At one point a couple of years ago when I was getting completely hammered on a regular basis, I discovered that I now lose the ability to talk properly before I lose the ability to type. Which amused me no end at the time...

I think I might be able to beat that. I've always found that I can lose the ability to talk without slurring, the ability to have conversations that make sense, and the ability to walk in a straight line, but still have the ability to do geekstuff competently (writing code that actually works, for example) and the ability to juggle pretty well!

I can only assume that things I've consciously trained myself to do are more robust against the effects of alcohol than abilities I've merely taken for granted.

Hrm, I've not tried juggling while 'incapacitated'. Heh, an excuse to get hammered! Purely in the interests of scientific experimentation, of course ;)

I was coding at the time I figured that out too - I wrote most of YAWNS (http://freshmeat.net/projects/yawns) in the period I'm thinking of... and late-night coding runs don't involve you in much real conversation, which is why it took a few months before I found out that I couldn't talk properly in that state :)