The Contra Code on FB

As a kid growing up during the "Family Computer" age of the 80's and early 90s, I was one of those who got to experience the action-packed (?) game of CONTRA. Since most video game users back then were guys (girls were usually limited to MARIO or TETRIS, or preferred to remain in the lowtech fantasy world of BARBIE), we didn't really care whether or not there was a nice story or a good ending. All we knew was to kill the bad guys, be they ghosts, monsters or aliens.

CONTRA remains to be one of only a minute few that had a special cheat code for game enhancement. This cheat code came even before the invention of any GameShark or GameGenie or what not. It came as a hidden trick to the game itself. All you had to do was get this code ( press UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT -B- -A- -START-) in during the Video game intro to get an instant 30 lives (sometimes it's as many as 99 lives). For 2 players, you had to make sure you pressed the -SELECT- button prior to -START- so the option would move to "2 Players". Here's a vid I found on Youtube :

This code would become a certification for any guy to prove that he had played CONTRA. The Masculine Game. This and other codes would increase your level of Coolness. Other codes or cheats involved pressing on the -SELECT- button in between rounds in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out to gain more energy and a certain coin trick to warp thru stages in Star Wars (I've never done this one). However, once you have done these, especially in front of others, you would be considered super cool.

Moving back to the current date, The Contra Code of way back has risen from the ashes of Obscurity and Time and made its way to the most popular Social Networking Site, Facebook. Little is known about how such code came to penetrate the pseudofantasy world of Facebook, but if you've got time and are curious, go to your "home" page and press UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT B A and start scrolling up or down.

Suddenly everything will be so clear and bright.

Another First

There's a song by Semisonic called "Closing Time" that goes:
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

yeah.

This blog of mine has retained its url, but I decided to start anew with it. I don't really know why. Maybe:

1. I'm just currently bored on a rainy friday night


2. I was inspired by all this talk of digital marketing during the recent IMMAP conference at SMX


3. I just really like the silent screams of writing, whether in pen or keyboard


4. I'm secretly sharpening my so-called skills to be able to write for print again even if just to get published once in a while for a little bit of moolah


5. The old blog just needed a makeover

Whatever the reason, this is what I have to work with now. My little piece of the infinitely vast realm of cyberspace. I guess non-Social Network Site (SNS) blogs add a touch of mystery to online activity. I mean, when you blog in Friendster or Facebook, your profile and pictures and whathaveyous take attention away (though probably not all) from the content and spread it thinly among the other components. With blogging on a regular blogsite, the literature speaks for itself. You may choose to add photos or music or whatnot, but in the end, one can still do without them. (Imagine a Friendster of Facebook page without all the bits of Info and Photos).

Well. whatever the actual reason, I know this new beginning learned lessons from the previous beginning's end. CHANGE IS INEVITABLE.