Day Zero Project #42: Learn to roll sushi.

Every time that I start one of these new projects I have this vision in my head of how I'm going to do whatever it is absolutely perfect. Nevermind that I've never tried it, it's going to be great. Try my hand at painting? It'll be a Picasso. Run a 5K? I'll do it at a 4 minute mile pace.

It's like my mind forgets that people practice to get good at things and assumes that I'm naturally going to be the best at everything. I think this is a sign of some serious humbleness problems.

And, even though I know that I can never get anything perfect on the first try, I started the rice with the thought in my head that I was going to serve perfectly rolled sushi for dinner.

Step one was to visit the Asian market and get lost in there for three hours looking at all the different groceries and buying one of pretty much everything when you only wanted to get some sushi rice and a bamboo mat.

I ended up walking out of the store with some eel, some spring rolls that had pork in them that I had to throw away, enough sesame seeds to last a lifetime, inari skins, imitation crab, bonito flakes, kombu, two bamboo mats and absolutely no sushi rice. Because who needs to remember one of the two things you actually went in to buy. 

I eventually remedied the rice situation and got to work putting some delicious eel and sushi rice onto nori sheets.

Then I channeled my inner sushi master and began to roll.

And failed. Quite a few times. It turns out that rolling sushi is not as easy as they make it look at the restaurant. Who knew? Oh, that's right. Everybody knew!

Anyway, I ended up with a few salvageable rolls that don't look too terrible in a picture (Eel, Inari, Cucumber and Krab Rolls, if you're wondering.

The most important part was the taste. Which was okay. Not great like I pictured in my head, but more like what you'd get if you ordered sushi from a restaurant that everyone described as "Meh, I guess I'd eat there if I had to."

So if you're ever in the market for completely average sushi, come on over, I'll be glad to make it. Maybe next time I'll even be able to make cucumber rolls that don't eventually fall apart!

Day Zero Project #89: Build a sand sculpture.

In honor of attending this year's The Fest 13, I decided to take the No Idea Records logo...

...and completely ruin it in the form of a very basic, and mostly scary, sand sculpture.

At least I tried!

Day Zero Project #59: Do some birdwatching.

This post will be long enough without any words, so I'll just skip ahead to the pictures of birds.

DISCLAIMER: I am no avian expert. These are probably labeled all wrong, but I gave a good 37-45% effort to finding the right name, so that'll have to do.

Osprey

Blue Heron

White Ibis

Sandwich Tern

Some bird I can't identify. But he's still awesome.

Royal Tern

Great Blue Heron

Green Heron

Egret

Some bird I can't identify. He looks angry about that fact, too.

Laughing Gulls

Marbled Godwits

Common Moorhen

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Day Zero Project #2: Volunteer at an animal shelter.

I could do the normal thing and type a bunch of sarcastic, witty comments here, but you probably just came here for pictures of kittens. I'll get to those after a few formalities.

The place I volunteered is a cat shelter in St. Pete called Friends of Strays. I both fostered a group of five kittens collectively nicknamed "The Terribles" and have also been volunteering once a week in their adoption center. Where else can your volunteer work be playing with a bunch of awesome cats?

So, go check them out. Volunteer if you feel like it. But be careful; if you foster kittens you may just end up with a cat (or two) of your own...

...at least we did! Introducing Slayer, one of our fosters that we decided to take home because all her siblings got adopted and I didn't like seeing her there alone. She's terrible, but also she can be very cute...when she's sleeping. Mostly she's just terrible.

And Mayor Cuddles Von Mystery, Esq. aka Big Guy aka Big Love. He is an adult I bonded with while volunteering. He is pretty much the best cat that has ever lived. 

And because kitten pictures are the number one way to drive traffic to a site here's some pictures of the kittens we fostered. You'll be happy to know that all have now found great permanent homes.

And finally, as a warning, the following will happen if you foster five kittens. And it won't just happen once, it will happen every single day.

Day Zero Project #68: Ride a roller coaster.

I have a confession. Roller coasters terrify me. Not like "Ohh, those are kinda scary. Let's ride one," but more like "pass out while on a ride" scary. Clown scary, even.

Needless to say, I wasn't 100% psyched to accomplish this goal. But, after years of being bugged by my wife to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter I found myself in an amusement park with a roller coaster and figured that I may as well get it over with.

 I walked up to the Dragon Challenge Coaster line full of confidence. The sign at the entrance said that the estimated wait was five minutes. The Gods were shining on my mission.

"Yeah, you can do this," I told myself as I confidently walked the path past Ron's crashed car.

 And Hagrid's hut. 

"Totally easy. Roller coasters are nothing," I assured myself as I marveled at the Triwizard Trophy.

And then I reached the end of the line. There was no turning back now and I somehow lost most of my confidence in the dark pathways that led me to this point. And to make matters worse it was one of those ones where your feet dangle so, not only was I going to pass out, but I was also going to lose my shoes.

I could turn back, but you don't want to be "that guy" who panicked at the last minute and bailed, so I jumped into the seat, brought down the seat belt bar-thing and started to immediately worry that I didn't bring the bar down tight enough. I was definitely going to fall out of a roller coaster.

And, before I had enough time to quadruple check my belt, the coaster starts to move up it's initial ascent. This part is safe, even I know that. But it's also the worst. The chain clunks loudly, climbing higher and higher, as the roller coaster says "Enjoy this nice view before you lose your shoes and then your seat belt flies open."

Then you near the top. This is where your normal (aka crazy) people start to hoot and holler and generally act as though they are somehow having a good time. I close my eyes and shoot up one last prayer.

There's a series of twists and turns. My stomach ends up somewhere near my throat, which can't be healthy at all. At one point I think I actually black out. I'm pretty sure that my seat belt is working at this point, but now I have a new mission. I just need to stay awake. It would be embarrassing to pass out on a roller coaster, so now I'm just doing my best not to. I take some deep breaths and say things like "You can do this" to myself. I may have already lost my shoes, I'm not sure. I can 't focus on that just this moment.

And then it's over. I have lived. There are shoes on my feet still! I haven't passed out!

"Let's ride the other one," I say.

And I do. And it's terrible. I have to enter a deep Buddhist-like trance state first and still sweat enough to lose three pounds.

My wife rides the only other coaster of the day by herself. I've chanced it enough for one day and I really don't want to lose my shoes.

See below for some random other pictures from our trip. The park itself is awesome. The attention to detail is amazing and the other big rides (which are basically simulators that are like indoor roller coasters that don't bother me for some reason) are well worth it!

 

 

 

Day Zero Project #44: Have a psychic reading.

Having a psychic reading should have been one of the easier goals to accomplish on this list. Find a place that says they do fortune telling, plop down $50 and sit in front of a psychic who will tell you what your future holds.

Easy enough, right?

But, for some reason, I was nervous about doing this. It's probably because I don't believe in it and I was worried that I'd have an expression on my face that said "You are crazy" during the entire process. Another part was that I thought it might be some sort of weird situation in a dark room with candles flickering while a weird person waves their arms around a crystal ball and tries to read the color of my energy field.

Credit: Kyrukai (website)

 Neither of those sound particular appealing to me.

Nonetheless, after finding out that I had a few friends who were using their Saturday to get tarot readings down the street from the morning gathering spot I decided that their going was a sign and I added my name to the list for a visit to Enchanted Notions & Mystical Potions.

I showed up at the appointed time, nervous and expecting candles and what I got was a very normal looking shop at the end of the Crislip Arcade with a woman sitting who looked nothing like the crazy crystal ball gazer I was expecting. It was bright and sunny in the room and there wasn't any noticeable evil-looking flickering candles, either. So much for those stereotypes!

What I did get was a reading through some tarot cards that were laid out like this:

Which, for you aspiring tarot card readers, translates into something like this:

Basically, she did a basic overview of me and then we talked about some things like health and career and whatnot. I didn't know I was supposed to have some specific questions in mind, so I missed an opportunity there, but that's okay.

I wouldn't say I've been converted to a believer in this sort of thing, but it wasn't as weird as I thought it would be. If nothing else, it gave me something interesting to talk to friends about for the next few days as we went back and forth with what was said and if who amongst us believes and who doesn't.

Plus, if she is right I'm headed for a new career opportunity in the next eight months or a promotion at my job early next year so let's hope that part was right!