Neocities

saddleblasters updated their site.

1 year ago

journal/230722

essays/231130

zh

zh/maanji1

8 likes

siqu 1 year ago

wondering if you ever found something as meaningful as newpants in your searchings of new music. It seems like there's a wall after a certain age where one is fated to keep playing the same tunes

saddleblasters

1 year ago

I added a new saddle record today, though the update's been suppressed because I was editing some old posts this morning and (foolishly) thinking I wouldn't post anything else today, I'd deleted the update notification. Read it here: https://saddleblasters.neocities.org/records#twentytwo

7 likes

siqu 1 year ago

Games are strange to think back on for sure. That tendency to try to pull more meaning out of it is pathological probably since it was an all-encompassing presence. And that if you somehow figure it out you could recover the joy from it -- also, I wonder if there's a term for what you described: those trying to hype and slather makeup on something that feels hollow

3 likes

daliwali 1 year ago

i've checked out some of those bands you linked to, you have quite the interest in "no-audience underground" music. i honestly don't know much about Chinese rock beyond Cui Jian, or more recently, Chinese Football (and that is only because i'm a fan of American Football).

1 like

saddleblasters 1 year ago

@daliwali thanks for looking at the bands i link to -- at least 50% of why i write on this website is to trick other people into exploring the music i like. cui jian is great, especially his lyrics, and chinese football is definitely a big part of the zeitgeist in shanghai: i feel like that's become the default sound for college students starting their first band to imitate.

1 like

saddleblasters 1 year ago

i do like some popular rock bands! thanks to your comment, i spent some time today cleaning up this essay i wrote last year about New Pants, which is simultaneously one of China's most popular rock bands and is (or at least once was) very good imo: https://saddleblasters.neocities.org/essays/231130

saddleblasters 1 year ago

@siqu yeah, i think a lot of the issue for me is the gulf between what was once "an all-encompassing presence" for my childhood and even early 20s, and the fact that now video games have come to more or less a dead end for me emotionally. a lot of the other things i cared about as a kid did continue to grow into something that still has relevance to me now, yet video games still seem to lie dormant inside of me

1 like

siqu 1 year ago

it seems like the only way to extend videogames is to make videogames, but it's just such an endeavor

saddleblasters 1 year ago

and that was precisely the problem I had with making games: I was ultimately just trying to turn all of that emotional investment accumulated over the years into something "valuable". By it's very nature this forced me to constantly be empathising with my previous selves, taking all their feelings seriously, which was too exhausting (though maybe this is just an excuse)

siqu 1 year ago

don't think there's anything wrong with trying to get a return on investment. it'd be cool to make a videogame, and that alone is enough justification. it's just frustrating since it's a multi-disciplinary product -- music, sprites, sounds, design, story and then the actual programming. you'd have to _really_ want to make a videogame to push through all of those roles, to where it makes more sense to invest elsewhere

1 like

saddleblasters

1 year ago

Would anyone be interested if I started an East Asian literature webring? Maybe doing so would motivate me more to write about some of what I've been reading lately...

3 likes

projectc190 1 year ago

i cant say ive been very immersed in easian literature myself but id be interested to hear about what youve been reading and i might have to get into chinese classics tbh

1 like

iwillneverbehappy 1 year ago

I would be interested! I think I remember a while back someone had a chinoiserie reading group on neocities. I didn't participate at the time but I thought it was really cool.

1 like

siqu 1 year ago

instead of an article it could be excerpts and thoughts on those excerpts, to lighten the task

1 like

iquehistoria updated their site.

1 year ago

twitter

updatelog

index

saddleblasters updated their site.

1 year ago

index

records

7 likes

palmistshouse 1 year ago

Doddodo mentioned >:-)

1 like

saddleblasters 1 year ago

I relistened to her after writing this and feel bad calling her "just a distant memory". I need to listen to her some more!

1 like

saddleblasters updated their site.

1 year ago

index

records

9 likes

saddleblasters 1 year ago

putting up some old micro-saddles I wrote a few weeks ago but never actually posted. I have another one for tomorrow hopefully that I need to clean up a bit first.

5 likes

saddleblasters museariadne

1 year ago

I've been feeling bad about not participating in this since the very first prompt, so I decided to submit some incredibly late entries for prompts I like from months past. Here's my attempt to write about "time" for the april 1st prompt: https://saddleblasters.neocities.org/muse/2

8 likes

tehuan 1 year ago

this was such an awesome read. i love the way you think & explore that thinking in it :] super cool to hear about

1 like

saddleblasters updated their site.

1 year ago

muse

muse/1

muse/2

6 likes

saddleblasters updated their site.

1 year ago

index

records

4 likes

saddleblasters updated their site.

1 year ago

index

journal

journal/misc1

6 likes

suttaslime 1 year ago

"Deep knowledge is never full knowledge, yet it contains many times the burden that one has happily and willingly half-knowing" - this is a sentence i'll carry with me now, somewhere in the back of my head. i hope i take it to heart!

3 likes

saddleblasters updated their site.

1 year ago

index

journal/reflected

6 likes

saddleblasters updated their site.

1 year ago

index

essays/240829

6 likes

saddleblasters updated their site.

1 year ago

introduction

journal

index

journal/240817

8 likes

palmistshouse 1 year ago

I’ve never heard of WEC before, I’ll have to check it out

1 like

saddleblasters 1 year ago

There's definitely plenty in it to like for Neocities people. It's a lot of fun to flip through, even if I find it a little obnoxious sometimes

2 likes

poptartbox saddleblasters

1 year ago

this is absolutely my favorite site on neocities. every time i come back and make an update, this is the first place i come to. i hope you never stop writing here. and if you do, then i hope i can continue to learn about your experiences some other way.

9 likes

saddleblasters 1 year ago

thank you so much! i'll try my best to never stop writing, though i'm sure the frequency with which i post on here will continue to be sporadic, unfortunately

4 likes

saddleblasters

1 year ago

My friend Balckwell's novel is now free! A lot of what you might have read on my website started out as conversations with him. If you've enjoyed any of my writing, then please take a look at his! https://balckwell.itch.io/only-in-dreams

9 likes

vegacollective 1 year ago

This sounds interesting, we thank you for sharing! UBWU

1 like

saddleblasters updated their site.

1 year ago

journal

index

essays/240727

8 likes

balckwell 1 year ago

great idea

1 like

saddleblasters updated their site.

1 year ago

index

records

8 likes

siqu 1 year ago

Seems like after awhile all the "first times" get locked behind long grinds -- "first times" are "successive" in a way, a trail of continuity -- and it's hard to see if they even exist anymore, or if they're worth the effort, and if it's too late anyway. When you find a "successive" path, maybe it makes an opposing vortex against the infinite. One could hope all scattered dots connect and unlock such paths, maybe

1 like

saddleblasters 1 year ago

@siqu Normally I don't think it matters all that much and I can just focus on whatever I've been working on lately, but sometimes looking at my life as a whole, I get sad about "first times" that have been lost, even if like you said they're not really worth the effort anymore. There's so many!

1 like

angelsaremathematical saddleblasters

1 year ago

thank you for commenting on my post about studies! i added your comments to the end of the post!

1 like