10.03.2007 | 16:42

People are strange when you're a stranger

Villapallo challenged with an oddity meme. I've been thinking all day but nothing occurs to me when I try, Anyway, here are six odd things about me. This also reminds me of the five odd habits meme that circulated a while ago. Funny how you can thing of odd habits when you don't have to list them and when you should remember at least few, nothing comes to your mind.

1. I do not eat questionable food (how do you define questionable is another question). That's why this first item on this list is the one I added as a PS in the five odd habits meme entry: I do not eat flounder because it's flat and got its eyes on the same side of the head (left or right, that is, not up/down or inside/outside) and it makes me suspicious. Also mushrooms make me suspicious. And many other things.

2. I get stuck on words. (This is also a re-run - or a director's cut, you could say.) Whenever I see something grammatically incorrect or plain stupid or irritating in ads or posters or just written somewhere, I have to comment on it. I have to comment on it every time. If the same ad is shown on TV for a hundred times, I comment on it every time. With exactly the same words. Every time. If it's a short sentence in a foreign language, I have to read it out loud. Every time. If the sentence is in a foreign language, I also believe I can pronounce Italian or Spanish when, in fact, I cannot.

3. I always plan ahead. I even plan ahead the moments when I am spontaneous and impulsive! (Kind of.) I always think of the worst case scenario(s) first, so I can exclude them and move on to the likely scenarios. On the other hand, I'm also very badly organised so planning small things ahead does not lead into an organised life. People also ask me why I worry so much - it's not worrying, it's just preparing and excluding some of the options. "What if....? Nah, it couldn't happen anyway." Next I'll learn telekinesis and start cleaning up by using my mind only.

4. I like to read user manuals even if I know I will never use the device or do not understand how it works. I just want to know what the language is like. Especially bad manuals are hilarous (automatically translated and such). That's when I read them with a stiff upper lip and feel superior because the manuals I have written are so much better. (See also item #2.)

5. I do not mix tableware. When eating, the spoons, forks ans knives have to be from the same set if there are enough of them. There's one exception: when I eat noodles made in the microwave, I use a fork and a spoon from different sets - and I always use the same potholder to hold the hot plate.

6. I eat candy in sequences. When eating licorice worms (a candy that comes in a lighter and darker shade of brown), I have to eat them in pairs: one light and one dark candy worm together. If there are, say, red, yellow and green candies in a bag, I always eat one red, one yellow and one green candy at the same time until I ran out of some colour.

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