Back To Normal

Audio Blog

〰️

Audio Blog 〰️

It’s MURICA’s birthday month, so starting off with some patriotic cheesecake is the order of the day! Also feels good to be back to my normal topics again after a long couple of weeks dealing with various personal health issues. Upward and onward with July’s update and a quick reminder to check out my mini news section for those of you who visit the site infrequently. (Video credit to DivideByeZer0)

Artist is makinosaka

So we’re going to start things off a little differently this month by talking about all the gaming news first than the “normie” stuff afterward. Thanks to a YouTube follower of mine @henriq1166, he let me know that Brown Dust 2 went into official release recently and that the game is available to play globally. I personally find the game to be of excellent production qualities but unfortunately not my particular cup of tea. But I want to strictly point out that this is my personal opinion and not a demerit to the quality of the game itself. I feel folks looking for a jrpg / srpg game will have a lot to like about BD2 so I advise you check it out. The above video by IWinToLose Gaming does a pretty good job summarizing BD2 and should allow you to make a decision whether or not the game is something you might like.

I’m a long time Yakuza fanboy, so my ears perked up quite a bit when it was announced that a new game in the series would be releasing this year on November 9th. On top of that another game will come out afterward early next year, date to be determined. You can jump into the series right now if you haven’t done so already since there are so many sales and promotions for the remastered releases as well as the newer titles. If you have Xbox game pass, you can play all of it for “free”, while the rest of you can snag the entire collection cheapy from other places like GoG.

Let’s slide right back into the normie stuff now with a video that is 18 hours long! I came across Plainly Difficult during my rehabilitation period recently. I had a lot of time on my hands and didn’t have a lot of things to watch, so I was lucky enough to find his channel chock full of interesting stories throughout the world that involved the usual expectation of mankind. Although I don’t like adding negative stuff on my blog for the sake of it (cause there’s so much of it already out there), I do find these videos to be done in a tasteful and non-sensationalized manner. I hope you like the content as much as I did, especially since I don’t want any of us to suffer from the “Ostrich Effect” by avoiding negative news on purpose.

Take it from someone who has been in physical rehabilitation for the last couple of weeks; it sucks being trapped indoors all day long. Unless you found 2020 to be the most exciting year of your life, chances are going outside to do stuff is probably a lot better. Even as a middle-aged gamer and internet nerd, I tend to yearn for some fresh air and some really bad food from time to time. So, I just wanted to remind all of you that summer (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) is upon us soon. Get your butt out of the chair and go do something while the weather is good and your health allows you to!

Artist is Mirco Cabbia (Sciamano240)

Artist of the month is Mirco Cabbia! If you didn’t read last month's blog (shame on you!) basically, Mirco is the type of artist that most AI algorithms will base their designs off of to some degree. If you look though his portfolio of work, you’ll notice the dynamic nature of the poses of the characters is still a lot better than most “static” poses that AI tends to favor (at least for now). In any case, check him out if you want a lot of eye candy and exceptionally well done art. And that wraps up July 2023! Hope you’re all doing well, and don’t forget to enjoy summer now that it’s here.

AI Won't Save My Vision

Audio Blog

〰️

Audio Blog 〰️

Just a warning that this month’s blog is going to be really weird and rambly. It will be a heavy op-ed on AI as well a deep dive into my personal life as of late. I’ll try my best to weave the two subjects into something interesting so that it doesn’t come off in any way to be self serving or boring as a whole. And of course, we’ll end the blog with some lewd stuff cause it’s me after all and a clear sign a bot didn’t write everything!

In the last couple of months, I’ve done my best to dodge the topic of AI on every website and news post I’ve come across. It’s not that I have no interest in the subject, but the conversation has not been really in depth on the material except sensational headlines and short audio clips. This is worsened by the fact that the people who speak loudest on the subject have absolutely no clue how it works. The above video from Mentour Now! is a rare level headed view on AI “in general” and what it really is in its current state and implementation. In my interest circles (namely pop culture and video games), AI has been “downgraded” to nothing more than a tool used to make “copy cat” art. It also has the time to write strange articles mimicking objectively horrible mainstream video game aggregator pages. It’s a shitty narrow view of what AI really is, but it’s the rhetoric of Discord and social media; hence my avoidance on the subject as much as possible until now.

Artist is FaeJunkie

I implore you to listen to the audio portion of the blog to fully get all the nuance I’m about to drop about AI as it stands in the art world. In this written portion, I’m going to grossly oversimplify my points as much as possible. AI art generation as it stands is doing its best to use pre-established inputs to make an amalgamation of outputs that suit a criteria base. In essence, AI art at the moment is like a human cosplayer. AI is doing its best to resemble a particular character / subject with whatever conditions its restrained to and resources (inputs) available. Human cosplayers are no different in the same context, as they work within the boundaries of what they have available to them (resources and talent) in order to mimic someone (or something) from a fictitious environment. Basically nothing is created from nothing, but something is created from something else. I hope this extremely limited example makes sense and that AI isn’t stealing anyone’s art; it’s human beings telling it to mimic (or steal) something else because it’s already there (the concept). The above two pictures are what people consider to be generated “normally”, as the Gardevoir drawn by Faejunkie is a heavily anthromorphized Pokemon wearing skimpy armor. The cosplayer (source unknown since it’s public domain on pixabay) is an actual photo taken of an actual human being.

From Twitter User @ryyyyyyyo

The picture above is recent and is entirely generated by an AI. The AI was told to draw an “Otaku Circle Princess”, a concept so foreign and meme like that any non-Japanese English speaker in the world would have absolutely no reference about. Neither did the AI that was asked to draw it too. So using what information it could gather about Otakus, Circles, Princesses, and similar group photos of actual people; it did its best. Naturally you have a bunch of errors right off the bat that is typical of AI drawings. The lighting (and cast shadows) are all wrong or off. The lighting intensity is different across the individuals in the scene as well as the background. Background shapes and figures are obviously off (check out the car in the backdrop). And of course the additional digits on any hands in the photo are pretty evident. But all of that really isn’t the point I’m trying to convey. What I am trying to convey is that the AI is doing its best to draw something “we” like and is familiar to other reference points. I’ll list what the AI did that you probably didn’t know

• Everyone is drawn to be blemish free

• Everyone is relatively attractive and youthful

• All standing positions are modeled after real photos of people standing for a picture

• The background is a 1:1 copy of a photo that exists, but is not in itself a real place

• There are thousands of photos of 6 people standing like this; AI just copied the positions

• Otaku is a Japanese term. AI uses models that mostly look Korean because K-pop is popular

• Otaku personality is not taken into consideration for the fashion choices used for clothing

• AI always uses metrics to make its decisions on what people like rather that what is accurate

• Dozens if not hundreds of people critiqued previous attempts to do the very same thing

• After enough people giving feedback, AI will eventually “accurately” draw an OCP by the standards given by people

• AI is only as accurate is what is people say it is. If everyone said the color of a strawberry is neon purple, it would only draw strawberries as neon purple

Artist is Kaki Man

At the end of the day, AI is extremely dependent on the feedback we give it. And the most important thing to note is that many of us who appreciate art (in whatever form it comes in) are not ourselves artists. So there’s a clear distinction to be made that the end product is often times “good enough” for those who don’t have a critical eye or have reference points to draw upon. What I’m getting at is that we like what we like, and there are numerous things out there we didn’t realize the source material to (nor care of) its roots. AI itself is no different, in it cares not what it draws for accuracy. It draws because people want it to draw something they like. And it will only be as creative as the people who it references.

This next portion of the blog is completely skippable if you don’t care, as it’s a personal update on my overall health as of late. I highly advise you all listen to the accompanying separate audio blog in regards to this as I explain in great detail what I’ve been going through the last couple of months. For the written portion of course, I’ll be as brief and drama free as possible. My eyesight is failing me, particularly in my right eye in which I have been diagnosed with Retinal Vein Occlusion (RVO). My right eye has non-diabetic macular edema and has a high chance of being permanent for the rest of my life. Treatment (that I’m on) is really meant to stop any further degradation and “stabilize” what good vision I have. The picture above is a mini-example of what my vision looks like in my right eye. The center panel is my current state, while the right panel is what may happen if I didn’t pursue treatment as I did.

I want to make clear I do not want my condition to be some sort of excuse for pity or attention. My condition is really just an example I want to use to help motivate others (like yourself) not to procrastinate in life. The above video is a good academic presentation about the harm of putting things off. I can’t stress enough that life can change at any time with any warning to anyone. It is why I try my best to avoid drama whenever possible on my blogs because the little time I have every day can be afforded to things I enjoy. I can’t fathom the notion that anyone would dedicate any of their time to negativity and wallowing in it, when the clock is ticking down for all of us the moment we’re born. So I’m encouraging you from this point forward for the rest of your days; start living life and doing the things you’ve been putting off. Take it from someone who has 90% of their vision left now, you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow for good or ill. So the present is no better time to get things done.

Artist is Cho!Cho!

That ends this month’s rather strange (but hopefully interesting) update! The artist of the month is Cho!Cho! and the lovely Eternity from Last Origin. Also a reminder that June marks the beginning of the warmer months here in the northern hemisphere; so get out there and start enjoying some sunlight!

A Good Time To Get Weird

Audio Blog

〰️

Audio Blog 〰️

I was worried at the end of last month’s update that I wouldn’t have any new content to bring you in this one. Well not only did I dig up some pretty interesting stuff, I found so much of it in fact that I think it might be a bit overwhelming all at once. Although there isn’t a lot of topics to cover, the ones that are featured go deep into the spectrum. So I hope you enjoy this shortstack update for May!

So let me take care of some business right from the get go on this particular topic. It doesn’t matter what I believe or what you believe in context of watching this video. What matters is that this is an extremely detailed catalogue of very strange topics for various strange people. I encourage all of you to watch this as more of an exploration of what people are talking about, rather than any type of reference point on finding out what is “true” or “untrue”. Think of it more as a huge detailed reference point of various weird topics out there that you can even further dive into if you are so inclined. But the best part about it is that it’s just fun to see what people have come up with over the years across various cultures and spaces. Feel free to check out the rest of Wendigoon’s channel as he is a great laid back story teller and I highly appreciate him and his work.

You ever wonder how those pesky influencers on your platform of choice come up with such interesting things to talk about? Well it turns out they have hired help that scours the internet for such stuff, and they happen to use one of the sites I’m recommending you this month above. It’s called “All that’s interesting” a collection of recent news articles and factoids about the stranger world around us. What’s unique about ATI is that it’s a little more focused on bringing up events that have mainstream news coverage (for vetting purposes) rather than direct you over to content that reports on second hand accounts as a source (typical of most paranormal blogs for example). So the next time you see an extremely attractive narrator talking about plastic eating fungus - you know where they got the story!

Want an entire YouTube channel dedicated to bakeries around the world? Probably not on the top of your list of search results on Google, but also probably something you didn’t know you needed in your life. I feature a lot of “chill and observe” content on my website throughout the updates, and this is added onto the pile of such things. I’m trying my best to diversify the cultures around the world that have these environments to show. Content tends to be heavily focused on Asia for the last couple of years, but thankfully the world has opened up a bit more recently to bring videos like the one above for us to see and enjoy. So hop on over to Reiya Watanabe’s channel for a ton of bread through the camera lens.

Previously I’ve mentioned the emotional and physical benefits of just traveling and touching grass. But I recently stumbled upon some navigation apps (not sponsored at all by the way) that not only kick a lot of ass, but they respect your privacy as well. Because I’m becoming an increasingly older fart as the days go by, I remember when I had to rely on paper / book maps to navigate my daily life. If you’ve ever actually gone off the beaten path in any city or road in the world, you’ll quickly start to realize the fragility of a cellular signal. Now thankfully we have a thing called “offline maps” for Google & Apple devices, but problem is… they kind of suck. It’s not that they don’t work well, but they’re kind of limited in how much information you can store at any given time. And worse yet, the maps expire over time and have to be redownloaded. With Organic Maps and Magic Earth, you can literally download maps of the entire planet. And you can use them offline anytime and all the time. They only rely on a GPS signal for navigation and do not require a cellular signal. They also work faster since they natively just try to get you to where you need to go and NOT CONSTANTLY SEND analytical data about your habits or location. So if you’re about to touch some serious grass again and go off the beaten paths, perhaps it’s time to check out some alternatives.

Artist is Viejillox

Artist is 4riasensei

I promised myself I wouldn’t bitch about YouTube this year so I’ll be brief. My community posts are randomly being deleted (banned) again for no reason, even though I made sure the artwork before was “in good taste”. So the two artists I’m featuring this month had works I had used for the posts (not the one you see above of course) that got removed. They are Viejillox and 4riasensei. Feel free to visit and support them if you like the portfolios they have!

Digging Through The Archives

Audio Blog

〰️

Audio Blog 〰️

Every year starting around April, things begin to quiet down a lot where I live. Thus it’s a good time to start taking it easy and getting into the routine of daily life now that the year has left its “new car smell” phase and entered maturity. I often like reviewing things I’ve mentioned on my blog a long time ago that I feel is still relevant to check out today as well as introduce newer visitors some cool stuff they surely missed out on. Most visitors statistically don’t check anything I’ve written about older than a year ago, so it’s a good opportunity to dust off some recommendations I’ve made previously that are still awesome and alive today.

As a brief reminder all of my previously endorsed YouTube channels over the years are conveniently referenced on The List.

Let’s start off with some heavy hitters in the Urbex / Dead Mall scene. I’m am absolute sucker for urban decay the world over, and naturally as an American I find my local hometown ruins to be some of the best out there. It’s because there’s always a stereotype that America is the land of plenty and prosperity, often times seen as some sort of beacon of salvation to foreigners. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of opportunity here if you look for it, but that doesn’t mean everything and anything works out for the best. We have a lot of abandoned large public spaces that were the byproduct of wishful thinking and hubris. Making things even more surreal is that all of these projects usually involve heavy government oversight and millions of dollars only to ultimately fail. Regardless of the history of any particular location, those with cameras and boots on the ground can tell us a story through words or visuals by documenting the last days of life and the current ruins remaining. Shopping centers (or malls) are particularly fascinating to me since they embody capitalism and free markets as a whole. And often when they fail, the community around them suffer greatly as well.

Artist is MiNiMiAM

I have suggested many a website over the years, and this one in particular doesn’t need a lengthy introduction or description. As a youngster I use to go to my local bookstores and check out the clearance section for photo books of various topics. Often times I would run across nature encyclopedias or fine art books from the great painters of our time. However, once in a while I would get lucky and see some contemporary works that always brought a smile to my face with how creative and ingenious they were with the subject material, and thus began a very minor hobby of mine enjoying photography as art. MiNiMiAM is one of many galleries I hope to bring to all of you in future updates of simple (yet creative) photography art.

Some mainstream gaming stuff to balance out the update, Everspace 2 is a space simulator / RPG game that’s been in development for a very long time. April marks the game’s departure from early access and thus 1.0 will be ready to jump into with the polish expected of it. I’ve been following development of the game for quite some time now, but understand that the space genre is really niche and not everyone’s cup of tea. Still if you find yourself lacking anything to play in April and are looking for something unique in the AA / AAA category, then be on the lookout for reviews of the game.

Princess and Conquest was (and is) one of my current most recommended NSFW / Lewd games out there at the moment. It’s leaving early access this month in April, finally approaching release 1.0 after a very long time in development and fulfilling a lot of community requests as well as continuing to squash a lot of bugs with each content update. More importantly this game completely gets my recommendation of being unapologetically lewd, but a GAME FIRST and the adult stuff a close 2nd. For those that like cute pixel art and actually want a game to play, consider picking it up on either itch.io or Steam.

Scarlet Maiden is not an older recommendation, but a completely brand new one on my site. The only reason why I never mentioned it in past updates was because it was still a little light on content upon release, however the reception of the game has been overwhelming positive. Alongside Princess and Conquest, April might be a really good month for “games first, lewd a close second” types of players like myself and I hope you feel the same way too. The above video is actually hosted on YouTube, but it might be age restricted in your region. If you can’t view the video, you can still find a lot of content about the game by searching on Google or the Steam page for it. Just a heads up that the Steam page does require login to view the game information since it’s obviously made for adults.

Artist is Monobe

Our artist of the month is Monobe, someone who isn’t afraid to draw what they like! If you like their works, I highly suggest you checkout their pixivFANBOX to access more of their content and support them as well. That wraps up April’s blog update for now. May’s update may include more old things if nothing new crosses my desk. In any case take care and see you next month!