I'm doing 41 things
I’ve done this… with YOU as a matter of fact!
g's Life List
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1. Get my law degree
1 cheer20 people -
2. Drink more water
20,324 people -
3. Helicopter drop snowboarding
3 cheers1 person -
4. Run the Great Wall Marathon
1 cheer31 people -
5. Surf El Salvador
1 person -
6. Dive the Great Barrier Reef
2 cheers274 people -
7. Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro
1 cheer508 people -
8. Work for the Electronic Frontier Foundation
2 people -
9. Become a bastion of good credit
1 cheer1 person -
10. Get a Six Pack
1 cheer2,982 people -
11. Visit South America
312 people -
12. See Angkor Wat
30 people -
13. Conquer a glacier
1 person -
14. See an active volcano
2 cheers178 people -
15. Live in a foreign country
2,516 people -
16. Take that romantic helicopter date I planned out a few years ago
1 person -
17. Start riding a motorcycle again
2 people -
18. Do more creative writing
1 cheer28 people -
19. Invest
918 people -
20. Camp in all of America's National Parks
1 cheer1 person -
21. Radically change my perspective at least once more
1 cheer1 person -
22. Watch the sunset in the Grand Canyon
1 cheer2 people -
23. Eat sushi in Japan
2 cheers169 people -
24. Run an Ironman
1 cheer25 people -
25. Tarnish the image of Santa Claus
1 person -
26. Master UNIX even more
1 person -
27. Tour French Vineyards
1 person -
28. Race a Superbike
1 person -
29. Die happy
1 cheer265 people -
30. Donate more time to charity
2 people -
31. Destroy social conservatism
1 cheer1 person -
32. Design my first tattoo
1 cheer7 people -
33. Pierce something else
4 people -
34. Spend more time with my family
1,029 people -
35. Build shelters in an impoverished country
1 person -
36. Go on a Safari
871 people -
37. Gamble lots of money in Monte Carlo
1 person -
38. Find the ultimate (non-drug induced) adrenaline rush
1 person -
39. Work for myself
474 people -
40. Touch the lives of my friends
2 people -
41. I wanna rock! ROCK!
1 cheer2 people
Recent entries
Last year a good friend talked me into collaborating on an art car. I had some reservations about blowing that much money on something so fleeting. But we went with it. The idea started in January. In March, we harvested the bamboo necessary to build our art piece. On June 3rd, construction started.
We spent every single weekend from then until Aug 20th working on it. Consequently, I took a summer off from my job. I spent my time surfing and working on the car. About three times a week on my own. Once we got into crunch time (August) I spent EVERY SINGLE DAY piecing things together for two weeks. Once I was burned out, my partner in crime took over. Ultimately, we spent a few thousand dollars putting it together. Transporting it set us back another two. We put in hundreds of man hours for a vehicle that, in my opinion, wasn’t all that big.
I’d be lying if I said it was easy. But once we took our creation out to Burning Man, it was clear that it was worth every single bit of time, money, and effort we put into it. We were filmed and interviewed for a network TV spot. Every single day we were innundated with compliments and praise. We even took a bride, who I’d never met until 30 minutes before, and her entire party out to her wedding at the Temple. But most importantly, we had a ton of fun, met some really great people, and I really felt like I had done something to improve the community.
The capper was seeing our work appear in the Burning Man Gallery. We managed to fit 18 people on to that thing (the second level was a passenger carrier and beverage bar). With some vision and a whole lot of determination, we transformed a totalled Saturn Wagon into a surreal bamboo lionfish.
I had a blast doing it. I highly recommend the experience! I want to do another. In fact, my partner in crime and I are planning even bigger and better things. Deciding to make an art car was one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time.
I’m HORRIBLE at taking time off. It used to drive me nuts not to have a job. But a friend gently nudged me into trying to spend some time just feeding my soul for a while. So I bought a surf board and spent the summer learning how to surf… as well as knocking some goals off of my 43 things list (like travelling across the East Coast and building an art car!).
It was one of the best summers of my adult life.
