This is a thread for ILXors in their 30's!!! yo yo yo breakdancing etc...

When I was 21 I had a couple of friends who were ~34, but the gap was obvious.

Actually, sometimes it wasn't obvious, and I was an immature 21 so pls disregard

I was thinking this morning as I was changing the battery in the smoke detector that the only things I can think of that use those rectangular 9-volts are detectors, guitar pedals, and those old blip football games.

I doubt anyone more than ten years older than me remembers those things and anyone born after 1983 surely has no idea what I'm talking about, unless they've been to a gizmo museum lately.

the football games. I'm sure everyone of all ages knows about smoke detectors and guitar pedals.

http://ledfootball.com/

Just about any portable microprocessor based item back then used those PP3 batteries, and drained them flat pretty fast.

Are there still any items that actually use D size batteries? I found an old speak n spell last year but even it uses C size (and they werent easy to buy anyway).

C batteries now seem massively expensive.

i turn 39 in 3 weeks i don't feel like i'm in my 30s so much as running out the lease on them. but that's ok. they've been pretty good to me. i ended my 20s in kind of a shambles -- newly divorced, utterly unclear about the future -- and i'm ending my 30s with a job i like, a wife i love and two kids whose life-changing effects i can't start to express.

i'm kind of expecting my 40s to go by in a blur of elementary school and employment anxiety. (i used to think i'd stay in journalism til retirement, but that seems like an increasingly dicey prospect.)

Eh? I have been just as likely to stay up all night drawing at any point in my life from aged about 16 til now. Not a function of age! The not being able to function properly the next day is a function of age, though. :-(

Candle, glass of wine, sketchbook. Heaven!

I was joking! Drawing is ace.

Are there still any items that actually use D size batteries?

D-cell M4g1it3 is the only currently available item that springs to mind. I still have a boombox from the early 80's that takes ten D-cells. I've never powered that off batteries due to the cost.

I can think of a D-size-shaped thing that probably uses D-size batteries.

An electric pencil sharpener?

I'm eight months into 30 and so far I love it. Most days I still feel about 18 so maybe that's why. I'm excited for all the things my 30's will bring. Also, fwiw every vibrator I've ever had only took AAs.

who mentioned vibrators?

We were talking torches!

watching the metallic programme on beeb2 last night made me feel great to be in my 30's. i don't know exactly why.

haha metallica

I still buy hoodies and don't iron a goddamn thing. Maybe once I hit the big 3-1?

-- Granny Dainger, Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:44 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Link

^^ Me too. I own an iron but can't remember the last time I used it. Bought new hoodie yesterday. At least maybe I'll get 4 months wear out of it. ;-)

people who use irons are idiots

The ironing is delicious.

I own an iron and can iron. I started getting immensely better paid jobs once I learned the ironing trick. So maybe not such an idiot after all.

Ironing is dead easy but no fun. Although if you iron everything you own there's something wrong with you in the head.

it might explain why i'm still single though

Oh, the iron-y...

who mentioned vibrators?

Mark G, I believe that it was you

Most days I still feel about 18

Normally this is the case with me, however I have just walked a mile.

Oh I know how to iron too but I tend to buy things that don't require it because I hate doing it so much. This extends to clothes I buy for my husband as well.

I hate ironing. I used to wear non-iron shirts but they really itch. I found that a good compromise is those heavy cotton Oxford shirts. Work trousers = non iron. Everything else, sod it...

Ironing has never really bothered me. I kinda like it. I mean, obviously I don't do it all that often.

But Liberty print shirts of the type I like to wear to work really don't look good if not ironed.

agh shit, you all just reminded me to iron.

I bought an ironing board when I moved in October 06 and have used it once.

i LOVED turning 30 because it meant i could officially give up on my dreams

my biggest personal bummer about old age is that my friends are all having kids and stuff, and i'm still like, "duh how do i become an adult?"

or even simulate some vague approximation thereof

sunny ;____;

i mean, someday i'll have cornered the market as far as life-mastery goes, and then i'll be gloating and be like "fuck you guys, i've totally mastered life and I'M A PROPER ADULT"

I don't think I'll ever really be a proper adult. I find myself thinking about things like having a baby and buying property but then thinking wait I can't do that, I'm still a kid!

See, I've taken myself out of that equation so far. (And I'm thrilled, frankly.)

meh, i have friends who were just as immature as I am, and a baby came by accident, and they have since then, pardon the phrase, more than kicked ass at raising their kid...

so...

Nobody is a "proper" adult. Anybody who claims they are is secretly worried that you'll call BS on them. Particularly people who are all "I've got a six bedroom house and two cars and blah blah blah" and try and make you feel inadequate. All you have to do is turn to them and say "SO. FUCKING. WHAT."

Ned, it is ok because you are immortalised in Swindon in any case.

I'm with Ned on this - I'm not concerned at all with having the same house and doing the same things and having the same stuff in my house as the twenty other households on my street.

Yeah ditto here. Still rent, no kids, no intention thereof, not married (though tbh I think I'd like to marry my guy at some point). Wld like to buy a house but cant see it happening. Eh. I've become resigned to it all now I think.

Tell you what though: in my early 30s nothing felt different, but since 35 I have actually started to feel *older*. I'm slower, kids today actually start makin' less sense, I cant drink like I used to, I can't be bothered partying much, being at home cooking is fun, etc.

Yeah I don't necessarily want all the typical things either although we do want a kid(s) at some point and I assume we'll want to buy a place just not right now. I guess I'm just feeling a little werid because a lot of our friends are doing these things now and we're just not there yet at all really.

Ned, it is ok because you are immortalised in Swindon in any case.

Fame! I'm going to live etc.

I've felt a bit tired here and there at points lately but not constantly. Depends on the day. If it gets worse, eh; life goes on.

I probably haven't helped my creaky age-itis by my rather party-harty lifestyle.

Kids! Booze makes you feel shit when you're older!

I don't do late nights very well anymore, but only because I get up at 5 for the gym.

Kids! Booze makes you feel shit when you're older!

This is true. I had two spend all day in bed hangovers this year that would have been nothing to me 10 years ago.

Guys we own a 4 bedroom house, 2 cars, have a kid, a dog, three cats, both have full time jobs and I feel 17 y/o 99% of the time. This shit doesnt make you an "adult".

All of this stuff happened because it made sense at the time and still does ie it doesn't cost much more to own a house than to rent one here so why throw money away when you're happy to stay in the same place for a little while, there's two of us who do different things and go to different places so we need two cars, the kid i was very wishy washy edging toward negative it turns out shes the best decision of my life.

I pretty sure being an adult the way you're all talking about it is a myth.

btw all of that stuff happened in the last 3 years, except the cats.

In my 20s I always had this really desperate feeling that I was running out of time to do something with my life. I have no clue what that something was. By the time I reached 30 I felt like no one really expected anything of me anymore which was like the greatest feeling ever.

I am still the reverse of most people when it comes to boozing - I had really terrible puking shaking hangovers when I was a teenager, and they got less awful as I got older. The only negative is the pains-in-kidneys thing I get instead of hangovers. I only get proper hangovers if I get WASTED OUT OF MY FACE which these days is maybe 3 or 4 times a year.

still waitin for that (xp)

God, if I thought that turning 30 was a permission to give up on my dreams... gah! I never would have done anything.

In fact, I'm actually quite lucky! I had kinda said to my mum that if I hadn't achieved anything by the time I was 30 I'd give up and stop trying. A week before my 30th birthday my then-band got reviewed in the NME (back when this was actually quite a big deal). Everything important that I accomplished in terms of the musician-dream (singles, tours, album, being on the radio/telly/face in magazines etc. etc.) happened AFTER I was 30. So I'm really glad I didn't give up then.

40, however... I feel like I've done everything I'm gonna do on the musician-dream and it's officially time to bury it and get a new dream.

I just don't know what that is yet.

But the moral of the story is, kids, it ain't over at 30. Keep trying if there's something you really want to do, and don't let anyone tell you you're "too old". You're not too old until you can't pass for young any more.