The End of a Decade, The Start of Another

I have a hard time sometimes summing up the movies I watch. It’s not the best quality to work with for a wanna be movie critic, no matter how minor of a movie critic I want to be. So I can’t imagine how hard it is to sum up an entire decade. Time magazine did a few lists of their top ten television shows, political moments, people, etc. of the year. They didn’t try the decade. It’s just interesting to think that a review of any of these things will always be of pop culture, obviously. But then we read them and every one of these moments or gadgets and other cultural epiphanies has a deeply personal affect on our own lives. We can’t sum up a decade without including the ten years of our lives that went with it. I remember what a big deal the iPod was on my college campus. I joined Facebook that very first year it came out only because I was stalling the completion of an essay I had due the next day. I voted for Kerry in my very first presidential election, if an absentee vote counts as an actual vote.

I was a child in the 90s though I consider myself as growing up for the most part in this decade. Childhood for most everyone I think is often culturally protected. After the things that our society specifically creates for children, for me pogs, Power Rangers, and Sailor Moon, a child can remember the big things. I remember when Clinton was elected, the Oklahoma City bombings they erroneously blamed on ‘Muslim’ terrorists, and the O.J. Simpson trial. They’re just glimpses of the decade I was simply in, not involved with. But I entered this decade at 13, literally less than two months into my teenage years. I went through all of high school and college in this decade. I invented myself in this decade and became an adult in this decade. And in the same way, I feel it was my generation that made this decade. Texting, the rise of the social internet, green as the new black, movies with ridiculous special effects, youtube. That’s what I’m going to remember about this decade. That I helped make these things happen, good or bad. That we all did.

I think what’s more important though at a time like this is not summing up the last decade but looking forward to the next one. I admit I’m not completely on the cutting edge of technology and the like. In fact, just yesterday we bought our very first cordless phone. (How do you hang one of those up by the way?) And I know it’s totally counter intuitive to a sci-fi mind like mine but it’s not technology that makes the future. It’s the thinking of great minds and the doing of great doers. In this decade to come, I hope to be one of those great something or others and even if the rest of the world decides to fight me on that, I still know I’ll be something special.

So have fun these last ten days of the year. It’s the best way to start a new one.

By the way, if you’re interested there’s a great article in the LA Times last Sunday about the decade using wizards and vampires. It’s the best review of the 2000s I’ve read yet. It’s called ‘This Vampirism is Made in America’ by Michael Tolkin. I understand now why I like werewolves so much. It turns out it’s not just my love for the awesome character that is Rahne Sinclair or the morbid teenage wit of ‘Ginger Snaps.’ I think I might just be one of Tolkin’s werewolves.

There once was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith.

I’ve been on a sci-fi kick for the past few weeks. Who am I kidding? I’ve been on a sci-fi kick my whole life. I feel like I just can’t get enough Heinlein or Asimov and that kind of sucks when our local library only has maybe five books of each. And what that really means is three hardcover copies of ‘Strangers in a Strange Land,’ one paperback copy of the same title, and the same copy of ‘Starship Troopers’ I read ten years ago for Heinlein. For Asimov, it might be a few ‘I, Robots’ and his guide on how to use a slide rule. By the way, what’s a slide rule? Of course they have the movies ‘Starship Troopers’ and ‘I, Robot,’ but what’s the use in that? But I’m sure I’ll be getting into the outrage that is the ‘I, Robot’ movie as I delve further into Asimov.

Anyways, I guess I’m lucky that I have the books that I do. I picked up most of them at an estate sale and while going through the things of their previous owner, I came to the conclusion that she used to be a teacher. In her memory, I had hoped to donate these books to the woefully inadequate sci-fi section of our library. Then I realized that would do no good because the library would just sell it out again for two quarters. That’s how I obtained my copy of Harlan Ellison’s adapted screenplay of Asimov’s ‘I, Robot,’ the version that should’ve been turned into a movie. I think I’d rather just give them twenty bucks instead.

But again, I digress. As I make my way through the Heinlein juveniles, I realize that Heinlein really is my favorite writer and he’s meant a lot to me in my life. So just thinking about it, I decided I want to name one of my future kids (you know, ten years down the road) after him. So one day I’m going to have a son named Anson, Heinlein’s middle name. It sounds nice, it’s rare, it’s not made up. Perfect, right? No. Not perfect. Not right. I realized a full week later that Anson is way too similar to my name, the American pronunciation of which is Mason. Hey look it’s Mason and Anson. It’s Dan and Ann. It’s Greg and Meg. It’s weird, right? It’s the same reason I couldn’t name my car Grayson, though he is the Robin to my Batman. So now I’m in a jam. My kid can’t possibly be sci-fi enough now. Do I name him Michael Valentine Smith from ‘Strangers?’ No, that’s stupid. Maybe if it's a girl I can name her Mimsy from 'Mimsy Were the Borogroves.' No. I'm only saying that because I just watched 'The Last Mimzy.' It might as well be Hook from 'Peter Pan.' Rod Serling from the Twilight Zone? Nah, I'm really much more of an Outer Limits fan. I know!

Cordwainer!

Scanners live in vain.

Hello to you too, World.

Remember when Blink 182’s single ‘What’s My Age Again?' came out? It was 1999 and I was 13 years old. Sure it was a catchy song, not my favorite, but catchy. I think most important in regards to this post though is that at the time it meant nothing to me beyond its catchiness. At 13 I already thought prank phone calls and TV were too immature for me and I knew was that my adult life wouldn’t be that way. I could be successful. I’d graduate from college and have a career and of course my own apartment. Being the pessimist that I am, I didn’t think that was too much to ask and I always assumed these goals were realistic. I’m actually not even comfortable calling them goals. It was written, like I didn’t even have to work for them. They were just going to happen. But they didn’t, for the most part. And here a full decade later, at 23, when most people are at work, sitting on my parents’ couch in front of their TV wondering why. What happened?

I can probably tell you what happened too. Trust me. I did graduate from college with a degree in psychology and two minors in philosophy and public affairs so I consider myself well trained in analytical thought (though debate is still open as to whether this constitutes anything beyond practice in bullshitting). I’ve pulled quite a many all-nighters to prove it. So really, I think I do know why my life turned out the way it did and I think that’s part of the reason you’re able to read this now. But despite all this thinking and logic, I still can’t help but feel that Blink 182's simpler reasoning just might’ve gotten it right. Nobody likes you when you’re 23. And that’s scary to me. Not the fact that they were right, but the fact that my life is now an example of a pop punk song from the 90’s, in sentiment only of course. It would be ten times sadder if it was a literal description of my life don’t you think?

Was I lazy? Yes, of course. I’m lazy in the sense that I don’t always separate my whites from my colors in the laundry. But that doesn’t really mean anything does it? I work hard in spite of any laziness I feel and I’ve never had anything keep me from working on my education and career goals. I think I was like that once. When I heard someone was unemployed it meant they didn’t try hard enough, didn’t work hard enough. But if there’s one thing that I’ve learned on my journey to adult adolescence, it’s that everyone works hard. The only problem is that not everyone gets the same rewards. And I’m not taking pity on myself mainly because I’m not taking pity on anyone and I’m not talking about myself. Maybe I haven’t seen a lot in my time but I guess I’ve seen enough to realize that that’s just the way the world is.

And the world doesn’t seem to like you at 23 either.