March Mildness

Another year in the books for me, as March is my birthday month. I find myself at odds with the world at large not on a grand scale, but from what I’ve been familiar with for the last 10 years. Thinking back to 2015 and how different things were and now (from a nerd’s perspective), I’m kind of left a bit speechless. In any case, this month we’re going to dial things back a bit and go through all the motions that make sense to me as a middle-aged nerd. Maybe it might make sense to some of you as well, in which I can be proud I saved some souls along the way.

I promise you this isn’t going to be a long-winded self-advice monthly update. But I did want to share with you something I always revisit from time to time whenever I get a bit confused or overwhelmed with life. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has helped me keep organized for a better part of a decade now. Sometimes we dedicate a lot of time to one part of life while ignoring others, and without taking some time to look at the scale of what we’re doing every day, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment.

Over 20 years ago, when I was a hopeless college (university) student, I remember scraping everything I owned together to buy a $300 used laptop. That busted, nearly broken thing lasted me almost my entire school life until near graduation. What is it with kiddies (and adults) now wanting $3200 graphic cards? Are we still trying to play games anymore or has the paradigm shifted to… whatever it is now. I guess showing everyone around you how to burn money is a thing. In any case, I don’t think I’ll be building a “PC gaming” rig anytime soon within the next 5 years if trends continue. I’ll stick to the amazing advances in smaller form factors, and gaming on the go that isn’t a laptop. Fuck technology, and long live technology, I guess.

It’s never too early or late in your life to change the narrative you (or someone else) have made. If tomorrow you suddenly decided to have “the” yard sale of everything you own and move to another country; I’ll be the last to stop you. Robcdee has been someone I’ve followed for a long time and enjoyed his many adventures with. Although I’m not asking anyone to make a living streaming outdoors, it is a fun diversion to see how it’s actually like. I linked you to his first cycling around Japan video, he actually has two more for 2023 and 2024. 2025’s cyclathon will be live on Twitch in March in a different country than Japan.

A recently released track from a newly formed group (from what I can gather) called In Color. Literally their first track, and I’m hooked like no other. Do me a favor and the next time you take an evening cruise clearing your mind, load up this track and sing along. I highly look forward to what the band has in store for future releases if they come out the gate swinging like this. Please refer to my April 2024 blog to do this song justice and not play it through some horrible phone speakers.

Artist is Secretly Saucy

Star Wars is dead. Star Trek is barely recognizable… but still holding on. It seems to me the last frontier of my fading memories is Warhammer / 40K. For whatever reason for the last couple of years, this particular franchise has been able to hold the archenemy at the gates. But for how long? Time will tell, but at least artist of the month (and they’ve been featured before many times) Secrety Saucy will help stem the endless tide. Ever vigilant.

What's New Is Old & New Again

Artist is Onono Imoko

As always with every February update, it’s Lunar New year and this one belongs to the Snake. It goes without saying if you don’t know what your lunar animal is, you can check this link here to see what it is. For my nerds out there (which make up like 90% of you), “LNY” has become popular enough the world over to be treated as an event for most online communities, including anything video game related. So whatever social community you represent, don’t forget to get your freebies and enjoy the atmosphere.

This short and sweet video is done by the legendary Majin Obama; a figurehead of sorts for the FGC and “living abroad in Japan” sub-culture. Probably one of the funniest people I’ve come across over the years, he’s also one of the rare ones that is able to philosophize about various nerdy topics. Some of my inspiration to start my blog came from him (amongst other pioneers). If you never heard of him, I highly suggest you start off with his famous (infamous?) Obama Tales series. This isn’t the first video he’s done talking about arcades, so make sure to check out his channel and archives for related material. It’s worth it.

Speaking of living legends, we can’t go any further without talking about the SMHUP / STG God among us Jaimers. Unlike many other silent enthusiasts of this very niche genre, Jaimers has always spent the effort to detail how he approaches scoring in any game. He plays A LOT by the way, and all of them are extremely well documented on his channel. Enjoy the Radiant Silvergun run above and the amazing soundtrack it has (video is silent until 1 minute in). Remember to turn on captions for the scoring commentary.

Shifting gears a bit, I wanted to bring to everyone’s attention that a documentary channel (Gravitas) I use to watch back in the day on one of those “freemium” ad supported streaming services has put their catalog of stuff on YouTube for the low price of absolutely free! Pretty crazy considering most of this stuff was paywalled back in the day in one form or another. For whatever reason if you can’t see this YouTube channel or the above video, use any VPN you wish and set your location to North America or Canada.

Finishing off the “old but new” theme, we have a video from long time recommendation The Proper People. I’ve always said to my wife that in another lifetime if I had never met her, there’s a good chance I would have been an Urbex enthusiast travelling the world getting into weird and obscure places. Since I don’t live in that timeline, we can all watch other folks brave getting caught by authorities and dying in obscure out of the way places from the comfort of our living room.

Artist is Onono Imoko

Artist of the month is the talented Onono Imoko. Their style is particularly familiar to old school manga reading folks, because it’s the one that was extremely popular for magazine covers for quite some time. The bright, neon colors with bold lines became a staple familiar “look at me!” advertisement on magazine racks and display shelves. Feel free to check out their Pixiv page for additional links, works, and of course NSFW stuff if you’re so inclined.

2024 Retrospective Speedrun

2024 was the first year I introduced the weekly update section here on the site. With that dedicated archive for a lot of my thoughts throughout the year, it isn’t necessary anymore to thoroughly go back and finely detail everything as I did back in 2020 to 2023. This retrospective is going to be in the “award” ceremony format highlighting the highs and lows of my monthly updates, weekly updates and personal life in no particular order. I’ll try to make it fun and add new stuff into the mix to keep it refreshing.

”Best monthly blog of 2024” award goes to April when all I really talked about was equipment. I spent a lot of time on the subject trying my best to be as neutral and helpful as possible to the largest amount of people. It’s a labor of love and still worth referencing today, so I hope you all revisit it if you haven’t already. CheapAudioMan carries the torch with his favorite gear for 2024 if you have even more money to burn.

“Public service announcement of 2024” comes courtesy of one of my weekly updates where I was misled by a shitty Google advertisement for a game that was anything but what it claimed to be. I had never seen that many burly anime men without clothing before in my entire life. Report advertisements as you see them, life pro-tip for the year.

“Best new YouTube recommendation of 2024” goes to Jenny Nicholson. I suggested everyone check out Jenny’s video on the ill-fated Star Wars hotel back in July’s monthly blog. Although she releases content seldomly, it’s always worth a watch how deep down the rabbit hole she goes. I recommend you check out her other videos for the costume transitions alone.

“Video you should watch again of 2024” goes to my boy EmpLemon and his analytical break down of virtual pixels with monetary worth. It’s a good social commentary on the nature of speculative value, something the entire NFT / Crypto sphere is currently profiting off of and to some degree exploiting people with.

“People who need to be beaten within an inch of their life then humiliated in public of 2024” goes to all the scalpers throughout the entire year for Pokemon merchandise. So many collabs, so many human trashcans picking it all up and selling it for 5x to 8x the retail MSRP. Don’t encourage the behavior and ever buy inflated prices. There’s always an alternative.

Courtesy Investopedia (Mallika Mitra)

“In loving memory of 2024” goes to my living expenses in southern California. Not much to add to this other than I highly recommend any international visitors thinking of immigrating to the United States; pick another part of the country.

“Coolest thing I bought and told no one about of 2024” goes to the GMKtec Micro PC. YouTuber HTWingNut does a fantastic job of not only reviewing the item in detail but also convincing me to pick it up during the holiday season. Having a dedicated PC to run video, streams, podcasts and more while consuming literally 16 watts is a god send for someone (me) who lives in the 2nd most expensive State in America in terms of energy cost.

Artist is Lines Sensei

“Lewdest thing I couldn’t post in full of 2024” belongs to two talented creators. One is Todiso who created the lovely video render above. The other is the artist who came up with the OC goblin waifu Lines Sensei. Both of them have Patreon, and I suggest you give them a visit. The above video is a muted, clipped preview of the full released one, which you actually get for free over on Todiso’s Pixiv if you look through his full archive. Be aware that version is very Korean and very naked. Those who seek it out will know what I’m talking about.

“Most dedicated visitors of 2024” goes to all of you. According to my super-secret statistics, about 85% of my site visitors have me bookmarked or use some type of direct link to the site. Thanks for keeping me going and giving me an audience to talk to all these years. I don’t plan to stop anytime soon going into 2025 either. Don’t forget small gestures of encouragement go a long way, including hitting that like on the bottom of posts or sending a kind word wherever you can across my contact information.

Holiday Vibes

Ten years ago, I came across this music video with an electronic beat to it that instantaneously became an earwig of mine. It was catchy in that generic pop-song way and the music video was entertaining. But that world is long gone, along with the location in the video. Any locals of the area will tell you that the entire block it was made on is now unrecognizable. I guess what I’m trying to get at is that good memories last forever regardless of the present circumstances. I know some folks tend to get introspective during the holidays when they (hopefully) have a little bit more time to themselves.

I espouse everyone to go outside throughout the year, but there’s also an argument to be made for bringing nature indoors. The easiest way to do that is obviously getting some sturdy succulent house plants and placing them around your living space. If you have the drive, skills and patience however to step up your game; then maybe try a terrarium. This particular video is on the higher skill ceiling side, but the awesomeness of what “could” be possible should hopefully motivate you to give it a shot. Or at least spend money for someone else to do it for you!

There are a lot of “survival” style content creators on YouTube. Frankly, a lot of them are also obnoxious. Xander is not one of them. There is no clout chasing, close up of his junk and butt, or reasons why he’s doing this because he needs to feel “alive” again from his every day billion-dollar lifestyle. He’s also not an aging boomer angry at the world letting them know everyone else is wrong. He’s just a chill Canadian who enjoys the wilderness, and he brings you along best he can. He’s also a bit quirky, which adds to the charm of it all.

I met a lot of folks earlier in the year during my physical rehab from 2023. People from various walks of life in various stages of fitness. I was shocked to see how many workouts there were for different stages of capabilities. This spurred me to motivate others I knew for a very long time who always found excuses not to move; especially hiding behind reasons such as time or financial worries. If you have a chair, you can work out. More importantly, anyone of any ability can get these movements done in a short amount of time. If my then crippled, semi-blind husk of a body got through 2023 / 2024 doing whatever I could - you super strong lads and lasses can certainly do better. Don’t make it a goal for 2025. Make it one for life.

It wouldn’t be winter here in North America without some type of ice related video. So, I thought a virtual train trip from a Japanese guy going through the American rail system would be awkward and fun enough to suggest viewing. Although this is a cozy “no commentary” video, the captions are full of snark and dry humor. Solo Travel (he has multiple channels) has been going throughout the world for a long time now, so he’s a veteran and edits his videos well. You can check out all his other stuff for cozy atmospheric travel stuff.

Artist is Love Cacao

I know I typically don’t put super risqué stuff on the monthly updates anymore, but this entire update has been so wholesome I need to bring some balance back to the universe. Artist of the month is Love Cacao, because their quality is exactly the stuff you can make gacha video games out of. Enjoy the portfolio, and they of course pass the “Art Station” test of being a good artist. Seriously some S rank stuff on that platform compared to the others. Have a great holiday season and New Year’s Eve! January will be the yearly retrospective.