Random things I don't know or can't do

[Xander]

Ignorance does not equal stupidity, it shouldn't be taken as an insult to say one is ignorant. Lao Tse said, "To know one's ignorance is the best part of knowledge."

 

I believe many of us who received less than stellar educations are ignorant about something. This is probably true in history for a good majority of people.

 

I reckon this is true of pretty much everyone, regardless of the quality of their education. There are plenty of gaps in my knowledge, skills I've never learned and things I've never tried. Plus, of course, there are things that I /have/ tried, but not entirely successfully.

 

So, who's willing to admit to something they don't know or can't do?

 

I can't cook. At uni, I lived on sandwiches and cereal. Luckily my partner is a good cook, so those days are over. On the rare occasions when I fancy having a go (and don't hear "get out of my kitchen!"), I treat it all with great caution. The recipe must be followed exactly - no substitutions, guesswork or improvisation - and ingredients must be weighed or measured to the nearest gramme or ml. I make far too many dishes/utensils dirty in the process. The subtle differences between "rub in", "fold", "whisk", "beat", "stir", "mix" and "combine" elude me. More often than not, my partner ends up taking over and/or rescuing me part way through and I am relegated to washing up duty.

 

I can't name any of the state capitols, apart from Delaware's and that's only because it's the odd one out. Ask me any of the others and I'd take a random guess between House and Capitol (and I'd probably guess the wrong one). It had never even occurred to me that anyone would know them all until I saw a thread about it today.

 

I can't count. Everyone in my section fumbled an entry (twice!) during this evening's rehearsal because I can't count to 6.

 

I'm ignorant of the social sciences. They weren't offered at my school, if they had been I wouldn't have taken them and I've never cared enough to study them in my own time.

 

I'm a complete luddite when it comes to cars. I've never driven an automatic and hope I never have to try. My car has four wheels, an engine, brakes and a steering wheel - that's enough for me - no ABS, no power steering, no sat-nav, no air-con, no electric windows. My partner's car not only has all that and more, but it does things on its own initiative. I'm still mildly freaked out by this whenever I drive the wretched thing. It doesn't seem quite right somehow when a computer makes decisions about when to turn lights and wipers on. My car lets me take care of that sort of stuff, which is how it should be. I suspect that my partner's car and others like it are secretly plotting to make drivers completely redundant in due course.

As for mechanics, I can do stuff like check and top up the fluids or change a wheel, but I've never tinkered with an engine let alone taken one apart. It's not that I have no interest in mechanical things - I just prefer to direct that interest in the direction of Lego Technic (which won't have serious and/or expensive consequences if I mess something up).

 

I have no idea what most bones are called. I can name the ones I've broken and a handful of others. Not got a clue about the rest and I'm pretty vague about all the squishy stuff that fills in the space between the (mostly unidentified) bones and the skin. I've heard of things like the pancreas, gall bladder and bile duct but I don't know where they are or what they do. (I'm going to have to go look them up in a minute as I'm now curious.)

 

I can't play the oboe. There's a reasonable chance I could learn to do so if I wanted, but I don't want to. I have zero interest in it. It's one of the very few instruments that I've never even cadged a "go" on, despite having friends who play it. I don't dislike it as an instrument - I'll listen to it quite happily. It just doesn't register on my "want to play" radar.

 

I can't spell. When I'm typing, especially online, I lose the ability to differentiate between English and American. My spelling devolves into an inconsistent hybrid (Amglish?), with u appearing and disappearing, seemingly at random, while s and z become largely interchangeable. My vocabulary follows suit, with absolutely no consistency whatsoever as to which words get translated and which don't.

 

I'm the worst hockey player there's ever been since men first thought it might be fun to strap knives to their feet and have a punch up on a frozen pond. If I have any more hockey-related x-rays, I'll probably start to glow in the dark. If I had any common sense at all, I'd probably have concluded that clumsy oafs like me shouldn't play hockey. Apparently I was absent when common sense was being dished out. Family circumstances mean I'm not playing at the moment, but sooner or later I'll be back on the ice. Hockey is fun. And, hey, it might be kinda cool to glow in the dark.

 

I can't speak Spanish. Whatever it is in my brain that needs to be wired for Spanish has already been hooked up, just not to Spanish. I know a few words, but they come out sounding like French. It doesn't help that some of them actually look like French, but even those that don't are a problem. Something deep in my brain registers that "this is foreign" and automatically grabs for the nearest thing it has to offer in that department. Being told the correct pronunciation (repeatedly!) doesn't make any difference.

Edited April 5, 2011 by Xander

[AK_Mom4]

AMEN! This sounds like me, except for the oboe....it continues to elude me with that bizarre double reed.....

[Parrothead]

I can't perform brain surgery. I really never wanted to so it doesn't matter.

 

I can't sing although I dearly wish I could.

 

I can't play an instrument. I think it would be cool to learn. But I think I'm too old.

[Jane in NC]

I can't cook. At uni, I lived on sandwiches and cereal.

 

 

 

Nor could I cook in my undergraduate days. Bake, yes. Cook, no. Now I am considered a good cook. Living proof that one need not spend one's life in ignorance. ;)

 

I cannot speak French. I have tried, but I literally cannot hear the nuanced difference between certain vowel sounds.

 

I have many Luddite tendencies. I am not inclined to learn new technology unless backed into a corner. I have had a new tablet computer for several weeks. At this point, I can turn it on and find my Washington Post link. Well, a few more things, but that is about it. I have to force myself to spend time with new technologies. It is not pleasurable for me.

 

Of all of the high school sciences classes, I am most ignorant of chemistry. I knew that I had to farm that one out.

 

Google is my friend. So is Wikipedia. I like learning things and am not afraid to ask questions.

 

But I will not perform brain surgery under the direction of a web site--unless Parrothead insists.

[Hannah C.]

I cannot pronounce French words. I have tried. I am incapable of forming those sounds, even the ones I can hear. Also, French phonics makes very little sense to me.

 

I cannot do algebra. (Well, I probably could if I spent a lot of time on it...but I would never be able to do it well.) In fact, math is generally beyond me.

 

I know nothing about cars and I have trouble even being a passenger at high speeds/in lots of traffic, let alone driving.

[MaMa2005]

I cannot knit or crochet. Oh, how I have tried, but it just isn't to be.

 

I cannot sew. I CAN make gorgeous quilts, but cannot sew anything else.

[IsabelC]

There are undoubtedly billions of things I don't know and can't do, but only a few actually bother me.

 

I'm craft challenged. I can't knit (except a few rows of whatever it's called when you don't do any purl - I have started to teach myself), crochet, sew, needle felt, spin, or anything like that. I feel as though I must have been unconscious the year everyone else I know learnt to do these things! But I'm determined to learn, if only so that I can make things for me and the kids.

 

I can't dance. I know lots of people can't dance and have no desire to, but I love dancing and am hopeless at it, no matter what the style. Because I have a poor sense of space, direction and my own body, I can't pick up steps and movements by watching others the way most people can. (Must be missing the part of the brain that does things like rotating 3D objects.) It drives me mad in fung fu class when the instructor demonstrates something while facing us and expects me to be able to replicate it on the 'opposite' side, iykwim.

 

I don't get how stuff works, and I can't be bothered to learn. My husband has tried many times to get me to understand how things like phones and televisions and cars work, but it all goes over my head and I don't really care - as long as something goes, I'm happy.

 

On the plus side, I can play the oboe!

Edited April 5, 2011 by Hotdrink

[mcconnellboys]

Even people who receive stellar educations are ignorant of *something* (or many things). In fact, everyone is ignorant of many things. There is just too much knowledge in the world for us to be even students of it, much less masters of it.

 

It would be difficult enough to master all the finer points of our own culture, and is probably nigh on impossible to even begin to learn about the many intricacies of other cultures, even if we live in them for a while....

 

Within the realm of "book knowledge" there is so much special, detailed knowledge known today that even those working within a particular field are often ignorant of other aspects of that same field of study. Doctors specialize. Mathematicians specialize. Scientists of all sorts specialize. In fact, there's been a growing call for these specialists to communicate and work more with each other in order to span some gaps that have come up within various fields because specialty areas don't talk to each other enough....

 

I would say that ignorance is every bit as much a part of daily life as knowledge.... That's not necessarily always a bad thing, LOL....

[Janice in NJ]

I can't read in bed. I always think I want to but then I get sleepy.

 

I can't speak French either; my daughter laughs at me.

 

I can't decorate. I can't really see.

 

I can't compose music. I wish I could; I would really like to be able to write music.

 

Nor can I sing. My family is incredibly musical. I sing in the shower.

 

I can't stay warm - OK, not really a skill. I'm just complaining. I'm always cold. I'm cold right now. I wish I wasn't always cold.

 

Sorry. I can't stay on topic.

 

I can't speak on topic. I ramble when I talk. I think out loud. Drives dh nuts; he's never SURE if I mean what I say. He has to check.

 

I can't chat on the phone. Makes me nuts.

 

I can't read Latin or Greek. I tried to learn both. It made me sleepier than reading in bed.

 

There's more.....

Janice

[gingersmom]

I can't play the flute.

 

I have taken lessons on/off for over 20 years. I am still a beginner. :confused:

[Jean in Newcastle]

I can't speak French with an American accent. I speak it with a Japanese accent. Cracked my teacher up. (Now I can't speak it at all with any accent.)

 

I can't improvise. I am a good singer and musician but I have a hard time letting go. My teachers used to make me listed to Ella Fitzgerald, hoping that some of her improvisation would rub off on me.

 

I can't roll my tongue. I can't touch my nose with the tip of my tongue. Actually I can't stick my tongue out very far because I'm tongue tied.

 

I can't laugh at jokes that aren't funny. The most I can manage is a pained smile. I would make a lousy diplomat.

[Dawn in OH]

There's more things that I can't do than I can! I'm not listing them all. So I will just list a few of the things that I cannot do, that I wish I could.

 

Cake decorating. Yeah, I probably do better than the average person, but I wish I could really decorate gorgeous cakes.

 

Photography. I've taken a good picture once, and I'm certain it was a mistake.

 

I can't sew, but I am learning.

 

I cannot knit or crochet. I tried to learn to crochet when I was expecting my second child. But every time I sat down to work on it I either fell asleep or my toddler needed something.

 

These are all things that I think would be useful in my current career as a Mom that I wish I could do.

 

I can't tie a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue, but I'm beyond needing that skill these days.