Your Superhuman abilities

[prjkt]

I am rarely surprised by plot twists in books and movies, because I can usually see them coming, even before my (usually genre-savvy) husband does.

I call that being jaded. Having said that, I'm often the same.

My sense of smell can sometimes be quite sensitive, I can smell the slightest whiff of cigarette smoke, and also taste quite a few flavours others miss (onion especially)

My hearing has been trained so I can us usually tell the direction and timbre of any sound I hear, and identify what made it (kicking over a bin for example)

[Kogarashi]

I call that being jaded. Having said that, I'm often the same.

Except that I manage to do this in situations where I haven't exactly seen the situation before, I just manage to call it anyway.

Case in point: Hubby and I play a popular card game that has an associated story. For the past three months or so, I've been insisting to my husband that a particular plot element was totally going to happen, even though there was little to no evidence for that plot element. Total long shot.

And yet with last week's installment of the story, what I'd been saying for three months came true. Hubby was rather surprised.

[Seshat]

By comparison with both my birth-family and my chosen-family, I'm a super-smeller and a supertaster. I don't know about comparisons with others. I'm also hypersensitive to texture, but I don't know whether or not to call that a 'superability' - it's common to fibro patients.

I used to have vision precise enough to allow me to read the ultra-fine text on Australian bills - the $10 has 'The Man From Snowy River' on the Banjo Patterson side. (The rest are boring: just 'Ten Dollars Ten Dollars Ten Dollars' or so on.)
This text is printed in an ultra-fine font and is one of the security measures - printing text this fine is too expensive to be worth doing unless you're doing it in the kind of quantity a government mint does.
I could also easily see individual strands in embroidery floss - not just strands of floss, but strands of the threads twisted into each strand of floss. I can still see individual hairs or individual eyelashes on a person standing conversational distance away from me.

On the other hand, I'm practically night-blind. It's easier for me to close my eyes and navigate without vision than to try to navigate my house at night with the light levels coming in from the street lamps. And in the country, camping? I'm just plain blind at night.
Toth can see colours even at night. Even in the country, camping.

[firecat88]

I have the ability to hear a song only a few times and memorize the entire thing. Also to memorize the names of every character in movies and TV shows, as well as remembering incredibly small but potentially plot-relevant details. It drives my mom nuts.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I can wear socks with sandals and feel no shame or guilt whatsoever.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

I have the amazing ability to find anything, in a super short period of time. Lost a ring in those sand dunes we just spent four hours offroading in, no problem, I find it in ten minutes. Can't find the $0.32 difference in those two 16 page columns of numbers, three minutes. One box is labelled slightly differently than the other 600 and you don't know which, I've got this. I have no idea why I can do this, I'm even somewhat colour blind, so it's probably not a vision thing. Maybe it's from tracking practice as a kid?

[Food Lady]

I can wear socks with sandals and feel no shame or guilt whatsoever.

Pictures or it didn't happen.

[Aria]

This isn't a super power. More of a liability. :P But what the hell...

I retain information too readily. I find it almost impossible to ignore what's on the TV. I know practically all the plots to Strawberry Shortcake. I actually NOTICE the commercials. It's like I don't have a filter to block them out. ::cries:: It's hell...

[cindybubbles]

I can definitely smell better, especially people's breath even if they are far away. I can also hear better, too. It's probably because of my poor eyesight that my other senses have to work harder.

I can also curl my tongue.

[Seshat]

I can put one hand back behind my head and the other behind my shoulder blades and hold hands with myself that way.
I can also cross my legs and then touch my toes. With the normal toe-touch position, I can put my knuckles on the ground.
I used to be able to touch my thumbs to my wrists, and do a number of other uber-flexible games: I can still do some of them.

On the negative side, this means it's a pain to try to get a stretch for some of my muscles. When the joint is bent as far as it will go and there's still no stretch, what do you do?

[ApolloSZ]

I've got my stupidity detector when driving (no seriously, I've posted about it before.) - I can detect when someone is going to drive monumentally stupid. Its saved me from being put into a concrete barrier at 100km/h by someone else, and from a 90degree nose to nose. Something in my head 'pings' and I just lay off the gas, have the break pedal ready, and am looking for escape angles.

Give my eyes a moment to adjust and I have awesome night vision. Possibly not colour, but haven't had to really test it in a while. I have annoyingly good hearing. I'm actually a little bit sick of being able to hear some many conversations at work. Sense of smell is only a bit above average.

The downside of all that is too much noise or smell overloads me and is really unpleasant for me. Like, ohgodgetmeoutnowiwilltrampleyou unpleasant. Especially if its discordant (Sounds OR smells, yes both), then it goes to 'getoutofmywayineedoutorIwillshankyou'.

Can roll my tongue like I saw cindy mention. can also flip my tongue 180 degrees on its own. As in tastebuds side down. Flare my nostrils. Wiggle my ears.


I CAN DO THE VULCAN FAREWELL SALUTE. With ease. (Sorry, noticed no-one had said that one yet XD).

[Kogarashi]

Can roll my tongue like I saw cindy mention.

I never considered this a superpower, mostly due to the fact that everyone in my immediate family (parents, siblings, hubby, children) can do this as well. It was the weirdest thing ever to me when I got to sixth grade and finally met someone who was physically incapable of rolling their tongue.

I CAN DO THE VULCAN FAREWELL SALUTE. With ease. (Sorry, noticed no-one had said that one yet XD).

Oh, I can do that too. Both hands.

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

I can put one hand back behind my head and the other behind my shoulder blades and hold hands with myself that way.
I can also cross my legs and then touch my toes. With the normal toe-touch position, I can put my knuckles on the ground.
I used to be able to touch my thumbs to my wrists, and do a number of other uber-flexible games: I can still do some of them.

On the negative side, this means it's a pain to try to get a stretch for some of my muscles. When the joint is bent as far as it will go and there's still no stretch, what do you do?

Didn't even think about the flexibility thing, I'm super flexible as well. Can do the behind the back handshake. Once upon a time I was able to touch my elbows to the ground from a toe touch, but no longer. I can still put my wrists on the ground, though. Somewhat double jointed in the knees, sitting flat on the floor I can raise my feet 6-8" off the floor while keeping the backs of my knees touching the floor.

I can't do both legs at the same time, but I can get my shoulders behind my knees one at a time. Sitting or standing. Won a few bar bets that way, people don't believe I can keep one foot on the floor and put the other on to of the bar. In a similar fashion, I'm able to do a standing kick and hit the top of a doorway without leaving the ground.

Flexibility trick I've rarely seen anyone else do is being able to touch the elbows together in front of the body while keeping the top of the hands pressed to the beltline.

Used to be able to wrap my arms around my body so tightly that I could put my left hand back on the left shoulder and vice versa. Gained a lot of upper body muscle mass in college. Amusing factoid related to that, the only 2 times I've worn a tuxedo, both custom fitted. HS senior prom(May '96) the suitcoat was a 44L with a waist fitted down to a 40. Married(Sept '00) the suitcoat wound up having to be a 54L with the waist fitted down to a 40.

[drjankowska]

I too have a really strong sense of smell - at times when I am eating a sushi hand roll, I can smell the latex gloves on it that the cook was wearing when they prepared and rolled it. I also have really great hearing despite playing drums in a band, clubbing and lots of concerts without ever wearing any hearing protection. And I can decipher old people's writing.

[Argabarga]

Spatial awareness, once I've been someplace, anyplace, I can unerringly find my way back to it even if things have been moved around and remember the floorplans to buildings I haven't worked in for 20 years or more.