Task number 35: Watch every film that has won Best Picture at the Oscars

On 15 Feb 2009 I rented No Country for Old Men (Best Picture Winner 2007) from Moviebank. Not bad. Very slow-moving but great at building up tension, and pleasingly indie-ish and non-Hollywood. And Javier Bardem played an excellent psychopathic villain. But, annoyingly, my Moviebank card had just expired so I had to put another £10 onto it in order to use the credit I already had! >:(


On 22 February 2009, the Best Picture award for 2008 was won by Slumdog Millionaire. As I had already seen this on 20 January 2009 (within the 1001 days), I could therefore tick off another Best Film (albeit retrospectively). Prior to the ceremony, my chances of doing this were quite good, as I'd also seen Slumdog Millionaire's main rival for this award, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, since the start of my challenge.

I loved this film to bits, and cheered (either outwardly or inwardly) every time it won an award. I thought they were all thoroughly deserved. I don't believe I need to elaborate on this any more for those who've seen the film, and for those who haven't, the best way to find out why I think so much of it isn't to read anything I could write.

On the night of 28 February 2009 I watched the 1940 Best Picture winner, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, on TV. It started slow and seemingly quite predictable, but the ending was exciting and confounded the expectations I'd had at the beginning. By the time the film began to approach the climax, I could absolutely see why it deserved to win Best Picture.

On 3 March I rented Million Dollar Baby (2004). Rebekah's post on wotmania pretty much said it all: Clint Eastwood + Morgan Freeman = movie magic. Well, not quite all, because Hilary Swank was also very powerful. No wonder she won Best Leading Actress.



On 15 March The Departed (2006) was on TV. It was extremely cool. I never thought I'd see Leonardo diCaprio being cool. Also, I now know why everyone thinks so much of Jack Nicholson. And Martin Scorsese. I need to see more of his films.

Also, I was really kept on my toes trying to remember who was on what side and which of the two main characters knew what about the other one, but I expect that's just me being slow.



For my birthday my mum very kindly bought me membership of LoveFilm, which should make my progress with this task much faster! On 22 January I watched my first LoveFilm DVD, 1938 winner You Can't Take It With You. It was rather moralising, but still quite enjoyable, with lots of comic moments. Thinking back to Rebecca, it seems that most of the old ones appear quite badly made to my modern eyes at first, but as they go on I'm able to see what made them deserving winners.

Task number 89: Buy Rebekah flowers

Rebekah's birthday on the 31st of January provided me with an opportunity to paint my first task green.



I bought them on my way home from my friend Ben's the night before, and managed to preserve the surprise by hiding them in the wardrobe until the next morning. Then when Rebekah came out of the shower they had magically appeared beside the bed :D.

I've begun to think that I should really have made this more than just a one-off, but as nearly all of them are either long term or only doable in summer, it feels good to have one ticked off by the end of the first month.

Edit, 9 August 2009: I also bought Rebekah flowers on Valentine's Day, 14 February, and today for no particular reason other than that she was feeling down.

Task number 44: Cook a new recipe every month

On 19 Jan 2009 I cooked a tuna and pasta bake. Despite me forgetting to put the tuna in until after it had come out of the oven, Rebekah said she was impressed! I haven't yet decided what to cook in February but I'm hoping to elicit a similar reaction.

Task number 29: Read 50 books in 12 months

In this post I will keep track of the books I read each month until I complete the 50-book challenge. I am currently aiming to complete this by the end of December 2009, but according to my rules for this task I can retroactively move the start date if it helps me complete the challenge. So if by the end of 2009 I haven't read quite enough books, I could (for example) move the start date to 1 March 2009, discount the books I read in January and February 2009, and try to read enough to make up the difference by the end of February 2010. However, to stop things from getting too messy, I won't declare a start date that isn't the first of the month.

Books begun the previous month will be shown in brackets (). Books begun in one month and finished in a different month will count as half a book in each month. Therefore, if I get to 49½ books and my year is almost up, I'll have to read another book to at least the half-way point in order to complete the challenge, or else move the start date.

Square brackets [] indicate two books for which I forgot to note down exactly which month I finished them in, so I have allocated them according to my best guess.

2009 (50.5)

January (3.5)

(Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro)
Storm Front – Jim Butcher
The Book of Illusions – Paul Auster
The Tales of Beedle the Bard – J.K. Rowling

February (5)

(Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov)
The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow – Jerome K. Jerome
Lord of Light – Roger Zelazny
The Player of Games – Iain M. Banks
The Sparrow – Mary Doria Russell

March (4)

Night Watch – Sergei Lukyanenko
Use of Weapons – Iain M. Banks
The Time Traveler's Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
The State of the Art – Iain M. Banks

April (5)

The Kindly Ones – Neil Gaiman
The Wake – Neil Gaiman
(These Old Shades – Georgette Heyer)
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
[Excession – Iain M. Banks]

May (4)

[(Selected poems 1923-1958 – E. E. Cummings)]
(Inversions – Iain M. Banks)
Fool Moon – Jim Butcher
Feersum Endjinn – Iain M. Banks

June (5)

Look to Windward – Iain M. Banks
Dali's Mustache – Salvador Dalí and Philippe Halsman
The Masqueraders – Georgette Heyer
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
The Eye in the Pyramid – Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson

July (4)

(Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) – Jerome K. Jerome)
Grave Peril – Jim Butcher
A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M. Miller, Jr
Espedair Street – Iain Banks

August (4)

(The Gone-Away World – Nick Harkaway)
Unspeakable Desolation Pouring Down From The Stars – Frank Key
The Golden Apple – Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
Baudolino – Umberto Eco

September (2)

Leviathan – Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
Un Lun Dun – China Miéville

October (3)

Family (Law Basics) – Elaine Sutherland
1066 And All That – W.C. Sellar (Aegrot: Oxon) and R.J.Yeatman (Failed M.A., etc. Oxon)
Don'ts for Husbands – Blanche Ebbutt

November (5)

Pawn of Prophecy – David Eddings
The Last Hero – Terry Pratchett
The Reluctant Fundamentalist – Mohsin Hamid
A Pig at the Wheel – Michael Bland
Queen of Sorcery – David Eddings

December (6)

(Thomas Jefferson: American Humanist – Karl Lehmann)
Magician's Gambit – David Eddings
Contract Law in Scotland – Hector MacQueen and Joe Thomson
Summer Knight – Jim Butcher
Foucault's Pendulum – Umberto Eco
Castle of Wizardry – David Eddings

Challenge complete!

Welcome

Welcome to my blog! The purpose of this blog is to keep track of my progress in the “101 things in 1001 days” challenge. Briefly, this is a personal challenge to complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days. The tasks must be specific, realistic, and require effort to complete. To learn more about this global meme, click here.

The start date for my challenge was the 1st of January 2009, which means that in order to succeed, I will have to have completed all the tasks on my list by the end of the 28th of September 2011. During that time, I intend to make regular posts here when I have completed a task or gone a step further towards completing one (see item 100).

Here is my list, broken down into sections and showing the number of completed tasks in each section. You’ll notice that there’s some colour coding. Green denotes completed tasks, orange denotes tasks in progress, and white denotes unstarted tasks. When I have completed an entire section, I will change the colour of the section heading to green.

When I've started work on a task, I'll make a post with the task number and description in the title. I'll then edit this post so that the task on the list links to the new post. As my progress on that task changes I'll edit the post to say how it's coming along. Since my blog is just beginning at the moment I haven't yet posted for all the tasks that I've started, so be patient!

You'll notice that I mention someone called Rebekah quite a lot. She is my lovely wife. Her online photo album (including our wedding photos) is here.

I’ll be very glad to read and reply to any comments from my readers. If any of you also have a “101 things in 1001 days” blog, feel free to request a link swap.


101 things in 1001 days
1 January 2009 – 28 September 2011

Physical (8/17)


1. Lose 5 kilos by 30 June 2009 (start = 89kg, target = 84kg).
2. Gain no weight between 30 June 2009 and 31 December 2009.
3. Record my weight on the last day of each month and on day 1001.


4. Climb Ben Nevis.
5. Climb five Munros (excluding Ben Nevis).
6. Walk the last section of the Milford track.
7. Go for a hillwalk lasting at least 8 hours (not Milford).
8. Go swimming 20 times in three months, doing 20 lengths each time.
9. Swim two lengths of a swimming pool underwater.
10. Do 20 situps every day for a month.
11. Run a half-marathon.
12. Run 10km in an hour.
13. Skydive.
14. Scuba dive.
15. Kayak for one nautical mile (displacement).
16. Get a belt in a martial art.
17. Practise the bagpipes once a week (except when away from home for over a week).

Travel (2/11)


18. Go to three countries I have never been to before.
19. Go to Orkney.
20. Go to Lewis.
21. Drive to the Highlands.
22. Visit Loch Ness.
    


23. Go to Ireland with Rebekah.
24. Visit Rebekah’s friend Nastja in Vienna.
25. Visit Rebekah’s friend Alice in Sweden.


26. Borrow a motor home and go on a trip in Europe.
27. Attend the dawn service on ANZAC Day at Gallipoli.
28. Go to a music festival.

Books, film and TV (1/14)


29. Read 50 books in 12 months.
30. Read the lost Gospels and Apocrypha.
    
31. Read all of Shakespeare’s plays.
    
32. Read two plays by Christopher Marlowe.
    
33. Read three books in French.
    
34. Read the following in Norwegian: Naiv. Super, Kvinnen som kledte seg naken for sin elskede, Bytt Beite, Ringdrotten (Lord of the Rings) and one other book.
    


35. Watch every film that has won Best Picture at the Oscars.


36. Watch five foreign-language films I haven’t seen before.
    
37. Go to the cinema with Rebekah 20 times in a year.
    
38. Watch every remaining episode of Spooks.
    
39. Watch every remaining episode of The West Wing.
    
40. Watch every remaining episode of Heroes.
    


41. See five theatre productions.
42. Listen to all the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio episodes.

Learning (0/19)


43. Bake a Black Forest Gateau.
44. Cook a new recipe every month.
45. Cook a three-course meal for at least six people.
46. Make my own wine.
47. Make my own jam.
48. Iron a shirt perfectly (Rebekah to judge).


49. Learn to identify ten new constellations.
50. Learn to identify ten new flowers.
51. Learn to identify ten new trees.
52. Learn to identify ten new birds.
53. Learn to identify ten new fish.


54. Knit a scarf.
    
55. Draw a recognisable picture of Rebekah.
56. Learn to play a new song on the guitar.
57. Learn to sew buttons onto clothing.
58. Memorise a poem at least 20 lines long.
59. Learn to tango.
60. Teach Rebekah French (reach end of Routledge book with all exercises completed).
61. Learn to juggle three balls.

Worldly goods (3/6)


62. Buy a new phone.
    
63. Buy a new computer.
    
64. Buy three new elephant figurines for my collection.
    
    
65. Raise £100 for charity.
    
66. Make £100 busking in a day.
    
67. Deposit £5000 into savings by day 1001 (joint account money counts for half).

New experiences (2/11)


68. See Eddie Izzard perform live.
69. Meet Terry Pratchett.
70. Ride on an elephant.
71. Eat the meat of an animal that I haven’t eaten before.
72. Photograph a wild animal.
73. See the Aurora Borealis.
74. Drink wine from a horn.
75. Go karting.
76. Fire a proper gun.
77. Take part in a flashmob.
78. Test drive a car worth £40,000 or more.

Achievements and good deeds (3/11)


79. Get a letter published in a newspaper.
80. Win a pub quiz.
81. Complete a Fiendish Su Doku puzzle.
82. Write and record a song.
83. Write a comedy sketch and have it performed.


84. Sponsor a child.
85. Give out hugs to strangers for an hour for charity.
86. Give blood five times.
87. Give a ride to a hitchhiker.
88. Host a Burns Supper.
89. Buy Rebekah flowers.

Encores (3/10)


90. Attend a party in fancy dress (not counting a kilt).
91. Write and post a short story.
92. Chop down a tree.
93. Go paintballing.
94. Read a story to a young child.
95. Invade the pitch/field at a sporting event.
96. Join a choir.
97. Adopt a pub or bar as my “local”.
98. Register with a dentist and have a checkup at least once a year.
99. Sleep outdoors.

Meta (0/2)


100. Post this list online and keep it regularly updated with my progress.
101. Keep a “101 things” scrapbook with comments or mementos for each completed item.