For those who have been posting here more than 10 years, how does your old you compare?

And it's a pity for I've always enjoyed your take on life and the world
.
It takes me back to my childhood when my Liberal parents sat at their table with Conservative friends in the suburbs of Washington DC and discussed politics. Politics discussed with knowledge and integrity.

What Suburbs? I grew up there as well. (Spring Valley)

Falls Church and Arlington

A pity, I think you've always represented your political side well and as you note it is underrepresented on this forum.

Hope to see you around!

Are you sure you need the comma ahead of Damned Daftitude?

I would also like to see more of georgeob.

I always abuse commas and am using it wrong there again but this time it's supposed to represent line breaks that don't work in my signature.

I originally wrote it as:

AA
BB
CC
DD

We lived in Arlington - short time, but I somewhat remember it, while being maybe four. Or not, I don't trust my semi data.

Nice to see you here by the way! I need to go visit you sometime again!

I also noticed I am much better at "sounding" colloquial. Due to various factors when I was younger I struggled at sounding "normal" (foreign language influence made my vocabulary more Latin-based, and I had sesquipedalian tendencies) and it was off putting to many and hard to have some conversations. Now I can better fit into the kind of language people are using and am less prone to sound like I just bought a thesaurus.

Some of it, ironically, is due to not working with language as a profession anymore (used to teach, interpret and work as a lexicographer and memorizing dictionaries was a pastime). By studying and working with language less I am actually using it more effectively in day to day life.

Pretty soon you will be able to pepper your words with typos like all native writers.

Submerged in Pa German and German-English language, Ive taken at least 50 of my 65 years to stop sounding like Yoda's nephew.

Just send him your old keyboard.

I had to go back and look at my early posts. All those first posts were math and science related, but I did find the first of my political posts and I was much more sympathetic to the right then than I am now. I think I was alarmed about where the right was going but not ready to give them up for lost. I credit A2K for challenging me to think about things I took for granted. I did have to laugh at how my efforts to start threads have gone. Most are lucky to get two responses.

we've been asking for more georgeob since at least 2008

http://able2know.org/topic/125465-1

wiseass

Thank you for the kind words.

I checked your profile and found it fascinating. I'm a child of Irish immigrants and grew up across the river in NW D.C. near American University. Much later I had a home in Falls Church, just off Rte 123 near the parkway. Lovely place, though the urban development from the Tysons area has changed its character.

It was a wonderful place to grow up but around 1979 I grew tired of the daily drive around the Beltway and moved down to S Florida. I love it here.

The people that lived around the DC area were a fascinating bunch

It was indeed. I went to Gonzaga High school and have great memories of the time. Falls Church is still a pleasant enclave but the Washington urban complex has exploded with the Federal bureaucracy and the big business lobbyists that attend them. Leesburg VA is a close in suburb now.

I have a son who lives in Coral Gables, also a very pleasant part of greater Miami with lots of cultural texture and atmosphere. Too damn hot in July though.

I should acknowledge that it's 61 deg F and cloudy today in San Francisco, so I probably shouldn't criticize.

That made me chuckle re 'just bought a thesaurus'. You do seem more relaxed these days, good going.

I haven't put my own changes in some kind of order yet, still cogitating.

I too enjoy reading George O'B. Though we don't agree on a lot, reading him is rarely painful and often interesting. Re Panz - he is the sanest person on a2k, or at least in a tie with Fbaezer.

I'm much better looking now.

I, like Osso, haven't really tried to put order to my changes but I know there have been at least a few. One that jumps out at me is that personal tragedy has had the effect of not allowing me to take myself or anyone else quite as seriously anymore. Can't attach as much significance anymore to how I or anyone else thinks or feels in any particular moment. Hope that makes sense.