talkmagic.co.uk

Well said AJ.

I too am Dyslexic, and it has caused me quite a few problems - mainly because it wasn't picked up on until I was in college. At school I was considered to be quite intelligent, but too lazy to do much work. The truth is that at that time I had no idea I was Dyslexic, never mind how to deal with the problems themselves. I thought everyone was just the same, seeing things as I saw them and it wasn't until college that I understood differently.

I now can deal with it a lot better, I may have to read this back to myself carefully a few times to try and weed out any spilling mistakes.

I too find it insulting that you refer to it as an excuse to not try - it is a reason to try harder. Maybe thats why some of these people you refer to could be considered geniuses???

Thanks Blumunky. I actually think we should be called geniuses for having to fight are way through life with people calling us time wasters or looking for an easy way out. It really does take a genius sometimes to have the strength and power and knowledge to fight through comments like those.

Sorry Craig, but think you are being harsh.
Dyslexia is a term used for "word blindness." If the eyes and the brain can't link the letters in the right order, it is as much a medical condition as arthritiss, except that you can't take pain killers or tablets to ease the condition!

My son has ADHD, being retested for Aspergers (SP?), dyslexia and dispraxia. He has visits from the educational psychologist and has extra help at school. The last test the psychologist did, she had to check some answers, as nobody had gone so far in the test as my son had.

He is ahead in knowledgem, BUT, because of his problems with writing, he has lower grades.
We have been lucky in the fact that the Head Teacher has put so much effort in, (as has my ex and myself) that he has got extra help.

So many people either don't get that help, or even worse, are just classed as trouble makers or stupid, or as you stated, lazy.

i myself am ADD. and have had to take pills to supress it. i have tried it many times without pills, this week was one of them, and it didnt go to well, i try my hardest yet i either talk my friends ear off or become very angry or impatient. its not that i am lazy, hell, i work my butt off when i am on the meds and when i am off. i have a GPA or 3.2, have been accepted to many great colleges, a working magician and escape artist, comic collecter, golfer, and archer and some other minor things. i try not to let it hold me back, and sometimes it can be a real pain, but there isnt much i can do. maybe i will grow out of it one day, but until then i am stuck with meds. now i dont know if this really falls under the contect of this debate, but i figured i would put my two cents in. if i am out of place please inform me.

even though this is a place to talk about an escape forum.

Every one of you have misplaced what I said.

I too have these problems and had to deal with them before (long before) they were identified and labeled. I have a step son that was one of the early study subject in the 80s on ADD/ADHA and considered chronic, so my position does not stem from any sort of ignorance on this topic, it stems from experience.

People are given permission in today's world to be dependent on their illnesses or conditions vs. inspiration and reason to move forward and overcome those obstacles. This is what I mean when I said there were no victims in that many of us play that fiddle when in truth, we are merely volunteering to make it a much bigger condition or limitation than it really is.

AJ's complaint that I'd make such a big deal about grammar, punctuation and spelling being "silly" in itself reveals much truth to what I've said. For starters, far too many young people deliberately misspell, don't capitolize, punctuate, etc. as an act of rebellion and laziness. Take a look in this forum at how many people (and who, in particular) do these things with great regularity. Look at the style of their posts, the language used, the positions held, etc.

"We've" corrected this problem here and in other forums like the Bunny Hutch, by pointing out to young people (the primary folks doing it) that to succeed in this business you mustn't take such short cuts; internet short hand, etc. are not modes of communication to the people that actually know this craft or life in general that can help you out e.g. when we see this kind of action in any post, it is assumed that yet again, we have someone being lazy and rebellious.

I can empathize with someone in AJ's position but I will not sympathize or enable. As I've said, I've fought this particular battle personally and helped my son through it. It can be overcome if and when we choose to not let it be our excuse. And before it's brought up, I believe that about any limitation we may face in life, including the health issues I am presently going through. It is up to me as to if I am just going to give up and let my illness (MS) take over my life and destroy my dreams. OR, I can choose to say "NO" to what it keeps wanting to insist I do. In one position I'm the victim in the other, I have chosen to not voluntarily allow my illness to run shod over me...

If this upsets you AJ (anyone) I am sorry but I've found that it's guilt that causes the upset far more than the idea of my being harsh; we (human being on the whole) tend to get more upset when we identify with what's being said and recognize it, subconsciously, as a role we are guilty of taking on rather than seeing and working that bit harder, in being on the high road.

My words are no different than a coach pushing an athelete or a drill sargent encouraging his troops. Please take them in that spirit for that is the intent and not malice. Sometimes we just need a firm kick in the rubber parts before we get off our pitty-pots and move forward; sometimes this comes from another person, sometimes it's just life dealing us the dose of reality that must be dealt with.

At school I was considered to be quite intelligent, but too lazy to do much work. The truth is that at that time I had no idea I was Dyslexic,

i am in the same boat as you, theres a lot more of us about than people realise because we have had to develope workarounds.


our craig has very strong opinions, he's had to work very hard to get were he is today against the system and I'm sure like me he dosn't have much tolerance for the give it to me now its my right generation.
that said pcwiz has been very open about his well actualy our condition judging by 3/4 of the posters here, so sorry craig a bit well maybey half a tad quick of the mark or watever that word is.

i got into magic because in my day to learn magic you had only one option read and study no quick fixes.

on subject I'm not sure an escapology section would work in the open forum section because 80% of discussions by there very nature would be exposure the other 20% would be covered by showmanship which is pretty much covvered by several other sections.
just my thoughts.

p-s please read this post as if it had been posted before craigs eloquent reply. not quick enough.

well the escape area works on other forums. but its up t the owners. i just thought it would be nice.

Perhaps one of the sections in this forum could be used for escapology.
My business trains young performers in this craft (as well as a lot of other things when we get tutors) and I've seen sites dealing with escapology. One problem is that a lot of viewers have the idea that it's related to BDSM so it tends to get a bad press. It is very difficult to get young performers such as 'Quicksilver' or 'Magic Sasha' because the wrong types used their images on kiddie porn sites. There was never anything pornographic in their performances, but it got a very bad press. Quicksilver could get out of anything - it was impossible to tie him up. He oozed out of the tie like a liquid. He was an escape ARTIST. He gave it away to study obscure forms of mathematics after pressure was applied on him by the wrong sort of people. It's a sorry world we live in.

I wouldn't mind seeing an escapology section, too.
The downside that crops up time and again in other forums, however, is the phenomenon of flame wars between egomaniacal 'world's greatest' escape artists and their small-but-loud fan bases.