It’s that time of year again, where I try and combat the meh of Writers Block, Artistic Avoidance, and a general all round lack of enthusiasm with our private 100 day challenge based on The 100 day challenge.
So Starting May 1st we will be doing a creative thing a day for 100 days.
As with The challenge the creative thing can be, drawings, art, poetry, writing, anything as long as its creative (and one piece a day)
I have been sorting out the To-Sort folders on my machines, it’s a job you can tell is long overdue by the recursive To-Sort folders that have moved from long dead machines to the To-Sort folders of newer machines. In one of these long distant folders I found a photograph, which reminded me of a story. A story I am going to share with you dear Constant Reader because it teaches an important message. “Never bet against Geeks” because they are resourceful and think outside the box.
It was December 2002, University’s had broken up for the Christmas break and there was a group of us out celebrating seeing each other again after the long semester.
An Important fact to remember is that in 2002 mobile phones were not as common as they are now. Very few people had them, and even less carried them about due to their large size. Oh, and a phone with a camera, that was pure science fiction.
So there we were, several pubs along our way through a pub crawl when someone mentioned that it would be great if we had a photo to remember the night. But who takes a camera out with them on a pub crawl?
We had no chance right?
Well that’s what the majority of the group decided, and I say majority because there was two of us who decided there must be a way, nothing is impossible right?
So, we were out in the middle of the local town, slightly drunk, with no camera and the need to get a photograph. We had no chance, right? The rest of our group were so positive they even made a small wager. A wager of several drinks was involved. This was their big mistake.
You do not give a geek a puzzle. If you do, you do not tell the geeks its impossible. And if you really do that, you really do not add a wager of beer!!
We had no chance right?
Correct, we did not have “No Chance” we had “Every Chance” for we were geeks. I recalled there was a webcam setup in the window of the local council offices, so if we stood in the area it pointed at we would be in a picture. We just needed someone to go to the webpage and grab a screen shot of the image. This is where my fellow Geek, popped into a phone box, phoned his Uni digs, where he knew one of his room mates would be about to do the necessary.
So we organised a signal, and went to go stand in front of the webcam, While 100 miles away someone sat at their computer and waited for the signal, then did a screen capture, and emailed us the image.
Challenge completed, a photo of the evening was procured. and many free drinks were had.
So, dear Constant Reader never bet against a geek, for as the bible says “The Geek will inherent the earth”
At the start of the year I received an email from John Anealio, with the subject of “Will You Take The “23 in ’13″ Challenge?“. Now this email came at a very opportune time, since I was trying to work out what to pick for my New Years Resolutions. And since I tend to suck at keeping resolutions, but do better when doing a challenge I was planning on setting myself some challenge like last years “12 in 12” challenge.
So I quickly read the email, which I shall reprint in part here.
Will you join me for the “23 in ’13″ Challenge?
Some great things happened in 2012. I opened for Paul & Storm, Molly Lewis and The Doubleclicks. I traveled to Salt Lake City, Dallas & Baltimore to perform at events like Nerdtacular. By the end of the year though, I felt really unhappy.
In my ideal life, I’d compose music all day and share it with you. While I haven’t figured out how to make a living doing that yet, I realized that I’d be a lot happier if I composed every day. This is how I arrived at the “23 in ’13″ challenge.
I’m going to release at least 23 new pieces of music in 2013.
Much of it will be instrumental, as I’m interested in composing music for webshows, video games and independent films, but there will be vocal songs too.
I was going to announce this just to make myself accountable, then I realized…
You should do this with me.
You can create 23 short stories, songs, blog posts, podcasts or pieces of visual art. You can submit a story to 23 different markets. You can read 23 new books. Adapt the challenge any way you’d like.
As the weeks go on, I’ll e-mail you about the piece that I’m working on and you can tell me about your progress. In addition to my music, I’m going to feature other creators’ work here too. If you’re taking on a new creative challenge this year and making cool stuff, let me know.
So, who’s with me?
Are you going to take the “23 in ’13″ challenge?
Just reply to this e-mail (this is my real address and I respond to everything), or comment on the blog post.
Let’s do this,
John Anealio
After reading that there was only one thing I could do. So I hit reply and responded in words of Barney Stinson “Challenge Accepted!!”
So Dear Constant Reader, This year (2013) I will be creating 23 pieces of new creativity. So watch this space. And go check out John’s music while you sit and watch!!
Another month has gone by, and so it is time to look back and see how I am doing. Yes, I know technically this post was written in the future and back-dated to when it should have been. It’s not my fault, it’s all the fault of the EvilGothGnome.
1: Blog Post’s: Write at least one post a week for the whole year.
Well there was four weeks in March and according to the “Posts” tab in that time there was Six posts, slightly down from last month. So I guess that fills that requirement.
8: Data Management: Sort out all my electronic data.
I Now have one 1.5Tb external hard drive attached to my NAS that is fully organised. Time to move onto the next disk.
12: New Things: Do/Try at least one new thing every month.
What new things Did I do in Mar? I went to my first “Welsh Night” in a Lodge, and took part in one of the 1st Lectures (Which was also the first time I had seen any of the Lectures)
Another month has gone by, and so it is time to look back and see how I am doing. Yes, I know technically this post was written in the future and back-dated to when it should have been. It’s not my fault, it’s all the fault of the EvilGothGnome.
1: Blog Post’s: Write at least one post a week for the whole year.
Well there was four weeks in Febuary and according to the “Posts” tab in that time there was Ten posts. So I guess that fills that requirement.
8: Data Management: Sort out all my electronic data.
I started organising my data into one place so I can go through it and start getting organised. I have also started shrinking my media collection to reclaim Gigs & Gigs of space 
)
12: New Things: Do/Try at least one new thing every month.
What new things Did I do in Feb? I was the Master of a lodge for the first time (My First Meeting)
Days: 15/100
Well I’m now three weeks into this challenge, And I swear the finish line is moving further away. On a positive side I have ideas for two stories/worlds that I am going to use this challenge to flesh out a bit. There’s a Zombie story, and a Fantasy that I see being running themes over the next eleven weeks.
So a Quick summery.
Creative Count:
3 x Drawing
2 x Complete Short Story
2 x Story starts
2 x Story Scene’s/Snippets
2 x Parts of Fantasy Story
1 x Part of Zombie Story
1 x Masonic Booklet
Days: 15/100
Well I’m now two weeks into this challenge, and I think I’m hitting the first wind bit, I’m more settled into actually sitting down for a set amount of time every day to do creative things, But I’m starting to get mental blankness when it comes down to deciding what to do. Luckily I have to sort out a booklet for next week, so whereas I was unable to publish yesterdays activity, the set task has given my mind a chance to reboot. And new ideas are forming.
So a Quick summery.
Creative Count:
2 x Complete Short Story
2 x Story starts
2 x Drawing
1 x Start of a Masonic Booklet
Days: 9/100
Well I am a week into the challenge so far (Edit: 9 days is more than a week!) So I thought I would do a short/quick update, and to be lazy I’m just going to repost the status update from the 100days blog. )
Well I am one week into the 100 day challenge, just 14 more weeks to go. (I am now at the stage of looking at those 14 weeks and going “What have I agreed to”)
So a Quick summery.
Last Week:
1 x Complete Short Story (4 parts)
2 x Story starts
1 x Drawing
I’ve decided to set myself a challenge. So I am taking part in this years NaNoWriMo.
For those of you who have been reading this blog for over a year, or have read back entries I say this to you “Yes. I know I say this every year, and yes I fail more often than not, but this year is different.” For you newer readers I say :-
NaNoWriMo? you ask
National Novel Writing Month. Its a yearly challenge where people try to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. (that’s 1666ish words a day! for those of you interested in such maths.) More information can be found on the NaNoWriMo website.
So, Pens at the ready (Symbolical pens as I will be using a keyboard) and lets begin.
I will post weekly updates to shame myself into writing.
I’ve decided to set myself a challenge, To see if I can get back into writing. So I am taking part in this years NaNoWriMo.
NaNoWriMo? you ask
National Novel Writing Month. Its a yearly challenge where people try to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. (that’s 1666ish words a day! for those of you interested in such maths.) More information can be found on the NaNoWriMo website.
To Make it slightly more of a challenge I’ve given myself Nov 1st off from writing, and am starting today (The 2nd) No I’m not insane, I just wanted my birthday off.
So, Pens at the ready (Symbolical pens as I will be using a keyboard) and lets begin.
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