dreaming_destai

Lost book club

2008-08-08T23:31:56Z

So, since the Lostpedia forums are hosting their own "Lostpedia Literary League" book club, I decided to read along with them. A lot of the books I've already set to read have been tossed around, and it'll be good to have someone to read and discuss them with. Other Losties will catch things I didn't. And it'll be nice to break up the monotony that is 18th century literature. (Seriously, anything to break up Moby Dick was welcome)

So, I'll repost my Lost vs. Carrie post from the Lostpedia forums.

I finished the book, and I agree there are some parallels that can be drawn.

Admittedly, I kept thinking about Juliet when I read this. The "book club" extra on the Season Three dvds makes some passing reference to how it's sort of like her character. And she says it's her "favorite" book. Generally, I find that the books I like most are ones where I can see myself in the characters or the plot. (I think Lost is the one TV show I really like where I can't relate to anyone whatsoever.)

Carrie has never fit in, been the butt of every joke, always the outcast. However, she's got this special gift. It takes a moment of extreme stress to bring it out, and eventually it leads to destruction, death and her downfall.

I imagine Juliet's upbringing the same way... In the Juliet-centric flashbacks, she's quiet, shy, and has trouble making friends when she's first on the Island. She's the fertility doctor, the scientist, a hope to give life where life shouldn't be. When Richard Alpert comes to recruit her, he tells her this power to create life is a wonderful "gift." So Juliet can also be seen as a shy, quiet girl with a gift that isolates her from her peers. It took a catalyst--her sister's infertility from cancer--to bring out that gift. Really, in all of the Juliet flashbacks, there's a similar catalyst--Ben "curing" her sister's cancer, Goodwin's death, etc--that further serve to isolate her from the rest of the Others, even though we don't see a reoccurance of her scientific breakthrough.

However, as compared to the "present" Island time Juliet, she's a changed woman. She's cunning, deceptive, takes lives without blinking... What changed? Perhaps there's some other catalyst, her own "prom night" of the soul so to speak that causes her to change so during her time on the Island. Maybe we'll see that in the upcoming episodes.

I some interesting comparisons could be made to the fact that TK is a recessive genetic trait. The book makes a big to do about blood and blood coming from "sin" and all that. In the ARG stuff, there's a passing reference to Alvar Hanso's blood being "unusual." Walt's mom died of a rare blood disorder... Walt's also seen as "special" and having "gifts" and has made TK-like things with birds happen. Could it be something recessive in his blood, as in Carrie? Time will tell.

Those are my thoughts. I also like whoever mentioned that the book is similar in structure to the flash-forward episodes. Awesome comparison! : D

#81 Get rid of 101 things

2008-06-11T13:16:45Z

I managed to finally get rid of our old TV this past weekend. Via Freecycle, no less, so it counts toward goal #47 too. I'd had this TV since my second year of college, and it still worked really well. However, we ended up getting this huge monsterous TV handed down from the in-laws. It's big, but it's HD which was the big perk. Now we won't need to get a converter.

Anyhow, so we've had my old TV sitting around for maybe 6 months. I was showing my MIL how to use Freecycle, and wouldn't you know... There was a Wanted post for a 20" TV... Just what I had. So, off it went to another home.

I'm liking this decluttering thing.

[1/101]

#20: The rest of Neil Gaiman

2008-06-03T02:49:37Z

I ended up taking out a goal relating to S... I found out the International Star Registry is a scam, so I won't be naming a star after him. So it goes. I'm subbing in the rest of Neil Gaiman's work, on the theory that some of it I can share with him.

Not counting the kids books towards the regular fiction list. I left out some stuff that I probably will never be able to find, like the limited edition stuff. And I've read a lot of his stuff already... But we'll see.

Must stop adding reading goals.

Books/comics
The Books of Magic (1993)
The tragical comedy or comical tragedy of Mr. Punch : a romance (1994)
The Last Temptation (1995) [KPL]
Neverwhere - Gaiman (1996) [KPL]
Smoke and Mirrors (1998)
Stardust (2001)
Harlequin Valentine (2001)
~~The Wolves in the Walls (2003)~~
~~The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (2004)~~
M is for Magic (2007)[KPL]
Interworld - Gaiman (2007) [KPL]
~~The Dangerous Alphabet (2008)~~
The Eternals (2008)
The Graveyard Book (forthcoming)

Audio
Signal to Noise (2000) [???]

Movies/television
Neverwhere [??]
~~Stardust~~
Coraline (forthcoming)

Lost Book Club

2008-05-09T19:29:42Z

I left several extra goals, so I can add some along the way. I decided to add another reading goal. I'll probably kick myself for it later, because I have a lot of reading-related goals, and I've been making slooooow progress on Don Quixote. Nevertheless! I've decided to add a Lost related goal... So:

#003: Read all of the books referenced in Lost that I haven't already read.

This includes most of the books referenced on Lostpedia's Literary Works page, as well as the books on Ben's bookshelf, which seem significant. I'm putting on a few re-reads--Carrie, A Wrinkle in Time, The Stand, Of Mice and Men, The Fountainhead, Heart of Darkness, and a few others... Most of them are because I read them a long time ago and they're a bit sketchy in my head. Others are just because they're really good books.

This may help illuminate some things in the series I missed. I'm really excited about it. I chose to not re-read things, because there are a shit-ton of books that get referenced... Some of them are quite long. If I have time, I'll read extras and the random filler books on Jack's bookshelf... But I don't think I will. This added a significant amount of reading.

1. I Ching
Bluebeard - Perrault (1698)
Musset: Poesies Complete (1800's)
2. A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
3. Our Mutual Friend - Dickens (1865)
4. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Carroll (1865)
5. Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There - Carroll (1871)
6. The Mysterious Island - Verne (1874)
7. Survivors of the Chancellor - Verne (1875)
8. An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge - Bierce (1886)
9. Turn of the Screw - James (1898)
10. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Baum (1900)
11. The Heart of Darkness - Conrad (1902)
12. The Moon Pool - Merritt (1918)
13. Laughter in the Dark - Nabokov (1932)
14. The Shape of Things to Come - Wells (1933)
15. Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck (1937)
16. The Invention of Morel - Casares (1940)
17. Evil Under the Sun - Christie (1941)
18. The Fountainhead - Rand (1943)
Walden Two - Skinner (1948)
19. Lord of the Flies - Golding (1954)
On the Road - Keroauc (1957)
20. Stranger in a Strange Land - Henlein (1961)
21. Island - Huxley (1962)
22. A Wrinkle in Time - L'Engle (1962)
23. Hotel - Hailey (1965)
24. The Third Policeman - O'Brien (1967)
25. Slaughterhouse Five - Vonnegut (1969)
26. Watership Down - Adams (1972)
27. Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret - Blume (1970)
28. Carrie - King (1974)
The Stone Leopard - Forbes (1976)
29. Lancelot - Percy (1977)
30. The Shining - King (1977)
31. Kings of Love: The Poetry and History of the Ni'Matullahi Sufi Order - PL Wilson (1978)
Afro-Asian World: A Cultural Understanding - Kolevzon (1969)
32. The Stand - King (1978)
33. VALIS - Dick (1981)
34. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - King (1982)
35. Red Man's Religion: Beliefs and Practices of the Indians North of Mexico - Underhill (1985)
36. The Dark Tower: The Drawing of Three - King (1987)
37. Caravan of Dreams - Shah (1988)
Jurassic Park - Chrichton (1990)
38. The Dark Tower: The Wastelands - King (1991)
39. The Sheltering Sky - Bowles (1991)
40. After All These Years - Isaacs (1994)
41. Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Order - Johnson (1995)
Hindsights: The Wisdom and Breakthroughs of Remarkable People - Kawasaki (1995)
42. The Dark Tower: Wizard and Glass - King (1997)
43. Rainbox Six - Clancy (1996)
44. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - King (2000)
45. The Oath - Lescroart (2000)
The Coalwood Way - Hicklam (2000)
High Hand - Phillips (2001)
46. Dark Horse - Hoag (2002)
47. The Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla - King (2003)
48. Dirty Work - Woods (2003)
49. The Dark Tower: The Song of Susannah - King (2004)
50. The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower - King (2004)
51. Hindsight - Wright (2005)

This is, perhaps, an ambitious goal.

#41 Give blood.

2008-05-03T18:19:30Z

Scratch another one off the list.

I contemplated taking this off my list at several points, because I thought I'd honestly never do it. But the library had a random blood drive when I went to go pick up my books today. And so, after running the rest of my errands and feeding S., I went back and did it before I chickened out.

It wasn't nearly as traumatic as I imagined it would be. I donated plasma twice, and I felt like absolute poop afterwards. But this wasn't so bad. I might even do it again some time. And I feel really good about myself. Score.

dreaming_destai @ 2008-04-26T13:33:00

2008-04-26T18:36:51Z

When I first made this list, I said I'd donate a buck to charity for each uncompleted goal. Since I failed one, I'd been looking for an opportunity to throw a dollar into a good deed.

Last time I went to the grocery store, one of the baggers came up and asked if I wanted to donate $1 to the March of Dimes. I'd tuned him out, until he mentioned the cause was for premature babies. Since the goal I failed was baby-related and S. was premature, I thought this was a perfect way to own up for it.

It makes me smile that the money donated will help babies like S., and that the cause fit the failed goal. : )

dreaming_destai @ 2008-04-22T11:08:00

2008-04-22T16:08:55Z

So, I'm about sixty days in. Huzzah. I've actually been working on quite a few things, even though I feel like I haven't completed all that many goals. But I have completed goals, which is good.

#9 Take care of the Embarrassing Medical Problem.
This is mostly taken care of. I took drugs, went through a few embarrassing medical tests, and went to the doctor a total of four times. It's been determined not to be a big deal, and will probably not cause me actual problems. And I don't need surgery, which is good. I am going to consider this completed, although the problem may return in the future. I sincerely hope not, because, well, it was embarrassing.

#11 Pay off couches, as this is the debt truly keeping us from getting ahead.
These got paid off with our tax refund. It was about $1000 we had left on them, and it feels really good to have it off our back. Granted, A.'s student loans came due right at the same time we paid the couches off, so we're not really getting ahead. But it's something, right?

#18 Make sure S. gets the recommend amount of tummy time every day for 3 months, which in theory is when he’ll be mobile on his own.
I'm calling this one complete, even though three months haven't passed. S. is up and mobile on his own, and spends a great deal of time on his tummy, now that he can roll in/out of it. And the flat spot on his baby head isn't as bad anymore. Which is good.

#23 Replace D.’s collar, buy a new kitten hair brush, and a new wand toy [3/3]
Kitten presents from tax refund! D. hates his collar, but everyone likes the new wand toy. And they tolerate the brushing, as long as they get to "kill" it once they're done.

#72 Send a package to a friend I’ve been out of touch with.
Sending a box to E. in the mail today. I'm all ready to stroller the baby down to the post office as soon as he's done eating.

#86 Let A. make me a Super Duper Sandwich, and consume it.
It had liverwurst. It had potato chips. It was downright weird. But I'd probably eat it agian.

#17 Breastfeed S. exclusively until at least 6.5 months, which is when he should start solids. Breastfeed supplementally until at least 9 months after that.
I came close, but no cigar. My supply has never been great, and my freezer stash was mostly built up from when S. was really really tiny. So, when I ran out of freezer milk and none of the techniques I tried would make it go up, I started giving him formula. So it goes. He's getting perhaps 60-40 formula to breastmilk, which is still pretty good. And he loves solid food, which is good too. But I failed, regardless if there was anything I could do or not. So it goes.

I have quite a few on-going stuff, but I'll mention a few:

#1 Lose the rest of the baby weight [7/10]
Three more pounds, and I'm golden. I should hit this by the time S. hits 33 weeks. That means it took as long to put on the weight as it did to take it off.

#4 Reduce my soda intake. Buy one 24 pack of soda and make it last for a whole month.
This is sooo much harder than I thought it would be. I'm about halfway done, both timewise and Coke wise. It'd be easier if rum and cokes weren't my drink of choice. I even invested in a bottle of Absolut, just to drink less Coke. Ha ha.

#75 Send in a secret to Post Secret once a year. [1/3]
I sent in a secret last week. It was a completely terrifying experience. We'll see if it shows up. I haven't decided if I feel better yet or not.

#50 Bake at least one loaf of bread every month for one year. [1/12]
#51 Try at least one new recipe once a month for a year [1/12]
I made bread this past weekend (passable). It was time consuming, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Then I made homemade ham and scalloped potatoes yesterday (omg, yum). Peeling potatoes by hand sucks, but the results were amazing.

So far, so good.

#61 Read all of the Yuai’s suggested movies/books that I haven't experienced yet.

2008-03-03T04:11:32Z

The Yuais were the extracurricular group I ran around with at LU. Their creed: Tolerance, Diversity, and Hedonism. It's also where I met A.

This goal refers to an e-mail thread on their yahoogroup about fucked up movies and books. Movies and books with a different perspective have always been my favorites. I value the input of my friends, and want to see what shakes their world view a little. I suppose I'll kick in the suggestions from my LJ post as well. And it'll help balance out the ungodly academic reading list I've set for myself.

This is the full list, with my suggestions included:

Metropolis (1927)
M (1931)
Freaks (1932)
Rashomon (1950)
8½ (1963)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Mondo Trasho (1969)
Clockwork Orange (1971)
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Eraserhead (1977)
Time Bandits (1981)
Evil Dead (1981) /Evil Dead 2 (1987) /Army of Darkness(1992)
Pink Floyd's The Wall (1982)
Beastmaster (1982)
Brazil (1985)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Dead RIngers (1988)
Jan Svankmajer's Alice (1988)
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989)
Eversmile, New Jersey (1989)
Meet the Feebles (1989)
Highway 61 (1991)
Closetland (1991)
Delicatessen (1991)
STory of Ricky (1991)
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Cemetery Man (1994)
jan svankmajer's Faust (1994)
Chinese TOrture Chamber STory (1995)
KIDS (1995)
City of Lost Children (1995)
Careful (1997)
Gummo (1997)
Lost Highway (1997)
Pi (1998)
Bringing Out The Dead (1999)
8½ Women (1999)
Audition (1999)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
American Psycho (2000)
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (2001)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Donnie Darko (2001)
The vengeance trilogy: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)
The Proposition (2005)
Tideland (2005)
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Across the Universe (2007)
There Will Be BLood (2007)

This is the full book list, with my suggestions included. For coherence sake, when someone suggested an author, I picked a work I hadn't read yet.

The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka (1915)
Call of Cthulhu, H.P. Lovecraft (1926)
Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller (1934)
Foundation Pit, Platonov (1939)
The Roads to Freedom, Sartre (1945-1949)
Naked Lunch, William Burroughs (1959)
The Rum Diary, Hunter S. Thompson (early 1960's)
Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess (1962)
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (1966)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K Dick (1966)
Illuminatus! Trilogy by Shea and Wilson - (1969-1971)
Breakfast of CHampions, Kurt Vonnegut, (1973)
The Public Burning by Robert Cooper (1977)
The Schrödinger's Cat trilogy by Robert Wilson (1979-1981)
Jitterbug Perfume, by Tom Robbins (1984)
White Noise by Don Delillo (1985)
The Bureau of Lost Souls by Christopher Fowler (1991)
American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis (1991)
Vurt, by Jeff Noon (1993)
My Education, William Burroughs (1995)
Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace (1996)
House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski (2000)
Boomeritis by Ken Wilbur (2002)
Diary, Chuck Palahniuk (2003)
Razor Wire Pubic Hair by Carlton Mellick III (2003)
John Dies at the End, by David Wong (2007)

Some of these I've read/seen. It's just here in it's entirety for reference. I'll give myself the same 10 free opt-outs I did with the academic list... Because I really hated the Illuminatus! Trilogy when I tried to read it in high school. The perspective shifts were too hard to follow. But maybe it'll be different now.

Tomorrow I'll compile a total reading and movie list. I'm all about reading them in chronological order, where possible. The Well-Educated Mind made a good case for reading the suggested works as a progression of the novel. I suppose if something was truly "before its time" I wouldn't know it unless I knew roughly what else was written at the time. ::shrugs::

101 Steps to a fuller education

2008-03-02T02:16:10Z

Most of today I spent working on #59: Lay out a plan for becoming better educated, to consist of at least 101 items of film, literature, art, music, theatre, etc...

That's done. It's rough, and I'm sure I'll tweak it a little bit as time goes by, but here goes:

Novels
~~1. Don Quixote – Cervantes (1605-1614)~~
~~2. Pride and Prejudice – Austen (1813)~~
~~3. Ivanhoe - Scott (1819)~~
~~4. Oliver Twist – Dickens (1838)~~
~~5. Jane Eyre – Brontë (1847)~~
~~6. Scarlet Letter – Hawthorne (1850)~~
~~7. Moby Dick – Melville (1851)~~
~~8. Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Stowe (1852)~~
9. Madam Bovary – Flaubert (1856) [KPL]
10. Anna Karenina – Tolstoy (1877) [KPL]
11. Brothers Karamazov – Dostoyevsky (1880) [Have]
12. Portrait of a Lady – James (1881) [Librivox]
13. Red Badge of Courage – Crane (1895) [Librivox]
14. Ulysses - Bloom (1922) [Librivox]
15. The Great Gatsby – Fitzgerald (1925) [KPL]
16. Mrs. Dalloway – Woolf (1925) [KPL]
17. The Trial – Kafka (1925) [KPL]
18. Collected Fictions - Borges (1930's - 1940's) [Have]
19. Native Son – Wright (1940) [KPL]
20. The Stranger – Camus (1942) [KPL]
21. The Invisible Man – Ellison (1952) [KPL]
22. if on a winter’s night a traveler – Calvino (1979) [KPL]
23. Possession – Byatt (1990) [KPL]

Science
24. Relativity: The Special and General Theory - Einstein (1916) [Librivox]
25. What Is Life? - Schrödinger (1946) [Full text]
26. One, Two, Three, Infinity – Gamow (1947) [Internet Archive]
27. Broca’s Brain - Sagan (1974) [??]
28. Gaia – Lovelock (1979) [KPL]
29. The Mismeasure of Man - Gould (1981) [KPL]
Added in from other goal: Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race in the Urban Present – Wallace (1990) [??]
30. Brief History of Time – Hawking (1992) [Have]
Added in from other goal:Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Order - Johnson (1995) [KPL]
Added in from other goal: Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity - Wallace (2003) [KPL]
31. The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space. Time. And the Texture of Reality – Greene (2004) [KPL]

History
32. The Histories – Herodotus [Have]
33. Parallel Lives of Noble Greeks and Romans – Plutarch [KPL] or [Librivox]
34. Ecclesiastical History of the English People – Venerable Bede [Midieval Sourcbook]
35. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – Gibbon [Librivox]
36. A good book on history of Western Civilization (Western Civilization - Spielvogel)
37. 20th Century – Zinn [??]
38. A book on the history of the Darfur conflict (Darfur's sorrow: A history of destruction and genocide - Daly) [KPL]
39. A book on Latin American History (Born in Blood And Fire: A Concise History of Latin America – Chasteen) [??]
40. A book on African History (Africa: a biography of the continent - Reader.) [??]
41. A book on Middle Eastern history (A History of the Middle East - Mansfield and Pelham) [??]
Added in from other goal: A People's History of the United States - Zinn [Have]

Philosophy
Added in from other goal: I Ching
42. Russell!
43. The Discourse on Method - Descartes (1637)
44. Plato!
45. James!
46. Hume!

Drama
~~47. Agamemnon – Aeschylus~~
48. Oedipus cycle- Sophocles [Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone]
49. Medea - Euripides [Internet Classics Archive]
50. Aristotle – Poetics [Internet Classics Archive]
51. Everyman [Medieval Sourcebook]
52. School for Scandal – Sheridan [KPL]
53. Our Town – Wilder [KPL]
54. No Exit – Sartre [KPL]
55. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead – Stoppard [KPL]

Poetry
~~56. Epic of Gilgamesh~~
~~57. The Iliad - Homer~~
~~58. The Odyssey – Homer~~
~~59. The Aeneid - Virgil~~
~~60. Beowulf~~
~~61. Divine Comedy – Alighieri~~

Film
~~62. Duck Soup (1933)~~
~~63. It Happened One Night (1934)~~
~~64. Modern Times (1936)~~
~~65. Double Indemnity (1944)~~
~~66. Sunset Boulevard (1950)~~
~~67. Singing in the Rain (1952)~~
~~68. High Noon (1952)~~
~~69. Shane (1953)~~
~~70. On the Waterfront (1954)~~
~~71. The Searchers (1956)~~
~~72. Bridge over the River Kwai (1957)~~
~~73. Some Like It Hot (1959)~~
~~74. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)~~
~~75. Sound of Music (1965)~~
~~76. The Graduate (1967)~~
~~77. M*A*S*H (1972)~~
~~78. Cabaret (1972)~~
~~79. American Graffiti (1973)~~
~~80. Annie Hall (1977)~~
~~81. The Deer Hunter (1978)~~
~~82. Raging Bull (1980)~~

Religion
83. Holy Bible [One year reading plan and KJV online]
Added in from other goal: Kings of Love: The Poetry and History of the Ni'Matullahi Sufi Order - PL Wilson [??]
84. Koran
85. Torah
~~86. Screw Tape Letters – CS Lewis.~~
Added in from other goal:Red Man's Religion: Beliefs and Practices of the Indians North of Mexico - Underhill

Music
~~87. Mozart~~
~~88. Beethoven~~
~~89. Greig~~
~~90. CD compilation of awesome Classical hotness~~
~~91. Good book OR DVD on history of the Blues~~
92. Rockin' in time: A Social History of Rock-and-Roll - Szatmary.

Politics and Government
~~93. The Prince – Machiavelli (1513)~~
94. The Two Treatises - Locke (1689)
95. Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography (1771)
96. Common Sense – Payne (1776)
97. The Federalist Papers #10 (1787) and #51 (1788)
98. Communist Manifesto (1848)

Art
99. Go to the Chicago Art museum sometime before the 1001 is up!

Grammar and Writing
~~100. The Elements of Style – Strunk and White~~
101. Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace - Williams
Added in from other goal:On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - King (2000)

Some of it I took from The Well-Educated Mind (minus the stuff I'd already read). Others I took from AFI's Top 100 movies (updated), Discover Magazine's 25 Greatest Science Books of All Time... Even past LU Freshman Studies works.

This list is by no means comprehensive; it's based on the own deficits in my own education. It's incredibly Western-based because I know quite a bit about Eastern traditions, culture, music, religion, etc., not because there is nothing there to know. I've been to the Buddhist temples in China, man. It leaves out things I've already read or seen--The Constitution, Plato's Republic, DeLillo's White Noise, Nietzsche, Origin of the Species, The Battleship Potemkin, 90% of Shakespeare. It leaves out a lot of poetry, philosophy, religion, and art--been there, done that. Some of it is just interest-based, otherwise I'd have a list of 1001 pieces of music and not made a dent.

I'll give myself 10 opt-outs and still consider this done at 90%, mainly because there's limits on time, library collections, and interest (Jane Austen = snooooooze). But! I think it's a good start, and gives me a starting place.

[EDIT: 44/100]

dreaming_destai @ 2008-02-26T10:36:00

2008-02-28T16:38:35Z

I saw this 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge while reading belleweather's other journal, and thought I'd perhaps give it a try. Basically, you challenge yourself to meet 101 preset goals in 1001 days. The theory goes that this is a more realistic time frame than just a year.

I'm not normally one to do silly internet things like this, but thought what the hell. It's a way to keep me focused on making change while the rest of life is more difficult. Heck, if it keeps my mind occupied on something other than the baby and how much this town sucks, it's worth a shot.

So, here's my list for accountability. I'm still tweaking and whatnot, but this is the basic thing.

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 organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

Start Date: February 26, 2008
End Date: November 23, 2010

The List

(Items that are in progress are in italics, those that are completed are struckthrough

Health
~~001 Lose the rest of the baby weight [10/10]~~
002 Lose the weight I gained on the Worst Medicine Ever
~~004 Reduce my soda intake. Buy one 24 pack of soda and make it last for a whole month.~~
~~005 Drink no soda for one month.~~
006 Get my Real Age down to 23
007 Eat vegetarian at least one day per week. [19/143]
~~008 Floss every day and make it a habit.~~
~~009 Take care of the Embarrassing Medical Problem.~~
~~010 Give up fast food for one month~~

Financial

~~011 Pay off couches, as this is the debt truly keeping us from getting ahead.~~
012 Pay off existing debts, aside from student loans: (Credit cards, A.’s car, vet bills)
013 Save $20 from each paycheck for one year [12/26]
014 ~~Find out credit score~~ and raise it 100 points
015 Convince A. to save for retirement, even if it’s not very much at first, and do so.
016 Acquire a chest freezer so we can buy in bulk frozen foods to cut our grocery budget.

Things relating to S.

~~018 Make sure S. gets the recommend amount of tummy time every day until he is mobile on his own~~
019 Teach S. how to read

Family

021 Get pregnant.
022 Make love to my husband in at least one other location than bed, and ~~at a time other than bedtime.~~ [1/2]
~~023 Replace D.’s collar, buy a new kitten hair brush, and a new wand toy [3/3]~~
024 Play with each cat 10 minutes a day for 2 months
025 Find a way for D. and C. to cohabitate peacefully
026 Locate the graves for all deceased, direct ancestors (grandparents through great-great grandparents) [15/26] and leave flowers on their grave where possible. [0/26]
~~027 Genealogical research on Pecharich family~~
~~028 Genealogical research on Dreifke family~~
029 Genealogical research on Jakubowski family
~~030 Genealogical research on Baudhuin family~~
031 Find out, once and for all, where Richard Ireland is really from

Travel

032 Visit England.
033 Visit A. in California.
034 Visit E. in Nebraska.
035 Change my passport to my married name.
036 Visit Sedona.
037 Go camping overnight with A. and S. at Devil’s Lake.
038 Visit Ireland or Wales or both.

Community

~~039 Vote in one state, local, and national election~~
~~040 Write a letter to an elected official about an issue that matters to me.~~
~~041 Give blood.~~

Environmental

042 Find 5 ways to reduce my carbon footprint. Implement them consistently for 3 months each. [0/5]
~~043 Go one month using only homemade cleaners~~
044 Convert remaining fixtures to compact fluorescents. ~~Convert at least one fixture to LED.~~
~~045 Use cloth shopping bags for three months.~~
~~046 Start recycling my food scraps with either a compost pile, yard rubbish recycle bin, or worm bin.~~
~~047 Obtain something via Freecycle and give away something via Freecycle.~~

Home
048 Learn to make: bao, pel meni, crème brulee, cherry pie, sushi, treacle tarts, ~~hummus,~~ cilantro chuntey + flatbread [1/8]
049 Read all of the unread books on bookshelf, as well as books I haven’t read in over 3 years. Sell or donate them to charity if I don’t think I’d read them again, or if you can't bring yourself to read them at all.
050 Bake at least one loaf of bread every month for one year. [6/12]
051 Try at least one new recipe once a month for a year [6/12]
~~052 Plant a vegetable garden~~
053 Can homemade spaghetti sauce from homemade veggies
~~054 Vacuum once a week for 3 months.~~
~~055 Clean for one dedicated hour a week for 6 months~~

Learning
003 Read all of the books referenced in Lost that I haven't already read.
020 Read/listen/watch the rest of Neil Gaiman's works.
056 Learn to knit
057 Learn basic Latin. Complete all of Rosetta Stone’s level 1 Latin course.
058 Learn to play guitar.
059 ~~Lay out a plan for becoming better educated, to consist of at least 100 items of film, literature, art, music, theatre, etc. [1/1]~~ Complete all 101 items before the end of the challenge, with 10 opt-outs, if needed [35/100]
060 Finally finish A People’s History of the United States.
061 Read all of the Yuai’s suggested movies/books that I haven't experienced yet.
062 Participate in NaNoWiMo: November 1 - 30.
063 Read all of David Foster Wallace’s remaining books, including the one on hip hop.
064 Learn how to play Go.
~~065 Find one Hemmingway short story that I enjoy, rather than blindly hating them all on principle.~~
066 Read (or re-read) all of Tolkien’s works from start to finish, in proper order…which includes overcoming my distaste of The Hobbit.

Spiritual
067 Celebrate every holiday in the proper fashion for one year.
~~068 Make peace with god.~~
~~069 Sit down and reevaluate my spiritual beliefs. I’ve been putting this off for too long.~~
070 Pray in a beautiful place.
~~071 private~~

Social
~~072 Send a package to a friend I’ve been out of touch with.~~
073 Write at least one letter to E. a month. [7/33]
074 Participate in the Great Midwest Trivia Contest as a competitive team, either alone or with friends, and finish in top 15 off-campus teams.

Peace of mind
075 Send in a secret to Post Secret once a year. [1/3]
~~076 Move to a different city.~~
077 Every month, make a list of 5 Nagging Unfinished Tasks and do them. [7/33]
~~078 Write 3 Undeliverable Letters to people from my past, to get rid of the psychological baggage.~~

Organizational
079 Organize my recipes in a way that would be coherent to an outside observer.
~~080 Backup all of S.’s baby pictures~~
081 Get rid of 101 things. [2/101]
~~082 Get the family photos I have framed and hang them up in our home.~~
~~083 Declutter! Clean out the closets, old file box, cupboards, and boxes unpacked from several moves. Everything.~~
084 Find some way to organize S.’s outgrown baby clothes, and store for future babies. Give away what I don’t want.

Indulgence
085 Do one thing just for myself each month. Total cost of indulgence not to exceed $10. [7/33]
~~086 Let A. make me a Super Duper Sandwich, and consume it.~~
087 Replace my 12 year old car with a new, fuel efficient one.
088 ~~Get a new computer,~~ and recycle this one and the broken laptop.
089 Have one really good day.
090 Spend 5 minutes a day alone, in silence, doing nothing, without interruptions. [131/1001]

Suggestions! Do three things suggested by friends
091 Be more forthcoming about spiritual matters 404errormessage
092 Masturbate every day for a period of two weeks. bipagan
093 Make a housekeeping schedule, and stick to it for six months. (A.)

Other
094 After regaining a normal weight, finally (FINALLY) update your wardrobe with clothes that make you happy. This is twice as hard as it sounds.
095 Leave flowers on an unattended grave.
~~096 Face a fear.~~
097 Do one thing so far outside my comfort zone, it needs its own listing.
098 Donate $1 to charity for every item on this list not completed. ($1 so far)
099 Try your hand at another 101 in 1001.

Updating
100 To be added in after one third of the time has passed
101 To be added in after two thirds of the time has passed

Failed
017 Breastfeed S. exclusively until at least 6.5 months, which is when he should start solids. Breastfeed supplementally until at least 9 months after that.

I'm actively looking for suggestions for three different goals, so if you've got something you'd like to see me try, fire away. : )