If you're single, date a middle-aged person

(Inspired by something I just e-mailed to a family member, who is single.)


Here's my theory:  if you're on the dating market, try to date a middle-aged person.

Middle-aged folks are more stable and predictable:  as a buyer, you know what you're getting.

People change a lot from their teens to their 20s to their 30s.  But by the time you're around 40, you know who you are, and what you like (and don't like).  Your personality, your temperament, your lifestyle, your interests:  your twenty-year forecast is more predictable by your 40yo status than your 20yo status.


As a 45 year old, you know what your political views are.  You know whether you're a drinker or not.  Whether you're a smoker or not.  Whether you exercise or not.  Whether you're good with money or not.

If you're going to end up overweight, you're probably showing it about now.  If you're still pretty slim at 45, you're probably going to still be slim at 65.

It's unlikely that your 45 year old partner is going to unexpectedly take up a new hobby:  it's not a midlife crisis -- it's finally getting around to doing something that she/he has always wanted to do (buy a sports car; buy a boat; learn the electric guitar).



At least, that's what I reckon.  But I'll let you know once my cohort hits 65, to tell you whether I was correct.  :)


--GG

Leet code

In Australia there's a Craigslist-like website called gumtree.com.au.  When you want to send a message to the seller, you have to enter the "I am a human, not a spambot" number that's provided.

I got a pretty cool one this time.  :)


(You may have to click on the photo, to get it to open in its own window so you can see it better.)


--GG

Good thing I picked that up

So, on Aug 31, 2010, I picked up a red cricket ball that I found by the side of the road.

I don't play cricket.  But I figured:  "Hey!  Cricket ball."  So I took it home and tossed it in a bucket of miscellaneous balls (tennis, golf, baseball...) in our shed.

Fast forward to now:  mid-Feb, 2015.  My daughter is on the cricket team at school (the only girl; woot!), and wanted a cricket ball so that we could practice batting at home.

"Ah," I told her.  "I believe I have one..."   ;)


Also, I already had two cricket bats -- two different sizes -- in the shed.  Again, I don't play cricket -- but they were on sale, and I've had this idea of (one of these days) making an electric guitar out of a cricket bat.

We did some batting, and I noticed that the dark red didn't make it stand out very well:  it kept getting lost in the ankle-high grass.  So, I painted it pink.



So, you know:  it's nice to have useful things around the place.  As long as you can find them when needed.  Which I typically can.   ;)


(BTW -- Yeah, I wrote the date on it.  It's one of my "things".  :)  Because I like metadata -- and if I don't write the acquisition date -- or completion date -- on things, I won't remember the date.)


--GG

Plus five GeekPoints

The statistical software (Stata) that I use at work runs primarily off the command line and/or scripts -- although you can also work with it through the GUI (the drop-down menus).


One of the cool things that I like about Stata is that if you type "exit" into the command-line window, the software shuts down:  delightfully old-school. I figured that Linux must have something like that, so I Googled it.

And thus, last night I successfully used the command "sudo shutdown -P now" to turn off my PC (running Mint Linux 17).

Woo!!! :)


--GG

An oddball pickup line

There's a backstory behind this -- but let's just say that "How old are your chickens?" is possible the most peculiar pick-up line ever.

Still -- it might work.

(Let me know.)


--GG