Nah - to make up the total number of letters in the alphabet (I don't include the number of letters that are used in registration plates because I don't know which ones aren't used).

I used to do the same thing with the numbers, with the hope that the sum total will be divisible by three. Difficult, with the new plates only having two numbers on them.

twohundredpercent wrote:

QUOTE:
Nah - to make up the total number of letters in the alphabet (I don't include the number of letters that are used in registration plates because I don't know which ones aren't used).

i'm really quick at moving all the letters in a number plate forward one in the alphabet; i started doing it (as best i can recall) on the long drives up to st. james' park.

QUOTE:
I used to do the same thing with the numbers, with the hope that the sum total will be divisible by three. Difficult, with the new plates only having two numbers on them.

i like being able to add up sequences of numbers and hope they add up to an "interesting" number, or when numbers in a sequence can form an "interesting" number. interesting is a vague concept that can include any of the following:

1. round numbers;
2. sequential numbers;
3. numbers that could form a cogent equation with the addition of simple arithmetical signs (e.g. 248 is an interesting number, as is 257.)
4. symmetrical numbers

etc.

have i just outed myself as the most autistic person on otf?

I doubt it. I can only set the microwave for prime numbers of seconds.

I have a friend who only cooks things in the microwave in time increments that don't involve moving his finger. Like 11 sec. 33 sec. 55 sec. etc. He's just odd, though.

200% - I was joking. Did you see the movie, "23"?

It always feels magical to me when the time on a digital clock is 12:34 (or 1:23, 2:34, 3:45, etc.). 10:10, 11:11, 12:12 are also special, and if the clock is of the 24-hour variety, then there are many more magical sets of numbers.

I've no evidence at all for this but I reckon that most people find harmony either in numbers (sequences) or colours/shapes, but never both. I'm in the latter camp, numbers are nothing more than interestingly shaped glyphs to me, while the Meaning of the Universe resides somewhere between puce and azure — and Wednesday is turquoise.

Femme Folle wrote:

QUOTE:
200% - I was joking. Did you see the movie, "23"?

It always feels magical to me when the time on a digital clock is 12:34 (or 1:23, 2:34, 3:45, etc.). 10:10, 11:11, 12:12 are also special, and if the clock is of the 24-hour variety, then there are many more magical sets of numbers.

If I dont get to see 11:11, 22:22, 33:33, 44:44 or 55:55 on the clock when I am watching a live football match on TV, my team wont win. Which is of course bullshit, but it makes me feel more confident about it.

WornOldMotorbike wrote:

QUOTE:

QUOTE:
I dunno - maybe I'm actually Canadian?

You're walking in Toronto/IKEA/Miami Beach and see someone you know from school/work/your family walking toward you.

Do you:

a) Duck into a shop/display/stand of Palm trees

b) Cross to the far side of the road/aisle/ocean

c) Turn and head back the way you came, abandoning your excursion altogether

d) Say hello and strike up a conversation

B.

Am I Canadian yet?

Amor de Cosmos wrote:

QUOTE:
I've no evidence at all for this but I reckon that most people find harmony either in numbers (sequences) or colours/shapes, but never both. I'm in the latter camp, numbers are nothing more than interestingly shaped glyphs to me, while the Meaning of the Universe resides somewhere between puce and azure — and Wednesday is turquoise.

Isn't this just the result of the evolution of pattern recognition, which still exerts a huge force over the human brain?

Of course, pattern recognition is not the reason Jesus appeared to me in a piece of toast this morning.

I'm hoping lots of you had something like this.

In my teenage years I would set myself little targets like throwing a piece of screwed-up paper into a distant bin five times in a row....or scoring three left-footed volleys with my sponge tennis ball through the gap in my mum's tapestry stand. I could not leave the house until the task was completed - something bad would surely happen if I did.

Back to the present day and my friend's wife. She is vegetarian, likes witchy-poo shops etc etc and if she ever sees just one magpie she has to say - out loud - "Good Morning Mr Magpie". Is she barking or do others have to obey the magpie rule?

Well, it all exists on a spectrum really. At one end it's an amusing harmless quirk that doesn't affect your life; at the other it's full-blown obsessive-compulsive.

if she ever sees just one magpie she has to say - out loud - "Good Morning Mr Magpie". Is she barking or do others have to obey the magpie rule?

I thought the Magpie Rule meant you had to spit?

dogbeak wrote:

QUOTE:
i'm really quick at moving all the letters in a number plate forward one in the alphabet; i started doing it (as best i can recall) on the long drives up to st. james' park.

A little game I invented to amuse myself a few years back was to take the 3 letters of the number plate of a car (the ones next to each other) and try to make the shortest word possible out of them, but of a minimum of 4 letters, which included them still in their original order. The usual 'scrabble' rules would apply: no foreign words, no real names, no brand names. Most would, of course, be dead simple, but every so often you'd come up against a real stinker!

Who was it on the other board that said they always gave a friendly nod hello to cats? I always wave to babies and little kids in the car next to me at stoplights. I played peekaboo with a baby in a rear-facing car seat, while on my motorbike, for six consecutive stoplights. When the mother finally noticed, I felt a bit odd.
Probably not neurosiseses, are they?