Ramblings Episode 433: The Three Body Problem

Thoughts about the 2015 Hugo award winner. Also, it’s my birthday. #RoaUMP


Run time: 15:14

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Ramblings Episode 142 – Birthday Presents

I talk about what I got for my birthday. #RoaUMP


Run time: 12:38

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Ramblings Episode 140 – A Full Deck

Yep, I’m finally playing with one. #RoaUMP


Run time: 17:28

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Ramblings Episode 136 – In a Funk

An unexpected question leads to some self-evaluation. #RoaUMP


Run time: 13:30

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Ramblings Episode 19 - Twenty-Five Years

My daughter turns twenty-five today, and I talk about that and share some remembrances of years gone by.

 
Run time: 19:12

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Fifty

Today I turned fifty. Five decades. Half a century. In many ways I look at that number and am amazed. Do I really feel like fifty years have gone by? No, not really. I was conscious for all of it. It's not like I was in a coma for ten to fifteen years and am missing a gap of time there. But in many ways it feels like only a whisper of time has passed since I got married, had a daughter, or moved into this house.

Even those numbers are getting into the significant range. I've been married 26 years, my daughter is 23, and we've been in this house something like 15 years (I can never remember exactly). The length of my career is also an impressive number. Come this May I will have been working in the IT field, for pay, 30 years.

But despite all this evidence that I am indeed fifty, that reality seems somewhat surreal to me. I made the decision in my twenties that while I may grow old, I wouldn't "be" old. It's more of a mental attitude than anything. My refusal to let my brain calcify, to think to myself "I'm too old to do x or y". The joke over the years has been that I keep my mental age at twelve.

I still play video games. I still quip-and-quibble with my daughter like we're a couple of teenage siblings determined to one-up each other. Technology still fascinates me, and I still salivate over the latest James Bond film. Pizza rolls remain one of my favorite foods.

Another way I've tried to keep my mind limber is through music. While I still have my favorite groups from my earlier years such as The Police, Rush, and Genesis, I've also found plenty of new music to listen to over the years. I like Lady Gaga and Evanescence, and more recently have gotten into Maroon 5 and Adele.

I have to admit that this anniversary was a small part of the reasoning for getting braces. I liked the idea of doing something at this age that most people do in their teens. It's my way of thumbing my nose at old age and saying "You ain't the boss of me!"

But there is a darker side of fifty. It is the peak of the hill, and looking ahead I can see the path down is much shorter than the path up. If my father's life is any indication, I might expect to make it to my seventies. We were watching Grumpy Old Men last night, and one of the topics of conversation between Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon was the best way to die. Someone who dies in their sleep was counted as "lucky." I can only hope that when that time comes I can hope for the quickest and easiest way to go like they did. Right now I'm feeling more like Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner: "I want more life, f**ker."

Despite that I'm seeing lots of signs of my impending old age. Just this week I've taken to leaving my cell phone someplace and then an hour later patting my pockets and asking myself where it is. Gray is slowly creeping its way into my facial hair, and I'm becoming more of a curmudgeon by the minute. In fact I'm ready for a cane, just so I can start using it to whack those who dare to annoy someone of my advanced years.

Things that have been on the back burner in my brain are now becoming more of a potential reality. The prospect of retirement seems much closer than it did a year ago, and I've already been thinking about how to shore up our plans for that day. I'm realizing that I'm getting closer to the day when I'll be "too old" to use my ladder. To be honest, I'm kinda looking forward to that. I hate getting up on that thing.

But really, not much is going to change after today. The daughter and I are going tomorrow afternoon to see the latest Die Hard movie and I'm looking forward to that. I plan to add Skyfall to my Blu-Ray collection soon, and I will be spending some more time on my Xbox 360 in the near future. So while some things will change, some things will remain the same. Still, it's a good time to reflect and adjust my thinking. Perhaps now that I'm past my fiftieth year I'll upgrade my mental age to thirteen. After all, it's high time I started acting like a teenager.

Maturity Knocks

Today is my birthday. At approximately 5:30am on this date in 1963 I was brought into this world, no doubt kicking and screaming. And if you can do the math in your head you already know how old I am. Today I am 46. I pass on the mantle of having my age match speed limit signs to my wife and I move on.

Usually this would not be considered a milestone birthday. It doesn't end with a zero or a five. You can't go to the store and buy "You're 46!" birthday cards. But in many ways this is more of a milestone for me than turning 45 was.

I am closer to 50 than I am to 40. I am now closer to 90 than I am to the day I was born. I am on three maintenance medications, including one for cholesterol and another for blood pressure. Indeed, I should be well on my way to becoming a stately, and dare I say seasoned, middle-age man. In short, Maturity is knocking.

I've been dodging Maturity for a long time. I have acted like I'm 12 most of the time, and have not sat around reading Homer or Shakespeare. I've been more likely to play a video games than read a newspaper. I've had lightsabre fights with my nephews, and enjoyed every one of them. I've had a ball playing laser tag, even though it always showed me how out of shape I was.

Lately, though, I haven't been playing video games so much. My lightsabre broke a couple of years back and I have not replaced it. And recently I actually started reading a book about the origins of civilization.

Now that I'm on the downward slope to 50, maybe it's time to open the door and let Maturity in. Maybe I should put away my Beanie Baby named Gizmo, and get rid of my silly pirate costume. Maybe I should let my mind calcify along with my arteries and become a set-in-my-ways, crotchety old man. Maybe I should.

However, after careful consideration, I have decided that I have this to say to Maturity...


All of that might sound just fine for someone else, but it just doesn't sound like me. So I'm gonna play with the Captain Teague action figure that came with my new copy of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. I'm gonna be overjoyed that I also got the 20th anniversary edition of Tron for my birthday. I'm gonna wear my Indiana Jones hat and fantasize about finding lost cities. I'm gonna use "gonna" instead of "going to"! So there!

And now if you'll excuse me, I have a play-date with a friend to play video games on his Xbox 360.