Date: December 31st, 2023 3:44 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
LOL! Peace on Earth, or is that too much? Personally I just hope my family and I survive another year and that the kids get better. Hope I can knock a few strokes off my golf handicap, and that my various volunteer organizations do OK and continue to help people.
i know you live in the boonies but when you go outside somewhere with people do you look around and actually see the visual decay or do you chalk it up as "its always been this way"
Date: December 31st, 2023 3:46 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
It's better in urban areas than it was in the 60s and 70s. I believe things have decayed more socially than physically. Have not been in a homeless camp city area lately, or ever for that matter.
It's amazing that so many XO Poasters lap up this fucking retarded Boomer's self-congratulatory yarns about openly drinking at work and casually chasing high-quality and readily-available young thin blonde tail as he was saving for the downpayment on his first house back in the early '70s or whatever... and in doing so, turn a blind eye to the fact that he is STILL UTTERLY UNREPENTENT about the DEMONSTRABLE FACT that his shitty gay generation LITERALLY destroyed the world (which had been carefully built up through the hard work of many prior generations) in which those kind of things regularly happened and were readily attainable for the average guy.
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:35 PM Author: Fracture in the Maidenhead (GUNNERATTTT)
our generation sucks in so many ways too. millennials invented wokeness. i can understand why he doesn't feel personally responsible. no snowflake feels responsible for the avalanche.
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:55 PM Author: Fracture in the Maidenhead (GUNNERATTTT)
so boomer's collective greed is something they must all bare as individuals but millennials get to excuse away our generations bullshit by blaming it on something else?
When has XO ever defended "Millennials" as a generation?
I'll wait.
But no, there is no comparison. Boomers had excellent parenting by a strong generation, and they STILL Boomed it away and ruined the Western world. Meanwhile, Millennials had gay and retarded parenting by a childish generation, and they predictably turned out to be faggots.
Date: December 31st, 2023 5:02 PM Author: Fracture in the Maidenhead (GUNNERATTTT)
in the neoliberal feudal technodystopian future, how will you respond when someone asks you to take personal, individual responsibility for our generation enabling it?
Date: January 1st, 2024 2:24 AM Author: Histrionic angry jap
This deserves its own thread. I think you're both making valid points. Boomers obviously the most self generation of all time. They had the easiest life on average in human history, stole the future from theirs own children, and then smugly decried that it was they who had been wronged by the world. They are also the first generation to treat their own kids like accessories and enabled them to become woke where their parents did not tolerate wokeness and in fact were very stern.
That being said Millennials on average are not high on the personal responsibility/extreme ownership scale. To the extent that the world wronged them and they got a raw deal and the Boomers screwed them over, which is all true, they have, as a broad group, done very little to respond to their own situation.
It raises the question what's the measure of a man, his surroundings or history internal self. If we lived in the Soviet Union no one would be expected to amass great personal success etc. But we obviously don't have it that bad. Just relatively worse. It's worth a great era debate on this.
Date: January 2nd, 2024 5:25 PM Author: Pea-brained university
I think the argument loses a bit of credibility when it both 1) trashes boomers for their financial irresponsibility despite their fortuitous prosperity; and 2) also blames all of gen X and millenial short comings on boomers' poor parenting.
So 1 generation is accountable and responsible for everything while the others are powerless and infantile.
Date: January 2nd, 2024 5:32 PM Author: Histrionic angry jap
Boomers had tough parents and easy opportunities, Millennials had soft parents and no opportunities. Boomers were uniquely positioned to take advantage of massive economic opportunities, the most in human history, and their parents selflessly sacrificed to put them in position to reap it all. Boomers selfishly stole their kids future out from under them and feel entitled to their success. I don't know what you're getting but this isn't an intelligent argument you're making and it's borderline unreadable.
Date: January 2nd, 2024 6:59 PM Author: Pea-brained university
First complaining that they're shitty and they are responsible for it. Then saying we're shitty too, but that's also their fault.
It assigns to them ultimate control/power and agency with a total lack thereof for generations thereafter.
We're all grown ups now. If we're shitty it's our own fault.
I think you're also being a bit hyperbolic on the opportunities part. Millenials, especially those like you and me, had the opportunity to get educated, play the game right, buy a house at an insanely low mortgage rate, benefit from lengthy bull markets etc.
If you fucked it up that's on you. I fear much more so for my children's generation, and if the country is fucked for them, the finger can and should be pointed at us.
Date: January 2nd, 2024 6:41 PM Author: Fracture in the Maidenhead (GUNNERATTTT)
idc about a "bad look" and i know you don't either.
im no fan of the boomers as a generation. but i don't see why each member should be judged from anything other than their individual actions. oldhlsdude was a prole goy who maed it, served in republican admins, spent a lot of time paying and raising two mentally ill kids, and spending his golden years doing charity.
i don't know how much personal culpability he has for boomershit. also, it's hard to judge with 20/20 hindsight his support of gc crap, and his nonchalance about other generations plight is annoying. but it strikes me as the same resentment i have when people attribute my accomplishments to being white or a dude.
and our gen sucks horribly. when future gens ask me "why didn't you stop this shit?" ill say "i did a lot but perhaps not as much as i could."
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:41 PM Author: Claret range stock car
not just that tbf, he actually speaks honestly and sincerely unlike boomers who even on their death bed, and with america in ruins, lie through their teeth and still tells our gen to pull ourselves by the bootstraps while kicking the ladder. the guy is just trying to get by like most of us. who amongst us is a true hero. you?? unlike some boomer asshole who is jewish or came w a silver spoon in his mouth this guy came from goy nothing to making a modest living (by jew fraud money, even C$LG fraud standards, he's not much). he's also had struggles in his life yet retains his sincerity. so FUCK OFF you turd bitch.
your feminine, hateful blood guilt attitude can go piss off. its new years Nimrata, try to embrace a new look
Date: December 31st, 2023 3:50 PM Author: sick roommate
By "the world" and "your world" do you mean your specific boomer bubble, the improvers third world, or the prospects for generations of heritage Americans that followed your generation?
Date: December 31st, 2023 3:52 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
All of them. My generation used to bitch about how screwed they were by the prior generation. Most of you guys just haven't lived long enough yet to get to the other side of youth.
Date: December 31st, 2023 3:58 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
White males are getting fucked by DEI, so the response is to get away from those kinds of organizations. Feeling butt hurt all the time is not productive or likely to advance your QoL.
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:07 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
I might or might not be. Mostly I have not been dependent upon other people to employ me, and I can't tell that academic credentials or connections have done me much good. I have often thought that if I were black I could make a stellar living just off public company board seats. I was not born with a lot of advantages, other than "white privilege" if that's a thing. Had I been born 40 years later I would just have to find my way. There are many successful white guys.
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:13 PM Author: Histrionic angry jap
It's just incredible how much they feel like they deserve everything they have. They literally are incapable of understanding the plight of future generations. It's truly astonishing. There's absolutely zero self reflection.
Remember, OldHLSDude grew up in an era where he could have literally been a dishwasher for his ENTIRE CAREER and if he had spent every conceivable cent of surplus he had on real estate and the S&P500 he would be a decamillionaire if not a centimillionaire today. And that's if all he had done was wash dishes in a restaurant for federal minimum wage and do nothing but buy painfully obvious things to buy.
Now compare that today where someone with a law degree will be economically enslaved for a hundred lifetimes.
"Suck it up, buttercup -- stop whining, if ya don't like the company ya work for, then start ur own! Ya know, I managed to put MYSELF through college working a SUMMER JOB, and back when I was first starting off, I never balked at s..." - Boomer
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:30 PM Author: Histrionic angry jap
I live in an actual Hispanic ghetto and have no way out. I wake up every night to the blaring sound of gunshots and traditional Mexican music. I will never be able to afford to own a home nor will ever marry nor have kids. Taking qs.
$1 million savings in 2023 is basically a good start, at best. That's FAR from retirement scratch. Most poasters here are middle aged and have maaaaybe $1-2 million NW, and we are indeed the "lucky" ones of our generation "who did everything right" and scored "the high-paying jobs."
The only truly rich poasters on this website inherited the money, made it via crypto gambling, or are CSLG.
Meanwhile, as was noted above, any Normal Joe in your generation who wasn't a total retard (and you're correct there are always a lot of those in every generation) could EASILY own a home by 30 and EASILY retire with multiple millions in the bank (plenty for a 65 year old to retire on in 2015 or whatever) *after working a mere regular paying job for 25-30 years*.
(Guy who miraculously somehow doesn't know any Boomers who are living large, "life is great champ," enjoying Margaritaville 24/7 as they whine about "these kids today")
The analog to 90% of those Boomers in 2050 will be bitter impoverished faggots scrounging for scraps on the government dole who will never even consider "retiring" because it's simply not an option for them.
Date: January 2nd, 2024 5:36 PM Author: Pea-brained university
My dad was actually just complaining that Margaritaville is too expensive now (like $700/night) so he'll be staying elsewhere for his upcoming trip to Hollywood, FL.
Date: December 31st, 2023 3:56 PM Author: impressive drunken windowlicker
your generation simultaneously brainwashed subsequent generations to believe that you should leave the world better than you found it while expecting the younger generations to sacrifice their well-being for yours
Date: December 31st, 2023 10:10 PM Author: Chartreuse stag film
LOL the government had them build like 30 million cheap houses for boomers. Tell me, what the fuck even matters on this god forsaken faggot third world shithold “planet” other than being able to buy a house and raise a family? Nothing. Not a single god damn fucking thing. There is NOTHING else to spend money on. Like 0.1% of people born after 1990 will be able to live how your generation did.
Date: January 1st, 2024 3:24 AM Author: Chartreuse stag film
You were born on third base. I was born outside the stadium in a dysgenic apartheid shithole where some (((scalper))) is charging $500 to even get in.
“The world is better now” - what are you even talking about? I don’t give a FLYING FUCK that they cured AIDS or cancer or have better cars or tires or engines or computers or TVs or put computers and TVs into cars. I don’t care about smog or airbags or seatbelts or cellphones or door dash or international travel or google maps or Amazon prime or fiber or 5G.
I
DO
NOT
GIVE
A
FUCK
Everything that actually matters is worse. Energy/transportation/housing/education/healthcare have all outpaced inflation by a considerable margin. All of that was handed to you on a silver platter by the government. The government wants me to be killed in a racewar (after extracting all wealth to support boomer pensions).
Date: December 31st, 2023 3:50 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
That they were smart and rich. Where I grew up the few jews around were regarded as some kind of Presbyterian. When I got to college I found out they were a separately defined group. All the jewish kids I knew were smart and ambitious, but none of them were rich. I personally did not see anti-jewish sentiment, though intellectually I knew it existed. I did discover that jewish girls did not want to go out with goys. It took some time before I could distinguish a jewish person from a gentile.
Date: December 31st, 2023 3:59 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
I grew up only knowing about black vs white people. I was surprised to discover all these different types of white people and how they hated each other.
Date: December 31st, 2023 3:48 PM Author: Peach Church
what can i do to escape the corporate cesspool? 36 years old, ~$200k saved up, working in tech at the moment. used to work in sales. hate every fucking day of work.
Date: December 31st, 2023 3:56 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
It's tough. A lot of kinds of work suck. I always thought I was doing well if I liked it half the time. 36 is still young. There's lots more to come. Relationships with people are what seem to make or break work. My happiest times have been when I worked with mostly pleasant and capable people who were not involved in back stabbing politics. It's rare to find. In tech I found that sweet spot in advanced R&D. The ratio of creation to bureaucratic bullshit seemed lowest there. Not a great way to get rich, but I actually liked my job most days. In fact I even dreamed about that period last night.
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:03 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
Usually they initiated it, or at the very least participated at least 50%. Only one was married. Usually business trips were the cover. It was stupid, but I was unbearably horny and it probably saved me from divorce.
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:09 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
I've noticed that also. In my HS class of 103, about 45 people are dead (possibly more, but many are unaccounted for ). Of the 16 honor graduates, only two have died. My MIT class is far ahead of the mortality curve, with only 10% deceased at the 50th reunion - 20% if you count all the missing as dead.
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:15 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
Oh, fuck me. I hope I don't have to decide. If I absolutely had to pick, I would pick Trump, though I don't like his style and hope I have another choice. Why? Because I find the Democratic left even more abhorrent than Goetz types. A Trump administration will be super turbulent, but I don't think Trump is either insane or senile (yet). In 2024 I think the main thing is going to be the composition of the Congress, regardless of who sits in the WH. OTOH, what do I know? Hope I live to 2028.
Date: December 31st, 2023 5:01 PM Author: Maniacal titillating trailer park karate
She's just another astroturfed RINO. She's moved significantly left since her time as governor of South Carolina. She won't do anything regarding the border or to address the larger culture war playing out.
Date: December 31st, 2023 6:12 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
You must have missed my clarification comment above. I am not wild about her. I am not wild about any of them. I have not made any Presidential candidate contributions yet-just Congress. This election, both primary and general, is likely going to be a lesser evil vote for me. She might or might not be the least evil. I worry more about electability in the general.
Date: December 31st, 2023 6:17 PM Author: turquoise base telephone
It's what it implies about how you view the government. Nikki Haley is a psychopathic insider phony through and through, the type that has dominated American politics for 40 years, and though "you're not thrilled about it", you'll suck it up and vote for her "over all the other options" rather than actually act in some way to change the system and get these people out of power.
Date: December 31st, 2023 6:22 PM Author: Histrionic angry jap
Literally all Boomers can think about is their stock portfolio which is why they get all their news from the Wall Street Journal and view Trump as "disruptive" to their assets. No one benefits more from illegal immigrants than rich boomers.
Date: December 31st, 2023 7:18 PM Author: impressive drunken windowlicker
why would you believe desantis will not?
Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Strongest Anti-Illegal Immigration Legislation in the Country to Combat Biden’s Border Crisis
On May 10, 2023, in News Releases, by Staff
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1718 to combat the dangerous effects of illegal immigration caused by the federal government’s reckless border policies. This legislation makes using E-Verify mandatory for any employer with 25 or more employees, imposes enforceable penalties for those employing illegal aliens, and enhances penalties for human smuggling. Additionally, this bill prohibits local governments from issuing Identification Cards (ID) to illegal aliens, invalidates ID cards issued to illegal aliens in other states, and requires hospitals to collect and submit data on the costs of providing health care to illegal aliens. More on today’s announcement can be found here.
What is Florida SB 1718 and how will it affect immigrants ... - NPR
WebMay 30, 2023 · Businesses are pledging to shutter their doors for the day to protest Gov. Ron DeSantis' sweeping new immigration law.
In his first major policy rollout of his 2024 presidential campaign, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday proposed a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration, including sending the US military to the border and mass detention and deportation of undocumented people.
DeSantis would also end birthright citizenship and build a wall at the southern border, resurfacing two ideas once championed by his chief rival for the GOP nomination, Donald Trump.
The immigration platform as written offers a harsh approach toward the country’s undocumented population and the southern border. Described by DeSantis, though, the execution would be even more severe and would test the legal boundaries that have long defined who has the right to be in the United States and how the government can address those who do not.
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:16 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
Yes, such as they are. I don't have much of an extended family. My wife has a huge family, and we all get along. In fact, about a dozen of them just left from our New Year's Eve brunch.
Date: December 31st, 2023 9:09 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
He is 6'6", athletic, charming and funny. The psychosis is not constant. They get to know him when he is in a good period, then during a rager he scares them off. He doesn't understand it and will not be convinced.
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:24 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
One son never leaves his house, so we had a Christmas celebration at his house and have seen him several other times. The other son hates Christmas and holes up until it is thoroughly finished. He will eventually come over to visit, collect his gifts, and eat. I talk and text with him every day, but he is not wanting to be out at the moment other than for necessities. Edit: 2003 was not too bad. We had a couple of minor flare ups, only one of which involved the police, but nobody was jailed or hospitalized.
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:26 PM Author: Frisky Laughsome Famous Landscape Painting
Are you seeing the weird differentiation among your peers that people claim to start seeing as people age? Meaning some of them are in their mid-70s and look like shit and can barely get out of bed and seem an asshair away from death and others, same age, are skiing in Aspen and playing tennis every day? Any perspectives on what distinguishes the former and latter groups? And any personal thoughts about where you'd put yourself and your wife in that trajectory?
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:36 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
Most of my closer friends are in the "aging well" category. I know plenty of dead people, but few of them were close friends (though there are more than I would like).I think a lot of it is genetics and the rest is lifestyle. Wife and I are probably somewhat above average in aging. At least we not obviously senile yet. She's had more health problems than I've had, but she's older. My main problem is arthritis in back and knees and hereditary neuropathy which will increasingly affect my mobility. I've noticed a downhill trend since 70. It seems that aging accelerates at 80 and even more at 85 or so. At 90 it's the rare person who's still cogent and fully mobile.
Date: December 31st, 2023 5:46 PM Author: sick roommate
No such thing as genetic neuropathy. You may be genetically predisposed -- but something in the environment is or was or has been poisoning you for a long time.
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:27 PM Author: Frisky Laughsome Famous Landscape Painting
Double-dipping here but hope to get one more question answered. How persistent is the thought of death for you now? Has that changed materially in the last ten years? How, if at all, are you managing the existential terror of the fact that, even if you are healthy, your existence is much closer to its end than its beginning. This is a serious question I'm curious about your perspective both now and your observations on if that perspective has changed over time.
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:41 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
I think about it enough that I have an estate plan. I don't think my feelings about death have changed much. I am not currently afraid of it. I am more curious than anything. I may change my mind when it is imminent. I worry more about living my final years diapered in a nursing home. I actually think I worried more about death when I was young. I sort of feel like I've had my money's worth now and won't be getting cheated out of anything if I croak.
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:33 PM Author: Slippery godawful parlour
Thank you OldHLSDude for this tradition, I was thinking of questions to ask you.
1 - Thoughts on the Gaza war? Has your position changed at all about the Jewish question
2 - What would a good marriage be in your estimation - from what you wrote before it seems like your first gf would have been better than your Catholic wife now. It seems like a traditional woman, religious, # of previous sexual partners, this might seem like a crapshoot compared to rapport or is it not? Maybe a foreign bride? Just thinking discursively
3 - You seem to have a live and let live attitude towards American society now and that a lot of the anxiety about decline is cyclical generational hand wringing. However, if you were 20 or 30, would you do anything differently from what you see now than just staying the course? Any other country/culture you could see as a greener pasture?
Thanks again. I'm grateful you haven't let board trolls annoy you enough to go away. You are truly a treasure. Here's to you making it to 78
Date: December 31st, 2023 4:48 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
Thoughtful questions. I think both sides are at fault in the Gaza mess. The 10/7 Hamas assault was egregious, but I have to wonder whether the Israelis might have let it happen. Clearly they want to exterminate the Palestinian political organizations, but that is hard to do. They will keep reforming and coming back. From a moral viewpoint, I think Israel has overdone the carnage and destruction in Gaza. However, we did the same thing (worse) to Europe and Japan in WWII. The US's interests lie more with Israel than with the Arabs, and I figure we will support them ad infinitum. I'
Date: December 31st, 2023 5:42 PM Author: Slippery godawful parlour
Thanks for the response OHD. You mention that US interests lie more with Israel, but wouldn't the better option be to stay out of it (absent the Israel lobby?)
In that vein, do you give any credence to the contention that Jews have an influence in America that gaslights the majority and tribally pushes their influence at the expense of the majority culture (like pornography, the aggressive Jewish/AIPAC lobby, USS Liberty, etc)
As a heuristic I'm reminded of your comment that the Jewish girls you dated never put out, but always were fine with you picking up the check. Why do you think this was the case?
Not trying to beg the question as to an alt right response or anything (I'm fully expecting a softball, "boomer" answer so no worries)
Date: December 31st, 2023 6:06 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
We support Israel partly because it's the only country in that region that doesn't want to see the US zapped. Of course, one reason for that is that they depend on us so much. We have a symbiotic relationship with them.
Of course jews have outsized influence in the US. Just look at media. Look at how often names of the 3% appear in prominent places. That doesn't mean they are bad, it's just incontrovertible that jews punch far above their weight in this country and they have a ton of focused political and economic power and stick together pretty well. The goyim OTOH have been brainwashed into believing that clannishness is evil and go out of their way to dilute themselves, hence DEI. There are some goyish ethnic groups that also exhibit clannishness, but the jews are the best. Have seen it first hand big time in business over and over.
So I don't disagree with your gaslighting term.
A weird thing is that I know a lot of jews who claim to be anti-Israel, even though though they are all Democrats, so I don't think jews are necessarily synonymous with Israel. American jews are mostly not the swarthy Levant jews, and many of them will privately admit they don't like Israelis. The majority of US jews I know think Netanyahu is a yahu and would like him gone. They want to export American jewish progressiveness to Israel, which is not a progressive country. God only knows what that would do to Israeli society.
What that means I guess is that American jewry is off on some toot that has nothing to do with Israel or religion, but with social engineering, power and economics. Most US jews I know are only nominally religious. They want the power of the community but the theology is just window dressing.
I am sure the reason I couldn't get anywhere with jewish girls is that they had all been schooled in the evils of intermarriage. We went once to neighbor's bat mitzvah in about 1972 where the rabbi went off on a rant about the evils of intermarriage. Once I learned to recognize them I just stayed away. P.S. there is also a profound cultural difference between a young southern working class guy and a UMC urban/suburban princess. Oil and water.
Date: December 31st, 2023 7:28 PM Author: Slippery godawful parlour
Thanks OHD. Unlike some trolls on here who seem to get off on getting a rise as opposed to having a useful conversation on xo, I greatly appreciate your thoughts.
If I could hazard a thought I'd say that we created the situation in which the Arabs want to see us zapped (i.e., having to interfere in Middle East politics largely in favor of Israel and Jewish interests). If we stayed out of it, I think they wouldn't have a problem with us a la China.
As to American Jews who claim to be anti-Israel, Jews always master both sides of the dialectic. They always argue both sides (i.e., think the right/left wings of American politics being infested with Jewish pols/lobbyists/money) so that they can have a strong voice in whichever party reigns. Jewish interests are bipartisan now.
I do not think that Jews work in the interest of America and have largely manipulated the country--at great social cost to us--to their benefit. It's as you say "social engineering, power and economics". Netanyahu is the window dressing of today, and actually serves a role as the useful idiot pushing the overton window on the Palestinian question. Regardless of their opinion on Bibi, fundamentally, Jewish interests underpin the overall direction of their actions as a group.
That said, I think your viewpoints mirror that of a thoughtful, yet fundamentally conservative majority. In fairness to your generation, you guys grew up in an era where Jewish supremacy was not as bad as it is now (you mention that they were pulling moves back in the day but now there's no real opposition in mainstream politics - all those opposed involve radical elements like students/alt right. They're also everywhere in professions like business/law - everyone has to master their cultural affinities to get ahead now).
Again, appreciate the thoughts and happy birthday old timer
Date: December 31st, 2023 7:53 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
I think you are right about how the Arabs might not care if we stayed out of their business, but we never have. Having the CIA engineer a coup in Iran and install the Shah left a stench that is still with us today. A lot of it is tied up with oil and money of course.
Date: December 31st, 2023 5:03 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
2. I think a good marriage would be one in which the parties get along and have a real sense of partnership, as well as free and open emotional and physical intimacy. Past sexual partners I see as irrelevant except insofar as it might indicate some kind of pathology, either promiscuity or frigidity. HS GF would have been a terrible wife. She would have been a difficult and unfaithful wife. We had a powerful chemical attraction, but it's a good thing we never go married. I think traditional gender roles are a plus, and I think some adherence to religion is good, though as I have found out fanaticism is not great.
3. No doubt if I were were a much younger person now I would have to do things differently. I'm not exactly sure what I would do differently. I never had a life script or even a lot of ambition. I view my life as a kind of drunkard's walk in which I managed to stumble around in at least one half of the circle, then a quarter, then maybe an eighth. I've had a lot of luck. I think I would still pursue higher education, but I don't know that I would find STEM stuff as interesting now as I did back in my youth. But I've changed, so it's really hard to know. Not trying to be evasive. Things are different now, so what I did back then is unlikely to work the same way. I don't know any other country I would regard as a greener pasture. Maybe that's just ignorance on my part, but I had to rely on low barriers to mobility, and I'm sure there's a better place in the world. Maybe some parts of Asian. I am too disconnected to have any solid ideas.
Date: December 31st, 2023 5:45 PM Author: Slippery godawful parlour
2. By all accounts your wife sounds like an intelligent, fairly personable woman. You both went through some hardships with your family, which I'd imagine would either destroy your relationship or bond you two together. What prevented "free and open emotional and physical intimacy"? Have you met any woman in real life who was as close to that ideal as you'd imagine?
3. Your comment that STEM stuff wouldn't be as interesting now is intriguing in light of the fact that STEM is pushed/memed so heavily now. In other words, it cuts agains the conventional wisdom. What makes you think this - if you could guess, what would you have pursued otherwise?
You also mention that you're sure there's a "better place in the world". Any hunches on where that might be from your experience (and from other sources, like readings from wayward XO poasters)
Date: December 31st, 2023 8:15 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
2. The kid problems were really, really hard. We were in a number of support groups for parents with primarily schizophrenic children. I was always the only man there. In every other case the husband had bailed and the wife was trying to fix the kids (think Sandy Hook). It was very stressful and nearly broke us up. My wife and I have very different personalities. She is extremely linear and rule oriented. She tends to think that every problem can be solved, and that all it takes is categorizing it properly then finding the correct book that tells you what to do. I am almost completely ad hoc and about as opposite that as you can get. Dealing with the kids' mental illnesses was one of the things that pushed her into Opus Dei. It is extremely structured and doctrinaire. No uncertainty. There is a bunch of other stuff. She is not innately a high sex drive person. She once told me that she didn't find me sexually attractive, and immediately amended that by saying that she just didn't like sex. I think both are true. I had no clue before we got married. As to alternatives, I've not met anybody I would swap her for on a permanent basis. She is more sane than any other woman I have known well. I would like a little more closeness, but we both have too many secrets and tensions I suppose.
3. My impression is that STEM has been so infiltrated by computerization that there's less room for the kind of visual/conceptual thinking that I like. I enjoyed things like thermo/fluid mechanics/design because I could see all the stuff moving around in my head and it was a pleasant feeling. Computers were not in general use so problems were solved analytically. There's a certainly joy in mapping situations and images to symbols on paper and moving things back and forth until it goes "ding!" That may not make any sense at all.
I do not enjoy detail and tend to lose interest and get bored once I have a grip on the concept. That's not a good recipe for success in hard core engineering or coding. Maybe I could be a good system architect or something, or perhaps I could stand being a mathematician. If I had been a trust fund baby I might have considered history, literature or economics. My teachers told me I had gift for languages, which I didn't see, but maybe that would have been something interesting to pursue. All things considered, economics, the miserable science, taught at an LAC might be the way to go.
Meant to say I wasn't sure there was any better place in the world. Sad to think this might be the best of all worlds, LOL!
Date: December 31st, 2023 5:07 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
I have been on the DL for about 6 weeks with knee and hip pain, but otherwise I walk, bike, garden and golf. I have come to prefer walking on a treadmill to cross country. Haven't had any joint replacements, but have lumbar arthritis and spinal stenosis along with bone-on-bone in one knee. Generally my health is good. I don't have any cardiovascular, prostate, or cancer issues. I have two hereditary defects: hypercoagulability (been on warfarin for 25 years), and peripheral polyneuropathy which is going to eventually give me mobility issues.
Date: December 31st, 2023 5:19 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
I spent a number of years going crazy trying to balance work/family/life in general. The best times were before the kids got to be teenagers and we were able to do lots of stuff as a family and hang out with other kids and parents. My wife never worked and we saved, so we always seemed to live a notch below everybody else, but it was still a great time.
Date: December 31st, 2023 5:17 PM Author: Peach Church
i'm sure you've answered this elsewhere but what are your thoughts on cryptocurrencies? personally i think they're a worthless Ponzi scheme that will collapse. thinking of shorting Coinbase because of this.
Date: December 31st, 2023 5:27 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
I think the one with the biggest impact is the semiconductor/electronics/computing/networking/information explosion. Many elements went into it, but we generally characterize it as "technology," but it has overhauled life as we know it. The weird thing is that even though I was in the middle of it and working on some of it I did not see the impact coming. I think "technology" is now something that is driving human development.
Date: December 31st, 2023 5:31 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
When I was in college in the 60s. I knew about it before, of course. I played Otto Frank in the "Diary of Anne Frank" in high school, and my HS physics teacher showed us photos he had taken while liberating a camp in Germany at the end of WWII. Plus, I had read a number books and novels about it. However, it wasn't until I got to MIT that I began to realize that it had a political component and was being used to buttress liberal causes and vice versa. When I was a kid the Japanese were much often cast as bad guys at home than the Germans. Probably because my dad had served in the Pacific theater.
Date: December 31st, 2023 6:10 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
Nominally. Mostly football. I used to love baseball, but it is so slow on TV. Played a lot of baseball and a little football but was never any good. Enjoy B-ball occasionally. Not much interest in hockey or soccer, but have been to some hockey games. Will make at least one spring training game in AZ. I watch most of tOSU games, and just finished watching the Ravens murder Miami. Have Cinci/KC on now.
Date: December 31st, 2023 6:18 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
I don't have any particular team that I love. What I like is to see a good game, i.e., the opposite of the Cotton Bowl on the college side. On second thought I guess I have some love for the Bengals and Chiefs who are playing each other now. Old geographic affinity.
Date: December 31st, 2023 5:50 PM Author: avocado blathering french chef yarmulke
You are the same age as my dad and I figure in the same shape. He’s plenty active and still working part time but doesn’t need to. What are your daily concerns health wise? What are his?
Date: December 31st, 2023 6:15 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
Mostly I'm concerned about joints and my hereditary neuropathy. Joint pain and stiffness (and the neuropathy) impair mobility. That's a downward slippery slope, so I have been doing PT.May need some knee surgery by and by and maybe a back nerve ablation for pain control. I am not aware I have any immediately fatal thing cooking. Don't know what your dad is worried about.
Date: December 31st, 2023 6:25 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
I don't have any particular connection with Harvard, esp. the college, but my impression isthat they've hurt their brand. I think you can still get a decent education there if you pick the right major. It's a connection machine still, but only for the upper crust. The rich people all know who they are. I think the po' boys be still eating the crumbs that fall from the table. They have rampant grade inflation, horrible wokeness, and extreme social stratification, in my uninformed option. If I were a new HS grad in the same circumstances as I was in 1965 I would not want to go there. If I were a rich kid, hell yes.
Date: December 31st, 2023 7:04 PM Author: Zippy chestnut pit
Protip: grade inflation is a huge plus for anyone attending undergrad. If you're attending law school they will pick a 3.7 over a 3.5 even if a 3.5 is at a grade deflating school and the 3.7 is at Harvard Ugrad. Agree with the other points.
Date: December 31st, 2023 6:46 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
Mostly they seemed old, dumb and cantankerous. They frequently smoked, chewed tobacco, drank whiskey and smelled bad. I never knew any educated old guys, so that was probably a different crowd. Old guy who lived down the street used to give me a dime every time he saw me. Another one, who was a bachelor, used to have all us kids over to his house where he gave us RC Colas. No pedo involved. I always marveled at how clean his house was.
Date: December 31st, 2023 7:16 PM Author: Big Sweet Tailpipe
1. Alcohol: there's increasingly a view (here, but also more broadly) that alcohol is ultimately bad for your health in any amount. What's your view on it? I bet it was a huge part of life when you were younger, including in business, right? Anecdotally, have you seen heavy drinkers age worse?
2. Stress: at your age, what's your view on those who live in chronic stress around work? I'm almost 40 yrs younger, but increasingly think environments like I had in big law where you're constantly on edge aren't worth it (unless the comp increase is very large). What's your take on this at your age?
3. Isolation/Socializing: I'd guess the population of this board skews introverted. It seems like another threat to living a long life is being too isolated. What advice do you have for folks in terms of getting involved in their community and making connections outside of work (not becoming totally rootless)?
4. Money: I think you said somewhere you had a net worth of $10M? I think there's a lot of folks here who'll land in that range when they retire. Do you think your day to day would be that much different if you had 6-7M? Or 15M?
5. EDIT: Nikki Haley: consider Nikki Haley's instincts were to ban anonymous internet speech until she got too much pushback. She's neither smart (the federalist papers were anonymous authors) nor principled (she was just mindlessly pushing a view held by many in the deep state) and a fan of big, centralized government and more wars. She is by far the worst of anyone running for President.
Date: December 31st, 2023 7:45 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
1. I have pretty much quite drinking. I never was a big drinker, but for years I drank a little bit every day. In college it was weekends only, if then. I've only gotten really drunk twice in my life. In the past few years I don't seem to be getting pleasant effects from alcohol anymore. I just get tired and befuddled - no euphoria at all. In looking at other people it seems like you have to drink a hell of a lot for it to adversely affect you in a blatant way. A lot of heavy drinkers also have other lifestyle issues. In total, I think smoking is much worse. With regard to drinking specifically I think a few drinks/week is probably not very harmful. Binge drinking is the worst. One problem with understanding the effects is that time from insult to onset can be very long. The medical folks seem to say 2 drinks/day is OK. I don't know the number.
2. I think chronic stress is extremely damaging. I have had a lot of it, both from work and home when the psychotic kids were both living with us. I would often only get a few hours' sleep at night then have to face very high stress levels all day long that didn't let up even at home. Travel added to it. When I retired the first time in 1998 I actually went to see a therapist to get a second opinion about whether I was making a mistake quitting. He told me almost immediately after one look that if I didn't change things I was not going to live very long. I think he was right. OTOH, some people seem to get along with stress just fine. Maybe they give it instead of getting it.
3. I think isolation is very bad. When I look at early deaths in college classmates (though there aren't that many) it's 100% isolated loner people whom most people didn't know very well. The easiest social connections for me are family (my wife's), work people, and old friends from the past. I also have generally hung out some with neighbors. I am involved in a lot of community stuff, and while it involves working with people it hasn't turned into a lot of purely social connections, though there are a few.
I think xo is good this way. In spite of its dysfunction it's a kind of family. If you're innately introverted it's hard to make yourself connect, and I think it's best if whatever happens is not forced.
I am pretty much in the middle between E and I. Someone gave me some good advice once: he said that when you live by yourself it's important to go out and do something every day, even if it's just to buy a can of shaving cream.
Having something to do other than work is good if you can find it. If it involves other people, even better.
4. My net worth is currently around $12-13M. That's more money than I need, and I don't think it would make much difference if it was $6M or $15M. If I got to $50M I might start flying Netjets. That's the one luxury I can think of that I would adopt. One think I like is being able to give enough money to specific local things that it does noticeable good. Going to $6M might make me pull back on some of that.
Date: December 31st, 2023 7:48 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
Had cataract surgery about a year and a half ago with ocular implants. 180 experience! I got long range implants (doc said the multifocals had a higher risk of artifacts and I didn't want monovision). I have been wearing glasses for distance vision since late college but now my distance vision is 20/15. I do have to wear reading glasses. The surgery itself was completely benign.
Date: December 31st, 2023 11:31 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
I told doc I wanted minimum probability of visual artifacts, so she suggested single distance lenses and they truly have no artifacts. Night driving is 180. The accommodating lenses are still gets bugs worked out and you likely will have good options. I'm ecstatically happy to have good vision again. You don't realize how fucked up the cataracts make everything look until you get rid of them.
Date: December 31st, 2023 7:50 PM Author: fiercely-loyal jet site
What do u think is the cause of all the tranny gender ideology stuff? Was this ever even discussed at all when you were growing up? Did you ever know any trannies
Date: December 31st, 2023 8:20 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
I think most (not all) people with "gender dysphoria" are misfits looking for some group that will have them. Now we have created a new, highly visible and increasingly protected group to join. Identity politics has created a handy template for making your own new identity group and acquiring political clout.
It was never discussed when I was growing up. I do know several transsexual people, one quite well. I just don't get it. I think there are some legitimately transsexual people, but most who claim it are not. Just my view. I understand EPAH has transsexual children, if that is not flame. He might understand all this a lot better.
Date: December 31st, 2023 8:32 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
It was a panic response caused by inside-the-beltway people. To me it was an example of what happens in central planning. People build models (remember all those graphs of how many sick and dying there were going to be), assume the models are in fact reality, then construct measures in their heads to optimize one metric. In this case the metric was minimum cases. That was the only metric, and it led to all the quarantine measures. Sweden is the only advanced country I know of that didn't go into lockdown mode and the net result was they fared better than anybody else.
I think the central planners eventually realized they had fucked up and quit the media blitz. Covid was a real and serious disease, but the "we're all going to die" scenario was never valid. TBF (is that a trademark?) the current version of the virus doesn't seem as bad as the original, but I have one friend who has been super sick with it. Most people are not.
Many people seem to be stuck with permanent
Covid psychosis. The ones I know are super leftists and are still wearing masks and cursing those who don't.
Edit: forgot to mention vaccines. Vaccine development was rushed. It might be a good thing. I think the mRNA approach showed it worked, but I do not discount the possibility there are unrecognized side effects and long term consequences. We will just have to wait and see. I myself had 3 Modern jabs so I could travel. I thought long and hard about it, weighed the risks as best I could, then rolled up my sleeve. Chances are I'll never know for sure whether it accelerated my demise in some unknown way. I do object to all the pressure that was put on people to get vaccinated.
Perhaps we learned something. There will be other pandemics.
Date: December 31st, 2023 10:13 PM Author: Histrionic angry jap
This is a legal cease and desist notice of the trademarked use of TBF ("To be fair," et al.). This is your final warning. Further use will lead directly to litigation.
Date: December 31st, 2023 10:22 PM Author: tan generalized bond
My mom flipped out on me the day after my father's funeral when my brother told her I was not vaccinated. She lives on 50 acres in the Appalachian mountains, where people have been building wooden shrines to Trump the last eight years.
Date: December 31st, 2023 10:37 PM Author: Histrionic angry jap
Boomers: Trump is God
Also Boomers: Virusbad, let's vote for Biden now and let him fuck up the country a while (doesn't affect us) and then we'll get Trump back in there and we'll say we supported him the entire time.
Date: December 31st, 2023 10:23 PM Author: crusty nursing home
You said the world is better now than ever. Materially I suppose that's true, but don't you see what a mediocre era in history this is? Yeah, it's great we're not fighting world wars and stuff, but there's not a lot of meaning to just being some fatass surfing the net all day.
Date: January 1st, 2024 11:20 AM Author: mischievous well-lubricated alpha
Really appreciate your posting. I also have a profoundly mentally ill immediate family member, so it's nice to hear about others going through that and what they have done to cope.
What are your thoughts on UFOs? The news over the past few years seems to indicate that they are real, and possibly that multiple countries have non-human technology that they're reverse engineering. To me it seems too incredible to be true, so I suspect that it is some kind of disinformation campaign intended to mess with Russia and China. Whether a disinformation game or a real phenomenon, it is extremely interesting to me and I wondered if you had any thoughts/speculation.
Date: January 1st, 2024 11:50 AM Author: honey-headed kitchen
Sorry to hear about the mentally ill family member(s). It's a terrible affliction for all concerned.
I don't have any firm opinion on UFOs but regard it as a fun topic to ponder, though not anything to obsess about. I think most accounts are misperceptions of mundane stuff. Some may be sightings of experimental aircraft. Long ago a friend once thought he saw a UFO in west Texas, but when he described it I knew it was an RPV, though at the time I couldn't tell him that's what it was.
Many sightings are hoaxes and many are delusions in which the observer really believes whatever happened. I've seen up close the power of hallucination. Some are perhaps observations of rare or unknown but natural phenomena.
There remain some credible accounts, such as the tic tac stuff, that are truly mysterious.
I do find it hard to believe that all these UFOs are crashing into earth. If that's true, it's as almost as bizarre as their existence. The creatures seem really bad at engineering. Of course you can always say they are disposable wetware made by the lowest bidder, etc., etc.
Is somebody intentionally inserting noise into the meme to discredit it? More opportunities to explore the rabbit hole.
One idea I play with occasionally is that it's some kind of mixed psychic/physical physical phenomenon, or even entirely psychic. Jung was interested in the subject but made little headway with it.
It's possible that Grusch is right and that we do have physical evidence of whatever it is. One thing that puzzles me is that if somebody knows for sure these things exist, why is there no sign of fear or threat response?
I don't rule the Grusch story out, but there's no hard evidence that I have ever seen, and it bears many of the hallmarks of bullshit. Is it government inspired bullshit? Who knows? It's easy to slide down the rabbit hole with speculation.
I've hung around high levels of aerospace tech and never heard any solid reference to the reality of the artifact thing. Once, many years ago, I did ask a question about something and the answer could be construed as an admission that artifacts existed, but it was very ambiguous.
Color me interested, but I truly have no idea. Grusch moved my probability meter up a little, but there's no way to have a fixed opinion about this stuff. I would not alter my life in any way because of it, so I guess that's a fixed opinion in a way.
Date: January 1st, 2024 12:42 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
Don't regret not staying in biglaw. It was not for me. I don't have the personality for it. The upside is that I might have made more money and could have stayed in one place and dug in, if that's an upside. OTOH, a lot of firms have merged, collapsed, etc.
Date: January 1st, 2024 1:37 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
I suppose so. I didn't stay anywhere long enough to find out. It seemed like at most firms the majority of associates were offered partnership after 6 years or so. I don't know the percentages, but it definitely wasn't everybody as most firms had an up or out policy. Either you made partner or you left. This senior associate/service partner/non equity partner thing did not exist so far as I know. Law practice was really different. A big firm was 100 lawyers and there weren't so many multiple branch offices. No email, no cell phones, and almost no computerized search.Lexis/Nexis was just starting and it was so expensive to use (one terminal for everybody) that its use was discouraged. I dictated everything and had it typed by a 24/7 typing pool in the basement. I wasn't allowed even to have a typewriter, and I shared a full time assistant with another other young lawyer. Spent a lot of time in the physical law library. I don't think lawyers had become as greedy as today and it was rare to see a lawyer who got really rich just from the firm. I know a few guys who were involved in the Wendy's start up. They bought franchises and cleaned up. A lot of partners probably made more from their investments than from the practice. 1700 hours was a typical billing target. I was expected to be in the office 5 days/week and a half day on Saturday. As I say, it was really different, and even though I didn't like it sounds like paradise compared to today.
do you have any predictions about the future of our cities and living environments as a result of remote work and increasingly-online lives? do you think it is another of those things that will turn out to be cyclical, or do you think it will lead to some significant lasting changes?
Date: January 1st, 2024 1:42 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
I believe remote work is a permanent change. Telecom is so much better now it's actually effective. I think people still need to get together physically some times for some psychological reason, but remote work is fine for a lot of things. After I retired from office life I did almost everything remotely. I had several clients whom I never met in person. I really don't know what is going to happen to cities. I bailed on them long ago. A lot of people like urban life, and there are still jobs that require physical presence. Logically it seems like urban concentrations should be diminishing, but that doesn't seem to be happening.
Date: January 1st, 2024 1:44 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
Do you mean the intelligence community? It's very powerful, but also diminished by internal dissent and turf wars. Probably a good thing for the rest of us. It's a complicated subject and probably not a good thing to explore too much online.
Date: January 2nd, 2024 5:59 PM Author: infuriating razzmatazz school cafeteria incel
Which apt is a better deal:
Large studio, 2 blocks from central park, elevator, no doorman as I like. $1100 maintenance
Large studio in doorman building with a balcony/terrace 14"x5" feet. I can enclose this by putting windows on top but that may cost about $10k to install, I could then jerk off on the balcony. Maintenance costs $400 more and apt itself is $60k more. Either one I would use as piedaterre to work from there up to 10 weeks per year
Date: January 2nd, 2024 9:07 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
Cheaper seems better, esp. for 10 weeks/year, but if you don't care about the price just take the one you like better and don't worry about the better deal. One other consideration is location, location, location.
Date: January 6th, 2024 11:25 PM Author: honey-headed kitchen
OK. Have pondered and here it is. I added a 6th. Subject to revision at any moment.
1. Use my National Merit finalist status to get free ride at Alabama Tuscaloosa honors college(tuition+housing+stipend).
2. Construct major in quant.finance/econ with as many history and philosophy electives as possible while attending football games, etc.
3. Work at a golf course in the summer for at least or year to two to get free lessons and playing time so I don't suck so much at the game.
4. Try not to fuck every woman I meet and focus on establishing social/friend relationships with women and moving toward finding a wife during the college years when prospects are best.
5.Join a spiritual community
6. After graduation enter Air Force OCS then use GI bill benefits for most prestigious MBA possible and affordable.
BTW, we're talking theoretically here. I probably could not bring myself to do any of these things IRL.