What's the life of a man, any more than a leaf ?

[venta]

Come January, I shall be making my usual bookkeeping post in which I witter tediously about the extent to which I've kept the previous year's resolutions. However, I have a new plan for making resolutions this year... and I need a bit of assistance.

My aim for this year is to acquire twelve new skills - one per month. They are to be things which could be regarded as useful life skills. Now, I'd love to learn to speak Japanese, or to play decent jazz piano from a fakebook, or to learn to ride a horse, but these are clearly abilities I'm unlikely to acquire in a few weeks.

I've already selected some of the skills I shall attempt to acquire. I don't know how to feed or bath a baby, or change a nappy, and I feel I should be able to (learning this obviously requires me to locate a friend who will lend an appropriately sized baby. Offers welcome.) Most of the basic first-aid skills I've learned have fallen out of my head (or changed in the years since I learned them), so I should brush up in that area. I'd like to learn a few basic guitar chords; I've no delusions of learning to play guitar in a month, but being able to keep up with the three-chord trick should (I hope) be manageable.

However, I'm after suggestions to add to my list. As the guitar should suggest, I'm willing to accept a fairly broad definition of 'life skills'; think of it as a list of abilities which today's urbane sophisiticate could be expected to possess. The skill must be plausibly learnable (or its basics graspable) in a few weeks. And I don't wish to get all SMART, but it should be objectively measurable. There should be some goal (a first-aid certificate, a non-wailing baby, and a quick rendition of a few Status Quo numbers) to demonstrate I've achieved some level of competency.

Does anyone else fancy this for the new year ? If so, shout up and we can get compiling a list from which any takers can select their twelve life skills.

Comments

[brrm.livejournal.com]

Learn to ride a motorcycle? ;-)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I'm happy to teach art skills of various kinds. Pencil drawing, ink pens or acrylic paint are all reasonable options (in roughly increasing order of increasing cost for materials you'd need).

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Alas, I have no longer got a baby of my own (five year olds are just a wee bit different), but I will happily demonstrate & teach all the baby-related items with the aid of either of my nieces, who can easily be kidnapped babysat. ;-)

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

Learn to juggle a three-ball cascade for 15 seconds or more without a drop, four times out of five. (I can't.) Maybe a bit trivial, but perhaps it would be useful for diverting a six-year-old?

Make a will, if you haven't? (Poo, I meant to do this in November while Will Aid was in progress, but it went completely out of my mind. Were I to die today my estate would be worth very conisderably under £125k - in fact, it would be worth below £0k - but it's still something I want to do.)

Learn to swim, if you can't? (I can't - well, I swam 25 metres once, but normally I can barely swim ten.)

[killalla]

It's a great idea, and I totally approve. Personally, I figure I'll need to learn a lot of new skills come February in any case (e.g. working knowledge of Amharic, how to navigate in Addis, how to cook using only filtered water, how not to catch any tropical diseases), so I'm not going to commit to anything, but I'd also suggest -

transport related - navigate a strange city on foot, change a flat tire, etc.
cooking related - prepare a whole chicken, gut a fish, skin a rabbit, etc.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

<looks thoughtfully at your subject line>

I recognise it, but the question is whether you got it from the Steeleye Span song...

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an excellent idea. I'm not going to try to participate myself, but for the sake of those who do, how about learning a few basic DIY skills? The goals could be a straight shelf, a non-dripping tap, etc. Simple stuff easily learnt from sites like this, but dead handy. Perhaps some ambitious cooking projects, too? Like Beef Wellington or home-baked bread?

[grumblesmurf.livejournal.com]

I don't know how to feed or bath a baby, or change a nappy, and I feel I should be able to (learning this obviously requires me to locate a friend who will lend an appropriately sized baby. Offers welcome.)

Well, given you're giving your flist 12 month's warning, I guess by the end of the year this one could be achievable...

How's your oenology? I know you have developed ale quaffing^Htasting to a reasonable degree, but what about wines? Not wine snobbery, but surely an urbane sophisticate could at least be expected to know what grapes they prefer and what will go well with what sorts of food? And you can presumably get some enjoyment out of the learning process itself. :)

Growing your own veg? There's a goal in that inasmuch as growing, cooking, and eating it. And it's at least somewhat useful.

And I was sorely tempted to suggest poledancing, but more for the amusement value than anything else, but I'm probably not far enough away to avoid getting slapped. :)

[ebee.livejournal.com]

Re the riding - breaks down into an acheivable goal of 'be able to manage a sole charge rising trot'. I'm happy to teach and facilitate for around 20 gold coins. You're a quick learner. I can also hook you up with a new form of dance for 5 gold coins. And the first aid if you'd like.
Other suggestions- not necessarily limitted to you since you're already very practical.

-boil an egg
-change a plug
-change a fuse
-do a rubix cube
-plaster a wall
-clean an over
-cut down or prune a tree
-learn and perform a song
-learn a shakespeare speech
-drive a minibus
-capture a hamster on the loose
-Talk down a toodler
-make a real sausage (ask ducttape_geek)
-build a fire from scratch
-build a desktop pc from scratch
-learn to use a weapon or do a self-defense class.
-greet someone in 10 languages


I'll have more and will be posting this to another com if thats ok..

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

I take it you can (under most conditions) work out which way is north without a compass?

[cuthbertcross.livejournal.com]

we have a wriggly

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we have a wriggly <ljuser="scarysaxon"> who is in cloth nappies- happy to explain and demo. then you can have a go! Will have a large pot of tea on backup to steady your nerves.

Also recommend learning how to naalbind (make socks with single bodkin needle), or can you make fire with a flint and steel?

[mrlloyd.livejournal.com]

My much better two thirds suggests learning to walk on heels. I don't know if this is one you've already mastered, but I suppose you could always aim for an extra inch or two if you have...

[octalbunny.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a fun idea, I'm interested in joining in (and there's about 5 minutes left before new year).

[noirem.livejournal.com]

Hi, I followed over from ach's journal, so forgive me if I mention skills you've already acquired:

Conversational skills in semaphore, morris code, sign language, or braille?

Cook every recipe in a cookbook (a la biography Julie & Julia, though that might take more than a month (it took her a year). Maybe just prepare a multi-course dinner for a party of eight?

Learn a new programming language and write something more complicated than "Hello World" or build a website?

I'm partial to learning a new style of dance: I gather you do morris and basic ballroom - what about argentine tango? As a goal, being able to go to a club and dancing all night?

Do you sew? My first project was a victorian ball gown, from the underwear out (including a hoopskirt), everything but the shoes, gloves, and corset. Maybe a complicated halloween costume?

Pottery? Can you throw a pot?

Whittling? Carve a wooden animal or toy? Or carpentry and build a bookcase or hutch? Or something like habitat for humanity and build a house.

Do you knit/crochet/weave/embroider/quilting? Can you make a sweater, hat and mittens, an afghan, a sampler? Cross-stitch is fairly straightforward.

Photography? Not sure about the goal.

Build a sand sculpture?

Caligraphy? Or maybe illuminate a document? Your birth certificate or a wedding certificate or something? A diploma?

Read the bible/koran/darwin/nietzche?

Swim a mile in under 20mins? Or the channel?

Brew beer? Ferment wine? Whiskey?

Climb whatever mountain one would climb in the UK? (Where I live it would be Half Dome).

Write and direct a play (one of my friends does this for her church)

Balloon animals?

Play a musical instrument like a whistle, harmonica, or bones?

Flip and sheer a sheep?

Harvest honey?

Teach someone else any of the above?

Do the splits? A handspring? A cartwheel? (I never learned)

Skate backwards?

Snowshoe?

Write your memoires? Write your grandmother's?

Look at every fesible planet through a telescope? (More than a month, probably)