Thing #51: I am spending my time (and money)

About 6 months ago I bought a green tie. I then managed to make a mark on it using a pen so I gave it to my mother to 'safely' vanish the stain. She did vanish it, tie included! So I gave up waiting for it to miraculously re-appear and bought a new one. Well 3 of them. And... while I was on it I got a 7-port USB self-powered hub. After all, every household needs one of them. I then went for a hot chocolate... twice.

Going shopping with your swear money? About £47.6. Blogging it for the 101 Things to do before you are old and boring? Priceless!

Having spent my swear box money I can now claim Thing #51 done. As this is the 60th completed thing, I am now almost 2/3 there!

Thing #101: Decide what you want to be

Too late for that... I am already what I decided to be. Well, sort of! More than 15 years I was asked that very question. My answer was rather 'ambitious'. No, I did not want to be an astronaut. Neither did I want to be a super star of any sort. Not even a pilot (that's something I want now). I wanted to be a mathematician, physicist and analyst (not of a specific sort - I just wanted to analyse stuff!). The teacher said I could not be all those things. She was 'right' after all. You need about a decade just to study those things at an undergraduate level. Still, I was lucky to combine all the above, and more, and for that I can only be grateful.

It got me thinking though, how easy it is to dismiss other people's dreams. We all do it (and not just for dreams). What a silly thing to do though. Dismiss a dream? But, it's a just dream! Let them live it. Help them live it. Encourage them to try and when they fail be there to push them further. Failure is part of the process and the process is what matters, so failures matter too. How we deal with adversity says a lot about us after all.

Same thing applies to you too. If you want to know who your friends are (Thing #56) then see who supports you - without asking. Not just those who will say 'yes' all the time. Those who trully care about you. Those who think about your step #2 before you even take step #1. Those who invest in your happiness. And when you know who these people are, make sure you keep them close.

Thing #50: Pretend to be ill - convincingly

Faking anything is a matter of time. You need to get people off guard otherwise you have about 0% of succeeding. This time of the year is great to pretend being ill as everyone has a cold (those of you who have not got one yet - just wait or even better just say: I am not going to get one). So when I got a sms from a friend who was looking after relatives with a cold I thought to give it a try. So, I replied that I was in bed with fever and that I needed to go to the hospital. OK, there was no face to face contact, neither was there any voice chat involved, but one should not underestimate the genius required to pull this off within 160 characters. Anyhow, within 3 sms I got my friend relatively upset as I was not 'planning' to go to the hospital despite my fever (I am stubborn what can I say?). I could not torturing the pure thing any further (the good man I am) so I put an end on it. Good news? Thing #50 is now complete!

Thing #21: Stay in bed all day

It's almost midnight and I have now officially spent a day in bed. I actually feel rather tired from doing not much so I think I will now go to sleep. Well, more accurately, I will just sleep.

Thing #21: Sleep all day

Last night I went to bed at 10:30 and woke up at 12:30. Feeling a bit tired from going to the gym yesterday I went back to sleep (as if there was something else to do at 12:30). I woke up around 7:00 thought it's early, and went back to sleep until... 7:30. Being consistent (or predictable - you choose) I slept again only to wake this time at around 9:00. Having the laptop next to me I checked my messages. No news-good news! Well how many emails can you really have between 10:30 Friday night and 9:00 Saturday morning? Of course, spam does not count. I made a coffee (so I had to get out of bed for a few minutes) picked up a few things and went straight back to bed.

Why am I telling you all this? Simply because I am trying to complete Thing #21: Sleep all day. As there is no chance I could spend a whole day sleeping (even if I did not sleep at all during the previous night) I thought to change this slightly and 'Stay in bed all day'. This is probably more difficult as far as I am concerned, as I will soon get restless and would like to get out of bed, but I have the utter confidence in me.

To members of the secret society: To help me get through the next 12 hours 50 minutes, feel free to contact me.

Thing #58: Start a band

Attitude, enthusiasm (and good looks) can get you a long way in the music business. As I have not completed Thing #8 (learn to play a music instrument) I have decided to be the lead singer. And, as I have not found any musicians (who needs them anyway) I have decided to replace them with Karaoke CD. Many of them! They are widely available in music stores and can provide endless hours of entertainment... and potentially humiliation if you are not good enough. Of course the latter does not apply! To give you a taste of what a karaoke night involves, see the video below!



Want to try your skills: Check out this link!

Thing #85: Write a story and get it published

I have published papers (boring version of the word stories) in various publishing outlets since I started writing this blog, but never got around reporting this Thing done. I am doing this now, as I found out this evening that one more paper has been accepted for publication. Good timing as I was looking for the next Thing to do! If anyone is interested in bed time reading, I could send him or her a signed copy!