…but it isn’t.
While wandering around downtown today with my gay-sian friend (yes, you CAN contract gay and Asian into one word!) and he says
“have you peed in that toilet yet”
And I say
“in what toilet?”
because Keith thinks that everyone can hear his thoughts.
Anyways, it turns out he was referring to the robot potty on 17th Ave SW, which is part of a “City of Calgary Sanitation” project. There is seriously no website about this thing or information. Useless city.
It’s basically this weird roundish box plopped on a street corner. It looks kind of like something they would protect a major electrical center in or something. I decided, as I needed to pee anyways, to make use of it! Plus, I thought it was on my list, even though it is totally not actually on it. The toilet itself is fantastic. It tells you how to use it in a robot voice and cleans itself. You press a BUTTON and a CLEAN TOILET SEAT APPEARS OUT OF THE WALL!!! It also plays calming music for you as you make your business. Rad and a great idea for public bathrooms. Clean and calming!
I’m sad it’s not on my list, but whatever. I peed in a robot today and that in itself is fantastic.
I think the worst part about having a passion for travel is jealousy. I’ve padded my twitter, facebook, bloglines – every social networking site at my disposal – with jet-setting travellers who are taking on the world. Even those I add for other reasons seem to mock me with thei lavish travels to far away places. The other day I was sitting in class listening to my professor ramble on about cod fish (seriously…fucking cod fish) and I, of course, was wasting time on twitter. Eli Roth is updating about being in Italy. I’m learning about cod and all these people are experiencing the world! I’m full of envy, full of it.
Sometimes life does laugh at you. Not with you. Just at you.
In other news, I updated my list a bit. I saw Marilyn Manson live, which was just terrible, but I did it. It would be been better categorized under “Thanks, But No Thanks” in hindsight. I have to decide what to do next on my list.
This summer feels like a complete wash. I did go to Kelowna, true, but it has mostly been spent with my nose in books and sitting in classrooms. I guess I’m putting this work in now so I can be done school earlier, but I just want to be travelling and seeing the world. One friend just finished a study in Ghana and is now touring Germany. Irma my artist friend just finished a one month stint in Montreal. Everyone is headed somewhere or just returning and I feel stagnant.
I suppose I am heading to Kingston in around a month, but I have been to Kingston several times. Hell, I lived there for almost ten years. I am desparately trying to convince my mom to go somewhere (anywhere!!) with me over a weekend or after our trip to Kingston but she is very reluctant (much to my dismay). I know I only have 60 or summers left on this planet and it depresses me to some extent this one has been somewhat wasted so far. 6 weeks left before September brings around a new semester of school, I better make the most of it. Roadtrip anyone?
Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia, Canada. I loved being there but it was quite cold (in February). Apparently, this is the most photographed thing in all of Canada. Odd.
One of the many anti-meth photos I collected when I went to Montana a year ago.
The conversation went like this
Mom: Why did you get Tang when you don’t like orange flavour.
Me: …
Mom: I mean what inspired you?
Me: I didn’t know what Tang was.
Mom: Great job.
And that was how crossing number #591 off my list went.
When I added “Try Tang” to my list, I really had no idea what it was, other than a drink that was insanely popular 20+ years ago. How bad could it be? Well, given the fact I hate anything orange flavour, it would be really bad. I talked myself into still going through with it at the grocery store, after seeing the orange glow radiating from shelf. So put it in a cupboard when I got home and for weeks tried to forget it was there or on my list.
Of course boredom always wins out in the end.
It wasn’t really that bad, just really insanely sweet orange. Like orange juice except unhealthy. Definitely not one of the “favourites” list. Now the rest will sit in my fridge and hopefully someone else in my family will drink it. Ick.
Punta Cana beach at sunrise
Weekly roundup on the sites and articles I found useful, funny or motivating.
What The Hell in Dubai
via TutzTutz
A long time ago I had “Party Like a Rockstar in Dubai” on my list. I removed it after reading about a string of arrests made to innocent people for having legal prescription drugs on their person or having stepped on a microscopic piece of marijuana. Articles like this make me want to go to Dubai though because it is literally insane. It’s like if Las Vegas took crack, has a baby with Monaco, and that baby had a baby with Thailand. Or something. It’s insanity.
Best Nude Beaches
via Matador Trips
This one might not be on my list, but it caught my eye and was certainly a fascinating read. I suppose a nude beach might help with # 71 Go skinny dipping. Or maybe just something to consider as a new addition altogether.
Best Coffee Shops in Amsterdam
via Matador Nights
One of the first things I added to my list was to smoke pot in Amsterdam. It’s sort of a when in Rome type deal I suppose. This is a nice compiled list of the best places to go to partake whilst in the Netherlands.
Applies to
#72 Smoke pot in Amsterdam
My Life to do List
I’m not going to lie, I took a few items off of this excellent list. I’m not above borrowing great ideas, but I have to give credit where credit is due. Make sure to check out his blog, he seems to have a never ending array of things to do.
Intrepid Lifestyle
New site recently launched, but tons of great articles for the serious traveler. Really practical and well laid out.
This is a new feature I’m starting. Through Twitter and StumbleUpon I end up reading a ton of articles ever week that are relevant to my life list. Some are just other life lists, some are travel blogs, and some are how to guides for silly things. They give me inspiration, a good laugh, or the knowledge I need to get a move on this giant list of goals I’ve accumulated. I’ve decided to start sharing some of the better articles and sites I come across. Hope you enjoy them as much as I have.
How to make the big move happen
How to plan your get away, get adjusted to living abroad and turn those ex-pat dreams into a reality, via Wild Junket
Applies to
#36. Live in Italy for at least one month on my own
#405. Move the heck out of Calgary
Helsinki – A Modern European City of Culture
This article just furthered my intense desire to get myself completely immersed in everything that is Northern European! Helsinki is at the top of my destination list. via Brilliant Trips
Applies to
#479. Visit the Suomenlinna Sea Fortress in Helsinki
#377. Travel to all of the European countries
Keep Your Travel Blog Alive Between Trips
I often struggle with this, when I get caught up in school and work. Exam season is the worst! via Heather On Her Travels
Squatty Potty
I had never known what a “Squatty Potty” was before. I never knew what pooping would be like in Asia/other places. Now, I do. via Squidoo
Applies to
#611. Use a squatty potty
One of the biggest problems I face in life (according to my mom, dental hygienists and my boyfriend’s relatives) is that I don’t have any sense of direction. Yes, I get lost easily, but I mean “sense of direction” more in a Harvard-grad-father-asking-his-coming-of-age-teenage-son-if-he-plans-to-pledge-Kappa kind of way. A where is my life going, as opposed to “where is the train I am on going,” kind of thing. I really, truly have little idea of what I want in life in terms of jobs and making an income. I have a random collection of life goals that really don’t add up to a career or really much of anything other than a kick-ass time on the planet. Everyone I know has some career aspirations by this point, which leaves me drifting alone among the options. Whenever people ask me what I plan to do (dental hygienists are the worst offenders for this, seriously) I just say “government work” which they picture as an cubicle deal but I picture as super secret ninja spy. Obviously this isn’t what I want, because wearing a mask all day would remind me too much of working in Disneyland as a giant puppet.
Rather than taking a stupid online test that will give me 50 possible careers most suited for me (note: these in the past have always included judge, which is awesome, because I would totally style myself after Judge Banks from Fresh Prince) I think it would be best to make a short-list of careers I definitely do not want and a compilation of careers I think I would be both interested in and totally kick ass at.
DO NOT WANT
Fish gutter (the smell, mostly)
Seamstress in the 1870s
Anything to do with the creation of buildings
Dental hygienist
Janitor at Peep Show establishment
Doctor who performs colonoscopies (though it would offer for a multitude of awesome jokes…)
Mother of fifteen
Hugh Hefner’s sponge bath assistant
Intestinal bacteria (just think if your human host ate a whole bulb of garlic, what would that be like?)
Participant on Hell’s Kitchen
Cow breeder (you have to catch semen…really now)
DO WANT
Professional zombie hunter
Japanese cartoon voice actor
Tiffany (touring malls, singing the best song ever written over and over? HECK YES!)
Pillow comfort analyst
Richard Branson’s best friend
Camera person for sea turtle documentaries
Baroness (I don’t honestly know what this is, but it just sounds so cool)
Cheesecake taster
Giant squid (shooting ink and living in the ocean, could life really offer a better profession?)
Town drunk
