Let's Do Something! (Day Zero Project)

For the last week or so I’ve been on the personal improvement kick again, that usually happens around the beginning of summer and I am officially on summer holiday now. Aside from that, I wanted more projects for the holiday. That’s when I remembered this site I saw a while ago and wanted to join but never got around to.

http://dayzeroproject.com/

Basically you come up with a list of 101 things you want to do and have 1001 days to achieve them. Hopefully that’ll be the motivation I need to actually do all this stuff. A lot of the things listed here were things I already wanted to do and others I found on the site and thought ‘oh yeah, that sounds fun’.

My profile on it is here if anyone cares:  http://dayzeroproject.com/user/StarKitten

But I don’t like the way the list looks on there because I added my goals as I found them and this thing doesn’t seem to have an option to move them around, so they aren’t in any kind of order. I like order. So I’ve copied my list below under whatever categories I could come up with and in whatever order (for the most part) seemed to fit best at the time. Of course, that gets a little harder in a category with loads of goals, but I digress. On with it!

Write a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days!  ü

General

Try something new each month

Redecorate my bedroom

Keep my room tidy for a month

Get a passport

Travel to another country

Enter a competition

Don't complain about anything for a week

Go one week without swearing

Cash in my change jar

Be more organised

Buy a plant and keep it alive

Adopt an animal

Fall in love

Education/Career

Take a free online class

Hand an assignment in early

Graduate University

Write my CV

Get a job

Health

Take care of my skin

Find out my blood type

Stop biting my nails

Find an exercise routine that works and stick to it

Grow my hair to my waist

Floss every day for a month

Get my eyes tested

Complete a 100 Pushups Challenge

Reading/Writing

Write a novel

Write up my own personal history

Write a letter to myself to be opened when the 1001 days is over

Write a list of 101 things I’ve already achieved

Make a list of the 100 songs I could listen to forever

Write a list of everything I want to change about myself

Write a list of 20 places I want to visit and why

Write a letter to my future children

Make a list of 101 quotes that inspire me

Make a list of things to do before I die

Choose 10 countries and read a book by an author from each

Read the Bible

Buy a Wreck This Journal and finish it

Keep a dream journal

Take part in NaNoWriMo

Learn to write with my left hand

Keep a journal for this Day Zero Project

Write a screenplay

Get back to writing fanfiction and write one a month

Make a memory jar

Other Skills

Learn to play chess

Try a new recipe every month

Learn another language

Improve skill in 1 musical instrument

Improve sewing skills

Fold a different origami piece once a day for a month

Film & TV

Watch 26 movies I've never seen starting with each letter of the Alphabet -

Watch 25 documentaries

Choose an actor and watch every film he / she has been in

Watch all three Lord of the Rings films in one day

Have a horror movie marathon

Fun

Attend a film festival

Dress up for Halloween

Carve a pumpkin for Halloween

Go on a picnic

Go camping

Go caving

Go for a hike in the woods

Build a blanket fort and sleep in it

Build a snowman

Take a picture of myself every day for a year

Create a scrapbook

Sing karaoke at a bar

Finish all the games in my collection

Visit 10 different museums

Make a plushie

Fill a sketchbook with drawings

Make my own game

Get a fish pedicure

Sleep in a tent

Take an IQ test

Stay up for 24 hours straight

Watch the sunrise and sunset in the same day

Spend a day at the beach

Online

Blog every day

Make one video a week

Make a video about a typical day of my life

Increase views on youtube and blog

Social

Overcome my fear of public speaking

Make a new friend

Make more effort with social events

Have a family game night

See friends at least once a month

Influence a person to make a Day Zero List

For Others

Donate blood

Donate money to charity

Do some volunteer work

Make someone breakfast in bed

Make a birthday cake for someone

Give someone a handmade gift

Do more for my cat

Donate £1 for each uncompleted task

At the end

Take a photo of each task completed

Write another list of 101 things to do for the next 1001 days

So that’s the list. I’m going to be updating on here regularly with my progress in completing this list, both in new posts and on this one which will act as my checklist.I started today (May 03rd, 2013) and I have until Jan 28th, 2016, so hopefully that’s enough time.

Above: Natural lighting screws with my attempt to take a picture to celebrate the completion of the list (in accordance with one of the other goals). Did you expect a picture of the list? It would literally be a picture of my computer screen. And look at that list, there's going to be enough of those as it is.

I also don't know why that smile looks so fake... it felt real at the time.

Plans for University 3rd Year

Non-Academic

Next year I’m going to be living with two other people from my class. I’m happy about this because I think that’s going to make them easier to talk to and get used to (I mean nothing bad there but it’s always a slight adjustment living with new people). I think it’ll be fun, and hopefully the year I’m able to make friends with my flatmates.

I’m also looking forward to getting back to anime society. Even though it just ended, there were quite a few I had to miss, so I’m determined to miss as few as possible next year.

That’s all there is for university related stuff really. Aside from that I’ll still hopefully be having regular trips to London, including for October’s MCM Expo.

Academic

I really don’t know much about my modules next year; I found the information on most of them pretty general, without a lot of info on what would actually be happening. However, considering the nature of the modules I don’t think that was necessary for most in choosing their modules. You just have the basics for each category – poetry, prose and screenwriting – two work related modules and Independent Study again. All except the second screenwriting module are yearlong.

I’m doing the prose module. It’s my favourite, the one I’m best at, the one most relevant to me, and so I have to do it. Yes, there’s only one but it’s worth twice as many credits as all the others. I’m not sure why it’s like this but I’m happy with it.

I’m doing the two screenwriting modules too because I also like those, and I think I’m good at it and it’ll be good for the future. The second screenwriting module is in the second semester and it seems to be some sort of continuation of the first but I’m not totally sure if that’s the case. I’ll also have some catching up to do since I didn’t do the second screenwriting module this year. I didn’t do the second for prose either but as I’ve done two other prose related modules I’m hoping it will mean I’m not behind.

Then there’s the work related module. We have to do at least one of the two to be able to graduate. I’m doing one where the first semester is basically planning a writing project and it’s optional whether you then actually do it or not so I’m not sure what the second semester is about.

The other option was one where you actually get a job in a writing-related place, but we were told to only take that option if you know you’ll be able to get one yourself and I’m really not sure how easily I’d achieve that, so I went with the definite option. Plus I’m scared about having a job in Liverpool when it comes to things like holidays. I don’t want to be away from London too long.

So that’s basically it for the modules. Another thing I’m really happy and hopeful about is the timetable. I’m not sure what it will be but apparently the staff asked if the third year timetable next year could be the same as next year. If the timetable creators agree, I’ll have Thursdays and Friday’s off again, meaning no having to choose between class and expo!

The third year is going to be my last year at university and I’m hoping it’s going to be the best.

University 2nd Year Review

Hi everyone! So I haven’t written a blog post for a while, either here or on my other blog. I haven’t done much of anything else for a while actually because I’ve been busy getting assignments ready to be handed in. By this point, I am mostly free for the summer. Classes finished last week and most of my assignments were given in on Monday. There is one left but the deadline isn’t until Tuesday and it’s very close to being completed so I decided to take a couple of days off to relax. I’ve decided that I’m close enough to being done that I can do my review of the year, my classes and whether I did any of the things I said I would, as well as look at what might be happening next year. I’ve divided it into categories to make it easier.

Non-Academic

Well, my life outside of university work has been a bit hit and miss this year. For the first semester things were looking pretty bad. I didn’t have a lot of money to live on, ending up on one meal a day and having to hand wash clothes (the latter I kept because I don’t want to spend £6 a week on the washing machines here). To make matters worse I had serious problems with my flatmates at the time that ended up with me basically being scared to leave my bedroom. I won’t go into more detail on that right now. Also due to the lack of money I wasn’t able to visit home often. I believe I was only able to do it once before Christmas, that time being Expo. Going to Anime Society at uni and thinking about being at Expo with my friends was what got me through that time. What actually ended those problems was when a new problem occurred that I had to complain to management about. They offered me the opportunity to move to another flat in the building at no extra cost. I think I may have mentioned that part in a previous post actually.

Anyway, the flat I’m in now is the same one I lived in during first year, just in a different room. It also has basically the same layout as the room I was in last semester so there wasn’t much of a change to adjust to. I like the flatmates I have here. We’re not really friends (I don’t mean that in a negative way) but we talk sometimes and it’s nice. There have been some small problems but nothing really troubling and always resolved. I’m not complaining about that, you’ll have problems with anyone you live with for a long period of time; it’s not a bad thing as long as you handle the situation properly. It’s been fun living here.

This semester’s gotten a lot better as well because I’ve been able to afford everything I need and even get a treat once in a while. I’ve also had enough to fund my cosplay hobby and I’ve been getting really excited working on projects as well as planning to redecorate my room. Unfortunately due to uni work I’ve had to miss a few Anime Society meetings but I’m determined to make more of them next year.

Academic

I’ve had a lot of fun with my classes this year. Some of them have been hard work, some not so much. In a lot of cases it’s not that the work is hard, just that there’s a lot to be done and it takes a while. As I did last year, here’s a little review of each class I did:

Prose Fiction Workshop: Rhetoric and Reflection – This was a fun one. I’ll probably end up saying that about all of them. It started with a lecture each week that was simple enough to follow. Following the lectures we’d have workshops, this is all pretty standard, but it was great. The tutor we had for the workshops was amazing and so was the group really. Everyone was really easy to talk to and it was nice being able to get feedback and give it on each other’s work.

Screen Story: Structure and Short Film Writing – This one went pretty much the same way as the above though to be honest I preferred doing prose. That’s not to say the things we did and the teachers we had here weren’t great, I just never felt I could be as open there as I did in prose, I’m not totally sure why that is myself. We got to watch a lot of films in class though, including a couple I just love.

Independent Study In Creative Writing – I’ve had a love/hate relationship with this one. I loved the idea of it because it meant being able to do everything myself completely alone (unless I needed help of course) and doing whatever I wanted. I decided to do a comic. This is one of those cases I was talking about where the work isn’t necessarily hard, it just takes forever. I underestimated just how long it would take to colour each page. This is why my last weekend before the deadline was nothing but finishing this monster off.

Approaching Your Novel – Another great module that went fairly the same way as prose. Good lectures, great workshops, good communication with others in the group. I got to write the first chapter of the novel I’ve been planning for the last two years. In all honesty, I still think it needs work, but I’m sure I’ve done enough to get a good grade for now. There was also one book we all had to read and I’m so glad this module introduced me to it because it was amazing.

Fantastic Worlds – This was by far my favourite module of the year. As you may have guessed from the title it’s all about world building! I’m not sure if it counts as lecture and workshops or just one because unlike other classes we only had one guy running it so we weren’t moving around and being split into different rooms. It was all about fantasy, sci-fi, alternate history, that kind of stuff, all of which are things I love, so I was right at home. The guy who ran the module was awesome the way he talked about it. He’s the kind of person who can talk for ages on the topic of the day but does it in such a way that it never gets boring and you love hearing it. The work we did in and out of class was so much fun too, even the research homework. For the assignments I used the same world from my novel, the one I also used in AYN, I love how you can do the same thing in different classes like that. I mean, you can’t hand in the exact same piece of work, but doing it like this made it a lot easier too. I think what I did in each class improved my work in the other too.

2^nd Year Resolutions – Success?

So at the end of first year I made some ‘Academic New Year’s Resolutions’ and I figured I should come back and see which I succeeded in and which I failed.

Work harder. – That one definitely is true. My grades have gotten better too, I found out for sure a couple of days ago. My GPA for first year was 56, for this year it’s 68. That’s two points away from top marks, and that’s without factoring in the assignments that haven’t been marked yet (let’s hope they don’t take it down). Either way, when you consider this, consider the difference made in one year and how determined I am to do well, I should be doing pretty well next year.

Don’t miss a day of class. – I think I missed just one. Close enough I don’t feel bad about it.

Be more social. – I wouldn’t say I made more friends but I definitely was able to talk a lot more to more people and it all went pretty well.

Get fitter. – The goal that appeared on everything even though it’s not really academic. Progression has been slow with this one but I’m pretty sure there has been progress.

Improve drawing and writing skills. – Check and check, I didn’t really have a choice there. Both still need work, especially the former.

Win a competition. – Not yet, entered a few though.

So all in all I’ve done pretty well. May not have done everything I wanted to within each goal but certainly enough to consider most of them a success.

Well, this post has gotten pretty long now so I think I may do as I did last time, leave it here and put my plans for 3^rd year in a different post.

A Half Rant About Uni Workshops

So the classes in most of our modules goes like this – lecture followed by workshop. The workshop is basically where we talk about what we’re doing, look at each other’s work and give feedback. It’s actually really helpful and so far this year all the feedback I have has been compliments and constructive criticism, which has been great. I’m actually not that great at giving feedback myself. They say that you can find problems with other people’s work easier than you can find them with your own but I’m one of the few people for whom it is the opposite. I can clearly see most problems within my own work but when looking through someone else’s, unless there’s something really obvious to me, I can’t usually find anything to criticise. A simple little point here and there maybe, nothing more. I suppose it’s always easier to talk about the good.

Anyway, the little rant I have today is relating to this process, regarding something that happened this week. Now because we only have a couple of hours for the workshop so what happens is three people volunteer each week and then they send in their work to be looked at for feedback. Last week, I volunteered, but so did three other people. Because I’d already had more turns than some of the others I agreed to go the week after the holiday (the last one before the deadline).

This week only one person sent in their work. In addition, the last week before deadlines is no longer being used for class feedback. It annoys me that I volunteered to go last week and I would have sent in work but I didn’t because others said they would and then failed to.

Now, I don’t actually have anything against those individuals for it, I’m not one to hold something as simple as that against someone particularly because my piece is very close to being finished anyway and to be fair I have already had two workshops. I also know that things may come up during the week that stops you from being able to finish or send in that work. Plus the other two who were chosen weren’t in today so giving feedback on their work would have been pointless anyway.

The thing is though, last week only one of three sent in theirs too, so I would have hoped that our teacher may have accepted the possibility that not everyone would send theirs in again, particularly as this is the week before Easter, which I’m guessing is the reason so many were absent today. The lack of people would also have meant each piece was done faster. At the very least, one more isn’t a lot, and I could have been allowed to send mine in anyway and gone last so that if we did run out of time they could just focus less on me, which is something I did in the last semester. It just annoys me a little because I really wanted another class feedback and now I won’t get one. Though if I’m lucky I may find volunteers still willing to go through it and give their thoughts.

Of course, I might have solved the problem for myself too. When it became clear we were only going to receive one piece I could have emailed and asked if I could send mine in too. I didn’t think of that until afterwards and that may have helped. Of course, that would have been hard to tell, due to my other mini rant topic: when we receive pieces for feedback.

The way it works is we email our work to the teacher and they email it out to the class. Because of this we were told at the beginning of the semester to send our work at the weekend, Friday preferable but Sunday at the latest. I usually ended up doing it on the Saturday. Now I know that I’ve already said things can come up which prevent you sending in work on time, and that is true, but for the last few weeks we haven’t been receiving work until Monday, sometimes even Tuesday. On one occasion I think it was even Tuesday evening. That is not a lot of time to be able to print this work, sit down and read it and give proper feedback, especially as some pieces are up to 10 pages long. This isn’t always the students fault, I will say that, aside from whatever else may come up there have been times that the person who was supposed to send out the work did it late. I know I should have learned to put time aside in case that happens by now but it always comes to the point where you think nothing else will come so you make other plans and then end up having to change your schedule around to work on this. As I said above, it also makes it difficult to know until Tuesday night whether or not more work is coming, at which point it’s too late to ask if you can join in too.

As I said, I’m not that angry or upset about it. It was just a few thoughts I had so I thought I’d share. I mean no offense whatsoever to anyone in my class who may have sent in work late or been unable to do it at all. I don’t know the reasons and I’m not going to make any assumptions.

I'd also like to add once more that I love workshops and find them incredibly useful and a wonderful part of our modules. As with most things, it does have a couple of problems, but the good far outweighs the bad.

Let's Try This Again...

I’m attempting to do something I’ve tried two or three times in the past, starting up a second blog alongside this one. It makes sense to me to split it up a little, since this one covers such a range of topics. The new one is going to be focusing on all my projects, the things I’m making and so on. So my cosplay will be recorded there from now on, as well as my redecoration project and others. There will still be updates about them on this blog once they’re finished though.

The new blog can be found here. Currently the only post is a repeat of one I’ve already done on here but there will be progress posts soon showing a step by step of how I’m making everything.

I’m still hoping to update this blog as much as possible, I’m trying to get back to daily but at times it may end up being every other day, particularly as it’s a busy time of year for uni. Although I don’t have much left to do and I think the rest should only take a couple of hours a day, but that may change as the deadline gets closer. The new blog will be updated every time there’s more progress. I’m hoping for at least one a week.

Redecorating My Bedroom: Plans for Summer

So I’ve decided that redecorating my bedroom is going to be one of my summer projects. I’ve wanted to do this for a while - I’ve been meaning to paint it for over a year! I’m getting really excited about doing it finally.

I already have a number of plans for it. I don’t think I’ll be rearranging my furniture again. I’ve done that three or four times over the last year. A couple of little things may change but I really like most of the layout I have now.

When I’m back in London for Easter I’m going to go through my things and get rid of some more. I narrow it down every time I clean up and there’s still things I’ve kept that I liked or thought I’d use at some point but I know I probably never will. I think I have a pretty big bedroom and quite a bit of storage space but there never seems to be enough for the things I have so I’m hoping to change that.

As for my decorative plans, my main idea was to attempt to make it look cute without being too girly, because I don’t want that. I’m painting the walls a single colour and I wanted it to be some shade of purple because it’s my favourite colour. A lot of my room decoration is actually nice but it’s over a decade old so it doesn’t really suit me anymore so a lot of this is going to be changing my room so it fits me. I was looking at B&Q because that’s my big local DIY place and a lot of their paints are cheaper than I’ve seen elsewhere. They have a light purple/pinkish one called ‘Lollipop’ that I love so I want to go with that. I’m also repainting my doors, door frames and windowsill white. They’re already white but a new coat would look great and my closet doors currently have other things painted on them and I’d like to make them plain. I may or may not do the ceiling. It will be more difficult to do that and I’m not sure how well it would come out, but I might try anyway.

Another thing I’ve wanted to change for a long time is my curtains. Like the walls, my curtains haven’t been changed in over a decade. They’re old, faded and stained. I’ve also gone off the material and patterns. I wanted to get a rug too, one of the fluffy ones, and I thought it would look great if those two were the same colour because then there would be some real colour themes going on.

I actually already have these things. I decided to get them from my favourite fabric store. I thought I’d get one of the nice fake furs they have there to use as a rug since it’s cheaper than any real fluffy rug I’ve seen. I decided to make my own curtains because getting the exact size I need in a colour I want at a price I was willing to pay was proving impossible.

The material I bought for the curtains was turquoise satin. Turquoise is actually my birthstone so I thought that worked even better. I chose satin because it was cheap and I preferred the feel of it compared to some of the other options. Plus I’ve always liked the idea of satin curtains. I wanted turquoise for the fur too but they didn’t have any left so I bought a different blue. It still works great with the curtain material and honestly I think a darker colour is better for something that’s going to be on the floor anyway.

Here’s a picture I took of the two:

That’s not all. I have a metre of black fur left from my Ulquiorra cosplay and wanted to do something comfy with that. My friend actually suggested I use that as a rug and I’d considered it but because it’s a nicer quality and more expensive I instead decided to put it over the back of my armchair, to make that warmer and snugglier. My cat Sonny is going to love all this fluffy stuff.

Another thing I’ve wanted for ages is some of those glow in the dark stars you can stick to the ceiling. On Amazon a pack of a thousand is only a fiver. It’s going to be so much fun decorating with them.

I’d also like to take some of the ornaments off the shelves in my closet and bring them out into the room. For that I’m particularly thinking a set of small skulls I have and a little pot I made. I would also like to set aside a nice place for Trixie’s (my old cat’s) urn.

Then for further decoration I’m going to put things up on my wall after decorating. I’ve gotten permission to put a nail in the wall so I can hang up my second wall scroll (there was already one in there which the first scroll took). I used to have it on a hook above my closet but with it there I can only open one of the doors and it’s inconvenient. Then I’ll put up a few posters (anime, gaming, music, etc.).

That’s about all the planning I’ve done for now. I plan to do updates when I actually start working on it. I’ll be going through my stuff and making the curtains over Easter. I won’t be doing the rest until summer because it requires the painting being done. My mum was the one who actually suggested I wait until I come back for summer to do that because it will be warmer so the paint will dry faster. I’m so excited. Luckily for me the summer holiday starts on the 23^rd of April and I’m gonna be back May 4^th. It’ll probably be a couple of days after that before I actually get started and luckily I have uni and cosplay projects to keep me busy until then.ereH

A Little University Update

So I wanted to talk a little bit about uni recently, just because I’m quite happy about it. I’ve been really busy for the last month with uni work, to the point I haven’t had that much time for anything else, hobbies and sleep included. That’s all over now thankfully. In fact, I only have one week of classes left before the Easter holiday and only one week of lessons afterwards before the end of term. That makes me happy.

Most of my assignments are actually almost finished, just editing out the last few problems and improving it as much as possible before the deadline, but everything’s there. One of them that still needs quite a bit of work is my Independent Study project which I posted a few days ago. I had a meeting about it on Thursday and it left me really happy. Firstly, the comic wasn’t as bad as I thought he was going to say it was, just needs a few edits, a little layout reworking and a bit cut here and there. It also turned out I don’t need to make a whole issue as even he feels that’s ‘too much work’. What I do have to do is a commentary (which I have to do with every assignment), a scene list for the whole thing and then just one completed chapter. That’s a lot less and I feel so much more confident that I’ll have it done and done well in time for the deadline, which as I found out is the 22^nd of April instead of the 13^th as I had originally thought. 1 more week!

That means to finish all my assignments in time I only need to work on them for a couple of hours a day, which leaves me a lot more time for rest and anything else I want to do.

Another big thing coming up, the only thing not due on the 22^nd of April, is a presentation I have to do this Thursday. I actually had it ready for last week since our lecturer wouldn’t pick certain people to go on that day beforehand. I actually like that, it’s fair because everyone had to have theirs ready for that day, but if you’re someone like me who gets nervous about presentations it’s worrying. I wouldn’t have minded going the first week if I’d known I’d have to do it, but sitting there not knowing if I was about to be called would have been terrifying. Luckily, he started by asking who wanted to go that day, and there were enough volunteers to last the whole class.

While that does mean I’d have an extra week to improve it if I wanted, I don’t think I have to do that much. I was worried about whether I’d written the right stuff but after seeing other people do theirs I feel like it’s right, I just want to change the way I see a couple of things. Seeing other people do theirs also made me more confident doing my own and even made me want to do it. Actually, I’m not as nervous about this presentation as I have been about past ones. I think that’s mostly because I’m talking about my own work (it’s a world building class so I’m talking about the setting of my novel) and I usually love talking about my own work. There are a few flaws with the world still but I think rather than showing I can make a perfectly working world this presentation is more to show that I’ve actually put thought and effort into building a world that works even if there are still a few things that need to be worked out. Anyway, I’m not worried about Thursday which is great.

I feel pretty good about everything university related right now. On a side note, because it’s a little relevant, I’ve booked my storage for over the summer now. It’s so much better than the place I had last year. I mean, that place was great, but this one is half the price and they collect your stuff, take it to storage, then bring it to your new place for you. They even provide packaging, it’s amazing! I plan to use them when I have to move everything back to London next year too.

So that’s about it for now. Bye bye!