It’s funny how things change over time. Sometimes, as technology changes, we have to change how we do things, meaning that there are little skills we’ve once learned that we have just abandoned in favor of newer ways of doing things.

This week, I have a list of “lost skills,” those things we used to do that we don’t do much of any more. Browse the list here, because it will be a big help for this week’s answers.

• First to play last week: Jude of My Way

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:
Name seven “obsolete” skills you have mastered in the past, and state whether or not you still use those skills.

Either answer the question in a comment or answer it in your journal and include the link in a comment. (To be considered “first to play,” a link must be to the specific entry in which you answered the question.) You may include this link in the URL space when leaving your comment, or in the comment itself. As long as it’s there in one spot or the other.

My Answers:
1. Setting the timer on a VCR - Haven’t used it for about 10 years.
2. Dialing a rotary phone - Haven’t used one in about 15 years or so.
3. Changing a typewriter ribbon - Haven’t used a manual typewriter in probably 15 years or more.
4. Splicing audio tape - I had to learn it in J-school 18 years ago. Never had to do it once after I graduated.
5. Tape-to-tape video editing - It has been only a couple of years since I’ve done this.
6. Operating a slide projector - My dad still has one, and I’m pretty sure he still uses it occasionally. I haven’t touched one for more than 10 years.
7. Running a mimeograph machine - Did it in high school. Twenty years ago. Twenty!  Ouch.