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June 03, 2006 |
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Action! List!
FOUND by Jane Pulliam
in Tacoma, Washington
I manage some apartments. One night the garbage was overflowing with a plastic bag full of Coke cans. When I opened the bag this "Action List" was inside.
Two things strike me as funny. The first is that getting a job is more important than getting off heroin. And second, besides a dozen empty Coke cans there were two empty half gallon jugs of chocolate milk. What happened to number nine?
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
Well, this list was in the trash. Maybe they came up with a better list which doesn't unfairly prohibit chocolate milk?
Great! List! I especially like "build boat," not a common item on this sort of personal improvment agenda.
I'm still trying to decipher the first action on the list..."Get Get the Edge (personal power)". Although, I agree with Elizabeth and the building a boat, great action to plan for! Although, I think number 7 would seem to interfere with EVERY OTHER item on the list.
Wonderful - it's the little things, how we arrange and prioritize them - and which ones we call 'little'
No, no, no. He's not trying to get off "heroin", he's trying to get off "herIOn". That must be something different.
"get the edge" appears to be a Tony Robbins self help book: "Get the Edge : A 7 Day Program to Transform Your Life " available on Amazon for $80!
It's a good start, but what would s/he do with the rest of the day?
It is odd that the arcade game interferes every other item..
I'm just happy eating healthy is the last thing on his mind. Have to finish this boat and get an arcade game before I worry about exercise and eating right.
'Build a boat' seems randomly placed in there... Yet I am filled with an urge to both build a boat and drink chocolate milk.
This is a great one. The story gets better and better as you read down. Its like "oh no" when you get to the heroin and then "oh NO!" when you realize that they are still in high school (with items in hock)... really great
That's kind of depressing, yet at the same time, amusing.
this makes me want to write an Action! List!
this is kind of sweet and funny and sad all at the same time
This is probably one of the best finds I have ever seen. I really hope that kid managed to do all that.
Craving sweets is sometimes a by-product of kicking junk. More calories, less smack. Its a good thing.
Who the hell goes to school at 11:45?
I'm thinking maybe get off heroin should be above getting the Tony Robbins program, but that just shows what I know!
Wonderful find!
I like that he even writes down Bates JobCentral as to where to find a job. I really hope he finds a job that won't interfear with school or the oh so important arcade game and boat building.
i just love that "build a boat" & get arcade game" appear in the same list as "get off herion". at least they haven't lost hope.
i wish my Action! Lists! were as profound as this kid's. They seem to know what really needs to get done - the "get things out of pawn shop" just seems so motivating, along with getting off heroin.
The "Build Boat" makes me think of Fight Club when Brat Pitt asks the two men what they wish to do before they die (Build a house! Paint a self-portrait!).
I think I will make an Action! List! now...
I think "Found" should have to-do lists printed with a facsimile of the "Action!List!" header on them. And maybe the scribbled numbers down the side. I would so buy one.
I find this almost unbearably sad. I doubt he has been able to check off even one item on the list. His dream may be to sail away, but his reality will likely be much more grim. I hope I'm wrong about this.
hi nice site.
Ahhh...this list could be my husband's. He would even spell heroin that way.
www.thejunkyswife.com
this and the comments made me freaking crack up, oh I love it.
good lawd! thats some kinda list...
Two months later....
Note to self: Check with shrink about upping my Effexor and Ritalin. I'm the one who sounds grim.
Who goes to school at 11:45? Bad boys and girls who have been kicked out of regular school.
My guess is this daydreaming junkie goes to college. That would explain a lot.
To me, they contain personal notes and the traces of our hands, our immediate desires and transgressions. Making list is an almost instinctual act to clear our minds, much like the organizational methods of ‘Getting Things Done’ book by David Allen. (Although I wouldn't aspire to this particular list.)
http://ducly.wordpress.com/2007/06/20/pencil-c
Poor fucker. I truly, honestly sympathize with this guy. The list strikes you as funny at first glance, sure, until you realize he didn't manage to fullfill a single goal and threw it out with the trash, deeply frustrated. And the trash was full of calory-rich soda pop. That he initially swore to give up. This list is just so sad. Reminds me of parts of my own life, actually. Well, except for the "get off herion [sic]" list entry, that is.
I think it's disputable what this person is calling "school." School could mean DUI "school" - in which case it would make perfect sense, or it could mean community college classes, whatever. But I'd bet it's not 8-3 regular high school. Personally, my fave is the "Action! List!" part, as in two different things, not "Action list!" I also share goals 5, 8 & 9 on my own life list so I can relate to this person, minus getting off the junk.
Bates Technical College is a school in WA (with a main campus in Tacoma) where people can learn a variety of trades, from culinary arts to long haul trucking. I am assuming that "Bates Job Center" is a service available to the students of Bates, in their various stages of course completion.
This ACTION! LIST! makes me very sad for the individual who pawned everything of even marginal value for more and more shit. What a sad existence. I sure hope s/he got clean. (Tacoma, like any other big city these days, is rife with junkies, tweekers, and crack heads, though. sad, sad, sad.)
We know so much about this person's most basic wishes. Unfortunately, this is a glimpse into a life I don't want to know more about. It's too tragic. I only hope he/she cleans up and gets a job (maybe on a boat?). There's always a scant ray of hope, no matter how low we sink.
"Get get the edge" sounds like it could be a song...
I don't think this kid took his Action!List! all that seriously. I save, number and catalog all mine. I certainly do not toss them into the rubbish bin.
I don't think this kid took his Action!List! all that seriously. I save, number and catalog all mine. I certainly do not toss them into the rubbish bin.
I don't think this kid took his Action!List! all that seriously. I save, number and catalog all mine. I certainly do not toss them into the rubbish bin.
First, I applaud this person's motivation to turn their life around, that takes courage. Secondly, I thin chocolate Milk IS pretty Healthy. It's like regular milk only with the power of chocolate added. The 'Get The Edge: Personal Power" of which they are refering is indeed a volume of Anthony Robbins Motivational Tapes Designed to stimulate one's inner potential. I guess he gave up on these goals if it was in the trash.
he said F-it threw the note in the trash went out got him a bump and a gallon of choclate milk and nodded out.
Get of herion! Well that should be the first one. Go figure.
The "Action! List!" doesn't amuse me half as much as the fact that you're going through your tenants' garbage. WTF?
Sluggo, i think the Finder was taking the recyclables out of the garbage and putting them in the recycle. Recycling isn't mandated in Taco Town yet, but it is in Seattle. If the garbage guys see recyclables in your garbage, they won't pick up your trash. Tacoma's working on passing the same sort of deal.
i've never heard of an action list before so maybe i will make my own! this kid must be pretty creative and smart to be able to build a boat..i wonder how far he has gotten..to bad he threw the list away!
I think number 4, getting off heroin, accounts for the two empty chocolate jugs and coke cans...heroin addicts crave sugar when they try kicking the habit. So he was working his way down, it seems...
i love this one. from the title, i thought it would be really funny and strange, but it's pretty depressing...i still love it though. and hey! i'm in Spokane, so they were pretty close.
going to school 11:45 - 3:30 makes me think this person is in college. it reminds me of my older brother who went to school, had a job, played video games, but also had a pretty bad heroin addiction. he also spent time between school taking things to and from pawn shops to support his habit. perhaps the boat this person was going to build was to escape all that is the crap they consider their current life.
this sounds so familiar.
tacoma is beautiful if you look hard enough.
It's sad to me that a college kid who's a heroin user doesn't even know how to spell heroin.
I actually think it makes PERFECT sense that the first thing in the list is to get a motivational self-help book: it will in turn help him with getting a job, and also help him find the inner power and motivation to get off herIOn, and then once he's off that and in good track with work, he'll make it to school on time. Once he's been working regularly and getting to school on time, he'll have enough money to get his stuff off the pawn shop, and with money and hopefully no heroin in his system, he'll have time to start getting some of the good things in life, like a boat and an arcade game. Exercise takes time that you can only take once you have all your other basic needs in place, so now he can start exercising, and to continue exercising, he needs to eat healthy (which is a luxury affordable only with some kind of steady income that is no longer being used to buy smack). This list is perfect the way it is.
PS: Elizabeth, I TOTALLY thought of that too!
Good luck to you, SickBoy.
I think this relates, for those interested:
http://tinyurl.com/cy49pj
I could not find a definition for "herion" but this word is very close.
her·i·ot
her·i·ot [hérree ət]
(plural her·i·ots)
n
death duty in medieval England: in feudal England, a tribute or gift, often a prized animal or a treasured possession, given by a tenant's or villein's family to his lord at the tenant's death
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Astounding!