OT: So Who On Here Has Talent?

[valentsgrif]

Poppy's thread about talent at guitar had me wondering:
Who has a talent, besides music? I'm talking about a skill that you acquired with ease compared to your peers who may also have substantially pursued your specialty. I'll go first.

In my youth I took up tennis. With only minimal public playground instruction at age 13, I made #1 varsity singles player the following year (freshman) of high school, and became later ranked, scholarship, the whole thing. (I point out though that a substantial amount of practice/work was intrinsic).

Ok, whats was/is your nonmusical talent?

[Grant Harding]

I'm like that with problem solving - like the Dustin Hoffman of analysis...

[Opa John]

I'm gonna have to think about that one for awhile. I know one thing. My grandkids get a bigger kick out of watching me wiggle my ears than anything I could ever do musically.

[kwakatak]

I used to draw and write short stories but my real talent lies in the art of procrastination.

[Opa John]

Originally Posted by kwakatak

I used to draw and write short stories but my real talent lies in the art of procrastination.

Ooh....Way to go, Neil. I just thunk up another "talent" I have. I could beat ya in the art of procrastination any day of the week! But.......not this week. Maybe next week.....or perhaps next month. Actually, it's probably better to put it off until after the holidays when things settle down and I'm not too busy putting off other things.

I'm kinda tied up right now doing my 2011 income tax return. After I get that done, I gotta mow the lawn. I mean, it's gotta be done sometime this year, right?

[Opa John]

OK, I'll get serious for a moment. Actually, I do have a talent.

I've always had the ability to repair electro-mechanical devices that were seemingly unrepairable to others. I don't know if it's an inherited trait or not, but I don't ever remember my old man spending a Saturday or Sunday afternoon wasting his time watching football on TV. He was always in his garage workshop working on something that was broken and needed to be repaired. And, of course, he always wanted me to help him. Or maybe he just wanted to teach me how to do things and I wasn't bright enough to realize it at the time. I can only think of a handful of things he wasn't successful at fixing.

He grew up during the great depression when, if something needed repaired around the house, you'd better know how to repair it yourself because the money to hire someone else to do the work just wasn't available. The apple never falls very far from the tree, so this trait rubbed off on me at a very young age.

I graduated high school in 1960 and really, at the time, had no great desire to attend full-time college. And besides, there was no way I could afford it anyway. But, I did get two years of formal electronics schooling by attending night classes at Ohio Technical Institute, which today is better known as Devry here in Columbus. This electronics schooling, along with Dad's mechanical skills, allowed both of us to fix just about anything by putting our skills together.

Even though I can afford to now, I still won't hire outside help on anything until I've exhausted all possible avenues of repair on my own. Sometimes, by doing this, it's caused the final cost of repair to be higher than if I'd hired outside help to begin with, but only a couple of times.

I've spent a ton of money on tools over the years to do just about anything a man needs to do, and I feel confident in saying that every one of those tools has paid for itself many times over.

So.....call me a "do-it-yourselfer"....that's my talent. If something is broken, I can most likely fix it. If I can't fix it, it's truly broken and needs to be replaced or thrown away. My Dad has been gone for 22 years, but his hard-headed doggedness still lives in me. Thanks, Dad.

[KarenA]

I can juggle. Only 3 items and they must be sort of round shaped....I can't do flaming torches or running chainsaws, much to my husband's relief. I haven't done it much lately, so I used to be a lot better at it. I'd always get a glance from someone at the supermarket when I'd pick up apples or oranges and do a quick little routine before they went into the cart. Of course, my kids would see me do that and thus there is a down side to showing off because of the "I wanna do what Mom does" syndrome.

[Gary Blanchard]

I'd say counseling comes naturally to me. Yes, I have a Master's degree in counseling, but I seem to instinctively know how to connect with clients and to know the right question to ask or the right thing to say. It is what makes me good at what I do. I also have great humility.

[Ricochet]

I'm fairly talented in obsessing about things ... currently, acoustic guitars. I clearly lack talent in playing guitar, though my ability to be obsessive helps address that.

More seriously, I've always been good at reading and understanding people. Very helpful in my work. Gary, you aren't the only counselor here - I've had a private practice for several years now.

[Michael Martin]

Originally Posted by valentsgrif

Ok, whats was/is your nonmusical talent?

Spelling (I have a photographic memory for words, but only for words)
Scrabble
Photography
Drawing/sketching/watercolor

And in my youth I was not very athletic overall but was a very effective relief pitcher. Great slider and knuckleball. But those days are long gone!

[Gary Blanchard]

Originally Posted by Ricochet

I'm fairly talented in obsessing about things ... currently, acoustic guitars. I clearly lack talent in playing guitar, though my ability to be obsessive helps address that.

More seriously, I've always been good at reading and understanding people. Very helpful in my work. Gary, you aren't the only counselor here - I've had a private practice for several years now.

Cool. I agree that reading and understanding people is a talent.

Private practice suits me, especially since my specialty is addiction treatment. I don't always agree with some of the "conventional wisdom."

[DCS]

Hmmmm....off topic allowed? Let's find out. I can pee sideways, but only first thing in the morning. Does that count?

[garthman]

I used to be pretty good at playing ping-pong

[poppytater]

Marksmanship. From picking off bees from clover at 6 with my bb gun to shooting running game, I've always been a good shot. Used to have a bunch of guns, got rid of them all 25 years ago, now I don't have any and can't stand to hear a gun fire.

[Opa John]

Originally Posted by poppytater

Marksmanship. From picking off bees from clover at 6 with my bb gun to shooting running game, I've always been a good shot. Used to have a bunch of guns, got rid of them all 25 years ago, now I don't have any and can't stand to hear a gun fire.

That's some good shootin', poppy. I remember a friend of mine when we were kids, Frank Buck, used to stick some blue tip matches in a crack in the back fence and light those suckers with a BB gun from about 50 feet away. That was some pretty good shootin' too! And I'm not just "bull shootin'", either. He did it all the time. Today, he's a real estate agent.

I had a BB range built in my basement when I was a kid. I'd put my BB gun over my shoulder, turn around backwards, line the sights up with a hand mirror, and shoot swinging empty BB tubes hanging from a string at the other end of the basement where the target board was. I pulled the trigger with my thumb. I did it because I'd seen Roy Rogers do it with a 22 rifle at the circus. Dale Evans was a good shot too, BTW!

[g6120]

My talent, outside my career which is a creative profession, is riding motorcycles fast...started as a kid racing motocross.
All my friends used to call me rocket powered because I had no fear.
Would surprise many a rider when I blew by on my classic motorcycles.
Never as a competitive thing either, just because I liked to ride at my own pace which was a lot faster than most.
Would like to have pursued pro racing actually but my then future wife said no way.

[Bobby1Note]

Originally Posted by poppytater

Marksmanship. From picking off bees from clover at 6 with my bb gun to shooting running game, I've always been a good shot. Used to have a bunch of guns, got rid of them all 25 years ago, now I don't have any and can't stand to hear a gun fire.

In the mid 80's, I became interested in competitive handgun shooting. I joined a club, and got involved in a discipline called PPC. The club champion, and head instructor got me started on the right foot, and I quickly progressed through various levels of competency; Marksman, SharpShooter, Expert, Master., etc. After a while, I was shooting at events sponsored and hosted by local and national police services, such as the Quebec Provincial Police, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I met some VERY talented competitors during that period, and had a great time at various competitions. About one year after starting out, I became the club champion. From there, I went on to win the Provincial tournament "expert" class, by shooting a "Master" score. That was my goal, so it ended there.

I noodled around with club competition for a while, and that peaked with a one-on-one match against our previous club champion. He was using a competition-modified 6" barreled revolver, and I used a stock 2 1/2" barrel snub-nose revolver, with a polished action. We shot outdoors, in the rain, and I scored 1487, and 1492 points, out of a possible 1500. I believe that score still stands as the club record, some 26-27 years after the fact.

That was when I hung it up, and really haven't shot since. I was offered a job as an assistant to the chief firearms instructor with the R.C.M.P., at their main training base in Regina Saskatchewan, but I declined since I already had a great job. I just could not see myself doing this for a living. It was great fun to be shooting at such a competitive level, but it was time to move on.

[valentsgrif]

Originally Posted by Bobby1Note

, I went on to win the Provincial tournament "expert" class, by shooting a "Master" score. That was my goal, so it ended there.

I noodled around with club competition for a while, and that peaked with a one-on-one match against our previous club champion. He was using a competition-modified 6" barreled revolver, and I used a stock 2 1/2" barrel snub-nose revolver, with a polished action. We shot outdoors, in the rain, and I scored 1487, and 1492 points, out of a possible 1500. I believe that score still stands as the club record, some 26-27 years after the fact.

That was when I hung it up, and really haven't shot since....... but it was time to move on.

^This is an interesting phenomenon I have observed over the years. People who have massive talent and prolonged exploitation of that talent that simply accomplish a goal or burn out or get bored. I quit my sport in college to purse other newfound interests- the years of competition in one tunnel visioned endeavor no longer gave the same emotional challenge and reward.

[Ricochet]

Originally Posted by Gary Blanchard

Cool. I agree that reading and understanding people is a talent.

Private practice suits me, especially since my specialty is addiction treatment. I don't always agree with some of the "conventional wisdom."

Conventional and wisdom don't often match up, I've found...

[Michael Martin]

 

Originally Posted by Ricochet

Conventional and wisdom don't often match up, I've found...

 

Ha.

[Gary Blanchard]

Ha.

 

So true.

[Queequeg]

I can juggle and roll a quarter over my knuckles.

(But not at the same time.)

[Queequeg]

 

I can juggle. Only 3 items and they must be sort of round shaped....I can't do flaming torches or running chainsaws, much to my husband's relief.

 

(a little secret)

Here's how to juggle running chain saws:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

remove the chain.

[Bobby1Note]

^This is an interesting phenomenon I have observed over the years. People who have massive talent and prolonged exploitation of that talent that simply accomplish a goal or burn out or get bored. I quit my sport in college to purse other newfound interests- the years of competition in one tunnel visioned endeavor no longer gave the same emotional challenge and reward .

 

I think that sums it up pretty well,,,, for me anyway. Competing at a championship level can be thrilling to say the least, but it also requires complete dedication, concentration, and effort, with a clear and well-defined goal. I was "lucky" in the sense that it came relatively easy for me. I understood the mechanics of it, and the level of concentration required. Once my personal goal was met however, I knew it was time to move on.

 

Now, if only I applied that same level of determination to my musical abilities.

[masterbuilt]

I mentioned fly tying and rod building in the other thread, but also, I have written several books and have well over a thousand published articles. I also made Who's Who in America as an award-winning photographer. My passion is landscape, but commercially, I have done a lot of shooting. I have also done a lot of pen & ink sketch, charcoal, and watercolor. I'm into calligraphy, too, and turned some of my work into TrueType Fonts for use on computer.

 

I have way more than a passing interest in firearms. I used to build blackpowder weapons and shot competitively in small caliber (45 cal and under) rifle and pistol, 22 caliber rifle and pistol, and competitive arm rifle, too. These days, I still shoot 22 and 22 magnum and qualified with 9mm shooting 1.5 inch groups. My CHL piece is a Glock G17.