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Formless nostalgia is a bitch
Jun. 8th, 2022 09:31 pmOnce again, I find myself pacing up and down my ADHD train, waiting for it to get unstuck from a particular station--and that station looks a lot like highly-specific early '00s nostalgia. Sort of.
The problem is that I'm having a very hard time visualizing what very late 1999-2002 felt like to me; it's a haze of symbols, locations, and old sketchbooks. I don't know if everyone has this problem, or if ADHD just rendered my memory unto swiss cheese.
An attempt at sorting some of it out:
* Stylized cartoon flowers, especially in rainbow colours. Probably on a lot of the stuff I was using at the time; speaking of--
* All things shiny, be they foil-wrapped pencils or holofoil Pokémon cards.
* Sailor Moon, Pokémon, and Cartoon Network; while there were other things I liked, these three currently stick out the most. Especially the Powerpuff Girls, which I actually tried making illustrated "stories" about (in sarcasm-quotes because I was six).
* The days when our living room was relatively clean and we could actually sit on the damn couch.
* A particular set of lights I had, mostly to help me sleep: two rotating lamps (one a projection of cartoon fish, the other a disco ball), a lamp with a carving of an angel, and a light-up scallop shell/accessories case that came with one of my Barbies. When we first moved in, I was also given a radio clock that only ever stayed on for an hour at a time--bit of a problem when it takes you longer than that to fall asleep.
* DC's Looney Tunes and Animaniacs comics, along with all their adverts that were not always aimed at my age group (GTA London, anyone?).
* My elementary school, or at least the parts that didn't contribute to lasting psychological issues.
* That period of about a week or so one summer when my extended family from Texas stayed over; not only was I excited to hang out with them again (we'd stayed at their house during the move from California to Pratville), it was one of the few times we had other kids over, period. They brought their N46, and we played a bit of Ocarina of Time and PPG: Chemical X-Traction.
* All the random stuff I would draw at the time, including but not limited to truly amateur Fakemon, Sailor Moon OCs, SM/Pokémon crossover stuff in both directions, and random original characters. All rendered with about the amount of finesse you'd expect from a kid who thought they could skip the guidelines phase of art.
* My GameBoy Color and the handful of games I had for it, including the GameBoy Camera and its terrifying error screens (and, to be fair, some very old, irreplaceable photos).
* Some strange dreams that formed the basis of what I'd call "my Pokémon AU" if I knew what an AU was.
And that's still not even a fourth of it. :U
The problem is that I'm having a very hard time visualizing what very late 1999-2002 felt like to me; it's a haze of symbols, locations, and old sketchbooks. I don't know if everyone has this problem, or if ADHD just rendered my memory unto swiss cheese.
An attempt at sorting some of it out:
* Stylized cartoon flowers, especially in rainbow colours. Probably on a lot of the stuff I was using at the time; speaking of--
* All things shiny, be they foil-wrapped pencils or holofoil Pokémon cards.
* Sailor Moon, Pokémon, and Cartoon Network; while there were other things I liked, these three currently stick out the most. Especially the Powerpuff Girls, which I actually tried making illustrated "stories" about (in sarcasm-quotes because I was six).
* The days when our living room was relatively clean and we could actually sit on the damn couch.
* A particular set of lights I had, mostly to help me sleep: two rotating lamps (one a projection of cartoon fish, the other a disco ball), a lamp with a carving of an angel, and a light-up scallop shell/accessories case that came with one of my Barbies. When we first moved in, I was also given a radio clock that only ever stayed on for an hour at a time--bit of a problem when it takes you longer than that to fall asleep.
* DC's Looney Tunes and Animaniacs comics, along with all their adverts that were not always aimed at my age group (GTA London, anyone?).
* My elementary school, or at least the parts that didn't contribute to lasting psychological issues.
* That period of about a week or so one summer when my extended family from Texas stayed over; not only was I excited to hang out with them again (we'd stayed at their house during the move from California to Pratville), it was one of the few times we had other kids over, period. They brought their N46, and we played a bit of Ocarina of Time and PPG: Chemical X-Traction.
* All the random stuff I would draw at the time, including but not limited to truly amateur Fakemon, Sailor Moon OCs, SM/Pokémon crossover stuff in both directions, and random original characters. All rendered with about the amount of finesse you'd expect from a kid who thought they could skip the guidelines phase of art.
* My GameBoy Color and the handful of games I had for it, including the GameBoy Camera and its terrifying error screens (and, to be fair, some very old, irreplaceable photos).
* Some strange dreams that formed the basis of what I'd call "my Pokémon AU" if I knew what an AU was.
And that's still not even a fourth of it. :U
