What is the meaning of life?

Albert Camus uses the narrative of the stranger to exemplify the nature of absurdism, or the idea that there is no meaning in life.  As far as we have read, the main character, Meursault, lives a life without the socially normal emotions, purely living for the momentary satisfaction of personal needs.  He knows what is appropriate and can observe the way things are, but leads a life in which he doesn't care to follow most of those things.  His mother dies.  So what?  Her funeral is an inconvenience.  His neighbor beats his dog.  So what?  It isn't his dog.  His friend beats his girlfriend.  So what?  What matter to Camus is the fulfillment of his own desires, most of which do not involve deep personal interaction.  Sure, he finds certain things beautiful and inappropriate and realizes the nature of his existence, but he does not differentiate right and wrong, and frankly just doesn't care.  As far as he is concerned, the meaning of life is existence and pleasure.
How then, do I translate this to my own life?  Well part of me realizes the nature of Meursault's way of life and partially relates to it.  I go through life wondering why I apply to societal norms and attempt to better myself as a person.  And why, if I don't agree with some of these ideas, should I revolt against them?  What will my actions mean beyond this life?  Beyond this life, what will I have?  I think religion is an easy answer.  "If you are good, you go to heaven.  In heaven you will live an eternity of perfection and be rewarded until the end of time.  If you are bad, you go to hell.  In hell you will live an eternity of pain and suffering and be punished until the end of time."  Under this belief, we can act towards a future.  We can believe that what we do here on this Earth will have an effect later on, that whether we do "good" or "bad" will have a meaning.  Without this belief, it is difficult to imagine that our actions have meanings.  Even if we go down in human history and happen to be that small sect of the population actually remembered after death, what does that mean in the scheme of things?  If humanity is but a blink in the life of a universe in which our whole planet is but a speck of dirt on the fabric of a whole time and space continuum, what does legacy, change, betterment mean?  I find myself asking these questions under the belief that there is no life after death. 
But even with the belief in life after death, we must ask ourselves, "is there still meaning?"  It seems that the only meaning would be our own fate.  Whether we live in joy or in suffering.  Truthfully, I don't believe that life has any bigger meaning other than the pain or happiness that happens in this world.  And if it is true that our beings, consciousnesses, souls, carry on to another life, then the meaning will still be pain or happiness.