In the middle of the 19th Century, Franz Liszt transcribed Beethoven's symphonies for solo piano. To put it into context, that's taking the number of notes played by 16+ people and putting them into two hands, and Liszt really didn't miss many of those notes. A few weeks ago, I bought one of the symphonies and tried playing it. I mean, I'm good. Really good. Shit, I'm fantastic. This stuff is beyond me, though. It's so. fucking. hard. But by god, I am going to learn to play this, and I'm going to do it well, even if it kills me. Focus: What is your Everest? That seemingly unattainable goal that you've "just gotta do" before you die?
My goal is to drive in the 24 hours of Daytona. It's long, it's hard, and it's a world class event. Don't know if I'll make it, or be good enough to be remotely competitive, but I'm giving it a shot.
I want to do this: <a class="postlink" href="http://larutadelosconquistadores.com/ruta2011/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://larutadelosconquistadores.com/ruta2011/</a> A 240 mile mountain bike race across Costa Rica climbing several mountain ranges in the process. It's absolutely insane but I have a deep, abiding urge to do something that epic. There's something very cleansing about being in the middle of the woods on a bike for any length of time, and all I can imagine is that an experience like that must be an incredible feeling.
I want to have a novel I've written adapted into a movie. So far, I have a bunch of short stories, but no definite novel. I also have about 100 ideas of what I could write about, but not a lot of that is on paper.
I want to be good enough with martial arts to fight three rounds. Win or lose I just want to put myself in a ring with another man and test my limits.
I would love to drive in the Gumball 3000 Rally. For those of you who don't know, it's a 3,000 mile race (not really competitive though, more emphasis is placed on the adventure of a long road trip) across a continent. Some of the Jacass crew participated a few years ago and they produced a hilarious video documentary (Chris Pontius running around a traffic jam in Germany, I think, wearing nothing but an American flag Speedo comes to mind). This is my Everest because it looks ridiculously fun but the entrance fee is usually something ridiculous like $50,000 and I don't know how to drive a stick.
I'm gonna build one of these starting from scratch. Spoiler Not just any rifle, but a custom job where all of the work was completed by one person and the rifle was made to order. Comparing this to an off-the-rack rifle is like comparing a Bentley to a Ford. I want to start with just an ancient Mauser action and do all of the wood and metal work myself. It's gonna be several years before I have the knowledge and ability to complete a lot of the tasks that go into a gun like it, but therein lies part of the challenge. Just making a stock from scratch could easily take 80-100 hours, so it's a mountain of effort.
I want to publish a book. There are a lot of big dreams that I have involving this book (like it getting made into a movie a la Lostalldoubt, being profiled and/or reviewed in one of my favorite magazines, or being a guest on The Daily Show for it) but it has to be published first. There are a bunch of places I want to travel through, and those dreams are even more urgent now after this past trip. Right now the list is: Barcelona/Madrid/South of France, Argentina, Berlin, Italy, and somewhere in South Asia, but I haven't decided which country yet. I'd also like to start and run my own business and actually make it work for more than a month. It doesn't have to be big or my primary source of income, just to actually follow through with an idea from start to finish and have more than one sale.
I would like to kill one of every species of game animal in Arizona. Rocky Mountain big horn, desert Big Horn, white tail, coues white tail, cougar, mule deer, buffalo, black bear, elk (cow and bull), javelina, turkey and antelope I have 5 of them so far. From the ocean, I would still like to catch and release black marlin, blue marlin, sword fish, and a short billed spear fish
I want to build my own airplane or helicopter. I think I have the knowledge, but money and time are the huge factors here.
I really, really want to be able to speak at least five languages. I've got two down (just English and Spanish- I live in SoCal, it's pretty much required), but I really want to master at least three more. I'm working on Persian but I just don't have the time to dedicate at the moment. I need to learn Persian, Russian, and Italian before I die.
An MRI of my entire body. So far I have two of each knee, spine, pelvis, and left ankle and foot. I think they're so cool. I want everything else so very badly. This is one of my goals in life.