025 Join bone marrow donor registry

What's this about?

From the British Bone Marrow Registry website:

Bone marrow is a soft tissue found in the centre of certain bones in your body. It is this bone marrow which creates stem cells. Stem cells are the 'building blocks', which can grow into any of the other normal blood cells such as red cells, which carry oxygen, white cells, which fight infection, or platelets which stop bleeding.

...

There are a number of diseases that prevent a patient's bone marrow from working properly. These include leukaemia and aplastic anaemia as well as other diseases of the immune system. Although chemotherapy will successfully treat some of these patients, for many the only possibility of a cure is to have a stem cell transplant from a healthy donor. In about 30% of cases, a matched donor can be found from within the patient's family, such as a brother or sister. The other 70% of patients have to rely on a matched volunteer donor, identified through The British Bone Marrow Registry (BBMR).


Why do I want to do this?

I'm pretty healthy. Plenty of people aren't. Here is an opportunity to perhaps help someone out with relatively little effort on my part.


How will I know when I've done it?

I will be listed by the British Bone Marrow Registry or another bone marrow registry as a potential donor. If I am subsequently matched with a patient I will make every effort to follow through on the donation process.


This goal may be modified or replaced if for some reason that I'm not currently aware of, I'm not a suitable candidate for donation.


I'll record this in a post on this journal.

026 Learn about meteorology

What's this about?

Meteorology, says Wikipedia, is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and short term forecasting (in contrast with climatology). Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the eighteenth century. The nineteenth century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries. Breakthroughs in weather forecasting were achieved in the latter half of the twentieth century, after the development of the computer.

Meteorological phenomena are observable weather events which illuminate and are explained by the science of meteorology. Those events are bound by the variables that exist in Earth's atmosphere: They are temperature, air pressure, water vapor, and the gradients and interactions of each variable, and how they change in time.

I'd just like to be able to understand a weather map.


Why do I want to do this?

It seems like fairly basic knowledge that I don't understand at all. So.


How will I know when I've done it?

Good question. This is probably my vaguest goal. I will call it done when I can look at a pressure map and explain what the wiggly lines [are likely to] mean for the weather.


I'll record this in occasional posts in this journal.

027 Do a first aid course

Why do I want to do this?

I'm fairly squeamish - which fact alone is never going to stop me being in a situation where somebody's hurt and needs attention. I'd like to have a better idea of what to do.


How will I know when I've done it?

I'll be a qualified first aider.


I'll record this in posts on this journal.

028 Set up, and fill in 1001 verses of, the musical Bible project

What's this about? Why do I want to do it?

A while back it occurred to me that, if one searched the whole history of church/religious music, one could find probably 90% of the verses of the Bible. I'm curious to see how difficult that would be. I think that trying to find the whole Bible in song is probably a little overambitious for 1001 days, but I'm pretty sure that I can do 1001 verses. The only snag is... I don't yet have anywhere to put them.


How will I know when it's done?

I will have set up some form of repository, and on this I will have identified and/or linked to pieces of music that together set 1001 verses of the Bible. (Yes, the Apocrypha counts, though I doubt that it would seriously inconvenience me if it didn't.)


I'll record this on the yet-to-be-set-up repository, to which I'll link here.

1001 verses at the musicalbible:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 / 30 / 31 / 32 / 33 / 34 / 35 / 36 / 37 / 38 / 39 / 40 / 41 / 42 / 43 / 44 / 45 / 46 / 47 / 48 / 49 / 50 / 51 / 52 / 53 / 54 / 55 / 56 / 57 / 58 / 59 / 60 / 61 / 62 / 63 / 64 / 65 / 66 / 67 / 68 / 69 / 70 / 71 / 72 / 73 / 74 / 75 / 76 / 77 / 78 / 79 / 80 / 81 / 82 / 83 / 84 / 85 / 86 / 87 / 88 / 89 / 90 / 91 / 92 / 93 / 94 / 95 / 96 / 97 / 98 / 99 / 100 / 101 / 102 / 103 / 104 / 105 / 106 / 107 / 108 / 109 / 110 / 111 / 112 / 113 / 114 / 115

029 Walk pilgrimage from home to Canterbury

What's this about?

It's hardly news that Canterbury is an important destination for pilgrimage; it has been ever since the murder of Thomas Becket. It's not all that far from me, either.


Why do I want to do this?

It's been far too long since I did a proper pilgrimage, which is something that I find extremely useful in my spiritual life. This one is easily manageable from where I am now.


How will I know when I've done it?

I'll have travelled on foot from my home in Woking to Canterbury cathedral. I may do this in stages, so long as I pick up each new stage exactly where I left off the last one.


I'll record this in posts in this journal.