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terajkETA Jan. 31: Now open for prompts! (Though hopefully posting fills/linking to fanworks should still start on February 7.) Also, a more official-sounding FAQ, and some resources about navigational impairments.
I decided that I am going to have a celebration of characters with navigational impairments on my birthday! As such a thing is incredibly esoteric, it's a good idea to start planning now so anyone who wants to participate is comfortable enough to do so. Some thoughts so far:
Original and fannish work is welcome; it'll be open for prompts, but party guests don't have to use them. All types of work, from graphics to podfic to FSTs to filk to meta (I'm very ambivalent about something I'm reading right now!) are welcome, too. ETA: Also, recs! Favorite bits of canon!
Also, I'm collecting some resources about navigational impairments, which is a challenge. Navigation is a really complex process with a lot of skills involved (and lots of things that can go wrong); according to the stuff I'm reading, it's not very well-studied, either. Navigational disabilities are found in a bunch of different conditions like Alzheimer's disease, nonverbal learning disability, (one of my diagnoses), traumatic brain injury, etc. or by themselves, like in developmental topographic disorientation which was named within the last few years.
(The phrase "visual-spatial skills" is a pet peeve of mine. Visual skills and spatial skills are two incredibly broad and separate skillsets. It's possible to have no vision at all and a good sense of space; it's also possible to use vision for things most people use a sense of direction for. *waves*)
It's also good to reach out to people who might want to play! So I spent the day coming up with a pithy name and making promotional graphics:
Since I'm me, let's end with some ladies! (Sadly, all the easily lost characters I know are cis in their canons, and none are non-binary folks. Maybe we can correct that?):
Any questions? ideas? Complaints? (Especially if you'd like to play but aren't sure how to participate.) How can I help you have fun at this party? ETA: Signal-boosting welcome!
I decided that I am going to have a celebration of characters with navigational impairments on my birthday! As such a thing is incredibly esoteric, it's a good idea to start planning now so anyone who wants to participate is comfortable enough to do so. Some thoughts so far:
Original and fannish work is welcome; it'll be open for prompts, but party guests don't have to use them. All types of work, from graphics to podfic to FSTs to filk to meta (I'm very ambivalent about something I'm reading right now!) are welcome, too. ETA: Also, recs! Favorite bits of canon!
Also, I'm collecting some resources about navigational impairments, which is a challenge. Navigation is a really complex process with a lot of skills involved (and lots of things that can go wrong); according to the stuff I'm reading, it's not very well-studied, either. Navigational disabilities are found in a bunch of different conditions like Alzheimer's disease, nonverbal learning disability, (one of my diagnoses), traumatic brain injury, etc. or by themselves, like in developmental topographic disorientation which was named within the last few years.
(The phrase "visual-spatial skills" is a pet peeve of mine. Visual skills and spatial skills are two incredibly broad and separate skillsets. It's possible to have no vision at all and a good sense of space; it's also possible to use vision for things most people use a sense of direction for. *waves*)
It's also good to reach out to people who might want to play! So I spent the day coming up with a pithy name and making promotional graphics:
Since I'm me, let's end with some ladies! (Sadly, all the easily lost characters I know are cis in their canons, and none are non-binary folks. Maybe we can correct that?):
Any questions? ideas? Complaints? (Especially if you'd like to play but aren't sure how to participate.) How can I help you have fun at this party? ETA: Signal-boosting welcome!
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Date: 2012-01-27 08:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 02:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 08:08 pm (UTC)I got it from an episode of Bleach! (I'm not very familiar with it yet; I wanted a graphic of Kenpachi and Yuchiru.) But I heard Ganju Shiba say something about "A hero arrives last" in reference to himself and I was all, "OMG, bam!"
Also OMG how did I forget about Haru?!?
I think it's easy to forget that Haru has a bad sense of direction. He's a more minor character (especially in the anime); also, I'm 15 volumes in, and his lostness has only been referred to once so far, when he first appears.
Oh, and speaking of Haru...
Date: 2012-01-27 08:20 pm (UTC)Re: Oh, and speaking of Haru...
Date: 2012-01-28 10:52 am (UTC)That's a really interesting idea about Hatsuharu & Akito!!
(Also, Haru is a more minor character, but I had a personal interest in him b/c of his clothes & sense of style. :D )
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Date: 2012-01-27 06:55 pm (UTC)Bugs Bunny (should've turned left at Albuquerque)
The Doctor (really, how many stories result from the TARDIS not being when it is supposed to be?)
Miss Frizzle (arguable: in the books it wasn't clear if she was directing the bus to some of the strange places it wound up. In the cartoon, she definitely was.)
Jack Sparrow (hopeless without his magic compass. Moreso with it when he doesn't know what he wants.)
Hagrid (Right then, this way...)
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Date: 2012-01-28 05:49 am (UTC)Speaking of Harry Potter, someone once read Neville Longbottom as having nonverbal learning disability, which I could see. (It's a syndrome, so there's more pieces than poor navigational skills.) It's been a while since I've read the series, but I remember him having some difficulty getting to class on time/navigating around campus. Of course, it's also possible to portray him--or anyone else!--this way, regardless.
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Date: 2012-01-28 05:54 am (UTC)For Neville, it seems to be a problem he is aware of and takes steps to minimize the impact of. Hagrid projects a couple of times that he knows where he's going or is, when in fact he doesn't.
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Date: 2012-01-29 02:51 am (UTC)Although ... hmm, I guess that's a different type of navigational "challenge" but it's not the same thing as being lost a lot...
Now I'm not sure whether I agree with myself or not!!! :)
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Date: 2012-01-27 07:25 pm (UTC)I've joked, half-seriously, that my memory is photographic but not holographic. That is, I can remember scenes and places in great detail...but only in two dimensions. Throw a third dimension into the mix, and I'm out of luck. I've been known not to recognize a place I'm extremely familiar with, when approaching it from the direction opposite that which I usually take.
My mental maps? I've described them as being like the 'maps' in the game Myst-- a bunch of still images with links between them.
But I can remember exactly where on a page it was that I read something. Or what the pattern of the carpeting looked like in a room. Or how a particular movie scene was framed.
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Date: 2012-01-28 04:11 pm (UTC)I've been known not to recognize a place I'm extremely familiar with, when approaching it from the direction opposite that which I usually take.
I totally hear you about this one, or rather - I sort of have an internal sense of orientation and if that starts being at odds with itself or with the actual direction we are going in things get extremely confusing. I frequently cannot recognise anything upon returning somewhere if I orient it differently that time around.
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Date: 2012-01-31 04:28 pm (UTC)When I was 13, I did battery of neuropsychiatric tests. One was the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure test. You're asked to copy drawings, and then the examiner asks you to draw them from memory at different times. I don't know how faithful my drawings were, but I was able to draw several of them from memory even after an hour had passed. Why? Because the figures sort of look like things (a plow, a house, etc., etc., etc.) I was all, "I'm gonna beat this test, sucker!")
Then I did the Judgement of Line Orientation test, where the figures look more like random lines than visual things, and scored three standard deviations below the mean. The neuropsych testing me commented on it. (He knew exactly what happened :D.)
I've been known not to recognize a place I'm extremely familiar with, when approaching it from the direction opposite that which I usually take.
ME, TOO. In my case, I think it's related to why I learned to read early. The Roman alphabet has several letters that are actually the same shape turned different ways (b,d,p,q), and I'm wired for recognizing them as different things. But my brain also understands buildings this way where it...is less handy. ("Hey! Coming at this building from a different direction makes it look different! Therefore, it's a different building!")
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Date: 2012-01-27 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-28 05:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-28 10:24 am (UTC)At one con, the author actually did an impression of Felix, lost in a paper bag.
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Date: 2012-01-28 04:45 am (UTC)omg omg I am so in love with this idea yes yes yes!!! And as someone with spacial/directional skills considerably less developed than that of the average jellyfish, I identify way too easily with the "gets lost all the time" character trope - hello story of my life - so this sounds like the perfect fest idea in my book.
(Also I share you pet peeve with the phrase "visual-spatial skills" because it's been my experience that far too many people can be really good with one side of that hyphen and terrible at the other side, myself included.)
Since signal-boosting is okay I will be doing so soon. I have a lot of Soul Eater fans on my flist and we can always use a good excuse to make more Marie fanworks anyway. ;)
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Date: 2012-01-28 05:31 am (UTC)And as someone with spacial/directional skills considerably less developed than that of the average jellyfish, I identify way too easily with the "gets lost all the time" character trope - hello story of my life
ME, TOO! Although I was not aware that "gets lost all the time" was a trope until last year, when I read Ranma 1/2 on a whim and found (Ryoga had had the most accurate fictional representation of my navigational impairment I had ever seen, and I had to tell the internet about it.) Some of the reason I didn't notice this trope before is because I'm new to anime and manga, and that's where I'm finding lots of easily lost people so far. (As a project, I'm sort of looking for them.)
Speaking of which, I know of Soul Eater, (and Marie!) but haven't read/watched it yet! And I have access to it! (Our library has a few volumes, and also it's streaming on Netflix.) Getting started on it would be good preparation for the fest, especially since my list could use some more ladies.
I AM SO EXCITED!
♥ ♥!
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Date: 2012-01-28 08:14 am (UTC)Also, oooh links!!!!
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Date: 2012-01-28 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-29 02:52 am (UTC)Good on you :)
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Date: 2012-01-29 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-29 04:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-29 11:30 am (UTC)Happy Birthday!
Date: 2012-01-30 12:15 pm (UTC)"Are we there yet?"
"I'm not sure ... it doesn't look familiar but, well you know" ... A short pause ... "Does it really matter if we're there?"
"Well, actually, I guess it doesn't. It's quiet and sunny though, and there are blue seats over there ... y'you want to have lunch here instead?"
"Definitely."
[In my head they sit down and have a picnic at this point, though I still have no idea who "they" are or whither they're "there"!]
Re: Happy Birthday!
Date: 2012-01-30 02:25 pm (UTC)I LOVE IT. I especially love how "there" doesn't really matter to them.
Thank you!
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Date: 2012-01-31 02:43 am (UTC)Also, you seem neat and are friends with several people I know, so I've added you to my reading list. I hope you don't mind!
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Date: 2012-01-31 04:11 am (UTC)Also, totally plugging this for One Piece. As soon as I saw the idea I thought of Zoro. XD
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Date: 2012-01-31 05:28 pm (UTC)An excellent question! I'd originally thought of putting up the Where to Post Prompts and Other Things post (on DW) on February 7. But it would make MORE sense to put the prompts post up EARLY, so people have more time to plan! Oh [expletive]! Maybe I can still get away with making a prompts post today or tomorrow and then giving everybody (at least) a week to fill them. And if people don't want to fill prompts, they don't have to. The fest is open for all kinds of things, from meta to podfic to love meme-style threads ("So-and so is awesome because...") A more thought-out FAQ is here.
Also, totally plugging this for One Piece.
DO IT! I'm only 60 chapters in, but...ZOOOOROOOO! This cracks me up:
(Image description: One Piece's Zoro carrying Usopp through a forest.
USOPP: East! East! I told you to go east!
ZORO: How am I supposed to know which side is east? Just say left or right!
USOPP: Then turn around and go right!
ZORO: You mean, go back?!)
Prompt post is live!
Date: 2012-01-31 06:49 pm (UTC)