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cactusoftheeast




I'm doing 42 things
  

cactusoftheeast's Life List

  1. 1. Whistle really loudly with my fingers
    5 cheers     		32 people
  2. 2. Go skiing at least three times every winter
    1 cheer     		1 person
  3. 3. Learn to yodel
    5 cheers     		91 people
  4. 4. Spend some time in Kabul, Afghanistan
    2 cheers     		1 person
  5. 5. Speak as fluently in German as I can in English
    3 cheers     		1 person
  6. 6. Bake really good bread
    5 cheers     		11 people
  7. 7. Play the following instruments competently: Ney, Zither, Bandoneon
    1 cheer     		1 person
  8. 8. Circumnavigate all three large lakes in Madison, Wis.
    2 cheers     		1 person
  9. 9. Climb the Piz Buin (mountain)
    		1 person
  10. 10. Open a winter food cart on State Street Mall specializing in stews
    2 cheers     		1 person
  11. 11. Read Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Turgenev in Russian
    1 cheer     		1 person
  12. 12. Shepherd livestock for a day
    1 entry . 3 cheers     		1 person
  13. 13. Complete the Polar Plunge again
    1 entry     		1 person
  14. 14. Dabble in the following languages: Hungarian, Persian, Kyrgyz, Lithuanian, Mongolian
    1 cheer     		1 person
  15. 15. Paint a scene I remember from Tokat, Turkey
    1 cheer     		1 person
  16. 16. Write a short but influential novel
    2 cheers     		1 person
  17. 17. Build a desk for myself
    1 cheer     		1 person
  18. 18. Deejay a break-dance session as "DJ Azalax"
    1 cheer     		2 people
  19. 19. Attend a Deishovida concert in Vienna
    		1 person
  20. 20. Bribe my way into the Northern Caucasus
    1 cheer     		1 person
  21. 21. Bike to Mount Horeb
    		2 people
  22. 22. Survive Princeton without becoming a Coastie
    3 cheers     		1 person
  23. 23. Find something to do in New Jersey
    		2 people
  24. 24. Make many new friends
    1 cheer     		5 people
  25. 25. Host an amazing 21st birthday party
    1 cheer     		2 people
  26. 26. Force myself not to speak English for one month
    2 cheers     		1 person
  27. 27. Publish an article in a scholarly journal
    2 cheers     		26 people
  28. 28. Live like an ascetic
    1 cheer     		1 person
  29. 29. Skydive
    		8,403 people
  30. 30. Sleep less, live more
    1 cheer     		14 people
  31. 31. Experiment with Poser 6
    1 cheer     		1 person
  32. 32. Perfect my throat-singing technique
    		1 person
  33. 33. Shatter my sense of reality
    1 cheer     		1 person
  34. 34. Speak more
    		11 people
  35. 35. Turn out to be a good professor
    		1 person
  36. 36. Concoct a recipe for mustard
    		2 people
  37. 37. spread cream cheese perfectly on a bagel
    1 cheer     		1 person
  38. 38. Report the human side of a war
    3 cheers     		1 person
  39. 39. Imitate foreign accents convincingly
    2 entries . 2 cheers     		2 people
  40. 40. finish (most of) my summer reading list
    3 entries . 2 cheers     		1 person
  41. 41. Write down all my dreams in one year, then get them taken for interpretation by a dream analyst
    2 entries . 1 cheer     		1 person
  42. 42. sign up for a course in PHP
    1 cheer     		1 person
Recent entries
Cultivate an appreciation for foreign film
The Good and the Not-So-Good 2 years ago

I have “cultivated” an appreciation for foreign language film—I have seen enough now to recognize which foreign films are good ones and which are not worth watching, and have established quite a repertoire. For example,

Highly Recommended
  • Turtles Can Fly (Bahman Ghobadi/Iraq (Kurdistan)/2004)
  • In July (Fatih Akin/Germany/1999)
  • Up and Down (Jan Hrebejk/Czech Republic/2004)
  • Dark Horse (Dagur Kári/Denmark/2005)
Not Necessarily Recommended
  • Kandahar (Mohsen Makhmalbaf/Iran, Afghanistan/2001)
  • Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel/Germany/2004)
  • The City of Lost Children (Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet/France/1995)

Any recommendations from you?

The only thing left to do now is to watch some of the “classics” like Fellini and Kurosawa—

3 comments

finish (most of) my summer reading list (read all 3 entries…)
Fatelessness by Imre Kertész 2 years ago

This book is absolutely, unconditionally stunning.

It is quite possibly the best book I have ever read, simultaneously horrifying and special. It is difficult to read, not because of the language or the plot but because it causes such conflicting emotions which you are forced to reconcile.

Fatelessness follows a Hungarian boy as he is sent to Auschwitz and other concentration camps, where he is “fated” to survive stoically, step by step. Definitely deserving of the Nobel Prize. ()

On to Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, all in all quite a different read—

0 comments

finish (most of) my summer reading list (read all 3 entries…)
The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk 2 years ago

I just finished my first book from the summer reading list, The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk. It’s a sort of intellectual foray into identity—whether two people who look essentially the same can actually become one another given a lot of time and effort. Overall, the final chapter made the book worth reading, but it was a little slow at times. The whole feel of the book was a little magical, and anyone with an interest in Ottoman culture should give it a look. ()

On to Fatelessness...!

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I want to:

The world wants to...

learn Korean learn to use a sewing machine exercise more learn to play the mandolin not take things so personally Katherine wants to identify 100 things that make me happy. change my top 8 to top 16 live in a cabin graduate from college make music take guitar lessons make something beautiful Travel to Alaska meet panic! at the disco Taylor wants to Remember to take my vitamins Read all of Shakespeare's plays go on a three day juice fast learn to speak another language fluently not eat out for 1 month go to cancun figure out what to do with my life make a film dance like nobody's watching ride a horse on the beach be a better daughter improve the world buy a vacation home