Needless to say, my attention to this project has been sorely lacking. A college friend brought my attention back around to this point after asking me about this project. So, with just under 5 months worth of time left to finish what I set out to do, I'm going to complete what I can with the knowledge that while I will not reach all of my goals, the goals that were completed provided me with valuable experiences and memories.
This is not to say that I have been a total slouch. I did complete a number of items over the past 4-plus months. While all of the detail may be a bit hazy with the passage of time, here is a quick update on what I did accomplish.
7. Grow my hair out again (COMPLETED): My hair had finally reached shoulder length and on 2/28/09, my 32nd birthday, I decided that was long enough. I cut everything off. My hair looked good, but it was becoming a mess, and I had it pulled back almost all the time, just to keep it out of my face. It was cool, and I may grow it out again, but no time soon.
17. Hike all official trails at the Cedar Ridge Preserve: On February 20th, I hiked the Bluebonnet Trail at the CRP. This leaves 4 trails to complete. I plan on finishing this item in the fall when the weather cools considerably.
25. Listen to every one of my track on iTunes: I had a small disaster here. When moving my 90+ gigs of music to an external hard drive, I lost all of my "listened" data. Therefore I am going to do my damndest to listen to all 10,000+ tracks between now and November 2009. Wish me luck.
42. Read 50 books that I have not read before: On February 13th, I began reading Ecce Homo by Friedrich Nietzsche, and finished it on February 25th. I also finished reading The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain on February 21st. On February 26th I started Tamsin Shaw's Nietzsche's Political Skepticism, but did not finish it before I had to return the book. I intend on completing this one in the future. On April 3rd I began Stendhal's The Red and the Black but found it terribly boring and put it aside. I will likewise make an effort to finish this book before the end of the project.
63. Complete 3 college correspondence courses (COMPLETED): I actually went a few better on this item than I had intended. Not only did I get into graduate school (Library and Information Science), but in my first semester I completed two core courses and earned a 4.0 for the semester!
68. Complete a training course related to my profession: Since my last update I have completed 3 more modules. They have added 6 since that time. At this point I have completed 13 of the 26 available modules.
77. Travel to Chicago (COMPLETED): On May 16th, 2009, Claudia and I traveled to Chicago for a portion of our vacation. Chicago is a great city, easily navigated with plenty of interesting sites and tons of great food. Even with the bitterly cold winters, I would gladly consider living in Chicago. I highly recommend it as a travel destination.
79. Travel to New York (COMPLETED): On May 20th, 2009, I arrived by train from Chicago in New York City. New York has always been one of those legendary cities that I've wanted to see first hand, and while it was impressive in person, it's definitely a place that I would visit, but would never live in. While Chicago felt like a small town, New York is massively impersonal and looming. Sure, there are spots that are without compare, but much of the city is very faceless and boring. Still, I had a great time and would go back if I had the opportunity.
87. Attend a college basketball game (COMPLETED): For my birthday, Claudia and I saw SMU play Tulsa at Moody Coliseum. We had a great time, ate plenty of stadium food, and enjoyed ourselves quite a bit.
93. Attend a Stars game (COMPLETED): On March 24th, Claudia and I attended a Dallas Stars game at the American Airlines Center. They were playing for a chance to sneak into the playoffs, but lost this particular game. While we had nosebleed seats, the view was really quite good and gave us a great view of the action.
96. Eat at Les Halles Brasserie (COMPLETED): This item is completed, but in a very conditional sort of way. Let me explain. The intent of this item was to eat at a nicer place while I was in New York. I also thought it would be cool to eat where Anthony Bourdain used to work, as he is one of my travel and food icons. Well, perhaps disappointingly, I did not complete this item as intended; however, I feel that I managed to complete the spirit of the item. Again, my explanation.
One of Bourdain's good friends, Eric Ripert, owns and runs a restaurant in New York called Le Bernardin. This restaurant is considered one of the best places to eat seafood in the world, and is also considered one of the 20 best restaurants in the world. So, to my mind it was an acceptable trade, especially given the cost of the endeavor. Let me say that the meal was as close to a religious experience as I have ever had, and the experience immediately returns fully formed to my mind when I think back to it.
100. Smoke 5 high end cigars: On February 25th, I enjoyed a Cohiba Churchill. I can't say much more about it, since it's been so long, my recollection would be guesswork at best, but it was a good one! I have smoked 2 of 5 cigars for this item.
As of this point I have completed 52 of 101 items, and have 20 in the process of completion. My conservative estimate is that I can complete at least 70 of the 101, which is acceptable. I've learned at this point that when creating my list is it good to stretch a bit, but there is some amount of stretching that is in excess of reality. But then, that's what this project is for: learning and developing as a person. I think to this point I've done that, but that item is far from completed.
