Where were you 5 years ago?

[Popular Front of Judea]

Me? At home, optimistically waiting for a new temp assignment. (Didn't happen.)

The American financial system was shaken to its core on Sunday. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. faced the prospect of liquidation, and Merrill Lynch & Co. agreed to be sold to Bank of America Corp.

The U.S. government, which bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a week ago and orchestrated the sale of Bear Stearns Cos. to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in March, played much tougher with Lehman. It refused to provide a financial backstop to potential buyers.

Without such support, Barclays PLC and Bank of America, the two most interested buyers, walked away. On Sunday night, Bank of America struck an all-stock deal to buy Merrill Lynch for $29 a share, or $50 billion. Lehman was working on a possible bankruptcy filing that would allow most of its subsidiaries to continue operating as the firm is wound down.

Crisis on Wall Street as Lehman Totters, Merrill Is Sold, AIG Seeks to Raise Cash | WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122139688846233147.html)

[bcbm]

in the process of moving across country. great timing, eh?

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

Probably grown drunk and freestyling with my roommate like an idiot and playing nazi zombies.

[#FF0000]

about to start college expecting a bright and exciting future

hahahahahhahahaa

[Brutus]

I was 10... I can't really remember.

[blake 3:17]

Just hired to my first permanent full time job with benefits and vacation. That lasted a year and a half.

[Art Vandelay]

I was in grade 11 and my biggest concern was probably playing hockey.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

I'd just made it back to Halifax after a summer of trainhopping/hitchhiking/sleeping in ditches/being wasted all the time/working for a two weeks at a Subway in Banff/etc. I was super sick - vomiting all the time, headache, fever. It had been a weird summer - kicking off with the shitshow that was the demonstrations against Atlantica (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/20-arrested-in-atlantica-protests-in-halifax-1.663434), which I'd spent the better part of Fall/Winter/Spring organizing around. I didn't know it, but my partner's other partner was increasingly abusive - it just felt like our own relationship was more and more strained. Basically, I was at the shitty end of a rough couple months. Anyway, I didn't really have coherent plans, but, as it turned out, I was about a month away from moving to Southern Ontario. Yup.

[Goblin]

Mental hospital (seriously)...

[RedBen]

freshly discharged "under other than honorable conditions". drinking my shame away, unemployed and still an unread liberal.

[Sentinel]

I had the same job as now. The company has made some major cuts since due to the crisis but luckily I've been protected from them - so far - due to my long employment.

Here in Sweden we have what is called LAS (Lagen om anställningskydd, the Law of employment protection) which means first in, last out. After 7 years in power the bourgeois coalition government hasn't dared to touch it, even though it is their wet dream.

Since 2010, being a minority government it might not be possible for them anyway.

I was also elected as an Administrator on this website for the first time on September 7, 2008 with an approval rating of 98,25%, or 56-1. :)

[Fourth Internationalist]

I was 10... I can't really remember.

Haha I was also ten years old. I don't remember anything about myself at all as a prepubescent. :lol:

[Flying Purple People Eater]

One of the best times of my life.

That time has now passed.


I was 10... I can't really remember.


Haha I was also ten years old. I don't remember anything about myself at all as a prepubescent. :lol:

Huh, that's interesting. I'm a lot older than both of you and I can clearly remember what life was like at three years old.

[Consistent.Surprise]

Finishing curating a small historical museum, prepping for my first corporate/cubicle job (lasted 10 months before budget cuts that released many of us under "poor performance"--some had been there for 12+ years), engaged to an abusive alcoholic but living in my own apartment. I miss my apartment.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

I was 16 and I'd just started my AS-levels. I was a pretty disengaged person overall, I was much less interested in music and I read fewer books than I had done in previous years. I was mostly interested in video games but my PC was crap, so I couldn't play the latest stuff or really play online very well. I wasn't up to much, in short.

[roy]

Swagging out with my hair all justin bieber and one time I got to kiss a girl

[Comrade Jacob]

I was 10.
I liked football and WWE.
Kill me.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

17 doing my A-Levels and considering going into the armed forces as a future career. Mostly just ditched school to play call of duty, getting my older brother to buy me cider for the occassional parties I organised or went to and masterbating profusely.

[Quail]

I was living with my parents, just about to move away and start university.

[EdvardK]

Abroad, working hard for the capitalists...

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

christ, this thread has just depressed me. I initially mis-counted by a year, but 5 years ago, to the day, I went out with my first girlfriend. We went to Hyde Park, talked for hours, then the next week we walked along the South Bank and kissed in the rain.

Then 3 months later it ended in tragedy and teenage angst and hormones.

[sixdollarchampagne]

I was in the last two years of working as an admin assistant in a prominent New England engineering university, before retiring. 5 days a week, I was spending roughly 3 hours, commuting between Cambridge, Mass. and Providence, Rhode Island, so I was short on sleep and in a job I had been doing for three decades. Long story short, I was a little burnt out. That said, I had a stunning view of the Charles River from my office, and, ever since retiring, I have missed the people I used to work with.

[Petrol Bomb]

I was 10... I can't really remember.

Haha I was also ten years old. I don't remember anything about myself at all as a prepubescent. :lol:

You guys cannot remember much? I was nine years old, a couple weeks into school. Don't really remember what happened on the exact day, but they didn't differ much anyways. Being scolded by teachers, blasting heavy metal, riding bikes and playing Super Smash Bros with friends. Good times.

Edit: I like how this is in the History forum haha.

[Paul Pott]

I don't know about what I was doing that day, but five years ago I was a disillusioned young man looking for answers.

[Popular Front of Judea]

This is start of the greatest recession since WWII. One we are still working our way out of. I think it qualifies as history.


Edit: I like how this is in the History forum haha.

[Os Cangaceiros]

about to start college expecting a bright and exciting future

hahahahahhahahaa

Yeah, I was the same way 5 years ago. Right before reality stabbed my dreams to death! :ohmy:

The economic downturn post-2008 is definitely one of the defining political moments in my life, though. I remember when the official unemployment numbers were 10% + and thinking that something big was on the verge of happening. Nothing did, though, everyone became hypnotized by Obamania and the dominant theme on much of cable news became how victimized business was by all these big gub'mint policies. Only in 'murika.

Nothing happened after October 2008 until a full three years later, with Occupy Wall Street. Which was much more interesting than the usual nauseas bullshit political scene that exists in this country, but was still woefully inadequate.

[The Jay]

I was in my last year of high school and promptly shit my pants upon realizing I had no future.

[piet11111]

You guys cannot remember much? I was nine years old, a couple weeks into school. Don't really remember what happened on the exact day, but they didn't differ much anyways. Being scolded by teachers, blasting heavy metal, riding bikes and playing Super Smash Bros with friends. Good times.

Edit: I like how this is in the History forum haha.

Clearly they where out partying getting drunk and high and alas such a lifestyle does not allow much room for memories.

Me i was 23 unemployed wasting time on revleft and living with my parents.

Now i got a job :thumbup1: and nothing else changed for me at all.

[Sinister Intents]

Five years ago I was 15, I smoked my first joint and got extremely high. I think I discovered revleft soon after and I lurked and learned a lot. I also over worked myself for the first time and I couldn't move for days.

[Thirsty Crow]

At college, mostly hanging out with all sorts of people and reading stuff not so directly related with my field, still relatively shielded from the necessity to work and largely non-radicalized, living in the apartment in which I still do. The relative age of innocence so to speak :lol:

A whole lot has changed since then.

[Per Levy]

wow, i feel old reading through this thread and im not even 30(well in half a year i will be). anyway, 5 years ago i was on my last vacation, it was also the last year without caring to much about money, the next year my girlfriend was thrown out of her parents place with no support and since then i support her, sadly things havnt gone good from that time on, actually every year just gets shittier and shittier. fuck life.

[Zukunftsmusik]

I don't know about what I was doing that day, but five years ago I was a disillusioned young man looking for answers.

I was 15, felt mostly like this ^ but also quite a lot like this V


playing Super Smash Bros with friends. Good times.

God, I miss that. Melee is best, fuck brawl.

[motion denied]

Playing football all day every day. Fun times.

[Skyhilist]

At the most piece of shit middle school ever

[argeiphontes]

I was a Linux systems administrator in a trading firm, doing my small part to divorce capital markets from real investment and bring about the crash. ;) The firm didn't care--it was algorithmic trading, making money out of thin air regardless if stocks rise or fall, or people have homes or are homeless. Other than that, it was the best job I ever had and regret the way I lost it.

edit: The payout for getting let go allowed me to hike 164 miles of the Appalachian Trail, from Springer Mtn, GA, to the Fontana Dam Visitor's Center at the southern boundary of Great Smoky Mtn. Nat. Park. Not bad compared to degaussing hard disks in the middle of the night.

[edwad]

i was 12 going on 13 and i was finally getting involved in politics. my civics class got divided into 2 groups depending on who we wanted to be the next president and i was made fun of for being the only white kid on the obama side, which made me feel like some sort of saint. how things have changed. :rolleyes:

[DasFapital]

I was starting my senior year of high school. So I was mostly grateful that I would be having to hang out with all the homophobes and rednecks much longer.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

I was in continuation school being indoctrinated into becoming a "good citizen".

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

I was 21 years of age and drifting from squat to squat in London while taking copious amounts of various drugs. Since then I've managed to settle down in a flat.

[piet11111]

I was 21 years of age and drifting from squat to squat in London while taking copious amounts of various drugs. Since then I've managed to settle down in a flat.

Hold on now you are younger then me ?

my dob is 13-06-1985 and your younger then me ?

mind = blown

[Bolshevik Sickle]

I was most likely at school, having yet another crappy day.

[Creative Destruction]

I believe I was battling depression, working a shitty job and trying to just fight my way through it all.

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Same as now, less two kids.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

last year of school, probably getting in trouble somewhere.

[Lensky]

5 years ago I was a liberal with an interest in history and politics.

[RedGuevara]

5 years ago I was a sophomore in high school. In "love" with a red head and trying to woo her. Spending my nights gaming and my days loathing school and the idiots I had to goto school with. Glad I'm not in high school anymore.

[Two Buck Chuck]

Bullshitting. So not a whole lot has changed.

[Rusty Shackleford]

I was in highschool. senior year. Sure made the government and economics class interesting.



never forget.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

At this exact time 5 years ago, I was a temp worker in a tech job hoping to be hired on a permanent basis.