No you don’t.
Props for making me laugh out loud, though.
I think I can change the minds’ of Trump supporters with facts and reasonable discussion.
Me too on the social behavior/cognitive thing. I’m ashamed to say how educational it was for me to listen to Penny give Sheldon Cooper advice on how to deal with social situations.
I try to say a mantra to myself at work and when going among people: “Make eye contact, smile, ask about their children”. If I don’t do this, I’ll just act like other people don’t exist in my world. It’s not snobbery, it’s just something off in the way I’m wired.
It seems to come so easy for a lot of people.
^^^ This. I get lost in buildings, trying to figure out which way was/is the front of the building where I came in. I go out for long walks but several times have had to call home whimpering, “Can you go on Google Maps and tell me where I need to go to get to Smith Street? I must have taken a wrong turn”
I am always amazed that a reasonably intelligent, reasonably coordinated person such as myself could be as utterly mechanically inept as I am. What are, I expect, simple tasks to many- replacing a car battery or headlight, really minor plumbing things, etc.- always feel like a huge triumph to me when I do them. For almost anything else around the house, I’ve long since given up attempting anything DIY and I just pay a professional. I’ve resigned myself to a very high probability that if I try a repair or replacement, something will go wrong and it will be my fault- over time I’ve probably stripped enough screws and bolts to fill a wheelbarrow. Even when I don’t actually break something in my own attempts at repair, the final result inevitably looks like the completely amateur job that it was.
Surely these things can’t be that hard. And yet.
The other day I got lost in someone’s basement, looking for the exit because I thought I was on the first floor. It was a nicely finished basement, but come on.
I’m pretty sure my husband could screw up even hanging a picture frame. Actually, I have witnessed him screw that up. It’s just better for all concerned if I do the household repairs and furniture assembly, even if I might occasionally electrocute myself.
He’s a very intelligent guy but I once told him that he was way overdue for an oil change because the oil was black. His response: ''Isn’t oil supposed to be black?"
Then there are his cooking skills, his recent ‘‘revelation’’ that you can heat a pot faster if you put a lid on it, and the time he tried to make mashed potatoes by mashing the potatoes before cooking them.
He has a Ph.D.
Knowing when to shut up.
I seem unable to read the subtleties of social situations, and end up talking when I shouldn’t. I’ve learned to enter all coerced* social gatherings with a background voice running in my head (“Don’t talk, don’t talk, keep your mouth shut”) over and over again.
My wife says the main problem is not recognizing subtle status and pecking order cues running in the background of groups of males. She says a lot of the boastful banter about who watched what event in sports runs deeper than just recounting games. That it can be a dominance thing as they try to establish alpha/beta/etc. status by who has more access and knowledge of sports arcana and who’s team won/lost. Then I screw it up by recounting something more interesting when they ask me what I last weekend.
*coerced = anything involving work or family – when I’m obligated to be there.
This is exactly what I came to say. My sense of direction is literally nonexistent. I may have told this here once before, but once I was bringing my daughter home from an appointment, a trip I had done several times. This one time I missed a turn, didn’t realize it and drove miles out of the way. We finally passed a Walmart I hadn’t seen before and said, I didn’t realize there was a Walmart there. Anyway, it’s now a constant line in my house if I misplace something or I’m looking for something I’m told, did you check Walmart. I don’t trust myself with GPS because I also really have no sense of distance. I need directions that give me landmarks. I’m sure the two are related.
I’m the same way, and I think it makes a lot of sense. Pleasure now is overriding possible bad effects later. /rationalization
Lunch yesterday was a fried chicken sandwich and a pile of frites the size of a small mountain. :rolleyes:
Yeppers. I have something similar playing in my head: “Remember, no one is interested in what interests you.” That way, I don’t start talking about the latest Alien movie to a bunch of grandmothers (my peer group).
What the heck to do, though? I mean, at least in a situation where actually having a conversation is the current plan. Of course, you can show interest in whatever the other person is yakking about. But when I do that, I seem to end up in way to many conversations that involve 1) Donald Trump, 2) sports, and of course 3), casual homophobia & racism. About which I 1) don’t give a f***, 2) don’t give a f***, and 3), actually have some opinions, which sure aren’t the same as the other person’s.
Hey, wait. I know what I need: A different social circle.
Yum. The capper for me is, savory/salty must be followed up with sweet. So Ben & Jerry’s would ensue a few hours after a lunch like yours. :o
Whenever I find a woman I’m interested in, I either ignore her or say something completely stupid. I don’t know which is worse.
It’s really strange that I happened to come upon this thread this evening. I was trying to remember how this particular expression goes – you know, which animal people who have no sense are usually compared to – and I was completely at a loss. For some reason, I thought that it might be a slug, but apparently it’s a goose, huh? Good to know.
[never mind]
I remind myself of that at work, constantly. I sit in a cubicle farm filled only with the rehash of weekend sports events.
Last weekend I…
-Visited a college where the students run a dairy farm, a grain mill, a cannery, and a 5 star restaurant, and there is no tuition other than work (they graduate debt-free). I ate dinner at the restaurant, and it was fabulous.
-Toured a hydroelectric dam, and even got to handle one of the turbine wheels that had been removed for service.
-Visited a veteran’s museum which had a “wall” (like Viet Nam memorial) containing the names of every serviceperson lost in WWII, Korea, VietNam, and all the middle east conflicts of late. It was mind-boggling and disturbing to stand in that sea of names.
-Visited a private car collection containing an identical car to the 1954 Plymouth that I learned to drive in.
-Rode 40 miles on a train made entirely of 1950’s vintage cars/locomotives. Even ate in the “dining” car.
Those are the things I did on Father’s Day weekend, but if I try to tell anyone at work I get: “Yeah, yeah pullin, didja see when Buford catched that ball?”
Sigh…
This is the correct thing to do, for many multiple reasons. Do not mess with something you don’t understand; Professionals have the experience and tools to do it quickly, efficiently, and with a certain amount of insurance that it will get sorted out; and it’s cheaper in the long run.
I am a physical klutz when it comes to practical DIY jobs. I struggle with Lego, for pete’s sake.
I don’t even like it when the Landlord comes in to fix something, even though it’s his responsibility, because he is as likely to make a pig’s ear of it as I am. Get the damned professionals in.
I don’t give a damn about my health. I figure stressing out about it will kill me quicker than ignoring it. And I rarely get sick.
I’m very intelligent, but I have NO sense of direction. And I mean none. I get lost in my own home town, where I’ve lived for thirty years. It’s totally genetic–nobody in my family has any sense of direction. I blame the Howard family, being a direct descendant of Annie Lucy Howard, one of the founding families of New England, and the same Howards that gave us the Ohio Taft politicos. I figure they were looking for a nice picnic spot they heard about just outside Boston and gave us when they hit what is now Ohio.