I did it, can You?

[timejim]

If I did something, does that mean you can too? Or can you do something that no one else can do or has tried to do? Let's see, tell us what you did or can do that is special or unique. Let's see what talents are out there.

Here's what I did:

From the start of my very first flying lesson until I had my Private Pilot's license, year 1962, was exactly 48 days.

[Andy]

I can lick my elbow.

[Zero]

I can lick my own nose.

[Lonewolf]

I would tell you what I can lick, but it'd only make you feel ill [6)]

[Monique]

I grew my hair long, down 'till my waist, will you? [:D]

[Sting]

I can recite the English alphabet forwards AND backwards after downing 7 bottles of Heineken.

I can also work University-level Physics while drunk but I guess anybody can do that... [:(]

I can impersonate a good percentage of the professors at my college with amazing accuracy (I can do that both drunk and sober).

[Sting]

I grew my hair long, down 'till my waist, will you?

Talk to my mother. She's against me having long hair and facial hair.

Even though I have a beard now and my hair is growing pretty long, it's hard to get by my mother.

[Lonewolf]

Talk to my mother. She's against me having long hair and facial hair.

I can sympathise. I managed to grow a 3 inch long beard over the summer. It didn't go down well with many people. Some just have no taste.

I keep trying for long hair, but I get sick of the mullet stage inbetween short and long hair. Any hair tips?

[enigma]

Originally posted by Lonewolf
I keep trying for long hair, but I get sick of the mullet stage inbetween short and long hair. Any hair tips?

Yeah, that's the worst.

I've got shoulder length hair which I've had since high school. I am sick of it, but I'm afraid to cut it off because growing it out is so nasty (in case I change my mind).

What I did in high school was wear a baseball cap. All the time.

[Ivan Seeking]

One of my proudest moments in college was not in physics [though there were one or two] but in a political science class. While handing out our newly graded term papers, 1/2 the grade for the class, and then after asking who I was, and then announcing that I had the top grade in the class, the professor announced to everyone that I was scary. Funny, my mother used to say that. [:D]


Edit: OK, mom didn't really say that... I think she used other words that the PF editer wouldn't allow. [8)]

[KLscilevothma]

I can eat, do homework, talk on a phone and get on to the internet at the same time!

[zoobyshoe]

I can sing the following song vivace:

I am the very model of a modern Major General,
I've information ve-ge-ta-ble, animal, and mineral,
I know the Kings of England; I can quote the fights historical,
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order catagorical.

I am very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomiel theorem I am teaming with alot of news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypoteneuse.

And I can write a washing bill in Babylonic Cuneiform,
And tell you every detail of Caratucus' uniform,
In short; in matters veg-e-ta-ble, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major General.

etc....

[one_raven]

Originally posted by zoobyshoe
I can sing the following song vivace:

I am the very model of a modern Major General,
etc....

So can Side-Show Bob.
What else you got?[6)]

[zoobyshoe]

Originally posted by one_raven
So can Side-Show Bob.
What else you got?[6)]
Your boats not even in the water and you're accusing me of sandbagging?

[one_raven]

Originally posted by zoobyshoe
Your boats not even in the water and you're accusing me of sandbagging?

Why deprive someone with no unique talents of his own the hollow joy of bringing down the achievements of those more talented than he?
[:((]

[zoobyshoe]

Originally posted by one_raven
Why deprive someone with no unique talents of his own the hollow joy of bringing down the achievements of those more talented than he?
[:((]
I won't. Instead I will offer you this song to use as the description of your talent:


If you listen very carefully, I'll tell you what I am.
I'm a genuine philanthropist,
all other kinds are sham.
Each little fault of temper,
and each social defect
In my erring fellow creatures
I endeavor to correct.

To all their little weaknesses I open peoples eyes,
And little plans to snub the self sufficient I devise,
I love my fellow creatures,
I do all the good I can,
Yet everybody says I'm such a disagreeable man.

And I can't think why!

etc....

[Adam]

I grew up on a farm, no other kids my age around, only my brothers. My brothers and I used to make weapons. Staff, bow, crossbow, sling, sligshot. We'd run around in the bush having war games, and fight with each other. Many bruises.

I could hit a chicken with my sling stones at a hundred yards. Yeah, it's mean, but I was just a little kid.

[one_raven]

Originally posted by zoobyshoe
I won't. Instead I will offer you this song to use as the description of your talent:
Actually, that is pretty accurate.

I am even planning to write a book telling everybody about thier faults and short comings and providing convincing explanations why.
(to be fair, the last chapter is going to be aimed at me.)

I guess that's my unique talent.
The ability to aim the probe of my excruciatingly high standards and the judgemental opinions & constructive criticisms* that inevitably follow at myself objectively.


*Aren't all criticisms constructive in thier own right?

[recon]

I can lodge my thumb at the back of my hand at a 90 degree angle. Not really a crowning achievement, but only two other people I know can do it.

I am also proud of the fact that I scored 7 out of 10 possible points for homework during the previous school term despite not having done ANY homework at all. :)

[Adam]

Originally posted by recon

I am also proud of the fact that I scored 7 out of 10 possible points for homework during the previous school term despite not having done ANY homework at all. :)
Now that is talent.

[Monique]

Originally posted by Ivan Seeking
One of my proudest moments in college was not in physics [though there were one or two] but in a political science class. While handing out our newly graded term papers, 1/2 the grade for the class, and then after asking who I was, and then announcing that I had the top grade in the class, the professor announced to everyone that I was scary. [8)] Isn't there always someone with a top grade? A dubious term, everyone got a C- and you a C? [6)]

I my physics highschool class I once received a short tutor by the teacher when I had missed the first hour of class (had to visit the dentist). At the end he kindly told me I should ask more questions in class, I was too quiet.

At the exam a few weeks later I got full score, that should've teached him!

[Monique]

I had full score at my college level Metabolism exam (the hardest course of all). I did it, can you?

Actually, I was one of the 10% that actually passed it (yes, it IS a hard course).

[recon]

Since we are on the subject, I probably should mention that I don't attend Calculus class (consequently not doing any homework) and yet still managed to score 100% on the final test, i.e. way higher than anyone else in the class (the 2nd highest score came in at 82% and subsequent scores were in the low 70's). More than half the class failed and one person pulled an amazingly low 6%.

Most of the people in my class learning Calculus are around 15 years old, and I think that they are a little too mathematically inexperienced to learn Calculus even though they are considered by the school to be among the mathematical elite (we were all selected based on our performance on a maths test all of us had to take at 14). At what age do people start learning Calculus in your country? Note that by people, I mean ordinary people because I know that there are plenty of you smart asses around here.

[Monique]

What is calculus? 1+1=2? Probably somewhere in primary school :P

[Monique]

Originally posted by Monique
I had full score at my college level Metabolism exam (the hardest course of all). I did it, can you?

Actually, I was one of the 10% that actually passed it (yes, it IS a hard course). Actually, my teacher wasn't too happy with me, I think he thought I cheated in some way, WHICH I didn't :)

[Njorl]

I solved the "Albatross soup" riddle in less than a mintue.

Njorl

[KLscilevothma]

originally posted by recon
At what age do people start learning Calculus in your country? In Hong Kong, at about 15 years old, we have to choose whether we'll pursue our studies in science stream or arts stream. If you want to be in the science stream, you'll have to learn calculus in form 4 and form 5 (grade 10-11). If you are a science student but you really hate math when you're in forms 4 and 5, you can choose to be in "biology group" when promoted to form 6 and form 7 in which you can choose not to study pure math.

[Monique]

Is alpha and beta type math a mainstream distinction?

[KLscilevothma]

Originally posted by Monique
Is alpha and beta type math a mainstream distinction?
Um..I'm not sure what you mean by alpha and beta type math.

[Dimitri Terryn]

It's Dutch lingo. Alpha is arts and Beta is science.

[Monique]

Originally posted by Dimitri Terryn
It's Dutch lingo. Alpha is arts and Beta is science. ah, so it isn't main stream? [6)] yeah, so the alpha math is more focussed for people going into economics and stuff, while beta math is more for the scientists.

[KLscilevothma]

Originally posted by Monique
Is alpha and beta type math a mainstream distinction?
I understand what alpha and beta type math are now, can ya ? [6)]
Here, arts students have to study math while science students have to study both math and additional math. It is additional math which teaches us calculus.
the alpha math is more focussed for people going into economics and stuff, while beta math is more for the scientists. Yep, beta math is for science students while alpha math is for arts students.

Ok, back to the topic of this thread. [:)]

One of my proudest things is I've never failed in any tests and exams in my life, not a single one, while non of my classmates has this "clean record". I remember when I was in form 5, we were taught integration. In the few integration tests, only a few classmates survived and got a pass grade in every integration test while I got full mark nearly every time. I even got bonus marks for optional questions, which were harder. So I scored something like 34/30 or 32/30. [6)]

In fact the reason why I did so well in integration at that time is that I had already taught myself integration before my teacher taught us.

[Ivan Seeking]

Originally posted by Monique
Isn't there always someone with a top grade? A dubious term, everyone got a C- and you a C? [6)]

[:D]

Uh oh, someone finally figured me out.

[Monique]

Originally posted by timejim
If I did something, does that mean you can too? Or can you do something that no one else can do or has tried to do? Let's see, tell us what you did or can do that is special or unique. Let's see what talents are out there. I GOT IT! Finally something worth timejim's question [8)]

As 18 yr olds most people go on beach vacations, I went into the Italian Alps (the Dolomites) for an adventure.. One of the excursions was making our way down a river which had cut its way through the mountain. Wetsuit on, helmet on, knee and arm protectors and a harness for the repelling.

It started out easy, dip yourself under in the melting water of the mountain: *COLD*! We started walking through the river, just a foot deep: this is easy, I thought. Then it started to get narrower, the stream faster and the water deeper, the mountain was rising on our sides. Soon we were managing our ways over rocks, swimming through canyons etc.

Oh, did I mention that a week earlier a group of Swiss people had died on a similar exurcion not far from where we were, when the water suddenly rose due to a rainstorm? (this was back in '99) Yes, you must've heard that story.

Ok, so I was swimming my way through canyons and gorges.. long story short: I repelled my way down waterfalls, jumped off clifs into caves, slides my way down natural slides into caves, all that was on my mind was to get out of there: it was more demanding than I had thought.

So a few hours later we come to this huge cave with an opening in the wall, nothing but sky in that opening. "This will be the end of the adventure", they said. Actually it was the beginning of an adventure.

Down behind that opening in the cave was a 50m (165 foot) drop, down which the waterfall made its way down, and we soon to follow. Already very cold and tired, I was picked second to go. I still can't imagine that I made it down in a controlled manner.. in my mind I accidentally fell down that cliff over a hundred times :S

With my light stature I had to walk my way up to the opening through the stream without any safety rope, up to the person who would secure me. For her to secure me, I had to stand up and thus abandon all my safety grips, since all there was to hold on there was.. nothing. Finally I was secured to the line that goes down the waterfall.. what a security.. so at that time I was on my own.. first you stand upright, since that is where the line is, and start moving to the edge (which isn't an edge, since it is round), which was very slippery due to the algue (and I was wearing shoes without a profile).. the trick at that point is to get out of the stream of water, since the force will sweep you off your feet, so I had to move to the side, not an easy thing when you are just holding on to a rope on a slippery slope 50 m above the ground, trying to move against gravity.. somehow I managed and started making my way down, at some point you are forced back into the stream, ofcourse I lost my footing and couldn't get it back, so for the rest of the trip had a waterfall coming down on my helmet (I can tell you by experience, it comes down harder when it falls longer) so I had to create my pocket of air by tilting the head, how claustrophobic.. finally the force of the waterfall was too great, I looked down, put my feet against the wall, pushed, let go of the rope and flew down the last few meters :)

So: I made it down 50m (165ft) through a waterfall after a long canyoning adventure, can you?

[Monique]

Actually a picture to go with it :) there is an instructor standing in the opening, and someone is coming down.

[Tsu]

Originally posted by Monique
Actually a picture to go with it :) there is an instructor standing in the opening, and someone is coming down.

YIKES, Monique! You've got some serious ovarian fortitude goin' on there!!! (The more genteel expression of female 'balls'.) [t)] [6)]
Those caves alone would do me in! I do not like caves. No I don't. Not one little bit. They don't creep me out as bad as leather pants on a nerd, but they DO creep me out! [6)]

[Monique]

Yeah, the caves were fun.. at one point we had to lower ourselves, one by one, down a small waterfall that led into a pit in the mountain. There was an instructor there on the bottom of the pit, and the only way out (or in) was through the hole in the ground.

I had to sit down in the stream, while the instructor was holding the harness in the back, my arms crossed and my chin facing the chest.

He let go and *whoosh* down I went along the slope, through the hole, down another bumpy slope, pushed forth by the water, zero gravity all of a sudden! A huge drop all of a sudden, ofcourse they didn't tell you to hold the nose closed, so I got my ears cleaned by the water that entered through my nose :P

Disoriented, gasping for air, undoing the ears and nose for water, I look around and see the group of people chearfully waving at me hanging from the walls to come and join them. Apparently I ended up in a cave, so swum to the wall and tried to climb up to find rescue from the water.

After that I enjoyed all the other disoriented people flying down into the cave :)

[KLscilevothma]

Once I made a cock crowed at 8.30pm! [!:)] [8)]

Well, can you ? [6)]

[Sting]

I can sympathise. I managed to grow a 3 inch long beard over the summer. It didn't go down well with many people. Some just have no taste.

Yes, I understand exactly what you mean. Sometimes it can work out as an advantage. I worked as a tour guide for this company in Chattanooga, TN and during the Spring of 2002, I had a really thick goatee and my hair was pretty long. When people would make side conversation with me and inquire about what I was doing in school, I would tell them that I was working on my Ph.D in Physics (which is a semi-truth. I am working for one I just didn't tell them where I'm at in the process [:)]). They would be like: "wow, I was just discussing with my husband how intellectual you look" and pretty soon she spread the news to rest of the tour group (consisting of roughly 50 people) that their tour guide was a Ph.D student in Physics. At the end of the tour, people were reaching into their pockets and handing me a fistful of dollar bills saying "son, we know you won't need this but it's great to see a young man with focus. Good luck son!"

I think the total in tips that individual tour was roughly $75. Not bad for a beared, long-haired "hippee."

[Sting]

I keep trying for long hair, but I get sick of the mullet stage inbetween short and long hair. Any hair tips?

Yep, don't you hate that? THis is going to sound pathetic but you know that Tom Cruise "I'm growing my hair long" look? I try to get my hair like that. It's popular with the ladies!*

Sometimes I wear a cap or tobbagan (spelling?).

One time I asked a barber to give me a cut that minimized the mullet look. Mathematically, this involved taking the derivatives and finding the critical points so a working knowledge of Calculus would help.

Sometimes I try look at the positive side of the mullet stage by taking advantage of the mullet look for two reasons:
1. I can try to blend in with the general population of NW Georgia
2. I've always wanted to see what an Indian with a mullet looks like.

Of course even with concerns for assimilation and curiosity, mullets are stupid looking so I try to speed up the mullet stage by consuming a lot of protein to speed up the growth.

*Seriously, how come hot-shot celebrities can get away with the mullet look? They are no different from the non celebrity population.

[one_raven]

Originally posted by Sting
*Seriously, how come hot-shot celebrities can get away with the mullet look?

They DON'T!
Who?


By the way, I wore hats every day (for about 1 - 1 1/2 years from buzz-cut day one) until I could fit it all in a pony-tail.
I even wore them to my corporate office job.
In that time I only a neck and ear line trim when I started looking a little too wild, otherwise no cuts at all.

[Evo]

Geeze Monique! You have guts!

Originally posted by Monique
I GOT IT! Finally something worth timejim's question [8)]

As 18 yr olds most people go on beach vacations, I went into the Italian Alps (the Dolomites) for an adventure.. One of the excursions was making our way down a river which had cut its way through the mountain. Wetsuit on, helmet on, knee and arm protectors and a harness for the repelling.

It started out easy, dip yourself under in the melting water of the mountain: *COLD*! We started walking through the river, just a foot deep:
Ok, this is where you would have lost me.[8)] I'm a whimp.

I did blow cheese out of my nose once. I didn't plan to, but I sneezed while swallowing a bite of a cheese sandwich. Does that count?

[Daze]

I can hold my breath for two and a half minutes. Of cousre by the end I look loke this[8)]

[one_raven]

Does this remind anyone else of that scene in "The Breakfast Club" when they were talking about their talents and Claire put her lipstick on with her cleavage?[:D]

[Monique]

Originally posted by one_raven
By the way, I wore hats every day (for about 1 - 1 1/2 years from buzz-cut day one) until I could fit it all in a pony-tail.
I even wore them to my corporate office job.
In that time I only a neck and ear line trim when I started looking a little too wild, otherwise no cuts at all. Ponytails are worse than mullets.. just to let you know [g)] I like long hair though, but when it gets close or past the mullet stage.. a big no no.

[Adrian Baker]

I've ridden motorcycles since I was 14 and have always been pretty quick...
I have wanted to race since an early age, but never managed to get round to it. In 2001 I decided to do it - I was going to go Classic Bike racing. I had a seized rusty heap of a '67 Suzuki 250 in my shed and a plan.
I had NEVER built a race bike before, but decided that I would build my own classic from scratch. I went to races, met people, set up a website (www.t20suzuki.com (http://www.t20suzuki.com) and got going.
I finished it in August 2002, entered my first race at the end of the 2002 season and in 2003 WON the UK Classic Racing Motorcycle Club 250cc twins championship!

As to the thread title, I did it, can you? Well through my website, many people have become inspired to 'finally do it myself' too and next season there should be at least four more guys out there racing in my class against me who were inspired by my site. Cool!

[Lonewolf]

I think the total in tips that individual tour was roughly $75. Not bad for a beared, long-haired "hippee."

Wow, that's pretty cool. My beard tends to make me look more like Satan's spawn though. Perhaps not so charisma enhancing...

I like long hair though, but when it gets close or past the mullet stage.. a big no no.

At least some have taste [;)] Looks like I'm going to have to invest in hats to last the next 18 or so months...

[jb]

if you're younger, you can always pull off the dirty hippy stoner kid look, assuming you never trim anything.

mine's just past that stage, starting to get just a little too long, so i think i'm gonna go dreads shortly...

[Bucephalus]

Let's see....I can dislocate nearly any joint in my body without effort, can get my tongue behind the epiglottis, and can hula-hoop for over an hour.

[phatmonky]

I can hit the ceiling..... I'll let you figure this one out [8)]