Touch You Last

Just over 1001 days ago , I posted this list, boldly memeing where all kinds of people had memed before. It was a moderate success. Mostly, the goals I fell short on were lame to begin with, and a few others were just never gonna happened. To review my successes, you can click through here . In this post, I’ll just be apologizing for my failures. 4. Run a 22 minute 5K – I closed in on this one last year, but only got down to about 24:55. This was doable (I think), but I strayed from the gym and backslid, and then just forgot about it entirely. 5. Run another half-marathon – I’m still flip-flopping over whether I’ll ever do one of these again. 8. Learn enough HTML to redesign this site – Sorry, but that shit’s just a mystery to me. I figured out enough to change a few colours and mess with margins, but I’d have to look it up all over again if I wanted to make more changes. 10. Bench press my own weight five times (in a row, folks) – Forty pounds shy on this one. And that was ...

Yesterday, we caught our first Ottawa Lynx games. The Lynx (Lynxes? Lynxi?) are a triple-A team affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies, and it’s their last season in Ottawa because they’re moving to Allentown (where they’re closing all the factories down) next year. I assume attendance is what sunk the team here, seeing as there were about 200 people at last night’s game. It was a great time though—on par with any MLB game I’ve been to. Best of all: they played the Durham Bulls (which I was pretty sure was a made-up team until about two years ago). See that team and you can’t help but fill in all the unheard words between players with dialogue from the film. “Nuke's scared because his eyelids are jammed and we need a live rooster to take the curse off Jose's glove.” There’d been a severe weather advisory all day, and I thought we’d be running for our lives ten minutes in, but it wasn’t until the bottom of the fifth that the rain finally started. And it was the st...

A few quick updates: Yes, I've neglected this blog. No, I haven't been writing much novel in the meantime. I've finally fixed my 101 in 1001 post, which was all kinds of frigged up for a while there. If you'd like to subscribe to the novel, send me an e-mail or leave me a comment and I'll ship it to chapter-by-chapter as I write it Entries to come: my trip to Halifax and four Wednesday movies (none of which will have been watched or written about on a Wednesday).

Sarah here...I'm once again hijacking Dave's blog, this time to publish a list of my own. The backstory: I have been feeling like an underachiever for not having my own 1001 list, goal-oriented nerd that I am. When I realized that I would likely be doing most of Dave's tasks along with him, I changed my mind. I decided to put a slight twist on the 101 in 1001 concept; this list will certainly force us to discover our new home town. I'm posting this here for two reasons: a) because I have no website of my own, yet want to feel a bit of pressure to finish these tasks. b) Dave will be involved in all of them, so it's only fair! So...by March 15, 2008 , I (well, we) aim to do the following: 41 things to do in Ottawa and area (in 113) UPDATED: November 25, 2007 1. Visit the Canada and the World Pavillion [done 25/06/05 -- good thing, too, as it's closing in October 2005] 2. Visit the Diefenbunker [done 22/10/05 -- and it was AWESOME. Blaine (and JWo) will be our next...

Here’s another list, even though I’m told that the Internet is clotted with them. It also takes care of another of the softball 101 in 1001 tasks, which is a bonus. I don’t expect to impress anyone on this front. As far as cultural awareness goes, I’m weakest on music. Remember that I’m being honest—even though I’m crushed with shame for having the Fruvous on there, they're on there. 50. Shakespearean Fish , Melanie Doane – I saw her perform in a bomb shelter of a bar back in University. Enjoyed this entire album quite a bit. Was also confounded by her bum, which was like something you’d see on a Lego person. 49. Five Days in July , Blue Rodeo – During their heyday, I saw Blue Rodeo in concert more times then any other band. Too many by the end, because I got to watch them age—poorly. By the last two shows, Greg Keelor would just sit down on an amp any time he had a solo—and this was nine years ago . 48. Men With Brooms Soundtrack – Bought the album for the song Mass R...

Partly to check another one off the 101 list, and partly because I can’t think of another damn thing to write about, here is my top 50 books list. Let me reiterate that this is not a list of books that I think should be canonized or passed down to generations not yet imagined, it’s just the 50 books that I dig more than anything else I’ve read. I’ll list them in reverse order, for the sake of suspense. And don’t just scroll down to the bottom and blow the surprise: pre-emptive scrolling makes the baby Jesus cry. 50. East of Eden – Enjoyed this more than any other Steinbeck I’ve read. For the record, this was in my library long before Oprah claimed it. 49. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Read the book, watched the movie, and saw the play all in the space of about two weeks. I think I enjoyed the book most, but honestly they’ve all become one gelatinous piece of art to me. Might not deserve to be here, but hey, 50’s a lot of books, people. 48. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – ...

I’ve resisted this one for a while. As far as I know, this was the guy who started, but let me know if I’m wrong so I can give props where props are due. The idea is to list 101 things you intend to accomplish within the next 1001 days—that’s just shy of three years for the math impaired among you (like I didn’t just whip out a calculator or anything.) It’s a good length of time to set goals under: long enough to give you a false sense of security, but short enough to set a fire under your ass. Post Dec 25, 2007 Update: Time's Up. For more info on the failures, click here . The List - Tasks completed: 65 Actually difficult tasks completed: 15 Read 1. Read Ulysses 21. Read the Motley Crue biography - [Done: 04/17/05 - And I'm better for it.] 23. Read something by Salman Rushdie 24. Find out what the deal is with Ayn Rand 50. Read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - [Done: 10/09/07] Write 2. Get published, dammit! [Done: 05/10/06 - Vanity published , but still published.] 7. ...