This Bucket List Kicks Back

Hey, folks. Today’s Daily Prompt is all about bucket lists. You know, the list of stuff you want to do before you die? I don’t know about you, but mine seems to get longer every time I think about it. Here’s a (work in progress) list:

• Earn my master’s degree, and least a few more bachelor’s degrees.
• Learn many languages, most likely Mandarin, Arabic, Russian, and French for starters.
• Learn how to drive. (I really don’t want to, but I’m going to have to.)
• Learn a martial art. (My college freshman jiu-jitsu course was a long time ago.)
• Learn coding, either in terms of sites or apps.
• Learn how to create digital art.
• Learn how to read music.
• Learn how to horseback ride.
• Relearn Calculus and continue beyond it. (MIT has courses for independent study)
• Read at least one novel a week. (I usually have a couple on hand.)
• Write and publish a novel. (Hopefully winning a Nobel Prize for Literature?)
• Review 1,000 games. (I’m at 702 now.)
• Visit all seven continents. (I’ve only got South America, Australia, and Antarctica left!)
• See at least one new country a year. (I’ve managed this three years in a row, Italy is coming up in a few months.)
• Visit an active volcano. (Visited Kilauea in December 2014)
• See snow fall.
• Celebrate Holi.
• Participate in La Tomatina.
• Participate in the Taiwan Lantern Festival.
• Visit the Pyramids at Giza.
• Visit Hagia Sophia.
• Visit Easter Island.
• Visit Stonehenge, preferably during an equinox.
• Visit the Burj Khalifa.
• Visit the Taj Mahal.
• Visit Petra.
• Visit Angkor Wat.
• Visit Santorini.
• Visit Vatican City. (This might be happening soon.)
• Meet the Dalai Lama.
• Ride the Trans-Siberian Railway.
• Stay in Finland’s Kakslauttanen igloo hotel and see the aurora borealis.
• Stay in the Rangali underwater hotel in the Maldives.
• Return to Paris and explore the Catacombs.
• See Japan’s Nabana No Sato, Shibuya, Mt. Fuji, and all of its castles.
• See Machu Picchu. (This one almost happened this year!)
• See Iguazu Falls. (See above.)
• See Victoria Falls.
• See the Hunan province.
• See Holland’s flower fields.
• See the Amazon and Sahara.
• See Uluru.
• See the DMZ.
• See the polar ice caps.
• Participate in a research expedition. Classifying new species in the Mariana Trench, archeological digs in Europe or Asia, etc.
• Visit ALMA.
• Visit CERN.
• Visit Pic du Midi.
• Watch all of Hayao Miyazaki’s films.
• Go skydiving.
• Earn a pilot’s license.
• Ride a hot air balloon.
• Walk the Great Wall of China.
• Climb all the major mountains of the world. If I can only choose one, then:
• Climb Mt. Everest. If I can’t make it to the top, then I want to see the mountain at the very least.
• Learn how to play an instrument, preferably the guitar.
• Get a tattoo.
• Watch a space shuttle launch. (Or to go space myself!)
• Experience zero gravity.
• Finish a marathon. (Bay To Breakers is probably the closest I’ll get.)
• Donate to or create a charity.
• Do volunteer work abroad.
• Attend Comic Con, E3, and compete in EVO.
• Start a gaming/review channel on YouTube.
• Do voice acting for a video game or anime.
• Invent/discover something that would be beneficial for society.
• Have an astronomical object or theory named after me.
• Restore the old family house.
• Further expand my personal library.
• Find a house big enough to store my personal library.
• Retire in Cinque Terre. (Open to other suggestions, though!)

It seems like a lot, I know. Kind of far-fetched, too. But looking through some other people’s bucket lists, I’ve now realized that I’ve already done a ton of weird and awesome stuff. I’ve seen most of the major landmarks and buildings here in the States, been to a dozen countries, visited a Buddhist temple in Thailand, fought a fire, lived in two countries, went to the Eiffel Tower and Versailles, was a pallbearer, camped out in the Sierras the old-fashioned way, gone on a cruise, went to Chichen Itza, ate durian, bought goods in a kasbah, spent a weekend on Alcatraz, grew a garden and trees, lead a wedding procession twice, graduated from college without loans…the list keeps going and going. Judging by everything else I’ve thought up, I’m nowhere near finished.

What’s on your bucket list?

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Predictions

Hey, folks. Today’s Daily Prompt is all about predictions. Specifically, where you’ll be on July 30th of this year.  I have no idea, honestly. Everything’s so much up in the air right now, it’s not even funny. Suddenly losing my job near the end of 2013 kind of threw a monkey wrench into what little I had planned. However, it also forced me into actually making some long overdue changes; without such impetus, my growth as a person probably would’ve continued to stagnate. Now, the map of my life’s journey is entirely uncharted. And by no means am I in dire straits yet. However, I’m not naive enough to believe I can maintain this situation for any extended time. I can – and will – do better than that. The main priority for the coming months is finding another job.

To that end, I’ll most likely be in a classroom (physical or virtual) on July 30th. I’ve recently found out about an online technical writing program through the UC Berkeley extension, and to be honest, it’s very intriguing. Writing has always been my strongest skill, so it would only make sense for me to obtain the education and a second degree that best complement it. Going back for my M.A. isn’t entirely off the table, either. That being said, the prices for the individual courses are pretty ridiculous; I don’t want to sink thousands into something that’ll end up going nowhere. I’d much rather do self-education; information is out there, and I’ve done way more studying after getting my B.A. If I’m going back to school, then I’d better have at least some sort of meager income backing it up.

Assuming that my wishful thinking pays off and I find good work, then I might be traveling abroad on July 30th. A potential trip down to Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay was in the works last year, and I’d loathe to throw that away. I try visiting a new place every year; it gives me a chance to change up perspectives and have new experiences. And considering all the pictures on this blog, you can probably tell I’m a serious camera fiend. If I’m traveling abroad, it’s practically guaranteed that thousands of photos are coming back with me. If I can afford it, I’d probably pick up a better camera as well. But if my South America plans fall through, I might settle for Comic-Con or E3. I’ve been wanting to go to both for years, but never had the time. Now I have all the time in the world, and I don’t want to waste the money on them.

Funny how that works.

Regardless of how things turn out on the job and travel fronts (and I just noticed I completely disregarded any notions of romance, which is technically a possibility as well), I’ll be reading. At this hour on July 30th, I can safely assume I’ll be reading a book. Most likely something from Alice Munro, whose bibliography I’ll be tackling throughout this year. Gotta keep the time filled, after all.