#100 Things in 20* Minutes Challenge

This was inspired by Judey Kalchik’s #100 Things in 20 Minutes Challenge, which was inspired by a post on Medium. This is not an official challenge, but quite a fun little exercise!

All hope abandon ye who enter this challenge. I thought it would be simple, but as you will see, I failed miserably, and no, no demons were summoned. Chaos will only reign as it usually does. If you want to discuss this, I’ll hang out in the comments and Discord.

Good luck! And here, we, go!

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1. Alright, let’s go! Really hope this formatting is correct.
2. Nice it is! Otherwise, the whole 20-minute thing was going out of the window.
3. I can already tell this is going to be way harder than I thought it would be.
4. I promised Judy I was not responsible for any demons or ghouls that were unleashed. Maybe now is the time to open that dusty book from below my parent's floorboards?
5. That would be rude to said demon, I’m sure they are in the middle of something very important and would hate to be interrupted.
6. The chances of this list devolving into observations of things in my home office are high.
7. I would say my two favorite genres are fantasy and science fiction.
8. Looking at the bookshelves in my home office, the shelf dedicated to fantasy has the most books, naturally, but the shelf dedicated to science fiction has the fewest.
9. Based on the book count on the dedicated shelves, my favorite genres would be fantasy, followed by “books to read”
10. That checks out.
11. My goal was to read 40 books this year, I’m behind the pace at 18 completed, but there are 2 more I am almost done with, so not too shabby.
12. My favorites have been: All Quiet on the Western Front, The Wager, and In The Weeds.
13. I need to take my dog for a walk later.
14. Said walk will be for my benefit, and his, but mostly mine.
15. I also need to write the next episode of my short story series (shameless self-promotion, read here!)
16. I also should probably do some work today, but ehh.
17. My wife and I are watching all the Mission Impossible series before going to see the new ones. She was whelmed by the first one.
18. I am very excited for her to experience the second.
19. The correct quality ranking of Mission Impossible is: 6, 4, 1, 5, 2, 3.
20. I will not debate the above.
21. I should probably also work on my novel.
22. What they don’t tell you about writer's block is that as bad as it is, engaging with random prompts is worse.
23. Focus is important
24. Good list of podcasts today.
25. Quarter done!
26. Everyone should listen to “The Rest is History”, it’s a great series
27. I need to do my Portuguese lessons.
28. I should also plan our trip to London/Edinburgh.
29. I hope I can format this later, otherwise, this is going to be even more random.
30. Iron Maiden is the greatest heavy metal band ever.
31. And I’m well behind the pace on this challenge.
32. On the plus side, I’ve got my inspiration for the newest vocal challenge.
33. Please read line 32, then read line 22.
34. Wooo one third done!
35. I have leftover pizza for lunch. This brings me joy.
36. True Chicago style pizza is tavern style.
37. I hope more people read my other series (another shameless plug, read here!).
38. I should promote things more.
39. I hate spammers.
40. Those two points are in stark contrast.
41. Ironically, I will likely promote this post.
42. Pause stopwatch to change podcasts.
43. Ooo it’s on the writer's strike. #solidarity
44. ChatGPT cannot replace writers. Anyone who’s used it for like five minutes could tell you that.
45. Boromir gets done dirty in Peter Jackson’s LOTR series.
46. LOTR is the greatest series ever written.
47. I’ve done fewer desk observations than I thought I would.
48. My guitar is dusty
49. My bonsai is actually bonsai’d
50. To get that only took me murdering three trees.
51. Woo, over halfway done!
52. This is way harder than I expected.
53. 20 minutes is a lot of time to dread a meeting, not a lot of time to get something done.
54. Vocal should figure out a way to better promote old works.
55. I’m trying to figure out what my best story is, I settled on this one (More self-promotion!)
56. Hopefully, none of these Teams messages are important. (post edit: they were not)
57. My wife is fantastic.
58. No demons yet; my pentagram must be off. C’est la vie.
59. Paris is the greatest city I’ve been to, followed by Amsterdam and Canterbury.
60. But Dover Castle takes the cake for the coolest place I’ve been.
61. It blows my mind that the midwestern USA is home to an essentially lost civilization, and I never learned about it growing up.
62. There are definitely some interesting takeaways from pulling on line 61’s thread.
63. This is a very hard challenge.
64. Stop checking the stopwatch, it won’t make it slow down.
65. I’m currently reading V for Vendetta.
66. Graphic novels are an underrated medium.
67. I hope all the bills are paid.
68. I should probably check on those.
69. Tehehehe
70. I’m immature, and I’m okay with it.
71. Lamar and Ian are great, and I need to add them to the raise your voice threads.
72. I need to expand this story for the Vocal awards (more shameless self-promotion!)
73. See line 22
74. Yeah, I’m not finishing this in 20 minutes.
75. But 75 in 20 minutes isn’t too bad.
76. This is definitely going to interrupt the quickening–no demons today.
77. I wonder what high school me would think about the amount that I write.
78. I wonder what my high school English teacher would think about the amount I write. (post edit: we did not get along, and I feel like that is an important detail.)
79. I started this with only half a cup of coffee consumed; that’s why I typed so slow.
80. Plus, I worked out this morning, so the hands are a little slower.
81. I watched the episode of No Reservations last night when they were in Beirut. Such an important piece of TV, even today.
82. I wish I was a better travel writer.
83. Other half of the brain is screaming, “Practice more than asshole”
84. Fun fact: I used to be a musician
85. Our frontman now lives in Amsterdam, and I should go visit him soon.
86. I’ve been there three times and am yet to step into a museum in Amsterdam. That feels like a sin deadly enough to summon a demon.
87. If Stephen King says a writer has to write 1000 words a day, we’re well on the way today.
88. Microfiction is great, as is poetry, and I think they’re the best mediums for vocal publishing.
89. Line 88 might stir some controversy. Oops.
90. Okay, 10 more. I’m only 5 mins over right now.
91. But as the Churchill quote on my wall says, "We will go on to the end".
92. Need to get our tickets for the Churchill War Rooms (up there with Dover on coolest places I’ve been)
93. I should also write more things for the history group on Vocal.
94. Along with travel writing, I think I am too self-critical for doing it regularly.
95. Reread line 83.
96. I’ll stick with finishing my two series now: (another shameless self-promotion here and here)
97. My Schweinsteiger bobblehead is nodding to me to finish this.
98. He’s the most underrated soccer player ever. Also, Chicago Fire are making the playoffs.
99. Which is insane because he was Man of the Match in the World Cup Final.
100. DONE (only 8 minutes over, challenge failed, no demons, ghouls or gremlins summoned)

If you've made it this far, you're a saint! Please enjoy a picture of a cute otter as a reward.