Mental brown out

[Holammer]

So, I was typing up a post and I wanted to use the word "genuine".
I'm not intoxicated, I haven't used any form of mind altering substance other than Diet Coke. But I simply couldn't spell out the word correctly no matter how much I tried. Fast trip to dictionary.com and I got the correct spelling. Anyone ever freeze up like this?

[SurlySeraph]

No, but I'm very good at spelling.

[TheThan]

Yep I do it all the time. So I feel your pain.

[DraPrime]

Not really. I've always been fairly good at spelling. At least in English. In Polish I'm like a 5 year old.

[RTGoodman]

Occasionally I'll do something similar. Sometimes I try typing a word and just can't seem to hit the keys in the right order for a few tries. Other times, I'll type or write a word correctly and then keep rewriting/retyping it because it just looks weird. Like the word "weird" - I always want to put the "i" first. I think that's partially from learning German, where "ie" sounds like a long "e" sound, while "ei" is a long "i" sound. Same goes for receive, which is probably my least-favorite word to write.

[Coke_Can64]

That used to happen to me too... "since" once (which is another one) came out wrong 4 times... only to find it was right anyway...

Sometimes that annoying "I before E except after C blah blah..." rule kicks in whenever it feels like, so I'd type quickly "wierd", then retype it as "weird" and it'd look funny... receive (which just switched I&E as I typed it) annoys me too... getting the same rhyme drilled into your head over and over again does wonders to your memory right? :smalltongue:

[Destichado]

Sure, happens to me all the time. Sometimes words that you've spelled correctly for years just don't *look* right anymore.

[Cyrano]

I've forgotten the correct spelling for "Why".
"Wey? Wiy? Wiey? Weiy? Wy? No, 3 letters......Whey?"

[Winter_Wolf]

Typing words like 'awkward'. Looks wrong no matter how it's spelled. And does anyone else find it kind of sadistic when, for example, you ask a coworker how to spell a word and they come back with "look it up in the dictionary." I mean, To my knowledge, you'd have to know how the word is spelled in the first place to look it up, and if I knew how to spell it, I wouldn't really need the dictionary, and more to the point, wouldn't have asked in the first place.

Then there are people who say things like, "how would you spell (some word)?" Boy talk about a straight line if ever there was one. I've actually (just the once) said something like, "Well I would spell it kwqzlmy. Or did you want to know the way most people would spell it?" I told the guy the right way after that, but it was the dynamic we had.

[Bor the Barbarian Monk]

And now, a helpful writing tip from Bor...

Hi, kids! Whenever I make a blog post, I usually have MS Word running in another window. I'm fond of telling people that I'm a writer, not a speller. (If all of us were perfect, editors would be out of work.) So when I come to a word that doesn't look write, or seems impossible to spell correctly, I type it into Word and let the program search for the proper spelling for me.

That said, Word is imperfect. When writing creatively, it will complain about fictional words, sentence fragments, sentences that start with a conjunction, and other such things that the fiction writer in me knows what it wants. If you create a typo that acutally spells real word...Well, that's when your friendly neighborhood dictionary comes in handy. :smallsmile:

This has been a helpful hint from Bor, also known as Captain Tyop.

Ummm...Typo. :smalltongue:

[randman22222]

So when I come to a word that doesn't look write

Oh, the irony. Was that intentional?

EDIT: @V. Heeheehee. :smallsmile:

[Bor the Barbarian Monk]

Hmmm...Did I fail to mention I have no points in my class skill of Proofread? :smallredface: (In other words, it was not intentional; the "Tyop" at the end was.)

Y'know, I think I'm gonna leave that there. It's just too amusing to myself to edit. :smalltongue:

[Nychta]

It happens. Just pray it doesn't happen during an English exam, that's what I do.

[Occasional Sage]

Hmmm...Did I fail to mention I have no points in my class skill of Proofread? :smallredface: (In other words, it was not intentional; the "Tyop" at the end was.)

Y'know, I think I'm gonna leave that there. It's just too amusing to myself to edit. :smalltongue:

What are you that Proofread is a class skill? :smallconfused:

[Gaelbert]

I've forgotten how to spell "of." I swore it was supposed to be "uv." And the same thing with "I." It's terrible.
And I know I'm a little late, and I know that D'Anna might not have technically been gone, but I just need to get this out of my system:
D'Anna! You're back!

[The Extinguisher]

Thinking of any word for an extended period of time makes it look wrong and sound funny.

It's lots of fun.

[Fan]

Heh, after one ENITRE year of doing nothing, but playing WoW, and the like i literally forgot hwo to spell "why, it, please, and what" Now if thats not emabrssing at SCHOOL, i dont know what is.

[Collin152]

Thinking of any word for an extended period of time makes it look wrong and sound funny.

It's lots of fun.

Yes it does, and no it isn't.

[randman22222]

Heh, after one ENITRE year of doing nothing, but playing WoW, and the like i literally forgot hwo to spell "why, it, please, and what" Now if thats not emabrssing at SCHOOL, i dont know what is.

You... you ought to feel ashamed for playing that much WoW. :smallconfused:

[ocato]

I have a similar problem, but arguable the dire were bear cousin of it: Aphasia. Aphasia is the name for the somewhat unique phenomenon of completely losing part or all of what you are saying right in the middle-- most commonly (in my own experience) occurring in regards to a single word.

So instead of forgetting how to spell 'genuine', I will completely and utterly lose the word and any meaningful way of describing it directly in the middle of what I am saying. Now, your first reaction might be to condemn me as an idiot. Low brain RAM, dunderhead, idjit, I've heard them all. But I assure you that one's vocabulary is certainly not a factor when struck by the dreaded Aphasia.

I would have to say that the absolute worst part of it is when you attempt to explain the situation to someone, and the word "aphasia" itself completely vanishing for any number of minutes or more! Surely, it is very embarrassing. Suffice it to say that I sympathize with your pain.

[Felixaar]

Alk Thee Tyme.

[Rockphed]

I have a similar problem, but arguable the dire were bear cousin of it: Aphasia. Aphasia is the name for the somewhat unique phenomenon of completely losing part or all of what you are saying right in the middle-- most commonly (in my own experience) occurring in regards to a single word.

So instead of forgetting how to spell 'genuine', I will completely and utterly lose the word and any meaningful way of describing it directly in the middle of what I am saying. Now, your first reaction might be to condemn me as an idiot. Low brain RAM, dunderhead, idjit, I've heard them all. But I assure you that one's vocabulary is certainly not a factor when struck by the dreaded Aphasia.

I would have to say that the absolute worst part of it is when you attempt to explain the situation to someone, and the word "aphasia" itself completely vanishing for any number of minutes or more! Surely, it is very embarrassing. Suffice it to say that I sympathize with your pain.

I get that sometimes too. Normally doesn't last long, but it is really annoying.

As to the OP, when I go on marathon programming sessions I get like that. I once found it hilarious that MySquare wouldn't compile and started yelling at the computer about it. Computer programming does that to you.

[Arioch]

It barely ever happens with me, but when it does, it happens with fairly normal words. I look at them, and they don't look right. Weapon? "Wee-a-pon?" That can't be right, surely? Then I look, and it is.

[TheBST]

That's the problem with English, isn't it? It's like a Frankenstein's Monster language stitched together from celtic, french, german, latin, greek and whatever the vikings spoke. Silent letters having, no phonetic spelling son of a...

I'm wondering if this is why English speaking countries apparantly have much higher dyslexia rates than others. (culutral differences and willingness to diagnose it are probably the reason for the difference but still- it's food for thought.)

[SoD]

Not with spelling...I do remember one grade eight maths test though. I was in the middle of calculations for some problem or another, when I looked at what I was about to do. I look at the numbers I have written out, and am drawing a blank. So, I lean over and wisper to my mate Richard "Hey...mental blank here...what's 2x6?" the answer: ".........uh...it's...um...oh bugger! Now I've got a blank as well!" Thank god for Eleanor jumping in with "12...morons."

Probably my most embarassing moment in a maths class...but not the most humiliating.

[Bor the Barbarian Monk]

What are you that Proofread is a class skill? :smallconfused:
Bard, of course. :smalltongue:

(What? A barbarian monk can't pick up a few levels in a thrid class?)

[Setra]

Heh, after one ENITRE year of doing nothing, but playing WoW, and the like i literally forgot hwo to spell "why, it, please, and what" Now if thats not emabrssing at SCHOOL, i dont know what is.
You also seem to have forgotten "how" "entire" and "embarrassing".

Really though I try to use full words when playing games, outside the occasional 'lol' (Which I sometimes replace with 'Heh') anyways. Not to mention it would actually take me longer to type b4, rather than before, simply 'cause I just never do so outside of examples.