This is weird. If you would have asked me when I was nineteen, "Was it a long time ago when you were 15?", I would have said it was ages ago. If you would have asked me when I was 25 if it was a long time ago since I was twenty one, I would have said it wasn't that long ago. If you ask me now if 2002 was a long time ago, I'd say not at all. And even go so far to say it was recent. So why is it, when people get older, does their perception of Time differ?
Weird, isn't it?
Maybe it's to do with new, fresh experiences. The older you get, the less you have - the more routine things become - the less point there is in your brain remembering them.
Fuck me, that's depressing. Let's talk about how insignificant we are in the face of the universe instead.
As you get older a year (week, day etc) is a lesser porportion of your life than it had been so seems to pass quicker...
Still at least you can say 'it was better in my day', and 'I remember when this was all fields' and 'call that music!'
so for a new born baby an hour must seem ages ago, while for a few month old 1 day must seem ages ago etc
Oh, you bastards. You had to mention it, didn't you? I don't want to grow old. I certainly don't want to grow old exponentially faster than when I was growing young. I LIKE being a pristine twenty! It's the only thing I have going for me. I don't want it taken away...
I don't want to grow old.
Heh. If you think that's bad, wait till you have kids and you're hit with the overwhelming realisation of your own mortality.
Well, according to this cheery lot, that day's not too far off...
Wait till your kids become teens, then you have a right to feel old!
Bugger me, it's gone 1am!
Nighty night. Thanks monty x
growing old isn't so bad when you consider the alternative
my secret to getting old happily (not that you asked or anything) is to know a young person who's an idiot. That way you can be happy you're not that young and stupid. Finding young people who are also stupid gets easier as time goes by*. You also need someone who's older than you who is really cool. That way you can think 'hey it's not so bad I'm almost seventy. Keith Richards is almost 70'.
works for me.
*with the obvious exception of everybody on this board
My perception of time is really stuffed then.
I feel like I'm still twenty odd but I'm two decades beyond it. Summer days seem endless (could be the near perpetual daylight up here in the north) but the weeks skip by. Sometimes I see stuff from the 70's and 80's and it feels like history then I go "Hang on, I remember that on the news only the other day!"
So there you go, time is malleable, it stretches and contracts like old knicker elastic and its up to you to make sure its you thats doing the stretching.
Actually, does time exist at all or is it just something we invented to keep track of things?
Posted by fl,loyd:
growing old isn't so bad when you consider the alternative
Adventuring through dense jungle, fighting off snakes tigers, black magic pygmies and reanimated Nazi cultists in a search for the Fountain of youth?
Or sitting in front of countdown with a nice cup of tea...
(or is there another alternative I've not heard of?)
Dying young.
I was trying to stay positive DX...
On a related note, what are the chances, when I reach pensionable age, I could get the government to pay my entire wad as one lump sum to cover the purchase of an ancient map of Mesoamerica and passage on the first Package Steamer to Brazil?
"growing old isn't so bad when you consider the alternative"
Yup, as you get older more and more people you know meet untimely ends, through natural and unnatural causes, so you get to appreciate your life more.
My secret to getting old happily... is to know a young person who's an idiot. That way you can be happy you're not that young and stupid.
I don't think that would work for me. With the exceptions of my closest friends, most of the people I've ever known have been idiots to some extent, both young and old (but again, with the obvious exception of everybody on this board :)). I'm 22 now and this has always been the case - when I'm 44 or 88 I expect it to be exactly the same.
Then again, it could just be that I've become a moody old bastard before my time.
>Yup, as you get older more and more people you know meet untimely ends, through natural and unnatural causes, so you get to appreciate your life more.
Oh yes, the 'I've lived longer than X' game...
I've lived longer than Sid Vicious.
i try my best to ignore the passage of time when i can, but it's unavoidable when you've got kids and their birthdays seem to come around every 4 months or so
also, me and mrs thinky were trying to work out how long we'd been together and finally realised that we'd missed our 10year anniversary. she didn't believe me until i reminded her that we'd been together over a year when Euro '96 was on
i had a drink with LMS and Al Ewing the other night and the question "which was your first prog" was uttered. I answered that prog 1 was the first for me. their reply? "wasn't even born then..."
that hurts
thinky
Children bring this type of thing home.
My youngest was 8 this week, I had a heated discussion with a friend who was convinced my child was 5...
I feel old my youngest was 8.
Slips
"when Mozart was my age he'd been dead for ten years"
Tom Lehrer
I've lived longer than Sid Vicious
Lets face it- that was always on the cards!
Fuck, my daughter has nearly beat him already!
>I've lived longer than Sid Vicious.
Yeah but you're a callow youth...
to my horror I'm getting very close to Lennon, and Elvis isn't that far away.
Link: handy death list for youngsters
From that there death site : Alexander the Great aged 32 - Conqueror of known world.
Shit! I still havent finished fixing up my flat.
In your face John Merrick! Who's the daddy?
I'm not trusting any list that has Catullus down as an Ancient Greek.
I would've conquered the known world by the age of 32, but I never had the chances Alexander the Great had! Society robbed me of my chance to become an 'orrible dictator by plying me with illegal hallucinogens and an inability to save money! If it wasn't for my pacifism, I'd have no problem in lopping orf the 'eads of all 'oo oppose my reign etc.
God, but work is slow today.
Aagghhh!
I never play the 'I've lived longer than X' game with famous folks, it just makes me feel worse. By the time various people from that list had died, they had composed some of the greatest symphonies ever written, commanded armies, changed nations, etc etc, and it just brings home the fact that I've so far done nowt of importance...
well you gotta remember the older you get the closer you get to leaving this hell hole
I was about to celebrate nearly outliving Mozart, until I remembered what he'd achieved by the time he died. Bugger, there's always a catch, isn't there? On the other hand, I reckon I'm still on course to match Dylan Thomas.
Oh, and Max, I'm afraid no pronouncement that life is shit by anyone under 35 can ever be taken seriously ;)
"well you gotta remember the older you get the closer you get to leaving this hell hole"
Yes Max, but THEN where do you go?
I disagree. Life is shit when you're in your teens and twenties. If you're still claiming that it's crap in your thirties, that's when it begins to look a bit silly.
I think you can claim that life is shit well into your thirties, as long as you specify that it's your life in particular, and not life in general, that you're complaining about.
It also helps if your life really is shit, otherwise you're just whingeing...
Life's great most of the time! If it weren't for the shit bits you would have nothing to compare it with.
That's what I tell myself when I start reaching for the knives.
Woah! Necro-thread! Mind you, it seems like only yesterday that I last posted here.
overwhelming realisation of your own mortality.
That hit me at about age 8. Am I doomed?