Adam An

Ten things

May 20, 2024

I once saw a kooky old professor website with a page full of lists of ten things. I never found it again, but in tribute to that, here are some lists of ten things.

My ten favorite ABBA songs

  1. Lay All Your Love On Me
  2. As Good As New
  3. Voulez-Vous
  4. Waterloo
  5. The Winner Takes It All
  6. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
  7. Mamma Mia
  8. SOS
  9. Dancing Queen
  10. Take A Chance On Me

Ten math facts that are hard for me to remember

  1. 7 x 9 = 63
  2. 4 + 7 = 11
  3. 16 - 9 = 7
  4. 8 x 7 = 56
  5. 3 x 6 = 18
  6. 15 - 9 = 6
  7. 9 x 6 = 54
  8. 9 + 4 = 13
  9. 7 x 12, 8 x 12, and 9 x 12 - literally useless
  10. 6 x 4, 8 x 4, and 6 x 8, which all feel like they equal 32

Ten meaningful songs to me

  1. Dirty Little Secret - All American Rejects, the first song I remember liking
  2. No Limit - 2 Unlimited, which kickstarted a lifelong love of 90’s-present EDM
  3. Marry the Night - Lady Gaga, which taught me to appreciate the power of pop music
  4. Life Itself - Glass Animals, which I listened to countless times in the car with my best friend
  5. The Spiritual - Jukebox the Ghost, a college acapella group’s performance of which taught me the power of live performance
  6. Baby Come Back - Player, which irreversibly converted me into a shameless yacht rocker
  7. July - Noah Cyrus, which almost perfectly tells the story of the worst month of my life
  8. Reelin’ in the Years - Steely Dan, a live performance of which, in one of the intense moments I’ve ever experienced, provided me with a brief-but-perfect escape from the worst month of my life
  9. My Day Will Come - James Francies ft. Yebba, which actually saved my life
  10. Little Bird - Annie Lennox, which perfectly captures the mix of anxiety and optimism I feel at time of writing, three weeks before starting grad school

Ten things I’ll never wear

  1. Vests.
  2. Bow ties.
  3. Tank tops.
  4. Suspenders.
  5. A blue suit.
  6. Pants in unusual colors.
  7. Boots, except in the rain.
  8. Anything tucked into jeans. I honestly don’t even wear jeans that much any more; chinos FTW.
  9. Shirts in unusual patterns - only plaid (my favorite) and rarely vertical stripes. I have some absolutely bonkers plaid, but it’s still plaid.
  10. Loafers, wingtips, and other eye-catching footwear. I like leather shoes, but only plain or cap toe oxfords or derbies that are darker than my pants. Casual shoes follow the same rule, so no white sneakers. I have a pair of derbies that have a light-colored welt, and that’s as far as I’ll go.

Ten languages I earnestly started learning but stopped before I got anywhere, ranked by how far I got

  1. Levantine Arabic
  2. Russian
  3. Polish
  4. American Sign Language
  5. Korean
  6. Norwegian
  7. Italian
  8. Welsh
  9. Cantonese
  10. Latin

Ten most aesthetically pleasing IPA symbols

  1. ɮ
  2. ɱ
  3. ɕ
  4. ʘ
  5. ɰ
  6. ɤ
  7. ʒ
  8. ʡ
  9. ǂ
  10. ɠ

Ten things I’ve never done that I think I could nail on the first try

  1. Tap dance.
  2. News anchoring.
  3. Scamming and/or grifting.
  4. Operating a lighthouse.
  5. An hour-long DJ set.
  6. A croquembouche from scratch.
  7. Sewing a mascot costume.
  8. Growing all my own food, with the exception of rice.
  9. Makeup, like putting an entire bridal party in full wedding glam.
  10. The experiment where you use dish soap to extract strawberry DNA.

Last updated July 30, 2024