Are you asking about things that weren’t considered dangerous when I was a kid, but are now? I always thought that was largely a cliche? Pretty much everything that I did as a child that is, or could be, considered dangerous today was considered dangerous then, too.

One thing that does come to mind: I don’t think the general public back then was as aware of the danger of second hand smoke. So, exposing kids to cigarette smoke (by smoking indoors, in cars, or even going to public places with smoking sections) didn’t seem to be considered risky or dangerous.

Otherwise, pretty much everything I did as a kid that would be considered dangerous today would also have been considered dangerous back then in the days when dinosaurs ruled the Earth and the wheel had only recently been invented. That includes activities sanctioned by adults, like riding in the bed of a pickup truck, and those which weren’t, like mixing random chemicals together to see what happens.

I don’t plan on making any last minute purchases at this point.

The tariffs (and other recent economic decisions) are purposefully inflicted economic chaos and disruption. I am not smart enough and do not have enough inside information to make truly informed decisions. I do not trust my ability (or really anybody else’s ability) to make long term, last minute plans around the deranged actions. Most, if not all, good plans should have / would have been executed a while ago anyway.

It doesn’t make sense to me to go ahead and buy stuff like a laptop, cellphone, car, etc right now “just in case”, spending lots of money I might not need to spend and which could be put to better use later. And for less expensive necessities, I already stock up on that sort of stuff as much as I can afford to buy and store because I live in a disaster prone, rural area so it’s always been a reasonable and rational thing to do for folks that have the means.

My plan, which began pretty much as soon as the election results were clear, was and is to make do with less. I’ve put off all non-essential “big” purchases I was considering. I’ve given up or significantly reduced luxury and impulse purchases. I’ve switched to less expensive brands, even if I like them less. I’ve switched to cheaper alternatives where applicable. And now I will buckle down, encourage and support others to do the same as best they can.

On the one hand, yes, yes, yes, absolutely.

On the other hand, way too often people are absolutely vile here and nobody sticks up for themselves or for others. Really a shame that r-word-it bullshit behavior is often times totally accepted and approved and even rewarded here.

The real question is: Do I care? And the answer is no. No I do not.

For me, Hollow Knight started out a bit rough, got fun and interesting, but ultimately, I lost interest in trying to finish. There were parts which were a lot of fun, but eventually it became nothing more than a chore. And I’ve got too many other REAL chores to let a game like this stress me out. So I set it aside without finishing it.

Despite that, I’m looking forward to this sequel. I likely won’t be a day one buyer (but who knows???), but I’m still pretty sure I will eventually play it. I’m hoping there are some nice game play and story improvements, but even more of the same could be nice.

Probably just a temporary hitch, but I tried to use the app today to look for some Little Britain content. I’m certain that a decade+ ago, HBO carried Little Britain episodes. I was under the impression that Max was basically rebranded HBO and Cinemax in crappified app format.

Tried to open the app, got a loading screen for well over a minute. Closed it and tried to open it again. Waited another minute and it finally showed the profile selection screen. I clicked on my profile and got a completely useless error message, so I clicked on my partner’s profile and it worked. Clicked the up button a few times to get to the search screen, nothing happened. Clicked again, and it finally registered the first few click PLUS the newest click, so it overshot the search icon. Finally got it back to search and then clicked the microphone button so I could speak rather than type. It completely did not understand “Little Britain” and instead searched “Britain britain” with no relevant results. Tried again, and it failed harder. Ended up having to type in Little Britain manually. So 10 minutes later after having the thought that I’d like to watch Little Britain, I finally get the results. Turns out the show isn’t available to watch anymore (or else the search failed, hard to know for sure). Terrible experience.

This should be an embarrassment. I would be embarrassed if I had developed some bullshit like this.

Looks just like me when I am fussing with my bond’s eye tree.

If it’s got platformer elements, then it’s a platformer, right? Yes? Then Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is it for me.

I won’t say it’s my favorite, but I didn’t see it mentioned, yet, and it definitely deserves at least one mention: Earthworm Jim

I know how that goes. We sometimes have watermelon for a snack (and no I don’t live on the Africa).

Honestly, it’s almost a relief to hear someone say “sorry about your job” without adding the caveat “but DoD/DoE/NIH/USAID is fraud/waste/bad/scam” to the statement. And yes, it was a pretty darned good dinner as long as healthy wasn’t one of the criteria.

I’m guessing not since I don’t use google chrome and haven’t for a while.

Possibly, but this happened long ago enough that AI probably wasn’t a factor. Just good ole fashioned human stupidity and/or ignorance.

Nice permanent ban!

I left for much less; A 24-hour suspension. Though to be honest, that was literally just the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I got suspended for using the word “retard” in a scientifically and non-offensive context (ex: put bread in the fridge to retard the growth of mold). No way to appeal that obviously retar-- ridiculous decision.

You might consider adding a couple eggs to that. Since you can afford “permesan” and butter, I feel like it’s possible you might even be able to afford the eggs without having to take out a small personal loan.

Oh no. So anyway, tonight we’re having a stereotypical American meal that takes 25 minutes off your life; Sloppy joes, macaroni and cheese, and potato salad. It’s quite good, everything made from scratch since I don’t have a job anymore. How about you?

Oh neat! I used to use Fark, too. I just checked and it’s still around, just looks a bit dead compared to how I remember it from back in the day.

I started using it in the late 90’s or early 2000’s, but I stopped sometime in that date range you mentioned. For me, it was the fact that I got multiple back to temporary suspensions (with no warnings). It was like I couldn’t do anything right and to some extent, it felt targeted and personal.

I don’t even remember them all, but two of the suspensions stick out to me. I got banned for posting the picture of the officially unofficial fark squirrel (i.e. Big Balls). Up until that time, it was basically a Fark meme posted openly and frequently by large numbers of users. I guess advertisers didn’t like it and I didn’t get the memo. Another suspension came when I responded to a homophobic bigot who was arguing against legalizing gay marriage in the USA by telling him “if you believe that, you are an idiot”. Apparently that’s name calling, but using cocksucker as a pejorative against another man was still considered A-Okay.

High five back at you, my friend.

The Super Nintendo Metroid game was/is my favorite, but I’ll admit I haven’t play most of the Metroid games, so I’m not a good judge.

The NES game was a ton of fun, but I felt and feel like the SNES game was just all of that and then some, if that makes sense to others.

I played one of the 3D Metroid games (the one on the Wii). It was fun, I enjoyed what I played. But it did not scratch the same itch, if that makes sense. In fact, I don’t think I even played that game to completion.

Here’s my purely capitalistic problem with Amazon:

A decade+ ago, I realized that major brands were using the site as their outlet store. I’d buy a pack of socks, and they’d be hideously deformed. I’d buy a few pants for work, one pair would be too small, one too large, and one would fit just right. I’m not fucking Goldilocks.

The final straw for me was when my coffee maker broke. I ordered a new one via same day shipping, which at the time had a minimum order of something like $50. The coffee maker did not cost quite enough, so I added something random to the order so that my same day shipping would be free. Ultimately, the coffee maker arrived late (i.e. not the same day) and the decanter was broken.

When I contacted Amazon about the issue, the agent said they could reship, but they wouldn’t send it same day so for that specific item it was going to take 3 - 5 days to arrive. They also tried to hassle me with a straight up return, telling me I had to take it to a UPS store, which at the time was 30+ minutes away.

Ultimately, I pulled a Karen and told them to cancel my Amazon Prime, which they did. Only problem is, I was 2 or 3 months into the year long subscription and assumed I’d get a pro-rated refund. I did not. When I got back in touch with customer service, they told me that Amazon adds up the value of the “free” shipping I received, the rental value of the movies and shows I watched on Prime, and the value of all the other services included with Prime and if that total exceeds the remaining value of the Prime subscription, then no refund.

They basically stole almost a year of Prime from me with no recourse.

Scum company. I got a lot of hate for saying this back in those days. But at least now, a decade+ later, people are finally starting to wake up. Not everyone, obviously. But at least I don’t get hateful responses and DMs quite as much as I used to.

I’m bookmarking this link so I can read it when I have the time. Having said that, it should be clear that I haven’t read the article, yet.

For me personally, 80’s and 90’s 2D Metroid and Castlevania games were fun, but for me, something transcendental happened with the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I’m 100% certain that I am incapable of truly putting it into words, but I’m sure a myriad of people have done it, and done it far better than I ever could. I bought the game on a whim because I enjoyed Castlevania 3 on the NES so much. Other than fighting games, 2D games were basically blasé for 90’s 32-bit systems like the original PlayStation. Truthfully, I’m having a hard time recalling at the moment why I decided to buy the game. But I’m absolutely 10010% sure it was a good idea and I’m honestly thankful to my teenage self for that decision.

Modern Metroidvanias are fun, too. Truth be told, I gave up on Hollow Knight. I’m a patient, older gamer, so maybe that comes into play. But it eventually got to a point where it simply wasn’t fun anymore. I was confused about what I needed to do next and I wasn’t making any progress in the game. And then I had to set it aside for almost a year. When I tried to return, my memory had faded to the point where I really struggled to play it and make progress. That made me immensely sad. Once I realized that, I simply set it aside.

On the other hand, I played all the Nintendo DS Castlevania Metroidvania games back in the day and even still own the original cartridges. Via Steam, I also played the Gameboy Advanced Castlevanias. They are so much fun for me. So much fun that I purchased the Dominus collection on Steam, which is essentially all the DS games that I already own.

I also played Bloodstained: ROTN. I know there’s a lot of criticism about the game, but I’ll be honest, I loved every freakin’ minute of it. I wasn’t a huge fan of the graphics, but the game play was exactly what I needed at the time and I don’t regret that purchase one bit.

And to finalize things, nice to meet other Metroidvania lovers. We might not all agree on the nitty-gritty details, but it’s still neat to hear from others. Back in the 90s when I was absolutely in love with SOTN despite the fact that everybody else was hating on it entirely because it’s a “2D platformer”, it was hard to imagine that ~30 years later there would be entire communities of people who love these types of games.