Chuck giving directions
It is funny that most of my aviation friends, especially the guys, orient themselves with cardinal headings while most girls I know go more by landmarks. For me personally, it is really tough getting around on the ground in an inner city, especially at night and/or when I mix in a subway ride or two, because I lose my orientation quite easily. The moving map GPS for the car was probably one of the most important inventions for pilots in our century. 😉
I also had a friend who I used to fly with who loved to use aviation speak in his sentences wherever and whenever he could. He was also a movie pilot so it was actually a combination of the two. It drove me nuts at the time especially when he was trying to explain things to non-aviators, but now that he is gone I actually miss it sometimes.
So I guess this would be another strip inspired by real life. 😉
Guys using route driven directions (north, west, second left, 3 miles ahead, take a left) and women (generally) navigating by landmarks (take a left just after that maple tree by the bakkery) is a scientifically proven thing. It has to do with the way our brain stores and processes information. (An example I recently ran across: http://searchengineland.com/human-hardware-men-women-and-how-we-find-our-way-14359)
Chuck, Chuck, Chuck… You should have offered to show her the way yourself! 😛
But even when asking for landmarks, you may get 2 completely descriptions: Ask a car dealer and a botanist for the way thru a city.
@ flying ace: Too true. Chuck missed another opportunity. ;D
That’s nothing. When tourists visit Honolulu, asking for directions gets not only a string of street names which are largely incomprehensible to visitors, but the directions are given in relation to landmarks: “Aloha Tower? Easy! Okay, we stay Kukui and Nuuanu. Go makai Nuuanu, den you go Diamond Head at Ala Moana, cept it still Nimitz at Nuuanu, but go Diamond Head anyway, stay Nimitz and den it go Ala Moana, den you look makai and see it on Fort! Easy!”
I admit it, we love to see that glazed look come into mainlanders’ eyes, but these are the directions exactly as they would be given to another local. No our fault you no spok English!
I may not be an aviator, but I can definitely relate to this one. I’m studying Web Development, and a lot of the other students here end up using programming terms in emails. Occasionally I’ll see “if assignment.finished == true: help me;” or something like that.
Love the comics by the way, just found it while perusing Comic Rocket.
Comparing boolean variables to true or false is a good indication that a) one needs to (re)do the lessons on booleans; or b) one is beyond help and won’t become a programmer..
Someone I knew once got directions that included “Turn at the barking dog” . . .