Childhood McNugget: Counter-Strike

I was re-arranging old pictures on my old computer when I digged up these golden memories.

By the way, when you first buy a computer you should re-format it so that at least 50% of it is backup. For example on this old P4, there's 160 GB. I dedicated 100 GB to pictures and music and programs, and the other 60 is for Windows. I keep everything backed up like Office and drivers. That way when the computer gets laggy after a year, I reformat and re-install everything. I get a fast computer again, and don't have to worry about files being lost. Also, if there's a virus, no problem, just reformat.

Sadly my digital album stops after 2008-2009, when I realized pictures will always be on facebook.

Anyway, click any of the thumbnails for a larger picture, or open in new tab.

Counter Strike was the most revolutionary game in my lifetime. It was the first addicting online game for the non-nerds. I remember the popular jocks knew me for being one of the best at CS in my grade. It was easy enough to pick up, but difficult to master. Add in the fact that this game became popular before DSL meant that kids were going to PC Lans which defined the new arcade of the 2000s.

 Teamwork was essential too, it's pretty non-existent in console games now because there's only dumb kids blabbering on the mic.

I'm not sure if another game replaced CS as the online king, but at my high school it was pretty much nerd-status by 2004-2005. But COD 4 didn't come out until 2007, so I wonder what people were playing 2005-2007.

 we thought we looked so badass. picture is dated 4-13-2003

 

 it's like a sweatshop, but with CS instead of sewing machines

 

 I think aC was the last real clan I was in, with practices and scrimages. I'm Chingsta, Chris is Azn Sensation, and Joe is Fob Stick.

 

the TN clan, when we pretty much retired from competitive play after my 10th grade. Here I am with Jon and Linh. I honestly cannot ever remember playing with Tony ever. Did we Tony?

 

 Stacking with pistol, knife, and grenade

 

CS Source: guns look more realistic 

 

before he was good at SC, he was good at CS

CdMcNt: Some popular things from the 90s

A look at my childhood in the 90s as I understand it through popular culture and academia.

TL;DR:

 1) fashion: bright vibrant colors on the same clothes, guys tucking normal t-shirts into jeans, girls with super V swimsuits. Places with vibrant colors.

 2) words: dweeb, hunk

 3) things: California surfer "dudes", ninjas, dinosaurs

 4) news: ridiculous crime and pollution, anti-drug and save the earth programs

 5) sayings: "come on get with the times, it's the 90s"

 6) US shows off modern military technology

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 expanded explanations: I had these thoughts pop up due to finished Saved by the Bell on netflix. I also had a short convo with Lisa on the 90s. Anyway my examples go off several things, among them are my memories growing up and TV shows like Fresh Prince.

  1) It's weird seeing Zack Morris dress with colorful clothes. It's less weird with Will Smith because black people can wear whatever the heck they want and not look weird. For example only black men can pull off white suits. Of course that doesn't stop fob Asians from doing so, but meh. The V-swimsuits were cool, it makes women's legs look longer. A sidenote: many of the places in Rowland Heights were built in the late 80s or early 90s. I know because the 24 and the Taco Bell here look like the MAX from Saved by the Bell. It's got triangles and circles and colors like purple, yellow, green, red.

  2) some words were popular in the 90s, I only listed two. If you ask some high school kids what those words mean, they may never have heard it but can probably correctly guess what it means. It just fits phonetically. Dweeb is close to dork and hunk is close to hulk.
random sidenote: I remember from my linguistics class a lesson where most languages follow this: for words meaning "small" the words are small mouth vowels like (i): for example tiny and "ti" in Viet. For "big" words, the words use large mouth/guttural vowels like (u): huge and "bu". back to the main point, I would guess that some common words now that will not be common in ten years are "lame" and "owned". By the way, the "get owned bro" of the 80s was "you got moded dude"

  3) surfing culture was really popular. Saved by the Bell was based on a Malibu high school, California Dreams was pretty much all surfer culture. Ninjas were popular. Anyone remember the three ninjas series? The one about three white boys that use karate to stop bad guys. Then there was the Karate Kid, Power Rangers, and Mortal Kombat, etc. Dinosaurs were also popular, I've mentioned in a previous post the popularity of Jurassic Park and dino books due to fossil discoveries at the time. All kids knew at least five dinosaur species, some could go over ten. Want to know the best example of all three combined? Ninja Turtles. They were ninjas, duh. They were reptiles, so sort of like dinosaurs. And they talked with a California surfer accent! In NEW YORK.

  4) Crime was bad in the 90s. Detroit and South Central LA come to mind. This is purely academic for me, as I have no memory of the LA riots of the early 90s. I have no clue why crime was so bad, but I just hear older people say that the 90s were bad. But just from watching TV shows I could get a gist of how bad things were. You guys also definitely remember programs like DARE/STAR for anti-drugs and TV show PSAs right? Every 90s show had an anti-drug or anti-gun PSA. I think the whole purpose of GI Joe was to have the PSAs at the end. I also remember at least a couple times from 1st to 5th grade the teacher put a video on TV about recycling and doing things to cut down on pollution. And good things did happen! Environmental damage is alot less now than it was in the 90s, and the schoolchildren of the 90s are now the young adults pushing for a greener society.

  5) Jesse from Saved by the Bell, Hillary from Fresh Prince, and Laura from Family Matters have all at least said "come on it's the 90s" at least once. They were all referring to female empowerment, breaking the glass ceiling, and putting down stereotypes. I think that was the whole purpose of the show Living Single's intro song: "in this 90's kind of world, I'm glad I got my girls". Feminism still exists now, but not in popular culture. It's got it's up and downs. You had women's suffrage movement in the 20s, women going to work in the 40s, the sexual revolution in the 60s, and the popular culture movement of the 90s. Interestingly enough, you can tie all those events to WW1, WW2, Vietnam, and the end of the Cold War. I'm pretty sure war changing society had something to do with it. When men are away, women finally stop being put down and have the chance to stand for their rights. But anyways, why did the women's movement of the 90s fade away? I don't know, but I have a feeling the popularity of Britney Spears in the late 90s set women's rights back a few steps. So much for taking the mantle of "girl power" from the Spice Girls. Fast forward to 2012 and guys are still laying down the sexism. How terrible for the women of the 90s who are now mothers of teen girls. The advent of the internet and memes has totally spread "sandwich" jokes. Jokes are funny, but uncalled for. Due to this retrospection, I hereby declare that I will try not to say sexist jokes anymore. Some might slip out, but eh, no one's perfect.

  6) This one isn't from pop culture, but it's worth noting that most countries now do not have the military technology of America in the early 90s. During the first Iraqi war, America showed off it's new toys to the world. Alot of things were just a few years old: stealth technology, UAVs, the Abrams tank, an M-16 that doesn't jam. HAX.

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 any thoughts on the above or did i miss anything?

GmG and CMcN - Kids and Technology

First off I just want to mention that writing for BiA feels like writing for a TV show, because it takes a week for my material to get aired lol.

Anyway, going to the many recent holiday parties has revealed something to me. Many kids are secluded in groups of three at most while playing Nintendo DS or iPod games. What happened to yelling and socializing and playing hide and seek? This is where I am very grateful for people like Vincent who have an unlimited supply of circle social games.

Being at yesterday's TN (December 18th) was fun seeing all the kids play board games. Heck even Khoa Vianney Andrew and I had a short game of Twister in the hallway. Board games are great icebreakers for kids and allow them to get to know others better than just playing games like tag. But at least even tag allows more socializing than playing Angry Birds etc.

Another thing that is ironic, with so much technology available, kids are actually losing some computer basics. I've already mentioned that its sad that none of the boys in HS/NS knows how to build a computer. When I was in 9th grade I knew how to set up networks and run command promps and build computers and overclock them. Do you guys remember how hard it was to connect a computer to a workgroup on Windows 98 or Windows ME? It was a Pain. Nothing was automatic, one wrong setting on the router or computer effed up everything. Kids were connecting to the router on Man Lan Day with their magicical Windows 7 telling me "I'm not connected, there's no internet". *facepalm*

Childhood MacNugget: Commercials

Some products inherently sucked, so no one bought it... but we all knew that product because of genius advertisement. They had such memorable songs! Here are two examples.

Childhood MacNugget: Top 5 favorite movie intros

I was listening to random music when a Tron soundtrack came on. I decided to find the video on youtube cause I forgot how the intro was exactly. And then I looked up other intros that came to me off the top of my head. These are my favorite 5.

5) Terminator 2

(embedding not allowed, link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPAfwBKZ9T8&feature=related)

Comments/thoughts: Fire everywhere. Swingset on fire, death of innocence and humanity. I feel depressed, but I turn my anger towards the robots and put my hope in John Connor.

4) Tron Legacy

Comments/thoughts: That Disney intro was pretty damn cool, second only to the pirate castle intro in Pirates of the Caribbean. I saw this movie in the theater and this movie had such good effects but it was the dramatic music that continually send chills down my spine. Especially when the TRON title logo pops up.

3) Lion King

Before we took any foreign language in high school, all my classmates knew some Swahili: Naaa svenyaa babadi chibaba! This movie and intro is forever epic.

2) The Rock

This is my favorite action movie of all time. I swear it's non-stop action and it also has a good story line. And the intro just tells you the emotion in General Hummel. The part where the soldier says "they're not coming for us are they sir?" still makes me soo saat. Oh shit he has a Medal of Honor? why did he give it away? What is he gonna do?! I need to find out!

1) Top Gun

This movie isn't that great, I'd give it a 7/10. But it's just the way the F-14 comes out of the darkness symbolizing the strength and shield of America. The whirring of the blizzard makes you believe that no matter what hazardous conditions, this brave warrior will be there to protect you. Serving during the height of the cold war, the carrier borne F-14's capability to shoot down enemy planes 100 miles away with the Phoenix missile was a big "Come get some" to the commies. I was brainwashed by this movie as a kid, but geez being brainwashed never felt so cool. Also, the way the music starts at the Paramount studio screen when the stars fly by the mountains have changed the way I see all Paramount movies. Now I hear the drumbeat start in my head during the Paramount screen. Example: when I watched Captain America and Transformers, during the Paramount slide, I started hearing Top Gun music.

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Things they all have in common: Epic music. The title screen/logo appears dramatically and goes with the music. They all start in darkness/dawn and gradual get brighter to day. And all of them give this emotion of an unseen force that draws you in to find out more. And I guess it's a feature of movies with cool dramatic intros that they also have good action and effects. Even Lion King had revolutionary drawings for its time. Do you remember the star filled sky when Mufasa talks to Simba about the past kings. I was a 2nd grader in a theater and I thought I was looking into the heavens. I think another thing they have in common is that I would happily buy any of these movies on Blu-ray (due to awesome visual and sound effects and soundtrack).

Childhood MacNugget: Dr. Seuss

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

I've always believed that the hardest thing in life is to master yourself. One way is by keeping yourself out of the darkness where it's really easy to go astray, and forcing yourself to stay in the light. It's hard because to stay in the light is to expose your true self to everyone. But therein is the beauty, you have nothing to hide. You can be yourself. How could that possibly be bad? Thank you Dr. Seuss for sharing your wisdom.

Grinds my Gears and Childhood MacNugget Mash Up

You know what grinds my gears? Annoying classmates and teachers from elementary school.

1) When the teacher takes roll call, you raise your hand and say "here". Then after ten or so kids some douche raises his hand when his name is called and proudly says "present". Gosh so annoying. Stupid overachieving kids. I might have done it a few times in my life (as a copycat) but I'm talking about the kids that did it every damn time. D-bags.

2) When you ask your teacher if you can go to the restroom, and she says "I don't know, CAN you?" Stupid bitch. I CAN, and I WILL take a dump in your classroom if you don't let me go. I remember the first time this happened the kid nearly cried until the teacher said "ask if you MAY go to the restroom".

I think students can get away with showing off, and teachers can get away with being a dictator in elementary school because no one knows better. But by high school, overachieving students get laughed at, and douchey teachers get ripped apart. However, by the time we get to college we again have overachieving students and douchey professors. I believe it is because students have put their grades above everything else, even common sense. Why else would we be nice to the cocky nerd, except to get some homework help. Or why else would we be brown nose mean professors except to get a recommendation letter? Come on college students! Get back your high school scorn and put-down attitude! Put the dbags back in their place!

Childhood MacNugget: ridiculously hard video games

Childhood MacNuggets, because they (along with most things) were better when we were kids (when they were made of mystery dark meat).

Video games now can be beaten by anyone, even someone who's never picked up a controller. All you have to do is simply set the game settings to noob. But back then, there was only one level: badass mofo. You could only beat the game if you mastered your character's moves and abilities. Your skill level wasn't measured in points at the end of the level. It was measured by how far in the game you could reach too. On average you had nine lives (3 lives for 3 "continues"). And you died if you got hit ONCE. In Call of Duty, you can live if you get shot ten times and there's unlimited continues. Even in modern Mario games on the DS, you die if you get hit once, but there's unlimited lives and/or continues. So you win even if you suck. LAME

Just to give you an example of how hard it was to beat some games, I got Sonic 2 for Sega Genesis for my first communion gift (around 1995-96). That game was so fun but I could never beat it. For years I got to the last boss, at which I had around three to six lives left. I had to write down Dr. Robotnik's moves so that I could remember the pattern for the next time I played (because I expected to fail). I tried to beat this game more than ten times but I couldn't. But as a second grader, I didn't cry when I lost. I accepted that I wasn't good enough, but that was okay because only badass mofos win games.... fast forward.... UCLA first year living in the dorms. David introduces me to simulators which can play old games like NES, Genesis, Super Nintendo, etc on a computer. It's cheating because you can save your game progress. So when I got to the last stage, I saved it and everytime I got a couple hits on Dr. Robotnik, I saved. And when I died I just reloaded to the previous stop before I died. I knew I was cheating but when I finally won the game I felt tears of joy streaming down my face. A decade of trying, and I finally WON. This is how games should be, rewarding because it is hard. The final stage below, where this guy makes a mockery of the final boss.



Of course, some games are SO HARD that it's impossible for a normal human to beat the game. I could have beat Sonic if I had a little more skill, but I'm pretty sure I could never beat Contra without unlimited life cheats.



And finally, some games are so IMPOSSIBLE that when I was a kid I could only get through like four or five levels out of ten. And even when I used my saves through emulator, I gave up because it was still so hard. It would have taken me hours to finish that game because I would have to save my progress every thirty seconds. Example: Ninja Gaiden. This video below is long but if you watch it you can see how many random things are thrown at you.




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The bottom line: kids nowadays feel entitled to winning, or else they end up whining. Back in my day there was no easy mode, you only won if you were a badass mofo.

Random best memory of video games as a kid: Going to my friend's birthday party in second grade, and being able to own all of his older brother's 8th grader friends in Mortal Kombat 2.

Childhood MacNugget: WWF

Yes, professional wrestling is fake. The storylines can be stupid, and so are the fake punches.

However many of the wrestlers are good actors. Pro wrestling needs good acting, which is why boring personalities will never be legendary (example John Cena). Also, since Stone Cold and the ROCK left, they've wanted to change their image and be a positive role model for kids, which makes for boring lame stories. Wrestling is always more fun when theres a super bad guy that breaks kids hearts. I remember watching kids cry on TV when Hulk Hogan turned heel (became a bad guy, opposite of face). Professional wrestling now just sucks.

Sunday night was Wrestlemania, which I'm going to watch with my friend David next week. Its worth watching for two reasons. 1) John Cena may turn heel. I dislike John Cena because he went from having a rapper gimmick to a Marine gimmick. Both gimmicks are lame. And he makes kids do stupid things like "you cant see me". If you know the results please don't spoil it for me in the comments. Reason 2) The moves may be choreographed, but the pain is real. You will always see crazy stuff happen at Wrestlemania. I love it when the crowd goes 'Holy Shit Holy Shit'

See if the pain in these clips is fake or real

Disclaimer: I do not condone violence. In fact, I believe everything on TV should be wholesome. Instead of Jersey Shore, MTV should have Jesus Shore, where every day a group of ten men (because its not smart to put unmarried men and women together in the same house) play wholesome basketball without swearing, then go to afternoon mass at church together. Then they go to an evening social mixer to meet ladies where they can discuss the finer points of being a good Christian, where the jokes are wholesome and family friendly (well... an anti-Jew joke couldn't hurt here or there on some episodes).

BUUUTTT, since these type of shows don't exist, I will have to resort to WWE and Jersey Shore. Now I know that if we have to fight to defend myself, I should hit the guy and stomp my feet at the same time (with 90% of my force going into stomping my feet, and 10% to punching the guy). And according to Jersey Shore, this is how I should settle disputes with my wife.

2nd Disclaimer: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sarcasm

By the way, Snookie was a wrestler at Wrestlemania.

New Segments Coming Soon

I've had random ideas for new segments and I'm putting it down here so I won't forget

You Know What Grinds My Gears? (my ranting about different subjects like things on driving, firearm inaccuracies in movies, annoying things kids do)

Mac's Infatuations (stuff that tickles my fancy and people that leave an imprint on how I view life: teachers, soldiers, theory of evolution, theory of relativity)

Childhood MacNuggets (random nuggets of stuff that make me nostalgic. Also, don't you remember how much better macnuggets tasted back when we were kids? Now McDs Nuggets have all white meat ... pshhh... give me my tasty dark mystery meat!)

I will leave you with one Childhood MacNugget:

This movie was so amazing for the time with ridiculous CGI for 1993. The effects of this movie are advanced that I can show some children this movie and they will think it was made this year. This movie will never feel outdated (along with Terminator 2-1993 and The Rock-1996). I've seen Jurassic Park a couple times, but haven't seen Jurassic Park in at least five to ten years. However I remember the first time seeing it at the movie theaters and the part where this song plays with the bronchiosaurus is seared into my brain.

@ 0:48 the professor and the old man and the lady step out of their car and see a bunch of little dinosaurs moving around

@ 1:27 they see a giant bronchiosaurus in front of them

@ 1:46 the bronchiosaurus roars and gets on its hind legs and eats off the top of a tree

@ 1:51, the climax of the song, the bronchiosaurus lands back on its front legs and shakes the entire ground with a loud boom

You know today's kids and teens have this whole vampire thing going on. For me, it was dinosaurs. I remember seeing dinosaur stuff everywhere in book stores. I'm pretty sure they dont have even ten percent of dinosaur books for kids now as they do back then. I dont know what was going on in the early 90s cause I was a kid, but my guess is that there was probably some huge discoveries of fossils in the Montana area in the 90s, I remember hearing about a teacher saying something like that. Those discoveries probably started the craze. Sorta like how that tiny submarine that explored the Titanic's ruins inspired the movie and I remember an explosion of Titanic books for kids at bookstores.

I leave you with one awesome clip that made me laugh