Completed/ongoing - 2013 to Current (2024)
Pointless collection: Comics
Current size: 470+ (2024 current)
Value: $2425
Owning a pointless collection happened slowly and without realising, but here we are now 450+ comics in with no sign of stopping,
Friday, 19 July 2024
Number 17: Own a Pointless Collection
Completed/ongoing - 2013 to Current (2024)
Pointless collection: Comics
Current size: 470+ (2024 current)
Value: $2425
Owning a pointless collection happened slowly and without realising, but here we are now 450+ comics in with no sign of stopping,
Thursday, 18 July 2024
Number 3: Win an Award, Trophy or Prize
Completed: 2020/21 Fantasy Premier League Season and 2021/22 Fantasy Premier League Season
Competition: Won the work Fantasy Premier League two consecutive seasons
I’ve won a few small things over the years, like a Stargate Atlantis box tin from the Sci-Fi channel or small work events like poker tournaments and bowling competitions but really wanted to hold off marking this one as complete until I won something bigger or more competitive. However due to my lack of sporting ability or desire, it did limit my options. Until one day in mid 2020 when someone proposed the creation of a work fantasy football league.
Friday, 12 July 2024
Number 28b: Visit the "Boneyard"
Completed: 8 May 2014
Pima Air and Space Museum and the 309th AMARG, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Part of my USA trip that I really wanted to do was visit “The Boneyard”, something I first saw on a list of “Cool things on google maps” type thing. It looked incredible and it was something I’ve wanted to visit ever since.
Update Post
Well it has been a while between updates, with Covid 19 causing many many issues and lockdown especially when it came to global travel. I was originally lining up flights for Japan in 2020 before everything shutdown. But those issues aside and with the world getting back to normal*, I wanted to update and refresh this list/blog.
Monday, 18 November 2019
Number 75: Get a Tattoo and/or a Piercing
Completed - First: 31 July 2011 Second: 20 October 2017 Third: 31st May 2019 and 9th August 2019
Three currently - John Doe / Cyberpunk *power* / Altered Carbon Dragon Ouroboros
They started slow and for this list, but everyone did say once you get one you want more and in this case at least, they were right.
Monday, 21 May 2018
Number 21: Be a Human Guinea Pig aka Be a Human Test Subject
Completed - Monday 5 Dec 2016 to Tuesday 5 Dec 2017
QP16C08 Part A, Group 1R // Study Number: mRNA-177-P101
First round human trial for a Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (HRSV) or Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine. Completing number 21 is probably the thing that has taken the longest amount of time to complete so far, with the entirety of the medial trial taking a full 12 months from start to finish.
Friday, 30 March 2018
Number 59: Leave a Job You Hate
Completed 27 September 2017
Leave a job you hate, this was going to be difficult as I don’t believe in doing something you hate for a long time however I recently took the plunge and left my previous job after more than seven and a half years for something new and while I didn’t hate the entirety of the job, there were some things about it I did.
Wednesday, 27 December 2017
Number 48: Be Present when your team wins a World Cup
Completed 2 December 2017
2017 Rugby League World Cup, Australia VS England
Now I’ve never been a huge sports fan, but I do understand the appeal of competition and rivalry. So since my bucket list is also about trying things I’d never really seen the appeal in, why not sports… in fact why not the biggest of sports with a World Cup event.
Saturday, 14 October 2017
Number 74: Learn to Fly a Plane
Completed 11 August 2017
Archerfield Airport, Aeropro Eurofox-3K / Aerotrek A240
With my fear of heights, I had the idea of taking the easy way out with number 72. I was planning on learning in a large professional flight simulator however, my plan was highjacked when a few friends from work chipped in to buy me a “Learn to Fly” voucher from Groupon for my birthday. So instead of keeping my feet on the ground, in a comfortable 747 flight simulator, I was heading out to Archerfield Airport to actually fly with FlightScope Aviation.
Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Number 67: Visit...
Completed: 16-19 June 2017
Update F: Sydney Harbour, Australia.
The famous Sydney Harbour, a well-known sight around the world and one located right in my back yard… and a sight which I’d never actually gotten around to seeing. So when I was deciding if I should go down to Sydney Supanova for photography, I used Number 67 on my list as an excuse to go down for that while ticking this off my list as well.
Sunday, 19 March 2017
Number 10b: Visit Chernobyl // Number 8: Realise Your Childhood Dream
Completed 16-18 October 2016
Chernobyl/Pripyat, Ukraine
Ever since I watched a documentary on Chernobyl as a child, probably a child far too young to watch such a documentary, I’ve wanted to go there. I was fascinated that such a populated city could be evacuated overnight with people never being allowed to return to their homes, fascinated by the invisible enemy known as radiation that could cause such devastation.
Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Number 36: Visit Every Country/Continent
Completed 14 October - 20 October 2016
Updated. Europe (Amsterdam, The Netherlands / Kiev, Ukraine / Paris, France)
This is an update for “Number 36: Visit Every Country/Continent” for Europe.
Europe is a big place, and I touched a few different places while I was there, so I'll give a brief overview of where I went, what I thought, and how long I was there.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands - 14 October 2016
My first stop in Europe, and although it has a reputation for certain activities, there would be none of that for me. I was only there for a little over six hours, enough time to get out of the airport, and explore the city for a little bit, but not enough time to indulge. The first thing I noticed when I arrived, coming from the desert, was how incredibly cold it was. 8°C to be precise when I arrived, although it warmed up to a lovely 10°C by the time I left. To give some context the temperature in my location the previous day was 34°C, so you can imagine how I was feeling.
I arrived early in the morning and got myself out of the airport, found the trains that went to the city - although I have to thank Google Translate and it's camera feature, it came in very useful when trying to work out what platform and what train to get onto - and eventually ended up in central Amsterdam.
The first priority on my agenda for the day was coffee, hot coffee. I wandered for a bit before finding a coffee shop where I could sit and set up my camera gear while warming up.
After that, I wandered for a few hours, exploring the city and seeing the sights. With most things still closed due to how early it was, I didn't get to go on any tours or anything too exciting although it was still enjoyable to see a classic European city. Then it was back on the train, back to the airport, and on to my next destination.
Kiev, Ukraine - 14-20 October 2016
My second stop was pretty much as far east as you could go in Eastern Europe before moving into Russia/Eurasia. I arrived in Kiev in the late afternoon, around 5pm, and proceeded to go through security and immigration. An issue became apparent when I advised the immigration officer that I would be applying for a "VISA on arrival" a special agreement that only a few countries have with Ukraine, Australia being one of them.
The immigration officer held up my passport and flagged security who came over after a short wait. At this point, I should point out that all staff on the immigration desks and security were all in full military garb, so it was rather intimidating. But after a few sentences in Ukrainian I was escorted to a small room nearby where I was quizzed as to who I was, my purpose in the country and if I had any money on me.
It was quite hostile until it became apparent that I was just a tourist, and had no nefarious purpose in Ukraine. Then, like a switch was thrown, they became really friendly and interested in why I was there, and happy to have a chat. After waiting around for half an hour or so, I was taken to a new desk, filled out some forms, paid $20 euro and got my VISA.
I took a couple of days downtime to recover from all the travelling I had done, then headed off for the main reason I was in Ukraine, visiting Chernobyl. I'll go into details in a separate post for that, but I spent three days a few hours north of Kiev before heading back.
When I got back to Kiev I had booked a six hour one-on-one walking tour with a local guide, but that wasn’t until late afternoon, around 4-5pm onwards, so I had the day to explore on my own. I chose to wander around a bit of the CBD, chat to some locals and caught up on some washing and domestic chores.
By the time the afternoon rolled around, I was ready to head out, see the city and have a few drinks. I met my guide, the wonderful Eliza and we started wandering.
Learning about the rich and eventful history of Kiev and Ukraine was fascinating; hearing about the political upheaval it’s undergone over the last 10 years was amazing, and seeing all the memorials from recent conflicts - as well as the ancient history of buildings that are older than the colonial settlement of Australia.
But that wasn’t all that made my tour amazing, Eliza did. She didn’t just walk around spouting facts and dates, it was much more conversational than that. We talked about life in general as we walked, about how I was a photographer and she liked to dance. It made it a much more memorable experience.
My one goal for the afternoon was to see and photograph the Rodia Mat at sunset. A huge soviet statue watching over Kiev with a sword and shield, larger than the Statue of Liberty. After that, it was seeing things like the amazing Kiev Metro, a beautiful art deco station and one of the deepest metro stations in the world.
Then it was on to food and drinks, we went to a restaurant that was known for a modern take on traditional Ukrainian cuisine and, well, I’ll let the photo speak for how that was. Drinks were also amazing, and learning the toasts/cheers was fun as well.
Not to mention, the total for dinner for two, as well as several rounds of drinks came to a total of around $15AUD.
Paris, France - 20 October 2016
Paris, unfortunately, was just a blur of a stopover. I technically got the stamp on my passport as I left and re-entered the airport, however in terms of seeing the country there was no time, as I had to run to make my connecting flight.
So we are over halfway through number 36, although some would say we have done all the easy ones :D
36. Visit Every Continent
Not marking it as complete yet as there is a still more to visit.
Updated. Europe (Amsterdam, The Netherlands / Kiev, Ukraine / Paris, France)
This is an update for “Number 36: Visit Every Country/Continent” for Europe.
Europe is a big place, and I touched a few different places while I was there, so I'll give a brief overview of where I went, what I thought, and how long I was there.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands - 14 October 2016
My first stop in Europe, and although it has a reputation for certain activities, there would be none of that for me. I was only there for a little over six hours, enough time to get out of the airport, and explore the city for a little bit, but not enough time to indulge. The first thing I noticed when I arrived, coming from the desert, was how incredibly cold it was. 8°C to be precise when I arrived, although it warmed up to a lovely 10°C by the time I left. To give some context the temperature in my location the previous day was 34°C, so you can imagine how I was feeling.
I arrived early in the morning and got myself out of the airport, found the trains that went to the city - although I have to thank Google Translate and it's camera feature, it came in very useful when trying to work out what platform and what train to get onto - and eventually ended up in central Amsterdam.
The first priority on my agenda for the day was coffee, hot coffee. I wandered for a bit before finding a coffee shop where I could sit and set up my camera gear while warming up.
After that, I wandered for a few hours, exploring the city and seeing the sights. With most things still closed due to how early it was, I didn't get to go on any tours or anything too exciting although it was still enjoyable to see a classic European city. Then it was back on the train, back to the airport, and on to my next destination.
Kiev, Ukraine - 14-20 October 2016
My second stop was pretty much as far east as you could go in Eastern Europe before moving into Russia/Eurasia. I arrived in Kiev in the late afternoon, around 5pm, and proceeded to go through security and immigration. An issue became apparent when I advised the immigration officer that I would be applying for a "VISA on arrival" a special agreement that only a few countries have with Ukraine, Australia being one of them.
The immigration officer held up my passport and flagged security who came over after a short wait. At this point, I should point out that all staff on the immigration desks and security were all in full military garb, so it was rather intimidating. But after a few sentences in Ukrainian I was escorted to a small room nearby where I was quizzed as to who I was, my purpose in the country and if I had any money on me.
It was quite hostile until it became apparent that I was just a tourist, and had no nefarious purpose in Ukraine. Then, like a switch was thrown, they became really friendly and interested in why I was there, and happy to have a chat. After waiting around for half an hour or so, I was taken to a new desk, filled out some forms, paid $20 euro and got my VISA.
I took a couple of days downtime to recover from all the travelling I had done, then headed off for the main reason I was in Ukraine, visiting Chernobyl. I'll go into details in a separate post for that, but I spent three days a few hours north of Kiev before heading back.
When I got back to Kiev I had booked a six hour one-on-one walking tour with a local guide, but that wasn’t until late afternoon, around 4-5pm onwards, so I had the day to explore on my own. I chose to wander around a bit of the CBD, chat to some locals and caught up on some washing and domestic chores.
By the time the afternoon rolled around, I was ready to head out, see the city and have a few drinks. I met my guide, the wonderful Eliza and we started wandering.
Learning about the rich and eventful history of Kiev and Ukraine was fascinating; hearing about the political upheaval it’s undergone over the last 10 years was amazing, and seeing all the memorials from recent conflicts - as well as the ancient history of buildings that are older than the colonial settlement of Australia.
But that wasn’t all that made my tour amazing, Eliza did. She didn’t just walk around spouting facts and dates, it was much more conversational than that. We talked about life in general as we walked, about how I was a photographer and she liked to dance. It made it a much more memorable experience.
My one goal for the afternoon was to see and photograph the Rodia Mat at sunset. A huge soviet statue watching over Kiev with a sword and shield, larger than the Statue of Liberty. After that, it was seeing things like the amazing Kiev Metro, a beautiful art deco station and one of the deepest metro stations in the world.
Then it was on to food and drinks, we went to a restaurant that was known for a modern take on traditional Ukrainian cuisine and, well, I’ll let the photo speak for how that was. Drinks were also amazing, and learning the toasts/cheers was fun as well.
Not to mention, the total for dinner for two, as well as several rounds of drinks came to a total of around $15AUD.
Paris, France - 20 October 2016
Paris, unfortunately, was just a blur of a stopover. I technically got the stamp on my passport as I left and re-entered the airport, however in terms of seeing the country there was no time, as I had to run to make my connecting flight.
So we are over halfway through number 36, although some would say we have done all the easy ones :D
36. Visit Every Continent
✓ Asia- Antarctica
✓ North America✓ Europe✓ Australasia- South America
- Africa
Not marking it as complete yet as there is a still more to visit.
Thursday, 5 January 2017
Number 23b: Spend a night in the desert
Completed 12-13 October 2016
Arabian Desert, Liwa Oasis region - United Arab Emirates
The Arabian Desert, stretching 2,300,000 square km with sand dunes as far as the eye can see and temperature variance from 45+ during the day to single digits during the night. The second largest sub-tropical desert in the world and the one I wanted to go camping in.
Tuesday, 1 November 2016
Number 85(1): Visit the World's Tallest Buildings
Completed 11 October 2016
Update 1: The Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The Burj Khalifa or خليفة برج. The world’s tallest building, reaching 828 metres (2,716.5 feet) high and one part of my bucket list goal of visiting the tallest buildings in the world.
Wednesday, 11 May 2016
Number 19b: Taste the "Top 10" Vodka's in the world
Completed 24 December 2015 - 23 April 2016.
10 Vodkas - 7 Countries.
Vodka has always been one of my "go-to" drinks, from the early days of mixing it with soft drink or orange juice through to nowadays when I'll drink it neat or on the rocks (or in the case of cheap Vodka, with ice and water). So I thought why not go full pretentious and import and taste the top Vodkas in the world.
Wednesday, 18 November 2015
Number 14b: Watch all of the James Bond movies
Completed 9-11 November 2015.
23 Movies - 3 Days, Duration: 48.25 Hours.
This is the first thing completed off my "Bonus Round" list, a list I decided to create where I could add new things I think of that might be fun or exciting without cluttering up my base list.
Sunday, 15 February 2015
Number 92: Own an Original Work of Art
Completed 17 February 2015.
Think Tank, Issue 6 / Page 20 - Rahsan Ekedal.
This one started off in a very different way, I was originally looking at your normal types of original art, like paintings, photography and other design work and while there were some interesting ones, there wasn't anything that really grabbed me or worth the insane price tag that came along with it.
Saturday, 24 January 2015
Number 94: Get Something Named After You
Completed 10 August 2014.
Gamble's Theorem - TheoryMine.co.uk.
Gamble's Theorem - TheoryMine.co.uk.
How, oh how was I to complete this one?
"Get a star named after you." Everyone said, unfortunately as an astronomy nerd I know how little they actually mean. For the record (and I hate to completely ruin the romance here) all those star naming companies, are basically not worth the paper they are written on.
Monday, 22 September 2014
Number 11: Storm Chase a Tornado
Partial Complete Attempt 12 May 2014 - 22 May 2014.
Tempest Tours: Tour 3 - Base Camp: Oklahoma City.
Heads up, this might be a long post.
Tempest Tours: Tour 3 - Base Camp: Oklahoma City.
Now with my love of the extremes of Mother Nature this was always going to be something I would do. Planning started well in advance, probably a good 18 months before the trip was actually set for, with looking at companies, watching flight prices and planning the entire trip to America. So flash forward and the trip was planned, you can read more of the general details here.
Fly to L.A., Fly to Vegas, Fly to Tucson and finally on to Oklahoma City. Finally I was there and ready.
12 May 2014
So I headed to the base hotel from mine, and waited in the lobby and it wasn't long before you could start to tell who was also there for the same thing. With a few initial introductions done, we were all taken to a small conference room for official introductions and instructions. We met our tour director - William (Bill) Reid and drivers - Bob and Rook as well as all the other guests.
With that we were into it, now the first few days were fairly quiet storm wise, however we still take in a number of sights, cities and towns such as:
18 May 2014
21 May 2014
This was the day, it started looking like a significant storm day 4-5 days in advance and the SPC (Storm prediction Center) had put up a small warning area showing 10% chance of tornadoes. The entire group was excited and eager to get going from our hotel in Ogallala, NE towards Denver/Fort Morgan, although it seemed like the entire chasing community had the same idea on the day.
Around 14:00 the SPC issued Mesoscale Discussion 640 advising of hail and tornado chances increased in the Denver metro area which aligned with out direction of travel a little two perfectly. The one thing you don't want during a chase is to be stuck in suburbia where the roads don't give you straight long paths to travel and instead give you short roads that curve around not giving you a lot of opportunities to chase.
We stopped for around 10-15 minutes in central Aurora, CO to watch what's called a "Tornadic Mesocyclone". When the tornado sirens started wailing, it became real and quite an eerie experience. It's a situation where it becomes real and you realise that people live here and have to live with this situation on a constant basis. Suddenly, instead of you crossing your fingers for a tornado to drop, you cross them and hope that if it does, it's not in the middle of suburbia.
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We got a move on and headed out of the direct path of the storm to take in the size and scale of it, I must confess in my storm chasing experience I've never seen a storm with as much "Greenage" as I saw on this day.
22 May 2014
Our last real chase day, so we headed south through Colorado and into Texas where there was a slight chance of some type of activity. The landscape was much different through Texas, a lot more dry and dusty. The visibility was really low at a couple of points throughout this chase, although there was a pair of gustnadoes while exploring an old abandoned church and also a possible slight tornado (dust cloud leading up to a funnel cloud) however with visibility so low and dust everywhere it was difficult to confirm.
So all in all, I'm counting this as a partial complete as we didn't get that clearly identifiable tornado profile and that iconic shot. An incredible experience that I'll happily repeat to get the shot and to mark Number 11 as complete.
To Be Continued...
Fly to L.A., Fly to Vegas, Fly to Tucson and finally on to Oklahoma City. Finally I was there and ready.
12 May 2014
So I headed to the base hotel from mine, and waited in the lobby and it wasn't long before you could start to tell who was also there for the same thing. With a few initial introductions done, we were all taken to a small conference room for official introductions and instructions. We met our tour director - William (Bill) Reid and drivers - Bob and Rook as well as all the other guests.
With that we were into it, now the first few days were fairly quiet storm wise, however we still take in a number of sights, cities and towns such as:
- Monument Rocks,
- Joplin, MO - the site of the 2011 EF5 tornado,
- Walmart!
- Gorgeous sunsets,
- Awesome abandoned houses in the middle of nowhere,
- Cruising through the Rocky Mountains (complete with snow, which I didn't pack for),
- Incredible scenery and beautiful country towns.
 |
| Monument Rocks |
17 May 2014
Our first real day with a chance for some storms to pop, and we did get a little taste in eastern Colorado with a few good shots taken, but nothing too dramatic in the way of supercell storms.
18 May 2014
Again a day where there was some slight chance of some cells developing, so early in the day we were playing the waiting game, visiting Lost Springs, Wyoming (Population: 7), some abandoned farm houses and general photography practise.
 |
| Chilling reminder that people live with this threat |
A cell really started to pop north of us, so that's where we went, but by the time we got their it was fading fast and the another one back south was going up, so back down we went only to catch the tail end. Although we did subsequently catch a nice night show.
19 May 2014
Another day and now we were really getting into the thick of it. Lots of chances and lots of big beautiful storms that put on an impressive show in the Nebraska panhandle.
20 May 2014
This was the day with the second highest potential for storms for the entire trip, and it did not disappoint. Multiple supercells, impressive light shows, 2 inch hail and some great photo opportunities. The howl of the hail core as it approached was something I'll always remember.
21 May 2014
This was the day, it started looking like a significant storm day 4-5 days in advance and the SPC (Storm prediction Center) had put up a small warning area showing 10% chance of tornadoes. The entire group was excited and eager to get going from our hotel in Ogallala, NE towards Denver/Fort Morgan, although it seemed like the entire chasing community had the same idea on the day.
We stopped for around 10-15 minutes in central Aurora, CO to watch what's called a "Tornadic Mesocyclone". When the tornado sirens started wailing, it became real and quite an eerie experience. It's a situation where it becomes real and you realise that people live here and have to live with this situation on a constant basis. Suddenly, instead of you crossing your fingers for a tornado to drop, you cross them and hope that if it does, it's not in the middle of suburbia.
We got a move on and headed out of the direct path of the storm to take in the size and scale of it, I must confess in my storm chasing experience I've never seen a storm with as much "Greenage" as I saw on this day.
 |
| News report from the day, confirming 6 tornadoes |
Our last real chase day, so we headed south through Colorado and into Texas where there was a slight chance of some type of activity. The landscape was much different through Texas, a lot more dry and dusty. The visibility was really low at a couple of points throughout this chase, although there was a pair of gustnadoes while exploring an old abandoned church and also a possible slight tornado (dust cloud leading up to a funnel cloud) however with visibility so low and dust everywhere it was difficult to confirm.
So all in all, I'm counting this as a partial complete as we didn't get that clearly identifiable tornado profile and that iconic shot. An incredible experience that I'll happily repeat to get the shot and to mark Number 11 as complete.
To Be Continued...
