I'd finally secured a permanent, full-time job in IT at the age of 29. Then my new girlfriend, who was a charming alcoholic with borderline personality disorder, convinced me to quit and travel the world with her. Which I did. We broke up somewhere in Malaysia. I sent my 30th working on reception in a Backpacker joint in Brisbane. I regret nothing!
Now happily married, 2 kids (11 an 9) and working as an IT manager back in my hometown.
I'm not into gaming. I think I'm the only adult male I know of comparable age that isn't. I don't really know why. I think it's a mental block. I was big into 16-bit Atari/Amiga games in the early 90s. Then I just hit like 16/17 and got into music and drinking to fit in. The gaming scene at the time (pre-internet) was social kryptonite, and I lived in rural Scotland so I left it all behind.
Oddly, I returned to general computing in my early 20s as the internet was blowing up and now work in the IT sector.
But still not a gamer, which ironically is quite isolating.
Lemmy is like internet jail. We got sent here for breaking the rules on Reddit, but now we're institutionalised and it feels safe, even if there are some very odd people here with us - they're mostly nice and just serving their time...
Thanks for the info - yes, Lemmy's worked out pretty well so far and it's given me a chance to use the Boost app again, which was my favourite way to use Reddit anyway. Be cool to check out Digg when it's ready, but Lemmy has definitely filled a gap!
I tried to join when I got banned from Reddit permanently after like 12 years for ban evasion (using a throway account). I joined the waiting list for an invite but still waiting. That's when I discovered Lemmy, which I'm quite liking. Never heard of Piefed. Is it similar?
I used to use the NME website, which was a weekly music paper in the UK, back in the day.
It had forums and free webmail, so I had had an nme.com address that made me feel kinda cool (I was a teenager and music was very much my identity).
Then they cancelled the webmail and that was that. All my teen emails gone forever. I'd love to get them back, and who knows,they could be sitting on a server somewhere, but I doubt it.
Oh, also Bebo. Posted a lot on that precursor to Facebook and now it's all gone.
To be brutally honest, I have only the slightest inkling as to what it actually is - I was just looking for a Reddit alternative. I signed up, entered my credits into the Boost android app and here I am. It's liked the Reddit experience I miss from years ago, except with less content but nicer people.
How to disagree with people politically but remain friends
I wouldn't use my Amiga, ST, ZX Spectrum or Mega drive on anything other than my CRT. They were designed for that pixel blur and playing on a modern TV is just not the same. I hadn't realised the difference it made until i tried it and now I can never go back to using an LCD for any of my 80s/90s devices.
However, beyond that somewhat niche use, CRTs are otherwise entirely pointless and basically a worse display experience in every concievable way when your source is anything produced after the advent of HDMI/Display Port.
Wow. I'm sometimes perceived as a nerd, but you guys make me feel like James Bond. I salute you.
Sadly we've created (or at least blindly complied with) a society that values consumerism over community. The larger family/tribe unit worked because everyone had someone. The young were looked after by the elderly, who in turn were nourished by feelings of worth and value, while younger adults would work or look after the household. Now we pay strangers to look after our kids and ourselves in old age. We work with colleagues we barely connect with for the best years of our lives, lives that we spend mostly buying stuff and things to fill the void we've created.
I posted on another thread about this a while back. Oddly, I have a weird mental block that stopped me gaming when I was 16 back in the 90s.
Basically, being a nerd in small-town rural Scotland was not something to be proud of after a certain age, and gaming was social kryptonite, so being an insecure teen I focused my energies on bands and drinking.
This was great for a while, but looking back, it would appear that I completely missed out on the Golden Age of gaming, and now it's me who is the odd one out at work, having never played anything beyond a sneaky stab at Portal.
I'm now 48 and in two minds about it. On one hand, some of the guys at work have failed to launch and live physically isolated lives and spend all their time gaming. On the other, I see my own kids laughing their asses off playing Fortnite with their friends, and they are clearly having the best time.
I did try playing with them briefly, but they're already leaving me for dust. So yeah, my plan is to maybe low-key get into gaming again when I retire in like 17 years' time. We shall see.