Five Weird Habits

Ling the Merciless has tagged me with the Five Weird Habits meme. In which I reveal five allegedly weird habits that I possess, and then tag five other folks with the same meme.

It took me a while to think of five weird habits, since they don’t seem very weird to me. And, now that I think about them, I don’t know whether they’re weird or merely pathetic. You be the judge.

1. I’ve never watched a Super Bowl or attended a Super Bowl party. (This one seems especially relevant this week.) I don’t even know who’s playing this year.

For a few years, on Super Bowl Sunday, Kathy and I made a point of attending the ballet as a form of cultural protest against this annual rite of drunkenness and spouse abuse. It was easy to get to the auditorium because the roads were empty, and the theater was always filled with mothers and their daughters, all of whom seemed very happy to be there.

2. Because of arthritis in my back and hips, I find it painful to sleep in a reclining position. I sleep most of the night in an easy chair, and then move to the bed when the chair grows uncomfortable.

3. I’ve been doing roleplaying games with the same group of people, more or less, for something like 25 years. My current campaign is set in the late Roman Republic and has been running since 1996.

For a while I thought it was odd that despite being an SF and fantasy writer, I don’t for the most part do fantasy or science fiction games. Then I realized that science fiction is work, and I game to get away from work.

4. Despite #3 above, I’m always working. Even when I’m reading a book or watching TV or talking to my friends, some part of me is always working on ideas, characters, plot points, and pacing. Because of this constant churning in my backbrain, I’ve outlined more books than I will ever write in this lifetime, and I’ve forgotten more books than I’ve ever outlined. Some of them end up as RPGs because I know I’ll never write them.

Kathy has stated that often when she talks to me she has to wait for the signal to bounce back from the Moon before I reply. It’s not the Moon, it’s the Fictionsphere.

5. When there’s a television on in a room, I can’t help but watch it. My eyes are drawn to it like a rabbit hypnotized by a snake. I absolutely can’t help myself, not even if the program is awful or the sound is turned off. Not even if the set is in the back of an Asian restaurant silently broadcasting Vietnamese karaoke videos. If there’s a bright screen somewhere with things moving on it, my eyes lock right onto it. I haven’t done the experiment to see if I’ll actually watch a TV turned to a dead channel, because I don’t want to know the answer.

If you want me to pay attention to you, for God’s sake turn off the TV. (I never have the TV on when company is in the house. What are you thinking?)

The meme now requires me to tag some of you so that you’ll post your own Five Weird Habits. But this is a new blog and, quite frankly, I don’t know any of you well enough to impose on you that way. So if you feel you have weird habits worth discussing, by all means discuss them somewhere and link back to here. Or post your essay here.

I have a feeling that some of you are a lot weirder than I am. So feel free to discuss yourself on my nickel. I promise I’ll turn off the TV.