Skills

Don't be shy. Can you do something that other people find useful, entertaining, or impressive? Don't hide it under a bushel! Instead, post here. Put your proficiency in parentheses. Add new categories and skills as appropriate.

Automotive Skills

Can't Drive Stick Shift

Lucy Cox-Chapman

Drive Stick Shift

Evan Miller (maniacally)

Daniel Rooney (erratically)

Brendan Dougherty (smooth as shit out of a duck's ass)

Joe Shoer '06 (that's what she said)

Katie Montgomery (could drive anything from a '82 Toyota Tercel to a forklift, or so she believes)

Jessica Chung (She learned in a week.)

Samantha Peterson (automatics are for women)

Janey Waney Lee (She doesn't even need to say anything.)

Leah Joy Weintraub (In her other life, she actually is a race car driver.)

Jay Cox-Chapman(See section 1.1)

Helena Harnik (I have two driving licenses, one for each side of the road. Yeah that's right- I can use either hand to shift. That makes me 2x more stick-savvy than everyone else)

Ronit Bhattacharyya (Only ever driven stick-shift, now I just wish I could drive on the right side of the road)

Anne Royston '08 (can shift from both driver's and passenger's seat; working on backseat)

Matthew Earle '07 (Double-clutch downshifts saves wear on synchros, but may have caused the expensive timing chain misalignment he just had fixed)

Drive Really Fast In Reverse

Danny Fischler once pulled a k-turn, maxing at around 20mph, across the width of a freeway entrance. With Becky frickin' Burditt in the back seat. Ca-raaaaaazy.

Sweet Jumps

David Rodriguez likes to go as fast as he can when he sees speed bumps and likes to think he gets an inch or two of air in his 2-ton SUV every time.

Change a Tire

David Rodriguez '06 has changed more than his fair share of tires and learned that salt+rust will effectively glue a wheel onto the axle. Solution? Wedge the flat edge of your hubcap-removal tool into the jammed area and whack the crap out of it with a hammer. Eventually, if you're lucky, that wheel will pop right off.

Jumpstart a Car

David Rodriguez '06 has also had his fair share of car jumpstarts and knows not to connect the black plug to red and red plug to black. If you do, you will blow the battery fuse in your fusebox and burn out some expensive component in your car. Through his learning processes, he found just how costly it is to replace the stock amp that powers your stereo.

Leah Joy Weintraub (but only if you ask nicely)

Oral Skills

I can blow free-floating saliva bubbles

Brendan Dougherty

Evan Miller (I can catch it, too)

I can curl my tongue into a W

Evan Miller

David Rodriguez

Leah Shoer

I can touch my tongue to my nose

Brendan Dougherty

Lucy Cox-Chapman

I can tie a piece of string in a knot in my mouth

David Rodriguez thinks this is child's play. The real challenge is getting a cherry stem into a knot in your mouth.

I can tie a cherry stem into a knot in my mouth

David Rodriguez

Manual Skills

I can snap my fingers by flipping my wrist

Evan Miller (right hand only)

Ronit Bhattacharyya (both hands)

Jonathan Dahlberg - amzingly well

I can pull my fingers back to touch the back of my hand

John Chatlos can.

Computer Languages

Perl

Kai Steverson (competent)

Evan Miller (wizardly)

Java

Daniel Rooney (disgusting)

Mathematica

Daniel Klein (is too a real language)

Joe Shoer '06 (it's my thesis, and I can do more with it than the math nerds can)

Laura Effinger-Dean '06 (I make pretty pictures for my thesis!)

Ruby

Evan Miller (the scripting language of choice)

Ronit Bhattacharyya (the only language I can grok)

Circus Arts & other amazing feats

I can ride a unicycle!

Alex Ambros (the 1 in 2000 girl)

Elissa Brown (in the same entry as Alex - what's the probability of that?)

Abby McBride can too!

Bryan Dragon can but doesn't want anybody to know about it.

I can slackline

Elissa Brown (shakily)

Alex Ambros

I can juggle (balls, clubs, knives, flaming torches, etc)

Alex Ambros (working on passing clubs)

Elissa Brown (see above. We'll get it eventually)

I can swallow... (list object below)

It's only a matter of time until Daniel Klein '06 makes a joke about Your Mom here.

Other Ways of Writing English

Braille

Auyon Mukharji knows braille. :.:.:.:: : :: : .. ::. He just said "Auyon's mom is a fox".

Margaret Pigman

Luck

Lisetta Shah can find 4-leaf clovers pretty much just by looking down at the ground for a couple seconds, and sometimes without even that much effort.