Otherwise known as, ‘that list i’m totally not making as i have other stuff to do.’ Yeah, fine, i give in. I’m going to go for the 101 in 1001 project. Starting tomorrow, because 13 October is such a great day to do anything (anyone else remember a few years ago, when 13 October was on a Friday and we had a full moon? Awesome.) and ending 10 July 2012 (presuming, of course, the world doesn’t end before then.)
My list thus far (in rough order from ‘zomg huge project!’ to ‘something i can knock out in an hour’):
- Publish one of my novels. This is the biggest thing on the list as it requires me to actually, um, edit one of them. Writing i have no problem with but i’ve never successfully edited anything. I also want to illustrate the novel – kind of like Brom’s The Child Thief – so there’s that big aspect of the project, too. It’s huge, but considering i normally write my books in a month (and already have a backlog of four to choose from for this), i think i can pull off editing and illustrating one over the course of a few years.
- Earn at least thirty credits through Starfleet Academy – eventually, i’d like to earn a doctorate (…not that it will mean anything to anyone outside the Star Trek fan clubs…) but as i haven’t even decided on a course of study yet, thirty credits seems like a good start.
- Move to Philadelphia or a comparatively large city
- Go on an overseas volunteer trip
- Win the best prize possible in at least one major art competition
- Start a webcomic – and put out 12 new, consecutive, on-schedule updates during the challenge. The exact definition of ‘on schedule’ is a bit iffy until i know exactly how complex the comic style will be, but it shouldn’t be any less than once a week.
- Research and sign up for martial arts lessons
- Learn Esperanto, with a decent enough level of fluency to be able to write one of my NaNoWriMos in it.
- Learn to ride a motorcycle. This includes actually getting a motorcycle, though considering the price aspect i’m willing to count this as done within the 1001 days if i’ve just completed a motorcycle riding class and started a savings account for the bike.
- done 12/05/11
Learn to carve wooden sculptures - Learn to play the bodhrán. In theory, i already know the basics of playing, but i’d like to be good enough to pick up and play along with any song i hear (well, not any song, but at the very least any song with a drum beat.)
- Take voice lessons. I love to sing but at the moment i pretty much need to shut up any time anyone enters the room. I don’t want to go pro on American Idol or anything but it’d be nice if cats stopped looking at me funny.
- Complete the two hundred sit-ups program. Once i’ve finished, i might start switching the workout between that and the hundred push-ups program, but the really important bit is to start a workout regime and keep steady with it long enough to pull off something major.
- done 02/11/10
Completely pay off one of my student loans - Get a good artist rep
- Complete at least ten traditional paintings
- Make at least ten ACEOs
- done 05/04/10
Research adoption.I’ll still be too young (not to mention way too not-ready) by the end of 1001 days, but i want to have some idea of what i’ll be getting myself into when i am ready. - Finally read my book of Chekhov’s works. Then read it again. Repeat until i no longer need a dictionary to finish it.
- Take another course in Russian
- Successfully complete Script Frenzy
- Write a first draft of a non-fiction book
- Take flying lessons
- done 19/05/10
Work on a Happiness Project every day for a month straight - Write 10 senryū
- Learn lucid dreaming
- Learn at least one programming language, to the extent that i no longer need a cheat sheet or programming book.
- done 06/01/10
Properly learn to read tarot– more in the rather hippy inner-guide sense than in any occult form. The idea of translating a series of pictures in a sense applicable to a given problem fascinates me; an invisible ‘force’ guiding every shuffle… not so much. I’ve been studying tarot with a shoddy computer program i whipped up, and i’m planning on making an iPod tarot, but neither method is easy for someone with no working knowledge of how to lay out the cards or what they all mean. I recently bought an actual old-school deck of cards (a ridiculously beautiful Russian tarot), which i’m hoping will be easier to learn from. - Actually set up aforementioned iPod tarot
- Do the research required to see if i qualify for Italian citizenship
- Learn to make ear cuffs
- Learn Dvorak well enough to type 100wpm
- Learn to skateboard well enough to go two blocks without falling
- Replace as many programs as possible with open-source
- Make a list of 80 foreign places to visit for a month or longer
- Actually plan out visiting three foreign places
- Start a proper knife collection. To make this an actual specific goal, i’m going to define it as owning at least five knives or swords for purely aesthetic or historical reasons. As far as owning a knife to use as a weapon, i couldn’t care less – i don’t know how to knife-fight and i’m not interested in learning. But i do love the variety in appearance, methods, and culture of knives and swords, and i’m inevitably drawn to the weapons tables at every ren faire or celt fest i go to, so i may as well embrace it.
- Take fencing lessons. Okay, so when i wrote i’m not interested in learning how to knife-fight? Well, fencing isn’t knife-fighting. So, technically, i wasn’t lying. SHUT UP.
- BookCross 30 books
- Design my own bookplates for said books
- Throw at least five pots. Related: Get access to a kiln so i can fire said pots.
- Finish designing Irenari. She’s… um… complicated. She started out as a writing exercise and now she’s a bit more an original cosplay character than anything else.
- Actually assemble the Irenari cosplay costume. And wear it in public at least once.
- Make five articles of clothing. Any made for Irenari don’t count. Neither does furoshiki.
- Leash-train Data, so he’ll actually walk with it
- Send 25 postcards through Postcrossing
- Sponsor a child
- Spend a week in Little Odessa
- Design a tattoo, for myself or someone else, which actually gets inked
- Visit at least one out-of-town art museum. Right now that’s pretty much any art museum, but if i don’t get this done before the ‘move to Philly’ bit i don’t want it to be overly easy.
- done 24/07/10
Visit an out-of-town science/natural history museum - Reconnect with 5 high school/uni friends
- Decorate a Munny
- Start a weekly sketchvlog and update on schedule for two months
- done 04/12/09
Spend a week reading an hour a day about a foreign culture - done 20/12/09
Spend a week reading an hour a day about a different religion - done-ish 11/12/09
Research detox programs and find one to follow twice a year - done 29/01/10
Buy and read a book on clock or watch repair - procured 13/04/10
Get (and keep alive) a bonsai tree - done-ish 28/03/10
Start a ‘Health’ savings account,and actually spend at least 10% a year (if not on medical emergencies, then on checkups, eye exams, vitamins, whatever.) I have no health insurance and my savings account would cover more than the best i can afford anyway, so i don’t see any reason to get health insurance instead of just feeding said savings account. I’ve also developed a rather nasty habit of not getting regular checkups or eye exams or other doctor-y things, though, because i’m saving the money for an ’emergency’. I have ‘Emergency Savings’ for that. - Donate a piece of original art to charity
- done 27/11/09
Donate a print to Artists for Charity - Learn to make soap
- Write a review of any new teas i buy. Bonus points: write reviews of all the teas i already have.
- Do twenty minutes of yoga every day for at least a week
- done 29/07/10
Learn to make borsch - Learn to make shaverma
- Learn to make one Irish dish
- done 16/01/10
Track my food/exercise every day for at least a week straight - done 18/12/10
Buy/make birthday/Christmas presentsat least a week in advance for at least five different people (normally i’m one of those people you see out at the shops on Christmas Eve…) - Clean out closet
- Climb a rock wall
- Learn shorthand
- Build an exoself
- Memorise three Russian poems
- Learn all the words to «Сольнечный Круг»
- Learn all the words to one song in Gaelic
- Learn all the words to one song in Italian
- Make at least one good tea blend
- done (or at least proved irrelevant) 20/04/10
Renew my passport - Attend at least one Dr. Sketchy’s
- done 20/10/09
Reboot my long-neglected 43 Things account - Get a folding bike
- Ride a mechanical bull
- Try black caviar (i’ve only had red)
- Try escargot
- done 24/09/11
Try straight haggis (i’ve only had haggis pastries) - Anonymously buy someone a gift from eir online wishlist. Probably someone i already know, but it might be fun to get something for a random stranger, too.
- done 02/03/10
Add $50 to my Kiva account.Make another loan whenever i have more than $25 Kiva credit. Added to the money already in my account, this will give me enough to have loans out to five entrepreneurs at a time. - Actually finish a beer in one sitting
- Get a solar power generator. Bonus points if i can figure out a way to run all my electronics off solar power.
- Go to a Catholic mass. I was raised Protestant. Strict Protestant. All-Catholics-will-burn-in-Hell Protestant. Eleven years of strict Protestant schooling and i still haven’t figured out why some people believe all Catholics are really devil worshippers (side note: i have a twisted sense of humour. But me saying some Protestants believe Catholics are really Satanists? That it is not me joking.)
- Visit a Buddhist temple
- Learn to skip rocks
- Get one non-earlobe piercing
- Get my ears pierced again
- Dye my hair blue
- failed as of 12/05/10
Update the blog at least once a week - Send $1 for every completed task to a worthy charity
- Send $1 for every incomplete task to a charity i disagree with
- Make another 101 list
Hi, I love your list and I wish you all the best in completing it!!