Daily discussion post: superpowers

[magnetic_pole]

Folks, what are your superpowers?

Before you protest that you don't have any, let me assure you that you do--you just haven't thought about them that way. My partner R, for example, can always spot an extra space between words in a page of text. On screen, on paper, doesn't matter. She's pretty amazing at catching typos, too. See? Superpowers.

I have the power of not-getting-lost. Drop me off in a completely new city, and I'll navigate with aplomb. An old housemate of mine has a favorite story about the time a long-distance bus dropped the two of us off at the side of the road in a remote part of Greece. The driver definitely knew where we were going, despite our embarrassing lack of language skills---I'd copied down the name of our destination and showed it to him, and he'd nodded and smiled and helped us put our luggage away. When he stopped the bus and gestured furiously for us to get off, I discovered a superpower I didn't even know I had: navigational skills for the win! We were going to a port city, so we just kept walking downhill until we finally met the water, and from there it was easy to see how to get into town.

I've also got the power to smell food that's bit off, but honestly, that's more a curse than a superpower, so best not to dwell on that one.

So, folks, what are *your* superpower? What can you do that your friends and family generally can't?

Comments

[aome]

Thank you!

[liseuse]

This is a superpower I really wish I had. I have the opposite, unfortunately.

[rebeccarobota]

So here's rule of thumb that seems to work for me: "which" always follows a comma.

"My hovercraft is full of eels, which is very inconvenient."
"My hovercraft is full of eels, which I find very troubling."

"My hovercraft is full of eels that I purchased at the market."
"My hovercraft is full of eels that are plotting to overthrow the queen."

As for WHY it works this way, here's a fuller explanation than I can give:
https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/relative-clauses/

But like many grammar rules, it's a totally arbitrary distinction that is mostly found in the US. I think most British writers would be pretty comfortable with the following sentence, even though it breaks the so-called rule:

"My hovercraft is full of eels which I purchased at the market."

[liseuse]

I'm great at spotting typos and awkward grammatical constructions. This is helpful in my work life but can make reading the local paper or signs in shops painful.

I am also great at remembering small details about people. I am very bad at remembering faces or being able to put a face to a name but if I get a name and an incidental detail I can usually remember the person. This is handy but I do have to rein it in because it comes off as a little creepy? And it's less useful at a remove because the intermediary person doesn't necessarily know which small detail my brain glomped on to about the person I met at her party.

[auroracloud]

I also have a bit of a navigation superpower, at least in urban settings. I can sometimes get lost in a forest if it's big enough that you don't come out at the other side very soon. But in cities, I love to just go exploring without a map and discover new places, and I'll usually have a pretty good idea in my head where I am and how to get back where I came from. I find it so much fun! It's one of my favourite things to do in a new place.

Language-learning is another superpower I have. I haven't used it as much in the past 5-10 years as I did earlier. But I learn languages and remember vocabulary really easily, and I'm good at grasping different kinds of grammar etc. It used to be that once I had learned certain basics of a language - enough grammar and vocabulary, let's say to an early intermediate level - I could then just sort of spend time with that language and... sort of absorb more. Like after a certain point, just by exposing myself to texts, songs, conversations etc. I'd be able to intuit what a lot of things mean, figure out word meanings from contexts, get a feel for what different constructions mean and so on. It's rather like how we learn our native languages as children. I've heard you're supposed to lose that ability after childhood, but seems my brain didn't get that memo. (My brain didn't get a lot of memos, but it seems like this was a useful one to miss!) Of course there are mistakes in the process, and sometimes I'd still need to check things out in a dictionary, but mostly it worked. I miss doing that properly... Just haven't had the energy for proper language studies for years now because of RL reasons.

[write_out]

What a fun question! I love R's!

I have the same superpower of navigation! I've always been good with direction and reading maps. Not to say I've never gotten lost, oh I have, but rarely.

[aome]

Thank you for the explanations. Your examples completely cracked me up. :D I do hope, should you ever acquire a hovercraft one day, that it is NOT full of eels. Unless, uh, you want it to be.

[pensnest]

How does he get it all home???

[mithrial]

I think I'm good at styling. Clothes and interiors.
But that's a very subjective thing.

¸,¤°´'`°•.¸♥¸.•°´'`°¤,¸

Others may well look and disagree.

[purpleink]

Well, I did specify that 'he's hopeless at packing neatly into a suitcase'. He can get the items into it just fine--they're just a crumpled mass. :))

[ninetydegrees]

Thank you! Don't think it require any effort on my part but I'll take it :)

This makes for a great anecdote! :)

[ninetydegrees]

"I can do math in my head really quickly"

Well, I'm jealous now ;) Also think I got lazy what with having a phone now. I wasn't even always allowed a calculator during math tests :)

[ninetydegrees]

Would happily do it too :)

[aome]

The irony is that I was in a somewhat advanced math track in school, but I got solid Bs in math for three years straight. I really struggled with some of the concepts but once it stuck, it stuck.

[erika]

I can always find a (free) parking spot. Including in San Francisco right next to a BART station.

[kat_lair]

Ooooh, good one! My superpower is an excellent sense of time. As in, most of the time I can tell the correct time to within to about 20min bracket (often much closer, like) without looking at the clock.

YOUR ICON

[jesse_the_k]

...is perfect!

[jesse_the_k]

I'd honestly pay you hard currency for that course.

Re: YOUR ICON

[aome]

Thank you! (Although I cannot take credit for it - LJ user joking created it, and gave me permission to use it because, as you said, it's perfect.)