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[jay-ell]

Here's the thing. I've been tabletop roleplaying for the first time ever (I have done plenty of computer RPGs but this is my first tabletop campaign), and two of my fellow adventurers are my friends' eleven-year-old kids. I've been talking to one of them particularly about how the lessons she's learning from our campaign apply to her real life, and one of the things I told her recently is, "Never pass up an opportunity to learn a new skill. It's like leveling up for free."

So I'm taking my own advice and I'm learning a new skill. I ordered a beginner's set of lockpicks and a book today, and I'm going to learn basic entry skills. It's one of the abilities I've most admired in bad-ass video game characters since I was a little kid, it's a skill I always choose in roleplaying-type games, and there is literally no reason not to actually learn it in real life.

I thought I'd start this thread to share my progress, and also to see what kinds of things you guys are learning and what new ventures you're thinking of trying. So what are you crazy kids up to these days? Anybody leveling up? Share your progress here so that we can all pat you on the back!

[smick]

I've been learning static trapeze and aerial silks.

It's pretty amazing.

Still doing stand up.  I'm on "vacation" for the summer.  But... it's getting time to make the donuts.

[theinevitable]

I am trying to work on my "don't jump immediately into another relationship" skill.

On a more/less relevant topic, my espresso drinks are fuck*ng GREAT. It isn't actually that hard, it's just that most coffee employees don't care/are content to do it the way they were taught. I read a few things online and asked various friends how they do it, and I am pretty impressed by my results. It is very possible that my lattes would be laughed at in a big city, but they are definitely better than any of the places I have tried here. Except that one really expensive fancy place.

Yum. Too bad I don't like coffee very much. Mochas are really good.

Also playing tons of guitar with roommates. Playing with other people is hard! Especially when the guy I don't get along with that well is a really mediocre player who can't play in a key.
I need to figure out a chord progression ahead of time, because if I start noodling around trying to find something he launches into some variation of a punk progression with only notes with dots on the fretboard. The other guy we play with is way out of my league and I have trouble keeping up. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. But goddamn is it fun.

[wombat]

I'm still taking taiko drumming classes. I bought new drumsticks when I was in Japan.

I'm also slowly working toward my dog trainer certification, I guess. Hard to beat learning to pick locks though.

You know this is one of the differences between geeks/nerds and the rest of the world. When I started taking taiko I said to a friend, "It's been too long since I learned a new thing from scratch, I forgot how hard it is" and she said, "You know most people NEVER do that as an adult."

[jaydub]

I'd count starting to ride a motorcycle, as I did last summer.  In Traveller terms, I got to Motorcycle-0 pretty quickly, but gaining Motorcycle-1 took a lot of just plain riding in all kinds of conditions.  I'm not sure what's next, other than an upper-division humanities course I need for one of my degrees (long postponed).

[jay-ell]

I'd count starting to ride a motorcycle, as I did last summer.  In Traveller terms, I got to Motorcycle-0 pretty quickly, but gaining Motorcycle-1 took a lot of just plain riding in all kinds of conditions.  I'm not sure what's next, other than an upper-division humanities course I need for one of my degrees (long postponed).

Funny you mention Traveller; the system we're using for our RPG is GURPS. And yes, my character has lockpick.

I'm still taking taiko drumming classes. I bought new drumsticks when I was in Japan.

I'm also slowly working toward my dog trainer certification, I guess. Hard to beat learning to pick locks though.

You know this is one of the differences between geeks/nerds and the rest of the world. When I started taking taiko I said to a friend, "It's been too long since I learned a new thing from scratch, I forgot how hard it is" and she said, "You know most people NEVER do that as an adult."

I was thinking about your Taiko classes when I started this thread. Also Smick's stand-up and August's yoga practice. But yeah, most people stop learning new stuff when they graduate from college (if they even get that far).

I told Pedro that I ordered lockpicks and he sort of shook his head in disbelief at how deeply geeky the whole thing is. But I told him, hey. I might only use it two or three times in my life, but on those two or three occasions, I will look SO COOL.

[AugustWest]

Still working on the banjo (and the guitar) -- been really focused on music theory lately and it's helped me to progress. Trying to figure out how to do some recording.  Still practicing yoga.  Still learning tennis.

Figured out how to work with PVC pipe as part of the ongoing bathroom remodel.  Learning a lot about bankruptcy law lately for work.  Always reading history.  Learning about how to deal with kids who aren't really teenagers any more.

[AugustWest]

Also playing tons of guitar with roommates. Playing with other people is hard! Especially when the guy I don't get along with that well is a really mediocre player who can't play in a key.
I need to figure out a chord progression ahead of time, because if I start noodling around trying to find something he launches into some variation of a punk progression with only notes with dots on the fretboard. The other guy we play with is way out of my league and I have trouble keeping up. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. But goddamn is it fun.

Ain't it though?

Playing with other people can be hard, but it's so rewarding and fun when it goes well.  I think a significant part of it is finding somebody to play with who is compatible.  It can be frustrating to play with somebody who tries to dominate the jam  -- one guy I play with will only play his own songs.  But I feel really lucky, because my main collaborator and I really work well together.  Finding a compatible bass player and drummer has just been gravy.  Stick with it -- I think having a facility for playing with just about anybody is a really admirable skill.  It's something that I strive for.

Try to play as much as you can with the better player.  Get him to write down the chord progressions he's going to be using, then you play rhythm and let him solo over it. 

[theinevitable]

I think he gets frustrated playing guitar with us lame-o's, so he normally plays bass or drums. The best jam I've ever had (and he said the best he had had in a very long time) was the two of us playing guitar through the two inpupts of his big loud fancy vintage Fender, frustrating roommate playing repetitive riffs on bass, and fourth man on drums. So, so good.

I knew I had a nice amp, but playing really loudly with medium distortion in a big basement, with crashing drums and rumbling bass... holy shit, I sound like rock music.

[Carlos del Vaca]

When life calms down a little I need to attack the music thing harder. Thinking about taking up the harmonica.

[dejavroom]

After 35 years of slow but steady decay I've started exercising. I have always been lean, but there had been some doughy developments of late which, you know, gross. Also I used to be able to go from point A to point B just by thinking about it. These days I have to send a memo, schedule a meeting, do a whole song and dance routine before I can try to catch a bus, it's fuck*ng ridiculous.

Can't be bothered with gyms, though, so I found these really painful isometric exercises that you can do in 30 minutes in your bedroom w/out equipment. They hurt so much. I'm incorporating push-ups & crunches into it, too. And now I only eat mushy plants and meat, and drink those horrid protein concoctions the flavor of which is described as "chocolate", even though it should be "wet cardboard chocolate box". What the hell, right. Although I do enjoy the lingering day-after pain, and to be able to notice the physical change as my body reacts to the exercises.



Search for "monks isometrics" for larger images. They really hurt.

[CortJstr]

All I can think of is Comics Curmudgeon: http://joshreads.com/?p=405#brick

[Doc]

I've started watching the Walter Lewin MIT physics lectures before bed. I used to know a little physics but have forgotten it all. I'm thinking I'm going to have to go back and relearn calculus as well. Should have done this a couple of years ago so I could have done some high school tutoring and made it profitable.

I want to do the music thing too. I was thinking saxophone or trumpet, two instruments I know less than nothing about. Anyway think I'll try starting lessons after my final exams and use my first paycheque next year to pick up my own instrument, kind of make a Thing out of it.

JL let us know how the lock picking goes, I have a friend who has been looking at lock pick sets online for months but is yet to pull the trigger and get some.

[jay-ell]

Doc, I picked up a beginner's set of four picks and a tension tool plus a "how-to" book for $20 including shipping. There's got to be someplace in Oz that offers a similar set.

I read a few books on chemistry recently. I was always good at it in school but I'd forgotten most of it, the refresher was nice. Also related to this roleplaying game, I downloaded a copy of the Anarchist's Cookbook so that I could reference the necessary items for creating homebrew explosives. (It's a modern setting, so my character is a seventeen-year-old science wizard and with a varsity letter in badassery.) I probably couldn't make any if my life depended on it but just having the theory is nice. Although, holy crap people. Phone phreaking -- 75% of the cookbook is devoted to it; who knew it'd be totally obsolete by now?

Paul, you'll be pleased to know that my character did, in fact, gather the necessary materials to turn the team's van into a flame-throwing zombie death machine. My fellow adventurers were totally impressed when I described the process in-game. She hadn't had a chance to torch any walkers yet, though.

[Ben-San]

I read a few books on chemistry recently. I was always good at it in school but I'd forgotten most of it, the refresher was nice. Also related to this roleplaying game, I downloaded a copy of the Anarchist's Cookbook so that I could reference the necessary items for creating homebrew explosives. (It's a modern setting, so my character is a seventeen-year-old science wizard and with a varsity letter in badassery.) I probably couldn't make any if my life depended on it but just having the theory is nice. Although, holy crap people. Phone phreaking -- 75% of the cookbook is devoted to it; who knew it'd be totally obsolete by now?

This is pretty well-known but it's just as well that you're not following Anarchist's Cookbook instructions for homebrew explosives - their methods and recipes are pretty unsafe and people do hurt themselves pretty badly following it. It's not bad as a "this is the kind of substances my character will need to find" reference, though.

I taught myself pocket-picking and simple lockpicking when I was younger for basically the same reasons as this. I haven't done that kind of thing for a while, though.