Weird habits

[Gurke and Hare]

I have a cordless phone, and when I replace the handset in the cradle it does a little two-note beep. Those two notes are the first two notes from Colonel Bogey so I always have to follow them with "has only got one ball."

[dead-ced-dead]

Ever since seeing the documentary The Thin Blue Line, I've found myself quoting Randall Dae Adams (spoiler for those who haven't seen the doc: he's the older of the two suspects who was innocent and wrongly convicted.)

When talking about the younger man he says, "[The] Kid schares meh! Kid shcares meh!" in a particular American accent. I mutter "Kid shcares meh! Kid shcares meh!" all the time!

[Custard]

I'm doing a thing recently where I imagine I'm a successful and beloved musician or film director, and I imagine I'm being interviewed at a comic con or on a podcast.

I actually think up and then answer the questions in my head, and will actually stroke my chin and go "hmmm...well..." before giving my considered reply, which I actually thought of about 30 seconds before

They ask me about the final season of the amazing TV show I've written and everyone loves, and I'll say "If I say anything, I'll be shot! But....I think, I hope, it's a fun and satisfying ending. Hope so. Can't please everyone, can you!"

*Audience does a mild laugh then claps*

I'm doing this mainly at nights, when I'm waiting to fall asleep. Succession coming back has ramped it up a bit. And The Batman coming out soon.

I like to imagine I'm the director of a set of much loved Batman Beyond films, and I can clearly see the trailer of the first film in my head. At the moment the comic con lot are very much looking forward to Willem Dafoe's go as an older Joker for the third film (of 5). Dafoe himself couldn't come today as he's off filming some old bollocks

[JesusAndYourBush]

I'm doing this mainly at nights, when I'm waiting to fall asleep.

That's actually a very good tactic to help fall asleep.  I do something similar, just make up a story and go through each scene in as much detail as you like.  Using the same story every time I think means the brain isn't taxed very hard and it makes it easy to quickly fall asleep.

[Ambient Sheep]

I have a cordless phone, and when I replace the handset in the cradle it does a little two-note beep. Those two notes are the first two notes from Colonel Bogey so I always have to follow them with "has only got one ball."

Am I the only person who thinks it's not a coincidence that the two-note beep a Samsung phone makes when you put it on charge sounds like it came straight out of OMD's "Electricity"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y43XLVqjytQ&t=10

[Custard]

That's nothing, the little noise Ryanair flights make when they let you take off your seatbelts is a complete rip of the Jurrasic Park theme

[Jerzy Bondov]

I used to go round the house like I had a gun. First a pistol, like a James Bond type, then a big pump action shotgun, and then after I saw John Wick I went back to the pistol but I went between long and short range stances depending on the situation. However I have recently started going around like I'm a bad guy at the start of an episode of Columbo, enacting some fiendish murder plot. Have a little glance around before I open a door. If I'm pouring a drink I imagine it's poison. Answer some emails to establish my alibi. That sort of thing.

[eagle_bearer]

I used to go round the house like I had a gun. First a pistol, like a James Bond type, then a big pump action shotgun, and then after I saw John Wick I went back to the pistol but I went between long and short range stances depending on the situation.

Yes! Sometimes I move through the house with an imaginary weapon. Not interested in the heavy artillery like shotguns, though. Big Bond fan here, so I like imagine a Walther PPK.

Some great responses coming in now. It seems most of us have our little quirks, our own ways of dealing with the human condition.

[Dex Sawash]

I go down the stairs in the morning like an old man/toddler, one at a time and firmly gripping both rails

[seepage]

Might have mentioned it before, but when I set an alarm or timer the time must be divisible by 3.

[Catalogue of ills]

That's nothing, the little noise Ryanair flights make when they let you take off your seatbelts is a complete rip of the Jurrasic Park theme

Not forgetting the old(?) train station thing where before a passenger announcement the first three notes of Bill Is Dead by the Fall would chime out.

[earl_sleek]

Might have mentioned it before, but when I set an alarm or timer the time must be divisible by 3.

When I'm setting the volume on anything, say the TV, it has to be a multiple of 5.

[Gurke and Hare]

Not forgetting the old(?) train station thing where before a passenger announcement the first three notes of Bill Is Dead by the Fall would chime out.

The door closing noise on the Montreal metro is the first three notes of Fanfare for the Common Man.

[Captain Z]

Definitely do stuff with repeating numbers. Whenever I watch football I try to make a point of looking at the clock when it hits 11:11, 22:22, 33:33, 44:44 and 55:55. Although it's very rare that I catch all five. I had to detour around a few local streets then pull over and take a photo when my last car hit 77777, 777.7 on the mileometer (I had reset it in advance to make sure it would do this).

[seepage]

When I'm setting the volume on anything, say the TV, it has to be a multiple of 5.

Oh yes, the TV volume as well. Max volume on old Hitachi is 63 [?] which was handy.

[Smeraldina Rima]

Not forgetting the old(?) train station thing where before a passenger announcement the first three notes of Bill Is Dead by the Fall would chime out.

Birmingham New Street has (or had) three notes that make me hum the rest of the Mork and Mindy theme tune.

[paruses]

Not forgetting the old(?) train station thing where before a passenger announcement the first three notes of Bill Is Dead by the Fall would chime out.

I've been having a slow binge of The Sopranos and the HBO "schweeep-bwaaaaaahhhhhhhhh" causes a call and response reaction of the first line of The Simpson's theme (i.e. the words The Simpsons but sung). Everytime. 86 episodes and this is the fourth time I've watched it through.

[Cuellar]

A real habit I have is as soon as someone mentions an address on telly or in a film etc. I immediately look it up on google maps (if it's to hand).

[Gregory Torso]

I used to go round the house like I had a gun. First a pistol, like a James Bond type, then a big pump action shotgun, and then after I saw John Wick I went back to the pistol but I went between long and short range stances depending on the situation.

I used to do this in shops when I was a kid. I particularly remember a branch of Allied Carpets that had a board at the front of the shop with the pictures, names and positions of the employees, e.g. 'Barry, Head of Sales'. This was my kill list and I would memorise their faces and names and go hunting for them through the swathes of carpet samples. So, Barry would be trying to sell some walnut brown wool shroud to a couple of marks and I'd stake him out from behind a roll of goldenrod nylon, put a fucking cap in his dented bald head, 'phone' my 'boss' and tell him the hit and gone through and then go looking for 'Susan, junior sales rep'.

[Spode]

About halfway through my first year at uni, as is often the case with 18 year olds freed from the shackles of home, I really got into Iambic Pentameter. Not in lectures or seminars or anything, I wasn't even studying English, but I was sat watching Play Your Cards Right and started noticing a lot of sentences were 10 syllables. Started counting quite a lot and noticed load of 10 syllable sentences (not all card quiz based).

I think, deep down, I was hoping to stumble on my own personal golden ratio where it would transpire the perfect way to communicate was in ten syllables, like when Fibonacci started seeing that same swirl on snail's backs, all the plants, and the top of walnut whips.

Like all the greats though, I started seeing it when it wasn't there. I was letting in sentences that just had ten words in and, before you know it, was editing what I was hearing - expanding contractions and vice versa to get the perfect ten.

Jibbed the hypothesis after a little while but still find myself occasionally tapping my palms with my fingers to count out syllables. I like to think if anyone sees it, they might think I'm one of those blind lads who freewheels down the street using ultrasound clicking to find my way.

Appreciate the irony in writing all of that when I could have summarised it with 'started counting syllables all the time'