build a list of my more unusual skills

Everyone can read (well pretty much). I am not a fast reader, my wife is much faster. I am a consistent reader. I read in the bus (yes, it does make me unwell and then I stop). I read in the train. I read while I am punting and I read while I am walking. I can read whilst cycling but I don’t. I read whilst climbing. There are few things I cannot do whilst reading.

When I was younger (Back when I watched television so a lot younger) I used to read and watch television and hold a conversation at the same time. I know everyone can read but I think that this multi-tasked reading is still worth a mention as an unusual skill. What do you think? Drop me a comment to let me know.

This whole list is beginning to feel a bit egocentric. If it were not for the fact that I think I will find it useful I would stop it. Perhaps it is a shame I cannot make this one a private goal. I would certainly feel more free to put down nefarious skills like world domination (which I do not do these days).

I am probably the only person I know of who can not only punt one handed but can read a book using the other hand whilst managing a glass of champagne without spilling it. It is a useful skill if you are picking people up by punt but do not wish to be bored on the way.

Rufus Evison

I would say not putting any embarrassing explicit references to me personally and my sex life and such like on social networking sites is a useful life skill. Sadly, for many people, it seems to be becoming an unusual skill. Everyone seems happy to advertise everything that will embarass them without thinking who can see it.

Perhaps this will lead to a new morality that does not frown on things that everyone has done. Perhaps it will lead to a culture of anonymity where we all post these things still but everyone does it anonymously and so does not post anything that is going to come back and bite them. I wonder how the online world and its mores are evolving. It is fascinating to watch.

The closest I come to embarrassing gaffes online that reference me (as far as I know) is some of the anagrams I have created and while they use rude words they are meaningless anagrams so I am not too worried about them.

Rufus Evison

So imagine you do not have a mail program. If you have telnet you can connect to a mailserver direct and tell it to pass on an email. SMTP is the simple mail transfer protocol (or something like that I never actually learned about this stuff I just picked it up by osmosis).

The white house in the US used to be an open relay and it did not used to be illegal to send it SMTP messages purporting to be birthday greetings for your friends and ask it to pass them on for you so that they got an email from the white house.

Nowadays no one would consider doing anything like that but in the early days of the internet it was harmless fun that did not use up anyone elses resources.

How the world changes eh?

Rufus Evison

I mean conjuring not any real sort of magic. I got into this when I was seven. I did my first paid show when I was 11. Throughout college it was a good way to get paid to go to balls. Since then I do it upon request but ever more rarely. People I know will have seen my stuff and those who don’t do nto generally knwo to ask.

The great delight of conjuring is the expressions on people’s faces. It should be repetetive as I am doing exactly the same things each time but somehow it is not. People’s reactions are all different and they are why you do it. It is not about what you are doing or how you are doing it. Intellectually that is nice and why you learn new tricks but it is not the reason you actually perform. The reason you perform is the people you are performing to.

I like people.

Rufus Evison

Over the years I have, for a variety of reasons, acquired a set of unusual skills. Part of it is my insatiable curiosity. I like to understand things, how they work and why. It seems to me that somewhere I ought to document these skills. None of them are things that I spend time on these days and most of them I never really did, they are just things I have picked up.

The title of this entry is flying trapeze. I had one lesson during which I learned what little I know of the flying trapeze. At the end of the lesson (on the third swing and my first attempt) I managed to make a catch. That is to say I was caught by someone skilled in the art and at the same time released myself from the swing that I was on.

Am I a skilled trapeze artist? No! Can I do enough to impress people who have not done it (and a few people who have had rather more lessons)? Yes.

This is a good illustration as the same is true for most other skills I add to the list. I am not an expert but I am skilled enough to startle people who have not tried and a few who have dabbled.

Rufus Evison

P.S. I am not going to bother to add individual entries for the other circus skills I have tried as one such skill is much like another. Here is the 10 second summary: I can juggle (with or without fire but not very well), I used to be able to unicycle, I can firebreath and have fire eaten, I have done a little static trapeze and used to be able to tight rope walk a bit, I have also done a tiny bit of escapology and a teeny bit of clowning/stand up comedy. I have also done some conjuring but it deserves its own entry.