Share your Talents!

[Arocalypse]

Being sentient

[One-Eyed Jack]

I can't be good at anything.

[sarcastic kitten]

uuuuuh....so many possibilities

• I'm good at being sarcastic in the most inapproriate situations.
• I'm good at being clumsy and a airhead, like it's not even a talent anymore it's a gift from Mother Nature
• I'm weirdly good at imitating the goat's voice and mannerism in the film Willow (super spcific I know, but apparently it's a pretty great imitation)
• And I'm pretty good at memorizing random and completely pointless facts while forgetting about relatives' names or birthday

But more seriously, I can say I was pretty good at playing the piano (being at the conservatoire of Music since I was 7, helped a lot) and I'm rusty now,  but I Think I could learn it again without so much difficulty

[James White]

 

Arocalypse has developed an artificial intelligence? Well I, for one, welcome our new ice cream distributing overlords. 

 

On 2/17/2017 at 9:20 PM, LunarSeas said:

I can also ruin dinner with bizarre facts about ancient societies and myths. 

@LunarSeas 

That's the BEST kind of dinner.

What civilization is your favorite to talk about?

[Blackscarlet666]

I don't really have any recordings but I play 9 instruments. Acoustic and Electric guitar, Bass guitar, ukulele, clarinet, bassoon, drums, tuba, bass clarinet, and piano. I also sing (mainly jazz or rock, but I can do anything). 

[James White]

I've never studied more than two hours for any test in my life, but my GPA is 3.75 in my third year of college

 

I blame the wizard that cursed me at birth to be a huge nerd

 

[Zema]

37 minutes ago, James said:

I've never studied more than two hours for any test in my life, but my GPA is 3.75 in my third year of college

 

I blame the wizard that cursed me at birth to be a huge nerd

 

1) What are you studying?  2) How much are the exams worth? 3) How long are they? 

[James White]

15 minutes ago, Zemaddog said:

1) What are you studying?  2) How much are the exams worth? 3) How long are they? 

I study ecology and evolutionary biology. That covers genetics, anatomy, chemistry, and some math+physics too. Exams at my university are generally worth about 70% of the class grade and take between 45 and 75 minutes.  The real reason I don't study is because I have ADHD and genetic resistance to all of the medications used to treat it. Luckily, I enjoy science so I don't lose my attention in class. 

[DeltaAro]

On 7/17/2017 at 8:14 AM, James said:

I've never studied more than two hours for any test in my life, but my GPA is 3.75 in my third year of college

Oh, I managed to study 100 h in a week for an exam. Since I also have to sleep, eat, buy groceries and need time for basic hygiene. that is probably the limit.

On 7/17/2017 at 9:01 AM, James said:

The real reason I don't study is because I have ADHD and genetic resistance to all of the medications used to treat it. Luckily, I enjoy science so I don't lose my attention in class. 

Well, I am different. I set the record for the lowest lecture attendance of the students who did graduate with me. The few times I visited a lecture, I usually started to daydream like if I was a member of a strange cult who believed printers and photocopiers are tools of Satan. It was like the tortures of Tantalus, I had the lecture notes of the prof (which he basically just copied to the blackboard) in the reach of my hands ... if I could just ... grab them, go home and sleep.

 

I also did all the problem sets alone. This was good for bantering, I gave solutions and got lecture notes in return.

 

off-topic: I wonder why for majors like mathematics in the US they can seriously charge students 10,000 $ a year (and that's cheap). I didn't pay anything, but I doubt I cost the taxpayer even remotely as much. More like 5,000 € for the whole 4.5 year degree.

very boring stuff ahead

Spoiler

 

What I got from my university:

• I did maybe 300 problem sets which had to be corrected. This was the most valuable service. But this is paid at (practically) minimum wage and though I have no idea how much time it took to correct a problem set, I would assume it only rarely took more than an hour.

• When I wrote my thesis in sum the professor talked to me about five hours.

• Free journal access. I don't know how good Deepdyve and the likes are, they cost around 50 € / month.

• Books in the library, rarely used. I just bought them. Too much of a hassle.

• Corrections of perhaps 30 exams.

• Two sets of 4 important oral examinations, after 2nd year and for finishing the degree. In sum perhaps 6 hours of face-to-face time with profs.

• I guess the profs did some work for the seminars, but it can't be that much. Once the prof did even go away in the midst of my presentation and the assistant had to do the grading.

• There was software and computers, yeah. But they didn't even let me use their precious mainframe. I had to buy a 2,500 € workstation which could handle the calculations for my thesis.

So in sum I would be surprised if I got more than 5,000 € of value. Since it was free, that's nice of course. But if studying math in the US is not a mind-blowingly better experience, US math degrees seem like a massive rip-off to me.

 

 

[SoulWolf]

Talents, eh? What's the difference between a talent and a skill?

 

Here's a list of things I can do semi-decently:

• Drawing
• Making music
• Photography
• Martial arts
• Keeping my balance in really weird positions
• Befriending animals
• Website development/designing/SEO/whatever I need to figure out to make it work the way I want
• Rollerblading
• Getting gut feelings about things that turn out to be true (that's always fun for freaking people out, lol)

[Momo]

2 hours ago, SoulWolf said:

• Befriending animals

I feel like this should have a link to photos of all the animals you befriended 

[James White]

6 hours ago, Momo said:

I feel like this should have a link to photos of all the animals you befriended 

I second the motion

[SoulWolf]

21 hours ago, Momo said:

I feel like this should have a link to photos of all the animals you befriended 

ALL of them? I didn't even take photos of all of them... that'll be too much work.

[Apathetic Echidna]

On 17/07/2017 at 4:31 PM, James said:

Exams at my university are generally worth about 70% of the class grade and take between 45 and 75 minutes.  

Whaaaaa? all the exams I did were 90 to 180 minutes! well except that one geology one where you get handed a box of rock and told 'Identify'. Though with all the exams you could leave when you finished, though not in the last half hour. 

 

I guess I am good at remembering random facts, but I don't know I remember them until I am having a conversation and suddenly my brain can fill with titbits of information. Though if I am not yet comfortable with a person I can and will talk about the weather for several hours. 

[DeltaAro]

1 hour ago, Apathetic Echidna said:

Whaaaaa? all the exams I did were 90 to 180 minutes!

Yeah, James had it far too easy!

 

My exams were also in your range. I usually finished far sooner but of course used all the time left, till the last second, for double-checking. But there was one girl who also usually finished far earlier and then handed in her exam and went home. And I always thought: “What the hell is wrong with you?? Are you insane? You're just giving away the most precious time?” Seriously, some people…

1 hour ago, Apathetic Echidna said:

Though with all the exams you could leave when you finished, though not in the last half hour.

To even consider this… And what are you doing with the time you saved? Post on Arocalypse?

[Momo]

6 hours ago, Apathetic Echidna said:

Though if I am not yet comfortable with a person I can and will talk about the weather for several hours. 

I've always found small-talk like this incredibly hard to maintain.

 

5 hours ago, DeltaV said:

Yeah, James had it far too easy!

 

My exams were also in your range. I usually finished far sooner but of course used all the time left, till the last second, for double-checking. But there was one girl who also usually finished far earlier and then handed in her exam and went home. And I always thought: “What the hell is wrong with you?? Are you insane? You're just giving away the most precious time?” Seriously, some people…

 

To even consider this… And what are you doing with the time you saved? Post on Arocalypse?

Video games, mostly. I did this on all my math exams because I finished them in half the time alotted, even allowing for double checking.

[DeltaAro]

11 hours ago, Momo said:

Video games, mostly. I did this on all my math exams because I finished them in half the time alotted, even allowing for double checking.

I checked until the last second. Triple-check, quadruple-check, …

[James White]

On 8/25/2017 at 8:33 AM, Apathetic Echidna said:

Whaaaaa? all the exams I did were 90 to 180 minutes!

 

At my university, classes are sometimes crammed into an hour, so the professors have to accommodate by making midterm tests more frequent. The actual final exams are still at least two hours each. Except for History because my professor made the whole test matching with one essay. 

 

Other talent: I am proficient in the historically accurate use of the Scottish basket-hilted broadsword. 

[RASHAAN]

On 7/19/2017 at 3:46 PM, SoulWolf said:

Talents, eh? What's the difference between a talent and a skill?

 

Here's a list of things I can do semi-decently:

• Drawing
• Making music
• Photography
• Martial arts
• Keeping my balance in really weird positions
• Befriending animals
• Website development/designing/SEO/whatever I need to figure out to make it work the way I want
• Rollerblading
• Getting gut feelings about things that turn out to be true (that's always fun for freaking people out, lol)

Do you have a SoundCloud or music outlet where I can check your music? ?

[SoulWolf]

On 27 August 2017 at 9:44 PM, RASHAAN said:

Do you have a SoundCloud or music outlet where I can check your music? ?

Yup, I linked to it in my post you quoted.

[starstuff]

On 2/18/2017 at 0:20 AM, LunarSeas said:

I can also ruin dinner with bizarre facts about ancient societies and myths. 

Those sound like the best kind of dinners...

[Apathetic Echidna]

On 26/08/2017 at 7:39 AM, Momo said:

I've always found small-talk like this incredibly hard to maintain.

I said talking about the weather, not small talk. There is a subtle difference. All topics and questions lead back to weather, and the talk is not always small and impersonal. I'm not very good at small talk either, especially rambling on about that one time the drought was so bad I went swimming in the dam and discovered eels, there were more eels than water.

 

@DeltaV I generally stayed for most of the time of my exams, but there was once this english exam....we had to write a 5 page essay on a question, we got the question 24 hours in advance to sort out references and such. I wrote a draft essay, checked, edited, got it beta read, re-drafted, then I wrote it out 9 times to memorise and get muscle memory, I even used direct quotes and had a reference list. I finished that thing in 40 minutes then walked out 2 hours early. That time was then spent eating a fancy breakfast at one of my fav resturants because a 8am start is too early for an english exam.  

[Karous]

I make conlangs

[aro_elise]

i can theoretically label any country on a blank world map and name its capital.  as in, i've learned them all, it's just whether i can remember the one in question at the time, which i usually can.  friends have spent hours verbally testing me on capitals.  and of course i practice plenty.  it's a blast for me.

[Guest]

I'm a tarot reader.