Wa waaaaaaa
…
So I dusted off the old Dreamcast yesterday. Just hearing and seeing the boot-screen was enough to make me melancholic. I went over to Geo’s and set it up on an old TV, playing the damn thing was enough to send us both into a state of nostalgia. Even Geo started talking about bygone times. Which is unusual for him since he never speaks about the past.
For me the Dreamcast is inseparable from the era of “The Guys House” or “Kadoma Haus” as we called it. We where anime appreciating, LAN networking, software pirating, web comic reading, acerbic gamers. And we gorged ourselves on junk food and general apathy.
We had all just graduated high school and by a stroke of luck where able to move into my friends place which his family had left to him and his younger brother. Things where good. We geeked on a daily basis, decorated the house with printouts and acted how seven, occasionally, eight people crammed into one house generally would. There was much LAN gaming, a lot of table topping, the occasional scrabble tourney, BBQs, and a lot of hanging out at our friends cybercafe/comic shop/video game rental/hobby store. Soon the house grew into a tangle of gaming consoles, network cables, spliced cable TV cables, and stray geek paraphernalia. Also we had seven couches.
I don’t think I have ever been as happy as I was back then. Even if it wasn’t always fun and games, usually it was, but we had our rough times. I learned a lot from that era. I learned what it was like to be poor, to be truly hungry, I learned to be thrifty. Also I learned to appreciate what you had. I was hard headed I refused to take handouts and didn’t ask my folks for a thing. Also I learned I like geek related figures and statuary. Also that DC is totally boss and Marvel can blow me. Also that I like the word also.
Things where just simpler then. I had a steady job, a not so steady girlfriend, and really my only worries where about how to procure alcohol and how much fajita does it take to feed seven geeks. A lot. We had our bad times, yeah. But once most of the guys started working things picked up.
Of course then we had to grow up.
Raul was the first one to move out. He went to Finland knocked up a girl he met online and stayed there. Which was fine by me cause I hated sleeping on the top bunk anyway. Raphael got kicked the hell out for being a thief and just generally a douche-baggy roommate. Then Fido moved out shortly before getting married. By the time Geo moved in with his sister upstate we had lost the house to his younger brother and his pothead friends. You can only take so much of having your shit jacked and pawned. For me the final straw was Sunset Riders. Look it up, that game was so awesome it isn’t even funny. Plus setting up a greenhouse in the bathroom is not cool. If your friends are selling it to make money and pay rent, whatever, I don’t want to know about it, just pay up. But if your smoking that shit in my house, nuh uh. Out motherfuckers.
The rest of us quickly moved out in rapid succession. A year or two later Geo eventually moved back home, however things could never be the same.
Fidel found a woman just as mean as the ones in his family, is happily married, and expecting a baby boy in the next few weeks. Raul is still living in Finland and has just witnessed the birth of his third child. I keep telling him to watch out when they grow up. They are gorgeous kids, each one of them has mocha skin but blonde hair and blue or green eyes. Lady killers in the making. Rafa, well no one knows what happened to Rafa, honestly I couldn’t care less. He still owes me money. Chris moved back in with his parents and does a whole lot of nothing. Also we are all pretty sure he’s closeted. Like hard core. Geo lives at his Gran’s place and acts as her primary caregiver, he’s decided to go back to school and is pursuing a degree in radiology. The big surprise has been Teban who not only met a girl, but managed to deposit his seed in her. They are expecting the birth of a son in about three months. Geo’s brother has quit drugs after a particularly harrowing arrest. He has managed to focus what was once just drug driven jam sessions into star talent that is taking him on his third cross country tour. As for me? Well I haven’t changed much, I’ve managed to stay single and will be finally finishing a degree, this time its marketing. So far it looks like I may be moving upstate. Also I’m still partial to statuary,
We all still manage to get together once a week and geek. We had good times, and a lot of laughs. But at least we’ve managed to stay connected. Except Rafa, we hate that guy.
So I dusted off the old Dreamcast yesterday. Just hearing and seeing the boot-screen was enough to make me melancholic. I went over to Geo’s and set it up on an old TV, playing the damn thing was enough to send us both into a state of nostalgia. Even Geo started talking about bygone times. Which is unusual for him since he never speaks about the past.
For me the Dreamcast is inseparable from the era of “The Guys House” or “Kadoma Haus” as we called it. We where anime appreciating, LAN networking, software pirating, web comic reading, acerbic gamers. And we gorged ourselves on junk food and general apathy.
We had all just graduated high school and by a stroke of luck where able to move into my friends place which his family had left to him and his younger brother. Things where good. We geeked on a daily basis, decorated the house with printouts and acted how seven, occasionally, eight people crammed into one house generally would. There was much LAN gaming, a lot of table topping, the occasional scrabble tourney, BBQs, and a lot of hanging out at our friends cybercafe/comic shop/video game rental/hobby store. Soon the house grew into a tangle of gaming consoles, network cables, spliced cable TV cables, and stray geek paraphernalia. Also we had seven couches.
I don’t think I have ever been as happy as I was back then. Even if it wasn’t always fun and games, usually it was, but we had our rough times. I learned a lot from that era. I learned what it was like to be poor, to be truly hungry, I learned to be thrifty. Also I learned to appreciate what you had. I was hard headed I refused to take handouts and didn’t ask my folks for a thing. Also I learned I like geek related figures and statuary. Also that DC is totally boss and Marvel can blow me. Also that I like the word also.
Things where just simpler then. I had a steady job, a not so steady girlfriend, and really my only worries where about how to procure alcohol and how much fajita does it take to feed seven geeks. A lot. We had our bad times, yeah. But once most of the guys started working things picked up.
Of course then we had to grow up.
Raul was the first one to move out. He went to Finland knocked up a girl he met online and stayed there. Which was fine by me cause I hated sleeping on the top bunk anyway. Raphael got kicked the hell out for being a thief and just generally a douche-baggy roommate. Then Fido moved out shortly before getting married. By the time Geo moved in with his sister upstate we had lost the house to his younger brother and his pothead friends. You can only take so much of having your shit jacked and pawned. For me the final straw was Sunset Riders. Look it up, that game was so awesome it isn’t even funny. Plus setting up a greenhouse in the bathroom is not cool. If your friends are selling it to make money and pay rent, whatever, I don’t want to know about it, just pay up. But if your smoking that shit in my house, nuh uh. Out motherfuckers.
The rest of us quickly moved out in rapid succession. A year or two later Geo eventually moved back home, however things could never be the same.
Fidel found a woman just as mean as the ones in his family, is happily married, and expecting a baby boy in the next few weeks. Raul is still living in Finland and has just witnessed the birth of his third child. I keep telling him to watch out when they grow up. They are gorgeous kids, each one of them has mocha skin but blonde hair and blue or green eyes. Lady killers in the making. Rafa, well no one knows what happened to Rafa, honestly I couldn’t care less. He still owes me money. Chris moved back in with his parents and does a whole lot of nothing. Also we are all pretty sure he’s closeted. Like hard core. Geo lives at his Gran’s place and acts as her primary caregiver, he’s decided to go back to school and is pursuing a degree in radiology. The big surprise has been Teban who not only met a girl, but managed to deposit his seed in her. They are expecting the birth of a son in about three months. Geo’s brother has quit drugs after a particularly harrowing arrest. He has managed to focus what was once just drug driven jam sessions into star talent that is taking him on his third cross country tour. As for me? Well I haven’t changed much, I’ve managed to stay single and will be finally finishing a degree, this time its marketing. So far it looks like I may be moving upstate. Also I’m still partial to statuary,
We all still manage to get together once a week and geek. We had good times, and a lot of laughs. But at least we’ve managed to stay connected. Except Rafa, we hate that guy.