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Bucket list #1 (next 5 years)

Adventure

• Snowboard 
• Ride an elephant
• Go to 10 doofs
• Ride in a helicopter 
• Sky dive
• Scuba dive
• Snorkel near a tropical island
• Ride a camel
• Go hot air ballooning
• Shoot a gun
• Ride a motor bike
• Get a motor bike licence
• Own a boat
• Own a boat somewhere outside of Australia
• Ride in a limo

Creativity

• Make a blog
• Fill a journal
• Write and publish a book
• Scrap book
• Enlarge photos
• Perform in a play
• Enter a musical competition
• 
  

Entertainment

• Hold an Oscar trophy
• Watch the top 100 movies of all time
• Go to a movie marathon
• Go to the orchestra
• See a stand up comedian
• Watch ballet
• Watch a contemporary dance concert
• See live opera
• Be in a dance concert
• Go to an American talk show - Eg. Ellen
• Be an extra in a movie
• Watch every ER episode ever made
• 
  

Friends / Friendships

• Host a reunion with my high school friends

Health

• Walk the city to surf
• Run the city to surf
• Row a boat
• Run the city to surf half marathon
• Do a charity run
• Have a strong body
• Cycle 50km

Hobbies

• Use ebay
• Start writing a book
• Finish a book

Learning / Education

• Learn CPR
• Learn to knit
• Learn to play the guitar
• Learn to play the piano
• Learn to play the violin
• Learn to scuba dive
• Learn to snowboard
• Learn to speak another language
• Learn to surf
• Learn to water ski
• Complete my college degree
• Complete my PhD
• Become a qualified dietitian
• 
  

Literature

• Read the top 100 novels of all time
• Write a book and publish it

Love / Love Life

• Find someone that makes me laugh
• Have good times with someone
• Go on a holiday with my partner
• Swing both ways
• Do something crazy
• Do something else that's crazy
• Make love in 50 places
• With the same person
• Get married
• Go on a blind date
• Join an online dating service

Marriage

• Celebrate my 25th anniversary
• Celebrate my 50th anniversary

Music

• Play an instrument in a band
• Form a band
• Donate instruments for the school band for those who cannot afford them
• 10 albums to hear before you die

Personal

• Get a tattoo
• Get rid of clutter and only keep what matters most

Play / Recreation

• Form a Dominos club
• Form a Buncos club

Relationships

• Make peace with my family

Spiritual Life

• Read the Bible from cover-to-cover
• Visit the Holy Land
• Form a prayer group

Sports

• Canoe through the Amazon
• Compete in an 'iron man' competition
• Go deep sea fishing
• Go hang gliding
• Go to all Nascar races
• Go to all Indy races
• Go to all games of my favorite football team
• Go to all games of my favorite baseball team
• Go to all games of my favorite basketball team
• Go to all games of my favorite hockey team
• Go to the US Open
• Raft through the Grand Canyon
• Run a marathon
• Visit all US baseball parks
• Visit all Nascar racetracks

Time of Year

• Celebrate the New Year in NYC, watching the ball drop at midnight
• Celebrate the 4th of July in Washington DC

Travel

• Go on a trip around-the-world
• Go to Egypt
• Go to Hawaii
• Go to Ireland
• Go to Italy
• Go to London
• Go to Niagra Falls
• Go to Paris
• Go to the Grand Canyon
• Earn 1,000,000 travel miles
• See the aurora borealis
• See the Great Wall of China
• See the rain forest
• Visit all 50 US states
• Visit all 28 places on the Smithsonian Magazine Life List

Letter One

Letter One.

Inspired by the 30 day Letter Challenge…

So a friend of mine is doing a 30 day letter challenge, I’ve selected a few myself but I have no patience for enduring 30 days of letter writing.

Day 26 — The last person you made a pinky promise to

To the last person I pinky promised,If only I could remember exactly what that promise I made was.
I suppose that promise hasn’t been the only thing I have forgotten about you.
Sometimes when I close my eyes I can still live in the past and imagine your bedroom around me - those sharp shapes that blend into the darkness… the book shelf… the open window that blew cool crisp air into my face and stopped me from suffocating sometimes.

However…I have forgotten the smell of it all.  I have forgotten how it made me feel.I have forgotten how much it hurt to be there sometimes, how small and empty I felt as I lay there, but how oversized I felt sometimes too.Sometimes it felt like I was a piece from your puzzle, but you were one from mine - one small piece of thousands…Funnily enough, I have not forgotten the hardness of the springs from that old bed that used to protrude into my back... the sound of snoring when the night was still or the dimness of the white light that would shine through the shades from outside. I have not forgotten the times I spent laughing there until it hurt…drawing…talking…watching you.But I have not forgotten the times I lay awake and cried after hearing out your lies...and during those times, I wondered how I came to ever be there in the first place.

 Our story is a sad one - the kind you later on refer to as that 'silly time' in your life.  Although it feels like that time was a lifetime...and that in a way, it was absurd...but not that silly.  I'm glad you’re gone and that you’re never coming back.  I am glad that you’re just the smallest piece… but I guess you’re still an edge so I need those memories to be complete.
It doesn’t mean I need the whole picture though.
Thank fuck.

-Me

dream

Dreams are holidays for our minds, they create ideas of possibility.

To come to be you, you must have a vision of yourself as that being - an idea of purpose.

Take risks

Welcome variety, ever changing cycles of life.

A change in vantage point can reveal rich possibilities.

Let change and possibility light your world.

Let it banish the darkness that often has the power to engulf us.

Now is now

Too often we make our own cages in our hearts and minds and we just need something to encourage us to unlock ourselves.  I think I have set limitations on myself by trying to carry far more than necessary, when all I should be worrying about is now.

Miranda, the photographer

Sometimes I wish I could always think as Miranda, the photographer, and see things from all the perspectives that are easily missed. I wish I could use all my lenses and change my position regularly, but I get stuck shooting one frame… over and over again to the point where I see nothing else.  You have helped me to zoom out and see the bigger picture and I feel I am learning a lot from myself.

Chocolate

Chocolate has ‘heart health benefits’

In March of 2006 the scientific journal, Nutrition Reviewpublished an article by researchers at the University of California Department of Physiological Nursing, Laboratory of Cardiovascular Physiology in San Francisco.  The study founf that the polyphenols in chocolate assisted in vasodilation and blood pressure reduction, inhibition of platelet activity, and decreased inflammation.

In July 2007, the Journal of the American Medical Associationspublished a study conducted at theDepartment of Pharmacology, University Hospital of Cologne, Germany.  These researchers studied the effects of of dark chocolate on patients 56 - 73 years of age with above normal blood pressure. They found that in their small sample of otherwise healthy individuals the inclusion of small amounts of polyphenol-rich dark chocolate as part of a usual diet efficiently reduced Blood Pressure and improved formation of vasodilative nitric oxide.

In 2008 the Journal of Nutrition published an article that concluded "Blood pressure is reduced and insulin sensitivity increased in glucose-intolerant, hypertensive subjects after 15 days of consuming high-polyphenol dark chocolate."

More interesting Facts

• A cup of cocoa has more antioxidants than a glass of red wine and almost three times the antioxidants in a cup of green tea (this is obviously PLAIN cocoa).
• While apples have 111mg of flavonoids and dark tea or red wine has about 63 mg of falvonoids, dark chocolate has 511 mg of flavonoids!
• Health benefits come from chocolate 70% cocoa and above.

* It is recommended that no more than 100 calories worth of chocolate should be consumed, with those AT LEAST 70% cocoa solids and above (white chocolate is cheating :P).

Global crises

The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth - that the error and truth are simply opposite.  They are nothing of the sort.  What the world turns to, when it is cured on one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.  

~H.L. Mencken

Where i belong

Everything has its own place and function. 

That applies to people, although many don't seem to realise it - 

stuck as they are in the wrong job, the wrong marriage, or the wrong house. 

When you know and respect your inner Nature, you know where you belong.

You also know where you don't belong.

Life is fun

When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few other things that get in the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the Uncarved Block: 

Life is Fun.

Make sure there's lights on...