Day Zero Project
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.
- Take the GRE
- Apply to grad school
- Apply to at least one grad school that’s a “reach” school
- Take an academic class
- Teach a class/workshop [4/30/2010]
- Attend SXSW [3/12–3/16/2010]
- Learn a new language
- Bookmark 500 interesting sites (500/500) [7/7/2010]
- Choose colors for my personal brand and stick to them
- Create a logo for myself
- Design/develop a WordPress theme
- Improve my CSS skills
- Make a custom 404 error page for my domain
- Keep my resume up to date
- Go to a Michigan State game
- Take a vacation to a place I’ve never been [1/16–1/18/2010]
- Visit NYC
- Visit Las Vegas [4/19–4/23/2010]
- Make [realistic] plans to travel out of country
- Host 5 CouchSurfers (1/5)
- Go camping [4/9–4/11/2010]
- Go backpacking
- Reread all of Francesca Lia Block’s work
- Reread the Chronicles of Narnia
- Reread the Harry Potter series
- Reread the Little House on the Prairie series
- Read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in French
- Read 10 new books (11/10)
- 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
- Blood Oranges by Francesca Lia Block
- I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
- Pretty Dead by Francesca Lia Block
- House of Dolls by Francesca Lia Block
- Daughters of the Moon: The Final Eclipse by Lynne Ewing
- Start writing my novel [11/2009]
- Write 3 poems
- Attend a writing workshop given by Francesca Lia Block
- Write 150 blog posts (34/150)
- Write the story of my life by writing unsent letters to people in my past
- Complete my “History of the Internet According to Kristen M. Byers” project
- Get orthodontics (and figure out how to pay for them!) [10/2/2009]
- Get Nigel’s teeth cleaned [1/22/2010]
- Pay off student loans from undergrad ($11,715.14 to go! Original amount borrowed: $29,901.98) [as of 7/27/2010]
- Buy a new Mac (…with cash) [1/31/2010]
- Buy at least 10 items off my Amazon wish list (14/10)
- 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
- Sims 3 Ambitions
- Pretty Dead by Francesca Lia Block
- House of Dolls by Francesca Lia Block
- The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
- Rumors by Anna Godbersen
- Envy by Anna Godbersen
- Splendor by Anna Godbersen
- Daughters of the Moon: The Final Eclipse by Lynne Ewing
- How to (Un)cage a Girl by Francesca Lia Block
- Buy a Kindle
- Buy a Time Capsule
- Set monthly budgets
- 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)
- Make $2000 from eBay sales ($817.19/$2000)
- September 2009: $238.92
- October 2009: $114.94
- November 2009: $415.35
- January 2010: $3.99
- June 2010: $14.03
- July 2010: $29.96
- Discover a craft I can sell in my Etsy shop
- Save for a down payment on a car
- Go 1 week without buying anything but groceries
Avoid buying a microwaveFailed since we inherited a microwave when Katie moved to South Dakota.- Make bubble tea [2/14/2010]
- Cook for 1 week
- Find a good recipe that uses artichokes
- Find a good recipe that incorporates lots of sriracha
- Go out to eat at a fancy restaurant
- Go vegetarian for a week
- Make an entirely vegetarian Thanksgiving meal
- Make my grandmother’s Christmas cookies using a cookie press
- Discover a beer I like (not merely tolerate)
- Discover a wine I like (not merely tolerate, white zinfandel & sangria do NOT count): vinho verde [3/2010]
- Create a signature cocktail
- See the Get Up Kids in concert [9/21/2009]
- Eliminate unnecessary music from my iPod
- Rate all of the songs on my iPod (6409/8053)
- Perform with a senior drum and bugle corps
- Learn a new piece on the piano
- Compose a song using GarageBand
- Compile old Shelter[ed] footage into a cool video (& make 4 copies for the appropriate girls)
- Learn the Beyonce “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” dance
- Beat Tomb Raider 5, the only game in the TR series I haven’t played through completely (currently on level 11/13)
- Learn to play DragonForce’s “Through the Fire and the Flames” from Guitar Hero III on Hard
- Play one family on the Sims 3 through at least 10 generations (8/10)
- Buy (and wear) a pair of cowboy boots
- Force myself to use keyboard shortcuts on my Mac; set up [and use] Spaces on my Mac
- have mastered (and regularly use) SHIFT + COMMAND + T to switch to plain text in TextEdit
- learned SHIFT + COMMAND + S to “Save as…” in Photoshop
- Design my own calendar
- Drive a motorcycle
- Retrieve my old journals from my mom’s basement
- Wreck a journal
- Host a holiday at our house [Thanksgiving 2009]
- Teach Nigel 3 new tricks
- Get Nigel a lion haircut
- Back up my hard drive 1x/month
- Frame my Kurt Halsey print (I believed it would be forever)
- Dress up for Halloween (no store-bought pre-packaged costumes allowed!)
- Have a 1,001 days completion party
- Send a postcard to PostSecret
- Learn yoga
- Wear my hair in dreadlocks [1/24-3/20/2010]
- Get modified by Brian Decker [9/5/2009]
- Draw a first draft of a tattoo and see it to fruition
- Take a dance class
- Learn how to swim (like, really swim…not doggy paddle!)
- Get a massage [4/20/2010]
- Get a pedicure
- Get my eyebrows waxed
- Stop biting my nails (FOR GOOD)
- Take the Canine Good Citizen test with Nigel
Play an entire Akoha deckNeed to revisit this goal now that Akoha has transitioned to a mobile app.- Send homemade Christmas cards
- Use only reusable bags for grocery shopping
- Stop buying bottled water and use something more environment-friendly
- For every uncompleted item on this list, donate $5 to a charity
- Inspire 5 people to make their own 101 goals list (4/5)
- @MarciRandall
- Kathryn
- KC
- Corner

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Great list!!
A fellow 101er and I started an online community for people doing the 101 in 1001 at dayzero.ning.com. We’d love to have you join!
I’m looking forward to following your journey! Good luck!
Tara
http://101.tarasg.com