Responserbillery.

I'm all grown up now and as such, I'm taking, like, active control of the direction of my life and junk. Parts of it, anyway.

Goal number 89 was to keep detailed accounting data for one month. I've done better - at the beginning of February, I created a budget file in Excel, with two pages. One sheet functions as a checkbook for my debit card, savings account, and credit card, complete with formulas so that I don't screw up the math and a banner at the top that shows all my current balances. The primary sheet, though, I am especially proud of - it aggregates all my purchases into categories, on a week-by-week (and month-by-month) basis, and includes the rough estimates for my budget... because technically, a budget is a PLAN for your money, not just keeping track of where it goes after the fact. I made a category column in the checkbook sheet, so at the end of each week, I go through and add up all the "E"s and "S"s and so forth to track my expenses.

I set fairly liberal spending allowances when I established the budget in February, when I was going out a lot more. I underestimated my income (not by a lot, but about $100 a month at least) and overestimated food and entertainment expenses by a lot, so I could wean myself slowly down to a more savings-oriented fiscal plan (and thus move myself more expediently towards a responsible move to NYC). Here's what the original budget figures were:





As you can see, I also allocated $70 per month for health-related expenses, which would basically encompass everything I would buy at CVS or Walgreens - razor blades are exorbitantly expensive these days. But I also wanted to set it that high in case I needed to go to the doctor and buy medicine in case I got sick, so that I'd know the money would be there without throwing the whole rest of the budget off. Getting my throat swabbed for strep does NOT count as Entertainment, you know? The last column, Leftovers, is additional de facto Savings. The Savings column itself encompasses my Keep the Change transfers, and a monthly $25 scheduled transfer from checking to savings that I set up to avoid monthly fees. SOOO all that money I'm not really spending on health gets saved up, along with all the other money I keep by underspending on food and entertainment. To the right of each month's leftovers, I set up a running "Total Savings" formula, which adds together that month's savings and leftovers and adds it to the previous month's total savings.

It turns out that increasing that single number has been the best motivational tool for me to 1) continue using this sometimes annoying system - Bank of America reformatted their website last month and it's an enormous hassle to do side-by-side windows to input the checkbook data - and 2) cut back my spending, the whole point of setting this goal. I didn't think to add that until mid-April or so, for a solely practical reason: I had too much data for one page and didn't want to have to be scrolling all the time; there is a huge corresponding jump in the amount of Leftovers between March and April, which becomes even more extraordinary when you factor in that I was in NEW YORK CITY at the beginning of April and I ate very well. Anyways! Budget working, ergo, budget goal OFFICIALLY COMPLETE.

Now, a completely different mechanism for getting my adulthood together: I took the LSAT on June 7th. (Goal number... TWO, for those keeping score at home. Yeah, that important.) I could pretend that the five weeks of grueling prep tests I did were the reason I didn't post so much in May, but we all know the real reason is that I'm tremendously lazy. Except for the part where I established a rigorous schedule for practicing, stuck to it, and saw real improvement in my (practice test) scores because of it. I don't get the real score back until the 28th, and I absolutely do not want to jinx it, but I feel safe at least saying that my goal of 167 was definitely reasonably within my reach. I think I qualified that enough to evade the wrath of the jinx demons. I hope.

Well, this is getting long, and I started it at work this afternoon and it is now approaching one in the morning, so, yeah, over and out. OH WAIT no, before I forget, I have another swingset - Colin Park, beachside in Daytona. Squeaky chains, really quite awful as swings go, but it was a clear night and the stars were delightful, making up for it a bit. A daytime picture will be taken sometime in the next three months. Deal. So, what is it, number 8 now?
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Hahahahahha

Ooops. Got of schedule again... so I'm going to do a really quick summary of things to get back on track.

1) Finished reading The Enchantress of Florence last week. It was delightful to read solely in terms of language, but I take issue with some significant anti-feminist elements of the story... I intend to write a short essay on this sometime very soon. But we all know how well I actually do the things I intend to do, so... we'll see.

2) Started reading Atlas Shrugged; I'm now 125 pages in and... wow, I thought Rushdie was antifeminist. Otherwise, I'm still really confused about the book's philosophy. I've read about objectivism and I feel like I know what Ayn Rand thinks, but... to me it doesn't really seem to be advocating any particular viewpoint at all - except that indifference is plaguing the modern world and, like, destroying EVERYTHING. More forthcoming on this as well.

3) In order to better facilitate drabble-writing, I started a scraps file in notepad so that I'm not looking at a blank page every time I try to write anything. Writer's block has not wholly been defeated, but it is slightly mitigated. It's something. I'm stuck on this one image and I'm trying to figure out how to make a whole decent story out of it. I'll get there.

4) This has absolutely nothing at all to do with knitting, but it is creativity and therefore is marginally pertinent: I've sewn my first throw pillow with piping! I put in for 15 yards of saree fabric (in three patterns of five yards each) on ebay, and I won, and I paid, and according to the seller in India, they've shipped... and it's been ten days. Four more and I'm filing a complaint. This is getting absurd... I'm trying to start an Etsy shop here! No, really, apparently there's a large market for throw pillow covers, and I like sewing and I spend a lot of time watching TV - I figure I can at least try and capitalize on that a little bit. My camera battery's low so it's taking really crap pictures indoors right now, all grainy and stuff, so I'm not going to post one of the pillow just this second - but it's beautiful and you have to look really closely to see where I messed up, and I'm really proud of it. So take my word for it. You have to. It's my blog.

5) Speaking of pictures, I'm putting up four SPTs to cover from... I guess February 16th was the last time I posted? Oh well. See below the cut. I'll take one tomorrow for this week. (Hint: most of the SPTs are actually taken on the weekend.)

6) Music rerating is going well. I took a cue from my dad and decided to play my whole library in reverse alphabetical order, from $$$$ to A.O.K. This helps songs stand out a bit more since I'm ripping them out of the context of their albums, but has the major drawback in that I sometimes hear up to four versions of the same song in a row. (I'm lookin' at you, 405.) The one thing I can tell you I've discovered is that I really don't care at all about 98% of the Smashing Pumpkins' discography. Don't ask why I have it, I won't for very much longer.

7) Speaking of music, I have a couple new artists that I like that I plan on reviewing shortly. Preview: Yeasayer; Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros; and MGMT. Yeah, I know I'm late to the party on that last one, but I was purposefully avoiding them because of all the hype and I feel it's now sufficiently passed that it's once again uncool (and therefore legitimate) to listen and be into them.

8) Speaking of MGMT, I updated my resume this week to start preparing for a northward move. This has nothing to do whatsoever with my goal list, but moving to New York has been my number one goal since before graduation, so it merits an update.

9) Daily Show! April 5th, 2010 - Chelsea and I were the first to show up at 1:15, but the third, fourth, and fifth people arrived within the next twenty minutes - so I feel it was completely justified. Um, yeah... they start don't even set up the lines until 2:30, and they don't open the doors till after 4, seat you till after 5, or start filming until 6. But SO WORTH IT. Picture proof below the cut.

10) Ten is a lot. I'm done for tonight. To the pictures!

March 11, 2010 - Absolutely nothing remarkable about this. It is already well-documented that I'm infatuated with my Christmas lights and amateurishly adjusting the aperture settings on my camera.

March 18, 2010 - Yeah, nothing exciting here, either. I... I bought this shirt while Ali was visiting that week? ...Woo.

April 1, 2010 - On the first night of my trip, my friend Katy happened to be in town as well from Chicago, and our friend Mollie was about to be going out of town on Spring Break, so we threw a party. This picture was probably taken shortly after midnight... because I had woken up at 5:30 that morning to catch my flight. Yeah, I was in New York by lunch time. I RULE. Things I missed while passed out: chat roulette, Mollie's ever-entertaining rendition of Soulja Boy, and a 1:30am run to Best Buy. Yeah. That tired.

April 8 - So, basically, the Kate Spade store down in Soho was doing this window display with pinwheels, and since many of them were within reach of street level, and the pinwheels were on the exterior of the windows instead of the interior, people had swiped them - which was probably what they were supposed to do anyway. So Chelsea wanted one, and I wanted to steal one, so I climbed up on the ledge and tried to push it up out of its holder inconspicuously. Surprisingly, they didn't just pop out, they literally had to be lifted up and out, and in this shot, you can sort of see that I've got the green one up to the very bottom of the stick... I couldn't reach any higher while sitting. Clearly, this was hilarious, and Chelsea took my picture. Shortly thereafter, I just stood up and pulled it out, and we lived happily ever after with our lime green pinwheel yay.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

FIRST IN LINE!

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Three Hopeful Thoughts

1. As you might have noticed, that goal countdown up in my header now reads "99" instead of "100." That's right, folks, on Tuesday evening, in a magnificent confluence of cosmic factors, the room shook and trembled, and in a sudden rush, the rain beat down upon us. I, properly attired in a rain-frolicking-approved sundress and already downstairs, threw open the door, rushed out across the yard, and finally, finally danced in the downpour I'd been waiting so very long for. The rain was thick and heavy, and the lightening frequent, extended, and close. I would say the whole experience was rapturous, but I feel like you have to be aware of rapture while it's happening for that to be possible. It just felt overwhelmingly and ambiguously good to be out in it. Goal #90 is complete, but it was something I've done before and it will certainly be something I do many times again.

2. Yesterday afternoon, exactly three weeks to the hour after the Foreign Service test, I received a letter (a pdf which I had to download, after being given the link to the site with the pdf via email. Unnecessarily convoluted? I think yes.) informing me that my performance has qualified me for the next round of the application process. Five personal narrative responses, in which I have 1300 characters each to describe variously that time I was a leader, that time I lived with a foreign kid in college, and so forth. They also gave me the fax number for ACT, tantalizing me with the promise that I could get a breakdown! of my results by post in just four to six weeks, but two attempts to do so have returned a failed transmission. I'll try again on Monday. I. Need. That. Breakdown.

3. Letters to Washington, goal number 73, has officially been moved to the "In progress" column. I sent my first letter to my brand-new placeholder senator, George LeMieux, in response to this article in today's New York Times. Sure, there's a war on, and a health care reform debacle, and stuff, but obviously some idiot from Louisiana needs the spotlight to stump against immigrants for next year's election. And obviously the proposal in question is so obscenely ludicrous that I simply had to voice my opinion and make sure LeMieux, GOP loyalist extraordinaire (seriously, he's holding Mel Martinez' seat for less than two years under the tacit condition that he not seek reelection so Charlie Crist, our great governor, can run instead), doesn't fall in with this fringe crowd. The grimy flipside of having a solid Democratic majority in both houses is the ability of Republicans to pick up on whatever insignificant issue they think will help their odds with their constituents - not taking into account that such petty issues could hurt real people if passed. Anyway, it's a fairly lengthy letter, so I've put it down below the cut.

Dear Senator LeMieux,

The New York Times published an article today about the push of your fellow senator, David Vitter, to forbid the census from counting non-citizens as residents of the several states and, by extension, our nation. This is not only an outrageous proposition because of the social, economic, and political ramifications such a census would cause, but also thoroughly unconstitutional. I sincerely hope that, as my representative, you will not support Senator Vitter's proposal.

As I'm sure you know, Article 2 of the Constitution empowers the Congress to count every ten years "the whole number of persons in each state" in order to properly apportion representatives. This particular passage has already been amended once in our history, with the idea that government should include more people, not fewer. Originally, the census formula was taken from the whole number of "free persons" plus three-fifths of "all others," i.e. slaves, further diminished the status of certain Americans. With the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, the three-fifths clause was removed, rightfully establishing non-whites as full citizens worthy of equal representation.

As a representative democracy, America was the eighteenth-century beacon for Europe’s feudal monarchies. Oppressed for centuries by the noble classes, the hard-working serfs rose up and wrenched political power out of their silk-gloved hands. The story of democracy is the story of power continually spiraling downwards and outwards, into the hands of the people. This is where Senator Vitter’s proposal becomes truly farcical.

The Times writes:

“Appealing to his colleagues in states with fewer noncitizens, the Republican senator, David Vitter of Louisiana, warned this month that a vote against his proposal would ‘strip these states of their proper representation in Congress,’ while including noncitizens would ‘artificially increase the population count’ in other states.”

His proposal would strip states of their proper representation – those that are the major entry points for immigrants into our country, like our own Florida. As for “artificially increasing the population count,” I would have to say that people who work, reside, and raise families in our communities are, in fact, part of the American population. They may not have yet acquired citizenship, but we can rest assured that the children they bear and bring here have or will. Not only would this proposal be unfair to today’s immigrants, it would create an unquantifiable backlash with the next generation, as they witness their parents treated unfairly. Worse, measures like this can be used to justify the xenophobic behavior of Americans towards immigrants, both legal and illegal. (Those who would condone or commit violence or hateful speech towards immigrants likely don’t care to see the difference.)

The census began as a device for apportioning government representation– and that remains its primary purpose today. Yet it also serves another important function when it counts residents, and not just citizens: it is one of the most important historical records of who lived where when. My own great-grandparents would not have been counted under such an exclusionary census during their first decade in this country, despite the fact that they worked hard to contribute to America all the same and build a nation their children would proudly call their own. The exponential growth of illegal immigration in the past few decades is certainly an issue that needs to be addressed, but discriminating against all immigrants by excluding non-citizens from the census is neither the right way, nor an effective way, to do so.

Sincerely,

Caroline Leonard


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Picnic on the beach

In addition to getting an epic sunburn on my shins yesterday afternoon, I completed my first goal: number 82, Have a picnic in a park with at least one good friend and a bottle of wine. What I originally had in mind when I wrote this goal was a shady, grassy knoll in Central Park, with an actual picnic basket and wine glasses. But my friend Katelyn was home from school for the weekend, and asked if I wanted to picnic on the beach with her, and it was great.

We had sandwiches, oranges, and cupcakes, and, of course, wine (albeit in solo cups, because it's technically illegal to drink on the beach here). It was fabulous. The sun was slightly blistering, but there was a constant, cool(ish) breeze blowing in and - the best part - we were far enough north that our little segment of sand wasn't completely packed with holiday weekend tourists (or fellow townies, more likely). We stayed out for a good two hours or so, thus the sunburned shins, catching up and all that jazz.

I'm kind of glad something light and fun like this was the first goal I finished; it's a good precedent to set, a good tone for the whole 1001. Now, to get back to work on those notes for the screenplay...
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Sundries - Part 3

81. Buy something from a local artist.
82. Have a picnic in a park with a bottle of wine and at least one good friend.
87. Complete my 1000 piece Kandinsky puzzle and frame it.
88. Throw a dinner party for at least six people (myself included).
90. Intentionally go out in the pouring rain and soak through.
91. Write down dreams first thing in the morning for two weeks.
96. Go to bed before midnight for one full week.
98. Have at least five indoor plants alive for at least three months all at once.
101. Accumulate $5005 in the Imaginary Fund.

I'm not trying to crap out of finishing the detail posts, but all of these (except for number 101) are legitimately self-explanatory and to write a blurb explaining each of them seems a little ridiculous to me.

Instead, here's the reasoning behind number 101: The Imaginary Fund is something I've thought about creating periodically in the last four years. It's a combination emergency savings account/travel fund/off-limits-until-I'm-grown-up-place-to-stash-some-money. It's called "The Imaginary Fund" because obviously, I don't want to count it in my head with all my other bank accounts. I don't want the money in it to be totaled in, basically; I want to pretend it isn't there at all. When these 1001 days are over, I'll be 25, and I like the idea of giving myself a financial foundation for the future. I would imagine this would go without saying, but I don't plan on exhausting those other accounts to meet this goal - unlike the state of Florida's education/lottery scheme, this money is on top of, not in lieu of, financial security in my checking, savings, and credit accounts.
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Educational Goals

2. Score ≥167 on the LSAT.
12. Rosetta Stone: Spanish
13. Rosetta Stone: Arabic
31. Take an oral history.
33. Learn to be good at chess.
39. Learn to build my own desktop. Do so.
41. Learn the constellations. And how to tell the damn planets apart from the stars on a consistent basis.
42. Learn how to program a website.
43. Learn the Kiddish, the Kaddish, and the prayer for breaking bread.
45. Learn to snorkel.
53. Learn to tell the difference between wines.
84. Go to ten special exhibitions at museums.
86. Watch 25 of the Greatest Movies of All Time Ever that I've never before seen.
89. Keep detailed accounting data for one month.
93. Learn to identify at least ten things under the hood of a car and how you can tell when they break.
95. Write a full page with my right hand.

Details

Note - you can keep up with my progress on all Educational goals by clicking the "Educational" tag. Very few in this category will have specialized tags; those will be noted below.

2. Score ≥167 on the LSAT.

I'm not actually certain that I want to go to law school; in fact, I'm moving more and more in the direction away from it. However, one never can be too sure, and it's better to do standardized tests sooner rather than later after college. And here's a little secret about me: I actually just love taking standardized tests. I think 167 is a realistic goal, but one that I think is high enough that I will still feel compelled to study beforehand. I really just want to know my score, so I could see where I could go if I actually wanted to learn the law.

12. Rosetta Stone: Spanish

I took four years of Spanish in high school, and while I was never particularly good at it, I was certainly not particularly bad at it, either. Or:
Yo tome cuatro años de español en la escuela secondaría, y (though) yo no (past progressive of ser?) muy bueno con lo, ni yo (again with ser) muy mal, tampoco. So, I will complete the second and third levels of Rosetta Stone in order to regain and learn new vocabulary and grammatical fluency, and, after completing the course, testing myself by reading a Spanish-language novel that I purchased a few years ago.

Complete through: Level 2, Unit 1, Lesson 3

13. Rosetta Stone: Arabic

If you've already read the entire master list, then you're aware that joining the Foreign Service is on it. The reasons for that will be more fully explained in the Sundries - Part 1 post, but it is a major contributing factor to me wanting to learn Arabic. English, Spanish, and Arabic are three of the most spoken languages on the planet, and between them, they cover just about every country whose American embassy I would love to work in. And written Arabic is probably the most beautiful script I've ever seen, and I really want to be able to understand it and produce it myself, at least rudimentarily. This goal will be finished after I complete all three levels of Rosetta Stone's Arabic program and I have read an Arabic-language newspaper front to back.

31. Take an oral history.

My paternal great-grandparents were all immigrants who came to America sometime between 1900 and 1920 from Eastern Europe. I know that my grandmother's family came from a tiny village in Poland, because one of my uncles researched and visited it a few years ago and there's a photo album of the trip on her shelf. My grandfather's family... I don't even really know. I have heard variously that we were expelled Russian Jews, Ukrainian, Latvian, and Polish. Suffice it to say that both sets of great-grandparents did a very good job of assimilating themselves and their children to American culture, and my father and his brothers seem not to have thought much about where the family came from in their youth, apart from the vague notion of "over there." At least, that's my impression as a member of the third generation born here.

So, my goal is to sit down with my grandmother, whom, conveniently enough, I will be living just upstairs from through the winter, and, once and for all, find out who we Leonard-Moverman-Abramsons are and just where exactly it is that we came from.

33. Learn to be good at chess.

I know the rules of chess. I understand which way the pieces are supposed to move and that the queen is always supposed to start on her own color and all the technical stuff like that. I just have no eye for the strategy of it. I can't see five moves ahead for myself, let alone the other guy (who always seems to know what I'm going to do anyway). It's like I have a giant neon sign flashing above my head proclaiming my epically noob status. My goal is to practice until I get to the point where, even if I can't beat my dad at chess, I can at least give a decent show of trying.

39. Learn to build my own desktop. Do so.

I am pretty good at computers, at least from the software end. I can diagnose problems with my own computer; perform basic maintenance myself, and can convince it that it has extra CD-ROM drives for my own non-nefarious purposes. What I do not know is what goes on inside: how the drives and cards and cords fit together to make the magic happen. I only have a basic understanding of what most of the things in there are even called.

My laptop is also getting on in. It will be three around Thanksgiving, which is practically ancient in technology years. It had its mid-life crisis last September, and, luckily, since the warranty was still good, Sony sent a technician TO MY HOUSE to replace the motherboard and a lot of little things for free. It was awesome. But still, the poor little thing barely has enough hard drive memory anymore, and its non-video card pitches fits every few weeks (and here I am, not running anything strenuous on it so as not to piss it off more). It's time for something new. It's time for something powerful and amenable to staying in one place, and it's time for me to learn how to do it. Ergo, desktop. Lots of space to mess around in, lots of interchangeable, fully-customizable parts; lots, lots cheaper. I hope to get this project started sooner rather than later, obviously, and if anyone knows of any particularly rad resources about building one's own computer, I would be eternally grateful if you could point me in their direction.

41. Learn the constellations. And how to tell the damn planets apart from the stars on a consistent basis.

I already know the Big and Little Dippers; Orion; and sometimes, if I'm really lucky, I can pick out Sirius. I used to be able to find Venus, if it was around. I want to know more. I will consider this goal complete after I've learned 15 constellations and basic facts about them, and memorized when which planets are within our view and how I can identify them with the naked eye (when possible).

42. Learn how to program a website.

I know basic html, and in the last week, I've picked up a bit of CSS tweaking this blog's template to my personal taste. It's been a lot of fun, and it's a lot harder than I thought. I will consider this goal complete after I have completely scripted this blog myself, from scratch.

43. Learn the Kiddish, the Kaddish, and the prayer for breaking bread.

I'm a really bad Jew. In that I'm not actually Jewish at all, but half my family is by heritage, and we all eat pork and forget when it's time to celebrate Hanukkah. Bacon is tasty. Anyway, this isn't about being more religious so much as just learning something that can connect me to that part of me. When my grandfather died two years ago, I felt completely inadequate because I couldn't say the Kaddish for him, even though I watch Angels in America every three months and I really should have picked it up by now. So now I'm going to. End of story.

45. Learn to snorkel.

Properly, this goal in its complete form is "Learn to snorkel without getting water down the tube and in my goggles," but that doesn't look very elegant. I've really only been snorkeling once, on a cruise my family took when I was in high school that stopped in Key West. It was beautiful in the reef, and I would really love to go back and do it again, sans the salt water in my mouth and eyes. I'll probably practice in a pool, and if I really just can't make it down to a beach in the summertime, then that will be sufficient fulfillment of this goal. Ideally, though, a real world test will mark the end of it.

53. Learn to tell the difference between wines.

This, too, deserves a little clarification. I know that a Pinot Grigio is different from a Sauvignon Blanc and both are completely different from a Riesling. I like reds, now, too, but the only one I think I could semi-reliably identify in a blind taste test is Shiraz. So, this goal has two sub-goals: the first, to branch out and try new types and regions of wine, and the second, to keep a record of the wines I drink and identify their distinguishing characteristics. I will consider this goal complete after I successfully identify nine out of ten wines in a blind taste test.

84. Go to ten special exhibitions at museums.

Unless they're free, I very rarely go to special exhibitions. And while I love the permanent collections of the museums I "frequent," I really am missing out when I neglect to see the new and different pieces and perspectives offered by special exhibits. Therefore, I plan to see ten different paid exhibits in the next 1001 days to which I would not otherwise have gone. An example: when I was in London a few years ago, the Tate Modern was doing a Kandinsky retrospective. They could have charged £20 for it, and I still would have gone and spent all day in it. Such an exhibit would not count towards this goal. This project is about discovery, after all.

Exhibitions visited: 1

86. Watch 25 of the Greatest Movies of All Time Ever that I've never before seen.

I have never seen Casablanca. I think I fell asleep during the Wizard of Oz. I definitely fell asleep during all three Godfathers. I'm in the process of compiling a list that draws from the IMDB's Top 250, Rotten Tomatoes' Top 100, and AFI's 100 Years, 100 Movies lists, in order to make a list of about fifty movies, of which I will have to watch at least 25 by May 25, 2012, so that I can actually contribute to conversations people have about these epically famous films. Posts relating to this goal will be tagged "Movies."

Movies Consumed: 1

89. Keep detailed accounting data for one month.

I did this when I first lived in London, in order to keep track of how badly the exchange rate was screwing me over, and, though it got to be very tedious towards the end, it was extremely helpful in that I knew exactly where my money was going, in what forms I was spending it, and, most importantly, knowing that I would have to account for something after I got home really helped me cut back on truly ridiculous impulse spending. Let me be clear: by "detailed accounting data," I don't just mean writing down the amount of each receipt and keeping a running total. I mean EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM. gets logged. It's effective, and I think it's time for a refresher course in curbing impromptu purchases.

93. Learn to identify at least ten things under the hood of a car and how you can tell when they break.

Enough said.

Car parts learned: .2

95. Write a full page with my right hand.

I was beginning to think that all my goals were leaning more towards being Epic and Serious Projects, so the the last ten or so are lighthearted, so that I remember to schedule time for out-and-out silliness. So: because I am left-handed and, when I have tried to write with my right hand, it has been a garbled mess, I would like to improve my opposite-handwriting. After this goal is complete, I will post a scan of the finished page, whatever it is.

Again, any suggestions on ways I can better meet these goals, or improve upon them, will be greatly welcome.


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Okay, so what are you going to do?

Here is the master list, in numerical order, which only loosely signifies the order in which I thought things up. It should be noted that all reading goals were originally goal #3 but have since been broken down for manageability reasons.

For quick, skimmable, status-reporting purposes, I will be implementing a color coding system on this list, as well as the subsequent category breakdown lists. Standard font color will signify that a goal is neither completed nor even begun. Terra cotta will signify goals upon which I am currently making headway, while blue will be the color of completion. Additionally, completed goals will be turned into links to their corresponding write-up posts. Handy, no?


1. Participate in NaNoWriMo.
2. Score ≥167 on the LSAT.
3. Be able to do all three splits.
4. Discover AND LIKE 101 new bands or solo artists.
5. Go to the Continent.
6. Go to Alaska.
7. Go to Indonesia.
8. Plant things. Make them grow and stuff.
9. Learn to properly knit a human-sized sweater.
10. Run a real world mile in less than ten minutes.
11. Buy $10 of stock during the first week and do NOT look at its earnings (or losses) until Day 1001.
12. Rosetta Stone: Spanish
13. Rosetta Stone: Arabic
14. Turn off the internet for a week [in preparation for...]
15. Turn off the computer for a week.
16. Donate at least $500.50 on Donors Choose.
17. Volunteer in a battered woman's shelter.
18. Write at least one quality drabble weekly.
19. Read at least 3 articles in each of these weekly: The Economist, New Scientist, and the New Yorker. Bonus points for taking out a subscription.
20. Learn at least thirty ethnic food recipes. Prepare each satisfactorily.
21. Replace every lightbulb in my living space with an energy-saving equivalent.
22. Learn to play June on the West Coast on guitar.
23. Visit at least 25 cathedrals.
24. Swing on 101 unique swingsets.
25. Adapt a favorite novel into a screenplay.
26. Spend at least 24 consecutive hours on an Amtrak train.
27. Go to Antigua.
28. Find out with certainty why "A Save Situation" is named after a baseball thing.
29. Visit an old house on the Danforth.
30. Go to Islands of Adventure.
31. Take an oral history.
32. Go to Big Sur.
33. Learn to be good at chess.
34. Clean out iTunes ratings; begin anew with Standards. Have more than half the library genuinely rated by the end of the 1001.
35. Participate in the 24 pictures/24 hours thing at least 3 times.
36. Reupholster something successfully.
37. Selfportrait Thursday
38. Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity for at least 101 hours.
39. Learn to build my own desktop. Do so.
40. Create an entire outfit by hand.
41. Learn the constellations. And how to tell the damn planets apart from the stars on a consistent basis.
42. Learn how to program a website.
43. Learn the Kiddish, the Kaddish, and the prayer for breaking bread.
44. Raise $500.50 by doing Walks for the Cure.
45. Learn to snorkel.
46. Serve on a grand jury.
47. Perform a daylight fast - 3 days
48. Perform a daylight fast- 5 days
49. Perform a daylight fast - 7 days
50. Sell baked goods at a farmer's market.
51. Make a real green dress.
52. See a staged version of Angels in America.
53. Learn to tell the difference between wines.
54. Finish the Discworld series.
55. (re)Read the complete works of Tennessee Williams.
56. Read 25 "Classics."
57. Read 3 "Russian Classics."
58. Read the complete works of Salman Rushdie.
59. Read every book on the shelf that has not yet been so.
60. Stand at the foot of a mountain. Possibly climb up it a little bit.
61. Join the Foreign Service OR be taking significant educational steps (ie be in grad school) to do so.
62. Stand on a cliff and throw little things off.
63. Become a faux-expert in the tasting of cheese.
64. Visit Atlantis.
65. Volunteer in a public library (or more than one) for at least 101 hours.
66. Collect 101 new characters.
67. Fill a watercolor journal.
68. Loan $101 on Kiva; recycle all repayments.
69. Perform community awareness to raise an additional $500.50 for Kiva loan seekers.
70. Achieve 500,000 grains of rice on Free Rice for Spanish vocabulary.
71. Achieve 500,000 grains of rice in all other subjects.
72. Learn the dance from Dirty Dancing.
73. Write 101 letters to Washington.
74. Be a member of the live! studio audience of The Daily Show.
75. Begin and maintain a mixtape-exchange between friends for one year.
76. Listen to "Goodbye Sky Harbor" as I'm leaving Sky Harbor.
77. Follow at least ten pieces of advice from Everybody's Free.
78. Accumulate 101 postcards.
79. Write a children's story and find someone to illustrate it.
80. Bake my own bread for a month.
81. Buy something from a local artist.
82. Have a picnic in a park with a bottle of wine and at least one good friend.
83. Handmake and send ten no-occasion cards to friends and family.
84. Go to ten special exhibitions at museums.
85. Read ten books that are recommended to me.
86. Watch 25 of the Greatest Movies of All Time Ever that I've never before seen.
87. Complete my 1000 piece Kandinsky puzzle and frame it.
88. Throw a dinner party for at least six people (myself included).
89. Keep detailed accounting data for one month.
90. Intentionally go out in the pouring rain and soak through.
91. Write down dreams first thing in the morning for two weeks.
92. Stand on a frozen lake.
93. Learn to identify at least ten things under the hood of a car and how you can tell when they break.
94. Donate at least two articles of clothing at the end of every season.
95. Write a full page with my right hand.
96. Go to bed before midnight for one full week.
97. Make a baby onesie out of a Stewart/Colbert '08 shirt.
98. Have at least five indoor plants alive for at least three months all at once.
99. Drink a Soco Amaretto Lime.
100. Remember a pretty good year.
101. Accumulate $5005 in the Imaginary Fund.
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