I’ve seen enough of Animal Planet to not want to do pet tricks.

Mechanical stuff — like building a set or prop-making or hanging lights? Make friends with a tech and shadow them for an hour or two per week. Then once you’ve learned how to do that, expand your artistic talent into that area.

You’re a sound designer and computer guy, so take the new mechanical skills you’ve learned, like building a set, and find some way to incorporate your computer ideas and sound ideas into a mechanical set.

A good example is that NYC-to-London telescope. It’s not really a telescope, it’s two cameras filming both locations, so when you look through, you’re really seeing a screen that’s showing what’s happening on the other side. Someone combined their fascination with science (actually, their grandfather’s project) and their knowledge of technology to create an masterpiece.

You could run with that idea. Learn some carpentry or sculpting, build a small structure resembling a dog and place some sound equipment in it, and have the dogs recite a dog version of Shakespeare in a gruff voice (”But soft, what bark through yonder metal grate? It is the east, and that poodle is the moon! Arise, fair moon and bark til the sun turns green!”) Or something. The sky’s the limit.

Joking aside, the main thing I’m good at is writing and editing. I’m also interested in copywriting.

To be honest, I’d like to learn more mechanical stuff. Although I’m mechanically inclined, I never had the opportunity to develop this interest.