Thread: What are you anal about?

Everyone's crazy anal about something. Whether it's the neatness of your record collection, how tidy your room is, cleaning your hands all the time, or that you spend more time than you probably need to cleaning and disinfecting your kitchen.

I'm not a particularly tidy person, and while I have good personal hygiene, I'm not that concerned about hygiene in general. For me, it's compulsive file organisation on my computer. There are folders and folders and folders of everything I own: separate folders (with many subfolders) for my old schoolwork, current work stuff, for each theatre project I've undertaken, folders especially for certain downloaded files (those files then get re-sorted into a permanent home later) -- I even have meticulous different folders for all amusing pictures and GIFs I've collected, just in case I want to find any later.

My TV collection is flawlessly sorted into separate folders for shows, then separate folders for seasons. Similar for my (downloaded) comic books. And my music collection is STAGGERINGLY organised -- every album has artwork attached, songs are all sorted into albums which are sorted into artists which are presented not only in perfect order in iTunes, but also sorted into separate folders for artists, and then albums, on my harddrive. About once a month I'll spend just a few hours doing organisational maintenance on my files. And if, for some reason, I let my music collection get out of whack, I have been known to spend very nearly two days straight just filing, organising and adding ancillary information.

What's your OCD?

Originally Posted by gina

I don't know why people seem to be so anal about file organization on their computers. Weird.

(Except that you have it about your music and downloads...)

Weird, because everyone else's computer that I've ever seen is awfully disorganised.

I used to really care about file organization but now I give less of a shit. My videos folder is kept up pretty well but at this point it would take me weeks to get my music folder organized.

I don't think I'm particularly anal about anything anymore. I used to keep my personal library is dewy decimal order. I guess the one thing I'm anal about is if the order of a list of names doesn't matter, it needs to be in alphabetical order by last name. Other than that I can't think of anything.

My comics. No matter how worthless they are, they have to be bagged & boarded. I also wash my hands before touching them and generally require others to do so as well.

Originally Posted by Anonymous D

I used to be anal about organizing my music. But I have so much now that its not even all in one place.

I used to be anal about my music until I got Media Monkey and now I just don't give a fuck because that music player is magical.

Originally Posted by DaiTengu

My comics. No matter how worthless they are, they have to be bagged & boarded. I also wash my hands before touching them and generally require others to do so as well.

oh right, forgot about comics. I bag and board all of them in keep them in a particular order. I don't usually wash my hands before touching them though unless it's a comic that's worth more than the cover price.

The way grocery's are stacked in the cart or in the Jeep. I maximize the efficiency of the cart. Heavy stuff goes towards the back allowing the buggy to turn easier. Heavy stuff in the Jeep has to go to the back so that it doesn't slide into the other stuff. Also maximizing space in the buggy.

People who run around sports halls with no socks on. Things that aren't in height order. People who eat with their mouths open. All inducers of rage. But undoubtedly to your dismay I am indifferent about file organisation on my computer...things are labelled as stuff such as 'shit essay march 2012'

I'm not, exactly sure, where to, put the comma.

Originally Posted by Atomic

I'm not, exactly sure, where to, put the comma.

(For you non-US folks or people who don't watch Malcom in the Middle)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...G3Pxr18k#t=46s

What's the difference between being anal and having a pet peeve because a lot of these are sounding more like pet peeves to me.

Like I cannot fucking stand it when someone leaves the cursor in front of video we're watching. Is that being anal or having a pet peeve or both?

pet peeve. totally different issue.

being anal about spelling and grammar would mean fanatically re-reading and proofreading everything you write (and having the knowledge in the first place). i'm not anal about it, just like simonj, i'm just good at it. it sounds more like a pet peeve for people here.

Originally Posted by Trottski

People who run around sports halls with no socks on. Things that aren't in height order. People who eat with their mouths open.

All of these sound like pet peeves

I'll grant you that but the rest of those are more pet peeves.

Also wtf is a sports hall?

Originally Posted by ShitFace

Grammar; The difference between knowing your shit and knowing you're shit.

it is ironic (yes) that your grammar is weak in this post

well, punctuation anyway

does punctuation fall under grammar? i'm not actually sure strictly speaking

anyway the semicolon should be a colon and the "the" should not be capitalised

i'm anal about it, personally

or comma overuse

Or when people are knowledgeable about something but then they look down on someone that is ignorant.

okay i'll do my best

a semi-colon does not separate two different ideas; it means there's a connection between them, either in the sense of explaining what has come before it or expanding on it in some sense. (it's basically the same as the difference between a period and a comma, which makes sense considering the punctuation marks themselves.) a colon is used when you're about to list something -- you "listed" a comical but meaningful explanation of what grammar means, and yes, it's still listing even if there's only one thing.

sometimes a semi-colon and a colon can be used almost interchangeably, for instance when what's after the colon explains what's before the colon: in other words, like this sentence. compare that with this sentence; in the first sentence, what came after the colon directly explained the content before it, whereas in this sentence it expands on the content before it, explaining WHY you should compare the last sentence to this one.

that was pretty meta.

that's not entirely an adequate explanation, but it's the best i can manage. my understanding of punctuation is by and large intuitive, so i am pretty shitty at explaining anything that requires any nuance or technical insight. i just know from reading what is right and when.

as for the capitalisation, well, you didn't start a new sentence, and the "the" is not anyone's or anything's title, so it doesn't need to be capitalised. over-capitalising is an easy temptation to fall into.