Stop Microsoft

Miscellaneous => The Lounge => Topic started by: Pathos on 14 July 2006, 00:35

Title: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: Pathos on 14 July 2006, 00:35
big congrats on apparently becoming an official 'adult' :)

hope you have great party.
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: H_TeXMeX_H on 14 July 2006, 01:04
Yay, now you can drink freely in the US, without a fake id ... but you're in the Netherlands ... oh well

now you can smoke weed freely ?

Anyway happy b-day
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: worker201 on 14 July 2006, 01:10
If it doesn't change your life in some useful way, it's just another fucking birthday.  Perhaps we Americans should be thanking our all-knowing all-powerful government for making a few of our birthdays important.  16,18,21,25,40,55,65.
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: Laukev7 on 14 July 2006, 01:37
Happy Birthday, Refalm! :)
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: Canadian Lover on 14 July 2006, 01:42
I thought 18 was when you're an adult.

At least here anyway...
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: Orethrius on 14 July 2006, 02:40
Congrats Refalm, head on over here for a Corona, Tecate, or whatever the hell else you want! :)
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: adiment on 14 July 2006, 06:40
Quote from: worker201
If it doesn't change your life in some useful way, it's just another fucking birthday.  Perhaps we Americans should be thanking our all-knowing all-powerful government for making a few of our birthdays important.  16,18,21,25,40,55,65.

What the hell are 16, 25, 40, 55, and 65 for? :confused:

18 and 21 are the ones that are import. 16 sucks, unless you have rich parents who will buy you a car when you get your driving permit (which I don't even have and I'm almost 18)

happy birthday Refalm. Come to the US and buy me a drink now. :thumbup:
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: piratePenguin on 14 July 2006, 07:18
Quote from: etement
16 sucks
:eek: 16 is when ur allowed to have sex ;)

(17 here, since a few months ago)
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: Laukev7 on 14 July 2006, 08:21
Quote
16 is when ur allowed to have sex
Believe it or not, in Canada it's 14.
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: adiment on 14 July 2006, 09:16
Quote from: piratePenguin
:eek: 16 is when ur allowed to have sex ;)

(17 here, since a few months ago)

doesn't matter... ;)
(unless you're into people watching you, haha)
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: pofnlice on 14 July 2006, 11:46
OMG....

You really don't know the signifcance of each of these ages?
16,18,21,25,40,55,65

No wonder the new generation is worrying about all the wrong problems...they don't even know what they're entitled to and when...

God help us all when I'm old and wrinkly...
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: Refalm on 14 July 2006, 12:03
Thank you all :)

I'll add some pictures of my birthday summercamp in a week :D

To add to the discussion: I looked up on my government's website, and when you're 21, you are allowed to join the fire department (not that I will).

I was already allowed from the age 16 to drink beer and to smoke weed. And at the age of 18, I was allowed to get a drivers license and to vote for the Green Party.
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: adiment on 14 July 2006, 12:31
Quote from: pofnlice
OMG....

You really don't know the signifcance of each of these ages?
16,18,21,25,40,55,65

No wonder the new generation[//b] is worrying about all the wrong problems...they don't even know what they're entitled to and when...

God help us all when I'm old and wrinkly...

By judging somebody as "the new generation" you are old and wrinkly ;). And the only ages I don't know are the ones I listed. The only important ones are 18 and 21. However, for 25 I don't even have a guess for .

16, drink and smoke weed. I wish I lived there when I was 16. :eek: heh, I wish I lived there now, can't "legally" smoke weed in the USA.
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: Calum on 14 July 2006, 18:58
i suspect ages such as 26, 28 or 29 are about getting a work visa. surely age 60 and 65 are the retirement ages for women and men respectively (or perhaps 55 is for women in some country) interestingly 16 is the gae you can be legally married in scotland, however it's 17 in england *unless* you have parental consent, in which case, it's 16. Of course this means you can nip across the border and get married at 16 if your parents are dead set against it.
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: Laukev7 on 14 July 2006, 22:24
Interestingly, but not quite related, July 14th is the day of the French revolution.
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: worker201 on 14 July 2006, 22:32
Quote from: etement
What the hell are 16, 25, 40, 55, and 65 for? :confused:

16: US driver's license (sorry e7, but everyone else in the US learns to drive at 15 and then either gets a car or borrows mom's)

18: US purchase cigarettes, become a stripper, make an adult video

21: US purchase beer and liquor (many people get their first case of alcohol poisoning on this night)

25: US car insurance rates drop (being a young driver is expensive)

40: you're fucking 40-FORTY-40

55: officially a US senior citizen, entitled to 10% off at many restaurants

65: if you aren't retired already, you can retire now

(back in the hyper-prosperous 50s, you could retire at 55 and live off of social security, but these days, most people can't afford to survive off of SS alone, so they keep working and retire later)
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: Pathos on 15 July 2006, 13:52
pretty much the same in NZ except you can purchase alcoholic beverages at 18, use a motor vehicle at 15, once you're 16 you are permitted to conduct sexual behaviour with other over 16+'s...relationships between under 16 year olds is rather a grey/shady area. Can be legally responsible for themselves.

I bet you $100 that 65 will go up in our life times. In the past 65's may have had to retire because they were decrepid, now with modern medicine we are living longer than ever.
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: xyle_one on 17 July 2006, 06:59
Invest young, and save/invest aggresivley. I am not going to be stuck at 65 with nothing. I want to at least be able to retire and live a modest life until I die.

Happy late bday Refalm :D
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: pofnlice on 17 July 2006, 08:12
Get a good mutual fund or 2, build it up to about 2000 - 2500 in investments, then let it ride...or put in more...then get a great IRA. You'll be set on retirement...
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: worker201 on 17 July 2006, 08:16
Quote from: pofnlice
Get a good mutual fund or 2, build it up to about 2000 - 2500 in investments, then let it ride...or put in more...then get a great IRA. You'll be set on retirement...

Many of the economic problems in the US are based on the fact that local/state govts and public institutions (universities, hospitals, libraries) invested in dotcoms, which later crashed, leaving the victims bankrupt.  So make sure to diversify your investments.
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: Orethrius on 17 July 2006, 09:17
Quote from: worker201
Many of the economic problems in the US are based on the fact that local/state govts and public institutions (universities, hospitals, libraries) invested in dotcoms, which later crashed, leaving the victims bankrupt.  So make sure to diversify your investments.

 I suspect you already know this, but there's a significant difference between stocks and mutuals.  Either way, the best possible advice is actually NOT to diversify (but it's a close second); it's actually to keep an active eye on your portfolio and drop any fund that mismanages your assets.  Let's put it this way: those lawsuits surrounding the Dot-Bomb had less to do with diversification than with brokers that were told to "sell now" and rode tech stocks into the ground anyway.  I believe that's called "securities fraud" but I might be a tad off there.
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: worker201 on 17 July 2006, 22:10
Quote from: Orethrius
I suspect you already know this, but there's a significant difference between stocks and mutuals.

Of course I was oversimplifying.  I certainly did not mean to imply that the state of Oregon (the first to go bankrupt) invested its pension money in Excite.

As a matter of fact, the companies that got invested in are not a matter of public record.  A couple years ago, the Texas State University System basically bankrupted itself, because it squandered all its money on high-risk investments.  There was a bit of a public outcry, demanding that the TSUS open its records of where it was investing.  Which of course went nowhere.  But you would assume that the investment strategists learned to work a little more safely - even if that only means more secretly.
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: Orethrius on 18 July 2006, 11:49
Quote from: worker201
Of course I was oversimplifying.  I certainly did not mean to imply that the state of Oregon (the first to go bankrupt) invested its pension money in Excite.

As a matter of fact, the companies that got invested in are not a matter of public record.  A couple years ago, the Texas State University System basically bankrupted itself, because it squandered all its money on high-risk investments.  There was a bit of a public outcry, demanding that the TSUS open its records of where it was investing.  Which of course went nowhere.  But you would assume that the investment strategists learned to work a little more safely - even if that only means more secretly.

 All things considered, if someone misinvested my funds then refused to tell me how, the initial "investigation" would involve human intelligence.  The follow-up would involve a Louisville.  ;)
Title: Re: Happy 21st birthday Refalm
Post by: Pathos on 18 July 2006, 15:30
or you could start the next ms/google ... :/