Things I Learned, 2015 edition

This is my usual annual review.  The only thing I've managed to do consistently, I believe, the entire time I've had this blog.

My usual disclaimer is as follows: This is purposely vague, because I don't have time to include a year's worth of actual things I've learned.  Also, these are things that even if I knew before, were refreshed to me in such a way that I shall henceforth peg them to this past year.  And finally, this list is in no particular order, and the importance of the items are in no way discernible.  Disclaimer over.

1)  Adventures are where it's at.  I don't mean specifically you have to go on adventures, I just mean that I think it's important to be open enough to let life be a series of adventures.  Nothing turns out the way we expect it to, anyhow, so we might as well let go and enjoy all the things.

2)  Spiritual laziness is a thing.  This is pretty personal, but I'll put it out here: there were times in 2015 where I struggled to keep my Bibleing habits consistent.  It's not pretty, and ends up being painful when one finally comes to ones senses and buckles down, but it's the truth.

3)  Mornings never, ever get easy.  I've tried everything to make my mornings be a breeze (I lay everything out ahead of time, I set my alarm clock away from my bed so I have to get up and stay up, I drink much caffeine), but guys, mornings are the worst.  And when mornings suffer, so do the Bible times.  See #2

4)  Everything has to change eventually.  There were choices I made this year in terms of activities where people questioned my motives.  "Why didn't you go to that event?  Why did you go for a shorter amount of time?  What's going on?"  The answer?  I can't do everything.  I just can't.  It's okay to pick and choose and help people understand that not everything can stay the same.  That's life.

5)  Love endureth all things.  Sorry to be so cliche, but if there's anything that friendships have taught me, is that it takes a lot of grace and love to navigate people.  And, of course, for people to deal with me!

6)  People talk about what's important to them.  I consider myself to be a people person (by that I mean I'm not a plant or animal person, so I must be a people person), but sometimes it takes a great amount of focus to realize that when it all boils down to it, people end up saying what they'd like to be saying if they felt safe enough to say it.  Those things that people want to say?  They are saying.  You--which is to say I--need to listen up.  That was a pretty important one for me.

And that's that.

In which I meet the kid who is the anti-me

100s day at school was a real revelation

We celebrated 100s day at the daycare recently (which I don't understand.  Being homeschooled apparently left some pretty big gaps in my education.  Why is being 100 days into the school year a big deal?) and we questioned all the older kids about things that had to do with 100.  Some of the answers ended up being hilarious, some rather dull, and some made me question what they teach kids in school these days.

Like this kid, above, who is a dear soul, but upon gazing on his answers I realized that we were very different one from another.  (Well, I probably want to be the boss at my house when I'm 100, but, you know, the other stuff.)

Why we're so different: my corner of the attic has about a million books (or at least, way more than 100), and then day I have 100 cats will be a sad day (haha, or indicate that I am the most single human in the history of humans), and the day I choose to spend $100 buying a dog will be the day any one of you has permission to check me into a home for mentally disturbed individuals.

But that's okay.  It takes all kinds to make the world go round.  I just must confess, this child's polar opposite version of me cracked me up.

Things I learned in 2014

This year, an abbreviated list (unlike last year's wordy list!), because most of the things I learned were kind of personal.  And you guys are my friends, but let's be honest, this is still the internet.

1)  Life is hard.
2)  God is good.
3)  Seeing a fault in one's self doesn't mean the fault will be automatically fixed.
4)  Spreading wings is a difficult and misunderstood task.
5)  Faith comes by hearing.  And hearing.  And hearing again.

And that's it, guys.  All of 2014 and I came away with but five share-able takeaways.

I'm banking on the Lord coming before next year, just so we're all clear.  I say this every year (every day?) but seriously, this year has got to be our year!

And a picture from an airplane, because it's a picture and I used to pretend I was going to add pictures to my posts, remember?

Thanksgiving 2014

I love Thanksgiving.  No, for real, I do.  It's cozy, and thankful, and wonderful, and I just love it.

Not the food.  But I've said that before.   (I just searched by blog under the "Thanksgiving" label and came up with like 10 posts about Thanksgiving.  I'm not kidding, I love everything about Thanksgiving but the food!)

Also something I've said before is that for the last several years I've had my Sunday School girls write thanksgiving lists in class.  We read verses about being thankful, talk about why we should be thankful, and to Whom we should be thankful, and then try to think of things for which to be thankful (this year I remembered to be thankful for Chipotle.  Mmm).  Usually gets some pretty good results (one of our most frequent Sunday School-and-Gospel speakers is famous for reminding us to be thankful for everything, including chairs, so almost all the girls remembered this and marked that they were thankful for chairs), but this year I heard one I hadn't heard before.

While reading around an item or two from our list one girl shared that she was thankful for my eyebrows.

"Uh, my eyebrows?  Specifically me?  Or you're thankful for your eyebrows?"

"Oh no, Miss Joanne, not my eyebrows.  Yours.  I think they look okay with your face."

"Mmmmmmmnmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmk."

And that, my friends, is the story of how I got a complex about my eyebrows and I'm not even sure why, because, comfortingly enough, they are "okay."

(Just because I couldn't resist, I searched the KJV for references to eyebrows.  There's only one direct reference, and in this reference the guy is straight-up shaving his off.  Maybe eyebrows are meant to be expendable?)

Things I learned in 2013

This feels like deja vu.  I literally just did a "What I learned in 2012" post, but, as we all know, that was a whole year late, so...  I'll just do this, and maybe my "What I learned in 2014" post will seem normal, presuming I do it in 12 months instead of waiting till 2015 is over with.

Yikes.  2015 sounds frighteningly close.  It's a good thing I know the Lord is coming soon!  I won't have to worry about silly things like "What I learned" lists.  Especially when my lists are as subjective and vague as mine typically are.

As always, this list is in no particular order.

1)  Rice bags can catch on fire in the microwave.  In other news, microwaves still function even with holes melted into the side of them.  That is truly something I didn't used to know.
2)  People can still surprise you.  I'm not that old, but I have a habit of thinking that nothing is unexpected.  Well, it's not true.  Unexpected things can (and do) happen.
3)  God is a lot more gracious than I am.  I knew that, but I was reminded again this past year.
4)  I'm kind of emotional.  I used to mock my friends who teared up at the slightest provocation, but I'm not much better these days.  I don't know if it's age or event related, but I cry a lot more often than I want to.
5)  When I look around I realize that the Lord has a way of using substitution in my life.  In a good way.  For instance, there are things I think I want but instead of giving those to me, He gives to me things that feed the need perfectly for where I am in life.  That probably doesn't make sense, so I'll elaborate.  All I ever wanted to be from my youth up was to be a mom.  I never had career aspirations or even life aspirations, truth be told, outside of marriage and family.  And I still would love to be a mother, but at the current, that's not in the cards for me.  But what I do have is a passel of Sunday School kids, and a job at a daycare.  Almost every day of my life is filled with sticky smiles and heads of hair to braid.  So it might seem like a silly something (and I'm not trying to say that what I do is mothering, because you mothers out there know that it's way more than just making sure kids aren't choking on plastic bags or whatever), but I have been so thankful this past year to realize that the Lord knows my heart and keeps my lap filled with children who want to listen to me read story books.  It's a gift.  And I'm thankful for it.
6)  I should never be so dogmatic when I say that certain things won't happen.  Turns out #2 on my list applies to all kinds of areas.  Sometimes things that seem like they'll never happen do.
7)  Life is made of moments, not milestones.  I mean, some people get milestones, and I obviously have milestone-ish things in my life, but I've been learning not to look to milestones for contentment.  Life passes me by when I'm constantly looking ahead for events over which I hold no control.  Life is the every day, the mundane, the mealtimes and conversations and friendships and the shared memories.  Life isn't always about moments that are scrapbook-able.

I could go on.  But 2014 has already been overwhelming with with things and I'm afraid that if I finish this list (which I started a few weeks ago, but, as per usual, left in draft format for a while) it'll be subtly influenced by 2014.  And then what would I put on my list next year?  If the Lord doesn't come, that is.

Things I learned in 2012

Wait, I'm sorry, is this belated at all?

Ironically, I really did compile this list when 2013 was yet fresh.  I even talked up the concept of a "What I learned" list and at least one friend jumped on the bandwagon and did a list for 2012 back when I did mine in January.  I just...  Forgot to publish this post.  So this is old, but the ideas are still good ones.

Right?  *coughcough*

Without further ado, and in no particular order:

1)  Never put a pen through your clothes drier.  The washing machine isn't so bad, it's the drier that will never be the same.
2)  Humans as a whole are remarkably unobservant.  For instance, I got my hair cut about a foot and only three people noticed.  Total.
3)  I, also being human, am not observant.  I won't go into details, but suffice it to say I can think of at least two instances where I was the last to notice something that directly related to me.
4)  There's a lot to learn in the Bible.  A lot.
5)  I shouldn't be allowed to play shooting games.  While at my sister's house over the summer I was trying to play Portal, and anytime something shot at me, I about hid under the desk.  A game that involved real shooting would probably be very damaging to my psyche.
6)  There are a lot of problem in life.  Sometimes I learn of GIANT situations that I didn't know about, and think, "Why so many problems everywhere?"  Nobody is exempt, it seems.
7)  My life is not my own.  I mean, nobody's is, but...  I have learned recently that it's very much true of me, as well.

PS this has the same disclaimer as last year.  These aren't all new things, just thoughts that presented themselves to me in various ways through the year.

Things I Ought to Know

I decided the other day that instead of a bucket list, perhaps I should have a list of things I should know.  I mean, we should all know a great deal of things (I'm taking this wildly out of context, but as we all remember from Hosea 4:6, knowledge is kind of important.  Never reject it.  The verse obviously isn't talking about cumulonimbus clouds or anything, but I'm simply making the point that knowledge=important), plus, learn something new every day (my father would be so proud), but I feel like maybe I should have a list of things I should know/do/have.  And since I really do love lists quite a bit, I thought I'd turn my hypothetical musing into an actual list of things in no particular order.  I'm sure this isn't complete, but it's just sort of stuff that comes to mind.

Knitting.  I feel like every virtuous girl should be able to knit.  I... cannot.  Yet.  My friend Joy knows how, so maybe whenever I get around to visiting her, we can have a little session wherein she teaches me and I attempt to learn.

Have a cool vocabulary word.  My mom just found solidus the other day, which is basically a cooler/more intelligent-sounding word for, well, slash.  Good call, Muth.  I like to have a word and use it often enough so that I might never forget it.  Then I move on to a new one.  I tought everyone insouciant a while ago, just because I found it and it's swell.  I like to use words other than "like" and "um," though they do have their place.  Places.  Oh, and recently I was bringing back forsooth, and it sort of worked.  I have friends who use forsooth now.  I love it.

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.  I was determined to know what it meant, because I always get it confused with the Higgs Boson thing, and after a long time of seeing stuff about the God Particle in the news, I decided to set it to rights in my head which was which.  So far, I never remember what the Higgs Boson thing is all about, but when I remember, I review the Uncertainty Principle in my head, just for kicks.  "It's impossible to simultaneously find the position and velocity of a subatomic particle.  It's impossible to simultaneously find the position and velocity of a subatomic particle."  I don't even know if that's 100% correct, but I had to break it down into layman's terms so I could even figure out what the principle was about.  No wonder they're so uncertain.

Have a favorite verse.  I read a book recently where the girl claimed the "In all things we are more than conquerors" verse and would quote it about every other page.  Personally, I'm still working on finding one.  I have different verses for different occasions.  For instance, I have a whole selection of verses for morning times.  I have Rejoice Evermore on my wall by the postcards I collect from my cool vacations, so as to remind me that ever situation and place is rejoiceable.  I (mis)quote the second half of Matthew 26:41 when I work out.  I remind myself of the first part of 2 Cor. 12:15 when I'm doing someone else's work for them and I know I should have a better attitude about it.  I I have other verses for other occasions, but I won't expand tediously on this point.  This point being that no, I don't have an all-time favorite verse.  Yet.  Perhaps I never shall.  I just sort of have a bunch I use at different times.  But I feel like I should have One Really Special Verse For All Occasions.  We shall see.

Know something cool about science.  My dad knows a lot of stuff about stars and... other sky-related things.  He has made it a habit to utilize the tools we have available to us in this modern age and learn.  That's cool.  I decided a while ago to re-learn stuff about clouds.  When I was in sixth grade or thereabouts, I had to know the difference between the cirrus and cumulus and all those types of clouds.  I'm ashamed to say that I can't remember them any more.  So I have resolved to learn something really cool (what?  clouds are cool!) and retain it in my feeble memory.

Figure out the Bible chronologically speaking.  I'm not going to lie.  For as many times as I've read through those Old Testament books, I still get hung up on which prophet was around when which king was reigning, and when those Persians came into play, and who was doing what.  It's hard to get it straight.  So I've been working on having a better grasp of what comes when.

Hepygroga.  I had a teacher in school who used to refer to geography as "hepygroga," which is an anagram of geography.  Anyhow, his point was that when you don't know where things belong, it's much more difficult to sort things out in your head.  Much like a proper chronology of the Bible is bound to help me when I read the Bible, a proper idea of geography will help me as I hear/read/observe the world around me.  Honestly, I'm terrible at geography.  The other day we were discussing In Search of the Source (great book) and whether or not the book is set in Papua New Guinea, and I couldn't even remember where that was.  So yeah, I've got work to do.  Sometimes I go to Google Maps (or Google Earth, whichever), and just sort of scroll around the world, seeking where I might learn more.  There are a lot of countries.  Goodness.

Have better handwriting.  At the urging my sister, who gently (coughcoughornotsogentlycoughcough) told me that my handwriting isn't even at an 8th grade level, I started working on handwriting with my younger sister.  We practice for about a half hour a day.  It'll probably still be an 8th grade level (I am what I am, alas), but you know what?  I'm working on it.  I am trying.

When to speak up and when to shut up.  This one speaks for itself.

Know what a gerund is.  My mom does.  She knows all those things about participles and parenthetical clauses.  I think that's genius.  To me, a gerund is confusing.  How can it do so much stuff?  I mean, "ing"ing stuff is a good enough job description, so why overachieve and perform as a subject, object, or whatever else it does?

Imaginary numbers.  I am sorry to admit, that I was rather... questionable at math.  And then I got to the part about imaginary numbers, and I thought, "They're just MAKING THIS UP????????" and I stopped paying attention.  One day I should really go back and figure out what an imaginary number is.  Honestly, I couldn't even begin to tell you.  That's so shameful.

ROY G. BIV.  Because everyone should have a tried-and-true way to remember the rainbow colors.  I also use a little acrostic (That He Just Peter Loves Grapes... virtue, praise) to help me remember Philippians 4:8.  And I still sing the Books of the Bible song in my head to help me remember where to find Ezra and Nehemiah.  I find it not at all shameful to get a little help from time to time.

Learn the rules to a game.  I one time Do Hard Things by the Harris Twins, and they said to do things outside of your comfort zone, and especially do more than just the things that come naturally to you.  So, while I don't think it's at all important in the slightest to learn the rules to football or baseball or another sports-type game that I have zero interest in whatsoever, I figure that next time somebody tries to explain such rules to me, I'll pay attention and thank them for their time.

Know when it's appropriate to follow a recipe--or not.  I've gone over this before, but but I find it easier to not follow recipes.  I'm doing my best to actually follow recipes in earnest.  It's not very fun.  I feel sorry for methodical people.

Anyhow, I could think of more things to list about, but then next time any of you ask me about it ("What kind of cloud is that?  Oh, you don't know?  What happened to that list?") I'd rather have fewer items to feel obliged to learn.  So I shall end it with this paragraph upon which you are gazing now.  This is truly the end of this post.  Now I go forth and learn, my friends!

Things that terrify me

1)  When a tree has a blight and the leaves have those terrible bumps.  I literally can't stand to look at that.  It makes me want to just... run away or something.  Honestly, it's terrifying.

2)  When you realize that a situation is dangerous.  You know the one.  An angry car is tailing you, and the driver might just ram you off the road.  For their own personal enjoyment.  At the expense of your life.

3)  Change.  There is nothing quite like realizing that everything is out of your control, and only the Lord knows what is happening.  I know it's reassuring to know that HE knows, but the fact that I don't know terrifies me.

4)  Being outside of the Lord's will.  Because sometimes I do things that seem to make sense at the time, and then I realize that I'm just making it up as I go along.

5)  This point removed.  Just because.

6)  That moment when your heart stops because you think you heard some terrible news but actually you just have a hearing problem and everything is fine.  I like the everything-is-fine part, but the wait-WHAT? moment freaks me out.

7)  Myself.  I'm happy that the old man is dead and all that, but I'm still firmly attached to my flesh.  Sort of wish I weren't.  I hate that I'm capable of so much sin.  I'm not trying to be dramatic, but seriously, the flesh ruins a lot of stuff.  Stupid free will...

8)  The realization that I've made no significant headway in life.  And after 2+ decades I probably know less about what I want to do with my life than when I had just a few years of life under my belt.  When I was young, it all made sense.  Then I grew up and realized that my plans mean nothing whatsoever.

All in all, it's a good thing that God hasn't given me a spirit of fear.  Also, that He's given me a sound mind.  Otherwise, I would let all this stuff get to my head.  Especially that leaf thing.  Seriously...

Of buckets and lists

I don't really have a bucket list. Mind you, when one of my friends from LA was last at my house, and we stayed up until about 3:00 am simply because we didn't want the fun to end, we sort of came up with a bucket list. It went along the lines of, "And then we're going to go see Disney on Ice, and then HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA we're going to learn to skate it and pretend that we can actually skate and  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I don't even know!!!! It'll be hilarious!!!!!!" and then basically we made up a bunch of stuff about doing shows on ice because we are both not the best of ice skaters. I think that's why we were talking about it, anyhow. Honestly, I don't even remember.  Anything that happens after about 11:00 pm isn't exactly going to stick too well in my head.

But I do sort of have things in mind that I'd kind of be super excited about, should they ever for some reason come to pass. Isn't that what Bucket Lists are all about? Stuff you've always wanted to do? My actual bucket list, were I to make one, would be fairly simple.  Besides learning to knit (how have I still never learned to knit? I learned how to crochet, and knitting seemed way harder, so I didn't even try. One day I shall), and having a passport with stamps on every page (how AWESOME would that be?) I'd also like to *dun dun dun* ride in a blimp.

I've taken a lot of forms of transportation--bus, train, plane, subway, water taxi, etc.--but they've all been kind of regular-type. I want to ride in a blimp. I've heard it's kind of boring, but hey, I'm a boring person. And that's okay. But seriously, even more than a hot air balloon (also never been up in one), I would choose a blimp. So if I ever get cancer or something, and they confuse me for a child and let me do the Make-a-Wish thing, now you all know what I'd wish for. A blimp ride. Just because it sounds pretty swell.



Oh, and that blue house contains those neighbors you're supposed to be praying for.



I got to thinking about this the other night when a blimp flew over our house. We get a lot of blimps--hullo, Goodyear--but not usually directly over our back porch. We were sitting at supper and it approached and we were like hey hey, a blimp. And then it flew right over us, and we acted like tourists who'd never seen blimps before, instead of a family who has had blimps flying by for years. So I snapped a few photos and I'm sorry to say that there's no way to capture the size of the things. I mean seriously, blimps are gianty creatures. In the photos they look small here, but trust me, they are big.



It was getting a bit dark, so it's not the best picture ever.  Also, it's so large that when it flies over your head you don't really have a lot of options as far as swell photo-taking goes.



Anyhow, if any of you know someone who can hook me up with a ride in a blimp, please let me know. Thanks. : )

PS, I'm not discontent with such things as I don't have, but I just sometimes like to potentially dream about adventures I may or may not have down the road.  But please, don't think I'm being snobbish or something, just because I think a blimp would be a cool way to travel.

I've flown the coupe, or some other lame title

Sometimes I'm kind of a nerd.  I don't just mean that I like to safely eject my flash drive from the computer, or that I love making lists about any and everything, or my blind devotion to Google, but sometimes I like car-related things.  I don't think that's the correct definition of nerd, but it's one of those things where I don't remember what people who taking a passing interest in cars are called.

So anyhow, for reasons unknown, I've always really liked Nissan.  One year my brother gave me a birthday card with a picture of the 350Z because he knew how well I liked Nissan (haha, shows you how long ago that was!  They don't even make the 350Z any longer!)  Still have that card.  So anyhow, imagine my surprise when I saw the Altima Coupe and hardly even recognized the thing!  I was at my sister's and we were driving to, well, somewhere, I don't even recall where, and suddenly I saw a two-door Altima and was just confused.  I sort of blurted something unintelligible about what the Altima was doing with only two doors? and everybody potentially thought I was insane.  Not like I blame them.  But anyhow, isn't it pretty?  I think so.

I just want to specify that I really know nothing about cars.  I just happened to see another Altima Coupe and remember afresh my shame at not having noticed this in the past four years since it came out.  How had I never seen one before?  What is wrong with me?

In other news, I was at a stoplight last week sitting behind the VW Eos, and... I sort of loved the tail lights.  Seriously, it's like the car had personality.  Loved.

Anyhow, I'm done talking about cars for like... a year.  Possibly two.  Thank you for your kind attention as I got all of this said.  Although, come to think of it, I do have quite a bit I could say about pickup trucks.  My dad has always said that he could see me driving a pickup, and while I agree, I rarely agree with his choices of pickups.  Anyhow, I don't even remember why I started talking about cars.  Oh, yeah.  Altima.  Two doors.  Shame.

I'm actually done this time.

Remember me?

So... I've been avoiding this blog for a while.  I went on a trip in December, and then in January I was busy literally all the time, and then in February, well, I was gone all month, and now that it's March I kept thinking that I should update this, but then I thought, well, it's not vital, besides, I have nothing to say, and so finally I put it on my to-do list.  I love to-do lists, and I hate to have items unfinished.  So, apparently, I should have put it on my to-do list long ago.  Perhaps you would have heard from me sooner.

Back to the trips I took.  One might think, me being a reasonably smart girl, I would have brought my camera with me on my various trips.  You would be correct.  One might assume, being that I went to (I think) 21 states and one Canadian province, that I might have actually used my camera.

In that, my friends, you would be wrong.  I took some pictures in Texas.  And... that was all.  And the only reason I took pictures in Texas was because I saw a sign stating that the area was under CCTV surveillance.  Anyone who has been to England will laugh, because if there's one thing England knows how to do, it's now to surveil its people.  True story.  The average Briton, they say, it photographed 300 times a day.  You'd believe it, if you saw how many camera they have over there.

Anyhow, all that to say, I laughed, and had to take a picture of the sign.  Some random rest stop in Texas is allowed to keep tabs on me, I don't care, but I thought it was a good timey throwback to days in England.

Anyhow, other than that, I have no interesting pictures to share.  Oh, except I did take a picture of some art of Texas at the same rest stop, simply because I was, you know, taking pictures.  So please, accept this last picture of Texas and accept my apology for not updating this for the past three months or so.

Raindrops on Roses

Some of my favorite things, in no order, and certainly not a complete listing:

Puddles
Pineapple
Bibles.  I'd probably have 50 if it didn't seem excessive.
Pciture books
Libraries
Bookstores
Actually, anything having to do with books
Appropriately swift internet connections
Bags.  I'm not an accesory girl, but I love purses/bags.
Upbeat music
Also, melencholy music
But only if the music is good.  I super dislike naughty music.
Friends
Bibleing with my friends (you know who you are)
Mail.  When it's for me!  and... not a bill.
Nieces and nephews
Come to think of it, pretty much all family.
Fuzzy things
Speedlimits that are reasonably high.  For instance, not 55 mph.
When the doctor's office has cool magazines (aka, not celebrity gossip, but Bloomberg Buisnessweek or something)
Babies
Fairy tales
Couples who are happily married
Well-behaved children
Traveling
Also, traveling buddies
Also, road trips
Fryingpans (who knew, right?)
And, obviously, the upcoming Rapture.  Yay!

Yes, I am obsessive

When my new boss was interviewing me, he decided I was tightly wound to the point of OCD. Well, there are some things that I am sort of OC about. A lot of things, actually. (I've decided that saying OCD is just wrong. How could I be "disorder" about anything? I don't understand that statement.) And I just realized that he might be even more correct than he thought.

After my first full day of work (I didn't want to count chickens before they hatched and do this prior to having at least a full day under my belt), I came home, went into my tasks in Gmail, and checked "get a job" off of my to-do list. Now you tell me, is it normal to have "get a job" on ones to-do list? Is it normal to remember it's there, and then check it off? I'm not sure, obviously, since I only live one life (I may be OC, but I'm not bi-polar, thankfully), but I was just remembering my weirdness and decided that maybe somebody could enlighten me on the rules of to-do listing.

Though this bodes well for my job, since apparently one of the things I'm supposed to do is successfully finish to-do lists. That's cool, lists are right up my alley.