2007 recap

My progress within this calendar year has been better than I had expected, if a bit lopsided in terms of approach.

I completed 19 of my 101 items, with the majority of them having to do with diet and leisure. I have 24 more items in progress
as of the end of the year.

Overall, I'm very happy with what I have accomplished. However, the job still isn't finished.

Going into the new year, I'll be focusing on a few specific things:

First, I'll be dedicating more time to physical development, through cycling and weight training. Weight training begins first thing tomorrow, and my cycling regimen begins in March. If I'm going to get a tattoo in July while I'm in L.A., I'd like to be in decent shape at the time.

Second, I'll be on task to complete more of my travel goals, with trips to Philadelphia, Austin, Houston, LaGrange, Mississippi, Los Angeles, and Tennessee on the list. This is the subject heading that requires the greatest outlay of time, planning, and money, so accomplishing a number of items on this list will make a total completion of all 101 items that much more likely.

Third, I plan to dedicate time to some of my educational goals, a subject heading in my overall list that has been neglected up to this point. My goal is to complete 3 of the items in the educational subject list.

Fourth, progress on my literary goals is sorely lacking. I will make an effort to read daily, and to tackle some of my specific titles sooner than later. My goal is to complete at least 3 of the items on this subject list.

Finally, I have a few hobby related items in progress, but only one completion as of the end of the year, item 32. My goal is to complete at least 5 items for this subject list.

Thanks for taking the time to keep up with my progress over the past year. During the next year, I will also make an effort to post more often than I did in 2007.

-Ben

Day 307 progress

Just a couple of items to close out the year.

 

25. Listen to every one of my tracks on iTunes: To this point I have listened to 3670 of 6219 tracks.  I received a few CDs for the holidays, which pushed up the total.  I am 59.01% of the way through this item.

 

84. Visit the Shiloh battlefield: Claudia has a library conference in Tennessee in November of 2008.  As with the conference in L.A., we'll travel together and make a side trip to the battlefield during some downtime.

Day 305 progress

I have 2 more completions, and progress in 3 other items, with one of them not progressing exactly as I had thought.

 

17. Hike all 8 trails at the Cedar Ridge Preserve: On 12/23/07, Claudia, my father, my sister, my sister's boyfriend, and I all hiked the Cedar Brake trail, one of the more difficult trails in the park.  Even though the entire route was only 2 miles in length, it was much more difficult than my previous trip.

The most significant things that I took away from this outing are the facts that my lower body strength and cardiovascular endurance are sorely lacking.  While hiking flat areas is not a problem, inclines are problematic and take a lot out of me.

Based on this experience, I'm going to start my cycling items (13, 14, 15, and 18) in March when the warmer weather sets in in order to remedy these negatives in my physical conditioning.

As for pictures, I failed to take my camera along, and did not document any of the trip.

 

34. Don't eat red meat or poultry for two weeks (COMPLETED): I made it the required 14 days without eating red meat or poultry.  I did eat a lot more seafood than I normally do, but I was pretty happy with the entire experience.

In the future, I'd like to limit myself to no more than one serving a week each of poultry or red meat, and preferably from free-range, organic sources (for poultry) or grass-fed sources (for red meat).

I'd also like to incorporate more game and lamb into my diet, along with the seafood that I'm currently enjoying.

 

51. Save $1 cash each day for 1001 days: I finally got around to depositing my $338 into my savings account.  I have not added any more money to my pool, and will probably do so near the end of January.

 

82. Visit maternal grandparents: It looks like I'll be traveling to Mississippi to visit my mother's parents in the next week or so.  My grandmother, who has been ill for quite a while, had a heart attack and is currently on a respirator.  Based on the prognosis, things are not looking well, and will likely result in her death sooner than later.

These are not the circumstances that I had expected to make a visit under, but oftentimes we have little choice when it comes to the progress of human events.

 

101. Try 10 wines I have not had before (COMPLETED): This evening I had a couple of glasses of 2002 Gunderloch Red Stone Riesling.  I had used some of the wine in a sauce for some scallops that I prepared, and had accompanying glasses with dinner.

The wine was very nice, and a little different for the Reislings that I tried up to this point.  Many of my previous experiences had apple or pear notes in them, while this one was a bit more grassy with faint hints of fenugreek or fennel.  Very nice.

This being my 10th new wine, this item has been completed.

Day 295 progress

I had some sudden developments occur in a few of the items on my list, all of them in a positive direction.  A few of these items (72, 73, and 80) were slated to occur in later 2008, but with a little on-the-fly planning it looks like I'll be completing these items much earlier, making my other travel plans easier to complete later on.

 

29. Record 3 original songs: I recorded two takes of the bass part a couple of nights ago.  I'm really impressed with how the raw recording of the song is sounding, and after mixing and producing, the finished product should be really nice.

I would have done a few more takes, but a couple of other bands in the building showed up and made it hard to focus.  We're going to try and be more flexible with our recording sessions to avoid distractions such as these.

 

34. Don't eat red meat or poultry for two weeks: I'm on day 5 of 14, and have been successful so far.  I'm consuming a lot more seafood, which is nice because I can pick up fresh fish or shrimp from work and then fix them as soon as I get home.

Claudia and I had snapper the other night and it was great.  I just threw a few things together, and it worked out well.  We had broiled snapper with Nantucket herb rub, quinoa, and a mustard green salad with cranberries and pine nuts.

Last night I made some Thai style shrimp with slivered almonds, ginger, garlic, shallots, honey, and Thai chili paste.  After stir-frying everything in red palm oil, I dumped everything over steamed white rice.  It was a bit on the spicy side, but very good.

 

50. Pay off credit cards: Claudia and I made another payment to cut down our debt.  We did charge some of our trip expenses, but overall we did more good than harm.

 

I'm going to address items 72 (See the Declaration of Independence), 73 (See the Liberty Bell), and 80 (Travel to Philadelphia) at the same time:

Claudia is traveling to Virginia in January to participate in a Tai Chi event, and she asked me to go along for company, navigation, and to help me achieve some of my 101 goals.

Last night we bought our plane tickets, reserved our car, and made hotel reservations.  We're going to fly in to Philadelphia (80) on the 17th, and spend the day there seeing the Liberty Bell (73), Independence Hall, the Edgar Allan Poe house, and finally eating at Iron Chef Morimoto's restaurant, before driving to Washington D.C.

We'll spend the night in D.C. near the Smithsonian, and see what we can of the museums on the 18th, including the National Archives where the Declaration of Independence (72) is kept along side the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

After that we'll go to Charlottesville where we'll spend a couple of days.  Claudia will do Tai Chi, and I'll visit some of the local Civil War battle sites on the 19th.  Finally, on the 20th, we'll see Monticello, and drive to Baltimore, where we'll eat on the waterfront before flying home.

Day 291 progress

I started a few new items since the last update, and made progress on a few more. Since I'm nearing the end of the first third of this project, I've been looking at how I can schedule some of the more involved items, namely the travel and fitness goals, to make sure that I complete them before November of 2009. So far, everything looks possible as long as I stick to the plan.

9. Paint an original work of art: While I haven't settled on the subject matter for this item, I have looked into some techniques that interest me. At this time I plan on using mixed media (news print, acrylics, found objects, and other) on canvas.

17. Hike all 8 trails at the Cedar Ridge Preserve (formerly Dallas Nature Center): On 12/9/2007 Claudia and I went to the Cedar Ridge Preserve. Of the 8 total trails, we hiked 3 of them, totaling 3 miles of travel. We hiked the Cattail Pond trail, the Escarpment Road trail, and the Little Bluestem trail.

When we got up the morning of the 9th, it was raining pretty heavily at our house, but based on the weather reports it looked like it would be clear at the park, which is located at least 40 miles south of us. When we arrived, there was a light mist, but nothing more than that. It was a bit cold, but once we got moving the cold was barely noticeable.

Here are some photos that I took while we were there:

We plan on returning in January to hike at least 2 more trails.

25. Listen to every one of my tracks on iTunes: To this point I have listened to 3507 of 6091 tracks, which puts me 57.58% of the way to completing this item.

29. Record 3 original songs: Over the past week, the band has recorded three very solid takes of the drum tracks, worked out the lead guitar and fill parts. I should be recording my bass part on Monday if all goes as planned.

34. Don't eat red meat or poultry for two weeks: Today is my start date. This item should be fairly easy to complete. Basically, I can have seafood and plant based proteins for the next 14 days, which is not a problem at all.

From this point on in my life, I'd like to only consume lamb, wild game, game fowl, or seafood when it comes to animal based protein. That routine will take some getting used to, but is totally workable. I don't have a philosophical problem with consuming animal protein, but I'd like to do so in a mindful manner, and factory farmed beef, pork, and poultry doesn't square with that ideal.

Does that mean that I won't have the occasional steak or slab of bacon in the future? I don't think so, but in those rare instances, I will be more selective of what I consume.

74. Take a road trip along route 66: Claudia and I did a little more route planning. The initial plan was extremely ambitious and would have clocked 60 hours of car time, which is a little much when considered in the terms of a week long vacation. So, we eliminated some of the return trip route, like San Francisco and Yosemite, and decided to focus on the Greater L.A. area and Albuquerque.

We will be able to make the hotel reservations for the conference portion of the trip starting on January 2nd. We're also planning on spending a couple of nights in the West Hollywood-Beverly Hills area, and by booking a few months early we can save a heck of a lot of money. More on this as we solidify plans.

101. Try 10 wines I have not had before: Over the past week I've tried two new wines.

- 2006 Georges Deboeuf Beaujolais-Villages

- 2007 Georges Deboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau

The first wine was nice with dark berry flavors, while the second was a bit too young and herby for my tastes.

Day 280 progress

I haven't made a lot of progress since my last update as my time has been filled with work, band practice, and family gatherings.  Regardless, I should be doing more work on this project than I have in the past two or three weeks.  That being said, here's the progress that I have made since my last update:

 

5. Get a tattoo: This item is connected to item 74, which is addressed below.  Since I will be in the L.A. area in the act of completing item 74, I figured that I would take care of this item at the same time.

Of the tattoo ideas that I have considered, two portraits really stuck out in my head: Friedrich Nietzsche or Bill Hicks.  And when someone wants a portrait tattoo, and happens to be in L.A., who else should they visit but Kat von D at High Voltage Tattoo?  I figure that if I am going to get something put on my body permanently, I should go to the best person for the job.

Time to start saving my pennies.

 

29. Record 3 original songs: Since my return to the band in October, we've discussed recording a full length album of our own material.  We had our first full band recording session on Monday, December 3rd.  We cut a drum track for one of our older songs, "Love's a Sigh".

Even though we managed to get a couple of good takes, we decided to slow the tempo of the click track a bit to make room for more guitar fills and to fit the feel of the song as it was originally conceived.  We plan on recording the new click track on Thursday afternoon, and the new drum tracks next week.  Rhythm guitar, lead guitar, and bass will follow soon after.

 

51. Save $1 cash each day for 1001 days: I put another $6 aside for a total of $338.  I also decided to make my money work for me, so I will be placing what I currently have saved into an interest bearing savings account.

 

74. Take a road trip along Route 66: Claudia has a librarians conference in Anaheim, CA in June of 2008.  We plan on leaving a few days early for the drive out to California, with stops along the way to see a few sights.

While she's doing librarian type things, I'll probably get a tattoo from Kat von D, check out some of the sights in L.A., and maybe even experience the greatness of Roscoe's House of Chicken 'n Waffles and In and Out Burger.

After the conference, we'll probably drive up to San Francisco so Claudia can see the Muir Woods, we can eat in Chinatown, and see a few other sights.  After that, we'll drive back through Yosemite before heading to the Grand Canyon.  Sounds like a pretty decent trip to me.