EvilB,
Being near twice your age, I'd say you're right on schedule.
Evil B:
I was most struck by 3 (the self-indulgent 20s) and 7 ("I need to" for distraction.) They sound a bit like 2 descriptions of the same kind of thing.
So, maybe I'm a little to quick to give a pass for "self-indulgence" because of my own self-indulgent nature. But your points really demand clarification: what's the "important stuff"? And then, what makes it important?
Is it making and raising healthy kids? Is it crusading or at least doing whatever's in your power to make the world a better place? Is it living up to obligations to your family and friends?
The first one seems to me to start out as an option, that will later become important as you go down that path, and then it becomes a portion of the third. The second one seems like a tough road to hoe. The third is probably the most significant. And as far as I can tell, you've never been a slouch in that department.
Wow ... quite a sidebar today. I need to put some thought behind it. Butch, maybe a comment section to the sidebar? I think it was brought up before.
Yeah, Ideally I'd port to my new webhost first, but it's on my TODO
Wow guys, thanks for the compliments. Thank goodness for the 'sidebar of the people', without it I wouldn't have been able to write these down fast enough before they faded from memory.