As I start working on my 2017 Uberlist, it seemed like a good idea to look back at what I tried to accomplish in 2016. Life has a funny way of surprising us, and 2016 was full of a lot of personal surprises and changes that meant that a lot of what I had planned went out the window. Still, I did successfully hit a few of my attempted items.

1. ADMIN: Finish writing my 2016 Uberlist
6. HEALTH/RUNNING: Regularly three days a week
9. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 10-miler/half marathon
10. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 750 miles
11. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 846 miles
15. HEALTH/WEIGHT: Be under 160 lbs.
16. HEALTH/WEIGHT: Be under 162 lbs.
17. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (1)
18. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (2)
19. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (3)
20. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (4)
21. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (5)
27. HOME/REORGANIZING: Sort through pants and donate excess
28. HOME/REORGANIZING: Sort through the gift box
33. LEISURE/CAMERA: Complete 1 Second Everyday
35. LEISURE/CANNING: Make new type of jam
45. LEISURE/FILMS/AFIDOCS: See full-length doc
46. LEISURE/FILMS/AFIDOCS: See shorts compilation
55. LEISURE/LEGO: Put together Bike Shop/Coffee Shop
56. LEISURE/LEGO: Put together Doctor Who set
57. LEISURE/LEGO: Put together Toy and Grocery Store
62. LEISURE/LOCAL/EATING: Go to Jackie’s before it closes
68. LEISURE/READING: At least 5 book club selections
69. LEISURE/READING: At least 20 prose books
71. LEISURE/READING: Best American Comics 2009
72. LEISURE/READING: Best American Comics 2010
73. LEISURE/READING: Best American Comics 2014
78. LEISURE/READING: One from the Mieville stack
86. LEISURE/TV: Transparent S2
87. LIBRARIANSHIP: Apply for NLM Associate Fellowship Program
88. LIBRARIANSHIP: Find a new job
89. LIBRARIANSHIP: Pitch adjunct teaching
91. LIBRARIANSHIP: Volunteer with Lubuto 12 times
92. LIBRARIANSHIP: Volunteer with Lubuto 20 times
93. PERSONAL: Wear sweaters more often
95. TRAVEL: Big vacation with Charlie (not listed)
96. TRAVEL: Florida/visit parents
97. TRAVEL: Gallifrey in February
99. TRAVEL: Lost River
107. WORK/REORGANIZING: Clear out books for eBay or donations
111. WRITING: Regularly contribute reviews to CBR
116. ZENITH: Be happy

Not a bad list of accomplishments at all, and items 88 and 89 both happening and being successful really wiped out a lot of other attempts. But that said, it makes me want to focus a bit more on the items I didn’t finish and see what’s worth keeping and what goes away for my 2017 list.

Which is, at its core, why I like the Uberlist: the process of coming up with the list alone makes me think about priorities in life and what I’d like to be doing in the year ahead. That’s always a worthwhile endeavor.

It’s been a long time since I’ve tackled the Uberlist. I first heard about this via the far-more-talented-than-I Kelly Sue DeConnick. She and her old roommate Nikol Lohr made New Year’s To Do Lists back in 1998 instead of New Year’s Resolutions, which is sheer brilliance. In 1998 they had 98 items on their lists (“98 Things To Do In 1998”), and every year since then they expanded the list by one. Since is 2016, there are 116 items on the Uberlist, because there’s nothing very uber about a 16-item list. My first attempt was back in 2003 and I participated through 2008, where life got in the way and I never finished figuring out what I’d even accomplished and what I hadn’t.

In the words of Kelly Sue:

I think I only accomplish about 30% of the list in any given year (one year, I didn’t finish MAKING THE LIST) and generally by June there are a good 10 items that are no longer applicable or even desirable, but it’s a fun thing to have nonetheless, and it keeps me focused for the first few months of the year. Then I forget all about it until about, oh, say, NOVEMBER, at which point I scramble about trying to remember where I put last year’s list.

I enjoy the process partially just for the making of the list; it lets me think about things I’d like to do as one year comes to a close and another one begins. I’m never too worried about what does and does not get done; in some ways it’s a list of wishes and desires, not of things that I simply must accomplish. And it’s fun at the end of the year to look back at what seemed important or enticing at the time. It’s simply not possible to do it all; I’d never expect myself to.

With school over it felt like a good way to try and remind myself of goals and ideas I had dangling. On some level this one’s a little less original than others, with a few items repeated to count for multiple times achieving the same goal, and a bunch of items either finishing up projects/games or finally tackling specific books, but at least it’s a completed list. We’ll see what happens. Hopefully next year’s list can be a bit more robust and varied as I cross off items this year.

(Oh, some items are slightly truncated in terms of writing what they are, because I have a printed copy near my desk and squeezing 116 items onto a single page, even using three columns in landscape mode, is difficult. Also there are a few items that I’m not posting onto the web and have redacted accordingly.)

Anyway, let’s see what happens.

1. ADMIN: Finish writing my 2016 Uberlist
2. HEALTH/BIKING: Bike a 50-miler
3. HEALTH/BIKING: Regularly in non-frigid months
4. HEALTH/EXERCISE: Go to MadFitness twice a month
5. HEALTH/EXERCISE: Try kayaking
6. HEALTH/RUNNING: Regularly three days a week
7. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 5 or 10k race (1)
8. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 5 or 10k race (2)
9. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 10-miler/half marathon
10. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 750 miles
11. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 846 miles (beat 2015)
12. HEALTH/SWIMMING: Start swimming again
13. HEALTH/TRIATHLON: Run a triathlon
14. HEALTH/WEIGHT: Be under 155 lbs.
15. HEALTH/WEIGHT: Be under 160 lbs.
16. HEALTH/WEIGHT: Be under 162 lbs.
17. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (1)
18. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (2)
19. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (3)
20. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (4)
21. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (5)
22. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (6)
23. HOME/REORGANIZING: Clean out filing cabinet
24. HOME/REORGANIZING: Clean up “Olympian” external HD
25. HOME/REORGANIZING: Frame vintage Italy map
26. HOME/REORGANIZING: Hang new art on staircase wall
27. HOME/REORGANIZING: Sort through pants and donate excess
28. HOME/REORGANIZING: Sort through the gift box
29. HOME/REORGANIZING: Transfer Ben’s VHS to DVD
30. HOME/REORGANIZING: Transfer Charlie’s VHS to DVD
31. LEISURE: Do things with friends more often
32. LEISURE/CAMERA: Complete #366photos
33. LEISURE/CAMERA: Complete 1 Second Everyday
34. LEISURE/CANNING: Make blueberry jam
35. LEISURE/CANNING: Make new type of jam
36. LEISURE/CANNING: Make sour cherry jam
37. LEISURE/CANNING: Make strawberry jam
38. LEISURE/CANNING: Make tomato sauce (1)
39. LEISURE/CANNING: Make tomato sauce (2)
40. LEISURE/FILMS: Watch a Akira Kurosawa DVD (1)
41. LEISURE/FILMS: Watch a Akira Kurosawa DVD (2)
42. LEISURE/FILMS: Watch a Yasujiro Ozu DVD (1)
43. LEISURE/FILMS: Watch a Yasujiro Ozu DVD (2)
44. LEISURE/FILMS: Watch a Yasujiro Ozu DVD (3)
45. LEISURE/FILMS/AFIDOCS: See full-length doc
46. LEISURE/FILMS/AFIDOCS: See shorts compilation
47. LEISURE/GAMES: Join a gaming group
48. LEISURE/GAMES: Learn how to play Settlers of Catan
49. LEISURE/GAMES: Win Disney Infinity: Guardians of the Galaxy
50. LEISURE/GAMES: Win Disney Infinity: Star Wars: Rise Against the Empire
51. LEISURE/GAMES: Win Disney Infinity: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
52. LEISURE/GAMES: Win Disney Infinity: The Incredibles
53. LEISURE/GAMES: Win Professor Layton and the Last Specter
54. LEISURE/GAMES: Win The Witcher 3
55. LEISURE/LEGO: Put together Bike Shop/Coffee Shop
56. LEISURE/LEGO: Put together Doctor Who set
57. LEISURE/LEGO: Put together Toy and Grocery Store
58. LEISURE/LOCAL: Go to an amusement park
59. LEISURE/LOCAL: Go to DC United game
60. LEISURE/LOCAL: Go to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens
61. LEISURE/LOCAL: Go to Nationals game
62. LEISURE/LOCAL/EATING: Go to Jackie’s before it closes
63. LEISURE/LOCAL/EATING: Go to La Casita Pupuseria
64. LEISURE/LOCAL/EATING: Go to Quarry House
65. LEISURE/LOCAL/EATING: Go to Rose’s Luxury
66. LEISURE/LOCAL/EATING: Go to Urban Butcher
67. LEISURE/LOCAL/EATING: Go to Velatis Caramels
68. LEISURE/READING: At least 5 book club selections
69. LEISURE/READING: At least 20 prose books
70. LEISURE/READING: Be better at tracking (on Goodreads) comics read in 2016
71. LEISURE/READING: Best American Comics 2009
72. LEISURE/READING: Best American Comics 2010
73. LEISURE/READING: Best American Comics 2014
74. LEISURE/READING: Best American Comics 2015
75. LEISURE/READING: Get better about donating
76. LEISURE/READING: Jane Eyre
77. LEISURE/READING: Lucky Jim
78. LEISURE/READING: One from the Mieville stack
79. LEISURE/READING: One from the Murakami stack
80. LEISURE/READING: Read half of stack on dresser
81. LEISURE/READING: Read or donate new series Doctor Who novels
82. LEISURE/READING: Saturn Apartments
83. LEISURE/READING: Vagabond backlog
84. LEISURE/TV: Daredevil S1
85. LEISURE/TV: Orange is the New Black S2
86. LEISURE/TV: Transparent S2
87. [REDACTED]
88. [REDACTED]
89. [REDACTED]
90. [REDACTED]
91. LIBRARIANSHIP: Volunteer with Lubuto 12 times
92. LIBRARIANSHIP: Volunteer with Lubuto 20 times
93. PERSONAL: Wear sweaters more often
94. TRAVEL: ALA Annual or Midwinter
95. TRAVEL: Big vacation with Charlie (not listed)
96. TRAVEL: Florida/visit parents
97. TRAVEL: Gallifrey in February
98. TRAVEL: Iceland
99. TRAVEL: Lost River
100. TRAVEL: Spain
101. TRAVEL: Weekend getaway (not listed)
102. WORK/LEARNING: Learn Captivate
103. WORK/LEARNING: Learn DSpace
104. WORK/LEARNING: Learn PHP
105. WORK/LEARNING: Learn Python
106. WORK/LEARNING: Look into PMP certification
107. WORK/REORGANIZING: Clear out books for eBay or donations
108. WRITING: Finish a short story
109. [REDACTED]
110. [REDACTED]
111. WRITING: Regularly contribute reviews to CBR
112. WRITING: Submit for publication a short story
113. WRITING: Write a new short story
114. [REDACTED]
115. [REDACTED]
116. ZENITH: Be happy

As it’s a new year, it’s time for a new Uberlist. I first heard about this via the far-cleverer-than-I Kelly Sue DeConnick. She and her old roommate Nikol Lohr made New Year’s To Do Lists back in 1998 instead of New Year’s Resolutions, which is sheer brilliance. In 1998 they had 98 items on their lists (“98 Things To Do In 1998”), so since this is 2008, there are 108 items on the uberlist. My first attempt was back in 2003 and I’ve participated every year since then.

In the words of Kelly Sue:

I think I only accomplish about 30% of the list in any given year (one year, I didn’t finish MAKING THE LIST) and generally by June there are a good 10 items that are no longer applicable or even desireable, but it’s a fun thing to have nonetheless, and it keeps me focused for the first few months of the year. Then I forget all about it until about, oh, say, NOVEMBER, at which point I scramble about trying to remember where I put last year’s list.

I enjoy the process partially just for the making of the list; it lets me think about things I’d like to do as one year comes to a close and another one begins. I’m never too worried about what does and does not get done; in some ways it’s a list of wishes and desires, not of things that I simply must accomplish. And it’s fun at the end of the year to look back at what seemed important or enticing at the time. It’s simply not possible to do it all; I’d never expect myself to.

(That said, I pin it on my fridge so that I see it constantly.)

But, at any rate, here I go yet again. 

Exercise:

1. Complete a 5K in under 25:40
2. Complete a 5-miler/8K in under 44:19
3. Complete a 10K in under 57:30
4. Complete a 10-miler in under 1:26:09
5. Complete a half-marathon in under 1:58:17
6. Complete a marathon in under 4:29:06
7. Go to the gym on a regular basis
8. Keep my waist fitting in 30″ pants
9. Run an 8+ mile stretch regularly
10. Run regularly during the week
11. Run a non-DC area race
12. Use the Yoga DVD/cards at least three times

Local Attractions:

13. Attend a Smithsonian Associates event
14. Go to an exhibition at the Corcoran
15. Go to an exhibition at the Freer/Sackler Galleries
16. Go to DC Building Museum
17. Go to Fort Marcy
18. Go to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens
19. Go to National Holocaust Museum
20. See a performance at the DC Opera
21. See a performance at the Shakespeare Theatre
22. See DC Nationals play a game
23. See DC United play a game
24. Walk through Rosslyn’s Freedom Park

Continue reading Uberlist 2008→

It’s the end of the year, and as such, time to look at what I accomplished on this year’s Uberlist. It’s a pretty good tally this year (45/107 completed), thanks in part to almost everything in my “exercise” category being completed. I’m still working on next year’s list (hopefully in a couple of days), but until then, this will tide things over.

Easiest item completed? Probably the aquarium, which I’d done a good job of maintaining but then got rid of halfway through the year.

Most recent item completed? As I type, I’m watching the last episode from Batman: The Animated Series Vol. 1 DVD set. Down to the wire!

Closest to completed, then failed? Seeing a performance at the Shakespeare Theatre, what the performance I had tickets for on the 27th being cancelled. Oh well, it’ll be easily tackled for next year’s list.

And now, the final tally.

Exercise:

1. Complete a 5K in under 26:23
3. Complete a 10-miler in under 1:32:38
4. Complete a half-marathon in under 2:06:08
5. Complete a marathon in under 4:46:48
7. Go to one gym class
8. Go to the gym on a regular basis
9. Keep my waist fitting in 30″ jeans
10. Learn how to properly use the weights at the gym
11. Quit Gold’s for Arlington Rec, or use Gold’s classes
12. Run regularly each week
13. Run for an 8-mile stretch or higher at least once a month
14. Run a non-DC area race

Continue reading Uberlist 2007: Final Tally→

So! Four months down, let’s see how this year’s Uberlist is coming along.

Completed!

3. Complete a 10-miler in under 1:32:38
4. Complete a half-marathon in under 2:06:08
7. Go to one gym class
10. Learn how to properly use the weights at the gym
11. Quit Gold’s for Arlington Rec, or use Gold’s classes
16. Go to an exhibition at the Freer/Sackler Galleries
17. Go up to the top of the Washington Monument (you’ve only lived here 32 years, Greg, it’s about time)
21. Visit the National Museum of the American Indian
41. Start the New Year in a way you want the rest to follow
55. Visit Marc when you’re in Los Angeles
67. Get a code for the front door (found out by accident but I don’t care! victory!)
96. Mail your marathon thank-you cards
103. Write an article for Enlightenment

So, not too bad, but I’ve done better at this point in time as well. Although I do have a bunch of ones that are partially done, or an ongoing process. That should help spruce up my feelings of getting things done a bit!

Continue reading Uberlist 2007: Four Months Later→

Ok, it’s time for Uberlist 2007. I first heard about this via the far-cooler-and-neater-than-I Kelly Sue DeConnick. She and her old roommate Nikol Lohr made New Year’s To Do Lists back in 1998 instead of New Year’s Resolutions, which is sheer brilliance. In 1998 they had 98 items on their lists (98 things to do in 1998), so since this is 2007, there are 107 items on the uberlist. My first attempt was back in 2003 and I’ve done it ever since.

In the words of Kelly Sue:

I think I only accomplish about 30% of the list in any given year (one year, I didn’t finish MAKING THE LIST) and generally by June there are a good 10 items that are no longer applicable or even desireable, but it’s a fun thing to have nonetheless, and it keeps me focused for the first few months of the year. Then I forget all about it until about, oh, say, NOVEMBER, at which point I scramble about trying to remember where I put last year’s list.

I enjoy the process partially just for the making of the list; it lets me think about things I’d like to do as one year comes to a close and another one begins. I’m never too worried about what does and does not get done; in some ways it’s a list of wishes and desires, not of things that I simply must accomplish. And it’s fun at the end of the year to look back at what seemed important or enticing at the time. It’s simply not possible to do it all; I’d never expect myself to.

But, at any rate, here I go yet again. 

Exercise:

1. Complete a 5K in under 26:23
2. Complete a 10K in under 57:30
3. Complete a 10-miler in under 1:32:38
4. Complete a half-marathon in under 2:06:08
5. Complete a marathon in under 4:46:48
6. Get a session with a personal trainer
7. Go to one gym class
8. Go to the gym on a regular basis
9. Keep my waist fitting in 30″ jeans
10. Learn how to properly use the weights at the gym
11. Quit Gold’s for Arlington Rec, or use Gold’s classes
12. Run regularly each week
13. Run for an 8-mile stretch or higher at least once a month
14. Run a non-DC area race
15. Use the Yoga DVD/cards at least three times

Local Attractions:

16. Go to an exhibition at the Freer/Sackler Galleries
17. Go up to the top of the Washington Monument
18. See a performance at the Shakespeare Theatre
19. See DC Nationals play a game
20. See DC United play a game
21. Visit the National Museum of the American Indian
22. Walk through Rosslyn’s Freedom Park

Continue reading Uberlist 2007→