The Longlist: Part 1

[stapsdoes101things]

There's my notebook. It's nearly fifty years old - so it's high time it was used. You'll see behind it part of the first draft of the longlist, written very small on scrap paper. You needn't go to the trouble of deciphering my handwriting, though; I'll type it out.

This is the first of what will probably be a total of five posts of the longlist; I'm breaking it down so as not to get list fatigue. What I'd love, if you've got the time and the inclination, would be comments on this and the following four posts. I'd like you to tell me things like this: 'you need a license to do that'; 'I have done this - ask me more'; 'this is a really useful book/site/group if you're seriously thinking about doing that'; 'this will take you a very long time'; 'that is a stupid idea'.

Ask me about what I've written. Ask me, 'what experience do you have in this area already?'; 'what is this concept?'; 'do you honestly have the time/money to do this?' - I may not answer immediately, but you can trust me: I'll think about it. Hard. And, perhaps most importantly, ask me, 'why do you want to do that?' Because if I can't answer that one, it's not something that needs to be on my list.

- become a mystery worshipper
- do the A-Z challenge: places
- do the A-Z challenge: authors
- go on retreat
- update hymn blog weekly
- wild-release a particular book that has sentimental meaning to me, in the particular copy to which I am attached
- investigate my parish church, the Friends Meeting, and one other communion in Woking
- see 5 films at the cinema
- run a BookCrossing challenge
- swim 500 lengths
- have a 'recommend me' month
- write first draft of 'The Slowest Elopement' or another Phyl book
- write final draft of 'These Three Remain'
- get a printer that will produce decent photos
- make a funeral plan
- make an altered book
- sing four solos at church
- sing two solos at another public event
- take a flight in a hot air balloon
- try 3 recipes from each cookbook I own
- go to the British grand prix, the Goodwood Revival, or a similarly iconic motoring event
- do project 365
- keep track of my depression
- make a wedding album or scrapbook
- fill in 1001 verses of the musical Bible project
- do self-portrait Thursday for a year
- take a trip on the Waverley
- keep track of distance travelled by various means
- start a Wikipedia article
- get a Wikipedia article to B class
- get a Wikipedia article to A class
- get a Wikipedia article to Good Article class
- get a Wikipedia article to Featured article class
- do 501 hours on Wii Fit
- join or form a reading group

Some of these I have had my heart set on for years. Some of them I added on a whim because I thought they looked quite fun. I'm not going to tell you which is which, so you are free to assume the same basic level of motivation for all of them.

Thank you for your help :-)

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

I more or less have a funeral plan. I'm not sure whether this is a good thing or not. (On the other hand, they'll make me write one during Death Week at college, so if nothing else, it will save homework time that week).

[stapsdoes101things]

That's as good a reason as any! Seriously, I do think it's a positive thing - apart from anything else, it's one thing for the survivors not to have to worry about.

[freddiefraggles]

Re: printer that will print photos... you might want to think about actually not bothering, unless you can find one that will a) work properly and b) be very cost-effective. We used to have a small photo printer and it hardly got used because it wasn't particularly good (despite being HP, it just wasn't intuitive or quick enough).

Re: hot air balloon trip... I'm reliably informed by

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Re: printer that will print photos... you might want to think about actually not bothering, unless you can find one that will a) work properly and b) be very cost-effective. We used to have a small photo printer and it hardly got used because it wasn't particularly good (despite being HP, it just wasn't intuitive or quick enough).

Re: hot air balloon trip... I'm reliably informed by <user=ephrael> that it can be rather dull.

[freddiefraggles]

Eh, I don't know how to put the usernames in on this thing.

[stapsdoes101things]

[user name=freddiefraggles], but with pointy brackets. Or [user name=freddiefraggles site=livejournal.com] if you want to link to an LJ.

What do you do when you want a decent print? At the moment I am just taking stuff to Boots, but it's a faff.

I get very excited at the sight of hot air balloons, and, other than going six feet off the ground in a tethered one, have never yet flown in one. We shall see.

[freddiefraggles]

Ah, thank you!

I use snapfish.co.uk for prints - make sure you have your formats right before sending to print, else they just chop the edges off because they don't know any better. I have a 12x8 print of this photo waiting for a frame.

[cuculine]

This is balloonhat, here from Mission 101 comm.

For keep track of my depression, how were you planning on tracking it? It doesn't immediately offer a concrete way of making progress on it - are you writing it down during low moments, is it just X'ing out days of really bad bouts on a calendar so you can see an overall pattern? I had something similar for my list (be less negative/pessimistic) until I thought about this - I chose to mesh it together with a "being grateful" goal (which I see you have on your list as well!), and now I list 5 Great Things for each week. Even if they were horrible weeks, 5 great things must be identified. Oddly, it's helped (me).

[stapsdoes101things]

I was thinking of getting hold of one of the questionnaires that doctors use to determine how bad you are - possibly this one - and filling it out once a week or something like that.

[stonefox84.livejournal.com]

You could always come to Communion in my methodist church, then you would be having a communion elsewhere in Woking!

[stapsdoes101things]

That would be good! I think I meant 'congregation' rather than 'communion' - same difference, really.