Thoughts about : Obsessive Compulsive Behaviours

Let's face it - we all have these. Admit it !

There's nothing to be ashamed of in personal habits that could be labelled as obsessive compulsive. In fact, I think it makes people more interesting when they have distinctive traits and unusual behaviour is one of those traits.

Where's this thought come from ?

It's from a conversation the other day when someone let me in on some of her habits. (They're her's and not for here !) But they did get me thinking - what habits do I have that could be labelled Obsessive Compulsive ?

And then I thought - how do we form these habits ? There's usually good reasons for them. Or daft reasons for some of mine. Some are obsessive about cleanliness. I wash my hands but I don't obsess about it. Mostly because my immune system tends to laugh at tummy bugs. But others will catch every little tummy bug that's going, which might give rise to a cleanliness obsession.

I kinda wish some of the people at work had more of a cleanliness thing going ... you know the ones I mean. The ones who leave the loo unflushed and definitely those who don't wash their hands at all. Yuk. I may have that immune system that laughs at most bacteria (except the skin one - that's odd) but other's don't and they'll get ill at the slightest germ. Saying that though, I'm definitely going hunting for the Covered In Germs mug at Comic Con.

My mug at work is a bit nasty. I firmly believe the coffee tastes better if the mug is a little bit ... matured. But ... I wouldn't hear of anyone else drinking out of that mug. Nope. Guests get a scrubbed mug.

So - about my habits. They range from the deranged, the strange, the neurotic, the odd and the timesaver.

A neurotic one is driving. I'm really nervous when someone else is driving. I'm not in control and I can never trust another driver like I can myself. Cars are dangerous places and part of me has to maintain control of dangerous situations. Yep. I feel that's definitely an obsessive compulsion. But you look at it - and you see the reason behind it and ... I think it's a good one to have. I'm the one who gets neurotic but it's not bad enough that I can't be a passenger.

That's one lesson I'd pass on - it's ok to have an obsessive compulsion but don't let it own you. Be in control of what you do.

Deranged ? When preparing to bat, I'd always put the right leg pad on before the left. I'd always put the right glove on before the left. The pad is ok. The glove is a bit deranged. There's extra padding on that glove, which makes it more awkward to do it that way. So why do it ? The superstition in me says it brings me luck. Totally untrue of course, there's only one way to bring yourself luck in sport and that's by practicing more. You do other things in cricket, like tap the bat on the ground before the bowler bowls. That's to get you moving, as you have to move fast to play good shots.

Timesaver ? I like to have my windows and applications arranged just so. At work, I'll fire up everything in the following order - Communicator, Excel, Internet Explorer (yep - workplace cruelty still exists), Outlook, Windows Explorer. It fits a pattern that I'm comfortable with and I know where everything is quickly.

I've developed a "Must Raid Canteen Before Closes" routine. That's partly to get me away from my desk for a few minutes so I'm not sat there all day. Freshens the mind etc.

On those windows - I have my tabs in Firefox set up a particular way. It's not optimal, if it were, Blogger would be on 1, Facebook on 2 and Twitter on 3. Instead it's :
1 - Violence Reborn - Warcraft Guild
2 - Blogger
3 - Sitemeter
4 - Facebook
5 - Twitter
6 - Statcounter
7 - A Deus Ex HR walkthrough
8 - A Mass Effect 3 walkthrough
9 - The 71 stop Elite Dangerous Rares trade route
I only regularly use tabs 2, 4 and 5. 3 and 6 get peeked at when hits come in to the blog so I can see who's looking. I don't always get an answer, many people don't get logged by Sitemeter or Statcounter. 7 and 8 were playthroughs I stopped but I want to keep the place. 9 is the latest, I've switched my Elite activity to running through that massive trade route. I'm hoping it'll quickly get me into one of the top ships, one I can explore the galaxy in.

I have my iTunes window set up to a pixel perfect size. It will show 40 tracks on a page and you can page up/page down without it ... I dunno how to describe it ... If each track is 20 pixels high and there are 40, that means you need 800 pixels in that bit of the window. If the window is 801 or 799, it doesn't page up/page down right.

More habits - odd. I like my clutter. It's familiar ... But I really must invest in more bookshelves so I can get that clutter in more socially acceptable cluttery patterns. I have trouble chucking things out too. Must blitz the place.

I arrange my listening to music in a certain way. Albums interspersed with random tracks. It varies what I listen to but is definitely verging on obsessive.

And there's more too. I tip my head or close my eyes when I'm trying to recall a dim memory. It's like I'm changing the hard drive or something like that. I've done that since Nose Job 1

People form obsessive compulsive habits for good reasons. Sometimes it's for daft reasons.

If you have some, make sure you own them. Don't let them own you. Be proud of them, they're what make you who you are. Never forget :

Yep. That's you reading this. Despite your habits. Because of your habits. They make you different, which is the root of being special.