#25 Bowl another score of 160 or over at ten-pin bowling

Status: Gutted, not guttered (see what I did there?)

Four strikes and four spares, but still two pins short.

Still, I topped last time.

#60 Watch the entire series of Deadwood

Status: Enthralled

In a time when the idiot box is living up to its name, it seems impossible to switch on the telly without being clobbered over the head by some patronising drivel. From Farmer Wants A Wife, a show as clumsily-conceived as its name, to Surprise, Surprise, Gotcha, a programme as redundant as two-thirds of its own title, it really is a rum state of affairs in TV land. I suppose it has some mercies, such as the fact the 1.068 million gawping plebs who watch two and a half freaking hours of So You Think You Can Dance each week are kept out of my face on a Thursday night.

Anyway, as fate would have it, the best stuff's not even on the box at all. Enter Deadwood, a show I'm increasingly convinced may be television's finest (series of) hour(s). On the surface, it's a western, but it's all a façade as the programme quickly reveals itself to be a glorious character study set in a town without law. Based partly in reality, the series opens with righteous sheriff Seth Bullock leaving Montana to set up a hardware store with his friend, Sol Star, in Deadwood. There, they encounter a myriad of characters, each with their own motives for coming to the town. There's famous gunslinger Wild Bill Hickock, drunkard Calamity Jane, scheming saloon owner Cy Tolliver, jittery innkeeper E.B. Farnum, sympathetic prostitute Trixie, elegant Alma Garret, put-upon Doc Cochran and plenty more fantastically-realised characters. However, all are shown up by Ian McShane's incredible portrayal of Gem Saloon owner, Al Swearengen, who must have the most commanding screen presence of any character to ever appear on television. Every word he utters and every movement he makes is delivered with such conviction. Deadwood's entire cast embody their characters like none I've ever seen, but McShane is Swearengen.

The programme received the most publicity for its no-holds-barred depiction of swearing, violence and sex, which are all fair comments. However, everything about the show is perfectly conceived and executed. The direction, casting, cinematography and acting is phenomenal. Best of all are the scripts. Each episode takes place over a single day in the town, allowing for slow burn plotting that truly fleshes out the large cast of characters, all of whom deliver anything from a cutting jibe to a Shakespearean monologue.

The only downside is that the series was cut short after just three seasons, while the telemovies planned to wrap up the show's loose ends look increasingly unlikely to happen.

It's superb stuff, though admittedly not to everyone's taste. But if I find out even one of you tuned into National Bingo Night...

#25 Bowl another score of 160 or over at ten-pin bowling

Status: So very, very close

After coming up rather short last month, I came blazing back tonight at Strike with Bodie, Brady and special guest bowler, Zoe. Game 1 saw victory snatched from within my grasp in the final frame by Brady (it's okay; I forgive you); 128 points versus my 121. Zoe took third place with 86, while Bodie, having a self-confessed off day, scored 77 (just like an essay, hey, Brady?).

My dinner arrived - a burger containing a well-lubricated piece of chicken schnitzel that promptly slipped out from between the buns - and Game 2 was underway. In his inimitable bowling style, Bodie took fourth place on 89; though at the time of posting this blog entry, his final bowl was still making its way down the lane. Brady came in third on 99, while Zoe's years of high school practice landed her a very respectable 113. However, heartbreak came when I fell just nine pins short of my 160 goal. That said, I was chuffed with 151 and if I managed to top 160 already, it'd be a wee bit of a cop-out.

After returning our shoes (is it wrong I find bowling shoes incredibly comfortable?), we made for the bar. Wasn't long before we were ambushed by a make-up artistry tutor begging for us to gatecrash her private function for her graduating class and belt out a couple of karaoke numbers to liven things up. As typically happens on a Thursday night out. Fortunately, we kept them involved in inane conversation long enough for most of their class of teenage Barbie dolls to lose interest and head off home. Left to fend for myself against the remaining tutors and students (last time I ever sit at the end of a table), we discussed a series of hard-hitting topics, including the shallowness of Gold Coasters, how we all know each other (about 17 times) and some "hilarious" story about some girl that, er, did something. And then she threw up. I think. Truthfully, I was thinking about a monkey on a skateboard.

#37 Complete UK tax return

Status: Bored

I know I started this a month ago, but even if there are millions upon millions of pounds awaiting me, this paperwork has long since sucked the life-force clean from my body. Consequently, I couldn't care less if I'm actually breathing in enough oxygen right now, let alone what my total weekly income (with bonuses and overtime) before stoppages was for those three weeks I temped as a data entry clerk, a job that was almost as dull as the paperwork I'm filling out for the taxes I paid while I was working there.

Anyway, I think I'm almost done. I'm in awe that I actually thought to keep my P45 and P60 forms. No, I don't know what they are either, but I wanted to give you some idea of just how mind-numbingly boring this all is.

#21 Get a new job

Status: Temporarily, but respectably employed

All that finger- and toe-crossing must have paid off!

I start this Friday as a service officer for the Department of Communities in Robina. The office is quite swanky and the people seem very friendly. Plus, I'm right beside Robina Town Centre, so I can spend those dollars as quickly as I earn them!

Anyway, it's only until 23 November, but I'm prepared to call this one complete.

And for those of you curious how I quit my old job, it went a little something like this...

#26 Walk the dog three times a week for a month

Status: Surprisingly exhausted

Having formally kicked off this task on Saturday, Dana was treated to a walk along the Broadwater on Sunday. Worries me that the dog was still bounding around at the end of the day, while I was in bed just after 9pm. Put that down to two weeks of this, though. Honest. I'm not that unfit.

#50 Eat vegetarian for a month

Status: What's the rush? I still have 973 days

Just to clarify, this means to eat as a vegetarian; not to physically eat a vegetarian, which would mean the opposite thing entirely.

#21 Get a new job

Status: In limbo

Glad that's over.

Anyway, I've just applied for a new, temporary fixed-term position with the Queensland Government Department of Communities, which sounds right up my alley. Plus, the money's good and the timing for my proposed Canada departure date is superb. So all of you cross all of your fingers and toes for me until I find out if I got the job. Arthritis is no excuse.*

(Just one last thing about my work at 7-Eleven. I've discovered that people who go about their business at night - or in the wee small hours of the morning - are characteristically exuberant. I'm not talking about the stoned male teenagers who stagger in to flick through the adult magazines before realising they've lost their shirts during the course of the evening; instead, I mean the shift workers, the builders, the joggers and the delivery men. It's weird, but I feel there's an explanation. It's the grown-up version of the childhood fantasy of being locked in a department store overnight. While the rest of the world is essentially out of the picture, tucked up in bed and oblivious to anything or anyone, us professional night owls are merrily passing the hours without the borders or burdens that modern-day society places upon us. No traffic jams, no bustling crowds, no-one to tell me I can't refill my Slurpee cup. And when the sun rises, we scurry away to our homes while the day drones trudge about, only to re-emerge when it's safe to come out and play again. Actually, scrap all that - it may have been a better explanation that the world is full of happy vampires.)

* It may, however, be a consequence of long-term digit-crossing. I accept no responsibility for any injury sustained while willing me this job.

#26 Walk the dog three times a week for a month

Status: In progress... NOW!

Okay, thanks to the graveyard shifts of terror at 7-Helleven, which led to me working 27 hours per day, this was simply impossible over the past month. Now that those days nights are mercifully behind me, I can get stuck into this important little task.

I know walking Dana mightn't seem like a particularly character-building job, but if you knew how little exercise I actually do, you'd be encouraging me like there's no tomorrow. Consider this the closest thing my list will have to an item that reads "Join a gym".

Unless I'm desperate for 101 items.

Really desperate.