05.25.07
secret power
I have been a bit surprised at something that I can do that apparently most people can’t. I can listen to somebody speaking and repeat everything they say in realtime, with only the briefest of delays between when it comes out of their mouth and when it comes out of mine. From what I hear from others, most people can’t do this.
This is not a skill I’ve practiced. To the best of my knowledge, I have always been able to do this. It never occurred to me that anybody would not be able to do this. (Maybe I can simply because I assumed that I could?)
But if I’m going to have some secret power, couldn’t it be something useful? Like curing cancer? Diagnosing cancer? Or at least being able to cure canker sores?
Or, alternatively, is there any value at all in being able to simultaneously translate from English to English?
knapjack said,
June 2, 2007 at 4:27 am
I share your secret power. It can only be used for evil, as it apparently drives spouses right over the freaking edge.
Actually, I used to be a broadcast journalism student, and one of the first things you learn is that broadcasters speak and a surprisingly slow pace. I used to practice slowing down by putting on NPR and just repeating whatever they said.
I have found that I have almost zero content retention while in echo mode. I also have about a 0.5-1.5 second delay, so there’s a little bit of buffer. I suppose I should try bleeping out profanity on the fly.