b a t t l e c a t . n e t

One of my favourite songs by one of my favourite bands, The Van Pelt, is called “Let’s Make A List”. I love Chris Leo’s vocal delivery and the guitar line, but it’s the lyrics about frustrated teachers that really get me:

let’s make a list so we can feel like we’re accomplishing something, so we can feel like we’re working together…

I’m a big fan of making lists, especially as a creativity and brainstorming technique. List-making also has a tendency to come out as part of my writing style and has been a method for one of my 150 Things About Friendship. I often wonder whether I get more or less things done as a result of list-writing, but the act of making them is somewhat satisfying and meditative.

Usually I just list my most immediate thoughts and ideas, rather than pushing through to a specific target amount. Recently, a friend added the article “Tackle Any Issue With a List of 100” to their delicious feed and it started me thinking about “extreme “listing. I’ve been meaning to write a Learning list for a while as part of the DIY Masters project, so I decided to attempt a list of 100 things I want to learn.

Day 092/366 - To Do List, by

I think my question was very general which resulted in a list of general learning rather than “100 Things I want to achieve with my DIY Masters Project”. Most of the 100 things are skills that I want rather than a body of knowledge. Looking over the list I can divide the list into skills I can learn as a result of the DIY Masters project (highlighted), some long-term general learning (botany, musical skills) and a lot of smaller life skills.

Since writing the list earlier this week I’ve found that there’s a local printing museum which runs bookbinding and letterpress tutorials in German. And I keep on coming up with even more things I want to learn, like 101. How to assemble a yurt. As I eventually want to build my own Mongolian style yurt / ger, I might just have to make a new list 100 Things I Want To Make.

But that is another list, for another day.
Anyway, here is the list of things I want to learn in the order they came out of my head:
100 Things I Want To Learn (More) About…

1. Botany
2. A musical instrument: guitar or cello
3. Haircutting
4. How to make a sponge cake
5. How to maintain my bicycle
6. How to make bagels
7. Throat Singing
8. Bookbinding
9. Basic Arabic
10. How to make better Karelian pies
11. How to seed save from fruits like tomatoes
12. Permaculture
13. Sociology basics
14. Crocheting
15. Japanese rope work
16. Drums
17. Punctuation
18. English grammar and editing
19. Basic electronics
20. More screenprinting skills (especially light sensitive emulsion)
21. Multi-coloured linocuts
22. How to layout designs for laser cutting
23. Basic woodworking and carpentry
24. How to change a washer on a tap (relearn)
25. Pattern drafting, better skirts, shirts and trousers
26. Typographic theory
27. Better CSS skills
28. Another CMS apart from WordPress, Drupal and perhaps Moodle
29. More knowledge about OS educational packages
30. Basic Esperanto
31. How to cut dogs’ toenails / claws without feeling icky.
32. Fishing: how to catch and clean a fish
33. Butchery: how to kill & dress a chicken
34. Basic charcuterie
35. How to do a headstand / handstand in yoga
36. Unicycle
37. Better knife skills for cooking
38. How to make the ex-beau’s chilli.
39. How to make Mum’s tomato pie
40. How to make baklava
41. How to write grant applications
42. How to write residency applications
43. How to train a dog
44. More Linux / Terminal commands
45. How to talk about what I want and need with a partner without ending up crying all the time
46. Better German
47. How to look after my heart better (emotionally, but physically too)
48. How to start a project and stick with it
49. Better money confidence – eg. how to invoice and get paid what I’m worth.
50. How to make really good coffee / latte art – even if I can’t drink it.
51. How to home brew beer.
52. How to sail
53. Falconry
54. How to make a great Manhattan
55. How to make a whiskey sour
56. How to make the amazing soup dumplings from Shanghai
57. How to pack light and look great with only a few clothes
58. Basic car maintenance
59. How to prune roses
60. How to prune fruit trees
61. How to tune a guitar
62. Origami page fastening – no staples or paper clips
63. Audio recording and editing to the level required for good podcasting
64. Video recording and editing to the level required for good vodcasting
65. What key I can sing in naturally / most easily
66. The value of my time
67. Better massage skills
68. Yoga exercises for my back
69. How to make an Iyengar style yoga bolster
70. Meditation
71. Better public speaking
72. Better Kitchener bind offs while knitting
73. Better Illustrator / Inkscape / vector drawing skills
74. Manual SLR Photography
75. How to say No to things I don’t really want to do.
76. Curry pastes from scratch
77. Plant grafting
78. How to make Kway Teow
79. How to make good laksa
80. Pasta making
81. Whittling
82. How to be happy even when the sun isn’t shining
83. Belly dancing
84. Tai chi
85. Time management / project management software
86. A martial art
87. The rules of cricket
88. The rules of football / soccer
89. How to be more self-reliant in a relationship
90. Basic letterpress printing
91. How to run a small business
92. Basic upholstery
93. Repeating fabric designs
94. CPR refresher course
95. Forest / countryside gleaning
96. Food canning / preserving
97. That martial arts type thing where someone kinda rolls their body up to standing.
98. How to be content with what I’ve got
99. How to write at an academic level
100. Better research skills: databases, academic journals and articles, Google scholar etc.