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The Big Three-Oh

16:26 / 11.08.03

I'm turning 30 tomorrow. No novel yet, nor an indie film. Still can't play guitar or maintain a relationship. All the blah blah blah about unrealized dreams and unfulfilled potential, etc etc.

I've been told you spend your twenties making mistakes and learning from them, then real life picks up in your thirties. Confirmation, please? Anecdotal or empirical evidence gladly accepted on face value.

Also tomorrow, the Misfits, the Damned, and the Dickies are playing downtown. I should go. But I probably won't.

17:12 / 11.08.03

i don't know what to tell you; i'm depressed enough about turning 25 in seven months.

18:09 / 11.08.03

I loved turning thirty. I understand that some people feel unhappy about it because they think that the only good years of life are the late teens and early twenties, and that the next sixty years or so are just decreptitude. When I was younger I was broke, dependent, inexperienced, etc. For me, things have gotten continually better since my late twenties, and I look eagerly forward to my forties, fifties, and sixties. You couldn't pay me to go back to those wretched days when I was eating a student diet of ramen, popcorn, and 2-for-1 pizzas; when I had never attended a birth; when I was still angry with my parents.

Thirty is wonderful! Your bullshit detector is more finely honed than ever, as a woman you're physically stronger than you've ever been, and you've had the same best friend for 15 years, not two weeks.

18:10 / 11.08.03

And best of all, people stop calling you precocious.

19:35 / 11.08.03

I'm 26 and I hate it. I don't hate me, I just wish I was like I am now when I was... I don't know, 15. But then they would have to take me to some secret monk headquarter and shave my head.

What I *do* hate is the fact that I missed all the opportunities life has given me so far (not that there were an astounding amount of them to begin with), and I'm stuck in dead-end hell. And if life is already harsh enough when you're keeping yourself ahead of it, just imagine trying to catch up with it while watching the clock go tick, tack, tick...

Thanks for this thread, Panic. Set me just in the right mood for Monday... fuck.

19:51 / 11.08.03

I'm not 29 til October, but already I'm feeling a bit old, particularly when attending a show amongst all the cute but perplexing little scenesters. I'm always a little embarrassed, and think maybe I really am too old for this or that.

on the other hand, I'm also kind of reveling in it - I absolutely adore my grey (though now I'm down to only the one), and took great pains to preserve it when I dyed my hair recently. I'm older but not a bit wiser, and there's something to be said for that.

not much of anything, but something.

Dances with Gophers

20:00 / 11.08.03

I was in Alberta Canada on my 30 which was late Sept 2001, so I was more worried about how I was going to get back home to Britain. However I did get drunk!
30 is just a number, just say it's your 21st again. Admittedly I find myself thinking oh god I'm 32 this year and I still haven't..... etc(good discordian coincidence, 32 in 2003). When it comes down to it, it just depends how much you let society's "thou must be married with 2.4 children by your age young man" get to you.
Best way of looking at yer 30th is through the bottom of a beer glass.

Anyway congrats and have a good day!

Cloned Christ on a HoverDonkey

00:08 / 12.08.03

32 now.

On my 30th I didn't get drunk/go out/see any of my friends and, just to cap it all off, my girlfriend (who is now my wife) decided to put me down and have a go at me all day, too.

Looking back on it, it was pretty cruddy.

I'm sure you'll love yours, though.

02:47 / 12.08.03

My thirties were pretty grand. I'm pretty sure that I spent my 30th with friends at a Society for Creative Anachronisms camping event (not entirely sure, since the years and locations aren't adding up right), and if that's the case it would have been spent drinking a reasonably good scotch and looking at all the stars at midnight in the middle of a fairly remote location free of most light pollution...

One's thirties are supposed to be the time to settle into a career, start earning real money, and start getting what you want from life and a partner. I did settle into a career and nabbed a partner who lasted more than two years (we've since split up, although that relationship lasted longer than my marriage); but I have to say that I'm enjoying my 40's more.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

02:54 / 12.08.03

I'm 31... turning 30 was kind of daunting. Okay, I was shit-scared. But it was okay in the end.

03:31 / 12.08.03

"Bah" and the obligatory "Humbug".

I'm of the opinion that Thirties are the new teens. Feel free to perpertuate the meme, it's working right-good for me. It's just how you wanted it to be then, only with the added advantage of experience... make yer own rules.

Logan's run?

Just how old is Wolverine, these days?

04:09 / 12.08.03

I'm hitting thirty at the beginning of October.

As my journey from teens to end of twenties seems to have flickered by in a drunken lurch from one extreme of emotion to another whilst foundations and plans have resolutely not been made I'm interested to see if this will hearken in some new new-found equilibrium - it does, however, seem unlikely.

What is fairly certain is that I will be spending the week with a few friends in New Orleans (any 'lithers in New Orleans?). It'll be the first time I've been abroad for twenty years, the first time I've owned my own passport, the first time I've visited the States. And while I plan on getting rather drunk (read: very), it'll be the first day of my new life. Again.

I'm looking forward to it.

Lilly Nowhere Late

05:12 / 12.08.03

I am so old that I cannot remember turning 30.
However, you`d be silly not to go to that gig - sounds fabulous.
My own solution to birthday issues is that every year on my date of birth
I celebrate instead, an anniversary of one of my old birthdays.
That way, I can stay in age denial, and still get prezzies.
Time marches on. Just don`t let yourself start looking like its marching
on your face. And the best way to do that is be happy.

07:17 / 12.08.03

Don't become obsessed with numbers that don't matter. Do what you want to do, when you want to do it. Enjoy life. Grab every opportunity that comes your way. In the words of Robert Heinlein, "Everything in excess!
To enjoy the flavour of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks."

07:48 / 12.08.03

Oh yes, I forgot to say: go to the gig! Go to the gig!

It's the Misfits and The Damned for chrissakes!

08:02 / 12.08.03

I feel old at 28, 30 will be hell. Everyone I know has had huge trauma about it, then after the event has forgotton and stay the irresponsible feckless wasters they were in their twenties, so in theory it's just a number.
But I don't want to be thirty, my guilt and self flagellation will ratchet up a notch (no novel, no indie film, no career etc.) and I've a horrible feeling my thirties will blur past, just like my twenties, in the way Cass describes. Then I'll be in my forties eating ramen and 2-1 pizza and not writing novels, how embarassing.

08:27 / 12.08.03

Yep, sure feels like a watershed but it's illusory, just a number. I felt much the same and going through thirty was certainly tougher than going through forty. Have a party and enjoy.

Celebrate being thirty and having so much more opportunity ahead of you. Lots of people don't see thirty or have lives that have gone down the tubes by the time they get there. Any time you spend on regrets will be wasted time that you never get back again, so try not to go there. As Papa Xoc often tells me, "You're a long time dead."

Happy birthday, Panic, and many happy returns.

Zero Gravitas™

09:48 / 12.08.03

I'm turning 34 this year and I have this to say:
Believe all the good things you have heard about your thirties, because it's all true and more! I will refrain from specifics or personal anecdotes because individual experiences will differ so much from your own.
Just know that this is truly an enlightening period in your life when you become completely comfortable in your skin. When you love who you have become and what you possibly can still become.
This is when you gain some measure of understanding about the world and life (and you realise just how little you actually do know, but that's cool too) and make peace with it.
Clarity and enlightenment.... these are beautiful things.

It's all good, baby!

So happy birthday Panic, and may I suggest that you kick it all off in laaaarge style, go see Misfits and the Damned and just GET THE FUCK RIGHT IN!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:42 / 12.08.03

The ever-so-wise mixmage said (well, typed, I suppose) I'm of the opinion that Thirties are the new teens.

I think there's been some kind of demographic shift (maaan....)... when I was a kid, people in their thirties were oh so grown up. Now I'm in mine, having got over the actual barrier itself, I don't really feel any different. Okay, my hangovers are worse and I can't cope with as many drugs as I used to, but other than that, I still feel like I did when I was 17. Or four, for that matter.

10:46 / 12.08.03

As Aaliyah said, age ain't nothin but a numbah.

I turned 30 in April. It's not so bad. Sometimes I forget or can't believe there's a "3" in front of my age instead of a "2," but really, I don't feel a bit different and I definitely don't feel old. Just have fun, baby!

10:49 / 12.08.03

Now I have the same number of years under my belt that the average comicbook has pages, I can cheerfully suggest that turning 30 doesn’t have to be a hassle.
Loads of people say ‘oh, I thought I’d have done X by 30…’ and get all mopey, but lose sight of the fact that many of them have done stuff that they’d never have imagine they’d ever do when they were playing ‘By 30 I’ll be this, and 40 that’.
I’d recommend doing something fun and not getting worried about what is, essentially, just a number thing. But if you want to mark the occasion, best to do so in a fun way (go to the gig, oh yes) because if nothing else you can gloat about the fun day you had if your friends don’t have such a decent thirtieth.
No harm in having goals etc, but expecting to meet them all by a deadline’s a bit dis-spiriting when there are so many variables. Keep aiming to do things, by all means, but bear in mind that whilst you might not achieve these by the time you expect, chances are you’ll be doing things you couldn’t have foreseen. Didn’t someone once say something about Life being what happens whilst you’re making other plans ?
Happy Birfy !

Hattie's Kitchen

13:04 / 12.08.03

I turned 30 in March, and I definitely had the sense of a milestone passed and a major landmark of my life being reached - not just because of the whole "Oooo, now I'm really an adult" thing, but also because I remember the way my life was at 20, and all the crap things and amazing things that happened inbetween - I would much rather be 30 than 20 again...the drug-taking, drinking, whoring etc are still present, but nowhere near as much as they used to be. With age I've gotten a little calmer, a little wiser, more comfortable in my own skin, and don't feel the need to apologise any more, if that makes sense...on my birthday, a friend said to me, "Celebrate, because this marks the start of the most fabulous phase of your life" and that summed it up perfectly.

And I got to go to NY for a birthday treat as well, which was nice.

Whisky Priestess

13:05 / 12.08.03

Oh, DaveBCooper, you are very wise. How cheering. I've got so many things I want to do (have done) by the time I'm 30 and I'm fairly certain that some are mutually exclusive. The novel is written but not published, the fantasy doctorate has not been embarked on, the Pulitzer, Nobel and Oscar still elude me, but at least I've written a musical about the A-Team, which is definitely something I never thought I'd do.

Zero Gravitas™

21:03 / 13.08.03

well... c'mon Panic, don't keep us in suspense!
Did you:
a) boogie your heart out last night?
b) have to dodge a thunderous a bolt of lightning?
c) you turn into a pumpkin?
.
.
.
.
and hey... being a newbie here and all, I have to ask, is that little "moderate post" an indication that as a newbie my posts will be monitored until I'm proven worthy, as such? Or is it just that one cannot write the word "fuck" here? *innocent look*

21:12 / 13.08.03

Greetings! There's an explanation of the moderate post function here.

I take it you're not the same poster as absence of gravitas, then?

Zero Gravitas™

07:35 / 14.08.03

Greetings to yourself, kind ser! And many thanks for the link.

Interesting indeed, the power to go back and correct typos and grammar (and various other aspects of your posts if approved by the moderators). Oh that we could have such power to rewind spoken words in the real world and erase/edit conversations! Think of the possibilities..... think of the chaos, mwoa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaa! But an impossible notion, nontheless *sigh*

And nope, not the same person. One does not profess to the complete lack of gravitas (as the 'nym absence of gravitas may suggest) merely that one chooses to ignore it at times.... those times which prove to be convenient, of course!

Zero Gravitas™

07:37 / 14.08.03

Ack! Those little yellow guys are a tad bright in these mellow surrounds. Kind of makes me hesitant to emote.

15:14 / 14.08.03

Is 30 too old for smilies?

I wonder... there was some talk about making grey ones once upon a time.

Zero Gravitas™

17:20 / 14.08.03

nah, never too old, baby