There are exactly two years left in this undertaking, as I post this right meow. This last quarter was pretty goddamned productive, and I’m really pleased with myself for getting to where I am right now. Overall, I’m feeling pretty good about the challenge, even if I’m not quite as far along as I would like to be. Having been unemployed since early July has made it so that some things — the new mountain bike (#11), driving a supercar (#91), etc., have been delayed for a bit. C’est la vie. I still feel like I can make a pretty good run at this.
I have made some modifications to the overall list due to realism — taking the kids to London (#50) is going to have to be shelved for a long damn time, based on the completion of #49 (RMNP trip).
Items completed this quarter: 7 (6.9%)
TOTAL COMPLETED: 14 (13.8%)
Items in-progress: 20 (19.8%)
Completed This Quarter
25. Build the mtg-deckbuild Python script. This was a fun one, it’s not complex, by any stretch of the imagination. My first methodology was a little clunky, using a python list full of dictionaries, but I rebuilt it using pandas dataframes, and it runs a lot more smoothly now. Functionality-wise, it’ll let you cross-reference your Magic: The Gathering card library and a publicly-shared Archidekt deck, and will spit back a report of how many of the cards you have, and what cards you need to acquire to build it. Something that’s actually useful. (Github repo.)
40. Get my weight below 195; keep it there. Woohoo! I got below 195 finally, which I attribute largely to finishing #41 (below), and getting more committed to the training on the bike. If I’m at 180 by the time I hit the Tour de Tucson in November, I’m going to be very pleased with myself.
41. Clean up my diet. This was hard as hell, but I am basically there. I’ve almost completely quit soda (I’m at less than 5% of my usual intake), mostly cut out refined sugars, fast food is no longer part of my diet. I prefer leftovers to going out. And I’m eating veggies with most of my meals now. Who even am I? I’m calling this complete due to the radical changes, and I’m going to continue to stick with this.
49. Family camping trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. This was epic and difficult and fun and I learned a lot about my family in the process. It forced some rethinking on the “take the kids to London” item because of the way things got to be. Recap.
52. Honeymoon in the Bahamas. This was relaxing and memorable and soothing and definitely the travel highlight of the year.
54. Las Vegas. Holy shit. That was insane. We saw the Killers (see #89 in the in-progress section below), got into all sorts of mischief, including #90 (below), and came to the conclusion that we’ve got to do this again.
90. Go ziplining. We did this down on Fremont Street in Vegas, starting 110 feet over the heads of all the assembled freaks and tourists, and had a blast. Not as fun as skydiving, to be certain, but still worth making the trip.
In-Progress This Quarter
3. Finish the century-length Tour de Tucson. Training continues! This is only about eight weeks away and I’m busting my butt to get ready for it.
11. Buy myself a new full-squish mountain bike. I’ve identified the bike — a Specialized Epic 8 Evo Pro. With some minor upgrades (AXS dropper post, Berd wheels, etc.). This is waiting on me getting re-employed.
12. Build a criterium-specific bike. I’ve identified the frames — a Specialized Allez. I’ll probably build it up with SRAM Rival AXS, and some HED wheels. This is waiting on me getting re-employed.
14. Write an updated business plan for opening a bike shop. I’ve got it framed up, should be done with this in October or November. Will it actually turn into anything? Probably not — the bike biz is utterly and completely fucked right now due to a number of factors, and I don’t have the money to flush down the toilet.
20. Build the Scoutreads site. Data model and API designed. Got to stick a temporary front-end on this for the sake of development, and start poking holes in it. Need to get some initial data to populate the site, however.
21. Get at least two Microsoft Azure certifications. (0/2) I’m in the process of studying for AZ-104 again, and hoping to get that completed in the near future.
23. Get the danbailey.dev website up and running. I really need to take this from wireframes, which I have, to a completed site, but right now I am focused on getting some freelance work wrapped up.
32. Get my D&D campaign world finished; start running it. I need to get this into wrapped-up and going ASAP. I think I’m going to commit an entire Saturday to just sitting down and getting everything wrapped-up on the world building, and figure out the details of the first “chapter” of this whole epic tale.
37. Finish three Zelda games I haven’t completed. (0/3) Holy shit! I’m close to finished with Tears of the Kingdom and I’m moving on to A Link to the Past after that.
42. Exercise at least 3x/week for 52 weeks. (39/52). Still going! It’s definitely a contributor to the completion of #40, above, too.
43. Two new tattoos. (0/2) I have a plan. Not just a concept of a plan. An actual plan.
59. Washington, D.C. We’ll be going for a weekend in October, which is cool, but I think I’ll be visiting a second time during all of this, as we’re not going to have enough time to address all the things I want to tackle.
61. Read at least 150 books. (35/150) So I’ve gotten a bit bogged-down in some heavier/deeper subjects this year and I’m behind schedule for my annual goal of 55 books, but I’m going to make up for that with some lighter reading. Specifically, I’m going to blast through the remainder of the Expanse series, and get caught up on the ongoing Murderbot series. That should get me caught up in pretty short order.
64. Write a non-fiction book. Hey, I’ve got a subject and an outline. It’s pretty sweet! I need to start bashing out some stuff in the next few weeks here.
65. Have three months’ of expenses set aside in an “oh shit” savings account. You don’t need specifics, but this is underway.
66. Get my spare change bin (a 5-gallon spring water bottle) half-filled. This is going. I should start providing photos on an ongoing basis.
75. Do at least six Udemy courses. (0/6) I’ve got a few of these in-progress, and I’m going to sit down and revisit them soon so that I can get caught-up. Maybe I’ll target the shorter ones first?
77. Master Python. Between working in it daily now as a part-time contractor at Camperoni, chunking through a “learn it in 100 days” course on Udemy, and using it as my primary/only language on leetcode, I figure that by about the time I hit September of 2025, I should have this more or less nailed. You can’t stop the learning!
84. Take guitar lessons. Right now, I’m using the Gibson app to go through stuff, but I need to make this more of a daily focus, even if it’s just 15-30 minutes per day. And I’m going to need to get a human instructor to disabuse me of my bad habits, too.
89. Go to at least five concerts. (3/5) Since June, I’ve been to the Yacht Club Festival, the Foo Fighters, and the Killers. Only two more to go!
(Featured image created with/generated by Adobe Firefly 3. Prompt: Rusty, banged-up robots working with sledgehammers inside a brutalist Soviet steel mill.