Sasha's Megaphone https://blog.ranmagender.com The blog of Sasha Henriksen, webmaster of ranmagender.com about all kinds of things en-us Sasha's Megaphone https://blog.ranmagender.com/blog https://blog.ranmagender.com/images/rss.png 380 380 Fighting the Techbroism https://blog.ranmagender.com/entries/2020 https://blog.ranmagender.com/entries/2020 Fri, 26 Jun 2026 03:25:00 GMT Fighting the Techbroism
June 26th, 2026


DVD Collection by Purchase College Library, CC BY-NC 2.0

As we are in the cusp of further rising RAM prices, which judging by the manufacturer Micron is poised to continue into the 2030s as they locked down higher prices for the next 5 years. It's easy to ponder how we got here and theres many people with many theories and I'm sure they have their merits.

While some cite the launch of ChatGPT as the date when the world changed, back in 2022 I'd argue the world drastically changed during the pandemic in 2020.

This isn't a mind blowing thought, the shockwave to the economy, the millions who died and the collective trauma that it instilled in people is hopefully clear to just about anybody to have had an effect on the world.

However I think people underestimate that things like Techbroism (I'm coining that lol), conspiracy theories, trans exclusionary radical feminism and pseudo-science health influencers had a huge surge during the pandemic. The act of needing to wear masks or lockdown seems to have been enough to radicalize some people to the right.

This,combined with the ease of access to podcast equipment and everyone being indoors gave a hungry new audience to these people. Things like the Memestock where people invested in silly stocks hoping to cause a Gamestop level surge came shortly after 2020, which lead to the rise in pump and dump crypto scheme as people were trying hard to game the system. The culture became overly defeatist, a sort of the system is broken, nothing can be done about it mentality in a lot of people and why not screw some folks over to get a slice of the pie.

A lot of this techno-nihilism, con-artistry and fear that the system is too broken to repair reminds me of what I've read about the late 90s and the dotcom bubble. I was a mere baby when that happened but I can definitely see some pararells.

The reveal of some of the Epstein documents only emboldened the conspiracy minded as if they had been right all along but given that the man they hitched their wagon on was part of that I'd say they were not right. If there is some sort of "cabal" its just big business and government colluding to fan the flame of fascism, because that aligns broadly speaking with their goal of wealth accumilation.

I don't want to just be here listing things that you likely agree with, if you're on here you're probably of similar leanings as I am. But I think there is hope to be found among the chaos, if we just look at tech which has become worse and more expensive over time, there's trends that one notices.

There's a surge in younger people getting into retro tech and retro gaming, ipods for instance saw a rise in popularity following the pandemic due to the youtuber Dankpods.

DVDs and physical media while it has fallen by the wayside has continued to exist and has seen some rise with younger people who are sick of streaming services

Movies like Backrooms and Obsession caused the highest attendance in theaters since 2019, meaning its not true that people don't wanna go to the theater anymore but are perhaps just tired of the blockbusters and remakes that keep being pumped into the cinema. Obsession and Backrooms both beat Disney's Mandalorian & Grogu star wars film at the box office some weeks.

Despite AI being shoveled down our throat its overwhelmingly not well recieved by people. The usage of it doesn't really justify the cost. Companies are just hoping they can replace workers and sell every person on using AI to do their shopping which doesn't seem to be working.

There's an air of "okay...enough is enough" among people, young and otherwise and I think that's kind of refreshing to see.]]> Fighting the Techbroism
June 26th, 2026


DVD Collection by Purchase College Library, CC BY-NC 2.0

As we are in the cusp of further rising RAM prices, which judging by the manufacturer Micron is poised to continue into the 2030s as they locked down higher prices for the next 5 years. It's easy to ponder how we got here and theres many people with many theories and I'm sure they have their merits.

While some cite the launch of ChatGPT as the date when the world changed, back in 2022 I'd argue the world drastically changed during the pandemic in 2020.

This isn't a mind blowing thought, the shockwave to the economy, the millions who died and the collective trauma that it instilled in people is hopefully clear to just about anybody to have had an effect on the world.

However I think people underestimate that things like Techbroism (I'm coining that lol), conspiracy theories, trans exclusionary radical feminism and pseudo-science health influencers had a huge surge during the pandemic. The act of needing to wear masks or lockdown seems to have been enough to radicalize some people to the right.

This,combined with the ease of access to podcast equipment and everyone being indoors gave a hungry new audience to these people. Things like the Memestock where people invested in silly stocks hoping to cause a Gamestop level surge came shortly after 2020, which lead to the rise in pump and dump crypto scheme as people were trying hard to game the system. The culture became overly defeatist, a sort of the system is broken, nothing can be done about it mentality in a lot of people and why not screw some folks over to get a slice of the pie.

A lot of this techno-nihilism, con-artistry and fear that the system is too broken to repair reminds me of what I've read about the late 90s and the dotcom bubble. I was a mere baby when that happened but I can definitely see some pararells.

The reveal of some of the Epstein documents only emboldened the conspiracy minded as if they had been right all along but given that the man they hitched their wagon on was part of that I'd say they were not right. If there is some sort of "cabal" its just big business and government colluding to fan the flame of fascism, because that aligns broadly speaking with their goal of wealth accumilation.

I don't want to just be here listing things that you likely agree with, if you're on here you're probably of similar leanings as I am. But I think there is hope to be found among the chaos, if we just look at tech which has become worse and more expensive over time, there's trends that one notices.

There's a surge in younger people getting into retro tech and retro gaming, ipods for instance saw a rise in popularity following the pandemic due to the youtuber Dankpods.

DVDs and physical media while it has fallen by the wayside has continued to exist and has seen some rise with younger people who are sick of streaming services

Movies like Backrooms and Obsession caused the highest attendance in theaters since 2019, meaning its not true that people don't wanna go to the theater anymore but are perhaps just tired of the blockbusters and remakes that keep being pumped into the cinema. Obsession and Backrooms both beat Disney's Mandalorian & Grogu star wars film at the box office some weeks.

Despite AI being shoveled down our throat its overwhelmingly not well recieved by people. The usage of it doesn't really justify the cost. Companies are just hoping they can replace workers and sell every person on using AI to do their shopping which doesn't seem to be working.

There's an air of "okay...enough is enough" among people, young and otherwise and I think that's kind of refreshing to see.]]> Sasha's End of the Year Awards 2025 https://blog.ranmagender.com/entries/seotya2025 https://blog.ranmagender.com/entries/seotya2025 Tue, 27 Jan 2026 16:17:12 GMT

Sasha's End of the Year Awards 2025

December 26th, 2025
Since I did this last year, might as well make it a yearly tradition. Welcome to the second annual Sasha's End of the Year Awards 2025 where I give out awards to things I enjoyed from this year.

Game of the Year - Donkey Kong Bananza

image of donkey kong, big ape in a tie and pauline a young girl with brown hair and freckles, the background is yellow


Donkey Kong Bananza was my favorite game of the year, it had me hooked for days and it was just so much fun to be able to smash everything but also the narrative of Donkey Kong and Pauline connecting through the adventure was deeply touching and the callbacks to the past entries in the series were quite fun. The inclusion of Pauline does sort of mess with the timeline a bit altho general sentiment seems to be that Lady from Donkey Kong (1981) and Pauline from Odyssey and DK Bananza are seperate people, the former the grandmother of the latter. That's my theory on it at least, its fun to speculate even tho I doubt Nintendo is doing much to keep a consistent timeline.

Nevertheless what made Donkey Kong fun was how vibrant everything was, everything oozed charm with every Kingdom you went to. The soundtrack was also really good, aided by the recod player you can access in the getaways you build where you can listen to records you find.

All in all Bananza had the same kind of wow factor and magic to it that Super Mario Odyssey did in 2017 which is really the highest praise I can give it because I love Super Mario Odyssey and the team really brought that kind of sparkle to the table once more.

Movie of the Year - Predator: Badlands

poster for the film Predator: Badlands, image of an planet with the predator alien having his back turned to the viewer with a white blonde woman that he seems to be carrying on his back in front


I didn't watch a lot of new films this year, focusing rather on older films. I watched some real gems like the works of David Lynch (Rest in Peace), Fire Walk With Me and Blue Velvet come to mind as standouts that I'll surely remember forever. Another fun film I saw for the first time this year was Electric Dreams from 1984. While quite broadly speaking a collection of music videos stitched together into a movie it's quite a fun jaunt into the tech world of the 1980s and quite an emotional roller coaster. With all that said my favorite new film of the year was Predator: Badlands. I've been quite a Predator fan since seeing Dan Trachtenberg's previous work Prey (2022) when I went back to catch up on the series. This new film really is a high point for the franchise not just in terms of the box office but also just it encapsulates the entire franchise. From the Alien connections with Weyland-Yutani, to using terms from extended unviverse material such as the race actually being called Yautja. It just seems a lot of love for the franchise went into making the film.

The film is quite a fun story about trying to prove oneself, societal expectations and most importantly of all found family, all themes I quite dig in films. The friendship between the Yautja and the Weyland-Yutani droid as they try to survive the harsh world. The main character being a Yautja instead of being the aggressor flips the franchise on its head a bit but it also gives some insights into this alien race. Dek the Yautja has to learn that the harshness he was raised in might not work and being an alpha, like a wolf, means whoever can protect the clan the best. In the end he seems to find his own clan. It's just a beautiful film and the effects and acting are top notch. Would recommend.

I also ship Thia, the Weyland-Yutani droid and Dek, the Yautja, they have mad chemistry together!!

Album of the Year - Alter Ego

Lisa's head wrapped in black cloth, hand to her mouth, spiky black nails on display


This was a tough call because I really enjoyed Sabrina Carpenter's Man's Best Friend and frankly I've become a bit of a Sabrina Carpenter stan this year. However Lisa (from BlackPink) managed to create one hell of a debut solo album.

It's got this late 2000s vibe to it that I just really dig, going from bop to bop. Something about it just gives me the feeling that I'm at a night club in 2009 and bumping to somme tunes. Yet of course it has the same energy as a lot of her work with Blackpink or at least you can still feel it.

As for messaging it really feels to be a sort of rage against the machine type, especially like with the song Fuck the World where the tone is set from the title alone. Quite a fun album that I recommend people listen to. I bought the CD to enjoy because frankly fuck Spotify, but that's weering a bit offtopic. Can't wait to see what Lisa brings us in the future.

Video Essay of the Year - The Biggest, Craziest Wikipedia Drama Ever

Now I watch a lot of youtube video essays, its become a thing I love doing, the longer the better in fact. I just find myself fascinated by a lot of things and I've started to build up my attention span by watching these.

Now there were a lot of video essays released this year but I landed on giving the Essay of the Year award to The Skill Issue, or: How I Learned I Could Learn, and So Can You! (also capitalism is a disease) by Sane Retry


I think this video by Tor's Cabinet of Curiosities sort of is the pinnacle of video essays and what I quite enjoy about long form video content. It's about an hour and a half long and explores the life of David Woodard, a relatively obscure figure in the history of things yet is connected to a lot of historical things. Tor highlights his weird instance of trying to put himself at the list of wikipedia article accessible in most languages list, creating 300 articles about himself mostly using google translate. He then goes over this man's history and connects him to various aspects of history from a failed fascist colony in Paraguay to the bioterrorism attacks of an Indian cult in Oregon and many more things and it's just so entertaining to listen to Tor talk about this. There's so many odd facets of history that this David Woodard is connected to. I highly recommend the video.
That does it for another year's award show. I hope to write more frequently on this blog in 2026, but I make no promises. I will try tho.
I hope everyone is having a nice holiday seasons and a wish everyone a happy new year.

-Sasha Henriksen ]]>

Sasha's End of the Year Awards 2025

December 26th, 2025
Since I did this last year, might as well make it a yearly tradition. Welcome to the second annual Sasha's End of the Year Awards 2025 where I give out awards to things I enjoyed from this year.

Game of the Year - Donkey Kong Bananza

image of donkey kong, big ape in a tie and pauline a young girl with brown hair and freckles, the background is yellow


Donkey Kong Bananza was my favorite game of the year, it had me hooked for days and it was just so much fun to be able to smash everything but also the narrative of Donkey Kong and Pauline connecting through the adventure was deeply touching and the callbacks to the past entries in the series were quite fun. The inclusion of Pauline does sort of mess with the timeline a bit altho general sentiment seems to be that Lady from Donkey Kong (1981) and Pauline from Odyssey and DK Bananza are seperate people, the former the grandmother of the latter. That's my theory on it at least, its fun to speculate even tho I doubt Nintendo is doing much to keep a consistent timeline.

Nevertheless what made Donkey Kong fun was how vibrant everything was, everything oozed charm with every Kingdom you went to. The soundtrack was also really good, aided by the recod player you can access in the getaways you build where you can listen to records you find.

All in all Bananza had the same kind of wow factor and magic to it that Super Mario Odyssey did in 2017 which is really the highest praise I can give it because I love Super Mario Odyssey and the team really brought that kind of sparkle to the table once more.

Movie of the Year - Predator: Badlands

poster for the film Predator: Badlands, image of an planet with the predator alien having his back turned to the viewer with a white blonde woman that he seems to be carrying on his back in front


I didn't watch a lot of new films this year, focusing rather on older films. I watched some real gems like the works of David Lynch (Rest in Peace), Fire Walk With Me and Blue Velvet come to mind as standouts that I'll surely remember forever. Another fun film I saw for the first time this year was Electric Dreams from 1984. While quite broadly speaking a collection of music videos stitched together into a movie it's quite a fun jaunt into the tech world of the 1980s and quite an emotional roller coaster. With all that said my favorite new film of the year was Predator: Badlands. I've been quite a Predator fan since seeing Dan Trachtenberg's previous work Prey (2022) when I went back to catch up on the series. This new film really is a high point for the franchise not just in terms of the box office but also just it encapsulates the entire franchise. From the Alien connections with Weyland-Yutani, to using terms from extended unviverse material such as the race actually being called Yautja. It just seems a lot of love for the franchise went into making the film.

The film is quite a fun story about trying to prove oneself, societal expectations and most importantly of all found family, all themes I quite dig in films. The friendship between the Yautja and the Weyland-Yutani droid as they try to survive the harsh world. The main character being a Yautja instead of being the aggressor flips the franchise on its head a bit but it also gives some insights into this alien race. Dek the Yautja has to learn that the harshness he was raised in might not work and being an alpha, like a wolf, means whoever can protect the clan the best. In the end he seems to find his own clan. It's just a beautiful film and the effects and acting are top notch. Would recommend.

I also ship Thia, the Weyland-Yutani droid and Dek, the Yautja, they have mad chemistry together!!

Album of the Year - Alter Ego

Lisa's head wrapped in black cloth, hand to her mouth, spiky black nails on display


This was a tough call because I really enjoyed Sabrina Carpenter's Man's Best Friend and frankly I've become a bit of a Sabrina Carpenter stan this year. However Lisa (from BlackPink) managed to create one hell of a debut solo album.

It's got this late 2000s vibe to it that I just really dig, going from bop to bop. Something about it just gives me the feeling that I'm at a night club in 2009 and bumping to somme tunes. Yet of course it has the same energy as a lot of her work with Blackpink or at least you can still feel it.

As for messaging it really feels to be a sort of rage against the machine type, especially like with the song Fuck the World where the tone is set from the title alone. Quite a fun album that I recommend people listen to. I bought the CD to enjoy because frankly fuck Spotify, but that's weering a bit offtopic. Can't wait to see what Lisa brings us in the future.

Video Essay of the Year - The Biggest, Craziest Wikipedia Drama Ever

Now I watch a lot of youtube video essays, its become a thing I love doing, the longer the better in fact. I just find myself fascinated by a lot of things and I've started to build up my attention span by watching these.

Now there were a lot of video essays released this year but I landed on giving the Essay of the Year award to The Skill Issue, or: How I Learned I Could Learn, and So Can You! (also capitalism is a disease) by Sane Retry


I think this video by Tor's Cabinet of Curiosities sort of is the pinnacle of video essays and what I quite enjoy about long form video content. It's about an hour and a half long and explores the life of David Woodard, a relatively obscure figure in the history of things yet is connected to a lot of historical things. Tor highlights his weird instance of trying to put himself at the list of wikipedia article accessible in most languages list, creating 300 articles about himself mostly using google translate. He then goes over this man's history and connects him to various aspects of history from a failed fascist colony in Paraguay to the bioterrorism attacks of an Indian cult in Oregon and many more things and it's just so entertaining to listen to Tor talk about this. There's so many odd facets of history that this David Woodard is connected to. I highly recommend the video.
That does it for another year's award show. I hope to write more frequently on this blog in 2026, but I make no promises. I will try tho.
I hope everyone is having a nice holiday seasons and a wish everyone a happy new year.

-Sasha Henriksen ]]> Sasha's End of the Year Awards 2024 https://blog.ranmagender.com/entries/seotya2024 https://blog.ranmagender.com/entries/seotya2024 Tue, 27 Jan 2026 16:17:11 GMT

Sasha's End of the Year Awards 2024

December 26th, 2024
Influenced by maia crimew's things of the year list over at it's website maia.crimew.gay i've decided to give my awards out for things that I think notable of the year. Let us begin the award ceremony, Sasha's End of the Year Awards or Seotya for for short

Game of the Year - Balatro

logo of the game balatro with red and blue background a symbol in between bal and atro along with a spade playing card


I like many others have become hopelessly addicted to this game. I think it just manages to exploit the primal number go up mentality to a new level, similar to other breakout hits like Vampire Survivors, which I'm also fond of. I think the most satisfying thing about it is the sounds of the shuffling of cards.

While I've not played too many card games I think that can be a key in the feel of a card game video game like that, the sound and virtual feel of the cards themselves. The colors are also very vivid, looking quite pleasing on my Steam Deck. It definitely deserved its many awards and nominations that it recieved and I look forward to the upcoming update to the game.

Movie of the Year - I Saw The TV Glow (2024)

A comic, panel 1, a man looking angrily in the mirror, he's bald, black and white simplistic. 'I am a grown man' he says. panel 2 he's angrily sitting by his computer 'I am a big adult' panel 3 he sits by the computer 'i can do this' he says panel 4, a screenshot from the movie i saw the tv glow the character Owen is at work at the theater. the narration is subtitled 'What if she had been telling the truth? What if I really was someone else? Someone beautiful and powerful.' panel 5 another screenshot from i saw the tv glow of the empty theater narration subtitles continues 'Someone buried alive and suffocating to death. Very far away on the other side of the television screen.' panel 6 is the man from the first panels crying, bawling, he's visibly upset


I can't even summerize it better than with this meme I made about the movie and a specific passage that resonated with me. The movie was made by a trans director Jane Schoenbrun who is trans-fem and nonbinary. Being nonbinary myself and this being a film both about that lived experience but also the feeling of not transitioning early in life but later in life. I'm pushing 30 and what my gender identity is and whether or not i'd be happier transitioning is something I go back and forth on. I often describe myself as either genderfluid or nonbinary.

I had heard about this movie and its themes of fiction and transness and I thought this quite interesting so I gave it a go. Aside from the haunting imagery and just vibes that ooze out of every scene the acting of Justice Smith who I quite like having seen him in his earlier film Detective Pikachu his perfomance of Owen is so great and I find myself relating to Owen a lot. Someone who doesn't fully grasp their gender identity, someone who is not that interested in sex but gets hassled for percieved queerness due to a lack of interest in the opposite sex. Someone who feels at times suffocating by existing in their own body. Whilst my dysphoria is never that bad, it still exists. It just I feel, lingers.

When the movie was over, I had held it together pretty well but I cried. I cried for an hour after watching that movie. I cry when I remember specific scenes. My eyes are watering just writing this review of it. It's a very raw emotional rollercoaster and trans or not I think it should be seen by more people, if only for the visual spectacle.

Few movies make me able to sit through them and then break like that once the credits rolls but I Saw the TV Glow is one of them.

Album of the Year - The Dancefloor At The End Of The Universe

album art of Tom Cardy's The Dancefloor At The End Of The Universe with a lot of space and transcendental cartoon characters along with a charicature of Tom Cardy in space, prominintently featured is a being that looks like a dj


I've listened to Tom Cardy for a while now, having discovered him on youtube. I think it was his song Red Flags, about a date where a guy finds out his date has an unhealthy obsession with the film Human Centipede.

Tom's type of humor gels with me but I think his way of creating stories and narratives within his songs are why I enjoy his songs so much and his third album showcases it so nicely. Loosely themed about space and the transcendental nature of existing, but in a fun way it collects a lot of his recent music as well as providing some new ones.

The titular Dancefloor at the End of the Universe is a chacha song about a multidimensional dance club and is quite a catchy tune and the music video accompanying it has some really lovely animation with all sorts of aliens dancing. It's a bop to say the least.

I think my favorite is Level Clear! about Mario having an existential crisis as he realizes without bowser his life has no meaning just respawning over and over again. It's both good as music, comedy and introspection about the nature of placing too much of one's identity into living goal to goal. I recommend to listen to it and perhaps buy it on bandcamp, here.

Video Essay of the Year - The Skill Issue

Now I watch a lot of youtube video essays, its become a thing I love doing, the longer the better in fact. I just find myself fascinated by a lot of things and I've started to build up my attention span by watching these.

Now there were a lot of video essays released this year but I landed on giving the Essay of the Year award to The Skill Issue, or: How I Learned I Could Learn, and So Can You! (also capitalism is a disease) by Sane Retry


In this the youtuber goes over the idea of learning skills and how until later in life it was a foreign concept to him and tells the story of his grandmother, grandfather and mother in order to make a point about not only skill but capitalism.

It's quite interesting, well presented and uses bethesda gameplay to illustrate his storytelling along with a bunch of clips from media he talks about but its done really well.

I was already anti-capitalist going into it but seeing this hour and a half video like, not only did i gain a new appreciation for all skills, including my newfound drawing and 3d modeling skills which I've tried to get better at this year.

The later half of the video I gained a new level of disgust towards capitalism that I did not before. I had never considered that angle and now I'm just, mad, like properly angry at the institutions that allowed it to get to the state its currently in.

Highly recommend giving it a watch, you won't regret it. ]]>

Sasha's End of the Year Awards 2024

December 26th, 2024
Influenced by maia crimew's things of the year list over at it's website maia.crimew.gay i've decided to give my awards out for things that I think notable of the year. Let us begin the award ceremony, Sasha's End of the Year Awards or Seotya for for short

Game of the Year - Balatro

logo of the game balatro with red and blue background a symbol in between bal and atro along with a spade playing card


I like many others have become hopelessly addicted to this game. I think it just manages to exploit the primal number go up mentality to a new level, similar to other breakout hits like Vampire Survivors, which I'm also fond of. I think the most satisfying thing about it is the sounds of the shuffling of cards.

While I've not played too many card games I think that can be a key in the feel of a card game video game like that, the sound and virtual feel of the cards themselves. The colors are also very vivid, looking quite pleasing on my Steam Deck. It definitely deserved its many awards and nominations that it recieved and I look forward to the upcoming update to the game.

Movie of the Year - I Saw The TV Glow (2024)

A comic, panel 1, a man looking angrily in the mirror, he's bald, black and white simplistic. 'I am a grown man' he says. panel 2 he's angrily sitting by his computer 'I am a big adult' panel 3 he sits by the computer 'i can do this' he says panel 4, a screenshot from the movie i saw the tv glow the character Owen is at work at the theater. the narration is subtitled 'What if she had been telling the truth? What if I really was someone else? Someone beautiful and powerful.' panel 5 another screenshot from i saw the tv glow of the empty theater narration subtitles continues 'Someone buried alive and suffocating to death. Very far away on the other side of the television screen.' panel 6 is the man from the first panels crying, bawling, he's visibly upset


I can't even summerize it better than with this meme I made about the movie and a specific passage that resonated with me. The movie was made by a trans director Jane Schoenbrun who is trans-fem and nonbinary. Being nonbinary myself and this being a film both about that lived experience but also the feeling of not transitioning early in life but later in life. I'm pushing 30 and what my gender identity is and whether or not i'd be happier transitioning is something I go back and forth on. I often describe myself as either genderfluid or nonbinary.

I had heard about this movie and its themes of fiction and transness and I thought this quite interesting so I gave it a go. Aside from the haunting imagery and just vibes that ooze out of every scene the acting of Justice Smith who I quite like having seen him in his earlier film Detective Pikachu his perfomance of Owen is so great and I find myself relating to Owen a lot. Someone who doesn't fully grasp their gender identity, someone who is not that interested in sex but gets hassled for percieved queerness due to a lack of interest in the opposite sex. Someone who feels at times suffocating by existing in their own body. Whilst my dysphoria is never that bad, it still exists. It just I feel, lingers.

When the movie was over, I had held it together pretty well but I cried. I cried for an hour after watching that movie. I cry when I remember specific scenes. My eyes are watering just writing this review of it. It's a very raw emotional rollercoaster and trans or not I think it should be seen by more people, if only for the visual spectacle.

Few movies make me able to sit through them and then break like that once the credits rolls but I Saw the TV Glow is one of them.

Album of the Year - The Dancefloor At The End Of The Universe

album art of Tom Cardy's The Dancefloor At The End Of The Universe with a lot of space and transcendental cartoon characters along with a charicature of Tom Cardy in space, prominintently featured is a being that looks like a dj


I've listened to Tom Cardy for a while now, having discovered him on youtube. I think it was his song Red Flags, about a date where a guy finds out his date has an unhealthy obsession with the film Human Centipede.

Tom's type of humor gels with me but I think his way of creating stories and narratives within his songs are why I enjoy his songs so much and his third album showcases it so nicely. Loosely themed about space and the transcendental nature of existing, but in a fun way it collects a lot of his recent music as well as providing some new ones.

The titular Dancefloor at the End of the Universe is a chacha song about a multidimensional dance club and is quite a catchy tune and the music video accompanying it has some really lovely animation with all sorts of aliens dancing. It's a bop to say the least.

I think my favorite is Level Clear! about Mario having an existential crisis as he realizes without bowser his life has no meaning just respawning over and over again. It's both good as music, comedy and introspection about the nature of placing too much of one's identity into living goal to goal. I recommend to listen to it and perhaps buy it on bandcamp, here.

Video Essay of the Year - The Skill Issue

Now I watch a lot of youtube video essays, its become a thing I love doing, the longer the better in fact. I just find myself fascinated by a lot of things and I've started to build up my attention span by watching these.

Now there were a lot of video essays released this year but I landed on giving the Essay of the Year award to The Skill Issue, or: How I Learned I Could Learn, and So Can You! (also capitalism is a disease) by Sane Retry


In this the youtuber goes over the idea of learning skills and how until later in life it was a foreign concept to him and tells the story of his grandmother, grandfather and mother in order to make a point about not only skill but capitalism.

It's quite interesting, well presented and uses bethesda gameplay to illustrate his storytelling along with a bunch of clips from media he talks about but its done really well.

I was already anti-capitalist going into it but seeing this hour and a half video like, not only did i gain a new appreciation for all skills, including my newfound drawing and 3d modeling skills which I've tried to get better at this year.

The later half of the video I gained a new level of disgust towards capitalism that I did not before. I had never considered that angle and now I'm just, mad, like properly angry at the institutions that allowed it to get to the state its currently in.

Highly recommend giving it a watch, you won't regret it. ]]> Selfshipping: Comfort in a Harsh World https://blog.ranmagender.com/entries/selfship https://blog.ranmagender.com/entries/selfship Tue, 27 Jan 2026 16:17:10 GMT Selfshipping: Comfort in a Harsh World
April 21st, 2025
I've over the past few months increasingly gone down the path of selfshipping or yumeshipping as its called. This is in essence the practice of shipping yourself with a character from fiction. This can be sexual, romantic, platonic, alterous or any of the above so long as it involves you and one or more characters from fiction.

For me that would be the Dark Magician Girl, yes the Yu-Gi-Oh card. It's important to note of course I'm under no illusion that she's like tangably real, well unless the many worlds interpretation of string theory proves correct, but in general its just meant as a sort of fun. For more info on the subject check out this page on fanlore.

Now why would a 31 year old like myself admit to shipping myself with the Dark Magician Girl. First of all because I think cringe culture should be killed and nothing thats not harming anyone should be looked down upon.


Moodboard for a self insert of me and Dark Magician Girl

But secondly, I think like, look at the absolute state of the world right now. Maybe I'm just more aware of it but between Trump's America, Putin's continued war with Ukraine, the horrific genocide in Palestine to name but a few examples, maybe we need something that mentally helps with the horrors around us.

Of course we shouldn't ignore them, we should fight for a brighter future but we as humans were never meant to process this much bad news, this much empathetic pain, this much shared sadness.

So yes, I need a break mentally from it sometimes so despite being into my 30s I like to imagine myself in a relationship with the Dark Magician Girl for fun. I make moodboards like the above, commission artists and am even in the process of writing a fanfic.

Why the Dark Magician Girl specifically? Well she was the first character I was infatuated with when I was younger, plus her silly and spunky demeanor coupled with her radiant smile warms my heart.



Just look at her, charming, radiant, quirky, fully of life. How can she not brighten one's day.

I do think in this world, anything that makes life easier and doesn't harm anyone can ultimately not be bad. Yeah it may seem cringe that people ship themselves with fictional characters, it may be seen as cringe to own a bunch of plushies, it may be seen as cringe to dress up in animal costumes.

These are but a few of many examples of things people may find cringe but a lot of times its just ways for people to destress and deal with life that through capitalism and imperialism has become so draining. We only live once so why burden ourselves even more by denying ourselves simple pleasures simply because they might be percieved as bad, cringe or weird by outside observers.

Live your life, imagine yourself kissing your faves.
Be cringe and be free. ]]> Selfshipping: Comfort in a Harsh World
April 21st, 2025
I've over the past few months increasingly gone down the path of selfshipping or yumeshipping as its called. This is in essence the practice of shipping yourself with a character from fiction. This can be sexual, romantic, platonic, alterous or any of the above so long as it involves you and one or more characters from fiction.

For me that would be the Dark Magician Girl, yes the Yu-Gi-Oh card. It's important to note of course I'm under no illusion that she's like tangably real, well unless the many worlds interpretation of string theory proves correct, but in general its just meant as a sort of fun. For more info on the subject check out this page on fanlore.

Now why would a 31 year old like myself admit to shipping myself with the Dark Magician Girl. First of all because I think cringe culture should be killed and nothing thats not harming anyone should be looked down upon.


Moodboard for a self insert of me and Dark Magician Girl

But secondly, I think like, look at the absolute state of the world right now. Maybe I'm just more aware of it but between Trump's America, Putin's continued war with Ukraine, the horrific genocide in Palestine to name but a few examples, maybe we need something that mentally helps with the horrors around us.

Of course we shouldn't ignore them, we should fight for a brighter future but we as humans were never meant to process this much bad news, this much empathetic pain, this much shared sadness.

So yes, I need a break mentally from it sometimes so despite being into my 30s I like to imagine myself in a relationship with the Dark Magician Girl for fun. I make moodboards like the above, commission artists and am even in the process of writing a fanfic.

Why the Dark Magician Girl specifically? Well she was the first character I was infatuated with when I was younger, plus her silly and spunky demeanor coupled with her radiant smile warms my heart.



Just look at her, charming, radiant, quirky, fully of life. How can she not brighten one's day.

I do think in this world, anything that makes life easier and doesn't harm anyone can ultimately not be bad. Yeah it may seem cringe that people ship themselves with fictional characters, it may be seen as cringe to own a bunch of plushies, it may be seen as cringe to dress up in animal costumes.

These are but a few of many examples of things people may find cringe but a lot of times its just ways for people to destress and deal with life that through capitalism and imperialism has become so draining. We only live once so why burden ourselves even more by denying ourselves simple pleasures simply because they might be percieved as bad, cringe or weird by outside observers.

Live your life, imagine yourself kissing your faves.
Be cringe and be free. ]]> Random Thoughts https://blog.ranmagender.com/entries/randomthoughts https://blog.ranmagender.com/entries/randomthoughts Tue, 27 Jan 2026 16:17:09 GMT Random Thoughts
February 3rd, 2024
I thought I'd post some random things. This blog doesn't have a theme and sometimes I will just braindump like this. Here we go.

Tangara
As I'm someone with a website, it comes as no surprise that a lot of things of yesteryear i find quite nostalgic or just nice. One such thing being mp3 players with my recent fasacination being the ipod.

Like many I became fascinated with them after a series of videos by the youtuber Dankpods. I never had an ipod growing up, my family couldn't afford it. I hat a Creative Zen V that my dad got me from his trip to Sweden.
At any rate, I found a cool project that I think is just kind of neat.



Tangara (you can find the crowdsupply page for it here. It's an mp3 player that's like an ipod, but its made using an ESP32 and has bluetooth, usb-c, wifi, sd card support and is customizable. It plays flac files and has a nice DAC. It's like the ultimate ipod, people spend a lot of time and money to get their classic ipods to match this. I own an ipod classic 5th gen and I love it to bits, but the use of the propietary cable is mildly inconvinient and this just seems better than an ipod in most ways. It's 249$ and the campaign on crowdsupply ends next month. I'm tempted but I wonder if I really need it. Just thought I'd share it.

Goatlings
Yesterday I found this cool site called Goatlings.com. It's like Neopets but with goats. Has a very classic Neopets feel and I think it's kinda cute. Not sure if I will play it often but I might. Here's my goat Baphoma. Yes I named her after Baphomet, why wouldn't I, haha.



Currently trying to get enough points to change her appearance into something cool

The third thing
I've been trying to eat, not per say healthier but more intentionally. My theme for this year or at least a good chunk of it is intentionality. I wanna cook more and buy more specific ingredients that will last me instead of always just eating out.
this goes hand in hand with what I talked about in my last post about how I'm trying to be more frugal.

Made some decent progress, been learning to bake bread in my air fryer and using my smoothie mixer to make smoothies for breakfast. I also eat a lot of oatmeal. People seriously undervalue how long a bag of oatmeal stretches given its low price. I bought a bag two weeks ago and been eating a lot of it and still got some left.

These are my thoughts right now. Till next time. ]]> Random Thoughts
February 3rd, 2024
I thought I'd post some random things. This blog doesn't have a theme and sometimes I will just braindump like this. Here we go.

Tangara
As I'm someone with a website, it comes as no surprise that a lot of things of yesteryear i find quite nostalgic or just nice. One such thing being mp3 players with my recent fasacination being the ipod.

Like many I became fascinated with them after a series of videos by the youtuber Dankpods. I never had an ipod growing up, my family couldn't afford it. I hat a Creative Zen V that my dad got me from his trip to Sweden.
At any rate, I found a cool project that I think is just kind of neat.



Tangara (you can find the crowdsupply page for it here. It's an mp3 player that's like an ipod, but its made using an ESP32 and has bluetooth, usb-c, wifi, sd card support and is customizable. It plays flac files and has a nice DAC. It's like the ultimate ipod, people spend a lot of time and money to get their classic ipods to match this. I own an ipod classic 5th gen and I love it to bits, but the use of the propietary cable is mildly inconvinient and this just seems better than an ipod in most ways. It's 249$ and the campaign on crowdsupply ends next month. I'm tempted but I wonder if I really need it. Just thought I'd share it.

Goatlings
Yesterday I found this cool site called Goatlings.com. It's like Neopets but with goats. Has a very classic Neopets feel and I think it's kinda cute. Not sure if I will play it often but I might. Here's my goat Baphoma. Yes I named her after Baphomet, why wouldn't I, haha.



Currently trying to get enough points to change her appearance into something cool

The third thing
I've been trying to eat, not per say healthier but more intentionally. My theme for this year or at least a good chunk of it is intentionality. I wanna cook more and buy more specific ingredients that will last me instead of always just eating out.
this goes hand in hand with what I talked about in my last post about how I'm trying to be more frugal.

Made some decent progress, been learning to bake bread in my air fryer and using my smoothie mixer to make smoothies for breakfast. I also eat a lot of oatmeal. People seriously undervalue how long a bag of oatmeal stretches given its low price. I bought a bag two weeks ago and been eating a lot of it and still got some left.

These are my thoughts right now. Till next time. ]]> Long Live RSS https://blog.ranmagender.com/entries/longliverss https://blog.ranmagender.com/entries/longliverss Tue, 27 Jan 2026 16:17:09 GMT Long Live RSS
December 5th, 2024
I got the blog to work again. This time I managed to learn how to do rss feeds properly. I wanna thank Alli from innerspiral.lol for helping me figure out RSS feeds.

For some reason I was trying way too hard and for some reason I had this mindset that RSS was some kind of automatic process that read the tags, but no it as the name implies, its a Really Simple Syndication and its just a file you update each time.

Been on the internet a long time but I guess that never clicked with me until I read the article she linked. It's this one here called Reclaiming RSS on Aral Balkan's blog.

I've been passionate about rss feeds for a while now as I think its a great way to follow creators without the influence of The Algorithm (TM). A common sentiment I see around some parts is that google killed their popular Google Reader because RSS feeds arent as lucrative as their algorithm derived business model that was brewing.

Just like libraries if RSS feeds were proposed today, especially to some of these tech companies they'd call you crazy at best and try to sabotage you at worst.

But yeah, look forward to some goodness in the future, in the meanwhile, here's some resources on rss feeds:
]]> Long Live RSS
December 5th, 2024
I got the blog to work again. This time I managed to learn how to do rss feeds properly. I wanna thank Alli from innerspiral.lol for helping me figure out RSS feeds.

For some reason I was trying way too hard and for some reason I had this mindset that RSS was some kind of automatic process that read the tags, but no it as the name implies, its a Really Simple Syndication and its just a file you update each time.

Been on the internet a long time but I guess that never clicked with me until I read the article she linked. It's this one here called Reclaiming RSS on Aral Balkan's blog.

I've been passionate about rss feeds for a while now as I think its a great way to follow creators without the influence of The Algorithm (TM). A common sentiment I see around some parts is that google killed their popular Google Reader because RSS feeds arent as lucrative as their algorithm derived business model that was brewing.

Just like libraries if RSS feeds were proposed today, especially to some of these tech companies they'd call you crazy at best and try to sabotage you at worst.

But yeah, look forward to some goodness in the future, in the meanwhile, here's some resources on rss feeds:
]]>