Wednesday, January 17, 2018

My Bucket List

I might wind up transitioning this to its own blog at some point, but for now, here it is in all it's glory. All bloded and underlined items have been completed.

1]Find the one.
2]Change someone's life for the better.
3]Do a lap at Daytona and Indy in my vehicle.
4]Go on a cross country road trip(this could be its own bucket list/blog. Stay tuned). -So far I've driven to Chicago and D.C.
5]Cook thanksgiving dinner.
6]Complete a state magnet collection.
7]Run the NYC marathon. -Nov. 2017!
8]Write a message in wet cement.
9]See the northern lights
10]Walk the big NYC bridges. -So far I've done the Verazzano, Brooklyn, Queensborough, Willis Ave., Koszucio
11]Climb a Worlds Fair Tower.
12]Tour Hart Island.
13]Walk around Manhattan.
14]Meet a President.
15]Fix an old pickup.
16]Kiss in the rain.
17]Mix m&m's and skittles in a bowl and see what happens.
18]Get to the top of the Chrysler Building.
19]Dye my hair lime green.
20]Rebuild my Grandmothers house.
21]Build an accurate Airwolf replica out of LEGO.
22]Cut a giant ribbon with giant scissors.
23]Fly with the Blue Angels.
24]Watch the snow fall on a field with the girl of my dreams.
25]Go on a running date.
26]Play hide and seek in IKEA.
27]Eat In An Underwater Restaurant.
28]Make Ice Cream.
29]Cook A Turducken.
30]Have a paint fight with the girl of my dreams.
31]Go apple picking. - Done Oct. 2018!
32]Drive Route 66.
33]Learn How To Use A Bo Staff.
34]Have a picnic in Brooklyn Bridge park.
35]Slide down a bowling alley lane.
36]Drive a speedboat.
37]See a tornado in a field/Go Storm Chasing.
38]Watch a slinky go down the stairs. -Done Jan. 2020!
39]Send and get a reply for a message in a bottle.
40]Complete a Rubik cube.
41]Drive a Corvette and Lamborghini Countach.
42]Ride the Cyclone.
43]Go to a live tv taping.
44]Go to all 5 boroughs in one day. -Did this the day of the marathon! Nov2017
45]Go scuba diving.
46]Have Dinner at Tavern on The Green.
47]Sit in a Batmobile.
48]Make homemade Cheez-It's.
49]Slap someone with a fish.
50]Drive a big or famous boat.
51]Play a game of chess.
52]Write more letters. -Ongoing.
53]Finish Super Mario Bros. for NES.
54]Make tacos. - Done! Jan.2017
55]Successfully complete a "Dukes of Hazard" style hood slide on a car.
56]Work a job that makes me happy.
57]Carve something out of Spam. Do not eat it.
58]Ride in a motorcycle sidecar.
59]Run a 5K dressed as the Flash.
60]Duct tape someone to a ceiling or wall.
61]Swing from a rope into a lake.
62]Sleep under the stars on the beach with the girl of my dreams.
63]Legally get inside the Grand Central Terminal sub-basement.
64]Make a garbage bag sized water balloon and drop it off a roof.
65]Learn Archery. -Done! June 2016, Thanks Mari, Elyse and Lauren!
66]Go whitewater rafting.
67]Ride a mattress down a snowy or muddy hill.
68]Acquire a piece of P.S. 11
69]Eat an oyster.
70]Sculpt Superman out of clay.
71]Eat an entire pizza. -DoneOct. 2017
72]Go ziplining.
73]Leave a note in a library book or bookstore book.
74]Walk up a lighthouse.
75]Have a paper airplane race in a mall.
76]Finish a coloring book.
77]Have a Lightsaber battle in public.
78]Meet a Superman actor.
79]Plant a tree.
80]Hit an apple with a baseball bat.
81]Publish a book.
82]Own a piece of space-flown NASA material.
83]Enter an eating contest.
84]Build a tree house.
85]Tour the Jelly Belly factory.
86]Do a then/now photo shoot.
87]Go snow-tubing.
88]Swim with turtles.
89]Drive Bigfoot.
90]Get dunked by a giant Gatorade jug.
91]Clean a hotel room before the maids.
92]Slide down a giant water slide.
93]Jump a ramp on a jetski.
94]Make homemade bagels that actually taste good.
95]Attend a hockey game.
96]Drive at Bonneville Salt Flats.
97]Do a photo shoot at AMARC.
98]Mount a cow or Mythosaur or Krayt dragon skull to the front of my vehicle.
99]Make a potato alarm clock.
100]Eat a decade old Twinkie.
101]Acquire the 1992 Hess truck. -Done! Feb.2018, Thanks Billy and Dawn!
102]Blow a train horn.
103]Go swimming in honey.
104]See all the space shuttles.
105]Steal a pen from the White House.
106]Go fishing or swimming in Washington Square Park fountain.
107]See a white Christmas(snow has to start on xmas eve and accumulate at least 4 inches into Christmas morning/day).
108]Have my work exhibited in a Photography museum.
109]Go to CNN HQ, ask what it is, hope they say, "This is CNN." and leave.
110]Meet a cop with the first name of Dan, watch him arrest someone so I can say, "Book em, Danno."
111]Go to Coke HQ wearing a Pepsi shirt.
112]Wreck something with a front end loader.
113]Go to a Cubs game.
114]Learn how to weld and make a book holder out of steel plates in the shape of my initials.
115]Cosplay as Tim Drake 90's Robin.
116]Set up a really good Lionel train display with my dad's trains.
117]Dive to Challenger Deep.
118]Hit a home run at a softball game, or a minor league ballpark.
119]Go to Mardi-Gras.
120]Make a house out of toothpicks.
121]Have an underwater kiss.
122]Interview my favorite people for a Youtube show or podcast.
123]Do the Empire State Building run-up.
124]Buy a book for a random stranger.
125]Go to Quoddy Point for New Years Eve.
126]Take a picture at the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota, send to Weird Al & have him autograph it.
127]Attempt to run the Badwater marathon, finishing is another story.
128]Have an astronaut sign a can of Tang.
129]Watch a Roller Derby live.                
130]Work at San Diego Comic Con for at least a shift.
131]Install field turf instead of buying a carpet.
132]See the 4th of July Fireworks from Roosevelt Island.
133]Go to the Thanksgiving parade.
134]Go on a transatlantic cruise.
125]Read "War and Peace."
126]Find a secret spot with the gal of my dreams.
127]Donate to new charity each month for a year. - Done! 2021 
128]Bake cookies with the gal I love.
129]Make a fairly accurate Empire State Building or WTC sand castle.
130]Photograph someone on an empty railroad track.
131]At some point binge watch Dr. Who. -I started.(April 2017)
132]Take cute photos with a gal in a photo booth.
133]Learn how to kick box.
134]Visit Mianus.
135]Wear clogs for a whole day.
136]Attend Bristol night NASCAR race.
137]Go on a stargazing date.
138]Outdoor hot-tub in the snow.
139]Watch a sunset with someone while having a great chat.
140]Touch the Canon 1200mm lens.
141]Open a lava lamp.
142]Do at least one voice over acting role.
143]Drive a DeLorean and reach 88mph.
144]Make a gingerbread house. -Done! Dec.2022
145]Build my ideal desk.
146]Buildd Jupiter 2 out of LEGO.
147]Be photographed by Google Streetview.
148]Release a paper airplane from the top of Rockefeller Center.
149]Legally reach the top of the Verrazano bridge.
150]Get photographed diving for a volleyball.
151]Wear a Yankee hat to fenway.
152]Put soap in a fountain.
153]Build a brick bbq.
154]Knit a hat.
155]Dive in Alvin.
156]Get a Polaroid camera. -Done! fall 2017
157]Drive a fire truck.
158]Put a small bit of Washington D.C. reflecting pool water in a bottle.
159]Walk every path in Central Park.
160]Operate a true size remote control R2D2.
161]Go surfing in San Diego.
162]Covert my VHS Tapes to a more stable medium.
163]Do a stunt scene with Jessie Graff.
164]Eat a pint of Ben and Jerry's in one sitting, in January. -Done!Jan,2017
165]Photograph lightning hitting the Empire State Building.
166]Mail a potato.
167]Enjoy a beach bonfire with friends.
168]Have a Chinese food date.
169]Go to a Packers game just for the experience.
170]Be drawn or painted by Todd Nauck or Alex Ross.
171]Walk the Grand Canyon skywalk, look down and laugh in terror.
172]Do a polar plunge.
173]Attend an Olympic event.
174]Have a picnic with the gal of my dreams.
175]Go kite surfing in a storm.
176]Acquire a piece of Meteorite.
177]See a manned space launch.
178]Go on a library date.
179]Make a hamburger in the shape of the USA.
180]Build a baseball out of LEGO.
181]Make a functional surfboard out of Duct Tape and cardboard.
182]Send a Go-Pro into space on a weather balloon.
183]Have cherry pie a'la mode in a Gazebo on a summer day.
184]Gold leaf a brick.
185]Get a screenshot of me on the Jackson Hole town Sq and/or Vegas strip webcam.
186]Make someone belly laugh. -Done! Lauren, Oct, 2017
187]Get a punching bag. - Done! June 2021 
188]Go tech-free for 24 hours.
189]Learn morse code.
190]Catch A foul ball.
191]Be on someone's Youtube channel.
192]Draw on a street with chalk.
193]Trick someone with the Mentos/Diet Soda geyser.
194]Choose Chewbacca as a write-in candidate for an election.
195]Write a movie script.
196]Make breakfast in bed for the girl of my dreams.
197]Enter a butter carving contest.
198]Use a giant wrench.
199]Acquire an airstream trailer.
200]Be happy with the girl I love.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Don't Profit, Don't Be Late.

   I'm an emotional guy in a time when that's still not well accepted, I wanna get that out and in the open now.

   Yesterday's passing of Cranberrieslead singer Dolores O'Riordan hit me in a way I didn't anticipate. I was a fan of thier music, but not to the point of which it'd stop me in my tracks, but I appreciated them and the fact they took pride in their Irish heritage.

   What struck me most is, I remember moments when I was listening to thier songs as,"new"...now it's all but classic rock which is...sobering. She and time will dictate how my generation is viewed, that fact is not lost on me.

   This past October, I lost a friend, Marcus, who I sadly didn't get the opportunity to get to know as well as I would have liked, yet that also struck me in a far heavier way than I thought.

   Life is precious, the masses will say at times like this. It's a cliche that borders on white noise, but it is true. What,  moreover is true, is that time is what really is precious. Time and those you choose to spend it with.

   Spend it with the quiet people. They often have good things to share. They observe quite well.

   Spend it with the boisterous people, they'll break ice quite well.

   Spend it with the young. You'll find that thier views on the world are full of hope and wonder.

   Spend it with the old, for they have experienced more and have valuable lessons to teach.

   But do not spend too much time alone. The people we surround ourselves with make us who we are.