Plans for 2009: Update

In part inspired by this post by Bre Pettis on the Cult of Done, I'm checking back in on the things I wanted to get myself to work on this year and seeing how far I've gotten with 1/6 of the year gone already...

Making stuff:

cooking:
-goal: "been trying to really cook at least one real meal (not pizza rolls) every week"
-status: fail. still find it hard to prepare real food very often.

bread:
-goal: "been keeping one sourdough alive, want to start another one (or two)"
-status: started up a second sourdough starter; made bread with it once. i need more practice.

beer:
-goal: "made beer once, want to try it again"
-status: haven't made beer, but i've made a lot of root beer: http://davemenninger.blogspot.com/2009/02/homemade-root-beer.html

cheese:
-goal: "not huge into dairy, but find cheese-making to be as fascinating as bread and beer making"
-status: fail. haven't made any cheese yet. did join the cheesemakers mailing list though. http://groups.google.com/group/cheesemakers?hl=en

gardening:
-goal: "want to get my hydroponics rig going again and also start a real outside garden if someone will let me use their land"
-status: haven't grown a thing yet. there is still time to make a plan before it gets too late.

local food:
-goal: "been a member of the cincilocavore mailing list and loving it; want to make more of that"
-status: been thinking a lot about this one. i've been putting feelers out about some sort of alternative distribution project, and that may go in some interesting directions. very exciting. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CinciLocavore/

bison:
-goal: "visit a bison farm and maybe get some bison meat; bison are so awesome"
-status: need to find a boring weekend to go out and visit some bison. put it on the calendar. http://www.vistagrandranch.com/

CSA:
-goal: "maybe join a CSA (or herdshare)"
-status: fail. haven't joined anything, but i have been thinking a lot about this. http://davemenninger.blogspot.com/2009/03/cincinnati-local-food-distribution.html

farmers' markets:
-goal: "visit these more regularly despite not being very close to one"
-status: fail. only visited one market one time this year (at pea pod cafe). i will definitely try and visit more often when the move up the street to the "green corner". http://www.greencornercincinnati.org/

recycling paper:
-goal: "found some super-easy instructions on how to do this online; want to try it"
-status: i got a used paper shredder from goodwill. i either need to get a used blender to do this with, or just go ahead and use my main blender. http://flickr.com/photos/bzedan/sets/967347/

crafting/remaking:
-goal: "i am working on turning a busted ikea hamper into a folding table; needs more work"
-status: my ikea hamer -> folding table is falling apart. needs some love.

knitting/weaving:
-goal: "i'm fascinated by weaving and would love to give it a try in some spare time"
-status: fail. haven't even thought about weaving since writing this list.

composting:
-goal: "tried collecting kitchen scraps but it doesn't work too well if you don't have an outside compost place to take them"
-status: have re-started my kitchen scraps composting. need to build an outdoor compost bin to transfer the scraps to or possibly venture into vermicomposting. http://www.n55.dk/MANUALS/SOIL_FACTORY/SOIL.html

rapid prototyping:
-goal: "i want to try getting something made from ponoko or similar (also maybe papekura); i'm a big fan of everything bre pettis does"
-status: fail. gotta find a neat design to have made. even something pointless. just to do it. http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/ http://www.ponoko.com/

Making online stuff:

hereincincinnati blog:
-goal: "update the blog more frequently and let people know it exists"
-status: updated the blog a few more times. changed the layout on my blogs so they prominently link to one another. gonna blog about some of these ideas over there maybe. http://hereincincinnati.blogspot.com/

hereincincinnati wiki:
-goal: "keep it up-to-date and use the articles in blog posts; maybe reach out to others to help contribute"
-status: been adding, but it's hard to find enough time. been mentioning the wiki in conversations, blog posts. traffic is going up; edits by other people, not so much. http://wiki.hereincincinnati.net/index.php?title=Main_Page

virtual vine st.:
-goal: "tried it with omeka, wasn't really that great; maybe try another cms or roll my own. also, may need to get approval from CMP"
-status: fail. haven't touched this project. still need to find right way of building the site. needs research. i have not enough time. http://vine.hereincincinnati.net/

diycity:
-goal: "started a local "chapter"; need to find others to join in with me; do projects on something other than transit"
-status: win. :) got involved and participated in conversaitons. rolled out twitter bot traffic_cincy. looking forward to more projects here. http://diycity.org/wiki/index.php?title=DIYcity_Cincinnati

cincymicrocosm:
-goal: "blog needs love; find ideas, blog them."
-status: made an attempt to write a stimulus-in-cincinnati post, but it was a bit weak. blog's concept is still viable. http://cincymicrocosm.blogspot.com/

citycouncil2rss:
-goal: "i'd like to streamify the city council agendas and other stuff they do; needs a weekend of planning and doing; also maybe a team to help"
-status: some progress has been made. a real rss feed is emitted. minutes have a cool contextual link feature that makes use of the wiki. http://hereincincinnati.net/citycouncil/minutes.php

wikipedia photo hunt:
-goal: "got started with the project, but ran into hangups; need to kick it up a notch or let it die"
-status: fail. haven't touched this project in a while. BUT, win because i got really involved with wikipedia loves art project. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Loves_Art

cincinnatiparking.info:
-goal: "figure out a way to get the data into the site "fresh" and automatic"
-status: fail. haven't touched this project either. next action still somewhat uncertain. http://www.cincinnatiparking.info/

New ideas:

hackerspace - got some interest in doing some kind of hackerspace / co-working space / free geek / tool library / free culture shop for local makers, etc. gonna keep working on this. http://events.ccc.de/congress/2007/Fahrplan/events/2133.en.html

local currency - found an awesome open source project that allows people to create an online complementary currency. http://www.opensourcecurrency.org/ need to explore the possibilities there.

Not Too Shabby

I was actually a little bit surprised how many things I actually worked on considering how many things I normally do when I make lists like this. I have made a conscious effort this year to say "yes" to projects more often. And I've also tried not to spend as much time as I used to "keeping up-to-date" on things, and instead going out and doing new things. I've got buckets of ideas of things I could work on and they will never get anywhere unless I go out and start trying stuff.

If I think of it, maybe I'll update again in another two months.