#aol error

[oldwebmlp]

From: http://web.archive.org/web/20050528075918/http://members.aol.com/nightmrestallion/open.htm

Text from page below the cut:

We are the few, the proud, the MIB and MOC pony openers!

We purchase the mint on card Sundea Best pony, just to pull the plastic bubble off and get the first good whiff of mint smelling pony.

We buy the mint in box playset, only to crack open the tape, pull out the baggies, rip them open and put the castle together.

We find the mint in bag mail order baby pony at a garage sale and free her from her plastic prison.

We are O.P.E.N. The Organization of Ponies Enjoying Nakedness.

Because we like our ponies freed of their packaging.

For whatever reason; whether it be due to the fact that we don't have that pony loose, or that we like the smell of new vinyl, or like to have a mint pony with all it's accessories, or the simple fact that we like to play with or toys… It matters not! These toys are our property and we will do with them what we will. Some of us save the packaging. Some of us throw it away.

In the end, we are all OPENers.

And we love our ponies.

We don't care if you covet your MOC ponies or MIB playsets. Yay for you! Just don't tell us that we can't open our pony packages. If we want to, we will. Don't start sending us messages of "Why did you do that?!". Don't spam our message boards. Don't snipe our Ebay bids, not because you wanted it, but because you are sure that we will open the package. Don't be MOC hoarders and tell others not to sell or trade with us. It's a toy and we love our toys as much as anyone. We rehair our hair-cut ponies! We wash the factory curls out of their manes! We customize mint ponies!

We believe that we like it!

So get over it.

[vioyume]

Various audio snippets of my childhood that I've collected.

Edit: For all the people who said I needed to add other audios snippets.

[softwaredownloadhelp-blog]

Once you follow the above troubleshooting steps, you can easily resolve AOL desktop gold error 104. If you can’t eliminate it. You can connect our experts.

[mrghostrat]

hello bilvy aka mrghostrat my beloved, how do you think of usernames for the characters ?? no thoughts head empty as one might say

ITS SO HARD… but puns and references are my favourite way to go. when in doubt i take a well known line of dialogue from a character and centre it around that. “InhumanError” in the most recent BNF chapter is muriel, based on their “but that was an error, which proves i’m human!” line

some of them are purely aesthetic, like newt as “digitalamphibian” and streamer anathema’s “annathanna”, which are more designed to be recognisable as the character the second you see them. i feel like that’s more important than anything. nothing more jarring than reading a digitised conversation between characters and not being 100% sure who’s talking

other ones are more about what the CHARACTER would name themselves in that universe, which is a fun way of exploring characterisation. like streamer newt’s “professornewton” trying to be a cool clever tech guy even though he’s totally hopeless, and bnf anathema’s “justwitchythings” for the blogger aesthetic.

and then you’ve got maggie as “maggienanimous” (magnanimous) which is just. me tapping into my 2008 AIM x Livejournal roleplaying days, where you had to make a new AOL account for every character you played and became a fuckin expert at mashing character names into silly phrases 👀

[ctrl-altgr]

When does Omori take place?

[Content Warning: Spoilers for Omori, character death, weapons.]

This is a very long post, grab some popcorn.

[EDIT: Thanks for the addition by @basil-daisy, given the in-game dates and mention of a weekend in the photo album, it's more likely that headspace and the real world take place in 1996 and 2000 respectively, this actually adds on to the console idea. Though, I think the Dial-Up thing was probably more of a joke from Omocat, since it doesn't fit with the time-frame as well]

One of the main questions we dont get answers for in omori is when the game takes place, neither from the real world or sunny's headspace. However, it can be narrowed down to a decent margin of error.

Month Mentions?

We learn from Kel that Hero is coming home from college during the "Three days remaining" chapter of the game. This can be assumed to be the very beginning of the summer vacation. This would be arround May or June for colleges in the USA, which is likely where the game is set judging by the USA-style housing. This means the game takes place at least a month before Sunny's birthday, either in May or June, but what year is it?

[ID: A quote from Kel to Sunny, "Actually... Since we're here, I should probably get a gift for HERO. He's in college right now, but he should be coming back sometime tomorrow." He and Sunny are stood by the entrance of a hobby shop, Hobbeez. Kel is grinning.]

Headspace Hints?

Headspace is by far the largest part of the game in terms of playtime, so there should be one or two clues hidden in there right? Well, inferring from the environments and one specific line of text, we can narrow it down to the decade.

In the Foe Facts journal, it is stated that the Dial-Up and Mixtape enemies are "Ancient," and "A relic of the past," giving us a large timeframe.

[ID: A description of the Dial-Up enemy. To the left, there is a drawing of what it looks like. It appears to be an old CRT monitor showing a character similar to the old AOL logo, the monitor stands on a computer placed on its side, both of which are placed next to a telephone modem representing the Dial-Up. The description of the enemy to the right says, "An ancient form of accessing communication networks. Makes a horrible ear-piercing noise when used. - OMORI," Hero adds on to this by stating "Ah, this sound reminds me of the good old days..."]

This description of Dial-Up suggests Hero, being the oldest of the group, was old enough to fondly remember Dial-Up internet, but Sunny, in the form of Omori, does not. Hero is stated to be 15 by Sprout Mole Mike in headspace, and Omori is approximately 12, as Mari dies two months after Sunny's 12th birthday. Meaning Sunny and Hero are apart in age by 3 years.

In a recent patch of the game, and in all of the console versions of the game, one specific line of text gives the exact decade the headspace takes place in, which could be inferred either way.

If you talk to Mr. Jawsum post-Humphrey fight, he hands over the Last Resort to Hero, which adds a portrait of him to the hallway following up to an elevator that leads to a waiting room. The desciption of this portrait tells us the year that Headspace takes place in, 199X, where the last digit of the year is hidden from us.

[ID: A hallway in the Last Resort. Portraits line the wall, each of the previous and current owners of the Last Resort. All previous owners, shown to the left, are sharks (the last anthropomorphised). The most recent owner, to the right, Hero, whom the portrait description says began managing the establishment starting year "199X," where supposedly the final digit of the year is obfuscated.]

However, there is a slight contradiction in the years here. Broadband had a surgance and overtook Dial-Up as the main internet provider post-2000, and so Sunny may be misremembering things, unless Hero's family had access to broadband internet in the 90s. Which is unlikely. (There is also not much information that I could find on the popularity of different internet providers between 1990 and 2000)

So then, it is likely that headspace takes place between this shift, towards the end of the 90s.

Town Tips?

From the real world, we don't get many clues to the placement of the story time-wise. So, what can we infer?

Well, a large amount of the households in Faraway do not have computers, and if they do, they are usually in the parents' room, as a work computer. And, all of the computers and televisions use CRT rather than LED/LCD, with most people having CRT monitors up to 2007.

Using the merch produced by Omocat, we can also see that the hooligans as a group have been around since 20XX, with the final two digits of the year hidden. However, we know that Sunny has not been outside for 4 years, meaning we can narrow it down to 2004 or prior.

[ID: Official Omori merch. A black bomber jacket showing depictions of nail-bats, flowers, pinwheels, a statue of a gate, and two road signs, one showing a bicycle, the other showing three scooters. The text across the bomber jacket reads "Faraway Town - The future belongs to the dreamers - Since 20XX - Ride or die - Hooligans"]

Hobbeez also has a few gaming consoles in stock, with the newest one in there having cartridge games. It appears to resemble a SNES, however it is unlikely that is what is, since they discontinued production in 1999 in North America.

[ID: A zoomed in screenshot of the "Brand new console system" found in hobbeez. Sunny, seen to the right, is looking at the console.]

What is more likely for this to be is something similar to a N64, which released after the SNES but also sold its games as cartridges. The first nintendo console to start using compact discs was the GameCube, as such, this gives a narrow window for the placement of the game. So, when did each of these consoles start and stop production?

The N64 was discontinued in April 2002 worldwide, with the GameCube being released in North America November 2001. This gives us an approximate window for when the real world of Omori takes place, as it is unlikely that a small hobby shop like Hobbeez would be selling many of the brand new consoles day one of the GC's release.

Conclusion?

Well, with headspace being Sunny's memories, it is unlikely for complete consistancy with the timeframe of the story, but headspace most likely takes place in the years surrounding 1998, four years prior to the real world timeline.

Faraway however most likely takes place May 2002. Though Kel takes notice to the price of the console, which would be much lower than its release price, it would still be a lot of money for a 16 year old. It is also unclear if the description "brand new console system," refers to the specific console in Hobbeez, or the system as a whole.

Wow, we're done. What do you think? If you have any other ideas of to what year this could take place, feel free to mention it to me!! :D

[mama-qwerty]

how long have you and your husband been married

23 years.

We met in the chatroom of a Hey, Arnold! message board in '99, and moved to AOL messenger shortly after that. Talked almost every night for months. Had a lot in common.

He came to visit me (we lived in different states) in June of '00, and I went down to visit him in late August of '00 and decided to move in with him.

Boy was that a shock to everyone who knew me.

We married in 2001.

It's been a . . . rocky road. Really rocky in some cases.

I was completely naïve in the ways of relationships (this being my first and only) and hadn't really worked out who I was before jumping into coupledom. That caused some problems. He brought his own baggage and when my issues and his issues were all lumped together . . . woof.

I won't go into details, into the hell that our marriage degraded into for a while. Lots and lots of tears. Lots of questioning everything. No friends, family so far away, I felt really alone.

It was hard. Really, really hard. I fell into a depressive period for a long time. Took a lot of time and effort to pull myself out of it, and work through my own issues.

In 2016 it shifted because I had just finally had enough. During yet another fight, I opened my mouth and just tore into him. Ripped him up one side and down the other, and stood up for myself. He was shocked, and I think a little scared.

Because I didn't care anymore. Divorce? BRING IT. Anything was better than living the unhealthy push and pull we'd been doing up to that point.

We're better now. Not perfect. But better.

Neither one of us had a good example of a healthy relationship growing up. Took some trail and error to find a balance that worked. Time helped me mature, too. Discover who I am, and how to stand up for myself.

Anyway . . . yeah. 23 years with the guy. Two kids, and umpteen cats and dogs in between. Lots of tears, but lots of laughs too. It's not all bad. I'm not perfect, I had a hand in the bad times, too. I'm trying to be better.

Every day is a new chance.

[yashahimewasamistake]

Linked Universe fandom has Hyrule's Hyrule being super hostile full of unkind people

Meanwhile, in AoL, you get to a town and there's a girl that's all like "let me heal you!"

A man that says "Yes, this is how you cross this path"

A wise man that taught you a spell.

A girl that apologizes for being busy.

Random children telling you where to go.

And a guy that's named Error.

[arturouriza]

Mis discos favoritos del 2023

He aquí la tradicional lista del año. A excepción de los primeros 10, el resto de los álbumes contenidos en esta lista no tienen una jerarquía real, todos fueron materiales que disfruté y que considero vale la pena escuchar completos. En el caso de los 10 primeros, la única diferencia significativa es que me hicieron querer hablar un poco más de ellos y estuvieron constantemente en repetición.

60 - Velvet Negroni - Bulli

59 - Helvetia - You Shot Past the Moon Scapegoat

58 - Strategy - Graffiti in Space

57 - Gunslingers - Supreme Asphalt Doser

56 - Mivos Quartet - Steve Reich: The String Quartets

55 - Orbital - Optical Delusion

54 - U.S. Girls - Bless This Mess

53 - Algiers - Shook

52 - mui zyu - Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century

51 - Unloved - Polychrome

50 - Model/Actriz - Dogsbody

49 - Kate NV - WOW

48 - Contemporary Noise Ensemble - An Excellent Spiritual Serviceman

47 - Tanukichan - Gizmo

46 - Luke Vibert - Machine Funk

45 - Trees Speak - Mind Maze

44 - M83 - Fantasy

43 - DEBBY FRIDAY - GOOD LUCK

42 - Masahiro Takahashi - Humid Sun

41 - Marta and Tricky - When It's Going Wrong

40 - A Certain Ratio - 1982

39 - Deerhoof - Miracle-Level

38 - Tim Hecker - No Highs

37 - Shit and Shine - 2222 and AIRPORT

36 - uh - humanus

35 - Melati ESP - hipernatural

34 - Brown Spirits - Solitary Transmissions

33 - bar italia - Tracey Denim

32 - Mandy, Indiana - i've seen a way

31 - feeble little horse - Girl with Fish

30 - Decisive Pink - Ticket to Fame

29 - Laurent Garnier - 33 Tours Et Puis S’en Vont

28 - K-Lone - Swells

27 - Jah Wobble - A Brief History of Now 

26 - Italia 90 - Living Human Treasure

25 - Unperroandaluz - Peek!

24 - M(h)aol - Attachment Styles

23 - Acid Arab -  (Trois)

22 - Jad Fair and Samuel Locke Ward - Happy Hearts

21 - Avey Tare - 7s

20 - Alabaster DePlume - Come with Fierce Grace

19 - Eartheater - Powders

18 - Teeth of the Sea - Hive

17 - Barry Can't Swim - When Will We Land?

16 - Hyperdawn - Steady

15 - Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter - SAVED!

14 - Aesop Rock - Integrated Tech Solutions

13 - Art Feynman - Be Good the Crazy Boys

12 - a.s.o. - a.s.o.

11 - Lost Girls - Selvutsletter

10 - Oneohtrix Point Never - Again

el territorio de un tiempo sin medidas donde el pasado que no sucedió se encuentra con un futuro que nunca llega y que da como resultado la linea temporal en la que habitamos, llena de errores que se convierten en esquemas, en ejemplos y posteriormente en emblemas de un momento. Lopatin lo ha hecho desde sus días en Games, y lo ha continuado explorando y explotando para llegar a un décimo material que se siente igualmente abstracto y surrealista que aterrizado y molecular, una amalgama mutante punzocortante con icebergs que aterrizan en tierras calientes, momentáneamente creando océanos de nubes que se evaporan entre arena, melodías que llenan de belleza pequeños bunkers grisáceos de la posguerra, destruídos y oxidados por el tiempo, pero que ven nacer nuevos brotes de vegetación, la única perseverancia existe en el abandono y en la soledad absoluta.

“Again” encuentra así múltiples personalidades de su creador, como un dios benevolente que decide juntar a sus vástagos para narrar de una manera superior y múltiple las escenografías más angulares de la música electrónica que deconstruye el pop pulsante, pero que igual deja que surjan entre las grietas las influencias de la música experimental batallando contra lo que significa la aceptación. Es de alguna forma el plano para mucha música del futuro, que al ser redescubierto brindará toda una generación de creadores, -o tal vez no-, y que de manera circular también ofrece una narrativa biográfica al trabajo de alguien que navega entre la producción de las altas esferas y su apasionante acercamiento a lo disímil, un pequeño universo donde colapsan soles y absorben planetas que contienen enormes pensamientos, habitantes, sonidos eternos que permanecen como un eco en el vacío. 

9 - Baxter Dury - I Thought I Was Better Than You

Baxter posee la elegancia de una navaja automática heredada por su padre pero perfeccionada por una generación maldita de crooners. Él mismo lo deja claro haciendo una fina analogía en el primer track de este material, hilando Citizen Kane y la genealogía de Kubla Khan, -que se menciona en la película-, como si fueran una maldición, y posteriormente aclarando que por más que digan que es una versión absurda y fuera de tono de Serge Gainsbourg, él quisiera ser Frank Ocean.

La lírica de los Dury sin embargo, persiste gracias a una inteligencia casi molesta que demuestra que pudieron ser poetas, pero son demasiado elegantes para eso (y al mismo tiempo callejeros como las ratas) y si no fuera porque Baxter es profundamente melancólico, no tendría el encanto natural que se refleja en sus emocionales baladas de post funk spoken word. Cosa que lo aparta de su padre.

La cualidad, probablemente más fuerte sin embargo, es el sentido del humor que nuestro protagonista ha perfeccionado con el tiempo, desde aquellos años en los que parecía ir en contra de todo lo que significaba ser hijo de Ian Dury y evocaba, -o trataba más bien de-, ser una estrella del indie de principios del nuevo milenio. Ahora, es más bien una especie de viejo apostador, que se mantiene de anfetaminas y martinis, y así se siente correcto.

“Pensé que era mejor que tú” en la superficie parece un reclamo hacia el padre, una reflexión del pasado, pero también un intento escapista de la carga autoimpuesta de los errores que cada uno se ha ganado a pulso. Eso sí, con un ritmo exquisito y lineas de bajo que Rick James en opiáceos habría soñado.

8 - Squid - O Monolith

A pesar de las probables ridículas implicaciones de una etiqueta como post Brexit, algo de verdad radica en las posiciones temporales específicas y geográficas de un movimiento artístico en particular. El tiempo como máximo ecualizador de las siempre mal llamadas escenas, -quiero decir más bien movidas-, se encarga de aclarar por qué algo tan absurdo como llamarle punk a un estilo de rock mas bien tradicional en la estructura, pero cambiante en la ejecución, tendría relevancia e importancia.

Entonces, en el mundo del post, donde todo es y está después de algo, y nada es puramente nuevo, lo más referencial en cantidad puede sentirse de alguna forma fresco ¿es acaso la homogeneidad el enemigo natural de la música de guitarras en los tiempos de los sobados y sobrevalorados Arctic Monkeys? Yo diría que sí.

Squid, de todos los proyectos que entran en esa misma bolsa revoloteada del llamado post Brexit, es la banda más auténtica y menos complaciente. Son hijos espirituales sí, de un Robert Wyatt, pero también conocen las ventajas de la síntesis electrónica vía Edgar Froese, y cuando quieren pueden robar de los Talking Heads más frenéticos, esos a los que Eno dio forma en Remain In Light. También saben usurpar los colores de un Oingo Boingo cuando se lo proponen, pero cuando no, pueden desechar absolutamente todas esas referencias y crear agujeros temporales que coquetean con el progresivo (menos las partes aburridas), o evocar la psicodelia de los krautrockers más de avanzada, y tal vez sean de hecho los únicos en el mundo que lo logran de manera natural.

7 - James Holden - Imagine This Is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities

A veces cierro los ojos y pienso en cielos que he visto, y a esos cielos le agrego colores, formas y posteriormente sonidos. A esos sonidos les agrego palabras o emociones que no necesariamente son reales, son abstractas y muchas veces llenas de más emociones que se mezclan como el aceite en un charco después de la lluvia, hermosas y contaminadas, brillantes y metálicas en un pavimento sucio y negro que parece casi juguetón, como un arcoíris venido a menos y que sueña con volver a cruzar el cielo en un día de verano. También a veces todo eso se convierte en un recuerdo de la infancia, que después de repetirlo por unos cuantos años, se confunde con lo que viví y lo que imaginé y me da una especie de tranquilidad equiparable al olor inidentificable de una presencia del pasado, como de un amor efímero o una mirada traslúcida. 

Hace algunos años conocí a James Holden, platicamos durante unos minutos. No recuerdo las cosas que me dijo. 

6 - Water from Your Eyes - Everyone's Crushed

Las particularidades de lo disímil, atonal y en pocas palabras raro, siempre han funcionado como un impulso para la evolución. Hoy en día sin embargo, es raro encontrar algo que entre en el reino de lo raro de forma natural o de manera auténtica, sin trata de impresionar, sino simplemente como una muestra real de liberación, como esa necesidad de querer decir algo, no de echarlo al ruedo esperando que gane un premio, sino como un espíritu que puede merodear diferentes locaciones y traspasar las paredes sin querer ser notado, pero que no puede pasar desapercibido.

WFYE ha sido ese espíritu en un mundo de muestreo, pose, pre-saves y demás prácticas que odio con toda mi alma en el mercadeo musical de estos días, que trata de hacer de las cosas algo tendencioso y que busca validación a través de las maquinarias y bla bla bla… esa historia también ya nos la sabemos. Esta es música que va contra las probabilidades, contra las fórmulas, y que poco le importa ser consumida. Resume una historia donde caben bandas de electrónica experimental, y también Deerhoof o Battles, y al mismo tiempo se ayuda de sampleos dignos de los primeros sintetizadores digitales de los noventa. El trabajo de guitarras es ejemplar, y puede recordar a los mejores momentos del más cuadriculado no wave, pero también hay momentos de extraña e inclasificable belleza, cosa que incluso la misma banda no puede describir o etiquetar, y eso siempre será una buena señal.

5 - Paris Texas - MID AIR

Pasé unos cuantos años alejado del rap por hastío. Vi un género que en un momento de hartazgo con la música de guitarras me pareció lo más fresco, convertirse en lo más genérico, en el tipo de música que escuchaba la gente que consideraba más común, todos aquellos que representaban lo que yo quería pelear. Vi a las peores mentes de mi generación cantar a Biggie y Tupac, hablar de Kanye y Kendrick, poner en sus fiestas a Big L, Outkast y NWA, vi asimilación, el enemigo se había apropiado de algo que en el pasado me había salvado, y no me gustó para nada. 

Luego el rap se empezó a ramificar una vez más y volvió esa parte dura, oscura, melancólica y un poco más compleja con la que sí conectaba, y de todos esos que no están en el lado ganador con los Tylers y los Drakes (dios nos libre) salieron Paris, Texas, que poco importa si son fans de Wim Wenders, pero que definitivamente se nota que sí y eso ya es un punto a su favor. La consecuencia por supuesto puede remitirse a algunos alt rappers de las ultimas dos décadas e incluso si nos apuramos, a colectivos más contemporáneos donde al igual que aquí, juegan muchos factores que nada tiene que ver musicalmente con el rap, como el rock, el pop (la rola que lleva por título “Lana Del Rey”) o la música electrónica e industrial (“BULLET MAN” que también se siente como un homenaje lateral a Shinya Tsukamoto), no voy a nombrar nombres eso sí. Este es uno de los álbumes de rap que más me emocionó en 2023 y me parece un excelente termómetro de lo que viene para el futuro, quiero creerlo, y si no, mientras tanto tenemos uno de los mejores trabajos en el hip hop de los nuevos años veinte. 

4 - Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World

Yo tuve un sueño, y en ese sueño Yo La Tengo eran más influyentes que Sonic Youth. Es un sueño sin sentido porque a quién le importa eso, no hay necesidad de comparar ambas (y grandiosas) bandas, pero como muchos sueños reside en un deseo primario que tiene que ver con la fantasía de ver a una de los proyectos más interesantes de la historia ser tratados con justicia. En mi mundo ideal Yo La está lidereando festivales alrededor del mundo y todas las bandas mediocres que no me gustan, se rinden ante su grandeza, aceptando por fin que un track hipnótico de doce minutos vale más que sus baladillas edulcoradas de rocksito desgastado. 

En dicha fantasía también, este disco, el número diecisiete en su discografía, es tan importante para el mundo como lo es para mí y aprecian con emoción la autenticidad de este trío y su inalcanzable energía. Viva Yo La Tengo, y muerte a todas las bandas que no me gustan.

3 - John Cale - MERCY

En el mundo no existe la justicia, porque si existiera todos estarían hablando de este disco. Valoraríamos como un fenómeno de la naturaleza que a su edad y después de tantas vicisitudes, John Cale haga un trabajo como este, un ejercicio de belleza absoluta que no pide prestado del pasado y que más bien pinta un panorama del presente como casi ningún artista o músico joven lo hace. Por supuesto que ocho décadas en este planeta le han enseñado varias cosas a uno de los originales, a una de las mentes más influyentes del rock y la música experimental, al responsable de enseñarle el ruido a Lou Reed y de traducir el minimalismo de La Monte Young y Riley a los rockers, pero como decía esto no se trata sobre el pasado.

Cale, juntó a la gente más importante de la música experimental de esta generación y lanzó uno de los discos más crípticos y hermosos del año, al cual el estatus de rock le queda más que corto, y que si bien también puede hacernos pensar en su trabajo con Eno y con Nico, se siente también como una pieza independiente, nueva y ciertamente fresca a pesar de toda la carga histórica que involucra a su autor. John Cale le sobrevivió prácticamente a toda la Velvet Underground, a varios de sus discípulos y a cientos de otros músicos de su generación y las que le han seguido, es uno de los maestros y de los inventores de la música de guitarras, es prácticamente un gurú del ruido y a la vez un artesano de la melodía, y este disco es una proeza, un logro y un regalo para la humanidad y todos aquellos que amamos la música.

2 - JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES

¿has visto a alguien hacer algo que te parece fácil y luego intentarlo y darte cuenta que no sólo no es fácil sino que todo lo contrario es sumamente difícil y probablemente no lo puedas hacer nunca como ver a un atleta de alto rendimiento cruzar en segundos kilométricos pedazos de violencia con una mirada fría y una mente enfocadísima que sólo tiene como objetivo el romper los límites de la realidad como si se tratara de una telaraña que por un momento contuvo contra las leyes de la física objetos animales o conceptos metafísicos abstractos o simples y que más allá de ser o no tangibles reúnen de forma concreta una enorme cantidad de información que por separado es imposible descifrar y que en conjunto es casi igual de difícil de entender pero como está encimada de una manera ordenada pero caótica la entiendes como si se tratara de un cuadro de Jackson Pollock traducido no al jazz sino al lenguaje del internet con todo y memes y música de comerciales y hip hop de los dosmil y sampleos de boy bands y música extrañísima casi como si fuera un concurso de quién puede hacer más rara la vida y más rara la música y más rara la realidad aunque la realidad siempre será más rara que cualquier canción de JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown?

1 - André 3000 - New Blue Sun

Aunque no catalogado como tal por André 3000, “New Blue Sun” es esencialmente un disco de ambient inherentemente ligado a la belleza de lo cotidiano y rastreando cierta energía que históricamente ha sido impulsada por la figura más grande del género: Brian Eno, nombre que no podemos olvidar ni obviar en este tipo de esfuerzos sonoros, musicales o exploratorios del universo del aire siendo movido por la fuerza de la acción.

Sin embargo, ya en lo práctico, la primera persona a la que se puede referir inmediatamente al escuchar este material no es per se Eno, sino uno de sus colaboradores y, por propio mérito, uno de los grandes emblemas de la música experimental, -si es que podemos hablar de emblemas en este circuito-, Jon Hassell. Y es justo en este punto en lo que hay que hacer hincapié. Como movida artística el ambient y sus variantes llevan más de cincuenta años siendo explorados de diferentes maneras y formas que nacen de una tradición que también por sus propios méritos han generado discusión y teorización durante mucho tiempo gracias a su discreta evolución desde la llamada ola de los minimalistas, término que cada uno de los involucrados desprecia y que debería se analizado por separado. 

Sin embargo en función del contexto, vale la pena hacer una linea temporal que tiene también que ver con la opinión pública y la figura del músico como un ente creador casi divino, mejor, especial y distinto al resto de los humanos. Esto por su puesto se ha de demostrado en numerosas ocasiones ser una falacia completa. Pero tal como sucede en un conjunto de sonidos que crean cierta armonía, no podemos separar algunos de los elementos que forma al artista y su contexto. No hace falta mencionar o ser específicos al hablar de André 3000 como uno de lo zeniths del rap y de la música afroamericana contemporánea, sin embargo, sí es necesario tener en cuenta la función de su papel como estrella de pop en la incursión que tienen para la música experimental y específicamente para los terrenos del ambient.

He aquí un dilema que en otra ocasiones ha derramado sangre dentro de los círculos musicales, la figura del otrora rockstar o emblema de la música pop que en el hartazgo de la agitada vida de los reflectores decide buscar paz en espacios que los extraños y olvidados han habitado por décadas, esos cómodos lugares de nicho semi desaparecidos que sólo aquellos obsesivos y meticulosos han querido habitar en relativa oscuridad, y que casi con una devoción religiosa han hecho crecer poco a poco, como si de una pequeña comunidad de monjes alejados del mundo metamoderno se tratara. Ahí los que incluso son famosos, no lo son, los Basinskis, los Tim Heckers, no son un tercio de lo significativos que una Taylor Swift o un Harry Styles son para la cultura popular, o en todo caso el tan cacheteado mainstream. Y ahí en medio de esos ganadores y perdedores de los números y el streaming reside justamente la calamidad por la que un personaje como André 3000 llama tanto la atención. 

Por una parte todos aquellos que deseaban verle regresar como un olvidado campeón que desde el Olimpo vuelve para darle vida a un género que se siente por momentos cansado después de la absorción a la normalidad, y por otro lado todos los que optimistamente abrazan lo que un artista en su madurez tiene que ofrecer sin relación a su pasado y sus glorias de antaño. Ambos puntos son válidos y al mismo tiempo cancelables ¿quién tiene el derecho de juzgar el trabajo de un artista? ¿los fanáticos que han seguido la carrera al pie de los beats? ¿aquellos que desconocen o no sienten ningún apego emocional al pasado? Incluso podríamos decir que ninguno de los dos.

Parte importante del ambient reside en que desde su concepción como movimiento ideológico, no musical, sino conceptual, Eno lo describió como una serie de piezas pensadas para acompañar y no para capturar la atención total, ahí por supuesto podemos encontrar diferentes ramificaciones del oficio y ver sus distintas intenciones dependiendo de lo que el respectivo creador busque, algunos por supuesto, lo ven desde esa particularidad casi funcionalista del Music For Airports, y otros lo ven desde la casi religiosidad mántrica del jazz espiritual, todo por su puesto depende de qué tanto nos tomemos en serio de qué va cada cual, y al final en cualquiera de las situaciones el escucha es el que decide cómo acercarse a estos diferentes materiales, en resumen todo depende.

En ese sentido podemos ver desde diferentes perspectivas el “New Blue Sun”, una lúdica y una más abstracta y seria. Habrá quienes en la decepción por supuesto, no encuentren valor en ninguna de la dos y su juicio más temprano y a medias válido, será calificar de aburrido e incluso molesto o autocomplaciente y snob este material, en ese caso no hay mucho que decir al respecto, más que invitar a aquellos a que revisen el material ya existente de Outkast.

La intromisión entonces de una figura tan disruptiva para el núcleo ideológico anti star system del ambient y similares, como lo es la de André, permite diferentes situaciones, una es la asimilación de esta música hacia un público que tal vez por primera vez pueda disfrutar la serenidad y lento desarrollo de este tipo de música experimental, y por otro lado, el cómo esto se va a infiltrar en una nueva generación de músicos que permearán estos sonidos y conceptos en la música pop, el rap, electrónica y demás que están en función de la popularidad.

La búsqueda aquí es clara, no se trata sobre la nostalgia del personaje, la remembranza o el ego de un monstruo del rap, no es sobre quien es The GOAT, ni si André tiene que demostrar nada, es simple, pura y hermosa liberta creativa y en ese terreno, ya es un material exitoso. Si los números no le favorecen, el tiempo lo hará, porque esta música esta hecha para perdurar las modas, para trascender el espacio y el tiempo, para ponerse a lado de los discos de Laraaji, de Hassell, de Eno e incluso de los Coltrane. 

[trivialbob]

The more I fly with an airline, the nicer they are to me. I get upgrades and free drinks.

The longer I’m with my cable company the worse they are to me. The price creeps up a few dollars every few months. Oh, I’ll deal with this some other time, but I’m not going to worry about $2 right now. It’s the frog in the pot of water on the stove business model.

Service went out last night. I tried the usual online help/chat.

Q: How many cable boxes are not working?

A: Two

Q: Select which one it is.

There were other similar dead ends. Finally I had enough of “Please unplug your set for 30 seconds” and called a human. Nowadays calling a person isn’t necessarily less aggravating for me than trying to “chat” with a computer, but it couldn’t be worse than the chat.

Many years ago, with AOL dial-up (eeeeeee-awwwwww, boing, boing) service, I had some problem. Via my landline I reached a techie guy in the US who was genuinely eager to help. Maybe it was his first week on the job.

When he said, “Oh Dude! I see the problem! Here’s what we gotta do...” His demeanor made me smile. Some people HATE being called dear, sweetie, or dude, but I sort of like that informality in some settings. A grocery store cashier recently said to me, in a bit of a Southern drawl, “Hey hun, you dropped your card.” It cracked me up.

Today’s help desk person was nice. It’s frustrating to be asked to re-do all the steps I tried on my own. They have a script to stick to; I get it. I can also picture this iknstruction in the script: “Be sure to thank the customer at least every 2 minutes for being one of our valued customers.”

From some research I did online for my particular error code, away from the cable company’s web site, I suspected a billing snafu, despite my last payment posting on time and no new payment being due yet. One brief error message on my TV even indicated something about billing, but I wasn’t able to recreate that message.

I asked the person about billing. “No, no. You’re account is in good standing. And thank you for being one of our valued customers, Mr. Bob.”

Then we waited on the fifth or sixth reboot. She also indicated she was starting the process to “escalate the ticket,” because nothing was solving the problem.

She must have sensed a little frustration on my part, though I was very polite the whole time. She ended up changing something that cut my bill a little and even bumped up internet speed (despite my current speed being awesome already).

I had to acknowledge the billing change via a text she sent me. The moment I clicked Yes my service was immediately restored. I said she no longer need to escalate the ticket to a higher level. She seemed happy the problem was resolved. I bet she wondered what happened too.

It’s not a free drink and more legroom. I appreciate the discount. Except it started with a problem, not because I’ve spent a lot of money there over the years.

[embarzaldrizes]

introduction:

rystas se jiōrna! ñuha brōzi strix issa. i'm 35+ years old, married and work full time in retail. i'm also a proud cat mom! i've been been roleplaying online for 20+ years (started in ye ol' aol chatrooms) and i'm familiar with many different fandoms.

hobbies and special interests include: playing video games, reading fantasy-based fiction, writing, animal trivia (birds and cats, especially), binge-watching tv shows and being a homebody. seriously, i literally go to work, come back home and sleep. rinse, lather, repeat.

i struggle with depression, generalized anxiety and adhd. these conditions can make it difficult for me to be on here sometimes. please let me know if i'm draining you. ♥

high valyrian translation: "hello and welcome! my name is strix."

guidelines:

this blog is meant for adult eyes only. minors, please do not interact! due to the nature and content of the fandom i participate in there will be dark and dead dove subject matter posted with a fair amount of frequency. i will try to tag things appropriately but please remember: you are responsible for what you consume.

that being said: i won't tolerate blog-policing or pearl-clutching. if you need something tagged: please tell me so! i do try to be as accommodating as i can be with my followers. also: mun ≠ character. i definitely don't condone inc3st, s3xual assault, etc. in real life.

communication (and respect) is a two-way street. i do prefer to talk fequently with my writing partners. it helps to gauge interest and make sure all involved are happy with the plots we've chosen to write together. plus, i enjoy cultivating friendships with those i write with and it's fun to scream at each other about our muses.

don't badger me for replies. (by badger, i mean constantly messaging me multiple times a day about responding.) I don't mind the occasional reminder as we all know tumblr's notification system is a joke.

also: if you are no longer interested in continuing a thread or even writing together in general, please tell me. i'd rather know than continue to anticipate responses that will never come.

i don't do follow-for-follow. not particularly interested in follower count either. quality > quantity. if i follow you, i'm interested in writing with you.

interactions, memes, etc.: my suggestion is to just dm me or start out sending in memes. memes do not expire on this blog! but please understand that i won't be able to respond to all of them.

shipping! i'm a slut for shipping, okay? don't hesitate to broach this subject with me. also? i love pre-established ones. 👀 just come talk to me and we can work out the deets.

no god-modding or meta-gaming! 'nuff said.

i'm not terribly picky about the length of replies or grammical errors. just give me something to respond to and we're gucci!

to show me that you actually read through this thing completely, please do so by liking this post. thank you!

[canichangemyblogname]

Literally crying in a dark room at work because I’m hard of hearing and AT&T’s voicemail portal no longer plays voicemails in the browser without the error “Unexpected Authentication Challenge: Access Manager WebSEAL received an unexpected authentication challenge from a junction Web server,” and when I try to forward our voicemails to email, a feature which also provides a transcript, they never hit my inbox. I was told this is because AT&T’s portal— despite operating in a browser— requires QuickTime, which Apple no longer updates & supports.

Although, it makes zero sense to me why QuickTime would affect the ability to forward emails to an office Gmail account. Especially given that I can forward them to a personal AOL account, which is not a sustainable strategy given that these are work voicemails, not personal ones. That information should not be sitting in a personal inbox. So, I went to create an AOL for the office. Guess what? Requires a mobile number to create. We only have a landline.

So my only option— because I cannot get transcripts— is to dial *98 and listen to every voicemail in succession. “Well, yeah, why don’t you just do that, dumb ass?” I cannot make out the recordings. I have no idea what they’re saying, and I have no ability to pause, play back, rewind, or turn up the volume like I did in the browser.

So, yeah, I’m crying in the dark because I am so frustrated and this shouldn’t be this hard. My job shouldn’t be made more difficult because a bunch of companies have made their services worse.

[swimsauce]

Inscryption wordplay through names, and the mystery of P03's name

In Inscryption, the scrybes names are usually just nameified words to describe their area of expertise/what they are.

Grimora, wordplay on "grim", her field being death/mourning, + the "ora" to make it sound name-like. Maybe possibly a reference to grimm as in grimms fairytales? She does have an older theme/aesthetic with a quill for her main item, writing down the lives and tales of the dead.

Magnificus, play on "magnificent". Also alluding to magi/magic, maybe even the word magnus, all relating to the same root "magus" which means great and evolved to be used as a root word for magical words/terms.

Leshy is a bit different, as his name is literally just that of a forest creature in Russian/Slavic mythology. A leshy/i is a forest spirit/deity that lives and hunts forests. Apparently they also like the gamble and play cards too lol. There is also the noun "lesh", which means wool/hair (coming from the an old proto-albanian word for "foliage"), with a "y" added to nameify it. (a stretch I know but its neat)

P03 is the only one I don't know what his name is a play on. So I have a few of theories.

-It could be word jumble that vaguely relates to 3 letter computer/ tech related terms. Programs and parts with names like DOS, RAM,etc, or tech companies names like IBM or AOL. Even fictional computers like HAL follow this 3 letter naming convention, but none of these words relate too similarly to his name. The only possible 3 letter word that is similar is PSU (power supply unit), which could be in relation to his game mechanic, but it seems like a stretch.

- I also found for cars certain mechanical errors have similar name schemes. A P0300 error code means a misfiring cylinder, a P0030 means an oxygen sensor is malfunctioning. Maybe his name is an error code? We know that the old data seems to have corrupted the scribes, and P03 in some ways seems the worst off of the scrybes. He has locked his first personality away , as g0lly seems to be his original state , with his theme music reverting back to normal when he is playing as her. Even his appearance seems unkempt, with talk sprites body being dirty and scratched, and his screen is always twitching. So maybe his name is a mechanical error? However, if it is a mechanical in-world error, it doesn't really seem to effect him. He seems to have taken over the auto fill deck feature in ACTII (or maybe he is watching. Either way, he is monitoring this function) He can move to other scrybes islands and temporarily get rid of other scrybes when he wants (like with Magnificus). So it seems even all the way back in the "default" game of Act II he has a control over the game mechanics more than other scrybes. But if he does have more control over the game I don't understand why he would keep a mechanical error code for his name. It may also be a computer error code (like a 404) but those usually don't have letters in them. So dead end

- It does also look kind of like the name Poe but spelled in L33T (which is used in his cards), but the name doesn't seem to relate to him at all. The only thing I can think of is Edger Allen Poe, known for his dark and elaborate poetry. Ironic considering P03 is more concerned with game mechanics than story, to the point of annoyance. Maybe its an ironic jab, as it does seem through the Uberbots and his rant at the end of Act III that hints maybe deep down he wants to enjoy the stories he writes, but he's just to focused on the great transcendence to care. Anyways, probably not Poe then.

-The only possible lead may be a PoE, a "Power over Ethernet". It's an electrical connection which carries both internet and electrical power to a device. It relate to his awareness of the internet, as well as call to his motivation to escape to the online world.

Idk if I'm missing an obvious detail or if I'm overthinking this, but TLDR, in the base game P03's name does not fit with the other Scrybes in that it doesn't seem to allude to anything about his theme/personality. If anyone has some other ideas about this I'd love to know.

[ineffablefool]

It's slightly dithered because I originally saved it as a gif, but here, have this thing I somehow can still find: a screenshot of the entirety of my (family's, but nobody else used it much) computer desktop in October 1999.

My screen resolution was 640x480. You could try to set it to 800x600, but if you did, the monitor freaked out and displayed it squished to the middle ~half of the screen horizontally but also stretched vertically so you couldn't see the top portion or the taskbar at the bottom. The computer couldn't handle the latest version of AOL; I had to step back a version, using one of the many free discs that everyone used to get in the mail all the time and that I'd been collecting for funsies. It took literally 20 minutes to boot up (I timed it once or twice and it was like,,, 21 and 8 seconds or whatever but 20 is close enough), and that was assuming someone was there to hit a button to dismiss each of the four identical bluescreen errors it would throw at the same point every time. Uphill! Both ways!

I saved this screenshot because I thought AOL's inability to grammar-check was humorous.