Three Word Chant!

The Mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days

My friend (and Van Buren Boys member) Brandon started a similar list, and I was hooked. The concept is from a site called Day Zero. The idea is simple – you have 1001 days (about 2.75 years) to complete 101 tasks. I thought this would be a good way to inspire me to do some incredible things and enough time to do them.

As luck would have it, 1001 days from today is a unique date.

Start Date: June 3, 2009
End Date: February 29, 2012

I figure that an end date that only comes around once every 4 years must be a sign – time to get started. As I complete each of these, I will provide visual evidence and do a post on each one (every item below will turn into a link to the post about it). If I manage to do all of these, this would be a very solid ~3 years of my life.

Thanks in advance for any feedback, encouragement, suggestions or general taunting. Without further ado:

Sports, Health & Fitness

1.    Buy a bike
2.    Ride my bike to Lauren’s house
3.    Do 75 consecutive push ups
4.    Run 5 miles
5.    Run in five 5K races [0/5]
6.    Attend a yoga class
7.    Get wisdom teeth pulled
8.    Join a volleyball league
9.    Take an MMA class
10.    Bench press my weight
11.    Weigh 170lbs. Do so without the use of performance enhancing drugs or spare ribs.
12.    Get CPR certified
13.    Play a full round of golf
14.    Attend a football game
15.    Attend 10 Yankee games [7/17/09 W vs. Tigers, 8/6/09 W vs. Red Sox, 9/9/09 W vs. Devil Rays, 9/14/09 W vs. Angels, 10/7/09 W vs. Twins [ALDS Game 1], 6, 7, 8 ,9, 10]
16.    Go to Wrigley Field, Camden Yards, Citi Field and Fenway [1/4]
17.    Go to a Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankee game with Brett
18.    Go to an opening day and Old Timers Day at Yankee stadium

Food
19.    Make sushi at home
20.   Cook 25 different recipes I’ve never made before [Saffron Shrimp and Gnocchi, Maryland Crab Cakes, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25]
21.    Plant a garden and use something I grew in a meal
22.    Take a cooking course

Arts/Education/Culture
23.    Visit 5 museums, galleries, or exhibits (0/5)
24.    See 5 Oscar-winning films (0/5)
25.    Read 30 books by 30 different authors [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30]
26.    Enter a photo contest
27.    Take a day off and walk around NYC and take pictures of anything and everything
28.    Self-publish a photography book of photos I’ve taken
29.    Attend 6 concerts [DMB, Jason Mraz, O.A.R., 4, 5, 6]
30.    See the ballet for the first time
31.    Do one Gimme Your Stuff exchange
32.    Apply for Mensa
33.    Work on learning another language
34.    Take a ballroom dance/swing class
35.    Start drawing again. Draw something well and upload it.
36.    Complete a NY Times crossword puzzle
37.    Buy a custom made suit
38.    Watch the entire Planet Earth series in HD
39.    See Avenue Q
40.    Watch 15 videos from the TED conference
41.    Attend a lecture in NYC
42.    Visit NY Public Library in Bryant Park and check out a book
43.    See a drive-in movie
44.    Take a massage class
45.    Talk to a celebrity

Slightly Daring Experiences
46.    Build a snowman
47.    Spend a day in Union Square
48.    Have a picnic with a West Wing picnic basket
49.    Try acupuncture
50.    Walk over a NYC bridge
51.    Play laser tag
52.    Give a great speech
53.    Go to 3 of the 5 Best Fireworks Displays in the US (and Trumbull Day if it still exists)
54.    Attend a trivia night at a local bar
55.    Celebrate a birthday in a ridiculous or unique way
56.    Go camping with my fraternity brothers
57.    Host a poker night
58.    Start a fire without a match

Increasingly Daring Experiences
59.    Fly in a helicopter
60.    Go skydiving
61.    Go horseback riding
62.    Go rock climbing
63.    Go to a shooting range
64.    Go SCUBA diving
65.    Play paintball
66.    Sing karaoke very loudly
67.    Visit a hidden bar
68.    Hike up a waterfall or to a waterfall
69.    Go to Medieval Times
70.    Ski a black diamond on a new mountain

Business/Financial
71.    Hit my early adult salary goal by 2010
72.    Put money in stocks or a CD

Technology
73.    Assign year, album art and lyrics to all songs in my music collection
74.    Buy an SLR camera
75.    Set up a networked home entertainment center with ridiculous gadgets
76.    Make a custom font out of my handwriting
77.    Learn how to pick a lock
78.    Try geocaching

Travel
79.    Italy/Vatican City
80.    Napa Valley
81.    Hamptons
82.    Grand Canyon
83.    South America
84.    Visit Matt in Idaho
85.    Go on a road trip

Soul, Environment, Friendship and Society
86.    Volunteer at a soup kitchen
87.    Plant 5 trees
88.    Donate to the Avon Breast Cancer walk every year [2009, 2010, 2011]
89.    Get a penpal overseas
90.    Do something charitable every Thanksgiving [Damon Runyon cancer walk, 2, 3]
91.    Donate blood
92.    Mail a secret to PostSecret
93.    Attend services/visit a synagogue, church, mosque and Buddhist temple [0/4]
94.    Vote in every major election
95.    Take my brothers somewhere for the day. Eat unhealthily.
96.    Frame 3 picture collages and hang [0/3]
97.    Send 20 letters through the mail (hand write at least 5) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 ,16, 17, 18, 19, 20]
98.    Meditate for 2 hours
99.    Pay the toll of the person behind me
100.    Have a conversation with a stranger
101.    Inspire someone