So, I'm a high-functioning dyslexic and dyscalculic. (I wasn't able to easily find a term for a person with dyscalculia, so I had to extrapolate from dyslexia.) Words and numbers get kind of whirled around and mixed in me. It's not just words and numbers, I do it with symbols too. I'm great with concepts, but abject representations can really get a little haywire. For example, you're probably really glad, whether you know it or not, that I have two different spell-checkers running on this.
I managed to teach myself the reading trick that works for me before a lot of other kids were reading. For a long time what I read was essentially the same, but not exactly what was on the page. I could read aloud, and it would be the same story, but it would usually be in my own words. I don't think this is as much the case now. My spelling's getting more in line with canon too, although homophones can still trip me up.
Math used to be an automatic "No Way!" Addition beyond single digits got too weird. Sometimes 4, 6, and 9 were the same to me. And holding numbers in my head for any length of time was just an exercise in futility. Slowly I learned certain phone numbers. After a while working retail I got to where I didn't have to enter credit card numbers digit-by-digit-and-check-twice. I can remember when I realized I was doing it three at at time. Now I can often enter 3-5 digits in a chunk. I still double or triple check those chunks.
I was in the special-ed system for these as a kid. I had grown-ups explain my dyses before I was one.
I still haven't gotten a good system for symbols. You know, like on video game controllers? Square - Circle - Triangle - Cross can be a quadrant of frustration. I do m best to read reviews and get games that aren't symbol-response-twitch orgies. There are many games where I know that the button here does this. That's fine. I can even, after some frustration, learn combos. Patapon is fun in small doses, but I'll never have to worry about getting the sequel. It's slow growing and probably has a ceiling for my advancement. I have to re-start it after I've put it down for a few weeks or so.
Recently I've been playing Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow. It was great until the last chapter. It's an aim & shoot spy game. I was given a demo a while back and was surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. It probably helps that it was written by Greg Rucka. It must have been good, because it got around a whole lot of filters and I found myself enjoying shooting terrorists. Tonight I decided to try to finish it since I'm near the end and a copy of Anathem is on it's way to the house. Pretty damn close to the end is a random symbol puzzle that you have to solve to finish. After many, many, many, many, many tries, many of which got me taunted by the game, I gave in, ejected it, and CRUSHED THE PUNY DISK! HULL NOT PROUD, BUT HULL SMASH!!!
I don't think I've done this to a game before. As I said on Twitter, "I could have gotten an OK trade-in." Oh well...
