argentum_ls: Matthew McCormick (Default)
argentum_ls ([personal profile] argentum_ls) wrote2012-01-08 11:48 pm

Meme: Snowflake Challenge - Day 8

In your own space, talk about a talent (or talents) you have. Everyone's got something they're good at. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.



I have a lot of things I can do, but I don't think of them as talents. I can transpose letters into a code quickly, so doing a simple substitution cypher (A -> K, B -> L, C -> M, etc.) is doable almost in real time. Not quite. I've slowed down a lot as I've aged and fallen out of practice. In high school I took my notes in substitution cypher, when I wasn't taking them in mirror handwriting, or an alphabet system that I invented because apparently English was too boring. I found a notebook from high school recently and only recognized that it was mine because of the cyphers in it--none of which I could still read. I'm also good at puzzles, both of the jigsaw variety and logic/analytical variety. But I suck at crosswords. Go figure.

The one thing I'd consider I'd actual talent is editing. I don't mean copy editing, with commas and spelling, though I can do that. I do a lot of that. I've always been really good at writing other people's stories--though, not in the sense of fanfic or plagiarism, but in the sense of being able to take a work-in-progress (fanfic included) that someone else is struggling with and identifying what the problem is. I can find that one line when the characterization slips or the author's voice intrudes too loudly and derails the story, the bit of description that doesn't work and is bogging down the story's flow, the scene that's tangled on itself such that the author is writing herself into a cramped corner. Unknotting stories, as long as they're someone else's, is my talent.

[identity profile] thefrozenheart.livejournal.com 2012-01-18 01:33 pm (UTC)(link)
You use to took your notes in substitution cypher?! That's pretty awesome and geeky ^_^

Unknotting stories
That's such a good talent, but it would be better if you could use it for yourself right? Have you ever thought about being a book publisher instead of a teacher?

[identity profile] argentum-ls.livejournal.com 2012-01-18 01:43 pm (UTC)(link)
You use to took your notes in substitution cypher?!

I did. Not all the time, though. Based on the notebook I found, my preferred method of note-taking was mirror handwriting.

but it would be better if you could use it for yourself right?

::sighs:: It really would be.

Have you ever thought about being a book publisher instead of a teacher?

I teach writing, so being able to unknot writing is a vital skill in what I do. I have thought about becoming a book editor, but I love teaching too much to give it any serious consideration.

[identity profile] thefrozenheart.livejournal.com 2012-01-18 02:07 pm (UTC)(link)
my preferred method of note-taking was mirror handwriting.
I find mirror handwriting very impressive!

I teach writing,
So, are you a college teacher?

but I love teaching too much to give it any serious consideration.
I love when people tell me that they love what they do! I think is a real bless.

[identity profile] argentum-ls.livejournal.com 2012-01-18 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)
are you a college teacher

Yes. I teach mostly the first year writing courses, which is mostly non-fiction writing.

Do you have an outside job?

[identity profile] thefrozenheart.livejournal.com 2012-01-18 02:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Not right now, but I'm planing on change things this year... Maybe go to college or finally have some English classes, and then find a new job.

[identity profile] argentum-ls.livejournal.com 2012-01-18 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
You really should do something with your English skills. Anyone who can learn a foreign language as well as you have *by oneself* has a talent to be proud of.

Can you speak English, too, or just read and write it?

[identity profile] thefrozenheart.livejournal.com 2012-01-18 08:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you :3

I don't know for sure, because I have only talked with my friend, he had English classes for 5 years and when we hang out we talk in English (because we love our privacy and because we are silly ^_^) He thinks that I speak very well, but I think I could only have sure after a professional evaluation or maybe if I tried to talk with a native american...