Friday, December 12, 2008

Odd about numbers


The title of the video was appropriately named: The Bail Out Explained. Besides the humor factor tied into the bail out I liked the video for a different reason. For years I have had an odd love affair with numbers. When I was around 8 I became obsessive compulsive about Odd numbers being good luck and Even numbers bad luck.

The extent of this compulsion started with how many I would eat of something, one cookie not two; if I had peas on my plate I would have to count them so I would know when I reached an odd number. The obsession then escalated to how many bites I would take; I remember almost choking when I realized that I could not get something down in one bite, but it was too small to take 3 bites… just weird stuff.

Then I started counting how many steps I would take. If there was pavement I would either have to take a big step just to touch each square once, or take really tiny steps so that I touched 3 times.

With jewelry if I took off a ring I would then have to put it back on take it of put it on –a number of 3 always.

I finally grew out of the odd number thing and then went into a phase of fascination about coincidence with numbers; ah let me explain. Taking a stack of envelops out and then stuffing invoices in. If the envelops, picked at random, matched exactly the number of invoices then that was good, if it did not match; it was not bad; just not good. Random sequences of numbers are also something that caught my attention. 3366: because 3+3 = 6 so that would be 666; or even when invoicing being the one to get to the even number first 10599 yeah mine is 10600.

Well I could go on and on but that might get a bit boring. I never realized that the sequence of 25 and 14 could be pondered with such entertainment.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh god, this must be what I sound like.

Raspootin said...

Hello maybe you sound it but I used to live it.

I hate that Jack movie because it reminds me of what I used to be and what I could have become.

I will never really know what got me out of the odd/even thing, but whatever it was, and it was not human like my parents, I solute it.

Maybe my mind does great feats when needed? So then is your mind human or is it spiritual

yellowdoggranny said...

that's the way i am about numbers..except mine is the number 7 or variables of 7..14, 21, etc..my nicknacks have to be in goups of 7...i count the amount of people in a scene on tv...if there is only 6 then i count myself to make it seven...fuck..when i read this it sounds weirder than I thought..haha

BrightBoy said...

I have OCD and I definitely do a lot of things like that, but it was worse when I was younger.

unokhan said...

lived in an apartment nextdoor to a guy who, whenever he came home, always turned his kitchen faucet on-off-on-off-on-off --prollee a certain # of times, i never counted-- until he had completed his ritual. it seemed to me akin to common superstitions like sidewalk crack-overstepping and over-the-shoulder salt-throwing but i can see how it could become a problem if allowed to spiral into some sort of idiosyncratic high mass

Raspootin said...

YDgrand, Yeah I think it is weird, but it would seem a lot of people are a little odd when you start to really get to know them.

B boy, I am so much better now than when younger. I am just surprised my parents never caught on to what I was doing.

Uno - yes, without a doubt it is superstitious in nature.

thimscool said...

Now it all makes sense.

Golden Beatle said...

I'm partial to the number three.

I'm partial to the number three.

I'm partial to the number three.

unokhan said...

"When you believe in things that you dont understand, then you suffer"

Raspootin said...

thimscool: Now you can blame everything on MY number craziness

Golden: glad ya get it
glad ya get it
glad ya get it

uno: a very appropriate quote