Things people did in the 2000s

233. Shazam songs via an SMS
234. Cheat at pub quizzes via an SMS
235. Mephedrone

236. Know all of the lyrics to popular City High song “What Would U Do”

chap all those hit pretty hard

2580, right down the center. SEND

a shazam sms sent in 2003 is responsible for me knowing the name of On A Ragga Tip

i wonder occasionally is there is a log of that text, on an archived tape backup somewhere

there could be a double dose of hauntology from 20 year old phone texts, first the ghost of the person you used to be and no longer recognise and even more sadly old friends or acquaintances that are actually gone from this earth now.

Planned obsolescence is good now

237. Was a useful person for knowing HTML

things people thought were funny - a whole lot of what now looks like proto-alt-right shit passed for liberal or apolitical at the time

238. This one, again

yeah that one sums up a lot for me

re: old phones, i actually did recently power up (before finally saying goodbye to) my first cell phone, a solid little flipper owned from 2006 to 2009. most of the txts were from the late end of that period but even that time gap brought a real whoosh of complex feelings about the person i used to be and the friends on the other end (mostly still very fond friends though in less frequent contact).

i have that even just for 2021. a friend died recently and my last text to him, after he couldn't make it to a kids-and-playground meeting, was "hope to see you next time"

i'm sorry to hear that, CT.

Death and the digital world is a weird thing. I'm of an age where I have quite a few people in my phone contacts who are now dead. What do I do, delete their numbers? It doesn't feel quite right. Ditto Facebook friends.

239. Said that The Simpsons isn't as good as it used to be but it's still one of the best shows on television.

240. Were excited that Family Guy was coming back from cancellation.

241. patted Seth McFarlane on the back for moving forward, doing the work and fighting like fuck to defy the FCC

242. patiently counted down the days/hours/minutes/seconds until the Olsen twins' 18th birthday:

https://i.imgur.com/ctgqkjz.jpg

(ironically, of course!)

Celebrity Boxing

243. Tried really hard to get Firefly uncancelled*

*Joss Whedon has obviously since been cancelled

2580, right down the center. SEND

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, June 5, 2021 5:37 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Dialed down the center with 1-800-CALL-ATT?

Bob Weaddababyeetsaboy

TIL 1-800-COLLECT still exists

when Mr. T and Carrot Top dominated our commercial breaks

lol apparently a 6 minute collect call on 1-800-CALL-COLLECT is like 42 bucks now

a strange return to the early 20th century, when long distance was insanely expensive and barely used, and provided largely so AT&T could claim it offered some special public benefit justifying its monopoly ownership of local phone companies. who is the target market for ludicrously expensive collect calling in 2020?

prison inmates

ugh. god our society is fucked.

that makes sense. sadly.

244. Watched movies with Tobey Maguire and/or Elijah Wood in leading roles.

It was neat when they told Tobey to act natural when filming on a street, and so he did finger guns, went into a club, did a line of coke and started dancing on a piano in Spider-Man 3.

244. be reminded of the existence of Sven Goran-Eriksson and Lembit Opik on a regular basis and not just when this happens

I can't believe this is real https://t.co/8t9wVfZac5 pic.twitter.com/r3VlPQ0VtG

— Patrick Maguire (@patrickkmaguire) June 8, 2021

lol wtf!

Speaking of the 2000s, I interviewed Opik when I was a journalism student in 2003, and found him super inspiring and likeable. I spent the day with him on a secondary school visit. Even then he was undoubtedly a self-obsessed goofball, but the kids were rapt with him, and he gave a speech about the importance of getting involved in politics, campaigning, not being apathetic, etc. that was as inspiring as anything I've heard on the subject. His subsequent career as a triple-z-list celeb, Sunday Sport columnist, and holder of bad opinions is an utter embarrassment, obviously, but also a real waste of a talent that probably wasn't that apparent to many, even himself.

245. visited Stileproject for proto-edgelord vibes

246. extremely relatedly, thought 'pimps' and 'hos' were funny concepts to roleplay as middle-class white people

lol #245

247. Often thought about, but couldn't quite explain why "Stuff White People Like" felt extremely racist while trying to be the opposite

248. Saved Karyn.

249. Bought string quartet tribute albums

250. Consider 256mb mp3 players with LED displays serious cutting edge shit. More of a self-own here because I was well behind the curve on music players.

251. Shagged Ariane

252. Laughed at cross-dressers. ("I'm a LADY!")

Of course now all the disablist/anti-trans/racist blackfacing elements are indefensible now, but really they should have been at the time as well. Not that I'm getting on my high horse here. I only boycotted it on the grounds that Lucas/Williams are horribly unfunny performers and absolute despicable wankers to boot.

253. Not automatically lol when you thought about Joseph Kony and the Lords Resistance Army

lol @ 251, had completely forgotten about that particular gem

254. Ran a spyware scan on your parents' computer and removed bonzibuddy.

(Today: help your parents use spying apps from google, apple, facebook)

My in-laws once asked me, in the 2000s, to look at their computer because it was “going slow”. Literally a full half of their Internet Explorer window was bullshit toolbars, because they always clicked Yes to everything.

374a. used physical tickets to get into events