[Feature] Five Skills Every Guy Should Have

Despite what women say, being a guy is a tough job. You need to be able to do, make, and know a lot of things in order to maintain your masculinity. After all, the minute a girl fixes your car for you, you are revoked of your man-license.

So to prevent any potential embarrassments, I've compiled a list of five skills every guy needs in order to be a real man. This by no means is a complete list, but it's definitely a good start.

So in order to be a man, every guy should know...

How to Tie a Tie
Since wearing a clip-on anything is automatically not cool, when it comes to ties, you are stuck with two choices. You can ask someone to do it for you and then never undo the knot (what I used to do -__-), or you can take a few minutes to learn yourself. Learning a knot or two is simple, and after some practice, it becomes fairly automatic.

When I learned I used a combination of diagrams from Tie-a-Tie.net and videos from metacafe.com and it really helped. Remember, practice makes perfect!

How to Play Poker
Taking other people's money is truly a gratifying and very manly. And the best way to do that is to play poker.

About.com has instructions on how to play poker. The game that everyone nowadays knows is Texas Hold'em. While that's all well and good, you'll be better off learning a few other games (7 Card Stud, Omaha, etc) to broaden your horizons.

And if you want to be the one taking the money, not the one losing it, you should practice for free at Party Poker and read a book or two on strategy. One of my favorite is Phil Hellmuth's Play Poker Like the Pros.


How to Fix a Car EmergencyNothing's worse than having a car emergency and not being able to do anything about it. The two most common car emergencies are having a dead battery (needing a jump-start) and getting a flat (replacing a tire).

If your car battery is dead, you'll know because your lights and your radios will be weak or won't work at all. That will suck. But, if you have a set a jumper cables and another car, you'll be up and running in just a few minutes. Youtube is full of videos on jump-starting cars. This is my favorite of the bunch. Don't forget: red to dead!

Fixing a flat tire takes a bit more work, but learning how to handle the situation will help you save face and save on expensive towing fees. eHow.com has a good guide on changing tires. If it helps, you can even print out their step-by-step guide.


How to Grill a SteakHaving good barbecue skills in general is an important feature in a man. Being able to grill a good steak, however, is the epitome of grill skills.

When it comes to grilling, meat temperature is key. If you get yourself a meat thermometer and read Howtogrillsteak.com, you'll always have a solid piece of meat.

By the way, please don't cook your steaks well-done, that makes the steak gods cry.


How to Enjoy Beer
Guys and alcohol go hand-in-hand. If you're in any social environment with other guys, beer seems to be around. If you don't like the taste of beer (like me), it kind of sucks.

Luckily, Wikihow.com has a pretty good article on different beers to try and how they should be enjoyed. Maybe you've been drinking Coor's Light all your life when what you really needed was a nice, dark Guinness.

If you still can't find something that fits your palette, then fake it 'til you make it. Beer is an acquired taste. Just keep nursing that bottle until you can chug it without making a stink face.


Follow a Sport
This is one area that I'm lacking in. Talking sports is probably one of the greatest ice breakers to have. Being able to answer the question, "How 'bout them Yankees?" can very easily get a conversation going.

To get yourself inundated on the ins and outs of a sport, Howstuffworks.com is a lifesaver. They explain even the most obvious details of sports like baseball, basketball, and football. After that, a lot of SportsCenter will make sure that the letters RBI and ERA actually mean something to you.