this is a cleaned-up version of a list i've been adding to for the past several years. i'm not a huge fan of it, because it leaves out the MOST IMPORTANT life to-do: have a successful and productive career (and family). almost everything on this list ("climb mt. rainier!") is secondary to that. too much of this list is about ME (it's things I want). but my life isn't about me. my life is (or ought to be) about things greater than me. i want to (and ought to) devote myself to things outside of myself.
a lot of the items are really specific ("make kimchi") and others more general; some of these are straightforward ("make kimchi") and others a lot harder ("be less self-centered").
i intend this to be a malleable document, but i want to have a cleaned-up, date-stamped draft, representing a reasonable facsimile of what's on my mind right now.
- these are mostly long and dense books that i want to be able to LIVE inside, and understand deeply, and not just skim.
- iliad
- caro's LBJ biography (also want to read the power broker)
- knausgaard
- the magic mountain
- buddenbrooks
- the bible
- aquinas/summa theologica
- moby dick
- joseph frank's dostoevsky biography (maybe just the 900-page single-volume abridged version)
- augustine's confessions (really want to read this again in a group setting)
- re-read plato
- i don't want to read these books by myself. reading books with others is so much better (reward-to-effort ratio is so much higher). the stereotype of the loner/introvert reading books by themselves is dumb; reading IS (and SHOULD BE) a SOCIAL and COMMUNAL activity. how do we read books with others as an adult? how do i put myself in situations like that, or create those situations?
- also in general: have more short/medium-form things to read on paper, as a way of computer-less distraction and absorption (the NYT, the NYer, the economist, the NYRB, maybe n+1 or the point)
this is a bit tough, since I've been out of school so long. in high school and college i kept meaning to write down all of the courses from the course catalog that i wanted to take, as a way of listing everything i wanted to LEARN. but i never really got around to doing so, even though i read the course catalogs all the time for fun.
- solid-state physics (what is a crystal? how should we think about them?)
- complex analysis, partly because i probably should learn analysis, and this seems like a fun context to learn it in, and partly because I hear such beautiful things about complex analysis.
- general relativity. there is a lot of really cool, really beautiful, and really foundational stuff here that i want to understand. (antecedently, i guess i'd need to know differential geometry)
- physics in general. math in general.
- particle physics. in particular, i want to understand how to understand the Standard Model using grup theory! (
SU(8)or whatever it is.) - understand the insolubility of the quintic via group theory (i like this as a motivating narrative)
- re-learn topology (and learn it better, and learn it deeper!!!)
- logic (like, real logic, not middle-school truth-tables)
- i want to take inorganic chemistry again and better understand this cool group-theoretic modeling of electrons that turns out to be the best way to understand how metals bond.
- i'd like to take quantum mechanics again, and actually understand it better this time
- formal languages
- learn at least some basic intro geology so i can understand the mountains i hike through better. (i mean, i know NOTHING about geology.)
- this is one item, but i think it deserves its own category. i have zero understanding for or appreciation of music. this is a huge problem. in a certain sense i think it is probably the biggest problem in my life. i want to rectify it (or start to rectify it) by learning how to play an instrument (this seems like the best way). piano seems like the best first instrument to learn.
(which tend to overlap. also, i'm terrified that i'm exiting my window for peak athletic performance, and so for a lot of these more physical or sports-related stuff i feel that i need to be doing them RIGHT NOW.)
-
ride the trans-siberian express in march. (winter seems like the most russian time to experience russia, but there's not that much daylight, and looking out the windows is a big part of the fun. march has the most daylight of any winter month. maybe i could combine this with a japan trip: e.g., fly into or out of japan, and take the ferry between niigata and vladivostok.
-
visit amsterdam
-
visit buenos aires
-
go to the hatch chile festival (labor day weekend in hatch)
-
visit hokkaido
-
alaska
-
l'anse aux meadows
-
hike torres del paine (the beautiful, glaciated, mountain range/park at the southern tip of chilean patagonia).
-
i want to go mountaineering, since it combines so many aspects of the outdoors, and is like a harder-core version of backpacking and hiking. i want to climb rainier, and i want to climb aconcagua. (the latter dovetails with a lot of south american desires.) other mountains i want to climb: kilimanjaro; mt. whitney, mt olympus (in WA)
-
ski touring (like mountaineering, but with more skiing!)
-
also, just ski more. i love skiing. i haven't been doing enough of it recently.
-
finally learn how to ski moguls
-
climbing. i really want to get seriously into climbing. (i've wanted this since high school.)
-
run more!
-
i want to get my 5K pace down to below 7:00. (ideally, i want my 10K pace to be there, too!)
-
surfing
-
bike touring. i want to do more bike touring, since it's a fantastic and fun way to adventure, and i've never done it for more than a few nights at the time.
-
i want to go on a bike tour of central asia, like cycling the karakoram highway or the pamir highway or something like that. i've wanted to go to central asia for YEARS, and have vicariously read central-asian-bike-touring blogs for about as long. it seems like a good way of spending a reasonable amount of time there, and getting to interact with people and the landscape more intimately.
-
i also want to go on some south american bike tour (patagonia?)
-
maybe an iran bike tour, too. or just go to iran again somehow. the times seems to suggest that it's all of a sudden become a lot easier to get a visa as an american: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/travel/iran-tourism-sanctions.html
-
i really want to do randonneuring. it seems so fun and intense. the next paris-brest-paris is in 2019, and i want to do it.
-
other bike goals that i haven't thought much about recently, since i haven't been that into bikes recently, but that i still want to do: play bike polo! do cyclocross! weld a bike frame! build a fixie! (or just buy and have a fixie!)
-
broomball. i really loved playing intramural broomball in college, and i've wanted to do it again.
-
i also want to play pond hockey. or normal hockey, but pond hockey seems cooler.
-
do more team sports, in general.
- like music, this is one item, but i think it's important enough to have its own section. i've dabbled in lots of foreign languages well enough to order food in restaurants and share fun syntactic/orthographical facts at parties, but i'm not fluent in any languages other than english. i don't even know any non-english languages well enough to have even a halting conversation. this is a major problem/deficiency.
- it also impacts travel a lot, since i hate visiting places where i don't know the language, or don't know it well enough to at least get through basic interactions. i want to be able to travel fluently in places where no one speaks any english, and still have meaningful interactions with people. (rory stewart's walk through afghanistan was enabled by his knowing dari!)
- grow/roast chiles
- grow/make horseradish
- grow/dry herbs for tea (mints, chamomile, etc.) and for black tea flavoring (sage, etc)
- make tea with evergreen needles
- make kimchi
- make sugar-encrusted nuts
- make injera
- drink more hibiscus tea/barley tea in summer
- make DIY smoked salmon
- eat less meat (ideally, no meat)
- be on non-profit board(s)
- actually live in one place long-term and this and participate (/get to participate) in civic life :/
- do more with the UofC alumni association
- donate more money to charity (and do so thoughtfully and systematically)
- murder mystery weekend
- grilled cheese party
- ethiopian food party
- party with a fog machine
- ski weekend with friends!
- more parties with music
- linoleum-block printmaking party (more parties with directed activities)
- continue to have parties/social events regularly and serve (serve is the right word) as a social nucleus
- get that steel coffee table/sofa table/end table fabricated. (do more metal sculpture, more generally. also learn how to weld.)
- miata or similar manual-transmission convertible sports car.
- boat!!! i really want to (re-)learn how to sail, and have a 25-30 footer. (i'm probably past the point where i can be a grad student living on such a boat in the oakland marina, but...) i read this wonderful blog about a guy who single-handedly sailed his catalina from seattle up the inside passage during a summer. that sounds so wonderful!
- grow redwoods. have more furniture/home decor made of redwood.
- learn more medical vocabulary words, especially for describing motion/position in 3D space
- landlording! save money on housing expenses by making money through living in/owing a duplex/triplex/quadraplex/small apartment building. (why not have hobbies that are revenue-positive??)
(saved the most important for last!)
-
be less narcissistic/self-centered. (note that most of this list is pretty self-centered.) my life isn't about me.
-
covet power less
-
be more patient, with myself and others
-
be more resilient!
-
feel less tense (and more relaxed)
-
keep working hard
-
keep working hard to be happy and serve others
-
be better at concentrating/focusing. (be 100% on or 100% off; stop being 50% both all the time.)
-
waste less time on computers. less screen time; more people time and paper time.
-
get better at asking for help. (this is basically a symptom of insecurity, so...)
-
don't be/become cynical. similarly, get better at not being so strongly/negatively affected by cynical people (better still: try to help those people become less cynical by setting a positive example).
-
similarly, don't be/become bitter
-
avoid the fallacy of the autodidact.
-
get better at ending conversations/interactions and not always seeming to awkwardly/abruptly rush off. (paul farmer's dictum: make patients feel like you have all the time in the world for them.)
-
get better at accepting compliments. regardless of whether i want a given compliment, i should try (like in all interactions) to make my interlocutors feel like they said something kind and worthwhile, so that they can leave feeling good about themselves. it's not about me; it's about them.
-
use people's names more frequently. (why am i always worried i'll get their names wrong?)
-
continue to tell people i love them more frequently
-
work to bring out the best in people
-
make people feel comfortable/happy/intelligent/kind in my presence
-
be like father zosima
-
continue being a cheerleader! (for myself, for others, for organizations i'm in and/or support, and for the universe!)
-
don't be a TOURIST. (this applies as a meta-goal to basically everything else on this list.) do things DEEPLY and not SUPERFICIALLY. (you can't write books if you're a tourist!)