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17 December 2010

#351 Write a love letter

There are a bunch of people in the world who would say that they were born with a certain talent. Some of them call themselves, and each other, poets and writers. Just to keep others out. It's bullshit. Anyone can write. But to get good at it, you need to practice. Get up early and sit in your chair, stop whining and write. Here are: Seven things you can write.

The best love letter I ever wrote was a hate mail. I had met a girl who was a few years older than me and I had fallen head over heels in love with her. She was complicated, nuanced and had been through things I hadn’t been. I adored her and her uncompromising integrity. I thought she was absolutely magical. And based on the classic cosmic rules she hurt me over and over again by dumping me. After the tenth time I had had enough. My torso was minced meat from all the knife blows. So I decided not to try again.

Instead, I sat down and wrote a long letter to her about all the things that she wouldn’t know about me. All the things she wouldn’t get to hear me tell. Everything she would miss out on when she kept dumping me time and time again. I told her my two favorite colors. I told her about my aunt who set fire to herself to escape her husband's beatings and the two children who remained in their father's violent (lack of) care. I talked about how my parents met. About my nightmares as a child. About my nightmares as an adult. I told her about the obsessive thought I have as to which chair to sit in when I walk into a room. I told her that I had broken my hand twice. And that I hate penicillin.

All this I wrote in a letter. I didn’t dare send it to her. Instead, I formulated the beginning of the letter so that I could read it to her answering machine. I sat next to the phone and found the courage to call. My hands were totally sweaty. My body shook and I was one second from calling her. I held the phone in my hand when it began to vibrate. Her name appeared on the screen.

I answered.

It was quiet.

- Sorry, she said.

Then we started from scratch. I told her that she couldn’t keep behaving like that. She apologized again. Then we moved in together. Then she proposed. Then she gave birth to our daughter.

Text: Navid Modiri

Required time: 
1 week or more
Cost: 
Free.
Cons: 
It might have the completely opposite effect. You might get turned down. You can embarrass yourself. You can get even more hurt. You can feel like shit.
Pros: 
You may get the ones you love to realize that they love you.
9 July 2010

#190 Build your own lamp

There are so many things that we buy rather than make ourselves. Lamps are one of them. There are a thousand ways to make your own lamp. You can come up with at least ten ways if you sit down and think right now.

Then you can come up with an additional 990 if you were to think about it some more. It all boils down to thinking about what lamps there are, those you have seen in the store and in catalogs. Then you forget about them and start thinking about the lamps that haven’t been invented yet. The models that don’t exist on the market because you haven’t thought of them yet. Lamps that look like animals, that hang from the walls in ways no one thought that a lamp could be hung. Unexpected lamps, crooked lamps, lopsided lamps, angry and happy lamps, the same way that people can be both twisted, angry, happy and oblique.

1. Sketch your lamp in a notepad. Watch a lot of cartoons for inspiration. One tip is to check out Hayao Miyazaki, in particular Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle. Another tip is to look at the forms of nature. Could you make a lamp that looks like a stump? Or a fox?

2. Write down the materials you need. Try to find the store that sells the cheapest material. Check online for good prices.

3. Start building your lamp. Paint, glue, paste and fix. Be careful with regard to the electrical part. Make sure you have proper wiring.

When you’re finished, we here at 365 things you can do would like to see what you have put together. Submit pictures of your homemade lamp to info@365saker.se so you can inspire others to do things themselves instead of buying ready-made products.

Required time: 
1 day or less
Cost: 
Less than €50
Cons: 
Remember to not use flammable materials. Use a low-energy bulb, both to save on electricity and because they don’t become as hot.
Pros: 
You are doing something yourself, you create and use your imagination.