Teaching an old dog new tricks

I'm counting down to the start of my 45th year or, as the Spanish would say, my cumpleanos or completion of another year.  I've always preferred that, celebrating the culmination of another year on the planet as opposed to celebrating the start of another year, just seems better.  Anyhow, while cleaning out my computer in order to upgrade it I stumbled across an old "to do" list and marveled at the fact that, while I had started some of the learning projects on the list, I never followed through all the way.  So I decided that it was time to conquer this aspect of my wandering mind and learn something new from start to finish.  To that end I have been spending most evenings after I've read Declan his stories studying the finer points of how to work a spreadsheet, implement audio into a video game or create and manage a database.  No, nothing exciting like learning a foreign language (although a spreadsheet IS a foreign language) but I've been doing this for a month now and I'm starting to see positive, concrete results.  Wow.  Gee.  Just imagine where I'd be if I had done this back when I created that original "to do" list.