Help Us Improve 43 Places!

We just launched PROJECTS, a new section of 43 Places. This is where you can find things that we’d like to see added to the site. It could be new places, new destinations, and/or new neighborhoods, etc. The idea is that when you have time and inclination, you can pop in and add some content — either brand new entries, or adding to existing lists. We are keenly interested in finding people from different cities to add their knowledge — nobody knows your town better than you! 

Projects Example

Right now we’re focusing on neighborhoods, restaurants, sports-related destinations,  and the like, but we’ll soon be adding more and more projects to the mix. (If you have ideas for new projects, let us know.) It’s easy to get started: just pick a project, and start adding! Ideally you’ll update the Project page, too, so that others know it’s been taken care of.

Questions? Comment below! Thanks all.

Why, Yes, that WAS 43 Things on the Amazon Home Page

If you visited Amazon any time in the past couple of days, you may have seen an ad on the home page touting our New Year’s Resolution feature.

43 Things ad on the Amazon home page

Toot toot, as they say. We worked hard on this feature and are happy to see it get a little love. We hope you like it, too.

And in case you’d like to see it, here’s the link to Jackie Warner’s suggested resolution.

New Resolution Feature

We just launched a new feature.  It’s all about New Year’s Resolutions.  We solicited resolutions from inspiring people and we hope you’ll find an idea or two from among their many resolution suggestions.  Here’s a sneak peek:

New Year's Resolution Feature screenshot

Now get out there and make your list! 43things.com

Internationally yours

Thanks to the international reach of Twitter (@robotcoop, in case you want to follow us), we found Afnan Mohammed’s blog review of 43 Things. Here’s a screen shot:

43 Things review in Arabic

And according to Google Translate, it’s favorable!

 

Here’s a recent Tweet from a Dutch fan: @jenniferaap 43things.com is goeie site. Kan je zelfs reminder sturen. Word alleen vervelend als je niks doet en je mailbox vol zit :s

Translation:

43things.com is great site. You can even send reminders. Will only be annoying if you do nothing and your mailbox is full :s

It’s wonderful to know that we’re reaching — and hopefully inspiring — people all over the world.

We support John Edwards!

Well, maybe that puts it too strongly. It isn’t that we are ready to throw our influential endorsement behind John Edwards but we do fully support his campaign’s use of 43 Things. You can see the John Edwards profile page on our site with a list of goals that reads like a political platform (well, actually, that platform doesn’t say much about alternative energy, Iraq, or North Korea, but it is a start). Not only can you see his goals, his Flickr stream shows what he’s up to on the campaign trail.

We never considered how your goals on 43 Things could become a platform to campaign on, but it actually works great. Best of all, limiting any politician to 43 goals is almost certainly a good idea. Instead of letting a politician be for everything, we ought to ask “What are your 43 Things?”

On this day, with the Edwards family in the news, we wish them our best. We hope for a cure and that Mrs. Edwards beats this thing once and for all. We hope too that we’ll see more candidates, from all parties and all levels of government, join 43 Things and make their goals public.

El Quetzal

Hey Seattle peeps—if you’re looking for a great little authentic Mexican restaurant in Seattle I suggest heading over to El Quetzal on Beacon Hill. It’s not crowded (yet) and the food was simple and great.

Lunch topics today revolved around many things (some unmentionable) including the benefits and challenges of marriage. But mostly the benefits and ill-conceived challenges of freedom and variety. Anyhoo … everyone should get married. At least twice.

What is great about 43 Places?

Here’s an entry I ran across on 43 Places that is actually something of a review of 43places.com – and in it, I found some insight into what sort of place we’ve all been building together.

 

43 Places Entry of the Day

0 people want to go to 43 Places

“Chronocide“, an entry by
cranberrygoddess:

Highlights:
1. bragging to people about where you have been
2. thinking of cool places to go
3. reminiscing over old travel stories
4. working out for yourself what’s good about where you live
5. killing time at work
6. being cheered by random people for no good reason
7. the irony of place like this
8. feeling superior to travellers who dont’ see the real ‘[insert place here]’
9. finding out where you should have gone but missed
10. discovering that you are not alone in this stupidity

NYC 43T meet-up this Sunday

Yeshna and friends are organizing a 43T meet-up:

Sunday, April 23
5pm
Bryant Park

I created an event page for this meet-up—go ahead and click the “I am going” button if you intend to be there. Be sure to take pictures so we can see y’all post-meetup on 43T!

1,000 Places To See Before You Die

I was blown away by this list—1,000 Places To See Before You Die which is based on Patricia Schultz’s book with the same title. A few observations:

1. Stacey created a 1,000+ item list and added photos for quite a few of the places. This is an amazing feat in itself!

1. I realize I haven’t been many places. I’m currently at 4% complete, but I think that’s likely higher as there are plenty of places where I’m not sure of the name so I’ve errored on the side of caution.

1. I learn a lot about the people I know as they mark places off this list. I didn’t know half the places Josh had been … and I sit about 2 feet away from him.

Try this list out and show it to a few friends. Happy travels.

Daniel and I on cable tv (the Current channel)

While a few of us were in Austin for SXSW, the Google Current people asked to interview us, and it’s finally available online. I got to say “poop on a dolphin” on television and Daniel got to be articulate about everything else. Doing this interview was super fun… we got to hang out with Daniel Freed (he was behind the camera) and Kinga a bit more later in the week and they’re awesome.

Check it out! Yay 43 Things!