Bucket List

I found a show on Netflix the other day called The Buried Life. I'm not sure how many of you have heard of it, but it's really cool. It's a reality show, but a good one. Four boys decided they wanted to live their lives to the fullest, so they made a list of 100 things they wanted to do before they died. The show is filming them trying to accomplish their goals. And every time they try to cross something off their list, they help a stranger fulfill one of their wishes. For example, in the episode where one of them wants to spontaneously get married in Vegas, they help a homeless man reunite with his daughter. And when they try to sneak into a Playboy Mansion party, they help an underfunded school get a computer.

It's a really great show. There are only two seasons of it, but every episode is great. It's the most inspiring show ever. So I started thinking about things I wanted to do before I died.

Here are some things on my list, in no order.

1. Dive the underwater river in Mexico.
2. Be invited to speak at TAM or SSA or FFRF or any other skeptic's conference.
3. Visit the building I stayed in in London.
4. Do the Color Run.
5. Be the one to propose.
6. Befriend a group of Australian men while staying in a hostel.
7. Splash paint all over the walls of my kid's room with them. Leave it that way if they want.
8. Climb Machu Picchu.
9. Teach English abroad. Spain, preferably.
10. Volunteer for the Make A Wish foundation.
11. Make a picture wall of memories. All captioned.

So there are some of mine. Post a couple of yours in the comments!

Tracking Progress and Fitness Goals

So, I know I won't ever do anything ever unless I have schedules. "Oh, tomorrow will be fine," is too tempting for me. So here's what I think I should do:

Monday/Thursday: Regular blog posts, if I don't already have two that week.

No-debate-tournament Sundays: Progress stuff. Because I should probably work on that, and public posts are more motivating than telling myself I should do more. This will mainly be me talking about:
1. How hard/easy blogging was this week.
2. If I have story ideas to work off of or not.
3. How fitness stuff is going (spoiler: probably not well, haha)
4. Any other goals I decide to play with.

Fitness stuff:

• Stop snacking, mostly. Like I said on the first post. 
•  I'd say "eat healthier" should be a goal too, but we both know that isn't going to happen, so I'm not going to lie to you. Let's go with "drink more water," which I also know won't happen, but we can pretend.
• I want to eventually be able to do 20 pushups. Because right now I can do 0. Seriously. I can't do a single push-up. I've never been able to. But how do you start doing more when you can't even do one to build up to it??? Ahhhhh. #patheticIknow
• Planking might help? Though I can only stay up for like 2 seconds before collapsing...
• Get outside more. I'm in my room aaaaaall day. Once I'm out I like it, but I always forget how nice it is to get a bit active when I'm lazing around in my bed.
• Promise myself "just five minutes." If I get outside at all I'll stay longer than that. Just have to convince myself to get out in the first place.
• Get out of bed within 30 minutes of waking up! If I'm up all day, I'll be more active. But I have a habit of waking up then staying in bed for hours and hours and hours, and I never do anything. I should probably stop that.
• Also, don't get up then lay back down as a loophole. Once I'm up, no sitting in my bed.

On a related note, I keep forgetting how much I love riding my bike. It's so fun! And I can do it for a fairly good amount of time without my body getting too beat up, as long as I take migraine pills right when I'm done. Which is annoying (I feel like I take so many pills, ugh), but manageable.

On a related-in-my-mind note, I love hashtagging things. I don't use twitter, but it's fun to label stuff. Usually I use a forward slash, though, not sure why.

ALSO. Went on Rachelle's Tumblr. Found a short film called The Strange Thing About the Johnsons. Really disturbing (thaaaanks Rachelle), but pretty good if you can make it all the way through. Link.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have a normal post tomorrow. Might go to the lake or something, so should be fun.

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EDIT: Since this is a Sunday, I'll do some progress stuff now.

Blogging: Got three posts last week, which is good! Had a hard time after the first post, but the random writing was fun, so I'll just do that when I can't think of a real story to do. I'll have to work on writing real stuff, though. Much harder than my "non-fiction" posts.

Fitness: Uhhhhh. Drank some water. Rode my bike for like 20 minutes. Jogged in place for like 5 minutes then got bored. Tried to do a push-up and fell on my face repeatedly.

General: Changed our facebook resolution group from Blogging to 2012 Resolutions, and added in the other people who made resolutions at Rachelle's party. I think it's better that way. Everyone can get involved, and we can help each other with all of our goals. From blogging to sewing to self-esteem, hopefully it'll help keep all of us on track!

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EDIT 2:
Weekly goals on Sundays, too! Just small things to try to accomplish each week. Exercise for 10 minutes a day, don't eat out, blog every day, or any other small thing. I'll announce them on Sundays, then have Mon-Sat to do them.

This week's challenge: No soda! I've been meaning to cut down on soda, so let's see how a week without it goes. Dr. Pepper is the only soda I drink, but I get horrible cravings for it. Usually I drink one a day...ick. Hopefully I'll get through this week without giving in, and maybe that'll help me cut down in general.


Anyone think I'm taking on too much here? I just feel so motivated right now! It'll probably wear off, but might as well set goals while I feel inspired. I can always edit them if I have to, but it'd be great if I could stick to them. And with the public posts and our resolution "support network," hopefully I'll be able to uphold most of the promises I make. Here's to doing this together, everyone! Good luck on all your plans for this year.

New Year's Resolutions

Hi people.

So this year my friends came up with resolutions in the best way ever. We put people without them up on a chair, had them state general areas they wanted to improve, and together the whole room of people shouted things out and edited suggestions until we found one that worked for everyone. (We should make that a regular thing, guys! So much more fun than just thinking of some random stuff on my own.) So anyway, that leads me to this blog.

It's kind of awkward writing like Anthony, Rachelle, and Adam aren't the only ones reading this, by the way, haha.

So anyway, here are my resolutions. Two that we came up with as a group, then one I thought I should add to this.


RESOLUTION 1: Writing

• What it is: This blog. I'm supposed to do two or more posts a week. Ideally one creative post, and one whatever-the-hell-I-want post.
• How I'll do it: I should probably pick two set days to always have one. Right now I think Mondays and Thursdays might work best, but I'll change it if those days don't work once school starts.
• Help me by: Commenting on my posts will keep me motivated, since I'll feel like this isn't worthless and abandoned. And bother me if I don't post all week! 
• Why: I like writing, I should do it more. It's fun, maybe it'll be good stress relief, and secretly I think I'm kind of good at it so we'll see if that's true or not.
  

RESOLUTION 2: Pole dancing

• What it is: Not sexual pole dancing, awesome athletic amazingness. I'll post a video of what got me hooked on wanting to do it at the bottom.
• How I'll do it: Well, the straightforward way is taking lessons. But if those are too far away/too expensive, I'll work on getting in shape enough to start up once I can. Especially in the Fall semester, when I'm (hopefully) in either Portland or Boston: If I can do enough to get my arms, legs, and core strong enough to even attempt to get on the pole, it will make my life easier later.
• Help me by: Uhmmmm. Bother me to work out? Yeah, push me to keep actually doing stuff to get in shape I guess, haha.
• Why: Because LOOK AT THIS WOMAN (awesomeness starts at 1:20). Do you know how awesome she is? I mean, I don't think I could ever do what she does, but I'm sure I could eventually learn some of that stuff and then I would be awesome too. Also, it really does get you in shape, so that's a good side effect. But mostly the awesomeness.

RESOLUTION 3: Fix an eating habit

• What it is: If I'm at home, I eat 24/7. I think I do it when I'm bored. And it's always junk food.
• How I'll do it: Be more aware of when and why I'm eating. Try to only eat when I'm actually hungry. Drink a glass of water before I eat anything. Promise to cook myself awesome dinner if I don't just scavenge snacks until I go to bed. 
• Help me by: If you notice it, mention it? I always forget anything related to restricting food, since I just pick it up the second I want it, so bringing it to my attention would help!
• Why: Can't have New Years without at least one health-related goal, right? Also, I think this is a good one. If I make a meal, I eat moderately healthy (and delicious) food. But as is, I just kinda snack all day. Probably not a good plan.

RESOLUTION 4: BE SUCCESSFUL WOOOOO

• Sit down and map out everything that works for me to keep my other resolutions going. And keep updating it. If I plan it all out, it'll be easier to do. 

So there they are! Let me know if there's anything else that you think of that would help me with these.

I have more stuff to talk about, but I feel like I'm boring you guys, haha. Oh well, I guess you can stop reading whenever you feel like, so it doesn't matter.

I'm torn on what I think I'll like more on this blog. I like creative writing a lot, I just haven't done it in a while. But I also like talking about my life and ideas and social change and all that jazz. I'm going to try to keep it split 50/50, so we'll see where that goes. Bug me if I've been neglecting the creative writing, though! If I'm not posting about political/social/whatever issues, I'm debating and talking about them. But if I'm not posting creative writing, I'm not doing it.

I should also probably have updates about how my other goals are going? Eating and working out. It might help keep me motivated with those, too. I won't make that a priority for the blog, but hopefully I'll be able to post my progress every once in a while to keep myself going.

As for some non-resolutional stuff:

I think this was my first New Year's with friends, ever. When I was little we went to a family friend's party down the street, which was fine with me since I was a kid. And once I got older we were always gone for Christmas and New Year's, so I never got to see anyone. It was great getting to be with you guys! 

So anyway, I think that's enough for now. I'll try to have a story on here soon. Good luck on your resolutions, everyone!