Obligatory Birthday Post

February 8th is my birthday.

This is what I have accomplished in my life.

1) Married the best person in the universe.

2) Wrote a horrible train wreck of a novel, but, hey, it is a novel, and I can always rewrite it later, because there are at least two good bits in it.

3) Wrote four feature-length screenplays. All need serious work, but they exist now. And the popular myth is that you have to write about ten bad screenplays for each good one. So I am on track to write 40% of a good screenplay.

4) Wrote several articles, essays, short stories, and comics, some of which have been published and generated some money. (I include in this output the 400 blog posts on TMTOMH. This is blog post 400, by the way.)

5) Have an actual honest-to-goodness book in the works. This should hopefully generate enough money to support my hobbies, like the owning-a-huge-flat-screen-TV hobby and the owning-a-wicked-sound-system hobby.

6) Have a decent career with a company I love, which is a major accomplishment for someone who, until in his mid/late 20s, never really felt there was a place in the world for him.

7) Have become fairly decent at Guitar Hero/Rock Band and now actively seeks out parties where they play Guitar Hero/Rock Band because, thanks to the power of video games, I can finally be social. (Especially if they decide to play "More than a Feelin'" because I TOTALLY ROCK ON THIS SONG!)

8) Served on a number of organization boards, proving to the world that I can sit through an entire meeting without rolling my eyes, making snoring noises, or drawing cruel caricatures of the other meeting participants complete with word bubbles that read, "I am a big dorkus malorkus."

9) Worked through pretty much all of my issues with my parents and family. Or, at least, got to the point where I can truly enjoy the company of my family. They are a bunch of pretty neat people. Except that one we all shun. (Ok, that was a joke, because I'm pretty sure all of my relatives reading this thought to themselves when reading that sentence, "I am the one they all shun." No one in my family is shunned. Everyone is complained about, but no one is shunned. Think of it as a lovable quirk.)

10) As Mario, I saved the Princess.

These are my goals for the next few years.

1) Want to get a MA before I turn 40. Already enrolled in classes and working towards it.

2) Want to do a three-day, 60-mile Susan G. Komen walk this autumn.

3) Want to finally make a short film of some sort instead of just talk about it.

4) Want to make a music video of some sort instead of just talk about it.

5) Want to leave the world a better place than I found it.