things to do before you die

[Essah]

What things would you like to do at least once before you die. Optimism allowed (anything is possible if you believe in it), but please keep it serious.

Make a big difference in the life for some people
Make a short film
do Urban sports (youtube - Neg's urban sports, from Balls of steel TV program)
Make a band with someone and play good music (read, not crappy amateur shite)
Base Jump/sky dive with a wingsuit
http://vimeo.com/7534375

live a life I'll be happy about when I'm old.

I know this has been done before, but the last thread turned quite unserious

[OBrien]

Lunge wildly at the Pope.

[yurell]

Achieve happiness.

[emceng]

Not die.

[Garm]

Not die.

Tautological. Technically everyone doesn't die until they do. So every moment before death is spent not dying.

[Jave D]

Sail on my own boat.

Carve something out of stone.

Write a book.

Write a symphony.

Get a job...

[SlyReaper]

Blow up a planet. Any planet will do. I'd settle for a large moon if that's all there is available.

[TimelordSimone]

Off the top of my head:
Write a musical.
Get married.
Visit many many many many places.
(spoilered for sex)

Spoiler:

Have a threesome.

Feel like a competent adult?

[UniqueScreenname]

Go to Cedar Point.
Be a contestant on Jeopardy.
Have one friend that doesn't stab me in the back.

[Panonadin]

Make enough money that I can just put all my bills on "auto-pay" and not actually worry about how much money is in the bank.

[Shivahn]

Achieve happiness.

Haha! I will second that.

...

[Little Richie]

Lunge wildly at the Pope.

I "free-bird-ed" the pope.

Achieve happiness.

Haha! I will second that.

...

I think this answer, while probably the best, is cheating the question.

[markrings]

Before I die,I want to become famous.

[Scyrus]

Achieve happiness.

Haha! I will second that.

...

Ditto.


-Learn to play the piano & compose a piece.
-Father a child (conceived or adopted).
-Go to space.
-Meet at least one celebrity I admire.
-Discover cures or more efficient treatments to a variety of diseases.
-Write a book.
-Visit Tunisia, the Shaolin Temple (China), the Holy See (Vatican), the Methuselah Grove in the White Mountains (California), QV66 (Egypt), Ise Shrine (Japan), etc.
-Achieve biological immortality and/or successfully upload my mind into something less squishy.
-Construct an academy dedicated to teaching bright and curious young children in diverse areas and have them become polymaths.
-Climb the Everest.
-Descend into the Mariana Trench.
-Build the Skyship whose blueprints gather dust in my room.
-Aid in space exploration.
-Die smiling, happy and satisfied with a rich and full life.

[ShootTheChicken]

-Learn to play the piano & compose a piece.

I recently crossed this one off my list. It's immensely satisfying to play music of your own creation, despite the fact that you're (at least I'm not) never happy with it.

-Visit Tunisia, the Shaolin Temple (China), the Holy See (Vatican), the Methuselah Grove in the White Mountains (California), QV66 (Egypt), Ise Shrine (Japan), etc.

I think most of my goals lie in this area. Visit all the continents, see the pyramids, and Jordan, walk across New Zealand, all sorts of good stuff.

[SlyReaper]

-Die smiling, happy and satisfied with a rich and full life.

You can't die before you die.

[Wiskie]

1. Own a house with an inner (interior?) courtyard. Something like this:

Spoiler:

2. Visit Antarctica

3. Start and manage my own business (even if it eventually fails)

4. Scuba Dive

5. Get kicked out of someplace

6. Patent something

7. Write a novel

8. Make a video/computer game (even just a simple one)

9. Attend a major sporting event (Super Bowl, World Cup, Olympics etc. -- wouldn't make a big difference exactly which one it is since it's solely for the experience/revelry anyway)

10. Visit every U.S. state (cliche, I know)

11. Spend more than two months completely isolated from other human beings (bizarre, but I've always thought it would be freeing)

12. Own a car (even temporarily) that has a market price over $60,000

13. Be an extra in a major Hollywood film

14. Play a role in an awesome battle reenactment (please note that #13 and #14 can be completed together)

15. Own a private island (could be some crappy, five-acre island on a lake so long as it's mine exclusively)

And I'll probably get married somewhere in there...

[merrak]

1. Own a house with an inner (interior?) courtyard. Something like this:
12. Own a car (even temporarily) that has a market price over $60,000

If you wait long enough, inflation will make this one easy.

[UniqueScreenname]

-Achieve biological immortality

Again, this is cheating.

2. Visit Antarctica

This is also one of mine. I almost did it, but my travel partner up and moved to China.

I would also like to add to my list to learn to play the cello, go to Egypt, and see the Northern Lights.

[ShootTheChicken]

2. Visit Antarctica

This is also one of mine. I almost did it, but my travel partner up and moved to China.

I'm free mid-April, let's go.

[stevey_frac]

Now... don't laugh at me...

But, I want to build a steam powered tugboat. Based on these designs. The designs are called 'Salty'.

I'm going to buy a prebuilt engine, since I don't have the machine shop or metal fabrication skills to do it. The engine I want to build is found here, and is called the 'M' compound.

I'm planning to build my own monotube boiler, and write my own controller for it... It's a dream.

Then, assuming I can do it, and it's efficient enough, i'll load her up with 1000lbs of wood, and sail her from Toronto to Thunderbay!



... Hey... you said you wouldn't laugh!

[Whizzkid1024]

Become a succesful social entrepreneur
Change someone's life for the better
Love and be loved by a SO, have kid(s)
Teach
Travel to lots of tropical countries and work there
Inspire others to do good

[Noc]

Reading this thread fills me with an...well, a fairly mild sadness, but for reasons that I find difficult to articulate.

My own list, spoilered for maybe a little bit morose?

Spoiler:

- To finish a Project, something medium- to long-form, and be happy with it, and not look upon it with the hollow impression that I took a perfectly good idea and ruined it through poor execution.

Corollary: To be able to consistently turn my ideas into products that fit the above criteria, without abandoning them because I become convinced I lack the skills to execute them properly.
Corollary #2: To finally be the awesome artist people seem to think I am.

- To be an important part of somebody's life, such that my absence feels unnatural, and where I can feel like I'm not just another disposable font of mild wit who's presence can be taken or left with only minimal disruption.

Corollary: To feel like I belong there as well, because to be needed somewhere I cannot be comfortable myself can only result in someone else getting hurt.
Corollary #2: To have somebody who will chase me down when I disappear, as I tend to do, and give me a hug and gently lead me back to the rest of the world.

- To be materially self-sufficient, such that I am no longer just a drain on the material resources of those around me.

Corollary: To have a positive emotional footprint, such that I produce more joy in those around me than I leech away for myself.

Subcorollary: And to be confident enough in my ability to accomplish this that I do not have to feel guilty for occupying anyone's attention.
Subcorollary #2: And, I guess, to extend this to sexual attraction and ability, such that I do not have to feel guilty about being attracted to people.

- To consistently be able to decide that there is a thing I need to do, and then sit down and work on it until it is finished without getting distracted or frustrated and wandering away halfway through.

Corollary: To be able to apply this to things I know I should do, but don't want to.
Corollary #2: To maybe not be terrified of everything I need to do all the time.

- To be satisfied with my own aesthetics.

Corollary: To finally suppress my stutter, and with it my strained and nasally voice, such that I can be at least as articulate in person as I am in text.
Corollary #2: To be confident enough in my own social presence that I am not constantly fighting the conviction that I'm being either creepily quiet or obnoxiously loud.
Corollary #3: To be able to carry on a conversation with any given individual, even though I may not necessarily have very much in common with them.
Corollary #4: To be pretty.

Subcorollary: And to not feel pathetic for wanting to feel pretty.
Subcorollary #2: And to have the effect meet my aesthetic standards, such that I can be confident that I am pretty and not just look like I'm trying to hard to be so.

Additionally:
- To show those fools at the Institute! To show them all!

Corollary: How they laughed at me, how they said it would never work...well who will be laughing, when my robot army launches a rolling campaign of conquest and industrial development across the world?
Corollary #2: I will! I have been working on a laugh for this purpose, hopefully it will be good enough?
Corollary #3: To finally be confident that I have perfected my maniacal laugh.

- To finally build a creation - to create LIFE! - that will not inevitably seek to destroy me.

Corollary: Am I doing something wrong? If I treat them with kindness, they grow entitled and seek to supplant my position of overlord. Yet if I treat them harshly with discipline, they try to 'rebel' for their 'freedom' and inevitably run away to join my enemies.
Corollary #2: I can solve this problem in the short term by imbuing my creations with only a minimal level of intelligence, but that just results in hapless minions who blunder incompetently all over the place. So, uh, to do: SOLVE THIS DEFECT IN MY SAPIENCE ALGORITHMS.

- To finally patch up the security in my island fortress. Seriously, it's like goddamn swiss cheese: like, the other day I had an adventurer just walk into my bedroom. I asked how he got past the guard checkpoint, he said that the inch-thick steel doors just opened again after he dispatched the guards. And that's just the latest in a long string of glaring security flaws: I am forced to conclude that the previous tenants were idiots, but that just makes me an idiot for failing to go over the place with a fine-toothed comb when the first red flags started popping up. But oh god, is that going to be a hassle.

- To properly assemble a collection of sensual and revealing yet only slightly tacky outfits to foist upon captured agents, such that there are options for all genders and body types.

-To find a dining table long enough that I and the person I choose to dine with can sit at either end with a suitably impressive distance between us, but not so long that I have to raise my voice to be heard. Perhaps this is a problem with the acoustics in the room? Note to self: kidnap a sound engineer to check this out.

- To TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!!!!!

Corollary: To draft up some kind of plan for what I'd do with the world once I've got it.
Corollary #2: To finally determine how many exclamation points is too many. I've been told that that number is "two," but sometimes things just need to be exclaimed a little more? I dunno.

[GoodRudeFun]

I wrote a list of these a while back, but I can't quite remember what was on that list.

I definitely want to jump out of a plane, though. Sky diving sounds like something I MUST do.
I would also like to acquire a phd sometime before I die.


On the bright side, since the last time I wrote a list of things I wanted to do, I have been able to cross at least one thing off that list.

[Scyrus]

-Die smiling, happy and satisfied with a rich and full life.

You can't die before you die.

Dying as in a continuous, gradual process.

-Achieve biological immortality

Again, this is cheating.

Not really, since it is "before I die" it merely means that I want to live a prolonged life free of biological hazards for some time. Eventually I would die from trauma, starvation or suicide.

[UniqueScreenname]

I want Deva to answer this question. Deva! Do you hear me?!?!?

[lucrezaborgia]

Travel the Trans-Siberian Railroad from start to finish
Have good sex with a woman
Be a mom
Attend my monster-in-law's funeral so I can go around introducing myself as "Mrs. Bimbo"
Be a librarian
Have a tux kitty

[Zarq]

Have [...] sex with a woman

Ha, that one's on mine too

[lucrezaborgia]

Have [...] sex with a woman

Ha, that one's on mine too

See, I have had sex with a woman, but she was an awful lay. I demand a do-over!

[Frenetic Pony]

Go back in time and murder myself.

Hey wait...

[Brickmack]

Figure out who I am
Go to space (Build my own rocket for this purpose, don't laugh)
Have a major adventure of some kind
Fall in love (and have a kid, and all the stuff involved in that)
Embarrass somebody of live television
Press the activation switch/button/whatever on a particle collider
Write my own Linux distro
Meet Brent Spiner and/or Wil Wheaton (Played the two characters from TNG that most remind me of myself)
Go into an active volcano (And get out before it erupts, of course)

A bunch of other stuff also, but I'm too tired to write it.

[Deva]

Heard. Will share a little.

Rejoin the real world.

[Magnanimous]

Travel the Trans-Siberian Railroad from start to finish
Have good sex with a woman

My mind read this as "Have sex with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra from start to finish."

[lucrezaborgia]

Travel the Trans-Siberian Railroad from start to finish
Have good sex with a woman

My mind read this as "Have sex with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra from start to finish."

I think the Red Army Choir would be more fun. Especially if they all wore their hats and spoke only in Russian.

[UniqueScreenname]

Heard. Will share a little.

Rejoin the real world.

Does that mean you'll stop talking like a robot? I don't know if I approve of this.

[Deva]

Does that mean you'll stop talking like a robot? I don't know if I approve of this.

No. Do not worry.

[Panonadin]

Practice typing like Deva more.

[AJR]

Travel the Trans-Siberian Railroad from start to finish

Think bigger, how about around the world without flying? (It is possible, and includes the Trans-Siberian railway.)

[lucrezaborgia]

Travel the Trans-Siberian Railroad from start to finish

Think bigger, how about around the world without flying? (It is possible, and includes the Trans-Siberian railway.)

I don't think I could do something like that all at once. I have social tolerance limits and I think the Trans-Siberian trip is pretty long as it is. Apparently, I can start in London.

http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm

[jillton]

Oh goodness, so many things!!

- Be an amazing aunt to my nephew!!!
- Become fluent/bilingual in French
- Relearn Gaeilge so I get back to being fluent in my native language.
- Get fit enough to run marathons (allowing me to raise money for awesome charities... Aaaaand hopefully acquire a killer body in the process...)
- Own at least one pair of Laboutins, Chanel, YSL and Miu Miu heels...
- Travel!! Top of the list are China, Japan, Cuba and Brazil.
- Own an apartment in Paris so I can fly over whenever I like (for the sales in Printemps and Galleries Lafayette... And Pierre Hermé macarons...)
- Have at least one proper "I will die without you" style love affair before settling down and marrying someone much more suitable for me...
- Become a successful radio presenter.
- Learn to keep & save money once I get some
- Spend one year minimum in NY
- Learn to cook good food for myself, not just the standard crap I eat.

A few years ago, I was hanging out in the local park with my friends and this woman was walking along with a labrador puppy. Being a group of girls we started fawning over the puppy, it turns out he was a puppy in training for the blind. The woman explained that since she retired she was looking for something to do with her time, so she takes on the puppies and trains them until they're ready to become guide-dogs. I often think of that woman, and how I would like to have that attitude to life - If I don't have something on my to-do list, give myself something to do, preferably something that will benefit others.