Kicked the bucket list

Nicole asked me a while ago if I have a bucket list, I had one but I think everything got crossed off already, almost. Must mean that its time ti update my ten steps


1luxuries
Well dollar a meal rations still ongoing, so luxuries shared now includes meat as well as coffee alcohol, potato chips and antipasto. Mostly this seems OK.

2prepare
Well as far a plans go I think I’ve completed every milestone I’ve aimed at and overcome every challenge God has put before me with the exception of filling a quiver with arrows. Currently there is nothing I really want to add to my bucket list. So I suppose I just reiterate old milestones and aim to improve skill and efficiency.

3efficiency
I really am sick of returning home to a big empty house and want to have somebody else to at least fill up a spare room. Current proposal is free board is somebody cleans for me. But I don’t really want to advertise as that wasted a lot of my tile previously.

4mental
New computer games, and guitar is coming along OK and presenting many challenges. I don’t think it’s something I can finish getting better at. So it’s merely a matter of how many hours I spend with Elva.

5physical
Can almost do a handstand, seems that before that is reliable I’ll be able to go into a bridge. Handstand walking is a long way off. Next step in Kitesurfing is backrolls. I can jump reliably either direction and change tack mid air no worries. My rations I think have made me leaner but now that I’ve been eating vegetables I’ve still got plenty of energy. Trying to survive on instant ramen noodles was a terrible idea. This reminds me of the book [Lucifers Hammer] and in hindsight could be the reason this winter was cold.

6spiritual
Leading a bible study has almost got me back into reading the bible which is nice. Since we are working chronologically I’ve been reading it like a novel, rather than a chapter a day.

7emotional
I think this is always the hardest category to come to terms with and thus I have the least I want to say about it. Which I suppose means I have room to grow and I should share more with my friends. After all a good friend is somebody who has a lot of knives and could easily stab you in the back and yet they don’t. I think if I got engaged next week my best men would be Josh and Tony and I’d have to invite Stephan and the Parfits along with the Doohans, aside from family of course.

8recover
Well I survived the 15k cane to coral run without any adverse effects this year. And it was fun running with Marc and the reservists plus the 160pushups. I didn’t enjoy working on the Rovema installation in packaging, mostly due to a lack of communication and not getting a chance to actually test and commission any of my programming. Nothing else springs to mind at the moment.

9fun
I really cant say I have had a lot of fun this last ten months or so Partially being cold and slightly ill due to winter. Social events I’ve tried to organise have generally been half as effective as I’d hoped and my house felt lonely. But I really don’t like to complain so sacrifices and compromises have to be maid to maintain a balanced lifestyle.

0shame
Only really ashamed of my lack of progress and sour attitude. In reality I’ve overcome a lot of challenges and been able to debrief at least with myself to see that things went about as smoothly as they could have gone with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. I think I have done a pretty good job of being meek lately. Then again that’s really hard to qualify and define. Thus the reason I’ve aimed for Meekness.

More * More
Weeeelll ….
Boardgames and co-op computers
Electric Bass Guitar; In a band, Blues riffs, walking bass and Rocksmith
Save for next overseas holiday
Whatever happened to camping? I havent been bush in ages.
Spend so much time in the surf and the sun that my belly never hangs over my belt.
Youtube tongue twisters in alternate languages.
House paid off in 2020
Be the most Meek.
Sell a computer game that I helped make.
Handstand walking + wall flips.
And then [This] I wanted started by last Christmas

Find some girl

• Computer games camping beach, dance.
• She can worry about insurance, tax, medical, bills and stuff.
• At 31 married
• At 35 house would be paid off. Some children (Dad will be 62, year 2020)
• At 40, retired to spend time with kids, run my own business / pastor / musician
• At 53, 18yo children
• At 65, settle down, sell home produce, booze and computer games, ready for grand kids. (Dad will be 92, year 2050)
• Will I have grand kids at an age younger than Dad?
• I probably won’t be the oldest kitesurfer, computers and games are tax deductible, still play the bass at church.

All in all I reckon I can cope with a bit of time travel even now. I’m prepared to be unprepared and with the help of God no challenge will be insurmountable

ten for january

Probably should have real the previous update when writing this, but here goes.


1 well I am sharing my house and home with 2 people currently. That was an unexpected and big step. With Ed in particular I have also shared quite a bit of my life.

2 With more people in my home I’m less inclined to tidy it up. Subconciously I keep thinking I only need to clean a third of the house. But that just doesn’t work. Being disorganised is OK so long as I’m prepared to be unprepared. Like leaving my clothes on the line for 3 days then having to wear a shirt to work that has the morning dew on it.

3 Sharing food had meant that I have less myself, and the kitchen hasn’t been tidy enough for me to feel like cooking. So I have eaten less and been much more frugal with my food purchasing of late. I’m also pretty pleased with my recent logistical manipulation of time.

4 Learnt all about Blades of Time over the xmas break and have been competing with Revi & Deo. Into the second year of the Technomancer’s Sojourn Inc. and have a few creative ideas for logos.

5 Gave up on dancing due to the lack of pretty young things, mostly replaced tis with time kiteboarding. Have also dabbled in underwater hocky and am looking at having a go at Vollyball, when I find a team to join at Beach365.

6 Began reading the Dao Te Ching, started to get back into the BASIC youth group too. Still going to church and Wednesdays bible studies, have been reading the bible sporadically in the morning.

7 Ed and Ten are living in my house. Been hanging out with ROTORACT people a bit in addition to church and the Technomancers. Went on a blind date type thing which was interesting, a mutual friend tried to hook us up and it surprised me how much we have in common.

8 Currently I cant think of much that got broken, maybe a lack of sleep? Swam through sea lice (or something) a few times as well. Seems I am a surprisingly health individual.

9 10 11 nothing I can think of currently

Still addicted to learning

1 Share
I’ve managed to invite a few groups of people over for meals of recent. The biggest milestone being for my birthday.

2 Prepare
Dunno about this, I suppose it took me three years to get prepared to buy into kitesurfing.
I’ve been able to manage a weekly dynamic to do list and actually use my gmail calendar in my phone.That helped a lot when comparing notes for Levi visiting earlier in the year.


3 Efficiency
Aurore reminded me of how to fill in my weekends and of how many multitude of things there are to do around town. I also saved up enough dough to buy a 12m kite.

4 mental
Learning to kitesirf and dance still, Guildwars2 is new for me and it seems to be a MMO that I am happy to play for a long time yet. Seems I have sporadically taken up water hockey too. My JP application thing fell through. I'm not exactly sure why, I may have failed their test but when I rang up to ask they said the exam system was being restructures and that the person I need to talk to just went on holidays for a month. I sort of gave up after that. Speaking of giving up, I never went back to wednesday Trivia nights at the pub after my christmass holidays.

5 physical
Will see where kitesurfing gets me this summer. Also I’ve been on the occasional afternoon bike ride with Beth. Since putting my thoughts about dancing on paper to remind myself why I do it I feel like I’ve been more erect. Waling around work I occasionally pretend I’m about to sing, so like Siegfried I get a better posture, then when I’m slouching I slouch with purpose and often put my weight on my other foot without changing the posture of my slouch, applying the technique Gamaku. Apparently I should learn to dance like David Elsewhere.

6 spiritual
Nothing big, Bible studies on Wednesday, getting more into youth again. I should go camping one weekend this summer and sleep under the stars. Volunteering with youth still too.

7 emotional
ROTORACT people have been interesting. Also this Sunday past I said Hi to a random Sheela who was snorkeling, just because she was snorkeling. Had a bit of a chat then I went back to packing up my kite.

8 recovery
I got heat stroke in PNG when I visited Nicole and came home with some skin irritation that was dissolving my back, it took a month or so to clear up and wasn’t bed bugs. I got a cold to at the end of August, seemed like everybody was sharing.

9 fun
We have had an occasional run of weekly Sojourns and the occasional event with three attendees. Also I went to Toowoomba for a spring ball for no other reaon than I thought it may be fun, and it was.

0 not ashamed
I filled out a profile on Anime-Planet in order to quietly brag about my anime watching prowess.

More*more
The existence of this update

10 steps of progress

Have I succeeded?


1 Luxuries are to be shared:
As VRBones indicated this can be a curse as well as a blessing. I filled up my afternoons with other things and haven been inviting people for dinner much lately. I do still keep tea ~$10, and now that I am living alone that meal may last me half a week.
Currently I have given up coffee for lent although I also haven’t been drinking it much on my lonesome, I’ve had to many average coffees of late and it doesn’t have the allure that it used to. I’ve run out of beer because I kept sharing it.
Over the last year I’m pretty sure I spent more on computer games for other people than I did for myself. Since I have been back from PNG I’ve hardly played with myself at all. The occasional game of LOL with Levi and then there is the Thursday Sojourn.


2 Plan things:
Plan to be unprepared has been working well for me. I’ve also kept a rolling to do list, although many of the things have been on it for a year. One day I’ll post my Christmas photos from SA.
My trip to PNG helped a bit with my plan for cryogenic freezing. Being able to type at a computer was useless, but knowing a few card games and how to make a deck of carts is a good thing. Even if you speak a foreign language you can still have fun with pater recognition.


3 Spent more efficiently:
May need to rework this if I continue to live on my lonesome, although I have been doing a good job of paying off my house ~$1000 a month still works. I’d like to spend $2000 on the fun of Kite surfing, also to maintain my physical fitness. But that is a bit of a hurdle at the moment.


4 Exercise Mentally:
I’m learning typing good, and spelling too. Partially my blog but also email letters to people. I have much more confidence in my written language skill, but I’ve had to sacrifice some polysyllabic words. Also I have been talking to foreigners a bit of late, one day I hope to speak two languages. Maybe if everything on the computer is in one language and then English for everything else?
Still have a few games that I haven’t mastered and LOL always seems to have more champions.


5 Exercise Physically:
Between dancing on Monday and Tuesday nights for an hour each I think I now know:
Moonlight Tango – backwards dance
Midnight Tango – backwards dance
Argentine Tango
Salsa – spaghetti with the hands
Samba – horsy dance, with the Frisbee fling
Catherine Waltz
Alpha Waltz – the backwards one
Jive –cuddle, stop&go, chug, American spin
Cha
Paso Doble – bullfighting conquistador
Quickstep
Foxtrot
Rhumba
Quick Step


Then there is the weekly bike ride to the beach for a swim and coffee. I don’t think riding to work counts as I do that nearly every day. Snorkelling may be another new cheaper thing to do at the beach, although there is not much to see.


6 Exercise Spiritually:
I’ve been somewhat consistent in reading the bible before work and sleep, partway through David at the moment. Also there is a weekly bible study for Lent that has homework, so I do that when I get home from work at my computer.
Query to follow up: Is my Spirit different to my Soul? This may also delve into community development theory and the LAN Psizomaijitsu. Nope, thats mostly my greek logic backgroud, and I'm suffering from preconception bias.



7 Exercise Emotionally:
Maybe this should be socially? Although watching the movie Red Dog defiantly counts as an emotional exercise. Visiting foreign countries are great for empathy and broadening your horizons. Also in November I went back to SA to visit rellies for the second time in 9 years. There is a new girl at church Beth and a new one at work Aurore that I have been getting to know. Haven’t been to Wednesday trivia for since before Christmas.


8 Recovery:
Recently got some wired skin irritation from PNG and cut my hands and feet up whilst snorkelling, both a learning experience. I also ate very little in PNG and got heatstroke.


9 Have Fun:
The fun thing at work has been learning Citect programming and being the first in the world to calibrate an NIR on liquid sugars. Also playing cards with Kristina, Levi and Nicole in PNG was good. Plus incorporating Technomancers Sojourn is not work or a hassle and we are still sticking too it so I think that must be fun too.
Sleeping is more fun when I wake up before my alarm, which means I’ve had enough sleep too.


0 Regret Nothing:
This is sort of turning into a “how can I be a better ben” thing. I can’t learn unless I first make mistakes to lean from and when I see the worth in my failure then it becomes priceless. It seems this is as much a subtle afterthought as having fun is…
This one here needs some word smithing, possibly a biblical reference too.


Progressive advancement:
Need more of all the above.
More sharing of luxuries, this is the ideal of communism. (the sort without corruption)
More Plan so that when I do not know what is going on I still know what to do and why I am.
More efficiency of worldly possessions means that I require less worldly possessions. These things need to be expended to acquire more of everything else.
More fit in the four areas of exercise. To be fit it to be able to do all the things that I want to do, I do not need to be an athlete to be fit.
More recovery so that when inconveniences occur the recovery is quicker and I have more practice at recovering from them. It’s the bumps along the highway of life that make it interesting.
More fun, is there such a thing as too much fun?
More adaption, Improvements can be made everywhere. What next can I do better than I did yesterday.
More more, I’ve forgotten what happened last week, so it needs to be done again and better this time. (reference Rock Lee from Naruto)

The progressive advancement of more fun through these activities is a good measurement of the current success rate of that which is the goal of being Ben and grabbing life with both hands and squeezing it for all it is worthwhile we all go for another trip around the sun.

10

10 step plan for imperial success:



I ummed and arrred about adding this to my blog for quite some time but came to the conclusion that I don’t mind if people know how I tick and nobody will probably read it anyway. This also reflects a change in personality for Dimitri it seems over the last year we decided that it would be best to acknowledge each other. I’d say that is mostly thanks to Anoikis the Healer, plus the convenience.

I envision these ten steps to change over time as I learn more about myself and the world around us.



1

Luxuries are to be shared:

Only drink beverages with other people. No drinking alcohol or coffee by myself, water instead, also no milk. Need to invite people around for a meal to get these things and eat rich food. Other than that Tea should be <$10 per day, eg spaghetti bolognaise. Curries also work and stir fry, I'm gradually blogging my way through tea. Investigate rice dish, sushi?

New PC games are a luxury that needs sharing but when bought comes under the heading Fun



2

Plan things:

More extensive use of the whiteboards. Helps to reason things out and come to an informed conclusion. Plan for the unexpected as per the scouts motto “Be Prepared”. Plan to change Plans at the last minuet. Plan to be unprepared. Plan to be wrong. Plenty of documentation is the cure for forgetfulness.

What happens if I accidentally get cryogenically frozen? Like Fry in Futrurama or Aang, the Last Air Bender? Then all my knowledge and skills may be for naught. Will I be just left with my personality and morals? This is a good reason to keep learning how to learn and adapt to a new plan. Things that are done on purpose are always more stylish.



3

Spent more efficiently:

Not always spending less. Need to be like Lord Vimes of the Watch in Discworld. Buy things that last so that I will never have to buy one again. Keep receipts. Research what it does before purchasing.

Allocate $200 max per week for food and a further $200 for Luxuries. Compile a list of all ongoing expenditures and what date the yearly ones need renewing. Luxury spending is allowed to bank up, not food costs though.

Minimum house repayment is $1000 per month.

Seems I have failed #2 here but have been succeeding nonetheless as income is faintly exceeding expenses at the moment. Also I need to be wary of Jevons Paradox, when an increased efficiency increases the demand for the resource that you intended to preserve.



4

Exercise Mentally:

Learn new things, and occasionally do math the hard way on paper. Correct my own spelling without the help of a spell checker. Learning another new language always sounds so romantic. Need to be both logical and artistic in mental activities. Also need to exercise both cognitive and instinctive thought.

Doing more exercise than is required in day to day activities is a good way to maintain an adequate level of fitness.



5

Exercise Physically:

Currently riding to Bargara is not sufficient. Dancing may help. 30x Crunches and 10x Push-ups on arrival home from work is good. But I forgot about doing that. Also have not been dancing of late. May take up dancing and kite surfing in the new year.
I think my bike ride to work is all that I reliably acheive. Dancing is more of a social / mental exercise anyway.


6

Exercise Spiritually:

Pray when driving/ in the loo/ going to bed/ waking up. Read bible daily when going to bed, try to remember it in the morning. (church too). Also Youth groups help to keep me young, I also try to get Technomancers to have christian overtones.
Query: Is my Spirit different to my Soul? This may also delve into community development theory and the LAN Psizomaijitsu. Nope, thats mostly my greek logic backgroud, and I'm suffering from preconception bias.



7

Exercise Emotionally:

Hang out with other people, currently LAN + BibleStudy + Church + Dancing. Also invite people over for tea once a week. Had to bail on monday dancing to invite people over. Been going out tomany night of late.



8

Recovery:

The goal is not to avoid injury, illness and death, but to surpass them and use the experience to build character, just like Calvin and Hobbes going camping. Don’t pray for healing, because death is a kind of healing too.
I recently got some wired skin irritation from PNG and cut my hands and feet up whilst snorkelling. Boath a learning experience.



9

Have Fun:

All work and no play makes Jack a very dull boy. If this is combined with all the above activities then success has been achieved.

Being at work cannot be an exception to this, neither being asleep. Otherwise having fun applies to one third of my time.

Phrase everything in a positive and enthusiastic light, especially when being cynical and pessimistic. Just like in Ecclesiastes



0

Regret Nothing:

Be not ashamed; If there is no pride to be shared in a task then leave it undone. Take pride in everything that is done and confine nothing to the secrets of the darkness. Combine this also with all of the activities above. Then there will be nothing to be ashamed of. But it is important not to take this too far and be arrogant.

This one here needs some word smithing, possibly a biblical reference too.





Progressive advancement:

Need more of all the above.

More sharing of luxuries, this is the ideal of communism. (the sort without corruption)

More Plan so that when I do not know what is going on I still know what to do and why I am.

More efficiency of worldly possessions means that I require less worldly possessions. These things need to be expended to acquire more of everything else.

More fit in the four areas of exercise. To be fit it to be able to do all the things that I want to do, I do not need to be an athlete to be fit.

More recovery so that when inconveniences occur the recovery is quicker and I have more practice at recovering from them. It’s the bumps along the highway of life that make it interesting.

More fun, is there such a thing as too much fun?

More more, I’ve forgotten what happened last week, so it needs to be done again and better this time. (reference Rock Lee from Naruto)

The progressive advancement of more fun through these activities is a good measurement of the current success rate of that which is the goal of being Ben and grabbing life with both hands and squeezing it for all it is worth while we all go for another trip around the sun.

Addicted to Learning

After getting my Duke of Edinburgh's Awards people asked me what I got out of it and I think the biggest thing was an addiction to learning. Now that I have finished the Gold and I nolonger need to wait for paperwork or prove to anonymus outsiders that I really did what I said I would do I think I'll attempt to keep a record of what else I do to progress my addiction. It's certainly not something I want to cure.

Bronze:

• Skill: Coin collecting, not professional or worth anything but I was proud of finding ecery mintage of 20c coin since 1966 when they were introduced.
• Physical: I think that was bike riding.
• Camp: on a shcool trip, this is where I started DofE
• Volunteering: Youth Leader

Silver:

• Skill: First aid certificate: Blu card so I can play with children.
• Physical: Catamaran sailing
• Camp: ?
• Volunteering: Youth Leader again, actually I have been doing this since Sunday school

Gold:

• Skill: Organizing a regular fortnightly LAN
• Physical: Fencing, way cool
• Camp: Nepal, trekking to base camp
• Volunteering: Nepal, Painting a school and learning to stonewall.

2011

• Skill / Mental exercise: Citect Programming, Woot I am actually using a programming language rather than just learning it.
  
• Physical: Latin dance
• Camp: ?Suppose I need to set aside a weeks holiday for this?
• Volunteering:  H2H, youth but a different age group; LAN, I already have the skill to do it now.
• Spiritual Exercise: Read all the new testament (in the bible); Communion assistant
• Social exercise: LAN, Beach Bible study. Wed Trivia??

2012

• Mental: Justice of the Peace?
  
• Physical: Bellydancing Berzerker?
• Spititual:
• Social:
  
• Camp: ?
• Volunteering: Youth, CLW?