I am good at making up new lyrics for existing songs. At parties I used to get my friends to name a tune, name a topic, and then come up with a few perfectly-scanned lines in a matter of seconds.
I hope I'm quite good at installing threshold bars, because I've bought two and am installing them at the Knotweed's brother's a week today. No pressure...
Judging by the state of v the potatoes I harvested today, I am very good at feeding voles.
I am good at making up new lyrics for existing songs. At parties I used to get my friends to name a tune, name a topic, and then come up with a few perfectly-scanned lines in a matter of seconds.
I share this talent for parodies, and I always cringe at the poor attempts offered each year during the Holidays to the tunes of familiar carols, "Carol of the Bells" chief among them. I boggles the mind to think that people get paid for them.
Mainly needlework that I really didn't want to do but allowed myself to be persuaded into by people who wanted it or that I talked myself into doing because I knew a friend would like it.
I'm pretty Good at painting miniatures for historical wargames but less celebrated are my Subbuteo teams. I have painted quite a few for friends and family and they always go down a treat. Mainly 1960s and 70s to avoid horrible adverts on the shirts.
I'm pretty Good at painting miniatures for historical wargames but less celebrated are my Subbuteo teams. I have painted quite a few for friends and family and they always go down a treat. Mainly 1960s and 70s to avoid horrible adverts on the shirts.
Gift wrapping. One of my first paid jobs was in a local department store and they put me in the packing department.
I still get quite a kick out of producing a pile of neatly wrapped presents, especially big boxes with no sticky tape so you pull on the ribbon and it just flies open, like in the fillums.
Most awkward thing I've ever wrapped? A very large floor cushion, which the donor wanted disguised so the recipient didn't guess the contents beforehand. Judicious use of corrugated cardboard and a lot of string and I produced a banded treasure chest.
Extemporaneous public speaking. Seriously. I don't do it often though.
Me too! I'm one of the rare people, like yourself I guess, with no fear of public speaking, and would be quite happy to do it on the spur of the moment. On the other hand, I have a tremendous dislike of making phone calls. So I've often said if church was just about to start and the preacher was felled by a sudden heart attack, and someone said to me, "We need someone to call 911 and someone else to go out and preach the sermon," I'd take the sermon without a moment's hesitation,
And in the past couple of weeks I've learnt how to solve a Rubix Cube. Down to about 3 minutes now. Nothing special but it's been fun as two weeks ago I couldn't do it at all ..
Extemporaneous public speaking. Seriously. I don't do it often though.
Me too! I'm one of the rare people, like yourself I guess, with no fear of public speaking, and would be quite happy to do it on the spur of the moment. On the other hand, I have a tremendous dislike of making phone calls. So I've often said if church was just about to start and the preacher was felled by a sudden heart attack, and someone said to me, "We need someone to call 911 and someone else to go out and preach the sermon," I'd take the sermon without a moment's hesitation,
Same here - I can have the whole room laughing in no time and enjoy it myself. I can speak to 400 people without nerves. I used to do teacher training and everyone was grateful for a change from death-by-PowerPoint. I spoke a couple of weeks ago at our final service to a packed Church. None of the members wanted to speak so I collated all their memories and delivered them. Many compliments ensued.
I am slipping a bit now, but I used to be very good at remembering people's names and the context in which I had met them. These days it takes me a little bit longer to join the dots!
I'm excellent at finding odd things around the house to repurpose into a doohickey to [solve odd problem.] At the moment we're using styrofoam and plastic packing material to hold up the edge of the pond, where we're going to be pouring concrete into a form that hangs over the edge. We could have spent days custom building a support; but I'm too lazy, get out the packing material.
I am slipping a bit now, but I used to be very good at remembering people's names and the context in which I had met them. These days it takes me a little bit longer to join the dots!
I suspect I'm not the only Shipmate who is good at remembering people's religions. For example, I went to a Catholic high school, and I could tell you which teachers were protestant(the art teacher, the music teacher and the physics teacher).
I could also name the specific denomination of every Canadian Prime Minister going back to Mackenzie King, plus quite a few before that. Granted, it's easy to remember that the Quebecois among them were all Catholic.
(And of course, there is the issue of rumsfeldian "unknown unknowns", ie. it's possible that there are people whose religion I have been told, but forgotten that I was ever told. I wouldn't think too many cases like that, though.)
Stetson wrote: I could also name the specific denomination of every Canadian Prime Minister going back to Mackenzie King, plus quite a few before that.
Caissa wonders if Stetson can name all of the prime ministers in order since Confederation.
I am good at making up new lyrics for existing songs. At parties I used to get my friends to name a tune, name a topic, and then come up with a few perfectly-scanned lines in a matter of seconds.
I can do this. Another completely pointless talent is I can sing you a song (or recite a poem, choice of the victim) swapping the first letter of each word with the subsequent word, in real time, unseen. If it’s not going to scan I swap the first letters of the syllables within words.
I have a talent for improvising. Not comedy improv, but MacGyver-style improvising. I am only of average ability at following instructions, but making something up on the fly? Easy-peasy.
My beloved Penelope recently gave me the following amazing compliment: "how you uplift, inspire and energize with happiness those you encounter is a trait I am not sure you completely comprehend." To be honest, I don't see that myself, which is why she observes that I don't comprehend it.
I taught junior classes up until I went to university. We used first names, and sometimes nick names if that was what the parent told us the child was used to and preferred.
I remember a mother coming in to ask that I not call a child by his full first name because that's what she called him when he was being naughty.
Playing music 'by ear'. The downside is I've never felt the need to read the dots proficiently and other musicians assume that I can.
Ms. Marsupial has an excellent ear, both for music and for language (helpful because she had to learn three different languages as her parents moved around while she was growing up), but likewise is not a good sight reader.
I’m known for having a good memory - not that I remember everything, but once a memory forms it tends to stick.
There's an inherent trait - in my maternal grandfather, my mother and me - of being able to work out the construction of crafted* items just by looking at the finished article.
I am quite good at drawing and getting better at watercolours.
Stetson wrote: I could also name the specific denomination of every Canadian Prime Minister going back to Mackenzie King, plus quite a few before that.
Caissa wonders if Stetson can name all of the prime ministers in order since Confederation.
Let's see.
John A Macdonald (C)
Alexander Mackenzie (L)
Macdonald again
A buncha Tories who screwed-up the Manitoba School Question
Sir Wilfred Laurier (L)
Borden (C)
William Lyon Mackenzie King (L)
Arthur Meighen (C; the whole King-Byng thing there)
Richard Bennett (C)
Mackenzie King again, for years on end
Uncle Louis (L)
John Diefenbaker (PC)
Lester B. Pearson (L)
Pierre Elliot Trudeau (L)
Charles Joseph Clark (PC)
PET again
Brian Mulroney (PC)
Kim Campbell (PC)
Jean Chretien (L)
Paul Martin (L)
Stephen Harper (CPC)
Justin Trudeau (L)
I can vouch for everything from Bennett onwards. Everything before is kinda blurry, eg. I'm not quite sure where Meighen was in relation to everyone else, just that he was in for a short time and there was a constitutional squabble with Mackenzie King.
Looking it up, the four tories after Macdonald's death were Abbott, Thompson, Bowell, and Tupper. I coulda named the last three, but not in order.
And Meighen had two brief governments, bookending the first term of Mackenzie King.
On religion, I would have assumed that Alexander Mackenzie was Presbyterian, but apparently he converted to Baptist upon marriage.
Interestingly, despite its Loyalist roots, Canada has had only three PMs of the Anglican faith, all of them tories: Macdonald(who swam the Thames from Presbyterianism), Robert Borden, and Kim Campbell(not devout, and very short term in office).
I used to be able to write villanelles, and many other verse forms, but that ability has now gently gone into that good night..
After my wife explained about villanelles, and I looked up the precise rules, I wrote one, or a villanelle-adjacent poem, but each line had only 3 syllables. It was hard enough and a great deal of fun. It's the story of a guy trying to pick up a girl at a dance, and getting shot down.
Comments
Judging by the state of v the potatoes I harvested today, I am very good at feeding voles.
I share this talent for parodies, and I always cringe at the poor attempts offered each year during the Holidays to the tunes of familiar carols, "Carol of the Bells" chief among them. I boggles the mind to think that people get paid for them.
Mainly needlework that I really didn't want to do but allowed myself to be persuaded into by people who wanted it or that I talked myself into doing because I knew a friend would like it.
*heartbreak emoji*
(could probably find one if I was on the phone but for once I'm on the laptop...)
Dukla Prague away kit?
I still get quite a kick out of producing a pile of neatly wrapped presents, especially big boxes with no sticky tape so you pull on the ribbon and it just flies open, like in the fillums.
Most awkward thing I've ever wrapped? A very large floor cushion, which the donor wanted disguised so the recipient didn't guess the contents beforehand. Judicious use of corrugated cardboard and a lot of string and I produced a banded treasure chest.
Me too! I'm one of the rare people, like yourself I guess, with no fear of public speaking, and would be quite happy to do it on the spur of the moment. On the other hand, I have a tremendous dislike of making phone calls. So I've often said if church was just about to start and the preacher was felled by a sudden heart attack, and someone said to me, "We need someone to call 911 and someone else to go out and preach the sermon," I'd take the sermon without a moment's hesitation,
And in the past couple of weeks I've learnt how to solve a Rubix Cube. Down to about 3 minutes now. Nothing special but it's been fun as two weeks ago I couldn't do it at all ..
I do have many hundreds of books, and have some memory of them all.
Same here - I can have the whole room laughing in no time and enjoy it myself. I can speak to 400 people without nerves. I used to do teacher training and everyone was grateful for a change from death-by-PowerPoint. I spoke a couple of weeks ago at our final service to a packed Church. None of the members wanted to speak so I collated all their memories and delivered them. Many compliments ensued.
Just figuratively or literally as well?
I suspect I'm not the only Shipmate who is good at remembering people's religions. For example, I went to a Catholic high school, and I could tell you which teachers were protestant(the art teacher, the music teacher and the physics teacher).
I could also name the specific denomination of every Canadian Prime Minister going back to Mackenzie King, plus quite a few before that. Granted, it's easy to remember that the Quebecois among them were all Catholic.
(And of course, there is the issue of rumsfeldian "unknown unknowns", ie. it's possible that there are people whose religion I have been told, but forgotten that I was ever told. I wouldn't think too many cases like that, though.)
I’m good at making pastry (I have cold hands) and at making omelettes.
Caissa wonders if Stetson can name all of the prime ministers in order since Confederation.
I can do this. Another completely pointless talent is I can sing you a song (or recite a poem, choice of the victim) swapping the first letter of each word with the subsequent word, in real time, unseen. If it’s not going to scan I swap the first letters of the syllables within words.
brains are odd
My beloved Penelope recently gave me the following amazing compliment: "how you uplift, inspire and energize with happiness those you encounter is a trait I am not sure you completely comprehend." To be honest, I don't see that myself, which is why she observes that I don't comprehend it.
I'm really appreciative he shares this gift on the Ship.
I remember a mother coming in to ask that I not call a child by his full first name because that's what she called him when he was being naughty.
@Telford, I taught in a girls’ school. Girls were not addressed by their surnames, just first names. Pupils had to call staff Mrs P, never just Miss.
Ms. Marsupial has an excellent ear, both for music and for language (helpful because she had to learn three different languages as her parents moved around while she was growing up), but likewise is not a good sight reader.
I’m known for having a good memory - not that I remember everything, but once a memory forms it tends to stick.
I am quite good at drawing and getting better at watercolours.
*in crafts where we know the basic techniques.
Let's see.
John A Macdonald (C)
Alexander Mackenzie (L)
Macdonald again
A buncha Tories who screwed-up the Manitoba School Question
Sir Wilfred Laurier (L)
Borden (C)
William Lyon Mackenzie King (L)
Arthur Meighen (C; the whole King-Byng thing there)
Richard Bennett (C)
Mackenzie King again, for years on end
Uncle Louis (L)
John Diefenbaker (PC)
Lester B. Pearson (L)
Pierre Elliot Trudeau (L)
Charles Joseph Clark (PC)
PET again
Brian Mulroney (PC)
Kim Campbell (PC)
Jean Chretien (L)
Paul Martin (L)
Stephen Harper (CPC)
Justin Trudeau (L)
I can vouch for everything from Bennett onwards. Everything before is kinda blurry, eg. I'm not quite sure where Meighen was in relation to everyone else, just that he was in for a short time and there was a constitutional squabble with Mackenzie King.
Looking it up, the four tories after Macdonald's death were Abbott, Thompson, Bowell, and Tupper. I coulda named the last three, but not in order.
And Meighen had two brief governments, bookending the first term of Mackenzie King.
On religion, I would have assumed that Alexander Mackenzie was Presbyterian, but apparently he converted to Baptist upon marriage.
Interestingly, despite its Loyalist roots, Canada has had only three PMs of the Anglican faith, all of them tories: Macdonald(who swam the Thames from Presbyterianism), Robert Borden, and Kim Campbell(not devout, and very short term in office).
After my wife explained about villanelles, and I looked up the precise rules, I wrote one, or a villanelle-adjacent poem, but each line had only 3 syllables. It was hard enough and a great deal of fun. It's the story of a guy trying to pick up a girl at a dance, and getting shot down.