It’s rare for me to have an update with so many diverse topics, but even rarer is when all of them have a slight tinge of philosophy attached. So if you’re ready to dive into the real deep end this month, I highly suggest you come back to these topics when you have the time to do so. All of them are slow burns best viewed after a long day of work, or a quiet weekend morning with nothing else to do. As always the written portion of the blog is abridged for the sake of my visitors who want to dive right into the links, but I always recommend listening to the audio blog for the full nuanced experience.

First - a quick shoutout to my loyal YouTube followers on the community tab. I asked for a mini “call to action” on my May 21st "Weekend Chill” music post. Ryan Ring, OmegaXis, Noids Edstrom, Doraver, Humphry Cobbledick, Seventh and Gabe (will get you on audio next month!) ~ thanks for answering the call! As a mini aside, YouTube is constantly removing my posts or content without warning due to the nature of my channel and it’s community warning status. So please forgive me if “phantom” notifications happen to you if you’re a subscriber or turned on that function. Sometimes posts get deleted in 1 minute, sometimes it takes up to an hour. Either way know that it’s equally frustrating for both parties involved (me and you) and I just wanted to note a small hiccup in the system. It seems that the automated bots that censor or remove my posts can’t seem to recognize anthropomorphic characters. In other words, it has a hard time discerning what’s human and what’s clearly a caricature or cartoon. So sometimes I have to post monster / furry / abstract waifus in place of regular anime waifus to bypass the system. It’s just something fun I thought you would all like to know. The picture above of Eimi from Blue Archive was instantly banned when I tried to upload it once as an example.

Every single time I take a look at my analytics for website visitors, I’m always shocked how many of you are not from within the United States. All of you come from all over the world, and it’s humbling as well as baffling how my site ended up being “popular” with folks outside of my own birthplace. None the less, a common thread that binds young modern society is pop culture, memes and social media. And even as a middle aged man far removed from most of these things, I understand the value it has being a lexicon of understanding across cultures. The Simpsons is a rather popular pop culture series across the globe, watched in over 100 countries and is familiar enough to be recognized by most people in the last 2 decades. More importantly however, it’s a symbol, representation, and satire of America; something often overlooked at first glance or face value. When you dive deeper into the meanings of the episodes produced, you get a lot more than you bargain for. I came across (what I thought at first) a look into a particular Simpson’s episode that was well received by fans. It turns out the episode was far more reaching than I had ever imagined, and YouTuber EmpLemon does a fantastic job dissecting what makes it one of the most memorable (if not impactful) to date. The video is a long one (as all of my links this month) so get comfortable before you set off. For those who want to dive right into the philosophical / sociological portion of the video, it beings at 14:24 chapter “My name is Frank Grimes”.

Also a helpful tip for those who aren’t fluent in English, YouTube CC (closed captions) now can auto translate to the best of its ability. Simply select it via the “settings” button when you’re watching something on YouTube. It’s not perfect, but it may help those who might struggle with English words not commonly used. The above picture I created should help illustrate further how to turn it on. Finally I would highly recommend you check out other recent videos done by EmpLemon as he’s fantastic at talking about in length on completely arbitrary factoids about the world around us.

Moving onto a mainstream gaming topic, I once again can’t stress how something on the surface looks self explanatory ends up being something else. Star Citizen is a topic in gaming that needs no introduction. I’ll spare you the drama around it. I’m more focused on the reason “why” the game even exists, and more importantly how it affects a wide range of emotions in both players and developers alike. To the point, the video I’ve linked above is more an outline on “Star Citizen” and a commentary on the relationship between players and developers. If there’s anything I want you to take away from watching it, it’s that every story is a lot more complicated than it seems, especially when it involves much more than its premise makes it out to be. For all of you who have visited this site from my YouTube channel or are a “gacha” style gamer yourself, I want you to really pick up on the parallels expressed in the video to “our own” genre. I hope you realize it’s eerily a lot more alike for comfort.

This is the real meat and potatoes of the June blog. I was absolutely blown away from this documentary on the history of MMA since it was so different from what I was expecting. It really dives into the philosophy and nuance of the sport. As someone who has a sister-in-law that dabbled in MMA, and 3 years of Taekwondo myself when I was younger; I always had a respect for people who dove into the deep end of combat sports (including boxing). But this particular documentary really combines a lot of historical aspects of the sport that cumulate into its evolution (and subsequent devolution). Get comfortable and put on a good pair of headphones, this video runs 2 hours long and it’s worth every minute. Ironically, those who never had a single interest in MMA (or combat sports) should also watch this documentary as it specifically breaks down the “human” side of why we do such things in life. I can’t stress enough how well done this was made; credits to Felix Biederman, Jon Bois and the channel Secret Base for their hard work.

Music is a very personal thing, so I do my best not to impose my particular tastes on anyone. But to those who share a similar appreciation of the same beats, you will often find an ally like no other. But beyond the tracks, sometimes we find another genuinely good person along the way that we can relate to, and that makes the entire experience even more uplifting than the chords and beats we’re already bobbing our head to. Enter Jonathan Belle, a fascinating person I came across randomly one day searching the great archives of YouTube for some new tracks to listen to. His YouTube channel focuses on community voted tracks that he checks out on a pretty regular basis. But if you take a moment to visit his website, you’ll find out what makes the man tick should you so be inclined. If anything, I really want you to read his essay on kindness. It’s a respite of good vibes from an increasingly negative and cynical online world. I can only hope my website gives off the same positive vibes Jonathan’s does.

That’s it for this surprisingly long update. Knowing my track record, next month is going to probably be content thin, but I’ll take my victories when I can. As a reminder once more, due to my current YouTube situation, you may all see more monster / anthropomorphic / furry girls in the future whenever I post music updates. Don’t read too much into it, I enjoy waifus from all walks of life, but YouTube (for now) doesn’t have enough culture to recognize those particular types. Therefore if they’re able to bypass the censorship filter, than so be it. See you next month, take care of yourselves!