Life's Little Challenges
 

Let's talk about the everyday normal things that we do that we turn into little games and challenges to get past and improve on.

For example, the door to my company's office is rather heavy. My little game consists of trying to open it as quickly as possible without appearing to strain with the weight. This becomes an exercise in body mechanics; planting your feet just right, balancing yourself, leaning back and pulling the handle all in one motion. If done just right, the door swings open quickly with hardly any effort. Of course, if you don't do it right, you have to spend a little extra time, tugging the door open.

One of mine is to leave the house at just the right time so I can catch the bus just as I arrive at the bus stop. It's all about the timing.

How many times have you missed the bus while playing this game?

the door to my bathroom has a dodgy lock (the one where you turn a knob below the handle 90 degrees to lock it), which means that you have to push the door back and forth to get it to work.

Its a bit like Halx and his door, the art is to close the door, pull it back a fraction of an inch and turn the lock in one smooth motion, or you sound like your humping the door in an effort to lock it.

Its more funny when people who visit can't unlock it and have to be rescued.

One of the hardest things about having a child for me was the lack of sleep. I have now fixed this so that my toddler and I go to bed at similar times at night (late!) so she sleeps in until around 10am in the morning like me!!

I have this sticky cap for the oil in my car. It sticks whenever the car is hot. Ok, so let it cool down right? Well then the issue is to remember to add a quart when the bugger is cool enough to get it open again. Come to think of it, I should get right on that now... :rolleyes:

Halx, mine is also a door--the door to my bedroom is old, warped, and in need of a planing. I must gird my loins before trying to open it; it requires that I take a stance like an offensive lineman and put some shoulder into it if I'm trying to get into my room. To get out, I have to plant my feet, grasp the doorknob with both hands, and yank. And yank some more. Maybe, by the third yank, it will have budged a little. Needless to say, I can easily expend my daily caloric intake just opening my bedroom door a few times a day.

I play gasoline roulette.
So far, I haven't run out, but I've been within a gallon of doing so.

I don't have to do this anymore, but when I lived alone and had to set my own alarm, I wouldn't look at the time if it was really late (e.g. if I was going to get less than 5 hours of sleep--which happened all the time). I would just reach down, switch the alarm on (or set it, without looking at the time), and not look at the time.

I always felt that this helped my mind feel more rested, in not knowing exactly how LITTLE sleep I was getting... because if I knew that was getting 3 hours instead of 6, for example, then I might dwell on it and let the idea of 3 hours of sleep tire me out, instead of pushing through it and using adrenaline to get me through the day. Ignorance was bliss, in that situation.

A few times. It means I will be 15 to 20 minutes later than expected but as I typically get to work about one hour early it doesn't matter. For me it's about the efficiency of my time in transit.

Going home is easier because I can track the bus route online. Then the game is to figure out what is the amount of time I need to get out of the building and over to the bus stop.

If I'm riding in a car I'll tap my fingers at the same pace of the lines in the road. I'll usually use my index and middle finger for lines on their corresponding sides :) If there's only 1 line, I'll use my middle finger to tap to the beat of the reflector in the road... I know it's not really a challenge.. but It sure as hell makes riding in the car for long trips easier.

Are buses in Singapore amazingly on time?

Or are they like the ttc? Early when you're on time, On time when you're late, and late when you're early.

When walking on a sidewalk, sometimes I try to make the same number of steps within each "square" of concrete (between the cracks), usually on a really long walk when I'm bored.

I also like to count steps sometimes, when I'm bounding up a lot of them in a hurry.

i seem to struggle enough with the mundane things in life so small games tend to come and go pretty quickly.

Pop-ups in Outlook. That is how I surmount many, many little memory challenges...like giving the Boo her Claritin every day, changing the air conditioner filter, charging my phone. I put everything, even the most mundane things, even things that I want to do for fun, into my Outlook calendar with pop-up reminders. I was quite distressed when my computer crashed and I didn't have them for a month.

I do the same thing at work. And people just can't believe how good a memory I have. heh, heh....I don't. I have a terrible memory. But with my little friends to help me, no one has to suffer for it. :)

I use the windows calendar as well. For everything... Vitamins, pool cleaning, dinner plans, phone calls- even if there's a show on TV I wanted to catch. Which leaves me screwed if I forget to add an event.

Yeah, I've automated my memory too. Same thing with phone numbers. I don't remember anybody's phone number, and I don't even try. I think I can give you lurkette's cell number off the top of my head, but I've never even KNOWN StellaLuna's.

I can't think of a game I play with myself, but I have a habit of counting things. Going up or down steps, I count them, or the number of steps between the front door and the car. I count all sorts of things, and usually only notice when I hear my head going "twenty two, twenty three, twenty four..."

I actually do have good memory and am always remembering things for myself and my coworkers...like if they forget to do something I have told them once before, I may remind them a couple more times in a day, just because it keeps popping up in my memory until it's done. I'm like a living Outlook. I still memorize phone numbers too...it's useful when your battery runs out.

As for games I play...I wake up every day for work at the same time but often I try to see how late I can leave getting ready before I actually am late for work. I rarely am late.

Whenever I wear heels to work I have to play a little game called "don't get your heel stuck in the spaces between the cobbles". All the streets of Portugal have cobbled side-walks so it's a nightmare to walk in heels. I have perfected the art so that I can pretty much walk swiftly and elegantly regardless of how bad the terrain is. It's all about confidence and not giving a shit.

I also play the door game, in my building there are several doors that shut on a spring and I always try to make it through them fast and silently, not letting them slam.

When driving, I like to give cars names, through the numbers and letters on the license plates.

When walking from the subway to work, I often look at people passing in the eyes, and count how many people actually looked back and didn't look down straight after. It's empowering but there are also days when you feel invisible.

I do the same thing. If I get up in the middle of the night--for whatever reason--I don't dare look at the clock.

I have a ton of these!

I never step on cracks in the sidewalk. Drawn lines are ok, but not cracks. I alter my path and pattern of walking just to stick to this rule.

I set my watch for 3 minutes later than it actually is, because I am always late. It helps!

Whenever I'm getting very little sleep, I pretend that I'm going to take a nap before work/school today - the mental adjustment makes it easier to get out of bed.

I believe in the power of my coffee.

I'm a dental hygienist and the floor in my operatory is no where near being level, mostly due to the fact that the building is almost a century old. I've had to come up with a very specific way of laying out my instruments, gauze, floss, and polishing paste on the tray that comes off of the arm attached to the chair. If I deviate from this set up, the instruments roll to the edge every time I move the tray and the paste (in an ergonomic finger holder) rolls to the floor.

That takes self-discipline I will never have.

If I have to get up on an alarm, it's guaranteed that I will wake up several times in the night just to look at the clock, and then I will lay awake beating myself up about how I need to fall asleep again. So I try to avoid using an alarm by just getting up at the same time every day.

I hit the snooze button on my alarm just after you hear the click from the alarm circuit energize, just before the screeching wail commences.

I do this too.

My thing is word of the day. I pick a random word from my dictionary and try to use it in a sentence 10 times that day; in class this used to be the most fun. Can't wait until this fall when I have to fit in "mordant" into movement and text.

When I had a working car, I would drive to work in exactly the same way every day. Leave the house at a certain time within one minute, turn, turn again, two stop signs, left turn, roll the stop sign and make a right turn, drive for a bit, wait for 40 seconds at the light, make a few more turns, get in the left lane and pass the morons in the right lane, but not fast enough to set off the over-speed sensor that turns the light red, pull up to a major intersection and wait at the light, floor it to get past trafic in the right lane, signal at the crosswalk and switch to the right lane 3 dashed lines after the 35mph sign, wait at one more light, then turn into the garage. Drop down into first gear so a safe speed would put me at 1900RPM, which was the resonant frequency of both my mufflers and the garage, resulting in a ground-shaking roar that would set off a few car alarms, get to the third floor, throw it into reverse, and back into the space that nobody else felt like maneuvering into right next to the door.

It was almost as precise as Fred's drive home at the beginning of every episode of The Flintstones.
Mine is kind of like that. It's a solid door and I didn't have anyone to help me put it up when I got new hinges so it sticks. I have to either put a foot on the wall and jump back with both hands on the knob or throw my weight into it then pull so it doesn't stick. I've busted my shoulder doing this more than once.
I do this, but with tapping my feet inside my shoes. It's a habit I've had since I was little. On back roads, it's with driveways and side roads.
I do this, but to a greater extent. I can feel the seams in the sidewalk through my shoes, and if I step on one wit one foot, I have to step so the other foot lands on a seam in the same place. If I don't, my feet feel uncomfortable. I have mild OCD and asymmetry bothers me, and this is one of those things.
Not being the first to break eye contact is a huge factor in projecting confidence, and this will both make you more attractive to people (not that you need any help there) and reduce your chance of being mugged by about 90%

I've always heard this, too. Which is only one small reason why I make eye contact with people, and smile, habitually.

Wow, I was trying to think of something to post here that I do, but I read your post and remembered that I do this all the time.

On the same note - carrying around a bloodied baseball bat with pieces of glass stuck in it also reduces your chances of being mugged, and your chances of being accosted by the police, by about 90%.


It's late... I can't have my A-game on all the time, ya'know?

Yeah, but if someone finds you more attractive because of it, you've got bigger problems than muggers and cops.

I work in a restaurant and I'm constantly looking for ways to be more efficient at my job. If I'm waitering, I size up my customers as they come in and establish a rhythm with them by setting their menus and adding any necessary tableware they don't already have, then once they've settled in I start off by offering drinks, and it goes on.
If I'm hosting I always, always keep in my mind a mental image of what tables are available and approximate times they should become available (adding or subtracting available tables as customers leave/sit down), then compare that to our reservations and basically map out the night, again with approximate times of when said reservations should leave (larger tables tending to stay longer).

As I drive or walk past vehicles, I memorize headlight and tail light patterns.

During the 80s I was able to tell a car approaching or passing just by it's light pattern. Now with custom headlights and tailights it's gotten infinitely harder, but for the most part, I can still tell makes, modesl, and years but light pattern.

The most important headlights to remember being Crown Vic's, Impalas and now Chargers.

Maybe down there. Here, it's also Intrepids, Neons, Tauruses, Explorers, plus the occasional BMW, Viper, and Ferrari that get confiscated in a drug bust.

Getting out of bed on cold winter mornings has to be one of those little arduous tasks we all face.

have to add the Mustang to that list if you're anywhere between Portland OR, and Seattle, WA... as I found out not too long ago whilst driving up I-5!

As for my game - I am a counter, as in my day is filled with counting everything (foot steps, keystrokes at work, the number of times my cube-mate's annoying ringer goes off etc), but I figure that falls into the borderline OCD realm rather than a game.

I think the most often game I find myself playing is trying to walk silently through an older house with lots of creaky floorboards - sneaky like the ninja!

I sometimes try and close doors by swinging them closed behind me as I go through. The idea is to close the door without slamming it, but have it latch all the way. I thought I was a weirdo, but judging from this thread, I guess not. Hahaha.

How late can I be to work without anyone noticing? Thus far, the record is 1 hour 45 minutes.

Today, I'm 2 hours late and I didn't skip a beat

Wow, you guys are a bunch of OCD motherfuckers!!

Nothing immediately comes to mind in terms of little behaviors like this, maybe it's because I'm not obsessive compulsive.. :)

Well, THAT takes self-discipline that *I* will never have!!! :lol: It's been scientifically proven that I cannot wake up before 10am without an alarm.

Walking the 100 lb dog while smoking and having to pick up a phone call, that's one of my life's little challenges.
Also, I like walking in crowded streets in Manhattan fast, passing people like a car on the highway passes other cars. Sometimes it requires some calculation and good timing.

hmmm - standing in the middle of the skytrain (rail car / subway) without holding onto something while maintaining balance and not looking weird :P

Adjusting my junk so everything is *just right* without anyone noticing.