#30 days, 27 completed challenges and 1 missed deadline

Yo!

I started this challenge exactly 30 days ago and now it's time for me to say goodbye.. I've decided to stop after 30 days and take it easy with my flu.

bye bye 30 days challenge!

I was feeling quite stressed out before the last week started from all the organizing. I ran out of challenges, had a couple of lame blog posts and to top it off I missed an important deadline in school because I was so occupied with my blog and challenges..

ANYWAYYYYYYYYYS! Even though I didn't get the full 30 and I consider some of my challenges LAME, I'm very content with what I achieved! It was an amazing 30 days full of great people, cool new experiences, going out of my comfort zone to try new things, highs and lows and support from my friends and readers.

Besides my street dancing challenge which is what I love, My favourite challenge was riding a horse! It was the most exciting thing to really see how big a horse is, then sit on it and guide it. First I was a little timid, but as I rode and got used to the size it was a really cool experience! Also the super tired blog post turned out to be one of my funniest stories in my opinion! http://livingfor30.blogspot.fi/2012/09/patrick-peetu-our-daily-life-on-farm.html

My least favourite challenge was the new food challenge! So many let downs (beautiful fruit tasting bland, badly cooked duck, horrible garnishes) and not being content all day. I found a cool green tea though. http://livingfor30.blogspot.fi/2012/10/24-new-food-all-day.html

Thank you 

to everybody who helped me complete my challenges! I wouldn't had such a blast without all you wonderful people. Big thanks to my readers and supporters who enjoyed my blog and made me change my mind about quitting half way through..

I'm glad that this blog entertained people and I hope I have inspired some of you to try new things. Here are a couple of shots from my journey I think are memorable.

a moving picture says a thousand words.

ART!

Met Jet Li.

Divine climbing trip

Got this beautiful shot of my ass.

Almost quit my blog, but my friends convinced me to continue! 

PARKOUUUUUUUUR! 

Tried on some pimpin' gear.

Instagramming Darth vader eating cake during my waitress meal challenge!

My kinky side

Peetu and Patrick 

Hip-Hop Farmer

Taylor painting me like one of his french boys. 

Chihuahua puppies' first steps outside!

Dogs I fed. 

Silkworm pupae, never again!

#26 - 27 The Godfather & DJ

Hey y'all!

I've been feeling the effects of the flu these couple of days and mixed with heavy dancing it hasn't been a good feeling.. I'm not really feeling very creative, so I'm just going to try and sum these up.

On Monday I took it easy and took up the challenge of watching the first part of the Godfather movie trilogy. The Godfather is considered as one of the best movies of our time, so I wanted to find out what the hype was all about.

It was quite hard to concentrate the full three hours the movie lasted, since I'm used to watching the modern era movies with fast paced editing and quick storytelling. I'm not going to get in to a full review mode here, but I will say that it didn't impress me as much I would have wanted it to. I'm going to watch the rest of the trilogy in the upcoming nights.

The setup

Yesterday I went to my friends house for some DJaying lessons. First we tried the old school method of mixing tracks together. Basically you have two different songs spinning on the turntables that you try to adjust to have the same tempo, and have the counts match. One of them plays from the speakers and the other from your headphones. You adjust the one playing in the headphones with a tempo slider and speeding the vinyl up & down on the deck, so it matches the tempo and beats of the other song. Then when you got it, you can create a transition from one to another with a cross-fade.

 It was very difficult to find the matching tempo for both tracks. At first I couldn't do it, but I started to get the hang of it and made the first almost smooth transition of my life!

After the realness we tried DJing with the help of the computer software and some cheating ways on how to keep a breakbeat going with one track in both LP's.

For me to really get in to DJing I would have to spend like a week doing it. It was fun and difficult. After experiencing it I have much more respect for the DJ's doing their thing!

#25 - ZUMBA

Oh yes!

Today was ZUMBA day! My friend Leena took me to a local fitness club that gave me a free pass once I signed a form with my contact details. So I gave them my name and a fake email and phone number and got my free ticket to ZUMBAAH!!

I don't have any video or pictures but you have to believe me when I say I was KILLIN' IT! The instructor used steps from salsa, reggaeton, dancehall etc. I was kind of expecting more of that ZUMBAAAH mentality, but things weren't as glorious and glittery as the commercials suggest and it reminded me of the african dance lesson I took a couple of weeks ago for this blog.

After the class was over, as the people came in the studio to prepare for another aerobic lesson, I got complimented by three older ladies for my ZUMBA moves. Hahah! One even slapped my ass and gave me her phone number.. lol, just kidding! The studio had glass walls facing the gym, so they had been watching me shake my booty while waiting for their aerobic to start.

Anyways, Zumba was kind of a disappointment. I was expecting more glamour and that ZUMBA feeling, but best they could do was some rumba salsa steps.

#24 - New Food All Day

Wsup!

Yesterday I spent almost two hours in the grocery store looking at various edible items. I needed to buy food for today's challenge, which is "only eat what you've never eaten before". I decided before hand that I'd cook something new, go out and eat something new and get the rest of my calories from snacks and various weird food items.

I had planned to make a quick fish dish with something new I could pick at the store, but as I entered the meat section I noticed they had duck! It quickly became obvious that I wanted to cook duck instead of fish, because I don't particularly like seafood. I bought a large piece of marinated duck breast. It ended up being the most expensive item for this challenge because I didn't consider it's weight.

Overview of my groceries.

After getting daduq, I went through all of the sections and found quite a collection of new groceries. Here's a list of my meals and some descriptions how they tasted like accompanied by a star rating from (1)* to (5)***** stars.

Breakfast
- Macadamian nuts, brazil nuts, honeyroasted almonds ***
- A real pretzel ****
- Lapsang SouChong Black Smoke flavoured tea ****
- 1 Silkworm pupa from Korea *

Yucky pupae. They came in a can filled with liquid from Korea.

YUCK YUCK YUCK! I ate the silkworm pupa first. I gagged and almost vomited. It smelled a little like peanuts, but when you bit it you remembered it wasn't a nut, but a slimy bug with a horrible after taste. I had a whole bag of them but I ended up only eating one and offering the rest to my colleagues and schoolmates.

The nuts tasted a little "forresty". They were okay, but they have nothing on walnuts! The honeyroasted almonds were really good. :) The pretzel was fine and salty.

Description of the smoke tea. English translation: TEA TASTE RIKE SMOKE!

When I was buying my tea from a special section in the grocery store, I asked the clerk to give me the most special tea they had. She chose black smoke tea which smelled like tar and smoke. Like other flavoured teas I have tasted, the flavour was very subtle and I couldn't really taste much difference in it compared to regular tea.

Snacking part I
- Pecan nut danish pastry *****
- Beef Jerky: Cajun Hot ***
- Red Hots: Cinnamon flavoured candy *****

Yummy! The danish pastry (viineri) was delicious. I downed it with some SMOKEYTEA. Beef Jerky: Cajun Hot was alright. It's dried up meat with a chili flavour. Quite dry (duh) and a little yucky when you think of how long the meat has been in the back.

To satisfy my sweet tooth I've been eating Red Hots. They are da BOMB! Very good cinnamon flavoured candy that have this sweet and hot taste.

Lunch
- Coconut chicken soup ****
- Tofu and veggies ***
- noodlestuff with veggies ***

I went to a thai place to eat some tofu. I've tasted it, but never eaten a full meal before. I wanted to get Tofu with Red Curry, but the place I went to was only serving a lunch buffet. I managed to find a couple of dishes in the buffet as substitutes anyways: Tofu mixed with some kind of a sauce and various vegetables, and some noodle mix full of different nudls, some veggies and who the fuck knows!

Salty coconut chicken soup

Anyways, the soup was good. It was salty and coconutty, had some mushrooms in it. I never eat mushrooms so that was a cool bonus! Mushrooms taste like nothing? Ok, got it.

Thai extravaganza

Tofu and the noodle stuff tasted alright. I was still feeling the silkworm pupa in my stomach so I didn't have much of an appetite. Tofu with a lot of vegetables and sauce is good, because it kind of disappears in the mix of flavours.


Snacking part II
- Canada Dry Ginger Ale *****
- Reese's Peanut Butter Cups ***

RED HOTS and Reese's peanut butter cups.

Ah yes, the infamous ginger ale makes a comeback into my mouth from the previous food challenge. BOOYAA! I tried buying something different, so I took a "dry" ginger ale, but it tasted pretty much the same as my first one a week ago.. delicious!

Reese's peanut butter cups are what they sound like, peanut butter in a cup. A little too sweet for my taste.

Dinner
- Teriyaki Duck Breast ***
- Quinao **
- Coconut Water *
- Marley's Mellow Mood Berry **

Duck, Quinao and coconut water. Good, worse, worst

Preparing the duck wasn't the easiest task. You slice up one side of the duck, put it in a cold pan and heat it up, cook both sides and then place it in the oven for 15 minutes. That being said I think I overcooked it a little.. Still, it tasted pretty good, like a mixture of chicken and steak. In good hands I can imagine it being better than chicken.

Quinoa from Equador is used as a garnish. It's like couscous, only it tastes bitter and like GUANOO.

"Marley's Mellow Mood – Natural Relaxation" lol, this drink is so ridiculous on it's own that I don't even have to come up with a joke.

Coconut water was horrible. I took two sips and then I was done.. I tried switching to Marley's Mellow Mood Berry (which is a carbohydrated berry drink with "herb" extracts lol) but it wasn't any better.

Supper
- Pitahaya fruit **
- Kiwano fruit **
- Jasmine Pearl Green Tea *****

They sure look delicious on the outside, but it's what the insides taste like that counts! Pitahaya on the left, kiwano on the right.

I bought both fruits judging them by their exotic looks and boy, was I in for a disappointment. I ate some kiwano first. The insides had a jello-like texture and it didn't look appealing. The taste was kind of like a mellow cucumber. The pitahaya also looked cool, but turned out to taste like a lameass kiwiradish fusion. How disappointing..

The surprise of the day! I was horrified at the price, but my 20 gram test only cost me

around 2,5 euros.

What didn't disappoint me was the green tea. I'm not a fan of green tea, and I usually drink my tea with milk & sugar, but this tea was relaxing and silky smooth. I was positively surprised at the taste and how I actually enjoyed green tea for the first time in my life!

All in all this was quite an exhausting experiment. I'm  a picky eater and I didn't feel content at any point today, because I couldn't really enjoy any of the foods. On the plus side, shopping for all the items was exciting and I still have some RED HOTS and Jasmine tea left to enjoy while I lose my nerves with this fucking jigsaw puzzle!

#23 - Jigsaw Puzzle Gig

Hau.

I've never tried to finish a jigsaw puzzle, so yesterday I went looking for one. Time was of the essence, so I could only check one store. I went to the toy department and found all the puzzles. I didn't want any of that pussy 200 piece stuff that's meant for kids, so I decided to go for the manly 500. There were some 1000 piece puzzles, but in the box it said "Recommended for: Gods, Centaurs & Chuck Norris." so I thought they weren't for me.

I picked the most BOSS jigsaw puzzle in the store, which was picture of a cute puppy and a kitten on a blue background – BIG MISTAKE! I've been ripping out my hair trying to complete even the most detailed parts that should be easy to recognize, I can't even imagine the frustration when I have to complete the blue background.

Two hours in, I'm not even close to completion! Fear not though, I will do this. I will update the rest of the progress and pictures when I finish.

#22 - Finish a book in a day

I read a book today.

I finished the 155 pages long book in 2 hours and 45 minutes. The novel was Terry Pratchett's Eric. It was an entertaining read! I should read more often..

I also should have picked a longer book. Meh, nothing more to say really!

#21 - Doggies and Puppies!

yo!

I have the flu. Anyways, yesterday I started my Dog-for-a-Day challenge right before my portrait session with Helena. My sister Linda was kind enough to let me borrow her dogs, so I went to her place and picked up two bitches, a two year old, 2 kilogram Chihuahua called Kiukku and an 11 year old white Chinese Crested Dog called Riepu. The reason I took two dogs instead of one was that I told my roommate earlier that I was going to get a dog for 24 hours and she said wanted one as well! After taking my two bitches for a quick stroll I went home and we got ready for my portrait.

Kiukku chillin'

I had everything set up before we started painting: beds for the dogs, water, squeaky toys and even a few bones to chew on, I thought nothing could go wrong! Well, it didn't take long until Kiukku started farting. After the farting she started to take a shit on my floor. "Oh noes!" I thought as Kiukku took a comfortable position and tried to squeeze out a dookie. I was relieved to notice that Kiukku was firing blanks, and my floor was still clean. I thought the best course of action was to take the dogs out again immediately and hope Kiukku drops a ca-ca.

The ca-ca didn't come and I was confused. As we came back to my place I noticed that Kiukku's ass fur was brown.. Yep. She had shit her pants, or "shit her fur" earlier. So I picked her up, put her butt under a stream of water and started scooping that poopie out of her asshair. I removed the turds and managed not to throw up. Poor little Kiukku, atleast she seemed really happy after the butt-bath. I'm so glad I did this challenge, I never imagined I would get to touch wet dog poo. What an amazing experience, woop-de-fucking-doo(doo). lol

Feeding my three bitches, kiukku, jojo & riepu.

After the turd-in-da-fur incident we fed the dogs and took them out for a nice 1 hour walk in the rainy weather with my roomie. As the night fell, the doggies wanted to sleep in my bed. I tried it for a while but it didn't work because I was too restless and I probably would crush or dropkick them off the bed in my sleep, so I put them back in their own beds.

Next morning Johanna took the dogs out and as I woke up later, I was greeted by a pee-pee on my floor, a poo-poo on my carpet, and two innocent looking dogs wagging their tails.. I immediately picked them both up and sat them down on the couch for an interrogation.

Kiukku's "Where's your proof?! I think you're bluffing.." -face

I tried my best but they just didn't crack under the pressure. They even gave me some reasonable arguments by looking at me with a face that said: "what if it was your roommate?", so I decided to let it go and cleaned all that shit up.

Having a dog is a big commitment. You have to take it out 3 times a day, spend time with it and deal with all the mishaps, loose fur and turd-in-da-fur accidents. It definitely isn't easy, but dogs make great companions and they're always happy to see you. I could see myself owning a dog some day, maybe when I'm too fat to dance.

As I took Kiukku and Riepu back to Linda, she had prepared a bonus challenge for me:

PUPPIES!!!

I got to see 7 puppies running around in a grass field. It was their first time. They are so cute! I posted some pictures and a video below. If you wanna learn more about my sisters dogs or BUY SOME PUPPIES go to http://monkeybone.info/index.html and contact her :)

A shortfilm that will melt your heart - Slow Motion Puppies!

Look at them go!

Aaah, the infamous puppy swarm got me! The face-licking horror!

moar puppies!

 WE HOPEZ YOU HAD NICE TIMES, BABAI!

#20 - Getting My Portrait Painted

Like in a dream the beautiful white walls and dark blue satin upholstery emerge from the rusted ruin. Taylor is overwhelmed by the opulence of the room. She sets her canvas and painting materials on the wooden stool.

PATRICK: Will this light do? Don’t artists need good light?

TAYLOR: (bad French accent) Zat is true, I am not used to working in such ‘orreeble conditions.PATRICK:  Oh Taylor..  I want you to paint me like one of your French boys. Wearing this.

(he smiles at her)

Wearing only this.

That is how our conversation began today as I got my portrait painted by a talented artist called Helena Taylor. She is one of the members of Funky Foot Clan and she always beats me in locking battles! At first we arranged the scene and lighting.

Taylor's gear. Notice the ice cube maker as a paint holder.

Taylor set up her acrylic painting gear and small canvas and we were ready. I don't remember where the idea for getting a portrait painted came from, but I asked Helena since she is in to painting. We both thought it would be a fun new experience, she had never painted a live model and my nipples had never been immortalized on canvas before now.

We decided to add a little humor to it, and as you could probably guess from the dialogue earlier, our inspiration for today's portrait was the famous Titanic sketching scene, where Jack sketches Rose who's wearing nothing but a necklace..

That 's right. That is exactly what I was wearing.. Nothing, but..

PANTS!

Hah. As I was lying there half-naked watching series from TV I could not help but wonder how funny the situation was. There I was, on the sofa with my hairy chest exposed as a woman was watching me & evaluating the shading on my left nipple. To make matters funnier, the series I was watching at that moment decided to throw in a passionate love making scene. LOL, talk about an unique experience!

Stopmotion-ish .gif of the painting process.

It took us around 4 hours to finish the portrait. 3 hours for the actual painting and 1 hour for the set up and a little accident involving dogs and poo, which I'll talk about in my next post. (What a great cliffhanger, I'm sure you readers can't wait to read about poop) Taylor let me keep the finished portrait, which is great because I can sell it for hundreds of thousands of euros once Helena becomes a famous artist.

The inspiration and the finished portrait. I love DAT NIPPLE.

Thank you so much to my homegirl Freestaylor for the fun experience!

#19 - Meditation

HAI GUISE! 

I feel like my last post was my best one yet, so I'm going to keep this short as there's no way I can top that, plus I'm feeling lazy ;) 

Yesterday's boxing got postponed again, so I ended up asking suggestions via Facebook. Meditation was among them and I felt it was perfect. This challenge has been quite hectic as I've been places almost every day, so taking a little break with relaxing meditation was chill. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation

I read a couple of guides online and did three 15 minute meditation sessions, two sitting and one lying down. Long story short: it is difficult to keep your attention on your breathing, because your mind races all the time.

did I notice anything?

It didn't feel boring or useless, sitting still felt quite natural. Afterwards when I was riding a bus I noticed I was more mindful of my thoughts, as they were jumping from one to another.

Also, I think it's quite interesting that scientific studies have proven meditation to be beneficial to one's health. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation#Scientific_studies

I also meditated for 15 minutes today. I think I might continue doing it, as it feels quite good to take a little break from everything.

Meditation through levitation

ps. Today I did nothing.. Scheduling next week has been a bummer and I dunno if I'm going to make it!

#18 - Patrick & Peetu: Our Daily Life on the Farm

Howdy y'all!

I'm writing this to give you city-cats a little look in to the farmers life. My name is Patrick and I live on my 5 acre farm with my horse Peetu, my two dogs drooly and droopy and a couple of ponies. I'm a little different than my neighbours, because I like Hip Hop culture so much. When my neighbours wear their rubber overalls to work, I just put on my baggy pants and rock Air Force 1's. Word up!

I've taken a couple of pictures to show you how my typical day goes by, so step on in, (or out lol) to the Patsui Farms.

I start my day at 5:00am with a hefty breakfast. After that it's time to start domestic work. I do all kinds of stuff, here I am getting Peetu's food ready.. Working alone can be a burden and I dream that I will find that special someone one day..

Sometimes I like to get really wild, so ladies, don't message me if you can't handle a little extra fun ;)

Seeing my horse Peetu aka Petit Peter Pan always makes my troubles go away. He is my best friend! Look how tall he is. I was pretty scared at his size when I first met him, but he's a playful and friendly horsie.

Me and Peetu both like working out with Kettle Bells. Here's Peetu's favourite kettle bell.

Peetu is from Germany. He did some mistakes in his youth, so he went to prison for a couple of years. That's where his prison number 'H33' tattoo comes from. But don't worry, it was just a small financial  crime and that's all. Peetu wouldn't hurt a fly!

After a hard days work, me and Peetu like to joke around. Sometimes I cite Hamlet to him...

.. And sometimes I say hello the German way. That's when Peetu is like "whoa, whoa, we don't do that stuff anymore!"..

.. But Peetu knows I'm just joking and we laugh it off..

Like I said, me and Peter Pan share a connection.. Bros 4 life.

Here you go Peetu, have some treats..

Oh.. Boy, what's wrong??

Ooops! You made a poopy.

Don't worry about it, pal. I'll clean it up!

While I was scooping Peetu's shit up, he took this self picture and uploaded it to Horsielove.com which is an online horse-on-horse dating site.. Oh you dawg!

All done, time to take this pile of shit and blast it with a cannon all over my neighbour's yard.

In my free time I like to ride with Peetu. We joke around with doing the real Gangnam Style Horse Dance!

and Peetu likes to try on my caps. Who's that woman you ask? Her name is Silja and she likes to come ride with Peetu. A hunky adonis from next door stole her heart before I could do anything.. That's why one of my hobbies is flinging shit to his yard..

Me and Peetu doing our thing, oh yeah!

While I went to the bathroom my neighbour showed up and wanted to ride Peetu. OMG What a sexy douche..

ok whatever, I'll screw up the pictures on purpose and blame the camera!

Oh well, look how happy they look together.. Maybe I'll find something like that one day..

Well the sun is about to set.. I hope you had fun at my farm, send me a letter or come visit me and Peetu any day! Peas Out!

- Patrick & Petit Peter Pan


Now for the real cliffnotes:  I fed, combed and rode on a horse today! The horse in question, Peetu, is Silja's own horse. I did some laps with and without Silja and I also steered Peetu. We did two speeds, normal and trot (käynti ja ravi). I almost fucking fell in the first trot as Silja FORGOT to tell me to hang on tight and use my legs to counter the bouncing up and down. So basically when I first sped up to trot, I was just bouncing on the horse like a rubber ball, but I managed to hang on. The next tries went smoother, phew!

Horses are awesome, big and strong! It was pretty surreal to ride and steer a creature this big, I enjoyed it :) Big thanks to Silja for driving me there and setting the horse up, doing all the prep work and driving me back. She did a lot of work to make this happen, and I'm really thankful for that. Thanks to Jukka as well for constantly trying to dare me to put my hand in Peetu's mouth and other stupid stuff like that. He also took all the pictures!