June 2011
29 posts
1 tag
Day 150: Mattress surf
From what I’m told, you never forget how to ride a bicycle… or a surfboard, for that matter.
In 2009, University of Aberdeen neuroscientists identified a key nerve cell in the brain that controls the formation of memories for motor skills, like riding a bicycle or surfboard.
The researchers had been attempting to understand the connection between nerve cells and the cerebellum, the...
May 2011
33 posts
4 tags
Day 149: Teach a puppy how to swim
Weekend post
REMEMBERED TIME
I estimate it took 24 minutes and 16 seconds to teach my parents’ puppy to swim.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?
3 tags
Day 148: Attend the Saint Ubaldo Day festival
Weekend post
REMEMBERED TIME
I believe a friend and I walked around the the Saint Ubaldo festival in Jessup, Pennsylvania, for 20 minutes and 21 seconds.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?
2 tags
Day 147: Use a ouija board in a cemetary
“Spirits of the cemetery, how long will it be before the Greek economy stabilizes? And what effect will that have on the Euro?”
REMEMBERED DETAILS
A friend and I placed the ouija board roughly 10 feet from the front of a gravestone.
I held a flashlight in my mouth and sat on the left end of the board.
The two of us mentioned the amount of mosquitos that were in the area.
I...
1 tag
Day 146: Recite the Gettysburg Address in...
*The picture above was taken during a previous trip to Gettysburg.
REMEMBERED DETAILS
I was driving through Gettysburg around 12:30am and stopped my car near a white fence outside one of the town’s battlefields.
I stood with my iPhone in my right hand and read the address while facing the fence.
Two cars drove by during the experiment.
I moved my feet and changed the way I was...
2 tags
Day 145: Bury a time capsule
ACTUAL EVENTS
What happened on day 146? Find out here.
REMEMBERED TIME
I believe it took 24 minutes and 13 seconds to bury the time capsule.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?
1 tag
Day 144: Make a time capsule
In addition to having a monetary and emotional value, possessions sometimes have a time-based worth as well.
For instance, many of the items that dot my apartment represent specific times or points in life, and these points or periods contribute to the value I associate with each item.
The coffee mug in the cabinet? Purchased in 2006 directly after moving back to the US from Japan, I used the...
4 tags
Day 143: Forage for food in a city
It’s an odd thing foraging for food in a city park at 2 o’clock in the morning on a Monday.
Several years ago, my sister told me she took a foraging tour of New York’s Central Park with a man by the name of Steve “Wildman” Brill.
Wildman has since received heaps of notoriety for his unusual tours, but back then he was just a strange New Yorker who would hand...
3 tags
Day 142: Participate in a drum circle
Weekend post
REMEMBERED TIME
I estimate that I played in the drum circle for 13 minutes and 29 seconds.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?
1 tag
Day 141: Prepare for the Rapture
Weekend post
Florida doctor Dan Colbert told the BBC News in 2005: “Jesus ate primarily natural foods in their natural states - lots of vegetables, especially beans and lentils.”
“He would have eaten wheat bread, a lot of fruit, drunk a lot of water and also red wine.”
In an effort to heed warnings about the Rapture from Christians around the US, I thought it might...
1 tag
Day 140: Wear a mud mask
During the past 141 days, I have received a fish pedicure, a manicure, a professional foot massage and now mud mask therapy. I have also prayed to the Hindu god Ganesha, visited a Pentecostal church service, held a burial ceremony for a plant, confessed to a Catholic priest and attended a Passover feast.
I believe I must now throw in the towel as far as spa and religious-related activities go....
2 tags
Day 139: Meet a member of the Syrian opposition
REMEMBERED TIME
I estimate my interaction with the Syrian opposition member lasted 1 hour and 12 minutes.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?
4 tags
Day 138: Pray to Ganesha, the Hindu...
Like most children, I believed my toys were alive.
The plastic arms on some, the stuffed tails on others - I knew their inanimate limbs were just facades. They may have been simpletons, observers maybe, but I knew they had feelings too.
Often while I was playing with a new toy - a shiny Nurf gun or remote-controlled car perhaps - my eyes would drift toward the older, used toys, faded and...
2 tags
Day 137: Recite a self-authored poem at a poetry...
Though I’m sure The New Yorker has good reason for not publishing the poem I wrote for day 125: “Submit a poem to the New Yorker”, I still thought it best to take matters into my own hands.
I recited my poem, which resembles prose a 5th grader would slap together with crayon and colored paper, on stage in front of a somewhat rough crowd of around 100 aspiring writers,...
2 tags
Day 136: Undergo a teeth whitening procedure
I attempted to bleach my teeth as a follow-up experiment to Day 83: “Brush teeth with a twig”.
Sitting close-mouthed and cross-legged on the apartment floor, I attempted to guess when my 30 minutes of bleaching would be up. As approximated time slipped by, my mind went to Chops.
Chops was a voluminous 18-year-old from Minnesota with a hairy neck and an even hairier back. To...
2 tags
Day 135: Play a homemade video game
Weekend post
REMEMBERED TIME
I estimate I played the video game “Nostalgia”, which was made at at the gam jam I attended for day 134, for 2 minutes and 34 seconds.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?
2 tags
Day 134: Drive a Cushman Truckster
ACTUAL EVENTS
What happened on day 135? Find out here.
REMEMBERED TIME
I believe it took 4 minutes and 12 seconds to drive around the block in the truckster.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?
5 tags
Day 133: Attend a video game developer 'game jam'
Weekend post
REMEMBERED TIME
I estimate I was at the Babycastles Game Jam in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for 2 hours and 40 minutes. *Note the picture above was taken from the Babycastles Facebook page.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?
1 tag
Day 132: Sell a singing telegram
I distinctly remember my first time using “the internet”.
It was a clunky time in hardware that when reflected upon prompts memories of blinking green lights and cream-colored metal casings.
Our IBM 286 was paired with a sizable 14.4bps modem, and my family huddled around the confusing array of wires and electronics, a mirror reflection of how other families likely crowded together...
2 tags
Day 131: Voluntarily get sick
It’s a strange thing being stone cold sober and in perfectly good health, while trying to make oneself sick. The peculiarity is then doubled when one lives in a quite apartment and one’s roommate is fast asleep in the adjacent bedroom.
A funny truth about this project as a whole is that occasionally some of the tasks I attempt engaging in don’t work out, forcing me to...
2 tags
Day 130: Cut up 300lb of beef
I rolled into the DC Central Kitchen early on Tuesday morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, having had signed up to volunteer last week. I had never worked at a soup kitchen before and was eager to get my hands dirty.. or saucy.. or meaty… or covered in other soup kitchen fare. I was greeted by Marla, a heavyset 40-something woman whose colossal white smile seemed to mirror the one on her ...
3 tags
Day 129: Exercise to a workout video
My athletic ability and physique could truthfully be compared to that of a flabby, inactive greyhound. That’s to say, I likely have the breeding and core body type to be competitive but choose to spend my time gobbling curiously-colored slop from large bowls, while watching others run around at the park.
My “squish”, as my girlfriend likes to call it, awkwardly pokes out from...
3 tags
Day 128: Sing each sentence (throughout dinner)
Weekend post
ACTUAL EVENTS
What happened on day 130? Find out here. (Video quality may be poor.)
REMEMBERED TIME
I estimate the dinner I had with friends, during which I sung each word I spoke, lasted 1 hour and 44 minutes.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?
3 tags
Day 127: Visit a drag bar
Weekend post
REMEMBERED TIME
I believe I spent 1 hour and 34 minutes inside Lucky Cheng’s in New York City.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?
3 tags
Day 126: Have a drink with an imaginary friend in...
Weekend post
REMEMBERED TIME
I estimate the conversation with the “imaginary friend” at 169 Bar in New York’s Lower East Side lasted 27 minutes and 05 seconds.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?
3 tags
Day 125: Celebrate Cinco de Mayo
Day 127 self-evaluation:
After 127 new experiences, I have found the new activities I participate in now seem increasingly more commonplace with each day that passes, while bland everyday tasks (going to the bank, taking out the trash and others I would have engaged in almost unconsciously before) now appear more dynamic.
By this I mean, I’m more attentive during the seemingly mundane...
3 tags
Day 124: Get a fish pedicure
Hypothesis: The older you get and the more kids you have, the better and silkier your bedsheets become.
As a kid, I was infatuated with sleeping in my parents’ well-adorned bed when they weren’t occupying it. The silky smooth high thread count comforted and satisfied like no other. After blossoming around the age of 16, however, my parents rightfully found this practice a bit...
3 tags
Day 123: Submit a poem to The New Yorker
I had absolutely no idea how to write a poem before beginning today’s task. In fact, I have never written any prose of the sort before.. ever. So prior to getting started, I thought it best to consult an expert - Oprah Winrey.
Oprah tells us there are twelve ways to write a poem:
Make a list of five things you did today, in the order you did them.
Quickly write down three colors.
...
2 tags
youarenowawarethat asked: I've been following this blog for months now and I just figured out that it was on Tumblr. Or is this new? Bahaha!
Honestly, I enjoy reading this so much :) Thanks & keep up the good work.
Honestly, I enjoy reading this so much :) Thanks & keep up the good work.
3 tags
Day 122: Remix a death threat
While on a snowboarding trip in Vermont this past winter, somewhere between “Day 29: Walk across a state border” and “Day 32: Suffer an unexpected spinal fracture”, I received my first death threat.
To be precise, I believe my girlfriend and I were on our way back from feeding and petting a donkey (Day 31) when I got the call.
I let the incoming number, which I...
3 tags
Day 121: Receive momentous news through reading...
Weekend post
REMEMBERED TIME
I was told about the president’s announcement on Osama Bin Laden while at home, prior to the actual statement. I knew the content of the speech beforehand, and used the opportunity to attempt to understand the statement by reading the president’s lips. I transcribed the event as it happened. I estimate the activity lasted 9 minutes and 32 seconds.
...
3 tags
Day 120: Attend a roller derby match
Weekend post
REMEMBERED TIME
I estimate I spent 2 hours and 33 minutes in the DC Armory for the roller derby match.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?
2 tags
Day 119: Navigate a crawl space
REMEMBERED TIME
I believe I was in the crawl space for 8 minutes and 55 seconds.
ACTUAL TIME
How long did it take? Find out here.
Why don’t videos or images of time appear on this site?
