this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2024
65 points (95.8% liked)

Asklemmy

43858 readers
1707 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

It can be a small skill.

The last thing I learned to do was whistle. Never could whistle my whole life, and tutorials and friends never could help me.

So, for the last month or two, I just sort of made the blow shape then spam-tried different "tongue configurations" so to speak -- whenever I had free time. Monkey-at-a-typewriter type shit. It was more an absentminded thing than a practice investment.

Probably looked dumb as hell making blow noises. Felt dumb too ("what? you can't whistle? just watch"), but I kept at it like a really really low-investment... dare I attract self-help gurus... habit.

Eventually I made a pitch, then I could shift the pitch up a little, then five pitches, then Liebestraum, then the range of a tenth or so. Skadoosh. Still doing it now lol.

(Make of this what you will: If I went the musician route my brain told me to, then I would've gotten bored after 1 minute of major scales. When I was stuck at only having five pitches, I had way more longevity whistle-blowing cartoonish Tom-and-Jerry-running-around chromaticisms than failing the "fa" in "do re mi fa".)

So, Lemmings: What was the last skill you learned? And further, what was the context/way in which you learned it?

(page 2) 23 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] MrFunnyMoustache@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

Love whistling. I learned it as a teen and drove my parents mad practicing.

While I am not inept in the kitchen, I only recently figured out how to get the classic French omelette consistently right. It's harder than it looks to get it looking flawless like that with an ultra thin exterior layer and perfectly creamy inside, and not ruining the structure when rolling it on the edge of the pan. I followed the instructions of the legendary chef, Jacques Pepin, in this video, and supplemented by the wonderful videos of chef motokichi (link). They make it look super easy because they are extremely skilled.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I got into photography during the pandemic as a way to go outside and stay active. I find it makes you pay attention to the environment around you a lot more closely. Things you normally wouldn't notice become interesting.

[–] fool@programming.dev 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In a similar way, I'd learnt an eeny bit about visual composition at one point, and it's helped me understand how something pretty can be uninteresting and something ugly can be interesting. (Maybe it was more obvious to everyone else, especially with the whole image gen sitch (ー﹏一))

Oddly it's made me respect internet-ugly MS Paint stuff more. Like this ancient shitpost.

And nature too of course. The way a red sky refracts in cirrus clouds. Ladybugs on leaves. Elk.

All stuff I normally wouldn't have noticed :p

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Crotaro@beehaw.org 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Okay, so the most recent skill that I learned - or am still learning - would be making chainmail armour (or just "maille" for the pedantic). In theory, I now have the knowledge how to start from an iron ingot, turn that into a wire and that into the little rings for the armor. But because I want to be done in less than a year (will be part of my wedding outfit), I started with pre-made riveted rings, which I simply bend open, connect to solid rings and then bend closed and press in the rivet.

But since I never get to talk about it in other threads, I also learned how to make super primitive candles. Just yesterday I made candles from pork fat chunks that I ground up in my mortar and pestle. You don't even need the little fabric to catch fire, you can just literally start lighting up the fat itself if you hold it long enough to a lighter

And before that, about one year ago now, I started learning to play the Herdy Gurdy, which is a lovely instrument, with a very lovely tone. And I even built one myself from a little do-it-yourself model kit, so to speak, which is called the Nerdy Gurdy. I started learning that because I was playing Sea of Thieves and I really enjoyed the sound of the instrument in-game. And then I also thought "hey, what if I not only learn to play it, but also learn to play it for my wedding in 2025?"

Edit because I feel this has been just a year of learning so much stuff for me: ASL. I started learning ASL about a month after I played VRChat for the first time and been practicing ever since. The chance of me getting good use out of ASL anywhere that is not online is pretty much zero, though, because I live in Germany lol

[–] fool@programming.dev 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wow, that's definitely a few. Didn't expect an entire set of chainmail to show up in these comments!

And I seem to notice something:

...the armor. But because I want to be done in less than a year (will be part of my wedding outfit)

"Hey, what if I not only learn to play the [Hurdy (Nerdy?) Gurdy, but also learn to play it for my wedding"

Someone's wedding is going to be very interesting.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] roterabe@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 week ago

Recently got good in making sourdough. But I could also add plastering walls. I'm semi-decent at it.

load more comments
view more: β€Ή prev next β€Ί