“Can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is one that’s very pertinent to my life right now.
So, I was a pretty dedicated musician in my younger years, but I’ve never quite gotten around to learning how to produce music digitally. Recently, I’ve been trying to learn. Thing is, since I’m in my early 30s, I’m only just now hitting that age where my neuroplasticity isn’t what it was when I was 20, and learning things is starting to become noticeably a little more difficult.
So, that’s where I think the expression comes from. You get older, you try to learn something new, you underestimate how much more difficult learning that new thing is at your current age (because, honestly, you have no way to gauge how hard it’ll be until you’re doing it), the challenge gets the better of you, and now you have to admit defeat.
“Can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is basically a different way of saying “No, no! I’m not owned!! I didn’t lose!!!” It’s a way of shielding oneself from the sting of defeat by framing it as “well, that’s just the way things are when you’re older.” It’s not that you couldn’t rise up to the challenge of learning. You just cannot teach old dogs new tricks, and that’s a fact. Don’t you hear people say that all the time? Why would people say it so much if it weren’t true? So, yeah. I didn’t lose. I’m not owned.
It’s an especially harsh process when you’re learning to do something related to something you already know really well, and struggling with it, like I am with music production. It makes you question how well you really knew that thing in the first place. But, like I said, I’m only in my early 30s. If I were 60 and struggling to learn a new way to do something I’ve been doing my whole life, I’m sure it’d be wayyy more demoralizing. I’m sure I’d want to guard my feelings from that.
So, I get why the expression exists. I just don’t think it holds any real weight. People treat it like it’s some fact of life, but it’s just an excuse. You’ve just gotta keep pushing, be prepared to accept failure when it rears its ugly head, and then muster the energy to get back up and get back on as many times as you can before you’re beat. Easier said than done, though.
Damn, I have almost the exact same answer. Switched to Steam once WON got taken down (held out as long as I could), and had a friend send me a Gmail invite a few months later.
Only differences are that I mostly used mine for TFC, and my account won’t technically hit drinking age until early next month.
I kinda wish I could say I had like a bottle of liquor I’ve been saving for the occasion, but the idea of a “21-year-old Steam account” genuinely never occurred to me until one day I woke up and realized it was about to turn 18. Made me realize how fast shit moves, and this is just driving the point home…
I used to mix it in with fried rice that’d been left sitting out for too long and turned really dry. Gives it some moisture and a vinegary edge, but probably not for everyone, since ketchup’s trademark is stomping all over the subtle flavors of a dish.
When I was in elementary school, I’d dip my pizza crusts in ketchup at lunchtime. I still do that every now and then with Sriracha ketchup
Also, same elementary school lunch: on pizza days, they also used to give us a side of tricolor fusilli straight-up. Just plain pasta without even so much as a little olive oil. So, fuck it. It got blasted with 'chup.
As a bassist, I can at least say that was my experience. I learned pentatonic by paying attention to which notes I’d hear most often, and recognizing which pattern on the fretboard they usually showed up in when played in sequence.
That was pretty much all I needed to be able to jam semi-decently, and everything else just sort of progressed from there.
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Not pictured: Doug’s brother Jack
(I know it’s painfully unoriginal, but I do what I want in this absurd world and I cannot be stopped)
Yikes!
Bro types like he just got whacked with a warm wiener, twice
Doctor wanted something to remember him by
Not a fan of the royal ‘we’, then, I take it?
I always wondered if Satan was actually defeated by this, or if he spent the whole ordeal just thinking, “Oh, whoa, he actually took the bait. Holy shit, he’s actually doing it. This is hilarious. I can’t believe it was this easy. Unreal.”
Same. I like to start with A Period of Cream first, though
Me, but instead of affecting her clothes in any way, The Hand™️ activates my neurons by drawing the two circles on her face
Reports that the president was later heard remarking to staffers that, in addition, it was also, “mega bodacious,” and “tubular to the max.” Unsubstantiated rumors follow that the president punctuated this statement with a “cowabunga.” More as this develops.
Not all squares are rectangles, but all rectangles are insecure dweebs who need to find something better to do.
I guess because that was always the intended messaging of the kind of schlocky Facebook posts the original is meant to be parodying. It used to be “this wise soldier/farmer/cop/blue collar worker shows a Millennial hipster how the world REALLY works,” and now you replace ‘Millennial hipster’ with ‘liberal’, but it’s all the same shit designed to get you to look down on someone while respecting whoever the meme tells you is worth respecting.
To be honest, I think the novel author in the replies had some valid points. They just had the poor sense of awareness that would lead them to making those points against an obvious parody, and then going “nuh-uh I’m still right” when it was pointed out to be obvious parody with yet more obvious parody.
I guess my point is we should all be taking a step back from the online brainrot, doing more to act locally and benefit the world around us, and supporting our local sewer men.
And with reckless abandon if you wanna get REAL fuckin wild
In some instances, you just sort of decide to wing it and jam for a bit until you all find a spot that works. So, sometimes, you get to hear the ending get written live! (Though, usually, you just end up repeating whatever you’d do when you were practicing the song before)
Source: Had a band, had trouble writing endings sometimes.
Probably a bug I was saving for dinner? I don’t anticipate I’ll have a whole lot to bring with me at that point.