How do I function on a day to day basis?

The way I actually function on a day to day basis isn't that much different from what I figure everybody has to deal with. He's got a point there. It's kind of hard to put into words how it ends up being different, because the way to compensate for it is to do what everybody else has to do to a degree anyway. I guess it's just a difference of degree, and the extent of that differences is pretty fucking variable.

I still don't think it's entirely normal to feel absolutely terrified at a well-known voice coming out of a complete stranger's face because someone used a razor differently on one day than another, or to not know who your mother is unless she's pointed out to you, but really, to me, it's a lot more interesting in the abstract (which is why I would like to have a chance to talk with a neurologist about it) and for what it shows about how the human brain works, than it is in the direct "oh no I don't know who this person is" thing that happens every day to everybody.

Do you find yourself using aural cues more than visual ones?

It depends on the person and the situation. Hairstyles, clothes, things like piercings or really unusual facial features (I can recognize Stephen Fry because he has that really weird nose, for instance), and context like where I see them ("Mary has long blonde hair, and she works with me") are usually what I go by. Of course, since any of those can be easily changed, they're far from infallible. I am generally more visually oriented, but I supplement it by going by people's voices, too.The way I actually function on a day to day basis isn't that much different from what I figure everybody has to deal with. He's got a point there. It's kind of hard to put into words how it ends up being different, because the way to compensate for it is to do what everybody else has to do to a degree anyway. I guess it's just a difference of degree, and the extent of that differences is pretty fucking variable.

So basically you have no idea what your boyfriend looks like?

I have a basic idea. He's about my height, dark hair, skinny, chin kind of pointy, dark eyes. He's not a big stick figure with a question mark for a face. And not being able to remember what the face looks like isn't the same as not being able to assess the face for attractiveness in the first place. If I were dating a horribly ugly fucktroll, I might forget how horrible he was when I wasn't looking at him, but I'd be viciously reminded all over again every time I saw him.

When you watch movies do you usually not identify actors?

I much prefer reading to watching movies, although that's partly because I don't really have the attention span for two hours of nothing but watching a video if there are any distractions around. It's a hell of a lot easier for me to identify the characters if they have a particular outfit they wear the whole time, but there's usually context clues and, if all else fails, voices to go by if they change clothing, and when I'm watching a movie I'm going to be being alert for that.

My mental image of people I know well tends to be sort of out of focus on the face. The people whose faces I keep "catalogued" are based on individual features - like you mention remembering what boobs look like, that's because the boobs stood out to you as memorable features, right? Titties, hell yeah. But that same person, you probably don't remember something like their elbow or whatever. I'm the same way, only with individual features - I remember my boyfriend's basic jawline and facial shape, and I lean heavily on hairstyles to identify people. The actual face, except for the individual features I've memorized, is just really out of focus, like a "generic" face.

What it's like to have prosopagnosia

I have prosopagnosia (non-syndromic - I've always been like this, I didn't have a brain injury), which means I don't recognize people by their faces. 25 years of living in society has gotten me pretty decent at picking up non-facial clues - I usually base my recognition of a person on hair/clothing/hopefully some very specific facial feature like a chipped tooth or a broken nose - but I can still be thrown off. For example, at one point my boyfriend got a new job that had a no-facial-hair dress code. So he had to shave off the goatee he'd had for as long as we'd known each other. When he came out of the bathroom without the goatee I discovered that that goatee was one of the major visual markers for me to identify him - so without it, there was a completely unrecognizable stranger talking with my boyfriend's voice standing in my living room. It was terrifying and disturbing, and I didn't get used to it and learn a new way to identify him for several days. (I've also had to have him identify my own mother in photographs for me, when there's been group shots that include more than one woman with short brown hair.)

So everyone I know could get their faces replaced and I would never know.