Day 154 progress

32. Upgrade my Squier '51: I ordered my capacitors and potentiometers on 7/21 and received them a week later. Once I had the pots in my possession, I was able to check the size of the holes that had to be drilled in the control plate.

I ordered my control plate on 7/27 from Ian Rich, a guy who lives in New Zealand and yet is the only person that I could find that makes a custom control plate for the '51. For what he does the prices are reasonable, and his shipping costs aren't astronomical. I also ordered my switch, a 5-position Stratocaster style switch. All my parts should arrive late this week.

Since I've never really done any electronics work that involved a lot of wiring and soldering, I asked my dad for help. He can read schematics, something that just confuses me, primarily due to my lack of knowledge on the skill. I also found a clearly laid out wiring diagram, which should help quite a bit.

39. No fast food for 90 days in a row: I've gone 59 days without eating fast food. I'm 57.78% of the way done with this item.

42. Read 50 books that I have not read before: Even though I'm reading The Quiet American, I started reading The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd by Toby Manning since it looked interesting and it was available at the time.

I'm more than halfway through The Quiet American and should have it finished within the week.

57. Clean out my anime collection: I sold one of my two listings, and had to re-list the other one. However, I do have a bid on the last item, so when the auction closes in 3 days, I will have completed this item.

95. Complete 100 expert level Sudoku games without hints: I completed a couple more over the past few days, and my total is now 41 of 100.

98. Go to 5 concerts: I bought tickets to see Queens of the Stone Age on the evening of September 16th. We're going to see the Projekt Revolution tour this weekend, and we're thinking of getting tickets to see Interpol in September.

Additional Note: Since I have crossed the 150 day threshold, I wanted to take some time and look forward in an attempt to analyze what my chances are for total completion of all 101 items on the list.

Of the items on the list, I think that all of them are achievable with enough time, but I don't know if I will be able to complete some of the more intensive items on the list in the planned amount of time. Specifically, the travel items may not be completed simply due to the outlay of time and money that has to go into each of those items on the list. I wanted to be ambitious, but I may be in over my head when it comes to the travel plans.

My other hesitation comes from the financial goals on the list. I think that many of them can be completed without question, as evidenced by my progress on item 51, but there are others that may not be achievable if I focus on the other items on the list, many of which require some sort of financial outlay to accomplish.

I think that the items regarding my self, my physical and educational development, hobbies, diet, literary goals, home, and leisure can all be completed give the pace that I have set up to this point.

I have 6 items completed, and 13 currently in some state of progress. Many of the items on the list could be completed very easily as long as I plan ahead and stay on pace.

Overall I am pleased with my progress up to this point. I could have completed a couple of the items that still remain to be done before this point, but I can only plan for the future now.

Expect another update of this nature some time around day 333.

Day 142 progress

I haven't posted in over 3 weeks, and I've been pretty busy with work, work related social events, and other general time-kills. However, I have managed to make some progress on the list.

39. No fast food for 90 days in a row: I've completed 40 of the 90 days so far, which puts me at being 44.44% of the way to completing this item.

42. Read 50 books that I have not read before: I finished Fathers and Sons on July 16th. It took me over a month to finish the book, mostly because I just neglected to pick it up and read on a consistent basis.

Overall I liked the story. The pace of the book was reasonably good, with no dead spots in the story. I was a bit worried as I neared the close of the novel, as I was afraid that I would end up with a "happily ever after" ending, which is pretty much forbidden in Russian literature. My fears were assuaged when the main character contracted typhus about 30 pages from the end, saving me from an ending more appropriate for a Shakespearean comedy.

I will start reading The Quiet American by Graham Greene tonight before bed.

51. Save $1 cash each day for 1001 days: Over the past 24 days I added $78 to my stash, bringing my total to $225 of $1001. I had an expense check from the team building that I attended in Austin, and a quarterly dividend check, so I set them aside for this purpose.

57. Clean out my anime collection: I sold 4 listings, although I had to re-list a couple of the items before they finally sold. I have 2 items left to sell off. When those are gone, I will be done with this item.

95. Complete 100 expert level Sudoku games without hints: I completed 7 Sudoku games over the past 24 days. My total is now 38 of 100 completed.

101. Try 10 wines I have not had before: I took a flyer on a wine that caught my eye, if only for the packaging. I tried a French Rabbit Pinot Noir. French Rabbit wines come packed in a Tetra-Prisma container, similar to the packaging used for soy milk and broths. It is available in 1 liter containers, and frankly, isn't half bad for a simple table wine.

The company also supports tree-planting organizations and other environmental concerns. So, for every 4 "bottles" you buy, they plant a tree, in addition to the packaging being recyclable.

So far I have tried 7 of 10 wines.