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July 31, 2006
101 Things in 1001 Days
I've been thinking about the 101 things in 1001 days meme for a while. It's simple enough -- list 101 things, nice specific things, that you want to complete in 1001 days. Whatever you like. 1001 days is a good amount of time; not 'before you die' which is rather too long (I hope), and not a year, which seems rather short to me these days. From looking at others, it helps if you have a mixture of easy things, one-off things, longer-term things, wild dreams, and so on. So I've tried to do that. This is yet another post I intend to update over time. Crossed through items are completed; items with links have additional information (normally progress).
One place I got inspiration was from other people's lists. You know, it turns out that I've done many of the things that appear on other people's lists! I shouldn't, I suppose, be surprised; I'm 41, and many of them are much younger. I have sufficient money and opportunities to pursue my hobbies. I've had all sorts of goals for a while, and I've accomplished some of them. I tend to learn things quickly and I've tried lots of different sorts of things.
Here's my list.
Sort out my domestic chaos
1. Tidy the house until my mum is impressed.
2. Discard everything we don't want.
3. Have a place for everything we do want.
4. Fix house so that there's nothing obviously wrong with it.
5. Get a competent cleaner, gardener, plumber, builder and decorator.
6. Get the asset register complete and up to date.
7. Have a good set of offsite backups (6 monthly) and onsite backups (monthly).
8. Weigh 2 stone less than I do now.
9. Make my teeth as healthy as I can. Completed 8 November 2006
10. Exercise 3 times a week.
11. Have and maintain clean, healthy nails.
12. Drink plenty of water and eat plenty of fruit and vegetables.
13. Hop out of bed early; only stay up late for good reason (good friends, exciting events, good cheer; but not to get to level 9).
14. Restart yoga. Completed 1 August 2006
15. Blog twice a week.
16. Wear a pedometer most days...
17... and walk 10,000 paces most days.
18. Don't eat in front of a screen for a week...
19...a month.
20. Take my vitamins.
21. Keep those inboxes clear at both home and work. Completed 1 March 2007
22. Laugh out loud every day; if no laughter by 10pm then take urgent remedial action.
23. Ingrain another good habit not on this list.
Health one-offs
24. Run a mile without stopping.
25. Climb a big hill -- Scafell Pike?
26. Have a full health check including cholesterol.
27. See a chiropodist.
Create
28. Learn to play the melodeon well enough to join in sessions, accompany singing, and have fun. partly done 29 August 2006
29. Join a band
30. Either complete or discard all partially finished craft projects.
31. Learn 20 songs to sing well enough for floor spots.
32. Get a digital stereo camera that will take action shots. Completed 8 November 2006
33. Take some excellent stereo photos.
34. Take photos of my children every month.
35. Sell a piece of artwork.
36. Host an ATC swap/create event or other creative event.
37. Write some great fan writing, so I can win the Best Fan Writer Nova and have a complete set.
38. Make a fun one-day convention happen.
Obsessively Organise Things on Computers
39. Photograph and archive the things my kids make.
40. Archive all the minidisc recordings and then sell/give away the recorder and the discs...
41...and keep up to date with edirol archiving
42. Reclaim the old vinyl and archive it to computer
43. Archive all the old videos
44. Find those last few CD covers upstairs and scan them so all the music I own has iTunes artwork.
Enjoy
45. See Horslips live.
46. Dance regularly.
47. Have professional photos taken of us as a family.
48. Take 2 weeks off work all at once for a holiday that does not include a science fiction convention.
49. Visit 100 different London attractions -- museums, art galleries, places of interest, events. Different exhibitions count. (See list of plausibles)
50. Dine at the Fat Duck.
51. Read 50 fiction books.
52. Discard DVDs we'll never watch, and watch the rest.
53. Ride in a hot air balloon.
54. See 5 West End shows.
55. Have a long weekend away with Steven and no children. In a hotel. In another country.
56. Spend an hour in the hammock.
57. Visit Legoland.
58. Visit Venice before it sinks into the sea.
59. Go and see Shakespeare standing up at the Globe.
60. Attend at least one party per month; if there's a month with no parties, have some friends round. Amended 23/9/06 to make sure I actually go to the parties.
61. See a cool astronomical phenomenon (eg a total eclipse, or the aurora borealis) Completed 3 March 2007
62. Ride a nice big rollercoaster.
63. Acquire something exceptionally beautiful and completely useless.
64. Visit some more thermal baths -- including at least Bath and one in Eastern Europe (eg Budapest again or Slovenia)
Work
65. Be happy at work.
66. Be happy with my working wardrobe.
67. Complete Warwick PDPFL and become CIPFA member.
Make Others Happier
68. Write letters to elderly people who were a formative influence on me.
69. Do a charity cycle ride.
70. Ingrain the habit of sending birthday cards and gifts to friends and relatives.
71. Cook interesting food each month.
72. Give blood. Completed 18 September 2006.
73. Get in touch with 5 old friends and keep in touch.
74. Send 5 letters of appreciation for excellent customer service.
75. Get my first aid certificate (St John Ambulance?)
76. Go one week without shouting or swearing.
77. Register as a bone marrow donor.Completed 18 September 2006.
78. Hold a really big party.
79. Implement a community website forum for Walthamstow Village Residents Association.
Learn
80. Read 50 non-fiction books that aren't trivial.
81. Reach tourist standard in five European languages (basic phrases, restaurants, hotels, numbers, that sort of thing).
Practical
82. Save £200 per month
83. Drive to the extent that I'm doing half the driving.
84. Implement anti-consumer month in September and February (each year)
85. Get a bread machine -- but not till we know where it goes. Completed 31 January 2007
86. Monitor all my expenditure for a month...
87. ...and then reduce unnecessary expenditure.
Green
88. Label every plug in the house, replace every n-gang socket that's used for chargers with a switched n-gang socket, and then turn off all the chargers except when they're charging.
Weird
89. Win something cool. Completed 27 August 2006
90. Eat 20 foods or drinks I've never tried before.
91. Get a nice clean Buccaneer set on eBay & then play it with my brother and our kids.
92. Find a good jeweller and turn my green stone into a proper engagement ring.
The List
93. Renew the list every 3 months; extend the targets that are too easy, replace the now-impossible, but keep going and celebrate success.
94. Make all the lists inherent in this list.
95. Celebrate sucess by buying a fabulous memento on day 1001.
96. Scrapbook/ATCBlog the completed goals Amended 23/9/06.
97. Persuade three other people to do 101 things, or some other formal goalsetting & checking process.
98. Create a new list before the 1001 days is up.
Three extra things -- perhaps suggested by friends?
99. Learn to identify and collect edible fungi.
100.
101.
My 1001 days is up on April 28, 2009.
Posted by Alison Scott at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2006
16 093.44 kilometers
I was checking on the provenance of various folk songs. Ten thousand miles = 16,093.44 kilometers, says Google helpfully. I'm sure that a good many songs could benefit from similar modernisation and update:
"Tell her to find me roughly point four of a hectare"
"227g of tuppeny rice, 227g of treacle"
"And the bounty they gave me was £5.50"
"He took out his iPod and began to play a tune"
"Here's 1.136 litres, 568 millilitres, 284 millilitres, 142 millilitres, 71millilitres and the old brown bowl, here's good luck to the Barley Mow".
Posted by Alison Scott at 09:43 AM | Comments (0)