Fun Stuff: September 2004 Archives

Matter of life and death

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Stolen shamelessly from Striker:

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50 Things

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As seen at Blogography. BBC viewers rated these things the top 50 things to do before you die. (significantly longer than my original rather short list)

  1. Swim with dolphins I'd love to do this!
  2. Scuba dive on Great Barrier Reef, Australia I've been to the Great Barrier Reef, but I was five at the time, and didn't go scuba diving
  3. Fly Concorde to New York, New York, USA Well since the Concorde doesn't fly anymore that's pretty unlikely. The closest I'll probably ever come to this is going on the Concorde at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
  4. Go whale-watching I'd love to do this
  5. Dive with sharks And this
  6. Skydiving And definitely this.
  7. Fly in a hot air balloon That reminds me, Ric and his friend and I were talking about this the other week
  8. Fly in a fighter jet That'd be awesome. I actually wanted to be a pilot in the air force when I was at school, but I turned out too short with too poor eyesight. You can go on jet flights on old migs and the like in aus, but they're ridiculously expensive, presumably because of all the fuel they use
  9. Go on safari Only a vague interest in going to Africa
  10. See the Northern Lights That'd be very cool. The northest I've ever been is Jasper, Canada
  11. Walk the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, Peru, South America Don't have too much interest in going to South America
  12. Climb Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney, Australia Done it! Twice in fact :)
  13. Escape to a paradise island Does it have all the creature comforts, including a shower?
  14. Drive a Formula 1 car Be kinda cool I guess
  15. Go white-water rafting I went on a jet-boat on New Zealand when I was 18 months old and hated every moment, I was told. I've been white-water liloing which was extremelly cool
  16. Walk the Great Wall of China I'd like to do this one day
  17. Bungee-jumping And this
  18. Ride the Rocky Mountaineer train, Canada Came quite close to doing this earlier in the year, but we decided we'd get better value by driving.
  19. Drive along Route 66, USA Road trips are always fun. If I were to return to the US though, I want to do the south and east
  20. Fly in a helicopter over the Grand Canyon, Nevada, USA Been to the Grand Canyon, but only by car and foot
  21. Take the Orient Express from Venice to London Be kinda cool
  22. See elephants in the wild In Africa, so lowish on the priority list, but would definitely be cool
  23. Explore Antarctica Cool but overpriced at the moment
  24. Ride a motorbike on the open road Well now if Dave had had a spare helmet that night in June... :) The only time I've ever been on a motorcycle was in our neighbours backyard when I was about seven
  25. Have a go at cowboy ranching Riding horses? cool. Herding cows? no real interest
  26. Climb Mount Everest Well I don't think I'd ever have the capability to climb it, but I'd take a helicopter ride to the top!
  27. Wonder at a waterfall Many times.
  28. Travel into space Well yeah sure I'd love to do this, but I don't have a spare $40,000,000 sorry. Actually this is on my original list of things to do before I die.
  29. Explore the Galapagos Islands Be kinda cool I guess
  30. Trek through a rainforest Rainforests have leeches. I'd much rather trek through temperate or subalpine forests
  31. Gallop a horse along a beach Oo I'd love to do that
  32. Ride a camel to the Pyramids, Egypt That'd be very cool also. Egypt is one of the few places in Africa I'd like to go
  33. Take the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok I actually know someone that's done it in reverse, and that's probably the closest I'll ever get to doing it
  34. Catch sunset over Uluru (Ayers Rock) , Northern Territories, Australia Done this! In 1985
  35. Go wing-walking I'm sure there's some OH&S law against doing that.
  36. Climb Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa Meh
  37. Fly over a volcano The closest I've come to doing this was being at the heliport for flights over Mt St Helens. But for $99US each the parents weren't ever going to be interested.
  38. Drive a husky sled Shrug
  39. Hike up a glacier I didn't exactly hike, but we took a sno-coach onto the Athabasca Glacier in Alberta Canada.
  40. Ride a rollercoaster Lots of them. Some of my favourites - the old Space Mountain at Disneyland, The Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain, and Montezuma's Revenge at Knott's Berry Farm.
  41. Fish for blue marlin Meh
  42. Go paragliding I've been microlighting does that count? I'd love to go paragliding though
  43. Play a round of golf at Augusta, Georgia, USA No interest
  44. Watch mountain gorillas Vague interest
  45. See tigers in the wild Even if I was in the right spot, they'd be hiding I'm sure
  46. Do the Cresta Run, Switzerland Never heard of it
  47. Visit Walt Disney World, Florida, USA One day
  48. Visit Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Been there, although it was twenty years ago
  49. See orang-utans in Borneo Vague interest
  50. Go polar bear watching That'd be cool, I could combine that with the northern lights perhaps

FQ TOPIC: Fearful

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FQ1: What is the biggest fear you've had to face? Now that it's over, would it scare you to confront it again?
Having to rebuild a production commercial web server in the middle of the night when it died in a heap.
Beyond belief.

FQ2: What is your greatest fear that you've not yet met? If you were paid loads of money, would you willingly face it?
Having my house burnt down.
Never. I'm the sort of person that gets attached to inanimate objects, and I get distressed when I lose them.

FQ3: What is something most people are afraid of, but you don't have a problem with? Why do you think that is?
Dying.
I know I'm going to heaven, which will be a helluva lot better than being on earth

FQ Movie Night: Your readers are looking for a thrill! What's the scariest scene from a movie you've ever seen?
Friday the 13th. It scarred me for life. It didn't help that I was 11 when I saw it.
Oh I just reread that - scariest *scene* .. um.. the worst one from Friday the 13th was where Jason squeezes someone's skull til it pops and the eyeballs pop out.

Half way..

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Next mosaic..

After finishing the first pass of labelling my USA photos yesterday, I thought I'd have some fun.

Have finished two out of the four boards (no background yet).

No points for guessing what it's going to be :)

Didn't feel like I got much done today. Although I did a few things. Just didn't like I was getting anything important done. And my boss hasn't answered the half a dozen emails I sent him today. If he ignores them all I'm going to be lost and without direction tomorrow :/

Definitely bed time.

....

Just found out watching the Emmys that Jerry Goldsmith died this year. Why wasn't I informed? That's really sad. He wrote the music for lots of my favourite films, the Star Trek next-gen theme being my favourite theme of his.

Distracting

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Somehow or other I ended up on How Stuff Works, and found this page, which has kept me entertained for hours.

I really must get back to my photo labelling - only seven days to go!

FQ TOPIC: Posession

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This Friday Q topic came out a little late because Dave is in Korea. Although I would have thought he'd have put it up early because Korea is much further ahead in time than Washington :)

FQ1: What is your favorite posession made mostly from wood? Metal? Plastic?
Wood.. gosh that's a hard one. Nothing really stands out. How about my wooden dinosaur skeletons
Metal - my hard drive
Plastic - my lego

FQ2: What is your favorite posession colored mostly red? Blue? Green?
Red - how about my mobile phone.. actually it's only red when I have the red cover on, but I think I got it with a red cover so that'll do
Blue - my car
Green - probably my plants

FQ3: What is your favorite posession looking mostly soft? Sharp? Fragile?
Soft - maybe my doona
Sharp - possibly the knife I used most in the kitchen. Either that or my nail clippers??
Fragile - my sony digital camera

FQ Net Worth: If your nine prized posessions listed above were stolen, what do you estimate the total cost would be to replace them?
gosh... counting up probably close to $14000!

Well that turned out to be a whole lot harder than I thought it would be!

FQ TOPIC: Scenario

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FQ1: You've been given a million dollars to donate to a worthy charity! Which organization would benefit from your generosity and why are they deserving?
Probably CMS (Church Missionary Society)

FQ2: You've testified against the mob and have to leave the country! Where do you go to start your new life, and what new career will you pursue?
But Australia is the best country on earth. Really! If I *had* to go somewhere else.. hrmm.. possibly the US cause I feel at home there. Otherwise somewhere beautiful like Switzerland or Austria. New career? A pilot for sure.

FQ3: A movie studio has given you carte blanche to develop a sequel to a film of your choice! What's your sequel going to be about and who's starring in it?
gee most of my favouritest movies already have sequels. Or I don't feel there was any need for a sequel. How about this for thinking ahead - Harry Potter 8 - his first year at college studying to be an auror. Already I want to know what he's going to do with his life after school. Except that she's just as likely to kill him off at the end. Jason Isaacs would of course have to star as Lucius Malfoy, who takes over as the deliciously evil bad guy after the final demise of Voldemort.

FQ Re-Blog: A tragic computer malfunction has erased your current blog so you decide to start over again under a fictitious identity. Who would you become and what would you write about?
I'd become a talented writer, commenting on the world and current affairs with wit and humour. hrm that wouldn't exactly work since I can't write to save myself.

Thursday Challenge - Fruit

This week's Thursday Challenge is Fruit.

I rarely eat much in the way of fruit, so I had nothing around to take photos of.

Then it was Thursday night and I hadn't done anything about this challenge.

So back to the archives.

In keeping with an earlier entry about Big Things, here is the Big Banana, in Coffs Harbour in New South Wales. Taken in April this year.

FQ TOPIC: Funny

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FQ1: What's something you find humorous, but probably shouldn't?
There are some movies that I laughed the entire way through but I'm sure they weren't meant to be that funny .. like the Poseidon Adventure, and Emma

FQ2: What's something that others find funny, but you don't?
There's Something About Mary would have to be the stupidest movie I have ever seen in my life. Everyone I went with were laughing like mad the whole way through it, but I was only mildly amused about twice in the entire thing.

FQ3: What actor/comedian/personality always makes you laugh? What movie? What book?
I remember seeing a travel doco by Clive James once, and I found his sense of humour rather appealed to me for some reason. I haven't seen anything of his since though. Movie? Probably Flying High (Airplane) is my favourite movie comedy. Book? I rarely laugh out loud when reading books.

FQ Stand-Up: Tell us a joke or funny story.
According to some study, the funniest joke in the world is:


A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator, in a calm soothing voice, says: "Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says: "OK, now what?"

Although I don't find it hugely funny. I remember reading something of Heinlein's once (I think it might have been Stranger in a Strange Land), and he made a rather interesting point about comedy that I've rarely found exception to - he essentially said that in order for something to be funny, someone (or I guess something) has to get hurt. When you think about it, that's very true. It's rare to laugh at something without someone/something else getting hurt in the process.

Thursday Challenge - Simple

They say simple things amuse simple minds.

I therefore must have a simple mind.

Because the simple pleasure of a skiing kangaroo on a road sign is enough to make me burst out laughing.

This sign is near the corner of the road up to Thredbo in Jindabyne.

Unfortunately it's out of focus, because I took it out the front of the moving bus.

Kazza's "Boring Life Of a Geek" aka BLOG

IT geek, originally from Sydney, moved to Canberra in 2007. Married to "the sweetie", aka Stu. Prolific photographer, Lego junkie and tropical fish keeper.

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