VegemiteGrrl's Home for the Absent-Minded

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i lost seven cellphones in high school

Pat Finn, Monday, 22 April 2013 03:57 (eleven years ago) link

yeah i guess absent minded people do cause inconvenience to people.... but they don't mean anyone any harm.

Pat Finn, Monday, 22 April 2013 03:58 (eleven years ago) link

it's the thought that counts when the dishtowel is on fire again

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 22 April 2013 04:05 (eleven years ago) link

put a still-hot pan on a wooden countertop

just put one on a cutting board the other day

timellison, Monday, 22 April 2013 04:25 (eleven years ago) link

ahh, you're lucky it was just the cutting board! this countertop was seriously ruined; i don't even want to think about how much it would have cost to replace.

Pat Finn, Monday, 22 April 2013 04:30 (eleven years ago) link

Ketchup in backpack; wallet in fridge.

Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 22 April 2013 10:11 (eleven years ago) link

Looking above I seem to have a lot of condiment-based mishaps.

Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 22 April 2013 10:12 (eleven years ago) link

Incidentally my friend Rebecca wrote an AMAZING blog post on the unintended consequences of absent-mindedness. This is haunting:

http://playgroundconfidential.com/2013/03/21/when-it-rains-it-pours/

Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 22 April 2013 10:22 (eleven years ago) link

"I forgot to use a condiment" is not an excuse

huun huurt 2 (Hurting 2), Monday, 22 April 2013 14:10 (eleven years ago) link

Making coffee this morning, I nearly poured milk into the kettle.

Camp Macaroni Style (snoball), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 06:38 (eleven years ago) link

Not sure if this is absent-mindedness, but -- last night I broke wind while walking out of the office, and was so embarrassed I sat down immediately at my desk and pretended to do work for ten minutes. Nobody mentioned anything.

Leaving the office, I was so distracted I crossed the street without looking and got side-swiped by a motorcycle driving on the wrong side of the road. Just missed me by inches. So basically, yesterday I almost died because of a fart.

Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 09:31 (eleven years ago) link

did the "putting electric kettle on the stove" thing yesterday.

kfb, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 09:59 (eleven years ago) link

In someone else's absence, I've unexpectedly inherited a work task which would be very easy and potentially disastrous to screw up by missing something out of a labyrinthine assortment of contradictory spreadsheets. Like, if I get this wrong some of our stock will become permanently unorderable and there'll be a complicated nightmare of trying to recall things which will already be out in the wild.

I know absentmindedness is not necessarily the same as disorganisation (I've got both btw) but I'm here thinking "I can't even remember not to leave my housekeys in the door or in the fridge, and someone expects me to get this right?"

susuwatari teenage riot (a passing spacecadet), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 10:31 (eleven years ago) link

Might be time for you to suggest to your boss that this highly susceptible to error procedure is revised.

Camp Macaroni Style (snoball), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 10:44 (eleven years ago) link

I think the long-term goal is that I revise it myself, but I'm taking advantage of nobody actually telling me that outright to put it off for a while, since I don't feel like I understand the procedure well enough

(but nobody else does either, any more - the person who devised it has left, and the person who's been doing it since then is absent "indefinitely" but she didn't seem that comfortable with it and seems to have put some contradictory information in)

susuwatari teenage riot (a passing spacecadet), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 10:52 (eleven years ago) link

I have the exact opposite project - my boss is making me work an insanely over-complicated spreadsheet that will literally be of no use to anyone whatsoever -- except, of course, my boss, who will tick it off their to-do list, then move on to their next poorly-thought-through project

Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 11:51 (eleven years ago) link

Spent nearly a minute after work today rifling through my backpack, disgustedly looking for my book which was crooked under my arm.

Sir Lord Baltimora (Myonga Vön Bontee), Thursday, 2 May 2013 23:47 (eleven years ago) link

aw that gives me a warm feeling of nostalgia <3

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 3 May 2013 00:06 (eleven years ago) link

I didn’t have time to plunge it right away so I just left it. Sometimes you need to let it sit for a while anyway, y’know? And then it will flush.

Honestly this isn't really "absent mindedness" it's avoidance and laziness.

huun huurt 2 (Hurting 2), Friday, 3 May 2013 01:22 (eleven years ago) link

Like, it takes 5 seconds to plunge a toilet, and no, I am not aware that letting it "sit for a while" is a method of unclogging a toilet

huun huurt 2 (Hurting 2), Friday, 3 May 2013 01:22 (eleven years ago) link

wait where are you quoting that from?

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 3 May 2013 01:24 (eleven years ago) link

huh, uh, wait a minute, what thread linked this blog:
http://playgroundconfidential.com/2013/03/21/when-it-rains-it-pours/

huun huurt 2 (Hurting 2), Friday, 3 May 2013 01:27 (eleven years ago) link

lol, wrong thread, so appropriate

huun huurt 2 (Hurting 2), Friday, 3 May 2013 01:28 (eleven years ago) link

lol

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 3 May 2013 01:29 (eleven years ago) link

oh wait no, it's totally this thread, sorry:

Incidentally my friend Rebecca wrote an AMAZING blog post on the unintended consequences of absent-mindedness. This is haunting:

http://playgroundconfidential.com/2013/03/21/when-it-rains-it-pours/

― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, April 22, 2013 6:22 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

huun huurt 2 (Hurting 2), Friday, 3 May 2013 01:30 (eleven years ago) link

a friend of mind is absent-minded, like really absent-minded, and he just lived through something that might make him be less so. basically, dude was going out, he locked the door and then left the key in the door. somebody broke in (well, turned the key and opened the door) and took tons of stuff and now he's struggling with insurance issues because there are no signs of break-in etc.

Jibe, Friday, 3 May 2013 06:28 (eleven years ago) link

Oof.

carl agatha, Friday, 3 May 2013 12:39 (eleven years ago) link

i went through a couple of months when we moved into our house where I was constantly leaving the keys in the door. usually from unlocking the door and entering the hosue, so keys were in the door while we were IN the house.

but

ugggghhh

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 3 May 2013 17:07 (eleven years ago) link

i did that at least three times in the last place

great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 3 May 2013 21:50 (eleven years ago) link

twice overnight

great wallogina (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 3 May 2013 21:51 (eleven years ago) link

Luckily, we have two doors (and a postage stamp-sized foyer in between) to our apartment because I have to take the keys out of the exterior door to use them on the interior door, where I leave them dangling in the door knob until the next time I am frantically searching for my keys.

That's the trick, really. Live in apartments that don't open directly to the outside.

carl agatha, Friday, 3 May 2013 22:01 (eleven years ago) link

Apartments w/ doors that open directly to the outdoors seem very strange to me after getting used to Chicago. It seems incorrect - like having your bathtub on the lawn.

Je55e, Friday, 3 May 2013 22:42 (eleven years ago) link

It's like having your foot in Uruguay.

Jeff, Friday, 3 May 2013 22:50 (eleven years ago) link

To get into my place I have to go through two locked doors and one unlocked just to get to the elevator. the elevator.

(Which sometimes - in the spirit of this thread - I take to the wrong floor, where I try to unlock somebody else's door. So I scream "Sorry! Sorry! Wrong door! Sorry!!")

Je55e, Friday, 3 May 2013 22:51 (eleven years ago) link

Our place comes closest to a door that opens directly to the outside in that there is not a common area. We just happen to have two front doors (I'm guessing it's a weather thing. A door that opens directly to the outside would make for a very drafty living room).

carl agatha, Friday, 3 May 2013 23:23 (eleven years ago) link

To get into my place I have to go through two locked doors and one unlocked just to get to the elevator. the elevator.

Does the theme from Get Smart play as you walk to your apartment?

nickn, Friday, 3 May 2013 23:36 (eleven years ago) link

Jesus Christ, my posts from ~6 pm are a mess, a mess.

Je55e, Saturday, 4 May 2013 02:10 (eleven years ago) link

In reference to the blog post I cited, I think there's an overlap between laziness and absent-mindedness at times, but there are differences too. Laziness is "I'll do it later" and then you "forget." True absent-mindedness imo involves doing things that are completely illogical in a way that is not actually one iota easier, even for the moment.

huun huurt 2 (Hurting 2), Saturday, 4 May 2013 02:30 (eleven years ago) link

lol nickn

Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 4 May 2013 02:32 (eleven years ago) link

I yelled at the outside of my local bank building because they removed the ATM machine. Then I realised I was standing in front of KFC.

Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 10 May 2013 16:29 (eleven years ago) link

hahahaha oh that's beautiful

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 10 May 2013 16:30 (eleven years ago) link

ground the coffee, put it in the filter, turned on the coffee maker...turned away to do some things and then ran back over to the coffee maker when I realized I hadn't filled it with water.

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 10 May 2013 16:31 (eleven years ago) link

I've forgotten to put the carafe under the coffee maker basket after doing everything else both at work and at home. At home it'll just drain into the sink, but at work it went off the filing cabinet onto the rug. Oops.

nickn, Friday, 10 May 2013 16:43 (eleven years ago) link

oh yeah that's the worst.

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 10 May 2013 16:44 (eleven years ago) link

Put shampoo on my sponge instead of shower gel. They're in completely different containers and the liquids themselves are different colours, but I didn't notice until after I asked myself why the 'gel' wasn't lathering up properly.

go cray cray on my lobster soufflé (snoball), Wednesday, 22 May 2013 17:32 (eleven years ago) link

ugh I have done so many combinations of this mistake it's sad

best one was squeezing hair glossing cream into my hand and then rubbing it all over my face like moisturizer. i don't even KEEP it with the moisturizer, I had already moisturized, i was just staring at myself in the mirror like oh god is this what senility is like ;_;

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 22 May 2013 18:30 (eleven years ago) link

oh and spraying hairspray under my arms back when I used spray deodorant

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 22 May 2013 18:31 (eleven years ago) link

oh my lol

carl agatha, Wednesday, 22 May 2013 18:44 (eleven years ago) link

A few times I've nearly sprayed shaving gel on myself instead of deodorant.

go cray cray on my lobster soufflé (snoball), Wednesday, 22 May 2013 18:47 (eleven years ago) link

I was fixing a PC earlier today, and I just realised that I left a torch inside the case - it was still switched on as well.

go cray cray on my lobster soufflé (snoball), Saturday, 25 May 2013 17:18 (eleven years ago) link


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