Updates

September 8, 2024
====================================================== "You best start believin' in dystopias, Miss Turner, yer in one!"
====================================================== I watched David Cronenberg's "eXistenZ" again ( I love it ) and had some thoughts on its most prominent theme.

The idea of not being able discern true reality from a virtual (i.e.. fictional) reality is the most resonant it's probably ever been, what with all the active disinformation, more overtly (I hate to say it, but) fake news being pushed by media outlets and their owners, and advanced deepfake tech and generative AI gobbledygook running rampant.

It hits very closely to another idea that's been running through my head lately on our (the general populace's) perceived reality when it comes to modern day life. Like, we're totally in a dystopia. Some of you reading this are probably nodding along but it might at first sound ridiculous to a lot of people.

Dystopia, n.
An imaginary place or condition in which everything is as bad as possible; opposed to utopia, n.

The dystopian worlds of "1984" or "The Hunger Games", "Neuromancer or "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" are what we usually think of when that word pops up. Post apocalytpic, brutally authoritarian, lacking in resources, the suppression of individual thought. These settings are incredibly overt. I think we might be taking them too literally.

Just because we don't have holograms, our literal eyeballs aren't capable of recording our every waking moment* (yet), there's not people with red armbands marching around our streets with machine guns asking for our papers (arguable) doesn't mean we aren't living in a dystopian place and time. [*see Black Mirror]

Our lives are constantly being tracked. Not necessarily by the government for tHoUgHt PoLiCiNg, but by advertisers, by corporations. Did you buy something with a credit card yesterday only to see a banner ad for that same brand or even item today? That's not a coincidence! That's credit card companies and stores selling your purchase information to advertisers. And honestly they probably don't even need to be sold your purchase information, because there's algorithms written to find out exactly what kind of person you are based on simple bits of information, what different little demographics you're in that will most likely buy the thing they put in front of you.

I keep thinking of those video games or Cyberpunk films where holographic advertisements just bombard you. In Minority Report, where they (if I'm remembering correctly) address Tom Cruise's character by name. Just because we don't have all that fancy, "futuristic" technology doesn't mean that isn't what's happening now. Your phone, your computer, hell, even your TV will feed you personalized ads.

And it's not just advertising that points to our dystopian eXistenZ... (TBC)

February 13, 2024
====================================================== Trenches
====================================================== 久しぶりだね? (Hisashiburi da ne? (It's been a while, huh?)) As you can see I've been studying some Japanese. I studied in high school and then promptly forgot most of it. But now, between watching 500+ episodes of One Piece and 150+ days of DuoLingo, I'm still probably less fluent than a toddler. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway the meat of the update is that I have a new little dumb project for this website: I'm compiling behind-the-scenes stories of video game developers from a decade-old webcomic that isn't online in its original form. You can see the page and more details here.

September 29, 2022
====================================================== Absence
====================================================== i haven't been doing anything with this little site lately because i've come up with an--i think--actually pretty good idea. So a lot of my creative energy has been going towards that. i'm getting pretty darn close to launching it; when i do i might just link it here ;)

In other news i found out that recently, maybe last year or so, the band Electric Wizard released a song (album?) on an underground label that seems to support Nazi ideas so that's, you know, NOT GREAT. There haven't been any statements or anything from the band, but it's still sketchy-as-fuck, so i'm removing them from my bands page for the time being until/unless they make a statement disavowing the label and any association with that Nazi shit.

Somewhat related to the above, i just started watching Ken Burns' new documentary series "The U.S. and the Holocaust", which is really good so far. Important and, unfortunately, a timely reminder to look out for the slow plod of fascism. Anyone in the US or England, not to mention some other European countries, should be somewhat familiar with the recent trend towards far-right politics adopting more and more authoritarian and fascist ideals. It sucks to watch! Anyway, yeah, watch that doc series on PBS.org or wherever else.

July 14, 2022
====================================================== Added a WIP cube movies page
====================================================== i made the original design offline and then added it and the background today. At some point i'll actually compile my movie list and start writing out the individual pages. Obviously the first 'cube movie' is "Cube" (hence the cube design.) If you have any movies you think fit this category that i can add to my list, please leave a comment! i'm always on the lookout for more of these!
[Note to self: you already made a placeholder 'movies' page and need to link it and the cube movies on the index page. This is a reminder to do that when the time comes]

July 12, 2022
====================================================== My dumb ideas have come to fruition
====================================================== Only a week later and i got in the things i made from redbubble. (Which again, if you're interested, you can find here: GlerbCo.) They came out quite good! i love tote bags, they're usually the easiest way for me to carry around whatever crap i have. So i got the Japanese kanji for "cannabis", "Taima", on a tote. The colors didn't come out as bright as the original design, but honestly it still looks pretty good and i like that it fits the hemp-ish look of the bag. Maybe the bolder green will print better on darker colors.

And i also got my Please Don't Piss design on a t-shirt. It came out really great! It's direct-to-garment instead of screen-printing, but i'm really happy with how bright the yellow is. It smells something fierce though (because of the ink, not because it's soaked in piss,) need to wash it before wearing it.

On a different note i just started reading William Gibson's "Neuromancer" and hadn't realized until now how much of popular cyberpunk fiction is cribbed from his work.

July 5, 2022
======================================================
Merch? Already?
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i made a redbubble page. Mostly because i just wanted to get some of my own dumb ideas as physical things and redbubble was the cheapest way to get custom stuff. (Those other custom shirt sites are expensive as hell!) i don't expect anyone to actually buy anything, but hey, you never know. Maybe you want a sticker with the Japanese word for marijuana. i know i did. The link is here.

PS i guess -- should i remove the under construction banner on the home page? i feel like i have the basic site design down and any new pages i make are just expanding. It's not like i'm building this as a project with a big scope or anything. maybe i'll take it down later.

PPS -- i think i'm going to make some pages about movies, very specific sub-genres like 'escape the room' type stuff. just weird horror-adjacent stuff that deserves more attention and appreciation as its own little thing.

June 5, 2022
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Added this updates page; changed the index header for Pride Month
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i figured it would be neat to add a blog/news page thing for when i do update this site. And to have a little repository for random thoughts i have. i've been playing Pokemon Shield (finally!) and it's really good! Okay bye!