Ask Lemmy

Connecting to dialup and listening to computers scream at each other over the phone line.

Little Caesar's as a traditional pizza parlor.

Pretending I could make something or my life...

Only knowing small TVs. Step by step, displays have inarguably improved massively, and I do love my giant OLED flatscreen. But watching TV was still great fun in the before times, people still watched the hell out of it, so can we say it brings people more joy now? Or is it just technically and visually better?

I think if you're the kinda person watching beautiful premium shows, that's an experience you couldn't really get before. But I like TV that I can have on in the background, while I'm doing the dishes, and now we're expected to pay attention to details on screen. Back when half the audience had tiny, grainy or monochrome displays, shows were written to suit listening as much as watching. And it's not just scripts, shoddy visuals allowed costumes, sets and design that was evocative but cheap, in a way that cannot pass muster today.

And by comparison, it's reduced the justification for going to cinema, and even kinda made the real world look bad. It used to be worth going somewhere in person because it would look infinitely better than seeing it on a screen. But now, it can actually be a disappointment, as the carefully composed filmed version with post production actually looks more impressive than irl. It's the Connoisseurs Paradox, has it really deepend my pleasure, or merely raised my standards so much that I'm actually less satisfied?

I was an 80’s kid, and we had the best Saturday morning cartoons.
Transformers, GI Joe, Scooby Doo, Thundar the Barbarian, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, Superfriends, Hurculoids, etc.

All my friend's parents smoked when I was younger, but mine didn't so I always associated the smell of cigarettes with meeting my friends. I absolutely hate the smell today, but I still get a flash of nostalgia when I smell cigarette smoke.

My ex.

Windows XP.

A security nightmare, had more unfinished backends than a plexiglass gloryhole.... But goddamn could that machine run

I miss old PC Games from the early 90's.
I've reinstalled all that I remember and they sucked, but back then, they didn't.

Being absolutely sure about everything.

Working in a bar

I love people. I'm a people-person, but I kno know that I am remembering it through rose-tinted lenses

Most customers were average, a few were great, a fair number were dicks

But the hours, the late nights, the cost to my own social life, the lousy pay, the inability to eat normal meals at normal times, all of that shit takes a toll

But I still have some fond memories and occasionally think about opening a bar with my woman

Oh, and I was running a place with a long-term partner. Doing that shit was the final nail in the coffin of our relationship, so fuck that...

Come to think of it, I miss school and I miss the military. They were both godawful, but I was young.

Random things I liked as a kid. I was obsessed with Spy Kids for a bit.

The smell of leaded gasoline.
The smell of a fine cigar: I quit smoking 14 years ago but I miss that.

And I'm 200% sure they were awful.