The GTD101 Challenge is over! How did I do?

First, a report of the last completed items.

16. Spend the night in a woodsy cabin with a fireplace
Being surrounded by the Rocky Mountains makes even the coldest, foggiest, slushiest day of winter an exhilarating, literally and figuratively breath-taking experience. Our lovely cabin was located in Estes Park, famous for the Overlook Hotel (real name: Stanley Hotel) of Stephen King’s The Shining. Now I want a fireplace in my own home!

18. Sleep nude on luxurious silk sheets
I deem silk pajamas close enough! Who knew silk was so comfy and warm? Me likey.

24. Write a handwritten letter to 3 friends/family
Receiving personal snail mail is one of modern life’s little pleasures. So happy I could do this for others!

34. Meet 10 new people outside work
In one evening, I met ten fascinating, musically-gifted, passionate, inspiring individuals in Jennifer and Alon, Harvey and Janya, Brad and Sara, Bill and Bok, John and May. I aspire to one day host perfect dinner parties with delicious food, a decorated house, and a stellar guest list like Jennifer does.

37. Get all dressed up for dinner
I ought to do this more often.

41. Give someone flowers
I ought to do this more often too. It’s fun!

59. Email 5 people I haven’t talked with in a long time
There’s simply no excuse for not doing this in a Facebook world.

73. Give a book as a gift for no occasion
Books I’ve given as gifts in the past and will likely give again:

• Unaccustomed Earth for former classmates now living between cultures
• Ender’s Game for kids with big dreams
• 4-Hour Work Week, Escape from Cubicle Nation for friends undergoing quarter life crisis
• Detail’s Men Style Manual for guys who are starting to pay attention to how they look
• Any cookbook by Chronicle Books for foodies whose love for design matches their love for good food
• The Essential Cocktail for entertaining types and Mad Men fans

75. Learn to make puto
There are so many puto recipes out there! Half of them were cheats in that they used regular flour or box mix. The other half required actually grinding rice. I made these using mochi rice flour and they weren’t quite the same as the authentic kind. I’ll try the grinding method next.

And that brings me to an ending total of… 48??! It’s okay! I’ve connected with many people, done crazy things, and been to new places all because of this list. The past year has been memorable and fun. I’m pretty sure I’ll finish the rest sooner or later (NaNoWriMo, watch out!).

Where has the time gone?? I’m seriously slacking on my goals.

Hmm, looking them over, it seems I’ve been getting stuff done after all. Way to go, subconscious self!

Completed:

7. xxxxxxx xxx xx xx xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxx
8. xxxxxxx x xxxxx xxxxx
Yep.
And that’s all I’m going to say.

19. Go commando on a normal day
Funny thing was, I hardly noticed the difference. Maybe if I waited till after I did #58.

22. Paint my house
Cornflower blue in the bedroom, gorgeous field green in the second bedroom, lavender in the master bath and an elegant browny beige in the guest bath. The living room and kitchen are next.

36. Wear grown up jewelry
Mom lent me her earrings to wear to Lou Grace’s engagement dinner because I left all my jewelry at home.

43. Send Zingerman’s food to someone
90. Write a fan letter
Two in one! I sent a Zingerman’s gift basket to the cool CommerceGuys I met at DrupalCamp Chicago. They were so awesome.

44. Sleep with the windows open
Did this during the summer.

45. Throw a party
I threw a pumpkin carving party for SEMMY friends last Halloween. That’s when Pumpkie came into my life and lit up my house for a week.

50. Meet my neighbors
I knocked on doors to get people to attend the condo board meeting. It was nerve-wracking at first, but it turned out pretty easy once I got into the swing of it.

51. Go running at sunrise
David kept in shape during his vacation here by running everyday at dawn. Hardcore. He made me join him one foggy morning. He ran four laps around the neighborhood. I did umm one.

54. Sell something on eBay.
My bank sent me an Amazon kindle as a thank you for opening an account. (Cool, huh?) But I’m old school when it comes to my books.

58. Get a bikini wax
The Strip Manila has the sweetest staff. They made the experience actually quite pleasant. I’d say it was worth it.

60. Evaluate my stock portfolio
I’ve got a 401k and a Roth IRA and they’re both working for me!

61. Picnic in the park
The day before I had to return to the States, my aunt invited me to a picnic at the park near her home. I didn’t know how to react since the relatives hardly expressed an interest in us before. Consequently, the conversation was awkward on my part. Ah well! We had pancit palabok and chocolate cookies.

72. Wear a dress to work
The hardest part about this is finding the right shoes. Heels don’t work so well in our workplace.

78. Get my new old camera fixed
I showed it to Brian who took the battery case out and screwed it back on. Voila! Works like a charm. It just needed the magic touch of a ZingIT geek.

84. Have dinner with Bob
Over Christmas vacation, my brothers and I were able to have dinner without the parents a few times. Our family was never close growing up, so I look forward to hanging out with them every year.

85. Find a shoe storage solution for the entryway
Kitchen cabinet racks from Target fit perfectly.

86. Wake up at 6 am
Thanks to jetlag. Ha!

89. Deliver a presentation
I delivered a presentation about Open Book Finance at the Annual Gathering in Pittsburgh in July. It was a small group but we got to sharing experiences and asking questions of each other. I hope to speak again at this year’s AG, though I haven’t decided if I want to repeat or expand on the topic.

92. Get Moo cards
They’re so cute and memorable.

93. Bake mochi cake
Yumyumyum.

94. Go hiking
During the IT camping trip last summer, we trekked through the dunes and along the beach. It was good exercise.

I’ve got to get cracking on the rest of the list!

It was late one weeknight that K and I were talking about random things when a thought occurred to me that I would like to fire a gun. And so I asked him if he could teach me. His coworkers teased him the next day about making sure “she’s not really planning to shoot you.” Judging from how I did, I’d probably miss anyway.

Yep. Saturday morning, K and I drove up to this public shooting, err, area up in the mountains near Boulder. It started snowing when we got to the top. That didn’t help things. I managed to fire four rounds using a Colt .45 with a bird’s head grip, scaring myself with my own yelps all the while. Then I decided that was enough experience I needed on that front.

It was amusing to follow that particular activity with genteel afternoon tea at the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House. We shared a pot of Lapsang Souchong, a smokey tea that tastes like campfire. The flavor grows on you. I think I prefer a lighter brew because when the aroma is really strong, I start thinking about grilled fish. Childhood kitchen association. We tried it again in the IT office and it’s much smoother, subtler and drinkable. The server did say, it’s a love/hate kind of tea.

Afterwards, we watched The Watchmen. Whooo! I am happy with the rendition, though I admit my biggest expectation entering the theater was “please don’t ruin it!” Given the medium, I thought Zack Snyder did a pretty good job delivering the main storyline in a deliberate, clear, and still entertaining manner without resorting to (too many) superhero movie moments. The one big disappointing feature for me though was how they portrayed Ozy, my favorite character from the graphic novel. For the most part they tried to stay true to his character, but in the ending scenes, there was scorn in his expression as he explained his motives. To me, the success wasn’t about being the grandmaster, but about finding the Perfect Solution, a dream shared by nerds everywhere. I missed the part in the novel when he discovers the results of his plan and rejoices in it. Anyway, there was much debate after the movie, and if prompted I can keep going.

Ah but that movie was just the beginning of the NerdFest! One of K’s friends had invited him to join a D&D game that night. Dungeons & Dragons? Wait a minute, that’s on my GTD101 list! We showed up at his friend’s house as they were halfway into the session. They were six guys and one woman (the wife) around a table in – I could hardly contain my glee – the basement. I was content to just watch, but they let me play an NPC for one of the episodes. My name was Thytus Innocen, a human helmsman on a flying ship. I lost 32 pieces of silver during a card game. Whee! The whole event was just fascinating. There was so much detail — maps, miniature characters, various sizes of dice, character sheets. Behind the Dungeon Master (DM) was an entire bookshelf of reference material. The game ended at 1 in the morning. (Or was it 2 am? Daylight savings kicked in at some point.)

The next day, we went to the park to hang out and read, but we stumbled upon a battle! The local SCA group was holding swordfight practice in preparation for the Crown Tournament. We were welcomed by a lady and her lord consort and two other lord friends. As the men donned their armor and thrust their makeshift swords and spears, our hostess was sewing a tunic using black wool and gold trimming. Could this weekend be any nerdier?

It was actually pretty neat meeting all the new people and seeing the world the way they do. Overall, a fun weekend for learning and experiencing different things!

GTD101 Update:
53. Watch a D&D game
87. Eat out in a restaurant I haven’t tried before.

30. Host a dinner at my place
January 27, 2009. Dinner party for 6 at Casa Billie. I made chili (with Bells Lager Beer), green chili and Monterey Jack quesadillas and cornbread muffins. Serene and Jude brought a potato and fennel gratin that was absolutely delicious. Must make it myself!

It was a lively dinner with great conversation and good food. I am glad I did it! This wasn’t the first time I hosted dinner at my house. (Wow, it’s almost a year to the date!) But it certainly inspired me to do it some more. Perhaps once a month. I ought to schedule the next IT dinner here in March.

What went well:

• Set the dinnerware out on the table the night before. One less thing to worry about!
• Half an hour before the guests arrive, have beverages and a bucket of ice ready on a separate table.
• Fresh flowers on the table – ties the whole look together!
• Dishes went straight into the dishwasher.

What didn’t work well:

• One guest was vegetarian and the main dish (chili) had beef — oof! Ask food restrictions beforehand.
• I didn’t have coffee for after dinner. I can purchase/borrow a French press for next time.
• Need more tall drinking glasses. IKEA.
• Some way to put away guests’ shoes in the entryway. Stylish shoe cubbies?

36. Get all dressed up for dinner
K cleans up nice, that’s for sure! Hubba hubba.

68. Borrow books from the library
Accomplished February 1st. Got myself a library card. Technology makes this easy!

One of my favorite ways to spend Saturdays is hanging out in Barnes and Noble. I love picking up the books, admiring the cover art, smelling the freshly printed pages as I thumb through them. It’s a struggle not to walk out with half a dozen books to read. However, it’s not frugal to purchase books right then and there, as much as I really want to, member discount card notwithstanding. Instead, what I do is this:

1. Using Amazon Remembers, I take a picture of the book I’m looking at. It finds the corresponding product and saves it in my account. I can then choose to add it to my wish list later. If I really wanted to purchase the book, I could get it at 40% less online than in the store.
2. On my computer, when browsing a product in Amazon, Book Burro informs me when it’s available at my local library. I can then head to the library or place a hold on it online.

83. Do 30 consecutive push-ups
Ha! No sweat. I ought to be doing this instead.

88. Watch a musical/ballet
I first saw RENT as a repertory production when I was in high school. Bought the soundtrack, memorized most of the songs. Seeing it performed again last week, I realized a lot of the musical’s subplots had gone completely over my head. For instance, all the drug references were lost on me. Geez, I was so naive then.

96. Watch season 1 of Lost
Officially count me part of the throng of fans of That Show. How could I not? It starts with a crash, anarchy, learning what it means to exist without the safety of societal infrastructure, and deciding how to proceed. The first ten episodes sucked me in good. I’m still working through the past episodes and am currently in the middle of the third season.Now if only they’d stop playing the trailers for season 5 during the commercial breaks!

99. Attend a BAKE or cooking class
Got myself a cute Threadless shirt to commemorate the occasion. Playin’ in the Sprinkler! Haha sprinkler…

88 to go.

K and I attended the Performance Network annual fund-raising gala last weekend. It was fun getting all gussied up. I bid on a drycleaning gift certificate during the silent auction but was outbid at literally the last minute. Ah well! There was a lively cabaret performance during dinner followed by a live auction for larger items.

Back home, K brought out a birthday cake he baked himself. It was a splendid snowball sprinkles orange-flavored cake!