That probably has something to do with it too. I'm technically lumped into the Millennial generation, but being in my mid-30s, I'm obviously too old to be a whiny, avocado toast munchin' college student, but also too young to be a Gen-Xer, so I guess I'm kind of in the middle where I kind of don't fit in with most other groups except for those who grew up in the 90s.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
That probably has something to do with it too. I'm technically lumped into the Millennial generation, but being in my mid-30s, I'm obviously too old to be a whiny, avocado toast munchin' college student, but also too young to be a Gen-Xer, so I guess I'm kind of in the middle where I kind of don't fit in with most other groups except for those who grew up in the 90s.

My nephew, who is in the same age group as you, sees it similarly. However he has seen the avocado toast munching college students turn into avocado toast munching professionals as they enter the workforce, wrestle with student debt and plan for mortgages and marriage. The idealism of the youthful college student can often last well into the person's forties and then be burst only by a middle aged crisis and receiving their AARP card in the mail.

To be fair, I'm already an AARP member . . . I was signed up as what they call an Associate Member . . . it's one of those perks where they're not allowed to actually tell anybody unless they ask about it, but basically, if you're not a senior citizen, you can still sign up and receive a lot of the same perks that are otherwise available to their senior members. It's how, for a short while, I was able to get decent dental coverage through their partnership with Delta Dental.

So let me get this straight: after all that striking the Actors and Writers guilds did over AI replacing them and taking over their jobs, Jeffrey Katzenberg has decided DreamWorks needs to lay off a vast majority of its animation staff because AI can get the job done instead? As if this guy couldn't get any douchier.

My scanner died. So much for being productive this week.

Oh no! I luckily have never encountered a problem like that before, however, I do know that it happens . . . as a matter of fact, I remember it happened to my friend's comic many ages and moons ago. . . .

http://idget.keenspace.com/d/20040928.html

So I'm changing my legal name to something I actually like. It ain't the easiest of tasks, considering how in my country there aren't any “unisex” names, everything can either be given to boys or girls, no overlap, we write even names of English, US, German, French, etc origins our own special way that stands out and just makes it look ridiculous… and the predetermined list of names to pick from ain't that long. But I've managed to find two that both look and sound the same where I live and other parts of the world, plus at least they are considered unisex elsewhere. The officials in this office will decide whether one is allowed to change their name to this or that, so I expect I won't have an answer ‘til around February next year. Still, I’m quite excited about it. It's funny, how I won't end up naming a character of mine after myself, but myself after a character of mine. :)

Being that I have the same name of a real life well known author (though of math books) if by some miracle something I wrote was ever published I would go with some variation of my name, probably just initials or even my middle name.
I remember during the title search for my name you see everyone with a variation of your name who has a legal record somewhere whether court case or just having a mortgage. There's even someone else with my name married to a woman with my wife's name though the wife's maiden name was different and they lived in Texas.
My landline phone number was hidden by using the wife and my initials rather than our first names. There were a few people we were trying to avoid. Though I did get calls asking if I was Steven Willoughby the entertainer and song stylist, but never for Stephen Willoughby the mathematician.

And if I Google my name I don't show up until the second page of results. 🤣🤣

Meanwhile, it turns out that I share a very similar name with that of a prominent TV political commentator, and once upon a time when Facebook used to feature trends like Twitter/X does, every once in a while, he would trend, and when he would, a number of my friends would get confused because they'd think I was trending.

Although, I took advantage of the trend one day and trolled Facebook for kicks.

I'm known as Michael John Morris to avoid confusion, though there aren't that many people with the same first and last name as me, there are more now than there used to be.
My online name Ozoneocean is more unique but even for that there was a time when a scummy soap maker wanted to steal it for their bath product.


Ozoneocean is named from a track listing on a Led Zeppelin boxed special issue: The Ocean and Ozone baby. But it's interesting that those two words have a connection anyway: people think the smell of the sea is called “ozone”, while real ozone smells like bleach, not the sea air. XD
Some is ozone is produced by lightning strikes…

-The thing about ozone is that it's very reactive and goes away shortly after it's made, unless it's way up in the stratosphere where it can float around and be stable.
-Despite being made a 3 oxygen atoms it's toxic to living tissue because it's so reactive and therefore burns what it touches.
-It's a deep, dark blue colour, unlike O2 which is a much lighter blue.
-If you need it for industrial use you have to produce it on site because it breaks down and reacts so can't reliably be stored.
-O3 is a by-product of diesel use, so that part of what makes diesel fuel so bad (it's mainly the nitrogen compounds though).
-While ozone is great for the upper atmosphere because it reduces the amount of harmful UV radiation that hits us, it's a toxin on our level.
-It's a good cleaning agent because it kills things. Good for sterilizing stuff.

-I'm not sure if a literal ozone ocean could exist because the planet it would be on would have had to have produced enough of that very reactive compound in the first place, also be very cold, and not have much around that would react with the O3… But it was look very cool… Sort of like Neptune but darker.

I could never figure out a good nickname for me, nor could any of my friends. That is, one or two tried, but it's not funny in translation. So I just stuck to my first names. I'm not particularly ashamed of anything I draw or say or do after all.
Btw., when speaking English I tend to stick to the English pronunciation of Paul. It's quite an international name, so why not take advantage of it?
Google tells me there are several guys called Paul Eberhardt, with Eberhardt as a last name, spread around the world. However, Paul-Eberhardt combined with my actual last name makes me unique in the universe known to Google, which is kind of cool. (Just Paul and my last name isn't enough, though, there are half a dozen others.)

As I inherited all my first names from other relatives - it's an old tradition some German families practice to different extents - I've actually got four first names, not just the two I use, and there is an old grave in Bremen with my name on it. It's actually my grandfather's, but visiting does feel a bit awkward at times.

@Inky: Good luck with the name change! I'll cross my fingers for you that they'll accept it.

PaulEberhardt wrote:
Btw., when speaking English I tend to stick to the English pronunciation of Paul. It's quite an international name, so why not take advantage of it?

It comes from the Jewish language originally doesn't it?
“Saul”, we get it from the Christian tradition from the bible. My first two names “Michael” and “John” both come from there too, but I don't know if they have Jewish versions or if they came along with the original Greek version of the bible…

Every-time I hear someone criticise Muslim people for all having similar names like Muhammed Abdullah etc that are all based on the Koran, I'm reminded that English names are EXACTLY the same, my own most especially hahaha!

Michael is borrowed from Hebrew like so many western names it is straight from the Bible. There's a bit more variety to Western names because of all the translations of the Bible so you get a lot of variation like Miguel, Micah, Michael and Michele and people think they're all different, when it's the same Hebrew root with linguistic variations.

At least Stephen doesn't show up until the book of Acts. Variations on Stephen are incredible. Trifon, Istevan, Esteban, Steven, Etienne. My great grandfather was Trifon (“just call him Steve”. Family knew him as Gigi Russian nickname for “grandpa”) my grandfather was Stephen and here I am named for my grandfather.

One of the coolest people I ever knew was a flamboyant and funny (and very gay) designer in Macy's who went by Steph (another Stephen) he was great. The things he came up with. You know why they start putting up the Christmas decorations in stores in October? It used to take that long for the very overworked and understaffed design staff to do them all.
After hearing to Steph talk about what he went through every year I never begrudge a store starting Christmas early.

Goldbelly.
You can only look at the site's catalogue and menu which looks extremely nice. You can't afford anything from there.
The concept for it sounds nice; I'm not risking it unless I earned a gift card with a fixed amount of ‘dough’, however.

Apparently my previous post was deleted for some reason?

J_Scarbrough wrote:
Apparently my previous post was deleted for some reason?

No, you just posted it in the film watch topic by mistake.

Oh. I'm tired. I'm so tired. My new job absolutely sucks . . . when it's not boring and tedious, it's physically and mentally taxing.

InkyMoondrop wrote:

J_Scarbrough wrote:
Apparently my previous post was deleted for some reason?

No, you just posted it in the film watch topic by mistake.

That's so funny XD

FlydiscDude wrote:
Goldbelly.
You can only look at the site's catalogue and menu which looks extremely nice. You can't afford anything from there.

Why pay that much for delivered food? o_O
I'd rather go to a restaurant and have it fresh as well as the whole experience of being there :)

bravo1102 wrote:
At least Stephen doesn't show up until the book of Acts. Variations on Stephen are incredible. Trifon, Istevan, Esteban, Steven, Etienne. My great grandfather was Trifon (“just call him Steve”. Family knew him as Gigi Russian nickname for “grandpa”) my grandfather was Stephen and here I am named for my grandfather.

I used to know a Malaysian girl and a half Filipino girl with the name “Stephanie”. I found it curious they were both called “Steph”. People would say “Where's that Asian girl you were with. Steph? Are you still hanging out?” And I'd have to work out who they meant. XD

Stephen is in my favourite Christmas carol!

"Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the Feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gathering winter fuel…“

I love that carol. It sounds so ancient, but it was only written by an American in 1853! -the tune goes back to the 1200s though.
I love it so much <3
My next fave is ”We Wish You A Merry Christmas"
Though I only like traditional versions. Hate popsong versions or tinkering with them. It takes away the fun and broad appeal.

My response:
Goldbelly.
You can only look at the site's catalogue and menu which looks extremely nice. You can't afford anything from there.

Ozoneocean wrote:
Why pay that much for delivered food? o_O
I'd rather go to a restaurant and have it fresh as well as the whole experience of being there :)

Part of why it's expensive is because of its nationwide delivery service throughout {here in} the United States.

If someone wants to try food from another resturant in America out of state - maybe if a certain food's outta their area, they would go there… or not.
There's been lotsa complaints about the service being expensive and some complaints about how the service uses ice packs instead of dry ice to freeze their orders until they arrive at the customers' residence.

Yes, people could either go out to eat, shop and eat, make their own recipies, or have Doordash/Uber Eats ‘leave it at the porch’, but if they want to try out Goldbelly, it's on them.

My wife signed us up for Fresh Select where you get the fresh ingredients and recipes for five meals a week. They were great and very tasty but not really meant for aging boomers with our ever increasing dietary restrictions. A lot of spices and dairy which neither of us can have really sucked a lot of joy out of a few of the meals. And the cooking was much more intense then they let on. Couldn't keep up with the delivery so we canceled. It would probably fit better into the lives of many here and I'd recommend it but it wasn't a good fit for us.

bravo1102 wrote:
not really meant for aging boomers with our ever increasing dietary restrictions.

I was pretty sure you were a Gen X?
So you were born before 1965?

Ozoneocean wrote:

bravo1102 wrote:
not really meant for aging boomers with our ever increasing dietary restrictions.

I was pretty sure you were a Gen X?
So you were born before 1965?

1964. My wife is 1960. We're from the tail of the baby boom. Always identified with that generation as I was the last of three children I was skewed back ten years earlier than many born just months after I was. Though I know a few Gen-X who are more Boomers because their parents were from the Greatest Generation as opposed to grandparents. Always thought that was what really made the difference.

bravo1102 wrote:
1964.

That's older Gen X to me hahaha! Just one single year out, but you're into gen X stuff, unlike my Baby Boomer Parents who were born in the 1940s!

Ah, generations are a little silly really, I think we all know that. They're sort of useful for categorising people by the similar cultural influences they grew up with and were exposed to, and helping us work out what they might be into and where they might be coming from.

For some reason Gen X gets pretty much ignored, but my theory is that Gen X is largely behind that itself- There are enough of us in places of power and influence in the media and things now to deflect all the negative stuff onto “boomers” when a lot of it should be on Gen X, plus deflection onto Millennials for negative stuff on the other end of the spectrum.

——-

BTW, At the moment I'm listening over and over to “What's the Frequency Kenneth” for some reason. I just find it so fun and poppy. Apparently that was about a theoretical commentator trying to understand Gen X by researching pop-culture -back in the early 90s… before they had the internet to help them.

I think this whole generation identoty thing is a bit like astrology. You see some generalized list of traits and say “Hey that's me!” And you define your identity based on that.
My family was playing a game called “Ok Boomer” that asked questions based on the generation experiences. It was really unfair because we Boomers knew all their references and they didn't know any of ours. I am the youngest before we get to the generation divide. I'm surrounded by my Boomer siblings and spouses. My parents were Greatest Generation so I was raised with their references from the 1930s-40s when they were teens not the 1950s or 60s like Generation X. I'm the one around here who looks back to swing music and big studio Hollywood and I was a teen and adult in the 1980s so a lot of that wasn't the toy I wanted, but the toy that my contemporaries were complaining they had to find for their kid.
I went through Power Rangers, Shining Time Station and Barney as the manager of the media department in a discount store. I purposely binge watched Pokémon to identify with my students when I taught (which I probably would have done if I'd had kids of my own) It's not something that influenced me.

One thing is for sure: a lot of millennials are Pokemon obsessed furries

I was naturally a big Pokemaniac when it first came to America in 1998 like everyone else was, but honestly, I fell off that bandwagaon after a couple of years . . . it all just got too confusing to keep up with, what with how they kept adding like a hundred or so new Pokemon creatures every other year or so, and how the anime kept switching out characters all the time.

bravo1102 wrote:
I think this whole generation identoty thing is a bit like astrology.

In some ways but in other ways definitely not.
Noiot, at your age you've got way more in common with older Gen X than babyboomers, hahaha! Most of them had their main coming of age in the 50s and 60s before you were born. Geez out here in Australia my peer group grew up with all of those old movies you're into because of the delay with new stuff being shipped out here and the cost to show it.
My fave shows on TV when I was growing up was F Troop, Michael's navy, Sergeant Bilko, Bewitched, I dream of Genie, Gomer Pyle, The Lone Ranger, Three muskateers, Flipper, Lassie, Robin Hood, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Adams Family, The Munsters, Hogans Heroes, Scooby Doo, The Monkeys, Popeye, Felix the Cat, Mighty Mouse, Gerry Lewis and Dean Martin Movies, Tom and Jerry, Pink Panther, The Three Stooges, The Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Heckle and Jeckel…

And of course the British classics: Doctor Who, Monkey Magic, The Famous Five, The Goodies, Danger mouse, Banana Man

I LOVED Pokemon when I was at in my final years of university. My more intellectual friends were mystified and a little disapproving but I didn't care. I didn't miss an episode. I really didn't like it when they moved beyond the classic Red and Blue stuff though.

There seems to also be a difference in the generational divide in the US and Australia. By US standards I'm a boomer not a cusp Gen X.
I was into the old stuff because I was around older people not because new stuff wasn't available.
Never identified as a Gen X. I hate Friends and Seinfeld. If you don't like those shows you're not Gen X. XD 🤣🤣

bravo1102 wrote:
There seems to also be a difference in the generational divide in the US and Australia.

Big time.
Man,I grew up loving Fred Astair, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, Bettie Davis, Bob Hope, Bing Cosby, Danny Kaye, Howard Keil, Errol Flynn, Sabu, Micky Rooney, Judy Garland and more much more.
They were the stars of Hollywood to me when I was growing up.

I hate Friends and Seinfeld. If you don't like those shows you're not Gen X. XD 🤣🤣

I never really liked Seinfeld very much when it was first on, but I appreciate it now. It's well written.
Friends however- no.
I hated it and still hate it.

I appreciate actors like Lisa Kudrow and Jennifer Aniston because of their movie acting, but all I thought about Friends was that it forever ruined a fun song by the Rembrandts :(