When I was a kid, I remember the soundtrack to the world being oldies. Stuff from the 1970s and earlier. Boomers were always being pandered to by nostalgia. Decades later that pandering shifted to the 1980s, something I'm sure the Gen Xers must have appreciated. A year or two ago I realized that the nostalgia train has been in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

It occurs to me that there has been nostalgic pandering going for a long time and I just hadn't realized it. I assume it's because a lot of the most notable ones have been pretty bad, particularly in the case of movies like the Space Jam sequel or the Jurassic World series. But music has had it's share too. I remember hearing a lot of references to 90s hip hop, and old bands like Backstreet Boys and My Chemical Romance have got back together. I've also been seeing a lot of references to old TV shows like Gilmore Girls and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (though, to be fair, people never really stopped talking about Buffy).

Personally speaking, I'm not a fan of this. Yeah, the movies have been bad, but that's basically just the state of hollywood right now. But more than anything, I'm kind of disappointing by it. I'm more interested in new art, generally speaking, and more importantly, seeing all of these throwbacks is starting to make me feel old.

Important Upcoming Date:

• Timasomo Showcase Thread -- Wednesday, November 5 (one week away!)

Technically all work should be finished before November 1st (but don’t worry, it’s not enforced 😉).

November 1-4 are for putting finishing touches on the project to ready it for the showcase.

To get a feel for what the Showcase will look like and how to prep your project, check out past ones:

• 2024 Showcase
• 2023 Showcase
• 2022 Showcase
• 2021 Showcase
• 2020 Showcase
• 2019 Showcase

Update us on your progress so far!

• What did/didn't you get done this week?

• Anything go according to plan?

• Anything go off the rails?

• Any successes or struggles to share?

• Do you need feedback or help on anything?

This is your topic to share anything and everything you want about what you’ve made so far.

Recently, I discovered a desire to play some small, easy-to-pick-up, not-demanding-on-hardware video games with short gameplay sessions that also require some skill to master. Many years ago, I played a few games that I liked very much. But now their online lobbies are dead, so I have to discover something new. So, what indie competitive games do you play?

I spent a lot of hours on CS2D and Altitude. CS2D is like Counter-Strike, but with a top-down view. It simplified the necessary skills for a shooter but was still fun to play. This game had all the modes from classic CS, but with small additions. I liked two modes the most: capture the flag and deathmatch with lasers. CTF mode had quite long sessions, even lasting for hours when teams were balanced. It was also fun to build turrets, walls, and spike traps, which made it possible to play a completely new class compared to CS — the engineer. The mode with lasers was fast-paced chaos that actually had its charm.

Altitude was a 2D shooter with airplanes and a side-view. I played a lot of the soccer mode. In this mode, two teams spawned on a football field with two goals at each end of the pitch. The ball was magnetic, which helped to catch it, and you could shoot it, allowing you to pass. I liked how each class of airplane was pretty well-balanced for this mode, allowing players to fill specific roles on the team and enabling dense and fun gameplay.

I'm looking for something similar that I can run occasionally on my laptop and that has an active community.

I want to set a challenge for myself and any others willing (challenge by choice) to find and post some good news today (and tomorrow and the next day) People helping each other out, new discoveries, wins, joys, small happinesses.

Even if it's good in the face of bad, even if it's the sort of good that can also remind you that shit's fucked up. For this thread, we focus on the good and we don't let the fact there's still also bad in the world drag us down? That's my ask!

For those who are unfamiliar, Subway Takes is a popular short form internet talk show "in which the interviewees present and defend a unique or controversial opinion, called a 'take'" Takes are usually halfbaked and/or tongue-in-cheek. Some popular examples include:

There are too many states in America

Everybody in New York has rich parents or is selling drugs

Spirit Airlines does not deserve the hate

Italians became white after 9/11

So what's your take?

I get a lot out of browsing Tildes and all the conversations here. This is in keeping with the Tildes philosophy of high-quality content and conversation.

In the spirit of quality discussion, context is everything and reference points matter. I have found my own thoughts nudged many times here, and often the comments and points of view lend entirely new perspective to the content (and are sometimes more interesting).

While I appreciate the discussions, there are often links to an article, a video, a blog, or anything really, with no context and little description.

So in the spirit of conversation, I'm asking if there could be "conversation starter" comments for posted links. I'd like to know why this video or that blog is different from just randomly finding some link online. Why is this link on Tildes? What makes it interesting or important? What are we talking about? Where is the quality conversation?

Is that too much, or would that be reasonable? Thoughts?