Random Thoughts 0o10: Special Limited Deluxe Collector's Edition

[Arakhor]

How old did you think I was?

If you have teenage children, at least forty already, but maybe they're not teenagers yet.

 

[Commodore]

If you have teenage children, at least forty already, but maybe they're not teenagers yet.

They are both still single digit in their ages.

 

[cardgame]

I did think you were approximately 40. I don't have an exact date on anybody in this forum except Birdjaguar but only because he specifically mentioned it within the past two weeks or so, I'll probably forget it by spring

 

[Zardnaar]

Got bored went for walk to the doctor appointment. Slumming it up in NZ woe is me. Local park in my suburb.

Spoiler NZ Slum :

Seagulls, hills, green.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Meow. Woof.

 

[choxorn]

I also would have guessed that Commodore is about 40

 

[Timsup2nothin]

They are both still single digit in their ages.

I had guessed you as not terribly close to forty, but close enough to say that you had your kids too late to be retiring at forty.

I arrived at this theory when I was not yet an adult myself; if you have kids, you will be poor. No matter what you make, no matter what opportunities drift your way, raising kids is such a taxing of your resources that you just can't get around it. So my target and plan was always to be poor until my kids were grown, and then parley the huge drop in my expenses into being able to retire five years later.

Then my parents, as usual, provided the perfect example of what not to do. We all grew up and left home, and my parents were committed to living out their days being poor in a four bedroom house that they had no need for in any way at all.

There were a whole lot of unexpected twists, turns, and bumps in the road, but sure enough I had three kids at twenty-one, they were on their own when I hit forty, and at forty-five I considered myself to be retired.

 

[Commodore]

I arrived at this theory when I was not yet an adult myself; if you have kids, you will be poor. No matter what you make, no matter what opportunities drift your way, raising kids is such a taxing of your resources

Ain't that the truth. It took a long time after having kids just to be able to scrape together some money to start investing. My wife and I have pretty much had to go without a lot of luxuries for ourselves to be able to maintain the balance between giving our kids a good life and building up a retirement fund.

My wife is already "retired" though in the sense that we are at a point financially where she was able to quit her job. She has taken on the housewife role though, hence why the word retired was in quotation marks.

Now I just have to get myself retired so we can really start enjoying life.

 

[Commodore]

Just had an idea: When I was in the Army, some the best soldiers I ever met were people who came from "sketchy" backgrounds. I don't know what it was, but they just took to the military life so well and went on to become good citizens after serving.

So my idea is this: Start a program that would give non-violent offenders who are currently in prison the option to serve out the remainder of their sentence in the military. Under this program, they would be released from prison and would be treated like any other citizen. No probation, no monitoring, and their conviction would even be expunged from their record. Basically they would be given the chance to restart their life on the right path, with the added bonus of all those sweet benefits veterans get once they get out. As for their service, they would be treated like any other soldier as far as what jobs would be available to them and would be treated like any other soldier as far as promotions and such go.

The only stipulation would be their enlistment contract must be for the remaining length of their prison sentence and their service must end in an honorable discharge. I think this idea benefits both the military and those currently imprisoned. The military gets people who seem to be better suited to the military life, thus resulting in higher quality soldiers and the prisoners get a true second chance at life without having to worry about the stigma of a conviction holding them back and possibly forcing them back into crime.

 

[Takhisis]

It's not a bad thought to at least try and help people, and I think it's an improvement if you're trying to find a solution for crime that goes beyond sticking criminals in a cage or just killing them. But I think that everybody should get the benefits veterans get (e.g. healthcare and education, believe it, in countries where this is done properly people actually don't do as much crime).

What would you do with the others, those who will not or cannot serve in the military? Everybody deserves a chance at redemption. In fact, a lot of people don't become career criminals until their first stay in prison.

 

[Zkribbler]

Start a program that would give non-violent offenders who are currently in prison the option to serve out the remainder of their sentence in the military.

Keeping someone in prison is crazy-mad expensive.

 

[Commodore]

What would you do with the others, those who will not or cannot serve in the military

Well they would continue serving their sentence. For those who want to join but can't for whatever reason, perhaps some kind of alternate type of service could be devised.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

And yeah, scum dad's would certainly abuse the system, but is that really such a bad thing?

Hell, yes, it's a bad thing.

That's not really how courts decide how much someone should be compensated for damages though. It's usually based on actual damage caused, which as I said, could be calculated as the cost of any mental health treatment the father has to undergo as a result of being denied fatherhood.

If a man is going to sue his wife (or girlfriend) for "being denied fatherhood", the relationship is basically over anyway. So he's free to seek another woman, or hire a surrogate to bear his offspring.

Headline in the business section of the Tribune this morning,


Well Duh.

That's old news here.

God creates dinosaurs.
God destoys dinosaurs.
God creates Man.
Man destroys God.
Man creates dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs eat Man.
Woman inherits the Earth.

Um, whut?

I prefer this version (approximately reproduced as it is on the button I bought at a science fiction convention):

The meek will inherit the Earth.
The rest of us will go on to the
Stars.
​

Uh, Iowa? I don't know anything about it other than....it has a lot of corn or something.

It's where Captain Kirk was born!

I did think you were approximately 40. I don't have an exact date on anybody in this forum except Birdjaguar but only because he specifically mentioned it within the past two weeks or so, I'll probably forget it by spring

*Ahem*. My birthday is coming up in June. I will be 57. If anyone wants to start a thread at that time (check my profile), it would be a nice present.

(once upon a time we had an opt-in social group that kept track of things like this...)

 

[Timsup2nothin]

If you have teenage children, at least forty already, but maybe they're not teenagers yet.

I had three teenage children very early in my thirties, depending where you draw the line on teenage. My youngest turned thirteen when I was thirty-four.

 

[choxorn]

Um, whut?

 

[Arakhor]

I had three teenage children very early in my thirties, depending where you draw the line on teenage. My youngest turned thirteen when I was thirty-four.

Well, you're already 50-something, so that's no longer skewing expectations of your age.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Well, you're already 50-something, so that's no longer skewing expectations of your age.

Yeah, I know. Just pointing out that "has teenage kids" does not always provide a sure read.

In my own confrontation with mortality, I went out to lunch with my sister last week, at a place that's sort of in between fast food and full service restaurant. They give you this pager and you go pick up your own food when it's ready, but it comes on plates rather than in wrappers. Anyway...

We order and go find a table, but my sister runs off to the bathroom before she even sits down, so I'm by myself. At another table, close but not real close, there's this woman with a toddler and I'm thinking mom. She's cute, I turn on the thousand watt smile, she smiles, she points me out to the little toddler and I pull a face that makes the toddler laugh, she laughs and is willing to lock eyes with intent...I'm leaning single mom, might be interesting if I didn't already have a gf, might still be interesting in a totally no strings kind of way. Then their food arrives at the table, carried by twenty something girl who looks enough like both of them to make it crystal clear that I've been flirting with a grandmother.

Not that I'm unaware that I am in grandfather range myself, or that I changed my opinions of the cutie I was flirting with...it was just kind of an abrupt turn of events.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Basically they would be given the chance to restart their life on the right path, with the added bonus of all those sweet benefits veterans get once they get out.

Like funeral processions?

depending where you draw the line on teenage.

Isn't there a fairly well established hard line on that? (or rather, two lines)

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Isn't there a fairly well established hard line on that? (or rather, two lines)

I dunno. I've heard people say that thirteen has teen right in it so that's where it starts. I've also heard people say that it is a decade thing with 'teen' meaning 'ten' so teenage starts at ten...or as you pass ten so eleven. I never cared enough to argue for or against any of the three, and I still don't.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Teenagers are technically 13-19. However, in some jurisdictions, 18 is when kids are legally adult. Others have it at 19, and still more at 21.