Doing daft things without thinking

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 Pefa 07 Jan 2020

A good few weeks ago I was sitting on the sofa reading a very lengthy article on my phone. About half way into the article I read to the bottom of what was on my screen but instead of scrolling up with my finger to read more my finger and thumb went up to the top right hand corner of my phone and grabbed the top corner of a non existent page to turn it over.

Luckily no one seen me so fine, then last night I'm fully engrossed in a philosophical book im reading and put my finger on the page then moved my finger up the page to scroll it up.

They better get a comfy chair ready for me at the local care home. 

1
 WaterMonkey 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

I’ve tried to zoom in on a photo in a magazine once with my fingers!

1
russellcampbell 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

Don't know how old you are but such occurrences increase with age. Known as "senior moments."

 Tom Valentine 07 Jan 2020
In reply to russellcampbell:

It must be quite common with people who have digital cameras of varying ages, some relying on knobs and buttons while upgraded versions are touchscreen controlled.

And not as drastic as misfuelling your car.

Post edited at 09:04
 tlouth7 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

I was doing some woodwork on Sunday and had my phone on the bench as I was listening to a podcast. I cut off a piece of 3 by 2 and calmly picked up my phone and attempted to sand the cut end of the wood with it.

Also in my professional life I use 3D CAD a lot. It is common to take screenshots of models and email them to people. I regularly find myself trying to rotate a model for quite a long time before realising that I am looking at a jpeg within outlook.

Post edited at 09:09
 Timmd 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

I bought some things with chip and pin while tired recently, then tried to open my back door by presenting my card to it five minutes later. 

Post edited at 09:14
 Rog Wilko 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

More than once tried to open the front door with the car remote key button. Never works.

 Rog Wilko 07 Jan 2020
In reply to russellcampbell:

> Don't know how old you are but such occurrences increase with age. Known as "senior moments."

Also there are junior moments. Best one I heard about was the mum giving her toddler a biscuit. Child tried the touch screen enlarging action on the biscuit.

 DancingOnRock 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

56% of the actions and activities we carry out on a daily basis are done through unconscious habit. We don’t think about very many things that we do. 

 Calvi 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Rog Wilko:

> More than once tried to open the front door with the car remote key button. Never works.


I've frequently done this with my tent.

Post edited at 10:20
 wercat 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Calvi:

best thing I recall was on the road down to Armadale near a dwelling at a narrow point on the road.

pulled in as another car was coming through.  Cat waiting to cross the road so the other motorist stopped politely and flashed lights for the cat to cross.  Cat still sat there blissfully unaware of "the headlight code".

Post edited at 10:39
 Snyggapa 07 Jan 2020
In reply to wercat:

Cats are aware, they just choose not to obey

 Hat Dude 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Calvi:

> I've frequently done this with my tent.

You've just rattled the cages of some marketing execs at tent manufacturers ;-(

 Blue Straggler 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

More than once, I've almost (but not quite) started to think about doing a Google search for misplaced keys or spectacles. 

 Timmd 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Blue Straggler:

> More than once, I've almost (but not quite) started to think about doing a Google search for misplaced keys or spectacles. 

I nearly suspected my sis in law's cat of having moved some keys I was looking for, I knew it was irrational but it was a last resort.

When I think about it, that being true wouldn't have helped in finding them.

Edit: I'm sure I realised that without thinking about it.

Post edited at 11:20
In reply to Pefa:

I noticed recently that I automatically capitalise 'Nose' when referring to the facial feature...

 wintertree 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

I normally read on my phone in the bath with a dim screen and the lights out - relaxing.  I’ve recently started re-reading my complete Robert Heinlein collection which is all paper.  For the first week I’d turn the lights out and stare at the invisible paper in puzzlement for a few moments.

1
 kathrync 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

Relatively frequent ones:

Tried to use my mobile phone/hairbrush/glasses case/anything lying on my desk which is approximately the right shape and size as a mouse.

Tried to copy something on my laptop and paste it on my desktop.

Try to swipe into my house with my door access card for work, or try to use my door access card for contactless payments.

One from the other day:

My colleague accidentally put his computer into cyrillic.  Tried to use the help function to fix it - didn't understand what I was typing or the answer.  So defaulted to Google instead with similar results.

 henwardian 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

There is a whole interesting psychology thing going on there with your brain selecting incorrect schemas. Same thing happens when you step out of the shower in the morning and put your pyjamas on, or put your trainers on before going out to work, or get undressed in the bathroom when you were there to go to the toilet.

I actually get quite entertained when I make these errors.

Here's something else to consider: Your brain is pretty prone to all sorts of errors, at least you can detect and correct the above ones. All optical illusions are examples of errors that you may not be able to detect and you usually will be completely unable to correct. How about auditory hallucinations? Ever wanted someone to turn off that machine in your basement that makes a constant extremely high pitched whistle?

So if you can see and hear things that aren't there, do actions you have no control over and a whole host of other things, why believe in anything? Do you think you are you reading my words on a screen right now? Maybe there are no words and no screen... Maybe we are inside your head.... are you talking to yourself? maybe you and you should sit down for some tea.... mmmmm tea.....

Post edited at 11:38
 WaterMonkey 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

And how many of us have blown onto ice cream before eating it? 

 Mark Edwards 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

I had a day as an extra. I was body doubling one of the actors so had my bald head covered with an approximation of his hair. After shooting makeup spent about an hour softening the glue with surgical spirit and carefully removing each piece. They told me to go home and have a shower to wash the glue off. At no time did they say not to wear my motorcycle helmet on the way home.

 wercat 07 Jan 2020
In reply to henwardian:

I have had aural illusions recently - an ear infection, still current, put me into a state where when I rolled over in bed and perceived the stopping of roll to be the bed violently  tilting up at about 45 degrees to roll me off.  Alarming!

yesterday I just stopped short of spreading some ointment cream on to my toothbrush in my groggie state

Post edited at 12:41
 ALF_BELF 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

10 years ago I was on a trip to Honduras, we were on the island of Utila, we were skint and the only vehicle we could afford to rent for the 4 of us was a golf cart. We had a great time driving down some jungle paths and then stumbled upon a stretch of tarmac. 

We did think this it was odd but proceeded to drive down it having a good old laugh.. after a minute of opening up the golf cart and seeing what it could do (15mph) we saw a small passenger plane hurtling towards us! Turns out it was a runway. Yikes! Good times 

 althesin 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

The King of doing daft things without thinking, David Cameron.

mick taylor 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

Anusol instead of toothpaste

 colinakmc 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

This is an immensely reassuring thread. Not that I do anything like that.....oh, hang on a minute....

 Pyreneenemec 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

More often than not, you come over as a most annoying tw@t, but this time I gave you a "like". Must be the New Year

2
 Wingnut 07 Jan 2020
In reply to kathrync:

>>Tried to copy something on my laptop and paste it on my desktop.

I do that quite a lot. Probably because I spend a lot of time at work copying and pasting between remote sessions on different machines.

 kathrync 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Wingnut:

> I do that quite a lot. Probably because I spend a lot of time at work copying and pasting between remote sessions on different machines.

Yes, me too. I also have multiple monitors on my local machine. It is easy to lose sight of where the boundaries are!

 wercat 07 Jan 2020
In reply to mick taylor:

not quite as bad as that, fortunately, but it would have left a messy and unpleasant taste

 Bob Kemp 07 Jan 2020
In reply to mick taylor:

> Anusol instead of toothpaste

Which way round? Not that either sounds particularly attractive...

 profitofdoom 07 Jan 2020
In reply to ALF_BELF:

> We did think this it was odd but proceeded to drive down it having a good old laugh.. after a minute of opening up the golf cart and seeing what it could do (15mph) we saw a small passenger plane hurtling towards us! Turns out it was a runway.... 

Me and some friends did exactly that in the 70s - unwittingly drove on to a runway at a small airfield in the South West and were just thinking oooh look at those funny road markings and errr what are those wide stripes and numbers in the road..... then in the sky ahead we suddenly saw a small plane on landing approach, towards us - that was a quick exit. True story

 hokkyokusei 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

A few months ago the low tyre pressure light came on in my car and I thought "not worth a special trip to the petrol station, I'll do it next time I fill up". Several weeks later I remembered I drive a Tesla.

 Timmd 07 Jan 2020
In reply to wercat:

I've been thinking about the cat being flashed to cross the road for most of the day, it's a pleasing image.  

Post edited at 18:26
 buzby 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

Two things I've done more than once is, one tried to use my access security card from work to gain access to my house instead of my keys and two leaned over to the car radio to rewind it to listen again to something I've missed as you would with sky TV.

not proud of either moment's . 

 Martin W 07 Jan 2020
In reply to buzby:

> leaned over to the car radio to rewind it to listen again to something I've missed as you would with sky TV.

You can do that with some DAB radios.

 Clarence 07 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

I got in the shower this morning and slapped a huge dollop of shampoo on my head. I then washed it off and got the hairdryer out. That would have been sensible last week when I had shoulder length hair but I had a grade 2 all over at the weekend, I can dry my barnet with a chamois.

I also poke myself between the eyes a lot when I am wearing contacts, attempting to alter the focus on non-existant spectacles.

 Blue Straggler 07 Jan 2020
In reply to kathrync:

> Tried to copy something on my laptop and paste it on my desktop.

This one is fairly rare. However I have laptop at work with a second monitor to the right, and I have an imaging system that has two PCs hidden in a cabinet each feeding its own monitor, the monitors being left-right adjacent. And they have a shared SSD and share a lot of data between them, so although I don’t do the copy-paste thing, I often expect the mouse pointer to cross from one monitor to the other 

> My colleague accidentally put his computer into cyrillic. 

 

> Tried to use the help function to fix it - didn't understand what I was typing or the answer.  So defaulted to Google instead with similar results.

How was this resolved? I have a dim recollection of doing similar but I can’t remember the solution 

 Donotello 08 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

Last year i had to deliver something to a friend but drove well past their house to my girlfriends. I realised my error and turned around and drove well past again the other way and ended up back on my street. Realised my error and turned around and before i knew it I had driven to my girlfriends again. 

 Donotello 08 Jan 2020
In reply to Pefa:

Also, last month, drove from my place in Bristol to Keynsham late at night to drop off a deposit at a tattoo shop (30 minute drive) - got there, parked up, I’ve forgotten my wallet. 
 

Drove back to Bristol, got my wallet, back on the road again, 30 mins later (so 1.30hr so far) - park up, walk to the tattoo shop - roller shutter, no door, no letter box.
 

Back home I go tail between my legs having to get up the next morning to make the return journey yet again. 

 kathrync 08 Jan 2020
In reply to Blue Straggler:

> How was this resolved? I have a dim recollection of doing similar but I can’t remember the solution 

Googled on my phone and applied the suggested fix to the computer. It wasn't hard - if I remember there was an icon somewhere that we had missed which gave access to the right menu.

 kathrync 08 Jan 2020
In reply to Clarence:

> I got in the shower this morning and slapped a huge dollop of shampoo on my head. I then washed it off and got the hairdryer out. That would have been sensible last week when I had shoulder length hair but I had a grade 2 all over at the weekend, I can dry my barnet with a chamois.

I usually wash my hair first thing in the morning in a groggy half-awake state.  It is not uncommon to find myself standing in the shower trying to remember if I have already washed my hair this morning or not.  I am pretty sure I wash it twice some days and not at all on other days.

 wercat 08 Jan 2020
In reply to Timmd:

I take it as concrete evidence of the existence of a "motorist mindset" in which all external reality is altered and filtered and common sense may be relegated to backing storage

In reply to Pefa:

I took my daughter to school dressed as a mermaid for world book day....one week too early


New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...