POZ Community Forums
Off Topic Forums => Off Topic Forum => Topic started by: mecch on September 24, 2011, 08:14:17 am
-
You have a conversation with a (seemingly?) bright college student who cheerfully sees no difference between 1990's, 1950's and 1890's. Cause it was all so long ago!
This one hands in an essay about sci fi movies. It start's, "In the 1990's cinema was in it's infancy but growing fast..." So I say, are you sure it's the 1990's? How old is cinema? He thinks a few seconds and says, or yeah it must be more like the the 1950's, right? So I say, Cinema is over a hundred years old. He says, really, wow. I say yeah, you have seen Charlie Chaplin films, right, how old do you think they are? (I figure everyone around the world knows Charlie Chaplin he hes very big in this part of Switzerland since he lived here.)
And he says "Of course, they must be from was the 1950s." Then he thinks for a minute and I guess figures out the 1950s are still not a hundred years ago, so offers, "Wait, so color must be from the 1950's, right?" And I say color was around in the 30's even, and charlie chaplin movies were silent and in black and white. When do you think they are from? And he says, "Well I guess it was all so long ago I can't imagine it" and cheerfully crosses out the 1990's in his sentence and writes 1950's.
I love those bits on Jay Leno when he interviews people on the street. He catches out old people of course but the young ones who cheerfully know nothing are amazing.
-
I hope you gave that kid a big fat FAIL on his essay. Doesn't he know how to research what he's writing about? Or was it an "in class" essay where he had to solely depend on what he already had in his head?
-
That's hilarious but I don't think the example of this one kid could be indicative of his whole generation (at least I hope not!).
Sometimes I try to put some perspective, as in: I was born in the 60s so to a person born in the 80's, they are as removed from the 60s as I am (was?) from the 40s (in terms of culture etc). I admit I got my first glimpse into what life in the 1950s must have been like from Happy Days, the sitcom. Although my knowledge of the time has certainly grown since then.
-
Are you teaching those with learning difficulties or are they just rich. hope to God you FAIL them outright. Even if the student had no idea re film he also showed no research ability.Meech I hope you earn a great deal.
You know your old when stupid lazy 17 year olds make you really angry.
t
-
I agree with Ann. How did he even get into college without being able to do an online search? BTW, I know a 12 year old who can give you a complete timeline of World War II, and will at any given opportunity.
-
1990 is actually 20 years ago!!! so, someone who his in his early twenties, its a looonoooooong time back!!
-
I hope you gave that kid a big fat FAIL on his essay. Doesn't he know how to research what he's writing about? Or was it an "in class" essay where he had to solely depend on what he already had in his head?
Hehe. yes Ann, and other, it was in-class and one of the first classes and his English is pretty good. I don't think he's dumb at all, I think he just one of these young people that anything that happened before he was born is all "ancient history".
I always thought we would get to a generation that would see those old roman gladiator movies and think, well, it was shot in Roman Times!
-
I agree with Ann. How did he even get into college without being able to do an online search? BTW, I know a 12 year old who can give you a complete timeline of World War II, and will at any given opportunity.
I think there are some young people who are very clever and know a lot about the past, but obviously there are a lot who don't.
I didn't post to say he was dumb, but more how old I must be, and Im not 50 yet! Sometimes I think back to being college age which was the 1980s and it might as well have been the 1880's or Weimar Berlin, it seems so long ago. ::)
-
Share a funny moment when you realised how old you are...
-
I can't blame the kiddies for not knowing the real age of cinema when they keep remaking movies. Planet of the apes (60s) nope Mark Wahlburg was in the original. Dick Tracey pre- WWII, nah Madge did the original. War of the Worlds-Tom Cruise's. Star Wars- released in the 90's with cool/modern special effects and that couldn't have existed in the 70s (they didn't). Godzilla - that man married to that sex and city chick did it.
Frankenstein, Superman, Batman, Time Machine (whatever happend to Samantha Fox anyway). In class essay, hmmm def forgiveable...
-
Yeah, Cliff, kind of my reaction.
Id just be curious to hear if anyone else has little moments when they realise they are old.
Sometimes I get this on the bus (but not the train, weirdly). If I get on a bus in the morning rush hour, it happens that I might look around and wonder where everyone is going off to but occasionally I will play a game, "Am i the oldest person on this bus?" and ek god, sometimes it seems i am!
In my 20's in New York I would make up observation games to pass the time on the subway. I had "look at everyone's fingernails and guess what their faces look like." And the simpler, "look at everyones lips" or "shoes" or every "business person's briefcase" cause back then everyone carried an attaché. Which I guess seems weird to a young person today, as weird as when my dad would say when he was a kid all men wore hats.
-
Share a funny moment when you realised how old you are...
I felt old when I learned WillyWump was a grandfather.
-
Share a funny moment when you realised how old you are...
I realised I am old when this 16 yeard old guy told me he can't imagine life without the internet and mobile phones.
-
I realised I was old when I was a bartender and carded an off-duty cop. ;D
-
I hardly ever feel old! I have to speak the truth. I am in my mid thirties now and I look like in my mid twenties. I am not kidding it happens 100/100 times. Sounds like I am being shallow and hiding my age but I am not. I look pretty young for my age .10 years hello!!.. I always go and play this age guessing game at the fair when they have to guess the age for someone and I always win. Though, I figured its their business is to have others participate in the game to average out and eventually make money since the cost is not much. Anyways, I do have a scary theory on my relatively young looking age. One of these days I will wake up and I would feel and look like 10 years older than what I really am since I do believe in another theory which is Newton's second law ‘To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction’. somehow I am gonna get that back!
So, Hmm, I, however, felt old once as this college kid (after he failed to guess my age) told me why I still watch MTV’s ‘real world’ and wear A&F at my age. For a second, I did think yes I am getting old! Then I felt ‘Nah.. Age is just a number’! In my head, I know, pretty soon, in a few years, I ,may be, am getting really old for these stupid MTV stuff anyways :'( and that's okay there is always time and space for everything.
-
I realised I was getting old when my happy hour was a nap... ;)
Aroha
Jan :-*
-
I knew I was getting old when my 5 year old niece asked me if working out at the gym was making me fat ... ouch ! .
Age is just a number and I need bifocals to read it .
-
I felt old when a 6 yr old showed me how to check the weather on her IPOD
Nick
-
Age is just a number and I need bifocals to read it .
Your right of course age is just a number..but you know how much we hate numbers here... ;)
I left my favourite number behind 42 years ago...you do the maths... ;D
Aroha
Jan :-*
-
Age is an algorithm with variables, constants, and a few square roots here and there. My AARP card should be here next week.
-
Each time my daughter has a child -- #5 comes in late Nov / early Dec. I'll feel older then too!! Of course, spending time with them does it too -- it's energizing while there and then I get back to the hotel and realized that they completely wiped me out.
Mike
-
You know you're old when you move into doorways and put your glasses on to read text messages on your mobile phone.
- matt
-
Age is an algorithm with variables, constants, and a few square roots here and there. My AARP card should be here next week.
Put it down, you've had too much...lol ;D
-
When your 7 year old nephew refers to your vinyl LP's as big CD's.
-
When one of the students at the college I work at says "Are you a teacher here?" And I say, "No, why? Do I look like a teacher?" and he responds "Well, yeah, you look old." If I was his teacher, he would've failed right there - no matter what class he took. ;D
-
I'm not sure if this made me feel old or young...I found super-cheap theatrical contact lenses in the city today, and since my niece loves mine I called her to see if she wanted some for an early Christmas present. We settled on "Twilight Volturi Red"...it made me realize that she is already a teenager, but at the same time we are into the same things...so Thursday I will be a vinyl record speed in age (45) but that night I am going to see a band from my teens (Blondie.)
I'm so confused!!
-
Here in India, one refers to any person who is roughly your parent's age, irrespective of how old you are, as 'uncle' (for a man) or 'aunty' (for a woman). It is considered disrespectful and little odd to address such a person by first name or even by last name (unless it is in an official/formal setting or in your workplace). A young person (under 30) addressing someone over 70-75 by either first or even last name would be considered very rude and inappropriate.
So when little kids started calling me 'uncle' it really made me realise: 'I'm now old enough to be a Dad'. ;D
Interestingly, The terms 'uncle' and 'aunt' are never used for your real uncle and aunts, since practically all Indian languages have specific names that reveal the exact relation you have with them. So mother's brother, father's brother, father's sister and so on and so forth- all have unique names. I think it is the same in China.
-
Anyways, I do have a scary theory on my relatively young looking age. One of these days I will wake up and I would feel and look like 10 years older than what I really am since I do believe in another theory which is Newton's second law ‘To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction’. somehow I am gonna get that back!
How true, how true. When I was 30, I looked 20, and when I was 40, I looked 30. Now that I'm 69, I've fulfilled a prophecy made by my best friend (R.I.P.) 30 years ago, who told me that one day I would wake up and 30 years would be left on the pillowcase!
I particularly know I'm old when my age is used as an argument against me in a debate--particularly on the Internet, and, yes, even here on AIDSmeds.com.
-
Oh please Barbie and Ken.
So many gay Ken dolls believe they look ten years younger and this happens from the age 30 on. The smoke and mirrors are "effective" only from 35 to 50ish in my opinion. 30 year old Kens who think they look 20 are deluded. But I've met "convincing" 20-something 35 year olds. 45-ish but with the allure of a still "young man", OK, we can go there but it starts to get shady. The "I look years younger" is best retired from 45-60 in my opinion. Mothballed as it were. Then you can take that act out on the road once again after 60 - such as the incredibly tight and young in spirit athletic types, it works again quite well.
As for Barbies, its rather similar to the Kens, for "10 years younger". But between 45 and 60 it gets unsettling, e.g. Demi Moore territory. Then again it becomes convincing after 60 or 70, with or without surgery, makeup and age appropriate clothing. Jane Fonda - good. Cher "ageless" - this is a special category.
"Ageless" is best left to the females - entertainment superstars, society doyennes, and politicians. "Ageless" men - i really can't think of any.
Betty White's still Hot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcitkCQ3F-U&feature=player_embedded#!
Anyhoo, back to the TOPIC THREAD. Feeling your age isn't necessarily related to how your look. (Sometimes it is!)
Also its not a downer.
Around 50 i guess one finally sees the several generations of adults that are younger and the several generations that are older!
-
When the night duty doctor still has zits.
-
I felt old when I learned WillyWump was a grandfather.
::)
Anyways...I started feeling old when my doctor started saying things such as "When people your age..." or "As we age..."
-Will
-
::)
Anyways...I started feeling old when my doctor started saying things such as "When people your age..." or "As we age..."
-Will
Will -
you may want to check out the pic that my contact in San Antonio took of you jogging today in the "I Jogged Today" thread..... further proof of "you know you're old when..."
-
The IMDB birthday listings make me feel old...
...whenever I see child stars turning 30/40/50 years old
...whenever I see the men I lusted after in my teens turning 80
...when I don't know who the heck the young whippersnapper b'day celebrities are
...when I'm the exact same age as some horribly wrinkled celebrity
-
you feel rather paternal about your doctors
-
...you try to send a text message from your rotary dial phone.
:D
-
...you try to send a text message from your rotary dial phone.
:D
Or if this was your first cell phone ;D
(http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad246/wolfter/rotarycellphone.jpg)
-
Uh. When my older son turned 40 in June. Ouch.
And when I don't even recognize the names and faces of most so-called celebrities and maybe worse, don't even care.
-
When you start using magic in a bottle:
(http://i892.photobucket.com/albums/ac127/skeebo1969/nmaa.jpg)
Specifically #41
-
Uh. When my older son turned 40 in June. Ouch.
When I realised a couple months ago that if I had carried my first pregnancy to term, he or she would have had their 32nd birthday in late August or early September. Ouch indeed.
It made me feel old too when I also realised that if I'd carried my third pregnancy to term, he or she would have been coming up on their 14th birthday in late October or early November. Yep, that's right, I got pregnant and hiv poz within months of each other. Scary thought.
I got to calculating these dates when I discovered a young friend of mine, who I have watched grow up, (she'll turn 20 on my birthday in November) is expecting her first on our birthday. That made me feel old too.
My daughter (24 y/o, my only full-term pregnancy) is now a fully accredited school teacher - so that made me feel old too. I think I'll have to get the zimmer frame out when she gives me grandchildren. :D Gee, I'm feeling old these days!
Where does the time go? It seems like only yesterday I was fresh-faced, wide-eyed and setting foot in NYC for the time. I'll be 49 in November - and the sun in my bathroom this morning showed me just how salt-and-pepper my hair has been getting lately.
In my head I'm still about 16 or so, but stuff outside my head keeps telling me otherwise.
-
When you fall asleep on the toilet, again.
t
-
When you fall asleep on the toilet, again.
t
tis the sedatives, darling... you can never have enough hats, gloves and pills
Otherwise for me it was the year some skinny jeans hipster barista referred to me as "sir"
-
Hmmm, where to I begin . . .
When I realized I could walk into a bar, strip naked, set myself on fire and do cartwheels, and nobody would notice.
When I realized my AARP card is coming up for renewal.
When I mention those celebrities who identify gaydom are Streisand, Midler and Garland, and someone said, 'Who?"
When the only celebrity I recognize in the fan mags at the grocery store is Brad Pitt, whom I still think is a sexy young man.
HUGS,
Mark
-
When my grandson reminded me it's only 6 weeks until his daughter (my great granddaughter) will be arriving...my second great grand child~~~sigh~~~
Aroha
Jan :-*
-
When my grandson reminded me it's only 6 weeks until his daughter (my great granddaughter) will be arriving...my second great grand child~~~sigh~~~
Aroha
Jan :-*
Does everyone in your family give birth when they're 15? So much for family planning for the Scots.
-
Something weird happened with distance between me and the college age generation. When I was in my late thirties, none of them treated me as Dad-aged though I guess I was. They used to ask me out drinking (not that I accepted). And now I'm older than their dads and it's only been 10 years! For that set, I guess one day youre kinda still young and the next your really kinda old!
-
Does everyone in your family give birth when they're 15? So much for family planning for the Scots.
18 dear heart 18.
Aroha
Jan :-*
-
You know your old when you wake up in the morning look in the minor and ask yourself " who is this old man staring back @ you" and what happened to my youthful good looks, then you walk away, and can feel your old bones grinding down every time you take the next step, then you take a breath and say to yourself "well I wasn't suppose to live this long w/ teh AIDS, but hey, I'm still here and alive, might as well make the best of it" ;)
Edited for missing words & spellings :D