The aesthetification of everything.

3/15/2026

I collect physical media. I've been collecting physical media, such as DVDs and CDs, for the past couple years, and I'm the proud owner of an expansive, pretty decent collection of films and TV shows. I've discovered new movies that I would've never seen before thanks to my collection, like the Matrix series or the 1993 Super Mario Brothers movie, or Frasier, Big Bang Theory or Cheers. Physical media is important for many different reasons, but above all else, it's important to me.

Which is the reason why I fucking hate the physical media trend on TikTok.

I'm not trying to gatekeep here. I think it's good that more people are aware of the benefits of physical media after all of our entertainment being dominated by streaming services. And I think it's kind of silly when people get mad at something when it goes mainstream (an example would be the emo scene and when MCR went mainstream--a thing you like gets popular with the "normies" and that makes it bad now) because isn't it a good thing when more people enjoy something you also enjoy? Doesn't it open more opportunities to connect with other people and have a bigger community full of cool, diverse people?

The issue I take with this trend, and really the entire analog/digital minimalism trend in general is that it's very congruent with the revival of frutiger aero. If you aren't already aware, frutiger aero was a design language that was very popular back in the late 2000s and early 2010s. It's characterized by bubbles, fish, solar-punk imagery, green and blue color palletes, etc. Windows 7 is the most popular example, but a modern example would be the aquarium liquid hand soap sold by Softsoap. Here's a picture:

For whatever reason, people either my age or slightly younger than me feel as if frutiger aero was some kind of vision for the future that was robbed of them. That buying an Apple iPhone 5C somehow wouldn't save the world from the terrifying grip of capitalistic ideology. There are other, less sarcastic, reasons for this feeling as well, such as the general awareness that spending so much time on the internet and social media isn't good for us, which is something I very much agree with (it's kinda the reason I started this website in the first place). The internet, as a whole, is not fun anymore. And yet we still find ourselves coming back because it's so useful, and because most of us, me included, are addicted to social media in one way or another.

So what happens when you have a group of mentally ill teenagers who feel as if an idealistic vision of the future from 10+ years ago was robbed from them, who are self aware of their phone use and still scroll on TikTok for several hours every day, and time and time again keep falling into the trap of trends despite them think they're an exception from the rule? You'd think they'd start a garage band, but apparently the answer is starting a completely new trend: digital minimalism.

Being a digital minimalist myself, I do absolutely know the benefits of the lifestyle. I know I kinda bashed it just now, but there seriously are a lot of pros to being a digital minimalist. You have more control over what you do online, your tech use is more thoughtful and intentional, you have more free time to do the things you love, and if nothing else, it's something to gloat about at parties to make people think you're a "down to earth" type of guy.

The issue I take with these kid's (and yes, that's what you guys are.) version of digital minimalism is that it's very contradictory. It's not about the lifestyle and benefits of, essentially, getting off your phone and touching grass. It's moreso about selling shit and cosplaying as a digital minimalist. They'll buy a vintage Nokia, or even one of the new ones, maybe a CRT television and some VHS tapes/DVDs, or an iPod (it's usually an iPod Nano 3rd gen for whatever reason. It's just so "aesthetic" I guess.) and make a TikTok edit with some lofi-beat in the background, with some inspirational phrase on the screen such as "Make That Change." It completely contradicts the purpose of digital minimalism and effectively spits in the face of it. It's a heavily bastardized take on the lifestyle, and the fact that these kids lack the self-awareness to realize that, is both shocking and very sad.

And don't get me started on analog bags. I have a zine you can read here about how awful these things are if you want to check it out, so I won't talk about it here, but trust me--They're comically pathetic.

If you truly want to start a digital minimalist movement, bring back flip phones, human connection, intentional tech use, and foster a healthy relationship with the tech we use and the lives we lead because of it, you would not post a TikTok showing off your digital minimalist EDC. Get off your phone, read a book, and do better.

To those who are genuinely interested, I'm planning on making a separate page on this site about becoming a digital minimalist and fostering a healthy relationship with the internet, and more specifically, your smartphone. That'll be coming along at some point in the near future, so I'll keep you guys posted on that.

That's it.

AI is not photography.

2/24/2026

"The rise of AI art is analogous to the advent of photography" says the former director of MoMA, Glenn Lowry.

It's both amusing and paradoxically pathetic to be hearing this kind of sentiment from the former director of the Museum of Modern Art. And if you happen to agree with this opinion, or believe that AI will replace human-created art, or anything even remotely like that, I would encourage you to please get off my website right now. I don't want you people here.

Even if photography is, on paper, not technically a human created work of art, it's still a human pressing the shutter button. It's a human that creates the composition. It's humans who decide what a photo means, or a painting, or a portrait, or any piece of art. AI generated images are not, full stop. Perhaps we cannot "stop" technology, but we can sure as hell criticize it and recognize how stupid a piece of technology actually is when we think about it for more than half a second or not swept up in a wave of FOMO.

A long time ago, I think in the '50s, there was a product marketed towards women that would make them look younger and prettier. It was a plastic mask they'd put on their face and electrocute themselves, which was supposed to, y'know, make them look more attractive and such. Looking back on that now, we can now see that that was fucking stupid. Hell, even the people who invented it realized it was dumb only like a year later and took it off store shelves, assuming anyone bought one to begin with. And while AI and a form of at-home torture are different, the concept is the same: some guy thought this was a great idea, marketed it to a bunch of people who didn't know any better, and slowly but surely people realized that the product doesn't actually do anything useful.

I will admit, I can see some very sparse practical applications for AI. Such as asking a question to something that you can't quite phrase correctly. But there were already things that existed before AI that did those things, and did them even better than AI can. And I'm not even referring to just art when I say that.

AI is dumb. No matter what a rich tech-bro tells you, they are trying to scam you. AI is a scam, Web3 is a scam, tech-bros are scammers, do not trust anything these people tell you.

Fuck AI.

ZINES!!!

2/14/2026

The zine page is finally finished and on the website :D

I've wanted to make zines for a while now, but I didn't really know how to do it. I got decently far on one a couple months back, but my creative energy fizzled out and I don't know if I'll ever finish it. But using the Electric Zine Maker was a fun way to get back into it. It's honestly really really cool having a little booklet you made yourself sit on your desk, or giving them out to friends or local businesses. Zines are a lot of fun.

I'll add more zines on the page as I continue to make more, and I plan on adding a separate page for my comics, but I'm not fully decided yet. I honestly might just section off part of the zine page just for comics.

If you guys like the zines I make, feel free to print them yourselves. I don't have any plans on selling them and I would love for the people who enjoy them, to have them. Just be nice enough to not remove the back cover, please and thank you :)

That's it.

Vote.

2/2/2026

I don't think I'm alone when I say that the United States is in a very interesting point in it's history.

It's reminiscent of the 1960s in a way. As we all know, the 60's were a tense period in the US, rife with social progress that leaders back then fought hard to get, and that some leaders are still fighting very hard to keep. At the current moment, the political climate in this country couldn't be more confusing. Masked agents are killing people in the street with impunity, our president is attempting to turn our country into a totalitarian regime (or at the very least, laying the groundwork for one to take place), and three men hold more wealth than half of the entire US population. It's easy to feel hopeless and give up on this country. On our morals. On our freedoms, if it means the masked agents will allow us to live one more day undisturbed. This isn't the America we were raised to believe in, and it certainly is not the one we want to live in.

But we aren't allowing it. Last Friday, the biggest protests in all of American history took place, protesting against ICE agents and the Trump Administration. Last summer, the second largest protests in American history took place, protesting against Trump himself. At the time, they were the biggest protests in American history.

I feel it is vitally important that I emphasize the importance of voting. Sure, you may think that voting won't actually do anything, but that isn't true. Trust me, if Trump is afraid of anything in this world, it's the midterm elections this November. Losing those seats in Congress will almost guarantee his impeachment, and we can move forward fixing what damage he did to our nation.

And remember that: This is our nation. Not theirs. We, the people of the United States, control this country. Perhaps we forgot that, or we thought that was just a nice thing to say and think, but the protests and the Trump Administration's reponse to it, prove it to be true. The will of the people is the law of the land. I don't care if you're a Democrat, a Republican, or something else entirely, or nothing at all, we are Americans. And Americans do not allow this kind of evil to take over our nation.

I will be at the polls this November. I hope you will be there too.

That's it.

Candied Onions is now public

1/30/2026

The journey from how this website first popped into my head, to today, was surprisingly fast and relatively easy.

HTML is a side-hobby of mine, I like to think. While yes, I really do love building websites (hell, sometimes it's all I want to do all day long, such was the case with my very first website and now this one) and looking at other people's Neocities sites, I've never really considered it to be a hobby of mine in the same leagues as my comic illustrations or filmmaking. It's always been a sort of means-to-an-end if you catch my meaning.

But CANDIED ONIONS is different in a way. Instead of it being a self-made platform for my comics or whatever else, it's just whatever bullshit I feel like making. Blogs, status updates, art, films, everything.

I first got the idea for this website while I was stoned. I don't really remember what prompted it, but I suddenly had the design for a new website in my head and I felt a strong urge to try to make it a reality. I didn't get past typing "" though and waited until the next day, when I was good and sober, to start working on it. I didn't even have an idea of what I wanted the site to end up being, I just wanted to see that design exist.

Using my sparse HTML skills, I managed to make the first page, which happens to be the one you're on right now! After that, idea after idea just started coming. Stuff like "wouldn't it be funny if I had a Mastodon feed inside of a microwave? Microblog, microwave, ROFL." That kind of stuff. I also dabbled in javascript in order to have the randomly selected backgrounds and advertisements on the site. The ads on this page were actually meant to be on the old penguinscomic website (to those unfamiliar, that's what this website used to be until I changed it. Read my previous blog for more info) and have been kicking around in my files since circa last April.

I'm exicted to see where this little site will go and what I'll end up doing with it.

That's it.

Hello, world.

1/27/2026

I HAVE CREATED A NEW WEBSITE!!

You may be possibly wondering "hey! what the hell happened to the old website?!" and while I appreciate your enthusiasm, we cannot overcome this dastardly conundrum until you calm down!

...Alright, enough of the witty banter. There are a couple reasons, and they are this:

• The old website didn't age that well.
• I wanted a new look.
• I wanted a website that actually allowed me to be myself fully, and not a catalyst for a brand I was trying to get off the ground.

Really doesn't get more complicated than that. I felt like whatever I did on that old site had to, in some way, had to conform to this identity of a brand. I don't believe in that philosophy anymore--the idea that people on the internet are not really people, but talking heads trying to sell you something. It's what killed the old internet, and a lot of the reason why it sucks now. The internet went from an incredibly niche and interpersonal place, where you could find some weird website greeting their future girlfriend, to pretty much just TV, especially in the sense that it's a 24/7 auction channel. It's ridiculous and I hate it, so I left that philosophy behind.

I can't gaurantee the stuff I post on here, particularly my blogs, will be any different compared to what I usually post on my Spacehey, but in general this site will just be a place for me to chill and post random garbage. My art, comics, films, ramblings, whatever I feel like. Think of it as my digital landfill (there's a band name in there somewhere). So, yeah! Follow my neocities profile if you so choose. I might get an RSS feed up and running if there's enough people to warrant it.

If you feel a compulsion to talk to me directly for some strange reason, you can email me here.

Check out this picture of the snow I took with my digicam:

That's it :P