IMD3 - Adventure doesn’t start at midday!
Three years ago, on a whim, I jokingly labeled August the International Month of Domination. Since then, the concept has spread far and wide. Now, it’s upon us again.
The premise behind the International Month of Domination is simple - set a goal (or goals) that is too hard to achieve in four weeks and achieve it anyway.
Last year, during IMD2: Blueprints for Bigness, I decided to ride 500km on my fixed gear bike and twitch 50 new birds. 50! I ended up riding around 400km, but saw 52 new bird species.
This year it’s:
1. 100 consecutive push-ups
my arms hurt just thinking about it
2. the touch-your-toes challenge
Lach is into this one too - we’re both really inflexible
3. build a track bike and ride it to Port Stephens
any takers?
4. tick 20 new birds
these bird ones are getting more and more tricky
What will you be doing? Post your challenges, send us your pics and spread the word!
August 1st, 2007 at 6:54 am
Mine are
Complete Marathon Training - at least 1 30K run this month
Do 100 push ups (We need to get the chart of death going again)
Ride my bike(s) more
Make a new friend
August 1st, 2007 at 9:49 am
3000 push ups in the month
organise the “you too can be a Dominator” picnic ride, don’t be scared, it will be fun and dominant
Dominate the climbing scene in Darwin
Find bush tucker
Catch a Jew fish or a Barra and cook with said bush tucker
Build my fixed/free cyclocross
Introduce Christine to Australia and the Dominators spiritual Imams
August 1st, 2007 at 11:48 am
I could be your new friend Benwah
August 1st, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Thomas,
Man that is beautiful. You ride a fixie and you twitch - I bet you have girls chasing after you as well.
You have inspired me. My Dominating tasks for August are as follows:
1. Get five lifers to reach my target of 600 bird species seen in Australia (I just got 14 on my trip out to Mt Isa last week including Kalkadoon and Carpentarian Gw, only Black Gw left to get the full set. Also saw Masked Owl at Kingfisher Park at Julaten - last of my nocturnal raptors I had to see).
2. Ride my beautiful Pinarello Opera (Leonardo FP) up to O’Reilly’s in the Gold Coast Hinterland. I have never done it before, mind you how difficult can it be after watching Cadel’s efforts (and without drugs!).
3. Get this job I am aiming for on the Gold Coast (I am being interviewed for this evening over dinner - how civilised!)
4. Do more stretching and core strength work.
PS great photos!
Yours in domination,
Carl.
August 1st, 2007 at 2:50 pm
oh and I have to tick a whole bunch of birds, I am not sure how many because I have not “ticked” any in a book before, 100? 150? lets just tick like crazy and see what happens?
Also Duncan has a track bike gathering dust with which he should a. ride it to Port Stevens or b. give it to me to ride on the Darwin outdoor velodrome on which I can try to crack records in the warm tropical air
August 1st, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Here we go
the touch your toes challenge
10 new birds
making my own ravioli - doesn’t sound much but i think it might cause me more problems than the first two - always fancied making my own lobster ravioli.
and did Carl see the blue faced parrot finches? if so, where?? if he tells me, i’ll make it 11 new birds!
August 1st, 2007 at 10:43 pm
my IMD challenges:
> at least 30 mins exercise every single day. got to get ready for knee surgery in september
> meet the neighbours. T, B & I will host a ‘hello, neighbours’ drinks, w some snacks, of course. meeting your neighbours is good. (I haven’t run this past T & B. what do you think, stephens?)
> things I never cook, b/c they always seemed to hard/finnicky, but I’m going to try:
- croissants
- bagels
- creme brulee (I’ve had a blow torch for 3 years. time to use it!)
> blogging on the puku about the above, + more, more frequently, all IMD. not daily, but more frequently.
> sending my project proposal off to prospective honours supervisors, and hopefully getting a positive response, by the end of IMD.
dominant enough, or what? I mean, I can already tough my nose to my shins, no probs, and I can”t SEE any damned birds anyway….
August 2nd, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Did you see the Cook and the Chef doing croissants on the tele last night? Absolutely fabulous! That puff pastry is something else!
I’m surprised you haven’t used the blow torch on the boy yet. Might get him out of bed and off to work before lunchtime!
You can’t see any birds in Synny cos they all live in FNQ!
August 2nd, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Hi,
I would also like to join the IMD
- exercise for me as well, more swimming and walking per week, getting fit for a hiking trip
- blow torch, sounds good, I used the other day the first time (with respect, of course) for my cream Catalan…..hhmmmm!!
- then big challenge for me : using my new Tajine (marocon terracotta dish) for “cooking in the own juice ” , its a procedure, I tell you. One mistake with the preparation and it will crack in the middle, oh, oh!
maybe blogging it in the puku.
- going for one month to my supervisor in another city for hardcore labwork and nail down some serious data, jeh!
-no birds for me neither, rather moths species
-going for a summerschool to Slovakia (discovering the East-European countries)
- after all that, then hopefully (when Meike comes back from the black Continent) some relaxing holiday, maybe on the Cape Verde islands, hiking and diving, juhu!
This is the goal for this year successful work and good holidays!
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:29 pm
yes, retired Lady, we saw the croissants… I will be following Simon’s ’structions… I think we can do it!
Kiki, good luck with it all! I am totally down for the Cape Verde Challenge w you and Meike.. if only I was ca$hed up, o?
I look farward to your tajine stories coming up…..
xxx
August 3rd, 2007 at 4:40 pm
I’ve been resisting but I just can’t any more. This enthusiasm is more infectious than all the viruses going around the lab!
Here are mine:
1) The touch-your-toes challenge. Gotta be in it given that my hamstrings are the only non-wobbly part of me!
2) Write a paper from my PhD. Hell, maybe I’ll even aim for submission in this, the month of domination.
3) Actually go to a swing-dancing class rather than piking every week.
4) Ride to work. And just once make it all the way up High St without having to get off and walk!
5) I’ll be twitching plants rather than birds, with the aim to ID all that we find on our Mac Marshes fieldtrip before Kate does. Oh for some ID skills…
August 3rd, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Kiki, your challenges sound more like a nice long holiday, with a bit of moth horror. Can you take me to Slovakia with you? I’ve been trying to convince Berni to go there for a bit of hiking but apparently I’m not convincing enough.
I thought about doing a 20 new birds challenge, but I think by now I’ve already ticked all of the 20 birds in Europe. The reaching your toes thing might be more realistic, although last time I tried I think I only reached my socks.
August 3rd, 2007 at 5:03 pm
[...] IMD III - challenge yourself! many may not be aware, but August is the International Month of Domination. why? and how? well… we’re not too sure. 3 years ago Dr Tom (who was just plain Tom back then) decided that August would be the month in which to challenge oneself, to set some goals and work one’s little everything off to achieve them, if just for one month. the month to DOMINATE ! (click for more details). the idea has since taken off, and all year IMD is discussed as the time to take on a daunting task. [...]
August 7th, 2007 at 9:50 am
I am going to write my PhD up in a month, and touch my toes, and do 100 press ups, after every additional 100 words.
August 9th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Carl says:
Well folks I have just got back from a few days in Sydney including a day out at Barren Grounds NR and managed to see Rock Warbler, Pilotbird, Estern Bristlebird (I even saw the bristles I was that close) and a very tame Long-nosed Potoroo.
This brings my tally of Aussie bird species to 599. If only I had managed to find a Red-whiskered Bulbul I would have reached my target. Mind you an introduced feral probably isn’t the right bird to celebrate my 600 milestone with anyway!
YLM - you’d better make it 11 birds! I found the Blue-faced Parrot-finch on a small track opposite Sides Rd on the Mossman Mt Molloy Rd (S16 37.084 E145 19.418). Actually we found 4 feeding groups there.
It appears rather than the BfPf disappearing during the cooler months from Mt Lewis as some people seem to think they in fact just move down to lower altitudes.
Cheers,
Carl
August 19th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
How is everyone tracking?
Marathon training is back on track, returned from 30KM of running in the rain.
Done a lot more riding this month with Kangeroo valley, rides to work and watsons bay the other night.
Push ups have gone of the rails a bit and I still haven’t made a new friend.
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:26 pm
I am in the process of putting together a slide show to display my IMD, this is definitely where a new place helps out. Everything you do is potentially dominant. Like taking a photo of a Striated Heron on the waterfront today I happened to capture launching into the air and then a moment later with a gar fish in his mouth. Survival of the fittest Darwin style!!
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Ok so last night I did 325 push ups to take me to 2505 for the month, I did try to go for the 100 in a row but hit the wall at 60. I think it is harder than I thought. I am going in sets of 40 now so things are on the up.
August 23rd, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I haven’t been very dominant this month - although I’ve ticked 8 new birds and built a track bike, I haven’t done any push-ups or got much closer to touching my toes.
This year, I’m considering extending IMD into September - kinda a ‘double or nothing - ante up - approach’…
August 23rd, 2007 at 5:20 pm
IYD1 (international year of domination) or IDD1 (international decade of domination). yes I have a few birds to display, maybe you can have some vicarious ticks if you haven’t seen them all already
August 23rd, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Here are my birds so far; 1. little black and 2. pied cormorant, 3. Australian pelican, 4. Jabiru, 5. Brolga, 6. cattle, 7. eastern reef (light and 59. dark forms) and 8. great egret, 9. mangrove heron, 10. straw necked and 11. sacred ibis, 12. brahminy, 13. black and 14. whistling kites, 15. white breasted sea and 16. wedge tailed eagles, 17. orange footed scrubfowl, 18. masked lapwing (northern and 60.eastern), 19. silver gull, 20. peaceful, 21. bar shouldered, 22. spotted turtle, 23. diamond and 24. toressian doves, 25. red tailed black, 26. yellow tailed black and 27. sulphur crested cockatoos, 28. galah, 29. little corella, 30. rainbow lorikeets (red collared and 61. eastern), 31. red winged parrot, 32. cockatiel, 33. northern rosella, 34. pheasant coucal, 35. long tailed koel, 36. blue winged and 37. laughing kookaburra, 38. sacred and 39. red backed kingfisher, 40. rainbow bee eater, 41. ground and 42. black faced cuckoo shrike, 43. cicadabird, 44. northern fantail, 45. willy wagtail, 46. red backed wren, 47. silver crowned friar bird, 48. blue faced honey eater, 49. noisy miner, 50. double barred and 51. crimson finch, 52. figbird (northern), 53. magpie lark, 54. black faced and 55. masked woodswallow, 56. Australian magpie, 57. great bowerbird (in bower) and 58. toressian crow… 62.
August 23rd, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Good Job. My new vicarious ticks would’ve been red-backed kingfisher, ground shrike and masked woodswallow.