Things you can't do...

[SterlingSilver]

I can't, for the life of me, know WHERE the heck I am half the time xDDD

I miss turns in my hometown and end up lost constantly, being like, "OwO This is interesting.. where I am?" *crosses state line* ".. Oh, $#($#.."

xDDD So people who have a sense of direction are like, admirable awesome people to me.

[Lime]

I can't, for the life of me, know WHERE the heck I am half the time xDDD

I miss turns in my hometown and end up lost constantly, being like, "OwO This is interesting.. where I am?" *crosses state line* ".. Oh, $#($#.."

xDDD So people who have a sense of direction are like, admirable awesome people to me.

Omg yes, me too! I remember the orienteering exercise in junior high when I ended up in another city and the teacher had to come pick me up with his car! So glad I'm not alone with this.

[smooshi]

I can't, for the life of me, know WHERE the heck I am half the time xDDD

I miss turns in my hometown and end up lost constantly, being like, "OwO This is interesting.. where I am?" *crosses state line* ".. Oh, $#($#.."

xDDD So people who have a sense of direction are like, admirable awesome people to me.

Omg yes, me too! I remember the orienteering exercise in junior high when I ended up in another city and the teacher had to come pick me up with his car! So glad I'm not alone with this.

I am able to get lost in my goddamn appartment!

[Saimou]

On 8/31/2012 at 6:22 PM, smooshi said:

I am able to get lost in my goddamn appartment!

So, you’re Marcus Brody? 

[Rook]

 I can't tie shoes or just balanced enough to do a cartwheel and it makes me sad

[Stimuli]

Weirdly, I'm incapable of riding a bike. 

Also, I can't seem to grasp even the most basic math. 

Edited December 10, 2020 by NoseB4Bros
Added stuff

[Rook]

7 minutes ago, NoseB4Bros said:

Weirdly, I'm incapable of riding a bike. 

Same

[Saimou]

On 12/10/2020 at 10:47 PM, NoseB4Bros said:

Weirdly, I'm incapable of riding a bike. 

I have heard that slapping both of someone’s cheeks at the same time hard enough can actually screw up a person’s balance for life, which seems to make sense, since the balancing organs are in the inner ears.

[NotWho]

I’m really bad at eyeing measurements and gauging distances; I cannot tell you how often I run into stuff, spill drinks I’m filling at work, it’s bad.

[EveP]

On 8/31/2012 at 5:22 PM, smooshi said:

I am able to get lost in my goddamn appartment!

Me too! I mean, in YOUR apartment I'd be totally lost, but in my own house only somewhat lost. I have no sense of direction at all. My friends used to trick me and take a different route than my usual one when they drove me home just to confuse me. I'm good at many things, but finding my way is not one of them. I get lost in Minecraft too - build a house and never find it again.

[SleepingPhlox]

32 minutes ago, EveP said:

Me too! I mean, in YOUR apartment I'd be totally lost, but in my own house only somewhat lost. I have no sense of direction at all. My friends used to trick me and take a different route than my usual one when they drove me home just to confuse me. I'm good at many things, but finding my way is not one of them. I get lost in Minecraft too - build a house and never find it again.

Oh man, SAME. I am notoriously unable to comprehend direction or orient myself at all.  I can go down a road a hundred times in one direction but as soon as I see it from the other direction I may as well have crossed through a portal to another dimension.

It drives people crazy that I will keep taking the same route to a place that I did when I first went to that place, even if its inefficient and convoluted.  Its the only way I can make sure I don't accidentally end up on one of the moons of Jupiter.  Even if "going straight down this road and then turning right" would be "easier".

[Femilloween77]

I'm very bad at understanding subtext! My friends have learnt to be very direct when they ask something out of me because I don't perceive suggestions or allusions at all.

[Saimou]

On 8/15/2021 at 8:34 PM, SleepingPhlox said:

Oh man, SAME. I am notoriously unable to comprehend direction or orient myself at all.  I can go down a road a hundred times in one direction but as soon as I see it from the other direction I may as well have crossed through a portal to another dimension.

It drives people crazy that I will keep taking the same route to a place that I did when I first went to that place, even if its inefficient and convoluted.  Its the only way I can make sure I don't accidentally end up on one of the moons of Jupiter.  Even if "going straight down this road and then turning right" would be "easier".

Same here. Though, weirdly, I think I’m SLIGHTLY better at navigating in a forest, than in a city . Also, I can circumvent some issues by improvising. One time, in PE-class, in high school, we had orienteering, and my compass was broken, its needle was just spinning around, as it felt; so, it was showing ”potatoes”, so to speak. Now you’re thinking: ”Pizdec!”, and so was I. Luckily; my phone’s clock worked, and it was a sunny day; so, I used the time of day and the position of the Sun, to work out, which way was North; and, by using that rather primitive method, I was able to find the target, although it had been moved, slightly, by some ”funny guy”. 

[Saimou]

I meant to say: ”As it [the needle] felt *LIKE.”

[All Time No]

Basic mathematics. It doesn’t matter if it’s addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. If it’s more complicated than 2+2 or something easily recognizable like multiples of 5 or 10, then I cannot do it without a calculator or piece of paper and a ridiculous amount of time 😂 I will forever remain part of the counting on your fingers club!

[kiku]

On 5/22/2023 at 10:30 PM, All Time No said:

Basic mathematics. It doesn’t matter if it’s addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. If it’s more complicated than 2+2 or something easily recognizable like multiples of 5 or 10, then I cannot do it without a calculator or piece of paper and a ridiculous amount of time 😂 I will forever remain part of the counting on your fingers club!

I'm so glad I'm not the only one with that problem! 😊

That goes for some other issues too that were mentioned here: Rolling the "rrrrr" nicely when trying to pronounce a Spanish name correctly... Doing a handstand or a cartwheel, OMG! 🤪 ... Riding a bicycle... And sense of direction, ooohhh!! @SleepingPhlox I loved your line above (posted 2 years ago, but anyway) that you make sure you always take the same route so you won't end up on one of the moons of Jupiter! 🤣 That's me!

One thing that - I think - wasn't mentioned here yet is: I can't drive a car. I am horrified just by the idea, so I've never tried, and I never will. I cannot distances and speed, so traffic is really dangerous for me, even as a pedestrian. When I want to cross a busy street without a traffic light or zebra crossing, I can't cross. Unless some car driver shows mercy and actually slows down, or even stops, for me. Embarrassing, but that's the way I am.

[kiku]

Sorry, I forgot to put in a word: "I cannot gauge distances and speed."

[Bird]

On 8/20/2011 at 6:12 PM, Stimuli said:

...Hide emotions, I am readable as a book, even when I try to hide E'm they show up

Me either! sucks sometimes doesn't it? 😄

Another thing I'm incapable of is, and I hope this makes any sense; knowing the corresponding number to months... like the position of the month in numbers from 1 to 12. But now that I think about it, I guess in English-speaking countries you don't really write dates as "10.08.2023" do you...?? You'd rather speak of the 10th of July 2023 wouldn't you? Anyway, I really need to count through all the months in order to "translate" that date. I just cannot connect the number (8) to the month (august)... 😅

[Darkjolteon]

I can't seem to make a winning magic the gathering deck that doesn't copy anyone else. Life goals right. Lol

[AntheaHolmes]

It's a bit not good but I can't swim. Well, not really good. I look like a drowning ladybird. I can't whistle and to be honest, I hate whistling. It's so annoying. Also like @kiku I can't do basic maths. It's so unnatural to me to do basic calculations. Outside of school I never needed it. It was wasted time for me.  Advanced mathematics is even worse...why are there letters! It doesn't make sense to me. 

[Saimou]

On 8/20/2011 at 7:38 PM, Jemmabean said:

I don't know whether you directly mocked my east coast mash. It tends to be mocked more by other canadians and americans than anywhere else.

Oh yeah, that reminds me. I can't speak Swedish OR Finnish without sounding really, REALLY gay. Like stereotypical-flaming-homosexual gay, apparently. I even did a blind test! Whilst in Finland, visiting with some friends of our resident Finn pig, I said "Hej, mä olen Jeremy, Kanadasta" ("Hi, my name's Jeremy and I'm from Canada") and asked them if I sounded gay. The two exchanged a very telling glance with one another and after a few seconds of hemming and hawing said "Uhhh.... yeah, yeah it did."

CURSE YOU, FINLAND!

Well; it could be worse, I guess. An Estonian YouTuber, Artur Rehi (in his video: ”Estonian YouTuber reacts to WWI-memes”, or something like that), read out the Finnish words: ”Lataa” (= ”(Down)load”) and: ”Tallenna” (= ”Save); and not only did he not recognize the language, he pronounced them, in the stereotypical, over-exaggerated Swedish accent: ”Laaatt-taaa, Tall-len-na” (a big NO-NO, for anyone, who knows Finland’s history with Sweden); and he’s fricking Estonian! It shouldn’t be that hard, for him. 
Also, Paul Barbato of ”Geography Now” has stated that to him, Finnish accent sounds like: ”[Insert gibberish in an over-done Swedish accent]”. Then again, he’s American, with 50% South Korean descent, but, in his own words, he sounds ”like a 5-year-old, who got electrocuted in the brain”, when he speaks Korean.

Though, for most Finns, sounding Swedish is probably synonymous to sounding gay, because one of the strongest stereotypes, in Finland, is that Swedes are gay. I’m just saying.

[Saimou]

On 5/22/2023 at 11:30 PM, All Time No said:

Basic mathematics. It doesn’t matter if it’s addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. If it’s more complicated than 2+2 or something easily recognizable like multiples of 5 or 10, then I cannot do it without a calculator or piece of paper and a ridiculous amount of time 😂 I will forever remain part of the counting on your fingers club!

 

On 6/4/2023 at 11:49 PM, kiku said:

I'm so glad I'm not the only one with that problem! 😊

That goes for some other issues too that were mentioned here: Rolling the "rrrrr" nicely when trying to pronounce a Spanish name correctly... Doing a handstand or a cartwheel, OMG! 🤪 ... Riding a bicycle... And sense of direction, ooohhh!! @SleepingPhlox I loved your line above (posted 2 years ago, but anyway) that you make sure you always take the same route so you won't end up on one of the moons of Jupiter! 🤣 That's me!

One thing that - I think - wasn't mentioned here yet is: I can't drive a car. I am horrified just by the idea, so I've never tried, and I never will. I cannot distances and speed, so traffic is really dangerous for me, even as a pedestrian. When I want to cross a busy street without a traffic light or zebra crossing, I can't cross. Unless some car driver shows mercy and actually slows down, or even stops, for me. Embarrassing, but that's the way I am.

 

7 hours ago, AntheaHolmes said:

It's a bit not good but I can't swim. Well, not really good. I look like a drowning ladybird. I can't whistle and to be honest, I hate whistling. It's so annoying. Also like @kiku I can't do basic maths. It's so unnatural to me to do basic calculations. Outside of school I never needed it. It was wasted time for me.  Advanced mathematics is even worse...why are there letters! It doesn't make sense to me. 

That sounds a lot like dyscalculia (basically, ”the dyslexia of Mathematics” that may involve problems perceiving connections between numbers and quantities (like between the number ”5” and 5 objects, for instance), etc.); which is surprisingly common, considering that it’s hardly been recognized, yet.

@AntheaHolmes As for, why some numbers are represented by letters, there’s roughly 2 reasons:

1. They stand for numbers, in a general form of an equation or formula.

2. They represent transcendental* numbers (like e or π), or complicated irrational** numbers (like the golden ratio φ = (sqrt(5) + 1) / 2).

*transcendental numbers are numbers that don’t solve any (WARNING! BIG WORDS COMING!) non-trivial polynomial equations with integer coefficients; in other words, numbers that are not integers, rationals (like 1/2 or 22/7, etc.), or rooty numbers (like sqrt(2), cbrt(5), etc.).

**irrational numbers are numbers that can’t be expressed as fractions (x ≠ a/b; such, as the square roots of any non-square integers, cube roots of any non-cube integers, etc., and slightly mucked up versions of them, like the golden ratio φ); or, in other words, numbers that are not the solutions of any non-trivial linear equations with integer coefficients (ax+b ≠ 0).

Hope this explains something. It would hardly make sense to write them with numbers (other than truncated decimal expansions), because they’re about as far from integers, in a sense, as you can get. 

[AntheaHolmes]

5 hours ago, Saimou said:

 

 

That sounds a lot like dyscalculia (basically, ”the dyslexia of Mathematics” that may involve problems perceiving connections between numbers and quantities (like between the number ”5” and 5 objects, for instance), etc.); which is surprisingly common, considering that it’s hardly been recognized, yet.

@AntheaHolmes As for, why some numbers are represented by letters, there’s roughly 2 reasons:

1. They stand for numbers, in a general form of an equation or formula.

2. They represent transcendental* numbers (like e or π), or complicated irrational** numbers (like the golden ratio φ = (sqrt(5) + 1) / 2).

*transcendental numbers are numbers that don’t solve any (WARNING! BIG WORDS COMING!) non-trivial polynomial equations with integer coefficients; in other words, numbers that are not integers, rationals (like 1/2 or 22/7, etc.), or rooty numbers (like sqrt(2), cbrt(5), etc.).

**irrational numbers are numbers that can’t be expressed as fractions (x ≠ a/b; such, as the square roots of any non-square integers, cube roots of any non-cube integers, etc., and slightly mucked up versions of them, like the golden ratio φ); or, in other words, numbers that are not the solutions of any non-trivial linear equations with integer coefficients (ax+b ≠ 0).

Hope this explains something. It would hardly make sense to write them with numbers (other than truncated decimal expansions), because they’re about as far from integers, in a sense, as you can get. 

Thanks for trying to explain it but I just got a headache trying to understand what you wrote. 🫣

[Saimou]

1 hour ago, AntheaHolmes said:

Thanks for trying to explain it but I just got a headache trying to understand what you wrote. 🫣

OK; you’re welcome, and sorry for the headache . Let me try to explain the main gist, in mathematical slow-motion:

1. The first reason to represent numbers with letters, is to represent a general form of an equation or formula:

ax + b = 0

ax² + bx + c = 0

ax³ + bx² + cx + d = 0

etc., where the a, b and c are constants, and x is the variable. Juxtaposing these constants with x means multiplying x by them, by the way.

2. The second reason for writing letters for numbers is to represent the precise value of the number, when the number is irrational (i.e. Can’t be expressed as a ratio of integers; like the golden ratio), or even transcendental, which means that it’s not an integer, a ratio of integers, or even a root (square root, cube root, etc.) of an integer (or a rational number); because such numbers (irrational & transcendental numbers) have infinite, non-periodic decimal expansions (the decimals don’t repeat); for example:

π = 3,1415926…

e = 2,7182818…

φ = 1,6180339…

Now, all these numbers I’ve shown here, have expressions that give their true values, but they are quite messy, compared to the single letter expressions people are familiar with.

3. If you know programming, you will have come across the hexadecimal (base-16) system, which uses 6 letters (A–F), to represent numbers 10–15, because we (using decimal/base-10 number system) only have 10 digits (0–9).

It’s alright, if you don’t understand everything, on the first reading. Just take it slowly, identify the things you CAN understand, and try to grasp the general gist of things. 

[Saimou]

5 hours ago, Saimou said:

π = 3,1415926…

I don’t know, why the decimal part of π got underlined. Oh, well… 🤷🏼‍♂️