MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and
chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.
19 July 2010
I Have a Theory - When people are born the gods bless them with a thing, a thing being some sort of rare ability. As mentioned here, mine is finding good parking spaces.
OMG deborah, I have parking karma too. I was single and lonely for a long time, but I'd think to myself, well at least I have parking karma going for me. If I ever find a boyfriend it will go away, but that's a fair trade off. Well now I'm married and I STILL HAVE MY PARKING KARMA. I am very fortunate.
My friends would tell you that my "thing" is a gift of gab. I can chat up anyone and talk my way in and out of things pretty easily.
Find my way without directions. I can't give directions and have no idea what the names of streets are but I always seem to end up where I intend too without necessarily knowing how I did it.
Oh, I do that too, octothorpe. I have found my way driving through cities I've only visited once before, 10 years previously, just by following my nose. It blows my husband's mind, he who gets lost in the *grid* of Manhattan.
I'm like octothorpe - I can pretty much always sense where I am and what direction things are in and I can find my way to places pretty well. I have no ability to direct someone else there, though and have no idea of street names etc.
I can go to the co-op, shovel bulk beans, rice, grains, flour, etc. into little paper bags, without measuring, then bring them home, and -- ta da! I have exactly the right amount of each to precisely fill the diverse array of glass jars I keep such things in.
(OK, so this is pathetic, and I'd trade it in a heartbeat for being able to find my way around. Or park. Let alone the head-exploding.)
I don't think I have a thing. But I swear to you that all throughout my childhood and teens, streetlights would go out when I walked or drove past them ALL THE TIME. It was eerie. Doesn't happen anymore.
I can blindly plow into someone's completely fubared project with a near impossible deadline, salvage what's usable, fill in the gaps, and present a satisfactory product on schedule. What an adrenaline rush! This is why my heart is so fucked.
I can also guess the time with remarkable accuracy.
I used to be really, really good at remembering stuff like phone numbers and addresses, but age is catching up with me.
I have a magic wand for cover letters. I wish I could find a place to volunteer my amazing cover letter writing services actually. I was trying to find an org that serves veterans, but nothing worked out.
I am the queen of random biology facts. I hear something once and it sticks in my head forever.
My mom loves to tell the story of me when I was five, sitting on her lap and crying over a scraped knee. In the middle of my tears, I suddenly said "Mom, did you know that a baby blue whale can gain up to 95 pounds a day?", then resumed crying.
My head will explode if you need it to. I am easy to talk to for people who have difficulty talking. I enable others to have a "thing." However, I have almost no sense of smell.
My father used to say that my mothers "thing" was: "Drop her in any city in the world, and she will smell her way to the most expensive store"
Mine is the exact opposite. I can find the really-super-reasonable if not downright-cheap vintage fashion in any city. I got a dress in Tokyo for 1900 yen. A dress. That I still wear when the mood hits me.
My SO's thing is pretty darn useful. He can pack cars like nobodies business. He once transported a bike, a 24-inch large (as in fat) computer screen in a box, two suitcases, four medium sized boxes, and a small table in a Suzuki SX4.
I also read super fast. I have a keen sense of hearing. Too keen, usually. (shut up, coworkers) I can sweet-talk a toddler out of a tantrum and make a preschooler suddenly mind her mother.
I can measure without measuring equipment: teaspoons, tablespoon, 1/2 cup, cup, and fill the coffee carafe to the exact measurement. This isn't anything special, it's habit.
Things work out for me 99 percent of the time. I'm continuously being saved from myself. If I'm running late and forgot my hairbrush I will find one in a weird place in my car.
I'm sure there's something more interesting but the only one that comes to mind right now is being able to take knots apart. I have untangled 30-year-old fossilized skeins of yarn.
serazin, I am in need of cover letter writing halp! Can I email you?
Oh, me too. Wasn't there an AskMe about this not long ago? I remember being awed to learn that other anosmic (or minimally nosmic?) folk share my related condition of having Phantom Smells - weird smells now and then that no one else senses.
And yes! My email is in my profile - I think. Or at least in my MeFi profile. Let me check...
I'm a super fast reader. I have extraordinary luck in games (usually good - sometimes just really out of the ordinary). I also make computers die. I'm just ridiculously hard on hardware, though I try to treat it gently! Mr. Mirror and I will buy the same desktop at the same time and his will outlive mine by years.
Another fast reader here who will probably hit 300 or more books a year - actually, I do that every year, which sounds all intellectual and shit except at least half of them are fairly pathetic books. If you're reading about demon hunting soccer moms you have to go fast or the sheer terror of the prose and the gaping plot holes will drag you down and drown you quick. I have a great sense of smell even after 25 years of smoking; a mixed blessing occasionally. I also have a great sense of direction - can find my way anywhere I've been even once before. And I speak pretty fluent Dog.
On the bad side, I draw vermin like the pied piper. I am continuously and forever plagued by infestations of something or other from mice to rats to roaches to fleas to bedbugs to yellow ladybugs to mosquitos to you name it, I've had it. I think I offended the wrong goddess once long long ago. Actually that more or less goes for all aspects of my life.
I have an unusually good sense of direction and spatial orientation. In most cases, I have a pretty good idea of how to get where I'm going, as if I have a map in my head. I do not drive, but I make an awesome navigator!
I am apparently the voice of reason - as has been pointed out by several friends in separate groups and at separate points in my life.
I also always seem to have whatever someone needs in my purse. Although, I think this is more of a girl-scout training thing (always be prepared!) instead of a blessing thing.
You know how when you're fixing something that contains tiny little parts, and you drop one of them on the floor and hear it bounce somewhere, and you just know you're never going to find it again?
My super-hero ability is that I can track those things with some kind of passive sonar and pretty much go right to the spot where they ended up. Even if it's under the workbench.
This was very handy when my job involved repairing laser printers, which seem to be primarily made out of tiny screws and those damn circlips that eject themselves at roughly the speed of a rifle bullet.
I have almost no sense of smell.
Same here, which can be a blessing at times.
My SO's thing is pretty darn useful. He can pack cars like nobodies business.
Yup, me too. Not just cars, but suitcases etc. The kids get me to pack their stuff when they go on camps and then can't get anywhere near everything back when it's time to come home. One of the female children is learning well, though and I think I can pass the gift on to her.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
