#was in 1984-1985. like the screenshot says.

[maddy-ferguson]

this being the only french right-wing student union

[sadquickchristmassnowman]

Hiiii I have a community question I wanted to ask!!

Abed mentions all sorts of movies and tv shows through out Community, but I just wanted to know if maybe you have like a list of which ones are real and which ones he seemed to like more than others.

I can only think of the dark knight because of the dvd Annie broke, and the Star Wars movies (except he apparently hates the prequels) and cougar town!

great question! sorry for the delay on a response.

so, he mentions/references an insane number of movies and tv shows throughout the series, and I unfortunately do not have a list of every single one. although, I am (VERY slowly) working on an in-depth episode-by-episode analysis of the entire series, and listing every pop culture reference is a subsection in that. but that's not helpful right now. moving on

I don't have the picture, but there's this questionnaire abed filled out (outside of the show, it must have been uploaded to a website as promotional material for the show). he says his favorite movie is a tie between:

ghostbusters (1984, comedy/horror)

an american werewolf in london (1981, horror)

back to the future (1985, sci-fi/comedy)

blade runner (1982, sci-fi/action)

stand by me (1986, adventure/comedy)

stripes (1981, comedy/war)

star wars (1977, sci-fi/fantasy, also called "a new hope")

star wars: the empire strikes back (1980, sci-fi/fantasy)

star wars: the return of the jedi (1983, sci-fi/fantasy)

ferris bueller's day off (1986, comedy/drama)

jaws (1975, thriller/adventure)

raising arizona (1987, comedy/crime)

jurassic park (1993, adventure/sci-fi)

seven (1995, crime/mystery)

the matrix (1999, action/sci-fi)

the goonies (1985, adventure/comedy)

the breakfast club (1985, comedy/romance)

real genius (1985, comedy/sci-fi)

better off dead (1985, comedy/romance)

the fog of war (2003, documentary/war)

pulp fiction (1994, crime/thriller)

(btw if anyone knows what I’m talking about and has the screenshot please rb with it! I cannot for the life of me find it lmao)

I believe this is a list he apparently made in 2009, either in the first few weeks of school or right before the school year started. so it's possible he would answer differently as the series progressed. also, I do take some of these extra-canon things with a grain of salt, as on the same form he said his favorite place on campus was study room D or something, when obviously they definitely meant to write study room F. so, the credibility of my source for this information isn't exactly rock-solid. although, he does mention a lot of these movies on screen, and expresses love for many of them (the most notable ones probably being star wars episodes IV-VI, the breakfast club, and pulp fiction)

as you can see from the list, abed particularly loves american movies from the 80's. just a trend I thought I’d point out.

here's a few others he mentions loving, or just pretty notably references:

the dark night (2008, action/crime, as you mentioned)

rudolph the red-nosed reindeer (1964, musical/animated, is the whole basis of 2x11 abed's uncontrollable christmas)

the shawshank redemption (1994, horror/crime, is the basis for his plot with troy, annie, and shirley in 4x05 cooperative escapism in familial relations)

freaky friday (I believe it's the original one from 1976 specifically, but it's been remade a bunch. comedy/fantasy. it's the basis of abed and troy's story in 4x11 basic human anatomy)

rambo/first blood (series starting in 1982, action/thriller. abed talks about how messy the progressive series titles are in 3x14 pillows and blankets)

ocean's eleven (2001, crime/thriller, the basis for the heist scene from 3x21 the first chang dynasty)

hearts of darkness (1991, documentary/war, abed mentions it while pointedly filming dean pelton's production of his greendale commercial rather than helping with the commercial itself. similarly, hearts of darkness filmed the making of apocalypse now)

apocalypse now (1979, war/action, see the above explanation)

die hard (series starting in 1988, action/thriller, abed mentions wanting to do a die hard homage for christmas multiple times throughout season 4)

good will hunting (1997, thriller/romance, troy and abed's story in 1x24 english as a second language is filled with references to this movie. abed is doing homages on purpose, troy is not)

my dinner with andre (1981, comedy/drama, abed does a very elaborate homage at jeff's accidental expense in 2x19 critical film studies)

indiana jones (raiders of the lost ark, temple of doom, and the last cruscade only. he mentions loving the first three indiana jones movies in 1x04 social psychology)

aliens (1986, action/adventure/sci-fi, he and troy dress up as an alien and ripley in 2x06 epidemiology) (side note, I believe they're specifically referencing aliens, which is a sequel to alien. could be wrong though)

blade (1998, horror/action, they watch it over the course of 3x15 origins of vampire mythology after troy and abed assert multiple times that it is an amazing movie)

I think he generally talks about movies more than he talks about tv shows, but he does mention quite a few of them. some notable mentions are:

friends (1994, sitcom, mentions at least twice)

m*a*s*h (1972, sitcom, mentions in passing in 1x05 advanced criminal law, and references throughout 1x13 investigative journalism)

the cape (2011, action, mentions throughout 4x13 advanced introduction to finality)

who's the boss (1984, sitcom, is the premise of his whole storyline in 2x20 competitive wine tasting)

LOST (2004, sci-fi, mentions at least twice)

obviously there are a LOT more, but I just tried to list some of the most important ones, plot-wise and for understanding of his character. hopefully I’ll be able to get back to everyone with a super long list of every tv show and movie he ever mentions lmao, but that'll take a while. (there are lists online that say they list every movie and tv show abed has ever mentioned, but ngl I don't 100% trust those, so I’ll make my own lmao. but I put the link to one of them if you're curious. here's another one too)

at this point anyone who has seen community knows there are some really really big ones that I haven’t mentioned yet. pieces of media that are INTEGRAL to abed as a character. I was saving them for last lmfao. they are:

kickpuncher

inspector spacetime

cougar town

if I had to pick a holy trinity of media for abed, it would be these three things. these are EASILY the things he talks about the most, which is interesting, as both the kickpuncher movie franchise and the inspector spacetime series are completely fictional, and only exist in the community universe. (this is probably so they can show abed actually watching some of the shows/movies he talks about, without the obvious copyright issues that come with playing clips from an already existing movie/tv show on your screen. they kind of do that with blade in 3x15, but they only play vague fighting sounds, and never show their tv on our screen. anyway. not relevant.) to answer one of your questions from the ask, I believe those two are the ONLY fictional pieces of media abed talks about. as far as I know, everything else he mentions is real, including cougar town.

kickpuncher is obviously reminiscent of sci-fi/action films from the 80's, like robocop. like I said earlier, taking their place so that they could have a more substantial role in abed's on-screen life without any copywrite worries. it's a whole franchise, so there are multiple movies: kickpuncher, kickpuncher 2: codename: punchkicker, kickpuncher 3: the final kickening, kickpuncher: detroit, kickpuncher: miami (?), and kicksplasher (?). kicksplasher is apparently shown as a poster on abed's wall, and I’m assuming it's from the same franchise, although that could be wrong. the point is there's a very elaborate universe for kickpuncher, and it's a big part of abed's, and later troy's, film taste. the first time they mention it is in 1x15 romantic expressionism, when abed, troy, shirley, pierce, and chang all get together in abed's dorm room to make fun of stupid movies together. it's funny that it was introduced as a stupid movie to watch ironically, then troy and abed both end up genuinely loving it lmao. classic

inspector spacetime is obviously reminiscent of doctor who. they're both british sci-fi series that have been running for decades. doctor who uses a police box to travel the multiverse, while doctor who uses a telephone box. doctor who has malicious daleks who chant "exterminate," while inspector spacetime has blorgons who shout "eradicate." the concepts of the shows are obviously the same, with the actor for the doctor changing every season, etc etc. they're essentially the same exact show, but, like I said before, changed slightly so they can world-build without getting copywrited. there is something a little bit silly about this, though. it's definitely a continuity error and it's up to everyone whether they want to accept it as canon or not, I guess, but there's an episode where abed is actually wearing a doctor who t-shirt. (it also references bill and ted, but the doctor who part is what's relevant.) here's some pictures:

awesome shirt tbh, but it is a little bit funny that is essentially makes it true that doctor who and inspector spacetime both exist in the community universe. and, these pictures are from the cold open of 4x11 basic human anatomy, which is way after inspector spacetime is introduced to the show (3x01 biology 101). so, is inspector spacetime just a rip-off of doctor who? is abed a fan of both shows? if he is, clearly he likes inspector spacetime better. anyway. I would guess that this wasn't intentional. but that is definitely a tardis on that shirt. maybe it's just a classic season 4 continuity mistake. oh well. I guess that's just how the cookie crumbles. anyway.

cougar town time! yes, it's a real show. I didn't think it was but it is. what's not real is cougarton abbey, the short-lived british remake that britta gets abed into in 3x01 biology 101. but yeah. it has 6 seasons and is streaming on hulu, if you're interested. I’ve heard it's not good but who knows for sure. something cool about cougar town is that abed is actually in an episode. let me be clear: not danny pudi. ABED. it's similar to the story abed tells about being invited to the cougar town set and shitting his pants while having an existential crisis about the layers of reality. here is a youtube clip of the scene. I found out about it while stalking danny pudi's wikipedia page months ago, you know, a typical sunday afternoon activity, and I saw a cougar town credit on there. I didn't even know it was a real show at that point so you can imagine my surprise lmao. anyway. idk if you knew that already but it's one of my favorite community easter eggs. so funny.

okay! I hope this is enough information to suit your needs, and I am once again opening the floor to anyone who wants to add anything 💯 this was fun, thanks for the ask, and stay fresh everyone ✌️

[spar-kie]

Do You Have The Time?

A Thorough Dissection of What Past Aevium Means For You

So I've been reading through @/jazz-kitty's rejuv playthrough (not actually tagging them bc this will contain spoilers for shit they've not gotten to but if you're reading this Jazz, keep up the good work! It's super fun to read through your playthrough :>), and I've realized we got some concrete dates (in a fashion), meaning that, we might be able to figure out when Storm 9 happens, within a couple months! As well as some other details.

Anyways even if you don't want to hear my rambling about dates, there's gonna be something I really want to share underneath the cut, I'll put some big bold header text so you know where to scroll to.

Now, it all starts here, with Melia's Mimikyu, which we are there to see caught, giving us a concrete date, October 10th, 198X.

Now you may be asking yourself, but Sparkie, the screenshot says 1984? That's because my buddy Nym, who is on the dev team, stated that to its memory, the year is calculated based off your system date. Meaning that the year will change depending on the year you play Rejuv in. However, Jazz's post that I got this from does mention in the tags how the rest of Melia's pokemon are caught from 1981-1983. I had an old save file kicking around that was near Blacksteeple, and checking "Emma's" Pokemon in that I can also say that these dates are variable based off system time. Being 198X-3 through 198X-1. For simplicity's sake we're going to be based off of System Time being the year 2024, mostly because shit like 198X-1 is hard to read. But just keep in mind that as Rejuv is set in 202X these dates have about a 10 year range they can vary by, this will come back later, take note of this.

I want to establish before we go forward, you can also see how this works for yourself rather easily, if you go into the past and catch a pokemon, the date it's caught at will be your system time, minus 40 years. This, combined with some plot elements such as Melia's birthday being after she catches this Mimikyu confirms that the past segments take place exactly 40 years before present day, with the Time Crystals not sending you back or forth to a specific time and date, but rather a set amount of time forward and back (in this case 40 years).

Anyways, this also lets us know that Storm-9 happened a little over 39 years ago as of the game's start, and at some point during the game's time span we will hit the 40 year anniversary. I always thought it was 50 years before the game's start, I don't remember if I got that from somewhere in game or it's just one of them things I got in my head, but between the wiki and a reply from Zumi on one of my tweets it's actually 40. If anyone has the same misconception I had, I hope that clears it up.

But through what we can gleam in game, we can actually tell (roughly) when Storm-9 happens! Judging by the fact we can still visit the past at the end of the .karma files, Storm-9 has not hit the past yet. It's going to happen very soon, but it's not there yet. Thankfully, we have a very concrete date on when that would be, December 25th, 2024, as the Xen Raid is just one day later. Meaning, that as of December 25th, 1984, the Aevium region is still fine. This combined with the fact that there is a note on the door of the house occupied by the A-Gang near Hyoshi City that says they'll be out until the Summer means that they are going to be at school until late May, early June, assuming it runs at similar time frames to a school in the U.S.. Meaning that, at some point, most likely in Early 1985, but possibly for about a week in Late 1984, is when Storm 9 hits. You could extrapolate more (i.e. no teachers/other students in the academy during the Interceptor's Nightmare Realm means people might've been on break, meaning it was Late 1984 and the gang was just hanging out at the academy) but as that's explicitly stated to be not entirely accurate to how that day actually was, I'm not going to do that.

HI IF YOU JUST WANT THE FUNNY INFORMATION SCROLL HERE

Anyways, now that you've heard me ramble about dates like your history teacher, we get to the fun part! That being I get to tell you about the A gang! That being we know the protag choices are 17-18 years old, and given that we know Storm 9 happened in either very Late 1984 or Early 1985, we can assume that the A-Gang were those ages during Storm-9. Meaning their birth years could range between 1966-1968, placing them firmly in Gen X, meaning they are chronologically old enough to be some of the people reading this's parents!

But that's not all, do you remember how I stated that Rejuv took place in 202X, meaning it could be any year of the 2020s? And thus, the past segments take place in any year 40 years before that, in the 1980s? If we were to say, put the year Rejuv takes place in in 2020, then that would mean the A Gang would be born in the years 1962-1964.

The general consensus on baby boomers is that they were born between 1946-1964.

The A Gang could, conceivably, be baby boomers.

Have a nice night everyone.

[garne--tt]

x japan iceberg explained;

before i start, i probably didnt explain something right and if u want to correct me or add something, feel free and even dm me about it! + i will add trigger warnings for possible triggering content in this post

1.

formed in 1982 - x was formed in 1982 after toshis and yoshikis previous band disbanded

X --> X JAPAN - they changed their name from X to X JAPAN in 1992 in order to distinguish themselves from the american punk rock band X 

Saw IV - a horror movie from 2007, x japan did a theme song I.V. for the movie, it was their first song released since 1998

new album - an new x japan album that was supposed to be released lots of times over the 10+years but still (to this day) wasnt released

coachella 2018 - x japan performed at coachella 2018, many fans are saying how the sound was bad (usually blaming it on the sound production team?? or whatever its called) and apparently sugizo and yoshiki were seen arguing with the sound production team

we are x - a 2016 documentary about x japan (or rather yoshiki, because apparently it was mainly focusing on him)

psychidelic violence crime of visual shock - a slogan, mainly seen on the blue blood album cover, the term visual kei was derived from the slogan yoshiki, toshi, hide, pata, taiji - the most known lineup, from 1987 to 1992

2. tw// suicide mention

violet uk - one of unfinished yoshikis projects, started in 2002, didnt even debut but was supposed to in 2012

V2 - unit of yoshiki and tetsuya komuro, was active in 1992, they released one single and did one concert

ra:in - patas band, active since 2002, members are - pata, michiaki, die (also former member of spread beaver), ryu

noise/dynamite - toshis and yoshikis first band, formed in 1977 as dynamite, then they changed the name to noise, noise disbanded in 1982

s.k.i.n. - superband (group) of yoshiki, gackt, miyavi and sugizo, their only activity was in 2007 and it was live, they announced more activities but they were stopped

xfreaks - an international xjapan fan forum created in 2006

dope headz - band that had heath and pata as members, active from 2000 to 2003

hide with spread beaver - hides live band, other members were kiyoshi, k.a.z, hiroshi watanabe, satoshi miyawaki, d.i.e, i.n.a

zilch - supergroup formed by hide in 1996, other members were ray mcveigh,paul raven, joey castillo and i.n.a

lynx - one of heaths band, active from 2004-?, the vocalist for this band was issay from der zibet

yokosuka saver tiger - hides former band, he was member from 1981 to 1986 sugizo - luna sea guitarist, he joined x japan in 2008

hides death - hide committed suicide in 1998 (he hanged himself) update: this is what authorities said and what is official

3. tw// suicide

taijis death - in 2011 taiji was flying from japan to saipan, on the flight he got into fight with his manager (or flight attendant?), he was arrested after they landed in saipan and then he hanged himself with bedsheet in his cell

x japan translations - an site that had xjapan translations (like toshis book etc...), the site was active and up until 2018

taijis departure from X - taiji left X in 1992, but we dont know the exact reason why he left

toshi was in cult - toshi was member of cult known as home of heart from the late 90s (1998?)

1997 - the year x japan disbanded

yoshiki and queen elizabeth incident - in 2019 during royal windsor cup yoshikis scarf accidentally landed on queen elizabeth

yoshiki knows everyone - (not everyone ofc) but he met a lot of celebrities, politicians (barrack obama, johnny depp, prince phillip, bts etc,,)

art of life - a 29 minute song released released in 1993, it was was recorded only in english, the theme of the song are yoshikis suicidal tendencies, art of life was meant to be released in the jealousy album (1991)

yoshikis father - yoshikis father committed suicide when yoshiki was 10 years old

taijis cut off joint on finger - taiji when he was kid, showed his hand into a factory machine (his family owned factory) and cut off his first joint on his finger

yoshikis health problems - yoshiki has tons of health problem since he was child (asthma, he was always sick and spent most of the time in hospitals etc,,) and suffers from many of health problems even now

4.

toshis healing music - toshis music he made during the home of heart era

kaori moritani & masaya - kaori moritani is toshis ex wife, they met in around 1993 when they played in rock opera hamlet, they got married in 1997 and divorced in 2010, she introduced him to masaya (and got him, or rather manipulated him, into home of heart) 

masaya -  real name tōru kurabuchi - musician and leader of home of heart

-more about home of heart and the whole situation here: https://bloodydesertrose.tumblr.com/post/96662764536/support-toshi-dont-buy-or-listen-to-any-of-his-songs

debut in usa - x japan was supposed to debut in usa in the 90s (and even changed their name because of it, x-->xjapan)

extasy record - label formed by yoshiki in 1986, the first release under extasy records was x orgasm ep, the label had bands like xjapan, luna sea, glay, zi:kill tokyo yankees and more

yoshiki paid for taijis new teeth - after hides funeral yoshiki noticed that taijis some teeth were missing or chipped, so he handed him around 2 million yen (around 18 497 usd) to get his teeth fixed

l.o.x. - punk rock supergroup, yoshiki was drummer in this band, they also used to be named masami & l.o.x (masami was their vocalist), masami collapsed and fell into coma in 1989 and died in 1992 due to pneumonia in coma, l.o.x released one album with different vocalist (one of them which was toshi and yoshiki went by the alias shiratori rei here on the album) in 1990, l.o.x. released one song in 2002 in memory of masami

standing sex promotional shot & single cover - the promotional shot & single cover basically shows yoshiki nude (with his intimate parts covered of course + this wasnt the only time yoshiki has done something like this) 

rose & blood -indies of x- - an unofficial album with demos and unreleased x songs

unreleased & old songs - there are a lot unreleased songs + unreleased old songs or just old songs that dont get played anymore

5.

rosenfeld - crows in black - blue blood has similar guitar riff (i dont know how to say it) to this song (crows in black / b was firstly recorded on demo in 1986)

former members - x japan has big amount of former members - 11 former members (excluding taiji and hide from this)

terry - a former member of x, he was one of the original members (being a member from 1982 to 1985), terry died in 2002 in car accident

yoshiki got sued by hides brother - yoshiki got sued by headwax (hides company which hides brother owns) for using hides photos, apparently they had a contract but it expired and yoshiki still used hides photos even though the contract expired

x japan condoms - they were released in 1993 with the intent to help increase awareness and prevent the spread of AIDS. the reason why they probably did this is that toshis fan died at the age of 19 due to AIDS (toshi even dedicated a song to him - passion of love and became a active member and sponsor of association of struggle against AIDS)

heath cow story - when heath joined xjapan they celebrated it by drinking and then driving 2 hours to cow farm, then they drove to aquarium but it was already closed

heath leaving x japan - in 2009 there was a rumor that heath would leave x japan, apparently this was caused due to heaths contract problems (?) dementia - taijis former band, he was member from 1984 to 1985 and went under the name ray

pata was roadie for x - before joining x in 1987, he was roadie for x (or the member hally) around the time in 1986 (1985?)

6.

pink spider was a suicide note - this one is a rumor/theory that is circulating around, fans analysed the lyrics and came to conclusion that its suicide note

x stayed at different hotels than other bands - when x was on tour with other bands they were staying at different hotels than other bands, because one time (on tour with other bands and in hotel) hide got into drunk fight with juichi morishige (lead vocalist of ziggy) and sprayed the entire hotel lounge with fire extinguisher

taiji was homeless - taiji was homeless for around 2 years (1996-1998), due to financial issues + he got divorced at this time

heaths myspace account - there was heath myspace account, but it wasnt him, it was someone pretending to be him

weekend pv theory - (i dont know if i should have put this here to be honest) a theory that x members chose what their death would be in weekend pv (yoshiki - suicide, hide - suicide in drunken rage??, taiji - murder, pata - alcohol poisoning, toshi doesnt die in the pv)

7.

hide vocaloid - hides unreleased song co gal got finished via vocaloid (using his voice samples from various songs of his)

yoshiki lead singer - before toshi was chosen to be the lead vocalist for x, yoshiki was the vocalist (there is also a recording of stab me in the back with mostly yoshiki on vocals!)

hide and marilyn manson meet up story - im gonna just attach a screenshot of the story

taiji was murdered - taiji committed suicide in 2011 in his cell on saipan, but there are some things that point to the possibility that he was murdered (his manager insisted on cremating his body and got cremated without autopsy, money got transfered on his account, information missing from the internet?? etc,,) 

juns tape - demo tape recorded in 1986 by at the time X guitarist jun, tape contains instrumental recordings of unreleased songs right now, only way, tune up and one unnamed song.

ill kill you single cover - cover of 1985 X single ill kill you, it contains photos of victims of the vietnam war

feel me tonight - demo tape from 1985/1986, it contains songs feel me tonight and stab me in the back (all of them are under one minute here) sung by their at the time guitarist hally (apparently there aslo should be yoshiki version of it, but i dont know how much we can trust metal archives)

8. tw// eating disorder mention

yoshiki hired someone to kill taiji - this one is a rumor!!!, yoshiki was supposed to get/hire yakuza to kill taiji hide had an eating disorder - this one is unconfirmed!!! hide  suffered from bulimia (yoshiki walked on him purging - and this story was also apparently told by yoshiki???)

[ickeyandmian]

On Ian’s Reading Choices and His State of Mind in Prison

Okay so I don’t know if this has been covered already but I was curious about what books Ian was reading in prison and how this relates to his character so I’ve spent more time than I probably should have trying to compile a list based on one blurry screenshot.

This information serves no purpose really and idk most of these books were probably randomly picked up by the props department but it’s still fun to read into!

I think it’s safe to say that the prison library probably hasn’t had any new material for a while so we’ll assume that these aren’t all necessarily books that Ian would choose to read in normal circumstances and has picked them up simply to pass the time (but who knows, maybe the guy’s super into romantic fantasy).

I have not read any of these so I’m literally reading multiple books by their covers but whatever. Here’s some pointless half thought out meta based on what Ian read in prison, enjoy!

Detailed thoughts at the end but from top to bottom, left to right we have:

1. Knight of Darkness - Kinley MacGregor (2006)

This is volume 2 of a fantasy romance series (have you read vol. 1 Ian? U following the story okay?)

2. Circumpolar! - Richard A. Lupoff (1985)

Pulp Fiction sci-fi fantasy action fun according to google!

3. Fifth Planet - Fred Hoyle & Geoffrey Hoyle (1963)

4. A for Andromena - Fred Hoyle & John Elliot (1962)

Some 60s science fiction thrown into the mix

5. The Bard of Sorcery - Gerard Houarner (1986)

Another Fantasy novel. Well who can blame him, dude’s in prison.

6. Demon 4 - David Mace (1986)

Set in a fictitious WWIII, dealing with disarming a nuclear bomb. Maybe it appealed to Ian’s old military leanings.

7. Damiano’s Lute - R. A. Macavoy (1984)

Another romantic fantasy sequel. How likely is it for prisons to have complete series’? Did Ian read the first volume and like it so much he picked up the sequel? Questions that haunt me at night.

Interestingly, in the synopsis we learn that ‘Damiano Delstrego has forsaken his magical heritage to live as a mortal man’ and I may be reaching but you can tie links between that and Mickey giving up his freedom to be with Ian in prison...

8. A Lonely Planet Travel guide for Cambodia (1992)

I have no idea what the significance of Cambodia is. Maybe Ian is simply fantasizing of being able to go on vacation with Mickey 😭. Perhaps ties into the whole escapism theme there seems to be with this selection of books

9. Out to Canaan - Jan Karon (1997)

This seems like a kind of slice of life, easy read type book. A bit of realism in amongst all the fantasy and sci-fi.

10. Science and Human Behavior - B. F. Skinner (1953)

This is an interesting one. Maybe Ian was trying to understand why Mickey shits at the same time everyday who knows.

Jokes aside, there’s some interesting excepts, notably on severe punishment and it’s effects on human behaviour, possibly a very interesting read for someone serving time.

11. Prisoners of Our Thoughts - Alex Pattakos (2008)

Another non fiction and another fascinating addition in terms of Ian’s character. This book takes the teachings of Victor Frankl and deals with the psychology of finding meaning in your life (something which Ian has often struggled with).

A significant quote being ‘everything can be taken from a man but the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances’

Let’s remember that in season 6, Ian lost his purpose for being entirely, he had no ambitions, no career, no Mickey (😔) but he found his purpose again when he became an EMT, a job which is perfect for someone like Ian who has proven time and time again that all he really wants is to help people. Now, significantly, he’s lost that job and with it that sense of purpose he’d gained. As someone with bipolar disorder, this could have potentially affected him significantly, so for him to choose to read a book like this is a nice insight to his character and I love to see evidence of him doing something positive to take care of his mental well being while in prison.

12. The Holy Bible

Such a minuscule reference to Ian’s Gay Jesus phase, I actually love that they included this though. So by now Ian probably recognizes that he went a little out of control but, idk he went full ham on the bible stuff, and maybe he got some comfort out of some of the verses in there, so it’s cool that he keeps a bible around as part of that storyline.

13. Another bible

(Ian, u good?)

14. Peace like a River - Leif Enger (2001)

The synopsis describes an ‘unusual family’ in search of their ‘fugitive older brother’. I imagine the actual story itself probably has no parallels with Ian’s story but that line stuck out for me.

Also ‘peace like a river’ is a phrase taken from the bible, so that ties in with Ian’s spirituality again. Maybe he recognised the phrase from memorising verses so the book caught his eye.

15. The very last one I’m struggling to decipher, it looks old, probably a classic from the style of the binding. It might be Othello but I can’t get a clear shot to read the title, hopefully someone else might have some clue.

*

So what does it all mean? I hear no one asking.

While they might seem random, I think we see a lot of Ian’s character in these books.

The sheer amount of fantasy and sci-fi here is quite telling. I think it’s clearly a form of escapism for Ian, he’s trapped in a tiny cell (albeit with the love his life but it’s still fucking tiny in there okay) he’s gonna need some light-hearted adventure somehow.

He’s a guy with a lot of energy, a huge savior complex who just wants to do good. He’s tough, he’s a fighter, but he also has a softer side to him, a gentle nature so I think the romantic fantasy genre is a perfect fit for his character. Maybe there’s a bit of wish fulfillment there as well since watching your bf use the bathroom every night is hardly the most romantic scenario (sorry Mickey).

The non fiction choices are probably my favourite indicators of Ian’s character. I think we learn a lot about him from those choices there; his remaining spirituality, his state of mind, his hopes for the future, his curiosity. I just love the thought of Ian reading travel guides, hoping to one day see more of the world idk. And him reading books on psychology in the hopes of understanding himself and his mind better? We love to see it 👏👏👏

All in all, I think they’re a good fit for him, and I hope he enjoyed reading them!

I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts on this!

[macgyvermedical]

1985 MacGyver “To Be a Man”

Here goes:

Shot down over soviet-controlled Afghanistan, a bullet wound in his shoulder, Mac finds himself rescued by a boy named Ahmed and his mother, Zia. Zia manages to stop the bleeding, for which Mac repays her by accidentally-on-purpose killing a man who has been abusing her. A day later however, they find the wound is infected, and as all three of them are now wanted, they can’t seek medical care. Zia decides that the only thing to do is cauterize the wound, which she does with a hot poker.

Fortunately, this is pretty straightforward from a medical angle, and will not be nearly as long as some of my recent reviews have been.

While there are several places the wound could be based on other glimpses of it throughout the episode, this is probably the most explicit screenshot of it.

I laid down in the same position and tried to pinpoint exactly where the bullet would have gone through, and here’s about where I came up with (somewhere in the red circle, drawn on both sides so you can see both the bone and muscle anatomy, but it was Mac’s right shoulder in the ep):

Depending on the angle, it might have gone through without hitting bone. If it had gone through the lower portion of the circle, however, it both ran the risk of going through bone and damaging some of the neurovascular (blood vessel and nerve) anatomy as well. Below on this picture of the artery (red), vein (blue) and nerve (yellow), I highlighted the same area as above in black:

Let’s assume Mac was exceptionally lucky and the shot went through in the perfect location to miss bone and maybe only nick one of the smaller arteries, making his wound potentially survivable if everything went well.

Initial Treatment:

The first medical issue addressed in the episode is bleeding. Due to the time that elapses between Mac getting shot and Zia putting pressure on his wound, I’m going to guess that the large subclavian artery in the pic above wasn’t affected. It’s still possible that a smaller one was, though, and that could have produced significant, if not immediately life threatening, bleeding.

Shoulders are tricky when it comes to controlling bleeding. The subclavian artery is pretty deep, and there’s a lot of bone and muscle between the artery and the outside, making it difficult to apply enough pressure to compress the artery and successfully stop the bleed.

Today, we have hemostatic dressings and x-stat that can help with this problem. Hemostatic dressings are dressings made of gauze soaked in a chemical called kaolin that can be used to control bleeding. Invented in 2012, kaolin-based dressings speed up the body’s natural clotting process. X-stat, invented in 2014, is essentially a large tampon applicator full of tiny sponges that expand when they touch blood, which can be injected into a wound to put pressure on the artery from the inside.

An earlier version of a hemostatic dressing, which was invented in 1984 and therefore would have been around during this episode, contained a chemical called zeolite. Unlike kaolin, zeolite products relied on a chemical reaction to clot the blood. This reaction released so much heat that it frequently caused second-degree burns, and therefore could only be used as a last resort.

At the time and place in the episode, pressure or a combination of pressure and packing the wound with clean, long-fiber cloth (which would help extend that pressure further into the wound) would have essentially been the only options. Zia chooses to go with direct pressure.

If I were doing this, I’d want Mac laying on his back on a hard surface like the floor. This would do 2 things. First, the hard surface gives me something to compress the artery against, and it also allows me to use my body weight to help with the compression. Second, if he’s lost enough blood to mess with his blood pressure, I want him laying down.

Zia has him sit up and presses a cloth against the wound. If this worked, it tells me he probably wasn’t bleeding all that badly... at least not externally.

Other Possibilities for this Injury:

I say externally for a reason. No one has mentioned an exit wound, and Zia doesn’t seem to pay any attention to one while she’s trying to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, exit wounds and the bullets that produce them are kind of like toddlers: missing an exit wound does not mean “yay, one less wound to worry about!” it means “oh crap, where’s that bullet and what did it do??”

(This next paragraph is not at all my area of expertise and I got most of the info from internet research, so correct me if I’m wrong)

Assuming it’s not designed to shatter on impact, a fast bullet from a relatively modern rifle is going to have enough force to go through someone, even at a pretty significant distance. It would be unlikely that the bullet that hit Mac would be going slow enough to get stuck in him assuming a direct flight from the barrel to his shoulder. However, if the bullet ricocheted or passed through something before hitting Mac, it may have lost enough velocity to lodge in him.

Like I said, this is not a good thing. If the bullet has enough velocity to get into a person’s body, but not enough to make it through a bone (say, the scapula or a rib), it could bounce off in another direction, creating a second path of damage. It could even internally ricochet multiple times until it slowed enough to stop. None of this would be visible from the outside (though Mac would crump pretty quickly if this was the case).

The most dangerous situation in Mac’s case would be if the bullet hit the scapula or clavicle and bounced downward, going into the chest cavity. This would create a sucking chest wound (having put a hole in the chest wall) and possibly do damage to Mac’s lungs and other organs depending on how much velocity it had left.

Two things tell me this didn’t happen. First, Mac survives, in pretty good shape even, to the end of the episode. Second, in the scene where he gets shot, there is blood spatter visible on one of the glider’s poles behind the wound (though in this scene the wound does appear to be more of a graze on his outer shoulder??). But either way basically Zia just totally ignored the exit wound. nbd.

Cauterization:

It really doesn’t surprise me that Mac’s wound got infected. Gunshot wounds are essentially puncture wounds, and puncture wounds are exceptionally difficult to clean. Bullets also create a pocket of gas around themselves that push outward as they enter the body, creating a tunnel of damaged tissue that can be more susceptible to infection.

Cauterization would not have changed this, though. In fact, it would have made the situation a whole lot worse.

Cauterization stops bleeding essentially by cooking blood and tissue. When exposed to extreme heat, proteins in the blood denature and harden (the same way eggs turn white and change texture when cooked), which stops the bleeding.

In the process, however, it creates severe burns. Burns are even more prone to infection that a garden-variety bullet wound, so even if Zia had burned out some dead/damaged tissue and killed some of the bacteria living in it, it wouldn’t stop the infection and it would create a bigger, more vulnerable wound than before. 

A neat MacGyverism they could have used would have been wound packing from the beginning. That can be accomplished by dampening clean cloth (preferably something sterile (like gauze) or longer-fiber cloth, not cotton balls or anything that would risk leaving fibers in the wound when removed), cutting it into strips, and packing the wound with them. It would need to be changed about twice per day, or more often if there was a lot of drainage. The goal would be to continuously pull the dead tissue, pus, old blood, and bacteria out of the wound, which would keep the infection down until he could recover or get to somewhere with antibiotics.

R E F E R E N C E S

[firebirdtransam68]

I Am Looking For More OP Blogs On Tumblr

I have been noticing that whenever I follow a Tumblr user (most of them are rebloggers), they disappear from my Following count (either they deactivated their account, or blocked me; but mostly their account gets deactivated).  Most Tumblr users want more followers; I want more blogs to follow, especially OP (original post) blogs.

I am not saying there should be no rebloggers (in fact, I encourage reblogging); it is that there are so many users that only/mostly reblog other users’ posts; I want to follow more OP users because I have a big thing for originality, creativity, and individuality.  Rebloggers tend to agree on what the OP (or other reblogger) says, and whenever I go to the tagged or search section/s, only the OP posts are apparent, and no rebloggers with their own creative tags (unless I go to their blog and search whatever keyword/tag they designate some of their posts with).

Yes, I reblog other users’ posts, myself, but I tend to add my own thoughts and tags whenever I do so; and since my reblogs are not in the tagged or search sections, these posts are not mine, since I am not the OP.  Even some OP users have reblogged posts of their own, as well (but they usually do not go overboard with them, and they usually have an equal amount of reblogs as well as original posts).  Because I promote creativity, talent and individuality, I do not reblog as much as most OP users.

I am looking for more OP blogs for me to follow (or to follow me so I can follow them) that are currently active and not defunct or dormant.  And whatever the OP user posts on their blog is their primary content.  Here are some content I am looking for:

Transformers

- Transformers Generation One

    * The Transformers (1984-1987)

    * The Transformers: The Movie (1986)

    * Transformers anime and OVAs

- Transformers: Robotmasters (2004-2005)

- Transformers: Unicron Trilogy

    * Micron Legend

    * Superlink

    * Galaxy Force

    * Linkage

    * Armada

    * Energon

    * Dreamwave

- Bumblebee (2018) and other Knightformers media

- G1 callbacks in all Transformers media (besides G1, itself)

- Underrated characters

- Alt-modes

- Different planets

- Sub vs. dub comparisons

- Fan characters

    * Autobots

    * Decepticons

    * Microns/Mini-cons

    * Junkions

    * Planets

    * Vehicles

    * Other robots

    * Other extraterrestrials

    * Humans

Sonic The Hedgehog

- Classic games (1991-1997)

- Adventure games/merchandise (1998-2006)

- Sonic X

    * Sonic X (sub)

    * Characters

    * Soundtracks

    * Stock footage

- Sonic OVA

- Sonic, Shadow, and Silver (and sometimes Scourge)

- Terios The Hedgehog

- Underrated characters

- Zones/areas/habitats

- Different planets

- Sub vs. dub comparisons

- Fan characters

    * Hedgehogs (male, female, intersex, non-binary, other, etc.)

    * Hedgehybrids (like a peahedge (hedgehog x peafowl), for instance)

    * Birds

    * Reptiles

    * Recently discovered species

    * Fantastical creatures

    * Other extraterrestrials

    * Robots, machines, cyborgs, and vehicles

    * Villains (male, female, intersex, non-binary, other, etc.)

    * Humans

Spore

- Creatures

- Early Creatures

- Flora

- Cells (actually microbes)

- Vehicles

- Buildings

- UFOs (actually spaceships)

- Planets

- City Music

- Objects (including different color Spice, rocks and minerals, weapons, etc.)

- Landscapes

- Advancements (including moveable tails for creatures, doors for vehicles and buildings, and other planetary features)

- Gameplays

- Screenshots

- Your own creations

Movies

- Top Gun (1986)

- The Final Countdown (1980)

- 1980′s Sci-fi and fantasy films

- Stealth (2005)

TV Shows

- Knight Rider (1982-1986)

- Voltron: Defender Of The Universe (1984-1986)

- Any sci-fi/fantasy/science fantasy shows (including 1980′s shows)

Videogames And Computer Games

- Sins Of A Solar Empire

- Species: Artificial Life, Real Evolution

- FlOw (2006)

- Osmos (2009)

- Space Dragon (3lb Games)

- Age Of Empires (1997-2018)

- Nomad (1993-present)

- The Saint Of The Braves Baan Gaan

- Any classic arcade games (1970′s to 1990′s) from most popular to most underrated

Anime And OVAs

- Beast King Golion

- Armored Fleet Dairugger XV

- Lightspeed Electroid Albegas

- Future Robot Deltaneous

- Star Musketeer Bismark

- Super Dimension Fortress Macross

- Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross

- Genesis Climber Mospeada

- Dai-Guard

- Brave Fighters

    * Brave Fighter Exkaiser

    * Brave Fighter Of Sun Fighbird

    * Brave Fighter Of Legend Da-Garn

- Brave Express Might Gaine

- Brave Police J-Decker

- Brave Of Gold Goldran

- Brave Command Dagwon

- GaoGaiGar

- Betterman

- Robot Romance Trilogy

    * Super-Electromagnetic Robot Combattler V

    * Super-Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V

    * Brave Leader Daimos

- Space Runaway Ideon

- Blue Comet SPT Layzner

- Raideen

    * Raideen The Brave

    * Raideen The Superior

- Sukeban Deka (OVA)

- Starship Troopers (OVA)

- Queen Millenia

Books And Novels

- Dragonriders Of Pern series

- Literary Brat Pack

    * Bright Lights, Big City (1984)

- The Space Trilogy

- The Red Mars Trilogy

- Sci-fi books about/featuring dragons

- Robert Heinlein fans

- Space books

- Bird books

- Giant robot/Mecha books

- Books about different dimensions

- Books about time travel

- Action-packed suspense novels

Music

- 1980′s

    * Electropop

    * Music videos

    * Instruments (synthesizers, guitars, drum machines, etc.)

    * Currently deceased musicians

    * “Flashdance” style

    * J-Pop/J-Rock/city pop

    * Lesser-known songs

    * International

    * Experimental

    * Soundtracks

- Film/TV/videogame score/soundtracks

- Transformers music

- Sonic The Hedgehog music

- Musical instruments

Fan media

- Transformers

- Sonic The Hedgehog

- Spore

- Voltron (1984-1985)

- Knight Rider (1982-1986)

- Brave Saga

- Crossovers

    * Transformers x Sonic The Hedgehog

    * Transformers x Spore

    * Transformers x Brave Saga

    * Transformers x Voltron

    * Transformers x Knight Rider

    * Sonic x Spore

    * Sonic x Voltron

    * Sonic x Brave Saga

    * Sonic x Knight Rider

    * Spore x Voltron

    * Transformers x Yu-Gi-Oh!

    * Brave Saga x Yu-Gi-Oh!

    * Spore x Dragonriders Of Pern

    * Sonic x Dragonriders Of Pern

    * Transformers x Dragonriders Of Pern

    * GoBots x Transformers

    * Gundam x Transformers

    * Transformers x Sonic x Yu-Gi-Oh!

    * Transformers G1 x Transformers Unicron Trilogy

    * 4Kids shows x Transformers Unicron Trilogy

    * Top Gun (1986) x The Final Countdown (1980)

Liveblogging/Review/Rewatching/Screenshotting

- The Transformers (1984-1987)

- The Transformers: The Movie (1986)

- Transformers: Headmasters

- Transformers: Victory

- Transformers OVAs

    * Transformers: Scramble City

    * Transformers: Zone

- Transformers: Car Robots

- Transformers: Micron Legend

- Transformers: Superlink

- Transformers: Galaxy Force

- Bayformers films (2007-2017)

- Bumblebee (2018)

- AOSTH (especially the episode “Zoobotnik”)

- Sonic SatAM

- Sonic OVA (sub)

- Sonic X (sub)

- Beast King Golion

- Armored Fleet Dairugger XV

- Lightspeed Electroid Albegas

- Future Robot Deltaneous

- Star Musketeer Bismark

- Voltron: Defender Of The Universe (1984-1985)

- Voltron: Fleet Of Doom (1986)

- Saber Rider And The Star Sheriffs (1987-1988)

- Super Dimension Fortress Macross

- Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross

- Genesis Climber Mospeada

- Robotech (1982-1984)

- Brave Fighters

    * Brave Fighter Exkaiser

    * Brave Fighter Of Sun Fighbird

    * Brave Fighter Of Legend Da-Garn

- Brave Police J-Decker

- GaoGaiGar

- Dai-Guard

- Any Raideen series

- Knight Rider (1982-1986)

- Knight Rider 2000 (1991)

- Top Gun (1986)

- The Final Countdown (1980)

- Stealth (2005)

- Challenge Of The GoBots (1984-1985)

- Fan videos

Artwork

- Landscapes

    * Planetary landscapes

    * Nature

    * Cities and towns (featuring cars and other vehicles)

    * Futuristic landscapes

    * Space

    * Alien landscapes

    * 1980′s style landscapes

    * Memphis style landscapes

    * Technological landscapes

    * Room/hallway landscapes

- Cars (1965-1990)

- Fighter jets

- Birds

- Rocks and minerals

- Memphis patterns and other 1980′s and 1990′s style patterns

- Retro 1970′s, 1980′s, 1990′s aesthetic (including airbrush techniques)

- Images made by Microsoft Office PowerPoint shape tool

- Mecha robots

- Fonts and font art

- Space/universe related artwork

Miscellaneous

- Cars

    * Pontiac Firebird Trans Ams (including 1982)

    * Chevrolet Camaros (including 1982)

    * Supercars and sports cars from 1955-2004

    * Plymouth Roadrunners

    * Custom 1980′s sports cars (custom paint job, car costumes, accessories, etc.)

    * Dodge Challengers

    * Striped cars

    * Flying cars

- Planes

    * F-14 Tomcats

    * F-15 Eagles

    * F-16 Fighting Falcons

    * A-10 Warthogs

    * F-22 Raptors

    * F-35 VTOL fighter jets

    * Custom planes (including custom fighter jets)

- Seamless patterns

- Retro 1980′s themes

    * Synthwave

    * Retrowave

    * Vaporwave

    * Airbrush techniques

    * Fonts

    * Car paint jobs

    * Chrome (not Google Chrome; actual chrome gradients)

- Bird species of the world

- Space

    * Planets (including those outside our solar system)

    * Stars

    * Moons

    * Star systems

    * Nebulae

    * Galaxies

    * Asteroids and meteors

    * Comets

    * Clusters

    * Novae

    * Black holes

    * Recent discoveries

- OS

    * Microsoft DOS

    * Microsoft Windows 1.0

    * Microsoft Windows 3.1

    * Microsoft Windows 95

    * Microsoft Windows NT

    * Microsoft Windows 98

    * Microsoft Windows 2000

    * Microsoft Windows ME

    * Microsoft Windows XP

    * Microsoft Windows retro OS styles

    * Ubuntu Linux

    * Amiga OS

    * Underrated OS

- Old technologies

- Ask memes (usually for fandom related topics)

If anyone already has posts like any of these, feel free to follow me so I can check out your content (I usually follow back if the content a user contains satisfies me, but sometimes I choose not to; spam users, on the other hand...).  For those who have not logged in to Tumblr (and have content you chose to base your future blog as), please do so; the more creative individuals in the site (if not the whole Internet), the better.

That is all I will say for now.  Until I find such content that is ongoing for the 2020′s, I will explore what is available so far.  I am certain other users might have similar needs and desires like I do, as well.

This is FirebirdTransAm68 signing out.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #400

Special Commemorative Top 100 Videogames

400! Blimey! That’s a lot. Four hundred lists. Crikey. This feels like it deserves some kind of, I dunno, special edition. Sorry, Special Edition. But what to do? And how can I somehow tentatively tie it into the number four or even four hundred?

Reader, I can’t. I’ve just sacked it off basically.

But that’s not to say I haven’t tried very hard to make a really, really special list. So special in fact that I’m doing something I’ve only done once or sort-of twice before: a Top 100. Yes, that’s right; despite this being a Top Ten, today I’m squaring the circle and going the Full Ton.

So having done films before, this weekend I’m looking at one of the few other things I feel I can talk about with a degree of authority: videogames. I’ve been a gamer pretty much as long as I can remember. Whilst I was probably reading comics first – especially Transformers – I wasn’t really collecting them, or reading them widely, until I was in my twenties. Games, on the other hand, I got into pretty hard as a young boy and they’ve maintained my interest ever since.

On compiling a list like this, however, I run against the thing I always run against, which is my knowledgebase isn’t really that wide. I had an Amiga growing up, and then graduated to a PC when I was a teen. Before that I played on my cousins’ computers, which were Spectrums and Commodores. Apart from brief trips to friends’ houses, I barely touched games consoles; indeed, I indulged in a lot of pre-teen “console toy” sectarianism, thinking the likes of Sega and Nintendo were enemies to be defeated (whilst, at the same time, being slightly covetous of the hardware). The first console we ever had in our house was my brother’s Nintendo 64; the first one I ever owned was an original Xbox. To this date, I have only owned (or had in the house, at least) the following: Xbox; GameCube; Xbox 360; DS Lite; Wii; Xbox One. I’ve never had any Sony console, being swayed by Halo and Fable when I finally decided to take the plunge into console-land around 2001.

So all this – combined with a sort-of ingrained frustration and the commonplace mechanics of a lot of “classic” console titles, especially stuff like Zelda and Metal Gear – means there will no doubt be big famous names not on this list. It’s not an apology. I’m not an expert or a journalist; I’m just some bloke wasting time on the internet. Added to this is the fact that, even when I was a kid with oodles of free time, there were only so many games my parents could afford – or, beyond that, only so many that I had time for. I remember longingly looking at screenshots in The One Amiga, PC Gamer, or Edge, wishing I could either find the money or time for the likes of Lure of the Temptress, Starcraft, Baldur’s Gate, LA Noire, Morrowind, and more. Most of these I’ve played, but not really very deeply (ditto the likes of Thief, System Shock, and most of the 3D Grand Theft Autos). And that’s before we even get onto the PlayStation games like Uncharted, Shadow of the Colossus, The Last of Us, and Spider-Man!

Anyway, what I’m saying is, this is a very personal list, and it feels incomplete even from my point of view. There’s stuff that I feel is missing, even from my own personal gaming biography. But it is what it is, and its fractured, fragmented nature is probably a good overview of my psyche, and as such it feels appropriate for a large anniversary like my 400th list.

A couple of other, technical points. In compiling a list this large, I’ve argued back-and-forth with myself over placements, but generally I’ve looked at a game, and the games around it, and asked whether it’s better or worse than its neighbours; as such, that’s where the game is stuck. Sometimes this means I’ll look at the list and think, oh, such-and-such looks too high or too low, but it feels right when nestled against its contemporaries. Also, sequels and franchises: I’ve tried to treat each game individually (both Half-Lifes are there, for instance) but with something like, say, Mass Effect, it felt a bit redundant to include the slightly-inferior parts 1 and 3 when they’re all quite similar but Mass Effect 2 is the best. So quite often one title ends up representing a franchise, unless I feel other instalments are terrific enough to stand on their own, or represent something quite different. But that’s not really a hard-and-fast rule anyway. Oh, and formats: generally speaking, they’re on the formats I discovered or most enjoyed the game on, which may throw up some non-standard entries (like SWOS, which even I think of as an Amiga game, but which I really got into years later on PC). Finally, my memory; there are some older games on here that maybe if I played a bit more recently would go up or down. But they feel important to me and my life as a gamer, so that’s where they’re staying. All that being said, I’m very comfortable with the Top Ten, which is appropriate.

TL;DR: it’s my list, it’s very subjective, it’s based partly on memory or nostalgia, it’s emotional, it’s things that I loved and that meant something to me and that still mean something to me, and that’s all there is to it.

So here we go: Top Ten numero 400. Except it’s a Top 100. Make of that what you will.

The Secret of Monkey Island (Amiga, 1991)

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (Amiga, 1992)

Half-Life 2 (PC, 2003)

Deus Ex (PC, 2000)

Civilization VI (PC, 2017)

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox, 2003)

Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox, 2001)

Lemmings 2: The Tribes (Amiga, 1993)

Crackdown (Xbox 360, 2007)

Fable II (Xbox 360, 2007)

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (Xbox One, 2013)

Command and Conquer: Red Alert (PC, 1995)

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (PC, 1997)

Half-Life (PC, 1998)

Sam & Max Hit the Road (PC, 1995)

Medieval II: Total War (PC, 2003)

Portal (PC, 2003)

Perfect Dark (N64, 2000)

Sensible World of Soccer 95/96 (PC, 1995)

Duke Nukem 3D (PC, 1995)

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch, 2018)

Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360, 2008)

Wii Sports (Wii, 2005)

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, 2007)

Flashback (Amiga, 1993)

Batman: Arkham City (Xbox 360, 2011)

Animal Crossing (GameCube, 2004)

Halo 3 (Xbox 360, 2007)

Forza Horizon 2 (Xbox One, 2014)

BioShock (Xbox 360, 2007)

Drop 7 (iPhone, 2010)

Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 (PC, 2000)

Quake III Arena (PC, 2000)

GoldenEye 007 (N64, 1997)

Doom (PC, 1993)

Plants vs. Zombies (iPhone, 2011)

Age of Empires II (PC, 2001)

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (Xbox One, 2015)

James Pond II: RoboCod (Amiga, 1992)

Syndicate (Amiga, 1992)

Blade Runner (PC, 1997)

Grim Fandango (PC, 1998)

Peggle 2 (Xbox One, 2013)

Superhot (Xbox One, 2017)

Quake (PC, 1997)

Gears of War (Xbox 360, 2005)

Viva Pinata (Xbox 360, 2008)

Unreal Tournament (PC, 1999)

Cannon Fodder (Amiga, 1993)

Banjo Kazooie (N64, 1998)

Quake II (PC, 1998)

Another World (Amiga, 1992)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (MegaDrive, 1993)

Grand Theft Auto (PC, 1997)

Doom (Xbox One, 2016)

Braid (Xbox 360, 2007)

Limbo (Xbox One, 2014)

Worms World Party (PC, 2001)

The Sims (PC, 2000)

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GameCube, 2003)

Pikmin (GameCube, 2002)

Super Skidmarks (Amiga, 1993)

Minecraft (Xbox 360, 2012)

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (PC, 1992)

Project Gotham Racing (Xbox, 2001)

Tomb Raider (PC, 1996)

Carcassonne (Xbox 360, 2008)

Black & White (PC, 2001)

Frontier: Elite 2 (Amiga, 1993)

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (PC, 2003)

Alien Breed: Tower Assault (Amiga, 1994)

Two Point Hospital (PC, 2018)

Thimbleweed Park (PC, 2017)

Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360, 2010)

Sim City 2000 (PC, 1993)

Super Mario 64 (N64, 1997)

The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (N64, 1998)

Midtown Madness 2 (PC, 2000)

Civilization Revolution (Xbox 360, 2008)

Jaguar XJ220 (Amiga, 1992)

Simon the Sorcerer (Amiga, 1993)

Chuck Rock II: Son of Chuck (Amiga, 1993)

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (PC, 2000)

Tomb Raider (Xbox One, 2013)

Pokemon FireRed & LeafGreen (GBA, 2004)

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Xbox One, 2018)

LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Xbox 360, 2007)

Back to Skool (Spectrum, 1985)

Transport Tycoon Deluxe (PC, 1994)

Zool (Amiga, 1992)

Super Smash Bros. Melee (GameCube, 2001)

Jetpack Joyride (PC, 2013)

Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding (Xbox, 2001)

Spellbound Dizzy (Amiga, 1991)

Putty (Amiga, 1992)

Ghostbusters (Spectrum, 1984)

Void Bastards (Xbox One, 2019)

Transformers (PS2, 2004)

Seymour Goes to Hollywood (Amiga, 1992)

Microsoft Ultimate Word Games (PC, 2017)

There you go. I already disagree with myself.

[thevintageconnection]

How to Start Your Vintage Hobby

Hey, guys!

Starting a hobby can be exciting, but also very daunting for some reason. You don’t always know exactly how to start.

I’ve heard and seen a lot of people saying they want to watch more old movies, listen to more vintage artists, wear more vintage fashion, but they don’t know where to begin. The vintage community is full of recommendations, but everything can seem overwhelming. It may seem like you’ll never remember movie titles or musicians’ names.

Sometimes I still get overwhelmed, and I remember how confused I was when I first started. I grew up with a lot of vintage influences from my parents and grandparents. As I got older, I started to explore on my own and figure out what my favorites were.

To help any newbies out there, I decided to make a little guide on how to start your vintage hobby.

Let’s get started.

Step One: Follow vintage accounts on social media

Following other vintage accounts will give you inspiration and recommendations! It can also connect you with lots of other vintage lovers. I often look to others to dive deeper into the vintage world. Here are some accounts I love.

Tumblr

This account posts media all the way from the 1870s to the WWII era:

Vintage everyday

This blog post old printed media (mostly clips from newspaper ads and comics):

Yesterday’s Print

Instagram

These accounts post old media, like pictures/clips of old movies, tv shows, actors, and musicians:

Velvet Coke

This Was Hollywood

This is the Instagram account for an online vintage clothing store, Unique Vintage:

Unique Vintage

This account posts media of my favorite actress, Audrey Hepburn:

Audrey Hepburn

Here are two modern women who post vintage fashion and other vintage content. I thought about including a section on vintage fashion, but I’m not an expert in that at all, so I’ll let these ladies introduce you to it:

Monica Danae

(She’s also a party princess, and I used to do that, so I love her even more)

Vintage Style Guide

Screenshot of her account

The aesthetic of her entire accounts has me in love. I adore her sense of fashion, how she incorporates styles from multiple decades. She recently went to Paris and the pictures she posted are breathtaking.

Twitter

These accounts also post throwbacks of old media:

50s and 60s

Vintage Ads

Notable History

Step Two: Listen to old music

This is an easy step because you don’t have to spend much time on it! You can start by playing music in the background of your day. Pretty soon, you’ll find yourself singing along to some of the words.

Start with some premade playlists or stations on Spotify or Pandora.

I have a few different vintage Spotify playlists:

This playlist is based on my first two posts that list and explain my top vintage favorite tracks:

Top Vintage Faves

A longer list of songs from mainly the 1940s to 60s:

Darling

More songs from mainly the 1970s to 80s:

Oldies

Step Three: Watch Old Movies & TV Shows

Movies

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Cinderella (1950)

Roman Holiday (1953)

Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

Audrey Hepburn for a Breakfast at Tiffany’s photoshoot.

Image by skeeze on Pixabay

West Side Story (1961)

Mary Poppins (1964)

The Sound of Music (1965)

Karate Kid (1984)

The Goonies (1985)

The Princess Bride (1987)

I have so many more favorites, but I’ll stop there!

TV Shows

I watch more vintage movies than TV shows, but here are some that I’ve at least watched a couple episodes of or are on my watch list!  

I Love Lucy (1951-1957)

Bewitched (1964-1972)

The Addams Family (1964-1977)

The Brady Bunch (1969-1974)

M*A*S*H (1972-1983)

The cast of M*A*S*H.

Image by skeeze on Pixabay

Golden Girls (1985-1992)

Married… With Children (1987-1997)

Step Four: Go Shopping!

Visit any local thrift stores or antique shops Here in Storm Lake, Iowa, my college town, we have the cutest antique store, Celia’s Antiques.

Photo by me. The music section is my favorite part of Celia’s Antiques. This wall is my header on Tumblr and Twitter!

As vintage trends come back into style, more everyday stores and boutiques will have more vintage products!

Check out my post of vintage finds at Walmart!

Keep your eye out for even the smallest of finds, like this cute lip balm I found at a local gift shop, The Sugar Bowl!

Photo by me

Connections to Today

It’s obvious that people still want to share history, and in the case of some of the accounts I shared, they want to incorporate aspects of history into their everyday lives! Vintage social media accounts and consumer products keep history alive!

But we don’t need to keep the intense sexism, racism, homophobia, etc. alive. This leads us to...

Step Five: Research More!

It doesn’t escape my mind that most of the celebrities mentioned in most vintage accounts and discussions are white. Many white artists and actors created and starred in iconic media from the past, but there are so many wonderful and iconic creations from artists of color that need to be recognized as well!

Once you have discovered the basic vintage favorites that most of the community talks about, then investigate more to see who isn’t as appreciated or discussed, who actually started trends that white people adopted and made popular.

Here’s an interesting article on Slate that could be a good intro: “How Rock and Roll Became White”

I know this guide has a lot of information, but it is hopefully a good starting point for any vintage newbies. You don’t have to check out absolutely everything on this list, but at least pick a few movies, songs, accounts that sound interesting!

Any questions? Don’t be afraid to send them my way!

Thanks for reading,

Morgan ♥️

Share any recommendations with me and/or join the vintage community by following me on this blog, or on:

Twitter: @connect_vintage

Instagram: @connect_vintage

[cutiecrates]

Cutie Reviews: Gacha Gacha crate Feb 19

I’m not actually sure if I got the March GGC yet, but I’ll be looking after I finish this to see if I did. If not then I'll be starting up my september box reviews! 

(In case you were wondering, I don’t show the cover image of the pamphlet because it’s always a faded image of various Gachapon machines and that would get boring :P)

The featured topic in this months pamphlet is about Retro video games from Namco, to go with an item in the crate. It talks about 11 games, including:

Galaxian - a game there you control a spaceship at the bottom of the screen and shoot at various enemies while avoiding their attacks. Released in 1979.

Pac-Man - Everybody knows this game : D I played it a lot when I was a child. You control the little yellow Pac-Man and eat all the pellets before the ghosts get you! Released 1980.

Xevious - Some kind of piloting game where you blast various targets. Released 1982.

Mappy - You play as Mappy, a police mouse trying to find the items stolen by the Meowkies and taken to their mansion. Released 1982.

Dig Dug - The player must rid of the underground monsters by either blowing them up with an air pump or dropping rocks on them! Released 1982.

The Tower of Druaga - The player controls Gilgamesh, a hero who arrives to save the maiden Ki from the demon Druaga and must go through his 60-floor tower. Released 1984.

Valkyrie No Boken - Everyone lives together in Marvel Land in harmony, and together they work to improve it. Released in 1986.

Family Stadium - Now-a-days known as Famista, this is a series of baseball games. Released in 1986.

Dragon Buster - In the name of his father, Clovis goes on a quest to save Princess Celia from a dragon. Released 1985.

Super Xevious Gamp No Nazo - A challenging riddle game released in 1986. Okay! Now it’s time to get on with the review!

Mt. Fuji Figure

Our first gacha is a relatively simple one. It’s a figure of Mt. Fuji, one of the highest peaks in the world and a very popular icon of Japan. This series is by Epoch and each one costs 300 yen.

This set included 4 different colorful displays one could get... and I can’t actually understand the list, so I’m not sure what mine is.

Rating: ♥ ♥

The detail on it is really nice, and it’s very clean looking. But (and I say this in hopes of offending no one) I don’t really care for it. I mean I really like Japanese culture and stuff, but I’m not really into these types of figures and I don’t see myself using it for any sort of purpose or doing anything with it. I don’t even think I’ll keep it.

Patient Cats

These little kitties are trying to patiently wait for someone to turn off/down various noise makers. This series is by Epoch and each is available for 200 yen. 

There was 3 types available: television, boombox, or telephone, each in 2 colors of object and cat.

I got the white television kitty :3

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

What makes this really fun is that not only are you getting 2 items for one gacha, but you can also use them together or separately. They would be perfect for Re-ment displays!

The detailing on the two pieces is also really nice. There’s no paint issues or anything. It’s a really cute, simple display.

Pokemon Clinging Cable Cover

Cable covers must be really popular as of late huh? I keep finding them in my crates these days. I’m beginning to get used to them though, they are awfully cute. It’s by Kitan Club, and each is available for 300 yen. You can see whose available on the checklist in the pic.

I would have been happy getting anybody really. I really like Gengar and Eevee, but Pikachu is a must, and who doesn’t love the three original starters? My favorite of the trio is Bulbasaur, but I collected stuff of all of them when I was younger. I was pretty much happy just getting something Pokemon related.

So basically, you just pull apart the white thingy and put a coord inside, then stick it back together and attach your Pokemon to it.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Besides how difficult it was to get the thingy open to put the cord inside, I think this is really cute! I decided to swap Umbreon with Charmander, and yes My Melody is still hanging on strong! She seems happy with her new friend.

Osechi Mascot

Inspired by the delicious, tiered foods eaten on New Years in Japan with loved ones. This set is single tiered, but from how it’s made I feel like you can stack the layers together. I could be wrong though.

This one came with an odd slip of paper, but I don’t really know what it means. If I had to guess I’d say it either lists materials used to make the items in this, or it lists the foods?

There is 5 available, and this series is by Toy Spirits. The one I got includes three crab claws, flower carrots, Tuna/salmon or some kind of fish, simmered vegetable, and three dumplings or rice or sesame balls or something? There is also a lobster and fish set, a scallop with tons of vegetables, a cooked fish (maybe sea bream?) and one I can’t really identify.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

See this type of figure I really like! I love food based things like this. Everything is plastic, but to my surprise the balls are squishy! It’s really fun to poke~ 

It would also make for a fun re-ment item... and maybe it’s just me, but there’s something really fun about putting the lid on and taking it off.

Floral Card Pouch Miniature

Based on Japanese Hanafuda (flower cards), this little artistic looking pouch is perfect for keeping money, cards, or other little items you often lose track of or want to carry around but worry over it’s small size.

This is another Epoch series, and there was 12 available consisting of 6 designs in either red or black. I got the red version. Each one costs 200 yen.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

I think this is really sweet looking, even though it’s a little bent up from being in the capsule. It’s very well made, sort of floppy/flimsy, but the material and inside lining feel very nice. It’s really easy to close and open, and the fabric is a little flexible.

Namco Museum Cassette Pin Collection

Our final item for the month and the one related to the featured article above. As a girl obsessed with video games I’m a sucker for wearable accessories based on them, and I’ve really been into pins as of late too so this is perfect.

Each one comes in a little box with images from the game print on it, and a tiny itty-bitty description of it on the back with a screenshot. The pin resembles an old game cartridge/cassette with an image of the game and some designs and logo over it. 

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Dig Dug wasn’t a game I played a lot, I think I might have played it once or twice but it’s been years. It wasn’t like Pac-Man or the Mario (Donkey Kong?) games, which were everywhere. The laundry mat I used to go to as a child still has the arcade machines!

Anyway, I was still really excited. I love opening the little box and taking out the pin. It’s very well made, and it has a tiny bit of weight to it. I’m really excited to wear it or put it on something and see if anybody recognizes it :D I hope we get more cute little things like this!

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Quality/Pricing - 3 out of 5. Almost everything was priced, and if I can figure it out, I think they were like... 10-15 American dollars total? We pay about 30 dollars for the box, and considering how small and impractical a couple of the items are... I’m not sure it’s the best box worth the price. If we had more items like the Pokemon cord holder, pouch, and pin then yeah I’d say they were.

Content - 3 out of 5. I really liked the items we got, except for the Mt. Fuji. It, the kitty, and the little food thing are pretty impractical (unless used for re-ment, which I would do if I had sets that went with them) and I kind of hate that- but not all Gachapon can be you know? I understand that. 

Total Rank: 4 out of 10 cuties. It’s not the best box in the series, but it’s still kinda new you know? I’m not trying to be really hard on it. I was pretty disappointed they didn’t give us a theme for this one though- like if it was me, I would have went super-cute and girly for Valentines Day. I know they try to cater to both genders, but I’m sure they could have found a way for both to be happy with that theme. Or maybe they could have done a video game theme to go with the pokemon and namco pin. SOMETHING you know?

♥ Cutie Scale ♥

1.  Namco Pin - Of course I had to go with this one! I was geeking out over it the whole time. I wasn’t born when these games came out but I can still appreciate them!

2.  Patient Cat - it’s pretty simple, but the kitty is so cute and the concept behind it makes it even cuter.

3.  Osechi Mascot - I love the concept, and the squishy food inside~ I wish the whole thing was squishy though <3<

4. Pokemon Cable Protector - It’s cute, but fairly simple looking. 

5. Hanafuda Pouch - It’s sort of like a simplistic art piece you can use for storing stuff in, it’s pretty cute and has a touch of elegance to it too.

6.Mt. Fuji Figure - I’m sorry but I just didn’t like it. It’s nice if you like landmark based figures and displays, but I’m more into things like train displays and stuff that moves around.

And this concludes our review! I hope you enjoyed or found it interesting. As I said on top we’ll probably be doing the Yume Twins september box next, unless I got my March gacha box already, but I don’t believe I did, that one tends to show up late for some reason.

Anyway, until next time, stay cute! And play lots of video games :3

[pes2019patch]

By the early 90s, the ZX Spectrum appeared hopelessly outdated. The Commodore Amiga and Atari ST were appreciably better computer alternatives, while those with a pure penchant for video games would shortly be able to get their hands on a Super Nintendo Entertainment System, if they hadn't already invested in a Sega Mega Drive. In terms of graphics and sound, all of them were ridiculously better than the Sinclair machine. I wasn't really playing on my 128k +2 Speccy much as I looked on enviously at Mega Drive screenshots of Strider and Golden Axe; but what I was still doing was consistently reading Your Sinclair each month, often to the scorn of friends and family. "Why are you still reading that?!" they would clamour. "Because," I'd reply with a tone of calculated indifference, "It's funny."

Your Sinclair began life as Your Spectrum, and it wasn't just the name that was different - practically everything inside was, too. "It was a long time ago, and Dennis Publishing was a very different company - actually called Bunch Books at the time," says Roger Munford, launch editor of Your Spectrum back in 1984. As with its peer, Sinclair User, Your Spectrum focused on many of the serious aspects of computing, with gaming taking its place among features on programming, hardware and the business uses of the Sinclair microcomputer. The aforementioned rival, not to mention Newsfield's Crash, helped instigate the change to the magazine ZX Spectrum fans know and love today. "The Spectrum was no longer the focus of all that Sinclair were doing," continues Munford. "They had launched the QL, and also that silly electric car. The title change was more hoping that Sinclair was going to be like Apple, and also to pit the magazine more clearly against EMAP, which had the clear winner in the field."

Issue One of Your Sinclair hit newsstands at the end of 1985, sporting a gritty Commando cover and a cassette on its cover, containing a demo of the isometric puzzle game, Rasputin. With Munford having departed the magazine to help launch MacUser, Kevin Cox took over the reins, and he oversaw a tense period as the material graduated towards games and entertainment, relegating much of the technical and business-like content to a handful of pages at the back. Already at Dennis publishing since the days of Your Spectrum, Teresa Maughan, nicknamed T'zer, was deputy editor on this shining new publication that was determined to evoke youth magazines of the time rather than its fellow computer games monthlies.

Read more