# My Life Goals Last updated 2023-11-05 My life sucks. That's why I constantly think about dying. Don't worry, I won't do it *right* now, but it's a prudent act to list out all the things I want to try before I do. And when I've tried them, I cross them out. These may be unrealistic but I don't give an imaginary shit. I might remove some if I please. I might, at one point, go "screw it" and abandon the list altogether. Future Me is unpredictable. There's some cross-referencing among the items, so I've added labels in __boldface__ and/or dependencies (dep) in parentheses where necessary. ## Art - Learn bass (__bass__) (learning it right now) - Get enough vocal training to not sound terrible - Learn basic music theory - Record a song I covered [Early Sunsets Over Monroeville](../music/early-sunsets-over-monroeville.md) by My Chemical Romance and wrote [This Song Will Uncure Your Depression](../music/uncure-your-depression.md) - Start playing drums again (__drum__) - Join a rock band as bassist (dep: bass) or drummer (dep: drum) - Go to a twenty øne piløts concert (dep: umich) - Buy Trench (2018) on CD or cassette I bought a CD! - Go to an IDKHOW concert (dep: umich) Checked as of [2024-04-05](2024-04-05.md) - Go to a MCR concert (dep: umich) - Go to a Green Day concert (dep: umich) - Learn to properly rap the entirety of Car Radio - Learn to play Jesus Of Suburbia on bass - Learn to play Paranoid Android on bass - Get more stickers - Get a few figurines or little artifacts on my desktop - Get a hammer and a sickle to put on my wall - Commission an artist - Have something signed by, or take a photo with an artist I know ## University - Get a bachelor's degree in ECE - Get offer from UMich (__umich__) - Get a bachelor's in CE at UMich - Get a master's - Publish a paper of some sort somewhere and snail mail my friends signed copies of it - Become head of tech dep't of student union I made it through one year of tenure - Become TA of Intro to Comp Engr I got the job and made it through the semester! ## Engineering - Get access to a machine shop There is one in uni - Use the lathe - Use milling machine - Use electric drill - Learn to make PCBs like a professional (__pro-pcb__, dep: reflow) - Get an oscilloscope - Learn to use an oscilloscope - Learn reflow soldering (__reflow__) Check out [Reflow Workshop](../projects/reflow-workshop.md#2023-04-09-sunday) - Host a reflow soldering workshop (dep: reflow) (It's finally over) - Try more embedded development (Took [EECS 373](../umich/w24_373.md) which was a massive pain and I'm not remotely proud of what we made but technically I get to check this off) - Get a PinePhone Pro and hack it - This is gonna sound like an sponsorship but it's not. Get a Pinecil, PineTab, PinePower, PineNote and PineBuds - Make a submarine. Around 2 liters in volume, uncrewed (obviously) - Make my kid(s) a custom calculator to avoid those lame Casios, assuming they'd still use those for math 20 years later (__calc__, dep: kid, pro-pcb) - Go to my high school machine shop and help out my engineering teacher and his FRC team - Learn to make better 3D models - Learn to operate a 3D printer - Design a PCB namecard that is functional in at least one way - Document development of a project in a video - Use the V-USB library somewhere - Make a portable electronic musical instrument - Make a computer keyboard do something else while looking the same - Use an e-ink screen in a project, probably the custom calculator - Make an elliptical reflector dish - Write some assembly wrote some for EECS 370 - Try an ARM SBC I just realized I have a Raspberry Pi - Try writing STM32 C did some of this for EECS 373. The code style ST uses is __terrible__ (2 spaces, line break before curly brace, `CamelAndSnake_Case`, uppercase function names) - Try a RISC-V SBC - Make a weird-looking USB flash drive I made one out of a covid rapid test box - Give someone something handmade as a gift I gave a [blobcat PCB](../projects/blobcat-pcb.md) to my friend - Use an Espressif SoC on a PCB ## Computer - DIY a desktop computer, which conceivably will run Arch Linux and KDE - Get a proper OpenWRT router at home - Configure neovim "just the way I want" and not change it in one year - Get a secondhand ThinkPad T420 ## Travel - Visit Köln (Cologne) - Visit the Netherlands - Visit Shenzhen - Visit Taipei - Go to the beach ## Miscellaneous - Attend a convention of any kind - Observe a furry convention (but not participate) - Learn CW (a.k.a. morse code) - Get a ham radio license and buy a handheld station DE BH4FXW 73 sent from my UV-5R - Get an FCC ham radio license as well KE8ZVB - Eliminate as much meat as possible from diet - Declare myself expert in at least one thing - Own a cat (probably two) - Read all books by Karl Marx - Get a semi-professional filming rig with a greenscreen and stuff - Have one or more kids (__kid__) - Get my own credit card (at least it's got my name on it) - Install solar panels somewhere - Seek revenge on that one roommate whose gaming noise keeps me up at night - Drink tiny amount of vodka - Participate in a protest, verbal or physical - Host a technical talk on a conference - Steer employer (if any) into FOSS'ing a software project - Co-author an IETF RFC - Get a tiny tattoo - Restuff my blåhaj - Make something that is not, but looks like an electrolytic capacitor - Flip off a conservative - Do standup comedy at an open mic night