First, I am not linking to a video of the Cher song.
OK, I totally am. Here you go:
But really, if I could travel back in time for only one day and not actually change history, just noodle around and take in the sights, and I was restricted to only visiting years during which I was alive (yes, this is an oddly specific set of restrictions), I’d go back to July 3 (nice weather) in the following years:
1973: I was 9 years old, so I actually remember a fair bit about 1973, but it would be groovy to walk around my hometown of Duncan as it was back then, when the world felt simpler and smaller (but I was also only 9 years old). Seeing it with adult eyes would be entertaining, if only for the fashions.
1993: 20 years later and I’m now 29 years old. Why this year? Because Vancouver has changed so much in the past 30 years. 1993 was pre-internet, pre-Windows 95 and yet still feels “modern” in my memory. I’d like to see how that would hold up to the reality. Plus, I could visit all those old computer stores I wrote about recently, and relive the last hurrah of computers that weren’t just IBM compatibles or Macs. And secretly invest in Apple stock. My runner-up choice would be summer 1986 or 1987 when Vancouver was the big new city, and I was taking my first initial steps into coming out to others and being part of a larger community. So much of what was back then is gone now. Actually, maybe I wouldn’t want to go back to those years, it would probably just make me sad. Although I’d totally take the time to check out Expo 86, which I really didn’t get to see much of when I worked there.
With the forecast calling for sun tomorrow (weird, I know) and expecting to spend some hours in said sun, I have purchased sunscreen because as I’ve learned, if you spend any time in the sun, it will burn you. This year, I’m ready! As long as I remember to put it on. Which I will. For sure.
Also, speaking of summer, they have already filled the swimming pool at Hume Park, even though the pool normally doesn’t open until late June. It’s not actually open now, but it looks like it could be. Maybe it’s a test run. Or maybe a family of adorable otters will live there until late June.
I’m not sure what the tent is for, but it looks somewhat festive.
An article on the alleged new Pride Apple Watch band and face has comments disabled (see screenshot below).
The only plausible reason I can think of (as they allow political discussions on the Macrumors forums) is the editors don’t trust their readers to not be bigoted trash.
From the December 1997 issue of The Computer Paper, a free publication that was all over the place in Metro Vancouver way back when:
To me, a rotary phone is ancient tech, but I remember using them. And now we’ll have people who will remember ancient tech as having to buy software to get on the internet.
Actually, I guess that still includes me, because I actually did this myself (I went with iStar).
(BTW, netcom.ca is a broken link now, and www.netcom.ca has an expired certificate that has nothing to do with what the site was back in the days of parachute pants.)
While marvelling over having to install a browser just to get on the internet and then doing so at a maximum speed of 56 Kbps (I only ever have a 33.3 Kbps modem before going to broadband), I am mostly struck by the list of retailers at the bottom of the ad where this software (remember when software came in boxes?) was sold and how most are long-vanished, proof that even tech is not immune to getting steamrolled through evolving times:
Future Shop: Bought out by Best Buy, shuttered for good in 2015
RadioShack: Effectively killed in 2005 when it became The Source and turned into a kind of Best Buy Mini (it’s now owned by Bell, boo hiss)
London Drugs: Still going, but computers were only ever part of their business. Fun Fact: I worked in the computer department of LD from 1999 to 2001. I was there for the launch of Windows Me. We got free copies. I ran it on my home PC for two weeks before going back to Windows 2000.
Staples: Still going, will probably scrape by as long as the paperless office remains a fantasy
Doppler Computer Superstores: I had to check to see if they actually had more than one store (the one I know was in Vancouver, across from a Wendy’s that’s still there) and I think this was the only one. The building is long gone now, but you can see it in this reddit post. I bought my first two CD-ROM games there: Myst (of course) and a disc of shovelware games. I remember the spinning racks of shovelware. You might find a low budget gem if you looked long enough, but it was mostly junk. Still, CD-ROMs seemed very futuristic in the early 90s.
Computer City Canada: There were seven Computer city stores in Canada and more than 60 in the U.S. before the entire chain went kaput in 1998. Fun Fact: I worked at the brand-new Coquitlam store during the launch of Windows 95, which was a very big deal at the time. We had two Compaq PCs set up running Win95, one with 4 MB of ram and the other with 8 MB, to show how much better Windows 95 was with more memory (some things never change).
And while I’m waxing nostalgic, here are some of the other stores I used to haunt regularly when shopping for computers or software that are all gone now, and mostly forgotten:
CompuCentre: These were in malls, and they quietly vanished without me even noticing. I’d buy the odd game here.
ATIC Computers: Still around, actually! I bought multiple PCs from them in the 90s. They were cheap, which was the main appeal, as I was poor.
Wizard Computers: I mainly went here to get software for my Atari ST. I remember buying Dungeon Master at this store, which was on Fraser Street.
MicroConcept Systems: Like ATIC, but not as cheap. Ran huge, multipage ads, had a business division, then shuttered.
NCIX: Ho ho, the store that spawned Linus Tech Tips and is probably most famous (or infamous) for going bankrupt, then auctioning off a bunch of equipment that still contained user data. Oops. I bought stuff here for years and remember the early days of Linus making videos for them.
Egghead Software: I bought OS/2 at the Broadway store. I barely remember running OS/2. I was a Windows guy, ultimately.
Software Superstore: True to its name, this massive store in Richmond sold software for every major platform (this was when there were more than two). My biggest single-day haul was picking up both Populous and SimCity for my Amiga 500. At the time, this would have cost $100 and would be apparently about $180 today. Considering some games are now costing $90, it seems both weird that prices have pretty much stayed the same and also that $90 feels like way too much to pay for a single computer game (thank you, Steam sales and indie devs!)
On one hand, I miss picking up software from these stores, because there is something about getting something tangible, something physical, that can’t be replicated with downloads. But there’s no denying the way software works now is way better. Still, it would be fun to zap back in time for a day and be able to check all these places out circa 1992.
Yesterday’s site shenanigans have now been resolved, and it made me realize I had way too many unused plugins hanging around, doing nothing except potentially causing problems (which one did, yesterday).
I’ve deleted a bunch and will delete a bunch more before I’m done. This will also help with the site redesign, so I will later claim it was part of the plan all along, somehow.
The weather was nicer in January than it is now. And it snowed in January. April showers may bring May flowers, but no one will see them BECAUSE THEY WILL BE UNDER 2 METERS OF WATER.
And they’re still teasing this in the forecast:
Oh, I’ll be back in eight days to verify that it was actually 4C with snow showers on the 28th, believe me!
I had some too-ripe-to-eat bananas and in times past, I always swore I’d use them to make banana bread.
After vowing this approximately a million times, that day finally arrived today.
Being 2023, I did what any person with a connection to the web would do: I asked an AI chat program to give me a banana bread recipe. It did, but it was for a pan larger than the one we have, so I asked it to modify the recipe to account for this. It did.
The bread is now baking in the oven. Will it be good? Will it be a bananatastrophe?
Pics and the verdict later today!
In the meantime, enjoy this dancing banana:
UPDATE #1: The banana bread is baked! A photo:
It looks fine, but a little runty. How will it taste? The taste test is coming soon, in the exciting banana-flavoured UPDATE #2.
UPDATE #2: Despite being runty, AI banana bread was declared a yummy success. We’ll double the recipe next time and see what happens.
The link below was stolen from Austin Kleon’s Friday newsletter (if you are in any way a creative type or just a voracious reader or lover of art, I highly recommend subscribing):
Guitarist Peter Buck nails the time span: “If, on the way to the first day of recording Murmur, we had chanced upon a radio rebroadcast from exactly forty years previous, we would have heard speeches from Franklin Roosevelt, news about World War II, and the swinging sounds of Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller. Forty years is a looong time.”
Murmur is a rare(ish) example of a great debut album1On reflection, I realize a number of bands have great debut albums, then spend the rest of their career trying to live up to them, usually with mixed success, something that was not the case with R.E.M. . These guys were in their early 20s and delivered a terrific mix of songs on their first try, making Murmur a genuine classic (I still rank it as #3 on my list of R.E.M. albums). I came to R.E.M. late, with their fifth album, Document, after hearing “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)”–a song I later came to realize wasn’t really typical of them. Like any good-but-late fan, I went back and got their previous (four) albums, in chronological order because I’m a purist or something, so Murmur was the second R.E.M. album I dove into, and I liked it even more than Document. I was hooked!
And yes, I will be listening to Murmur today. It’ll make me feel old, sure, but more than that, it will make me feel good.
UPDATE: I listened to Murmur on my 5K run. The run ended partway through “Sitting Still” so I listened to the rest on the walk home. The album is so clean and uncluttered, shifting from ballad to bouncy and back without missing a beat (say that three times fast).
I was 18 when this album came out (and did not know R.E.M. even existed at the time). Obligatory list of things I could and could not do when Murmur debuted in 1983:
I could:
Legally drive
Vote in federal elections
Fight in wars and stuff
Tell people I was an adult
I could not:
Vote in provincial elections (you need to be 19)
Legally gamble (21)
Act like an adult. Come on, I was 18! I was a theatre student, on top of that.
