Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The one thing you wish you were better at.

This is topic The one thing you wish you were better at. in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-20-2009, 02:15 PM:

What's the one thing you wish you were better at? I guess you can cheat and list more than one thing if you need much improvement.

For me, it is parallel parking. I really suck at it. I need two empty spaces right next to each other in order to successfully park on the street.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-20-2009, 02:42 PM:

The one thing I wish I did better?

Picking up women.
[Razz]

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 02-20-2009, 06:23 PM:

Women.

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 02-20-2009, 06:34 PM:

Finding a boyfriend. ....tired of being alone.

That, and motocross riding.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 02-20-2009, 06:48 PM:

Musical instruments. All of them.

Except drums. I'm already an awesome drummer.

(Or I was 20 years ago...)

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-20-2009, 06:55 PM:

Speaking in public and/or striking up conversations with strangers. My wife is great at both and I suck at both. To me the two things are similar and basically caused by shyness, so I wish I wasn't so shy. (It cost me a lot of fun times with girls when I was younger, too!)

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-20-2009, 07:44 PM:

I wish I were better at Nuclear Physics! I'd be cracking the atom if I were.

Mark

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 02-20-2009, 08:22 PM:

Knowing how to take a dollar bill and make millions off of it instead of spending it.

I impress my DriversED teach with my parallel parking - even on the left side of a one way street in a "road locomotive" that could just barely fit between two parked cars.

Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 02-20-2009, 08:25 PM:

Time management and staying focused on a task.

If I could do this I'd be a lot more productive and have a lot more free time!

Posted by Andy Muirhead (Member # 712) on 02-20-2009, 08:30 PM:

quote: Sam Graham
Except drums. I'm already an awesome drummer.

(Or I was 20 years ago...)

Me too.. Now if only I could be bothered to get the kit down from the attic to see if i've gotten any better over the years...

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 02-20-2009, 09:02 PM:

Coming up with Film-Tech threads that generate 5-6 pages of responses.

[Razz]

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 02-20-2009, 10:26 PM:

Inasmuch as we're a non-profit: Fundraising, grant writing, rich people schmoozin'

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 02-20-2009, 10:40 PM:

I wish I wasn't so shy... Oh! And very rich instead of soooo good-looking. [uhoh]

Posted by Allison Parsons (Member # 2728) on 02-21-2009, 02:08 AM:

-I'm with Joe when it comes to parallel parking

-stop being so nice and start saying NO once in a while. Actually yes, I would like to improve my bitch-ness side. I'm too much of a pushover and pleasent toward people. I would like to grow a backbone in certain situations and just say NOOOOOOOO, damnit!

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 02-21-2009, 02:47 AM:

I do just fine at parallel parking. But then I've been driving nearly 61 years. What I have trouble with is remembering technology details. But then I am nearly 77 years old.

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 02-21-2009, 09:30 AM:

Sleep. I really suck at it. I need two empty spaces right next to each other in order to successfully sleep. And I usually get up once or twice to pee.

Posted by Galen Murphy-Fahlgren (Member # 4535) on 02-21-2009, 01:54 PM:

School. If I were better at that, most of my other problems would solve themselves. I'm not bad at learning, I'm quite good at it, but I'm terrible at school.

Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 02-21-2009, 03:56 PM:

quote:
Speaking in public and/or striking up conversations with strangers. My wife is great at both and I suck at both. To me the two things are similar and basically caused by shyness, so I wish I wasn't so shy. (It cost me a lot of fun times with girls when I was younger, too!)

Story of my life, Mike. I'm in the same situation you are. My wife is a social butterfly and I am a social clam. I can turn it on when I am having a good day and feel confident but I have never liked public speaking. One time in high school we were doing speeches in English class. I was supposed to be the next person to speak the next day in class so I skipped. I ended up with detention but thought it was worth it. Then when I got to class the following day, my teacher had spent the previous day talking through the whole class period so it was still my turn to speak. I had told him weeks before that I was deathly afraid of it but he tried to make me do it anyways. I told him I would take the F instead of speaking so instead he made the class turn their heads away and let me speak from my seat. I think the embarassment of that situation was worse than just speaking in front of the class. [puke]

The last few years I have been in sales at work so public speaking is an everyday thing. Somehow it's not nearly as bad because there are impromptu teaching situations where I am talking to a group of operators in a shop teaching them how to run our equipment. I know our equipment better than they do so I am more confident. I am not trying to follow some script and make sure I get in a twenty minute long speech like most speech classes require and have everyone just staring at me. In these settings it is an interactive experience so the people want to learn about what you are telling them and they are asking lots of questions.

One day I went to the NASA here in Cleveland to sell them a piece of equipment and quickly found myself in a meeting room with 30 NASA engineers asking me questions and wanting me to present my equipment to them. I was sweating bullets that day! [Frown]

[ 02-22-2009, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: Joshua Waaland ]

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 02-21-2009, 08:58 PM:

quote: Joshua Waaland
...found myself in a meeting room with 30 NASA engineers asking me questions and wanting me to present my equipment to them.

If I had 30 people wanting me to present my equipment to them I'd be scared too. [Smile]

Posted by Dwayne Benallie (Member # 4443) on 02-22-2009, 12:03 AM:

Time Travel...

Posted by Matt Fields (Member # 3211) on 02-22-2009, 07:09 AM:

I've always wanted to be a good singer.

Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 02-22-2009, 11:13 AM:

quote: Tony Bandiera Jr
If I had 30 people wanting me to present my equipment to them I'd be scared too.

That's just wrong. [Wink]

It was very witty though. [thumbsup]

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 02-23-2009, 12:10 PM:

Morse code and sign language. Can someone tell me is sign language universal or do the signs change as the language changes?

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 02-23-2009, 11:13 PM:

quote: Chad Souder
Morse code and sign language. Can someone tell me is sign language universal or do the signs change as the language changes?

As far as I know in this country there are two sign languages, one for words and one for letters of the alphabet. That being the case I would assume it varies from country to country (at least for the alphabet).

I see you're from Waterloo. FWIW in '06 I was managing the Sunset in Sumner.

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 02-24-2009, 10:39 AM:

So would the letters be signed the same throughout all languages that use the Roman alphabet?

Robert - I saw some of your posts earlier about spending time in Iowa. I've never been to the Sunset, although I've had a couple of its former employees apply when they went to school at UNI.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-24-2009, 02:50 PM:

The last three posts should be a new thread. They are distracting from the very good topic at hand.

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 02-24-2009, 06:12 PM:

I need to be better at saving money.

If I had to pick a superficial second, it'd be to mind my appearance, no matter how much I don't feel like brushing my hair/shaving. There's no excuse to be dumpy if you can help it.

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 02-25-2009, 01:14 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
The last three posts should be a new thread. They are distracting from the very good topic at hand.

Thanks, thread police! How is me listing sign language and morse code as things I want to get better at distracting to the topic at hand again? That was what I wrote three posts before yours.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 02-26-2009, 07:22 PM:

quote: Chad Souder
Morse code

Start here. You WILL increase your speed!

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 02-27-2009, 01:18 PM:

Thanks Tim!