THE BELOVED/BELOATHED HOLIDAY SEASON APPROACHES!!!!

 Do any of you have unique or weird Christmas/holiday/winter break traditions? My family does your standard baptist Christian affair, but one thing we've done since I was a kid was buy a birthday cake for Jesus every year. The type of cake is always different (one time my ex made it which my very religious sister was NOT happy about since I'm a lesbian, lol. Can't have a gay Jesus cake.) and we eat it on Christmas morning after singing Happy Birthday to Jesus as a family! Then we all sit and eat while my father reads the Christmas story from the bible. I imagine part of the reason for this was to make us sit down as kids and listen to the verses without complaint, placated by sweets.

 What are some of your unique holiday traditions or just weird things you do on winter break? If you don't have anything, did you hear about something funny online? My friend just send me this cute video about a Christmas dinosaur: https://www.tumblr.com/tiktoksgay/671593234811797504

I am also perpetually struggling with this. I'll echo purelyconstructive's point on timers, and also say I find meditation to be a genuinely helpful tool for staying on task. sometimes my brain gets too overwhelmed between thinking about plans, chores, projects, deadlines, etc. it gets overwhelming. Taking even three minutes before working to just sit with yourself, close your eyes, do some breathing exercises and basically do a brain reboot can help so much.

Oh wow! I just saw this now!

When I spotted the update in the banner announcing the webring, I thought "I'd better work hard on my site before I join it" and then discovered I was already in it lol. But it was so exciting to add the widget to my page! Gives me an incentive to finish the pages I'm working on (an e-shrine for the game We Know The Devil, and a page for art and info of all my D&:grin: characters!) so more people can see them.

I'm excited to browse through all the sites in the web ring!

Clock

Been playing WORLD OF HORROR for a bit, it's a really cool Junji Ito-horror inspired roguelite with incredibly cool art. It got announced for the Switch which is how I heard of it, but I decided to get it on PC because it seemed like a better fit

Ohh I own that game and rlly like it, but I'm also such a baby when it comes to horror games >.<

It's one of my fav genres when it comes to books/comics/movies (Junji Ito is one of my favourite mangaka), but something about having control over the situation makes horror games so scary to me!! My brain is just like, oh shit this is HAPPENING to ME!! Makes it fun to play with friends tho lol

Firstly I want to say, Thank you for making this thread wris! I shared it with a few friend groups of mine yesterday and it sparked some lovely conversations

When I was a kid I spent as much time as I could outdoors, and was only allowed maybe 30mins of computer time each day. We would use the oven timer to make sure I didn't go over (though sometimes I would be able to convince my mother to give me extra time.) When I turned twelve (in 2009) I was given an iPod for my birthday, and gained theoretically unlimited internet access. After that I started to spend more and more time online.

Now, I definitely struggle with unhooking myself from the internet. For a year or so during the pandemic I couldn't even get out of bed without putting on a podcast or youtube video. My attention is almost always split, because a lack of mental stimulation makes it impossible to focus. Over-stimulation became my default. I've been taking steps to remedy that, but man is it tough to undo over 10 years of built up bad habits. I've deleted social media apps off my phone, forbid headphones on my commute to work, and downloaded some browser extensions to make my social media experience a little less addictive.

I think the points people make about having an ACTIVE experience online are key. I want to get to a point where I'm not just browsing passively for a dopamine hit, but actively exploring and learning and entertaining myself in a deliberate manner. I've wasted so much time just scrolling... scrolling... scrolling... or listening to random things I don't even care about just to fill my brain with noise. I do love the internet! I just want to be able to experience it in a way that makes me happy!

I was born in 1997, so I wasn't really aware of a lot of early web stuff, but I do remember spending a lot of time on Gaia Online roleplay forums and various flash game sites. I also used to build websites with friends for random clubs we would make. I remember we made one to host my friend's naruto fanfiction on! I got to experience the web before modern social media, and I do miss the sort of adventure and exploration it used to hold and encourage. Places like this forum, the Yesterweb, the broader web revival movement/indieweb are doing a lot of important work to make the internet feel like it's still a space for people, rather than just brands and corporations.

Like almost everyone these days, I've been playing Cult of the Lamb! I find the actual fighting kind of underwhelming (sometimes the 2D art style makes it difficult to tell how close to an enemy's hitbox I actually am) but for the most part it's very fun!

I've also been playing a cute little game called An Airport For Aliens Currently Run By Dogs.

I originally discovered this game through a streamer I watch (hollow_tones on twitch) and immediately stopped watching her play it because I knew I had to play it for myself. It creates such a sweet, caring, melancholy and goofy world that I find extremely charming. I haven't played a lot of it yet, but I don't think it's a very long game either.

Hi Awawa!!

I love your neocities page, it's so bright and playful! I really related to your diary entry about trying to slow things down... I'm so addicted to distraction nowadays, sometimes I can hardly make myself food without putting on a podcast or a youtube video first. I've also been trying to force myself to take it slow more often, making time for reading and taking breaks from using my wireless headphones... basically just not letting myself beam media into my brain the entire day.

Oh I LOVE your site. The layout of your half is really nice, and Billy's side is so cute! It really encourages me to work more on my site ^^;

I like how you have a section in your resource directory for gardening/farming! I'm terrible at taking care of plants myself, I'm always in awe of folks who keep gardens and houseplants.

Ooh hell yeah! I love the article on virtual pets! They were a huge part of my childhood and I continue to be fascinated by them to this day lol

Ooh this is really cool! It's especially nice that you included your inputs like when you're selecting specific tools. I'll definitely reference this in my own Blender journey!

Can never go wrong with Sufjan, this song is one of my favourites.

Hello!!

I'm also just journeying into this world of independent websites, it's a fun space!!! I'm very excited to see what your site looks like! (Especially if it has pages about RGU or Homestuck, I love both of those things too!)

Nice to meet you!

your art for both games looks really pretty. I can't wait to see what you put on your website

Thank you!!

Your site is really stylish btw! I love it! I haven't explored all of it yet, but I like the quote section in your scrapbook. I also tend to collect quotes from things I like, so maybe I'll put some of them on my site somewhere too! I also love you including zines thru the EZMReader, I was aware of that tool but never thought to embed it in my website.