h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My birthday came and went quietly. I spent it at work arguing with some jerks about policy decisions in place on the mud I help operate. Felt like a bit of a waste. Least I got out for a quiet dinner at half-time... Aude brought me a piece of cake, Jana called to say hi, and Karen sent me an e-card. Guess there are worse things than to have a bunch of women coming out of the woodwork to brighten your day up.

I'm feeling... sort of out of it today. I'm really beginning to lament time's inexorable march... I took note of it before, but didn't feel it so acutely. How terrifying it must be reach one's 50's and have the unsettling prospect of one's own mortality confront you so brutally.

It's not that death is so frightening... it's that you suddenly become tragically aware of how little of the time you've had so far you've used to its fullest potential. But I suppose that's chasing clouds... most things that live just live in the moment, and the intrinsic value of that moment is enough to make it what it is.

I'm off to bed soon. I'll ponder this as I fall asleep... in a universe this tragically grim and hostile, whence comes all this beauty and aestheticism? Is it something inherent in that which observes or in that which is observed... or is there any difference?