I sincerely hope you all have a nice one!

Here's some music from 20 years ago, maybe you'll use it to reflect on the direction moving forward you want to take-- or not!

Hi Everyone! what a year 2023 has been! Since I saw @tritnew do a recap, I thought about doing one myself.

On Me (and harassment of me)

I want to get this out of the way early as this is a BIG bandaid that needs to get torn off now;

At the later half of 2022 and beginning of 2023 I appeared to everyone to a very anxious person and very quick to delete/hide comments and flipflop on my newposts. I am sorry to anyone I confused during that time, especially members of staff/mods who were kinda curious about me ... I was a victim of online harassment because curiosity got the best of me and I discovered a rather-- sophisticated gold farming operation in an MMO, and I did what I did was the right thing and spoke up to my guild and the developer of that game. Unfortunately instead of being praised for what would MOST PEOPLE find amazing-- I was cast out, and in the intervening months of tit for tat at nuclear levels of arguments with all parties involved, my family received disturbing and harassing calls as it came to a peak.

This is/was being handled by law enforcement, and a person of interest was arrested in a different country-- but charged for... different reasons I am not permitted to discuss by that court for now. That will be a giggle for another day. Unfortunately this alienated a lot of my former friends as I became very paranoid. As a result, they want nothing to do with me, and looking back at it now---I really don't want anything to do with them either.

Today I am doing much better, big thanks to my employer, and to the people who were much more quieter then I am who continue to help. I stopped playing MMOs as a result and turned to more creative endeavors that I find more fulfilling then any video game. :) I have made new friends and am opening a new and better chapter in my life.

Music Stuff 2023

(HTID-- HARDCORE TIL I DIE)

I love electronic music-- and I used to be a small time DJ in the Mid-Atlantic! Sadly though I don't get out much anymore, so I like to make music that I really enjoyed growing up in and around the music scene-- and apparently so does the staff and users here! This year I was awarded 4 Front Page awards for the following music entries:

and recently one for lending vocals to this collab:

Its a hard call for me as to which is my favorite, but I enjoyed working on 'Take My Hand' as I made friends with @zoidng who provided the synth lead for the song. It does make one get up and jump for joy. \o.o/ Looking at listener count, it seems the choice of the users was 'Be Together'-- not sure if it was because of aspiring MCs or if it was popular with the GD folks, but whatever. I am glad it makes you happy and I hope the song follows you in your heart, and in your life. <3

My very best work has been compiled here, if you don't want to stumble over a lot of loops and other garbage I tend to post:

I did receive 1 front page award that was in support for @tomfulp 's secret nuclear testing society. Don't tell anyone or I'll have to nuke you. ;P

Art and Animation 2023

I began my journey earlier this year, but fell off the wagon... then got back on I began studying art under a self study program and in my last post I finally was able to get my hands on a Cintiq pen-display! Now that the stars have aligned it will be pretty soon I'll be putting out stuff more regularly like clockwork.

I don't particularly have a jewel piece in art for this year, but I did put several days of work into these two pieces I made for Pico Day, Pixel Day and Clock Day 2023:

I did do some goofy sticker stuff for the meetups:

and the long and hard road of art education continues:

For animation... I did participate in the Friendly Frog Collab and got an additional animation credit for my entry which appeared in the credit sequence:

I also pulled one of @Jenital 's... erm... Jenital? for an animatic for a cartoon I'd like to explore more in depth next year:

Games 2023?

I did not submit any games this year. Infact this is my weakest point in the quadfectra that this portal offers as way to showcase talent. I can state that I did a bit of learning with GoDot this year after hearing about the fallout with the Unity engine. I WANT to stuff to do in this space but I am preocupied mostly with art school, so maybe I'll dabble more in this when I get my draftsman's skills a bit more up to snuff.

Upcoming Projects

PicoDay 2024 and the Kamen Rider Collab are the big two I am aiming for this year. I love the Pico art style and want to get more regularly into drawing him, his friends, me, and my... new friends? in that way. Kamen is a whole different beast and I know this will be the biggest challenge. Hopefully the collab leaders will be able to extend more time for everyone-- and I encourage others to join as well.

There are other things I am up to as well. I am looking forward to a new version of Clip Studio Paint which will allow for audio scrubbing next year. That will be a game changer. :)

In Conclusion

2023 overall was as good as could be, and 2024 will be better, and this I am sure. I will get better at art. I will continue to to contribute money for contests and wizardly things when I can. I wish you and yours a happy holiday, and a happy new year, and thank you for welcoming me to NewGrounds. :)

Love you,

YendorNG

Don't let your dreams be dreams.

It was everything I wanted.

Merry Christmas to me. :)

Let's see what I can crank out with this!

I worked my butt off for this, and now my dream has come true. :')

EDIT: Bleah, its coming tomorrow instead. :|

I forgot NJ is funded exclusively by tolls, and now I am going to jail forever. :'(

Happy November! I hope each and everyone of you is doing well! Tis' the time of year where I tighten my shoelaces extra tight, and grin and bear it as my job locks me down for the holiday season. As much as I love working for Amazon this is the part of the year I really don't like, but that is the beast of it and how I get paid to do things I love to do when NOT working there!

Speaking of which, Here is some stuff I am working on!

Since Unity came up in a negative light in the news recently, a free competitor floated to the surface lately called Godot had been getting great traction. I already knew Godot from playing some games here on NewGrounds and on steam there is game based on that engine called Dome Keeper (that I just can't put down when I start it up!). I always fantasized about making my own video game waaaaay back then, and since I really don't have a lot to do right now, I decided it was now or never to learn how this worked, and how I can leverage it to make something fun! (tm). I have so far gotten the gist of how buttons and scenes and animation sprites work, and I am doing my best to memorize strings of code to make it work. I'll post more on my progress later this month!

Animation-wise, I think I have made some leaps and bounds! I have been getting to know Clip Studio Paint a little bit better through the help of some collaborators I worked with recently on little things here and there. I wish I could discuss it more (but why ruin the surprise?). What you see above is a test of sorts utilizing the camera function and some other tween trickery. I do have a couple other pencil tests of non-tween stuff, but I'll hold off on sharing those until later. :)

I am trying to write a script for something original and have been trying to dedicate at least an hour a day to it, but I am kinda not satisfied with many of the start attempts I do. On one hand, my life is pretty unique and filled with a lot of unhappiness, and its very... erm... unrelatable to most people. At this point, I think writing fiction is a bit better for cartoons anyhow-- and may decide to toss it and write something else on a more brighter note. :)

Now, on to more neat NewGroundsier stuff! :D

Kamen Rider loose sketch animation of the original ending sequence.

Have you ever heard of Kamen Rider? Its a 70's show based in japan which was basically the prototype for what we disgusting westerners know as Power Rangers! Another NewGrounder introduced me to it like a little kid screaming her head off about how great it was yadda yadda yadda, so I just had to watch it, and I am pretty impressed with it!

The Synopsis is that the main character is a man who is part-time motorcyclist and 200+IQ scientist (yeah, we are kinda stretching it here haha) who was kidnapped by an evil organization called "SHOCKER" which wants to transform humanity into slave cyborgs and take over the world! However, halfway through the process the main character escapes, but now has the body of a cyborg and now can never marry or do any of that cool human stuff. So he vows to get revenge on those that hurt him and his fellow humans and turns into "The Kamen Rider! (Masked Rider)".

Anyhow, why am I telling you this? Well, There is a COLLAB for the aforementioned series being run by Chunky7453. If you like what you see in the videos and want to get on the action, PLEASE DO! I was told by someone else that pretty much no one has really submitted anything yet... so... give it a go? :)

Also:

@Stormydew is looking for a musician for her next flash based video game!

@PinClock released a shoot'em up game called JoHou Battle! So far so good! Give it a go!

And Finally-- The NG Money Gang has been called upon again to help sponsor its next target, go read Tom's blog-- you know where it is... you literally live in his house you bunch of stalkers. :P

---

PS. Please be mindful of your fellow human being around this time of year-- some of us enter a period of winter depression and the holidays sometimes don't make people joyous... but rather they are put in despair because of things outside their control. Some of them don't have friends or family they can see everyday (or at all.) So... be there when the moment calls for it.

Drink plenty of water, wear lip balm,

--YendorNG (Raver). :)

Hello there! What a month it has been since my last post! Been busy with stuff, work is getting busy too around this time of year... and lookie lookie! I went to the Yestercade Meetup!

(Video below this writeup!)

So to start off I started my journey that morning driving and talking with -Squidly and other members of the meetup discord just talking about how we could best abduct @mindchamber from his home-- sadly that plan fell through as he was apparently busy with a commision and I had to pass by him on the way. I ended up accidently about 50minutes over and ended up in Jersey City by mistake (oopsies) and doubled back to my original location that was Somerville, NJ.

Somerville NJ is apparently a very upscale town with lots of business and apartments for rent up in the $3000/mo! I was able to get parked in one of their set aside spaces and walked on over to the little pedestrian walk through where the arcade was located at and metup with @Raviolibox and other NewGrounders as well. Since I am apart of the NG MoneyGang circle I did a bit of magic to show off how cool I was and turned one of the gang into a dog! (They approved of this, the consent forms are on file!) :P

As the meetup gathered, we got to work on some sketchbook vandalism. :)

Some went to get some food, others went to go get get their wristband passes for the arcade. You'll see more of that in the video, as I don't have a lot of space for pictures. But after checking out all the games and shooters and HUGE pinball collection, there was a commotion outside!

Tom Fulp came! After the big photos with the NG Flag (salute) he got dragged off kicking and screaming to get food at a sushi place. Someone will probably have a little write up about that as I didn't go with them. @brandybuizel instead dragged me and a few others to eat some icecream. I don't have pictures sadly as I was eating said ice cream. It was really really good! Thanks Brandy!

Afterwards Tom and gang came back to the commons.

Then I got to follow him around for about two hours as we played video games. I personally got some time with him playing Terminator 2, but we both sucked at it. :P

Anyway, here is the video (unlisted for my sanity), and I hope we all get together again next year! I highly highly recommend Yestercade. Very fun place!

https://youtu.be/ivaCL5plmAs

See you all soon!

--YendorNG

PS: Bonus @RavioliBox ! Good on you for coming!

So earlier in the month I got a text from an old rave friend who wanted me to come out and go Raving. I was very hesitant to do so --being a bit of recluse and all. But I went and boy was impressed.

The event was a reunion/birthday party for DJ Hartshorn. 2 DJ I used to hang out with were also there: JustRob, Genki, and one half of Donk Squad, DJ Dink-E.

Just Rob was estatic to see me. Since he left the navy, he now works for Microsoft and is living his best life. Look at him bang on this tiny tambourine! :F

Dink-E was so happy to see me and he recently has some surgery done and he is doing better then ever, hes also pretty happy I found a better place to express myself creatively on NewGrounds (me on the right reppin' the tank)

DJ Hartshorn did a little dance.

I forgot to take Genki's picture (as I was too busy having fun. The venue was a Karaoke bar with karaoke rooms in the back like you'd see in Asian countries like Japan. The common areas though is where I was mostly at.

I also realized how much I've changed physically since I went to work for Amazon. It felt amazing to be complimented on how awesome I looked. Some other people also noticed the NG logo and fondly spoke of NG when they were younger back in the day. I told them we are still here and kicking.

What a wonderful time it was. And I wanna do it again! Maybe @vividlance and I can come up with something. Lol!

Take care out there!

--YendorNG :)

I have some rather dated, but sad news---

I learned recently via some acquaintances on Happyhardcore.com's Discord that Jenny J, or Jenny Louise Oram, who was very well renown in many music scenes including the Happy Hardcore scene, passed away in august. I wish I had more information to share, but AI news articles are cluttering up all search results. The jist of what I understand is she was in the ICU since around January some illness that had her on life support.

Jenny had an amazing voice and often supported by big names in our niche. I think her discography dates a bit farther back then just 2010, but I may be wrong. I am unable to look up further history because TrackItDown.net (which predated itunes) seems to have turned to rot in 2018.

Regardless, our circle of friends in this niche grows smaller and sadder with each passing. You will be missed Jenny J.

Looking back at my former career as an IT technician, I guess I left it at the right time. I hate to say it, but I'm really scared of AI.

AI is now everywhere. It's in the chips in your phone, it's used in office software, it's in Photoshop, it's also working it's way into my music making tools! Grr!

In the past, one would have thought that this would have been a great accomplishment. We would let it and the robots (happy belated Robot Day btw!) Do all the work, and we would just simply enjoy what life had to offer... such as pursuing more relaxing and creative skills like art.

But instead... we have this.

I hate to sound like a big downer, but head in my hands! My former profession is getting AI to respond to angry customers and the profession I want to pursue is getting AI to perform the work that I MIGHT want to do! Am I and the rest of humanity just to forever work as slaves in a kitchen to feed each other, or do the manual labor that robots aren't quite ready to do?

I'm sorry to sound like a big downer, but it's really hard looking at the future right now. I'm certain the light is there but I just have trouble seeing it. :/

What do you think the future holds for us with AI added to the mix?