Thoughts, by Axolotl.
So like a week ago I broke npm on my computer and I have no clue how to fix this. This is a problem because I use eleventy to compile my website and this blog, and that is a node package. I actually just set up a Docker image to be able to compile this blog lol. I’ve been thinking it could be nice to do a fresh install on this PC. I’ve learned a good bit, and I wanna explore some new things like…
No I can not shut up about notetaking software. That's the intro. Ok. I realized a little while ago that the problem I had with my sort of "notetaking infrastructure" wasn't that I needed a separate place for random links and actual notes (Linkding and Memos), but that I needed a place for scattered random notes and more organized and structured things. I took a look at a few popular options.…
Before we in my household had any proper VR headsets, we had the Viewmaster. No, not the old fashioned picture viewer thing, the "modern" remake that used your phone to put you in new and exhilarating places like space and Africa. My family had a few phone VR headsets. A Google Cardbard, some Tzumi Dream Vision thing, and my Viewmaster. Unlike the others, the Viewmaster had a leg up in that the…
Earlier this year I was in the campus library studying for my chemistry test later that day when something happened. While I was working on my homework earlier that day I heard some snapping coming from my laptop, which seemed odd, however I had previously opened it up to replace the wifi card and battery so I assumed it was just some clips snapping back in place. It turned out my laptop was…
Depending on what platform you sell the things you make on, you may come in contact with PayPal. In fact you probably will. They're everywhere. PayPal seems to be good as long as you're American. Most people already use your currency so there's no conversion fees, and you can withdraw any amount of money at any time. That's not the same here in Canada, and it really pisses me off. Currency…
Yesterday I did a post about this but I wanted to revisit those thoughts and refine them. The main subject is the fact that PossiblyAxolotl was originally only meant as a personal general purpose username rather than something I would expect to be recognized by. I often use a username on most platforms regardless of if I need to for recognition purposes the same way you might want for social media…
HeY! I thought I'd share some apps and tools and things I use that I think others can get some use out of too. I've seen a lot of "degoogle" guides and while they're nice, they all talk about the same things, don't provide alternatives to the same services, and only talk about Google rather than replacing more general mega-corporate products with smaller, locally run, or self-hosted alternatives.…
I haven't been using much of any streaming services as of late, so I don't have an actual "Spotify Wrapped" or equivalent to share, so I thought instead I would share some of my favourite music I've been listening to on my FiiO/Snowsky Echo Mini this past year. This year has been a good part review of music I already knew because I needed to rebuild my library after switching to using an MP3…
Hello! Just thought I'd give a quick note that this is a very opinionated post, so if you have different thoughts and opinions on the subject feel free to let me know! Something I've always found really strange around trans and non-binary areas on the internet is the use of the terms " AMAB " and " AFAB ". "AMAB" meaning "Assigned Male At Birth," and "AFAB" meaning "Asigned Female At Birth."…
I like to get this thing at Tim Hortons called the "Farmer's Breakfast Wrap." I am not a farmer, though it's still pretty good and I like that I can eat it while walking to class without getting stuff all over my hands. My one problem is that I have to go to Tim Hortons and spend a fair few loonies to get it, so I developed my own recipe based on eating it and thinking about what I'm eating.…
I'm never completely sure how I should talk to people online. On the one hand, I have a seemingly "professional" appearance as an indie developer online, but I also don't really feel that way. I waver a lot between "everything I say must be full sentences with punctuation and have a purpose," and posting the word "gleep" because I'm tired. Because of this, more often than not I end up saying very…
I recently got an email from a company, asking about some form of partnership on a future project. This company is also one of the manybe 3-5 that I would actually feel alright talking positively about in a video, though I'm also not sure how to feel. For a while I've wanted to completely push out the idea of doing sponsorships as a whole. My YouTube channel is for my art and creations, and I…
I've been wanting to write about this for a little bit but I haven't had the time or words, so I thought I would just start right now while I have a minute and see where it goes. I've been trying to get back into doing things I actually like doing, specifically, I've been trying to find more of a balance between doing school, playing games, and making my projects. One outcome of that is I've…
There's been a lot of games coming out as of late that have been classified by players as "friendslop." The term originates as a descriptor for games like Lethal Company , R.E.P.O. , and other games like PEAK , but really it encompasses a large mass of cooperative multiplayer games. I don't like this term. The term "friendslop" implies in the name that these games are "slop." Cheap garbage to be…
I keep trying to type a post out, only to decide it's not worded right, or I don't like the flow, or something else is wrong and delete it. I feel like this shouldn't be the case since the whole point of this blog is to just be an open thought place for topics I find neat, but I think it may also stem from a conversation I had a while ago. Nothing big or anything, but someone mentioned how they…
A little while ago I learned what SSH reverse-tunnelling is and instantly had what I thought was an epiphany. I host a few services for myself. Namely, Memos , which I've talked about before , and Linkding (though I was using Slash instead of Linkding for a while). I wanted to be able to host these services on a Raspberry Pi at home here, but my dad refuses to let me poke holes in our network…
I'm a big fan of Markdown. Markdown is the format I use to write all of my blog posts here, all my notes , and a lot of what I do overall. If you don't know what that is, it's a simple format that allows me to use special formatting to do fun things like those italics I just did there. It works like this: * italics * , ** bold ** , ** * bolded italics * ** , ^superscript^, ~ subscript ~ , ~~…
Note: this post doesn't go into detail on the basics of switching to Linux, you can read my previous post on Linux here . I've been using Linux as my primary OS since around November of last year (2024 to any future readers ), and it's been pretty neat. 3 months ago in March I switched from Kubuntu , which I had been using since I started using it full time, to Arch . I guess for context even…
Hellooo!!! I've been trying to get back here but it's been a bit challenging. I switched to Arch Linux and for some reason Jekyll , the system I used to use to build my blog site, didn't want to install properly. Probably user error , but I am also lazy and didn't feel like fixing it so ¯_(ツ)_/¯ I am now using 11ty , a similar type of thing that I've honestly found easier to use than Jekyll so…
YouTube's economy right now has a very heavy focus on creating low effort, highly mass-producable "content." Not to say that wanting to make money off of somethin you're putting effort into is a bad thing, especially when creating videos is your full-time job, but right now the majority of the world's focus is on cheap content made simply to make money with no soul or effort whatsoever. (If you…
Short form content is.. something. Specifically, vertical videos that typically are around a minute long, but ALSO a very easy way to get distracted and lose hours of your day. I have mixed feelings about short-form content. I used to make YouTube shorts , which would also go on TikTok and Instagram. I deleted my TikTok and public-facing Instagram a while ago, because I think Meta isn't a good…
"WOW! What an exciting title!" you must be thinking. I know, I know, I've really outdone myself here. But don't worry, I personally do think this is really cool and well worth talking about, so please don't go... I've tried a fair few tools for taking notes, all the usuals from Google Docs to Notion and Obsidian , and more. But none of these have really ever stuck with me. Google Docs works best…
So I've been using Linux for about a month, or maybe a little more. Specifically I've chosen to use Kubuntu because KDE Plasma is awesome and more familiar to me than GNOME as a former Windows user. Overall I've really enjoyed it! I've installed a nice custom cursor and some theming stuff, got all my important software installed, and weirdly have found that it's more compatible with a lot of my…
The comments section is an interesting thing. On the one hand, it can be incredibly helpful to recieve feedback, or discuss a specific topic. On the other hand, it's also a vehicle for hate or worry about one's reach. I've been thinking about this for a little while, and I'm honestly not sure where I stand on it, especially in my blog. I love having YouTube comments and reply to almost all of them…
A (very cool) friend of mine made a video, of which I've linked here, that within the first couple seconds got me thinking about a certain project. Sporestory. Where is it? I'll be honest, I haven't worked on it, probably in months. Sporestory is a project I really love. I wanted to put so much into it, and I already have put so much into it, but I ended up putting too much pressure on myself to…
Personally I've always considered myself a game developer / programmer-type person morseo than a YouTuber. That's not to say that I don't enjoy making videos or that I want to stop, because I love making them and consider them a really fun part of my whole creation process, but I never want to make a low-effort game for the sake of creating a video. Games for videos Something I see all too often…
If you've been around the block at all you might know about some pretty dicey stuff going on over at Xitter, their most recent stunts being allowing users to view posts of people who block them[^1][^2] and training AI on your tweets[^2][^3]. Now, it's actually been exactly a month as of today since I left the platform. After realizing the platform has generally been horrible for my mental health,…
I love to learn about old and forgotten media. Stuff like classic / indie websites , weird game & internet lore and secrets , or in this case, a game lost to time. Ever since I was young I've been very interested in indie games. Maybe it was fate, maybe it's cause I missed that span of time where AAA game companies tried to push mobile publishing, but some-way somehow in 2018 I ended up purchasing…
I think blogging is a really great thing and more people should do it. It's an online space where you can shaer your thoughts and feelings, without needing to appease some magical social media deity or post simply just to collect likes. Blogging, especially when you don't have a specific social media platform audience in mind can be hugely beneficial in allowing someone to parse their thoughts and…
Note: it is recommended you read this post first, but not required. So, a bit ago I made a post talking about how I got around using some paid services using Google Sheets and other free services . In that post I also mentioned that a comment system should be possible using some really similar code and so... I did it . This was a little more complicated than I was expecting it to be for a few…
I DON'T MEAN STEALING--- What I mean by "not paying for stuff" is seeing some existing service, and making my own, crappier version for free. I've been doing this a lot, mainly in part due to the fact that I can't pay for stuff online, but it's also a super cool learning experience and allows me to create my own version of a service that's free for me, forever. Here's an example: Guestbooks If you…
A few years ago I participated in this game jam called SeaJam, which was hosted by my friend Polymars to raise money for TeamSeas . In it, I made a game called Katamari DamaSEA, which was a parody-ish game of Katamari Damacy , where you picked up garbage on your katamari in a certain time limit. Beyond that I actually had a few other ideas that I never ended up using, and the specific one I want…
This will be very relevant later...
I sort of have 2 logo / recognizable brand-things. First off is the actual logo used in games and things, and second is my 3D avatar I based off of the initial logo. When I was first starting out I wasn't really sure how to do the whole logo thing, so my first try was this sort of P A mix with both characters leaning and combined into one: The Beams The first iteration I stuck with long enough to…