What is it about Nostalgia?

 

Lately I've been drawn to things from my youth.  Board games I didn't have, couldn't afford, or didn't know about. Old Science Fiction, music, movies I've seen a bunch of times, though this last one isn't a recent development by any means.

Is it just that enough time has passed that they're no longer stale; familiar - but newish?

I'm playing Starweb, a Play By Mail (PBM) game that's been around since the mid 1970s.  I remember seeing ads for it over the years, but didn't have the money (maybe $2.00 per turn) and later the time (one turn every two weeks) to play.  I bought a book on the history of PBM recently (nostalgia again) and saw that Starweb was still being offered, so I signed up.  It's been a blast so far to play a slow paced game with time for diplomacy, even with the modern concession of email instead of the USPS.  I've so far resisted the urge to write a program to track the game for me.  I'm totally old school, using a hand drawn map and highlighters to track the worlds of the Starweb as I explore them.  Not even a spreadsheet.

Maybe it's dopamine fatigue. Maybe its just carving out something that's more or less unique in my sphere of association, but I'm thinking there's more to it.  What I think really appeals is the sense of possibility that came with things that were then new and not completely understood.  Now it seems as if we can see the limits of what was once wondrous, or at least we think we can project them.  Now we see the algorithms twisting around to increasingly extract more attention and money while returning as little as possible.  And they keep finding ways to lower the floor.  Before I get sidetracked any further, I'll just refer you to "Enshittification" by Cory Doctorow.

Not that I miss being young. I didn't know squat, thought I did, and missed what I now see as some opportunities.  Of course, some of those opportunities could have had consequences I'm glad to have avoided, but that's gotta be true for most everyone.  If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't change much. Except I wouldn't take everything so freaking seriously.  And I'd work on my empathy.  And keep my mouth shut some of the time.

Now, TV has definitely gotten better.  Firefly, Sherlock, Star Trek Strange New Worlds, all head and shoulders above anything from before 2000.  Movies on the whole are better, but my classics (The Godfather, Singing in the Rain, The Blues Brothers) are classics for a reason.

Perhaps I'm just disillusioned and returning to the things that shaped me.  Maybe I'm just seeing the old with new eyes.  Sixty year old Tom can cringe at the original Star Trek, but I so miss the way it felt to watch it as a kid.  When Star Wars came out, it was just a movie.  Not a franchise, not a lifestyle, and you didn't have to pick a side.  

Maybe things are too connected for me now, and some things are better enjoyed in isolation, rather than seeing social and political implications in *everything*.  Maybe young and ignorant is the way to be.  

I'm halfway there. 

Kittens!

The Management Deems the Blog is Trending Towards Negativity

 

Here are the new kittens, Jake and Elwood.  Elwood is the stripey one and he recognizes no boundaries. Jake is gray with very faint stripes and is pretty chill.  

Sep 19, 2025

July 11, 2025

 

 

Kittens make everything better. Now I've restored balance to the force.  Whatever that means.

Treading Water

 If I could just be young for a few days I could catch up on all this crap I've been treading water in the last few months.  Cut the head off the hydra and it grows two more.  

 Has anyone else noticed how cranky this incarnation of the blog has become.  I blame the world around me.  It's certainly not my fault. 

A new (not-new) gripe!

 Hello Everyone in the World!

Please do me a favor.  Please (please please please) stop using old email threads for new subjects.  Take a moment to click "New Message" when you want to start a new email subject, rather than recycling an old one just so you don't have to specify who you're emailing.

What's worse, bugging Tom by continuing an old email thread entitled "EMERGENCY!!! Help needed ASAP!" when all you want is my pork chop recipe, or wondering why I seem to be ghosting you during your crisis when you appended your urgent plea for help in a thread entitled "Gourmet Pork Chop Recipes for the Common Man"?

Like the Thursday Night Joliet Pepper Steak and that Oatmeal at the Cook County Joint, they're both pretty bad.

So do your part to make my world a better place for me.  Use a new subject line when you have a new subject.  It's the right thing to do.   

 

 So while I was on vacation some entity (and I use the term loosely) created a fake facebook account with my name and photo.  Some friends reported it, and facebook emailed me:

"We reviewed the profile your friend reported and found that it isn't pretending to be you and doesn't go against our Community Standards."

Now, it was my photo with a frame around it.  And there isn't more than one Thomas Cornwell who looks exactly like me, in my car, wearing my glasses and the UNC themed cloth mask my wife made for me.  In short, a drunk, one-eyed, chimpanzee could tell it was a fake account. 

I'm not going to jump through hoops so I can continue to generate content for an organization that's either incompetent or just doesn't give a damn.  

So when I feel the need to share/vent with the internet people of the world, I'll do it from here.  Fewer folks will see it, but that's probably a good thing.

Here's the beach:

Hey Cool!

I remembered I have a blog.

I want The Wave

I try to be a nice guy.  Really I do.  Ask anyone who knows me, and they'll tell you that yes, I am a nice guy.  I hold open doors for people.  I tip well.  I don't litter.  I'm dumb to kind animals.  I even go so far as to let people in ahead of me if traffic is heavy and they're obviously in the wrong lane.

I realize that often people take advantage of my consideration, especially jackwagons that zoom ahead and merge at the last second instead of getting in line like civilized folks.  Still, for every ten or twelve jerks who do that, there is one poor soul who is genuinely lost, or timid, or who just made a mistake and could use a little courtesy.

For these lost lambs I'll toot my horn, flash my lights, or otherwise wave them in ahead of me.  Maybe I've made someone's day a little better.  Maybe I've done unto others as I'd have them do unto me.  I don't know. 

What I do know is this:  I want The Wave. The Wave can take many forms.  A hand out the window.  A smile.  A nod. A glance in the rear view mirror and a hand raised briefly in recognition that someone has done something nice for you.  It's not that hard to do.

Since I started paying attention who Waves and who doesn't, I've been Waved by young and old, men and women, teenagers, older folks, cops, thugs, pizza guys, people driving SUVs, hybrids, motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, buses, tractor trailer trucks, hoopties, jacked up El Caminos, Mercedes, a Bently once, pretty much the whole automotive spectrum across this great land of ours.

Except The BMW 300 series.

BMW 500 and up?  No problem.  They rank way above average on the Wave scale.  2002's?  Beautiful people all.  Even Z3 and Z4 roadsters.  But there's something about a BMW 300 series driver that refuses to realize there are other people on the road.  I swear, you have to fail a personality test before they'll sell you one those cars.  A few weeks ago I was cut off by three different BMW 300's in a span of ten minutes on my way to work.  You'd think if someone was going to shell out a few grand more for the leather package and moon roof they'd toss in an extra twenty bucks for a pair of turn signals.  Maybe there's a recall I haven't heard about, but I've never seen a turn signal in action on a BMW 300.

So, if you find yourself unexpectedly in the Left Turn Only lane, and you glance desperately over your shoulder, hoping against hope that someone will bail you out of the mess you find yourself in, take heart.  I'm not the only one who's willing to take a little longer to get where I'm going if it means helping a stranger in need.  As long as you're not driving a 300 Beemer.

Ogreboro, NC

Huge autonomous cyber-tanks have been reported rolling east out of Carrboro.  Chapel Hill has surrendered, and Durham is understandably anxious.

It would be neat if SJG added a suburban terrain type to Ogre.  Though in the context of BCP armor and tac-nukes, most small towns and neighborhoods would be considered clear terrain anyway, but it would make the maps look cooler.  Like if an Ogrethulhu claimed Ipswitch, for instance:

Thanks to the guy on the SJG forums who did the original map of Ipswitch, I just recolored it here.  But there will be an Ogrethulhu tile set for OgreMap2.0, which is very much a work in progress and the source of the top image.