#and i remember where i was for most of the uploads past communications

[xxzapvanityxx]

dude i miss communications. i was so talking to one of my guys about it bc i was super into ghost and pals during like my middle school yrs, like. 2016-18 area? maybe even 2015 honestly. and i was on quotev mainly as my social media and my friends and i would roleplay the communications characters and i was always henry with the one time exception of playing nancy i think. and my friend jamie was behind one of the biggest if not second biggest communications confessions blogs on here at one point. and goddamn.. we all made like fan ocs to roleplay too... it was so fun. and then the jelf the elf joke, my ex boyfriend and i made like a jelf the elf takeover over on quotev for it and it was pretty sizable. and then the fuckin youtube comment on ghostie-p's album upload on spotify thats like "thanks to you..." was a comment my old friend juice's little brother left on one of their songs because juice always listened to it and annoyed their brother with it! shit is fucking crazy honestly its so weird to think about... i literally dont talk to any of these people except for one of them anymore and hes like a little brother to me. life is genuinely so crazy. the world is a small and crazy place

[7grandmel]

Rip of the week: 04/11/2024

You Are Sus

Season 5 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume D

Ripped by Retro Gaming

Requested by Corb! (Request Form)

I've written a fair amount already on here about my somewhat...muted feelings, regarding Season 5 of the SiIvaGunner channel. It was, retrospectively, a sort of transitional year for the team, as they had to officially move past the King for Another Day Tournament after over two years of fixating on it, not to mention how large parts of the team had left during those years due to creative and personal differences. It's a net good in the end that the channel team wound up finally being free of the edgy assholes that had festered since the dark days of 2016, yet this transition left 2021 in particular feeling a bit...lost, in terms of long-term goals for the channel. We were, of course, still getting stellar rips as always; be it the remaining old guard showing tremendous growth with rips like Hopes and Divinity+, or fresh faces like R.L.99 from Through the F-F-Fire and the F-F-Flame and Memmy from Welcome to 2021! They finally invented summers that hurt motherfuckers😂 only at sonicforces​.​com making immediately memorable first impressions to help pave the way for the future of the channel...yet taken on the whole, it can be hard for me to remember just what Season 5 of SiIvaGunner in particular was aiming to prove.

As fate would have it, however, a set of huge events in the online world wound up happening in the lead-up to 2021, the very year of this initial uncertainty for the channel. The channel was no stranger to responding to ongoing online trends – Plains of Des-passing-to was far from the only upload of its ilk – yet the events in question had such a magnitude to them, to where it was as if SiIvaGunner's responses to them wound up inadvertedly defining the entire year's Season, in part defining the channel's whole legacy. The most obvious example is in the year's April Fools event; The Disappearance of Super Mario, rather than playing with the expectation and goals of the SiIvaGunner channel itself the way that ...of 2023 did with Season 7, was instead entirely built on an existing online joke that had been bubbling in the gaming community for the course of multiple months, one I covered pretty succinctly back on Your Best Nightmario and Mario Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Princess.

The second of these events would be the initial release of Friday Night Funkin' and the immediate surge of popularity it came with; doubtlessly, the SiIvaGunner team's choice to provide matching visuals for every rip of the game as shown on Satinpanties Symphony and Satin PantE's wound up giving the channel tons of attention from new fans, and over three years later it feels as if the culture of SiIvaGunner is inextricably linked with the youthful punk spirit still keeping FNF alive. Yet most momentous of all, above the aforementioned two events, there was a third that would end up festering into 2021 of SiIvaGunner, not through thematic coherence or through the die-hard passion of any one ripper in particular, but through sheer force of overexposure and comedic value; 2021 was, indeed, the rise and inescapable plateau of all forms of imposters, crewmates, tasks and sussy bakas; At last, it is time to talk about AMONG US, and time to talk about You Are Sus.

I've had the request for this rip in particular stuck in my head for months on end, awaiting a proper time to cover it; I've scraped the very surface of Among Us' presence on SiIvaGunner on here beforehand through Among Drip Drop Galaxy, and it's been looming over this blog since near its very beginning all the way back on Big Sus Chocobo. Yet to try and comprehend all that Among Us is feels nigh impossible: more than a video game, more than a phenomena, Among Us took the entire shitposting world by inexplicable storm and mutated like a virus into what feels like several hundred different memes over the course of mere months. It was rapidly growing in absurdity and layers of irony, much the same as SiIvaGunner memes like Grand Dad did like I wrote about on Waluigi Pinball (Beta Mix), yet now done on a wholly mainstream level; no matter who you were, if you were frequent on the internet you were only a few posts away from seeing the Among Us Drip memes, from knowing someone who had permanently added "sussy" to their lexicon, from seeing the vague silhouette of a crewmate wherever your eye would wander. Among Us shitposting was omnipresent, and the worst part was; It was, through some bizarre construction of the collective human consciousness, pretty much ALWAYS funny. The SiIvaGunner team witnessed this meteoric rise in an entire new genre of shitposting, and it was as if it gave the channel a newfound passion; as if to say, "no matter where our vessel heading, we're gonna make the best damned Among Us shitposts possible for as long as its afloat.".

And so, the rips came in; Expensive Dispenser's Among Fresh Drip, a mixture of these latter two phenomena released near the very start of Season 5, may perhaps be worthy of coverage on here in its own right for just how foundational it is to the Season 5 SiIvaGunner experience as a whole. But the rips riffing on the game only continued to grow in number, and as the meme itself grew it had yet more sources to pull from; like Bottom G of Lagplane fame, Among Us' greatest strength as a meme was just how damn versatile it was, as there were a seemingly neverending amount of audiovisual cues that would immediately let the viewer make the connection to Among Us and the growing insanity of its derivative content. Now, imagine taking a distillation of that insanity, and mixing it with what may be one of the SiIvaGunner team's most insane rippers; Retro Gaming. Featured on here previously through Logan Paul's Shop, the guy is a ripper whose output I have been SORELY underestimating, someone who – as made evident in the aforementioned rip – has a sort of unhinged knack for adding onto his rips through additional sources and jokes that only barely feel cohesive with what the original concept for the rip was, like teetering on the brink of madness. With these two combined, you end up with a whole bunch of Among Us rips; and, indeed, with You Are Sus in particular.

It's remarkable to me that You Are Smart now has two clear all-time amazing rips under its belt for me with both You Are Sus and Season 7's You Are Book Smart, but it goes to show just how much inherent comedic value the song has. The off-kilter feel of Katamari Damacy as a whole, distilled into a weird beat, melody and voice samples, make it the perfect canvas for true lunacy to breed; and with You Are Sus, practically every part of the Among Us shitposting homunculus is leveraged to make something truly unbelievable. It's far from the only Among Us YTPMV on SiIvaGunner – I mentioned Big Sus Chocobo before – and yet it feels perhaps like the most cohesive rip of the game you could possibly make. All the hits are here; Arcade Craniacs-posting, Stop Posting About Among Us, Among Us In Real Life, A M O G U S, all woven together in such a chaotic, unpredictable way, like a barrage of Among Us noise more than aiming to be organic parts of the original You Are Smart. Yet they're paired with additions that ARE almost seamlessly integrated with You Are Smart, changing the titular chant into "You Are Sus", Among Us sound effects being added to the original song's beat to give it just that slight sussy texturing, even giving it a sort of "beat drop" around 0:40.

Retro Gaming doesn't get sidetracked off the original joke here the way you could argue (despite being to its benefit) Logan Paul's Shop did; EVERY joke present here, every layer of madness added is all to further You Are Sus's agenda. The usage of Arcade Craniacs clips in particular is immensely inspired; the channel was one of many content farms on YouTube that found increasingly absurd ways to play off of the Among Us branding to boost their own popularity, and through voice clips relating to said efforts are intersperced throughout You Are Sus, it all comes full circle at the two minute mark. "It literally says 'You Are Sus'", a clip rings out, thereby connecting the echoing edit of the You Are Smart voice heard throughout the rip to the title and concept of the rip as a whole, a madhouse of every possible angle of the word "sus" played all at once.

I can express as many gripes with the overall direction of SiIvaGunner's 5th Season as I wish, but none of that will take away from the sheer talent and quality found within its rips; and a rip like You Are Sus excels in ways only a Season 5 SiIvaGunner rip could. Channelling the peak of Among Us shitposting insanity through the veins of one of the SiIvaGunner team's most cracked-out rippers, executed with the detail and finesse on a level to where the Stop Posting About Among Us-guy's ramble is synced to the beat of the song used... it was bound to become an all-time fantastic rip, is what I'm saying. It was as if the loose direction the channel took during 2021 in particular gave the team free reign, a freedom to adapt all that the internet was yelling over throughout the year with a degree of effort it would otherwise direct to the channel's own internal ecosystem. If that effort was what gave us rips like You Are Sus, then I'm perfectly content in calling Season 5 of SiIvaGunner a truly successful experiment.

[demonqueenart]

Thank you for answering, I really appreciate it <3 I remember when people were speaking up about these issues a few years ago and many people in the phandom either shut them down or ignored them, and while I’m sure there’s still a lot of that going on even now, I’m really glad that we’ve reached a far more open and understanding point where it’s okay to talk about this stuff now. You and blogs like yours are doing a really good job putting yourselves out there, and we really are striving for a more inclusive community, because we all deserve it!!

Per the subtitle thing, I did some more research and went back to their recent videos, and it seems that while the majority of them do have proper subtitles, I think DnP don’t tend to upload their videos with proper subtitles on them at first, and instead do the subs afterwards and then add them when they’re finished, because the most recent video still has auto-generated subs on it.

While I am thankful that they do put on proper subs, since far too many YouTubers (some even bigger than them) don’t even bother, I believe they should make sure that the subs are there when they upload their videos; since I usually wait a few days to watch new videos, I didn’t notice the time-gap between auto-generated and proper subtitles, so that was my mistake! I appreciate their captioning, but D/deaf people, HoH people and people with sensory processing issues shouldn’t have to wait for accessibility, so I do think they have the capacity to do better in that regards. I’m not an expert on how captioning works on YouTube, so I don’t know how long it takes for captions to be made, but overall I think there’s definitely room for improvement.

That’s my opinion, though, as someone who uses subtitles, but obviously someone else may see this completely differently!

Absolutely! People should be able to enjoy an upload right then! I imagine it’s disheartening that someone would have to wait for a subtitle to be in a video while others have already watched and geeked about the whole thing. That must have made people feel excluded from this community in some way. I hope they’ll hire professionals for subtitles in the future, or find other ways to make people able to enjoy an upload right then! (It’s still very nice of them to use subtitles in their video early on tho. I think it’s something that people can overlook so easily, I’m glad this is not what they do :) )

Also, if anyone wants to share their pov about this, I would love to hear them. The more pov, the better!

[ID/ a banner with light blue sparkly background; the disability pride flag slides in from the left and darker blue text pops in reading "Make some noise for Disability Pride Month!!" /end ID]

Banner by dapg-otmebytheballs

Auto-message: This ask’s purpose is to acknowledge dnp’s past/present exclusivity, not to cancel them! But to embrace mistakes that they’ve made so that 1. we won’t exclude people in need in this community, and 2. we can normalize bringing up exclusivity so that improvement can happen. Hopefully this will one day help dnp realize that this is a safe space for them to talk about their mistakes, so that this space can become safe for people of all kinds too <3

*If you don’t understand what is happening, scroll through my blog for context. And I’ll be taking time to answer my asks, so don’t think I’m ignoring youuu*

[msdrprofessorjessica]

Introducing my Five Nights At Freddy's AU!!!

This is something that I have wanted to do for a while but I have not been able to muster up the courage for multiple reasons. These reasons include: I'm not an artist, moreso a writer. I feel that if I ever uploaded anything onto Tumblr involving a Fnaf AU that never had any sort of art, I would get ignored or even shat on because of it. I don't know why, might just be the anxiety in me (I also happen to be sick right now so that doesn't help either). I also felt that my ideas would be often criticized or straight up ignored by most around here. I grew up in a more simpler time of the Fnaf community, where AU's meant that something crazy needed to happen meanwhile everyone here just does Alive AU's and treats these characters like they are their own OC's. I don't. Thirdly, a recent post in the past might set off red flags, especially the recent sentence. This is not going to be your coffee shop Alive AU like most people. I don't like Alive AU's, in fact I kinda detest them if I'm being honest. If you know me on Discord (only close friends do) then this AU might not be super interesting and might be the same stuff I already do. But no one really knows me on Tumblr and a lot of people are not close friends with me, so this is a way to give back to the Five Nights At Freddy's franchise, a franchise I hold so dear to my heart.

Five Nights At Freddy's has been with me since I was nine years old talking about it in the cafeteria of my school, talking about what Fnaf 2 would be like, and playing it on the god awful mobile phone version. I still remember my IPod having the old Fnaf 3 mobile port on it before it got wiped, good times. For a while now, I have always been scared about going public with my works. Taking small steps to try and get myself out there as a writer and such, and I feel like this is a bit of a step in the right direction. Maybe a giant step but a step nonetheless. I want to share my AU with the world and with a fandom I have very close ties with and I still do even when I'm 19. Fnaf even helped me with gender identity and such (thank you Vanessa Fnaf) and while I did take a crack at people who make Alive AU's, I still enjoy them when they are done in a fun and interesting way. And yes, I still love those kids, they are so silly. This AU is a loveletter to the franchise and while I don't want to reveal the name yet, I can't just not tell you what it will entail.

For all you remnant and agony lovers, that stuff is staying. I love the concept of remnant and agony and I think I can use not just agony, but all emotions in an interesting way to make it affect remnant as well.

Actual development to not just human characters, but animatronic characters as well. I know, crazy right? There's lore to be had for the animatronics as well to make their development just as interesting as your favorite silly children and your mass murderers. Also yes, just like other AU's, the cast will have a large diversity. Some characters will be LGBTQ+, some will be black, some will be Asian, some will be autistic, the whole nine yards. Some will be straight and white, I know, horrifying but the cast will still be diverse.

All games are canon! Yeah that's right, every game is canon in some way shape or form, even games like Freddy in Space 3 and Fury's Rage. Five Nights At Freddy's 1-4, Five Nights At Freddy's Sister Location, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, Ultimate Custom Night, Help Wanted 1 and 2, Special Delivery, Security Breach and Ruin, and Secret Of The Mimic. Fazbear Fanverse Games are also canon as well, aside from Flumpty's for very obvious reasons. Everything has been worked out to make sure these games do not overlap each other in any way shape or form and that they all are smoothly and coherently connected to one another. Now in terms of books, the only one that will be canon is The Week Before. This may change and there will be a post about it if so, but as of right now, only The Week Before is canon. The movie, Fazbear Frights, or Tales From The PizzaPlex, is not canon.

Returning characters and brand new ones!! That's right, you will see all the familiar faces, William Afton, Henry Emily, Fritz Smith, Jeremy Fitzgerald, everyone you know and love will be here. There will also be brand new faces! OC's will be here and may sometimes be important but will also probably sometimes not be important. It really depends on the role of the character, can't wait for you to meet all of them, returning and old : D.

References up the ass. Many such references to many popular characters from the books, the movies, and even other fangames not apart of the Fazbear Fanverse. If you want to see some TRTF references, this AU is for you. Do you want to see Wario's Fast Food Factory from Five Nights At Wario's? You can! Do you want to see Dormitabis characters be shown and talked about? I am the only one who probably cares about it but yes!!!!

AU posts will hopefully feature art and even large stories! I am excited to share this AU with you... when I feel better and I'm not sick. Hope you all are excited!!! : D

[ddaome-kr]

Memorial Day in Korea: A Day of Remembrance and Reflection

Note: this was supposed to be uploaded on Memorial day in Korea (June 6th) but we started our tumblr blog a bit late compared to our instagram, so here's a slightly late but hopefully still interesting post :) Also, here's the link to our instagram post!

Hello, dear readers. Today’s post is going to be a little heavy and solemn as it is about Memorial Day in Korea. Known as "Hyeonchung-il" in Korean, this national holiday is commemorated on June 6th each year. This solemn day holds great importance in Korean culture and history as a time to honor and remember the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives in service to their country. In today’s post, I will introduce some interesting and meaningful information about ‘Hyeonchung-il’ from its history, and meaning to its modern-day commemorations.

First I will explain the name of Memorial Day in Korean. It is called ‘HyeonChung-Il’(현충일). It means the day of showing unswerving loyalty. Interpreting each of the characters is as follows: ‘Hyeon (현)’ means to show, ‘Chung (충)’ stands for loyalty, and ‘Il(일) is a day.’

Now let’s move onto the specific date. In 1956, the Korean government announced the date of Memorial Day to be on June 6th, three years after the signing of the Korean Armistice treaty. There are different theories about why the establishment of Memorial Day came to be on June 6th. One is that June 6th is around one of the solar terms, ‘Mang-jong’, which is when the barley ripe and rice planting newly begins. Korea, historically being an agrarian society considered it to be the best day of the year, and therefore chose this day to remember and perform rituals for the fallen heroes since ancient times. Another story is that since June is the month when the Korean War broke out, they chose an appropriate day for it. Also referred to as ‘the 6.25 War’, the Korean War had a significant influence on Korea then and still. So, in remembrance of this historical event that sacrificed millions of human lives and resources, the government deliberately associated Memorial Day with the Korean War. Nevertheless, Memorial Day in Korea is dedicated to all who showed bravery and sacrifice with their lives for the nation.

On this day people in Korea ‘hyun chung’ in various ways. The most common is putting up a half-staff national flag at each home and institution. It should be a half mast since it’s not a day of celebration but a day of commemoration. Also, siren rings at 10 a.m. on that day for 1 minute signaling for the citizens to participate in a silent tribute, praying for the fallen heroes. In addition, many also visit places like National Cemetery, War Memorial, and Independence Hall where the fallen soldiers lay take part in the national ceremony and offer flowers, incense, and prayers as a gesture of respect and gratitude. It is a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by those who fought for Korea's freedom and peace. Furthermore, TV shows, livestreams of national ceremony, and movie in related theme are broadcasted. Lastly, through various educational programs and community events, the significance of Memorial Day is taught to children, ensuring that the sacrifices of the past are never forgotten.

However, in recent times, some critique that the sincerity of remembering the national spirits has decreased and the day is only seen as an extra day to rest. Saying that this may be due to the times being past and the society changing with generations that have not experienced direct war as the larger part. Nevertheless, people still put efforts into remembering this day. Such as doing a silent tribute before an event during this day or posting relevant information on social media. (Like this post that you’re reading right now!)

In this aspect, I recommend that you visit these places, watch the programs and shows, and follow along with the activities that will provide you with a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in Korean culture and history. By attending commemorative events, exploring historical sites, and learning about the stories of Korean war heroes, you will be able to gain a deeper appreciation for the resilience and spirit of the Korean people who showed courage, loyalty, and patriotism that are integral to Korean identity. I will add the links down below.

I hope you found this post interesting. See you in the next post!

[solradguy]

Hey Sol! I remember quite a while ago, someone asked you about how to get into archiving stuff and you answered with a little guide of sorts of useful programs/websites/etc.

Do you still have that guide up? Is there somewhere I can learn more in-depth about how to begin archiving too?

Tumblr search is failing me and I can't find that post now... So! I'll type it again. Lately I've been thinking about writing some kind of "archivist's manifesto" type thing for my Neocities in an effort to hype people up about archiving and to guide them on how to do it. When I write that up I'll post it here too.

Here's a big post I wrote on how to scan books and where to upload them (this is also linked in the big GG masterpost that's in my pinned): https://solradguy.tumblr.com/post/722512206034501632/sol-radguy-scanning-guide

That guide also has some tips on photo editing that may be useful for non-book scanning stuff, like some free program alternatives.

I've tried finding professional guides on how to archive media but most of them are written for people looking to archive family photos/things and not web media or physical books. None of them have been very helpful, honestly. One thing they recommend doing that I think IS helpful though is the rule of 3: Keep 3 copies of an archive somewhere. A physical hard drive, cloud storage, a second hard drive stored separately from the first (in case of accidents/hardware failure), uploaded to separate file hosts, and printing new physical copies are some. Doing any 3 of those is highly recommended. I do the two hard drives and cloud storage/file hosts ones. My hosts are generally Archive.org, Neocities, and Google Drive.

Be very careful about trusting image hosting sites with valuable scan data because they come and go like the wind. Photobucket, Tinypic, Imageshack... They're either dead or require a premium to host files now, which doesn't help hobby archivists at all. Imgur's demise is on the horizon. It's just the way it goes with these due to how expensive and space-consuming image hosting is.

Absolutely 1000% do not ever use just Discord for archiving/hosting things. Nothing on that platform can be backed up easily or with automation, and the guys that run it have already made weird choices the community didn't want while also putting more and more things behind the Nitro paywall. I suspect they're going to kneecap image and file hosting some day soon, too.

For archiving someone else's files, something that helps greatly (if it can be done) is either including the source of the file in the file's name or writing a separate document with the sources and whatever other additional information there is.

Here's a basic example of some Sol images from my Sol folder:

The first two are from the Counterside collab event and then the second two are official art but the file names are descriptive and it saves time sourcing them for things later. For archiving fan art/fiction, the filename is a good place to put the artist credit. Something like [Artwork Title]-[Artist Name]-[Original File Creation Date].format ("Sol Badguy Missing Link - Daisuke Ishiwatari - May 14 1998.jpg," or however you wanna organize the folder) works good.

Windows 11 didn't like working with Japanese text in file names for some of the Vastedge stuff I archived and I had to translate/romanize them. If you can't read Japanese/source's language, just do your best (number them instead?) and include the native language text in a .TXT file if possible.

A more complex example from the Vastedge .TXT doc:

The Vastedge materials archive is pretty dense and had a lot of contributors so the first half of the .TXT document's just credits for who did what. This is useful for if something gets lost because we'll know who to go bother about it. Among other things.

The next section is a long stack of details about the files themselves. I won't paste the whole thing here, it's pretty long. It covers how the archive came to be, issues with some of the files, how the files were obtained, and some other stuff:

The last half of the .TXT doc is a listing of the folder contents. I included this for quick reference and because sometimes archives get fractured by people only reuploading certain parts of it. Future archivists or anyone else going through this archive now have a list of what should be in there and will know if something is missing.

Archive.org/Wayback Machine has a browser extension for quickly archiving webpages. I have that and WebP / Avif Image Converter by Nullbrains (Chrome, might be on Firefox?) installed to quickly archive pages and convert image files as I save them.

In summary:

Upload/store things in multiple places

Include credits wherever you can, however is easiest for you

Try to keep files in the most widely compatible formats (jpg, gif, bmp, png, tiff, mp3, mp4, txt, pdf, flac, etc). Google's .DOC, Clip Studio Paint's .CLIP, and similar file formats meant for a specific piece of software may not be supported in the future.

A bad/incomplete archive is better than no archive at all. Consider how exciting Sappho poetry fragments are compared to what it would be like if we didn't have anything. Don't worry about making it "perfect."

Hope that helps some!! I'll try to write the manifesto for my NC soon

[pryzme-colour]

Some hnk oc

I know people are allergic to long texts, but I'll still do info dumping 💅

Name: Pearl

Hardness: 2.5-4.5

Resilience: very good

Age: 323

Prons: any (preferably female)

Lore summary:

It could be assumed her birth in common with the gems, but her origin is different; she comes from the moon.

It is one of several attempts to create gems by the Lunarians, although unlike their other attempts, it is not synthetic. It was made by an admirabilis, and its entrusted objective was to be the eyes of Aechmea, showing him everything that happened in the society of gems on earth, thus, throwing it into the sea so that when it reaches the shore it is accepted as one more.

Although Pearl did not know, as she did not remember what had happened on the moon.

Due to its rarity as a non-gemstone, Rutile took an interest in her, and she also accepted Pearl as an apprentice.

The other gems, on the other hand, had some interest at the beginning, but when they became familiar with her, they simply stopped paying attention to her, except for Antarc, cuz' she's the only gem that stayed with him in the winter anyway .

Due to Pearl's cheerful and servicial personality (and being close to Rutile most of the time) she was able to form a close friendship with Phos, which would develop better as time went on.

At some point Pearl ends up going with Phos and his group to the moon, where she can progressively begin to remember things from her past before she came to earth.

And the rest; is history.

(Me being lazy to write here, but i know what she will do and will be until the end. Uploading all the info in: ⤵️)

(More messy information: ⤵️)

Trivia:

She needs very little sun, and prolonged exposure can damage her.

She needs to hydrate. Its surface is capable of absorbing liquids, and her fave is sweet water.

Unlike other gems, she can sweat and cry, although the first is a method against dryness from sun exposure, and the other is a leak.

Her luster and hardness depends on how hydrated she is.

Due to its need for hydration, she does not hibernate and works during the winter.

Although her hardness is low, it is extremely resilient. She doesn't tend to break, but she can be scraped or scratched.

She's fairly good at singing, but due to being bussy she can't do much more than chore on tunes while she works.

[wuzhere75]

Recommendations for additional/alternative social media?

This blog and my wider public social media presence are approaching two years old. While it has been a good time and I am grateful for the following I have attained and friends I have made, I am curious about using other social media. Sure, Tumblr is not the most obscure social media, but it’s more niche than a lot of others. I am interested in taking commissions some time in future and am interested in growing my audience in general, but I also just want to discover new artists and find new inspirations. I already have Reddit and Discord accounts, but from what I understand most people do not use Reddit for personal-blog type social media even though you can post art there, and I’d prefer to keep Discord for personal use. Remember even if I where to create other accounts, I’d probably still use Tumblr as my primary social media

Here is a list of sites I am already aware of, and their personal pros and cons in my eyes (ordered from of most interested to least interested):

Deviantart

+Art focused

+Decently popular (?)

-Had the entire AI debacle. I mean Tumblr essentially turned around and did the same thing, but it still makes me feel weird

-At least from what I understand, there was a mass exodus to other social media sites after the AI debacle and in the past few years in general

-From what I have heard, certain communities can be toxic (though that’s true of all social media)

YouTube

-I actually am genuinely interested in getting into YouTube, it’s just mostly a thing where I don’t know what I’d upload at this point outside of silent speedraws. If I ever actually learn audio/video editing I might go for it, but it would be some time in the future

Instagram/Threads (Lumped together because from what I understand you need one to have the other)

+In the case of Instagram, incredibly popular

-Pretty much forgotten in the case of Threads

-Anything made by Meta gives me the squick. That’s not to say Tumblr’s owners/the owners or runners of any social media are “good” by any means, but still. Even I were to use these, I’d probably focus on output my own work on there rather than interacting with other users.

-Once again I have heard that some subsections of Instagram can be pretty toxic

Furaffinity

+Niche, but its a niche that would probably overlap somewhat with my work and interests

-I have heard the owners/mods are either shitty people themselves or at least associate with shitty/problamatic people. If there where similar alternatives that did not come with said baggage I’d probably been interested in those

Xitter/TikTok

-Just no. I respect anyone who chooses to use either of these for art, they’re just not for me unless for some reason I get really desperate. Like Instagram, even I were to start using these sites, I’d probably focus on my own output rather than interacting with other users.

I left Amino off of here because I have not heard of anyone using it in a while but from what I heard it kind of went down the shitter. Bluesky (?) and ToyHouse are off of here because those require access codes (and I haven’t heard anyone talk about Bluesky in a hot minute), and I feel weird about just asking people for them. Creating my own website, wether that be through Neocities or straight up learning code, falls under the same category as YouTube, where I am interested but don’t have the skills or the time to learn the skills to operate them.

[donnerpartyofone]

I feel like there's an epidemic of businesses trying to make customers and applicants do free data entry for them and it's driving me crazy.

I have complained many times about how seeing a doctor now involves checking in online, and then entering duplicate information into something else when you check in physically, and then answering duplicate questions once you're actually inside the exam room. Sometimes somebody addresses this in a humane way: "Sorry, we're using a new CMS and we have to do all this stuff from scratch," or "Sorry, we have to use these three different systems and they don't communicate with each other." Last time I went I did all this like research into my past appointments because I never ever remember off the cuff exactly what day I had this or that procedure, and I had every impression that the clinic was dependent on me to have all my medical records memorized...so I got in there and started rattling off information, and the nurse asked "When was your last mammogram?", and I gave her the date, and she looked at her monitor and said, "...yup, there it is!" Like WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT, IF IT WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU WHY ARE YOU QUIZZING ME ABOUT THIS, WHY IS THIS A TEST???

I actually asked about redundant check-in procedures on Quora of all places, figuring there had to be a few cantankerous cranks on there who could at least try to explain this to me, but there were absolutely no takers at all. As far as I can see, literally no one knows why this is happening, it's just The Way It Is.

But anyway. Now I'm having this experience with job applications where they request that you upload files for your resume and cover letter in specific formats...and then they direct you to this interface where you are made to transcribe every detail from the resume you just provided by hand, one field at a time. I've been confronted with this insanity when applying for jobs whose wages weren't even worth the mind-numbing exercise of the application process. And actually this is part of my point: Data entry is a JOB. I have had this job. I was paid to examine, reformat, and transcribe data, and upload it to a database for my company to search and cross-reference in the future. If you are an employer and you absolutely require BOTH a pdf of my resume and cover letter that a human being can read and evaluate, AND each piece of data from those documents individually entered into your database for some other form of storage and review, then it is seriously fucking Up to You to pay some wage slave to enter the data. I'm looking for a job. I'm not going to do a job for you for fucking free, in order to become eligible for a job that you might consider paying me for later. Like please don't call me a fucking idiot to my face--or at least, if it's the database part that's the most important thing to you, do not also require me to create a nicely-formatted document containing my history and intentions. Let's just get right to the forced data entry part, let's start this awful relationship from a place of honesty at the very fucking least.

N.B. I realize that there are multiple reasons an employer would do this to a person, ranging from algorithmic candidate-sorting to just having outdated-ass job site shit in place that they don't feel like reviewing or revising. I don't really care why it's happening, I just hate that it is. Recently I tried to apply for some $15/hr part-time job at a local museum that a caveman could do, and I stopped cold when I realized I had to transcribe every detail of the documents I just gave them into this bullshit backend website that looked like it was about a thousand years old. No Thank You. Currently I'm all worked up because I just applied to work at a hip, culty, local theater, and I was shocked that after completing the totally normal application routine, I received an automated email directing me to "complete your profile" as "an important part of the hiring process" on the website of the company they're outsourcing all their HR and billing stuff to. And I go look at the profile thingy, and of course it's just this needlessly complicated interface where I can individually enter each and every piece of information that I just provided in my resume--no more, no less. The theater has exactly two locations and is kind of a niche operation and it is absolutely crazy to me that they think they need to pay for this extra layer of stupidly bloated and redundant "talent acquisition" processing when they're hiring for like two or three basic ass hourly roles where half the question is going to be "have you done this normal shit before" and half will be "can we stand your personality". Nobody needs this garbage at all, least of all ME.

[lady-azarashe]

I miss the old Internet.

Back when I was younger I frequently visited dozens of different websites. There were countless forums and websites worth spending your time on, and clickbait wasn't a thing as much as it is nowadays. A decade ago my browsing habits were much more varied: Cracked, Gaia, Youtube, ICanHazCheezburger, TGWTG, Instructables, at least four different forums, game/animation portals, etc. I only hit F5 whenever I was waiting for someone's forum reply or for something to be uploaded.

Nowadays stuff is so centralized (and so much stuff from back in the day has either disappeared or gone bad) that my Internet browsing habits are a loop of Tumblr-> Youtube (mostly for music) -> Reddit -> Reddit again -> Tumblr-> Youtube -> Reddit. Doesn't help that most social media seems to be composed of screenshots of the other social media sites. Back then I felt like a digital adventurer, discovering new places by following leads found in random places and that felt genuine. I remember discovering Neopets when I was a kid and I was over the moon because I had discovered something so amazing to me. Or small forums where, after posting for a while, everyone was like family. Now I feel like a disinterested tourist, accompanied by a mass of thousands of users indistinguishable from myself, who is carted around by whatever shows up on the front page; and whose group arrives, mindlessly consumes the content, and leaves feeling mildly entertained yet profoundly unfulfilled.

And this isn't even counting the amount of bullshit we gotta deal with these past few years, such as

manipulative practices from our content providers and their algorithms,

insane amounts of "enshittification" that's hitting every single social media site,

megalomaniacal CEOs constantly screwing over their own users in the name of ego and shareholder profit,

active and passive privacy loss,

the whole clusterfuck of AI-generated content,

astroturfing and manipulation to pit people against one another for a myriad different reasons,

and more!

I had spent over a decade on Reddit and left after the dumpster fire of last year's API changes and subsequent blackout. I feel like Tumblr's current state of affairs will push me out as well eventually. I don't think I'm going anywhere else after this, I'm just gonna join the ranks of the offlines.

Back when I was younger I felt like I had "a home on the Internet", as well as an identity. But now that I don't belong to any online community anymore, and now that I'm slowly withdrawing unto myself and keeping only nostalgia as company, I feel more alone and adrift than ever before. Hell, I'm not sure that's 100% nostalgia there. That's just straight-up loss.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2007): Epic

You know what folks? Change of plans! I must play something else before Community Chest 3 kills me with its marathon-long content. So let’s take a look at another WAD on the list before gathering material for CC3 between reviewing other WADs. And today, we have a perfect WAD that will jump-start my heart back out of the boredom.

G8: Epic

Main author(s): Alexander S. (Eternal)

Release date: October 10th, 2007 (database upload)

Version played: ???

Required port compatibility: Boom/Limit-removing

Levels: 5

Epic is one of the earlier WADs created by Eternal, who actually started posting WADs in 2007. Not only did this WAD earn one of the Cacowards but the author himself also earned the Mapper of the Year award; all in the same year, making it all look like he was just getting started. But we will have to play this WAD to see if it was all well deserved...

Spoilers: It was well deserved.

While it might not look as good as some of the other WADs released in 2007, Epic still looks great. And it’s mostly due to taking place in desert-like areas (with some jungle parts sprinkled here and there) that might give you ancient Egypt vibes. And since I’m a sucker for ancient shit, of course it would hook me in. The final map with the titular citadel is something worth seeing yourself.

Now, I’ve seen people calling this WAD an Egyptian one, but I’m not entirely sure about it, since the maps look like they have elements not only from Ancient Egypt but also from Mesoamerican civilizations. Not to mention some of the modern/army base-looking buildings here and there.

Music-wise... I think it’s all right. Nothing really to complain about, although I feel like the tracks for Sand-Storm and The Citadel are too short for such maps. Not to mention hearing Daedalus’ leitmotif so many times in the past that it gets infuriating.

These maps aren’t that complicated. You just need to remember that there are two moments on Arc of the Pendulum where you have to shoot a switch to progress.

Each map has something different to offer. A Fool's Paradise has you fighting somewhere that looks like a dock built near an ancient temple. Sand-Storm is a big, sprawling level where you can go to most of the locations in any order; you end up here by the teleporter in the previous map and you end up blowing the one from the other side, killing two poor shmucks in the blast radius. Arc of the Pendulum spends most of its time in some castle complex before ending up back in the jungle, near the train station that leads to the citadel. Helltrain makes you board the train at the end of the previous to get to the next map.

And of course, the titular Citadel, which on the foundation level is Sand-Storm again but on a bigger scale, but it tends to fresh it up, with six keys to find instead of three, a short visit to the Martian vessel, you even visit the titular building itself after taking care of the outdoor area surrounding it.

There is also one thing that doesn’t happen in the WAD – supposedly, it would make (at least some) hanging corpses destructible, like the hangmen Keens.

Now, I don’t really think Epic is hard. Sure, there are some tougher moments, but it never really felt like I was about to turn into the walking punching bag for demons. And even though there are cheap moments like with monsters hiding in corners/popping from the ground or hitscanners in the wide areas that don’t really have anything to hide from them, I think I can forgive the author for these for now since this was one of his earlier works (and the hitscanner thing happens rather rarely).

Some of the enemies get updated sprites. Hitscanners now wear different headgear per type, Imps are darker and have yellow eyes, and Revenants’ eye sockets are now green, reminiscing their Doom 3 variant.

Although I don’t remember encountering many bugs, the author recommends not playing the Citadel with the latest (at the time) version of PRBoom among other problems.

Epic might be unpolished in some places but I believe it’s one of those WADs that every Doom WAD enjoyer should play. It’s an excellent introduction to the man's work of Eternal (even if that’s not actually the first WAD he created), and it’s the biggest proof of why he was regarded as the best map maker of 2007.

Now, as for Community Chest 3, as I said at the start, I’ve decided that in the case of the community projects, I will play them the first time and gather the screenshots of where the secrets are/interesting locations between reviewing other WADs; in parts. By now I’m halfway done with CC3 secrets and I’ll try to finish searching for them before tackling The Ultimate Torment & Torture.

Until then, I’ll see you all next time.

Bye!

[memorymessage]

re: leaving instagram

i've noticed the subtleties in the transactional interactions on instagram.

if i'm not actively posting bodychecks, people start to forget my existence. even people i thought were genuinely reaching out to me to become friends—they seem to only want to talk to me if i've been posting photos of my body. they only like the stories that are of my body.

(not everybody. you know who you guys are, and i appreciate you endlessly.)

i'm not naïve or foolish—this is what i signed up for. this is what i get for: A: engaging with an app that is personal-photo-based in the first place, and B: fostering a mutual community of people with eating disorders.

i made my bed, now lie in it; i reap what i sow; i dug my own grave, etc, etc.

when i first made the account, i was rabid about posting photos every day. i had been private online for so long that i felt like i was breaking open a dam. i grew up on myspace. i had a camera in my own face every single day. but, after i transitioned as masc years later, i became ashamed of my feminine features. i only posted photos where i passed as masc well enough, which took great effort, make up, and some costume tricks (yes...i may have cut up hair extensions and made myself a beard). and, even then, i would get nervous about posting any photos at all—deathly afraid of my femininity.

there were a few instances where i would create fake social media accounts, give myself a fake name, and post pictures of myself dolled up as femme to the nines. an outlet to release the feminine side of myself without fear, but keeping the entity as far away from the "real" me as possible. but, even that was fake and untrue to myself—wearing makeup i never wore. wearing extensions that were shoved away, tangled, in a box.

i haven't been honestly myself in online spaces in many, many years.

this instagram account was the first time i truly let myself be... me.

but the novelty of posting pictures every day wore on me. i do still have an ed and bdd, after all.

especially when i reached my lowest weight of all time spring of last year. i felt like every picture i posted should be "perfect". the smaller i became, the more i scrutinized myself. looking even the slightest bit too large in any given angle was unacceptable.

the attention i got during that time was also at its peak.

and my mentality from that time regarding photos of myself never recovered.

my weight went up. it became harder and harder for me to want to take pictures. even when i would force myself to take pictures, it became harder to pick one i even wanted to post. not to mention, chronic illness has absolutely debilitated me the past year. most days, i am in bed, in pajamas, in no state (mind and body) to take photos.

and people started talking to me less and less, liking my posts less and less, viewing my stories less and less. the only time people would remember i existed is when i posted an acceptable bodycheck. then i would get a short-lived spike in people liking me again. only to die down until i posted my next check.

people weren't interested in my text posts, or the videos i would share. to put it plainly—people are not interested in me as a person.

why does this matter?

two reasons: it reinforces my bdd-based belief that i am only worth anything if i am thin and pretty. and... i was on myspace trying to be the next audrey kitching scene queen at age 10, meaning attention from others validating my very existence was interwoven into my young, developing brain. and there it yet remains.

and it's not just about other people. taking a good photo of myself gives me sense of pride and rejuvenation so immense that i'll never be able to explain. i assume that feeling also took root from the myspace scene queen days. a new pfp was everything back then, after all. i guess my brain still thinks it is.

my instagram account did not start like this. it used to be a small, casual little place where i would upload daily snaps. and it's sad this is where it has ended.

my insecure little delusions raveled up in themselves, tangling my body and leaving me motionless in fear of judgment. paralyzed.

in short: we're not having fun anymore, and i need to do myself a service and take responsibility for that.

i need to leave.

(for now.)

[iridescentxstars]

Come on in, take a seat, pick up a story and immerse yourself. While you're welcome to come and go as you please, here are some rules and guidelines, some little things to be aware of when diving into the abyss.

ೃ⁀➷ For those who know me, hello~ for those who don't, kia ora, my name is Star and I am your writer for the time you are here. I mostly write Kim Jongin and Bangchan fics but sometimes there are some other idols sprinkled in somewhere.

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Dividers credit to @firefly-graphics & @cafekitsune [amazing creators] Graphics/headers credits to @kwanisms

[7serendipities]

The Morrigan’s Call Retreat 2023

This past weekend, I attended the Morrigan’s Call Retreat in person for the first time. (Blog followers with a keen memory may remember that I had a presentation slated for the 2020 retreat, but that one ended up being virtual, for good reason!) It was also the first time I’d ever really been to New England (at least I assume Manhattan doesn’t count?), and the first time I ever met Morgan Daimler in person, so it was a weekend of firsts in a lot of ways, for me.

I had two presentations, and I’ll be uploading the notes from those to my Patreon for supporters as soon as I manage to find the time to finish editing them (but my time is a bit constrained now that my child is out of school for the summer, so patience is appreciated!) Anyone who was at the retreat but didn’t make my workshop is also welcome to email me to ask for the handouts or notes for either “Working with Deities of Battle” or “When the Morrigan Goes Quiet”.

I hadn’t been sure how I was going to get to the retreat itself as I don’t drive, but I trusted in Na Morrigna and it worked out — one of my sorta-local friends was also going and we rode up together, which was a really nice way to start the weekend. (Getting stuck on the train between DC and Baltimore was less nice, but all’s well that ends well.) We arrived on Friday during orientation, but the nice folks at registration and the regulars we ran into at lunch all helped us get oriented properly. I also first ran into Morgan at lunch, and met the whole crew in one pass! I got unpacked and prepped for my first workshop, “Deities of Battle”, made my introductions to the local Fair Folk, and then wandered over to the pavilion.

Way more people showed up than I expected, and it turned out that I hadn’t brought enough handouts. Whoops! People were pretty accommodating, though, sharing with neighbors and taking pictures on their phones, and I handed out a lot of business cards for folks to email me afterwards. It seemed to go over pretty well - even when I took a Deep Dive into UPG with a side dish of Extreme Woo, including the discussion of the Otherworldly War I mentioned here previously. I was really nervous about its reception, but when I later walked in on a conversation on how to use some of the types of battle sorcery I’d mentioned against A Certain Florida Man currently playing at Governator, I knew I’d found my people. Na Morrigna might not pick political parties, but They do stand for sovereignty, and right relationship, and I find most devotees take a stand against oppression and bigotry. After dinner I went to the first ritual, despite feeling a bit like my energies were tapped out. (Shout out to a tylwyth teg ally of mine for helping me actually stay upright through that!) It was pretty good, but I was focused a little too much on staying upright to get much of anything out of it. And, to my extreme disgrace, my attempt to turn off my phone earlier had apparently not taken — it was still on the “shut down or restart?” screen when the alarm went off at the very end of the ritual. Not the best omen! At least it was a pretty tinkly musical alarm and not blaring beeps…

On Saturday, I went to Morgan Daimler’s workshop “Offerings 101” and then Sionnain McLean’s workshop on “Spiritual Self-Care” and thoroughly enjoyed both. Morgan’s was a little oriented towards beginners but also had some fun anecdotes and a few things I hadn’t thought of. I think Sionnain’s flowed nicely into mine, on the topic of fallow times, and there were certainly some common themes. That workshop I’ve done a couple times before, and it opened up nicely into a discussion and sharing session where attendees were addressing each other and it really felt like we were building community. After lunch I went to “Pagan Priest/ess Work” also by Morgan, and got some great advice and also a little bit of validation for my own path, which is more spirit-focused than human-community-focused, though I still do work for the human community around me. Then my friend Katie and I just… stayed. We talked to Morgan and Mel for probably the next two hours, missing the ritual and instead going in deeply into some personal practice stuff and also veering into the weeds on a fair few other topics! It was probably more what I needed — sitting still, for one, as my spoons still weren’t quite full.

There had been a Kindred Crow concert planned for that night, but with Caine in the hospital and Irene deep in grief, that was not to be. (I share the grief, but our friend was not so central to my life, nor I so central to hers, though I miss her sorely and will be at the memorial service tomorrow.) I did attend the bonfire circle that night, though, and so was there to witness and take part in a raising of energy for the members of Kindred Crow, and managed to capture a small clip of it to send on. I also managed to finally connect with the land deeply that evening, and received a profoundly personal message — including the awareness that I was about an hour too far west to be on the land of my indigenous ancestors.

The next day, partly because of my intense experience leading to not-great sleep (and the suddenly chilly weather didn’t help) and partly just due to my energy expenditure, I spent most of the day just chatting with folks in the dining hall. I was a little disappointed at not feeling up to the ritual and workshops, but I wanted to be able to make it back to my friend’s house without fainting and that was already a tall ask. It was nice to connect with folks, though, and I managed to bond with people over my chronic illness, and over butterfly raising!

When we left, my friend graciously agreed to take me an hour east for me to greet the land my ancestors lived on when the first colonists arrived, and that was a complicated and powerful experience — one that I will probably be processing for a while. It is enough to say here: I was recognized, even as diluted and as distanced as I am. In so many ways, the Morrigan’s Call Retreat was a homecoming for me.

[benjaminlas]

Hugging Digital Festivity: How I Found the Perfect Avatar for Christmas Cheer

As the winter air whispers the approach of the holidays, memories of Christmases past envelop me like a warm blanket. The magic of the season fills my heart, and I find myself eager to share it with my online community. But how to convey that warmth, that palpable joy, through the cold, static screen? That's when I stumbled upon iFoto's PFP Maker, a tool that became my secret Santa, gifting me a way to spread festive cheer one avatar at a time.

You see, in the digital world, our profile pictures often act as the first impression, the avatar that represents us before we've had the chance to say a word. It's like the lights on a Christmas tree, drawing attention and setting the tone for the festivities. This holiday season, I yearned for my online presence to reflect the same twinkling happiness that dances in my eyes when I listen to carols or sip on eggnog by the fire.

One crisp evening, with my fingers wrapped around a mug of hot cocoa, I sat down and started playing with iFoto's PFP Maker. It was like stepping into an artist's studio, surrounded by every possible brushstroke and color palette, all at my disposal. I uploaded a simple selfie, nothing fancy, just me with the glow of the season in my heart. The tool's intuitive interface guided me through a myriad of themes, each more enchanting than the last.

I remember the exact moment when everything clicked into place. I chose a whimsical winter scene, complete with frosted pine trees and a starry sky. The magic happened when the PFP Maker seamlessly blended my photo with the selected theme, changing my everyday look into a piece of digital art that captured the essence of Christmas.

The result? A profile picture that didn't just represent me; it felt like a warm embrace, a digital hug for my friends and followers. It was as if my avatar had a personality, a story, a reason to smile. And isn't that what the holidays are all about? Sharing stories, creating memories, and spreading smiles?

As I uploaded my new avatar, I watched my social media feeds light up with curiosity and delight. Comments pouring in, friends messaging me, asking how I did it, where they could get one too. It filled me with a joy I hadn't anticipated, a sense of connection that bridged the gap between the physical and the digital. And I realized that's the beauty of iFoto's PFP Maker—it's not just about changing your appearance; it's about expressing yourself in a way that resonates with others.

Now, every time I log into my accounts, I see my friends and followers sporting their own festive avatars, each one unique, each one a beacon of holiday cheer. We're all part of this vast digital community, and through these personalized profile pictures, we're reminded of the shared moments that bring us together.

This Christmas, I'm not just sharing gifts or photos; I'm sharing a piece of the season's joy. And if you're looking to add a touch of festivity to your online persona, I'd encourage you to try iFoto's PFP Maker. Who knows, it might just become your favorite holiday tradition, a way to wrap your digital presence in the warmth and love that the season brings.

So, as you deck the halls and prepare for the festivities, consider giving your profile a little holiday facelift. It's a small change, but sometimes the smallest gestures are the ones that spread the most joy. After all, isn't the spirit of Christmas found in those little touches that make the season feel like home?

[radicalbotanicals]

Videogames as Simulation for Genetic Trauma

I have been a gamer my entire life, which is common for people of my generation, the medium growing and aging with us over the decades.   I remembered being 7 years old and my cousin thrusting a controller in my hand to play a game far too graphic and complicated for my underdeveloped mind to understand. The game in question was Resident Evil 4, an entry in several games following different heroes as they fight to survive against the failed experiments of a faceless corporation hell-bent on creating bioweapons without regard for how much damage they wreak on the world. Resident Evil is developed by Capcom, a Japanese company which would be intimately familiar with the themes of mass-destruction and body horror as is ever-present in Japanese culture for obvious reasons post-World War II. The ramifications of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have inspired Japanese media from Akira to Godzilla, and continues to influence creative works till this day as it shapes so much of modern Japanese identity.

It came as a surprise to me to come face to face with one of these games while experiencing Genetic Automata by Larry Achiampong and David Blandy at the Wellcome Collection this past week, particularly the 5th entry in the series which took place in a fictional state of Africa and featured zombie characters that unfortunately invoked a problematic racialised image that was immediately apparent to American audiences. Capcom tried to rectify the situation by adding zombies of different races to the hordes of NPCs, but the damage was done, and game was deemed “controversial” by news sources and players alike.  What we have in the second video series “A Lament for Power” is the tale of Henrietta Lacks a story that I was familiar with prior to viewing the video but was recontextualised by the visuals and thought-provoking statements of the video. Henrietta is speaking to us, sounding calm, but disappointed, as her very cells were used again and again and again for various scientific experiments that have borne much fruit and have saved countless lives. Her cells are perhaps the most unique in the world, as they can replicate infinitely. This is represented by a digitised blank city, slowly being enveloped by this massive black dome, her cells multiplying with no stop in sight. These sequences are intercut with the African zombies of Resident Evil 5 – diseased and malicious looking but being re-purposed to emphasise how black bodies are treated as fodder for our world’s betterment.  In Resident Evil 5, you shoot these NPCs, no questions asked, and their state is once again a sacrifice for the villain’s (a white man) “higher plan” which is to become a god. Both the hero and the villain alike both treat the NPCs the same, as insignificant, as a by-product, as a means to an end….which is eerily similar to how our real-life medical community has always treated black bodies, despite the reason being cited as “for the greater good”.

The other exhibition, Third World: The Bottom Dimension, was an interactive experience that spoke to the gamer in me, though it did not play by rules I was used to. A reality created with afro-indigenous experiences in mind, I found myself wading through a cold world where my character, an amorphous humanoid figure, was forced to repeat the same tasks repeatedly, harvesting crystals in a finite amount. I likened it to the destruction of Brazil’s beautiful lands and the colonisation of their culture into one streamlined and deemed “acceptable” by the hegemonic masses.  The fact that you are doomed to repeat the cycle, being asked “Have you seen everything?” made me believe the trauma was becoming ingrained, and recording it was like creating a digital memory of the very damage being done, uploaded to a shared neural network.

It was reminiscent of a project I had encountered back in Toronto for the ImagineNATIVE festival in 2018. I played several games featuring imagined realities based on indigenous myths, some stories retelling the trauma experienced by various peoples, one was an attempt to teach a new generation the Ojibwe language through interactive VR, a response again to the alteration and erasure of an entire people’s way of life, again inflicting a sort of lasting brand upon the very DNA of those shared peoples.

Genetic trauma is something we should continue to investigate, and I believe videogames are perhaps one of the best mediums to impart these experiences upon people. The interactive nature automatically puts the player in the position of both being in control and unable to fight against the outcomes programmed into the game. It creates a deep link between the characters and players that is hard to forget once the game ends. I can think of several games that already explore this topic, one being the Metal Gear Solid series, which was also part of Genetic Automata’s assemblage. It asks the question of what if one’s existence did not belong to them, instead as a tool to be used for the purpose of shadow organizations beyond their understanding in wars they have no choice but to fight in. What if you were the weapon, and your DNA was carefully cultivated as the clone of the perfect soldier? Not only that, but what if your max life was artificially meant to end before 40 years old? Again, coming from a Japanese game studio, you can see why so many creatives are asking these questions.

A meme describing the different soldiers pertinent to the series (Unknown source). The game is steeped in political conspiracy and meta-physical philosophy.

I think we will see more and more games of this type being developed, and the ability to remix existing content to recontextualize it such as seen in Genetic Automata, is a powerful tool indeed. The digital world acts as a simulation we can enter at anytime, a sandbox we can shape into empires and dystopias of our choosing.  I believe experiencing both ends of the spectrum is important, and I am perhaps a testament to how videogames have shaped my identity and made me question my own genetic trauma passed down by my indigenous ancestors.