🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello Folks,
 
I've been reading the recent discussion on dyslexia, and think
maybe it's the problem that I have with reading and writing.
(actually my whole family has this problem, to varying degrees.)
Whenever I write something I've got to be extremely careful and 
read everything dozens of times [over] in order to make sure that everything
is correct.  (I'll try not to fix anything in this posting, just to 
give you a [good] sample, I'll also but brakets [] around things I do
find and can't resist correcting.)  And even when I do try my hardest to o
proofread something, mistakes always slip through. 
 
My dyslexia problem doesn't seem to be [to] bad with reading. 
I read at least 20 books a year.  In January I even read Gravity's Rainbow.
(which I hated, as some of you that read rec.arts.books my have heard.)
If I mis-read a word, it usually, or doesn't matter.  Sometimes I mis-read
the word and it [the sentence]  doesn't make sense, so I realize it and 
re-read the sentence.  Sometimes my dyslexia does some weird things though.   
Once a while I read a word and it is actually better than word that was 
written.  (I can't think of any examples at the moment.) I got a B.S. in 
Electrical Engineering from U.C. Davis.  So I feel I'm not a complete dummy.  

But this dyslexia thing just pisses me off!   [My] Writing comes out really 
bad.  I avoid as much paper work as possible.  (Maybe in order to cut paperwork,the government should only be able [allowed] to hire dyslexic people). 

Even very simple words I have trouble spelling.  I had to look at the word
"complete" above just to make sure I spelled it write [right].  When I 
looked at it "to closely" I said to myself, "Does that word have an 'e' 
at the end or not?".  

One of the weirdest things I do is sometimes write two THE's in a sentence.
'I was walking down the the street'.  For the life of my I can't see the 
twh the's.  But anyone else can instantly see them, and once they're pointed
out it's obvious to me.

Are there special excersizes [exercises] a dyslexic person can do to cure 
him/herself? I've often felt that if I had specialized help early in my 
schooling it would have been a great help.  Instead most my english teachers
were the worst.  Lots of football coaches during the off season.
I've been looking for computer programs that will "help" correct my grammar.
Something like a spell checker, only a grammar checker.  Something that
would just point out things it feels might be wrong.  Maybe bright red
if it's 99% sure there is an error, and less red for things that it's less
sure about, and blue for things that it's sure is right. 

Another problem that compounds things is the way English words are spelled.
Like the word "cough".  Why in the heck isn't it spelled "koff"?   Seems
like the letter is is usless.  [Seems like the letter 'c' is useless].

Well, I've probably embarrassed myself enough for science, so I'll quit
rambling.

Thanks for any help or advice,

John S. Watson, Civil Servant from Hell        ARPA: watson@ames.arc.nasa.gov 
NASA Ames Research Center                      UUCP:  ...!ames!watson
Any opinions expressed herein are, like, solely the responsibility of the, like,
author and do not, like, represent the opinions of NASA or the U.S. Government.