I'm doing 28 things
and another needing volunteer assistance – for which I have an interview next week. The organization needing a board member is the North American Native Plant Society, for which I do have relevant education. I think it’s a fit. Off I go! The volunteer position I have an interview for is at the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust.
SmallVictories's Life List
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1. Start writing again!!
6 entries . 15 cheers425 people -
2. write one essay or letter and prepare one presentation per month
4 entries . 1 cheer1 person -
3. Write a book and get it published
1 entry . 6 cheers482 people -
4. network with people in my present and future
4 entries . 3 cheers1 person -
5. become a wildlife rehabilitator
1 cheer3 people -
6. get on the Board of an organization
1 entry . 1 cheer1 person -
7. Strategically build (at least) one skill per year
3 entries . 2 cheers1 person -
8. finish my quilt
1 entry152 people -
9. relearn the constellations
1 entry . 4 cheers3 people -
10. Make more money than I need, doing what I love
1 entry . 2 cheers78 people -
11. watch 40 movies from the Criterion Collection
10 entries . 4 cheers4 people -
12. improve my communication skills
1 entry408 people -
13. Research my family tree
2 entries . 5 cheers925 people -
14. Hike the Appalachian Trail
3 entries . 6 cheers1,954 people -
15. persuade many people to go meat-free (completely, no fats, no seafood) at least one day a week
1 entry . 3 cheers1 person -
16. Stay at a Buddhist monastery - 2012-2013 ETA
1 entry1 person -
17. own a hybrid car
563 people -
18. Go solar
23 people -
19. Plant a tree every year
1 cheer23 people -
20. read Rumi
2 entries . 4 cheers4 people -
21. Build a tiny house.
1 entry25 people -
22. stop interrupting people
2 cheers86 people -
23. sell my hair
1 entry84 people -
24. go on an arctic expedition - 2016 ETA
5 cheers1 person -
25. identify and photograph 43 birds
2 entries . 4 cheers2 people -
26. improve my musical skills
4 people -
27. write a sestina
21 people -
28. Scuba dive in the Red Sea - 2021 ETA
20 cheers1 person -
29. Attend Hogmanay
1 person
How I did it
It made me
oh my god 
How I did it: For two and a half years I put things in place to go to Denmark for one year. Denmark cooperated in a marginal way: it didn't employ me, like it should have, but it's got so many systems in place in such a competent way that it became easy to settle in and make friends and establish a routine. Read how I did it…
It made me
a smartypants 
How I did it: I took Corporate Finance twice. To my great dismay I failed it the first time. But having a good overview and doing my homework really helped. I don't think you can or should try to "understand" the stock market without taking a university course. Otherwise you are going to be getting the biases of the book authors that you read, and those who are advising you. Read how I did it…
It made me
smug
How I did it: As someone who over the course of two years became a Master of Discardia and packed a 1800 sq. ft / 168 q.m. house into storage locker, and also as someone in the honourable position of managing a small menagerie with all of their needs to organize as well as can be, I proudly offer a method for Getting This Done. If you've read Getting Things Done you will recognize the method, but I also learned from The Procrastinator's Handbook b… Read how I did it…
See all "How I Did It" stories...
Recent entries
The Memoir Project, by Marion Roach Smith. It’s highly motivating and instructive, and I have been transcribing all the useful bits into my book on writing. I am getting my writing folders better organized, and getting familiar with my tools and how I can use them. And so, I will get started, probably by taking something old and memoir-ish that I’ve already written, considering it a “vomit” draft, and start chopping it up and rewriting it to be something much more interesting.
February 8th update: I have been going through my writing and essays on my computer and have been running a first pass on what passes as so much first-draft vomit, one of which, it seems, I had the temerity to pass off as a final essay for a course on The Personal Essay. This work is like a vortex – I was only supposed to spend about two hours on it this morning, and now it’s 1:30.
I have also begun using Mac’s Services menu (which unfortunately doesn’t work in Word) to manage the paragraphs that serve as whole new writing ideas, or else need cutting to be used somewhere else, someday. The Services send the selected paragraph to OmniOutliner’s Clippings document, and from there, I can drag them into my Story Inventory or my Cut Lines OmniOutliner files. Or leave them in Clippings for another day.
I am hoping that with all of this, I can find worthy articles to write, and go to the Writer’s Almanac and find publications that match the topics and would find a given article interesting.
Conversations with God – but I skimmed over the last couple of chapters because I had had my fill, and decided that I will be unlikely to sell (but may give away) this book, so I will pick it up again when it’s needed.
I also read:- Labyrinth of Desire – Rosemarie __
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – Mark Haddon
I am in the (slow this time, did not borrow it from library so there will be no consecutive sittings of 10 hours) process of reading the final book of the Twilight “saga” which is not a saga, but a series. I go to the library to do this, and I read from 3 – 10 chapters depending on what seems like a really reasonable place to put the book down.
I have several other books to read – including Our Dying Planet, by Peter Sales – but I feel full and would like to take a break from reading for a bit.
