On May 10th my lovely wife ran a 50k “extreme trail run” in Nashville, Indiana at the Gnaw Bone: Dances with Dirt race. She. Is. A. Bad. Ass. This lead me to the question of accomplishments. So today’s topic is “Accomplishments.”

Thanks this week go to my lovely wife, Chris Ring, and some other guy. On to the questions!

1. What would be your equivalent to my 50K?
I think when I get this degree done… it has been a long grueling race of full time employment, being a parent of 2 kids, and having a wife whose work takes her out of town while those other 2 conditions are still active.

2. What do you hope our children accomplish in the next 30 days?
Cleaning the playroom and figuring out how to eat breakfast without us having to constantly remind them about it.

3. Why is accomplish so close to accomplice? I always get those two words confused.
The one I always mess up is acquire…. why is that “c” there at all? I would say that accomplish and accomplice are so close because one is the sound of a pebble bouncing off a well wall into the water below, and the other is the sound of a drum solo rimshot with dead toms. Clear? Good.

4. Any songs with the word accomplishment in them? Seems hard to say let alone sing.
Not that I know, but my knowledge of song lyrics is weak. Carry a laser down this road that we must travel…. sounds like a bad road.

5. What can you learn from accomplishment that you can't learn from failure?
Completion. One can learn that you can actually complete something. Failure is a great teacher, but accomplishment can show completion.

6. Barring marriage and offspring, what is your greatest accomplishment?
Hmmm… this is an interesting question because you stripped me of my go to answers.

7. Is there a quicker sense of accomplishment than mowing your grass?
Yes, it takes close to 2 hours to mow my grass. A good game of threes or 2048 will do just fine. In and out in under 10 minutes.

8. What do you personally hope to accomplish this Spring?
Crap, man! This spring is almost over… I want to strip myself of this soda thing I have going on. I have divested myself from the Green Goddess of Mountain Dew, now I need to cut out the sugar in the sodas I drink…. One step at a time.

9. What is your white whale that is out there? What potential accomplishment do you have that could drive you mad?
I need to get a more fulfilling job. Don’t get me wrong, the job I have right now is a solid job that keeps me off the streets and out of my wife’s hair while bringing in some pretty good health benefits for the family, but it does not feed my soul.

10. Do you have a to do list? A vision board? A list of goals you want to accomplish?
I have a mental list but there is not a physical copy of that list anywhere. Once it gets written down, it is a real thing, right? And then I have to be accountable for the things happening, right? next question… there’s nothing to see here. move along, move along

11. Do you think the boring day-to-day stuff should ever be considered accomplishments?
Well, I think it depends on your definition of day-to-day stuff and what the circumstances are surrounding their completions. To a clinically depressed person in the midst of a massive depression just getting out of bed is an accomplishment, and should be treated and lauded as such by that person’s support network.

12. 12 accomplishments on your resume?
um… I haven’t worked up my resume recently, but let’s give it a go..

working on art for a role-playing game
getting some maps published in a book
having some fantasy/sci-fi maps shown at an art show
over 2/3rds of the way through my second masters… this time (so far) rocking the 4.0
won a few cartography challenges at an online fantasy cartographer’s community
won 2 sketch challenges at Ten Ton Studios
made enough scratch at CincyComicCon to pay for my table and get some art supplies on top of that
once killed a man for snoring too loud
scored 33 goals one season on my soccer team… as a stopper/sweeper (we were in a competition level lower than we should have been and it was our last year in that age bracket)
divided by 0… I know it was a fluke, but I did it, and no one can take that away from me
Rhymed something with orange
done over 288 of these goddamned 20 Questions Tuesdays

13. Is there a physical accomplishment you still want to do?
Plenty, but the big one right now involves me not being so heavy… potentially other things might come from the lessening of yours truly, but dropping some weight is a necessity first.

14. What is the most impressive accomplishment you have observed first hand (aside from marriages and child births)?
Well, my mother-in-law finished her degree on something like the 23 year plan… to stick with it and make that happen is quite the accomplishment, and my wife ran a 50k race when 10 years prior to that she was unable to walk due to injuries. THAT’s pretty darn impressive.

15. What is the accomplishment that you want to have done personally in the next 5 years?
Run a 10k.

16. What is the accomplishment that you want to have done professionally in the next 5 years?
Switched my career path away from GIS data warehousing in into a more interesting job most likely centered around user experience design.

17. What is your biggest accomplishment of the day?
I did not yell at 2 old people who broke our toilet… and I REALLY wanted to. REALLY wanted to.

18. Do you think man will accomplish a trip to Mars and back in your lifetime?
I truly hope so. Our destiny a the human race is not to expire quietly on this mudball hurtling through space. Our place is in the stars and the first steps to the stars are Mars and the asteroids. That being said, I am not travelling to mars or the moon or nothing. Now keep that ball off my lawn, ya damn kids!

19. What is one thing you want your kids to accomplish?
I want them to find and keep happiness for themselves in whatever shape and form it may be for them. All wishes hopes and desires for my kids beyond that are the hubris of an old man who thinks he knows better.

20. Is the completion of a 20 Questions Tuesday an accomplishment?
Each and every one.

To recap:
Watchout peeps, the wife is a badass
You knew it before, but know it now
She ran a marathon on her own to train for this race
She ran a training marathon
I have soooo much shit I need to get done
There are not enough hours in the day
The kids are getting perilously close to being out of school for the summer and running amok
Perilously close
I have a pretty good interview in process
Maybe it will be done by next week
Maybe it won’t
Only time will tell
Have a great week everyone