I mean, what’s something you can do that people are like, “really? You know how to do that?”

  • @aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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    796 days ago

    I’m a father living in Japan, so any competent display of childcare is still met with shock and confusion.

  • Snot Flickerman
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    6 days ago

    I’m a tall burly cisman so people are always surprised that I know how to sew. I mostly hand-mend my clothes but I made my own pants in high school when I had access to a sewing machine.

    • @Agent641@lemmy.world
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      256 days ago

      Sewing fellas unite!

      I usually make hats and tool wraps, but I mend dresses or alter clothes for friends too.

    • @Rossi199@lemmy.world
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      96 days ago

      Hand-sewing is my “something to occupy my hands while watching tv” hobby. I usually take shirts that I buy at a thrift store and customize them (side panels to make them fit better, add lacy pieces, etc.).

      • spicy pancake
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        106 days ago

        “own a sailboat and have no money” that’s a redundant statement :]

        • @Hadriscus@jlai.lu
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          36 days ago

          I think that would be antithetical, or paradoxical. Redundant means superfluous (=more than is necessary)

          • spicy pancake
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            76 days ago

            See the common conception of boat owners is that they’re rich. And they certainly might start out that way. But a boat is a hole in the ocean into which money is thrown, and thus boat owners quickly become not rich

            • pmk
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              56 days ago

              I’ve heard that boat owners are happy on two days. The day they buy it, and the day they sell it.

  • kelpie_is_trying
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    5 days ago

    I can click my tongue really, really loud. Like a baseball hitting a bat hard. Aside from making people jump, I have yet to find any practical use for this talent.

    • @Rossi199@lemmy.world
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      106 days ago

      I’m learning this about young folk (17 - 40) - that they don’t cook at all, just order delivery food. That is so unbelievably expensive! And unhealthy! I know cooking is a pain in the ass, but it’s like cleaning and paying your bills - just something you gotta do.

      • It infuriates me. People dropping half my weekly food budget on 1 meal just so some underpaid bastard can deliver it to ur door. Then they complain about cost of living. I would spend about a quarter as much as what most people I know do on food per week and I’m eating like a fucking king prime cuts of steek 3 times a week, fresh fruit and veg, the fancy bread, etc. And I’m still winning economically. And we haven’t even got to the health benefits of not eating fake shit full of sugar 7days a week.

      • @RBWells@lemmy.world
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        46 days ago

        Woah. I have some thoughts .

        All my kids can cook, and all their significant others can cook. I never thought of it as a pain though, more a creative outlet, and whoever cooks gets to eat what they want, right? I make what I want, everyone else eats that.

        One of my brothers went to school in New Orleans and told me he just ate out every meal there. And my mom only followed written recipes or made spaghetti, she didn’t like to cook.

        Oh and when I was dating my now husband, one of his kids asked for “mashed potatoes made from potatoes” for his birthday. But he can cook now, his girlfriend has an Italian dad and his standards are high, lol. So both he & the girlfriend are good cooks now.

        My ex, he was the worst cook I have ever known, but learned at work and became a very good cook as an adult. Like exceptionally good, could take the produce that was going to be thrown out and make it into something customers would pay a lot for.

  • Enkrod
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    65 days ago

    I’m a huge guy, 6’8" and immensely heavy, people do a double take when I tell them I can and do windsurf.

  • @RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    I’m able to forget most things my dad says … he has an opinion of everything and will babble for 20 minutes about stuff no one else in the house cares about.

    Also, I can picture a blueprint in 3d.

  • /home/pineapplelover
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    55 days ago

    Compared to most people, I know a fuck ton of keyboard shortcuts making me look like a computer wizard.

    • I’ve been criticized for that, lots of people say “use the mouse, it’s better”. I say “how is it better?”. They say “it just is”.

      The truth is that they can’t do the keyboard shortcuts and are jealous.

      • /home/pineapplelover
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        220 hours ago

        I’m certainly no vim wizard but just knowing a good number of shortcuts really saves time doing precise clicks and selections with your mouse

  • Have an intelligent discussion about theology.

    I may look like your average idiot who is also atheist; but it’s because I have a weird interest in theology and have read so many religious texts and interpretations of most major and some minor religions from around the globe. Some of them have some kick ass stories. Hell, some of them read like straight up sci-fi!

      • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮
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        6 days ago

        Oddly enough, I haven’t actually read Dianetics or any of his other sci-fi prior to going after “the real money in religion” for that matter.

        I kinda get the impression that Scientology is the one cult that using their own doctrine against them wouldn’t quite have the same effect.

    • Enkrod
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      5 days ago

      Uhhh, strong or agnostic atheism? And what’s your take on Buddhism?

  • Captain Aggravated
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    55 days ago

    Somehow, it’s a surprise to people that I’m a competent trumpet player. As if every high school in the state doesn’t have a band class. Fully half of my graduating class in high school were musicians of some kind between chorus, orchestra and band classes. But somehow nobody expects a random dude in his mid-30’s to pick up a trumpet and play a few bars of Ravel’s Bolero.

  • TotallyNotSpez
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    266 days ago

    After loosing some of my hearing and not being able to compose electronic music anymore, I basically retired from being a musician. Picked up drumming about 9 months ago and I’m surprisingly good at it.

    • toomanypancakesOP
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      116 days ago

      Oh hell yeah! I’ve been drumming for 20 years, it’s the best instrument out there. Enjoy, it’s hella fun!

      • TotallyNotSpez
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        66 days ago

        Cheers. It’s really great and lots of fun. Already recording an album for a German band in the studio thanks to some amazing teachers out there.

  • @davidgro@lemmy.world
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    256 days ago

    Roller skating. I’m super unathletic, but skating (including teaching to others) was listed in the profile of a girl who contacted me on a dating site, so after chatting for a bit I suggested that as our first date. She was super patient with me, I had never put on skates before that day, and was in my 30s.

    We’re married now, and I now also teach skating where she does on weekends, sometimes to people who have never tried it before.

  • @philpo@feddit.org
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    55 days ago

    I can put a needle in any body cavity (of someone else). Or a wire or a catheter. Besides the skull and a few more delicate ones I also know how to do that without actually killing the person. Well,at least not “certainly” killing… accidents happen.

  • @Mothra@mander.xyz
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    156 days ago

    Depends on unexpected for who. Most native english speakers seem surprised when they realise I understand “big words” (read: any word with a Latin root) without needing to look up a definition. To me it’s pretty obvious. My native tongue is Spanish. Having an accent doesn’t mean I don’t know anything.

      • @Mothra@mander.xyz
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        65 days ago

        I remember this teacher in particular who was explaining something and said “dissipate”. He paused and picked me out of the group, for no apparent reason, and asked if I knew what dissipate meant. I said yes. So he asked me to explain, which I did, and he looked surprised and said something like “you’re on fire” or similar and carried on.

        That particular example stuck with me because of his condescending tone and for pointing the spotlight to me gratuitously, but I’ve had many, less memorable ones. It’s not the words that I remember after a while, but that they presume I don’t understand the meaning of a word apparently unusual for them. “Melancholy” and “quotidian” come to mind too.

        On the same vein, I also surprise English speakers when reading, writing and understanding scientific names. Not all of course, but many are descriptive of the creature they refer to if you know a latin language. What’s often a mouthful of nonsense for native English speakers can sometimes be meaningful to me.