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Of Donkey Kong And Record Players

By | Posted Under Miscellaneous | Comments (29)

mariobros02.jpg

Good evening. Did you know that you’re old? Like, really old? I think your family has started the “do we put him/her in a home or just let the poor old fucker die in his/her own house” conversation amongst themselves. I feel your pain as I’ve come to that conclusion myself. Every day my children remind me that I’m plodding along that road to the dirt nap at an ever more brisk pace and that, “they don’t do it like that anymore, Dad.” Do you remember when you could get a piece of technology that didn’t become obsolete within a year? When they released a new model of whatever gadget every few years instead of like now where it’s still the same piece of tech just in a shiny new outfit just like Barbie. Remember Barbie - the tramp with a million jobs and the gay boyfriend? My kids don’t but that may just be the type of children they are.


What brought about this stunning revelation is the short video below. In it, they give a piece of what was cutting edge technology at some point in time to different children and ask them what they think it is used for. My issue is that I’m intimately familiar with every piece of gadgetry they trudge out and I don’t recall that happening before. I think this is the first time I’ve said to myself, “wait…it wasn’t that long ago that we used this stuff. The kids are absolutely mystified by a lot of the items and it kind of makes me wonder if the kids are just stupid or if I really should just start making plans to give all my money to that guy who called and asked me for my bank info and start my quick descent into dementia.

I apologize that the video is subtitled as it takes place somewhere named Montreal. I expect that, since it is such, nobody will watch it. Much like most foreign films that find a North American release.

A camera, son? Really? A camera? That one lad at the end does seem to have a promising career as a DJ to look forward to though.

Source: That Daily What









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Comments

A carpet?

Damn gutter frogs.

Posted by: Jay at January 10, 2011 8:22 PM

All their hacking and gagging sounds kinda cute.

Posted by: Candee at January 10, 2011 8:24 PM

You DO know Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. are two completely different games, right?

Posted by: BarbadoSlim at January 10, 2011 8:32 PM

Shut up, whippersnapper (and new Facebook friend).

Posted by: MM at January 10, 2011 8:55 PM

Ha Ha. You have The Old.
Actually, I had similar reactions to all of the computer related stuff at the time it was new. I have not improved much.

Posted by: Lindsey with an 'e' at January 10, 2011 9:03 PM

I take offence to the implication that I WOULDN'T know that, BSlim. Pistols at dawn.

Posted by: admin at January 10, 2011 9:08 PM

Their describing what they think these items are in French just makes the denigration that much more complete.

Posted by: Lindsay at January 10, 2011 9:43 PM

I have never actually seen an 8 Track player before that. My parents gave me one of those Fisher Price turntables when I was a kid, so I do have a fondness for records.

I'll be getting off your lawn right about now.

Posted by: Uda at January 10, 2011 10:04 PM

That gameboy is older than I am. But I have started to feel the old coming on this year. Creaky joints, a fondness for the pop culture of my day (no song will ever be better than 'Ignition Remix'), a tendency to call everyone 'dude' even though it's out of date. Really, I might as well be eighty.

Posted by: esme at January 10, 2011 10:22 PM

Unfair to use borderline Quebecois kids. That's like going to Bald Knob, AR and asking them to pronounce the G in words.

Posted by: Ian at January 10, 2011 10:52 PM

I've been diagnosed with Old and concur with esme that the remix to Ignition--hot and fresh out the kitchen--is the greatest song of all time.

Posted by: icecreammang at January 10, 2011 11:40 PM

I don't plan on letting myself get all "whaaa?! what does this gadget do?" when I get older. However, I did notice a difference between myself and very young children a few months ago. I was in San Jose with the coolest thing ever. Some guy at Google hooked Google Earth up to 8 computers each outputting to 8 widescreen TVs turned 90 degrees. They all sort of wrapped around you creating a panoramic effect. These kids* walked in while I was watching and immediately started touching the screens. Kids growing up today just assume that they can interact with everything just by touching it. And that's the way they're going to grow up. It's going to be interesting.

* - Let me tell you, though, these little fuckers could not operate the 3D mouse effectively. As a result, people kept looking at these kid's houses from a 230 degree upside angle beneath the ground. I fucking kicked ass at it...but I digress.

Posted by: pissant at January 11, 2011 12:36 AM

I turn 30 this year. I am not an antique!!

I did have that Game Boy though, and I kicked ass at Mario.

Posted by: Carrie at January 11, 2011 2:25 AM

This is why I don't like kids! Ignorant, annoying little fucks!

Posted by: Trixie at January 11, 2011 2:27 AM

I still have one of those Gameboys.

Get off my lawn! Turn that racket down!

Posted by: Fuckchop at January 11, 2011 4:29 AM

Saaayyyy, I recognise all those thingums and I turn 18 this year.... does this mean I should stop lurking around Pajiba?

Posted by: Val at January 11, 2011 6:31 AM

When I taught middle school my kids pried open a painted over phone box in the classroom, only to discover a rotary phone. They were fascinated by it. They'd never seen one. They had to ask me how one dialed, and when I explained the mechanism, they asked me if one just waited while the phone completed its rotation on each digit. And further, if that meant one had to wait to dial out the whole phone number. The concept was amazingly alien and nonsensical to them.

Although, I still don't think this made me feel as old as the time one of my students asked me to identify the performers of a song she sang for me, upon which identification (Gloria Estefan/Miami Sound Machine) she replied with, "That's my mom's favorite song!" I'm not yet 30 (thought the sand's running out on that one quick) but I apparently am old enough to be the parent of a middle schooler, if I go by how young my students are and how "old" they tell me their parents are.

Middle schoolers are bad for the ego.

Posted by: leuce7 at January 11, 2011 7:03 AM

My daughter had tests done (some ass-wipe thought she may be autistic) and when she had to identify items, she had no idea what an iron was or what it is used for.

My wife had to explain that we never use one at home because everything is wash and wear.

Daughter turned out just fine, thank you. She just wasn't challenged which changed dramatically in first grade when the teacher found the way to get her to come out of her shell.

Posted by: Uncle JR at January 11, 2011 7:14 AM

I still have that Gameboy, too. Doesn't work any more but I still have it. I also had something they didn't show those kids: an Atari 2600. I loved Centipede and Space Invaders. AND I can remember party line telephones at my Grandmother's house, black & white TVs that you had to get up and change the channel on and had a pretty good collection of 8 track tapes back in the day.


All ya'll get off my fucking lawn.


I would have loved to have seen what those kids thought of this old Victrola and 78rpm records I have sitting in a corner of my living room. Now that one isn't originally mine - it was handed down by my father who had it from a great,great uncle. Still, it would have been a hoot to see those kids trying to figure that one out.

Posted by: Carrie at January 11, 2011 8:09 AM

Of course they didn't recognize that stuff they're CANADIAN! They just got indoor plumbing last week.

Show those kids a skinning knife or a Winchester rifle. Give em a chance.

Posted by: logan at January 11, 2011 9:00 AM

Dear sweet Godtopus. That reminds me that in my downstairs I've got boxes of casette tapes and stacks of LPs and I've been meaning to get one of those turntable/tape/CD burner combo things that can turn the old stuff into CDs, but one day I realized that in a few years you won't be able to get a CD player anywhere anymore either, so what's the point? My stuff is beyond obsolete. It's gone on to whatever the next stage is.

Posted by: , at January 11, 2011 9:53 AM

Due to outdated but severely expensive equipment in the shop I still use 3.5" floppy disks at work every day.

I've probably said this on this site before but I can't get over how old it makes me and everyone else feel. It's 2011. There are now people born in the 90's that can legally buy booze.

Posted by: Paultera at January 11, 2011 10:44 AM

Your modern technology frightens and confuses me. I am in fact just banging on the magic box which brings light and noise into my world.

Posted by: mrcreosote at January 11, 2011 10:45 AM

Nothing about this story made me feel bad until esme said "That Gameboy is older than me."

And that only because I can remember a lengthy period of my life before the Gameboy existed.

Posted by: lubeg at January 11, 2011 10:50 AM

I also remember album commercials on T.V. ending with this statement: "Available now on eight track cassette!"

heh "Freedom Rock"... remember that guy with the Parkay tubs on his head like they were headphones?

Remember Parkay?

You know you remember Parkay...

"Butter."
"Butter."
"PARKAY!"

Posted by: lubeg at January 11, 2011 10:55 AM

That was priceless. I must show darling hubby.

I, too, thought the yellow thing with the plunger was a bomb, or that thing you use to ignite TNT.

Posted by: BWeaves at January 11, 2011 11:13 AM

It doesn't matter how old you are, it's your incompetence level that matters. As long as you can program the shit you buy, you'll do just fine. Otherwise, you're just a 12 O'clock

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=twelve%20o'clock%20flasher

(yes, I realize it's not all fancy HTML tagged/linked/whatever the fuck - I don't know how. But my clock doesn't flash, so get the hell off my lawn)

Posted by: Xtreme at January 11, 2011 2:41 PM

Show those kids a skinning knife or a Winchester rifle. Give em a chance.

Posted by: logan at January 11, 2011 9:00 AM

You're thinking of Texas. Canadian kids can only identify hockey-related stuff, beavers, and moose.

And maple syrup, obviously.

Posted by: Uriah Creep at January 11, 2011 10:58 PM

I've got boxes of casette tapes and stacks of LPs and I've been meaning to get one of those turntable/tape/CD burner combo things that can turn the old stuff into CDs

I'm not sure what it's called, but I know Apple has a device where you can record and convert all that stuff to MP3 on your computer. I've actually been meaning to look into it myself.

Posted by: Uda at January 12, 2011 5:31 AM