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AskMe: How to become an eccentric (or just look like one)

Suggest eccentricities for me to adopt | Ask MetaFilter

From a fun AskMe thread:

In my quest to become more distinctive, I'm looking for suggestions of harmless eccentricities to adopt. Who better than the MeFi hive mind to provide them? Anecdotes of eccentric folk you've known in the past welcome.

This reminds me of that stage where teenage girls randomly start to affect a terrible british accent, or when college freshmen suddenly stop wearing shoes and take up raw foods and the shakuhachi. Of course, this is not to say that I haven't had ideas of my own.

’Fess up: what was your goofiest affectation and what made you stop it?

Clarification (2006-07-15 10:20:20): The "In my quest..." portion above is a quotation from the link that is referenced; it's not actually me asking for help to (God forbid) become more eccentric. This confused some people, and, well, I regret your confusion if you have any and hope this clarification helps. -- The Management

kevin's picture

In response to Rhea's comment...

In response to Rhea's comment about writing titles of films or books you want to remember in a pocket notebook, when I do that on a Blackberry, people just think I'm addicted. When I use paper, it's a charming affectation.

In response to Wayne's comment about wearing watches on the right wrist, I have worn a watch on alternate wrists on alternate days. I think I was allergic to the metal in the band, but I liked wearing that watch, and no one seemed to notice.

It seems like writing small is an extremely popular eccentricity. I find that my writing is much neater when it is smaller; it gets harder to read when I write larger. Of course, that means that I need to always carry fine point pen.

 
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