Deep Question.

[Grinder]

We need to kick Dr.Phil off of tv and go back to ren and stimpy. Im only 5 years older than you,and this kinda **** never crossed my mind. Maybe its because I got a full time job when I was 15,and started paying bills.Not much time to think about the side of me knowone knows. If you dont know yourself,you are **** out of luck. I am always honest with myself,I know my own ups and downs,my faults,my strenghts...etc...I dont try to do anything I know I cant do,and I dont pretend like I can. I think you need to get laid!

 

[RustyRatRod]

We need to kick Dr.Phil off of tv and go back to ren and stimpy. Im only 5 years older than you,and this kinda **** never crossed my mind. Maybe its because I got a full time job when I was 15,and started paying bills.Not much time to think about the side of me knowone knows. If you dont know yourself,you are **** out of luck. I am always honest with myself,I know my own ups and downs,my faults,my strenghts...etc...I dont try to do anything I know I cant do,and I dont pretend like I can. I think you need to get laid!

I HEAR that! I was just thinkin where I was and what I was doin at 17. I was finishin high school, workin for a local wreckin yard and flippin burgers at the burger king and doin every side job at the house that I had time for. Somewhere in between all that I was findin time to get trained as a machinist at Hogan's Machine shop in Macon. I was also helpin daddy pay bills because mama was dying from cancer and we had tons of unpaid medical bills. I knew exactly who I was and it was a busy ****.

 

[Grinder]

I HEAR that! I was just thinkin where I was and what I was doin at 17. I was finishin high school, workin for a local wreckin yard and flippin burgers at the burger king and doin every side job at the house that I had time for. Somewhere in between all that I was findin time to get trained as a machinist at Hogan's Machine shop in Macon. I was also helpin daddy pay bills because mama was dying from cancer and we had tons of unpaid medical bills. I knew exactly who I was and it was a busy ****.

I hear ya! Yeah, dad was a deadbeat,never in my life. Was raised poor with a single mom,so as soon as I could work I did! We were able to move to a nicer neighborhood,and eat better food. When I wasnt working,working on cars,playing in a band, or going to school,I was trying to get laid with every ounce of my being hahahaha.:toothy10: Music,Mopars and Muff, is there really anything else to life?

 

[slantsixdan]

Seventeen, eh? Well, here is something that is going to sound like complete nonsense (at best) but is nevertheless true: Hang on. A whole lot of ѕhit clears up and resolves and makes sense, all the sudden when you turn 30. It is like flipping a switch. Yes, I am being serious. No, I didn't believe it either. Yes, 30 seems like a long way off. No, it really isn't.

 

[1968FormulaS340]

Seventeen, eh? Well, here is something that is going to sound like complete nonsense (at best) but is nevertheless true: Hang on. A whole lot of ѕhit clears up and resolves and makes sense, all the sudden when you turn 30. It is like flipping a switch. Yes, I am being serious. No, I didn't believe it either. Yes, 30 seems like a long way off. No, it really isn't.

Yup. What he said.

 

[/6 Matt]

Instead of spending my time at a job, I spend my time looking for one. NC's economy is still in the tank.

. Boobs are real nice to look at but even better to touch.

That's about all you need to know at 17.


One other thing……… Very little matters at your age as far as how you feel about life or yourself.

Wow dude. I agree with the boobs, disagree with the other part. This is probably the most important time of life. If I don't graduate, go forbid, life will suck ***. If I don't go to college, life will probably suck. I see the life of my high-school-dropout brother and my graduated-hs-but-didn't-go-to-college sister, and I know those aren't the lives I desire. Boobies are great, but at my age, boobies can change you life by giving you the best gift ever that will truly screw over any education plans. Well actually, that's what muff does. But they're still closely related.

I think you need to get laid!

Gotten laid, more times than I can count. Haven't lately, maybe that is the problem. Either way, I prefer to be a gentleman and not be out to get in every girl's pants that I can find. In truth, ever since a year ago when I had an epiphany and realized I was a womanizing, sleezeball of a pig, I've such a gentleman, I hardly deserve to own a *****.

Seventeen, eh? Well, here is something that is going to sound like complete nonsense (at best) but is nevertheless true: Hang on. A whole lot of ѕhit clears up and resolves and makes sense, all the sudden when you turn 30. It is like flipping a switch. Yes, I am being serious. No, I didn't believe it either. Yes, 30 seems like a long way off. No, it really isn't.

That sounded like total bullshit actually, but you've never told me wrong before, so I'll keep that huge steamy pile in mind. 30 isn't a long way off, I know. I didn't believe the seniors when they said High School flys by, but here I am 5/8 of the way through in the blink of an eye. One question, why 30? What magical occurrance takes place at age 30 that ushers in this new perspective?

 

[1968FormulaS340]

Quote:
Originally Posted by slantsixdan

"Seventeen, eh? Well, here is something that is going to sound like complete nonsense (at best) but is nevertheless true: Hang on. A whole lot of ѕhit clears up and resolves and makes sense, all the sudden when you turn 30. It is like flipping a switch. Yes, I am being serious. No, I didn't believe it either. Yes, 30 seems like a long way off. No, it really isn't."




That sounded like total bullshit actually, but you've never told me wrong before, so I'll keep that huge steamy pile in mind. 30 isn't a long way off, I know. I didn't believe the seniors when they said High School flys by, but here I am 5/8 of the way through in the blink of an eye. One question, why 30? What magical occurrance takes place at age 30 that ushers in this new perspective?


What Dan said is not BS at all. It is very true.

This is part of the problem…..

At our age (Me, 42. I don't know how old Dan is) we know the secret.

You at the age of 17 can't comprehend what we know.

It's not you, its just the nature of things.

 

[/6 Matt]

Quote:
Originally Posted by slantsixdan

"Seventeen, eh? Well, here is something that is going to sound like complete nonsense (at best) but is nevertheless true: Hang on. A whole lot of ѕhit clears up and resolves and makes sense, all the sudden when you turn 30. It is like flipping a switch. Yes, I am being serious. No, I didn't believe it either. Yes, 30 seems like a long way off. No, it really isn't."




That sounded like total bullshit actually, but you've never told me wrong before, so I'll keep that huge steamy pile in mind. 30 isn't a long way off, I know. I didn't believe the seniors when they said High School flys by, but here I am 5/8 of the way through in the blink of an eye. One question, why 30? What magical occurrance takes place at age 30 that ushers in this new perspective?


What Dan said is not BS at all. It is very true.

This is part of the problem…..

At our age (Me, 42. I don't know how old Dan is) we know the secret.

You at the age of 17 can't comprehend what we know.

It's not you, its just the nature of things.

Just cause I call it bullshit doesn't mean I dissmissed it.

 

[slantsixdan]

I prefer to be a gentleman and not be out to get in every girl's pants that I can find.

Very wise. Even Scroobius Pip agrees; note @ 0:56:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoN6XfyQsr4"]YouTube - dan le sac VS scroobius pip "Thou Shalt always Kill"[/ame]

30 isn't a long way off, I know.

Yeah. How long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door you're on.

why 30? What magical occurrance takes place at age 30 that ushers in this new perspective?

I can only speculate that it's a critical mass of life experience that causes the shift. I cannot say why it occurs so reliably at 30 (not 29, not 31) for anyone who's paying even a little bit of attention. It seems like 30/29 ought to be no different than 29/28 or 31/30, but it's not. I still didn't believe it at 29, no matter how many people told me so, and then…I turned 30! It doesn't mean you magically have all the answers or anything like that, sorry to say, but it gets a lot easier to discern what matters from what doesn't, and a lot easier to figure out how best to deal with whatever life might happen to throw at you. Which is good, because it arrives just in time; the world will tolerate a great deal of behaviour from a twentysomething that it simply won't have from a thirtysomething.

 

[FISHBREATH]

I distinctly remember the time I was in grade school. Summer vacation seemed like it would never end. Each day in school felt like a lifetime. The school year seemed like an eternity.

Before I knew it, high school graduation was upon me.

I worked a full-time job on evening shift in a state nuthouse while I attended college full-time during the daytime. Talk about burning the candle at both ends! Pussy was mostly a memory. Steady girlfriend? Fuggeddaboutit. Cost too much time, money, and effort. I had to keep my future in mind. Of course, ripping off a good piece now and then was always welcome when the situation arose. My buddies would often meet me after work and we'd go out for a few beers. There is nothing like dropping into bed at 0200 or 0300 and then having to be in class by 0700! Time rolled on.

After I graduated, I landed a full-time job doing wind tunnel testing at Grumman (plus a few other "adventures"). It seemed like summer just started when winter was suddenly upon us and one year blended into the next. Free time suddenly became scarce. My buddies started getting married, but we still managed to hang out one night per week for a card game. Then I got married.

Time now seems to really fly by. Everybody of my age says the same thing. Life goes by too fast.

I consider myself lucky in that I didn't knock up some girl at age 18, had the fortitude to work and get through college, land a good job, married a good woman (not a girl; there is a difference), and then my own business.

Looking back, sure there is a lot of tail that I had the opportunity to grab (God knows!), but I was able to keep my nose to the grindstone and keep my goal in sight and within reach.

Best of luck to you in your quest. Just remember your priorities.

 

[slantsixdan]

This is part of the problem…..At our age (Me, 42. I don't know how old Dan is) we know the secret. You at the age of 17 can't comprehend what we know. It's not you, its just the nature of things.

Right. If I my present self (nearly 35) were to go back in time, find my 17-year-old (22-year-old, 26-year-old…) self, grab him by the shirt, throw him up against the nearest wall and holler "GROW THE F*CK UP!!!"…

…it wouldn't help or change anything. (I would have much better results finding my younger self and saying "Hang in there…it gets better".)

 

[slantsixdan]

I distinctly remember the time I was in grade school. Summer vacation seemed like it would never end. Each day in school felt like a lifetime. The school year seemed like an eternity.

Yeah…I spent a lot of time thinking about that phenomenon when my grandfather was 95+ a couple of years ago. Each year passes noticeably faster than the previous. I think it's down to plain old mathematics. A year seems like forever when you're four years old, because it is between 25% and 33% of the total time you've lived, so in the context of your accumulated experience, it is practically forever. The same 12-month period speeds past when you're 31 years old, because it is just ~3.2% of the total time you've lived. And by the time you're 60, a year is 1.6% of the total time you've lived, making it equivalent to only three weeks as a 4-year-old, in the context of your life's accumulated experience. My grandfather lived to be over 96 years old. In his last year, a one-year period rounded down to 1% of the time he'd been alive, which is perceptually equivalent to just under thirteen days as a 4-year-old. I know all that intellectually, but time's acceleration still astounds me every time I notice it.

(And that is a long, flowery way of saying "Time flies when you're having fun" or "A watched pot never boils" or "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana").

 

[/6 Matt]

Yeah…I spent a lot of time thinking about that phenomenon when my grandfather was 95+ a couple of years ago. Each year passes noticeably faster than the previous. I think it's down to plain old mathematics. A year seems like forever when you're four years old, because it is between 25% and 33% of the total time you've lived, so in the context of your accumulated experience, it is practically forever. The same 12-month period speeds past when you're 31 years old, because it is just ~3.2% of the total time you've lived. And by the time you're 60, a year is 1.6% of the total time you've lived, making it equivalent to only three weeks as a 4-year-old, in the context of your life's accumulated experience. My grandfather lived to be over 96 years old. In his last year, a one-year period rounded down to 1% of the time he'd been alive, which is perceptually equivalent to just under thirteen days as a 4-year-old. I know all that intellectually, but time's acceleration still astounds me every time I notice it.

(And that is a long, flowery way of saying "Time flies when you're having fun" or "A watched pot never boils" or "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana").

Funny you should say that, about a month ago I made that exact point in a disscussion (intellectual arguement) with a friend, minus the math. I watched a documentary a few days ago, pertaining to time perception, and a man with a stopwatch stopped random people on the side of the road and asked them to guess how long a minute is. Young people (I think <30 y.o.) called the minute at under 60 seconds, while the older ones did the opposite. Thus proving age and time perception have a direct link. I tried it with myself and found I called the minute at approximately 1:45, so I guess I'm just wierd.

 

[slantsixdan]

I watched a documentary a few days ago, pertaining to time perception, and a man with a stopwatch stopped random people on the side of the road and asked them to guess how long a minute is. Young people (I think <30 y.o.) called the minute at under 60 seconds, while the older ones did the opposite. Thus proving age and time perception have a direct link.

Richard Feynman timed himself counting off a minute under all kinds of conditions and found that he reliably counted faster when he had a fever, amongst other interesting things. Happen to recall the name of this documentary you saw?

 

[/6 Matt]

Richard Feynman timed himself counting off a minute under all kinds of conditions and found that he reliably counted faster when he had a fever, amongst other interesting things. Happen to recall the name of this documentary you saw?

That makes sense, having a fever sucks and generally leaves you with nothign more than a desire for it to cease, thereby making time pass slower. I wish I could remember the name of the documentary I saw. If I recall correctly, it had that guy in it, Dr. Yoshimoto I believe his name is. He is a very asian astrophysicist (I think that's his study) who is very popular on the science channels. If it hits me later, and it probably will, I'll tell you later. It was an excellent program.

 

[hemizach]

I think my brain hurts from this thread. Just live man. Live and learn, that's what I'm doing. As another young gun though (18)... remember to use manners and to close your mouth and open your ears. Also, it only takes a few extra seconds to hold a door open for a woman... people our age don't know how to treat women with respect. We'll learn the rest as we go along.

 

[/6 Matt]

I think my brain hurts from this thread. Just live man. Live and learn, that's what I'm doing. As another young gun though (18)... remember to use manners and to close your mouth and open your ears. Also, it only takes a few extra seconds to hold a door open for a woman... people our age don't know how to treat women with respect. We'll learn the rest as we go along.

I agree, people our age treat women like total crap. But one problem is, neo-feminism, I feel has killed the chilvalry I favor from old. I know longer know whether I should hold the door for the girl or let her hold the door for me. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing wrong with feminism, I just wish some women didn't take it so far...

 

[slantsixdan]

I read an interesting article not long ago on that issue of chivalry, manners, and feminism. Can't seem to find it at the moment, but the author's thesis was that yes, man-holds-door-for-woman is pretty much a thing of the past, but women can now get whatever job they want. They're no longer restricted to teacher, nurse, or secretary as they were back in the days when men were expected to hold doors for women. We may have less chivalry, but we have more equality, which is overall better.

(Psst: the courteous thing is to hold the door for whoever happens to be behind you or struggling with belongings, regardless of the sex of the door-holder and the door-holdee.)

 

['71 Dart Custom]

(Psst: the courteous thing is to hold the door for whoever happens to be behind you or struggling with belongings, regardless of the sex of the door-holder and the door-holdee.)

That's what I was thinking. I hold the door for everybody. Man/woman, black/white, whatever. What I've noticed is that chivalry or politeness isn't always respected, but it's usually accepted. In other words, when I hold the door open for that pretty young thing, she might get a snotty look on her face but she'll sure as hell walk through the door!

 

[RustyRatRod]

I don't know. I'm old fashioned. I hold doors for women. I also believe that there are some jobs women are not cut out for. Likewise, there are some men are not cut out for.

 

[4flats]

On the issue of really knowing yourself:

Most people are lucky enough to not know themselves, or at least not know their limits. If you get really introspective, there is the part of yourself that is familliar and makes you feel good, then there is the part that is hidden in the dark. By the time you are 17 you should have a pretty good handle on the "good" part. It is the part in the dark that you just can't see. I'm not saying go out and do things you know are bad to get to know yourself, because that will just reinforce what you already know. The times your really learn about yourself are when you do bad things that seen perfectly acceptable in the moment, then regret them later. I guess you could say regret is the only teacher. You may think you have regrets now, but (I'm guessing here, I don't know you) I don't think you have ever really had to "push the envelope". Think of Nazi soldiers who stuffed Jews into the gas chambers - knowing it was wrong, but discovering that they were not strong enough to face death themselves by disobeying. Consider the crack addict who blew some stranger in an alley to pay for his next rock. Consider the alcoholic who got drunk while his wife packed-up his starving kids and left him to go live in a shelter. These are all people who know their limits because they have been pushed past them (or right up to them).
I think Dan hit it pretty square when he spoke of the critical mass of life experiences. 30 is a milestone, but it is milage rather than years that makes someone who they are.
When I was younger, I read a lot, still do, when I can find the time. A couple of books that may help are The Stranger, Camus; and Crime and Punishment, Doystievsky(?). Neither will give you any insight into yourself, but show you the road to self-discovery. Both are about self-centered people, who do something they know is wrong, but decide they can handle it anyway, and the consequences and remorse that illuminates a part of them better left in the dark.
99% of the time an epiphone of the self is not a pleasant discovery, and not something that can be captured. It will come to you, when you least expect it.

 

[FISHBREATH]

Whatever you do, do not read Nausea by Sartre. You will want to kill yourself.

 

[4flats]

Whatever you do, do not read Nausea by Sartre. You will want to kill yourself.

x2 or Metamorphis by what's his name (Kafka?). They are just Crybabies.