I believed the many people who kept promising to show us how they do awesome pixel art texturing (scales, wood, rocks, et al!), who babbled about how incredibly easy it was once it's been figured out...
And then instead a year later all we got was "It just takes practice" and they systematically vanish from the community.
Two years of pixel art practicing down the line I've figured out how to draw outlines fine (hello perfect wheels! hello perfect templates! I remember struggling with you for weeks on end!) but still can't work out how they manage to turn dithering into a pattern that somehow happens to be an appropriate texture.
:P
I continue to live in hope. I'm silly like that.
Edit: Oh wait, I thought up a regular one!
We had this old gas water heater outside, upstairs, on the narrow back verandah, and during monsoon season my dad would turn it off (as the flame would blow out otherwise). So one morning I was the only one home and being a grubby martial arts loving (but hopeless) teen, I stank to high heavens and tried hopping into the shower. The water was freezing, so I figured the heater had been turned off. I searched the house over for matches but found nothing but a candle I could light by the auto-start gas stove downstairs.
So, in my boxers (and in Pakistan, where you do not dress like that in public, but noone was going to see me now, were they!) I wound up carrying a lit candle in one hand to the narrow back upstairs terrace, failing several times to keep it from the wind, and finally got to the gas heater. I took a deep sniff to make sure it'd been turned off - did I mention I had a cold, my nose was completely clogged up and I didn't realize it? - and then shoved my hand into the little gas emitting orifice to burn away any remaining gas that might ignite otherwise, or something.
@_@
I somehow managed to blink at the right moment, lost my eyebrows (and had my hair nicely trimmed) and wound up with a bubble for a hand. Although blown backwards I managed to not get blown OFF the narrow second floor porch/terrace/verandah (I have no idea which one is correct). Turns out the storm had blown the geezer out and gas had been glugging out all night.
Wound up hopping the wall to my upstairs neighbors (again, over a one story gap) and hoarsely bellowing for help. In my boxers. Stinking. Half-exploded and sniffling about pain. Of all people, the one who had to be home and came answering was the cute girl I had a crush on. >_<