2024 Retrospective Speedrun

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Artist is Lines Sensei

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

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

Holiday Vibes

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

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

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

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

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

Artist is Love Cacao

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

Nerdy November

Over the years, I always make a habit of reminding most folks that true “nerds” are exactly that. It isn’t a prerogative, but rather a descriptive term for someone who’s really into what they’re doing - that may involve math and science. If you ever needed to know how a game made back in 1992 functioned to the letter, than nerds like Displaced Gamers will answer all your questions, and then some. They also remind me what a talentless hack I am and know nothing of the world, but I’m happy just to exist with people as dedicated as them.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have nerds so good at what they do they can reverse engineer things. Although Primitive Technology doesn’t need an introduction (look at his subscriber count), I will vouch for the man that he was one of the originators of this type of content. More importantly, he wasn’t one of the many impostors who came later with dedicated camera crews and clever editing. In either case, don’t sell yourself short (literally) in what you can accomplish with some ingenuity and your bare hands.

It seems like every single day you hear some dire news somewhere in the world that a database has been breached. I can tell you that the biggest threat to your online personal security really comes from human mistakes rather than sophisticated means. Still whatever the cause is, it only takes a few steps to get your security on a software level up to par. Ken Harris has a quick guide to get you up to speed, and I highly recommended it for the list of free software alone you can use.

Ever felt some video games are better watched than played? Maybe it’s just not your personal favorite genre or maybe you’re strapped for time and can’t play anything this month. Whatever the reason is, there’s always someone out there making some sort of “theatrical” full video of any game you can think of. And as someone who’s knee deep in multiple gacha games at any moment, sometimes it’s nice to just watch other folks tell me a story. Popular no commentary playthrough channel Shirrako has you covered for most AAA game titles. Better yet, he’s really good at them and a step above the rest when it comes to skill.

Everyday people keep complaining about “AI” paving the way to take over the world. Frankly speaking, I have yet to see anything worthwhile actually be created other than the masterpiece you see in the video above. Countless billions of dollars being thrown into corporate blenders to see who can make the first completely AI generated video about an obviously natty Gordon Ramsay. I’m not sure what everyone else is mad about, but I for one welcome this new future. JACKSFX by the way has many more videos for you to enjoy.

Artist is Akira Hiramoto

I try to be less degenerate when it comes to the monthly updates, but I still want to give credit where credit is due. In our case, Akira Miramoto is artist of the month bringing us such wacky (and amazing) characters like Meiko Shirako in his works. If your normie friends haven’t watched Prison School yet, I suggest it’s a good gateway drug into the non-mainstream hipster stuff.

Actually Spooky And Strange

Not sure what it is about 2024, but there were a lot of instances where I came into uniquely strange or downright spooky stuff throughout the year starting all the way back in January. Sakura Stardust kicks off the monthly update bring you a binge-worthy iceberg compilation of strange stuff from the land of the rising sun. Even though I’m giving you the appetizer that ironically is bigger than the main course, I make no apologies about it because it’s worth a watch alongside her other content if you like strange “weeaboo” related topics.

Although I’m not a huge fan of fictional works, the SCP Foundation is an exception to this rule. It’s a good call back to the days where people only had their imagination and their way with words in order to tell a good story. Sometimes these stories can be downright disturbing if given enough time to conceptualize what is being told and believe me when I say that it’s really hard to conceptualize a lot of stuff in the SCP lore universe. Thankfully TheVolgun adds a lot of visuals and narrative context to give you an idea of what you might be thinking, and it is indeed horrifying.

If you’ve been living under a rock for a very long time, chances are you probably never heard of Wendigoon. Although I have mentioned him once this year in an earlier weekly update, I’m doing it again because he is one of the coziest in terms of paranormal and horrifying non-fiction content. There’s A TON of stuff on his channel, each one worthy of a separate mention - so stop wasting time over here and get at it if you haven’t done so already.

I was a bit hesitant to recommend Grief (even though I’ve actually talked about his channel before) due to the fact that his content can be extremely disturbing for some folks. That being said, some might argue that true crime is even more depressing since it’s based on real events, while most of Grief’s topics are in the realm of fiction. To that end, for the month of October I would find no better channel to recommend if you really want the “harder edge” stuff when it comes to anything macabre or disturbing. As a side note, Grief himself is an excellent content creator, and I just wanted to separate the art from the artist in terms of explaining my reservations earlier. As someone (Grief) who also gets the YouTube demonetization strike often, please consider supporting his work on his Patreon.

Closing off with artist of the month, the prolific Ryouta Magaki. A note of waring that their pixiv page is extremely NSFW and full of stuff from their talented years of work. I particularly like his style since it’s nostalgic to me back during the early 2000’s era where the “small soft eyes” look was in vogue. Hope you enjoyed this content packed October update!