The weblog 365 Brand New Days has a writeup from an Ann Arbor-based author of something new they are doing every day.

"They say there's a first time for everything. For the next year, I will do at least one thing I've never done before each day. 365 days. 365 new experiences."

So far the author, a 25-year-old law student known as Ms. Pallaton, has been at it for 153 days. Here are a few highlights and links.

Bake a cake

Baking a cake from scratch is a lot harder than making a pan of Jiffy Mix. On day 1, bake a cake:

"It was a really fun experience. Baking seems like two parts cooking and one part chemistry. As we put together the cake, using Jihan's recipe, there were certain ingredients that we could just "put a little more in" or "use this instead". Others were measured very carefully to make sure the cake actually ended up a cake."

AnnArbor.com contributor Erin Mann has been baking a cake a week from the book All Cakes Considered, with delicious results. Baking is complicated enough that practice helps.

Beta test a game

Ann Arbor is a great town for board games, with a 2009 Michigan Daily feature referring to it as a "gamer's paradise."  On day 17, beta test a game:

"Perhaps the Holy Grail of nerd-dom is the opportunity to beta-test a game. You get to see it before anybody, you get to help fix problems keeping it from reaching its full potential for awesomeness and did I mention that you get to see it before anybody else? As a recoving Warcraft player, I understand the deep and abiding honor that is the chance to beta-test."

AnnArbor.com contributor Mike Hulsebus has been reviewing board games in a column called Critical Hits. His reviews show at times when the crucial beta test phase didn't quite work out.

Day 41: get Paczki in Hamtramck

Paczki (or more properly PÄ…czki) are Polish filled pastries which are consumed on Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) in order to prepare for the Lenten season. Hamtramck is a historically Polish community and a center of local Paczki Day celebrations. On day 41, get paczki in Hamtramck on Paczki Day, with a trip to the Moose Lodge:

"The Mooses (does that pluralize? its not the same thing as the animal) were very friendly and really seemed to want us to join their Order. They did not, however, have any real PÄ…czki left. They had held a breakfast earlier that morning that was incredibly popular and one of their members had made some homemade mini-PÄ…czki, but not the kind you read about in all the papers and magazines. They were kind enough to recommend a local bakery that they said made great PÄ…czki and wasn't likely to have a line out the door like a lot of other places."

I wrote up a 2010 Paczki Day review with some details of Hamtramck.

A post every day is awesome

The most wonderful about 365 Brand New Days as a local weblog is that every single day there's a fresh perspective on the local area. Professional journalists try very hard to write something comprehensive and thorough and authoritative whenever they write. The change to write about something for the first time and give a fresh eye to the world is great.

Edward Vielmetti does the same things over and over again for AnnArbor.com. Contact edwardvielmetti@annarbor.com.