A New Item on the List – #127 Shakespeare Reading Challenge 2011

WhenI was in my early twenties I had this grand plan that I wanted to read (and understand) the plays of William Shakespeare. So for Christmas that year, I asked

for a copy of William Shakespeare: The Complete Works. It was a beautiful book with a padded leather cover and gold stamping. I got the book for Christmas that year and settled in for some deep reading. BUT… it never happened. I read a couple of small parts but lost motivation. The book has followed me around, every once in awhile I had renewed interest in the book but never put the effort into doing the reading.

Then, yesterday, I was reading the blog 101 things to do before you die and read about The Shakespeare Reading Challenge 2011 and decided that maybe this was the incentive I need to actually get reading the book. The contest works like this:

First off, the Levels:

1. Puck: Read 4 plays over the year, 1 of which may be replaced by a performance

2. Desdemona: Read 6 plays, 2 of which may be replaced by a performance

3. Henry V: Read 12 plays, 3 of which may be replaced by a performance

Now, the Rules:

1. All plays must be read between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011. Anything begun before that cannot be included.

2. Audio versions are also acceptable but all plays must be unabridged.

3. You don't need to list your plays ahead of time but you may, if you'd like.

4. Review pages for each month will be created but are optional.

I am looking forward to this challenge and hope it will encourage me to read more Shakespeare in the future. It has been more than 20 years since I have read one of his plays but I have such an interest in the period of history when he was around that I am anxious to begin. I would like to say I am shooting for the HenryV level but for now am going to shoot for Desdemona instead. If I can accomplish this, I know I will be very happy.

Special thanks to Elena who put this challenge together for all takers. And now, January 1^st I am ready to get reacquainted with The Bard and give myself the challenge of wading through some Olde English… now all I have to do is find that book.

#124 Work on My Creative Writing at Least 2 Hours per Week for a Year (2/52)

I remember writing a short story once when I was a kid. It started something like, “It was a dark and stormy night. A man in dark clothing was hiding in the dark shadows of a dark road.” O.K. so not really Pulitzer Prize winning but hey I was probably only about 10. I shared my partially finished story with some people I looked up to and they made fun of my lack of writing ability, especially my excessive use of the word “dark.” This event singled the premature end of my writing career and the beginning of a lifelong issue with sharing my creative efforts with others.

I am not trying to put the blame for my failures on anyone else’s shoulders. For one, nobody has ever told me that I can’t do something and secondly, it is my life and I am the one in charge of it. Of course that doesn’t make it any easier to break down the limitations we set for ourselves. In my case, I am afraid of the rejection when someone dislikes what I created. Of course, this is where things don’t make sense because a) most people you share your creations with are genuinely supportive, positive or at least constructive in their criticism and b) when people have disliked me or something I have done, I find it really doesn’t matter to me. So why is this an issue and why have I let this stop me in the past? I don’t know, and really it doesn’t matter as long as I can overcome it in the present.

When I was seventeen, my parents gave me a camera for Christmas. This started a love of photography and throughout the next several years of my life I became the unofficial photographer of the lives of my friends and I. I could always share my pictures with my friends because no one was interested in artistic value and only interested in the good. Although I loved taking pictures I never pushed myself to see what I could do.

All this changed as I approached thirty and I met my wife. She encouraged me to take photography classes and buy a new camera. And then she encouraged me with every batch of photographs I showed her, even having me blow some up large for the walls of her office. She has continued to do this in all my pursuits, painting, education, writing, etc. And for this I thank her because I know I am lucky to have such great support. And if I ever accomplish great things in anything I attempt, it will be thanks to her.

I realize I have strayed a little from the theme of my post, which is writing, but I am just providing a little background for what I am attempting to accomplish with this goal.

For the longest time, whenever I read a book, I remember thinking, “I could never put together a complete enough story to fill up an entire novel. I was, and still am, amazed by the people who can craft the interlocking storylines needed for a truly great novel.

Then, one day I decided that I could do it. I read about a contest called the 3-Day Novel Contest and thought, “this is my chance”. I am not sure what made me decide to take a shot at it or what gave me the idea that I could even accomplish it. The only thing I can think is that that aspiring writer inside me never died in my childhood but only hid, waiting for the opportunity to emerge, for me to release him from his prison.

So, in 2007 I dedicated my Labour Day weekend to writing my first novel. For those of you who don’t know, the 3-Day Novel Contest is a contest in which you begin to write at midnight on the Friday of the September long weekend and have until midnight on Monday. The average novel is approximately 70-120 pages in length (a novella). You are allowed to come up with a basic plot if you want but are not allowed to write any part of the novel before the start time.

I am proud to say that in my first effort, I was able to write a novel that was over 100 pages and almost 27,000 words. Although my novel was not short-listed as one of the best by the contest judges it turned out to be a critically acclaimed novel. Well, by my wife and other friends and relatives that I let read it.

In 2008 I did not attempt the contest as I was using that weekend to prepare for a return to university (that WAS scary but is a story for another day). Then in 2009, I gave it another attempt and came up with another novel, this one closer to 80 pages. Up to this point I haven’t shared it with anyone else, as it is a little too rough around the edges for my liking. This leads me to the reason that this goal is on my list.

I find that I need to set deadlines for myself to be able to get anything done in my writing. I have written a couple of short stories outside of my 3-day but, as much as I enjoy writing I just can’t seem to get myself focused enough to write. I have a notebook full of story ideas but not much else. I have several other goals on my list such as #5 Have a book published, #20 Write a travel article and have it published, and #26 Win a writing contest, that I will never accomplish if I do not do more writing.

This goal originally started as write at lest 1,000 words per week but I have changed it to Work on My Creative Writing at Least 2 Hours per Week for a Year. As I started out on this challenge I realized that to just write my 1,000 words per week would not allow me to produce quality work. I need time to edit and work on plot and character development what I write. So my new goal is to spend at least two hours every week on my writing. When I am on a roll, I can easily write 1,000 words in under an hour. I plan on spending this time not only on writing and developing the stories in my notebook and in my head, but also going back to the two novels that I have written and reworking them until I am happy with them. Then I will submit them to a publisher or contest. Afterwards, I will continue to tweak and edit them until someone in the industry recognizes them as good work.

I am happy to say that this is the second week that I have been involved in this goal and I have written more than one thousand words in each of the last two weeks. This has enabled me to nearly complete a short story that I started late in the summer. I am thinking that by the end of next week, I will have it edited and ready for submitting to a contest.

It just goes to show you what you can accomplish be making small changes in your routines and your life. If I can continue to make these small adjustments to my life, I know this will lead me to the accomplishment of more and more goals as time goals by.

History Made for the First Time - #122 Movember

This is the first item that I check off of my list! Growing a mustache for Movember is something I have wanted to do since I first heard about the fundraiser last year. For those that don’t know, Movember is an event held during the month of November to raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer. During the month of November, men in countries around the world grow mustaches, the idea that a change in a person’s appearance initiates conversation that can be used for raising awareness of prostate cancer and the need for men to get regular exams (prostate cancer is one of the most survivable forms of cancer if caught at an early stage and very deadly if not).

Here is a little blurb on Movember courtesy of the Canadian Movember Website:

The idea for Movember was sparked in 2003 over a few beers in Melbourne, Australia. The plan was simple – to bring the moustache back as a bit of a joke and do something for men’s health. No money was raised in 2003, but the guys behind the Mo realized the potential a moustache had in generating conversations about men’s health. Inspired by the women around them and all they had done for breast cancer, the Mo Bros set themselves on a course to create a global men’s health movement.

In 2004, the first year of fund raising, $55,000 was raised in Australia for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. Last year a quarter of a million people participated worldwide raising 47 million dollars. I heard on our local news that in Canada this year, we raised 18 million dollars, over twice last year’s 8 million dollars.

Unfortunately, I did not do very well with my fundraising but vow to do a better job next year. If anyone has any interest in donating on my behalf please feel free to donate at http://ca.movember.com/mospace/782212/. If you just want more information on activities where you are from or on the fundraiser of prostate cancer in general go to http://www.movember.com/.

Movember 6

Movember 14th

So that is it, the first item crossed off my list. Considering that I tend to have a five o’clock shadow at the best of times it may not be the most earth shattering thing off of my list by any means. I heard from quite a few people that they could not stand the itchiness that comes along with new hair growth. I seemed to be blessed without this problem so it was really not much of a problem for me at all. I am not the best when it comes to trimming so it is certainly not the nicest mustache ever but I wasn’t in it to win any beauty contests. A few people have even suggested that it looks good on me and that I should keep it… what do you think? I haven’t shaved it off yet but I am thinking this weekend it will be gone. Anyways, it is nice to get the first thing down and know that I can set a goal and actually follow through with it.

Hopefully this will lead to the crossing off of many more things from the list!

#108 See a Broadway Play

Friday night my beautiful wife and I, accompanied by a couple friends, went to the Regina Globe Theatre’s production of Honk, the Musical Tale of the Ugly Duckling. This is the second year that we have invested in season tickets to The Globe and we have been enjoying the quality of theatre available in our city.

I have something to admit, I love live theatre and live musicals. We have seen The Phantom of the Opera twice and loved it both times. These facts have lead me to put #108 See a Broadway Show on my list. Alternatively, to see a show in London would be equally enjoyable to me. My wife and I almost did this a few years ago while in London but a combination of scheduling (or lack of), inability to pick the show we wanted to see, and concerns over our budget lead us to not seeing a show.

Of course I regret this now but can’t do anything about it. One of the new pacts that I have made in my life is that I refuse to not do the things that I want to do. From this point on, if I have the opportunity to do something I want to do, and it is logical to take that opportunity, I will take it. After all, isn’t that the way we should all live our lives?

A couple of quick updates on some of the other items on my list:

I have a great love of photography but the last couple of years, especially during my time when I returned to university, I kind of let my photography hobby do by the wayside. I miss picking up my camera and having the chance to be creative and so I came up with #121 Take at least one photo a day every day for a year. I started my way towards my goal on Thursday and I am happy to say that it has not only forced me to pick up my camera every day (I will be posting pictures soon). Today I went for a walk and snapped happily away. I am at my mother-in-law and father-in law’s farm in rural Saskatchewan at the moment and although it is a bit of a frosty morning, I was able to stay out for over half-an-hour and took over 60 pictures. It is exactly what I enjoy doing and would probably have not done it if I had not made this a goal.

Another goal I have made is to work on my creative writing and write at least 1,000 words every week (#124). This week I have so far written almost 700 words (and will spend part of the rest of the day to make sure I achieve 1,000 words) on a short story that I have been working our in my head and on paper for a couple of months if not more. Once the story is complete, I plan on entering it into a writing competition and starting on my next project.

These long term goals are stepping stones to help me accomplish my bigger goals like #5 have a book published, #6 Have a photo in National Geographic, and #25 and #26 winning contests in writing and photography. I truly believe that by taking these small constant steps I can not only create good habits of accomplishing work I enjoy but I can also accomplish bigger goals.

I am off to do some writing, need to get this done before the Grey Cup kicks off this evening. Go Riders!

Blood, Art and Beers

Thursday was an enlightening day for me. At the moment I am working from my home as my company awaits the completion of construction of our new office/warehouse. This has given me some flexibility in my days and I took advantage of it Thursday to do something that was long overdue. I went down to Canadian Blood Services and donated blood. It has been more than a year since I have been down there (I was blacklisted for a year due to my recent travels in rural China and have been procrastinating for the last couple of months) and it was definitely time to start donating again.

This is something I have seen on quite a few people’s bucket lists and I have to say that I definitely encourage everyone to donate whenever they can. My experiences are that there is relatively no pain involved (I find the worst part is when they remove the tape from my hairy arm) and really where else do you go and get free cookies in today’s world? Why (other than the free cookies) should you donate? For one, this is the opportunity to save a life. This is not a direct saving of a life, but every time you donate, your blood is used to help someone survive a crisis in his or her life. In Canada someone needs blood every minute of every day, and you have to remember that Canada is a small country population wise. Canadian Blood Services has some interesting stats on blood needs, check it out here: http://www.blood.ca/centreapps/internet/uw_v502_mainengine.nsf/page/E_Who%20Needs%20Blood In short, I encourage you to put this on your personal list and get it done!

The main reason I bring up is that it has reminded me of something that I wanted to do years ago. When I was in my late teens I had a friend that had cancer and needed a marrow transplant. I wanted to get put onto the Stem Cell and Marrow Registry so hopefully I could help someone out there in the same position as my friend. This was at a time before you could find any information you want off of the internet, not that it mattered because it took half a day to download one page (or that’s how it felt anyways). The short story is that to be put on the registry, you had to go to an information session and watch a film so you knew what you were getting yourself into. They only offered it a couple times a month and since I was working out of town quite a bit at the time, I was never able to make the sessions. Shortly after, my friend passed away and it seemed like I would remember to go to the sessions, eventually it went to the back of my mind as a someday thing that I wanted to do but never did. I have now added it to my list although I am right on the limit of the weight to height ratio allowed, it is one more reason for me to get my ass of the couch and back to exercising. I hope to have this ticked off before my next birthday (in January).

Thursday evening, I had the opportunity to meet up with an old friend, Terrance Houle who has been making a name for himself as an nationally and internationally renowned artist. Check out his art at http://www.terrancehouleart.com or if you are in New York at the National Museum of the American Indian. Terrance and I are fast food vets from back in my younger years when I lived in Calgary. When we sat down for a couple of beers, it was just like old times, we laughed our asses off and just had a good time. A few of things I took away from the evening are that a person who has passion and loves what they do can accomplish great things in their field if they are willing to share their work and their passion, when you have the chance, you should share your passion with others (Terrance was in Regina working on a one week residency), and talking to people who love what they do encourages you to do the same.

All around it was a great day and I hope we all can find the thing that we can be passionate about and will make us happy plus encourage or help others.

Death and Destruction as Stepping Stones to a Better You

As I sit here today pondering my list and watching the snow grow ever deeper outside my door I have several things on my mind. It is convenient that today is the day I finally signed up as a campaigner on Seb Terry’s blog http://100thingssebterry.blogspot.com. Seb provided the push I needed to finally put together my “bucket list”, make it public, and put a plan together to accomplish it. “Shit or get off the pot,” as my dad used to say.

I have never met Seb but heard about him when he was staying in my hometown in the pursuit of one of the items on his list, #23. Deliver a baby. He was able to check off a few things from his list during his time here and I have followed his quest since that time. If you need some inspiration, or just want to read about some Austrailian traveling around the world doing crazy stuff like #36 walk across a country (France) or #73 get shot (both of which he has done) I recommend reading his blog. While there you can help him achieve one of his goals, which is raise $100,000 for Camp Quality (a charity supporting children with cancer).

The reason I am talking about him today is that the push that made him set out on the journey he is on now was initiated by the sudden death of a good friend of his. Unfortunately this is the kind of event that it takes sometimes to spark us out of the ruts that we get ourselves into. In my case I can honestly say that the passing of my father when I was 19 and the sudden deaths of an aunt and cousin only a couple years later affected my life greatly. My father was my hero and my friend, my aunt I always felt, even when she was alive, was my guardian angel and my cousin was the guy that lived every moment to the fullest and got every once of life from the 19 years he was allowed on this planet. The only positive I can really take from these events is that I simply don’t take life so seriously anymore. When little things go wrong (or even some big things) it really doesn’t seem so bad because they mean nothing when you look at the big picture. And those deaths, as hard as they were on me, made me appreciate what I have in my life and made me realize that I can weather any storm if I need to.

Today is the second anniversary of the death of a good friend of mine. He lost a relatively short battle with cancer and I think it came as a great shock to all of his friends when we got the news. Cory was an inspirational person who overcame a lifelong “disability” to accomplish some great things. I write it as “disability” because he never really seemed to treat it as a disability although most people would consider it so. My friend Cory was a “little person” but to us he was just another guy we hung out with, probably larger than life than any of us were if the truth be told. We treated him the same as any other person in our group and he never expected to be or wanted to be treated any differently. He lived his life to the fullest right to the end, even setting up some scholarships before he died to be presented in his name at our former high school.

I take inspiration from Cory’s life and try to remember that nothing is impossible if you set your mind to it. Seb Terry takes inspiration from his friend who also lived his life to the fullest right to the end. The funny thing about it is that the people that we so often take inspiration from are not trying to inspire us at all. They are just smart enough to know that life has an unknown expiration date so we need to make the most of it while we can. That is what they do, live life every day, just like you and I, except they make the choice that tomorrow will not be a carbon copy of today because what would the point be to that?

Death is on my mind for other reasons today as well (I am not this morbid normally I promise.) I live in a province with a relatively small population (just over a million people) and the norm is small towns. I lived in one of these small towns for 10 years before moving back to Regina to finish my degree. This past weekend at two of the neighbouring communities of my former home suffered a great tragedy. A vehicle collision killed 6 people including 4 young men in their late teens and early twenties from one community and a mother and her grown son from another. These things are always tough but even more so in a small community where people literally know everyone else. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who lost someone close and although I don’t believe anything “good” can come from the accident, I hope people can use the memory of the lives of these people to inspire their own lives, even if just some small way.

We are also coming up on the one-year anniversary of the death of the brother of a close friend of my wife and I. I know she has used his memory to create some positive things in her life even though it has been incredibly hard for her. I wish her and her family all my love and prayers and hope they can celebrate his life and not dwell on death and know we are always only a call away if they need to talk and would always drop everything to support them. I believe strongly in the power of family and friends, if I lost all my material possessions today, I know I could rely on the love of family and friends but if I lost all my family and friends, all the money in the world could not fill the void.

Death and destruction is on my mind for a different reason as well. I was fortunate to spend 4 weeks on a international business study trip to the Republic of Korea (South Korea) last year. It was an amazing trip and I had the opportunity to meet some amazing people from Korea (and around the world). I look forward to the day when I can bring my wife to see some of the places I was and meet some of the friends that I made (#123 on my list). In South Korea they have mandatory military service and most of the young men that I met there are currently involved in the military in some way. With the recent actions by North Korea that killed two South Korean soldiers and two civilians I worry a great deal about my friends. It is amazing to me that as advanced as we like to pretend our civilization is, there is still conflict around the world and trillions of dollars spent on defense budgets while billions of people live in poverty.

Short of the leaders of countries putting themselves and their families on the front lines in the direct line of fire, I don’t see that this will change anytime soon. I think it is a goal of many of us to make the world a better place; it is for me for sure. I know I have to start in my little corner of it and make what changes I can. In the meantime I will continue to try to come up with a solution for world peace and I will pray for the soldiers of the world who are simply doing the job they are sent to do, whether they are South or North Korean, Canadian, American, etc.

I will keep believing that I can make changes in myself and my community that will make a difference, and I will continue to take inspiration from my heroes and friends, whether still on earth or gone to a better place.

With every step,

With every obstacle,

With every dream and challenge,

There are those you meet,

Those you love,

Those who touch your heart and life.

Written in Cory’s honour by his sister Carla

Hello

One of my favorite quotes from The Simpsons is “you remind me of me before the weight of the world crushed my dreams.” In my younger years I used to say it in jest about young teenagers starting at the fast food restaurant I worked at through my college years. They would be excited for their first job, the same first job I was now I was now cynical of. It was funny at the time, but when I think of it now, it just seems sad.

When I was younger, nothing seemed impossible. There was nothing to stop me from accomplishing all my dreams. But, you work at a few crappy jobs, you work or deal with people with no respect for others, or thanks to union rules you can’t turn your term position into permanent while some useless person that does nothing keeps their job because of length of service not quality of work. It can make a person cynical, or it did for me anyways. Although I still had dreams, they were not world changing dreams.

I envy the people who have never had those doubts and have dreamed big their whole lives but I am also thankful that I have now rediscovered my inner child. It all started when I met my soul-mate and she started to encourage me to pursue my love of photography. I started to show my work to family and friends and got some positive feedback and started to realize that I can accomplish things that I put my mind to. Since then, I have been discovering the joy of travel, photography, writing, and just accomplishing bigger things in general.

But it is no longer enough. The time has come to make a list of things of things I want to see and do, my so-called “bucket list”. And in hopes of making myself more accountable I have decided to make the list public. I tend to be a bit of a procrastinator and have learned that by making lists for myself I can more easily keep myself focused.

Many things on my lists are not things I can just go out and accomplish tomorrow (ie. it would not be possible or even advisable for me to go out tomorrow and run a marathon given my current level of fitness.) I have added steps to my list as to the steps I need to complete on my journey and am keeping a journal of what I need to do each day. The only thing that can stop me now is me and I refuse to let that happen any longer because I deserve better.

I certainly am open to all encouragement and criticism and look forward to hearing from people with goals similar to my own. My short term goal is to accomplish 40 goals before I am 40, which only gives my a little over two years but what is the use of setting goals without challenging yourself?

Winston Churchill said, “history will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.” We all are in charge of writing our own histories, and although we may not all change the world we can change our little part of it for the better and that is what I intend to start doing… before I kick the proverbial bucket.