What is the most random and/or impractical thing you know how to do? It doesn’t have to be your life’s work, just something you can do that most other people either can’t do, or don’t really care about.
Some examples:
A childhood friend of mine can curl her tongue into a cloverleaf shape.
I once took a class in Georgian polyphonic singing, which probably makes me one of the, oh, couple dozen non-Georgians who have ever tried it.
But possibly the geekiest example of random skills would be from my alumni newsletter, which told us all about the newly found niche of one fellow alum: the comparative analysis of various Russian translations of religious terminology in the works of Tolkien. He must be a real hoot at parties…
I have a mutant ability to remember faces and names of TV and movie celebrities. I am not infallable of course, and my skills have slipped a little since I stopped watching as much TV. But still, this skill frightens me at times. I just know stuff. Don’t know how, or why, but I just know.
It freaks me out. If I’ve seen someone in some old movie or TV show (even if it was years ago) I usually remember their name and face. I’m especially doomed if I saw their name and face together in the opening credits, or something. I’ll never forget them if that happens. I don’t care, I don’t want to remember, but I will.
When anyone questions me when I state that so-and-so was in this or that movie, I look at them and say, “What? Are you questioning my powers?” Because that’s what they are. It’s scary, I’m telling ya.
I can write backwards, so that it is legible in a mirror. I can do this in uppercase block printing, lowercase normal printing, and extremely neat cursive, and can write at about two-thirds of the speed of writing normally.
The consequence of having this skill and using it a lot is that, when I’m tired, I forget which way letters are supposed to go.
I can’t remember what you said yesterday, but if you contradict something you told me 5 years ago, I’ll remember what you did say, word for word. It’s a weird ability that drives a lot of people crazy
I fire up NBA Live on my PC. Start a game in Franchise Mode. Make every single team user-controlled. Set settings to 12 minutes per quarter. Start up Game 1 of the season. Go to the kitchen, make myself some popcorn, pour a glass of Coke. Sit down, watch the computer play the entire game against itself (60+ minutes). Look through stats after game, noting that Ray Allen seems to be shooting well and Jason Kidd had 11 assists. Start up Game 2 of the season. Rinse, repeat. Look at stats. Watch patterns emerge as the “sacred geometry of chance” plays itself out. Am deeply fascinated. Also bloated with butter popcorn.
Needless to say, everyone that’s seen me sitting in front of my computer raptly watching the CPU play against itself has the same response: “What’s the point?”
Oh, you can talk, buddy. Let’s see you sink that game-winning 18-footer with 1.5 left on the clock like Kobe just did. Look! Look at the ecstatic rapture on his pixellated face! You only wish you could do that. This will push his average up to 27.1 ppg, giving him the jump on Iverson for the home stretch of the MVP race! Bwaahahahahah! Bwwwaaaahahahahaaaa!!
Run off to balcony, do victory dance. Am escorted back into room by nice orderlies and gently force-fed horse tranquilizers.
I have perfect pitch and I can identify the note of any tone that I hear. Ive always taken this ability for granted and to me it’s no different than identifying colors, but a lot of people are amazed that I can do this.
I can write backwards as well as upside-down, although I’ve never attempted to combine the two.
I’m pretty good at saying tongue-twisters without screwing them up.
I’m double-jointed, and can sit or stand comfortably with my toes bent under my feet. It freaks my husband out.
I have an excellent memory for what I guess you’d call “word-rhythm”. I can usually learn rhyming poetry after reading it a couple of times. Also a very good memory for detail in novels. I guess a generally good word-based memory. That’s gonna get me lots of job offers!
I’ll see your clover-leaf tongue and nostril-flaring, and raise you ear-wiggling.
I once worked as a ‘packer’ for a moving company so I can pack the contents of your house efficiently and securely, and (this is the freakish part) I may well enjoy it.
To the amusement of children (and I recently discovered, some young teenagers) I can snap the(first) joints of my thumbs just by bending them. It 's only amusing when I pretend that my thumb and forefinger are a gun. Apparently it’s neat to have a sound effect to go with the “firing”.
People seem divided between being amused or disturbed that I can spread my toes and wiggle them seperately. I find it strange that many people can’t do this.
I have the ability to look at a thread title, draw an instant assumption about what is contained therein and go straight to spouting an inappropriate story, all without even reading the OP! Ain’t it amazing?
I can sing songs backwards. Mostly simple things–the ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, Row Row Row Your Boat…I taught this to myself during the three weeks I was on the floor at the telemarketing job. I hated the job–it was boring as heck. We weren’t allowed to write or have books on the floor, so I had to amuse myself somehow.
