What should I learn next?

Learning all there is to know about cuttlefish is never a waste of time.

Proper sumi-e skills have always been a skill I cherish.

Papercraft can be a rewarding talent. I have 5, very large papercraft sculptures decorating my place & I love each one & telling people about the time/effort/glue I put into each one.

learn to play the didgeridoo. It always attracts a crowd.

Master the art of puppeteering. In the hands of a gifted puppeteer, you never notice the strings.

Learn how to make custom fly fishing lures. A commonly overlooked beauty.

Thats all for now, it’s late & time for bed.

Growing Bamboo and exotic grasses.

Ethnic drums and drumming.

Spiritual enlightenment.

Sculpture and pottery throwing

A few of my favs. :-)

@rpmpseudonym, I’ve got the wikipedia page on cuttle fish open right now.
I’ve also always wanted to learn sumi-e (I already have the brushes and ink) and papercraft. The rest of your suggestions are awesome and exactly what I’m looking for. Thank you much
:-D

@Coloma, I’ve grown bamboo before but I’d like to try some other exotic grasses. Drums are cool. I already have an authentic zebra-skin drum from Africa (I can’t recall the tribe) so I might as well learn to play it. I’m taking a pottery class this semester and I’ve actually been examining my spiritual beliefs of late. Great suggestions. Thank you!

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard

Check out these living grass wall hangings from a Japanese resteraunt I was in in Taiwan last spring.

I want to do this sooo bad!

@Coloma, so that’s what those are?

It shouldn’t be too difficult to do. Just build a frame out of 2×4s (finished with Linseed oil maybe?) Put in some kind of porous mat that could be impregnated with seeds and retains moisture and minerals and voila!

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard

Yeah…gotta make grass art! haha

You play the fiddle, correct? How about banjo, mouth harp, or any other bluegrass type instruments?

firestick spinning…..and piano

@augustlan, I’m still in the learning stages of violin playing, but I’m saving up for a banjo :-D

@jazmina88, now that’s an interesting suggestion!

Okay, I’m back with some more. I don’t do these things on a regular basis, so it takes a bit for me remember them..

—Learn & master at least 6 shadow puppets that require two hands to perform. Don’t show them off, wait until an occasion arises where you can casually do one or two. You feel good about the talent & your unsuspecting audience has a good laugh.

—Commit to memory at least one (semi-lengthy) quote by a famous author.

—Learn to type effectively with two hands & ten fingers.

—Buy & read a biography on one of the first 10 US presidents.

—Learn a new & uncommon card game that can be played at the dinner table with a standard 52 deck. When your friends are tired of go fish & Texas Hold em’, they’ll thank you for the refreshing change of pace.

—Buy a single piece of artwork from a local artist (an unknown). When people ask, tell them everything you know about the piece & the artist. You are doing the artist a massive favor by doing so.

—Discover a foreign band that you enjoy listening to, despite not knowing what is being said.

—Learn & practice on rare occasion, 5 traditions from another culture.

—Once a month, change your desktop wallpaper to an image that was taken by the Hubble telescope. Here is the site, http://hubblesite.org/gallery/wallpaper/

—Memorize at least 1 statistic for 10 different topics.

—Pick a number between 1 & 100 (right now, before you click the link)... Go to this site & find it on the list. You’ll know what to do.

—Make a pinhole camera & then use it.

—Whether you are on Mac/PC, find an indie game developer & buy one of their games(nothing more than$20). When you are done playing, contact the developer on their website & tell them what you think about it. Positive &/or negative feedback, regardless..thank them for taking the time to make a game for you to play. Your feedback will only improve their next project.

—Master just one professional magic trick(you may need to buy one from a professional). Make it a really good one. Don’t perform it more than once a year.

—Discover a foreign film maker & watch all their films.

—Research different entrees & find a new ‘my usual’. Ordering chicken parmesan everywhere you go is never a good thing.

—Learn how to prepare an entire 4 course meal. Once mastered….invite friends over for dinner.

—Buy a sail boat model kit & work on it sparingly. Let it take at least a year for you to complete it.

—Go to your state museum & look at everything they have to offer. Don’t walk by anything without admiring it & reading about it.

—Look up the different jobs on a movie set & pick one that you are unfamiliar with. Watch a favorite movie & appreciate the work that you never really noticed.

—Paint/draw a self portrait. Put it away when you are done. Take it out 40 years from now.

—Write to your local senator & discuss a topic that you feel needs changing within your state. Don’t expect to hear back. Be appreciative if you do.

—Donate your old books to a public library & volunteer to catalog & put them on the shelf.

—Play the crane machine at an arcade. Win a stuffed animal & give it to a police officer. They keep them in their cruiser for when they come upon cases involving children.

—Spend a night out under the stars. Don’t look for anything specific. Just enjoy the site of our universe.

—Build a simple piece of furniture to keep in your place. End table, lamp, bench, etc.

—Learn enough sign language for if you ever meet a deaf person, you can at least say,‘Hi. How are you doing? I’m fine thanks. Have a good day. Goodbye.’

—When you are older, become a host family for an exchange student.

—Learn jewelry design & make a necklace or pair of earrings(easier than you would think). Give them to a friend of stranger, without asking for anything in return.

I think that is enough for now. Some (things in list) are skills to learn, others are things you should do for a little life experience. Either way, I wish you the best of luck & hope you are able to accomplish as much as you can. Let us know how it goes when you take on one of these tasks. Hopefully if you relay some of your stories, it will inspire other readers to do the same.

@rpmpseudonym

Excellent list!

I guess now that I AM ‘older’ ahem…I want to hostess ‘kids’ traveling through Couchsurfers.com

I still pick up hitch hikers! lol

@rpmpseudonym, what a fantastic list!

I can type rather speedily in the proper fashion, I have made a pinhole camera, I have written to my senators before thanking them for voting to increase my financial aid (they responded graciously), I spent last saturday sleeping in the dirt by a fire in the mountains, and I have made and disseminated jewelry before. The rest of the list is stuff I haven’t done, but I’m going to pursue! I wish I could give you a billion lurve for this list.

(Oh, my number was 71. An order has been placed with amazon)

Thanks again!

Oops..typo…

www.couchsurfing.org

Found out about this when I picked up a couple on the coast last year from Indiana and Europe and drove them to their hosts home in Eureka Ca. :-)

@rpmpseudonym What fabulous suggestions!

Thanks @augustlan, @Coloma & @Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard. It’s a shame that only 5 people have commented on this post. I feel there is a lot to be had on this question & on the answers that have been given. Hopefully if we keep adding to the list of things, more people will join in. Spread the word. :)

You already know what Imma say, right? Everything you can learn about zombies, do it. Strangely, it’s not all about eating brains and guts, I find that the root of zombie entertainment is a great look into societal elements, and that doesn’t just include Romero.
That’s not really a skill I guess, but I thought an obsession might work just as well.

I also like drawing, but I use it more for self therapy as anything else, although I’m sure you could have fun trying to draw some things. I can’t possibly think of any better way to manifest what’s inside your head, I guess if you watch a lot of movies and think JRR Tolkien is greater than Jesus.

Also, as a former waitress I’ve long learned to pour beer in like a fraction of a second without it fizzing over. Give it a shot when you’re drunk with friends, it’s a always a good time haha.
Otherwise, I know nothing. ’‘Sheepish smile’’

@Symbeline, I’ve already got you on the zombie knowledge and drawing. I’ve been drawing since I was 3 and I wrote a 6 page research paper on zombies for a freshman gen ed. class.

I will learn to pour the perfect beer though. Thanks dollface :-D

You got any drawings you can show? I wanna see! :)

@Symbeline, only one I can find that is on the web.

It’s a sketch of a Zombie Golem in an SS uniform I was drawing for a comic book I had planned.

Here

That ROCKS! Man, for a zombie, it’s got so much soul. :)
’‘Looks at it again.’’

@Symbeline, thanks!

In the book, he was made out of wax and sent through history to pursue the protagonist- a time traveler. His final incarnation is as a gangster in the 20’s. The protagonist then hooks up with Clara Bow.

So what happened to the comic? You never completed it? But I love the idea behind it, a zombie gangster running around in time, if that’s not badass I don’t know what is.

@Symbeline, I have a million half finished projects laying around. The comic is one of them. I got caught up in school work and just never got around to finishing it. I may do so one day. You’ll be the first to see it then.

I also started another zombie comic set in the late 1800’s. A bunch of zombies left over from a secret Confederate experiment from the Civil War rise in the 1890’s and the protagonist has to fight them. The British Empire sends in their steam powered centipede trains (steam trains that have hundreds of mechanical legs and are armed with dozens of guns), steam powered mech units, and zeppelins to help out. There was also a steampunk version of the internet called the “aethernet” that the hero uses to research zombies. It’s basically a huge library, and when you wanted to search something, you’d type it in on a typewriter keyboard and a mechanical arm would swoop into the library and return with the page you want to see and your typing cursor was an arm with a quill attached to it…. I never got far with that comic either….

/rambling.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard That 1800s version sounds fantastic. I’d love to see that one get finished.You sound a lot like me, with all the unfinished projects. I never seem to complete anythi

@augustlan Hahaha! :) Lurve.

I need just one more GA on my long list comment & I get the Colossal Squid award. The gamer in me is uber-excited

@augustlan, aw, I’m honored! (I also see what you did there…)

@rpmpseudonym, I’d give you one if I could.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard So how is it going? I’d love to hear what you have been up to in regards to your ‘what should I learn next’ quest. :)

@rpmpseudonym, I’m still working on my Arabic. I also learned how to hack and play my own Super Mario World levels on the computer. And I’m making good progress on re-writing my novel. That’s about it for now.