Completed Task: 39. Go Into A Library, Randomly Select A Book And Read It January 27, 2010

Yesterday I had some time before I was supposed to be at one of the schools I worked in so I headed over to the library that was close by. It was a very small library so it took me a few minutes to locate the non-Dutch books but once I finally did, I closed my eyes (okay semi-closed them) and picked a book.

What came of the shelf was red, medium sized book with the title The Private Life of the Cat Who… by Lilian Jackson Braun. Trust me to pick a cat book. However, this one was quite funny and a very quick read. My review for the book, which I posted on LibraryThing is as follows:

It was a super quick read about two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum, who live with the writer James Mackintosh Qwilleran. The story starts off by explaining the strange circumstances by which Koko entered James’s life and his search for a playmate for Koko, leading to Yum Yum. The short chapters that then follow re-tell different adventures the trio find themselves in and ponders on the rather strange but loveable behaviour that the cats (and cats in general) display. This book was quite sweet and funny, although may not be as funny for a non-cat lover. :] Rating: 3 1/2 Stars

What this task did remind me was that the Rotterdam libraries have quite a large selection of English language books and while not all are from the current best seller list, there are probably quite a lot that I would like. So I need to use my library card a bit more!

Completed Task: 48. Buy a Stranger Something From Their Amazon Wishlist January 17, 2010

This task is one of those that I would have NEVER thought of, if I hadn’t seen it on someone else’s list. It seemed a nice idea and surely I could find someone who had a list that contained something that didn’t cost millions of Euros.

I actually started glancing through Amazon wishlists right after I finished writing up my 101 list, thinking this would be an easy task to cross off. However, it ended up being a little more challenging than I anticipated. First you had to pretend like you knew who’s list you were looking for. I guess Amazon isn’t used to random anonymous wish-list fulfillers, so I was stuck picking a random name and sticking it in the search field.

Then I had to decide if I liked this person…were they worthy enough of my good deed. I know that sounds a bit like a contradiction in terms to the whole task but I certiantly was not going to buy something for someone who’s profile said “BUY STUFF FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and yes there are a few of those out there.

Then you had to take into consideration if their list was current. For those people that added something back in 2006 and then never updated again, I wasn’t convinced that they still wanted the items on their list or still existed for that matter. Lastly, I also had to take into consideration the whole money factor. I hadn’t planned to be buying Joe Bloggs the whole Friends complete dvd box set. So after taking all these factors into consideration I promptly gave up and left the task for later.

Until today that is. Today I decided I was just going to get it done and over with once and for all. I pulled up the wishlist search box and typed in ‘Sam’. I picked the third entry, mainly because they had bothered to fill out their profile, something that earns them bonus points in my book. Sam’s profile read as follows:

I’m creative, eclectic, sarcastic,​ and open-minde​d. I’m always looking to learn and experience​ all I can. The Books are for my ever-growi​ng library. I’m a photograph​er, so the Photograph​y stuff is also for me. The DVDs and Video Games are, mainly, for my sister (if my books were dvd/vgs, she might have me beat).

So she was kind enough to put her sister’s requests on her list, she liked photography just like me, she had many pages to choose from and to top it off she had even added things to her list within the last week. So far Sam was ticking all the right boxes.

I scrolled through the pages and pages of items on the wishlist and then settled on the photography portion of the list. There were plenty of books, a few lenses, a camera body and some accessories/equipment like lights. In the end I passed up the several thousand dollar camera body, various books and lenses and went for the Designers Edge L-18 Home Light One-Light 500-Watt Halogen Portable Work Light. Partially because it was around the amount I wanted to spend (especially once you added postage) and partially because it was quite a practical and useful item but mainly because I thought it would be a pretty cool sized box to arrive unexpectedly in the post.

So Sam…this lights for you!

Completed Task: 50. Celebrate my half birthday. December 22, 2009

There are only so many 1/2 birthdays that come around in a 1001 day period.  So I figured 2009 was as good a year as ever to celebrate.  I decided that I was  going to have a picnic and follow it up by a trip to a baseball game.  However,  the weather decided that I was going to have to make some minor adjustments  to that plan.  It bucketed it down for several days before the big day and rainy  weather was predicted for the day itself.  So instead we headed in doors at the  local Pancake House.

We had pancakes, of course, and also some yummy vlaai from Multi-Vlaai.  It was great to have my friends around for the day and my best friend, Elaine, even flew over from London, which was the icing on the pancake!

Afterwards, some of us headed off to the baseball game at the Neptunus Stadion.  It was quite crowded as it was a World Port Tournament game but there was loads of fun to be had.

Completed Task: 35. Raise money for charity. December 22, 2009

A New Year, A New Country, A New Pool….

What better way to break it all in then with a new challenge? Of course there is no better way and that is one reason why I signed up for the Aspire Channel Swim.

What’s It All About?

Every year the charity Aspire, who help people with spinal cord injuries, organize the event for individuals to take part. You can participate as an individual, a fish or a group…Aspire isn’t picky, as long as you raise some money and/or awareness of their orginization in the process. A small excerpt from their website:

“Swim the distance of the English Channel (22 miles) in your local pool over a 12 week period and raise money for Aspire and people with spinal cord injuries.”

Where and When?

The challenge took place between September 14th and December 6th. For the majority of that time I went swimming at the Inge de Bruijn Sportfondsenbad swimming pool in Barendrecht, Netherlands. However, for two weeks during the period I was on holiday in Gran Canaria. Thankfully they had four (yes that’s four) swimming pools so I got lots of laps in then.

Well I’d Sure Like To Sponsor You

You’re in luck!  I’ve already raised some money but donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity. Of course you can also donate the money directly to myself and I will then forward it to Aspire, however the JustGiving page is the preferred method where possible.

So please dig deep and donate now. For more information on the Aspire Channel Swim (maybe even to sign up!), please visit here.

Completed Task: 14. Take a walk in the rain. December 22, 2009

I got to complete this task a few weeks ago when the neighbours dog went missing.  It was chucking it down but considering I would want the world and its dog out searching if any of my pets went missing, I decided I best go out and help.  So I headed out with my umbrella for a 30 minute walk in the rain searching for the dog.  Unfortunately I didn’t find the dog but I can cross off task number 14.

Completed Task: 46. Pull off an April Fools Prank. April 2, 2009

Yesterday was April 1st, also known as April Fool’s Day.  In a 1001 day period there aren’t that many April 1st’s available, so I knew I needed to be a bit more organized than usual.  So a few months ago I did a quick websearch on April fool’s jokes.  I needed something that was practical, believable and that wasn’t going to have me laughing my head off during the act and thus ruining the whole thing.

I quickly settled on the trick of freezing someone’s desktop so that all the shortcuts were unusable.  A brief glance at the instructions showed that this was a joke I could pull off and I was pretty sure it would be believable.

 

The Target

So yesterday morning I singled out the victim’s laptop as the target for my trick.  First, I had to take a screenshot of their desktop, then I had to make that the desktop image and finally I then had to remove (or hide) the desktop shortcuts.  The operation went smoothly and not even the fact that the laptop was in Dutch slowed me down.  Then all I had to do was wait…oh and not laugh.

Before the Freeze

 

 

 

 

Eventually my victim opened the laptop and powered it up.  He was on the phone to start with but I did see him frown as he attempted to use the web browser.  A few minutes later when the telephone conversation had finished I heard:

Victim: There is something wrong with my laptop, the shortcuts aren’t working.

Me: Really?

Victim: Yeah, look they are doing nothing, crap do I have that virus?

Me: I heard the virus didn’t happen but that is weird, yeah.

Victim: Do your’s work? Maybe I need to restart.

Me: Yeah everything is fine with mine.

At this point he restarted the computer and of course it still wouldn’t work.

Victim: It still doesn’t work, what is going on?

 

Removing the Shortcuts

After a few more futile double clicks I burst out laughing and shouted ‘April Fool’s’ and showed what I had done.  I even got a thumb’s up from him as he was impressed that I had managed to come up with something like that AND pulled it off without laughing.

Completed Task: 94. Go to a concert. April 2, 2009

 

Before the concert started

One of my birthday presents this year was tickets to the Il Divo concert on March 12th at Ahoy in Rotterdam.  I have been a fan of Il Divo for quite some time, ever since I heard one of their songs on a classical cd that I had in the car.  In my whole lifetime I haven’t been to that many concerts, only a handful really, and with so many concerts available in the Netherlands I thought it would be a good one to add to my list.

 

 

 

A zoom function on the iphone camera would have been handy here

The concert itself was really good, although I was disappointed that they didn’t perform the song that I love the most from them but they did perform a good mix of old and new.   Apologies for the poor photo quality, this was day one with my new iphone and I hadn’t realised you needed a special application to be able to zoom the camera in.

Completed Task: 77. Locate an old friend and keep in touch. April 2, 2009

Who would have thought that after all those months of avoiding facebook that it would then turn out to be quite a big part of my life.  Facebook in itself has made finding a number of old friends a thousand times easier – from people I knew in school to people that I knew from Rotary.  Either way it has been great and I now talk to many of them on a pretty regular basis – yay facebook!!

Completed Task: 41. Learn to solve a rubik’s cube. April 2, 2009

 

Here is what it looked like at the start

I bought a rubik’s cube in January 2008, that’s how clearly aware I was that this task was going to take me awhile.  I am not good with maths, formulas or anything that involves being able to see things backwards or from different angles and as I understood it – that’s all what solving a rubik’s cube is about.

 

Of course I mixed up all the colours straight away and spent days twisting and turning the coloured cube in a vain attempt that I might actually make some progress.  I had people explain to me how to get one side of the cube solved but if more than one colour made it on the same side I knew clearly that it was down to luck and chance rather than any great skill.

All mixed up

And then one day in March I sat down with the determination to figure this thing out.  I did a little research online about the different methods of solving it and then I tried and tried and tried.  I made a cross on one side of the same colours, got the corners up (that took me ages to figure out) and then I turned it over to start on the next part.  I messed it up, started again and somewhere in there things went right.  Okay I had to look at my list of algorithms and turn the cube in the direction I needed to turn it to not mess it up but being able to do that was in itself a huge acomplishment for me!

And then I solved two lines and while holding my breath managed the third.  Screaming and cheering I went and showed off my work of accomplishment to the nearest person to prove I had done it and then I just sat there and stared at it not wanting to move a single thing for fear I would mess it all up again.

I thought long and hard about how to provide picture evidence that I had completed the task, I even talked it over with a few people but we all agreed no matter what I provided someone would point out it wasn’t good enough – and I wasn’t going to film my two days of work.  However, I have gone  ahead and provided the photos that I have.

 

 

The Finished Project (I appear to have lost the mirror card to show off all the sides)

After I have finished looking at the completed cube I plan to mix it all up again and try it again with the aim at getting faster and better at solving it…because what a cool party trick that is!

If you have a rubiks cube and you want a little help (although it does still require thought) then have a look at these youtube videos.  And don’t cheat by taking out all the pieces – that wouldn’t be any fun!

Completed Task: 6. Complete Dream Director. April 2, 2009

Dream Director was a children’s workbook that I started several years back when I was working with children. Some of the resources that I was making and using with the children appeared to be working well and they were enjoying them so I decided to put them all together in one book. Like most of my projects I got distracted somewhere in the middle and it took a little prompting from a friend to get started on it again, which I did – finishing the workbook on January 12th 2009 (my birthday ironically).

Completed Task: 42. Complete the 26 Things Scavanger Hunt. January 31, 2009

After having given up almost all hope in being able to participate in the 26 Things project, I managed to visit the site at just the right time….when a new challenge had been posted.

For those of you unfamiliar with the 26 Things project here is a quick summary.  The 26 Things project is a photography challenge where you are given a random list of 26 words which you then go and take a photo for each word.  For a more detailed look at the project or to watch for the next challenge, visit here.

The list for this round was:

neighbour unfamiliar mess information change everything company

twin warning odd decadent in the distance crowded eyes

green entrance cross sunset leftovers different

big things frozen line up tube bed in season

My results were as follows

Completed Task: 72. Resolve OU complaint January 6, 2009

I won’t go into all the boring details about the complaint but the end result was that the OU owed me some money and getting it appeared to be a battle of wills.  While I thought Dutch organizations were awful at customer service, the OU seemed to be taking it one step further with poor response times, losing letters and point blank rudeness.

Luckily the issue was resolved towards the end of last year when I finally got my refund.  So why didn’t I mark the task of the list then?  Well because I logged in to look at my record only to see a fail mark next to a class rather than a withdrawl.  Thinking I was now going to have to fight this battle I put the whole thing to the side to deal with in 2009.

However I have just logged in and see that the fail has been removed, meaning the complaint is well and truly resolved.  Case closed…thank goodness!

Completed Task: 47. Give A Homeless Person An Xmas Gift. December 20, 2008

When I saw this task on another 101 list I knew it was one for me.  Since there aren’t too many Christmas’s available to you in a 1001 day period I wanted to get this one done this Christmas.

The first hurdle I came across was what to gift to get.  I didn’t want to just do a card with money but wanted to get an actual gift, wrap it and include a Christmas card.  After much debate I settled on a medium sized chocolate figure and a candy cane with Xmas decoration on it.  It wasn’t a huge gift but once all wrapped up looked really nice.

The second hurdle was who I was going to give it to.  While I was sure there were many homeless people in Rotterdam I had no idea where to find them.  I was starting to think I was just going to have to wander the streets of Rotterdam when RC came up with the idea of giving my present to the man who sells the Street Paper nearby.

So today I headed off in the rain with all fingers crossed that he would be there.  The first thing I did was purchase the magazine from him and explained in my best Dutch that I didn’t want any change.  Then I stuttered out my well rehearsed phrase…

“Dit is een kerst cadeautje voor uw.” (This is a Christmas present for you.)

…while holding over my present and card.  I got a very kind thank you and the traditional three kisses and was wished a merry Christmas and New Years.  This was definetly one of my favourite 101 tasks to complete.

Completed Task: 95. Learn To Use Photoshop. December 7, 2008

Learning photoshop was one of those crazy ideas I had as I was approaching the end of the 101 list and needed a few more tasks.  I never really thought I would have a need for it as typically I am not a fan of photoshopped photos.

I still am not a fan but I can now see the benefits of using photoshop, even if just for the small things like removing dung and cropping photos.  Also, as I now photograph in RAW (and Jpeg) there are a lot of options available to you (white balance, b&w, etc) which you can adjust after the photo rather than before you take the photo – very handy for those quick moments or when you are unsure which setting will bring out the best in your photos.

I decided to take a beginners photoshop course with www.betterphoto.com, the course was a very beginners one (i.e. this is how to get your photos in and this is how to get them out) but it was exactly what I needed and the Instructor was brilliant.  I am continuing to learn more about photoshop through tutorials and magazine articles and hope to take further courses in 2009.

Completed Task: 88. Try A New Restaurant In Rotterdam December 7, 2008

I received a dinercheque (money vouchers for use at various restaurants throughout the Netherlands) as a thank you for some English proof-reading I did for a neighbour.  This made trying out a new restaurant in Rotterdam much easier and also left me with a whole booklet of suggestions for places to go in the future.

Fancying a nice curry we headed off to Light of India on Goudsesingel.  Overall the food was not too bad (although the naan bread was not as good as I had hoped) and the service was fine as well.  The decoration is quite nice but it is a very small place so probably best to make a reservation if you really, really want to go.

I also have now been on two occasions to Basso, an Italian restaurant on the Coolsingel in Rotterdam.  It is super yummy, especially the bread with olive spread.  Can be slow service and is a very tiny place that is very popular so be prepared to wait for a table.