Weirberbd
16th April 2009
A while back there was a blog meme thing where you listed 25 unusual things about yourself. I really wanted to do it, but I think Alice spit up down my back and Lucy was yanking on my pant leg, and then it was just too late.
But there is one weird thing I must share, in hopes of finding fellow people who can do…this, and just because I want to see what other weirdos are out there.
In middle school, a boy named Alan taught me how to speak Bubble Talk.
Essentially, you put the letter B behind every vowel in a word. For example: Carly becomes Cab-er-lee-bee. Lucy is Loo-boo-cee-bee. Alice is Ab-uh-lib-is.
Writing it makes not as much sense as speaking it. Hell, even speaking it doesn’t make a lot of sense. But for some ridiculous reason, Bubble Talk implanted itself firmly in my brain — probably taking up valuable real estate, like understanding math in any way shape or form — and all these years later, I can start talking that way without even thinking of it.
It’s a stupid talent. It drives Eric absolutely insane with annoyance, so I try to remember to speak it as often as possible (when I do, he retaliates with his Eddie Murphy laugh impression, and then we start stabbing each other with knives. Or wrestling. Which I usually win because he hates spit and I lick him. Or grab his nipples, which he, his brother and cousin all share a hatred of, in an alarmingly creepy example of genetics.)
Anyway.
What weird talents or abilities do you have?
Possibly related posts:
When I was in high school a friend of mine and I used to write notes in class and pass them to each other, but to make them difficult for other people to read over our shoulders, we would write the notes with all the words spelled backwards. I got so adept at writing these notes that I could write and read the backwards versions of words pretty much at the same speed I would normally write and read.
ehT seton dekool yllacisab ekil siht. ynnuF, tub I dnif ti a tol redrah ot epyt siht tuo naht I dluow dnif ti ot etirw yb dnah.
I’m still pretty good at writing and reading backwards stuff, even though I no longer write that way on a regular basis.
A few friends and I spoke pig latin for a while, but it didn’t really stick. In highschool, I made up a code language we called “kitchen talk” with a few other friends. It was basically just so we could talk about the boys we liked in public, and no one would know what we were talking about. We assigned everyone a letter, based on random things about them (i.e. one of the boys played tennis, so he was “E” – as in the 2nd letter of tennis, because you know, “T” would be far too obvious…). Beyond names, we also assigned code to other things; passing the salt & pepper, on the table – wow, typing this out makes me realize just how much of a weirdo I was. Not talented, but definitely weird…
I can read upside down and backwards.
When I was in grade 3, they had a lady come to our class and teach us how to do this. We would learn how to read by looking at the in a mirror. I have no idea why they did this, maybe they were teaching us to be spies or something …
It’s pretty funny but I catch up on a lot of stuff on my bosses desk this way .. just plain upside down is so easy.
In the movie The Da Vinci Code, the part where they found that piece of metal hidden in the box and they had to use a mirror … p’shaw … I read it before they spoke the words on screen !
yeah, I’m weird.
oh by the way further to hanaboomom above, there actually was a study that showed that the average person could read (presumably in English) any words without them being spelled correctly.
For example: yuo dnto haev ot eb albe ot sepll prporley ot eb albe ot erad htis stennece.
As long as all the letters are there, your brain unscrambles them for you. I guess unless you’re dyslexic …
amazing what people pay money for, isn’t it?
p.p.s. maybe that’s why i’m so good at anagram puzzles …