So ... Some people's brains are wired with directions being absolute, and some people's brains are wired with directions being relative. One of the easiest ways to tell which way your brain is wired is to switch your mouse to the other hand. If your brain is absolute-wired, then the main button is always on the left; if your brain is relative-wired, then the main button is always the one closest to your body.

If either of your hands is getting sore from clicking with any sort of regularity you should probably mention it to your doctor - it sounds like it could be a repetitive stress injury in the making.

I mouse right handed up to lunch, then left handed after that.

I switched years ago at work for similar reasons. When I carried it over at home, my left-handed partner at the time didn't like it - thought it was confusing to use a left-handed mouse. Go figure

I do this, except I don't swap the buttons so that I could go back and forth from left to right hand without changing anything. (When I first did it, I swapped the buttons because that seemed more natural but I've since trained myself to use it "backwards" on the left hand.).

Get work to pay for an ergonomic mouse for you!

When I WFH I use a trackball mouse (ball is in top). Occasionally I forgot to switch and get confused about why som actions are hard

It might help to get a longer mouse so you hand can rest comfortably on it. The soreness probably is not the clicking but the moving-while-tense. I bring my own to work to prevent this.

I switched to a trackball years ago for this reason. It doesn't necessarily solve the problem just shifts the task to your thumb.

Same here. Work mouse is a mirror of home mouse. I started putting it on the left because I use the 10-key a lot. When there was a phone I put it on the left too, so that my right hand (the 10-key hand) would not get confused by the upside down layout of the phone keypad.

At work, mouse and phone (gone now, thank every God) on left, to leave my dominant hand free for the keyboard, basically.

Legit strategy: a buddy of mine does this to fight tendinitis. I don’t remember if it came from his doctor or from online

How heavy is your mouse? I switched to a super light corded gaming mouse (wireless mice weight a ton) and has considerably reduced hand fatigue. I also used to use the mouse in my non dominant hand as well.

I have this reporter/podcast host living rent free inside my head to whom I have to give daily interviews to.

Your left brain and your right brain are communicating externally

I think that’s normal if you have an inner voice. I do that too to an extent. However, not everyone has an inner voice. I can’t imagine how life works for these people, but it’s not that rare not to have an inner voice.

You're not talking to yourself, you're crafting a socratic dialogue outloud.

Like I dunno if there is any particular evidence that Plato like, talked to himself aloud in developing his plays... but a substantial amount of the foundation of 'Western' canon is pretty much Plato making up conversations that probably are not verbatim accurate, but work to dramatize and illustrate some kind of tension between characters with different worldviews

You might be trying to find bugs in your own thinking system, rubber ducking it all the time lol

Do you use pronouns for yourself during these conversations and if so, are they first or second person (I vs you)?

Self-gaslighting. I don't know if this is a superpower or a weakness...

I can't watch movies with anyone else because I enjoy my 85-95% accuracy saying what is going to happen next.

i talk while watching movies

You don't do it at the theater, right?

My spouse does this too. I’m down to MST3K roast a show or movie if it’s bad or I’ve seen it before, but we have an agreement if I care and want to be immersed I’ll let them know…

…and then if it turns out the movie’s bad I’m down to roast it.

Sometimes I’m enjoying a movie and I can tell they want to talk, and it drives them insane, but they respect the agreement.

subtitles make this a lot easier imo

You're like the gym bro reincarnation of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Pacing is definitely good for regulating your thoughts. I like to pace when reasoning through a difficult problem, and it also helps relieve some anxiety.

Speaking of anxiety, watching me pace makes my wife anxious. I understand that, sometimes pacing comes from a place of distress. Other times it's just a way of keeping the body active while the mind is busy. It's often subconscious, but when I catch myself doing it, I'll try to pace in another room so I don't bother anyone.

I remember visiting a really shitty zoo when I was a kid. There was an exhibit with a leopard who spent the whole time pacing along one side of their enclosure. There was a rut worn into the ground that must have been a few inches deep where it passed. I wonder how many thousand times it made the trip from one side to the other - it wasn't very far. That makes me anxious.

ESL?

I do the first one all the time. I'll be in the middle of something while talking, or struggle to remember the correct word, and I'll just kinda trail off. Then maybe 10 seconds later I'll remember that I just stopped talking mid-sentence and try to pick back up.

i'm so fast that may be confused as a robot

If you do them impossibly fast, you will fail them.

If you happen to be something like a world class CS2 player... you may be 'impossibly' fast.

Einstein did the same thing.

That being said, I have various clothes because of weather, and generally expend next to no thought on what I wear in as far as people are concerned. It all mostly goes together, so it's just grabbing whatever feels right in the moment with no wrong answers other than weather factor. I probably spend more time thinking about what I'll make for dinner, or how to word a single email to touchy snowflakes.

When I worked in a (casual) office, I did the same. Grey polo shirt, black jeans, every day for about a decade. Now I work from home, freelance, and I wear whatever's clean with much the same result... I don't worry about it.

I do the same, but I have different colors. Like I have the same tshirt in 12 different colors. The same shorts in 5 different colors. The same shoes in 5 different colors. Etc etc. I usually just grab what's on the top, but occasionally have to grab the next thing if it's too mono-color.

Did that for the first 19 years of my life until I realised, that I was trans and started to take Carr of my outward expression. While my old clothing style was boring, it was as simple as grabbing a new pair of clothes from my drawer each week and not having to worry about anything.

... you realize you are almost certainly autistic, right?

I feel ya. I have the absolute worst poker face, and I cannot bluff. My uncles all liked to get together and play poker over the holidays, but the one time I was invited it was a bloodbath.

The work people haven't figured this out yet.

What? I completely get discarding things and living a life without the burden of clutter, but having a game in your Steam library is essentially zero cost/burden right?

this sounds like just throwing your money away. I think it definitely takes the cake for weird/interesting habits.

I agree, it costs nothing to not delete them, and if they ever added a framework later on for reselling or trading, you're just out money.

Not to mention if you wrote a review for any of the games, I'm expect deleting the game from your library unmarks the game as you owning it, which means that your review no longer contributes to the game's rating.

Can you remove paid games from your library? I have removed a few f2p ones, most notably Apex Legends after removal of linux support. Turns out you can add them back and your hours, achievements will be right back.

I envy anti-hoarders.

I've never heard someone call it the "blossom end", I've always known it to be called the Bananus (banana anus). I think monkeys typically open it on the same end rather than from the stem.

The kiwi skin on is actually very fibrous, I know someone that was constipated during pregnancy and the only thing that would clear them out was kiwis with skin on!

I eat watermelon seeds. Watermelon not hard enough to need to bite down hard and it's too time consuming to spit out every seeds. They do not collect anywhere in the GI track.

I do all these, except with bananas I split the skin along the entire back so the peel is one solid piece instead of a dangly mess.

I break bananas in half to start peeling. Otherwise no matter what end I usually end up crushing the point of the banana.

Fuzzy fruit makes me gag.

I've mostly switched to only opening bananas from the butt end, and I think my friends are about half and half.

I also enjoy the kiwi skin. Witnesses are almost universally disgusted and some are ready to throw hands.

Gotta make the nest! I do this when sleeping alone, and also will lift my feet for just a moment to let the blankets swing under and complete the human burrito feeling. I just love to feel completely held, supported, nested, wrapped.

You're not weird, just more dedicated to being a moral person than most. 👍

Have you had any success? How? Every time I’ve started down that road, it’s a maze of twisty passages, all alike

So that they don't bump into you, is that it ? that's probably a good habit to keep while out with vulnerable people

I use that as part of recognizing people. Mostly from behind or far away.

'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait.

It's a thing!

Do you have aphantasia? This is pretty common among people who do.

Huh, I wonder if that’s partly me …….

• Most people I recognize by “normal” things like faces
• ephemeral people like waitstaff or someone I pass in the street, never get committed to memory
• but some people I can’t distinguish from others, no matter how different. I never knew why but maybe gait

For example there were two kids in my high school. I interacted with at least one of them on most days, so they were familiar. One was much taller than the other, one was brown hair the other black hair, they were in different classes, one was in a club with me the other not. They really had nothing in common that I ever figured out. Yet all four years of high school I could not tell them apart.

I am really bad with names, which may be relevant.

I learned the cop knock early on in my delivery career. People ask why I didn't use the bell. Because more than half the time the bell doesn't work, that's why. I don't have all night to stand out here looking stupid. Hitting your door with my baton did, though, didn't it? Plus if you're going to bust out of here running your mouth with some dumb shit, I'm already holding my baton.

I wouldn't do it hard enough to leave a dent in the door except with people I really disliked.

I never had the occasion to whack a customer, regardless of how richly some of them may have deserved it. But people lurking around the vicinity who were stupid enough to believe they were the first person to think of jumping the pizza man from behind at the door were a different story.

What if it's raining?

This is not eco-friendly at all, but ok.

That's not weird. That's normal.

If everyone around you finds that odd... you don't live in San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Boston, or most University campuses

Fun story - my house has a hidden room sort of. I’ve known about it since I bought the place like 15 years ago. I plan to convert it into a root cellar/storm shelter/bug out room since its in a very secure part of the basement.

I didn't know there was a half-size wooden door hidden behind the partly-finished basement drywall (previously a rec room/office), i just knew about the shitty door cut into the side of the stairs. Never had a reason to go inside there with a light prior to that, and its entirely hidden from the existing door. Only found it while preparing the space for my chickens to ride out a brutal cold snap this past winter.

Its jambed on both sides to prevent swing and never had hardware, but I can drill and hang it pretty easily. Then i really will make it a hidden room someone will find randomly someday

Your friends are idiots. People watching is a normal human trait.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People-watching

All very relatable probably autistic traits tbh

I have a song in my head, almost all the time. Invariably it's some 90s jingle from a TV commercial.

I swear my brain is a broken jukebox that's permanently set to shuffle.

And yeah, sometimes it's the most random shit from a TV commercial from 30 years ago.

Sometimes I'll hear a single word, and it will remind me of a song and it will immediately get stuck in my head whether I like the song or not lol.

Though I have actually figured out some ways to stop that from happening by immediately starting to hum or think of a different song (I've got one or two go-tos) to kind of "reset" it, but I have to act really fast or else it's too late, and I'm singing the theme song to Doug for 2 days straight.

"Germaphobia" is linked in ways to paranoia and compulsive disorders. This paired with the biometrics thing, I'd recommend having a chat with someone just to make sure there isn't an underlying disorder.

Have watched a family member go from "that's a bit weird" to debilitating paranoia over 15 years. It started with compulsive behaviours around personal health and security of personal devices that made little sense to anyone else.

...

Fuck yeah!

I don't do all that but we all should.

The cleaning fingerprint thing isn't unreasonable in some rare contexts, but thouching all keys on a full keyboard is where it really goes off into paranoia.

Disabling fingerprint biometrics at night...why? What's the risk you're worried about? Someone breaking into your house to use your fingers to unlock your phone while you're asleep? You can get hacked much easier without anyone ever being in your home. Anyone in your house can use Celebrite without touching you.

I'm a privacy and security enthusiast, and I agree, this sounds like the edge of needing to talk to someone. Theres a lot here that no one worried about their security would ever do.

Sheesh! If you murder people regularly, that's way more interesting than your ice cream quirk.

I am the same with sweet things, I like them but want to taste it, not eat it, sort of.

I have a set of wee demitasse spoons at home so I can put my one spoonful of ice cream in a little bowl and eat it, lol. Just little tastes of very sweet things, they do not feel good to eat in quantity.

Same. Minus the serial killer part.

Same here!

I rub my feet back and forth. It's so nice

You can have been informed by other people that things you thought were normal are not and continue to do them though. It's likely that abnormal behaviour is pointed out at some point if it's encountered enough

Yes! So many details in life matter to me but that one doesn't and I've never understood why it would.

My app drawer is alphabetical and it annoys me to no end when I have to help my parents with their phone. But I do have a bunch of folders with specific placements that don't follow a specific order besides being in places that my thumb can easily reach so that I can always launch the apps I need without even needing to look at the phone

I don't find that weird. I find myself relatively negligent for not having this sort of thing prepared in some way, if not by go bag then by having the copies at a friend's or such

What's your bag of choice for your bug-out bag?

Agreed. I used to use fancy keyboards with cherry clears and orings, then I realized how nice it is just to pick up the laptop and sit anywhere. No turning back. And even at my desk I use only one monitor, because I have just one set of eyes.

the amount of alt-tabbing would drive me crazy. I have four monitors for work so I can have my main software up, some file explorer tabs, spec sheets and other documents (journals, calculations, etc), and Teams and/or a meeting window.

if I didn't have so many meetings, I could drop one monitor. if I weren't required to be so accessible, I could drop another. both of those are smaller 1080p ones only. but I absolutely can not work effectively with just one monitor, 2x 1440p is just enough pixels to fit what I want to see at once

Sorry but I have figured out your secret code and will now reveal your true identity to the whole internet: You are a horse who is trying to obscure the fact that you wear horseshoes but you are also obsessed with them and can't help but reference them, in the hopes that you'll prove to your archnemesis, a racoon, that wearing horseshoes is way better for your hooves than the raccoon shoes he keeps trying to sell you.

Also, be aware that he isn't really in a horseshoes vs raccoonshoes debate with you, he's just trying to scam you into giving him some apples for some dirty gloves he found in a dumpster. He, just like everyone else, knows very wrll that horse footwear is superior to all others and that you are hardcore af for just standing there casually while your cobbler helps you put them on with nails and a hammer.

I mean that just sounds like a good habit to me lol

Still have the habit of popping the hood when i get home and checking

For engine oil, its better to check it 20-30 minutes after turning the engine off, or before turning the engine on. When the engine has been running, the oil is all over the engine, it takes a few moments to settle back down in the oil pan. Depending how quickly after running you check the oil, you'll get variable results on the dip stick.

For coolant, thats easier because the reservoirs usually have a hot and cold lines so it doesn't matter too much, as long as its between the lines, you are good.

As a car mechanic I can tell you your habit is extremely good. If you notice the fluid levels are going down, take it to the mechanic and at best you'll save yourself thousands for not having to fix or change a blown engine.

I sometimes play that sentence game in my head where you can't repeat the same word more than twice, and must instead string together the longest consecutive collection of unique words - plurals permitted - for fun purposes

i think my head would pop if I did that.

May i ask were there any tailors in your ancestry or people that worked with fabric?

index toe? you mean your big toe? hahahaha