Tell Her Not To Go

Welcome back! Sorry for the long delay in posts - unfortunately, the waiting around for 2011 to get here is not something I have control over. But I have spent it investigating some items worthy of being on my list, and in doing so have now added five new goals to my list, which now looks like this:

1. Record a five song EP
2. Get my motorcycle license
3. Donate blood
4. Busk for a day
5. Take a solo road trip
6. Cook dinner for me and five friends
7. See a game of sport, a concert, a comedy show, a musical and a theatre production
8. Paint a self-portrait
9. Learn a song on piano (or any instrument that's not guitar)
10. Read 12 important books
11. Create a 10-minute arthouse film
12. Create a photo album that represents my life
13. Ride the Indian Pacific
14. Run a marathon
15. Spend a month following a type of meditation
16. Write a NaNoWriMo novel
17.
18.
19.
20.
21. Spend New Year's Eve at Times Square, New York

Some pretty big items now on this list! The Indian Pacific is something my family has always wanted to do, but I'm poaching it and am going to do it first. I'm most likely going to cross this item off around April, when I have to go to Sydney for a concert I'm seeing. Thankfully I have an income which will allow me to do this, so I'm stoked at the idea of heading across the Nullabor on the train.

In scanning lots of 'Bucket Lists', the idea of running a marathon seems to be pretty popular. I'm not exactly unfit, and am becoming less so as football practice goes by every week, but I think it's something that shows character, endurance and perseverance. I participated in Relay for Life this year, which is the closest I've come, but I want to actually participate in a marathon as a solo runner.

The meditation one came across as a really interesting idea. I'm a practicing Christian, but I won't be doing biblical meditation to fill this one out. I haven't looked at any particular practice yet but there's loads out there. I should also point out that by 'a month of meditation', I don't mean meditating non-stop for a month. One can only handle so much enlightenment at a time :P But I will be following a particular practice for an entire month and I think it'll be really invigorating.

Number 16 - Write a NaNoWriMo novel - is something I've actually done in the past. I was a WriMo winner in 2008, achieving the 50,000 words required to become a winner in just under the 30-day limit. But since then I've tried it twice and have failed both times, mostly due to a lack of motivation. I would have had ample time to complete them both. But not to worry, by adding it to the list I'm preparing to write a hopefully more mature novel than my somewhat juvenile attempt from '08.

There are a few empty spots before my final goal: Spend New Year's Eve in Times Square, New York. I'm very grateful for the vlessing that is my father working for Qantas, so flying is somewhat cheaper for me than for other people. That said, it's still not cheap to fly to America and back. Nevertheless, I think there's a great opportunity here: to finish off my list in grandiose and memorable fashion. Will I be alone? In spirit, yes, but not in person. Working up to this as the final goal is really exciting. Also, note that it says New Year's Eve, not spend the New Year - so I will have completed my last goal by 11:59, December 31!

With all that said, there are still four empty spots remaining on my list. One of these is going to be devoted to something charity-related, so please suggest away for that and for the remaining three spots as well. For number 10, I've lowered the number of books to 12, seeing as reading time is spare for me during university. One a month is something I can handle. The other change is that a daily video blog is something that may compromise the possible success of the blog - I'm worried that many of these will be pointless and meandering. In order to remedy this, I've decided to lower the number of video blogs to a bi-weekly format; hopefully one on a Saturday morning to cover the weekdays and one on Monday morning to cover the weekend.

As usual, I really want to expand the membership and follower numbers of this blog, so if you haven't already, please click the 'follow' button to the right of this post. Also, please comment on the posts and suggest ideas - if you've already suggested them and I haven't taken them, re-suggest the ones you think would be most benficial.

Thanks everyone! Hope your lead-up to Christmas is going well!

-Adam