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).
MY START DATE: May 27, 2006
MY END DATE: February 21, 2009
MY THINGS!
1) Learn enough Hindi to read a children’s book without using a dictionary for translation.
2) Move back to the
3) Let my nails grow by not biting them for one month.
4) Finish knitting the blanket I began last October.
5) Work out at least four days a week (at least 20 minutes each day) every week.
6) Open a Roth IRA.
7) Read the Mahabharata translation by Rajagopalachari.
8) Read the Ramayana translation by Rajagopalachari.
9) Take the GRE.
10) Make payments that exceed, even if only slightly, the minimum payment on my student loan every month.
11) Archive my LiveJournal entries from 2001 to present.
12) Create filing system for journals, writing, and backup CDs of online information.
13) Write and submit a column to be published in Times of
14) Write at least one letter by hand per month.
15) Donate one piece of clothing every time I buy a new piece of clothing.
16) Learn to cook avial.
17) Update my resume to reflect experience with School X and MNC.
18) Write one useable chapter for a book to be based on my experiences in
19) Find a psychiatrist in
20) Passionately kiss S on Ring Road.
21) Reduce my consumption of paneer tikka to one serving per week.
22) Travel to
23) Shop in a bazaar in
24) Allow S to invite people over at least one night per week without crying, bitching, or otherwise complaining.
25) Learn how to ride Betsy and/or another non-Enfield motorcycle.
26) Procure a copy of Joan of Arcadia season II on DVD, pirated or otherwise.
27) Visit all the Indian sites in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die.
28) Go to a party and have fun without getting drunk
29) Reduce backlog of Rs so that he queue has no more than 50 documents in it at any time
30) Write proposal for book on experiences in
31) Send proposal and sample chapters to literary agents in
32) Read all novels on the Modern Library’s list of “the 100 best novels”– 81 to go
33) Read all books on the Modern Library’s list of “the 100 best nonfiction books” – 95 to go
34) Eat at least one serving of fresh fruit per day.
35) Learn how to knit socks with turned heels.
36) Save enough money to buy a new laptop.
37) Learn enough Web do-hickies to design and host my own blog.
38) Make prints of all my pictures on Flickr.
39) Organize high school and college photographs.
40) Write and print chapbook of short stories for Christmas presents.
41) Have portraits of S and me taken.
42) Take a class on microeconomics.
43) Sleep without the air conditioning once during
44) Review old magazines and newspapers once a month and donate any unnecessary publications to Friendicoes or other animal shelter.
45) Floss my teeth once a day for at least six straight months.
46) Wash all the dishes S and I dirty for a week without being asked to.
47) Go whitewater rafting in the
48) Compile an address book, including former students and current colleagues, and update it once every three months.
49) Learn how to rock climb.
50) Compile a list of my 100 favorite books.
51) Make a book of knitting patterns printed from the Internet.
52) Go one week without watching television.
53) Report at least three autorickshaw drivers who overcharge, don’t use their meter, or refuse to take me to a certain area.
54) Buy an antique book.
55) Gamble on an Indian reservation.
56) Have my teeth professionally whitened.
57) Take pictures of S’s moustache bedecked with moustache wax.
58) Get a manicure.
59) Get an ayurvedic massage.
60) Conceptualize and implement a small-scale public art project.
61) Grow my own mint.
62) Have my Dooney and Burke purse repaired (lining resewn and zipper replaced).
63) Buy a formal sari – and wear it.
64) Apply sunscreen on a regular basis.
65) Refuse to badmouth anyone at work; offer only constructive criticism.
66) Learn tenets of the Chicago Manual of Style.
67) Read the Bible.
68) Experiment with aromatherapy.
69) Create and name my own cocktail.
70) Learn to count to 10 in five languages, excluding English.
71) Take the kittens to play in the park once a month.
72) Have a girl’s night out without calling or messaging S.
73) Read a popular science fiction book, as well as a popular romance novel.
74) Ask my co-workers not to use the phrase “chinky” (and tell them I don’t like receiving e-mail forwards)
75) Go wine tasting with my grandpa.
76) Go to
77) Order a cigar from “Kastro’s Cigars on Wheels”
78) Raise a huge ruckus if someone “eve teases” me
79) Visit my bizarro hometown,
80) Design a small tattoo and get it inked on one of my haunches.
81) Eat a worm from the bottom of a tequila bottle.
82) Read the book that won a Pulitzer Prize the year I was born (The Color Purple, Alice Walker, 1983)
83) Watch the Academy Awards’ Best Picture of the year I was born (Terms of Endearment)
84) Ask my mother why she married my father and solicit advice on marriage.
85) Visit a country in which English is not a commonly spoken language.
86) Go vegan for a week.
87) Determine whether the Schauer family store still exists in
88) Swim with dolphins.
89) Mend S’s favorite shirts (and, let’s face it, underroos) that he refuses to get rid of.
90) Buy saltwater taffy and eat it while watching the seals on the
91) Send an anonymous letter to my favorite living writer (Joan Didion).
92) Sell, donate, or throw away 101 items.
93) Buy my sister a special, one-of-a-kind wedding gift.
94) Stay up all night and watch the sun rise.
95) Give an outrageous tip to one of the domestic workers with whom I regularly interact (newspaper man, garbage collector, dhobi).
96) Go to a buffet and eat only desserts.
97) Avoid coffee (and coffee-flavored products) for two weeks.
98) Try drinking wheatgrass.
99) Complete a 26 Things project
100) Write letters to everyone in my life I’ve truly loved (platonically or romantically) to be distributed when I die.
101) Publish this list on my blog.
Will update as I progress/complete. Wee, a fun new project! Red = completed.
1 comment:
This is GREAT! I love Joan Didion and paneer tikka as well, and I grew up in Wisconsin. Scary.
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