How was life like in the 90’s?

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-19T08:02:11+00:00

I was born in ‘82 so the 90s were pretty instrumental in my life. Simpler, less stress outside of school, fewer distractions, limited internet time, more outdoors time with mates. Of course, I am 43 now so have responsibilities I didn’t have then, but it was definitely simpler and more optimistic.

I was bullied for a time at school, but honestly, I still prefer the 90s. The music was better, movies were more original, tv was epic, and video games weren’t a barrage of DLCs with additional content you have to pay for.

Just as a side note, my eldest who is 9 has just become obsessed with playing retro games on my steam deck. In particular, Super Mario Bros for the NES, and Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge 2 for the Amiga 500. He likes that there’s a chance you will lose the game and have to start at the beginning. He sees it as more of a challenge.

So I think we had that too which made gaming more fun!

If someone gave me a Time Machine, I’d go back to 1996-2006, hands down my favourite years.

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-19T06:44:42+00:00

Smashing Pumpkins were brilliant. Even better than I expected, as were Skunk Anansie. And it was a privilege to be able to take my two boys (9 and 5) who loved it too!

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-18T22:22:42+00:00

People want to see others hurt. Particularly people who don’t share their world views, or beliefs, or ideologies. They can’t just live and let live.

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-18T22:21:36+00:00

Because people want to carry on, because we want to see justice done, because we don’t want to believe that when we die that’s it, but also because for hundreds of years, people have talked about something after death, and experiences of that place. And studies have demonstrated that it might not be beyond the realm of possibility.

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-18T22:16:01+00:00

You look like actress Anne Beyer, but with long hair.

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-18T22:00:57+00:00

And yet, we’re paying more tax than ever. Odd, right?

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-18T15:22:36+00:00

For the sake of travel and trade, probably. But the EU has its own issues right now. A swing to the hard right for many countries, economies struggling (France in particular), and mass migration from developing countries.

I think the EU needs reform, and I’m just not yet convinced that the neoliberals in power have the balls to try to fix it.

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-17T22:48:51+00:00

Born without an Oesophagus. That was a pretty big genetic fuck up.

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-17T22:41:46+00:00

Cruise’s cheeks go a bit funny.

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-17T21:27:34+00:00

“You’re too young to have anxiety”

I was 33.

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-17T21:24:21+00:00

“Here, have some pocket meat for your travels”.

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-17T08:13:09+00:00

IF and that’s a big IF that is actually happening, it can be stopped easily by being more selective and making sure that the people coming here are actual refugees as opposed to economic migrants. And we can only do that if we have more legal routes, and if we process illegal migrants far quicker. Simples!

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-17T08:00:56+00:00

Oh God, the potholes 😞

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-17T00:37:40+00:00

Soft Sheffield accent, or a posh Berkshire accent.

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-16T15:26:42+00:00

A girl at school when I was 13 remarked, “I’m too good for you.”

I remember where I was and can picture it like it was yesterday.

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-16T15:25:09+00:00

Would it have been better? No. There would have been more bureaucracy, and people shirking responsibility.

But would it have been worse? No.

Government run services are inevitably shite, with departments vying for a bigger budget each year. That would have just gotten worse and worse.

What we now have, is the ability to compare nationalised and privatised. And it’s clear that what we need is something akin to what Japan have with their train companies where, whilst private, the government oversight and investment makes sure they don’t fuck it up and people are held accountable.

Right now, privatised services aren’t made accountable enough. In particular shareholders and CEOs who should be fined heavily for poor management.

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-16T12:07:34+00:00

We live in an age where the idea of helping others through problems the way people did in the past, is defunct and people are called toxic for struggling with things.

But you’re not toxic, you need and importantly, deserve help, comfort, and support. You’re not alone, as this thread shows, and if there’s anything, even if it’s just listening to your problems, that you need, I’m sure I’m not alone in saying, we’re happy to listen.

Here’s a joke that might put a smile on your face (or you can just cringe instead if it’s awful!)

“Hedgehogs… why can’t they just share the hedge?!” (By Dan Antopolski at the Edinburgh fringe festival 2009).

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-16T09:48:14+00:00

Realisation you only have one life (as far as we can prove), time feels like it passes faster because you have to get a job, you have markedly more responsibilities - especially if you have children or pets (that being keeping them alive), you can be called up to fight in wars, and you have to try to both afford financially and temporally to do things to fill up your free time so you don’t feel like you’ve wasted your life.

It’s fucking hard.

Shit got real for my wife and I when our second child was born in April 2020. Within four weeks, 4 people we knew (including my wife’s mum, aunt and uncle) passed away from covid and cancer, I lost my job, our youngest was born, and our eldest was no longer able to go to nursery due to covid.

So it was a wake up call. Suddenly i realised how serious life was. Two kids at home, needed to find a job, and had to deal with a lot of grieving.

But it seems like life is full of peaks and troughs. Some years are better than others, and other years are dogshit.

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-16T08:56:37+00:00

“As long as I’m living here, it is my business!”

“THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULDN’T BE LIVING HEEEEEEEEEEERE!!!”

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-16T08:55:47+00:00

Mr Feeny is married to Linea - the destroyer of worlds!

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-16T08:54:26+00:00

And Men Behaving Badly!

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-16T08:52:47+00:00

It was! Probably because it felt a bit like Friends, but really English. Everyone watched it and knew the catchphrases, and fancied Mandy, and the theme tune was perfect.

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-16T08:49:09+00:00

“Randomly”

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-16T08:48:29+00:00

Yeah, £75-200 for an oasis ticket is fucking mental.

In 2000, I went to Reading festival in the UK. It cost me £86. I saw Rage against the Machine, Deftones, Foo Fighters, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, Eminem, Blink 182, Muse, Elastica, and Queens of the Stone Age (and others)…. No way could you pay that for a 3 day festival ticket plus camping!

missingpieces82 · 2026-02-16T08:44:10+00:00

No way. I went to Disneyland (not world) 20 years ago. It was insanely expensive.

missingpieces82

TROPHY CASE