What are you really bad at?

[Stanleymonkey]

Being tidy and organised. I remember sorting my desk one summer holidays. My wife range and I explained there were still five or six large tables piled high with disorganised mess and rubbish. A real state.

She reminded me that when she'd dropped me off the tables had been stacked up all together against one wall for the deep clean. I'd gone in to tidy one cupboard and totally trashed a clean room.

I am just destructive and messy - haven't changed yet.

 

[Just4Fun]

Although many of use feel that we're "tone deaf" or "can't sing", and we're often told the same by those nearest and dearest to us, it's total nonsense.

As a schoolboy I attempted to learn to play the violin. I even took an exam in it. It must have been a fairly low level exam, but I was still pleased to pass. You had to get 100 marks out of 150 to pass and I got 101. After that my violin teacher told me I am tone deaf and it would be better for all concerned if I stopped my lessons at that point. So I quit while I was ahead. I regret that now, but I am still tone deaf so I am sure the neighbours benefited.

 

[owen]

I'm really bad at getting a neat finish on silicone when I'm sealing something up onto brickwork/stone like windows and door frames. I'm also really bad to get stuck in working and forget to clean up as I'm going along, before I know it in surrounded by crap and it takes twice as long to clear up once the jobs finished.

 

[Aquachiefofficer]

I was a bit perplexed by the question so I asked the wife.
After 3 seconds of deep analysis she gave me a comprehensive answer based on 40 years experience:-
"Everything except putting out the bins and making lame excuses." #-o

 

[doctor Bob]

Without wishing to derail the thread, I was told at the age of 8 or so, when I joined a new school in the 2nd year of junior school by my music teacher, Mrs Dawkins, the wizened old crone, that I couldn't sing and to go to the back of the class and play the triangle instead. I never did get over the embarrassment and still never sing in public. #-o

Yeh but ............ were you any good at the triangle?

 

[MikeG.]

...........After that my violin teacher told me I am tone deaf and it would be better for all concerned if I stopped my lessons at that point. So I quit while I was ahead. I regret that now, but I am still tone deaf so I am sure the neighbours benefited.

No, no. No-one is tone deaf, we've been told. I recommend you take up the bagpipes. You neighbours will be begging you to resume the violin.

 

[Bm101]

I'm really bad at getting a neat finish on silicone when I'm sealing something up onto brickwork/stone like windows and door frames. I'm also really bad to get stuck in working and forget to clean up as I'm going along, before I know it in surrounded by rubbish and it takes twice as long to clear up once the jobs finished.

For tiling especially but ok for paint as long as you wipe up after and well. Fairy and water in a plant spray bottle. Not washing up quantities,
you want just enough water to make the fairy sprayable. The right shaped teaspoon handle for the bead size. Old rag. Cut the right size hole and draw on the mastic. Spray. Lay off the excess pushing it into the cavity by always drawing the expert masticers teaspoon handle tool smoothly. Wipe excess off on rag. Tiny spray where you need to reapply the spoon. Always work out from corners. If its dusty in the room spray again with thesoapy water to protect it from dust. Try it Owen. You'll get the mix right pretty fast. It's common sense.
You can also just spray the spoon where you need to be careful of paint etc.
Anyway. Sorry for advising the pros!

 

[BHwoodworking]

finishing a project. hearing what i am not ment to and beeing tidy.

other than the workshop that is. that gets to be an utter latrine every now and agian but usualy it's fairly tidy.

it is now coz a new mitre saw is on the way after my evo r210sms went bust....

 

[Nigel Burden]

I asked my wife what am I not very good at ? She said "***" :shock: :shock: "compared with who " I asked

Oh she just texted me about that! :shock:

:lol: Behave yourself. :lol:

That's what my wife tells me to do. Do I obey? No, it's more fun misbehaving.

Nigel.

 

[novocaine]

The state of my work today id say plastering. it really is a skill you have to practice fairly regularly to keep your skill level up.

 

[Aquachiefofficer]

I'm 110% shur I'm bad at mafs - but I'm grate at spelin.

 

[rafezetter]

Oversharing - that's by far my biggest problem - most will agree I'm sure. After living in a boarding school from age 9 where "privacy" was just another word in the dictionary - I have no personal boundaries regarding most things.

Using big words in the hopes that I seem intelligent.

Getting started on a large project - was talking about that just today, I know all the "one foot after the other", "one bite at a time" cliches - still doesn't help much.. It's worse that I'm very very good at envisioning the end result.

Edit - I should clarify - very bad at starting projects that benefit MYSELF - other people, sure I'm right on it - but for myself, truly terrible. Low self esteem issues. (did I mention oversharing?)

Asking people for help.

Spending time on projects where the time is wasted - aka perfectionism where it's not required.

Being judgemental.

Doing figures in my head on the fly - which is ironic for an ex Croupier - I used to be amazing, but something broke I guess.

Having patience with fools.

Otherwise I'm fair to middling with quite a lot of things (it's why I'm a handyman , sing quite a lot - never been told to shut up yet with a very passable rendition of "Hotel California" apparently - never found anything I was TRULY bad at - except perhaps posting on forums :wink: .

Which probably means I'm truly bad at not making the most of my talents and wasting time on meaningless (to most people) things like computer games.

 

[RogerS]

Removing silicone from teaspoon handles.

 

[rafezetter]

No, no. Really, I can't sing. My best buddy (the guy I caught corona virus from) is a professional concert singer (baritone) and a teacher at a couple of the UK's top musical colleges (London and Cambridge). He said the same thing to me (everyone can sing), but when he heard me sing "happy birthday" at a birthday party last year he had cause to rethink, describing my voice as almost beyond hope, and a life's work. I really, really can't sing.

LOL wow that's fairly brutal - Apparently Stephen Fry recounts a similar thing whereby he was in a church and miming while standing next to.... Sir Paul McCartney who also said "Sing, cmon,everybody can sing" - so Stephen did, and Sir Paul promptly told him to shut up ! hahaha.

 

[AJB Temple]

Empathy.

 

[owen]

I'm really bad at getting a neat finish on silicone when I'm sealing something up onto brickwork/stone like windows and door frames. I'm also really bad to get stuck in working and forget to clean up as I'm going along, before I know it in surrounded by rubbish and it takes twice as long to clear up once the jobs finished.

For tiling especially but ok for paint as long as you wipe up after and well. Fairy and water in a plant spray bottle. Not washing up quantities,
you want just enough water to make the fairy sprayable. The right shaped teaspoon handle for the bead size. Old rag. Cut the right size hole and draw on the mastic. Spray. Lay off the excess pushing it into the cavity by always drawing the expert masticers teaspoon handle tool smoothly. Wipe excess off on rag. Tiny spray where you need to reapply the spoon. Always work out from corners. If its dusty in the room spray again with thesoapy water to protect it from dust. Try it Owen. You'll get the mix right pretty fast. It's common sense.
You can also just spray the spoon where you need to be careful of paint etc.
Anyway. Sorry for advising the pros!

I have actually tried the fairy liquid trick before and did have some success, I think mine was too watery though possibly. I've watched people do it and I copy exactly the same and mine never looks as good. I can do it perfect around kitchen worktops, baths, tiles, shower trays etc it's just when I'm trying to do it up against stone or brick, I seem to either not get the gap filled enough or get too much and it goes all over the wall :lol:

 

[MikeG.]

.....LOL wow that's fairly brutal.......

I thought it was fairly mild, considering. :lol:

 

[Bm101]

Removing silicone from teaspoon handles.

Go on Roger. What's the issue this time?

 

[RAF]

Acquiring the nerve to post photo's of stuff I've made on this forum for fear of being thought of as incompetent.

 

[Andy Kev.]

I just want to make a brief comment on the "can't sing" thing. As a music teacher, it's something I feel rather strongly about! Although many of use feel that we're "tone deaf" or "can't sing", and we're often told the same by those nearest and dearest to us, it's total nonsense. If you didn't have the machinery to sing, physically and mentally, you'd be profoundly disabled and would struggle to speak intelligibly (a LOT of information in speech is coded as pitch and rhythm).

Most people who do sing are "taught" as kids by their parents at a very young age and of course think nothing of it. Those who don't pick it up are then told to stand and the back and mouth the words, or worse: and then of course they never improve.

So it you're in that category, you *can* acquire the necessary skills. It wouldn't be instantaneous, of course, but even a few weeks of lessons would surprise you.

I've got to disagree with this. Anybody can make the noise that singers make (I can even make the horrible noise that opera singers make) but the point is getting the right notes. I can only do it with what I find to be melodically very simple songs. I have similar problems with the guitar: I can often pick out simple melodies although it can be torture finding the right notes the first time I'm after a tune but I find some melodies simply impossible. I suspect that there are intermediate levels between pitch perfect and tone deaf.