BLOG.AFTER-RAIN.NET

June 10, 2026

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 14:32:49 -0400

]]>Portal 2 is a game that I hold very dear to my heart. It was one of my longest running hyperfixations in my childhood, and as I've been going back to play it recently, it's sparked that love that 11 year old Nikki had for it.]]> ]]>Portal is still somewhat relevant today, but it's definitely fallen out of the wider public consciousness. I found the series in 2015-2016, when it was already 8-9 years old. I was a bit late to the party, being born in 2005 (two years before the Orange Box released), and the only consoles my family had for a while in the late 2000s/early 2010s was the Nintendo Wii, and my parents' old Xbox and Nintendo 64 (I never played on the Xbox, as I was scared shitless of it. I'd run into the hallway, jump behind the couch or hide behind a curtain whenever my mom would turn it on. I think my childhood fear of the Valve intro would be worse if I had seen it at 7 instead of 11). We did get an Xbox 360 during Christmas 2014, and then I eventually found out about Portal in 2015 when LEGO Dimensions released. Somehow, it took me until 2017 to actually get around to playing the real games.]]> ]]>I rented Portal 2 from the video store we used to have in my town at the time, and I was hooked on the game...though I did have to use a lot of walkthroughs for my initial playthrough. I loved Wheatley so much, and I still miss him to this very day. I actually started making my own artwork because of Portal. I would scroll through deviantART for hours just looking at Portal fanart, and I wanted to be able to make artwork like what I saw. So...if there's anything to thank for me being an artist today, thank Portal! I would make art before that, but I wanted to make serious art. I made at least a hundred Portal comics when I was in 5th grade, though I no longer have any of them (I tossed out a ton of old paper artwork years ago).]]> ]]>My first fanfiction I ever wrote was also for Portal. Like these games had a DEATHGRIP on me for ages. I have to thank Valve for making THE games to be my biggest inspiration as a kid.]]> ]]>I stopped hyperfixating on Portal in high school, when I then moved onto other games like Sonic, Jet Set Radio (which I could write an entire other blog post on) and Splatoon. This year, 2026, while in the process of finally playing Half-Life (which I bought the first game + the Orange Box on PC back in 2020), I've been replaying Portal as well...and I feel it dragging me back in.]]> ]]>As one of my ]]>favorite tumblr posts]]> declares, "your 20s is for reliving your childhood hyperfixations", which I would say seems to be true. I'm turning 21 this year, which means that It'll have been almost 10 years since I started playing Portal (which hurts my soul to think about). I don't think it'll have nearly as much of a deathgrip on my brain as it did when I was 11, since I cannot rediscover it all over again, but it's fun to be revisiting the games that had a huge part in forming my personality.]]> ]]>All the best, Nikki

May 13, 2026

Wed, 13 May 2026 13:27:30 -0400

]]>It's not exactly the most original opinion that people are sick of the current state of the internet. I'm not the only person to try and minimize use of modern tech because I hate the direction it's all going in.]]> ]]>Over the past year, and especially this year, I've been abandoning some of the modern tech and services that I've used for years. I deleted my Twitter and Reddit accounts a few months ago, and I've never felt the urge to go back. It felt...freeing. Now, I still do spend a lot of time on tumblr, but baby steps are better than always doing giant steps, yeah?]]> ]]>I've also been buying a lot more DVDs and CDs lately. I've never stopped buying physical media, but I think it's more important than ever now. I also rip my media to my laptop, so that I will still have both a physical and digital copy. Learning how to use software like ]]>Exact Audio Copy]]> or ]]>MakeMKV]]> was one of the best things I've done. I like to use ]]>Kodi]]> to watch my backups.]]> ]]>I've never really used music streaming services, so using an iPod is something I've always done. I use my iPod for music when I'm out and about (or I just don't have my laptop) and I use ]]>MusicBee]]> to listen to my library on my computer.]]> ]]>I've felt more peace since I cut off some apps and websites I used to use. Boundaries are good. In fact, I've got a boundary ready for tumblr the moment they ask me for my ID to verify my age: I'm just going to delete my blog. I'll finish up my archive with ]]>tumblr-utils]]> and then I'll deactivate my account and leave. We don't HAVE to put up with what companies are doing. We can just...stop using their products. Yes, some things are going to be harder to not use, especially if they're used for a job, but it's more important to make any efforts we can than to not make any.]]> ]]>Continuing to thrift and find older tech to use in my life reminds me of this ]]>blog post from rnotte]]>, that discusses how the old stuff IS sometimes better, and that we shouldn't throw away older things if they still serve a purpose. I have an old Canon Powershoot digital camera that I used when I was a kid, and it still works wonderfully! Sure, it might be a teensy bit fuzzy, being a camera from 2008, but I can still take some damn good photos with it. I don't NEED 4K Ultra HD graphics for things. I am perfectly content with 480p for my video games, and 720p/1080p for my movies/tv shows. I grew up with the Wii and N64. I don't need my video games to be shiny. I don't need to see every pore of the human skin in a photograph.]]> ]]>Don't buy the newest phones if yours still works. I had a Pixel 5 that I got from my dad from 2022 to this year, when I finally upgraded to a Pixel 8 (and even then, I'm having screen problems with that phone! Kind of fitting for my complaints about how shitty modern tech is). I used that phone for almost 4 years without needing a new one. Now, think about people who buy the latest iPhone every year, when the previous iPhone could have still had at least 5 years left in it! I'm so sick of how we waste expensive technology, especially here in the US where I live.]]> ]]>Now, to close this off, let's try to be better together. Don't do it because you feel an obligation to. Do it because you want to. Do it because it could make you happier. Convenience is nice, but inconvenience is also good.]]> ]]>All the best, Nikki

April 26, 2026

Sun, 26 April 2026 12:03:45 -0400

]]>I love the original Xbox. It’s one of my favorite consoles of all time. It has an energy that I absolutely adore. It’s also home to some of my favorite games ever (like Jet Set Radio Future. Love that game).]]> ]]>So I decided to take it apart and replace the IDE drive in it with a larger SATA drive. This is to document the wonderful journey I went on to swap it.]]> ]]>First, I had to buy some parts. I had to get a new 80 wire cable and an IDE->SATA adapter. The Xbox comes with a 40 wire cable, but it's not enough to support a SATA HDD. It’s also intended to work with IDE drives, so the adapter was needed.]]> ]]>So I bought those, they arrived…now the fun began.]]> ]]>It was very annoying to fold the IDE cable to get it to actually sit in the Xbox. I bought a 24 inch (about 60 cm) cable, so it was kind of big. Definitely not intended to work with the Xbox. BUT after getting some help with it, the cable was folded, and the drive was powered on.]]> ]]>And it didn’t work.]]> ]]>I thought that maybe something wasn’t hooked up, but no. Everything was. It just was not working. So I took out all of the parts and went to bed. This was last night, before this post goes up.]]> ]]>When I woke up this morning, I decided to try and reformat the drive with FatXplorer. Maybe something went wrong when I formatted it a few weeks ago. I reformatted, locked it, and put it back in the Xbox.]]> ]]>Miraculously, it worked!]]> ]]>Genuinely don’t know what happened before that made it not work. Reformatting seemed to do the trick. Now I had to get the softmod set up back up and get all of my game saves and DLC transferred back over via FTP. Such an annoying process.]]> ]]>Remember when I said I love the Xbox? Correction: I love the Xbox when I don’t have to open it up and fix it or upgrade it. Now that I’ve got a new drive, it should be able to last a bit longer. Maybe more hours of Psychonauts for me (by the time anybody reads this post, I will be continuing my journey of 100%ing that game. Pain and suffering, more so than getting the Xbox drive replaced).]]> ]]>All the best, Nikki

April 17, 2026

Fri, 17 April 2026 12:34:46 -0400

]]>Sorry for the month without a blog post, I was pretty busy in March and never got around to it :(]]> ]]>In my ]]>January blog post]]>, I talked about how I had started using Photoshop to design my site layouts.]]> ]]>]]>But Nikkiii...you have to be ACCESSIBLE! You have to make your site RESPONSIVE! Images can't be responsive!]]>]]> ]]>See, I throw that hypothetical complaint back at the (not any in specific) people that it's aimed towards with my own statement: image based layouts are fun.]]> ]]>I like using image layouts because I LIVE in art programs. I am an artist, thus using an image editor would feel more natural to me, when making site layouts.]]> ]]>HTML and CSS are obviously an essential thing to learn when making a website. My old websites used to have div based layouts, so I'm fully aware of the pain that those bring. Being able to just put the images wherever I want without worrying about code is very nice and makes my life easier, especially when I am an adult with little time to tinker around for a million hours now (oh how I miss being able to just...spend hours working on my site).]]> ]]>Also, wouldn't images be the most responsive way to make a layout? It'd be the same on every device!]]> ]]>Yeah yeah, this is another short entry, but I can't make myself write long entries all the time. Maybe the next topic will be enough for me to write a lot about :P]]> ]]>All the best, Nikki

February 15, 2026

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 18:44:44 -0400

]]>Hello all, today I write a new blog post for people to read :P]]> ]]>I've been indulging in playing old childhood games recently. One of which is Club Penguin. Back in January I discovered Club Penguin Journey, and I've had a lot of fun playing it. Especially since it gives me the chance to play minigames that I wouldn't have played as a kid (like Card-Jitsu. I don't think I ever touched it back when the original Club Penguin was online. It's been so fun playing it though!).]]> ]]>So...y'all hear about the Discord shenanigans?]]> ]]>I, personally, am not really thrilled. Mostly because I'm going to have to find a new chat app, and then get my friends to join. I've been using Windows Live Messenger via ]]>Crosstalk]]> for the past few days, but I doubt I can get my best friends to migrate to it. It's a shame that Discord has to kill itself right now. It was a good chat app. I've been using it for years, and now I have to migrate? It sucks, man.]]> ]]>Maybe this is where we all go back to email pen-pals and texting via phone numbers? It's really starting to feel like that.]]> ]]>Not a very blog post this time, this is just kind of me rambling, since I've been thinking about stuff over the past week. I think something that kept me from updating my old blog is the idea that EVERY entry had to be long and substantive. I'm trying to break that mindset and just write. It doesn't have to matter how long the entries are. As long as I'm writing, that's all that matters to me!]]> ]]>All the best, Nikki

January 20, 2026

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 23:30:27 -0400

]]>Brand new year, brand new blog. It took me way too long to actually get started on making this one.]]> ]]>I managed to get this blog up in just one night. It's a little shoddy but whatever. It works for right now until I can work on it more. I've wanted to make a blog for this site for months, but 1) I never had the motivation to do so, and 2) I was stuck on what layout to make. Nowadays I recycle layouts like I'll die if I don't, but I wasn't sure what to do for it. Now I finally got a layout I like, and hopefully I'll stick with this one.]]> ]]>I don't really talk about it on this site but I used to be a Neocities user, and while I do still miss all of my mutuals from there (if any of you see this, please email me, I miss all of you), I genuinely think moving away from it was the best decision I could have made in regards to my webmastering. Using PHP saves me so much time and lessens the stress of having a million pages. Neocities is great for when you're starting out, and if you just want a simple HTML/CSS based site and nothing more, but I needed to be able to use PHP. Especially for my fanlistings. I wanted to have my primary site and my fanlisting collective on the same host, but Neocities doesn't allow for PHP. So I had to leave. I outgrew it. As simple as that.]]> ]]>Though, in my ]]>final blog post]]> on the old domain, I did explain that one of my other reasons for leaving was the fact that on Neocities, there's almost an expectation to frequently update a site. Even if you don't want to (which I definitely went through periods of. I mean, if you pay attention to this site, you'll see I update it a few times a month and then dip), there's an underlying fear that people will unfollow, or that you failed as a webmaster, because there is a sort of instant gratification with the Neocities (and I guess the old web community as a whole). I was getting a little more stressful when going through college, and I AM much happier here, on my little site in the middle of nowhere, where I can update whenever the hell I want to! No follower count to determine my site's worth.]]> ]]>I do miss having a website covered in a million images, though. But, yknow, I really like the more simplistic style too. My millions of images have just been converted into image-based layouts that I spend hours working on in Photoshop, and that's ok too! Like, I wouldn't say my site is Y2K or Frutiger Aero or anything like that anymore, but I really like the millenial/2000s fan style of sites too. So this is what I'm probably going to end up having for the foreseeable future. I'm in college, an important time of my life. My personal website will reflect this.]]> ]]>Now, will I actually properly update this blog this year? Debatable. ADHD and Autism give way to memory problems, and I already have a lot on my plate in real life as it is, so we'll see if I can make time to write in here.]]> ]]>All the best, Nikki