Friday, October 23, 2015

Strange Talents Revealed

We each have talents, some more than one. Sometimes, we develop strange talents. If you've been reading this blog any length of time, you know I can find four-leaf clovers easily, even while walking. But today, I'm going to share another one of my stranger talents. I can count. Yeah, yeah, yeah...we all can count. Big deal.

At work, we had a discussion about typing speeds. I'm about 65 wpm. Some of the others were about 80 wpm. The average stenographer can type between 100-150 wpm. There are even shorthand competitions and typing competitions out there!

If you use the new Dvorak keyboard...well, check this out:
"As of 2005 , writer Barbara Blackburn was the fastest alphanumerical English language typist in the world, according to The Guinness Book of World Records. Using the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, she maintained 150 wpm for 50 minutes, and 170 wpm for shorter periods. Her top speed was 212 wpm."
So then we starting talking about how fast people talk. Books on tape are read at a speed of 150-160 wpm. An average auctioneer can say 250-400 wmp. Did you know that the fastest talking person in the world can speak 655 words per minute? Go to minute 2:55 to hear Michael Jackson's "Bad" in 20 seconds. Or watch the whole thing; he's amazing!



So...MY talent is that I can count to 100 in 20 seconds!!! Not as enunciated as John Moschitta, Jr. though. So, you think 100 numbers is equal to 100 words? Not so!

According to Wikipedia (don't judge me - after all this isn't a research paper), "For the purpose of typing measurement, each word is standardized to be five characters or keystrokes long in English,[1] including spaces and punctuation. For example, the phrase "I run" counts as one word, but "rhinoceros" and "let's talk" both count as two."

I say the numbers 1 to 100 counts as 172 words. Trust me, you don't want me to do the math for you. So, maybe I should show a video of ME doing this! Anyway, 172 words in 20 seconds is equal to 516 words per minute!

What's YOUR unique, strange, useless (or perhaps useful) talent? Please share in the comments!!!

Keep on keepin' on...

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