OaB #9: Play a Computer Game to the End

Ahh. The book is right. Completing a game without help is much more satisfying if you don't cheat or use walk throughs! I was in Umeå last week, visiting lots of friends who live up there, and some who visited Umeå the same week. It was great! And as I have a Nintendo DS, I bought The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass as I had seen and read some great reviews of it.

And yeah, it was awesome! I bought the game on Friday the 26th, and completed it on Sunday the 4th on my bus trip from Umeå back to Uppsala. And as horrible as the bus trip was, as great the game was! So how horrible was my bus trip? Well, I left at 8.20pm, and at first the trip was okay, although somewhat boring. But then both people in front of me decided to lean their seats back as far as possible. Not very comfortable for my knees. Then I fell asleep and woke up like 40 times! At one point I woke up with my one sock soaking wet - and I have no idea why! I arrived at Uppsala at 4.35am, and luckily I woke up, otherwise I'd have missed the stop, as I had set the alarm on the clock on 4.40 (the bus was supposed to be there at 4.45!).

Then the good part started! Katarina came to pick me up, and we walked to Susanne and had breakfast together at her place! Then we had an exam at 9am... I've never been so tired at an exam before!

Anyways, back to the game. I just noticed the title says computer game, but screw that. NDS games should count as well, don't you think? =D

Anyways, I played the game when I had time to spare in Umeå. Sometimes I even played it when I shouldn't have, like when Valentina and Sofia expected me to be social and talk to them. God, they demand so much of me!

I tried to take a picture on the bus of me having completed the game, but as you can see the picture didn't turn out very well. Oh well!

OaB #20: Stay Up All Night.

Trying to stay awake for long isn't really that hard, but writing a blog entry when all you want to do is go to bed ASAP is! I've had this home exam on American Literature and Culture from 10am yesterday to 10am today. Now I am finally free, and can go to bed!! Puh!

Timeline of what I did to stay awake:

7pm-8pm Took a break. Went to buy some food for the cats, and pizza for me and my brother. Watched the latest episode of Life.

8pm-9pm I still took a break and went to ICA to buy some chocolate, coke and ice cream!

9pm-10pm When I got home I took it easy. Mom got home, talked to her!

10pm-11pm I started working on my exam again.

11pm-12am I was very productive, working hard on my essay. No, not really, I kept chatting with Susanne on MSN about how I couldn't find outcome up with anything to write about!

12am-3am I was writing some more on my home exam. By writing, I mean worrying and doing other more important stuff, like chatting on IRC, checking my mail, updating FaceBook to see if something new had happened, etc.

3am-4am Worried some more, and then started watching an episode of a new tv series called Women's Murder Club.

4am-5am I finished watching the episode, and watched this awesome sketch! http://www.v2.fi/hauskat/258/Miksen-nae-itseani-peilista/

5am-6am Watched the latest episode of My Name Is Earl. Greeted mom who woke up.

6am-7am Greeted sister who came to pick up mom. Started working some more on the exam. Finalized exam.

7am-8am Watched the latest episode of Ugly Betty. Said bye to my brother who was off to school.

8am-9am Watched the latest episode of CSI. Talked to Susanne who got back on after having some sleep. We talked some about our exams.

9am-10am Very last edit on the exam. Exam sent in at 9.36! Yey! Then writing this blog entry.



Questions from the book:

What time do you usually go to bed?
At around 12-3am.

How many people stayed up with you?
None. Just me and my exam.

How did you find trying to stay up all night?
Easy

Did anyone have to pinch you to keep you awake?
Not really, lot's of Cola did the trick.

What time did you stay awake until?
I'm heading off to bed immediately after posting this entry, so 10am

Did you see the sun come up?
Yes, I did.

Would you do it again?
I will most definitely do it again! But now - bed. Good night!

OaB #68: Take Part in a TV Show.

I'm sorry, but I had to do it. It was the only way I would ever be in a TV show... I had to go to the Swedish Idol auditions! Let's just say it didn't go all that well. Let's just say, I still ended up on the show. :D

It was in April 22nd that one of the five auditions were held, this one in Skellefteå in northern Sweden. Me and my friend Sarah went there. The waiting time was a pain! It was hours and hours of waiting! All this, for a less than one hour show!

Basicly, I went in there, sang "I can't make you love me" by Bonnie Raitt, and I was so nervous that I blacked out in the middle of the song! (And it wouldn't surprise me if I sang everything off key as well ;), but we'll see tonight when it airs on Swedish TV4).

So Kisthi, one of the jury members, helped me back in. Then, when I was done, Peter, another jury member (the Simon of the Swedish Idols), said "Well Daniel... There's a Swedish saying that goes 'Save what can be saved', and there was nothing here to save."

So I asked him "If I ever do anything like this again, what should I practice on?" and he answered "Practice on never doing anything like this again." This even made it to the commercial, so I know I'll be on TV tonight!!

I'll try to put up the part where I'm on on YouTube by tomorrow! And if I can get ahold of the commercial I'll post it as well. Untill then, here's a picture of me and the two co-hosts of the show; Carolina Gynning and Carina Berg!

OaB #80: Start Your Own Secret Society.

I broke my own rule. Like, the only rule I have for these two lists; Not to count an item that I've completed BEFORE I got the books. But really, this one is too good not to count.

The thing is, when me and my friends Mary and Henriikka went to the Swedish premiere of Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest (July 12, 2006), we realized we share a passion for movies, especially fantasy movies, so we decided to form a society: The Secret Society of Fantasy; SSF.

This weekend, we had another meeting, watching Over the Hedge, The Incredibles, The Royal Tenenbaums and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Which is great, considering two of those movies (Incredibles and Tenenbaums) are on my list of films to watch (OaB #48 and BYD #57).

So I saw this item in the book, showed it to them, and we all decided I HAVE to include this one.

We even have this little homemade membership certificates that Henriikka made. They are really cool! :D

BYD #26: Bungee Jump.

This is the coolest thing I've done. I'm like... still happy about doing it, and it was like 4 hours ago now. (I did it at aprox. 20.45 (8.45pm) and not it's like 00.40 (12.45am)). What an adrenaline rush!!! WOW!

So yeah, as the title tells you, I bungee jumped today. I knew about this event at Kungsträdgården in central Stockholm, and I knew they were going to have this crane from where you could bungee jump. So I had pretty much been thinking about it for like three weeks. I told some of my friends about a week ago, and everyone were like "Yeah! Do it!". So I did. And telling people means I have to do it...

I would NEVER have done this if it wasn't for the book (thank you Richard!); it's giving me a reason to try things I would never try otherwise!

Four of my co-workers (including my boss) were there with me watching and cheering. One of them took pictures and actually recorded me jumping, so you get to watch as well!

Oh, by the way. While at the event, there was this offer about going in a hot air balloon for only 695SEK. The normal price is like 1895SEK. So I bought a hot air balloon ticket! I'll be crossing another thing off my list soon! :)

Also, I was very happy when I saw I had been linked to from another blog! I was added to the list of "creative sites" at http://licarian.blogspot.com/! Thank you Linda!

OaB #61: Join a Club.

I actually completed this item last week - the 7th/8th of July - when I was invited to join the guild (at least that's what it used to be) Nove Avatara; IX. I was had been invited to their meeting in Kotka, Finland, by one of their members, Chris "Fain" Carver. We had both been playing the game Dransik since October 14th 2000, and we both have been staying in the Dransik community for all these years, even though Dransik does not exist anymore (at least not the way we remember it!).

So, at the meet, I met a lot of players that I had met inside the virtual worlds of Dransik all those years ago. And then I was invited to join Nove Avatara. The bestest awesomest guild ever in Dransik. How cool is that?

OaB #83: Dye Your Hair.

Okey, so I appologize to all of you who voted for milk a cow. I promise I'll do that before the summer has ended. But now I decided to start July by dying my hair. Blonde.

And boy, DID it get blonde! ULTRA BLONDE!!! I was prepared for blonde, but this! :D

I don't know if I can really describe very much by words, so I'll let the pictures tell the rest of this item completion!

OaB #94: See Your Name in Print.

So, a few weeks ago, my friend Mary asked me if it was okey for her to ask me a question and take a picture for Enköpings-Posten's summer supplement. Enköping is a very small town somewhat north of Bålsta, where I live. Now the paper is printed and done, and I was sent a copy of it today. Okey, so it's not big, and it's not important, and I'm sure not many is going to see me or read what I said, but it doesn't matter! I've seen my name in print! :)

But if I ever end up in the paper or something similar again, then I'm sure I'll update this one, and replace this little snippet with that future one.

I'd also like to thank you all for voting. I'm going to try find a farm or something, that will let me milk a cow, and I'll do it this month. And I'll put up a new poll this week. Thank you all for reading. It'd be even cooler if more of you would take your time to comment! I'd love if you could post a comment or two! :) Suggestions or just greetings will do as well! (And because you give me so many comments, Dale, let me tell you again - you rock!)

And I want to tell you all I reached a milestone with this blog... At least one person from every continent have visited it! :D South Africa, Philippines, USA/Canada, Australia, Poland (Thank you Danny), Brazil, Guatemala... And even though all of you come here by googling for how to make oregami cranes, and then get disappointed and leave, I still think it's cool!

BYD #83: Skinny Dip at Midnight.

At around 00.30, Mirre and Tea decided to go to Nydala Lake to take a dip. I figured I could join them and perhaps complete this thing! When we were there, at Fiskebryggan, they jumped in right away. I hesitated for a while, but then took my clothes off and jumped in!

It was kinda cold, but still nice. At the place we were, there were some people having a midnight barbecue, but what the heck. We had been drinking some and didn't care about that. One or two of the guys later approached us and asked us "Are you Finns!?"

I think it was between 8-10 degrees in the water. Not sure though. It's kind of surprising that I jumped in, considering it's the beginning of June, and I rarely take a dip even in July or August!

Edit 10/9 07: Seems I forgot to upload the pics! :D

OaB #43: Do Something Charitable.

I was reading the net edition of Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, and there was this add for the Red Cross; a campaign called "Save the Mothers". It has this thing where you paint a spot on the world to show your support. So I decided to paint that little spot for 50SEK, and now I can cross another thing off my list in the process!

Well, since there's been this guy from the Philippines visiting my blog, and since I find that really awesome, I decided that I should paint a spot on the Philippines! That didn't work however, because the Philippines weren't on the map, so I had to put it as close as possible. And, uhm, I think I put it on China or something...

I got some kind of personal link as well, but I'm not sure what it does. Maybe it takes you to my spot instantly, or something. I also got this really ugly web button thingie, but I had to remove it because it was REALLY ugly and annoying. You can still see it under the to-do list.

http://www.raddamammorna.se/?11725

I now think I deserve some kind of comment from this mysterious Filipino person, don't you?

BYD #16: Get into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Okey, so this one might be my own interpretation of the task, but I think it's a valid one! Here's what it says in the book, as an example how to break a record: "Get lost in a crowd. The largest gathering of Santas stands at 3,618 people in Taipei, Taiwan". So that should mean you're allowed to complete a team performance, right?

The day before yesterday, on Saturday the 5th of May, ICA (Wikipedia: a Swedish corporate group in the retail business) celebrated 90 years in business by giving out cake, coffee, saft (I was told the translation is -ade) and cookies... And by holding a World Record attempt at blowing most balloons in an hour for a large group. And we were told that should it become a new world record, it will end up in the Guinness Book of World Records 2008! In most ICA stores all over Sweden, people could sign up to participate. Me and my friend Caroline, who also owns a copy of Before You Die, figured "Hey! We should join so that we can complete this item!"

So we did. And today they announced it's a new record! In the store we were in, ICA Mariehem in Umeå, there were a total of 1,414 balloons blown up. And in ICA stores all over Sweden, a total of 531,061 balloons were blown up! Yeah! But please, if you work in a Walmart or something, DON'T organize a balloon blowing event. At leat not until this record has been published in the book! :P

BYD #98: Go on a Demonstration.

Today's the First of May (May Day; Labour Day), so figured I should take the chance to join the annual demonstration of the socialist parties. I'm not really politically active, but I do agree with most things they demonstrated against, so what the heck, right?

So at 12.45 me and Sofia took our bikes and cycled down the the center of Umeå and joined all the others. I was told about 700 people joined the demonstration. The most fun part was the march with the traffic jam we caused and all the songs we sang and the catchphrases we shouted. When the march ended, and some guy started holding a speech, me and Sofia got bored and went back home.

I'm a little bit disappointed at the fact that neither me nor Sofia had any badges or placards though... We didn't really fit in to the crowd. Here's some pictures of us at the demonstration...

OaB #31: Host a Party.

Yesterday I completed another item. Me and my flat mates Sofia and Valentina had a party, celebrating our birthdays (which was weird, since mine and Sofia's birthdays are in July); Sofia's upcomming examination; us moving out... Basicly, we just celebrated everything we could, since it's like the last party we'll have, as both me and Sofia are moving back to our respective home towns.

It was a great mix of people, around 20, both friends of mine and of theirs. I knew or had at least met everyone before. We even had an alsatian puppy come visit us for a while!

We served some food for the guests as well. Now our fridge is FILLED with left overs!

The book has a check list of host duties. I can check a few of them, but not all.

Did you...
[X] ...welcome the guests at the door?
[X] ...check invites?
[_] ...take coats & bags?
[X] ...offer guests food & drink?
[X] ...organize games & entertainment?
[X] ...organize music?
[_] ...monitor soundlevels?

I could add some pictures, but only if someone asks me to in a comment. :)

Edit 1/5 2007: Dale, you rock; you're the best! Here's a link to some photos.

OaB #71: Do Something Nice without Being Asked.

I realized after doing this nice thing, that I had actually done a nice thing. So I checked through the book, figuring there must be some kind of item that is about being nice... I found number 71 - Do Something Nice without Being Asked. I can finally cross off another item in my book! (It's about time, eh?)

So on to the story. I was on my way home from school, and I was very happy after having gotten a VG grade on my English essay. So I walked home, and I saw a ticket lying on the ground. I took a few steps, but turned back, curious as I am, and picked the ticket up only to find out it's a ticket for a concert today! When I got home, I showed it to my flat mate, who pointed out it was not one, but two tickets. "We should go!", she said, but I was not sure I could handle the guilty conscience. So I asked my sister, who said I should try return them.

Of course I had to do the right thing (I'm such a nice guy!), so I called Norrlandsoperan, where the concert was going to take place, and they gave me the number to a person named Helena, who was the one who had bought the tickets.

I called Helena, who had no idea she had lost her tickets, but she was happy that I called her to give them back. We decided to meet at the center of Mariehem, where I live, So I could return them. I did so, and got a really nice flower as thanks. My flat mate said my nice doings will give me good karma... So now I have my very own Karma Flower!

OaB #60: Learn to Live without Something You Love for a Week.

Today I completed number 60 by being without Coca-Cola (or any other carbonated drink for that matter) for a week. (I even bought a bottle of Bailey's so that I wouldn't need to drink any drinks with soda in them).

I've been drinking water instead. It was hard at first (not used to drinking water), but now after a while works pretty well. So I'm going to try stay away from Coke for as long as I can. There was one thing in the list of suggestions that I don't think I'd ever be able to complete; Stay away from the Internet for a week. Not only because I'm completely addicted, but also from a practical point of view. I wouldn't be able to do any school work. And even though that doesn't happen very often, when it does I need my computer and the Net!

The list of suggestion were giving up TV, my mobile, computer games, fast food, the Internet and other. So I chose other; Coca-Cola.

Now I'm going to drink another glass of water.

OaB #77: Make Your Own Greeting Cards.

I completed number 77 today, by creating my own greeting card for Mirre's Birthday! It's a mix of computer printed material and stuff drawn with crayons! The picture uploader doesn't seem to work today, so I'll upload the pictures tomorrow instead!

OaB #33: Learn to Bake a Cake.

I completed number 33 today by baking a cake! It's a chocolate cake with truffle on it.

Recipe to Chocolate Cake with Truffle Topping:

Cake:
150g Butter
3dl Sugar
1dl Cacao
3tsp. Vanilla Sugar
3dl Flour
2 Eggs

Truffle:
1,5dl Cream
2tbs. Butter
200g Dark Chocolate

Melt the butter and mix butter and everything else. Add one egg at a time. Bake for 20 minutes in 175 degrees (celcius). Heat cream and butter in a pot, add chocolate and let it melt. Let it cold, then add on the cake. Let everything cold in the fridge.

OaB #3: Make an Origami Crane.

UPDATE 20/5 2007 - A lot of you visitors seem to come to my blog through search engines looking for tips on what to do with origami. Since I feel kinda sad for you (I'm so Swedish), I'm thinking I might just as well provide you with some useful origami links. How nice am I? :) Here are some links with instructions on how to make different things with origami:

Origami Frog
Origami Swan
Origami Dog
Origami Dragon

And now, to the original post:


Finally! I figured I should try to finnish one of the more simple entries, so chose number 3 - make an origami crane. I thought I'd do it in like five minutes, but it actually took me about 1 hour and 30 minutes! And the how-to guide in the book was not easy to follow, so I had to google how to make it. I actually used like 4 different guides, because where three really didn't explain anything, one explained somewhat better. So I had to use different guides for different steps.

This step actually took me a while to understand. The guide said "Fold the square to look like this", but I couldn't for the world figure out how to do that! One of the other guides helped me with this though.

This one was also a pain to accomplish. To fold it like this you had to fold it out somehow, but in the guide it just said "Fold the whole edge from the tip upwards.... ....so it looks like this." Again, another guide helped me...

Here is the finished result! It looks like a rather old crane... but hey, it's still beautiful (Yeah, right)! But I completed it, so now I'll get to stick another star in my book!! Yay!

OaB #36: Start Your Own Blog.

Yey! My first completed item! Uhm, maybe I should explain exactly what it is I'm doing.

I bought two books this Monday (March 5th); 101 Things To Do Before You Die and 101 Things To Do Before You're Old and Boring where you're supposed to do these funny little things and then put a star on the page once you've completed the item. I thought I'd start with item number 36 from the book "...Old and Boring"; Start your own blog. This way I can blog about all the things I do! How smart isn't that?

So now everyone can read about my future item completions, like "Be present when your country wins the World Cup" (Yeah, I'll have to move to Brazil and become a Brazilian citizen for that to ever happen... I doubt Sweden will win anytime soon), "Catch a fish with your bare hands", and "Have a sleep over". I'll try to provide pictures and proof of every item I've completed (for when it is possible).

Stick around! :)