h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In no particular order, here's a list of thirty things it might be nice to do before you're thirty :

1. Read a literary classic in its original language (not your own)
2. Make a parachute jump
3. Climb a mountain over 5000 m high
4. File a patent
5. Sample every major faith
6. Play poker for stakes you can’t afford
7. Fall in love with someone you shouldn’t
8. Surf on three oceans
9. Drive a car that scares you
10. Exhibit in an art gallery
11. Give birth (or, if biologically impossible, help someone to do so)
12. Hunt something bigger than you are
13. Run a marathon in under 200 minutes
14. Commit a minor felony
15. Make a record
16. Donate a month’s wages to charity
17. Create a garden you can escape into
18. Pose as a celebrity
19. Confound your employer
20. Give up doing drugs
21. Sing on stage
22. Have sex on six continents
23. Operate a machine that develops over 5 MW of power
24. Get banned from something
25. Appear in a film
26. Build a house
27. Get an article published in a national newspaper
28. Streak
29. Stand for public office
30. Take a year out to make the next list

Well, OK. I can only claim four definitely achieved and maybe another three sort-ofs. But I'm not going to say which.

Four years to go, and I've managed:

1. Read a literary classic in its original language [If Beowulf counts]
6. Play poker for stakes you can’t afford
9. Drive a car that scares you
12. Hunt something bigger than you are
14. Commit a minor felony
15. Make a record
21. Sing on stage
23. Operate a machine that develops over 5 MW of power
27. Get an article published in a national newspaper
28. Streak

That's not too bad, is it?

B

That's pretty good.
I've done the 5 MW machine too.
My nearest equivalents to the rest of your set would be :

1. Read an Asterix comic in its original language
6. Played poker with someone else's money
9. Scared the owner of a car I drove
12. Found a lost cat
14. Was told by a store detective that I'm a crap shoplifter
15. Bought a record
21. Mimed in a school play chorus
27. Got an advert published in a local newspaper
28. Slept in the nude

Nice.

It's quite hard to work where you do and not operate a 5MW machine, surely? Teesside was certainly where I operated mine.

B

Yeah. Bit of a gimme really.

Everyone should roll steel sometime in their life.
Maybe too profound for under-30s, though

Five years past the deadline but I had done

1. Read a literary classic in its original language (not your own)
3. Climb a mountain over 5000 m high
6. Play poker for stakes you can’t afford
7. Fall in love with someone you shouldn’t
9. Drive a car that scares you
10. Exhibit in an art gallery
15. Make a record (or at least had a song of mine made into one)
16. Donate a month’s wages to charity
18. Pose as a celebrity
19. Confound your employer
21. Sing on stage
24. Get banned from something
25. Appear in a film (does appearing on TV count)
28. Streak
29. Stand for public office

If one walks nude through an art gallery, does that fulfil numbers 10 and 28 together?

B

Yeah I think the main thing is to eat all your vegetables + make sure you see 40.Time is precious

Wattaray

Doesn't everybody fall in love with someone they shouldn't at least once? It's a mark of maturity when you stop repeating the process...

And I say that anybody with personality is bound to confound their employer on a regular basis.

Oh, and this morning I drove my not-so-scary car through the remnants of Hurricane Katrina. Does that count? It was pretty alarming.

And I've never committed a felony, but I evaded a kidnapper when I was 5 years old and scared off a stalker a few years ago.

Well, those are big things certainly. Katrina certainly looks pretty terrifying.

I guess that's true about confounding employers. A lot of otherwise-bright people spend a lot of time unthinkingly dumbing-down to their boss' level, though.

As for falling in love, maturing out of the habit does happen, sure. The trouble is, it's not just the disastrous affairs that maturity steers us away from. Doing it before 30 could be right, because it might not be so bittersweet if it comes later than that.

What a list...........ain't done it all yet. Why 30 anyway - surely yo
ur earning potential is more afterwards, so you should be able to do more.

I like the one about walking nude thro a museum...........I did that today, he he ( v. quickly though)

Wattaray

Hmm, well, the ones I've done out of that list would be:

1. Read a literary classic in its original language (not your own)
2. Make a parachute jump
6. Play poker for stakes you can’t afford
7. Fall in love with someone you shouldn’t
9. Drive a car that scares you
10. Exhibit in an art gallery
14. Commit a minor felony
19. Confound your employer
20. Give up doing drugs
21. Sing on stage
22. Have sex on six continents
23. Operate a machine that develops over 5 MW of power
24. Get banned from something
25. Appear in a film
27. Get an article published in a national newspaper

Cor, I've managed quite a few of those and I've got 5 months left. Oh and I can add:

- Jump off a canyon on a Bungy swing
- Survive an attemp on our life (although I hope no one else has to go through something like that)
- Cook the best veggie lasagna the world has ever seen, and promptly forget how you did it
- Travel the world on your own
- Get to know a couple of badgers

There's a whole new set of things I want to do before I'm 40...

I'm particularly impressed with No. 22.

I've lost my luggage on six continents. That any good?

hmmm, I've fallen in love with someone I shouldn't. But I'm only 16! I'd rather like to have sex on six different continents tho.

Psst... I wouldn't go around this site advertising the fact you're sixteen and want to have sex. It gives a bad impression.

B

lol. Any 16 year old who says they don't want to have sex is a liar! All those hormones make you horny!

Feeling pretty sad here, as I've got only 5 years left to go before 30 and I've only managed a few...

1. Read a literary classic in its original language (not your own)
5. Sample every major faith (I've read about them - does that count? )
6. Play poker for stakes you can’t afford (I can never afford poker)
9. Drive a car that scares you
14. Commit a minor felony
15. Make a record
19. Confound your employer (if only briefly)
21. Sing on stage
25. Appear in a film - does the local news count??? ha ha

Some I'm hoping for in the next years:

1. Fall in love for the first time
2. Visit other continents
3. Have a baby
Not necessarily in that order, though 3's gotta come after 1!

I feel terribly inadequate, as, well past my sell by date, I haven't done many of those at all. Not that I ever aspired to many of them, at any age. All I have left now open to me is sex while incontinent.

I have:

1. Read a literary classic in its original language (not your own) - loads.
11. Give birth (or, if biologically impossible, help someone to do so)


Have never felt the least inclination to:

2. Make a parachute jump.
3. Climb a mountain over 5000 m high
4. File a patent
5. Sample every major faith
6. Play poker for stakes you can’t afford
8. Surf on three oceans
9. Drive a car that scares you
10. Exhibit in an art gallery (I hate painting and am useless at it)
12. Hunt something bigger than you are
13. Run a marathon in under 200 minutes (why bother?)
14. Commit a minor felony
17. Create a garden you can escape into
18. Pose as a celebrity
19. Confound your employer
23. Operate a machine that develops over 5 MW of power
24. Get banned from something
26. Build a house (too much hassle deciding where to put all the electric sockets. Rather buy one that someone's already lived in) Have put up innumerable tents, though.
28. Streak
29. Stand for public office (have never lived in a country where I was allowed to. Apart from PTA, which I avoided because I never saw eye to eye with any of the other parents.


Given a chance I wouldn't mind
21. Sing on stage (but my kids won't let me)
27. Get an article published in a national newspaper

Am I the only one who finds it quite scary the number of you who are admitting to having streaked? I'm glad the Trillian's Child, like myself, has absolutely no desire to do so.