This is a thread for ILXors in their 30's!!! yo yo yo breakdancing etc...

Also MarkC -that sounds awful. And kudos to you for recognizing that feeling sexy is pretty much reliant on having a good self image.

I get caught in that trap - I feel ugly and fat and awkward.And I hate relying on my brain to get me out of those situations. I should feel gorgeous -not because I am, but because I'm the one who determines it.

I have never posted a picture of myself. There's a few from a long time ago. Somewhere, and you don't really need to search.
I get sort of dismayed by the images. You are all so beautiful, and I'm not really all that.
But I also feel like being camera ready isn't a quality that I want or need.
I actually HATE having my picture taken. Maybe it's because everyone is taking pictures all the time. My young lol college friends have thousands of pictures on the facebook. But to me it's like a slide show that has no context.

Anyway, this thread has been kidnapped. All the thirty somethings are out partying?

Just put the baby to bed.

I also hate having my picture taken, and always have.

I regret bringing up the libido thing now sorry.

It is one of nature/fate/society's cruel ironies, that just when we are at the point where we are most physically able to enjoy ourselves sexually, we're locked in this shame spiral of "oh no, I'm old, I'm fat I must be ugly" and therefore become unable to enjoy that physicality.

I don't know if it's actually physiological, or if it's more that women at the age of 39 are supposed to have had enough practice to *know* what feels good to them, to know how to go about getting orgasms (even multiple ones) and fertility has decreased to the point where getting pregnant is not so great a risk, yet not so much that we're dried up hormoneless old biddies... oh yeah, and in traditional societies where women would have been married in their teens and bred aged 20, their babies are all grown up and out of the nest leaving space and time finally for whoopie-making...

Wow, I didn't finish that sentence. Never post before you've had your tea. Wow.

I stayed up all night drawing. My mind isn't working clearly.

haha drawing, you're old

I have friends who are 21. When I was 21 I had a couple of friends who were ~34, but the gap was obvious.

Today we saw footage of Patrick Moore in 1957, 34, all Brylcreemed and looking like that bloke out of Bewitched.

When I was 21 I had a couple of friends who were ~34, but the gap was obvious.

Actually, sometimes it wasn't obvious, and I was an immature 21 so pls disregard

I was thinking this morning as I was changing the battery in the smoke detector that the only things I can think of that use those rectangular 9-volts are detectors, guitar pedals, and those old blip football games.

I doubt anyone more than ten years older than me remembers those things and anyone born after 1983 surely has no idea what I'm talking about, unless they've been to a gizmo museum lately.

the football games. I'm sure everyone of all ages knows about smoke detectors and guitar pedals.

http://ledfootball.com/

Just about any portable microprocessor based item back then used those PP3 batteries, and drained them flat pretty fast.

Are there still any items that actually use D size batteries? I found an old speak n spell last year but even it uses C size (and they werent easy to buy anyway).

C batteries now seem massively expensive.

i turn 39 in 3 weeks i don't feel like i'm in my 30s so much as running out the lease on them. but that's ok. they've been pretty good to me. i ended my 20s in kind of a shambles -- newly divorced, utterly unclear about the future -- and i'm ending my 30s with a job i like, a wife i love and two kids whose life-changing effects i can't start to express.

i'm kind of expecting my 40s to go by in a blur of elementary school and employment anxiety. (i used to think i'd stay in journalism til retirement, but that seems like an increasingly dicey prospect.)

Eh? I have been just as likely to stay up all night drawing at any point in my life from aged about 16 til now. Not a function of age! The not being able to function properly the next day is a function of age, though. :-(

Candle, glass of wine, sketchbook. Heaven!

I was joking! Drawing is ace.

Are there still any items that actually use D size batteries?

D-cell M4g1it3 is the only currently available item that springs to mind. I still have a boombox from the early 80's that takes ten D-cells. I've never powered that off batteries due to the cost.

I can think of a D-size-shaped thing that probably uses D-size batteries.

An electric pencil sharpener?

I'm eight months into 30 and so far I love it. Most days I still feel about 18 so maybe that's why. I'm excited for all the things my 30's will bring. Also, fwiw every vibrator I've ever had only took AAs.

who mentioned vibrators?

We were talking torches!

watching the metallic programme on beeb2 last night made me feel great to be in my 30's. i don't know exactly why.

haha metallica

I still buy hoodies and don't iron a goddamn thing. Maybe once I hit the big 3-1?

-- Granny Dainger, Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:44 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Link

^^ Me too. I own an iron but can't remember the last time I used it. Bought new hoodie yesterday. At least maybe I'll get 4 months wear out of it. ;-)

people who use irons are idiots

The ironing is delicious.

I own an iron and can iron. I started getting immensely better paid jobs once I learned the ironing trick. So maybe not such an idiot after all.

Ironing is dead easy but no fun. Although if you iron everything you own there's something wrong with you in the head.

it might explain why i'm still single though

Oh, the iron-y...

who mentioned vibrators?

Mark G, I believe that it was you

Most days I still feel about 18

Normally this is the case with me, however I have just walked a mile.

Oh I know how to iron too but I tend to buy things that don't require it because I hate doing it so much. This extends to clothes I buy for my husband as well.

I hate ironing. I used to wear non-iron shirts but they really itch. I found that a good compromise is those heavy cotton Oxford shirts. Work trousers = non iron. Everything else, sod it...

Ironing has never really bothered me. I kinda like it. I mean, obviously I don't do it all that often.

But Liberty print shirts of the type I like to wear to work really don't look good if not ironed.

agh shit, you all just reminded me to iron.

I bought an ironing board when I moved in October 06 and have used it once.

i LOVED turning 30 because it meant i could officially give up on my dreams

my biggest personal bummer about old age is that my friends are all having kids and stuff, and i'm still like, "duh how do i become an adult?"

or even simulate some vague approximation thereof

sunny ;____;

i mean, someday i'll have cornered the market as far as life-mastery goes, and then i'll be gloating and be like "fuck you guys, i've totally mastered life and I'M A PROPER ADULT"

I don't think I'll ever really be a proper adult. I find myself thinking about things like having a baby and buying property but then thinking wait I can't do that, I'm still a kid!

See, I've taken myself out of that equation so far. (And I'm thrilled, frankly.)

meh, i have friends who were just as immature as I am, and a baby came by accident, and they have since then, pardon the phrase, more than kicked ass at raising their kid...

so...

Nobody is a "proper" adult. Anybody who claims they are is secretly worried that you'll call BS on them. Particularly people who are all "I've got a six bedroom house and two cars and blah blah blah" and try and make you feel inadequate. All you have to do is turn to them and say "SO. FUCKING. WHAT."

Ned, it is ok because you are immortalised in Swindon in any case.

I'm with Ned on this - I'm not concerned at all with having the same house and doing the same things and having the same stuff in my house as the twenty other households on my street.

Yeah ditto here. Still rent, no kids, no intention thereof, not married (though tbh I think I'd like to marry my guy at some point). Wld like to buy a house but cant see it happening. Eh. I've become resigned to it all now I think.

Tell you what though: in my early 30s nothing felt different, but since 35 I have actually started to feel *older*. I'm slower, kids today actually start makin' less sense, I cant drink like I used to, I can't be bothered partying much, being at home cooking is fun, etc.

Yeah I don't necessarily want all the typical things either although we do want a kid(s) at some point and I assume we'll want to buy a place just not right now. I guess I'm just feeling a little werid because a lot of our friends are doing these things now and we're just not there yet at all really.

Ned, it is ok because you are immortalised in Swindon in any case.

Fame! I'm going to live etc.

I've felt a bit tired here and there at points lately but not constantly. Depends on the day. If it gets worse, eh; life goes on.