#vin-writes

Said blast being so intense that I rummage around in my room to find my GBA SP and copy of pokemon yellow, something I've not searched for for years

I'm aware that the beginning of this post is gonna read like a bad creepypasta, but it was a jarring coincidence that knocked my sleep-deprived self off balance so at the time, it really was scary haha-

So I finally tracked down something I've been looking for for ages - a box set of Batman The Animated Series. It's only a "best of" type thing, not the full four seasons but it means I've got at least some of the series on physical media now.

Obviously like any guy who's just got his hands on stuff from his special interest, I was super eager to watch it so i popped the first dvd in and it went straight to menu - and I stood there in unnerved silence as THIS faded in.

Okay I've had to record this through VLC media player on my pc as I don't have a capture card for my dvd player (if those even exist), so ignore my mouse but hey, the menu looks cool, right?

That aside, the menu itself wasn't what shook me - it was the music! I know it's probably stock music but I was very vividly reminded of a certain game that used this same music, one that used to scare the shit out of me - Twisted Metal: Black.

In case you've not played it before, there's a certain character you can unlock in the game called Minion, and he is really creepy. He's supposed to be this mysterious figure hidden in the shadows and he's got all this meta knowledge about the game's story - specifically that it all takes place in the mind of Sweet Tooth, the game's most prominent character. He'll sneak in hidden messages throughout the game and when I first saw this, I have to admit - it really shook me up for a game from the 2000s.

There is something genuinely unnerving about this piece of music. Maybe it's just my brain's association of it with TM:B, but when it faded in on my DVD my eyes were legitimately wide in shock lol. The image of minion, bloodied and battered in the background and the text warning me that he's available to play as, was genuinely haunting to me and it was clearly that strong an image that the moment I heard it BAM, my mind went wild.

I'm getting kinda sick of streaming lately, what with all this A*I bullshit and weird war drone funding stuff that Spotify is puking out suddenly. I am not exactly thrilled that that was where my subscription fee was going.

So I took the plunge and decided to try and upgrade my current mp3 player - unfortunately that little Philips GoGear fella doesn't have much space, nor does it have any ability to expand said storage. It's a shame, I really love it, and I'll be using it as a music player for my car's stereo system once I've passed my driving test - but for now, I needed to get my hands on something with more oomph, so to speak. Something that had the space for my dozens of CDs, along with the ability to upgrade my storage. Trouble was, everywhere I looked was very expensive.

That was, until I found something on Vinted barely used for a tight 55 quid that I snapped up right away. Something that, until then, had been difficult to track down. It arrived yesterday, and here it is:

This is the Snowsky/Fiio Echo Mini, and DEAR GOD I love it so much. It's small, yes - but my word, does it pack a punch. This thing is incredible. So far I've got over 1000 tracks onto it without any issues whatsoever.

AND IT PLAYS FLACS!!!! For those of you who don't know, FLACs are the top dog of audio files. A lot less compression than mp3s, which leads to a better sound quality overall.

Another bonus was that because it was preowned, there was the chance that someone had already loaded music onto it, and load it they did.

Some of it was... questionable at best - ironic comedy which wasn't really my thing... but the majority of it was stuff i'd been looking for FOREVER. Radiohead's entire discography, SOAD's entire discography, a bunch of early Beatles demos and rarities, some Rolling Stones demos and rarities, special editions of albums from Eminem to Madness... it was a treasure trove and I ended up keeping most of it, but adding the obligatory Malice Mizer archives and aaaaaall of my Emo/Alternative records - plus some Rush.

I am not sponsored at all, but I cannot recommend this little thing enough if you're thinking of moving to physical media.

I am absolutely sick of Meta and it's constant desire to scrape my data without prior notification - and now it's even worse.

I went to check my Instagram stories archive, and guess what? Now if I upload ANY thing to my story and don't delete it, meaning it remains archived, they want to use it to improve their stupid fuckin AI shit.

This means that anything I've previously posted on my story and has been archived after 24 hours is now fed into their AI databases.

That includes the dozens of silly sketches and work in progress shots I've previously put on my story.

My own artwork is being stolen. It's been fed to machines without my consent and there's nothing I can do about it - even if I delete the story, it's too late - it's already happened.

For this reason, I HIGHLY RECCOMEND MOVING AWAY FROM INSTAGRAM AND FACEBOOK. Your art is no longer safe there.

I'm probably gonna stop posting my art on any meta-owned platforms. I don't know if Tumblr is a good place to start with, but it's gotta be better than whatever Zucc and his lackeys have cooking up over there.

Sorry for such a negative post after I've been gone for so long, but this post also somewhat serves as a warning to fellow artists.

In case my stance is not clear - Fuck AI, and Fuck Meta for making things so difficult for creators and artists.

Yeah, it certainly looks terrible. What made minecraft machinimas so appealing for a lot of gamers was the simplicity that minecraft's graphics brought. Even the animated minecraft shorts were all still in that same blocky style, even if it was in cg.

Putting weirdly realistic creatures in the world of a game that just doesn't have the same style is just... weird. Gives kind of an Uncanny valley effect, y'know?

Also, I don't know if this IS the case, I truly hope it's not, but some of the creatures and backgrounds in the trailer look like they may have been AI generated.

ALSO WHAT IS MOMOA CRAFTING IN THE TRAILER-

I'm not quite where I thought I'd be, but I'm not in a bad spot. I mean, I'm still creating and making art, I'm learning to code, and I'm learning to express myself more. I've made new friends, continued to connect with old ones, and kept going despite the lows.

As an autistic guy, one of my biggest long term special interests has always been Batman, notably the Arkham Series and ESPECIALLY Arkham City. I think I must have been about 15 when I first played it and I'm gonna be real, Zsasz used to give me nightmares man he was so well written (I STILL GET SHIVERS WHEN I HEAR AN OLD PHONE RING)

I always used to play on easy mode, simply because I just like the story but recently, I decided to challenge myself to 100% the game. This meant doing all the Riddler challenges, side quests, and dlc stuff like Harley Quinn's Revenge - and playing through new game plus fully.

To do so, I had to play the game's story on a difficulty other than easy, which was a little harder than I expected as someone who's not super experienced with the combat system.

But hey, I did it.

I DID IT! I FINALLY UNLOCKED NEW GAME PLUS!

It took me 30 hours at least, but I finally beat the story on a higher difficulty than I always used to.

As someone with dyspraxia, it hurt like hell (try to make combos and BAM, hand cramps and nerve twitchy) but I'm super happy with myself because growing up I'd always play on easy.

So now I have safety in the knowledge that I have bested my special interest game's skill check, and that's a pretty nice feeling if I'm honest.

Ow my hands.