08-13-2008, 02:07 PM | #1 (permalink) |
Please touch this.
Owner/Admin
Location: Manhattan
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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.
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08-13-2008, 02:16 PM | #2 (permalink) |
Getting it.
Super Moderator
Location: Lion City
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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.
__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke |
08-13-2008, 02:26 PM | #4 (permalink) |
Too Awesome for Aardvarks
Location: Angloland
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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.
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Office hours have changed. Please call during office hours for more information. |
08-13-2008, 02:27 PM | #5 (permalink) |
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Location: Charleston, SC
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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!!
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08-13-2008, 02:56 PM | #6 (permalink) |
Psycho
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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...
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08-13-2008, 03:07 PM | #7 (permalink) |
Kick Ass Kunoichi
Location: Oregon
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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.
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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
08-13-2008, 03:54 PM | #9 (permalink) |
Location: Iceland
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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.
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And think not you can direct the course of Love; for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. --Khalil Gibran |
08-13-2008, 04:04 PM | #10 (permalink) | |
Getting it.
Super Moderator
Location: Lion City
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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.
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"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke |
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08-13-2008, 04:40 PM | #11 (permalink) |
Delicious
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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.
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“It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick” - Dave Barry |
08-13-2008, 06:16 PM | #12 (permalink) | |
is a tiger
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Or are they like the ttc? Early when you're on time, On time when you're late, and late when you're early.
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"Your name's Geek? Do you know the origin of the term? A geek is someone who bites the heads off chickens at a circus. I would never let you suck my dick with a name like Geek" --Kevin Smith This part just makes my posts easier to find |
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08-14-2008, 01:16 AM | #13 (permalink) |
Location: Iceland
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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.
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And think not you can direct the course of Love; for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. --Khalil Gibran |
08-14-2008, 01:31 AM | #14 (permalink) |
Upright
Location: reykjavík, iceland
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i seem to struggle enough with the mundane things in life so small games tend to come and go pretty quickly.
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mother nature made the aeroplane, and the submarine sandwich, with the steady hands and dead eye of a remarkable sculptor. she shed her mountain turning training wheels, for the convenience of the moving sidewalk, that delivers the magnetic monkey children through the mouth of impossible calendar clock, into the devil's manhole cauldron. physics of a bicycle, isn't it remarkable? |
08-14-2008, 03:05 AM | #15 (permalink) |
has all her shots.
Location: Florida
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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.
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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce |
08-14-2008, 03:30 AM | #16 (permalink) |
Living in a Warmer Insanity
Super Moderator
Location: Yucatan, Mexico
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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.
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I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club |
08-14-2008, 03:59 AM | #17 (permalink) | |
Darth Papa
Location: Yonder
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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..." |
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08-14-2008, 05:16 AM | #18 (permalink) |
Leaning against the -Sun-
Super Moderator
Location: on the other side
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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.
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Whether we write or speak or do but look We are ever unapparent. What we are Cannot be transfused into word or book. Our soul from us is infinitely far. However much we give our thoughts the will To be our soul and gesture it abroad, Our hearts are incommunicable still. In what we show ourselves we are ignored. The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged By any skill of thought or trick of seeming. Unto our very selves we are abridged When we would utter to our thought our being. We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams, And each to each other dreams of others' dreams. Fernando Pessoa, 1918 |
08-14-2008, 01:13 PM | #19 (permalink) | |
big damn hero
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No signature. None. Seriously. |
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08-14-2008, 02:07 PM | #20 (permalink) |
Unencapsulated
Location: Kittyville
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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.
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My heart knows me better than I know myself, so I'm gonna let it do all the talkin'. |
08-14-2008, 04:52 PM | #21 (permalink) |
Upright
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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.
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08-14-2008, 05:04 PM | #22 (permalink) | |
Kick Ass Kunoichi
Location: Oregon
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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.
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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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08-14-2008, 05:41 PM | #24 (permalink) | |
change is hard.
Location: the green room.
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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.
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EX: Whats new? ME: I officially love coffee more then you now. EX: uh... ME: So, not much. |
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08-14-2008, 06:59 PM | #25 (permalink) | |||
The sky calls to us ...
Super Moderator
Location: CT
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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. Quote:
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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% Last edited by MSD; 08-15-2008 at 08:30 AM.. |
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08-14-2008, 07:21 PM | #26 (permalink) |
has all her shots.
Location: Florida
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I've always heard this, too. Which is only one small reason why I make eye contact with people, and smile, habitually.
__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce |
08-14-2008, 10:48 PM | #28 (permalink) | |
Crazy
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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? |
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08-16-2008, 12:23 AM | #30 (permalink) |
Crazy
Location: Juneau, Alaska
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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). |
08-18-2008, 07:38 AM | #31 (permalink) |
Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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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.
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08-18-2008, 08:28 AM | #32 (permalink) | |
Please touch this.
Owner/Admin
Location: Manhattan
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Quote:
__________________
You have found this post informative. -The Administrator [Don't Feed The Animals] |
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08-18-2008, 05:54 PM | #35 (permalink) | |
Upright
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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! |
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08-19-2008, 02:03 AM | #36 (permalink) |
Extreme moderation
Location: Kansas City, yo.
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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.
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"The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me." (Ayn Rand) "The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." (M. Scott Peck) |
08-19-2008, 07:01 AM | #38 (permalink) |
Please touch this.
Owner/Admin
Location: Manhattan
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Today, I'm 2 hours late and I didn't skip a beat
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You have found this post informative. -The Administrator [Don't Feed The Animals] |
08-19-2008, 07:33 AM | #39 (permalink) |
Lover - Protector - Teacher
Location: Seattle, WA
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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..
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"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel |
08-19-2008, 08:07 AM | #40 (permalink) | |
Location: Iceland
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Quote:
__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love; for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. --Khalil Gibran |
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challenges, life |
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