Liesure Gems

My man cave is very small, It's just a retro gaming bar in my sitting room. I was playing on my retro mini flashback sega mega drive console and noticed that it has quite a few RPG games on there. As a much older man, I'm more interested in RPG computer games. I saw a game on there called 'Light Crusader', it is very interesting. I am at the beginning stage where you have to work out what is going on and solve a puzzle to get to the next stage. It comes across as a puzzle based game. I hope to play through all the RPG type games on there. I thought I would just want to play sonic the hedgehog, the side scrolling platformer but I wasn't interested, I was drawn to the slower paced RPG type games. I'm a different person to '90s Alan, everything about me has changed even in liesure. 

I think that is the way life should be, you work very hard during the day, then from 18:00 till 20:00 you play computer games. Life is very short, do the things you like to do because when you die it is game over. The only reason we live in this world is because of the creator that made it so, without God life is meaningless it is just a slow death. 

Mancave Evercade

My Man-cave is about ⅕ of its intended size at the moment. It is just a retro gaming bar. A bar where you can sit down and play old side scrolling computer games and have a nice cup of coffee or a soft drink. 

People come to my home and say "Alan, is that a Bar in your sitting room". I tell them sort of. I explain that it is the beginning of my man-cave, a room for liesure where men come together and play computer games and table sports . I call it the 'Happy Zone'. The retro gaming bar will take you back to the '90s, unless you were an egg in the '90s; then it will take you to the '90s for the first time.

I was wondering if the evercade should be added to my retro gaming bar, I was looking at all the cartridges that come with it, evercade cartridges. 

They're very nice but they aren't enough to convince me to buy the system just yet. Perhaps if they put the original Doom on there and Commander keen 1,2,3,4,5,6. That would be very nice. 

Window Shopping

I was window shopping on the internet the other day. In Britain, window shopping means to look at products without the intent of buying them straight away. 

I was looking at the Evercade and all the cartridges that comes with it. The Evercade is a retro style games console that takes cartridges with fully licensed games on it. 

The Evercade web site is https://evercade.co.uk/. 

It don't like the games selections they have enough to buy the system right now. If they made a cartridge with ID software's '90s hits, I would consider buying it. 

I was thinking of Commander Keen 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 plus Doom and Wolfenstein. If they had a cartridge with those games on it, I wouldn't mind buying the system along with the C64 cartridge. Plus I would pick a space shooter selection. 

Stern Day

Jacob, my Son. 

We recently learned that the police force in the UK have some personnel that are unlawful. They arrested a cop that was committing sex offences. I was wondering if the profession attracts bad people or they just have some bad people amoungst them just like every profession. We had a radio presenter that was raping children, we had a doctor that was murdering patients for example. I thought it may be the other way around, there are fewer harmful police officers than harmful personnel in other professions. Perhaps it's more rare to find a bad cop than a bad teacher for example. I try not to think about it much; I only think about the issue when it becomes news. 

I like to play computer games on my phone and on our TV. I was looking at the Evercade website the other day and thought they don't have any cartridges that I want. If they produce a cartridge with all the 'commander keen' computer games from the '90s, I would think about buying the system. I also have some computer games I play on my phone. I think girls self-harm themselves more than boys because boys play computer games more. Girls look at other girls on social media and feel like their value is based on their outward appearance, boys just like doing difficult missions on their computer games and don't have time for all that nonsense. That is the one thing most boys have over most girls, their mind set on what they are doing and not on their perceived value. 

Missing my innocence

One of the songs on my main music playlist is 'Deeply Dippy' by 'Right Said Fred'. I play it to remind me how innocent I was in the '90s. I would hear the song on the radio and think it was a sea shanty about a boat. I actually thought they were singing about a boat. You need the mind of a kid to understand how the lyrics fit into a sea shanty. 

'90s-Alan also thought that the police were infallible, that all their staff had very strong moral fabric. I now think differently, I think there are harmful people present in every profession, there are doctors that murder people and police officers that abuse their authority. This way of thinking was reinforced earlier in the week when I learned that constable 'David Carrick' was a rapist and a prolific sex offender. 

Even a few months ago I felt angry because people were filming police officers with their phone because I thought it was rude. It would be like going to shop and filming a shop assistant and putting the video on social media to invite strangers to mock that person, it is very disrespectful. I still think it's very disrespectful to do that. When I see a video of staff being criticized on social media, I flag the video as abuse and complain in the comments. I say that filming a staff to mock them on a public domain very disrespectful and akin to bullying; not always though, sometimes the person is taking the piss. 

Martin Luther King Statue

I learned recently that the city of Boston in the American state of Massachusetts displayed a modern art statue representing Martin Luther King and his struggles. I couldn't quite get my head around the posture of the statue. 

I don't really get abstract modern art. I draw pen sketches in this blog but they show my thoughts the way they really are. They're not excellent but they are clear. 

I went to the Tate modern a few times in the past, I didn't like the art there. I like the large empty space inside the main hall of the building though. 

Half of January

We're already half way through January, It seemed like yesterday that we were counting down the start of 2023. 

I cheered myself up with a happy memory earlier in the week. I was remembering a time when I was waiting to fly to Peru to meet my extended family and arrived in the departure lounge 6 hours early because I was worried about the problems they were having with staff at the airport. I thought if my flight is cancelled, I would have a greater chance of getting another flight that day if I came early. 

I was very bored after 2 hours  and began to regret coming so early but then wandered around and saw they had a wetherspoons pub in the lounge, a proper full functioning wetherspoons pub in the departure lounge of Heathrow airport, I think it was terminal 5. I found a small table with a single seat in the corner of the pub, I ordered my favourite pub meal and refillable coffee. I must have had 3 cups. Before I left the pub, I managed to burn off 1 and a half hours of waiting time. Plus I thought to myself I could come back there if I'm still bored later.  The happiness was sitting quietly on my own and thinking nothing for a while. Just sipping coffee and being lost in the chorus of many languages being spoken all around me. Then I thought I could just sit and read for another hour. I will remember sitting in the wetherspoons in the departure lounge of the airport as a happy memory.