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Hey Halforumites, I come to you with a challenge--- to challenge me!

I'm wanting to try a Skill-a-Week challenge, where I try to learn and apply a new skill each week. And I want YOU to tell me what skills to try!

This week is booked.
Week 1: Cooking (This one isn't fair, I already love to cook and do it all the time, but this is a full-on week of me cooking every meal I can. I am trying more complicated things though, like making my own grape jelly, making a veggie burger from scratch, making my own tea, etc.)

After that, I've got these skills lined up (though any skill can be plopped into any week):
- Blacksmithing
- Foraging
- Archery
- Social Persuasion
- Lockpicking

Jeeze, this sounds like my Skyrim character.

ANYWAY, I can add, drop, and replace any skills. Suggest a skill here for me to learn and I'll dedicate a week to it and post the results!

Language skills!

Choose a non-romance language to study for a week and learn how to give a short introduction of yourself using it.

Bonus points if you learn how to write the introduction especially if using a non-roman alphabet.

Buy some wood pieces from a hobby shop and whittle!

Terrik said:

Language skills!

Choose a non-romance language to study for a week and learn how to give a short introduction of yourself using it.

Bonus points if you learn how to write the introduction especially if using a non-roman alphabet.

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I did Japanese in college. I'll try a different language. You sent me stuff from China for Secret Santa didn't you? I'll try Chinese.

Cajungal said:

Buy some wood pieces from a hobby shop and whittle!

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I actually whittled a wooden kunai way back in highschool. My friend and I were walking down the road and found a small downed tree. He hoisted it over his shoulder and we walked back to my house, and spent the next few days whittling it down.

Give me something to create specifically, and I'll make it for you.

Juggling. I taught myself to juggle 3 balls relatively well in about a couple hours so it's not too complex and it's a skill that makes people smile.

Hmmm...
Can you whittle a ukulele??

You must master the Yo-Yo or die!

knit a scarf

Learn to tie all kinds of different knots! Like a sailor or a boy scout!

Adam said:

Juggling. I taught myself to juggle 3 balls relatively well in about a couple hours so it's not too complex and it's a skill that makes people smile.

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I actually already did learn to juggle a few years ago. I learned with pingpong balls, which are terrible for juggling.

Cajungal said:

Hmmm...
Can you whittle a ukulele??

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A uke---??? Sure. I will try to whittle a ukelele. ._.

HCGLNS said:

You must master the Yo-Yo or die!

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Awww, I hate yo-yos...

WasabiPoptart said:

knit a scarf

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That'll take forever! But I shall add it to the list...

Cajungal said:

Learn to tie all kinds of different knots! Like a sailor or a boy scout!

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I did buy a knot-tying book a while back...

Animal husbandry

Beer making.

Cheese making.

Calligraphy

Cannibalism.

No?

Okay, how about... self-administered cybertronic enhancement.

Too much?

All right, then try... bare-handed open heart surgery.

Maybe not?

Okay... poetry. Go for poetry. Spend a week learning about meter and rhyme and the historical background of various forms of poetry. Your objective at the end of the week will be to write any type of poem (for example, a Shakespearean sonnet) about any given topic (for example, bacon).

Gared said:

Cheese making.

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I have been wanting to try my hand at making my own cheese forever now.

The hundred-yard underwater backwards toe-knitting dash.

Sewing!

I'll throw cheese making and beer making into this week, since those likely are a day activity but take a while.

Always wanted to sew, and my gf can teach me.

This'll be fun!

Make a giant paper maché halforum smiley. You know, the

Prison tattoos!

Fellatio!

Now there's a skill.

Is fellatio a skill? I'm not sure if that takes a lot of practice...or thought.

Just think lollipops and you're okay.

Don't think toosiepops...that ends badly.

LittleSin said:

Is fellatio a skill? I'm not sure if that takes a lot of practice...or thought.

Just think lollipops and you're okay.

Don't think toosiepops...that ends badly.

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Tootsie-pop = tossed salad.

fade said:

Tootsie-pop = tossed salad.

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I have no idea what the means!

I am so happy!

LittleSin said:

Is fellatio a skill? I'm not sure if that takes a lot of practice...or thought.

Just think lollipops and you're okay.

Don't think toosiepops...that ends badly.

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Some women are terrible at it... some are awesome. That's been my experience so I would call it a skill...

Azurephoenix said:

Some women are terrible at it... some are awesome. That's been my experience so I would call it a skill...

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Now I find myself wondering how good I am at it. Blue seems pleased...but he has a sample size of, well, one.

Now I have a question that will never, ever be answered!

LittleSin said:

Now I find myself wondering how good I am at it. Blue seems pleased...but he has a sample size of, well, one.

Now I have a question that will never, ever be answered!

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It sounds like a test is in order...

FOR SCIENCE!

Fellatio is definitely a skill.

Gusto said:

Fellatio is definitely a skill.

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Out of curiosity I looked up tutorials.

I have learned so many things today.

That's hot. I think.
...?

doomdragon6 said:

That's hot. I think.
...?

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Speaking of hot, how'd cooking go? Did you get to the cheese?

Knitting. It's awesome. You should totally do it.

Knife sharpening, or any basic edge maintenance (axe, razor, chisel).
Learn the difference between hollow, straight, and convex grind, how to use whetstones and wet stones, when to steel v. strop.

The dividends this skill pays will be lifelong.

--Patrick

Freestyle rap battling.

LittleSin said:

Speaking of hot, how'd cooking go? Did you get to the cheese?

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Never made it to cheese, just barely got Jelly to work for me.

Guess I need to pick this week's skill...

doomdragon6 said:

Never made it to cheese, just barely got Jelly to work for me.

Guess I need to pick this week's skill...

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What happened with the jelly, if you don't mind my asking?

Gared said:

What happened with the jelly, if you don't mind my asking?

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The first recipe that I used never mentioned that pectin existed, so I just made syrup basically. So after another google, I found a RELIABLE recipe that uses pectin, which is what makes jelly jelly and not juice. Once I had that it went fine. 2.5 lbs of grapes gave me 2.5 cups of juice, which produced 7 half-pint jars of jelly. Not bad.

As for my other cooking ventures, I made donuts with glaze (never made glaze before), various "healthy" foods, etc. I found out it's pretty easy to average 300 calories a meal, so I've been losing weight pretty quickly over here. (Compare to a #1 at Chik-Fil-A being 1,000 goddamn calories.)

I never wanted to be a calorie counter but it happens when you start making a game of flavor:fat ratio. Turns out you can make some seriously delicious veggie meals that pretend to satisfy your meat cravings.

doomdragon6 said:

The first recipe that I used never mentioned that pectin existed, so I just made syrup basically. So after another google, I found a RELIABLE recipe that uses pectin, which is what makes jelly jelly and not juice. Once I had that it went fine. 2.5 lbs of grapes gave me 2.5 cups of juice, which produced 7 half-pint jars of jelly. Not bad.

As for my other cooking ventures, I made donuts with glaze (never made glaze before), various "healthy" foods, etc. I found out it's pretty easy to average 300 calories a meal, so I've been losing weight pretty quickly over here. (Compare to a #1 at Chik-Fil-A being 1,000 goddamn calories.)

I never wanted to be a calorie counter but it happens when you start making a game of flavor:fat ratio. Turns out you can make some seriously delicious veggie meals that pretend to satisfy your meat cravings.

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Oh yeah, trying to make jelly without pectin (depending upon the type of jelly) is pretty much doomed to failure. There are ways for some types of jelly that you can cook them down far enough that you don't need to add boxed pectin, or you can cut in a few apples, which are naturally high in pectin, but pretty much these days you need to go buy the pectin as well. I've never done grape jelly, but my pantry runneth over with strawberry jam, apple butter, raspberry jam, apricot jam, apple sauce, salsa, and pickles of various types.

There's multiple types of pectin, too. One for when you add sugar, one for when you don't. Make sure you pick the right one.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

There's multiple types of pectin, too. One for when you add sugar, one for when you don't. Make sure you pick the right one.

--Patrick

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Oh yeah... trying to use the for-sugar pectin with a sugar-free mixture will result in absolute failure. Or worse yet, the supremely annoying "almost worked the way you wanted it to but didn't quite set right" failure.

Yep. I'd actually like to try to make my own. I found a recipe to use apples to make some, but I might save that for will I'm a little more experience with regular pectin. ;P