Get Ready! "Up All Night: A Technopagan Winter Solstice" 2011 edition, coming soon

[Stardancer]

'Course.
Born 1970 and saw the evolution of video games from two sticks and a square 'tennis ball' to now.

 
'76 here. I was the envy of my friends when we got our first PC. Electronic solitaire! And yes, I remember rotary phones, cassette players and the terrible, terrible poodle hair do in my early teens...

[SunflowerP]

Anyone else here, besides Sunflower and me, remember the world before ATMs, VCRs, and desktop computers?

 
This appears to be almost as reliable a TC convo-generator as food.  Didn't we have a very similar discussion not long ago?

Sunflower

[victoreia]

Yep.
Not the moon landing, though. I was only a year old.

 
Um, I was....at about.....minus six months? For the moon landing.

(Now that I've had a bit of time, I think we were in Germany when John Lennon was shot; I just wasn't completely aware of who John Lennon was at the time, so it didn't make an impression on me.)

[stephyjh]

Um, I was....at about.....minus six months? For the moon landing.

(Now that I've had a bit of time, I think we were in Germany when John Lennon was shot; I just wasn't completely aware of who John Lennon was at the time, so it didn't make an impression on me.)

I feel like a baby with my '85 vintage. I vaguely remember the fall of the Berlin Wall--I think I was maybe 4 at the time. My cousin was stationed in Germany, so it was a topic of interest for my parents.

[stephyjh]

What astonishes me is when I think back, I am having trouble remembering how we managed without many of today's techno-conveniences:confused:

Stuff I now consider necessary:
Cell phone
debit card
email
Windows or any other point and click operating system
The Internet (mostly Wikipaedia!)
Call display and voice mail
online banking and automatic deposits and payments

rear window defrosters for the car
ABS brakes

drip coffee maker with auto-timer
non-stick cookware

stretchy denim
goretex and poplar fleece technical outdoor wear


Wow....this list is longer than I thought it would be :ashamed:

Heh. Most of the tech stuff you listed is on my cell phone (everything but the debit card, and the OS is Android rather than Windows, but...) But my coffee maker doesn't have a timer, because I'll pay $200 for a phone before I pay $40 for a nicer coffee pot. Such a tech nerd.

[victoreia]

 
Whereas I pay four bucks a pop for my coffee, rather than buy a fancy coffe maker. Of course, I try not to spend more than $100 for my phone. (Not the latest, but close enough for toys.)

[Altair]

This appears to be almost as reliable a TC convo-generator as food.  Didn't we have a very similar discussion not long ago?

Sunflower

I missed it. It's fascinating, though, how key world events, tech innovations, and pop culture touchstones demarcate different generations/eras.

A good example of the latter for my generation: Dark Shadows.

[RandallS]

A good example of the latter for my generation: Dark Shadows.

I remember rushing home from school (almost running the two blocks instead of walking) to catch it.

[Altair]

I remember rushing home from school (almost running the two blocks instead of walking) to catch it.

Ditto, me and my sister, every day. We'd have Oreos and chocolate milk as we watched, riveted.

Syfy (then the more intelligibly named SciFi Channel) re-ran the entire series about a decade ago, and I got hooked all over again. It was like a flashback to childhood:

background: a fog-enshrouded mansion lit by moonlight

cue eerie theramin-like music--

"A seance has been held in the great house of Collinwood...a seance that has suspended time and space, and sent one woman on an uncertain and frightening journey into the past: back to the year 1795. There, each of the Collins ancestors resembles a present day member of the Collins family...but the names and the relationships have changed, and Victoria Winters finds herself a stranger in a sea of familiar faces..."

That preamble, from the best storyline they ever did (Lara Parker as Angelique rules!), is now etched in my memory.

[Altair]

Ditto, me and my sister, every day. We'd have Oreos and chocolate milk as we watched, riveted.

Syfy (then the more intelligibly named SciFi Channel) re-ran the entire series about a decade ago, and I got hooked all over again. It was like a flashback to childhood

I should add that the cookies-and-beverage tradition was revived, this time with Pepperidge Farm enrobed Milanos dunked in Godiva chocolate liqueur.

(To bring in what Sunflower points out is the other surefire Cauldron convo: food)

[stephyjh]

I should add that the cookies-and-beverage tradition was revived, this time with Pepperidge Farm enrobed Milanos dunked in Godiva chocolate liqueur.

(To bring in what Sunflower points out is the other surefire Cauldron convo: food)

Mmmm... Milanos and Godiva.

[stephyjh]

Whereas I pay four bucks a pop for my coffee, rather than buy a fancy coffe maker. Of course, I try not to spend more than $100 for my phone. (Not the latest, but close enough for toys.)

I work for an electronics retailer. I have to keep up.

[SunflowerP]

I missed it.

 
Missed it?  You started it:!  (Though it was longer ago than I thought - yet another feature of aging!)

Sunflower

[RandallS]

Syfy (then the more intelligibly named SciFi Channel) re-ran the entire series about a decade ago, and I got hooked all over again. It was like a flashback to childhood:

I missed the SciFi Channel's rerun (except for a few episodes), although can't remember why now. Probably a work schedule conflict. I'm surprised it isn't reshow more often given the market for such shows now.

[Melamphoros]

I missed the SciFi Channel's rerun (except for a few episodes), although can't remember why now. Probably a work schedule conflict. I'm surprised it isn't reshow more often given the market for such shows now.

 
They don't reshow it because none of the characters in Dark Shadows sparkle.  That and the only time they would show it (middle of the day) conflicts with the hours more junior high/high schools operate.

Not that I'm bitter at vampires being reduced to something to make adolescent girls' panties get moist or anything....:56: