patrick.net

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.