Mutually Shared Nostalgia
The things that I remember, and that give me nostalgia, coupled with a bit of blogposting about the memories associated with them, that you'll hopefully remember too.
I remember the pipes screensaver, the one with the stars gliding towards the screen, and that one where the XP logo would bounce around.
I usually saw these at school or waiting for doctors at checkups.
I remember playing this almost anytime I had access to a computer. You would get to make your character, dress him up, change his face, and then fly by hot air balloon from island to island to solve the island's problems. Each island had a different theme, while I can't remember everything, the one from the picture above had some kind of supervillain bunny man who wanted to do something to the population, and you had to stop him.
There was the shark island, where you had to rescue this lost scientist and defeat the shark, and there was a concoction you had to create using coconuts, there was a superhero/superman-esque island, where you fought several supervillains, a cryptid island, where you flew around chasing after bigfoot, and the Jersey Devil, and yetis (all I can remember), and some others I just can't recall. Update with picture: Yeah, yeah, I remember these islands now. The spy island was really nice, you had this blanket, I think, that made you invisible so you could sneak past these dogs, and there was some plant that had this big cherry that turned into a cherry bomb. And some garage called the grease monkey. The Early Poptropica island was a lighthearted pilgrim version of Poptropica. Time Tangled was an island where historic icons from throughout the centuries had wound up in the wrong time period, and needed to be returned. Astro-Knights was special, in that you got to pilot around in a rocketship, similar to how in Skullduggery you got to sail around in a ship, upgrading your vessel as you progress.
There were these rooms, I think soda shops or diners, where you could go to have live interactions with other players, but it wasn't very real because whenever you engaged someone, you were given a list of questions you could ask, and then in turn they would be given a list of answers they could give back. Something like, "Do you like cats or dogs?", or "Chocolate, or vanilla ice cream?" And that's all I can remember.
I think first island I ever completed was the Shark island, because I looked up a tutorial on Youtube, and from then on I was hooked. Every day after school, for hours, until I had to get off the computer. I can't for the life of me remember why I stopped playing. I must have gotten stuck somewhere at some point and drifted away from it, but that doesn't seem right.
Stop Motion Lego Videos
Man I watched so many of these, and wanted to make my own, but didn't have a camera that could pause during filming. The videos were usually filmed using stop motion, a process where the camera is paused, the figure is moved, and then recording is resumed, all to give the object the illusion of movement.
My favorites were ones like the one you see above, it's the only one I could find, the others included lego Jaws and Ghostbusters remakes, and ones where they would make litte sketches with them. (Kind of like Stick Figures on Crack.) I have this memory of one of the Jaws videos, where when Hooper goes down in the cage, and "My Hero" by the Foo Fighters starts playing. I just heard it on the radio and I remembered it for the first time in years. (The video above isn't the one, but I think I remember it too.)
Will update with more if I can find the old ones.
The Original X-Box
The first X-Box, the first gaming console I'd ever had. It was given to me by my cousin, probably back in... 2004? For my birthday. It was his originally, and he likely gave it to me because his mother was buying him something new to replace it.
I wasn't any good at video games and I'm still not. I remember having Need For Speed: Underground 2, Jaws Unleashed, and my favourite: ATV2. I really liked everything about this game. I would rarely do any of the racing levels because I'd always lose, but I loved getting in that little arena mode with all of the ramps and just messing around. I just recently rediscovered all of the songs from the soundtrack, and while some of them aren't genres I typically like, the nostalgia from them makes me like them. Those were happy times.
Used to watch this on VH-1 all the time. You could sit there and watch music videos all day like that. Those little "information nuggets", as they are officially called, would appear and say interesting facts about the singer, the band, the song, or even something relating to the song's topic.
Lunch Box Drinks
These were all over the Elementary school cafeterias, probably still are. These, and Kool-Aid Bursts, with the twist off caps, and Capri-Sun pouches. I used to lay the Capri-Sun pouches on their backs and stab them from the front, for fun. You could also blow air down the straws, so then the pressure would cause the juice to shoot out and ruin your lunch.
I remember finding this book in the library at school, and loving it. I tore through it. I loved and still do love ghost stories and anything like them. UFOs, Vampires, Bigfoot, anything spooky. I don't remember everything, but I remember the dog, Harold, and the cat, Chester, discovering pale carrots and other fruits, drained of their color, and spending the book trying to monitor the rabbit to protect their family. I seem to recall reading at least part of one of the sequels, where the family goes on a vacation. The word, "bungalow" stands out to me, as I think it was my first time reading it. Strange that I can also remember seeing the word, "Poltergeist" for the first time, in another book in the elementary school library.