Ramblings and Such

they know how to use phones. they had rotary phones, cordless phones, beepers (pagers), flip phones, the first smartphones, and getting a new phone/using a smartphone is not confusing

they played video games across the entire history of video game existance. atari. nintendo nes. sega. playstation. video games are not confusing

they understand dating apps. they used the first dating websites/apps. (and if your character is a queer man in his 50s, he 100% knows what grindr is. even if he's straight, he probably knows.)

they use social media (but probably not snapchat). gen xers are all over insta and tiktok. social media is not confusing, but their algorithm is obv going to look different than a 20 yo influencer's. (even if they're not on sm, sm is not confusing as a concept, and they could make an acct without blinking)

they stream music, even if they still have cd or vinyl collections. this generation had 8-tracks (the oldest gen xers), vinyl, cassette tapes (mix tapes!) cds, napster, itunes downloads, the first music pirating, and using spotify is not confusing

When I taught second grade, one of the options for students who had finished their work was to write a letter to the president. I would send all of the letters in a big envelope at the end of every month.

Watching my students get more and more frustrated with him (and concerned about his wellbeing) was not the result I'd hoped for when I came up with the idea, but it was kind of hilarious.

See, Obama had a standard packet with information and activities about his dog he'd send in response to letters from very young citizens...and of course his office sent one back to our class every single time we sent mail.

So eventually all of the letters looked something like this:

Also the further you move toward the poles the more pronounced the difference between the length of day and night is. Worst part of a far-north (or south) heatwave is it doesn’t get dark long enough for meaningful cooling.