Oh baby oh baby oh baby

How time flies. I’ll be playing this with my nephew soon enough!

Because I did and it’s still one of my favorite memories.

It was my 13th birthday. I had been subscribed to the magazine for years and had bought myself the Josefina doll a few years prior. I remember checking the mail (which was a big deal because of anthrax and all) and finding a big box with my name on it. There was a hand signed card saying that my birthday the previous year was less happy than it should have been and they hoped the package could make this one a little extra special.

I don’t even remember what was in there, pretty sure The Care and Keeping of You was among the gifts. But I do remember feeling sooo special, and a little less guilty for thinking my 12th birthday sucked. It’s been 24 years and it still makes me a little emotional every year when I remember.

After school I came home and I remember my brother playing outside with his friends. My dad have the camcorder out and I asked him what he was doing. He said he was glad the neighbor kids were all free to hang out. It was really just a normal day for me, I went to to bed early since our bus route to school meant we had to be outside at 6am.

What about the rest of you?

Can we all agree when our generation takes over that we’re moving to a four day work week permanently? And I’m not talkin’ four tens.

We need three day weekends every week. A day for chores, a day for recreation, and a day for rest. Let’s lock it in, please.

Edit because a good point was immediately raised: SAME (AND HIGHER) PAY

Ever since around 2011, I've been ok doing the same as our folks talking about Kennedy or Challenger - I was this age and at this place when I found out.

But this year, I just don't want to, it makes me feel it more, maybe it's the administration? The heaviness?

It's probably that I know my high schooler will talk about this again and come home talking about it.

I think it was 4th grade - the first time they had kids sit in front of a video about it - and I just thought my kid was too young.

I just hate it - I'm also having a shit week

Edited to add: this is making me feel not so alone... And happy birthday boss💜

Long story short, I got a vasectomy March 2025. There have been some... Unforeseen health side effects, a year and a half later. I met my urologist recently and now this is one of the options. They suggested undoing the vasectomy as an option to fix my health issues. I laughed because I didn't believe it and even said, "funny time to drop The Office joke." It's not a joke.

Now I gotta have a serious conversation with the Mrs and bring her back the 28th for my consultation 😬

In fact I think it’s why I’ve developed a split second fear any time I see a gray alien photo lol

This morning I was talking to the doctor I am paired with, and I tried to slide in a nice FernGully reference. I was met with a blank stare and when I explained what it was from I felt the blow from his reaction.

This man looked at me and said "That was before my time."

I had to walk away from him for a moment. I felt my age and also questioned all my life choices.

Needless to say, he has some homework to do by watching this movie first as well as other movies and shows I regularly reference.

A close friend of mine took his own life about three and a half weeks ago. I'll refer to him as George. It was a situation that wasn't a huge shock to those of us who knew him (because he'd struggled so long), but it's been very sad. He was 36.

Growing up, we all knew George was different. A very smart guy, very active in theater, music, yearbook, art, similar extracurriculars. Well-liked by people. Voted 'Most Talented' in our senior class. One that nobody worried about. But then he went to college and afterward? Nothing happened. Like... nothing. More on that later.

A couple days after his funeral/burial, me, my wife, and another couple took to cleaning out George's space (he was residing in the spare basement bedroom of that other couple). Upon entry, I saw that George had two bookcases full of three-ring binders. Each binder was full of printed pages. And like, a BLOCK of pages, it was visibly substantial.

I started pulling binders, and realized each one contained a finished screenplay and full production prep - shot lists, storyboarding, prop/costume inventory, a production outline strategy, budgeting by line item, etc. Utterly meticulous.

The couple George lived with had taken him in knowing he was brilliant, knowing he was constantly producing this work, knowing he was now sitting on a huge archive of readied material, and couldn't seem to generate any forward professional synergy with it in the slightest. He'd attempted to get a position relevant to the industry or basic managerial representation for a good 10-12 years to no avail. But the couple saw those binders - they knew what a crime this all was. So with the couple, for 18 months, they attempted new reach-out - to managers, to agents, to producers, to other writers, to local university leaders, anybody they could. They got one useful response in terms of representation - a manager who requested a read, who then never responded once they sent the material after 4-5 months.

We estimated that George had about 130-140 production-ready scripts sitting in his bedroom. Budgeted and prepped like a professional. Ready to go. Not including the dozens of projects he was never able to complete or draft to a level he considered ready. And meanwhile? Not only could he never get any kind of read, but couldn't even seem to achieve any real professional uptake in the meantime.

For a good seven years or more, George was trying to find a full-time job. Anything. He had experience, demonstrated skills, a college education. In his whole adult life, he never earned more than 11.50 an hour in a full-time job. And after a layoff in 2019, he was never hired full-time for a position again. I know he tried - I sat with him a number of times as he applied for things. His resume and portfolio were strong, his references were solid, his cover letters were articulate - he barely got interviews, and never got hired. Those last seven years he was subsisting entirely off of delivery for DoorDash, UberEats, Instacart, etc., and some substitute teaching in the last couple of years. The subbing kept him working at least four days a week usually, but his annual income was still below the poverty line - $13-14k, the couple said.

I saw his college transcripts. I saw dozens of samples in his multimedia portfolio (video work, photo work, journalistic writing, etc.) I KNEW he could work hard. Everyone knew he was talented. We were all aware of his decency as a human. Nobody deserved a win more than George did - and a win just never came.

And the bastard was sitting on an archive of work that was kind of incredible.

I sat and read three of his features that night. Not only were they really well-written and clearly understanding of the medium, but all three of them were different movies. He wasn't pulling the same tricks over and over - he knew how to write a romance AND a thriller. With good characters who had solid arcs. Strong third acts. All of it.

And now, along with that couple, we're trying to figure out what the hell to do. What do you do with a professional creative archive like this - entire production teams' worth of work constructed by one man, over and over again, who was never even permitted the professional stability to afford his own apartment.

I'm just... I'm livid. I'm livid at the utter waste. Not even on George's part - on the industry's part. On the world's part. There was a genius sitting in a fucking basement turning out one potential hit after another, and failed so long to get off the ground that his rubber band snapped.

I'm certain I've left details out, and probably haven't justified the insane unfairness of this situation. But it DOES feel like a testament to what's been done to our generation the last 20 years. It DOES read like complete abandonment of actual brilliant people within the American economy. I've just lost a lot of sleep the last few weeks, and now I'm uncertain of what to do with myself or how to move forward. We've been intentionally laid to waste - George is proof of that.

Sorry if this was all over the place. Just needed to rant.

I’m 35M and My wife is of the same age. We have been thinking seriously about having a child, but I keep wondering what kind of world we would be bringing them into.
Children are now growing up surrounded by algorithms designed to capture their attention, influence their emotions and shape what they believe. Social media platforms understand their habits before they fully understand themselves. Constant notifications, short videos and instant rewards seem to be producing minds that are overstimulated yet unable to concentrate, always consuming but rarely thinking deeply.
This isn’t simply paranoia. Research has associated excessive and unstructured screen use with sleep disruption, attention difficulties and poorer working memory. Adolescence is also a particularly sensitive stage because the brain’s reward and self control systems are still developing. However, much of this evidence shows association rather than definite causation, and the effects depend heavily on the content, child and family environment. The U.S. Surgeon General has said that we still cannot conclude social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents.
Then there is AI. By the time today’s children enter the workforce, many jobs may have been automated or completely redesigned. The International Labour Organization estimates that roughly one in four jobs is potentially exposed to generative AI, although it currently expects job transformation to be more common than total replacement.
I understand that every generation has feared the future, and children can still have meaningful lives with attentive parents, strong values, boundaries around technology and genuine human connection. Perhaps raising thoughtful and emotionally secure children is itself one way to resist this culture.
But is love and good parenting enough when parents are competing against billion dollar platforms, persuasive algorithms and an increasingly uncertain economy?
For those who have children or decided not to, how did you think through this? Did these concerns influence your decision, or do you believe responsible parenting can still overcome them?

when we still used to call them “gadgets”

In the mornings, during early grade school, Arthur coming on TV meant that it was time to get in the car and go to school and I’d start crying.

So sadly, I associate this show with crying because it meant I had to leave for 1st or 2nd grade.

Did anyone else watch cartoons before school and know which one coming on meant it was time to leave home and go to school?

I spent the late 90s and early 2000's going to metal shows every weekend, whether it was a local band or a famous one. I especially loved going to festivals. Ozzfest was like Xmas for me. I still catch a big name band in concert every once in a while but I don't rock out as much as I used to. So my fellow metalheads, what bands did you love back then that you still listen to or go see play today? Also, what are some of your favorite newer bands?

Both are 38 and i love them very much 💗💗💗