My 40th Birthday

Today is my birthday. I turned 40. *Sigh*

To me, age is nothing but a number. Well, it used to be that way. Actually, it kind of still is just a number. I mean, I don't really feel any older. Truth be told, I feel like a kid trapped in an adult's body most of the time, something I think many adults won't openly admit. But, as 40 drew nearer, it made me think of my goals in life. And, then I realized that FORTY years of my life have passed!

It's a little bit daunting to think that you're getting closer and closer to those final days. But, on the other hand, 40 isn't like turning 70 or 80 (I hope I'll be around to celebrate those milestones. Hell, why not even 90 and 100!) It's just a number that sets the mind to thinking about the future. There are still a lot of books I hope to write, masks I want to make, and things about our world that I want to learn.

I don't feel any different now that I've reached my 40th birthday. I still feel like a kid held hostage in an adult body. I like living life and I try to have fun doing it. I intend to continue living that way, with optimism instead of pessimism. I don't usually celebrate my birthday with cake and gifts or big gatherings. Since entering adulthood, I've treated my birthday just like any other day. I'll do that today. I'll celebrate by working on my current book, Carniville, and cooking out this evening.

Thanks for stopping by! I'll leave you with a little humor from Louis C.K.'s perspective of turning 40:

What happened to Saturday?

When I was a child, Saturdays were great. At least, as far as I remember. There was no school, plenty of time to play with friends, and a plethora of cartoons on all the network stations, which consisted of about three or four different networks. Good times.

Now, all of that seems to have changed since my adulthood. I'll be forty years old in April and I feel like I'm turning into that old man down the road all of us kids used to fear and make fun of. The old man who would yell at you, "Keep off my grass!" as he shook his fist in the air and threaten to call the police or your parents. Okay, I don't think I'm really that much of a curmudgeon, but I think I know why most old people become crotchety: they're forced out of their comfort zone with unwanted changes.

I know that's not a brilliant observation from an enlightened academic. Hell, I'm not professing to be some great social psychologist or anything of the like. It's just that as I get older, I realize just how different things are today in contrast to when I was younger. But, I'm digressing.

The reason for this post? Let me give you just a bit of back story first. Although I write novels, I still have a day job. I work as a programmer for an eCommerce company. (I know. There was no such position when I was a kid, not even in high school.) This past week was rough. We were trying to release software and the project had been huge! Every time it went before our Quality Assurance team, they would find some bug or other and kick back to us to fix. Well, since this project was so big, we were scrambling to fix all of the glitches in the system. As one of my colleagues so eloquently put it, it was like shoving three tons of shit through a one ton pipe. I couldn't agree more. And shove we did! Suffice it to say, I didn't have much time (or desire) to do any writing. After all, The Old Royal is in the hands of my second beta reader, so why shouldn't I relax and enjoy some down time?

I woke up early this morning, showered, shaved, and relaxed on the sofa with the TV on. We don't get that many channels, only seventeen or so because we refuse to pay the cable company exorbitant sums of money for hundreds of channels of even more shit. Besides, I enjoy sitcoms and have a few I watch frequently on the few channels we have. However, the weekend (during the first part of the day, anyway) appears to be devoid of entertainment. Well, that is to say, unless you enjoy watching political round tables, save-the-planet shows, half-hour (sometimes even whole-hour) infomercials, kids' shows that are absolutely dreadful (what happened to Bugs Bunny?), and, well, that's pretty much it for the channels I get. I'm sure there's something worth watching on one of the cable shows out there.

Instead of sounding more like the curmudgeon I must appear to be, I suppose I'll work on a Halloween mask sculpture and enjoy drinking a curmudgeon. That sounds relaxing to me. Thanks for putting up with my rant.