A Man Reborn

This January I came up with the idea of a list of 100 things that I wanted to do in 2010.  I thought about it for a little while and came up with a varied list of things.  The things on my list were new, old, little, small and in general, things that I thought would be fun or interesting.

I ended up finishing just over half of the things on my list – which I think is pretty good.  I did a lot of new things that I wouldn’t have done otherwise and I got to know myself a lot better by taking myself out my comfort zone.

There were a couple of unexpected side effects from making this list.  The first was that I had a lot of friends step up and ask me about doing things on the list together with me which I thought was really awesome of them.  We got to spend time together and often tried something new or it was something that they were able to teach me, or the other way around.  The second was that it inspired some of my other friends to do something similar.  In particular, my friend Carolina made her own list, which then inspired her friend Jeannie to make a list.  This was all over half a year before I had even met Jeannie – but since then we’ve been inseparable and I definitely think that the two of us making our lists played a part in building that connection.

One other thing that I definitely know this helped with was boredom – I can’t think of a single moment in 2010 that I was bored, as I always had this list to fall back on for something to do.

So here’s a list for 2011.  I don’t expect to do all of them.  Some of them are things I did last year and loved.  Some are things I didn’t finish last year.  Some are completely new to this year.  They’re in no particular order and again – they’re just things that I think would be interesting or fun.

2011 is going to be amazing and I am really looking forward to it!

1. Go skydiving
2. Do something special with Jeannie on our anniversary
3. Do a 48 hour fast
4. Plant and maintain a mini garden
5. Spend a day at the beach
6. Hike part of the Bruce trail
7. Go to the gun range
8. Go kayaking
9. Get a new tattoo
10. Take some kind of dance lesson
11. Keep my blog updated while working on this list
12. Get rid of 75% of the things I currently own
13. Go running in the rain
14. Watch a thunderstorm
15. Watch the sun set
16. Play in a poker tournament
17. Ride the single track at Albion Hills
18. Try indoor rock climbing
19. Paintball!
20. Volunteer my time for a good cause
21. Give blood 5 times
22. Make a gift for someone
23. Work at a haunt
24. Surprise someone
25. Spend a weekend at the cottage
26. Play a round of golf
27. Make sure I always have time for friends and family
28. Make a short movie
29. Go whitewater rafting
30. Climb the CN tower in under 30 minutes
31. Beat last year’s time of 1:07:14 in the Niagara Try-a-Tri
32. Get back to running 5k+
33. Ride 200 km in 2 days at the Ride to Conquer Cancer
34. Try skating
35. Do 100 push ups in a row
36. Do a handstand push up
37. Exercise or do something active every day
38. Cook 95% of what I eat
39. Fit into size L shirts again
40. Try skiing again
41. Ride in the trees
42. Do both a FS and BS boardslide on a box
43. Comfortably do all 4 types of 180
44. Go on a snowboarding trip with my little brothers
45. Do a nose grab, tail grab and method
46. Put together a new snowboarding video
47. Go to the zoo
48. Go to a Jays game
49. Go to a Leafs game
50. Go to a TFC game
51. Go to the CNE
52. Go to the science centre
53. Go to the Tim Burton exhibit at the Lightbox
54. Go on a brewery tour
55. Explore an old cemetary
56. Go to the Drive-in
57. Go to Honest Ed’s
58. Go to the Art Gallery
59. Go to a big music festival
60. Go to Vermont
61. Go to Buffalo with MicHELLe
62. Go to Detroit with Myla and Nix
63. Go to Niagara Falls
64. Go to Vegas
65. Explore the following neighbourhoods in Toronto: The Annex, Yorkville, Seaton Village, Little Italy, Kensington, Liberty Village, St. Lawrence, Cabbagetown and Harbourfront
66. Go camping somewhere new
67. Move out of Mississauga
68. Spend a day at the island
69. Learn to cook a paella
70. Try 2 new recipes every month
71. Make a Turducken from scratch with Shayne
72. Make sushi
73. Go shopping at St Lawrence Market
74. Have brunch at the Hoof Cafe
75. Eat a tasting menu
76. Bake and decorate a cake or cupcakes
77. Eat 10 new things
78. Master one illusion really well
79. Learn to create a life cast
80. Take a cast of my face and sculpt it into a zombie bust
81. Make a set of clay figurines
82. Make a Halloween costume from scratch
83. Finish my Halloween painting
84. Make a haunted gingerbread house
85. Read: Rework, The 4-Hour Body, The Power of Less, Pound for Pound, The Gift of Fear, It’s Not About The Bike: My Journey Back to Life and The Real Bling
86. Redesign the zombie walk page and setup the store
87. Learn search engine optimization
88. Learn 5 more effects in After Effects
89. Learn joomla
90. Learn JQuery
91. Learn AJAX
92. Learn Selenium
93. Learn OpenID / FBConnect / Google Friend Connect
94. Launch zombiepedia website!
95. Launch portfolio site
96. Build a facebook app
97. Take a night class
98. Get a raise
99. Earn 15% of my income outside of my regular job
100. Teach someone something