Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?
Anyone who reads anything on this site will know I am a glass half full kind of guy, most of the time.
Do I think about the future? I plan like most people and that’s about it, I don’t really dwell on the future as i kind of have a tomorrow never comes attitude. I’ve developed a live for today way of life because too much sorrow and heartbreak has hit me in the past, and what you have today, may well be taken from you tomorrow, so take what you have now and cherish and appreciate whatever that may be, as the future is a thief that steals everything of importance from you.
Do I think about the past? Again, I try not to dwell on it but when you are a fan of most things “antique” it’s hard. Fantastic memories and people you have met along the way, why would you not reminisce on how they have shaped your life. If you have loved, it’s built on what has happened in the past and determines how you feel about that relationship in the present.
So in summary I am a thinker of the past and present. Life is a precious gift, what’s the point of worrying yourself about the future, we all know what the outcome is. Enjoy what you have had and what you have at this moment. That’s all that matters.
Your life without a computer: what does it look like?
As I have a hunger for knowledge I guess I’d be doing a lot more reading. I’d probably not be blogging, I’d be doing my daily journal. Beyond that as a kid of the 60s i guess I’d just be getting on with things. I don’t do the social media stuff, I’ve never had it so I’ll never miss it, so that would never be an issue for me.
And I believe that’s the difference. If you lived in an age when you didn’t have a computer, stepping back to that way of living wouldn’t be so much of a hardship. Yep there are things we all benefit from as a result of having computers, but we managed without them and we survived.
A child of the computer era would suffer purely as they know no other way. For them it would be a totally new way of life, but for us of a certain generation it would be “Ok, let’s get on with it”, we’ve done it before, we can do it again.
Difficult one this. I class myself as an optimistic pessimist, it’s a bit of an oxymoron I know but I can’t think of how else to label it.
I’m always prepared for the worst and I upset myself easily there, but I’m also looking for positives to ease the pain I guess. We currently have a situation going on where over the last few days I’ve really been no use to anyone, I’m breaking down a lot, mainly in private but I’ve been caught a couple of times and then I feel shame. I don’t know why but I do.
I’m sticking with my label, if I didn’t I think I’d go over the edge as I tend to think too deeply.
I shouldn’t be looking to the future as that can change in a heartbeat and why should I worry about what hasn’t even happened yet?
But I do.
I need to be thinking of the moment and nothing more.
Oh yes I remember it very well. I came from a generation that was around just before computer technology started to appear. When I was at school I was probably in my fifth year as a senior at around the age of 16 and it was only just then, that computer technology was starting to appear on the school curriculum, as I was preparing to leave education.
When I left school and started my first job I remember my first months wages were spent purchasing a Sinclair ZX 81 microcomputer, wow this was amazing. I was a bit confused at first though because I opened the box and I plugged it in and I just expected it to work, it was a bit of a shock that you actually had to learn how to program the device before you got anything out of it, however I soon mastered the programming of the basic computer language and I was soon able to program some good little games. Next I moved onto the Commodore 20 a lovely little computer but all my friends were buying the better quality Commodore 64. From the Vic 20 I went down the route of trying the Amstrad Computers, i think it was called the 364 or 464 depending on whether you had Green screen or a colour VDU.
To be honest i still look today at buying an old Sinclair ZX 81 or spectrum, little collectors pieces now but I did enjoy it before the Internet kicked in.
I was just a standard youngster of the day who would go out with his friends and be playing football, cricket, marbles or conkers dependent on what season it was. We used to have great life climbing trees, making bows and arrows, catapults you name it. I feel sorry for the kids nowadays because they don’t have that freedom.
I went out for a meal with my wife a few weeks ago and there was a family of five, mum dad and three kids and I should imagine the kids were only About 12 years old ranging down to a youngster that was probably two years old sitting in a high chair. Every single one of them was on a computer device of some kind or a mobile phone or iPad and I just said to my wife at that point,”look at that, the art of conversation has totally disappeared”. There’s an entire family sitting there and not one of them was speaking to each other. They were all too engrossed in what was going on in other peoples worlds, rather than discussing their own families funny moments, concerns, or achievements.
Yes I do miss the time pre Internet. I think everyone was a better conversationalist back then, to say something to someone you had to walk around to their house, knock on the door, see if they were in and then tell them what you wanted to say face to face.
That dosen’t happen now, we have now produced a generation of people who just don’t do conflict unless they are hidden behind a screen and a keyboard, and that is where I believe most of the anger and hatred spouts from nowadays.
There’s no going back and I’m not saying we should, there was a lot of bad back in those days that is probably the reason children especially, don’t enjoy the freedoms today that we had back then.
So it’s horses for courses, we must move forward with the times, yes we probably had wonderful childhoods but we must not get stuck in the past and genuinely have to evolve, however much we dislike it.
I remember my parents fretting about the future back in the 70s, we are just clones of them and the never ending circle of life just trundles on.
By then I will be well into my 60s marching on quickly to my 70s. I sincerely hope I am well settled in retirement by then, ten years is a long time and a lot can happen along the way so I must admit I do have some trepidation regarding this.
Hopefully All those I love will be with me around that time but I do suspect one or two may fall along the way, who knows it may even be me! Looking on the bright side, I would love to be living in a nice warm country so I very much suspect that if I want this, I’m not going to be living in the UK.
The Mediterranean
Work is becoming quite a bind. We have a new manager and he is going through our entire team one by one and gradually wearing them all down. Work is not a place of enjoyment anymore. I don’t mean enjoyment in the playful sense I mean enjoyment in the fact that i have a lot of colleagues who I really respect and enjoy working with, in our eyes we are a fantastic team. We get things done, with little bother or worry for the management team. We self manage and we think we do it quite well but this guy seems to think he knows it all, he doesn’t and he’s fragmenting our team making it bad for all and spreading bad feeling.
I just really really want to be retired by then I’m kind of hoping I’ll be retired in the next two to three years and I’m really looking forward to that. I’ve worked hard all my life as have other members of my family and I think it’s the least we deserve to take our foot off of the gas and slow ourselves down a little. We can do what we want to do, whether that be travelling, hobbies or just taking our time with things, that’s what I’m looking forward to the most. It won’t be the same if I haven’t got those I love around me and I’ve said that this question brings trepidation into my sights, but the future comes whether we like it or not and we have to handle it as best as we can, so I guess the only thing I can do is prepare myself for this period of my life.
I must look forward and try not to be too worried about things. We all work hard to achieve things in life but we can’t go on at that pace for ever. We’ve earned the right to take it easy and we must allow the younger generations to take the reins, whatever we think of their attitudes and decisions, its progress however you view it.
Foxes Den 
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