Kickin the Bucket

1. Obtain my motorcycle license
2. Ride in the side buggy of a motorcycle
3. Crowd surf at a concert
4. Stage dive
5. Go to a music festival
6. Ride a tandem bike
7. Eat authentic sushi in Japan
8. Swim in jellyfish lake
9. Learn how to surf
10. Go zorbing
11. Get a big dog and name it Brutus.
12. Participate in La Tomate
13. Go hiking in the wilderness with nothing but a backpack of supplies
14. Visit the Into the Wild bus
15. Be in a parade
16. Work on a vinery
17. Ride an elephant
18. Eat lunch with an old person sitting alone
19. Buy someone's groceries
20. Save a life
21. Win a hot dog eating contest
22. Go on a road trip from coast to coast
23. Build an ice sculpture
24. Pass the grade 9 and 10 french exams
25. Visit Alcatraz
26. Go hot air ballooning
27. Watch a sumo wrestling match
28. Ride a bull
29. Longboard in San Francisco
30. Swim in the Dead Sea
31. Visit Jose's farm
32. Fall in love
33. Design a wedding cake
34. Drink a beer in an authentic Irish bar on St. Patty's Day
35. Kiss a stranger
36. Not for your eyes
37. Also not for your eyes
38. Sorry, not this one either
39. Help out someone in need
40. Build a waterslide off of my roof
41. Work on a farm
42. Party like a rockstar
43. Dress up and be in one of those conventions
44. Toboggan behind a car
45. Hold a sloth
46. Visit the sloth rehabilitation center in Costa Rica
47. Canoe down the Amazon River
48. Watch an Olympic event
49. Travel the world
50. See my niece in Africa
51. Go white water rafting
52. Be a roady
53. Start a standing ovation
54. Graffiti a train car
55. Attend a pig roast in Fiji
56. Have long, luscious hair
57. Be an extra on a tv show
58. Pretend to be a mannequin in a store until someone kicks me out
59. Attend the lumberjack Olympics
60. Fix a car engine
61. Climb a tree all the way to the top
62. Climb a mountain
63. Streak down a busy street
64. Go on a speed date
65. Visit Louis again in France
66. Go squirrel suiting
67. Attend a Redbull event
68. Live in Alaska
69. Go sailing across an ocean

Reading Response #7

So I'm still plowing through The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Yup, it's pretty much taken me this entire semester to read... So Milan Kundera, who is now in my opinion one of the most interesting authors I've ever read, brought up another extremely interesting idea. Where does he come up with all this? Every page I turn it's like another new idea is popping out at me. This week the idea of sexuality came up. Now, most of his book has had to do with sex or some form of love, but I never really talked about it because I didn't think it would be appropriate for school. But then I thought we're in grade 12 now anyways, and everyone's practically an adult, so why not. While I was reading the subject of men who sleep with a lot of women came up. One of the main characters, Tomas, is a womanizer who sleeps with hundreds of women. Kundera was saying that there are 2 main categories that womanizers fall into. The first is a man who sleeps with lots of women because he's looking for that "something" that is always eluding him... He's looking for that one quality that will make him fall in love, and looks for it through sex, because that's when everyone is their most vulnerable. He never finds it though, because what he's really looking for is a quality in himself that he in fact does not possess, and so he is never satisfied by his conquests. This is the womanizer that everybody feels sorry for because they know he'll never attain his goal. Women throw themselves at him in the hopes of being his missing piece. The second one is the man who sleeps with lots of women because he wants to find the differences between each. Everyone has a million things that are the same as the next person, and they're looking for that 1/1 000 000 difference between each. Again, sex is when people are the most vulnerable so they are always sleeping with people to get to know what makes them unique from everybody else. Kundera was saying that this womanizer people don't like as much, and feel less empathetic towards them, but in my opinion I think they're the better one. I mean, isn't it kind of sad that the first one is just like a dog chasing his tail, always searching for something they can't attain. Why would you do something you know doesn't work again and again and again? The second one could be viewed as selfish and somewhat self centered, never thinking about the emotions of others, but in my opinion I don't think they do it maliciously. They're being like a weird kind of scientist.

Reading Response #8

Ok so I'm reading The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen. I've read 33 pages so far. I'm not really sure if this could be considered a reading response, but is it just me or is it weird that this middle aged woman keeps on writing books about teenagers? I've read a couple of her books already, like Along For The Ride and Just Listen, and dont get me wrong they're alright stories, but one thing I always got from them was that it seems strange that this 40 something year old soccer mom is writing about a 16 year olds love life. And has anyone else noticed that all of her books are the same? Something traumatic happens to girl, girl feels shut off from the world, girl finds boy that makes her feel "alive" again, some melodrama occurs between them, problem solved, girl no longer depressed. Literally, every single story of hers is like that. The family life isn't good, dad dies, sister is anorexic and it's tearing the family apart. I could tell you the plot of the story before I even open up the book. I know a lot of famous authors do this all the time, Skapespeare being one of them.. But could you please be even a little more creative. Throw in one good twist. Another thing I don't like is that every one of her main characters always needs a guy to help her fix her problems. I'm not some crazy feminist over here but why can't you have at least one of your characters figure their shit out on their own. I guess that formula isn't the one that's getting the books off of the shelves though. Anyways, I guess I better get back to the book, and see if this Wes character is going to help Macy out of her boring little life. Is it just me or are we starting to see a little bit into the psyche of the author? I mean, it's been 10 books of this stuff. Hmmm...

A trio of poems

My first poem is called "An Uphill Battle". The second is titled "Who Are We?", and the third is "A Good Thing". My theme was heroes