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Author Topic: The end of competence  (Read 4858 times)

Scout26

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Re: The end of competence
« Reply #25 on: May 22, 2010, 05:46:31 PM »
Don't forget I-90 and I-94 which run N/S through Chicago....
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Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants won't help.


Bring me my Broadsword and a clear understanding.
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tokugawa

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Re: The end of competence
« Reply #26 on: May 22, 2010, 07:11:54 PM »
Answered a craigslist ad for some tools recently and the seller, a (guessing here) 20 something male, , was unable to tell me if he lived east or west of the highway. "I am not good with directions".  Yes, there are peopleout there,  ordinary looking people, who are as dumb as a fencepost. It hits you hard if you are not used to dealing with the general run of the public-
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Tallpine

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Re: The end of competence
« Reply #27 on: May 22, 2010, 09:36:05 PM »
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Yes, there are peopleout there,  ordinary looking people, who are as dumb as a fencepost. It hits you hard if you are not used to dealing with the general run of the public-

Half the people in the world are below average intelligence  =(
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Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward toward the light; but the laden traveller may never reach the end of it.  - Ursula Le Guin

Mabs2

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Re: The end of competence
« Reply #28 on: May 22, 2010, 09:37:42 PM »
Quote from: tokugawa on May 22, 2010, 07:11:54 PM
Answered a craigslist ad for some tools recently and the seller, a (guessing here) 20 something male, , was unable to tell me if he lived east or west of the highway. "I am not good with directions".  Yes, there are peopleout there,  ordinary looking people, who are as dumb as a fencepost. It hits you hard if you are not used to dealing with the general run of the public-
I get lost in my own home town.
But I can walk from Booty Bay to Darnassus without any navigational aid.

I am not proud of myself.
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Doggy Daddy

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Re: The end of competence
« Reply #29 on: May 22, 2010, 10:07:30 PM »
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I have not yet been lost in space in the woods, but I have been lost in time.  ...  No, there's really no point to this post, I'm just deep in rambling.

No, that's not rambling.  That was a damn good story!

This... this "post" from Facebook... this is rambling.
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{name here} Is at the bob waiting for a spinach salad with bacon dressing + a strawberry blueberry fruit smoothie
   :facepalm:

DD

And, yes, this is on topic.  Just look at the thread title!
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Jocassee

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Re: The end of competence
« Reply #30 on: May 22, 2010, 11:41:10 PM »
I lived in Atlanta for one week and completely lost count of how many roads are named Peachtree. Lots.
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red headed stranger

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Re: The end of competence
« Reply #31 on: May 24, 2010, 02:32:58 AM »
I'm a fan of the "stupid motorist law" in Arizona.    

It basically states that if you are too stupid to read the signs concerning flooding in river washes, or choose to go through locked gates to try to cross a flooding wash, you will be charged for the cost of your rescue.  
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makattak

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Re: The end of competence
« Reply #32 on: May 24, 2010, 12:35:30 PM »
Quote from: Mabs on May 22, 2010, 09:37:42 PM

But I can walk from Booty Bay to Darnassus without any navigational aid.


No you can't. You need to take a boat at least twice.
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dm1333

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Re: The end of competence
« Reply #33 on: May 24, 2010, 08:09:38 PM »
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I ended up going about three miles and finding another site, settled and got cleaned up, built a fire, relaxed a while, and got myself sorted out.  By the third day I was getting slightly less nutty and just asked the first person I ran across the other days for the time, and then I was good.


What did they tell you, Bridgewalker?  1983?  When I got stationed on Da UP I thought I was lost too, acid washed jeans, mullets and the local radio station played Billy Squier 2.5 times a week.  I know that because for almost two years I kept a log and did the math!
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Mabs2

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Re: The end of competence
« Reply #34 on: May 24, 2010, 08:41:27 PM »
Quote from: makattak on May 24, 2010, 12:35:30 PM
No you can't. You need to take a boat at least twice.

True, but it's still walkin'. ;)
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Quote from: jamisjockey
Sunday it felt a little better, but it was quite irritated from me rubbing it.
Quote from: Mike Irwin
If you watch any of the really early episodes of the Porter Waggoner show she was in (1967) it's very clear that he was well endowed.
Quote from: Ben
Just wanted to give a forum thumbs up to Dick.

Scout26

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Re: The end of competence
« Reply #35 on: May 24, 2010, 09:40:38 PM »
At one point the army did a study and figured out that ~10% of the population would never figure out how to use a map and compass.  I married one of them.
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Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants won't help.


Bring me my Broadsword and a clear understanding.
Get up to the roundhouse on the cliff-top standing.
Take women and children and bed them down.
Bless with a hard heart those that stand with me.
Bless the women and children who firm our hands.
Put our backs to the north wind.
Hold fast by the river.
Sweet memories to drive us on,
for the motherland.

41magsnub

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Re: The end of competence
« Reply #36 on: May 24, 2010, 09:44:10 PM »
Quote from: scout26 on May 24, 2010, 09:40:38 PM
At one point the army did a study and figured out that ~10% of the population would never figure out how to use a map and compass.  I married one of them.

I'm the exact opposite.  I have one of the worst senses of direction of anybody I know.  I have a terrible memory for location names and routes.  However, give me a map and compass and I am good to go.
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Tallpine

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Re: The end of competence
« Reply #37 on: May 24, 2010, 09:49:05 PM »
Quote from: scout26 on May 24, 2010, 09:40:38 PM
At one point the army did a study and figured out that ~10% of the population would never figure out how to use a map and compass.  I married one of them.

Our VFD had a special training several years back, on how to take a compass bearing and then transfer that to a map given that you know your own location.  (for triangulating smoke)

I figured it out the first time the guy explained it, and then spent the next three hours watching most of the others never get it at all.  ;/

My biggest trouble with a compass is my eyes: I can't read the compass dial and see the object in the distance at the same time  :mad:
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Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward toward the light; but the laden traveller may never reach the end of it.  - Ursula Le Guin

red headed stranger

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Re: The end of competence
« Reply #38 on: May 24, 2010, 09:51:49 PM »
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At one point the army did a study and figured out that ~10% of the population would never figure out how to use a map and compass.

Someone's gotta be the officers. 


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