Well, that took a while now, didn't it?
And hey, would you look at the time! It's the funny weed day! Too bad I don't smoke.
More importantly, I've done a complete overhaul of the website's code. I used some free online resources (like Codecademy, w3schools, and MDN) to better my understanding of the HTML and CSS languages (still have yet to really delve into javascript), and now I feel a lot more comfortable in my skills in creating more dynamic and detailed pages. There are still a few bugs lingering around the website that I need to eventually iron out, but, as of right now, the code is more efficient than ever. The only pressing issue I can think of is if some pages that rely on tabluar formats will be a problem for screen readers.
Anyways, about the new stuff. Replacing the Backlog page are now two pages that are dedicated to the two types of media I consume the most: Video Games and Music. The Gamelog page will be the closest in format to the original backlog, albeit more focused on the franchises/titles that mean the most to me. I'll still keep the original spreadsheet up in some form, but it needs a bit of updating itself before I link it to this site again. The Musiclog will look similar, however, I will likely not put as much effort into its visual presentation due to the usage of artist-related assets being stricter than video game assets (not that I expect labels will come pounding on my door for using a couple copyrighted assets anyways. It's not like I'm making money off it). Getting a consistent source of high quality images like album covers for artists is also unrealistic, since many scans online can range from tolerable to terrible. That doesn't mean that boring looking pages now will always look that way though. I just have to get around to designing them in my free time.
Currently, I have pages open for Mega Man in the Gamelogs and Depeche Mode in the Musiclogs. They are both some of my most influential sources of art, so I feel it is only fitting that they are the showcase for the new format. Neither are 100% complete, and there are still some bugs here and there (mainly that the modals are open by default), but they are the closest at being ready to go as they ever will be. About the new format: I intend to have each entry entail my history with the product in question, my emotional attachment (or lack of) to it, any personal annecdotes that I feel are worth mentioning, or sometimes (maybe between the lines, depending on the entry) a review based on my own personal opinions. I don't see myself making full-on reviews for a lot of these pieces of media (something I will address later here), so this is the best way for me to archive my thoughts about these topics without investing a bunch of time into a format I'm not fully comfortable with. The Mega Man page has yet to have any entries beyond the Classic series entered, and I intend to add a new one each day following the time of this message's posting, up until the point I can no longer input anything (like with the Star Force series, which I have yet to play at all).
Other pages will be mostly the same as they originally were. The Gallery has now been condensed into one page. All images and 'animations' are just separated by year. I deleted the 'Videos' page, as my YouTube's existence renders it a bit redundant. Demos I've made with Beepbox should still be the exact same as I left them, although I do believe I changed the name of the link to keep it more distinct from the new Musiclog page. I changed the placement of the Blog on my home page, and am now referring to it as an 'Updates' page. My Twitter and Tumblr serve enough as blogs, so anybody interested in what I'm eating for dinner will find out there before they will on here. I'll still use this site as a venting space occasionally though, just because I'm about the only person who reads this stuff. I intend to have the posts be solely focused on the 'updates' aspect though, maybe with a couple personal annecdotes thrown in. We'll see.
Speaking of personal stuff, I did remove a blog entry from February on here, just because I had a hard time reading it back to myself and comprehending what I was getting at. To try communicating what I wanted to say then: I'm not holding myself to a schedule on YouTube, despite earning a massive spike of subscribers (over 1,000, which is a LOT to me) after a couple Mega Man videos that must've struck a chord with fans of the series. Truth is, I'm fresh out of ideas on where to go next, and with the relative flop of an R-Type Delta retrospective I made at the end of the year (pretty obviously due to it not being what most people subscribed for, plus YouTube's terrible job at promoting it), I'm not concerned in pumping out videos for the sake of making 'content.' For the few that stuck around regardless, I highly appreciate your support, and I DO still have videos in the pipeline, despite what I just said a couple sentences ago. I just can't promise a consistent stream of videos related to Mega Man, or any other similar franchise, when there are a million other channels I could point you to that will say the exact same things I will say in my video (and probably word them better).
Other than that, that's basically all that's important to mention. Part of the reason everything has taken so long to update is due to my constantly fluctuating mental state, something therapy has not been helping with lately. There go weeks without me working on anything productive, and it sucks me down into an even deeper hole of feeling like shit. At least when I gathered the strength to start learning the skills to work on this website through the websites mentioned above, it gave me enough distraction to keep me fairly busy throughout these past few weeks (because work certainly hasn't). I'll eventually release a new video, hopefully it'll be soon, as I've got one topic that I have a burning passion (or maybe it's hatred) for, with a script about halfway through production. I think it'll be quite the watch, even if you're not familiar with the source material much. If you are familiar, maybe it will be an eye-opening experience.
Whatever, who the fuck am I talking to? Time to close this if I have nothing further to mention.
Tschüß
* Many of these updates have changed or altered in scope since this update. This note was written in March 2024.