surprise talents/activities

[piranha]

i just read an interesting comment thread (sorry; protected, or i'd point y'all there) about what sorts of talents people have that always make others say "YOU know how to $FOO?" when they mention them. and i couldn't think of anything. i mean, i can think of many things i do or have done, but would any of them actually surprise people who know me?

i think i'll list a few things in another entry, but i'd like to see what other people can think of, *heh*. what would surprise you if you heard i had done it?

and what sort of thing do you think would surprise me, if i heard you had done it?

Comments

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Hm. I don't know you well enough to make personal surprising guesses, although there are a few things that would surprise me if I met anyone who did them. Tightrope walking, for instance, or, I don't know, cobra charming.

Many people are surprised to find out that I not only fenced (foil and epee) in my youth, but got a varsity letter in it.

[lcohen]

i do stage fencing! well i learned it, anyway. long, long ago.

en garde!

[kightp.livejournal.com]

*grin* That's why I took it up int he first place ... and when I learned I could meet two whole years' worth of college PE requirements by going out for the team, I was there.

I'm out of practice, but I'd take you on. (-;

[lcohen]

I'm out of practice, but I'd take you on. (-;

you'd whip my ass!

um, what were we talking about again?

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

yeah, i don't know you well enough either, but i think i wouldn't be easily surprised about things you do anyway; you strike me as somebody who's up for doing a lot of things. so the fencing -- yeah, sure!

i don't know how to fence, but i would love to learn it if the opportunity presents itself.

something that tends to surprise me in general about people is when they show up preconceptions i have. frex, monogamous people being genuinely ok with polyamorous partners -- even though i have a partner like that myself, it still surprises me in others.

[1ginko.livejournal.com]

The reason I smiled when I read this is because you do so very many things that surprised me in the early days of getting to know you. I ceased to be surprised after the first few and shifted to thinking that you are one who will always do the unusual and think that just normal.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

*little grin*. yeah, that's a really good assessment; that's how i think of doing things -- the porcine has hit that one as well. i just like learning things, and i don't think of many things as unusual per se, only in retrospect.

[kastehelmi.livejournal.com]

I don't think I have any kind of talent like the kind you speak of.I have a wonderful friend(note: most of my friends are not my age peers, she is in her 40's i think, as if that matters.) who can light a match with her toes.I know I responded "You can light a match with your toes?!!!" I think it's genetic, because someone else in her family can do it, I heard.
P.S. Snake charming, and fire spinning are talents I want to someday have. :) Those talents would make me say "I can do that?" to myself.
Throat singing, mostly known to be from Central-East Asia in Siberia,
Tuva, and Mongolia is an amazing and non-simple talent that is developed by some people including non-natives of those countries, who even start music groups, like the Finnish group Huun-Huur-Tu.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

oh, throat singing! that is really amazing -- i heard about it through richard feynman. thanks for the tip about the finnish group; i shall check them out.

how does your friend light a match with her toes? i mean, just with her toes, or does she hold a match between her toes and then strike it against a surface?

[kastehelmi.livejournal.com]

just with her toes! amazing, huh?

[king-tirian.livejournal.com]

With you, I'd be more likely to gape at a list of things that you HAVEN'T done because you feel you couldn't.

Me, gosh, I'm such an open book that people already know everything I've done.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

the latter is So Not True. :) look how often you've surprised me lately!

good catch, about me not having done things because i felt i couldn't. that's the timid teenage me, who was afraid of failing and disappointing everyone. when i conquered that, i conquered my world.

though there is still one large grouping of things from which i shy away because i feel i can't do a good job and i don't like doing them -- they all have to do with solo performance. playing an instrument on stage (except hidden in a large orchestra), singing (except hidden in a large choir), giving a speech...

[king-tirian.livejournal.com]

Ha. That's not quite something that I've done, per se. It's not like one could say, with a straight face, "I can't believe that M. would support a stupid theory in a public forum!" For the rest, I write programs, I play games, I work puzzles, I break codes. I don't even do interesting geeky things like speaking Klingon or doing SCA stuff.

True to predictions, I am gaping that you don't feel you could do a good job giving a speech. I can't think of many people with more interesting things to say than you.

[jodawi.livejournal.com]

strip down a gun blindfolded

[jodawi.livejournal.com]

whatever that means

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i know sort of what it means -- taking a gun apart and putting it back together, i think. you're right, i can't do it.

i did learn to shoot a rifle, however. at 16. i refused to shoot a live animal, however, and that was the end of that.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I would be beyond surprised to learn that you had starred in a pornographic movie.

I would be surprised to learn that you had been in the military.

I'm not sure either of those counts as a talent, though.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

oh, good guesses! i definitely would do neither.

[kastehelmi.livejournal.com]

I would be surprised to learn you could dance tango!

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

ha! i can! :) i just tested it, just to make sure -- it's been a very long time since i learned it, and it never was a dance i liked much -- too dramatic; too much of a performance dance instead of movement to music.

i learned all the standard ballroom and latin dances and why? because of horses! :)

I meant to respond to this a long time ago...

[kastehelmi.livejournal.com]

Depth of wonders! You can tango! Let's dance sometime. Tango is a performance, but it is mostly so affecting of me because of this irreplacable feeling i get from it...even with drunken, and terrible dancers, there is something to the movements paired with the music that engages me hugely.
PS. Swimming alive Ghoti, what is your name?

[daev.livejournal.com]

There were plenty of things, indeed one big obvious thing, that surprised me when I found you again after a decade.

But then I'm not sure I really knew you when we were around each other more.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

yeah, i wasn't out about that. and in general, i was much less "knowable" then; my biggest move to be "present as myself" came afterwards, though i was more than ready by the time i left CU.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

I was about to say "not a damn thing!", but then I realized, that, yes, it would suprise me to learn that you had smocked. (Embroidery I'm sure you were at least forced to do as a yout', but smocking is a more personal choice and seems most unlikely.)

But other than that I really can't think of anything, as you strike me as such the Renaissance poisson. To do is to learn.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i have, but your guess is right-on; i would have never done it if my needlecraft class hadn't required it, and i didn't employ it in my final project; hated it.

renaissance poisson! oh, i like! :)

[lcohen]

i don't know you well enough to be surprised, i think. you could tell me you've done anything and i would nod and think wow, but not be surprised, per se.

i think people are surprised to learn that i biked a leg of a triathlon relay. badly and slowly but i did it. also that i used to build scenery for a living. hmmmm. there's probably other stuff like that strewn about but it's not coming to mind.

and i sing, had you heard? *g*

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

same here, i don't know you well enough to be surprised. building scenery for a living! that is way cool. i did it as a hobby for a couple of years, in community theatre. loved it.

and you sing? no!!! :)

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I can't say I was surprised, but I was certainly envious when I found out that you have a natural aptitude for languages. It's a talent I would love to have.