Monday, January 16, 2012

Dys-what?

I have mentioned it... apparently once before: I have a mild dyslexia where I switch digits, and cannot see the difference.  (I think it's not dyscalculia because it's mainly a morbid fear of dealing with investments, and an inability to correctly write down phone numbers.)  It's worst with four-digit numbers.

The weirdest part?  I didn't notice until I was twenty-five and sharing accounts with my spouse.  Before that, I thought I was just worse than the average bear at balancing checkbooks.

(This is prescheduled.  My computer still ails.)

7 comments:

  1. Funny, I have the same thing. Mine also extends to mixing up left and right, being a horrible speller and reeeaaaalllyyy bad at times tables (all of which are clearly not necessary skills to be successful in science).

    The other day I was telling my husband I found out the address of the temporary house some friends moved to, of course I promptly forgot it and remembered that it was either 26 or 27 for the first number and 45 or 54 for the second part :)

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  2. I didn't realize it had a real name. I do that exact same as well. It absolutely drives my mother (an accountant) nuts that I have such trouble with phone numbers.

    OTOH, I can spell like a champ. Sometimes I don't even have to know the word - just something about it LOOKS wrong.

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  3. Anonymous5:28 PM

    I am the world's best speller (seriously, I used to proof-read for a living). Which is weird, because I come from a family of dyslexics. On the other hand, I was 11 before I learnt my alphabet, I still cannot for the LIFE of me do mental arithmetic, and if you ask me to spell something I have to write it down first and then read it back to you. But I can spot an error at 100 paces from a galloping horse. It turns out, I don't read words letter by letter, but all-in-one, as if they were pictograms (so, obviously, a misplaced or wrong letter stands out like, well, like a giant wall me and my galloping horse are crashing right into). Because I AM dyslexic. I am so damn' cool...

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  4. money brings out the worst in my math skills, which are otherwise fairly respectable. i memorize numbers very easily (when i worked in a box office, i had to be careful not to let patrons know i didn't need them to repeat their CC numbers if the sale didn't go through, because i could just remember them), and i did well in calculus. but if my box office colleagues needed to pad their hours for the day, they always had me count the drawer, because i could be depended on messing it up at least twice.

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  5. Brains are very peculiar things, clearly. All the crossed wiring.

    (I- no joke- won the state spelling championship in high school. TWICE. The first time was kind of by accident... I was so embarrassed. Plus there were all these kids hauling around dictionaries - bigger nerds than me, clearly- and I kind of wandered off after the actual spelling part and missed the awards and apparently they were all thoroughly cheesed off.)

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  6. Not sure what happened to your post about kitchen pans... I clicked the link from my Google reader and it said it couldn't be found. Anyway i have had this set for 7 years and they are pretty great. Very sturdy but not as heavy (or expensive) as the super-duper brands.

    http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-77-10-Stainless-Steel-10-Piece-Cookware/dp/B00008CM68

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  7. Robin- thanks! What happened is broken computer plus baby saying "Where's the milk, MILK LADY???" I was considering that set... the only drawback is our dairy frying pan is from that set and this set is for meat (weird religious complications! I KNOW!). They look pretty good though. My el cheapo last set was good for a decade!

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