He’s a Man…
25 Skills Every Man Should Know according to Popular Mechanics:
- Patch a radiator hose — done it. Once using duct tape, and then more permanently with a clamp kit.
- Protect your computer — Windoes, you mean. On a Mac, you pretty much just turn on the firewall. And have a decent password on the root.
- Rescue a boater who as capsized — I’m pretty sure I could figure it out. Seems like you would make sure you don’t end up in the drink yourself.
- Frame a wall –done it. Roofed a house, too.
- Retouch digital photos — do it for a living.
- Back up a trailer — Wheel goes the other way. Dunce.
- Build a campfire — done it. Drunk.
- Fix a dead outlet — done it. Grandfather is a master electrician, after all.
- Navigate with a map and compass –– done it.
- Use a torque wrench — done it. No more shearing off bolt heads!
- Sharpen a knife — done it.
- Perform CPR — never had to do it, had the training.
- Fillet a fish — done it.
- Maneuver a car out of a skid — done it. (Didn’t do it once. Oops. Dude’s car got a little dinged up.)
- Get a car unstuck — done it.
- Back up data — done it.
- Paint a room — done it.
- Mix concrete — done it using sacrete. Never ran a plant.
- Clean a bolt-action rifle — Mmmmm. And recoil operated. And a lever gun. And a gas operated semi…
- Change oil and filter — done it.
- Hook up an HDTV — done it. With an HD Tivo, and another with a surround system.
- Bleed brakes — done it. And not using one of those kits.
- Paddle a canoe — done it. At 13.
- Fix a bike flat — did it when I was nine.
- Extend your wireless network — done it.
So, 24/25, with a probable on the 25th. Oh yeah, which one of you ladies wants to snap off a piece of this? This thread would lead me to believe that there are a bunch of you out there.
[…] links to 25 things a man should know how to do. Phelps is a man. And he also offers his far more, err, useful list: Stop arterial […]
I’ve done most of these. Backed up data to floppies; cassette tape was out of date by then. I’ve sharpened serrated knives and impressed rugged outdoorsmen with my fire-building. I could certainly follow the cabling diagrams for hooking up an HDTV, but don’t foresee ever having occasion to do so.
To do a man-overboard rescue you need to come around to windward, so bring the helm about and come up easy, on bigger boats than dinghies it’s a figure-eight maneuver. Righting a capsized boat is some more fun. Don’t trust a torque wrench with foot-pounds, at inch-pound levels! Backing-up a 30-foot trailer is fun too. Stop arterial bleeding – but what if you started it on purpose? Yeh ok sorry bro’…it was an oopsie, I swear. 🙂 The concrete is in case you don’t want anybody to find out.
Oops, I should have said “leeward” instead of windward – you don’t want to run over the poor bastard, you want him/her to drift into you so you can pluck ’em out.