100 Goals in 1000 Days

Today’s blog post is about the 100 Goals in 1000 Days blog itself. 

1. I’ve considered some changes to the structure of this site and will be implementing within the next 72 hours. The main shift will be occurring over the next few days so that each individual goal will be much easier to track. Instead of just having a single ‘update’ category (which worked well for the first few weeks), I’ll be adding a category for each of the 100 goals. This should streamline updates/tracking for both myself and readers. 

2. I am working on a new style for the blog, so it has a personality (and appear less generic). I believe I’ll be ready to roll that out in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

3. Also, if you have any suggestions on ways to improved this blog, please feel free to send them my way.

Goal 11b: This evening, I listened to Sonny Rollins. His album Saxophone Colossus, 50-plus years later, is an amazing classic. I will admit it is an old favorite. If you have never heard it, I highly suggest you change that soon. Rollins is now 77 and he still practices every day for a few hours, demonstrating his dedication to remain a master of his craft. 

Rollins performed at Carngie Hall on September 18, 2007 to celebrate his 50th anniversary of his very first performance there. Soon this concert will also be available on CD along with some recordings from the 1957 concert too. I’m looking forward to hearing that as well.    

Goal 89: As part of my efforts to try some more ‘exotic’ fruits, today I tried Durian. The smell and the taste are each a unique experience. I now understand why some call it the King of fruits. Brillaint!

However, do not take my word for it. Instead, I suggest you listen to Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer of Natural Selection, who claimed it is like “a rich custard highly flavoured with almonds.” In 1869, he published The Malay Archipelago a volume that detailed his travels which lead to his own formation of the now famous theory. Within this book, he described his first encounter with Durian:

“I slept that night in the village of the Sebungow Dyaks, and the next day reached Sarawak, passing through a most beautiful country, where limestone mountains with their fantastic forms and white precipices shot up on every side, draped and festooned with a luxuriant vegetation. The banks of the Sarawak River are everywhere covered with fruit trees, which supply the Dyaks with a great deal of their food. The Mangosteen, Lansat, Rambutan, Jack, Jambou, and Blimbing, are all abundant; but most abundant, and most esteemed is the Durian, a fruit about which very little is known in England, but which both by natives and Europeans in the Malay Archipelago is reckoned superior to all others. The old traveller Linschott, writing in 1599, says:- “It is of such an excellent taste that it surpasses in flavor all the other fruits of the world, according to those who have tasted it.” And Doctor Paludanus adds:- “This fruit is of a hot and humid nature. To those not used to it, it seems at first to smell like rotten onions, but immediately they have tasted it, they prefer it to all other food. The natives give it honorable titles, exalt it, and make verses on it.” When brought into a house the smell is often so offensive that some persons can never bear to taste it. This was my own case when I first tried it in Malacca, but in Borneo I found a ripe fruit on the ground, and, eating it out of doors, I at once became a confirmed Durian eater.” 

I at once became a confirmed Durian eater.

Goal 20: Have you ever bought a book that you really wanted to read and then promply ignored it? In 2002, did that with a book by Frank Ryan entitled Darwin’s Blind Spot: Evolution Beyond Natural Selection. It is about symbiosis and symbiogenesis, two biological topics that I’ve always found to be extremely engaging. In fact, I began reading it finally today and I was surprised. On the very first page of the Introduction, Frank starts by discussing the work of Kwang Jeon, a scientist I personally contacted in 1995 so I could get copies of about all his recent scientitific papers (before PDFs) on his amazing work concerning Amoeba Proteus and X-Bacteria. [Note: Jeon had discovered a case where two different species had begun to merge into a single living entity, probably via gene swapping, where each formally independent organism required the other in order to survive. He is now a Professor Emeritus at the University of Tennessee]. 

WOW. By the third paragraph, I was hooked. I will admit, I now regret not having read this book six years ago when I bought it. Nevertheless, I guess ‘better late than never’ is true as I spent about two hours reading it this morning.  

Goal 25: What is Snooker? It is game similar to billiards, a cue sport where the top professional players earn millions of pounds in the UK. If James Bond played pool, it would be Snooker, as it has a unique culture, style, terminology, and rules. Unlike American 8-ball, Snooker’s origins were within British Gentleman Clubs. As a result, players still don waistcoats during tournaments.

I’ve played a Snooker a few times on a modified table and was lucky enough to have played Snooker again this week in Middleton. I am still not good enough to play in a world-class championship; however, I do plan to become one of the best players in Wisconsin soon by the end of 2008. Wish me luck!

Goal 46: Root soup is something I’ve found I enjoy over the years and it is one of the winter holiday traditions at my parents. After studying a number of different recipes, I crafted my own version which I had for dinner this evening for the first time. Although I am biased, I believe this variant is quite good! So, tonight I’m posting my first vegetarian recipe, one that is fairly simple and requires no cooking. 

Cold Root Soup
3 cups fresh carrot juice
1 cup fresh parsnip juice
1 large avocado
handful of alfalfa sprouts cut into thirds
small sprig of parsley

1. Use a juicer to make the fresh carrot and parsnip juice.
2. Cut the avocado in half. Remove the seed and skin.
3. Place carrot juice, parsnip juice, and avocado in blender. Blend until creamy smooth.
4. Decorate the top of the soup with the sprouts and parsley.

This was meant to be served cold; however, if you have a Vita-Mix, you can blend it until warm as well. If you try this recipe. please let me know what you think.

Goal 20: Finished listening to Five Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner. This is a really great book and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in either child or adult education. Clearly, the traditional ‘three Rs’ will not be enough for anyone for anyone who wants to succeed in the 21st century.   

Goal 28: Worked on a new potential design for this tool: two different card decks and each of the 100 cards would emphasizing a different strategy. The 100 statagems are based are two Chinese books:

Deck One: Thirty-Six Stratagems
Deck Two: The Art of War

Goal 88: Created some new idea maps today of my current and active projects as a way to practice mind mapping.