From what I’ve seen, prety much everyone has something that they can do better than anyone they know. For me, it’s Boolean equations. I came across them in Air Force technical school. I could do them forward, backward, and lightning quick. And, I loved doing them.
To this day, if I could find a job that required nothing of me but to perform boolean equations all day, I would be in heaven.
Not the most unusual of talents, but a neat one all the same. I also contact juggle, with limited skill. Severely limited.
i can destroy other dimensions without anyone knowing.
ok, i know that no there are lots that can do this better, but my talents are in drawing, and picking up things quickly when learning anything mechanical. It only seems to work with mechanics and computer technology though, show me once, and i never have to be shown again.
i can also do some things with my tounge that i just can’t explain, i’d have to show you, but you’d have to be female, and single. I won’t do this to a married woman, not fair to her guy. And i’ve been told my technique is impeccable
Near as I can tell I completely lack any talent whatsoever. I can sort of Yo-yo, which means I can make the thing run up-and-down the string. I can almost juggle, which means I can keep it going for about 30 seconds before I lose control. For the most part, I can’t do ANYTHING that the average human being could not also do with about 5 minutes of practice. It’s always been a bit of an annoyance of mine that there is nothing in this world I am particularly good at. I play no musical instruments, I have no sense of rhythm, lack anything more than passable coordination, I can’t throw very well, my only sports skill being the guy who will sacrifice his body for the sake of the play.
I am missing the ability that allows teh average person to forget trivial information, though that’s more of a curse than a talent. As far as normal, useful memory goes,m I’m dreadful at that. I often forget what I am doing while I am doing it.
Anyone else out there like me and completely lacking in any useful or even interesting talents?
This fellow I was nearly in love with at one point in my life had the best Stupid Human Trick. I was scared to talk to him, and one day in the cafeteria, he stood behind me and said “Want to see a trick of mine?” “ssssure.” Says Swiddles. He picked up my half-filled glass of grape juice and ::THUNK:: flipped it over, so that the glass was now upside-down on the tray with all the grape-juice contained. I turned around agape. “Whaaaa?” Says me. “Yep. And the real fun comes when you bring the tray up to the dish guy.” He was right, the dish guy stared at it for a good long while. ::sigh::
I can recite the entire Jaberwock poem from Through the Looking Glass. And I can fold my tounge into the four-leaf clover design.
Yup. I am a Goddess of Useless Knowledge. Maybe since we have no “specialized” gifts or skills, we are gifted with a sort of blanket memory. Or, maybe, cursed with it. Anyway, my pop culture/trivia bent is probably my only recognizable talent.
If you’ve ever seen Labyrinth, you’ve seen contact juggling. David Bowie’s character, toward the beginning of the movie, has a crystal ball of about the same size as a good orange. Via the magic of movies, Manny Moschen, a famous juggler, lends his talent to the scene, manipulating the ball in an almost hypnotic fashion. It’s really quite elegant, if done right.
It’s unusual, I don’t know about a talent or a gift, though.
I can easily dislocate my thumbs and pop them right back in. I can do it many times in a row with no problem at all. So if they ever make tiny little straight jackets for your hands, I’ll be a great escape artist. It’s a great way to pick up women :rolleyes:
I am a severe movie buff and so into pop culture, I seem to know things I really have no right to know, since I don’t watch Entertainment Tonight or any of those other silly shows. I just know things. I … see … famous people.
But my real talent , indubitably, is nasty letters. Running my own business I have almost endless opportunities to write these. Most of them are “pay your bill before I eat your young” but the most amusing ones are “hey you huge national vendor, here’s exactly why you won’t be seeing another dollar from me EVER.” They do turn out to be pretty bloody funny sometimes, I should really put them up on my website … hmm, that’s an idea.
I was cleaning out my hard drive the other day and walked down memory lane re-reading all these nasty letters I have written. One of my faves was when a book club started sending me unwanted merchandise, then referred me to a credit agency when I wouldn’t pay for it. I wrote a beauty of a letter to the credit agency, referring to the book club as “the small brained imbeciles club” and insisting that the reader of the letter had significantly more chance of being hit by lightning on the way home from work than of ever, <b> EVER </b> seeing a penny from me. Never heard from 'em again. Yup, that’s my talent … hard to demonstrate in a beauty pageant, but it does serve me well.
I can balance things on my head very well–sorta like “finishing school” scenes in the movies, where the girls carried books on their heads and walked around.
Something more useful: I am a grilling goddess. I make my own barbecue sauces, and I’ve never had an unhappy customer. I also cook things like paella on the grill–lot less to clean up after.
I can remember numbers. This is helpful, but it can also be annoying to have so many outdated or useless numbers in my head, such as: the phone number to the house I moved out of in third grade, all six phone numbers I had in college, the phone number to reach the library-hours recording, the phone numbers of relatives that I don’t ever even call, the cell phone numbers of family members…I know my SO’s SSN just as well as he does.
One time I went on a ski trip and we rented skis. We dropped them off at the ski shop every night and we picked them back up in the morning with a claim ticket. One morning I couldn’t find my ticket, but I remembered the number, which was like eight digits long. The ski shop people acted like I was a freak.
No, I’m not going to memorize pi to a million digits. The most useful thing about this is that I have remembered my mom’s calling card number ever since she gave it to me when I left for college, and that comes in handy at times
My mom thinks I developed this skill because I so poorly understood higher-level math and just memorized everything I had to learn. Could be.
I also cook things like paella on the grill–lot less to clean up after.