An Update on My 101 Things March 16, 2008

The last update of my ‘101 Things in 1001 Days’ was February 14, 2008. At that time I had completed 4 items from my list and I was actively trying to complete 12 more items. Here is an update of the items I have been working to complete and some new items.

1 – Learn to manage my time better
I am still working on this one. I have read part of The Idiot's Guide to Organizing Your Life. I have also gotten a copy of The Idiot’s Guide to Managing Your Time. I have not been working very hard on this task, but I am still making progress. In beginning this task I had made an assumption that I did manage my time well. As it turns out I was correct – I really do manage my time well. I recently received some training at work. As a preliminary requirement to the training I had to take a test. One of the items rated was time management. I was in the 90th percentile.

2 - Take my medicine every day for a month
I completed this at the end of February.

3 - Floss daily for 3 months
I began this task on February 1st and I am now halfway through the task.

4 - Weight loss goal #1
Where do I begin? I began this task February 1st, but I have not been working very hard toward my goal. And I seem to be going in the wrong direction. More about that in item 12.

9 - Cook one meal per week for 3 months (5/14)
I have completed 5 of the 14 meals. When I began this task I knew that I would not complete this task in 3 consecutive months. I have not cooked for the past two weeks.

10 - Learn to cook 10 new recipes (1/10)
I have found several new recipes and will cook one or two of them in March. I have also decided that I will not count the eight new recipes in item 8 – Cook a 7 course meal. If I did, I would only have 1 recipes left to complete the task. Where’s the fun in that?

11 - Stretch 20 minutes every day for a month
I began this task on February 1st. I got sick early in February and stopped. I will start again March 1st.

12 - Exercise one hour per day, four days a week for four months
The same sad tale of woe applies to this task as task number 11.

19 - Create a web based timeline
As a practical matter I have discovered how to do this. I just need to sit down and complete it.

45 – Go fishing
A plan is in the works, but it will be mid-May before I can strike this one off the list.

61 - Brown bag it one day a week for two months (7/9)
I am at 7 of 9 weeks. I really enjoy doing this. The idea behind the task was to require myself to begin doing something and then continue after the task was completed. In this case, I am sure that I will continue taking my lunch at least once per week.

63 - Organize my digital photos and back them up
I have backed up all my digital photos. I have also begun to organize them. Once I got all of the photos into one location I discovered that there were more than 6000 pictures. Fortunately most of the pictures are in sub-directories by date or event.

72 - Organize my mp3s
I have 4637 files in this directory. Unfortunately, there are several CDs that I have not loaded. I am guessing that the count will rise to 5500. To listen to all of these would require between 2 and 3 weeks of continuous listening. The most difficult part of organizing these will be eliminating duplicates and developing a consistent methodology for categorization.

73 - Create ten playlists
I had attempted to create playlists in the past. Each effort had been met with failure. Now that I have learned how to create a playlist, I cannot help but wonder what was so difficult previously. I think I have created 3 playlists. I will create some more as I organize my mp3 files.

75 - Have a family dinner every Sunday for two months (6/9)
This is another task that I knew I would not be able to complete without an interruption. Today was the first day that we have not had a family meal on Sunday since we started. I will add a week to the end so that I complete the required number. Again, the point to remember is the objective of this task is to bring about a desired change – a family meal once a week in this instance. I am sure that we will continue long after the task is completed.

76 - Save a dollar a day throughout my 1001 days
Not much to say here. 925 days to go.

In summary, I have completed one additional task, which brings the total completed tasks to 5. I am currently working on 15 tasks.

Just a comment about number 77 – No TV for a week. I have watched one non-football program since mid-December and that was a Celtic Woman concert on PBS. Since the Superbowl I have not watched any television. I had somehow expected that I would suddenly find that I had enormous amounts of free time to complete the most difficult of tasks. Sadly, this has not happened. I failed to realize the obvious – the amount of time we have is fixed and finite. The only control we have is in how we spend it.

If you have looked at the list recently, you will realize that I have not completed it. I have been giving some thought to some things that I would like to add to my list, but I have not solidified the final items. I choose to divide my list into four general categories. It may be necessary to expand the number of items within one or two of the categories. If I do this, the numbering of some items will change.

Maybe I should make item 101 Complete the List!

Computer Madness March 12, 2008   Fun with hard drives

No, I have not abandoned this site! But it has been a few weeks since I have updated. Two projects have been occupying my time. One, I have been setting up a semi-commercial web site. Two - and the subject of this article - my computer crashed.

One of my 101 things to do was to build a quiet PC. To that end I had purchased a new CPU fan, two case fans and a new hard drive. While installing the case fans I suffered a setback.

A local shop built my current computer in the Spring of 2002. That means that it is now six years old. It is very hard to imagine in this day of fleeting buy-it-today-and-it's-obsolete-tomorrow technology that a computer this old still serves a practical purpose. But it does. I have made a few upgrades along the way; a faster CD burner, more memory and larger hard drives. The processor is an AMD 1.4 G, so speed is not an issue.

A few months ago I managed to stick my fingers in to the CPU fan and broke one of the fan blades. Now, the fan was never quiet to begin with. Following my masterful modification it sounded like a helicopter taking off at 30 paces. I installed the new CPU fan about two weeks ago. Then I decided to install the new case fan. It was necessary to turn the computer off to accomplish this since the wires that supplied power to the fan also supplied power to one of the hard drives.

I powered the computer down, removed the old fan, installed the new one, plugged everything back in and booted up. About one-quarter of the way into the boot-up, the darn thing just restarted. Several more attempts to reboot resulted in a restart at the same point during the boot-up. The next thing I did was unplug the new fan, thinking that it was defective. That did not help. For the next several days I tried various things. Nothing I tried had any success. Finally I resigned myself to installing a new hard drive. I would get the new drive going, slave the old drive and copy my data over. I installed the new hard drive, put the XP installation disk in the CD and booted up.

The next problem I encountered was my bios did not recognize the full 320-gig drive. It only has a 28-bit capacity and is limited to drives of about 130 gigs. I thought 'Oh well, I'll just install XP on a 130 gig partition, copy over all the data, reformat the old drive, reinstall XP, copy the data back to that drive, install the device drivers that would allow my computer to see the full 320 gig drive, then back up the old drive to the new drive again.’

That seemed an easy enough plan. Oh, but for the plans of mice and men. They are always fraught with trouble and perils. I found my XP installation disk and began to install XP on the new hard drive. At some point the setup asked for the CD-Key. The CD-Key is the 25 alphanumeric "key" that tells the computer that I have a valid copy of XP. I will give you one guess what I could not find.

That's right; the CD-Key.

Not long after I bought the computer, the hard drive failed. So I reinstalled XP. That was the last time I used the CD-Key. I do not know when or how the CD became separated from the CD-Key, but it did. I looked everywhere for that CD-Key for the next 4 days. No luck at all. Then I had the brilliant idea of calling Microsoft to see if they could help.

I was able to give them some numbers that are printed on the back of the CD near the center and Microsoft was, in turn, able to verify that I had a valid copy of XP and they gave me a new CD-Key.

With that I completed installing XP on the new drive. I plugged up the old drive and booted up again. This time the system could see that there was a problem with the old drive. The system automatically ran CHECKDISK and corrected the problem. I rebooted and the old drive is now working.

I also downloaded a program from the internet that allows me to find the original CD-Key on my computer. So now I have both CD-Keys.

On the brighter side, the computer is now very quiet.

A Trip To The Barber February 20, 2008   The Fast Paced World of Flashy Scissors

For those of you who read this blog – the three of you – it has been several days since I posted anything. I can confirm that it has been a very dull week. A week devoid of anything worth writing about – with one exception; I got a haircut. Actually, I got a lot of hairs cut. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Please allow me to tell my story properly and offer a preface to the Grand Finale. I spent my teen years in the 70’s. (Yes, I really am that old.) In 1972 I began to let my hair grow out. As it gained a little length, I would quickly tire of the fussiness required to maintain it. The result is that I would cut it back to a normal length and renew the process. This cycle continued for several years until 1976.

April 1976 to be more exact. At that time I was working at Mickey Dee’s. One afternoon prior to the start of my evening shift I was sitting in a booth with a coworker named Amy. Amy was a very “hip” girl and cute as well. She was also the girlfriend of one of the assistant managers. (Sorry guys. There will be no romance here today.) We were just chatting and whiling away the remains of the afternoon when Amy asked me if I had ever worn my hair in a different style.

“No” I told her. At the time my hair was about mid way down over my ears. I had always parted it on the left side – very neatly and exacting to be sure – and the bangs swooped across my forehead from left to right.

“Well” Amy said, “Let’s try something different.”

“Sure.” What else was I going to say to a cute girl?

With that Amy pulled a brush from her purse and with a few artful passes of her brush she had parted my hair down the middle and combed the bangs down in front of my eyes. She then quickly snipped them away with a pair of scissors that she, apparently, pulled from thin air. She held up a little mirror to show me the results.

“Well this is different”, I thought. I told her that I really liked it, but in reality I was uncertain about this new look.

I do not recall if anyone else said that they liked the new look or not, but I must have liked it or at least grown to like it because I have not changed it in many years since. One of the very likeable features of this new look was the low maintenance associated with having long hair. In short, there was nothing to do. I washed my hair then dried it with a towel. (We did not have hand held hair dryers at the time. They were available but quite expensive.) I would rake my fingers through my hair approximating a part somewhere near the top of my head and I was done.

Following that day in April 1976, I did not cut my hair again until 1979. This had a couple of neat results. One, Steve Perry and I looked really good – although I suspect that he had a few more girls chasing him – and two, I acquired the rather apt nickname of ‘Lucan the wolf boy’ after a similar looking kid on a television show with the same name.

I have never been particularly diligent about certain aspects of my life. Cutting my hair on a regular basis was one point of remiss. It is worth noting that on most of these occasions I have not chosen to ‘grow my hair out’ but rather, I have simply not attended to having it cut. While the result is the same, there is a distinct, albeit subtle, difference in the two. So over the years I have allowed my hair to grow to varying lengths before going to see Mickey, my barber.

Mickey is a very likeable fellow – the sort of barber you would expect to see in the Andy Griffith show – who is more than a decade older than me. I do not recall exactly when I began to go see Mickey for haircuts, but it was about 1983 or 84. Since then I have never been to a different barber.

Mickey and I have a pretty neat arrangement. I show up at his shop and, assuming his chair is occupied, plop down on the opposite bench and thumb through a year old copy of Outdoor World for fifteen minutes. At that point the occupant of the chair pays up and leaves. Mickey, with a very deft move, snaps the cutting cape into the air with a nice pop. This is my signal to stop reading that intensely interesting article, put away the magazine and climb into the chair. Mickey puts the cutting cape around me and without any exchange of words he begins to snip away. I on the other hand take a nap.

And so has been our arrangement until last Tuesday. I had been very remiss and my hair was more than halfway covering my ears. People had begun to ask me “Are you letting your hair grow out?” “No” I told them. “I just haven’t gotten it cut.”

I wandered into Mickey’s shop about 4 PM. But there was no Mickey. Mickey used to have two other male barbers. They have been replaced by two female barbers. (I don’t think they like being called barbers; stylist perhaps.)

“Where’s Mickey?” I asked.

“Oh, he retired.”

“Retired! He never told me he was going to retire.” Actually, Mickey may have mentioned his retirement plans to me. Of course I would have been asleep and would not have taken note.

“Yeah, he retired on January 1st. But it didn’t last but about a month. He’s cutting hair on Friday and Saturday now. You want to come back and see him then?”

Well this was an unexpected turn of events. So what was I to do? I was two or three months overdue for a haircut. I had left work early for that expressed purpose. I felt compelled to follow through with my plan.

“No” I said. “I guess I’ll get haircut since I’m here.”

“Welp, you’re the boss. Hop up.”

And with that I climbed into the chair of – this is so extraordinarily different for me that I can hardly stand it – the chair of the stylist.

Another era had come to an end.

Now this story might have ended here. But I was destined to report back to Miss Nina for inspection. I told her what had happened. She seemed oblivious to my distress and only wryly noted that it was the best haircut I had in many years. “Maybe Mickey should have retired a few years ago” she said and walked away.

#077 No TV for a week February 14, 2008   Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days

This is the forth item I have completed from my 101 Things in 1001 Days list. Not watching TV for a week is on my list of 101 things, but I did not actually plan to do it at this time. This one happened by accident. By mid-January I was tired of all the political soundbites and decided to turn the TV off. Fortunately my time was occupied while I was learning CSS and PHP, so the effect of no TV was minimal. There were a few times that I turned the TV on and thought "Nope! Nothing worth my time there", and turned the TV off within a minute. The one exception the SuperBowl. I did have the TV on for that, but I watched very little of the game. Since the SuperBowl I have not watched any television. At present, that is 11 days with no TV. I am not going for a record here, and I am sure that I will resume watching TV again at some point. I just do not have the desire right now.

The New Math of Discounts February 9, 2008   Just one more way big business tries to fool us

Two or three times a year I get a hankering to go to Dallas for the day. Thursday was such a day. During the several days prior, I had been making a short list of things I wanted to purchase. Mind you, none of these items were essential to the continued existence of mankind or the launching of the next space shuttle. They were just a few creature comforts; eccentric wants if you wish. Their total cost, if I were a savvy shopper, should not exceed $125. More on that later. Janina would accompany me. She was in charge of navigation and procurement.

So away we went on Thursday morning. Aside from being a bit windy, it was a sunny and pleasant day. We poked our heads into several stores, but found nothing of interest. When we finally made our way to the mall, Janina insisted that we go into one particular store where she buys most of my clothes - she no longer allows me to pick them for myself. I kept looking at my list and saying "But Hun, I don't have any clothes on my list." Actually I was just thinking this. I have learned long ago that such pleas are pointless. It isn't that I really dislike the shopping, but rather that I know she will force me to go to the dreaded "fitting room."

As it turns out, the store was having a huge sale. Some items were marked 50% off. A young and friendly sales clerk named Bart approached and asked if he could be of assistance. "No. We're just browsing" I said. Bart adjusted a few of the shirts in the bins and - he was speaking to Janina now - said, "These are an additional 40% off." With these words my fate was sealed. I was destined for a trip to the fitting room.

"Really" said Janina. "And how much is this shirt?"

"I'm not sure Ma’am. Let me go check."

Bart scurried away to check the price. Janina was thumbing through the dress slacks now. "Ninety percent off! That's really good!" She had already placed two pair of slacks across her arms.

"Well, no. Not quite ninety percent."

Through many years of shopping, Janina has learned to simply ask me the final cost of a discounted item. So I was a little surprised when she made her pronouncement. I had already made a quick calculation and knew that the discount was not 90%, but it would have been a pointless endeavor to tell her the real discount. She would have said, "Well still, it's a good price."

I sometimes wonder if retail stores are counting - no pun intended - on the consumer’s inability to correctly calculate the real discount. Janina had assumed that an item discounted by 50% and an additional 40% was 90% off. This is, of course, incorrect. The actual discount is only 70%.

For those of you who may doubt my math skills, let me give you a couple of examples. Let us say that an item is marked $100. It is then discounted 50%. So, $100 x .50 = $50. Now, the item is reduced a further 40%. This is the point where most consumers get lost. Some may be tempted to think that the price is $50 x .40 = $20. That is incorrect. The $20 is the discounted amount that should be subtracted from $50. The final price is then $50 - $20 = $30. I hope you can see that the total discount is now 70%. If not, then we can check our answer. The original item cost $100. If the final price was $30, then the savings are $70. So, $70 is the discounted amount. To calculate the discount percentage you divide the discounted amount, $70 in this case, by the original price, $100. $70/$100=.70 or 70%.

When standing in the store, I generally take an easier approach to calculate the final price. If something is 50% off, that is easy; just divide the price by 2. If the item is then reduced by an additional 40%, then I know that I will be paying for 60% of that price. So the pair of dress slacks - now draped across Janina's arm - that cost $70 originally are now $70 / 2 = $35. Then $35 x .60 = $21.

Bart returned. "They're $21 Ma’am."

"Really?" She handed me two pair of dress slacks. "You need to try these on. And here," she handed me a third pair, "You might as well get a navy pair." I stared to walk toward the fitting room when she said, "Wait! We need to find some shirts."

It was a long afternoon. At the end of the day I was able to check off about two-thirds of the items on my list. Janina gave the final tally as we were driving home; $602. I really do need to work on my math skills.

Amazon.com Pricing Strategy February 4, 2008   The new inflation

Several years ago we purchased a Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker. It makes the best tea. You fill the iced tea maker with water, add ice to the tea pitcher filling it about halfway, put some tea bags in the brewing compartment, connect the tea pitcher to the brewer, turn it on and in five minutes you have iced tea. Basically it pumps the water up a tube and heats it in the process. The hot water flows over the tea bags and then into the tea pitcher where it is instantly cooled - chilled even - by the ice. It is pretty nifty and I can highly recommend it. We have found that the Luzianne brand of tea works best for the Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker. Some tea will taste fine, but they will be cloudy. Luzianne does not suffer this problem. But I digress.

The unit we purchased came with two tea pitchers. The tea pitcher is made of an acrylic plastic which, after several years, begins to crack. In particular it cracks in the front where the hot tea runs into the tea pitcher. So we decided to see if we could find a replacement pitcher.

In our "use it, throw it away when it breaks and buy a new one" society I did not expect to one) be able to find a replacement tea pitcher and, two) if I found one it would be almost the same price as a complete Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker. To my surprise amazon had what appeared to be the correct replacement pitcher for $6.99 and free shipping since I was ordering several other items. I decided to order only one. If it was the right one, I would order two more. If not, I would only have one pitcher to return.

It was the correct size. Imagine that!. So I went online to place an order for two more. Now, it is important to note that I ordered the tea pitcher on January 27th and it arrived today, February 4th. That is eight days. I find my last order. It lists all the items and I can click on each item and add them to my cart. I click on the tea pitcher. It shows up on my screen, I enter the quantity of 2. There is the price. $12.82? Is that for two of them? Am I getting a discount?

Following a minute of uncertainty, I finally determine that the price is $12.82 each. And yes, I purchased the same item 8 days ago for a mere $6.99. Has inflation gone amuck and I missed that memo?

Well I searched around amazon's site thinking that I was mistaken or had done something incorrectly. Finally, I went to amazon's contact page. Can you believe this - they have a menu where you can enter your phone number and tell them when to call. I enter my number, select "call now" and click the button. My finger has not released the mouse button and my phone is ringing. It is an automated message from amazon; "Please hold the line and someone will be right with you." In about 3 seconds someone from amazon says "This is Pashnee. How may I help you?"

I will confess that I was really impressed with this slick use of technology. Someone at AT&T has been doing some up-selling to the folks at amazon.

Anyway, after telling Pashnee my story - I actually did this much more succinctly than I am telling you - he put me on hold to see if he could figure out what the problem was. Unfortunately, Pashnee was not able to help me. The tea pitcher really did go from $6.99 to $12.82 in 8 days! This is nuts. If this trend were to continue, then the little tea pitcher would cost a bit over 7.5 trillion dollars at the end of a year.

My guess - what else can I do - is that this price increase is just a reflection of amazon's corporate greed. Is amazon's strategy to increase the price on an item in the hope that the consumer does not notice? If so, then that is taking advantage of a person's trusting nature and shame on amazon for doing this.

#9 Cook one meal once per week for 3 months   #10 Learn to Cook 10 New Recipes February 2, 2008   Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days

I began both of these tasks - along with several others - on February 1st. The weather has been somewhat cool the past week and a nice warm bowl of soup with freshly baked crackers sounded really nice. Despite my plans, the weather chose a path of its own and it warmed up today. Despite that small turn of events, after I had begun to prepare this meal I realized that it would count toward two goals. Talk about unintended consequences. I had not planned it that way, but there you have it; two for one. I had also specified that one of my new recipes must be a cracker. One down and nine to go.

Broccoli and Cheese Soup with Crackers

Broccoli and Cheese Soup
For 8 servings
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups chicken stock
4 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon white pepper
2-1/4 cups fresh broccoli florets
11 ounces processed cheese, shredded
1-1/3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

1. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat, and mix in the flour. Reduce heat to low, and cook, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. Mix in the chicken stock and milk, and season with salt and white pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer about 10 minutes.

2. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place the broccoli in the boiling water, and cook 2 minutes, or until just tender. Remove from heat, drain, and set aside.

3. Gradually mix the processed cheese and Cheddar cheese into the large pot until melted. Mix in the broccoli. Continue cooking about 5 minutes.

You can add a little cornstarch to thicken it up if it needs it.

The cracker recipe is the same one that I listed in my 8 course dinner even though I did not make it at that time. Here is the recipe for the crackers again.

Crackers
2 c Flour
1 t Salt
1/2 t Baking powder
1/4 c Butter
1/2 c Milk
1 ea Large egg

Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder into a bowl. Cut in the butter until very fine. Add the milk and egg and mix to make a stiff dough.

Knead thoroughly and then roll the dough very thin. Cut into squares or rounds and place on lightly buttered cookie sheets. Prick the crackers with a fork and then bake in a 400F degree oven for 10 minutes, or until very lightly browned. If desired, crackers may be sprinkled with coarse salt.

We really enjoyed this. A couple of things learned. I will add at least one more cup of broccoli florets. Other than that the soup was just right. We had sea salt and sprinkled it on the crackers just before baking. The flavor is incredible. Getting to dough thin enough was difficult. I found that by rolling out smaller batches it was easier to get it to the correct thickness. We also turned the crackers after 10 minutes and let them bake for another 2 to 3 minutes. Next time I will decrease the temperatue to about 350F and cook them a bit longer.

Office Depot Gone Mad February 2, 2008   Otherwise known as 'New Adventures in Shipping'

I ordered a few items from Office Depot late Tuesday evening. That was January 29th. Office Depot's online ordering system is not the easiest to navigate, and I was not sure if the orders were actually placed. So I checked the "order status." Sure enough they were there. Eight items totaling $113 and change. Through the magic of drop shipping, Office Depot had managed to split my order into three shipments in about 1/100 th of a second. Two of the shipments were scheduled for delivery on Thursday via UPS. It was about 9 PM when I placed the order. UPS would have to deliver the order before 5 PM on Thursday. That was 44 hours away. I was not buying it.

This box is 76 times larger than the item that was shipped in it

Imagine my surprise when I found the packages on my doorstep Thursday afternoon. The items I had purchased would easily fit into a small shoebox. So I was slightly perplexed that the two boxes were quite large relative to what was in them. The smaller box measured 12" x 12" x 4.5" but contained only one item; a small box of art pencils. The pencil box measured 7.25" x 1.875" x 0.625". Their respective volumes were 648 cu. in. and 8.49 cu. in. That means that the shipping box was 76 times larger than the item it contained.

More shipping madness

The shipping box cost about $0.30. The package weighed 0.60 lbs and was shipping from Dallas, Texas which is about 100 miles from me. Using the details from UPS' website I can calculate the shipping cost if I were to ship the same package. The lowest cost is $6.51.

I am sure that Office Depot has a better shipping rate than I could get. But even if it is one-half, the cost would still be $3.25. That plus the box totals $3.55. That is 25% of the cost of the pencils. That does not include the cost of someone packing the box, the cost of the automated warehouse and so on. Of course, I could be wrong in assuming that Office Depot gets a favorable shipping discount. If they pay full rate then the shipping and packaging cost is almost 50% of the cost of the pencils.

I think I will sell my Office Depot stock.

#8 Cook a Seven Course Meal January 27, 2008   Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days

This is the first item I have completed from my 101 Things in 1001 Days list. I completed it on January 3, 2008, but I have been learning css and php; hence the delay in getting this posted. I was on vacation the first week of 2008 and decided that this week was the perfect time to cook up a lite dinner. I spent a day looking for recipes and deciding on the menu.

101 Things in 1001 Days December 30, 2007   Last edited January 21, 2008

101 Things in 1001 Days is the brainchild of Michael Green, a blogger from NZ. He created a list of tasks to achieve within a defined period, and the idea quickly spread around the web as a tool for helping people accomplish their goals.

I have set goals with time lines in my work career, but I have never tried this kind of project in my personal life. At work, I have found that developing a plan with well defined objectives that are measurable is an excellent way to effect change. I have never even made New Year resolutions, so applying the goal setting strategy to my personal life will be a new experience for me. I am really looking forward to the challenge.

In beginning this project, my objective is not to scratch off 101 things from my list, but rather to enjoy the journey. At the end of 1001 days, if I have not completed all the tasks, I will be OK with that. As of this writing I have not even completed my list. I only became aware of the project in late December, so I haven’t had a lot of time to think about what I want to achieve. Instead I have decided to begin the project on January 1, 2008 with the partial list that I’ll complete over the next month or so. I have also decided that I will add 11 additional tasks as alternates to the original list.

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.

THE LIST

	81	Not yet started
	15	In progress
	5	Complete

5/101 goals. 5% done!

SELF IMPROVEMENT

	001	Learn to manage my time better
		Improvement in time management will greatly assist in completing this list. I actually manage my time very well. However, I generally fail to be circumspect about how much time tasks will require to complete. This results in starting to many tasks and having a lot of unfinished ones. So some major improvement is in order. I will begin with reading and applying "The Idiot's Guide to Organizing Your Life." I am still thinking about an objective metric to determine when this task is complete.
	002	Take my medicine every day for a month
		This goal sounds ridiculously easy, but I haven't had much success in the past. I cannot even recall the last time I went a full week without missing some pill.
	003	Floss daily for 3 months
		My dental hygienist will be really happy about this one.
	004	Weight loss goal #1
		This task will be fairly easy. It will be complete when I have lost a specific amount of extra weight. I do have specific weight loss goals in mind, and written down, but I am not sharing them here.
	005	Weight loss goal #2
		Not as easy as weight loss goal #1, but I should be able to complete it.
	006	Weight loss goal #3
		This one will be hard. Very hard.
	007	Weight loss goal #4
		I really do not want to begin a task with the preconceived notion that I can not complete it. But this task is all but impossible.
	008	Cook a Seven Course Meal
		Completed: January 3, 2008
		Given the four previous goals, this one almost seems counterproductive. Actually I think it's a step in the right direction. A reasonably well balanced, nutritious dinner will certainly be better than eating out.
	009	Cook one meal once per week for 3 months (3/14)
		I have a lot of vacation time each year - 7 weeks in 2008 - and I really enjoy traveling, so trying to complete this task in 3 consecutive months would be all but impossible. Therefore, the months do not have to be consecutive. This will also have the effect of forcing me to cook over a longer period of time.
	010	Learn to cook 10 new recipes (1/10)
		With some luck, the seven course meal may get me halfway on this one. Just so that I don't end up with six varieties of Mac & Cheese, I'll specify that one of these must be a bread, one a cracker, one a pastry, one a fruit dessert and one a chocolate dessert.
	011	Stretch 20 minutes every day for a month
		I need to continue this well after the month is over.
	012	Exercise one hour per day, four days a week for four months
		This is another thing I need to continue after I have completed the goal.
	013	Learn one new word a day, five days a week, for two months
		A word a day... does something.
	014	Read three books from my current bookshelf (0/3)
		I have a lot of books awaiting some of my time.
	015	Write a Boggle program in C
		This will force me to reacquaint myself with C and programming in general. Fortunately I have lots of friends who can help me when I get stuck. Hey, it's not cheating, it's utilization of available resources.
	016	Write an irc log file reader
		This program will compile data showing joins, parts, nick changes, soliloquies, most lines, least lines, active times and a panacea of other useless information. The objective isn't so much to end up with something that changes the world of man, but rather gives me a reason to program and achieve a definable goal that can be measured.
	017	Write a statistical program
		I am not one to gamble in a big way, but I will occasionally purchase a lottery ticket. And I never toss the tickets. I will use these as my data set.
	018	Learn enough CSS and PHP to use them in a meaningful way on my web site.
		Completed: February 12, 2008
		I have always written my html files by hand in a simple text editor. Generally notepad. I need to expand my knowledge to include CSS and PHP.
	019	Create a web based timeline
		The goal is to use html, php, css and any other tools out there to create a web page that will diplay events in time. I have several ideas in mind where I would like to use this. This will be completed when I have created a web page to show the tasks in this list on a timeline.
	020	Reacquaint myself with Rubik's cube
		I used to be able to solve the cube in about a minute on average, My best time was 37 seconds if I remember correctly. This is not world class speed, but it is still pretty fast. This time I will learn all the patterns for the bottom layer.
	021	Learn to identify 5 constellations (0/5)
		I use to be able to identify several constellations. One night at Winding Stair (in Oklahoma) we were watching the stars and I realized that I could not identify any of the constellations.
	022	Learn to recognize 10 trees with certainty (0/10)
		I know a few trees with certainty in the leaves on season, but I lack that certainty in the leaves off season.
	023	Learn to recognize 10 birds (0/10)
		Red bird, Blue Jay, Hummingbird... and I am pretty much done. Fortunately Janina knows quite a few, so this should not be all that difficult.
	024	Learn to play a musical instrument
		I can play Chop Sticks and a few keys to Hey Jude on the piano. It's a start, but I have a different instrument in mind.
	025	Develop a new algorithm for finding multiply perfect numbers
		I have had a few ideas floating around in my mind for more than a decade. It is time to put them to the test.
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	028
	029
	030

EXPERIENCES

	031	Find a four leaf clover
		Despite looking through vast fields of clover (many years ago), I have never found a four leaf clover. I think Brooke will enjoy helping me with this one.
	032	Go on a picnic once a month for a year (0/12)
		I am really looking forward to this one.
	033	Hike 100 miles of the AT
		We've already hiked most of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia including the approach trial. Some parts of it several times. The miles hiked do not have to be on one trip or new sections. They just need to total 100 miles.
	034	Hike the AT for 7 consecutive days
		This one will be a challenge. While I have an incredible amount of vacation time, Janina doesn't have any at her new job. It will be much more difficult for her to get off long enough to do this.
	035	Watch a sunrise and sunset on Max Patch
		It's hard to imagine that there could be many places in the world that are more beautiful than Max Patch. I have a feeling that watching the stars from Max Patch will also be an experience.
	036	See the Bristle Cone Pine trees
		The Bristle Cone Pines are the oldest living things on Earth. To see them should be amazing.
	037	See the waterfalls of the Havasupai people
		There are four waterfalls. They are blue-green in color. I will probably combine this with the trip to see the Bristle Cone Pines.
	038	Teach Brooke how to make a home made box kite
		After we make it we'll have to go fly it.
	039	Teach Brooke how to throw and catch a baseball and Frisbee
		Just a good reason to go to the park with Brooke.
	040	Teach Brooke to cook five things (0/5)
		Janina has already "stolen" one of my ideas; Jell-O. Brooke loves cinnamon rolls, so that will be one of the five.
	041	See three Shakespearean plays (0/3)
		Janina and I have already seen six Shakespeare plays. They were all wonderful and well produced. I'm looking forward to seeing three more.
	042	Attend a Movie-A-Thon or create my own
		My good friend Neal (Neil) goes to the SciFi Movie-A-Thon every year. I would really enjoy doing this at least once. If I do not go, then I will just create my own. It must be at least 24 continuous hours. I already have a partial list in mind
	043	Teach Brooke to identify 5 constellations (0/5)
		I know that she will enjoy this. Besides, of what use is it for me to learn 5 constellations if I don't do something with them?
	044	Attend a rugby game
		A few years ago one of the cable channels would show rugby at night. (Generally at 2 AM.) I would really enjoy seeing a game in person.
	045	Go fishing
		I have a feeling that this will be an easy one.
	046	Take more time to appreciate the small things
		This may not seem like a specific task, but it is.
	047	Take Brooke to a planetarium.
		Dallas maybe?
	048	Go to the horse races
		Brooke and Janina have never been.
	049	Take Brooke to a baseball game
		Probably the Rangers or Astros
	050	Attend a murder mystery dinner
		We have planned to go several times but did not go.
	051	Take Brooke to do or see 5 things (0/5)
		I am thinking, Putt-Putt, bowling, The Science Place in Dallas, fishing and one other to be determined.
	052	Take Brooke to 3 cultural places (0/3)
		How about an art gallery, a museum and one other to be determined.
	053	Take Brooke on another trip
		Maybe to see Washington DC and the Shenandoah National Park.
	054	Dinner at Bob's Steak & Chop House in Houston
		This one counts as an "experience" because the restaurant is a really nice one and we know one of the owners.
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	058
	059
	060

LIFESTYLE

	061	Brown bag it one day a week for two months (3/9)
		I know this sounds easy. And it really is easy. But not for me.
	062	No eating out for 2 weeks
		This will probably be good for the waistline and the budget.
	063	Organize my digital photos and back them up
		I have 5667 pictures in my picture directory. Ouch!
	064	Print my digital photos
		Janina has been after me for some time to go through our digital photos and print copies of some of them for scrapbooks and photo albums.
	065	Organize my printed photos
		Several years ago we began organizing our photographs and writing captions for them. We are about two years (and several trips) behind.
	066	Complete my hiking webpages
		I do not even want to think about how many trips I need to update.
	067	Complete my genealogy webpages
		I have an incredible amount of genealogical information, so "completing" the webpages is not a realistic goal. I'll have to think about what is an objective and realistic goal for this.
	068	Organize my files at home
		I will admit that this one will be a cakewalk. Then again, if it is a cakewalk, then why haven't I already completed it.
	069	Catalog and organize all my books
		I need to expand on this. The task should be "Catalog and organize all my books that I am going to keep and get rid of the rest of them." This task just became easier by an order of magnitude. I will not even mention how pleased Janina will be.
	070	Catalog and organize my VHS & DVDs
		I have no idea why I want to do this. My children will probably un-organize them just as fast as I organize them.
	071	Catalog and organize my CDs
		I do not know how many CDs I have, but it is a lot.
	072	Organize my mp3s
		I already have some structure to my mp3 files, but my pedantic nature will increase the difficulty factor a whole bunch.
	073	Create ten playlists
		I have lost count of how many times I have tried to create a playlist. All efforts have ended in failure. The evil warlords who dwell in the caves of No-Playlist should prepare for annihilation.
	074	No new books for six months
		This one sounds amazingly easy. And it is easy - when you can buy any book you might want. When you suddenly put the purchase of a new book off limits, the reasons to buy one seems to fall from the sky like raindrops in a rainstorm.
	075	Have a family dinner every Sunday for two months (3/9)
		This means that the kids have to come too. We do this now, but on a less frequent basis. The family that dines together stays together.
	076	Save a dollar a day throughout my 1001 days.
		This is for a special purpose that I will not disclose here.
	077	No TV for a week
		Completed: February 14, 2008
		I do not watch that much TV, but I am thinking that less, or none, might be better.
	078	Help Brooke to plant a pumpkin patch
		This will be fun.
	079	No carbonated soft drinks for a week
		I actually cringed when I wrote this one.
	080	Restuff my reading chair
		Completed: February 3, 2008
		I have a reading chair with a matching ottoman and I spend a lot of time in that chair. I have only had the chair for a little over a year, but the stuffing in the back has gone flat.

CREATIVITY

	081	Build a dictionary stand
		I have always wanted a nice bookstand for my dictionary or whatever book I am currently reading. This one will be considered a success once I have completed the bookstand and I did not cut off any of my digits.
	082	Build a computer cabinet for 2-3 computers
		The objective is to have a nice cabinet that doesn't actually look like a computer, to house up to three computers. This will allow me to have at least one unix OS. I also plan to design the cabinet to eliminate a significant amount of noise.
	083	Write something
		I am still working on this, but I have some ideas.
	084	Write another annotated version of a song.
		I have a couple of candidates in mind for this one.
	085	Make a new backpack
		I've made one backpack and learned a lot in the process. This one will have a pocket for the tent, sleeping bag, water bottles, etc.
	086	Build a food dehydrator
		I really enjoy spicing up my trail meals with veggies. To that end I researched the options for dehydration versus the purchase of dehydrated food. I cannot bring myself to pay $7 for 3.5 ounces of dehydrated tomato so the buying option has been eliminated. I found some online instructions for building a food dehydrator. I think this is the direction I will go.
	087	Plant a fruit orchard
		Just a few trees. I will update this one when I have decided what to plant.
	088	Plant some nut trees
		We already have several pecan trees at our house and at the farm. I am thinking about some walnut trees and... . Well that is about all.
	089	Plant a herb garden
		This will be in a raised bed. Again, I have not decided what to plant.
	090	Build a raised bed garden
		Tomatoes, cabbage, onions, squash, radishes and so on. If I ever win the lottery I think I'll farm until I am broke again.
	091	Build a greenhouse
		Fresh tomatoes in Winter!
	092	Release 20 books via BookCrossing (0/20)
		BookCrossing is a community of people who send their pre-loved or unwanted books out into the world, for others to find. You can track the book’s progress on the website and watch as it works its way around the world.
	093	Help Brooke join a penpal group
		Something like Postcrossings.com, but for kids. This will help Brooke to learn more about the world.
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	098
	099
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ALTERNATE TASKS

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