I talk a lot about getting old, and I think people believe this is what my mother always calls "negative self-talk", but it's not, really. I *like* getting older, I'm *excited* about growing up. I don't like being unable to exert conscious control over my emotions. I'm not friends with my emotions, they tried to kill me a couple of times. (They didn't get very far, but that's beside the point)

Well let me tell you - if you're a straight male in your late 20's, reasonably attractive but not overly so, and you have a lot of friends who are a bit younger than you, getting older is like having the cheat codes for life. Not the unlimited-resources, I-can-do-anything cheat, but the little ones, the make-things-just-bearable-in-a-very-difficult-game kind of cheat codes. It's great.