2001: An Odyssey of Nostalgia

You know, the Internet is a lot different now than it was when I first started logging on back in 2001. Back then, when I wanted to look for anime MP3s, it only took a quick search before I found what I wanted, usually on the front page. Today, it feels as if it's next to impossible to find MP3s just on some guy's fan site... instead, everybody's uploaded all of the worthwhile stuff onto Limewire or Bit torrent. It's just a little frustrating for somebody like me, who never got into the whole file-sharing thing.

I also notice that the Internet looks a lot different than it used to. Back then, it was a gargantuan jungle... a vast unknown. Today, it feels... I dunno, it's lost that exotic mystique it once had. Maybe it's because of my time at Iona, with me developing a life away from my computer, that did it... but... I dunno. Nothing on the Internet feels like it did back at the beginning.

I've managed to recapture a few things. I play Counterstrike again, which is awesome. I've found a relatively stable message board I can be a regular member of. For a while, Digimon was back and I watched that, and in the fall Gundam will be back for me to enjoy. Despite all of that, though, it's not the same and my life feels distinctly different from what it felt like back then. I don't know why I'm having nostalgia for 2001... early high school was not the best time of my life. But, when it came to my existence on the Internet... there was just something special about that time that, somehow, I've managed to lose over the years.

Maybe it's partly because, now that I'm 21 and nearing the end of college, it's slowly donning on me that my childhood really is over. I'm an adult now. I have a job, I (sorta) pay taxes. I've even starting thinking about when I should start seriously looking for a place of my own. And then there's my wholly unspectacular love life, which I'd really like to breathe SOME life into at some point (preferably before 25, at which point I assume my lack of any real romance will start to become a serious problem -- assuming it hasn't already).

2001 and early 2002 was a golden period for me... I felt like I belonged to a real community and I was expressing myself in ways I'd never considered before. I dunno. Just nostalgia, I guess.

In OTHER news, I'm heading over to New Rochelle tomorrow to visit Ed. If all goes according to plan, we'll have the very first play test of my board game, which is effectively finished now. I can't wait to try it out! My only serious concern at the moment is that, since I haven't really made pieces for it yet, I have to use Risk pieces... and that limits me to only 3 players due to each player having 4 unique pieces (since Risk players have 3 pieces, I have to borrow 1 from each of the other 3 in order to have enough for 3). For larger games, I'll have to come up with something else. I expect things to go well, although I honestly have no clue how it'll actually work out.

I keep my hopes high! =D