VegemiteGrrl's Home for the Absent-Minded

also thank you for putting the 'boom! needle in the eye' imagery in my head, I had never thought of that before EEEUGGGGHHH!!!

Oh shit sorry, dude! Damage-to-eye is a whole horror motif and all!

Usually junk is supposed to go in the needle, not the other way around.

lol

this doesn't really qualify as absent-minded, just um...dim? and kinda silly really. I didn't know where else to put it.

My coworker told me of a white bean soup that his wife makes that's really good, and I asked him to bring me the recipe.
I was reading through it and I got confused. I looked over at him and I said, "This says it's for navy beans?"
He said, yeah, white beans. "Okay, cool thanks!" But I was still confused a little bit.

Later when I was telling Mr Veg he looked at me with a smirk and said, "You thought navy beans were blue, didn't you."

"Yes." was my meek reply. Mr Veg said, "Navy as in boats, not Navy as in the color, silly."

True story.

NOW I get it.

Well but I mean red beans, black beans, white beans so why wouldn't you think blue beans? Ego te absolvo.

Er... I was also under the impression... *takes notes*

I knew I created this thread for a reason <3

I had never heard of navy beans til now!

OMG why can't I ever be on time? I tried so hard to be punctual today. End up running on to the platform just as the last possible train that would've got me to the next station on time was pulling out. Would've made it if I hadn't had to go back for my coat. The sad thing is I was aiming for half an hour before the second train left just in case and aaarghhhhhhhh whyyyyyyyy, whyyyyyyy

Today, running errands on a busy street: I got into the driver's seat, but not before leaving a half-full can of coke on roof of car. I drove six blocks when I was alerted by a sliding sound overhead. I clicked on the hazard lights, rolled to a stop, and got out to look. The can stood, three inches from the rear edge of the roof, upright and still half-full.

*applause*

lex, you have all my sympathy. tis a mighty struggle

Nippy here yesterday, felt pretty cold in the flat. So I put on the heating for a short while. woke up this morning lay in bed reading Neil Young for a while. Eventually got up and you could feel something strange in the air. At which I realised that I'd forgotten to turn the heat back off. So been on for 12+ hours, not sure exactly when I put it on either.

Well at least I can have a bath this morning I guess.

pretty sure that's normal behaviour for a whole lot of people. arseholeish, but normal.

arseholish?
are you talking about shared accomodation? I'm the billpayer.
would probably only have the thing on for as long during the space of about a week. Just forgot I put it on so will have to put it on timed if I do again.

i'm thinking 'bout the planet, maaaaaan.

the "it's winter, let's put the heating on 24/7 so i can still walk round in a t-shirt" school of thought.

I think turning the heat up a bit when you're cold is not necessarily an arseholish thing. Or at least not so much that we need to insult Stevo here, since he was obviously upset with himself/embarassed to have done so!
I cannot control my heat so I am forced to put on thicker socks, etc. Luckily my building is rarely chilly.

ok yeah i wasn't call steve an arsehole! only criticising people who do that on the reg.

ah, good stuff. Sorry I guess I am in 'Mother Hen' mode this morning :) Carry on, scatter brains!

I learned why one puts certain things in a blender vs a food processor last night.

"Oh riiight when there's that much liquid it just spills out the top and alll over the counter. Right. Got it."

fuck
my
life

I cannot control my heat so I am forced to put on thicker socks, etc. open the window when it's 10°F (-12° C) out. This has been discussed in another thread somewhere, I know. Anyway, such is life for many thousands of Chicagoans - I'm guessing New Yorkers, too.

I miss radiator heat.

So much quieter...

We are packing to leave for a job. It came time to collect and pack glassware and I have been going crazy all night looking for my much treasured, vintage, 1950's looking, little glass pitcher that I bought for $5 while on the first job. Really took the edge off the election to focus on this.

I always, ALWAYS pack glassware last. It was right there on the shelf like two days ago! I figured it broke and someone didn't want to tell me. Finally I pressured J. to just come out with it, even made it easy on him throwing out the different scenarios. He kept saying he didn't break it or misplace it then would laugh. So he did it!

I suddenly remembered, I packed it first , days ago, and placed it with a bunch of kitchen utensils in a box. Very half-assed packing job and grouping too, no wonder I forgot. I am losing my mind. I feel crazy, gaslighting myself.

I cannot control my heat so I am forced to put on thicker socks, etc. open the window when it's 10°F (-12° C) out. This has been discussed in another thread somewhere, I know. Anyway, such is life for many thousands of Chicagoans - I'm guessing New Yorkers, too.

― (*・_・)ノ⌒ ☆ (Je55e), Thursday, November 1, 2012 5:26 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Summertime's a problem here with that, the apartment was designed with very poor ventilation. Just a door to the balcony (a triangle with sides of about 10ft) in the main room and no actual windows. So staying cool in the front room is a pain. Just tends to overheat heavily.

In wintertime I tend to wear a thermal fleece most of the time. Just got heating coming on a couple of hours per day. Have been known to sit under a blanket too. Just didn't want to set the timer to go off after an hour from when I put it on & thought I'd turn it off shortly then forgot it was on.

What the fuck was my post supposed to mean?? Put on thicker socks?

What I was trying to say is that in the winter time my apartment is really hot and I have to open a window to stay comfortable. This is a not-uncommon thing here.

I don't know why I said anything about putting on thicker socks since I the very idea of wearing socks - or any footwear - indoors is repellent to me.

Oh I get it - "put on thicker socks" was part of FFM's post that I quoted and struck through and replaced w/ "open a window" etc. Never mind. I thought I had lost my mind or told a lie.

Set the timer for the rice. It went off and I remembered registering the thought, "oh, the rice is done, time to turn the element off." But I somehow got distracted by something en route to the stove and forgot about it.

Ive set fire to several bins by punting an ashtray into them with still-glowing cig butts. But I think thats less ansentmindedness and more drunkenness, heh :/

I can't believe Underwriters Laboratories or whatever safety authority is OK with rice cookers potentially staying on forever.

Hadn't seen this thread.

My dad instilled me with a lot of neuroses about travel. I used to get so wound up by hi. Counting bags and people before we moved off but I find myself doing the same thing. More than once I've left an item of clothing behind. Most recently I left a jacket in. A cafe in Barcelona airport and didn't notice till two flights later I tried to put it on going through security in Detroit.

I can't leave for the airport without visually checking my passport and immigration docs 5 minutes after leaving the house and more than once I've had to stop a cab to pull that bag out of the boot. I try to remember not to put that bag in there but often don't. I'm so happy now that you don't need a piece of paper to he through the airport, one less thing to worry about. Things like tripit are a godsend for the absent minded traveller.

I pretty much banking not having a key item with me; socks, toothbrush, jumpers, it's a a great shame the Pittsburgh airport gap is now closed because they did a roaring trade out of me replacing stuff.

Finding out that despite thinking I'd carefully transferred all the contents of my waistcoat pockets when I went to wash the usual one I still had the bus pass in the pocket. So I thought I'd lost myself a couple of weeks cover. Slowly managed to get the laminate to open and found out that the front part was visible, so the needed part still basically functioned.

Was thinking of possibly trying to stick card to back it and instead just thoughT i'd see if they'd relaminate it for me. They - the bus ticket office just took it and replaced it, got me to fill out a form and then replaced without charge.
So maybe this should go into the happy thread, but still can't believe I managed to stick the thing into the washing machine with the pass still in it.

it's a wonder I don't wind up in the hospital sometimes

carrying two mason jars, one in each hand. glasses slip down nose, don't think for a second that I could just wait to put the jars down. adjust glasses with one hand while still holding jars, bring hand down, one jar smashes the other jar and one jar breaks with part of my hand inside it

minor scratches, a little blood. but jesus fucking christ wtf is wrong with me

frankspencergrrrl

lol you're not kidding

some mothers do have veg

The whole time I was knitting at the yarn shop yesterday I was thinking "don't forget your magazine from the kitchen table when you leave!!"

So obviously I did.

It is good that it is a simple enough pattern that I don't need to see it to finish my project, but still.

Searching my pockets for my mobile phone while talking to someone on said phone has to be a new low for me.

That's up there with 'where are my glasses oh wait I'm wearing', which I've done a few times.

'wearing them' I mean.

Well if there was ever a thread on which to make a mistake like that, it's this one.

Sitting on train, rucksack and new camera in camera bag at feet, think to self "hey better not forget yr new camera when you get off the train!" Forgot my new camera when I got off the train. Fortunately I realised within 30 seconds and the train was terminating, ran to look through the window and the bloke sat next to me was getting up and noticed it, I made 'omg yes mine thanks!' gestures through the window and he handed it to me as he got off.

Does this sort of thing ever really get anyone down? I've been struggling a lot with my absent-mindedness lately. I work in the film industry at an equipment rental house, and all the stuff I know how to do means that I could potentially be a 1st Camera Assistant, a job which would allow me to travel a lot more and make more money, as well as have a much more flexible schedule and generally do more things I want to do. However, I'm so damned forgetful and prone to doing the wrong thing in little binary choices (turn the knob right or left, is "off" the O or the I on the switch) that I really can't do that job. It makes me incredibly sad and angry when I realize how little I can trust myself in these situations and I don't really know what to do about it.

Seems like you should be able to learn those little mechanical things, it's just like any other skill, right? Focussed repetition, directed practice, mnemonics if necessary. And I think you can train yourself to be better at not forgetting appointments and things to done. More general absent-mindedness like leaving shit on trains though, idk.

Actually if you treat "not leaving this bag on the train" as just a regular to-do list task then I think you can get better at that. The way I deal with remembering appointments and tasks is that it's no good just to say to yourself e.g. "remember to go to the shops after work". You have to visualise doing the task - or rather, visualise the moment when you would break from your normal routine to do the task. So if there is some point where you would turn left to go to the shops instead of right to go home, visualise that moment. Repeat it over and over in your mind for as long as you can until you go nuts or until, more likely, you naturally stop and think of something else. You'll probably find it popping into your head again during the day, which is good and you can rehearse it a bit more. Then when the moment finally comes, or even before, you'll have primed yourself to remember to do what you have to do. So in the leaving shit on train example, when you get on the train just rehearse in your head picking up *all* your bags when you get off.

The minor flaw in this plan is that you might forget that you actually have something to remember! Or forget to even use the technique. But I think as you use it more it does come more naturally.

given that i did actually leave shit on the train i'm still learning.

It's not a matter of training or knowing the right thing, unfortunately. For example, the O on a switch indicates that it's off. Because it's an open circuit. The I indicates on because it's a completed circuit. I've known this since my dad taught me how to do A/V stuff when I was a little kid. This is something I've practiced and been conscious of more than half my life. Yet yesterday I stared straight at a switch that was on, thought I had it right, and plugged in the light, throwing a 1000 watt light in my coworkers' eyes. Not even close to the first time I've done this. Which isn't like an "oh he's just a little spacey" kind of thing in this industry, it's "scream at that man and never hire him again, he's going to get someone hurt."

;_; sorry man i have no better tips for you. can't believe this is an insoluble problem though.

maybe you need to come up with a new mnemonic to help you remember. if it's been happening a lot. sometimes we unlearn things and you just have to dig in and do the work to help your old brain remember again. but I know mnemonics aren't for everyone so ignore at will :)

but more importantly, give yourself a moment before you flip the siwtch next time. maybe you're just rushing yourself too much with that one thing because you *should* know it, and you've got a kind of anxiety about it now. you know how to do it, it's just buried under the static your brain is throwing you. take a moment, draw a deep breath, and dig back into your memory file it'll come. give your brain time to catch up maybe?