I can’t think of anything, but I was just wondering what band you are going to see?
Oregon - Starless is firmly atop the list as my most favourite tune ever…still. But aside from that I’ve (generally speaking) moved on.
As per your suggestion though, I’ll revisit the Court of the Crimson King an see if lightning strikes twice!
M
Justin - that would be Dream Theatre.
Oh, okay. I was worried you were going to say Rush.
Math and customer service.
I’m good at “people stuff” under two different cases:
Case One, the “real customer.” Selling what we have, and which is stuff I like, to people who behave like human beings.
Case Two, the “compleat a$$”. People or companies with too much money for their own good. I can sell like a falling angel on speed, when I despise the idiot in front of me - I just don’t think it’s good for my soul.
I can cook decently, so long as you’re not expecting any sauce other than tomato. But doing it when it’s only me? Blah!
My mother’s reaction when I applied to a college 4h away back in '85 (which meant “coming home” only for vacational periods, rather than every weekend) was “and who’s going to do my ironing, then?” A few months back I came to visit and she greeted me with “hi honey, you’ve got ironing,” - my brother was there and, after picking his jaw from the floor, told me “and all these years I’d thought you were exagerating about Mom only wanting you for your antiwrinkle skills.” “well, I think my skill with a Black and Decker is also of interest, but the ironing is definitely The Must.” Ironing is nice when I can do it properly, it’s one of those activities where half my brain is concentrated in what’s in front of me while the other half thinks about something else; plus, I kind of look at it like a fantasy dwarf looks at Building Tunnels: I may not be doing it much lately, but by Jove I know How To Do It Right and it’s not how most people do it. But really, there’s got to be nicer greetings than “you’ve got ironing to do.”
Work. I’m a very good employee, but I hate work. In fact I utterly despise toil in any form whatsoever. I would be quite happy to never lift a finger for the rest of my life.
I’m another one for Customer Service and Writing.
Customer Service: In general, I detest people. I loathe customers. But, they like me. I hate retail, I hate selling, I hate solving their problems. But, I’m good at it. When I worked for Home Depot, my coworkers and boss were always giving me the irate customers because I could almost always save the sale AND make the customer happy. The whole time I was dealing with them though, I was daydreaming about shoving a carpet knife in their eyes. The weird thing about that job was that I loved the job. I just hated the customers. I was actually interested in flooring and I had a knack for picking up random bits of useful information about different types of flooring. If only I could have had the job without the customers.
I am so glad my new job doesn’t require working with the public. I don’t even have to deal with my coworkers that much. I stay at my machine and they stay at theirs.
Writing: Not creative writing. I suck at that. But, I’m very good at factual writing. When I took some college courses a few years ago, I was put in Critical Reading and Response, and Research Writing. I aced both classes and managed to tutor two classmates and they claim I’m the reason they got A’s. But, I hate hate hate writing. I hate research. I hate it all. But, the finished product is always wonderful - according to my professors.
Documentation.
It is a curse. I hate it with a passion but I am good at it and have taken the initiative several times on a new project we are doing to create documentation for it.
It is now on my work objectives as one of my tasks 
I hate fashion, yet I have a natural talent for it. People invite me to dinner and then ask me to put an outfit together for their special event. I can pair items most people would never put together in a way that they work well.
Well.
Ahm…
Hm.
No, I don’t think I’m good at anything. 
Telephone customer service.
I did medical billing for about a year, and ended up being the receptionist at the office. It was a small hospital, less than 200 beds, IIRC, and so there were only about 10 people in the billing office. But all the phones came through the front receptionist’s machine - who would then transfer the calls to the appropriate person to handle the issue.
I got more compliments from my boss, my co-workers, and even some of the people calling whom I managed to talk down than I can count.
I was also so terribly stressed that when I left that job to go to boot camp, I found boot camp relaxing.
Oh dear. I think when I saw DT in the late 90’s it was the only show I’ve ever gone to where I was completely bored. Leather pants and lots of on-stage wanking.
My brother’s a huuuge prog fan (he’s the one who just sent me that link). I’ve grown up being bored by that drivel for 20 some years now. I salute you in your efforts to try to appreciate it! Good luck with that… 
After my daughter was born I taught myself how to decorate cakes. From then on, for a couple of years, if there was a “special” occasion (up to and including potlucks) I was tapped to make a cake. Since I worked in a big factory and have a fairly large family, I was making 1-2 cakes a week for a long stretch. When it came to my family I’d be expected to spend $10 or so on ingredients and 3+ hours baking and decorating, and still chip in the same amount as everyone else for our holiday meals.
Finally I just had to start saying no. I still make my daughter’s birthday cakes, and baby shower cakes and wedding cakes for close friends, but that’s it. Probably around 3 a year.
Want me to do it?
I’m good at it, I like it and I’ve many times felt the impulse to strangle my bosses when they insisted on doing it wrong (either without complete information or combining that with formats that would have rendered the recipe for boiled eggs unreadable).
I have a modest talent for writing and documentation. I work for myself now, but for many years I had a series of regular 9-5 office jobs. When I was working on the stuff I was meant to be working on, that was okay. I enjoyed my work and enjoyed using whatever modest talent I had. The problem was that wherever I worked, I soon became known as “the guy who can write stuff”, and I got plagued by requests.
Will you write my CV (resume) for me?
Can you also lay it out nice for me using that DTP software that I don’t understand?
Can you help me fill in this application form?
My friend has to write this letter to apply for a grant, could you just give it a quick
look?
My friend runs a business and is trying to write a print advert… could you see if you could come up with any ideas?
My wife has to give a speech to raise funds for (whatever), could you take a look at her first draft and kind of polish it up a little?
My friend runs a construction company and they are putting together a brochure. I said you wouldn’t mind taking a look and maybe polishing the wording a little.
Can you help me write a wedding speech?
And so on (all these examples are from real life). Sometimes, I wasn’t really in a position to refuse (e.g. the Boss abusing his position and our working relationship). Sometimes I genuinely wanted to help and would do a good job, only to be a little dismayed at the utter lack of appreciation. Sometimes I knew that it was actually easier and less fuss, in the long run, to just ‘be nice’ and do it instead of refusing. Once in a blue moon someone would actually appreciate that this was work that involved skill, show some real appreciation and try to return the favour. But that was rare.
So there’s my answer. Writing stuff ‘as a favour’ for people who think good writing comes out of a tap.
Listening to people and getting them to talk. I’d be a great bartender except I can’t mix drinks to save my life. Quite a few people have told me that I’m a great conversationalist, but I think what they really mean is that I’m an attentive listener who asks appropriate questions to get people to keep talking. Thing is, I usually hate it, but I have the twin problems of being shy and disliking silence. So I seem to have developed a pattern where my goal is to get the other person talking.
Chalk another up for Customer Service. I don’t loathe people–I am terrified of them. I very frequently tell myself that I suck at my job, that today is the day everything is going to fall apart and I will be outed for the miserable human being I am and be dispensed of post-haste. Yet I consistently get high marks and rewards at work and told I am an excellent employee and have a great future with my organization.
I also hate presentations and anything involving public speaking, but I am pretty much a goddess on the podium. I usually memorize everything word for word. I used to lose sleep for weeks before delivering a speech, and I can never eat the morning of.
Despite my terror, in my academic career I have never received anything less than an A on a presentation, even in Spanish. I have been harassed to join various debate teams but declined, considering the fact that I absolutely hate public speaking and I also dislike competition. In college, of course, we had to do presentations all of the time, so I did get used to it. I’m comfortable enough at this point that I don’t go out of my way to avoid speeches anymore… I may end up as a professor, but I do view teaching as a bit different than public speaking. There is less rote memorization, it is a hundred times more fun and you get to put other people on the spot for a change.
Teaching ESL. I was good enough to earn the highest possible salary at my last school, but I HATE IT. Not teaching in general; just ESL in particular. It’s so mind-numbing. And exhausting. Not a good combination.
Writing (documentation, etc.) and managing people. Gah. But I like managing my team of ten far better than I liked customer service, which I was also very good at.