undefeated, unhinged, undead: tonight’s patch notes

Played Magic and didn’t drop a single game. Mono-Black Zombies did exactly what it says on the coffin: discard your hopes, remove your friends, win by slow inevitability while politely apologizing for nothing. It wasn’t “I won,” it was “gravity happened.” Shuffle up, see you in the crypt. Between matches I made a batch of exclusive blinkies — real 88×31 GIFs, hand-rolled like it’s a gourmet 1999. Best viewed at 800×600, Netscape 4.7, patience enabled. I even gave one a fake “Optimized for framesets” badge because I am a public menace with a pixel grid. Then I played The Sims, which somehow feels brand-new and already lived-in. Domestic chaos with a CRT tan. I built a 2×2 palace, argued with flooring for forty minutes, and watched a tiny person burn salad while my Winamp skin pretended to be the dashboard of a spaceship. It’s nostalgia that hasn’t happened yet, which is a neat party trick if you ignore the timeline headache.

Tomorrow I travel to 2025. No confetti. It’s that liminal airport lounge between decades where my brain boots in Safe Mode and refuses to load enthusiasm.dll. I coil cables like rosary beads, label a CD-R “PORTA_MIDIA_01” as if file naming conventions could hold back entropy, and tell myself I’ll only be gone “for a bit.”

  // RELEASE NOTES — BUILD: 1999-12-10 (Late Night)
  [+] Zombies: 4-0, integrity verified
  [+] Blinkies: new set, glitter compliant
  [+] Sims: micro-palace operational, salad unsafe
  [~] Mood: liminal, buffering
  [!] Known Issue: 2025 detected; user reports “planning.exe not responding”
  

1999 Compatibility Mode

• Dial-up after 23:00 to avoid pulse trauma.
• ICQ status set to “Away (probably drawing pixels).”
• Winamp 2.x, classic skin, equalizer arranged like a superstition.
• RealPlayer for tiny videos that accuse you of impatience.
• Backup to a spare TDK, label with a warning and a joke.

If I vanish for a few days, imagine me under a fluorescent light in 2025, pretending the hum is comforting, waiting for my own timeline to ring twice and pick up. I’ll be back. Keep the modem warm.

Friday, September 19, 1999

✶ note from 2025: learning to slow down

i’m slowly adjusting to this new-old life. it feels strange, but also good, to finally slow down. no constant noise, no endless scroll. just me, the bike rides, the modem song, and a blinking cursor waiting for words. today i thought about starting a new save in Caesar III, but that Diablo installation cd is staring at me from the desk. i haven’t forgotten about Pokémon Yellow either — tomorrow i’ll take my haunter for a walk through the last gym. i’m trying not to get anxious about the coming week. there are still a few days before classes begin, so tomorrow is for testing my new mono black Magic deck and maybe watching a movie. the Age of Empires LAN absolutely needs to happen again… but i should probably rest from cheetos until then. field note: slowing down feels less like being stuck and more like being allowed to breathe. tech mode: practiced simple html layout, tested counters, and added new gifs to my geocities page.