Big ups to Floridian Kelly Slater on winning the A.S.P. World Tour for the 9th time in his career. 9 freakin' times! This is absurd. No one in the history of surfing is even in the same ocean as this dude.
RIP Mr. Francis, one of the last remaining folks from the original "Lost Generation". Can't say the last few babyboomers will be as missed as this man should be.
With his usual penchant for hyperbole, Martin Amis claimed on the Today programme last week that “a kind of civil war” is looming between the generations. Baby-boomers, he said, have enjoyed the best of the economic upswing of the 1980s, growing rich on property and investments and basking in their final-salary pensions, and now their children will have to pay for it.
Raised lazy and irresponsible on the fat of their parents’ achievements, these Generation Xers are crashing back to earth facing likely redundancy, the possibility of never owning their own home and the task of caring for their ageing parents – a population set to outnumber the working young. Which means that the notoriously selfish Generation X will have to dig even deeper to fund the National Health Service, social care and state pensions for the vast army of postwar babies who have frolicked through the past 50 years. Result: burning resentment and even violence.
Babyboomers are shown to be a pack of potato chip eating layabouts watching their blowhard idols Oprah and Bill O'Reilly:Put another way, the older you get, the more you watch, according to a new report from Deloitte, millennials, the generation of 14- to 25-year-olds, watch just 10.5 hours of TV a week.That compares to 15.1 hours for those belonging to Generation X (ages 26-42), 19.2 hours for baby boomers (43-61) and 21.5 hours for matures (62-75).
2nd semester of my sophomore year I was broke. I mean really broooooooo-ke. For 2 full days all I ate was hot dog buns (just the bread, I didn't have the coin for the cheap cylinder-shaped meat). “It’s so great to be a member of Generation X,” I said to my husband last week on my 47th birthday. He’s 51, a member in good standing of the baby boom generation.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“It’s so great to be a member of Generation X,” I repeated more loudly, thinking that perhaps he hadn’t heard me the first time. I smiled sweetly, as one does around the elderly.
“If you’re Gen X, then I’m Gen X,” he said.
“You can’t be Gen X, you’re 51,” I snapped.
Whatever you call them (I'll just call them early Xers), the numbers are clear: Compared with every other birth cohort, they have performed the worst on standardized exams, have acquired the fewest educational degrees and have been the least attracted to professional careers. In a word, they're the dumbest.
Don't expect much from this blogger this weekend. We finally have some surfable waves on Florida's West Coast!
It’s a bit of a generation game when it comes to appreciating the implications of the global recession, with Generation X workers who were born in the Sixties and Seventies fearing the worst, while Generation Y workers who were born since the Eighties are feeling no fear.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Tom Brokaw’s book “The Greatest Generation,” that classic about our parents and their incredible sacrifices during World War II. What I’ve been thinking about actually is this: What book will our kids write about us? “The Greediest Generation?” “The Complacent Generation?” Or maybe: “The Subprime Generation: How My Parents Bailed Themselves Out for Their Excesses by Charging It All on My Visa Card.”
Silver hair, pension funds and personal memories of a Kennedy assassination are not the only things our struggling economic engine will lose when Boomers settle into the quiet life. Boomers hold the majority of major leadership roles in the workplace, and their retirement creates a leadership gap that must be filled by the next generations. The question is whether or not their successors are up to the challenge?
I don't mean to continue on with financial shtuff, but this is going to haunt us if ignored.I’d never taken an accounting course, never run a business, never even had savings of my own to manage. I stumbled into a job at Salomon Brothers in 1985 and stumbled out much richer three years later, and even though I wrote a book about the experience, the whole thing still strikes me as preposterous—which is one of the reasons the money was so easy to walk away from. I figured the situation was unsustainable. Sooner rather than later, someone was going to identify me, along with a lot of people more or less like me, as a fraud. Sooner rather than later, there would come a Great Reckoning when Wall Street would wake up and hundreds if not thousands of young people like me, who had no business making huge bets with other people’s money, would be expelled from finance.
Tanta from Calculated Risk died of cancer yesterday.Tanta worked as a mortgage banker for 20 years, and we started chatting in early 2005 about the housing bubble and the changes in lending practices. In 2006, Tanta was diagnosed with late stage cancer, and she took an extended medical leave while undergoing treatment. At that time I approached her about writing for this blog, and she declined for a simple reason – her prognosis was grim and she didn’t expect to live very long. To her surprise, after aggressive treatment, her health started to improve and she accepted my invitation. When she chose an email address, it reflected her surprise: tanta_vive ... Tanta Lives!
The Baby Boom Generation will never be mistaken for the Greatest Generation that survived the Great Depression and defeated evil in a World War that killed 72 million people. I hate to tell you Boomers, but putting a yellow ribbon on the back of your $50,000 SUV is not sacrifice.
Our claim to fame is living way beyond our means for the last three decades, to the point where we have virtually bankrupted our capitalist system. Baby Boomers have been occupying the White House for the last sixteen years. The majority of Congress is Baby Boomers. The CEOs and top executives of Wall Street firms are Baby Boomers. The media is dominated by Baby Boom executives and on-air stars. We have no one to blame but ourselves for the current predicament. Blaming Franklin Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson for our dire situation is a cop out. Baby Boomers had the time, power, and ability to change our course. We have chosen to leave the heavy lifting to future generations in order to live the good life today.
We all have stories about a loss of our identity to a Gen X'er. Whether they squashed our ideas, sabotaged our projects, or just simply bad-mouthed us for no apparent reason, they can always find something to deter us from success. This is not true of all Gen X'ers, just like not all of us are lazy, spoiled brats. Not all Gen X'ers feel threatened by us; there's getting to be less & less every day. However our motivation and tech knowledge seem to make many of them squirm. We are their replacements; we are a threat to their job.
It's truly great to see President-elect, Barack Obama, showing his technology savvy. If anyone is still in doubt, the November 2008 election was a triumph for Generation X. The effective use of technology to "get out the vote" and "energize the base" was critical to the Democratic party's win.
Based on the complaints of those pre-election Diarists, something is missing from all the critiquing.
Look at those Cabinet appointees:
Thomas Daschle, born in '47. Eric Holder, born in '51. Janet Napolitano, born in '57. And, possibly Hillary Clinton, born in '47.
Baby Boomers. Every one. Surely this will not be allowed to stand.
Congrats.....I suppose....to 40 year old Hugh Jackman for being People Mag's Sexiest Dude Alive. Let's hope this is the last time a GenXster will ever obtain this lame title because somewhere there's a Millennial Hollywood actor saying today that he "got screwed".
What ever happened to the class of '93?
So rebellious back in the day, Chicago's so-called 'alternative' rockers have gone on to indulge in the nostalgia they once defied.
The increasing youth vote has more to do with the replacement of the older Gen-X or "slacker" generation with the younger Millennial Generation, a post baby-boom cohort that now holds the political reins of the youth voting bloc.
At the 16th Annual California Policy Issues Conference in Los Angeles last week, Heather Smith, executive director of Rock the Vote, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, youth voting initiative that started 18 years ago in Los Angeles, said today's 18-24-year-olds - unlike the Generation X that preceded them - are very motivated to vote. "For the Gen X-ers, politics was so uncool," began Smith. "Now, everyone is talking about politics with friends and family."
This year marked the highest youth vote turnout since 1972, when a record number of young people went to the polls motivated by the Vietnam War and the draft.
I was a lucky GenXster. Although my parents are boomers, they aren't dirty hippies as I like to intentionally generalize their generation as being. Above is a pic I scanned of my Dad's platoon in the 101st Airborne Division. After high school he volunteered (wasn't drafted) to serve as an infantryman in The Army. He spent 1966 in Vietnam and saw mucho combat.
Damn. Obama hasn't even been inside the Oval Office yet and there's already talk of who will unseat him. Oh well, at least he's not a boomer.
Happy Halloween! Remember this dude above? I went as him on Halloween one year. That, or my John McEnroe costume, were my favorite Halloween outfits of all time.Unlike their younger Gen Y brothers and sisters, Gen X know what a recession is - they graduated from university just in time to get their honours in an economic slowdown.
Whatever happened to Liv Tyler? Seriously! I live life fairly obliviously, so I have no idea where she's been over the last decade? I still can't believe that the Mick Jagger wannabe, Steven Tyler, was able to produce someone so beautiful.Oh yeah, and Boomer, we see you trying to save social security. I have a better idea. When all of you reach retirement age here soon just take the money out and split it up among yourselves. We don't need it. We have done without for so long because it was all you, that we are willing to do without now and give to our children. Our children can just stop paying into social security when they enter the workforce, and use the extra money for themselves and their families, their success is our success.
No time to blog - - the Tampa Bay Rays look like they're going to the World Series. Shit, I may have just jinxed them.For Generation X, there is something almost reassuring about recession. For me, spawned in 1971, it's been a case of lack of business as usual, be it 1974-75, 1980-81 or 1991. Indeed, in the manner of professional Northerners, X-ers might boast that "It's All We Had".
Before they mutated into boomers, our parents were weaned in an atmosphere of post-war austerity of a sort to make them insist that we lick the pattern off our plates. Spam fritters were a staple of the school menu (X-ers should be grateful to have been spared snook). In the Seventies, we were so impoverished that someone recently inspecting the Betts family album asked whether we were clad in gypsy fancy-dress (we weren't).
Xers are outcomes focused. Boomers like to talk process ... a lot. With Boomers in charge, Xers have learned to work with it. But when Boomers retire from their "first" career, it will be Xers who take their place. Is it payback time?
World famous Milblogger, LT Nixon, hit the 50,000 visitor milestone today. Born in 1980, the LT may be the last GenXster ever born. If you haven't visited his rapidly expanding spot on the intertubes I suggest you stop wasting your time here and drop by. Although this does come with a WARNING: The LT does not brake for small animals or even a nun pushing a baby carriage.
If you were a kid in the 70's it's likely you saw the "Mr. Yuk" sticker on the side of bottles of cleaners, paint removers or any household liquid substance that could potentially have made one vomit up their intestines. 
FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! I don't want to work til I'm 75 (if I'm lucky). I realize I'm nearly 30 years away from retirement age, yet it still blows to know that thousands of dollars wrapped up in my 401K have bid me farewell. How is it that the CEO's in charge of these massive floundering companies have lived pleasant lives and there are children that die from leukemia? THERE. IS. NO. JUSTICE. EVAHH. As the jokesters on Sadly, No like to say "I'm pitchforks and torches mad". Worst of all, I see goddamn old bastards around me in Florida that retired in their fifties. FIFTIES! What a fuckin' pipe dream that is for GenXsters. The federal indictment against him reads like a plot summary for "The Sopranos." The 44-year-old Gotti — son of the late "Dapper Don" of the notorious Gambino crime family — allegedly had his fingers in everything: whacking rivals, trafficking cocaine, bribery, kidnapping and money-laundering. Earlier convictions show Gambino crews have worked for years to get a foothold in the Tampa area's criminal underworld.
Paul,
Thank you for sharing with us your talent and philanthropic spirit. I'm sorry that I'll most remember you for the movie Slapshot.
Jeebus Christ, I just wanted to spin some music from a largely forgotten album only to discover that it's under the large umbrella that is the Universal Music Group (the same cocksuckers that somehow acquired Def Jam through a series of sell-offs and mergers). The problem: U.M.G. does not enable the embeds on YouTube.
During my lunch break today, I decided to walk up to Wollman Rink in Manhattan’s Central Park to check out David Blaine’s latest stunt. I have better things to do with my time, to be sure, but I’ve always been curious about David Blaine: Not in that “Oh, he’s so amazing” way, but in that “What is this guy’s deal?” way. Apparently, I’m not the only cynic around. I overheard a few middle-aged ladies walking ahead of me,saying, “He’s just doing a stupid stunt; he’s not a magician.”
If I rememba correctly my first lunchbox was the Incredible Hulk from the Lou Ferrigno era. The goddamn thing always smelled like sour milk and the latch always unfastened when I was running after the school bus and then I ended up missing the bus since I had to pick my bagged sandwich and thermos off of the ground and inevitably some kids would see from the back window of the bus what happened and made fun of me when I got to school, but all of that teasing ended a few years down the road when grew large and started bullying the bullies until I was accused of being a bully, which was never a goal of mine.
Slowly, one by one, I started telling my friends about how I was being called back up to go to Iraq, and their reactions were all the same, yet all different. Some got angry, some cried, some wondered, "Wow, they can do that?" The best was the reaction I received from my one Republican friend, who asked me if it was possible for him to come with me to Iraq. He never enlisted in the military and wanted to hurry and sign up so that he and I could go there together, which instantly reminded me of how not long ago, George Bush was telling a group of soldiers about how much he envies them, talking about how "exciting" and "romantic" war must be. I guess Vietnam wasn't "exciting" or "romantic" enough for the president, and that's why he blew it off. But Iraq was much different.
And like Bush, my Republican friend was all atwitter about the prospect of seeing combat in Iraq, and he sounded really enthusiastic about this idea of his, and as desperate as the Army is for bodies, it wouldn't amaze me at all if he could possibly do it, but I told him no, that he couldn't, and when he asked if I was sure about that, I lost it and said, "Jason, I'm going back to Iraq because you didn't!"
Bloggin' bud, LT Nixon, believes he has an understanding of just how weird Florida is. Well you don't have a clue, pal. 
This insures that any boomers planning on retiring in the next few years will still be around the office to tell us how Rock & Roll was so much better in the 60's.
CLAREMONT, Calif. (AP) — David Foster Wallace, the author best known for his 1996 novel "Infinite Jest," was found dead in his home, according to police. He was 46.
From Army of Dude:It was appropriate that my journey to Iraq ended like it began - on September 11. Six years earlier (September 2001) as a sophomore in high school, I had already made up my mind about joining the Army. The attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon simply sealed the deal. I didn't discuss what kind of job I wanted with my recruiter or the dude that signed my papers. I wanted to go infantry. I wanted to put a bullet in the heart of any Taliban that crossed my path. I wanted them to pay dearly with their lives.
As fate would have it, I wasn't bound for the mountains of Afghanistan but the septic waste strewn cities of Iraq. I don't regret for one second my experiences there, both of triumph and tragedy. My battalion led the way in perhaps the most daring offensive of the whole war to capture al-Qaeda in Iraq's self proclaimed capital of Baqubah. The men I had the utmost pleasure to serve with will be my closest friends until the day I die. It's all downhill from here; I'll never make new friends that are on the same level of the men I shared life, love and loss with during our fifteen month combat deployment.
Members of generation X may be in big trouble when it comes to savingsWek's heartless advice: Do not give to a charity that will directly help a boomer. Start with the most helpless, voiceless cause (a la Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and work your way onto the next older. Or help out those that put their lives on the line for us.
and retirement, but it turns out that they're more philanthropic than older generations. A new survey from Northern Trust found that gen X millionaires give nearly twice as much, on average, to charitable causes as their elders.
Oasis singer Noel Gallagher was attacked on stage in Canada during a concert by the British band on Sunday night, sending him to hospital with a suspected broken rib.
Play for the match. It's hard to do anything with your money that's better than investing in a 401(k) plan when your employer matches part of your contribution. The most typical match is 50 percent of your contribution up to 6 percent of your salary, meaning that the employer will kick in as much as 3 percent of your salary. If you make $35,000 a year and contribute $2,100 (at $40 a week), your company will add an additional $1,050. That's a 50 percent rate of return on your investment, before you even invest. A true no-brainer. Force yourself to do that by signing up for an automatic paycheck deduction. You won't miss what you never see.
