Short-term

• Become a significantly faster reader. Like proper sex education, reading is one of the core skills that permeates a central aspect of your life. Unfortunately, neither culture nor the education system in the United States dictates the importance of these crucial life skills.

  I recently came across Spreeder, which is a nifty Web application that could potentially help improve reading speed and comprehension. It emphasizes subvocalization elimination, and although it has an option for chunking, I suspect it doesn't help with chunking in practice, due to the way lines are actually laid out and scanned.

• Reach prescribed weight levels (also known as "Rx") in Crossfit. I joined a local Crossfit gym nearly six months ago and I feel in better shape than I've felt in a long time. Regardless, it's highly intense, and I've barely reached the prescribed weight levels for women. Achieving men's Rx entails many things: 
  1. I'll be stronger than ever before.
  2. I'll have to maintain high levels of discipline.
  3. I'll have to maintain a better diet.
  4. I'll generally be pushing myself beyond my limits. 
• Research and follow a more Paleo-style diet. True Paleo is somewhat absurd. The diet disadvocates salt, for christ's sake! It's quite trendy as well, and I more or less believe that everything popular is wrong. Regardless, there are sound principles underlying the diet that have led to rave reviews among its followers. It's also the de facto diet of Crossfitters, so I'm inclined to follow it to keep up with the better athletes in the program. Additionally, following a diet is a great test of discipline.
• Solidify political viewpoints. I've made an effort to read a lot about economics and politics for the last two years, but I've barely touched the tip of the iceberg. On one hand, I've subconsciously sought to maintain a small identity to broadly consume facts and knowledge in an unbiased way, but on the other hand, people dish out respect based on how you to take a stance and defend it. 
• Volunteer regularly. As a child of Mexican immigrants, engineering and technology has been incredibly empowering for my family. It has truly given us access to the spoils of the wealthy world, whereas much of my extended family is without them. More families can gain control of their own destiny if they happen to encounter the right passion and learning tools in their lifetime. My ideal volunteer job would involve the HIspanic population and technology. I nearly achieved this at the National Hispanic University but due to last-minute changes in their curriculum I wasn't able to help out.
• Perfect my Spanish. Spanish is my first language, but it's pretty weak right now. It can be perfected in only a few months in a native Spanish-speaking country. 

Long-term