Vicarious Thoughts

Okay the plan is to restart the 101 in 1001 list on Thursday, so I’ve been working on a revamp of the list. Sadly, this has ended up in more items being removed than added – it would be nice to have an abundance of tasks to pick and choose from.

So here is the list so far (not word perfect):

1. be confident doing medium difficulty digital image manipulation
2. be confident using my digital slr
3. be confident using our telescopes
4. be familiar with the location of the countries of the world
5. buy a bike
6. buy/create and maintain a bonsai
7. create a painting and hang it up
8. decorate a cake that I can be proud of
9. enjoy a sunrise
10. enter a photography contest
11. expand my recipe repertoire
12. fill a journal
13. fill a sketchbook
14. finish cross-stitch and frame it
15. fly a kite
16. gather together a complete emergency kit
17. get a stable vegetable garden going
18. get cpr certificate
19. get to grips with my family history
20. get first aid certificate
21. give geocaching a go
22. give meditation a proper chance
23. go antiquing (I know! I’m sounding old!!)
24. go camping
25. go hiking
26. go horse riding
27. go indoor rock climbing
28. go kayaking
29. go on a bike ride
30. go on holiday somewhere i’ve never been before
31. go on the train
32. go to a driving range
33. go to a lecture or seminar
34. go to a play
35. go to an anzac dawn service
36. go to an art gallery
37. go to an orchestra concert
38. go to something on opening or release day
39. go to the beach and build a sandcastle
40. go to a trivia quiz night
41. grow some mushrooms
42. have a traditional picnic under a tree
43. identify a bad habit and work to eliminate it
44. knit something
45. learn needlepoint
46. learn to identify native trees and plants
47. learn to crochet
48. learn to play chess
49. learn to recognise the southern constellations
50. learn to sightread music
51. learn to weave flax
52. make a bag
53. make a habit of getting a haircut
54. make a scrapbook
55. make a snowman
56. make clothes for myself
57. make clothes for my daughter
58. make greeting cards
59. make regular exercise a habit
60. memorise a poem
61. memorise origami designs
62. participate in a book club
63. participate in a crafting challenge
64. participate in a mailed swap
65. participate in nablopomo
66. participate in postcrossing
67. participate in a sh1ft project
68. participate in the 365 project
69. purchase some art work
70. read non-fiction books
71. relearn calligraphy
72. research and grow a herb
73. send handwritten letters to people
74. solve the rubic’s cube
75. sort my photos into albums
76. spend a day at a botanic gardens
77. spend a day going to garage sales
78. take a walk in the rain
79. take up archery
80. try out podcasting
81. try out vblogging
82. visit an observatory
83. visit the wellington zoo
84. work up to blogging regularly
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97. replace this with a task at day 101
98. replace this with a task at day 334
99. replace this with a task at day 334
100. replace this with a task at day 668
101. replace this with a task at day 668

12 more to go :)

The original name for this post was Weekly Summary & Progress. Right now I’m not sure how comfortable I feel about sharing anything that’s happened over the past week but we’ll see for the future. To be honest, I’m not really sure how this post is going to pan out long term so bear with me please. :)
The hope is that by making some of my goals from my Weekly Review public each week I may actually accomplish them! Gotta love procrastination *sigh*.

So these are my public goals for this week:

20 Items up on Sella (local auction site – alternative to Trademe – you should check it out)
[progpress title=”” goal=”20″ current=”0″ previous=”0″ label=”items”]

Listen to 10 Podcasts each day
[progpress title=”” goal=”70″ current=”0″ previous=”0″ label=”podcasts”]

Complete 5 items of mending
[progpress title=”” goal=”5″ current=”0″ previous=”0″ label=”items”]

Finish Playful Parenting book
[progpress title=”” goal=”295″ current=”58″ previous=”0″ label=”pages”]

Finish The 4-Hour Work Week book
[progpress title=”” goal=”292″ current=”0″ previous=”0″ label=”pages”]

Cook a meal each day
[progpress title=”” goal=”7″ current=”0″ previous=”0″ label=”days”]

Blogpost every day
[progpress title=”” goal=”7″ current=”0″ previous=”0″ label=”days”]

Work on planner (complete 16 pages which equals a month of the planner).
[progpress title=”” goal=”16″ current=”0″ previous=”0″ label=”pages”]

I thought I’d try out a wordpress plugin called ProgressFly to track the progress and hopefully by the end of the week I will have 8 filled progress bars. Not exactly sure how I’ll update them, freeze them in place at the end of the week, reuse some of them, or even how to report back on them next Sunday but I’ll cross those bridges as I come to them.

Here’s to a good week! :)

Edit 2011-03-22: Moved onto a different progress bar plugin called ProgPress which is more static and so, overcomes the problems/concerns I had above.

Not exactly sure how to explain the idea behind this post. I thought I’d publish a post monthly where I can blog about the small stuff that happens in my life and that is amusing. Some of this stuff is likely to have been posted on Facebook and/or Twitter.

Late one night my daughter comes running out to me … ‎”Mummy, I think there’s a monster in my room.” “Hmm, can’t be. We sprayed anti-monster spray in there remember?” “Oh. Perhaps it’s a ghost then …. Do you think Tigger (our cat) would scare it away?”

Our daughter calls headphones “Ear Mops” which always puts a smile on my face “Daddy, do you have Ear Mops on?”

One evening I suggested we needed a dog to clean up a frozen pea spillage in the kitchen (in the hope the person responsible would clean it up) – turns out our cat likes them defrosted – so I guess problem solved! :D

These aren’t great photos – taken mainly so husband can see what it’s like.

It’s time I had a rethink about my 101 in 1001 list. It’s due to end in just over a year and I’m not confident that I a) could complete all the tasks on it and b) that I want to complete all of them.
That being said, I do have an update to make regarding the existing list.

These ones I have completed:
20. get a good haircut
I did this not long after my birthday last year. I even kept it up for several months beforethe holidays got in the road and I fell off the wagon so to speak.
23. get full license and become an organ donor
Well, I was hoping to get on top of this before I had to but I ended up partly procrastinating and partly on advice from friends and even the police, I sat my full license real close to the expiry of my restricted license. I really don’t know why I wasn’t already an organ donor but I sorted that out at the same time. I would be appreciative if the powers that be made the choice to be an organ donor an opt out option.
26. go camping
I did this on my own in April last year for 3 nights and as a family for almost a week in October/November. The first time was great except for the bitterly cold nights and the second time was great also as we were camped right next to the bush and had moreporks, kereru and even long-tailed cuckoo swooping around.
32. go on holiday somewhere i’ve never been before
We went on holiday to the East Cape twice and it was good to get to explore a new area. I would have liked to drive all the way to Gisborne but it made more sense to travel around the immediate area. We did get to spend a few days hanging out on the beaches, drove around the area, climbed up to the top of the East Cape lighthouse, did a bit of fishing, did some bush walks and got a bit sunburnt – Ouch!
40. go to an orchestra concert
I went along with Sam to two orchestral performances geared at children last year. The first one we went to we sat right up next to the stage and poor Sam couldn’t see over the edge of the stage unless she was sitting on my lap. It was a lot of fun anyway and it definitely made an impression. The second one we went to, we were seated up in the gallery (I’m sure I have the correct terminology wrong) and had a wonderful view of the stage albeit much, much further away. This time they identified all the instruments in their orchestra and some of the musicians came up to where we were seated to play up close to us. The second concert involved a lot more audience participation and I think Sam liked that part of it more.
43. go to a trivia quiz night
Well, I didn’t go to a trivia quiz night how I planned, but my local plunket committee which I’m a member of put one on so I did technically go to one. We held it in June last year right in the midst of the swine flu scare and it was a bitterly cold night – despite all the heaters going at the venue my feet were frigid. Nevertheless it was a fun night and I really wanted to join in on a team – instead I did the scores for the night. :)
50. knit something
I finally finished my first knitting project since I was a child in April. I made a pair of chunky legwarmers and if I ever do that again I will a) follow the directions on needle size and ignore salespeople and b) make them longer to fit my long calves (who knew!). I love them though – they’re sooo snuggly and mean I can wear a skirt and not get cold. They’re definitely not wearable outside – our friendly courier driver laughed at my getup when I answered the door wearing them once. :D
83. save spare change by putting in money box
I was doing great at this until the Palmerston North City Council put all their parking fines up and I couldn’t justify not paying for parking and accepting the occasional fine instead anymore. Now all my spare coin is carted around for the parking meters, buskers and charity appeals. :)
95. visit the auckland or wellington zoo
We went to the Auckland Zoo and a grand ole time in November – I remember it as a child as being much bigger with many more different kinds of animals and the dogearred catalogue I have from one of those childhood visits testifies to the variety of animals. However, times have changed and so have zoos, and I can see that with the space available to the zoo it makes more sense to provide an appropriate environment to the animals they do have. My daughter got to feed the giraffes which was a lot of fun and my husband got a great photo of one of the lions roaring (actually – it was yawning but you can’t tell the difference) :D

These ones I have attempted:
6. buy/create and maintain a bonsai
I purchased a NZ native bonsai last year at some point and it died while we were away on holiday. I’d be keen to try this task again!
21. get cpr certificate
Our local plunket committee ran a workshop on baby and child cpr that I attended which was useful. However, I don’t recall much of the specifics regarding puffs and chest compressions so I’d still like to get this properly embedded in my brain.
65. memorise origami designs
I received an Origami-A-Day calendar for 2009 and my sister gifted me one belated for 2010 also, so I have no excuses for attempting new designs. I’m up to June of the 2009 one and I haven’t even touched the 2010 one yet (sorry sis) so I’d like to change this task to practising designs and also identify and which designs I want to have memorised and then do that.
79. read 30 non-fiction books
I don’t know how many non-fiction books I have read since this 101 in 1001 started but it can’t be many. I’ve been having great difficulty sitting down and reading actual books since I lost my booklight to my husband and started reading ebooks on my phone instead. As a result I have read waaaay too much pulp fiction (mainly historical romances – ergh) and few brain-inspiring books. :( However, I now have a list of the non-fiction books I want to read and am on the lookout for a replacement booklight.

These ones I have little to no interest in and don’t know what I was thinking when I chose them:
37. go to an amusement park
45. have a professional massage
47. hold a games night
56. learn to juggle

These items need to have tasks:
97. replace this with a task at day 101
98. replace this with a task at day 334
99. replace this with a task at day 334

And the rest of the tasks – well, most of them need some form of tweaking; mainly rewording/clarifying so I am able to work out whether I have accomplished them or not. A couple, as they are written, are no longer relevant.

A while ago I did a blogpost about the podcasts I listen to and I thought it was about time that I did an update.
Also, in another blogpost I mentioned that I was looking for a better client for downloading podcasts – I can now say I have found an application that I’m really happy with – gPodder.

So, onto the update.
First the ones I no longer listen to.

FLOSS Weekly – though I loved listening to this and the vast majority of them were informative, I had to admit that I felt that the majority of the episodes weren’t really suited to my needs. Still highly recommend it though :)

Sesame Street – the episodes appeared to be cycling through so once we’d established that we’d watched all the episodes we gave it the ole heave ho.

Media 7 – I’m watching this on TV now so technically no longer a podcast :)

Grammar Girl – I’ve signed up to the email newsletter and follow her on twitter instead

Last time I didn’t break down all the Radio NZ podcasts I listen to so I thought I would this time (with the rss feed links)

Mediawatch

Insight

Ideas

Nights

Nine to Noon

Our Changing World

Spectrum

Saturday

Podcast Classics

I also didn’t break down the BBC podcasts I listen to so thought I’d do the same to them

Friday Night Comedy

From Our Own Correspondents

Science in Action

Documentaries

Material

Dr Karl & the Naked Scientist

Discovery

Natural History

Also for some reason I didn’t mention TWiT or This Week in Tech which is quite a long podcast but is in an informal discussion panel format so it’s quite an entertaining podcast. I should also mention this is broadcast live and has a chatroom for people listening live and is also available as a video download.

This was quite a good exercise as I discovered a few more podcasts to try out.

So I thought I’d disclose some of the ways I kill (or more accurately, massacre) time on the web. When it comes to the web comics I’m going to admit that Yes I have read all of these comics from the beginning and so you can imagine the amount of usable time lost from my life.
I am pleased to announce however that I have been Farmville free for the last two months and I feel no enticement to return. I quit the facebook game habit by slowly blocking the games I was playing until I was left with Farmville, then I set myself the goal of reaching level 50 and then quitting and then promptly (well it took a few weeks) did. Yay!

Games

Echobazaar have recently added Facebook as an alternative to logging in via Twitter but either way it’s non-intrusive (ie it doesn’t spam your feeds or request to do so every other moment (I’m thinking Farmville here) though the option to post a message is nearly always available). I’m not going to do it justice by explaining it but I’ll attempt to do so anyhow. The ultimate aim of the game is simply to Seek your fortune. Everyday you receive 70 actions (bear in mind this gets reset every 24hrs from the time you first logged in so choose a time that fits with your schedule) which you use to accomplish tasks gaining you higher levels of Dangerous, Shadowy, Persuasive and Watchful. The 70 actions you received get doled out to you in the form of a candle made up of 10 actions which refills an action per 7 minutes until it’s back up to 10 actions or until you’ve run out of daily actions. Tasks that you complete sometimes give you items which you can collect to use on later actions or sell to purchase other items. What I like about it is that because of the number of actions restrictions I can play each day without it chewing up all my usable time.

Comics

I’m not going to expound on each of these. I like them all for different reasons and I think everyone has such individual taste that you’re better off just checking them out for yourself. :)

Videos

Watching Simon’s Cat is a double delight as not only is it very funny but it also induces my daughter to become almost paralytic with laughter. The only sad thing is it takes time for new skits to appear.

Misc

I’ve included this link as it’s a good way to get the small person in our house out of the grumps. The first time I played it was late at night when our daughter should have been fast asleep, I heard a burst of laughter coming from her room and a plaintive plea to play it again. There’s a companion website called Drama button which I feel is self-explanatory.

With the warmer weather approaching, I’ve been keen to get out and reconnect with the night sky. Sadly, the weather hasn’t been cooperating recently.
So here are some links to resources to start you off if you’re interested in getting into some star gazing. All you need to start off are some warm clothes, a map to guide you so you can work out what you’re looking at and a torch to see by (most people recommend the torch has red cellophane over it but I cope just fine without).

Southern Hemisphere Planisphere PDF download from PsychoHistorian from the 2009 International Year of Astronomy. Planispheres are usable throughout the year and irregardless of which year. Consequently, it doesn’t have additional information relevant to particular months like planetary placement.
A clear explanation about planispheres is available on Wikipedia.

SkyMaps have a Southern Hemisphere sky chart for September 2010.
Additional information is included on astronomical events happening during the month as well as lists of highly visible objects by the naked eye and also by binoculars.
They also have downloadable monthly star charts for Northern hemisphere and the Equatorial region as well as a variety of other products to purchase.

The Royal New Zealand Astronomical Society have September Sky Charts and what I consider to be rather indepth information for watching the skies in New Zealand.
They also have a List of Solar System Events happening in September tailored to New Zealand – including that Daylight Savings starts on the 26th September at 2am (clocks going forward by an hour – Remember: Spring forward, Fall back). Scroll past the table of dates to get to the information on planetary movements.

On my personal wishlist is the Atlas of the Southern Night Sky, of which the Second Edition is due out this month.

And getting back to my original problem, working out whether the night will be good viewing – this site may help. Skippy Sky has graphs of cloud cover predictions for NZ, Australia and some other countries.

There’s more grins to be had with the rest of the article accompanied by cartoons. Click on the image to see more. (from Hyperbole and a Half)

Miscellaneous

I admit I’ve been tearing up at the most pathetic things recently (children’s TV shows even *sigh*) and this poignant advert on wearing your seatbelt called Embrace Life from the UK was excellent at getting a tear from my eye. I have to say that it was such a refreshing change from the ones we see in New Zealand and the soundtrack (if I watched adverts regularly) wouldn’t make me tune out from another room.

This blogpost from Dumb Little Man on the 7 Profound Lessons from 7 of our Historical Leaders has some choice quotes within.

And finally, this blogpost about Spring Cleaning your Photo Library from Simple Scrapper has three easy tips for getting digital photos organised: Label/Catalog, Delete Duds, and Backup. Pretty simple really.

Well, that’s all for these two days. :)