Give me an alphabet, and I can easily tell you what comes next after it. But telling what comes before it always stumped me. I have to sing the “ABC…” song to know what comes before, say S (ehh…R?). I memorized some of them, like M before N, O before P, but it always take a while for me to remember what comes before Q.
All my limitations are major.
I’ve often wondered why, in college, you can have a major and a minor, but no diminished.
Ahahahahahahaha!
What comes after an alphabet?
I can’t write while speaking. If I try to, I’ll end up writing what I’m speaking. I was always amazed at my teachers who could write on the chalkboard while talking to the class.
I’m sure there are more, but this is all that’s coming to me at the moment.
When doing mental calculations like multiplying a three-digit and two-digit number together, for larger digits I often have to mentally go through the multiplication table memorization we did in grade school. It’s like my brain stopped automatically memorizing and being able to recall what, say, 8x7 is, and I have to mentally run up the sequence starting from a few numbers prior to that, in order to ensure I have the correct calculation.
I’ll bet you were familiar with the fermented fifth…
I have a very good memory for songs and lyrics - except the part right before the bridge (where the tune changes - the “b” in classic a-a-b-a pop song form - is this making any sense?). If there’s a lyric, I’ll forget it here first. If there’s anything disctinctive about the melody/harmony there, that’ll go too. I think the bridge, which is always different, is somehow wiping out what came right before it.
I know my way around a fermented fifth myownself…
I can’t listen and do… well, just about anything at the same time. If I’m busy doing something, I simply won’t hear what you say to me. It’s like I can feel my ears shutting down and everything going quiet while I focus on whatever it is I’m doing.
Also, I can’t whistle, and the mechanics of blowing bubbles from gum mystify me completely.
I do that too. I also count on my fingers and reach for a calculator for simple addition and multiplication problems.
Nonetheless, I have a PhD.
I do the same. I don’t see it as a problem. I’d far rather have the knowledge of which sum I need to do to solve a problem, and then use a calculator to do it and be able to eyeball whether the result is sensible, than to be able to do perfect mental arithmetic on the wrong calculation.