6 ms·

I've long said that if I ever struck it stupid rich, I'd buy a mall to live in. It would still have stores. I'd pay to have those stores stocked. Ideally it wo

I've long said that if I ever struck it stupid rich, I'd buy a mall to live in. It would still have stores. I'd pay to have those stores stocked. Ideally it would have a 90s-era movie theatre in it, too. But otherwise it would be empty. Why? So that I can live every day like I'm the last surviving human. Dawn of the Dead, minus the flesh eaters. (Alternative plan: buy up a ghost town. Same plan, otherwise.)

Melting_Harps 6y ago
> I've long said that if I ever struck it stupid rich, I'd buy a mall to live in. > It would still have stores. I'd pay to have those stores stocked. Ideally it would have a 90s-era movie theater in it, too. But otherwise it would be empty. Remember that 90s kid movie 'Blank Check?' I wrote a short fan art film script as a 13 year old that followed a similar premise, the origin of the funds were that the kid was a 'hacker' so the kid stole the funds from a crooked stockbroker firm trying to launder their money and ended up taking so much he ended up living in an abandoned mall and 'sold warez' out of the stores with various business models.. I recently saw the notebook and I had clearly recently just saw that movie with Angelina Jolie and Swordfish when I wrote that as that was around the time I had just discovered Newsgroups. I somehow managed to get to the beginning of the 2nd act and just forgot about it entirely until the day I re-read it, haha. Which for being 13 was more resolve than I thought I had.
- nickelcitymario 6y ago
  I'd watch this movie. Especially if it somehow had Hackers-era Angelina Jolie, Mathew Lillard, and Jonny Lee Miller. Or, plot twist: Those 3 are now the old/lame parents of the young hacker(s).
  - Melting_Harps 6y ago
    > I'd watch this movie. Especially if it somehow had Hackers-era Angelina Jolie, Mathew Lillard, and Jonny Lee Miller. Or, plot twist: Those 3 are now the old/lame parents of the young hacker(s). Maybe I should revisit that script then... I've definitely gotten more ideas about where it would go now that we're in 2021 and I have way more to work with to flesh it out. It probably wouldn't end up appealing to the Disney crowds like the original, though. Ha. How is the book app going? I found more old scripts in boxes I want to update when I have the time, some of my other fan art pilots are digital but lack the proper format of a script and your project sounds interesting for amateur writers as I imagine you have specific templates for the specific type of writing one would use. All of my formatting is all off and looks like I just wrote long format stories in paragraph with quotes for dialogue as I didn't know any better and just did what I saw in books and wrote with total abandon in a way that only made sense to me. What would be cool would be able to denote where the arcs and acts are as you're writing to be able to go back to after long pauses. I'd pay for that! ;) Sidenote: I think I enjoyed finding out out Ray Bradbury wrote Farenheit 451 on a rented typewriter at UCLA just as much as reading the book, and especially more than watching the movie.
    - nickelcitymario 6y ago
      > How is the book app going? Thanks for asking! PaperbackAuthor is coming along. > [...] I imagine you have specific templates for the specific type of writing one would use. Right now I'm shooting for the absolute minimum viable product, so on day one it will be a super simple editor that can export to ePub and PDF. But I've got lots of idea of features I want to roll out, including support for different types of writing. My theory is that what makes most editing software problematic is they try to create one approach to writing many types of things, so they fail to be particularly good at any one of them. With PaperbackAuthor, I'm building the editor I've always wanted for the purpose of writing novels and novellas. Later, I might roll out support for, say, screenplays. Or graphic novels. Or text books. Or illustrated books. Etc. Each format deserves its own dedicated editor. > What would be cool would be able to denote where the archs and acts are as you're writing to be able to go back to after long pauses. I've got some ideas around this, too. But, I need to make sure they're genuinely useful. Some of my ideas, in hindsight, amount to little more than "Trello-like cards in a sidebar", which isn't much of an improvement over simply keeping Trello in a separate tab or window.
      - Melting_Harps 6y ago
        > I've got some ideas around this, too. But, I need to make sure they're genuinely useful. Sounds cool, make sure to do one of those 'Show HN' posts and I'll likely grab it when it comes out! What platforms will it be on, I cannot bring myself to not type on anything but a thinkpad keyboard any more at my age.
        nickelcitymario 6y ago
        Thanks for the support! I'll be sure to do that. It's going to be web-based, so any platform will do. (Including mobile.) But I'm very strongly considering native apps as a next step.
  - RHSeeger 6y ago
    Plot twist 2: Unknown to the kids, all three "old/lame parents" are actually super hackers, hiding from the government.
    - nickelcitymario 6y ago
      This story keeps getting better.
      - Melting_Harps 6y ago
        > This story keeps getting better. Haha, well I guess we will have to have a sort of writers room section of HN as it seems we have quite a few scribblers to make it come alive. I'm re-watching hackers and following the storyline I wrote back then. I used to roller-blade like every 90s kids and I forgot how cool it must of have looked back then as I tried to force it into the plot so many times with soliloquy about 'strapping in and suiting up.' Kind of reminded me of Stephenson's writing in Snowcrash about YT getting on her board actually, which was intentionally cheesey for the genre.
jlack 6y ago
Here's a youtube channel if you'd like to experience living in a ghost town vicariously. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEjBDKfrqQI4TgzT9YLNT8g https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEjBDKfrqQI4TgzT9YLNT8g Guy bought an old silver mining town and has been living there over the pandemic
- nickelcitymario 6y ago
  Love his channel. This may be what initially caused me to think it would be cool to own a whole town.
Yoofie 6y ago
Tangent: You may or may not be interested in this Youtube channel [1] where a guy buys a Ghost Town. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/c/GhostTownLiving/videos https://www.youtube.com/c/GhostTownLiving/videos
Rumudiez 6y ago
Brent Underwood actually did buy a ghost town to live in! He has a YouTube channel called Ghost Town Living which shows him exploring the abandoned mines and restoring original buildings in the ghost town of Cerro Gordo. I believe his plans are to one day open it as a retreat destination.

Melting_Harps 6y ago

> I've long said that if I ever struck it stupid rich, I'd buy a mall to live in. > It would still have stores. I'd pay to have those stores stocked. Ideally it would have a 90s-era movie theater in it, too. But otherwise it would be empty. Remember that 90s kid movie 'Blank Check?' I wrote a short fan art film script as a 13 year old that followed a similar premise, the origin of the funds were that the kid was a 'hacker' so the kid stole the funds from a crooked stockbroker firm trying to launder their money and ended up taking so much he ended up living in an abandoned mall and 'sold warez' out of the stores with various business models.. I recently saw the notebook and I had clearly recently just saw that movie with Angelina Jolie and Swordfish when I wrote that as that was around the time I had just discovered Newsgroups. I somehow managed to get to the beginning of the 2nd act and just forgot about it entirely until the day I re-read it, haha. Which for being 13 was more resolve than I thought I had.

nickelcitymario 6y ago
I'd watch this movie. Especially if it somehow had Hackers-era Angelina Jolie, Mathew Lillard, and Jonny Lee Miller. Or, plot twist: Those 3 are now the old/lame parents of the young hacker(s).
- Melting_Harps 6y ago
  > I'd watch this movie. Especially if it somehow had Hackers-era Angelina Jolie, Mathew Lillard, and Jonny Lee Miller. Or, plot twist: Those 3 are now the old/lame parents of the young hacker(s). Maybe I should revisit that script then... I've definitely gotten more ideas about where it would go now that we're in 2021 and I have way more to work with to flesh it out. It probably wouldn't end up appealing to the Disney crowds like the original, though. Ha. How is the book app going? I found more old scripts in boxes I want to update when I have the time, some of my other fan art pilots are digital but lack the proper format of a script and your project sounds interesting for amateur writers as I imagine you have specific templates for the specific type of writing one would use. All of my formatting is all off and looks like I just wrote long format stories in paragraph with quotes for dialogue as I didn't know any better and just did what I saw in books and wrote with total abandon in a way that only made sense to me. What would be cool would be able to denote where the arcs and acts are as you're writing to be able to go back to after long pauses. I'd pay for that! ;) Sidenote: I think I enjoyed finding out out Ray Bradbury wrote Farenheit 451 on a rented typewriter at UCLA just as much as reading the book, and especially more than watching the movie.
  - nickelcitymario 6y ago
    > How is the book app going? Thanks for asking! PaperbackAuthor is coming along. > [...] I imagine you have specific templates for the specific type of writing one would use. Right now I'm shooting for the absolute minimum viable product, so on day one it will be a super simple editor that can export to ePub and PDF. But I've got lots of idea of features I want to roll out, including support for different types of writing. My theory is that what makes most editing software problematic is they try to create one approach to writing many types of things, so they fail to be particularly good at any one of them. With PaperbackAuthor, I'm building the editor I've always wanted for the purpose of writing novels and novellas. Later, I might roll out support for, say, screenplays. Or graphic novels. Or text books. Or illustrated books. Etc. Each format deserves its own dedicated editor. > What would be cool would be able to denote where the archs and acts are as you're writing to be able to go back to after long pauses. I've got some ideas around this, too. But, I need to make sure they're genuinely useful. Some of my ideas, in hindsight, amount to little more than "Trello-like cards in a sidebar", which isn't much of an improvement over simply keeping Trello in a separate tab or window.
    - Melting_Harps 6y ago
      > I've got some ideas around this, too. But, I need to make sure they're genuinely useful. Sounds cool, make sure to do one of those 'Show HN' posts and I'll likely grab it when it comes out! What platforms will it be on, I cannot bring myself to not type on anything but a thinkpad keyboard any more at my age.
      - nickelcitymario 6y ago
        Thanks for the support! I'll be sure to do that. It's going to be web-based, so any platform will do. (Including mobile.) But I'm very strongly considering native apps as a next step.
- RHSeeger 6y ago
  Plot twist 2: Unknown to the kids, all three "old/lame parents" are actually super hackers, hiding from the government.
  - nickelcitymario 6y ago
    This story keeps getting better.
    - Melting_Harps 6y ago
      > This story keeps getting better. Haha, well I guess we will have to have a sort of writers room section of HN as it seems we have quite a few scribblers to make it come alive. I'm re-watching hackers and following the storyline I wrote back then. I used to roller-blade like every 90s kids and I forgot how cool it must of have looked back then as I tried to force it into the plot so many times with soliloquy about 'strapping in and suiting up.' Kind of reminded me of Stephenson's writing in Snowcrash about YT getting on her board actually, which was intentionally cheesey for the genre.

jlack 6y ago

Here's a youtube channel if you'd like to experience living in a ghost town vicariously. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEjBDKfrqQI4TgzT9YLNT8g https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEjBDKfrqQI4TgzT9YLNT8g Guy bought an old silver mining town and has been living there over the pandemic

nickelcitymario 6y ago
Love his channel. This may be what initially caused me to think it would be cool to own a whole town.

Yoofie 6y ago

Tangent: You may or may not be interested in this Youtube channel [1] where a guy buys a Ghost Town. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/c/GhostTownLiving/videos https://www.youtube.com/c/GhostTownLiving/videos

Rumudiez 6y ago

Brent Underwood actually did buy a ghost town to live in! He has a YouTube channel called Ghost Town Living which shows him exploring the abandoned mines and restoring original buildings in the ghost town of Cerro Gordo. I believe his plans are to one day open it as a retreat destination.