Random Memories | Old Videogame Guy (May 1st, 2018)

I once met an old guy who worked at a flea market, one of the old ones, down at the last line of small locals, or was it the new one?

The old man had his store packed to the brim with old games, NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Master System, he even claimed to have a Sega Neptune but I never saw it. The old man sold games at a super cheap price, even when I informed him on the prices on eBay for some of the games he didn't care because "he was a gamer at heart and wanted newer generations to try out what he had loved so much", this man was around 60 when I met him.

What surprised me more is that he had some of the original tools to open the consoles and cartridges, he knew them in and out like no one else apparently, but what surprised me most was that any old game that did not work or was not selling he would change for a PCB of Super Mario Bros. 3, when I asked him why they were in a plastic bag he told me that that's how he had bought them, at that point he baffled me with what he said.

"Back in the early 90s I met a Nintendo representative here in Tijuana, he was selling me a lot of 1000 unused PCB boards for Super Mario Bros. 3, I thought the offer was good and took him up for it, that is why I have so many copies left and that's why they are all still in the bag, unused".

So basically he had a lot of those boards in the back of his shop (I saw them, they were in unmarked boxes, they all looked brand new) and here I am wondering what this man thought he could achieve by doing this, sure he had the boards but not the cases yet here he was, removing old labels from the games, printing new ones and giving them away when he sold or fixed NES consoles.

I have not seen the old man in many years now.

Random memories (April 28th, 2018)

When I worked in one of the many Call Centers here in Tijuana I had to chance to meet this lady who was a killer top model employee doing collections for several agencies, from what I heard back then from the co-workers, team lead and supervisor she was always in the top bill and had managed to once collect more money than all of her team mates combined, and from what I heard once she “couldn’t do it, she didn’t have the heart, it wasn’t for her”.

Turns out it was for her, she made very large bonuses for this and got paid in cash, dollars, no taxes in between.

After she got her bonus she would disappear for a couple of days then come back and keep working the same pattern, when I asked the supervisor about it he said he did not care, as long as she was making the numbers way above everyone else the company could care less about this.

Years later I found out that the reason she was missing work was because she was getting high on crack, this really surprised me but apparently her daughter in the US who was studying college (who may have or not existed for this matter) was not getting that extra money she was making.

The way they found out about this was because they found her at some sort of picadero, a place where junkies drop and pinch their shit in (whatever it is). Aside from finding her there it turned out she had ripped a little bit of her face (I confirmed this by chance when I found her randomly on the street), this was part of the high and drop down from the crack.

Brothers in Arms

We are brothers in arms
We leave no one behind
We fight for one cause
But a question remains
Will we die all together
Or will we wait for our time? 

I wish I knew you better
So close and so distant
Afraid to make the simplest question
The one that will tear me apart
I can't take the pressure no more
If I asked you, would you kill me now?

To you, Mikami

The first time I looked at you I was marveled

A beautiful pearl of the sea taken by a squid

Enough to move thousand men to their death

With a face Aphrodite and Athena would envy

But the Gods have been angered, no reason why

Their plan is foul and vile, not worthy of mans mind

The great Zodiac delivered his fourth house upon you

No more walking with the Muses, a part is now gone

And deliver them you with a quarter less

Than the last time that we met

Twenty six they now demand, the square and compass won’t deny

I stand this hill, my brothers with me, marching on to battle

And deliver them upon with the crimson aid of Ares

We shall repay in brotherhood what most demanded is

Why is there a Zebra in Revolution Street?

“What… is that?” Asked a foreigner, with morbid curiosity, travelling through Revolution Street, somewhere in the heart of the city of Tijuana, who pointed at what looked like a zebra or a donkey painted with zebra stripes, tied to a cart with some sombreros sitting on top of it. “Is that a donkey?”

“A zebra amigo” Responded a tanned man with his thick Mexican accent and a camera on his hands. “I can take a picture for money”

“No thanks, I don’t want a picture, but I do want to know why the donkey is painted black and white”

“Oh that… well back then we used black and white cameras and the burro wouldn’t come in the picture so we ended painting them black and white, people confused them with zebras you know?”

“But we don’t use black and white cameras anymore, why would you keep painting them like that?”

“Tradition, you want a picture with the burro or not?”

“Oh what the hell sure”

Relation 14

I've always wondered if it is me

Or if somehow society failed me

I don't know and I've stopped caring

The world seems bleak and doomed

Kept wondering how long I could walk

Or run, or crawl, to hide and die

Not much to do, not much to think

Just laying down won't do the trick

Neither love is my specialty, crude, too honest

Can't hold the ball for too long, lost interest

Was it something that broke in me

Am I that lost that I know not what love is?

Silly me, I only know the pain of sloth

And wrath, and gluttony, and nothing

How I wish sometimes for the searing to end

To devour the world set ablaze by myself

And if I could lose it all, I would do it

With a gun in me head, one shot to see the end

Not that I expect to be saved

Lost faith and more through years and years

To think it could not hurt me anymore

Was too ignorant of myself, I've lived this all along

If I could ever write well, or draw, or sing, or play

I would be the very best, the one to make the switch

But I could care less, my name will never be atoned

Only after a century gone will I earn my reputation

Words make more and more sense as time passes

I sometimes hear the secret that Foucault talked about

In me lays the silver key, the great lining for a brighter future

No, I will not deliver it to anyone, you try and decipher this

Because I want this to crumble first, to see it burn

To hear it cringe under its own weight, to let loose a scream

Of agony, of retarded ambivalent buttfuckery

I swear, if I could fuck everything that walked

I wished, that I could drink everything there is

I hope, I could smoke everything to be

I want, to see everything belonging

I will, destroy your preconceptions

From my throne I see the double headed eagle of lagash

The four colors of the cross, the great rose that sooths it

The pelican mother and her sacrifice for her children

By right I will deliver, because I am

God, and you

My sacred right

Relation 13

Don't tell me about what the regime does

I am more than aware and uninterested

Its dangers are of little issue to me

While you should be wary, they hate you

And me, but not as much as they do you

Ropes and chains will deliver me out

You, what matters, sinking down into the hole

Unknown to history, remained a mystery

We may make something out of you, martyr

But no, let the old regime work its way

A terrible truth to accept that one cannot rule

But neither can all rule one, what a myth

My warning to you is to follow the guidelines

Stored in Georgia, built by the Rosicrucian

Yes, death is inbound, be ready to fight and die

Grab a gun, blow yourself, easier that way

Than to fight a great patriotic war of nonsense

To fight a survival war when nothing will be left

For freedom, democracy and whatnot, all useless

When everything begins to crumble

Brother killing brother, tremulous sights

Red over green, black over blue

Whatever did we do to end up in this hue?

Relation 8

Boring as usual, criminal sins

Shit I care less for, nothing will change

The way it all works is through a slow change

Step aside and calm down, my patience thins

With your metal groups and your communist marching

Your hatred and your hollowness

Confused and angry, alone, absurdity

Everything happens because you fucked the world

You left it dry and empty and stupid, condemned

Why not play nice for once and shut the fuck up

People are and have been meaningless and stupid

Arrogant, ignorant of faith and fate, mindless drones

And they keep asking why we need history or philosophy

Short answer, for every asshole that complains life is unfair

That presumes heroes and villains, superseding reason

Claiming superiority and purity, casting shadows of doubt

Holding symbols and words in your face, screaming madness

Where esoteric and mystical knowledge are replaced by logic

Why not pick up some useful texts and think a split second

Maybe that way you can pick up and the logos around you

Finally get to admire, won't you, what's around us and you

With lively eyes how great life really is and break down the

Capitalist post-existentialist shit you all call life

Relation 7

I continuously wonder if I have anything useful to say

To teach, to pray, to call my own, probably not, probably

But who cares, if I shall not transcend then I will let other do

As I may become the mirror of yet another generation

Lost in transition and translation, never knew, never did

X doesn't know better, or maybe they do now

Y is in worst condition, we grew in the middle

Z is probably dumbfound, trapped in a brave new world

So behold, what is around me shall be my own coffin

This city, its people, what happens here may not matter

Now, today, tomorrow, ever, we may not be nothing

To me it is, probably to other five, that makes me think

If I can make this city finally achieve legendary status

Remove the dark veil surrounding it and put proof

That what they talk about is the mere truth

Unholy deals, strange turnabouts, what about important people?

Fuck, who cares, probably nobody so far

If they keep up with their heads up their ass, talking in agony

The same misiones, the same casinos, prostitution, alcohol

Can we talk about something else now

Can the old ones put their final leg six feet under

Can I speak now, no, well fuck you too, thank you then

There is so much to bring upstairs than this shenanigans

A wonderful psyche, so brilliant, so unique, yet you ignore it

Time to slap some people around, tell them how this is done

Stop the bullshit, stop this train, whatever is it, just stop it

I don't want to hear any more of this, or that, or you, or them

It baffles me, am I some sort of genius or are you really that daft?

Time to crack my knuckles, get ready to fight...

Relation 3

I see that empty dead stare on the mirror

Nothing to hide, nothing to spare

Just another look for another day

Monotonous lives, surrounded by fear

Glorious sight is to see it all end

Come to me, come past by

Hear the preacher call it all out

Not much to do, not much to follow

This place is hollow and full of horror

Staring back, despised then hatred

Stand right next to me son, nothing matters

Take this, and them, a horrid example

Of how to fuck up, the preliminary sample

Drop dead, this is a favor

To me, humanity and the universe around us