No Biking: Days 5 and 6

Day 5: Black Friday

No work, no bike, no problem (except that it was Black Friday and how was I to get to all the hot deals?).

No shopping for me; all I really did was my laundry, which is a block and a half away. However, in the final walk from the laundromat I lost my headphones. This is not good for long distance walks.

Day 6: Long Walks, No Headphones

Nothing like waking up early on a Saturday morning to go for a 45 minute walk to work without headphones. I brought my camera along to take some pictures of my crash site and the wonderful tourists on the Brooklyn Bridge. I missed a shot of a biker coming down the bridge and yelling at a tourist, who was standing in the middle of the bike lane. Here is what I did get:





[the yellow pole I hit]

I should count how many signs there are to tell people that bikes stay on the right and pedestrians stay on the left (there must only be about 25). I have often wondered if people get confused from the picture of the biker, which looks more like some body with a disconnected head floating between two hula hoops.

That about did it for Saturday. I finished my walk to work and eventually made it back to my apartment. Only one more day without riding my bike.

No Biking: Days 3 and 4

Day 3: I HATE THE SUBWAY

Wednesday, I wake up and decide to take the subway. I check my fastest route and see when the train is leaving. All sources tell me it will be a 33 minute trip including walking to the subway (I walk faster than average people so it will probably take less time).

Walking to the subway is easy. I pay my $2 and enter the station. The display says the next train will arrive in two minutes. I start thinking maybe this is not as bad as I make it out to be. Two minutes pass and no train arrives. Five minutes pass and no train arrives. Eight minutes pass, another train is schedule to arrive, but still nothing. I am starting to remember why I do not like to rely on others to get me places. Ten minutes have passed and the train arrives.

Everything is okay, I am only going to be ten minutes late. When taking the subway are you supposed to schedule your trip with the intent that trains could be delayed? I would hate to waste so much of my life planning for others flakiness. The train is moving and starting to fill up as we continue on down the tracks.

The train becomes a packed house before we dive under the river into Manhattan. I now remember another reason I do not like the subway. I don't like being shoulder to shoulder with other commuters, especially early in the morning when I am half asleep. Lucky for me I have my back against the door so I only have one person inches from me. The downside is this person is watching some Madonna live concert on his iPod nano and dancing. Yes, dancing.

I cannot even describe how I felt at this moment, but I will try. There is a packed train where most people have all filed front to back (to reduce the chances of accidentally making out). Everyone is standing still hating the fact that they are crammed on the subway. Everyone except the one guy dancing to Madonna. He is face to face with another rider. He is dancing like he is on the grind and it is still 1999. And he is two inches away from me. Face to face.



Then the train stops. We are under the East River. There is no announcement. There is a guy dancing to Madonna at 9:30 A.M. I am trapped and I am officially late for work. I hate the subway!

I think I blacked out after all this and the next thing I remember was showing up at work 30 minutes late. Needless to say, I walked home from work and did not take the subway.

Day Four

Happy Thanksgiving! I took the subway again. It only took me three trains to get to Queens. Everything was on time, so I only spent a little over an hour in the death machine. The ride home was much the same, but I am still scarred.

I HATE THE SUBWAY!

No Biking: Days 1 and 2

Day One

Starting out on a Monday is easy for me now; I don't work on Mondays so I usually have little to do (as opposed to last year when I was doing challenges while being unemployed). That being said I only left my house to go to the bar a few blocks from my apartment. Not biking is easy. Day one complete.

Day Two

Day two was the real beginning of the challenge. I actually had stuff to do (work). Biking is the fastest way for me to commute. Biking takes about 15 minutes, while walking would take just under an hour. The subway would be in between walking and biking, but the subway is a terrible terrible place (I have mentioned this before and I will mention it again and again). I have to wake up much earlier to walk to work.

My walk is dull, however I did pass by the scene of my accident that spurred this challenge. Walking 3.2 miles is no problem for me. Working around lots of bikes with nothing to do, is a problem.



I might have jumped on a bike and took it for a spin around the store (the store is tiny and I had my feet on the ground most of the time). First failure of the week. My punishment was walking another 3.3 miles to kickball after standing for nine and a half hours.

Riding my bike would be nice, but this is not too bad. As long as I avoid the train, this will be easy.

No Biking: The Challenge

I have been sitting idly thinking of a new challenge while I wait for my marriage to be finalized. Then, an idea hit me… or a pedestrian hit me… and I hit a railing… and I almost fell off the pedestrian part of the Brooklyn Bridge.


[yellow marks from the Brooklyn Bridge railing on my handlebars and glove]
There is something about riding a bicycle when it is five degrees below freezing and dodging tourists taking pictures in the bike lane; and that something is not pleasant. By the time I got to work the swelling was beefing up my arm and I had some thoughts. Biking is convenient to me about 90% of the time. Not riding my bike would probably make my life a living hell. The nearest subway is a 15-minute walk. Plus, I hate the subway. These things probably mean that not biking would be a perfect challenge. So...

The Challenge
No bike riding for seven days.
Not for transportation.
Not for entertainment.
Not for exercise.
None.

This week will hopefully be good to help me calm down about idiotic pedestrians who have no sense of where they are. In fact, I might even become one of these reckless pedestrians and teach others than riding a bike is something that should only be done in spin class.

Time to hang up my bikes and put away my gear for a week.

It's On!

New challenges are on their way (by the time you read this I will have already started my next challenge).

Update
I just wanted to change a few things before this next round of challenges starts. For the new readers out there, in the beginning I made a post to explain what I was doing. The change I want to make is from doing a challenge every week to every other week. This will allow me to look back on the previous week more clearly and also give me a break.

That is it. On with the challenges.

Marriage: Update

A quick update on the whole marriage thing.
I have had some suitors, some haters (well not official haters, but people who laughed at me), and some people who thought I was super awesome for doing this (this might be untrue, but some responses were vague).

I had one person comment that my bed is not suitable. I, however, argue that my bed is very practical and economical when you live in a room that is 11 ft x 8 ft and has a 37" TV. Just in case, I have posted this picture, so others can come to their own conclusions (I do own sheets, but they have never been used).


With that all said, as of now I have two options. One option is 3,000 miles away. The other wishes to elope. I am taking my time to decide, because obviously this is a huge step for my life.

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Maybe other challenges? Feel free to contact me like the others to say I am an idiot: alan.m.dickson@gmail.com.

Marriage: The Challenge

As of yesterday, the Pastor's Seven Day Sex Challenge is on. Today, I realized what my challenge would be, as his challenge was for married people and excluded myself.

My Challenge
To be married for seven days.

(sorry gay people around the world, I know you are fighting for your own marriages now, but this isn't to rub it in your face. This is an experiment to see what it is all about. Is it even worth fighting for? If I made any money from this I would donate to help you out, but sadly I don't.)


[Don't worry I clean up well.]

Married? Married? Married? Yeah, married. (oh Dong)

This could quite possibly be the hardest of my challenges. So crazy that it might not even happen. Anyway, here is my brainstorming for how it will get going, since I cannot just launch into this immediately:

I don't know if it should be an official on the books marriage. This would probably take a month or so to get the paper work and be more expensive when it comes to the ceremony.

Although the marriage will most likely be unofficial, there will still be a wedding ceremony. How grand it is will be determined on everything else.

There is only one small tiny bump after all this other stuff is sorted. That bump is that I cannot marry alone. Marriage is about two people.

The Request
I need a wife.

The Rules
My wife would have to live with me for seven days. This does not mean we have to have sex, because most married people do not. You do not have to cook for me. You do not have to sleep in my bed. You do have to come home every night. I have no clue what else happens in marriage but it will be pretty traditional. No cheating (if you cheat in a week of being married you are a very sad person).

Warning
I am not the best relationship man. I am probably one of the worst. I am extremely happy on my own. I do not need a lot of attention. In return this is generally how I treat other people.

With that said, if you are interested in being my wife e-mail me at alan.m.dickson@gmail.com and we can see if this can work. Or you can also e-mail me to tell me how stupid I am, but that is already a given.

P.S. Even though these challenges are created for seven days, that does not mean they cannot alter my life and become an ongoing part of it.

a pastor's seven day challenege: sex

I believe my blog has finally hit the masses. I thought after not posting for 6 months that it would go away, but it has persisted. The end of this month marks the one year anniversary for this blog. A whopping 22 posts in a year... Well this one makes it 23.

Anyway, I was on Digg today and ran into something that caught my eye.

Call to action: Pastor issuing 7 -day sex challenge

I don't know what to say. Not only did someone copy my seven day challenges, they took it somewhere I can't even fathom. A sex challenge? Thanks, trying to make my challenges look like kid's play. The worst part is that the challenge came from a Pastor during his sermon. How do I compete with that?

I don't. You win this time Rev. Ed Young. Good luck. If any Viagra is involved, then you are a wimp.

I may start a challenge for myself as well. Sex with seven people in seven days... or maybe no sex or any sexual activity for seven days. I cannot think right now. This is too much.

I will leave you with the his challenge.


Lust Vegas Week 2 Promo from Fellowship Church on Vimeo.


PS Sex for seven days probably means one minute each day... married people, ha.