Baobabs and more

Day 33. Who is the person from literature that you would most like to meet and talk to?  Why?  What would you like to ask? 

I'd really want to meet and talk to The Little Prince. There's no particular reason for that. I'm very curious about his travels around the different planets and his baobab uprooting techniques. I bet he'll end up asking me to draw him a sheep or an elephant under a blanket.

Limitless

32.  Who is the person from history that you would most like to meet and talk to?  Why?  What would you like to ask? 

I don't really know who I want to meat but I know the type of person I want to meet. I just saw one movie. It's called "Limitless". It's about a guy who is given a drug that enhances the cognitive abilities of a human. I know that a lot of people in history have done this without a drug and I want to meet them. I'd ask them what did they have to give up in order to achieve this state of mind. The reason why I'd ask this is that I've always wanted to achieve this state of mind but I don't really know where to start. So their experience will probably a good starting point.

Perfect Day

31.  Describe the perfect day.  Put in as many details as you can.  Make it a possible day, not a "dream day." 

I'll wake up early in the morning and I'll make a pancake mix. I will then start making pancakes while everybody else starts waking up tempted by the wonderful smell. My brother will help me with arranging the table and he will warm up yesterday's herb tea. When everybody wakes up, there's plenty of pancakes already and we all listen to music and eat pancakes. After finishing all the pancakes I play a little bit on my computer and then my best friend comes to my house and we head out to play some soccer. We play for 2 hours and then we just down and talk about what we did during the summer. In the late afternoon I come back home and I do some work for my computer science project and I'm very enthusiastic about. I then read a little bit from my book and then I go to the living room to eat with my family. We finish eating and then we all play a playing cards game. Then we drink a little bit of herb tea and then we fall asleep at the coach. 

50 little things

30.  Write a list of at least 50 things that make you feel good. 

1. Quietness
2. Music
3. Reading
4. Manga
5. Grandma's cooking
6. Talking to people in your native tongue
7. Talking to people about interesting things
8. Playing computer games
9. Competing with others
10. Watching movies
11. Watching videos 
12. Eating good food
13. Climbing
14. Jogging
15. Walking
16. Writing
17. My room
18. Organizing things
19. Symmetry
20. Making things perfect
21. National Geographic
22. Taking pictures
23. Listening stories
24. Solving puzzles
25. Playing football with friends
26. Playing table tennis with friends
27. Playing volleyball with friends
28. Spending time with my family 
29. Watching TV shows
30. Meditating
31. Dreaming
32. Drawing
33. Coding
34. Mathematics
35. Computer Science
36. Game Theory
37. Pancakes from my dad
38. Playing Magic the Gathering 
39. Going to MTG events
40. Teaching
41. Inspiring
42. Presenting
43. Learning
44. Doodling
45. Making Arduino projects
46. A picnic near the beach
47. A vacation in the mountains
48. The smell of pine trees
49. Real smiles on people's faces
50. Existing

Fancy fly

29.  What would you do if the dinner served to you in a fancy restaurant came with a fly in the mashed potatoes? 

I wouldn't do anything special. I'll just ask for the waiter to explain why there's a fly in my masked potatoes(I probably won't order mashed potatoes in a fancy restaurant but anyway) and if he says something pretentious, I'll just pack up and leave without touching or paying for the food. If he doesn't, I'll just order something else but I'll put the next dish to a careful examination before trying something from it. 

Travelling...

28.  What would you do if you could travel free anyplace in the world?

If I could travel free anyplace in the world, I would never stop travelling. I'd try to visit as much from the world as possible. I'll try to do it on foot because that's the truest way to get to know a country. I'll learn the languages spoken at the places that I'm visiting and I'll read their literature. I'll talk to them, I'll make friends with them, I will write about them, I will take pictures and videos of them, and I will become one of them. I'll never stop writing because I want to share all of my experiences with people. Travelling is the best way to break out of the chains of your limited vision. 

Hey, is that...?

Day 27.  What would you do if all the electricity in the world just stopped?

I'll look at the sky. Right now, there's light pollution almost everywhere. You have to go to a very desolated place in order to fully see the sky and its stars but when the electricity stops, the world will suddenly turn their gaze at the sky and its beauty. "Hey, look, what is this wide thing crossing our sky? Is it the Milky way?" I think people have forgotten how the sky should look like and because of the light pollution nobody really looks at the sky anymore. People have forgotten to look at the things that are so much bigger than they are. I remember reading that if humans spare a little time for gazing at the sky every day, the world will be such a better place. I share that view and I add that people have forgotten how to dream. Obsessed by the everyday hustle and distracted by the mundane, the world has lost its dreamers. Now, if only the electricity in the world just stopped...

Giving

26.  What would you do if someone just gave you $1 million?

Right now I don't really need any kind of money, besides the money for my college tuition so if someone gave me 1 million, I'd save a little from them for my tuition and I'd give the rest to someone who actually needs it like someone who needs to take an important surgery. If I don't find someone like that which is very unlikely given the amount of people with weird and obscure deceases, I'd give it to a charity that gives money to research centers or I'd give it directly to a research center. 

I don't think money can solve any of my problems, no matter how big it is, except for health problems. In any other situation, I think that any human being is capable of standing up on it own and working its way back up to the game. In my opinion, it's just a matter of willpower and self-reflection. 

Past Sight

Day 25 What would you do if you could travel into the past?

I'd return to see the major battles between empires, warring country. I'd try to sneak into the strategy rooms and see what are people planning. I'd like to see how people are living and how different are they than today's people. I'd really want to see the samurais of Japan and the knights of the medieval ages. I'd really want to see how Asia developed into the current state and how it made some revolutionary inventions. 

Future Sight

Day 24.  What would you do if you could travel into the future?

If I could travel into the future, I'd first see how interaction between humans has changed and what has survived from it. I'd guess that interaction will be mostly the same excluding a few minor changes. Afterwards, I'll see how people have overcome the problems of each century between mine and the one I'm visiting. I'd be interested to see if we have discovered a way to travel to different planets, galaxies, universes. Another thing that I'm interested in is the date when Bleach, Naruto and One Piece will end because I can't imagine them finishing in my lifetime. 

Meow!

23.  What would you do if you were able to communicate with animals?

If I was able to communicate I with animals, I'd never stop travelling around the world. I'd just have a durable set of clothes and a survival kit. I'd travel through the jungles, talking with monkeys, snakes and cats. I'd go to the savannas and I'll talk to lions like the guy above. 

I'l befriend them and I'll stroke their manes. I'll also scratch hyenas necks because they really love it. I'll climb a giraffes long neck and I'll look around from that tall place. I'll climb up the heights of the Himalayas and I'll meet the white leopards that cross the paths of Buddhist monks.

I'll talk to the condors that fly around half of the planet. I'll talk to lions, tigers, bears, everybody. Being able to communicate with animals and humans would be the best thing to have because I'll you be able to get across so many things. You'd learn how to hunt, how to escape from a hunt, how to fly, how to run. Meeting new people and conversing with them is the one of the best things you could do in your life and being able to converse with animals just quadruples the awesomeness of that experience. I'd really love to talk to animals. 

Invisible day

Day 22.  What would you do if you woke up one morning to find yourself invisible? 

- Jiff, wake up. - says my mother - Jiff, wake up, it's time for school! - she shouts and barges into my room. - How many times do I have to tell you, young man, that being late for school is a bad thing! - says my mother and grabs the blanket that I'm covering myself with. She pulls it and looks in my direction but her eyes don't focus on anything.
- Hmm, maybe he's already up and gone for school. What a good surprise. - she says and leaves the room. 

Wait, what? What just happened? Didn't she notice me? Hmm. I guess that's just a my brother and my brother setting a prank for me. Is it April Fool's Day? No, it's not. I guess it's really time to get up. Time to find my glasses... where's my hand? Where's my body? I can't see myself! Am I a ghost? Can I touch things? Yes, I can pick up my glasses. Let's try to see myself in the mirror. I can't see myself. And, yes, I do have my glasses on. I don't see a reflection in the mirror. Hmm. What should I do? Well, I obviously don't have to go to school and I can do whatever I want. But what do I want to do? Let's eat first. Then I can walk around town. Now that I'm invisible I don't really need to wear clothes and because it's a wonderful summer day outside, I can walk freely walk bare naked. I make myself a sandwich and I leave the house. I catch the bus and I get off at the city center. So many people hurrying for somewhere. I don't want to stay here. It's boring. I go back to my house, grab some clothes warm clothes and catch the bus again for the bus stop. I'm going to the mountains. 

A night in the jail

Day 21. What would you do if you were locked inside your favorite department store overnight?

First of all, I don't really like department stores. I don't like them because I don't really need anything out of them and whenever I go shopping I quickly become bored and anxious to get out of there. I wasn't like this before, when I was little. I used to like it because I got to drive the shopping cart but because my father didn't really let me have it that much and because my little brother also wanted it, I had to give up on this only pleasure I had about department store shopping. If I was trapped in a department store in general, I'll probably try to build some contraption in order to escape from the store, like a catapult or something else. 

Even if I was locked inside my favorite stores, not department store, which is electronics store or a comic store, I'll probably be interested in the stuff they offer for an hour or two. Afterwards, I'll try to find ways to escape it. 

42!

Day 20.  What would you do if 300 mice had just gotten out of their cages in a pet shop where you worked?

I wouldn't really mind that much. If I'm alone in the shop, I'd just make sure that the door is closed and I'd start collecting every single one of the. This sound very tedious but it's a matter of not losing the count because it will get even more tedious. As strange as it may sound, I'd treat them gently because I've read "The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" and I know that they're secretly ruling our world, waiting for the question to the answer of the universe to be calculated. 

However, if there are people in the shop, the job will become messy, especially if there are girls around. I'm not sexist but what's the problem with mice running around. It's not like they'll eat them or something. Again, I'll make sure that the door is properly closed and I'll try to calm down the customers while I'm filling my pockets with mice. 

Becoming a true human

Day 19.  Three goals I have set for myself are... 

Becoming a memory master, a polymath and a citizen of the world.

First of all, I want to become a memory master because I want to prove to myself that I can do something great, that I am not mediocre like everybody else. I've always been a fan of memory shortcuts, of hacks, of ways to do things more effectively. Mnemonics techniques are exactly that. They are ways to memorize huge amounts of information in an effective and ingenious way. 

After acquiring a powerful memory, mastering anything of interest will be within grasp. Since I was small, I've always loved reading and doing new things. I've read tons of books and I've tried lots of sports and games but that's just the beginning. With the power of a memory master, I will not only be able to learn about a lot of things, I will be able to learn them in depth. Learning things in depth will get me into the most interesting parts of science and art. 

Finally, independent of becoming a memory master and a polymath, I want to become a citizen of the world. This means that I want to travel all around the world and spread the knowledge that I've acquired. Travelling, I will learn a lot of things about myself and about other people. Travelling around the world is the best way to learn the ultimate truth that governs our world(Besides 42, of course). 

Only after achieving these things would I consider myself a true human. 

A meeting with Dr. Morgenes

Day 18.  Which character from a book would you most like to meet and why?

“Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your head. You’ll find what you need to furnish it – memory, friends you can trust, love of learning and other such things. That way, it will go with you whenever you journey. You’ll never lack for a home – unless you lose your head, of course…”

Doctor Morgenes

The dragonbone chair

Tad Williams

I've read a lot of books and it's little bit hard to choose the only that I'd really want to meet but Dr. Morgenes is one of them. The reason why I want to meet him is simply because he's a very intelligent and wise person. He's traveled all around the Tad Williams' world and knows a lot of stories and mysteries. He's also the head of a secret organization which aims to expand and preserve the accumulated knowledge about the present and the past. He has a wonderful sense of humor and is something like a idol to me. If I ever grew old as him, I'd want to be like him. 

Arr! A pirate's life for me!

Day 17.  Imagine yourself in a different century and describe an average day in your life

Arr! The year's 1700 and I'm on the mighty pirate ship "Vendetta." My name's Key Blacksmith and I'm 16 years old. Because of the recent small pox outbreak, all of my family members are dead and I'm an orphan. I decided to take the destiny of an adventurous pirate attacking ships and finding treasures under the flag of Captain Smithson. Of course, I'm not a full-pledged member of the crew and I have to do all kind of odd chores for the actual pirates but life's not that bad compared to the life a blacksmith's son. My father treated me really badly when he was alive. He'd often get drunk and trashing the house. My mother left this world long time ago when my father was still mentally stable. Now that they're both gone I had no place to live in. I saw the pirate ship in the harbor and I found one of the main pirates. I asked him if I could become a cabin boy. Because of my well build body of a blacksmith helper, he said that I could join the crew. I got my small bag of belongings with me and boarded the ship. The next day, the other pirates told me the daily routine on the ship.

The routine started in 0600 when a few other errand boys and I had to scrub the whole deck. This usually took at least 2 hours because of the lack of helping hands. Then, at around 8, we ate breakfast - a little bread, hard as a rock, and we boarded the supplies for the next journey. The supplies were in big heavy oak chests that needed 4 people in order to be barely lifted. After all the supplies were on board, we started patch the sails. At the end of the day we were totally exhausted but we finally had some free time. Some of the crew went to the shady parts of the town where they slept with prostitutes and drank shitty wine. I went out a few time to see what's everyone all hippy about "going to town and getting a girl" but then I stopped and started sneaking into the captain's cabin and trying to read the scrolls and the navigation books. 

Barbara Streisand!

Day 16.  Write about a time in your life when you struggled with a choice and made the right one. 

The time when I made a tough choice was when I had to choose the university. The universities in my home country are all that good and I decided to study abroad. I had two choices - the States or the UK. The USA is the country of the dreams of many people around the world. If a person has been born in the USA, he's considered to have won the lottery. On the other hand, UK is not that far from home and a lot of friends are going there. The choice was really tough. I didn't want to be alone in a university, a town or even in a country but that's how it turned out and I'm glad that I made that choice.

If I had gone with my friends I would have hung out only with people from my nationality and I would have never met so many diverse people. Also, when I came in the States, I realized why people called it the country of opportunities. Especially in NYC, everybody's so busy, everybody's hurrying, everybody wants to grab the chance. Whenever, I hear "USA" and "NYC" in one sentence, I would always think of Duck Sauce's song Barbara Streisand. While the UK has many good things to see, the USA has a lot more simply because of the scale of the county and also because Americans like to scale things in an absurd way. Burgers, cars, ships, everything is bigger, which is not always a good thing but, anyway, I like the people here and I think I grow to like them even more. 

iHero

Day 15.  Describe someone who is a hero to you and explain why

A hero to me is Steve Jobs. The reason why I consider him my hero is because he thought himself to disregard the opinion of others and to strive for excellence. From his early years, he developed his curiosity, he strove to make something perfect. He wanted to differentiated himself from others in order to see what they missed. He looked at the world with an open mind and judged things by investigating on his own, instead of relying on others. He did many things and had fun doing them. I consider him a person worthy of calling a role model, although a little bit faulty. If he was alive, I'd really like to have a walk with him.

Steve, wherever you may be, I hope you've found another pirate crew to have fun with. 

That day

Day 14. Describe an event that changed your life forever, or make up and describe an event that would change your life forever (2)

The event that changed my life forever happened in my fourth grade. It was a typical spring day outside - not too hot, not too cold - and I was preparing for school. Textbooks, check, notebooks, check, pens and pencils, check, school report notebook, check. Here, my backpack is ready. Time to leave for school. I fasten my shoe laces, lock the inner and the outer door of our apartment and go out in the block's hallway. Three floors of stairs fly by as I descend downwards greeting the elderly neighbors at our floor. I go out on the street and I feel the shining sun and the breezing blowing slightly. I sense that something wonderful will happen today. I set off for my school which is seven streets away. Most of the streets are small local streets but the one in the middle, the forth street, is a major one and there a lot of hurried people crossing it. Because of the traffic I had to stop and wait for a minute or two so that the cars clear our. While I was waiting, I saw a young man at the other side, walking towards the street. He was staring at a magazine and feverishly reading it, while listening to music. He probably had his headphones blasted at max because he didn't notice the traffic at all. He continued walking and started crossing the street. Cars started blowing their car horns but the guy still would not notice them. One of the cars barely evaded him and its driver was at a hair's breath away from crashing into a pole. About three quarters past the street the young man lifted his head and saw what was happening around him. It was just in time because one car was about to run him over. He dropped the magazine and jumped for the sidewalk. The car grazed him but he was alright. I went and helped him get on his feet but he was too shocked to think at that moment. I made him sit down and gave him my water bottle. My parents always told me that water could calm scared people. A minute later, when the cars cleared out, I got his magazine and handed it back to him but he refused to take it. He thought that it was cursed and went back on his way after thanking me for my help. I was really curious about what exactly was he staring at that he forgot what he was doing. Because I was almost late for school and I put it my backpack and ran for the school. I barely managed to arrive on time. During school I forgot about the magazine but when I went back home, walking through the big street I remembered the incident. A few minutes afterwards I was at home and I was really excited to see open the magazine. I opened my backpack and picked it up. It was in a very bad condition because it was lying down under the cars' tires but it was whole and that was good enough for me. It had a shiny cover with colorful cover of a mummy's sarcophagus. Its title was "The treasure of Tutankhamun". It had a bright yellow border around it and looked really nice. It was called National Geographic. Apparently, I had acquired the first issue of NG ever printed in my home country. I started reading it and looking at its pictures and then I understood why that guy was staring at it with such intensity. It's like entering a new world! The photo images were breathtaking and the articles were way more interesting that any other magazine that I had read. It was so interesting that my mother had to shake me up in order to grab my attention. I could have been under the cars' tires if I opened it before coming back from school. Anyway, when I read it from cover to back a few times and looked it up on the internet and saw that it was a monthly issue. I immediately stopped spending my pocket money and started waiting for the next issue. From reading the different issues, I started dreaming of travelling to different countries, speaking to other people and taking wonderful pictures. I was so fascinated by that magazine that I wanted to live the life of a NG photojournalist. If I hadn't encountered that unlucky guy with the NG magazine I probably would have never seen the wonder of National Geographic and I probably wouldn't be the same person right now.