70 thoughts to “#9 Crossing off the last item on your list”

  1. Whay an amazing feeling! I always think myself so accomplished and successful when that happens.
    Oh my God! In a few days you’ll be crossing off the last item on your awesome list! What will become of the world then?

  2. I cant wait to be able to cross the last book off my waiting-to-read list. I have at least 15 unread titles on there… and then I have the books I have to read for English Lit :) Oh well! Good thing I like reading.
    And just as I suspected- everyone has been saying the countdown will end next friday, and I thought that too until it got to #10 and I realised that 10 was on Friday, 9 today, 8 will be tuesday, 7 wednesday, 6 thursday, 5 friday, 4 monday, 3 tuesday, 2 wednesday and :O 1 on friday. Because you cant have a #0 on a countdown list. So the countdown is even nearer to its end than I was expecting, so that makes me sadder :(

    1. No! Emmy! Never finish your waiting-to-read list. Keep adding more books to the list, because we should never ever stop reading! Just to help you along, I will give you one more: “The Flying Troutmans” by Miriam Toews. Read on!

      1. Haha that is very true, good consideration! I shall never stop reading, and although I am hardly getting through one book in two months because im a slow reader and busy with Year 11 work, I look forward to the Summer holidays after I finish year 12 so I can read and read and read! And I’ll put that book at the top of my priority list now :D After the countdown ends I could email you or something to give you my opinion of it :) But first I have to finish Twelfth Night, then Pride and Prejudice, then 1984 for Lit this year!

        1. Oooh! You get to read Pride and Prejudice! YAY! Put that one on your list for summer holidays as well so you can read it again! What a good book.. one of my all-time faves!

          I’d never read it before, but my wife introduced me to it right when we started dating (it’s her #1 fave), and I LOVED it! I must have read it at least 5 times since then.

          Enjoy! (12th Night and 1984 are fine, but not nearly as fun.. 1984 is useful just to understand all the references people make to “Big Brother”.. and I remember using phrases like: “This meatloaf is double plus ungood” for weeks after reading that book.. But P&P is the best!)

          1. Wow. I’m the complete opposite, Freddo. I adore Twelfth Night and 1984. I LOATHE Pride and Prejudice. It just goes on and on and on, and I’m sitting here thinking, “For crap’s sake, woman! Do you love him or not?! Make up your mind, I’m getting bored here!”

            (And now I shall run away to the sounds of Freddo’s anguished screams…)

            1. Yay Freddo!! I ADORE Pride and Prejudice too! There is good news and bad news… I can’t put that book on my summer holidays list (because summer holidays are in december!), but the good news is, I get to read it for the second time next WEEK! Because were starting it the first week back at school. You/or your wife (I’m not making any assumptions with your manliness here) would be delightedly jealous to know that the last day of Term 1, just this past thursday, our Lit class had a Pride and Prejudice tea party :D I brought five different types of herbal tea, three types cold and two types hot, and someone brought scones and jam and cream, and shortbread, and doilies, and hot chocolate, and fairy bread and cucumber sandwiches. We played an episode (the BBC version ftw!) in the background and played Regency word games :D It was simply marvelous.
              And Lovethebadguy (it was hard typing your name without using the space bar!) you would like my English teacher from last year. She loved the more action-based non-romantic novels (although Twelfth Night I admit is a romcom pretty much…. hmm.) I love the romance and the language and the wit of P&P. Oh, speaking of &, did you know that the ampersand used to be the last letter of the alphabet? In the 1800s you used to recite the alphabet “x, y, z, and per se and.” (and, by itself, and.) It later was meshed into one word but dropped from the alphabet. Isnt that awesome to find out!

              1. That party sounds awesome! How do we score an invite? :)

                And 100% BBC version FTW! (Also, Colin Firth, FTW, amirite ladies??) The 5-VHS box set of the BBC version was one of the first gifts I gave me wife.. She still has it even though we don’t have any more devices to play VHS tapes.

                  1. Yay! Hope you guys have scheduled 5+ hours for the mini-series. Maybe we’ll need to turn the after-party into a long-weekend slumber party.

                    1. HAHAHAHA Freddo, you ALWAYS make me laugh! Yes, Colin Firth ftw too :D Annnnd you can’t score an invite because a) it’s already happened, b) it was only our Lit class, and c) you’re in North America. Sorry.
                      And speaking of geographical differences, I am SOOOO bummed that this site and most of the regulars are not in Australia!! D: I really really really want to go to that long-weekend slumber party get together where you’ll drink nutella hot chocolate on tap and have a P&P marathon D:<

                    2. Emmy, it seems to me that there is enough of an aussie contingent in the community here for you guys to have your own down under party. Someone needs to step up and host it. *cough, cough, lovethebadguy, cough*

                    3. True true, but still, she’s over east… WHY do I have to live near the most isolated captial city in the world??? (I THINK I heard that somewhere….)

              1. Actually, I did read it, and I found it incredibly weird! Apparently, a lot of true P&P fans love it (based on the reviews on Amazon), but I found it very strange. It’s almost 100% verbatim P&P, but then every once and a while, the Bennet girls break out their Ninja skills and take out a horde of zombies, only to go back to their dancing or piano playing.

                Very, very weird.

                1. Technically, my comment suggestion was for Lovethebadguy. I figure zombies are some pretty kick-ass bad guys, so that should be right up her alley, no? Have you read Android Karenina? I have not, but geekteen liked it.

            3. I haven’t read Pride and Prejudice yet, but I’ve made it as far as downloading it onto my Kindle….I’ll get to it soon enough.

              1. You’ll love it! Give it some time, but there are some really great scenes in there.

                There is one scene near the end where Elizabeth gives the business to a very haughty Ms Catherine De Bourgh, which forever solidified Elizabeth’s role as one of my favorite characters in fiction.

                1. :O I LOVED HER THERE! That was probably her most awesome kick-ass moment, indeed! Who needs zombies to fight when you have ‘her ladyship, Catherine de Burgh’! Which brings me to….. Mr Collins. Ewwwwwwwwwww. Enough said.

            4. Anguished scream indeed! :)

              Different strokes and all that, I suppose.. but that scene where *spoiler alert* Darcy and Elizabeth finally declare their love for each other makes me grin from ear to ear for the rest of the day.

              Meanwhile, in 1984 with Winston and Julia betraying their love for each other? It just makes me super sad.

  3. Neil is so freaking close to finishing his to-do list, it’s scary!

    But No#9 is definitely true. Being able to cross off that final item, whatever it may be, makes me feel like some kind of hero. AWESOME! :D

  4. So much awesomeness to strike that last thing off. Last thing off means task complete.. I’d rather preserve the struck out list than the one with one task left!

  5. i just can’t believe 1000AT is in the single digits now…especially since ive been reading it since the 900s!
    I wonder how i’ll feel after the last awesome thing is crossed off the list…

  6. Yes, that feeling of accomplishment is very satisfying. Being productive always makes me feel good about myself. I tend to procrastinate, but I’m working on that.
    You can’t announce number 1 without me there! I’m trying to be patient and wait and see what you dubb to be so awesome it gets the #1 spot. I’m excited to see, but at the same time, I don’t want that #1 to get here because that’ll mean that we are at the end.

  7. Did you READ that list? Who is planning something that needs flowers, potion bottles, cigar boxes and gravel bags? Oh, and horseshoes??

      1. Hey, that’s my list of necessities for the loot bags for the End-of-the-Awesome list festivities! Just wait ’til you see these favors…LOL!

        1. LOL.. a random list of items like that sort of reminds me of an old (and sort of risque) Simpsons quote.. Homer is looking to buy some illegal fireworks from the kwik-e-mart, and wants to play it casual.. so he plans to ask for some fireworks in a long list of benign other items. It doesn’t quite play out as designed:

          Homer: “Yeah, um, give me one of those porno magazines, a large box of condoms, a bottle of Old Harper, a box of panty shields… and some illegal fireworks… and one of those disposeable enemas.”

          And then later, when Marge spies the shopping bag filled with above items back at home, her response is classic:

          Marge: “Homer, I don’t know what you have planned for tonight, but count me out!”

        2. AH, you beat me to it … I was going to say it’s Kathy’s list of party bag supplies! Love it :D

  9. Hey Neil! I’m a long-time reader, first time commenter. I’ve been reading your blog since you were on #800-and-something. I’m just really shy.
    I just wanted to thank you for everything your blog has done for me. It’s picked me up when I was sad, and made me laugh when I was happy. Reading the new posts has become part of my daily routine.
    And now, after all this time, we’re on #9. You’ve stuck with this blog, dedicated yourself to updating it regularly, and not abandoned it or forgotten about it like others would have. I just want to thank you for that. Thanks for helping to make my life awesome for the past few years. I wish you the best of luck in whatever you wish to do in the future. (:
    Stay awesome!

    1. Same for me lately. I have such lofty goals and high expectations for myself, but I’m lucky lately if I get past #1 or #2 on my list! I think I’m going to start handling this the same way I do my New Year’s Resolutions: I always make resolutions that are manageable. For instance, I once resolved to watch Gone with the Wind. I’d never seen it and thought it about time I viewed it since I’m a film buff. I watched the movie a few months into the year so voila, resolution accomplished! This year’s resolution: sing more in the shower. Since I didn’t really sing in the shower before, now that I’ve been doing it once in a while, I’ve fulfilled my resolution! Talk about successful! So maybe we should only populate our lists with fun stuff we know we’ll do. As for the rest of the to-do crap, eh, we’ll get to it one day when we’ve crossed off all of the fun stuff.

      1. Jdurley – sounds like you should add an item to your to-do list: “Make to-do lists shorter.”

        And I like Kathy’s idea of filling your to-do lists with fun things. Makes you feel productive while you’re having a good time!

        1. Freddo, somehow, your suggestion seems counter-productive, but I can’t quite figure out why…

          And Kathy, I am saying yes to lists of fun things to do! Looking foward to those loot bags, as well!

          1. Speaking of counter-productive (and kind of sad): sometimes I put super-easy things or things I’ve just done on my to-do list just so I can cross them off and feel a tiny bit of accomplishment :D

  11. I can’t believe i’ll be there for the #1 awesome thing!! I can’t wait to meet you and good luck!

  12. never stop readind as said by jdurley good consideration!
    crossing off the last item on your list such a pleasure that’s why I continue to do my lists on paper! I cross it out with a pencil .
    enjoy your day guys!!
    gabriela from GABALE

  13. Am I the only one who will sometimes add something I’ve done to the list just so I can cross it off? For instance, if I forgot to write pick up the drycleaning and then I actually pick it up, I’ll write that on the list just so I can cross it off right away and have that lovely sense of satisfaction. ~ahhhhh~

    1. I totally do that! My lists typically look like this: first few items crossed off, next few items not crossed off, several more crossed-off items at the bottom, written in different ink.

    2. HA! Should have finished reading all the comments before I made the last one I made! Yes, I totally do this too!

  14. but the list in the picture still has “attach to branches” on it, yet to be crossed out!! ohhh nooooo!!

    :) kidding.

    hey everyone – especially jdurley, bekah, lovethebadguy – i have so enjoyed sharing this journey with you all. i’ve been here since the high 800’s, took awhile to leave a comment, but the consistent love and support from the people reading this blog is so indicative of what kinds of people appreciate the awesomethings in life. you guys are the best kind of community!

    neil – when i got to talk to you on the phone (as part of winning the Add Your Own Entry contest), i asked you what #1 would be (jokingly) and you asked me what i thought it should be. i can’t believe that day is almost here. i know everyone is saying it, and will say it so much more in the days to come, but here it is: THANK YOU for these last four AWESOME years.

    1. Thanks, Mandy! I’ve really enjoyed reading your comments, too!

      That is a classic Neil move, “what do YOU think #1 should be?” ha ha ha, that made me laugh.

  16. Perfect one for today, Neil! I defended my dissertation this morning. Looking forward to seeing you and celebrating with you soon.

  19. I am so unorganised that I have to write lists constantly! & when I do finally cross them all off – man I love that feeling! :)
    YAY!

    1. I’ve had a to-do list here at work for a few weeks. It was organized into days. It was only suppossed to take me a week to do…but here I am, 3 weeks later and nothing is crossed off.

  20. Oh, I should have done this sooner. I make lists of things I would like to do before I hit a certain age. I now have a list of 30 things I want to do before I turn 30. Before that it was 25 things before I’m 25. On my current list are things like:
    Make kids costumes for Halloween
    Take kids to museum-crossed this one off-
    See a flash mob
    Ride a horse
    Ride in a plane
    Take up a new hobby
    I also have a list of things I want to do in my lifetime and those are:
    Buy a house-hopefully will be crossed off soon_
    Have a second child-crossed this one off
    Get a job I love
    Learn how to sew
    Take photography classes
    Learn how to drive a stick-shift
    Write a book-working on it-
    Go to the beach
    Get to pre-baby weight
    Get a new hairdo
    Learn Italian
    relearn French
    Go to Italy, Canada, Scotland

    1. Great list! See you in Canada!
      (I was glad to see that “ride a horse” and “ride in a plane” were on two separate lines.)

  21. am i the only person that hates the messy crossings out? i’m a big believer of drawing small boxes next to my items and filling them in with black pen, i can never draw in a straight enough line to cross stuff off

  24. My interpretation of this post is on some fine days:
    “Because you finally satisfy your toughest critic”*————————————~crossed off=D

  27. Pingback: #977 Finally catching up | 1000 Awesome Friends

  30. I really love your site.. Pleasant colors & theme. Did you make this website yourself? Please reply back as hoping to create my own personal blog and want to find out where you got this from or just what the theme is named. Thank you)

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