Yeah, babe...well, she had restricted sensation, which I don't, but I was sort of hoping for a superpower, or a way to win bets. So that's where the feeling came from, as far as she was concerned.

The way my mind works, if you said:

""When you do this technique, pivot your back foot." Then I do the technique and say "See how my heel is pointing towards the window? Pivot like that."

I need a synonym. "When I say 'pivot', I mean put all your weight on your toes and turn." Or 'put all your weight on your heel and turn".

Seriously. I don't necessarily know what "pivot" means in a given context. Sometimes you really do need to say "No, no, your OTHER left!"

I need a synonym. "When I say 'pivot', I mean put all your weight on your toes and turn." Or 'put all your weight on your heel and turn".

Do you need a synonym after you've actually pivoted? Or are you able to say "these noises -- this motion -- this end position" and work from there?

I'm not caring where their weight is. If we can agree on a start position (already established) and an end position (which I'm repeatedly demonstrating, including using their own limbs) -- if they can work out how to get from one to the other without pivoting, I'd be fascinated to see it.

Or are you able to say "these noises -- this motion -- this end position" and work from there?

No. I really, really can't do that. I don't get how to get from point A to point B. I need to know "Throw your weight on the ball of your right foot, bend your knee, kick your free foot forward, jump, and turn." "Rotate and jump to the right, landing on your right foot" will leave me staring like a moo-cow.

I'm not trying to be difficult; I am explaining why I'm a difficult student in physical things. I really do need the intermediate stages explained.

Actually, yeah. That makes sense, what Betsy is describing. Another aspect of the "can't park a car in 500 feet square" problem I have is that it's very easy for me to mix up things like mirror images. Those quizzes where they ask you, "If you rotated this object 180d, what would it look like?" -- I always fail those, because too many of the options seem plausible.

This is also why I suck so hard at geometry.

I think if I'm allowed to, e.g., touch the pivoting part, or move in slow motion in exact parallel with the picoting part, I'm better at wrapping my head around what is actually happening. A lot of the time, when I look at maps, I don't re-position the map; I just look at it sideways.

I really do need the intermediate stages explained.

Even when I've moved you from start to end myself? Also, can't you tell you haven't done it?

If someone says "I don't get what you're asking," I'm all over that. Fuck, there's simple stuff I don't get myself. But I get that I don't get it. Your moo-cowness seems to imply you know you're lost.

But when someone looks me in the eye and agrees they've just moved from point A to point B when they've not only been to point B before, but are visibly still at point A? I don't know how to map that process and correct it effectively.

I CONSTANTLY bump my appendages into walls because I'm walking and I don't realize that my hip/shoulder/hand is about to be in the same space as the doorframe/doorknob/etc.

I do this too. It's like I forget I have a body attached to the rest of what makes me me.

Oh, god. I do this, too. But I always blamed it on the fact that I'm really bad at thinking spatially. I suck at Tetris and I have shitty depth perception. Add those together, and I walk into doorframes about 10 times a day. (Plus, my subconscious does not understand how much space I take up in the world. My subconscious thinks I'm a size 6, and navigates accordingly.)

This is in'eresting, at least to astronomy geeks like me: Spring is coming earlier than you think

Why Americans start new season on March 20, not 21

I found this the most interesting:

The current seasonal lengths for the Northern Hemisphere are:

• Winter 88.994 days
• Spring 92.758 days
• Summer 93.651 days
• Autumn 89.842 days

As you can see, the warm seasons, spring and summer, combined are 7.573 days longer than the colder seasons, fall and winter (good news for warm weather admirers).

However, spring is currently being reduced by approximately one minute per year and winter by about one-half minute per year. Summer is gaining the minute lost from spring, and autumn is gaining the half-minute lost from winter. Winter is the shortest astronomical season, and with its seasonal duration continuing to decrease, it is expected to attain its minimum value — 88.71 days — by about the year 3500.

I find I just have to drill a move over and over again until my body gets it. I get very very nervous when someone expects me to be able to follow them right away. (It was a major stumbling block when I studied martial arts.)

For me, what works is slow motion. Run through the sequence (or a subset of it) very slowly, calling out mistakes as they happen.

But I'm going to be a very frustrating student, because I can do something perfectly once or twice and then forget it five minutes later.

I'm not justifying, I'm explaining. I can see a sentence and remember it. A gesture? No.

[And Kristin says it better.]