#90sweek — Public Fediverse posts

Well I've fallen off the wagon. The complications and stress of the injury, the disrupted routines across the board, made it more difficult than I'd prepared for.

I did make it through yesterday afternoon at least.

I may try to get back on the wagon today. Or might try again next month.

First time I've not been able to do it.

#90sWeek

I'm using Mastodon from my phone, because the laptop is harder to reach with my hip out. But I'm keeping it moderate. This is an area I've tackled and have been doing well at anyhow.

Anyway, I dropped by to say I'm playing Harvester. I'm enjoying it so far. As horror point and click FMVs go, it's extremely off-putting, in the best way.

#90sWeek

90s Week has been set back somewhat by my injury. I've been too focused on simple things like getting to the bathroom and wondering if I need to see a doctor or if I can afford it, and my routines are completely upended in other ways simply because I'm living in a different space. Not ideal conditions to decide to set down my phone, especially when it is painful to reach for the laptop.

I'm still hoping to start. I may go with softer rules, or start late, or idk, skip it.

#90sWeek

Here's what I'm hoping to get out of #90sWeek 2026:

I've already moderated my social media use and tech anxiety issues from prior years (and I did a soft version of this challenge over the summer – not really 90s restricted, but based on not doing things that made me feel worse). So I'm not planning to get anything out of it on that end.

For me, the 90s media is the carrot. I still think the 1990s was the single best era for music, so I actually save it for this week to keep it fresh. I was quite sheltered and broke in the 90s, so there's are still a lot of music videos, albums, movies, and shows I missed, and it's nice to have an excuse to go back.

The lack of distraction heightens the experience to the point that I can trick myself into being back in the zeitgeist. It's kind of like magic. So I'm hoping to do some inner work, maybe journalling and digital hygiene on my old writing files.

It also gives me a chance to try things I want to do but don't because they're less exciting. If I can find the journalling games I printed ("reading material," so in the spirit, it's ok if it was written recently), I'd like to try some of those. Cross stitch, art. And I'm going to try yet again to get back into my old reading habit, which was going strong all through the 90s.

I *will* get bored. Boredom is the point! We've forgotten how to get bored. That was part of my soft-challenge over the summer. I think it's healthy to be bored sometimes. Boredom shouldn't create anxiety, and the fact that it does is part of our modern sickness.

🧵

Ok I'm planning #90sWeek 2026, starting on New Years!

For one week, I will limit my media and tech usage centered on what was available prior to 2001.

This is my annual New Years Resolution, except I do it in the form of a week-long challenge. I skipped last year, but did the couple of years prior. My prior 90s Weeks emotionally prepared me to leave Twitter, and have been of psychological and emotional benefit that lasts years after the challenge has ended. There are points during a 90s Week when it feels like I've actually time traveled, and it helps reconnect my present-self with my past-self. It has reduced my attachment to devices and my willingness to tolerate things that make me cranky or anxious.

You can adapt these rules and play along with me, if you want. But part of the challenge is that Mastodon is a BBS wall, which means you can only update your progress from a desktop, pretending you're limited by dial-up!

90s Week Rules:

Get clear about what you want from 90s Week. Then interpret the rules based on intentional changes to your routines. Do whatever creates more mindful media and tech use in the ways you'd like to improve.

The spirit of the challenge, for me, is to reconsider my relationship to technology by immersing myself as much as possible in pre-2001 technology and media. Rules will necessarily have to be bent, but should align as closely as possible to how I've defined the spirit. (No way I'm setting up a CD or DVD player on a CRT – but you may want to!)

My rules:

1. No media made after 2001, except physical reading materials.
2. No technology (or practical equivalent*) made after 2001.
3. Avoid enshittification and ads. If it has those things, don't use it.
4. Work-related new-tech/media use is allowed.
4. iPad use is allowed, but only old-style, unenshittified games like pre-paid Majong and Solitaire apps.
5. Steamdeck is allowed (it's a "console" or "GameBoy", but only games made before 2001, already purchased, downloaded, and in a 90s Week collection for quick browsing.
6. Social media is allowed, but only from a desktop, and only if it is comparable to what existed in 2001, like IRC, ICQ, email, and forums. (Mastodon, in moderation, may be considered a BBS wall.)
7. The iPhone can only be used as a phone, SMS, or music player. (I've also got the Art Bell app, but it won't let me download 90s broadcasts, so I won't use it if it's frustrating.)

* Practical equivalent: For example, streaming movies is ok, but all friction that came post-2001 must be mitigated. Line up games, shows, music ahead of time to avoid having to hunt it down and fiddle with subscriptions or logins. Download media ahead of time when possible to avoid internet frustrations.

It helps to make a list of options ahead of time, and have the media/activities easily accessible. The first year I did this had me *very* antsy and reaching for my phone, like coming off an addiction. Make it silly easy to do the right thing!

🧵

So I guess I'll watch All in the Family next. Apple has it to buy.

Sad, I was really enjoying WKRP.

[Except they don't have all the seasons of that either, so f them. I won't have it set up before #90sWeek, but a media server has become priority.]

[Since season 2 of WKRP isn't available anywhere, I guess they let it on YouTube. So I'm back in business! I think!]

@RevXenoFact I'm planning my New Years #90sWeek!

I'm thinking of doing #90sWeek this year.

I had to skip it last year because I was moving. I've been doing well at moderating my technology use this year, so I don't need it as badly. But at this point it's a tradition. And there's still room for improvement.

Oh my. I just realized that if I'm going to do annual #90sWeek this year, I've got less than a week to prepare!

I've been too busy altering my lifestyle to notice my yearly experiment of intentionally altering my lifestyle....

It might be redundant at this point? And I'm kinda busy with said permanent lifestyle changes?

OTOH I'm sentimental and have been doing this now for what, 4-5 years. I don't want to just skip it...

@neil @sherlock_holmes I do #90sWeek one week every January. No media or tech (reasonable equivalences are ok — I don't own a CD player) made after 2001. As close as I can get. It's refreshing.

Lol nope it’s back up. They said it wouldn’t be.

#90sWeek

It’s not like I can go to Blockbuster. And at least with my New Years #90sWeek challenge, I’m allowed to stream 90s shows.

Unintentional surprise enforced #90sWeek(end) for me. Internet is down-down, and not expected up till at least Sunday.

Very disruptive to weekend rest routine. But maybe it will be good.

I’ve also had success on slowly weening myself off my electronic compulsions, which are now often boring. (That is one of the goals of my annual #90sWeek challenge. The enshitification of the mobile idle game market has also helped because is so hard to find an engaging, playable idle game these days.)

That’s making space for reading. I’m optimistic but don’t want to set myself up for disappointment again.

#DarkSojourn #Recovery2024 #PTSD #MECFS

We explore the criminally underrated Marvel Knights Inhuman series in the final piece for 90s Week. A story that played more like a political chess game than a superhero drama. https://www.howtolovecomics.com/2024/02/25/marvel-knights-inhumans/

#Comics #ComicBooks #Marvel #MarvelComics #Inhumans #90sWeek

We explore the criminally underrated Marvel Knights Inhuman series in the final piece for 90s Week. A story that played more like a political chess game than a superhero drama. https://www.howtolovecomics.com/2024/02/25/marvel-knights-inhumans/

#Comics #ComicBooks #Marvel #MarvelComics #Inhumans #90sWeek

We explore the criminally underrated Marvel Knights Inhuman series in the final piece for 90s Week. A story that played more like a political chess game than a superhero drama. https://www.howtolovecomics.com/2024/02/25/marvel-knights-inhumans/

#Comics #ComicBooks #Marvel #MarvelComics #Inhumans #90sWeek

For #90sWeek, we look back at Emerald Twilight, the controversial 1994 Green Lantern story that explores loss and the Hal Jordan’s villainous reaction to it. https://www.howtolovecomics.com/2024/02/20/green-lantern-emerald-twilight/

#Comics #ComicBooks #DCComics #GreenLantern #Superhero #EmeraldTwilight

The Clone Saga was a massive Spider-Man story, taking in well over 100 comics. Find out how to read this divisive tale from the 1990s with this handy reading order. https://www.howtolovecomics.com/2024/02/19/spider-man-clone-saga-reading-order/

#Comics #ComicsBooks #1990s #Reading #Books #MarvelComics #90sWeek #Marvel #SpiderMan #Clones

One thing I can say for sure, though, is that my compulsive evening routine is no longer so compulsive. Basically, it's an evening routine I started after I left my abuser that involves getting very high and then distracting myself as much as possible by rotating through idle games and TV shows on my iPad, in a certain order, with certain goals to meet. (I'd get pretty severe anxiety before if this routine was disrupted. It borders on OCD, which is an anxiety disorder.)

Part of the reason I started #90sWeek in 2021 was to help me break that routine, or at least find its edges. That's one reason it was less impactful and easier this year, is because I've already chipped away at those compulsions. Oh, I'll still do the routine. But it's become more flexible and healthy.

🧵

#NewYearsResolution #DarkSojourn #Recovery2024

I might add more thoughts to this thread as things come to me.

Previous 90s Weeks have helped me become more mindful of how I use technology, which has made it easier to use technology in more healthy ways throughout the rest of the year. The more I've adjusted my life to be less online, the less #90sWeek changes me, at least in its current form. This means it's working to effect changes year-long.

For the next one, I'll have to think through if I should make any changes to the rules.

I'm still running into barriers with my mental health, because I don't have my 90s brain. Most 90s activities require the ability to concentrate for long periods of time on stuff that's slightly less exciting than I've grown used to. So "reading for hours" might be my goal, and it is certainly easier without the distractions, but I could still only manage for a short time. 90s Week is a good test of how far I've come in rebuilding.

🧵

#NewYearsResolution

↝ I finally saw Leaving Las Vegas. I would not have understood had I seen it at any point in the 90s. I was a highly sheltered Mormon when it came out, and while less sheltered later in the decade, I was still Mormon until '01 and hadn't experienced much of the world.

I really liked it. It took the trope of "middle-aged washed up problematic white man is saved by a quirky or socially misfit woman" and laid waste to it. Not only does she NOT save him by *honoring* his request that she not save him, but she is the protagonist driving the story. It was produced by two women even though the writer/director was a man. It's notable for the complete absence of moral judgement by the lens, which is difficult given this film's subject matter: alcoholism and sex work. The film intentionally refuses to answer the question it repeatedly asks: Why is he like this? We get only hints.

I loved the movie so much that if I were still into writing media analysis, I'd deconstruct this one.

🧵

#90sWeek

↝ I had a long conversation with my mom yesterday. I found it easier to do when the week had been so slow and my nights so boring. 😂 (There really was less dopamine to go around back then.)

She was receptive and we covered a lot of ground. She only got emotional once, when I started talking about fascism within the Republican party. She was trying to say that the only bad republicans were the ones who were secretly left-leaning socialists, like Mitt Romney 🙄 (She got caught up on her own words when she tried to explain how fascism is the same as socialism. I did not use this weakness to attack.)

I instead redirected her easily by saying that racism doesn't care what party you are, they'll use whatever means they can to create a fascist state where slavery can be legal again. It was a long conversation, but good, and she mostly trusted what I told her. I went around the "back way," and spoke to our shared values, because the front doors caused her to be defensive.

🧵

#90sWeek

↝ While it sucked that my back was out the whole time (which prevented my plans to channel that boredom into cleaning up around here), it was ... nicely nostalgic in the sense that I had a lot more lower back pain in the 90s than I've had in the last two decades, so. I learned ergonomics. (Now I'm more likely to get get neck, bicep, and shoulder problems.)

↝ My So-Called Life is a really good show. Of the 4 pre-2001 shows I picked, this is my favorite.

↝ My theory about culture shifting to value "authenticity" over all else in the 90s continues to bear out. Almost all 90s media I consumed this week (much of it new to me) had themes of authenticity. I feel this was GenX's Great Contribution, and like us, is overlooked, but without which, the positive changes we're seeing now wouldn't have been possible. This is true of almost all media made for teens and 20-somethings. I can just pick something and press play, and there it is again: The conversation about authenticity.

🧵

#90sWeek

#90sWeek is over! Thoughts from out of time:

↝ This 90s Week wasn't as powerfully impactful as the last two I did. There are a number of reasons for this. For one thing, I indulged in deep nostalgia without the 90s Week rules back in Oct/Nov to help me cope, and I'd kind of had my fill. It's also no longer a fresh and new challenge, and each time I do it I peel off another layer of the bad things I'm trying to get rid of. There are fewer layers to peel back now, so it's less directly obvious.

Nevertheless, I do feel some slow shifts that got started which I expect to cause some changes in me over the next few weeks.

↝ I found it was much faster and easier to "detox" from the 2020s (previous years took a couple of days just to stop reaching for my phone and feeling anxious). But I did feel "antsy" a lot more often, a lot further into the experiment. A mild but persistent annoyance and impatience to give up, even as late as Saturday (6 days in).

🧵

#NewYearsResolution

I'm trying once again to get into Buffy. This is attempt #4 or so. For #90sWeek in 2022, I watched some then had to stop.

This year I'm trying to figure out where I left off. I had thought I'd gotten through the first TWO seasons, but apparently just the one. Because Seth Green's character showed up and I was like who is this? I think I would have remembered him.

So I'm watching the S2 season finale first, then I guess I'll labor through the beginning of S2.

I want to like it. Given that both Sarah Michelle Geller AND Alyson Hannigan were a couple of my favorite actresses in the 90s, and that I am (was?) into vampires, I *ought* to love it, but I just find myself bored and annoyed most of the time.

Honestly, My So Called Life is way more interesting.

[Tried to post last night but my instance was down.]

Breaking #90sWeek rules to come say...

...how much more heartbreaking this song is when you're old.

Especially this year.

Further reflection in the next toot.

#music

https://open.spotify.com/track/6KDZfDkZFdzviKcDkwfapN?si=RLsbki7XRZ-E5nKCfDFw1g

Checking in from #90sweek!

Life is slow here in the 1990s. Less dopamine. Sleepy. Bored.

But also it's been a ton of fun to be forced to slow down enough that books are interesting again (even if they make me sleepy). Older shows are interesting again. Simple games are interesting again.

I'm playing Loom (on the Steamdeck – a cheat – I tried to get it working on the #MiyooMiniPlus). On the Miyoo I'm playing Advance Wars which is a tactical. Still in the loooong tutorial. It's like Fire Emblem that way.

I'm watching classic Doctor Who (3rd Doctor, stuck on Earth for sooo long so boring), Daria, Buffy, and My So-Called Life. The three shows about girls in high school was an accident, but there are some interesting trends appearing about the Zeitgeist of high school in the 90s.

I find myself excited to do the next thing, then I do it for 15 mins and get sleepy, and move to the next. Rotate around like that. Still better than checking my phone every 5 minutes.

#NewYearsResolution

And with that, I hop into my time machine and #90sWeek begins. I'll only be on here from a browser on my laptop until Jan 7th because that's how we did things in the 90s!

Happy New Year!

#NewYearResolutions #NewYear

Oh wow. There's a House of Leaves journalling game!

The book still haunts my memory. Very excellent book. Experimental and immersive. Quite #liminal.

Gonna try the game during #90sWeek.

https://shouldabensleeping.itch.io/house-of-leaves-ttprg

#TTRPG #JournallingRPG

I guess I should be sorta glad my attempt to delete my tweets didn't completely work. I thought Twitter's archive did a better job of threading, but no it does not, so to see my full thoughts on my first #90sWeek, I've got to click those links through to actual Twitter and thankfully those are still there. I hate it. Hate hate hate it. A lot of my notes / thoughts I expected to be coherently recorded aren't recorded as well as I'd expected. Ugh.

(And of course my full thoughts on my 2nd #90sWeek only exist in a mastodon.lol archive, which also fails to thread properly.)

7/

Going to spend today lining up everything so I have to fiddle with minimal post-2001 technology frustrations during #90sWeek. Make sure I'm subscribed to see the old shows and movies I want to stream. Make sure my oldies playlists are lined up. Print out some journaling RPGs. Set my paper books on the shelf. Get out my cross stitch kit. Make sure my Miyoo has the games I want all ready.

I'll only be on Mastodon via laptop web. So casual browsing will be limited. Probably fewer shitposts unless I write them on paper first.

Is there anything you want me to get you while I'm in the 90s?

Ok it's my last day in 2023, but I'm not going direct to 2023, no! Next stop is 2001, because tonight at midnight, it's #90sWeek!

Some of these "offline" activities might involve *a little bit* of being online. Like, I've been wanting to try #JournallingRPG where this here Mastodon is the "journal" as a fiction writing outlet. Like my #90sWeek I do every New Year, there will be exceptions to the rules so long as the spirit of the thing is respected.

We'll see. I don't like setting goals that are impossible, so if this continues to be "easy" I'll follow where it leads, and not feel too badly if I miss the mark. Healing can involve pressure (it will take some pressure to change my attention span habits), but it should be a gentle pressure that knows when to stop.

(And I'm meandering, but that is the point of Analog Hour, is to extend my brain's expectation of dopamine release, which should extend my attention span. I used to min-max this stat in myself using behavioral changes all the time so maybe I can get back to that.)

3/3

#DarkSojourn #Recovery2023