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Topic: Building an opening repertoire
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Well hello fellow chessers.
I suck at openings. When playing on Queen Alice, this doesn't "really" show because I use databases to know what opening moves to play, although I often find myself in a position where I have no clue how I got there and I don't like it, but that's really my fault and can't blame anyone for it.
When playing blitz games, I play the openings more or less properly, but not because I know the openings, but simply because you kind of catch on general principles after having played a few thousand games, among which you lost some to stupid opening stuff.
So basically, it's no real problem either here or playing blitz that I don't know opening so well. However, I started playing OTB recently, and I figured I might as well try to learn openings, or at least try to get interested in them a bit.
My question here is thus very simple and very general, albeit probably slightly hard to answer. How should I learn the openings? What do you guys use? And what should I do, should I concentrate on like three or four main openings (two for each colour, say), or should I try to learn most of the main ones in a not-too-specific way, and see what happens?
References (particularly on the Internet), tips & tricks, life experiences and so forth are most welcome in this thread. 
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As a former OTB player, I can tell you that openings are fraught with danger. There are just too many traps.
So if you're going to play OTB then it's imperative you practise and get to know them well. You don't need to memorize entire volumes but simply do as you suggest and become fluent in a few.
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Okay...
But my question really was, "how do I become fluent?" 
(What material would you use, for instance...). And assume I don't have books and can't access them. (I don't know how to open books... flippy bastards).
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Well, I used books but that was back in the days when people knew how to work them. I suppose the Internet can help you. You become fluent in an opening by practising it. There'll be several variations for each one. I don't know what else I can add really without holding your hand throughout the process but I'm sure you're grown up enough to do without that
In this way, you'll become sufficiently competent to get yourself several moves into pretty much every game you play whilst avoiding the pitfalls of the opening stages.
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I'll try, thanks 
I have Chessmaster, and there's an opening section in their academy or whatever it's called. I never really liked it though. But I thought there might be some other softwares or websites that exist that are dedicated to that. If anybody uses something like that and can assure me that it's good, I won't have to discover the world by myself (so yeah, I need someone to hold my hand). 
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It's all theory anyway and really doesn't matter whether you get it from a chess coach, a book or an engine. Players tend to stick to a small selection and this is a matter of personal choice and which openings they're most comfortable with.
Or you could wait until we have 32-man tablebases and play with your eyes shut
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