Sunday 9 August 2009

I Want To Learn Something In A Day

Help me.

There are 18 days left until I leave for the excitement of London life with a new job; working every day and playing every evening - I don't plan on having much spare time. Right now however, I've got literally nothing to do and, given that there's only so much time I can spend staring vacantly at Jeremy Kyle and Flash games before their appeal ever so slightly starts to dim, I'd like to learn something.

Something, anything - I don't know what. Some skill, ability or trick that I didn't have at the start of the day, but I'll have at the end. I don't want to start learning something; to learn the fundamentals of an activity - I'd like this to be a complete exercise.

There are limitations. Something which requires a group of people will be very tricky, but I'm amenable to the prospect of having to get some resources/equipment first. Obviously, things I can get quickly would be better (I don't want to wait around for Internet shopping) and cheapness would be preferred. Something which would involve me visiting a specialised location isn't ideal, but could also work.

So, ideas?

Leave a comment, or read the 15 comments so far.

Ed said...

Learn to play the harmonica.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, how are you with computers? Basic Perl or Python scripting can be quite useful if your into computer use.

Are you into crafts or art at all? Miniature painting can be fun and you could go buy all you need at a hobby shop. Model painting is also an easy one as they come in nicely rated skill levels.

..or you could be REALLY geeky and learn to play D&D if you don't already. Or another RPG if you do. You'd need other people to test if you've actually learned it though.

Ina said...

Ed - I'm already pretty good on harmonica :) (and it's certainly more than a one-day project). Thanks though.

Canageek - I'm a postgraduate computer science researcher, so Perl and D&D are already well covered ;) Miniature painting on the other hand could be fun, I'll keep that one in mind. I never was overly artistic though.

Keep them coming darlings.

Duane said...

Learn how to make origami boxes. They make great gifts and presentation pieces, they can get very intricate, you can practice on scrap paper, and you can later geek out about paper types.

Oni said...

Learn how to install OS X on a PC and dual boot it with Windows?

Teh-Rawr said...

1) Juggle
2) Unicycle
3) Poi (sunny day one)
4) Bass :P
5) whittling
6) the solo in freebird, on a real guitar
7) melodica
8)

ok I'm all out of ideas now..

Will said...

http://www.monkey.org/~aidan/origami/crane/

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, A bunch of people I know do knitting & cross-stitch and such while gaming to keep there hands busy, keeps them from fidgeting with dice. Knitting always annoyed me, and I couldn't focus on D&D and cross-stitch at once so I'm still looking for something along these lines myself.

Saqibs said...

I suggest origami: creative, use new sense, away from computer, can do on own.

Ina said...

Origami is popular :) I also like poi, juggling and whittling (the latter especially because I've simply never considered it before).

Any more ideas on the same lines folks? I'll blog my experiences and tips :)

ATerribleIdea said...

So that I may live up to my Twitter username, I will propose you learn to do the following:

1 - Learn how to play Stairway to Heaven on the hammer dulcimer;
2 - Learn hot to eat 100 hot dogs in 3 minutes;
3 - Learn how to properly prepare a Durian Fruit for consumption;
4 - Learn how to create time lapse movies of a decomposing human body, such as a neighbor;
5 - Make airsick bag puppets.

Anonymous said...

Make your own instrument? http://www.mudcat.org/kids/bongos.cfm

Unknown said...

I was thinking of suggesting learning how to screenprint tshirts, but I'm not sure if that would take a little more than a day...

Julie_oh said...

Oragami isn't overly exciting...you could learn to cook something that is difficult? Souffle or something - you'd have something to eat at the end of it too :)

Code a new game like Sokobina?

Learn a particular aspect of music theory, or jazz theory?

Make your 3d chess board, or something else woodworky?

Ina said...

I'm starting to think I might have multiple daily projects coming up :)

@ATerribleIdea Thanks for living up to your name. The first idea actually got me to thinking about making my own instrument..

@Smigs Looks like it could be done in a day but requires a lot of equipment.

@Ju Cooking's an excellent idea. Coding's not quite what I'm after (I'd rather something tactile). 3D chess could also be fun, though I don't have many woodworking skills.

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