And we're off!

I have now completed the first of the 50 challenges by watching "The Pacific", a 10 part mini-series following American marines in the Pacific. I had got this for Christmas after getting Band of Brothers last year(essentially the European version of The Pacific). I really enjoyed Band of Brothers but I had read that I would be slightly let down by The Pacific. I was. I mean, it was a good enough series and I'd recommend that you watch it but I found that characters lacked depth and even in the later episodes I'm thinking to myself "Do I know that person? Have they appeared before?". However, marks are made up for the fact that I found the last two episodes the best of the series. I would tell anyone to watch it, but if you haven't seen Band of Brothers, then I'd tell you to watch that instead.

1 down, 49 to go!

First Day of the Year - The Challenge Begins

On the 26th December I was asked if I would like to partake in a "Nifty Fifty" list. The premise is simple, you pick 50 achievable things that you think you can manage to do throughout the year and attempt to do as much of them as you can.

It took me a good few hours to compile a list of 50 things that I felt I could actually manage. It's a mixture of things I've done before, things I haven't done but look forward to doing and things that I'm not so much looking forward to doing, but I feel must be done.

Anyhow, this is my 2012 Nifty Fifty list;

1. Get good grades in my Standard Grade exams in April/May
2. Tidy my room at least once a week
3. Learn to tread water
4. Learn to whistle
5. Learn to snap my fingers
6. Learn how to play my guitar that I've had for years
7. Learn how to play the harmonica
8. Complete at least 10 seasons on a Football Manager save
9. Score 5 goals for my hockey team (managed 2 in the second half of this year)
10. Get my braces off
11. Remember to wind up my watch every day so that it doesn't ever stop
12. Go camping
13. Go to Germany
14. Read "War and Peace"
15. Make a 3-course dinner
16. Don't spend that £100 lying in front of me until I go to Belgium in June
17. Read a book by Stephen King
18. Attempt to be more helpful around the house
19. Go to bed at a decent time(before 12) for at least a month on schools nights
20. Watch "The Pacific"
21. Buy an HDMI cable
22. Take a walk in the rain
23. Grow something
24. Read a Charles Dickens novel
25. Surprise someone
26. Place a £5 bet on a sporting event
27. Try a foreign food that I've never had before
28. Visit a museum
29. Complete a jigsaw
30. Go ice-skating
31. Send a message in a bottle
32. Learn to juggle
33. Eat an apple everyday for a week
34. Surprise a junk mailer(anyone but a postman) by dragging it out my letterbox on my side whilst he is still putting it through on his
35. Spend a whole day wearing one white sock and one black sock
36. Give someone directions
37. Watch 5 films in 24 hours
38. Win something
39. Buy a big world map and stick a pin into everywhere I've been
40. Manage to do 10 keepy-ups
41. Win an arm wrestle
42. Buy something worth more than £10 on impulse
43. Go in a boat
44. Go to a Zoo
45. Get a letter/email that I write published (i.e. newspaper, magazine, online)
46. Go bowling
47. Visit at least 5 new Scottish league grounds
48. Have a conversation with someone German
49. Join UKIP
50. Tell my parents that I'm gay


I will attempt to do them all throughout the year and will provide photographic evidence whenever I can(if it's not possible then you'll just need to take my word for it!)

Due to this being a leap year I get 366 days rather than 365 to achieve everything in!

Let's go!