Current Skill You Are Developing

[Analyst]

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i bought a $150 rosette stone software for chinese and thought it was absolutely useless

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Too easy? Too hard? Just didn't think it was teaching you anything at all? More detail would be appreciated - I have also looked at this stuff for languages. Do you think an audio series would have been more useful?

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the set up was bad. it seemed very limited in how it worked, in fact now that i think about it i must not have known how to use the program becuase all i got was a picture and 4 different words and i had to multiple choice over and over and over again to learn and that's all it had. yup i must hvae missed something. i was pretty pissed at the $150 software

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I used the Rosetta Stone Intro to Italian a few years ago and thought it was a very good introdcution to really learning the language (which would take the regular program), not so good if you're going to be a tourist.

I'm planning on getting my daughter the Japanese set as it should be a very good adjunct to her school classes.

[nubs]

I've been developing my skills as a skiier. I've had about 20 days this season and i wish I had about twice that. This sunday I'm going to hike up Long's Peak (14k feet) with a buddy and ski down. Possible trip report to follow.

[imthaifool]

Not really a skill set, but I am further pursuing Buddhism.

[Howard Treesong]

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Six Sigma: a Motorola-developed and GE-popularized systematized process analysis for improving efficiency of industrial processes.

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Ugh. While we're on that, I'm learning how to do 5S.

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I really wish I'd had my camera with me today. I went to a meeting at a company site not far from my office. When I walked into the conference room, I saw a small framed sign describing the 5 s's laying sideways ON THE FLOOR.

I arrived early and was alone, and so was able to cackle audibly at the idiocy of it.

(for those of you that don't know, 5S is corporatespeak for "cleaning up your space so it looks like something Monk would have done.")

[DJ Sensei]

I've been trying to pick up Go myself, and bought a nice board and stones, but I dont know anybody else who plays much so its hard to do.

Also I like the idea of getting some turntables and learning to spin, probably independent/underground hip hop but maybe some house/trance as well. Heh, i'm not actually a DJ, but maybe someday I will be. Unfortunately thats another one thats hard to do without knowing somebody who is into it, both on the technical side and on the music side. You also pretty much have to know the whole catalog of a genre to be good at spinning it, I'd think, and its hard to learn about new music without somebody pointing you to it.

I've been getting a lot better at snowboarding this season, but I need to make more trips so I can really hone my skills and start getting on the steeper stuff.

I've also developed a sushi-eating hobby, and every time I go somewhere new I branch out into more interesting and potentially delicious flavors. I'm at the point now where I almost prefer nigiri to rolls because the flavor is so clean and fresh and without seaweed which i dont think i like. I'm not quite to the level of sashimi though. San Francisco is a pretty fantastic place to develop a sushi hobby, it turns out. Also, with sushi-eating I have several friends who also enjoy it and like making the effort to go get it, which is a big plus.

I've been developing my ultimate frisbee skills since my last year of college, but since moving out here haven't played as much or worked out aside from playing in games, so i'm not in great shape right now. Hopefully I can get in shape for club tryouts soon and get on a team for the season, but we'll see what happens.

I'd also love to play more soccer, but I dont know anybody here who plays regularly, so I guess I should just go find a game somewhere and join in.

One issue with any particular hobby that i'd like to get more interested in is that i'd have to spend time doing it, and as a professional online poker player in this day and age I need to spend more time constantly improving and adapting to the changing game so that I can pay the bills.

[Jason Strasser (strassa2)]

james

there is some asian math/physics 4.0 kid in one of my boring classes and we played yahoo chess the other day, he is one of those kids that played seriously through high school. ive never felt so dominated in anything in my life.

[nineinchal]

I am waiting for the Sklansky and Malmuth book on this.

If I can't learn from that I'll hire a tutor.

[kokiri]

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I've been trying to pick up Go myself, and bought a nice board and stones, but I dont know anybody else who plays much so its hard to do.


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http://senseis.xmp.net/ is a pretty interesting website on the game. Also google KGS for probably the best on line place to play.

That said, getting from 'don't know the rules' to 'terrible' is a jump I cannot even remember how i made and i think is maybe an initially tough step. Once you're 'terrible' it's easy to play against people and pick up stuff pretty quickly. My progress in Go was going fairly nicely until i hit a tank trap named $100 deposit on Paradise Poker about a year ago...

[Magic_Man]

Vicious, I go on little chess sprees a few times a year, and it is always frustrating to me that I can be very smart and yet still be so bad at chess. I can cream a novice, but anyone that is decent completely destroys me. I do ok at chess puzzles, especially if they tell me that I'm looking for a pin, or a fork, or whatever; I get those pretty much every time. But the problem is that in a real game, there's no one to stop you and say "ok now this is a puzzle. Find the best move." I never know whether I should stop and not move until I find a tactic, or whether I should just make some completely non-obvious positional play. It's these "in between" moves that give me the most trouble. I am starting to get feelings like "I want my knight on that square" or "my opponent's weakness is f7," but it's getting to those squares where I have trouble. In the middle game, I never know how to decide which piece to move, whether I should have a definite goal in mind, or whether I should just move to "generally good" areas. If I don't know what to do, should I just make general developing moves? How do I know when to look for specific moves and when to just develop?

[SuitedSixes]

I have a screen printing press and am working on becoming proficient with more elaborate t-shirt designs.

I have ordered "The Game" and "The Complete A**holes Guide to Handling Chicks" in an attempt to be better in relationships.

I have begun a workout to do one-legged squats with the ultimate goal of being able to dunk a basketball again.