101 goals in 1001 days

Start date: September 1, 2009
End date: May 29, 2012

Resolutions are fleeting so I have made the commitment to complete 101 goals in 1001 days as part of the Day Zero Project.

Academic

1. Take the GRE
2. Apply to grad school
3. Apply to at least one grad school that’s a “reach” school
4. Take an academic class
5. Teach a class/workshop
6. Attend SXSW [3/12–3/16/2010]
7. Learn a new language

Web & Personal Branding

8. Bookmark 500 interesting sites (224/500)
9. Choose colors for my personal brand and stick to them
10. Create a logo for myself
11. Design/develop a WordPress theme
12. Improve my CSS skills
13. Make a custom 404 error page for my domain
14. Keep my resume up to date

Travel

15. Go to a Michigan State game
16. Take a vacation to a place I’ve never been [1/16–1/18/2010]
17. Visit NYC
18. Visit Las Vegas [4/19–4/23/2010]
19. Make [realistic] plans to travel out of country
20. Host 5 CouchSurfers
    • Marie from Brittany, France
21. Go camping
22. Go backpacking

Reading

23. Reread all of Francesca Lia Block’s work
24. Reread the Chronicles of Narnia
25. Reread the Harry Potter series
26. Reread the Little House on the Prairie series
27. Read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in French
28. Read 10 new books
    • Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle by Daniel Everett
    • Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky
    • Crooked by Louisa Luna
    • Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald
    • The Bachelorette Party by Karen McCullah Lutz
    • She’s Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff by Annalee Newitz and Charlie Anders

Writing

29. Start writing my novel [11/2009]
30. Write 3 poems
31. Attend a writing workshop given by Francesca Lia Block
32. Write 150 blog entries (5/150)
33. Write the story of my life by writing unsent letters to people in my past
34. Complete my “History of the Internet According to Kristen M. Byers” project

Financial

35. Get orthodontics (and figure out how to pay for them!) [10/2/2009]
36. Get Nigel’s teeth cleaned [1/22/2010]
37. Pay off student loans from undergrad ($16,915.72 to go! Out of $29,901.98 total)
38. Buy a new Mac (…with cash) [1/31/2010]
39. Buy at least 10 items off my Amazon wish list
    • Eye-Fi Explore Video 4GB SD card
    • WaterWeek bottles
    • Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky
    • Blood Roses by Francesca Lia Block
    • I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
40. Buy a Kindle
41. Buy a Time Capsule
42. Set monthly budgets
43. Each year, make cool graphs using my Mint data (or otherwise show cool graphs of my budgets, just in case I’m no longer using Mint in the future)
44. Make $2000 from eBay sales ($773.20/$2000)
    • September 2009: $238.92
    • October 2009: $114.94
    • November 2009: $415.35
    • January 2010: $3.99
45. Discover a craft I can sell in my Etsy shop
46. Save for a down payment on a car
47. Go 1 week without buying anything but groceries

Food

48. Avoid buying a microwave
49. Make bubble tea
50. Cook for 1 week
51. Find a good recipe that uses artichokes
52. Find a good recipe that incorporates lots of sriracha
53. Go out to eat at a fancy restaurant
54. Go vegetarian for a week
55. Make an entirely vegetarian Thanksgiving meal
56. Make my grandmother’s Christmas cookies using a cookie press
57. Discover a beer I like (not merely tolerate)
58. Discover a wine I like (not merely tolerate, white zinfandel & sangria do NOT count)
59. Create a signature cocktail

Music

60. See the Get Up Kids in concert [9/21/2009]
61. Eliminate unnecessary music from my iPod
62. Rate all of the songs on my iPod (6134/8067)
63. Perform with a senior drum and bugle corps
64. Learn a new piece on the piano
65. Compose a song using GarageBand
66. Compile old Shelter[ed] footage into a cool video (& make 4 copies for the appropriate girls)
67. Learn the Beyonce “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” dance

Video Games

68. Beat Tomb Raider 5 (the only game in the series I haven’t played through completely)
69. Learn to play DragonForce’s “Through the Fire and the Flames” from Guitar Hero III on Hard
70. Play one family on the Sims 3 through at least 10 generations (5/10)

Just for Fun

71. Buy (and wear) a pair of cowboy boots
72. Force myself to use keyboard shortcuts on my Mac; set up [and use] Spaces on my Mac
73. Design my own calendar
74. Drive a motorcycle
75. Retrieve my old journals from my mom’s basement
76. Wreck a journal
77. Host a holiday at our house
78. Teach Nigel 3 new tricks
79. Get Nigel a lion haircut
80. Back up my hard drive 1x/month
81. Frame my Kurt Halsey print (I believed it would be forever)
82. Dress up for Halloween (no store-bought pre-packaged costumes allowed!)
83. Have a 1,001 days completion party
84. Send a postcard to PostSecret

For a Better Me

85. Learn yoga
86. Wear my hair in dreadlocks [1/24/2010]
87. Get modified by Brian Decker [9/5/2009]
88. Draw a first draft of a tattoo and see it to fruition
89. Take a dance class
90. Learn how to swim (like, really swim…not doggy paddle!)
91. Get a massage
92. Get a pedicure
93. Get my eyebrows waxed
94. Stop biting my nails (FOR GOOD)

For a Better World

95. Take the Canine Good Citizen test with Nigel
96. Play an entire Akoha deck
97. Send homemade Christmas cards
98. Use only reusable bags for grocery shopping
99. Stop buying bottled water and use something more environment-friendly
100. For every uncompleted item on this list, donate $5 to a charity
101. Inspire 5 people to make their own 101 goals list
     • @MarciRandall
     • @kathrynh
     • KC