2DO Before I Die

Change? Yes we can!...

As seismic shifts in attitude and lifestyle tear through the global political and economic climate, let it not be said that we here at 2DO are immune to change... Which is a rather pompous, inflated way of saying that both Mike and I have been busy of late wrestling with romper suits, baby-wipes and a perilous lack of sleep.

But before you reach for the remote in a panic that this is an episode of “My Two Dads”, let me reassure you that we’re talking about two entirely separate new arrivals here.

My daughter Isabelle was born almost three months ago, back in mid-November when Bush was still in charge and the £ was worth $1.72. Unlike the economy, however, she’s grown at an encouragingly healthy rate and proudly sports a pair of thighs that would be the envy of an entire Olympic cycling team.

As if that weren’t enough of a boost to the world’s population, just two weeks ago, along came little Jack. Mike’s first child, Jack weighed in at 9lbs 5, and - like his 2do cuz Isabelle - was born into the calm waters of a birthing pool. Since then, Mike and his wife have finally learnt the true meaning of a sleepless night and I’ve had tremendous fun advising him in the pretence I’m an expert in human husbandry.

Which all means that if our blog has been a little sparse of late then please, don’t blame us, blame our rascal children for draining our affection, energy and hard drives (4 GB of baby snaps and rising...) Keep returning to the good old bloggo and we promise to get some more intriguing and inspiring stories up just as soon as we've slept...

 

Now, stop prying and make yourself useful. Pass me those cotton buds and for heaven's sake get me the fluffy mittens…  

- Chris

Thirteen question marks and no logo...

The more visually aware of you may have noticed an absence of header and side panels on the 2DO blog this morning. No - it's not another sign that the economy's going down the tubes or that 2DO Ltd is calling in the receivers. Since we make no money whatsoever from this site, our finances are as stable as ever...

Instead, it's a temporary glitch as we're in the process of switching hosting providers for 2dobeforeidie.com. As the company we currently use are rather messing us about, it may be down for a few days. The result is that these graphics are missing from the blog sidepanels and our 2dobeforeidie.com emails are not currently working.

Rest assured, we'll continue to post new stories, articles and comments and you can still comment on posts, browse the archive or add your own thoughts to our huge page of 2DO List ideas. In short, aside from a slight absence of brand, the blog will remains as lucid, gripping and imaginatively verdant as ever!...

Hopefully we'll have it all sorted in the next few days, but in the meantime, if you do want to contact us about anything in particular, simple add a comment below this post.

Tomorrow, it will be business as usual with another great 'Regrets' post from the mysterious pen of Christopher Lemille...

See you then! - M&C

**UPDATE - Graphics fixed so blog is working as normal, but all 2dobeforeidie.com emails are still down...

'5 Questions That Will Change Your Life'

Not to get self-help on you, but Tim Brown, contributor to Pick The Brain, has written an interesting piece on 5 questions he believes that by considering, can change one's life.

Here's Brown: 'If I could offer you free of charge 5 questions guaranteed to improve the quality of your life, make you happier, less likely to get into arguments, more likely to reach your goals and be more popular with other people, would you be interested in hearing them? Of course you would, who wouldn't? After all, they're free and it doesn't get much cheaper than that.'

His five questions:

1. "What Else Can This Mean?"
2. "Who Can Help Me?"
3. "What Am I Grateful For?"
4. "What's My End Game?"
5. "What Can I Learn From This?"

Read his explanation for each here. Feel free to let us know your thoughts below in the comments, or post your own questions...

The photo of Einstein on a bike - showing off one of his 'brain fitness' techniques - was found here.

'Where the Hell is Matt?' and Other Recent Highlights

Hey there - it's been a couple of months since our last newsletter - and in that time we've had about 45 new posts go up, so we thought we'd take a minute today to flag up a few recent highlights in the mix. Here's our top six or seven:

1. JK Rowling's Harvard speech, 'The Benefits of Failure, the Importance of Imagination' is excellent, well worth checking out
2. We still haven't figured out how they managed to animate the Street Art in Argentina
3. For pure fun, both Where The Hell is Matt? and 'Time To Get Down' were pretty damn infectious, enjoyable videos
4. For budding writers and movie lovers, 'Creative Screenwriting' is about the best podcast around and it's been a treat to come across it
5. If you like photography, 'The Big Picture' is an incredible mix of stunning pictures and storytelling. It's all in the choices...
6. We're fans too of 'Cassette from my Ex' - great ideas and good stories
7. And then if you're looking for a good book, 'Books to read before you die' might be what you're after

You might have different favorites - or maybe you enjoyed a few of the above - either way, we'd love to hear what you think by clicking 'Comments' below.

We're always curious to hear about intriguing stories or videos, so if you see something you want to share, please submit a link for consideration.

Thanks for listening,
Mike and Chris

p.s. NEW WRITERS START HERE TOMORROW! -- all next week we'll be posting entries for a host of talented guest writers, exclusive to the 2DO blog. For free updates direct to your email, please click here.

The "Mystery in a Box" and other recent highlights

The past eight weeks have seen around 50 new posts added below to the 2DO Before I Die blog. We thought we'd take a minute today to share a few of our recent favorites that may have become a bit buried:

Mike's picks: JJ Abrams’ "Mystery in a box" talk about the art of storytelling was great. I also enjoyed reading about Dave Gorman's travels across America, the kids remaking 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' and the 'Things I've Never Done' series. Great too was revisiting Hillman Curtis’ 'The Possibility of Learning Never Disappears.' The video for 'Propose marriage' was pretty entertaining as well. She looks like she's about to hyperventilate...!

Chris' picks: Great to see Gigi getting some press for her writing here at the blog in 'Body & Soul' Magazine – looking forward to her posts on the blog coming up in the near future. I also enjoyed reading up about the DIY book phenomenon, watching Dave Eggers' pirate supply shop, and had the luxury of peeking into Stefan Sagmeister's brain via his new book "Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far." Chatting to ABC Radio in Australia about 2DO Before I Die was another highlight for me, but I wasn’t quite so thrilled to be doing it in my pajamas at 6am...

More new stuff to come - and we always welcome suggested links. Let us know what you find! Best way to stay in the loop with new ideas posted here is to subscribe at the top left. Enter your email, click subscribe and never miss another post again.

Cheers,
Mike Ogden and Chris Day

p.s. These are a few of our favorite picks - you may have your own. Feel free to post your own in the comments below.

A taste of our own medicine...

In a twist of fate sure to bring tears to the eyes, the dedication of 2DO blog editors Chris and Mike has been diverted in recent months by the pursuit of a few life goals of their own.

in April Mike did the decent thing and married his childhood sweetheart, Victoria, in a small but perfectly formed ceremony in the heart of the countryside.

Meanwhile, Chris finally turned his back on a London-based, retrosexual lifestyle, and - after 6 months of heavy duty renovation (painting, plastering, smashing things up and generally rebuilding them) - he's finally moved into a new house down in the good old historic city of Bath.

But despite these invigorating stabs at ‘living the dream’, we’re both back on our 2DO project watch. As such, we’ve got a few things coming up – including updates from our original 2DO Bloggers and some blog entries of our own. Meanwhile, the 2do lists page continues to receive regular visits from imaginative typists from around the globe. Click here to take a look…

If you’d like to participate by sending in a list, story or maybe even writing a regular blog post to the site, then click here to get in touch.

Cheers – glad to be back and looking forward to seeing the how the blog develops.

Chris and Mike

Happy New Year!

Hi everybody, Just a quick note to send best wishes to all of you -- hope it's a good year for you, your friends and family, and the world at large. 2007 won't be including James Brown which is a shame, but otherwise, we remain hopeful....Good luck.

Cheers,
Mike and Chris

Technical difficulties...

In what is probably an unsettling side-effect of Korea's nuclear test, 2do.com is currently out of action.

This has caused the beautiful blogger buttons on the left to disappear, and, even more worryingly all the 2dobeforeidie.com emails are inaccessable.

We're working on a quick solution and all should be tickety-boo in a day or two, but in the meantime, if you want to contact us by email, hold off until the main site is back up and running. Alternatively, leave a comment below and we can get back to you asap.

UPDATE: All sorted out, 2DO Before I Die is now back online, alive and well...

The latest line-up of 2DO writers...

Wednesday August 30th - Gigi steadies herself to pose naked for 3 hours in front of a room of strangers; Tim prepares to seal his own time capsule of precious artefacts ('do not open until 2056'); Andrea clutches the manuscript of her novel and her invaluable, purple editing pen...

But there's more!... Starting today, we're happy to announce four new writers, reporting from around the world. They are:
-- Ingrid Wiese, 33, New York City: 'Quit smoking'
-- Gideon J. Sofer, 22, New Jersey: 'Fight for a cause'
-- Isy Poulson, 30, London/Belize: 'Build a camera in the rainforest'
-- David Angell, 32, London/Auckland: 'Move to New Zealand'

Give them a read and, if you've any words of advice, encouragement, questions or recommendations, don't forget to click the 'comments' link below each of their entries.

Have a good Wednesday!...
Mike & Chris

Welcome to '2DO Blogs'...

We're excited to announce the launch of the brand new blogger project on 2DO Before I Die.com

2DO Blogs aim to record peoples' goals as they chase them, charting the ups and downs of their experience. We've selected a handful of people to start this project off (scroll below to read their first entries). Writing as they go and learning on the run over the next few weeks, the first wave of Bloggers to the site are:

Andrea Knufken, 26 -- 'Get published'
Sven Petersen, 31 -- 'Start a Business'
Gigi Burgdorf, 30 -- 'Conquer my fear of nudity'
David Lemon, 33 -- 'Make a Movie'
Tim Thornton, 32 – ‘The Trials of Tim’

Updates will be be posted every few days, so keep dropping by and feel free to encourage, advise or interrogate any of them via the comments link below each post.

If you'd like to chronicle a pursuit of your own over 4-8 weeks for 2DO, send over an email with your first entry (written or video) to blog@2dobeforeidie.com

If you would like to subscribe to our free newsletter for updates on the latest stories and news on the project, just click here: Subscribe to 2DO.

In the meantime - hope you enjoy seeing how the new blogs develop...

All the best -- Mike and Chris