1. Ten Day Vipassana Meditation Retreat

Timeline: July 12 – August 18, 2006 (6 weeks)

Obby Description: A ten day silent meditation retreat in Shelburne Falls,
MA, at the Vipassana Meditation Center. Did I mention SILENT? The retreat is 7/12 to 7/23.

Oobby: I wrote about my experience there in the blog post Didn’t Achieve Nirvana.

2. Read & Discuss the Book Blink

Timeline: July 30 – August 30, 2006 (4 weeks)

Obby Description: read and discuss the book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. The book is about the snap judgements we make in the first two seconds of meeting someone. It talks about how the subconscious mind processes information.

Oobby: Organized a book group discussion dinner. Wrote a blog post (The Golden Ratio of Relationships) on my reactions to the work of John Gottman mentioned in chapter one of Blink.

Status:
8/22 Book discussion dinner
8/1 Discussion group formed, meeting at Miracle of Science Bar & Grill at the end of August.
7/30 Forming the discussion group, getting the book from the library tomorrow.

3. Peeps

Timeline: June 5 – August 28, 2006 (3 month)

Obby Description: I will find/build my community. Get to know people
in the Boston area who are doing their own thing and might want to get
into different obbies with me.

Oobby: My original oobby was going to be to throw a party and invite all my new Peeps. This obby ended up failing. So I’m still Looking For My Peeps.

Status: I’ve posted on several message boards and met 5 interesting
new people so far.

4. My Cubicle

Timeline: June 6 – August 21, 2006 (3 month)

Obby Description: I need to find good places to work besides my apartment and the Diesel Cafe. I would love input on this one.

Oobby: Wrote a review of good places to work in the Boston area, actually mainly in Somerville/Cambridge. Boston Cafe and Library Reviews

5. Improv

Timeline: June 12 – July 31 (7 weeks)

Obby Description: I enrolled in an improv comedy class at the Tribe (voted
Boston’s Best Comedy 2003, 2004, 2005).

Ooby: Perform in an improv jam at the BostonImprov, invite friends & family to come laugh at me. (I’m taking a rain check on that one. I will get around to it in October)

Status:
8/20 I finished the class but haven’t done the performance yet.