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Geography

Asterism

Asterism

Active Member
I've always had this compelling interest in geography and maps. I don't think it's really an obsession so much as memorizing maps at a glance just happens since they're so incredibly interesting to me. I can't remember my own phone number and forget most everyone's name, but for as long as I can remember the names and relationships of places just sinks in and sticks with no effort.

I can literally spend entire weekends on Google Earth visiting and memorizing most everything I come across. I'll spend hours estimating the number of palm trees on a random, unpopulated South Pacific atoll, then hours more researching everything I can find about the island. I'll find unnamed and obscure landscape photos on the Internet, then see how fast I can figure out exactly what latitude and longitude the photo was taken. It really serves no practical purpose other than enabling me to navigate my way around most any new city I find myself in from memory.

My wife thinks it's weird, but it's also convenient since she's pretty much lost as soon as she leaves the neighborhood (well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but not much of one ;) ).
 
You two and myself have really good visual spatial skills. Your skills are probably that much more profound than mine. I like maps and can read them, and I can be good with reading or figuring out road signs and systems sometimes if there is a pattern. Not so good with GPS coordinates from Google Earth or finding my way around if there are no street signs or map. So, at a carnival or theme park, it might be a bit easier for me to temporarily get lost per se.
 
Guilty as charged. :)

I look at my National Geographic Atlas every single day. I even minored in geography.
 
paloftoon said:
...Not so good with GPS coordinates from Google Earth or finding my way around if there are no street signs or map. So, at a carnival or theme park, it might be a bit easier for me to temporarily get lost per se.
Click to expand...

Carnivals and theme parks really stress me out. There are too many people there, so I cope by being anonymous. Then as I'm lurking behind my anonymity a stranger behind a booth or a person hidden inside a seven-foot rodent costume focuses their attention on me. It's too much to deal with, so I tend to avoid those places.

I can only remember being lost once, and it was only for a few minutes. I was hiking in a remote hilly desert area (approx. W111 °02' 12" N37° 48' 30"), and I got distracted by and preoccupied with trying to remember the exact sequence of words to Don McClean's American Pie (yeah, I know, an Aspie thing). Anyway, after 20 minutes of walking I realized that I hadn't been paying attention and that all the landmarks had changed. I felt panicked at that kind of uncertainty. It wasn't a big deal since I just retraced my steps, but I don't know how so many people cope without being able to always precisely anchor themselves within a known set geo-spacial relationships.
 
I have always liked maps. As for navigating I think I'm quite good. For some reason, I'm usually sure where north is - maybe I got hit on the head with a compass when I was a baby or something(!) :)
 
I LOVE maps! Google Street View is one of my favorite things to do when I'm bored. Just look up random small towns and explore them. Right now, I'm looking at the ten largest cities of each state on Google Earth (and yes, I have memorized the ten largest cities of every state!). I try to hide the fact that I'm looking at Google Earth on my iPad in public though, because it would just be embarrassing to explain to NT's what I'm doing, because they consider it "weird."
 
I love using Google to look at street maps of former Iron Curtain countries...feel like I'm plucking forbidden fruit! :cool:
 
I can remember maps and locations on a map really easily so my mum always gets me to look at maps before going on a long car journey. I'm not so great at orientation though
 
I looove geography too. Thanks to my mum I think. I loves maps and all that. I could name every country and capital before I started school. But I've forgotten a few now. I'm doing a double major with one being I a geography/computer subject at the moment and geophysics as the other.

Another awesome game is quiz up. It has heaps of geog quizzes and so many other awesome things.
 
I have always loved geography and maps too. Some of my favorite books when I was a kid were atlases, and I had an atlas when I was a kid that had detailed maps of all of the US states which I loved. I even used to draw my own maps of made up countries. I would draw the country, label the major cities, rivers, etc. That was something I had that I got enjoyment out of.

Goople Maps has to be one of the coolest sites ever. I find myself sometimes just picking a random city and looking and it on there. I find it interesting to see where the downtown areas are, where the parks are, the major landmarks, etc.

That's ironic that the first poster mentioned how his wife reacts to it, because my wife reacts to my abilities with directions. She says we never need a GPS because she has her "human GPS" with her. :p
 
This has always been a big one for me. I love maps and as an 8 year old drew the Eurasian continent from memory over about 40 sheets of computer printout paper. Which I then sellotaped together. I find I have a natural ability to read maps like some do a book.
 
Yes,yes,yes!!!
Once when i was a scout we had an Orienteering test for loads of troops.
I always used to just follow in the background at Scouts,but my team leader was so ****
in this task that for the first and only time in my life i lost my rag and took over.
We won by a mile and everyone in my troop where shocked that it was down to me.
Bunch of prats.
I think i used to be a pigeon in a previous like lol.o_O
 
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