A definite sign that you're getting old.

[Rían]

Originally posted by Coney
...and of course I have the obligatory toilet roll holder that also has a radio, teasmaid and ashtray built in

What in the world is a "teasmaid"??

I like writing things down - no Palm Pilots for me! And I can write notes in Tengwar if I don't want anyone to see them

[Coney]

Originally posted by RÃ*an
What in the world is a "teasmaid"??

It's a kinda automatic tea-making thingummyjig..........it's intended to put beside yer bed and yer set a time so it boils water/brews tea 5 mins before yer alarm goes off on a morning .... so every morning yer can have a cup of tea in bed, a hedonists dream!

it took me a while to find one for the bathroom.

Edit: Actually I think it's spelled teasmade...........I can see how the alternative spelling might have caused a little confusion

[Rían]

Why would you want one for the bathroom? Do you enjoy your first cup on the throne of thought? I think I'd rather have tea in bed!

[Coney]

Originally posted by RÃ*an
Why would you want one for the bathroom? Do you enjoy your first cup on the throne of thought? I think I'd rather have tea in bed!

Nah, not on the throne I use it mainly in the winter......set the timer on the teasmade, jump into a hot bath..........doze asleep in the bath, timer goes off before the water turns cold and I climb out the bath to a nice hot cup of tea!

[Rían]

Ooooh, sounds simply marvellous!

Too darn hot here to even think of tea now, tho. One bad thing about summer is that I miss hot tea...

[Alcuin]

1. I eat my vegetables first, and often take seconds if I can.
2. In high school, we all used slide rules for a couple of years before (expensive!) hand-held calculators became available.
   • We couldn’t use calculators on competitive tests: only slide rules.
3. Math teachers actually graded homework and tests by hand rather than using multiple-choice sheets they run through an automatic counting machine like so many voter ballots.
   • We all learned from our mistakes.
   • Some of us really learned math rather than becoming innumerate, easily brainwashed NPCs.
4. I remember when the people who ran Western countries were actually proud of their countries and tried to make them better and stronger. The British were proud of Britain; Americans of America; Canadians of Canada; Australians of Australia; and so on, rather than constantly declaring how ashamed they are of their own countrymen and doing their best to ruin their economies and their societies.
5. I remember when American national holidays actually occurred on the holiday rather than on the nearest Monday.
6. I remember when graduating medical students swore the Hippocratic Oath, including the (now considered in)famous line,

   I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.

   Anyone who broke his oath lost his medical license.
7. I remember when it was legal to smoke tobacco in the office and illegal to smoke marijuana anywhere.
8. I remember when “journalists” actually reported what had happened instead of whatever they made up out of whole cloth.
9. I remember when Google was still a reliable search engine that didn’t skew results according to the whims of a gaggle of loud-mouthed louts and busybodies who insist on telling everyone else how to think.
10. I remember when the main stream media warned we were about to enter an ice age.
    • Winooski, Vermont, was so alarmed that it petitioned Congress to build a dome over the entire town. The rest of the country thought they were nuts, and it became something of a running joke. Not long after, the global warming scare began.
11. I was in college when the first, animated Hobbit movie was released by Rankin/Bass.
    
12. I remember when conservative college administrators tried to reign in Marxist students rioting on campus rather than Marxist college administrators stirring up riots to terrorize conservative students.
13. I bought a copy of The Silmarillion the year it was published.
14. I first read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in 1973, finishing LotR right about the time JRR Tolkien died.
15. I remember when adults (my parents’ age and older) thought Tolkien’s work was “satanic” and refused to even consider that it might have been informed by Christian or (gasp!) Catholic belief.

That’s enough for now. We walked to school in the burning heat, knee-deep in snow, uphill both ways, avoiding saber-toothed tigers, and had 30 minutes for lunch when we had to capture, kill, skin, and cook our own mastodons, then defend them from scavenging tyrannosaurus rexes in order to eat them before the bell rang.

[Valandil]

Originally Posted by Alcuin

1. I eat my vegetables first, and often take seconds if I can.
2. In high school, we all used slide rules for a couple of years before (expensive!) hand-held calculators became available.
   • We couldn’t use calculators on competitive tests: only slide rules.
3. Math teachers actually graded homework and tests by hand rather than using multiple-choice sheets they run through an automatic counting machine like so many voter ballots.
   • We all learned from our mistakes.
   • Some of us really learned math rather than becoming innumerate, easily brainwashed NPCs.
4. I remember when the people who ran Western countries were actually proud of their countries and tried to make them better and stronger. The British were proud of Britain; Americans of America; Canadians of Canada; Australians of Australia; and so on, rather than constantly declaring how ashamed they are of their own countrymen and doing their best to ruin their economies and their societies.
5. I remember when American national holidays actually occurred on the holiday rather than on the nearest Monday.
6. I remember when graduating medical students swore the Hippocratic Oath, including the (now considered in)famous line,Anyone who broke his oath lost his medical license.
7. I remember when it was legal to smoke tobacco in the office and illegal to smoke marijuana anywhere.
8. I remember when “journalists� actually reported what had happened instead of whatever they made up out of whole cloth.
9. I remember when Google was still a reliable search engine that didn’t skew results according to the whims of a gaggle of loud-mouthed louts and busybodies who insist on telling everyone else how to think.
10. I remember when the main stream media warned we were about to enter an ice age.
    • Winooski, Vermont, was so alarmed that it petitioned Congress to build a dome over the entire town. The rest of the country thought they were nuts, and it became something of a running joke. Not long after, the global warming scare began.
11. I was in college when the first, animated Hobbit movie was released by Rankin/Bass.
    
12. I remember when conservative college administrators tried to reign in Marxist students rioting on campus rather than Marxist college administrators stirring up riots to terrorize conservative students.
13. I bought a copy of The Silmarillion the year it was published.
14. I first read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in 1973, finishing LotR right about the time JRR Tolkien died.
15. I remember when adults (my parents’ age and older) thought Tolkien’s work was “satanic� and refused to even consider that it might have been informed by Christian or (gasp!) Catholic belief.

That’s enough for now. We walked to school in the burning heat, knee-deep in snow, uphill both ways, avoiding saber-toothed tigers, and had 30 minutes for lunch when we had to capture, kill, skin, and cook our own mastodons, then defend them from scavenging tyrannosaurus rexes in order to eat them before the bell rang.

What a childhood!

[Alcuin]

Originally Posted by Valandil

What a childhood!

Teenage years, mostly. Maybe my childhood isn't over, or my second childhood has arrived.

[Snowdog]

Originally Posted by Alcuin

1. I eat my vegetables first, and often take seconds if I can.
2. In high school, we all used slide rules for a couple of years before (expensive!) hand-held calculators became available.
   • We couldn’t use calculators on competitive tests: only slide rules.
3. Math teachers actually graded homework and tests by hand rather than using multiple-choice sheets they run through an automatic counting machine like so many voter ballots.
   • We all learned from our mistakes.
   • Some of us really learned math rather than becoming innumerate, easily brainwashed NPCs.
4. I remember when the people who ran Western countries were actually proud of their countries and tried to make them better and stronger. The British were proud of Britain; Americans of America; Canadians of Canada; Australians of Australia; and so on, rather than constantly declaring how ashamed they are of their own countrymen and doing their best to ruin their economies and their societies.
5. I remember when American national holidays actually occurred on the holiday rather than on the nearest Monday.
6. I remember when graduating medical students swore the Hippocratic Oath, including the (now considered in)famous line,Anyone who broke his oath lost his medical license.
7. I remember when it was legal to smoke tobacco in the office and illegal to smoke marijuana anywhere.
8. I remember when “journalists� actually reported what had happened instead of whatever they made up out of whole cloth.
9. I remember when Google was still a reliable search engine that didn’t skew results according to the whims of a gaggle of loud-mouthed louts and busybodies who insist on telling everyone else how to think.
10. I remember when the main stream media warned we were about to enter an ice age.
    • Winooski, Vermont, was so alarmed that it petitioned Congress to build a dome over the entire town. The rest of the country thought they were nuts, and it became something of a running joke. Not long after, the global warming scare began.
11. I was in college when the first, animated Hobbit movie was released by Rankin/Bass.
12. I remember when conservative college administrators tried to reign in Marxist students rioting on campus rather than Marxist college administrators stirring up riots to terrorize conservative students.
13. I bought a copy of The Silmarillion the year it was published.
14. I first read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in 1973, finishing LotR right about the time JRR Tolkien died.
15. I remember when adults (my parents’ age and older) thought Tolkien’s work was “satanic� and refused to even consider that it might have been informed by Christian or (gasp!) Catholic belief.

Yeah we're roughly the same age. Graduated High School in 1976 and attended tech-college until 1978 after which I got my first full-time job with a corporation. We manufactured line and serial printers whose test programs were run by loading paper-tape program strips into a Nova 1200 mainframe. They were coded in octal...

I embraced the gadgetry of the mid-later '00's, but have slowly gone the other way, with my abandonment picking up the pace around 2015 when the toxic tea party & trumpism arose. Originally I signed up on fecebook to stay in touch with the kids and grandkids, but it developed into the opposite and two of three of my kids have made it clear how shiddy of a dad I was. Oh well.