What a drag it is getting old

[lucy24]

I woke up this morning to find I had forgotten the name of the lead singer of The Who. I was able to dredge up the others (extra bit of effort before arriving at John Entwistle). All members of Led Zeppelin: check. All four Yardbirds guitarists in chronological sequence: check. All six Beatles: duh. Rolling Stones: the original guitarist caused trouble. My brain kept jumping up waving its arms and shouting “Brian Wilson!” * which I knew was factually incorrect, but got me there in the end.

What do you mean, this isn’t an internet or tech topic?


* With regard to the original head-scratcher, the brain is similarly saying “Rod Stewart”. Is it trying to tell me something?

[tangor]

Tonight's the Night?

;)

[not2easy]

Some days are foggier than others. The urgency decides what you'll misplace. If it is a piece of information urgently needed, it can take longer to pull out of the cobwebs. My personal observations.

[phranque]

i can tell you who was playing bass (Pino Paladino) the first time i saw The Who after John died.
but i can never remember the word that i know would correctly express the thought i am about to speak.
or your name 15 minutes after we've met...

[lucy24]

Postscript: Hours later, as I picked up my trash bag and opened the back door, the name politely materialized in my brain. Turns out the nagging “Rod Stewart” was the brain trying to point me in the right direction, as it had done earlier with “Brian Wilson”.

[Marshall]

I forgot what I was going to say :o)

[thecoalman]

Don't feel bad, I was having a conversation with the neighbor and pointed to the thingy on the edge of the road, for the life of me couldn't remember the name. The thingy was the curb. I was actually younger when that happened,, it sticks out because it was such an absurd thing to not remember. I think all of us have those mind block moments. The harder you try to remember the worse it gets. Now back to finding my keys.

[buckworks]

>> Hours later ... politely materialized

The French have a relevant saying, "l'esprit de l'escalier". It means the brilliant things that come to mind when you're climbing the stairs to go to bed, instead of earlier when you needed them.

[tangor]

I woke up this morning to find I had forgotten the name of the lead singer of The Who.

Roger Daltrey

[lucy24]

Thank you for not spelling it out before my brain kicked in, or I would have been infuriated.

[Mark_A]

@Lucy24 it sounds like you also employ "the google rule", which is that if you used to know a fact, you are not permitted to google it, you have to let your memory find it no matter how long it takes! If it is a factoid you never knew, you are permitted to google it immediately. :)

Got to keep the grey matter working.

[fearlessrick]

I'm 71, have killed millions of brain cells through drinking and drugs over the years, but still my brain functions pretty well. I can remember things from 60 years ago and recent events, some better than others. I was thinking the other day about when I was in my mid 40s, had a job as a bartender and made drinks for the waitresses to serve. There was one waitress, whose name, no matter what, I could never remember, even if she or somebody else told me ten minutes before.

Anyhow, because of that weird mental block - and it was only with her, for whatever reason - I always called her Monica. It was the best I could do. She got to really hate me after a while and became hostile. For reasons other than her, I moved on to other work, but still can't remember her name. It's not age always.

As an afterthought, a study found that walking backwards improved results when trying to remember something from the past. The brain somehow recognizes forward and reverse? Maybe I should walk around and think about the future. Maybe predict outcomes of horse races or sporting events. Just a thought.

[lucy24]

if you used to know a fact, you are not permitted to google it, you have to let your memory find it no matter how long it takes!

Funny you should say that, because I did check the spelling of Entwistle before posting (the brain naturally wanted it to be Entwhistle), and was in dread that one of those AI Info boxes would loudly proclaim all the other names.

[londrum]

it's when you forget your own name, that's when you have to start worrying

[tangor]

... when "Who me?" becomes "Me, who?"

[Kendo]

Yesterday I went into town, a large rural township that one can expect to find everything shopping-wise, looking for 3 replacement items:

1. Pro video camera (not just a camcorder)
2. GPS navigator for the car
3. CD player for the car

#1 - No camera store anywhere. We did have one but they closed down, probably due to everything being digital these days and the fact that mobile phones are now doing an excellent job. One electrical appliance store did have some digital cameras but not even a camcorder.

#2 - NavMan has stopped developing GPS equipment after 20 years. The only only one available in stores that is true GPS is Garmin and they are now twice the price. Would save $100 by ordering online which I have to anyway because the two large auto parts stores only stock Nav devices that are dependent on one's mobile phone.

#3 - I need to replace the CD player in the camper van because operating the one that we have is too dangerous. Its control panel is LED and has too many options that are most evasive. Just trying to increase volume can result in changing to AM/FM or other unwanted options... an accident waiting to happen. The Auto Barn store had a wall display featuring about 20 different players, all of them providing a different coloured LED lightshow, but nothing that one can simply turn on and adjust volume. Oh, and they all now include interfaces for your mobile phone.

My mobile phone sits on my desk and stays there. It is only used for online banking because without it we can no longer pay our bills!

[phranque]

i often remind people that it's not really a mobile phone, it's a mobile computer capable of running a phone app.
when you can turn it on and it's immediately in phone mode - that's a mobile phone.

have you tried purchasing a vhs player recently?

[lucy24]

have you tried purchasing a vhs player recently?

I’ve got one in my garage that I refuse to throw out for fear some day I will come across something that only exists in VHS format.

[Kendo]

it's a mobile computer

It might be for a lot of people, but to anyone with a real computer, it's just an amusement device. As a computer they are very limited. On my Android phone I have trouble typing "p" but no so on iPhone. Typing a url into a phone browser address bar takes forever. Yes, I do have both but only for testing web pages. When I need to ring someone I use our landline which is VOIP... no call costs.

The mobile is on a low usage plan because people call me. When I want to call them I use the landline. Missed a call on the mobile last week and made the mistake of ringing back from the message... chatted for so long that I had to renew my mobile plan.

[thecoalman]

I’ve got one in my garage that I refuse to throw out for fear some day I will come across something that only exists in VHS format.

You'll probably want to store an old TV with it. LOL. RCA inputs are largely gone, TV's still come with coax but I don't know if the tuners are compatible since TV broadcasts are no longer analog and on different frequency with the digital switch. There is of course all kinds of RCA to HDMI converters..

Some VCR's can have quite a bit value. The common ones most people were purchasing are a dime a dozen, On the other hand I have a JVC 9911 which is a highly sought after model. Paid $350 for it in the early 2000's, they are asking $1K+/- on Ebay.

[londrum]

If you want to feel old then visit the Science Museum in London. The last time I went they had my old school computers on display, a couple of flip-phones, and a box of floppy disks. Our lives have become a museum exhibit already

[thecoalman]

I have this old rotary phone I keep in case of power failures, it just works,. My Cousin was here with his kids and he challenged them to make a phone call, they figured it out eventually but it was humorous.

[ronin]

My Cousin was here with his kids and he challenged them to make a phone call,

Hah! That reminded me of this:

[youtube.com...]

And that video is already more than half a decade old...

[thecoalman]

His kids were quite a few years younger than those two but I think they may have had advantage because they were familiar with the dial tone on landline. They only had to figure out the dialing part.

[lucy24]

I have this old rotary phone I keep in case of power failures, it just works

Heh. I bought a corded phone for just that purpose, though I’ve only had occasion to use it once. Turns out, locating the phone jack in pitch darkness was a bit of a challenge.

[thecoalman]

If it plugs in you need to make sure it will work without power, most of them do but you lose the caller ID etc. For the old phones they will even work over VOIP but I noticed the ringer was weak, at least it worked enough on my modem. Of course you need to supply emergency power to the modem if it's VOIP.

[grandma genie]

This is a great post, Lucy. Keep 'em coming. Thank you for all the wisdom you have provided through the years. I have not been on this site for years, and was looking for info on htaccess files when I came upon this post. I am 77 and can completely relate.