A Fit of Absent Mindedness

I remember putting a half-finished cup of apple juice in the fridge last night. About five minutes ago, I took the cup out, thinking it was a cup of Mountain Dew that I thought I had put in the fridge last night and proceeded to pour Mountain Dew into it. I only remembered it being apple juice after I tasted it. It wasn't bad actually, not that I endorse trying Apple Mountain Dew or anything. Reminds me of a brand of beer to be honest.

What the hell?

Okay okay, so I was born with this thing people call absent-mindedness. I'll take out milk and a glass, pour and then proceed to put the milk in the cupboard in the glass in the fridge. Or, I'll say, get a microwavable dinner and put the box in the microwave and the dinner in the trash. How about, putting my contacts in and then putting my glasses on only to wonder to myself why everything suddenly got blurry.

So being absent minded has been the source of a lot of "we're laughing at you (not with you)" moments. Such as just now when Jen chuckled and said, "congratulations for making a new drink." The response is usually the same, I just sort of stand there. Sometimes that reaction can be extended to say, giving a blank look and a nervous smile. You know – exit stage right, trip over the coats, silly squeaky giggle – that sort of thing.

The weirdest thing is, is that people seem to notice that about me before even meeting me. For example, there are a few people out there whom I met at South by Southwest last year, new faces that I never met. After about half-an-hour, they automatically knew that I was this "silly absent minded Asian child who gets embarrassed easily in public and would rather run away and cry in a corner than stay there and get made fun of." Obviously, I'd stay and get made fun of. Then I'd give them the, "why the hell are you doing this?" look only to get an answer of "you're so easy to tease."

That my friends, is the mystery of my life. I think people will eventually solve it a few days after I'm laid to rest.

Okay, and tying it to design?

It actually isn't so hard to tie this in. Absent mindedness in web design leads to a lot of accidents. But accidents can be a good thing. For instance, I'll forget use use the marquee tool in Photoshop and use the shape tool instead. Yet, rather than automatically delete it, since my mind runs slowly, I'll notice that I can do something different with my sudden error. That's the secret of how I design layouts, everything's an accident. Tells you a lot about the designer. ;)

And.. I'm going to stop drinking this Apple Dew -- it's screwing with me.