SERIOUSLY epic bucketlist - the next step

It's funny, I don't remember having read Steve Kamb's blog earlier, even though it's straight to my alley, my cup of tea...
(BTW, Steve Kamb is not a selfish, egocentric a-hole, he just keeps the humanist part for himself, which I think is a pity. Just saying that what follows has not much to do with Steve, and all to do with me. A lot of Bucketlist people are actually very generous and considerate people, and Steve is one of them. SO no hate on him!)

In the end of the list he is asking for suggestions on how to make his epic adventure even more epic.
I know how.

All of this is so focused on ME, and gathering experiences and doing epic stuff and the physical part of the life; being fit and having traveled the world and done all this high adrenaline adventure stuff.
What about the rest of the world?

Becoming a human and civil rights advocate. Working for peace and conflict resolution. Taking clean water to people. Saving rainforest, one tree at a time. Reforesting USA. Working to reverse extinction of species. Cleaning the ocean. Saving the Coral Reef and Arctic for future generations.

8 great heroes of human rights
14 Real Life Heroes Who Have Changed The World

National Geographic has "The Adventurer of the Year" award

There's Right Livelihood Award
Real Heroes
RFK Human Rights Award
UNEP Champion of the Earth

And there are so many little things one could do straight in one's own neighborhood.

Sharing Kindness

I mean... why not make the bucket list TRULY EPIC!

How to be funny

Learn from the best. Study stand-up comedians, the delivery and timing. Actively study what makes you laugh and how the joke works.

Learn to tell jokes

Do something silly every day, to loosen up and get relaxed

Laugh every day

Learn jokes and puns. Practice telling them.

Stop telling people how funny you are, how hilarious your jokes are and stop laughing at your own jokes.

Learn to see the funny, the ridiculous, the absurd, the laughable, the joke in every situation.

Can't hurt...

I don't know how, why or if this works, but - if you keep doing the footwork, it can't really hurt if you try the different psychological things as well.

There are some very important points to mind, here!

Whether this is true or not, there are still things you need to DO.
It might be so that your body just magically transforms itself and you wake up 50 kg lighter and able to do splits without having done anything to reach that state, but I see it more like this:
you get an idea of something, let's say you want to be able to do the splits.
The first thing you should ask yourself is WHY you want to be able to do the splits. Is it because it will make your dream of learning to dance, climb or do martial arts easier, or because you think you'll be sexier then or what. Because THAT is the REAL goal here, not the ability to do the splits. If you want to be able to do the splits just to be able to do them, then it is the real goal, but you need to know this.
Then you need to accept that it is possible.
Then you need to focus on thinking how it feels to do the splits.
Then you need to keep your eyes open for any "messages from the Universe" that will lead you to the splits, if you receive the message. Like, being on Pinterest and suddenly all your contacts start pinning stretches and splits...
Then you need to do it. It might take a week, a month, a year, but it most certainly will take shorter time if you start now, than if you wait for a week, a month or a year to begin.

You also need to prepare for it. Get the equipment, clothes, spot where to do the splits, safety precautions and whatnots. There are for example weight requirements to bungee jumping and some other safety regulations when it comes to climbing, diving, skydiving etc.
It doesn't hurt to save money, even when you trust "the Universe" to pay for everything.
You can study languages or knots or something other like that as you wait for the door to open. Just think how you could be ready for the opportunity to knock at your door. If someone stopped you at the street and told you that you have just won a free trip to Paris, all expenses paid, if you can leave in 2 hours, could you? What do you wish you had done before? Because it could happen.

Now, here are the Abraham's 5 steps:

1. want - think about the things you want to have in your life
2. know it already exists and it's on its way - all you need to do is open the door when the doorbell rings.
3. the vibration turns to the emotions that turn to the manifestation - keep feeling how it is going to be when you have the physical manifestation in your life
4. feel good inspite of everything - "You’re living unconditionally.  You’re not needing things to be a certain way in order to feel good.  So when you see a little contrast, you don’t see it as something that’s gone wrong.  You see it as an opportunity of clarification.  You see it as an opportunity for you to define or refine even more clearly who you are and what you want.”
5. welcome contrast and diversity

Extreme Sports: What's the Appeal?

The Whip and the Carrot 
by me, 22/4-06

“I learnt many years ago that, if you look carefully, you will see that there are only two basic sources of motivation: love and fear (or carrot and whip, if you prefer). This means that there are scary reasons and fun reasons to swatch.”
— Annette Petavy, “Joy of Swatching”

It’s like with Pollyanna and the different handles of the jar… Everything has two sides and if one only learns to look at the smooth and nice side of things, the carrot, instead of getting hurt with the icky, sticky, yucky side of things, everything becomes so much nicer.

Seeing the possibilities in situations, instead of the hinders. Seeing the getting lost as a change to see and learn something one never had had the possibility to see and learn otherwise. See it as a gift from above…

I was thinking of 9/11. A lot less people died than expected. Many were late for job for various, insignificant, petty, irritating reasons. Someone had new shoes and needed a small job done – another one had a child who was being “impossible”, a third took the phonecall that came just when she was closing the door… the buss was just a little late, the train was just a little too full, the hiss was broken, there was something wrong with the coffee, so it was changed. Small, petty things, that saved lives…

I am thinking of serendipity and apocatastasis

Serendipity means a "fortunate happenstance" or "pleasant surprise". It was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754. In a letter he wrote to a friend, Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had made by reference to a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip. The princes, he told his correspondent, were "always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of".

Apocatastasis is the teaching that everyone will, in the end, be saved. It looks toward the ultimate reconciliation of good and evil; all creatures endowed with reason, angels and humans, will eventually come to a harmony in God's kingdom.

“the Chinese word for crisis is the same as for opportunity”…

[It’s not true, though… but the idea is good :-) (it's "opportunity, chance of danger")]

I love the story of the old man and the horse.

The man had a mare, who ran away.
Everyone said how sorry they were for the misfortune, but the old man said that one couldn’t say whether it was a fortune or misfortune.
The mare came back, and 11 months later gave birth to a pretty little colt.
Everyone told the man how lucky he was. He said that one couldn’t say whether it was good or bad.
The horse grew up and the man’s son started to teach it to carry a rider. The horse threw the boy from his back, and the boy broke his leg.
 Everyone came to the old man and said how sorry they were – and, now again, the man stated that one cannot know whether it’s a good or a bad thing.
A war broke out and all the young men were taken to war – except for the old man’s son. He couldn’t go because his leg was broken…
One can’t say whether something is for the best or the worst.

Elmer Diktonius
The Jaguar

I
From green leaves protrude
red muzzle,
eyes with triangular gaze
speckled;
whiskers undulation claw paw –
you  fly! my heart’s jaguar!
so fly and bite and rip and ravage!

Biting is necessity as long as bites give life.
Killing is holy as long as corruption stinks
and life’s ugliness must be savaged
until beauty and wholeness can grow from its remains.
Thus are we, the two of us, my poem and I, one claw.
One will we are, one paw, one fang.
Together we are a machine that strikes.

We want to kill the cry of the indifferent
the compassion of the heartless
the religiosity of the sceptics
the impotence of the strong
the evil weakness of the good;
we want to give birth by killing
we want to make room
we want to see
sunspots dancing.

II

Do you think
strong paws feel no pain?
Do you think the jaguar has no heart?
O he has
father mother mate, young.
The wilderness is great
cold is the wind of autumn
in the jaguar’s belly dwell
loneliness despair.
The jaguar can kiss a flower.
He has tears;
sentimentality.

III

Night.
Waterfalls murmur long.
The jaguar is asleep.
An ant is licking one of his claws.
Who is whispering:
the morning is coming
sunspots are dancing?

IV

Sunspots are dancing! —
All is numbly whirling.
In a single bound
the jaguar hurls himself over
the crests of the spruce trees —
hear the laughter of stars in his roaring! —
a lightning-volt in the air:
like an arrow deep in the earth’s breast.

"I’ve followed you on many adventures. Into the great-unknown mystery… I go first, Indy."

Wu Han, Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom

The meaning of the tarot card Death
 

Think positively, act positively...

This is a lousy goal. Not that it is lousy to think and act positively, no, that is amazing and changes thing completely, no. But it is not a SMART goal.

It is not specific.
It is not measurable.
It's not timeable.

So it's a lousy goal.

How to make it SMART?

It is easy to make it measurable and timeable. Just add "for a week" or "for a day" or "three months".

But specific? You have to ask yourself what this means.

* You have to start monitoring your thoughts and your inner speech. It is important and you need to listen to it. Every derogative comment, on yourself and others, is an expression of fear and envy. Address that fear and that envy, and the voice will shut up.

* Have "the opposite" day.

Every time you think something tell yourself, "no, the opposite!"
"I'm so fat and ugly and unfit and everyone hates me."
"NO, the opposite. You body is OK, you look OK, you are fit enough and even when most of the people don't have an opinion on you, there's a lot of people who likes you."

"I'm gonna fail!"
"NO, the opposite! You are going to succeed, and learn a couple of ways how NOT to do it, too!"

"I hate my life"
"NO, the opposite! I don't feel so good right now, but this is temporary, and my life is going to be f-ing awesome soon, as it has mostly been! I love my life!"

* Replace the not nice things in your life with nice things.

Start by changing one thing to better in your life.
Change your wardrobe so that you will be wearing what ever you want to wear every day.

Change every item in your home, every detail, so that you will be coming home and everything you see is lovely.

Stop listening to someone else's playlists and start listening to your own.
Stop reading someone else's books and start reading and re-reading your own favorites.

Change your eating habits and eat what ever you LOVE as much as you want to for as long as it feels OK. Forget dietists and nutritionists and portions and daily recommendations. If you want to live of ice cream, do so.
(This part needs a warning, though! Don't eat things you think SHOULD be delicious. Don't eat candy until the bag is empty. Don''t empty the plate. Eat just as much as you really, seriously want to.
Enjoy everything you put in your mouth. If you are not enjoying it, don't eat it. Don't eat because you are tired or sad or bored or used to or conditioned to think something is good. TASTE the food. Feel the texture. Enjoy it. I promise you that when you eat EXACTLY what you want to eat, as much as you want, when you want, NOT MORE NOR LESS, you will not be overweight and you won't be suffering of malnutrition. It really is this simple, but the trick is to get over the "supposed to" and "used to".)

* Smile more. Have a goal to smile every day at least once. Then upgrade that to laughing every day at least once..

Now, the important thing here is that you need to select the thoughts and other things that make you smile and laugh carefully. It's bad for you to laugh at "stupid people doing stupid things".
Though I have to say I think Aristocats and the "dogs chasing Edgar" is hilarious.

But try to find good, clean jokes and kitten antics and other such "nice" things. Most practical jokes are not really funny. It isn't funny if someone gets hurt.
Though I have to admit I laugh at the cat who tried to jump from frozen car and slipped and just the sight of the cat floating so way past the intended goal all the paws stretched as if the jump had been successful... that is funny. Sorry cat! I'm glad you are OK and I hope nothing more than pride was hurt that day.

Not only think positively, act positively!
When you think "I can't", prove yourself wrong and show that you can! Might not happen immediately, might not happen exactly the way you thought, but if there's the will, there's a way.

Holy Grail

Being a Godmother/Godfather

1) Be a great aunt

2) Make the child feel special. 
If your godchild is a sibling, see that you give e presents that are bigger, better and/or more than to the other siblings. (Don't forget the other siblings either. They might not have as good godparents, and that will come out as envy or sibling rivalry, which is a horrible thing.)
Send him/her snailmail. Write letters, send packages, write postcards.
Remember name days. After all, you were made officially the godparent by the name giving ceremony.

3) Take some economical responsibility.
Start a saving account the moment you know you are going to become a godparent and save a small sum of money every month, so that you have money to give when the child is 18 or needs or wants some extra. 10 dollars a month for 18 years makes over 2000 dollars. The more you can save, the more money there is. It could pay for the first car, an education, travel or something else like that.

More Than 30 Movies With Dragons

Beowulf
Dragon crusaders
Dragon Fighter
Dragon Hunter
Dragon Storm
Dragones: Destino de Fuego
DragonHeart 1-3
Dragons II: the Metal Ages
Dragons: Fire and Ice
Dragonslayer
Dragonworld
Dungeons & Dragons
D-War - Dragon Wars
Eragon
Fire and Ice: The Dragon Chronicles
Flight of the Dragons
George and the Dragon
Gojira vs. Kingu Gidora
Harry Potter
How to Train Your Dragon
Maleficent
Merlin and the War of the Dragons
Mulan (It took me some time to remember Mushu...)
Pete's Dragon
Reign of Fire
Shrek
Spirited Away
The Dragon Pearl
The Hobbit 2 and 3
The Neverending Story
Willow