Curse Round Buildings!

[publius]

....or How to get yourself turned around 90 degrees, and head off in the wrong direction and not be able to find you car.


I had to go to Christmas concert tonight in unfamiliar territory. Said concert was in a building with semi-circle front. When I went in, I knew where the "front" was, and where I had parked three (long) blocks down to avoid paying $5 - $10 to park. There's actually a little rebellion brewing over parking. Long story, but the city and some private characters are making a killing on parking. Local business rent out their parking lots to these characters who charge big time when there's local events nearby.

Anyway, when I came out, I came out on the other side of this damnable round front, and managed to get myself turned around 90 degrees, and so went down the wrong street. Had it been daylight, I doubt I would've pulled that stunt, but it was dark, and I wasn't familiar with the local area.

Now, when one's internal sense of direction gets turned, it's hard to shake. Even after I managed to find my vehicle, I was still turned around. My internal sense of the direction of home was 90 degrees off, and I drove in the wrong direction. I soon realized things weren't looking right.

My brain was so sure of that wrong direction, that when I finally got back in familiar territory, and saw landmarks I recognized weren't in the right place relative to where I thought was, it gave me a splitting headache when the correct sense of direction snapped back to me. My brain wanted to fight it. This can't be! The world turned around on me while I wasn't looking... :lol:

That whole episode embarrased me to no end and made me so mad at myself and round buildings, I can't stand it.

I've heard speculation that we human critters have a little internal compass of some sorts. Well, I don't. :) But I've always had a strong sense of direction, I always know which way "home" is. And I realized tonight that is an entirely relative thing, apparently keeping track of all the turns I make.

That round building allowed me to make a turn without realizing it, and boy how that screwed me up.

-Richard

[hhEb09'1]

Be glad you don't work in my building. Every turn is a multiple of pi. Very irrational.

[danscope]

....or How to get yourself turned around 90 degrees, and head off in the wrong direction and not be able to find you car.


I had to go to Christmas concert tonight in unfamiliar territory. Said concert was in a building with semi-circle front. When I went in, I knew where the "front" was, and where I had parked three (long) blocks down to avoid paying $5 - $10 to park. There's actually a little rebellion brewing over parking. Long story, but the city and some private characters are making a killing on parking. Local business rent out their parking lots to these characters who charge big time when there's local events nearby.

Anyway, when I came out, I came out on the other side of this damnable round front, and managed to get myself turned around 90 degrees, and so went down the wrong street. Had it been daylight, I doubt I would've pulled that stunt, but it was dark, and I wasn't familiar with the local area.

Now, when one's internal sense of direction gets turned, it's hard to shake. Even after I managed to find my vehicle, I was still turned around. My internal sense of the direction of home was 90 degrees off, and I drove in the wrong direction. I soon realized things weren't looking right.

My brain was so sure of that wrong direction, that when I finally got back in familiar territory, and saw landmarks I recognized weren't in the right place relative to where I thought was, it gave me a splitting headache when the correct sense of direction snapped back to me. My brain wanted to fight it. This can't be! The world turned around on me while I wasn't looking... :lol:

That whole episode embarrased me to no end and made me so mad at myself and round buildings, I can't stand it.

I've heard speculation that we human critters have a little internal compass of some sorts. Well, I don't. :) But I've always had a strong sense of direction, I always know which way "home" is. And I realized tonight that is an entirely relative thing, apparently keeping track of all the turns I make.

That round building allowed me to make a turn without realizing it, and boy how that screwed me up.

-Richard

I Sympathize. When walking around a city during the cloudy day, or when Dark, It get's difficult,indeed. I carry a good, cheap boyscout compass.
It serves me well. And a cheap city map is usefull,indeed.
Best regards, Dan

[aurora]

I once came out of a group of identical buildings (where I had been working in several of the buildings, different rooms, all day) on the side opposite of where I left my rental car. After I had walked up and down every row in the parking lot, and started to think the car had been stolen, I realized it was parked over on the other side of the buildings.

[davidlpf]

publuis, ever been in observatory dome, ok only ony one way in and out, but the roof turns, some people can get disoriented in them.

[HenrikOlsen]

Be glad you don't work in my building. Every turn is a multiple of pi. Very irrational.
Isn't that either straight ahead or straight back?
How do you get confused by that?

[davidlpf]

Isn't that either straight ahead or straight back?
How do you get confused by that?
well for whole numbers, but what about going down 2/3 pi to -1/3 pi.

[HenrikOlsen]

Multiples of ... tend to be whole numbers multiplied by ... .

[publius]

publuis, ever been in observatory dome, ok only ony one way in and out, but the roof turns, some people can get disoriented in them.

No, never been in one, but I can see that. For me, it would depend on what I thought "really rotated". Most of this is subconscious (I've been thinking about this all day..... :) ). If I somehow fixed on roof, or the big scope that was rotating with it, I would probably think the walls rotated, and would get turned around. However, if I fixed on the walls, I'd probably be ok.

This is the first time I've ever done this, aside from some of those strange episodes where you get turned around in your sleep -- years ago, I went to sleep on the couch, and woke up in the dark thinking I was facing in the opposite direction, and walked straight into a wall.

But this is the first time I've ever pulled something like this. No matter where I go, I've always know which way home way was. I may not know the local area, or remember every little twist and turn, but I can point in the right direction and always come out on a major road or other place I know. I've never gotten turned around like this before.

But I am a country boy, where there's flat landscape with markers on the horizon. I was indeed in a section of town with tall buildings and grid streets that looked pretty much the same in all directions.

-Richard

[davidlpf]

well I have been in a building were the hallways were different on all three floors and sometimes found it hard to find my out but usuall only took a few minutes to get out.

[davidlpf]

henrik just kidding.

[davidlpf]

No, never been in one, but I can see that. For me, it would depend on what I thought "really rotated". Most of this is subconscious (I've been thinking about this all day..... :) ). If I somehow fixed on roof, or the big scope that was rotating with it, I would probably think the walls rotated, and would get turned around. However, if I fixed on the walls, I'd probably be ok.


-Richard
most people focus on the roof rotating so they get mixed up, I am usually the one with the controlls so does not effect me that much.

[Trebuchet]

It doesn't have to be round buildings. I used to work in a building which had a large atrium area with elevators on each end. One day I came up the elevator on the opposite end from what I normally did, turned right (as I would from my normal elevator to my desk) and suddenly found myself in unfamiliar territory. Briefly, panic set in -- I had no idea where I was or how I had gotten there. It didn't take long to get myself straightened out but it was very alarming while it lasted.

[mickal555]

Thats happened to me before...

I always know which way is north/south/east/west and the ocean/city/desert/home once it got 180degrees out of wack, a very weird experince....

[Captain Kidd]

I've gotten off on the wrong floor before and gotten lost in the cubicle warren as each floor's cube maze was different.

[Tog_]

I've never been great at knowing my direction while traveling. If I'm familiar with the area it's not a big issue, but in a new suburb where the sun has gone down, I can turned around pretty easily.

We have a mall here that is just freaky hard to get around in. It has 5 floors, 3 of which have access to the parking garage, which is 8 levels high. The street access is on the second floor on one side, and the bottom floor on another. It's laid out in a shape I can't quite but my finger on. I'd like to say the central part is a square, but the escalators in the middle are in a triangle. There is an elevator in the central bit, but there is also one down one of the halls. Only one of these goes to the top floor. I have never felt more lost and helpless in my life than when I go into that building. When I bought my big scope, I had to park in the underground loading dock because the van was too tall to fit in the normal garage. It took 20 minutes to find the door to the mall, then when I did, I had no clue how to get back to where I parked.

One thing, orientation-wise, I've always been really good with is being aware of my surroundings. If I fall, I'm usually thinking about what I'm about to land on and how to make it hurt less. One time I fell off a merry go round. No the amusement park kind, the playground kind, where a kid can get it spinning so fast that it's almost impossible to even grab the hand rails to get on. Once I was on I thought I could stand up on the top of the hand rails and lean in far enough to not fly off. Yeah... don't try that. My feet went out from under me and I did 3/4 of a rotation before hitting the ground. Just before I hit, I realized that I would probably hit the sloping ground under the thing and roll towards the axle. The sheet metal that made up the deck was in triangles that had bits that hung down where they were bolted together. I would roll under it and have those parts peel the skin back. Not fun. By the time I actually hit the ground, I was rolling away from the thing. I did hit in the slope but as I was already clawing my way up the slope I was able to get away unscathed.

I had to tell that one to tell this one.

In a martial arts class where the instructor was explaining what a first degree black belt aikido technique would look like. A black belt in martial arts is basically the same as a high school diploma. It's the basic minimum to get by. There are up to 10 degrees after it for those that want to learn the details. Anyway, I was facing north and attacked him with a right uppercut style punch. He used his right arm to parry my attack as he stepped around to my right. My right arm ended up over my left shoulder. This spun me around until I was facing west. He then pulled on my hand as he stepped back, made a little loop in the air with it, and pulled it straight down my back on the right side, so my elbow was pointed straight up. My internal gyro said my feet were pointing north, but when I sat up, I was facing east. The rest of the class, I was messed up. It was so completely disorienting. I still have no idea how I ended up that way. All of the other times I've been thrown, I ended up pointing the way I thought I should be.

The only other time that has happened was when I got up in the middle of the night in the army and got back into bed with my head at the wrong end. It took a few minutes to figure out why the walls were all wrong, and in the end I decided I must have gotten up while still asleep. The fire guard said I got up around 2 AM and used the bathroom, and I guess I need to take his word for it. It was still now where near as confusing as that throw though.

[farmerjumperdon]

well I have been in a building were the hallways were different on all three floors and sometimes found it hard to find my out but usuall only took a few minutes to get out.

Sounds like what Macy's does to keep you from being able to escape the perfume department. There's a cute SpongeBob episode where they have to run that gauntlet, though I won't spoil it by telling how it turns out.

What I can't figure out is how anyone can tell what any one thing smells like in that cacaphony of odor. Even at the edges of the area my eyes start watering; when you actually get tangled in the web of aisles that is the perfume department, everything smells like some sort of toxic haute coture cocktail.