What are those things that whenever they get mentioned you feel yourself getting clammy at the prospect of having to wrap your head around them? When suddenly you find yourself part of a discussion and realise that you can't contribute whatsoever? That people look at you funny if you admit you've never bothered to look into a subject they feel life revolves around? Or things that you've tried tried tried to understand and still come up clueless?
― the next grozart, Monday, 14 July 2008 08:34 (seventeen years ago)
quaternions
― koogs, Monday, 14 July 2008 09:06 (seventeen years ago)
that's pretty specific.
― the next grozart, Monday, 14 July 2008 09:09 (seventeen years ago)
You don't understand.
― Matt DC, Monday, 14 July 2008 09:12 (seventeen years ago)
Home ownership
― Noodle Vague, Monday, 14 July 2008 09:34 (seventeen years ago)
noodle vague otm
― the next grozart, Monday, 14 July 2008 09:43 (seventeen years ago)
http://madisonharris.com/images/high_school_musical_two_2_cast.jpg
― The stickman from the hilarious "xkcd" comics, Monday, 14 July 2008 09:46 (seventeen years ago)
^^^ Easy answer: 6 year-old girls.
― Noodle Vague, Monday, 14 July 2008 09:47 (seventeen years ago)
Hey that's from the first concert tour cause Troy isn't on it.
economics money/financial stuff computer stuff ring tones
― latebloomer, Monday, 14 July 2008 09:49 (seventeen years ago)
student loans...consolidation...interest rates
― G00blar, Monday, 14 July 2008 10:38 (seventeen years ago)
Fiscal politics, speculative investments.
― Tuomas, Monday, 14 July 2008 10:40 (seventeen years ago)
Poast-modernism
― Laurel, Monday, 14 July 2008 10:41 (seventeen years ago)
Also, stereotypical "guy" things, like punching each other to show your love.
― Tuomas, Monday, 14 July 2008 10:41 (seventeen years ago)
We could be here a while...
― Matt DC, Monday, 14 July 2008 10:42 (seventeen years ago)
Musicology
― the pinefox, Monday, 14 July 2008 10:43 (seventeen years ago)
Guitars
cars poker
― Ste, Monday, 14 July 2008 10:44 (seventeen years ago)
What do you want to know about guitars, PF?
― Dr.C, Monday, 14 July 2008 11:08 (seventeen years ago)
tour de france rugby
― gem, Monday, 14 July 2008 11:13 (seventeen years ago)
cricket
― G00blar, Monday, 14 July 2008 11:14 (seventeen years ago)
Scrabble
― en i see kay, Monday, 14 July 2008 11:16 (seventeen years ago)
car motors
― gem, Monday, 14 July 2008 11:19 (seventeen years ago)
cars and home ownership saving money male group behaviour
― darraghmac, Monday, 14 July 2008 11:42 (seventeen years ago)
A lot of the responses to this thread could come under "Stuff that is reasonably easy to understand but you haven't made much of an effort to understand it because you are not that interested", which is fair enough.
Some of the others could come under "Stuff where there's not really anything to understand but I'll say I don't understand it just to make a point about my lifestyle".
― Matt DC, Monday, 14 July 2008 11:46 (seventeen years ago)
The New York Times effect on man.
― snoball, Monday, 14 July 2008 11:49 (seventeen years ago)
gadjets
― Zeno, Monday, 14 July 2008 11:52 (seventeen years ago)
some of them
how you do that voodoo that you do so well
― Frogman Henry, Monday, 14 July 2008 11:54 (seventeen years ago)
DC is right. I don't really think 'guys punching each other to show they're pals' is the kind of thing you need to 'understand'.
Then again, DC, what is 'reasonably easy to understand'? I'm not convinced that computer technology, physics or musciology are. One would need serious study of such subjects.
― the pinefox, Monday, 14 July 2008 11:59 (seventeen years ago)
What do I want to know, Doc? Well ... I have never had a guitar lesson, so there are lots of kinds of 'technique' that are beyond me. I don't really know how to play scales fast. I also don't know the names of most things like the relations between chords. But also, I guess what I meant was that I could not fix or improve one, the way a lot of guitarists I have known could.
In one sense I feel intimate with guitars - I can pick them up and know they'll do roughly what I want, far more than they will for most people. But in another way guitars are still unknown territory for me. But it is possible that I know enough by now to do most of what I want to do, which doesn't involve fixing them etc.
― the pinefox, Monday, 14 July 2008 12:03 (seventeen years ago)
(I think I said guitars cos the thread says *should* - and you would think after nearly two decades playing them nearly every day, I might know more about guitars)
― the pinefox, Monday, 14 July 2008 12:05 (seventeen years ago)
I took the thread title to mean exactly "Stuff that is reasonably easy to understand but you haven't made much of an effort to understand it" (though often this relates to topics I'm interested in as well, or topics I've only recently taken an interest in and have yet to learn about)... I think it was the 'should' that gave it that tone for me too
― gem, Monday, 14 July 2008 12:14 (seventeen years ago)
Why it's so difficult to get a doctor's appointment on the NHS.
― Colonel Poo, Monday, 14 July 2008 12:15 (seventeen years ago)
i took this thread as 'stuff my friends talk about that i nothing about'
― Ste, Monday, 14 July 2008 12:21 (seventeen years ago)
ok well now i've learned something as i've read the wikipedia entries for the tour de france. i'll enjoy watching it tonight a lot more now!
― gem, Monday, 14 July 2008 12:34 (seventeen years ago)
^^^ it's guys on bikes, and sometimes on drugs too...
― snoball, Monday, 14 July 2008 12:44 (seventeen years ago)
It is, if your male friends try to bond with you using these kind of "guy" rituals, and you just don't get them. Or if you see other people doing these rituals. I at least would like to understand the stereotypical male psyche better.
― Tuomas, Monday, 14 July 2008 12:49 (seventeen years ago)
Why thing are more complicated when you actually try to do them as opposed to not trying
― I am using your worlds, Monday, 14 July 2008 12:51 (seventeen years ago)
http://bp3.blogger.com/_8C36BPksAq0/RZGNmWSjk4I/AAAAAAAAAC8/So-fI-QDrlI/s1600-h/rock1.jpg
― the pinefox, Monday, 14 July 2008 12:56 (seventeen years ago)
There is another thing I don't understand.
― the pinefox, Monday, 14 July 2008 12:57 (seventeen years ago)
I was gonna start a thread named 'Stuff you just don't understand (but pretend you do)', but it'd probably end up being the exact same thread.
― G00blar, Monday, 14 July 2008 13:05 (seventeen years ago)
All upthread 'how to deal with money' stuff on the...
ah, y'know.
― Oilyrags, Monday, 14 July 2008 13:55 (seventeen years ago)