Report on 30 Day Challenge - Read 15 books in 30 days

This past year during the month of June 2013, I attempted a 30 day challenge - to read 15 books. While I got off to a good start with 4 books in 11 days, however, I managed to complete only 11 by the end of the month.

This post has been long overdue but considering that I did not attempt to complete the remaining four books until now, I guess this post is not so ill-timed after all. I should mention here that my previous (best) failed attempt at this same challenge was 12 books. I am hoping to beat this sometime in future but that would depend on whether, and when, I would get my hands on a stack of books this engaging.

During the course of the challenge, I read a few great books which I would gladly recommend to any fellow bibliophile. The list goes as follows (in no particular order):

Anatomy of a busy month

February 2012 was a very busy month for me. I have survived numerous busy days and weeks in the past, most of which usually culminate in important deadlines, but I don't ever remember having had a hectic month in recent memory. The trend has however been the same though - it usually results in me compromising my sleep. This past month was going to be something similar, but this time I decided to keep track of my sleeping habits for the month. Initially, it looked like just a fun thing to do, but as the month progressed the data I gathered showed some interesting patterns. It wasn't until the end of the month that I decided to analyze the data that I had collected and study it.

30 Day Challenge for October

My 30 day challenge for October is to 'learn a new word everyday'. Its been nine days into the challenge and I have been consistent in my effort. I shall be updating this post daily with the words that I have learnt. The list goes as follows:

Report on 30 Day Challenge for September

My 30 day challenge for the month of September was to 'stay away from carbonated drinks'. I have always loved drinking Coca-Cola (and other aerated drinks) and been hooked on to it for so much time that my dentist began to complain. I used to drink at least three cans of cola on an average day and this was the case for quite a long time. I could actually differentiate between Coca-Cola and Pepsi. So to try and beat this habit, I embarked on this challenge. Initially during the first week and a half it seemed unpalatable, particularly when the weather here is so hot during the day. I substituted my regular choice of drinks with iced tea, cold chocolates and smoothies. Eventually, it turned out better than expected and I was able to stay away from the cola for the entire month except for one instance at the F1 Singapore GP, where the only other alternative to coca-cola was beer.

This challenge might seem a little mundane but the idea was to break out of this habit. I am glad I did. Its been more than a month now and I still haven't really felt the urge to pop a cold one.

30 Day Challenge for May

I was on a holiday during the month of March and April and hence did not really attempt a 30 day challenge because I knew it would be a disaster. Now that I have returned, I have decided to do my next challenge for the month of May.

My 30 day challenge for May is to "track and keep my finances in order". I intend to note down my daily expenses, tabulate it and keep a record of it for the next 30 days. With this I hope to get an overview of all my expenses and see if there is any particular area that needs looking into. I've been trying to do this task for quite a while but I didn't really focus on it. But now I am determined to do it as a challenge. Of course, having an iPhone does help an awful lot. I am using the Money Journal v1.4 (Lite) app to help me record my daily expenses.

Even though this post is dated 17 May 2011, I have already begun this challenge since the 1st of May. I shall report on my progress within a fortnight.

30 Day Challenge for February

I waited quite a while for Blogger to role out its new 'draft template', a new UI loaded with better features, to post this update on my next 30 Day Challenge but I guess it may not be happening anytime soon.

My 30 Day Challenge for February was 'to walk home daily from college'. Since February 2011 has only 28 days, I began this challenge on the 31st of January and extended it to the 1st of March. This challenge would have been a 20 day challenge because theres no school on Saturdays and Sundays, but I did my walking on weekends too and completed all 30 days.

The distance from my school to my block is about 2 miles which roughly takes me about 35mins to cover (Approx speed = 3.5mph). With the help of a walking calorie calculator I was found out that I burned an average of 186 calories per day. This means that in 30 days, I burned roughly 5580 calories by walking home every evening. For me, the benefits did not end there. A typical one way trip home from school by bus costs me $0.81. Over a period of 30 days, I ended up saving $24. All it took was a little music and some podcasts that I follow quite regularly.

I did not attempt this challenge with the aim of saving money or losing weight (I play soccer regularly and my BMI is within the 'healthy' range). It was mainly aimed at cultivating some self discipline and see if I could keep up with it for 30 days. It was hard though, mainly on weekends when I had no particular reason to step out from home. 30 days later, I have eventually liked walking, particularly in the evenings, because it gives me time for myself, to reflect on the day's events and the pleasant weather is a bonus. All in all, I am happy with the way this challenge had progressed and hope to continue walking home in the days to come.

30 Day Challenge for January

Happy New Year everyone! My 30 Day challenge for January 'To take a picture everyday' was not much of a success. mainly for two reasons. Firstly, I was a little busy with an important school project which kept me occupied for most of the month and secondly I didn't really travel that much and my daily routine and travels were almost redundant. There was nothing really interesting to photograph. However, I did remember to take photographs during the few times that I traveled.

I will be travelling in March and I intend to redo this challenge, this time with better focus. As for the photos that I took this past month, here they are*.

I managed to take only 17 from my target of 30. Some of the pictures taken at night are grainy too. Apologies. I shall remember to carry, with me, a better camera next time.

Till next time...

*Update: When Blogger was updated to the newer version, my embedded slideshow broke as a result. So I had to add a link to the G+ album instead. 

30 Day Challenge for December

My 30 day challenge for December - 'No using Microsoft products' finally ended. Here's how I found alternates to get my work done.

OS - Ubuntu Linux 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)
Browser - Google Chrome 8.0 for Linux
Office Suite - Google Docs (Online), Open Office 3.2(Offline)
Messenger - Empathy (Contains all contacts from Gmail, Windows Live and Facebook Chat)
Email - Gmail (My school email which is hosted by Hotmail is routed to Gmail, so I did not have to log in to hotmail to check my school email). Although I don't use any clients, I have Thunderbird installed as a backup.
Games - I don't play many games. I stick to the Zynga ones more these days.
Music - Rythmbox Media player and an iPod. I used SharePod to update the iPod instead of iTunes because there is no iTunes for Linux 'yet'.
School Work - Eagle for Linux from CadSoft for designing PCB boards and yes I stayed away from MPLab IDE for a month.

I could not avoid using Windows XP in the labs at school as the authorities did not permit me to install Linux on any of the school machines in spite of me insisting that its absolutely free. But to minimize damage I used XP to the minimal amount. I worked on hardware that did not require me to use the computer too much all through the month. There is no MPLab IDE for Linux yet, so I did not have  a choice in that matter, but I stayed away from code too. Occasionally I joined my colleague to help him get past bottlenecks in programming.

Here is the funny part. Only when I passed day 22, did I realize that I use a Windows Mobile cellphone. But then again, Windows Mobile 6.5 was such a disaster of an OS that I did not use it for anything except calling, messaging and alarms. I preferred using the wifi on the iPod touch while I was on the go. So technically, the cellphone would not have made much of a difference.

I am a big fan of Open Source products. Hence the funny challenge for the last month of the decade. Inspiration from Matt Cutts.