101 Things in 1001 Days

Years and years ago, in this blog, I used to do this thing called “101 Things in 1001 Days”, in which I’d attempt to do everything on a list in a reasonable amount of time. I was never highly successful at it, basically because I was an overambitious idiot and frequently in situations in that didn’t accommodate the time commitments required for getting my ambitious lists done. So, with life in a different situation altogether, I’m going to try it again. Here’s my list of 101 things that I want to accomplish by September 26, 2026.

I’ll provide write-ups on each item’s progress in my monthly productivity posts, and I’ll provide full-write-ups as I complete things.

Strikethrough indicates the task is complete, with a month/year that follows it. Anything in italics is in-progress. Anything in bold indicates that it’s changed from the original plan.

Relationship/Family

1. Marry this girl. Done. December 2023 and June 2024.
2. Buy a house together. Done. February 2025 — pre-approved for mortgage, plus have signed purchase agreement.

Bike

3. Finish the century-length Tour de Tucson. Done. November 2024.
4. Finish the Filthy 50 with a four-hour (or less) time.
5. Do three brevets of increasing distance (200km, 300km, 400km). (0/3)
6. Build up a new road bike. Done. March 2024.
7. Buy Didi a new full-squish mountain bike. Done. January 2024.
8. Get the kids into the Buck Hill race series (with me).
9. Take a mountain bike skills class.
10. Buy Didi a new gravel bike. Done. June 2024.
11. Buy myself a new full-squish mountain bike.
12. Build a criterium-specific bike.
13. Figure out the tool storage issue.
14. Write an updated business plan for opening a bike shop. Done. November 2024.
15. Get (or build) nice touring frames for Didi and me.
16. Ride the Valley of Tears gravel, probably in 2026.
17. Ride the DAMN.
18. Get the Surly repainted.
19. Ride at Ray’s Bike Park in Cleveland, Ohio.

Web Nerd Shit

20. Build the Scoutreads site.
21. Get at least two certifications. (1/2)
    • Finished the PCEP — January of 2025
22. Contribute to an open source project.
23. Get the danbailey.dev website up and running.
24. Start a YouTube channel.
25. Build the mtg-deckbuild Python script. September 2024.
26. Build Countdown app for iOS.
27. Develop a Todoist/Wordpress Widget.

Generally Nerdy Shit

28. Go see all the Apollo Command Modules that went to the moon. (0/10)
29. Get a new t-shirt design done and posted to Cotton Bureau and other places. Done. December 2024. Available here.
30. Buy/build the new Avengers Tower set. (Lego)
31. Get a display case and finish building the UCS Millenium Falcon set. (Lego)
32. Get my D&D campaign world finished; start running it.
33. Submit a design to Lego Ideas.
34. Do 365 brain puzzles (sudoku, ken ken, crosswords, etc.). (365/365) Done. April 2024.
35. Visit the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. October 2024.

Gaming

36. Finish Baldur’s Gate III.
37. Finish three Zelda games I haven’t completed. (0/3)
38. Buy a gaming PC. 😬
39. Get KSP2 going.

Body/Fitness/Health

40. Get my weight below 195; keep it there. September 2024.
41. Clean up my diet. September 2024.
42. Exercise at least 3x/week for 52 weeks. (52/52). January 2025.
43. Two new tattoos. (0/2)
44. Get teeth whitened.
45. Be able to do 50 push-ups without stopping.
46. Be able to do 15 pull-ups.
47. Get cholesterol and triglycerides into normal ranges. March 2024.
48. Get Lasik.

Travel

49. Family camping trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. August 2024.
50. TBD (Was: Take the boys to London.)
51. Florida trip with Eddy to see KSC and a launch.
52. Honeymoon in the Bahamas. June/July of 2024.
53. Japan.
54. Las Vegas. August 2024.
55. Zion National Park.
56. Philadelphia.
57. Colorado snowboarding trip.
58. Go see the 2024 solar eclipse in April. April 2024.
59. Washington, D.C. October 2024.
60. Yosemite.

Written Word

61. Read at least 150 books. (64/150) (64 as of 12/31/2024)
62. Write a novel.
63. Write a half-dozen short stories; submit. (0/6)
64. Write a non-fiction book.

Finance

65. Have three months’ of expenses set aside in an “oh shit” savings account.
66. Get my spare change bin (a 5-gallon spring water bottle) half-filled.
67. Get a new financial advisor.
68. Budget for ongoing monthly stock investment.
69. Pay off remainder of student loans.
70. Pay off outstanding debt. March 2024.
71. File my VA disability claim.
72. Read two books on investing. (0/2)

Education

73. Finish my bachelor’s degree. March 2024.
74. Start a second bachelor’s degree.
75. Do at least six Udemy courses. (3/6)
    • WordPress Gutenberg Block Development with React JS and PHP — December of 2024
    • Python PCEP: Become Certified Entry Level Python Programmer — January of 2025
    • Understanding Typescript — February of 2025
76. Learn Blender.
77. Master Python.
78. Master Javascript.
79. Take more snowboarding lessons.
80. Sign up for martial arts classes.
81. Learn Japanese.
82. Learn to make beer.
83. Take a cooking class with Di.
84. Take guitar lessons.

Maker/DIY

85. Make another bike frame.
86. Build a bike gear locker with slots/drawers/spaces for all my riding gear. Done. March 2024.
87. Build a homebrew radio telescope.
88. Start an open source hardware project to crank out an Apple //e clone.

Experiences

89. Go to at least five concerts. (3/5)
    • Mpls Yacht Club Festival — July 2024
    • Foo Fighters — July 2024
    • The Killers — August 2024
90. Go ziplining. August 2024.
91. Drive a supercar.
92. Plant a tree.

Acquisition

93. Get myself a decent drone.
94. Get a new set of really nice kitchen knives. June 2024.
95. Buy a snowblower.
96. Get Didi set up with a woodworking space.
97. Get a 3D printer up and running.
98. Upgrade the trigger and sights on the Glock 19.
99. Get the Lego Ghostbusters HQ set. May 2024.
100. Get a powder snowboard.
101. Switch over to Burton Step-On bindings.

Changes

21. Was changed to non-specific certifications, as I wasn’t really down with dealing with Azure for awhile and was shifting my focus away from architecture.

25. I don’t remember what I had here originally, but it was probably something similar — getting a couple of APIs talking to each other using python.

50. This was “take the boys to London” but after a weekend road trip with the two of them to Rocky Mountain National Park, I was ready to not travel with the both of them simultaneously for quite awhile. Hence, the change.

(Featured image created with/generated by Adobe Firefly 2 Beta. Prompt: illustration of world war 2 aircraft flying overhead and dropping clocks.)