For those of youthat don’t know who martin Handford is, which I’m guessing is just about everybody reading this blog post, he is the creator of the childrens picture book “Wheres Waldo”.  Handford was born in Hampstead, London in 1956.  He was a British children’s author that began to gain worldwide fame from his picture books called ”Find Wally”, known in the U.S. and Canada as “Wheres Waldo”. Handford began drawing as a child, creating stick figures on scrap paper. As an adult he began to work as a painter, he painted large crowds of people for clients that asked him to do so. These paintings were the basis for his world famous “I-spy” typed book. if you havent seen any of Handford’s Wheres waldo books, which i doubt anybody can honestly say that they have never seen one, they consist of a large seen of a cartoon town or marketplace type scene with a man wearing red and white hiding somewhere in the back round. Your objective is to simply find him.  Handford became a mild celebrity, gaining worldwide fame beginning in 1985. By 1987, Handford was almost of celebrity status, known worldwide in 28 countries. His famous children’s novels and picture books are the basis for his fame and glory. He is not well know but he deserves to be in my top 10 list because if you don’t like “Wheres Waldo”, you are nuts. He is “tha man” simply because who else would ever create a book such as these.

Christian the lion hugging his previous owners after one year of living on his own in the wild

          Although John Rendall and Anthony Bourke’s story contains two people, and a lion for that matter, it is truly a remarkable one. Therefore it definitely does fake and not true. After doing previous research i for one can tell you that this is a completely true event. There are many biography based web pages about this story, along with many videos documenting it.

          John Rendall and Anthony Bourke purchased a lion from a department store located in London in 1969. They brought him back home to their apartment in Australia. This is where John, Anthony, and their wives cared for the animal almost constantly. After two quick years of rapid growth and development, they realized that they needed to make a change. They did not have the personnel, time, money, or even space for a creature this large. Their only option was to contact a man that they had met in Europe by the name of George Adamson. Adamson was the assistant at Kora National Park in Kenya, Africa. He agreed to help reintegrate Christian into his natural habitat. “He fit right in” said Adamson to his owners over the phone. John and Anthony were relieved that their lion that they had raised since childhood was safe in its own environment.

          As a year passed since Rendall and Bourke had seen Christian, they began to wonder. They called Adamson and asked how Christian was doing and if he had seen him lately. He said he was doing great. They were thrilled but at the same time missed him greatly. because they didn’t know much about lions, they asked George if he thinks that Christian would remember them. He said definitely not, and that their brains can only remember details such as looks and personalities for a few weeks at the most. Rendall and Bourke refused to let it go and insisted on going to the reserve, tracking down Christian’s pride, and seeing for themselves whether or not their lion remembered them.

          After hours of tracking and hiking, they finally found the pride that contained Christian. Rendall and Bourke walked slowly but confidently not knowing what to expect. Out of all the lions in the pride Christian stood up and began walking towards them. Then he jogged, and then ran. He ran up to them and jumped onto his hind legs to hug them. Many hugs and kisses were shared in this meeting. John and Anthony followed Christain around for the day and hung out with him. They left after one day. They were confident that their Christian had remembered them and is in a safe environment.

           This story can be seen here!!!

          Blood covered the walls and floors, furniture was broken, and a dead deer lay on the ground. Despite the pools of blood on the floor and bruises on Mr. Goldsberry, no charges would be filed on this mind-boggling day.

          As this peaceful Sunday came to a close in the mid afternoon Wayne heard a loud shatter of what seamed to be glass. As he calmly walked to his daughter’s room he heard a loud scream he rushed into the bedroom and came face to face with five point whitetail buck. He distracted the deer and ordered his daughter to leave the room and call the police.

          Once his daughter was out of sight, he noticed the deer was looking for a way out of the house. It was in the corner of the room trying to climb the walls as if that was an escape route. Goldsberry quickly took advantage of the deers position with its back to him and jumped on it. He grabbed the deer by it’s antlers and wrestled him to the floor. The deer kicked and squirmed. After an exhausting 40 minutes of wrestling a 250 pound, five point buck, Wayne managed to break the deer’s neck by grasping it’s antlers and pulling his head back.

          Once the police arrived, Wayne Goldsberry, exhausted and bruised, dragged the deer out to the front lawn. When the police were about to take the deer away, he asked them if he could have the animal processed for meat. That makes this guy that much “cooler” because he acted like nothing happened and he looked at the situation as a free meal.

Although eligible to compete in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, Pistorius did not qualify for the South African team. Despite achieving third place and a personal best time of 46.25 seconds in the 400 metres in Lucerne, Switzerland, on July 16 2008, this was short of the Olympic qualification time of 45.55 seconds. He was also not selected by the South African Olympic Committee for the 4 x 400 metres relay team as there were four other runners who had achieved better times. At the 2008 Summer Paralympics, he took the gold medals in the 100, 200 and 400 metres sprints.

          Oscar Pistorius has an incredible story which is why he comes in on my list at number eight. Although he did not fulfill his long term goal of winning a gold medal in the 2008 beijing olympics, he did win a gold in numerous events in the 2008 paralympics. This take incredible courage, self-confidence, and perserverence to be banned from running in events and not to give up, instead he argued these desisions, won his court case and pursued his passion to the fulest extent.

          During a touph and emotiononal rehabilitation process, Nick was able to relearn how to complete everyday tasks. He also received prosthetic limbs to make getting around much easier. And when he was old enough, he had hand controls placed in his car and has been cruising around his hometown near New York City ever since. With an easygoing personality and charming smile, Nick has nothing but a positive outlook on life. “I told myself that I had to get over this,” Nick explains. “I just don’t see myself as being disabled.”

          When Nick isn’t at home hanging out with his friends or listening to his favorite band, Sublime, he can be found on the hockey rink. Influenced by his favorite National Hockey League (NHL) player, Adam Graves of the San Jose Sharks, Nick competes in sled hockey and has had the opportunity to play with Graves since having his amputation. He uses prosthetic arms that have custom-made hockey sticks on the ends and has a specially designed sled that enables him to move around the ice easily. Nick is also involved in other sports like rugby, snowboarding and swimming. He’s even thinking about becoming a catcher for a wheelchair softball team. “I look at it this way,” Nick says. “No matter if a person is missing one limb or all four limbs, that person is not disabled. Some people, like me, just have to find a different way of doing things.” 

          Nick’s newest passion is rugby. He learned the game about five years ago from a few of his friends and has been hooked ever since. Despite having his arms and legs amputated he did not sit around and feel sorry for himself. Lets be honest, just about every one of us would in his situation. He trained vigorously and competed in various paralympic events.

          About one year ago Nick told reporters that his latest goal is to win a gold medal in wheelchair rugby at the Beijing paralympics in 2008. He has trained for that competition and has kept his eyes on that gold medal ever since. looking back at the 2008 Olympics today, we now know that Nick Springer wasn’t a joke. In fact he started on the U.S. men’s wheelchair rugby team and won the gold medal.

          After overcoming such a disease, losing all four limbs, rehabilitating tediously, strength training, trying to live a normal life and keeping a positive outlook on life takes an incalculableamount of passion, integrity and self-confidence. Nick Springer’s story is a truly amazing one and for nick himself, he is awesome.

          On a clear night in late June in 2005, Marcus Luttrell, along with three other specially trained snipers from the U.S. navy SEALs left their base and headed for the mountainous Pakistani border. Their mission was simple, to capture or kill a notorious al qaeda leader. Once they were positioned in the mountains looking apon a village of nearly 1,000 Pakistanis, they were now ready to begin their mission. Less than twenty four hours later only one of these men would survive, Marcus Luttrell.

          You might ask yourself how can one al qaeda leader possibly kill three U.S. specially trained navy SEAL snipers? The answer is he couldnt, this is not the case. When the four snipers were setting up in the mountains looking over the Pakistani village, a herd of goats wondered over to them with three sheppards. Two of the sheppards were older men and one of them was a fourteen year old boy. The SEALs understood that these two men and one boy could ruin their mission but they wondered how the U.S. press would feel about killing a young boy. Therefore they decided to let them go. 

          Six hours later the four soldiers were now in a war against two hundred trained and heavily armed Taliban soldiers. It was now apparent that these men made the wrong decision to let the sheppards go alive. The SEALs remained calm and stuck to their tactics, picking one Taliban off at a time while they ran up the mountain side. Despite the fact that all four of these men were shot multiple times they kept fighting for their lives. After eluding the Taliban for an astonishing five days, the SEALs used every tactic to jump down cliffs, hide in caves and simply run from the hundreds of opposing soldiers!

          After five days, three of the men died. All except one, Marcus Luttrell. It took just over five days for a rescue team to find him. Over the course of the five days he was becoming dehydrated and began to starve. He came to the conclusion that his only option, in the mean time at least, would be to go down to the Pakistani village for water and food. He secratly met a nice Pakistani man that gave him food and water. He then returned to the mountains and was later rescued. 

          For his actions, Luttrell recieved the Medal Of Honor. This is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. Along with the Medal Of Honor, he also received the Navy Cross for his actions. The Navy Cross is the highest medal that can be awarded by the department of the navy.

          Marcus Luttrell was the only survivor of this SEAL team. Badly wounded he was able to walk and crawl seven miles to evade capture. He was given shelter by an Afghan tribe and was finally rescued by american forces six days after the gun battle. Luttrell returned to the U.S. the following year and authored the New York Times best seller, Lone Survivor. He retired from the navy in 2007.

          This account of Marcus Lettrell is truely incredible. This rounds off the list at top ten because this highly trained SEAL, along with three other men, kept their cool and stuck to their tactics to defeat over two hundred Taliban soldiers. If single handingly sniping about one hundred of these soldiers while defending yourself and three other men isnt cool, i dont know what is.

          What is cool?  A cool person has a lot of friends, they are intelligent, witty, and have a ton of self-confidence. To go along with the previous characteristics, being cool is also associated with fitting in with the “in” crowd. Some of these people might not have had all of the fame when they were around, but that just makes them that much more awesome!!!