Re: CHAT: Visigoths (was: YADPT (D=Dutch))

At 11:54 AM 11/13/03 -0800, you wrote:
>Andreas Johansson sikyal:
>
> > > In spite of digitalization rotation clocks don't
> > > seem to be falling out of use (probably because
> > > once you learn how they are quicker to read),
>
>Eh? Not to me. Perhaps it's related to my persistent inability
>to keep left-right straight, but it often takes me several seconds of
>staring at a rotation clock to make out what time it is.
I have no trouble whatsoever with telling time off of an analog clock (the
minutes, at least), but I have terrible left-right and east-west
confusion.  This creates some problems with homeschooling my children,
since the language arts program that we use teaches letter formation based
on where the numbers on a clock face are.  I simply cannot describe to my
son how to make a certain letter unless I am reading the description
directly off of the back of the flashcard.  (Yet I can still tell time
looking at a clock...)  The other big problem that my east-west confusion
causes is when I play interactive fiction (IF) games, which is one of my
hobbies.  These are like the old Infocom games that some of you may
remember from the '80's.  People are still writing games like this (and
putting out some really nice pieces of work, I might add), but the it's
almost all freeware now.  I end up wandering through virtual text
environments and have to stop and ponder whether east is to the left or the
right if you are facing north.  Suffice it to say that it can be
frustrating at times.  The more I play, though, the less trouble I have
remembering which way east is.

Isidora