Day Zero

An attempt at the Day Zero Project: a list of 101 tasks to be completed in 1001 days.

Saturday, 1 August 2009 – Saturday, 28 April 2012

it’s only a chance to pave the path we’re on

1. Write a book
2. Get published (25/08/11)
3. Find a publishing job
4. Volunteer abroad
5. Work someplace new
6. Sing a song for V-Day
7. Volunteer for SASC (January–April 2010)
8. Volunteer in the downtown Eastside
9. Pick up lyrical dancing (18/01/10 – need to try again)
10. Try another kind of dancing (19/08/11)

someday we’ll know why Samson loved Delilah

11. Memorise 10 songs on the piano (1/10)
12. Learn to play the flute
13. Read 5000 Chinese characters
14. Start learning Cantonese proper
15. Pick up Italian again
16. Learn the Musqueam language (September 2010–December 2011)
17. Go stargazing
18. Toast marshmallows by campfire in Manning Park
19. Go to Victoria (02-03/08/09)
20. Take the train across Canada

stay true to your nomad skies; keep your eyes out for Coyote

21. Visit the States (13-20/02/10)
22. See a Broadway show (16/02/10)
23. Riverdance (15/05/11)
24. La Boheme
25. Finish three paintings
26. Get into grad school
27. Travel across Europe
28. Raise money for the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (February–March 2011)
29. Direct a seminar
30. Go go-karting (30/12/10)

who wants to be ordinary in a crazy, mixed-up world?

31. Have a picnic
32. Blow bubbles (23/03/11)
33. Swing by moonlight (18/06/10)
34. Finish playing one RPG
35. Take a cruise to Alaska
36. Go on a road trip with no set destination
37. Decorate my room
38. Climb a tree (26/2/11)
39. Donate my hair (cut on 21/07/11, mailed on 26/07/11)
40. Go trick-or-(tr)eating in costume (31/10/09, 31/10/11)

and the band played songs we’d never heard, but we danced anyway

41. Have a Thanksgiving dinner (10/10/11)
42. Celebrate Christmas — decorate! (24/12/11)
43. Make dumplings from scratch (27/12/10)
44. Bake and decorate a cake (06/04/11)
45. Go dancing (19/08/11)
46. Learn to drive (09/06/10–present)
47. Do 50 push-ups
48. Do ballet for six months (need to start again)
49. Go to the UBC Farm Market (08/10/11)
50. Plant something

if we just keep our eyes wide open, then everything would stay the same

51. Visit 30 new places in Vancouver and its surrounding areas:

  1. English Bay (01/08/09)
  2. Vancouver Aquarium (20/03/10)
  3. Top of Vancouver Revolving Restaurant (27/03/10)
  4. Steveston Wharf (08/05/10)
  5. Museum of Vancouver (22/05/10)
  6. H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (22/05/10)
  7. Playground in Surrey (31/05/10)
  8. Burnaby Public Library (Cameron Branch) (01/06/10)
  9. Science World (09/06/10)
  10. Whistler Village (27/07/10)
  11. Spanish Banks (14/08/10)
  12. Burnaby Central Park (21/08/10)
  13. Lonsdale Quay (28/08/10)
  14. Chinatown (25/09/10)
  15. Sun Peaks (12/02/11)
  16. Queen Elizabeth Park (23/08/11)
  17. Victoria Parliament Buildings (27/08/11)
  18. Craigdarroch Castle, Victoria (27/08/11)
  19. Camp Fircom, Gambier Island (16-18/09/11)
  20. Stanley Park Bright Lights (10/12/11)
  21. Vancouver Christmas Market (12/12/11)
  22. Van Dusen Botanical Gardens (23/12/11)

52. Go cycling in Stanley Park (16/05/10)
53. Kayak (20/08/11)
54. Walk home from UBC
55. Compile a favourites CD
56. Finish a sketchbook
57. Go whale-watching (24/12/10)
58. Swim with dolphins
59. Do the splits
60. Make my own Christmas cards

in daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee

61. Go skiing (12/01/11)
62. Make a snowman (25/11/10)
63. Go restaurant-hopping (27/12/09)
64. Sun Run
65. Grouse Grind
66. Clean up and sort through my computer files
67. Reorganise my home
68. Mentor a child
69. Teach a child to read (October–December 2011)
70. Read to children

sometimes I hear your smile and breathe your light

71. Attend a UU service (25/10/09)
72. Write letters to Cebu
73. Run a workshop
74. Watch 10 old movies

  1. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (01/09/09)
  2. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (08/08/10)
  3. Casablanca (14/08/10)
  4. Groundhog Day (07/05/11)
  5. Chocolat (07/05/11)
  6. Jurassic Park (07/07/11)
  7. The Last Unicorn (29/10/11)

75. Have an imaginary tea party (02/04/10)
76. Make a sick child smile
77. Make someone’s day (19/06/10)
78. Get all my vaccinations up-to-date
79. Work through a calculus book
80. Take a new and different class (September 2010–April 2011)

love is blind and that I knew when my heart was blinded by you

81. Run a km without dying
82. Give free hugs (05/12/11)
83. Start and maintain a web lit magazine
84. Learn how to use Photoshop/GIMP
85. Laser tag
86. Go berry-picking (03/07/11)
87. Make a calendar (27-28/11/11)
88. Make a project of love
89. Finish reading the Chinese books Dad gave
90. Start investing

I don’t want to be your remember when

91. Write a song
92. Be a regular at a coffee shop
93. Read all the books I own
94. Buy Sun Horse, Moon Horse (arrived 07/09/09)
95. Buy something from a second-hand bookstore
96. Donate my clothes (16/11/10)
97. Go to Cheung Chau
98. Sign up to donate organs (24/06/11)
99. Be able to play Normal on DDR
100. See Hong Kong’s pink dolphins or pandas

no one knows if shooting stars will land

101. That’s a secret