2 posts tagged “future”

I just finished Tess of the d’Urbervilles. I didn’t particularly enjoy it despite staying up late to finish it. I had hoped it would at least distract me from thoughts I’d rather not dwell on alone in the dark. Since it didn’t, I’m reluctant to go to sleep just yet. I was meaning to write this blog today anyway so here goes. One thirty in the morning seems a good frame of mind for it anyway.

 

Last night I looked through my June 2008 and 2007 posts. I was curious to see what was on my mind back then, to see if I have progressed based on the goals I made during the Junes past. Appropriately and amusingly I found that today is the one year milestone of my 101 in 1001 list. I know that’s not really irony, but it’s at least what everyone likes to call irony.

 

The short version is that on June 9^th, 2009 I decided to make my life better. I took an idea from a friend’s Vox and created a list of 101 things I wanted to accomplish in 1001 days. I picked things I knew I would do, things I knew I needed to do, and things I never would think to do but just might if it meant crossing a number off the list. It was just an idea, a promise that nobody could hold me to. But it was progress for me. I was hopeful.

 

Then a month later everything fell apart and the list was no longer important.

 

I didn’t give up on it completely. It just wasn’t something I cared to consider at the time. Up until this early morning, when I took out the original pen on paper list, I had forgotten why I really put aside the list. There’s an item #102. It’s not really a part of the list but an inside joke. I had written the list while talking to a friend. I realize now a good many of the items were thought of because it was something we could do together. It’s too late now. But not for me. I’m still here. These were things that were important to me before, to say I don’t’ care about them anymore would be to say I don’t care about who I am. I’ll finish it.

 

Here’s the list, with items that I’ve completed or half completed marked out with a line. The rest of the week I’ll blog about the ones with lines. I won’t talk about the others, because I’d just be making excuses.  At the bottom of the list I’ll write the completion percentage. I have until March 06, 2011 to finish. Think I can do it?

 

1.       Find my path

2.       Read every book I own

3.        Pay off credit card

4.       Get a full-time job

5.       Create an organizational method for computer/paperwork

6.       Come to terms with all regrets

7.       Start cooking on a regular basis

8.       Get down to 180

9.       Beat every game you own.

10.   Finish writing Outlaw of the Heart series

11.   Own only clothes that fit

12.   Move out of the house

13.   Get a driver’s license.

14.   Establish an exercise routine

15.   Become a better speller

16.   Learn a programming language

17.   Learn how to use Flash

18.   Bike ride Mt. Charleston

19.   Take a self-portrait jumping into water 

20.   Fill up three Moleskines

21.   Graduate from NSC

22.   Graduate from grad school

23.   Take up archery

24.   Visit the strip just before sunrise and take pictures

25.   Go on a completely unplanned road trip to another state with a friend

26.   Record all home movies to dvd

27.   Make a portfolio website

28.   Relearn math

29.   Relearn chemistry/other sciences

30.   Try a new hairstyle

31.   Run the marathon in Arizona

32.   Learn how to fix my car

33.   Submit a design to Threadless

34.   Start playing the saxophone again

35.   Learn to play the harmonica

36.   Get to expert on Guitar Hero

37.   Make this list into a book

38.   Yoga?

39.   Build a computer

40.   Go on a date

41.   Start gardening

42.   Win a poker game

43.   Watch every Lost episode in one summer

44.   Look suave for one night

45.   Film “tape drop 3”

46.   Bike ride around town

47.   Steal Rick’s hat

48.   Sell a design and/or picture

49.   Wake up early every day

50.   Play kick the can

51.   Make a wind chime

52.   Fill bottle with pencil shavings

53.   Buy a new bike

54.   Draw “When Seth was a kid” comic

55.   Go shopping at Ikea

56.   Create an art/computer workstation

57.   Learn massage…stuff

58.   Rate iTunes songs

59.   See the ocean

60.   Walk the tunnels at Lake Mead to the end

61.   Duel with Ty

62.   Compose a song

63.   Learn to play guitar

64.   Take a ballroom dancing class

65.   Sleep on the roof

66.   Read Moby Dick

67.   Start going to church again

68.   Go to Florida

69.   See Amber

70.   Cary Grant marathon

71.   See three shows on the strip

72.   Go to an art gallery

73.   Learn self-control

74.   Buy a pair of running shoes that fit

75.   Learn how to use an SLR camera

76.   Help people without being asked

77.   Create a typeface

78.   Practice better water use

79.   Animate Birdish-Dragonthing full version

80.   Beat dad at Risk

81.   Learn more about Bartter syndrome

82.   Go kayaking

83.   Play Croquet and eXtreme Croquet

84.   Get a kick-a airbrush tattoo

85.   Have someone drop me off in a random spot in town and find my way back home

86.   Re-season cast iron

87.   Completely watch LotR extended editions (WITH all commentary tracks)

88.   Go to five concerts

89.   Wander

90.   Join/Invite a near stranger for lunch

91.   Roundhouse kick!

92.   Get a suit like Creepy Thin Man’s

93.   Travel out of the country

94.   Paint room

95.   Go into isolation for a day

96.   Free space

97.   Bring back rope boarding

98.   Do a hand stand

99.   Drive on the coast

100. Save a girl from the rain

101.Take a break

 

Alright let’s see how my math is at 2 AM. I’ve completed 12/101 things. It’s been a year so 1001-365 is 636 days.

That means 10% of the list has been completed in …wait 63% of the time? That’s over half. That can’t be right. NO! Duh. That’s how much time is left. So 10% of the list done in 36% of the time allotted. I’m 20% behind if you forget all sorts of mathematical rules.

 

Yeah. I can do this.

I was wasting time in the break room a few moments ago talking to Courtney.

Her mom is Filipino and her dad is black (awesome combo). Her boyfriend's mom is from Thailand and his dad is half German and half Czechoslovakian. If they had babies they'd be about 50% Asian, 25% black and 25% white. (Although her boyfriend is really adamant about the German/Czech being separate).

Interracial relationships are hardly a modern thing. But in the past dual race children would usually marry one of their parents' races or another person with the same percentages. In some cases like the Spanish colonization of South America, entirely new ethnic groups are formed that usually marry within themselves. We started theorizing a future where her theoretical babies had babies with other similarly mixed theoretical babies. I had a long post that was more in essay form written out. It was wordy. The modern world is all about immediate information, so here are the points-by-point of a completely globally mixed humanity!

Good

-People don't have to figure out the math on what percentage of what they are for scholarships.
-Individual uniqueness could be universal, at least physically.
-There would be less reason for a "them/us" mentality.
-You could finally get real Mexican food anywhere in the U.S.
-The more genetically diverse you are the better.

Bad

-Possibility for collapse of centuries old cultures.
-Sickle Cell Anemia is an inherited disease for people living in or descended from the tropics. People that carry the gene are actually better protected from malaria. What happens if other genetic traits used to survive in specific environments become scarce?
-Weaker genes could be processed out (redheads are dying off as it is!)
-You would no longer be able to excuse your horrible dancing because "you're a white guy".

Other Things

-Fighting, arguing, stereotyping will probably still continue. Humans are stupid enough to draw a battle line between Microsoft and Apple, let alone almost serious differences like politics and religion. They hardly need race as a divider.
-I said cultures might collapse. But they might get stronger, too. There's a much bigger difference between a Scottish man and an Irish man than a black guy and a white guy born in the same city. Cultures have very little to do with skin color and everything to do with social background. If people are all mixed in the future they might be more inclined to strengthen their community bonds. I can't really put that in the "Good" category, however, because stronger community bonds could lead to violent, localized wars and eventually people will build their cities on enormous tank treads and feed off of smaller cities in a system known as "Municipal Darwinism."


Anyway. Personally my only interest in racial background is how it affects the physical appearance of hot girls.  I'm cursed with being 50% Dutch, with is pretty much as white as you can get and really boring. The other 50% is a white trash mutt mix and who knows what else. I tell people I'm half evil Dutch pirate and half horse thief to make up for it.