Let's see...
I can play minesweeper (MS Windows version) frighteningly well. I have never heard of anyone who played it as well (or with as much of a singleminded obsession), and my cousin called me supersweeper and showed friends my talent. (My records for the beginner, intermediate, and expert levels are 4 seconds (lucky, but usually under 10), 27 seconds (usually under 40) and 87 seconds (only succeed about 25% of time due to 50-50 guess squares, usually about 125 seconds since I don't play much anymore). He also made a VAX version of sweeper, and the University of Florida made him remove it because it was affecting their entire system with everyone dialing in to play! (Programming weird things for fun would be his talent. This is probably the most understandable program he did for fun.)
I have a talent for guessing word puzzles (Wheel of Fortune, Hangman type games) with shockingly few letters. I got "Casablanca" with only the "S" and "Patio awning" with only the p,n, and g! One of my roommates who was in law school offered to pay my way from Florida to California for Wheel after he graduated if I split the winnings with him. I really need to get in touch with him. I think I could make some money! Of course, I do get stage fright, so I would probably look as stupid as most of the people they have on the show most nights! Most people refuse to watch wheel of fortune with me because I am so good.
I don't know if this is unusual among guys, but I have a talent for identifying cars and naming them. I saw a movie clip of a commercial with a car attacking a bird aired in the UK, and I recognized the Ford Ka on sight immediately, and they don't even sell them in the US. For US vehicles, I can name 98% of them (since the '50's, about) and give a pretty close approximation of the year. I can't tell a 90 Mustang from a 91, but I can give the exact year of a 73 Corvette and an85 Firebird. Apparently GM has a thing for changing things each year. They change the Vette front bumper in 73, and the rear bumper in 74. They changed the bumpers on the 85 bird, and the lights in 86. Why they staggered the changes is beyond me, except so that scary people like me would be able to give an exact year!
These are the talents that are impressive but somewhat scary. The more useful talent would be a talent with animals. I was the only person not a certain dog's family that had ever touched him (he was about 7 years old) because no-one else could get him to accept them. It was probably a "stupid enough to try" thing as well, since he was quite large and had proven his ability to kill cats and other large dogs. I was also the only one a former roommate took to his place of work and was accepted by the Panther that was there. He continued scratching his tree (IMPRESSIVE claws!) after a brief stare in my direction, where with most other people he would clearly posture agressively, and he even attacked the fence a couple of times. Apparently he was removed from the wild because he had been seen stalking children on 2 occasions. I have also had the most luck of anyone when meeting many other new cats and dogs. My roommate with the Panther job even resorted to keeping his cat in his closed room at night. "She's my Damn Cat (D.C., her actual name!), I want her with me at least SOME of the time!" This from a guy who was also good with animals.
You know, I think I just beat SeaJay's Guinness post for longest single post ever! That would be another talent! Longwindedness!
R
