Wednesday, December 07, 2005

A Quest

So I'm a social guy who prefers to have people around me rather than being alone. When I am alone I feel much more vulnerable and when I am with others I feel I always have purpose to my life.

This is fine normally but at the moment my self-confidence has been slowly eroding. I need to prove to myself that I can do something impressive through hard work, focus and determination.

I have decided that I want to go on a solo quest. Just like the knights of old who would perform impressive deeds to prove their worth to the king. In this case the king is me and I need to prove to myself that I can accomplish a difficult task.

I'm really quite serious about this quest and I was trying to come up with what my quest should be but the thing about quests is that they are given to the knight/adventurer. Anything I can think of is too easy or too difficult.

I was also thinking of creating a permanent piece of art somewhere.

One of my favorite quotes goes something like "When you do things with confidence you are able to make a challenge fun and when you have fun you can accomplish amazing things."

Some ideas I've considered.

1) Slay a dragon. (Very difficult to find and if found it would be far too valuable to just kill it. Plus it's not very original.)

2) A Walkabout in the Australian bushland. (Sounds perhaps a bit dangerous)

3) Learn a martial art

4) Build a lasting work of art.

5) Conquer my fear of the water. Learn to swim and learn to surf.

If you feel like giving any serious suggestions I'd be happy to consider them. I'm leaning towards 3,4 or 5.

I hope to have some humorous content back here soon. I'm just not in that frame of mind at the moment.

- krankiboy

16 comments:

daniel said...

I'll take you swimming once you get to Sydney and make sure you don't drown. Promise.

PS. Just noticed those image links on the right. Awesome!

Quirkie said...

You can't swim? You'd hate it in my dream, then.

If you want an adventure, then you have to have a lady to take with you. That's the point- who else could you rescue?

Either that, or a men-only adventure, like an initiation into manhood thing. Men miss out on that kind of thing these days. I heard once that men can only be men when the already-men take them out into the wild and leave them there so they can learn that they're smaller than the world, that there are forces they just cannot stand up against and win. They basically need the absolute crap beaten out of them by nature.

Quirkie said...

Oh Bevis?
Beaten.
By a girl.

Fluffy said...

I vote for the bushwalk or the swimming. Not alone. Or on acid. It's not a goddam vision quest.

BEVIS said...

Quirks, bless you, I made my point with the last post, and you were beaten by a tiny plush frog with a hand up its butt.

BEVIS said...

Kranks, I looked at 3 and thought it said "Learn a marital art", which may also be a useful life skill to put under your belt (if you'll pardon the imagery).

However, I think it might be good for you if you were to combine some of the ideas you mentioned, such as 2, 3, 4 and 5. You could go on Walkabout in the Australian bush (somewhere over towards Broome would be best for this), and while you're out there you can teach yourself a martial art such as taekwondo (a little-known traditional Australian martial art) in the sand dunes, before finally reaching the coastline (where you are so happy to see water that you embrace the waves with newfound joy and a complete absence of fear), and then you build a special sandcastle on teh beach to commemorate the event.

I'm not sure if it falls under the description of a "lasting" work of art, but if you took a photo of it before the tides washed it away (and remember, the tides work in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere, which means they creep up from behind you when you're facing the sea), then it's technically lasting.




... Sorry, am I not helping?? ...

Ukulele said...

Learn to speak a new language then travel to an area where this language is spoken and communicate with these people.

That is one of my quests and you can share it with me if you like. X

Melba said...

definitely a bush experience or learn to deal with the water fear. there are eco-type indigenous experiences you could do, with a guide. just you and him, then he would of course have to give you initiation-type cuttings into your skin. you could handle that. the swimming, be careful, our surf can be evil. but yes, a manly challenge.

[cue music for joke about sydney suburb 'manly']

sublime-ation said...

Sorry to backtrack but I had the weirdest freakin dream last night. My bf and I were looking at flats (I believe you'd call them 'apartments') and there were three weird long flats near this beautiful river, like the Yarra a hundred years ago before it was all dirty and polluted.
We decided to apply for one, this girl told us to go into this compound and it was like a Middle Eastern warlord's den, filled with heaps of people trying to apply for flats. When it was our turn this guy with a machine gun grabbed me and took me into this room where this big fat Sultan guy was sitting, with rows of everyone filling out forms. In the middle of the form it asked 'What's your favourite Subway roll?' and I ticked Tomato and then a tomato and Cheese roll appeared. In the middle of the form, it just sprung up.
I then had to perform a dance for the Sultan, which I did with chairs using amazing acrobatic techniques I do not really possess in real life. He took a shine to me and we got the flat, but then I didn't want to live there cause it was next to a compound with heavy dudes with machine guns who might want me to entertain them with acrobatic chair dancing.
What can it possibly mean?
All I know is, I'm not moving anytime soon.

gun street girl said...

Write a book...about and epic quest.

gun street girl said...

an epic quest.

BEVIS said...

Either way is good, GSG. :)

Enny said...

I'll teach you martial arts if you trip past Canberra!

And for Bevis' FYI - If I hadn't got my resume proof read before posting it in, I would have been well known for my 16 years experience in marital arts...

kranki said...

I'm off to Meredith and i will give more thought (beer drinking and manic dancing) to these quest ideas. But thanks for some excellent feedback.

Enny, what kind of Martial Arts could you teach me?

Oh, now I got a bit sad since Pat Morita died a few days ago. I hope he's waxing off his Bonsai tree someplace peaceful.

Enny said...

It's only a little school - about a hundred / hundred and fifty througout Australia in QLD, ACT and VIC... but we whip those Tae Kwon Doe pussies wit our marital arts ;o)

(Apol's to any TKD'ers!)

Peter said...

Dude,
Go swimming. If you don't, you're missing like a lot of what Australia's good for. Try Cronulla if you're into that saucy sun/surf/violent race hate combo that's so popular in those parts.