A List for your Leisure

Don't you just love when you look behind a wardrobe or down the back of a sofa or in an old textbook/diary or wherever and you find something, an artifact from your past? I've effectively done the digital equivalent of that today when I rediscovered 43 Things.

This site (which was a LOT less web 2.0 back in the day) basically tracks what your life aspirations are, how you're progressing, and pats you on the back when you do one, as well as adding the social angle by showing how many other people have the same targets as you and allowing the users to share methods as to how others should go about checking things off.

But no more than 43 things at any one time, obviously.

So yeah! I literally stumbled across the site earlier, logged into my old account and had a peak at what I wanted out of life nearly three and a half years ago...

1. complete a really hard, long game 100%

OK, not a great start if you were looking for inspirational, life changing goals! I think I've kinda done this one now, if you count Metroid Prime 3 as sufficiently hard, cos getting all the upgrades sure took a long time.

2. buy a laptop

Check!

3. Be a better blogger

Checkish?

4. Become better at small-talk

Having survived up to several hours at a time during freshers week asking people the same 4 or 5 questions, I think we can tick this one too...

5. become a morning person.

Ahhhh, the winning streak ends ;P

6. live in a big city

I would possibly retract this one - choosing the small city over the big city was how I ended up at Durham.

7. Visit Japan

Incomplete, but still very much an aspiration.

8. overcome my shyness more often

I think the key words here were 'more often', which technically I have achieved, but there'll always be relapses won't there! I still can't call strangers out the blue (eg: for a job interview) very well though. So maybe not.

9. dream lucidly

Unfortunately not achieved. I did it once, put it on the list, but never since.

10. witness the end of IE

Ha, not quite yet :)

11. Have my own Domain Name

No, but why not? I have no good reason now. Might investigate next term.

12. own a replica model of the "Back to the Future" DeLorean Time-Machine

Fun idea, but still no.

13. Learn to say no.

Yes!

14. Change someone's life.

Hmm, I probably have in some small way. I'd like to hope something above the standard butterfly-effect level change anyway.

15. Take a holiday in space

Keep dreaming there mid-teen-Lyle :)

16. play with one of those £100 lightsabers (VROOOOOOM!)

No! I should do this one soon, they've got to be more common now the price has dropped.

17. Sleep under the stars

Nope. These days I would like to raise issues of hygiene and bugs.

18. Find the Receda Cube

Ahhhh, Perplex City! How I miss thee. Those were the days, back when Men were Men and Hands were Sock Puppeted.

19. Convert everyone I know to Firefox

Disappointingly, my parents *still* refuse! Have managed to convert a few at uni though... "Use this... Why? I'm a Computer Scientist! Don't ask questions!"

20. be important to someone

I think this one referred to when you've had a busy day, you log into MSN in the evening and some one immediately messages you saying they've been wanting to talk to you all day and share some mutually amazing news! I always liked that feeling.

21. be on time more

I thought this one would be solved once I learned how to drive, but really it just means I don't have any scapegoats to use! Walking to make 9 O'Clock lectures hasn't been smoothed out yet either.

22. learn to juggle

Nothing interesting here, no progress.

23. discover new music

I wrote this before I'd even hard of Regina! Crazy times :) I'd say I get a reasonably decent stream of fresh tuneage these days, either from other people's recommendations (especially at uni) or good old last.fm. Confidently completed.

24. get a job I love

TBC, but if working in the industry is as good as the subject, good times ahead.

25. sleep!

...He reads before glancing at the clock and seeing it's 4.20AM.

26. learn advanced IRC commands

I haven't logged onto IRC in literally years, so no progress. If we sub in other types of commands though, I've got lots better with good old cmd.exe, autohotkey, and I suppose I'm getting to put Java in there too,

27. understand religion

28. understand science!

Those two were intentionally incompletable, by definition. True understanding of religion I reckon must involve a higher plane of existence, and scientific knowledge is just so vast to understand it all.

29. buy some new clothes

Check. But could do with some more jeans/trousers, but t-shirt wise I'm fine :)

30. hack someones computer and open their cd drive and scare them

Lol, must do this at uni! I'd be so easy what with my landing being so cavalier with their door locking and computer passwords.

31. brush my teeth more often

Check.

32. talk about meaningful things on MSN

I suppose check, I still feel myself doing the same conversations over and over again though a bit.

33. get a decent sized DS games collection

Hmm, sort of? For the amount I play it's more than enough. I only game on special occasions really these days, which is a bit sad. Paradoxically.

34. meet Angelina Jolie

Still on the todo list...

35. own classic DVD boxsets like Star Wars, Black Adder or Monty Python

I still haven't got any of these! But I do have a Smiths voucher, so maybe I'll pop to town sometime and have a browse.

36. Learn to whistle with my fingers

37. stop biting my nails

Same answer for the above two: Not completely yet, but it's not as bad as it used to be :)

Yes I realise I didn't go all the way to 43, but to be fair, I did complete some goals. I think I may just update the list when I have a work-guiltless moment. Oh, and at least the list I found wasn't as confusing as they have been known to be.

// VERY LATEST THING || I have burned basically all my DVDs to external hard drive with a sweet UI: about 60 discs, ~300gb worth. \\