<![CDATA[Tomorrow I'm turning 50 years old.]]>Tomorrow I'm turning 50 years old.

That's so old that once, when I was a child, I couldn't remember who played David Banner on the Incredible Hulk TV show, so my parents told me to call the library and ask for the reference desk.

The librarian who took the call said "Wasn't it Bill Bixby?" without even having to look a thing up.

So yeah, "the internet" has always been with us, it just used to be other people. I guess it still kinda is. But it used to be, too.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/topic/934ab36b-d0e4-4a5b-b65b-b0e1e914f300/tomorrow-i-m-turning-50-years-old.RSS for NodeFri, 17 Apr 2026 04:25:32 GMTTue, 14 Apr 2026 12:50:46 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Tomorrow I'm turning 50 years old. on Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:41:38 GMT]]>@signalstation

Wow — that's very old indeed!

I hope your fifties teach you as much as mine did. There's a lot I miss about the glory days, but I wouldn't go back to the impoverished understanding I had back then.

And happy birthday for tomorrow. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.space/users/CppGuy/statuses/116404053528376562https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.space/users/CppGuy/statuses/116404053528376562Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:41:38 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Tomorrow I'm turning 50 years old. on Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:35:51 GMT]]>@signalstation All the would-be librarians today spend Thursday nights playing Trivia at their local pub?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/nitinkhanna/statuses/116404030798758463https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/nitinkhanna/statuses/116404030798758463Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:35:51 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Tomorrow I'm turning 50 years old. on Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:04:25 GMT]]>@cainmark @nickwedig @signalstation and even with training, it just takes time and the shovels to get through the shit, and going to duckduckgo etc....

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/geonz/statuses/116403907160697843https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/geonz/statuses/116403907160697843Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:04:25 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Tomorrow I'm turning 50 years old. on Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:02:18 GMT]]>@nickwedig @signalstation

Because online search is awful and filled with a lot of confident wrong answers. You have the training to discern the difference, most people don't.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mstdn.social/users/cainmark/statuses/116403898830420050https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mstdn.social/users/cainmark/statuses/116403898830420050Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:02:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Tomorrow I'm turning 50 years old. on Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:58:43 GMT]]>@MCDuncanLab

Finally

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://raggedfeathers.com/users/signalstation/statuses/116403884753560643https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://raggedfeathers.com/users/signalstation/statuses/116403884753560643Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:58:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Tomorrow I'm turning 50 years old. on Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:57:24 GMT]]>@signalstation

Happy Birthday!

As a birthday present, you can get a shingles vaccine!!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mstdn.social/users/MCDuncanLab/statuses/116403879559829305https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mstdn.social/users/MCDuncanLab/statuses/116403879559829305Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:57:24 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Tomorrow I'm turning 50 years old. on Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:34:33 GMT]]>@signalstation As a librarian, I still get a couple of those kinds of calls every day. Things I can find online in 30 seconds, which makes me wonder why someone took the effort to call rather than just search on their own web browser of choice.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://dice.camp/users/nickwedig/statuses/116403789732438982https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://dice.camp/users/nickwedig/statuses/116403789732438982Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:34:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Tomorrow I'm turning 50 years old. on Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:20:59 GMT]]>@signalstation I recently called a librarian in Kansas looking for help retrieving a speech my great uncle made in 1950 on urban renewal in Kansas City. She was so happy that somebody was interested in her dusty old offline documents. It definitely reminded me of the old days of picking up the telephone to find info by talking to people.

Oh, and Jack McGee used to make me so angry. Why couldn't he just let it be?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/technothrasher/statuses/116403736392116292https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/technothrasher/statuses/116403736392116292Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:20:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Tomorrow I'm turning 50 years old. on Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:15:44 GMT]]>@signalstation Happy early birthday! 🎂

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaosfem.tw/users/NicolaElle/statuses/116403479785609807https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaosfem.tw/users/NicolaElle/statuses/116403479785609807Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:15:44 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Tomorrow I'm turning 50 years old. on Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:09:39 GMT]]>@signalstation

Happy pre-birthday. Welcome to the club. We have cookies.

And the "back in my day" stories are fun because with the right audience -- you get the joy of watching them swallow an absolutely ludicrous lie while rejecting an honest truth.

It's the same reason school teachers deliberately screw up current slang (or pop culture references or memes), just to watch the confusion and cringing responses from students.

Students who aren't aware that their teachers are laughing their asses off in the break room, and might actually have a prize for whomever gets the best response.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaosfem.tw/users/EmilyGB2023/statuses/116403455904246522https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaosfem.tw/users/EmilyGB2023/statuses/116403455904246522Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:09:39 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Tomorrow I'm turning 50 years old. on Tue, 14 Apr 2026 12:52:56 GMT]]>These days, if you try to call a reference desk at a library... you still can.

I don't know what the point of that anecdote was.

My understanding is that this is the expected behavior of someone my age and I'm trying to blend in. "Back in my day" stories for old people are like stripes on zebras. Confuses predators. They can't pick us out of a crowd.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://raggedfeathers.com/users/signalstation/statuses/116403154249586675https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://raggedfeathers.com/users/signalstation/statuses/116403154249586675Tue, 14 Apr 2026 12:52:56 GMT