O.E.N Ramble 2: Everyone is on Digital Speed and The Idea of The Digital Fun House Mirror

     I might start putting this on rambles just because. Yes it is lame, to me it is but this is the brave dumb new world, What lies below is my 2 cents, and my humor. So put down that digital pitchfork and enjoy. And agree to disagree.

 Greetings to the interwebs its the One-Eyed Nerd here again, And it that time of year again. The weather getting cold and December is on it way and to a new year. Speaking of new year crazy that we are about to be 2025, yeah is that something. All them old movies and shows from years ago that 2025 the future with flying cars and people replacing their brains with a cyborg implants and fake memories, until some hacker hacks into them and they find out it all fake. Wait a second this seems familiar but from where hmm? 

    Well it will come to me at some point, but that got me thinking from watching old Sci-Fi movies and you think that we never get there, you then look after a few years have passed you by and there it is. All my life I heard, "when you get older life get slower",well I think it's the opposite or is it? Now I feel it depends but here in the 21st century I do feel time seems to fly by faster because we are always hooked to something. No I'm not saying it the Internet's fault but I want to explain what I won't say blame, but I do blame our culture. 

    To elaborate on this I mean by look at how people act nowadays. Now yes people been acting out or odd for years, from the hippies and punks to weebs and emos, but most of it was the generation's rebellion. However looking onto the generation with social media and something start to rear it ugly face. Most of the time each generation has about one of two sub cultures or counter cultures that last around a decade or however long. But with the new generation you barely see that to a point it seems a new one is made each year and the old one dies out like it was nothing, or in a week it seems sometimes. With a culture that is on overdrive 24/7 is makes since to sort of think people are on speed, or it is just a small digital fun house Mirror.

    If you look at the well let just call it the Fun House Mirror Culture. Now why do I call it that, a fun house mirror? So let take the idea of a fun house mirror, it well a mirror that distorts what is in front of it. So if you look normal and you stand in front of it it will say give you a big head or if you are with a girl that you are friends with, well might be a good laugh or make her mad at you for the rest of night. My legal team has requested for me to post this for our own safety and for the brand.

(Disclaimer: Mileage may vary, please only use this if she can take a joke, or you have a plan B on hand before shit hit the fan. One-Eyed Nerd and https://one-eyed-nerd.blogspot.com/ is not nor can held responsible for any pain, damages, the glare that will eventual follow, or the reminders to come of what you did at the very moment for years to come, or that next week. One-Eyed Nerd can not offer any help as this idea has no warranty or insurance behind its use. Please use at own risk of one's sanity. Copyright 2024, One-Eyed Nerd)

    Now after that message from our Legal Team, let talk about fads for a sec. So look at all the fads of the past years and or what was popular on the web, and see how in that same time it went out like a honeysuckle. It smells great, it looks divine, and the taste is rich as gold, then nothing. Just like that, it is over right as you set your eye on it, sort like disco ( But disco is 50 times better then any fad of the last few years). Now take any fad and run it through the fun house mirror, now add the clown who keeps saying," it real, it all real, everything is like this, you are looking at "real life"." The way the internet warps what is real to push ideas, make bank off it, then add on the fads with diminishing rates and that changes every week, and your running through that fun house on speed, with the suits, and influencers that look more like clowns, trying to sell you on the next big thing.

    So you have what seems to be an endless hall at this point, one that never ends, or so that what they want you to think.You don't have to play the game and get sucked in nor do you have to have your prospective on life distorted because the Internet is telling you this is the "real life". So if your running around thinking the world is ending and can't escape that endless hallway, turn around and go the way you came. Now the world may not be as well, calm most of the time, but it sure as hell better then krusty and his hall of misery loving clowns. At this point it is better to leave the park entirety. To quote Bender from Futurama "I'm going to build my own theme park! With blackjack! And hookers! You know what -forget the park!" (That's a joke son, I say that's a joke)

    Alright time to end it here before this thing start to look like a damned APA paper. That is all I got folks, now to end it here with the Oasis favorite thing, some good solid gold music. Here is Time Marches On by Tracy Lawrence from his 1996 album of the same name. ( the 2004 remaster because I could not just find the original song in just audio) This is the One-Eyed Nerd saying good night and raise your red solo cup to a brand new year. This is the One-Eyed Nerd signing off, and see you in the next year, So Long Space Cowboy.

Introducing O.E.N Rambles: Hey It Adds More Posts To The Oasis

  Greetings to the interwebs its the One-Eyed Nerd here again. Now yes this place is looking like a ghost town because well I might of devoured more then I could chew with the long from blog post here. So this was the idea of the rambles, more short from post that I can type out without overthinking the long posts. Now a idea of this blog was that I wanted to post more and grow it to say from a community around it. Well that was great on paper and if it was the early 2000s, then it could work, but well the landscape has changed for a lack of a better word. I guess most people would go to social media and post whatever idea comes to their head, then bam its out there for everyone to see.

    Lets take for example a small post on a blog vs mainstream social media. Here you make the post and you have more control and if you know html and css then you can waste a day just with formatting and experimenting. Compare that to social media on the other hand. Well you have a word limit depending on the platform, not counting your freedom is limited as in how your post can look. You think oh hey the blog is perfect, and I love the blog but there is a tiny issue, and that issue is the people. What I mean is more on getting people to see what you post. 

    Now you be thinking, "But the Internet is what everyone uses nowadays, its filled to the brim." To that here is a question to you, and it is this. Where are the people at exactly? If you said any of the big social media platforms then congratulations because I bet you got here from social media. If you got here by word of mouth, or hell even a damn search engine then I must of hit the big time then.

    To clarify, sure I have my opinions on the modern internet, but that could be it own ramble well technically a rant. It is wild to think thought how huge the web is now, but has anyone notice it don't seem to lead to anywhere cool? Sure if you search say, replace a oil pan in a Datsun 380z, you get youtube videos or old car forums, but that would make sense, because it is a niche interest. A regular user will get 100s of the same damn title of a website headline with tiny changes to set them apart, you know the ones im talking about, and don't get me started on recipe website or god forbid gaming news.

    Well that's all folks for tonight and hey for shits and giggles lets play a game. I created a few (totally real) headlines for the top site on the internet, lets see if you been on the web long enough to pick them out. Post the reference and the site down in the comment, I want to see if people can get it. This is the One-Eyed Nerd saying good night and don't take the internet too serious it not the most accurate depiction of real life. Now here is I Love My Computer from Bad Religion's 2000 album, The New America.

O.E.N Presents: Click Out That Click Bait.

"Top 10 ways to Boil an egg, You Never Known About Number 5."

"Call of Duty is Doing What? Find Out in The New Teaser For Call of Duty 156."

"Fact Checking the Conspiracy That the X Files is Real."

"Idiocracy Could Happen in Real Life, Heres What to Know."

"Demonic Invasion on Mars Military Base: It's [ Insert Name Here ]'s Fault."

"Zeon Is The Good Guys: Expert Says."

"The X-Virus is a biological weapon (And that's a good thing)."

"How to Make a Pig in a Blanket, After you read my long and boring ass life story about my Family Tree and how it somehow relates to making a Pig in a Blanket." 

And much more on Click Out That Click Bait. 

 

The Joys of Arcade Racers

     Greetings to the interwebs its the One-Eyed Nerd here again, and spring is now upon us. Time to get outside, hangout with friends and the family, hit a few thrift stores that hopeful are not overpricing their stuff, and hit a arcade and sit down for a friendly competition at the classics. It is funny to look back growing up in the 2000s on that I got to experience things that I don't think will ever happen again. Set before the second mainstream internet blowup and the early rise of the high definition TVs there still was a use for analog and that included hangout spots even the at that time the decaying arcade scene

 

     Now during this time I cut my teeth on machines that now looking back on, was some of the top of their time of gameplay, soundtracks, and the shear power behind some of them. My most earliest memory that I can think of with playing a arcade machine is NASCAR Arcade that was developed by Sega in the 2000s when EA owned the NASCAR licenses. Now granted I don't remember if it was good or not and I have never seen one in person ever since. Some more I remember was mobile ports back in the 2010s of Namco making ridge racer for the phones and Sega porting a faithful port of Crazy Taxi.

    Now yes we are talking about mobile games here that where free with ads and DLC to make extra money, but at its core they are great games. Go and look at the 100 best arcade racing games and you see the same developers behind them, teams made up of some of the greatest coders, musicians, and artists that make the teams and to top it off most of the ideas was them getting creative and not rehashing what has already been done. From Hydro Thunder with boats with rocket engines on the back of them and raceways that make no sense, Project Gotham Racing with real city's that where scanned in real life and a in game radio that feels real as you race around and a gameplay loop that prioritizes driving with style and leading then just having the best race line, Burnout incorporating reckless driving and being a total lunatic on the road to gain boost and take out your opponents and a literal mode called road rage, yes that is what you think it is, and Daytona USA the Jap's take on a redneck classic. The rabbit hole just keeps on giving and there are years and years of games as well as ones that are being made to this day. Now there is no way to say everything I want to in one post, it will take going to have each game having their own post. So I will end it here then, as my final word is that the level of creativity and skill to have to make a game that has to be easy for people to play and hard but rewarding to master is impressive, and on top of that a long lasting legacy that has formed. Here is to the classics and the newcomers. This is the One-Eyed Nerd saying good night and signing off.

The Mainstream Trap And Standing Against the Grain: A Introspective

    Greeting's again to the Interweb, It's The One Eyed Nerd here with another, well let me rephrase that more like the first real post not unless you count the greeting as one. Now this thought has been with me for a while and if you read the title of this post then you might have a good idea about what this is going to be about, and today topic is more to get my thoughts out on the younger generation and to myself. Before I start no this is not....

 

    This is more of a introspective on myself more then a here is the key to this generation way of well doing anything. To begin in earnest the way I was raised plays a role in this and for my parents not getting me onto social media (Thank the Lord for that) oh and those PSA about internet safety they played in school that scared the students, well me shitless, I swear some of them where more like horror films than PSAs. I got to find the one they played and share it here it is something. So back to the topic on point, growing up in the early 2000s was something, now sure I heard and remembered some of the shit that happened but It didn't feel like it was everywhere back then, now yes I was still a child but the later part of my generation knows about everything nowadays and not in the good way. 

    Now income the 2010s well 2015 and later. During this time two things happened, one was my interest into modding and retro gaming and number two, good ole number two. Politics, social media, later on high school and the thing that shall not be named, now lets start with politics. One thing I still kick myself about these years later was I should of never gotten into it at this time in life. I was not mentally prepared for it, Hell it was my early teen years in middle school for crying our loud. Look when you are a teenager your dumb, that's the truth you are stupid, young, immature, and a know it all (ok I still am to this day but that's another subject for another time) and here I am worrying myself to death about who to vote for, what is going to happen in the future, and I couldn't even drive, yes in middle school let me repeat that in middle school, all this started in middle school, no not high school but in middle school. So at this time I was a junkie in politics, always reading and listening and I had no idea what the real world was like only what the talking heads said and from the family (no this is not a jab at them).

    So high school rolls around and its the same old story, teenage angst, a lot of embarrassment of trying to fit in you name it, and add on top of the insanity of politics. Now around this time most of my generation is on social media well actuary this happen back in middle school, but lets say I took the old way around, I'm talking about theses.

  

Yes that is a old school forum and yes I am a sucker for the old technology. Around this time I looked for what I liked with music, TV shows, video games, animation, and car culture ( oh the joys of being a nerd). During this time most of what I came to enjoy ended up being old stuff and this

      

    Then 2020 hit and man this was not what I expected not at all. Now before we hit this uhh interesting time, lets take two years off for a second. Remembered how I mention I wish I would of never gotten into politics well this powder keg aka me at this time and a teacher butt heads hard, extremely hard. Two years of the same shit at the same time about you guessed it, and I got the best analogy for it, it was like that prank where light a bag of crap on fire and leave it at someones doorstep, but replace it with politics and falling for it every single time for two years. Now you got the idea so lets fast forward to 2020. Lock downs and online education and not being able to see the people you went to school with and that bag of crap now taken up to 11. So this time I mostly hanged around with the great folks on the forum and trenched on and watching to much of the Simpsons I mean way too much. The next year passes on and I encounter a old friend called darkness and I mean it in the literal sense and Ironically on Halloween of all times. Weeks pass and it all works out but coming out of that unscathed taught me something. Life is way to short to waste on bullshit like keeping up with what is hip at the present time. 

    

    Here is to what life brings in all of its uncertainty's, and to my fellow peers in this generation and to the next, take some time to find yourself and not just what the mainstream thinks you need to be. No I'm not saying be a hipster and look down on people who like to chase the next golden egg, but to not let the masses rule your judgement and to be a wise consumer. Because hey you only live once, why waste it on misery and people opinions. This is the One Eyed Nerd saying good night and signing off. 

 

A Greeting to the Interweb

 Greetings programs welcome to a new age of the interweb. One full of hatefulness and people on soapboxes trying to be the next street preacher of information that they think is facts but it just their opinions, but they want you to accept as facts anyway and no is not a answer. A new era were nothing is real and everyone's truth is their truth. A place were people want you dead just for shitposting or having a opinion on a topic. A time in history that would make Edger Allen Poe seem like a Aristotle. A new world of....

 

Wait a cotton picken second now what is this now the schizophrenia nerd rants about society blog now. Its funny to think about just how caught up we get in the littlest things nowadays to a point were we lose ourselves, and everyone starts sounding like damn Light Yagama. Great a Death Note reference just what people want to see on a blog uhhh hey people look it its the best of western animation.

                                        USA USA USA USA 

Anyway I think you get the point by now and my humor. I’d like to introduce myself, name is the One Eyed Nerd and I welcome you to my little oasis on the digital wasteland so come on by and pull up a chair cause its hell out there.

      Gentle hearts and happy people oh wait wrong song

 I got more stuff brewing in the ol still at the back so stay awhile and enjoy this is just the beginning. This is the One Eyed Nerd signing off. Until next time NOW GET OF MY LAWN YOU YOUNG BOTS!!!!

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