Magic eye? Easy. Math in my head? No prob. Selling? Don’t like it, but understand how it works from pros. Yes, I’m impressed by song writers, but even more so by people who write for a living. Whether they are book authors or just news writers, those people have my respect for grinding out words day after day. I do my share of writing, but it’s pure agony at times putting words on paper. And these people do it … all … the … time. Easy for them, hard for me.
Art. The fact that someone can sit down with a #2 pencil and a piece of blank paper and, within a few minutes, produce a picture of me or someone else just astounds the hell out of me.
I have trouble drawing a straight line, even if I use a ruler.
People with willpower. Like dieters, people who work out regularly, things like that. It’s like, even though I want to lose 30 pounds…I just don’t have the willpower to stick to what I know I need to do. People that can just amaze me.
Oh yes. I remember watching the 1974 movie version of Jesus Christ Superstar with Swedish subtitles and thinking the translation sucked, until I realized that the subtitles actually fit the music. You could sing the songs with the Swedish words. I didn’t complain about the translation after that.
The opposite sort of amazes me. I lost some weight through careful dieting and workouts, and everyone and his brother started praising my willpower. There’s really nothing to it. You decide to do something, and then you do it. If you “fail”, it’s because you decided not to do it.
Practice with scissors and a bit of notecard. Lay out a box shape, cut it out, fold it up. Fiddle around for an evening with paper & scissors, just messing around, and it’ll come much more naturally.
Firearms - I can’t grasp the concept that these things can fire a small projectile hundreds of yards with enough force to blow the crap out of whatever they hit and yet doesn’t explode into a million pieces when fired.
That’s pretty much all there is to it. Listen to other people’s bitching and complaining but avoid becoming a part of it.
I cannot understand how to plan and create a meal, and have everything arrive at the correct temperature at the same time.
I cannot understand how people can travel with small children.
I cannot understand how women can wear makeup all day without getting it all smeared.
When I was in University during my third year, I had a brutal second semester with four really tough courses so I thought I’d take a bird course, Sales Management. One of our projects was to sell something to one of our classmates. The whole exchange would be videotaped and the teacher would mark it. I’m at an immediate disadvantage because I have social anxiety disorder but I thought, shit, I can follow a script I write in advance and at least get a solid 75, right?
Wrong. I got the lowest mark in the class by ten whole percent - and I thought it was a damn good script, it took me a lot of time. When it came time to sell I got flustered at the very thought of a no. I was pretty much incoherant throughout the entire sales pitch. I got beat by somebody who didn’t even show up that day. I still dont’ know how the hell that happened but they got a 50 and I got a 40 - I checked the teachers marking sheet. I got an A in the class but that’s mainly because I aced the written tests and essays.
So yeah, I’m with you on this one.
My addition is spices. I’m a reasonable cook and can make things from a recipe pretty well but when it comes to spices, I’m bloody lost. There’s so many of them and they are all different. My mom has the worlds largest spice rack with spices I’ve never even heard of and she knows what to do with all of them. I know you can put cinnamon on toast with brown sugar but that’s about it.
I can do Magic eye (I learned the “unfocusing” method from the first very simple, black and white images in Omni magazine, the image would be a number 4 or someting as simple), I can speak Spanish fairly well (although my vocab is lacking), I can play music, I can sell, I can almost haggle decently, I have a great sense of direction, but…
If you told me to draw anything simple, you’d laugh. I can draw a halfway decent map, but nothing else. I wrapped a Christmas present for my sister and told her that there were retarded kids wrapping for donations at the mall, she didn’t blink.
Simple math I can do in my head, really simple math. If there’s a decimal, fraction, percentage or remainder in the solution, I might be quite a bit off.
How long ago did something happen? I might miss by half an hour or more, same with estimating time in the future. How long is that? I might miss by 15% or so, I’m terrible at judging lengths. How do you spell that? If there are no double sets of letters, I can do pretty well, if there are, I will get at least one set wrong.
I can name a ton of male actors, and a smaller amount of female actresses. If I see a movie I can usually say “that’s the guy/girl from…” then I can’t name more than 1 or 2 other movies they’ve been in. For instance, I’ll be watching “Airplane” and someone will ask “who plays the pilot”? I’ll say Peter Graves. They’ll ask what else he’s been in, and I’ll come up blank.
I’ll tell you what’s wrong with right and left: they change, depending on the way you’re facing. West is west, regardless of what compass bearing I’m on. And there’s nothing I hate more than being told “turn left at Walgreen’s.” Let’s not ever give each other directions anywhere. 
I too am amazed by musicians. I played piano passably when I was younger, but I never got beyond that. I started learning to play the guitar a few months ago, and I had no idea how complex the instrument could be. Learning more about it just made me appreciate really good players even more.
Patient people astound me too.
Nah, I’m with Clurican. Walgreen’s isn’t going to move, so what’s wrong with saying, “Turn left at Walgreen’s” ? If you’ve been heading the correct direction in the first place, turning left will keep you going the correct way. If you pass Walgreen’s, just turn around and then turn right at Walgreen’s.
I don’t have severe directional impairment like some people, and I can always find where I need to go, but I need landmarks.
Turn right at the post office, turn left at the Shell station, turn right at the high school… and so on.
East and west - not so much. Landmarks, people, landmarks!
(The compass in my head was removed to make room for Doppler Radar equipment. I can tell you with remarkable accuracy if it’s going to rain or snow in the next 48 hours. Really.)