the development of secondary sinusitis.  I use noniodized table salt bought from the grocery store and don't bother to buffer with baking soda.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

kkt

Most coupons and loyalty cards are ripoffs to some extent.

If I'm traveling, I don't like being barred from sale prices because I don't have some local store's loyalty card.  So when it's reasonably convenient I try to minimize shopping at my city's stores that require loyalty cards in order to get sale prices.

J N Winkler

Quote from: kkt on February 11, 2015, 12:34:43 PMIf I'm traveling, I don't like being barred from sale prices because I don't have some local store's loyalty card.  So when it's reasonably convenient I try to minimize shopping at my city's stores that require loyalty cards in order to get sale prices.

When I am grocery shopping, I try to minimize the following:

*  Time spent travelling to the store

*  Time in the store spent searching for a specific piece of merchandise (which tends to go way up when I am not familiar with the store layout)

If I "pay" myself the equivalent of federal minimum wage to grocery-shop, the frictional losses from those sources is easily comparable to the aggregate discounts I receive through coupons, members-only prices, fuel points, and the like.  Since the full-service supermarket closest to me is a Dillons less than a mile away and I know its layout, I play the loyalty-card game.

As for travelling, it is increasingly a case of "Have card, will travel."  The fuel point program at Dillons is actually Kroger-wide and I successfully redeemed fuel points at a Fred Meyer in Brookings, Oregon, almost 1900 miles from Wichita.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

english si

Quote from: 1995hoo on February 11, 2015, 11:21:40 AM"Explain this to me. You're putting all your groceries loose in a cart so that you can go to the checkout and unload your cart so that a store employee can re-arrange all your groceries for you and then put them back in the cart. I think THAT seems pretty stupid."
The only stupid thing there is having a store employee do it! Costco here does it (in Britain the default is you doing it), trying to speed checkout lines up. Often I have to waste 10 seconds re-sorting it as they've done some bonehead move wrt either hygiene or fragility, and occassionally I'm annoyed enough to passively aggressively try and keep the trolley in the way while I get it sorted so that they don't process as many people per hour*. I do have a kind of OCD wrt packing that I must do it, which is not helped by people paid to pack being rubbish at it.

I use the checkout area at the supermarket to sort out my groceries so that I can pack them better than if I packed as I went. No store is arraigned by weight, bulk and fragility, but rather by genre. I don't want to have to keep re-sorting my bags (eg lifting up eggs to put stuff under them, having to merge bags of room-temperature products as I need another bag for frozen/fridge stuff due to a great offer) or to have to go round the store in a crazy order. Packing is best done when you know exactly what needs to be packed.

*This must be the reason why they don't like to give you your trolley until after you have paid and moved out of the way - it affects the only metric the store has of seeing cashier/packer efficiency - people processed per hour. I can pack faster and better than these guys, but they won't let me pack!

kphoger

I had a QuikTrip turn down a loyalty card once. Apparently they're not valid down in Fort Worth. Which stunk, as we were filling up two cars at the same pump.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

Pete from Boston

When I check the time after not having done so in a while, I habitually go back and forth in my head first to guess it.  This as much as anything is preparation for it to be later than I'd hoped.  Turns out I'm very good at it (both guessing the time and having it be later than I'd hoped).



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