Sunday, September 28, 2008

80 Skills Everyone Should Know

Popular Mechanics put out a list entitled "100 Skills Every Man Should Know". Technically, it was 80 skills one should know and 20 tools one should own. The skills were broken into categories. I'm going to expand it from "every man" to "every person". I went over the list of 80 skills and I've marked in bold the ones I know how to do.

Automotive
1. Handle a blowout
2. Drive in snow (It doesn't snow where I live.)
3. Check trouble codes
4. Replace fan belt
5. Wax a car (On my mission, it was a rule that we had to wax the car once per month. It usually managed to get done quarterly.)
6. Conquer an off-road obstacle
7. Use a stick welder
8. Hitch up a trailer
9. Jump start a car (I have this bad habit of leaving my lights on and running down the battery.)

Handling Emergencies
10. Perform the Heimlich
11. Reverse hypothermia
12. Perform hands-only CPR
13. Escape a sinking car

Home
14. Carve a turkey (Never had a reason to learn. However, I do know how to carve a tofurky.)
15. Use a sewing machine
16. Put out a fire
17. Home brew beer
18. Remove bloodstains from fabric (Hydrogen peroxide works great.)
19. Move heavy stuff
20. Grow food
21. Read an electric meter
22. Shovel the right way (There's a right way?)
23. Solder wire
24. Tape drywall
25. Split firewood
26. Replace a faucet washer
27. Mix concrete
28. Paint a straight line
29. Use a French knife (I had never heard it called that, though. My mom always called it a chef's knife.)
30. Prune bushes and small trees
31. Iron a shirt
32. Fix a toilet tank flapper
33. Change a single-pole switch
34. Fell a tree
35. Replace a broken windowpane
36. Set up a ladder, safely
37. Fix a faucet cartridge
38. Sweat copper tubing
39. Change a diaper
40. Grill with charcoal
41. Sew a button on a shirt
42. Fold a flag

Medical Myths (I have a medical job right now.)
43. Treat frostbite
44. Treat a burn
45. Help a seizure victim
46. Treat a snakebite
47. Remove a tick

Military Know-How (Two years of ROTC will do that...)
48. Shine shoes
49. Make a drum-tight bed
50. Drop and give the perfect pushup

Outdoors
51. Run rapids in a canoe
52. Hang food in the wild
53. Skipper a boat
54. Shoot straight
55. Tackle steep drops on a mountain bike
56. Escape a rip current

Primitive Skills (11 years as a Girl Scout)
57. Build a fire in the wilderness
58. Build a shelter
59. Find potable water

Surviving Extremes
60. Floods
61. Tornados
62. Cold
63. Heat
64. Lightning

Teach Your Kids (I don't have any, but I still know some of these skills.)
65. Cast a line
66. Lend a hand
67. Change a tire
68. Throw a spiral
69. Fly a stunt kite
70. Drive a stick shift
71. Parallel park
72. Tie a bowline
73. Tie a necktie
74. Whittle
75. Ride a bike (You haven't lived until you've commuted by bicycle in San Francisco. It's a slow, arduous process, but it's faster and cheaper than the bus. Just watch out for cars trying to run you over.)

Technology
76. Install a graphics card
77. Take the perfect portrait
78. Calibrate HDTV settings
79. Shoot a home movie
80. Ditch your hard drive

Not bad 57/80 is 71%. A C- on life skills!

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