Bucket!

The following is a list of things I’d like to do or need to do some time in my life, either soon or long-term. This was prompted by a challenge with my friend David Clemons to create a list of 10 things to do (I guess I got carried away and kept going).

These tasks are in no particular order or priority and will certainly change over time. Enjoy!

  1. Take a trip to the coast of Texas. I’ve been living here in Austin for a decade, and yet I’ve not returned to the coast in all this time. WTF is with that?
  2. Take an actual vacation, like, where I request an entire week off, buy plane tickets, and fucking GO SOMEWHERE.
  3. Visit San Francisco, because I know people there.
  4. Visit Portland, Oregon, because it’s like Austin, only wetter and like Austin 20 years ago. Or so I’ve been told.
  5. Visit my old friends in North Carolina, where I used to live back in ’97. There are times when I miss that place and the friends I left behind there.
  6. Go see Rush perform live on their home turf of Toronto, Canada. I almost did that last summer, but it was really too late once I devised the plan.
  7. Fly into Pearson International Airport so I can get the luggage tags that say “YYZ”
  8. All this talk about flying to Canada; maybe I should get my passport. Would make things easier.
  9. Wax and detail my car. It’s been a while.
  10. IN PROGRESS: Finish writing my sci-fi short story “Lost Carrier” and publish it on this site. I have a good chunk of backstory and explanatory text to add, bits of color to throw in to fill out the world the characters live in. When I publish here, I think I’ll post a single chapter a day and stretch it out over two weeks.
  11. Research, select, and pick up a used e-reader for toting around. Maybe. If I decide to read more. It was a hobby a few weeks ago, and I’ll eventually get back to it, but for now, there are other projects.
  12. Build a new custom theme for Phaysis.
  13. IN PROGRESS: Finish recording my song (tentatively titled) “Less Than Three” (based on this poem). It’s mostly done, but it needs better vocal recordings and the touch of a professional studio engineer to help me shine it up.
  14. Take the germ of a song, “Habeloff”, and build it out into a full song.
  15. Write the music to the song “Communion”, based on the poem of the same name, and record, mix, and master the song. This is one of the few songs where the music formed in my head before I even finished writing the lyrics.
  16. IN PROGRESS: Pick up a stack of large-capacity hard drives and build a file server for archiving the ton of data I have spread across several systems. I’ll be using my old desktop PC with a drive cluster and FreeNAS since it fits the bill.
  17. Recommission my current desktop PC into my new digital audio workstation so I can decommission the piece-of-crap office motherboard system I’m currently using as my DAW (even though the BIOS update I just did made it a little more stable).
  18. Learn how to really use the music equipment I have. Sampler, analog keyboard, drum machine; I’m ok with ‘em, but c’mon, I gotta learn my tools to master the craft, right?
  19. Pick up a USB->MIDI patch bay. DIFFICULTY: do not, under any circumstances, get one that’s USB-powered; make sure it has a standalone power brick, because the current drain during data transfer induces EM noise on all the audio gear.
  20. Get a 19″ studio rack, with shelf units, for mounting my sampler, amp, tape deck, and DAW, as well as any other rackable equipment I accumulate. Use the top of the rack to hold a mixer or whatever.
  21. Get a handgun or rifle. Take classes and learn how to clean it, assemble it, load it, and shoot it. When seconds count in times of crisis, remember that the police are only minutes away.
  22. Accelerate payments on my auto loan; I only owe ~$4k, yet there’s 2 years left on the note. WTF?
  23. Accelerate payments on my student loan; I’ve been a stupid idiot all these years, and I know, I know I’ve been taken for a ride.
  24. Win the lottery. All I really need is 5 of 6. That’s all, really.
  25. Get some shelving or book cases for my stupidly-big CD collection, and allocate a chunk of shelves for my DVDs. Stacking my jewel cases in a corner is pretty ghetto, and I miss looking at the collection that’s sitting locked inside the 100-pound crate that’s currently doubling as my coffeetable.
  26. Start riding my bicycle again. Either my current hybrid trail bike, or sell it and get a 10-speed to replace it. Once riding is enjoyable again, maybe I’ll be apt to actually do it more.
  27. Take better care of myself. I’m not getting any younger. (This task will always be open-ended.)
  28. Go see a dentist. Look one up in my insurance provider’s list, call up said dentist, set and appointment, and get my shit took curr of.
  29. Join a yoga class. Build strength and gain flexibility, because I’m getting no better on my own.
  30. IN PROGRESS woah yeah: Systematically go through every single one of my boxes and identify stuff that I can get rid of. They talk about people carrying around excess baggage; I have enough to fill a storage unit, and that’s absolutely no way to be.
  31. I have this vial of mercury that I’ve been carrying in my toolbox for the past 20 years; I need to get rid of it either at UT, the Austin Hazardous Materials dropoff center, or give it to a friend who wants it.
  32. Get some of this artwork I did back when I was in high school framed. Nothing fancy, just frame it. Cover the walls.
  33. Find a mid-sized HD-capable TV panel to replace this used 13″ Trinitron I’ve been carting around for 13 years. This isn’t a condoning of actually watching TV, but should the need arise, I can have people over to watch a movie and not have to crowd around my huge computer monitor.
  34. Build a media PC
  35. IN PROGRESS (moving to new place): Maybe think about moving my music gear out of my bedroom so that it’s ever-present, front and center, in my main living space where I’m more likely to use it. As it is, I never see it until I’m about ready for bed. But if I do move it, where would I put my other furniture? Hmm.
  36. Get a new cellphone. I mean, I’ve been trying to use this very, very stupid phone I have for the past 3 years, and really, all the cool kids are using smartphones now. They’re tethering! And sexting! And blogging from the toilet!
  37. Go see the Zilker Botanical Gardens when the spring returns.
  38. Walk around the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Preserve
  39. Ride my bike on the Veloway nearby
  40. Swim in Barton Springs Pool
  41. Swim in my apartment complex’s pool
  42. Visit the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum
  43. Watch something at the Imax theater at the Bullock Museum
  44. Visit the Blanton Museum of Fine Art
  45. Visit some of the smaller museums on the UT campus (like the Ansel Adams collection in the LBJ Library)
  46. Go to a nice play, a nice big production, something where I have to dress up nice.
  47. Go to a good play at a community theatre (we have several), something where I have to have a good time.
  48. See someone at a comedy club, or sit in on an improv troupe’s session.
  49. Camp out and swim at Marble Falls
  50. See the round rock in Round Rock, and this time, not from the seat of my car at night while cruising through.
  51. Go to Enchanted Rock and gaze in awe.
  52. I’ve never been to Amarillo or El Paso. Hell, the farthest west I’ve ever been was Lubbock. Anything worth seeing out there, aside from what everybody imagines when they think of Texas?
  53. See the Marfa Lights. Judge for myself.
  54. Go to Terlingua, TX and sit a spell. Parts from the movie “Paris, TX” were shot there.
  55. Visiting Big Bend National Park / State Preserve would be nice, but I’m not sure if I’m the roughin’ it, carry-yer-own-toiletpaper-and-bury-your-own-waste kind of guy.
  56. Do a photo-safari of all the surviving locations in “Dazed and Confused” and “Slacker”, which were shot here. Assemble them into a photo-essay for posting here.

There will be more, I promise.

Completed tasks:

  1. DONE 12/25/10 Remember that MIDI expansion module for my Roland JX-3P I was blathering about six months ago? Well, the module’s been assembled since the day I got the kit, but I’ve not actually installed the damn thing in my keyboard. Seriously, what is wrong with me? Install it, for fuck’s sake! Then get on with your life!
  2. DONE 12/27/10 Read Ray Bradbury’s “Martian Chronicles”; I’m well on the way, thanks to Willie loaning me his copy.
  3. DONE 12/31/10 Get a new SD card for my camera. DIFFICULTY: camera does not take SDHC cards.
  4. DONE 12/31/10 Buy a Dremel tool and bit set. I’ve been wanting one for over a decade, but never got around to it. Why the hell not, eh? Reticent bastard!
  5. DONE 1/2/11 That stack of dead rechargeable batteries? Yeah, drop that off at the battery store.
  6. DONE 1/2/11 That stack of spare change that overflowing the cup? Yeah, change that shiz into paper money.
  7. DONE 1/11/11: Assemble the motherboard, CPU, and video card I was given into a full system for use as my new desktop PC to replace the 3-year-old system I’ve been using (this Nvidia MCP55 chipset is crap). Time for the upgradin’, yo. Installed board, PSU, and drives in the new case; system is running as we speak.
  8. DONE 2/12/11: Find a bright, small form-factor flashlight (likely LED-based) for portable carry. Not as clunky as my 3-cell Mag-lite.
  9. DONE 2/19/11: Get new tires for my car or rotate fronts to backs. Probably new tires, since mine suck.
  10. DONE 3/6/11: Rebuild the site for my music project, Glass Door. I’m looking at using WordPress with a customized theme based on the Sandbox. I have templates to build, modules to write, plugins to select. I want to be able to post music and song cover images, add descriptions, and provide them for file download, online streaming, or podcast. — Implemented with Drupal 7, now that it finally makes sense and seems to work to my needs.
  11. DONE 4/4/11: Find a multi-tiered keyboard stand to mount my JX-3P, Midi Controller, PSS-470, and my drum machine.
  12. DONE 4/9/11: Climb the stairs to the top of Mount Bonnell
  13. DONE 5/7/11: Research, select, and pick up a new or used laptop to replace the antiquated concrete slab I’ve been strapping to my back for the past 6 years. Will probably wait until the new Zacate-based platforms are available.
  14. DONE 6/19/11: Re-rip my stupidly-big CD collection into lossless audio files (like FLAC); this requires the huge storage platform referenced elsewhere. Then script the downconversion to MP3.
  15. DONE 7/9/11: Find a usable audio interface; stereo in, stereo out is fine, but multiple channels would be cool, I guess. NOT USB Powered!
  16. DONE 8/11/11: Have my timing belt and water pump replaced. 105Kmiles, it’s time.