Lay vs. Lie. I read the rule, THINK I’ve got it down, and then when it’s time to use one or the other, have no clue which one is required. Grrrrrrrrr…
this is why the financial community needs regulation and oversight. Seriously.
My new position will require me to spend a lot more time in Taipei. I’ll buy the beers and explain what it was like and why it’s important.
I should understand driving directions when someone uses compass points but it doesn’t really work. Eg, turn south makes no sense but ‘turn right’ or even ‘head towards insert landmark here’ does.
My reserve unit got activated and sent to Kuwait for Gulf War I, but to this day I have very little “Big Picture” idea of what was going on. I probably know more about the War of 1812 than the one I actually participated in.
The lay/lie/laid/layed thing is a mystery to me as well. And I’ll add the than/then thing as well.
But this one I can handle. You use i.e. when there is only one example that matches the description. You use e.g. when there are several examples.
For example:
James Cameron directed the best-selling movie of all time i.e. Avatar.
James Cameron has directed several very popular movies e.g. Avatar.
In the first statement Avatar is the only movie that is the best-selling movie of all time. But in the second statment you could have substituted Titanic or The Terminator as the given example.
And you can also raise one finger in the classic Cathy pose while saying “It is a Constitution we are expounding!!!”
I taught my daughter to make an “L” with her hands… Palms away from face. The L facing correctly is the left hand.
I have never been able to figure out pronounciation guides in dictionaries. Consequently, I know a lot of “big words” but no idea how they are correctly pronounced.
Ask me pretty much anything about pre-World War One British history and I will almost certainly draw a blank. I know various details, but have never been able to put together a comprehensive picture of British history the way that I have with North or South American history.
I also can’t tell my left from right. If I need to know, I start “writing” in the air - the hand that writes is right.
I’m in the same boat. Except I can tie a tie.
Count me in. I mean, I know my left from my right, but I have to think about it for a second.
I do the same thing- that is, thinking of which hand I write with. I don’t have to physically write in the air with it, though. 
The rule of thumb translation on the PPP is “having been x’d”. And it is an adjective, and I have no idea why people are talking about to be. Example:
puerum a parentes quaesitum loquor.
Which translates to: I am talking to the boy having been looked for by his parents.
Or colloquially: While the boy was looked for by his parents, I talk to him.
Here, quaesitum modifies puerum. You can see that they are both in the accusative.
Another, less stilted example:
Caeser a senatoribus interfectus, Augustus princeps factus est.
which means: Caeser having been killed by the senators, Augustus became the “first man”.
or colloquially: Because Caesar was killed by the senators, Augustus became the “first man”.
“Because Caeser was killed by the senators” is a participial phrase.
Same here.
Also, I have problems remembering the date. I have to initial and date documents a lot at my job. Even after 20 or more times in a day, I have to think about it.
Walt
I can do rough estimates of easy numbers. That’s good for figuring out sale prices and tips.
But when I have to be specific? Ugh. The only studying I did for my SATs was the night before trying to teach myself how to do them.
I took AP calculus and aced it. I had over 100% average in my pre-calc class. Never had a problem with algebra, imaginary numbers, graphing, sin/cosine/tangent/secant/etc, square roots, base-not-ten, integration, a train leaving…, etc.
But you give me “What percentage of 232343 is 3432?” or “what is 12% of 342343?” and I can’t do it accurately, even with a calculator.
Oh, yeah, me too. Fortunately, if I ‘hover’ my mouse over the time on the task bar at the bottom of my computer, it’ll give me the day and date, too! 
Since I work at home, alone, and work 7 days a week . . . I often have trouble remembering what day of the week it is. Especially since I got Tivo; now I don’t even know when my programs are on.
And I do a great deal of work in Photoshop . . . but I’ve totally forgotten how to work with channels; I once knew, but it’s been several years. And every time I have to create a mask, I have to look up how to do it, then give myself a :smack:, cause it’s really simple.
On the other hand, I can do most of the things you guys can’t . . . well, except for the bra thing.
My knowledge of geography is horribly deficient; I could find the continents on a globe, and lots of countries, but not nearly enough. Norway? Sweden? Finland? Which is which? South America…Chile’s on the water…right?
It’s horribly embarrassing and I feel like a complete moron so I always artfully dodge any question concerning geography of any kind. Or just nod, like “of course I know where that is.” I learned most of it in school but I’ve never applied it and it never stuck; it went into some “discard” file in my brain. It’s like a foreign language to me; if it doesn’t have any practical daily use, I’m gonna lose it.
:smack:
Despite having a BA in philosophy from a school with a half-decent department, I’d be hard pressed to discuss the philosophies of any particular writers, at least beyond two or three bullet points. Even the ones I’ve read relatively in-depth. I can generally discuss the IDEAS themselves, but I almost invariably need wikipedia to remember what ideas attach to which writers.
I’m an engineer (well…I have an engineering degree) yet I couldn’t tell you any of Maxwell’s equations.
In fact, basic physics equations (like F = ma, X = 1/2at[sup]2[/sup] + vt + x[sub]0[/sub]) are about all I can pull from memory)
I have worked in the same building for 5 years as of next week. I work full time, plus overtime. I don’t go down to pharmacy every day, but some days I go several times. So lets average it to once per day. EVERY SINGLE TIME I come back upstairs from the basement,through a door which is basically at an intersection of two wings I have to physically check which direction to turn. Left or right. Even thinking right now I am completely confused as what direction I would turn.
Outside of the hospital I am very good with directions, know which way to turn, can always get north/south eas/west right, and I don’t usually get lost in other buildings.
I blame all the lead and asbestos in this building. It is like wearing a tinfoil hat which blocks my internal GPS. 