The census bureau recently published the latest data about life expectancy here in the U.S. It turns out (not too surprisingly) that we’re living longer than ever – a toothless-gum smacking 77.6 years.

I read this a few weeks back and promptly forgot about it. However a couple days later I woke up with the realization that half of 77.6 was 38.8… or pretty darn near the age I am right now. “Holy smokes”, quoth I, “I’m almost middle-aged!”.

Being the geek I am I needed only the slimmest of excuses to hack together a little tool to show me just how close I actually was to middle age. It turns out the doomsday date is April 10,2006 (5:45 pm). So, thankfully, I have a few months to plan for the big blowout.

Anyhow, plug your birthday in and see just how far away you are (on one side or t’other.) For those of you past your expiration date, my apologies. For the rest of you, you better start saving for that cherry red BMW covertable you’ll be buying.

(Oh, “why the Google ads”, you ask? ‘Just fooling around with adsense in the offhand chance people find the tool interesting.)

[Painting by Atanur Dogan, image from BigFoto]