101 things, revisited

I'm 484 into the 1,001 days for my Day Zero project. Day Zero itself is December 27, 2012, which I just discovered using this (in case you ever feel the very specific need to calculate the number of days between two dates). I'm not doing as well as I might have hoped at nearly halfway through, but it's getting there.


Travel

1. Get my passport

2. Use my passport

3. Visit Seattle

4. Go to NYC with someone who has never been there before

5. Go to the beach

Creative pursuits

6. Submit at least 10 things to literary mags

7. Knit myself a cardigan

8. Give exclusively handmade gifts for Christmas

9. Play at Gallery Hop at least 5 times

10. Finish recording my full-length CD

11. Put this list on my blog

12. Establish a routine for posting on my blog

13. Join a writers' group

14. Make my own soap

15. Start another novel

16. Finish it

17. Do something with it

18. Enter a songwriting competition

19. Take photos of that insane Wonderbread sign before they sell the building

20. Write a poem every day for a month

21. Start a new etsy shop to pay off my library fine!

22. Make an art card every day for a month

23. Inspire someone else to write something

24. Write 10 new songs (10/10)

25. Put new songs on my Myspace music page

Big stuff

26. Live in the same place for longer than 18 months

27. Find someone to date who doesn't suck

28. Pay off credit card debt

29. Buy a new car (I'll need one within 1001 days...)

30. Graduate!

31. Save up for a pair of Fryes instead of buying crap from Target

32. Go on a vacation for at least 5 days

33. Learn how to relax / control anxiety better

Quality of life

34. Do some form of exercise at least 3 times a week and keep it up for at least 10 weeks

35. Take a tap class

36. Buy a bike

37. Try vegetarianism for a month

38. Try veganism for...a week

39. Get real health insurance

40. Walk Columbus half-marathon with my parents (Fall 2010)

41. Stop saying "like" as an all-purpose verb

42. Try Pilates

43. Learn 5 tried-and-true recipes by heart

44. Learn how to make a salad at a salad bar so that it doesn't turn out like a Dumpster Salad

45. Cure my caffeine addiction

46. Try going carless for a week

47. Go to a therapist

48. Get totally, completely, forget-it-ever-mattered over __________

49. Stop fiddling with my cell phone so much

Organization

50. Clean out my closet

51. Clean out my trunk once and for all

52. Organize my desk and file cabinet

53. Make my bed every day for a month

Good will

54. Pay my library fine

55. Donate graphic design services to a local non-profit

56. Buy someone dinner just because

57. Loan out my favorite books with no intention of getting them back

58. Make scarves for a homeless charity

59. Give to NPR

60. Send postcards to everyone who matters

Appearance

61. Get tattoo #6

62. Buy The Perfect Black Heels

63. Get tattoo #7

64. Buy a decent bra

65. Nose piercing?

66. Find the black pencil skirt of my dreams

67. Drop 1 dress size

Upgrade

68. Buy pots and pans that aren't pathetic

69. Get a new cell phone

70. Get new glasses

71. Upgrade my makeup collection

72. Find a bedspread I like

73. Buy an amazing, expensive (?), last-forever bag

74. Buy an iron

Higher learning

75. Finish Level 1 of Rosetta Stone Russian

76. Apply to NYU & Hunter College MFA programs per my pact with Jessica

77. Learn to shoot a gun (research purposes!)

78. Learn the proper way to sew on a button so the experience isn't so agonizing

79. Teach Claire to play a song

80. Learn to like red wine

Just because

81. Get a Russian penpal

82. See Regina Spektor in concert

83. See a real play in a real theater

84. Send birthday cards to everyone

85. Send thank you notes whenever I get a gift

86. Make creme brulee

87. Read Flannery O'Connor

88. Go out for good sushi

89. Go to Shakespeare in the Park

90. Learn to drive a manual transmission

91. Buy the Elsa Peretti K pendant from Tiffany & Co because i've been wanting it for years

92. Sell my old computer

93. Do a thrift store scavenger hunt

94. Visit a winery

95. Go to an estate sale

96. Buy myself flowers

97. Host a party

98. Try 1 new restaurant every week for a month

99. Go out to dinner by myself without a book

100. Replace the battery in my watch

101. Give that guy his Georg Simmel book back

Extra Credit

102. Fix front screen door so I can actually have the door open

103. Make screen for bedroom window so I can actually have the window open

Such great heights.

Luke Beard is creating artwork based on a song lyric, every day for a year. Him: brilliant. Me: jealous. Found via Hot Child in the City.

It's true.

Yes, I just posted a video of a car commercial. But: I think this is a fun ad for an interesting campaign ("The freedom to change your mind..."), and, most importantly, what a great song. It's called "Oh Boy" by Miss Li.

Clever.

Trixie Delicious is full of lovely, ladylike plates and teacups that have been modified with decidedly un-ladylike statements. This falls into the category of "things I wish I had thought of."

Did I ever tell you how lucky you are?

I had a dream last night that I got a Dr. Seuss tattoo, and I woke up thinking that this was a very interesting idea--I am a big Dr. Seuss enthusiast, maybe that explains things. Maybe not. But anyway, in case you're a fan too, I wanted to share this, Who's Who & What's What, a 157-page "directory" of Dr. Seuss characters with descriptions. No images, but still very interesting reading. This was compiled by someone at Dartmouth, and it's possible that person is my soulmate.

Blog love.

red nails; wrong city is the most breathtakingly gorgeous photo blog ever.

Looking at stars.

Thanks to Rebecca and her lovely blog Dog-eared, I discovered this today: a huge collection of astronomy-related photos taken by the experts themselves--NASA. The photo archive goes back 14 years (yep. 1995.) and features a new image every day. Some are diagrams, some are video, some are breathtaking shots of good old Earth, and some are so lovely that it's genuinely hard to believe sometimes that these things exist on their own.

14 years, 1 photo every day. That should keep me busy for a while.

Get out the map

So, I have a thing for cufflinks. Especially clever ones like this, from DLK Designs. If all the boys I know would stop being silly boys, maybe I'd buy these for somebody. Be sure to check out the rest of her shop for more map-related goodness.

Robot love.

In honor of the robot-related GeekFest at Wild Goose Creative, which I did not attend but wished I had, behold. Handknit robot sweater, designed by Good Egg, who must be some kind of genius. Here is a brilliant quote from her Etsy shop: "i think about the knit stitch as a pixel. look for an intersection of modern and traditional motifs and displays of dense colorwork."

This is a work of art. And it just so happens to be done in the best color combination in the world. Check out her shop for more astonishingly clever knits.

Unrelated: thanks to anyone who checked out my web project, Undefinable Need. If you looked at it early on (Wednesday or Thursday of this week), you might want to have another look because it absolutely exploded with activity. And, if you can think of anyone who might appreciate the concept, please do pass it along.

Breaking & entering.

Found via the Perfect Binge. This is from A Softer World, where everything is brilliant and wonderful. Go here for more photo-comics. They're not funny. Not that kind of comic.

shake it like a polaroid picture.

Polaroid cameras rock, let's face it. In light of this rock-ness, it's pretty sad that digital photography has taken over the photo world; Kodak ceased production of all Polaroid film production as of last year. How long will it take to deplete the global stockpile of instant-film supplies? We may not have to worry about it, thanks to the brilliant folks at The Impossible Project, an independent organization "re-inventing"the technology behind Polaroids. Science + art = swoon.