I'd also add a few mechanical skills:
1. Be
NEAT ! - Nothing's worse than cramming your electronics into a flashlight body and having everything short out...with smoke!
2. Hand Tools - Get some needle nose pliers, wire cutters, jeweler's screwdrivers, tweezers, etc.
Harbor Freight Tools is a cheap place to start:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=97262 Pliers 3 for $4.50
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=4143 Screwdrivers 16pc set $3.00
An X-Acto Hobby knife with #11 blades.
A head magnifier is also good for close-up work:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=37586 $3.00
A 40 watt (Max) Soldering Iron and '63/37' alloy tin/lead solder, 1/16" diam. (Radio Shack has'em)
3. Learn how to use a
Dremel tool.
Good as a "cutter-offer", shaper, drill, sander, etc. Get the 1/2" sanding cylinders, the assorted cutting bits, small drill bits, and the abrasive cut-off disks. ( all ~ $50).
4. Start collecting
JUNK:
Assorted plastic and metal tubes, little springs, scraps of copper, metal and electrical wire. A good source of electrical 'hookup' wire is from a telephone cable, with up to 100 insulated, color-coded 24 ga copper wires. Pester a phone repairman for a 1-2 foot scrap of cable and you're set for life.
Small scraps of wood are useful...go to Home Deport, Paint dept and ask for some paint-stirrers. These are 12"X1"X3/16" pine 'boards' that are good making for spacers, etc. You never know what you'll need, so collect anything that looks good for tinkering. Store all this junk in one place but preferable not in a pile in one drawer.
(Every tinkerer needs a junk drawer...but you don't want to be rummaging thru the drawer for 30 minutes, looking for that little spring you KNOW is in there somewhere.)
5. Work Station - Get a clamp light or desk lamp that gives enough light to see properly. A kitchen counter with under cabinet fluorescent light works for me. But the "Owner of the Kitchen" may have someting to say...always remember that this is a HOBBY, and your relationship to your GF, wife, parents, roommate, etc are probably more important than turning your MagLite into a laser sword.
I've been tinkering, building gagets, and generally home-engineering for 50 years, and these are what I'd recommend.
thinking to myself "that can't be good" 
