Bonus if they didn't become tendencies until you read about them from someone else!

You know how when you open the seal on a jar of peanut butter the top is pristinely flat? I once read about someone who would always leave a piece of the top alone until the last possible moment. So, you always have a little pillar that goes all the way to the top with the top being "perfect" still. You can't disturb this piece when you're trying to get to the bottom of the jar.

I picked up this obsessive tendency sometime after reading that. I would never have thought to do it if I hadn't.

Whenever I'm reading something on a computer screen like a news item or a forum post, I highlight it as I read it.

hahah, really? Crap, that sounds like something I might start doing now.

I highlight when I read all the time. It seems to piss some people off.

Most of my obsessive tendencies have to do with walking on cracks in tiles and sidewalks. Like so

I can't stand having things selected. Whether it's icons on the desktop, lines of code or web links I clicked on, I always have to deselect.

When I wash dishes I have to cover every inch of the dish with soap or else I feel like it hasn't been washed. Same goes for rinsing.

I have to smell anything I take out of the fridge before I eat it, especially milk, cheese, cold cuts, and mayonnaise.

I have to adblock every ad I see on a page.

I can't start using a computer before I've arranged the desktop in my favorite layout.

Haha yeah, me too. I also hate having things in the clipboard. I frequently type an extra space then cut it to clear the clipboard.

Well, I'm always somewhat paranoid of having something nasty on my clipboard so I frequently copy /clear into it instead :|

I like to stalk unsuspecting victims and pounce on them while dressed in up like a big cartoony easter bunny of doom on a saturday evening, possibly sometimes on sundays and rarely on wednesdays, most generally around 8 or 9 PM sometimes until midnight eastern time when the young kids are in bed and the adults finally get some time off alone to watch tv and eat crackers and cheese before going to bed or doing other fun things so then I finally bust into the door and beat the crap out of the said parents and their crackers.

I cut my pancakes like one would cut a pie, pizza, or a cake. I stack them and cut them into an even 8 slices. I always thought this was the standard way to cut them until I got some weird looks one day from my friends at a diner.

I also do the highlighting text as I read.

why did have to say that, now I can't stop doing it

So, I am not alone.

Is it more of highlighting as your read, or sporadic highlighting of everything on the page? I tend to highlight anything and everything really fast. People reading over my should always ask me what the hell I am doing.

I used to cut my pancakes like that as well. I haven't done it in awhile though.

Modding JK.

Leg shaking.

Buying cream eggs.

Does Smoking count?

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

I constantly right click. Sometimes three or four times in quick succession, but mostly just slow single clicking. Most often I'll do it at the end of a text field I'm typing in to (like this quick reply box) or just wherever the cursor happens to be. Sometimes I'll bring it out to the desktop and click around there for a little bit. I do this so often that my right mouse button has more wear than the left.

Until I read this comic a few days ago, I thought I was the only person that did this. At least I'm not alone in the world?

I usually walk like that too - trying to establish a pattern with the lines on the sidewalk/floor.
I don't highlight as I read, but I do scroll constantly so that the line I'm reading is always close to the top of the window.
Oh, does pairing up left and right socks after every wash count as obsessive?

I trim my finger and toe nails pretty obsessively.

I masticate, constantly.

I'm so unoriginal.

While driving at night, I keep checking my headlight knob every once in a while to verify that it's really turned on.

Patting my pocket repeatedly to verify that I have my cards with me.

Leaving an empty food container or such that I just finished sitting in the middle of an otherwise perfectly clear surface to keep back the oppressive emptiness.

Whenever I fill a mug with water to nuke for tea, I have to sip from it first, sometimes refilling it and sipping again.

I always press the clear button on calculators multiple times. I know once is enough, but I strangely feel that the numbers "aren't gone...enough."

Haha, I do that one too, Echoman.

I also obsessively check the headlight knob while the lights are on.

When browsing the web, I have a tendency to randomly left click an empty spot on a page ever now and then. I think I may had started that habit because of the need to click a page to keep it focused in the browser so scrolling up and down doesn't get messed up.

The Game.

You objective of The Game is to forget that you are playing it.

By knowing about the game, you are playing it. You can't stop playing the game, you can only win at it.

I think my best time was around a year or so. And no, I didn't start playing until I heard about it.

After a game autosaves, I hit the quicksave key after the "game saved" thing goes away. Just... you know... to make sure.

I am obsessvily correct. I just can't stop being absolutely right. It's driving me insane.

Besides that, I have to lock my front door twice. Okay, I don't have to... but I just have to. I also must set my alarm several times.

I hit CTRL-S religiously when I'm writing a report. I am also obsessive about checking that I've turned the oxygen bottle off in the lab when I'm done. I prefer to think of that as safety conscious rather than obsessive.

Although explosions are cool.

I do that.

You know the little plastic domes on the tops of fast food drink container lids? The ones that say "diet", "cola", "rb", "other", etc? I *have* to press down the appropriate dome before I take a drink. My girlfriend has a habbit of punching them all in, whenever she does that to mine I have to take the lid off, pop them all back up, and push the appropriate one down.

I have a lot of weird little obsessive things, that's the only one I can think of right now though.

[edit]Thought of another one. Whenever I pull up to a red light I have to watch the lights on the cross street so I know when mine is going to turn green. If they have those extended cylinders that prevent you from seeing which light is lit it really bothers me.

Also, this one is a pretty big problem for me. If I'm walking or something and I *think* I see something out the corner of my eye (the lid of a jar being off, a clock showing a weird time like 12:34, pretty much anything) I have to go back and check. Not knowing if I really saw what I think I did bugs the living crap out of me.

haha, I do that all the time. When i'm coding... i'll type a line and press Ctrl-S.

If I leave the computer even just to go get a snack knowing i'll be back in 30 seconds I have to press the show desktop button, I can't leave the computer with a window open on the screen.

I visit massassi way more than I probably should.

This reminds me, if I'm getting up from the computer (no matter how long I'll be away, even 30 seconds) I have to lock it (ctrl-alt-del in Win2K, winkey+l in XP and Vista).

Oh, and the pocket thread reminded me of this:
I *always* have the same things in the same pockets. Cell phone goes in my front right pocket, keys and loose change in my front left. Wallet in the back right. The back left I just use for misc temporary space, usually post-its or movie tickets, whatever.

i rub my head.

cant exhale the last draw from my cigarette until the cigarette has been fully extinguished.

the majority of the computer ones (when reading stuff, i always double click lines randomly to select them).

four.pieces.of.toilet.paper.per.wipe.dammit.

Don't know about IE, but to select a line in Firefox it's actually a triple-click. Double-clicking selects a word.

aye, you're right, i just didn't really notice... i'm a member of the triple-click club.

All bills in my wallet must be face- and head-up. They also have to be ordered from the smallest bill on the outside to the largest on the inside, and then folded in half.

All windows MUST be maximized if possible. None of this 'restore' bull****.

I don't always do the thing about not walking on cracks, but when I remember I absolutely cannot stop.

Constantly fiddling with things and taking my watch off / putting it back on.

I'm the exact opposite. No windows may be maximized unless they're TRULY maximized. I hate it when a window is maximized and I hit restore and it doesn't change size.

This thread isn't good for me

The volume must be even.

As far as I am concerned odd volume settings dont exist. The car stereo has to be on 12, not 11. My TV is never on 29 or 31, it's on 28, 30, or 32. It really bugs me when any volume setting that I know about is not on an even number.

Also I have busy hands. Ii's very rearely my hands arent shuffling a deck of cards, twirling a pen, playing with a bull clip or the like.

hahah!

That reminds me of a similar one of mine.

There's a lot of TVs that represent the volume with vertical bars across the bottom... A lot of them require that you press volume+ or volume- 3 or 4 times before it goes to the next level. I always have to make sure that it's on one of the 'edges' ----- either I can press volume- and it will go to the lower setting or I can hit volume+ and it will go to the higher setting. I HATE it when I hit a volume button and another bar is not added or taken away.

- I count stairs
- I count letters in words posted if i have to wait somewhere (bus stop, doctor's office, etc).
- I stack my cans of soda in a line at work, only putting them in the recycle bin when I leave (12 hours later)
- I have to have a ring on each thumb, and if I don't, I'll feel naked without them.
- I have to close all windows when I leave a computer. Walking away with open windows bothers me (exception being if I plan to return to the computer within half an hour or so).
- I eat M&Ms by color (or rather, any colored candy/snack thing). Cool colors to warm colors.
- I press "ctrl+shift+R" obsessively when working in a word document (thank you NaNoWriMo)
- I press "ctrl+s" obsessively.
(there's like twenty more, but I can't remember them right now >.>)