Switch 2 Direct

March 1st, 2025

Fuck you too, Nintendo. (Also image copyright of nintendo)

The switch direct happened and wow was it actually a solid presentation with a very very good lineup of games announced and confirmed. Silksong? Deltarune? Mario Kart Horizon? DONKEY KONG??? KIRBY AIR RIDE??? Hell yeah. All of these games are exciting and are proof Nintendo's dedication to making quality, exciting entries in their franchises hasn't wavered with time, which is a good thing because the competition from Sony in particular is set to be incredibly stiff with the looming release of the PS6.

That being said. There's one problem that i kept seeing. It first reared its head during the announcement of game chat, but after the direct, when it came out that the pricing for games could be up to NINETY DOLLARS???? What the hell are we doing here?

Games used to cost 50 dollars, people. FIFTY DOLLARS was enough to cover the bill of some of the greatest games of a generation, now we're being expected to pay double that just for the privledge of being able to say that we actually own the game? 80 dollars for a license that can be taken away at any moment? What are we doing here, guys?

I understand the economy is in a shit state, and the consumer is inevitably going to foot the bill of an increased cost of doing business at some point in the line, but are you fucking serious, Nintendo? People need to put their foot down at some point, because with the way things are going, Nintendo has basically given the entire gaming industry the greenlight to raise the prices to 100 dollars within the next 5 years.

The modern gaming industry is becoming too big for its britches, and Nintendo especially has been leading the anti-consumer motivation behind many of the things about the industry we all mutually despise, from extremely aggressive IP litigation for properties and franchises they themselves have no intention of using, to shutting down community events whenever the organizers forget to give the appropriate executives their prerequisite blowjobs backstage (and sometimes shutting them down even when they have), to now gouging consumers at every possible point in the ladder. It has to end.

A silent majorty of Nintendo fans have teamed up with the vocal minorty to help create the environment that has long allowed Nintendo to get away with their patented bullshit, excusing all manner of horrible decision the company makes over the past however many years because at the end of the day, YES. THE GAMES THEY MAKE ARE VERY, VERY GOOD. This is undeniable. Nintendo makes excellent games for the most part and buying a game with that Nintendo seal is almost a surefire indication you hold a quality peice of artistry in your hands (unless its a pokemon game) but it has to fucking end somewhere. Making good games should not excuse openly despising everyone who participates in your community.

450 dollars for the Switch 2 prices it above the base model Steam Deck. At that price point it is, to me, extremely obvious which console is going to provide you access to a wide suite of triple A and indie titles, all while providing you access to frequent, generous sales and prices for games that you can reasonably be expected to pay, and I can tell you right now that it's not the Switch 2. With the looming tariffs, we could expect to pay over 600 dollars for a new Switch 2, and God knows how much for the new games by that point.

It's not about saying "fuck Nintendo" just to say "fuck Nintendo." it's about putting your foot down and having enough self respect for yourself as a consumer to let Nintendo and the industry at large know that you can and will put your foot down, and the best way to do that is NOT scam yorself. Nintendo can raise the prices of games all they want, but the truth is we are not making the money to prop up these practices, and further increasing the pricing is only going to cause an inevitable collapse when even the most dedicated of pay piggies start thinking twice about opening their wallet.

This practice of chasing dimes should eventually result in the buyers eventually being unable or unwilling to foot the bill, but truthfully? I don't think that's going to happen to Nintendo. They're the most popular company BY FAR of the big three, it's not even remotely close to even Sony, who I personally have a great deal of reverence for. The moment we let companies become too big to fail, they will use and abuse that to mold the industry in a way that milks cash out of every possible point, and right now I think Nintendo has officially passed the point of being too big to fail. The Switch 2 will release, and whether it costs $450 or $600 or $900 or even $1,000 people will buy it in mass droves. Whenever the supply runs out like it did with the switch and subsequent tariffs cause a spike in demand, I guarantee that the price of a new Switch 2 will reach numbers that'll make your fuckin head explode, and Nintendo will be laughing all the way to the bank the whole way there.

Gamers. Please have some level of self respect. For your sake and everyone else's. Pac out.

DREAM BBQ DREAM BBQ DREAM BBQ

March 28th, 2025

DREAM BBQ DREAM BBQ DREAM BBQ

In case you live under a rock (in which case, we might be neighbors), you might've become aware recently that ENA: Dream BBQ came out.

As a longtime fan of ENA (crazy to think 2021 was 4 years ago huh.) I've been eagerly anticipating the game ever since it was first announced, and I'm so, so glad to report that it does not dissapoint in the slightest. It's everything that I could've possibly wanted out of an ENA game, and more. An amazing effort in nearly every capacity from the entire team, and I'm happy to report that I'll probably be stuck playing it for some time, lmao.

Getting into the game itself, the first thing that's readily apparent is how freaking good it looks. They went for a very vibrant palette for this game, which does contrast with other examples of games in this sort of weirdcore exploration genre (with Disillusion ST and Psychopomp being the first games that immediately come to mind) in the sense that a utilize darker, grittier palette with a horror focus. That's not to say that Dream BBQ isn't scary, as it definitely does have some horror elements (as evidenced by the opening scene), but there's a versatility here when it comes to the environments that I quite enjoy.

Speaking of Vesatility. DAMN do I love the NPCs. They're all incredibly acted, scripted, and modeled/drawn. Hell, even the ones that you have zero reason to actually talk to are freaking awesome. I personally like Froggy the most, but my friend that I played the game with was a real big fan of this lil guy. Too bad I forgot his name, but he's really funny and honestly kinda real??? Bro's having a long day I honestly would just leave him be with his trash if he wasn't blocking the bridge.

As for ENA, she's also incredible. I really love Salesperson ENA, Aleks Le's performance as her is freaking rad. Nola Klop as Meanie ENA is also a real treat. What an amazing duo, I'm really excited to see what happens to our ENA throughout the remaining chapters.

I won't go too deep into spoilers, as usual, as I really really really want people to play this game. This game is a seperate story from the main ENA series, so don't worry about spoilers if this game is your first experience with ENA. That being said. Go watch the original series if that's you dude it's barely an hour long. Go watch it after you beat this game, which should take you an hour as well.

Amazing game. Great effort from everyone involved, you can really tell that this game is a labor of love, and I'm probably gonna be stuck playing it for the rest of the week. I'll probably host another ENA gamemode on case cafe or something because of how freaking good it is. 11/10, couldn't ask for anything more, unless the thing that I asked for is more ENA, In which case I am shamelessly begging on my hands and knees with tears streaming down my face.

CER RECORDS LAUNCH!!!

March 14th, 2025

What?

CYNTAX ERROR HAS MUSIC NOW, RAHHHH!!!

I'll call this part of the website "CER Records." We're not a real distribution company but we promote music on the site and make sure people know where to listen to it. That's kinda like distributing, right?

I gotta make like a logo or something for all releases we officially carry. Maybe I'll use the lil logo we have.

Anyway, go check it out! So far, we have Kelp's debut release,The Sleepy Eeepy EP, as well as Modern Trash by Arachnophobes (which releases in an hour from writing) and the yet to be announced debut album from Apollyon, Edge of Reality.

Also, I've added a shrine to Penpals on the main page. I'll be working on this over time to make it into a real, bonafide shrine soon. For now, it's a homepage, but consider it officially launched! Go check it out!

Milgrom - the stop motion band you've never heard of?

March 5th, 2025

The what?

I've just recieved a heartwrenching confirmation that we do indeed live in a cruel and unforgiving world, otherwise I would've seen artists like Milgrom in an apple commercial or something instead of getting randomly recommended their music video for their single "Boy" that dropped THIRTEEN years ago. From the moment I saw the video I was hooked and had to scrape the web for any info I could find, but sad to say there really doesn't seem to be much available on the band.

So, who are Milgrom? They're a rad little stop motion band that existed for exactly one year and one release. I will never be over this. There's really precious little to find about the band other than their mobile app (unfortunately no longer active) and their one single EP, Making Salad.

Starting with the EP, I have to admit its really nice. At under 20 minutes it's more of a sprint than a jog, but it's quite the enjoyable one once it gets going. That being said, most of the songs barely hit 2 minutes... Why you gotta rob me of those sweet sounds, man?

I'm a fan, and I definitely recommend checking it out. I mean, I was able to listen to the whole thing before I even finished writing this post, it's really not much of a time investment to get a return of some sick tunes, with my personal favorite being Summer, the midpoint of the album. Overall, I think the thing I liked the most about the EP was definitely the singer's voice, it's pretty distinct and she lends a huge amount of personality to the project. I also suspect she may be the mastermind of the whole operation, but I'll keep that bit of conspiranoia to myself...

As for the app, it was something of a jam sesh app that let you mix and match different riffs from the EP (as well as some songs that were exclusive to the app) to make your own pretty sick tracks. It's rad for certain, but those kind of games aren't really my cup of tea. The stop motion animation is top notch work, though.

They also had something pretty similar on their youtube channel, which featured a virtual drum machine that also had some setllar animation work put into it. This is far and away their most popular video, and with this being my first exposure to the band I am utterly shocked at how ahead of the curve they were. It's too bad this didn't translate into more success for them.

Speaking of, that channel has all sorts of stuff, like the singer, Dolly, giving a breakdown of the band and some of the stuff they were doing (though it looks like at this time, the band was called Yes Plastic) as well as an orchestral arrangement of their lead single, Boy. How many virtual bands can say they have an orchestra? ...Okay, aside from Gorillaz.

That's all I've got to say for now. There's definitely more to find on them, I'm sure, but I hope this is enough to spark some interest into getting some research done on this long forgotten band. They're too cool to go out in obscurity, man! Show em some love if you do find their stuff interesting (even though I'm positive they've moved on to bigger and better things by now. Hopefully.) And if you find anything cool like this, please for the love of all that is holy, send it my way. I love neat little projects like this and I'm always glad to find something new to deep dive into. With that being said, I still have to populate the Forum, so I'll see you all next time.

FORUM ANNOUNCEMENT

March 1st, 2025

Happy March

It's Saturday. I love being alive. It's a beautiful morning. Also the forum is (finally) ready.

After thinking it over I decided I'm better off just rolling with the proboards solution for now. I'm not in a position to pay for a website at the moment so I'll just keep things free for now while I focus on building up the site to eventually being pretty freaking rad.

That being said, the site is still incredibly small, we're only a month into this journey and growth will probably be pretty slow for the next whoknowshowlong. That means you can probably expect the forum to be dead for a while, and that's okay. I'll populate it with posts when I get the time to get the ball rolling on some conversations, and maybe in due time we'll have an awesome little community built up here.

In the meantime, I have time to waste, so I'll see you beautiful bastards around sometime. Why not visit the thread and give it a little look?

Psychopomp

Feburary 28th, 2025

Buckle up

Alrighty. For starters this is not by any means a complex, in depth, or even thought out analysis of this game. There's a shit ton to it that I'm still learning about as I write, so the point is less "look at Pac's super big brained take" and more "hi i like this you should check it out." I'd prefer to let you guys come to your own conclusion about what the whole point of the game is, anyway.

So, starting up. I guess I should discuss a bit about the game. You play as this silly little gal named Vena, and having finally had enough of people hiding the world's secrets from you, you decide build a helmet, the "Machine That Lets me Read People's Minds when I Want To"(Psychopomp) and find that, rather than revealing the secrets people have hidden from you, it shows you something... different.

Underneath every government building lies another reality, accessed via an elevator. By using Psychopomp, you're able to enter these elevators and see the truths they keep hidden. This was the part of the game I really found interesting, as each level is horrifically disgusting in its own rad way.

I won't spoil anything here, but I will say that the worlds you traverse in this game are gnarly as shit. I was pretty spooked going through the early levels (when i wasn't pissed at the Sewer Treatment level for being long as hell. Seriously, that was more than half the playtime for me...) and honestly the fact that many of the in-game enemies seem to spring at you from within the piercing darkness that makes up alot of the game's stages only added to the anxiety I felt playing it.

It's lovely. I love games that look to hit that combination of tripping you the fuck out while also keeping you scared and on edge. I feel like games like Psychopomp are part of a increasing surrealist trend that I really took notice in around the time of ENA's release. Psychopomp really feels in the same vein of games like Mouthwashing and Milk Inside a Bag of Milk with how it blends horror and surrealist imagery to portray aspects of the psyche in a way that really makes you question what the flip is going on.

I'll keep my thoughts short. I think this game rocks and I can't wait to get GOLD. I love trippy, bizzare shit and stuff like this is right up my alley, I really can't wait to see what the developer comes out with next.

Arachnophobes CONFIRM second album!

Feburary 26th, 2025

FINALLY, ARACHNOPHOBES HAVE COME BACK.

10 months removed from their blockbuster EP, Arachnophobes finally dropped the release date of their long anticipated second album.

Originally slated for a November 2024 release, delays saw the album release pushed back into 2025, and after months of waiting, the new album, titled "Modern Trash", has finally been announced.

No tracklist has been officially revealed just yet, but it's rumored that the tracklist could comprise 12 tracks for an estimated 32 minute runtime.

The cover, drawn by the immensely talented Luque Moreau depicts the band in their element, and above anything else looks freaking awesome and honestly just makes me want to commission the dude all over again.

The album is set to be their most experimental to date, with band leader Jason Jackson, featured prominently on the left side of the album art, going on to say that the key focus was in "pushing the envelope." He went on to say that "It's hard to find something new doing things in this medium, so we have to get more and more willing to question everything, even the basics, in the pursuit of making the most unique sound that we could. We want people to pick up the album and finish it having heard something that really made them think. That's the real goal. To record something weird that makes you think."

Second Guitarist Ian Faulkner, who features on the rightmost side of the cover, would add on to that in the press release, saying that "Production on this one was a real pain in the ass. But it was necessary to get the full scope of our ideas out. Hell, we could stand to delay the album another 3-5 months to get it into a really wacky state, but I think what we need more than anything is the catharsis of a release so we can get out of the studio, tour a bit and come back after Apollyon's album releases." He'd continue from there. "It's like, an everything album. So we have some metal, emo stuff. We wanted to try some groove, funky stuff as well. Some more wacky tracks are on there as well, as well as some stuff that tries to capture the old Arachnophobes. It's a difficult record just because we really couldn't agree on just a single thing and that really bled into production. Some times we would all drive to the studio, the four of us, our manager, the sound crew and all, and we'd just screw around with the instruments for 5 minutes before realizing it wasn't gonna happen that day and everyone just leaving. But we all have our influence and that's the point in the end in my mind."

As for the Bass, the album features a wide array of catching basslines courtesy of one Mikey Kurosawa, featured cooly showing off his newly acquired tattoos on the cover. "Those days are pretty annoying, yeah. We couldn't figure out how to write the songs sometimes. Before, we would write the bassline, the drum parts, and everything else would sort itself out, but we're long past whatever the heck we were doing on the Demo and the first few albums. I want the bass to really come through in the mix more than anything else, it'd kill me to just be playing a guitar part the whole record, so you'll find that even though I might be following the same progression as GG, I'm trying to style on the bass a bit. GG really helped me out for the album, I was listening to alot of classic G-Funk, and alot of 90s stuff for bass inspiration. Bass is so important in hip hop, and channeling that kind of energy in a faster paced record was kind of tricky for me at first. But having that metal influence and especially from bands like Korn and Mudvayne, GG really made alot of stuff click for me, so I appreciate him for that."

GG, the lead guitarist of the band, also had a few words to say. "I think making this album was alot of anxiety for us at first, but after a while we came to realize that what mattered most was getting in the studio and putting out the best work we could. I refuse to put out anything that isn't better than what came before it, so when I say that this album is something we're really proud of, I think that's honestly an achievement in itself. It's more everything, more complexity, more weird, and above anything else, more awesome."

Catch Modern Trash on youtube and in Evil Dog's discord server, where snippets will be teased over the coming weeks. It's exciting times for Arachnophobes fans as they're set to embark on their long anticipated tour with fellow band Apollyon, a band which made splashes last year with their incredibly technical compositions, but has yet to release their debut single.

Hey, maybe I can start releasing albums on the site sometime? lmao

Mini Update

Feburary 20th, 2025

Breaking: I am alive

Word around here is a bit slow thanks to real life, but I'm still chugging along. I'll be getting that NITW blog post soon and probably focusing on some shorter term stuff from there to keep the content pushing

Maybe something silly like a cockpit manager playthrough where i fully crashout or something would be funny

So as for a few updates on the stuff I have planned. I'd love to add some more music around here. I might continue looking into a different forum just so I can have that bad boy fully embedded into the site, since I really DO want to have that part of the sit fully integrated, but for now I'll leave it.

So yeah. That's the story. I might get some friends of mine to start contributing work to this site too - would be great to have people YAPPING about instead of waiting for the fabled appearance of the mcchicken in the chatbox.

I might also move the site around a bit - I like it as it is now but I definitely think there's some work that can be done. These sites changing is part of the fun of using personal sites in the first place, so maybe I might fancify a tad here or there. Maybe even open up a shrine or two.

I also finished my album so I might post about it here when its out. BIG MAN TINGZ are ahead..

THE CONSOLE WARS

Feburary 8th, 2025

The next generation of GAMING is upon us.

I was headed to the arcade last night with my friends, and we had what I felt like was a pretty interesting conversation about the state of modern gaming, and in particular the console wars.

Now, I dunno if you've heard, but Nintendo dropped some hints about a silly little console called the Switch 2 not too long ago.

Personally, I hate Nintendo. I think it's amazing that a company can so publicly hate it's user base and still be successful, but their strategy is certainly working as they're far and ahead the dominant force of gaming.

So, the conversation went to the Switch 2, I felt like it was kinda meh to play it safe with a new console that's basically the switch but better. Wasn't that what the OLED was for?

My friend brought up a good point in response, that the Wii U ate so much shit on launch that it was probably an attempt by Nintendo to hedge their bets and stuck to what worked.

I certainly think that point has some merit. But if it's true, it would basically mean Nintendo is blaming the user base for not supporting the Wii U... when THEY screwed it over in the first place??

I have quite a negative opinion on the Wii U, but my friend brought up a strong point that it had quite a few good games in it's time, and while this is true... Almost none of them were out on launch.

Take this site for example.

That's the first kicker. The Wii U launch was abysmal, and that's primarily thanks to the horrible launch titles. Anyone up for a game of ZombiU?

Anyway. I also brought up the point of the Wii being completely shafted by Nintendo. I think everyone can agree that the Wii's online features were awesome. I really rue the fact that I didn't know how to connect the Wii to online for the longest time, cause it really did seem like a blast getting to get to use your Miis for fun stuff. The fact that they started shuttering these channels less than A YEAR after the Wii U came out is INSANE to me. Though, I tried to cross reference this with the PS4 Communities feature and found that only lasted about the same length of time after the PS5 came out. Maybe I'm just yapping, but I thought it was too soon to shutter all of those channels like that.

Anyway, there's definitely still alot of love for the Miis even now, so Nintendo... Please don't screw it up again.

Nintendo is sitting on a treasure mine of franchises. I think they really could benefit from having a fresh set of faces at the forefront of the brand alongside Mario and the gang. F-Zero and Star Fox are franchises that still have really passionate fanbases, and I think anyone can agree that it'd be great to see them again. Also, another Tomodachi life.

Truthfully, Nintendo can just shit out any slop at this point and print money. I personally believe that they're very close to being "too big to fail", the Switch 2 will sell like hotcakes regardless of what Nintendo does. The portable and community aspects of that console have been executed really well (though there's certainly room for us oldheads to complain) and it's a given that the Switch 2 will continue to excel in this respect. Personally, alot of people around me have a Switch, and let me tell you, that FOMO hits really hard. I may wind up caving and getting a Switch 2, because I'm so often on the move that it really does make alot of sense for me to pick one up.

That brings us to Sony. Apparently, we could see the PS6 as soon as 2027.

The PS5 pro just came out, man... though, it's certainly interesting to see what Sony does to keep us invested until then. There's still a decent amount of new games coming out on the PS4, though I suspect we're going to see a move towards the PS4 being fully shuttered with huge games like UFC 5 and presumably GTA 6 neglecting to release on the console.

I will say one thing - I do appreciate Sony keeping the PS4 supported even 5 years after the PS5's release. I don't think anyone really expected this out of them - or maybe some people did. It's certainly a bit past it's prime but it's a lovely piece of kit, and I really think the sky is the limit for that console once it exits production. Though I think the PS2 will probably continue to reign supreme as far as it's post-support life goes, the PS4 is so powerful you could probably build a car out of it or something stupid like that lmfao.

To be clear, I'm talking about hacks and bootlegging and stuff. I think that stuff is really fascinating and I'm really excited to see what insanity people cook up on the PS4.

And now... Xbox. Poor Xbox.

Xbox is in a dire state. My friend noted that them losing alot of their exclusives to PCs might be the thing that has really done them in - and I'm wondering if I'm inclined to agree. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft dropped out of the Console wars entirely. Though I think Microsoft can freely afford to dump money into the Xbox void, and considering how great Gamepass is when compared to post-PS Now Playstation Plus and whatever the hell Nintendo is doing, I kinda hope they do lol.

Spending all of that money on acquisitions and mergers means they have an incredible supply of new ips to work with, and though I'm happy to see Psychnoauts 2 and COD prints money like you wouldn't believe, the heavy hitters like Blizzard and Bethesda have kinda failed to deliver lately. Also, shutting down Tango is still something I can't forgive even almost a year later. We really need fresh ideas like Hi-Fi Rush, and to see them go is a bit of a sore spot.

So, yeah. I'll probably hop on the Switch train this generation. I think the PS6 is going to be an interesting prospect for some time, and Microsoft is drowning in it's own piss.

As much as I want to wish for all of my favorite forgotten IPs, I do acknowledge that even if Nintendo dropped new games for every IP it's neglected in the past decade, the reality is that Warioland or Punch-Out will probably fail to sell as well as Mario or Pokeslop. It would be a treat, don't get me wrong, and I would sell both kidneys for another Mii game, through an economic lens I certainly see the vision Nintendo has. But... should I REALLY be more excited for a remake then I am for the latest entry in the franchise?

Maybe it's time for those shovelware shitconsoles to make a comeback...

Update 6

Feburary 7th, 2025

Forum's up.

The forum is finally up. Except I screwed it up YIPPEEE

So I didn't bother to check if proboards allows you to embed it into other sites. It doesn't. That was LITERALLY the entire point of the freaking forum.

I think I might use Discourse. Or I might hang myself tonight who knows.

Maybe I SHOULD use a discord server after all...

Update 5

Feburary 6th, 2025

Radio Fixed. Finally

I did it. I finally fixed the freaking radio.

Turns out I was the only one really making the process hard since I never upload my singles. WHOOPS.

Now then, the forum. I will have to get that bad boy sorted out sooner rather than later. But apparently you need to spend money to host? I'm broke as a joke, I'd prefer to host a discord server for something like that.

But the forum has its own charm, you know? Maybe I could operate the server as a forum using the thread feature. I might make a test server to figure the kinks on that idea out.

In any case it's going to be a while before I can commit to this to the scale that I want. I'm hosting two roleplays at once in addition to work and school stuff. Plus I'm getting horrible sleep lately. Bad pac.

Ok, that's all for now. If I keep posting updates all the time maybe people will start thinking there's stuff here worth reading...

Oh yeah, also. I have a new logo. It's pretty ugly but I like it alot! If you ever wanna link back here, be sure to use the new logo.

Update 4

Feburary 4th, 2025

I got a new computer.

PC GET. I was able to get set up pretty quickly so whenever I finish this week's articles I'll be able to get a peice done for you lovely people. Turns out doubling your workload is a lot of work.

As for what I'll write about, I might do a piece about NITW. After I finish it. Which I will. For real. Anyway radio's fixed again so enjoy jamming out while I suffer in hell for my inability to think things out ahead of time.

Update 3

Feburary 1st, 2025

We're back - kinda.

Okay, so now that we're about a week in (holy shit) i'm beginning to see the cracks form in the site, LOL.

For starters, the radio seems to break every few days thanks to how discord handles mp3 links. I'll have to see if theres a better way to link mp3s. I'm thinking unlisted vids on youtube, but I don't have the time to implement that ATM. I'll just keep replacing the links until I do.

Also, we come to the concern of the games I should cover. I realize now that I left alot of REALLY GOOD games unfinished last year. Primal, Okage: Shadow King, Killer Frequency, Coffee Talk - what the heck was I thinking, dude?! I even ditched my second playthrough of NITW!

In any case, that means I already know what games to play for the blog, huehuehue.

So, I fixed the radio again. Meanwhile, I gotta go play some games so that this blog can start blogging. Also, I'm still working on that forum. It'll work. One day.

Oni-Chan's Excellent Adventure

January 29, 2025

Today's changelog: NOTHING!

No. Instead I'm gonna take this change to show off something I found that's pretty nifty. I can't recall for the life of me HOW I stumbled upon this, but not to long after my last con, I remember stumbling upon a pretty rad blog that TheRossman did about Anime Expo: Oni-Chan's Excellent Adventure (that's Oni as in Demon, not Onii as in brother ya freak) published alll the way back in the year of our lord 1997. (28 YEARS AGO!!)

Speaking of Oni-chan. He's precious. I have stolen him. You can also steal him if you want, and in fact, you probably should.

Okay okay other than that, there was some cool stuff. I found it really interesting to see this pic of registration being handled by a bunch of geeks on computers (sound familiar?). Apparently it took 2 hours to get through the line (thanks to some complainers) and into the con on the first day, a real far cry from the 30 minutes it took me to get into Otakufest! We sure have it good, huh?

Check it out! I always love seeing the stuff people sell at cons. It's probably one of the parts that gets me the most excited about going. I'm usually pretty anxious talking to new people, but at cons I feel alot more comfortable talking to total strangers. It's really cool to meet other nerds and talk about nerd stuff! Even though Otakufest was pretty lowkey last year, I enjoyed having the quiet time to just sit down and have one on one convos. I had an awesome conversation with Dedaw13 of Zoey's Xbox, and I've been a fan of his ever since. I wonder where this stuff is now?

One thing I found interesting is how homely all of the cosplays feel. Some of them are REALLY good of course, but alot of them look and made - you can still see the normal, everyday people behind them. Alot of cosplays are so good these days that its hard not to just see the character before you notice the person, if that makes sense? Idk

Anyway, read the site yourself, it's pretty RAD! Also, his main site.

Oh, by the way. I'm probably gonna be gone for a few days doing some IRL stuff. Gotta make that money!

Update 2

January 28, 2025

Another day, another post. The joys of hyperfixation!

Let's see... I think we're getting closer to finishing up the framework, I'd love to implement the forum, as well as a radio feature and a commenting feature. I saw a tutorial for a pretty snazzy looking one, so I think I'll follow that for now.

I'm sure I can get it done, though I'm sure confidence is the last feeling many programmers have before dying a slow, painful death. Whats the worst that can happen??

and to be clear, this is gonna be all me. I'm not gonna get anywhere if I can't suffer my way into implementing new features. If it's half broken, that's part of the charm, right? right?

Oh, also, I'll probably add a to-do list on the index, as well as some more stuff about yours truly. Creative stuff is super messy on my end, mostly due to my CRIPPLING fear of my past work, but I've gotta get my stuff together... eventually.

So, recap: implement comments, add a to-do list, implement a radio, and.... make... the forum.... oh god...

Update + rFactor Lore (mini-post)

January 27, 2025

Hey hey hey. Guess who's posting again.

I can't lie. I'm quite enjoying this little housebuilding process. Though I'm likely getting close to the point where I'll need to take off the AI training wheels and start getting gud. The site is quite lovely so far, but I feel like it'd be a bit lazy to just solely rely on chatGPT for everything. Though considering I'm starting at 0 and I've got this little site semi-functional, I guess it's not so bad.

I think I've learned the most whenver things go wrong. I'm picking up on the way to format things and how to make the site actually work. It's nothing crazy so far, but even the little bits I'm picking up on have me excited to learn more.

In any case - now's a good time as any to start on the blog, right? I envision a semi steady stream of high quality, well researched content coming this way eventually, but while it's just me chillin in my abode in my free time, a few opinion pieces or fun facts will do.

So, what have I found today?

I made a lil discovery not too long ago while messing around with rFactor for a bit of testing ahead of Formula rFactor's comeback. I remembered that I hadn't perused the user's manual in a while, so I decided to look it up since I also happened to recall that there was some pretty nifty lore tucked away in there.

Now. I'm a sucker for lore. I love lore. My patience for lore is unending. I will play the shittiest game of all time, just to read the mid tier 6/10 loredumps. And rFactor, being a racing sim, doesn't necessarily NEED to put any level of importance on it's lore, (especially considering most people will just skip the base content altogether lol) but the fact that it does is pretty cool in my opinion.

Ok. Enough yappage. What did I find? Well, in introducting the world of rFactor, the manual gifts here:

I love it. The BASED rFactor lore is that, by making racing incredibly affordable, yet infinitely customizable to the masses, rFactor Motorworks created a series that is up to FIVE TIMES more popular than Formula One on the basis of it actually being feasible to compete in, lmao.

Also, this is definitely me overly reading into the manual, but the file that holds all of the directories and rules for a certain mod is called a .rfm. rFactor is probably the single most modded racing game on the market - I've seen mods for everything from Formula One to WRC, to even an awesome remaster of the Grand Prix games! What does that mean? Oh, nothing, really, just that

EVERY RACING SERIES IN THE WORLD IS RUN BY RF MOTORWORKS.

It's no wonder they have 100 million viewers, THEY'RE LITERALLY MANAGING EVERY MOTORSPORT IN THE WORLD! Motor being optional really since there's even horse racing mods for rFactor, lmfao.

Anyway, I'm not here to summarize. Also, I had a terrible night's sleep, so I don't wanna yap on for too long. If you want more interesting mid 2000s sim lore, You can see the link to the page below.

Link

Intro

January 26, 2025

Well then. Looks like the blog is semi functional. You can probably notice that this part of the site is noticably different from the index - That's thanks to ChatGPT coding. I hate AI as much as the next guy, and certainly dont want any bots perusing this site in particular, but the rate of which i can work on this site with it is simply incredible. Workin' with the devil, it looks like.

Well, it's not all lazy. I'm learning quite a bit about how to actually navigate HTML and CSS. I would never have been able to do this in high school, so for me to have something even semi-competent makes me really excited. I can't lie, I really enjoy the format of this page. ChatGPT making me give it credit, smh. In any case, There's plenty more to change, but we'll get there.