What is your sorta-power? (not to be confused with Super Power)

CrackFraggle · Friday at 3:51 PM

The minor ability you have, that others seem to not have? Think "Mystery Men" (go watch it if you haven't). The power that seems innocuous, yet has its place in the annals of such things.

Me? Gift of gab. IRL, it doesn't fully translate to online, I seem to be able to chatter my way into, or out of, myriad situations. This has gained me access to things I shouldn't have had access to, and has gotten me out of potentially hairy situations. It doesn't always work, but I can generally pull off conversation with any rando, and make good my escape.

I like to think everyone has at least one not-quite-super power, even if they don't recognize it. Even you, the current reader. Hence the question. What is your secret skill? Are you really good at bending wire? Maybe you can eat anything? Maybe you befriend every single animal you interact with? Maybe you fix electronic issues simply by being near the instrument? Maybe...well, the maybes are the rub here.

cwbecker · Friday at 3:55 PM

Knowing when someone wants to call me, and heading to use the bathroom 30 seconds before the phone rings.

Defenestrar · Friday at 4:09 PM

Defrosting items in the microwave without overdoing it.

Q · Friday at 4:37 PM

I can make our entire virtual infrastructure stack crash by going on vacation and being unreachable for a few days.

whoisit · Friday at 4:40 PM

To always choose the slowest check lane/self check at the store.

Brought to you by, that coupon expired two weeks ago, I think I have a nickel, and the checkbook of doom.

rtrefz · Friday at 5:31 PM

My internal clock is pretty accurate, usually within 5 minutes of actual time.

A friend of mine has "Happy Fat man" powers. He once was given a 2-day water bus pass when he arrived in Venice. The gifter was flying out and no longer needed the pass and my friend could use it.

beeblebrox · Friday at 5:33 PM

Giving Zero Fucks.

rain shadow · Friday at 5:48 PM

rtrefz said:
My internal clock is pretty accurate, usually within 5 minutes of actual time.

My father had that. What's funny is he wore a watch anyway.

Ardax · Friday at 7:11 PM

rtrefz said:
My internal clock is pretty accurate, usually within 5 minutes of actual time.

Mine normally is, but only after sunset. During the day? "It's, uh... light out."

Other sorta powers I have:

Sitting down right before my wife asks me to do something. Wait, maybe that's her sorta power.
Shearing heads off of screws and bolts. Woe unto anyone who asks me to fix something when hardware stores are closed.

JimCampbell · Friday at 7:14 PM

I can identify a font at fifty yards. Impresses literally no one, but it makes me happy.

Auguste_Fivaz · Friday at 7:33 PM

Untangling - if it is a mess, I can sort it out. My wife brings me her necklaces, and presto, 5 pretty necklaces all ready to get heaped up again, cords, string, I got it.
But don't ask me to clean my work bench.

My wife - knows what day of the week any date is - oh, that's a Tuesday - and she isn't on the spectrum as far as I can tell.

SuperDave · Friday at 7:50 PM

I'm knowing within a degree or two of the temperature of any pool I dip my toe into.

Telwar · Friday at 9:02 PM

If I get up and go to the Metro without thinking about it, the train I need will be coming into the station when I get there.

quarlie · Saturday at 1:47 AM

This has diminished with age, but until age 30 or so, I could smell bell peppers from 50 yards away. But only bell peppers. Not hot peppers.

Shavano · Saturday at 9:19 AM

I can smell when someone has a fever.

swiftdraw · Saturday at 9:39 AM

Miraculously bad maintenance luck. Like, a junk truck ahead of me dropping a cotter pin puller, it getting stuck in my suspension in such a way the pointy end is up against my tire and causes a blow out. Or a bird flying directly into the #3 engine intake in flight, it’s remains clogging the turbine section necessitating an engine change. Upon removing the engine, we find a crack on the truss mount which requires depot level repair on the exposed flightline in Baghdad. Or cutting hay and the cutter bar punches out through the side of the haybine, seizing up the machine and causing even more damage. Or having my aircraft’s navigation system randomly turn on multiple times even though no power was applied…. I can keep going ya know…

wallinbl · Saturday at 9:49 AM

I can put a soccer ball on someone's foot, chest, or head from 30 yards. Can't hit a soccer goal from 5 yards.

Ardax · Saturday at 7:45 PM

wallinbl said:
Can't hit a soccer goal from 5 yards.

Do you have the malady I like to call "shooting like a defender"?

Technarch · Saturday at 8:38 PM

whoisit said:
To always choose the slowest check lane/self check at the store.

Brought to you by, that coupon expired two weeks ago, I think I have a nickel, and the checkbook of doom.

I have the same power, as it happens. Best example was one Christmas when I got in line behind a lady that was buying two items. And then asked for 25 gift cards in varying denominations.

I have the related superpower of attracting indecisive shoppers to park their carts right in front of the item I need to get off the shelf.

Daedalus213 · Saturday at 8:47 PM

I have really good reflexes for totally inconsequential things. Drop a favorite mug? Oh, it's gone, smashed to a thousand pieces. Totally indestructible item slipping off the counter five feet away behind me? Somehow I'm there and have it in my hands.
Once I dropped a microscope slide off a tray and caught it on the cuff of my jeans. I was standing there one-legged while one hand was still holding the tray with the rest of the slides perfectly level and plucked the unbroken slide off the side of my shin and put it back in the tray. The lab tech I was with was just staring in shock. Mind you: the experiment didn't work, so the slides were completely useless. But I felt like a ninja.

Shoutout to a grad school friend, of British origin, who claimed her super power was knowing exactly the right time to start the kettle for when someone needed a cup of tea, even before that person arrived.

Shavano · Saturday at 9:47 PM

Daedalus213 said:
Shoutout to a grad school friend, of British origin, who claimed her super power was knowing exactly the right time to start the kettle for when someone needed a cup of tea, even before that person arrived.

I wonder how that trait evolved.

Bardon · 2024-06-30T00:06:39-0400

I have a chronic lung condition, so I cough quite a lot.

My wife can instantly tell if I'm developing a chest infection, even before I can feel it.

She'll just look at me and say "You've got a chest infection, hit the meds" and she's been right 100% of the time.

Just an added bonus to the wonder that is m'darling!

wallinbl · 2024-06-30T07:28:20-0400

Ardax said:
Do you have the malady I like to call "shooting like a defender"?

It truly needs to be a person. If you just go stand in the back corner of the goal, I can hit you no problem from anywhere in that half. It's not pressure or nerves; it's just that my brain and body are wired up to hit people with the ball and nothing else.

Shavano · 2024-06-30T09:07:58-0400

wallinbl said:
It truly needs to be a person. If you just go stand in the back corner of the goal, I can hit you no problem from anywhere in that half. It's not pressure or nerves; it's just that my brain and body are wired up to hit people with the ball and nothing else.

Have you tried visualizing a teammate in the goal?

GaitherBill · 2024-06-30T09:19:23-0400

Making the obscure movie reference that only one person in a group understands and appreciates.

And that’s all I care about, that one person gets it.

wallinbl · 2024-06-30T11:18:26-0400

Shavano said:
Have you tried visualizing a teammate in the goal?

When I started playing again as an adult, the problem was mostly gone. I can hit anything with a ball now, though at 47, I can't run for anything. If I could have figured that out when i was still young and fast, I'd have been really good.

GaitherBill said:
Making the obscure movie reference that only one person in a group understands and appreciates.

And that’s all I care about, that one person gets it.

75% of what I say is either a song lyric or a movie quote. After 25 years of marriage and me making her watch the movies and listen to the music, my wife catches a lot of them. But, most people don't. I enjoy a good game of doubling down on referencing the same song or movie relentlessly to see how much I can get it into one conversation.

Semi On · 2024-06-30T11:39:57-0400

I can almost always find a parking space right up front, near the entrance of wherever I'm going.

continuum · 2024-06-30T12:09:11-0400

Semi On said:
I can almost always find a parking space right up front, near the entrance of wherever I'm going.

Ah the legendary parking fairy. I wish I had one.

swiftdraw said:
Or a bird flying directly into the #3 engine intake in flight, it’s remains clogging the turbine section necessitating an engine change. Upon removing the engine, we find a crack on the truss mount which requires depot level repair on the exposed flightline in Baghdad.

I might call that good luck, given an engine falling off at altitude might be bad…

I’m still thinking about my pseudo-power…

Xenocrates · 2024-06-30T15:17:25-0400

I do pretty well with mechanical intuition. I can find the problem with equipment quickly, and usually sort it out. Admittedly, it's hardly perfect. I can tell when a cutter is chipped, even a little, but I can't just find the perfect feed rate for it to stop doing that. I can tell when a machine is cutting a taper, but I have to check which direction it goes and how much most of the time. And I can usually determine families of metal through paint.

Shavano · 2024-06-30T16:32:26-0400

Semi On said:
I can almost always find a parking space right up front, near the entrance of wherever I'm going.

But do you use your powers for good?

NervousEnergy · 2024-06-30T18:35:26-0400

Semi On said:
I can almost always find a parking space right up front, near the entrance of wherever I'm going.

90% of the time when I'm driving us somewhere I get great parking, usually out of nowhere. Irritates my wife to no end... she never seems to have any luck with parking spaces. Says I always get "Princess Parking", and it's true.

Auguste_Fivaz · 2024-06-30T20:49:22-0400

Semi On said:
I can almost always find a parking space right up front, near the entrance of wherever I'm going.

Can't claim it as a super-power, but when I owned a Cherry red, 1961 Cadillac Biarritz, it came with a parking spot, a large one. That was one big two door.

What is your sorta-power? (not to be confused with Super Power)

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