What I Wish I Could Do
January 30th, 2009 | Categories: Life | 8 CommentsMost of the time, if I’m not happy with my talents and abilities, I’m at least content. I can do a lot of things fairly well, and I consider myself lucky that one of my strongest talents is writing, especially since I enjoy it so much. But there are still a lot of things I wish I could do even half-decently, let alone fantastically. The list ranges from serious things to useless quirks I wish I had, and while I don’t think I’ll be getting any of these skills anytime soon, it’s still fun to dream, right?
- Code in valid (X)HTML/CSS
I’ve always wanted to be able to code in valid (X)HTML/CSS, but my coding skills are pretty atrocious. I can code a layout okay, but my coding skills have a lot more to be desired. I think I have the basics of XHTML down – always close your tags, nest your tags, make sure all of your coding is in lowercase, that kind of thing. But CSS is what confuses me, valid or not. It’s something I need to experiment with more, and do some trial and error stuff, before I get the hang of it, cause my CSS skills are very elementary. - Whistle
I have never, ever been able to whistle! Every time I try, I’m just pushing air with my lips and any noise that I manage to make is not in the least bit like a whistle. It’s very frustrating as my brother has been able to whistle for as long as I can remember, and I’ve always wished that I could whistle just like him. - Be fluent in Russian
I have never been to Russia, and as much as I would love to go there, I probably won’t ever get a chance to go there – at least, not anytime soon. But I’ve always wanted to learn Russian, even though it’s extremely difficult and I personally would probably never get a chance to practice any Russian I would learn. Still, it sounds like such a beautiful and cryptic language and I would love to have the skills to decipher and understand it! - Do a cartwheel
While I was off taking dance lessons as a little girl, some of my friends took gymnastics. A lot of the people I know can do cartwheels, backflips, and other “simple” gymnastics steps, but I can’t do any of them! I used to be extremely flexible because I was trained as a dancer, but I had to give up dancing due to a knee injury. Still, I’d love to be able to do a cartwheel. Or even a backflip… - Be ambidextrous
I’m right-handed, and I’ve always thought it would be cool to be able to write with my left-hand as well. It would be extremely useful when it comes to being seated at a left-handed desk at school. I was sitting in a left-handed desk yesterday when I was taking a test, and it was very distracting having to angle my whole body towards my left side so that I could write out my test!
Tags: friday five, languages
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Hi, I'm Manda. I'm a college student studying communications and languages. I like to read, shop, bake, and travel. I have a tendency to listen to my favorite songs on repeat for hours on end. Sometimes I catch myself thinking in a language other than English. 
You can’t whistle? :( That’s so sad! I love whistling. I can’t do any of the other stuff in your list so I’ll commiserate with you.
There’s something about CSS that I just adore. I love putting a layout together quickly in XHTML and then spending hours fixing the CSS so it looks perfect.
As for whistling, I am determined to figure out how to do it. My strategy is to ask as many different people as possible for help — at least someone out there should give me a tip that works!
Hey, I’ve always wanted to be ambidextrous, too. I’m left-handed, and sometimes in class I spend a few minutes writing out the alphabet with my right hand. I need tons more practice to graduate from writing that looks like a six-year-old’s, though.
Let’s not even get started on how impossible cartwheels are :P
Be ambidextrous! It’d be so cool.
And Russian is awesome! It’s very difficult, but awesome! ♥
Coding is something I really fail at. No matter how much I’d learn, I would still suck at it. That’s quite saddening, since being awesome at coding is one of my dreams.
Whistle. I can do that one! But I can’t do any cool tricks with my tongue. If I had a chance to exchange these two, I would definitely do it.
Be fluent in Russian? My mother is an English and Russian teacher, but I always tell her, I’m not interested in the second language – I would rather go for Japanese or Spanish. Luckily, she got over this tiny fact, and tries to improve my English knowledge whenever I let her. ;P (I rather improve it on my own. I’m pretty tired of everyone saying how easy it must be for me, since I can ask anything from her. Sure. And she took the language exam, the tests, and went to the competitions instead of me. Bummer.)
I can’t do a proper cartwheel, to be honest. I’m not that flexible.
Being ambidextrous would be great! But pretty impossible for the clumsy me. :P
This was another great post! I love the idea. Wish I would be more creative!
CSS and XHTML are actually not that hard to learn how to code properly. For starters, I would recommend getting a WYSIWYG editor, such as Dreamweaver or something similar. I personally hate using DW because I know how to code by hand faster. But the WYSIWYG editor will really help you learn since it fills in what you don’t know.
Another thing to do is to actively try to improve your skills. A website I think you could greatly benefit from is http://www.htmldog.com/ – their site is wonderful and very helpful. Especially this: http://www.htmldog.com/reference/cssproperties/ – it lists most of the CSS declarations. Really handy!!
And I would love to learn Russian. I am obsessed with Russian music, so it’d be awesome to learn it. :D
Manda I don’t think you would have any trouble validating and CSS! You are a super smart girl you’d get it in no time!!
I would LOVE to learn another language but I have a mental block every time I try. I would need to either be in the country or with someone who was fluent that I could have constant conversations with.
Would you mind if I borrow this to blog about?
[...] Ah, Russia. I have always had an interest in Russia, whether it be wishing I was fluent in Russian or having strange, time-traveling dreams where I end up in communist USSR1. I love the rich history [...]
[...] conversational French and become conversational in Mandarin Chinese before tackling new languages! Russian is also a language I’d like to learn, but the likelihood of that ever happening is practically [...]