My birfday and other musings

Yesterday was my 31st birthday. It was a lot less stressful than my last one, presumably because you only really freak out on the ones that happen every decade. I don't feel like I'm aging too quickly or anything, or that I'm missing opportunities. The only age-related thing I ever think about these days is children. I'd love to have one (preferably a girl), but I just don't want one now.

So with that, Jeff Putz day was pretty laid back. We hit Chipotle for lunch and did a little shopping. Somehow only Stephanie got stuff out of that, but seeing her happy with new books is a gift in itself. I contemplated buying some video games, but I have some that aren't finished yet. I also have a couple of books to read, a book to write, and some miscellaneous code to write. I've got plenty to do!

After shopping, we went and saw Spiderman 2. Hands down better than the first. It makes you laugh and cry, it's insanely well written. I'm a little biased because I love Kirsten Dunst. She's a cutie (if a bit thin for my tastes), but for being young she seems to be really in control of the roles she'll play and the life she chooses to lead. Anyone in Hollyweird that can do that gets props from me.

After the movie we hit Outback for dinner. I almost never get steak there anymore. It's really all about the cheese fries.

We settled in for a quiet evening of TV and reading. I'm almost through Robert Rodriguez's Rebel Without a Crew. You might know him as the director of the El Mariachi movies, including Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, as well as Spy Kids. Basically, as a 23-year old, the guy struggling to get a break in film school went out and made his own movie from under $7,000. He's hands-on everything and thinks that Hollywood is a fucked up mess of studios, unions and financial waste. He broke into film-making by doing, just sheer will to make a movie, warts and all. Great special features on the Mexico DVD that show him shooting himself, editing and writing music at home, and best of all, shooting digitally. The guy is a real inspiration to people like me that need to make a movie.

Thursday I did something I almost never do. I wrote some code for the pure fun of it, to see if I could. I wrote a very simple SMTP client that sends basic e-mail. It talks back and forth to the server and, aside from a lack of error handling, does the job. It was kind of like the virtual equivalent of having an erector set to build something just for the satisfying feeling of creation. I guess it's true... I'm really a geek.

I should probably mention that last weekend's BeastBuzz at Paramount's Kings Island was a huge hit. We had 226 attendees and the marketing staff there made it an incredible event. Absolutely outstanding, and the biggest CoasterBuzz event yet.