1. Chop like a professional chef
You know what I’m talking about. With their bent knuckles and insanely fast chopping skills…. *envious*
*runs out to buy celery to practice*
2. Speak French
I’m workin’ on it!! But I still need time to absorb and start using French to translate what I’m saying in English in my head… But I’m embarassed to use it around real Frenchmen and Frenchwomen…
Accomplished: January 2010
4. Read all the books in my must-read pile
I only have about 4 or 5 in there, but I just haven’t sat down with it and really powered through them. I usually reach for my Anne Bishop or Sophie Kinsella…
Accomplished: January 2010
5. Use up and pare down my bathroom products even further
I could probably get rid of my B&B defrizz silicone liquid, or a bunch of other things, but it’s hard to pick and choose!
Update: Shampoo (Physique Conditioning Shampoo). That’s all I use on my hair now.
6. Clear my debt completely
I totally forgot about this one.
Soft goal date: Mar 2009.
Hard goal date: Dec 2009.
Accomplished: October 2007
7. Organize my photo albums
I have a ton of pictures.. I should either scan them in and/or organize what I have and toss the duplicates, as well as arrange them in the pretty silk-covered photo albums I bought specially for my VERY important photos.
Accomplished: March 2009
8. Learn how to stop criticizing myself
I’m really quite self-conscious at times. I want to just let go, and belt out a song in the middle of my office one day…
Update: Done! LOL
9. Become a better billards (pool) player
I really, really love the game. I’m just not very good at my angles and estimating where the ball will go and why.. but all that takes is practice.
10. Become more flexible
I’m going to get back into stretching every day and I’ll feel flexible enough when I can do the splits both ways (legs in front and side-by-side) 🙂
11. Learn how to censor myself
Sometimes I’ll just say whatever’s on my mind without thinking about who’s hearing it or is around me. That’s a really bad habit of mine, and I’m trying to be more quiet and reserved rather than such an open book.
Update: MUCH better at this. 🙂
12. Go scubadiving in a gorgeous coral reef
.. but only if it won’t disturb the sea animals and their habitat!!
13. Eat healthier
I really want to be careful about what I eat, but sometimes when chocolate is right in front of you, you just can’t help it.
Update: I bring my lunch every day as of Jan 2008, haven’t had (much) chocolate, and no fast food whatsoever.
14. Learn how to make my mom’s recipes
She made me all of these beautiful handwritten recipes in about 10 binders with pictures and photographs (I wish I wasn’t such a brat and had helped her type them out and/or organize them), but I haven’t even practiced many of them except for Chicken Pot Pie..
15. Learn how to play a Rachmaninoff Prelude on the piano
I can play the piano.. but I’ve never gotten a hold of a Rachmaninoff Prelude to play and practice.
16. Play J.S. Bach’s Double Violin Concerto on the violin
Again.. I have the music, I just haven’t touched my violin in a year or so (too hard to travel with it). I’d like to learn the First Violin and Second Violin parts.
17. To be able to chill out on a grassy knoll and relax
I mean completely relax. Nothing to do, nothing to see, no one to talk to, just staring up at the fluffy clouds and thinking about life.
Accomplished: October 21st 2007 😀
18. Learn how to sew
I have the sewing machine.. again, too hard to travel with one.
Update: Umm.. don’t have a machine any longer.
19. Start a garden
Need a house first, but I’ll be growing delicious herbs to start!
20. Get back into designing and playing with graphic images
Those hours were probably the happiest of my life. In fact, I may do one right after this list.
21. Apologize to my exes
I’m sure I wronged a lot of them. I’d like to see them today and bury the hatchets, so to speak… And to really tell them why I broke up with them and/or hear why they broke up with me.
Accomplished: August 2010
22. Start a scholarship fund
This is when I’m older. I’d like to do something like give $5000 to a deserving student each year, to reciprocate for all of the scholarships I was given as a student.
23. Start a non-profit organization teaching personal finance
Once I settle in a city, any city, I’d love to either hold night classes, and/or individually help people learn how to budget, organize their finances, and pay down their debt.
24. Read the newspaper back to back everyday
I think I’ll start doing this on Monday.
Accomplished: November 5th 2007 for a week in a row, and going.
25. Improve my handwriting
I’m such a typer… I haven’t handwritten anything long in ages. It’s also because I’m embarassed about how awful my writing is.
So bloggers and readers, what are the 25 things you’d like to do?
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
Leslie: No way! Go for all 101! maybe once I’m done my 25, I’ll sit down and do a 101 list… like you 🙂
This is a good list, and not silly at all! Now I’m beginning to wonder if I overestimated my ability to get things done with my 101 things. But some of them are really easy things that have just been put off forever.
Lady N: I’m definitely thinking about it as being a real option for later, as something to do on the side because it’s something I really am quite passionate about. I’m working on converting my co-workers over to my point of view 😉
Juicefary: You know what.. I heard that if you went on a BIG cruise boat (a huge huge huge one), you don’t even feel the motion of the ocean (hee hee) because it’s so properly balanced/leveled.
I get some ridiculous motion sickness (I woke up one morning with motion sickness just from SLEEPING on a bed – I think I was dreaming about something), and I do OK on the water in a boat as long as I keep my attention focused on the water, and not on the boat..
Or try Meg’s advice and smell peppermint oil 😉
wow. A lot of these are things that I want to do as well. I actually asked for a sewing machine for my birthday.
My boyfriend and I both get motion sickness really bad and we always say how great it would be to do a cruise. They are inexpensive, you get to pig out and you don’t have to do any of the driving yourself. It would be great …if it wasn’t for that pesky nausea.
Great list! You should definitely do the non-profit one and teach personal finances! I have met a lot of people who do not know the basics of being financially responsible because it isn’t really taught in schools.
WOW.. Soi, you are way more ambitious and well rounded than I could ever hope to be.
All I wanted to do was lie on a grassy knoll and watch the clouds float by….. 😉
As for my hair, I only use shampoo and conditioner….
hm, i posted before but it didn’t go through…lol
1. become fluent in German and spanish, and learn Chinese. That will make by sex-lingual!
2. learn to cook better. I’m an awesome baker (esp. carrot-spice cakes, any cookies, and german chocolate cake)
3. save up at least $4000 by the time I graduate high school so i have spending money for college.
4. learn the dvorak and elgar cello concertos.
5. start crocheting again. then i can make my own scarf rather than buying one for $50. 😀
6. eat healthier. i’m a high school student. enough said. lol
7. become self- confident.
8. Read more russian novels.
9. Go to Spain, Italy (Rome), Egypt, and Mexico.
10. Go to a great college and grad school and become a kick-ass lawyer
11. Think before I speak
12. Learn to sew w/ a machine.
13. Actually buy a sewing machine.
14. Learn how to use technology. i’m hopeless..lol
15. Read the NY Times every day.
16. Buy jeans. That fit.
17. Donate more money to charity.
18. Use just 5 products for my hair. I want to use shampoo, conditioner, leave in conditioner, deep conditioner, hair gel. And nothing else.
19. find a store that sells size 4 1/2 shoes at a decent price.
20. Cut down on coffee to just 2 cups a day. And cut down on tea too- i drink 5-6 a day! O_O
21. Become more outgoing. I’m way too uptight and stressed.
22. Live in Korea again. I miss it…
23. Be nicer to everyone. No matter what my mood is.
24. Love my family more (if possible). And TELL them I love them more often.
25. Live a long, happy, full life 😀
Val: Thanks 🙂 The only one I’m hesitant on would be apologizing to my exes as I haven’t seen them in years!
Great list. Lucky for you, they’re all very attainable goals. I can see you doing each one of them!
Laura: I love your list!! My friend wants to be a wedding consultant too 🙂 I think we should all make a pact to do at least one of those things on our list this month lol 🙂
Meg: Well.. mom in law, mom, same 🙂 Learning from someone much wiser and more experienced than I..
Wow! Your list could almost be mine! I’m not that big into scuba diving, though, and I can’t think of any of my mom’s recipes that I’d really want to learn that I haven’t already (my mom-in-law’s cooking is a different story, though).
What a great post. Here are some of mine. I wonder if I’ll come up with 25…
1. Try a new recipe at least once a month.
2. Grow a garden with fresh herbs and lots of pretty flowers (good one. I want to do this too!)
3. Take a photography course. Which should be preceded by…
4. Save up and buy a good quality digital camera worthy of a photography class.
5. Also, save up and buy a new laptop.
6. Become good enough at salsa dancing that I would feel confident dancing with any guy, not just my fiance (don’t misinterpret that! That means I would be good enough that I could follow anyone’s lead, instead of just the guy who knows what moves I can do and what I can’t.)
7. Be a stay-at-home mom. S’pose I need kids for that one, but anyway… one day!
8. Get a piece of writing published in a magazine.
9. Become a freelance wedding consultant.
10. Go ziptrekking.
11. Go skydiving.
12. Go to Italy and Paris.
13. Start a no-kill, free-run animal shelter plus overnight doggy daycare. Profits from doggy daycare would help finance the animal shelter charity portion.
14. Buy a house.
15. Learn to listen to my body about what I really want to eat instead of what’s convenient, and stop eating when I’m full.
16. Learn to do floral design.
17. Learn some basic graphic design.
18. Go to yoga at least twice a week. STARTING THIS WEEK!!
19. Organize our storage rooms into something other than a jumbled pile on the floor.
20. Build up at least 3 months’ living expenses in my emergency fund.
21. Lose 15 pounds and keep it off.
22. Go on a vacation where I get to stay in one of those little cabana huts.
23. Learn how to change a tire and change the oil in my car by myself.
24. Beat my fiance at Tetris.
25. Start a freelance wedding consulting business.
Hey look at me go, that’s a full 25.
Mrs. Micah: ANY time 🙂 We can definitely play the Bach Double together…. my fingers aren’t quick enough yet, but we can do it lentement 😉
We should start conversing in French…
1. I want to chop like a chef as well. I’m getting better, with my awesome knife-of-chopping-vegetables.
2. I need to brush up on my French and learn more Spanish.
4. Ha. I’ll never finish all the books I have left.
6. Amen.
8. Indeed.
10. I have a free tai chi video that I really want to get into…
11. Me too. *sigh* It can be quite embarrassing.
15. Rachmaninoff–very nice.
16. Ooh, can we play the Bach Double together? I’d have to brush up but it would be great to play it with someone!
25. Yeah, I’m not good with handwriting either.
So those are some of my related 25. 🙂