I was gonna come here with a Jillifont video, but I prefer this snake one from Gawker: [link] I'm glad I didn't know about that nightmare option when I was a kid.

"Hey, Mr Plumber! Jody on the interTUBE has a different wrench from you! Are you sure you're doing it right??" Being backseat driven by complete strangers who aren't even live must be fun times.

Well, at least it is when I do it.

I've been assuming everyone hears noises and there's some processing delay/decision mechanism that turns them into words--except in scenarios where you accidentally hear that one time they mention half a scandal, and you have to stalk them to find out the other half and you never manage to.

I moved out of the house at 23, and my mother was genuinely surprised that I was immediately able to clean and cook for myself (with the occasional advice call for the latter). The thing is, while I rarely did anything around the house beyond pet care, taking out the trash, and routine straightening up, I understood how to do the other stuff and was just never motivated to do it myself before Supermom stepped in and did it herself. Switched to an environment where my clutter/dirt tolerance was lower than that of everyone else in residence, I turned into Monica Geller.

Found out recently that one of CJ's ARP buddies has never done a load of laundry. His mom does all the wash and irons everything for him. Including his Carhart pants. I used to think she was sane but now I worry.

that snake shit I watched 3 times with my mouth open. That is not even cool. Not even cool.

Some things people don't know how to do aren't regional, though, like address an envelope, or write a check. I got stuck in line at the grocery behind a woman who was teaching a college-age girl how to fill out a check properly. (I think it was her son's GF.) And I got stuck in line at the post office (not on the same day) behind a young woman who'd put her own address in the To field and the recipient's address in the From field, and didn't understand how that was wrong. The clerk later assured me that it was not the first time that had happened.

Oh, and the snake thing is cool! She turned on the light first, then opened the door and headed out. I notice the doors were latch-style handles, though. Bet snakey would've been stymied by turn knobs. (Right? Yeah. Gosh, that snake was huge.)

As a freshman in college, I was changing clothes in a new friends room, borrowing an outfit. I was in mismatched but cute lingerie, and she said, with utter horror, "Your mom LETS you wear mismatched underwear?"

I was all "My MOTHER doesn't worry about my underwear for me or buy most of it for me" since I was having sex at 17 and started buying sexy bras and undies occasionally at 16. Sure, I had some cotton plainish stuff for normal she's bought me (this was 1990, not now, when even 8 year olds have kinda sexy and girly undies) but my mom didn't even WASH my clothes, much less worry that my bra didn't match my friggin' panties. This is the same girl that was the firsth adultish person I knew who didn't know anything about how to wash he clothes.

Once we hit 10, we were responsible for washing all out cloths and sheets, and we helped out with laundry a LOT before then. I think I started folding baskets of clothes and such when I was 5 or 6. I just don't get it, unless you're crazy-rich, and even then, I'd be all "You are learning how to do a basic cooking and cleaning" -- just like my dad taught us girls basic car maintenance and light carpentry.

NOT WATCHING THE SNAKE! I like them in their ecosystems, eating rodents, but not within houses...or outside, within 20 feet of me. I don't mind little garter snakes; we used to race them as kids. LITTLE ONES, like 4 inches.

I mean, give me a non-vague instruction, and I'll do the non-vague task. That's more typical of behavior in the non-neurotypical. We like specifics! Specifics are good!

AHAHAHAHAHA. Considering I just got zapped at work for not figuring out and excelling at hella vague tasks, SO MUCH THIS.

A very useful term INHVirgoO is "Let me check my understanding of this" (preferably in writing) and then repeating things back to the instruction-giver so they can clarify. And I take notes.

I believe strongly in CYA. And also in giving explicit, clear instructions, and checking people's understanding. People are often afraid of appearing incompetent or dumb, so they'll just say "Uh-uh," whereas that phrase is pretty innocuous AND CsYA.