Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Mid-Life Crisis!

Welcome to my blog!

In less than a month, I will hit my mid-40s - the proverbial "mid life crisis". I'm already cranky and look back more than I look ahead.

I do find society to be rather crass - I work among the public every day and see just how self-centered we as a society have become. It's all about "me" and what can you do for "me"? There's no chivalry in every day interactions. Kids are even worse - there's just no standard being set for them by their parents.

I find I am losing touch with the latest in technology - even though at one time I was a programmer and had my eyes and ears open to what was happening in the industry. I had a previous blog entry about Facebook/My Space, but I can easily write about iPods and iPhones (though I am impressed by the iPhone commercials highlighting some of the apps available) being beyond me and my needs. I barely had time to embrace Web 1.0 before they started foisting Web 2.0 on me.

All my favorite TV shows ended years ago (some decades ago!) - I hardly follow much these days except a few game shows and a smattering of reality shows. I'll either watch re-runs of favorite shows (thanks Lifetime and Retro Television Network) or plop in a DVD of a favorite series from yesteryear. While some of the newer movies are enjoyable and I look forward to them (see previous entries on this year's summer releases), I find that today's movies are just too action/special effects oriented. There's something about them being too realistic looking that makes me yearn for a 1930s/1940s film.

And I've already lived long enough to realize that all politicians, from the left to the right, are full of crap. If there are any under-30 Obama supporters reading this entry - you'll know exactly what I mean in a few years.

Of course, I'm not a total curmudgeon - I consider myself a futurist actually. I find the Internet not only highly enjoyable but highly useful. Paying bills online, moving money around with the click of a mouse and the myriad other things one can accomplish is simply spectacular. As we move more and more online, we should see total costs to society being reduced significantly.

I overly embrace DVD technology (though I don't see myself moving to Blu-Ray any time soon). Being able to watch a favorite series or movie anytime I want still boggles the mind on occasion (realize children that the VCR wasn't popular until the early 80s - I wasn't able to record all my childhood favorites like you can now!)

Even though the auto industry is currently in a "funk", they have made vast strides in safety and economy since I last purchased a new cars years ago. I wouldn't want to go back to the old days there!

The same is true for health care - for every story about a botched operation, there are more about successes.

These are indeed interesting times - let's see how the next 45 years go!

Have you hit mid-life? Soon going to be? Your thoughts on it all? Leave your comments below!

Thanks for reading my blog and Follow this Blog!