Pondering dreams.

[saxikath]

The Discovery Channel has this new show they're planning where people get, at no notice, 72 hours and $3000 to live out a dream (a specific one -- you have to specify in your application). You do the work to make it happen; the show is mostly about getting rid of the excuses that keep you from doing it.

I don't know that I'd want to do it, but it's got me pondering. What would I do? They want it to be something unique, something not done before. And it has to be accomplishable, including planning, in 72 hours. Most of my "big dreams" are longer-term things.

- Round up a bunch of my talented friends and put on a glitzy show in some really spiffy New York theater and donate all the proceeds to charity
- On the same lines, stage a G&S marathon -- all the shows, semi-staged -- and donate the proceeds.
- If I had a sweetheart I wanted to marry: take him to the South Pole by dogsled and propose
- Something astronomical. Travel to some exotic dark-sky location and observe some major celestial phenomenon. (Would have to research the particulars.)
- Run a LARP in some really glorious location.
- ... It's actually sort of depressing that I can't come up with very many wild and crazy things to do with 72 hours and $3000 that would fit the show.

What would you do?

Comments

[davehogg.livejournal.com]

Geez, and I only offer to take you to Alaska. The South Pole is much better!

My therapist told me yesterday that I need to stop worrying so much about what I should do and spend some time doing what I want to do. So I'd probably rent some secluded beach resort in Jamaica, fly a handful of friends down there, and have a weekend where we just did what seemed fun and natural and good.

[red-queen.livejournal.com]

Hell, just about anything I would want to do takes much longer than 72 hours. Sure, I could have a major shopping marathon (buy out a few bookstores, craft stores, makeup stores... ), but that's not a DREAM. Buy a condo -- way more than 72 hours. Go to grad school for education -- way more than 72 hours, way more than $3k. Go to one of the big film/beauty/fx makeup schools -- way more than 72 hours, way more than $3000. Find someone I want to marry who wants to marry me -- no price tag (as the saying goes), way more than 72 hours, possibly never. Direct a play -- way, way more than 72 hours, probably at least $3k.

Those limits practically guarantee a superfical result. Phooey on them.

"Reality" tv. Sheesh. (OK, I love Queer Eye, but since I don't have cable and refuse to get it, I'm dependent on the kindess of others who might tape it :-}).

[bookishfellow.livejournal.com]

I have two ideas of things I'd try. First would be a three-day crash course in something I'd like to know how to do, like singing or cordon-bleu cooking. The other would be an experiment: I'd travel, without an interpreter, to somewhere I didn't speak or read the native language. I've traveled a fair bit, but never to someplace I couldn't communicate. It'd be an interesting thing to see how well I could adapt.

[qarylla.livejournal.com]

Actually I am with bookishfellow on this one.

There are a number of glassblowing courses that I have been drooling over, and they are somewhere around 1000 to or 1600 a piece. I could take the weekend workshops for that much money no problem. ^_^;

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I think that's the key here: they're not looking at the kind of life-transforming dreams you have to build long-term. They're talking "Gee, I've always wanted to do/see X just once." Travel, undoubtedly. Crash courses in frivolous or otherwise so-not-my-everyday-self skills.

But "redecorate my living room" is also in that scale. :-)

[totient]

wow, they can give me 72 extra hours! Hot Damn!

I'd probably use them (oh, and some of the $3000) to finish building my rally computer prototype, including getting a quick-turn circuit board made.

But if they want something that makes splashy video, 72 hours and $3000 is also about as much as it would take to rent a prepared car and compete in a performance rally, which is also something that's be a lot of fun to do.