As you might have seen there has been a flurry of posts just recently, all because I hadn't blogged in the films that I have been watching in trying for the film a week. There has been a reason, as always, and it was because I was busy. More on why I was busy later but, look at my past efforts. Many a time I have promised to do something a week/month or a certain amount a year and have I managed it, have I hell, I've just carried on with life. Yet here I am, one of the least creative, useful or even worthwhile of all the things that I have tasked myself with doing and yet I am trying my best to keep up with it. Strike 1!!
The more on why I was busy bit? Well I have become a homeowner, with the other half, of what will be a very nice house out in the sticks. This is obviously strike 2 just for being grown up enough to finally buy a house and then strike 3 for it being out in the sticks. A good place to bring up kids and its so nice and relaxing, none of the hustle and bustle of city life, there we go strike 4, just for saying that. The final nail in the coffin was strike 5 the sudden realisation that I have a condition described as midlife memory loss. One of my greatest assets has always been my amazing memory, well that's gone and by gone I mean I can forget things in seconds. Apparently its all to do with distraction, a very interesting article here says that we just don't focus like we used to when we were younger (is that strike 6 as it's on Oprahs site?), I think distraction is certainly something I have in my life at the moment, new house still a pretty new job using new technology etc. lets hope that things calm down very soon and everything returns to normal.
As some of you might know a big change in age this year has kind of forced my hand in not being 25 any more, but all of the above, what I'm doing at the moment, the change in age and listening to a podcast about beer made me realise just how lucky I have been to have grown up when I have. There will be many that say their era was great but I think us 40 somethings have been through some very special changes. The beer podcast pointed out that home brewing was only legalised (well it was legal before the war) in the 70's in America and then it also required state law still, something that has only come to all states in 2013. We in the uk were a lot luckier home brewing was once again allowed in 1963. Even though we had been free to brew all I remember is utter filth and the stuff in the pubs wasn't much better (yes I know I was under age but dad gave me a sip and actually most beers when I was first allowed were still like it). Now look at what we have. I actually have two apps on my phone (yep I'm coming to that as well) that allow me to book in the beers I drink. Even though I'm not religious about it, too drunk or no connection will often get in the way, I have just hit 500 unique beers, I only started properly 18 months ago. What an amazing change in the way we can spend our time.
I now come back to the mention of the phone but it starts way before that, what you're reading this on, how I earn my living....
The world of computers. I was very lucky, I've been into computing for years. My parents got me a Dragon 64 for my 7th birthday, very cutting edge that took computing from big business and possibly even bigger rooms and put it into the hands of home users. While they were not as powerful as their business cousins and they generally required a lot of learning to do very little, it was still a great new world for the geeks. A simple fact that you are reading this should be a great enough example of how good things are but then I should consider what are you using to read this on, a desktop ok I had something like that for my 7th birthday as I said but what you paid for yours is less than mine, second-hand 33 years ago. The betting is that if you are looking at it on a desktop you are either a geek/gamer or most likely sat in an office. If you're not in the office are you on your laptop yep that portable computer, hang on the iPad or even your phone. Yes we have something the size of what was a calculator when I was in school (and couldn't do anything other than maths) that now gives you, not only the power to get on the internet which didn't exist but also has a calculator and has replaced our telephone lines and allows us to text, send pictures, send emails and pretty do many things that even 20 years ago most people would never have even dreamed of.
So back to my point, yep I'm getting old, yep the world and life has changed beyond what many people would have imagined but just looking at two of my hobbies/passions (and one bill paying job) and how much better they are. I'm sure if you sit back and just think about your life, we all think everything is more stressful but actually how much cooler is everything!!