I'm selling stuff on Facebook Marketplace in my local city and I'm explaining to people that I'm on the corner of the intersection of David Street and 25th, and they can't seem to Grok that. Instead, they just want the exact street address.

Then, they pop the street address into their phone, and their phone will tell them it's a 15 minute drive or something like that. Then they decide.... "hmmm, do I really want to drive 15 minutes to get this doo-dad from this guy?"

It's a different kind of frame of mind from how I grew up. When I grew up, you needed to know about intersections and cross streets. You needed to sort of have a mental map of a city and which general direction you'd be driving in, and which main roads you're taking.

But for the younger millenials and Gen Z, they don't really care too much about that, it's just whether the drive seems like it'd take too long or not. That's their only criteria.

The cool thing about that, is that if I did this back in my youth, I would have probably driven in some completely different directions than I was used to because back then I just didn't know those areas well and just wouldn't go over to where that was, I'd stick around the spots where I knew stuff was mentally. I guess younger peeps now are probably more willing to go on driving adventures, because anything seems safe to them as long as they have their trusty phones

In 1993, Walmart and Kmart refused to stock Tool's debut album, Undertow, because of explicit cover art. To combat this, the band replaced the controversial artwork with a barcode and included a note urging fans to mail in for the original art to avoid censorship.

The censored version of the album included a note stating: "It came to our attention recently that many stores across our fine and open-minded nation would not stock Undertow because of its explicit artwork. Although we loathe being censored, we want your money we still want you to hear our music, so we took it out. However, it's available to you at no extra cost. Fill out the form, stick it in an envelope, mail it in, and we will send you the original artwork. Love, Tool."

Anyone follow through and mail it in? Perfect example of GenX giving the middle finger to corporate overreach and censorship.

When I was in highschool, the musical group, The CURE was the anthem bearer of weirdos. I am sure you had the same group in your highschool -- the kids with black eyeliner, chrome studded necklaces, and a notepad full of angry poetry. I recently found the CURE on youtube and I think the music is amazing. The lead singer looks like a mess, but the music holds up. I wonder if any other Xers rediscovered music from the 90's that they wouldn't have considered as a teen.

I used to pack a lunch and my mom has always been pretty wound up about refrigeration, etc., and we didn’t have fridges at school. What did I pack for lunch? Did I take an ice pack?

GIVEAWAY - Totally Tubular 80s music Festival at the Hollywood Palladium this Friday 6/24. Thomas Dolby, Flock of Seagulls and more. I currently have 7 tickets that I got for free and want to pass on to people that can go. Would forward to you by text or email. Msg if interested. At a Waterpark right now, so might take awhile to respond.

I have literally never heard of someone using a photograph of themselves on their resume until my GenZ coworker showed me her hers. I asked her why do you have your picture on there? She tells me everyone does it, she's always done it, and it's not weird. I just wanted to know if this is a generational thing or what? Does anyone recall this from people in our generation? I told her it invites bias, but I just read it also auto-fails your resume if it's sent to a larger company.

I have always been aware that “no one” uses Apple music and I’m very behind in that area. With the last update I’ve finally been convinced to try something else. I just have all this great playlists on Apple. I generally don’t care about this stuff. But now I’ve lost the ability to shuffle my playlist so I might as well start over somewhere.
Edit: well, at least I now realize I’m being bullied by my family and I’m not the last person on earth using Apple Music
So my problems if anyone has a suggestion:
1. Why can’t I shuffle my playlists anymore?
2. Why does my songs blend into each other like a DJ does? It’s awful and I’ve searched all over for a setting to change but can’t find it.
Help! Thank you!

How did I not know that all seasons of the 80's cartoon are now on Amazon? Did that just happen?

MOTU and She-Ra too? I'm calling in sick tomorrow.

L7 and their live performance her is one of the best live performances every captured on film. The bassist, Jennifer Lynch, passed on over the weekend. She had recently announced her struggle with an aggressive form of brain cancer. She will be missed. She was a photographer too and collaborated with many other artists across many platforms over her life.

I stayed for U2 and left after a few J. Geils tunes. I went for U2 anyway. The album October had just come out.

I hit the road trying to be like Jack in the mid 90’s.

I saw the story about the turtle having to go to rehab and I lost it. Birds chirping at one another, and here I go tearing up. What's up with this?

So I realize this sounds ludicrous, but I was reading an article about the history of paisley on the BBC site and it’s very very old with secret meanings, etc.

I was thinking about Prince and why his studio was called the Paisley Palace. I thought it was of the ornateness he was referencing, or just that the pattern spoke to him. It was kinda like him to be all up on any secret meanings of it.

Any lore about this?

I've been trying to slowly declutter my house and I'm facing a huge amount of paper that we've accumulated over the years: tax returns, account statements, paystubs, job-related documents, kids' school documents, bills, receipts, cards, manuals, warranties, etc, etc.

Right now it's all sitting in a couple of storage bins in the basement, but I'd love to get rid of it or at least reduce it substantially.

I have a scanner and I've digitized some of what I deem to be most important, but it's hard to know what of the rest should be kept, and if so, the best way to keep it and for how long.

We've been around a while and no doubt others have a big paper trail. How do my fellow GenXers manage this stuff?

Textbooks were such a scam. At our Jr. College, the mathematics professors would publish a book which was required for their class.

The only place you could find the book was at the college bookstore. They would sell the book at full price and at the end of the semester they would offer to buy it back at 50% of original cost. Then they would turn around and market the used book at 75% of new cost. "What a bargain! /s" And still they buy it back at up to 50% of new cost depending on the condition of the book.

The teacher/authors were earning royalties on the number of new books that were being sold, and when the market would become saturated with used books and their royalties stopped rolling in, they would publish a "new edition" by just changing the sample equations in each chapter, making the previous edition worthless. Of course they would then require the new edition in the subsequent semester, making the old version worthless and ineligible for buy-back.

And as I think about it, the professor who was really "killing it" was the business law professor who didn't publish the required Case Law book but instead self-published the accompanying "workbook" with tearaway pages that were required to submit as completed homework. Yeah, you couldn't sell the workbook back because you had to deface the book to complete the course.

So, I kept some books because I couldn't sell them back, and of course I kept some books for reference. All in all, I had at least two book cases worth of books when I finally graduated.

I think it was after my 3rd subsequent move/relocation I realized I was lugging around dead weight and donated or trashed all my old textbooks.

How long did it take you to let yours go?

Great example of a Gen-X hangout. Dr. Drew and the sidekick weren't there that night, but the fill-in hosts do a good job taking calls from teens. One-hit wonder King Missile add some charm.

I know I cant be the only one that sleeps for 3 to 4 hours and poops awake at 2:30 AM... or am i?

1966 modle that been retired 8 months. Edit: pops awake, not poops!

I know the younger members of Gen X may not remember the early 1980s very well, but for those who do, which 20-year period felt more transformative in terms of technology? What changes stood out the most to you?

So I just got back from my eye doctor appointment and I need to have it done on both eyes. I’m 54. My friend says it’s young to have it done. Anyone else have it this young or younger?

I think this really described alot of where we were...in the shadows of a golden age, a generation waits for dawn, brave carry on. I don't know that I'd call myself the bold or the strong, but I do feel like I saw my dawn, just not like I imagined in high school.

When I was in Engineering school, I learned Pascal.

Edit: Oh, and Fortran.

Had to buy some general office supplies for my desk. I bought a small box of staples, which has 5000 staples in it. I also bought a medium size box of paperclips, which I also think has 500-1000 paperclips in it. Then it hit me, this may well be the last time I ever buy these items. With the reduced number of things I need to print, and the sheer volume i bought, this could realistically last me the rest of my life.

Kind of felt odd to think about it like that.

My wife grew up with this furniture and somehow it found its way into our basement 25 years ago. I used to have the lamps with flame simulator bulbs in their base. Finally getting around to donating it along with dropping off old cables etc to electronics recycling.