I’d love to hear about your quirky habits.

One of mine is that when I’m out in nature I tend to collect cool looking rocks, sticks, cones etc. My window sills have become a geology exhibit (and I have zero clue about what I’m collecting, I just go by “ooh shiny”) and more often than not I’ll have small rocks in my pockets, bags, backpacks etc etc

    • Seungyeon ( Seungyeon@beehaw.org ) 
      5·
      3 years ago

      My cat has some kind of GI issue that causes him to frequently have runny or blood poops. I’ve been to a million different vets, but nothing they tried ever fixed the issue, so it’s just become a way of life. It doesn’t seem to bother him at all; he’s not afraid of going to the bathroom and doesn’t cry or anything like that. So it is what it is. It just means that I have to check his butt every time he poop, to see if he’s got blood/mucus/poop stuck on him that I need to clean, otherwise he will track it somewhere. While he doesn’t seem to care that he has a GI problem, he certainly minds getting his butt touched, so that’s always dangerous for me.

  • Notnotmike ( Notnotmike@beehaw.org ) 
    26·
    3 years ago

    I sing a lot around the house, but not just regular songs. I sing about what I’m doing or sing about my cats/wife, using the rhythm and notes from famous songs but with my own improvised lines, rather than the official lyrics

  • Foon ( Foon@beehaw.org ) 
    20·
    3 years ago

    I talk to my cat. All day long. Or I tell him “I’m here!” when he’s looking for me. What’s weird about that, you ask? He’s deaf. Has been all his life.

  • Saprophyte ( Saprophyte@beehaw.org ) English
    14·
    3 years ago

    I love to backpack and got surprised by how useful having stuff with me was. Now I wear a daypack every day and keep random odd things in it. I have a rain coat, a thin pullover, my medication, a first aid kit, a cpr shield, a water bottle, my workout plan and workout book to record them in, and even a tiny multitool (gerber dime). I sometimes refer to it as my “murse” as a joke (man purse), but I just find having that stuff with me to be incredibly useful.

    • rjh ( rjh@beehaw.org ) English
      3·
      3 years ago

      I have a small shoulder bag but feel the same. In UK weather having a thin rolled up coat is indispensible, a water bottle, wet wipes, headphones, mobile battery, lozenges, basic medication, bottle opener etc. Comes in handy. Men have pockets sure but there’s only so much you can stuff in there.

      The only problem is when it gets cold enough that I might need a pullover but might not. A bigger bag might be useful.

    • neamhsplach ( neamhsplach@beehaw.org ) English
      3·
      3 years ago

      Do men not usually do this? Where were you leaving your medication before? Did you never bring a water bottle with you?

      I’m a woman and one of my biggest stressors is my bag, it hurts my back to carry and I still forget tons of stuff that I need. I don’t have a car so I don’t have anywhere convenient to leave things when I’m out or at work.

      • Saprophyte ( Saprophyte@beehaw.org ) English
        2·
        3 years ago

        I usually only carried my water bottle. I’d plan most medication to be taken at the end or beginning of the day. My wife recently converted to a Michael Kors backpack purse after years of having an over the shoulder bag and loves it. She says her back is much better with a balanced load instead of just one side.

  • YourHeroes4Ghosts ( YourHeroes4Ghosts@beehaw.org ) 
    12·
    3 years ago

    I have a load of them, including yours (collecting random bits of nature). I will also eat the same foods for breakfast and lunch, sometimes for years on end. Probably the strangest one is that my adult son and I often speak to each other in LOLCats. LIke, “can I have” turns into “I can has” every time and so on.

    • seducingcamel ( seducingcamel@beehaw.org ) 
      12·
      3 years ago

      My girlfriend and I are autistic and we get absolutely stuck on some meals for long periods of time. We also just cycle through various catch phrases and noises we’ll repeat until they get replaced by new ones

    • interolivary ( interolivary@beehaw.org ) OP
      6·
      3 years ago

      I will also eat the same foods for breakfast and lunch, sometimes for years on end.

      You wouldn’t happen to be neurodivergent, would you? Food hyperfixation is super common in folks with ADHD and/or autism; eg. I’ve been eating salads for a couple of months straight 😅 There’s variation between them but usually the base is boiled whole grain barley, different greens (but almost always including spinach), bell pepper, cucumber, scallion, maybe some sprouts, some vinaigrette, and then this absolutely lovely mirin-marinated tofu you can get from stores here

        • interolivary ( interolivary@beehaw.org ) OP
          4·
          3 years ago

          I should definitely have more variety in what I eat, but I figure that as long as I’m eating I’m doing OK (I’ve got some health issues that have really messed with my appetite so that bar isn’t as low as it may sound.) I’m still mainly eating pretty healthily and with lots of veggies, so it’s not like I’m just eating french fries, right? 😅

        • XIN ( xintrik@lemm.ee ) 
          3·
          3 years ago

          I have to work really hard to plan variety into my diet as well. It’s just so easy to eat the same meal forever.

          Fortunately (or unfortunately) my wife will never eat the same type of meal two days in row so that really puts a damper on my boringness.

      • surrendertogravity ( surrendertogravity@wayfarershaven.eu ) 
        3·
        3 years ago

        Do you know of any papers about this or is it mostly anecdotal?

        My partner and I have been eating the same thing for dinner for probably at least 70% of the last two years (marinated chicken breast in curry sauce). I’ve never liked the daily grind of cooking because I always have too many other things I want to do with my time! I do enjoy the act of cooking something complex but that has to be a special occasion for the time investment to be worth it, haha.

        • interolivary ( interolivary@beehaw.org ) OP
          2·
          3 years ago

          Good question. I haven’t actually looked into it so personally it’s anecdotal, but I do know several people with ADHD and/or autism who experience this, and I’ve got both of those and I definitely fixate.

          Based on a quick Google Scholar search, there does seem to be some research into this but I’m not finding a lot. There’s eg. this editorial in Nutrients from 2021 about nutrition and ASD, and it does seem to support the claim that at least folks on the autism spectrum do have “eating disturbances”:

          However, in addition to the core symptoms, ASD may have strong associations with other disorders and/or be associated with a plethora of behaviors and symptoms, such as those related to food selectivity and the consequent inadequate dietary intake [5].

          Although some types of eating disturbances, such as food refusal, are also frequent in the general pediatric population, their prevalence appears to be significantly higher in ASD children, with rates ranging from 51% to 89%

  • marin♡  ( marin@beehaw.org ) 
    11·
    3 years ago

    I’m not sure if this is eccentric but I have a junk journal and I try collecting little bits of day to day life like receipts, tags, paper, fruit stickers, fortune cookie fortunes, and more. Most of them carry little memories and I just like having them in one notebook

  • RadioRat (he/they) ( RadioRat@beehaw.org ) 
    5·
    3 years ago

    My office is where I do VR, but I need a place to nap, recline. So I put up eye bolts and use a hammock 🤷‍♂️

    The basset hound loves the hammock and has to come up whenever I set it up.

    The basset hound in the hammock Image description: a basset hound resting on his back in a hammock.