- 4 minutes ago
Lucie is challenging herself this week and learns five new skills.
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00:00I'm Lucy Fink and this is five days of learning new skills. I was listening to a podcast recently
00:05where I learned that focusing your attention on learning a new skill or trying a new activity,
00:10something that maybe doesn't come all that naturally to you or is a little bit challenging,
00:14actually trains your body to be able to deal with stress over time. So this week I chose five skills
00:19that I could each dedicate just one day to and I intentionally chose skills that I could learn
00:24very easily at home because I wanted you all to be able to learn alongside me. So let's get into
00:29Monday. I wanted to start the week off with something that has been frequently requested
00:35by my audience and something that I've always wanted to try. My friends over at Fender challenged
00:39me to try learning how to play the ukulele and they even sent me this beautiful ukulele in the mail
00:46and they even gave me access to Fender Play which is their digital learning platform where you can
00:50learn chords, basic finger placements, and even take courses online. Nice! I once learned from a YouTube
00:58video that when you're tuning a ukulele and you play the strings from top to bottom it should
01:02sound like this. My dog has fleas. So I made sure each string was tuned up with the online tuner
01:11and
01:11then I just practiced some chords. Up, down, up, down, up, up. Great! Did that successfully. A standard guitar has
01:23six strings whereas the ukulele only has four and compared to the standard guitar a ukulele also has a
01:28much smaller fretboard which is a lot easier for people that have small hands like I do. Because
01:32this video is for Refinery29 we just didn't have the copyrights to play real songs in the video. So
01:38you better believe I would have been jamming out to Jason Mraz and Ingrid Michaelson and I would have
01:42liked to play some real songs for you but I wasn't allowed to play any of those songs on camera
01:47so instead I
01:48practiced singing a song written by one of my favorite youtubers. We are the moon, the stars, the water, and
01:53the sun.
01:55And then I tried writing my own songs. I wrote a song about playing music.
02:00I'm sitting at home having some fun just making some music talking to no one.
02:11A song about tofu. Do you like tofu? Cause I don't really. One about pizza.
02:21As long as there's sauce and there's bread and there's cheese it's a pizza to me all right.
02:28Pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza.
02:33After just a couple of hours my comfort level with the ukulele improved immensely.
02:39My fingers hurt when I strum like this so maybe I will strum like that anymore.
02:46Right now I'm almost bleeding on this finger. It hurts.
02:52And the best part about this skill is that it's now been about a week since Monday and I've continued
02:56to practice on my own. I even shared a little clip on my Instagram story of me singing Ingrid Michaelson's
03:01song You and I and Ingrid Michaelson reposted it on her Instagram story. And if you want to follow
03:07my growth and progression with the ukulele be sure to follow me on Instagram and check out my stories.
03:20If you are bored with no coffee left to brew try learning something new cause it's the right thing to
03:32do.
03:37More so than ever in this past year I've been hugely invested in my physical health especially after
03:43having my gallbladder taken out last year maintaining a healthy gut microbiome has become a major priority
03:48of mine. Kombucha is a fermented tea that's a great source of probiotics. It gives your gut that healthy
03:54bacteria that can aid in digestion reduce inflammation boost your energy and so much more. So I thought a fun
04:00skill for Tuesday would be learning how to make this drink at home. But first in order to make a
04:05fresh batch of
04:06kombucha you need a SCOBY. So what's a SCOBY? It stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast.
04:14SCOBY. It's essentially a living slimy blob that kind of looks like a mushroom and it's floating
04:19inside this liquid that's a starter liquid for making kombucha. These SCOBYs grow and they multiply
04:24and they make little baby SCOBYs. So if you have a friend that makes kombucha at home you can just
04:29take
04:29a baby SCOBY and some starter liquid from them. I wanted to challenge myself to do this from scratch which
04:34meant I needed to grow my own SCOBY and create my own starter liquid so that probably in two months
04:39down the line I'll be able to make my own kombucha. First I boiled water and then I dissolved white
04:43sugar in it and then I dropped some tea bags in it and I basically made a giant batch of
04:48sweet tea.
04:48I used organic black tea. Once it's cooled you pour that tea into a large jar and you add kombucha.
04:54It's very important to use raw organic and unflavored kombucha for this and what you'll notice is that
04:59those store-bought bottles typically already have some filmy floating stuff in them so you want to
05:04make sure that when you pour the kombucha into the tea that you're transferring over those floating
05:08guys and then you cover it with a cloth or as I use some coffee filters you tie it off
05:13with rubber bands
05:14make sure it's really secure and basically you just put it away from direct sunlight I tucked it into
05:19the back of my cabinet and in about 20 days or so I should have my own SCOBY. One thing
05:23that's very
05:24important here is cleanliness so you want to make sure you're not getting any bad bacteria in the jar so
05:28I
05:28made sure to wash my hands really well and I also boiled the jar in boiling water before I did
05:33any
05:33of this. Just trying out this skill for one day really opened my eyes to the giant world out there
05:38of kombucha and fermentation and SCOBYs and in the meantime be sure to follow my Instagram stories
05:43for some SCOBY updates alongside my ukulele videos.
05:52On Wednesday I took on learning the basics of American sign language. I became especially
05:58interested in learning American sign language a couple of years ago when I saw the revival of
06:02Spring Awakening on Broadway. The revival had both hearing and deaf actors in it but the entire show
06:08was signed as it was sung. It looked like a choreographed dance to the lyrics and I wanted
06:12to learn it so badly. Going into this day I knew that I would not be able to learn all
06:16of ASL in just
06:18one day but I did set out to learn the entire alphabet as well as some basic signs. So for
06:23those who don't
06:23know I'm going to teach you the entire alphabet in American sign language right now and you can rewind
06:28this video as many times as you need so that you can learn it. Here we go! A close fist
06:32B hand up
06:33straight with your thumb tucked in C looks like a little C D pointer finger goes up E fingers folded
06:40over and thumb in F pointer and thumb together and the rest of the fingers out G making a sign
06:46like
06:46you're saying a little bit but turning it to the side. H two fingers together I pinky up J swoop
06:53it
06:53down K pointer face up middle finger face forward L just looks like an L M three fingers over your
07:01thumb
07:01N two fingers over the thumb O just make an O P same sign as the K but lowered down
07:08Q same sign as the G
07:10B but flipped down R crisscross your pointer and middle fingers S full fist T thumb comes through the
07:18first two fingers U piece fingers V make a V W make a W X it's like a little pirate
07:27hook Y and Z
07:31is just a zigzag. Afterwards I learned some frequently used phrases like hello what's your name are you deaf
07:38I learned that eyebrows play a part in ASL so if I was going to say something like my name
07:43is Lucy
07:44L-U-C-I-E and then I was going to ask you what's your name I would have to
07:49lower my eyebrows to imply
07:51that I'm asking you a question. I know I still have miles to go when it comes to learning the
07:55entire
07:55language but by the end of the day I was feeling pretty darn proud that I had picked up on
07:59the entire
08:00alphabet and a few quick phrases in just a couple hours. It really shows how much of a new skill
08:05you can
08:05learn and how much you can pick up on just by sitting down and setting your mind to something.
08:12Thursday's skill is something that I've been wanting to learn for a while now self-defense.
08:16It's an extremely important topic and there's so much to cover here so Thursday was really just a
08:21brief intro to it. Luckily my best friend's fiancee Stan is a martial arts and fitness coach so on
08:26Thursday he came over and taught me the basics of self-defense. We started off with some boxing just
08:31as a warm-up so I could practice throwing some punches and kicks. Give me your fighting stance.
08:36Left straight jab. Yep don't lift your elbow first. I want you to extend and twist at the last second.
08:42Yeah exactly. You got it. But of course as Stan quickly taught me when it comes to self-defense
08:47it's not about throwing punches and kicks and fighting it's about quickly debilitating your attacker
08:53so that you can run away and get out of there. You should look for a couple of kind of
08:57weak points
08:57and that's and that's the nose it's the throat uh the groin you're trying to create enough of a
09:04chance enough for an opportunity for you to get out of there. He taught me the best way to get
09:07out
09:07of an attacker's grip if they come at you from different angles. I'm so scared to hurt you. I
09:12appreciate that a great deal. Yeah. If they grab you from the front by the arm grabbing you by the
09:16arm
09:16I'm getting close. See ya. From the side over the shoulder you're grabbing yes exactly it's the force of
09:24your entire body that's putting my arm in this position not just your arm pulling me there. Or if
09:28they come around you from the back. I'm grabbing here. Elbow. I learned how to spin someone around
09:36and put pressure on their shoulder to take them down. Grabbing your opposite arm. Yep and. And I also
09:43learned how to make some space between myself and the attacker by pushing my arms together like this
09:48and actually making myself smaller. I'm going to create that space. I forgot about the space. Good.
09:53And boom. Exactly. So that I have that room to kick them in the groin or just slip free from
09:58their
09:58grass. By the end of our session I honestly had a moment where I thought to myself how have I
10:02been
10:02walking around in the world for 26 years without knowing this information. So now that I know the
10:07basics I'm definitely going to explore this topic more and take a bunch of classes.
10:13When I woke up on Friday I was feeling a little bit sore from Thursday's twists and kicks so I
10:18wanted to take on a more relaxing skill. Fun Fink fact. Did you know that I come from a long
10:23line
10:24of bread makers? The Fink Bakery was started by my great great grandfather in 1888. It was basically
10:30a giant commercial bakery in Long Island City that provided fresh bread and rolls to local restaurants,
10:36delis, schools, hospitals, sports stadiums, and more. And I realized on Friday that I myself have never
10:43actually made a loaf of bread. But it turned out to be pretty simple. I dissolved yeast in warm water.
10:48I added sugar, salt, oil, and flour. I mixed it all together. Then I cleaned off my countertop,
10:53put flour on the surface, and kneaded the dough. Once I was done I put it in a bowl, I
10:57covered it,
10:58set it in a warm spot, and I just let it rise for an hour and a half. When it
11:01was done I came back to
11:03it. I punched it down, cut it in half, and then put each half in a loaf pan. I covered
11:07that again and
11:08let each of those loaf pans rise for another 30 minutes. And then I baked them for about a half
11:12an hour
11:13at 375. The smell in my apartment immediately transported me back to childhood. And as soon
11:18as I took the pans out of the oven, I was shocked at how perfect they came out. Perfect. Yes.
11:26Truly can't believe I did this. I immediately popped on my jacket that has Fink embroidered
11:33into it and I FaceTimed my dad to show him what I had made. Hey dad! So I'm in my
11:38Fink shirt and I
11:39just made this whole loaf of bread. With your fake baking shirt on? Look at that, white bread. Yeah,
11:45that looks good. This week of trying new skills reminded me just how much you can learn and
11:50absorb when you just give yourself the space and time to do so. Even if you just give yourself 30
11:55minutes a day to learn something new, you'll become a more well-rounded person with so much more to offer
12:00the world. Bye!