#99 - Get Fit

I recently started working out again in an attempt to get fit. I think by my count this would be my third attempt at trying this. What I'm really trying to work on is getting rid of my beer belly. Well since I don't drink I guess that would mean that its just a non beer belly belly. Either way its definitely something I could do without.

The last time I attempted to get fit I went all out. I started on the South Beach Diet and bought a whole bunch of food for the diet. I also spent money on a new elliptical machine, some weights and a few other pieces of exercise equipment. And even after all that money spent I still managed to fail. I can't remember the moment it all went wrong but its obvious that I got off track. I tried to stack the odds in my favor but it just wasn't enough.

So this time I'm going to try again. I'm just going to take it one day at a time and see how it goes. This time I'm not going to spend the money on getting food for a new diet. But I'm in luck because all that exercise equipment I bought is paid for so that's some money I don't have to spend in this attempt.

Now that I'm starting out again I'm just trying to take it one day at a time. I'm running on my elliptical and doing push ups and sit ups. I was hoping to do something else to help get in shape. Something like playing a sport. But nothing really came up that seemed to work well for the situation.

Hopefully this time will be successful. This time I also have other reasons for getting fit. Since I have other things on my list that require me to be in better physical condition I guess that makes this goal more of a first step on a longer journey. I just hope I'll be able to remember why im doing this in the first place and remain focused on my ultimate goal to complete my list.

#1 - Go Skydiving

Intense. Thats the word I would use to talk about what its like to skydiving. Today I jumped out of a plane on purpose and it was amazing.

For those of you wondering what an experience like this is like let me explain. When I was looking out of the plane door about to jump out I'm sure I had the same thought that everyone has the first time they jump, "Am I really doing this". And then a second later I was out of the plane.

The first thing I noticed was how very cold and windy it was while falling. I guess I should have expected that what with the high atmosphere and terminal velocity. But where your jumping out of a plane the rational part of your brain pretty much turns itself off. Now I'm sure your all wondering, "So how insane is that freefall". Well actually the feeling of freefalling you get in your stomach lasted only a few seconds then all I really noticed was the cold and the wind. I know it sounds weird but it makes sense. Since there is nothing around you its not really possible for your mind to comprehend how fast your going. Sure the ground is coming at your face at terminal velocity but your so high up that it appears as though your not moving at all. So you really do get that feeling that you are floating in the air.

When we got to a certain altitude the guy I was attached to gave me a signal and I reached behind us and pulled the chute open. A second or two later there was a hit when the chute caught the wind. After the chute deployed he started adjusting things behind my back. For a second I thought he was going to unhook me and I was going to fall to my death. But he was just adjusting the harness so that instead of the pressure being on my crotch region it was moved to under my thighs which is much more comfortable.

So after I was in this new comfortable position he let me control the chute itself. He had me turn us a few times and then we did a few circles. And then finally we landed safe and sound. The whole thing was quite an exciting experience. Now that I know I can survive the experience I would love to do it again hopefully with more people.

And for those of you that maybe afraid of heights let me just say that my girlfriend did it and she is terrified of heights. So I believe if she can do it pretty much anyone can.

Also if you would like to do this yourself you should probably check out Skydive Elsinore. I did a bit of research and they seem to be the best ones. Of course this is only useful if you happen to live near or around Southern California. Otherwise you will have to do your own research.

# 89 - See a Lunar Eclipse

This is the last past entry I need to do to get caught up to the present. I had completely forgotten about actually seeing this one. Also I didn't take the picture located above I just thought it was cool.

The lunar eclipse happened on 02/21/2008 and its the last total lunar eclipse until December 2010. I actually found out about it 3 days before it was going to happen. And it was more a matter of luck then anything else. The list is so long that sometimes I forget that there are items on it that only happen at a certain time. I think when I learned about this I was not really thinking about it. But I happened to be looking at digg.com and thats when I was reminded that I needed to check it out. I'm wasn't much of a digger at that time I just happen to be bored and went to the site. Not I can't stop checking out digg but thats another story.

So the total lunar eclipse took place on a Wednesday and was suppose to start at or around 7pm. I still happened to be at work at the time but this was a once in a 2 year chance. When I went outside at 7 I couldn't see the moon anywhere. As luck would have it the moon was located behind the only freaking cloud in the sky. But I was determined to see it so I stood there and watch the clouds move across the sky.

Eventually I did get to see it but it wasn't a clear view of it. I could see it through a thiner part of the cloud cover. So technically I did see it so I can cross it off my list but hopefully come 2010 I'll be in a position to see it better.

And heres some knowledge about Lunar Eclipses.

# 131 - Final Fantasy III Started

Well now that I finished FF II its on to FF III. And since there are no ports of FF III to the PSP orPS1 I'm forced to play it on the DS. Don't get me wrong I love playing the DS however my DS has been acting rather strangely.

Sometimes when I put it to sleep (close the lid) the system will turn off. Now I'm sure I don't need to say how much this sucks for when I quickly put it away without saving first (well I guess I just did). So now I have to make sure that I save before I sleep it which is a minor inconvenience. But I will persevere so I can move on to the next one. Hopefully this version will not have the same issue as the FF II did.

More likely then not I'll end up losing progress at some point because I forgot to save.

Heres some knowledge about Final Fantasy III and also a video about the game.




This is from the gametrailers.com Final Fantasy retrospective. The Final Fantasy III section is in the second half of the video.

# 131 - Final Fantasy II completed

Well after my ordeal with having to restart the game from scratch I have finally completed it. The last few areas turned out to be a lot harder then I expected.

I had spent quite a few hours leveling up my characters plus they had some kick ass weapons so I was duel wielding 2 Masamunes (kick ass sword) on all the characters and just steam rolling through all the enemies. That is until I got to the "Jade Passage" which is the second to last area in the game. All of sudden my character were getting the crap beat out of them with each hit they took.

At first I was like WTF. How did I go from bad ass to ass kicked so quickly. Well this mainly had to do with the fact that I had not actually put a shield on my characters so I got the swords so it was no wonder I was getting pummeled so badly. When I finally realized my boneheaded mistake I quickly rectified the situation and put a shield on each of them. After that they were still getting hit hard but nothing I couldn't handle.

So eventually I made it to the last boss and I was totally ready to kick his ass with my bad ass swords. I figured the swords had made mincemeat out of everything so far that this should be cake. And since I figured that way I had not spent any time to level up any type of magic. Well I was surely surprised when I gave that boss a sound slash to the face and it appeared to do very little damage.

At this point I'm thinking oh God I don't want to have to spend more time leveling up magic just to beat this bastard. But even though I was doing not as much damage as I was used to I was still doing somewhat decent damage. And also I was able to keep my characters alive (just barely). And after repeated whackings from my sword to his face and cure/life to my characters I was finally able to win the day. Now its on to Final Fantasy III.

# 131 - Final Fantasy II started and restarted

I recently had to restart my game for Final Fantasy II. I started playing 02/12/08 the day I finished Final Fantasy I.

Well when I say recently I mean a few days ago but I have finally reached the point where I had to restart from. Apparently the version I had gotten didn't want to load the next part no matter what I did. I had a feeling I was pretty close to the end so I tried a bunch of different things to get past the part. I got few different versions of the game but my save wouldn't appear so finally after trying everything I could I just broke down and started a new game on a new version.

When I started the new game I contemplated downloading a save with maxed out characters so I could just run through the story and get to the end. I put the save in and started playing but even though my characters on my old game would have been able to finish the game without to much problem it didn't feel right using characters that someone else had made.

So in the end I started a new game completely from scratch and worked my way back. So I just got back to the area where it would not progress and this time it worked fine. And as much as I think it sucks that I had to do that sometimes you just got to roll with the punches and keep moving on. Hopefully I should be done with Final Fantasy II soon and then its on to Final Fantasy III on the DS. Which I'm not looking to forward to because my DS has been acting kinda funky lately. But I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Heres the info on Final Fantasy II and also a video. Enjoy

# 74 - Perform for an audience

This is another one I finished before starting this blog so I'm still in catch up mode.

I accomplished this on Christmas eve. Or at least it was for a Christmas eve service at church. I played my clarinet during one of the songs. It was weird cause I had not played my clarinet for sometime (probably around a year). So I was a bit worried that I may not be up to the task. But when the time came it went smoothly. And now I have one more off my list.

# 131 - Final Fantasy I started and finished

Since I started this blog after starting the list I have accomplished a few things and one of them is completing Final Fantasy I.

I started the game on 02/05/08 and finished on 02/12/08. Seven days not to bad I must say. Thankfully I was able to play it on my PSP which really helped. It allowed me to play anytime I happened to have a free minute. Also I've heard the PSP version is easier then the NES version which is fine with me. Same story just easier so I'm ok with that.

As for the game it was nice to see where the series started and how the story worked. Even though the Final Fantasy games are not directly connected its cool to see how each one changed. It was fun to play and since it was on the PSP it had updated graphics which were easy on the eyes. Although part of me wishes I could have played it in all its 8-bit glory. But it would just be to time consuming to play through it on the NES or even an emulated version on my computer.

Well thats one down out of the twelve. So far so good.

Heres some knowledge about Final Fantasy I and also a video.



This is the first part of the gametrailers.com final fantasy retrospective.

Kindness of Strangers

Another reason I'm putting this up is hopefully I can find people to help me with my list. Since quite a few things I don't really know anything about. So hopefully if your reading this and you have any tips/advice (i.e. cheaper ways to accomplish) for me on anything I have on my list I would be more then happy to hear about it.

THE LIST

I'm not exactly sure how this is going to work in the entirety of this blog but I thought I should make sure to place the list somewhere in here. Especially since its the whole reason this blog is being created.

This list has been through quite a few revisions with things being added and removed. However, I finally got it down to a list that I feel contains only the things I really felt I wanted to do.

When i first started the list I had bought 2 books about places to see before I die (1000 places to see before you die world ed & 1000 places to see before you die US and Canada ed). I eventually went through both of them and picked out a bunch of places I wanted to see. Originally my plan was actually all 2000 places but as I started reading through it 2 things dawned on me:

1) Attempting to see 2000 places would be extremely time consuming
2) As I was reading I found there were quite a few places that I personally didn't care to see

I end up still picking a lot of places from the 2 books and added them to the list. As time went on I took a good look at all the places I had added and decided that some of the places I had on my list I didn't really want to see. They just seemed cool when I was trudging through 2000 different places. So I ended up cutting out more places until I finally got to a point where it seemed just right

When I was thinking of things to put on my list I decided to go on the Internets and see what other people had come up with. So thats how I got a lot of other ideas for my list.

So heres the list in all its glory:

Completed Items: 2 of 131

RED = Not Started
ORANGE = In Progress
BLUE = Completed

1) Go skydiving (COMPLETED)

2) Climb a mountain

3) Visit all 50 states (Take a picture next to the Welcome to Sign for that state)

I. Alabama

II. Alaska

III. Arizona

IV. Arkansas

V. California

VI. Colorado

VII. Connecticut

VIII. Delaware

IX. Florida

X. Georgia

XI. Hawaii

XII. Idaho

XIII. Illinois

XIV. Indiana

XV. Iowa

XVI. Kansas

XVII. Kentucky

XVIII. Louisiana

XIX. Maine

XX. Maryland

XXI. Massachusetts

XXII. Michigan

XXIII. Minnesota

XXIV. Mississippi

XXV. Missouri

XXVI. Montana

XXVII. Nebraska

XXVIII. Nevada

XXIX. New Hampshire

XXX. New Jersey

XXXI. New Mexico

XXXII. New York

XXXIII. North Carolina

XXXIV. North Dakota

XXXV. Ohio

XXXVI. Oklahoma

XXXVII. Oregon

XXXVIII. Pennsylvania

XXXIX. Rhode Island

XL. South Carolina

XLI. South Dakota

XLII. Tennessee

XLIII. Texas

XLIV. Utah

XLV. Vermont

XLVI. Virginia

XLVII. Washington

XLVIII. West Virginia

XLIX. Wisconsin

L. Wyoming

4) Go to a Laker game

5) See a baseball game at Fenway Park (Boston)

6) Visit Atlantic City

7) See the Empire State Building

8) Go to Grand Central

9) Eat a New York style Pizza in New York

10) See a game at Wrigley Field

11) See the Indianapolis 500

12) Visit Mount Rushmore

13) Visit Wall Drug Store

14) Visit Yellowstone

15) See the Grand Canyon

16) Go to Aspen

17) Visit Alcatraz

18) Visit Yosemite

19) See the Merrie Monarch Festival

20) Visit Pearl Harbor

21) See Niagra Falls

22) Visit Loch Ness

23) See “Arc De Triomphe” (Paris)

24) See the Eiffel Tower

25) Gamble in the Grand Casino (Monte Carlo)

26) See the Coliseum

27) See the Pantheon

28) View the Last Supper (Milan, Lombardy, Italy)

29) Ride in a Gondola in Venice

30) Ride on the train Jungfraujoch (Switzerland)

31) Visit Red Square

32) Ride on the Trans-Siberian Express

33) Visit the North Pole

34) Climb Mount Fuji

35) See the Taj Mahal

36) Visit the Sydney Opera

37) Visit Easter Island

38) See Angel Falls

39) See the Statue of Liberty

40) See Times Square

41) See Ground Zero

42) See a game at Yankee Stadium

43) See the liberty bell

44) Visit the library of Congress

45) Visit the National Archives

46) Visit the National Mall

47) See the White House

48) Watch the Kentucky Derby

49) See a performance at the Grand Ole Opry

50) Eat Chicago Style Pizza in Chicago

51) Go to a football game

52) Learn to play my guitar

53) Learn to play my violin

54) Get married

55) Go on a cruse

56) Go bungee jumping

57) Swim with the dolphins

58) Learn to fly a plane

59) Experience zero gravity

60) Visit an active volcano

61) Go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef

62) Run a marathon

63) Fly first class

64) Learn Japanese

65) See all 8 of the new Wonders of the World

I. See Manchu Pichu (Peru)

II. See the statue of Christ the Redeemer (Brazil)

III. Walk on the Great Wall of China (China)

IV. See Chichen Itza (Mexico)

V. See Petra (Jordan)

VI. See the Coliseum (Italy)

VII. See the Taj Mahal (India)

VIII. See the Great Pyramid (Egypt)

66) See Victoria Falls (Zambia/Zimbabwe)

67) See a show on Broadway

68) Swim with sharks

69) See stone henge

70) See a shuttle launch

71) Ride a motorcycle up the coast

72) Ride in a hot air balloon

73) Tour the Louvre

74) Perform for an audience (COMPLETED)

75) See the aurora Borealis

76) See the Sistine Chapel

77) Learn to surf

78) Learn to Snowboard

79) Run with the bulls (Pamplona)

80) See the World Cup

81) Learn to hula

82) See an opera

83) Step in all 5 oceans

I. Pacific

II. Atlantic

III. Arctic

IV. Indian

V. Southern

84) Visit all 7 continents

I. North America

II. South America

III. Asia

IV. Antarctica

V. Europe

VI. Africa

VII. Oceania

85) Learn to swing dance

86) Live to see my Grandchildren (If I have any)

87) See the ball drop in NYC

88) Learn to play Rhapsody in blue on the piano

89) See a lunar eclipse (COMPLETED)

90) See a solar eclipse

91) Learn to juggle

92) Attend a concert at Carnegie Hall

93) Drive a really fast car

94) Go hang gliding

95) Go on an African Safari

96) Go white water rafting

97) Go horseback riding

98) Travel down route 66

99) Visit a castle

100) Eat at a 5-Star restaurant

101) Go ice skating at Rockefeller Center (New York)

102) Get fit

103) Learn to fence

104) Learn to salsa dance

105) Ride an elephant

106) Go cliff diving

107) Go to Walt Disney World

108) Go to Euro Disney

109) Visit Pearl Harbor

110) Go to Okinawa

111) Ride on a dog sled

112) Travel on the Orient Express

113) Go kayaking

114) Visit Normandy beach

115) Visit Rio De Janeiro during Carnival

116) Go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans

117) Go to the top of the statue of liberty

118) Stand under a waterfall

119) Eat fresh honeycomb

120) See Halley's comet

121) Go to a World Series game

122) Go to a Superbowl game

123) Go on a carriage ride at night in central park

124) Go to the top of the tallest building in the world

125) Learn to scuba dive

126) Climb the 7 summits

I. Mount Kilimanjaro

II. Mount Elbrus

III. Mount Aconcagua

IV. Carstensz Pyramid

V. Mount Denali

VI. Mount Vinson

VII. Mount Everest

127) Spend the night on a private island

128) Spend the night in the Icehotel

129) Go to Penny Arcade Expo (PAX)

130) Create an overclocked remix of a song

131) *Complete all current Final Fantasy games in numerical order

I. Final Fantasy I (COMPLETED)

II. Final Fantasy II (COMPLETED)

III. Final Fantasy III

IV. Final Fantasy IV

V. Final Fantasy V

VI. Final Fantasy VI

VII. Final Fantasy VII

VIII. Final Fantasy VIII

IX. Final Fantasy IX

X. Final Fantasy X

XI. Final Fantasy X2

XII. Final Fantasy XII

In the Beginning

One day I decided to make a list. On this list I would put everything I wanted to experience/see before I take my final step off this mortal coil. I'm sure I'm not the only person that has done this and I will definitely not be the last.

I'm not usually one for making to do list even though it would be extremely helpful most of the time. Theres just something about writing something down to do later that takes all the enjoyment out of doing it (at least for me). Even when I have something planned for later in the week I feel like its a weight on me until what ever the event was is over. So making a list of stuff to do is not my thing.

But for some reason this list doesn't have that same effect on me. Maybe its because its a list that I couldn't possibly do all at once. To be honest most of the things I have listed on there I can't even begin to imagine when/how I'm ever going to accomplish them.

I decided I should probably write about things as I accomplish them. I'm not sure why but it just felt right. I'm very bad at keeping up any sort of blog but hopefully this time I will be able to.