yr affectations, list them

At some point I started saying "soda" instead of "pop" and more recently "Coca-Cola" instead of "Coke", both of which run contrary to what myself or anyone I knew said growing up. I also have apparently nurtured a Southern accent that comes and goes depending on my mood, even though I have never even been to the South.

i almost never use slang or curse (irl, i mean).

not sure those are really "affectations," but there they are.

I have so so many of these but can't think of one. Like just weird gestures I make or things I say.

I also have apparently nurtured a Southern accent that comes and goes depending on my mood, even though I have never even been to the South.

Totally do this!

Also: not having a TV.

Used to be: not having a cellphone.

my accent(s) is or are a mess. mom is tennessee/mexico heritage. dad had residual boston in him. i skew heavy on beach casual from growin up. most of my exes from texas (picked a lot of that up), a few from france (kinda fucked with my inflection). shit changes by the hour.

my accent/intonation/cadence totally changes depending on who I'm talking to :\

If not watching TV counts then, that. Tho I dont do it on purpose.

Oh and spelling "though" as "tho".

Saying "as it were" all the damn time.

posting in all lowercase with minimal punctuation

Writing my numeral "7"s with a horizontal bar, eurostyle.

smiling

yeah dyao, likewise

swishin around like i own the place

refusing to wear shorts in the summertime (picked this up from my roommate in college)

my accent/intonation/cadence totally changes depending on who I'm talking to :\

― ♹♹ (dyao), Sunday, June 13, 2010 6:22 PM (6 minutes ago)

we had a really interesting discussion about this on the No Boys Allowed in Room thread a while back - this phenomenon (i do this too - a lot) has to do with what is referred to as "language ego"

well I think it's obvious why I didn't read it then!

but yeah I find myself imitating the voice of whoever I'm talking to

not sure this qualifies as an "affectation" either, but people have been making comments about the way I walk for such a long time, now I'm pretty self conscious about it. Especially in situations where I'm at work and walking down a long hallway by myself and there are a group of people I know walking behind me. I guess the affectation part of it is that now when I'm walking in situations like that I find myself trying to walk "normally" and probably looking even more foolish than I usually do

http://www.ayo4theo.com/stuff/pics/haters-gonna-hate.gif

haha, I wish I was that dude

well I think it's obvious why I didn't read it then!

but yeah I find myself imitating the voice of whoever I'm talking to

― ♹♹ (dyao), Sunday, June 13, 2010 6:32 PM (43 seconds ago)

why is that obvious? plenty of boys read that thread! I read the gay thread, but don't post on it.

(actually I wish I was this dude)

http://i50.tinypic.com/xdxje0.gif

xp haha well it's NO BOYS ALLOWED I would feel kind of voyeurish if I read it. but if you could link to the relevant discussion that would be pretty awesome

my mom always criticizes me for walking with my feet splayed outwards, like a duck. so I try to keep my feet parallel when I walk.

unfortunately two decades of nagging about my posture hasn't really changed the fact that I slouch a lot

why would you feel voyeurish about reading a thread that people are posting to, knowing it's on a public board that members of any gender can read?

I used to work with a guy who worked on the passport helpline, which as you can imagine gets people of all accents calling in. He'd unconciously imitate them so heavily it sounded like he was taking the piss, to the point he occasionally got complaints.

paying special attention to threads with interesting titles that have typos in them

I dunno sarahel, just kind of sticks in my craw

acting patient waiting for max to come to this thread

language ego discussion starts here, i think

when I go up north sometimes people will say I have a southern accent which I don't believe is true. it more of a laid back, regional tone of voice that I use sometimes that has no affiliation with the typical southern accents

smiling and waving enthusiastically, and often with both hands, when i see someone i know.

asking captain lorax how often he "goes up north," can't help it it's a thing i do

pretending i know/care more about _______ than i actually do (where ________ is pretty much everything)

otoh, *learning* lots of stuff so i can know more about ______ than most other people

not sure this qualifies as an "affectation" either, but people have been making comments about the way I walk for such a long time, now I'm pretty self conscious about it. Especially in situations where I'm at work and walking down a long hallway by myself and there are a group of people I know walking behind me. I guess the affectation part of it is that now when I'm walking in situations like that I find myself trying to walk "normally" and probably looking even more foolish than I usually do

― fuck it, we're going to Olive Garden® (Z S), Sunday, June 13, 2010 9:32 PM (1 hour ago)

ugh, this. some kid in high school once told me that I don't bob my head when I walk (apparently most people do this?). it stuck with me for some reason, and every once in a while I remind myself to loosen my neck up a little as I'm walking. I don't usually get comments about the way I walk, for what it's worth.

pretending to know nothing whatsoever about a subject, because I'm afraid if I speak up about it, I'll reveal some fatal gap in my knowledge, and smarter people will get all "the emperor has new clothes" on me.

(ha! the emperor has no clothes, I mean)

some kid in high school once told me that I don't bob my head when I walk (apparently most people do this?).

Oh man, I've got the opposite thing going on, apparently. Lots of bob. But since I've never seen footage of myself walking, at least not recent footage from 1997-present, I've no idea what is actually going on there.

You should challenge people on the street to a 'balance a book on your head' contest, you'd kill!

there's a good subthread in here about being that kid who raises (or doesn't raise) his hand in class. i've always wondered about students who knew the answer but never raised their hand.

I have so many affectations that it would be impossible at this point to tease them out of what most people would call my personality. What is a personality other than a list of insecurities and things you're especially confident about, expressed in your outward behavior? Who cares if you faked a lot of it? How long before an affectation becomes a legitimate part of who you are?

(xpost) me, i was never a horshack, but i would raise my hand a lot when no one else knew the answer, even though the other students and maybe the teacher too probably hated me for it. i would get the "can we hear from someone *besides* jody?" thing fairly often.

My handwriting is affectation in its entirety, incorporating bits of other people's handwriting that I though looked neat.

I always figured that students who never raised their hands (but obviously knew the answer) had just realized early on that knowing the answer if very rarely cool.

I always raised my hand like it was a competition or something, which is probably why I ended up inventing a new way to eat Doritos® on prom night.

pretending i know/care more about _______ than i actually do (where ________ is pretty much everything)

― aix-en-pains (get bent), Monday, June 14, 2010 11:28 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark

I totally do this (was talking out of my ass about Y-3 the other day)

gawd, who gives a shit what's "cool"? a lot of ppl, i know. sigh.

It's not just a matter of "cool" -- I affect being uncool when I'm around the uncool as well. It's about being accepted, and everyone does it.

thanks to being a know-it-all, had a (probably imagined, only on my side) cold war with a girl last year after she said I was "self-righteous" all the time

(xpost) me, i was never a horshack, but i would raise my hand a lot when no one else knew the answer, even though the other students and maybe the teacher too probably hated me for it. i would get the "can we hear from someone *besides* jody?" thing fairly often.

― aix-en-pains (get bent), Sunday, June 13, 2010 8:47 PM Bookmark

Exact same here.

Me too.

NERRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDSSSSSSSS

I still like to say "pert near" and "fixin' to _____" thanks to my southern/midwestern upbringing.

I used to get up and walk around the classroom for reasons that no one could account for, least of all myself.

that's adorable!

I used to do that too!!!! In fifth grade I straight up left the classroom sometimes and the teacher never said a word. I think because she could teach better when I wasn't in the room.

one of my former bosses was from north carolina and said "might could" sometimes which i LOVED and considered affecting but i thought i couldn't pull it off

dammit, I do this. Maybe I don't have any affectations that somebody else hasn't already affected!

I say "techni-technically" instead of "technically".

Totally had a 6th grade class where I couldn't stay in my chair! Teacher never said a word to me about it during class, not one, but then called my parents after it persisted. :(

Posting on ILX/ILM the word "G-D" (or "gawdawful" as the case may be) instead of, uh, "G0D" even tho I'm basically an atheist. Additionally, whenever I have occasion to use that G-word in a post, I'll usually include a gratuitous "fuck" or "fucking" in the same post, just to puncture any perceived piousness.

Since moving to UK I've had the Canadian pronunciation of words ending in '-out' shamed out of me, mostly.
It slips out the Canadian way sometimes but I try very hard to pronounce it neutrally, esp around other Canadians. I still pronounce most other things in a Canadian-ish sort of way, though my sentence intonation is definitely more British-ish these days.

I watched a videotape of myself posing for a portrait a friend is doing of me at 8X speed and noticed I rub the two bones in my neck. A lot.

I also respond to statements with a short "Ah." a lot. Probably from reading Donald Richie/watching Ozu movies.

euro 7's forever.

eh you have two bones in your neck? like a zulu frankenstein or something?

I like to say "lou-is voo-it-ton" to affect a sort of "I don't even own a TV!" type thing

normally people sort of pronounce "T"s like "D"s. "water"for example comes out sounding more like "wader". and i've always pronounced "at all" more like "ad-all", but a good friend has always said "at-all" with a very precise "T". and now he's got me doing it; i'm powerless to fight it.

You are fighting against Grimm's Law, Thermo. Give in.

when speaking to others, i often begin/end sentences with "i don't know" as a way to preempt any negative response.

i looked up Grimm's Law and my head exploded.

hobbes, my mother's 'ya know, I don't know nothin'...' has that beat. SHUDDER.

i pronounce french things which in english people pronounce differently -e.g. absinthe which i pronounce ab-sant- in what i assume is the correct french pronounciation; despite being completely unfamiliar with the french language.

http://www.forvo.com/word/absinthe/

more like "ab-sat"

the "a" is sufficiently nasalized to spell it ab-sant imo

i insist on pronouncing louis like lewis

ab-sant is pretty close.

How do you pronounce 'ecureuil' then, jim?

mookieproof, what about louis vuitton?

I guess it's a genuine affectation of mine to try to pronounce proper names as they would be in their language - it's a respect thing for me, I guess and I'm fairly competent mimic so I can usually do it, though some people or places get their weird nicknames in my personal lexicon. Paris, for example, I very often call 'Parigi' for some obscure reason I don't remember.

i've never had to pronounce louis vuitton tbh

xp do u say bruxelles or brussel?

luy v'ton as clipse say

I rarely make reference to the Belgian capital so I'd imagine the English way, especially becomes of Brussels Sprouts.

was just jivin

Paris, for example, I very often call 'Parigi' for some obscure reason I don't remember.

― If the US had a dictator we'd call him coach (Michael White), Tuesday, 15 June 2010 23:22 (16 minutes ago)

there's an early bertolucci plot in there somewhere

i insist on pronouncing louis like lewis

― mookieproof, Tuesday, June 15, 2010 2:50 PM (1 hour ago)

Giving 'normal people' pop-cultural references or long words that are just one shade too obscure for that particular person to get, requiring convoluted explanation.

― WHEN CROWS GO BAD (suzy), Monday, 14 June 2010 13:38 (2 days ago) Bookmark

This is the affectation I most hate in myself. Btw, homosexual II, I also know a waddling Lauren though would never think to imitate the walk, except to poke fun.

I was in the wedding of my high school best friend and hung out with so many people who I hadn't seen in 7-15 years. Three different people said to me, "I hope you're doing ok being in the wedding party and being photographed because I know how much you hate it." I asked my friend about it, and she laughed, and said, "You were very stubborn and grouchy if anyone tried to photograph you, like you acted as strongly about it as 'don't tickle me.*'" I definitely remembered going through a phase of scowling in photos but forgot this particular angsty affectation had ever been cultivated.

*this is still a legit thing and not an affectation; I hate being tickled to the point if I have a dream about it happening it ruins the next day for me

I say "robot" like "robut"

are regional pronunciations really an affectation?
I've spent a lot of my life being the affectation master. I'm really quite the phony.
Probably the dumbest one would be from THE SAME AGE (~14) where I gave myself a little scar on my wrist – with an exacto knife – during art class – so it would look like I attempted suicide. Though it's far too tiny and wan to look like a real suicide attempt. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Fortunately it's on my left arm and I'm a watch wearer.

my cock is kind of dented

Others:
– From ages 10-12 I built my identity around wearing a Blossom hat, or some kind of big wacky hat, all the fucking time. When I moved to a new town in 7th grade where they wouldn't let you wear a hat to school, I cried.
– Carried a lunch box "purse" with wacky toys in it so I could show people the wacky toys instead of actually having to talk to them like a human being (~15-17)
– Pretended to go into catatonic trances in the hopes this one guy I adored would touch me to revive me! This one worked and we dated three years, what a foundation for a relationship. He had his own set of bullshit affectations, including wearing a phone cord as a wallet chain and claiming to be colorblind in only one eye. (~16)

swishin around like i own the place

― plax (ico), Sunday, 13 June 2010 21:25 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

:-)

Being a weird kid is kind of amazing in retrospect. I wore a fedora for a while there. Oof.

Now, as I just noticed today, my biggest one (though I don't do it on purpose) is getting all pseudo-academic about everyday things. "I find fall jackets are the easiest to lose of all jackets"

"I find fall jackets are the easiest to lose of all jackets"

might be the best affectation on this entire thread

I write dates European style (e.g. 29 Jun 2012)

abbott's blossom hat reminds me of the time i wore a sears painters' hat like every day for a period of about two months in 10th grade

I mean, for the record, it's not that, after careful consideration, I'll pop up out of the blue with a gem like that. But someone mentioned losing a light jacket they really liked, and that just fell outta my mouth.

I was a quiet, shy kid for the most part, which oddly enough made other kids in middle school want to harass me by asking uncomfortable personal questions. I really didn't have much to say, so sometimes I would just make up bullshit to make myself more interesting and to amuse myself. I started claiming to have past lives as a Vietnam vet and an Atlantean fisherman named Kronos.

Also that same year for some reason I thought it would be hilarious to convinced my homeroom teacher that I preferred to be called by the nickname "Skippy". The nickname lasted me well into high school.

I have picked up the Indian head bobble (meaning "yeah, yeah, whatever") from hanging out with my wife's coworkers.

I say "robot" like "robut"

I've started doing this too, I blame Zoidberg.

FUCK BEING TICKLED

I have picked up the Indian head bobble (meaning "yeah, yeah, whatever") from hanging out with my wife's coworkers.

― Three Word Username, Saturday, June 30, 2012 11:04 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh, what I meant was to ask what the indian head bobble was.

It's a gesture made by many Indians that indicates acceptance, if not full-on agreement, and is a sort of sideways nod. Google for video.