Better than New Year’s Resolutions. Or is it?

I was looking back at my New Year’s resolutions of last year. I cannot currently run 10-minute miles for a half-hour (le sigh). If I study more or stress more about schoolwork, I’d probably need to be locked the hell up. So there’s one success. Post-undergrad thoughts are still up in the air, but I’m looking at some specific things; no internship yet, so there’s another non-complete. Doing and done the creative writing thing. So there’s two. I shed those thirty-plus pounds. Three. Johnny is dead. *shrug* Didn’t take up a martial art, but I have learned a hell of a lot about self-defense.

I’ve been following Mr. T‘s progress on his 101 in 1001 goal. The idea is to complete 101 specific, unambiguous, work-inducing tasks in 1001 days. I apparently don’t do so well with lists (see above), but we’ll see if even just forcibly listing some things reminds me that I want to do them.

The hard part about coming up with this list is calculating on what date 1001 days from now falls. Horrible, horrible math. Looks like October 1, 2007 (post graduation!), though, according to time and date.com.

Okay, I’m a lying bum. The hard part is coming up with 101 reasonable things to do in two and three-quarters years. Took me a week.

I’ll update this post as I make complete things, and I’ve got a WordPress category for it should I feel inclined to ramble about individual items.

Ready, set, go.

Number complete: 19

1. To [read and] write reviews of any 50 of the 200 books on The Modern Library’s two 100 Best Novels lists. A max of five of those written can be from books I’ve read before today but just haven’t written reviews of yet.
2. Run in a race, preferably a 10k, but a 5k would work, too. (Not shooting for first place here, of course, but more along the lines of “help a charity + have some speedy fun”.)
3. Maintain at least two works of creative fiction—either two sets of series, one series and one novel-length, or two novel-lengths (unlikely).
4. Purchase a vehicle.
5. Establish a healthy, workable, maintainable workout schedule for each school quarter. (It should provide full-body work, and work on building strength as well as endurance.) And then maintain it for nine weeks out of an eleven-week quarter.
6. Compile a list of my 100 favorite songs, including some backstory on each.
7. Take the time to read 20 works of non-fiction. (Non-fiction works from class—but not textbooks—count.)
8. Buy a stranger’s dinner in a restuarant.
9. Wear a girly outfit. (In public.) – Completed Dec. 16, 2005.
10. Visit the Chicago Art Institute and stay long enough to look my fill.
11. Go on a date. (At least “a”; “some” is also an acceptable option, given the time-frame.)
12. Get in (and maintain) contact with three people I haven’t talked to seriously since before eleventh grade.
13. Pad my bank account until I routinely maintain a decent minimum balance—call it four or six weeks’ pay.
14. Visit Charlotte and Chapel Hill, North Carolina at least twice.
15. Meet a blogger in person for coffee or a meal.
16. Post an album of pictures… of me. (And look reasonably comfortable in them, too.)
17. Knock the dust off my guitar and take significant steps towards being able to make music with it. (Not really quantified, I know…)
18. Keep paying the loans off early, biatch. Make some payment on school loans every other paycheck—even if it’s small—for any four months prior to graduation.
19. Learn the details of tax-filing. We’re talking all my multi-stateness and my investments.
20. Go to a [night]club and dance on the dancefloor.
21. Acquire a decent credit card for emergencies.
22. Talk with my father about something other than design and programming and computers.
23. Give up table-sugar-containing foods for a month.
24. Take the time to write reviews on 50 of the books I own and have read.
25. Attend three concerts of singers/groups/bands I haven’t seen yet.
26. Run that damn newspaper without letting it kill me. And without me killing it.
27. Have two useful discussions with qualified people: one about [me in] the Navy, one about the Air Force.
28. Start writing my mother’s (and her family’s?) memoirs.
29. Buy three people unexpected (not for holidays or birthdays) gifts.
30. Make three new good friends.
31. Eat something vegetable three meals a day.
32. Eat meat less than three times a week.
33. Donate at least $300 to charities during a twelve month period.
34. Raise at least $100 for any single, small race (can count from above $300).
35. Buy five books for my sister and interact with her about them.
36. Make fast food an exception—once a month at a maximum, and sparingly then.
37. Take up a martial art.
38. Lose and keep off the remaining twenty-ish pounds for six months. The six months must include a break or vacation.
39. Death to love handles!!!
40. Learn to braid my own hair.
41. Visit New York City. (Requirement: must listen to “New Jack City” en route.)
42. Eat something fruit everyday.
43. Keep the GPA at 3.50 or above through graduation.
44. Work on three independent development projects (non-school academic [Thorn software counts]).
45. Become proficient in four additional programming languages.
46. No pop for four months.
47. E-mail a physically distant friend once a week.
48. Try twenty new recipes.
49. Cook at least one meal for the family whenever I’m in their abode.
50. Regain ability to read/write in French, determined by ability to read Canadian or French news sources reasonably rapidly and my ability to write small essays/stories/character dialogue/IM chat in French.
51. Acquire and keep a willing and patient French-speaking penpal.
52. Visit dentists and doctors regularly for checkups.
53. Ingest no more than a taste of alcohol on any occasion.
54. Ingest no caffeine-containing beverages for three months.
55. Get a massage.
56. Give a massage.
57. Drink a liter and a half of water a day for two months.
58. Attend a professional football game.
59. Attend horse races once.
60. Live off-campus and/or alone for at least one of my remaining years.
61. Post a video of me.
62. Visit (or move back to, I guess) Texas.
63. Visit Utah. With a camera.
64. Try gumbo or jambalaya.
65. Attend a professional soccer game.
66. Visit France.
67. Attend a NSBE National Convention.
68. Visit Los Angeles. (Yeah, so it may be cheating for me to put one on that’s already half-way accomplished.)
69. Don’t be without work for more than a month for the remainder of my school days.
70. Talk on the phone with a friend once a month for six months.
71. Write a piece of software and distribute it as shareware or freeware or public domain or something equally helpful, and maintain it as necessary.
72. Pass my remaining math courses with B’s or better.
73. Maintain a website in some shape or form for the next 1001 days.
74. Visit three city/towns in Indiana before I graduate.
75. Visit the Great Lakes.
76. Visit St. Louis.
77. Learn to cook greens that taste good and don’t have meat in them.
78. Build a bookcase using, like, wood and screws and stuff.
79. Make two dresses. Preferably sexy ones.
80. Train to be able to handle running in cold weather.
81. Be able to run at/sub-ten-minute miles for eight miles.
82. E-mail my mother regular, lengthy e-mails once every two weeks for an entire quarter of school.
83. Wear a bathing suit.
84. Spend time getting my investments back in order.
85. Drop some money into my investment account once a month for six months.
86. Resume dropping money into my savings account from every paycheck and maintain this for at least ten months out of a year.
87. Read real news (from a newspaper) everyday for a month.
88. Avoid using a computer for forty-eight consecutive hours.
89. Hunt down and resume contact with my old, old friend M.
90. Ditto for V.
91. Write two letters and mail them (not to my brother).
92. Maintain regular contact with my brother for at least six months.
93. Go on two road-trips. (Most likely in the vehicle that I’ll be purchasing per #4.)
94. Talk with my brother about religion.
95. Get five hours of sleep at least three nights a week.
96. Upgrade my stereo connections to all optical.
97. Acquire a digital camera.
98. Write 3k words of fiction a week for six weeks.
99. Attend a comedy/improv show.
100. Be on a beach for at least three hours.
101. Make a serious attempt at yoga.