A Nerd Turns Fifty

“The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

I turned fifty years old this month. Despite being that old, I still don’t really feel like an adult. Sure, I have to do “old guy” things like go to the doctor more often, pay a ton of bills, and try to navigate in a world where I’m too young to be a grumpy old man, but too old to be hip and young. Of course, I was never hip, and I don’t see myself becoming magically cool any time soon, but I feel as if I’m in a transitional stage where I’m losing interest in new things and clinging to the stuff of my youth.

I find myself watching a mix of classic shows that I grew up with and newer shows from the early 2000s in a constant rotation. If I’m at home and not watching football (soccer), I’m most likely watching Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory, Cheers, Home Improvement, Two And A Half Men, Three’s Company, or some other sitcom that I’ve seen a million times before and will watch yet again. If I’m watching a movie, it’s usually a classic like Jaws, Jurassic Park, Tombstone, Dazed And Confused, or The Legend Of Boggy Creek.

In the last few years, the company that I work for has made major changes, including dissolving the job that I held for over twenty years. In an attempt to make a ton of money in a short amount of time, the company has put all of its employees, including loyal ones such as myself, into lower tier, more physical jobs so that they can put out maximum product for maximum profits. As a result, I’ve been working longer hours and writing fewer posts on this blog. I’ve become bitter, as if the company has cheated myself and other employees who worked hard to get into positions where we could do the best work, only to be tossed back into entry-level positions. It makes me (and others) wonder why we tried to move up in the company, only to be back where we started. I have other issues with the company, but I won’t talk about them here. I just can’t wait until I can retire.

For four years now, I’ve been the co-host of the Filmsquatch podcast. It has been fun working on this project and I hope that it continues. I’ve gained quite a few new friends since starting this project with Patrick Bennett and have had a number of cool opportunities to talk with some very interesting people. Along with this podcast, I’m also involved with the Lake Charles Film Festival, Calcasieu Parish Short Film Festival, and SerialFest. I still attend as many pop culture and horror conventions as I can, but it’s proving to become more difficult due to work and other duties and responsibilities. Plus, money is getting tighter for everyone.

I still love superheroes and collecting action figures, but my time is stretched considerably thin these days. As a result, I’m not able to keep up with pop culture as much as I’d like to no matter how hard I try. I’m tired. I just wish that I could slow things down a bit.

So that this entire post isn’t doom and gloom, I thought that I might mention a few other things that turn fifty this year. In music, KISS’ Destroyer and Rock And Roll Over albums both turn fifty, as does the Ramones debut album. In film, movies such as Rocky, Carrie, and Logan’s Run all share the same birth year with me. Celebrities that turn fifty this year include the lovely Isla Fisher, the funny Gabriel Iglesias, the cool Cillian Murphy, the friendly Jon Bernthal (seriously, I met him and he’s awesome), and the breathtaking Sarah Chalke.

I guess that I’ll continue to get older. It’s something that I can’t stop, so why worry about it, right? I hope that this post doesn’t upset folks, but if it does, just leave me a comment and I promise to respond. Turning fifty is supposed to be awesome, but life has been kind of tough lately and I’m in survival mode. Thanks for reading my post, and enjoy the gallery below of things I’m still clinging to from my past.