A Good Time To Get Weird

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I was worried at the end of last month’s update that I wouldn’t have any new content to bring you in this one. Well not only did I dig up some pretty interesting stuff, I found so much of it in fact that I think it might be a bit overwhelming all at once. Although there isn’t a lot of topics to cover, the ones that are featured go deep into the spectrum. So I hope you enjoy this shortstack update for May!

So let me take care of some business right from the get go on this particular topic. It doesn’t matter what I believe or what you believe in context of watching this video. What matters is that this is an extremely detailed catalogue of very strange topics for various strange people. I encourage all of you to watch this as more of an exploration of what people are talking about, rather than any type of reference point on finding out what is “true” or “untrue”. Think of it more as a huge detailed reference point of various weird topics out there that you can even further dive into if you are so inclined. But the best part about it is that it’s just fun to see what people have come up with over the years across various cultures and spaces. Feel free to check out the rest of Wendigoon’s channel as he is a great laid back story teller and I highly appreciate him and his work.

You ever wonder how those pesky influencers on your platform of choice come up with such interesting things to talk about? Well it turns out they have hired help that scours the internet for such stuff, and they happen to use one of the sites I’m recommending you this month above. It’s called “All that’s interesting” a collection of recent news articles and factoids about the stranger world around us. What’s unique about ATI is that it’s a little more focused on bringing up events that have mainstream news coverage (for vetting purposes) rather than direct you over to content that reports on second hand accounts as a source (typical of most paranormal blogs for example). So the next time you see an extremely attractive narrator talking about plastic eating fungus - you know where they got the story!

Want an entire YouTube channel dedicated to bakeries around the world? Probably not on the top of your list of search results on Google, but also probably something you didn’t know you needed in your life. I feature a lot of “chill and observe” content on my website throughout the updates, and this is added onto the pile of such things. I’m trying my best to diversify the cultures around the world that have these environments to show. Content tends to be heavily focused on Asia for the last couple of years, but thankfully the world has opened up a bit more recently to bring videos like the one above for us to see and enjoy. So hop on over to Reiya Watanabe’s channel for a ton of bread through the camera lens.

Previously I’ve mentioned the emotional and physical benefits of just traveling and touching grass. But I recently stumbled upon some navigation apps (not sponsored at all by the way) that not only kick a lot of ass, but they respect your privacy as well. Because I’m becoming an increasingly older fart as the days go by, I remember when I had to rely on paper / book maps to navigate my daily life. If you’ve ever actually gone off the beaten path in any city or road in the world, you’ll quickly start to realize the fragility of a cellular signal. Now thankfully we have a thing called “offline maps” for Google & Apple devices, but problem is… they kind of suck. It’s not that they don’t work well, but they’re kind of limited in how much information you can store at any given time. And worse yet, the maps expire over time and have to be redownloaded. With Organic Maps and Magic Earth, you can literally download maps of the entire planet. And you can use them offline anytime and all the time. They only rely on a GPS signal for navigation and do not require a cellular signal. They also work faster since they natively just try to get you to where you need to go and NOT CONSTANTLY SEND analytical data about your habits or location. So if you’re about to touch some serious grass again and go off the beaten paths, perhaps it’s time to check out some alternatives.

Artist is Viejillox

Artist is 4riasensei

I promised myself I wouldn’t bitch about YouTube this year so I’ll be brief. My community posts are randomly being deleted (banned) again for no reason, even though I made sure the artwork before was “in good taste”. So the two artists I’m featuring this month had works I had used for the posts (not the one you see above of course) that got removed. They are Viejillox and 4riasensei. Feel free to visit and support them if you like the portfolios they have!

Digging Through The Archives

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Every year starting around April, things begin to quiet down a lot where I live. Thus it’s a good time to start taking it easy and getting into the routine of daily life now that the year has left its “new car smell” phase and entered maturity. I often like reviewing things I’ve mentioned on my blog a long time ago that I feel is still relevant to check out today as well as introduce newer visitors some cool stuff they surely missed out on. Most visitors statistically don’t check anything I’ve written about older than a year ago, so it’s a good opportunity to dust off some recommendations I’ve made previously that are still awesome and alive today.

As a brief reminder all of my previously endorsed YouTube channels over the years are conveniently referenced on The List.

Let’s start off with some heavy hitters in the Urbex / Dead Mall scene. I’m am absolute sucker for urban decay the world over, and naturally as an American I find my local hometown ruins to be some of the best out there. It’s because there’s always a stereotype that America is the land of plenty and prosperity, often times seen as some sort of beacon of salvation to foreigners. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of opportunity here if you look for it, but that doesn’t mean everything and anything works out for the best. We have a lot of abandoned large public spaces that were the byproduct of wishful thinking and hubris. Making things even more surreal is that all of these projects usually involve heavy government oversight and millions of dollars only to ultimately fail. Regardless of the history of any particular location, those with cameras and boots on the ground can tell us a story through words or visuals by documenting the last days of life and the current ruins remaining. Shopping centers (or malls) are particularly fascinating to me since they embody capitalism and free markets as a whole. And often when they fail, the community around them suffer greatly as well.

Artist is MiNiMiAM

I have suggested many a website over the years, and this one in particular doesn’t need a lengthy introduction or description. As a youngster I use to go to my local bookstores and check out the clearance section for photo books of various topics. Often times I would run across nature encyclopedias or fine art books from the great painters of our time. However, once in a while I would get lucky and see some contemporary works that always brought a smile to my face with how creative and ingenious they were with the subject material, and thus began a very minor hobby of mine enjoying photography as art. MiNiMiAM is one of many galleries I hope to bring to all of you in future updates of simple (yet creative) photography art.

Some mainstream gaming stuff to balance out the update, Everspace 2 is a space simulator / RPG game that’s been in development for a very long time. April marks the game’s departure from early access and thus 1.0 will be ready to jump into with the polish expected of it. I’ve been following development of the game for quite some time now, but understand that the space genre is really niche and not everyone’s cup of tea. Still if you find yourself lacking anything to play in April and are looking for something unique in the AA / AAA category, then be on the lookout for reviews of the game.

Princess and Conquest was (and is) one of my current most recommended NSFW / Lewd games out there at the moment. It’s leaving early access this month in April, finally approaching release 1.0 after a very long time in development and fulfilling a lot of community requests as well as continuing to squash a lot of bugs with each content update. More importantly this game completely gets my recommendation of being unapologetically lewd, but a GAME FIRST and the adult stuff a close 2nd. For those that like cute pixel art and actually want a game to play, consider picking it up on either itch.io or Steam.

Scarlet Maiden is not an older recommendation, but a completely brand new one on my site. The only reason why I never mentioned it in past updates was because it was still a little light on content upon release, however the reception of the game has been overwhelming positive. Alongside Princess and Conquest, April might be a really good month for “games first, lewd a close second” types of players like myself and I hope you feel the same way too. The above video is actually hosted on YouTube, but it might be age restricted in your region. If you can’t view the video, you can still find a lot of content about the game by searching on Google or the Steam page for it. Just a heads up that the Steam page does require login to view the game information since it’s obviously made for adults.

Artist is Monobe

Our artist of the month is Monobe, someone who isn’t afraid to draw what they like! If you like their works, I highly suggest you checkout their pixivFANBOX to access more of their content and support them as well. That wraps up April’s blog update for now. May’s update may include more old things if nothing new crosses my desk. In any case take care and see you next month!

Welcome The Ides Of March

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What better way to celebrate my birthday month by brining you topics ranging from ocean + aviation disasters, miniature art projects and even more Japanese urbex? Sit down and grab a slice of cake, we have much to discuss.

Every year I get older, I try my best to remind everyone around me the great fortune we all have of being alive. These are not empty words since I’ve lost friends and family over the years due to natural and unnatural causes. I’m more contemplative now since my youth because I’ve been humbled by death around me and being near death myself a few times. These experiences you only get from father time adding another notch to your belt, as I remember being a young man in college feeling invincible with (almost) nothing being able to stand in my way. And as I’ve developed over time a fascination with accidents and tragedies related to aviation and maritime archaeology; I hope I can invite some of you to be interested in the topics as well.

It’s astounds me to this day the level of detail people put into dioramas. For those who are interested in classic movies up until the 90’s, you’ll know well for a fact that Hollywood put a lot of money into professional miniature model makers for shots. Outside of big budget box office films however, hobby people from around the globe honed their skills in the comfort of their own homes for entertainment. As time and technology progressed, the advent of laser etching printers (and now 3D printing) caused a resurgence of interest in this highly specialized hobby. If I ever find the time in the later years of my life to pursue a new hobby outside of video games, this is definitely on the top 3 list for sure.

This is a really rare (and beautifully done) video depicting the changes of time to a cityscape over 50 years. I 95% of the time feature urbex videos that depict ruin and decay, but this is one of the rare instances that it is not the case. There’s not really much to say about it since the content is purely visual in its story telling, so all I will add is that if any of you know of similar content for any other cities in the world; please let me know right away.

My recent adventures playing mobile games made me stop and pause for a moment in reflection on how much people spend in-game. I understand the nature of “fomo” and how it aggressively affects people glued to their phones in the modern era, but us old time nerds have a different version of it back in the day I was growing up. You see we had hobbies that involved model kits and action figures. Along the way, someone thought up the bright idea of modeling extremely awesome (and lewd) looking figures and sold them at quite the premium. Thankfully this hobby hasn’t changed, even if the prices have quadrupled when I was serious in it. Extremely limited space in my house ended my “career” in collecting them, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like window shopping from time to time. There’s a very useful site that details the entire process of starting this ambitious hobby. Feel free to give it a detailed read should you wish to part with your hard earned cash. Beats gambling on gacha any day in my opinion.

Artist is TailzKim

This month’s featured artist is TailzKim - a lover of all things plump and cute. As always feel free to click the image that leads to the artist’s portfolio or funding page to access their library of work. That wraps up March of this year! I’m off to take a jog to burn off that birthday cake.

New Year New Things

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Time to bring in the new year with a new post for 2023. I’m mixing things up again by changing the format of my audio and written blogs to be more concise; and throwing away the “introduction” I did back in 2022. I figure if you’re on my site you know why you’re here, so I’m going to acknowledge that and proceed likewise. Final reminder for my returning visitors that everything and anything I post on the blogs might have NSFW stuff in it mixed in.

Over the years I’ve poked fun at the generic and pedantic advice most motivational books can give you. But one person who has never given a shred of useless insight is David Goggins, a man I hold in high regard ever since I learned of him and his journey through life. Old timers may remember that a while back I suggested everyone check out his earlier book “Can’t Hurt Me”. Now that he has a new one out, it’s only natural I advise you all check it out as well. Please believe me when I say David’s stories and knowledge is a good blueprint into looking at the way you see your own way of doing things and making adjustments as needed. Perspective is something I have preached over the years constantly when folks tend to start feeling sorry for themselves, when in reality the ability to change their circumstances is quite within reach than they think it is.

One of my vows for this year was to go back to my roots a bit and start talking about various topics without a theme between them. I was gun shy last year suggesting content that didn’t have a YouTube video associated with it; but I realized that hamstringed me a bit in terms of stuff I could talk about. So we’re treating things like it’s 2018 again and I’m giving you a website suggestion. Abandoned Kansai is a urbex blog focused on the uglier (yet still beautiful in ways) ruins of Japan. Florian (the host) travels to a lot of abandoned and destitute places; taking pictures and creating a story about the process along the way. What I like about his journeys is that he doesn’t filter out his words for a generic public, and says things how they are as how he feels them. This creates a genuine feeling of reading someone’s travel notes versus someone creating something for an audience. We’re along for the ride, not being given a ride if that makes sense. In any case there’s a lot to read and take in if you head on over there. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll love every moment of Japanese dystopia!

Just because I’m getting older doesn’t mean I don’t try and keep up with all the kids these days. Still living on the internet can have its perks and draw backs. And over the years I actually have the strange insight of living through the start of and conclusion of internet memes. Often times nowadays, we generally click on something funny or interesting and then think nothing of it once the punchline goes away (or its intended purpose is served). This “single use” joke mechanism is convenient for all of us to inject humor in our daily lives, but it actually comes at the expense of something or someone. To be clear I’m not going on some moral high ground tangent here, I’m simply just saying that everything has a start and finish to it. And instead of another boring documentary on World War II, how about we watch a documentary on old memes instead? I hope you enjoy.

Some gaming news to start off the year. By the time you read this blog, it will be (at least) the start of February. So coming out this month, Like a Dragon Ishin should be released and you can enjoy the goodness that is a total remake of an older spin off game in the (now popular) Yakuza series. I’m a total fanboy when it comes to anything Yakuza, and since there hasn’t been a new game released for quite a while (outside of Judgement which is really its own thing frankly), I’m pretty excited about the game. There’s not much to say other than I hope you have as much fun with it as I’m going to have, and if you become a fan of the series; there’s a lot waiting for you in the backlog.

Artist is Secretly Saucy

One of my ambitions if the KickStarter was successful last year was to create an entire featured artist category on my site. The section would have contained artists that I heave featured over the years and then I would continue to add more as time went on. My rules were that I would not have anymore than 1 featured image (out of respect to the artist) and I would always link to their funding pages (Like a Patreon, etc) if at all possible so that folks could support them for their work. Since this isn’t a possibility anymore (at least for now), I’m just going to add an artist I really like at the end of every blog post for the year moving forward. So this kicking off the inaugural post is Secretly Saucy - a furry artist who specializes in extra thicc but cuddly waifus.