Be useful, learn life skills
I SPENT a good portion of the morning watching the Miss Universe preliminary round. It was the spectacle we were all used to, a parade of beauty queens, bedazzled costumes and an overly-botoxed host. I remember thinking a whole lot of WTF when I watched the national costume portion of the evening. It was an explosion of feathers, sequins and a lit up scoreboard. You read that right folks, someone wore a scoreboard.
Which lead me to a thought: there must be criteria in the final score that marks how well you can carry an inordinate amount of glitter and paraphernalia on your person. It doesn’t make sense to me how that particular talent determines who Miss Universe is, the supposed paragon of grace and sophistication. I figure, if you really want a well-rounded Miss Universe, have her change a tire in less than 20 minutes. That’s more useful than looking good in Glad wrap.
Basic life skills are needed by all, and not just the DIY enthusiast. If you ask me what makes a person well-rounded, it’s the one who can look graceful and still be useful. So here are three apps that help you do three things that everyone needs to learn how to do: change a tire, change a lightbulb and unclog the sink. Don’t forget to smile while you’re at it!
App name: How To Change Your Tire
App developer: createthis.com
Available on: Google Play
Easy to use: This is an idiot’s guide to changing your tire. Most of us, will probably never have to do this. But it will happen when you least expect it, so it’s best to be prepared. This guide talks you through how to do it step by step, and it has different instructions for manual and automatic transmissions.
Overall comment: This beautiful guide is really worth the Php44 you will spend to get it. Every single step in the process is illustrated, and it even reads out loud to you when you’ve got dirty hands. The only drawback to this would be if your device ran out of battery. I would suggest going through this before that happens, just in case. Four clicks out of five.
App name: Instructables
App developer: Autodesk Inc.
Available on: Google Play, and just recently, iTunes
Easy to use: Instructables is a user-generated service that allows people to search instructions online. Of all the apps I’d seen for this, this is the one that was most useful in teaching people how to change a lightbulb. I used to live in a house where all the bulbs were the weird halogen ones. Nobody knew how to change them, so for a while we ate dinner by the light of the open fridge door.
Overall comment: The instructions for changing a lightbulb are pretty straightforward, and the pictures suggest that the original poster was in the process of changing a lightbulb themselves. Firsthand experience, it’s great! I do have to say that some of the pictures can be a little potato in quality, so tread carefully here. Three clicks out of five.
App name: Sewing Kit
App developer: Vesta Software
Available on: iTunes, Google Play
Easy to use: One thing that everyone needs to learn how to do is to sew. Whether it’s to fix a ripped seam, patch a hole or replace a button, we all need to know how. If your knowledge of sewing stays trapped in high school home economics, fear not. This app shows you all the basic stitches and all the tools you need to complete your task.
Overall comment: This app also includes patterns for making your own clothes and tutorials for adapting them. That’s a bit more fancy pants than what I was intending for this app, but hey. Once you master the basics, there’s nowhere else to go but up is what I say. You need to pay for this app, but as long as you’ll have clothes, you’ll always need a reason to use this. Four clicks out of five.
