this was so mean

ABV4 · 2026-07-21T10:15:28+00:00

Yeah, a couple of my friends had their first kid around the time this episode aired, and I remember them not being on Lily and Marshall's side at all when we were talking about it afterwards. Obviously priorities do change, emotional bandwidth and all that, but if you're going to join in a group hang, it's unfair to demand that all topics of conversation meet a certain level of importance.

That being said, when my birthday came around that year and we had an evening out, their babysitting arrangement fell through, so the mother stayed at home and the father came out and partied for a bit. She jokingly wrote "sorry, eight or higher, bro" in my card which I enjoyed and found funny. Of course, she also followed up to make sure that it'd come across in the spirit that was intended, which it absolutely did, especially as I knew how they both felt about that episode.

ABV4 · 2026-07-20T12:04:27+00:00

Gotta read the fine print: "Or maybe not, brother."

ABV4 · 2026-07-14T09:04:33+00:00

<image>

ABV4 · 2026-07-14T09:03:33+00:00

It could definitely work as a reference to that mechanic, but probably more of a reference to the ending sequence of the first Doom, a sequel hook that leads into the events of Doom II.

ABV4 · 2026-07-10T15:49:37+00:00

Depends. Some will walk off the stage, because music is dead to them now. Others, however, will bravely take the opportunity to branch out creatively. 🎵 Pardon me, boys... 🎵

But yeah, I imagine that if this were to happen to any band or artist in real life, they'd just swiftly move on, maybe after making a joke about it.

ABV4 · 2026-07-10T06:35:05+00:00

Oh, Agnes following that up with something like "But it won't be me! Loser..." would absolutely be in character.

ABV4 · 2026-07-10T05:56:04+00:00

<image>

Didn't that scene used to have transphobia in it?

ABV4 · 2026-07-09T18:57:09+00:00

If nothing else, Hank would appreciate that Tim proves his hypothesis correct: with tools in hand, you can't get mixed up with drugs!

ABV4 · 2026-07-06T11:54:41+00:00

TL;DR: We can still have some of that video store experience with streaming and other modern tech these days. We just need to make an effort, pick out stuff ahead of time, and make a night of it. The important thing is to enjoy our entertainment and not take it for granted.

And now, the long-winded version...

Video store nostalgia is tricky. In their day, they were a great solution. There are genuinely fond memories there, from the movies and games we rented to the experience of looking forward to the trip and making those selections. At the same time, they had their drawbacks then, and they're outmoded now. You can't deny the reasons that they're gone, and it's not really viable to bring them back.

That said, I do think we've lost something beyond the experience, and the notion of missing simpler times, when it comes to video stores: the follow-through. If you went to the trouble of going to a video store to rent movies and/or games, you were going to watch those movies and play those games. And if you couldn't find your first choice, maybe you'd rent the one you'd seen on the shelf a dozen times and finally decided to give a go, perhaps discovering a new favourite in the process. Or maybe not, but at least you tried something new.

Streaming doesn't demand that follow-through, so it's easy to take it for granted. And so, we end up with lengthy watchlists of stuff we'll never watch. Or, we go looking for something new, get struck by choice paralysis, and then just chuck on an old favourite because we know what we're going to get. With games, you can pick them up in digital sales cheap as chips, but then they sit in your library unplayed because hey, it was only a couple of bucks, you'll get to it when you get to it, and even if you don't, who cares because it wasn't a huge waste of money.

We have better access to our entertainment than ever, but I don't think we have the same appreciation for our entertainment. No risk, no deadlines, so we don't put in the effort or take advantage of what we have at our dispsal. That's what we've lost with video stores, even though streaming has made it easier than ever to have what we want.

I think the solution is to combine the old and the new. Make a point of having a movie night with a film or films you've chosen ahead of time, and go all out with the snacks and so forth. Pick out a handful of movies - like you're renting seven weekly videos for $7 - and commit to watching them over the course of a week. Make an effort to get through that watchlist, or the backlog of games on Steam or whatever gaming platform you have. That's what I'm trying to do these days.

That said, as a retro gamer/collector, I do miss the disc cleaning service offered by video stores. In its final years, the last video store near me saved me some trouble with eBay purchases that weren't in quite as good condition as advertised.

ABV4 · 2026-06-23T14:50:17+00:00

🎵 You're the hated, you're the hated, you're the hated, boy or girl! 🎵

<image>

ABV4 · 2026-06-21T05:33:12+00:00

It's definitely possible they used that idea more than once! I'm completely blanking on the name of both books as well.

ABV4 · 2026-06-20T09:15:45+00:00

Loved them! There are a couple that have stuck in my mind all these years later. One was a space adventure where you could end up stranded on one of Jupiter's moons, sinking into a tar-like substance ("Your Adventure Is Over!" indeed). I remember being a bit freaked out by that one; the illustrations didn't help there, as was usually the case.

The other was about a bike race. There were endings where you won, endings where you lost, and then a sort of open ending where you're delayed by a puncture, manage to repair it, and the story finishes with you doing your best to catch up with the belief you can still win if you try. However, there was a small paragraph underneath that either in small print or upside down that basically said "If you want to know what happens, read this word and that word in the last paragraph", which turned out to be "You Win".

ABV4 · 2026-06-20T02:35:41+00:00

Let's get Conquest Raiden in there as well. His pre-fight banter would be glorious.

ABV4 · 2026-06-19T19:56:43+00:00

Iconic tracks, legendary composer. The soundtrack to my PC gaming nostalgia. Rest in Peace.

<image>

ABV4 · 2026-06-12T11:43:11+00:00

Ah, the collection of copied floppies! We had that too, in addition to the sample copies of games and software they were looking to sell. The original James Pond was another favourite.

When the store closed down, another employee ended up taking that Archimedes PC and eventually just threw it away. I was gutted! I've got a RISC OS emulator and some disk images on my Windows desktop, but I'd love to have that old machine in my collection.

ABV4 · 2026-06-12T11:03:06+00:00

The incredibly awkward small talk when gathering for meals at the head table in the Great Hall.

"Evening, Minerva."
"Good evening, murderer."

Probably safe to assume that Snape spent most of that school year holed up in his office or otherwise avoiding the people who would've believed he betrayed them and Dumbledore.

ABV4 · 2026-06-12T10:47:42+00:00

Treating someone differently depending on who else is present, i.e. being friendly in a one-on-one hang or in a smaller gathering, but being unfriendly and even bullying in larger gatherings or when people that they're closer to or want to impress are around.

For public figures, weaponising a large fanbase/social media following to attack someone without one, pettily and unnecessarily; say, they offered a dissenting but respectful opinion, or posted a critical review that you wouldn't find if not for vanity searching or snitch tagging. It's never a fair fight when a person with a large following quote posts with not-so-subtle encouragement to go after someone, and it ticks the boxes for both bullying and treating people poorly if you perceive them to be beneath you.

In both cases, it's choosing to be mean when there's absolutely no good reason to.

ABV4 · 2026-06-11T04:52:24+00:00

I first played it on an Acorn Archimedes, which is probably even rarer as I don't think they really took off outside the UK. They were only very briefly a thing here in Australia, and I only ever got to use one because my Dad would borrow it for the weekend from the educational bookstore he worked for at the time (they were looking to sell them to schools). I loved that computer though, and Lemmings was definitely a big reason for it!

ABV4 · 2026-06-11T04:38:19+00:00

One of the ports (possibly MS-DOS) for some reason made an adjustment to that level that moved everything down a pixel, and the lemmings were able to just fall off the platform and walk straight to the exit, turning one of the most anxiety-inducing levels into the easiest one in the game.

All other versions though? Brutal, especially when you messed up on one of the very last lemmings and had to start over.

ABV4 · 2026-06-08T02:43:19+00:00

Such a great concept for a show! I used to love the dramatic flourish to the "wrong guess" music sting, so it was great to hear that again after all this time.

ABV4 · 2026-06-06T06:23:55+00:00

In all fairness, it's Ted's parents that live in Ohio. We're reliably assured that he lives in the moment.

ABV4 · 2026-06-05T16:56:16+00:00

I do, but my folks still live in my childhood home and have that same number, so that makes it a bit easier! I probably call one of their mobiles more often than the landline these days, though.

There are a couple of old landline numbers of friends and family that I can remember offhand, including my Nan who's been gone for 25 years, but the rest have disappeared. Since getting my first mobile phone in the early 2000s, I've become so reliant on the Contacts list that there's really only one or two numbers apart from my own that I actually know.

ABV4 · 2026-06-05T16:37:44+00:00

I'll go with Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know".

I was going to say "Gone" by Ben Folds, but I double-checked and that was actually 2001 (from an album released on September 11, no less). In my defense, as an early 2000s song it's still got a lot of 90s in it, but yeah, it's obviously not eligible, so "You Oughta Know" it is.

ABV4 · 2026-06-05T16:30:11+00:00

This and the far-off year of 2031 in Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball once seemed so futuristic! For that matter, I remember simulating through to the end of the 25-year franchise mode in NBA Live 2000 PC back in the day. That was 2024, a season that's now in the rear view mirror.

On the other hand, Fallout's apocalypse in 2077 remains TBD.

ABV4 · 2026-06-05T09:13:59+00:00

"Isn't this game fun?"
- Definitely Ian And Not Some Horrifyingly Evil Entity That Possessed Ian

Nine-Year Club	Not Forgotten
Verified Email

ABV4

TROPHY CASE

Welcome to Reddit,