You know you're getting old when ...

... you work with people who've never heard of TRON.

As for the glasses, I've been stuck with them since third grade.

I've had glasses since I was like 13 myself. You're not really old until you need bifocals.

Maybe back in your day, when the ability to stalk and slay a wildebeest carried some social currency. But we've got medicine and electricity now.

I've had glasses since age 6. My eyesight is the worst! I know I'm not that old, but I turn 35 in a few months and I certainly have a hard time keeping up with the kids these days. I used to go out several times a week, now twice is a lot. My recovery time is shot to hell.

I got glasses recently, more for distance stuff than anything else, and I'm having the same issue as you. Used to be that stuff was a bit blurry without them but still legible, now without my glasses it's almost impossible to make out bus numbers until they're about a five feet away.

At 24 I used to be the youngest person in my Team at work, then we hired some interns and now I'm seven years older than most people. Which wouldn't be so bad, but I'm a guy who prides myself on my musical knowledge and they're talking about musical genres I'm sure are fictional.

Me: "Oh, what you listening to?"

Them "Oh it's Low Fi Electro-Crunk"

Me: "Oh......sounds...good"

I've worn glasses since age 7, contacts since 13, so that's not a big deal for me. Here are the things that are:
I'm going bald. Mostly in the back, at least I can't see it.

I make a sound most times I sit down.

The ratio of single friends to not single friends has completely flipped (used to be 9 to 1, now the opposite).

I'm not the youngest one in the office. In my actual physical office, I'm the oldest.

I can't tell you the last time I was up until 5 am for a reason that didn't involve my kid not sleeping.

I hear ya. I just turned 40 last month, and my eyes have taken a serious turn into blursville. There's no way in hell that I'd pass a driving test at the moment...ugh. Time to get my eyes checked, I guess.

When I was a kid there was an eccentric old guy, came over on the boat from Italy, who owned a boostore in town. When I has grasscutting money left after buying comic books I'd ride my bike to his store and buy Doc Savage or John Carter of Mars books. He always had two pairs of glasses on him...sometimes both on his forehead, sometimes both on his nose, or variations in between. He would flip one or both pairs around as he needed to see at different ranges.

Every time I flip my bifocals onto my forehead and hold some fine print close-up to read it I think of him.

I had Lasik done 10 years ago this November. It's worked amazingly for me, as my eyesight is still 20/20. Previously, I'd worn glasses/contacts since 1988 (a total of 12 years), so I've loved not having to worry about those ever since.

Now, in keeping with the thread topic, the reading glasses aren't too far off. I still have a ways to go, but the smaller text is getting harder to read every day.

I used to occasionally wear glasses in high school, then one day did the eye exam and they told me I don't need them anymore.

Have you considered lasik btw?

The next step is getting used to the glasses and then finding out they're still not enough.

"What's on this medicine bottle ...." [take glasses off and read like you're decoding the bible written inside someone's nostril]

Bifocals on their way, dammit!

Been astigmatic since the 8th grade. (roughly 13 yo) I have been contemplating Lasik for the past few years, but I make a living using my sight, so I'd be miserable if things ever went wrong. But I figure the procedure's been done enough times that its safe now. What ever should I do?

Don't fear the laser. I had it done around 6 years ago and it has worked great for me. Still at 20/15.

You know you are old when you have to explain to the new engineer you just hired what Cannonball Run is. How do you describe Captain Chaos to someone born in 1988? They don't have the frame of reference that allows for understanding of such a thing.

My brother went through Lasik, and it worked for him for about 8 years so far, buts he has complained about his sight becoming a bit worse lately.
I'd say that if your sight is essentially for your job and glasses/contacts aint a bore/problem, stick with what you've got.

Glasses are really no big deal. I'm 27 and have had glasses since 6th grade. So glasses as a sign of getting old is not accurate.


I guarantee a real effective test that proves that your old, with at least 90% accuracy:

Go to a public place with a decent amount of people. Fall. Fall to the ground. If you are immediately assisted and nobody laughs, then you are old.

I'd get lasik done in a heartbeat if it weren't a bit cost prohibitive for me.

I've needed glasses since I was a kid, but I could never get used to wearing them for more than a couple of weeks. Contacts were a no-go, since I have a fear of anything getting near my eyes. Luckily, I was able to (barely) squint my way through the DMV vision test to get my drivers license.

On my wife's insistence, I got an eye exam, and my vision wasn't getting any better. After hearing my gripes, the optometrist recommended Lindberg glasses. I hated the high price tag, but damn, they had me at hello. They've got a sleek rimless frame made out of thin titanium, no visible screws, and they feel about as heavy as a potato chip.

I never take 'em off, and I wish I had discovered this brand sooner. Mine look similar to these –

I started wearing glasses at 21, and my eyesight had been progressively getting poor since I was 20. I got used to them fairly quickly, and I wear the kind that only have half of a frame around the lens. It's over the top portion of it. I don't have a problem wearing them, and I've heard that people who have to wear them later in life really don't like them, but I dig them.

The funny thing is that I've been told that wearing them makes me look smarter. So I guess they add character to me.

...you saw Avatar out of 'duty' because everyone kept insisting it was transformative instead of peeing your pants over the trailer.

PS: I had a girl go 'reverse-sexy-librarian' on my a few months ago. With glasses off I'm like 'aw, cute', with glasses on I'm like 'I want to have your baby'.

I have a friend how is a leading doctor in Lasik. He offered to do my eyes for free, I am astigmatic. I told him I would do it the day after he did his own kids. He is also astigmatic, and wears contacts.

I've always found glasses sexy on a woman.

That's a little more worrying for some of us.

For me it was looking at photos of my brother's wedding and realizing that my father was only four years older in those pictures than I am now. And I have a two year old. Damn I'll be old when she gets married.

Me too, me too. I'm just a movie nerd, so I think in tropes.

Oh god, Geoff, my heart goes out to you. I now have been wearing glasses pretty regularly for the past few months. I even typed up an epic blog party entry about it

http://www.chud.com/forum/showpost.p...&postcount=157

Since you have that covered, I think I'll just add this: Skin elasticity!

I've noticed that my face seems less elastic recently. I'll turn my head to the side as far as I can, and my face sort of stretches. 23 is soooooo old, it's not even funny. I already am nostalgic for being a teenager, and that fact depresses me to no end

So, you guys that went under the laser: How awake are you during this thing? I would love to get my eyes fixed, whether they go back to being shitty over time or not, but I have a pathological fear of eye trauma and the idea of being awake and aware while someone probes my eyeballs is pretty much my idea of Cenobitian Hell on Earth.

I've been told that even laser beams can't help my eyes

Uh...

shit

I don't know if you read my blog entry. NEXUS 7, but apparently I'm going to need bifocals by the time I'm 30...

You're wide awake, and so far as I know, you have to be in order to direct your eyes properly for the surgery. My eyes are very photosensitive, so they doped me up on Xanax to relax me, which might be an option for you. There's no sensation to speak of.

Don't do blogs much, Kate. But in my case, I'm 47 and just got them last November. So I guess it's due.

Last year, I taught a class of high school kids who'd never heard of Indiana Jones. After repeated descriptions, a single one of them could recall having seen Crystal Skull.

That is more depressing than the fact that I'll need bifocals in less than seven years

There is just a little bit of smell though. Princes Kate's laser picture above is actually a reasonable approximation of what it looks like.

They gave me some kind of downer. I'm pretty sure I could have done it without as I'm pretty mellow, but I took it anyway. Really, the key to laser surgery is finding a doctor that you are comfortable with. I paid more than some, but I got one of the top guys in the SE to do mine. Piece of mind goes a long way to calming the jitters.

Wow, that's amazing. I've never heard of anyone forgetting their age before (early alzheimers?)

For me, the scary number is 25. Not only will my 20s be more than half over, but I think I see that moment as the date where I'll have officially wasted my life.. By age 20, Alexander III of Macedon was king of Greece, and by age 25, he was King of Babylon and had overthrown the most powerful empire the world had ever known.

I feel that unless by 25 I have a comparably impressive accomplishment to my name, I'll have failed at living

We only get a few years on this earth. A blink of the eye, really, is all the time we're afforded to leave our imprint on history..... and I'm worried when I'm gone no one will remember me (like they do with Alexander, anyway)

I was watching Kundun again last night, and the mesmerizing Phillip Glass music was playing, but all I could think was "If someone were to one day film a biopic of my life, would they require music such as this in order to do my story justice?" And as of right now, the answer would be no, I'd have to say. And by 25, I think I'll feel certain that music best suited to The Tale of Kate will be the REQUIEM FOR A DREAM score


EDIT: I totally forgot where I was going with that.

Anyway, 40 is your scary number, mine is 25, and once I get there I fully intend to lie about my age. I plan on going with '24' in any and all situations (other than legal things like forms or contracts) until someone calls me on it.

My apologies to you and Loughman above. I'll get off your lawn now.
I really like this theory.
Yeah, you're not only old, but crrrazy to boot!

You know you're old when you try to remember what movie you saw last on the big screen.

Hm, for me it's that, by 25, Orson Welles was already directing Citizen Kane. But I've abandoned my delusions of grandeur. Maybe I'll have a tiny, low-budget feature completed before I'm 30. That would be nice. All I need is about 15 grand to shoot this script. Anyone?

Nobody will remember you, though, and I'll include myself in this category as well. Likely everyone else on this message board will be forgotten as well. In the larger scheme of things.

I'm not particularly fond of my teenage years. Glad they're gone, actually. I've worn glasses for over ten years, but they are well-suited to me. In fact, I look better overall than when I was a teenager. Perhaps I can understand the anxiety of the OP, but PERHAPS AS WELL you should find nice glasses.

Um what does it mean that I mistakenly tell people I'm 35 (I'm 34)?

guys I'm 25 am I going to die I need to get laid again before I croak

I felt vaguely old when I realized I had friends born in the nineties (born 1988). Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it was there... And I ordered a beer at a local restaurant last week and didn't get carded... I'm only 21.

Got my cheap black plastic frames and plastic lenses shortly before starting to play Dungeons and Dragons with some friends on a weekly basis... Oddly fitting.

Do it right, then go to Thailand like David Carradine did!