#i think that like. if i ever had the motivation to make a youtube channel for some reason

[dwtdog]

My work for Project: End Poem :D

i like this player / it played well / it did not give up

I like this player.

Dream’s shitty apartment is too small for pacing, but he does it anyway. Back and forth and back and forth over and over, the sounds of his footsteps drowned out by the buzz of his thoughts.

He’s felt out of balance for a while now- ever since he uploaded that first video. Before (before before before) everything was planning and studying and notes and calls with anyone he could get to agree to it. And then it had become filming and editing and that eternal moment before he pushed the button that would make the video public. A beginning. And an ending, of the before. 

Planning had felt real. He could scroll through the words upon words stored in documents, or even rifle through the notebook he kept on his desk, the pages soft and well-used in his hands, his writing jumbled and messy. But the numbers now- they feel like a dream, almost fittingly. Climbing impossibly higher every time he checks, far surpassing any expectation he’d had. 

But they can’t be real, because he can’t pay his rent this month.

His savings have run dry, exactly in the amount of time he’d predicted they would. It had been more than enough time. But he can’t pay rent.

His parent's words echo in his head- if you do this, you won’t be moving back in with us. That had certainly lit a fire under his ass- prove them wrong, prove everyone wrong. But the time is ticking down, and he can’t pay rent.

Oh, sure, the money’s on the way. His first check from YouTube, delayed by paperwork, is more than enough to cover this month’s and the next. But it’s not here. And the numbers keep going up, but Dream’s life is the same. Same shitty apartment, same 24 hours in a day.

His laptop sits open on his bed, and he’s doing his best to avoid looking at it. The looping screensaver plays on repeat, catching in the corner of his eye when he passes it, and he has half a mind to close the damn thing, end its taunting. Oh, you thought you could make something of yourself online? Think again. 

He freezes in the middle of the room so abruptly that he nearly falls forward with the momentum of it. 

And before he can talk himself out of it, he scoops the laptop up and enters his password, starting a Teamspeak call before all but running to his desk to grab headphones and returning to sit on his bed with the laptop balanced on his thighs, the call initiating. 

This is a familiar action- late night (early morning?) calls with friends. Dream has never been shy about asking his friends for input on ideas, or thoughts of their own, especially his friends who are well-established in the field he wants to play. It's them he has to thank for a large part of his motivation. And it's them he calls on now, when his mind spells doom and his circumstances feel suffocating.

“Dream?” a voice asks, marred by digital interference but comforting all the same.

Dream smiles at the screen. “Bad,” he says. “I might need your help.”

“New video idea?” Bad asks, and the quality of the call seems to settle, Bad’s voice far clearer. He yawns, and Dream makes a point of not looking at the time. 

“Not quite,” Dream mumbles.

“What was that?”

“It’s not a video idea. Or anything similar,” he swallows. As confident as Dream is in his friends, money is a different matter. Can ruin lives, friendships, and especially new YouTube channels if one isn’t careful.

Bad hums reassuringly. “Whatever it is, you can ask. I can’t guarantee that I can help but it never hurts to ask.”

“You’re so wise Bad,” Dream jokes. “And old.” He feels himself relaxing, and in tandem, his mind clears. 

“Aren’t you asking for my help? I could leave right now.”

“No, no! I’m sorry, You’re not old,” Dream says quickly, adding not that old to himself. 

“That’s what I thought,” Bad says smugly, and Dream can hear his chair squeaking and imagines him leaning back in it with his arms crossed, although, strangely, his minds eye seems to envision Bad as a the shape of a person with his Minecraft character overlaid, rather than the very real person Dream knows Bad to be, and has seen on video. He’s been spending too much time inside- it’d be good to get out once the rent issue is solved.

“Well,” Dream starts. “I told you about my problems getting money from YouTube, right?” 

“You did.”

Dream sighs, thinking of all the trouble it’d been so far just to get the first check. “Well, it’s still not here. And my rent is due in a few days, and if it doesn’t get here in time I’m- I’m out of luck. And money.”

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Dream, you muffinhead, how much do you need?”

And Dream giggles, the small smile on his face growing impossibly bigger as he tells Bad the amount, and as they go back and forth on whether Bad should just send the money right away (Dream argues that there’s still a chance the money could come in time, while Bad says he might as well just send it now- just in case).

In the end, they hang up the call a half hour later, Dream’s worries assuaged and with a promise to Bad that he’d tell him immediately if he’ll need the money.

And when Dream wakes up the next day to a check from YouTube deposited in his account, it’s not just Bad who joins a call to celebrate with him- George and Sapnap are there too, and finally, finally, everything feels real.

It played well

“That was perfect!” his instructor says, and Dream smiles before slouching against the wall, entirely out of breath.

No one ever told him dancing would be so hard.

Well, some had. His instructor, the nice lady who now hands him a water bottle and tells him to take a small break, had warned him plenty. But he’d foolishly thought she was only saying it as a courtesy, so he’d have an excuse if he struggled- and boy, did he. 

Maybe it was a consequence of being locked inside for years, or maybe it was just his natural affinity for clumsiness. 

Either way, he’d been preparing for his concert for a few weeks now, and it feels like he’s hardly improved. Between vocal coaching and dance lessons- ‘choreography’ he insists when George and Sapnap tease- it had been nonstop learning and working in LA. Away from his cat, and his house, and his friends. And content. 

But the smile doesn’t fade from his face even as he finishes off the water and steps away from the wall to stretch, arms over his head and legs extended until he’s balancing on his toes. And the burn of his muscles is so good. 

A physical reminder of his work, his improvement. Sure, he’s still not the best, but he’s gotten better. And his future spells more lessons, more growth, until finally, finally-

He steps on the stage in a mask.

Orlando. Home. Lights and screaming and music, counting down and counting in. And he’s more nervous than he’s ever been, because finally, finally, finally, the numbers are real.

It did not give up.

Code is swimming in front of Dream’s eyes like a school of fish, and his head is aching something dreadful, but he refuses to look away from his monitor.

He doesn’t know what the time is- sure that if he did check, he’d have some sort of crisis. Every other member of his (albeit small) team went to sleep hours ago, the project left in lines of unfinished code and an increasingly bizarre contraption sprouting from the gym floor.

But Dream, better than anyone, knows how close they are. 

Testing earlier had gone well- messing with particle mechanics and getting the shape so, so close. But something in the actual imaging kept going wrong, so they’d called it for the day. 

And Dream had tried to sleep, really. But every moment lying in bed felt like time he could be using to work, and sleep was elusive. So he’d ended up back at his computer. Alone in the dead of night.

The world fades away around him as he works, until he falls asleep at his desk- keyboard an unfortunate pillow. He wakes with the letters imprinted on his cheeks, and code he doesn’t remember writing. But it looks good. It looks complete and promising and so full of potential that Dream is out of his chair and heading across the house to the gym before the indents of his keycaps have faded from his skin.

George is in the kitchen.

“Dream?” he asks, setting a yogurt cup down. “You’re up early.”

A glance at the clock on the oven tells Dream it’s nearly three in the afternoon. “I want to try something,” he says. “You wanna come with?”

George nods, following him out of the house and to the gym, yawning several times as they go. 

“You’ve got something on your face by the way,” George giggles, but it quickly turns to a frown. “Did you sleep at your desk?”

“I didn’t mean to,” Dream grumbles, pushing the door to the gym open and flicking the lights on. George snorts.

They’re quiet as Dream fiddles with the mess of a contraption in the middle of the room. He’s careful with it, always so careful, and George watches from the sides. When everything is in place, Dream’s hands are shaking with excitement. There’s something in the air that tastes like success.

“Do you want to go in?” he asks, gesturing between the machine and George. George shrugs, then nods, careful as he ducks into the contraption. “Okay just- I think it’s going to work.”

“Really?” George asks, and for as much as he teases Dream about deadlines, for as often as Dream is wrong, it sounds like he believes it too.

Dream can’t speak in the moment, so he just nods.

They’ve got a PC set up in the gym, and he turns to it, loading into the server they use for all testing of FUSION. He’s alone in the world, for the moment, the rig George stands in waiting to be called on by a command.

Dream types it in, having to go back and re-enter the letters several times with his hands still unsteady. And when everything is ready, he pauses before hitting enter, looking up to meet George’s eyes.

“Ready?” he asks.

“Ready.” George responds, bouncing on his feet. “What do I say? Hello world?”

“You’re so dumb,” Dream snorts. He doesn’t look away from George as he presses the final key, watching the flickering lights of the machinery, scared to look at the screen and see if he’s done it. 

“Stop being an idiot.” George says after a beat, waving his arms and looking pointedly at the monitor. 

Dream takes a breath, releases it. Turns his head.

And there it is.

George, in stunning resolution for being projected into fucking Minecraft, waving at him.

He looks between the two. Looks again. 

“Holy shit,” he breathes. “We did it.”

[catboymoments]

Me: Asks you to educate yourself, providing easy access to videos that, turns out, directly address the issues that make you dislike vivziepop and provide more context than tumblr and twitter hate threads ever do

You responded to that quickly I know you didn't bother watching. Bruh. I told you a lot of the hate around Vivziepop isn't valid and you don't check it out? See if any of your concerns fell under the one video I directly recommended?? The creator had timestamps too.

Going to the video would have told you the one nazi oc was from eight years ago. And it wasn't even hers! The Vivziepop drama playlist goes in depth about the updates concerning the people Vivziepop has worked with. Which SEVERAL people that worked with her came out to defend her and provide their experiences

You'd find out if you had just watched the videos, the proof, that people love to hate on Vivizie for clout and to farm likes and attention. They take screenshots out of context, go on tangents without proof, etc.

And expect you to believe them.

SO I'll do this one more time to address what specifically you said you disliked about Vivzie.

This playlist has all the videos I will talk about and more. So, if you know of any other drama and controversy surrounding Vivziepop you should probably consult that before forming your opinion: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOWIXPh0p7CzgQoUIl7rqd8oz2Ym6V9XY&si=lhDApDPhX5sWyTHA

Again, it can be found by typing into the Youtube search bar, "ayy lmao vivziepop drama"

You'll find their playlist "Vivziepop Drama Playlist" right there or even just going to the youtube channel "Ayy Lmao" and looking through the playlists.

Specifically addressing what makes you dislike Vivziepop:

The one Nazi oc, the only one to exist, is discussed in "Why everyone hates Vivziepop" at 20:07 and in "The Truth Behind Vivziepop" at 5:07 The latter has more information on that and it only takes TWO MINUTES to watch! With screenshots and proof and everything.

If you heard somewhere that there were multiple, did where you heard that have a source? To, y'know, back up the claim? If you can find it that would be lovely otherwise that is just an allegation either someone told you or you are misremembering.

The drama concerning their workplace goes mainly from the beginning of the playlist to "Vivziepop Erin Frost Drama Round 3"

Multiple artists and people that worked with Vivziepop come out in support of Vivziepop and debunk claims made by others in "Helluva boss employees debunk Vivziepop allegations (Vivziepop drama Part 4)"

I'm not sure what you are referring to when you say "the way she treats her friends" and since you haven't provided any sort of source I can only guess that you may be thinking about the ugly situation covered in "Vivziepop Spindlehorse Drama Explained"

I can already tell by the amount of people responding to the first ask I sent that you have a platform, at least a larger audience compared to the average user. If you have problems with x y and z thing about Vivziepop, provide links and proof to what concerns you in the future.

If you don't remember or can't find that proof. Watch the videos. That simple. Put it on in the background, educate yourself, before you spread any more misinformation. Please.

Then form your opinion. It's a lot and I know it is a lot but you need to know this before jumping on the bandwagon of canceling someone. Especially if you have a large audience.

Vivziepop drama and hatedom is so exhausting you wouldn't BELIEVE IT. People are constantly spewing hate without providing PROOF. THEY'RE ALLEGATIONS! Even with "proof" most are out of context and bad faith. There is a motive to lie about someone as well known as Vivziepop

I'm not asking you to like her I'm asking you to educate yourself before repeating what you've heard and provide sources to back them up.

[justanoval]

Life Updates

Hey Tumblr gang!

If you've noticed I've been active less on platforms like Patreon, Twitch, Discord, and even a little less frequent with my YouTube uploads, this post will address that.

The biggest reason is that I simply do not have enough energy to delegate anymore. With my health issues progressing, I've been slowly losing my energy to give out to different areas, and I've had to decrease my focus.

My main focuses are now animations, music, merchandise, and Creeper County.

That's the jist. If you want more specifics, you can keep reading further.

Twitch

I really really struggle to have any energy for streaming. I can't keep up the hype and I feel like I am not doing anything by just being live. I want to have the freedom to do other things whenever I want, and I don't want to feel like I am being judged with every creative decision I make. A few decisions of mine revolving around how I built my audience is what lead me here, so while there's ways I can see myself coming back to Twitch, I just don't have the energy for it at the moment.

Discord

Discord was my biggest strategy to help grow my Twitch channel--and it worked fantastically. But now that I'm inactive on Twitch, I've decided to delegate the energy used on Discord for something else.

I don't expect myself to like, delete my Discord, but it's just something I am fine with being there primarily for announcements right now.

I'm focusing more on creating a smaller, more intimate community with Creeper County. This is what I've always wanted in building a community.

Patreon

I've made an announcement there already if you're interested in reading. The jist is that it isn't a reliable income source for me to dedicate that much time to it. It's just going to sorta stay as a donation platform for the time being. Not that that's bad (it's what most people tend to do), but I think it's still reasonable for me to make clear.

YouTube

I wouldn't say I'm too inactive here, I just don't upload as often. It's like, as opposed to once every 4-7 days, it's once every 7-10 days maybe now.

Big reason here is, of course the energy, but also I'm just exploring many different art forms right now. Had a dip in motivation with main channel animations and needed to figure out why. For the most part, I have figured out why, but there's still some direction I need to find.

Though you can look forward to a shrimp miku video coming soon.

Postmortem in Nuuspace

This isn't one I have really been inactive in, since I never promised an activity level. But still figured I can address that I am planning out a much larger story that will be based in this universe, which is why my current writing rhythm will be quite sporadic.

Not to say this will ever be finished, or published, or whatever (it might idk), but it's just what I am doing.

I know I didn't have to make this post, but it gives me some closure! I didn't want to leave anyone in the dark, and this way I know that I haven't (unless people don't read this, but that ain't on me).

In the future, I honestly expect that most of my energy will come down to video game development. It's like, all of these little things I am doing will just point towards one massive thing. And given my experience with Godot engine, making music, writing, 3d art, pixel art, animation... you see where this is going.

So, stay tuned.

[benkyoutobentou]

Hello

What are some good resources for learning Japanese?

Thank you for asking!

For just starting out, I recommend JapanesePod101's videos on both hiragana and katakana.

For beginner grammar, I used and really enjoyed videos from both Japanese Ammo with Misa and Miku Real Japanese (both on YouTube). Misa's videos are a lot longer and more in depth, but if you want a quick overview of a grammar point, Miku's videos are great. Both channels also have lots of other Japanese learning content as well!

For beginner textbooks, Genki is well loved, but I haven't used it myself. I also believe that there are YouTubers who make videos based on the lessons within Genki, if that's up your alley. I won't even name the textbooks I used to start out, because I'd never recommend them.

To get started with kanji, WaniKani is a popular choice that seems to work great, but it's a pretty pricey subscription. I use the app Learn Japanese! - Kanji, which is a one time purchase of 10 USD. It can be buggy, but it has a built in spaced repetition system and, hey, it's ten dollars.

The subreddit r/LearnJapanese has a huge resource list here, but I only link this hesitantly, as my main advice to using it is to look at the resources, and never darken r/LearnJapanese's door ever again. That place is horrible and will eat all motivation you have to learn Japanese. I saw someone ask elsewhere if it was possible to be fluent in Japanese because they saw someone on that subreddit say it wasn't. Seriously, it's bad.

As for my current resources, ie. very much not beginner resources, I'm slowly but surely making my way through Tobira. I really like it as a textbook, but I also just use it as far as I need it. To elaborate, I came back to it after a while of not using it, and found that it was just a bit too easy now (singing the praises of immersion!), so I've been skipping around on the reading comprehension questions, because I just don't think they're worth the effort for me right now. The later chapters probably will be, though.

JPBD is a lifesaver for me right now. I've fought with Anki on multiple occasions and had it work for me many times, but right now, the premade decks are what are gonna get me to study vocabulary, not pretty pictures. I also really like the ability to study a deck before you read something, rather than only being able to study vocabulary retroactively. The example sentences can be weird or terrible, but it allows you to choose from multiple sentences or make your own, so the benefits absolutely outweigh the drawbacks for me. Another thing of note is that these flashcards only go Japanese-English, so if you want to have the option to do English-Japanese cards, you might want to stick to Anki (or idk rip the decks and put them in Anki).

If you're ready to immerse and want to start a collection of physical books, I buy 90% of my Japanese language books through CDJapan. They have multiple options for shipping and are generous enough with sales and rewards points that usually I can get that to cover the cost of shipping. Plus they sell at Japanese retail price (minus tax!) so it's extremely reasonably priced.

I hope this helped a bit, and good luck on your language learning journey!

[mbta-unofficial]

I was mindlessly scrolling youtube when a clip of Elon Musk comparing some rts or something to chess came up. It pissed me off in that knee-jerk way that provocative nonsense tends to: of course Musk hates chess, just like he hates unions and trans people and all the other good things in life, and I kept coming up with smarmy comebacks to what he said because it was edgy and inane. And I realized I’d been had. Because he doesn’t care about chess, or my opinion, and probably bounced off of chess when he wasn’t immediately good at it like many other people do, and just said what he said to piss off people who dared to care about it. But there’s something I think he’ll never understand about chess, especially from someone like me who knows he is bad and isn’t particularly motivated to improve, but plays anyway.

Chess is a sunk cost. The reward for playing chess well is playing more, harder chess. Yet, people have played chess, in the same way, for the same reasons, for 1000 years. People write about chess with adjectives nobody has ever called Musk, because he is a guy that even people who have him around don’t seem to like. And he’s a winner. Politically and financially, he is winning, and chess players everywhere are losing. Chess players at the highest level don’t even have the benefits of engaging TV coverage or big name sponsors to fund their athletic devotion, making do with teaching and twitch streams and youtube channels if they can do it for a living at all. But they don’t stop. And all of us who do something passionately don’t stop. And that’s something that Elon can’t buy. Of course he hates it.

[nightshadehoney]

I never watched James Somerton's shitty Killing Stalking video because I was trying to be good to myself and avoid something that I knew would make me very angry. In fact, I never watched any of his stuff because the fact that he made a video like that was enough to discount any thing he ever had to say (also I heard about the Celluloid Closet plagiarism).

But man, is the James Somerton discourse bringing a lot of Killing Stalking-related feelings back up for me. Because I'm mad; I'm still so mad. There are a suprising amount of people on social media who are saying they never watched any of his stuff except for the Killing Stalking video. I'm annoyed not just to find out that the vid had that sort of reach and influence, but also because Somerton's unmasking hasn't seemed to make people reasses the validity of the kind of thing he was saying. People are just now being like "hmm I think this guy might have Issues With Women" but that doesn't warrant any reflection on what exactly the motivation is of people who complain about women enjoying a niche webcomic? Because I don't actually believe you're concerned about the influence of some obscure piece of media when you advertise its existence to your large audience many of whom had not heard of it and would never have heard of it but for your transparent outrage porn video. It's rage bait and the target was women that are perceived as straight. A big channel has publicized the fact that they excised a section that endorsed the opinions in this video from their own because they became aware of Somerton's plagiarism and dishonesty (presumably; if it was actually because they recognized his views were coming from a sexist place I would welcome a clarification). And you know, I don't think that's a good look actually. That you needed to be told he was a bad person and couldn't idependently put together that the misogynist man was saying misogynist things.

The comic ended years ago and the fandom has gone mostly quiet, but to this day people are still the peddling the"fujoshi/stupid teenage girls who don't know what's good for them are shipping these characters because they are too braindead to realize it's not a romance; it's a horror, two things I believe are mutually exclusive. I am smarter than all of these cringe degenerates" bullshit. It's in the comments of the hbomberguy video even; one comment was such a gross misrepresentation of the series that my friend needed to talk me down from getting into a pointless youtube comments argument (bless him) because these people are officially making me lose my marbles.

This narrative is full of shit, it's demonstrably not fucking true. You can go on the artist's twitter right now and its full of her retweeting shippy fanart of that pairing readers were apparently never intended to ship.

(I don't think Koogi knows or cares about James Somerton; she just reblogs the works of fans who tag her. This made me laugh though).

Now this is all speculation because he died decades before social media existed, but I think if Nabokov was alive today his twitter would not be full of Humbert Humbert x Dolores Haze fanart. And yet, I have unironically seen people compare shipping Sangwoo and Bum in Killing Stalking with the misreading of Lolita as a precocious sexual temptress more than once.

And this isn't me saying that Killing Stalking is the disgusting"pro-sexualized abuse" comic that tumblr purity police used to characterize it as either. One of these days I'm going to go truly bonkers and end up banging pots and pans on the street corner, yelling at random innocent passerbys about how stories about romantic and sexual relationships are not required to be Hallmark movies. You can make art about the negative, dark, and troubling parts of these feelings and relationships without creating a pat morality tale. You don't need to approach media analysis like your 7th grade teacher has assigned you an essay on explaining what a novel's "message" is.

Nobody, not the author and not the fans, genuinely thinks that Sangwoo and Bum have a healthy or aspirational relationship. This hypothetical person that does not understand the relationship is toxic doesn't exist. Because girls and women, even the ones having cringey fandom fun on tiktok or whatever, are not so stupid and naive that they are unware that breaking someone's legs and locking them in a muder basement is bad. The type of concern troll rhetoric Somerton employed in his video is directed near exclusively at women interested in men and there's a reason for this. Women are not responsible for abuse that men do to them; nobody is responsible for their partner abusing them. If I never saw people spit this bullshit again it would be too soon.

[yuurivoice]

Not to tell you how to do your job or anything, and I don't think it's the audience's place to give suggestions when this is YOUR profession, it's just a small idea that occured to me.

But maybe in the upcoming Auron audio you could add a little note on the screen saying that new Auron content is coming soon, and then like do the same with future compilation videos, since they tend to do so well!! Like to let people know that if they like the characters, this is not where the story ends at all and they should stick around. I say this mainly cause I remember you once talked about how the major numbers on the Finn compilation didn't translate to a major increase in subscribers. Really hope this didn't come off as rude, I just think maybe if people think the compilations are the ENTIRE story it might not occur to them to subscribe!

It also might yield no results at all, idk. I just remember I didn't subscribe until multipleeee videos had been recommended to me over MONTHS, mainly because I had no idea that there was a story to be followed.

I've written like three different responses to this but as I yap on I get new conclusions and ideas. This is v3 of my answer lmfao.

Preface: People don't pay attention to shit and unless you are clever or use a hammer, they do not care. They want the content. ESPECIALLY if they aren't familiar with you. This makes any deliberate Calls to Action run the risk of annoyance rather than making a meaningful impact on conversions.

Bonus note: If a video is scheduled to premiere, there's nothing I can add to it at this point without doing a whole reupload, giving Thoo a bunch of extra work, and all that shit. So that wasn't ever an option anyway.

My approach in this current iteration of how I do things is that rather than slob on somebody's knob begging for a sub, they're encouraged to either watch more videos or go to the homepage. My working hypothesis is that you're actually MORE likely to get a curious viewer to drop by your homepage before they subscribe, because they want to see what else is available.

The most recent changes I made to the channel homepage should make it abundantly clear that there are multiple stories, characters, and styles of content to jump into. Making sure that the homepage is great has probably made a massive difference in that regard, without impacting the videos themselves.

Playlists are horribly underutilized in this niche in particular, and on lots of YouTube channels really. So I made sure to try and nail that down. Still need to get the channel trailer locked in but tbh I don't know how effective those really are in 2024.

All of that being said, a ~15 second welcome intro at the start that explains what the compilation is and invites viewers to sub/explore the playlists would probably be the easiest way to accomplish that without intruding on the listening/viewing experience in a way that feels desperate or pander-y. That in conjunction with the end screen prompt would probably be the easiest way to do it.

I don't feel like that immediately turns massive hit videos into untapped wells of subscribers that I missed out on, it could help contextualize things a little more and who knows, maybe it WOULD be a big deal. Hard to say!

The context for me not immediately being like OH IT'S A SLAM DUNK HOW DID I NOT THINK OF THIS is because I run a very lucrative business converting viewers to patrons and I have very minimal in-video notes about hearing the spicy bits on Patreon. People often figure things out for themselves if they're motivated enough, and you run the risk of chasing them off if you come across like a desperate ass hoe. lmfao

I appreciate the ask, but also can assure you that I've spent several hours mulling over these very specific issues and I've considered just about every angle. If I had included every little detail and wrinkle of information I was cooking up in the various iterations of this answer it would be a mile long. So trust me. I've thought about it in great detail, have worked with people on it, workshopped things and much more!

Y'all got me yappin' up a storm on here lately. lmfao

[benzjr]

The 2024 reboot no one was expecting...

Those of you who have been around for a while might just remember back when I did fanfiction, and if you do, you might remember the story of my Supernoobs OC Josh Carter, the aspiring social butterfly, future superstar and reluctant superhero whose life was getting way more complicated these days...

Back towards the end of 2019, I was really starting to lose steam with him; the inspiration I had for him was really starting to wane, especially given the fandom seemed to peter out and my previous partner-in-angst-crime Pumpkin (@whynotzoidbergdotorg) moved on to other creations. I've definitely missed creating fandom work over the past few years, but between not really finding anything to grab my attention in the same way and a series of setbacks in my life (not to mention the grind of growing my YouTube channel), things just happened to fall by the wayside.

But it seems I wasn't posting into the void after all! Josh and his story left a huge impact on the small but surprisingly resilient Supernoobs fandom, and over the past few months I've been pulled back in, thanks especially to @ghostlyapivorous' @superastral-official and @jaspydunks' @noobs-rewritten. So much so, that I've been re-motivated to return and at least continue (I don't think I should be presumptuous and suggest "finish") Josh's story. In addition to a few unreleased chapters from the original run, I've been working on continuing the story, and I've almost gotten to the end of Dancefest, where we originally left off.

We'll be picking up from there soon, but it didn't seem fully right to go back to using the old 2016 designs of our main cast — my artistic workflow has completely changed since then. So, it was time to give them all a glow-up. The primary goal was mainly to get them looking closer to the show's style, though I've also taken the opportunity to resolve a few longstanding annoyances with some of the characters and change some things up. Despite not being part of the main cast, I also decided to do an image for Zoey, given she's a pretty recurrent character in the series. Just like the first time around, expect to see new art of these kids in the future (though I don't think I'll spin up @joshcartersblog again).

Look out for the continuation of Josh's story very soon, but in the meantime, catch up on how Josh got here:

A Future Super-Something, the first story: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Perfect Disasters, the second story: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Over and Out, the third story: 1 & 2 3 4 5

Diamonds on the Rebound, the fourth story

Reminiscence, the fifth story

A Hero’s Prelude, the sixth story: 1 2 3

Dancefest, the seventh story (so far)

Text versions of everyone's descriptions under the cut.

Josh Carter

Josh Carter has only one goal in mind: becoming one of the popular kids. Enamored with fame and starry-eyed about celebrity, he's chasing the top of the Cornbury Middle School food chain with the help of his friends. Clever, ambitious, and seemingly carefree, he'll stop at nothing in his quest to rise to the top without losing himself, while making plenty of buzz along the way.

…But will something bigger and more destructive than the current popular clique or a mortifying social mishap stop him in his tracks?

Dreams of a social media-perfect lifestyle

Friends with Jock Jockerson despite not being a jock

His "walk-in closet" is practically a department store for one

The Yellow Superdude

As elusive as he is mysterious, the Yellow Superdude is the newest addition to Cornbury's local team of intergalactic virus warriors. But he doesn't seem too happy about having the opportunity of a lifetime; honestly, it seems like he doesn't get along with the other four at all. With the heroes already building local recognition and facing even bigger battles, can he ever become the hero the Earth needs — and does he even want to?

Alias: ???

Powers: Energy blasts, stretchy body, shapeshifting, possibly more if he ever actually went to training

Always has messy hair for some reason

Simon Parker

Josh's best friend since forever, Simon is the realist of the group. As much an inventive strategist as an easygoing wingman, Simon's a true ride-or-die in Josh's popularity adventures, turbocharging their social game while keeping his starstruck bro down-to-earth. They've been there for each other even in their lowest moments, including Simon's brutally public one last year. It's a trust that makes Simon unafraid to be honest with Josh. But despite all this, is Josh keeping a super-sized secret from him?

Enjoys the outdoors with his parents

Still recovering from a 7th-grade incident where he was dubbed "The Whale"

Maintains countless inside jokes and references with Josh

Rebecca Hewitt

Rebecca is a punchy wildcard who's garnered her own notoriety. Since stumbling into Josh's high-flying life in sixth grade, she's been looking to find herself somewhere in the many aesthetics Josh's influencer adventures bring into her world. Rough around the edges but fun at heart, she's not one to mess with, but worth having in your corner.

Recovering horse girl

Still throwing out Mini-Horse Friendship Force merchandise

Best dodgeball player in the class

Zoey Miller

Zoey is the intrepid reporter behind The Cornbury Hound Dog, Cornbury Middle School's unofficial school news blog. Zoey can be eager and persistent to a fault, the perfect attitude for hunting the next big story. She keeps up on all the gossip around the halls — especially Josh's ambitious search for teenage stardom. Totally not because she has a crush on him or anything…

An ace at alliteration

Has a venerable collection of visor hats

Elaborately daydreams of meet-cutes with Josh

[highgroundanimations]

How old are you?? What made you decide to dip your toe into animation?

As of now (2023) I'm 26 years old, next birthday is on January 24. 😁

Also great question! I'll go a little more in-depth below if anyone's interested. 😊

I've been interested in animation, art & story-telling in general ever since I could think! Starting with drawing & crafting a LOT in kindergarten & making flipbook & stopmotion/brickfilm animations in elementary school. Eventually got into shooting fun little shortfilms with friends & adding visual effects to them (those films were WEIRD, but soo fun to make! 😄).

That got me more & more into 3d animation as a hobby which turned into a career once I finished school & started a 3 year apprenticeship as audio-visual media designer at an advertising agency (I was 16 back then). After that I worked there part-time as 3d generalist for 3 more years while starting to freelance on the side. Eventually made the jump to full-time freelancing & that's what I've been doing the past 4 years.

Love the creative freedom of often times being booked as "one man studio" by my clients & the variety of projects is fun! Advertising has to move fast & you're never stuck with one project for too long.

Being a freelancer also makes it possible for projects like Tukk Tales: The Rescue to happen, because I get to chose what I want to work on & when I want to work on passion projects (as long as I'm not broke lol).

And of course one of the biggest sources of inspiration & motivation throughout this journey was our beloved Wars in the Stars! ⭐⭐ I've been a Star Wars fan ever since elementary school & been drawing characters from it constantly, especially droids & clones. And then came THE CLONE WARS! I don't think I would've followed through actually teaching myself how to use 3d software back in 2008 if I hadn't seen the Clone Wars movie around that time. A full-CG, stylized show with my favorite characters in my favorite era? Sign me up! I was so intrigued by how a show like that was made, I HAD to find out!

If you have seen my Youtube channel, there are still some The Clone Wars animation videos on there, from back when I just started learning how to use the 3d software Blender: https://www.youtube.com/@HighGroundAnimations/videos

So The Clone Wars kept me going, inspired me to learn this, to be able to create my own scenes from that universe. But then, eventually you want to grow beyond that, so I wanted to try other styles, other ideas & especially once I started working, I just didn't have as much time for personal "fun" projects anymore. So very little Clone Wars from now on. Fast forward a couple of years, it's the pandemic & the perfect time to go back into hobbies! The animated Star Wars shows have progressed & met a new bar of quality with Clone Wars season 7. What an inspiration! I really wanted to try & see what I could do with all the skills & knowledge I had accumulated since last time & a project like that seemed like a great chance to further strengthen my skills as generalist. So that's when I started again, December 2020 & the name High Ground Animations was born, along with a dedicated Instagram, a renamed Youtube channel & more. No Captain Tukk yet, or any plans for a shortfilm, all that developed during the many months after that. But I've been at it again ever since & there are no plans for stopping anytime soon! 🤘

[lunararcade]

Boredom striked me, so i'm going send some DR questions to shifting accounts i like (i hope it's okay) :

1 - A quote that describes your DR?

2 - What's your fondest memory from your Percy Jackson DR so far?

3 - How would you describe your DR best friend in one word?

I hope these questions are okay to ask. I want to interact more with people on here and that's why i decided to just ask random questions i would love to recieve.

stopppp!!!! it makes me so happy that you like my account. these questions are totally okay to ask!! i love answering shifting/dr questions <3 i'm going to answer each of these for a different dr since i shift to multiple (((:

1) this was difficult but i think a quote that describes my fame/youtube dr is:

"sometimes you are born into a family, and sometimes you need to go find it. sometimes it finds you. no matter how it comes together, family is what you fight for, family is what you protect." - sandra bullock

i'm in a group channel in this dr and the other members are literally like family to me and i love them all so much. missing them rn </3

2) i think my fondest memory was my first night bunking with percy lmaoooo 😭 there is no hades cabin, so i had been staying with him before we left for the quest that we are on now. he's such a loud, little, sarcastic kid but the more i get to know him the more i appreciate how nice he is and how grateful i am to be adjusting to a life i didn't know existed at the same time as someone else. we spent the whole night getting to know each other and collectively freaking the fuck out. fav cousin fr 🙏🏼‼️

3) i'm gonna answer this for my formula 1 dr! i would say my three closest/ my best friends are logan sargeant, oscar piastri, and charles leclerc.

i would describe logan as understanding. he is such a sweetheart and is really in tune with what people need and how to adapt to all situations. i think this makes him an amazing driver and also an amazing best friend (10 years and going strong LMAO). he's also understanding by being unbelievably patient and taking everything in stride.

i would describe oscar as observant. oscar is definetely on the quieter side which lets him take in everything around him. he notices everything and mentally records the information, which means he remembers all of the little things you tell him (he is a huge gossip/shit talker) and this also makes him a better driver cause he picks up on things quickly.

i would describe charles as passionate. charles is genuinely one of the kindest people i have ever met. he feels so deeply about the things and people he cares about (like racing and his family) which is why he is literally the human embodiment of "NEVER BACK DOWN NEVER WHAT." he dedicates himself 100% to things and it shows in every part of his life.

this was so so so much fun to answer 😭😭 so please feel free to send any dr questions you have! it makes me feel so connected to my drs when i'm here, and i've had many people tell me it is motivating to hear from people who have shifted ((: asks/inbox and messages are always open!

[hizznbyte]

ace attorney saved your life?? i want to hear that story. im very glad it did btw. im very glad that youre alive right now

Shbsnssjsn okay first of all: Thank you. So so much for that little message because it made my day. It makes me really happy to know my existence means something to someone out there. I know it’s dumb it’s just snnsshbss it makes me feel like being alive and my frequent dumbass posting is valued and is what motivates me to keep going.

Anywho! Yeah, ace attorney somehow did end up saving my life during one of my lowest points. It’s kinda crazy to think about and even more so to say aloud but. Woah. This silly game about idiot lawyers ACTUALLY saved me? It’s surreal LOL

Where do I start? I was first introduced to AA during the pandemic I think. I watched some videos on it but never truly got into the fandom until maybe three years later? To be honest, I don’t even remember WHY I got back into AA, considering I was already hyperfixated on something else. It started popping up on my feed a ton I guess?

During that time, I was in like. A really, really deep depression. I can’t say too much about it but a lot of it was because of my dad. People on my discord probably know that I was in my vents channel nearly 24/7 talking about how much I hated my life and wanted to hurt myself, and began spiraling deeper and deeper with every episode and breakdown I was having. I’d constantly talk down to myself and start fights and I think it started pushing my friends away.

It was paragraph after paragraph about my miserable, pathetic life. Long, long paragraphs.

So I started coping. It started out as me posting AA memes on discord, then watching some dumb YouTube shitposts. Then I finally caved and started watching the Ace Attorney anime [which yes, does exist. It’s not the greatest and I get why it’s pretty largely disliked by the fandom but it was my intro to the world of AA and it was such a fun watch. Fun fact, it was the first anime I’d ever watch in full!]. I fell in love with the series so quickly that my daily vents turned into me telling my friends how much I loved the series. I was always talking about it when I got the chance, and it brought me so much joy and comfort that it became a huge part of my life. I watched play-throughs of the games, read the supplementary manga and even bought merch for it! That’s around the time I bought my Phoenix Plushie which I am emotionally attached to lol. It was also a great bonding experience since my friend Yax was a fan of Ace Attorney, my siblings started getting into because of me, and I even met kids at school who enjoyed the series! It was.. the most comforting experience I’d ever had.

I was so emotionally invested in AA that it made me cry lol.

I’m definitely understating how much AA helped me get through this terrible part of my life, because it’s so SO difficult to put into words. But trust me, I don’t know where I’d be without it.

Course I’m not as hyperfixated on Ace Attorney as I used to, but I still love the franchise with all my heart. I even have… [checks notes] 20+ original characters for an AU that I am very invested in!

But uh. Yeah that’s the story I guess? I’m probably missing stuff, I have a terrible memory when it comes to that time in my life but hey that’s the gist. Sorry for dropping so much Neri lore LOL! Thanks for the ask though, I really appreciate it. It was.. refreshing? To talk about. Yeah :33

[beelearnsfinnish]

☆ 22 august, monday.

let's ignore the fact that the streak was yesterday, cause hey!!! got 200 days streak!!! feels like big accomplishment cause im the most inconsistent person ever so yeah it did gave me some motivation :)

still haven't had time to do a proper study plan because of work, but have been listening to my finnish playlist on my commute, and also started putting some finnish podcasts even if i understand two words out of twenty. im not surrounded by the language anymore so i have to force the inmersion.

been liking watching some youtube with the transcript on lingq tho! haven't really watched many before cause i hated that almost any of the videos i found had the automatic cc option but i think lingq is gonna save my life in this aspect. already made a youtube playlist with vlogs & lifestyle videos since i think they're gonna be the most helpful ones, and im almost done watching the first one and taking notes.

i do think its beneficial for me watching content this way and specifically youtube videos cause its giving me a grasp of how people actually speak, besides the basic duolingo & simple course sentences. i'm taking notes of sentences i like and think the structure can be helpful when it's my turn for writing. if you happen to have any youtube channel recommendations I'd love to hear!

think this is gonna be my plan til i get some time to actually continue a textbook or make a plan. liking it so far! :)

[1ntr0v3rted]

Yoooo bro I’m back with my unwanted opinions LMAO

so me being me and being a wannabe critic or a wannabe explainer or whatever I looked up drama of some of my favorite people when I was little (still tbh)

I was the kid that was on the iPad 24/7 YouTube and Roblox Minecraft etc raised me than my own parents

I watched denisdaily and flamingo (flamingo later on in my life) I just didn’t watch anyone else but maybe Brent Rivera (ur stupid automatically bro idk what I saw in u)

Denis was rlly popular and stood out to me for his Roblox videos I subbed to him before he got all popular and #1 like maybe when he started his YouTubeish and I would watch him everyday I saw every single office he had even his bedroom with his roommate Sandra and Sandra’s boyfriend I rlly thought they were cool people I was really into sir meows a lot and having a character like that for a YouTube

My iPad was like child locked or smth like my dad would have to put his password in for me to download smth so his account was on there

Id beg and beg to like get Roblox and play it and become like Denis I truly looked up to him (I’m saying looked like I still don’t)

Apparently people r mad bc he took a mental health break and he had the pals situation plus the scam robux thing

But tbh the pals situation wasn’t Denis’ fault corl went haywire and so like he was gone and they all dispatched from each-other now u barley ever see Denis talking to sketch, Alex, or sub

Denis has a growing audience and rn children just know jokes like we have YouTube shorts we have TikTok and instagram which kids these days have like dude they know the jokes that are being said. There’s specific moderations u can put on ur kids device to make it only kid things and yes Denis might still pop up but he’s still pretty family friendly he’s just being himself like he is with his friends

I always wished like Denis and flamingo could meet and now they’re like literal lovers man (IK u see it bro don’t say otherwise they joke so much about being together) which also with apparently like homophobic allegations towards them both I think of it as just flirting with ur guys bro but my opinion doesn’t matter for what they have going on

Denis took a mental health break which is completely reasonable he couldn’t be with friends he just couldn’t go to YouTube anymore and have that motivation he’s on his own schedule bc he’s a person too

Now we’re onto flamingo who not everyone likes (u do he’s the #1 Roblox youtuber) and he had AlbertStuff which he said some pretty yk reasonably bad things and said some racist things and got attacked but he legit regrets who he was so he made flamingo and was family friendly with his still agressive type jokes but they’re not bad at all they’re funny and annoying and it’s great man

Also I wanna point out u guys r kinda acting like everyone who has a rep needs to be perfect like nah we all problematic (I am too bro dw)

Albert acts like AlbertStuff never happened that’s how much guilt and regret he has for that YouTube channel

And yes people like flamingo and Denis have changed to more and more PG-13 content but that’s also bc everyone else has become more PG-13 AKA THEIR OWN AUDIENCE

I grew up with them and it feels more funny and lively that they’re kinda growing up with me that’s what makes them rlly special to me (gonna cry/j)

It’s the same with the Barbie movie everyone was mad about it saying it was inappropriate for children (I don’t see it tbh) but it’s PG-13 just don’t bring ur kid?

What I’m saying is is that flamingos past is not who he is today and neither is Denis.

But the people who to this day r problematic and haven’t apologized and have ruined a community needa go

(I’m looking at you inquisitormaster lmao)

Thank you for reading my unpopular opinions !! (Don’t come for me or else I will show up as a frog and curse you)

[gascon-en-exil]

I don’t know if you’d be interested in this, but I think watching you play through games you enjoy would be really entertaining. I saw your Dream Daddy playthrough and thought your reactions were really funny. I looked to see if you had any more videos like it, but I only saw one other playthrough you made about a year ago. Would you ever be interested in making a playthrough series again?

I've also done a few Patreon-exclusive videos with live commentary on Darkest Dungeon II back when it was in early access, although since the game had its full release in May I haven't felt the urge to return to that concept. The unfortunate reality is that my channel is still small enough to where I can't depend on just anything I release getting views, and whenever I step outside the sort of content that consistently gets the most engagement - which is pretty much just FE - I'm taking a risk. Of course I should be doing it because I enjoy it and all that...but these videos frequently entail weeks of work, and even unscripted playthroughs like that DD run take hours to record and more work on top of that to edit. The seven-minute scripted video I put out a few weeks prior about a much more obscure dating sim has over three times as many views as the DD one, and even then those are substantially lower numbers than what my Three Hopes impressions pieces pulled a few months later.

I'm not opposed to doing more reaction videos, but I need to feel like there will be enough interest to justify the effort. It doesn't help that the majority of games I'd like to highlight in that way are less well known themselves, making them an even tougher sell. Maybe when I break 1000 subs and can actually monetize the ads that YouTube is already putting on some of my videos I'll feel motivated to step outside my wheelhouse more often.

Alternatively, I may just try doing if I'm stuck in a sufficiently lengthy content lull and need a video idea. The algorithm apparently doesn't like it if you aren't producing at least semi-regularly.

[semi-sketchy]

This is a really good video, I love the analogy in it, though I want to add another point that might not be relevant to the YouTubers quitting, but is to me.

It can really suck when the project you are passionate about and really want to make is ignored.

Like I’m not normally one to whine about numbers, but it is demotivating when I pour everything into something I’m super passionate about only for no one to care. It’s part of the reason I haven’t worked much on Xenoblade 3’s DLC essay despite somewhat promising it.

The highlight videos are some of my favorite pieces of content I’ve ever made, but they took weeks of work keyframing, adjusting audio, making assets only to get barely any views.

I still have old projects lying around for highlights of Ori and Untitled Goose Game I likely will never finish.

My LP of SA1 had so much info compiled and I did a lot to make that work, but it just didn’t kick off. I was hopeful something fun like Untitled Goose Game would catch the eye of my regular audience and maybe get them interested in my gaming content, but it didn’t. I did more casual and edited playthroughs of things like Sonic Frontiers and The Murder of Sonic, videos I think are very good and honestly are what I enjoy making the most at the moment, but same result.

I actually have a roughcut project that's essentially a blind Future Redeemed playthrough. I recorded it for notes and eventual essay footage, although polishing it for upload is tempting, I don't know if it's worth the effort.

I understand I’ve always been a variety channel with a focus on KinzTube, so interest in gaming topics isn’t going to be as high, but even when I made another Signature Island episode, what people kept saying they wanted, it didn’t perform as well as a low-effort video talking about a movie that was also unrelated to Webkinz.

It took almost 6 months to break 1,000 views compared to the 45 days of an off-the-cuff video which says nothing valuable.

I know no matter how much effort I put into a video, a plush collection or unboxing will always be more popular. It sucks because collections are very repetitive to make and I’m too broke to constantly be buying Webkinz only to earn less on a video than the package cost.

It’s also tiring because Webkinz is a shrinking brand, so if I did stick to just making KinzTube videos, my channel would die anyways.

Stuff like this does eat away at your motivation. It's rough when the only person who values your work is you. I don’t know if that was the case for all the people quitting, but I know it’s draining me.

[druidberries]

sims get to know me tag !!

thank you sm @duusheen for tagging me 🥹💛

1. What’s your favourite sims death? cowplant lmao

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match? I like maxis mix!

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight? no

4. Do you use move objects? I can't build without it 😅

5. Favorite mod? this is super tough but I couldn't play without mccc and ui cheats!

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got? outdoor retreat!

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing? I feel like it's changed so many times throughout the years but lately it's been exclusively LIVing

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? a sim called Nex that I've never shared and Elowen! ofc lucine and flourish too but they're dnd characters before they are sims 😅

9. Have you made a simself? I did yearsss ago but she looks absolutely nothing like me lmao. I do kinda wanna try again tho?

10. What sim traits do you give yourself? I'm picking 5 bc that's how it should be in sims 4 *cough cough* family oriented, hopeless romantic, animal lover, geek, and socially awkward! I know some of those are sims 3 traits but its ok 😭

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color? red and green! I have to resist the urge to give all my sims bright red hair 🫶 I love super dark black hair but it's such a hit or miss whether the swatch is gonna be gray, blue, or pitch black

12. Favorite EA hair? off the top of my head, I love the one we got with that sdx drop with the ombre roots and like 3 different high school years ones lol

13. Favorite life stage? I love infants bc 🥹🥹 but also teens and YA! even tho teens and young adults are pretty much the same 😐 it's one of the best parts of legacies when a child ages up into a teen!

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? gameplay and cas! I'm not great at building and only do it when I need to but creating characters and playing with families are my fav <3

15. Are you a CC creator? no lmao. I would like to make some more recolors but I only ever make them for personal use! maybe one day I'll release some 🤔

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad? I've met some really good people on here that I just adore talking to <33 and I always think of my mutuals as my lil sims buddies 🥺

17. What’s your favorite game? 2 and 4! sims 3 is so good but 2 has my heart.

18. Do you have any sims merch? I used to have those headphones with the plumbobs that changed based on your sims emotions and they were so nice but they broke yearssss ago :( other than that no unless we're counting the freezer bunny I'm crocheting lol

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims? no :(( I've wanted to start a youtube channel since I was just lil child but I'm so scared 🙃

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing? I honestly don't think I have a sim style? but I do think I've gotten better at making sims in general? I'm much better at using different faces and making sims look different now!

21. What’s your Origin ID? druidberries but i don't upload anything to the gallery

22. Who’s your favorite CC creator? trillyke, simstrouble, ah00b, ratboy, simandy, squea, ladymoriel, praline and literally so many more I could go on forever

23. How long have you had a simblr? I've had tumblr for ages like lurking but I think I started my first simblr around 2016-2017? I used that one on and off for so long and I always lost motivation but finally what like 2 months? ago I made this one and got a nice clean fresh start 😌

24. How do you edit your pictures? I use photoshop and I pretty much always do topaz, noise, and sharpen, and then from there I decide if I wanna do some brightening or whatever. I do use actions sometimes too! I really have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to editing 😭

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far? all of the occult packs ofc + growing together and cottage living <33 I also really love nifty knitting bc most of my sims knit lmao

26. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next? I really want them to make a fairies pack 🧚‍♀️🫶

feel free to ignore this but I'm tagging: @buttertrait. @potionio, @aurorangen, @estah, @sinfulwunders, @salemssimblr, @duskiivy and @simlishpiadina