The YACF Weird Specialisms Thread

[Wowbagger]

I never cease to be amazed at the diverse skills and knowledge areas of a very great many of our brethren on YACF. Sometimes I am wide-eyed with admiration about what people on here know.

I'd like to invite other forummers to tell us about their specialisms. This has been prompted by Arch, who did a BSc dissertation on the fascinating topic of "Dung in Archaeological Contexts, its use and detection." Does this give her a degree in Applied Shite?

This is one thread in which I will remain a fascinated spectator, never having darkened any University's doors.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

My BSc is in Occupational Therapy, which some would say is arcane enough, but my dissertation was on the use of icing and vibration in the treatment of upper limb hemiplegia. 

[why1040]

I have a BA in Equine Industry Management, which is reasonably obscure to start with.  As part of that course, we did an entire term on grassland management, which took me by surprise in its detail...I never would've thought there was enough to know for a whole term!   
Darned good class that, though.  The rest of the course was a little less well put together than anticipated, sadly.

[Regulator]

My specialism at university was the international law of war and conflict, and my dissertation was on key reforms to improve UN military intervention.  Not that weird - just a bit geeky.

My father's dissertation was weird but somewhat wonderful.  It was on decorative tiles in religious buildings.  He even made replica tiles.  We have a copy of his dissertation with them in...

[padbeat]

Alas, a rather boring Engineering and Management, with an MSc completing in the next 6 months (hopefully). OTOH, I have post-grad certs in Nuclear Engineering which guarantees me a good old grilling at parties. It's always handy to know your dose record for the previous 12 months to compare with an Aberdonian's.

[Kim]

Alas, I'm a standard nerd drop-out.  I have a Computer Science BSc that isn't worth the paper it's printed on, and never completed my MSc.

[red marley]

I once wrote a journal paper "What is a mountain? Or the Englishman who went up a Boolean geographical concept but realised it was fuzzy"

[padbeat]

I once wrote a journal paper "What is a mountain? Or the Englishman who went up a Boolean geographical concept but realised it was fuzzy"

That sounds like something that would interest me until I read the 5th paragraph for the 6th time and realised I was never going to get my head around the concepts without patient help.

[barakta]

Alas, I'm a standard nerd drop-out.  I have a Computer Science BSc that isn't worth the paper it's printed on, and never completed my MSc.

Aww c'mon, what about all those subjects you started degrees in? I bet at least one of the subjects would surprise YACF denizens.

[Peter]

I once wrote a journal paper "What is a mountain? Or the Englishman who went up a Boolean geographical concept but realised it was fuzzy"

Ha!  I once used Boolean in a Scrabble game with my wife's aunt and uncle.  They refused to accept it and made me eat extra cakes to show contrition.  Lovely people.

My "specialism" was Mechanical Engineering which is why I ended up in music.  My true specialism is bluffing.

I don't think we should be elitist, here.  There must be a lot of forum members without degrees, whose jobs/training are of equal interest?

[Feline]

During the 4th year of my degree I did a research project resulting in a published paper on 'the sequence of the bovine major histo-compatability complex gene'. It was splendid stuff resulting in playing with lots of test tubes, pipettes and the radioactive isotope P-32.

[Torslanda]

So would I, Peter.

If you have the surname that's just popped into my head then I may know you. Do you by any chance play the bassoon?**

You're looking here at standard A-level drop out. Thirty years of practical experience in vehicle parts supply and small time spanner twirling and bike fettling. My first job was in the LBS. It was going nowhere and I got the feeling I'd outstayed my welcome. The Job Centre came up with a vacancy in a car shop at 4 times the money. When I told the shop owner he said 'Oh! That's a shame. I wanted you to take over this place...'

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at someone who, at the age of 19, was handed the gift horse, reins, bridle and tack and hadn't a bloody clue what was going on.

My specialist talent? How to make a bollox of it. A real skill. Not so much a career as a rolling car crash.

**This is NOT a euphemism. a euphemism is a much larger brass instrument which plays in a lower register. I know, I can play one. 

[gordon taylor]

I spent a month at uni studying "The thermodynamics of the beam pumping engine at Preston Grange Pit."

[rogerzilla]

In common with many forummers, I have a B.Eng in Chemical Engineering (quite a good grade, too).

Unlike them, I was rubbish at it and can't actually remember anything except what a Reynolds number is used for.

[BrianI]

B Eng (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

14 years later...

Now studying HNC Countryside & Environmental management!    

[Polar Bear]

My dissertation covered the rights of the unborn child but I managed to get published on the role of pro bono law advice centres, legal aid and access to justice.   

Before deciding to study Law my specialism was Release Management incorporating software configuration and environment management.

My life sounds awfully dull when written down but at least it has more societal value now...

[nicknack]

My BSc dissertation was on displaying holograms using standard light sources rather than lasers.

Which obviously (like Peter) led me to becoming a musician.

[clarion]

Reynolds Number = 531

[Wowbagger]

As I mentioned in the OP, I didn't get to university, merely a teachers' training college. Since leaving that august institution in 1975 my life has been a succession of fads, including getting a piano teaching diploma, playing chess, keeping bees and riding a bike.

It amused me rather that in the late 1980s or early 90s, in quick succession I earned two certificates of proficiency, one in apiculture and the other in SSADM.

I am proficient in neither.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I'm going to keep bees when I win the lottery and have somewhere to keep them.

[barakta]

I had to fake knowledge of SSADM 4 or 5 for my information management degree. I did excellently in coursework, failed the exam cos it was a load of shite taught by an awful lecturer.  The rest was a mix of computing, psychology and librarianship.  I also failed a year of chemistry which taught me a great deal which I'll always appreciate.

Not sure what specialisms I really have.  Mostly geek to human translation and a very good generalised understanding of tech and ability to identify a problem and possible solutions and teach people I'm 1 paragraph ahead in the manual for how to do stuff.  I'm also good at taking what people say, dissecting it and spewing it back to them in a different way or relating it to practicalities which I do every day at work.  I keep being told I'd make a good headshrinker. 

[Torslanda]

I'm going to keep bees when I win the lottery and have somewhere to keep them.

Are you <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Xs-tl6GBOBo&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Xs-tl6GBOBo&rel=1</a>

[LEE]

Why not quality your specialism by telling us which ship you think you would be on?

"the idea was that into the first ship, the 'A' ship, would go all the brilliant leaders, the scientists, the great artists, you know, all the achievers; and into the third, or 'C' ship, would go all the people who did the actual work, who made things and did things, and then into the `B' ship - that's us - would go everyone else, the middlemen you see."

He smiled happily at them.

"And we were sent off first," he concluded, and hummed a little bathing tune.

[hatler]

For a while I would have been the world's leading expert (there was only me as far as I am aware) on using a computer monitored, hydraulic jack lifted method to 'float' buildings (eg Beachy Head lighthouse).

I did dabble a bit in the esoteric world of cathodic protection as applied to oil pipelines.

And there can't be too many people here who have made the giddy heights of First Mate on a square rigger.

Blowing things up and shooting at tanks are another couple of lines I pursued for a while, but I can't say any more 'cos I would have to shoot you.

What I do now is decidedly humdrum (more's the pity.)

[tiermat]

On the whole I have spent a lot of my educational life and career trying not to be the one with his head above the parapet.

However I found myself in a situation a couple of years ago, whilst working on a government project, of becoming an expert in LDAP, Active Directory and Certificates.  I got to a point where I had systems doing things they weren't supposed to do (in a good way, I can easily make them do things they are not supposed to do in a bad way, and regularly do ) and the supplier of the LDAP server software would come to me to ask how we did things.

Thankfully other people have taken that mantle and moved it forward, so I no longer dream in trees and branches....