43 Things

I have been reading a lot about 'digital communities' recently (and, alas, how to get market to them... thus is the nature of my job) including this book by Larry Weber. It's very American in its focus but hey, we're in a global economy and it has opened up a whole new world of websites I may never have heard of to waste my time on.

One of them is 43things.com, where you can make 'life lists' of up to (you guessed it) 43 things you want to achieve. These range from the inane ("get a haircut"), the ludicrous ("be a pimp"), obscure ("laugh along with my wife"), sensible ("set realistic goals") and the sheer brilliant ("milk a cow"), right through to those ongoing epic struggles ("sort my whole bloody life out").

It just so happens that I do love making lists. In fact, I probably spend more time making lists than I do actually doing the things on them. Procrastination to the max. So here for your delectation - in no particular order - are my 43 things "to do".

1. Start a magazine
2. Work for myself
3. Write a novel
4. Do a Masters degree
5. Learn to speak Italian
6. Learn to drive (or more aptly, stick with lessons long enough to pass my test!)
7. Read all the books on my reading list
8. Learn PHP programming
9. Take up yoga and pilates again
10. Spend more time outdoors
11. Live in a foreign country
12. Own a Dansette record player
13. Make my own clothes (I have the sewing machine... which is surely half way there, right?)
14. Go interrailing
15. Learn how to bind books
16. Learn how to screenprint
17. Take creative writing classes (starting in September)
18. Remember how to play the guitar (uh, restring my guitar)
19. Take riding lessons
20. Run a 5k race for charity
21. Interview one of my heroes (one that is still alive, of course)
22. Find somewhere I feel settled and stay there
23. Volunteer
24. Go rock climbing
25. Visit Amy in Japan
26. Go walking every day
27. Be more sociable
28. Visit Amsterdam (again)
29. Finish building my own website (as opposed to building other people's)
30. Live in Manchester (I'm getting nearer...)
31. Plant a tree and watch it grow
32. Visit the Outer Hebrides (should hopefully be doing this next spring)
33. Live a simpler life (chuck out pretty much everything)
34. Climb Snowdon
35. Have my writing published (in Bust or some other equally cool magazine...)
36. Record a podcast
37. Make my own zine
38. Get another cat (keeping the one I currently have, of course)
39. Sing live with a band
40. Find an old school gameboy that still works
41. Exhibit my work
42. Visit New York and San Francisco (I don't care about the rest of the US)
43. Get my own studio space

And then I'll be happy and fulfilled... or something like that.