Epic Quest of Awesome

Related to http://quest.digitalcrusader.ca/ and http://www.nerdfitness.com/epic-quest/ . Future quests have been moved to evil plans.

You can find the source of this page on Github. =) Want to get in touch? Find me at sacha@sachachua.com.

Summary

Current points 3090
Level 3
Description savvy

Analysis

Yearly

quest_yearly.png

Year Points gained Cumulative points Level Adjective
1997 0 0 1 trained-initiate
1998 10 10 1 trained-initiate
1999 50 60 1 trained-initiate
2000 50 110 1 trained-initiate
2001 100 210 1 trained-initiate
2002 60 270 1 trained-initiate
2003 245 515 1 trained-initiate
2004 115 630 1 trained-initiate
2005 140 770 1 trained-initiate
2006 60 830 1 trained-initiate
2007 270 1100 2 experienced
2008 290 1390 2 experienced
2009 205 1595 2 experienced
2010 215 1810 2 experienced
2011 115 1925 2 experienced
2012 355 2280 3 savvy
2013 290 2570 3 savvy
2014 350 2920 3 savvy
2015 45 2965 3 savvy 
library(ggplot2)
library(gridExtra)
plot <- ggplot(data, aes(x = Year, y = Points.gained, fill = Adjective)) + geom_bar(stat = "identity") + theme(legend.direction = "horizontal") + guides(fill = guide_legend(reverse=TRUE)) + labs(y = "Points gained") + geom_text(aes(label = Points.gained, x = Year, y = Points.gained + 10, vjust=0)) + scale_y_continuous(expand=c(0,40))
cumulative_plot <- ggplot(data, aes(x = Year, y = Cumulative.points, fill = Adjective)) + geom_bar(stat = "identity") + theme(legend.position = "none") + labs(y = "Cumulative points") + geom_text(aes(label = Cumulative.points, x = Year, y = Cumulative.points + 50, vjust=0)) + scale_y_continuous(expand=c(0,300))
# http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12041042/how-to-plot-just-the-legends-in-ggplot2
g_legend<-function(a.gplot){
  tmp <- ggplot_gtable(ggplot_build(a.gplot))
  leg <- which(sapply(tmp$grobs, function(x) x$name) == "guide-box")
  legend <- tmp$grobs[[leg]]
  return(legend)}
legend <- g_legend(plot)
all <- grid.arrange(legend, arrangeGrob(plot + theme(legend.position = "none"), cumulative_plot), heights=c(1,10))
print(all)

Categories

quest_category.png 

library(plyr)
library(ggplot2)
categories <- ddply(data, c("Category"), summarize, Points=sum(XP))
cat_sorted <- transform(categories, Category=reorder(Category, Points))
plot <- ggplot(data = cat_sorted, aes(x = Category, y = Points))
plot <- plot + geom_bar(stat="identity")
plot <- plot + geom_text(aes(label = Points, x = Category, y = Points + 10, hjust=0))
plot <- plot + scale_y_continuous(expand=c(0,70))
plot <- plot + coord_flip()
print(plot)

Category-year heatmap

library(plyr)
library(ggplot2)
categories <- ddply(data, c("Category", "Approximate.date"), summarize, Points=sum(XP))
plot <- ggplot(categories, aes(x = Approximate.date, y = Category))
plot <- plot + geom_tile(aes(fill=Points), colour="white")
plot <- plot + scale_fill_gradient(low = "white", high = "steelblue", limits = c(0, max(categories$Points)))
plot <- plot + labs(x = "Year")
print(plot)

quest_category_year.png

Accomplishments

Approximate date Category XP Description ID
1989 Programming 20 Used LOGO in class; learned it previously  
1990 Programming 20 Picked up Turbo Pascal around this time  
1993 Learning 5 Went to chess camp  
1994 Connecting 5 Went to science camp  
1995 Programming 10 Learned how to work with Linux  
1995 Programming 10 Learned QBasic  
1995 Programming 10 Started doing programming competitions  
1995 Cooking 10 Made lasagna with my mom  
1995 Learning 5 Competed in chess tournaments  
1995 Learning 10 Graduated with special award  
1998 Connecting 5 Asked someone to the prom  
1998 Connecting 5 Went to leadership conference  
1999 Connecting 5 Asked someone in a different school to a dance  
1999 Drawing 5 Had drawing and poem included in a book  
1999 Learning 10 Graduated with special award  
1999 Life 5 Danced swing and chacha  
1999 Learning 5 Got the top score on my school's entrance exam  
1999 Programming 20 Won various programming contests in high school  
2000 Programming 50 Picked up Emacs  
2001 Analysis 20 Learned pivot tables  
2001 Programming 10 Scored in the top 10 for the JITSE  
2001 Speaking 20 Started public speaking  
2001 Writing 50 Started a blog  
2002 Learning 10 Contributed to a published paper  
2002 Programming 20 Part of the team that won Best Academic Solution in Microsoft Worldwide .NET Best contest  
2002 Programming 10 Got the top score on the JITSE  
2002 Programming 10 Contributed to open source project  
2002 Programming 10 Gained commit rights to an open source project  
2003 Cooking 20 Cooked for friends  
2003 Finance 10 Started opportunity fund with prize from Trend Micro Software Contest  
2003 Learning 100 Graduated from university  
2003 Learning 50 Experimented with wearable computing  
2003 Learning 5 Received BPI Science Award  
2003 Learning 5 Graduated with special award  
2003 Programming 20 Did well in international programming contests in university  
2003 Programming 20 Maintained open source project (Planner)  
2003 Programming 10 Part of the team that won the Trend Micro Software Contest  
2003 Speaking 5 Featured in Philippine news  
2004 Connecting 10 Phased out unhelpful friends  
2004 Finance 10 Started tracking my finances with Ledger  
2004 Learning 10 Applied for master's degree  
2004 Life 50 Went for technical internship in Japan  
2004 Life 10 Survived my first winter  
2004 Programming 10 Built project submission system  
2004 Speaking 10 Presented at an IT education conference  
2004 Speaking 5 Spoke to an audience of > 750 people  
2005 Connecting 5 Digital activism: Made a fuss about the DigitalPinay project  
2005 Learning 5 Passed JLPT 3  
2005 Life 100 Moved to Canada  
2005 Life 20 Survived my first Canadian winter  
2005 Programming 10 Built alternative class registration system  
2006 Cooking 10 Went to cooking workshops  
2006 Finance 10 Got IBM to fund my studies  
2006 Life 10 Got myself out of a bind  
2006 Life 5 Danced tango  
2006 Life 5 Danced Renaissance dances in a performance  
2006 Programming 10 Picked up Ruby on Rails  
2006 Speaking 10 Survived TA-ing a class that I was really uncertain about  
2007 Business 30 Started working at IBM  
2007 Business 20 Earned top-contributor ratings at work  
2007 Connecting 50 Asserted my independence in terms of relationships  
2007 Connecting 10 Parted ways with S  
2007 Cooking 10 Survived without meal plan in grad school  
2007 Cooking 5 Made meringue  
2007 Drawing 20 Drew on Nintendo DS  
2007 Finance 10 Set up RRSP  
2007 Finance 10 Graduated with savings instead of debt  
2007 Learning 50 Finished thesis  
2007 Life 5 Went to a charity gala  
2007 Writing 50 Migrated my blog to Wordpress  
2008 Analysis 5 Analyzed my word use  
2008 Connecting 10 Took W- and J- to Manila  
2008 Cooking 10 Tried out community-supported agriculture box  
2008 Cooking 10 Learned canning  
2008 Cooking 5 Made egg tarts  
2008 Drawing 20 Won Slideshare best presentation contest  
2008 Drawing 20 Drew on Cintiq  
2008 Life 10 Adopted two cats  
2008 Life 10 Explored krav maga  
2008 Life 10 Explored yoga  
2008 Life 10 Explored static trapeze  
2008 Life 10 Started a garden  
2008 Life 5 Used a router to round edges  
2008 Programming 30 Delivered Drupal projects  
2008 Programming 5 Explored Second Life programming  
2008 Programming 20 Learned AutoHotkey  
2008 Speaking 30 Made A Gen Y Guide to Web 2.0 at Work  
2008 Speaking 20 Made A Shy Connector  
2008 Speaking 20 Presented at IBM Technical Leadership Conference  
2008 Speaking 10 Gave part of a keynote at an IBM conference  
2008 Speaking 10 Won Best Presentation at the IBM Best Practices Conference  
2008 Writing 5 Tried out speech recognition  
2008 Writing 5 Pitched book proposal  
2009 Business 30 Started delegation experiments  
2009 Business 20 Facilitated executive workshops  
2009 Connecting 50 Made long term plans with W  
2009 Connecting 5 Tried improv classes  
2009 Finance 10 Set up TFSA  
2009 Life 20 Got the hang of bicycle commuting  
2009 Life 20 Got a chest freezer  
2009 Making 10 Sewed stuff  
2009 Programming 10 Developed community toolkit  
2009 Speaking 20 Presented at IBM Technical Leadership Conference again  
2009 Speaking 10 Spoke at Drupalcon  
2010 Connecting 30 Married W  
2010 Drawing 50 Drew on tablet PC  
2010 Life 50 Became a permanent resident  
2010 Life 20 Built Adirondack chairs  
2010 Life 10 Brought my cat over  
2010 Life 10 Adapted to winter  
2010 Life 5 Got my wisdom teeth removed and dealt with post-op procedures; was taken care of afterwards  
2010 Programming 30 Delivered Rails projects  
2010 Programming 5 Introduced code coverage goals for my team project  
2010 Programming 5 Wrote behaviour-driven tests for my team project  
2011 Analysis 20 Built Quantified Awesome for tracking time  
2011 Analysis 20 Used my time and money analysis to plan for experiment  
2011 Analysis 10 Built Quantified Awesome for tracking clothes  
2011 Business 10 Promoted at IBM  
2011 Drawing 5 Drew comics for the IBM intranet homepage  
2011 Finance 10 Set up non-registered investments  
2011 Life 20 Disassembled washing machine and dryer  
2011 Life 5 Dealt with missed flight  
2011 Programming 5 Handled finicky web design things  
2011 Programming 10 Switch to a virtual private server  
2012 Analysis 10 Became co-organizer for Quantified Self Toronto  
2012 Analysis 5 Tracked books  
2012 Analysis 10 Presented at Quantified Self conference  
2012 Business 50 Incorporated  
2012 Business 30 Experimented with sketchnoting business  
2012 Business 10 Experimented with various business models  
2012 Business 10 Sketchnoted Lean Startup Day  
2012 Connecting 30 Worked on I-  
2012 Connecting 10 Started Emacs Chat series  
2012 Connecting 10 Worked on F-  
2012 Connecting 10 Worked on D-  
2012 Cooking 5 Made coconut buns  
2012 Cooking 5 Switched to a French pin  
2012 Cooking 5 Made pie  
2012 Finance 5 Shifted from watching movies and buying books to using the library for practically everything  
2012 Learning 100 Started 5-year experiment  
2012 Programming 20 Converted configuration to Org  
2012 Writing 20 Created an index of blog posts  
2012 Writing 10 Compiled edited archive of my favourite posts from 20-30 years of age  
2013 Analysis 5 Tracked stuff  
2013 Analysis 20 Used Tableau for client work  
2013 Business 20 Paid myself a salary  
2013 Business 20 Filed corporate tax returnfor the first time  
2013 Business 10 Amended corporate tax return  
2013 Business 10 Included in books on Web 2.0  
2013 Connecting 20 Attended Emacs Conference  
2013 Connecting 10 Joined Hacklab  
2013 Connecting 10 Helped with study groups  
2013 Cooking 5 Made pad thai from scratch  
2013 Cooking 5 Made pizza from scratch  
2013 Drawing 20 Made guide for learning Emacs  
2013 Drawing 10 Made guide for learning Org  
2013 Drawing 10 Scanned my notebooks  
2013 Finance 50 Reached goal 4  
2013 Learning 30 Focused on self-directed learning  
2013 Learning 5 Finished a MOOC  
2013 Life 5 Dealt with lost passport  
2013 Life 5 Learned about Stoicism  
2013 Writing 20 Compiled Sketchnotes 2012  
2014 Analysis 5 Tracked litter box use  
2014 Business 30 Started selling PWYW resources  
2014 Business 10 Paid myself dividends  
2014 Business 5 Narrated videos for client project  
2014 Connecting 30 Worked on I2 C_PI2
2014 Connecting 20 Worked on F with P  
2014 Connecting 20 Enjoyed park time with friends  
2014 Connecting 5 Completed 10 episodes of Emacs Chat series C_EC1
2014 Connecting 10 Started Emacs Hangout series  
2014 Connecting 10 Experimented with Google Helpouts - got good reviews  
2014 Cooking 10 Started cooking at Hacklab  
2014 Cooking 5 Made good garlic fried rice  
2014 Cooking 5 Made Japanese curry from scratch  
2014 Cooking 5 Made Thai curry from scratch  
2014 Drawing 20 Animated videos for client project  
2014 Drawing 20 Created print book of sketches  
2014 Drawing 5 Drew in sketchbooks  
2014 Drawing 5 Included in books on drawing  
2014 Finance 20 Reached goal 3 F_3PR
2014 Learning 5 Worked through Minna no Nihongo I by myself L_MN1
2014 Learning 5 Finished a paid course - link L_PAY
2014 Life 50 Became a Canadian citizen - link L_CAN
2014 Programming 20 Used NodeJS and AngularJS for a client project - link P_NOD
2014 Programming 5 Pulled information out of Evernote  
2014 Speaking 5 Experimented with Frugal Fire series  
2014 Speaking 5 Experimented with Helpers Help Out series  
2014 Drawing 5 Compiled Sketchnotes 2013 - link D_013
2014 Writing 10 Started private journal - link W_JOU
2015 Analysis 10 Featured in news for tracking - link  
2015 Drawing 10 Drew on index cards - link D_IND
2015 Analysis 5 Tracked index cards - link A_IND
2015 Life 10 Reduced consulting hours to focus on personal projects L_PER
2015 Programming 5 Pulled information out of Flickr P_FLI
2015 Programming 5 Used continuous integration testing for one of my projects - link P_INT
2015 Making 5 Wore something I made to the office  
2008 Making 5 Made a coat  
2013 Making 5 Made a case for W-  
2014 Making 5 Laser-cut something  

Skill ideas

Cooking

  1. Out of a box
  2. Following recipes
  3. Improvising
  4. Creating

Mini-skills

  • ☑ Help someone cook
  • ☑ Cook following a simple recipe (boil, bake, simmer)
  • ☑ Stir-fry
  • ☑ Invest in kitchen
  • ☑ Adopt mise en place
  • ☑ Cook multiple things at the same time
  • ☑ Recover from some errors
  • ☑ Identify common herbs
  • ☑ Adjust the taste of things by using herbs
  • ☑ Cook with fresh herbs
  • ☑ Substitute ingredients
  • ☑ Adapt recipes to personal tastes
  • ☐ Make braising and other fancy cooking terms part of your vocabulary
  • ☐ Adjust the feel of things by using herb combinations
  • ☐ Cut consistent sizes
  • ☐ Learn advanced cutting techniques
  • ☐ Garnish and plate

Types of food

  • ☑ Soup
  • ☑ Cream soup
  • ☑ Casserole
  • ☑ Noodles
  • ☑ Stir-fry
  • ☑ Rice
  • ☑ Pizza
  • ☑ Bread
  • ☑ Snacks
  • ☑ Desserts
  • ☑ Pie
  • ☑ Curry
  • ☑ Filipino food
  • ☐ Paella
  • ☐ Bread - special types
  • ☐ Pizza - competent

Finance

  • ☑ Spend less than you earn
  • ☑ Track income and spending
  • ☑ Plan for long-term expenses
  • ☑ Build emergency fund
  • ☑ Build retirement savings
  • ☑ Build other savings
  • ☑ Make peace with budgeting
  • ☑ Build opportunity fund / play money into budget
  • ☑ Decide bond-equity allocation and rebalance
  • ☑ Plan for large expenses
  • ☑ Provide additional information to the tax agency on request
  • ☐ Sell stocks and properly account for them
  • ☐ Weather a bear market with lots of investments

Analysis

  • ☑ Analyze text
  • ☑ Analyze spreadsheets
  • ☑ Scrape data
  • ☑ Use commercial analysis tool
  • ☑ Build analysis tool
  • ☑ Program with chart library
  • ☑ Program with drawing library
  • ☑ Look for correlations in data
  • ☐ Reject spurious correlations and other analytical errors
  • ☐ Use animations to understand data

Writing

  • ☑ Write rough notes
  • ☑ Write reasonably polished notes
  • ☑ Edit
  • ☑ Outline within a post
  • ☑ Transform an outline into prose
  • ☑ Transform prose into an outline
  • ☑ Outline across posts
  • ☑ Compile information
  • ☑ Compile and revise information
  • ☑ Identify writing role models
  • ☑ Write about writing
  • ☑ Write a 4-part course
  • ☐ Write a set of 4-part courses
  • ☐ Look at my writing with a stranger's eyes
  • ☐ Cut my writing with ruthless scissors
  • ☐ Write book from scratch-ish (according to a plan)

Speaking

  • ☑ Give a talk
  • ☑ Give talks in front of a large audience
  • ☑ Give talks online
  • ☑ Create standalone slides
  • ☑ Give a talk without slides
  • ☑ Give a talk with a drawing
  • ☑ Plan and execute short videos
  • ☑ Create podcasts
  • ☐ Make videos part of the way I regularly share

Drawing

  • ☑ Draw stick figures
  • ☑ Draw on paper
  • ☑ Draw on a mobile device
  • ☑ Draw on a computer
  • ☑ Draw objects
  • ☑ Draw abstract thoughts
  • ☐ Draw recognizable people

Business

  • ☑ Enjoy working in a corporation
  • ☑ Enjoy working in my own company
  • ☑ Do the paperwork related to running one's own company
  • ☑ Take advantage of other people's time through delegation
  • ☑ Take advantage of other people's talents through delegation
  • ☑ Take advantage of other people's perspectives through delegation
  • ☑ Earn enough to cover my expenses
  • ☐ Enjoy working in someone else's small company
  • ☐ Deal with a famine year

Connecting

  • ☑ Make friends
  • ☑ Be deliberate about friendships
  • ☑ Go to meetups
  • ☑ Co-organize meetups
  • ☐ Organize meetups

Learning

  • ☑ Finish formal education
  • ☑ Learn about topics with readily-available resources
  • ☑ Learn about topics without readily-available resources
  • ☑ Finish a MOOC
  • ☑ Finish a paid course
  • ☑ Organize my learning from books
  • ☑ Learn from interviews
  • ☑ Learn from research
  • ☑ Learn from communities
  • ☐ Learn from a coach

Programming

  • ☑ Learn frameworks
  • ☑ Set up automated tests
  • ☑ Set up continuous integration
  • ☑ Set up code coverage
  • ☑ Set up interactive development
  • ☑ Write shell scripts
  • ☑ Use consoles
  • ☑ Use debuggers
  • ☑ Deploy code to production
  • ☑ Use staging environments
  • ☑ Recover from data mistakes
  • ☑ Help other people work more effectively
  • ☑ Build tools and tweak own workflow
  • ☐ Set up autocomplete
  • ☐ Set up flychecking
  • ☐ Set up style checking and code analysis
  • ☐ Get feedback from coaches or open source community
  • ☐ Make test-driven development part of my normal workflow
  • ☐ Help other people program more effectively

Life

  • ☐ Be tranquil and resilient in the face of challenges:
    • ☑ pain
    • ☑ loss of stuff
    • ☑ loss of people
    • ☐ sickness
    • ☐ others' death
    • ☐ your own mortality
  • ☑ Embrace uncertainty
  • ☑ Take calculated risks
  • ☑ Be open to changing the direction of your life based on other people's input
  • ☑ Identify what makes you happy
  • ☑ Make difficult decisions
  • ☑ Plan with optimism, pessimism, and realism
  • ☑ Be happy about how you spend your time
  • ☐ Enjoy middle age
  • ☐ Enjoy old age

Level lookup

Total XP Level Adjective
0 1 trained-initiate
1000 2 experienced
2250 3 savvy
3750 4 veteran
5500 5 unusually experienced
7500 6 master
10000 7 amazing
13000 8 extraordinary
16500 9 legendary
20500 10 transcendent
Back to top | E-mail me