Yeah.  I've always said I'd never want to live to be old, old people just seem miserable and I'm enough of that.  I'm not a mean person at all, but I suspect not giving a fuck would change how I treated people.

I dunno about all that, and my mind has a hard time grasping complex things like that.  It just seems that there were far too many things that had to go exactly right for us to be here.

but, when all those things do 'go right' we pretty much /have/ to be here - life is here because this is the exact right situation for life to be in - on this planet there is life in the frozen wastelands and the almost boiling waters near underwater volcanoes, from the very depths of the oceans to the highest part of the atmosphere

think of an orange, left for quite a while, until the surface is covered in mould, all green and fuzzy

now, look at the earth again - no real difference

life is definitely an accident, my concern is whether our progress has been manipulated along the way 

This is exactly what I believe.

I am very comfortable that when I die I will be gone, dead, non-existent. In fact this is exactly what I want.

I'm just another living being, one of 107 billion that have been on this earth. At no point do I believe I'm special being part of the 107 billion.

I've had this discussion with a few people, and whilst I definitely don't want to die tomorrow it doesn't worry me that I might. I'm very comfortable with my mortality.

Also, when it comes to dying I've decided I want a Sky Burial. Hopefully after my organs have been harvested for donation or some form of medical research has been done on my dead body. I doubt this will happen, but I would like to be some use after I die. Feed me to the lions at the zoo or something like that.

Things they dig out of La Breya Tar Pit look younger than I do...

La Breya is in Hollywood.

You guys sure know how to cheer someone up!   :-P

Hence all those badly preserved creatures of indeterminable age, presumably.

Carbon dating is your friend.

OMG I should start a website!

Enjoy it. I had mine (big 50, that is) last month.

Late congratulations!

 

Belated thank you!

GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

 >-|

Not until I've finished relieving myself. These trousers show off the embarrassing damp patch far too well.

Embarrassing? What's that?

Was/is it hard to accept being 50?  40 was terrible, when I turn 50 I'll either have to laugh to keep from crying or jump in front of a truck.

I hit 50 two years ago and it didn't really bother me. I always think getting old is better than the alternative. Some of my friends never made it.

Nope, not hard at all. But then I had no problems with hitting 40.

TBH, the hardest was 20. After that, it's all been a breeze.

Nah.  I'm 56 and I'm boozing & schmoozing, artfagging and fornicating with aplomb.  With two plombs, actually.

One of the most positive changes since my forties has been that I give less of a fuck about anything with every passing year.  Greyhair & I have completely changed the direction of our work; I bought a mountain bike & take great pleasure in careering down a bridleway on the verge of being completely out of control.  I go to the park & bounce about on Poweriser stilts or fly my quadcopter.  I recently bought £200 of booze to fill a cocktail cabinet. I wear what the hell I want and say what the hell I want, in private or on public platforms.

Mid-life crisis? Whether I go by my death date tattoo or the sheer abuse I rain upon my body, I must be well over mid-way, and it certainly doesn't feel like a crisis; just liberation.