Update

7) Dye my hair -  DONE (25/07/11)

Hadn't done so in a while so I thought 'why not?' The typical Asian colour to go for is red (which I've had a few times) so I decided to go for something a bit different...purple! TBH I wasn't expecting it to show well since I didn't bleach my hair beforehand but I held hope regardless. Well you can tell when my hair's wet...or it's in direct sunlight. Otherwise...it's jet black. My fingernails were died purple due to the stupidity of not wearing gloves when washing the dye off. Fail.

9) Go to a festival - DONE properly (23/07/11)

I kind of cheated myself by claiming that throwing paint at people for Holi counted as 'going to a festival'. I fixed it though by going to the Ben & Jerry's Sundae Festival (which was ironically on Saturday). Bit of a last minute plan but definitely glad we went. £17 for many live bands (Gary Numan, Maximo Park etc.) and the best bit? ...Unlimited free Ben & Jerry's ice cream with every possible flavour. Only managed about 10 in the end but all in all, a nice chilled day with good music and ice cream. What more could you want? 


32) Get a 1st in my degree -  In Progress
As always, Maths results were not out on the day that they were meant to be - which happened to be the day before I jetted away to Malta. Eventually they were released as I was on the train down to Leeds. These exams were the worst I've taken, especially one in which I failed to even put a coherent answer down for 2/3 of the paper. The saving grace though was scaling. Massive scaling, all across the board (by an average of 20 marks it seems). So...averaged 77 this semester coupled with 82 last semester gives me a healthy total to take into my final year. I need somewhere in the 60s to overall average a First. Let's not screw this up now. 


33) Do a proper all nighter -  DONE (09/06/11)
Summer Pangaea 2011. Theme: Go Wild. An epic night dressed as a zebra. Walking out and down Oxford Road at 6am with the sun out, passing giant portable speakers blasting drum and bass with students still raving away on the SU steps, was a surreal experience. 


41) Win Premier League with Hartlepool... - DONE (28/07/11)
Eventually done. Fifa 11. World Class. Successive promotions from League 1 to the Prem then winning the league comfortably after 1 season. The lads should be proud of themselves. Star man? Aaron Chow of course. What a player. 

58) Watch 100 films I haven't seen before -  In Progress [65/100]

• The Hangover Part II - Glad to see Mr. Chow having a bigger part in this. Comic genius. Like the first part, good fun but it was the photos during the credits which produced the most laughs.
• The Damned United - Brilliant. Even someone with no interest in football would enjoy this. Maybe.
• Taken - I was so looking forward to seeing this after many rave reviews but was left a bit disappointed. Pretty standard action and nowhere near as 'thrilled' as I thought I would be.
• The Informant! - Part of a pile of copied DVDs I had bought from Marmaris. Quirky little comedy. Left me slightly confused with what was going on though.
• The Last King Of Scotland - By recommendation. Such a great performance by Whitaker and I was stunned by the realism, story and the relationships developed between the characters. Fantastic film.
• Green Lantern - I wasn't expecting a blockbuster and because of that, I thought it was actually alright. Nothing clever; a glorified fairytale about having the will to fight fear.
• The Adjustment Bureau -  Had comparisons to Inception which I could see why, not that I necessarily agree with them. Still, great to watch but it would always be difficult being compared to (in my opinion) one of the greatest films of recent years.
• Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame - Mixes my Mum's love of detective stories and...well, being Chinese. A bit far fetched at times and CGI wasn't great but it was quite original and watch-able.
• Porco Rosso - see below
• Hobo With A Shotgun - Very Grindhouse-esque (infact, it is based on a winning trailer of the Grindhouse trailer contest). Lots of gore, violence and great lines make this a memorable film. Although mentally blocking out some of the scenes is probably for the best. 
• The Good, The Bad And The Weird - Possibly the first Korean film I've ever seen. Good fun though although a tad slow at times. 
• Transformers: Dark Of The Moon - Had to wait a while to see this although others who had seen it didn't really think much of it. Giant robots beating the sh*t out of each other on the big screen. What's not to like? 
• Black Dynamite - Brilliant. He really is one "super-n*gger". (Not nagger).

67) Buy 10 scratchcards - In Progress [6/10]
Another £2 down the drain.


88) Get into the habit of rewriting/looking at notes after the lecture - DONE...kinda
Started...but after a week or so I just didn't find it useful at all. More time consuming than anything. Not worth it.

90) Read the 7 books I got from Borders 90% off sale - In Progress [6/7]

• Who Is Charlie Conti? by Claus von Bohlen
• Rain Dogs And Love Cats by Andrew Holmes

92) Watch the entire Studio Ghibli collection - In Progress [7/19]

• Porco Rosso - A pilot pig. Strange enough as it is but throw in pirates and fully grown men asking to marry little girls then you have a Japanese film. Not one of Miyazaki's finest in my opinion.

100) Go on nights out in Liverpool and Leeds - DONE (16/07/11)

• Leeds - for MJs birthday at a farm/outdoor centre style place in Leeds. [This counts, right? If not then Leeds Fest surely does. Either way, I'm giving this a big tick]. Almost didn't make it there due to car trouble - the car I had bought only a few days earlier. Not the best start to a party having to sort things out with an RAC guy but thankfully the car managed to make it to Manchester the day after. Shame it broke down there a week later...

Update

9) Go to a festival - DONE (06/03/10)
Holi - a Hindu 'Festival of Colours'. This wasn't what I had in mind when writing the task (mainly thinking of Leeds/Reading), but I guess it still counts. I didn't even register in my head that this was a festival until on the way back from it. But it was a good laugh - there's something oddly satisfying about rubbing paint onto a stranger's face. Washing my hair afterwards was almost psychedelic. I'm still wanting to go to a music festival at some point though.

28) Be part of a flashmob - DONE (14/03/10)
There was a Flashmob arranged for a few months ago in Sainsburys but, for some reason, it never happened. But then I was surprised to be invited to a new Flashmob, in the same place with the same aim (stand completely still for 5 minutes) but on the weekend coming. Over 200 people were put as 'Attending' but I could forsee it being...well...a big failure frankly. Needless to say, me and Harry still went; and also needless to say, we dressed up as Mario and Luigi.
...Wait. What?
Yeah, it was an interesting experience standing in the pizza section each posing holding a pizza. Shame there were only about 5 people in total taking part. Big failure indeed.

32) Get a 1st in my degree - In Progress
Got my results a few days earlier than they said...and it was still a week after everyone had theirs. Averaged 74.5% which I am very pleased with considering I was expecting a 2:1. I suspect that everyone was marked up though but I'm not complaining.


41) Win Premier League with Hartlepool... - In Progress
Hartlepool are now in the Premier League! After 2 successive promotions, Mr. Drunkenmo has propelled this lowly club to the dizzying heights of the top tier with star players such as Bjornsson, Liddle, Brown along with new signings Moses, Kightly, Mched...michyle...Michy among others performing admirably. This season will be tough but the players are ready for a relegation dogfight. Bring it on!

58) Watch 100 films I haven't seen before - In Progress [13/100]

• Boat Trip - A film about two straight guys thrown on a gay cruise. Hilarity ensues surely? Well, as long as you're not expecting a clever film then you will get some laughs out of it - mainly through the many predictable clichés.
  
• Finding Nemo - I still don't know why it's taken until now for me to see it - I probably didn't believe the hype. I mean, I could pretty much quote half of the movie before even seeing it thanks to Danielle and Aarti. Still, a great animation with good laughs.
  
• Up - Disappointed that I didn't see this in 3D but an enjoyable film nontheless. It amused, entertained and managed to deliver emotion at the same time. Impressive.
• Walk The Line - Great film even though I knew nothing about Johnny Cash beforehand (except Ring Of Fire). Brilliant acting by Joaquin but I wasn't so sure about Reese - I'll always just see her as a ditsy blonde lawyer. Anyways, as the great John Dorian once said, "Yeah, I know I'm not exactly the jockey type, but I watched Hoosiers last night and I like sports now." And I like Johnny Cash now.

67) Buy 10 scratchcards - In Progress [2/10]
I am now starting to regret having this as a task - it seems to be a bit counterproductive. This one brings the total to -£4.

78) Dress up as Mario - DONE (14/03/10)
It wasn't for the Flashmob that we dressed up for - that was just a coincidence (if you can call it that...). The main reason was for Debbie's birthday. Heroes and Villians. All we needed now was a Princess Peach, some goombas and a Bowser. Many ideas came up - mostly ludicrous like paying a hobo to shuffle sideways slowly whilst we jump on his head, or making a shell, putting it on someone random, and beating the sh*t out of him. Okay, maybe not so much ludicrous as demented. Anyways, it was an...average night, mainly due to the fact I wasn't drinking. I mean, who's going to want to hire a hungover plumber in the morning?
92) Watch the entire Studio Ghibli collection - In Progress [2/19]

• Kiki's Delivery Service - Realised I had a few of these films on video back in Newcastle so thought I would watch a random one during my 'surprise' visit back home. This is such a simple, charming film which many people could relate their childhood to - not a small feat by Miyazaki since the main character is a witch. One of Miyazaki's finest.

101) Get back in touch with my artistic side - In Progress
A lazy sunday morning culminated in a session on Paint doing what I used to love best; drawing random things. I was only planning on drawing the one thing but it became a pretty good template so I just kept going; spending 5 minutes average on each one.

Update

12) Get fit - In Progress
Moved onto at least 100 reps and 50 situps a day quite quickly. And now with hiking hopefully being a regular event, along with badminton and football, things are looking up.

15) Get someone else to make a list - Done (recently)
Not just one but two! Maybe a few more who seem interested. Seriously, it's something worth doing. Most of these things on my list are things which I've always wanted to do...but have never been motivated enough to actually fulfill. Now that it's written down, it seems a hell of a lot more manageable. Even if you're not convinced, give it a shot anyway - it won't do any harm.

30) Go hiking 5 times - In Progress [1/5]
Sunday 31st Jan - only decided the day before to go and, even in the morning, we didn't have a definitive destination. We ended up in Glossop, Derbyshire and spent a good 5 hours out covering alot of ground. Barbed wire fences, wet feet, ice, Peak vs. Lake District arguments and geordie cows. All in all, a decent hike.

41) Win Premier League with Hartlepool... - In Progress
Harry has broken Fifa. No further comments.

101) Get back in touch with my artistic side - In Progress
It's coming back slowly but surely. My snow penguin didn't turn out bad. The blog header is my rubbish attempt at using GIMP but it's a start at least. And thanks go to Paul for sorting out the HTML.