List #400: Right Now

List #400: Right Now...

-My favorite shirt is a long-sleeved heavy brown polyester T-shirt

-I have medium length hair, but it is growing shaggier by the day

-My beard is trimmed

-I have cash in my wallet (but not much)

-I am in good health

-I live in Maryland and have a job I like

-My room is cleaner than average

-I make soups for fun and sustenance

-My favorite superheroes are Green Lanterns

-I'm still reading Robert Jordan

-My Mother is in China, my Brother is in California, the others are in Minnesota

-I am 31 years old

-I can bench press my bodyweight

-I can run 5k in under 29 minutes

-There is snow where I am

-I own my car

-My favorite band is "The Joy Formidable"

-I should be putting away my laundry

List #399: Songs that I Sang-Along with in the Shower this morning

List #399: Songs that I Sang-Along with in the Shower this morning (because they came up on my iPod)

1. "Spiraling Shape" They Might be Giants

2. "I Just Had Sex" Lonely Island feat. Akon

3. "All Along The Watchtower"* Jimi Hendrix

4. "Breakdown"** Handsome Boy Modelling School feat. Jack Johnson

*including all guitar solos

**including the whistling

List #398: 6 People I Would Like to Meet

List #398: 6 People I Would Like to Meet (for reasons other than just being really hot) and maybe hang out with and have a beverage or do a cool activity

1. Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, and the rest of Broken Social Scene (counts as 1)

2. Bela Fleck

3. Neil Gaiman

4. Mark Rosewater

5. The Autotune-the-news crew

6. Kate Beaton

List #397: 10 Things I Learned about Life and Libraries in the Nordic Lands

List #397: 10 Things I Learned about Life and Libraries in the Nordic Lands

(this is a few months late. It is taken from a presentation I gave about my trip this summer. You can view the slides here Nic's 10 Things PPT )

1.People Read in Public

2. Breakfast is Awesome

3. Libraries are about Books

4. Libraries are about more than Books

5. They like those Vampires, too

6. Librarians are Good People, everywhere

7. Biking and Walking are great ways to travel

8. Comic books are fun, in any language.

9. GCS provides you with great opportunities and connections

10. Libraries, as Places, matter

List #396: 2010 Goals revisited

List #396: 2010 Goals revisited and analyzed

List #336: New Year's Resolutions (in rough order of difficulty)

1. Relearn Trumpet and play music more often

--FAIL: December 2009 was the peak of my trumpet renaissance
2. Maintain a healthy diet and workout schedule

--Moderate WIN: workouts were very consistent, diet was okay
3. Create and sustain a worthy successor to "Nic's Year in Lists"

--Moderate FAIL: Nic-ipeda went well for about 3 months, but then dropped off
4. Do more Creative projects (including my big bookbinding plan)

--Moderate FAIL: I never made bound volumes of the original Year-in-Lists, and I didn't really do any major art projects, though I did come up with some cool new guitar riffs
5. Get out of the house (or even my room!) more

--Moderate WIN: I found more places to go play games and started doing that
6. Be more assertive, confident and proactive about my Romantic life (or, rather, ending my lack-thereof)

--Moderate FAIL: some attempts were made, but 0 dates occurred
7. Consider learning to drive in the City

--Moderate FAIL: I did drive into DC once all by myself, and once into Baltimore with a co-pilot, but that's nothing to really be amazed about

List #395: Goals for 2011

List #395: Goals for 2011 (*which are mostly measurable)

1. Be better at my job

2. Go on a date (hopefully more than one, but let's not get greedy)*

3. Run 5k in under 26 minutes*

4. Get caught up on the "Wheel of Time" books*

5. Finish a song*

6. Add Sauce-making to my kitchen repertoire

7. Make a cheesecake*

8. Make my bedtime and wake-up time 15 minutes earlier*

9. Have better variety in workouts

10. Play more Games

11. Be less negative