Day 2, New Thing Every Day: Get Rid of Three Things I Never Use

Boy, this was a lot harder for me than some might think. Partly, it was difficult because most of the crap we have and don't use is either in the basement or on the second floor of our house, and I do not go to either of those places because of my mobility issues. Looking at the parts of the house I actually live in, Leigh keeps everything really clean and there just is not much around that we do not use. The only place that is completely my responsibility is my home office, and it turns out I actually do a pretty decent job of getting rid of things if I am not going to use them anymore (except for papers -- jeez Louise, there is an awful lot of paper in my office).

Thankfully, I did not say I would "Get Rid of 10 Things I Never Use". That would hav been pretty close to impossible. I did find three, though, and they are pictured here -- two old laptops and a box of blank CD's. Yes, I am taking all three to recycling this week.

Have an awesome day!

Sean Spence


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Day 1, New Thing Every Day: List Five of the Top People Who Have Influenced Me and Write Them Letters

For my first New Thing Every Day, I wanted to do something focused on other people, something

Dan, with people, always out and about.

designed to make me give real thought to those who are important in my life and make a few of them happy. There are just so darned many people who fit that description; so many who make me a better person; so many who add real value to my life.
Choosing just five people was incredibly hard. I have left off names that are on the short list of those closest to me (sorry, Mom), and many who have had the greatest impact on my life. I have known four of the people for ten years or less, and the other for 20 years. Obviously, I left out a lot of incredibly important people, but my goal was never to create a "Top

Larry, hard at work, doing for others.

Five" list, or to rank one against another. So many people in my life deserve recognition for contributing to it, and this is just one small effort to spotlight a handful of them.

Dave, a campaign pic, with people who love him.

The five people I have chosen are incredibly important to me -- for a few, probably more important than they realize. I have written them all letters today, and they will receive them later in the week, but I will keep those messages private. Suffice it to say that they are thankful letters that set forth some of the ways those people have impacted my life and (hopefully) made me a better person.

Jan, receiving an honor we well remember.

Perhaps I should not -- there are people who are not on the list who are obviously incredibly important to me -- but I will share the list here. And I will thank them all here for all they have done, and continue to do, to make my life better, and to make me better (realizing that not all of them will even read this).

Leigh, the light of my world.

Thank you Jan Beckett, Larry Schuster, Dave Bieter, Dan Scotten, and my beloved Leigh. You have my undying gratitude for all you have given me.


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Tomorrow It Begins: New Thing Every Day

Well, tomorrow is the first day of my New Thing Every Day and I figure I am about as ready as I am ever gong to be. I have made a preliminary list of 365 things (posted previously in my Happier by Choice blog), just to make sure I can really think the whole thing through. Some things on the list will take significant planning, but most can be done on the spur of the moment or, at least, with relatively little preparation. No, I do not have any expectation that anyone will actually read the whole list (which covers the equivalent of nine pages!).

Over the course of the year, the list will evolve -- some things will not happen and others will be added. A friend also pointed out that I will probably end up doing lots of other new things, without really trying to, and that will be cool. I really am hoping that dong the list challenges me and makes me a better person. Those are the underlying goals for a lot of the kind of weird things I do. Evolve or die, right? Yes. Evolve or die.

Each day, I will do my best to write a blog post about the new experience, and will include at least one picture. I will try to share anything I learn and any value that comes from the whole thing.

Here is the list. Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions. I welcome any communication at all. Have an awesome day!

•       Make a list of 5 of the top people who have influenced me and write them letters

•       Get rid of three things I never use

•       Open a savings account for that thing I want to do

•       Fast for one day

•       Buy a first edition book I really like

•       Learn what my spirit animal is

•       Watch the Sunrise & Sunset in one Day

•       Make a list of 50+ places I would like to visit in my lifetime

•       Buy/write/mail a truck stop postcard

•       Leave encouraging notes in self-help books for others to find

•       Send someone a big rubber ball through the mail

•       Read something by Pablo Neruda

•       Read Kahlil Gibran

•       Go to Orchids & Art, Columbia

•       Write a detailed zombie apocalypse plan

•       Read only the last chapter of a book

•       Send a virtual thank you note to someone through the State Farm Thanks for Being There program, which will donate to Fisher House for each thank you sent

•       Donate to a podcast I listen to

•       Shop at the Asian grocery

•       Cook a Chinese meal

•       Go to Rock Bridge Memorial State Park

•       Spend time reading Buddhist Sacred Texts: The Sutras

•       Donate blood

•       Pick a random name and send them something nice

•       Make a Kiva.com Loan

•       Make a list of 10+ companies I want to start

•       Read something by Joan Didion

•       Go to Jim the Wonder Dog Memorial Park, Marshall

•       Spend time reading Hindu Sacred Texts: The Vedas

•       Go to the World Chess Hall of Fame

•       Do Sudoku

•       Go to Ha Ha Tonka Castle Ruins (Camdenton)

•       Spend time reading Jewish Sacred Texts: The Talmud

•       Spend time reading the Koran

•       Go to Leila’s Hair Museum (Independence)

•       Read The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho

•       Visit Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum

•       See the world’s largest rocking chair, Cuba

•       Do a TED Talk

•       Participate in Earth Hour

•       Go to Bothwell Mansion

•       Attend a competitive eating contest

•       Create elaborate Easter eggs

•       Attend Unbound Book Festival in Columbia

•       Go to Welch Springs Hospital Ruins

•       Go to Justus Drugstore, Smithville

•       Write my will

•       Go to Johnson’s Shut-Ins (Lesterville)

•       Go to Bonne Terre Mines

•       Send Donald Trump a birthday card

•       Go to an event at Show-Me State Games

•       Do a pop-up restaurant

•       Read Columbia’s “One Read” book

•       Go to Touch, Springfield

•       Go to Glore Psychiatric Museum (St. Joseph)

•       See the world’s largest fork, Springfield

•       Visit Wilson's Creek National Battlefield

•       Go to Mid-Mo Pridefest

•       Prepare a traditional Honduran meal

•       Go to the Eisenhower Presidential Library

•       Go to Kansas City Workhouse

•       Two laps around the Cosmo park trail, in my wheelchair

•       Go to the Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival

•       Celebrate my second anniversary at BBB

•       Attend a Special Olympics event

•       Celebrate my 9th anniversary with Leigh

•       Drink Dom Perignon

•       Go to Citizen Jane Film Festival

•       Attend the Boone Hospital Foundation Gala

•       Shop on Black Friday

•       Celebrate my 47th birthday

•       Give to Comogives.com

•       Run a newspaper ad with a positive message

•       50 push-ups (as a 46-47 year old)

•       100 sit-ups (as a 46-47 year old)

•       Lose 26 pounds in one year

•       Complete my New Thing Every Day Project

•       Register for an MBA program

•       Finish the prerequisites for an MBA

•       Submit to Asimov's Science Fiction

•       Make an A in my first MBA class

•       Roll-A-Thon

•       Make a chocolate soufflé

•       Donate to an endangered species

•       Give Leigh some money to use for her students

•       Give to a charity I have never given to before

•       Leave a $10 under the windshield wiper of a random car in a parking lot

•       Leave a 100% Tip for a Server

•       Leave money in a vending machine for someone

•       Send a net to help stop malaria

•       Visit Bur Oak

•       After my purchase, e-mail Craig at Craig’s List

•       Get on Instagram

•       Get on Whatsapp

•       Leave a thank you note for my mail carrier

•       Review a book on Amazon

•       Review something I like on Yelp!

•       Tweet something @ a celebrity I don't like

•       Write a letter to the President

•       Write a Thank you Letter to a Company that Treated me well

•       Contribute to a business on Kickstarter

•       Contribute to an art project on Indiegogo

•       Contribute to my high school

•       Bake a Giant Cookie

•       Add Something Useful to Wikipedia

•       Write a letter to my future self

•       Learn 10 new things by clicking the random articles button on Wikipedia

•       Apply to appear on a game show

•       Apply to appear on a talk show

•       Treat a cough by rubbing Vicks VapoRub all over my feet and put on socks

•       Eat for a day without utensils

•       List 20 things I like about someone. Now give the list to that person and make their day.

•       Bake cookies/donuts/treats and deliver them to the staff at an elementary school

•       Tip someone at a place I normally wouldn’t tip

•       Write a letter to an elementary or high school teacher who influenced me and thank them

•       Visit 2leep.com

•       Visit attackofthecute.com

•       Visit brotips.com

•       Visit dearblankpleaseblank.com

•       Visit failblog.org

•       Visit fark.com

•       Visit fmylife.com

•       Visit iwastesomuchtime.com

•       Visit lifehacker.com

•       Visit oddee.com

•       Visit shitbrix.com

•       Visit sploid.gizmodo.com

•       Visit thechive.com

•       Visit thisissand.com

•       Visit thisiswhyimbroke.com

•       Visit totallylookslike.com

•       Visit truuconfessions.com

•       Visit wherecoolthingshappen.com

•       Visit zergnet.com

•       Buy a bow tie

•       Buy a fedora

•       Buy a lottery ticket

•       Buy a pair of Tom’s Shoes

•       Buy something from Victoria’s Secret

•       Buy suspenders

•       Do a Groupon

•       Do an Uber

•       Text only in emoticons

•       Become an ordained minister

•       Try to get tickets for the Tonight Show

•       Get a letter published in Fast Company

•       Get a letter published in Inc.

•       Get a letter published in Vanity Fair

•       Get my own radio show

•       Get published in Huffington post

•       Create a digital photo tour of my most important places in Columbia

•       Publish a book (not self-publish)

•       Write a children’s story

•       Write a song

•       Post my digital photo tour on Facebook

•       Cook a vegan meal

•       Cook a vegetarian meal

•       Cook with a pressure cooker

•       Cut up a whole chicken

•       Create a music video for the Web

•       Do origami

•       Draw a comic strip

•       Make some predictions for the next few years, then mull a bit and edit them, and then put the piece of paper away until later and see what happens.

•       Write a rap

•       Attend a concert for a band/musician I have not heard of

•       Attend a poetry slam

•       Do something nice for my mom that I have never done

•       Find an uplifting news story from the past that struck me. Contact the principal players to show thanks.

•       Do something nice for Leigh that I have never done

•       Make a list of 100+ things that I am grateful for

•       Make a list of 10+ charitable organization I want to create

•       Make a list of 10+ interesting charitable fundraisers I want to create

•       Make a list of 50+ ways that I waste time

•       Write a list of 10+ life lessons

•       Write a list of 100+ things that make me happy

•       Win or settle a law suit

•       Complete one week of no cursing

•       Donate books to the Ronald McDonald House

•       Donate some of my favorite books to Battle High School library

•       Read to a group of children

•       Send a care package to an active military person

•       Go on one of Cindy Mustard’s Columbia tours

•       Go to Columbia Cemetery

•       Stay in the Tiger Hotel

•       Make a how-to video for YouTube

•       Send a Message in a Bottle

•       Boil a Live Lobster

•       Get Leigh to teach me how to make cauliflower crust pizza

•       Grill a pizza

•       Make a Pavlova

•       Make deep-fried Mars bars

•       Make ebelskiver

•       Make homemade ice cream sandwiches

•       Make homemade mozzarella cheese

•       Make kimchee

•       Make Kombucha

•       Make my mom’s coffee ice cream pie

•       Make pasta

•       Prepare a meal based on Marcus Samuelsson’s recipes

•       Prepare a molecular gastronomy meal

•       Prepare an Indian meal

•       Souvie something

•       Crochet

•       Design a piece of jewelry

•       Design a toy and give away on instructables.com

•       Do a podcast

•       Grow a plant I have not grown (some flower in a pot)

•       Invent a new food/recipe

•       Invent my Own Candy

•       Knit something

•       Make a time capsule

•       Make an infused vodka

•       Make beer

•       Make wine (at Serenity Valley)

•       Name a star

•       Plant a tree

•       Produce a movie short

•       Reupholster something

•       Submit a poem to a national publication

•       Try needlepoint

•       Try to do a YouTube meme the kids are doing

•       Complete an Online Class

•       Learn a magic trick

•       Learn basic HTML

•       Learn how to juggle

•       Learn how to make sushi

•       Learn how to play three guitar chords

•       Learn how to use a defibrillator

•       Learn proper knife skills

•       Learn some sign language

•       Learn to butcher an animal

•       Learn to knit

•       Learn to make crepes

•       Learn to meditate

•       Learn to tie a bow tie

•       Learn to tie a noose

•       Learn to write my name in Chinese

•       Observe surgery

•       Obsess over a randomly selected country and write an opinion paper about one of their current issues

•       Stay overnight in a homeless shelter

•       Take a bartending class

•       Take a photography class

•       Tie a fly

•       Using dice, choose a page in a dictionary, scroll down to first noun, do a project related to that word

•       Visit Boone County Olive oil on 9th Street and learn about proper way to taste olive oil and identify hemisphere it originated from

•       Volunteer to judge a high school speech/debate tournament

•       Go to a Columbia Entertainment Company performance

•       Go to a high school band concert or theater play where I don't know any of the students

•       See a musician I have not seen in the “We Always Swing” jazz series

•       Watch one of the Housewives shows

•       Do an escape room

•       Acupuncture

•       Get a facial

•       Get a massage

•       Get a professional shave from a barber

•       Go to an MS support group

•       Have a tech free day

•       Hot stone massage

•       Manicure

•       Pedicure

•       Reiki

•       Spend a day alone, in silence

•       That thing where you are in a big tank of salt water

•       Drink herbal tea

•       Drink Mezcal

•       Eat a cronut

•       Eat a Raw Diet for a Day

•       Eat Durian

•       Eat geoduck

•       Eat Pho

•       Eat Poi

•       Eat Poutine

•       Eat shad roe

•       Prepare a pomegranete

•       Invite someone new to lunch

•       Invite someone new to lunch

•       Invite someone new to lunch

•       Invite someone new to lunch

•       Invite someone new to lunch

•       Invite someone new to lunch

•       Bring baked goods to a fire station to say thank you

•       Bring baked goods to the police station to say thank you

•       Send treats to the BBB office

•       Tell a little girl she looks smart

•       Write a Letter to an active military member

•       File a Freedom of Information Request

•       Fill out a FAFSA

•       Go to a Boone County Commission meeting

•       Do that thing I have been thinking about doing for Leigh

•       Have a Romantic Dinner on a Rooftop

•       Help Leigh buy a new (to us) car

•       Hire a private chef to cook in our home

•       See Notorious, by Alfred Hitchcock (one of Ebert’s 10 Best Movies)

•       See Raging Bull (one of Ebert’s 10 Best Movies)

•       See The Third Man (one of Ebert’s 10 Best Movies)

•       Watch a silent movie

•       Watch The Prince of Arabia

•       Board meeting for an organization I do not know well

•       Sell something on Craig’s List

•       Buy life insurance

•       Get a sword cane

•       Color in an adult coloring book

•       Go Geocaching

•       Go to a Jewish service

•       Go to a Muslim service

•       Go to a beer tasting

•       Go to a wine tasting

•       Order off the menu at Chick-Fil-A

•       Order off the menu at Chipotle

•       Order off the menu at Panera

•       Order off the menu at Starbucks

•       Create a “10 Days to Conquer Clutter” calendar and do it

•       Take a train to another city

•       Fire a Paintball Gun

•       Go one day without speaking

•       Milk a cow

•       Play a modern computer game

•       Police car ride along

•       Shoot an automatic weapon

•       Try absinthe

•       Try to create no trash/waste for a day

•       Try VR

•       Write a letter with a quill

•       Braid someone’s hair

•       Change a diaper

•       Get our cars professionally detailed

•       Put vanilla pudding in a mayonnaise jar and eat it in public

•       Ride Mo-X

•       Ride the city bus

•       Wear a boutonnière on an ordinary day

•       Wear a kilt

•       Wear makeup

•       Write off part of a bad debt owed us to get the tax benefit

•       Go to a Renaissance fair

•       Go to St. Louis Aquarium

•       Go to the American Jazz Museum in KC

•       Go in an Inside Skydive Simulator

•       Go to The Block, Webster Groves

•       Go to a Boxing Match

•       Go to a car race

•       Go to a rodeo

•       Go to Laumeier Sculpture Park, Sunset Hills

•       Eat at Port Fonda in KC (2016 James Beard Semi-Finalist)

•       Go to Gram & Dun, Kansas City

•       Go to The Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange, Kansas City

•       Go to the Clinton Museum

•       Eat at Le Bernardin

•       Go to City Museum, St. Louis

•       Go to Citygarden, St. Louis

•       Go to the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis

•       Go to the wax museum, St. Louis

•       See The Awakening statue, Chesterfield

•       Eat at Farmhaus in SL (2016 James Beard Semi-Finalist)

•       Eat at Sidney Street Café in SL (2016 James Beard Semi-Finalist)

•       Go to Bogart’s Smokehouse, St. Louis

•       Go to The Fountain on Locust, St. Louis

•       Go to Cement Land (SL)

•       See a live production of Rocky Horror Picture Show

•       Be a part of a TV show audience

•       Fly first class

•       Try Air BNB

•       Fly in a helicopter

•       Fly in a hot-air balloon

•       Ride a Greyhound to another city

•       Check the public campaign financing box on my tax form