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6,000
Exactly 5 years and 5 days after the serpent’s solar panels were connected to the grid they clocked up the magic 6,000 kilowatts. It’s a pissy little 1kw system on a west facing roof so that is a reasonably good performance
These days it would cost less than half of the $5,000 it was back then but it would be a veritable nightmare sorting out the kosher from the crap. And the serpent would not be getting 47 cents for every unit sold back to the grid. These days in spite of being cheap as chips, solar panels are only worth the bother for big users.
Those panels were just one out of a hundred things on a certain ‘to do’ list started back in May 2007. Every now and again I indulge in such bouts of wishful thinking. A relic from the ancient days of 5 year plans from your local socialist utopia or maybe just a bit of wishful thinking
Sometimes you make a 5 year plan and forget all about it. Then years later those bits of paper with all that wishful thinking just turn up out of nowhere long after the initial enthusiasm has worn off. But the spooky thing is that a bunch of things have been ticked off. So somewhere deep in the recesses of the dark cobwebbed corners of the mind it has been remembered after all
So for that reason alone it is worth indulging in such list making and wishful thinking. After all even a 50% fail rate probably results in more stuff getting done than if the list never existed
So with this in mind started the first list of 101 things in 1000 days way back in May 2007. Managed to complete 48 of the 101 things on the list and another 18 were still in progress but the most significant thing turned out to be how the list alerted the serpent to possible opportunities that would have remained otherwise unnoticed. The very wishful ‘Earn 20% of income from other than work sources’ item was almost in the same league as “Win the lottery”
But the fact it was there made all the difference. When such an opportunity did indeed present itself, it was time to give it a second look rather than dismiss it outright. This one decision directly influenced other items on the second incarnation of the 101 things in 1000 days list
That one finished last week. It was pretty much abandoned after a bunch of Howlers from a certain toad last year but even before then was looking most miserable indeed
The final score ended up being a very sad and pathetic 17 ticks on the list for things completed and 18 items in progress. That left a ridiculous 75 items not even touched
But one of these 17 completed items was probably worth at least 20 of the completely and totally failed 75. Had aimed for paying $40,000 off the Lair but had managed to add an extra $16,000 to that and got rid of the whole thing entirely. A large part of achieving this goal was directly related to devoting all that non work derived income from the 2007-2010 list to increasing the house payments.
And now that the frumpy and ever so ancient serpent is still not gainfully employed, this single item along with the solar panels from the previous list have proved most useful and significant indeed.
There will be a new list but a bit less ambitious. It will be two years long instead of nearly three and will include only 5 things. But the big difference is that while each of these five big ticket items can be expanded to ten steps each to make a total of 50, unlike the old lists they are all part of a bigger picture rather than just a random collection of interesting or useful things to do
The hottest summer on record in this bit of Oz has well and truly nuked the serpent’s garden and the next six months will be devoted to tree planting and other devious means to keep that evil yellow blob in the sky from sizzling the soil next summer.
These days it would cost less than half of the $5,000 it was back then but it would be a veritable nightmare sorting out the kosher from the crap. And the serpent would not be getting 47 cents for every unit sold back to the grid. These days in spite of being cheap as chips, solar panels are only worth the bother for big users.
Those panels were just one out of a hundred things on a certain ‘to do’ list started back in May 2007. Every now and again I indulge in such bouts of wishful thinking. A relic from the ancient days of 5 year plans from your local socialist utopia or maybe just a bit of wishful thinking
Sometimes you make a 5 year plan and forget all about it. Then years later those bits of paper with all that wishful thinking just turn up out of nowhere long after the initial enthusiasm has worn off. But the spooky thing is that a bunch of things have been ticked off. So somewhere deep in the recesses of the dark cobwebbed corners of the mind it has been remembered after all
So for that reason alone it is worth indulging in such list making and wishful thinking. After all even a 50% fail rate probably results in more stuff getting done than if the list never existed
So with this in mind started the first list of 101 things in 1000 days way back in May 2007. Managed to complete 48 of the 101 things on the list and another 18 were still in progress but the most significant thing turned out to be how the list alerted the serpent to possible opportunities that would have remained otherwise unnoticed. The very wishful ‘Earn 20% of income from other than work sources’ item was almost in the same league as “Win the lottery”
But the fact it was there made all the difference. When such an opportunity did indeed present itself, it was time to give it a second look rather than dismiss it outright. This one decision directly influenced other items on the second incarnation of the 101 things in 1000 days list
That one finished last week. It was pretty much abandoned after a bunch of Howlers from a certain toad last year but even before then was looking most miserable indeed
The final score ended up being a very sad and pathetic 17 ticks on the list for things completed and 18 items in progress. That left a ridiculous 75 items not even touched
But one of these 17 completed items was probably worth at least 20 of the completely and totally failed 75. Had aimed for paying $40,000 off the Lair but had managed to add an extra $16,000 to that and got rid of the whole thing entirely. A large part of achieving this goal was directly related to devoting all that non work derived income from the 2007-2010 list to increasing the house payments.
And now that the frumpy and ever so ancient serpent is still not gainfully employed, this single item along with the solar panels from the previous list have proved most useful and significant indeed.
There will be a new list but a bit less ambitious. It will be two years long instead of nearly three and will include only 5 things. But the big difference is that while each of these five big ticket items can be expanded to ten steps each to make a total of 50, unlike the old lists they are all part of a bigger picture rather than just a random collection of interesting or useful things to do
The hottest summer on record in this bit of Oz has well and truly nuked the serpent’s garden and the next six months will be devoted to tree planting and other devious means to keep that evil yellow blob in the sky from sizzling the soil next summer.
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But today it has rained just a teenie weenie bit so maybe sanity and motivation will be restored. As for the trimmed down list - did post it way back in May last year but it got put on hold to attend to toadish dramas
And yesss - that infamous tarot deck has returned along with the nano squiggles. Specifically to win November and Camp Nano five times between now and May 2015 and to actually produce three finished novels out of the huge stash of words. These finished books can also include stuff from old nano adventures.
But it is funny. The minute you are approaching the completion of any big hairy scary audacious goal, it is a damned good idea to conjure up another one or else a big crash landing will soon be in sight. A bit like the NASA astronauts, what do you do after you've been to the moon?
While the last list was a total fail, paying off the Lair was one of those once in a lifetime events. It's had the very fortunate consequence of now having more disposable income on the dole than for most of those years working where house payments were more than 70% of take home pay. But then again the point of those ridiculously high payments was to arrive at the big zero sooner rather than later. It also meant being able to live off savings for 3 months while having no income at all and still being able to feast on all those freakish fringe goodies
But it does mean that the motivation to look for a job is not quite as high as it should be ;) Necessity is the mother of creativity
These days many folks are in their sixties and still paying off their houses. They even retire with a mortgage and rely on lump sum payments from superannuation to wipe out the outstanding debt. Quite a few folks have not quite worked out that a credit card is not a second bank account
So now the next big project is to turn the crazy cluttered chaos of the Lair into some semblance of order and organization! There's some serious tossing of stuff been going on. The trick picked up of focusing on the sort of space that you would like to live in rather than the awfulness of the one you actually have is surprisingly powerful as it takes a lot of power away from all that stuff. If something does not fit in with the image of the 'ideal writing room' then it's got to go.
For the first time in over a year can actually see the surface of the dining room table in its entirety!. Keeping it that way will be a bit trickier.