Thirty-nine Steps

Everybody has a “List of things to do before you die“. Here is mine. Some items are easy to accomplish, some I may never achieve. We’ll see… (The list is subject to change of course. No specific order)

Version 1.7

• Travel to New York by boat (added in 1.0): preferably with debarkation on Ellis Island, but I think this will be a hard one
• Swim in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland (added in 1.0): if possible naked and at midnight
• Walk on the Great Wall of China (added in 1.0): at least a few kilometers, if possible the whole way
• Complete the Vätternrundan in Sweden (added in 1.0): a 300km bicyle ride around the Vättern lake
• See the Northern lights (added in 1.0): not necessarily in Old Aberdeen…
• Travel to the Antarctic (added in 1.0)
• Join a humanitarian expedition (added in 1.0): maybe to deploy the first communication infrastructure after a disaster or something similar
• Set up a Beowulf cluster in my basement (added in 1.0): for the non-IT nerds -> a cluster of inexpensive computers that act as one big supercomputer.
• Take the Trans-Siberian Express (added in 1.0): from Moscow to Vladivostok
• Travel to Australia (added in 1.1): without using aircraft!
• Visit 500 Places Before they Disappear (added in 1.2): Buy this book and visit as many places as possible (in an ecological way of course)
• Travel coast to coast (in US) (added in 1.2): and taste the real road-life, stopping over at truck-stops and diners.
• Beat Kim Geavert’s Personal best (of 2008) on the 100m (added in 1.2): I would like to achieve this by October 10th, 2010. Her personal best in 2008 was 11 seconds 04 hundreds. Some say I’m crazy…
• Finish the 11 Steden Tocht (added in 1.3)
• Proceed into outer space (added in 1.3): by any means of transport, hopefully with a successful re-entry
• Learn 7 languages (added in 1.3): Thus far I can speak 5: Dutch, English, German, French and Swedish. I started to learn Spanish (twice) but gave up (twice) For the next one I’m thinking of Spanish or Portugese, Russian, Arabic, Japanese or Chinese or maybe some African language, I’ll see… Or maybe Icelandic!
• Be a DJ at a mega-event (added in 1.3): After being “The first Belgian DJ in Lapland” in 1997, one has got to move on…
• Visit the town of Pripyat (added in 1.4): Chernobyl here I come.
• Swim across the Channel (added in 1.4): Calais to Dover
• Learn to understand and use Morse-code (added in 1.5): I just love obsolete technology
• Watch the entire LOTR-trilogy (added in 1.6): As one 9-hour long film, no interruptions
• Buy a Land Rover (Defender, Long base) (added in 1.7): and drive across a continent in it (not sure which yet)
• Learn some musical instrument (added in 1.7): preferably the piano

Each time I add items, the minor version (after the dot) will increase one number. Whenever I’ve done a thing, the major version (before the dot) will increase.