The Fourth of July is coming up, Independence Day. I remember I used to have so much fun on the Fourth of July, a holiday I remember looking forward to year after year. We had the smoke bombs, snake charmers, and those popping things you threw in the daylight, and all the fountain fireworks and sparklers you could dream of for the night time.

One year, I remember it being one of the first years if not the first, where we could not afford fireworks. Me and my brother made an origami box threw some paper, or some matches or something inside the box ad simply lit it on fire. And it was a blast. Over the years, like many things, it has become less and less exciting. Growing up, you start to lose interests in the simple things in life that fascinated you at a young age.

One of the best Fourth of July weekends I’ve ever had was actually last year. I went with my ex to her Uncles, and they had a cookout in the morning, and a firework show in the evening. They actually had some semi-big fireworks. Nothing that exploded with brilliance over the night skyline, but there were some bottle rockets, and other fireworks that actually flew into the sky and made a half-decent light display in the sky. I’ve never been a part of something like that up close, so it was a great experience.

This year, its back to the ol’ “Oh it’s the Fourth of July? Okay” deal. Nothing to do, no fireworks to set off, it’ll just be another day.

IN OTHER NEWS

I was thinking back to Rush to Rushmore. My original plan was to 1.) Get to Rushmore (obviously). and 2.) I wanted it to feel like I accomplished it on my own, this big thing. Well I was thinking long and hard about this, and I realized, Planes are expensive, no train even goes into South Dakota, the only thing I could possibly use is greyhound, which only gets so far. That alone would take almost 24 hours.

Just GETTING there is a huge accomplishment if I can do it. After all this planning and failings, I realized it’s not the easiest thing to do on it’s own, unless you drive. So I’m going to do it. I will be Rushing to Rushmore on Greyhound. Or should I say..Bus to Rushmore?

The only thing is…motel costs around a tourist attraction like this are very pricey, they are like…$90 a night, so I can’t just spend 3 nights like I originally thought before looking up prices, however…….I remembered something. WAY BACK WHEN, in 2010 I tried biking to Rushmore and had a huge list of the camping locations I would be setting camp at. Guess what I found? Wolf People Campgroud in Keystone, SD.

That was the last campground I would have slept at before getting to the Mountain, and it’s closer than where Greyhound can get me (Rapid City). It’s also cheaper. Tent sites are $20 a night, and cabins are $65 a night. Both cheaper, but I really think I will go with the tent. That way I get to experience a little bit of how it would have been like a couple years ago.

Anyways, this is what I’m thinking about and seriously considering. No more taking time off school, I’d be gone for like…a weekend, I would probably miss one single day of school, but that’s it. Woot Woot?

So this is pretty cool. The solar charger I ordered last week before I found out I cannot make the trip came in the mail today. As I feared (but doesn’t matter anymore), the charger will not charge my Vita. *UPDATE: The side of the box says PSP…so it should charge the Vita. To be fair, I didn’t test it. It came with a bunch of extra plug in adapters for different devices, none of which worked with a Vita, but then….I unplugged that whole thing, and realized…any old USB plug would in fact plug into the charger. So I will try that out later and make another update.

Well that would have sucked, but as I figured as well, it does charge my iPad. What’s neat is…I virtually don’t have to ever plug the thing in again with it. The only thing is, it’s not going to charge as fast this way, but it’s a good option to keep it charged. Plus, like a calculator, it’s not like it will just stop working in the dark, remember a calculator is charged up by solar power and keeps working. So the sun isn’t just charging the iPad, but the charger itself as well.

Anyways, I literally have 200 posts and 200 comments…exactly. No, it’s not like I have one comment for every post I ever make, its more like loads of comments on one post or another, I just thought that was funny thinking about it, on exactly the 200th post.

What else…well today (Monday) I was supposed to work out. Let me rephrase, they wanted me to come in today. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are mens days at the fitness club. Well that’s all fine and dandy, but when I have school…I’m tired! Not only that, but I don’t really eat like a champion at school, so after school I’m hungry, and I severely doubt they care to have a hungry, tired person working out with them.

I’m also not really looking forward to two sets of reps. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…I have no idea how they expect me to do 2 sets when they have to help me finish one. I mean physically help me, not root me on. They are all macho and say I can do it, but come on…I’m pretty scrawny and weak, I think I should be able to finish one full set on my own before I try to tackle a second set.

On the bright side…I’m not as in pain I was the first time around. Though to be fair, it was Friday when I last worked out. So it has been three days, and will be a couple more before I come in again on Wednesday. The first time around I just had one day of break. So I may be thinking I’m more capable then I really am.

Here’s a poem for you to enjoy:

Batman

I really loved my mom and dad
I really thought that they were rad
We went to the opera one day
Where unjust fate took them away

I became an orphan in that storm
But Alfred kept me safe and warm
He said ‘now Bruce, let that hate go
peace comes from love and love alone’

I stumbled by a creepy cave
Where I could have held a rave
Instead I designate this place
My secret lair where I do pace.

In the night I stalk and prey
In Gotham where crime seems to pay
They see me and are filled with fear
The bat in black is always near

So when they feel the need to fight
They’ll be greeted by the Dark Knight.

PEACE

As mentioned in my last post, I needed to contact some people at my school to figure some important things out. I did, I contacted my program director asking if it was even remotely possible to take two months of school off in the middle of two pertinent classes. The response I got was rather daunting. Here is what he had to say:

“There are classes that require legal writing as a prerequisite, so if you sit out you may be sitting out for a long while or a couple of different times.  This may screw up your financial aid, but I can’t give you an idea of how.  That’s their department.”

So, obviously, this wasn’t very good news to me. At the same time, it wasn’t conclusive enough for me to either decide whether to do it or not. So what I had to do next is contact my financial aid to see just how screwed up I would be or wouldn’t be if I decided to take the trip anyway…here is what my financial aid advisor had to say:

“Your new package begins in July, so if you sit in July and then take August and September off, you will have a balance that you will have to cover out of pocket upon returning. It’s because July is the beginning of a quarter and if you sit at the beginning of a quarter, but don’t finish, the school still charges a portion of tuition, but cannot keep all of the aid that pays in. So the balance that is created from that is the student’s responsibility. From a financial aid perspective, if you need to sit out, you would want to do so before you start your next quarter. So, basically you would need to sit out in July, August and September. And then you could return in October and start a new package. However, I do not know how that would affect scheduling because I do not know what months which classes are offered. That would be a question for the registrar. I hope I answered your question. If there is anything further, please feel free to contact me.”

Crap. You guys, this is terrible news. It means I can’t do the trip at all. My new package begins in July, as the response says. Pay out of pocket? I can’t do that, I’m already on a tight budget as is. She did say that the best and only option is to actually leave in July, before my next packaging begins, that way I don’t have to pay out of pocket, and come back easy peasy. The only problem is…I need that next packaging, I get paid next month from school, which is how I am doing the trip. Or was GOING to do the trip anyway.

So, the trip is delayed…on hiatus…indefinitely. Sure, I will continue on with the gym membership, I just won’t push myself to my maximum and potentially harm myself rather than help myself. Like I said in my last post, a gym membership is just something to do, so I don’t die of boredom. This is rather disappointing. Continually, this trip is becomming another one of the projects of mine that gets put on back burner, and ultimately cancelled. How am I supposed to keep motivated for a project like this if it keeps getting pushed back, pushed back, pushed back. That becomes a routine, in which it will continue being a routine. Like a bad habit.

Anyways, before I forget to mention, I spoke to a guy that had a walking adventure like I planned to do. His was much more longer and more expensive. I asked him specifically what he did for sleep. Motels and camping can get rather expensive, and really wasn’t on my budget to begin with because of that. He replied back, saying:

“Most of the time I would just find a place to camp off the side of the road. Wasn’t always easy, and sometimes had to trespass on land where I technically wasn’t allowed. Got good at hiding You will too. Another thing that worked a lot was calling the local police when I got into a town and asking them if there was any place I could set up my tent. Worked great. Hope this helps!”

I’ve actually read that before, people pretty much trespassing on other’s property. Most of the time you don’t actually know if you are or not, and have no real way of knowing if the property is owned or is just free land, so the best way to do it is not leave any trace you were there. Don’t litter or what not…well knowing I wouldn’t have much to litter that wouldn’t have been an issue.

Another problem I came into contact with recently is charging the Vita. The solar charger I bought and am still waiting for in the mail does have a USB slot to charge, which the Vita works on, but I found something out. Because the iPad also charges via USB, I wanted to see if I plugged the Vita into Apples USB charger if it would work…it didn’t. So maybe it’s just because of the Apple product…maybe if I did the opposite and plugged the iPad into the Vita charger something would happen…unfortunately I couldn’t figure that out because it just didn’t fit into the specific slot for the Vita. The Solar charger DOES…I believe…offer additional plugin options, but I won’t know if that’ll help my Vita out or not. There’s a good possibility the charger won’t even do anything, other than keep my iPad charged…So more and more this trip is looking like a dud. Even for the future.

More than likely this will be my last post on Rush to Rushmore updates for a while/ever. Thanks for the support and I hope I can someday try again.

PEACE

]]> http://daveslife.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/bad-news/feed/ 7 daveexaminesmovies Daveslife :) http://daveslife.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/at-the-gym-1/ http://daveslife.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/at-the-gym-1/#comments Wed, 13 Jun 2012 17:43:42 +0000 http://daveslife.wordpress.com/?p=955 ]]>

So today, I had my first real gym experience in years. The first time around, I don’t know if I could even call it “real” being P.E. in freshman year of high school. They had the equipment, but they didn’t push you like they did here. Anyways…let’s review.

I wake up around 6:30 in the morning. I had a hard time waking up, so I skipped any kind of meal or even a drink. That was my first mistake. The second one was a pretty dumb mistake of thinking I could go into a gym for the first time, pick out a machine, and do what I want.

My original plan was to pretty much do just that. Pick out the treadmill, and walk until I could not walk any longer, just to get a base idea on what I am most comfortable with, and what I should work on from there. Well it didn’t really work out that way. I was able to do the treadmill for twenty minutes. Not because of the time limit, but because the trainer wanted to jot down notes on what else I’m able to handle.

So we went throughout the room tackling different machines. My legs felt fine, but at the end, everything else was in pain. I was lifting 85lbs on almost every machine. That’s a lot considering my weight as is. 20 more pounds and I’d be lifting myself (give or take)…for an hour.

The nice thing about the whole experience is some of the machines have heart rate monitors, which I wasn’t thinking about initially. I saw that my heart rate went over 190. Wow.

When I started getting really thirsty, I went ahead and got a bottle of water out of their vending machine. After all of this, he asked if I was planning to swim at all, I said probably. Heck…I wore swim trunks because I have no other workout available shorts at the moment. Then I had to think…I didn’t bring a towel…the guy gives me his….alright.

So the order goes like this, or so he says. First you go to the Desert Dry Heating Room and sit in there for a while. Then you move on to the Sauna room for another while. After this, you take a shower, relax in the hot tub, and cool off in the pool.

Let me tell you something about the “Desert Dry Heating Room”. Ever open an oven and heat blasts in your face? Yeah it was like that. You go in the room, which is set to 140 degrees Fahrenheit…and roast. Doesn’t take you long to start sweating. Another thing, for helping with sinuses or what not, the place hot a extremely thick and strong smell of peppermint. The room was red because of the lights, I was starting to think I was in a melting candy cane.

Now…let me tell you something about Sauna rooms if you don’t already know. You know of them, and know what they are, but unless you’ve actually sat in one, you don’t know anything…..1. The steam is so thick you can barely even see your own hand in front of you. 2. The temperature is 118 degrees, but the steam makes it feel like 200 3. The steam is so thick you can’t BREATHE. Seriously, I was having trouble breathing, was coughing, the heat was getting to me and I believe I was starting to get a panic attack trying to get out of there. I was only in there for maybe twenty seconds.

Onto the shower. Thank god this isn’t a prison or a stereotypical open for all shower. We all had separate closed door showers, which is fantastic. Though that still doesn’t account for the locker room where fat old hairy naked men stood…..(there’s also changing rooms, and plenty of them). BLELELGHGHHH

I cannot express to you how lovely it was sitting in the hot tub. I could have sat in there for the rest of the day with ease. Though, I decided it was time to finish up, get in the pool and get out of there. I did so, I hadn’t been in a pool for years…I didn’t SWIM, but I just kind of cooled off, dried off and was done.

One thing about the gym. It’s gender-oriented. I have two branches around my area that I can easily get to, which means I have to remember WHICH gym to go to on WHAT days. Yes, they do have a coed area, but it’s rather pathetic. A few treadmills, a few bikes…that’s about it. I honestly thought that area was a advertisement area. Its right there when you walk in, separated by the rest of the building (which in comparison is so much bigger). The coed area is like…..the size of a studio apartment?

So by the time I was finished, I was famished, and luckily…there was Burger King. Of course I had to wait about an hour to eat, because I wanted lunch, not breakfast. So yeah

Update on Food

I was looking online, trying to find the best way to get 3000 calories a day on a budget of $10/day. Interestingly enough, there are in fact simple ways. Trail Mix, Peanut butter and crackers, Protein bars, and oh my gosh sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds pack so much calories/protein/carbs it’s ridiculous. Also, I understand sports drink can have quite a bit of calories as well, but the prices differ. But I’m also looking for a balance of other things. Can’t have too much of the same thing. So there’s that.

Update on School

I need to do something very important here very soon. I need to contact three people from my school. First, I need to contact my program director, for a very specific issue. My next two classes are “Legal Research” and “Legal Writing”. If you are in paralegal or criminal justice, then you will always see these two classes. Every time you see them, they will be back to back. For a reason. They are made to be taken one after the other *pound fist into open palm twice for dramatic effect* I need to first contact him to see if it’s even possible to take off school for 2 months when taking those classes into consideration.

The second and third I need to contact are my financial aid and assigned counselor, to see if my money agreement for school would still be okay or screwed up from this, and my counselor would be the last one to talk to, to set everything up.

So there are chances I won’t be able to actually go, in which case the trip will be put on delay indefinitely. I say indefinitely because I’m getting tired of putting it off, every time I do, I’m discouraged a little more. If I do put it off…I’ll probably continue the gym membership just because…it’s something to do, it’s healthy, plus there’s a frickin hot tub.

PEACE OUT

So, before I mentioned Fitness USA as the gym I would be participating in. However, today I wondered if it was a remote possibility of other gyms in the area offering a similar service. Well, as it turns out, there is really a ton of fitness centers around the area, so I didn’t want to invest into one specific gym without trying out the others, seeing what they are all about.

There were a few out there that offered month to month, and a few out there that offered a three month summer membership. Well, I just needed two, but if the price was right……no it wasn’t. $90-100 was the price of the summer memberships. Other ones I believe went down to $25 a month, which isn’t retardedly bad, but I still had the better offer at Fitness USA.

Finally, I ended up calling Fitness USA just to find out one thing. This is a really important thing, cause it could whack up my training if it was true. Question 1…do you in fact have a twenty minute time limit on your machines? The answer to that was a technically yes. Question 2…Is that a rather strict rule/how strict? The guy on the phone said not strict at all. If it’s not overcrowded, he didn’t see any reason that I couldn’t use a machine as long as I wanted. He asked when I would be in (he knows when it’s crowded), I said probably eight in the morning. He said that should be absolutely fine. Good enough.

So I ordered a 2 month membership online, and I am set. Completely for a gym right now. The only thing is…I don’t know what days or what times the gym will get busy. I will be there eight hours a day, on off-school days…not including Sunday. If it gets too bad, I can always come back earlier. The website says they are open from 6am on most days. That’s two more hours of free time. Yeah, not my usual, cause I’d have to wake up at 5am in that case, but I’d be willing for the training.

So anyways, I went to the bus station in downtown South Bend today, and purchased a 31-Day pass. That way, I don’t have to find some way to dig out cash everyday to get on the bus and back. An easy card that gets me from A-B as much as I want for a month. When it runs out, then I’ll probably either just use cash or buy another card.

***

I was also thinking about my budget. Things that I have to get now as opposed to later when I get paid again. I don’t have the biggest pre-budget in the world though. Heck I’ve already done two things on the list, a gym membership and a bus pass. The other thing would obviously have to be the solar charger. I will probably do that some time this week. Other things, like hiking clothes I can do later with just a visit to Goodwill. But I might need some now for working out too…..yeah I’m not too sure on that. Keep on watching for updates.

PEACE OUT

If I remember correctly, the last time I did this, I had a equal amount of support and skepticism. Did I succeed, no, but I was confident in myself about the training I did. The fact of the matter is I trained for longer than the actual trip, and felt fine, as I would this time. I had insufficient funding and lack of knowledge on how to fix a popped tire, plus the tire tube was the wrong size. The way to do it, is definitely not via a commission-based job. I will have funding there, so the funding isn’t an issue.  The issue isn’t even if or when, as I’ve already answered those questions, the main issue is motivation.

Right now, I have de-motivators, and neutral opinions. While I accept comments on additional things I should look out for, you should know that I do plan on doing it August 1st. So what you should focus on is the best way I can accomplish this, instead of telling me to wait a year. I’ve waited a year last year, hence this year. I don’t have time to train for a year. Last year, I was married, and I’ve learned while I’m connected to someone via any kind of relationship status, it will be impossible. Furthermore, I have learned the more my daughter grows up, the less I will be able to do this. The time is now.

This is a leap of faith, and all my cards are in. I’m putting it all on the table this time, because this is the only time I can do it. If it’s not this year, then I give up. Right now, I have nothing. In a previous post, I said my life was pretty much going on autopilot on a plane heading absolutely no where. I had no goals or aspirations. I wasn’t going anywhere. I need something in my life to feel like I have accomplished something, a huge feat which I will remember for the rest of my life.

For a fiction-based metaphor: Luke Skywalker is just told that Darth Vader is his father. Below him, a pit of nothing. Luke doesn’t know where it heads, but the most likely scenario is to his death. He makes the leap anyway, because maybe there is a slight chance he will make it. He does it, and he makes it. According to Earthly physics, he would have died while falling however.

For a nonficition-based metaphor: The Cubs are continually viewed as a failing team. That they have this…curse upon them that they will never win the World Series. They lose year after year, but they keep trying…why? All evidence is against them. They also have fans rooting for them year after year despite the fact that they apparently suck. Because it is POSSIBLE, it is always possible for them to take the prize at a World Series, and for that reason, they will always have fans rooting them on.

I need those fans. I need motivation, because I am going. The question you need to ask yourself is would I be better off with or without motivation? I’ve been known to lack performance with a lack of motivation. So what will it be?

PEACE

So the comments on my last post are getting out of hand. It’s almost like a new post all together. I need to clarify just why the bike is out of question, and other things. After that, I’ll go into the budget.

Okay. First of all, bikes are muy expensivo. Especially if I need a decent bike, light, and reliable tires. Even then I will need to buy a crap ton of tire tubes, which I have no where to put.  Then I would need gear to put onto the bike, which also costs money. I would easily double the budget to do this. One thing you also have to keep in mind is that last time, my bike looked like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas’s Sleigh. It acted like it too. One of the main reason the back tire popped was because so much pressure was on it.

Also, I had to push that bike of mine uphill whenever I reached a hill. I reached a hill quite a bit. I was going West after all. I would be pushing that sucker uphill half the trip. So, that is why I refuse to bike. Way too much hassle.

Now for the budget.

Okay, so I’ve split up the budget into the basics. Which covers everything, but I’ll try to explain anyway.

One, I spoke earlier about a kinetic charger that cost quite a bit. Well hunting around, I found a solar charger that would work decently, not as well as the kinetic charger of course. That was only $25 online.

The bus ticket for Greyhound was pretty consistently $165 online, so I put in my budget $170. Initially, I had more down just in case, but as you’ll quickly come to see, I have to keep it tight. I’ll still have some emergency money left over, but not much, hence emergency.

Food. I pretty much said $5 a meal. I know it’s not much, but that’s what I put down last time, and for the first day I stuck to it and that seemed okay. So at 2 meals a day thats $300 give or take.

Motel Costs, now this one is a tricky one. I initially wanted to motel at least once a week, and I had the preference cost at $200.  However, I put that down to $50, because I can survive without a night in a motel. I need at least one night at a motel because let’s be honest…I’m going to stink. So a shower twice a month is better than none at all. Heck, I’ve actually lived that way in harsh times before.

I need hiking clothes. Something light, durable, comfortable. First I had an outrageous price set out, but then I thought about the wonders of Goodwill and said $20. I don’t even think I’ll spend THAT much. Heck, I can’t even fit too much clothes in the bag as is.

Cigarettes. Yes, I smoke. I figured I would just buy the cheapest carton out there, and smoke as few as I can humanly muster. I’m sure smoking would slow me down anyway. $35

Two Month Gym Membership – I will be training for 8 hours a day on my off school days, excluding Sundays. I don’t know how true it is, but I hear you can only train on one machine for 20 minutes.  I have no other way to track my distance. The only way is to get a GPS-enabled pedometer or something. Which can track your speed. The GPS on my vita does NOT track your speed, it just tells you where you are and how to get somewhere. $39 (Starting price, first month, last month, transaction fees)

I haven’t yet decided on what type of 3G I will have while on the road. $15 if its the smaller, and double that for the 2GB of data. I have not decided there yet.

Also, I need to pay $300 for my daughter while I’m gone and the subsequent months afterwards until I get paid again.

All in all, thats $969. Again, I should  have that by mid next month, I’m not entirely sure though. I’m fairly certain. If I don’t get the funding I won’t go simple as that. Though the first thing I would spend money on is the Gym Membership, or whatever I need to get that would give me the same data. Only willing to spend $39 there

This is all just hypothetical, and a rough estimate. I’m sure I could look at some figures and drop what needs to be dropped still.

PEACE

You like how I took the idea behind Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, and used the “to” as a double meaning? Yeah…pretty epic. Maybe that will stick, maybe it won’t. Okay so, I have made posts like this in the past the first time around, but obviously things change dramatically when we drop the whole bike and charity ideas.

First things first, I wanna know how I’m built and what I can handle. To do this, I want to first see, without training, how long and far I can walk. To do this I would either join a gym, or stay over at a friends place that has one of those exercise walking machines (I have no idea what they are called anymore…not the Stair-Master, because the last time I checked, I’m not on a feat to heaven). Every day, I will go on the machine in the morning, take breaks, and jot down the results. I will do this for 2-3 days just to get a good idea of where I’m at in my current state. If I need to continue working out, I will, If not, I will still work out, just not as often.

Secondly, I’ve made a basic list of the things that I will need. Obviously I will need clothes, but to be more specific I will need light clothes. It will be in the hottest month of the year, so I can prepare to be sweating profusely after walking for so long. Again, it will probably take more than a month, so by the end of the trip, I can expect the weather to have gotten colder.

GPS. I have a GPS working on my Vita. I’m not sure if I will need to purchase a bigger 3G plan for it yet, as I have no idea how much data I will take up. If I want to record short video updates on it and upload onto Facebook, then it’ll be a better idea to go ahead with the bigger plan. I am not so sure about that, so you’ll have to keep checking back with me on that.

Obviously I will need food money, camping money, cheap motel money if I’m stuck in a bind, which actually might happen, because walking is more limited in places I can stay. More stops mean more camping locations, which means more money. I haven’t done ANY financing or route plans yet, as that takes more time. One step at a time.

According to Google Maps, a rough walking estimate to Mount Rushmore would take me 2 weeks with no breaks at walking. Obviously I will not be walking 24/7, and obviously the route has got to change too. Also thinking back to my first trip, I was able to get 80 miles in something like 8 hours. That’s a pretty leisure bike speed of 10 mph. A leisure walking speed is 3.5 mph. Doing math, it’s safe to assume I would walk 35 miles a day. Doing the math one more time, that gives me 28 days. Exactly how long it would have taken me to bike there and back.

You might think well, David, you don’t know if you can do it. Well the same goes for my biking trip. I didn’t know if I could make my normal of 80 miles a day, but that first day I made it, 80 miles. I was still standing and not really super-tired, and I could have gone on. So when thinking about it that way, yes I think I do have what it takes.

Getting back. Well obviously, I don’t think there is any other way back then to fly. I would have to bus back to Rapid City, SD, and fly from there. When I went on Expedia, and selected a flight at the end of August, the price was like $500 bucks, holy freaking crap. Then again, I checked for a couple of days out from right now, and the prices were identical. So the price doesn’t drop as time progresses either. I don’t think I can do $500. Hold on, let me check busses and trains.

Okay, Greyhound is a little over $150 a couple of days out, which a lot more acceptable. Plus the price drop out to September is not all that much either. Apparently Amtrak doesn’t even go to South Dakota. SO GREYHOUND IT IS. You see? I already have one thing set in my budget. That’s pretty much how planning works, you see the only possible and acceptable way to do something, and you jot it down.

Other than that, it would just be small things. I have lost my trekking backpack, so I would need another one, but those come rather cheap. I have a tent (I think), I wouldn’t need to bring my iPad. In the wilderness, 3G is better than wifi, and if I run into wifi, the Vita runs on that too. Have I really thought about solar or kinetic energy power to charge my device? Yeah I’ve thought about it, and it’s harder to come by than you think, and more expensive the more useful it actually is. Check THIS out, it charges your device to about 80% in an hour. But the only problem is that it’s $170. See what I mean? I guess I’ll have to stop where I can that has electrical outlets to charge up. Of course, I can always look around and see what’s available. After all, that kind of thing would be an extremely wise and helpful investment.

So far that’s where I am. Any insight or additional information you would like to add, feel free to comment below. PEACE OUT!

]]> http://daveslife.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/rush-2-rushmore-approximations/feed/ 10 daveexaminesmovies Untitled-1 http://daveslife.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/rush-to-rushmore-v-2-0/ http://daveslife.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/rush-to-rushmore-v-2-0/#comments Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:05:32 +0000 http://daveslife.wordpress.com/?p=927 ]]>

A long standing dream of mine, since middle school has been to go to Mount Rushmore. Not by plane, train, or automobile, but by myself. Originally, I thought the idea of roller blading the way there might be a cool idea, and it might be, but the wheels on a pair of roller blades die out pretty quickly. I’m guessing rather quickly while trying to go over 1,000 miles. Then, I thought a quicker and simpler way to go would be by biking. Then you have to factor in funds to make the bike in top shape, and purchasing gear for the bike, and lots of it. Especially tubes for when your tires go flat. I just don’t have the money to spend on a load of tubes, or space to carry all of it.

The first time I attempted it, I got 80 miles before my tires blew and was stuck in Gary, IN. I was still standing after 80 miles, so I am certain my training had pulled off. Nevertheless, I later found out the funds I initially thought I had, in reality I didn’t. The job I had at the moment had to do with commision, and my customers cancelled on me. I would have died on the streets. So biking is out, there is too much stress involved in it.

So what I have decided is that if I am to try again. It would be walking. In the case of biking, it was going to be round-trip. However, if I decide on walking to rushmore, it would be one-way. I also have school to account for, and to make a good estimate of how long it would take me, I would take a safe 2-months off of school for the trip. I’m certain it wouldn’t take me that long, but it might go over a month, and school starts at the beginning of every month. I would also want the weather to be better, and have money in my pocket when I leave. So the best case scenario here would be on August 1st.

Another thing I would be changing this time around would be the charity. I won’t be changing the charity to another charity, but instead remove the charity idea all-together. Riley’s was estatic when I decided to do it last time. The failure was such a disappointment, they didn’t really say they were disappointed, but I knew they were. I was disappointed too. Even the process of getting donations for the charitiy were virtually non-existance, so even if I finished the trip, I would have had an absolutely pathetic check to give them.

I don’t know if I will do it, but again it’s a dream that I’ve never been able to finish, and don’t think I’ll ever get over the dream, or wake up from the dream until I accomplish it. So this is the best case scenario. If I get feedback on people saying I should go for it, then maybe I will, if I get feedback from people saying I’m stupid, then I probably won’t. I need words of affirmation and support in order to do it. So we’ll see.

PEACE OUT

There are a few dreams of mine that I would love to someday accomplish. I think, because I can’t learn how to wake up from half of them. It would just be really fantastic to do. Call it my “Bucket List” if you will. The majority of these things, if not all, I won’t be accomplishing. The main reason is because I have a daughter. I’m not sore about not being able to do these things either, I’m not placing blame on Ava. I love Ava. This is just to write down to look back on someday.

1. Live in New York
2. Live in California
3. Visit London
4. Visit Paris
5. Film Buck and Drake 2
6. Film SP:5
7. Rush to Rushmore
8. Star in a Movie or TV series.
9. Write a bestseller
10. Travel through time

Just to name a few….

Acting

Numbers 1, 2, and 8 kind of all tie in together. I would love to star in some kind of role of a Movie or TV show. That’s the dream everyone has isn’t it? To be an actor! A STAR! Just how likely is that? I want to live in California because of the weather, and New York because of the scenery. California gets more auditions, but I just like being in a big city. Also, it would be nice to live on my own again.

Vacations

I would like to visit London and Paris, because the overall atmosphere is so much different than it is here. Even for places I have never been to in this country. I like the accents, I hate our government. I think it would just be so much nicer to stay there for a while. It would be an experience of a lifetime.

GB Projects

Obviously, I would love to finish the Buck and Drake trilogy. The second movie, The Curious Case of the Alien Race was going to be, by far, this biggest budgeted film we had ever made. By far, it would have been the most epic! But now we have the same issue as we had for SP:5 – casting issues. We aren’t Tim Richardson, who can get anyone for auditions. We are just us, three guys making movies. I would absolutely love it if we could figure out a way to do Buck and Drake 2. That kind of a road trip would be unforgettable.

Rush to Rushmore

Yes. My failed experiment. I find myself always wanting to go back to it. It’s a huge dream that I don’t want to see go to waste. I want to go to Mount Rushmore, and I don’t want to go the easy route and drive or fly. I want to make it a feat. Walking, biking, SOMETHING. I wouldn’t make it a charity event again, trying that turned out horribly. I need to just do it for me. Will I ever do it. Doubtful.

Books

I always enjoy writing. Blogs, novels, novellas, screenplays, you name it. I’ve written a few that I’ve self-published, and others that I started and couldn’t finish. I want to write one that gets noticed. Something original and spectacular. The stuff I’ve written HAS gotten praise from Authonomy.com so I would like to think I have what it takes.

Time Travel…

Yeah, I would like to time travel. No not because I want to fix my own life. Sure there are a few things here and there that could have gone a lot more smoothly, but if I change one thing, I might change the fact that I had my daughter. I can’t do that. No I would just like to go back to the 40′s when things were a lot more simpler and everyone knew who everyone was. Back when technology wasn’t the main cause for a lot of fights. The main cause for the false idea of love.

Don’t get me wrong, love very much exists. Just not the way we are told by the media. Love is Evol. It really is, but love knows no bounds and can escape that evil. The thing is, it’s not as simple as the media makes it. We believe in it subconsciously, and when it doesn’t turn out the way we think it does, we automatically think it’s not love. We are brainwashed.

That’s about it folks. Peace out.