I’m sure confirmation bias is in play here, but it seemed like everyone I knew who picked up a guitar (or other musical instrument) was able to at least achieve some level of competence. meanwhile, the best I’ve ever been able to do is fumble through parts of a couple of relatively simple songs.
Oo oo I know! I know! Pick me!
I can’t reliably snap my fingers. I probably have a less than 1% success rate. In fact, it’s only been within the last few years that I was able to snap my fingers for the first time (I surprised myself – I was snapping to emphasize a point, and actually stopped mid-thought because I actually made a noise).
I can do winks with either eye, I can twitch my nose like Samantha in Bewitched, I can even lift my left eyebrow but not the right [nerve damage from whacking the side of my head falling out of a tree when I was really young]
I can single hand cut a deck of cards right or left handed, I can simultaneously write my name backwards with my left hand and forewards with my right hand upside down or rightside up, or write normally right or lefthandedly. [I started out a lefty but the nuns screwed me up making me write righthanded.]
I am a serious klutz, I can trip on a sunbeam on a perfectly flat floor. I have trouble catching a ball, I can not jump rope or skip. [I didn’t actually play with other kids much, I spent a lot of time sick or isolated because I was staying with my grandparents. If you don’t play those kids of games when really young, you don’t develop the skills.]
I can wiggle my ears too. But I can wiggle the left one independently of the right.
It happens. This guy got a lesson about what happens when you pay to much attention to your GPS. Or at least, this article seems to assume that’s what happened.
I have great difficulty in languages, I can pick up bits and pieces but just can’t put them together. (this may well be a confidence and an immersion issue).
Roller skating? I nearly kill myself. Snowboarding? utter crap.
Things that came easy? Skiing was perfectly natural to me, never had a lesson but within an hour of strapping a pair on I was fairly confidently skiing in a fairly parallel fashion, no falling over. (not that I’m a “good” skier, just that the basics were natural).
Also maneuvering a motor-boat, seems fairly intuitive to me.
I have a really hard time tying things. I cannot tie my shoes; I mean I can, but they will keep opening up and untying frequently because my obscure method of tying them is not very effective. Therefore, I always have to get my dad to tie them in a way so that I don’t actually ever have to tie them again. They stay tied.
I can barely tie my TaeKwonDo belt and this is after 9 months of training. In fact, for the first seven months, I would piss off my mom because I couldn’t tie my belt and she would always have to do it.
Obviously, tying ties is out of the question for me.
Keep trying- I was going to juggling clubs up to three times a week for two years before I actually finally learned to juggle (I do circus hula hoop, which is sort of under the general ‘juggling’ aegis, I wasn’t just going there and flailing for two years).
I tried a lot over those two years, but it took a decision of ‘I will practice every day for 20 minutes, no excuses, and I will continue until I can do this’, and it finally clicked a few weeks later.
Juggling 3 clubs took another three years, and I still haven’t quite got it. I’m sooo close though…
Mine’s hard to describe; I can do this weird thing with my tongue, I can sort of turn it on its side, so the tip’s vertical, but I can only turn it one way- if I try and do it the other direction, my brain tells me I have, but it’s lying, it’s always actually gone the same way.
I am suddenly feeling much better about not being able to whistle! So thanks for that!
Names also, I’m really not very good remembering names and dates. What year did this or that happen? Who cares? I can always look it up!
Identifying dogs by breed seems like a magic trick to me, I never get it right!
I can’t whistle or roll my “r”'s, the later of which certainly causes problems when I speak Portuguese to the locals.
One notable talent is that I possess is the ability to crack my knuckles - on both hands - by making a fist. As a child on the schoolyard, this gave me a certain amount of stature that was exceeded only by Joey Neagle, who could turn both eyelids up and make them stay put.
How do you whistle?
I can’t blow bubbles in gum either.
This. I cannot drive a stick shift. I have lost count of the people who have tried to teach me, and after a short session, I have yet to find someone who doesn’t pronounce me hopeless. I’m 41.
However, I can pick up pronunciation in most languages in no time flat.
I once spent the majority of a weekend trying to solve a rubik’s cube with the instructions I couldn’t do it to save my life. This was especially embarassing because my Dad collected wooden and metal puzzles (like these) and I was infamous for solving all of them in less than a minute.
I can freely move all the muscles in my head on command. Scalp wiggle? You got it. Nose wiggle? Which direction? Both sides or just one? Ears? Up? Down? Front? Back? One or both? You get the idea. Except that I can_not_ raise my right eyebrow or wink properly.
And the name thing. I’ve even momentarily forgotten my daughter’s name, I named her!!
If there is a word for the exact opposite of ambidextrous that’s me.
I love Magic Eye. I can look at one and make it 3D popped towards me or pushed inwards just by adjusting how I unfocus and focus my vision. Can anyone else do this?
You just put your lips together and blow
*extra points to anyone who knows what that is from
There is: Ambisinistrous.
If you focus in front of the picture, you’ll see it one way, and if your focus point is behind the picture, you’ll see it the other way.
I can only see about 1/3 of them even one way, but I have fairly craptastic 3D vision anyhow.