50 things to do before you're 30 - which have you done?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Here’s Nigel Blinman’s list of 50 things to do before you’re 30. Apparently, Nigel has done nine of them. How about you?

  1. Have a really stupid accident which necessitates a hospital visit
  2. Shoot something
  3. Take a weekend break more than 1000 miles from home
  4. Boot Linux on your home PC
  5. Get lost in a country where you don’t speak the language
  6. Spend more than your monthly income on a pocket sized gadget
  7. Post bail for a friend
  8. Break a really large plate glass window
  9. Make a parachute jump on a hangover
  10. Use a whole roll of gaffa tape in one day
  11. Make a pointless modification to your house
  12. Neck a pint of peppermint oil
  13. Pull a shemale by mistake (but realise in time…)
  14. Buy a samurai sword
  15. Delay paying a bill until the summons arrives
  16. Destroy a speed camera
  17. Refill an inkjet cartridge
  18. Say something obscene on national television
  19. Do a J turn in order to beat somebody to a parking space
  20. Break a sledgehammer
  21. Make a bomb
  22. Smash a CRT
  23. Require medical treatment as a consequence of kinky sex gone wrong (STDs don’t count.)
  24. Tip a waiter with something other than money
  25. Light a fire with petrol
  26. Kidnap someone
  27. Park inside a motorway service station
  28. Own a convertible.
  29. Live abroad.
  30. Drive at more than 140mph.
  31. Get something for free through a masterpiece of complaining
  32. Give yourself a mains electric shock.
  33. Completely dismantle an object larger than yourself
  34. Write off a car
  35. Fall asleep and get really hilarious sunburn
  36. Get drunk on Absinthe
  37. Stay up all night listening to a girl have an emotional crisis
  38. Lick the terminals of a 9 volt battery
  39. Take part in motorsport
  40. Stay at the office for more than 24 hours
  41. Set off a fire extinguisher
  42. Drive at least 600 miles in a day on two lane roads
  43. Hotwire a car
  44. Watch all the Monty Python films In one sitting
  45. Shag an ex-girlfriend by mistake
  46. Dial 999
  47. Commit a faux pas which means that a friend will never speak to you again
  48. Make a bet you couldn’t afford to lose
  49. Read a 500 page book in one sitting
  50. Escape a perfectly justified parking ticket.

I’ve done these seven:

  1. Boot Linux on your home PC - When I ran Linux on my home PC, I did it daily.
  2. Get lost in a country where you don’t speak the language - I was lost in the Moscow subway but eventually managed to find my way, and a few times I wandered about parts of the city without knowing where I was.
  3. Light a fire with petrol - I and a classmate stole petrol from the gas tank of a parked motorbike to burn books in a waste basket. I know better now.
  4. Get drunk on Absinthe - And how!
  5. Stay up all night listening to a girl have an emotional crisis - Unfortunately, I was the cause of the crisis.
  6. Take part in motorsport - Go-carts. Hope they count.
  7. Set off a fire extinguisher - While learning to use it.

I may very well have done number 49 - Read a 500 page book in one sitting - but I’m not sure.

2
  1. Shoot something : last summer, clay pigeon shooting on a stag weekend
  2. Take a weekend break more than 1000 miles from home : last August, drinking weekend in Budapest
  3. Boot Linux on your home PC : from a bootable Linux CD, yes
  4. Get lost in a country where you don’t speak the language : possible, but I’m usually pretty good at not getting lost. Maybe in Prague, 2002.
  5. Light a fire with petrol : yes, as a kid
  6. Live abroad : yes, 1997-1998
  7. Get something for free through a masterpiece of complaining : yes, more than once - not much of an achievement though, is it?
  8. Give yourself a mains electric shock : yes, me and someone else
  9. Completely dismantle an object larger than yourself : yes
  10. Fall asleep and get really hilarious sunburn : yes, severe burns the week before my final university exams
  11. Get drunk on absinthe : yes, several times, it’s overrated
  12. Stay up all night listening to a girl have an emotional crisis : yes, at university
  13. Lick the terminals of a 9 volt battery : yes
  14. Take part in motorsport : does quad bike racing count? if so, yes, same stag do as above
  15. Hotwire a car : yes, was taught to at school in an unusual car maintenance class
  16. Dial 999 : yes
  17. Commit a faux pas which means that a friend will never speak to you again : yep, definitely, Melbourne, 1997

There’s some things on this list I don’t consider interesting life experiences, I have to say. Booting Linux? Refilling ink cartridges? If I’d done all of those and nothing else off the list I’d still be pretty crushed.

3

Done these:

  1. Have a really stupid accident which necessitates a hospital visit
  2. Shoot something
  3. Take a weekend break more than 1000 miles from home
  4. Boot Linux on your home PC
  5. Post bail for a friend
  6. Buy a samurai sword
  7. Delay paying a bill until the summons arrives
  8. Refill an inkjet cartridge
  9. Do a J turn in order to beat somebody to a parking space
  10. Make a bomb
  11. Smash a CRT
  12. Light a fire with petrol
  13. Get something for free through a masterpiece of complaining
  14. Give yourself a mains electric shock.
  15. Stay up all night listening to a girl have an emotional crisis
  16. Lick the terminals of a 9 volt battery
  17. Take part in motorsport
  18. Set off a fire extinguisher
  19. Drive at least 600 miles in a day on two lane roads
  20. Commit a faux pas which means that a friend will never speak to you again
4
  1. Have a really stupid accident which necessitates a hospital visit
  2. Shoot something
  3. Get lost in a country where you don’t speak the language
  4. Use a whole roll of gaffa tape in one day
  5. Make a pointless modification to your house
  6. Buy a samurai sword
  7. Refill an inkjet cartridge
  8. Make a bomb
  9. Smash a CRT
  10. Tip a waiter with something other than money
  11. Light a fire with petrol
  12. Kidnap someone
  13. Get something for free through a masterpiece of complaining
  14. Give yourself a mains electric shock.
  15. Write off a car
  16. Stay up all night listening to a girl have an emotional crisis
  17. Lick the terminals of a 9 volt battery
  18. Set off a fire extinguisher
  19. Dial 999
  20. Read a 500 page book in one sitting
    Not bad at all.
5

Details, people! What did you dismantle that was bigger than you? Who did you kidnap and did you do time for it? What faux pas made the friend stop talking to you? What was so stupid about the accident?

6

  1. Have a really stupid accident which necessitates a hospital visit

  2. Shoot something

  3. Take a weekend break more than 1000 miles from home

  4. Get lost in a country where you don’t speak the language

  5. Light a fire with petrol

  6. Own a convertible. (Three of them. :smiley: All MGBs. Oh, and a Willys Jeep.)

  7. Live abroad.

  8. Give yourself a mains electric shock.

  9. Write off a car

  10. Stay up all night listening to a girl have an emotional crisis

  11. Lick the terminals of a 9 volt battery

  12. Take part in motorsport

  13. Set off a fire extinguisher

  14. Commit a faux pas which means that a friend will never speak to you again

  15. Read a 500 page book in one sitting

  16. Escape a perfectly justified parking ticket. Does a moving violation count?

In addition, I got an airplane pilot’s license and learned to SCUBA dive. I missed the 30-years-old cut-off for getting my helicopter pilot’s license by four years and two months.

7

OK…#1 and 2 go together, and that’s all I’m gonna say about that. #5 Offroading in Mexico. #10 is any good weekend around the house, or Student Council trying something new at school. I do #21 for entertainment all the time. #22 got me written up at school until they remembered that I had bought the stupid thing myself, and that it wasn’t District property. #24 was a tip of wine, because I had found something really nice buried in the wine list. #25 - Is there any other way? #49 I do way too often. Not all that hard when you read 800+ wpm.

8

I’ve done all but 9, 13, and 36.

But if substitutions are acceptible, I could probably blow a few minds.

9

Somehow I missed this one:

  1. Buy a samurai sword

Did that.

10

If I’ve translated a few of the Britsh-isms correctly, I’ve done the following:
1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11, 17, 25, 28, 31, 34, 35, 37, 40, 42, 46, 47, 49, 50. However, I’m 38 so I guess it doesn’t count :frowning:

11

I’ve done 15 of them. Not so bad.

Except I’m 53 years old.

12

I’m 18, and seem to have a decent start:

  1. Shoot something
  2. Spend more than your monthly income on a pocket sized gadget
  3. Break a really large plate glass window
  4. Use a whole roll of gaffa tape in one day

I think I know what this is, so yes. At one point, I was going through a roll of masking tape/duct tape/gaffa tape a day trying to put up GSA flyers at my school, for a week or three.

  1. Delay paying a bill until the summons arrives

Does the library count?

  1. Refill an inkjet cartridge
  2. Make a bomb
  3. Smash a CRT
  4. Tip a waiter with something other than money

I’m pretty sure I’ve done some odd tipping with the regulary scheduled monetary donation.

  1. Light a fire with petrol
  2. Get something for free through a masterpiece of complaining
  3. Completely dismantle an object larger than yourself

All depends what you are counting as “larger”.

  1. Stay up all night listening to a girl have an emotional crisis

Most of the night and, I’d do again, as much as possible.

  1. Lick the terminals of a 9 volt battery

Some of the rest I think I’ll do in the next 12 years, but the others just don’t interest me much.

13

This isn’t the only time, but I did once completely destroy this old, moldy entertainment unit with hammers and sheer will. I’ve also completely taken apart a garage door opener, which is much longer than I am. My childhood is actually riddled with those types of incidents, whether it is burning matresses, destroying giant trees with machetes, or using bats to dismantle a playset, because my parents generally had a laissez faire attitude towards my destructive tendencies.

Incidentaly, that leads to 21, 22, and 25.

14
  1. Have a really stupid accident which necessitates a hospital visit
  2. Shoot something
  3. Take a weekend break more than 1000 miles from home
  4. Post bail for a friend
  5. Use a whole roll of gaffa tape in one day
  6. Delay paying a bill until the summons arrives
  7. Refill an inkjet cartridge
  8. Light a fire with petrol
  9. Live abroad.
  10. Get something for free through a masterpiece of complaining
  11. Write off a car
  12. Get drunk on Absinthe
  13. Stay up all night listening to a girl have an emotional crisis
  14. Lick the terminals of a 9 volt battery
  15. Drive at least 600 miles in a day on two lane roads
  16. Shag an ex-girlfriend by mistake
  17. Make a bet you couldn’t afford to lose
  18. Read a 500 page book in one sitting
15

These are the ones I haven’t done:

  1. Boot Linux on your home PC (OS/2, yes)
  2. Post bail for a friend
  3. Break a really large plate glass window
  4. Neck a pint of peppermint oil (Don’t even know what that is, and don’t really want to…)
  5. Buy a samurai sword
  6. Destroy a speed camera (Assuming a qualification of “deliberately” - accidentally, yes)
  7. Say something obscene on national television
  8. Make a bomb (Does nitrogen triiodide count? Or dry ice in a screw-top bottle? If so, cross this one off the list, too)
  9. Require medical treatment as a consequence of kinky sex gone wrong (STDs don’t count.)
  10. Kidnap someone
  11. Park inside a motorway service station (As in “inside the building”? No)
  12. Shag an ex-girlfriend by mistake (Never had an ex-girlfriend :wink: )
  13. Make a bet you couldn’t afford to lose (Don’t gamble)
16

I’ve done the following (and I am 30):

  1. Have a really stupid accident which necessitates a hospital visit
  2. Shoot something
  3. Take a weekend break more than 1000 miles from home
  4. Get lost in a country where you don’t speak the language
  5. Post bail for a friend (does a brother count?)
  6. Make a parachute jump on a hangover
  7. Use a whole roll of gaffa tape in one day
  8. Make a pointless modification to your house
  9. Delay paying a bill until the summons arrives
  10. Break a sledgehammer
  11. Make a bomb
  12. Smash a CRT
  13. Require medical treatment as a consequence of kinky sex gone wrong (STDs don’t count.)
  14. Light a fire with petrol
  15. Live abroad.
  16. Get something for free through a masterpiece of complaining
  17. Give yourself a mains electric shock.
  18. Completely dismantle an object larger than yourself
  19. Write off a car
  20. Stay up all night listening to a girl have an emotional crisis
  21. Lick the terminals of a 9 volt battery
  22. Take part in motorsport
  23. Stay at the office for more than 24 hours
  24. Set off a fire extinguisher
  25. Drive at least 600 miles in a day on two lane roads
  26. Hotwire a car
  27. Dial 999 (I assume that’s 911 in the United States)
  28. Commit a faux pas which means that a friend will never speak to you again
  29. Make a bet you couldn’t afford to lose
  30. Read a 500 page book in one sitting

33, 43, and 34 were related, as were (one particular instance of) 37 and 47. Many of them (build a bomb, destroy a CRT, light a fire with petrol, etc) seem to be more teenage boy projects. No details on 23 shall be forthcoming. And I won the bet in 48.

17
  1. Have a really stupid accident which necessitates a hospital visit – fell off my horse in a very stupid, my-fault way
  2. Shoot something – AK-74, at a range. Sweeeet (but ouch, too much kick for lil ol’ me)
  3. Take a weekend break more than 1000 miles from home – I think this is more common in the US, but lots of weekend jaunts to San Francisco.
  4. Get lost in a country where you don’t speak the language – yes
  5. Use a whole roll of gaffa tape in one day – Just one roll? And it’s gaffer’s tape.
  6. Refill an inkjet cartridge – yep, with the little squirty thing and the hole poked in the cartridge
  7. Do a J turn in order to beat somebody to a parking space – parking was kind of brutal when I lived in Ann Aror.
  8. Live abroad. – Does my summer in Bulgaria count?
  9. Get something for free through a masterpiece of complaining – it was only a pair of clipper blades but still.
  10. Give yourself a mains electric shock – stupid lighting instrument stupid frayed insulation stupid slightly ripped gloves.
  11. Write off a car - My 91 Stanza blew its timing chain on the highway. sniff
  12. Lick the terminals of a 9 volt battery – tried it as a child
  13. Take part in motorsport – went ridealong at a SCCA Autocross. We spun out! Wheeee.
  14. Drive at least 600 miles in a day on two lane roads – again, more common in the US.
  15. Watch all the Monty Python films In one sitting – I should think most people on this board qualify for this one
  16. Read a 500 page book in one sitting – see #44

Not bad for an old lady of 30. At 16 items I’m well ahead of Nigel.

18

When I was 30, many of these things weren’t invented. Here’s what I did before I reached that age:

  1. Shoot something (assuming targets count; I’ve never shot anything alive)
  2. Stay up all night listening to a girl have an emotional crisis (during the day, though.)
  3. Lick the terminals of a 9 volt battery
  4. Read a 500 page book in one sitting (maybe)

Between 30 and 53:
17. Refill an inkjet cartridge

19

Christ, I’ve done so many of these… I’m 31, so I guess my times up. I managed to go through 30 - 35 of them, depending on how strictly their counted.

1. Have a really stupid accident which necessitates a hospital visit
Well, there was the time I lit my hand on fire. The time I slipped in my brothers restaraunt (playing with the cute waitress) and fractured my leg. The time I forgot the tree was there…

2. Shoot something
Many things.

3. Take a weekend break more than 1000 miles from home
About 1,600

4. Boot Linux on your home PC
All the time. I’ve got one with SLES 8 & one with RHEL 4

6. Spend more than your monthly income on a pocket sized gadget
Between my inventory of crazy musical equipment & spare computer parts, something fits this bill :wink:

11. Make a pointless modification to your house
Er…does painting it black & pasting up glow-in-the-dark stars count?

14. Buy a samurai sword
15. Delay paying a bill until the summons arrives
17. Refill an inkjet cartridge
19. Do a J turn in order to beat somebody to a parking space
Yep.

20. Break a sledgehammer
I’ve broken many a tool in my time, from pick-axes to post-hole diggers.

21. Make a bomb
One of my fondest memories…

**22. Smash a CRT **
Yep.

24. Tip a waiter with something other than money
booze, little notes that say “TIP: Pay more attention to your customers!” - yep.

25. Light a fire with petrol
Yes - an I was practically lit on fire while lighting fires with petrol. Good times.

26. Kidnap someone
Only technically…

27. Park inside a motorway service station
Not sure I understand this one…

31. Get something for free through a masterpiece of complaining
Free booze, free food, a promotion…

33. Completely dismantle an object larger than yourself
I dismantled a room before - I mean walls and all. So I’d call that a yes.

34. Write off a car
The 78 Datsun, the 86 Taurus, the 92 Spirit, the 94 Jeep…yeah, here and there.

35. Fall asleep and get really hilarious sunburn
Well, I went fishing & got a hilarious sunburn. Unfortunately I was awake through the entire thing…

37. Stay up all night listening to a girl have an emotional crisis
Oh man…I been married 10 years & this is still an all-to-frequent occurrence. Now my daughters entering the teen years, and I suspect I’m in for another several years of listing to emotional turmoil.

38. Lick the terminals of a 9 volt battery
Urgh…

40. Stay at the office for more than 24 hours
A few times. That’s what happens when your the admin & they find classified data on an unclassified network. Dammit.

41. Set off a fire extinguisher
Yep. No story - just something to do.

42. Drive at least 600 miles in a day on two lane roads
Idle hands, devils workshop.

43. Hotwire a car
This was the only way to get the Taurus to start…

44. Watch all the Monty Python films In one sitting
How many is all? I did the big 3 back in college (Holy Grail, Life of Brian, Meaning of Life).

45. Shag an ex-girlfriend by mistake
An ex girlfriend, a buddies ex-girlfriend, a buddies current girlfriend. Of course, they’re only mistakes in hindsight, no?

46. Dial 999
Dialed 911, but I think that counts. There’s nothing like bringing all 4 lanes if I-95 to a halt during rush-hour. Good times.

47. Commit a faux pas which means that a friend will never speak to you again
Yep. That former buddy is a cop in my hometown now, so I try not to visit too regularly…

48. Make a bet you couldn’t afford to lose
Whats “couldn’t afford” mean? I mean, I would have lived through all of them. Granted, not comfortably…

49. Read a 500 page book in one sitting
Yeah, but I was 13 & had nothing but free time.

50. Escape a perfectly justified parking ticket.
I’ve escaped perfectly justified speeding tickets - does that count for the purposes of this thread?

20
  1. Have a really stupid accident which necessitates a hospital visit - several. ax to knee injury. Thrown from a horse.
  2. Shoot something - My father was a gun dealer. Our house was like a private shooting range.
  3. Take a weekend break more than 1000 miles from home - Europe, various place in U.S.
  4. Boot Linux on your home PC - yep
  5. Get lost in a country where you don’t speak the language - France, Italy
  6. Break a really large plate glass window - shot one with a bb gun
  7. Delay paying a bill until the summons arrives - I once stopped paying all bills for 4 months for no reason
  8. Refill an inkjet cartridge
  9. Make a bomb - lots. we had black powder as well as a cannon at our house
  10. Smash a CRT
  11. Light a fire with petrol - lots. I didn’t know that was racy.
  12. Kidnap someone - my best friend’s little brother.
  13. Completely dismantle an object larger than yourself - spent a year tearing down my barn.
  14. Write off a car - Totalled my BMW
  15. Stay up all night listening to a girl have an emotional crisis - I had female roommates in college.
  16. Lick the terminals of a 9 volt battery - twangy
  17. Stay at the office for more than 24 hours - I did that in my office in grad school.
  18. Set off a fire extinguisher - many
  19. Drive at least 600 miles in a day on two lane roads - several times.
  20. Dial 999 - Is this like 911? Yes, several times.
  21. Commit a faux pas which means that a friend will never speak to you again - yes and family too.
  22. Make a bet you couldn’t afford to lose - let it all ride on one bet at a casino once - won it.
  23. Read a 500 page book in one sitting - several.
  24. Escape a perfectly justified parking ticket - yes.
    That’s 24 but I am 32 now so game over.