A Rain of Frogs

One does not need to change the world,
only to make a stranger smile every day.

The Mission:

Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1,001 days.

The Criteria:

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

The Strategy:

I had originally created this list on June 1, 2005. I am almost two years into the 1,001 days, and its safe to say I am not going to accomplish this mission by February 27, 2008. I’m not giving up, I’m just adjusting the strategy. I’ve revised the list, and given myself another 1,001 days to get it done.

The revised list is below. The new date is February 6, 2010.

Last updated December 29, 2008

Body

1 – Take a yoga class.
2 – Go 21 days without eating take out.
3 – Take up a martial art.
4 – Weight between 170 and 175 pounds for at least three months.
5 – Do 100 push-ups in one session.
6 – Get a tattoo.
7 – Do 100 crunches in one session.
8 – Cycle 500km within 10 consecutive days.
9 – Stop drinking coffee for seven consecutive days without being cranky.
10 – Consume nothing but water for 24 consecutive hours.
11 – Run 10km in one session.
12 – Stop consuming dairy for seven consecutive days.
13 – Have a pedicure.
14 – Get a massage from a massage therapist.

Mind

15 – Take a digital photography course.
16 – Take a philosophy course.
17 – Take a vegetarian cooking class.
18 – Read War and Peace.
19 – Read the Koran cover-to-cover.
20 – Read the Bible cover-to-cover.
21 – Write a fictional story and publish it online.
22 – Start and finish a creative writing course.
23 – Avoid watching television for 14 consecutive days.
24 – Practice handwriting till I find a hand I like.
25 – Find a picture of myself I like.
26 – Avoid swearing for one day without getting cranky about it.
27 – Create a new email address and use it as my principle account.
28 – Pay more than $200 for dinner.
29 – Have a dinner that costs less than $2.Soup: $0.45, Two pieces toast: $0.48. Dinner for 93 cents.
30 – Spend a week without using a computer.
31 – Spend 6 hours in the AGO.
32 – Wake up at 6:00am every day for seven consecutive days.

Soul

33 – Visit the graves of my three dead grandparents.
34 – Give a flower to a random person on the street.
35 – Make a new friend.
36 – Put $5 into a jar every day for a month and give the total to a charity.
37 – Learn to say “Thank you for making the world a better place” in 10 non-english languages.
38 – Work 10 hours in a food bank.
39 – Pay for the order of the person behind me in the Tim Horton’s drive-thru.
40 – Find ten good things to say about George W. Bush. He really is a natty dresser, you know
41 – Create an indoor zen garden.
42 – Make a new enemy.

Joy

43 – Have dinner with a Muslim and a Jew.
44 – Visit a Buddhist temple.
45 – Stay up all night and watch the sunrise.
46 – Rip all my CDs and then pack them away.
47 – Keep an active sketchbook for 30 consecutive days.
48 – Paint a painting.
49 – Shoot a handgun.
50 – Watch all three Godfather movies. – I have to say I was disappointed. I expected more.
51 – Learn to make five fancy alcoholic drinks, of which at least two require a blender.
52 – Go on a proper picnic, complete with gingham picnic cloth, picnic basket and ants.
53 – Climb a tall tree.
54 – Have one of my websites slashdotted or dugg.
55 – Buy “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” on DVD, and watch it at least once without being interrupted.
56 – Play a correspondence chess game and win.
57 – Have an aquarium.
58 – Go to an NHL hockey game.
59 – Have a real pen pal, with real paper letters (not email).
60 – Bake a blueberry pie with fresh blueberries.
61 – Get a cat.
62 – Juggle four objects for at least 5 minutes without dropping any of them.
63 – Find a girl named “Gwen” and buy her a drink.

World

64 – Discontinue all newspapers to my house.
65 – Plant two trees.
66 – Grow an interesting indoor plant (and not kill it).
67 – Arrange for at least 50% of my bills to be delivered online, instead of wasting paper.
68 – Avoid use of a car for 7 days.
69 – Grow three different edible vegetables.

Music

70 – Record an original song and publish it online.
71 – Play a gig in which at least 50% of the songs are original music. Last Wednesday night was really slow. We played two covers and 12 originals. – August 23, 2005
72 – Busk with a complete stranger for at least an hour, but leave all the money for them.
73 – Practice bass scales for an hour a day for seven consecutive days.
74 – Attend Hillside.
75 – Gig with my fretless bass.
76 – Get a new bass amp.
77 – Sing lead on one song. I hear that train a comin’
78 – Play six gigs in one calendar month – 8 in September ’07.

Money

79 – Zero my VISA balance and keep it that way for three consecutive months.
80 – Put $5 into a jar every day for a month and use the total to spoil myself.
81 – Draft my will.
82 – Buy at least one share in Apple.

Stuff

83 – Finally get around to getting a passport.
84 – Get a cool black leather jacket. Christmas 2005. Is anything cooler than black leather?
85 – Replace my nine year old Ray-Ban sunglasses (harder than you’d think). bought new Rayban sunglasses (polarized!) – June 24, 2005
86 – Buy a smart shirt.
87 – Sell something I love. - my Contessa 26!
88 – Buy a new bike. Gary Fisher Marlin
89 – Throw out 20 things I haven’t used in the last six months.
90 – Replace my running shoes.
91 – Throw out five things I’ve owned for more than five years (that weren’t involved in any other list item).
92 – Buy an expensive bottle of single malt whisky.
93 – Buy an original piece of art and hang it on a wall.

Life

94 – Visit New York City for at least 48 hours. - what a fantastic city!
95 – Visit Montreal for at least 48 hours.
96 – Spend a night at anchor (not in port) on the boat. Don’t own the boat any more
97 – Cycle through the Niagara region and taste wine.
98 – Skydive.
99 – Dip my toes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the same month.
100 – Circumnavigate Lake Ontario on the sailboat. See #96
101 – See the Aurora Borealis from Baffin Island.

My girlfriend recently gave me some tea. When we’re together, we habitually drink loose-leaf Earl Grey mixed with Darjeeling and a touch of green tea for kick.

However, when we’re apart, I tend to relapse to what she calls the“bog-standard” – the ubiquitous Twinings Earl Grey (named perhaps as much for its color as its ancestry). It seems she decided I needed proper tea for when she wasn’t around, so she prepared for me some of our regular blend, but mistakenly added Lapsang Souchong instead of the Darjeeling.

The result was fantastic. A tea that smells like the very best of campfires while steeping, and has a delicate, pleasing flavor.

It’s interesting that before this most happy accident, my knowledge of Lapsang Souchong was fundamentally non-existant. I had heard the name, but probably couldn’t have spelled it. I understand that a guy named John Pierpont Morgan, once upon a time among the richest people on the planet, preferred this smoky, oaky brew to more readily available teas in a time when Lapsang Souchong was virtually impossible to get outside of China.

I don’t know much about tea, nor J.P. Morgan, but I do know that our blend is the finest tea I’ve ever had. So fine, I think it needs a name of its own.

Lots of changes in the last seven days, which have sapped my mental energy. Good changes. Positive changes. The world, like the wheel of karma, turns. On the downside, I’ve got little energy to write here at this exact moment. I have something coming but it’ll take a bit of prepwork to finish off. In the meantime, hang in there, I’ll start broadcasting again very shortly.

After a very long day, the boat is finally in the water.

As anyone who lives in upstate New York or Southern Ontario will tell you, we had a seriously bad storm roll through the Toronto region today.

It was all sunshine and summer weather while I was at a meeting downtown. I hopped on the GO train, destined for Bronte at 11:25. My father, who also has a boat at Bronte outer (sadly, not an Alberg) picked me up, and we drove to the marina to go about preparations for launch at 5:00 (his boat) and 6:00 (my boat).

By 3:30 the third thunderstorm straight out of the maw of hell had rolled through, and wind gusts up to 60kts were a frequent occurence. The marina decided to halt launching, but we hoped the weather would settle, so we filled our time helping the marina staff tie high-windage powerboats back up to their berths. One had actually ripped a cleat straight out of the dock. At one point, my father was almost blown off the dock into the water.

So we went out for dinner, and sure enough, just as we were finishing up, my phone rang and the marina was ready to launch our boats. It was sunny again, and the wind had dropped down to a nice gentle breeze.

Both boats launched without a hitch, though my A29 demonstrated once again why it is I hate reversing the boat. Nine times out of ten, it will walk to port while reversing, and one time out of 100 it will back up in a perfectly straight line. I took a guess and thankfully she walked to port. I looked like I actually knew what I was doing.

So begins another sailing season. Hopefully it will be better than last year.