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artistunknown
I've been interested in animation for longer than I can remember. I'm mostly self taught, and seem to be improving with everything I release. I hope to one day further my skills. I love making cartoons.

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I Am Bad At Making News Posts (Also I'm 25 Now)

Posted by artistunknown - March 4th, 2020


Yeah, so my last news post on here was for the 10th anniversary of my Newgrounds account, which was in 2018, which means I did not make a single news post throughout all of 2019, despite having many chances and much to talk about. I just kept putting it off for whatever reason, and even when I made an update video in January, I still put off making a news post, 'cause I didn't just wanna copy-paste my bullet list I used as a guide for the update video and then link the update video and be like "listen to it if you want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" 'cause it would feel disingenuous, and even at this point linking it wouldn't be much use because a lot of it is just inaccurate now because so much time has passed that things I talked about that I wanted to get out at certain times just haven't come out and aren't coming out, but it's still worth watching at least to know what I was up to in 2019, I guess.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68oS73m0VwI


If you wanna just skip to 2019 in review, go to 9:53, if not though, all you really need to know is I didn't get a lot of creative work done due to a mix of working two jobs, one being full time, for a few months, plus depression, as always.


So what happened to the stuff I said would come out in January and February? Well, I ended up getting sick at the end of January, and I continued to be sick for pretty much all of February. The worst of the sickness lasted for 2 weeks, but i was still recovering/mildly sick for another two weeks, in which time I didn't get anything done because I was horribly depressed, and then after finally getting to be productive for two days in a row, I got sick again, and I think I'm finally better now? My sinuses still feel a little fucked at times, but I feel good enough to get back to work, so I should probably do that before I get horribly depressed again. Oh wait, I already am :'(


Anyways, today is my 25th birthday, and surprise, I didn't manage to get any big project done before it, so much like not losing my virginity before 18, I am a complete failure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Nah, but I am gonna try harder now to really get shit done. For a while now I've considered 25 the real start of adulthood (because that's apparently when your brain becomes fully developed) so it's time to actually get my shit together. Too bad the days leading up to this (and really the whole year so far) has been shit. I don't wanna go into specifics 'cause it's just the same old family bullshit that keeps getting brought back up because it was never resolved, but suffice to say I've been feeling pretty fucking dead lately. I've lost count of how many mental breakdowns I've had since the new year. I swear my mental health has been rapidly declining and it's just another sign that I need to get the fuck out of my step-dad's house as soon as possible, so all the more reason to get my shit together ASAP.


There's a lot of shit that's getting in the way of this though. I've applied for probably over 100 jobs since moving back here, and none of them will hire me, though I did get two interviews that I thought went well, but one of them required an actual driver's license and I only have a permit so I couldn't get that, and that job was 5 minutes away from my house so it would've been perfect. So why don't I just get my driver's license? Well, because I've never driven. I only just got my learner's permit last year, because I figured it was time and I didn't just want to go straight for the license because I didn't have any driving experience, and although I did so well on the written driving test that I didn't even have to finish it (I didn't get a single question wrong so I guess I just automatically got a high enough score to pass), actually driving is a different story, and I didn't want to waste any more money potentially failing it because I've never driven, so I got the permit as a stepping stone, intending to get some driving experience in and eventually get the license. But then I never got a chance to drive before having to move back into my step-dad's house, because my roommate was always too busy to let me drive his car. I figured my step-dad would surly let me drive his van though, he'd get to experience the joy of teaching his (step) son how to drive. I was stupid to think this. I was stupid to think my step-dad could ever act like a normal fucking human being with any compassion or empathy. Maybe there is some hope though. I figure the reason he won't let me drive the van is because I'm not on the insurance, so simple solution: get on the insurance. I'm gonna need to be making more money before I can do that though, so you can see why this shit is so frustrating. Everything's a never-ending cycle of the same shit.


So in order to help with this, and just to try and stop being such a leech, soon I'm going to attempt to finally be a freelance artist and start doing commissions. I intended to start doing this LAST month, but you know, then I got sick all fucking month. So this month that will start. Probably.


I feel like I had more to say, but I've lost my train of thought again so whatever, I guess I said enough for now. Maybe I'll finally take advantage of the fact that I can post these on the front page every 2 weeks and actually make another news post two weeks from now. Or maybe I'll go another year, who knows.




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The only birthday wish that matters


5

Comments

lov the NG birthday thing hehe

I look forward to it every year ;)

Welcome to the 25 club, hope you find success in the job search man

I thought it would be easier to find jobs here because there's so many more jobs available. Turns out I was wrong lol

I'll get things to work out eventually, some way

Hello Buddy!
You have yearn 25 year club invintation!

25 year olds unite

I wish you THE BEST!

Happy birthday, dude!

Here's to 25 more years.

more than 25 hopefully lol

Man I really thought I'd posted on some posts of yours last year too, has it really been that long... working more than a full-time job is commendable by itself though! Feeling like I barely get anything done lately and yet it's just part time for me. Goes to show workflow/priorities is really what it's all about.

Cheese sticks drowned in ketchup and pizza seems like the dream diet btw but yes... probably problematic. Me I get stuck on chips. Major addiction. I keep going till I have to change diets again... diet can really affect your state of mind too btw. Maybe a good diet is enough to cure that depression. Really. It's amazing how your mood changes when you eat things your body appreciates.

Happy Birthday though man!!! Hope 2020's way better. Also hope you get to a better life situation soon. Also seems somewhat relevant: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/889336

You posted a few times last year on my 10th anniversary post, which was from 2018 :p

Technically I was really only working the full time job, I think there was only one shift from my other job that I worked on the weekend in addition to the full time job, but after doing it I remembered it wasn't even worth it because the hours were long, hard, and the pay was worse, so I was like "fuck that". I stayed on call though, in case I ever felt the urge to clean again lol. I almost cleaned after a Donald Trump rally, but they had everything blocked off so it was impossible to get into the building, even as an employee, so I just went home. That shit was chaotic, would've been a good story to tell though lol.

Though I guess I technically was also working more than full time anyways 'cause some weeks were over 40 hours ;)

Don't worry, even when I was only working 1-2 days a week it felt like I had no time, just from all the time I had to spend in transit, and sleeping, and then recovering from work, plus depression. Never really wanted to do anything. I got better at it as time went on, but still didn't get nearly as much creative stuff done as I could have.

It was the dream diet from hell unfortunately :)

Any time I eat more than a little bit of tomato or garlic or onion my acid reflux immediately flares up and I hate it. I can still eat tacos though without issue so it's not much of a problem at all B)

I've never fully tried eating better for an extended period of time, but the times I did I did feel a bit better, but I chalked that up to just actually having variety of food and not having to worry about not being able to eat. It's also harder to try and get on some kind of strict diet right now (or really any time in the past) because I don't control when grocery trips are, nor do I have a ton of money to spend on food, although I am aware you can make some pretty nice stuff every day for about $20 a week, so if I ever get to live on my own, or have my own vehicle then I'll certainly be trying that.

Thanks man! So far 2020 is absolutely off to a worse start, but I've got so much knowledge and potential ability locked inside me now that could be used to make things the best they can be, it just takes a little drive, and hopefully some day soon I'll get that drive. At the very least, I gotta pay my phone bill in like a week so I better get cracking on getting the money for that lol.

Although sometimes I've considered just cancelling it since I don't use my phone service too much, but I need it on the off chance that a job actually calls me to come in for an interview or something, plus the fact that my sister put my phone number down as an emergency contact for my niece's school, so I gotta have it for that as well. Feels like a waste of money though since I'm only ever using a few MB of data each month since I hardly leave the house now, and that's money that could be going toward something else. Ah well.

That song is absolutely relevant, thank you for sharing ;) I sometimes forget you rap because it seems like whenever you post stuff it's always like 30 things at once so they all just kinda flood everything else out of my feed and I never check lol. I remember wanting to make a beat for one of your a capellas before, I should probably still do that ;)

I used way too many emotes in this, starting to feel like a white teen girl lol

Oh man time flies. XD And again! Sorry I got back to this so late too, them priorities, sometimes these things end up lying around bookmarked way past intended time span...

A Donald Trump rally around the place you worked, not actually in that building right? :D Still would've been a good story though yeah!

Mmm long weeks! Yeah, in a way it feels like the more time you have the less you use that time, so it really doesn't matter how much time you have regardless. Then again when I didn't have work at all I DEFINITELY did get more alternative worth done. XD Must be some kind of line/limitation somewhere. Or maybe it comes down to just working with things you love. If you manage to get the right job/get to the right place in life maybe you don't need as much recovery/brooding/rest time, you just naturally have more energy; more efficient mindset overall without that unnecessary extra pressure/resistance/whatever it is that makes you all the more tired when you're not happy with how things are...

lmao XD Cyberdevil + dream diet from hell = optimal combo?

Ahh you have that stuff! Yeah sour foods aren't good then. But I think if you really change up your diet that acid reflux problem should go away too. Possibly. I had problems that just got worse and worse, especially with crap food binges, till I realized I probably had gastritis, and the reason for that was apparently gluten. Cut out all sugar/dairy/gluten for about a month and slowly everything got better and better. Tried adding in one of those at a time and figured out it was the gluten I was really reacting too. Stopped eating that and all good now! Mostly! Still can't eat chips en masse without any kind of side effect but at least no more long-lasting problems/as severe problems as I used to get. That's just me though of course but point being: diet choices really make all the difference. Tomatoes definitely made things worse for me too back then. Not sure about garlic. Bad to avoid any kind of spices for a while though so i guess that was included... anyway anyway: if you're all good then no need for such drastic changes, was hella depressing to avoid basically everything that tasted good for the first week or two too, but personal life-changer. Eased up on both occasional morning headaches and depression too. Discovered there's a real link between gut and mind.

Mmm, variation's key too! The more different foods you eat the better/more diverse gut bacteria you get; the better you break things down in the long run. but if you lead a good life then better food probably comes more naturally too. Hope you get there man! And on that note: how's that been going since this post I wonder? Same situation?

Hmm phone bills, no phone = no phone cost, hmmmm! :P Nah that'd probably really be a non-wanted social disconnect especially right now... I guess you've really looked over the alternatives too in regard to what's cheapest? If you lived in Sweden I'd recommend Vimla, you get a 1 USD cut for each person you refer, so theoretically you won't have any bills at all after a certain point. Currently down at 5 USD/month from 10; been planning to share that referral link a lot more actively so I can actually get down to zero, seems possible, in the long run all these small costs do add up...

Anyway maybe you have something similar over there. Not relevant at all and no idea about pricing but I've been seeing a lot of Mint Mobile ads lately hmm... btw I guess you're talking about cellphone bill, not landline? Not so easy to save on the price there if so, though we do have that too over here... bit oldskool but happy we do. I really prefer all tech stationary. Get out and you just leave it all behind... except when you really HAVE to be reachable now. Feels like these days you're almost expected to.

Haha yeaaah, it's been like that when I catch up with art lately, but not with my music man! XD Anyway glad you got something out of that. Listened again and got some drive again now, the vent still work, time on music is that time I should be spending first...

And daaamn I should've responded to this during this Inktober, would've been perfect time! BUT: whenever you want to collab on some audio I'm down. Actually currently working on a mixtape with this previously linked material innit. Just a little more high quality gathering of that past work. now. Really want to put more time into audio but it's so weird how much discipline I can pour into Inktober yet how that just wanes away as soon as it's over! Maybe I need to really write up a schedule to get things done hmm.

Anyway hope you're still doing alright; hope this convo's still relevant; I do have that P-Bot post one bookmarked too. XD Maybe soon...

Dammit Cyberdevil, I had completely forgotten about this lol

Now I have to remember what all of this is in response to, otherwise I'll have to read the whole conversation!!!

Nope, it was actually in the building. It's the biggest stadium in Orlando Florida so it could handle a trump rally lol

Yeah, it's all a matter of will power and how good you are at taking care of yourself, both physically and mentally, and how good you are at recognizing when you're in a funk and can get out of it.

Yeah, I've been pretty much avoiding acidic foods altogether for the past several months, and the acid reflux doesn't happen anymore... Until I have one of those foods again. In fact, it seems like I'm even more succeptible to it now than ever, like pizza wouldn't cause it before, but now it does sometimes. I can still eat spicy foods all I want though so everything's good.

The one thing that bothers me is my constant gas and bloating, I can't remember a day in the past couple years where I wasn't bloated, and I don't even think it's a diet thing since there have been times where I've drastically changed my diet and it still persisted, though maybe I just didn't do it long enough.

I do eat a lot of gassy foods and drink soda, so it certainly isn't helping. The soda's easy to cut out, especially when I'm super tight on funds, but it is comforting. I pretty much only eat home made burritos every day, cause the ingredients are cheap and the beans are a great source of fiber, which I need since I've been so constipated for the last couple years, and it has recently gotten better, though the other issues have not.

I don't remember how long ago the last response before this was, but I've been living with my brother and sister in law and their two kids since June.

Things were good at first, because it was new, but then things got worse over time because lack of communication, but things have been pretty okay recently for the most part, after things blew up and we were forced to communicate. I'll probably describe the situation in full when I make a post talking about the year as a whole, but all that matters is things are fine now, and they'll likely continue to be fine as long as I don't snap, and maybe they'll even get better if I can manage to focus and put the effort toward getting there.

My phone bill is actually super cheap compared to most, but though apparently it was even the cheapest offered by my provider, still more expensive than what you're describing though lol.

I actually upgraded my phone service earlier this week to the mist expensive plan they have, cause I've been having to use my phone for the internet more and more over the past month, so I needed a truly unlimited data plan, not this bullshit "unlimited" plan where you only get 5 gigs of high speed data and then it slows down to an unusable speed. Even then, the unlimited plan is only $50 a month, and since I've been making more money lately from taking more surveys and doing work for Chris, I can afford it.

Unfortunately upgrading isn't immediate and I guess I won't get the new service until my service renews on the 18th, even though they charged me immediately, fuckers.

So I'm just biding the time until that happens, can't really do much in the meantime, can barely even look at twitter cause it takes a minute for images to load.

Oh yeah, I forgot to say why it even matters: for whatever reason, the internet's been super slow for the past few weeks, as well as the tv service not working. It worked for one day randomly and then stopped again. My guess is cause the bill is behind, but it doesn't really make sense, why wouldn't they just shut it off instead of slowing it down so much? I guess this way is more frustrating cause it gives you hope that it might work.

It's bullshit though, because last month I paid the bill, and then the internet was out for a few days because they fucked something up, so they should've given us a free month or something. I can't do anything about it cause I'm not the account holder. Do instead I just increased the service I'm actually paying for, just shit that I still have to wait cause I can't make any money in the meantime because I can't load the survey website I use.

I really can't remember what you're responding to here, and I can't really check since I'm typing this out on mobile and I don't know if opening a new tab will delete all the text do I'll have to check later, but it's funny you mention collaborating, cause I was thinking recently "I should make a rap song and get Cyberdevil on it" but I guess I must've already had that thought since I guess that's what you're responding to lol

Also schedules can help, though take it from me, making schedules is easy, following them is hard lol

I'm doing better than I am the last time I was doing bad, so that's something at least. Every day is different though, and things can even change by the hour, bit it's up to me to stay strong and not let any negative change affect me too much.

Even if the conversation isn't relevant anymore, it'll naturally develop into new things and become relevant again ;)

Ever since March I've been trying super hard to just put out cartoons, and I think I've managed to put out at least one a month since then, though I might've missed a month, I'll have to check.

I was having good fun doing it, but ever since the FMTS 10th anniversary short I've been losing steam. The last stretch of making that really killed my enthusiasm cause everything was just going wrong. I had a ton of fun working on the William and the Worm halloween cartoon though, until it came to making the backgrounds, then my motivation just completely died. Didn't help that that's when home life was getting especially bad, but I pushed through and got it done, even if it took an extra month that it shouldn't have. That came out today btw, though it's only on youtube right now. I tried so hard to get it up on newgrounds first like I always do, but with the internet situation it was just impossible. The upload kept failing and everything I could think of to maybe get it to someone else who could upload wasn't working for the same reason, so it'll have to wait until my internet's better.

*Had to avoid any kind of spices

That one typo really skewed the meaning hmm.

Hehe, I wonder sometimes if I might be a bit more prolific if I too didn't remember so much that doesn't always need to be remembered. XD

Oh damn nice! That really would've been crazy then!

For sure.

Oh! Trying similar tactics as I did with that, nice, though if it comes back so easily maybe there's still something you're eating that your body doesn't really like... regarding the bloat though, have you ever tried entirely cutting out dairy and/or gluten for a week or so? I had that too before. Don't think dairy's good for anyone really - at least not the heavily processed kinds we get these days - but for me at least gluten as the real demon. But damn man if you're eating beans everyday maybe it doesn't have to be one of those particular things after all. XD Soda does contribute too, for sure, but those beans man! Seems like major potential gas source. If you just want to get a lot of fiber there's a lot of more symptom-free sources, like celery, it's great for that. Any kind of light salad or similar too. Sprouts are awesome. Super nutritious. Can be grown pretty fast at home too in just a jar, if you ever dabble with that kind of stuff. Anyway, I'm a stop rambling on random diet advice here, though if you're looking for suggestions just let me know, been dabbling with alternative foods a lot to fix my own shizzle. Though the better the more expensive usually. :/ Maybe something for the future...

Ah yeah, remember you mentioning moving in with your bro in some other convo...

Mmm, spending more time at home this year's been driving me up the walls sometimes too, conflicts finna be inevitable, though good it's better. Had a bit of a break-down with my boss too earlier on, after all too much Skype and no real interactions, we were both under a lot of pressure but it didn't really come through in the texts, but fortunately he was understanding; we sorted it out. All good since. Anyway hope it goes well for you guys. Didn't think I'd see a day but: actually not looking forward to Christmas vacation this year like I usually do, fear we'll be betting on each other's nerves more than ever before now, dark winter and all, you're even more holed up now...

Dannng, $50 month!!! That sounds crazy much to me... our prices really differ with this stuff then. I'm personally probably the lowest-paying person I know when it comes to phone bills, but I don't think most go past 20-30 USD at least, but we're a cellphone heavy too after all.

Over here the cheapest cellphone plans right now are basically the unlimited ones - with regard to calls/messages - data's the limitation everywhere. I'm on a 3GB/month one myself, but since I use VDSL most of the time online that's plenty.

Ah, Chris as in MistyEntertainment? Cool to see y'all getting together on something again. .) though maybe you have all the time; I'm just not aware. Somethin' positive. Always impressed with his persistence too, with all the trials he's been going through lately, crazy twists of fate with one thing after the other...

What kind of Internet are you on otherwise? Thinking maybe with the pandemic and even more so now with Christmas closing in and people getting even busier online/on vacation maybe the grid could just be generally overloaded sometimes? I haven't hadn't any problems in a while now but remember back in the day I noticed everything would slow up in the afternoon. When I stayed up past midnight it was lightning fast though. :) Guess they expanded a bit since.

Hey that was exactly what you were suggesting! XD Just saying: I'm down! Anytime!

On schedules: ain't that the truth. :)

Good to hear man, and good you're not just totally annoyed at this thing getting reincarnated again. :)

Gotta check out some of your cartoons too soon, just too much stuff to keep up with lately...

Not sure if I should emoji react with a smile or a sadder mood here, all these hardships... but then again it seems like things are possible getting better/you're working hard at sorting things out so: smile on that! May you get to the place of your dreams someday and look back on all this with the soft lens of memory instead!

Yeah, there's a lot of stuff I could and should be doing to get rid of all these issues, but it requires more money and motivation lol

I don't think I've ever specifically tried cutting out dairy, but I'm sure there's been times where I haven't eaten it since it's more expensive. I don't really eat a lot of dairy to begin with though, just a little bit of shredded cheese in my burritos and rarely some milk, though I suppose occasionally I do indulge with a grilled cheese or some cheese or just eating more cheese in general, but it doesn't really seem to make things noticeably worse do idk. I can always try cutting out dairy for a bit and see how it goes, but if I'm gonna do that I might as well go ahead and figure out what to eat instead of burritos cause what's a burrito without cheese, ya know?

Also yeah, I looked up a list of foods that were high in fiber a while ago and it seemed like most of it was stuff that wasn't really easy to get, aside from beans and spinach, which I also started incorporating into my burritos last year, and just eating more in general. I used to not like cooked spinach so I was turned off to it for the longest time, but man raw spinach is a great lettuce alternative. In fact, it's better than lettuce because unlike lettuce,it isn't ruined when it gets warm!

It sure has been a hectic year, everyone's gone crazy at some point lol

Things will get better though, and if not, well then we'll have to make them better ;)

Yeah, my phone bill was $30 for 5 gigs of high speed data, but I just needed more cause I've actually been using it for the first time since having it and this shit is unbearable lol just 2 more days until it should upgrade...

Yeah, me and Chris are always working on something together it seems. Not so much for newgrounds since his main focus has been his youtube channel, but we're still working together after 8 years.

We were thinking of doing another flash Library this month to mourn flash going away so if you're interested in that I'll see if he still wants to do it.

Also yeah man, he's been through a lot of shit but still keeps on, it's really inspiring sometimes. Bums me out extra hard when he's feeling down because of that, but he always pulls through.

The internet that's set up in the apartment is normally pretty good, just standard high speed cable internet. It's just been shit I guess because we're behind on the bill, I don't understand why they just don't shut it off though instead of slowing it down like this

I've been meaning to make more rap beats, so one day ;)

To be fair, reading and responding to these is giving me something to do while I can't watch videos, so getting mad at it would be stupid ;)

Msn I didn't wanna end that one with a ;) because the previous paragraph also ended with a ;) but nothing else felt right ;)

There's been so much stuff released this year that I've been meaning to watch and I was gonna catch up on them after I finished my latest cartoon but then the internet thing happened so that's going to have to keep waiting!!!

I'd rather a smile, I'm so tired of negativity in response to negativity lol, just continuing to talk about hardships in response to hardships is so depressing, I wanna talk about the good things that have happened and things that make me happy!!

I'm not sure if things are getting better, but the clouds are certainly clearing. Things have been okay. It's still chaotic from my nieces continuing to be children and not entirely listening to their parents, and just everyone's mental issues in general, but I'm getting better at not letting it get to me.

Now I just gotta focus and get things figured out and take better care of myself and work on becoming fully independent.

*most here go past 20-30 USD
*cellphone heavy country too

...and a bundle of typos but just had to fill in those missed words there!

Dammit Cyberdevil stop making typos!!!

I'm sure my responses are littered with them thanks to me missing my phone's autocorrect doing some bullshit but I'm too lazy to check :)

Healthier lifestyle = more motivation = possibly also more money. ;) All things interlinked! But it sucks how though if you're on a good path already it seems like good progress comes naturally, it's the other way if you're not, it's easy for everything to just get worse and worse. Need motivation to get healthy to get motivation. Bit like having to have work experience to apply for work. Or how it's so much easier to lose weight if you're not fat. But anyway! I'm sure you'll get places! Ain't everything all hopeless yet!

Mmm cheese is indeed a central ingredient in a great deal of very enriching dishes... something like rice and beans? Soup? Porrige? Salads? Possibly cheap/somewhat healthy replacements for a while? If you do give it a try do let me know how it goes, curious if you notice anything.

Ah spinach is super healthy too though can actually also upset your gut if you're eating too much of it raw! Lot of oxalic acid especially when it's uncooked. As for cheap fiber-rich stuff how about brown rice, oats, lentils, onions, apples? Whatever vegetables are on sale too, sometimes you get 'em cheap.

True that. :)

And hell yeah! :D Times may be dark but you can always light a... light!

That stuff runs out so fast. :) Wish people still designed sites with bandwidth in mind too, modern Internet is hella draining. Just graphics are way heavier overall, but optimization's bad too. Sometimes accidentally open up a 1080p video on my phone and there goes a full gig at once... if they could keep those to a low default... hope it's all good in a couple days then though!

That's awesome. :) How did you get working together first I wonder? Did you know each other IRL?

Ooh yeah, why not! Soon as vacation kicks in I should get a bit more time too, that'd be fun to jump in on if so... though you both do know about Ruffle though right? The plans to keep NG alive forever and all? Still is an end of an era but: it doesn't really feel like a farewell in that regard.

Yeah... hope things start looking up for him eventually, though he really feels like a role model in how he doesn't give up despite all. You know if you feel shitty there's someone who probably feels shittier; there's no real excuse, just gotta keep on going after all!

Ahh alright. Guess maybe Internet's become sort of an obligatory commodity in the modern world? Like it's something they have to provide access to for all, even if it's at a lower pace? An emergency line regardless...? Well maybe not. Maybe having really slow Internet is actually a better motivator in getting people to pay their bills than none at all, then they might just go for another alternative...

Looking forward to that one day! :)

lol man, I'll take being that viable video watching alternative as a compliment I guess. XD

Blink-second decisions. ;) ;) ;) ;) If the sentence is long enough though I think you don'tr really notice the emoji (or can you call these emojis when they're in text-based form?) ending repeating itself. These two felt alright! Didn't think about it until you mentioned it!

On the flipside I sometimes feel like I go a bit overboard with exclamation marks these days! And possibly that they make me sound somewhat angry if I don't add something after them to change that impression! :P

Ahh man, but soon then! Maybe some Christmas vacation coming up for you too? So all the more time to? I plan to catch up a ton but that's always the plan and there's always too much to catch up on so: we'll see how that goes. At least your latest stuff then. :P

Awesome. :) It's a delicate thing though, sometimes it's like people get offended if you try to lighten up the mood. Or at least too early. But cool, focus on the positive!!

Children do be children hmm. Good to hear that clouds do clear. :)

New Year coming upp too, finna be a good time to kickstart things a good way and all!

I meant to respond to this before I released the new William and the Worm on newgrounds, but I forgot, sorry :')

I also put off responding until I could type it up on my pc, 'cause typing on mobile is annoying lol

As long as I keep trying I'll get somewhere eventually. The only way to guarantee failure is to not try at all.

Why have rice and beans when I can put rice and beans in a tortilla and fry it up? ;)

But ye, I will certainly start thinking about changing up my diet pretty soon, since I've been spending too much. I was so used to being able to just get $10 worth of burrito shit from walmart and it would last me a whole month, but there isn't a walmart within walking distance from me, so now I'm spending 4 times as much for the same amount of food, so I need to look at what's around and get more experimental so I can save cash, and probably eat healthier too lol. just sucks, 'cause it's nice to not have to think about what I'm gonna make. If I know I'm only gonna make one thing then i can just do it and not have to worry.

Shit, I've pretty much only been eating the spinach raw, or I guess with slight steaming from being inside the burrito while it's cooking lol

Doesn't seem like it's done anything to mess up my insides though.

Those are all good suggestions that I will keep in mind. Onions are pretty cheap and useful, but they're also one of the things that really trigger my acid reflux (it's mostly tomatoes, garlic, and onions)

Only when your data is limited and everything takes forever to load do you really start to notice how poorly optimized a lot of shit on the internet has become. Even now that my service has been renewed and my data is unlimited, I'm still noticing it, because my hotspot data is limited to 30 gigs, so I'm still mostly using my phone, especially to watch videos, but since the screen's so small, I've been watching them on pretty low quality, 'cause it still looks fine, but then when an ad plays, it's super high quality and laggy and there's no way to change the quality and it's annoying.

Chris just wrote a mixed review for one of my shitty lego videos that I made in 2009 and uploaded here in 2012, but the review was so well written that I gave a positive response to it, and I guess he was surprised by that, and kept reviewing my stuff, since I was fairly active at the time, and then we just starting messaging each other and talking about the stuff we were working on, and pretty soon we were collaborating, mainly me working on his stuff, since most of my big projects never really got off the ground, though he has done some work for me that hasn't got to see the light of day unfortunately. He helped out a lot on FrogMan and Pico at least, and well, plenty of people have seen that ;)

It's always funny when I think about how me and Chris met. It's something that could only happen on newgrounds.

I was surprised to find out later that chris is 5 years younger than me. I thought he was older than me at the time 'cause he was using a fake age on his newgrounds profile lol

I am well aware of the efforts to preserve flash, the general public is not though, and that's kinda the point, mocking the idea that flash is going away forever when it actually isn't ;)

I forgot to talk to chris about it, but now I will as soon as I finish typing this response!!!

I'm sure he'll want to, knowing that you want to. It's getting pretty late in the month though so idk how much time there will even be lol

Yeah, as fucked as it seems to say, it is always comforting to know others have it just as bad or worse than you do. It's especially motivating to see someone worse off than you that you could easily become if you don't do something to stop it. Certainly been a few times in recent memory that's happened for me.

Yeah, my immediate thought was they just slow it down instead of shutting it off because it being so unbearably slow makes you want to pay the bill more.

Me and Chris were talking about making cloud rap this morning. We were talking about making cloud rap a while ago. I should probably just make a rap album at this point, as much as I don't really listen to the genre myself, it is fun to make.

It was absolutely a compliment ;3

tbf I tend to overthink things a lot, so ya know

I guess these things are just signatures of our messaging styles. like how I love using a ton of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

depending on the context, usually ending a sentence with an exclamation point comes off as enthusiastic to me. It does seem like most people interpret it as anger though, especially when it's a bunch of exclamation points like I do!!!!!!!!!!! but it doesn't make sense, like who would actually use that many exclamation points if they're actually angry???? it's just silly, that's why I do it when I'm trying to be sarcastically angry, but people have interpreted it as actual anger before and it just makes it funnier!!!!!!!!!!

I mean, technically I'm always on vacation since I don't really have to do anything, but then my money would run out and then I'd be forced to, and that's not good ;)

My plan for the rest of the year was just focus on doing stuff to make me happy, and I guess getting my bank account back to over $500 so I won't have to pay the dumbass account maintenance fee. Pretty close now, but I just went to the store again today so now that's back down. Should get back over it next week though.

I'm honestly not sure what else I should be doing with my time right now. Lots of things are going through my head but I can't decide on anything. That's not really anything new though lol

Yeah, I've learned that it's best to just keep my mouth shut about everything, unless someone's speaking to me directly.

I should start thinking about what I want to accomplish next year, since I don't really plan on doing much else for the rest of the year. That's just one of the things going through my head, I'll probably end up doing something else over that though, 'cause it's hard to remember everything lol

And I didn't notice a single typo man, lack of auto-correct or laziness or no! Unlike my don'tr's and upp's.

I just can't stop!!!

I did notice the don'tr lol

I typed my last response on pc so there was probably a lot of typo's, though capitalization stuff I don't really care about lol

I could possibly initiate a tactic of revising comments before I comment though hmm...

wow I just noticed we can't edit these what the heck!!!

Nah man no worries at all. :) These days just roll and go, won't stop or slow, a common woe the comment show postponed or no!

And hell yeah. :) I can't imagine typing up messages this long on phone, must be crazy time-consuming!

Well said!

That does sound way more delicious for sure. XD Was thinking cheapness and all y'know! Tortillas ain't bad either, potentially gluten-free too depending on type. I tried some authentic Mexican ones a while back (corn only) and they were soo compact. So small yet I was full after just a few of 'em. I'm used to eating gigantic tortilla wraps and managing a whole package but not these! Very cost-effective that way too I guess.

$10 for a whole month though?! :O That'd be crazy cheap if so. Yeaaah definitely easier, but it's fun to vary flavors a bit too though no? If I was rich enough I'd love to be trying entirely new things every day for the rest of my life. :) There's so much out there...

MIGHT have some kind of effect. XD Maybe not though. Some people seem to drink RAW spinach smoothies every morning and have no problems. I don't fit into that category myself, have to consume in moderation.

Shame about the onions, such a healthy thing too for cheap, but maybe when everything else gets sorted you'll get less acid reflux too. Hopes!

Hmmm, ads! Didn't think of those, maybe they're what really eat up my mobile bandwidth occasionally too. This on YT? Other places? You'd think at least Google was a bit better at this. Yupp, optimization not ideal, though considering how many brose via cellphone now maybe it'll get a bit better; developers start thinking about these issues again. For a while now it's seemed like with everything just getting bigger and faster and better you don't really need to make that extra effort. Same with games, it almost seems like a bigger game's a sign of accomplishment, whereas back in the day being able to cram as much as possible onto a regular 700MB CD or cartridge, or with a certain color palette, was the real sign of good stuff. Compression was such an art form too.

That's awesome. :) Some of those underground projects ready to see the light of day eventually you think? A lot of abandoned stuff or just in indefinite limbo there?

NG's special for real. :) Have some similar connections. Random beginnings turned to pretty solid friendships/opportunities sometimes.

Aha. XD He definitely sounds pretty old for his age! Or looks way younger than he sounds. However you flip that. So mature production ethics and all since way back. It's impressive. I get the same feeling about Zanzlanz btw, making games like a pro, attended the Pico Day party a few years back with his dad since he was still way underage... you wouldn't know it if you just play his stuff or talk to him!

Awesome. :) In that case: sounds awesome! The plan's to get that out THIS month then? Not January? Ah well no pressure to make huge things for these things fortunately, should be doable, just lemme know if it's a go...

Yeah for sure. They say you're supposed to be around people that challenge you by example but sometimes it's almost the other way around too. Like with a cousin I have IRL, who is pretty overweight, just plays games all day; has very little motivation to get anywhere. He's a blast to hang with though, but I wonder why, if I just feel better about myself when I'm around someone who feels worse about THEMselves, or if that doesn't matter; we'd have a good time regardless. Hopefully a mutually beneficial relationship though, boost of confidence/boost of motivation, win/win, but makes me question my motives and morale a bit, hope it's really not the other way around in a self-righteous kind of way...

Mmm makes sense then!

Ah cloud rap, that's a term I didn't know before! Though must've listened to a bit. Who'd be doing the rapping there? Does he rap too? If y'all need a feature I'm in, just lemme know if so. ;)

<3!

Same here! :) Hope you're not picking up any bad habits because of me now though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

XD I don't know if it's because you're actually elaborating on the intended tone here or if I perceive the tone correctly regardless but it definitely seems very non-angry to me!!!!!! I even get the impression that I sound angry myself when I read back some of my more exclamation-prone messages though, so have started adding emojis occasionally when I feel like the mood might get misunderstood! Especially if you don't know the person you're talking to it's all too easy!! I don't know though maybe the fewer exclamation marks you have the angrier it sounds when you have them?! Punctuation's such an interesting artform too

And lack of punctuation bothers me to to no end sometimes

That is most definitely not good yeah. XD What a life to lead though heh, certain envy here... even though I don't mind my current job I have a strange distaste for any kind of obligations, no matter how small, the longer-lasting they are the more they start eating at my mind somehow....

(oh woah these are getting so long that characters be running out now - gotta split)

Yeah, it was really annoying typing them on phone. Like I said though, didn't really have much else to do at the time so the fact that it took a while was kind of a bonus lol

To be fair, the most cost effective way is to just make your own. I tried making my own flour tortillas for a while last year and got okay, I could never get them thin enough though. I'd imagine it'd be easier to make corn tortillas since masa holds its shape better. I think I prefer flour tortillas, though I haven't had enough soft corn tortillas to know for sure.

I am an idiot, I meant $10 for a week of food lol. I know there's more I could make than just burritos for that much, or even less. There's some really interesting videos about living on $1-3 a day. This series in particular I always find myself coming back to https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt_lOWx8jR_NwpE8U6humD_bKB0QxDTo4

lots of recipe inspiration to be taken from there

Different flavor/variety is always great, once stuff gets boring then you start getting bored, and that will just lead to depression again lol, so having more variety would definitely help, though I haven't got bored with the food I eat yet, it's only when I feel too physically sick to eat it, 'cause of being too backed up from constipation or whatever

"raw spinach smoothies" just makes me think of Popeye being rebooted as a vegan, drinking spinach smoothies instead of eating it from the can lol

that could actually be a decent premise for a parody...... hmmmmm

damn, one benefit to typing on mobile is I could just add emoji's if I wanted, and I wanted to put the thinking face there but I can't on PC!!! sure, I could probably look for a text equivalent to just copy and paste, but it's not the same, so instead I'll just spend more time typing this out ;)

Actually, I'm not sure how much onions directly influence it for me, I know they're just one of the big 3 in general, but I think it's mostly tomatoes and then garlic for me, I don't eat enough onions to know. Only one way to find out.............

Yeah, ads on youtube. Not really any other site I watch videos on, other than newgrounds, but there aren't video ads here so that only leaves one thing :p

Man, I miss the days when game devs had to actually work to compress their games. It's like you said, your game being some massively bloated is such a selling point now. If your game isn't at least 90 GB why even bother, right??? The real sign of a good job is absolutely how small the game is while still being jam packed with content. I don't give a fuck about the latest new generic open world shooter adventure game being 150 gigs, but I will always remember Satoru Iwata managing to optimize Pokemon Gold/Silver so much that he managed to also fit basically the entire first game on the cartridge as well. On a tiny little game boy color cartridge! Absolute legend

I think all the stuff Chris has contributed to will get finished eventually, although some of the stuff is so old that I just have to start the animation over completely from scratch, which includes work done by Chris, so that won't get seen unfortunately, I'll probably release the original versions after it's finally finished though, as a bonus, so all that work doesn't go to waste. There's a few cartoons I've started over the years that will most likely not get finished, mostly to them having very racially charged humor without a deeper purpose, and that shit just doesn't fly anymore ;)

Also I do occasionally upload abandoned cartoons that I don't intend to finish to youtube, since they're in an unfinished state it doesn't feel right uploading them to newgrounds, but I don't want the work to go to waste. It takes a lot for me to say for sure that something is cancelled though. I think there's only been two so far, although one of those was the original version of episode 6 of FrogMan the Series, which did eventually get finished after being restarted, so that one doesn't really count.

The one I'm thinking of specifically is my submission for NATA 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXi3FE1koOQ , which was such a personally meaningful cartoon for me, but I completely botched the execution so it just kinda sucks so I never finished it. I had thought about re-working the story to better match my intent but eh. I will probably revisit the idea later on though.

It's funny thinking about how the people that introduced me to newgrounds I haven't talked to since middle school, but people I've met on newgrounds I'm still talking to nearly a decade later.

I don't think I've ever played any of Zanzlanz's games. I don't think I've even seen his name before but damn he's been on the site for a long time! Is the age on his profile correct? Says he's only a year younger than me lol

Man, every time I think about the Pico Day parties, I get sad that I never got to go. I was so close to being able to go in 2015, since I was moving to PA around the same time as Pico Day, though I ended up moving in the beginning of May. Still, I was only a few hours away from Philly, so I could've visited the newgrounds office at some point at least, but I never did. I didn't really have a way to get there though, so that was certainly an issue lol

I was thinking the deadline would be 12/31, but honestly, maybe it should be some time in january, though idk. It's actually a Trash Library (like the one we did for Steven Universe https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/737781) so they don't have to have a lot of time put into them, but I'm very bad at making things fast that aren't like 5 seconds long, and the idea I have might take a while, even if the visuals are fuck awful. There's also still some other things I wanna do before the month is over, but the 31st probably still works for me, and everyone else seemed okay with it, so if that works for you then I guess that'll be it, if not then some time in january would be fine, since flash doesn't really go away until the 12th ;)

I'd hope in that case it's just because you enjoy their company lol

Yeah, cloud rap is interesting. I love ethereal, ambient shit, and it really fits the bill.

Chris has dabbled with rapping and made a few unreleased rap songs. I keep telling him he needs to finish one up 'cause they're p good. Of course I've done some shitty joke raps, especially at the 2016 new years party while incredibly intoxicated. I was spitting bars, and not vomit. Trust me ;)

Don't worry Cyberdevil, I will have you on a track one day. idk about the cloud rap since that seems like something we wanted to get done pretty quickly, but nothing's concrete so you never know

The only bad habits I have are the ones that remind me I still need to improve on things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The fact is that it's just impossible most of the time to determine tone through text, that's why when I'm talking to someone new I don't usually use my normal style of casual writing. I'll do it a bit more formally, and then get looser as we get more comfortable.

but cyberdevil lack of punctuation and proper capitalization is the best way to type

;)

To be fair, the """"freedom"""" seems to always come with the giant caviat that I'm cursed to live in a hellish chaotic household where I always want to die and that's all I can focus on so I end up not using that time wisely anyways but yeah.

Things have gotten better recently though, but it seems like it's just something that's gonna fluctuate. As long as I don't fuck up though and keep myself aware, things shouldn't be too bad.

Wow Cyberdevil, now I have to split my response too!!!

And not just because it's more convenient but because I've got less than 500 characters left (lmao like I have less than $500 in my bank account!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Whaaat, account maintenance if you're under a certain amount? Is that usual over there? I don't have a single account I pay any fees for here, though you can definitely get some with a yearly one if you want to. Been trying to spread savings over a few just in case something happens to one of 'em, small amounts or no. :) Everything really does cost over the US though huh!

Regarding plans, do you do any freelance kind of stuff? Offer video services and similar? Sounds like that might be a fun kind of side hustle if no. :) Happiness-inducing too possibly?

That's not exactly what I meant there! XD But yeah that's... maybe good I suppose? In group context?

Like the Flash Library thing? ;) Man I wish I could end the year on as conclusive a note as that. On reflection. Lately I just end up making one last desperate attempt at catching up with everything I want to do before succumbing to the inevitable and just letting it be again. And doing a LITTLE bit of next year planning but more on a okay-what-projects-should-I-probably-abandon-cause-there's-no-way-I-can-keep-all-this-up than a done-with-the-old-time-for-the-new! state of mind. I should probably do something about that though! Hnm. Maybe something to plan on accomplishing next year!

Didn't notice a single typo again btw. :) Though maybe I'm just not attentive enough.

About the edit limtatios though yeah that's been missing for a year or two no! Don't know if they removed it intentionally since it was being abused somehow or something's just bugging. But you can still DELETE your comment so... feels odd you wouldn't be able to edit it instead.

Sometimes end up deleting a comment I just posted to fix something real quick and post again. Always fear OP might've started responding to the first version and get some kind of weird error when they hit Submit then though. Only really viable if OP's clearly offline or: super fast fix!!!

To be fair, the amounts were lowered recently. There's a few ways to avoid the fee, before it was an average daily balance of $1500, depositing $500 into it in a month, or making 10 purchases in a month with your debit card. Now it's been lowered to an average daily balance of $500 and the purchase option has just been removed. Which is bullshit because I might've actually not been charged this month if it were still there since I definitely made over 10 purchases!!!

I'm not sure if every bank has account maintenance fees, I know credit unions don't, but every bank I've looked at does, and this one seems to be the cheapest, though the price always depends on the account type.

But yeah, that's the unchecked capitalism of the united states for you!!!!

Other than the work I've been doing for Chris, no. I could start offering my services as a video editor I guess, since I have enough experience and work to show for that, but I don't even know how I would go about advertising that. I did want to start doing art commissions finally this year, but then I got sick for the first two months of the year and after that point I just wanted to animate. And then the pandemic happened and ever since I just didn't want to start doing commissions because I felt like it'd be wrong to be like "hey guys come buy my art while we're all dying!!!" but other artists are still doing it and people will buy art regardless so I guess I'm just stupid lol.

I will most likely start taking art commissions finally next month. I got most of the work done to start, I just gotta actually draw up the commission sheet and then yeah

Also yeah, just having more money would be nice so I don't have to worry about it running out or not being able to afford some kind of emergency.

Also I'm not actually sure what my plans are now, I kinda just realized that christmas is in a few days and I haven't even started on anyone's gifts, and I can't make any physical gifts this year 'cause I left all my art stuff at my step dad's house. I started working on a really short cartoon a few days ago and I'm hoping to finish it up today so that'll likely be my last cartoon for the year, aside from the flash library thing. I thought there was another one I wanted to make but I can't remember so maybe not.

Anything can be good in the right context ;)

I always have these big plans for the end of the year, and I never really get to see them through and usually end up rushing out some short thing just to not end the year without anything, though sometimes I just end the year without anything.

December is actually turning out to be the month with the most stuff put out from me, just 'cause the one cartoon took 3 months, and I've already released a short animation test, and now I'm gonna release another super short cartoon next weekend, and then I guess on the 31st, the flash libary. Jeez, that's like weekly uploads!!!

I'm sure if I read through these I'd notice a ton. Or maybe I'm just getting better at typing fast.

Man, what a good joke lol

Yeah, I couldn't remember if it was a feature before or not, 'cause I know you couldn't edit reviews or forum posts before, but then over time those were introduced. I guess it makes more sense that it would be something that would be taken away, whether intentionally or not, since it wouldn't make sense to still not be able to edit news post comments but being able to edit the others. Of all the things that can be edited on this site, these are the least abusable.

At least you don't have to worry about that with me, my slow ass responding 2 days later, even though I saw these almost immediately after they were posted ;)

And maaan brose and heh's instead of huh's and all, just poking at my err's here, they're still there yeah!

it's a good thing this was about typo's because I just noticed I said libary instead of library in that last one, right as I hit "post response"

dammit tom let us edit these!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!