101 in 1001 – February 2008 Update

Well I think we can successfully say that I’m not doing great at this but on the other hand with over 900 days to go I’m not doing as badly as I thought. I come across as being really negative in assessing the tasks below but I’m not that cut up about it – just giving myself a stern talking to. :)

Before this update:

101 in 1001
Start: 01 Jan 2008
Finish: 28 Sep 2010
Days Left: 947
Completed: 1/101

1. assemble a comprehensive family tree
Whilst I haven’t start this project yet, family have kindly loaned me several boxes of accumulated material (genealogy was one of the things we did as a family growing up) for a while so I have no excuses for getting stuck in.

3. bake something new each month 2/33
The birthday cake and cupcakes I made for my daughter’s birthday (with her assistance) were both new recipes for me. I didn’t care for the chocolate cake much as I believe a chocolate cake should contain chocolate rather than cocoa. I didn’t actually eat any cupcakes so I wouldn’t know much about how those turned out. The girls had more fun decorating them than anything I’d say. Does Icing count as baking? I avoid making icings like the plague as I can never get the proper consistency. I really wasn’t happy with the consistency of the icing on the cupcakes, though the chocolate icing on the cake came out okay.

9. buy a photo printer – Completed
As of Tuesday, this became a reality when we got a new Epson Stylus CX9300F. It was inexpensive and we needed to replace our scanner which was slowly eating away at my sanity with it’s ability to lock up and scream to be unlocked.

12. collect and grow my own seeds
Collected some Calendula seeds mid-january and today harvested Kowhai seeds which should be a nice challenge to germinate. Once the Marigold flowers die back I’ll be grabbing some of those too. This has been a good task as it’s made me open my eyes more to the entire lifecycle of growth in the garden.

16. do the blog 365
Yeah – this would have to be my biggest failure so far. Even counting the Project 365 posts, the total so far is 29 posts and 4 drafts (including this one – making a grand total of 33 if I get off my arse and finish off the other 3 drafts. Seeing as we’re at day 54 that’s pretty bad. Even worse if you think that counting the Project 365 posts is cheating.

19. do project 365 – In Progress

Well I’ve only put 21 days worth up on this site and I think I have another 7 days worth on the camera. So we’re at Day 54 and I only have a total of 28 days. That’s a bit of a difference. I haven’t been taking photos much recently at all and admittedly some days I’ve only taken photos where my daughter is the subject and I’m still a bit up in the air about posting photos of her – more from the she doesn’t get much say in the matter if I do perspective than anything else. I’m going to persevere with this.

30. frame favourite photos – In Progress
I framed a photo of our cat that I took late last year and it’s really brought out that corner of the room.

33. get digital photos printed and framed or albumed – In Progress
Well now we have a photo printer this should be much less work. Now I just need a frame replicator and I’m set. All I’ve done is a test print of a photo we got printed recently at the pharmacy. The tone from the printer isn’t as colour enhanced and I think is more true to life. I suspect the machine at the pharmacy does the equivalent of an auto-colour. I framed a photo of our cat that I took late last year and it’s really brought out that corner of the room. I’m noticing a bit of duplication in these tasks.

68. learn to recognise the southern constellations – In Progress
Well, I’ve gone through our collection of books and discovered we have one that’ll do as a nice primer to start with. Next step – refresher on the Southern Cross and how to find South – I’ve become a bit hazy on the concept. “3 and a half lengths of something, and middle of the pointer sisters? Then those two lines come together and that point drops down to the horizon?”.

73. make weekly contact with family and friends 7/143
(should be 8/143)
I got a bit overwhelmed around daughter’s birthday with a bunch of stuff and I’m afraid making contact with family and friends suffered as a result. I want to get better at this.

82. read 100 books (romances and rereads not included) 2/100
(should be 5/100)
I’m surprised at how little I’m managing to read and the discovery that romances are easier for me to wind down at the end of a day for sleep than other fiction – irregardless of the enjoyment factor. Perhaps this is just a habit I’ve trained myself in but I can guarantee a restless night’s sleep if I neglect to wind down before bed and that includes what I would consider normal reading material. So I figure I have two options, either carve out part of my day to get some proper reading happening, or retrain my mind to accept better fiction or recreational non-fiction as wind down material.
So far I’ve completed:
Mort by Terry Pratchett
Sourcery by Terry Pratchett

83. record sam’s daily activities 43/1001
(should be 54/1001)
This is something that is really hard to do if I let it slide. I can only vaguely recall details about something that happened 3 days – so I have to keep on top of this! On the other hand, this has been a wonderful task and I’m motivated to continue. This kind of exercise shows the flaw in trying to do something for every day of the 1001 days – the lack of a margin for error means you effectively fail the first time you miss a day.

91. solve the rubik’s cube – In Progress

Well this has certainly been an adventure. Father Christmas gave husband an imitation Rubik’s Cube a couple of years back and it’d been at the back of a drawer untouched so I snaffled it. And just the past week a friend returned a guide to solving the Rubik’s cube they’d borrowed. So I got out the cube and had a stab at it, and managed to almost break it – it didn’t come completely apart but enough to make me shove it back in the drawer and call it quits for the night. I pulled it out again tonight and investigated the damage and then had fun pulling it to bits to fix it. Required a screwdriver and some glue but it should be good as new once the glue sets.

After this update:

101 in 1001
Start: 01 Jan 2008
Finish: 28 Sep 2010
Days Left: 947
Technically Should Have Completed: 5/101
Completed: 2/101

Well I think we can say that I’ve fallen behind, it’s early days yet and with a bit of consistentcy I should be able to catch up.
The plan is to update on the 1st of March with another update, and a list of things to work on for the month.
For the remaining 6 days, I’ll be working on the following:
16. do the blog 365
19. do project 365
30. frame favourite photos
33. get digital photos printed and framed or albumed
68. learn to recognise the southern constellations
73. make weekly contact with family and friends
75. memorise origami designs
82. read 100 books (romances and rereads not included)
Complete reading Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (which I’m struggling with because I’ve seen a comic adaption that had a script incredibly close to the book) and get stuck into the next book in the Discworld series, Pyramids.
83. record sam’s daily activities
90. send monthly handwritten letters
91. solve the rubik’s cube
Also, get the drafts published and daily photos up.

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