This is inspired by Boudica's list of what have you done. Tova mentioned that she had a lot of other cool things that weren't on the list that were pretty cool. I know there are a lot of interesting people here on JU, so come on! What have YOU done? Share!
It doesn't have to be ten. It could be more or less.
1. got married in Hawaii
2. got my blackbelt in jujitsu (included practical test and essay written in Japanese)
3. been in some photo exhibitions
4. saw sunrise at Matsushima
5. bought a condo and later sold it and bought a house I adore with my husband and we actually have furniture and matching curtains now
6. swam with sea turtle in Hawaii (and no, I did not touch it. I just swam along with it but not too close)
7. week long river trip from start of the North Saskatchewan River to Rocky Mountain House
8. saw aurora borealis over Rocky Mountains during the 1988 olympics and they looked like a Van Gough painting (very cool because super unusual)
9. survived a car accident that took a big bite (like a bite out of a cookie) out of my passenger side without an injury to myself (and other driver was ok, too)
10. picked the three horses and won a trifecta (split the cost of the bet with my cousin and my 6 dollars became $250)
Okay. I'm looking forward to what you folks have done!
1. Got married (believe me...it's a miracle).
2. Semi-conquered my fear of flying.
3. White-water rafted.
4. Earned my bachelor's degree
5. Earned my master's degree (the diploma is MINE in just a few weeks!)
6. Volunteered hundreds of hours at an animal shelter.
7. Ridden a motorcycle, and loved it.
8. Had a room full of children completely in love with learning.
9. Became a Christian.
10. I think there's lots left to come...
congrats on that Master's Degree!
1. Getting married on a beach just down the road from where my soon-to-be wife and I were living at the time - we walked, hand in hand to our wedding with a procession of friends behind us.
2. Swam with, and hand-fed, a pod of dolphins.
3. Played in a support band on the bill of one of my favourite American bands - Pavement.
4. Snorkelled on the Great Barrier Reef.
5. Spent a wonderful day at a bird sanctuary with my wife.
6. Getting tattooed - might not be cool for some but I love the process.
7. Having a song I wrote the music for played on the radio for the first time.
8. Having a song (different one) I wrote the music for used in a television show (a cable show but still cool).
9. Having a short story published in an international (online) magazine.
10. Dived on massive kelp forests in Tasmania.
thats some cool stuff, Dynomaso
Hehe... not a long list, I am more the geeky type. But these are some of the things that make my life different (I have a fear of living a boring life):
1. I Moved to Ireland from Germany just after high school for my first job. Then I moved back to Germany to study and back to Ireland to work. I live in Ireland since.
2. I studied Hebrew in Haifa, Israel, during the 2006 Lebanon war and was evacuated to Jerusalem. (This was my first war.)
3. I visited Iraq in September this year and saw the insides of a former secret police headquarters, the outsides of a PKK camp, the outskirts of Kirkuk (where there is still fighting), and the city centres of Arbil and Sulimeiniya. (That was my second war.)
4. I got stood up in both Jerusalem and Krakow BY THE SAME GIRL. This is not technically "cool", but I prefer to see it that way now.
5. In 8th grade (in Germany) I skipped two years of English and repeated two years of Latin because a new school I went to didn't have a Latin class for me to join.
6. I have friends all over the world, from Sudan via Iraq to Malaysia. Making those friends was cool.
7. Although I was a total academic failure I found an excellent job.
8. I can train budgies. (Well, _I_ think it's cool.)
9. I started a blog I am quite proud of. (It's not the JU one.)
10. I studied in four universities/colleges in three countries. I dropped out twice and finished only a two-year certificate and some Hebrew certs. (Dropping out of college is not cool any more?)
That is Awesome! You are a hopeless romantic!
For me, the interesting things I've seen/done:
1. Married my highschool sweetheart. 4 kids and 14 years later, we're still going strong. And still as devoted to each other as the day we married.
2. Worked for the same company for almost 14 years now, providing services to our soldiers to make THEIR jobs easier.
3. Gone hiking through the Bavarian Alps - in both summer AND winter. Nothing like the view from the the top of Zukspitz (butchering the spelling there. ) in the winter time.
4. Raising an autistic child. There's nothing like the insights into life and living that slap you across the face when working with a child that sees everything (especially life itself) in a different way.
5. Travel these United States. The opportunity to see just how many opportunity our vast natural resources give is is amazing. I've managed to visit 40 of the 50 states. Alaska, Utah, North/South Dakota, Indiana, Idaho, Michigan, Wisconsin, Montana and Illinois are the only one's I've not visited for one reason or another.
6. Travelled world wide. I've visited over 40 countries on 5 of the 7 continents, including several that (technically) no longer exist. Got lost in Moscow and had the KGB escort me back to my hotel.
It's certainly very interesting and makes a very good story. At least it does in my imagination. Do you still keep in touch with this woman?
I think training budgies is interesting. What do you train them to do?
I trained my siamese fighting fish to jump up when I held my finger over his bowl.
Chaos Mangager,
you also have a pretty intersting list. I think raising an autistic child takes a lot of emotional stamina. I'm really curious as to some of these insights.
I'm so impressed with what people have written. It's not just that these things are interesting, but also the choices people make when choosing to write their list is just as enlightening.
I'm so glad to see romantic, committed guys like Dynamaso and Chaos Manager. Reminds me of my husband, my dad, my brother, but I know so many guys who aren't like this that sometimes I wonder if these men in my life are a little aberrant. Glad to see there are lots of wonderful guys left in the world.
No. (The shortest word I have ever used to summarise a very long story.)
In high school we had to create a television (video) commercial as a home work. My team (myself and let's call them Chris and Sam) decided to go for a mobile phone commercial. Chris did the technical stuff (camera, cutting etc.), Sam came up with an idea and a slogan ("as wireless as a bird"), and I made a budgie land on a mobile phone. He came flying in from behind the camera, landed on the phone, hopped around it a bit; and that's when the slogan was displayed.
It's a trick. I grew up in a household that kept lots of birds. My family have traditionally been zoologists (but we have been engineers for three generations now). I used to know many tricks related to making birds (feathered such) do stuff.
In no particular order:
1. Been present at the birth of both of my sons
2. Had a short story published in a national magazine
3. skydived (twice so far)
4. owned 2 harley Davidson motorcycles at the same time
5. took custody of a man who came in off the street and confessed a murder to me.
6. Knew a woman (now deceased) who was a nurse in Parkland hospital's E.R. and assisted in surgery when both JFK and then Lee harvey Oswald came in.
7. prevented a suicide.
8. ran 13.1 miles in 2 hours, three minutes, and fifty-five seconds (hey! it was cool to me!)
9. Paid off my home!
I like to think of myself as a renaissance man, capable of both getting his hands dirty and keeping his nails clean. Hmm, you've given me food for thought, though. Thanks!
1. Learned to drive a semi-tractor trailer, forklift, bobcat, and lots of other heavy equipment.
2. Worked with explosives (C-4, blasting caps, det cord, conventional bombs, missiles)
3. Won "Best Actress" Award in College
4. Married in the Philippines
5. Had two babies (this may sound easy, but both times there were circumstances which almost led me to dead babies)
6. Had many stories I wrote published by the Associated Press
7. Talked to a woman who was killing herself while a 911 operator/dispatcher...and was able to get an address from her right before she bled out...back when cell phones didn't have locater thingys
That's all I can think of for right now.
4.
Let's see
Went to the Kentucky Derby but still regret that I didn't have a fabulous hat for the event.
Was in a television commercial.
Taught myself to face paint.
Had my stamp and collage artwork published and even on the cover of a magazine.
Played paintball.
Moved away from home when I was 18.
Drove a $400 car, beige with one blue fender, on a thousand mile trip.
Birthed three spawnlings including one humongo ten pounder. I am woman. Hear me roar.
Oh...saw the space shuttle, ran around the bases at the Ballpark in Arlington, saw George Strait, Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett at Texas Stadium stone cold sober - fail! I was completely shitty, went kayaking...was crappy at it but I went anyway, let them write my weight in our meeting room for our biggest loser challenge at work - probably the bravest and most daring feat of my life, swam in the ocean
My list of things I want to do is more impressive than the list of things I've done.
1.) Got married at the hitching post in N. Idaho and it stuck! Ten years and going strong. My limit before was 1 1/2 years, with a couple of relapses and went back for a secong 1 1/2. Should have known.
2.) Gave birth to three boys. I know, but my first son was the first diaper I ever changed. I never baby sat, so it was quite scary.
3.) I Zip lined in Hawaii.
4.) Touched Richard Simmons sweaty leg. Ha, it was gross, but pretty darn funny.
5.) I was chef of the week on the local news show and did a cooking demo of Focaccia bread.
6.) I learned how to snow ski after growing up in South Florida.
&.) One time at a gym I saw a leg, I thought it was a mannequin leg. I led a marching parade of fools, (my friends) when I was done a lady came out of the pool and asked for her leg back. No lie.
9.)When I was 18 I won $2000. at the dog track. I was so bombed and happy. I passed out 3 $100.oo bills to strangers. It was a great feeling.
10.)I have made some amazing friends on JU!
hahaha....that is the best one yet!
Kelly has a leg fetish! Kelly has a leg fetish!
Overall, I live a (purposefully) rather quiet life. With my medical condition, getting out and about is rough. That and the older I get, I find my tolerance for stupidity steadily decreases. It's safer staying home. For me and the idiots around me.
I'm going to have to write a series of articles (I think I've written a couple already) on the ways that he sees things differently. Mostly, it's a case of a slightly 'off' perspective that opens our eyes to stuff that we see as background filler and brings it into a focus that's inspiring.
Example - having a new baby in the house is always interesting. Since M (I'll call him M for his privacy) is the second child, he got to experience both of the youngest two. For the youngest son (#3 in order), his morning ritual was to climb out of his bed (and he got a big boy bed at 18 months 'cause of the new baby) and run into the room next door to look in the crib and say "Hi, baby!" Always excited about it, rather than upset that he wasn't the baby, anymore. If he couldn't say good morning to his baby brother, his entire day was off. And to this day, the two of them are as close as peas in a pod.
Another example of M keeping our life interesting. One morning, in the church nursery, our daughter was being held by one of the nursery workers. She was 6 months old at the time, and M was (and still is, I feel sorry for her boyfriends later) very protective of her. Almost hovering at times. One of the teenagers, a good friend of the family, came over to her and started tickling her, like folks do to an infant to get 'em to giggle and smile. Well, M comes over and kicks the girl in the back of the leg and hollers, "Leave my little sister alone!" Now, what are you going to tell a 3 year old autistic child with that one? We wanted to encourage him for the protectiveness of his sister, but we also wanted to discourage the kicking ... and only one of the ideas would be able to stick. Talk about a dilemma. If we tried both, it would only confuse the poor kid and neither idea would stick. So, we decided to encourage the protectiveness and work on the "don't hit/kick people" idea later.
So many stories ... so little time. Definitely an idea for a series of articles. Since, I won't have many (any) customers calling in to work over the next couple weeks, sounds like a convenient time to write them.
Oh my gosh..I do...
I have never blown up anything though. I think that's pretty up there.
This is a fun list. Everyone here has done some pretty cool stuff. It gives new ideas for a new list of things to do.
I want to respond to a lot of this, but I have to hit the sack.
But man oh man, have you folks had some interesting life experience so far!
1. Had 2 kids
2. Wrote a CRM program that I sell for car salespeople.
3. Got married
4. Took photos of Mars through my telescope and a webcam in 2003 when Mars was close.
5. Met a moonwalker (Gene Cernan)
6. I was on a commercial back in 1979--my dad invented a hand-held skateboard sail and we did a commercial. The business burnt down, no insurance, no sales, etc. Pre-internet marketing blues.
7. Wrote a screenplay and novel (both non-published)
8. Took D.B. Sweenie's acting career away from him. I was at a Red Wings game with a few buddies and D.B. was there promoting "The Cutting Edge." He was supposed to shoot a few pucks into a net and missed 3 times. The place was silent. I started booing him--everyone else followed-suit. He looked like a kicked dog and shrugged his shoulders in sadness. He never acted in a hit again.
9. Went to a strip club in Canada with a few friends. The place was packed and we wanted to sit next to the stage. One guy, a computer-nerdy-looking guy was talking operating systems to a stripper. I asked him if we could have his seat since it was my friend's birthday (I was fibbing.) He agreed and said, "Call it a birthday present" as he pushed his glasses up the rim of his nose. I ran out of "ones" 15 minutes later.
10. Was salesperson of the year at the Chevrolet dealership where I sold cars. I will be it again this year.
11. One more for the road. I won a "walkaround contest" demonstrating the Tahoe to chevrolet execs. I beat everyone in the state of Michigan. I didn't know the product that well--I just used the first rule of sales--I told the execs what they wanted to hear. How we were going to beat Toyota, how great OnStar is, "Total Value Promise" (the slogan from GM that particular year), etc. I had them eating out of my hands.
Oh yeah--when classmates came out, I wrote that I volunteered for the Gulf War, became an F-15 fighter pilot, got shot down, captured and tortured. I then wrote that a movie was going to be made about my experiences and was going to star Ben Afflec as me. I actually had a few people from highschool email me and say they never knew that about me!
Classmates.com that is...
Nowadays, I wouldn't pick Ben Afflec for obvious reasons.
Marv
Didn't lie--geared my presentation towards my audience as any good salesperson does. I do firmly believe that we have better products than Toyota (google their truck recall or the engine oil sludge if you don't believe me.) Onstar is great--I had a customer get car-jacked and onstar tracked down the car, slowed it down and caught the criminal. Remember the family that got stuck int he snow a couple of winters ago? The dad went out to get help and they found him frozen to death? If they would have had a GM car with onstar, the would most-likely had been rescued.
So Little-Whip--I'm assuming you are anti-bailout. Let me share a little with you.
If there was no big-three, you would be goose-stepping right now and bowing to the people who prepare your sushi, not vice-versa. The big-3 saved this country 60 years ago by re-tooling to product the vehicles of war and I promise you this--they didn't ask the US Government what kind of plane they flew to "beg" for help nor did they say any vile garbage like, "You're bad decisions got us there and in a free market--you should be left to be destroyed by the Axis powers."
The Big-3 also sent vehicles and much needed cash to help the same southern states that were against the bailout during Hurricane Katrina.
The Big-3 also saved this economy after 9/11 when they came out with 0% and actually kept this country rolling when shit looked pretty bleak.
Since then, oil went up as well as gas prices and that is what killed this economy--not "credit crunches" or people with shitty credit not paying their bills. We had a lame-duck president who would beg the Saudis to raise production (the same Saudis who blasted the world trade center and who'se asses we saved in World War 2 from facist Germany and Japan using vehicles built by the Big-3.)
So, the gist of my response is, I just don't appreciate a stripper, who lies to men leading them on during a lap dance and acts interested so a dollar can be stuffed down her crotch, calling me a liar.
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