I have had a lot of math education. A lot. Ridiculous amounts. Seriously, enough to be a math major. And here's the thing: I suck at math. No, sucking at math would be a huge improvement. I aspire to suck at math. Algebra, Calculus, all of it was torturous and I hated all of it with a white hot, seething, growling Cujo intensity.*
I'm not even good with basic arithmetic. To this day, I calculate tips with a calculator and, sometimes, I still get it wrong. It would be so easy to grift me.
Me: Just tell me what I owe.
You, looking at bill: Let's see, we each had a beer and I had the nachos. You owe $6,000.
Me: Okay.
I have no number skills and no number memory.
You: Remember this number: 4,312.
Me: What? What number?
You: 4,312.
Me: Do I have to?
You: Yes. It's 4,312.
Me: Four what?
You: 4,312!
Me: *blink*
You: *glare*
Me, sweating: It had an eight, right?
You: *walking away, disgusted* **
The only math class I liked was Geometry. Where I suck with the numbers, I'm all over the shapes. I'm a first class fitter-inner. Spatial puzzles? No probs. Predict the missing part? I can do that.
I can tell if the car will fit into the parking space. I know if the TV will fit into the car trunk and how to orient it. I can tell if the hall carpet is big enough to roll the dead, bloated body in. I can pick the perfect size pan or container to put leftovers in. The perfect size. I am the Rainman of spatial relations. Like most of my other skills, I don't know how I can use this to get money, but I'm very proud of it, all the same.
* You would think this immense suckitude would make me more sympathetic to other people's limitations. Not even a little bit.
** That's cold, Man. Cold.
20 August 2008
Not so good with the numbers
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7 comments:
I am also staggeringly bad at math; it is shameful. I put it in the same catagory as driving--I don't even try anymore. I let other people do it.
I am plenty good at a lot of other things.
I'm that way with directions. No matter how many times you have told me, written them down and simultaneously talked me through it on the phone - I'm still going to take a left where I should have taken a right.
No wonder I like you...numbers and I never got along, which is why I ended up in Linguistics. German grammar is so much easier than calculus. But oddly enough, I also was very good at geometry, both plane and solid, AND trigonometry. I guess I was born under the right sine...
Lemmonex: No shame because you are indeed gifted in many ways.
Narm: If you don't show up for happy hour, I'll know why.
Bilbo: I'm in acute pain from that. Acute. Like an angle. Get it?? HAWHAWHAW.
Awww, lacochran, I'll bet all your angles are cute. I mean acute. I mean...oh, never mind.
You know I was a terrible math STUDENT, but I am a whiz calculating my money. Greed is a helluva thing?
Singlikesassy: I guess it can be a powerful motivator. :)
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