Glad-Wish

Sunday, 29 July 2012

Way back in 2006, we had a hard drive that was failing. In fact, it did fail. We tried lots of things at home to get it to work, including placing it in the freezer for an hour, and then plugging it in right away. That didn’t work. Nothing worked.

Many of the files on the hard drive were simply back ups, so we didn’t lose as much as we could have. However, my wife had scanned in, cropped, and edited hundreds of photos from yesteryear that belonged to her grandmother. Of course, she could have scanned all of them in again, but that would involve re-acquiring them from grandma, having grandma again provide her best guess for the date and event (and people!) in the photos, and then editing and organizing them all just right again. Hours and hours of work. Jennifer never did that. And we never fixed the hard drive. It just sat around, in our closet or in our office, for years.

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, Jennifer took it to a local tech genius who charged a surprisingly low cost to extract all the data from the defunct drive. Jennifer, of course, was pleased to have all the photos once again accessible to her. She pointed out that the recovered files were somewhat of a time capsule: there was a file of things we wanted to buy for our house (a house we don’t even live in anymore), and old finance and budget files from bills and expenses in the past.

There was also a folder of my files; many of them were now either obsolete or outdated, so I just got rid of them. But there was one file I was happy to find because, in fact, I had just asked about it earlier this month.

See, back in the 2002-2006 era, we had a different looking website with different blogs and information on it. Among other things, there was a page that listed off everything I was glad to have done in my life, and everything I wanted to to with my life. Then we transferred our site to this location, and we made some changes to it and we didn’t include that list because, well…I don’t know why. We just didn’t.

So the other day, I decided I wanted to re-include it on our website. I couldn’t find the file anywhere on my computer or on our external hard drives. I asked Jennifer if it was on her computer, and she said no. Alas! It was on the inoperative hard drive! So, in scrolling through the recently recovered files, I found one titled “Glad-Wish.” Bingo! I knew that was it right away.

So here’s the thing: I’m gonna add another tab to the top of this page that includes these lists. They need to be updated – some of the items need to move from one list to other – and expanded, and I need to tweak the formatting, so it’ll be a few days or weeks until those tabs appear above. In the meantime, I am hereby pasting in the lists as they appeared in mid-2006, the last time I had access to them.

Monday, 30 July 2012

Okay, so here’s the first half: Things I Would Like to Do. Crossed out items are ones that I have, in the intervening six years, accomplished. Where appropriate, I inserted explanatory text…

Attend a Star Trek Convention
Milk a cow/goat
Surprisingly, I still haven’t done this, despite the fact that my sister owns goats. She’s got a total live-and-let-live humane society going on there, though, so I don’t think milking them is an option. I drove past some cows on my way to perform a wedding ceremony a couple of weeks ago. I was gonna stop and carpe diem, but I was in a freshly dry-cleaned suit, and I figured I’d better show up in time for the ceremony.
Be a member of a TV audience
Be a tour guide
Ride a unicycle
Bowl higher than 150
I’ve come within 15 points of this. the thing is, I don’t care to practice. Basically, I just go bowling whenever people invite me to go and I’m steadily getting better. Maybe I’ll get that half-perfect game by the time I’m 50.
Brew my own beer
Buy something to drink from a children’s stand
Go whale watching
Have a letter published in a magazine or newspaper
I sent a letter to The Monticello Times, and a reporter called back and asked to interview me. Plus, I’ve had entire articles published in newsletters, magazines, and books, so even though I don’t think I’ve accomplished this task per se, I’ve kind of trumped it.
Go on a hot air balloon ride
Learn German
Ja, mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut.
Learn ventriloquism
Here’s a link I listed next to this entry: CLICK THIS!
Plant a tree
Read 1,000 books
Well, even though I’ve since tightened my criterion for books (>40 pages instead of >32), I’m still gettin’ pretty close. I’m at 877 as of today.
Visit Alaska
Own goats/sheep
Participate in Audobon’s CBC
Perform karaoke
I had a couple of opportunities to do this, but I’ve always been too sober.
See every episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
See every episode of Star Trek: Voyager
See every episode of Northern Exposure
See every episode of The Addams Family
See every television show directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Jeez, talk about low-balling my life goals. Yes, I’ve seen all of these TV shows’ episodes. And then some.
See every film directed by Alfred Hitchcock
See Uranus
See Neptune
See Pluto
Take a ballroom dance class
Make a toast
Despite being in Toastmasters, I don’t see how I’ll ever accomplish this unless I’m the Best Man in someone’s wedding. I’ve never been a Best Man in a wedding. This is probably because I would first have to have friends. Unmarried male friends, to be exact. And anyone I have known that fits that description used to say, “Hey, James, why don’t you videotape the nuptuals for us?” And now they say, “Hey, James, why don’t you just officiate this thing for us?”
Attend a movie with only people I know in the audience
Done! September 14, 2005: Jennifer and I were the only two people at a theatrical showing of March of the Penguins.
Visit Washington, D.C.
Go skinny-dipping
How come no one ever invites me to do this? Oh, wait, do hot tubs count? Because, then, yes, I have done this. A few times. Anyway, please let me know if you own a swimming pool or have property that butts up to a lake.
Visit Angle Inlet
Visit Fort Snelling
Visit the Raptor Center
Visit Voyageur’s National Park
Step foot in every state
Own my own boat
Make something out of pottery
Wait – does this even make sense? Can I make something out of pottery? Or do I make something out of clay and that thing becomes pottery? Does that even make sense?
Rescue an abandoned animal
Run in a race
See the Grand Canyon
Attend a drive-in movie
Learn a musical instrument
If “limited, shitty guitar-playing ability” counts then, yes, I have accomplished this.
Paint a picture

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

And here’s the second half: Things I Am Glad I Did. As before, I inserted explanatory text whever I felt there was an opportunity for a witty aside…

Attend a Billy Joel Concert
Attend a Mason Jennings Concert
Yes, thrice.
Attend a Paul Simon Concert
Attend a U2 concert
I’d love to do this again, but I’d rather use the money for two weeks worth of groceries.
Toured a vineyard
Yep: On May 27th, 2002, my wife and I (along with her brother and his wife) toured Wollersheim Winery in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin.
Toured caves
Be on a TV show
Did this on January 28, 1998 (it aired on February 2nd):

Drive on the Autobahn
Graduate from college with a 4.0
One of these days, I should really get serious about my idea of making a list titled “10 Reasons Why I Kick Ass.” This would be in the top five, definitely.
Give a public speech
Grow a garden
See Niagara Falls
See the Ocean
The only “ocean” I’ve ever seen is the Atlantic. But it’s all one big ocean anyway, so I guess I’m good.
Read every canonical Sherlock Holmes Story
Collaborated on a song
Inhaled helium and then talked funny
See the Northern Lights
Have a letter read on the radio
Learn to juggle
Read every Dr. Seuss book
This should go back up to the “Things I Want to Do” list. At the time I made this list, I had, indeed, read every book authored by Theodor Geisel, including not only the ones written as “Dr. Seuss,” but also the ones written as Theo LeSieg and the single book he wrote as Rosetta Stone. However, in the years since (and despite his death 20+  years ago), the book The Bippolo Seed has been published, and I haven’t read it.
See every episode of Star Trek: The Original Series
See every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation
See every film that has won the Oscar for best picture
As I recently pontificated, this is an item that toggles between this list and the the one above. At the moment, it’s properly listed here as something I have accomplished, but that will probably change in February of next year, and then I’ll have to set about rectifying the situation yet again.
Sit on a jury
Reproduced
My word choice here strikes me as quite humorous. I’m not sure why I said “reproduced” and not “be a father,” since that’s clearly what mattered to me. I mean, I could have donated a few million of my strongest swimmers to the local sperm bank and reproduced a dozen times over, yet that wouldn’t have the same goal-accomplishing fulfillment as being a father. Conversely, I could have adopted a child, in which case I technically would not have reproduced, but still would have become a father, and that’s what matters. Okay, now I’m just rambling.
Build a snowman
Slept in a tent
Visit the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary
Visit NASA
Yep. Did this twice.
Went virtual skydiving
Go to Wolf Ridge
Stood on line for the Star Wars premier
Yep. Did this twice.
Sledded/tubed/skied down a snow covered hill
Lead a standing ovation
Visit Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island
Visit the World Trade Center in New York City
Did this on June 24, 1993. I enjoyed my visit, but didn’t think it was that significant of an experience at the time. In retrospect, however, I think it’s pretty awesome that I got to be there when it was still there.
Win an award for one of my films
This bad boy won first place in Century College’s student film contest back in 2002:

Get paid to create a film
Raised baby birds
Have a website
Yes. And yes.
Gone snorkeling
Yes, but sadly, not while skinny dipping. Does it count as skinny dipping if I’m wearing a snorkle? Is snorkling more fun while naked? Does anyone else think the word snorkle is hilarious? There’s gotta be a great double entendre here, but I can’t seem to grab onto it.