Was talking to my roommate, Kurt, last night about my day yesterday and came up with something… which i’ll get at a bit later in the post. The day wasn’t all that interesting I had to go to two places: The post office, and the mall.
The mall wasn’t so bad. Knew what i was looking for and no one was really there except the older people that use it as a daycare center.
The post office, however, was a nightmare. The line was super long with people who had heaps of packages. I got in line behind a woman who had 5 or 6 kids. They laughed at the mustache on my helmet, but really I thought they were laughing at the fact i was wet cause it was raining bad. She had a STROLLER, but was using it more like a dolly with her packages crammed in it. If her kids were in it. I’d be mad. I’m a firm believer in CARRYING YOUR MAGGOT!
Then, I noticed there were self-pay-ship kiosks, which no one was using. I stepped out of line and used one. It took me two gos to figure out exactly what to push, and spent my 1.71 to send some transformers to FL. It was awesome. As I turned around i noticed most of the people in line at the PO were over 55 and giving me funny looks. Probably because of my scooter helmet, but really I think they were mad cause i was in and out. They refused to even walk up the machines to read what they are about.
Kurt, brought up his similar stories of being at the grocery store in the self checkout lanes. He recalls on a few occasions people over 55 not being able to swipe their credit card and sign their name to buy their gallon of milk or diapers (which i’m starting to need). Though these people tried, it totally killed what self-esteem and courage they had. This also makes me think of how many avoid using it in fear of that same situation.
Though there are exceptions to every rule; I mean there are some 80 year-olds that can beat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 for the NES—something I can’t do. Another thing, maybe mind fatigue or something like that, which develops over time. Whatever: I really think that it’s their own doing most of the time, which brings me to this statement: HOW DID ANYTHING HAPPEN BEFORE 1990.
I mean we got Penicillin, color TV, and MJ’s Thriller. That’s enough, but really, I can’t imagine a world without the internet or technology related to it..
Kurt and I talk sometimes about how things use to be: Marriages that would last even though both were unhappy, if you went to college it was FUCKING HARD because there was no interent, people could have needless jobs in companies cause money was rolling and no one cared, you could avoid learning anything new because of the comfort of a routine, and most of all job security with retirement plans.
Now that most of those people are now in their silver years, the idea of learning new things really scares them. Take my uncle for instance. Every time I’m with him he has his opinion on email, a society moving away from social contact, any type of automated thing that takes away a service job, etc.
The awesome part about all this is he comes over, watches the dexter episodes i dl from the net, has me order him certain items off the internet that he dare not purchase at a store, so on.
I imagine what it will be like when I’m past 55. I’ll probably not care about anything playing starcraft 4. And if new technology comes out like teleport, or rocket packs i’ll def be on top of that shit.
My aged generation is going to be a bunch of old people with stretched and faded tattoos talking about how cool the times were and still listen to 80’s hits and dubstep.
