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Journal BarbaraHudson's Journal: How old is "old"? 34

McGrew's latest journal entry made me think - "how old is old?" The suit that lets you feel what it's like to be old is one way to look at it. "Only as old as you feel?" But some days you can feel like a million bucks - old, grey, and wrinkled - and other days, it's a wonderful world. But there must be a generally-accepted number of when you're old.

I don't feel old. I don't look old. Yesterday I mentioned to another woman that I'll be 60 in 2 months and she was taken aback (and no, no makeup to hide anything - just estrogen therapy). But back in my mind, I always thought that 60 was almost ancient!

And yet, I look around at people more than a decade younger than me, and they look freaking OLD! Especially the smokers.

So how old is "old"?

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How old is "old"?

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  • I can't take this site anymore. Old is clearly relative. Is the milky way old? Yesterday you mentioned to another woman that you'll be 60 in 2 months, and she was taken aback. Well good for you, but what does this have to do with technology?
    • Journals are not restricted to tech. We're (mostly) human.
    • by Bob_Who ( 926234 )

      ....but what does this have to do with technology?

      No more or less than your plea of exasperation. I like to think it falls more under the category of "stuff that matters".

      Some of the discussion here is in no way typical nerd related banter but the journal and fire hose provide an appropriate venue.

      Having said that, what fascinates me is why I and many others feel so compelled to vent these personal issues here on slashdot. You are correct that this is not why anyone began participating here. And over the years many were fed up with changes and deviatio

      • Ah, teletypes and paper tape readers. Punch your program, run it, $0.25 per run. Times have really changed, and changed, and changed over the years. Home computers with 4k of ram, 1mhz cpu, a cassette tape reader, and a daisy wheel printer (because it looks a lot better than dot matrix even if it's noisy as all hell), and today 4 gigs of ram is sneered upon, quad cores with gigahertz of cpu per core, terabyte storage, laser color printers, big-screen hd flat displays, and smartphones that are really so much

      • by mcgrew ( 92797 ) *

        Having said that, what fascinates me is why I and many others feel so compelled to vent these personal issues here on slashdot

        Try discussing them on facebook or reddit and the answer becomes obvious.

        • More ads, more trolls, more useless "if you scroll pass this picture without giving a like, you're heartless".

          There are some serious discussions going on, but some of the trolls pale beside anything here. And of course, since most of the users have zero experience dealing with fakes infiltrating discussions ...

    • by mcgrew ( 92797 ) *

      Well good for you, but what does this have to do with technology?

      Everything!! Mostly medical technology that didn't exist when I was young, like my CrystaLens implant that gives me better than 20-20 vision at all distances at age 64, heart pacemakers with built-in defibrillators like a friend has, artificial hips, knees, shoulders...

      And then there's the march of technology itself. Read the a href="

      • Antibiotics are a biggie. Lasers are being used in all sorts of medical procedures, including cauterizing bleeders in the eyeball. CT machines. MRI machines. Digitized x-ray machines. Teeny weeny glucometers that give the result in seconds. Laparoscopic surgery.
  • You are old when the girls in Playboy could be your daughter.

    I have no daughters, to my greatest regret no children at all... But if I had any, they would be playboy material by now.

    I am old. I feel old. It's the way it is...

    • Good to hear from you again! Come on, guys can father children in their 60s. So, you'd have to be in your 80s to be old :-)

      Besides, Playboy doesn't have centerfold nudes any more. Naughty pictures don't sell like they used to - another casualty of the internet's free pr0n.

      The thing is, even with a couple of grandkids I don't FEEL old. Not at all. Strange, I guess.

      I would hazard a guess you'll have to make some changes in "the way it is" because you're not THAT old. Besides, a change is as good as a vac

      • I never left. I'm always here, lurking deep in the ocean.

        A man can father children well into his sixties... Now *be* a father, for a significant timespan of the child... that's an entirely different issue. If you father a child at sixty, you won't be a father. You'll be a source of DNA, but not a father.

        • The average lifespan is now in the early 80s. That means that half the population gets beyond that. :-) Or if you want to cut some time off on the front end, adopt.
          • Given I am an alcoholic and I've been drinking over 15 years, not mention the smoking, I doubt I'm within the typical range of "average lifespan". I'll die sooner.

            Also, adopting is against the idea that my life exists to spread my genes.

  • I'll be 50 in 2 months. Age 49 was when I started getting forgetful. Age 38 was when I first started making an "uhn" sound getting up off the floor/when my bones first started feeling old.

    That said, you are really fucking old. You used to be sharp, and have independent thoughts in your head. Now you just parrot the party line and play dumb a lot. You got really boring in your old age. But I guess you have a lot of friends as a result.

    • Thanks for the laugh :-)
      • ? Too bad none of it was meant in jest. (Especially what makes for a sad commentary on human nature.) My aches and pains starting at only 38 was no joke to me. And I can't keep track of how many accounts you've had here, but in an earlier era (when your eye trouble was making it hard to read computer screens) you actually came up with thought-provoking and conventional-wisdom-challenging ideas (IIRC).

        • What can I say ,,, I'm just coming off of another 3-4 month depression, and the meds I've been taking for the last 2 years have side effects. At least the therapist helped with the PTSD, so that's one thing less to worry about :-)

          But it's kind of hard to come up with anything more entertaining than the current US election show ... we're seeing the end game of Ronald Ray-gun's Moral Majority, simplistic trickle-down and "what's good for business is good for everyone" economic policies (the last two of whic

          • End game? How is the current election the end game of trying to take a stand for morality in America? There's not orgies in the streets or anything right now. And that Right-wing economic policies lead to what we're experiencing economically in America right now is only what you guys want everyone to believe. I want to go back to those policies, since without them we haven't really got our economic recovery yet (which you guys don't want, of course).

            And the rise of Russia and China wrt to America a good

            • people don't scale.

              Oy! The ghost of Mr. Smith...repeating the same old crap under a new moniker... Izat who you're pretending to be today? If we didn't scale, why are there so many of us? And your cheap shots up there don't go unnoticed, they're just not worth a response. However, thanks indeed for the laughs... You're a barrel full, intended or not. The facade is most transparent. I guess if you have one believer, it's all worth it.

              • Oy! The ghost of Mr. Smith

                And you sound just like... Mr. Jones. [WhoTF is Mr. Smith?]

                If we didn't scale, why are there so many of us?

                That's like saying, if GM wasn't a solid company, how could it have gotten so big. By "people don't scale", I mean large organizations of people don't work out too well. Whether it be governmental, business, or social.

                And your cheap shots up there

                Cheap shots? Why would I need to take any of those, when y'all are so vulnerable to so many totally expected shots. There certainly wasn't any ground-breaking material in those economic or foreign policy referring comments.

                • Accept it, or not, you are the court's jester, sir. The act still plays well to your audience, in a *Rocky Horror Picture Show* kind of way. By all means, make the best of it. Huff and puff and blow the house down!

                  • You're the best at saying nothing that I've ever seen!

                    • I left the money on the dresser... it's been a slice, babe

                    • Sorry to hear you're used to paying for it.

                    • You looked like you needed some lovin'

                      Make sure to kill the light and pull the door shut

                    • Oh, I see, you're not the john, you're the whore. Suit yourself.

                    • :-) Your program is wandering again...

                    • You're not that different. But then, 98% of you are all alike anyway. Are you d_r?

                    • 98% of you are all alike anyway

                      DR takes such a dim view of my having two boxes for people, I wonder what he thinks of your one box.

                      Are you d_r?

                      I told you, I'm the leaner, meaner Bill Dog. I didn't want to change all my settings on that account, in case I wanted to go back to it ever, so I started fresh. But I didn't factor in that my Slashdot "Karma" would naturally, effectively be reset for me, and I've been running into weird (and sometimes failed attempts at) posting limitations.

                      It would be nice if people would mod me up for a bit so that I cou

                    • I wonder what he thinks of your one box.

                      :-) Ah, true to form, you all ignore the two percent. Can't say as I blame ya, we are statistically invisible.

                      Modding posts in JEs ain't cool. If you want karma, you'll have to step out into the yard and mingle a bit with genpop. And don't worry about your history. But hell, you already know all that.

                      As far as you being Bill Dog, I don't believe it. But I will grant your shtick is slowly gathering an audience. You picked up a couple more yesterday and today. They too

                    • As far as you being Bill Dog, I don't believe it.

                      Like I believe you (or DR) on that. (And like it matters/would change anything.) But what I am believing is, you probably actually are so into loving yourself that you probably do fantasize that you're a member of some super-l33t group, that's figured everything out, and is sooo under-appreciated and your genius unrecognized, and on top of all that you rare diamonds have to suffer the 98% rest of us ignorant and unenlightened schlubs! Now *that's* funny!

                    • Quite the contrary, but believe what you want... I am easily amused by the shtick

  • by mcgrew ( 92797 ) *

    On my 59th birthday my dad called and said "you know you're old, don't you?" When my daughter called I told her what her grandpa said and he answer was "You're not old. Not until next year!"

    I usually don't feel any different than I did at 20, but my arthritis was worse then. Except when I have a "senior moment", walk into a room, and forget why I went in there.

    People age at different rates. I know women younger than me who look and act older than my 88 year old mother, who goes bowling twice a week.

    I sure f

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