" congratulations, you are now 30 years old "

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on this day, my thirtieth birthday, i just wanted to share something with you three readers.

before i went to go work and live in thailand in 2003, i had a short-run self-published zine. i made it myself by hand, some additional articles and writing from friends, an awesome 50's-era cursive typewriter (i borrowed from my brother), and the help of copy machines at my old job.

the basic tenet was to have an outlet for expression and art that i could edit and self-publish (curiously enough, i started my blog in 2003). i believe that if i had stayed in the bay area, i would have continued crafting together the zine, and i think about doing just that off an on, in the years that have passed since then.

in any case, i wrote a list in the second issue. one that i would like to share with you all, as my reverse birthday present from me to you...and then back to myself.

it's interesting what we think of our future selves; who we are at the time...in the present, and how we think we will evolve and hopefully flourish.

i'd like to say that i've proudly accomplished most of these items, and some are yet to become. i liked rediscovering it, and i hope that it inspires you to perhaps create one of your own.

thank you to all of the people that have made these first thirty years on this planet absolutely wondrous, and here's to the next thirty.

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- from the self-pulished zine "and each wound has the shape of your mouth," © c. bay milin, august 2003
(presented as printed/published without further editing)


a list of things i'd like to do before age 30:

- publish a photo collection in book form
- travel to iceland and stand atop a glacier
- film footage of family members in Songkhla, TH
- take a yearly portrait of people i know
- finish a feature-length cinematic work
- find out about my true origins and family past
- fall in love
- learn to shoot medium format, 4x5, and large
- shake hands with an inspiring person/celeb
- inspire someone and create the change i wish to see in this world
- make tees, buttons, stickers, and zines
- lay entangled in the arms of a lover all day long, then photograph moments
- find a job or course of work that will allow me to do what i wish creatively, and love it
- move out of my childhood home
- live for at least six months on a foreign continent, within a culture not my own
- be drunk enough to know better
- drive across the united states
- be a father
- invent something to benefit humankind
- learn what it means to be happy, then share it
- be able to allow failure to occur
- become a monk
- get tattooed
- still be able to say that it's cool to be a nerd at age 30, and believe it

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