40 by 40 Update: #25 Get the Maximum Roth IRA for 2008 and 2009

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

25. Get the Maximum Roth IRA for 2008 and 2009 – COMPLETED
Running Tally: $120.00 to charity.

Well it was technically the 2007 and 2008 tax years, and I split the money between Roth and a regular IRA for tax reasons, but I did put down the max both years. So I call this one done.

40 by 40 Update: #24 Go Back to the House in Italy for 2 Weeks

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

24. Go Back to the House in Italy for 2 Weeks – NOT COMPLETED
Running Tally: $120.00 to charity.

(The picture doesn’t do it justice.) This one was supposed to have been my 40th birthday present. We have been lucky in the past to spend a couple of weeks at a time at a wonderful house in Tuscany. The place is absolutely amazing. Not being millionaires, however, the way to rent this seven bedroom house for two weeks at a pop is to find friends and family who are interested in renting a room. Well, the house was reserved, the plans taking shape, but then the economy started to make several participants jittery so we ended up having to cancel it. Oh well. As a consolation prize we are taking trip to France and Switzerland instead of renting the house. Should be a lot of fun, but it won’t be the same thing as the house in Italy.

40 by 40 Update: #23 Finish the Rest of the Modern Library’s Top 100

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

23. Finish the rest of the Modern Library’s list of 100 top novels of the 20th Century (except for Faulkner and Joyce-I just can’t do it) – NOT COMPLETED
Running Tally: $110.00 to charity.

Back in the late 1990s, the Modern Library compiled a highly controversial list of the top 100 novels of the 20th century (in English). My goal was to read the whole list (except for Faulkner and Joyce who I think are too excruciatingly difficult and boring to read). The good news is that I have read about 65 of them since the list came out, but the bad news is I don’t have too much interest in finishing the rest. I will definitely finish more of them over time. And then others I won’t. Some may be brilliant books, I am just not interested in them. I had this to say back in November of 2007 about this goal:

I may even abandon another goal (#23) on the 40 by 40 list. What is my problem you ask? Why am I such a loser that I can’t achieve these simple goals? Life, I tell you, life. Not in the sense that life is overwhelming me and I can’t possibly achieve these goals. But LIFE, as in I am loving every minute of it. As in, life is too short to not enjoy every minute of it. As in, Philip Roth’s American Pastoral, as award-winning as it may be, is just too damn boring for me to care about even though I am 2/3 finished. The irony is that the big things on my list (quitting my old job and
starting my new one) have given me a fabulous new lease on life that makes caring about the little things on my list (reading a book I find boring just to make myself a better person) far too tedious. I still have a book in my hands every free chance I get, and I am still going to check out and enjoy the giants of the literary world. But I no longer feel the need to impress myself or anyone else by finishing “important” but ultimately unfulfilling books. The same goes for my life. I will still take a stab at the important goals and even those that aren’t fun, but I won’t force myself to finish something just for the sake of crossing it off of a list.

40 by 40 Update: #22 Read the First Volume of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

22. Read the First Volume of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time – NOT COMPLETED
Running Tally: $100.00 to charity.

Kudos to Proust for helping me reach $100 in my charitable giving. I am about 80 pages into Swann’s Way, the first volume of one of the seminal works of literature in the 20th century. I actually kind of like it, but I just know I am not going to finish it by Monday. It is low on plot and high on atmosphere, which I generally don’t mind. But it is the kind of book that you need to savor to truly enjoy. Reading it on deadline is making me dread it. Of course if I had started a year ago, instead of a month ago, everything would be groovy. I probably will continue this or pick it up in the future. But for now, it is a no go.

40 by 40 Update: #21 Hear Mahler’s 8th Symphony Again

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

21. Hear Mahler’s 8th Symphony Again – COMPLETED
Running Tally: $90.00 to charity.

I had a few Mahler Eights I could have chosen from in the U.S. I ended up choosing the New York Philharmonic’s version at Avery Fisher Hall in June 2009. Mahler’s Eighth Symphony is also known as the Symphony of a Thousand because of the huge forces required to give it a proper airing. Larger than usual orchestra, organ, antiphonal brass, double chorus, children’s chorus, 8 soloists. The first part of the symphony is based on the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus and the second part is based on the end of Goethe’s Faust. It is a real barn burner. The first time I heard it was when I sang in the giant chorus with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Gothenberg Symphony under Neeme Jarvi.

Since then I have heard it performed again in Minnesota and by the National Symphony Orchestra here in DC. The second Minnesota performance, back in the 90s was the best one by far. The NSO’s was darn good, and well, New York’s this past June was really disappointing. Conductor Lorin Maazel took the first half too slow. The chorus was not up to snuff. The hall itself has terrible acoustics. And the electronic organ sounded ridiculous. Overall it was murky and lacked the punch it should have had. The New York Phil played well in most places, but not well enough to make up for all of the other deficiencies.

40 by 40 Update: #20 Make Pudding From Scratch

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)
20. Make Pudding From Scratch – COMPLETED
Running Tally: $90.00 to charity.

This one was easy, fun, and delicious. It was an American pudding not to be confused with the British use of the word. I made Brown Sugar Pudding and it was out of this world.

40 by 40 Update: #19 Release 25 Books Into the Wild Through Book Crossing

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

19. Release 25 Books into the Wild Through Book Crossing – NOT COMPLETED
Running Tally: $90.00 to charity.

I gave this one up back in July 2007. As I blogged back then:

If I could figure out how to do a strikethrough on this blog I would cross
this one out. I thought I would love this particular challenge. The idea is that
you tag books you have read with a Bookcrossing label, register them online, and
then leave them somewhere for someone to find in hopes that they will pick them
up, see the tag, go online to note where they found it and what they thought
about the book and then release it back into “the wild” for someone else to
find.I loved the idea of people connecting through books, but the process of
leaving them out in the wild gave me more stress than joy. Maybe because you
don’t really get to connect with people this way, and maybe because the kinds of
books I read aren’t going to find a broad audience, or maybe it is because I am
sure that most if not all of the books I have left out in the wild were probably
thrown away. In any case, I didn’t find anything edifying about the process and
it was stressing me out. So I am abandoning this one which means at least $10
for charity when I hit 40.

40 by 40 Update: #18 Start and Finish the "Write Now" Better Handwriting Program

ThomasLeave a comment

(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

18. Start and Finish the “Write Now” Better Handwriting Program – COMPLETED
Running Tally: $80.00 to charity.

My handwriting has gotten so bad over the years of keyboarding that I can hardly read it these days. I followed the program, and it certainly re-taught me some things I haven’t thought about since second grade. And I discovered a new way to hold a pen that gives me better control. I am glad I did it, but in the end, the biggest trick is to write much more slowly than is useful for most practical applications.

40 by 40 Update: #17 Spend a Long Weekend in Vienna, Berlin, or Barcelona

ThomasLeave a comment

(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

17. Spend a Long Weekend in Vienna, Berlin, or Barcelona – NOT COMPLETED
Running Tally: $80.00 to charity.

We have gone on many amazing trips since I made the 40 by 40 list, but did not do this one specifically. From a road trip up the Eastern Seaboard to the Great Barrier Reef, to Kenya, to many weekend trips around the U.S., but alas no Vienna, Berlin, or Barcelona. These will remain on the list in my head.

40 by 40 Update: #16 Get a Letter Published in the New York Times

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(Back in May of 2007 I noticed that a bunch of people in the blogosphere had created lists of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I was intrigued by the notion but felt I needed to change the parameters. So I created my 40 by 40 list. 40 things I wanted to do before I turned 40. Well on August 17th I turn 40, and I need to give $10 to charity for every uncompleted item. So it is time to see how I did.)

16. Get a Letter Published in the New York Times – COMPLETED
Running Tally: $70.00 to charity.

Getting a letter published in the New York Times is harder than it may seem. I saw my opening back in July 2007, wrote a pithy little ditty, and managed to get my name in print.