I doubted myself for a while there, but I’m finally at the point where I think I’ll actually close The 2013 100 in time ???? I’ve already promised myself that I’ll be a lot more organized in 2014, not forcing posts out in the last few days of the year like I am now. I look forward to what’s coming in the year ahead. Trips, more things to learn about fatherhood, telling better tales… but let me save all that for the last post. For now, let’s get into 81-90!
Previous Posts:
- DO ALL THE THINGS: The 2013 100 Wrap-up 1-10: Driving, Drawing And Dining
- DO ALL THE THINGS: The 2013 100 Wrap-up 11-20: Birthdays, BiSC and Blogging
- DO ALL THE THINGS: The 2013 100 Wrap-Up 21-30: Social Media, Stocks and a SHEvolution Gone Wrong
- DO ALL THE THINGS: The 2013 100 Wrap-Up 31-40: Audiophilia, Authorship and Altitudinal Consumption
- DO ALL THE THINGS: The 2013 100 Wrap-Up 41-50: Nostalgia, Nintendo and the Need to Clean
- DO ALL THE THINGS: The 2013 100 Wrap-Up 51-60: Tradition, Tailoring and Tilling My Land
- DO ALL THE THINGS: The 2013 100 Wrap-Up 61-70: Education, Exercise and some Effervescence for Ingenuity
- DO ALL THE THINGS: The 2013 100 Wrap-Up 71-80: Karaoke, Cards and a bit of O Canada!
The 2013 100, Items 81-90: Lessons, Language, and Leaving Laziness Behind
- Become a true WordPress expert
- Don’t succumb to laziness
- Get new casual shoes to replace the ones that were stolen from my porch 😕
- Come up with an awesome costume for Halloween 2013
- Use up the gift cards, coupons, etc. I have lying around to do something useful
- Revitalize my wardrobe
- Devise a way to work from home
- Get my French bilingual certification
- Make social media a real part of how I earn an income
- Transfer Sarah’s old IDE hard drive onto one of my SATA hard drives
81: Become a true WordPress expert
Over the past couple of years, I’ve invested in learning materials from SitePoint and Smashing Magazine, thinking that if I were going to own some real estate on the Internet, Id’ better do everything in my power to make the most of it! I needed to bone up on coding, design, site maintenance, user experience, analytics—the number of things I was trying to master was endless. You’d always see me staring at my iPad, reading another technical guide and sketching how I’d fit it into my “design to end all designs”.
But it’s like what I alluded to in #80—if your site has a pretty package and nothing solid backing it up, people won’t be coming back. You are the strength of your message—if you want to get something across, you write better. Take better photos. Make yourself happier and let it shine through your work. If you’re trying to share a message with the world, the perfect WordPress site will only help you so much if you don’t work at refining your craft!
There are things I want to do to my site, like add a portfolio and digital résumé. And I’ll get to that; all I’ve learned will be a huge help in making it happen!
But I don’t need to be a WordPress expert to do it.
Build it and they shall come. The people who can help. Those who are smarter than me, with better ideas.
I don’t have to be everything or do everything myself, and I think I’m finally okay with that!
STATUS: Ain’t nobody got time for that!
82: Don’t succumb to laziness
If this list is any indication whatsoever of how lazy I was in 2013, I… well, I really wouldn’t want to see what a busy year’d look like.
STATUS: SO done.
83: Get new casual shoes to replace the ones that were stolen from my porch?
In a story rife with confusion and misplaced trust, Sarah had once told someone on the block who rifles through recycling for alcoholic bottles to trade in at The Beer Store for change that we usually put our empties on the porch every other week and that we left the door unlocked.
Weeks later, someone stole a pair of my Adidas Sambas.
We now lock our porch door.
I’d picked up a pair of chocolate-coloured Penguins when we hit Buffalo in February—they’re nice, but it’s just not the same.
I’m not on the hunt for kicks, but don’t be surprised if a pair of Sambas wind up on my feet in 2014!
STATUS: SO done.
84: Come up with an awesome costume for Halloween 2013
While little tops the spontaneous purchase of a Scorpion costume that helped me win a trip to Vegas in 2012, I originally thought I’d be able to dress as the Blue Bomber, Mega Man this year, getting his 20th anniversary limited edition helmet and Mega Buster in from Japan as a gift.
But since I didn’t sew, a blue unitard with bluer underwear on the outside just wasn’t in the cards.
So I just rocked my off-colour Ghostbusters costume on Halloween instead.
In 2014, now that DoomzToo’s in the house and is highly unlikely to have a strong opinion on his costume at 11½ months, I’d like to up the ante.
It’s time to think of some family costumes for Team Palmer!
How else are we going to get on Buzzfeed???
STATUS: On to the next year!
85: Use up the gift cards, coupons, etc. I have lying around to do something useful
When I wrote this, we had a bunch of gift cards lying around from our wedding, previous birthdays/Christmases, etc. I’m at a point where my wish list is just items I won’t afford anytime soon, but anything is attainable with a little financial finesse!
Some good came from gift cards in 2013, though—we went on a $1000 shopping spree in Vegas from gift cards. I saw The Butler with Sarah because of a gift card. Gift cards paid for a couple of date nights, new shirts, and so many other things.
And now that Christmas’ passed, I got even more.
So did I use up all the random cards strewn about the house to have a great year? Absolutely. And what will I do with the new ones?
Well—let’s just say that’s 2014’s gonna be a fun year!
STATUS: SO done.
86: Revitalize my wardrobe
That shopping spree in #85 went a long way to making things a little more fly! The only thing I need to keep an eye out for in 2014 is some killer jeans, which is always so hard to pull off with my body type!
2013 saw Express, All Saints and Cole Haan introduced into the wardrobe, while some alterations brought back pieces from The Gap, Banana Republic and Calvin Klein.
I look forward to keeping things fashionable in 2014—if I wanted to become a daddy fashion blogger, I’ve even got a tag line:
“Keeping it stylish when you’re not childless.”
It’ll totally be a thing.
STATUS: SO done.
87: Devise a way to work from home
This one was originally to come up with a master plan to start a business I could do from home or to work out an arrangement with the boss to work from home so I could be around my family more often.
But there’s something about the human interaction you get from going into the office.
Badmouth the corporate environment all you want, but my truth is this—I wouldn’t have my wife, son, or some of my closest friends without those corporate environments. It’s work that originally connected us, and from those bonds, we developed them into the relationships we have today.
After switching jobs three times this year, I know my boss is cool with the odd day from home—no family’s perfect, and I’m sure there’ll be emergencies that pop up, times I’ll need to run errands and days where Sarah could just use a break.
I guess I didn’t find a way to work from home—the option to do it just kinda found me.
STATUS: SO done.
88: Get my French bilingual certification
French is cool when you’re in Quebec, Ottawa, or—I dunno — France, but I don’t have much use for it in Toronto.
Yeah, it came in handy when stranded in Paris on our honeymoon for an extra 1½ days after our plane to Italy decided to stop working, but I rarely use it when I’m home.
It’d be nice to speak multiple languages like my sister-in-law, but with everything else I have on my plate, it’s just not gonna fly right now.
STATUS: Ain’t nobody got time for that!
89: Make social media a real part of how I earn an income
The more I thought about leveraging social media to start making some serious coin, the more I realized it wasn’t going to happen.
While you can get paid for stuff you do on social media, like tweetchats and outreach strategies, the reward often doesn’t measure to the amount of effort going into it. You only make hundreds at a time on social—the real money is in translating your social media presence into something that others can actually benefit from, like a book deal or public speaking engagements.
I haven’t ruled out pursuing opportunities that put food on the table and help others, but I’ll be damned if I’m stuck believing that there’s only one way to get there! 2014’s about reaching my potential, and if I get paid for it? Well, bonus!
But to keep it real, I’ve got mouths to feed. A newborn child. A wife on maternity leave. Money doesn’t grow on trees, and relying on social media to provide is an iffy strategy at best. So I’m gonna keep doing me, and we’ll see what life has in store!
STATUS: Ain’t nobody got time for that!
90: Transfer Sarah’s old IDE hard drive onto one of my SATA hard drives
Honestly, it’s not like there’s anything on Sarah’s 7-year old hard drives that would be earth-shattering if it fell into the wrong hands, but if you’re going to dispose of your computer, it’s best to do it right. Next year, I’ll find a converter and just get this done. That old laptop is taking up valuable real estate!
STATUS: On to the next year!
We’re so close, everyone! One post and 11 hours left in 2013, and we’re going to end it right. The last post will be a proper send-off to 2013, looking at the people we’ve lost, the things I’ve learned and things I’m looking forward to in 2014.
It’s been a great 365 days, friends—thanks for sharing the journey with me!
See you tonight,
