Just to update my progress, I bought a scale last night and weighed myself this morning. I refuse to believe it and will double check with another scale, but it says I weight 306. I refuse to believe that I weigh more than 260. Right after that, I did 15 minutes with my dumbbells while I was getting ready for work. Tonight I am stopping buy the store to buy a bunch of stuff for salads. I am also cutting out all sodas from my diet.
On the plus side, after mentioning my goal about finishing my book, I wrote two paragraphs last night.
Now, here are my next goals:
27) Explore New England – The best place to start seeing the world is probably my own back yard. I’ve been to some of the local Smithsonians, but there are tons of other places worth checking out. My friend Alan and I once made up a list of places to see, but we never got around to going. I think it is time to go on that trip. On the list of things to see, we had the New Port Tower in Rhode Island, the skeleton in armor in Massachusetts, America’s Stonehenge in Hew Hampshire, and the Westford Knight in Massachusetts to name a few.
28) Go to Japan – A few years ago, my friend Eric came up with the idea that after he graduated college, we would go to Japan together. However, it seems that that plan has changed since he’s now planning on going to pilot school after graduation. I still want to go. First off, as they said in the webcomic Megatokyo Japan is a Mecca for gamers. Japan is the home of both Sony and Nintendo, along with other video game companies. All of that aside, there are also more historical and cultural reasons to go there: Nijo Castle, Kinkakuji Temple, Kyoto Imperial Palace, Heian Shrine, and others. And lastly, Japan is where anime comes from (or at least to some extent since they are outsourcing most of it to Korea now).
There are programs where you can volunteer to teach English in Japan and you don’t even have to know the language. They even pay you to do. I’m going to have to sign up for one of those. Or I could save up some money and buy a plane ticket.
29) Learn Japanese – when I get to Japan, it would be nice if I could speak the language. I picked up some cd lessons a while back, but I never got very far along. I will start setting aside time to go over the lessons. Perhaps during my walks.
30) Get a real katana – I like swords. I have a few katanas in my room, however they are all cheap, mass produced swords. One is a movie replica. I would love to have a real one, one folded in the traditional manner. However, they are rather expensive. I have heard of a few people in Japan that still make katanas. When I’m there, I can see about purchasing one.
31) Run with the bulls in Spain – I’ve heard about running with the bulls and it sounds like something I would like to do.
32) Go to the pyramids
33) Go to Stonehenge
34) Go to the ruins in Central America
35) Sail through the Bermuda triangle – As I grew up, I watched a lot of shows about the Bermuda Triangle (and UFOs, ghosts, and various other things). Now I want some first hand experience. While numerous planes and ships have disappeared there, others travel through those waters daily without incident, so I will probably be safe. But with my luck…
36) Go to Jerusalem
37) Spend time in a Tibetan monastery
38) Climb Mount Everest
39) Work at a base in Antarctica – I just finished reading a book that takes place in Antarctica. I think it might be interesting (not to mention cold) to go down there and work at one of the research bases. I’m sure that there is some job down there that I can qualify for.
40) Go to India and go out with a woman that wears a choli – I was on a Bollywood movie kick for a while. It started with Paheli, and then I watched several others. I find the Indian women to be fairly attractive and the traditional clothing to be attractive too. During my world tour, I’m going to have to make sure I stop in India and find me a woman there. Maybe I can work on hooking up with a Bollywood actress. Unfortunately Rani Mukherjee is going to be getting married, so she is no longer available.
41) Visit Australia – none of the above goals will take me to the land down under, but I want to be able to say that I’ve been to all the continents, so there you have it.
