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[Kuildeous]

So, the topic of age came up in another thread, and it seemed fitting to post an obligatory, "How old are you" thread.

Since I've been chumming it up with some people in the non-Mafia games, I'm mildly curious.

But don't just post your age. That's boring. Post something relevant to your age. Who was your favorite band as a kid? Where were you when the Challenger exploded/Berlin Wall came down/9-11/etc.? What TV show or movie really influenced your life? What was interesting about your childhood? Anything age-related will do.

[Kuildeous]

I guess it's fair that I start. I hit the big 4-0 earlier this year. Actually, 41 is only a couple of months away.

What's interesting to me is that I had thought of people in their 40s as old. Now that I'm here, I don't really feel any different than I did 20 years ago. Well, okay, I'm not doing any stuntwork. My knees do bother me sometimes, but my mind is still sharp (mostly), and I enjoy playing games just as much as before.

Magic: The Gathering came out when I was in college. I didn't know much about it, being in a small college town without a gaming shop, but I discovered it at GamiCon. I came in shortly after Antiquities came out (how fitting), so I barely got some of the coveted Arabian Nights cards and even a couple of Moxes. I even won a Mox in a Magic game, back when people weren't afraid to play for ante. I stopped playing after Legends (I think Dark was the next expansion) and made a killing off of selling off sealed Legends packs that I lucked into. I bought them for $5 apiece and sold them for $20 before I realized I could make more by opening the packs.

I joke that most men's mid-life crises revolve around stupidly expensive cars or infidelity. My mid-life crisis was to learn how to sing, which has put me on the stage in front of thousands twice this year. And I'll be singing with the Kansas City Symphony next month. Granted, none of those opportunities were solos, but I'll take what I can get.

[Ozle]

There is a saying in England : 'You are only as old as the woman you feel'

Unfortunately that makes a figment of your imagination!

[Robz888]

I was born on the 8th day, of the 8th month, of the 88th year. Which makes me 24 in 2012.

[Galzria]

January 31, 1985 here.

As a baby of the mid-80's, I conformed with anti-conformity.

I refused to watch Titanic when it came out, because it was "epic and cool". I refused to watch the original Starwars until almost 20, because it had such a huge fanbase. I still have only seen the originals (unmodified or rereleased). I still do not have an active Facebook account, under the original grounds that since everybody had one, I didn't want one.

However, I'm very entrenched in things that predate my time. I'm an avid, avid movie buff when it comes to film ranging from 1905 (early animation) to the mid-50's. Most music that I listen to is Cole Porter, or similar. I don't think I could name you more than 5 new bands/artists of the last 25 years - and certainly not with authority of their music. Neil Young, Tom Petty, Harry Chapin - all very good to my mind.

Television... Meh? I didn't watch any really during the 90's, as there was nothing worth watching. These days it's a mix of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Family Guy and the occasional 30 Rock. If none of them are on or recorded, I'll have either food network on, or ESPN.

In sports, I grew up with Baseball. I lived in Chicago for 7 years and it was all about the Cubbies. Now it's the Giants, with a real inner struggle when the two play. I also avidly follow F1, and despise Nascar (I despise most things "southern" having way too many family ties back in hicksville, Tennessee/Kentucky (no offense to anyone living there now)).

I also despise Southpark, and most anything that is vulgar, racist, profane or discriminatory.

[Young Nick]

You know that horrid day, June 6th, 2006? The one that looks like 6/6/06 when written out in that form? The day that people were praying not to have their children born on?

Yeah, I turned 13 that day.

I'm basically the spawn of the devil.

[() | (_) ^/]

.

[Robz888]

Galz! You watch the Food Network, and you didn't tell me??? Yes!

Love love love Chopped, Iron Next Chef, Next Iron Chef, Next Food Network Star, etc.

[greatexpectations]

my father was forced to sell his tickets to a new york mets NLCS game against the astros because i was only ~4 months old and he couldn't get a babysitter.

[Galzria]

Galz! You watch the Food Network, and you didn't tell me??? Yes!

Love love love Chopped, Iron Next Chef, Next Iron Chef, Next Food Network Star, etc.

I miss the original Iron Chef's. ICA is soooo ridiculous at times. They don't take themselves seriously enough.

On the other hand, I love Alton Brown, and have had many occasions to meet him and enjoy his cooking.

[Dsell]

Galz! You watch the Food Network, and you didn't tell me??? Yes!

Love love love Chopped, Iron Next Chef, Next Iron Chef, Next Food Network Star, etc.

I miss the original Iron Chef's. ICA is soooo ridiculous at times. They don't take themselves seriously enough.

On the other hand, I love Alton Brown, and have had many occasions to meet him and enjoy his cooking.

Woah, that is really cool. I'm a huge fan of lots of cooking shows too (all of the above +Masterchef and sometimes Hell's Kitchen/Kitchen Nightmares) and it's a goal of mine to eat the cooking of a famous chef.

And Alton is SO cool.

[theory]

January 31, 1985 here.

As a baby of the mid-80's, I conformed with anti-conformity.

I refused to watch Titanic when it came out, because it was "epic and cool". I refused to watch the original Starwars until almost 20, because it had such a huge fanbase. I still have only seen the originals (unmodified or rereleased). I still do not have an active Facebook account, under the original grounds that since everybody had one, I didn't want one.

However, I'm very entrenched in things that predate my time. I'm an avid, avid movie buff when it comes to film ranging from 1905 (early animation) to the mid-50's. Most music that I listen to is Cole Porter, or similar. I don't think I could name you more than 5 new bands/artists of the last 25 years - and certainly not with authority of their music. Neil Young, Tom Petty, Harry Chapin - all very good to my mind.

Television... Meh? I didn't watch any really during the 90's, as there was nothing worth watching. These days it's a mix of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Family Guy and the occasional 30 Rock. If none of them are on or recorded, I'll have either food network on, or ESPN.

This seems like a severe case of second option bias / anti-conformity for anti-conformity's sake.  Nothing worth watching during the 90's?  Seinfeld / Simpsons too mainstream for you?  Nothing worth listening to in the last 25 years?

[greatexpectations]

the daily show and family guy both started in the 90's.

[Galzria]

January 31, 1985 here.

As a baby of the mid-80's, I conformed with anti-conformity.

I refused to watch Titanic when it came out, because it was "epic and cool". I refused to watch the original Starwars until almost 20, because it had such a huge fanbase. I still have only seen the originals (unmodified or rereleased). I still do not have an active Facebook account, under the original grounds that since everybody had one, I didn't want one.

However, I'm very entrenched in things that predate my time. I'm an avid, avid movie buff when it comes to film ranging from 1905 (early animation) to the mid-50's. Most music that I listen to is Cole Porter, or similar. I don't think I could name you more than 5 new bands/artists of the last 25 years - and certainly not with authority of their music. Neil Young, Tom Petty, Harry Chapin - all very good to my mind.

Television... Meh? I didn't watch any really during the 90's, as there was nothing worth watching. These days it's a mix of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Family Guy and the occasional 30 Rock. If none of them are on or recorded, I'll have either food network on, or ESPN.

This seems like a severe case of second option bias / anti-conformity for anti-conformity's sake.  Nothing worth watching during the 90's?  Seinfeld / Simpsons too mainstream for you?  Nothing worth listening to in the last 25 years?

Seinfeld was really not to my tastes at all. Simpsons were ok, but not worth watching on a regular basis.

And indeed, very little music of the past 25 years has really stood out to me. Not in the sense of mainstream media. Now, if we're talking Musicals or Broadway....

[Galzria]

the daily show and family guy both started in the 90's.

Family Guy started in 1999, true, but I wouldn't exactly consider it to be a "product of the 90's".

Likewise, Jon Stewart didn't take over TDS until 1999, which is when it first began to catch my interest. I have never been a Craig Kilborn fan.

[theory]

January 31, 1985 here.

As a baby of the mid-80's, I conformed with anti-conformity.

I refused to watch Titanic when it came out, because it was "epic and cool". I refused to watch the original Starwars until almost 20, because it had such a huge fanbase. I still have only seen the originals (unmodified or rereleased). I still do not have an active Facebook account, under the original grounds that since everybody had one, I didn't want one.

However, I'm very entrenched in things that predate my time. I'm an avid, avid movie buff when it comes to film ranging from 1905 (early animation) to the mid-50's. Most music that I listen to is Cole Porter, or similar. I don't think I could name you more than 5 new bands/artists of the last 25 years - and certainly not with authority of their music. Neil Young, Tom Petty, Harry Chapin - all very good to my mind.

Television... Meh? I didn't watch any really during the 90's, as there was nothing worth watching. These days it's a mix of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Family Guy and the occasional 30 Rock. If none of them are on or recorded, I'll have either food network on, or ESPN.

This seems like a severe case of second option bias / anti-conformity for anti-conformity's sake.  Nothing worth watching during the 90's?  Seinfeld / Simpsons too mainstream for you?  Nothing worth listening to in the last 25 years?

Seinfeld was really not to my tastes at all. Simpsons were ok, but not worth watching on a regular basis.

And indeed, very little music of the past 25 years has really stood out to me. Not in the sense of mainstream media. Now, if we're talking Musicals or Broadway....

I get that you might not like a lot of the popular stuff, but there is no way every TV show and every band in the 90's and 00's could be beneath you, regardless of your favorite genre of TV/music.  Like most decades before them, they were revolutionary decades for the mediums.

[Galzria]

January 31, 1985 here.

As a baby of the mid-80's, I conformed with anti-conformity.

I refused to watch Titanic when it came out, because it was "epic and cool". I refused to watch the original Starwars until almost 20, because it had such a huge fanbase. I still have only seen the originals (unmodified or rereleased). I still do not have an active Facebook account, under the original grounds that since everybody had one, I didn't want one.

However, I'm very entrenched in things that predate my time. I'm an avid, avid movie buff when it comes to film ranging from 1905 (early animation) to the mid-50's. Most music that I listen to is Cole Porter, or similar. I don't think I could name you more than 5 new bands/artists of the last 25 years - and certainly not with authority of their music. Neil Young, Tom Petty, Harry Chapin - all very good to my mind.

Television... Meh? I didn't watch any really during the 90's, as there was nothing worth watching. These days it's a mix of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Family Guy and the occasional 30 Rock. If none of them are on or recorded, I'll have either food network on, or ESPN.

This seems like a severe case of second option bias / anti-conformity for anti-conformity's sake.  Nothing worth watching during the 90's?  Seinfeld / Simpsons too mainstream for you?  Nothing worth listening to in the last 25 years?

Seinfeld was really not to my tastes at all. Simpsons were ok, but not worth watching on a regular basis.

And indeed, very little music of the past 25 years has really stood out to me. Not in the sense of mainstream media. Now, if we're talking Musicals or Broadway....

I get that you might not like a lot of the popular stuff, but there is no way every TV show and every band in the 90's and 00's could be beneath you, regardless of your favorite genre of TV/music.  Like most decades before them, they were revolutionary decades for the mediums.

I'm not saying that they were worthless, just that I had very little - to none at all - interest in what they offered.

[Insomniac]

Also 24 here, slightly older than Robz, being a march 31, almost an april fooler.

I watched MuchMusic when it still played music.

[DG]

When I was a young teenager I was able to play/program a ZX81 computer.

[Cuzz]

I was 147 when Goko came out of Beta.

[cayvie]

in first grade, i made my parents buy me a new kids on the block cassette, and never listened to it

one of my earliest pop culture memories is seeing Kriss Kross on soul train

i can also remember J R Reid playing for UNC

i read about the blair witch project in Spin magazine, and neither of my parents wanted to see it, so i made my soccer coach take me. it was cool.

the first album i bought for myself was yo la tengo's I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. no regrets.

i remember using AOL chat rooms to talk about the latest Magic the gathering set, Legends. there were wild rumors about "oh man, i saw an elder dragon legend, it was 15/15". also i remember throat wolf.

i placed third in the all-internet Acrophobia competition. i was in a clan.

i beta-tested Stellar Crisis.

i had a timex sinclair computer when i was one. i used it before i could read. it taught me how to read, really.

[Drab Emordnilap]

i placed third in the all-internet Acrophobia competition. i was in a clan.

Couch rules for life.

[cayvie]

i placed third in the all-internet Acrophobia competition. i was in a clan.

Couch rules for life.

oh god

because nothing says skill like putting exclamation points at the end of all your sentences!!!

(rainbow room, suckas)

[michaeljb]

The day after the tragic Columbine shooting happened, I vaguely remember getting scolded by a teacher or parent for saying something insensitive about the victims and their families. In my defense, I had only just turned 8 a couple weeks earlier.

That also means I was part of the lucky generation that got to enjoy The Phantom Menace in theaters. A new Star Wars movie! Awesome! ... Sadly it took many years and perhaps around ten more viewings to learn really appreciate the truth. (excited about Disney's recent acquisition, cautiously optimistic about the new movies, but would not care if they blew worse than the prequels if Battlefront III was made and was awesome as the first two)

I was brought up a sports fan, and there are stories of me having an encyclopedic knowledge of the Colorado Avalanche before I was in Kindergarten; I have a few vague memories of their championship, and the Broncos' back-to-back Super Bowls. I do specifically remember Terrell Davis's devastating injury just a few games into the Brian Griese era. The moment Joe Sakic handed the Stanley Cup to Ray Bourque will always be one of the great moments in sports history. That was over eleven years ago, and I'm hoping Peyton can help bring Denver another championship soon! (I guess there were the Rockies in '07 winning the NL, and like many fair weather fans I was following them closely for a while. I have stuck with my Broncos and Avs through thick and thin though!)

I am often told I'm too young to be married, but it's been that way for over a year and a half now (no kids yet). I'm in my fourth year of college right now, but due to late transfer and change of major I'll be in school for at least another year and a half; the current goal is to stay another two and a half total and escape with a BS and MS (computer science).

[Davio]

My age is the most logical cubed number to hang around on these forums, not that I have anything against the other cubes, I would just be surprised to find them here.

I'm old enough that my first computer only had a black and orange screen.
I'm young enough that I still understand modern day technology.

It's quite a fun age: I've seen the rise of technology (well, not the industrial revolution) and the internet and both know a time without it and with it.

I still remember the old downloading days with Napster where you spent an entire afternoon looking for and downloading a song (with 56k) only to find out it was a fake!!! So annoying. And so different from the streaming world we live in today.

[Jimmmmm]

My age is the most logical cubed number to hang around on these forums

20 years and ~31.232461 days?

[theory]

Sometimes I want to slap people who complain about YouTube buffering.  Dost thou not remember the days when the only way to "stream" was to install RealPlayer?  All the buffering in the world is not as evil as that diabolic abomination.

[Ozle]

Oh I SO want to slap the people moaning about slow speeds!

How about slow speeds AND 95% of the internet had a little black and yellow banner and possibly a bulldozer with the message 'Page Under Construction'

[Davio]

Oh I SO want to slap the people moaning about slow speeds!

How about slow speeds AND 95% of the internet had a little black and yellow banner and possibly a bulldozer with the message 'Page Under Construction'

And because of those speeds, you needed to be pretty sure you had the right page before clicking.

Search engines weren't that great either, so doing some homework assignment and finally finding what you needed could take an entire afternoon. Heck, I think writing some stuff down in the library was probably faster.

[Kuildeous]

Heh, when I was a teenager, I was douchey enough to draw a sword using the C64 graphics. It took four lines. The thing was, when it displayed on the screen, it had to go through and type each of their characters. You could even insert some cursor commands to go backward and to sit in place to change color.

So, I would have this roughly 4x16 grid of characters to use as my signature where you watched the cursor bounce around and insert these colored shapes, but the cursor also went back over and changed colors in different places so that it was animated. And since I was a teenage nerd in the 80s, my graphic had to be a sword with different shades of gray being used to simulate it shining.

Now, imagine this happening over a 300- or 1200-baud connection (or if you could afford hundreds of dollars, a whopping 2400 baud!) every time you read one of my messages. It could take 5-10 seconds to render my sig. Sure, that doesn't sound like a long time, but sit there for 8 seconds after reading this and don't read the next post to see how annoying that'd be. Man, was I so full of myself.

Not to mention, I wasn't the only person to abuse graphics like that, so the problem just compounded when other users thought that the effect was cool and did their own sigs, which then inspired others.

[Drab Emordnilap]

My age is the most logical cubed number to hang around on these forums, not that I have anything against the other cubes, I would just be surprised to find them here.

Yeah, if you were any older of a cube, you'd be quite a square.

[RichardNixon]

My age is the most logical cubed number to hang around on these forums, not that I have anything against the other cubes, I would just be surprised to find them here.

Yeah, if you were any older of a cube, you'd be quite a square.

I would hope he's older than 8...

[Kuildeous]

When I turned 32, I used to joke that I was now past my Mersenne prime. Now I can't make that joke again until I'm 128.

[Drab Emordnilap]

Yeah, if you were any older of a cube, you'd be quite a square.

I would hope he's older than 8...

27's not a square.

[Galzria]

Yeah, if you were any older of a cube, you'd be quite a square.

I would hope he's older than 8...

27's not a square.

No, but 64 is.

[RichardNixon]

Yeah, if you were any older of a cube, you'd be quite a square.

I would hope he's older than 8...

27's not a square.

Ahh, my bad. I was reading it as Cube+1 = Square, you were sticking to cubes. Carry on.

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

I don't remember specifically where I was when John Kennedy was killed (I was 4), but I quite clearly remember the state funeral on TV.  I was really upset by the boots being turned backward in the stirrups of the riderless horse.

When I started listening to music on my own (later than most of my peers), Steely Dan and Chicago occupied a large section of Top 40 radio. I soon moved on to Emerson, Lake and Palmer; King Crimson; and Santana.  Pink Floyd was a revelation, and I've not let go of them. Never got solidly behind the Stones, the Who, the Beatles, or Led Zep, despite being present for their heyday.

As for sports, I played football through 8th grade, then started riding motocross, at at time when Roger DeCoster was still beating everyone.

My first serious crush was on Peggy Lipton in The Mod Squad.  Some of you may know her from a small recurring part she had in Twin Peaks, which I never watched.  If you are into music, you may know her as the former Mrs. Quincy Jones.

When I first started writing code (8th grade gifted program), paper tape was the storage medium.  I was really thrilled when punch cards came out.

My first presidential election was 1980, and after the polls closed I went back to the precinct and help count paper ballots, all marked in ink.  No machines, no chads, no bickering.

And of course, I walked barefoot, in the snow, to get there. 

[() | (_) ^/]

...

And of course, I walked barefoot, in the snow, to get there. 

Uphill both ways, of course -- right?

And did you watch TV by candlelight, too? 

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

No, we had electricity and flush toilets and everything.  We got cable television as soon as it was available in our area (late 60s?) and I was awed by how much better the picture was.  Seems quaint now, with Blu-ray resolution and a million channels of dreck.

[chwhite]

First and foremost, I was born the same year as Calvin.  Everything I know about life I learned from Bill Watterson, and that's not an exaggeration.

A close second, my first two memories of sporting events are both field goals: the one Matt Bahr made to win 15-13, and then a week or two later (I can't remember whether they had a bye back then or not), Wide Right.  Two sweetest words in the English language.

I mostly didn't pay much attention to pop culture when I was a kid.  However, I was in high school during the ska boomlet.  Since I was also in marching band, all the saxophones and trombones and trumpets were obviously fans, and I noticed that at least.  Funny thing, I actually like a fair amount of '90s music now, but that only happened in the past five or so years.

My sense of time is a little weird for somebody my age, since I didn't have the internet until I got to college (by now, this was notably weird), and also I finished high school early. 

[Voltgloss]

Age 34 here.  A child of the '80s, a teenager of the '90s. 

I experienced home videogaming before, during, and after the great crash of 1983.  I started with an Odyssey 2.  Then a ColecoVision.  Never had an Atari, but had friends who did. 

I grew up within walking distance of a mall.  With an honest-to-goodness '80s arcade attached to it.  I spent many happy hours there, in the company of my father.  I was the 5-year-old, standing on a box to reach the controls, who could beat Black Tiger and Space Harrier.  My father and I beat Golden Axe together more times than I can count.

Then came Nintendo.  What a revelation.  I still remember the Christmas when I received that grey box, reading the Super Mario Bros. manual and thinking "what is this, what is this game that will now be in my home, what, just what."  And I still remember the first time I saw a Nintendo commercial.  It was for Legend of Zelda, and was in retrospect very weird - it had a lot of shots of a vaguely just-escaped-from-the-nuthouse guy in all black on a black screen, going "Zelda?  Zelda?  Zelda?" over and over.  With videos of gameplay that I had no understanding of (because I'd never seen a pseudo-top-down perspective before).  But it was so fascinating.  And when the game arrived - a game made of GOLD - it did not disappoint.

Through the years, I graduated from NES to Game Boy to SNES.  Then came the N64/PS divide, and I took the PS route to follow two of my favorite brands:  Castlevania and Final Fantasy.  Playing SotN and FFVII on the PS felt like rediscovering the joy and amazingness of gaming all over again.

On the complementary track was computer gaming.  My first computer was a Commodore 64.  It's in my old basement.  It still works.  After all these years.  I still have a literal shoebox of floppy (ACTUALLY floppy) discs for it.  So many memories.  The Gold Box SSI games.  The Ultima games.  Might and Magic.  Bard's Tale.  The Master of Magic (which music I still play on Youtube when I need to facilitate some deep thinking - all hail the musical mastery of Rob Hubbard).  So much greatness.

Through it all, my dad was alongside me, playing the same games.  Oftentimes playing them to greater completion than I did.  He beat Dragon Warrior II, a game I had written off as impossible thanks to its punishing difficulty, and a feat that I still maintain as a moment of greatness in gaming.  He played countless hours of Final Fantasy Tactics.  And Gladius.  The Shin Megami Tensei games.  We shared that love of gaming for many, many years.

My dad passed away of illness in September 2009.  He was 60 years young.  It should not have been his time.  But it was his time, and out of everyone around us, he finally accepted it.  Which helped me accept it too.

I keep all his saved games.

He never got to play Dominion, but he would have been an expert at it.

...this got away from me a bit.

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

...this got away from me a bit.

And thanks for letting it, Volt.  I don't often get to see love in print.

[Galzria]

Age 34 here.  A child of the '80s, a teenager of the '90s. 

I experienced home videogaming before, during, and after the great crash of 1983.  I started with an Odyssey 2.  Then a ColecoVision.  Never had an Atari, but had friends who did. 

I grew up within walking distance of a mall.  With an honest-to-goodness '80s arcade attached to it.  I spent many happy hours there, in the company of my father.  I was the 5-year-old, standing on a box to reach the controls, who could beat Black Tiger and Space Harrier.  My father and I beat Golden Axe together more times than I can count.

Then came Nintendo.  What a revelation.  I still remember the Christmas when I received that grey box, reading the Super Mario Bros. manual and thinking "what is this, what is this game that will now be in my home, what, just what."  And I still remember the first time I saw a Nintendo commercial.  It was for Legend of Zelda, and was in retrospect very weird - it had a lot of shots of a vaguely just-escaped-from-the-nuthouse guy in all black on a black screen, going "Zelda?  Zelda?  Zelda?" over and over.  With videos of gameplay that I had no understanding of (because I'd never seen a pseudo-top-down perspective before).  But it was so fascinating.  And when the game arrived - a game made of GOLD - it did not disappoint.

Through the years, I graduated from NES to Game Boy to SNES.  Then came the N64/PS divide, and I took the PS route to follow two of my favorite brands:  Castlevania and Final Fantasy.  Playing SotN and FFVII on the PS felt like rediscovering the joy and amazingness of gaming all over again.

On the complementary track was computer gaming.  My first computer was a Commodore 64.  It's in my old basement.  It still works.  After all these years.  I still have a literal shoebox of floppy (ACTUALLY floppy) discs for it.  So many memories.  The Gold Box SSI games.  The Ultima games.  Might and Magic.  Bard's Tale.  The Master of Magic (which music I still play on Youtube when I need to facilitate some deep thinking - all hail the musical mastery of Rob Hubbard).  So much greatness.

Through it all, my dad was alongside me, playing the same games.  Oftentimes playing them to greater completion than I did.  He beat Dragon Warrior II, a game I had written off as impossible thanks to its punishing difficulty, and a feat that I still maintain as a moment of greatness in gaming.  He played countless hours of Final Fantasy Tactics.  And Gladius.  The Shin Megami Tensei games.  We shared that love of gaming for many, many years.

My dad passed away of illness in September 2009.  He was 60 years young.  It should not have been his time.  But it was his time, and out of everyone around us, he finally accepted it.  Which helped me accept it too.

I keep all his saved games.

He never got to play Dominion, but he would have been an expert at it.

...this got away from me a bit.

... Talk about a moment. I have Pandora playing on my phone as I read the forums, and as always, I'm listening to operatic music playing.

And... As i read this wonderfully sweet piece you wrote about growing up, and your father, I realize that "Time to Say Goodbye" was streaming through my radio and infusing itself into your whole post...

And it brought back tears and memories of my Grandmother, who passed 7 years ago, at the age of 60. It was through her that I first experienced the wonder of Theatre, as we would travel up to Stratford in Canada every year to watch the amazing productions they put forth. And it was through her that my love of board gaming came to be, as we always had "Grandma and me Friday's" where we would game all night long. And...

... Thank you Volt, for the memories that reading this brought back. She meant the world to me, as I'm sure your Fathet did to you.

[cayvie]

i remember, as a kid, my mom getting mad at me for saying something "sucked". she said it was homophobic language. i don't think anyone thinks of it that way anymore.

i have, somewhere, a bunch of tiny diskettes with my saved games from Chessmaster 2000 on it. apparently as a preschooler i thought the best strategy was to move all my pieces in front of my king so the opponent couldn't get there. i mean, it's not the worst idea!

generational divides i've noticed:

myself and people older than me:
love the x-files
recognize smashing pumpkins songs

people younger than me:
love pokemon

[Kuildeous]

myself and people older than me:
love the x-files
recognize smashing pumpkins songs

I actually am not an X-Files fan.

I guess it's a good enough show, but I never got into it, even though it played the same evening as my favorite show of the time, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr..

Then Brisco got canceled, and X moved on, so I never watched the show out of impotent protest.

[mcmcsalot]

generational divides i've noticed:

myself and people older than me:
love the x-files
recognize smashing pumpkins songs

people younger than me:
love pokemon

Woah now I may have enjoyed the show Pokemon and the first game, but I love love love the smashing pumpkins.

[Thisisnotasmile]

Completely missed this thread first time around, thanks for the bump:

You know that horrid day, June 6th, 2006? The one that looks like 6/6/06 when written out in that form? The day that people were praying not to have their children born on?

Yeah, I turned 13 that day.

I'm basically the spawn of the devil.

Get off my lawn. Not only do I have to share my birthday with Satan and D Day and my cat, but I have to share it with Young Nick now too? It seems my birth becomes more and more irrelevant by the second. My cat will always be the most important, though.

(Oh, and I was born in '89. I totally experienced the 80s)

[Awaclus]

I am 17.

I listened to Mozart and Sibelius when I was a child. I was busy not existing* when the Berlin Wall came down and during the Challenger explosion, then in my living room when 9/11 happened. I didn't really watch a lot of TV or films back then, but I played a lot of video games - Sonic the Hedgehog and Dune were great for some time, then I got too good at them and in the end my favorite game from those times was Mega-Lo-Mania, which still is a great game despite the graphics. My childhood wasn't particularly interesting aside from chess, but the beginning of my adolescence was way too interesting due to orthostatic hypotension. And now, soon I'm turning 18 and becoming an adult legally, which is great. Damn, people must have had hard time becoming adults in the past when they had to do it little by little, it took them like 15 years then, luckily in modern times it happens quickly in a matter of seconds!

*Man, it's really time-consuming! I've done it for 13 billion years already and I'm not even done yet, just taking a break.

[GendoIkari]

30. 31 in July.

9/11/01 was my second week of classes for my first year of college.
I never listened to current music; I listened mostly to 60s music in high school.

[GendoIkari]

My age is the most logical cubed number to hang around on these forums, not that I have anything against the other cubes, I would just be surprised to find them here.

I'm old enough that my first computer only had a black and orange screen.
I'm young enough that I still understand modern day technology.

It's quite a fun age: I've seen the rise of technology (well, not the industrial revolution) and the internet and both know a time without it and with it.

I still remember the old downloading days with Napster where you spent an entire afternoon looking for and downloading a song (with 56k) only to find out it was a fake!!! So annoying. And so different from the streaming world we live in today.

Wow, you're good at Dominion for an 8 year old!

[enfynet]

30. 31 in July.

9/11/01 was my second week of classes for my first year of college.
I never listened to current music; I listened mostly to 60s music in high school.

I was in my 2nd year of college. I didn't have class until noon that day, and about 20 minutes after I got there was when they decided to close the campus. What a weird afternoon.

[mcmcsalot]

30. 31 in July.

9/11/01 was my second week of classes for my first year of college.
I never listened to current music; I listened mostly to 60s music in high school.

I was in my 2nd year of college. I didn't have class until noon that day, and about 20 minutes after I got there was when they decided to close the campus. What a weird afternoon.

Well this makes me feel young, I think I was in 3rd grade, I was sitting in mrs. Trent's class when we were informed classes were canceled for the rest of the day(I think) but I have no idea if we left school early or not, and if so how our parents were contacted. Robz do you remember what happened, were we all moved to the church? Or did we just hang out the rest of the day?

[Robz888]

30. 31 in July.

9/11/01 was my second week of classes for my first year of college.
I never listened to current music; I listened mostly to 60s music in high school.

I was in my 2nd year of college. I didn't have class until noon that day, and about 20 minutes after I got there was when they decided to close the campus. What a weird afternoon.

Well this makes me feel young, I think I was in 3rd grade, I was sitting in mrs. Trent's class when we were informed classes were canceled for the rest of the day(I think) but I have no idea if we left school early or not, and if so how our parents were contacted. Robz do you remember what happened, were we all moved to the church? Or did we just hang out the rest of the day?

Lies, mrs Trent taught fourth grade. You were in fourth, I was in eighth. They didn't send us home, I don't think. We just talked about it in class.

[mcmcsalot]

30. 31 in July.

9/11/01 was my second week of classes for my first year of college.
I never listened to current music; I listened mostly to 60s music in high school.

I was in my 2nd year of college. I didn't have class until noon that day, and about 20 minutes after I got there was when they decided to close the campus. What a weird afternoon.

Well this makes me feel young, I think I was in 3rd grade, I was sitting in mrs. Trent's class when we were informed classes were canceled for the rest of the day(I think) but I have no idea if we left school early or not, and if so how our parents were contacted. Robz do you remember what happened, were we all moved to the church? Or did we just hang out the rest of the day?

Lies, mrs Trent taught fourth grade. You were in fourth, I was in eighth. They didn't send us home, I don't think. We just talked about it in class.

oohhhhhh, 5th grade was still on the first floor, duh, third grade was the other building. Your right, I was 9 what can I say it's hard to remember. But I do remember not going to any other classes, because I was not in mrs. Trent's homeroom(I had mrs. miller) but I spent the rest of the day in mrs. trent's class.

[Dsell]

You know that horrid day, June 6th, 2006? The one that looks like 6/6/06 when written out in that form? The day that people were praying not to have their children born on?

Yeah, I turned 13 that day.

I'm basically the spawn of the devil.

Happy Birthday Young Nick! You are missed.

[Thisisnotasmile]

FML.

[Dsell]

FML.

I'm not really sure how to come back from this one. Ummmmmmmm post a more memorable anecdote about turning 13 on the day The Omen came out?




Happy (belated) birthday.

[Thisisnotasmile]

Yay, thanks!

Here is my awesome cake (complete with boardgames in the background. Some terrible, some pretty damn great):



And here are a couple of my gift tags. They're awesome but kinda NSFW-ish:

[ashersky]

Thrupenny Bits?

[werothegreat]

I'm surprised I'm only just now seeing this thread.

I tend to consider people's ages in terms of the Disney movie they were born after.  Being born in December 1989, I'm a Little Mermaid baby.  On 9/11, I was in 6th grade - they gathered us all in one classroom in the afternoon to tell us, and I distinctly remember one little girl saying "I can't believe that building I rode up and down in an elevator in is gone."

Despite my youth, I grew up watching Looney Tunes as my Saturday morning cartoons, and I have the utmost and deepest respect for their comic genius.

Coincidentally, I share a birthday with Frank Sinatra (month and day, not year, obviously), and I'm not too bad at the singing.

I turn 24 at the end of this year.

[SirPeebles]

I'm in my late 20s.

I was a freshman in college on 9/11.  I heard about what had happened when news in my Physics class.  My professor was understandably upset by the news, and later became a relatively serious contender to be the Libertarian presidential nominee here in the US.

Much of my undergraduate and graduate school years involved the anti-war movement.

[werothegreat]

I'm in my late 20s.

I was a freshman in college on 9/11.  I heard about what had happened when news in my Physics class.  My professor was understandably upset by the news, and later became a relatively serious contender to be the Libertarian presidential nominee here in the US.

Much of my undergraduate and graduate school years involved the anti-war movement.

Who was this professor?

[sudgy]

Oh yeah, I have the same birthday as Elvis Presley.

[treebeardtheent]

I was born in the 14th state the year Ronald Reagan was elected president.

I grew up in a hunting culture, it was very common for guns to be in schools (mostly the students). And my high school had a walk in gun safe that you could leave your firearm in during the  day. (Wow things have changed.)

My first video game system was a used Atari.

My first tabletop game was Steve Jackson's Car Wars.

Oh, and I lived one mile from school growing up in a rural area. Taking the bus took an hour and forty-five minutes because I was the first picked up and the last dropped off. So I would walk to school (only took about forty-five minutes). There was a hill on the trip so I literally walked to school in the snow up hill both ways But I always wore shoes!

[treebeardtheent]

Pingu!

[heron]

I was born on Mark Twain's one hundred sixty-second birthday, which makes me either fifteen or sixteen; I can never remember.

[Thisisnotasmile]

Thrupenny Bits?

Cockney rhyming slang

[NoMoreFun]

22

[ConMan]

My birthdate, written in dmyy format, is one of three powers of two that can be so written.

I remember being in classrooms that had a single Microbee or Apple IIe computer that you had to arrange a turn at using.

I remember working on a class project and trying to find a TV station to play in the background that wasn't covering Princess Diana's death (there wasn't one).

I remember having to get up at about 6am on Wednesdays to attend 8am maths classes in the last couple of years of high school, and on one such morning being woken by one of my parents and thinking "yeah yeah, I'm getting up" only to be told that there'd been a terrorist attack in the US.

I remember getting our first VCR a year or two before I started school (a VHS, thankfully, I think at the time Betamax still had a little life left in it). We also had a stereo system that included AM/FM radio, two cassette decks (including one with a recording function), a turntable and a state-of-the-art CD player.

[mail-mi]

My birthday is July 28.

Graduated middle school last year.

I was 10 when dominion first came out

I'm about to turn 15

[Robz888]

My birthday is July 28.

Graduated middle school last year.

I was 10 when dominion first came out

I'm about to turn 15

Woah! Okay, I guess you do have to follow Techno Free Tuesday.

[mail-mi]

My birthday is July 28.

Graduated middle school last year.

I was 10 when dominion first came out

I'm about to turn 15

Woah! Okay, I guess you do have to follow Techno Free Tuesday.

Parents. What do we do with 'em?

[sudgy]

My birthday is July 28.

Graduated middle school last year.

I was 10 when dominion first came out

I'm about to turn 15

Woah! Okay, I guess you do have to follow Techno Free Tuesday.

Parents. What do we do with 'em?

Be thankful because we wouldn't exist without 'em?

[mail-mi]

My birthday is July 28.

Graduated middle school last year.

I was 10 when dominion first came out

I'm about to turn 15

Woah! Okay, I guess you do have to follow Techno Free Tuesday.

Parents. What do we do with 'em?

Be thankful because we wouldn't exist without 'em?

Eh, that's just a minor point 

[Voltaire]

Juuuuuuust old enough to say I was born when Reagan was president.

[Archetype]

I've posted this elsewhere, but I'll just post it here.

Donald X was ~29 when I was born.

The sum of the digits of my age is the first positive composite integer that is not a perfect square.

[ashersky]

I used to assume I was an average age on here.  Turns out I'm old.

[Robz888]

Juuuuuuust old enough to say I was born when Reagan was president.

Same.

[gman314]

The sum of the digits of my age is the first positive composite integer that is not a perfect square.

That would be 6, making you 6, 15, 24, 33, 42, 51, 60, 111111, or a number of possible 3-5 digit ages.

But I saw from another thread that you're 15.

[Robz888]

Arch is 15, too? Man. Wow.

[Dsell]

I used to assume I was an average age on here.  Turns out I'm old.

I thought I was young! I am feeling more average.

(At 21, btw)

[Kuildeous]

I used to assume I was an average age on here.  Turns out I'm old.

I know how you feel. I guess I have to get used to the fact that I'll almost always be the oldest one in a discussion group, though I have no delusions of being near the average age.

Even if I'm on a group that is going to be mostly adult anyway (car sites, career sites, et al), I may still be in the top quartile. I don't know the exact distribution of ages here, but it might be fair to say that I'm old enough to be the father of the median age.

Oh well, I guess I can at least be content with the fact that I was online even when I was the age of most people here. Most people my age can't say that. They didn't get online until college or later.

[sudgy]

I think there are only four people younger than 18 here though...  Me, mail-mi, Archetype, and brokoli.  All the others haven't said anything that I've noticed.

[liopoil]

I bet there's some who just haven't said anything. I mean, 3 of the 4 you listed play mafia. There's probably many in the main forum.

[Archetype]

I know heron's fairly young. I can't remember if he's 15 or 16, but it's one of the two.

[Awaclus]

I think there are only four people younger than 18 here though...  Me, mail-mi, Archetype, and brokoli.  All the others haven't said anything that I've noticed.

Me too. I did say that I was turning 18 "pretty soon", and well, that's still true.

[Titandrake]

Well, I'm 18 right now.

This is a pretty good age to be, because it lets me say "get off my lawn" to people under 18, but I don't need to worry about actually maintaining a lawn.

[Vermillion]

I am 12 year old and what is this?

[StrongRhino]

I am 12 year old and what is this?

Man, I thought I was the youngest- 13.

[treebeardtheent]

I am starting to feel old. 

[Eevee]

I am starting to feel old. 

Lose the beard and you'll at least look younger!

[Kuildeous]

I am starting to feel old. 

Lose the beard and you'll at least look younger!

Like a fresh new sapling.

[BubbleBoy]

I'm 19 and my first game system was a Game Boy Color I got on my 7th birthday.

[Kirian]

Every time I come to this thread, I feel just a bit older.  And while technically that's actually the case, I'm not really talking hours or days here.

I'm more than twice the age of more than a few people who have posted, and at a guess I'm above the median.  It's a strange position, as (for various reasons) I'm accustomed to being below the median; I've taught many classes where I was younger than the median student in the class, but I don't think that's happened in a few years.

I'm old enough that the Challenger explosion, not 9-11, is a grade-school memory.  My first game system was an Atari 2600, and my family didn't have a real computer until I was in high school, though I learned to program with line numbers and GOTO statements on a TI-99/4A.  Mr. Wizard was my idol.  I was old enough to understand the other jokes in Tiny Toons and Animaniacs.  My first email account required the use of Pine on a VAX system; I was already in college when Amazon started selling books (and only books), and the idea of an internet forum like this one would have been derided by those of us on Usenet.

I learned to walk around the time the Muppet Movie came out, and presumably my parents went to see the first Star Trek film while I stayed with my grandparents.

[ashersky]

Every time I come to this thread, I feel just a bit older.  And while technically that's actually the case, I'm not really talking hours or days here.

I'm more than twice the age of more than a few people who have posted, and at a guess I'm above the median.  It's a strange position, as (for various reasons) I'm accustomed to being below the median; I've taught many classes where I was younger than the median student in the class, but I don't think that's happened in a few years.

I'm old enough that the Challenger explosion, not 9-11, is a grade-school memory.  My first game system was an Atari 2600, and my family didn't have a real computer until I was in high school, though I learned to program with line numbers and GOTO statements on a TI-99/4A.  Mr. Wizard was my idol.  I was old enough to understand the other jokes in Tiny Toons and Animaniacs.  My first email account required the use of Pine on a VAX system; I was already in college when Amazon started selling books (and only books), and the idea of an internet forum like this one would have been derided by those of us on Usenet.

I learned to walk around the time the Muppet Movie came out, and presumably my parents went to see the first Star Trek film while I stayed with my grandparents.

I think we're the same person.

[lespeutere]

I am 12 year old and what is this?

Man, I thought I was the youngest- 13.

 

[Awaclus]

I did say that I was turning 18 "pretty soon", and well, that's still true.

No longer true! Turned 18 today.

[Young Nick]

Sheeeeeit I feel old even though I can't even legally drink yet...

[Watno]

Sucks to be American I guess.

[Young Nick]

You know that horrid day, June 6th, 2006? The one that looks like 6/6/06 when written out in that form? The day that people were praying not to have their children born on?

Yeah, I turned 13 that day.

I'm basically the spawn of the devil.

Happy Birthday Young Nick! You are missed.

A belated response, but many thanks for somehow remembering that post and going out of your way to wish an inactive forum member happy birthday.

[Dsell]

You know that horrid day, June 6th, 2006? The one that looks like 6/6/06 when written out in that form? The day that people were praying not to have their children born on?

Yeah, I turned 13 that day.

I'm basically the spawn of the devil.

Happy Birthday Young Nick! You are missed.

A belated response, but many thanks for somehow remembering that post and going out of your way to wish an inactive forum member happy birthday.

I have a near-freakish memory for details of certain things posted online, in statuses, tweets, or other posts. I've scared friends by quoting their facebook statuses from years ago back to them.

But that makes me feel all the worse for forgetting TINAS.

[Dsell]

Happy 30th birthday Robz888! (I'll necro this thread again when you turn 88)

[GendoIkari]

Happy 30th birthday Robz888! (I'll necro this thread again when you turn 88)

You are just doing to start showing up every August now, aren't you?

[Dsell]

Happy 30th birthday Robz888! (I'll necro this thread again when you turn 88)

You are just doing to start showing up every August now, aren't you?

I am showing up as often as the new Dominion expansions! (It was actually coincidental each time - I came to the forum for some reason or other and happened upon an announcement of a new expansion)

[Robz888]

Happy 30th birthday Robz888! (I'll necro this thread again when you turn 88)

Thank you!!! Come play mafia