Do you feel *gasp* old?

[Ridwan]

I feel old whenever I see more and more of my friends getting married. And lately I've been haunted by the possibility of me having sired illegitimate children somewhere...

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

For some reason I am reminded of C-kun when I read that line, S-Chan.

He didn't go the suicide route like I did. And he had the luxury to go to an overseas university while I have to buy mine!

And the other 2 'A' students in here also took the easy route of taking the arts course. No pure math! No pure science! No headache over the littlest mistakes you make that will screw your final answer! No raging over badly drawn curves in ink! No forgetting to antilog the derived constant!

Maybe too much competition makes people feel old at a younger age. I have seen classmates sabotaging each others' projects, steal credit for others' work, sucking up to teachers (and some girls sleeping with the male teachers); that whenever I was thrown a challenge I would go, "Not again. I am too old for this."

Sure bragging rights are fun. Revenge is sweet. But ultimately, I find it utterly pointless to engage in such warcraft at the expense of what precious little time we have to ourselves.

I guess that is it. The older we grow, the less time we seem to have.

Originally Posted by Ridwan

I feel old whenever I see more and more of my friends getting married. And lately I've been haunted by the possibility of me having sired illegitimate children somewhere...

You are not the only one. Another friend of mine just got married earlier this year, or late last year. To another friend of mine. Again.

[Azuma Denton]

Originally Posted by Ridwan

I feel old whenever I see more and more of my friends getting married. And lately I've been haunted by the possibility of me having sired illegitimate children somewhere...

In my case, it isnt because all my friends getting married. But the after effect. When they are married, you will have less time with them hence you will find a younger friend. And now I realized most of my group younger than me 5-6 years...

[Xefi]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

Now I'm wondering if I should call aohige and Vexx Onii-chans or Oji-chans.

i usually called people who are older than me, "Mr." or "Sir". it seems more polite that way.
Vexx onii-chan just doesnt feel right unless he doesnt mind you calling him that.

if it was me, i'll be "Mr. Vexx, how do you do?" :P

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

I guess that is it. The older we grow, the less time we seem to have.

Or the less tolerance you have for what is fundamentally pointless bullshit (testicle waving that doesn't actually accomplish anything).

My wife runs into the math issues frequently. As a pharmacist, she teaches a technician class to help people get certified as a "pharm tech" (minion to pharmacist). The kinds of math skills they bring to class are both facepalming and worrisome (what do you mean you can't do that in your head?).

My engineer son says he had to learn a fair amount of math skills himself because the schools tended to just teach "here's how to set it up for the calculator" -- many of his his peers had no clue on whether they'd gotten the order of magnitude right or not.


edit: Sumeragi may call me anything she likes.

As for 'sir' or "ma'am" ... I'll call anyone any age that. Just good etiquette, but no one gets any automatic respect for age in my book. They locked up the tigers long ago -- too easy to get old now.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Azuma Denton

In my case, it isnt because all my friends getting married. But the after effect. When they are married, you will have less time with them hence you will find a younger friend. And now I realized most of my group younger than me 5-6 years...

Not necessarily younger. Sometimes older.

My old cliquemates were saying, if I am the last one to get married, I'll either get arrested or raped on my wedding day.

I would rather get arrested.

Originally Posted by Vexx

Or the less tolerance you have for what is fundamentally pointless bullshit (testicle waving that doesn't actually accomplish anything).

My wife runs into the math issues frequently. As a pharmacist, she teaches a technician class to help people get certified as a "pharm tech" (minion to pharmacist). The kinds of math skills they bring to class are both facepalming and worrisome (what do you mean you can't do that in your head?).

My engineer son says he had to learn a fair amount of math skills himself because the schools tended to just teach "here's how to set it up for the calculator" -- many of his his peers had no clue on whether they'd gotten the order of magnitude right or not.

I remember being the worst in my class for math due to dyslexia - it would take my ages to understand a word problem as I have problems putting it into some iteration.

The graphic calculator was initially offered to students who did Further Mathematics for A levels - they need it for advanced complex number topics (actually you don't if you see alot of non-numerical terms in the problem). Then it was used in the C math classes after my syllabus (last in line) - since its introduction into normal high school math everyone becomes reliant on it for graphs.

And to make it worse, nobody in my current university class knows that the term e is called Euler's Number. And if the curve does not touch a certain line it is called an asymptote, PLUS an asymptote can be a straight line with both their coordinates having a value above 0. And absolute range of the area under the curve can be measured using Newton-Rhapson instead of the Trapezium Rule.

Even the professor gave up teaching and told them kids to memorise the formulas. What fine finance industry workers we are churning out for society!

Originally Posted by Vexx

As for 'sir' or "ma'am" ... I'll call anyone any age that. Just good etiquette, but no one gets any automatic respect for age in my book. They locked up the tigers long ago -- too easy to get old now.

I like to start with, "How may I address you?". I avoid calling people "Sir" and "Ma'am" outside of the military.

[Dr. Casey]

Originally Posted by Ridwan

Quite possibly the later. Then again, it's not that much a universal thing outside of US from how I see it.

Interesting; I've never been outside the country, so it's nice to know that there's some places out there more reasonable than we are.

I think some of the posters in this thread might be operating under different definitions of old. Some are using it in the 'past their physical prime' sense, others are using it more to mean that they've been around a long time and feel disconnected from some of the younger generations. Personally, I like the feeling that comes along with the second definition. As a little kid, I idolized my older siblings, who are 5-11 years my senior, and wanted to be more like them. Their longer and more layered life stories, their infinitely greater knowledge base, their ability to deal with stressful situations with a lot more grace (ie 6 year old that hides in the corner of the room and cries whenever something bad happens vs. 17 year old that goes into lockdown mode and focuses on solving the situation), their capabilities far greater than mine that allowed them to effortlessly do things that seemed so impossible to me at the time. The part of me that glamorized adulthood never really died away completely, so it's always been a role I've been comfortable accepting and embracing.

[Ridwan]

There's certainly a hefty bit of western influence among upper middle class, but for the most part, people here operate on more traditional mindsets, which frankly vary between cultures as well as social classes. There are people who consider late teens old enough to marry but rather then glorifying youth the way US baby boomers do it's more traditional "hey, you're old enough to make kids so you're to fend for yourself starting today" kind of thinking. In another case, you wouldn't be considered true adult until you reach 40, even with similar standard marrying age as the previous case.

I'm admittedly of semi-elite cosmopolitan-multicultural background with foreign connections, so I grew up under a fair bit of western influence.

[EscapeReality]

I guess you could say I feel old in the sense that I miss my carefree childhood days. Ehh...I regret wasting so much time back then. Now there's not as much time to pursue stuff anymore.

[willx]

Oh god, this thread, I feel like I'm in my sixties? Seventies?

I had a candid conversation with a senior banker the other day, he's been working in the industry for over 20 years. He calls them "dog years" ..

Aside from having the financial freedom to go on admittedly wonderful vacations, every single other day of my life is full of weariness, exhaustion and stress. I don't remember the last time I had a day where I didn't feel sleepy, achey, sore or sick.

[Sumeragi]

Originally Posted by willx

Oh god, this thread, I feel like I'm in my sixties? Seventies?

I had a candid conversation with a senior banker the other day, he's been working in the industry for over 20 years. He calls them "dog years" ..

Aside from having the financial freedom to go on admittedly wonderful vacations, every single other day of my life is full of weariness, exhaustion and stress. I don't remember the last time I had a day where I didn't feel sleepy, achey, sore or sick.

Eh..... ask your beloved to help you out there.

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by willx

I don't remember the last time I had a day where I didn't feel sleepy, achey, sore or sick.

I think this is the difference between the XX century definition of feeling old and XXI old. Old used to be something that everybody accepted as the effect of time. Now another picture is emerging, old is more often a result of a bad diet, not enough sleep/sunlight, physical activity and/or stress. So we have people nowadays with high blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar levels that will not last long enough to have wrinkles and also live very pitiful lives, always tired, weak and disease prone (also known as "Hey! I have a job, but it is killing me, TBT). There is some very cool research into making old hearts young, but it is quite pointless if people do not live long enough to use it when it becomes a reality so people must start to take self preservation to a new level IMO.

[willx]

Hm, perhaps I was being a tad sensationalist .. to clarify, despite "feeling the aches" .. according to doctors I'm generally in "okay" health so no need to raise any alarms on my behalf. I'm frankly whining a bit because I've been stressed out lately due to specific personal circumstances, which I won't bore anyone with.

As per Sume's comment, my lovely fiance does provide emotional support to the extent she can, but the higher you dream and the harder you work .. the more stressful, fearful and distressing the idea of failure or at least stunted or unsatisfactory success is..

[Sumeragi]

Originally Posted by willx

my lovely fiance

Fiancée, unless you happen to be engaged to a man.

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by willx

according to doctors I'm generally in "okay" health

Why do I have a mind image where the doctor is fishing and he gets willx on his fishing hook, he releases him back into the water while saying "You are generally in "okay" health (return in a couple of years when you are really sick so I can cook myself a juicy paycheck)"

[Sumeragi]

Originally Posted by mangamuscle

Why do I have a mind image where the doctor is fishing and he gets willx on his fishing hook, he releases him back into the water while saying "You are generally in "okay" health (return in a couple of years when you are really sick so I can cook myself a juicy paycheck)"

Thankfully(?), it isn't quite like that with health care in Canada.

[Seitsuki]

I think the high profile American health system is actually very much the exception globally speaking.

[Dekart]

One good thing for me is that my internship currently involves helping out with a web development course for entrepreneurs. People in the class are as much as twice my age and are always telling me how young I am. Somehow, it feels unexpectedly good just to hear such a line.

I fear growing old so much.

[Midnight Commander]

Often times the real issue people have is not getting old per se, its rather that they haven't yet done or accomplished certain things by a particular age like marriage, buying your first home, having a wild threesome fantasy, etc. I think a major part of the issue can be remedied by just about getting yourself right; whatever that means to you(yes, easier said that done). If you are financially free(you don't need to work a 9-5 for money), very healthy/fit and look great for your age, and perhaps are in a good relationship with someone you really get along with, "getting old" might not matter as much to you.

After you become too old to be considered "young and cool" according to media, there are actually still plenty of interesting things to do and you can definitely still feel cool doing them. Some of these things may be things you knew about all along but never appreciated them when you were younger and was instead probably worried about superficial things.

Anyway, I'd suggest worrying more about eating right, exercising, meditating, working towards financial freedom and trying to enjoy yourself as much as you can.

[aohige]

Originally Posted by Vexx

More seriously, mostly what I notice is slow disappearance of people older than me. That's why I go out of my way to have friends in many age groups. I watched a couple of my elders whine their way to death "because all their friends had died" - they had made the mistake of only having friends their age or older.

Physically, I still do what I did in my 20s (actually I'm in better physical condition) but it may take an extra day of aspirin after I do something stupid.

The biggest part in successful maintaining seems to be keeping my weight under control. At exactly around 205lbs (93kg), several things start to go wrong - knees and feet hurt, more easily damaged, night time apnea starts, and be really blunt - sexual performance starts to degrade. Ideal weight for my height and musculature is about 195. Typically I roam right around 200 because I cheat and have too much rice/bread.

Or you could... Start using shirataki as substitute for rice and pasta, jog in the morning in those horribly senior looking outfits those senior joggers wear, and get into fishing and bonsai.
Then grumble all the way to the inevitable.

Am I right?

I won't really be losing many friends, because, well I have very few to begin with.
Did lose a couple of them at really early age, (one fella passed away at age of 21 or so) so I see it as "it can happen any time" thing.
I guess there's one good thing about being comfortably lonely.

Originally Posted by EscapeReality

I guess you could say I feel old in the sense that I miss my carefree childhood days. Ehh...I regret wasting so much time back then. Now there's not as much time to pursue stuff anymore.

Dude, you're seventeen. A baby.