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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

When I lose clothing it is usually because I have packed it somewhere as a spare to take with me in case I get cold/soaked. I don't necessarily empty my bag when I get home and don't necessarily always use the same bag so said item may lie in the bottom of the bag unnoticed for a bit.
 
... people who are 'messy' (ie leave everything lying about the place) rarely lose anything. Because (unless there are interlocking merged piles) messy people have a 1:1 scale map of where everything is: because everything is where they've put it. This can (please: just for now) be thought of as being quintessentially-male. Function wins over form. Searches result in rapid finds, because nothing is ever truly-concealed, and (vitally) everything is interrelationally-located, in a physical version of what human 'memory magicians' recommend as an effective retreival technique.

People who are tidy run the risk of losing stuff if they fall into the trap of applying superficial storage structure without true indexing. Such people often have to resort to serially-searching every one in a sequence of similar-but-indistinct locations: "it was in the very-last place I looked!". The fractional majority of adherents to this system are female (but read on). ...

My experience and observations support the central distinction you've outlined here, which I'll translate (into my own terms) as:

- Primary indexing based on an experiential schema, history or principle (e.g. Where will I need it? Where do I leave it?)
versus
- Primary indexing based on a more abstract scheme (e.g., X in the X drawer; Y articles on the **** end of the closet hanger rod)

The former derives from (typically routine) actions or expected actions, whereas the latter is simply imposed as good practice.

The former more closely connects standard / possible item locations with experience, whereas the latter connects the locations with an abstraction.

In dealing with an MIA item the former more readily supports reasoning from a basis of "what did I do", whereas the latter hobbles reasoning by linking it to "what I should have done" or "where it should be."

Because misplaced items are often the result of incidental aberrations in routines, actions or circumstances the former approach is more likely to yield decisive clues. For example, retracing your steps from the car into the residence earlier today naturally plays more usefully into the former approach rather than the latter approach.
 
Losing a pair of jeans should be impossible when you think about it (and will drive you nuts if you do!). In theory, there are only a finite number of places where they could be but when you've searched everywhere over a dozen times, you have to resign yourself to the fact that they've simply vanished!

Nope, they're still present unless you've somehow managed to remove them from the premises. They're where they should be but they look different so you don't recognise them. You have been staring at them thinking they are, I dunno, those ones you don't like and were going to keep for painting in.
 
The other week I put a book away that i had just finished and the bookmark fell out onto a box with vinyl records in them. It has gone and I simply cannot find it.

The boomark in question has a 3d skull on it, randomly from Fresno, California (I bought in a hotel 'cos I liked it). I didn't see any nightcrawlers either.
 
Re: Missing jeans.

The answer is in the clue 'Arnold Layne ?'.

Mine were stolen from the washing line because no one thought to bring them in at nightfall.

In the case of Arnold Layne, 'Moonshine washing Line' explains it.

For those who may be a bit confused, listen to Pink Floyd's 'Arnold Layne' track.
 
This can (please: just for now) be thought of as being quintessentially-male. Function wins over form. Searches result in rapid finds, because nothing is ever truly-concealed, and (vitally) everything is interrelationally-located, in a physical version of what human 'memory magicians' recommend as an effective retreival technique.

People who are tidy run the risk of losing stuff if they fall into the trap of applying superficial storage structure without true indexing. Such people often have to resort to serially-searching every one in a sequence of similar-but-indistinct locations: "it was in the very-last place I looked!". The fractional majority of adherents to this system are female (but read on).


Maybe this was part of a psych Masters thesis I read (goes into deep thinking mode....and takes cover)

And the cruelest thing a woman can do to a man is (drum roll)

Tidy up after him.
 
In the case of Arnold Layne, 'Moonshine washing Line' explains it.
Explique Jeans? Mais non
Je ne comprend pas....
C'est serge de nim, sûrement?
Écoute....Syd écrit:
"See-through baby blue"
C'est lingerie, le chemise de nuit
Tu accord?
(Nightie matin, et bien dorme)
 
New minor strangeness:
Somewhere on this forum (in different thread I think but I'm too lazy to look for it now), there was a quip about a dog that wink, wink! we pretended could drive. That was last week.
Since then, there has been a news item I've seen or heard about a different dog everyday that actually drove a car!
Real life has been imitating forum humor.
 
Last year, I went to a witch's market and while there I had my fortune told. The tarot reader gave me her business card, but I must have misplaced it immediately because I never saw it again. Until yesterday, that is, when I was hunting through my purse. I suddenly felt a card, pulled it out and there it was.

The purse is only a few months old, as well as my wallet, and I clear it out every week or so. Where the heck did the card come from? Perhaps it's a sign that I should give the reader a call!
 
I'm very drawn to Escargot's idea that when we're looking for the "thing" we're often looking right at it but remember it differently so don't see it.

Recently I was reading a thread on this very forum that I hadn't seen before (can't remember which one now) Read a post I wanted to "like" but as I went to do so I noticed I'd already done it!? And "liked" a couple of later posts which I have no memory of reading, but the evidence proves otherwise.

Also, when looking for dropped items, never underestimate the dastardly blind spot! It moves as you do :willy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_spot_(vision)
 
Another incident to report!

Earlier this evening, I was out on my bike getting some groceries. I noticed on the way home that my small silicone bike light -- which I'm either wearing around one of my gloved fingers or otherwise leave dangling from the middle of the handle of my front bike basket -- was not on the basket handle (the silicone forms a closed loop, and there's a rounded plastic clip next to the little light itself that you attach it to, after passing it through something on the bike; I loop my back light through the cargo net on the back basket, but the front one is just looped around the basket handle). I thought that maybe it had come loose when I put my bag of groceries into the basket, and fallen into it without my noticing. I made a note to check for it when I got back.

As it happens, I did not get around to removing those groceries (just a few pounds of coffee I got on sale, and some kiwi fruit) for a few hours, but when I finally went to remove the grocery bag from the basket, that's when I noticed: the silicone bike light was there dangling in its usual spot on the handle!
 
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Wife lost a Simon's cat badge about a week ago, she was well annoyed it had been on her bag
one of those badges with a point on the back that goes through a clip, she thought it had been
pulled off by getting caught in the shopping trolly at the super market, anyway yesterday she
picked up her boots and noticed the badge had impaled it's self in the sole, it had decided to
make it's way home, happy wife, good job it had not come off at home when one of us may
have had bare feet, Sions cat must be a friendly sort.
 
Wife lost a Simon's cat badge about a week ago, she was well annoyed it had been on her bag
one of those badges with a point on the back that goes through a clip, she thought it had been
pulled off by getting caught in the shopping trolly at the super market, anyway yesterday she
picked up her boots and noticed the badge had impaled it's self in the sole, it had decided to
make it's way home, happy wife, good job it had not come off at home when one of us may
have had bare feet, Sions cat must be a friendly sort.
You guys put badges on your cats? No wonder we threw the tea into the harbor.
 
The Mrs frequently loses her trousers in our house. No other clothing. Just her trousers. It's become a running joke. I can understand people mis placing small items like keys and the like but she regularly can't find her trousers .. it's weird.

Presumably they eventually turn up [sic], otherwise she'd be forever buying new trousers.
 
Presumably they eventually turn up [sic], otherwise she'd be forever buying new trousers.
They do. I've suggested she should be more methodical .. I always put my glasses and both my watches (the small one's set 5 minutes fast so I'm never late for work) in the same place for examples .. she's just random with where she ditches her outside trousers in favour of changing into inside trousers. She does it all the flippin time!.
 
Must be a female thing. I have only the one sort of trousers which double for both outdoor & indoor use.
 
New minor strangeness:
Somewhere on this forum (in different thread I think but I'm too lazy to look for it now), there was a quip about a dog that wink, wink! we pretended could drive. That was last week.
Since then, there has been a news item I've seen or heard about a different dog everyday that actually drove a car!
Real life has been imitating forum humor.

Yeah, I checked, my dog STILL can't drive! She's too small, her paws don't reach the pedals.
 
A year or two ago, I lost my house keys. I always put them in a specific pocket in my purse with my car keys (they are separate).

I pulled everything out of my purse, no keys. I also have a canvas bag which I carry my purse in along with a book, an agenda book, my reading glasses and anything else that I pick up and throw in. So I dumped it on the the floor, no keys.

Of course I realized I'd lost them a day or two after I could remember using them. My neighbours have my extra set, so I used them.

After a week of looking, I'd come to the conclusion that I was going to have to get all of my keys recut. Just as I was going out have this done, I looked in my purse. And there were the keys! I have no idea why I didn't find them earlier. My purse is not big as I hate those huge purses that have no pockets and everything ends up somewhere on the bottom.

I always put my keys in a specific pocket and occasionally I miss the pocket and they fall into another area of my purse. But I keep my purse relatively empty with only keys, wallet and possibly a receipt or two, and my cheque book, so where were they for the entire week?
 
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A year or two ago, I lost my house keys. I always put them in a specific pocket in my purse with my car keys (they are separate).

Keys and pockets caused no end of trouble for me so for the past 15 or so years all my keys have been on ski passes. The strap goes round my neck and the keys are unclipped for driving. At home everything's lobbed in a drawer beside the front door. Works MOST of the time.
 
Just now I was changing the radio batteries and clumsily let go of one*. Didn't hear it fall but shrewdly surmised its destination, which was one of my work boots.

Hah, that's Lost Items Elves 0, Scargy 1.

*This was originally 'dropped one' but I wasn't giving you puerile lot THAT.
 
A year or two ago, I lost my house keys. I always put them in a specific pocket in my purse with my car keys (they are separate).

I pulled everything out of my purse, no keys. I also have a canvas bag which I carry my purse in along with a book, an agenda book, my reading glasses and anything else that I pick up and throw in. So I dumped it on the the floor, no keys.

Of course I realized I'd lost them a day or two after I could remember using them. My neighbours have my extra set, so I used them.

After a week of looking, I'd come to the conclusion that I was going to have to get all of my keys recut. Just as I was going out have this done, I looked in my purse. And there were the keys! I have no idea why I didn't find them earlier. My purse is not big as I hate those huge purses that have no pockets and everything ends up somewhere on the bottom.

I always put my keys in a specific pocket and occasionally I miss the pocket and they fall into another area of my purse. But I keep my purse relatively empty with only keys, wallet and possibly a receipt or two, and my cheque book, so where were they for the entire week?
Welcome to my world Brownmane, I frequently lose all sorts...but think it's just me !
 
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Here's where bragging gets you: yesterday after the battery failed to elude me I took off my specs and lost them, and had to break out the less comfortable emergency back-up ones. Then I put on a necklace, an occut symbol on a chain, and halfway through my shift noticed it'd gorn, curses.

Found the specs but the necklace hasn't resurfaced.
 
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