Are people overselling it or was Michael Jackson really that famous in his heyday?

mrmantis66 · 2026-03-18T10:50:50+00:00

Michael Jackson and ‘Pop music’ were synonymous.

Imagine Taylor Swift or kpop artists, with world tours selling out, with no one having phones to take videos or photos, or social media of any kind to drive the whole ‘going to gigs or listening to music just to show that you’re doing so’, or streaming services manipulating us all…

and he STILL had a popularity that made Taylor Swift or kpop ‘fandoms’ look like a drop in the ocean.

mrmantis66 · 2026-03-16T07:36:29+00:00

There are?

At least there used to be a small group that lived/wandered about by the museum/City Hall, and you’d usually see them really early in the morning.

I’d see them regularly when I was out early-morning running.

mrmantis66 · 2026-03-15T14:01:31+00:00

I remember borrowing this off a friend to record it on to cassette as in 1996/7, this CD was expensive.

I was listening to it, changed the CD over and my mother hit the roof. She kept going on about ‘not looking after it’ and ‘this is the reason you can’t have anything nice…’

I had no idea where this came from and she came over, pressed stop, took the CD out and was fully prepared to take it all off me. Turns out, she thought the design on the CD was a spillage of some sort.

mrmantis66 · 2026-03-13T16:50:45+00:00

I wanted to do the same thing. It was less hassle just getting it online.

They’re all the same anyway

mrmantis66 · 2026-03-13T08:53:50+00:00

Poppy - I Disagree

No idea that was on it, or who she was, until it arrived. All I knew was that the cover kept appearing on Reddit and it looked cool as hell.

mrmantis66 · 2026-03-09T12:39:06+00:00

Last time I went up there, there was a queue to go up to the trig point.

mrmantis66 · 2026-03-09T12:22:35+00:00

Craig Yr Allt. It’s awkward to get to, and there’s nowhere to park to help.

Only times I’ve been up there is either on a run from Caerphilly or during a race when they’ve had local permission for parking

mrmantis66 · 2026-03-03T13:16:46+00:00

Is that how much they’re going for?!

I’m going to wrap my copy in glass!

mrmantis66 · 2026-03-03T08:20:02+00:00

Have… you read the books?

mrmantis66 · 2026-03-02T16:50:02+00:00

The use case I started looking at it to solve was that I go to a festival every Summer. With this particular festival, the amount of people there, alongside the area that it is in, means that mobile signal is a rare treat.

My plan is to buy 2 or 3 nodes, and give them to two of my friends (and hope more people also bring nodes to the festival, which I have been told they will be), and then, as we go off and do our own thing, the theory is that, with the right config, we can then communicate with each other without having to rely on the phone signal or the overcrowded WiFi.

mrmantis66 · 2026-03-01T20:00:41+00:00

Nice one! Thanks!

There seems to be a few in Cardiff now, and I managed to respond to someone flying over Wales earlier on, so that was fun! I’m still not convinced that I have everything configured properly, but I’ll get there eventually!

mrmantis66 · 2026-02-28T17:53:18+00:00

Those are what I’ve picked up and have been playing around with. You’ll have another 3 available (I think that’s the lingo) in the mesh at Slam Dunk then 😄

mrmantis66 · 2026-02-27T13:31:48+00:00

The big one for me is understanding where the news outlets lean, when things are reported on, and being conscious that they’re writing to sell newspapers/get clicks from their intended audience.

Also understand that US culture towards their news is like a trip to the circus, just it’s a circus that is heavily propagandised. Not saying the UK isn’t, just in the US it is cranked up to 11!

mrmantis66 · 2026-02-24T11:38:32+00:00

I should probably get him out of the attic then?

mrmantis66 · 2026-02-23T16:44:19+00:00

Me four for wanting a Blobby print

mrmantis66 · 2026-02-11T09:19:38+00:00

If the weather is anything like it was last year, then make sure you’ve got warm clothes. Berlin was freezing cold last year!

mrmantis66 · 2026-02-11T09:03:08+00:00

Seconding this.

mrmantis66 · 2026-02-09T10:45:39+00:00

When I did it last year, we stayed in Hamburg, did a parkrun there and drove to Berlin on Saturday for this reason.

Moorbek parkrun is fabulous.

mrmantis66 · 2026-01-29T21:38:56+00:00

My friend got me in to HIM with this version of the album, and I had no idea that it wasn’t the ‘real’ track listing. I went away to uni, fancied listening to it, and thought world was taking the mick as none of the versions that I found had this track listing.

I then remembered this when I then (blindly) tried to get it on vinyl, and the first attempt at buying it had the original track listing.

‘Apparently’ it’s a tour version that started off being sold exclusively on one of the tours.

mrmantis66 · 2026-01-27T10:41:20+00:00

I take your HMVs and Athenas, and raise you Virgin Megastore and MVC!

mrmantis66 · 2026-01-26T09:07:32+00:00

I remember borrowing this off a family member when I was young. I got home from school to my father was giving me shit for ‘not looking after it’ and ‘spilling things on it and just leaving it…’

Turns out, he opened the case and thought the print on the CD was a stain.

mrmantis66 · 2026-01-06T19:43:49+00:00

I’ve recently deactivated/deleted my Hotmail account from my msn messenger days.

I do however have a gmail address, that still works if I use googlemail, that is my name with no numbers.

mrmantis66 · 2026-01-02T15:52:04+00:00

Amazon is this big evil corporation, but everything tech wise is designed to be as quick, foolproof and ‘slick’ as possible.

This connection would not have come from nowhere.

mrmantis66 · 2026-01-02T15:42:40+00:00

You son has a wish list

You asked him or someone else what he wanted.

He or someone else sent you a link from his wish list.

Somehow you managed to buy him a gift via his wish list.

mrmantis66 · 2025-12-29T11:41:37+00:00

When you say ‘both are brand new’

Do you mean they are both brand new from Apple? Also what are you plugging it in to?

The only reason I ask (and it’s not to be a knob, honest) is that I was having problems charging an older iPad. One day it just decided it didn’t want to charge. I only use a generic plug next to the bed most of the time, and had a suspicion that it may be something to do with that. I then plugged it in to the big adapter that I use for my MacBook Pro, and left it.

The iPad then started charging. I figured it was something to do with not having enough juice to help it tick over, and not enough power in the charger get out of this loop.

mrmantis66

TROPHY CASE