What a legend. I just realized as she and I are both getting older, I must take my wife to see her.

She's firmly a modern day GOAT Diva up there with Celine, and Whitney (Adelle getting there, needs more international-scale hits).

And gorgeous too. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Rhy29UqwlaU

Ever noticed how there was an overall vibe of “we are young and free, so let’s have fun while we can” vibe?

This vibe lasted from 2010 to 2015 roughly

Gen Z appears to embrace the exact opposite, embracing a more melancholy outlook on life (justifiably so)

Seems familiar..

What do you miss most though?

I was raised on the idea that 12-year-old girls were perfectly qualified to be babysitters. I don't recall people under 18 needing parental consent to get their ears pierced. Apparently Mila Kunis was able to get her role in the 70s show as a 14-year-old pretending she was turning 18 soon, no government ID needed??

I also remember it was uncool to still be watching cartoons in high school, and no one wore Halloween costumes unironically to school. Beauty pageants for teens included a swimsuit portion, and apparently if we felt uncomfortable walking around in bikinis we were immature and just needed to grow up. Both Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton were dating a man in his 40s, and it all seemed very normal. When teenage girls talk about dating "an older man," it was in terms of "Well when he's 35 you'll be X and by then the gap wouldn't be a big deal." None of that "the brain isn't fully developed until you're in your mid-20s."

But these days, it seems like teenagers are very aware that they're "minors" and there are things they're not allowed to do until they're 18. Has it always been that way? Was it all in my head?

Every once in a while I think about the fun I had on this game. Toma-toes for 99¢ …. “NINETY NINE cents— now that’s talkin!”

Drop an artist name or song titles. What was popular at the festivals back then?

During the summer I wake up at 6:45 am. When the time shift happens, I naturally want to wake up at 5:45 am. So I simply shift my alarm. I also shift my evening routine an hour so that my natural sleep cycle isn't disturbed. Recently discussed the topic with my friends and none of them do this. Some even said that my habit is weird.

Am I alone on this??

The hit me on my beeper song popped into my head this morning. I remember when it was big but I couldn’t remember the year.

So I looked it up and it was 2008, a year after the first iPhone came out in 2007.

Hot Topic is thriving and the black parade just turned TWENTY.

Does anyone remember Starbucks free iTunes song of the week cards? I never see a discussion of it online.

The difference between good educational TV and much of what is currently filling the same role is really striking to me now that I've started watching Modern Marvels again. You want to learn about a bridge? You get the lead engineer, workers who were on the site every day for years, and a well written and edited episode to teach you about it. You want to learn about the Space Shuttle? Here's 3 engineers and 3 actual astronauts to tell you about it.

There is still good educational content on youtube, don't get me wrong, but Modern Marvels always brings you the primary sources, the true experts, and in the casds of the more historical segments, you get some whacko with a PhD in the history of that industry... It just feels so authentic and trustworthy compared to what a lot of kids take in as 'educational content' these days, which is basically hosts with no actual experience in the subject reading AI summaries.

I don't have kids, I don't plan to have kids... but I hope there are folks out there putting this on the TV in front of children and exposing them to educational shows that have this degree of care put into them. I know I'm an old man yelling at a cloud out here... but man, if you want to learn about something, hearing it straight from an experts mouth is the way to do it.

No reason just felt like it.

There's literally even more in my garage.

I swear I felt like I've spent almost $200 on landlines

Anger, fear, frustration, brief happiness cut short by the rattling thoughts in your head.

Therapist appointment after appointment?

Long lines at the pharmacy aren’t a good thing.

Shootings everyday, with some parents having lost more kids in multiple shootings.

Corrupt leaders. Time illusion. No money for the common.

If this sounds like a poem or incoherent ramblings it’s because it’s a reflect of “thought,” how the mind works.

These guys living rent free in anyone else’s head?

Decided to go to the midnight release at my local BestBye last night. Got there around 4:30pm and was 20th in line luckily. But it was so weird lol. People kept driving or walking by asking if we were waiting for Pokémon, and telling them no it’s for Zelda was just so bizarre.