Bucket List-1-85

101 bucket list

Ø did it, but won’t do it again.

× did it but would like to do it again.

×× multiple times, × per time

» in progress/plans

1. Graduate college »

2. Own my own car

3. Get married

4. Have kids

5. Own a home

6. Successfully grow a garden

7. Have no debt »

8. Go bungee jumping

9. Travel to Australia

10. Watch a sunset from the beach in Hawaii

11. Play in the Atlantic, and Pacific (×) oceans

12. Visit all the temples in the US

13. See Europe

14. Learn another language

15. Go to Cedar Point in Ohio

16. Visit the Church History Sights

17. Tour as many light houses along the coasts as possible

18. Go to Disney World, Disney Land ×, Sea World, Universal Studios

19. Learn to Scuba Dive

20. Go on a cruise »

21. Walk in the Holy land

22. Establish the habits of Study my Scriptures and pray daily »

23. Sew a pair of pajama pants ×

24. Correctly hem a pair of pants and have it look good

25. Sew a quilt that lines up at all edges

26. Learn how to decorate a cake

27. Exercise in some form regularly

28. Always be less than a 29 BMI

29. Learn how to preserve all kinds of foods

30. Learn how to dance »

31. Learn how to swim well

32. Develop smile and laugh lines-not frown lines »

33. Learn how to cut hair (more than just buzzing)

34. Learn how to dive

35. Learn how to play the guitar

36. Learn how to decorate a house -and make it look good

37. Learn not to be embarrassed so easily

38. Make a gingerbread house-that looks good

39. Learn to knit/crochet

40. Go skydiving ×

41. Learn how to make soap from scratch

42. Learn how make pretty loaves of (wheat) bread

43. Be well read, both in secular and non-secular readings »

44. Endure cheerfully-whatever comes

45. Make an entire thanksgiving dinner

46. Become knowledgeable regarding as many religions as possible.

47. Pet or at least see a platypus up close

48. Be in a community play

49. Take up backpacking

50. Learn how to shoot a gun (and hit the target being aimed at)

51. Go rock climbing (gear and everything)

52. Get in the habit of meditating »

53. Swim with dolphins

54. See the highlands

55. Make a full skirt

56. Make a patchwork quilt

57. Never be to busy to enjoy the sunset

58. Walk in all 50 states

59. See the grand canyon

60. Visit the statue of liberty and other NY sites

61. Visit the holocaust memorial and other DC sites

62. Meet an Amish person

63. Stand on the 4 corners (NM, Az, Co, Ut)

64. Attend the temple regularly

65. Visit the space needle

66. Serve a humanitarian mission

67. Put at least 30% of every paycheck to their causes. 10% tithing, 10% nest egg, and 10% toward a humanitarian mission

68. Save up to have, don’t go into debt for anything other than a house and a car if necessary

69. Learn how to change the oil in my car

70. Learn how to make sushi

71. Do genealogy

72. Visit Canada and Mexico

73. GO body boarding

74. Try wake boarding, water skiing, etc

75. Be more organized

76. Spend time with people of other cultures to learn their traditions and rituals-find the truth in all

77. Get red highlights at least once ×

78. Learn how to flirt

79. Be more sociable

80. Learn how to function without stress- when I have nothing to do, aka no stress, to still accomplish things that I want to do.

81. Achieve Nirvana

82. Gain control of my mind, thoughts and emotions.

83. Be gainfully employed

84. Live in the moment

85. Be positive

BOOKS!!!

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?
Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.

(*) 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
(*) 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
(*) 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
(X) 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
(x) 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
(x) 6 The Bible
(*) 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
( *) 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
( ) 9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
(*) 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
(X) 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
() 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
(*) 13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
(*) 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
() 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
(X) 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
( ) 17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
(*) 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
( ) 19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
( ) 20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
() 21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
(*) 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
(*) 23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
(*) 24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
(*) 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
() 26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
() 27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
(*) 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
(*) 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
(X) 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
(*) 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
(*) 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
(+) 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
(*) 34 Emma - Jane Austen
(*) 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
(+) 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
(*) 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
() 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
(*) 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
(*) 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
(*) 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
(*) 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
() 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
() 44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
() 45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
(*) 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
() 47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
(X) 48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
() 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
(*) 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
() 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
(*) 52 Dune - Frank Herbert
( ) 53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
(*) 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
() 55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
() 56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
(*) 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
() 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
() 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
(*) 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
(*) 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
() 62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
() 63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
() 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
(*) 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
() 66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
() 67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
() 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
() 69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
(*) 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
(*) 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
() 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
() 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
() 74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
() 75 Ulysses - James Joyce
() 76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
() 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
() 78 Germinal - Emile Zola
() 79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
() 80 Possession - AS Byatt
(*) 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
() 82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
(*) 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
() 84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
() 85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
() 86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
(X) 87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
(*) 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
(*) 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
() 90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
() 91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
() 92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
() 93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
(*) 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
() 95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
() 96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
(*) 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
(*) 98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
(X) 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
(*) 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Eleven Read, not too bad, though my to read list just got lots longer.

Five lessons

For one of my classes we have to read a book called The Five Lesson a Millionaire Taught Me About Life and Wealth. A rather lengthy title I know, however, the lessons are quite amazing. It is by Richard Paul Evans. I'm going to write out the lessons as I have to do for my book report, sort of as a rough draft, even though I'm writing out the lessons I still recommend getting a copy of the book and reading it. There are some excelent points in the book and some really fun quotes and stories that I'm not really going to touch on. Read it for yourself, follow the lessons and learn how to be a self made millionaire.

The lessons are as follows:

1. The first lesson starts off by saying, “Decide to be wealthy”. Many of the people in the world wish that they were wealthy, but they don’t ever decide to be wealthy. To decide to be wealthy one must first decide what it means to them to be wealthy. To me, wealthy means I don’t have to worry about money. I wouldn’t have to worry that my check may not pay all of this months bills, and in fact I would never worry that it wouldn’t. To me, wealthy means that when my car has a problem and requires a whole lot of work to be fixed, I am not worried about how I am going to pay for it, because I have money that I have set aside for such problems. That to me means wealthy. To me opulence doesn’t mean wealth. Comfort and peace of mind means wealth.

2. The second lesson teaches you to take responsibility for your money. Manage your money, don’t let it manage you. You manage your money by knowing how much you have, where your money comes from, where your money is going, and what your money is doing. These can all be done by following simple steps. Know your net worth, know your cash flow, budget your money, calculate all the costs of an expense before buying it, and take the time to calculate interest rates, and organize your finances so you know what all your investments are doing.

3. The third lesson is to keep a portion of everything you earn. This is an important principle in becoming wealthy. Remember to pay yourself. Save at least 10% of your average salary, and 90-100% of any additional income. Build a nest egg. That Nest Egg is kind of like your retirement fund. You don’t touch it for anything. It is always building, and a person who truly understands this lesson will enjoy watching it grow so much that the idea of withdrawing from it comes with a sense of dread, and consternation, as well as a decision to not withdraw funds from the nest egg. The nest egg is not the place to get funding for risky ventures, and when invested should only be invested in the safest of investments.

4. The fourth lesson is to win in the margins. This means you find additional ways to add to the growing nest egg, through cutting costs, and making extra on the side. It is important to remember is the idea of keep your day job to support your family and provide insurance, but find other ways to win in the margins. The book gives examples of waiting tables on the weekend, training dogs, turning your hobbies into jobs etc. This section in the book was especially interesting to me because he talks about all these places that we can cut costs. The most important way he mentions to cut costs is to keep the millionaire mentality. The millionaire mentality requires its own set of explanations. There are four ideas in the millionaire mentality(i-iv).

i. First, carefully consider each expenditure. Ask yourself is this expenditure necessary? Is it possible to get the same personal effect without using money or by using less of it? This can be done in several ways, when purchasing something, especially something expensive, ask the salesperson, “Is that the best you can do?” Before going to look at an item in a store take some time to do some research. Look things up online, so you can have a better idea of what is a good price for an item. When at the store or on the show room floor, continue to ask “Is that the best you can do, until the salesperson says, “I am sorry, that is the best we can do.” Don’t spend more than you have to on any item. Another way to consider expenditures is to ask “Is this expenditure contributing to my wealth or taking from it.” Wise wealthy people invest their money in their house, which usually appreciates, not in their cars, which almost always depreciate. Also ask yourself, is this an impulse purchase, or a planned purchase? Am I being pressured to make an expenditure I am not sure about? The important thing here is to learn how to say no. “This offer is too good to refuse, you won’t get another opportunity like this one…” the answer should be no. Offers are rarely too good to refuse, and another opportunity may come along and be even better if you hold out, and keep an eye out. Take time to think over a purchase. Leave the store, and go and do something else. You may come back several times before you decide the expenditure is worth it, or not worth it. Also, never want anything so bad, you’ll give anything to get it.

ii. Second, believe that freedom and power are better than momentary pleasure. This means, delay gratification. Take into account how much the interest will cost you, before you make a purchase. Needs are different from wants, and wants can always be delayed. For example, if you rent an appliance rather than waiting to buy it, then a $60 appliance can cost you a couple hundred over time, because of the fees. Calculate it out, and don’t ever buy on impulse or because of being pressured by a sales person.

iii. Third, don’t equate money with happiness. Be grateful for what you have, because if you aren’t happy with what you have, more won’t make you any happier. In fact, more will only cause less happiness because of the increased load on the finances that purchasing more will place.

iv. Fourth, protect your nest egg. Purchase proper insurance. Purchase health insurance, home insurance, car insurance and life insurance. Make sure the plans are comprehensive and cover all health, and home problems. Hint, when buying home insurance, only insure the house. The ground it sits on shouldn’t be going anywhere. Those are all the millionaire mentality lessons. Following those mentality lessons helps to save in the margins.

5. The fifth and final lesson is probably the most important lesson of all. That is to give back. The wise wealthy man lives modestly, meets the needs of the family, gives regularly to worthy causes, and helps those who are less fortunate. It is important that this step not only be done when you finally achieve wealth, but is followed the entire time you are working your way to wealth. We are to love our brethren, and service, through sharing our wealth and our time, is love manifested.

Lessons from my Religions Classes

My world religions class is absolutely facinating. I am learning so much about worship and finding christ in all religions. I love the parallels that he draws between the doctrine of these other religions and the doctrine of the church. I especially love the idea taught that there is some truth in all religions and no person, organization or religion has ALL of the truth that is out there. The church has the part that is essential for salvation but there is an entire ocean of knowledge out there and the amount that we need to know to get us back to Heavenly father is an atom in the depths of a great ocean. So saying we have all the truth, isn't quite true. I also have been learning that the culture of a society can interfere with the teachings of the spirit. For example, western society is so caught up in obtaining material posessions, that the teachings of living simply are difficulty for many. Also western society is so busy being busy we forget to "be still and know that I am god". The eastern religion's meditation is focused on quieting the mind to be able to better become one with their gods. Should this not also be our goal? See what I mean about learning truth from other religions?

In my old testament class we were reading and discussing about the pre-existance in Abraham 3. My teacher pointed out a verse that had never really stuck out to me. He called it the big question. In verse 25 it says, "and we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things what so ever the lord their god shall command them." The big question to ask yourself every morning before you start your day, and every evening before you go to sleep, " Have I done everything the lord has commended me to do?" I think implicit in this is the idea that to know that we are doing everything that the lord has commanded, we also have to be in tune with the spirit. If we aren't in tune how do we know when we are being promted to obey the lords commandments?

Nylons!

OK, so I am officially fed up with nylons. You get a new pair, and even if they are really good quality, I can wear them like ten times, and then they run, and get ruined. I hate them, but I am told they are a part of respectful dress(ie I should wear them when going to church or other dedicated places).

So I of course looked up a list of things to do with nylons when they are worn out. Thanks to Yahoo-green here is a list of things I indend to do with my worn out nylons to make me feel better about having to keep buying nylons.

Nylons can:
· Tie up things, like plants that need to be staked.
· Filter old paint from one can into a new can. Just stretch the nylon across the top of the new can and pour the old paint through it. It will filter out lumps and dried paint.
· Store scraps of soap. Collect enough pieces, and tie the stocking off. It will made a good soap scrubber
· Protecting very small items, like handkerchiefs and doilies, in the washing machine and dryer (low temp). They may need ironing afterward, but lace trim and hem-stitching will be safe from the zippers and rivets of other clothes, and they won't find their way into the lint trap.
· Be made into sachets ... put in some lavender flowers, cedar chips, or your favorite potpourri; tie a knot; cut above the knot; repeat up the leg and then toss the little bundles in drawers, shoe boxes, the pockets of stored coats ... wherever.
· Remove cat hair from furniture. Pull the stocking over your hand, and wipe down your couches and chairs. It creates static and the hairs come right up.
· Find lost contact lenses, earrings, or other such tiny items. Put the stocking over the end of the vacuum hose and gently vacuum the area where the item was dropped.
· Repel deer and other animals from your garden. They hate the smell of humans, so you can use nylons with ivory soap staked in the garden to keep the deer away.
· Shine shoes like the best of them.
· "Scrub" silver, plexiglass, and other easily scratched surfaces.
· Store things like screws, nails, nuts, etc. Pour the items into the stocking, tie it off and hang it over a work table.
· Be attached to the discharge hose of your washing machine to catch lint before it goes down the drain and clogs pipes.
· Be pulled over a yardstick to dust under the fridge, washer, dryer, or under any hard to reach area.
· Be used like a bungee cord to tie things down. Keep an old pair in your car trunk.
· Become a pet toy -- for cats, fill the nylon foot with pieces of old fabric, then tie off the opening. Add a bit of catnip for an extra treat. For dogs, put a tennis ball in an old stocking and tie a knot.
· Apply varnish or finish in the hard-to-reach places where a brush won't fit.
· Keep kids warm -- on extra cold days, use clean old stockings as mitten liners for children. They are ideal because they can provide warmth at least up to the elbow.
· Keep kids entertained -- nylons can be used to make a crafty seed sprouting creature.
· Bind piles of newspapers and magazines. Cut the top of a pair of nylons off and voila! You have a large rubber band.
· Reduce your heating bill. Make a stocking snake to prevent drafts by filling the leg of a nylon with sand and tie the end shut. Place at the bottom of the door to prevent cold air from seeping inside.
· Haul around small toys, like action figures. This works great for road trips.
· Replace expensive stuffing in homemade pillows or dolls. When the stuffed toy wears out, you can take the nylons out and use them again.
· Protect shoes from scuffing while traveling. Store one shoe in each leg of the nylons.
· Create an outdoor hand-washing station. Put a bar of soap into an old nylon and tie it to an outdoor faucet. If you don’t have a convenient outdoor tap, an old laundry detergent container can be filled up with water. Tie the soap to the handle. You can use a hammer to poke a hole near the bottom of the container, and stick a golf tee inside to create a lower level of water flow. Now you can wash your hands after gardening, walking the dog, and playing or working outside.
· Be used to create a non-slip bar of soap for kids’ bath time. Put the bar of soap into the nylon, and tie off the edges. Cut off any tail. This makes the soap have better grip for kids.
· Be used as a disposable headband. Cut the nylon across the leg to create circles. In a pinch they can also be used as hair bands for ponytails.
· Be turned into an inexpensive softball that won't hurt kids or your furniture. Stuff an old stocking with other old pairs of nylons, and sew the top closed.
· Scrub your back when you can’t reach -- place a bar of soap in the middle of a stocking, and tie off both ends. Now you can grab each end of the stocking and seesaw your back clean.
· Help someone with a broken arm or leg get dressed. Cut the foot part off of a stocking, and stretch it over the cast. This nylon will keep clothing from getting caught on the cast.
· Make you rich quick -- go to a bank, pull the nylons over your head and ... um … maybe not. ;)

Ok Well not all of the uses, but the sprouting creature actually looks like fun and it is cute too.

Goals

In true me fassion, I would like to start my postings with a list of a few goals that I have been thinking, "I have got to get better at that".
1. Daily scripture study
2. Daily prayer
3. Preparation for classes sunday, RS, and sunday school
4. I need to make a list of topics I want to learn more about, so I can make an effort to learn about them.
5. Take better notes
6. Be better prepared for all meetings, "If you get nothing out of a meeting you must ask yourself what you took in."
7. Thirst after knowledge, not only religious, but secular as well
8. Be more cheerful when fulfilling callings
9. Serve as often as possible
10. Be more friendly

hmmm

While I was blog browsing I came across a blog, where in the author posted the things she had been learning, or doing that were enriching to her. I would like to do such a blog, that has not much to do with my own life as it is, but more as I would like my life to become. So this blog is dedicated to things that I have been learning, spiritual, physical and emotional, as well as things I would like to accomplish. I need something to plan for besides just getting a career. I need a wider focus, and I need to make a list of activities and other things I want to accomplish in my life.