On Having OCD

If there is one thing that I hate about myself (pfft, only ONE?!) it's some of the things I do that can be pegged down to being OCDish.

Now, I am not talking about those whose lives are actually altered by having OCD, I am not NOT bad and I am not suggesting that I am at all. But it does both amuse and irritate me and others around me.

Mostly, it amuses.

However, some of the aspects I deal with, I don't see as being "Strange" or anything else, I just see them as being ordered and organised. I like some things done in a certain way, or the end result is not good.

Usually, I think I am right, but I can see why others think I am wrong.

Washing Up
I HAVE to wash up in a certain order. This I believe is common sense because you don't wash oily tins before washing glasses. I have to wash up in the following order: Glasses; Mugs; Plastic Cups; Big Plates; Small Plates; Plastic Plates; Big Bowls; Small Bowls; Cutlery; Containers; Tools; Saucepans; Tins.

I also cannot leave stuff "in soak" regardless of how stuck-on something might be. Worst-case scenario: I use a knife to scrap it off, as well as copious amounts of elbow grease.

Every item must be rinsed in hot water.  Now here's the "thing" I know I do. I HAS to be placed in size-order, big to small. It doesn't matter if it is plates, glasses, mugs, each group has to be arranged in size order. Added to this, all mugs and tea cups MUST have their handles pointed at the four o'clock position.

If I take over someone elses washing up - say, someone has started, but has to rush off - I have to rearrange everything first.

Justifications: Washing up in that order prevents the glasses and plates getting greasy. Placing them in size order? It makes them dry quicker. Rinsing in hot water adds to the drying speeds. Yes, even the handles-at-four makes them dry faster.


Music Files
Previously, this was just limited to Music and Video files, but now also applies to my new-found Kindle files too... However, files HAVE to be done in a certain way, including the "internal" Meta-Data - which I have become a pro at editing too!

Music files MUST be titled by Musician/Band then Song Title. Nothing more, Nothing less. AND between Artist/Title, it must be SPACE HYPHEN SPACE. And capitals in the right place. Spaces, not punctuation. Spelling is also important.

For instance, the top item here is correct. The rest are WRONG:  

Aerosmith - Eat The Rich
aerosmith - eat the rich
Eat The Rich - Aerosmith
Aeromith-big ones: eat the rich
Aerosmith-Eat_The_Rich

And so on and so forth. Even if there is ONE space missing in the middle, I notice it and have to fix it. The meta data also has to be nothing more than Artist and Title. No genre, no rating, no comments, no album name or image.

Justifications: The names have to be uniform so it looks neat in the folder. The spaces and hyphen break it up nicely but not too much. The meta data is annoying and never have I thought "I want to listen to THIS Genre!" or have I ever considered rating my music, commenting on the file, and I don't care what album it's from. It's all just pointless data.


TV  Files
Similar to the music files, TV adds the bonus of having to be sorted by Show Name, THEN the season, THEN the episode number - plus each episode probably has a name too. As an example:

The Mentalist - S01E03 - Red Tide

Show name/Series 01/Episode 03/Episode Title. You will also notice the Space/Hyphen/Space combo.

Justifications: In their folders, this sorts them out into the correct order. The show title must be on there in case it gets moved accidentally - I can move it back without having to view it. The Series/Episode has to be that way so it is correctly sorted, and with windows being thick, you have to put single digits as ZERO-ONE and not just ONE as windows believes that 10 comes before 1. It does know, however, the 01 comes before 10. Episode title I have to have as, mainly, if I watch a few episodes of an evening, I don't recognise the show NUMBER, but I do recognise the title.


Plus the spaces and hyphens keep it nice and neat once more. Also, no meta data, thank you. The basics, but none of the rest of it.


Movie Files
These are easy. ANY movie file on the computer simply contains the name of the film. Not the year, not the lead actor, not the director, not the genre. JUST the movie title. That's all the info you need for a film.

HOWEVER. If it is part of a series, I have to slap in numbers so Windows arranges it accordingly. For instance, The Lord of the Rings, if Windows gets its way is sorted like so:

The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of The Ring
The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers

Wrong wrong wrong - enough to make me want to cry. But, like with the TV Shows, the addition of some numbers makes it ALL better:

The Lord of the Rings 01 - The Fellowship of The Ring
The Lord of the Rings 02 - The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings 03 - The Return of the King

Justifications: I don't need to know what year it was made, who directed, who's in it or anything else. I just need the name of the film. If it's a series of films, then they need to be together in the correct order. Even if they have completely different titles, I will work it so they are together.


Book Files
Along the same vein as Music and TV Shows, I have to have my books arranged in a certain way, otherwise they are all just smooshed together and look horrendous. Usually, the books I read are part of a series, but in this case, the title of the books are more important that the author, unlike my music files, in which case the musician is more important that the song title.

As such, my books HAVE to be arranged by series.

Sword of Truth 01 - Wizards First Rule - Terry Goodkind
Sword of Truth 02 - The Blood of the Fold - Terry Goodkind

And so on - Book Series/Book Title/Author

Justifications: I read books in serial order, so want them grouped together in that way, in order. If you group them by book title, there's NO order and things get confusing. Sorting by Author just doesn't make sense as some authors - such as Clive Cussler - have several DIFFERENT series of books going on.  Messy.


Sandwiches
Yes, you probably think I'm now going off the rails. I'm not... Well, maybe I am, but I don't believe I am. But sandwiches HAVE to be prepared, cut, and eaten in a certain way.

First off, the two slices come out the packet, and have to be laid out on the side in a mirror image to one another. Second, you have to butter to the very edges. The filling also then must go to the very edges. Then they have to be cut in TRIANGLES. Not rectangles, not squares, but TRIANGLES. One cut (for two sandwiches) or two cuts (for four small ones) are acceptable to me, but it has to be a triangle.

Then, you have to eat the one with more of the bottom of the slice first.  Let me explain... As you look at a slice of bread, you have the "top" which was the top of the tin, and you have the "bottom" which was the base of the tin. The base is the drier part of the bread. Cutting a triangle, one of the triangles has more of the "Bottom" than the other... THAT is the one you eat first.

And to eat it, if the bread is small enough/my mouth big enough, I have to eat sharp angle, sharp angle, but in the middle, edge, edge corner, done.

Justifications: The bread has to be mirrored as bread is NOT even, so mirroring it makes the slices fit together perfectly. The insides have to go to the very edges, as there is nothing worse than having just bread in your mouth. Triangles... Well, they taste better. Big or small, they just DO. Eating it that way too, you don't get food on the sides of your mouth like you would biting into the centre of a common rectangle. If the bread is small, I can do a triangular sarnie in four bites - thin corner/thin corner/middle/last corner.


Windows
I've mentioned Windows a few times before, but only because of how it likes to arrange things. Windows is wrong in it's arrangement skills.

However, MY Windows has to be set up in a certain way, and when I fix other peoples computers, I try my best to not do it to their computers too. I usually fail.

Firstly, the Desktop. The wallpaper itself can be anything, but it can't be too "busy". By that, I mean it can't have loads going on in it, can't be awash with colours...

Kellies laptop has the following HORRENDOUS wallpaper, which you should click to make larger:

 My current wallpaper, however, is the complete opposite:

Don't get me wrong - I LIKE Kellies picture (It's the office from The IT Crowd, before you ask), and I love that program - but as a WALLPAPER, it's go too much going on in it.

Next up, Icons. Currently, my desktop has two icons on it... A photo of Posh Totty in her PJs, and the picture I used at the top of this post. One of these will be deleted, the other will be filed away for later use. My desktop NEEDS to be clean and tidy, and only important things go on there that need to be sorted ASAP, then they get filed or deleted.

And no, my Recycle Bin is hidden as well.

The System Tray is another of my peeves. I HATE seeing a load of stuff running down there (most of which is usually pointless) and even those of you that hide the icons, clicking that arrow and having a tsunami of little icons appear is nerve-wracking. If a program has a System Tray, I check the options and remove it if possible. If that program isn't important but you can't remove that icon, that program gets removed from the computer.

Running in my system tray at the moment, I have my Antivirus, my Network Manager program, my Sound Management program, and my Power Information. Everything else is disabled. And even then, those icons are automatically hidden. Windows Update pops up every now and then to tell me there are new updates, and they get done usually when they appear.

Also, the Add/Remove Programs tool is like my secret lover... I will go through there periodically, and anything I've got installed (that isn't important) that I haven't used in a while - gone. Uninstalled.

And as an aside from TV/Music/Books etc, the My Documents folder has to be neat and tidy too, with a folder for whatever item is needed. I've got a folder for my phone backup, one for blog-related stuff, one for letters, one for pictures to post, and so on and so on. Everything has a place.

At least now you know why - when you get your computer back from me - it looks different. I've changed everything!

Justifications: Partly, the wallpapers is due to my colourblindness. If you have a really busy wallpaper, you can't see what is what on the desktop. Partly, makes it look cluttered and messy, and breaks my concentration. Desktop Icons just annoy me. There is nothing that needs to be on your desktop. If it's a funny picture, put it in your Pictures folder. If it's a document, My Documents is there for a reason. Music? My Music folder. A shortcut? Either use the Quick Launch bar down the bottom left if you use it all the time (Browser, Email, Music Player), or use the Start Menu... Either click Start/Programs/Your File, or PIN it to the Start Menu so it's there when you press start!

The System Tray icons - the more there are running down there, the more crap you've got running on your computer, the slower it will be.


The My Documents folder... Well it's common sense - you wouldn't bundle up all your real, proper documents into one big box so you can't find what you want, would you? Actually, I am pretty sure some of you would...


Gaming
Yes yes, very strange, but a small category. But when I am gaming, I need everything to be laid out just so so I can concentrate. In World of Warcraft, my inventory has to be A) Big, and B) Properly laid out. I have to have certain things in certain places. In Tiny Tower (see My Tower), I have to group my floors by their type, and the people that work ON those floors, have to be dressed in the appropriate colour. When I play a *band/Roguelike game, I have to have the screen set up just so too.

I suspect it's why I don't do console games - I can't use key bindings or alter how things are...

Justifications: I need things laid out so I know where everything is at a couple of clicks of a button. I know where to move my mouse before the appropriate window has opened so I can click that item to do that task quickly. My Tower people have to be coloured so when I need to find one, I know s/he will either be in a certain group of floors, or in the Residential area.


Mobile Phone
Another 0dd one. Sue me. But. My address book HAS to be sorted by first name, and everyone HAS to have their surname, the only exceptions being Mum/0dd Mum In Law/Dad/Nans.

Being that I have a smart phone with seven home screens, I also need to keep them neat and tidy. The first page has the clock and weather, followed by my SMS program, Twitter, Internet and WhatsApp - I use them all the time. The other windows are for different things. Game shortcuts on one, Social Media on another, Mapping on another, Settings on another, Calendar... I know two swipes right is Games, or two left is Calendar. I can do it without looking.

Justifications: Neat and Tidiness, mostly, but also, grouping the right things with similar things means I can go to one place for everything I need at that moment.


So there you have it... My flaws laid bare. And these are just the main ones that spring to mind while writing. There are so many others, such as how clothes should be folded, how cutlery should be stored, how things should sit on a table, lining stuff up... But they are all minor little things that I don't even realise I do. I am sure Kellie could sit here going on about the stuff I get up to, but this post has gone on long enough.