Reputedly an old Chinese curse, one of a set of three, the others being...

* May you come to the attention of those in authority

* May you find what you are looking for

Cunning devils the Chinese.

What do you think of the times you've lived in? Would you have preferred a more interesting era? I know my Mother and Father are more than content with growing up in the 1930s and doing their "bit" in WW2.

Personally I'm pretty happy with the second half of the 20th century.

Dentistry........................Have to live in a time with dentistry.

I do not think I would wish to be a kid in todays world.

Kids in 40s & 50s had a much more interesting and rewarding life.

Not going into it.

BUT kids today, with PC crap and so much protection, (trees taken out in school yards, lil Jonny mite climb one....<deleted>)

These times are so stifling for young minds and energies.

Yep mid 20th century was fine, exciting, and freedom to have adventures, yaaaaaas ! ! !

I think the times we are living in are the most interesting.

I'm with Zpete on this. Born in '52 I experienced just enough of the post war austerity to appreciate the little things and still be astounded by the big stuff. I remember all those childhood things in those nostalgia e mails you get from time to time. I can use computers to help me do my work better and do all the personal life stuff but if the power goes off I can still pick up a pencil and note pad and carry on.

Would I like to go through a different era? No, absolutely not! Assuming any rerun starts from about the same social background had I been born too much earlier, ignoring WWII, I would most likely been a coal miner or worked in the shipyards. Born any later and I would have missed the boat in terms of my current profession. If I left school today with the same qualifications I left with in '68 the best I'd get is stacking shelves in Tescos. The nearest I'd get to south east Asia would be arranging the pineapples in the fruit section.

The last of the three curses is deep. "May you find what you are looking for" can certainly be a double edged sword. It signifies achievement but it also signifies the end for if we have nothing more to look for we have no purpose to go on.

It reflects the old CW song Phil... "Be careful what you wish for, it might come true".

Mmmmm..... bunch of old farts here.....

I am happy that I can be a witness of the total destruction of the current financial system and the resulting mutual destruction.

Gonna be some nice fireworks in the sky.

^ Not to mention the gradual destruction of everything my predecessors fought long and hard to protect us from.

Just to give you an indication of what I mean, from examples taken from opening a new pub in cambridge, while pubs left right and center are closing their doors:

On top of a whopping £ 2,400.- annual council tax

*Obviously, smoking ban.

*Licence for live music costing nearly 1K per annum

*Licence certifying that our live music (£600.-)does not have largely "signed" bands songs being covered. ie: our bands all need to play original material. (we're not paying PBS fees of £2,000 p.a.

*Licence for public to dance £ 350.-

*paper work for each individual serving behind the bar showing they knwo the rules and how to serve.

HEALTH & Safety have barred us from using half our kitchen ewuipment. On three items of Kitchen appliances this is only because of non-functional LED's showing that they are on or off. - Sorry but opening a fridge door tells you whether it is on or not (plus they've got temp. gauges) and opening an oven does the same.

In the meantime, our PM is trying to allow the MP's a daily allowance of £174.- just to turn up to work....

Bunch of bullshit what's going on over here. People don't protest or rebel. They tow the line.

Fifty years of fighting a cold war. This plce is gettin' uglier by the day.

And the future is scary.

Meanwhile, children are not being allowed to learn common sense cos they're not allowed to do anything so they are gonna get bored and get hold of a gun or a knife or some shit. They all think their gangsters these days. There's our future. Either molly-coddled future politicians, or kids from poor to lower middle class families growing up to become cold heartless bastards.

Christ. I'm 30 years old. I would have loved to have been born about 25-30 years earlier.

That would make you about my age then kayo.

A marvelous age, I've seen young people learn to think for themselves and challenge what they consider to be wrong rather than blindly follow their elders.

I've seen the rise and fall of great tyranny and slaves discard their chains and enslave others.

I've seen technology make life almost too easy for most people and take the place of millions of jobs while those that once held them are contemptuously described as too lazy to work.

Like the third Chinese curse, what I once dreamed off has come true and I'm reduced to the role of an observer of new events through flickering electronic windows of information while those around me still plant crops by hand and wed girls in their early teens.

Some things change and some don't.

There is a fourth Chinese curse, one day some of you might meet her

hmmm which one could that be? ....its not my ex-girlfriend's mother is it?

I've seen technology make life almost too easy for most people and take the place of millions of jobs while those that once held them are contemptuously described as too lazy to work.

Funny but back in the '60's and '70's we were told that computers would replace workers and we'd all live in some kind of nirvana.

Truth turned out to be that computers spawned a whole multitude of slaves just to keep them running.

Before computers we used to write memo's by hand to the person responsible or, if at all possible, we'd actually talk to the person (OMG the sky is falling!) and because we had to WRITE them by HAND there were few of them.

Now someone sends an e mail to the person the person replies and feels it necessary to cc it to the entire company addressbook. All these people, having been cc'd, feel duty bound to reply, to all of course, giving their input no matter how irrelevant it may be nor how unqualified they may be to offer an opinion.

So a simple question like "fancy a beer after work?" gets circulated to all from the tea lady to the CEO. That's okay but the CEO always turns up and never buy his round.

It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword but the internet can shovel sh1t a whole lot faster.

Had I lived in an earlier time I'd be either older or dead now. Had I not lived until a future date all the things I cherish now would never have happened.

All in all, I'm good where I am.

^ Not to mention the gradual destruction of everything my predecessors fought long and hard to protect us from.

Bunch of bullshit what's going on over here. People don't protest or rebel. They toe the line.

Fifty years of fighting a cold war. This plce is gettin' uglier by the day.

Christ. I'm 30 years old. I would have loved to have been born about 25-30 years earlier.

Kayo - to toe the line was (in the time I was born and bred) to be in a bare-knuckle fight and be able to get up and put your foot on the line, ready to continue the fight.

What I have done all my life.

Yes, being a lot younger than me, you have missed a lot of the development that has led to the life we lead today.

My mother will be 100 later this year and what she has seen is absolutely amazing.

I saw the Second World War - being bombed out in 1941 (and being bombed out for the late fifties and early sixties)(but that's a different story) - seing the 'thousand bomber raids' assemble in the skies overhead, seeing the air support for D-Day (absolutely wall-to-wall aircraft in the sky), national service and a year of regulars in an air/sea rescue helicopter, university at the end of the fifties, the beginnings of mass television, the start of the computer age, so on.

When I think back to my childhood, our Sunday recreation being a walk in the country, seeing snow still under the hedgerows in June 1947 (in SE England), climbing trees, scrumping, wandering all around the countryside on my own, first on foot, then by bike with very few cars on the road, nowadays many parents will not let their kids out the door, and many kids don't want to leave their computers to go out of doors.

Life has changed.

Evolution.

Evolution.

I prefer Revolution - but then I was blacklisted from the Labour Party for Trotsky-ist ideas.

We have lost the plot with computers.

A metal or plastic box filled with wires should be a tool to enrich the life of it's inventors, instead it has enslaved them.

Reputedly an old Chinese curse, one of a set of three, the others being...

* May you come to the attention of those in authority

* May you find what you are looking for

Cunning devils the Chinese.

What do you think of the times you've lived in? Would you have preferred a more interesting era? I know my Mother and Father are more than content with growing up in the 1930s and doing their "bit" in WW2.

Personally I'm pretty happy with the second half of the 20th century.

Lao Tzu said a lot of cool things too. Like...

"To increase life is to increase happiness."

and

"You live in the best of times."

I have to agree with your first quote though, that we do indeed live in interesting times......

We have lost the plot with computers.

A metal or plastic box filled with wires should be a tool to enrich the life of it's inventors, instead it has enslaved them.

As did television to a previous generation who would turn on the tellie as soon as they got home. People believed what was told to them because "it was on the TV so it must be true"

All previous generations think they had it better than the generations that follow. The teenage generation today would likely think living without the technology they have would be tantamount to torture. It doesn't mean they are right or prevous generations are wrong only that they are living their "now", just as previous generations did with what they had.

I had a great childhood (born 75) & my neice in UK (11) is having her own great childhood, she isn't stuck inside & her mum doesn't "live in fear" of her being out. She neither sits behind a computor or in front of the TV all day but she has the choice if she so fancies to & is internet savvy as all kids her age should be, for it is the time we live in.

I work on a computor but it doesn't rule my life nor imprison me anymore than having to write things by hand & file bits of paper or be stuck to a phone would do.

My computor based role actually give me more freedom than if it didn't exist as it enables me to work full time from home for the past 3 years meaning I am not forced to commute for hours per day giving me a lot more time to spend with my family.

Not all technology is bad & not everythign done in "ye olde times" was better

Just my tuppence.

Computers have allowed people to escape the oneway communication (fodder) of television and got people talking to each other all over the world, not just those within the catchment area of a favorite bar.

I would like to see a political revolution take place with the internet as the main tool for communication, when the governments clamp down on the freedom of assembly on the internet then they highlight the fact that they are no longer worthy of their position.

Government should fear the people, in these days of open politics and press publication I see many governments wanting to hide their nasty little habits from their people and it's not just China, Korean and Cuba, this can been seen in Europe too.

Government should fear the people

Governments should realise that they work for the people, not the other way around...... actually they do know that and always have, but the people haven't.

Governments run riot in the west due to political apathy. 40% is considered a great turnout for a UK election, no wonder the eejits are not representative.