Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Not A Numbers Man

I have been having my own personal little Y2K meltdown.

You know that bit in your mobile phone where you plug the cord into to recharge? Little e got a hold of my phone the other day, and filled that bit up with baby spittle, which made it sort of short circuit or something. Since then, my life has spun into disarray. It's amazing how much you come to rely on gadgets, and how lost you feel without them.

The thing about me, is that I am not a numbers man. I'm talking to the point of stupidity. It would blow your mind the amount of data that I have not got stored up. Here are some examples, and I am being totally truthful here.

I don't know E's mobile number. I don't know the phone numbers of any of my friends. I don't know my mobile number. If you ask for my number I have to scroll down my mobile list to get to 'Me'. I do know my home phone number, but it takes deep concentration to pull it up. Same goes with my pin number. I don't know my work number. I occasionally know my post code.

Amazed? Disgusted? I have a sickness. Look away.

Incidentally, I do however, know my phone number from when I lived in Darwin, in 1987. It was 272823. I do know what year every Beatles album came out, and could kick butt on lots of other unnecessary trivia like that. I remember visual things very well, and written things. Faces, colours, song lyrics. I remember how to play all my songs without having written any chords down.

It's just numbers. When they hit my brain, they scramble on impact.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe we all have stuff like that.
One (of the many things) I just can't remember is the order that the seasons come in.
I have to picture a tree in my mind and work out the seasons according to the leaves (or lack thereof) on the tree.
sickness you say?

onlinesoph said...

Ben, I hear you!!!!

I also don't know my husband's number, although I do know the pattern my finger moves across the number pad in order to dial his mobile. So whenever anyone asks for his number, I always need to whip out my mobile and pretend I'm dialing to give away his number. Now who is the sick one? :)

I am terrible with numbers. I don't know my own home number, anyone's mobile, any postcodes, even my street address I get confused. I don't remember anyone's birthday (except my own and my brother's because that's valentines day - I don't even know my husband's!! I know it's in January sometime, but I have no idea when!!). The only date I do remember is 1066, which is the Battle of Hastings. Go figure. I don't even know what happened at the Battle of Hastings!

However, I am excellent with faces and names, plus conversational details - a gift my husband regularly makes use of!

Ben McLaughlin said...

Well this is very comforting to discover that I am not completely alone.. I was expecting only taunts.

Ha, that's funny Liz:) Seasons! Maybe you could memorise that song 'You've ggot a friend'.. The lyrics go 'winter, spring, summer or fall, all you gotta do is call'..

Wow Soph, the fact that you don't know Sam's number or birthday gives me great comfort and assurance. Funny that you can remember by 'touch'!
It is very handy that you have memorised the battle of hastings though. That should crop up pretty frequently. Don't underestimate the value of retaining trivia.

kristina said...

Glad I am not alone. I work with my dad who remembers long strings of numbers off the top of his head while I can't remember my address most of the time.

Soph- "pattern my finger moves". That is funny.

I don't have trouble with seasons, but sometimes have to stop and think about the number of the months.

Ben McLaughlin said...

Hi Kristina-- yeah my Dad is an accountant, and is very much a numbers man. I feel very silly in comparison!

Colinmac said...

Hey Ben lots of people don't do numbers. Very few people can communicate in writing and visually the way you do - I certainly can't. I used to be down on myself because I was and still am hopeless with tools whereas my Dad could do almost anything with them. I felt that what I could do well was not important and the things I could not do well were the important things. My Dad always seemed to think he was inferior because he had not done much by way of tertiary education and really struggled in sermon preparation. The message to me seems pretty clear. God gives us all different gifts and we should not devalue what we can do or be down on ourselves for what we can't do.

DAD