I read a book once where the protagonist made a list, at a young age, of certain pleasures that he wanted to save – read King Lear, visit the Bahamas, eat a durian – until he was 40. He didn’t want to use up all the good stuff too early, I suppose.

Here are some things that I have wanted to do before I die.

• Join the Navy (check)
• Live in Australia (had a job offer once. turned it down.)
• Play Clair de Lune on piano (almost)
• Backpack around the world (check)
• Live on a boat (not yet. haven’t given up on this one. The navy doesn’t count.)
• Go to Tahiti (check)
• Leave the Navy (check)
  
• Learn to speak French (got pretty good once – in Tahiti. forgot most of it now.)
• Live in a big city (London — check. New York — check. I’d like to do that again someday.)
• Learn to surf (check. wasn’t very good at it though)
• Start my own company (tried. failed)
• Live way out in the countryside (fail. not sure I’d enjoy it anyway now)
• Learn to speak Georgian (fail. I have no idea why I wanted to learn Georgian.)
• Live in France (I have had two job offers and turned them down. Epic fail.)
  
• Dive with one and a half somersaults (check)
• Design an application that makes money (check)
• Smoke opium (this is my end of life plan in case I need to relieve the horrible pain)
  
• Learn to speak Indonesian (got pretty good once. forgot all of it.)
• Get a degree (I’ll get back to this one day)
• Own a convertible (check. miss it terribly. need another one.)
• Design an application that people want to use (check)
  
• Draw a portrait (check. forgot how.)
• Sleep on a beach (check)
• Score a goal from a bicycle kick (fail)
• Take my wife to the places I travelled in my youth (not yet)
  
• Enjoy a beer with my son (not yet)
• Draw a nude (check. forgot how now.)
• Play Marsha’s Mood on piano (2022 update—almost!)
• Get married on a beach (check)
• Go back and walk through the streets where I grew up (check)
• Brew beer (check)
• Live in the Caribbean (fail)
• Take a life drawing class (fail)
  
• Design an application to recreate physics experiments (not yet)
  
• Live by the beach (Lived in sight of the English Channel twice, Hudson River once and Bristol Harbour.)
• Live in a little village (fail)
• Sing Heartbreak Hotel on stage (check)
• Learn to make tapas (working on it)
• Run a training company on a boat in the Caribbean (I still dream)
• Swim on the Great Barrier Reef (check)
• Decorate my study with drawings of my heroes (fail – never had a study)
  
• Model for a life drawing class (fail)
• 360 on a snowboard (check)
• Frequent a pub where everybody knows my name (2023 update — Yes!)
  
• Dance with my daughter (not yet)
  
• Dive into the ocean from a very high place (check. almost killed myself)
• Play guitar (working on it)
• Own a country pub by a river (fail)
• Get air in the halfpipe (check)
• Visit a nudist club (check)
• Take my kids to celebrate Christmas with family in England (before they are too old to appreciate it [too late? – ed])
• Score from a free kick bent around a wall (still time)
• Decorate my study in a 1930s colonial style (fail – never had a study)
  
• Own a hamster (check)
• Sail around the Greek islands (soon, i hope)
• Go to Cambridge (fail)
• Visit Tuscany (not yet)
• Backside 180 mute (check)
• Ride a horse into the ocean (check)
• Write a book (fail. there are too many books in the world already)
  

Some things that I have tried to avoid:

• Run a marathon (check)
• Go to Chicago (close call – changed planes in the airport once)
• Live in suburbia (epic fail)
• Own a lot of stuff (fail) (2023 update — we got rid of all our stuff when we left California. Only have books now)

Some things that I have started that I’d like to finish one day:

• Program: Emulate a Zilog Z80 (so close)
• Essay : Why I am Ceremonial Deist (couple more drafts to go)
• Program: Evolution simulator (this will get me my Nobel)
• Portrait: Wife (will have to re-learn to draw it’s been so long)
• Article: Software Design is a Waste of Time (seemed like a good idea when I started it)
• Web site : www.ceremonialdeists.com (to host essays by famous ceremonial deists)
• Game: Massively-multiplayer online puzzle solving game (didn’t get very far with that)
• Poem : Return to Wonderland (doubt I’ll ever get return to that)
• Program: Play & recommend music from Rhapsody on my SqueezeBox (Making good progress. Just needs a physics engine.)
• Web site: www.tremblr.com (Step 3: profit)
• Game: A Question of Speed (the oldest unfinished item on my list)
• Program : Physics Experiment Simulator (just started!)
• Game: Diplomacy over IM (it works. just need to finish the UI) (2021 update — I started over! Finished!)
• Blog: Tales of a Submariner (not even sure what it was about now) (2023 update — Finished!)
• Blog: New wordpress theme (haven’t actually started yet. have to finish this post first.) (2023 update — finished!)

Some things that I really need to do soon:

• Fix the waste disposal (DONE!)
• Make Jazz a real pendulum drawing table (DONE!)
• Buy some blinds for my room
• Book trip to Barbados
• Synchronize Jazz’s Sansa (DONE!)
• File expenses (DONE!)
• Renovate bathroom (DONE!)
• Replace garden fence (DONE!