Sunday, October 11, 2009

Before I Tango With The Reaper...

...I've been thinking of a few things that I'd like to do - before the end of my days. I was essentially bored of studying, felt like updating my blog yet had nothing particular to say, and thought I'd try and update my "Things To Do Before I Die" list and see how it has developed since I last thought of it. Some of them are incredibly mundane, whilst others are slightly larger goals. Behold, in no particular order!
  1. Travel to America (and possibly meet a friend there if able), Japan, and somewhere yet-to-be-determined in Europe.
  2. Land a job in graphic design or advertising, after having preferably attended the Visual Communications course at UTS.
  3. Get a slinky autographed by Hamish Blake & Andy Lee.
  4. Get a photo with Natalie Tran, the Communitychannel girl from YouTube.
  5. Learn how to dance and/or mosh to some description, whether it be an actual style or just generic when-the-music-is-playing type dancing.
  6. See Daft Punk in concert and apply some of the aforementioned skills in number 5.
  7. Obtain the largest stuffed Mario mushroom possible.
  8. Buy a 'fancy' pseudo-novelty belt buckle, so it's still metallic but has an interesting image/symbol/design/etc.
  9. Publish a book.
  10. Finally win something out of a Stacker game machine, instead of the machine cheating me at the final line every single time.
  11. Get Charles Martinet's autograph - the voice of Mario. He was in Sydney this year but his only store appearance was on a Wednesday, so I missed out due to school. Bah.
  12. Attend any form of video game music concert played by an orchestra, such as the Eminence or Play! Symphony Orchestras, among others. Or, bar that, just see a live orchestra of any sort.
  13. Learn to drive, heh.
  14. Move to Sydney or somewhere not too far from Sydney.
  15. Lose another 10 or so kilos, and finally get myself in proper shape when time allows.
  16. Have something properly exhibited in an art gallery or museum.
  17. Have a lucid dream.
  18. Experience anti-gravity, even if it's only that fake anti-gravity simulation thing they can do on a fast-moving plane. Apparently these planes are called 'Vomit Comets'.
  19. Finally get around to giving blood at least once.
  20. Participate in some form of scavenger hunt, along the lines of an 'Amazing Race' type deal, though probably held more locally such as around the city.
  21. Win a trophy from a competition, as opposed to a schooling or sporting trophy. It can be any sort of competition at all, even as obscure as, say, Lawrence Leung's Rubik's Cube trophy, for example.
  22. Learn to use chopsticks properly. I learnt once, temporarily, but then forgot by the next time that I had to use them.
  23. Learn to paint. I never really honed my skills in that and just focused on drawing, but I'd like to improve one day.
  24. Invent something, even if it never is never commercially successful. I just want to invent something that would be useful to me personally, if no one else.
  25. Own an SLR camera, and pursue photography in some form whether it be as a career in photojournalism, for competitions, or just as a personal hobby.
  26. Learn to play a musical instrument, preferably either the violin or piano.
  27. Properly sing karaoke at an actual karaoke bar without getting embarrassed or completely and utterly sucking. Just perform slightly above the level of terrible, maybe sub-par.
  28. Meet Tim Burton and/or Danny Elfman, and get some form of photo or signature.
  29. Paint a pair of my own shoes with some sort of retro gaming pattern, like Tetris or Pac-Man, ever since discussing it with Lynneal a year or two ago.
  30. Ride, or possibly own, a segway.
...Considering the first time I wrote a list like this about a year ago and it only had ten things, it's grown quite considerably. Good to know I have some stuff to aim for in life. I might try and keep this post updated and cross things off as they happen, though when and if I cross any of these things off is a mystery. Oh well, that's all for today.

Adios.

21 comments:

  1. Experience anti-gravity, even if it's only that fake anti-gravity simulation they can do on a fast-moving plane.

    Bad physics = rage.

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  2. Well what else would you call it? They did it on MythBusters once since they can't actually go on a spaceship and they needed anti-gravity. There's some special flight pattern they can do in a plane that's supposed to be one of the closest things to actually experiencing it. What do you mean 'bad physics'?

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  3. oooh I've done some things on your list! hahaha
    and slinky signed by hamish and andy!!! that would be cool. a few of these i agree with. these are: 1, 4, 12, 13, 18, 20, 23, 24, 25 & 29 :D

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  4. Ohhh which ones have you done? I could use some inspiration to get going on them haha.

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  5. 5. i can kind of dance, i guess...
    17. i dream. not as often as i'd like. i dont remember most of them. haha
    19. i gave blood for the first time earlier this year. :D
    22. chopsticks are part of being asian ><
    26. i play piano. and self taught guitar (not very well) and i used to play cello.
    27. i can sing karaoke! coz im asian, and im a vocalist...
    29. ISH i half painted some shoes... then gave up, hence i still kind of have to complete this one.

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  6. you know where the best place to learn how to use chopsticks is? san francisco :o ...although i am completely serious about that, the sushi/ramen/chinese places here dont give people forks.

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  7. oh and also you would *have* to learn how to dance if you wanted to tango with the reaper....

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  8. haha, i agree with some of these as well!
    - Travel to America (and possibly meet a friend there if able), Japan, and somewhere yet-to-be-determined in Europe.
    - Get a photo with Natalie Tran, the Communitychannel girl from YouTube.(hehe we must stalk her around the city... or at UNSW!!)
    - Publish a book.(I have no idea whether it's going to be fiction or non-fiction, but with my horrible creative writing skills it would probably be non-fiction. Wait, I want to publish one of those hardcover history books that are published by Oxford, Cambridge or Yale with a ridiculously long dewey decimal... and it can sit on a shelf in some library... and collect dust! Well, until some crazy history student picks it up...:))
    - Lose another 10 or so kilos, and finally get myself in proper shape when time allows.(ASAP, preferably by tomorrow. hehe.)
    - Finally get around to giving blood at least once.
    - Learn to play a musical instrument, preferably either the violin or piano. (I want to learn the cello, but I think that the piano is better if I'm playing for myself.)

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  9. Oh regarding #17 Julie, I dream too. :P But, just clarifying in case, a lucid dream is one in which you realise you're in the middle of a dream so you can then take control of it and do whatever you want. It would be epic.

    Also, good point about tango-ing with the reaper haha.

    And yes, UNSW stalking sounds good haha. Cello could be quite cool as well, but yeah piano is probably better as a solo instrument.

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  10. Anti-gravity refers to being free from gravitational forces, but since gravity is a force that everything in the universe exerts on everything else, you can't be free of it.

    A blog comment isn't exactly the best medium for explaining physics, so I'll just say that what you want isn't anti-gravity; it's the Vomit Comet.

    Oh, and segue refers to conversational transition. I assume you meant a Segway...?

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  11. Yes on both accounts, fair enough. I'll fix the typo.

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  12. I had a partial lucid dream once (in Year 5 I think) :)
    But it only lasted for about 30 seconds from when I found out. One part I remember is that at the end I told my friends in my dream that I was dreaming and they looked at me weird, and then I woke up.
    Cool experience though :)

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  13. oh and ben i do know what you meant by lucid dream. i actually finished a post about it if you care to read.

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  14. Sorry about that, I was just double checking, but I did go and check out your blog. :P

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  15. Ben, if you keep writing long posts how the heck do you expect me to read them??! This one didn't even have any PICTURES! But I did like the Nostalgic Box post cos the invite from my 18th was in there. hahahahaha I kid, but you're very bothered and I applaud you for your dedication. Now if you ever feel the need to become environmental and/or run out of money buying t-shirts, then I can saftely say that YOU'RE going to end as that 48 yr old blogger. Hope you appreciate my profound comment. I pray I made noe types.

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  16. Dammit 2 typos. Oh but I assure you they were in fact intentional typos...

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  17. Goddam it ben i want to do quite a few of these as well. I wish i had found out about this a while back because (if you would allow me) i would have loved to be your Mosh Mentor and you could of come with us to Manson, it would've been EEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPUIIIIIICCCCCCCC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  18. ...I'm not a Manson fan Saul hahahaha, and I was at my own music gig the same night anyway. :P Oh well, next time haha.

    And yes Shuang, your profoundness is immensely appreciated hahaha.

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  19. You know....alot of the things on this list are things I really wanna do myself....funny that xD

    If you ever get around to 12 or 18, do tell me XD

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  20. SEGWAYS.

    YES.


    except i'll be racing you on my VESPA. ;D

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  21. you forgot -
    MUST GO TO EGYPT WITH KATE, SNEHA, SHUANG & BERNICE. :)

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