talkmagic.co.uk

Rather than take Paul Brook's thread off topic, I thought I'd start this one.

Tomo wrote:

daleshrimpton wrote:it may even be the chinese, who have a fondness for the number 9.

Don't you mean the number eight?

Indeed, it is eight but nine will do. But we don't like the number four; when I was house hunting a few years ago, I instructed all estate agents not to bother telling me about new houses on the market if they had a four in the door number. I wouldn't even look at them. Got some weird looks, but we all have our thing. After all, westerners don't like the number thirteen. For example, my father-in-law won't have thirteen people around the dinner table.

What superstitions do you lot have?

Apart from the number four thing, I'm not that superstitious. And I know deep down that my thing for four is completely irrational but it's how I was brought up and it was drummed into me as a youngster. But I'll happily walk under a ladder or break a mirror without a worry that Lady Luck has forsaken me.

the reason i said nine, was in a brief google search, i came across a refference to chinese numerology. it had nine chapters, each containing nine rules, about the number nine.




Although why anybody would want to write all that up about number nine, ( Mushu pork in my local take away) is beyond me!

I've noticed that the harder I work, the luckier I get.

Freud spent a good proportion of his adult life convinced number 62 was following him. It's probably all the coke he snorted.

There's a very powerful psychological principle that serves as a good way of understanding some superstitions: The Illusion of Control. It's been studied in depth and it's very easily exploited by handing to a spectator as much apparent control over an effect as possible.


Edit: I seem to have forgotten how to write.

69 is good - so they tell me....

Mandrake wrote:69 is good - so they tell me....

But only after a wash, otherwise it's more like 96.

I bow to your superior experience in such matters !

Don't you know it's unlucky to be superstitious?

Well I suffer from OCD pretty bad although it's not known superstitions that affect me it's my own personal superstitions (e.g If I don't touch this piece of wood something bad will happen) that affect my life constantly from day to day,hour to hour,minute to minute and even seconds to seconds. It's quite a bummer really.

lindz wrote:Well I suffer from OCD pretty bad although it's not known superstitions that affect me it's my own personal superstitions (e.g If I don't touch this piece of wood something bad will happen) that affect my life constantly from day to day,hour to hour,minute to minute and even seconds to seconds. It's quite a bummer really.

I've overcome most of my "things", but my OCDT still dictates that my books, DVDs and CDs all face the same way.

Tomo wrote:

lindz wrote:Well I suffer from OCD pretty bad although it's not known superstitions that affect me it's my own personal superstitions (e.g If I don't touch this piece of wood something bad will happen) that affect my life constantly from day to day,hour to hour,minute to minute and even seconds to seconds. It's quite a bummer really.

I've overcome most of my "things", but my OCDT still dictates that my books, DVDs and CDs all face the same way.

presumably towards your face whilst your reading them.

I've got a lucky dalmation pin that I bought when I was about 13. I always wear it at any exam, test or job interview that I do and when ever I have worn it I've never failed the exam or not got the job.

I see the number 23 everywhere after reading Robert Anton Wilson's book Cosmic Trigger. (Long before that awful movie staring Jim Carrey) I know its a self made obsession but I still love spotting it, pointing it out and annoying the c*** (not the best) out my roommates. I didn't even pick my house (I was away when the decision was made) and still ended up at 23 H***** T****** (don't fancy posting my full address online)

Of course its a lot easier when you include the numbers 32, 230, 5 (2+3), 6(2x3), 8 (2 to the power of 3) and the letters V (roman for five) and W (23rd letter of the Alpert and has two points below and three points above, also look at what 2 letters are above W on your keyboard)

I also believe in Sods law and use it to my advantage, whenever I'm waiting for a bus I just roll a cigarette, and sure enough as soon as its done my bus arrives (except for the times it doesn't, but then I kill the time with a smoke so its win win).
Oh and I believe in fairies and Father Christmas. (no, not joking)

But at the same time I don't 'believe' in anything, I just don't dismiss things just because they're not strictly true.

I don't have any superstitions as such but I'm heavilly involved in theatre so I make sure to say McBeth and Good Luck as often as possible.

I am such an ass!

daleshrimpton wrote:

Tomo wrote:I've overcome most of my "things", but my OCDT still dictates that my books, DVDs and CDs all face the same way.

presumably towards your face whilst your reading them.

No.

Lady of Mystery wrote:I've got a lucky dalmation pin that I bought when I was about 13. I always wear it at any exam, test or job interview that I do and when ever I have worn it I've never failed the exam or not got the job.

There's a homeless guy who panhandles the park that most students walk through on the way to uni - my friend gives him a fiver on the way to exams so "God will make me pass" The lucky tramp has never failed him yet...

Next time Lommy, don't bother preparing for the exams in any way, just go out and get lashed. Then we'll see how lucky that dalmation is

I also have started to use Sod's Law to my advantage - I noticed that, despite feeling like I spend my life in traffic jams, if you ever try to just focus for 15 seconds on sending a text message in the car* you can guarantee the traffic will move. So now, if I'm stuck in a jam, I'll try to text someone and ta-da...


*If there are any officers of the law here, obviously this is a total joke. I would never be stupid or irresponsible enough to use my phone in the car...