Something you probably didn’t know: “Bad Habit” was considered as a title for this site. Turns out it was in use too frequently elsewhere so it didn’t make the final list of candidates.

Anyway, so I have been tagged by Barry. Here are the rules:

The first player of this game starts with the topic “five weird habits of yourself,” and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don’t forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says “You have been tagged” (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.

As most of you know, I usually decline to forward these things largely because by the time they get to my little corner of blogland, most everybody has already partaken. But five habits is something I can come up with pretty easily.

1. I only cash my paychecks every six weeks. Drives Clancy crazy, but I let them accumulate in my desk until I have three and then I go cash them. More than one former employer has tried to use this as evidence that I am well-paid if I can comfortably go without cashing my checks right away. This every-six-weeks thing is actually an improvement. I used to only cash checks once I got around to it. In the meantime paychecks would get lost and I would forget about them. When I departed one former employer, they cut me a check for nearly $2,500 (in addition to my severence package) because the accounting department said that I had declined to cash that amount in paychecks (it was an $8/hr job… I think that was something five paychecks). The state of Delosa still owes me $150 from unclaimed checks, but I haven’t had time to jump through hoops in order to reclaim that money. Given recent discussions with Clancy, I don’t think this little habit of mine is going to last much longer.

2. I set the alarm to go off even when it’s a weekend and I don’t have to get up. If I’m going to be able to sleep in then dag-nabbit I’m surely going to be able to appreciate it by pointing out to myself whenever I would have to get up anyway. My ultimate goal is to get up as early on weekends as I do during the week. Right now I get up at 6am… that may be stretching it. Maybe when I only have to get up at 7.

3. I don’t put my seatbelt on until I’m moving the car forward. In other words, if I’m pulling out of a parking spot I go in reverse, put my seatbelt on, then start driving forward.

4. When choosing sides for a bed, I always insist on the side furthest from the door. Doesn’t matter whether it’s by a wall or not by a wall, on the right side of the left… I just want the side furthest away from the door. Similarly, I strongly dislike having my computer situation so that I am facing away from the entrance to a room, though that’s how it is set up presently.

5. You ever seen Natural Born Killers? There was a routine in there where Juliette Lewis’s family was presented as a sitcom (Rodney Dangerfield as “Dad”). They bleeped out some cusswords and yet left others untouched (the movie was irredeemably rated “R”). I am like that sometimes. I don’t have a problem with cussing, but as often as not I blurt out rated-PG censor cusswords. My “F” word is Frag as often as it is the real thing. I am also really prone to say “Good grief!” and “Good golly” and “Holy heck.” This is less unusual in Deseret than it is in the South, though. One common expression up here is “Oh My Hell”… I have yet to pick up that one. When I first met Clancy, one expression I used was “Dag nabbit!” which she found hilarious because it was considered an “acceptable curseword” for a card game. She had never heard anyone use it in any other context. I picked it up from a coach/teacher from high school. I even usually say it with a thicker-than-usual southern accent because that’s what he had.