A couple of weeks ago raincoaster wrote about bucket lists, and bemoaned the fact that people don’t seem to be aiming very high with said lists. (Apparently an inordinate number of people want to visit a place called Six Flags. I googled it. I’m with raincoaster. An amusement park? Really?)
I’ve never written a bucket list, but raincoaster‘s plea resonated with me (and she wrote one kickass list herself), so here is my attempt to aim higher.
Before I kick the bucket, before that future day of global mourning when I will throw in the towel hammer (if I have to go I’m taking someone with me), I want to…
- Finish a novel and feel good enough about it that I’d be willing to charge money for it (I’m a perfectionist and I’m not asking people money for something riddled with errors or simply poorly written)
- Publish a novel, traditionally (cause that’s a whole other kettle of fish from #1, and while I have nothing against self-publishing and will probably do it myself at one point, I’d like, at least once, to have someone hand me a big fat advance cheque)
- Win a Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, or Mythopoeic Award (or all four – I’m flexible)
- Have my own Wikipedia page (I’m stealing this one from raincoaster‘s list. Also, if #1-3 succeeds this is hopefully a given)
- Learn to wield a sword (and not one of those flimsy fencing foils; a real hand-forged longsword…also, own one of those)
- Eat the meat from a wild animal I killed myself, preferably using a bow and arrow (also, learn archery)
- Get my Ph.D. before I’m fourty
- Sail the high seas on a seventeenth-century frigate (it doesn’t actually have to be IN the seventeenth century, but if that’s an option… Also, it doesn’t have to a frigate – something bigger will also work)
- Suffer a severe case of Florence Syndrome (Hallucinations due to an over-exposure to beautiful art? Bring it!)
- And in the interests of aiming higher, GO TO SPACE! (I’m no Richard Branson, but civilian space-flight is apparently a thing now, and if I’m a world-famous author I might just be able to afford a ticket. The wife informs me she’ll stay on Mother Earth, thank you very much!)
I can think of a few more bucket goals to add here, but I’ll stand with ten for now.
Do you have a bucket list? Are you aiming high enough?
Image courtesy of Efraimstochter on Pixabay.com
if all else fails...use a hammer 
1. Carry a vote at the UN General Assembly that guinea pigs are appointed as ambassadors for world peace in all countries
2. Bring about world peace working with guinea pigs worldwide
3. Buy hammock in which to laze and review the situation
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Guinea pigs, huh? Don’t they, like, eat their young? Or is that hamsters? With you 100% on #3, but I’ll need to do a bit of research on guinea pigs before I can support this vote. XD
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I love numbers 5 and 9. I too would like to wield a sword…maybe not a longsword but I’d like a khopesh.
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I don’t know. With that thing you’re as likely to injure yourself as your enemy, if you ask me…
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Lol, yes it certainly seem that way but I like its shape. It makes me think of lightning which then makes me daydream of being in a duel and whenever I strike with a khopesh, it’s as if I’m wielding lightning and then everyone would call me a lightning ninja, the most powerful warrior in the land, and on and on it goes in my head.
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Sounds like a cool idea for a story. You should write it 🙂
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Thanks for the encouragement 🙂
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Eish… ek is uitasem net met die lees van die lys!
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So, ek mik hoog genoeg? XD
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Ek ken jou nou nog nie so goed nie, maar as ek jou nie op die mense met baie geld in SA vind nie gaan jy erg sukkel … 😉
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Ek’s ‘n werklose student en my vrou is ‘n onnie, so beslis nie baie geld nie. #2 sal hopelik daarmee help 😀
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Sug… dan gaan jy sukkel – ek was ook ‘n onderwyser en ons is net ryk aan drome…
Sal maar uitkyk na die boek wat kom?
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I do have a bucket list – you can see it on my blog – and I have to tell you, I’m finding it an incredibly valuable tool. I’ve had lists before, of course, but there’s something about combining that list with blogging about my life – past and present – that is actually helping me focus. Sure, some of the stuff on it isn’t very exciting, but it’s ALL life changing, and it’s all achievable by me (not depending on someone else) with sufficient effort and determination. Every now and then I pop in and see how I’m doing, maybe add something new that’s occurred to me. And I’m hugely motivated by the prospect of being able to blog about things as I cross them off…:)
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For some reason you wound up in my spam folder. Good thing I had an inexplicable urge to glance through it this morning 🙂 If you keep seeing your comments disappear into the ether, here or on other blogs, let me know.
I’ve never really thought much of bucket lists. I saw the movie, of course, and thought it an interesting concept, but left it at that. But writing one was an interesting experience. I actually want all these things (so maybe I added #8 and #10 mostly as a joke, but if I get the opportunity to do either of them I’ll go for it) and they’re all achievable if I put in the required effort (except #3, all of which are decided by popular vote).
You’re very welcome to post a link to your bucket list here if you like. Then I and other readers can also go read it. If you don’t want to that’s okay as well.
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Thanks so much for the invitation, Kokkie! My bucket list is at http://americansoustannie.wordpress.com/bucket-list-2/. I gave it its own page because I really do use it as a tool, to monitor how I’m doing in terms of keeping my life on the track I choose. Right now I’m busy with foundational stuff – getting myself physically and financially fit enough to do the more exciting things on the list. I also wrote a post at http://americansoustannie.wordpress.com/2014/06/18/theres-a-hole-in-my-bucket/, which contains a link to David Cain’s blog. He has written a couple of posts about bucket lists that I found pretty inspiring.
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I’ll go check out those links. Yeah, my bucket list needs a lot of foundational stuff sorted out first before any of these items can become a reality (but I’m really going to try to achieve at least some of those). Hopefully I can pick up a few tips from you 🙂
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I had a bucket list, but the bucket fell over… 🙂 Actually I don’t have a list as such but I do have a ‘bucket direction’ in which I aim for general things and, every so often, something comes along that surprises me. For instance, way back I started pushing to get books published – had a couple of breaks, and then went with the direction. It led to some surprising places, including an opportunity to write a single-volume national history of New Zealand – making me one of only about four people in the country, ever, to do so in the last fifty-odd years. Bucket list type item? Sure, but it wasn’t a specific goal when I started. I quite like the ‘surprise factor’ in this – ‘man, did I do THAT?’.
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I’m sure there’s a case to be made for retro-active bucket lists: “I wasn’t really planning on doing this, but wow! I’m counting that one…”
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