Before I die

[stephbg]

I would like to touch a tiger before I die. Not just before I die, but it's something I'd really really like to do. I'll be in Brisbane in December for a family wedding, so I looked up the Dreamworld tiger experiences. Would I pay $495 to touch a tiger*? Yes I would. I have e-mailed my first enquiry.

Tell me flist et al, what's on your BID list?

(*) For that money they also throw in a professional photographer. I wonder if they cut him up into little pieces first?

Comments

[krjalk.livejournal.com]

I would like to travel into space.

Not necessarily to the Moon, or even into orbit, though I won't say no in the extremely unlikely event the opportunity to do either of those things presents itself. I'd be satisfied with a 15-minute suborbital hop on one of the space tourism vehicles that will become available in the next couple of years. They'll start out quite expensive, over $100,000 or so, but by the time I can afford to blow money on wish fulfillment it may not cost more than a plane ticket to London does nowadays.

If I thought Merete wouldn't chloroform me in order to stop me, I'd like a ride on one of these puppies.

[angriest.livejournal.com]

I have to be honest, going into space is one of mine too. I think high enough that I can experience genuine zero gravity - however high up that is, that's my target.

I don't think I'd have the patient to go to another planet, unless they develop *extremely* fast and cheap space travel in my lifetime. If *that* happens - Mars, baby.

[krjalk.livejournal.com]

"Zero gravity" has nothing to do with how high you go - gravity drops off by the inverse square of the distance from the center of the Earth, so being at an altitude of 350 km, roughly the same as the International Space Station, means that gravity is still at about 90% of the force we feel here on the surface. It's what keeps the ISS and satellites in orbit, after all, rather than flying off into deep space.

Zero g has to do with acceleration _ for example, if an elevator's cable is cut and it accelerates towards the ground, all objects inside the lift are accelerating at the same rate as the lift itself and thus are not pressed down against the lift floor, and are free to float around. Briefly, before the sickening thud. Objects in orbit are in "free fall" - that is, they are falling towards the ground, but their sideways motion means they always miss, and are thus permanently falling, thus the contents don't feel accelerated and are all floaty. If you were standing on a 350km tall tower, and thus stationary relative to the ground rather than free falling in orbit around it, you would feel that 90% of regular gravity I mentioned.

If you want to experience zero g in the near term, and at significantly lower cost than going into space, you can buy tickets to ride the Vomit Comet - the aircraft used to train astronauts. It moves in parabolic arcs, so that on the downwards dive passengers get up to 30 seconds of weightlessness before the plane has to pull up to avoid yet another sickening thud.

Some people find free fall rather disconcerting, as the primitive monkey brain keeps telling them they've fallen out of the tree.

Sorry about the geekspasm.

[arcadiagt5.livejournal.com]

you can buy tickets to ride the Vomit Comet - the aircraft used to train astronauts.

And there's a very good reason for the name too...

:)

[angriest.livejournal.com]

The vomit comet just seems like cheating.

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

Good geekspasm.

[arcadiagt5.livejournal.com]

Ride across the Nullabor.

Plus the whole "go into space" thing. :)

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Touching a tiger is certainly up there. Terrycat and Karen did it on their honeymoon. I'd love to visit those ones in... I can't remember the country but a bunch of monks look after them.

Other things on my before-I-die list
- See an erupting volcano - preferably a few - this will happen when I go to Costa Rica and Tanzania.
- See a narwhal - this requires exposing myself to utterly freezing temperatures which I dislike.
- See as many different bird species as possible. I doubt I'll be beating Phoebe Snetsinger's record of around 8000 species.
- Ride as many roller coasters/thrill rides as possible.
- Do a birding/wildlife/thrill ride/food tour of the world.

Other stuff.

[redbraids.livejournal.com]

I have slept in the lodge at the foot of that erupting volcano in Cosat Rica. It was VERY disturbing and I don't think that I actually slept a wink. Inetresting though.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

I'm looking into going on a birdwatching tour there mid next year.

Part of the tour involves a few days at the lodge at Volcan Arenal. It should be awesome. :) I always dream about volcanoes, and something about how they're the beginning and end of things just draws me to them. Curse living in the most seismically stable country on the planet! (although it is kinda nice to only have to worry about storms and bushfires).

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

Scuba dive Thailand and the Caribbean.

[sassamifrass.livejournal.com]

YES. That would be awesome!

[http://users.livejournal.com/doctor_k_/]

I never want to touch a tiger. Happy to have fed one cautiously, through bars of a very high fence, and thrilled to have scritched a liger (or tigon? I forget which), but tigers are fucking dangerous. They're psycho killers.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't plan to insult its mother, and I expect these are very patient and well fed tigers. I suspect it's bad PR to let the attractions eat the tourists most willing to shell out chunks of cash. Then again I'm not too fond of marketing, so I might have that last bit wrong.

I seem to remember a certain Skimbleshanks (The Railway Cat) was the most psycho cat I've ever known. Put Cally to shame.

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

That was me BTW. LJ spontaneously logged me out. Bad cookie.

[huckle.livejournal.com]

I want to see the aurora borealis. I saw the southern lights, once, in Kalamunda, when I was about 18. There is some awesome aurora footage on youtube. I have always had a 'thing' about them.
There is a tiger temple in Thailand, near Bangkok. You get to sit with them and pat them. I suspect that the Brisbane option will be less expensive than the trip to Thailand.

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

I know about the place in Thailand, but Brisbane will be a slightly easier reach for me.

[sassamifrass.livejournal.com]

You're on fire! With funny! Those first two sentences and the footnote had me in giggles.

I'd like to learn to scuba dive, and then go scuba diving in totally awesome places. I used to snorkel in the limestone caves along the Swan River all the time and it has always left me wanting more.

I want to go to Japan and visit all the beautiful Mt Fuji-esque locations.

I would like to meditate with Zen monks and go to one of those Zen..monk...places... where nobody speaks, and stay there a week or two, not saying a word.

I want to visit my friend Stephen in England who I have known for ten years and never met! I'd also like to visit some friends in the Eastern states who became my penpals in 1997 and again, have never met in person.

I'd like to do some volunteer work that took me overseas for a few months, helping do something practical, my preference would be something to help the rehabilitation of flora/fauna. I'd like to do that in my own backyward too, mind you.

I want to have something published before I die. No, damnnit, SEVERAL somethings. Even if I publish it myself on a photocopier with some staples and finished pieces of my writing are read by like, ten people.

I'd like to announce something on the radio, because I love using my voice, but I'm not interested in acting. That or joining some kind of public speaking club.

I'd like to publish some kind of academic... thingy... and possibly get a doctorate through unusual collections of work spanning many years of on and off research.

If I marry, I'd like to have science fiction elements involved somewhere.

I want to swim with sharks and dolphins and anything else that will let me.

I would also love to touch a tiger.

I'd like to fly on one of those sub-orbital flights on Virgin Galactic, and if possible in my lifetime, walk the surface of another planet. Or transfer my mind into a digital form and let my simulacrum experience it a thousand years later.

So uhm... those are the ones I have thought of in the last ten minutes... going to stop now... ^^;

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

That's a great list :-)