Written: Friday. September 4, 2020.
I’ve been productive within the later part of today. I read a short story my friend (David) sent me in our Discord chat. It’s titled “I have no mouth, and I must scream” by Harlan Ellison, and it’s a very familiar story of ‘machine=god=machine’, where there is this supreme AI ruling over mankind, acting like the boss of things, and the humans are just there as a lens for us, the readers. Because this type of story, according to those who write it, is something that can be possible, if neglected or ascribed towards.
My friend and I have had many discussions regarding machines and what the future holds for mankind’s fast growing relationship with technology. He leans more on the negative, apocalyptic, path. And I lean towards a very positive, optimistic, path. He thinks that machines will take over the world one day, while I’ll be there to welcome them with both arms raised.
Here’s one way I look at it: the machines are technically fruits of man’s labor. They are our inventions, so whatever becomes of them, whether in the near or far future, whether it be good or bad, it’s entirely our fault. So given that the machines are our responsibility, we should be able to figure out how to push ourselves towards a healthier course of man and machine working together side by side, instead of fearing for a Terminator-style future, where John Connor may or may not be humanity’s greatest hope.
That’s just a brief brain fart I have for today’s entry. Anyway, about being productive: I’ve been fixing this article called “Every Single Kaiju Movie (by Year of Release)”. It’s a continuously edited out article explained on namesake alone. I’m slowly working towards trying to build…something. I don’t know what it is yet. But it’s got a name.
It’s called Content Junkie. I’m taking inspiration from K-zone & JumpStart, but mostly K-zone for now. K-zone, for those who are not in-the-know, is a discontinued kid’s magazine franchise that sold new volumes every month of the year. It showed new games, shows, toys, comics, etc. And they did it in such a way that it’s visually pleasing for the children. I was a fan of this magazine, as most of my generation were, and was deeply saddened by the discontinuation of this franchise. “Print is Dead” as they say nowadays. It’s sad, and I want to re-kindle that lost spirit somehow. And that’s where Content Junkie comes into play.
Right now, I’m focusing on one, or maybe two, particular franchises. I’ve been doing mini-video showcases of the Slave Monsters in every Combattler V episode via Youtube videos, and I’m currently working on making that “Every Single Kaiju Movie (by Year of Release)” article, and then I’ll work my way into other articles that feature other types of franchises (by that, I basically mean pop culture entities).
So it’s kind of like what FANDOM already does with their content. But I’m leaning more into the past, is what I would say, if asked “so how do I differ from the rest?”. I’m more interested in lost shows, or unsung movies, or forgotten relics of the distant past, that sort of thing. I’m basically trying to do the Nostalgia version of FANDOM or K-zone. When I look at my collection of K-zone magazines, I immediately feel this sense of Nostalgia. So that’s where I’m putting my mind at; to capture the feeling of reliving my childhood days.
I just hope that people also would be interested in this endeavor.
Written: Monday. September 7, 2020.
So, Ultraman has been on my mind for a few days. It’s just lingering there, not really solid yet, but it’s there nonetheless. So I’ll talk about Utlraman in this entry to hopefully come up with why it’s been on my mind for a while.
I guess I just reached a point in the Kaiju-verse marathon (watching all Godzilla movies & other related media daily) where I’m looking for something else, but not entirely different from the existing fandom that I’m already consuming. So this is where Ultraman comes. I think it’s a result of me finding out that Ultraman is a part of the Kaiju genre, since his movies came up from one of my search sessions for lists of kaiju films that I haven’t discovered yet.
I saw this other media centered around a Japanese Kaiju Frankenstein. It’s weird, but what do you expect of Japan at this point? The weirdness is their signature touch to things. It’s almost the bedding of their culture; to be weird. Anyway, I saw a few unknown titles, and a lot of Ultraman. So I guess my subconscious retained that information, and awhile ago, I searched up about Ultraman again, and found out that he not only has a lot of movies, but also other stuff, like series upon series of shows, anime, manga, etc.
I think there’s a very recent Ultraman movie within this year, 2020. I can’t wait to get to the point where I get to watch that. But right now, I’m focused on getting to watch Ultra Q, which is apparently the origin series of Ultraman, and also (as the wiki says) the Japanese equivalent of the Twilight Zone…so that’s gonna be interesting to see in the next few days.
Other things to mention about today is that I’ve been totally productive throughout the day. A few gaming sessions here and there, but I was ultimately successful in being a productive boi this Monday. I dunno why. I woke up today feeling like I could probably do so many productive things, like fix the Kaiju-verse article I’m doing for Content Junkie, or read a chapter of a book from Frankenstein, or even wash the dishes; and I did all of those things.
I was even able to start writing ideas for this new project that I’m sort of tackling, regarding Game Development. See, I have this goal of being able to make my own video game in the future. It’s just logical at this point. I like games, I understand how it works, so the next step is to further explore the behind-the-scenes portion of video games: Game Dev.
I’ve been here and there looking through GB Studio just to see what I’m working with. It’s basically a Gameboy Game-Making Software. But there are so many limitations to the actual software, that I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to actually make what I envision happen…in less than 30 days.
That’s right, I’ve tasked my self to come up with a game in less than 30 days, and yesterday was the start of the clock. I’ve only just come up with an idea for a game where I’ll have to build 8 houses filled with people very distinct to one another, and there’s a bulletin board at the center of the village where these houses are located. The bulletin board just serves as a way for the player to accept requests from various neighbors in the game.
I’m influenced by — hold your judgement — how Summertime Saga does their game. It’s such an intricate game if you account for how complicated the story-lines get as you progress your relationship with the other NPCs. Sure, it’s a lewd game, but disregard that for a second, and you have what I would call a very well made game, in terms of world-building.
That’s what I’m striving for in this first game-dev project of mine. I might not get to do all of what I want to do within 30 days, but I guess I’ll just be testing the waters for now. So that when the next 30 days or so comes, I’ll be prepared.
Written: Wednesday. September 9, 2020.
I’ve been noticing that on the reading side of things, I haven’t been consistent with that lately. I’ve been doing more work on the computer and playing games and watching videos and shows. I do try to read a chapter within the day, as I bring a book down with me in the morning to read in this couch that we have placed near the desktop computer. Though I can’t stress enough how difficult it is to read whilst having to hear noises from the TV, the neighbors, and my mother whenever she asks a question or tells an interesting thing.
Lately, I haven’t been staying inside of the bedroom for long. I immediately go down and stay down to the first floor of the house to spend the day there, mainly because the bedroom gets too hot for mere mortals like me to survive in it. So I stay down and bring a book with me to read downstairs. It’s a new Devil’s Bargain situation that I’m in. I’m getting to do more work as I focus on fixing and editing articles for the Content Junkie Page, but, I tend to read less in a day, and watch more videos or shows, or play games.
That’s just the most interesting thing I could share for today. It’s mostly the same each day. I feel like I’m coming into a new routine lately. It’s not bad, but it’s an imbalance between productivity and reading.
Another thing I want to bring up: I’ve started watching this old Japanese series called Ultra Q just now. I’m only on episode one, so not much to say for now. It’s an okay pilot, but nothing extraordinary.
I’m also watching JAKQ Dengekitai again. I’ve put off that Super Sentai show for a few weeks now. It’s high time I get back and continue watching it.
If only I had more time in the day to watch all the shows I’m not done watching yet. Like Daimos — I haven’t watched a new episode in quite a while; and Carnival Row (though I think I’m subconsciously trying to stretch that series out, cause there’s only 8 episodes in total, and who knows how long before season 2 arrives); and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien (I’ve always not been able to finish that goddamn series. And I need to finish it, so that I could finally be able to rightfully watch Omniverse).
I’m watching this docu-series called High Score. It’s a series my friend (Kurt) told me about the other day, and I immediately downloaded it when I saw that it was a documentary series about retro video games. I fucking love learning about old video games (as proved by my recent read of The Tetris Effect by Dan Ackerman).
Written: Thursday. September 10, 2020.
I tried going back to making pixel art last night, but I failed. Not literally, but how I envisioned it would be was not what happened. I had this idea of demaking Fire Emblem for the Gameboy. The Gameboy never had a Fire Emblem game, so I figured this was a chance for me to do that. I also wanted to do it cause it was sort of what I was already doing at the start of my progression towards pixel art. I had done the Minecraft Demake, and then the Pixel Mario Demake (which I already failed to meet my own expectations on).
I feel like it’s true what my mother says about me, that I’m a perfectionist. It isn’t always true, but it happens sometimes, especially at times when I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s just — I have this vision in my head that I want to see happen, and when I don’t, I tend to give up easily. It’s like I forget what trial and error means in this life.
I was able to write-up so many things for Content Junkie this morning. I think I’m treating it as a job at this point. In the sense that I maintain a level of progress each day for it, and do it within certain hours of the day. I also know that I could be doing something a bit better than what I’m actually doing, but I can’t stop on it, cause that would mean that I gave up on it. I’m going to finish that article that I’m making, but still do the other thing I want to do afterwards.
I noticed that I haven’t been able to play that much on my phone lately, too. I’m always just using it to watch my videos on repeat (a thing YouTubers do to gain revenue), and also because my time is spent doing other productive things, that I don’t get time to sit down and just play games anymore. I still get to play PSP games on the computer whenever I finish a task (but that’s also proving to be difficult cause my right hand suffers through the game-play session). I’ve been playing a lot of Ben 10: Protector of the Earth, lately. I think I’m almost done with the game. After that, I might move on to a new game that’s not a Ben 10 game. Maybe I’ll continue Sonic Rivals.
But yeah, nothing when it comes to playing on my phone. I could choose to play after midnight, but I’m already a bit too tired at that point to enjoy the game that I’m playing.
Other things would be that I’m almost finished reading The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan. I haven’t been avid on talking about books lately on the journal, have I? I noticed I’ve been talking more of games or shows. I guess that’s only because of the tremendous amount of it that I’ve been consuming these past few weeks. There’s also nothing interesting to talk about regarding books these days, anyway.
I’ve been productive within the later part of today. I read a short story my friend (David) sent me in our Discord chat. It’s titled “I have no mouth, and I must scream” by Harlan Ellison, and it’s a very familiar story of ‘machine=god=machine’, where there is this supreme AI ruling over mankind, acting like the boss of things, and the humans are just there as a lens for us, the readers. Because this type of story, according to those who write it, is something that can be possible, if neglected or ascribed towards.
My friend and I have had many discussions regarding machines and what the future holds for mankind’s fast growing relationship with technology. He leans more on the negative, apocalyptic, path. And I lean towards a very positive, optimistic, path. He thinks that machines will take over the world one day, while I’ll be there to welcome them with both arms raised.
Here’s one way I look at it: the machines are technically fruits of man’s labor. They are our inventions, so whatever becomes of them, whether in the near or far future, whether it be good or bad, it’s entirely our fault. So given that the machines are our responsibility, we should be able to figure out how to push ourselves towards a healthier course of man and machine working together side by side, instead of fearing for a Terminator-style future, where John Connor may or may not be humanity’s greatest hope.
That’s just a brief brain fart I have for today’s entry. Anyway, about being productive: I’ve been fixing this article called “Every Single Kaiju Movie (by Year of Release)”. It’s a continuously edited out article explained on namesake alone. I’m slowly working towards trying to build…something. I don’t know what it is yet. But it’s got a name.
It’s called Content Junkie. I’m taking inspiration from K-zone & JumpStart, but mostly K-zone for now. K-zone, for those who are not in-the-know, is a discontinued kid’s magazine franchise that sold new volumes every month of the year. It showed new games, shows, toys, comics, etc. And they did it in such a way that it’s visually pleasing for the children. I was a fan of this magazine, as most of my generation were, and was deeply saddened by the discontinuation of this franchise. “Print is Dead” as they say nowadays. It’s sad, and I want to re-kindle that lost spirit somehow. And that’s where Content Junkie comes into play.
Right now, I’m focusing on one, or maybe two, particular franchises. I’ve been doing mini-video showcases of the Slave Monsters in every Combattler V episode via Youtube videos, and I’m currently working on making that “Every Single Kaiju Movie (by Year of Release)” article, and then I’ll work my way into other articles that feature other types of franchises (by that, I basically mean pop culture entities).
So it’s kind of like what FANDOM already does with their content. But I’m leaning more into the past, is what I would say, if asked “so how do I differ from the rest?”. I’m more interested in lost shows, or unsung movies, or forgotten relics of the distant past, that sort of thing. I’m basically trying to do the Nostalgia version of FANDOM or K-zone. When I look at my collection of K-zone magazines, I immediately feel this sense of Nostalgia. So that’s where I’m putting my mind at; to capture the feeling of reliving my childhood days.
I just hope that people also would be interested in this endeavor.
* * *
Written: Monday. September 7, 2020.
So, Ultraman has been on my mind for a few days. It’s just lingering there, not really solid yet, but it’s there nonetheless. So I’ll talk about Utlraman in this entry to hopefully come up with why it’s been on my mind for a while.
I guess I just reached a point in the Kaiju-verse marathon (watching all Godzilla movies & other related media daily) where I’m looking for something else, but not entirely different from the existing fandom that I’m already consuming. So this is where Ultraman comes. I think it’s a result of me finding out that Ultraman is a part of the Kaiju genre, since his movies came up from one of my search sessions for lists of kaiju films that I haven’t discovered yet.
I saw this other media centered around a Japanese Kaiju Frankenstein. It’s weird, but what do you expect of Japan at this point? The weirdness is their signature touch to things. It’s almost the bedding of their culture; to be weird. Anyway, I saw a few unknown titles, and a lot of Ultraman. So I guess my subconscious retained that information, and awhile ago, I searched up about Ultraman again, and found out that he not only has a lot of movies, but also other stuff, like series upon series of shows, anime, manga, etc.
I think there’s a very recent Ultraman movie within this year, 2020. I can’t wait to get to the point where I get to watch that. But right now, I’m focused on getting to watch Ultra Q, which is apparently the origin series of Ultraman, and also (as the wiki says) the Japanese equivalent of the Twilight Zone…so that’s gonna be interesting to see in the next few days.
Other things to mention about today is that I’ve been totally productive throughout the day. A few gaming sessions here and there, but I was ultimately successful in being a productive boi this Monday. I dunno why. I woke up today feeling like I could probably do so many productive things, like fix the Kaiju-verse article I’m doing for Content Junkie, or read a chapter of a book from Frankenstein, or even wash the dishes; and I did all of those things.
I was even able to start writing ideas for this new project that I’m sort of tackling, regarding Game Development. See, I have this goal of being able to make my own video game in the future. It’s just logical at this point. I like games, I understand how it works, so the next step is to further explore the behind-the-scenes portion of video games: Game Dev.
I’ve been here and there looking through GB Studio just to see what I’m working with. It’s basically a Gameboy Game-Making Software. But there are so many limitations to the actual software, that I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to actually make what I envision happen…in less than 30 days.
That’s right, I’ve tasked my self to come up with a game in less than 30 days, and yesterday was the start of the clock. I’ve only just come up with an idea for a game where I’ll have to build 8 houses filled with people very distinct to one another, and there’s a bulletin board at the center of the village where these houses are located. The bulletin board just serves as a way for the player to accept requests from various neighbors in the game.
I’m influenced by — hold your judgement — how Summertime Saga does their game. It’s such an intricate game if you account for how complicated the story-lines get as you progress your relationship with the other NPCs. Sure, it’s a lewd game, but disregard that for a second, and you have what I would call a very well made game, in terms of world-building.
That’s what I’m striving for in this first game-dev project of mine. I might not get to do all of what I want to do within 30 days, but I guess I’ll just be testing the waters for now. So that when the next 30 days or so comes, I’ll be prepared.
* * *
Written: Wednesday. September 9, 2020.
I’ve been noticing that on the reading side of things, I haven’t been consistent with that lately. I’ve been doing more work on the computer and playing games and watching videos and shows. I do try to read a chapter within the day, as I bring a book down with me in the morning to read in this couch that we have placed near the desktop computer. Though I can’t stress enough how difficult it is to read whilst having to hear noises from the TV, the neighbors, and my mother whenever she asks a question or tells an interesting thing.
Lately, I haven’t been staying inside of the bedroom for long. I immediately go down and stay down to the first floor of the house to spend the day there, mainly because the bedroom gets too hot for mere mortals like me to survive in it. So I stay down and bring a book with me to read downstairs. It’s a new Devil’s Bargain situation that I’m in. I’m getting to do more work as I focus on fixing and editing articles for the Content Junkie Page, but, I tend to read less in a day, and watch more videos or shows, or play games.
That’s just the most interesting thing I could share for today. It’s mostly the same each day. I feel like I’m coming into a new routine lately. It’s not bad, but it’s an imbalance between productivity and reading.
Another thing I want to bring up: I’ve started watching this old Japanese series called Ultra Q just now. I’m only on episode one, so not much to say for now. It’s an okay pilot, but nothing extraordinary.
I’m also watching JAKQ Dengekitai again. I’ve put off that Super Sentai show for a few weeks now. It’s high time I get back and continue watching it.
If only I had more time in the day to watch all the shows I’m not done watching yet. Like Daimos — I haven’t watched a new episode in quite a while; and Carnival Row (though I think I’m subconsciously trying to stretch that series out, cause there’s only 8 episodes in total, and who knows how long before season 2 arrives); and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien (I’ve always not been able to finish that goddamn series. And I need to finish it, so that I could finally be able to rightfully watch Omniverse).
I’m watching this docu-series called High Score. It’s a series my friend (Kurt) told me about the other day, and I immediately downloaded it when I saw that it was a documentary series about retro video games. I fucking love learning about old video games (as proved by my recent read of The Tetris Effect by Dan Ackerman).
* * *
Written: Thursday. September 10, 2020.
I tried going back to making pixel art last night, but I failed. Not literally, but how I envisioned it would be was not what happened. I had this idea of demaking Fire Emblem for the Gameboy. The Gameboy never had a Fire Emblem game, so I figured this was a chance for me to do that. I also wanted to do it cause it was sort of what I was already doing at the start of my progression towards pixel art. I had done the Minecraft Demake, and then the Pixel Mario Demake (which I already failed to meet my own expectations on).
I feel like it’s true what my mother says about me, that I’m a perfectionist. It isn’t always true, but it happens sometimes, especially at times when I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s just — I have this vision in my head that I want to see happen, and when I don’t, I tend to give up easily. It’s like I forget what trial and error means in this life.
I was able to write-up so many things for Content Junkie this morning. I think I’m treating it as a job at this point. In the sense that I maintain a level of progress each day for it, and do it within certain hours of the day. I also know that I could be doing something a bit better than what I’m actually doing, but I can’t stop on it, cause that would mean that I gave up on it. I’m going to finish that article that I’m making, but still do the other thing I want to do afterwards.
I noticed that I haven’t been able to play that much on my phone lately, too. I’m always just using it to watch my videos on repeat (a thing YouTubers do to gain revenue), and also because my time is spent doing other productive things, that I don’t get time to sit down and just play games anymore. I still get to play PSP games on the computer whenever I finish a task (but that’s also proving to be difficult cause my right hand suffers through the game-play session). I’ve been playing a lot of Ben 10: Protector of the Earth, lately. I think I’m almost done with the game. After that, I might move on to a new game that’s not a Ben 10 game. Maybe I’ll continue Sonic Rivals.
But yeah, nothing when it comes to playing on my phone. I could choose to play after midnight, but I’m already a bit too tired at that point to enjoy the game that I’m playing.
Other things would be that I’m almost finished reading The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan. I haven’t been avid on talking about books lately on the journal, have I? I noticed I’ve been talking more of games or shows. I guess that’s only because of the tremendous amount of it that I’ve been consuming these past few weeks. There’s also nothing interesting to talk about regarding books these days, anyway.
* * *
* * *
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