Thanks, lenzai.

I wanted to be Annie Sullivan, so I became a speech pathologist. I didn't work with many hearing impaired children in my schools and I don't even know ASL, so I can't say that I was ever close to being her, but I did have a few skillz! I've been retired from that for a long time and do something completely different in my current career.

Texas_Gem, I messaged you. :)

CEFreeman, this is Lemonade. It's a colored pencil drawing. Size is 15"h x 24"w.

CEF- We had a personal trainer for us in management one place I worked. pretty nice benefit- 2 private one hour sessions a week. Anyway, he taught us yoga. All of us macho guys had a big laugh at a wimp activity like yoga- until he started working with us. Turns out yoga can be VERY strenuous and difficult. The trainer was great; taking a bunch of desk jockeys in our 50's and getting us in pretty good shape without any injuries, and surprisingly few aches and pains. The yoga was great for balance and core strength. I still try to do some every day.

pattisue- public speaking is certainly a rare talent. Most people are scared to death of it. I actually like public speaking, and am usually totally at ease, regardless of the crowd.

Oh, I do yoga. Just not well. My balance sucks and doesn't seem to get better. And I am fairly good at public speaking. I certainly don't fear it. I have also done my share of needlecrafts (crewel, needlepoint, cross-stitch and embroidery). Maybe I have a few talents after all, lol?

Cpart- That is amazing! :)

Funky- yes, we all have talents, I can touch my tongue to my nose!!

Cpartist- I love that drawing.

I make and decorate my own cakes, and I can always make people laugh :)

Sorry about the lymphoma. Losing a family member hurts!!! Stories about the pet helps ease the pain a bit. When you're ready to tell them.

My niece is deaf and sometimes goes completely deaf. She has some signing but learned to read lips early on and does that mostly.

I write scifi and romance and it is truly hidden. I've only shared one of my stories once. I have to do that again. Scary but rewarding. I also train dogs and do necklace beading. Also Yoga, belly dancing and Tai chi. badly but doing is good, even badly. :) That's what i tell myself when I sing. :)

Love seeing the pics of the talent here! What a rich place this is.

Thank you LL and Lily.

CEFreeman, bead embroidery is so easy. There are a few books to teach you how. Aren't beads wonderful? Here are the books that helped me to learn bead embroidery. Bead Embroidery Book, And the Other Book

I really need to learn yoga. I know it would help me with balance. My ex used to say I trip over air. I am getting better though since I started building up my core, but even still, I'm a klutz.

So sorry to hear about Kharma.

Lily, I have always been so impressed by those who decorate their own cakes. What a wonderful talent.

Pattisue, I just finished dinner 3 hours ago, and now looking at those pictures I'm hungry again.

cpartist, I started learning when I found out my son had nut allergies. No bakery cakes for him.

For those that do yoga, have you ever tried hot yoga? They heat the room about 95-100 degrees. I wasn't sure if I would like it at first but I loved it. If you really love yoga you should give it a try.

Grrrrrrrr..... Lily Spider. Grrrrrrr....

(Warning. LONG yoga rant coming.)

Let's start at the beginning, shall we? Bikram yoga (method) is called "hot yoga" when they won't pay the franchise fee to "Bikram."

Bikram/hot teachers learn a spiel that is perfectly timed to keep the student in a pose for a certain number of seconds. Holding poses builds core/stamina. However. Unless that teacher has had any other yoga method, they don't necessarily ever learn the hows and whys of the poses. How to teach. Interrupt them, as a question, and frequently they're discombobulated and thrown off their game. IMHO, this is not a yoga for beginners. Also, IMHO, the best Hot yoga teachers are those with other yoga method backgrounds.

The human body warms from within. If you walk in from the Winter's cold and start trying to stretch yourself around in 104F, your muscles are not going to be ready. What happens when your muscles aren't ready? (wait for it) Injury. And guess where many students end up? Yup.. In a therapeutic class like mine, claiming "yoga tore/broke/killed xxxx." Yoga doesn't hurt you. Doing yoga without safety and education can.

If I were Queen, I'd educate every doctor who blithely says, "Go do yoga; it's good for you." Huh? What METHOD?

My own practice is a method called "Ashtanga." It's the original Vinyasa or "flow" yoga. The opinion is that those who don't care for a pose in the Ashtanga sequence create their own flow by removing or substituting what they do like. (Then, being Americans, they have to trademark it and call it something [stupid] like "Rocket yoga") It's vigorous, 1.5 hours of constant movement from pose to pose. It is also, IMHO not for beginners because they've not learned how to align and use their muscles, joints and spine.

If you were to start new in yoga, My recommendations are to find an Iyengar or Anusara teacher. Iyengar's training is RIGOROUS and was originally developed by a man with really difficult physical challenges. Again, IMHO, it's rather dry and boring, but OH, it'll change your body if you stick with it.

Anusara is extremely similar to Iyengar (again, IMHO) in that the "founder" and many, many of the senior teachers moved to this method from the Iyengar method. Alignment and safety are paramount for movement. Again, the training programs are rigorous. Ask me how I know some other time. :) This is a more lovely yoga method, that rather feeds the soul vs. being as clinical as Iyengar.

It might be difficult to find an Anusara teacher these days. I haven't bothered much with structured studio since having to pick up extra jobs. Hubris and lies got the founder in a pickle, there was a HUGE scandal and his entire organization fell apart. Even the largest Anusara studio in the country here in my area. (Where I taught and trained) disassociated itself from the name Anusara. All that said, it does not negate the way this method teaches, it's incredible, loudly lauded value to those with injury, or just to beginners.

One or two years with either method and you'll know better how to use your body, letting you move more safely into (crazy) methods such as Bikram/Hot yoga, or even the more physically demanding Ashtanga or Vinyasa. I came from Ashtanga to Anusara because of repetitive stress injuries. In yoga, Pain? NO GAIN. My teacher kicked me out of class until I'd done a year at this studio. Like many, Anusara changed my practice, my life and how I teach.

Without almost 40 years of yoga teachings, (not the pose part, but the philosophies) when we had a fire, lost 3 kitties and our Golden, created my construction site home, ex-DH-POC lost his mind fooled around then bailed, I'd probably not been able to make it through years of repeated, blinding trauma. It was interesting finding myself walking the walk. I always understood, but thought I was more talking the walk. Finding yourself putting things into practice without conscious decision is always incredible. If you listen, there's far more to yoga than just physical poses.

That said... Any yoga can be better than no yoga. As mushcreek mentioned, amazing what the teacher could do with a bunch of skeptical older men. Imagine my teacher teaching the Georgeown football team.

(End wild rant. The opinions expressed above are not necessarily those of the management or other teachers. )

cpartist, I'm getting the books.
Pattysue, cake decorating is such beautiful, fleeting artwork. How lovely.
T_G, tongue to nose and curling your tongue into a tube is a genetic trait. So is rolling your Rs in Spanish! LOL!

Ok. Now I'm going to dig up some breakfast. I'm kinda at a loss without my espresso and Reese's.

@CEfreeman thank you for the yoga breakdown. I'm planning to take yoga class (from a gym) so now I'll be more prepared to figure out which one.

It's interesting to see that yoga has the same bastardization as Pilates which I've taken since high school. Lots of using the Pilates name with little relation to the original method.

Everything I've done comes from a lot of hard work and practice such as dancing and petit point.

I can't draw or take photos without tens of thousands of hours more of practice to be remotely decent.

The only hidden talent that I finally came up with is the ability to see hidden patterns (not visual ones). It manifests in my work from instantly seeing mistakes or lacks in tax returns in 5 seconds to designing tax and estate plans.

This talent however drives my family nuts because I can also predict plots, lines and directions of TV shows and movies. Sometimes they enjoy asking me to say lines before it happens or who the murderer is after 10 mins.

It also means that I always recognize a face but forget about identifying people from those police drawing. They can be standing in front of me and I can't tell. It has to be live or from moving pictures. I can't do it with photographs if it's what I have to use as my first impression.

Now beechum, all that's as valuable as being able to tell when someone's lying!!!

I can predict plots, murders, etc., simply because I read so much, I think. Not only is there a chance I read it .. way back when, but that something is based upon something I read. Nothing more weird than to insist you've seen it before, when it's BRAND NEW!

There's a good chance your yoga teacher will tell you they have a Yoga Fit certification. Ask, "Yes, but how many actual yoga training hours did you have?" The girl that originally created the class, "Yoga butt" was a student of mine for a brief period. (I almost choked when I heard that one.)

Cpartist, that Lemonade drawing looks as if it's full of magic.

CEF, you reminded me--I can curl my tongue, although I'm not sure that's a talent--more luck of the draw. When I was in HS I had a friend who could not only touch his nose with his tongue, but stick the tip in a nostril; and he was not shy about demonstrating. :[

I think the only thing that might surprise people is that I can tread water almost forever. (I played water polo in high school.)

I am also exceptionally good at pilling unwilling cats.

And I am your girl if you need an itemized breakdown of the best baked goods available in a 15 mile radius of me.

You, two!
MamaGoose, you gave me a morning's repulsed, "Oh, GAWD!"
JIllius, you had me at "baked goods." Nom Nom Nom.

I forgot I'm THE person you want in an emergency. I would make a very good general.

CEF, I always smile when I read your posts. That is a talent! :) I have tried yoga a couple of times and man, I am so not coordinated! It's very hard, I think. I need to do it more, but I can't really afford a membership and it's fairly expensive, I think. Having my kids enrolled in sports is more important to me, and so I run/jog, because that is free. :)

MamaGoose, your figurines are neat! Nightowl, amazing photography! You need to go whale watching and post those photos! It's such a cool trip! My camera is old and wrecky and so we did not get many good photos, but oh was I jealous of others on the boat with big DSLRs and huge lenses! They got some incredible photos!

CPArtist, I've been to your website before. Your pictures are so realistic! I'm amazed at your talent. And the beading.

The needlework you others do is really nice! I can knit but I don't think it's that big a deal, and I don't do it very often.

I will be going to Toronto for work, leaving the 28th. Yikes, not much time! I will miss my older son's 14th birthday. :( I would have missed it anyway as he would have been at his dad's but now I won't see him for a couple of weeks. He understand though, which I think is pretty good. He knows it's important from a social justice perspective.

Hmmm, well my "Stupid Human trick" would be I recognize voices. Any show, any movie, anyone famous or neighbors. My husband and kids are always amazed.

I also paint, not so much anymore 2 kids, a job and an 1855 house have put a damper on that.....now I paint the house ;^)

Mostly decorating and cookie making is happening here. DH is flying home and he will finish the fridge cabinet and side today!!!!!! Yea!!!!! then dishwasher needs moved and the last cabinet installed......maybe this weekend? The kids are home, so no pressure.

Have a great holiday for everything you celebrate! Enjoy time with family and friends.

Heather

I tend to think of myself as having no talent beyond work. There, I seem to have a strong and generally correct instinct about what is wrong and what needs to be done. Also, I am a good technical writer (eg, writing clear detailed but not wordy summaries, scripts, protocols). But not in the least bit creative if it is not a problem solving task! I loved writing essays in school that were fact-based and dreaded the creative writing assignments.

I do have the ability to walk and cycle for long distances, although never very fast. Just naturally have lots of stamina.

Oh, but (I guess this is still in the non-creative category) I recall that I do have the ability to draw IF I am copying something -- for example, I used to freehand paint a large Santa with a list on my front picture window every December -- copied from a page in a coloring book. The neighbor kids always got a kick out of seeing their names on the list.

Merry Christmas to all -- I am going to the mall to try to capture some Christmas spirit this afternoon! (No, I don't equate shopping with Christmas, just want to be out with people, lights, music, decorations, yummy smells... before I work all day Friday)

Mamagoose BIG EWWWWWWW

Hidden talents? I guess I have a few, though none of them have to do with sign language or yoga:

I'm an excellent cook. I've won a couple small awards for various things. I used to make wedding cakes, but with a real job and two small children, it got to be too much. I'm out of practice now.

One of the things I teach is photography, and although I'm not an athlete, I love sports photography -- it's really hard; thus, rewarding when you take an excellent photograph.

I read voraciously and have near-perfect memory for the written word. Need to know a detail 'bout that minor character in Game of Thrones? I can tell you. Trying to identify a kids' book you read a decade ago? I probably know it. I can quote most of Shakespeare's major plays in their entirety. Ditto for John Keats' work. The other lit teachers are constantly asking me to dredge up some detail.

I am an excellent grammarian, but not a particularly good speller.

I am really, really good with money.

I am stupendously organized, but not a particularly good housekeeper.

I am very capable with needle and thread, but I cannot knit or crochet.

My super-power (not really a talent because no effort is involved): I can identify pregnancy long before the mom starts to show, and I always know whether it's a boy or a girl. How? I don't know, but as a high school teacher, it's sometimes uncomfortable to have this knowledge.

I always get the best hotel room ... and the worst dining table. Okay, again, not really a talent.

Scientist by day, textile artist by night. I can dye (non-synthetic) fabric pretty much any color using the primaries. I also torture it in lots of other ways, but that's the starting point.

I don't feel that I'm good enough to do wedding cakes but I do enjoy making cakes and making everything on them edible.

Flowers are edible

Entire Mickey clubhouse is edible (but not figurines)

Cake for a computer nerds bachelor party

Jake and the Neverland Pirates (figurines and flag not edible, everything else is)

Topsy turvy Frozen cake

I did think of another thing that is innate. I remember dates and numbers. I can tell you the date of birth, social security number and bank account numbers for me, my husband, all 4 of our kids, both my parents and my brother.

I used to get upset that friends didn't remember the exact date of my birthday until I realized that apparently I am the strange one. I've learned I have to be careful or I freak people out. Like being in the dentists office 2 years ago and hearing co-workers wish the receptionist Happy Birthday on August 4th, then being there a few months ago and saying, "your birthday is tomorrow right? Happy Birthday!!"

People tend to get at the very least startled so I've tried to temper that or they might start thinking I'm a stalker! :)

Not particularly a talent, but what surprises everyone about me is that I LOVE TO FISH! In any type of weather...

A soup-to-nuts kinda gal...bait 'em, hook 'em:

...clean 'em and cook 'em!

...and my best Martha Stewart impression in between:

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all you wonderful folks!

Javiwa, impressive! You might be my husbands soulmate :) (the fishing part not the cooking part).

Those cookies look perfect.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Texas _Gem - your cakes look way more professional than mine.

This is a fun thread seeing and hearing about all the hidden talents.

And, yes, working on the kitchen this week: DH and I are DIYing our own drawer dividers, starting with the most basic. Just finished sanding and applying acrylic coats -- one down, and quite a few more to go!

Have you ever bought a light fixture, opened up the paperwork and scratched your head at what they deem to be instructions for installing? Then you get to the bottom and it says in big bold print it should only be installed by a qualified electrician?

I'm convinced they make the instructions impossible to follow so that ONLY a qualified electrician will install and they save their butts.

Oh well, good thing me and hubby are qualified!!

Old blah light fixture in my pantry

I changed the exposure so you would be able to see it in all its glorious blahness.

Brand new sparkly crystal chandelier!

Of course pictures just don't do it justice. It even came with white gloves for me to wear while hanging the crystals. Sooooo sparkly!!! :)

Not bad for 100 bucks.

It is amazing what total strangers think is OK to ask a person with a disability, or perceived disability (some people in the D/deaf community do not consider deafness to be a disability). I dealt with a lot growing up from the age of two with severe rheumatoid arthritis. Some people acted, and still do, like if I was hunched over and could barely walk, I must be retarded too. Oftentimes when I am out with my 30 year old daughter and I'm the actual paying customer, the clerk will completely ignore me and only speak with my daughter. I cannot tell you how many times total strangers have walked right up to me and asked, "What happened to you?" So I can relate.

Hidden talents. I have an idetic memory. And it's not like Spencer Reid on "Criminal Minds." I can remember, verbatim, 85-90% of all the conversations I've ever had. I can memorise very easily. It's not like I read a book and can then recite it word for word. I can't do that. But if I really want to remember a certain passage, or even a whole chapter, I can memorise it in a pretty short amount of time, and I'll remember it for a long time.

Unfortunately, I also have an anti-talent that I try to conceal. I have extremely poor facial and geographic recognition. It takes me months of regular interaction with a new person before I can recognise them on sight, and longer to remember their names. I don't recognise landmarks almost ever, and I have to drive for months or even years with my gps on when going somewhere new. I live two blocks or so from the building I go to at my university. I couldn't tell you how to get there if you put a gun to my head. I get lost every single time I go there and come home from there. This is my fifth year at this university.

So we all have our talents and our anti-talents. It's finding out what your strengths are and then getting a career that makes using your talents fun. Or, as Dolly Parton put it, "Find out what you're good at and then do it on purpose."

:-)

I should mention it's a real neurological disorder called "prosonagosia," or commonly, "face blindness." And I've been diagnosed by a medical doctor. Dr. Oliver Sacks, the real doctor from the movie "Awakenings," staring Robin Williams, had a more severe case than I have. He wrote a book about the disorder called, "The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat." Really fascinating book! He also wrote an extensive article on the subject, and his own experiences for The New Yorker shortly before he died. You can bring it up free on the Internet.

Read it if you or someone you know is known for forgetting names or could get lost crossing the street. It was such a blessed relief when I found out it wasn't my fault I couldn't remember people's names or get lost every Sunday on the way to the church I'd been attending for a decade. I had been often accused of not paying attention, of not putting in the slightest effort, even of not caring about people--if you care about someone, you can recognise her in the restaurant you are meeting her for lunch in, and when and if you find the place, you can also remember her name.

But now I can tell people it's not my fault! It's a neurological condition, not well understood, and it has a name!

These are all so interesting! Some extremely talented people here on GW! Thank you for sharing. I have to say, CEF, dumb freezing Michigan is NOT freezing right now. It's going to be 61 today, breaking a record set in 1893 (I think that's what they said). So welcome home to warm Michigan at Christmas, and enjoy your visit :)

I'm eating way too much, drinking way too much wine, 8 yoga classes (ironically, Bikram) and lounging too much. Enjoying? Oh, ywah.

I suppose you could call it a talent- I have worked in tech for about 7 total years, but took a 4 year detour mid-way and became a hair stylist. A colorist, to be exact- I worked in some pretty swanky salons and did hair for some celebs and the whole thing. Most people are surprised to hear it, and when people see my resume they don't even usually notice the 4 year gap (or maybe they assume I had a kid? Don't know!) When female friends find out, they usually just want to ask me for hair advice! I still do some hair on the side sometimes- it was always my "happy place". Not that project management in tech isn't a lifelong dream ;)

I hope to get back into sewing once the house is done- we've never had room to set up a machine, but the new place should have plenty of space! We'll have lots of windows to cover, so I'm hoping I can get my rhythm back and make some simple panels so we don't have to spend a fortune.

www.greenwoodframed.com

Unfortunately, I also have an anti-talent that I try to conceal. I have extremely poor facial and geographic recognition. It takes me months of regular interaction with a new person before I can recognise them on sight

Chuck Close one of the most celebrated realist artists of our time, who's subject matter if portraiture has absolutely no facial recognition ability either. Go figure. Chuck Close

I've been so relieved ever since I first heard of face blindness several years ago. My whole like I figured everyone else was like me and I'd keep reintroducing myself. As a kid it was hard because I couldn't remember people like my Sunday school teachers I saw once a week, or the swimming or skating teachers who, in a suit and wet hair, all looked alike. I'd usually walk up to the wrong group and have to be herded in the right direction, every time. I've always wondered if (and where?) I should get tested, but then what would happen after that? Is there "therapy"?

I think I'm middling on finding my way easily; DH, though, if he's been somewhere or traveled a route one time, it's etched in his memory, and he can take the return route easily.

My hidden talent is spelling. I'm such a geek.

Interesting older article on face blindness. I guess with persistence there is hope. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/eyes-the-brain/201007/is-face-blindness-curable

This is a long article with a couple of different experiences. I found it an interesting read. I clicked on the outside of the big ad when it came up to get back to the article

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/09/living-with

My anti talents are I can't clean very well at home. I lose my memory whenever my migraines and hypoglycemia rear their destructive heads and I get lost even after I've been to a place many times. I hate that one, because panic brings on migraines. :(

Debbi and CEF-- I have a friend in Michigan who's giving me a bad time because she has no snow and I have around 7-9 inches now! (I live in eastern Washington state, where we rarely get more than an inch or two at a time.)! And if you think I have a hard time navigating to anywhere in regular weather, try it when there's a blanket of white over everything! :-)

Dayglosoright, don't "suppose" doing hair is a talent--it definitely is! It's an art, and not just anyone can do it! It's cool that you can do it on the side occasionally, since you love it so much. And creating panels for your window treatments in your new home sounds fun--putting yourself into the home will really make it special.

bpathome, me too! I was SOOOOO relieved when I found out about face blindness and its cousin geographic blindnes. Honestly, I've never looked into any kind of treatment for it, although I guess there are exercises and things you can do to help improve it. The biggest thing that has helped me has been the development of GPS. Even so, I often take my 30 year old daughter with me when I need to travel outside my "comfort zone," which is not very big! DD holds the phone with the GPS and gives me frequent reminders of my next turn, etc. I haven't found anything to help me with face recognition, though. My friends understand. When I came home last September from a year in Africa, my DD and my long time best friend came to pick me up at the airport. I didn't recognise either of them! I have a son like your DH. When he was about 25, he successfully navigated me to a place that was in a state we hadn't been to in twenty years--since he was five! I'm so glad you were brave to post this!

cpartist, isn't that amazing that someone with such severe face blindness could become a gifted artist! I've read about Chuck Close and am inspired. Thanks for the link! By the way, given your username, are you also an artist.? If so, what kind of art do you do?

Yeonassky, I'm so sorry that you suffer so much! Migraines are the worst! I've had a few in my lifetime and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. I too get hypoglycaemic and lose my short term memory. I have diabetes type 2, and when my blood sugar gets too low, I get really confused Just recently, I woke up my daughter, who spent Christmas weekend with me, to tell her I forgot to put a dryer sheet in with her clothes, but they were in the dryer. It was 3:00 am and my DD has never brought her laundry here in her life, She immediately got me a breakfast bar and OJ to raise my blood glucose. LOL we had a good laugh In the morning. Thank you so much for the links to a couple of excellent articles on face blindness.

I do have another talent--interior design. I have a great eye for what goes together in any space. I can do any theme for any budget, be it French country, southwest, contemporary, antebellum south, industrial, you name it. I can work on a budget of $100 or $10,000. I've decorated most of my friends and relatives' houses or rooms in them. I very seriously considered going to college for interior design, but ultimately chose a different path. But that's why I love these forums and why I'm remodelling an entire house top to bottom!

I guess my 'anti-talent' would be remembering numbers. Despite having an excellent memory, numbers escape me, and I have to really focus. I find it a challenge to fill in my credit card number when ordering on-line, for example.

Another odd talent I have is test taking. I enjoy it, and am good at it. I once had a passing interest in ham radio, so I took an on-line sample test to get an idea how easy/hard the questions would be, and I passed it, despite having no training in it whatsoever. I used a combination of fuzzy recollections of high school science plus educated guesses. I can also solve crossword puzzles, jumbles, and cryptograms about as fast as I can move a pen.

I'm so glad I keep reading here as some of you mention hidden talents that I haven't pegged as such in myself because it's just natural to me. Makes me feel more talented, lol.

I am an excellent speller. I remember numbers. I even remember really old phone numbers even though I can't remember who they used to belong to.

I can go anywhere and not get lost and remember how to get there and back. Sure, I still use a GPS once in awhile but it's mainly for back-up as I often ignore it. If I take a wrong turn, no big deal. I can find my way back and get on route. And getting "lost" is actually fun for me as I have made great discoveries of shops, lovely stretches of beaches, great vista points, and other lovely finds that way. I put lost in quotes because I'm never really lost, just temporarily turned around. I can always work my way back to where I need to be even without GPS or a map.

And I, too, aced tests even if I didn't study enough. In college, I loved blue book tests because I can BS my way through anything via the written word. Multiple choice tests are even easier.

I am the master of storing useless data in my brain. I seem to know and remember the most obscure stuff. I have never lost Trivial Pursuit. My family won't even play it with me anymore. They are positive that I sit with the cards and memorize the answers. That's sorta why I call myself "jack of all trades, master of none" because I know enough about a lot of things to be dangerous but not enough to be an expert in any one thing.

I'm very ADD but a high-functioning one. At a very young age, I was able to figure out ways to study in school that allowed me to excel without assistance from anyone and to maintain my fidgeting to not be a bother or get me in trouble. If I ever deviated from my study plan, I would be in trouble. For example, I need to take copious notes during lectures. Even now, I can't attend lectures of things I'm interested in without doing that. Even if I just throw the notes away right after because I don't need them to study the material. Once I take the notes, I remember what was said but if I'm not taking notes, I can't even listen to the lecture. My mind wanders and goes to all sorts of interesting places and I can't listen closely enough to even understand what is being said. Although this makes social situations difficult as I try to be a good listener but my mind wanders if it's not an interactive situation. It's not like I should be taking notes when someone is telling me a long story about their vacation, right?

Anyway, keep writing. The more you all share, the more I realize I have talents after all. This is really fun for me. I tend to not appreciate things in myself as much as I should, I guess.

cpartist, isn't that amazing that someone with such severe face blindness could become a gifted artist! I've read about Chuck Close and am inspired. Thanks for the link! By the way, given your username, are you also an artist.? If so, what kind of art do you do?

Debbie B, I posted a few of my drawings further up in this thread. I do colored pencil. Here's one more. This one was on the Dec cover of The Artist's Magazine:

One time the ex and I were up in Vermont. We went to a beautiful outdoor lunch place and sat by a garden. In the garden was a birdhouse with a windmill on top. I said to the ex, "Oh look at the birdhouse with the things that go round on top." I couldn't recall the name windmill.

OMG Funky we must be sisters!

I put lost in quotes because I'm never really lost, just temporarily turned around. I can always work my way back to where I need to be even without GPS or a map.

Me too.

And I, too, aced tests even if I didn't study enough. In college, I loved blue book tests because I can BS my way through anything via the written word. Multiple choice tests are even easier.

I can't say I aced tests but I certainly did well enough and I never studied. Too many more interesting things to do instead of studying.

I am the master of storing useless data in my brain. I seem to know and remember the most obscure stuff.

Yep. Love Jeopardy for that reason.

I'm very ADD but a high-functioning one. At a very young age, I was able to figure out ways to study in school that allowed me to excel without assistance from anyone and to maintain my fidgeting to not be a bother or get me in trouble. If I ever deviated from my study plan, I would be in trouble. For example, I need to take copious notes during lectures.

I am diagnosed ADHD and we have a long line of ADHD in my family. What worked for me was not taking notes but doing knitting, or doodling or needlepoint. In HS it drove my teachers nuts. I would sit in the back of the classroom doing my handiwork and the teachers assumed I wasn't paying attention, so they'd call on me thinking they'd get me. I would then be able to give them the correct answer, so eventually they learned to leave me and my handiwork alone.

Ha. ADD unite!

I also have to take notes if I'm to have a hope of remembering what was said in lectures, and I was the sole person who absorbed anything from the extreme monotony of driver's ed because I sat there and made friendship bracelets while listening. The teacher also found it impertinent, but perhaps not more impertinent than the snoring/drooling/dying that everyone else was doing.

I've always thought of myself as having one and a half attention spans. The extra half is not enough to actually multitask. (It's those lucky people who have two or three attention spans who can multitask.) But unless I keep that extra half attention span occupied with something mindless, it'll grab on to ANY random stimulus that comes along and pull my focus from the actual task at hand.

Like if you want to have a conversation with your friend, you have to give your toddler an activity to keep him/her occupied while you talk. But not an exciting or complicated enough activity to need additional monitoring from you. And not nothing because otherwise he/she will get bored and find something to do that will likely be too interesting/complicated for you to continue your conversation.

My toddler brain needs an activity that is JUST interesting enough but not actually very interesting. Like note-taking or knitting. Then the rest of me can actually get something done.

Mushcreek, it's interesting that you have a good memory for all but numbers. I have a terrible memory as a rule, but I was surprised to learn in college when I was participating in a neurological study that I have an unusually good memory for numbers. They were having participants recall longer and longer strings of numbers, and the tester made some impressed noises when I had progressed to the five-digit numbers and beyond. He said afterwards that nearly everyone starts making mistakes after 4 digits, and I went all the way to the maximum of the tests -- 8 or 10 digit numbers.

(This is unfortunately not even slightly useful.)

It's interesting that our memories are reversed! The number memory pathways must be all by themselves somewhere in the brain.

Well, if we're sisters, cpartist, I didn't get my share of artistic talent. You hogged it all. :)

Interesting, Jillius, the one-and-a-half attention spans is such a perfect way to describe it. When I was younger, I really could multi-task quite well. In fact, the best way for me to stay on task was to jump from one task to another and back again. Since menopause, I can't multi-task at all but I still need some kind of extra brain stimuli to help me focus.

But my other issue is that as soon as I'm in a listen-but-do-not-speak situation, my body starts aching. Seriously bad. Note taking or playing solitaire on my phone sometimes aren't enough. I think it's like restless leg syndrome. I absolutely must sit at the end of a row or in the very back so I can get up and walk around. I'm sure people think I'm nuts when they see me doing squats, wall sits, and side lunges in addition but it's almost like I need to work out a build-up of some kind of pain-inducing chemicals in my body by moving and stretching. If I can't move around, I fidget horribly and disturb everybody around me. I hardly ever get suckered into going to the movies because of it. It's really bad there. The strange thing is that it virtually never happens to me at live theater, opera, or other live entertainment that totally engages me in the way lectures and movies just can't transcend.

While here at the forums, I'm watching TV or movie on my tablet, while bouncing on my stabilizer ball. I can't sit in stationary chairs long at all. I got rid of a rocking chair when I rocked so hard in it that I tipped over backwards. Seriously. My family was thrilled because I drove them crazy. I rode it like a rocking horse. No gentle rocking for me. They're gonna kick me out of The Home when I'm in my dotage, I swear.

I'm at my best when multi-tasking. Most activities bore me, so I go on autopilot and think of something else. As a result, I can do repetitive chores all day while my brain is off doing other stuff. It works out that my career is physical, so I can burn off the extra energy without looking like the Energizer Bunny.

I'm sure that as a child I would have been diagnosed with some form of ADD or ADHD.

Great pictures nightowl. Keep the photography as a hobby, so that you will always love it. I think when we try to turn a hobby into a profession, we don't love it anymore. As adults we all need something to do that we love, to take us away from the stress of our daily lives.

Holy moly you guys!!! What an amazing cornucopia of talent we have here! Maybe that's why we're all renovating our kitchens; it's at least half artistic, as opposed to strictly functional.

This is such a great thread because it's a way of recognising that each of us has unique talents, and that we should feel good about that! I notice people seem more at ease talking about their anti-talents and being quite self-deprecating about their talents. It's OK to say out loud that you're good at something!

cpartist, I saw your drawings up further on the thread, but missed the fact that you drew them! I thought they were photographs of "real" things. WOW!! You are amazing! The flowers are my favourite. Do you sell your art? Where would I get more info on that? I'm asking 100% totally seriously, not just trying to be polite. Do you take special orders? Do/would you frame your art?

mushcreek and cpartist, I'm with you on test taking. Between my ability to retain what I read and my skill at test-taking, I'm the perfect student, and that's good because I've been back to college since 2007, with 2 1/2 years to go to get my PhD (2 1/2 years under my belt from the late 70's). It doesn't mean I'm smarter than others; it just means my natural skills align with what universities use to assess knowledge. If I had to do a car repair or paint a portrait or program a computer, I'd be the dumbest person in the room. I'm glad people are starting to realise there are different kinds of intelligences!

mushcreek , I'm also an ace speller and perfect at English grammar, and I know the APA 6 handbook like the back of my hand. But I'm hopeless when it comes to crossword puzzles, sudoku, any type of puzzle. I couldn't put together a 100 piece puzzle on my table if you had a gun to my head. I always score exceptionally poorly (under 30th percentile) in any kind of mechanical perception test, like where you see a set of pullies and wheels and you have to figure out where the chain ends, or where you see a piece of paper with dotted lines on it and you have to figure out how to fold it to make the origami object they show you.

I'm terrible at visualising anything 3D, which is why it's weird that I can picture interior designs for a room with perfect clarity. But I can't draw anything, especially not floor plans, which is a big reason I decided against going to college for interior design. I would have to draw, draw floor plans by hand and on the computer. I would flunk out, even if I had the best rooms! Even on these forums, when posters put their floor plan here, it is extremely difficult for me to visualise it. If they post photos of the room, I can see it instantly and know exactly what should be done. :-)

Funkycamper, I'm glad you keep reading this thread! It's funny how we see things in others as talents, but see things in ourselves as just natural things that anyone could do. Believe me, your gifts in recalling numbers, finding things geographically, test taking, spelling, and multitasking (which mushcreek also has) are TALENTS!! I know they just seem natural to you, but I guarantee people would give anything to acquire those talents. I recently read an article that said multitasking isn't really a thing, except in rare circumstances. People say, especially in job interviews, that they can multitask, but usually the human brain doesn't operate that way, and people actually end up taking longer when they try to accomplish several things at once, as opposed to doing them one at a time. The article said, and I've read this before, that when people are interrupted by the phone, or in person, that it takes 15 minutes to get focus back on what they were doing. SO... what you and mushcreek have described is a rare gift!!! The article mentioned that there are people, like you, who can truly multitask. So stand up and be counted as having an amazing talent!! :-)

I'm not a great multitasker; I am easily distracted--shiny!--but I am great at doing things in my head. I almost always write my papers in my head before I write a single word on my computer, and most of my papers are 20-35 pages long. I've got some good sized chunks of my dissertation in my head right now. I can also do grocery lists, lists of errands, and stuff like that in my head. My DS has the same thing. Before he went to MIT, he got a Bachelor of Music in classical piano performance. I used to see him lying on the sofa with headphones on, eyes closed, and fingers wiggling in the air. If I asked him what he was doing, he'd say practicing piano. He'd have the entire work committed to memory before he ever set fingers to the ivory.

Funkycamper, may I ask the origin of your screen name? Also, your geographic memory is awesome, and I'd give anything for that talent! I bought my house in October, and before that stayed there as a houseguest of the owners, one of my best friends and her husband, for the entire month of September. I'm not moving in until June, but have occasion to go out there fairly often. I cannot find my own house without GPS, and sometimes even with it! :-)

Whenever someone uses the phrase "jack of all trades, but master of none," it reminds me of an old joke in academia. As you progress through college, you become more and more narrowly focused. Your doctoral dissertation will be on something very specific. So the joke is the more education you get, you know more and more about less and less, until finally you know everything about nothing. Haha!

Jillius, I LOVE the idea of "one and a half attention spans!" Brilliant! That would make an excellent study. Keeping your hands busy with physical activity you can do mindlessly with muscle memory that enables you to focus on the lecture, sermon, your spouse's long story about their day, whatever...that's a great concept! I'm a note taker too. My ex and I used to go to a lot of baseball games. I LOVE baseball! But I would get so distracted by everything else that goes on in a stadium that I'd miss important stuff like home runs, lol. I finally found the thing that allowed me to concentrate on the game: filling in the score card you always get with the program. It was a steep learning curve for me to learn all the symbols of official scoring, but it kept me super focused on the game because I couldn't miss one pitch. :-) I also put a headphone jack in one ear and listened to the live radio broadcast! My ex thought I was nuts and my friends thought it was funny, but it worked for me!

I've so very much enjoyed this conversation and I hope everyone will join in as we celebrate our talents and empathise with our anti-talents! This is fun!

It's funny how different peoples' brains work. My strongest suit is probably mechanical aptitude. I can tell at a glance how most things work. I once applied for employment at a local shop, and they had an interesting (to me) test. They had a machine of sorts specifically designed to test mechanical problem-solving skills. You turned a crank, and through a wide variety of springs. levers, cams, and gears, it moved a block around and deposited it into a container. The test consisted of the examiner throwing the machine out of whack by disconnecting a part, or changing the gear timing or something. You were then timed at how long it took you to diagnose and fix the problem. I fixed it so fast each time that they were convinced that I must have worked at the company that built it! I fixed it each time in about 30 seconds. Needless to say, that IS a useful skill. Too bad they weren't willing to pay me what I'm worth, so I didn't take the job.

The ability to take tests is an interesting one. On a dare, I took an IQ test with a friend of mine. We both did very well, and I'm a member of a high-IQ group; higher than Mensa. I don't really feel qualified to belong, as I don't think I'm unusually smart, but the ability to take tests indicates (by one type of measure) that I am. I get their monthly magazine, and I have no idea what some of the articles are about! I have a life-long friend that is functionally illiterate, yet he is far smarter than I am in some ways.

There's a higher IQ group then Mensa? Seriously, Mushcreek? I'm in awe of you.

Debbie, I totally fail at the same types of tests you do. Love the "know everything about nothing" joke!

When the kids were young, we bought a used truck camper from a friend for $300. At that price, it should be obvious that this was a funky old camper. The exterior siding was literally only held on by all the tacky bumper stickers we plastered on it. It was a ridiculous looking thing. We even had a theme song we'd sing about it calling ourselves the Clan of the Funky Camper. We had more fun in that ugly thing!

I should add that my geographic talents work in cities, town, roads. Anytime I'm in the midst of man-made territory. My husband is easily lost in these situations. However, you get us in the woods and our skills skills totally flip. He can travel cross-country anywhere and get back to camp and the car without a map or compass. Even in places he's never been before. I need map, compass and GPS with waypoints. I've taken backcountry navigation classes just so I can go in the woods without him and not require a search-and-rescue to find me. It's irritating to me as it limits my hiking opportunities if I'm not with DH or someone else with better skills.

"I'm never really lost, just temporarily turned around"

My husband maintains that you are not lost unless you have to be rescued by others. So we can say we've never been lost! Have certainly been temporarily mis-located from time to time, though!

Late to the party but numbers. I have a quirky thing with numbers. Social security both mine and dh, drivers license (pre-marriage and after - yeah I know it's only the first three digits but I need to recall the old one to state the new one), old phone numbers, birthdays I've got'em all up in the noggin with immediate recall. I like spreadsheets and databases and I find them creative and 'freeing'. As far as artwork the real creative stuff - no I leave that creativity to my 10 year old and he can knock my socks off when it comes to drawing.

Would I notice a new building up or down on a street I drive down every single day - perhaps - but maybe not for days or more and then I'd think hmmm something is different but I can't put my finger on it! DH says I'd probably not notice for days if the barn burnt down and he might be right!

I have a horrible sense of direction. I can walk into a store in the mall and walk out and turn the opposite direction I need to go. Good thing I am not a shopper. I don't have to figure that out when I put things in my virtual cart. :p

We have trails behind our home that we love to hike and bike and I'd never ever do it alone. Each and every time we get to a trail head I always pick the wrong direction to go!

It appears I have more anti-talents than talents. I am double jointed and can bend my thumbs wayyy backward. Ha! Now that is a talent!