Striving for greatness! Ok, they're just airline miles.

From high score on Tetris to the accumulation of airline miles and everything in between there are nonsensical things we all strive for.

Focus: What silly, arbitrary things have you dedicated yourself to achieving?

#1. (Long ago) WoW loot. More specifically The Blade of Vaulted Secrets! Endless hours logged in pursuit of some pretty pixels.

#2. Up until this year I flew on whichever airline would get me to & from the fastest. No loyalty. However since I've flown Continental almost exclusively since December I'm creeping up on Platinum status... and I want it. Now I'm overlooking two extra hours in a plane or layover to accumulate miles.

 

To be the most invincible player ever at the original 8-bit Nintendo's greatest game, Tecmo Super Bowl. It was achieved in style.

 

I was the same way with American when I lived in Dallas. 3 years ago, I was only 1,500 miles away from being platinum in early December, so I literally booked a trip to Seattle, just so I could get Platinum status for the following year. I've also willingly paid $200-$300 more on numerous occasions to fly on an American flight (than say the same exact flight on Delta or United) just so I could build up miles.

Focus: Points on the original Super Mario Brothers. In the late 80s, before "Nintendo Power" came out, there was this other short-lived Nintendo magazine called "Nintendo Fun Club". There was a section in it where they highlighted people who had scored ridiculous amounts of points on certain games. There were several people who had scored something like 9,999,999 points on the original Super Mario Brothers. No matter how good I got at that game, or how many times I beat it, I could NEVER get anywhere near that. I would literally spend hours on end in the most mundane levels collecting every single coin, breaking every brick, and killing every enemy to gather points. Still, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get there. To this day, I have no idea how those people got that many points. FYI, this was LONG before the days of game emulators, cheats, etc. Those points were earned the old fashioned way.

 

They probably got really good at the infinite lives tricks (places where you could bounce on a turtle shell endlessly) and racked up points that way through endless mind numbing hours.

Focus: Where my folks live is an island connected by causeway to the mainland. It's a mile long stretch with no cops (unless they happen to be driving it at the time). So for a while I was dedicated to finally hitting 100 mph in a car. I finally did it and it was awesome, but then I was dedicated to slowing down in time before I was on the island and the speed trap the cops there always had.

 

Brickbreaker on my BlackBerry. My old one had a high score of around 39,000 points, but for the life of me I can't even get close to it now. On this phone I am only up to 27,000.

 

Eating 5 servings of fruit/vegetables per day.

 

I hold fastest shuttle run time in my elementary school still to this day. It was something like 7.9 seconds. Yes, I'm awesome, I know.

 

That is not silly at all.

I did the exact same thing a few years ago when I was about 1000 miles short of a gold card in December. Booked a short 1 hr flight with a Round Trip back the same day. Funny thing, there were 2 other guys on the plane doing the exact same thing.

Flew first class on every single flight the next year when I was flying weekly. Plus no waiting in line at check in, board when you want (fuck the elderly and parents with small children, I'm getting the overhead bin space!), big-ass seat, free booze. Well worth it.

 

I achieved most penalty minutes in an all-boys (except for me) lacrosse league in middle school. I had a lot of pent-up rage to release, kay?

 

I started collecting National Park maps this past summer. Only rule is that I have to go to the park in order for it to be a legit addition to the collection. I currently have seven and am trying to score a National Mall map after realizing it's actually a National Park.

 

At work, there is a competition to beat Minesweeper the fastest. A little over a year, I beat the small map in 13 seconds. The closest anyone has come is in the high teens, low twenty second range.

 

In my teens I tried to see how many times I could masturbate in a day.

It wouldn't count if I shot air.

My high score was 6, and has steadily declined since then.

 

Reputation points,

But seriously, brickbreaker highscore on my blackberry and 100% on expert on Guitar Hero.
Stupid addiction to those games.

 

6 seriously thats it? I'm 22 and sometimes I still rub it out 9-12 times a day.
And I don't strive to increase the number either; I do it out of necessity. What I did strive to increase though was:

When I was in 7th grade, I took a ruler out to measure how big it was anytime I think I got it to "new heights".

Also: the number of chicken wings, hot dogs, $1 mcdonalds hamburgers, and alcohol consumed. But these contests are fairly common amongst anyone under 25.

edited because apparently people don't know what I'm talking about

 

After watching episodes of Man vs. Food, i've decided to take on any food competition that I come across.

 

Bejewelled. I was stuck at 15,000ish for about a month, then I went all the way to 26,000 while sitting in Chordate Anatomy lecture. New goal: 50,000.

 

Last year for about a week I was completely consumed by Bloons and then Bubble Spinner for about a month and a half. Then I woke up one day and couldn't care less about either.

 

When I was a kid, perfect season with all the teams in both Tecmo Bowl games.

Now, a Heisman Trophy for 4 years in NCAA. Still haven't done it(without cheats) with any real or created player. Or 4 BCS wins. I get hosed by the BCS at least once.

 

You know, when I was highschool I jerked off more than anyone ever should have. Remember that scene in Full Metal Jacket where they're talking about a guy called Handjob, and he got Section 8 for jerking off in the waiting room while waiting to see the headshrinker? That was me, in civilian form. That being said, I never fired a blank, even when I was hitting upwards of eight times a day. Fuck me, I used to jerk off at work in the upstairs spare storage room thinking about the boss's wife for fuck sakes. Good lord, for a woman in her mid-forties she was a lovely little china-doll.

FOCUS: I have accumulated several sets of professional chef's knives over the years. I make it a point to pass by a local knife shop on my way to work nearly every day and it seems like every fuckin' week I buy a new one to add to my collection. I have full sets, or damn near full sets, of several Zwilling and Henckel knives, including Four Star, Professional "S", and TWIN Profection. I've got a set of Classic Wusthofs, which are excellent knives, although the handles give me a bit of grief during prolonged use. I also have a partial set of Globals from the GF-Series, which are heavy-duty and well suited to restaurant work, although I don't like how lightweight they are.

My prized possession is this:



The first knife I ever owned, given to me by a chef I worked with during a brief period at a little bistro, and the knife I built my first set around. We became good friends during that time, and he taught me more than anyone had before and I think ever will. He left the bistro due to personal issues, but gave me this knife on his last day, and it's the knife I use the most. Mine's a bit more beaten and worked in, but it's a damn fine knife even after over 6 years of use, and you gotta admire the chef for being able to pick out a knife for me that was so well suited to my style and hands.