SANTA CHAT: A Talent or Story You Have That Surprises People is...

[Santa Claus]

What's a talent you have that often surprises people when they find out? Or, alternatively, what's a story you have that always surprises people to hear it?

Or feel free to share both! The idea is to get to know each other after all.

Merry Christmas!

#R2RSecretSanta

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I'm a hunter and surprise a lot of other hunters at my ability to pick animals out over long distances with just my eyes.

 

[Kathy Floyd]

I know sign language

 

[SlasherZ]

I'm a super generic white guy, but I know Mandarin (Chinese). Always a fun surprise for the wait staff when we go out to eat Chinese

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I'm a super generic white guy, but I know Mandarin (Chinese). Always a fun surprise for the wait staff when we go out to eat Chinese

There's a you tube guy that videos him self doing this. I love seeing the reaction on people.

 

[SlasherZ]

There's a you tube guy that videos him self doing this. I love seeing the reaction on people.

Oh yeah! XiaomaNYC or something. His videos are pretty neat to watch! I usually learn a new slang word or two when I do watch him.

Whats even funnier is my girlfriend is Japanese/korean, so we'll argue on where the person is from and if they don't answer to my Chinese and just look confused she busts out the Japanese or Korean! All the bases covered in our house haha

 

[Daniel@R2R]

My surprising talents:

I'm also very white but speak Spanish. It also usually surprises people when I play an instrument (guitar and piano). Those aren't super rare talents, but they still surprise people. Haha!



My surprising story:

My story that always shocks people is that when I was 19 in college, I dropped a car on my head (yes...I know...that explains a lot...) while working under it. I was changing a power steering pump and the car rolled backward off the scissor jack that was supporting it (and...yes...I knew better than to work on a car supported by a scissor jack...but I was 19...). It was literally my head holding up the car where the 4th wheel should have been. I had a friend with me who had never worked on a car at all, and I had to tell him (while the car was still on my head) how to lower the scissor jack, where to put it, and how to jack the car back up off of my head. It was a wild experience. Went to the hospital. Had cracked ribs (I apparently cracked them when trying to get the car off of my head) and a pretty solid concussion, but I'm blessed to have survived. I did have to relearn/recover how to read over the months after that.

The funny irony is that it was April 13, 2001. That was FRIDAY the 13th (it's a bit bad luck when a car falls on your head), and also GOOD FRIDAY that year (miraculously, the car didn't kill me when it fell on me). And btw, I'm not superstitious at all, so I don't really put stock in this but it's a funny detail. I do believe God protected me from something that should have killed me. I will say that when I went to church on Easter Sunday, I was visiting a church and the pastor told me how good it was to have me visiting with them...I thought, "yeah, you know, it's good to be able to be anywhere today!"

 

[SlasherZ]

Holy moly, that's a story if I ever heard one! Thanks for sharing Dan, glad you're still here to share it!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Holy moly, that's a story if I ever heard one! Thanks for sharing Dan, glad you're still here to share it!

Thanks! Me too!

 

[bakbay]

Sorry to surprise you all but I have zero talent! That's why I got into reefing and just watch the fishies swim back & forth... Perhaps my surprising talent is observing? hmmm...

Happy Holidays!

 

[CmMagenta]

I used to be big into music production and singing. I released several albums, collaborated with countless musicians, traveled the world, wrote music for tv, movies, games, other singers and was a guest singer for other bands. Slowed down several years ago because it’s more fun being a mom. I’m 40 now, 2 kids and sing along to “hop hop the owl” with my toddler. That’s enough for me. I rather stay home, make homemade meals and play with my fish tanks. Most people have no idea, but it’s not something that comes up often unless a fan recognizes me. My music is a part of who I am. It’s what in my head translated into drums, piano and any other sound I shove into the track. It’s like sharing my soul. I rather just share it anonymously on iTunes or wherever, for people to hopefully enjoy it for what it is. I use my real name everywhere else and don’t what to shove it down peoples throat. My son has started using my music studio to write his own stuff and his friends parents are like “what the heck, I’ve know you for years, how did this not come up before now?! “ Plus people have unrealistic ideas of what “rock stars” are. Do you know how to end up with a million dollars as a musician?? Start with 2 million. We get 1/6 of a penny per radio pay. That 6 plays to get one penny. I’m rolling in the copper poisoning.

 

[CmMagenta]

Sorry to surprise you all but I have zero talent! That's why I got into reefing and just watch the fishies swim back & forth... Perhaps my surprising talent is observing? hmmm...

Happy Holidays!

You’d be surprised how many people can’t keep fish alive. You can’t say you don’t have a talent when it comes to tanks (unless they are all dead as I write this)

 

[Gumbies R Us]

People are usually shocked when I tell them I rock climb. I get asked questions all the time from friends and family about how dangerous it is or how hard it is, and I usually say "in a gym it's not that dangerous, unless your partner isn't paying attention".

 

[Reefer Matt]

I fix stuff. Also a natural artist in general. That hand-eye coordination thing. But nothing remarkable.

 

[jsker]

Amateur cat herder

 

[Reefer_kano]

Due to my size and look ppl always thing I'm into motorcycles and cars or that I ride with some type of gang smh lol
So ppl always get quite surprised when I tell them I'm more into animals, aquariums lol

Also ppl get quite surprised when I speak Spanish or Portuguese and or when they find out I'm Spanish
Because I look just like a biker white guy lol

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Hi my name is Maggie, I'm a mom of 4 and I can restore your old muscle car in the back yard. Or fix your grocery getter fender bender. Started learning auto body and repair in 2005.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

So story time now that I'm off work.

It was the first of August and my hunting partner was getting the horses exercised for an upcoming high mountain deer hunt. He came across some bear scat on some old logging roads near his house. Now this area is a tree farm located close to a very populated area but legal for hunting. Many cyclists will use the main trails for mountain biking. He kept coming back each week and the scatt on the trail kept growing in number and it was large. It was a trail that was over grown with brush and there was a large clear cut over grown with black berry bushes, the food source. On opening day we saw nothing, next day nothing. On the third day we were smelling pretty bad as we were camping up there with horses, anybody who has done this know your pretty smelly at this point. There were three of us and two of us took one way around while the other went the other way and the idea was to cercle around a 2 or 3 mile cercle. The wind was at our backs and my partner and I decided we could be smell ahead of us and would serve to push the bear to our third person as he had the wind in his favor. We got to where the berry patch was and we were even talking to each other figuring we had no chance, when the bush to my side started to move. We looked at each other and thought it was a deer. I parted the bush and stuck my head in and could hear the bear huffing at me. Now I’m talking 4 feet max from my head. I pulled my head back jacket a round in the old odd-6 and moved to the rt side of the bush, where the very large bear circled around and was coming up the hill at me at a fast pace and suddenly turned after the charge and ran down hill. I was able to just watch him, in my head this was all slow motion and took a life time to happen. He ended up being a 6 and 1/2 foot 500-600 pound bear. My partner was angered because not only did I get this bear but exactly one year to the day I harvested a black bear in his favorite hunting spot.



True Story

 

[SlasherZ]

Sorry to surprise you all but I have zero talent! That's why I got into reefing and just watch the fishies swim back & forth... Perhaps my surprising talent is observing? hmmm...

Happy Holidays!

It takes talent to recreate a little piece of the ocean in your home! Most people aren't gonna know anything about the water chemistry you know I'm sure!

 

[SlasherZ]

So story time now that I'm off work.

It was the first of August and my hunting partner was getting the horses exercised for an upcoming high mountain deer hunt. He came across some bear scat on some old logging roads near his house. Now this area is a tree farm located close to a very populated area but legal for hunting. Many cyclists will use the main trails for mountain biking. He kept coming back each week and the scatt on the trail kept growing in number and it was large. It was a trail that was over grown with brush and there was a large clear cut over grown with black berry bushes, the food source. On opening day we saw nothing, next day nothing. On the third day we were smelling pretty bad as we were camping up there with horses, anybody who has done this know your pretty smelly at this point. There were three of us and two of us took one way around while the other went the other way and the idea was to cercle around a 2 or 3 mile cercle. The wind was at our backs and my partner and I decided we could be smell ahead of us and would serve to push the bear to our third person as he had the wind in his favor. We got to where the berry patch was and we were even talking to each other figuring we had no chance, when the bush to my side started to move. We looked at each other and thought it was a deer. I parted the bush and stuck my head in and could hear the bear huffing at me. Now I’m talking 4 feet max from my head. I pulled my head back jacket a round in the old odd-6 and moved to the rt side of the bush, where the very large bear circled around and was coming up the hill at me at a fast pace and suddenly turned after the charge and ran down hill. I was able to just watch him, in my head this was all slow motion and took a life time to happen. He ended up being a 6 and 1/2 foot 500-600 pound bear. My partner was angered because not only did I get this bear but exactly one year to the day I harvested a black bear in his favorite hunting spot.



True Story

That's crazy! Serious adrenaline rush just reading! Thanks for sharing