Thing #78: Hold a jumble sale - Update

I have now posted a few items on eBay. Lets see how they go! In the mean time, I decided to sell a few of the books that I bought some time ago and never read. I filled a bag and headed to the second hand book store, only to find out that they have over-supply and would not be buying more until after the holidays. Desperate to avoid having to return with the heavy bag, I went to a second second-hand bookstore and things got more complicated. They offered credit for three brand new books, but that meant I would have had to return to check if the books had been sold. That's just too much hassle. In retrospect, I should have offered to give them away for half the credit value, but in cash. That would have closed the deal and I would have completed this Thing. Anyway, I came up with a better idea. I will give them to friends or release them in the wild using bookcrossing.com (remember Thing #34?). Hopefully, one of my eBay items will be sold and I will get to announce this Thing completed!

It's Christmas Every Day

From Wikipedia:

Andy Park, is an electrician from Melksham, Wiltshire, England, who styles himself "Mr. Christmas" after having celebrated Christmas day every day since 1994.

In 2001, Mr. Park estimated that since he started celebrating, he had got through 30 artificial Christmas trees, 10,000m of tinsel and 10,000 balloons, at a (then) estimated cost of £100,000.
Each day he eats breakfast (turkey sandwich and mince pies), then goes to work, until returning around at lunchtime to eat a full roast turkey dinner before watching a recording of the Queen's Christmas speech, sherry in hand. In 2006, it was reported that the Queen had politely declined an invitation to broadcast her speech from his house.

In an interview published in 2006, Mr. Park was quoted as saying that over the previous 13 years, he had consumed 4,380 turkeys (one a day), 87,600 mince pies (20 a day), 2,190 pints of gravy (half a pint a day), 26,280 roast potatoes (six a day), 30,660 stuffing balls, 219,000 mushy peas, 4,380 bottles of champagne, 4,380 bottles of sherry and 5,000 bottles of wine. However, in 2001, he was warned by his doctor that the diet was affecting his health after his weight increased to 19 stone (121 kg).

In 2005, he released a single entitled "It's Christmas Every Day", with a video featuring Mike Reid and produced by Andy Whitmore. There were suggestions in the media that much of the information was an attempt by Mr. Park to attract publicity for the single.

On 15 December 2007, in an interview on the BBC Radio 4 program Saturday Live, Mr. Park confirmed he was still celebrating every day. On 25 November 2008, the Daily Mail reported Mr. Parks had to change his celebrations somewhat due to the credit crunch.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope Santa Claus brings everything you asked for and even more. And while waiting boring yourself, there are 101 things to do out there! It's almost 2 years since I've started working through my list and I have 'already' completed 2/3 of it. Only 39 things to go! By next Christmas I should have hopefully be almost there!

Thing #78: Hold a jumble sale

Jumble sales are so yesterday, so I will be trying to sell a few things I have not used for ages on eBay. Well, it's mostly computer components that came out from PCs that gave up on me (it's not my fault they can't work as much as I can). I don't expect to get much for them, but at least I will doing my bit for the environment. After all, I'd rather see them come back to life and serve a purpose to sitting in a box accumulating dust. Even better, this whole thing of looking for items to sell made me ask myself what I really need to keep and what I don't. Guess what? I started getting rid of things. After all, this is a good time to do so and start 2009 clean - literally and metaphorically. In fact, as I am in the process of clearing the corners this very moment. I will conclude this post right here and get back to it.

Thing #8: Learn how to play an instrument

A few months ago I bought an instrument hoping I was going to learn how to play it. How difficult can it really be to play a small drum? Well, I hit it a few times and it made this not-so-nice sound. After all the main criterion for buying it was: does it fit in my suitcase? Fast forward to yesterday, when I went out for some Christmas shopping and I came across the Guitar Hero kit. This truly gives a whole new meaning to air guitaring! So, turn on the volume and enjoy!

Thing #71: Do something nice without being ask

Some people need help, but they can't ask for it... because they are unconsious... in a telephone booth. I came across one such case tonight so I thought to do something more than nice and alert a near by policeman that there was someone in need of help.

Thing #40 and Thing #9: Completed for a second time!

What do you get if you combine Thing #40: Take care of an animal, Thing #45: Invent your own game (remember the Sparkling Cow Look game?) and Thing #9: Play a computer game to the end? Well, a game that takes care of virtual pets. I started playing on against my friends and although they had a head start I managed to get to #1. So I can claim both Thing #40 and #9 completed for a second time!

Thing #53: Succeed at something you are bad at

Many people can not sleep when they travel, for example on a train or a bus or an airplane. I am not one of them. In fact I can sleep even before the plane takes off. I find it helps kill time more effectively to starring at the clouds for hours and hours and hours (and hours). The only problem is that when you are on a plane everyone feels obliged to talk to you, it's good customer service after all. The cabin crew will offer a mint, before explaining the safety measures. Then they will bring some food (which you don't really want to eat), then they will bring the drinks, then the coffee/tea, then they will come back to pick things up and then... oh then they will try to sell you duty free. Surely, if I wanted to buy duty free I would have done all my shopping when I was at the airport. As if the above are not enough, the captain needs to inform us of the route we are going to follow and the flying level. Does it make any difference? I got on board at point A and I want toget out at point B. That's all it matters to me. Why am I saying all this? It's because it's impossible to sleep with all these disruptions.

Anyway, to complete this Thing I managed to stay awake for about 30-35 minutes in the taxi that brought me to the airport. This was a great achievement if one considers I failed the last three times and this is the exception and not the norm!

Thing #34: Hide treasure and leave a map

In June I was planning to go after a book in the wild, released as part of the bookcrossing.com initiative. It took me a few months but I finally managed to complete this Thing by hunting down a book released in my area. I did check a map to find the exact location (there are no X in Google maps), but that was not really need as I had a rough idea of where the place was. It was very exciting to see the book there on the shelf waiting for me!

For the record here is a photo!

To search for books or even release your own books in the wild visit http://www.bookcrossing.com/.

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.