Six weird things about me

Dilatoriness is my middle name.

Bets has tagged me for a meme (why is it called that?) on Dec 29. I hadn't gotten around to posting my six things, so I got tagged a second time by Joan on Jan 4 (since she probably didn't realize that Bets already got me).

Here are the stipulations-

“THE RULES:Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”


1. There are some basic things everyone can do which I can't. Here are some examples. I can't snap my fingers. My fingers are mute. Kinda makes it difficult to do the ASL for "dog". I can't swallow pills. As much as I have tried, it just floats around in my mouth until it tastes icky. Yuck. I've given up. I try to get my medication in liquid form if possible, otherwise I have to chew & swallow it quickly. Oh, you shoulda seen the 800mg ibuprofin horsepills they gave me after childbirth! That was not fun. I can't swim.

2. I'm right-handed, but there are just some things I have to do with my left hand/eye (which DH thinks is weird). For example, I can only open a can of Coke with my left hand. I choose produce with my left hand. I use my left eye for aiming when shooting a gun, even though it doesn't make sense since my right eye would line up better with my right arm.

3. I'm overly meticulous about doing certain things ... like washing stuff in the kitchen. For example, I use a knife & cutting board when making carrots for M. After cooking them, I need to chop them up further. I have to wash the knife & cutting board before I can use them to chop the cooked carrots. I can't just leave the knife & cutting board out to reuse with with cooked carrots even though I know that they're still relatively "clean" after slicing up the raw carrots. Tongs are another thing I wash several times while preparing a meal. I will the use the tongs to place meat in a grill pan, then I have to wash it before I use it again to flip the meat over, then I have to wash it again before I use it to remove the meat from the grill pan. Yes, I do a lot of washing with my hands (washing dishes or otherwise... maybe I'm related to Adrian Monk) and I have dry skin to show for it. Another weird thing is that I can't wear gloves while washing dishes. Hmm... I guess I'm a bit OCD. When in a checkout line (at the supermarket, at Costco, etc), I have an itch to rearrange the stuff on the counter when the person ahead of me does not optimize use of space. Most people can't effectively place their items 2-dimensionally while minimizing use of space; even less can do this 3-dimensionally. I have a quirk where I have to efficaciously stack my items using the smallest footprint I can possibly manage without items toppling over.

4. I usually don't answer the phone. It's partly conditioning from my previous jobs where nothing good ever comes from answering the phone, and partly from having known or worked with psychopaths & people with stalker tendencies. Lately it's due to M. When she was a newborn, I couldn't always answer the phone when I was busy with her (changing diaper, or while she was napping on me). Now I have the ringer turned down so she won't be disturbed by the phone while napping ... ha! like she naps in the house with me. But she naps better when DH is at home. As for the cell phone, I don't always hear it because it's stuck in a bag, I'm in a noisy place, or M has gotten her hands on it (she's fascinated by our objects, and knows which ones are real and which ones are fake; she always prefers our cell phones over her own real but nonfunctioning cell phone). .... email me instead, and I'll eventually get back to you as long as your email hasn't gotten filed into the junk mail folder.

5. I type on a Dvorak mapped keyboard. I don't actually think this is weird, but most everyone else I know thinks it is. I used to type fairly fast using Qwerty, but my typing was even faster using Dvorak. Now after using Dvorak for so many years, I find that my Qwerty speed has decreased quite a bit. :-( .... another weird slightly related computer/gadget thing about me is that it is not unusual for me to make minor changes to to settings on demo products. I might walk into an Apple store, fiddle around with a computer, and change the language to French. I've also done that on cameras/camcorders at Best Buy. Hey, if other people are changing them from English to Spanish, why not change it to French? It's not like anyone in my area knows English anymore... sometimes I think it's a dying language in my country...

I'll also add that since I do so much more typing than writing, my writing has become illegible. People can't read my chicken scratch. I can't read it sometimes. As a result my hand has become lazy. I think my handwriting looks best on checks. On the upside, I haven't lost my ability to spell correctly, most of the time. On the downside, I can't speak very well, a side effect of talking to baby most of the time.

Here are some links:
Keyboard Compare Applet Dvorak & Qwerty keyboards - interesting stats
A Basic Course in Dvorak - great way to practice, this is the one I used many years ago
Typing lessons for Dvorak keyboard - another place to practice


6. Although I am Chinese, I am indifferent to Chinese food. It is not one of my favorites. I don't normally cook it. That's not to say that I never eat it. I just eat it less often than other foods. I would tend to choose some other kind of food. Lately the only time I have Chinese food is when I visit the inlaws every 2 or so weeks. As a kid, we used to go out for dim sum every weekend (why don't they serve duck feet anymore?); now it's just once or twice a year. Whenever I do have Chinese food, it had better be really good Chinese food. My family is from Hong Kong, a place where people are very picky about eating good food. That's probably why I'm more particular about my Chinese food.

Park me at a sushi bar and I would be perfectly content for hours. :-)

You can also park me in a big bookstore and I would be a happy camper for hours there also ... just make sure there is coffee and a restroom. ;-)



Oh gosh... I'm such a slowpoke, I think anyone I would want to tag have already been tagged -- yeah, I'm a bit slow on catching up on blog reading too -- with the exception of V, so I'll tag her. I'm not going to tag anyone else .... but feel free to play along if you like...


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