The Updated List of 10 Things I want to Learn

10 Jan 2019

The heightened level of stress arising from having nothing to do and having to find something to do before I start rotting away, has sprouted some canker sores on my mouth and left me with a persistent neckache.
And I keep typing and deleting, typing and deleting, blocked and frozen.
I am brought back to a time in 2016 or early 2017. Sometime in end-May 2016, I came across a post on Quora asking how to be a pilot in Singapore. Replies recommended joining the Singapore Youth Flying Club. I looked it up, completely surprised. This recommendation arose from the fact that learning as an adult meant spending up to 50 thousand dollars to get a license, which does not even guarantee any job. Whereas this SYFC thing is sponsored by taxpayer dollars, directed at JC students, who only have to pay 50 dollars. And I got very excited. I perhaps qualified for it. I looked up all the application procedure, including the hypobaric chamber stuff as part of the application. But in the end, I did not go through with it. I did not even try asking my parents for permission. The main stumbling block was reading about the referral letter issue. And damn, but at that point in my friendless life, I gave up. Heck, I even downloaded the application form and all the stuff. I dreamed about it for days, weeks, months. If I wanted to join, I was supposed to apply in end-2016 after receiving my end-of-year examination results. But by then I had given up.
In early 2017, upon becoming a JC student, I gave up completely. In the second half of 2016, I had joined a new CCA, changing from one individualistic, vigorous, brute strength sport, to another individualistic, but less vigorous sport that requires calm and accuracy. (A very bad choice, as seen here) And as I gave up my dreams of going travelling three hours every weekend to go to Seletar Airbase, I thought up a list of ten things that I want to learn to do in place of learning to fly an airplane. I have since forgotten that those ten things are.
I vaguely recall some things that could have made that list:

• Rollerblading
• Ice skating
• Motorcycle riding
• Skateboarding
• Shooting
• Archery
• Martial arts, probably kendo
• Mountain climbing/rock climbing/boulder scaling
• Free running?
• BMX Cycling?
• Gymnastics?
• And since it was post my fountain pen phase, perhaps calligraphy?

But as you can see this was quite a physical endeavour. My directing has since changed, at least, I hope. Because it is VERY DIFFICULT to achieve so many different sports. Its about time to make an updated list. I think quite a few things will change. But I’ll continue including the things that I have achieved, at least partially, because I am very lazy. And these are the things I am still interested in.

• Rollerblading – I can balance and move forward very slowly on skates!
• Ice skating – not yet
• Motorcycle riding – not yet, but I am in the process of learning to drive a car
• Shooting – I know the technicalities of using an air rifle but lack skill
• Archery – I have tried it once
• Martial arts, probably kendo – quite impossible?
• Mountain climbing/rock climbing/boulder scaling – quite impossible?
• Free running? – quite impossible?
• Gymnastics? – I’m leaning towards the calisthenics or aerial arts/pole arts thing
• Calligraphy? – I write a satisfactory gothic and italic script, and a subjective hand-lettering

And yet this is still ten things. And there are new things I want to learn. So, I gotta remove some things. And so here is the most updated and accurate as of now list.

• Ice skating – I can roller blade slightly and its probably quite similar
• Car driving – in the process of learning
• Shooting – perhaps learn to use a handgun
• Kendo/Jiujitsu – its really a copycat thing…but there’s a kendo dojo in Changi that someone I know has went before?
• Calligraphy? – I want to deepen on the use of broad edge and maybe start pointed calligraphy
• Aerial arts – also a very copycat thing that I wish to learn after seeing others do it
• Languages – e.g. French so I can read Les Mis in the original language
• Programming – I don’t know how to consider it fun but it seems like something that a lot of people want to learn, so
• Reading a curated list of the classic books – maybe like one a year or more frequent so I die learned
• Weightlifting – I’ll never compete probably, but just chase the numbers

Hmm this is a very trying list lol. I probably won’t even accomplish half of all those. Its this thing about wanting to fly an airplane which has caused me so much grief. I ended up taking a few bus trips which went pass Seletar Airbase, and each time I will be hit by a wave of sadness and regret. But the purpose of my trips was to get to a training place where I improved upon one of the ten skills in my list. Which ended up to be a quite shitty experience, losing people, and losing my place. To think that I thought Seletar Airbase was far enough, but yet I had to go even further than Seletar, to someplace far away in the north, to seek improvement which I never got. And carrying my heavy equipment. And spending almost two hundred dollars in the process.
I’m a hopeless thing. Its actually not that difficult to achieve. But based on my levels of motivation since last year, I am not optimistic. And yeah you need a lot of free time. Which sounds like something that passive income can do for you. So maybe learn investing too.
And somewhere in a list of things I want to do, is to buy a house. With someone. Guys are hopeless. And gay marriage remains illegal in Singapore. But having a new generation of leaders brings hope. But currently there’s the joint-singles scheme where two girls can cohabit after age 35.