Things #7 and #8: Timezone / Nuclear Weapons

 I am not sure if I would have wanted to be the one that invented the time zones. Somehow it does not feel that exciting. 

I am very sure that I would not want to be the one who invented nuclear weapons. In fact, it would have been much better if they not been invented at all (all weapons not just nuclear ones!).

Thing #6: Photography

Indeed. I wish I had invented photography. Who would not like to boast that they found a way to capture moments. Then again, who would like to go through all these moments again? Fortunately we seem to take photographs when the moment inspires us one way or another. Have you ever taken a photograph of something that made you feel bad?

These days we take so many photos on mobile phones that we end up diluting their value. I still remember the excitement of handing the film over the counter and waiting for it to develop before you could see how good or bad your shots were after all.  Even then, you used to treasure those moments captured (as you had already paid for the development of the film there was little else one could do!).

Nowadays we take so many photos without thinking too much about it. Why not after all? You can just delete those that you don't need. Still, how many times do we go back to them to view them? How many of us still have photo albums or even a digital frame? What's the point in taking a photo at the first place if you are not going to view it? 

Thing #5: Fast Food

 The pandemic has hit this blog so for almost a year I did not get to post something. I am now back and ready to to wish I had invented something, or not... In fact I doubt anyone would have been proud to be called the inventor of fast food as per Thing #5. I do occasionally eat fast food but overall not big fan. Maybe I had my fair share over the years and my palate and... stomach demand something different.

Having said all the above, if I had to pick something the choice would have been rather simple.

Still if I really had a choice.. I would have gone for 4 fried chickens and a (diet) coke.

Thing #4: Cloning

I have been told that I look like David Gahan or Bradley Cooper. This is either testimony to my versatility or those casting judgement on my looks are not very reliable (or they are too polite). I am only saying this because this Thing is about cloning. Hence the task was to rate how well you matched same-name impostors and doppelgangers. As I have never met a same-name impostor I can't answer the first. As far as doppelgangers are concerned, I need to wait for the next Depeche Mode to be announced.

Taking a slightly more liberal approach to "cloning" and the whole idea behind genetically engineering life forms I would suggest you "The measure of a man (Star Trek: The Next Generation) which is considered one of the best in the series.

Thing 3#: Matches

I often used to wondered what "safety" matches were about. I now know.

Arguably you may find watching the video below a far more exciting use of your time.

Thing 2#: Mobile phones

Yes they are useful, but given the amount of time I spent in front of screens (mobile phones included) I think this would have probably been in the list of things I wished no one had invented. My first phone was a Nokia 1610. The screen featured 2 lines of text that were sufficient for calling people. If you were lucky and had the plus version you could also sent SMS. Then again with a screen capable of only holding 2 lines of text it was wiser to call (assuming you had free minutes or afforded to call).



If you still have an old phone tucked away, check out how much it worth on eBay. You may be surprised! Alternatively, if you can always recycle it after taking part in a mobile phone throwing competition (indeed..  such a competition does exist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_throwing).

Thing 1#: Time & Thing 10#: Time Machine

If I was to invent something it would not be time. It would be a time machine.

It would certainly be fun, assuming with machine could also take you places. Imagine going back in time to visit the Great Pyramids and having to travel all the way there on foot, by horse or boat.

Thinking of the future, if I had invented time travel, then  I would have thought (very reasonably) "why stop here?" and then moved on to invent teleportation too. So travelling from A to B would not be a problem.

More realistically speaking, one thing I could have actually come up with is the excellent  TimeandDate website: https://www.timeanddate.com/. As the name suggests, I use it for anything time and date related, especially finding out what the difference is between two dates. For example since my first post on 16/12/2017 there have been 4354 days from the start date to the end date, but not including the end date. Useful to know.
In case you have been wondering that is:

• 11 years, 11 months, 1 day excluding the end date.
• 143 months, 1 day excluding the end date.
• 376,185,600 seconds
• 6,269,760 minutes
• 104,496 hours
• 4354 days
• 622 weeks

Returning to the book, one thing that was of interest was the fact that 4236 was the first recorded year. After some online searching it seems that this was the first year of Egyptian calendar.

PS: I only noticed that Thing 10 was to invent a time machine, almost 2 years after the original post. It seems that somehow I managed to go back in time to complete this Thing today!

I am about to start going through the 101 Things You Wish You'd Invented...

I am not entirely sure how to approach this. The 101 01 Things To Do Before You Are Old and Boring was a clear to-do list. With this one things are not as straight forward. Having had a look at the first 2-3 Things, I guess this will end up being a systematic collection of random thoughts about stuff.



Hopefully it won't take me as long as it took me to complete the 101 Things To Do Before You Are Old and Boring...

I am just so happy that there are not 101 books to go through! 

It's now been 12 years since I started this blog. I am certainly (much) older, but hopefully not any more boring compared to my earlier me! I think it's high time I posted for one more time and claim the last 4 Things completed. As you have probably guessed by now, I don't like leaving business unfinished. Neither though do I want to wait forever before I can "properly" completed it. Life is short and one Thing I have learnt over the years, is that sometimes it is OK for Things to simply be good enough. There are indeed battles that you need to give, striving for perfection, but this should not apply to everyThing (pun intended).

There is also another good reason why I need to get on with Things: I bought 101 Things you wish you'd invented, 101 Things to do to become a superhero, 101 Things you need to know and some you don't and.. 101 Things to do before you die. If, on average I need 10 years to complete each list, then I'd be giving the last book a very different meaning!

So...

Thing 73: Have a sleepover 
Not only did I have a sleepover, but I actually organised one when I was 17!

Thing 59: Camp out in the backyard 
I have gone camping and/or slept outside. Such experiences have never been the most comfortable ones. These reminded me of numerous times when I had to "camp" overnight involuntarily at an airport somewhere, waiting for my next flight. No pain... no gain. So this Thing is officially done.

Thing 74: Become a spy
That would have made sense 15 years ago. Now we have social media. LOL!

Thing 55: Invent a new trend
I have often thought of myself as being an innovative and enterprising individual. I would not though refer to myself as a trend-setter. So it seems I am more on the "invention" side as opposed to the "new trend" side of this Thing. Personally speaking, this is more than enough for me. I've never really cared much about what others thought or did and hence if I was to do something, I would have done it for myself, and not for setting a new trend.

Given that the last Thing written up was one on inventing something... one can only interpret this as a sign that the next book and list of 101 Things to go through should be the one on the Things I wish I'd invented!

Thing #11: Make a difference - Get your school involved

I got an award that was presented in front of my School. You just need to wait for it.. and in doing so you can finally kill two birds with one stone! "Make a difference - Get your school involved" is finally done.

Thing #67: Build the Ultimate Sandcastle and Have Fun in the Sun

They did not specify what exactly they meant by "ultimate", so I thought to innovate...

Thing #82: Learn to Skip Stones

I used to do this when I was a kid. I could typically  get 4-5 skips which was not that bad. So I thought to try this again. I travelled to the beach and start throwing stones to the sea. I will not comment on my performance. Instead.. I will just show you a more interesting video.

Think #54: Be a Daredevil

I'd prefer that thing was called Be Daredevil, in which case I'd have prefer to be Hulk or even better Iron Man.

I did try a roller coaster recently, but I think to claim this Thing riding the crystal clear cabin at Ngong Ping 360 was sufficient enough.