Basic Life Skills No-One Has Anymore
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The rage is strong in this one. As for being in the older generation... I turn 30 next month... I don't consider myself that old. Nor do I look "down" on people who don't know this stuff, it's shocking to me because this stuff is so bloody easy, it's not rocket science people, it's called basic for a reason, it takes very little time to learn how to do this stuff, yet so few people are taught or know how to do it.mrpenguinismyhomeboy said:
When I moved out of home I was 19, I did okay, did my own washing, fixed things around the house, did my own cooking, all by myself, yet when I visited friends of the same they were scraping by one week out of every two because they didn't know how to cook for themselves, so they'd eat well the first week after getting paid on fastfood, frozen food (which is deceptively expensive, it doesn't look it but it is), etc. the next week they'd make do with stale bread and baked bean, they'd have ratty clothes with holes in them, etc.
I finally got so fed up with it one week I asked a mate how much money he had left, he said $15, we went to the corner store and I got enough food for him to last a week after I was done cooking. Sure it was mostly rice and pasta, but damn, it's not hard to cook for one person.
This is all easy, basic stuff I learnt at the knee of my grandparents, it's not hard, that's exactly why it's so mind boggling that no-one knows this stuff!
Know what is dead? Common sense and problem solving. Back in the day one could figure that out even if they didn't know how
The name of this topic seems like something that could be made into a Cracked article. Well, I do know how to prep a fish for cooking, but I can't sew for crap.
Certain things have become unnecessary to know as time wears on. And, theres a guide for everything now.
My point is that the baby boomers fucked up their kids.RAKtheUndead said:
The "Greatest Generation" were a bunch of scrappers and badasses. They survived legitimate hardship, and they busted ass to make the world a better place for their children.
The boomers took that better world for granted. They became spoiled and entitled, spent well beyond their collective means, failed to back any of it up with honest labor, and are currently foisting the whole mess on Gen Y.
Don't trust anyone under 30? Fuck everyone under 64.
It's funny how every previous generation has though exactly the same thing about the one following it.RAKtheUndead said:
Though I can't talk, I hate gen Y as well. And I'm 20.
87 Octane! That'd just about kill my engine!TestECull said:
I put 91 octane in it once and it ran like a lawnmower.
I'm not in favor of automatics myself, I think they are horrid. Besides, most of my friends who bought auto cars when they got their licenses don't seem to be as aware as drivers and have crashed their cars. Either that or they've blown their autos up because they don't realize they need to be serviced.
Sad thing is where I live now there aren't any full service stations around, where I use to live had a few, I never had any trouble using them, nor because I'm lazy, I hate it because the smell of petrol, even a little bit gives me a headache, the same with a lot of "chemical" smells, I once had a room mate who used body spray all the bloody time and I was constantly getting headaches thanks too it, I can't stand the smell of most perfumes or aftershaves either... it's odd.TestECull said:
The way I see it, the fact that so many people are so ignorant of so many of these 'basic' skills shows how superfluous a lot of them have become.
For instance, I'm not sure how valuable knife-sharpening is these days. I've had my set of kitchen knives for eight years or so and have never felt the need to sharpen them. The day I do, I'll have got enough use out of them to justify (to myself at least) buying a new set.
Cooking? Personally I'm a pretty good cook. In my experience, most people from my kind of background (lower middle-class) can make at least a couple of things they like to eat, and if you can do that, then it's no great difficulty to follow a recipe to make something else once in a while.
For the OP, can you split logs? Do you know when they're seasoned enough to burn? Can you get a fire going from scratch? Hunt, kill, skin game? If you can, great. But I wouldn't get high-and-mighty about it - these are skills that, barring apocalypse, are optional in the century we live in.
For instance, I'm not sure how valuable knife-sharpening is these days. I've had my set of kitchen knives for eight years or so and have never felt the need to sharpen them. The day I do, I'll have got enough use out of them to justify (to myself at least) buying a new set.
Cooking? Personally I'm a pretty good cook. In my experience, most people from my kind of background (lower middle-class) can make at least a couple of things they like to eat, and if you can do that, then it's no great difficulty to follow a recipe to make something else once in a while.
For the OP, can you split logs? Do you know when they're seasoned enough to burn? Can you get a fire going from scratch? Hunt, kill, skin game? If you can, great. But I wouldn't get high-and-mighty about it - these are skills that, barring apocalypse, are optional in the century we live in.
From the start to finish.gh0ti said:
Yes I can split a log.
Yes I know what wood will burn and what wont.
Yes I can start a fire without man made tools (i.e lighter/etc), though it's a massive pain to do so)
Yes I can hunt, with firearms, I learned how to make a rudimentary bow as well when I was a teenager and on a bowhunting kick, I can also make basic snares and traps with supplies found in the bush.
I can kill animals effectively without much pain on their part with my hands (snapping the neck of a rabbit for example)
I can butcher and skin (pluck where applicable) a great many animals, to date I've done rabbit, fox, kangaroo, emu, wild pig, sheep, cow, alpaca (don't ask), chickens, ducks, and likely a few others I can't think of.
I don't consider any of the above skills to be anything other then a product of how I grew up and my interests at various times of my life, with the exception of splitting a log none of the above is what I'd consider "basic", they are things that are useful to know if you live outside a major city as I do, but they aren't things everyone who runs a house should know!
As I've said before knife sharpness is a safety issue, a blunt knife is more dangerous to you then a sharp one.
The minimum octane rating sold in the United Kingdom and Ireland is 95 RON - sold in just about every service station in the country. Our octane rating is different to yours - you use AKI instead of RON, but our 95 RON is your 91 AKI. He still probably wouldn't be able to run his engine on 87 AKI fuel. I know that European and Japanese cars disagree with it, at the least. More modern Australian machines probably do as well.[/quote]TestECull said:
I have a '79 Datsun 200B, as displayed in my profile pic. It's no sports car, but I have modified the engine so that it has a higher compression ratio. That basically means there is less place for the fuel to combust in, meaning that a lower octane fuel will damage the engine. I always use 98 RON petrol as that gets the most power and the best mileage.
And yes, I did the work myself. Does that count as a basic life skill?
I kinda figured that was the case, and why i posted the minor rant so that there was a little distinction between farming, and gardeningTehCookie said:
tkioz said:
There's a sense of shame we get from the shallower parts of pop culture for a make-do-and-mend, hobbyist mentality. I mean, that's pretty much the identifier for the 'nerd' in Hollywood films - they've repaired their clothes/glasses/shoes/car/whatever themselves, and they have a hobby which requires a certain amount of work. The idea that we are fed by everything from most chart music to most popular films to most adverts to most chick lit, subliminally, is that poor people are dirty and strange, and of course if you have to repair something you are unnecessarily serious, probably boring, and definitely poor, dirty and strange.
Punk was meant to blow those stereotypes and damaging associations away, but then punk as a movement became too tribal and middle-class actually pretty damn quickly, and we're living with the materialistic, capitalist, greedy hangover from the '80s and '90s. Worse than that, we're still drinking the same swill.
Declaration of Interest: I brew my own beer and make some of my own furniture (badly).
EDIT: In response to the "Use of resources" argument for feeling bad for using your computer - visit www.freerice.com once after every computer session and play it until you feel better. If I ever manage to get financially set for life, that site will become my life's main focus (sad, yeah, but it's an easy way to help and I know lots of words/latin roots of words).
My Mum died when I was 12. My Dad, while a great guy, was not one of cooking your dinner or washing your clothes. So, from about then on I have been doing it all myself.tkioz said:
In first year of college I lived with a guy that did not know how to use the grill.
Fuckit!
This thread just reminded me I have to pick up a new whetstone after work. The ole "good" one lies under the sink of the appartment I just moved from and some of the kitchen knives are in dire need of sharpening.
OT: I blame the parents. If you don't know things liek this yerself, at least force the kids to watch Ray Mears and suchlike (not much sewing on them shows, but can't have it all).
This thread just reminded me I have to pick up a new whetstone after work. The ole "good" one lies under the sink of the appartment I just moved from and some of the kitchen knives are in dire need of sharpening.
OT: I blame the parents. If you don't know things liek this yerself, at least force the kids to watch Ray Mears and suchlike (not much sewing on them shows, but can't have it all).
Problem I find with the kitchen aspects is that my mum doesn't like people in the kitchen when she's cooking so you can't really observe what to do or help out. Still manage to teach myself a little when they're gone though.
Still for most basic skills I'd say I'm alright but room for improvement (god that sounded like a report card...)
Still for most basic skills I'd say I'm alright but room for improvement (god that sounded like a report card...)