Day 4:

Haven't made any complete progress yet as I just got back up to the work hostel (http://www.nomadsworld.com/productdetail.asp?backpack=murray+hostel) and have been busy gettin things together.
Anything I complete however, I am still unable to cross off the list as I am ignorant of how to do so on this blog thus rendering #59 incomplete.
I had to put the 24 hour fast on hold, but will have successfully completed my first task if I don't eat or drink anything but water for another 3 and half hours. I'm hungry and there is a delicious mince pie mocking me from the bakery next door.

I have begun an attempt to learn to properly cook things (#3) this week as I have written a fantastic recipe for a type of curry dish and know how to cook it (1/10). With this, it should be noted that I have developed a taste for spicy foods...anyone who has ever seen me attempt to eat spicy foods in the past might know why this sounds comical as my face usually turns bright red, I sweat a lot (more than usual), and winge for an hour.

At the hostel I can now be seen attempting to twirl a frisbee on my finger (#6) and am already half way done with the first book of the Eragon series (#63). I also have my pocket atlas out and have been practicing my capitals (#18) and writing my name in chinese as provided to me by Chip Sinton; incidentally, my name in Chinese characters can be translated, very accurately, to mean "Person who is like a kind act" (Sean) "The Axe Handle in the Forest"(Collins)...A friendly lumberjack.
#74 is going alright, i did 60 push-ups yesterday but was also on a bus for three and a half hours. i'm already 25 down today and its only 2pm. Then again, I am notoriously lazy which might make #66 and #67 difficult.

So far there is no work at the hostel, which would be unfortunate being as im here to make money. hopefully something will pop up but Australia is in the middle of one of the worst droughts in the past couple of decades. By the by, anyone feeling sorry for me and wishing to donate some cash to me would be described as angelic. Add it to your own list if you want. Im off to figure out once and for all what exactly the time difference is between South Australia and New York. All of my best guesses place it somewhere between 13.5 and 15 hours behind because whenever i talk to anyone back home they seem to have different answers.

Day ONE:

As I spend most of my freetime here in australia, I was recently perusing facebook and discovered a post by one of my dearest friends and old roommates, Erik. The post showed outlined an extraordinary concept that gives you 1001 days to complete 101 preset tasks put together by you. I was immediately taken with this idea as I am currently on the other side of the world backpacking through Australia and looking for 'something that will give my life more meaning'. I've never before seen something that so quickly inspired me to accomplish all the things in my life that I have simply let go out of sheer laziness; within a day my list was complete.


The Mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria: Tasks must be specific (i.e., no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (i.e., represent some amount of work on your part).

Here's my list. If you have any advice on how to use this blog, let me know...for now it will be extremely bland, until I can figure out all the cool add-ons and whatnot. :

Things to Learn:
1. Learn a language that isn’t Spanish
2. Learn to circularly breath
3. Learn 10 new recipes and how to cook them (0/10)
4. Learn to play Banjo; 5 songs (0/5)
5. Learn pencil twirling techniques
6. Learn to spin a Frisbee on fingers
7. Learn to brew beer
8. Learn to properly use my camera
9. Learn to fly a kite
10. Learn to ice skate
11. Learn to write my name in Arabic/Hindi/Chinese/Cyrillic/Greek
12. Learn to efficiently drive standard
13. Learn to whittle
14. Learn to bake a meat pie
15.Learn how to tie and throw a lasso
16. Learn to throw knives into things
17. Learn to properly fold laundry
18. Definitively learn every world capital
19. Be able to identify 10 constellations and a story about each
20. Knit or crochet a hat
21. Learn to sew buttons back onto pants/shorts…for when I’m no longer a fatty
22. Learn to make 10 drinks (0/10)
Places to Go:
23. Visit Maccu Piccu
24. Visit 4 coasts of Australia (3/4)
25. Go to Las Vegas
26. Visit Grand Canyon
27. Visit Niagra Falls
28. Go to Alaska
29. Go to Hyde Park Brewery Trivia
Things to See:
30. See the northern lights
31. See all 100 top AFI films (30/100)
32. See the sunrise over Uluru
33. 10 sunrises in 10 locations (1/10)
34. Complete VT brewery passport (0/10)
35. Go to 10 different new Breweries (not on VT passport)
36. Go to 5 Yankee games
37.Go to a Yankee/Red Sox game
38. Go to 10 concerts (0/10)
39. Go whale watching
Things to Do:
40. Attend a music festival
41. Climb Mt. Washington
42. Bike from Burlington to camp
43. Skydive
44. Build a rocking chair (that wont break)
45. Send a message in a bottle from three oceans (0/3)
46. Get a tattoo
47. Sing Karaoke
48. Get 3 new stamps on my passport
49. Carve a pumpkin
50. Penguin Plunge
51. Get lifeguard certification
52. Go camping in the woods (not at music festival)
Things Left:
53. Turn Mol Can labels into some sort of poster
54. Finally try waterskiing again
55. Paint the flags of every country over their borders on a map of the world
56. Transfer files from Foxweb to hard drive
57. Figure out how to convert my movies to Mp4
58. Get Marist and UVM diplomas framed
59. Figure out this blogging site
60. Find and organize list of 100 pied faces of 2006
Things to Read/Write:
61. Read at least 50 new books (1/50)
62. Read War and Peace
63. Read the Eragon series (0/3)
64. Read 3 Shakespeare plays (0/3)
65. Write a journal entry once a week
Mind/Body/Health:
66. Get under 185 lbs
67. Stay there for remainder of 1001 days
68. Run a 5k
69. Run a 10k
70. 24 hour vow of silence
71. Stop biting nails
72. Whiten teeth
73. No TV or computer once a week
74. Be able to manage 100 push-ups a day
75. Get the hottest meal at India Queen in Hanover
76. Eat something outrageous that I would never normally eat
77. Stop buying soda
78. Go on the pump
79. Be vegetarian for a month
80. 24 hour fast once a month
81. Make it in Australia till at least Feb. 20
The rest of Life:
82. Get a steady paying teaching job
Not for Me:
83. Build something practical for both mom and dad
84. Donate blood 3 times (0/3)
85. Volunteer at a soup kitchen
86. Eliminate use of plastic bags
87. Give 5 frequent coffee drinkers mugs and convince them to use them
88. “Plant a tree” for every book I read using http://www.ecolibris.net/
89. Compost food – back in states
For Funsies:
90. Use the photo booths at malls whenever I visit one
91. List 100 things that make me happy
92. Get 5 people to create their own 101/1001 lists (1/5)
93. Send 10 Snail mails to 10 different people
94. Save all coins for 1001 days – donate
95. Compile my funeral album
96. Try and photograph each task
97. Donate $5 for every incomplete task to Juvenile Diabetes Foundation
To Buy:
98. Get a Mac book of some sort
99. Get a terabyte external hard drive
100. Get a road bike
101. Get one of those electronic trivia globes

I will be officially starting as of Monday 8, 2008 and be kickin it off with #80 (24 hour fast)...wish me luck as I am used to eating 2 or 3 mince pies a day along with subway and other sorts of snacks.

Along with this, my travel buddy Tyler has completed his list and will be typing it up soon - he will be kickin off with a fast tomorrow with me as well; I'll send a link to his once its up. One other friend has discussed starting her own list too...so that officially makes my #92 - 20% finished on its way to 40%!
These things possibly being accomplished by day one - if anyone wants to tell me how to cross things off or get one of those progressy bars on the top, that would help me immensly.

For all those wondering how my time here down under is going I will use one word: ineffible - which is a word that describes something that cannot be described with words. Photos to follow once i accomplish #59.