h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So as I was parboiling some vegitables to roast them I found myself singing in the kitchen,
not singing a song though; things like
Where is the pepper i know its here somewhere
where has the s***** oventray gone the stupid things disappeared and other popular kitchen ditties

The other thing I do sometimes (which unreasonably upsets people) is typing without looking, not just touch typing but typing while looking at something else entierly like a book or having a conversation or with my eyes closed (it helps me think sometimes...)

so what do you catch yourself doing or do people tell you your doing and you haven't noticed?

I used to crack my knuckles without realising it. That really annoyed people.

These days I get accused of things like:

"Looking at me in a funny way"

and

"Breathing too loudly"

I attended a weekend self-realisation course after my Sister and B-i-L had attended and were raving about. One of the things it advocated was saying 'Thank You' every time I bump into something, hurt myself or do something stupid.

The reason? Because it meant I had switched off and was not aware of my surroundings, so saying thank you was to acknowledge my awakening.

I do it without thinking now, even when I have hurt myself quite badly.

Strange.

MMF

[I avoid circuses because give me funny looks. ]

In 2007, I traded in an old Ford escort for a Nissan versa. The escort had a security device that prevented the car from starting unless the left turn signal was engaged. The Nissans do not have that feature, but I still find myself turning on the left turn signal when I want to turn the car on.

Since one error left me with a flat battery in the dead of a Canadian winter - I ensure that the headlamps are off, always. I also check that all windows of the vehicle are closed, even if one of those winter days and they had no reason to be open.

I also tend to sing along loudly (and very badly) with the MP3 tunes while driving. But only when entirely alone - even on the way to the vet, the cats complain.

They must have been music critics in former lives.

A friend recently cut off the long hair he's had for 26 years. He said he catches himself reaching to pull it out of the way when he tries to use a back scratcher.

When things look a bit blurry I push my glasses higher up my nose. I've done so very early in the morning before I've even put my glasses on yet and jabbed myself in the nose.

<BB<

Oh, and I've dialled '9' for an outside line at home before like we have to do at work, instead of just dialling the number.

<BB<

It's been decades since I answered a phone with "Keip's Plumbing and Heating . . ." But I still catch myself with "Radio Maintenance" on the tip of the tongue

I have loads of idiosyncracies which annoy me (I'll never catch up with my husband, though).

One, which I have mentioned on the PH thread is the way I will start working down a list, get distracted and then, because I'm not sure how far I was, will start at the bottom of the list and work up. This is, of course, totally counterproductive, because, if I then get distracted again, I really have no idea where to start.

My mother recently got a new car with automatic transmission. It has a shifter on the the floor with a flappy paddle optional mode. What it doesn't have is a shifter on the column which I reached for when I got to a destination while test driving it. My car is manual. I can't properly remember but I must now assume that her previous car, that I rarely drove, had a shifter on the steering column.

Could we have a translation of >> It has a shifter on the the floor with a flappy paddle optional mode<< please? I can't begin to guess what that is.

The floor shifter is the stick in the console with which one selects the gear or mode for the transmission. Granted, it's in the console, not the floor, but I'm old and I grew up when there were fewer consoles and "4 on the floor" was opposed to "3 on the tree".

In my mother's car it looks like this:
http://parts.subaru.com/images/parts/subaru/vehicleaccessories/fullsize/12IMP_LeatherShiftKnob-CVT.jpg

That bottom selection, M-D, indicates a "manual drive" mode (or something meaning basically that) where one uses levers mounted on the steering wheel to shift up and down as seen in this image with blue anodized "flappy paddles".
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3gFlUVZeQD0/maxresdefault.jpg

Flappy paddle shifting is a relatively new development that comes from racing. It's meant to improve performance and speed and is unlikely to get much use in my mother's hatchback on her trips to the church, grocery stores, or card games at her senior center.






As far as I know, the term "flappy paddles" may have been coined by Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear. http://www.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/comments/2ri5p5/thanks_to_top_gear_i_dont_know_the_real_name_for/

Flappy paddles would be useless if you played ping pong with them.

Would you consider nunchaku flappy?

http://youtu.be/SncapPrTusA

When we were in the States a couple of years ago we had a helluva lot of trouble with the car and got through 3 different hire cars the 3 weeks we were there, plus one visit to the hire car office in Santa Barbara, but he did some adjusting and we kept that one.

The most complicated thing was the so-called "automatic" gear-changing, especially in the clogged streets of the Northern Californian suburbs, with loads of traffic lights and slow-moving traffic. But no controls on the steering wheel - at least, not as far as we know.

So glad to be home and changing gears manually again, and just 5 speeds plus reverse.

Normally reserved and cautious drivers behave like they're in the Paris to Dakar rally when they get behind the wheel of a rental.


P.J. O'Roarke's thoughts on the fastest car in the world (your rental). http://www.heretical.com/miscella/reptile.html

Keith Floyd also commented on hire cars in his French series I think - as being the only car that you really could take anywhere.

In my youth, and on special occasions since, I have worn a full length and full bodied cloak. As the ladies present (and a few other ) might attest, wearing something long and with a mind of its own requires special handling. I still find myself walking in the style necessary when wearing it (leading with the shoulder), especially when negotiating doors.

"Would you consider nunchaku flappy?" [Baron Grim]

I'n not sure what nunchaku is, but I can see that the people involved are highly adept. I would never bet against people with that kind of talent.