insertdisc5's July 2026 newsletter of news
the steam sale is still happening btw you can get my games for cheaper. hi
“HI!!! TRUTH SCRAPPER NEWS PLEASE!!!”
THE DEMO IS OUT you can play the demo play it its very cool.
We also had a Sosotte plushie that we were trying to get funded… And we didn’t! Oh well! It was a gamble. I have now learned that releasing a plushie just for a demo is not enough to get people interested, and even more when people might’ve bought some ISAT plushies the month before! I learned!!! Thank you to everyone that pitched in or shared the link around, it means a lot 💖💖💖
We’re hoping to get another plushie ready for the actual game release, but no promises! Except for the promise of “I will knock at Makeship’s door for ever to make it happen”.
“OK YAY!!! HOW’S LIFE!!!”
Good! I recovered from my Japan jetlag just in time to fly to Germany for the Portside Game Assembly, where I was invited to give a talk!!! I gave a talk about fanworks and how to encourage fans to hopefully do some. It was a very funny talk to give to dudes who don’t know what yaoi means. I did get some nice feedback that it made some of them realize the Importance of getting fanart!!! It’s art!!! Made by a fan!!! Because they love your thing so much!!!!!!!!! The event was also lovely, it was on a boat. I hadn’t been on a boat in more than a decade so I was very happy to know that I don’t get horribly seasick. Yippee
In other news, I am trying to lower my social media usage. Yes I’m the new one on the quest. It is a work in progress, but I’m pretty happy with how it’s been going so far. I am on my computer all the time (that’s where work happens!), so checking socmed is pretty easy, and all the advice on how to stop scrolling is for phones… SO HERE IS MY ADVICE FOR COMPUTERS
I downloaded ActivityWatch, which logs your activity on different websites/apps. I wanted to do that for a week to get a baseline of how much I go on social media. But after two days I got such a kick in the face of a number that I immediately stopped the experiment and went to the next phase.
I then got Redirector, which uh redirects you to another website if you go on one of the no-no websites. It worked for a bit, but the thing is that it’s fairly easy to disable… So I got into the habit of disabling it. It did help to halve my socmed usage though!
After that and other experiments, I came to a realization… Which is that stopping social media is one thing. And it’s somewhat easy. But the thing that makes you go back to social media is: "what else is there to do with all this time?!” And so you get bored and you need stimulation and so you go back on socmed to scroll through the same 3 posts you’ve seen already because your timeline is chronological and it’s 6am.
So THEN I read about Dopamine Menus, which are like. You write down things you could do instead of scrolling. Maybe you can stretch. Maybe you can read a book. Maybe you can play a game. Anything is better than scrolling!!! Please brain!!! We have to stop!!!
So anyway I did many more experiments and right now I am at the point where I logged out of all my accounts on my computer, and I can only access social media on my old iPad, which is halfway accross the room, aka “too far”. So I only check it for breakfast and it’s working out okay! I also have more books on my desk so I can grab one and read, and my consoles are easier to get too. Including my little Playdate which rules. Buy the playdate instead of getting the 1000000000$ steam machine
But now, a new threat looms: I gotta get my youtube video watching down too. A NEW QUEST!!!!! We’ll see how it goes.
Anyway if you find I’m on social media less, that’s why. #health
Listening: Slayyyter - BEAT UP CHANEL$
Watching: I watched The Accountant on the plane to Germany. real interesting portrayal of autism (← positive and negative)
Reading: The Tatami Galaxy by Tomihiko Morimi. I watched the anime when it first aired but have very little memory of it… I should rewatch it after this
Playing: OUTSIDE PARTIES on the playdate!!! what a fascinating game idea
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About addressing youtube video watching! I spent the first couple weeks of my summer playing video games with youtube in the background and kinda hated it! (Bc I felt unproductive which made me sad)
And the solution to that for me was audiobooks! I've been playing games like terraria, minecraft, roguelikes, that don't require reading, so I can still listen to someone talk. Since I started doing that I've listened to a bunch of books I've been really wanting to read and have stopped beating myself up over enjoying my summer! I dunno the circumstances of your youtube watching, this probs won't work for you, but you mentioned something I just fixed for myself so I felt compelled to share with you.
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AUDIOBOOKS... i was thinking about listening to podcasts but audiobooks does sound like a good idea too!!! i will try!!! thank you!!!
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Yippee! Also, you probably aren't as broke as I, but if you want to find free audiobooks, You can make as many spotify & amazon accounts as you want and use their free trials for audiobook+ and audible and whatnot. (I recommend getting a $5 visa gift card from your local gas station and using that if you do this more than a couple times tho because you need to put in a card for the free trials and they will eventually ban your card. Usually takes at least a dozen or so accounts for that but still better safe than sorry)
Also basically all libraries have apps. Libby and hoopla most commonly. Check what your local library uses.
If that isn't an option or if you want an even better selection, some libraries let you register for a card online. This is important because what you can do is go find one of these libraries. I recommend ones in the American states of New York or Massachusetts (bc they have some of the biggest public libraries in the world), find a library that does this (it's usually the tiny ones in the middle of nowhere) (kinda gotta hunt on google maps until you find one) and register for a card. This card will only last a couple months, because after the online registration you are supposed to go to the library in person to confirm it (usually have abt a month to do that, + another month or 2 for them to actually disable your card), but for that time you can have access to the New York Public elibrary from anywhere in the world! Or the Harvard elibrary! And when they do get around to disabling that card you can just make another one!
(and there's also archive.org and pirating, but audiobooks are much scarcer than ebooks, so unless it's public domain your odds ain't good)
Have fun!
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my hero. thank you for this gift
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When I was trying to use my phone less (for the same reasons) personally I started putting my 2DS XL in my pocket instead of my phone since they're almost identical in size. No algorithms.... no social medias.... just lots of fun (definitely legally aquired) games and whimsy.... I feel so much more joyous when using it instead of my phone! Can recommend!!
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