maybe the reason i have such a strong emotional response to 90s aesthetic, despite being too young to actually remember it, is because i want to recapture some of the bright optimism of that period instead of the mounting discontent of the 00s or the desperate, angry hopelessness of today

there are definitely things i like about 90s tech more than today's tech in some ways, but it's hard to parse if i would have felt the same way at the time or if it's just retrocomputing enthusiasm

culturally i missed a lot of pioneering work in tech and games and music (but also that's how the dotcom bubble happened so maybe that's a good thing too)

i dunno

i just want us to feel that brightness again, as a culture, someday. i don't want to keep feeling like i'm in an endless war with the worst people in the world over the right for me and my friends to exist

what even got me on this train of thought was thinking about... the music of sonic adventure, and then thinking about the whole aesthetic of the dreamcast. what is it about that console and the ones that came around and before it that makes me feel so faux-nostalgic?

it's... bright colors and spiraly doodly logos, it's gray matte plastic, it's weird little features like the controller with the thing in it. it's hard to articulate