Not long ago juniors would join from school/university and even though I was older than them I'd sort of feel we were opposite ends of an age range.
Increasingly I'm feeling they are a separate alien species who I no longer understand.
It has come at last, the age-ening. Can anyone sympathise?
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When I retired. And no to your second question; you can't do anthing about getting old, just enjoy some of the perks.
Every 10 years or so - and it gets worse each time.
I remember the shock of looking at a CV for an applicant who was born in the 1980s ... so I should have been prepared when the '90s appeared, but wasn't.
And when I saw birthdates well into this century ... my mind just closed down!
It's almost like someone's trying to tell me I'm getting old. You can 'think' young, 'behave' young (aka badly), refuse to look in the mirror or get on the scales, but when your potential trainees were born after the death of real music ... you have to face it - you've already had the life to which they can only aspire!
I've gone from a manufacturing firm, with lots of 'old' time served hands - so I was still second youngest in the company at 49.
I'm now 50, and work in a school.
I haven't done the maths, but I'm fairly sure our average staff age will be mid 30s.
That's before you get to working in the same school as your teenager - who can barely look at you, you are such an embarrasment :)
@Tom it wasnt until I was about 20 I was reminded my mother that she worked in the same school as I attended. I had completely blanked this from my memory. She did preschool. I wasn't in her class (as we only moved there when I was 4 or 5) , but I went to the infants there and junior school until 11. I only seemed to accept she worked there whilst I was at my senior school in my memory.
I walked to school with her and my older sister, and walked home on my own from about 6. Mum was at home, teachers were at school. Different things.
I still cant recollect at all her working there. Complete blank.
I notice it more with language than anything else.
I recall there was a generation that started misusing the word "literally", to mean "not literally", as in "I literally worked my guts out" or "I literally worked myself to death" and unfortunately that has stuck as a new perverse meaning for the word.
We used to say people had "died". Now they have "passed".
People also misuse the word "iconic" when they mean "legendary" or similar.
I could go on.
I remember being told off (at home) for using "Literally" all the time..
Lucky you put those inverted commas in there, Tom. That sentence could so easily have been misinterpreted without them.
Almost every other word from the younger generation seems to be "like".
I was like, oh my goodness, then he was like "yer wot?" and I was like "whatever", and she was like "that's proper sick", and I was like "yeh that's safe", and they were like, and then I was like, and like like like like
Yeah, I hear that sort of conversation on the train quite a lot.
It's actually quite difficult to follow: there are so many redundant "likes," there's no actual flow to the conversation, just what is effectively a series of unrelated bullet points. I suppose young'uns must just get used to thinking that way.
When did the "ground" become the "floor"? Is it just me that goes all Victor Meldrew when someone calls that stuff outside the "floor"?
My wife loves watching fly-on-the-wall emergency services programmes. The police always seem to accost miscreants with the shout "Get on the floor", even when they are outside. If I were ever to be in the position of such a miscreant I wonder how I should react: ask them if they are referring to the ground?, suggest we go to the nearest dance hall, or at least indoors? I think these responses may be detrimental to my well-being
Monty Python's The Life of Brian started the ''throw him to the floor'' phrase. Check out on YouTube.
Aha, that makes sense. Obviously TLOB is part of the police training curriculum. Presumably that explains the excessive graffiti in our cities.
My two current pet hates:
People using the word 'carnage' when all they mean is chaos.
In the sandwich shop at lunchtime: "Can I get.....", when they mean "may I have...".
My local pub landlord delights in replying "I'm afraid not as self service is not permitted on licensed premised, but if you wait there I will bring you one". Then sighs audibly when they want to pay for a half by card.
Why would they be upset at card payments? It's much quicker and cheaper to manage cards than cash. I used to own some bars many years ago, when cash was much more commonly used than now and it was awful to manage. If I owned a bar (or any retail establishment) now I'd insist that all payments were made by card.
Credit card suppliers (Merchant Services...) usually have a minimum transaction charge of about a quid once all the charges have been added in. I'm amazed anyone takes card payment for transactions less than £20.
PayPal charge a percentage plus a typical fixed fee of 30p (I believe that it can be less), Stripe's fixed fee element is 20p, while Square, I believe, has no fixed fee and thus no minimum charge. Times have moved on from the expensive days of WorldPay and their ilk.
We used to say people had "died". Now they have "passed".
I just ask what they passed.
My pet hate is darts players who can't subtract.
All these pet hates.
Should I get one? Are they worthwhile?
Yes! Everyone should have a pet.
I now have done the maths!
Our 'average' Date of Birth is October 1975..
but a sixth of our staff were born in 1990 or later..
I now have done the maths!
Our 'average' Date of Birth is October 1975..
but a sixth of our staff were born in 1990 or later..
Mid forties then. You were miles out.
I have reached an age when I find modern life totally bizarre,and have reached an opinion that the “younger generation” are totally useless.I then remind myself that my predecessors probably thought I was useless.That said I cannot imagine my generation would allow Boris to run the country (until yesterday),allow Kier Starmer in opposition and Trump and Biden to lead the USA.I try to avoid interacting with the modern world as much as is practible,and attempt to remain calm in the face of stupidity when I have to get something done.
I love having the young 'uns around.... just show them how the fax machine works and their brains almost explode!
Explaining to them that they have another 60 years of their working life to go, so they may as well stay with us for a while is another favourite.
Aah, fax machines ... but before that telex and paper-tape and ...
I like to back a youngster into a corner and tell them to pick a topic (transportation, entertainment, communications, etc) so that I can explain to them (in riveting detail) what was bleeding-edge when I was their age ... and each step of its subsequent evolution. It's hard to tell - but I think they're grateful!
Or if pushed for time, just randomly pick something that was commonplace 'in your youth' but that has disappeared from general comprehension nowadays ... telephone boxes & coins, or even tying a tie, the list is endless.
And of all the great things that must once have been.... the thing the world chooses to bring back from the past is war.
Talking of which, what's happened to I'msorryIhaven'taClue?
Rather undermining my claim to keep adapting/evolving, I haven't listened to ISIHAC since the departure of Humph ... so don't know if Jack Dee is still going?
Even with Radio4 it's hard to avoid being trapped in the past (although the atrocious user interface of BBC Sounds has weaned me off sticking to the back catalogue as it's so hard to navigate) ... 'cos the oldies really were excellent. Anything with Andy Hamilton gets my approbation ... Old Harry's Game being a favourite.
Which takes me neatly back to your other (sad) point. Unfortunately the full range of human vices (from greed onwards) seem to be systemic to an extent where a rabble-rouser can create situations like war (and even worse). My view is that such tendencies should be fought all the way (through education as well as confrontation), but more as a point of principle than in the hope of achieving change. A tad defeatist? But it makes me feel better and hopefully improves a few lives (if only marginally) along the way. Here endeth today's sermon!
ISIHAC. Mum had some episodes on CD - remember them?
But I meant https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/profile/imsorryihaventaclue.
:-)
One thing from the past that ought to be restored is the idea that humans can answer phones.
Aah, it occurred me later that that was probably what you meant ... in which case no idea, as it seems unlikely that his style would have secured the opprobrium of the mods.
On the other hand their judgement calls are getting harder to understand.
I've recently noticed an appallingly poor piece of advertorial has been adjudged sacrosanct - with my acerbic comments removed (along with all the others) and the article now in that purdah where it's not possible to leave any comment!
So apparently it's not just phones of which humans can be adjudged not capable of answering!
Sorry, rant over ... and I agree that machine/algorithm 'call-handling' is either the work of a [***] or the most misdirected attempt at efficiency ever tried.
EDIT: apparently sad-ist isn't an allowed word - in any context.
And of course I remember CDs (and still have 3,000+ of them to go with the 8-track cartridges, cassette tapes, VHS, DVDs, Blu-ray and of course possibly the UK's largest collection of vinyl records).
The beauty of CDs pre-Internet was that you could 'program' car journeys to entertain the youngsters (from Tony Hancock to Harry Potter, via ISIHAC and other 'quiz' shows, leavened with my definition of quality music from the '60s to the 00's). Non-stop London to Burnley with nary a gripe!
But with such collections comes great responsibility-what order does one sort the vinyl. (Nick Hornby)
Mr Hornby is famously all over the place with most things; but for us natural obsessives the answer's obvious ... use the inbuilt indexing facility (akin to ISBN for books) - by Label (sorted alphabetically, and within that by label 'number').
You will still encounter a few decisions (does 20th Century Records go under T for twenty or a separate numerical series prior to the start of the alphabet) ... and it does assume the searcher has a near encyclopaedic knowledge in order to locate a record!
And then you can develop a 'current playlist' of records extracted for playing at some point over the next few weeks, before returning them to their rightful places - and extracting some more.
Someone said it was a lending library, but I prefer to think of it as like taking out your best cut crystal ... and, after entertaining and then washing/drying them all, returning them in preparation for their next outing (not necessarily the same ones).
Mr Hornby is famously all over the place with most things; but for us natural obsessives the answer's obvious ... use the inbuilt indexing facility (akin to ISBN for books) - by Label (sorted alphabetically, and within that by label 'number').
His train sets get good reviews.
The O gauge railway stuff is okay and his Meccano is excellent.( I have bought up boxes of it to refurb as I fancy building one of those really large shop window models when I retire)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Toy-Story-Times-Inventor-Hornby/dp/009188117X/r...
Afraid that is too technical for me- I use an amended A-Z by artist (compilations plus classical etc in the last two IKEA cubes), my amendment is after "The Beatles" I insert solo/other works by Lennon, McCartney(inc Wings) and Harrison (I have no solo Ringo works)
Have not yet decided with the Travelling Wilburys if they go with George or under T, my gut feeling is T as unlike say Wings (Paul with some others) the others in the Travelling Wilburys were individually of sufficient stature that they were not merely George's band.
Quite right, the Wilburys were Roy's backing band ... all great songsmiths and musicians, but only Roy's voice gets the proverbial goose bumps jousting for position with the hairs on the back of my neck!
P.S: what do you do when your artist, say McCartney who was fond of doing this, releases the record using a pseudonym? The Dukes of Stratosphear are NOT the same as XTC (in any of their variants of personnel, which is another problem ...)
My system mainly only applies to the Beatles (though with odd exceptions, I used to file a Jimmy Page /Sonny Boy Williamson album beside Led Zep)
Very little else, though, Clapton does not join Cream (though maybe they would be side by side anyway) though does get Derek and The Dominoes as only a single album owned , ELP do not join The Nice nor does Rainbow rest alongside Deep Purple or Lynrd Skynyrd file alongside The Rossington Collins Band. (There used to be a TV series that dealt with Rock Family Trees)
However David Cassidy does still get to sit with The Partridge Family (these are my other half's)
I think I grew up too fast in the '60s, so I twitch when I espy an elision between The Nice and ELP. The Nice were a 4-man band including Emerson on keyboards (famously using daggers to jam the keys in place which raised a few eyebrows in hippie circles) - and whilst he liked to take centre stage within ELP, Greg and Carl were equal partners (with arguably more illustrious pasts).
Anyway thanks for jolting my memory. I had no idea that Rock Family Trees made it on to TV (the mind boggles), but I used to 'run errands' up the north end of Portobello Road in 1967-69 for the International Times collective ... where Pete Frame was experimenting with the first issues of ZigZag. I like to think (probably wrongly) that some of my obsessive tales of who I'd been to see (and talked to) at my rota of 7+ concerts/week caused a lightbulb to go off in his head when he started trying to show on scraps of paper the movements between bands.
I have a Partridge album somewhere;but I only bought it as I dreamt of Susan Dey being my date for the school prom.
We have two or three, my other half loved David- in fact I think there could even be the odd double as our memories slip re what we already own and there is a shop in Orebro, Sweden, called Banana Moon where one could pick up vinyl at circa £2.50 an album (and upwards)from their bargain boxes ; given the prices carelessness often arose. (Collection was brought back to UK last week but in our storage unit until we make space in the house so have not had chance to go through/count)
This scene from one of my favourite films (Diner) explains the importance of record categorisation so well.
https://youtu.be/UpIT1W5wf-0