Skills, Talents and Special Interests

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Do you have Skills, Talents and/or Special Interests?
A. I have skills that I'm proud of 7%  7%  [ 3 ]
B. I have talents that I enjoy 2%  2%  [ 1 ]
C. I have special interests that bring meaning to my life 16%  16%  [ 7 ]
D. All of the above 59%  59%  [ 26 ]
E. None of the above 5%  5%  [ 2 ]
F. A & B but not C 5%  5%  [ 2 ]
G. A & C but not B 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
H. B & C but not A 7%  7%  [ 3 ]
Total votes : 44

ephemerella
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19 Mar 2009, 9:20 am

Well, I have a special talent with learning. I love to learn, because I'm a systemizer. I also feel my thoughts, as a form of synesthesia, so that I get thrills and good feelings when I learn new things and discover new, clever ideas. That's part of what I get out of this website -- people have such wise, unique and novel ideas and views. I literally get pleasure from the wonderful world of ideas that get shared here.

So I have become a learning and systemizing intensive person. I move from subject to subject. Sometime in the past dozen years or so, I started moving from subject to subject more frequently, like an wine lover trying wines from some new country. I have several "special interests" now that sort of all bleed together at the edges. I move from art to cooking to nutrition to medicine to science to engineering to physics to philosophy to social psychology and cognitive and I shift back and forth between my "special interests", depending on what's going on in my life at the time that makes one or another more relevant and engaging.

I seem to be happiest in those special interests that involve senses as well as systemizing and problem solving. So some special interests that involve both talents and skills include art, cooking ... and sex!

I also love physical activity like running, swimming or anything else that is physically intense that I can do long-term, where I can listen to my iPod (lectures and music). That way I can get an exciting physical activity and my learning/systemizing fun at the same time. I'm really happy that there is a waterproof holder now with waterproof earphones, that you can put an iPod in while swimming, now. I can't wait to get one. Once I break through past a half hour or hour of swimming, it becomes like flying. I'd love to listen to my lectures and music while doing that.



OddDuckNash99
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19 Mar 2009, 10:23 am

I don't really consider myself to have any skills, but I do have "Aspie talents" and special interests. My strongest AS trait is the special interests. For talents, I have a photographic memory and I'm very gifted in learning foreign languages. My Spanish classes in high school were too slow/boring, so I went ahead and taught myself advanced grammar and vocab; I am now fluent in reading/writing. I also have taken some French. Many people find foreign languages difficult to learn, but I can memorize the vocabulary and the grammar very quickly. This is really all that I think I have that's a talent. If I think of something else, I'll post it.
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ephemerella
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19 Mar 2009, 10:25 am

OddDuckNash99 wrote:
I don't really consider myself to have any skills, but I do have "Aspie talents" and special interests. My strongest AS trait is the special interests. For talents, I have a photographic memory and I'm very gifted in learning foreign languages. My Spanish classes in high school were too slow/boring, so I went ahead and taught myself advanced grammar and vocab; I am now fluent in reading/writing. I also have taken some French. Many people find foreign languages difficult to learn, but I can memorize the vocabulary and the grammar very quickly. This is really all that I think I have that's a talent. If I think of something else, I'll post it.
-OddDuckNash99-


That is amazing. I bet with your visual memory and language gifts, you are probably also mathematical, too if taught a specialized subject like topology or advanced algebra.



glider18
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19 Mar 2009, 10:51 am

Most people think of me and music. I guess I have musical savant-like qualities here. I play organ, piano, electric keyboards, hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, banjimer, harmonica, and trombone. When I become fascinated by a particular musical instrument, I can usually pick it up and quickly start playing songs on it without any lessons or instruction. I have always done this. Recently, my oldest son decided to play the clarinet in the band. I had never touched a reed instrument before. It took me about ten minutes to get a musical sound to come out of it. Then, after that, I fiddled around with if for five minutes and was playing Begin the Beguine complete with clear notes and vibrato---similar to the big band recordings of it. I haven't done anything else with the clarinet since it hasn't interested me in an obsessive way. I want my son to be the clarinetist in the family.

I am skilled/talented at writing. I am working on a novel encompassing as many of my narrow interests as I can fit into it. It will be a sci-fi/horror novel.

I used to give magic shows at parties. I used to collect illusions and magic tricks. I collect all kinds of things I am interested in. For example, I love caves---so I have a lot of books on them---and a lot of survey maps. I love astronomy---and I have several telescopes. My main interest is amusement parks and roller coasters---I have a lot of old roller coaster blueprints. I am building a large HO scale train layout in my basement with a big amusement park (built from actual blueprints for the rides). I love house plans---I have some house blueprints of houses that fascinate me. I am using those houses in my novel for some of the settings.

Well, there is more. But that is good enough for now I think. My world is complex in these types of things. They give me great joy.


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khelben1979
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19 Mar 2009, 10:53 am

I chose alternative D.

A short summary:

What I'm proud of: Myself and who I am and also some of my skills. My ego isn't that big, though, but of course I enjoy who I am and my personal focus is aimed at continued self development (I have very much left to work on).

Special interests: At the present it's most visible in the Ubuntu Linux forum where I feel that I can help out and that it feels meaningful. Been using computers since I was 7 years old.

There are things in my life which I'm not happy about, but I have learned to live with many things. I feel pretty good at the present.


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phil777
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19 Mar 2009, 11:11 am

Hrm -.- If i have skills i never practice them, so meh on that.

Talents are something which stand out, and due to poor interaction with people, i'm not in a condition to know wether what i do could be considered a "talent".

Special interests? Ah, that's a hard one, is there anything in this world not worthy of interest?

I've been praised a few times for my academic intelligence, but besides that. =/



MONKEY
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19 Mar 2009, 11:15 am

I have quite a good skill in drawing and everyone tells me how detailed and realistic the pictures are, but that's only when I draw people as I'm crap at anything else.

I have good creative imagination that I like to get lost in every once and a while.

My special interests are mythical creatures, dates of births of actors/singers and dreams


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Emor
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19 Mar 2009, 11:18 am

I chose 'All of the above'.
If it weren't for computers I don't know what I'd do. I spend all my time on it, talking to people and reading about other minor interests I have. I even got offered a job once after making a flash game(which is off the site and off my HDD now...D:).
I also think I'm good at Science. I've got top of the class in all the tests this year and I just seem to be able to absorb the information quite well.
Generally, I just have a good memory, which is helpful.
I suck at languages though D:. I don't know if it's due to me thinking it's a complete waste of time(which I do and it does make me not want to learn it) or because I'm incapable of remembering things word for word(I can, I just find it easier to remember the general outline).
But yeah, if I'm interested in something, I'll remember a lot. I did a presentation on 16th Century Medicine once, and I didn't have to revise or anything, the first time I read all the dates and such, it had already sank in. I'm going to be doing a presentation on Cocaine tomorrow(presumably) and I don't need to revise because it all sank in the first time I read it :D. It's things like that, where I know a lot.
I also have good hand-eye coordination, like, in badminton, if the shuttlecocks in a 5 meter radius, I can probably hit it.
Sorry for this post being a bit long.
EMZ=]



ephemerella
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19 Mar 2009, 11:19 am

So many special and wonderful things here... it's hard to respond without sounding patronizing.

Thank you for sharing these parts of yourselves in this thread.



IdahoRose
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19 Mar 2009, 12:03 pm

My skills, or so I'm told, include drawing, playing the piano by ear and learning languages at a rapid rate. However, my drawing skills are subjective; I've had some people tell me I'm mediocre and other people tell me I'm awesome. I'm tempted to post pics to get your guys' opinions on it. And I can only play the piano with one hand, two hands are too much for my brain to handle. But I'm not going to decry my abilities to learn a language; when I bought the My Japanese Coach video game, I memorized the entire hiragana alphabet in about two days.

My main special interest right now is Japan. I've been in love with the Land of the Rising Sun since I was a small child, but up until now I've downplayed it out of fear of being called "wapanese". But, I honestly don't think I'm like the stereotypical "wapanese", because I don't use my enjoyment of Japanese culture/language/anime as a means of acting like a dork in public or online. And when I go to Japan in the future, I know what steps to take to get there and what kind of behavior and use of language is or isn't socially acceptable.

Sorry if that sounded elitist; I didn't intend to come off as such.

Anyway, my other special interest is anime, which ties in with my love of Japan in general. This is something I'm kind of embarrassed about, because simply stating my enjoyment of anime has caused me to be called a "Japanese wannabe" and a "Japan dork". -_- My absolute favorites for the past two years have been Hellsing and Trinity Blood. There's just something about the characters that makes me love them almost as if they were old friends. I'm also beginning to enjoy anime that include maids or butlers as their main characters. I blame Hellsing's Walter on this, haha. Anyway, maid/butler anime I enjoy are Kuroshitsuji and Kamen no Maid Guy. I plan on watching Hayate The Combat Butler whenever it comes out on DVD (it's licensed, so I can't watch it online anymore).

Sorry for the super long post, but like any aspie, I just can't seem to be quiet about whatever's tickling my fancy. haha



OddDuckNash99
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19 Mar 2009, 1:18 pm

ephemerella wrote:
That is amazing. I bet with your visual memory and language gifts, you are probably also mathematical, too if taught a specialized subject like topology or advanced algebra.

Actually, no. I have severe visual-spatial deficits and I'm terrible at all math but algebra, because I have Nonverbal Learning Disorder. It is indeed odd how I have such a visual memory but am terrible at visual-spatial tasks. :lol:
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Helinger: Now, what do you see, John?
Nash: Recognition...
Helinger: Well, try seeing accomplishment!
Nash: Is there a difference?