Random Fodder

As I mentioned before, I joined my library's Readers' Challenge to read 23 books in three years. I got off to a very quick start in my first month — 5 books — but then I picked up the guidelines and had to ask that two of my books be removed from my list. So now, I'm at 3 books, which is still ahead of schedule to finish 23 books in under a year.

Here's my progress so far, at the end of November 2007:

0. Families That Play Together Stay Together! by Cameron and Donna Partow
   This was a very nice book that encourages families to spend time together bonding and getting/keeping healthy. (I had to remove this from my list because guidelines state that you cannot count books that you own — only books you borrow from the library!)
1. A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut
   Vonnegut has always been one of my favorite authors, particularly since he was categorized by my high school as a "Contemporary Classic." Thus, I could read plenty of Vonnegut and have it count toward my required reading. A Man Without a Country is one of his more recent works, and is really more a collection of essays. I didn't appreciate this book as much as I would have liked because there was plenty of anti-Bush and Bush-equals-Hitler rhetoric. I know that Vonnegut was always more of a Socialist than anything else, but I just felt that this baseless blaming is and was above his intellect.
0. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
   This is a wonderful childrens' classic that I enjoyed multiple times as a child and yet again this month as I read the book to Sebastian. Unfortunately, I had to have this book removed from my reading list because it is not categorized as an Adult or Young Adult book.
2. Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage
   Firmin is an interesting story of a rat who spends his infancy gnawing on a large book and quickly learning to read books. He spends much of his early life living in a bookstore, reading every book he can get access to. He spends his nights eating in a risqué movie theatre. All these books and movies lead to many grand ideas, but in the end, Firmin remains just a rat, detached from humankind. Finally, Firmin finds a human to bond with, but catastrophe befalls him on multiple levels as he loses his friend and the demolition of his home — Boston's Scollay Square — destroys all that he knows. The book is a sad story of longing, told from a truly unique perspective.
3. Money Doesn't Grow on Trees: A Parent's Guide to Raising Financially Responsible Children by Neale S. Godfrey
   This book is a very useful tool to help parents teach their children financial habits that should help them throughout life. The chapter on allowances sheds light on how to properly distribute money to your children (as early as three years old) and ensure that they use their money wisely by giving to charity and saving for medium- and long-term goals. The book also helps you explain to children how banks function and the confusing financial customs such as tipping and taxes. If you have children ages 3-18, you would be well advised to read this book and help your kids gain a mature view of money and finances — you will probably learn a few things about your own finances while you're at it!

I had placed a basic rule for myself that I would aim to read books that were around 200-250 pages so I wouldn't get swamped. After I made that personal guideline, one particular book kept coming up in lists of books similar to what I enjoy, so I checked it out of the library and found the first couple chapters captivating. Wouldn't you know it: That book is 540 pages! Still, that's the book I'm reading now, and it's worth it. Luckily, I'll finish this and still be a little ahead of schedule.

See more progress on: Read 23 books in three years

I am shifting my list of 43 Things from a list of annual goals to a list of lifetime goals. Thus, I have dropped a couple goals and picked up a couple goals, and I plan on doing further maintenance in the future.

One of my 43 Things that I have kept is to interview my son Sebastian on video every year. I have thought this was a great idea and I wanted to do it before he started kindergarten. This year I added the goal so I could do it during the summer between kindergarten and first grade, but it still hasn't gotten done. So, for some lamebrained reason, I decided to use the Challenge feature of 43 Things to try and motivate myself.

So, my current challenge on 43 Things is to interview my son by December 31, 2007 (70 days from now) or else I will: make three snow angels wearing only a pair of shorts.

I tried to make the penalty something annoying enough that I wouldn't want to do it, but easy enough that I would actually penalize myself if I failed. Hopefully, it won't come down to this and I'll get that interview done in the next month or two!

Of course, since this is a recurring goal, I will mark it as completed each year when I complete the interview and then re-add it to my list when the time comes around again.

I dropped my goal to buy a bike because:

1. I managed to get a used bicycle for free.
2. After giving it a test ride, I suddenly realized why I stopped riding my bike when I was younger.
3. I don't have money to spend on silly things I don't like and won't use.

However, I immediately replaced it with a new goal.

I just found out that my library has a program to read 23 books in three years. That's a book every month-and-a-half, which is quite a bit more reading than I'm accustomed to. I'm more of an audiobook guy myself. Maybe I'll get it done, and possibly I won't, but we'll see!

See more progress on: Read 23 books in three years

Another year has passed and now we've got 2007 in front of us.

In 2006, I started getting involved with 43 Things. I use the site to create a list of 43 Things (or 43 goals) to accomplish during the upcoming year. How did I do last year? Let's take a look:

• 10 goals (23%) were completed successfully.
• 12 goals (28%) were abandoned.
• 21 goals (49%) will be carried over for 2007.

What's on my plate for 2007?
(An asterisk [*] indicates a new goal for 2007.)

1. Accomplish more goals this year than last year (11+)*
2. attend a local government meeting
3. Be a better blogger
4. Be part of a flash mob*
5. build an igloo
6. buy a bike*
7. clean up my house and keep it clean
8. Do the Discovery Health National Body Challenge*
9. drink more water*
10. eat healthier
11. eat with my hands
12. exercise regularly
13. fly a kite*
14. get my a+ certification
15. Give blood*
16. go camping
17. go to the zoo*
18. have a 3 month emergency fund*
19. have family devotions
20. Have people over for dinner
21. Help another person complete one of their forty-three things*
22. Help my mother start her home business*
23. interview my son on video every year*
24. Join a community theater*
25. Learn how to remember peoples' names*
26. Learn Spanish
27. lose weight
28. make a time capsule
29. open the yellow pages, pick the seventh restaurant, and eat the seventh entree and dessert on the menu
30. paint my own abstract art
31. Participate in a school function*
32. plan meals in advance*
33. Reduce debt.
34. Send a message in a bottle
35. Send a postcard to Postsecret*
36. shower earlier in the day*
37. sleep in a hammock
38. spend ten minutes holding the door for people
39. stick to a budget
40. stop being late*
41. take a family vacation*
42. Volunteer*
43. Watch 12 movies from my list*

You can also head to 43 Things or to my own 43 Things page on The Smarmy Carny and check out my list and accomplishments.

Oh, and for much the same reason, I have also given up on the buy a washing machine goal as well.