I mean, what’s something you can do that people are like, “really? You know how to do that?”
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I’m able to forget most things my dad says … he has an opinion of everything and will babble for 20 minutes about stuff no one else in the house cares about.
Also, I can picture a blueprint in 3d.
Compared to most people, I know a fuck ton of keyboard shortcuts making me look like a computer wizard.
I’ve been criticized for that, lots of people say “use the mouse, it’s better”. I say “how is it better?”. They say “it just is”.
The truth is that they can’t do the keyboard shortcuts and are jealous.
I’m certainly no vim wizard but just knowing a good number of shortcuts really saves time doing precise clicks and selections with your mouse
I’m a huge guy, 6’8" and immensely heavy, people do a double take when I tell them I can and do windsurf.
Somehow, it’s a surprise to people that I’m a competent trumpet player. As if every high school in the state doesn’t have a band class. Fully half of my graduating class in high school were musicians of some kind between chorus, orchestra and band classes. But somehow nobody expects a random dude in his mid-30’s to pick up a trumpet and play a few bars of Ravel’s Bolero.
I never forget a face
I never forget a face but damn if I can remember their name. Drives my wife nuts, when she asks me who that was
Pretty much anything DIY. Plumbing, electrical, carpentry, etc. I’m not an expert at any of those things but I can actually do a pretty decent job. I’m not afraid to research a project and take a crack at it myself. I’ve completed some really nasty projects that turned out well.
Jack of all trades! After partly renovating three different houses successfully, I find myself in the same situation as you.
I can click my tongue really, really loud. Like a baseball hitting a bat hard. Aside from making people jump, I have yet to find any practical use for this talent.
Learn how to echolocate!
I have an uncanny ability to read super faded receipts, and old people’s hand writing.
Roller skating. I’m super unathletic, but skating (including teaching to others) was listed in the profile of a girl who contacted me on a dating site, so after chatting for a bit I suggested that as our first date. She was super patient with me, I had never put on skates before that day, and was in my 30s.
We’re married now, and I now also teach skating where she does on weekends, sometimes to people who have never tried it before.
predicting the future.
it’s not like the movies, it’s more like being tied to the train tracks in the direction the train is coming in, and people hate it when you talk about it.
Landscaping
My very first job at the age of 15 was working at a Nursery/ Garden Center. I also would work on the landscaping crews and even did some design work.
When my wife and I bought our house she said she always dreamed of having a big flower garden, but said she didn’t know how to do it properly.
Well… I do. Even my Mother-In-Law, who is an experienced gardener, learned a few things from me. Although, I have to admit, she really does know a lot and I learned a lot from her as well.
Our flower beds are beautiful throughout the growing season with a huge variety of plants.
I can put a needle in any body cavity (of someone else). Or a wire or a catheter. Besides the skull and a few more delicate ones I also know how to do that without actually killing the person. Well,at least not “certainly” killing… accidents happen.
Have an intelligent discussion about theology.
I may look like your average idiot who is also atheist; but it’s because I have a weird interest in theology and have read so many religious texts and interpretations of most major and some minor religions from around the globe. Some of them have some kick ass stories. Hell, some of them read like straight up sci-fi!
I have found that atheists know more about religion than the typical believer.
[L Ron Hubbard’s estate wants to know your location]
Oddly enough, I haven’t actually read Dianetics or any of his other sci-fi prior to going after “the real money in religion” for that matter.
I kinda get the impression that Scientology is the one cult that using their own doctrine against them wouldn’t quite have the same effect.
I’m a tall burly cisman so people are always surprised that I know how to sew. I mostly hand-mend my clothes but I made my own pants in high school when I had access to a sewing machine.
“Sewing is girly”
Meanwhile boy scouts, military, and doctors sewing stuff all day long.
I can sew, although I kind of hate it. Sewing is an essential skill if you own a sailboat and have no money.
“own a sailboat and have no money” that’s a redundant statement :]
I think that would be antithetical, or paradoxical. Redundant means superfluous (=more than is necessary)
See the common conception of boat owners is that they’re rich. And they certainly might start out that way. But a boat is a hole in the ocean into which money is thrown, and thus boat owners quickly become not rich
I’ve heard that boat owners are happy on two days. The day they buy it, and the day they sell it.
oooooohhh, I get it. Indeed
Depends on unexpected for who. Most native english speakers seem surprised when they realise I understand “big words” (read: any word with a Latin root) without needing to look up a definition. To me it’s pretty obvious. My native tongue is Spanish. Having an accent doesn’t mean I don’t know anything.
English speaker here, it’s especially true of technical words because science draws on Latin so much for terminology. Also, after 2 years of Latin in high school and then studying Spanish in college, I found a lot of Spanish words easy to guess.
Examples?
I remember this teacher in particular who was explaining something and said “dissipate”. He paused and picked me out of the group, for no apparent reason, and asked if I knew what dissipate meant. I said yes. So he asked me to explain, which I did, and he looked surprised and said something like “you’re on fire” or similar and carried on.
That particular example stuck with me because of his condescending tone and for pointing the spotlight to me gratuitously, but I’ve had many, less memorable ones. It’s not the words that I remember after a while, but that they presume I don’t understand the meaning of a word apparently unusual for them. “Melancholy” and “quotidian” come to mind too.
On the same vein, I also surprise English speakers when reading, writing and understanding scientific names. Not all of course, but many are descriptive of the creature they refer to if you know a latin language. What’s often a mouthful of nonsense for native English speakers can sometimes be meaningful to me.
