#4 - See NFL Football Game

I am very excited that next weekend I will be seeing my first NFL football game.  Christine and I will be going to Foxborough to see the Patriots beat the Colts.  Should be a great game...only hope the weather will be as good as it was this weekend when the Patriots beat the Bills.


Well my first experience was awesome. Not only did the Patriots win 59-24 but we were also in great company. Check out some of the pictures I took. I especially like the new panoramic feature of the iPhone 5...very cool

#3 - Run a 5K Race

Although I have run a number of 10K races and a 1/2 marathon, I have yet to run a 5K race.  So...today I registered for the 28th Annual Brita Resolution Run

which will be held on Sunday December 30th 9:30am at  the CNE.  This gives me 

almost 2 months to get myself in 5K shape.  In the past, I have been able to 

finish a 10K in under 50mins, so the question remans can I run a 5K in under

25mins?  Good news now is that I am playing indoor soccer every Monday evening 

and I believe (perhaps naively) that this will count as my speed work out :-)  Now

I will just need to do some distance runs...this should be a piece of cake. LOL

#? - Get a tattoo

I haven't decided if I will actually do this or not but I thought I would throw it on the blog and see if I get any comments or suggestions from my readers.

Getting a tattoo means figuring out what I want and where I want to put it.

I have started to look at what I may want as a tattoo and thought I share some of the images....  Here  are some of the ones that are interesting to me:

1) Canadian Flag - I thought this was a cool spin.  I never made the olympic wrestling team so I will stay away from the leaf with the Olympic rings tattoo

2) Honu + Soccer Ball - I thought this one was neat as the primary tattoo subject I have been investigating have been linked with SCUBA diving.  What caught my eye on this one was the fact that there was a soccer ball in place of the shell so it mixed two of my passions - SCUBA diving and soccer.

3) Shark - Lots of cool sharks out there but for me personally I would prefer to keep it monochromatic vs some of the vibrant coloured tattoos (look amazing but just not me).

4) Another Shark - This is Christine's favourite of the 5 pictures

 5) Shark - This one is very similar to #3

Stay tuned...I have not decided to do or not do this one yet.

#2 - Participate in Movember and grow a moustache

The idea that started it all.  It was this idea that got me thinking about "what other things could I do" now that I will be 40.  

I have always been the clean cut preppy guy, so growing a moustache is a bit foreign to me.  I have toyed with the idea in the past but have never seriously considered growing facial hair. This time I am committed to doing it and have the support of Christine (who prefers the clean cut look :-)) to go forward with this.

I am now officially registered on the Movember Canada website and you can watch my progress as I try to raise money for men's health.

http://mobro.co/jamesgilmore

I have to admit I am cheating slightly as the rules say no goatee...however, me with a moustache feels out of place for me personally.

Scratch #2 off the list...38 more to go.  However, Christine suggests I shouldn't cross it off until the end of the month when I finish the moustache growing and go back to my clean cut look.





Well it's Nov 24th and I have been growing my Movember 'stache for almost a month. I have raised over $400 so far. A modest amount relative to others bit every dollar counts. Thank you to everyone who has supported me.

#1 - Start a blog

I have always wanted to start a blog, but I could never figure out anything interesting enough for people to actually care about reading.  The idea of the "40 Things" journey seemed to lend itself to a blog so I thought, what a great way to scratch the first item off my list.

For those who care, there a many tools to assist you in writing and publishing a blog.  Those who know me will probably be surprised that I have gone with the easiest and least technical solution.  Believe me, I looked at more sophisticated ways to set up a blog using WordPress and having it hosted on some vanity named website.  However, given this is my first ever blog and who knows whether or not I will actually have the stamina to keep it going, I figured I'd keep it cheap and cheerful.

Probably more as a note for myself, but if I do keep this blog going and/or can think of something people may actually care about reading/commenting on, I know what I will do.  I will self-host a Wordpress blog (bluehost.com seems to be good for Wordpress) and will get a cool domain name that would match the topic of my blog.  On the Mac there are two popular tools for writing a blog.  Marsedit and MacJournal.  Based on my reading MacJournal seems to be the best because it also has a free iPAD and iPHONE app that allows you to post to your self-hosted Wordpress blog as well.

Well for now, I have crossed off my first item...writing a blog.  One down, 39 more to complete.

The List of 40 Things

Now that I have committed to this journey, I suppose I should build the list of things to do. 40 things in 12 months - just a little less than 1 per week. I need to do all of these things before I turn 41 on December 10th, 2013.

I am hoping my friends and family will be able to help me build this list. This means of course I will have to make this blog known to them. I am a bit nervous about doing that given a) I have never blogged before and b) I am not really known as being a person who shares these kinds of thing publicly.

Guiding Principles of the list:
1) I have never done it before
2) The activity can be for me, family, or the community
3) Work doesn't count
4) Guiding principles may evolve over time :-)


Some ideas for the list...

1. Start a blog
2. Participate in "movember" and grow a moustache
3. Try yoga for the first time
4. Go to my first NFL football game
5. Run a 5K race
6. Run a marathon
7. Get a tattoo
8. Drive an exotic car (Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini)
9. Swim with hammerhead sharks
10. CN Tower Edge Walk
11. See an opera
12. Take Christian on an overnight Algonquin trip

More to come. I welcome any suggestions.

The Beginning of 40 Things

Well, this is the year I turn 40 and I am starting to realize I am no longer a spring chicken :-) As part of my milestone birthday I have decided to embark on a journey of doing 40 things over the next 12 months that I have never done before. 

My goal is to reach this journey without going broke, injuring myself or annoying everyone around me....wish me luck!