things ive never done

July 20, 2015

In light of my revival of 101 Things, I decided to post the things I’ve left undone.

Start a coffee blog

One Christmas my mom told me that my grandfather used to salt his coffee. I become fascinated with the idea of mixing different flavors with coffee grounds so I bought a French Press and started adding spices to the coffee grounds before brewing it. I tried cinnamon and salt and Ras El Hanout. I even made Swedish coffee which was a mess but tasted good. I entertained the idea of having a blog about my experiments with coffee (more like making it an itinerant addition to my tumblr). But then I realized no matter how good the coffee I made was, it’d never be as good as King’s Road.

Granted, that shouldn’t be a reason to stop experimenting… except that it was. Or I got bored of it. Or I realized I don’t love coffee enough to really enjoy the experiments.

Maintain a food/recipe/healthy living blog

I’ve been interested in living healthy for years – in eating good, real food and eliminating the chemicals in my home and in my food – in working out and being strong enough to play hard and enjoy my life. When I stopped eating grains and dairy I started cooking a lot more. I found that I enjoy the alchemy of cooking and experimenting with food and different things to create flavors.

What better way to keep track of and share recipes that work and tell funny stories about the ones that don’t then a blog. Mix in a few fun work out pictures and inspirational quotes and it could be fun.

But I have novels to write and this blog to maintain and I just don’t have time for that. But I still think about it from time to time and think I’d enjoy it.

Create a writing app

I still really want to do this because there’s totally a need in the marketplace. I know it’s a good enough idea that I don’t want to go into detail. But I don’t have the coding skills or a server to host it. The hosting part would be pretty simple – but how do you make it a zero sum endeavor? Targeted ads (like for books like goodreads)? Or pay for the app? Because what I also don’t have is the time to figure out coding and hosting or the time to maintain it and fix bugs and handle technical support and…. great idea and I’d love to do it there just aren’t enough hours in the day for this.

Produce YA films

It’s a prime opportunity and I’ve thought of it for a few years now, especially when I talk to friends who work at production companies or studios and they’re looking for material and I have a dozen ideas I could share with them. The recent Top 10 about adaptations reignited the idea after seeing so many other people’s ideas for great adaptations (especially Amy who covered such a variety of mediums).

I have the contacts to work my way back in and the experience in every medium except animation to recognize a good adaptation and fit it into the appropriate format. As well as a breadth of reading and love of YA literature to pull it off. I definitely have thoughts about the spate of recent YA films.

I just really don’t want to live in LA again. I love visiting but… I couldn’t stay. I’m choosing a different career path and a different environmental path and… it’s interesting and sometimes hard to look at the things you could do and knowingly walk way and choose something else.

Posted in: Blogging, Life ~

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6 responses to “Things I’ve never done

  1. I think it would be so awesome if you did the producer thing, though I completely get not wanting to live in LA, as I have no desire to either (though I’ll admit I have never visited).

    • Annie

      If I could do it remotely… I’d pursue it in a heartbeat 🙂 If you do visit, let me know and I’ll share some fun places to go!

  2. I wanted to start a food blog once, too – I cook and bake a lot but I have VERY poor photography skills so I’d be terrible in comparison to those lovely food blogs I actually read.
    Experimenting with coffee sounds delicious but I don’t think I’d be able to live with surprises every morning when I need my coffee fix – but I’d totally be up for it in the afternoon! Which of the spices was the best match?
    And I couldn’t live in such an enormous city, either. It’s good you’re sticking with your thing, there’s always something you have to give up, right?

    • Annie

      I don’t have a great setting for good photography pictures. But I like the idea of the challenge. I like trying to take good pictures – the light and the framing and everything – trying to find a way to make food look interesting 🙂
      That was the advantage I had with coffee – I don’t really drink it every morning so I had time to experiment. It also meant I didn’t care enough about coffee to keep going 🙂 When it comes t the spices it depends on your palette. Cinnamon was more of a scent than a flavor. Ras el hanout was I think was my favorite flavor. Plus, it’s sweeter than what I usually cook so it was good to have a use for it.

  3. I’ve always wanted to have a food blog! I think it would be awesome to share recipes and food of my country and culture (I am a South Asian btw) but I don’t think I have the time to do that. But maybe one day, when I get a bit older, I’ll start to pursuit that dream, who knows?:)

    • Annie

      I would totally read your blog about South Asian cooking! I love trying new recipes from different cultures so it would so much fun. That’s my thing too, I just don’t have the time for everything I’d enjoy doing. Maybe one day we’ll both have the time 🙂