You know that Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing"? Honestly, that applies more to big YouTubers these days than anything. I mean think about it: Mr. Beast has a buttload of money, but what the hell does he even actually do? From what I've seen of his content, he really doesn't do much of anything. Same with SSSniperwolf - all she does is just react to TikToks and junk, and look how rich she is. Hell, none of these Talking Heads do much of anything, yet it's somehow their full-time jobs.
Meanwhile, Content Creators like me actually put time, work, energy, and effort into the content we create, but we just get swept under the rug while YouTube postures the Talking Heads.
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Comic Talk and General Discussion *
Happy 2023! General Discussion Thread
Currently trying to get back to my comic drawing routines after having been recovering from sickness for some time and having been distracted by a bunch of other stuff.
Shaved my head clean last friday, as my hair has been receding for quite some time and I figured it might just be the right time to shave it all clean already.
As for the rest, looking forward to come back this february from my current comic hiatus.
Keep getting put down by a "friend" of mine. He's obviously one of the few people who still want to talk to me and meet sometimes IRL and that's not something I can say about the 95% of other people I've met throughout the decades, but it's so incredibly frustrating. Basically he mocks my ambitions to write this, saying it probably wouldn't be much of a loss if I couldn't finish my comic (never read it himself), he compares me to drug addicts for spending my free time with creative work, says I'm narrow-minded if I'd rather discuss my own original material with people than filmmakers' achievements generally (not that it has to be one or the other, it's just one makes me happy and excited while the other is a very non-personal conversational subject) and grabs every chance to try and make me feel like I'm ruining my life with this, all while he says he does it out of caring.
I'm gonna be honest, he's not entirely wrong when it's about how obsession is unhealthy. I wouldn't say manga authors who work themselves to death, not out of financial reasons, but because they get so much out of creating - are living a healthy lifestyle either. They obviously could use some balance. And obviously, if I've been depressed most of my life, I could just go to therapy instead, force myself to eat healthy, get another job to sleep during the night instead of the day, I could force myself to do sports and lose weight, force myself to be more social and spend my time watching arthouse films and reading heavy books like he would, because according to him, these are all healthy activities. Maybe spend an hour or two now and then creating a panel, but even then, I should be aiming for something more revolutionary than entertaining.
So basically, I should change everything about my life in hopes of fitting his image of healthy and happy and if I don't, there's always gonna be something else to criticize. Meanwhile I'm depressed af, because none of these give me half the emotional fulfillment as working on my material and seeing a person here and there who appreciates it. I know people would cut contact with others for less and I'm not one of them, but I really need to be able to filter these words of care out, because whatever he's trying to do, it's not working and arguing about it only makes it worse. He had the same butthurt reaction when I picked up anime and watched those instead of his preferences because he misses being able to talk to me about all kinds of serious things and aesthetics and such, and I get it, it sucks, but to me, spending time and money on something I don't get demotivated about after a few weeks is not a waste of time and money and obviously he'd rather have me feel just melancholic all the time as long as it fits his idea of me making the right decisions. Maybe I'm just escaping to my imaginary world to feel good, but guess what, not doing that doesn't mean I'm okay or my life is okay and nobody's going to solve my problems for me, other people are just gonna avoid me anyway, 'cause depressed are the new lepers so why not be able to communicate different aspects of myself through my panels I otherwise can't communicate?
Boundaries. Set them and stick to them. Might even get to the point where certain things are taboo topics. This is what I want, thank you for the advice but I'll live my life my way.
He just has to learn he can't change someone unless they want to change. The best that can be done is setting boundaries and living for you.
But then all I can do if give my opinion based on what you've said. I could be totally off base, but as a basic rule it never hurts to set boundaries about goals. You're living your life the way you want.
I love working nights too. Less stressful.
I've compromised by having a job where I get up very early so technically I am up half the night. I also go to bed very early so I'm asleep half the day. It's working so far. And I still get to see sunrise.
bravo1102 wrote:
Boundaries. Set them and stick to them. Might even get to the point where certain things are taboo topics. This is what I want, thank you for the advice but I'll live my life my way.
He just has to learn he can't change someone unless they want to change. The best that can be done is setting boundaries and living for you.
But then all I can do if give my opinion based on what you've said. I could be totally off base, but as a basic rule it never hurts to set boundaries about goals. You're living your life the way you want.
I love working nights too. Less stressful.
I've compromised by having a job where I get up very early so technically I am up half the night. I also go to bed very early so I'm asleep half the day. It's working so far. And I still get to see sunrise.
Yeah, it's very difficult to set boundaries with someone who thinks him being able to frequently criticise me should be a respected form of free expression in a friendship or similar relationship. Of course lots of people already cut contact with him because of his intrusive, overly critical approaches, but I'm not exactly a popular person either, so who am I to cast a stone. In any case, you're right, being assertive about boundaries is very much needed. And yeah, night shifts aren't known to be very healthy, but my 11 years of work experience got me used to them and I definitely enjoy having a job that allows me some free time to write or watch something on the side, day shifts would give me absolutely none of that which would result in me using my free time at home to bury myself into creative work even more than I already do.
I would like to resort to my age old mantra that I just remembered yesterday:
"It doesn't matter if what you're experiencing is good or bad, real or unreal. What matters is if it keeps you going or not."
I too am struggling with some inner turmoil. Feeling like I should reach out for some brand new IRL social interaction, but fearing that I might have burned too many bridges of my past social life and become too acustomed to rejecting others in favour of solitude. I still have two friends that I see IRl.
One who's currently in a mental ward because his scizofrenia is acting out again (poor guy😔). And another who I mostly communicate via cellphone now and then and selldom see because we are both too busy with our own stuff, me and my creative works and he and his bussiness entrepaneurship. I like those two guys because they don't steal energy from me like other people tend to do. There's hardly anything intrusive about them at all, which I really like. Plus we've hanged out ever since we were kids basically, so there's that too I guess.
Lately I've been trying to become a fan of a bunch of things, because I look at other people on YT who are always passionate fans of something and I thought I would like to be too. But I don't know. I may like the stuff I've acquired - casually engaging with it, perhaps make some new friendships through it if possible - but I'm not sure if I'm capable of having any lasting, intense passion for anything but my creative works.
I feel like I'm one of those creators who are just intrinsically narcissistic about their stuff saying "My stuff is better then Star Wars, or whatever else, because I MADE IT DAMMIT!" And perhaps I just ought to embrace that. Perhaps we all ought to. It sure is a lot better motivator then "everything I make SUUUUCK!"
Maybe putting a bit of ego into your things isn't a bad thing. You know, just use it as a powerful motivator and that's it.
Speaking of YT. I think I'm starting to instinctivelly move away from that platform, after having this weird af hangup where I kept searching for "self-genuine" channels to keep reorganizing my profile with subscriptions and lists trying to make it into this perfect setup. And I was just struck by how more infantilizing, and more cringy and more disturbing the search results got. Until I was just like "I don't know If I like being on Youtube anymore".
Still gonna keep my profile there and probably still gonna come back to it now and then, the same way I still have a FB profile that I rarely ever visit. Just another popular site/distraction for me to leave stagnant and still twitching in the dirt:P
Andreas_Helixfinger wrote:
I would like to resort to my age old mantra that I just remembered yesterday:
"It doesn't matter if what you're experiencing is good or bad, real or unreal. What matters is if it keeps you going or not."
I too am struggling with some inner turmoil. Feeling like I should reach out for some brand new IRL social interaction, but fearing that I might have burned too many bridges of my past social life and become too acustomed to rejecting others in favour of solitude. I still have two friends that I see IRl.
One who's currently in a mental ward because his scizofrenia is acting out again (poor guy😔). And another who I mostly communicate via cellphone now and then and selldom see because we are both too busy with our own stuff, me and my creative works and he and his bussiness entrepaneurship. I like those two guys because they don't steal energy from me like other people tend to do. There's hardly anything intrusive about them at all, which I really like. Plus we've hanged out ever since we were kids basically, so there's that too I guess.
Lately I've been trying to become a fan of a bunch of things, because I look at other people on YT who are always passionate fans of something and I thought I would like to be too. But I don't know. I may like the stuff I've acquired - casually engaging with it, perhaps make some new friendships through it if possible - but I'm not sure if I'm capable of having any lasting, intense passion for anything but my creative works.
I feel like I'm one of those creators who are just intrinsically narcissistic about their stuff saying "My stuff is better then Star Wars, or whatever else, because I MADE IT DAMMIT!" And perhaps I just ought to embrace that. Perhaps we all ought to. It sure is a lot better motivator then "everything I make SUUUUCK!"
Maybe putting a bit of ego into your things isn't a bad thing. You know, just use it as a powerful motivator and that's it.
I think that's very understandable. Lately I've noticed that when people ask me about me, I don't really know what to say, not much is happening to me and even if something does, I don't think it's that interesting. But when they ask about my characters, my eyes glow up and I get in this strange headspace where I'm excited to share. It's not that the stuff we write is objectively better than Star Wars or anything, who cares, right? It's that we put our thoughts and feelings into these stories with so much care, so to us any sincere conversation about it feels like we have a lot more to offer than people in our lives and in the chatrooms normally realize. Who cares it it'll never make it to the big screen if even for a moment you believe it could.
InkyMoondrop wrote:
I think that's very understandable. Lately I've noticed that when people ask me about me, I don't really know what to say, not much is happening to me and even if something does, I don't think it's that interesting. But when they ask about my characters, my eyes glow up and I get in this strange headspace where I'm excited to share. It's not that the stuff we write is objectively better than Star Wars or anything, who cares, right? It's that we put our thoughts and feelings into these stories with so much care, so to us any sincere conversation about it feels like we have a lot more to offer than people in our lives and in the chatrooms normally realize. Who cares it it'll never make it to the big screen if even for a moment you believe it could.
To that I say "I totally relate" and "That's the spirit I'm talking about"👍
InkyMoondrop wrote:
Keep getting put down by a "friend" of mine. He's obviously one of the few people who still want to talk to me and meet sometimes IRL and that's not something I can say about the 95% of other people I've met throughout the decades, but it's so incredibly frustrating. Basically he mocks my ambitions to write this, saying it probably wouldn't be much of a loss if I couldn't finish my comic (never read it himself), he compares me to drug addicts for spending my free time with creative work, says I'm narrow-minded if I'd rather discuss my own original material with people than filmmakers' achievements generally (not that it has to be one or the other, it's just one makes me happy and excited while the other is a very non-personal conversational subject) and grabs every chance to try and make me feel like I'm ruining my life with this, all while he says he does it out of caring.
As a human being who appreciates solitude and self-reflection to generate solutions to these types of issues—-I even climbed the Great Wall in order to better understand and make sense of interpersonal relationship struggles at a workplace I no longer worked—-it is an ongoing life lesson to figure out what words of advice we let into our heads and which ones we are willing to cast aside.
Here are the best takeaways I have picked up over the years:
Issue #1—-Someone is getting too comfortable telling you about the way you should live on this planet and enjoy life.
Best Response: “Please, go on, tell me more about myself.”
(Most of the time, people can see problems so clearly in others, but are blind to the ones in their own life. To that, I say, “Turn the mirror on yourself.”)
==
Issue #2—-Identify the Radiators and the Drainers
—-Some human beings radiate positivity and every moment is spent with that person feels encouraging and fun. There are a lot of genuine smiles and real laughter.
—-Drainers are like the garbage disposal of social interaction. No matter what is said or done, there is always way to turn a good thing rotten and sometimes they spew garbage back in your face.
Every minute spent with a drainer is a minute that could have been spent with a radiator.
==
Above all, there is a book called “The Rabbit Listened” by Cori Doerrfeld where the main takeaway is this: When we fall into stumbling blocks, a lot of people want to give the right advice or tell us how we should feel. However, sometimes, all we need is a quiet companion who is there to listen, without judgement.
Thanks for the pearls of wisdom. :) There are a lot of approaches that could work and I feel like you have some valid takes on these issues (although I'm pretty sure most people would see me as a drainer if we're dualistic about it). :D I think I'll check the book out, a new perspective never hurts, so again: thanks. I'm not planning any serious self-reforms for this year, but I figured keeping an open mind could help, I've been reading about my enneagram personality type, completed a ~ half an hour online test about my tritype and watched some material about the results, it was really spot-on about my behaviour and how I relate to certain things, my fears, etc… It's obviously descriptive and not prescriptive, but I feel like understanding how the things I'm going through are not unique to me is already a good start. I'm too gonna leave here a nice trick I've read about, mainly about the inner voices that are putting you down, abusing you, etc (in case you have low self-esteem) making them sound funny and cartoonish in your head instantly neutralizes them. Sort of like your very own Riddikulus spell.
I know it's simplistic but my advice is that it's time to make new friends, widen that friendship pool :)
I don't know if I have any friends that appreciate the totality of my diverse interests, I have friends that appreciate small, limited sides of me. If they cirtisise me for something I largely ignore it. Harder to do with a GF but then that's another story XD
I would say that you should limit your interaction with that friend towards things you have in common and just leave out the other stuff. It might hurt a bit but it makes things easier.
Lastly there's really not that much difference between "irl" friends and online. I've met many of my online friends in person and become even better friends, many of my friends I made in person I hardly ever speak to anymore, and still others I spend more time online with than in person anyway.
Sorry for just parachuting in at the end there with this.
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Wowsers I really HATE the use of rainbow colours in stoner designs for raves, crystal selling, cannabis ads etc. I bloody F**ing HATE it! Aesthetically it is sulfuric acid poured into my eyes. Their designs are the very epitome of extreme ugliness and revulsion for me.
I hate it so, so, so very much- not in an intellectual way, in that it's based on not liking something associated with it, the music, the culture or anything like that. It's not even based on colour theory or design principals. It just gets me in an instinctual way, like the smell of vomit or a dead creature, I just have automatic revulsion for those hideously ugly designs.
Ozoneocean wrote:
Wowsers I really HATE the use of rainbow colours in stoner designs for raves, crystal selling, cannabis ads etc. I bloody F**ing HATE it! Aesthetically it is sulfuric acid poured into my eyes. Their designs are the very epitome of extreme ugliness and revulsion for me.
I hate it so, so, so very much- not in an intellectual way, in that it's based on not liking something associated with it, the music, the culture or anything like that. It's not even based on colour theory or design principals. It just gets me in an instinctual way, like the smell of vomit or a dead creature, I just have automatic revulsion for those hideously ugly designs.
So it's kind of like me falling out with Youtube recently then. It wasn't the corporate side of it or anything on a morale or intellectual level that made me want to radically reduce my consumption of the plattform, it was on a purely visceral, instinctual level. I'm just kind of creeped out by YT searches now. Like I made this one search on a pulpy horror movie from the 1960's titled "The Bloody Pit of Horror" that I've watched on YT, just to see if there were any alternative channels of old horror films, and what do I see scrolling down the thumbnails?
A video with a picture of a woman who looks like she's being buried alive titled "Top ten images of a person's last moment before they die". I'm like–WHAT–DA–F**K–IS THIS CRAZY SHIT!? WHY!? Why are you showing me search results like this now Youtube!? I'm genuinely freaked out by this! I don't care if this is some internet joke or not! It's not funny! It's disturbing and f**d up! I don't know if I wanna do any random seaches on that plattform anymore because I'm so freaked out by this disturbing stuff that keeps popping up. And it really feels like I probably won't from now on.
Jeesus!
Yes, that algorithm is pretty toxic. I throws all sort of crap at you if you watch the wrong thing. :(
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I'm almost finished Pinky TA 8 and I've written the full outline for Piny TA9. Now I just have to script all the pages. I'm really looking forward to it! I love writing ^_^
That algorithm has led to the Flat Earth movement and their being hauled in front of Congress.
Now flerfs complain about the algorithm hiding their ridiculous content and putting debunkers first in the queue.
Some of us love this kind of content and I like my debunking of pseudoscience leavened with some total flim-flam.
J_Scarbrough wrote:
Unfortunately, YouTube's algorithms have been rigged that way ever since Google bought them out in 2009, the problem is they just continue make them worse. Those top 5/10/whatever videos and Talking Heads have virtually taken over the platform.
Google bought Youtube in 2006. They have owned it since near the beginning.
Okay, I didn't know that. I just know I started on YouTube at the tail-end of 2007, but it wasn't until 2009 when Google really began to make their ownership known, because that was their tyranny began . . . any remember those Beta Channels and how much the community hated them? Looking back on it now, the Beta Channels were small potatoes compared to these streamlined "YouTube One" channels we've had for the past several years. At least the Beta Channels could still be customized with your own personal color schemes, background images, and the like.
That was actually one of the reasons why I was a MySpace holdout before I finally, reluctantly migrated to Facebook: I loved how MySpace let us completely customize our profiles, as opposed to how everybody's Facebook profiles all look the same, except for profile and cover pictures.
I saw the whole run of Soap and just finished all the episodes of Joe 90. Looks like the vintage TV channels will be putting up episodes of Fantasy Island next.
There's also lots of content reading and analyzing sacred texts.
And Professor Dave Explains has a whole series on math. Maybe it's time I tackled my greatest weakness.
YT remains a great tool for education and personal development. Actually learn stuff. Sadly the days of new entertainment is mostly gone so I'll just have to actually learn how little I really know.
My big faves are:
The Chieftain - excellent tank channel. He's a lieutenant colonel in the US army. He was in Iraq, and he stared off in the Irish army. He has a lot of useful knowledge and it informs him when he talks history…
Though he says himself that neither serving in the army, his rank or his studies give him absolute authority on the subject, especially speculative, opinion based stuff and you should always take it with a grain of salt. SO he has a lot of humility.
Forgotten Weapons - Ian McColum is super knowledgeable about all different types of historical guns. He takes trips around the world to visit museums, private collection and auction houses to see the guns in person. He also has a mechanical engineering background so he understand guns from a very basic level rather than a nut who just likes to shoot.
Scholagladiatoria - Matt Eastern a swordsman and HEMA practitioner of 20 years plus experience who is also an antique dealer and has collected many antique swords. He's great to listen to about swords because he owns many real examples and goes and sees them in museums, unlike many how talk about swords but only use replicas and never see or own the real ones or look at primary sources.
and others like Red Eye Reviews, The Tank Museum, Battleship New Jersey museum channel…
The Chieftain is great. My favorite is when he does the "bugger the tank is on fire" in his reviews of tank interiors.
He's responded to a bunch of my brother's comments. (My older brother is a retired Army tank platoon sergeant)
But honestly I can't watch YouTube videos about tanks. I like watching about stuff to expand my horizons not reinforce what I already have studied.
So something like History with Cy who has a dynasty by dynasty history of Ancient Egypt?
Gutsick Gibbon speaking on radiometric dating and why YEC is so much nonsense? The debunking is only a little bit as she goes into the science in detail.
AronRa has started doing detailed videos on various clades. Just finished snakes and now he started on arthropoda with the Trilobites.
And old black and white movies. I work one overnight a week. Eight solid hours of YouTube because I can't pirate movies anymore. This week saw the pilot episode for Fantasy Island. Forgotten how much I liked that show.
FANTASY ISLAND seemed to be the dumping grounds for certain TV actors whose once-successful careers were no more. THE LOVE BOAT to a lesser extent. I mean, just about all of the guest stars on those shows were actors who were no longer in their prime, but, once upon a time, were the among the lead castmembers of popular shows that had since ended their runs.
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