Some thoughts about Frutiger Aero, Windows Live, and my own nostalgia

[GideonWilhelm]

So I keep spending time on Frutiger Aero pages on neocities and coming away sad and nostalgic.  I miss that era of computing so much.  I *loved* aero when it came out, and I loved that Windows 7 improved it a lot.  My first laptop felt like this special, incredible thing.  I learned about Linux with it, played in LAN parties, got really good at TF2, learned Java, it was a spectacular time.  And I hung out with friends a lot during that time, too.

I feel like the entire atmosphere of my life was just more social back then... and the possibilities felt endless.  Maybe I just miss my optimism.

One thing I miss terribly is the ubiquity of Windows Live Messenger.  I know there's similar software out there, but it's not where "everyone" is, y'know?  But ultimately, what I miss about it is the interface.  You had a window for your friends list, and windows for each chat, and that's it.  It wasn't the monolith that Discord is, you could have multiple chats and reference them quickly to relay information without removing anything from your screen.  In Discord, if you wanna talk to someone about something in another group chat, you have to bring the entire focus to the other group chat, then bring focus back again.  It's not a huge deal, but it's just the way I got comfortable using my computer and chatting online.

I had a fistful of friends to chat to, as well.  We'd be online pretty much all night.  Never really had any meaningful convos, we'd just kinda complain about school and shout family guy lines at each other.  But it was camaraderie, it was company.  I haven't heard from so many of them in so long, not since Dave got into an MLM... but I digress.  These days, most of the people I get in contact with are just... strangers.  I don't know them well, I don't feel like we're becoming any kind of close as friends.  I've tried to find my home in a few friend groups, but something always ends up coming apart.  Melodrama, usually.  A bunch of friends rip each other apart and I get lost in the divorce proceedings.

I still have my day-to-day life.  I really miss how software used to be, but maybe, underneath it all, I really just miss that era where everything seemed so easy.

[Melooon]

I've noticed a funny correlation in my life where the times I end up missing the most are also the times that I look back on and cringe at all of the dumb things I said or did 

It seems like there's a true correlation that ignorance is bliss and wisdom about life often sucks the joy out of it. I was watching the Simpsons the other day and there's a bit where Bart is trying to get the people in the old folks home to go out and have fun, and his grandad says "But if I get up someone will take my chair!" - it become like that; you learn enough about the little frictions in your life to avoid them, but you do so at the cost of actually living - I don't think that's just an individual thing either, it happens in society and design, and its reflected back at us. A lot of modern interfaces and design are too afraid of friction to live; and a lot of people are afraid of making real friends because its inconvenient to be known.

The truth of course is that it's still easy, if your willing to accept the cost - its easy to run into the sea because it looks fun, but the cost is sitting in the car soaking wet for an hours drive home I think real wisdom is learning the cost, and then choosing to when its worth it for the sake of life; and the annoying thing is having to waste most of life to learn how to do that

So I think its you, but its also not you; it is your choices, but its also the choices of everyone around you, from friends to interface designers to random strangers - I sure don't have a fix for all that, but at least I don't think its too complex