Real Service Read online

  Advanced Skills:

   Handle all aspects of driving and automobile maintenance on an ongoing basis, with minimal instruction.

   Do common automotive repairs yourself, and know reliable professionals to go to for more complex repairs.

   Confidently drive and navigate in a difficult city, on difficult terrain, or under exceptionally challenging conditions.

   Safely exceed the speed limit or violate minor traffic regulations, under orders, when appropriate.

  Travel

  Remedial Skills:

   Pack your own clothing and personal items for a weekend trip, in a reasonable manner.

   Check in at an airport and board a plane, given basic instructions.

   Understand a bus or train schedule. Travel using the subway or other public transportation in a city you live in or visit often.

  Basic Skills:

   Find shops, services, and lodging in a strange location.

   Make reservations for lodging, meals and events.

   Pack someone else’s clothing and personal items given basic instructions.

   Make reservations for airline travel, taking into account travel times, layovers, airline amenities, and price.

   Understand current restrictions on checked and carry-on baggage.

   Estimate travel time required for a given trip, taking into account traffic, weather, airline rules, etc.

   Compare available travel options (plane, rail, bus, cab, etc) for time, cost, and convenience.

   Travel using public transportation in an unfamiliar city.

   Research tourist attractions and other entertainment at a given destination.

   Plan route for a car trip, including food and rest stops, and estimate time and fuel required.

   Using whatever resources are at your disposal, locate a certain type of store or restaurant in an unfamiliar area.

   Navigate using both a map or a GPS navigation device.

   If traveling to a foreign country, learn a few basic phrases in their local languages, and have a phrasebook handy.

  Advanced Skills:

   Handle all necessary arrangements for domestic travel.

   Plan a trip to a foreign country, including currency exchange, passport issues, location of local embassy, important customs, local transportation, applicable laws, and local guide/interpreter if needed.

   If traveling in a foreign country, obtain basic proficiency in the language.

  Secretarial

  Remedial Skills:

   Answer the telephone politely, and take an accurate and detailed message.

   Keep track of occasional appointments on a calendar or schedule book.

  Basic Skills:

   Answer the telephone and make calls in a consistently professional manner.

   Arrange and schedule meetings and appointments.

   Dress and behave appropriately in a business situation.

   File papers according to an established system, when given basic instructions.

   Create a simple filing system for home or small business.

   Set up, use and maintain common office technology (fax machine, copier)

   Type at least 45 words per minute.

   Use a computer for email, word processing, and spreadsheet software.

  Advanced Skills:

   Provide full secretarial service in a professional office environment.

   Manage up to five employees or contract labor.

   Type at least 60 words per minute.

  Computer/Electronic

  Remedial Skills:

   Be able to use a computer for basic tasks: web browsing, email, etc.

   Set a digital clock.

   Operate common household electronics (TV, CD/DVD player, remote controls, etc.), in a reasonable manner.

  Basic Skills:

   Set up TV, DVD player, video game systems, and similar equipment.

   Back up computer files.

   Set up a simple website.

   Resolve simple problems with computers or electronics, with the help of tech support or other resources.

   Confidently use complex websites (online banking, etc.)

  Advanced Skills:

   Resolve most problems with computers or electronics.

   Professional quality web design.

   Computer programming and engineering.

  Financial

  Remedial Skills:

   Keep your own finances in order, in a reasonable manner.

   Keep your spending within a specified budget.

  Basic Skills:

   Make a budget to meet specified goals.

   File personal income taxes.

   Balance a checkbook.

   Check bank account balance online.

   Understand interest on mortgages, loans, credit cards, and savings accounts.

   Know what service personnel are customarily tipped, and how much is appropriate.

  Advanced Skills:

   Do accounting and keep books for a small business.

   File income taxes for someone who is self-employed, working as an independent contractor, or runs small business.

   Have a thorough knowledge of investment options, retirement plans, etc.

  Health Care

  Remedial Skills:

   Care for yourself and your own health in a reasonable manner.

   Take prescribed medications as directed.

   Have a doctor or health care provider.

   Assess how an illness or injury may affect your ability to do certain tasks.

  Basic Skills:

   Learn basic first aid and CPR.

   Be able to accurately fill a med-minder or daily pill dispenser.

   Assist someone with an injury or disability in activities of daily life.

   Use a thermometer, blood pressure cuff, and blood sugar monitor.

   Bandage a moderately severe wound.

   Assess whether an injury is within your ability to treat, or whether professional care is necessary.

   Understand the uses and side effects of your master’s prescription medications and your own.

   Safely and courteously push a wheelchair.

   Understand disease transmission, and how to protect yourself and others from communicable diseases (including how to protect yourself from other people’s bodily fluids while caring for them), and how to safely interact with immunocompromised people.

  Advanced Skills:

   Give health care treatments in a way that feels like a luxury service.

   Perform advanced “in the field” first aid such as suturing wounds, setting broken bones, etc. in an emergency when help is not available.

   Administer injectable medications.

   Medicinal herbalism.

   Personal Care Attendant or Home Health Aide training.

   Caretaking skills for people with serious illness or disability.

   Massage or bodywork certification

   EMT training or other medical certification/degree.

  Child Care

  Remedial Skills:

   Refrain from sexually inappropriate behavior or obscene language around children.

   Keep reasonably well-behaved children from harm for up to one hour.

   Be able to control your emotional responses when children’s behavior distresses or annoys you.

  Basic Skills:

   Feed and change a baby.

   Bathe, dress, and feed children.

   Prepare age-appropriate meals.

   Entertain and supervise children for up to six hours.

   Get children ready for school in the morning.

   Assist children with schoolwork.

   Resolve conflicts between children, and calm a distressed child.

  �
� Enforce the rules of the parent/guardian even when you do not agree with them.

   Handle minor first aid and health care (medications, scrapes and bruises, etc.)

  Advanced Skills:

   Handle all aspects of childcare on an ongoing basis.

   Have a thorough understanding of childhood development.

   Know how to handle children with special needs, including physical disability, chronic illness, developmental delay, or emotional problems.

   Homeschool and tutor school-age children.

  Animal Care

  Remedial Skills:

   Care for and clean up after your own pets in a reasonable manner.

   Feed and water common pets (dogs, cats, fish, small caged animals) when given basic instructions.

  Basic Skills:

   Supervise and clean up after dogs and cats with minimal instruction.

   Walk one to three dogs safely.

   Exercise or play with cooperative pets, in a reasonable manner.

   Do basic grooming and bathing of cats and dogs.

   Provide routine health care (medications, flea treatments, etc.), with basic instructions.

   Clean a fish tank.

   Provide complete care for common pets on an ongoing basis without prompting, and for exotic pets and livestock for periods of time, with basic instructions.

  Advanced Skills:

   Monitor the health of pets and livestock on an ongoing basis.

   Train a reasonably cooperative dog in basic obedience.

   Rehabilitate animals with behavioral problems.

  Arts and Crafts

  Remedial Skills:

   Cut and glue paper or cloth in a reasonable manner with detailed instructions.

   Paint simple objects in solid colors.

   Assist children with simple craft projects.

  Basic Skills:

   Operate a sewing machine. Sew simple clothing or craft projects using a pattern and detailed instructions.

   Knitting or crocheting simple projects.

   Simple embroidery and appliqué.

   Decorative painting and stenciling.

   Scrapbooking.

   Simple woodworking with hand and small power tools.

   Assembling wood projects from a kit.

   Simple live flower arrangements, and attractive use of silk flowers.

  Advanced Skills:

   Tailoring clothing for men and women.

   Constructing custom clothing without patterns.

   Constructing elaborate costumes.

   Knitting/crocheting shaped clothing and complex patterns.

   Elaborate embroidery and appliqué.

   Making stained glass.

   Repairing and reupholstering furniture.

   Artistic painting (landscapes, portraits, etc.)

   Cabinetry, furniture-making, and advanced woodworking.

   Professional-quality floristry.

  Companionship

  Remedial Skills:

   Hold a conversation that is of interest to the other person.

   Behave appropriately when accompanying someone in public.

   Listen to your master speak without continual interruptions.

  Basic Skills:

   Find something enjoyable in participating in any hobby activity with your master.

   Be familiar with the hobbies and pastimes common in your social group, including those of your preferred gender.

   Learn new hobby skills that would please your master, so long as they do not require specialized talents.

   Observe people’s physical/voice cues and discern their emotional state with reasonable accuracy in most cases.

   Discern your master’s emotional states and figure out what demeanor and tone is appropriate to each one.

   Entertain yourself when you are not actively needed to interact with your master, but required to stay in the general vicinity just in case.

   Be patient, quiet, and unobtrusive when you are “in waiting” – in your master’s presence but without interactions with them or current activity assignments.

   Entertain a small group of people at home.

   Be comfortable slow dancing in public.

   Be reasonably charming to anyone in public.

   Come up with interesting conversation topics on the spur of the moment.

   Make your dynamic look “normal” in public – e.g. handle yourself in a way that does not call attention to your dynamic, while still subtly following it.

   Understand discretion with regard to the personal details of your master, yourself, friends, and associates.

   Be a good and nonjudgmental listener, even for emotionally charged topics.

   Listen without expressing your opinion, on request.

   Be comfortable with giving and receiving nonsexual physical affection (hugs, snuggling, etc.).

  Advanced Skills:

   Hosting parties and entertaining large groups.

   Ballroom dancing.

   Detailed knowledge of hobbies and pastimes of interest to your master, and skill in participating in these activities, as appropriate.

   Public entertainment skills – singing, instrumental music, comedy routines, etc.

   Psychological skills for handling difficult people.

   Be charismatic enough in public to lead small groups of people.

   Proficiency in the primary language of anyone who you interact with on a regular basis.

   Maintain a consistently cheerful demeanor in the face of difficult circumstances.

  Personal Grooming and Body Service

  Remedial Skills:

   Keep yourself clean and reasonably well groomed.

   Dress yourself in a reasonably attractive manner, appropriate for your role and the situation.

   Brush someone else’s hair without hurting them.

   Run a bath without fancy soaps/oils.

   Wash someone else’s body without injuring them.

   Dry someone else’s body without injuring them.

   Lay out an outfit for someone of the same gender, from their clothing supply.

   If appropriate for your role, apply makeup to yourself in a reasonably attractive manner.

  Basic Skills:

   Run a bath using fancy soaps/oils.

   Give manicures and pedicures.

   Wash someone else’s body in a way that feels luxurious.

   Wash and blow-dry someone else’s hair.

   Lay out towels and bath products in a professional-looking manner.

   Shave someone using an electric or safety razor.

   Select and lay out an outfit for someone of any gender, from their clothing supply.

   Apply simple makeup to another person in a reasonably attractive manner.

   Do a simple cleaning and buffing of someone’s shoes or boots.

  Advanced Skills:

   Create a bath using special teas or spa formulations.

   Make your own luxury bath products.

   Hairdressing (cutting and styling).

   Barbering (including beard grooming and styling).

   Shave someone using an old-fashioned straight razor.

   Do salon-style nails.

   Aesthetician services (buffing, waxing, plucking, etc.)

   Give good wardrobe advice to all genders and do clothing makeovers.

   Professional/theatrical makeup application and makeovers.

   Bootblacking.

  Etiquette and Protocol

  Remedial Skills:

   Behave reasonably politely and courteously when in public and when with your master.

   Stand and sit with good posture when prompted and when in formal situations.

   Speak clearly without excessive slang o
r obscenity.

  Basic Skills:

   Address specified individuals as “sir” or “ma’am” whenever speaking to them.

   Refrain from using honorifics for people who have asked you not to do so.

   Sit or stand in a specified position, without fidgeting.

   Kneel down and get up from the floor reasonably gracefully, if within your physical capabilities.

   Sit or kneel on the floor for half an hour.

   Speak only when necessary, and in the fewest words that is practical.

   Be aware of scene protocol in your local public group, if applicable, and adhere to it when instructed to do so.

   Bring mistakes to your master’s attention in public in a respectful way that does not make them look bad.

   Follow and enforce your master’s rules regarding your own behavior or conduct with others in a way that does not needlessly draw attention or make others uncomfortable.

   Maintain a public demeanor that encourages others to see you as a happy, emotionally well-adjusted person who enjoys helping people. Avoid any behavior that encourages others to assume you are acting against your will, or that your master is unreasonable or abusive.

  Advanced Skills:

   Understand the scene protocol of a number of BDSM subcultures.

   Be comfortable with mainstream formal etiquette.

   Organize and serve at a formal dinner.

   Gracefully and smoothly speak in passive voice or third person in a way that seems natural and is not jarring or discomfiting to most people.

  If you have good knees and reasonable balance, try kneeling straight down onto both knees, rather than putting one knee down at a time. To return to standing, come straight up without leaning forward. With a little practice it can be done very smoothly, even while holding something or keeping your hands behind your back. It is one of those silly little things that many masters find charming.