before I’m 30

This is my before I hit 30 to do list. I used the daruma stamp from Baum-kuchen which is an awesome analogue stationary shop in Los Angeles. I would love to go there some day. With the stamp, you color in one eye then write down your goal or intention. Then once you accomplish it, you color in the other one in. I only used two different colors: lime and goldfish. I managed to fit 31 goals in. Here they are:

1. Leave 100 messages in 100 public places (all different) #messagestoc. You can follow my progress here on my instagram though I only managed to do 4 so far, yikes. I’m gonna spend the day in NYC so hopefully I’ll be able to churn out more.
2. Complete, blog, and submit sketchbook project on time (April 30th). With the sketchbook project, you order a sketchbook and you fill it up however you want. Later on it goes on tour! Neat huh? I’ve got six days left though most of it is done. I think I’ll be able to finish the final two pages tomorrow, but I still need to figure out the intro and a conclusion and hopefully put a bio. I took a flipthrough video which I made last month.
3. Attend a concert of musician(s) I love so very much. I did that last week with Mac Ayres at Baby’s All Right. Here’s one of my faves: Calvin’s Joint. Ugh so good, and the line up was great: Jack Dine, Psalm, Victoria Canal, and Braxton Cook.  I have a better appreciation for Jazz now thanks to Braxton. I’m no longer going to the Rina Sawayama concert on Wednesday (let me know if you want to buy my ticket), which bums me out but oh well. Next time.
4. Finish ten books. I already completed Iain S. Thomas’ How to be Happy: Not a Self-Help Book. Seriously. You can buy it from amazon (bleh) here. I enjoyed it a lot. I like that it was made up of his tweets, poetry, flash fiction, and emails. There was  lot of brutal honesty in it which I appreciate.
5. Post on Bored to Death Bookclub at least five times. I haven’t written for them since December and that’s a shame. I really enjoy writing for them and with all my free time, there really is no excuse.
6. Write a monologue (or two, perhaps poetry?) and submit to Thinking in Full Color. It’s a theater production which puts women of color onstage. Their call for submissions ends on May 15th. They’re looking for poetry, monologues, local actresses, artists, and designers. I actually performed last year and it was life changing. I feel like I’m still undergoing its effects. I’m gonna write about thinking about my future and my severe mental illness. It has to be under 800 words and be performed in five minutes. You should go for it! It’s fun and so fulfilling.
7. Apply to 100 different opportunities (jobs, submissions, residencies (?), etc.), especially dreams. Already went for Kundiman‘s Programs & Communications Internship which I was drooling over. If that doesn’t work out, maybe I can become an alum one day. It might seem weird to go for internships at my age but as long as it’s in the field I want, who cares? If it can help me become a better individual and fulfills my dreams, then I should go for it. Eff what others might think.
8. Meet Iain S. Thomas, the poet behind I Wrote This For You. He’ll be at The Strand Bookstore (a forever fave) on May 30th with other talented poets. He’s been an inspiration for years and I can’t wait to meet him!
9. Pitch my interactive novel & comic book at Asian American Arts Alliance‘s Town Hall: Poetry & the Mind. Just finished writing the pitch before I started this blog. You basically have a minute to pitch your work, read it, or spread the word on a call for submissions and such. It felt surreal to see them share a small post featuring me. Nice feeling though, it’d be neat to be featured in other places as well. I want a collection dammit haha.
10. Cry happy tears unexpectedly. I think out of everything on here, I’m most looking forward to this.
11. Write a letter to your 28 year old self on fb. I have a tradition where I write to last year’s self a week before my birthday. I’ve collected the letters in an album. It’ll be great to see what No. 28 wanted to know about.
12. Write a letter to your 30 year old self on fb (on your eve). Same album. I’m trying to think of what questions and desires to ask. Excited to write this one even more.
13. Blog completely adored ephemera sketchbook project and submit it. Here’s what I have so far. I’ve had it in my house for like two years; t’s about time I mail it. If you want to order your own sketchbook project, here you go.
14. Cut out some cool ephemera and mail it to mixed messages club for their zine. It’s 100% submission based. You cut out some cool photos and mail it to them so they can make collages for the zine. I look forward to their zines and they staple a self-addressed stamped envelope so you can mail it! It’ll be far out to see my photos in those zines!
15. Visit WORD Jersey City Bookstore and say hi to the staff and buy some books. I did that last week and it was nice to get hugs and catch up. I bought A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership by James Comey as requested by my mom and Notes from a Public Typewriter by Michael Gustafson & Oliver Uberti. The latter is just that, a collection of notes from the Literati bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was moving, hilarious, sweet, and just wonderful. I cannot wait to leave my own note behind one day. I think I’m gonna leave the book itself in my abandonedb2dbc project. More on that further below.
16. Read a book from The Center for Fiction’s bibliotherapy prescription list and blog about it (here). I went in Fall 2016 and it was so lovely. I loved the experience so much. I have yet to read any of the books though haha. I’m gonna start off with Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. He seems promising and I miss reading sci-fi.
17. Sleepover at den den’s place. I have yet to do so and it’ll be fun to spend time with my little cousins. They’re getting big and I may not have time later on so I should do it.
18. Have 7 job interviews or land a job (hopefully the latter). I already had two which is good. Need to push out more apps.
19. Strike through @ least 3 items in “make it happen” daruma notebook. Basically I use the above daruma stamp to write down tasks I want to do before I die. Each strikethrough earning three more additional goals to complete. SO much fun to decorate and doodle! I’m surprised I haven’t done a flipthrough of that one. Oh wait, I have this public facebook album haha. But I should record a video one day. Maybe after I complete some goals.
20. Sell some books at The Strand Bookstore. I have at least two I wanted to sell because I was supposed to give them to a former friend. But he doesn’t deserve them and I want the moneys so there haha. I hope to stop by tomorrow though maybe I should bring other books.
21. Update @abandonedB2DBC instagram & finally blog Washington D.C. I leave behind books, lit magazines, my own creative works, and small gifts in public for strangers to find. I should’ve written it in August when it occurred. I’m so bad :/.
22. Write 2nd chapter of Regina Cordova novel. (The one I’m pitching at the Town Hall) Create an interactive prototype of the first message. The tome will be composed of ephemera with messages Regina handwrites and abandons in public. I’m actually sending the chapter to my friend Emily to critique, it’s due in a little over a fortnight. So glad to be writing that world again.
23. Do #100DaysofPoetics for at least a week straight. There’s currently a challenge to do a daily task for 100 days straight called The 100 Day Project. I decided that I didn’t want to be limited to one medium or genre or whatever, so I went with poetics. Whatever is poetic in some form. This blog counts! So this is entry #5. Yay. I haven’t been good about creating everyday but I will fix that dammit.
24. Watch three films. I’ve been getting yelled at for not watching movies. And I do like watching them, might as well restart. I should use my amazon prime since I pay for that. And Chaz calls Wristcutters: A Love Story his top favorite, plus I have the DVD. But fuck Vanilla Sky lolol.
25. Write @ least 10 #eizinereviews. I write concise reviews of zines I love. It’s such an underrated art form. I’m gonna promote Tender Tita’s and Kate Berwanger’s works. Plus I have so many I’ve hoarded over the years. They need to be seen and loved too.
26. Write a short story fully. Maybe Thriftshop for Thrashers? It was originally a short film screenplay I wrote during college and now it’s mentioned in the Regina Cordova novel, as a work she submits to her creative writing workshop. Helen Wan in my AAWW novel writing workshop told me I should write it. I actually think about that world sometimes. I think it’ll be good for me.
27. Create something based on a fortune cookie slip. I’ve done that before with “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it” for my fortune cookie reading. You can see the video and the text here in the original facebook event page. One day I’d like to curate another reading again. It was a blast and I’m really happy I did it.
28. Record a video of yourself to be viewed when 35. What a scary age. I wonder how I’ll be? I’m gonna burn it on a CD or USB or something. Put on make up for my future self lol. This should be fun.
29. Attend a reading or open mic. There’s an open mic on May 15th at Asian American Writers’ Workshop. I enjoy performing and being an audience member there. Also the Iain S. Thomas reading doesn’t count for this one. No doubles, unless it counts towards a tally, but that’s it.
30. Take a photo booth picture of yourself. I used to take them monthly but haven’t done it in ages. . . . Where am I gonna find one? lol.
31. Create a bursting zine. Make @ least two copies. Don’t know on what. Just know I want to Xerox and cut and paste and collage and shit.
32. Do a new form of guerilla art from Keri Smith’s book uhh The Guerilla Art Kit. This will also count in my tally of 10 books.
33. Mail mysterious note to Found Magazine in Ann Arbor, Michigan (ooh! literati bookstore neighbor!). Me and my manang len len found two notes in front of Planet Fitness. They looked like counselor notes on a college student. Honestly the content was really disturbing but I wanted to know more. They dated back to January 2015 and the handwriting is pretty nice. I’m conflicted if I wanted to share it on my social media since there were last names but maybe it’s not a big deal? In any case I’m gonna mail it. I always wanted to send stuff to Found and this looks like the perfect entry. Found magazine basically collects mailed submissions of what people discovered in ephemera form. I have an issue that I have yet to read, think I’ll also include it in my tally.

FIN. I don’t know if I’ll actually finish all of this, probably not. But I’m gonna try to complete it before I turn 31 at least. I should be able to knock two out today (it’s 3:57 am right now, yikes): the pitch and selling books. I’m pretty excited for the day but I should go to bed.

Wonder what kind of world I’ll wake up to?

eileen