Are you glad you are an old fart?

Yeppers!! I was 22 years old when I got my first IBM 8088 processor and DOS was a breeze! You actually told IT what to do!! Ahhhhh…the good old days!!

Yes. I don’t want any part of my life put out on the internet that I don’t want out there. I don’t want my sex life put out unless I choose to put it out there, my social life, or really anything else put out there that I don’t choose to announce.

I wish I had more company as a 22-year-old old fart. Why go to a party when you could go to bed?

I’m glad I didn’t need to worry about my mom wanting to friend me and read every detail of my life. Wait a minute, she does that now! I just had to wait 25 years. lol

I think that you should have to have a license to put private information on the internet. You should be required to take a course in safe surfing.

Am I glad I’m an old fart? Not on your life. I will now, in the spirit of providing too much information on the internet, explain why. God I hope no one ever figures out who I am and passes that information on to my family and friends.

So, at the age of 54, I have been let into that select inner circle of old farts. I am in for two reasons. First, I am old enough to forget a lot of words. 2nd, I am old enough to be asked to join that organization for old people whose name I have forgotten at the moment.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, I now fart. All the time. I toot all night (whenever I am awake enough to hear it). I play the asshorn most of the day, too, except I have to try to let it out quietly, which is an enormous strain. I with society didn’t laugh at farting so much.

They say it’s amino acids or something. My body no longer can process them effectively. Thus, I pass gas. Early and often. It is extremely annoying, but what can I do?

Do you see? Being of a certain age and farting all the time is not something to be glad of.

I refuse to join that organization, though. I am too young, or feel too young to be a member of that organization whose name is on the tip of my tongue. I still think of myself as in my thirties, even if I do fart all the time. Maybe I should just say I’m a fart. Not an old fart.

@wundayatta How about a fresh fart? That sounds nice. :)

being an old fart (55) sure beats the alternative!

I am SO glad there wasn’t an internet or digital photographs when I was in college or in my drinking days. The occasional 35 yr old printed photo that surfaces from friend’s every so often are bad enough.

I’m thirty-four years old. Stress has been such a part of my life the last few years that I now feel old before my time. I am slowly recovering from this over the last month, due to removing the a main source of this, but it is going to take a hell of a lot of time I think. I get to feel that much older because when I was in high school, the current crop of freshmen at my school (guess which one) was still in diapers. When I started high school, they weren’t even a gleam in their daddy’s eye. I watched The Dukes of Hazzard, The Incredible Hulk on t.v. and the last two of the original Star Wars trilogy in the theaters. My dad, brother, and I snuck into Coming to America in Anchorage, AK just to hear the first movie in town to be played in the brand spankin’ new Dolby Surround Sound™. I remember buying my first computer (used) from a co-worker. I asked for a 133 mhz processor for Christmas so I could double the speed of my computer. I know I am not as old as some here, but try telling that to the Miley Cyrus wannabe sitting next to me in Shakespeare class. I am sure glad I am old enough to appreciate the tech advances that we enjoy today. If I cannot join that ever-elusive club for old people just yet, at least be contented in the fact that I receive several looks and smirks when I show people my student I.D. card to get a discount.

P.S.: There is this saying that I picked up from a good friend of mine that I used to work with: “I’ve waited all my life to become a dirty old man!” I’m looking forward to it.

It sucks but, on the whole, it’s better than the alternative.

Yes I am. It enabled me to spend so much of my waking hours as a child playing outside instead of stuck to a computer screen.

Yes (although I would never describe myself that way).

I feel really lucky to be of an age (almost 40) where I was old enough to learn things “the old fashioned way” or “by hand” (typing, math, graphic arts, etc.) but young enough to be motivated to learn (teach myself) all things computer.

I think I have a respect for craft and process I wouldn’t have had otherwise. Of course this also goes hand-in-hand with my schooling and people I learned from.

Well it’s not all that bad! I am glad that I grew up in a time when there was not constantly something in my ear attached to something that my mom could call me on or something that played music in my ear or was attached to a game that would probably have given me a headache. I used my mind to think and create and build and figure out a way to climb and paint and so many other activities that kids today just don’t seem to do. I rode my bike for hours and covered miles, I fished and swam and played ball without adult supervision or proper hydrating.

I like my life now too though. Even though I am old and my skin doesn’t fit quite as well as I would like I still manage to get around on my Yamaha scooter, I still run swim ride, actually I want to do a marathon in 2011, I always said I want to do one before I die and you never know!! So I figure I better get moving.

And thankfully I really don’t think I am any more flatulent than I ever was. @wundayatta maybe you should start taking Beano or put more Adolphs meat tenderizer on your food, that is full of amino acids.

I love being an old fart! I’ve had to face the possibility of the alternative a time or two and I’d rather be here. As convenient as the tech stuff is, I like knowing I can do fine without. I’m good at finding myself when I’m lost by using a paper map. I like getting the discounts offered by that organization that Wundy doesn’t want to join. Sometimes I dress deliberately in a dull and frumpy manner so I can be invisible and people-watch without anybody watching back. I love that I can tell my young friends what it was like to see the Beatles become famous. And hey, farting feels good.Of course, I live alone so I’m allowed…only Katawagrey has to deal with it from time to time but she mods out my farts…

If I hadn’t grown up in the Information Age then I’d have been dead thirty years ago or more. So of course I’m glad I grew up then. What kinda damnfool question is this, anyway?

No, of course not. Who would WANT to be old?? I mean, really?? I’m glad I grew up playing outside, yes, but being a Senior is nothing to be happy about. You’ll see.

@Aster : I’m afraid I can’t agree. Yes, it’s harder and there are definite downsides, but I’m smarter, more laid back, more tolerant, and I love having seen the way the world has changed. I wouldn’t trade it. I’m more confident than I’ve ever been, and happier. And, face it, the alternative does kinda suck.

I don’t think anyone on fluther will say it sucks except for me. It is a Whole Lot harder, people start dying off and I don’t like the way the world has changed. I’m more tolerant , yes, but that doesn’t make me happier just to be tolerant. I’m not smarter. I know more , have more knowlege in general but that doesn’t make me happier. I’ve never had a confidence problem that I can recall but to be 25 again would be out of this world. Oh, the energy and optimism!!! The joy and laughter! But this has been approached on fluther in the past and all the jellies said, “oh, I’d HATE to be younger. LOL !!

On good days, I can remember what it felt like to have a boner.

How old do you have to be for consideration here? The internet has been around since the early nineties (at least accessible) and computers have been inside of peoples’ houses since the early eighties. Computers weren’t common then but they weren’t rare either.

We didn’t have a color TV til ‘68, no ‘putes in the home, then!

@Paradox I would say those that didn’t grow up with a computer in the home. (I’m not being too picky though, I just thought @wundayatta‘s comment was funny.) I’m 39, will be 40 in January. Not saying I’m an old fart, but when I was in high school, computer classes were an elective. My children on the other hand have used computers since pre-school. How things have changed!

I had a commodore 64 in my house. When I was 9.

The Beatles were on Ed Sullivan when I was 9.

my dad too!

I am happy to have a wider range of experience in technology than most young bucks who think they know everything because they grew up with the ninth-generation of technology I saw back in my teens. They may know specifics of the new stuff better, but they often have zero grasp on the basics.

I am also glad I am young enough to not be so damn set in my ways that I cannot exploit and enjoy new technology. I get more use out of my Droid X than most kids get out of their Android/iPhone/iPod Touch since I am not so old as to have lost my youthful technophilia.

But most of all, I am glad that I am wise enough to not let myself be chained down by technology. Many kids today are addicted to texting, Facebook and Twitter to the point where they could be hanging from a cliff by their fingernails, but will let go and plummet to their deaths if one of their friends texts them so they can use both thumbs to type a quick reply. Crack and heroin have nothing on social networking when it comes to addiction amongst kids in the Information Age.

Then again, many “old farts” HATE cellphones as they allow you to be called anytime, anywhere. What they forget about cells is that you can ignore them just like I used to ignore the ringing box on the wall when I was younger.

OK, I’ve got one… My first computer was a Kaypro. (No, that’s not me in the picture.) It didn’t run on DOS. It was technically portable and weighed a ton.

Yikes, @JilltheTooth I had an Osborne! I still have two in my attic, waiting for the time they become antiques (like me?) and regain some worth. Like the Kaypro, it ran on the CP/M operating system. I learned wordstar and supercalc on the machine. I may have even learned a database program… yes. Dbase. Dbase I.

I was 20 years old and spent $2000 for the machine, of which my father contributed a significant amount. I was supposed to use it to become a writer. Sigh. Fond old dreams, I guess. Instead I became a policy analyst. Probably just as effective at doing what I wanted to do.

Anyone know what an antique Osborne is worth these days?

@wundayatta ; I went from my Kaypro to Windows and whenever there was a problem they’d say “Go out to DOS”...damn. Never learned DOS!!! A toast to CP/M!

@JilltheTooth CP/M to Windows? That’s quite a leap. How long were you using Kaypro?

Oh, man, I don’t even remember it was so long ago. Damn, now I’m feeling old!

If people want to be older and “wiser” why don’t they have searches for the Tree of Eternal Aging? Or vitamins to accelerate it? How about a compliment like this: “you look much older than your years, you lucky fellow.”

@Aster just because we want to be older and wiser doesn’t mean we want to look older and wiser. Well, maybe wiser anyway.

Best GA this month I think @CyanoticWasp . I look way older than I am because of stress. Kind of sucks.

@All I’d send you all the directions to the Fountain of Youth, but it’s now dried up. It’s also not all it’s cracked up to be as its wondrous waters are failing me. I’m going grey.