I am 17/25 "manly" and 100% self-sufficient by those standards. I did count CPR on a dummy. I used to keep up my certification, but my life has been a bit too complicated for the last few years. (By the way, the latest thing I saw on CPR said, "forget about rescue breathing." It's fine if you have someone else doing it, but the doctor talking about it said it takes too much time away from compressions.)

I thought real men never retouched photos, because they're manly men and only want the unvarnished truth.

I have never

Rescued a boater

Framed a wall (I've held things while someone else was framing a wall.)

Backed up a trailer (Lord, no. Most people are a bit unnerved by my backing up a car. I've yelled "No, no, not that way" at someone else backing up a trailer.)

Used a torque wrench (I leave proper torque to people who are manlier than I am.)

Hooked up an HDTV (I assume it would take about the same amount of cursing and throwing things as setting up other electronics.)

Extended my wireless network (I have a small house. Where would I extend to?)

Bled brakes (I leave brakes to manlier people.)

Paddled a canoe (I assume they mean "in a way that makes the canoe go forward".)

Oh, and not only have I backed up a trailer, I've parallel-parked a car and trailer. And I've backed up a tractor with two trailers. The kind that have four wheels and their own steering.

The pluses that come from growing up on a farm. OTOH, herding cows on a farm is where I came up with my "waving and shouting" monkey attack contingency plan....

I wonder if I get extra points for backing up 5 trailers chained together?

Huh. I'm 1/5 of a man.

A fifth and man would be perfect just about now...

I'm going to say the hamster shredder. Hamster-*powered*, that is.

Where the shreds go right into the cage for poop purposes!

Where the shreds go right into the cage for poop purposes!

I wonder if the hamster considers himself manly... "Dude - I shred my own poop-paper!"

I wonder if the hamster considers himself manly...

I think he considers himself hamsterly!

I am not manly at all, except that if Framing a wall is like framing a flat, I guess I could do that. I have fairly high confidence that if I have directions, I can figure out how to do anything, and without directions, I am still pretty good. I guess I have high confidence!

Do as in "I have successfully done this thing at least once in my life."

OTOH, there are plenty of things that I've never had the opportunity to do, like the bolt action rifle. I've never even seen one.

And I can't imagine when it would be necessary for me to mix concrete, either. I can almost imagine needing to clean the rifle first.

OTOH, there are plenty of things that I've never had the opportunity to do, like the bolt action rifle. I've never even seen one.

I saw one once. My dad had an old bolt-action .22 rifle. It was fairly rusted. (I think it was his first gun as a teenager or something.)

Anyway, they're actually pretty simple. I'm guessing it'd be easy to learn to clean and/or repair.

I can't clean a bolt action rifle, but if you thrust one into my hands I could fire it with reasonably good form, and I can also reload it. I'm pretty sure the rifle in the house where we spent T-Giving a couple years ago was bolt action.

The most important thing I think to do with one of those is to know a couple ways to take it out of the hands of the idiot that's threatening you with one.

There should be more fighting stuff on the manly list. Grrh, arrgh, roid-rage.