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Dave Freeman, an advertising agency executive who co-wrote "100 Things to Do Before You Die," a travel guide to inspire travelers to treat each day as if it may be their last died August 17 after falling and hitting his head at his home in Venice. He was 47.
Relatives have said that he managed to visit just over half of the places he wrote recommended in his famous 1999 book.
The guide, subtitled "travel events you can't miss" was one of the first books to create a travel plan based on 100 sites and then market it with a title that reminded mortal readers that time was limited. It became a best seller shortly after publication and spawned an entire genre.
The "100 Things" approach later swept the publishing industry, said Neil Teplica, who wrote the book with Freeman. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times yesterday, Teplica said he and Freeman had come up with the idea for 100 things To Do Before You Die after being inspired by some of the off-the-wall listings for obscure events and public festivals that appeared on www.whatsgoingon.com, a cult travel internet site they jointly ran from 1996 to 2001.
The title meant "you should live every day like it would be your last, and there's not that many people who do," Teplica told The Times. "It's a credit to Dave -- he didn't have enough days, but he lived them like he should have."
"This life is a short journey," read the introduction by Freeman and his co-author Neil Teplica, which summed-up the book's spirit. "How will you make sure that you will fill it with the most fun, and that you visit all the coolest places on earth, before you pack those bags for the very last time?"
Freeman's father Roy was quoted as saying said his son's favourite line was: "We're going to the future. Do you want to come along?". "It always made everybody laugh," he said.
Ranging from the participatory to the sedate, their list includes the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska; the Pageant of the Masters in Southern California; Mardi Gras in New Orleans; the World Cow Chip Throwing Championship in Beaver, Oklahoma; Carnival in Brazil; Bastille Day and the Cannes Film Festival in France; Oktoberfest in Germany; the Running of the Bulls in Spain; Yom Kippur at Israel's Western Wall; the Pushkar Camel Fair in India; the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan; and Australia's Nude Night Surfing Contest.
RIP Dave.
Information from The LA Times and The Independent World
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There are so many people that seem to have doppelgangers out there and I've assembled a few from the entertainment world that I think bear an uncanny resemblance to each other. Some, like Katy Perry and Zooey Deschanel are so alike they could pass as twins where others could pass for being related. What do you think?
Katy Perry
Image Celebrityhound
Zooey Deschanel
Image ABC News
Nicholas Brendon
Jesse Bradford
Image cachedaylife
Alexander Siddig (Star Trek Deep Space Nine)
James Callis (Battlestar Gallactica)
Avril Lavigne and Chris Crocker
Image Totallylookslike.com
Skeet Ulrich
Johnny Depp
John Rhys Meyers & Luciano Pavarotti
Image Freewayone
Bono & Robin Williams
Image Spinner
Will Ferrell
Wayne Rogers (Mash)
Image Bnutbase
Alexis Bleidel
Image Freewebs
Robin Tunney
Ethan Hawke
Mark McGrath
John Cameron Mitchell as Hedwig
Rachel Griffiths
So what do you think, were they separated at birth? Do you have any lookalikes that you want to add? Please feel free to post pics in the comments section.
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I had heard about this a while ago so last night I thought I would check out the Feral Cheryl doll. After all, if someone is going to use my very bogan name for a dolly, I wanted to see what it was all about. I mean, who doesn't want to see if their namesake doll is like them.*
Well here she is, the anti-Barbie, fresh from the rainforests of Northern New South Wales, Australia.
Feral Cheryl began life as a joke her creator Lee Duncan made for her sister as a present in 1995 when she was working as a broadcaster for the ABC. A fellow reporter did a story on the mock up dolls Lee had made for a local craft market and the rest, as they say, is history. The response to Feral Cheryl was so good Lee took the brave step of leaving the ABC, and into the business of making the ultimate anti-fashion doll.
This 34 cm vinyl doll runs barefoot, dreadlocks her hair with coloured braids and beads, wears simple rainbow clothes, has piercings and a range of tattoos, and even a bit of natural body hair. Feral Cheryl is modelled on the green extremists, known as ‘ferals’ from Australia. (For more on the background to Feral Cheryl, see Lee's website HERE’).
In contrast to the ‘fashion doll’ mentality, Feral Cheryl does not have an extensive wardrobe, or high heels, or swimsuit, or gym gear, or wedding dress or cheerleader outfit. She needs no sports car or hairdressing salon, no disco stage or shopping mall.
Her motto is "Live Simply, Run Wild". Her only accessories: a bag of home grown herbs**, a sense of humour and a social conscience.
Each Feral Cheryl doll is individually crafted with a variety of coloured beads, bindis and a range of tattoos, so there are no two exactly the same.
Since 1998 Feral Cheryl has been available on the internet, and has found homes from New York city to remote Scottish Islands, from Italy to New Zealand, and Alaska to New Mexico.
For more information go to http://www.feralcheryl.com.au/
*I like to think I have less body hair and I can't seem to get the dreadlocks right.
** the doll comes with a small stash of dried basil.
All information and photos are the property of Lee Duncan.
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I just thought I'd share this great little short film using very cool realistic looking CGI. The actual plants are real and the effects added with CGI. It looks very much like a time lapse nature video until the plants actually start blinking at you etc and then they look far more alien like. Extremely well made and just lovely to watch
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OK, this is far more insidious than terrorism. This post was triggered by a number of people I saw on my way from the train station to work: Fashion victims and the horror they cause the rest of us on the streets. This time it's male fashion victims.
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I had to share, you may never look at your chocolatey snacks quite the same way again! C'mon tell us your fave!
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I don't know if you know where I am now you sick bastard I just wanted to say thank you for stealing from me. You stole my trust, you stole my privacy and it will probably appeal to your little ego that you have left an indelible mark on who I am.
My email was just hacked. Most people when hacked automatically think some random person has found their details. My mind goes to the man who followed me while I was shopping, buying coffee, living my life. The man who tracked me to my workplace, where I caught public transport and then broke into my home to draw a message on my mirror and watched me while I slept
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Have you ever wondered just how an animated optical illusion works? This great video breaks down the concept so that you can see how this wonderful trick of the eye is performed.
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IMPORTANT UPDATE!!!
Further to my post Is eBay about to seriously rip-off its users? CLICK HERE the ACCC has found that eBay's conduct is anti-competitive. Below is the ACCC's draft notice and eBay's action. The saga continues but the ACCC has delivered a huge blow to eBay / Paypal in their attempt to bypass the rules of the Trade Practices Act
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I've been having a bit of a hard time lately with too many tears and not enough laughs. So here is something to put a smile on your dial, it worked for me!
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This is not a post about four letter words that cause outrage; the ones used to swear, curse, abuse, joke, describe or use as derogatory terms.
These are the other four words that cause far more heaviness of heart. They can change your life in a heart beat. You may hear them, think you hear them but do you really hear what is being said? Just think about what might be behind these words the next time they are spoken. As many of these words have multiple meanings you may not pick up the negativity surrounding them or the help being sought or their absolute intent. They may not always be bad when spoken but watch for the demeanor of the speaker to see what they definitely had in mind
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Almost everyone will have at least one job interview in their lives and there are some very simple tips everybody should follow, whether you are trying for a job in an office, in retail, construction or fast food. All of these may seem like common sense to some but here are some of the things I see on a daily basis that can, other than your qualifications and experience, make an enormous difference.
1. Be on time. I can’t stress this enough. Do a little reconnaissance. If you’re driving check ahead there is parking nearby and if you’re catching public transport give yourself ample time to get there including any walk to your destination from a train station etc. If you are late you have shown a lack of respect for your prospective employer - their time is valuable - and you have most likely ensured that they will give someone else the job. If you are running late due to unforseen circumstances, have the courtesy to call and explain. If you have planned properly, nothing short of an accident blocking the road or your train being cancelled should prevent you from being on time
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Now I don’t consider myself even close to being old but tell that to my mind and body, who seem to have packed their bags and have headed off on a one way trip to Oldsville. I’d join them but I can’t find my keys.
I have noticed recently that my eyesight is getting pretty shabby. I used to wear glasses for distance a number of years ago and then – tada – out of the blue my vision was much better and the glasses were ditched but now it seems that going blind isn’t nearly as much fun as getting blind. Who knew? My depth perception in the dark has been ever so slightly changing so that when I’m driving at night I’m moving a little further away from parked cars because it’s getting harder to judge the distance and I have an aversion to sideswiping someone’s precious Beemer with my junky Laser
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As of 17 June 2008 eBay Australia intends to implement a ruling that buyers will no longer be able to pay by bank transfer, cheque or money order and will be forced to use PayPal. Now for those that may not know, PayPal is owned by eBay and both eBay and PayPal charge separate fees. So eBay will receive two cuts of each seller’s profits. Firstly, is that not double charging? Secondly, does forcing this change breach the current Trade Practices Act? The answer to the first question is a resounding yes and line on the second is clearly being pushed to the very limit of the law. And to further cloud the issue, it is only eBay Australia in the eBay group that is pushing for this change; so far. Is the risk of fraud higher in Australia than other countries to warrant such action?
So how is this allowed to happen? Well although eBay Australia has announced on its site that these changes will be made, the truth is they have put forward a notification of intent to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) which has yet to be ruled upon. eBay has asked for immunity against legal action from the Trade Practices Act arguing that the public benefits of the move, which in their view would be increased transaction security, outweighs any negative effect to the public that might be caused by a lessening of competition in the online payments market. The act prohibits companies from imposing restrictions on people's freedom to choose whom they deal with
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Bless their thieving little dumbarse cotton socks. This story just tickled me; a) I love hearing about thieves getting their just desserts and b) I love hearing about how technology can make our lives better and or easier. This story blends the two.
Two men were arrested in White Plains New York with $US5500 worth of stolen computers and electronic devices including iPods, TVs and game consoles after the owner happy snapped one of the thieves using her webcam remotely
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The BBC technology program ‘Click’ has shown how vulnerable your personal information is on Facebook and how easily that information could easily be stolen.
Facebook allows users to add myriad applications to their profile. But as the BBC has shown, anyone with coding experience could potentially mine your personal info by creating a malicious program concealed as an application
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There are some of you who may already be aware of this but if you are a comic book fan take note. On Saturday, May 3rd – the comic book industry once again celebrates
Free Comic Book Day!
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Sometimes truth is way stranger than fiction. Just for a laugh I thought I’d share some of the USA’s strangest laws that are still on the books.
In the state of Rhode Island it is illegal to throw pickle juice on a trolley. I’m guessing this means a tram and I would love to know the story behind that one
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I have decided that I am the Typhoid Mary of computers at the moment. Every one that I touch seems to come down with some sort of IT pox. My laptop has slowed to a crawl, almost every time I have tried to logon to myspace over the past few days I get a 'technical error' message leaving me unable to access my home page time after time (now I know how Dorothy felt – there is no place like home), but then to cap it off this morning I started my computer at work to find that all of my external hardware had gone on strike.
I had to get the very helpful boys from the helpdesk to spend 2.5 hours searching my computer and crawling around under my desk trying to figure out how it all went so terribly wrong. Did my computer catch bird flu or some sort of software Ebola? Not that they could find. Which leads me to the inevitable conclusion that they don't work simply because I have the computer version of Errol Flynn disease, which means basically, everything I touch I fuck
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Well Easter has come and gone but remember the chocolate lives on...on the hips, the thighs, the Homer Simpson jelly belly...Who cares, it tastes so good?
I have been invaded by pantry moths. You kill the little suckers and their offspring and like The Terminator they just keep coming back! I am currently in the process of tearing my kitchen apart to get into every nook and cranny so that I can exterminate them. I have even had to take out the shelves because they have even laid their eggs in the cracks in between and the little holes that the shelf pegs go into. I am now living in what looks like a demolition zone. But with determination, and a shitload of white vinegar and borax, I will defeat them! Sorry, just thought I'd share a little of my exciting life with you all
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