104 Things to Do in 2004
104 Things to Do in 2004
I got this from gregmce who got it from Kelly Sue DeConnick, who got it from the original Disgruntled Housewife, Nikol Lohr. And I once used Nikol's site in a book I was writing, so this just goes to show that no matter how random the means of finding someone's site (I was doing a search on the U.S. Marine Corps Marathon and found gregmce), it will inevitably lead back to someone or something I've had a connection to.
Anyway, here's the premise to the list: make a to-do list for the year instead of making resolutions. Make the number match the year (I kind of rolled this one, since this could otherwise be a four-item list). Post it in a public place. Either refer to it often or forget about it.
So here's my list for 2004. I look forward to seeing how well this maps to my upcoming year. And then, I look forward to using this as my end-of-year wrap-up in some way, either as a way of reviewing the year or a way of revealing my fecklessness and sloth to the world at large.
OTHER PEOPLE
1. Send out the holiday cards/CDs before the 2nd of the year.
2. Volunteer with the Girl Scouts here.
3. Participate in the 2004 California Coastal Cleanup Day.
4. E-mail my favorite people more than once a week, if only so I can stop hearing, "But you're a writer! Why can't you write me?"
5. Return to my excellent childhood manners and write thank-you notes promptly.
6. Figure out what the hell we're doing for the '04 holidays.
7. Send off the charitable donations in June, not December.
8. Get digital pix bound into actual paper books for Mom.
BRAIN FOOD
9. January - March nonfiction reading list: World War 3.0, The Progress Paradox, Boob Jubilee, The Joy of Keeping Score, The Malcontents (mixes fiction and non), The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, GigaLaw Guide to Internet Law , Small Pieces Loosely Joined, The Ontology of Cyberspace, Alpha Beta, Mencken Chrestomathy, The Consolations of Philosophy.
10. April - June nonfiction reading list: How Proust Can Change Your Life, TechGnosis, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness, The Social Life of Information , The Metaphysical Club, A Fool and His Money, Culture and Consumption, A, B, C, Et. Cetera, The Highwaymen, The Atoms of Language,The Moral Obligation to Be Intellient,Bamboozled at the Revolution, Why Do Catholics Do That?
11. July - September nonfiction reading list: Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, Trading Up: The New American Luxury, Living It Up : America's Love Affair with Luxury, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII, American Sucker, Dumbing Down: Essays on the Strip Mining of American Culture,A Dangerous Place : California's Unsettling Fate, At the Water's Edge : Fish with Fingers, Whales with Legs, and How Life Came Ashore but Then Went Back to Sea, The New Way Things Work,The Consumer Society Reader, Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic: The Aesthetics of Consumerism, A Company of Readers : Uncollected Writings of W. H. Auden, Jacques Barzun, and Lionel Trilling from the Reader's Subscription and Mid-Century Book Clubs, The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox: Mending the Gap Between Science and the Humanities.
12. October - December nonfiction reading list: Reading list to be set by September, based on new nonfiction books I learn about this year. 13 books. Ultimate goal -- a new nonfiction book each week.
13. Resubscribe to the New York Times.
14. Find a book club.
15. Relearn Spanish.
16. Resubcribe/ subscribe to the following magazines: Bitch, MIT Technology Review, Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, New Yorker, Business 2.0, Columbia Journalism Review, Cook's Illustrated, Skeptical Enquirer, Discover
WRITING
17.Move the Rage Diaries to TypePad, with domain mapping to Schmeiser.com.
18. Get the new improved Rage Diary updates listed on DHAK (this means finding my password for the site).
19. Send out two new pitches to publications monthly. (24 pitches! Ack!) (And no, you don't get to see what my pitch list is.)
20. Finish novel outline.
21. Finish first 6 chapters of novel.
22. Keep writing for Teevee.
23. Keep writing for City Pages.
24. Keep writing for Television Without Pity.
SOUL FOOD
25. Find a church I like. Attend it regularly.
26. Take 10 minutes a day to meditate/pray/contemplate.
27. Observe Ash Wednesday, Lent at church.
28. Observe Advent.
HEALTH
29. Find someplace nearby that a) offers Yoga/Pilates classes, b) does not charge an arm and a leg, and c) has classes at times I can go.
30. Then go to those classes 2X weekly for 12 weeks straight.
31. Give up sugar for Lent. Again.
32. Do not fall off sugar wagon until Pentecost.
33. Find a good local public swimming pool.
34. Hit it at least 1X/weekly.
35. Complete Self Challenge again.
36. Train for U.S. Marine Corps Marathon.
37. Run/walk U.S. Marine Corps Marathon.
38. Go to the doctor.
39. Go to the dermatologist for mole/skin scan.
40. Get new glasses.
41. Hit the dentist 2X.
42. Cut back the McDonald's No. 4 breakfasts to 2X/weekly, tops.
43. Keep brown-bagging lunch at work.
44. Take CPR/ First Aid class.
45. Resume drinking 96 oz. of water daily.
TRAVEL/RECREATION
46. Weekend trip: San Diego.
47. Weekend trip: Phoenix.
48. Weekend trip: Portland.
49. Weekend trip: Big Sur.
50. Weekend trip: Tahoe.
51. Weekend trip: Yosemite.
52. 4-day Weekend trip: Seattle/Vancouver.
53. 4-day Weekend trip: NYC.
54. 4-day Weekend trip: Baltimore/DC.
55. Crack open that L.A. hiking book.
56. Learn how to operate a sea kayak.
57. Explore a different area of L.A. 1x/month.
58. See a ballet.
59. See a symphony performance or opera.
60. Visit LACMA at least once.
61. Go whale-watching.
62. Go to Hawaii again.
63. Go see an IMAX movie (I've never seen one.)
64. Go whitewater rafting -- it's been four years.
65. Go to the Stonecutters' hoedown this year.
66. Go to the Tropicana one more time before it's blowed up real good.
67. Use up that wonderful B&B certificate Mom got us for Christmas.
68. Take a surfing lesson.
69. Swim in the Pacific.
70. Play more board games.
DOMESTIC
71. Expand cooking repetoire: learn how to make at least one hors d'oeuvre, so I do not panic when someone asks me to bring a hors d'oeuvre.
72. Expand cooking repetoire: learn how to make at least one dessert that does not threaten to stop anyone's heart.
73. Expand cooking repetoire: get out of the college-cocktail phase -- just because it has a lot of vodka or grain does not make it a mixed drink. Learn how to mix five drinks without checking the recipes once -- the Cuba Libre, the Mai Tai, the Zombie, Milk Punch and Pimm's Cup, beloved of stylish TWoP recappers like Alex Richmond.
74. Re-dye black tees even blacker.
75. Bleach the hell out of all the whites.
76. Rip all our CDs, store the files on a FireWire drive, and sell the CDs.
77. Hang all our photos and pictures.
78. Put away my clothes once I've worn them, as opposed to folding them and dropping them on the nearest flat surface in the bedroom.
79. Throw a party.
80. Figure out how to handle big sewing repairs without buying a sewing machine.
81. Resurrect my container garden.
82. Anchor bookcases to wall in case of earthquake.
83. Find new 7' bookcase to match one in living room.
84. Dye Easter Eggs this year.
NOT EASILY CLASSIFIED
85. Take cats to the vet for general check-ups.
86. Take cats to the vet for teeth-cleaning.
87. Get a passport.
88. Open AmeriTrade account and begin stock trading using the CAN SLIM philosophy promoted at work.
89. Get old 401(k) accounts rolled into new one.
90. Find a local hairdresser.
91. Find a local day spa. Become a regular.
92. Update my address book.
93. Stop hitting online forums the moment I'm bored.
94. Resume saving for house down payment.
95. Get bodywork on Saturn, esp. trunk.
96. Organize comics.
97. Keep celebrating our wedding anniversary every month on the 12th (We've managed every month since our vows -- so that's a 40-month-and-counting streak).
98. Keep track of what goes on in the 109th Congress.
99. Write my federal and state representatives as needed -- Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and Rep. Jane Harman. My state senator is Debra Bowen, and my state assembly member is George Nakano.
100. Become more diligent about recycling now that we've left the Bay Area and it's not as easy as stepping outside and tossing something in a bin.
101. Go one month without using the vending machines at work.
102. Take more pictures of our daily life.
103. Post pictures for our friends and family.
104. Watch Duck Soup on New Year's Eve.
I got this from gregmce who got it from Kelly Sue DeConnick, who got it from the original Disgruntled Housewife, Nikol Lohr. And I once used Nikol's site in a book I was writing, so this just goes to show that no matter how random the means of finding someone's site (I was doing a search on the U.S. Marine Corps Marathon and found gregmce), it will inevitably lead back to someone or something I've had a connection to.
Anyway, here's the premise to the list: make a to-do list for the year instead of making resolutions. Make the number match the year (I kind of rolled this one, since this could otherwise be a four-item list). Post it in a public place. Either refer to it often or forget about it.
So here's my list for 2004. I look forward to seeing how well this maps to my upcoming year. And then, I look forward to using this as my end-of-year wrap-up in some way, either as a way of reviewing the year or a way of revealing my fecklessness and sloth to the world at large.
OTHER PEOPLE
1. Send out the holiday cards/CDs before the 2nd of the year.
2. Volunteer with the Girl Scouts here.
3. Participate in the 2004 California Coastal Cleanup Day.
4. E-mail my favorite people more than once a week, if only so I can stop hearing, "But you're a writer! Why can't you write me?"
5. Return to my excellent childhood manners and write thank-you notes promptly.
6. Figure out what the hell we're doing for the '04 holidays.
7. Send off the charitable donations in June, not December.
8. Get digital pix bound into actual paper books for Mom.
BRAIN FOOD
9. January - March nonfiction reading list: World War 3.0, The Progress Paradox, Boob Jubilee, The Joy of Keeping Score, The Malcontents (mixes fiction and non), The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, GigaLaw Guide to Internet Law , Small Pieces Loosely Joined, The Ontology of Cyberspace, Alpha Beta, Mencken Chrestomathy, The Consolations of Philosophy.
10. April - June nonfiction reading list: How Proust Can Change Your Life, TechGnosis, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness, The Social Life of Information , The Metaphysical Club, A Fool and His Money, Culture and Consumption, A, B, C, Et. Cetera, The Highwaymen, The Atoms of Language,The Moral Obligation to Be Intellient,Bamboozled at the Revolution, Why Do Catholics Do That?
11. July - September nonfiction reading list: Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, Trading Up: The New American Luxury, Living It Up : America's Love Affair with Luxury, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII, American Sucker, Dumbing Down: Essays on the Strip Mining of American Culture,A Dangerous Place : California's Unsettling Fate, At the Water's Edge : Fish with Fingers, Whales with Legs, and How Life Came Ashore but Then Went Back to Sea, The New Way Things Work,The Consumer Society Reader, Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic: The Aesthetics of Consumerism, A Company of Readers : Uncollected Writings of W. H. Auden, Jacques Barzun, and Lionel Trilling from the Reader's Subscription and Mid-Century Book Clubs, The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox: Mending the Gap Between Science and the Humanities.
12. October - December nonfiction reading list: Reading list to be set by September, based on new nonfiction books I learn about this year. 13 books. Ultimate goal -- a new nonfiction book each week.
13. Resubscribe to the New York Times.
14. Find a book club.
15. Relearn Spanish.
16. Resubcribe/ subscribe to the following magazines: Bitch, MIT Technology Review, Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, New Yorker, Business 2.0, Columbia Journalism Review, Cook's Illustrated, Skeptical Enquirer, Discover
WRITING
17.Move the Rage Diaries to TypePad, with domain mapping to Schmeiser.com.
18. Get the new improved Rage Diary updates listed on DHAK (this means finding my password for the site).
19. Send out two new pitches to publications monthly. (24 pitches! Ack!) (And no, you don't get to see what my pitch list is.)
20. Finish novel outline.
21. Finish first 6 chapters of novel.
22. Keep writing for Teevee.
23. Keep writing for City Pages.
24. Keep writing for Television Without Pity.
SOUL FOOD
25. Find a church I like. Attend it regularly.
26. Take 10 minutes a day to meditate/pray/contemplate.
27. Observe Ash Wednesday, Lent at church.
28. Observe Advent.
HEALTH
29. Find someplace nearby that a) offers Yoga/Pilates classes, b) does not charge an arm and a leg, and c) has classes at times I can go.
30. Then go to those classes 2X weekly for 12 weeks straight.
31. Give up sugar for Lent. Again.
32. Do not fall off sugar wagon until Pentecost.
33. Find a good local public swimming pool.
34. Hit it at least 1X/weekly.
35. Complete Self Challenge again.
36. Train for U.S. Marine Corps Marathon.
37. Run/walk U.S. Marine Corps Marathon.
38. Go to the doctor.
39. Go to the dermatologist for mole/skin scan.
40. Get new glasses.
41. Hit the dentist 2X.
42. Cut back the McDonald's No. 4 breakfasts to 2X/weekly, tops.
43. Keep brown-bagging lunch at work.
44. Take CPR/ First Aid class.
45. Resume drinking 96 oz. of water daily.
TRAVEL/RECREATION
46. Weekend trip: San Diego.
47. Weekend trip: Phoenix.
48. Weekend trip: Portland.
49. Weekend trip: Big Sur.
50. Weekend trip: Tahoe.
51. Weekend trip: Yosemite.
52. 4-day Weekend trip: Seattle/Vancouver.
53. 4-day Weekend trip: NYC.
54. 4-day Weekend trip: Baltimore/DC.
55. Crack open that L.A. hiking book.
56. Learn how to operate a sea kayak.
57. Explore a different area of L.A. 1x/month.
58. See a ballet.
59. See a symphony performance or opera.
60. Visit LACMA at least once.
61. Go whale-watching.
62. Go to Hawaii again.
63. Go see an IMAX movie (I've never seen one.)
64. Go whitewater rafting -- it's been four years.
65. Go to the Stonecutters' hoedown this year.
66. Go to the Tropicana one more time before it's blowed up real good.
67. Use up that wonderful B&B certificate Mom got us for Christmas.
68. Take a surfing lesson.
69. Swim in the Pacific.
70. Play more board games.
DOMESTIC
71. Expand cooking repetoire: learn how to make at least one hors d'oeuvre, so I do not panic when someone asks me to bring a hors d'oeuvre.
72. Expand cooking repetoire: learn how to make at least one dessert that does not threaten to stop anyone's heart.
73. Expand cooking repetoire: get out of the college-cocktail phase -- just because it has a lot of vodka or grain does not make it a mixed drink. Learn how to mix five drinks without checking the recipes once -- the Cuba Libre, the Mai Tai, the Zombie, Milk Punch and Pimm's Cup, beloved of stylish TWoP recappers like Alex Richmond.
74. Re-dye black tees even blacker.
75. Bleach the hell out of all the whites.
76. Rip all our CDs, store the files on a FireWire drive, and sell the CDs.
77. Hang all our photos and pictures.
78. Put away my clothes once I've worn them, as opposed to folding them and dropping them on the nearest flat surface in the bedroom.
79. Throw a party.
80. Figure out how to handle big sewing repairs without buying a sewing machine.
81. Resurrect my container garden.
82. Anchor bookcases to wall in case of earthquake.
83. Find new 7' bookcase to match one in living room.
84. Dye Easter Eggs this year.
NOT EASILY CLASSIFIED
85. Take cats to the vet for general check-ups.
86. Take cats to the vet for teeth-cleaning.
87. Get a passport.
88. Open AmeriTrade account and begin stock trading using the CAN SLIM philosophy promoted at work.
89. Get old 401(k) accounts rolled into new one.
90. Find a local hairdresser.
91. Find a local day spa. Become a regular.
92. Update my address book.
93. Stop hitting online forums the moment I'm bored.
94. Resume saving for house down payment.
95. Get bodywork on Saturn, esp. trunk.
96. Organize comics.
97. Keep celebrating our wedding anniversary every month on the 12th (We've managed every month since our vows -- so that's a 40-month-and-counting streak).
98. Keep track of what goes on in the 109th Congress.
99. Write my federal and state representatives as needed -- Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and Rep. Jane Harman. My state senator is Debra Bowen, and my state assembly member is George Nakano.
100. Become more diligent about recycling now that we've left the Bay Area and it's not as easy as stepping outside and tossing something in a bin.
101. Go one month without using the vending machines at work.
102. Take more pictures of our daily life.
103. Post pictures for our friends and family.
104. Watch Duck Soup on New Year's Eve.