Archive

7/26/2024

Well well well, I've been away for a minute! That streak of work sucked. But I wasn't totally idle in terms of the site! I was able to work on a mobile layout upgrade! This has been out for a few days, but try checking out EE on your phones! You've got a lot of horizontal space back. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better.

Also, since I saw you last, we crossed 40,000 views. Thank you all so much! Oh, unrelated to that, this week I made the switch to using Visual Studio Code instead of Brackets/Phoenix Code. It is immediately way better and I highly recommend it. The Live Preview exentsion you can get for VSCode is PERFECT!

I offer a small blog post with some life advice, do not take the overnight shift! Just don't. I have many more horror stories than what I shared, but I decided to keep it simple this time.

7/15/2024

Small update for here! I'm about to get slammed with a ton of work, so another July update may be a little late. Still, recentely Tekken Producer Katsuhiro Harada made an insightful tweet. I've decided to preserve that tweet (Twitter/X is total garbage after all!), in my own format with some added emphasis and images for readability, as well as some footnotes. Please enjoy! I may add more Harada tweets in the future, he's an amazing resource.

7/08/2024

It's been a Guilty Gear Summer for me, which is one of my favorite fighting game series! Since I've been playing Strive lately, I thought I'd just opine and share some thoughts. I also got addicted to Cookie Clicker for a week, but the spell is broken, I'm free! I stopped feeling good at the numbers in the septendecillions. I might write about it anyway though.

It's super hot here lately, but some rain came by and has helped cool things down a little. Be safe in this summer weather!

7/01/2024

HAPPY WRATH MONTH EVERYONE! I'm on a vacation this week (heheh!), so I've had lots of time to do whatever I want. There's been some CSS updates that should allow for a better experience in different sized windows, 4:3 users should have a slightly easier time. The mobile layout hasn't changed, but the site doesn't totally break if you look at it funny. The homepage is still janky though, but it's also a much shorter scroll as you can see! If you hit the bottom, you can see the brand new Archive page! See, I can work on things sometimes! Now if I can just beautify my menu pages, I'd be very happy.

Today's article is about the smash surprise hit, Girls Band Cry! If you haven't seen this yet, I demand that you do, onegai! I had fun putting this one together, and letting out some honest thoughts in spoiler tags. I think I should do that more often, it worked well here and in the Blaster Master article. Enjoy!

6/26/2024

With the Ranma 1/2 remake officially underway, I thought it'd be a good time to talk about Urusei Yatsura! Specifically, the 2022 series that just wrapped up last week. This was how I got into the series, so it's time for a little bit of reflection. I'm proud of how this one came out, so I hope you like it! Nokotan starts next week, can't wait for that! And of course, I haven't made much progress on some site aesthetics...what a hack, I am! I'm very appreciative of everyone who has looked at the site, even just once!

6/19/2024

It was my birthday over the last weekend, and I had some fun. I only like low-key birthdays, so I ate a bunch of pancakes and went shopping with a friend. Didn't buy anything! I'm the frugal type usual. Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy day. More importantly, I have a little preview for you of My Deer Friend Nokotan, I started reading the manga recently and Nokotan is sooo cute! The anime is coming out in July, so now seems like the perfect time to share a few thoughts.

I haven't decided if I want to do it now or later, but a great comic topic would be that Chainsaw Man chapter. Also, it looks like Zeb Well's run on Amazing Spider-Man will be concluding within the calendar year, something else I'd like to revisit as they were the very first posts published here!

6/12/2024

I couldn't help myself but talk about the Pokémon TCG again. The North American International Championships happened over the last weekend, and it was awesome! I took a quick moment to highlight some of the cool things that went down in the Finals. I've actually missed my locals lately due to various friend or illness related reasons. Oops! Well, next time I go, I'm gonna tear up all the Gardevoir players with Roaring Moon, heheh!

Recently, I started playing Guilty Gear Strive again. It's a lot of fun, is that something you'd like to read about? I'm on the fence, hehe. But I'll try to come back within a week or so.

6/05/2024

Happy Pride Month everyone! I had a fun vacation recently, but I ended up getting sick towards the end and didn't work on as much stuff as I wanted. Well, today we have a new interview with Sasha, from the retro gaming fanzine Behind the Scanlines! I love doing interviews and I hope you enjoy looking over this one. If you know any interesting characters in the world of fandom or nice that you think would make a good interview, send 'em my way!

5/30/2024

I've been waiting to put this one together for a hot minute! You can read about my very first cosplay experience! It was also what's called a 'crossplay', at least that's a fun way for me to think about it. If you've never cosplayed before and are curious what goes into preparing and wearing it, you may get something out of it!

By the way, since I've been on vacation from work, I learned about developing Genesis/Mega Drive games with something called SGDK. This is one of the most fun things I've explored recently. The tutorial series I linked is fantastic. I don't know if I can make a game proper, but we'll see. I just wanted to make you aware that you can make a game! I got as far as controlling a player sprite and having it animate in accordance with the gamepad, as part of this tutorial. I feel amazing!

5/26/2024

A quick update today! You can read the last Final Fantasy XI diary here. It's not a terribly romantic end to my time with the game, but that's how it goes sometimes! Next time, I'm hoping to tell you all about my recent cosplay experience. I have a little more free time than usual, so you'll hopefully see that in a week or so.

Do you like the snazzy new header? I do! It's from Digimon the Movie, the Fox Kids classic.

5/20/2024

So happy to see you all! I've been working hard at my actual job (booo!), and today's article kept growing. We also have the first video clip uploaded on the site, hooray! Read all about one of my favorite anime series: BODACIOUS SPACE PIRATES! If you read this article, you'll know everything that I know, basically! Short of watching the show itself, which you totally should!

Later today, we'll have crossed 30,000 views, to which I once again offer a hearty thank you!

I called it quits with Final Fantasy XI for now, so there will be a last diary entry. I'd like to keep writing Mage Crush, but I've had lots of stuff I want to write about as well! ♥︎ Good luck with whatever you're doing lately!

5/11/2024

Greetings again! I spent this week working on some code stuff for the site, with some overdue updates finally getting hashed out by me. There is a new article though, I was featured on the illustrious Anime Herald! I pitched a story to the site, and was accepted. Enjoy reading about the hit success of Kagurabachi! It was an amazing experience and I can't thank AH and especially the editor of my story, Alex Henderson. I owe them my life! I really wanted to tell this story with detail, accuracy, and a professional tone, because it is an unbelievable story in the manga publishing world! So, please go check out that article, Anime Herald deserves the support, clicks, and whatever other metrics go around!

I am planning some other updates...the menus will get an overhaul soon, and if I can figure it out, I'd like to improve the mobile layout. Ever since getting my own domain name, I've felt some desire to step up the housekeeping! Be strong, everyone!

5/5/2024

Is it May already? Goodness gracious. Well, I have some big news. First, a nice new game article. Blaster Master Zero - Story Matters! I had a lot of fun putting this together, and I'd love to talk about this series again some time.

Secondly, the site now has its own cool domain! I hope you like it! I certainly do, I feel very cool rocking it. Though my URLs are forever long due to how I organized my folder and materials. Ah, oh well!

Lastly, you probably saw the news that 123guestbook is going into read only mode on July 1st. I have already coded and worked out the page to use Ultraguest instead, and will be pushing the update sometime soon. Ultraguest has custom CSS, so I totally recommend it for that reason. I have previous guestbook posts archived as text, and would like to keep them visible somehow. So we'll see about that. A lot of you were really sweet...so, even if they disappear, I won't forget you!

4/28/2024

I'm back a little early! I wanted to write loosely and felt like playing with the site again. Today I bring another Final Fantasy XI diary entry. I'm getting a little fantasied out right now, so I promise the next Video Games article will be something else.

I am trying to work on some extra site features. The homepage here has gotten really long, so I'm working on an "Archive" page where previous updates can be conveniently stored. I wanted collapsable menus, but I was having trouble with the code for it in CSS and Javascript (grr!), but hopefully you'll see that before too long. Bon voyage, everyone!

4/24/2024

I really didn't think I'd get this out on time! But as always, it was fun to write and put together. But the most fun part is publishing! The next chapter of "Mage Crush" is here! Maybe someday, we'll polish it up even more and put it on Wattpad or something? I don't know, but it's pretty cool to go stealth mode like this, kehehe...enjoy~!

On an unrelated note, I've been getting back into an anime habit. Sometimes it's a bit hard for me to watch things alone, since my cat doesn't understand anime. But I got my Blu-Ray for Bodacious Space Priates and I'm watching "100 Girlfriends"...that show is ridiculous. I think I'll get evicted if the wrong person walks by. Maybe I'll do an article about it when I finish it!

4/17/2024

Honey, it's time for another Pokémon TCG article!
"Yes, dear..."
That's right, this time I'm talking about the ACE SPEC card Neo Upper Energy! This is almost certainly the worst ACE SPEC card that we have so far, but is it all bad? As a bonus, I try to design a Pokémon card that would work well with it. All of this was a lot of fun, so I hope you feel the sense of fun too.

I am working on the next FFXI diary and another chapter of "Crush On The White Mage". Please be patient! Xoxo.

4/11/2024

Did you enjoy the eclipse this week? I got home in time to see it, but there was no totality in my location. So, my cat and I enjoyed a little shade for a while. That's a good enough use of a cosmic event, I suppose!

A new fiction story is avaliable for your pleasure. Set in the world of Final Fantasy, I Have A Crush On The White Mage was inspired by true events! Barely, though, because it's highly fictionalized! I can't help but be drawn to those kinds of RPG stories, so I hope you enjoy!

Oh, the "Writing" section has been wisely renamed to "Fiction". All the sections have writing in them...can't I even get the basics of menus right?!

4/3/2024

Happy April everyone! Did you see anything really funny for April Fool's Day? I doubt it! What's a girl gotta do to get a good joke around here?

A new entry in my Final Fantasy XI diary is here! This one has a focus on player interaction, something that was missing from my first few hours! A lot of cool people and experiences that can only happen in an MMORPG happened to me over the past week. I think I will write a fictionalized version of some of these events! If it amuses you half as much as it amuses me, that would be a pleasure.

3/29/2024

Pokemon cards are on the mind again! With the release of Temporal Forces, and how much in general I like the game, I did another article. This time the focus is Single Prize Pokémon in the TCG. There's a bit of a misnomer that only the biggest, flashiest, rule-boxiest Pokémon matter, but this is definitely not true! I had a blast writing this one, and don't you love colorful card images? I hope you like it too!

Final Fantasy XI is going really well. I will probably do another diary soon, but I won't be able to mention everything I've done in the game since the last one. I've played a little bit at least once a day.

3/23/2024

I've found myself with a new hobby as of last Saturday. I started playing Final Fantasy XI! I've been really enjoying it, so I thought I'd write about it as well, journal style. I miss MMOs a lot sometimes, so there's a decent-size prologue about my feelings. Eep, not my feelings again! This is written even more informally and casually than usual. Maybe you'll enjoy that kind of thing? It certainly made it easier to write in a very busy week for me!

Emotion Engine also crossed 15,000 views this week! Thank you, everyone! I'm sure the number is cluttered by bots and crap, but honestly, I'll take it! I never thought it'd get past 500! This site is my pride and joy, you reading it is a huge bonus!

3/16/2024

It's the first Emotion Engine interview! I've always wanted to do one, isn't a good interview the best thing ever? I talked to voice actress and producer Stephanie Arata, who you may have heard recently as the villain in Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore. This was lots of fun to do, and I can't thank her enough for lending some time to this project. I wonder who I can interview next? If you liked my style, let me know so that I know to book another one!

Unrelated to that, congratulations to Godzilla Minus One on the Oscar win! I saw the movie and Minus Color in theaters. Hopefully the Blu-Ray will come out soon so everyone who missed it then will see it!

3/10/2024

See below where I wrote about my hype for Pokémon Legends Z-A? Here's a wishlist! And a copy of that wishlist in case you threw the first link in the trash.

In not quite article worthy news, I've just returned from a Temporal Forces pre-release event. The new single-prize Miraidon is is totally screwed up! Why does it do damage AND accelerate two energy from the deck for a single colorless!? It can also hit pretty high numbers itself with Iron Crown ex. What the hell!? The Future Pokémon favoritism must end!

3/8/2024

Today, I'm quietly posting a short tribute to Akira Toriyama, whose passing on March 1st was announced today.

3/2/2024

Eeeyikes! Looks like I was a bit dame da late with the next article update. I've been working on something exciting though that will be published somewhere else. Because of that though, there was a little delay for EE. There were some minor updates in the interim like a refreshed About Me page, and Zygarde as a new guardian of the website. I'm extremely excited about the upcoming Pokémon Legends ZA game. Perhaps we'll do a little wishlist about it!

Today's article is How Call of the Night Touched On My Asexuality, this is something that was really challenging for me. Which certainly didn't help my delayed schedule! Talking about your feelings is hard! But if even one person enjoys it and gets it, it's worth it, don't you think?

Something I thought I would mention is that I'm using the .webp image format a lot more. To be honest, they're great! They load super fast, file sizes are small, and look just fine to me. It bugs me when a page I make loads slowly. I saw a tweet a while ago about how one of the creators of webp felt slighted that it wasn't so widely adopted in software. I used to be a webp hater, but after that I empathized with him! I apologize for any inconvenience you may have saving an image from Emotion Engine to be met with a webp.

2/8/2024

It's been a minute, huh? I've been a little busier than typical with my sweet cat getting fixed. Since I posted last, Bluesky opened up its doors for anyone to register. I've loved using Bluesky, so I'll be curious to see if anything about the site of the culture changes. Without crap being algorithmically pushed though, I suspect the good qualities will remain.

Last week I gave myself the pleasure of replaying the 1998 classic, Metal Gear Solid. Every time I play, I come up with a ton of things to say, and so the article was born! It was supposed to be a 'quick-thoughts' type of thing, but, I couldn't help myself. Enjoy it!

1/27/2024

A quick one from me today! Truthfully, it's not terribly fun to to talk about this kind of thing with our culture, but I felt a desire to do so anyway. There's No Such Thing As a Tourist. I do hope you enjoy, though!

1/18/2024

I apologize for the delay! Not that there's a formal schedule for Emotion Engine, but I was doing pretty good with weekly articles! Anyway, today's is all about Sonic Heroes for its 20th anniversary. It's always fun to talk about Sonic!

1/07/2024

We've got two updates today! Firstly, the next article covering the Gamera series is now available. Come see how wild and crazy the movies can get.

Secondly, we now have a Guestbook that you can sign! It's totally anonymous if you want it to be, and the email field isn't required. This is a really cool way to support me and see some readership, without needing a Neocities or social media account. I've got a couple plans for what's coming next, so keep checking back! Love y'all!

1/01/2024

Happy Neo Year everyone! It's 2024, hard to believe. Today I bring you a write-up of something that quickly took hold of my heart as the year came to a close. Presenting, GAMERA! I'll be talking a bit about each of the movies in the Showa series. Part 2 is on the way, as well as some other stuff. A cool game had its 20th anniversary recently, and I'd like to shout that out soon. Can you guess the game?

12/19/2023

Well, I've had lots of free time for the holidays, which is an enormous blessing. That also means I got a big article done, a personal yearly recap I call the James of the Year Awards 2023! It's packed full of random-ish things. Come see what won in categories like "Gayest Post" and "Game Of The Year!". This is probably the last article of the year, but EE will return in 2024 of course!

12/12/2023

What's shakin' bacon? I got really busy, so I had to delay even a quickie article like this one. One Year of Ryan North's Fantastic Four! It delights me to talk so positively about a Marvel comic! The next update will be a yearly recap, in which I will present the James Of The Year Awards! I can't wait to put that together. Hope everyone is having a happy and safe holiday season thus far!

12/3/2023

It's December at last! I love the closing of the year and the cold weather, so I'm in a great mood. Alas, I've really written myself into a corner this time. After playing the Super Mario RPG remake, a whole maelstrom of thoughts entered my mind. Enter, Faithful Remake vs Faithful Remake, a comparison between Super Mario RPG for Switch and Pokemon Shining Pearl, also for Switch. I get into some stuff about video game remakes in general. Enjoy!

11/27/2023

I'm full of holiday food... but I'm also full of books! I'm proud to say we finally got a review done beyond a first volume. TMNT Ultimate B&W Volumes 2 and 3 were pretty awesome, and I got excited to tell you about it. This article is full of great HD scans of the art, so it might load a bit slow. Sorry about that!

You may also see that there is a little box with some links over on the side. This object is a work in progress. The homepage looks nice and full now though, don't you think?

11/22/2023

It's a big happy anniversary for Half-Life this year! 25 years of a classic, of course I had to replay it. Maybe I'll replay Half-Life 2 sometime soon as well. Holiday season starts this week, so please enjoy yourselves!

11/14/2023

How's it going everyone? I was reminiscing recently about some of cool movies I've had fortunate opportunities to see. I didn't want to lose those memories to time, so I wrote a few down. You'll get to see me talk about seeing Shin Godzilla and Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack at the theater. Enjoy!

Also, I have a button you may (and should) use if you want to link to Emotion Engine. Tadaa!

11/9/2023

I've been trying to get the word out about this manga forever, in my opinion it's one of the best of 2023. KINDERGARTEN WARS by You Chiba! I had to keep it short to leave surprises and fun inside, but I'm gonna do my darn best to sell it to you.

11/5/2023

I had a busy week (and weekend!), but I got to idly think about what to write next. Here's something that's been on my mind: Playing A Game That Pisses You Off And Makes You Question Your Sanity Vs One That Doesn't. Yes, this is a cheeky title rip from the famous Onion article. This one is pretty stream of conciousness, hopefully that's not a turn off! Enjoy!

11/1/2023

Do you like Pokémon cards? I take a look at a small helping of some of the hottest cards in the upcoming Paradox Rift set. I hope everyone had a happy Halloween! I wrote this article in a twelve hour fervor, but it was a ton of fun and I enjoy how the formatting came out.

10/26/2023

My Review of Super Mario Bros. Wonder is here! It's a great game to be certain, and I was simply burning with desire to tell you all about it in my own words. This was a ton of fun to put together. I hope your enjoy!

10/20/2023

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! I've been waiting to read the original comics forever, so you can see me gush about it here.

I was planning on doing a write up about Super Mario Bros. Wonder once I play enough of the game, but there may be some delays there. So, next update will be a mystery! Also, there's a fresh new Lum picture. I quite like it!

10/15/2023

My first fanfiction is here! This was written before the website's creation, but this is the story's debut online. It's a fanfiction of beloved anime franchise, K-On! Ritsu Tainaka can no longer deny she is in love with Mio. Can she untangle her feelings and confess? Read now! Also, Slowbro now takes you back to the homepage. He's watching you...!

10/10/2023

There is now a Slowbro on the front page. It's his sprite from the Sinnoh games. I'm debating adding him to the other pages, but I love the whole Slowpoke line of Pokémon! Do I even need to mention CSS updates? Things should be a little more center now.

There is now an inaugural post in the Musings tab. What inspires me to write? Find out!

Soon, I'll have a cute fanfiction to share in the writing tab. Stay tuned! Big thank you to everyone who has poked their head in.

10/5/2023

Part 3, the finale! In my series critiquing Zeb Wells' Amazing Spider-Man, is here!

This is an oversize edition for me, so I do hope you'll enjoy this one. The site's CSS will hopefully work in Chrome and more builds of Firefox now. Sorry about that! ^^;

10/1/2023

Part 2 in a series critiquing Zeb Wells' Amazing Spider-Man is now available!

I'm going to try and get Part 3 out within seven days, and that should be the finale. I didn't mean to write up an angry rant for the first meaty content, I promise they won't all be like that. I write it out of passion, I swear! More minor CSS updates as well. Thank you to those who have begun to look at the site!

9/28/2023

Part 1 in a series critiquing Zeb Wells' Amazing Spider-Man is now available!

I estimate this will be a 3 part series, so stay tuned!

Added quite a bit of CSS, images should now scale on mobile. Thank you Firefox development tools!