The Year of 52 Adventures

Updates from myndevore Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• 

  myndevore 11:05 pm on January 8, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: letters, writing ( 7 )   

  Adventure #1: kicking off the year-long adventures 

  Greetings friends!

  This week I worked on two year-long adventures:

  6. Write down one sentence everyday.

  27. Write letters to friends on their birthdays.

  Adventure No. 6 was inspired by McSweeney’s Issue No. 22. This issue contains three slim volumes cleverly stored in a leather bound cover with a magnetic binding. One of the volumes is titled, “From the Notebook: The Unwritten Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald.” Fitzgerald, inspired by novelist Samuel Butler, began keeping a notebook filled with inspiration and ideas for future stories. Fitzgerald kept a list of ideas, a few words here and there to inspire him later. Some of the entries include: The Dancer Who Found She Could Fly, Driving over the rooftops on a bet, and my personal favorite, Girl and giraffe. McSweeneys selected 17 writers to use Fitzgerald’s ideas as jumping off points for their own stories. The stories are included in the issue. Such a brilliant idea!

  (More …)
   

  Reply

  Name

  Email

  Website

  Notify me of new comments via email.

  Notify me of new posts via email.

  Δ

• 

  myndevore 9:34 pm on December 31, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  Hello fellow adventurers! It looks like … 

  Hello fellow adventurers!

  It looks like I was able to squeak out my list of 52 before the new year begins. I look forward to seeing the year through with each of you and keeping each other on track as we adventure along.

  Wishing everyone a safe and happy new year’s eve!

  1. Create ten postcards and send them.
  2. Spend a day alone at the Art Institute.
  3. Write three anonymous letters and hide them in books at the library.
  4. Send chopsticks, $20, and takeout menus to a friend.
  5. Learn to play a song on the piano.
  6. Write down one sentence everyday.
  7. Drive west and go camping.
  8. Photograph strangers.
  9. Bake a soufflé.
  10. Read a book in one day.
  11. Build a fort.
  12. Spend a day drawing only green things.
  13. Get off at an el stop I haven’t stopped at before. Buy a cup of coffee and take photos.
  14. Watch the sun rise.
  15. Run the Chicago Half-Marathon (Maybe the full? Can’t commit at this point).
  16. Take a sewing class at the Needle Shop.
  17. Write something I’m proud of. 

  18. Plan a wonderful surprise.
  19. Give away something I love.
  20. Go a week without purchasing anything.
  21. Make a large cake and write something obscure on it.
  22. Find books by my favorite writer in the library. Find the writer that comes next on the shelf and check out one of his or her books.
  23. Go on a photobooth crawl around Chicago.
  24. Master a Bob Dylan song on the harmonica (for campfire serenades).
  25. Buy some of my favorite books from childhood for our future children.
  26. Go apple picking.
  27. Write letters to friends on their birthdays.
  28. Record the stories of my grandparents.
  29. Make a blurb book.
  30. Start and finish a new painting.
  31. Harvest summer fruits and vegetables and do some canning and pickling.
  32. Finish watching the Ken Burns Jazz documentary.
  33. Keep the television off for one week.
  34. Make a poster and hang it somewhere.
  35. Ask Charlie to teach me to sail.
  36. Learn to whistle properly.
  37. Go to the opera or the symphony.
  38. Take a photo everyday for 30 days.
  39. Make a short film.
  40. Go biking.
  41. Sew something and give it away.
  42. Spend one evening making and eating favorite foods from childhood and watching old cartoons.
  43. Master calligraphy.
  44. Draw something everyday for 30 days.
  45. Go on a hike.
  46. Explore a Chicago neighborhood I haven’t been to yet.
  47. Volunteer.
  48. Host a seasonal gathering.
  49. Go roller-skating.
  50. Go to a play.
  51. Write about and photograph/draw/paint each person in my family.
  52. Make Christmas gifts.

  Rick Williams is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
  • 

    Rick Williams 10:22 pm on January 31, 2010 Permalink

    great list ….. it has me thinking ….. January was a great adventure month for me but Feb is wide open….
    if you finish with Burns/Jazz, it will may inspire you on the short movie ….. i just tried calligraphy … i am starting with a fat brush and huge sweeping strokes …. simple but fun ….. best of luck with your Feb adventures …..