Apparently this is a list of required ‘life skills’. I think I can do about half of them, and the other quarter is irrelevant and/or I don’t know.
Iron a shirt Yes. I can definitely do this.
Put out a fire Yes. If given water, and/or a fire extinguisher.
Install a graphics card No, but I can install RAM. Should be about the same.
Move heavy stuff Yes. But I’m a woman – I have a limit on what I can lift.
Change a tire No. Just got a car, am going to learn.
Jump start a car Yes. This one I know, you just put jumper cables on, and poof.
Grill with charcoal No. I have no clue how to. But I know how to grill with wood now.
Tie a necktie I used to be able to for school. I’m sure I could pick it up again.
Ditch your hard drive WTF does this mean? You mean like wipe out my hard drive if it dies? Then yes.
Fix your toilet tank flapper Yes.
Sew a button on a shirt Yes. Goes with ironing a shirt for me.
Shoot a home movie No. Never owned a video camera, but I think my amateurish skills would be put to good use here.
Solder wire Yes.
Shine shoes Yes.
Perform a Heimlich No, but I know theoretically how it’s done, however I’ve never been formally trained.
Drive a stick shift No, and I never will.
Wax a car No.
Replace a faucet washer Yes.
Remove a tick No?
Change a diaper No.
Calibrate HDTV setting I don’t own a TV. Kind of moot.
Hitch up a trailer to your car No.
Build a fire in the wilderness With wood? Done. Just need a lighter or else I’m there rubbing sticks together.
Grow food Yes.
Read an electric meter No.
Carve a turkey Yes.
Use a sewing machine No. I had one, but not any longer.
Fold a flag Yes.
Escape a rip current No.
Make a drum tight bed No.
Remove bloodstains from fabric WHY FOR? But no. Only if I have stain remover agents.
Tie a bowline What the hell is a bowline?
What a nice mix of nature and tech skills. Did they ever think about putting Cooking, Cleaning or How to be polite in there? 😛
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
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I’m kinda glad not everyone knows how to drive stick… Less chance of my cars being stolen if criminals can’t drive them away! 🙂 Besides, all the fun cars are sticks… Means more stupid people who can’t drive anyways aren’t wrapping beautiful cars around trees and telephone poles. 😉 (But I can’t drive automatics either, lol. I will look for a clutch even when I know it’s not there…)
Jumping a car is with jumper cables, not the pushing it and dropping a clutch… Though that’s a fairly good method for older cars. 🙂 The last time I saw it done the car in question was a 60’s or 70’s Porsche 911.
Also, ticks don’t like alcohol… My Mom always has rubbing alcohol for the ticks her dogs get in their ears. It doesn’t cause them to let go, but it will bother them enough so that they don’t burrow and helps get them to release. She then subsequently kills them with a hammer, since it’s one of the few methods for killing them that works. 🙂
If this list were a test for life, I’d fail. I don’t know how to do much, yet somehow I survive… 😉
Big Shot: someone’s random blog 🙂
Where did you get this list?
If you’re caught in a rip you should swim across it so you don’t waste energy trying to swim against it.
To get rid of a tick, tie some dental floss into a loose knot around the tick, and draw it closed as close to the skin as possible and the whole thing will come out. That way it won’t leave it’s head in the skin, as happens when you use tweezers.
I think when they mean “jump start a car” they talk about this: you put your car in gear, a coupla strong guys push it and you drop the clutch. This only works for a stick shift though. Had to do it lots of times in Greece with my dodgy car (it started with a screwdriver – nuff said 🙂
Here’s how you can add another to your list:
To remove a tick, you can usually just grab some blunt tweezers, grip the tick as close to the skin as possible, and gently pull it straight off (no twisting).
Ideally, you get the little bugger to release it’s grip so you don’t leave tick chompers behind, but there are a lot of techniques out there that really don’t work that well, aren’t too safe, or just aren’t worth it. Just go slowly and if it leaves anything behind, get some fine point tweezers and dig it out. Put some antibiotic ointment over the area when you’re done for good measure. And of course, if you see any weird reactions around the area, get yourself to a doc.
And yes, I have a bit of experience with this, having grown up in the country and gone camping quite a bit — though they’ve never been more than a nuisance. And fortunately, most ticks I’ve removed were on my pets and not me. One latched on above the eye of my pet snake when I was a kid — that was fun. Our newest kitty also came with a few.
I hope you don’t mind, I want to post this one!!!
mare: I am just baffled by a couple
Michelle: I agree. Or “calculate compounding interest”
brooke: LOL! I know about the cables, I’ve seen people do it enough times to know what to do 🙂
i found out the hard way in high school that you can’t just put jumper cables on a car and poof!! You have to match the poles and ground the last connector or you will blow a fuse in your car and then you won’t be going anywhere til you get a new fuse. i didn’t do that and poof! big spark, smoke and totally dead car.
except for the riptide, bowline and tying a tie, i can do it all! pretty random list, though.
Driving a stick shift is a lost art, since most cars these days are automatic. But it’s a good skill to have, just in case you have to drive a drunk friend home and said friend drives a stick.
Where are the personal finance must-have skills? Like how to balance a checkbook or sign up for an IRA?
Interesting, although I don’t see why some a required? Like calibrate HDTV settings or waxing a car, lol which I cannot do either 🙂
Maxie: Good to know!!
QL: Some are kind of … useless. Like folding a flag? I’m sorry but that’s not life or death.
I read the internet, read blogs, talk to people and read newspapers 🙂
There are so many sources to get info, and when I had TV, I watched crap shows. Now I don’t even miss them. I do watch my Gossip Girl once in a while on Youtube or ANTM but that’s about it.
Dang, I feel useless…I don’t know how to do a lot of those (although I admit, they are pretty basic, I should get to learning!)
You mentioned you don’t have a TV, so what sources do you use to “stay informed” since you don’t watch the news? (I’m considering weaning myself off of TV)
I think to escape a rip tide you’re supposed to swim sideways with it instead of letting it draw you out…
or maybe that’s just wishful thinking that it could be that easy.