Pointless Rituals [edit: or Games] Anyone?

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I just wondered if anyone here has these since I've never seen it mentioned and yet it's the trait of mine that wins the greatest number of raised eyebrows and rolled eyes from friends and family.

So, what I mean by pointless is: Rituals which are employed purely for fun, to make life more interesting. Not something which has a function or which has no specific function, but which does, for example relieve stress.

Some really classic examples of mine:
I'm currently re-naming loads of images on my Mac (which is what made me think of this). Each is being given a consecutive number, but to make the process more fun, I'm only "allowed" [ from mother/partner etc] to re-label every third picture. Once I've done that, I remove those and then go through and label every third picture again and so on until all are done.

When I hang socks to dry on the clothes horse, I'm only "allowed" [ ] to hang 6 on each rung and then I'm only allowed to pair them when they're dry if they sit on the same rung. Once I've matched every pair I can, I move all the socks up to make 6/rung again and then look for new matches. If I can't get a match on a rung, the socks don't get paired. I've had dry socks hang on the line for over a year in the past, poor partner regularly runs out of socks and steals them back when I'm not looking which can really annoy me sometimes.

If I tear a sheet of stamps I have to [ ] tear a row and then a column and then a row and then a column so that I keep making smaller and smaller sub-sheets. I stack these and then go through again tearing each sub sheet in half and it's fun to see which sheet lasts the longest before I've separated all the stamps.

These routines can make simple monotonous tasks take forever, by I derive a bizarre sense of joy from them . It creates interesting pattern sequences and it's fun to see what gets dealt with last or how long it takes or if I get stuck in a loop or something like that. The descriptions above are common examples, but I can employ any pattern or change the rules of my game. The main thing is that I'm tied to my rules and I tend to stick to them no matter how pointless, arduous or time consuming they are. And also, it makes me really happy!! !

Pinterest is very much a pointless ritual for me. Sorting images, resorting, deleting boards and images, creating boards, etc.

Speaking of sock rituals, I drive my boyfriend crazy, because I will never match up socks; if both socks of a pair are not in the same laundry load, then I have a staging area where one sock waits for it's match, which may not happen until weeks later. People ask me why I don't match socks before I wash them and I always say, "because that's not as fun."

I don't really have rituals anymore, but I had a rather cute one as a child: On the street in front of the kindergarten I was in there was a small heap of asphalt, probably a construction error. On the way to the entrance door I always had to jump over it. Some day the heap was gone. I was really sad.

If I have an option of two of the same things in my left/right hand I must always choose the one on the left.

Crazy right?

My mother told me that I used to play a game for hours on end. I'd line up my toys, and then (with great delight!) messed the whole thing up again by throwing them around the room. I still do that with my present day favorite toys: balls of yarn. If somebody catches me doing it, I tell them I do it for the dog. He loves it too.

When adjusting the volume on the TV, I can't leave it on a prime number. It just doesn't sit well with me. I have to turn it up or down a notch.

When I was younger, I had a ritual about washing dishes. I always washed the cups first, and filled them half-full of water. When I washed one, I poured the water into each of the others. Even when the other cups were full and it ran over, i still did it. Drove my mother nuts. Now, when I am stressed, I take a scrap of fabric and pull it apart one thread at a time. I end up with just a pile of thread and no fabric.

Well I do text based online role play through AOL Chat Rooms and that is my special interest and as a plus side a way for me to get a sort of social fulfillment without having to go out and actually face anyone. Though I still seem to have similar social difficulties such as the anxieties and what not which has come and increased over the last four years but then people in that community have become more "Human" in their ways in that not everyone is always nice to everyone anymore so things have gotten more realistic unfortunately.

Now I'm rambling!

Sometimes like I'll get pictures for characters and stuff because I make profiles for them and I like to mess with the graphics and stuff and go to online website editors and play with effects and see what I can make out of them. Sometimes they turn out hideous and sometimes I end up with things I want to keep lol.

When I was in grade school and i would walk home from school or walk anywhere for that matter. I would feel the need to step on every crack in the ground sometimes if there were no cracks in front of me i would go out of my way to make sure i stepped on one like walking on peoples driveways off to the side then stepping back to the sidewalk when a crack was available.