To don't list
 

Okay, so what's been on your list of things to get around to for so long that you wonder if you will ever actually do it?

1) New watch battery. Died a couple months ago, all it needs is a new battery. But for some reason I haven't done it. Probably because it also needs the crystal polished or replaced and I don't want to pay for that as well

2) Try to recover stuff from my in-laws' old dead computer. It stopped booting a couple years ago. I told them I'd pull out the hard drive and see what I could get off of it. Been sitting in our living room ever since.

1) New watch batteries. They've been sitting in the drawer at work for months.

2) Get a smaller storage unit. God I hate that idea. Feels too much like moving.

3) Get my child a reptile. (If I put it on the list, can I avoid it?)

4) Replace my car. Yeah, this saga really started years ago. its just in power mode now.

5) I know what five is. If you do, great. If you dont, all the better for you. :snap:

My to-do list IS a to-don't list. :(

Today I've been maniacally writing things down in an attempt to scare myself into actually doing some of them tonight.

What he said.

Lol! She beat me to it!

I need to hose out the Girl's ex-bedroom, and turn it into a guest room/sanctuary for moi. I have great plans, first and foremost getting rid of the Pepto-Bismal pink.

I also need watch batteries - and FYI Watch Shop on Main Stree in Disneyland, doesn't carry watch batteries. Which I found quite odd.

What he said, and...

I gotta remember to get my bike one of these days.
Ummm..

I know there's so much else to do... don't. Whatever.

Yeah, write a short story.

Failure to put new batteries into my current watch is the principle cause of me buying a new watch every couple of years.

I currently have about 15 perfectly functional watches in a jar except for lack of a battery.

When it comes to watches I am in the same boat except it's the wristbands, not the batteries I need to replace(or did; I imagine if I were to go look at all those watches now most of them would also have dead batteries too).

I rented 'North Country' twice and returned it without watching it. I don't think I'll ever see it. I'm just kind of meh about it...

I recently actually did one of the things I'd been putting off...so I'll have to revise the list.

Lately I've been putting off cleaning up and organizing what should be my office so that I can use it. it would be so helpful to have it functional, yet I do nothing about it.

• Make Kitchen and Bathroom curtains

• Clean out storage unit and move stuff to garage

• Clean out garage

• Hang art is hallway

• Paint/decprate office

I'd better stop before I get depressed.

For some reason, this thread has got the Chicago song, "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" playing in my head :)

My list is probably longer than Santa's. The days just fly too quickly sometimes.

Hmm, maybe that means that Borneo is around. :)

1) I love that my cell phone replaced my wristwatch ages ago. No more never getting around to replacing the batteries and the bands.

2) North Country was a terrific movie. Maybe 3rd time's the charm.

3) My To-Don't list project is anachronistically putting my last batch of actual pre-digital, printed photos ranging from 7-5 years ago into photo albums. If you've seen my photo albums, you'd know that they are pretty elaborate affairs - - as I think viewing photos one at a time is kinda bland, and prefer to stage an exciting layout where the eye can wander, take in the whole thing, and then focus on individual photographs as desired. Digital photos changed all that ... and I'm trying to compensate by creating musical slideshows. Alas, my various computer projects have taken precedence ... and I fear I may never get those last two years' worth of hard-copy photos into beautiful and interesting albums. Le Sigh.

I've actually been knocking quite a few things off my to do list, but a few items remain:

• Fix the latch on the Kitchen Cabinet
• Clean the garage out
• Fix the Garage door
• Make a Dentist appointment
• Schedule surgery
• Scan the rest of my slides
• Rip our vinyl

Getting a new watch battery has been at the top of my list forever. I should probably take it off since I don't like to wear a watch and I've done without one for so long. But it's a Mickey Mouse watch so I hate to give up on it.

As for the rest of my list...I don't want to think about it.:(

I actually made a 42-item home improvement to-do list a few weeks ago. So far I've done #19 and part of #20.

That's what I've been doing in the intervening months...and I hate it. I'm a pretty obsessive time-checker and pulling my phone out of my pocket all day gets tiresome.

3) Get 2nd half of Paris trip and Coachella photos online.

I have about 40 legal-page long "to-do" lists...I've been saving them forever. It's fun to look back at the early stuff that got accidentally done or dropped off due to some cosmic expiration date. My current lists all look like fires that need putting out. It's 10:40 and I just sent an emergency fax to Ireland...that should give you some clue. But I wouldn't want it any other way...I'm the kid who wrote 12-page term papers (complete with fake "rough drafts") at 5 am the day they were due in HS... I LIVE for ze pressure. Oh. yah. :rolleyes:



Oh, and watches? Disposable things. Wear until battery dies. Keep (maybe because it's a Yoda watch) or toss. Replace. Repeat. :) Keeps that kinda stuff offa lists. Makes room for Storage Unit issues! LOL...

It wasn't just me?! I edit as I write, and none of my classes were worth really editing for, so I had to fake the drafts. Did you ever have to fake the "pre-writing"? I do NOT think in cloud maps!

For me, watches are the only form of jewelry I wear. If it was simply a matter of practicality I would have long ago switched to a digital monstrosity rather than the sleek simple things I prefer. For me the ideal watch is thin, has two simple hands and absolutely nothing else on its face. No second hand, no date, no numbers to help you read the time. Just two hands flowing in eternal circles. I'm an obsessive time checker as well, but knowing the time to within a couple minutes is good enough for me. Watches are for the pretty, and they have just enough practical value for me to accept them anyway.

I've actually been pretty good about getting to my to-do stuff the last few weeks. But after a few months of ignoring it it was pretty long. I do need to buy curtains for the living room. And I should get around to hanging the art that has been sitting on the floor in the bedroom since we moved in a 15 months ago.

I just turned in the final drafts and essentially told them to go screw themselves (though more politely) on the make-work pre-writing stuff. Still managed to get through high school (I also never turned in more than a half-dozen homework assignments in four years and rarely read books before writing papers about them; parents, don't let me near your kids with advice on how to get through school).

Oh, I always faked the rough drafts and brainstorming crap. No way my brain worked liked that. My best writing was always after midnight on the final night.

The truly sad thing is - even now they're teaching cloud mapping in school. To me! As in, take this mandatory workshop on brainstorming and show us your work. And as a requirement for participation in various groups I've now had to take that workshop TWICE! Sometimes I honestly feel like shouting at them: Do I look like I'm having a problem with my writing?!!? I'm an adult. I know what works for me. Cloud maps and timed "free writes" do not work. Doing it my way has been working gangbusters, so I think I'll not go mucking around with the system, thank you very much! (froth, froth).

In other news,
A bunch of my current unattended to items are intended to prep our place for sale sometime after graduation. (Assuming I score a better-paying job at that point, and that the market hasn't tanked by then.) So far, after 2 years, similar units are selling for almost 50% more than we paid for ours. So we're playing the fix-up game to try to maximize our profit and hopefully score a yard with the next move.

Meanwhile, there's this stupid list....

Yeah, I know... I've thought of it more than once. I've told him that I have friends who would help him out.
And he's after a snake, turtle or dragon.
More in a pm.

This is me exactly, except add sleeping through most classes to the mix. This was only enough effort for me to get a B in most classes, but because I was in AP classes they were weighted so I still ended up with a 4.0. I hope my kids have a better work ethic than I. My to do list is pretty intimidating.

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

Did you guess which thing was not like the others?
Did you guess which thing just doesn't belong?
If you guessed this one is not like the others,
Then you're absolutely...right!

Care to elaborate on the one that's not like the others?

Sort out our basement. We have boxes and boxes of stuff down there that I know we could get rid of or sell. But we'll probably just forget about it until we move again in a year or so...
:D

Sleep through class so teacher doesn't confuse me
do every other homework assignment, if that
work on reports only at the last minute
bullsht because I only read half of the book
pass tests with As and Bs
end up with Cs on my report card due to missing homework/reports

That was high school for me, for the most part. I really hope I can inspire my kids to care more than I did - if I had tried I could easily have gotten straight As and received scholarships, I know it.

To-Do List: Go back in time

I am the poster child for getting As with a minimum of effort. I am an Extremely Bad Role Model.

My justification is that producing work under pressure is a better simulation of the actual workforce environment. Yeah, that's the ticket...

My kids have my work ethic. They lounge about being as headonistic as possible and take aftenoon naps.

Count me in with the first draft/last draft crowd. It just seemed like such a waste of time to do so many drafts. I'd get up at around 4AM the morning the paper was due and type it out. I'd get a B+ (mostly because the teacher knew I did it that morning) and my friends who had done a billion drafts, had conferences with the teacher would get an A-. It just didn't seem like it was worth all the work for a half a grade point.

I do one draft. I take my time, however. I'm not a late-night cramer, but, when I'm done, I'm DONE. Get it out of my site.

I don't understand cloud mapping, or this business about drafts in school. I, like everyone else wiated till the last minute - I'm not sure that was the best way to work, but it certainly was the way I used to work.

I sometimes wish I could go back and write in the style I've aquired in my working life, much more effective I think than the trite formulaic thesis statement-body-conclusion drumed into my head in my hiugh school days.

Today though, all I write is really just a draft - passing from person to person honed and edited here and there and I'm fine with that. I also do a lot of brainstorming but that's a collaborative tool more than something I do on my own.

I have a hernia, that eventually I'll have to take care of - probably better sooner than later, but first there some blood work and tests to get out of the way. Getting old sucks.

He has a hernia. I'm getting a brain MRI done on Friday. I guess it is time to rule out a brain tumor. hehehe!

My sister would be so jealous. She's a bit of a hypochondriac, and has always wanted an MRI. Didn't help that a doctor she went to one time told her that many people have brain tumors, but they are too small to bother them.

GREAT! I really don't WANT a brain tumor. I just want my face to stop twitching.

You said a mouthful there, partner.

Yes.

But the alternative is worse.

LOL Read my mind, why doncha!

Rob's To Don't list
 

• Put a 9V battery in my bedside alarm-clock so I don't have to reset it every time we get a blackout.
• Clean and line the kitchen cupboards & pantry shelves
• replace the range hood light
• replace all the light globes in the house with power-saving ones.
• remove the "whatever-it-is-in-the-tupperware-container-in-the-back-of-the-fridge" from the fridge and throw that whole thing away. I will not open the tupperware container to try and save it.
• throw away the collection of twist-ties I have kept for years just in case they come in handy
• spend a day in a disney park without bursting into tears from sheer happiness at least once.

:D

I have a feeling that many on this board (myself included) fit into a similar category.

My school gave not only a letter grade, but "Work Habits" and "Cooperation" grades as well: in the form of E (excellent), S( satisfactory), or U (unsatisfactory). I got a lot of AUU's and ASS's (the latter was probably retribution from the teachers).

Ooh... I recently replaced the light that has ben burned out in the refrigerator for 6-7 years!

But it wasn't really burned out.... it switched on everytime you closed the fridge door. :)

Come to California and spend a day at DCA, you might burst into tears for entirely different reasons :p

You mean because now that they've taken Wonderland away from Sydney, we don't have ANY amusement parks in Sydney at all ?

Count your blessings.

PS: I still love California screaming, so there. Neener Neener. :D

I recently replaced a night-light bulb. It was very exciting. It was almost as exciting as putting a 9V battery in an alarm clock.

A few years ago my watches all died for one reason or another. A battery died on one, a SOLAR battery died on another, and the strap broke on yet another. I did without for a while until I got another watch. I really should have that first one fixed, though. That's a nice DLR watch. It never occurred to me to put all these broken watches in a jar. I may put that on my to-do list.

This thread totally inspired me the other day. Upon reading it, I decided to kill my don't list. I wrote out my don't list of things I have been putting off around the house and did several of them this weekend.
I planned out my Saturday and Sunday and had one of the most productive weekends ever.
A little elf named Ralphie helped me, too. :)

Meanwhile, I've had a few fun, indulgent things added to my to-do list, which of course just continues to delay my to-don't list.

One I've decided to add to my to-don't list is re-learn to play the piano. As a kid, I was semi-proficient. No prodigy by a long shot, mind you, but I could reasonably read a sheet of music and produce the desired song. But I quit 'cause I didn't like my teacher, and now I regret it.

I started making my list, and it's scary long. (I'm leaving off the watches for now.)

One item does involve watching DVD's. I may start there.

You organised people make me sick ! :p


Was it a Disney night light ?

Nope, it's a fish. With stylish seaweed behind it. I'll send you a photo of it if you think it'll inspire you.

Please Do !

(I've missed you :snap: )

A few steps forward, and a few steps back...

1. New Watch Battery
1b. Send watch to manufacturer to replace the glass
2. Recover in-laws' computer data
3. Paris and Coachella photos online
4. Clean spare bedroom/closet
5. Backup music and photos onto external hard drive
6. Deal with perilous pile of board games in hall closet
7. Relearn piano

My to don't list was pretty much finished off today.

I...

went grocery shopping
did laundry and put laundry away
cleaned entire house
washed car
cleaned out car
put away random stuff

All that is left is buying photo frames for the Shag 50th stuff I bought on the 51st and frames for some other stuff.

Been having a better time lately with my to-don't list. On my days off from work I've been good, taking my car in to be fixed, doing handwash laundry, cleaned out my closet, things like that. Hmm, what should I knock out Monday morning before I work at noon?

1. Wash car
2. Deal with board games
3. Write something

There's always
4. Finish Wind-Up Bird ;)

Whee! Three weeks to work on my to-don't list! Where shall I start?

Throw away/sell/donate belongings I pack rat for no reason whatsoever.

My to don't list is getting longer by the day as my ability to function in the heat is depleted.