47 Days until My Birthday

I just had the realisation that today, April 21, is 47 days until my birthday.

1. Finish this list!

This is always the best way to start off any to-do list. That way, once you are done, you can cross something off right away!

2. Finish watching Pachinko

We’ve only got one more episode of this Apple+ TV series from a couple of years ago to watch, so this shouldn’t be hard. If you haven’t seen this show about Koreans living in Japan over multiple generations, it’s certainly worth a look. It also sports one of my favorite opening credit sequences of all time. If there’s a good thing that the rise of streaming services has given us, its the return of opening credit sequences!

3. Cancel Apple TV+

I can do this once we’ve finished Pachinko! It’s not that I don’t like Apple TV+…it’s just that there’s nothing else on the show we’re currently watching and we could stand to trim back on our streaming services. At least, until the next season of Severance, Slow Horses or Pachinko comes along.

4. Watch as much of Star Trek: Discovery season 5 as is out by then

I’m actually not the biggest fan of Discovery, even though I am a big fan of Star Trek. It ranks as either the least favorite or second-least favorite Star Trek series of all time for me (only Picard threatens to be lower; and the only reason Picard even has a chance of beating Discovery is because of Picard’s comparatively decent third year). But still, it’s Star Trek, and so far I’ll still watch anything that they put out. The episode I’m currently in the middle of (Face the Strange) has even been pretty fun so far.

A quick scan of Wikipedia tells me that the entirety of the last season of Discovery will be out before my birthday, so I guess that means I plan to watch the entire thing.

5. Watch as much of the new season of Doctor Who that is out by then

Doctor Who has long been my favorite show, and even though I’ve been pretty disappointing by its output over the last few years, I’m still looking forward to the new season which kicks off in May. The trailer looks pretty good and there’s even an episode by Steven Moffat. Another quick scan of Wikipedia tells me that the first five (of eight) episodes will be out by then, so I guess that’s the plan.

6. Eat some Keto-friendly cake

I’ve been eating mostly Keto (low carb) lately in an effort to not let my potential diabetes issues get out of control. My wife and I have recently chatted about the potential of a keto-friendly cake that she could make for my birthday, which would be a nice treat.

7. Go to the Doctor

I know that doesn’t sound like something nice, but I’m actually looking forward to seeing my doctor and getting my bloods checked, to see where things are at with my sugar and my cholesterol (related to the same health concerns as mentioned above). I’m hopeful for positive news, but even if it isn’t all good, I’m still interested in knowing where things are at.

8. Play a game of Sentinels of the Multiverse: OblivAeon

Sentinels of the Multiverse is a table-top game that my daughters and I enjoy in which you fight comic book-style battles between superheroes and villains. OblivAeon is an expansion on the game which simulates a cosmic battle in the manner of Crisis on Infinite Earths and the like. My daughters and I have only played the game a couple of times because it’s such a mammoth undertaking. I think I’d like to have a go at it as we approach my birthday.

9. Complete my “Plot Casting Story Design Workshop”

I’m taking a screenwriting workshop from LA-based script consultant and teacher Corey Mandell, the third of three programs which have all been really amazing. This one ends a few days before my birthday, so one of my goals for this time is to do all I can to put in the work that will allow me to learn as much as possible from this program.

10. Go to Thailand…maybe

Or at the very least, decide if I’m going to Thailand. I was invited to attend some meetings with an international team that I’m part of, and I have to decide if I’m going to go. If I do, it’ll be in the last week of May, before my birthday.

11. Kick off a Training and Education Seminar

This is a short program that I’m actually leading at the missions organisation that I’m part of. It won’t be over before my birthday, but it will be underway.

12. Attend a Leader’s input time

This is something else happening at my missions organisation, for all of us who have been carrying leadership for some time. It’s a week-long series of meeting that starts in a couple of weeks, so it’ll all take place before my birthday.

13. Work on Doug Three: Doug Two

The third Doug film is in development! What’s a Doug film? See here and here. We’re planning on working on it soon. And yes, that really is the title.

14. Finish my current-year movie-watching goals

Starting here, I’ve had a goal of watching 54 movies (because I’m turning 54) in this current year of my life, at a rate of 4-5 movies each month. I’m on track so far, so hopefully there’s no reason to drop the ball at this point. A little bit more challenging is keeping up with blogging about each one, but with grit and determination, we’ll get there!

15. Cook Chicken Parmigiana

I mostly cook so that I can eat things that I like, and one of my favorite things is Chicken Parmigiana (American style!) I’ve got no specific plans to make it right now, but it’s a fair bet it’ll be something I do either leading up to my birthday or as part of the celebrations.

16. Eat a burger!

I like burgers. Let’s make it happen!

17. Play some sort of Mystery Game

I love Mystery Games. Lately my friends Rod, Michelle and Anne and I have been getting together every once and a while and playing these “Cold Case” style games where you look over clues for some fake mystery and try to put together what happened. I brought one back with me from the United States so I’m going to go out on a limb here and say we’ll play it in the next 47+ days.

18. Work on my Mystery Game

Similar to the above, except that this is a game my friend Rod and I are actually designing and writing together. It’s been slow going, but as long as it’s still moving forward, I’m pleased.

19. Single-parent it for a little while

My kids are not too young anymore (my youngest just turned 18!) so taking care of them when my wife is away isn’t too big a deal. But there is still driving around and general looking after to be done. My wife will be gone for a few days at least this coming week, and possibly for 1-2 weeks in May as well. so during that time, I’ll have some extra stuff to take care of at home.

Actually, looking after my pets and plants almost takes more energy when my wife is away than looking after my kids.

20. Welcome some house-guests

A good friend and her son, also a good friend, are coming to visit us for a short time from Indonesia. The good friend is my wife’s former roommate, and it’s because she’s coming that my wife is taking the short trip that is mentioned above. But even though most of their visit will consist of this trip-within-the-trip, some of it will be spent at my house, which will be nice.

21. Mother’s Day

Speaking of my wife, Mother’s Day fall into this 47 day window. It’s on May 12. No idea what we’ll do yet, but it will surely be something (unless she’s away, of course, but then we’d just be doing something earlier or later instead).

22. Drink some coffee

Actually, I do this almost every day, but whatever, I’m coming up with 47 things, it’s something that I like, so I’m including it.

23. Advance on The Expanse

The latest science fiction show that I’ve been making my way through for the first time is The Expanse. I got up to the fourth season of it before I took a pause, but I’d like to keep going at some point.

24. Advance on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

This is a very different show from The Expanse, but also very good or better, and certainly funnier. I was watching it on my own originally but now much of the family has picked up on it, so we’re still pushing forward when we get the chance. Currently in the middle of the third season. The show’s star, Rachel Brosnahan is soon playing Lois Lane in what we hope will be the greatest Superman movie ever, so it’s fun to get to “know her” in advance in Mrs. Maisel.

25. Advance on Daredevil

That’s right, the old Netflix superhero show which has now been relocated to Disney+. It’s something I watch with one of my daughters, one who will be around during that “single parenting” stint that I mentioned above, so we’re planning on watching some of it. Currently in the second season.

26. Advance on The Clone Wars

After we finished watching Avatar: The Last Airbender, my daughters wanted to introduce me to another one of their favorite shows (that’s how I ended up watching Avatar; they begged me to watch it and so finally I did). The Clone Wars narrowly beat out Duck Tails, but only because they’d watched Duck Tails more recently. So far we’ve only watched a handful of episodes, which means we’re apparently not into the “good stuff” yet, or at least not into the best stuff. But so far I find it at least diverting.

27. Advance on Star Trek: The Next Generation

In our long-term mission to watch all, or at least most, of Star Trek, those same daughters and I are now going through Next Generation (we’ve previously viewed Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Strange New Worlds, Picard, Lower Decks and Prodigy, and one of them has also watched The Animated Series with me. Anyway, we’re in the second season of Next Generation, a time when the show hadn’t quite hit its stride yet but you can see it coming. However, this also means we’ve just watched the terrible Up the Long Ladder, and we have the lamentably dull Shades of Gray approaching fast.

28. Advance, at least a little bit, on Quantum Leap

I’ve been blogging my way through this show for ages. I like it, but for some reason it’s been really slow going. I’m in Season Five now (the show’s last year), so there’s not that far to go, but I’ll never get there if I don’t actually watch an episode now and again.

Seems like a lot of TV, I guess, but there you go, that’s a big part of my recreation.

29. Finish reading The Last Dragonslayer

Actually, I’ve read this funny young adult fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde already, but I’ve been reading it to my daughters for fun. It’s been a while since we had time for it, but hopefully the next 47 days will provide the chance.

30. Get Red Side Story

This is Jaspar Fforde’s latest novel, the sequel to his color vision-based dystopia Shades of Grey (no, not the notorious one). Fforde is my favorite author, and so a new novel by him is a treat for me. It wasn’t out when I was in America or I’d have picked it up there, but it is out in Australia, so my birthday is the perfect opportunity to get it.

31. Get a file cabinet

Last August, we moved from our rental house to a house we own, which was a big exciting step forward in life. In the process, we decided that our existing file cabinets were not going to survive the transition, so they went into the trash. But we haven’t replaced them since, so our files have remained in a bunch of boxes in our shed. It’s not a big deal, and maybe evidence that actually none of them really matter, but I’d still like to get that taken care of.

32. Teach on the Families In Missions school

This is a training program that we run in my missions community. I’m doing just a day of teaching late in May to several young families that we alongside, giving input on marriage and family. I like teaching in these sorts of settings, so I’m hoping for a fun time.

33. My Birthday Table

At our missions community, a standard part of the fun is that we get a special table set up at our community dinners to celebrate people’s birthdays. We get to invite our friends, people sing for us, and in general it’s a nice part of the process.

34. “Dinner at Homes”

This is just a simple event in our missions community, in which everyone will be invited to gather together in different people’s homes for dinner. We live a bit further away than most people, so it might be that we go to someone else’s house rather than anyone coming to ours. We’d welcome people over but if we eat elsewhere that will also be fun.

35. Day of Worship & Prayer

Occasionally in the missions community that I’m part of, we take a day out to have a special focused day of worship and prayer. One of those is happening in May. Should be great!

36. Finish reading Superman: The Man of Steel vol 3

I bought a bunch of comics in the USA last March, and it’s likely that I will read them all by the time my birthday rolls around (and maybe I get some more comics, we’ll see). One of these is a hardcover collection of John Byrne’s Superman run, The Man of Steel vol. 3. I don’t have the hardcovers for vol. 1 or 2, but I picked this one up randomly while at the New York comic shop.

37. Finish reading Superman’s Greatest Team-Ups

Another comic that I acquired in New York, this is hardcover “best of” collection of stories from DC Comics Presents from the 70s and 80s. I’m almost done with it, but there is still one more story to go.

38. Finish reading Batman / Superman World’s Finest Volume 3: Elemental

Mark Waid’s standalone Superman / Batman series is a real treat to read, and so when the opportunity to pick up the third volume presented itself in New York, I jumped on it.

39. Read The Green Lantern vol. 2 – The Days the Stars Fell

I got the first volume of this Green Lantern series from Grant Morrison a long time ago (read about it here) and ever since then when I’ve extra comic money to spend, I’ve never found the follow-up…until now. And it’s funny, in that post I linked to above, I comment that I probably won’t bother to buy the follow-up book, but now I see that I was wrong, because I have bought it and now plan on reading it.

40. Finish up Two Cups of Tea

This is a super-short film that I directed not long ago, about parents arguing about how to discipline their teenaged daughter (you know, write what you know!) It’s almost done, but there is some work to be done it still (including work that needs to be done by others), but it’s definitely something I want to see done in the next 47 days.

41. Get a pencil case

A pretty small goal, I know, but lately I’ve found myself carrying around a lot of pencils and pens for various purposes. I should get a pencil case. And it’s almost my birthday, so it’s the perfect opportunity!

42. Go to church

We don’t go to church every Sunday, but surely in the next 6.714286 weeks we’ll get there a couple of times.

43. Ministry Circle

This is group of people I work with in our missions community, for whom I help to lead a fortnightly meeting which involves teaching, prayer, and pastoral support. We’ve got two meetings in the next 47 days which I will help to organise and run.

44. Read some of my daughter’s dinosaur book with her

My youngest daughter is a big fan of dinosaurs, and has a big dinosaur book that she enjoys reading, and that she enjoys reading with others. She’s basically an adult now, but it’s still something she likes, so we’ve got to take the opportunity while we can.

45. Talk to my Mom

My mother (and my aunt) are back in New York. Hopefully, I will talk to her more than once in the next 47 days, but it will presumably especially happen for my birthday.

46. Hang out with some dudes

I don’t know what sort of personal celebrations I will engage in for my birthday, but I’d certainly expect that some portion of it will involve hanging out some of my local friends and playing a game or something.

47. Family Dinner

Birthdays and the like are always a good opportunity for me and my wife and my girls to have a nice dinner together. Beyond what I might cook myself (see especially #15 above), we might have a nice time eating Chinese, or Thai, or something like that. Either way, it’s always nice to spend that time with some of the people I love the most.

And that is that! Got this post whipped out! That means I’ve already done #1.

#winningatlife!