Trust me when I say the title for this particular entry is relevant, unlike most times. Half the damn U.S is on fire and I just so happen to be on that one side that is on fire and below the part of Canada that is also on fire. I woke up today thinking of going outside for a walk, so I decided to check the weather and... Oh dear god. I have no real funny updates or anything to say. Just please stay indoors if you're in the areas of the U.S that are experiencing forest fires. The current air quality is absolutely horrible for anyone going outside (even worse for folks who have asthma or breathing issues). If you absolutely have to go outside, I'd advise only doing so for a short while if you can. Here's this stock image of a cat wearing a gas mask because I honestly can't think of a joke.
Welcome to the blog side of things, where you find me discussing my hobbies, game dev stuff, ramblings on random-rambly things and occasionally a game review or two if I'm not feeling lazy.
Not sure what to write here. Honestly? I'm just feeling tired. A few weeks back just before the new year, I rambled about the current state of the internet and the slow dissolvation of human interaction. It all feels hollow, like an empty shell of what the internet used to be. The old internet was so much more free and open, with soul being put into websites both corporate and personal. There were tons of options for free/cheap site hosting like Geocities and Angelfire, with tons of resources for customizing them and tons of people always willing to lend a hand (something with Neocities thankfully still has a lot of).
The problems I have with the nu-net as I'll call it are that it no longer has that personal human-to-human connection the old 'net once did. You used to be able to browse shit-tons of forums, websites, IRC chatrooms, etc that were filled to the brim with their own little niches and communities for all sorts of things. Discord of course came along and killed that aspect, replacing helpful support forums with servers run by clowns who take what feels like an eternity to respond, give non-answers that lead nowhere or ban/mute you for not speaking in the correct channel like some kind of neckbeard gestapo. There's also the fact that much of the 'net is full of these AI-run content farms and engagement bait bots that spam the already dogshit algorithms with their slop. It's also been sanitized to the point to where you aren't even allowed to say fuck without getting nuked from orbit on most sites, which is mostly due to the influx of incompetent parents who set their kids in front of a tablet and expect Youtube or other platforms to do the parenting work for them (but that's an entire other can of worms in itself that I'd prefer not to go into).
Something that also bothers me: You can't create what you want to create for fun. It's all about engagement, chasing trends, high view counts, watch time or ad revenue shit rather than just having a bit of fun doing what you wanna do. And the world just keeps making it harder and harder to actually do things on the internet for fun anymore so you have to turn these things into a job. In the minds of corpos, you aren't an artist, a writer, a musician or what have you: You are sapient, walking, talking fucking checkbooks ready to flip open and sign your soul away. You are NOTHING in their eyes. The internet will slowly decay and become more filled with AI-run dogshit and people will continue to give up on creative endeavors in favor of chasing trends. The only thing we can do is make more decentralized networks like Neocities, encourage people to break away from social media and other toxic shit. Bring the 'net back to what it used to be before the corporatized, sanitized shit.
What I wanna say with this pile of tangents is to keep making stuff out of passion and for fun rather than solely for profit. If for some reason your passion does become a job, then remember these things:
1. Don't be a sell out. Never hand your life's work to a publisher and don't sell your life away for funding.
1A. If you absolutely HAVE to get a publisher in order to get funding, make damn sure they can't steal your work and that all rights belong to you. If they don't want to abide by those rules, fuck 'em. Nobody should own you or your passion.
1B. If they use AI generative stuff that steals from people, tell them to get fucked with a cheesegrater.
2. Don't let idiots online tell you how to think or what to do with your work. It's YOUR work so do whatever the fuck you want, political correctness be damned.
3. Chasing trends will kill you.
4. Don't be afraid to take risks. Think outside of the bloody box rather than hiding within it.
5. You may be cringe, but you're free. And that's better than being some corpo fuck's piggy bank or a content farm.
That's all I got. I love you all, stay safe out there.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Hope your holiday goes well and all that! Not much I wanna say and not much going on in life at the moment, but I'm gonna be writing some inane ramblings onto another page soon-ish. Will update this post when it's done.
My thoughts on the current state of the 'net
Salut! As the title implies, I've forgotten to update my blog in some time now. Been working on a lot of stuff pertaining to my little corner of the internet here, specifically working on some adjustments to the colors of the site. I kinda used a very fucky method of making my site have different backgrounds and banners. To do this, I decided to use multiple CSS files rather than one individual one. As a result, I have to modify the text color on each page via the individual CSS. I'll put out a workaround for it at some point but honestly, I dunno when I'll get that finished. The way I tend to work on sites is in a very esoteric way (see: jumbled and disorderly). My method of site design is the equivalent to having a microwave lined with tinfoil: It'll work, sure, but I can't guarantee that it won't set your apartment or house on fire the moment you start it up. This site is eternally under construction and is constantly changing with live updates, so expect parts of the site to implode on themselves at any moment. Just like life, things are gonna change out of nowhere and someone is gonna run you over with their car when you least expect it. Also of note: I plan on making a few new subpages to the site pertaining to my different interests and whatnot. I have a big problem with the general UI of Windows (especially the god-awful flat GUIs of Windows 10 and 11!), so I often have to rely on a dozen or so different pieces of software to actually get where I want Windows to be. That's why I plan on making a page dedicated to alternative shells and software replacements for Windows, as well as how to modify the GUI to your liking and maybe have a couple of pages pertaining to how to delete default Windows programs. Just note that Windows hates it when you modify their OS even slightly, so it may end up deleting your settings at any time if the system decides to update (bloat itself even more with spyware). The updates will happen when they uhhhhhh happen.
Salut! Figured I'd put out another blog to update people on how things are going! Life's going okay honestly, besides for the assload of snow outside my apartment and the weather getting down into the 10s-20s (Farenheit, I think that's -1.66667 Celcius if I'm correct). I've taken advantage of this weather and have recently been putting cases of soda and water out on the deck to chill them a bit, which has honestly worked out well. Also got the sudden urge to work on SFM art again out of nowhere, which is neat. Fucked around in Blender a bit and managed to fix up a helmet model to make it fit over my character's head. (More specifically, it's the GUNGNIR helmet with the CBRN suite from Halo Reach, with my own touches added via GIMP!) My 3D modelling skills are a bit bleh so it may look a little off there. Also of note is that I've recent been (re)obsessing over the Y2K aesthetic, thanks in no small part to various Tumblr (yes, I still use that hellsite but it's better than Twitter!) blogs like Y2K Aesthetic Institute and Y2K Lost and Found. It's just such a neat style that I wish we could see more of out there. Well, that and cyberpunk or synthwave. Other than that, winter seems like it'll be okay for the most part. Just as long as I don't slip and crack my skull on the ice or get hit by a falling icicle ala that one Christmas horror film that I forgot the name of. (Also just noticed the date is the "anniversary" of the time when a bunch of idiots thought the world would end. Too bad they were off by a decade.)
Salut again! I'm back to update on some stuff here. As you may have noticed, I redesigned the website a lot! It's based on the old 2003 Steam UI (seen here). I added a few of my own original touches here and there to give it more flair. At some point down the line, I plan on making a future alternate design based on the UI of Solatorobo: Red The Hunter. (If it wasn't obvious, I'm obsessed with that silly DS game) But other than that, things are going really well today for the most part.
Salut again! It's no secret that I'm a fucking weirdo (that should've been obvious the moment people stepped foot into this site) but out of a combination of sheer stupidity and seeing a friend of mine's webcomic, I have decided to make my own webcomic called THE COMIC OF ALL TIME, a comic that is certainly a thing that exists.
On another note, I recently tried a new energy drink (or at least new to a boomer like me who doesn't pay attention to what's hot and what's not). It's called Ghost Warheads Sour Green Apple Energy (not sponsored, obviously). Tasted... Okay, little bit of a tartness in it but it mostly just tasted like 200mg of highly caffeinated bleh and made me feel dead after the sudden dopamine crash I had after drinking it.
Also been dicking around with Tumblr of all things. Somehow in recent months it's been become slightly more sane (sic), at least compared to the evergrowing dumpster fire that is Twitter since the Elon "Musky Husky" Musk buyout/layoffs. Other than that, no real updates to put out besides for the fact that my site's second GUI overhaul is going to come out WhenIt'sDone(tm).
Holy hell, it keeps getting hotter here. And not like that trope where someone says that when someone attractive is in the room. It literally got to 100°F (37.77°C for you non-Metric lads) over here and it keeps getting HOTTER. How the hell am I so far away from the equator yet it feels like I'm living in South America or something? The fans aren't helping either considering that all they're doing is blowing the hot air into the apartment and- Bleh, it's all bleh. The only things that are cooling me down lately is cold bottled water and iced tea, but even that isn't enough to stop the neverending onslaught caused by the giant glowing cancer orb in the sky.
Wow! Things are starting to look a lot better here, eh? Well, that's because I finally found a template from ThemeKings! It looks a lot nicer than the old UI, has more features and can allow for me to make a far more "professional" (citation needed) website. If you can really call this "professionally" made at all. Even still, it looks MILES better than the old UI, that's for sure. As for other stuff, not much is happening. Mostly just sweating to fuck and back because of summer heat, fixing broken stuff and trying to better myself in general.