Goals Updates #10, 97, 70, 27

#10 - New Foods: I cooked shark recently. Didn't really care for it. Found out later that it is on the overfished list, so yet another reason not to eat it again.

#97 Read the Karma Sutra. It's not as sexy as people make it out to be. Most of it is a compilation of advice on relationships.

#70 Be in contact with my sister. Haven't been keeping precise track, but we've had enough contact since she moved to the area that I'm checking this off.

#27. First Aid Kit -- I just bought one off of the Red Cross site, so that will work well enough.

I'm definitely going to be changing some of the craft goals. But I'm happy with the progress overall.

Still more goals I forgot to check off...

#10 -- I had duck tongue a while back. A bit strange. Other parts of the duck are much tastier.

#67 -- And a letter off to grandma...

#83 -- Living room has been decorated for a while now...

#90 -- Tons of pictures up. We still could use more, but there's enough up to check this off.

Food Related Goals #2, 3, 4, 10

I've been very remiss about keeping this up to date. Since my last post I've:

• Made no-kneed bread, which turned out very well. It's very easy and tasty, though I used a tablespoon or two more water than what that recipe calls for.
• Made homemade butter for the bread. It's even easier than bread and wow, does fresh butter taste good! The buttermilk from making it went towards making buttermilk pancakes.
• Tried several new foods, but have apparently forgotten a number of them. I do remember:

--- Red Hawaiian Sea Salt. (Okay, but I like Fleur de Sel better as far as expensive salt goes.)

--- Squid ink (as part of a tasting menu I had for my birthday)

--- Burdock root (I made kinpria goba and pickled burdock root, both okay, but not a favorite)

Goals #10, 32, 42, 75, 91

Goal 10: Trying new foods!

I've recently tried cocoa nibs. I definitely prefer them to chocolate chips.

I also tried Kefir, both the solid sour cream like version and the liquid drink. The solid stuff is very, very tasty. Drinks okay, but I prefer the solid version.

#32: General doctors checkup. Finally got a primary care physician and basic checkup. She's great.

#42 Lectures: Went to a lecture on Marriage Equality and how the legislative approach to this issue may have increase backlash and delayed legal equality.

#75 Get a new job -- Done!

#91 - Cleaning service schedules for every two weeks. Glad to not have to clean the bathrooms myself anymore.

Goals 63 &101 Completed

50 consecutive push-ups completed! I used the 100 push-up challenge program. The ramp up is ridiculous -- an having done it for far more than the 6 weeks indicated, I finally hit 50. Thank god my goal wasn't 100.

I also finished off Goal #101 -- watching 5 documentaries. I "watched" Stolen, meaning I had it playing in the background while I folded laundry and stuff. I like the theory of documentaries, but they never seem to hold my interest.

Goals 1, 24, 25, 37, 77, 80, 84, 100

Wow it's been a while since I updated my list.

#1 - I made paneer, an indian cheese. Very easy. Tasty but next time I'll salt the milk.

#24 & #25 Red cross certified for First Aid and CPR.

#37 - Saw the Shakespearean Concert. Really like the harpist and one of the pianists.

#77 - Ah the no computer weekend. Will not be doing that again any time soon.

#80 - Date with Ted for Restaurant Week.

#84 - Hung, hemmed, and steamed curtains in the one room that needed them.

#100 - Read some classics: Read 'Their eyes were watching God". Almost done with "Song of Solomon". Neither have impressed me.

Goal 100 - The Sun Also Rises

Goal 100: I read "The Sun Also Rises" by Hemingway. Surprisingly, it wasn't as slow and boring as I remember Hemingway being in high school. While it was a quick read, there didn't seem to be much of a point to it. A lot of talk about money and drinking, a few references to sex, and extensive descriptions of bullfighting / running of the bulls.

101 Goals update

Goal 9: Pack a lunch every day for a week -- done!

Goal 18: Was make a gourd bowl, changed it to make homemade chocolates. Jess and I make them a few weeks ago. Overall people were quite impressed. The coconut creams were by far the most popular.

Goal 60: Get Laptop working. Done! Completely reformatted and reinstalled.

Goal 100: Read "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Of all the classic books I've read so far, I like this one the best by far. I now know where the Nurse Ratchet references come from.

Goal #100 - Call of the Wild & Slaughterhouse Five

Finished both Call of the Wild and Slaughterhouse Five. Not bad, not great. I prefer books with either a strong plot line or interesting charter development. Had I read Call of the Wild with the perspective that it's a collection of related short stories, I think I would have enjoyed it more. As for the random/absurd nature of Slaughterhouse Five -- it just left me wanting to reread stuff by Douglas Adams.

Goal #101 - The Spy Factory: Nova

Watched another documentary - The Spy Factor: Nova. It's billed as being about the NSA, but really it's just pimping some guy's book about 9/11 from the standpoint of "what did the NSA know". Didn't really learn anything new about the NSA in general and didn't really care about the specifics of 9/11 intel.

I'd say it was a waste of time, but I watched it while cooking. The latkes and homemade applesauce were tasty.

Goals # 10, 57, 80, 86

Goal #10: Try 10 new foods. New foods came in my vegetable box. Made a wheatberry salad with feta, olives, tomatoes, and caramelized onions. Also tried celeriac root, though that just went in a soup with onions, carrots, potatoes, and parsnips.

Goal #57: Organize bookmarks. Sorted through everything and deleted obsolete links. I know I should switch over to delicious, but the paranoid privacy freak in me just can quite bring myself to do it.

Goal #80: Date with Ted. We went to the science museum. The plan was to see the Harry Potter exhibit and go to the planetarium. Unfortunately, there weren't tickets available for the time we were there.

Goal #86: Buy a sofa. Should get delivered in a few weeks.

Goals # 67, 69, 92

Goal #67: Sent Christmas cards to grandparents

Goal #69: Play Date with Olivia - we walked to Kaze and had shabu-shabu, which is a favorite of hers. She definitely like salmon!

Goal #92: Rekey the locks. Ted took care of this, but it's done which is important.

Goal #101 - Unknown White Male

Goal 101 - Watch Documentaries

I watched the documentary Unknown White Male about a guy who basically wakes up with complete amnesia and no identification on him. I saw it after reading the fanfic Unidentified which uses the same premise. I liked the story better than the movie. The movie was okay, but slow, which I find to be true of most documentaries.

Goal #100 - Lolita

Goal #100 - Read 10 Banned Books

I read Lolita as one of my banned books. While reading it, I kept wondering about the origin of the classic or stereotypical characteristics of a pedophile. Did Lolita draw from what was known at the time regarding the psychology/motivations/characteristics of a pedophile? Or did Lolita formulate that image in the public consciousness? I'd guess the former, it's just that I kept noticing how the book kept matching what "they say" regarding pedophilia, which made me wonder.

While I'm not likely to reread the book, it's definitely a decent literary work that doesn't feel like "literature" in the negative (clockwork orange) sense.

Goal #69: Play dates

This goal was to do individual play dates with nieces and nephew. First up was Esme. We walked around the park, went to the playground, and watch the ice skating rink. She enjoyed watching the Zamboni. Her favorite seemed to be going and playing in the "snow" dumped by the Zamboni. Afterwords we got cocoa and a doughnut. Fairly successful all around.

Goal #100 - Animal Farm

Read Animal Farm as one of the banned books. Quick read, totally see why they use it in schools. While I can tell it was very revolutionary for it's time, I think the impact is fairly weak nowadays.

Don't have much to say about it. Lolita is next.

Gaols 36 & 80 - Date at the Aquarium

So I planned a date for Ted and I: going to Boston Kebab House and the Aquarium. I'm counting this as the first planned date, but Ted thinks it's number three. (We did a picnic along the river and a trip to the Ignoble awards, both of which I planned. But I wasn't thinking of them as new date things, so I don't think I'll count them.)

The Kebab House was good. If I was in the area for lunch, I'd eat there, but it's not something I'd make a trip out of my way for. I would like to try their Meze bar sometime - we got there late enough that it was pretty sparse.

The Aquarium was nice. We stayed just over an hour. Since we got free tickets from my work, I was happy with the value, but I wouldn't want to pay $20+ to see it. I really like the mini jelly fish, the penguins were cute, and I felt sorry for the octopus.

A Clockwork Orange: Goals #99 & #100

So goal #99 was to read or see A Clockwork Orange. Since I decided to read the book, it also meets goal #100 because it is a banned book.

Two or three people made comments when I mentioned I was going to read A Clockwork Orange. Universally, their response was about how much they hated the book or movie.

I wouldn't say I hated the book, but I didn't enjoy it either. Of course it's not the kind of book that's supposed to be enjoyed, I think.

Honestly, I see why it's considered 'literature'. It has blatant themes and symbols, heavy moralizing and political commentary, and difficult to read writing style. It's Catch 22/Brave New World as written by Jack Kerouac.

It reads like 'On the Road' but with way too much made up slang. It was the fictious slang that got to me. I've read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi, and so I understand the need to 'world build' through language choice. But this was just absurd. When half of the words in the sentence a completely made up, it's not creative. Given how rich a language English is, I feel it's a poor reflection on the writer if he needs to make up that much crap. There's a point where it stops adding character and starts detracting from the story and Burgess passed it.

I'd like to say that the book reminded me of what I think of as 'classical anime': a good story that's killed at the end when the author heavy-handedly shovels in an overbearing moralistic commentary. Unfortunately, A Clockwork Orange didn't have a good story (or really much of a story) to start with. And Burgess didn't really wait that long to start shoveling.

I'd say file and forget, but at least it's a book that might be worth making cultural or literary allusions to if I'm ever forced into a conversation with a pretentious litterary nut.

#56 Clean Clothes Closet

As part of moving, I cleaned out my clothes closet. I had a friend along to help -- she made sure I got rid of the stuff that was old, didn't fit, didn't look good on me, or didn't get worn. Afterwards, she made a list of stuff I should not buy any more of, and she right.

No more buying:

• Cardigans
• Shells
• Black, white, or black and white skirts
• Neutral toned tops (beige, brown, tan, cream, black, etc.)
• Shapeless or baggy clothing.

There more stuff that I really should replace -- sweaters and sweaters come to mind -- but that's not a priority right now.

Goals #31, 77, 82, and 85

I'm a bit behind on posting, but I have completed several goals.

Goal #31 - Get an IUD: Done. I really like it. Aside from the excruciating pain on insertion and a days worth of cramping afterwords, I've had no problems. 5 years of not having to think about birth control. Woot!

Goal #77: A weekend with no computer: One weekend down. I'm not sure if being sick made this easier or harder, though it did help having stuff planned for one of the days. While not using a computer does prevent wasting time on-line, it doesn't prevent wasting time.

Goal #82: Buy a condo: Done. Everything's signed and official. We're now in debt again.

Goal #85: Paint a room: Well, more like get a room painted. We got the entire place painted so it now has personality and color.

I expect more of the house related goals to get ticked off soon.