Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Why you should run far far away

1. I pathologically count:
a. stairs (Sunday night at Legend, upon realizing that I'd lost count of the stairs while going down, I almost had to go back up)
b. letters
c. syllables


2. I compulsively reorganize letters into BABBABAB | BABABBAB structure, where A represents vowels and B consonants. If there are not enough of a given letter type in a given phrase, I will insert random strings to make the arrangement (those strings are inherently variable, but once assigned, cannot be used to simultaneously express vowels and consonants).

3. I get unduly excited about exotic words.

4. I apparently have an aversion to odd numbers, particularly primes. I cannot leave the AC on 73, even though it is more comfortable than 72 or 74. I cannot leave the car stereo on 43, either, though it is just right. I look at those numbers and get all angsty.

5. I am fascinated that there's a relationship between cubes of numbers that can be roughly expressed as the sums of cubes, divided by 6 and subtracting 1, is equal to the base number.

6. I completely understand the scientific method, but my frenetic tendencies prevent me from ever successfully using it. Thus, what should take 30 seconds to fix usually takes me days, because half-way through implementing the fix I've come up with at least 5 other ways to go about it. Each of those ways, once conceived, must obviously be thoroughly explored.

7. I think "facetiously" is the best word in the English language. I'll let you figure out why.

8. Palindromes get me very excited. Numerical or alphabetical: it doesn't matter.

9. I see number strings as representations of completely unrelated things. E.g., 232, no matter where I see it, is the guitar fingering for D-major.

10. I remember numbers. All numbers. Especially numbers I've been forced to read out loud.

11. I have a binary clock.

12. Can't end on a prime number, even if it is palindromatic. Although I am giggling to myself that coincidence put my binary clock at #11.

5 comments:

Karen said...

I love the word facetiously, too. And as an English teacher, my kids think I'm a real dork when I explain why.

Trail In Progress said...

Hey there. Loved this post, everyone's got their obsessions and quirks that make them who they are and others need to deal with them or walk away.

as far as your palindromes-you should check this guy out. His name is mike maguire and he writes the most incredible palindrome's. he's been published for palindrome poetry that go on for 30+ lines. If you go to his artconspiracy profile, click on his "word gallery" to find them.

http://artconspiracy.com/gallery.aspx?area=profile&id=-840824159

Unknown said...

HA! I know where you got most every one of those "traits." : )

Ranylt Richildis said...

You sound like a synesthete, like me (do you see letters or numbers in colour?). Many word-obsessives are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

http://synesthete.org/

ahamos said...

Not colors, but mathematical representations. Each letter represents is numeric equivalent, though no preferential treatment is given to capitalization.