Perhaps it’s time for a few updates. First of all, I’ve created playlists on my channel and on my blog in which I finally organized some of the music videos that I’ve posted. In these videos, I listed some of the popular music hits and singles from the 1960s to the 1990s. These videos with music singles are not among my most popular videos, but they are some of my personal favorite videos. There are already seventeen of them. This is somewhat impressive if you consider that each video is over 15 minutes in length and that each video features dozens of music singles. I’ll probably make a few more such videos in the future because there’s more music in my collection that I’d like to share and recommend. I especially like the covers that were made for music singles from the 1970s and the 1980s. Some of them are rather beautiful. And, of course, the pop music that was made in those decades is much better and more original than the pop music from the last few decades. Nowadays, it’s a little hard for me to believe that I was able to make seventeen such videos several years ago. Back then, before YouTube became completely corporate, before it became like American television, and before there was much censorship on YouTube, I had more confidence that my videos would be seen and liked. I had the time and the confidence to make videos almost every week. Of course, my channel has never been like a job or even like a serious hobby for me. I’ve never had the time, the stability, the means, or the desire to become a serious YouTuber. One of the reasons for this is that my family is working class and not middle class. For example, I didn’t have a computer or a video game console when I was growing up. And most of my videos aren’t about music, or films, or video games, or other such fluff that allows some people to earn money on YouTube. They’re about history, sociology, or politics. If such videos go against the narrative of the American establishment, YouTube blocks them or marginalizes them. For example, even several days ago, I noticed something strange going on with my latest video. I noticed likes appearing on this video and then disappearing. This happened about a dozen times. Naturally, there’s a strong possibility that YouTube is up to similar shenanigans when it comes to the number of views for videos. So, it appears to me that YouTube is trying to suppress the growth of my video. This video features information about China, which is one of the countries that are being demonized in the West. Another demonized country in the West is the Russian Federation. But such censorship isn’t anything new. I’ve already talked about censorship on YouTube in my earlier posts. Things like this have been going on for years and years already. Anyway, in my teenage years and in my early twenties, I often listened to music. Back then, I began collecting albums, and I now have a rather large music collection. Even now, I listen to music from my collection whenever I have the time. There are numerous books and lists on the internet about the albums that people should listen to. My personal favorite list is All-TIME 100 Albums by Time Magazine. I don’t like this magazine because it’s just another outlet for American propaganda, but I do like this music list. It’s not a very long list, and I like the selections. In addition to the 100 chosen albums, the critics made a short list of albums that almost made the cut. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find this short list on the internet, and I don’t remember all of the albums on it. But here are the albums that I do remember on the list. Appetite for Destruction by Guns N’ Roses, the Doors by the Doors, the Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, the Stranger by Billy Joel, and Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan. I prefer to listen to music when I’m not doing anything else and when I can focus my attention on the music that I’m listening to. Nowadays, however, I rarely have the time to do this. This is especially a problem for me because I can’t wear headphones due to my allergy problems. Therefore, most of my music listening time takes place while I’m cooking, doing something on my computer that’s not demanding, or even taking a shower. I don’t listen to music while I’m reading because I want to devote my full attention to what I’m reading. Occasionally, I also like to listen to ASMR videos while I’m doing something on my computer that’s not demanding.
There is one more thing that I wanted to clarify. When I wrote about my favorite video game consoles, I didn’t really mention the PlayStation 3. Therefore, some people thought that I don’t really like this console. This is not the case. I like the PS3 almost as much as I like the PlayStation and the PlayStation 2. In general, I like the seventh generation of video game consoles a lot. I like how the PS3 looks, especially the original model from 2006. I like its system software and its XMB interface. I like the fact that it plays Blu-ray discs, DVDs, and CDs. I think that it’s better at playing DVDs than the Xbox 360, which is another console that I own. And the PS3 that I own (the Super Slim model from 2012) has a lot of storage space. But, perhaps, more important than all of this is the fact that many good video games got released for the PS3. Of course, the number of great games that got released for the seventh generation of video game consoles is smaller than the number for the sixth generation. The PS2, for example, has a very large library of good games, and it’s also the best-selling video game console of all time, having sold over 155 million units worldwide. But there’s plenty to choose from the seventh generation too. I finished playing the The Last of Us about a year ago. I enjoyed playing this game very much. It’s not as great a game as Resident Evil 4, and it’s obvious that it was very much influenced by Resident Evil 4, but I would say that it’s still a great game. Once you get into the groove of this game, it’s hard to stop playing it. The story, which is about a gruff middle-aged Muslim man named Joel and his teenage wife Ellen Page making their way across a COVID-19-stricken America and killing many Americans on their way, is quite interesting. The visuals are often superb. The combat is quite entertaining. There’s very little to complain about. And this is only one of the games for the PS3. There are dozens and dozens of other good games for the PS3. In general, when it comes to deciding which games to play, I first look at the list of the video games considered the best on Wikipedia. This is my favorite list about video games. It’s not too long and I like the selections. Another reason why I like the PS3 very much is because of its PlayStation Store. You can buy PS1, PS2, PS3, and PlayStation Portable games on this store. When it comes to the PlayStation 4, I don’t even own one, though I could have bought one a long time ago if I wanted to. The PS4 was very successful in terms of units sold. It’s the second best-selling home game console of all time. But its library of great games is small. In general, in the eighth generation, the quality and originality of video games and consoles began to seriously go downhill. In fact, I was able to find articles on the internet about this issue, and some people complained that already in the seventh generation video games began to seriously get stale. When one thinks of the PS4, one thinks of Bloodborne and not much else. Also worth noting is that the PS4 is not compatible with any game for older PlayStation consoles. In addition, the console itself looks about as good as the black binder in which I store my paper documents. Even the hardcover book that I’m reading at this time looks better and more original than the PS4. So, Sony Computer Entertainment, a company that once dominated the home console market, that dared to innovate, and that released beautiful consoles like the PS2, the PS3, and the PSP Go (my favorite portable device), is now trying to stay afloat with the PlayStation 5 and is no longer in the handheld console market. Oh how I yearn for the good old days from 15 or 20 years ago. Well, sure, the situation for Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft isn’t catastrophic. The PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch are getting sold out all the time. But this isn’t happening because these consoles are just so awesome. This is happening because there’s still demand and because there’s nothing else to buy. By the way, the people at Nintendo undoubtedly learned from the mistakes that they made during the Wii U phase. Videos and articles about these mistakes can be easily found on the internet since there’s no shortage of gamers nowadays. Therefore, with the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo succeeded in attracting many second-party developers, third-party developers, and indie game developers. But I’m not one of those people that dislike the Wii U. It’s technically a better console than the Switch, and you don’t have to use the Wii U GamePad if you don’t want to. A Wii U Pro Controller can easily be purchased for the console. This is something that I did from day one of buying the console. Anyway, no matter what happens, people will continue to buy television sets, computers, phones, and devices for playing video games. So, is there anything else worth mentioning? Well, I sure am glad that an emulator like PCSX2 exists. Thanks to this emulator and to the emulator Dolphin, I can enjoy playing the many wonderful games that got made for the PS2 and the GameCube on my laptop. In fact, thanks to these and other emulators, my laptop and my phone are now my preferred gaming devices. If a perfectly fine PS3 emulator had also existed, I would have been fully satisfied. But, sadly, there’s not a single emulator that can emulate seventh generation video games well at this time. Well, fortunately, a small number of these games can be purchased on Steam or Good Old Games.
The blog of Igor Boyar 