List Your Specialist Subjects

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ritinrider

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KellyS. said:
Nice thread. I'm not sure what, if anything, I can add.

I know that I would like to see if anyone knows a lot about small-town (backwoods) life.


Kelly - how small town and how back do you want the backwoods? I currently (for the last 26 yrs.) live 15 miles from the small community where my husband taught and children attended school.. I think the school has about 300 students in grades pre-K - 12. We live about 20 miles from the small town in the other direction, I think it has a population of something like 10,000. I'd have to check on that not for sure. I once worked with a woman who was so backwoods, she thought I was lying when I said my sister could make about $30 and hour working on computers. This was at least 10 years ago.Not sure if the rate has gone up since then or not, since my sister no longer does that, and I have a friend who trouble-shoots for me for free.

Anyway, if I can help you let me know.

Nita
 

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KellyS. said:
Nice thread. I'm not sure what, if anything, I can add.

I know that I would like to see if anyone knows a lot about small-town (backwoods) life.

I grew up in rural New Hampshire; we lived on a dirt road, and it was about half an hour, in good weather, to the next town.The local village had a small grocery store, and a gas pump. High school kids were bussed to the next town. There were less than a thousand people paying poll tax--that means summer folk too.
 

ritinrider

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I can relate to that. There used to be a small store, don't think they ever sold gas, in the community about 5 miles from our house. Even though it's closed now, the hitching rail out front for customers horses or mules is still out front. When my younger brother came for a visit I sent him to the "store" for some ice. When he came back he asked me why I didn't warn him he'd be going back into the last century. He meant the 1800's. There is a school there, but it only goes to the 8th grade. High schoolers either drive or ride the bus into Stuart or McAlester, a good twenty miles either way depending on where they live.

PM me if you want to discuss this further. Don't want to mess up this thread for others.

Nita
 

WVWriterGirl

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A little of what I know

Ok, I'll throw my hat into the ring, too. See if anything's useful:
  • I've been a health insurance claims examiner for four years. I can tell you (generally) what's covered by most health, dental and vision plans, how to file a claim, how to read a claim, preauthorization and appeals processes, and a little on HIPAA, Medicaid and Medicare issues.
  • I worked in 2 separate hospitals as a medical records technician.
  • My husband raises Walker hounds, and I have access to all you ever want to know about raccoon hunting and the care and training of coonhounds.
  • My father is an accountant and has worked for the same company, a mining machinery producer/refurbisher, for forty years. He started in the '60's on the switchboard and was, at one time, the president of the company.
  • I can give information regarding the customer's side of being tattooed. I have six tattoos, all from different tattooists, of various sizes and in different places. I can offer information such as pain level, skin types, appropriate artwork for body positions, etc. If I don't know the answer (did a lot of research on it before I got my first one) I can probably at least point you in the right direction.
  • I've lived in the same small town (with an absence of two years) my whole life (I'm 30 this year). Southern West Virginia - therefore, I can "debunk" stereotypes about hillbillies, tell you about coal mining, the economic state of the region, give you some interesting links relating to current culture and even show you information about a local legend.
  • I have easy access to one of the writers of the Kentucky State Penal Code, who is also a law professor at the University of Kentucky.
  • I have experience with early-onset gestational diabetes. I can also give you information regarding troubled conception (i.e., it took me 3 years to concieve, and then had to use Clomid).
  • An aunt of mine has done research into twins and the psychic/physical bond shared by them, and is also an engineer and interior decorator.
  • I can tell you, from personal experience, what it's like to go from a "priviledged" lifestyle to one of poverty in a short period of time.
  • I worked as a legal secretary in North Carolina and can offer limited (and a little dated) information regarding traffic, domestic and real estate law.
  • I am adopted, and have known that I was adopted for as long as I can remember. I can tell you what it's like growing up as an only adopted child, and a little about searching for birth parents (I've only made a cursory effort of it myself). I can also contrast the difference between "knowing" and "not knowing" (my best friend as a child was also adopted and his adoptive mother passed away before he was told. He still doesn't know).
  • My husband is a huge Washington Redskins fan. He can tell you who played when, trivia regarding the stadiums and teams back to the '80's.
  • Early-to-mid-'90's comic book collector. My husband and I have approximately 2500 books from that era, running the gamut from Marvel superhero books (mainly the X-titles) to the DC Vertigo titles (mostly Preacher) to a few independents (Poison Elves and Sin City are the most prominent).
Guess that's about it. Hope some of this is helpful to someone out there!

WVWG :)
 
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WhisperingBard

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My husband is a polysomnographer (sleep technician - many years of experience), so if you're writing about sleep apnea, sleep studies, sleep labs, hospitals, doctors, etc., he'd be happy to help answer questions.

He's also a huge Florida Gator fan, having been born and raised in Gainesville, FL. Need any Gator trivia? He's your man!

I have a B.A. in English, spent many years writing press releases and other corporate/business type communications, and I own and operate an online retail business (new age/spiritual/pagan nature).
 

Lisa Y

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I don't know if any of my "expertise" can help, but I think there are several of you all I might be calling on!:


I am a Medical Technologist (I run blood work) and work in a Physician's Office Lab. No blood bank (in other words, I know next to nothing about what would be done in a forensics lab, other than what I've read doing my own research). I have limited phlebotomy experience.

I have first hand experience with anxiety, depression, and the borderline personality.

I have second hand experience with ADHD (my son and my husband have it) and diabetes type II/kidney problems (my father has it).

I have a strange facination with British royalty (not just current, but back to the beginning) and while I'm not an expert, I know more than the average person

I watched my mother and sister-in-law shrivel up and die from cancer within 2 months of each other (pancreatic and lung respectively)

I am a PA author who wishes she wasn't

That's all for now
 

dblteam

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Chiming In

A couple of areas of expertise, if they're of use to anyone:

1. M.S. in Aerospace Engineering (my entire career has been spent in commercial aircraft flight control systems--I don't know much about space craft). If you want historical trivia about aircraft, I'm NOT your gal. If you want to know how an airplane works and what's plausible/implausible from an engineering standpoint, I can probably help.

2. Foreign adoption, specifically Russia. We adopted a child from the St. Petersburg area last year, so I can tell you about the process, the pile of paperwork, fees, and general events that made up our experience.

Valerie
 

reph

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First-hand experience writing/drawing puzzles for newsstand puzzle magazines, seven years. I don't do crosswords, even though people assume I do when I say "puzzles."

Many years of experience copy-editing, mostly academic material, but that's nothing special around here.

Experience with and knowledge of tinnitus. Administrator on Tinnitus Support Message Board.

Co-owner of a Yahoo! group on humor; moderator of a local Yahoo! group for people assaulted by municipal program to collect business tax from filers of federal Schedules C and E, and very active in effort to protest/reform this tax.
 

Qalyar

-Mystic and paranormal tradition - focused on the debunking thereof. That is, don't ask me questions in this field if you want the spiritualist answer. Ask me if you want to know how to fake it, or catch the fakes. I can field quite a few comparitive religion questions, too.
-Mycology. I would wager that I can field any mycology question at a level of detail needed for anything that might be asked here.
-Philately. I've been a collector for 20 years, specializing in 19th century American postal history, but I can probably field most questions here regardless of details. Some might take a little time - if you want to know how much a 3-ounce envelope would cost to mail from Boston to Charleston in 1883, and what sort of stamps would have been used to pay that postage, I can tell you ... just not overnight. =)

-Esoterica. I've got some knowledge of a great many things, and a lot of access to research material from a staggering array of sources.

Feel free to shoot questions to qalyar (at) gmail [dot] com. I try to check it regularly (although I often fail), and I'll always respond (I'm at least more prompt that certain famous agents!).
 

Andrew Jameson

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Stuff I Know a Bunch About
  • I've got a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, with a fairly general background. Materials, vibrations, structures, stress, strain, mechanisms, some other stuff, I'm your man.
  • I used to design sonobuoys -- disposable Navy sonar sources for detecting submarines. So I know a bit about their design: parachutes, floats, cables, pressure vessels, seaworthiness etc.
  • From a research and development perspective, I know some things about automobiles, engines, alternative fuels, transmissions, etc. Not quite the hands-on knowledge of your average motorhead, though.
  • This is kind of esoteric, but I do accreditation of university engineering programs once a year.
  • Oh! My wife and I are the only white folks living in an all-black city block. That gives an interesting twist on the minority/majority issue, for what it's worth.
Stuff I Know a Bit About (subtitled, I'm not really an expert, but I know more than the average guy in the street)
  • gardening
  • birdwatching
  • stamp collecting
  • my wife's an artist, so I'm familiar with the art scene -- openings, studios, artists, proposals, etc.
  • I live in Detroit, and know some things about the city
  • I've constructed word puzzles of varying complexity as a hobby.
I suppose there's other things; I'll edit this post as I think of them.
 
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ScottAJohnson

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Don't know if I qualify as an "expert," but here's what I know...
  • Martial Arts - Black belt in Shaolin Kung Fu, third-degree black belt in Kajukenbo Karate. Also, a teacher of the latter.
  • Advertising - BA in Mass Comm
  • Blues Harmonica/singing - used to sing in a band and blow the harp
  • Web programming - again, "expert" might be stretching it a bit, but I've been doing it for ten years.
  • Occult/paranormal - Avid ghost hunter/investigator. Kinda comes with the territory with the Horror Channel articles and horror novels and such.
  • College politics - Worked at the same college for ten years and have actually seen English professors break out into fist fights.
  • Improvised Home Made Explosives - Uh...Moving on...
  • Depression - Diagnosed with depression a while ago. No longer on meds, so I like to think I beat it. One never truly beats it though, do they?
  • Audio-visual technician - If it has a plug on it, I'm responsible for it in my day job. Fire away with questions...I ain't skeered...
  • Multi-religious families
  • Ball Pythons - Got a three-footer in my writing room
  • Dogs & Cats - been around them all my life.
  • The insanity caused by teen-aged children - My oldest daughter just turned fourteen. You think you scare me? Nope.
  • How to irritate people - Years of practice!
 

meryl

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Geeky Content Maven

  • I'm in Plano, Texas -- just a wee bit north of Dallas. Born and bred in Foat Wuth (Fort Worth to the Yanks).
  • I was born with imperfect ears (read: deaf). Mainstreamed and don't do sign language (because I want to avoid letting my lipreading and speaking skills to go to pot).
  • I fell in like (love for computers just doesn't sound right) with computers when I got my first Apple ][+ at 10 (Does my age show?).
  • I met my husband in 1987 on a BBS (bulletin board aka pre-Internet thingie).
  • Has three kids: girl - 11, boy - 6, boy - 2 (girl think she knows everything and wants nothing to do with us, boy throws a fit when he can't beat a electronic game, and baby has curly hair that makes it hard for us not to let him get away with things).
  • Worked in government for three years during the six years living in Washington, DC.
  • Worked in teleco for 10 (still do).
  • Career involved process (as in TQM and CMM, but not M&Ms) and tech writing for a big monster of a software.
  • Frequently writes about PDAs (the geek kind, not the lovin' kind), web design, and software. Blogging since before it was cool.
  • Editor of a few email newsletters.
  • For years, I was a big fan of musical theater and collected way too much stuff... stuff I am trying to sell (Theater World Annuals for one). I still enjoy it, but my hands are too full.
  • I had cochlear implant surgery in 2003 within months of having the youngest - sick almost from birth till the end of the year then sick again in August 2004 -- lost half of my blood). Haven't decided if it was worth it yet or not as I got use out of my hearing aids.
Just finish the soccer mom thing... kid #2 had soccer party today... can't think anymore. Oh, a little promo for my daughter. She wants honest feedback on her writing. She is getting discouraged because she isn't getting enough comments. Thank you to Funny_Lady, Mac, and The Fairy Who Is Violet for taking the time to visit and comment.

I hope this helps. I am saving as much of your info as possible as this crew has a wonderfully diverse background.

Best,
Meryl
http://www.meryl.net/blog/

P.S. Hoping to see one J.G. in May!
 

smallthunder

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Seriously Sinophilic

As mentioned elsewhere, I am seriously into things Chinese -- have a M.A. in Chinese studies, have lived in the PRC for several years, currently residing in Taiwan (my third time here).
So, if you awake one night with a desperate need to know about:
-- the different romanization systems for spoken Mandarin, Cantonese, etc.
-- the significance of a Chinese image of a vase, an elephant, a vase in the shape of an elephant, a chubby boy holding a peach, a monkey astride a horse (etc)
-- the different types of tea and/or methods of tea preparation from the Han through the Qing Dynasty
-- 'simplified' (modern) vs. 'complex' (traditional) Chinese characters
-- the ancient 'art' of footbinding
-- contemporary Taipei
-- different types of Chinese cuisine (including Straits/Nonya dishes)
-- how to handle an abacus
-- elements of Imperial court attire
-- the different schools of Chinese fortune-telling (face reading, mole analysis, not 'feng shui' )(well, I just answered a question elsewhere on this site about 'feng shui' -- what it is and is not -- so I guess I originally underestimated my knowledge about it)
-- traditional Chinese holidays and/or customs and/or superstitions
etc.
I can handle some political science-type questions, too, but I'm better versed in the cultural/historical/sociological. My specialty is late Qing Dynasty/early modern China.
Let me know if your Fu Manchu needs some versimilitude --
 
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Dawno

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I'm a pretty good source of information about the temporary staffing industry, I've done all the back office, sales, etc. through mgmt positions and I've even been a temp.

I also know a bit about IT consulting and HR from my current and most recent roles at the company I now work for.

I have access to a very good resource on AF survival training, the U-2 program in the 60's and personal experience with life as an AF brat raised at Edwards AFB (a la The Right Stuff) from the early '60's to the mid 70's.

If you need some info about Bakersfield, CA I can help you with that, too. I'm amazed at how often I see that poor town derided in print. Don't live there now but went to Cal State Bakersfield in the late 70's and lived there in the early 90's for a bit.

hmmm. That's all I can think of for now. I'd love to help anyone who needs it!
 

stormie

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Here's some areas I can help in:

--Asperger's Syndrome

--Teaching the primary grades

--Mental Illness, mainly depression and Bipolar. In-patient hospitalization. (Not me, though sometimes I feel like I need a week of intense therapy....)

--Special ed kids losing a close family member (their differing take on it)

--Having lived near the ocean for so many years, I know about boardwalks, beaches, storms, summer visitors habits.... Nothing scientific, though. I'm not into marine biology!
 

katiemac

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I won't deem myself an expert at anything, but I decided to "put it out there" that, since I'm currently going through college, the only people I interact with on a daily basis are teenagers.

I am one, I know my friends, I know how we act, and I know the morals, values and mindset of most of the people I live around. I know there are some people on this board who may need a current 17-22 year old opinion, and I don't mind a PM if it's something I may be able to answer.

Bon chance!
 

JoniBGoode

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I used to know what I knew, but I forgot

Everyone here is so erudite that I hesitate to add my meager posting. But, I must know something because I keep reading novels and thinking that's not right!

Areas where I've noticed published work is frequently and annoyingly wrong, I've added an asterisk.

Sales & Marketing
Management & Operations:
Bars
Restaurants
Hotels*
Catering* (including lots of Ritzy parties and hundreds of weddings. Working, not attending.)

Undocumented US immigrants* (I was born in the US, but there may be one or two undocumented workers. . . wink,wink, . . . in the restaurant and hotel business.)

General Business*

Oxy-acetylene and electrical arc welding (yes, I'm female)
so that means women in non-traditional occupations

Adult Students
Single Parenting
Parent of Adult Child
Unmedicated "Natural" childbirth (short answer: just say yes)
Cooking and baking

I have a recent B.S. in psychology*, but you have people on the board with far more expertise than I. Still, a lot of people get even the easy stuff wrong.

Regional:

I've lived in California, Tennessee, Alabama, Texas, Nebraska, Maryland, Virginia, Florida (including the Keys), Louisiana, Wisconsin and Illinois. Many of them more than once.

(Why did you move around so much? My father was an itinerate aerospace engineer, employed by the Department of Defense, during the 'moon mission' era, when that was still a cool thing to do. I can't imagine why that would be useful to anyone, but just in case.)

Chicago has been my adopted home town for the past 12 years. If you have a setting or location question in Chi-town I can't answer, I'll go find out for you. (It's a great city, more novels should be set there.)

Because I've moved a fair amount, I'm fairly conversant in the regional differences between the South, Midwest and West. (It never ceases to amaze me that, to many from Illinois, all southern accents sound the same.)

I lived in Alabama, Virginia, and Maryland both before and shortly after segregation, so I've observed the worst of prejudice, in case someone needs ancient history.

Interpersonal Topics

Everyone in my family is completely normal, except for the:
sibling rivalry
alcoholism
cross-dressing
domestic violence
and child abuse

My sister is a social worker studying to become an Episcopalian priest who home schooled her three daughters, so if you have questions about any of those I'll ask her.

Finally, two questions I really DO know the answer to:
  1. Why does a guy say he'll call you, and then not do it?
  2. What does a guy mean when he says he's separated?
Feel free to PM or e-mail me anytime, because it's probably more fun than whatever I'm doing at the moment.
 
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JoniBGoode

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You're the expert!

three seven said:
[/list]Ok, I call your bluff. ;)

I was kidding!!! I thought YOU were going to explain it to us? That's what they told me when I signed up for this site!

:TheWave:
 
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Maryn

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Joni asks:
1. Why does a guy say he'll call you, and then not do it?
2. What does a guy mean when he says he's separated?
I'm not a guy, but I have studied them extensively, so I'll take a stab. (Easy, fellas, that's a metaphorical stab.)

1. He knows he ought to want to call you. He understands that the polite thing to do is pretend this is the case when it is not. It's easier to tell this white lie than to tell you he doesn't feel you clicked at all and you probably won't hear from him again.
2. He's married but would like to have sex with you, and he understands that you would not consider it if you think he and his wife are together.

How'd I do, guys?

Maryn, apologizing for hijacking the thread
 

thewriterslife

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I can help anyone with relationship articles - focusing on the soul mate relationship in particular. I'm the author of ROMANCING THE SOUL and a syndicated relationship columnist. Also, if you want to ask me anything about your personal relationships, I offer a free service *yeah, no strings attached* on my website at www.dorothythompson.net (look under "Ask Dorothy"). I love hearing from readers and love answering their relationship questions even more.
:Hug2:

Dorothy Thompson
Author, Relationship Columnist, Soul Mate Expert
www.dorothythompson.net
 

DJP

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Here's my two cents:

- Life in small town Saskatchewan, Canada. Bitterly COLD winters!
- Parenting a child with severe food allergies. My daughter has a life threatening allergy to peanuts.
- Exchange students. I was one in Switzerland for a year in 1995, studied French. We now have a Danish teenager living with us for a year.
- Piano, I'm studying to be a teacher.
- Travelling overseas with small children, (please ask for advice if you're planning on attempting this. Humour or Horror writers may be interested.)

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or comments.
 

LieselGarmach

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I'm so new at posting I'm almost afraid to contribute to this, but I have been lurking for months.

The only things I have that haven't been mentioned by anyone else are:

*Hardanger Embroidery as a hobby for over 10 years
*doing phone sex for an income, though not currently

and then there is my twisted perspective on life in general
 

angel2blue

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My List

Some of these I am expert at while others I have second hand knowledge.

  • Mental Illness (depression, OCD etc)
  • Computers (operating a Pc, software, Internet)
  • Books
  • libraries
  • Movies
  • animals (especially cats)
  • osteoarthritis
  • diabetes
  • making speeches
 
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