Mad Pop Culture Ravings

Way back in 2015, I revised the Wizardmon cosplay that I made for Alamo City Comic-Con in 2014. Unfortunately, you can't see my face. :(

I love Pendulum

A tiny northern girl tries to play with a puppy. A small bells is sewn on the girl’s clothes so that parents can hear where the child is. 

neocities guide - why you should build your own html website

do you miss the charm of the 90s/00s web where sites had actual personality instead of the same minimalistic theme? are you feeling drained by social media and the constant corporate monopoly of your data and time? do you want to be excited about the internet again? try neocities!!

what is neocities?

neocities is a free hosting website that lets you build your own html website from scratch, with total creative control. in their own words: "we are tired of living in an online world where people are isolated from each other on boring, generic social networks that don't let us truly express ourselves. it's time we took back our personalities from these sterilized, lifeless, monetized, data mined, monitored addiction machines and let our creativity flourish again."

why should I make my own website?

web3 has been overtaken by capitalism & conformity. websites that once were meant to be fun online social spaces now exist solely to steal your data and sell you things. it sucks!! building a personal site is a great way to express yourself and take control of your online experience.

what would I even put on a website?

the best part about making your own site is that you can do literally whatever the hell you want! focus on a specific subject or make it a wild collection of all your interests. share your art! make a shrine for one of your interests! post a picture of every bird you see when you step outside! make a collection of your favorite blinkies! the world is your oyster !! here are some cool example sites to inspire you: recently updated neocities sites | it can be fun to just look through these and browse people's content! space bar | local interstellar dive bar creature feature | halloween & monsters big gulp supreme peanutbuttaz | personal site dragodiluna linwood | personal site patho grove | personal site

getting started: neocities/html guide

sound interesting? here are some guides to help you get started, especially if you aren't familiar with html/css sadgrl.online webmastery | a fantastic resource for getting started with html & web revival. also has a layout builder that you can use to start with in case starting from scratch is too intimidating web design in 4 minutes | good for learning coding basics w3schools | html tutorials templaterr | demo & html for basic web elements eggramen test pages | css page templates to get started with sadgrl background tiles | bg tiles rivendell background tiles | more free bg tiles

fun stuff to add to your site

want your site to be cool? here's some fun stuff that i've found blinkies-cafe | fantastic blinkie maker! (run by @transbro & @graphics-cafe) gificities | internet archive of 90s/00s web gifs internet bumper stickers | web bumper stickers momg | gif gallery 99 gif shop | 3d gifs 123 guestbook | add a guestbook for people to leave messages cbox | add a live chat box moon phases | track the phases of the moon gifypet | a little clickable page pet adopt a shroom | mushroom page pet tamaNOTchi | virtual pet crossword puzzle | daily crossword imood | track your mood neko | cute cat that chases your mouse pollcode | custom poll maker website hit counter | track how many visitors you have

web revival manifestos & communities

also, there's actually a pretty cool community of people out there who want to bring joy back to the web! melonland project | web project/community celebrating individual & joyful online experiences. Also has an online forum melonland intro to web revival | what is web revival? melonking manifesto | status cafe | share your current status nightfall city | online community onio.cafe | leave a message and enjoy the ambiance sadgrl internet manifesto | yesterweb internet manifesto | sadly defunct, still a great resource reclaiming online social spaces | great manifesto on cultivating your online experience

in conclusion

i want everyone to make a neocities site because it's fun af and i love seeing everyone's weird personal sites that they made outside of the control of capitalism :) say hi to me on neocities

Did you know? Australia experiences its own version of the Northern Lights known as Aurora Australis, or the "Southern Lights”.

Bailey: "Is that what you think I sound like?"

Destiny: [Laughs]

"As long as we have each other, we know we'll be okay."

Nightmare Coated in Metal

making something based on a dream i had

Y'all shot a whole-ass Batgirl movie and refused to release it so you could get a tax break, constantly cancel popular shows after a single season, and remove stuff from streaming while refusing to sell it on physical media, so maybe shut the fuck up.

(Note: Main topics are in bold)

I already posted this on reddit, but understandably, it was removed because some comments there were not the most productive. (I hold no ill will against the particular moderator there for removing it, though, and thank them for clearing up their reasoning and for considering my point of view.) Some will judge me for posting this here; this is vague, and some may see it as petty, but I need to clear this up. I am genuinely concerned about the inner community based around the famous video game Myst.

An incident occurred, of which I was involved with, on July 7th, 2023. There was a neutral party that I tried to help and support. I hope their efforts are extremely successful. (and I have seen that they have gotten positive attention from their efforts on reddit and Youtube) However, my help was misinterpreted as malicious and selfish by a higher party in the community, and I received a heated public accusation from that same party on that same day, the specifics of which, and from whom, I've tried to keep private.

I have no criticism of Cyan, nor its creators and developers, nor the grand majority of its community. This did not involve them. I'm thankful for the connections that I've made, and those who have tried to stay civil during the incident.

Most of us in the Myst/Cyan community have grown together for the past near-25 years. I have been with it for 20 of those years. Unfortunately, in the community's present state, this is not what I recognize from 20 years ago. It seems that we are losing sight of what Cyan's games embody, and how those should guide our community in-turn. We are supposed to SOLVE problems and break down barriers, not create them.

Some may also think I'm using a DARVO strategy. This is not a deflection of responsibility on my part. I did make a well-meaning decision, contemplating how to approach it, with easily-accessible information, based on the same precedent of another member of the community, but my decision was misinterpreted as something that it was not meant to be. When clarified in-private, I thought it was as simple as remedying it (which I did immediately, no question, no resistance, no discourtesy), and it would be finished. Despite my efforts, there was still a heated judgement made towards me from someone higher-up, behind my back and in public, instead of in private.

Yes, I am upset about being treated like this, but I'm actually more scared than upset, because I don't know how to approach this community now, despite the fact that we all have a common interest in Cyan's games, and we seemingly had open connections.

I feel my conduct in this incident was judged very unfairly, and unnecessarily in public chat. In other less-professional public chats and other hobby communities, I have seen well-meaning and harmless people summarily judged in similar ways by those in higher positions, vindictively and without thoughtfulness. If my experience has taught me anything, I'm seeing the start of a double-standard in how our community is being moderated; a skirting of reason to avoid explaining it due to status, and I am very concerned. This is also not the first time. If someone else does what I did, in the future, with the best of intentions, how will they be treated?

I have nothing but respect for the many fans of Myst all over the world, to whom I've wanted to contribute and help with. People have asked me to think and be considerate. I did in this instance, and unfortunately, it's had to become an obsession, in order to at the very least reach enough of the standards put out by others, but it seems that I still came under scrutiny and that effort isn't good enough anymore.

THIS IS NOT WHAT A HEALTHY COMMUNITY DOES.

I'm taking a giant risk to my status as a member and my own emotions by posting this, but I have already had to live with the stress of being told to keep quiet, and how I now assume other people think of me, for the past month. I am BURNED OUT. (For all my life, people have already judged me based on my disability, and used that against me.) Those involved did not listen, to come to an understanding, so I feel it must be said, because the quality of any community shouldn't be above criticism or stay unquestioned. Again, It's not healthy for anyone to have to be constantly on self-guard when reasonable boundaries aren't made clear, or can't be explained with rules, for fear of crossing them accidentally.

The band, the music, the dance.