Renaissance Girl

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein

I'm no bug. I may not be capable of all the things Heinlein lists, but I'm nothing if not unspecialized. A professor once said that journalists know a little bit about a whole lot of things. If I ever do wind up making a living in journalism, at least I'm prepared. It's the same kind of skill that makes me a good person to have on your team at trivia night. And professionally, that's all well and good. But personally? I think I'd like to be a little more proficient at a whole lot of things. I have a very rudimentary knowledge of the following:

• Musical Instruments
  -I played piano when I was a kid; now I can barely remember where to put my hands. I was first chair clarinet in middle school; now I've forgotten how to read music. I'm trying to learn the guitar, and I know a few chords. I'm not yet "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea"-caliber (first song any good indie rock fan learns on the guitar, right Julia?), but getting there.
  
  
• Photoshop
  -I've been trying to teach myself the basics for awhile now. It's a little overwhelming-- for such a universal program, there's quite the learning curve. I can do pretty things with colors, though, and have made some killer mix-CD artwork, so maybe I can learn some new tricks.
  
  
• Logical Fallacies
  -Hey, I took PHIL 1500, Logic & Critical Thinking. Oh yeah. Made flashcards and everything. And yet somehow, those fallacies didn't stick with me like my multiplication tables. I've got Straw Man down pat (who doesn't, after an election season like that?), but was there a Burning Man? And I know Slippery Slope, but what about Slip & Slide? No?
  
  
• The Human Body
  -Okay, I signed up for Health Psychology thinking it might involve, oh, say, psychology. It didn't. It was like, Med School For Dummies. But I swear I learned tons about medicine and body parts and diseases and the like. And you know, I watch Dr. Oz whenever he's on Oprah. And I try hard to follow Dr. House's logic. But tonight on Grey's Anatomy, the Obnoxiously Precocious British Lesbian Intern (I think that's her full name; check IMDb) mentioned the duodenum, and I knew I knew what it was but I couldn't remember to save my life. Luckily, the TV doctors could-- it's part of the small intestine. But my armchair MDing should be better than it's been lately.
  
  
• Romance Languages
  -In high school, I took Spanish. At college orientation, the Spanish placement test was at the same time as lunch, and I was hungry, so I signed up for Italian to fulfill that requirement. My last semester, I needed to pick an elective, any elective, so I choose that crazy no-English Portuguese class. Unfortunately, they're all a little similar. So I could probably string a few sentences together, but a Spaniard would recognize some words, an Italian would recognize a few others and a Brazilian would chuckle at my pronunciation. I could be fluent in some language by now but instead I have a poor grasp of grammar and vocabulary in three different ones.

I don't make New Year's Resolutions. (If I did, you'd surely hear about them here.) But if I did, perhaps one would be something like, get good at something. Something besides Dawson's Creek trivia and baking Funfetti cupcakes (although those are very important skills to have if you ask me). Maybe by 2010 I will be able to butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building.

But don't ask me to change a diaper. Knowing and doing? Two different things.