I started by doing some brainstorming and looking back through my various libraries (kindle, audible, library thing, and bookcases). It was a partial list at best, but still brought back many memories. You could also chart what topics I was into at the time. It wasn’t hard to find a dozen or so books that I really enjoyed. I was surprised, though, at how many books I had started but quickly abandoned. I also ran across far too many that still sound interesting, but that I’ve yet to crack open.

But then I sat back and thought more about who I am, what I enjoy, how I think, what I value, what I detest, what interests me, and so forth. This exercise was about impact, not enjoyment, so it should focus on books that had an outcome in my life—it was something that helped me become who I am today.

I came up with a clear “most impactful” book. I started writing a post about it, but didn’t get around to finishing it. Several months later, a few folks I follow online¹ started posting their own “most impactful” book lists. I decided to expand my list to the top 15 instead. This is that list, in no particular order, except after the first entry—my book that impacted my life the most.

The Hiker’s Guide to the Superstition Wilderness: With History and Legends of Arizona’s Lost Dutchman Gold Mine, by Jack Carlson and Elizabeth Stewart (1995)

I don’t think any single book has had a bigger impact on my life than this hiking guidebook. Which is interesting, because I still haven’t hiked all the trails it lists, and I’ve owned some version of this book since high school.

But more than any other book, this is the one that accompanied me as I developed a love for hiking, and by extension, for exploring the amazing landscapes of the West, and by extension, enjoying road trips, camping, and travel in general. Since those things have generally dominated my interests throughout my adult life, it’s hard to pick any other book.

I should note that Sedona Hikes: 135 Day Hikes and 5 Vortex Sites around Sedona, Arizona by Richard & Sherry Mangum should get honorable mention here. I picked up that book (and their Flagstaff Hikes book) early in my hiking career, which resulted in countless weekend day trips north. I even skipped my senior prom and brought my girlfriend hiking in Sedona that day instead. Had I not fallen in love with the Supes first, this book would probably have had the same impact.

The Complete Reference: HTML & CSS

I’m not entirely sure if this was the specific reference book I first bought, but it was something similar. I’ve had a personal website and a variety of web projects since the late 90s, and hand-coded most of those early ones. Without the experience of working on websites, I’m not sure what path my life might have taken. Having a website at that time made me a “guy who makes websites” and opened a surprising number of doors that otherwise would have remained shut. And sharing my national park adventures on those early trip sites helped inspire me to keep prioritizing travel over other expenditures, like, say a working vehicle.

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit, by Daniel Quinn (1992)

TEACHER SEEKS PUPIL
Must have an earnest desire to save the world.
Apply in person.

It was just a three-line ad in the personals section, but it launched the adventure of a lifetime.

This is the only non-nonfiction book on my list, a philosophical journey into the nature and role of humanity, using a rather unique conceptual device. I didn’t like the main character. I didn’t like the context of the story. But it made me question the societal stories we tell ourselves about humanity, and to view our existence in the world in a much different way. My favorite band wrote a song about it². I bought a dozen copies to give to friends—the first book I had ever gifted. For quite some time, I considered it my favorite book, even though I’ve only read it once and didn’t want to read it again. It was powerful enough the first time. I think this book would have paired very well with Sapiens, had that been published back two decades earlier.

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere And Join The New Rich, by Tim Ferriss (2007)

It’s hard to imagine a more cringy-worthy title [gives side eye to Ramit Sethi³], but here we are. Now, many of the ideas in this book are concepts taken to the laughable extreme. You should not, say, outsource your dating—which iirc, is actually something he tries doing. But this book introduced me to the concept of “lifestyle design,” which really just means being intentional about how you structure your life and not accepting societal defaults. That’s proven to be a useful concept in my own life.

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser (2001)

This book changed the way that I looked at corporate behavior and greed. It was a takedown of the entire fast food industry, from slaughterhouse to advertising strategy and everything in between. In fact, my ex-wife and I stopped eating all fast food for more than decade after reading it, which is quite a feat given our low nonprofit incomes and frequent rural road trips.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen (2001)

Hugely influential, “GTD” served as the productivity bible for many knowledge workers. I loved it because not only did it establish a generally effective system (I love me some systems!) for managing the flood of incoming inputs I suddenly had for my work and side projects, but it also did so in a way that helped set aside all other times for “calm.” The notion of relying on trusted systems so you can let go of background worry is what I continue to strive for in all the systems I build/follow today.

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, by Marc Reiner (revised edition, 1993)

This book details how the West was watered, and the role that several government agencies played in doing so. It opened my eyes to how policy choices, and bureaucratic aspirations, can play a major role in determining how the future is shaped. It’s a necessary treatise on water over-use and the folly of locating too many residents in arid areas, famously encapsulated in explorer John Wesley Powell’s assessment of the region. But to me it also oddly demonstrates what’s possible when policy is directed toward a goal.

There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America (1991)

This was the first book that opened my eyes to the plight of race in America. For me, it was also a view of poverty and how those two things, intertwined and combined together, fundamentally shape the direction one’s life is often pointed in. You sort of know these things in a broad, intellectual sense, but it was eye-opening to see how it plays out in simple day-to-day ways. These stories were relatable in a way that statistics and dry academic text were not.

Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine Democracy, by James Fallows (1996)

This book substantially shaped how I view the news media, and how I consume the news. It made me cogniscent of how what I consume determines what I think—a concept that many of my friends really struggle with, especially in the age of algorithmic feeds. Combined with later readings of Neil Postman’s classic Amusing Ourselves to Death and Marshall McLuhan’s concept of “the medium is the message,” it’s changed how I try to consume information in general.

Play to Win!: Choosing Growth Over Fear in Work and Life, by Larry & Hirsch Wilson (1998)

This book formed an important framework for a year-long executive leadership training program I attended when I worked in public lands conservation. The training overlapped with the period in which my first marriage was coming unraveled, and I did my best to incorporate many of its ideas into how I thought about interpersonal interactions, how I viewed life events, and the resulting stories I told myself afterwards. Some simple but powerful ideas that have definitely made me a better person.

The Nonprofit Membership Toolkit, by Ellis M.M. Robinson (2003)

This is a technical manual of sorts for running a successful nonprofit membership program. It helped launch me from volunteer advocate to landing my first professional job, running the statewide membership program for the Arizona League of Conservation Voters (and its related organizations), which became a stepping stone towards a career in public lands conservation.

Arizona Strip Draft Resource Management Plan and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (including Grand Canyon-Parashant and Vermilion Cliffs National Monuments), US Bureau of Land Management (2005)

This is an absolutely terrible read—it’s three volumes of technical acronyms and bureaucratic speak and stands about 6” tall. It was released the day before my first day working in public lands conservation, so it served as one helluva introduction into the field (it essentially governed my first 90 days of the job). But it was my first serious policy document, and dissecting, analyzing, and responding to it—administratively, in the court of public opinion, and ultimately, in actual court, too—was a formative experience.

Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life, by Bill Perkins (2020)

I wasn’t sure if this one met the “impactful” mark or not. We read this relatively recently, and it hasn’t changed our behavior at all. Nor has it changed our minds about anything at all. But that’s probably because the philosophy it lays out was already our own personal philosophy, and my wife and I had made several very big decisions around maximizing the book’s core ideas. So reading this was validation of the path we had already charted, one that was met with initial skepticism by some of our social circle.

A Walk in the Woods (1999)

This is another one that I’m unsure makes the list or not. I really enjoyed reading this book, and moreso than other “adventure” books (like Colin Fletcher’s The Man Who Walked Through Time), this one seemed more “average guy does something incredible.” I’ve long wondered if it played any role in me deciding to adopt the (seemingly audacious) goal of visiting all the National Park units. And I’m still unsure. Of course, their journey was a predictable mess, but an entertaining read, and the main takeaway for me at the time was that, at minimum, they got a great story for their effort. I’m not sure that’s bad advice.

The Complete Guide to Kayaking the Salt River: Everything You Need to Know to Paddle the Lower Salt River, by R Scott Jones (that’s me!)

Yeah, yeah, I wrote this guidebook. It was a covid lockdown project (I wrote most of it in two days) and a proof-of-concept experiment for a long-term conservation project that I’m considering embarking on. But it’s not just a cheap plug for my book (don’t buy it anyway, I give it away for free on my kayaking website).

I’m including it because, after kicking around several book ideas for a couple decades, I finally got something “out” into the wild. And I’m hopeful that the experience removes barriers to getting some other ideas published, too.

Honorable mentions:

• Sedona Hikes, already mentioned above
• Wilderness and the American Mind, by Roderick Frazier Nash (2001 edition)
• The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World, by Chris Guillebeau (2010)
• No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, by Naomi Klein
• Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists, by Kim Bobo, Jackie Kendall, and Steve Max (2001 edition)
• How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters, by Mal Warwick (2001)
• Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Cal Newport (2013)

1. Shoutout to Lou Plummer in particular for getting things rolling, but I’d also include JCProbably, Ben, and Tracy here, too. Lou’s been curating a list of these posts; go check it out. ︎
2. The music video—a rarity for Pearl Jam—is pretty damn amazing. It was illustrated by the famed comic book artist (and fellow Ahwatukee resident) Todd McFarlane. In a weird twist of fate, his wife happened to work for me several years later, so I got a chance to thank Todd personally during a short hike together. There aren’t many times you get to say thanks to the person who made your favorite music video for your favorite band about your favorite book! ︎
3. Look, I’m not going to apologize for Ramit’s book title, “I Will Teach You to Be Rich: No Guilt. No Excuses. Just a 6-Week Program That Works,” which might take the top cringe prize. But I did enjoy that book quite a bit and thought it contained a lot of good concepts. His podcast is a fun listen, too. ︎

Webnotes

(none yet)

The post The 15 Books That Most Impacted Me appeared first on rscottjones.

Looking back, the camera probably played a surprisingly outsized role in sharing my enjoyment of the outdoors. Prior to that, I had an entry-level SLR camera, which had started to get me interested in photography. I also had access to lots of free film rolls from my dad’s office. Unfortunately, they were all 12-exposure rolls, which meant I’d be paying a substantially higher per-shot processing fee than the standard 24 or 36 shot rolls. Given my meager finances during college, this was not ideal.

And because it was easy to shoot photos, but not to process them, I routinely took trips to exciting places…but couldn’t afford to process the resulting film for weeks or months later. Infamously, it once took us an entire year to finally process all the photos we took on a two-week national park road trip, given the high cost.

But this digital camera changed that.

Everything changed. But I just didn’t know it then.

Suddenly, I could take as many photos as I wanted because I could afford to “develop” them afterwards. Sure, I had to bring my laptop on our trips to download photos from the low-capacity compact flash cards, but we were running Microsoft Streets and Trips to plot out driving directions and gas station stops anyway. This was, after all, before the time of smartphones and data coverage.

And because downloading the day’s photos to make room for the next day’s adventures became an evening campsite routine, I developed a lifelong habit of reflecting on the day around the campfire. Perhaps that’s played a role in my ideas on reflection as a component of maximizing one’s Return on Adventure.

Planting the seeds for today.

Having digital photos also inspired another longstanding tradition: sharing my trips with others. 

Back then, since we only took 2-3 “big” trips a year, I’d hand code a new HTML website for each major trip we took. This was a time-consuming endeavor, especially for someone with only a passing knowledge of HTML and CSS. But also made the trips feel extra special.

We could show off the cool places we visited, both to our coworkers at Staples and to out-of-state family. It was pretty cool, and it absolutely inspired us to travel further and more regularly. By 2000, I was posting a few select trip photos on rscottjones.com, and a couple years later, even tried my hand at launching a hiking website called GreatTrails.com (without a budget or social media, it didn’t go far). 

I started blogging about my trips on rscottjones.com, and eventually launched ScottsPics.com to use a fancier php gallery script to showcase my hiking and travel photos.

After my (now) ex-wife and I got engaged in 2004, we launched scottandkimmie.com where we started posting some of our bigger trips, along with regular travel blogs (side note: Jen and I have similar plans). By the time 2005 rolled around, I had started my Flickr account, using it to re-post photos of our weekend dayhikes and national park travels—and well, occasionally some political cartoons lambasting Dubya, too.

Getting social.

But Flickr wasn’t just a place to host your photos, it was a social media network for photographers. I graduated from posting photos to conversing with others—people I didn’t really know—about the photos and the places they depicted. It was great; I still have some friends today that I met through my first few months there. I started slacking on posting to scottspics.com, preferring the easier uploading interface and resulting social feedback of Flickr, so it became my default photo repository.

Within a few years, though, Facebook and Twitter had arrived, and they generally replaced my social time on Flickr. Around that same time, my then-wife and I divorced—and I suddenly spent a lot more time interacting with new friends I made in those early days of Twitter, tweetups, and Foursquare. Would I have put myself out there the way I did without those first few months on Flickr? Perhaps not.

Remembering where the first seeds dropped.

Somehow, over the years, I’ve gotten pretty bad at posting trip photos, especially now that I’ve generally abandoned Facebook. And I’m even worse about blogging about my trips.

But I’m social with many travelers via social media, nearly every single day. And like before, I’ve made some really cherished friendships out of it. And even though I often don’t post full albums of my travel photos, or write detailed blog posts, or even considerhand-coding an entire website to commemorate my last snorkeling adventure, I still regularly share my trip experiences with you all.

We post photos of places we’ve visited. We share a story about our recent travels. We daydream about our next adventures. We converse during twitter chats. We share a virtual happy hour. We make plans to join each other at a destination. We learn real names, not online handles; we meet wives and husbands, dogs and cats. We sleep in guest rooms and living room floors, and vote in binding polls on one-year anniversary trip destinations. We befriend, celebrate, support, tease, and treasure each other.

It’s not hard to walk backwards through the threads that connect these experiences, all the way back to a day when I opened the box of that Kodak digital camera—totally oblivious that it might start me down a path that connects directly to today, to me writing this very post to my adventuring friends on the internet.

And that, my dear friends, answers the question I posed in the title.

The post How can a digital camera from 1999 change your life? appeared first on rscottjones.

In the vastness of space and the immensity of time, revel in the joy of sharing a planet and an epoch with your friends and family, with neighbors and strangers. With wistful clouds and chirping birds; with streams and rock and dirt.

Because with great fortune, you have the serendipitous opportunity of inhabiting, for a brief moment, a tiny fraction of a speck on our insignificant pale blue dot—a faint pinprick of reflected light suspended in an incalculable vastness. Cherish it. Hold dear the only home we’ve ever known, that solitary mote of dust.

The background

The first two minutes of this video explains how and why this photo was taken.

The photo

The text

The post …on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam—our pale blue dot. appeared first on rscottjones.

I’m not usually a fan of corporate behemoths, but there was always something special about the way Apple—no, make that Steve Jobs—went about changing the world. You don’t need much more proof of the impact he had on the tech industry, or the last generation or two, or the world today than the overwhelming outpouring of emotion after his death. If you were online, you knew. He was the entrepreneur of our generation, and one of the all-time great innovators and visionaries. The 60s/70s had NASA, and the 80s/90s/00s had Steve Jobs.

No matter whether you’re a fanboy or a hater, it’s hard not to argue that Steve’s passing leaves a huge hole in our culture’s soul. Steve and Apple certainly left an indelible mark on my life. He will be missed.

Perhaps one of his more poignant moments came during his Stanford commencement address. I’ve watched this video at least a dozen times over the years. The advice he gives is even more moving today than when I heard it last.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.

Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.

You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Watch the entire speech above (or read the transcript). Either way, I promise that it will be well worth your time.

So let’s go make sure we all have our “one more thing” moment. There’s no sense in waiting.

The post Steve Jobs has some advice for you appeared first on rscottjones.

The 101 list was an experiment to see if I would accomplish more than I would with New Year’s resolutions. I did. I figured that the longer time period and longer list of potential projects would allow me more flexibility in achieving the goals I had set forth. It also did.

I completed just over half of the items on my list, quite a bit fewer than I expected when I began the project back in 2008. What I didn’t expect, however, was to be dealing with a major life change just a year into the project. I was making very steady progress on the list until life got a bit more uncertain. Suddenly, many of the items I had placed on the list no longer made sense or were unattainable, and there were a bunch of new goals I had that weren’t included in the original list.

How I did

In spite of falling short of the original goal, I’m happy with the progress that I made. I feel like I accomplished a significant number of items that I otherwise wouldn’t have without the project. I found it to be a worthwhile exercise and I’m happy that I tried. I also learned a number of lessons along the way that might be useful in your own 101 Things project, should you decide to embark on one.

Making your own list

I found that putting together a 101 Things list is actually quite a bit more difficult than it seems. In fact, it can be challenging coming up with worthwhile items that you’re willing to commit to. I found that a good mix of easy and more difficult items helped to keep my motivation and focus during long span of the project. Between reaching the more difficult or complex goals, I could mark off a few easier items and feel good that I was making progress. I also recommend including some items that have been nagging to get done for longer than you’d like to admit. You’ll feel great when you finally sit down and get them done.

One of the most important things to consider when putting together a list is to make your items as measurable and achievable as possible. Don’t settle on unclear items like “get in shape” or “lose weight;” instead, focus on things that someone else could easily measure, such as completing a 5k run or losing a specific amount of weight. Otherwise, you won’t have a specific goal to shoot for and you’ll have no real way to measure your success when you’re done.

I’d also recommend including only achievable items. Stretch yourself, but don’t make items so difficult that you give up. This is not a listing of your dreams—it’s a list of goals that you want to meet in the next 2.5 years. And certainly don’t include any items that you don’t have control over, such as falling in love or getting engaged.

Substituting items

Realizing that things might change partway through the project, I started a substitute list that I appended to the original list. That way, I could add things that I wanted to pursue as goals. This was a good move, but I always felt a little like I was cheating by substitution so I also kept the original items on the list to maintain perspective. My total count includes substitute items.

Tell people about it

Another lesson I learned early was to tell people about your list. Having people occasionally ask me how the project is going provided some useful reminders. Posting it online and linking to it also helps to get the word out and keep you invested and engaged in completing the project. I’d also recommend posting yours on the Day Zero Project website (you can also find some inspiration on the site) and updating others on your progress.

What’s next for me

I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to embark on a new 101 Things list, or if I’ll try something else. Given the amount of uncertainty and change in my life right now, I’m leaning towards focusing on a “33 before 33” list, then maybe tackling another 1001 day project next year.

Since I’m unsure of the fate of the original post on 2mins.org, I’ve repasting it below.

My 101 Things in 1001 Days list

Following the lead of others, I decided to forgo establishing any New Year’s resolutions in 2008, opting instead to start my own “101 things in 1001 days” project. I’m usually not big into the resolution thing to begin with, but recently I’ve been thinking much more about enjoying life and not letting it float past so quickly. The year deadline doesn’t appeal to me, and I think I may be able to mark off each item in the project’s allotted 1001 days.

After putting together a draft list several weeks ago, I decided to retro-actively set my official start date as March 1, 2008. It’s a little bit like cheating, as I’ve already completed two items before I got around to posting this, but in my defense, I only completed those items in the spirit of the project. Some items should be a piece of cake to finish (delete old hosting accounts, attend a hockey game) while some might take a little bit more focus and determination (buy house, travel outside the continental US). I’ll continue to mark off items as I complete them, and may also add a separate post about such occurrences. Anyway, on to the list:

My 101 Things in 1001 Days Project
Completed 55/101 items
Deadline is Nov 27, 2010

Purchases
buy a second car
buy an ultralight sleeping bag or tent completed March 30, 2008
buy a new ASU jersey completed September 8, 2008
buy a new camera completed April 26, 2008
buy a new mac laptop completed April 19, 2008
buy new glasses completed July 6, 2008
buy ASU pantscompleted November 29, 2009
buy a scanner completed March 2, 2008
buy/make a hiking pin display completed April 4, 2008
buy a nice big HD television completed September 20, 2008

Learn new skills
learn how to grill a great steak
learn 5 new photographic techniques
take advanced GPS or GIS course
take NEPA course
cook a chinese dish
learn to identify five new desert plant species
learn to identify three new bird species

Home organizing/decluttering
seriously organize the garage
get rid of the ford taurus completed August 2009
clean out file cabinets
donate or sell my button maker completed May 8, 2008
declutter my office
organize football memorabilia completed October 5, 2008
scan my favorite old photos
ditch my CDs completed October 6, 2008
set up a password management system completed April 26, 2009
scan all nps passport stamps completed October 24, 2008
organize/declutter hiking gear completed September 2008
donate another computer completed October 6, 2008

Travel
travel to the east coast
travel outside the continental US
visit at least three new states completed July 2008 roadtrip
travel to an ASU away game
rent an RV
visit 20 new NPS units completed July 2008
visit Ft Bowie National Historic Site completed Winter 2010 roadtrip
collect 25 passport stamps (renewals OK) completed July 2008 roadtrip
visit the north rim of the Grand Canyoncompleted Sept 2010
stay overnight in the White Mountains completed 4/20-5/1/08

Hiking/outdoors
go kayaking completed June 27, 2009
go on a backpacking trip of at least 3 nights
hike 25 new trails in the state 9 down
hike the backcountry of the Superstition Wilderness
visit 5 new wilderness areas in Arizona completed 2 (Bear Wallow, Pusche Ridge)
lead a Sierra Club hike (not a monument)
go camping with friends completed 4/30-5/1/08

New habits
learn to wake up earlier/get up early >25 days in a single month
consistently use an inbox for more than a month
get eight hours of sleep for at least 23 days in a single month completed May 2009
establish a morning routine
take at least 3 steps to significantly reduce our environmental impact 2 down (reduce waste by using reusables, buying only green electricity and reducing usage)
develop a regular stretching routine
improve my posture

Technology
transition scottspics.com to rscottjones.com completed October 5, 2008
redesign rscottjones.com
figure out how to use my desktop computers with my mac complete January 27, 2009
fully complete the switch over to mac completed September 2009
make a decision about all of the domains I own
upgrade the RAM on my iMac completed Mar 2, 2008
become more proficient in using my iphone keyboard completed
make a new avatar for myself completed April 5, 2008
create an online file storage/backup system
organize computer document files/folders
redevelop godevils.org
flesh out vacation listing completed October 12, 2008
develop reference or file/note management system on mac completed July 29, 2009
delete old hosting accounts completed October 5, 2008

Accomplishments
get married completed July 15, 2008
get involved in a new nonprofit Completed May 1, 2008
contact three old friends from high school Completed August 11, 2008
re-enroll at ASU
write something meaningful
make flickr’s explore with one of my own photos
publish something
post 15,000 pictures online
“make” a birthday gift for friend or family member
write a personal manifesto
keep a hiking and outings log
count, log, and scan all of my nps passport stamps
make 3 new friends that I see regularly completed July 2009
participate in Pat’s Run

Activities
attend a hockey game completed October 23, 2009
bowl another 250+ game
visit Pat Tillman Freedom Plaza
attend camp tontozona no longer possible
watch 10 “classic/old school” movies (Done: The Candidate, Godfather, Soylent Green, Fahrenheit 451, Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird, Deliverance, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Taxi Driver, 2001: A Space Odyssey)
take a photographic tour of the city with flickr group
watch a meteor shower completed November 17, 2009
read at least one book from my bookcase that I haven’t yet read completed December 5, 2009
read Walden
surprise Kim with a nice weekend away
write my own list of top lifehacks

Health/wellness/financial
lose 15 lbs completed August 2009
complete a 5k run
max out my dental insurance completed April 21, 2008
get tooth fixed completed April 21, 2008
go one week without sodacompleted
write out a will/last testament
payoff all but one credit card
start/consolidate my investment accounts
buy my own home

Bonus/substitute items
refinish cedar chest gave it away
backpack at least 20 miles on a single trip
visit either Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, New Orleans, or Boston completed December 30, 2009 (NOLA)
save $5000
tour ASU’s football facilities completed November 28, 2008 (thanks Jerry!)
go completely paperless (bills, financials)
find solution for grill equipment
buy framed ASU/Sun Devil Stadium photo completed November 8, 2008
put together a home inventory
create a digital archive of important files and add to safe deposit box
scan and post hiking patches
buy Pat Tillman jersey completed November 8, 2008
redesign scottandkimmie.com completed December 24, 2008
re-establish a regularly scheduled event with friends completed
complete a daily self-pic for six months completed July 2009
launch a blog & write consistently for at least three months
Go on a kayaking/canoeing trip of at least one night completed September 28, 2009
Attend a home 49ers game

The post A recap of my 101 Things in 1001 Days project appeared first on rscottjones.

When I think back over my life, I often find that while I’ve done some cool things, I’ve also failed to participate in the common high school and college activities. Not drinking or doing drugs, having long-term relationships (thereby skipping the dating scene), and working and volunteering frequently pushed my life in a different direction than most of my friends.

For whatever reason, I was also far less interested in many of the popular culture activities that most people that age seem to be. Movies, tv, fashion, and music are all examples. Concert-going in particular was something I just seemed to miss.

Kim brought me to a Pearl Jam concert—my first concert experience—several years into our relationship. I had a blast, but that’s what you’d expect in seeing your favorite band perform live.

Fast forward another 8 years or so, and my concert total remained unchanged. That changed on St Patrick’s Day when I joined a few friends at the Flogging Molly concert at Tempe Beach Park. I’m not a big music fan, so while I had heard of the band before, I didn’t know any of their songs. I had a good time—in spite of the pushing, flinging sweat, and attempted theft of my iPhone—and enjoyed the experience even though I didn’t fully participate in the bouncing, fist-pumping, and singing.

I’ll probably never enjoy live music to quite the degree that my friends do, but maybe I should give it a shot more often.

The post Seeing Flogging Molly on St Patrick’s Day appeared first on rscottjones.

I hadn’t ever thought of myself as being an especially loyal guy until a friend raised it as one of my personal qualities a couple of years ago. I reflexively disagreed, but upon further reflection and discussion realized that it was probably an accurate statement. Hey, sometimes it takes you a few decades to learn about yourself.

I posted the picture above, which was taken in mid-September 1989, to illustrate this point. I was looking at a few of my old pictures for today’s Facebook meme and ran across this one. Besides the smile, I loved some of the insights the photo provides into who I am (more on that below).

But first: loyalty.

Despite the prominence of the tape player, the first thing I noticed about this photo was the ASU poster in the background. The second thing I noticed was my head-to-foot 49ers outfit. Recent events reminded me of my loyalty to both of these teams.

Earlier today on a work conference call, we scheduled our big annual event for a November weekend on which there’s a home ASU football game. It’s the second time in as many years. It will be only the third time I’ve missed a regularly-scheduled home game since becoming a fan in 1987. I’m already feeling bad about missing the game, even though I don’t have high hopes for next season. There have been far too many of those seasons, but alas, I continue to buy season tickets and root on the team. I’ve never willingly left the stadium before the bitter end, no matter the score or weather. If you know me, you know me as a loyal ASU fan.

The same concept, albeit to a lesser extent given the circumstances, applies to the 49ers. To be sure, the Niners had a grand glorious run – one for both the record and history books. But those times vanished when Eddie D gave up the team, and the team has had precious little success since then. Still, I’ve never wavered, even as it became fashionable for root for the Cardinals. In fact, everyone expects me to root for the Cards—I’m a native after all—and are usually shocked and a bit miffed that I’d rather the Cardinals lose every game they played. (For what it’s worth, they should have lost the last one.) Part of that is residual anger over their lawsuit against ASU, disrespect for the Bidwell family, and the fact they got a new stadium deal they didn’t in any possible way deserve. But much of it also boils down to the fact that the Cards and Niners are both in the NFC West. What can I say – I’m a loyal 49ers fan.

Of course, loyalty to a particular football team is hardly a personal characteristic you’d want engraved on your tombstone. There are far more important ways to be loyal, people to be loyal with, and values to be loyal to. But nonetheless, I think it’s a clear indicator of a larger and more meaningful pattern.

Speaking of indicators, let’s get back to the photo. Some other quick observations about what this picture might say about me, even at the ripe age of 10:

• Tape cassettes weren’t cutting-edge, but I clearly enjoyed technology.
• I was anal enough even back then to keep a running score tally on the ASU poster. Luckily, I wouldn’t get any database software for another couple of years.
• Office supplies were in my future – notice the legal pad and pad holder. I’m such a geek.
• I’m still refusing to acknowledge the GI Joe sheets.
• I was nostalgic and sentimental even back then – notice the ticket pinned up next to the poster and the pom pom on the left side of the window sill. Those were less signs of fandom and had much more to do with saving memories.
• Friendship bracelet FTW!

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From Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

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