BS: Things only YOU notice

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 12 Feb 20 - 01:00 PM

leenia - many a times you must have had to turn a blind ear
to a muffled fart in the library, or church...

"The vicar's been on the chilli beans again..."

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: leeneia
Date: 12 Feb 20 - 12:53 PM

Hi, Senoufou. I've been bothered by your first post. I doubt if you are on the autism spectrum, because you post coherent and sociable posts here on the Mudcat. And you are interested in people, as shown by the attention you've paid to your husband's jokes.

As for noticing tiny sounds, that probably means you have good hearing. Since you probably never worked around noisy machinery and never put earphones on and blasted rock music, you have preserved your hearing.

I believe you used to teach school children. Now there's a job that will sharpen your hearing - a sudden sharp sound, no matter how soft, means that a pupil may be doing something naughty. I used to work in public libraries, and library staff develops the same skill. Trucks may roar by, babies may scream, but the sound of tearing paper galvanizes the staff.

I've been on the Building & Grounds Committee of two aged churches, and that's another thing that develops acuity. When there's a sharp crackle, I'm examining the ceiling.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Senoufou
Date: 12 Feb 20 - 10:00 AM

Haha yes Mo. My husband used to laugh at the many triangular warning signs around our village about deer crossing. He thought it very funny to say, "Oh dear!" until I could stand it no more and the 'joke' was banned!
Here in Norfolk we have many mad signs, such as 'Turn Right Twice' and Nowhere Lane, not to mention Fustyweed, a village next door to ours.
Most folk take no notice, but I always smile a bit.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Mo the caller
Date: 12 Feb 20 - 09:22 AM

I notice ambiguities. The road sign Heavy Plant Crossing always has me looking for triffids or ents.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: mayomick
Date: 11 Feb 20 - 04:09 PM

All year round I see Santas,lightbulbs and reindeers waiting for the end of Halloween and electricity

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 11 Feb 20 - 12:32 PM

I notice it's always the poster before me who kills a thread...

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: meself
Date: 11 Feb 20 - 11:08 AM

Oh - another thing I notice is how often I kill threads. If anyone else noticed, I would long ago have been barred from several internet fora/ums.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: meself
Date: 10 Feb 20 - 08:18 PM

There are lots of things I don't notice - don't ask me what the price of gas is, even though I just filled up. However, I do have a degree of 'situational awareness' relating to my physical safety. Nobody's going to get the drop on me at an ATM, for example. They might rob me, but it won't be because I didn't see them coming. As a young man, I developed the habit of glancing around when I entered a bar, and identifying potential threats - and finding a seat against the wall. Etc., etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Feb 20 - 08:14 PM

She did a damn fine job!

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 10 Feb 20 - 08:00 PM

I proof-read for all of my family: my husband is moderately dyslexic but writes match reports for his rugby club every week, which go on the club website, so it's good to be accurate. He also wrote a book, and I checked all that, but was only shown the text, not the photo captions: after the book was published, there it was, sticking out like a sore thumb, under one of the pictures - Rhodydendrons! That's probably because that is how all of his family pronounce the name of said plant!
My kids too, although now well into adulthood, still ask me to read over anything important they have written: they went through school at a time when being over-strict with spelling, punctuation and grammar was frowned upon as suppressing their freedom of expression and creativity!
My mother was a teacher of English and made sure all my SPG was correct!

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Feb 20 - 05:41 PM

Brilliant, Bill...

Worryingly, I've started to notice grammatical errors creeping into the Guardian. Back to the good old days, eh!

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Mr Red
Date: 10 Feb 20 - 04:13 PM

I actually go through the Daily Mail and correct their errors

Yes but who is going to correct their errors in reportage? (!-)

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Feb 20 - 03:12 PM

Yeah, I notice spelling and grammar errors too... and various other things mentioned above: but because of years of philosophy and logic classes, I see the egregious flaws in reasoning so many use to defend or promote their ideas and attack the ideas of others. The problem is: It takes 5 times as long to explicate the basis for criticizing logical errors than to make them! Then the perpetrator simply dismisses my efforts with more of the same.

My other habit, because of years of working in grocery stores in high school & college is noticing prices and the changes over the years. It even began when I was in 1st grade in 1946! The pedal cart ice cream vendor came down our street in New Orleans, and fudgesicles and popsicles were 6¢. One day it was 7¢! I was insulted... and even though there was no way to raise the price without making it a penny more, the % of increase was huge! Now??? Well, I can barely stand grocery aisles with most of the prices ending in .99. I KNOW that a company calculates its costs and overhead and has a certain expectation of what it needs to make a fair profit. But if the retail price of an item needs to be, say, $1.73 to give them what they "need", you know it will usually be marked $1.99.
    Sometimes, if an item is normally around $3.50, a sale might be $2.99, but .99 is most often just a way to give them an extra edge and hide the fact because *shrug* people just expect most things to end in .99! And when I see a TV set for $999.99, they aren't gonna get ME to think..."Gee... it's under $1000." And car for sale at $29,999? Ha!
   I actually have the end of a roll of high-end paper towels from about 5 years ago that I saved when I 'noticed' that the new rolls were not as soft. Side-by-side comparison is clear.

.... well, even though I have wound down my business of woodworking and craft shows, I do still notice interesting piles of wood on the streets. "Gee, that looks like spalted Maple!" "No, Bill...you don't need it."


I also notice when sizes, volumes and quality diminish.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 10 Feb 20 - 11:35 AM

Considering the trend for couples to live-stream themselves on the internet
having sex while driving,
There must be instances when they are so distracted they have crashed,
or distracted other drivers into having accidents...???

All broadcast live to worldwide viewers, as evidence...

If a couple were killed and emergency services had to photo and extract
corpses in unseemly state of undress and positions;
That'd be a tough decision for cops what to tell the next of kin...

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 10 Feb 20 - 11:12 AM

I have noticed an absence of naked women on the highway. I hear truck drivers and road crew workers talking about getting flashed by female passengers (or even drivers) all the time, but it never happens to me.

I'm not saying I'm the only guy who's never been flashed, but I may be the only one who has actually noticed it.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Charmion
Date: 10 Feb 20 - 10:09 AM

As the primary driver of our twosome, I spend my time in the passenger seat practising what in convents is called "custody of the eyes". I notice anything and everything that moves, but my depth perception is wonky when I'm on that side of the car -- I'm blind in one eye and, therefore, lack the slightest schmick of stereoscopic vision.

Himself says I'm hyper-vigilant, which makes perfect sense. I think hyper-vigilance is a rather useful trait, if not particularly restful.

For the record, I have been driving since 1975 and have precisely three impacts on my record: I backed into a bulkhead in a parking garage (above the roofline until the critical last nano-second) and a stanchion beside a historical marker in Flanders (below the bottom edge of the back window), and I sideswiped the barrier around a tight roundabout on my first day of driving a clunky Vauxhall on the British side of the road.

Himself notices all cats and dogs. I'm better at noticing wildlife than he is, especially birds. He notices two kinds of birds: cardinals, and all the other ones.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Senoufou
Date: 10 Feb 20 - 08:21 AM

We have quite a little collection of homeless people we try to help if we can, with a small offering of cash. My husband is a 'noticer' too, and one of these chaps is sometimes at the huge Tesco store we use, looking at the trolleys to find one with a pound coin in that a customer has forgotten to retrieve. So sad.
Just yesterday, my husband leapt out of our car (we had loaded up our goods and were about to leave) brandishing a tenner. He'd spotted 'our' skinny little man miles away, and ran right across the large car park to get to him. Luckily, the man is used to this smiling black chap, and was pleased to see him.
Meanwhile, I was busy looking at a rather plump old lady pushing a loaded trolley, and wondering if I was as fat as that or not...

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 10 Feb 20 - 07:05 AM

I only notice what I need to see. When I'm driving, I will see the blue flashing lights of emergency vehicles way in the distance; the pedestrian using the crossing; the motor bike waiting to turn out of a side street. What I don't see is the car on its roof in the farmer's field. Why would I need to see it? It's not in my way!

If I need a pen, I search through the drawer where we keep odd bits of stationery. Eventually, I find the pen elsewhere and ask my wife where I might find a ruler, only to be told that it is in the drawer that I have only just been looking through ..... but I wasn't looking for a ruler at the time - I was looking for a pen. I didn't see the ruler.

Once, I was walking on a city street with friend, much more observant than me, when he suddenly stopped and said "Look! An owl". What owl? Where? It was right next to us, sitting on top of a telegraph pole. My eyes never ventured above street level. I like to walk in the coutry but by the time I see a bird, unless it hangs around, it's normally too late for me to identify it. Even when things are pointed out, if they are at all camouflaged, I struggle to see them.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Feb 20 - 05:15 AM

I notice everything, everywhere, all the time, then forget to take the right turning, or even forget where I was supposed to be going. Trees, flowers, birds, clouds, hills. I'm rapidly learning how to spot speed cameras at three hundred paces. I have this irritating habit of suddenly pulling up and jumping out of the car to take a cloud photo. I also do DMcG's counting thing. I love it when someone criticises someone else's grammar or spelling then makes their own mistakes for me to pounce on. I absolutely hate it when people say things such as "razed to the ground," "he was at the epicentre...", "it grew to a resounding crescendo," "prior to" or "albeit". And I still don't know whether those commas should go inside or outside those speech marks. Please don't tell me. I love uncertainty.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Senoufou
Date: 10 Feb 20 - 03:42 AM

Oh yes, BobL, and they get a Detention and have to stand in the Naughty Corner for ages! (Best place for the Daily Mail really isn't i? I only buy it for the double page of puzzles)

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: BobL
Date: 10 Feb 20 - 02:18 AM

But do you send it back to them, Sen, with marks out of ten?

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Senoufou
Date: 09 Feb 20 - 02:55 PM

I think being a retired teacher means I'm always on the lookout for spelling and grammar mistakes in any text. I actually go through the Daily Mail and correct their errors with a red pen! I know this is weird, but I find it very satisfying!

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Feb 20 - 02:52 PM

WOW a 10 piece blast of brass was a brash smash

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 09 Feb 20 - 02:17 PM

My dad got a rousing blast of Peanut Vendor by the Stan Kenton band

as his coffin entered the cremation...

That's our family's sense of humour...
Fortunately everyone else attending could see it our way...

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: peteglasgow
Date: 09 Feb 20 - 02:12 PM

i like this thread. i find a constant need to pun and play with words. correct grammar etc. it's a bit of a curse really and i keep telling my self to shut up. i do notice many people who can't talk about anyone else but themelves and just can't listen or respond. i know we all do it but once i notice that someone is doing it i become a right irritable bugger. i hate it when people will not answer a simple question. and i hate the way that elected politicians will quite happily ruin the environment, ruin people's lives and start wars.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: DMcG
Date: 09 Feb 20 - 02:00 PM

A nice touch of black humour.

One of the singers at a club I went to was especially interested in music hall songs. ahe recorded some for his funeral, after around of year of cancer.

Pride of place went to
Ain't it grand/To be bloomin' well dead.

====÷=÷

I would hardly say I am unique in this but almost the instant I am in a theatre I have counted the seats in a row, looked how many rows and levels and so on, and formed a fair estimate of its capacity. If I go in a hotel, I do something similar. Or getting on a train It is hardly OCD but I have this 'numerical awareness' of where I am almost all the time.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Gurney
Date: 09 Feb 20 - 01:06 PM

The way many people drop the 'H' nowadays but allow for the vowel which follows it. It's an orrible thing to do. An urtful one, too, when I was a schoolboy.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: leeneia
Date: 09 Feb 20 - 12:22 PM

I notice babies and small children more than most people do, and I assess the way they are being treated. My husband is the same.

We both notice birds. A friend said to us, "You two can see birds out of the backs of your heads!"

From time to time, I get hurt by loud noises, but funnily enough, almost nobody ever sees me flinching, closing my eyes or covering my ears. Odd, that.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Feb 20 - 08:08 AM

When ressurecting some old talents to support veterans I noticed that I could not bring back a naivite' and a purity of confidence that were helpful in my youth. It is too easy for me to accept defeat now.

When I see self serving motives in people who believe they are entirely altruistic, I am more likely to address it, causing needless conflict.

These may be symptoms of crumudgeonitis.
I know Biden has it, Bernie might have it
but Pete is crumudgeon free.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Feb 20 - 06:38 AM

"&"? Bah. Belongs in "M&S", otherwise eschew.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Iains
Date: 09 Feb 20 - 06:02 AM

When communication is global, correcting grammar and spelling is a minor consideration. The name of the game is to be understood. I regard spelling or punctuation errors a minor inconvenience, the same as difficulities fully understanding Geordie or Nigerian English. In the days of globalism who sets the rules anyway? The greatest concentration of those using English as a first language is north america. Surely thay shouldset the rules!

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Feb 20 - 05:49 AM

And they were so easy to find once the book was in print....

This happens often when proofreading onscreen. When printed out locally the errors are more visible. When coming back from the printers, glaringly obvious.

My reasoning is that the more temporary/interim/changeable the less importance you put on the task of checking. It is psychological imperative. How final is the stage? The change of texture and subtle changes in the font certainly factor-in too.

Things I notice? minutia, detail. But then I am an engineer, and programmer, detail errors can be binary in their consequences.

Proofreading requires more grammatical &/or syntactical knowledge of language, not my forte! And certainly not on my own texts!

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 09:48 PM

Sandra, next time I work on a songbook, I'm going to recruit YOU for proofing....

Monique did a great job on French, Italian, and Spanish songs in Rise Again. On the Pete Seeger Songbook, I was on my own.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 08:33 PM

Well, Sandra, proofreading your latest post was hardly an edifying experience. Another time, perhaps...

I like the idea of seeing humour in everything. I went to London yesterday to the funeral of an amazing old lady who was a teacher in the East End at the same time as me and who I used to drive to work in the seventies. She never married, so never had kids and all that, but she was as far removed from the image of the staid old spinster school ma'am as you could wish to encounter. We had so many laughs back then at the expense of so many people that I feel sort of gleefully guilty.... Not too many folks at the funeral, but a lot more at the celebration the next day, and I can't tell you how many laughs we've had. A tear or two as well...

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 07:32 PM

I see humour in everything..

no matter how dark or despairing.

That is both strength and failing..

Nothing is off limits, no subject taboo..
It's a strain keeping a grim smile off my face,
and my mouth shut...

It is a constant awareness.....

I should have pursued a career in comedy,
but lacked all the necessary work ethic,
and other vital qualities such as arselicking networking, and talent..

At least some of my old school and student mates did go on
into sustained careers in media and entertainment [including politics..]...

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 07:22 PM

I am the Picky Proofreader (our motto - we aim to please other pedants) & pick up stray spaces & other typos. When I joined the Public Service after school in 1970 we had to sit a Clerical Selection Test & proofreading was part of it & I've done a lot of proofreading over the decades.

I'm putting off creating minutes as the minute taker always leaves spaces & LibreOffice shows them as blue squiggles (so they don't really count as proofreading) however my email doesn't so those spaces have to be found. Why the minute taker has to hit the spacebar several times when he also uses Return to get to a new paragraph is beyond me & as to why he sometimes puts a space before a full stop (period) is also beyond me ... (grumble, grumble)

Latest email from a friend who contributes articles to several newsletters only had 2 stray spaces & one missing capital! She got a gold star.

A few years back I was second proofreader on a book & found a few things the first proofreader missed. I hope no-one follows me & sees glaring mistakes!

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 07:01 PM

Now, if you want to talk about some things I DON'T notice, I look back in guilt at some really glaring mistakes I glossed over when proofreading. And they were so easy to find once the book was in print....

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 06:31 PM

Inconsistencies in song lyrics.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 06:19 PM

Ah, car number-plates: i invent mnemonics to help me remember mine and my husband's. My present one includes LD13 (Lethal Dose 13 - unlucky for some!) and his is GXP - (Great eXPense!)
I see' al'l tho'se s'tray apostrophe's that no-o'ne el'se se'es.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 05:46 PM

They all have that but I can't see it.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 05:09 PM

My prescription is etched on the lenses of my eyeglasses. Bugs the hell outa me.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 04:21 PM

Mo I know what you mean, pfr lol, Nigel thats terribly Welsh of you.
In the summer I can see those little scarlet micro mites.
I see a smidge in the UV spectrum, strong bright black to weak violet.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 03:27 PM

I don't know, maybe we share some, maybe we don't, but I wouldn't look too hard.

If we 'share some' then the premise of the thread title is false.

Time to close/delete?

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 11:42 AM

Didn't you just see that..???

I did...

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Senoufou
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 11:32 AM

I often notice things other people don't, especially various creatures in the fields on either side of the road when we're driving along. My husband of course is concentrating on his driving, but I see kestrels, foxes (even during the day!) a barn owl, muntjacs...
Just today I noticed the same little pied wagtail bird in the doorway of Morrisons supermarket. He's always there looking for scraps, but nobody seems to notice.
I also tend to make phrases out of car number plates (usually rude ones!) and I'm always the first to notice someone struggling in the supermarket to reach something on a high shelf.
I hear tiny sounds too.

My sister tells me this is a classic aspect of Aspergers, and that I'm on the autistic spectrum, which may well be true.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Mo the caller
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 09:31 AM

But maybe other people do notice and are just too polite to say.

Subject: RE: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 08:55 AM

The tattoo on the inside of my right eyelid

Subject: BS: Things only YOU notice
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 08:43 AM

I don't know, maybe we share some, maybe we don't, but I wouldn't look too hard.