Sunday, May 23, 2010

May check in

I just sat down to review my list and found that there are things on the list I'm working on independently of the list. As in, I find things on the list that I'm working on because I wanted to work on them and had kinda forgotten they were even on the list.

1. Read 100 new books (5/100)

I actually think I've read more than this, but I guess they haven't stuck with me.

4. The Hunt for Atlantis by Andy McDermott.
5. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

25. Eliminate all clothing that doesn’t fit.
I'm working on this one - I have a garbage bag full of stuff that is going to Goodwill. But I'm still hanging on to some stuff that I would like to wear again when I can fit in it. The good thing about this goal is that if, when my 1001 days are over I still can't fit in those clothes, then that'd be a good time to just chunk them.

26. Do 200 sit ups (http://www.twohundredsitups.com/)

I'm on week 4.1 of the program! I say 4.1 because I didn't pass the test to go on to week 5. So I have to do week 4 over again. Obviously that means I won't be hitting 200 push ups in six weeks, but I'm gonna stick with it until I can. My husband has been doing the program with me (he's moving on to week 5) and that has helped a lot. We're also doing the 100 push ups program (http://www.hundredpushups.com)

28. Lose 10 pounds (0/10)

Since starting the push ups and sit ups programs I seem to have gained weight. I'd like to think that's because I'm gaining muscle, but it doesn't make me feel any better when I step on the scale. I just purchased a bike and am hoping to use it often. So far I've ridden it twice and it was a definite work out. So we'll see.

42. Exercise every day for a month

Hey this one's almost complete! We're doing the push ups on opposite days from the sit ups and at first we had days off, but now I'm doing an exhaustion test at the end of every week, which means I've exercised every day for at least three weeks. I should start tracking this...

44. Complete a New York Times Crossword Puzzle

This was actually supposed to be "Complete a SUNDAY NYT Crossword Puzzle. But as it is, I can't even complete the non-Sunday ones. I got a book of them and am practicing.

56. Attempt composting

Done! I made a composter out of an old garbage can a few weeks ago. There's definitely a learning curve. It started to stink earlier this week, so I added some dry leaves to it and that seemed to have helped. I should take pictures.

66. Buy a bicycle

Did this! I got a blue mountain bike I have named Beatrice.

68. Go trail-riding on my new bicycle.

Sorta did this. We were on a paved path but some construction forced a detour which took us on a gravelly trail. Not what I had in mind for this goal, though.

And that's it! I don't like the way this blog is organized, so that's something I'd like to work on. I also think I need to print it out and hang it somewhere so I can actively work on some of the stuff.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

April Check In

I got married! So I have not been keeping up with my list or anything else besides wedding stuff. But I have gotten some stuff done! Let's see.

16. Visit 10 places in Memphis I’ve never been (1/10)

I went to Graceland! I've lived in Memphis my whole life and never bothered to go. But I had a bunch of friends from out of town come in for the wedding, so it seemed like a good time to bite the bullet and go. It was fun and interesting and I'd probably go again with other out-of-towners.

17. Try 5 new local restaurants (2/5)


2. The Kooky Kanuck. It was a place I spotted downtown that I thought was Canadian, but it turns out it's just owned by a Canadian. So my attempt to impress my Canadian friends didn't exactly work out, heh. But it's locally owned, so it counts!

57. Get my eyebrows waxed

I got this done on a whim when I got my hair bleached. Wanna keep up with it, but probably won't.


92. Do a wedding thing once a week until the wedding.

This was a big fail. I guess I was constantly doing wedding stuff, but wasn't necessarily accomplishing things the way I wanted. But I got married, so it all worked out in the end!

93. Post to my 101 blog 70 times (3/70)

This makes three. Am clearly not keeping up with this well, but I'm working on it!

94. Make an Audrey II prop for MSC

Did it and it was a hit at MidSouth Con. Hurrah!

IMAG0093

Monday, February 1, 2010

Checking In

The to-do list on this blog didn't work out, in part because my laptop broke and I'm sharing my fiance's computer. But I have done stuff! Let's take a look.

1. Read 100 new books. (3/100)

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella
The Island at the End of the World by Sam Taylor

17. Try 5 new local restaurants (1/5)

We just moved to a new part of town and we are surrounded by locally owned businesses, which thrills me. One of them is Garibaldi's Pizza which was a wee bit expensive, but very good. The guys who helped us were also very nice and I expect that we'll eat there again.

76. Get an LJ set up to keep track of Lush reviews.

Here it is! I'm not marking this one complete because I haven't yet caught up on reviews, but at least I have it started.

And that's it. I have some other things I'd like to start soon, but getting the new house in order is taking up most of my time.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

96. Maintain to-do list for two months

96. Maintain a to-do list for two months.

I work so much better with a list in front of me, but I'm not sure how to qualify "maintaining" one. Ideally, I would have a fancy phone app that held all my to-do stuff, calendar and reminded me when things needed to happen, but my phone isn't cool enough for that. I'll get a new phone in February, though, and I'll definitely look into good organizational programs when I get one.

In the meantime I'm going to try to keep one on the sidebar here, because another thing that motivates me is knowing someone might be watching.

So the plan is to strike out anything I accomplish and then at the end of the week, wipe out all the strike outs and start a new list. I think I'm going to only put things on the list that I HAVE to get done that week or that I reasonably expect to do. Like, I need to clean my carpets, but that's not something I expect to be able to do next week. Still, I guess I should make a master list somewhere, so if I find myself with nothing to do I can have a reminder of other things that need to get done.

When I wipe the list I'm going to move the stuff I completed to another list so whenever I'm feeling like I never do anything productive I can look over it and see that it's not true.

Maybe I'll do that here.

Week Ending 12/29/09

°Return library books
°Go Christmas shopping
°Pack up craft supplies for the move - Decided to save this for after the new year.
°Prepare guessing game for writers' group Christmas party

Week Ending 12/13/09

°Go get heartworm meds for Bruster
°Mail Ray's helmet and e-mail him tracking number
°Make regional donation to NaNo and send donor goodies to winners
°Go Christmas shopping
°Get Mom over to figure out new craft room configuration. This one became moot, since we're moving.

Week Ending 12/6/09

°Make Christmas list
°Make goodies for TGIO party
°Get more prizes for TGIO baskets
°Get everything together for Kara for the TGIO
°Contact library about meeting space paperwork
°Seam and stuff pillow for dad
°Make dentist appointment for crown prep
°Book neuter for Charlie

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The List + stipulations

1. Read 100 new books (0/100)

I don't read nearly as much as I used to. I blame the internet. I need to read more.

2. Send a card to Post Secret

3. Get my GED

I dropped out of high school in 11th grade. I've never wanted to do anything that required having a GED or diploma, but I figure it doesn't hurt to get it.

4. Knit 10 hats for charity (0/10)

5. Do 25 hours of volunteer work (0/25)

6. Collect 20 rejections (0/20)

I think "collect 20 rejections" is more realistic than "make 20 submissions." So that's what I'm going for.

7. Put all my photos in albums

8. Make time capsules for my nieces

9. Put my feet in the ocean

10. Learn (and perfect) 5 new recipes (0/5)

11. Make my own vegetable stock

12. Eat something I grew myself

13. Private goal

14. Finish a 5K run (or walk)

I have plantar fasciitis in my left foot and no hope of recovering. I can't run because of it, but I've always wanted to do a 5K, so even if I have to hobble across it, that's what I'll do.

15. Fly a kite at Tom Lee Park

16. Visit 10 places in Memphis I’ve never been (0/10)

17. Try 5 new local restaurants (0/5)

18. Color an entire coloring book

19. Go canoeing

20. Sew a dress from pattern

21. Get a massage

22. Take a Yoga class

23. Watch 26 movies I’ve never seen, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet (0/26)

24. “Unplug” for a whole weekend

By unplug I mean no television, internet, radio, video games, etc. I'll still use electricity, lights, washing machine, et cetera, but no electronic entertainment or distractions. Not sure what to do about the telephone. In case of emergencies, I'd obviously want it on, but texting will be right out.

25. Eliminate all clothing that doesn’t fit

26. Do 200 sit ups (http://www.twohundredsitups.com/)

27. Participate in Pride Day

I never realize it's Pride Day until the day or so before and I've already got plans, so I'd like to be more aware one year and go show my support.

28. Lose 10 pounds (0/10)

I need to lose way more than this, but 10 pounds is a nice, easy goal.

29. Go to Roller Derby

30. Use cloth shopping bags 20 times (0/20)

31. Do 5 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles (0/5)

32. Go a month without buying anything new

I can still buy food, of course, but that's it.

33. Buy a menstrual cup

34. Get caught up on health check ups

By this I mean get a physical and see the gyno.

35. Query one agent

36. Learn 500 words in Spanish (0/500)

37. Covert all VHS tapes to DVD

38. Recover the settee

39. Do something with my uncle’s ashes

My uncle was cremated but we never had a memorial for him. He now sits above my mother's television and has done for a few years. I do not want to inherit him one day.

40. Put together emergency kit for the car

41. Eat raw for a weekend

42. Exercise every day for a month

43. Take the Fake Plastic Fish Show Your Plastic Challenge

http://fakeplasticfish.com/showyourplastic/

44. Complete a New York Times Crossword Puzzle

45. Spend an entire day in bed, relaxing (when not sick)

46. Take Jason to the drive-in

Jason, my fiance, who for some reason has never been to the drive in.

47. Use up all my yarn stash

48. Do a Day in the Life photo entry

49. Buy a nice journal and write in it every day for three months.

I'm one of those people who can't buy nice journals because I'm afraid to write in them. And I really want to keep a daily journal. It doesn't have to be an essay every day, just a short description of how my day went.

50. Make a model of Discworld

51. Make a terrarium

52. Commit an act of guerrilla gardening.

53. Teach Bruster 5 new commands (0/5)

Bruster, my beagle mix, who learns commands fairly easily, but still tends to end up in the "beg" position.

54. Go on a scavenger hunt

55. Try 5 new vegetables (0/5)

56. Attempt composting

57. Get my eyebrows waxed

58. Go to the casino and spend $100 (guilt free) on slots

59. Write a private journal entry once a week for three months

I have a private online journal, but I don't update it often. And then when I go back and want to read about the past I feel like I'm missing great chunks of my own history.

60. Do 5 glamour bombs (0/5)

61. Plan a zoo trip around the trainer chats

62. Finish every story that is currently in my In Progress folder

63. Stage an epic wooden dinosaur skeleton battle.

Like this. I think it would be cool if they just appeared somewhere, fighting each other, or possibly drowning in tar.

64. Go to a festival.

Music, art, I don't care. It just needs the word Fest in the title.

65. Write a letter to be read after I die.

66. Buy a bicycle.

67. Drink only water for 3 weeks.

68. Go trail-riding on my new bicycle.

69. Gain 5 readers of my author blog

70. Do the 24 hour comic challenge

The rules for that.

71. Learn to juggle without looking at the balls.

I can juggle, but not that well. I'm getting better, but when juggling for an audience you're supposed to make eye contact with them and watch the balls with your peripheral. Let's say 25 consecutive catches will call this one a win.

72. Make my own board game.

73. Pay off my credit card.

74. Clean, back up and get rid of all desktop PCs

75. Build a Rube Goldberg machine

One of these

76. Get an LJ set up to keep track of Lush reviews.

I love Lush, but every time I go in I panic, trying to remember which things I loved and which I was lukewarm about. Plus I just like the idea of having it all organized with tags and stuff.

77. Record a podcast.

78. Complete a roleplaying campaign

79. Repair, re-purpose or throw out all holey socks

80. Organize all paperwork (bills, check stubs, etc) and recheck it once a month

81. Build something using ALL of my Legos

I have a lot of Legos

82. Keep a foot log for six weeks.

I don't think my foot will heal completely any time soon but I do have exercises and other things I can do to make it not hurt as much. I don't do them often enough, though and I think keeping a log of my efforts and the level of pain I have would be helpful.

83. Make 101 ATCs (0/101)

Artist Trading Cards

84. Learn the names and locations of all the countries in the world.

I suck at geography.

85. Paint the wooden letters my niece gave me.

For my birthday a while back my niece gave me some wooden craft letters that spell out my name, my fiance's name and my dog's name. I have the initials hanging up but the other letters didn't come with hanging hooks. So I need to get them painted and hooks attached to them so I can hang them up.

86. Figure out how to keep Bruster out of the garbage.

We used to keep a heavy thing on top of the garbage can to keep the dog out. It worked for a couple of years, but recently he figured out how to knock the heavy thing off and get into the trash. I'm tired of having to keep the trash can on top of the counter.

87. Organize my costume stuff.

88. Organize my perler beads by color.

89. Tag all photos on flickr.

90. Write 300 words (min) every day for two months.

91. Create a system for handling submissions and rejections.

92. Do a wedding thing once a week until the wedding.

To qualify this, if I miss a week, I have to do two things the next week.

93. Post to my 101 blog 70 times (0/70)

This works out to roughly once every two weeks.

94. Make an Audrey II prop for MSC

95. Register with the organ donor registry

96. Maintain a to-do list for two months.

Not sure how to qualify this one, but I'll come up with something.

97. Try 10 wines and find one that Jason and I both like

We went to the wine shop to get something for Thanksgiving and when the very helpful lady asked what kind of wine we like we both stared at her with dumb looks on our faces. So we decided to find "our" wine. Which, sadly, means drinking a lot of wine.

98. Dye my hair turquoise

I had turquoise hair once and I loved it, it was just a pain to keep up. Still, I miss it now and then and would like to do it again.

99. Buy a good quality, natural wig and wear it out in public.

If I were wealthy I would quit with the hair dyeing and just buy tons of amazing wigs. As it is, I'd like to have at least one good one.

100. Figure out a domestic routine that works for me

That is to say, keeping the house tidy and organized instead of being a big slob who has to rush around madly whenever someone is coming to visit. Have to figure out later how to qualify this one.

101. Make a new list of 101 things.