Best advice column ever

http://www.slate.com/id/2218711/

I don't have any updates on the 101 in 1001, but I just read the single best advice column ever.

A reporter was on a company laptop that other people use and found explicit photos of her boss's high school daughter. She deleted the pictures and wrote in to the advice column asking if she should tell her boss. The advice column lady's response was overly nice, trying not to make the reporter feel like too much of an idiot, but basically tells the lady that she should look into going into a new career because she sucks at being a reporter. She randomly stumbled on what could have possibly been the news story of her career (what if there was something disturbing going on with her father?), and her first instinct is to delete the pictures? I lol'd.

Batman baskets, stereo in stereo sound finally, and Green Day sings the songs of my life

#20 Get some sort of organizer for my remotes
I forgot I did this already - I went to Target after Easter to check out the clearance stuff, and I snagged an awesome Batman Easter basket for $5 that works perfectly for holding my remotes.

#57 - Fix my receiver/stereo situation so that it works right
My stereo situation was never really set up right when I bought a receiver a few years ago, and I realized a few months ago that my CD player was only playing through one speaker, even though my DVD player would play through both. So I overhauled my setup, decided to stop using the 2nd TV since I haven't really "needed" both of them at once in a long time, if ever. So I set it up right, and decided to not even bother with surround sound and just use my two main big speakers, and I ran everything through the receiver. It'll be annoying without a receiver remote for now, but I love it. It looks better too.

#91 - Get at least 360 new songs (18/360)
I bought the new Green Day CD after seeing them on SNL last weekend. All I can say is I love Green Day. I've never really thought of them as one of my favorite top 5 bands or anything, but they continue to make amazing CD's that I always love. There's so many good songs on here, but "Horshoes and Handgrenades" is the best song I've heard in a long time. Granted, part of me loves it purely because of the song title because I remember hearing the saying, "close only counts in horshoes and hand grenades" as a kid, I think from my dad.

Two more updates

#69 - Rearrange my room three times (1/3)
I totally forgot I did this. I moved some stuff around, made way better use of the space in my room...namely, I decided that having the weight bench take up so much space when I use it maybe once a year is pointless, and I am now using it as furniture to hold up my coffee table, on which sits a chest of three drawers, on which sits an old tv stand that I use to hold random stuff like my Wii games, picture frames, and my alarm clock.

#89 - Beat 15 video games (1/15)
I did this a couple weeks ago...I downloaded Super Punch-Out on my Wii because I've been pretty excited that they're making a new one for Wii, and I beat it. It was actually pretty hard for a Super Nintendo game...I was stuck on Rick and Nick Bruiser for a couple days and it was frustrating. But I got 'em!

Updates!

Lots to update...

#24 - Get a Kohl's credit card
I just went to my eye exam and got some new contacts and decided to go to Kohl's afterward...I went, and I had like $100 worth of stuff (long sleeve button up shirt, t-shirt, gray khaki pants & white-plad shorts for the summer) so I decided it was finally time to apply for the Kohl's credit card so I could get 15% off. Then I "won" a 20% off coupon for their current sale, so I got to use that instead, and the lady said I could save the 15% off coupon for the credit card, so that's awesome. Seeing as how I do 90 to 99% of my clothes shopping at Kohl's, I think getting a credit card there is pretty safe.

#40 - For two weeks, drink zero pop
I started this on Tuesday, 4/27/09. It wasn't even that hard, which is surprising because I was drinking a ton of pop - at least two cans a day...usually three, sometimes four or more! Anyways, I gave myself some leniency on this one. One day near the end of it I accidentally took a few sips of some Mello Yellow at Subway with Amanda, because it was my turn to buy the pop and chips/cookies when we went there for lunch one day. But I realized it and stopped drinking it. Plus I allowed myself to drink Four and Joose energy/alcohol drinks, and energy drinks, and sour (as in vodka sours, my drink of choice for the past 2-3 weeks)...so that helped. I did it though, and I'm happy, because pop is wicked bad for you, especially the way I was drinking it.

#45 - Wake up before 7:30 a.m. at least 75 times a year (3/75)
I made this goal in the hopes that it would get me to wake up early sometimes, even when I don't need to. I'm not really sure if I'll be able to do this one though. I at least get one of these every week because I work at 8am on Fridays, but that means I gotta find a way to do that 25 or so other days a year.

#48 - Weigh 225 lbs.
I'm not shooting for this one just yet. I'm just trying to be healthier first, then I'll go for the actual weight goals. Healthiness is more important anyway, this is just a way to put a sorta relevant number on it. I don't know how much I weigh, nor do I want to until I actually set out to lose weight.

#52 - Find the perfect boxers, and buy 10 pairs of them (2/10)
I'm pretty sure I've found them. They seem to be working quite well. They're from Target, cost like $5 each. I'm going to give the first 2 some more trial time before I decide that these are the right ones. :-)

#56 - Fix 5 things with duct tape (1/5, fixed my lanyard for my work ID)
Yep...my ID card lanyard wasn't working the way it should (it's hard to explain)...so I fixed it with duct tape.

#70 - Save $x money
I don't know what my goal is for saving money yet...might be $500, might be $5,000, might be $20,000...we'll see. I've been doing pretty well at this, although there are certain things I could do to save more.

#75 - Watch 20 Twins games a year (4/20)
I'm allowing myself to count the games I watched before I officially started this list, lol. Plus I watched the game yesterday. We lost, Joe Nathan blew the save. :-(

#93 - Watch Chuck season 1 (3 discs down, 1 or 2 to go - I'm netflixing them)
This show is pretty awesome - it may have cracked my top ten favorite tv shows list, and it's one of my favorites that is still on TV. One or two discs to go.

#55

#55. Finish this list

Done!

That took embarassingly too long. But I wanted to take my time on it, make it last longer so I had to think about what I wanted longer so I could perfect my list.

Getting started

Initially I wanted to have this done by April 1st...wow time flies. So I got it done by May 1st...that works. The basic idea for this is to make myself a better person, so I tried to focus on that... I want to be healthier, to be more independent, to be more organized, to have some better things, to be more rounded, etc., so these goals should reflect that.

I've been working on some of these goals already, and achieved a few already. However because I want this to be pretty legitimate and everything, I'm going to start officially as of now, May 1st, 2009. I may have to redo a few goals to accomodate this (such as get a new futon or sofa, since I already got a new sofa and obviously don't care about getting a new one anytime soon), but I should be good to go.

Some of the goals fit into several categories, but I categorized them as best I could. Some are easy, some are hard (I'm lookin' at you #36, #41, #42 and #45), some are short-term, some are long-term, some are to do something once, some are to do something a lot, but all of them are reachable. I think I'll for sure get 90 to 95, but a few are iffy. I'll try, but we'll see.

Good luck to me. :-)

Final list, finally!

Done - In progress - Haven't started

Be more active:
1. Go fishing
2. Go snowtubing/sledding
3. Golf 18 holes a year (Wii doesn't count!)
4. Play frisbee golf
5. Play tennis once a year (Wii doesn't count!) (1/1)
6. Play volleyball
7. Play whiffleball
8. Ride my bike to school or work 15 times (1/15)
9. Run 15k in races (5k/15k)
10. Take Neilly for a walk 20 times a year (1/20)
11. Take Neilly for a walk in the rain
12. Take Neilly for a walk in the snow
13. Take Neilly to the dog park once a year

Buy or get this:
14. Buy a >$30 bottle of liquor
15. Buy a >$7.50 cigar
16. Buy a netbook
17. Buy a new pair of jeans
18. Buy clothes at a thrift store
19. Buy those elusive marker pens I love from work

20. Get (or make some sort of organizer for my remotes
21. Get a better coffeemaker
22. Get a digital camera
23. Get a DVD burner

24. Get a Kohl's credit card so I can get those 15% off discounts and whatnot
25. Get a new credit card (one with cash back)
26. Get a new desk
27. Get a new futon frame or sofa
28. Get a new remote for my receiver
29. Get a new TV
30. Get cable
31. Get coffee beans and grind my own coffee
32. Get faster internet
33. Get file folders and storage, and organize all my paperwork
34. Get new slippers

Change my life for the better:
35. For one week, eat breakfast every morning at home (sometime before 11am)
36. For two weeks, be on time to work and don't stay late
37. For two weeks, consume zero alcohol
38. For two weeks, do the Wii Fit test every day
39. For two weeks, drink one glass of red wine each night

40. For two weeks, drink zero pop

41. For two weeks, eat no fast food or take-out
42. For two weeks, get at least 8 hours of sleep every night
43. Get a new job
44. Move out of my parents' house

45. Wake up before 7:30 a.m. at least 75 times a year (20/75)
46. Weigh 205 lbs.
47. Weigh 215 lbs.

48. Weigh 225 lbs.

Do this:
49. Become friends with an old friend
50. Bring in a dozen donuts for work on a Friday morning
51. Do the 365 pictures thing

52. Find the perfect boxers, and buy 10 pairs of them (6/10)
53. Finish all my paper filing at work
54. Finish Christmas shopping by December 22nd once

55. Finish writing this list

56. Fix 5 things with duct tape (2/5)

57. Fix my receiver/stereo situation so that it works right

58. For one week in January or February, go without using a space heater
59. Get 10 new shot glasses (1/10)
60. Get an autograph from a famous athlete
61. Go to a garage sale
62. Know what I’m going as on Halloween and have the costume ready at least two days before Halloween
63. Make a new friend
64. Make a recipe book of everything I know and like
65. Make a rule in P&A
66. Make my super awesome Orange Julius 3 times
67. Put pictures in my big empty picture frame & put it up
68. Read 6 books (6/6)

69. Rearrange my room three times (moving out and arranging a new room counts towards this (3/3)

70. Save $x money (I haven’t decided how much yet, but I don’t want to publicize how much money I’d like to save)
71. Send in a mail-in rebate within 24 hours of buying whatever it was
72. Sleep somewhere different 7 nights in a row
73. Vacuum my room 18 times
74. Volunteer my time for something

75. Watch 20 Twins games a year (6/20)
76. Watch 3 Wild games a year
77. Watch 5 Timberwolves games a year (2/5)
78. Watch 8 Vikings games a year (6/8)
79. Win 3 free shirts (2/3)
80. Win a game of beer pong

Go here:
81. Go on a vacation out of the country
82. Go on a vacation out of the state
83. Go on a vacation to a beach
84. Go to a Timberwolves game
85. Go to a Twins in a state other than Minnesota
86. Go to a Vikings game
87. Go to a Wild or Gophers hockey game
88. Make a list of 10 places you really want to eat at, and go to all of them

Movies, TV, games & music:

89. Beat 15 video games (1/15)

90. Get a trial subscription to GameFly

91. Get at least 360 new songs (155/360)

92. Go to a concert at the Varsity Theater

93. Watch Chuck season 1

94. Watch Ed Season 1
95. Watch every Harry Potter movie
96. Watch every Lord of the Rings movie
97. Watch every Matrix movie
98. Watch every Star Wars movie
99. Watch Heroes Season 1
100. Watch the Academy Award winning Best Picture movies since 1983 that I haven’t seen yet (there's 15 of them)
101. Watch The Big Lebowski while drinking White Russians

update 7-14-09: changed formatting to bold/italics for completed/in progress because it's easier to update than colors

update 7-27-09: changed formatting back to colors because it was too hard to see the difference between italics, bold, and no formatting