patrick.net

Karloff says

Shoulders of giants, and all that.

Yeah, too much credit for gen-X. I know this because a boomer family member of mine did contribute in a huge way (not Al Gore) to developing the interwebs and now has swimming pools full of cash. He also was one of the initial inventors of disk drives.

theoakman says

I was born 1980. What I can remember is that no parents were watching us past age 7. By age 8, we were all over town on our own. The fire company rang a siren in town for lunch and one for dinner. Somewhere along the line, the idea of not looking after your kid even in your backyard is frowned upon. I've purposely raised my kids with minimal screen time and kick them out of the house with little supervision. My 8 year old son is old school to the core. We got him a vinyl record player and gave him all these records from the 60s from our parents collections. He loves it. HisI friends all got ipads. We gave him our NES and SNES. I got him a power drill, bits, and a set of screwdrivers/wrenches. He sits around in the basement building crap all day.

My mom used to lock me and my brother out of the house in the summer.

HunterTits says

I remember us GenXers being called the Latch Key Kids. Because we were left alone at home while growing up as the two-income family hit our generation first.

Also, many of us identify w/ the video of Smashing Pumpkin's "1979", even though I was just born that year, as the idyllic childhood which didn't happen.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=4aeETEoNfOg

I've always had a problem with this anime.

If an alien society was launching weekly raids on earth, where are our armed forces?

Instead of letting some teenagers fight off each weekly attack, have the armed forces launch a major offensive on their home world and teach 'em a lesson.

Don't Fuck With Earth!

richwicks says

Our government is nothing but a criminal syndicate.

Yes, and I suspect with actual mafia members in high places.

krc says

After 1994, SAT was considered an achievement test that one could study for.

Really ? I studied for the ACT and SAT in 1986. I would not have scored as well if I did not study. The same goes for the GRE in 1991 and 2008.

Rin says

I've always had a problem with this anime.

If an alien society was launching weekly raids on earth, where are our armed forces?

First, this was a Sandy Frank adaptation. They drastically changed the storyline from the original Gatachaman source material and of course, it's a kid's show.

Furthermore, look at how silly ANY superhero fantasy film is from an adult perspective.

Have you ever seen "The Boys"? The entire show is about how ridiculous it would be. If there was ever a superhuman in existence, it's HIGHLY unlikely that IT would be a force for good. In The Boys - the superheroes are basically all villains. Any scandal is handled through massive public relations and it works.

To be entirely honest, I look at any film with "good guys" as being silly. There's no such thing. I mean look at us as a nation in reality - remember when the United States shelled a hotel to kill reporters for Al Jazeera?

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/882795/posts

Look at what people wrote in those comments as well. I wonder if they were propagandists or if these were just people who didn't realize that they were ultimately slitting their throats and their children's throats?

Oops another "mistake".. At some point, you have to see the world for what it is, and it's deeply cynical. There are no accidents like this. Al Jazeera's website was down from 2001 to 2003 as I recall. I was fiercely in opposition to that war and lost all faith in my government as news sites I used to access in the Middle East were purposely cut off. I knew the 1st amendment was under attack then. I knew the danger. I tried to warn that this would lead to censorship within our nation - and it did.

Now we have no legitimate news, AT ALL, we have internet censorship and don't delude yourself thinking these companies doing censorship aren't doing it at the behest of our government. They are.

Nice being an oblivious kid, but man, quite another thing to see the world as it actually is. From 20 to (nearly) 50 I've studied the world with great interest. I remember suspecting there was something like a "deep state" - it exists. I remember thinking maybe my government does false flags (they do!), and though possibly there is propaganda in the United States (there certainly is!).

At every step if I discussed my suspicions about these things I suspected to exist, I was basically considered "nuts" although they wouldn't be that open about it. But I'm right. Our entire society is gaslit. It's impressive what kind of control there is exercised upon the public. I mean, it's astounding. I though society was corrupt and controlled 5 years ago, now I finally know how bad it actually is.

20 years ago I was talking with my cousin as we talked about government and life and one of us posed the question along the lines of "would you rather be oblivious and happy or miserable and know precisely how things work?" We both agreed we wanted to understand, and both of us are miserable seeing the world as it actually is. You basically must be ignorant in order to be happy. I know what "Ignorance is Bliss" REALLY means now - it doesn't mean that you're better off not knowing your wife cheated on you 5 years ago, it means you're better off not understanding the world. It's horrifying to see it.

richwicks says

First, this was a Sandy Frank adaptation. They drastically changed the storyline from the original Gatachaman source material and of course, it's a kid's show.

Furthermore, look at how silly ANY superhero fantasy film is from an adult

Actually, I was a kid when I'd first seen 'Battle of the Planets' and yes, even from a kid's perspective, I couldn't imagine a world where the USA, NATO, SEATO, and even the Soviet's Warsaw Pact, wouldn't be alarmed at weekly assaults on the Earth, depending only upon teenagers, to save our collective asses.

What was more believable was 'Star Blazers'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTY1i9F_7Yw

where the entire Earth's resources were combined for an effort against the Gamelons who were constantly tossing nukes at the Earth.

Nevermind, the following season with the Comet Empire!

Rin says

Actually, I was a kid when I'd first seen 'Battle of the Planets' and yes, even from a kid's perspective, I couldn't imagine a world where the USA, NATO, SEATO, and even the Soviet's Warsaw Pact, wouldn't be alarmed at weekly assaults on the Earth, depending only upon teenagers, to save our collective asses.

I cannot defend the logistics of a cartoon I watched when I was 6.

I find nearly every film ridiculous now. I can't even stand to watch most films. When I watch a film, all I can do is point out plot holes now and logical inconsistencies. It drives me crazy to watch a film and it would drive me mad to watch a cartoon at this age that I watched nearly 1/2 century ago.

There's maybe 100 films that I've seen that don't piss me off if I actually think about them. They are the only ones that can be enjoyed twice.

richwicks says

They are the only ones that can be enjoyed twice.

My list is far shorter than that..

komputodo says

You were really cool if you also had the sissy bar

I had the same bike. It was a hand-me-down from my older brother. I beat the hell out of that thing. My parent's home was built on the top of a hill that used to be grazing land for cattle. Our lawn was huge and there were large rocks we'd use to jump our bikes over and we'd get air. I am surprised any of us survived to adulthood.

HunterTits says

I remember us GenXers being called the Latch Key Kids.

They were called latch key kids, because for the first time, all of the American jobs were killed and shipped off. So for the first time in American history, both parents had to go out work a shitty low paying job, just to make ends meet.
It was also for the first time, more single parents than married parents.
Latchkey kids were late GenX not early. I was in my late teens, when kids younger than 10 were being labeled that.

We left our doors open when we left the house, as did everyone else.

Tenpoundbass says

richwicks says

They are the only ones that can be enjoyed twice.

My list is far shorter than that..

Have you ever seen Memento? I'd highly recommend that. There is one (possible) plothole in it but only 1 I can find.

I'd also recommend Starship Troopers because there are really no plotholes in that film, if you watch it cynically. The bugs never attacked earth - the destruction by Rio De Janeiro was either an accident or a false flag. The earth was attacking Klandathu and were the invaders - it was the bug's home world. Starship Troopers was the most stinging cynical satire I've ever seen. It was so unbelievably harsh that 1/2 the audience didn't realize it was a brutal satire about the United States and their foreign interventions - and it was made in 1997.

Memento is one of my all time favs. I tend not to watch a movie more than once but you can watch that one a few times and still notice cool shit.

just_passing_through says

Memento is one of my all time favs. I tend not to watch a movie more than once but you can watch that one a few times and still notice cool shit.

The best thing about Memento is you get a real feeling of what it would be like not to be able to form long term memory. Every jump further back in time entirely changes your perspective of what exactly is going on. And his plan to kill Teddy - brilliant.

We [Gen X] were sold a bill of goods that were not as advertised. Go to college (almost no mention of trade school) get a "good" job and become a productive member of society was drummed into us over and over.  Work hard and you'll get ahead.

Whelp. That worked out, eh?

The American dream in a nutshell has always been to do better than your parents did. For me that means being able to put clothes on my back, food on the table and a roof over my head without working two or more jobs. Being able to go on vacation once or twice a year. Being able to retire at 60ish.  Having time and money for hobbies. Stability. Security. Peace of mind.  Thats all I really wanted. I reckon 80% of America would say the same thing.


Looking back it was a different world in many respects if you came of age in the late 80's / early 90's. Race wasn't much of an issue in daily life. Gender was a firm and fixed concept. Your sexual persuasion was generally kept behind closed doors where it belongs. Hard work was lifted up as a virtue. Life wasn't perfect, but we had hope for a better tomorrow.

Fast forward to today. Social turmoil. Division. Economic uncertainty. It's a mess. It's like a bad horror movie where we're forced to relive some of the worst parts of the past 150 years of our history all at the same time.


For decades we've lurched from asset bubble to asset bubble. Wages have stagnated. Being fiscialy responsible has little reward with interest rates being near zero for the better part of 15 years. So much for hard work to get ahead... most are barely keeping in place.

Sure, some of us were paper millionares for a while if we caught one of the bubbles right, but what goes up comes down, be them unprofitable internet companies, houses or crypto currency.

That's why I grew an affinity for this site back in 2004 when it was simply a housing forum. I had been priced out, had student loan debt up to wazoo and was frustrated.

Many smart people could see that something wasn't right that the circle didn't square. In time the bubble burst, but it took far longer than it should have to collapse and "recovered" far faster than most of us expected.

I feel that way again. I can't put my finger on it, but something is clearly amiss. There is an undercurrent of frustration that is palatable. And it's not a D vs R thing or a black vs white thing, it's a truth vs lies issue. The narrative being put out there doesn't match the day to day reality I live in.

That's not to say one cannot be successful despite challanges. But hard work in and of itself is no guarantee to being successful. Who you know is still more important than what you know in most cases. As a good friend of mine remakes over 20 years ago, we live in the land of the regulated, not the land of the free. If this pandemic has proven anything, its that small business have an uphill battle to success when the government can step in and dictate winners and loosers.

George Carlin was right. Its an exclusive club and you and I aren't in it.

In hindsight, once corporations were deemed people by the courts, the corruption (on both sides) accelerated. Ike warned us of the millitary industrial complex. In the 21st century its the  government- big corporate complex that we need to be aware of.

I could go on, but I'll stop the rant for now and get off my soapbox. Thanks for listening.

richwicks says

Have you ever seen Memento? I'd highly recommend that. There is one (possible) plothole in it but only 1 I can find.

Potholes don't bother me, even if they are in my favorite movie list. There's many great movies, Memento being one, but I've seen it. I have a pretty good scene and plot memory. I get too much dejavu when I watch a movie I have already seen. Like sitting through a movie that is ruined if some dropped a spoiler. Though spoilers rarely stop me from enjoying the movie when I actually do see it. I either enjoyed it or I didn't.

The movies that I can see more than once, are movies that moved me. Like Bill Pullman's speech in Independence day, and Randy Quaid saying goodbye to his kids, as he selflessly sacrificed himself to bring down the Alien invasion. Or the redemption of Bill Murray in Scrooged. Clever and well written movies, while a appreciate them and enjoy watching them. Unless there were compelling scenes that appealed to me on that level, I can't sit through them twice. Unless I was distracted the first time and missed most of it.

richwicks says

It was so unbelievably harsh that 1/2 the audience didn't realize it was a brutal satire about the United States and their foreign interventions

Heh... never saw the movie but the book stroked people's nationalist-jingoist boners to the end, then dropped the big reveal that the protagonist was actually Filipino.

Automan Empire says

Heh... never saw the movie but the book stroked people's nationalist-jingoist boners to the end, then dropped the big reveal that the protaginist was actually Filipino.

The movie is nothing like the book. Been a while since I've read the book. I don't remember being too impressed with it, and I seem to remember that it felt like it was glorifying war. I didn't appreciate it much at all.

The movie is a masterpiece because to 1/2 the people that saw it in 1997 it was glorifying war and extolling fascism - they took it literally, to the other half they saw it for what it was a very biting satire. It's not really a feel good movie but it's played up as if it is.

Paul Verhoeven directed it, same guy that did Robocop.

He also did Showgirls.. Maybe I need to see Showgirls because I bet it is a satire that also nobody got, but in many ways, I did not like Starship Troopers because it turned out to sort of predict the path of our society.

Hey @Patrick:

Want to make this work?

<iframe src="https://www.retrogames.cc/embed/8748-gyruss-konami.html" width="600" height="450" frameborder="no" allowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" scrolling="no"></iframe>

https://samoyed.dynu.net/~patrick/gyruss.html

It's from: https://www.retrogames.cc/arcade-games/gyruss-konami.html

Do people want to play video games on patrick.net?

Patrick says

Do people want to play video games on patrick.net?

I don't know, but I thought it was an interesting blast from the past. Certainly is representative of the 1980s. It's funny though, I can hardly stand to play a video game for more than 5 minutes now.

richwicks says

Patrick says

Do people want to play video games on patrick.net?

I don't know, but I thought it was an interesting blast from the past. Certainly is representative of the 1980s. It's funny though, I can hardly stand to play a video game for more than 5 minutes now.

Priorities change with age.

Blue says

Priorities change with age.

It's not priorities, interests. Nothing is more boring to me than playing a video game, and films are almost intolerable, and television shows are just absolute irritating. I'm an entirely different person than I was 30 years ago.

Patrick says

Do people want to play video games on patrick.net?

Not me. Perhaps if they were politically incorrect video games I would be interested.

richwicks says

Nothing is more boring to me than playing a video game, and films are almost intolerable, and television shows are just absolute irritating.

Exactly. I prefer poker games with the neighbors, and board games like "Redneck Life" and "Cards Against Humanity" when extended family gets together. I do like "America's Funniest Videos," which I watched with the daughters while she was growing up. Even now. while she is away at college, we both watch it it the same time and text comments to each other.

HeadSet says

richwicks says

Nothing is more boring to me than playing a video game, and films are almost intolerable, and television shows are just absolute irritating.

Exactly. I prefer poker games with the neighbors, and board games like "Redneck Life" and "Cards Against Humanity" when extended family gets together. I do like "America's Funniest Videos," which I watched with the daughters while she was growing up. Even now. while she is away at college, we both watch it it the same time and text comments to each other.

I refuse to play video games. I like people and doing stuff like you talk about even though I'm somewhat introverted. Just played CAH last weekend.

Try Quiplash as a digital game. Not sure the maker, but you'll find it with that spelling in an app store. You need a smartphone or computer, but that can be a blast with a group. If one is worried about Covid you can do it remotely and Zoom call it or whatever service. We just do it in person here with a big TV. Either way, you become the card maker or answeree(?) in that game. One of the best games I've been playing in the last 2 years or so.