Great Cycle Challenge Still Rides On

Last month, I was signed up to take part in the Great Cycle Challenge. It was a pledge to ride my bike for 100 miles in the month of June and raise donations for child cancer. It was a great idea and there was a lot of activity for the event. From everyone except me. I was a lazy sac when it came to my bike last month. Actually, I was pretty lazy overall that month. So far the event has generated $1.6M in donations and over 960,000 miles were logged.

Luckily, the event was extended and I can still reach my riding goal. It would be nice to hit or come close to my donation mark. There is still time for me to log my rides and generate money. The last day for donations is July 31. If that is also the last day for rides, then I have 84 miles to go in 2 weeks. Sounds doable with determination but next weekend is the 24-hour soccer event known as Sarah Parvin Memorial. (This is another child cancer sporting event.)

I am asking everyone to check out my progress and donate $1 from your Paypal account. I am going to hit a few local rails to trails and start adding up the miles. I’m going to ride to my parents house tomorrow to borrow the truck for a Home Depot run (new grill, smoker, and fire pit for the weekend). That means that I will eventually have to ride back home.

As of right now, I am ranked 192nd in Pennsylvania with donations. I may never hit #1 in the US with over $12k, but I can at least help make a difference.

If I do not hit 100 miles by the end of this month, then I will add another 100 miles to my goal and extend it through August. I will keep going until I hit my mark. So, if August is a bust then September will be 300 miles total. October 400…Don’t worry, August will be the finishing month if I fail this month.

Remember to donate under my page. Thank you!

Please Donate to my Great Cycle Challenge Participation

I am taking part in the 2015 Great Cycle Challenge and my goal is to pedal 100 miles throughout June to fight kids’ cancer!

Why am I doing this? Because cancer is the largest killer of children from disease in the United States – 36 children die of cancer every week.

Kids should be living life, not fighting for it.

It will be tough, but nothing compared to what these brave kids face every day of their lives as they battle this terrible disease.

And so, I am taking on my own personal challenge to raise $500 to give these kids the brighter futures they deserve.

But to achieve my goal, I need your support.

Please support my challenge and join me in the fight against kids’ cancer by making a donation through my personal fundraising page!

Here’s the link to my page: https://greatcyclechallenge.com/Riders/3dd13

All funds raised will support Children’s Cancer Research Fund to continue their work to develop innovative treatments and find a cure for childhood cancer.

Thank you for your support.

Year 2012 is Coming to an End

We are almost 2 weeks away from closing out this year but only 6 days away from the end of the world. We will see if the ancient predictions hold any truth. I highly doubt it so we all might as well go out and finish Christmas shopping and think of the year to come. I’m hoping my 2013 will be the year of the reboot. This year was not one of my better years but I can’t sign off on it as being the worst. One of the things I learned through my ongoing Tao readings is change or the threat of change allows our life not to be stagnant. No one wants to drink from the cup of life if it contains stagnant Koolaid. Externally things could always be better but internally I learned a lot about myself and I hope to continue down that path.

I don’t want to drone on and on in this specific post but I just want to quickly chronicle how I progressed through my goals I set at the beginning of the year. Not for the world to see but for myself in case I go senile and need to remember what it is I did for my life.

-Stay well under 200lbs. [Optional goal is 180lbs.] (This has been my goal for the last couple of years and been successful.) Completed as well as the optional kicker. Somehow I dropped almost 40 lbs.
-Complete 2 certifications for work. Fail! I’m dropping this for 2013 because I don’t want to feel forced to care about work.
-Play more disc golf.  Sure I would love to play more but I think I got out more than previous years.
-Disc golf in 2 new states.  I try to do a new one a year and missed 2011. I failed to do 2 but I did play in Maryland so I’m counting it.
-Go fishing with the kids more. Fail! I went fishing in NY but nothing local that I could take the kids to.
-Take the kids camping. The boys and I had a great time after the quick storm we had setting up our tent. Can’t wait to do it again in 2013.
-Get all the rooms on the first floor painted. Only the hallway and kitchen remain.
-Insulate 2 of the 3 crawlspaces. Didn’t even hit the planning stages.
-Replace the ceiling fan. Not only replaced the old one but added one to the dining room.
-Replace the garbage disposal. After some bloody knuckles and Jaegermeister, this was done.
-Replace all electrical outlets and light switches. Only the second floor was partially completed.
-Expand the garden and hook up a rain barrel system. Garden was expanded and I have the design plans and the barrel so I am counting it.
-Build a compost pile. Maybe 2013.
-Decommission one of my servers. This should be done around the start of January so I’m on track at removing this from my plate of worries.
-Write 12 blog posts to this blog or any reincarnated form. (Actually 11 if you count this one.) Nailed this early in the year when I started writing game reviews for Boardgamegeek.com regarding boardgames on IOS devices. However I did drop off their radar without a notice. I feel bad and might try to repair that relationship.
-Hook up a surround sound system in family room. Does buying a Surround sound 5.1 Turtle Beach headset for my Xbox 360 count? Didn’t think so.
-Earn Xbox Gamerscore of 13500. Actually one of the failed goals that I’m glad I didn’t hit. That just means I spent less time this year playing video games. I’m currently at 11151. So I was way off my goal. I’m glad I didn’t go with my original 15000 mark.
-Read 10 books. I should hit 15 by the end of the year.
-Learn a new geeky/nerdish trait or skill. Well, I wouldn’t say I mastered editing documents using vi but I am better at it than I was before.

Sure that only works out to be a 50% completion rate but it is better than a ‘I gave up on January 2nd’ completion rate. Now to adjust some of my ongoing goals and add some new ones in there.