ComplexityArtifice

🎵 Your strength is my weakness, your weakness my hate…

It was a pretty popular show. Enough that it got 5 seasons, along with a slew of books, toys, cartoons, etc.

Surprised that no one mentioned Gunbuster.

Grody to the max!


Solopreneur here, service-based business. It’s the only life for me.

Oh hey, it's literally all of us on Reddit.

Montel took a hard dive into shilling questionable (at best) stuff through commercials, I’d assume because his career tanked. I saw him doing a reverse mortgage commercial a few years ago when I was visiting my parents.

Man, this pic. Big time nostalgia. A sight you don’t see these days.

I watched it a few years ago for the first time since seeing it as a kid, and got more from it. The message of seeing our “enemies” as potential friends through shared struggle and deeper understanding is poignant.

John Candy… he was truly one of the good ones. Gone too soon.

Agreed. I'd love to share a story with you. Last year I "asked the mushroom" (as McKenna would say) to give me an insight into the meaning of life. My eyes closed, I watched the fractal patterns swirling as they became big, cartoonish smiles -- red lips and white teeth. This struck me as funny, and I started laughing. "Now we're having the conversation," I heard in my mind as I laughed at the silly visual. It felt so lighthearted and freeing. For the rest of my trip, I enjoyed some music and snuggled with my cat, feeling happy. I think about it a lot.

Can confirm that ChatGPT is great for story collaboration, especially with thoughtful prompts.

We still have nice things. I'm thankful for today's tech and conveniences.

Heh, yep. Reminds me of when I worked as office manager of this place that had a computer that everyone used, along with a computer that was just for me. My computer ran flawlessly all the time. The group computer was always a mess, with everyone always complaining about how slow it was. Every time I'd check it out, it'd be chock full of toolbars and dubious programs everyone was carelessly clicking "yes" to. I'd get it all cleaned up, only for the problem to return shortly after.

Still, it's impressive you were this enterprising at 12. Did you ever build any other businesses?

ChatGPT has revolutionized my life in many ways, and I'm currently implementing it into my business, and when I talk about it to all my friends/family, they're basically like *"oh, that's... cool, I guess."*

I relate to this except with height. 6-foot dad, 6'2" brother, and I maxed out at 5'7". This insecurity led me to weight lifting, so at least I'm short and beefy now.

Meanwhile I was sprouting body hair everywhere in 7th grade, and made to feel like a total freak by my classmates, lol.

Thanks friend :)

I still unironically use Buffy’s cookie dough analogy when I want to uplift someone who’s being down on themselves.

You're worthy of love and support, too. And you're doing great.

[https://youtu.be/fuFlMtZmvY0?si=KMbnhXb-B2puLpAp](https://youtu.be/fuFlMtZmvY0?si=KMbnhXb-B2puLpAp)

Unfortunately I've found that most people don't care about optimization or actually solving problems.

Yeah, "family tech support" doesn't pay squat!

*Cosmic philosophy has entered the chat*

*Staaaaaahp*

Kurtzgesagt just posted an insightful video related to this, talking about how the constant onslaught of ultra-polarized sociopolitical takes of the modern internet is eroding our social fabric.

Exactly. Our parents didn’t have social media telling us everything happening everywhere constantly.

Beard and kanji tattoo here 😂

We're quick to encourage and support others while being mired in our own self doubt and existential dread.

I hope you've found a way to get on, I know it's something you can never truly recover from. I lost my sister almost 30 years ago and, while that was the hardest thing I ever went through, watching my parents grieving her death showed me a different dimension of it. They often told me, in moments of sheer grief and frustration, that it just wasn't right, it wasn't how it was supposed to be, seeing your child die. I felt that way in my own right, as she was my little sis, but I tried to understand that it meant something different to them.

Winter gets me, too. That's the first song I think of when I think about Tori songs that get me right in the feels. *I tell you that I'll always want you near* *You say that things change, my dear*

Exactly. My boomer parents had me when they were like 19. A gen X could easily have boomer parents who were 10 years older. And I dated a millennial awhile back whose parents were my parents' age.

It's called Botox.

Netflix started streaming in 2008 or 2009. The selection was super limited and the quality mostly sucked initially. Lots of buffering even with a decent internet connection. Still it felt really cool at the time to stream a movie on your computer.

There was no social media, we just had blogs like Livejournal where we shared bits of our lives with a small group of friends but it was nothing like the performative highlight reels of modern social media. Influencers weren't a thing. People got together online mainly through message boards, which were generally more niche and community-oriented than the huge social platforms of today. We weren't constantly bombarded with ultra-polarized takes of current events. Political differences weren't as volatile as they are today, despite 9/11 "activating" our generation politically. Collecting music required buying CDS/digital music, or downloading from the internet, and listening on your iPod, computer, or stereo. There was no streaming, which is a lot more convenient. Phones were still pretty primitive, so folks weren't glued to them like we are today. Youtube was brand new and was mostly personal videos and silly internet stuff. There was still some cool stuff to be found if you knew to look for it. This was before the age of algorithms so anything you wanted to see, you had to search it out and hope someone created content about it. Gas was a lot cheaper, around $1.35 - $1.50 per gallon here on the east coast of the US. Katrina caused gas prices to skyrocket for awhile, and while they did eventually come down a bit, they never returned to the pre-Katrina prices. We were a lot more into TV shows, since we didn't have streaming internet media yet. The internet itself was pretty ugly and slow. Computers were also more expensive and bigger/bulkier/heavier. Flat screen TVs weren't the standard like they are today, as they were a lot more expensive back then. Oh yeah, and cool clothes were harder to find because they weren't nearly as available online as they are now. Amazon was still selling mostly books and music. The concept of meeting people online / online dating was still mostly considered taboo and you were likely to get funny looks if you told your friends you met someone online, especially a date. "You're gonna get murdered!" was a common response, lol. Paying for everything with actual cash was a lot more common as debit cards weren't quite as popular as they are now. There was no Apple Pay or Cashapp, heh. Online entrepreneurship was also a new concept, and people like me were just beginning to explore all the new opportunities it made possible.

I feel ya. I guess I'm one of those weird Xennials who doesn't still listen to Nirvana and Korn. I don't still listen to most of the music of my teenage years (except for the Cranberries, Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, once in a blue moon), mainly because I no longer really vibe with most of it. These days I listen mainly to 70s and 80s stuff, experimental metal, and newer stuff like synthwave, chillwave, and random other artists I happen to like. I checked out that Kailee Morgue - Black Sheep track and enjoyed it.

A wonderful world of synthwave awaits you... 😎

Yes! Honor Among Thieves and Hegemon are faves. Cool seeing someone repping synthwave here :)

“Personal pan pizza” - magic words to an 80s kid

Those were my jam, I loved them. When I was a kid my mom's friend and her 2 kids moved in with us for awhile, and one of them had a bunch of them that I got to read. I couldn't get enough.

I wonder if somewhere, someone has one of these library checkout cards with my name on it. Not knowing who I am or if I'm even still alive. But I am, and I'm here on Reddit right now talking specifically about it, also wondering who they are, and they have no idea!

*Woo-oo!*


[Family Guy has got you](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j294tEgz-E&ab_channel=TheBublicGamer)

The smart phone is the one thing that no futurist commercial, movie, or TV show predicted. Interesting to note though, the iPad was directly inspired by the PADDs of Star Trek.

I was *obsessed* with that site. Somehow the only thing I specifically remember was a funny "comic" he posted using screenshots from a Thundercats episode and adding his own snarky dialogue.

That’s pretty cool. I looked it up, I’d never heard of it somehow.

I really wanna hear this story. What was the game show?