Post 29: Twenty: Start of a New Decade of Life

My twentieth birthday is upon us and I figured I would post about it. I'll present the chronological events first, then my thoughts on it.

The day before, August 2nd, I realized that I was turning 20 and began wondering what I wanted to do with the next decade of my life, but I'll elaborate on that later. The morning of my birthday was fairly normal. Work has been unusually busy recently despite the fact we're in a drought, when it would make more sense to stay home. Today was a relatively slow day, which enabled me to act a little slower and joke around a bit more. I received plenty of "Happy birthday"s and looks of amazement when I say I'm turning 20 (I look like I'm 18).

Observing that I hadn't yet received any presents for my birthday, one of my coworkers borrowed markers from another coworker and surprised me with the picture of a slice of cake drawn on a napkin. I thought it was really neat, even though the flame was purple.

I get home and tell my girlfriend of six months, Breanna, that I was home so she could come over. She wanted to visit for my birthday and my parents didn't object. They really like her. My mother suggested I take a shower so I did so. Unexpectedly, Breanna arrives while I'm still in the shower. She and my mom begin chatting while my mother braids her hair. I get out and sit in the living room with them. Recently I've begun wearing tank tops (aka muscle shirts or wifebeaters) because I've seen Breanna wear them and with the kind of 100-degree weeks we've been having lately, I needed something that is semi-decent yet ventilated. At first they're quite itchy but now I'm getting used to it. You know how in the movies, there comes that time when the mother busts out the baby pictures and shows them to the girlfriend? That happened today, and I was not embarrassed by it. I was, however, a little displeased with how I looked between the ages of 11-15.

My father comes home from work and my parents leave for Wal-Mart to get me a cake and a present. I've really been wanting a black fedora but alas they could not find them. They come home and reveal they've bought me a 4 gigabyte memory card for my cell phone much to my nerdy delight. Later on, card problems result in me having my mother's 8 gigabyte card! Our dinner is hot dogs and French fries.

It was originally intended that me and Breanna would head to her church for Wednesday afternoon service however her grandma had some family issues that needed to be attended to and she was low on gas, so it was decided Bre would hang out at my place until sundownWhen my mother's ghost-themed shows started coming on at 6, my father went upstairs into their bedroom to rest and watch the stuff he likes. We spent the evening cuddled up, watching TV with my mother, and playing Farkle. I intermittently logged onto the Internet from my phone. I've had some 30 birthday wishes from friends and family today. Shortly after 9 Bre went home. We hugged and kissed in the living room, to which my mother just had to make a tease. Now my parents have officially seen me kiss a young woman.

Back to what I was considering. My twenties are perhaps the most influential years of my life. What I do in the next decade will largely decide what the rest of my life is. I have big plans for myself and in these next few years I'm going to make it or break it. This is the time in which I join the rest of society, bringing to the table my eccentric way of living and looking at things. I asked myself, "What do I want to do by the time I'm 30?" and here are a few ideas:

• Register to vote. I  could have this done by next week. I wanted to register when I turned 18 but I never quite got around to it. I want to get this done. I believe that as an American citizen voting is an important right to utilize. This is a nation "of the People, by the People, for the People" (Lincoln, Gettysburg Address) and since the government is chosen by the People, I want to have a say in what our leadership is. My political alignment is strange: I'm socially conservative (I believe the government should uphold traditional, in this case Christian, values) yet economically liberal (I believe the government should have an active role in the economy and helping the needy). I've used the term centrist to describe myself and also socialist to a lesser degree. The true term, as I found out, is "populist." Registering to vote can be done on the Internet in what seems like a few minutes.
• Get my driver's license. Pretty important since I'm moving three hours' worth away in a year for university. Also, get a car.
• Graduate university. With a Bachelor's of Science in computer science.
• Get a job I love. As a computer programmer of some sort.
• Start my own company. If I can't find a satisfying job, I'll make a little Web programming company. It will primarily do browser-based multiplayer games like OGame, World of Warcraft, and so on. I have some game ideas I'd like to write.
• Buy a house for myself. I really don't know where I'm going to live after university, wherever the jobs are. But I want to buy a house for myself and have a stable place to live. Of course, my parents own our current house so in later years I could probably move into this one.

• Get married. I've never considered getting married because that's just not something I can schedule. But as a married coworker told me today, I shouldn't put that off too long. I work with men in their late forties and fifties who never married. I see marriage not as a constraint but rather a blessing.

So my presents this year:

• $25 dollar check from my grandparents.
• A card from said grandparents.
• A drawn cake on a napkin. 
• A card from my grandmother on the other side of the family.
• A card from my girlfriend, who forgot to bring it with. 
• A 4 GB memory card from my cell phone, which ended up being an 8 gig card due to technical issues.
• An anime-style picture of me and Bre popping out of a cake drawn by a very talented friend.

Post 16: Christmas 2010

I'll bet you're expecting a "Merry Christmas" somewhere in this post. Well, you won't find one except in this sentence. I don't have the holiday spirit, and I don't really get it very much. Although I'm mainly an ISTJ, I believe I also have several INTJ traits, and one of them is a bent for practicality. (ISTJ and INTJ are personality types; look them up on WikiPedia.) Holidays don't really mean much to me now that I'm in my early adult years.

However, I do recognize some significance of this day. It's when we celebrate the birth of Yeshua Hanozri the Messiah (or, if you speak English, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ/Anointed One). This date isn't actually the one Jesus was born on, but it was established as such by the Roman Catholic church. My memory is a bit hazy as to the reason, but I recall reading something like it was set as such to make it fall on the same day as an important pagan day, thus making it easier to transition them to Christianity.

This holiday has all but lost its meaning to me. As a Christian, I probably should esteem this day pretty highly. After all, it's celebrating the birth of the Christ, of the Savior of the world. However, I grew up in an atheist home and wasn't often exposed to it. No, I didn't hear the story of the infant Jesus. I heard the story of Santa Claus. For me, Christmas was about the tree, the candy, the food, and the presents. I knew early on that Christmas involved Jesus's birth, but that for me was one of two equal meanings to the day. I preferred the presents, though. In addition, the fact that it's not really Jesus's birthday also makes it sort of pointless.

Last night my parents decided to give me my presents early. I had given them a list of things I wanted for Christmas.

Things I needed: new work shoes, new work pants.
Things I wanted: "The Colony" DVDs seasons 1 and 2; new computer (I ended up buying it on my own); bass guitar.

What did I get? Anitvirus software and a Wal-Mart gift card. At work a couple days ago there was a sorry excuse of a gift exchange party where I received some candy, popcorn and a Blockbuster gift card. The antivirus would actually be useful. I use AVG Free right now but what they got for me would offer more features and protection. The gift card, if I ever activate it, would give me enough money to buy my work apparel. As for the other stuff... I'll probably just go ahead and buy it myself one of these days.

After they gave me my presents I decided to give them theirs. It was a small box of glass picture cup coasters. I had gotten them from an event at church a week or so before Christmas. I felt a little conflicted about giving them the present early since it would take away from the next day's meaning but I figured, one half of the exchange is over, may as well do the rest. They actually seemed to rather enjoy the present and we all exchanged hugs.

For Christmas, we ate around 2 PM (14:00 for international readers). I stuffed my face with ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and buns. When we finished, I was given the task of cleaning up. After that, everything returned to normal. I spent much of the afternoon watching people play Minecraft on LiveStream, as well as brushing up on my JavaScript/PHP skills.

Also, my grandparents sent me their usual holiday card and check for the holiday. I'll have to send them a thank-you e-mail eventually.

Post 12: A Wiser 18

Well, check it  out. It's my birthday. Nineteen years. There's really nothing special about turning 19. You aren't a newly instated legal adult like when you turn 18. You aren't a full adult like when you turn 21. I suppose the two distinctive things about it are how it's the last of the teen years (although I consider 18 to be the last teen year, after which you become an adult. The fact that 19 ends with "-teen" is just the way our language works.) and it's like 18, but with a little more experience.

The festivities of my 19th birthday actually began last night. I used to play Starfleet Commander but I have retired from the game, and I still browse the message board associated with the game. One of the other players had made a thread about me being 19 and I've had several people wish me happy birthday. Also, at the Christian chat site I visit, I was given more early happy birthdays. Then today I woke up and eventually heard the "Happy Birthday" song from my mother, and then later proceeded to work as usual. Over the course of the 3 hours I worked there, I had five coworkers congratulate me on my 19th. I ordered a frappe because I wanted to spend my birthday money on something (my parents, at a loss of what to get me, gave me $40) and the manager at the cash register let me have it for free.

At the place I work, there is a prank that a couple of the managers like to pull on the birthday person if he/she is noted for being loud or comical. When the person is doing his or her business, they'll discreetly take a paper plate and put whipped cream on it, tap on the person's shoulder and when the birthday person turns around, gets the place of cream in their face. I had told said managers a couple months beforehand not to do this, because knowing me I would get very upset and have a hissy fit. Thankfully they kept this in mind because despite a couple moments of paranoia on my part, there were no attempts on me. It was a busy day.

After work, me and many of the other employees ordered our employee meals (which we get for free) and paychecks. I then walked to the bank and deposited not just that check but also a check that my grandparents from Florida or the like sent me. From there I walked home.

One of the things I was carrying with me was an MP3 player/FM radio that I had won in a raffle at the company picnic the Sunday before. It's a nice 2 GB device which I could possibly use to replace my current 4 GB one because the buttons on my current player are becoming unresponsive. The only downside: it's powered by AAA batteries, which means they'll need to be replaced probably every few days.

I get home. I had a bottle of root bear from McDonald's. I put the food in the refrigerator and grab some ice from the freezer. When my mother hears the door she's like "You did not just go in the freezer?" because evidently she has something in there she doesn't want me to see. I had noticed a red box that wasn't there before but, seeing as my target was the ice next to it, I paid no attention to it. However, after she said that, I made the connection: ice cream cake!

As part of my normal routine, I hopped in the shower to get rid of the layer of sweat on my skin. When I got out of it, my mom showed me a bag that was on the couch beside her. I said, "Wow! A bag!" being facetious and when I looked inside, there was a pack of new socks. That morning I had asked for a pair to replace the very holey pairs I had (and my mom made a pun about how holey they were: "Do you wear them to church?") . I sampled one of them, found it to be acceptable, and threw out the holey ones and put them in my dresser. Ironically, I had been asked a week ago what I wanted and didn't think of it until today.

Then my grandma, who now lives in New York, called to say Happy Birthday to me. After that, my mom dialed another number and then called my brother who lives in California. Now, there's a big rift between in my family, which is why I'm in Kansas and my siblings in California. That's a slightly difficult thing to explain and I was cautious in talking to him. Luckily, it only lasted two minutes before the conversation ended.

Then things got weird. See, my grandma's bank account had been accessed unauthorized and bought video games, as well as several instances of bounced checks. We got a call from a state official and my father talked to the man. As suspected suspects (redundant?) we'll be getting separate letters in the mail about it. I'm not concerned really. My record is clean and I'll comply unless I have really good reason not to. Even if they snoop a little, I'll probably have no problem.

Some time later, my mom shouted "Cake time!". We all assembled in the kitchen, and my mom asked "Should we sing Happy Birthday?". My reply: "It's optional". They opted not to, and I took the large knife and stuck it in the cake. My mom's birthday is next so she pulled it out and my father started cutting it up.  I was going to get a fairly small piece but my dad decided, "Heck, he's 19! He can handle an adult-size piece of cake" and gave me a slice that was almost as long as the small plate's diameter. We ate the cake and continued on with our days. Oh, and my father gave me another $20, out of the $40 I give my parents out of my paycheck in exchange for Internet access.

About four hours later I became hungry again and acquired another slice of the cake. Then I did some serious remodeling of my website, http://shawntc.x10hosting.com. I've been meaning to redesign it for quite some time and I'm taking advantage of the free time I still have before fall semester begins on 17 August.

Fast forward to now. I'm sleepy and nearing the last hour of my 19th birthday. I chronologically turned nineteen at 6:35 PM CST. So let's see what year 19 has in store for me...

Birthday Gifts, Totals:

* $85

* 10 new pairs of socks.

* A new MP3 player (sort of, it just happened to fall on my birthday)