Deirdre’s Musings

  I used to have a tradition for my birthday to watch James Cameron’s Titanic. Since I was born on the 80th anniversary of the Titanic colliding with a massive iceberg, it felt appropriate to me. For some reason, in my mid teens, I stopped this tradition. I know I went through a brief phase of resentment because it felt pushed onto me (my family always reminded me of the disaster on my birthday, after all)… but then in my early twenties I started to appreciate it again.  Being born on the 80th anniversary of the ocean liner colliding with the iceberg does help to keep me interested.  As a kid, my Father and I would go through every piece of literature on the disaster at the library and then relay new facts we’d learn. By the time I was eight, I had an idea of whom Captain Smith and Murdoch were. I was aware of Molly Brown being called “unsinkable Molly”, because of her track record as a passenger. Knowing that the ship herself is in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Ne...

  MySpace was a truly superior platform to Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/TikTok. Not only did it allow you to choose whatever aesthetic you wanted to reflect what kind of person you are, but you could also add in a playlist for your friends to get a feel for your musical tastes. Piczo deserves a mention because it was my personal domain for several years before it was shut down in 2012. I remember my Piczo page being dedicated to professing my love for Inuyasha (specifically the Shichinintai Arc), while “Anna Issho Datta no Ni” played in the background of my purple homepage. There was something satisfying about having my own little corner of the internet where I could splurge about my interests without having to interact with anyone. I’ll always remember checking out my friend’s pages and leaving a comment telling them that I love the vibe of their pages. Then, we’d talk about it either at school or via MSN messenger.  Come to think of it, I miss how colorful and vibrant old logo...

  I think it’s time we sit down and have a discussion about Zoosadism, and more specifically how it is allowed to be broadcasted on the same platform where terms such as “murder”/“suicide” are replace with “unalive”. To pander to advertiser’s sensibilities, of course. Apparently, advertisers are less offended by baby monkeys being tortured than by people saying “sexual assault” instead of “SA”. You can’t say “gun”, but you can post videos of baby rabbits being torn apart by snapping turtles.  There are entire YouTube channels which directly profit from filming live feeding videos; which is a form of Zoosadism, fyi. Just about any snake can be converted into a frozen feeder, so don’t give me any fucking excuses for you filming kittens being fed to your boas. I have zero patience for zoosadists and will not be hosting any comments excusing them.  Meanwhile, True Crime and Educational channels must jump through hoops to avoid being demonetized.  That’s due to YouTube ha...

Pic unrelated cause why not share a meme Believe it or not, numbers aren’t everything. Especially when it comes to how many followers you have on any big tech platform. While it may seem as though numbers are everything when it comes to social media personalities, it’s the content that they produce which matters. I’ve encountered many talented artists who had less than 1000 followers, partially because they do not post new content every often. Whenever they did post new content, it’s related to their creative works.  Same individuals don’t typically care about sheer numbers because they’d rather have engagement. Having a small, quiet online corner has its perks; the lack of pressure to post something every single day is one of them.There’s also the benefit of being able to be more mindful of what you post instead of posting every little thought you have onto a platform full of toxic people.  Which leads into my next point; the more eyes you have on you, the more critics you’ll...

 If there’s ever been a good argument for game preservation, it’s the number of MMO games that have been shut down over the years. There’s countless games that I’ve gotten invested in which ended up going offline either due to a studio wanting to phase it out in favor of a new title, or because the company was running deficits and could not justify keeping the live service going. Alicia Online has shown me that any beloved game can be at risk of becoming lost media. While it technically isn’t (all players have access to the game files themselves, technically), it runs the real risk of becoming lost media.  What if I told you that a good chunk of games that have been released since the late seventies have all but become lost to time? They became lost due to a few factors: 1. Limited time releases for physical copies. Meaning that only a finite amount of cartridges/CDs exist of the games; and even less than games that had two to four year sales cycles. 2. Hardware becoming outda...

  My brother sent me this chart, and it made me think about how many products are out there which demands subscriptions. I’ve seen coffee makers and printers demand customers to pay a monthly subscription, despite the fact that the customer owns the product. If you told me ten years ago that companies would force consumers to subscribe just to use their own fridge, I’d laugh in your face due to the absurdity of it.  Yet, here we are in 2024, living in a time where people drop $60k on a new vehicle, only to be forced to pay a subscription just so they can use the car. If it were legal to do so, companies would charge people a subscription just to use oxygen. They would charge us a subscription just to use the washroom if they could get away with it. They would charge us every month for every bodily function if laws permitted it, because they’ll do everything in their power to wring every dollar out of you.  Corporate greed is part of the reason why we cannot replace iPhone...

  On March 3rd of 2024, My Immortal by Tara Gilesbie turned 18. It continues to amuse and mystify users across social media platforms. Eighteen years have passed since its publication and we aren’t any closer to knowing what kind of person just wakes up one day and writes something like this. Come to think of it, who is Tara Gilesbie anyway? Was that even her real name, or an alias? Was this a genuine attempt at writing literature, or is this the product of an elaborate prank? This story has a funny way of creeping onto my radar every now and then. It’s given birth to so many inside jokes between my friends and I that it has a permanent place in my subconscious.  Here’s a few bangers from the story, just so you can get a feel for what I’m talking about: That’s just a small dose of what to expect if you’re going into the story blind. I had to pull a few choice lines because I needed to show how uniquely y2K the prose is. Or, as it is best known by- “L33t speak”. It used to be t...

  Please excuse the lower quality of the promotional art, most of these are wallpapers no longer available for download from official sources. Much like the game itself.  As you can tell from the beautiful artwork, a lot of effort went into the marketing campaign surrounding this game. It was pitched as an MMO magical horse racing game, and there was a lot of interest surrounding it in South Korea.  Not only was there beautiful artwork, but there was also a fast food tie-in paired with a celebrity endorsement of the game: At a glance, the game had a lot going for it. After all, having a great deal of marketing from big names and beloved fast food joints is great for brand awareness. Surely, this is the beginning of a beautiful IP which wins the hearts of players from all over the world.  Those photos were taken in March 2011, if my sources are correct. However, in February 2014, the game permanently closed its official server due to a lack of funds to keep it going....