I mean, what’s something you can do that people are like, “really? You know how to do that?”
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Landscaping
My very first job at the age of 15 was working at a Nursery/ Garden Center. I also would work on the landscaping crews and even did some design work.
When my wife and I bought our house she said she always dreamed of having a big flower garden, but said she didn’t know how to do it properly.
Well… I do. Even my Mother-In-Law, who is an experienced gardener, learned a few things from me. Although, I have to admit, she really does know a lot and I learned a lot from her as well.
Our flower beds are beautiful throughout the growing season with a huge variety of plants.
People are surprised that I can jodel a bit. My geeky high-schools self worked hard to build this skill.
I’m a crossing guard at school. My amazing trick is to balance the lollipop on my nose.
I also know some Shakespearean sonnets and the first page of finnegans wake by heart, but that’s usually more expected.
The most wow reaction i had from my sons’ friends was when i swore better than them. But then again, i once went on a two week tour to schools teaching the kids how to swear, so …, no big deal.
i once went on a two week tour to schools teaching the kids how to swear
I feel like this needs elaboration.
Long story short: taught kids about swearing as s substitute teacher, got the principal (my mother) in trouble, wrote a manuscript about swearing, interviewed a linguist about religion for the humanist (atheist) magazine, she invited me to join her book project on swearing, the book was published, the «kulturelle skolesekken» (bringing culture to schools) invited me to tour the northernmost, most swearing part of Norway to talk about swearing.
https://www.nettavisen.no/teacher-taugth-swearwords-in-religion-class/s/12-95-151785
I surprise ppl with my drawing skills, and they always say my place is nice and cosy. Everyone who comes over for the first time gets weirdly surprised. I am not sure if that is a skill tho xD
- I have decent throwing aim. I can shoot most trash into the bin from a couple of meters away. With practice, I can probably increase my range.
- I am pretty flexible for someone my size.
- I have a pretty scary evil laugh that can scare the neighborhood children away.
Because of the office layout at one of my jobs I developed exceptional skill at backhanding stuff into the trash bin diagonally behind me across the room. So when I made a home office I set it up the same way. People are always asking, “Why is your trash bin way over there?”
I can’t throw any sort of ball to save my life, but in school I could sink a crumpled up piece of paper into the trash bin across the classroom with consistency that even shocked myself. I’m also deadly with rubber bands and have a knack for paper planes and projectiles made from broken pens.
This reminds me of a job where my office buddy and I used to shoot rubber bands, paperclips, little wads of paper etc. at each other over the partition between our desks, or bank them off the wall. There was this guy Dave from another floor, who occasionally stopped in with a question for one of us, and I swear to god every time he came in was right when we were screwing around like that or laughing immediately afterwards. Every. Single. Time. Once while we were exchanging fire I even said something like, “Time for Dave to show up,” and like 2 seconds later he walked in. We both busted up laughing. Dave developed a srsly bad attitude about us because he didn’t think we ever did any work, but actually we were hella busy most of the time.
Same! I was voluntold for the class basketball team because of my height. I was too unathletic for it, however, and I only lasted one week. However, like you, I can throw paper waste from almost anywhere in the classroom and shoot it into the bin. I can also shoot a worn-out piece of chalk to its container from the middle row. I was pretty lousy with paper planes though.
The “throw trash into the bin” ability comes in clutch when I’m too lazy to stand up and put trash into the bin. That’s where I got most of my recent practice!
I’m able to forget most things my dad says … he has an opinion of everything and will babble for 20 minutes about stuff no one else in the house cares about.
Also, I can picture a blueprint in 3d.
Somehow, it’s a surprise to people that I’m a competent trumpet player. As if every high school in the state doesn’t have a band class. Fully half of my graduating class in high school were musicians of some kind between chorus, orchestra and band classes. But somehow nobody expects a random dude in his mid-30’s to pick up a trumpet and play a few bars of Ravel’s Bolero.
I’m a father living in Japan, so any competent display of childcare is still met with shock and confusion.
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This is very interesting, could you please elaborate a bit? Are fathers not involved in parenting in traditional Japanese culture?
I believe the father is still considered the breadwinner role.
If you like humorous dramas: The way of the househusband (live action)
A clip of the show: https://youtu.be/ktztBx-8onkIf you want, I can give you access to the whole season :)
Can I get access? I tried watching the anime but couldn’t get into it. I enjoyed this live action clip a lot more
The drama (6 of 10 episodes) can be downloaded as a torrent here: 極主夫道 The Way of the Househusband Season 01 1920x1080 Web-DL H.264 DDP
The movie (torrent): The Way of the Househusband: The Cinema 2022 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DD+5.1 H.264-JPTVclub. An upload on Bili Bili can be found here: Bili Bili I didnt even know a movie existed.
Link to the full season (torrent): WIPDisclaimer:
The files are originally from the private tracker I was part of that folded due to personal reasons of the admin/mod of the tracker. Some kind soul decided to archive and reshare the files. I am currently in the progress of downloading and then seeding it long term with high(er) speed. The show has 10 episodes in total (source) and I have all 10 but uploading to my seedbox is slow. I will update the torrent/magnet sometime tomorrow evening (MESZ)Sweet! Thank you kind stranger 🙏
Updated with the remaining files
What sort of things would be considered unusual childcare wise?
As I found out recently, drawing.
I took some classes in high school and only recently got back into it, and I’d consider myself…averageish? I know where I need improvements and I see the quirks and wonks, so to speak.
The people in my adult life who have seen my sketchbook make (positive) comments, which surprised me. Still, it’s nice.
Drawing has always been super impressive to me. I pretty much gave it up in high school, but my husband is an incredible artist and I just always appreciate seeing what other people do. It seems like it’s hella zen when you get into it. Awesome skill :)
I’m a tall burly cisman so people are always surprised that I know how to sew. I mostly hand-mend my clothes but I made my own pants in high school when I had access to a sewing machine.
Sewing seems like a good hobby for anybody who likes to work with their hands. In my 20s my housemate let me borrow her sewing machine to put together a thinsulate jacket from a Frostline kit. It was a blast, but that was the last sewing I ever did.
Sewing fellas unite!
I usually make hats and tool wraps, but I mend dresses or alter clothes for friends too.
“Sewing is girly”
Meanwhile boy scouts, military, and doctors sewing stuff all day long.
Hand-sewing is my “something to occupy my hands while watching tv” hobby. I usually take shirts that I buy at a thrift store and customize them (side panels to make them fit better, add lacy pieces, etc.).
I can sew, although I kind of hate it. Sewing is an essential skill if you own a sailboat and have no money.
“own a sailboat and have no money” that’s a redundant statement :]
I think that would be antithetical, or paradoxical. Redundant means superfluous (=more than is necessary)
See the common conception of boat owners is that they’re rich. And they certainly might start out that way. But a boat is a hole in the ocean into which money is thrown, and thus boat owners quickly become not rich
I’ve heard that boat owners are happy on two days. The day they buy it, and the day they sell it.
oooooohhh, I get it. Indeed
sewing is mine also. I don’t think I’ve talked to a single person in the 15 years I’ve been sewing that hasn’t reacted with shock to some degree or another upon finding out.
i like repairing clothes and making backpacks.
After loosing some of my hearing and not being able to compose electronic music anymore, I basically retired from being a musician. Picked up drumming about 9 months ago and I’m surprisingly good at it.
Oh hell yeah! I’ve been drumming for 20 years, it’s the best instrument out there. Enjoy, it’s hella fun!
Cheers. It’s really great and lots of fun. Already recording an album for a German band in the studio thanks to some amazing teachers out there.
Have an intelligent discussion about theology.
I may look like your average idiot who is also atheist; but it’s because I have a weird interest in theology and have read so many religious texts and interpretations of most major and some minor religions from around the globe. Some of them have some kick ass stories. Hell, some of them read like straight up sci-fi!
[L Ron Hubbard’s estate wants to know your location]
Oddly enough, I haven’t actually read Dianetics or any of his other sci-fi prior to going after “the real money in religion” for that matter.
I kinda get the impression that Scientology is the one cult that using their own doctrine against them wouldn’t quite have the same effect.
I found “Battlefield Earth” surprisingly good.
I have found that atheists know more about religion than the typical believer.
I can cook a decent meal. I though it was a basic skill bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs etc. But almost everyone I know buys take away or makes the most basic of basic food.
I’m learning this about young folk (17 - 40) - that they don’t cook at all, just order delivery food. That is so unbelievably expensive! And unhealthy! I know cooking is a pain in the ass, but it’s like cleaning and paying your bills - just something you gotta do.
Woah. I have some thoughts .
All my kids can cook, and all their significant others can cook. I never thought of it as a pain though, more a creative outlet, and whoever cooks gets to eat what they want, right? I make what I want, everyone else eats that.
One of my brothers went to school in New Orleans and told me he just ate out every meal there. And my mom only followed written recipes or made spaghetti, she didn’t like to cook.
Oh and when I was dating my now husband, one of his kids asked for “mashed potatoes made from potatoes” for his birthday. But he can cook now, his girlfriend has an Italian dad and his standards are high, lol. So both he & the girlfriend are good cooks now.
My ex, he was the worst cook I have ever known, but learned at work and became a very good cook as an adult. Like exceptionally good, could take the produce that was going to be thrown out and make it into something customers would pay a lot for.
It infuriates me. People dropping half my weekly food budget on 1 meal just so some underpaid bastard can deliver it to ur door. Then they complain about cost of living. I would spend about a quarter as much as what most people I know do on food per week and I’m eating like a fucking king prime cuts of steek 3 times a week, fresh fruit and veg, the fancy bread, etc. And I’m still winning economically. And we haven’t even got to the health benefits of not eating fake shit full of sugar 7days a week.
Juggle. I’m by no means a master, but I know my way around quite a few different juggling things. Balls, sticks, hoops, the two sticks you hold with the longer one you juggle in the middle, diabolos/Chinese yo-yos.
Compared to most people, I know a fuck ton of keyboard shortcuts making me look like a computer wizard.
I’ve been criticized for that, lots of people say “use the mouse, it’s better”. I say “how is it better?”. They say “it just is”.
The truth is that they can’t do the keyboard shortcuts and are jealous.
I’m certainly no vim wizard but just knowing a good number of shortcuts really saves time doing precise clicks and selections with your mouse
