blog.darylchymko.ca

I decided to go through my life goals from 1999 post and re-evaluate how I would rank those 14 years later. I created 4 categories: Will Do, Probably, Maybe, and Unlikely. Note: this is not a list of today’s goals, merely a re-categorization of the old list.

Will do

1. Drive Across Canada
2. Visit all 11 provinces and 52 states
3. Visit New Zealand and Australia
4. Spend at least 3 weeks in Australia
5. Run in a marathon
6. Engineer an innovative software product under my company name
7. Invent a product under my name
8. Visit the pyramids of Egypt
9. Visit the Eiffel tower
10. Bike down a ski-hill in summer
11. Learn Ice Climbing
12. Circumnavigate the globe
13. Watch a building be demolished (from afar)
14. Drive a float in a parade

Probably will do

1. Earn a degree
2. Bike across Canada
3. Write a book
4. Build a house on a mountain. (actually BUILD the house)
5. Live on the coast (beachfront) for at least 2 months
6. Run a 5 minute mile
7. Run the Jasper-Banff relay
8. Fly a glider
9. Teach at a college

Might do

1. Get commercial pilots license and become IFR rated
2. Reach the North pole
3. Hike the continental divide trail
4. Participate in Rally and Ice racing
5. Go scuba diving
6. Live in a houseboat for at least 2 months
7. Learn French
8. Go bungee jumping
9. Go sky diving
10. View mount Everest by helicopter

Highly unlikely / off the radar

1. Land a bush plane on a gravel bar (obviously I was a lot more into aviation 13 years ago)
2. Fly a Hercules
3. Fly a 747
4. Teach a child to walk (I rememeber putting this one in just to score points with my grandma)
5. Meet the prime minister (meh)
6. Release a CD (DJ Daryl?)
7. Meet the pope (again, put this in for someone else, not me)
8. Visit Disneyland (no interest. at all)

Done

1. Fly across Canada
2. Go rappelling
3. Rock Climbing
4. Hike/Bike signal mountain
5. Learn CPR
6. Teach the world what I know
7. Appear on TV
8. Make a speech or interview on the radio

I typed this way back in 1999 at the innocent age of 23. Some of these are embarrassing but I’m going to post it anyway, crossing off the (few) that I’ve done.

1. Visit Grand Canyon
2. Drive Across Canada
3. Visit all 11 provinces and 52 states
4. Visit New Zealand and Australia
5. Spend at least 3 weeks in Australia
6. Earn a degree
7. Get commercial pilots license and become IFR rated
8. Fly across Canada
9. Reach the North pole
10. Hike the continental divide trail
11. Bike across Canada
12. Land a bush plane on a gravel bar
13. Release a CD
14. Write a book
15. Run in a marathon
16. Participate in Rally and Ice racing
17. Go scuba diving
18. Build a house on a mountain. (actually BUILD the house)
19. Live in a houseboat for at least 2 months
20. Live on the coast (beachfront) for at least 2 months
21. Engineer an innovative software product under my company name
22. Invent a product under my name
23. Visit the pyramids of Egypt
24. Visit the Eiffel tower
25. Learn French
26. Fly a glider
27. Run a 5 minute mile
28. Run the Jasper-Banff relay
29. Go rappelling
30. Learn Ice & Rock Climbing
31. Bike down a ski-hill in summer and in winter
32. Go bungee jumping
33. Go sky diving
34. Teach at a college
35. Circumnavigate the globe
36. Teach a child to walk
37. Watch a building be demolished (from afar)
38. Meet the prime minister
39. Meet the pope
40. Hike/Bike signal mountain
41. View mount Everest by helicopter
42. Learn CPR
43. Fly a Hercules
44. Fly a 747
45. Teach the world what I know
46. Visit Disneyland
47. Appear on TV
48. Make a speech or interview on the radio
49. Participate in a parade (drive a float)

While I don’t do huge workouts every day, I’d hardly consider myself an ‘inactive’ person. But I’ve put on a few more pounds than I would have liked in the past years, despite my uncanny ability to “bang out” an epic hike with little to no preparation. However, something has to be done to get my weight back to normal levels and it’s not going to be from monthly hikes. I’ve always been a runner and while I wouldn’t say it is a screaming passion of mine, I enjoy it. But motivation has always been an issue. And while apps are cool for motivation, I think I’m going to try an old-school method first. I’ve decided to take a page from Giles Bowkett’s Calendar and post a physical calendar in a highly visible place (Actually the *first* thing I did was go for a run, then print the calendar).

Basically, the premise of the calendar is that you see it every day and you mark a big red X after you’ve completed your activity. You attempt to do it for x days in a row, and the theory is you won’t miss a day because it means a gap in the physical record posted on the wall (resulting in self-ridicule and nagging from everyone else).

So there you have it, I’m going to give it a try. I’ve got a big red X for October 14th, 2012 and I’m hoping to make it gap-free to December 14th. I’ll follow up with a blog post then.

Friends, I need your help. Every holiday season I print up  calendars from photos I’ve taken of my travels.  Last year I sold them to friends and family and gave the money to a Planeterra project that I visited while travelling in Guatemala. In fact many of the photos in the calendar were from that very project.

I was happy that I was able to get about 25 people to commit to this endeavour, but in the end the production (and time) costs left me wondering if it was even worth it. I spent about $400 out of pocket which may have gone to better use if I had just donated it directly to the project without printing anything.

So I’m thinking I needing to revisit my approach. I have a few options
a) Come up with a different product
b) Come up with a different payment scheme
c) Come up with an entirely different approach altogether

I’d appreciate your input on this. For (a), would you still be interested in a photo calendar or is there something else you would find useful? In terms of (b) I had the idea of spreading the donation out over the year ($5 a month for 12 months).

Comment below or email me at dchymko@infometrix.ca

FYI,  the projects I’m looking at this year are Charity Water and a few on Kiva

Such an amazing event to take part in Check out this short film Tim Feeny made for us:

So it’s the 41st annual Earth day and people are out rallying and parading. These are all great things, its good to see people in tune with the environment. But what does this mean over the long term? After the parade, are we all going to hop back into our gas-guzzlers and drive back to our giant houses in the subburbs?

You might remember my angry post on Earth Hour 2010. It was a reaction to the whole “turn your light off for an hour” slacktivism that is Earth hour ( grand savings of 0.0114% over the entire year for those who are counting). The most amusing part was the status updates like: “unplugged my laptop, sitting in the dark, happy Earth Hour everyone.” Le sigh. Anyway, I decided that ranting wasn’t doing anything productive and created this pledge. Since then, I’ve been tracking my utility and mileage and think I’ve done pretty well.

Here are my results:

Mileage:
My pledge was to drive 15% less. Comparing 2011 to 2010, I drove 19% less and comparing 2011 to 2008, I drove 29% less. This is a result of biking more and combining errand trips to once or twice a week.
2008 – 20,200K
2009 – 17,600K
2010 – 17,000K
2011 – 14,300K

Power consumption
My pledge was to drop 15%. Comparing 2011 to 2010, I decreased my power usage by 22%. This was done through a few things like reducing electronic items around my home, changing lighting to CFL, and hanging my clothes to dry (plus they last longer).

There are some other areas of my pledge that need work (my addiction to new electonics for one) so I’m going to make that the focus of my effort in upcoming years.

I encourage you and your family to make a pledge on the Earth Day site. Set some goals that you can follow-up on over the course of the year. Track your usage. Post them on the fridge as a reminder that every day is Earth Day.

When it comes to commits, often times the smaller the commit the more time it took. I have single character changes (think operand logic bug) that have taken me hours to debug and fix.