A(n older) friend invited me to his wedding next year. His fiance met me for the first time recently, and over the course of a week put the name together with the invitation to the wedding and remarked "I expected you to be an older man", to which I replied "I am, I just look younger". That prompted a discussion about being ancient but well preserved. The truth is somewhere in between: my goatee and the benefits of clean living tend to mean people pick my age as "late 20s", rather younger than my true age. But I'm at least half a generation younger than my friend who is getting married (assuming human generations are 20-25 years long these days).

Contemplating that conversation made me think that I'm middle aged even if people (including me) don't recognise it. Certainly many of my friends of a similar (or younger) age are happily married, raising children, and/or paying off a large loan on their house. Party conversation is as often about houses, children, or investments as it is about more youthful persuits such as film or music. But apparently I have a few years to go. Average male life expectency at birth is apparently now around 78 years in New Zealand, which puts "middle age" mathematically at 39: still safely a few years away. Interestingly however, it appears back when I was born my life expectency was 72 years and even as recently as the mid-1990s my life expectency was about 74 years. So it's not that I'm misremembering the mathematical point where middle age starts, so much as modern medical science having changed the data.

Still it's not entirely surprising to be thinking about what I want to be when I "grow up", especially given the recent change of direction. The stereotypical average man of my age is married (fail), with "2.5" children (fail), a dog (fail) and a mortgage (no) (interstingly there doesn't seem to be a NZ equivalent to the typical UK family, although it appears that 2.5 children is a thing of the past). About the only thing I am managing to "do right" is having an above average income (a figure that Department of Stats manage to bury deep in tables); I'm not rich but I'm definitely well into middle class.

While I don't want to be "married with 2.5 kids and a dog", it's probably time to actually do something about becoming who I want to be (as I figure that out), and stop putting things off "until later" -- there's probably not much more later than there was before, and a lot to fit into "half a life". That doesn't mean acquiring lots of possesions, since mostly I want to reduce how much I have. In 1994 Peter Menzel (wikipedia; photo.net interview) photographed "Material World: A Global Family Portrait" (reviews; more reviews; at Amazon), by having families around the world take everything they owned outside, pile it up, and pose next to it. Even the idea of doing that is reminder enough that I want to reduce the amount of clutter. Not to the point that I can carry everything outside and pile it up, but at least to the point where everything has a reason to be part of my life -- beyond mere accumulation. I don't need to be my Nana who, having lived through the Depression and brought up a family without a husband, would buy things because they were cheap and might be useful, and keep things in the expectation that they'd be of use later. If they're useful, but don't need to be in my life now, then other people can use them. If I need them later, I can get them later.

And now for something different: Cooking for Engineers, and Camera Hacker (both of which turned up as links when trying to track down an article I read a few years back that recommended never buying anything other than the best item or the cheapest item that will do the job -- the best because it'll be good quality, do everything you want, and last forever; and the cheapest because it'll do the job you have, and leave you your money for something else; anything else costs more, but isn't as good; alas I didn't find the article again).

Some interesting articles include stacking teleconverters (including how to calculate light loss), and using teleconverters with manual lenses, and a link to the E3 remote pinout and RS-60ES documentation. Plus Bob Atkins notes on manual focus lenses on the EOS range, a mechanical hack to use EF-S lenses on some EF cameras, and how to make your own ring flash. Also a light operated trigger, and more Canon lens reviews including a review of the Nikon lens adapter for Canon cameras, and the kit lens. (Found via various links, a list of Canon lens motors, and some inexpensive Canon lenses.)

And on the cooking front, Chef's knives rated (mine is a Zwelling JA Henckels Four Star, 8" Chef's Knife, part #31071-200, which appears to be the cheapest of the ranges from a good manufacturer), and Knives and Sharpening Steel hardness.