What are your useless areas of expertise?

Honestly, I know too much about serial killers

I played a few online games in very high caliber groups for years. Mainly Final Fantasy 11, DC Universe online and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Those were the good times….: Coordinating our real life schedules around boss encounters, coordinating 8 to 18 person groups for 3 hour fights, managing group hierarchies to distribute item drops based on participation in raids and attendance. Being a part one of the best PvP groups ever and putting smack talkers in their place and the dealing with the “fame” of being in a top tier PvP squad lol…..Logging in to the game with a target on your back and people always wanting to challenge you due to your reputation and adding another win to your belt….No one in real life can understand what the community is like unless you’ve been in the trenches so it’s largely something that’s kept to yourself because “its just a videogame”.

I wouldn’t get back into that lifestyle now, way too time consuming, but being young and basically participating in what’s now called E-sports was a great time.

I don’t think there’s any such thing. I think all knowledge has value, one way or another.

^^^True. I may or may not know how to get away with murder.

Not totally useless – - but I remember the the pattern for tightening a Ford Flathead. Left hand and right hand.

My primary area of expertise (linguistics/ancient languages) is not particularly useful outside of a few niche areas. I can sure answer Fluther’s grammar questions, though.

Which ancient languages, @Dem? I often have questions in that field that come up in my reading.

Ancient Indo-European languages. I know Latin and Ancient Greek fairly well, and I’m a little less familiar with Sanskrit, but I have been studying it. :)

I’ll remember that. I thought you were all on the linguistics side.

Sanskrit is a gorgeous language. I took private weekly lessons in Sanskrit for a year, just for the marvelousness of it. There’s some useless knowledge for you, right, @RedDeerGuy1? But the point was absolutely not utility. Regardless, it was a pleasure in itself and also shed light in various directions, including on Buddhist teachings.

I can balance long items like a yard stick or an umbrella on one finger as long as I wish – even while walking.
Surely that skill will come in handy one day.

@Jeruba
Sanskrit language is one that I always wanted to learn too for some odd reason, however

Archaeologists would find it useful should they come across an artifact that had it written on it?

Archaeology was another fascination for me as well, however I didn’t have the funds to take

the courses , but I read on discoveries etc and watch documentaries on this subject

periodically.

I can write backwards, in perfect cursive. My mirror penmanship is more attractive than my normal handwriting. This astounding skill has yet to earn a single penny or gain any fame.

^ Wow, how come?

@Love_my_doggie, when I was in high school I taught myself to write backwards, too, just for the challenge of it. And upside-down: it came out appearing as normal cursive, but a bit crude and childish. I found that it effectively disguised my handwriting.

I can also balance things on my nose but I can’t see where I’m going when I do. That severely limits the balance time.

I can read upside down. Comes in handy for sticking my nose in other people’s bidness.

@Dutchess_III, and seeing what the doctor wrote, or the manager. When it is your business, but they aren’t telling you.

@LuckyGuy: I can balance chairs on my palm or finger. I can also do brooms or mops and stuff like that.

My father could balance a chair on his chin. Thinking about it now, it takes a lot of body movement to do that.

@Dutchess_III: I can read upside down, too. It definitely comes in handy for being nosy.

I learned to read upside down in fifth grade because three of us in the 5th grade were “storytellers” for the younger kids. We would go to a classroom go to a corner in the room sit in a chair and read to the kids sitting on the floor with the book right side for them and upside down for us.

You guys are a fount of uselessness!

@Dutchess_III Probability the reason I’m bald !

I was in a performing arts high school, and I have a lot of weird knowledge on random musical instruments, musical time periods, and other shit that’s music-related that I will never use again.

that’s another area. But it may not be useless forever, I am working on getting my saxophone out more

^^ You will, though. You’ll use it. Wait and see.

@SergeantQueen

“Honestly, I know too much about serial killers.”

What was one of the nicknames of Angel Reséndiz?

@Brian1946 Okay, that one I didn’t know off hand. I googled it though and he does sound a little familiar, “The railway killer”. I probably have read about him somewhere but I don’t remember watching anything about him. Which is weird because if he has 15 victims you’d think there would be a documentary. I’ll see if I can find one.

Unrelated, but
I did just finish a documentary about Robert Durst and that has been messing with my head.

Nicknames tend to throw me off. I know Dennis Radar is the BTK killer, but I can’t tell you who the Toy Box killer is lol

We use to play music in unusual 5/4 meter like “Take Five” by Brubeck and Desmond.

Like a five step waltz instead of 3 step.

@SergeantQueen: There was a great multipart documentary a few years ago, on Robert Durst. Maybe it was HBO? So interesting what a nut he was.

@jca2 There was “The Jinx” but I haven’t seen that. Interestingly enough, he got caught by agreeing to do that documentary. Towards the end of shooting, he was in the bathroom not realizing his mic was still on. He admitted to the murders on audio.

The one I saw though was a 2 part series on the ID channel. (My go to channel for true crime docs)

I can hold my breath for three minutes..

Financial markets.

@SergeantQueen: Yeah it was “The Jinx.” At one point in his married life, he lived not far from my house (also when he was growing up he lived in the County that I work in and grew up in) so that was interesting.

I just saw the multipart documentary on BTK on the ID channel. That was good.

If the database inside my brain has the piece of music/song stored I can say the name or sing the rest if given two initial single notes.