The To-Do List For Life

Someone recently asked me what my goals were for this summer. That is, what I intend to do before school starts up on August 25 (My last year, by the way! *insert super happy emoticon here*). I’ll admit that it isn’t very fun to think about what has yet to be done, but it sure is helpful to come up with a “to-do” list every once in a while. And I don’t mean one in my head. I mean an actual physical list on paper that I can physically look at. I have this handy dry-erase board which I bought for my door at St. Mary’s College. I ran out of room for all the items and had to make a column on the right:

But that day, I was working on my list of things to do, I had a thought: this list of things I want to get done is a short-term to-do list. I have kind of sort of been thinking about my “things to do before I die” list from time to time in the past 7 or 8 years (obviously, my number one goal is to establish myself in the computer art field). Actually, I’ve thought about it almost every day. The list I’m about to show you does not have everything; just things I can put words to now. Some time in the past year, I thought about my life-long “to-do” list and then considered an interesting fact: I will not be able to do all the things I want to do. I am going to die before I finish everything on my list (if not by old age, then by something else). Perhaps some medical technology advancements will prevent this from being true, but in the past few years I have come to accept this fact. I also have to take into account that, while I’m going through life accomplishing my goals, there, no doubt, will be new things that I want to do.

Anyway, I put some pen to paper yesterday, and here it is:

• Produce a Trading Card Game– I am so fascinated by the concept of a TCG and have been for quite a few years. There are so many things that can be done with it, so many possibilities.
• Create a Comic Series– I have concepts for stories. Lots of concepts. One in particular I think would be nice if illustrated. It would be published on the Internet and I would profit using the same method U2 has used recently (it’s free, but if you like it, pay for it, and we’ll stick around to make more songs). I’ve also considered writing a children’s story in the form of an illustrated book.
• Backup All My Paper Documents on Computer– This may be a simple task, but I haven’t had time to look at it.
• Become an Activist– and attempt to tear down the aura of legitimacy that governments have. Apolitical activism and education.
• Learn Japanese– I’m really into J-Pop. It would be cool to know/understand the words to some of my favorite songs. It would also be nice to read Japanese Pokemon cards and know about them before they get released in the United States. I have this lovely kana chart taped to the side of my computer.
• Prove to the World We Can Survive Without Intellectual Property– Perhaps by releasing content using the U2 method mentioned above. Intellectual property wasn’t doing them an ounce of good. If you like my free content, pay me for it and I’ll make some more.
• Win a Pokemon TCG Premier Event– never done it before.
• Become Leader of the Largest Pokemon TCG League in the World– I came close once. We were the 11th largest league at one time. This is within the realm of possibility. I am sure of it.
• Do Something Noteworthy– you know, something that makes people remember me. Accomplish something that smart people will remember after I’m dead. Something that will get me my own page on Wikipedia.
• Write Several Scripts– I have lots of ideas for scripts in my head. I should write them down before those ideas go away. EDIT: When I said “scripts” I was referring to works of fiction, not Photoshop scripts or html-embedded scripts, though those are nice too….
• Discover the Best Way to Play Rock, Paper, Scissors– I feel there may be a way to play Rock, Paper, Scissors algorithmically with a noticeable level of success.
• Finish Every TV Series I Liked Watching– I don’t watch TV anymore. But if I get the oppurtunity to do so again, I would like to finish Slayers Next/Try, DragonBall Z, Kare Kano, Desparate Housewives, G Gundam, Knights of the Zodiac, Arrested Development, and Bobobobobobobo.
• Learn the International Phonetic Alphabet- and learn how to type with it. It seems that this alphabet has a character for every sound. I like that and despise worthless characters like “Q”, “X”, or “C”.

As for my short-term to-do list, you can see there are quite a few items there. I have some stuff to keep me busy. I can’t help but be perplexed when I hear someone say “I’m bored”. I say- there’s always something to do. There’s always some way to improve your life. There are virtually limitless things one can do with one’s life.

Some of the items are more high priority than others. Some of them are going to be pushed back. Quite a few of them are moving to the back burner, in fact. You can see that most of my items were blurred out with a super-special-awesome Microsoft Paint (Unfortunately, my computer has a “fever” and I will be getting some “medicine” in the mail in just a few days to fix it. I would never use MSPaint except under strange circumstances.). One of the items I am very excited about, but will keep it a secret for now, has just been moved to the front while my other items will have to wait. One of my customers have given me a big job to do and I’m ready to tackle this thing head-on. I will henceforth refer to it as “Project Five”.

The scheduled release date for Project Five is early September. Though I said some of the other items on my list are being pushed back, do not worry! All my current customers, I will still be finishing whatever it is I am working on. In addition, I am not at all turning down new customers. I am not any position to do that. 🙂