Thing #67: Build the Ultimate Sandcastle and Have Fun in the Sun

They did not specify what exactly they meant by "ultimate", so I thought to innovate...

Thing #47: Make your Own Badges

If you like my new badges and you are not old and boring then feel free to drop me a line and order yours!

In fact, I am considering selling a wide range of products to remind others that i am not old and boring!

Thing #61: Join a club

For Thing #80 I had to start a secret society.. and of course join it! It would have been though contumelious to put this forward claiming this Thing done.

So, for Thing #80 I will put forward myself joining a book club. The only thing is that I have never attended the club's meetings (well I found myself once a table away from their meeting - does that count?) ! In my defence, I did buy two of the proposed books for discussion but never got around to reading them. After all, I have not even read my Wired collection yet!

Thing #3: Make an oregami crane (Reader contribution)

For a previous Thing I had to make an oregami crane. Well I did not, but a reader did and sent me a photo!





If you want to contribute with your own stories or photos of Things you have done, leave a comment with your email and I will email you back.

Thing #3: Make an Origami Crane

Not an origami crane, but equally exciting. Use pub supplied beer mats to make a TIE fighter chasing a X_Wing.



PS: Convenience has just been elevated to a completely new level.

Thing #80: Start your own secret society

I started my own secret, but as it is secret, I can not tell you more about it.

Thing #25: Start a collection

Collecting things is an addiction that can become easily become obsession. You buy a couple of things that you really like and then you need to have the rest of them. Then, the whole universe conspires against you in order to miss or not find the last thing that will complete the collection!

Anyway, for this Thing I put forward my collection of... unread Wired magazines. I have now 12 issues that I have not managed to read due to other committemments (i.e. work). Still, every month I make sure I pay the -now regular- visit to the local newsagent.

You may wonder why don't I just subscribe? Well a subscription in the States costs $20 for two years (no this is not a typo), while in the UK a subscription for one year costs £59.64! WHY? And if you think this is due to the magazine travelling over the big pond called Atlantic Ocean, well think again. The yearly subscription in the UK costs about 25% more than buying 12 individual issues from the newsagent!

And if you thought that only applied to one magazine's subscription rates, then think again! Read this review in PCPro about IT related prices.

New year resolutions

I am one of these people that connect things in their head piece by piece and then they have the big Aha! moment (you know the moment with the flashing bulb over your head?). Well I had one of these moments today. I have been thinking of something interesting to get myself involved with for sometime and came up with a long list of things. Mostly involved creating collections (or databases if you prefer) of things and putting them on the web. What's the point after all if you are to do something and keep to yourself?

I also wanted to start writing again. Not that I ever stopped. But I could not find anything to write about. Of course it would have be something interesting, otherwise no one will read it (remember the sharing concept?). It would also have to be interesting for me too, otherwise I will bore myself to death and this is supposed to be fun.

I struggled for sometime and then watched CSI.

Grissom: So, let's see. You surf, you scuba dive. You're into latex, you like fashion models and Marilyn Manson. And you also have a coin collection?

Greg: Weird, ha?

Grissom: Well, I race cockroaches.

No I am not going to get involved with any of the above (especially racing cockroaches!). It was just a reminder that I was probably spending too much time thinking about what I want to do instead of actually doing something. So now, well yesterday, I got determined, but still lacked the idea. And the idea came this morning.

I have a friend who listens to this random music called Jazz. I like Jazz; sometimes, not always, but that's another story. Anyway, he said why don't you try the '101 Things to Do Before You're Old and Boring'. The book gives you ideas and encourages you to log your experiences. This is the moment I had the flashing bulb over my head. I can do 101 things and then blog them. Sounds reasonably cool.

Actually I had already read '100 Things to do before you die'. Typical me, I read the booklet (very short read), highlighted the interesting bits and then filed it under 'Useful for quotes'. I guess you have figured the plan already. I follow the books and do what they say. Some of the stuff in this type of books can often be crazy or so improbable that they end up being crazy for my taste so I won't or I can not do them. Everything else I will blog and keep you updated of my progress.