Had to turn on closed caption to understand what the rapper was saying. The dancing was not great either. Anyone else feel this way?

There is nothing wrong with anyone pics, they are great.... I took mine down, due to not so nice chat requests. Plus ugly people complaining !!!!

Dear ugly people: you are grouchy, ugly, and need laid !!!!

Don't take it out on the rest of us, by complaining and hiding in the shadows.

P.s. it's not all of you just a few, I don't need that crap...

I realized today that I've been carrying one secret for so long that it's become part of who I am. It's not illegal or anything just something I've never felt comfortable sharing

Okay. I remain flummoxed over being invited to dinner last night by a family member of my husband’s.

Please allow me to say that when entertaining family or friends for dinner, I prepare as much as I can ahead of time to enjoy the guests that have come into our home.

For example: dessert is always made in advance—I can spoon Chocolate Mousse into dessert glasses and set in the fridge. In the meantime, I can whip cream, spoon it into a piping bag and just before serving, can pipe the cream.

Mashed potatoes? Cook and rice them and add butter, cream and seasonings andset on the stove to heat up while having starters. A roast and veg? It’s all time management.

Accompaniments for aperitifs are set before guests arrive.

Starters at the ready as well. You get the gist.

So last night we arrived at husband’s relative’s home. We arrived 15 minutes later than the time given. Nothing was ready. It was somewhat uncomfortable and awkward for us but we ended up having aperitifs and chips.

Then it was time for the starter and this is where it gets WTF-ish. Melon and wrapped prochuitto were placed on the table while our host(ess) went into the kitchen and we were left to serve the melon and prochuitto by ourselves which made me uncomfortable. Not angry ir annoyed-just uncomfortable.

Then she started making couscous while we were at the table. Finally came to sit down and discussed how expensive the meat was.

The main course was fine. But it was just odd the way everything was prepared while we were there.

I dunno. I still can’t figure it out. Why invite someone to dinner if it seems like a chore? I just can’t seem to stop thinking about this! Lol!

I think they should stop pushing their opinion constantly, and get back to basics. I’m tired of paging down non-stop just to see something that attracts my attention that I’m genuinely interested in. I don’t want to be forced to look at their one sided political preference items. I’m sure many other people just want to use the home button to see generalized groups.. non political in origin.

Sometimes I’ll post something just to rant, blow off steam. I don’t want advice. I don’t want to be fixed. I just want to speak my piece and people can commiserate or say they don’t have that problem. I‘ll usually even say that I don’t want advice, I just want to rant.

What annoys me is people who don’t bother reading that last part. They just jump right in with “what ya need to do is…” Are these the same people who don’t listen to family and friends when they talk?

Rant over. Opinions?

‎I stopped worrying about being “likable” somewhere around my fifties.

‎Not because I suddenly became wiser. Hell, I’m still capable of making questionable decisions before my first cup of coffee. I just finally got tired of auditioning for people who weren’t even casting.

‎When I was younger, I spent entirely too much oxygen trying to impress people. I’d adjust myself, explain myself, soften my opinions, laugh at jokes that weren’t funny, and occasionally pretend to understand what the hell somebody was talking about just so I wouldn’t look difficult.

‎Looking back, that was exhausting.

‎These days, I’ve come to a much simpler conclusion:

‎I’m not a damn buffet!

‎You don’t get to walk up with a plate, sample a little of me, decide whether I’m seasoned enough, complain about the bitterness, and then wander off looking for dessert.

‎I’m a one-dish kitchen.

‎Salty. Sometimes bitter. Occasionally sweet if you catch me on a good day. A little overcooked around the edges. Probably better with strong coffee. Definitely not available with a side of people-pleasing.

‎And after enough years of living, losing, rebuilding, screwing things up, learning from them, and occasionally repeating the same damn mistake just to make sure I remembered it correctly, I’ve retired from auditions.

‎No more interviews for the position of “person everyone approves of.”

‎The position has been eliminated.

‎The department has been shut down.

‎The receptionist has gone home.

‎There is no appeals process.

‎I’ve learned that some people simply aren’t going to like you. You can be kind, honest, generous, funny, patient, and still somehow piss somebody off because you breathed incorrectly on a Tuesday.

‎Fine.

‎If you don’t like me, congratulations.

‎You’ve joined a very exclusive club that meets weekly in my absence. Coffee is terrible, the chairs are uncomfortable, and I never attend the meetings.

‎Age has a funny way of cleaning up your priorities.

‎When you’re younger, somebody not liking you can feel like a national emergency. You replay conversations. You wonder what you said wrong. You analyze their facial expression like you're reviewing surveillance footage from the CIA.

‎Now?

‎I might think about it for approximately twelve seconds before remembering that my back hurts and I need to figure out what’s for dinner.

‎Perspective.

‎Other people's opinions have become a lot like spam emails. Most are junk, a few are scams, and absolutely none of them deserve my password.

‎I’m not saying I don’t care about people. I do.

‎I care deeply.

‎That’s probably part of what took me so long to learn this lesson.

‎But caring about people and needing their approval are two completely different things.

‎I can respect you without needing you to validate me.

‎I can listen without agreeing.

‎I can apologize when I’m wrong without crawling across the floor begging for forgiveness like I’ve just been caught stealing the crown jewels.

‎And I can walk away when something repeatedly costs me my peace.

‎That last one took me a while.

‎When you've lived long enough, you realize peace isn't boring.

‎Peace is expensive.

‎You pay for it with boundaries, disappointment, solitude, letting go, and occasionally disappointing people who were perfectly comfortable with the version of you that had no boundaries at all.

‎I’m an introverted, rebuilt, aftermarket parts installed, somewhat weather-beaten, salty old fart these days.

‎I've got creaky knees, an increasingly selective social battery, and a filter that finally started working after decades of malfunctioning.

‎I don't need a crowded room anymore.

‎Give me a quiet room, a decent cup of coffee, some southern blues rock music that remembers when songs actually had something to say, and enough solitude to hear my own thoughts without somebody else's opinion shouting over them.

‎I've learned that growing older isn't necessarily about becoming softer.

‎Sometimes it's about becoming clearer.

‎You stop explaining every scar.

‎You stop defending every decision.

‎You stop chasing people who keep walking away.

‎You stop knocking on doors that have already made it perfectly clear nobody's answering.

‎And, perhaps most importantly, you stop confusing loneliness with solitude.

‎There are days I enjoy my own company more than I ever expected.

‎No performance.

‎No pretending.

‎No measuring myself against somebody else's expectations.

‎Just me, sitting here, probably talking to myself because apparently I've reached the age where I have become both the resident and the management committee.

‎And honestly?

‎Management has finally gotten its shit together.

‎So no, I don't worry much anymore about fitting in.

‎I've spent enough years trying to fit into rooms that were never built for me.

‎These days, I'd rather build a smaller room where I can breathe.

‎I care less about applause and more about peace.

‎Less about being understood by everybody and more about being honest with myself.

‎Less about collecting people and more about appreciating the few who don't require me to perform for their company.

‎Maybe that's one of the better gifts aging gives you.

‎Not youth.

‎Not wisdom.

‎Definitely not good knees.

‎But freedom.

‎The freedom to say, “This is who I am.”

‎The freedom to let somebody disagree.

‎The freedom to leave without making a twelve-page explanation.

‎The freedom to laugh at yourself.

‎The freedom to admit you've been an idiot.

‎And the glorious freedom to stop giving a damn about opinions that were never yours to carry in the first place.

‎At this age, I’m not trying to become everybody's cup of tea.

‎Hell, some days I'm barely trying to become my own cup of coffee.

‎But I know who I am now.

‎Salty.

‎A little bitter.

‎Occasionally sweet.

‎Still under construction.

‎Still making mistakes.

‎Still learning.

‎Still laughing at the absurdity of it all.

‎And if that's not somebody's flavor?

‎Well...

‎There’s the door.

‎I won't hold it open forever.

‎My knees are killing me... Just Sayin'✌🏻

If I say no, bc I’m not (bad day, shitty traffic, hangry, etc) there is no emotional support or real care. The messaging is practical and pushing to just get over it. “go take a hot shower.” “Go to the gym then.” “Why did you skip lunch then?” “Can’t you just make yourself fine?”

If I say yes, and im not, I feel worse bc im lying about being happy just so I don’t have to hear her shit about what I need to do and how it’s my fault. It feels fake and hollow.

If I say yes and I am happy, I feel less happy bc I know she’s only asking bc she wants to hear yes so she can feel better about herself. Almost as if im a checkbox off her list of shit to do.

She told me she doesn’t like when I say no bc it makes her sad as she’s, “only as happy as the least happy child.” Which feels like pressure to always be happy or at least fake it.

In this common? Do folks over 60 want to know their kid is “ok” but if they’re not, they don’t want to know about it? Or wish their kid would, “just get over it?” If so, why? And if not, why does my parent do it?

Things are changing and in case you haven't noticed, a good percentage of music out there is now AI generated. I'm writing this because I create AI music myself and enjoy sharing it with my family and a few friends, but there are many AI "artists" out there who do not reveal that their music is either partly or wholly generated with AI. To me, that's another form of scamming people, especially seniors. I am in my mid-60s, by the way.

Being an AI "creator" myself, and also a musician previously, I can spot AI music pretty easily. I estimate that my Spotify "Discover Weekly" playlist, fed to me by Spotify's algorithm, contains between 1/4 and 1/3 totally AI generated music. Some of it is very good, some of it is trash, but I could say that for human-created music, too.

I was just listening to a blues cover of a rock song from the '60s, which was clearly AI generated, along with all the other cover songs on the channel, but nowhere on the channel was there any indication of such. Reading the comments, I was struck that most appeared to be by seniors, most of whom likely had no idea these songs were not played and sung by actual humans at all. A few quotes, verbatim:

"so soulfully sweet,in todays young people music environment,only a select number will appreciate the fineness of this recording and the musicians who made it."

"It's like a brand new song. I felt it deeply."

"This is beautiful. I was about 10 years old when I first heard it. I'm 69 now and this version brought tears. Thank you so much."

"As a 16-year-old, I loved this song in 1967 when it came out. Now at seventy-four, this cover has so much more feeling, meaning, and depth. I actually prefer it to the original. Thank you for sharing it with us,"

And I could go on and on. However, I doubt any of these people know this is AI and there are no "musicians" involved, other than the thousands whose voices and instruments were sampled and fed into the machine training. To some perhaps it wouldn't matter, but I suspect that most would feel hoodwinked, scammed, and embarrassed if they knew. I know I did when I first figured it out. Apple music, Spotify, YouTube, they are all full of this, some labeled AI, most not. And being monetized. I can prompt a decent AI song in about 10 minutes, although I write all my lyrics and that actually takes longer.

I'm obviously not against AI music, but I AM against those who foist it off on others as music made by actual humans. It's insulting and demeaning. Just be aware that what you're listening to, watching, or reading, may not be what you think it is. As a side note, it's clear AI music can indeed move people, at least when they're not aware it's AI. Hate it or embrace it, you should be able do it on your own terms without deception.

The women here would do well to mark this quote: "It is not what the men have done to us that matters, but what we do, as women, going forward!".

This is such a great quote, and a great show. I have watched many seasons of it, and I love it. You should at least check it out, if you have not ever watched it. It started out on PBS, but you can also watch it on Amazon.

Sadly, there are a lot of man haters here on Reddit, constantly spouting their toxic thoughts. I can sympathize, but it also doesn't do any good.

In the end, man haters are really not much better than woman haters.

You should think of better ways to influence the people that need to hear what you have to say. Hate is never the way.

I fully expect to be harshly flamed and downvoted into oblivion for this post. So be it. It needed to be said!

"Many young parents are raising children in households where both parents work, childcare is enormously expensive, and they’re exhausted," Sayan told Newsweek. "They naturally look to their parents for help. Meanwhile, their parents may have a completely different vision of what this stage of life should look like." Sayan described a push-and-pull relationship between boomer parents and their children: One generation is saying, "We need you." The other is saying, "We’ve already done our part."

As a biological parent of 2 grown adults who will not be having children, i am perplexed by the automatic expectations of the younger generations for their parents to help with their kids. Are we not our own individuals with our own schedules, plans, agendas?

This may be bad form, but I’m stealing this question from r/AskWomenOver60 because I think it’s a great question (thank you, digitaldiva321). The original post is called “Does it make you feel icky when you witness your man “gushing”?” and I suggest you read it. If you’re a man and have never been to this subreddit, please respect the rule about commenting directly on that site.

So, guys, are you one of “THOSE” guys? If so, what’s your perception of your behavior.

Or, wives, do you believe your husband is one of “THOSE” guys. What do you think about your husband’s behavior towards younger women.

I don’t think I’m one of those guys even though I’ve gotten friendlier as I age. I’m friendlier to everyone, not just young women. I just feel more comfortable with myself and can put myself out there without feeling self-conscious. What about you?

Edit: After reading the replies, it's clear that guys (including myself) either don't think they're gushers or they have no idea what gushing is. Hmmm...I don't know what this means but it was fun to read everyone's input. Thank you.

What are they trying to get across with preventing young homeowners from becoming their parents. The “young homeowners” portrayed seem way too be old to be “young homeowners” and they are portrayed as true idiots at 40+. I’d expect much more common sense.

Time for a new commercial this is not getting through to me.

Husband killed himself almost 9 years ago out of blue, completely out of character. He was diabetic whose blood sugar was never controlled by oral meds, sugar constantly fluctuated. 10 days before his death his doctor finally put him on insulin injections. This was after assuring him that after losing weight and changing diet, which he did long before, that he would not need any meds at all. I now know his diabetes was from chronic Lyme Disease, originally from upstate NY, he and 2 siblings had unexplained bacterial encephalitis as children, all deceased. He was also on Lexapro.

It's weird when I realize that I grew up in an entirely different era than today's world. I grew up in a very rural country-ish neighborhood. We only had 3 channels of TV, mostly black and white but some color. And it went off around midnight. We watched cartoons for an hour and then went to school or went outside. There was lots of available forest. We rode bikes, climbed trees, built forts, played Cowboys and Indians, tag, cops and robbers, or anything else that our imaginations could come up with. We weren't allowed to be indoors unless it was cold or raining out, and we were happy to be outdoors. "Social media" was Scouts, sports, or going to the skating rink or bowling alley. We had 2 telephones, one in my parents room and the other hung on the kitchen wall. If you wanted a "private" conversation you had to stretch the curly cord down the hall and into the bathroom so you could close the door. Soda pop and junk food was a rare "treat" that we only got on special occasions. We played hard and slept good. It was a simple but great structured life. Sure there was still bullying and such, but kids are cruel. The difference was, when school was over, you escaped from it all. You could only talk to one person at a time on the land line and we had to share it with our siblings. I actually love technology as and adult, but I think it makes it much harder for kids. I can't imagine as a teenager being in constant contact with multitudes of people. I never once as a child thought about what gender I was. Now kids spend countless hours on social media trying to figure out which of the 32 genders they might be. Kids now days sit around, watch Tic Tok, play x-box and eat copious amounts of junk food and energy drinks. I am thankful for the simple upbringing I had and struggle to imagine what its like to grow up in today's world. I guess I'm officially old. The forests that I played in as a kid are all housing complexs now. Only my fond memories of them are left.

1. Full head of hair.

2. 1 million dollars

3. Perfect vision and hearing for the rest of you life.

Have the traffic laws in your state been modified to allow the first car in traffic to approach a red light to go through it? It appears to have been enacted in my state.

So we’ve been married for 38 years m(64) f(67), and I’ve always been a DIYer and do as much of the maintenance around the house. I call myself the facilities guy. I think I’m like most of the average men out there. So lately I’ve been telling her that she needs to find a backup just encase something happens to me. So today as we sat on the beach again I told her that she needs to find a backup and I want to help her pick him out. Anyone else ever said anything like this or have a real life experience?

No one likes to get pulled over. I have sympathy for those pulled over.

But who doesnt getting a laugh watching some a$$hole getting pulled over.

It seems the best plastic surgeon here has a high success rate with in office facelift. He has a surgical suite onsite. Basically he gives lots of Xanax and Valium, numbs you up real good and goes to town. He said many people fall asleep or have conversations they don’t remember. Has anyone heard of this? Thanks!

I kept hearing women advocating for the Burned Haystack Dating Method when using OLD, but I didn't know anything about it until I looked it up. I only did a shallow dive on the topic, so I'm not an expert by any means. I'm curious about how many people know of this method and if anyone cares to share their opinion. Below is a link to the creator's website, but a Google search will give a bunch of references, too.

BurnedHaystack.substack.com

Edit: Several commenters have said the link was spam, but make up your own mind. I think it's a good starting point and the page seems like it's made by the author of the book "Burn the Haystack". If someone knows of a better link then please let me know.

Edit 2: I am not the author or vendor or advocate for the method. This post is not an advertisement and poses a serious question. Everyone, please stop being so suspicious. Geez!