{"id":3063,"date":"2014-04-08T21:35:59","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T21:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=3063"},"modified":"2014-04-08T21:36:48","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T21:36:48","slug":"is-it-in-your-genes-i-dont-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=3063","title":{"rendered":"Is it in your genes? I don\u2019t know\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even though I love playing older video games, a bunch of them bring back very strange, sometimes even sad memories.\u00a0 To play them now puts me right back in that state of mind I was in when I played them then.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like stepping into a time machine, and experiencing those same feelings I did back in the day.<\/p>\n

Some might say that\u2019s a bit strange.\u00a0 They might ask, \u201cWhy not live in the now?\u00a0 Why not focus on what\u2019s to come, instead of something long since gone by?\u00a0 Don\u2019t you think living in the past is a little\u2026\u00a0 weird?\u201d<\/p>\n

To be honest, those questions have bounced around my mind quite a bit over the last few years I\u2019ve written on this blog.\u00a0 As a person who has always been fascinated by the general subject of \u201chistory\u201d, I guess it\u2019s only natural for me to reflect on my own personal history.<\/p>\n

We all have our quirks, I guess.<\/p>\n

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\"1996<\/a>

1996 – Naughty Dog<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The general consensus about a person\u2019s early teenage years is that they can be a bit awkward.\u00a0 While there are undoubtedly several well-known reasons for this \u2013 reasons I don\u2019t much feel like getting into \u2013 I never considered mine to be all that bad.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there was some stuff going on at that time that would be hard on anyone\u2019s head, much less a 13 year old.\u00a0 A few family members had been diagnosed with Cancer, there was some uncertainty with jobs and money around the house (the worry ended up being all for naught, by the way), and I kept having friends whose families would move away and lose touch.<\/p>\n

I felt like I was in a funk\u2026\u00a0 but I still had NASCAR, and I still had video games.\u00a0 That\u2019s healthy, right?\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

In any case, it was in March of \u201997 that one of my great aunts in Baie-Sainte-Anne succumbed to Cancer a mere three months after learning she had the disease.\u00a0 It had been almost five years after my grandfather had passed away from natural causes, so handling the quick descent from \u201chealthy\u201d to \u201cill\u201d to \u201cdeceased\u201d was quite different for me, and hard to witness.<\/p>\n

On top of what was happening in the Baie, another great aunt of mine (on the other side of the family, in Newfoundland) passed away the same day as the other’s funeral!<\/p>\n

It was a rude awakening that the people I had grown up loving were starting to disappear.<\/p>\n

In May of \u201997, we went to the Baie to take care of some loose ends.\u00a0 Well, Mom did \u2013 I just tagged along as I always did, and brought some video games along to keep me occupied.<\/p>\n

I rented a Sony PlayStation from Blockbuster Video with Andretti Racing<\/em> and Crash Bandicoot<\/em>.\u00a0 I had played the first stage of Crash<\/em> SO MANY TIMES on a demo disc that I absolutely had to give the full game a try.<\/p>\n

He seemed to be the front-runner to challenge Mario\u2019s reign at the top of the video game heap, so I had to check out the competition!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"PlayStation<\/a>

PlayStation Interactive CD Sampler Vol. 3
No downloading. Just buy a magazine, and the demos are yours to play.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Crash Bandicoot<\/em> \u2013 the first one, at least (I haven\u2019t played any others) \u2013 turned out to be quite good.\u00a0 As I sat in that old mini-home and played Crash<\/em> and Andretti Racing<\/em>, it sort of helped me get over the fact that it was a lot quieter in the house.\u00a0 Melda was gone, her cats were gone, and that was just the way it had to be.<\/p>\n

It sucked, but life went on.\u00a0 There were other things for me to look forward to.<\/p>\n

I remember the weather on that trip being quite sunny and warm.\u00a0 Spring has always been my favourite season, but with the way things had gone in recent months, I soaked in as much of the nice weather as I could.<\/p>\n

Next to Melda\u2019s mini-home was a storage shed, and I could easily climb up on a few things to get onto its roof.\u00a0 Armed with my Walkman, a flimsy set of headphones and a mix-tape with three No Doubt songs and various dance tunes from the day, I climbed onto the roof of the shed and just contemplated stuff.<\/p>\n

It was around this time that I thought \u201cwow \u2013 this No Doubt rock thing is way more interesting than the rest of this mix tape!\u201d<\/p>\n

It had a bunch of songs from\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Now!<\/a>

Now! 2 (Canada)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is the Canadian one, but there were several “Now” compilation series around the world.\u00a0 There was lots of dance\\pop junk on it, but I still quite enjoy this one…\u00a0 and it had the Imperial March jingle in it??<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n