Dubious skills you have...

I am (unfortunatly) skilled in many criminal enterprises. :frowning:

Not so much in legal ones. :frowning: :frowning:

I can crack pretty much every joint in my body except my hips. Grosses people out sometimes. I can also read for hours (and I do mean hours) on end and not notice how long it’s been.

Huh - and I can crack my hips. Go figure.

I’m with **alice_in_wonderland ** on the not eating. It’s gotten so I have to set an alarm at work to remind me to eat. Still doesn’t always work. (I knew it was bad when I’d gotten all the way back down to high school weight. That’s flab, folks, not muscle. Not good.)

Ranchoth, that reminds me of the Mel Gibson movies. The ones with the shoulder thing. cringe

I’m very hard on keyboards. I type with my nails, see, and these days I clock in at about 90wpm. Keeping that in mind… the boy told me one time that he could hear me typing from across a ~900sqft apartment. While he was in the shower with the water going full blast.

[ul][li]I can solve a Rubik’s Cube in well under a minute.[]If I know a song, I can ID it within a fraction of a second, even if it’s a very faint background sound (like the organ in U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name”)[]I’m about an 85% free throw shooter. We don’t shoot many free throws in the driveway, however. :frowning: []I can entertain myself with absolutely no stimulation by conversing with myself in my head. This is particularly bad in classes where the prof has a monotone voice.[]I can roll my tongue, but not do that cloverleaf thing.[/ul][/li]Another one is the ability to reverse a word (ie, word -> drow) mentally. I tell people a certain Larry the Cable guy joke* and they either insist that I’ve made an error or they think an inordinately long time about what “Tulsa” backwards is. I don’t think I have a rare ability, but many people can’t do it. It’s quite limited in usefulness, however.

  • [Larry the Cable Guy]I was just in Tulsa. You know what “Tulsa” backwards is? “A slut.” An you know what “a slut” backwards is? A hundred dollars.[/LtCG]

Like Rigamarole, mine’s pee-related. I can hold it in for a really long time. Apparently this can be bad for your bladder. But I don’t drink a lot of liquid, so maybe instead of damaging my bladder, I am always in a state of mild dehydration?

After the alarm rings, I allow myself to doze until the last possible minute without falling into a deeper sleep. Very occassionally I’ll end up sleeping past the time I absolutely have to get up by. It only happens once or twice a year, so I still go back to sleep after the alarm rings.

If I’ve seen a movie more than once, I can usually quote dialog from it. The more often I’ve seen it, the more I can quote. I’ve been told it can be quite annoying, so I’ve tried to tone it down.

I’ve got the “Name That Tune” talent also - and can usually tell you if it’s in the same key as the original. The flipside is that I can’t tune background music out so well - I can be making faces and complaining about elevator music that no one else can even hear.

And, I can triage medical admissions when I’m essentially asleep. It gets me when I come into the hospital in the morning and there’s patients I don’t recall having admitted - but I did :slight_smile:

I can go long periods of time with no food as well.

I also have little fear of death and a fascination with the limits of my body… which, individually, could kill me. Combined, they probably will someday.
I also have a very very high pain threshold. It comes in handy if, say, I get injured and have to just keep going (like onstage or in the middle of class or something) but could potentially make things a lot worse because I don’t have to stop and take care of my injury right away.
I also move quietly… but I combine it with a tendency to get distracted. So if I’m walking with someone and they’re not looking at me, we tend to get separated because I’ll stop to look at something. Comes in handy when I’m trying to sneak somewhere, though.

I can remember names with no difficulty. My problem is remembering faces. It’s great when I get it right, but when I’m wrong… people tend to be more insulted when you call them the wrong name than when you say, “what was your name again?” and even more insulted if you call their friend the right name but get theirs wrong. I also have a tendency to recognize a name someone mentions, (“do you know so-and-so?”) but not be able to connect it with a person. (“yeah! er… who is she?”)

I can

a) Lose interest in things with super human ability.
b) Hear very low sounds. e.g. clock tick across the room with tv on loud. My gf frequently looks puzzled when I mention these things. Obviously drives me mad., Low frquencies I am particularly good at. Perhaps I was a dog in a previous life. Or maybe the next…
c) I can drink large amounts of alcohol and appear to be sober. I have tried to explain that the reality is far from appearances, but there you go.

Oh, and I almost forgot a prime talent.

I can injure myself with the most inoccuous objects. I recently stripped the wallpaper and sanded skirting boards in our bedroom.
I managed to sustain 4 deep cuts from the wall paper stripper. Most people think theyre blunt but believe me the sides are evil.
Then I stabbed my fingers onto a row of tacks holding the carpet in place. Twice.
Gave up when I started to look like DarkMan.

I was told quite firmly not to try and fix the wall socket…

I have perfect pitch. While this skill would be very useful as a musician or composer, my career field is nowhere near these areas. Similarly, I can identify many songs by just hearing the first few notes/bars/phrases, etc. If I am in a noisy area where there is music and all I can hear is the bass line I can usually pick out which song it is if it is one I am familiar with.

I can tell you how many letters are in a word faster than anyone else, as long as I know the spelling. For example, if someone says “DICTIONARY”, I’ll respond with “10” faster than anyone else. I’ve tested this against many smart people.

Is there any way I could make money off of this skill?

Same here. I can ID softly playing music on the other end of phone calls, or know what song is coming on the radio within microseconds of the first drum hit, guitar note, etc. This can drive my girlfriend nuts when we’re driving, as I hit the preprogrammed buttons on the radio at lightspeed, instantly knowing what’s playing. Not as high of a percentage, but I can usually ID songs playing in a neighbors house just by the bass and drum hits too.

I can make horse galloping noises with my mouth. Part of it is chomping my teeth together pretty hard, so someday I expect to chip a tooth.

I can put my feet in the lotus position without using my hands. I don’t exercise, I don’t stretch. I tend to sit in odd ways anyway, so that is just one more.

I think very quickly. I’m seldom flummoxed for a solution to most problems. However, I am pathologically unable to comprehend meanness.

While I love debates and a good fiesty conversation. I do not like confrontations or arguments with my friends/family.

I can twirl a reflex hammer around on my index finger for a long time. Unfortunately, I suck at stopping, usually it goes flying off and hitting someone when I try to stop. Sorta tests their reflexes.:wink:

Oh - I just remembered another wacky thing - I also have a congenital insensitivity to pain.

Which basically means that I don’t feel pain in a normal way. I don’t feel any pressure points. Burns don’t particularly hurt, etc.

This is not actually a good thing, because I can really maim myself, and not actually feel it in an appropriate way. Not so good.

I do that too! Except, I move quietly whether I want to or not. Except when Im wearing heels, its hard for me to make much noise while walking. Ive scared people numerous times, and been backed into on a near-daily basis.

IANAD, but I would bet this is directly related to your OP. If your nervous system doesn’t get the “hunger pangs” that most of us experience, you don’t feel the need to eat.

I have super hearing. I’ll hear someone whispering two rooms away.

I am extremely aware of pain, but I also have a severe tolerance to it. I know it’s there, but it doesn’t bother me until it’s very very very bad.