Word and number "games"

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Yay - my first ever topic!

Basically, I have these "games" going on in my head all the time that drive me completely loopy, but which I can't stop...... They're not going to be easy to explain, but I'll have a go....

Number Games

These are easiest to explain:

1. I cannot see a telephone number without having to work out what that number is modulo 9 - i.e. add all the digits together to get a number, add all the digits of that number together to get another number etc. until you get a single digit number left. All well and good, except I'm not a numerical savant or anything so have to do the adding up laboriously, and I can never just work out the number one way and leave it - I have to do it at least 3 or 4 different ways to make sure.....

2. Years - whenever somebody's date of birth is mentioned I have to work out how old they are now, how old they were when I was born, how old they were in 1914, 1918, 1939, 1945 (or any other relevant dates to the timeframe), and certainly how old they were at any other date mentioned say in a television program about them..... Luckily I don't have to work years out modulo 9 though...

3. Sports numbers - only really applies to American football due to the size of the numbers, but I always have to work out the differences between any 2 shirt numbers on the screen, and then work out which player on the squad has that shirt number..... I then have to work out the sum of those 2 numbers, plus then I do have to work out the value of all the above numbers modulo 9....

Word Games

My real nemesises.... Too complicated to explain all the "rules" and variations I've developed during the years, but here's some of the basic ones:

1. 'XeXiXuXaX': Any word which even sort of has this pattern has to be transformed to actually be this pattern where the 'X's are unique consonants.... e.g. "Davies" becomes "SERIVUHAD", "Brady" becomes "HESIBURAD". Basic rules for this game are (i) missing consonants can be replaced by, in order, 'h' (but not at the end of a word), 's', 'r' and 'l' (ii) Links between vowels and consonants already in place in the word must be maintained if at all possible (iii) the whole word can be freely reversed to meet the pattern, but individual pattern reversal in the word must be avoided if at all possible (iv) Syllables can be moved around in the word if needed (v) 'o's can be turned into 'u's if need be, 'y's can become 'e's, 'i's or be ignored (vi) oh, tons more stupid rules, like 'u' being the preferred vowel to insert between 2 joined-together consonants, and duplicate/excess consonants being discardable under certain conditions......

2. 'XaYeXaZiB': similar to the rules above, except the consonent/vowel pair for the 1st and 3rd syllable must be the same, and the vowels in the second and fourth syllables must be different to each other and the 1st/3rd syllable vowels. e.g. "People" becomes "PELOPEHAS", "Geological" becomes "LOGILOCAS"

3. Longer words have to be split into 3 "symmetrical" blocks of alternating vowel/consonants, each block starting with a consonant. (i) Duplicate vowels and consonants are allowable. (ii) Blocks must all be of 'odd' length to start and end in consonants - characters can be added or subtracted under certain circumstances to make this so (iii) Middle block must be bigger than either of the other 2. (iv) 'h' or 's' can replace any awkward vowels (v) 'y' can replace awkward consonants as a vowel. (vi) blocks can be moved around to make the pattern work.
e.g. "Lubrication" becomes "LUB - RICAT - HON", "Communicable" becomes "COM - MUNIC - LAB" or "COM - MUNIC - LEB", "Commentaries" becomes "MEN - TARIS - COM"... (all 3-5-3 examples, but you get the idea......)

Anyway, the point is why do I do this to myself? I feel absolutely compelled to have to 'process' certain words and numbers I come across this way all the time, often meaning that I miss out on vital plot points in movies, or things said to me in meetings or socially, or points scored in American Football games, or whatever because I'm concentrating 100% on churning this stuff around in my head at the time instead.....

It'd be interesting to know if anybody else does this or if its just me - I've never seen an explicit mention of this exact kind of thing on any aspie resource before......

I dream in pig-latin.

I don't do those exact things, even though those are quite interesting word/number games, I constantly am thinking about polyrhythm. It takes over my brain... I'll be doing anything and get a sudden urge to tap out a rhythm.

Its not the same puzzles, but I feel compelled to do it in the same way.

I do similar number games : calculating ages, adding numbers modulo 9, grouping numbers into blocks to visualize them in another way (I recently did that for the first hundred decimals of PI). I also count things often, and make multiplications, squares and cubes in my head.
I also have word games but they are different. For instance, I do coding. I try to change the letters by numbers and associate a number with a noun.

Yes. I very much agree with that one!! I do that ALL the time and it drives me loopy too. I am worst with digital clocks. I only have two in my house, one in my bedroom where it doesn't matter if I take time out to add up the time and one on the video recorder that I can't switch off. I also add up dates and house numbers when I am out walking.

I'm a little more visual. I create what I call "Knights Tour flowers"

In Paint, or Photoshop or whatever, I open a blank document and place a single black pixel somewhere near the center. Then I change the brush color to a very dark red (or blue or green), and mark the eight pixels a chess knight's move away. Then I lighten the color again, and mark off all the next level moves. When my starting color is up to 255, I switch it tothe next color, so that my flowers shade from black to red. then to orange, yellow, and whitr. To vary it I use different "moves." Most often lately, I use a five-unit move, since I have 12 directions for the first move instead of just eight.

Before computers, I used to do something similar with a pair of geometry compasses and colored pencils.

I play with words a fair bit - fortunately my kids love making words up and punning on stuff, so that's entertaining. As for visual stuff, I create road networks when at a loose end a lot (this is more fun than you'd think as road layouts here dont follow the block pattern familiar in the US)...

Welcome to WrongPlanet, Gwyn_ap_Nudd!

Dunc

hi gwyn ap nudd

I very much like your knight flower idea.
could you show us any?

I've tried a slightly similar thing with blocks of colour, it's just simple gradation though.

I sketch Formula 1 circuits......

i do the number, regulo 9 thingy too. you might be interested in the significance of the numbers, if you do this - check out numerology as it relates to the kabbala (i did have a website link, but gods know where it is).

and i play word games all the time. collective nouns are a favourite. i am addicted to words, and make up new ones all the time - i am, you might say, a meganeologophiliac (ha ha!)

Interesting - it seems everyone gets stuck on this mod 9 business - makes me feel a heck of a lot better about it..... Maybe there is some great link among all "aspies" through it or something......

I generally prefer a nice chicken tikka though: I usually find kabbala makes me gassy.....



Ooooh - collective nouns: I love making them up too! Like the collective noun for nuns? A force of habits...... force of habits see.... funny.... nuns wear.... habits..... and that...... I'll just go get me coat.

Last edited by TAFKASH on 31 Jan 2005, 6:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Oh no - don't go giving me ideas for new ways to torture myself!



Digital clocks are indeed the tools of Satan.....

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

Montjuic-- I don't normally save the "flowers" since I make so many of them, and I don't have anywhere to upload them that I could connect with an IMG tag. I might make an avatar out of one or two, though.

One thing I haven't seen yet in this thread, but which I'm sure is widespread (so widespread that I even know several Nuero-typicals who have done it) is reading things (like signs) "backwards," especially when it sorta makes sense like the "address" 55 Timil Deeps.

When ever I use to watch a basketball game on television (before they displayed the time continuously on the screen) I would keep track of the time left in the quarter by counting down in my head the seconds until the next time they showed the clock on the screen.

I would do this in a kind of strange way. instead of counting off in my head the seconds as they ticked down, I would use my powers of visualization to superimpose my own digital clock over my field of vision, which would usually be totaly engrossed on the TV screen. So I would see the basketball game, and in one corner of the screen, I would see the clock counting down that I would visualize.

I know this may sound kind of strange, but I can do this. It takes a heck of alot of concentration to do it though.

You're right! Making up words is a blast! My husband and I have done that for years--we have so many, it's almost like a language of it's own.

Don't you find that made up words are better--more fun and more descriptive? I prefer them, but we have to be careful that they don't leave the house.


I play with colors all the time. A Crayola 64 color box of crayons is like heaven--especially when I'm allowed to arrange them chromatically. I love paint sample chips, Pantone chip books, nail polish color swatches, etc. The more colors the better and every color has a personality and tells a story. They are, in a way I can't explain, alive.

And then when I start combining colors in various groups, the stories become more complex, the relationships between the colors are very real and endlessly interesting to me. The whole thing could just expand into infinity if I would allow myself that luxury.

I could stare at colors all damn day. I wish someone would pay me to do it.