My Life Goals

Last updated 2022-06-25

My life sucks. That's why I constantly think about dying. Don't worry, I won't do it right now, but it's a prudent act to list out all the things I want to try before I do. And when I've tried them, I cross them out.

These may be unrealistic but I don't give an imaginary shit. I might remove some if I please. I might, at one point, go "screw it" and abandon the list altogether. Future Me is unpredictable.

There's some cross-referencing among the items, so I've added labels in boldface and/or dependencies (dep) in parentheses where necessary.

Art

  • Learn bass (bass)
  • Get enough vocal training to not sound terrible
  • Learn basic music theory
  • Start playing drums again (drum)
  • Join a rock band as bassist (dep: bass) or drummer (dep: drum)
  • Go to a twenty øne piløts concert in every album cycle (dep: us-uni)
  • Buy Trench (2018) on CD or cassette
  • Go to an IDKHOW concert (dep: us-uni)
  • Learn to properly rap the entirety of Car Radio
  • Get more stickers
  • Get a few figurines or little artifacts on my desktop
  • Get a hammer and a sickle to put on my wall
  • Commission an artist
  • Have something signed by, or take a photo with an artist I know

University

  • Get a bachelor's degree in ECE
  • Get a second BS and/or MS at a US university (us-uni)
  • Publish a paper of some sort somewhere and snail mail my friends signed copies of it
  • Become head of tech dep't of student union
  • Become TA of Intro to Comp Engr

Engineering

  • Get access to a machine shop, learn to use the lathe, milling machine, and electric drill
  • Learn to make PCBs like a professional (pro-pcb, dep: reflow)
  • Get an oscilloscope and learn to use it
  • Get a reflow oven and learn to use it (reflow)
  • Try more embedded development
  • Get a PinePhone Pro and hack it
  • This is gonna sound like an sponsorship but it's not. Get a Pinecil, PineTab, PinePower, PineNote and PineBuds
  • Make a submarine. Around 2 liters in volume, uncrewed (obviously)
  • Make my kid(s) a custom calculator to avoid those lame Casios, assuming they'd still use those for math 20 years later (calc, dep: kid, pro-pcb)
  • Go to my high school machine shop and help out my engineering teacher and his FRC team
  • Host workshops about electronics (dep: pro-pcb)
  • Learn to make better 3D models
  • Learn to operate a 3D printer
  • Design a PCB namecard that is functional in at least one way
  • Document development of a project in a video
  • Use the V-USB library somewhere
  • Make a portable electronic musical instrument
  • Make a computer keyboard do something else while looking the same
  • Use an e-ink screen in a project, probably the custom calculator
  • Make an elliptical reflector dish
  • Write some assembly
  • Try an ARM SBC I just realized I have a Raspberry Pi
  • Try writing C that runs on an ARM chip
  • Try a RISC-V SBC
  • Make a weird-looking USB flash drive
  • Give someone something handmade as a gift

Computer

  • DIY a desktop computer, which conceivably will run Arch Linux and KDE
  • Get a proper OpenWRT router at home
  • Configure neovim "just the way I want" and not change it in one year
  • Get a secondhand ThinkPad T420

Travel

  • Visit Köln (Cologne)
  • Visit the Netherlands
  • Visit Shenzhen
  • Visit Taipei
  • Go to the beach

Miscellaneous

  • Attend a convention of any kind
  • Observe a furry convention (but not participate)
  • Learn CW (a.k.a. morse code)
  • Get a ham radio license and buy a handheld station
  • Eliminate as much meat as possible from diet
  • Declare myself expert in at least one thing
  • Own a cat (probably two)
  • Read all books by Karl Marx
  • Get a semi-professional filming rig with a greenscreen and stuff
  • Have one or more kids (kid)
  • Get my own credit card
  • Install solar panels somewhere
  • Seek revenge on that one roommate whose gaming noise keeps me up at night
  • Drink tiny amount of vodka
  • Participate in a protest, verbal or physical
  • Host a technical talk on a conference
  • Steer employer (if any) into FOSS'ing a software project
  • Co-author an IETF RFC
  • Get a tiny tattoo
  • Restuff my blåhaj
  • Make something totally unrelated look like an electrolytic capacitor
  • Flip off a conservative
  • Do standup comedy at an open mic night