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Updated 2/24/09

Don't Break the Chain!

101 Things in 1001 Days

~~ Open Invitation To Anyone Who Knows Me In Person ~~
If you'd be interested in doing any of the following with me, please let me know. I'm not a very social person and you'd be helping me out a great deal.

Start Date: December 14, 2007

End Date: Friday, September 10, 2010

31 / 101, 31% of things done!
439 / 1001, 44% of days gone!

The Mission:

Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:

Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?

Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as New Year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

~ from Day One

Creative

  1. Finished. 12/13/08 Keep a paper journal every day for a year.
  2. Finished. 1/21/09 Take paper journal to Waffle House or IHOP to write.
    Okay, didn't take my written journal to Waffle House, but I did take it to Boston Market and also Subway.
  3. Draw or paint something 5 times per year.
    2008
    1. My Garden
    2. Spire, Man & Tabby Cat
    3. Weordan Moth
    4. Moleskine Grackle
    5. Coleus & Cinnabar
    2009
    2010
  4. Write 3 poems.

Experience

  1. Visit a local art museum.
  2. Visit the Desert Botanical Garden and Margaret T. Hance Park.
  3. Take a tour of Tovrea Castle.
  4. Hike Piestewa Peak.
  5. Visit Barringer Meteorite Crater.
  6. Go to Jerome, AZ.
  7. Go to San Diego again.
  8. Finished. 8/18/08 See a movie at the Cine Capri.
    Saw The Dark Knight on 7/24/08
  9. Go to a free concert or play.
  10. Finished. 12/07/08 Go to a sporting event...that isn't frisbee related.
    Went to see NU @ ASU men's basketball game. NU lost 44-64. :(
  11. Go to a lecture at the Tempe library.
  12. Finished. 2/9/09 Go to an open lecture at ASU.
    Saw Bernard Wood speak "On the Origin of Our Species"
  13. Attend one of the local conventions. Have three conversations with people there. Bought memberships to Westercon 2009.
  14. Finished. 7/15/08 Try out 10 new restaurants.
    1. King's Fish House
    2. Extreme Pita
    3. Red Robin
    4. Efes Turkish Cuisine
    5. Slices
    6. Cyprus Pita Grill - Stingy with the sauce!
    7. D'Arcy McGee's
    8. Cheeburber Cheeburger
    9. Oaxaca - at the airport. Very bland Mexican food.
    10. Culver's
  15. Finished. 5/22/08 Eat something new at the "usual" restaurants. x5
    1. Pad Thai at Pei Wei: Very tasty, will have again. 12/30/08
    2. Falafel Pita at Pita Jungle
    3. Philly Chicken Pita at Pita Jungle: Still haven't had a dish at Pita Jungle I haven't liked. 3/14/08
    4. The Big Steak Omelette at IHOP: Not bad, but I like the Chicken Fajita Omelette better.
    5. Tamale and Echilada combo at Guerrero's
    6. Grilled Chicken Beer Bread at Four Peaks
  16. Finished. 5/26/08 Try 10 new ice cream flavors.
    1. Haagen-Dazs Baileys Irish Cream
    2. Ben & Jerry's Cinnamon Bun
    3. Haagen-Dazs Creme Brule
    4. Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Honey Bee
    5. Chill's Chocolate Hazelnut Gelato
    6. Dulce de Leche gelato from Mercato del Gelato
    7. Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter
    8. Breyer's Double Churn Fat Free Chocolate Fudge Brownie
    9. Haagen-Dazs Sticky Toffee Pudding
    10. Haagen-Dazs Green Tea Ice Cream
  17. Finished. 3/24/08 Try 10 new candy bars. (The spirit of this one is to try some of the Limited Editions of regular candy bars.)
    1. Peeps Holiday Cookie Flavored Cutouts
    2. KitKat Caramel
    3. Hot Tamales FIRE
    4. Reese's Whipps
    5. Snaps
    6. Cadbury Crunchie
    7. Nerds Bumpy Jelly Beans
    8. Twix Java
    9. Hershey's S'Mores
    10. Coconut Creme Kisses

Family

  1. Make a list of my in-laws', nieces' and nephew's birthdays and how old everyone is where applicable. In Progress.
  2. Call my grandparents on a non-occasion. x12
  3. Make dinner for my some of my family when in Omaha.
  4. Work on gaming campaign 3hrs/week for 52 weeks.
    Started 01/04/09. Week 7/52

Health

  1. Maintain weight of 120. To be measured at the end of each month.



  2. Interval Training 3x a week for 5 weeks.
  3. Work on my posture. In progress. Good article at That's Fit.
  4. Do Couch to 5K or run 3K once a week for 5 weeks.
  5. Finished. 6/28/08 Run 10 miles a week for 5 weeks.
  6. Do a Fun Run.
  7. Finished. 4/6/08 Develop or find palatable upper body strength exercises.
  8. Finished. 8/30/08 Do upper body strength exercises 2x a week for 6 weeks.
  9. Finished. 4/6/08 Develop or find palatable core strength exercises.
  10. Do core strength exercises 2x a week for 6 weeks.
  11. Try out one of the community center exercise classes.
  12. Finished. Make/find 3 bracelets/braces and wear as needed and evaluate the best design.

  13. Write up something on the gate control theory of pain.
  14. Drink no caffeine for a week.
  15. Find 10 articles in which science challenges conventional wisdom.
    1. Research debunks health value of guzzling water
    2. Debate over core exercises
    3. The Origin of Menopause: Why Do Women Outlive Fertility?
    4. Mother's Diet Influences Infant Sex
    5. Fact or Fiction: Men Have a Biological Clock
    6. The Claim: Tongue Is Mapped Into Four Areas of Taste
  16. Take daily supplements, 2x daily, for consecutive 60 days.

Home

  1. Clean the bathroom every Wednesday for 6 weeks.
  2. Finished. 2/18/08 Vacuum every Monday for 6 weeks.
  3. Finished. 1/20/08 Do dishes after dinner every night for 5 weeks.
  4. Clean out my closet and take bags to thrift store. 2008 2010
  5. Finished. 1/19/09 Buy a new office chair. A nice one. Bought this one.
  6. Try out 10 new recipes.
    1. Tried Blackeye and Feta Pasta Toss - Did not work well.
    2. Made Paul's Shepherd's Pie: A sucess!
    3. Made Mike's Creole Potato Salad
    4. Made White Chicken Chile
    5. Made Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread: A surprising sucess!
    6. Tried to make banana bread based on pumpkin bread recipe. It did not work out well.
    7. Made banana bread based on another recipe and that didn't work out well either.
  7. Cook 2x a week for 4 weeks. x2
    First Instance:
    Second Instance:
  8. Bake cookies.
  9. Finished. 1/12/08 Rewrite and consolidate recipes.
    Of course, I couldn't just rewrite them. I had to create a web page for them!
    Disasters in the Kitchen

Improvement

  1. List 101 good things (that aren't food). Describe them.
    1. Fuzzy Socks
    2. Ultimate Frisbee
    3. Books. Books. Books!
    4. DVD Extras
    5. Tabletop RPGs
    6. Where I Live
    7. Podcasts
    8. Hulu.com
    9. Google Notebook
    10. My Bed
    11. MMOs
    12. CSS
    13. Free Writing
    14. Netflix?!
    15. My Laptop
    16. My Backpack
    17. My Hair
    18. Purple Pants
    19. The Journals I Use
    20. Men's Tennis
    21. Nebraska Sports
    22. Facebook
    23. Running
    24. Rowing
    25. Stories
  2. Read 30 books in a year. 2008 In Progress: 2009
  3. Read The Grapes of Wrath to see if it's as good as they say. Read The Great Gadsby to see if it's as bad as they say.
  4. Finish reading the Dune series.
  5. Read three books by Dickens.
  6. Read 3 books about WWI.
  7. Read 5 of the poetry books I own.
    1. Station Island by Seamus Heaney
  8. Read Eric's genetics book.
  9. Learn to identify 7 more constellations or other astronomical features.
  10. Learn to recognize 10 local plants.
  11. Learn to recognize 10 local birds.
    1. Anna's Hummingbird
    2. Great-tailed Grackle
    3. Killdeer
    4. White-Winged Dove
  12. Learn one coin trick.
  13. Learn three card tricks.
  14. Learn the positions in American football. In progress.
  15. Learn the logical fallacies. In progress.
  16. Finished. 2/6/07 Educate myself about the presidential candidates.
  17. No impulse buying for 3 months. x2
    First Instance:
    Second Instance:
  18. Buy a bicycle.
  19. Finished. 8/29/08 Get new glasses. Cheap ones.
  20. Finished. 4/27/08 Buy a new pair of pajamas.
  21. Finished. 5/21/08 Assemble (or buy) a decent tool kit for the apartment.
  22. Only check my email/social networks twice a day for 2 weeks.
  23. Finished. 12/6/08 Support the web comics/artists I enjoy by purchasing/donating. x3
    1. Supported ELR
    2. Supported VladStudio
    3. Bought Ursula Vernon's book, Nurk.
  24. Learn enough ASP to confidently set up a field validation.
  25. Teach myself Excel by using Rifts humanoid stats. In progress.
  26. Delve into the land of Java & XML.
  27. Learn how to customize my LJ from scratch using CSS. In progress.
  28. Finished. 3/21/08 Learn how to make an animated LJ icon.
  29. Finished. 3/7/08 Scan the rest of my pictures.
  30. Finished. 1/31/08 Back up music to DVD.

Professional

  1. Write 2 short stories or 15K portion of a novel per year.
    2008:
    2009:
    2010:
  2. Submit one of those shiny new short stories to 5 markets.

  3. Resumbit works within one week of finishing or receiving rejections.
    2008
    2009
    2010
  4. Write 3 Associated Content articles.
    1. Revisit The Nightmare Before Christmas
  5. Screenplay-ize one of my novels.
  6. Finished. 1/31/08 Creative Commons licenses for short works on the web.
  7. Finished. 3/27/08 Purchased domain name. Hosted webpage is on-line. Blog was set up.
  8. Beginning 1/1/09, backup daily work when using GURPSCentral for 60 days.
  9. Back up the computers every month. Noted at the beginning of each month.



  10. Update copyright notices on webpages and blogs every year.
    2008:
    2009:
    2010:

Social

  1. Accept three invitations.
  2. Call Andy. x5
  3. Finished. 6/26/08 Have lunch or dinner with someone I've eaten with before.
    4. Had lunch with Leah.
  4. Have lunch or dinner with someone new.
  5. When in Omaha, get together with one of my friends from high school or college. x2
    Had Lunch with Tania
  6. Finished. 2/18/09 Have lunch alone.
  7. Go to a movie alone.
  8. Call for pizza, x10.
  9. Track down and write to Ken Allard, one of my favorite high school teachers.
  10. Track down and write to Judy Levin, one of my favorite college teachers.
  11. Finished. October 2008 Write a fan letter to Ray Bradbury, one of my favorite authors who I have not yet met.

For more information about 101 in 1001 visit: Day Zero