My Whole Expanse I Cannot See…

I formulate infinity stored deep inside of me…

Aug 3

Things to Do

Category: Life

A few days ago I saw a fantastic and hilarious movie called, Things to Do. It’s about a guy who, for reasons we learn later, leaves his spirit breaking office job in the big city to return to his parents’ small-town home, which is depressing in its own way. One day he’s watching some “teens gone wrong” day-time talk show and the host says that to be happy in life a person has to be organized and have goals, advice our protag closely follows. He creates a Things to Do list, a list of anything he wants to do, but has never done. Then he tackles the list with the idea that it will help him find his place. I’ve been seriously thinking about the same issues, so I’ve also begun a Things to Do list page, linked at the top right corner of the blog. My list is public and dynamic. I will add things as I think them up and cross them off as I do them. I’m making it public because of a post I read on Ecstatic Days by Catherynne M. Valente. She posted about writing a novel in 30 days, but the part that really struck me was about how it’s important to make goals public because it’s so much easier to quietly fail in private. People are welcome to join me in tackling the list.

Here’s the list so far:

Spend a day theater hopping at the movies

Go sailing

Have a home and a family of my own

Stay in a dive hotel in a city like New Orleans or New York

Go on a post-trache trip without my family

Ride a riverboat

Visit the Canadian side of Niagara Falls

Visit a New Orleans cemetery

Ride a Greyhound bus

Write a novella

Go to a shooting range

Fire a gun with a switch

Camp at the Grand Canyon

Spend an entire night on a beach with a woman I love

Sleep at a New England bed and breakfast

 

6 comments

6 Comments so far

  1. arsenalgear August 3rd, 2008 3:23 pm

    Accessible firearms?!? Fuck yeah! Sign me up!!!!!:D

  2. Melissa August 3rd, 2008 4:31 pm

    I just watched the episode of This American Life with you in it. I was amazed! I thought it was so beautiful! I found your blog and wanted to read it because I love to read new and interesting blogs.

  3. redandjonny August 6th, 2008 10:52 pm

    Mike…

    you should add write an albums worth of songs.
    Find a band online..make them audition on youtube for you… kinda the way RIvers Cumomo does with his make a song Project…
    and have them produce an album of your work.

    You are articulate, well read and well spoken… you should give this a try.

  4. redandjonny August 6th, 2008 11:30 pm

    Also… Have you written Chuck Palahniuk?

    He is not only of the greatest writers of all time… ( as you know) He is also one of the coolest. Write him… He WILL write back to you.

    I bet he would even come to meet you if you asked him.. He’s just that cool.

  5. Jeff August 8th, 2008 8:00 pm

    I second “Niagara from the Canadian side”. My Canuck friends insisted we visit a haunted house on the main street last time I was there. Most scared I’ve ever been in one.

    Speaking of Niagara, IIRC it’s a little more than an hour to Toronto — much less if there were a ferry. TO (as they write it) is on the short list of anywhere in the world I’d live if income were not a factor.

    As for “firing a gun with a switch”… elaborate?

  6. Tess March 3rd, 2010 5:06 pm

    I’d like to do ALL of these things too.