totally not me seeing one of my favorite artists draw my first ex and the friend they cheated on me with two years and one day after the incident...

saying this here since none of them have newgrounds accounts

I feel this would qualify more as a minor news flash, but I don't really care.

Sorry for the long delay, lots of stuff has occured. School exams have occured, which made me like a couple days behind (though I caught up with most of it last night other than two math assignments, I was gonna do them but then I got sidetracked by my mom, not her fault though)

But onto the good stuff...

In the last news flash, I mentioned that I found a thing that helped me install macOS Sierra onto my machine. While it did work, I had that and then made a new copy of the partition to install Monterey, it worked for a while until Monterey stopped booting and then the macOS Sierra partition randomly got bricked.

(I feel I could've had a better solution with Monterey, but whatever.)

So on the macOS Sierra (which I'll refer to as the backup) Partition, I managed to get a custom Bootloader (OpenCore Legacy Patcher's) to recognize the Linux install I had. It works, even though I have to go through GRUB to boot Linux. I did try (more recently) to install rEFInd (another bootloader) but its pretty slow since there's lots of stuff it has to read, so whatever...

What I plan on doing later today is seeing if I could either reinstall macOS or install Windows 8.1 (or 7/10) onto this machine. Though maybe macOS first and then use BootCamp. Depends on how much disk space I have, but it shouldn't be an issue since...

On January 20th, 2024, some things happened. My sister's birthday was a week prior, but considering the whole house was on a fast, we didn't celebrate with a cake and whatnot, and my mom gave my sister a mango as a present.

On the same day, Three Kings Day was celebrated (very late, two weeks later in fact as its on Jan 6th normally) but I got some cool stuff.

Some of the stuff I got was a USB Flash Drive and a microSD Card (with an adapter).

I used the SD card to install some games onto my Switch (since it has like maybe over four times the storage capacity of the previous SD Card I used which I'm now realizing I have no clue where it's at. Update: it was in an older SD Card Adapter I had plugged into my PC, which blended so well I didn't know it was in there.)

I planned on using the USB drive last Wednesday, but got so caught up with catching up on schoolwork that I wasn't able to.

On an old USB flash drive, I used that to put Ventoy on it (though I planned on putting it into a disc but it didn't get detected for whatever reason.) I then archived some files from my Chromebook, so now you can see I have a bunch of drawings!

(The stuff in red is private development stuff, which is stuff you'll likely see in the future, and the stuff in blue is personal/private stuff. Also the icons are just part of a theme.)

Onto other stuff, I've been modding some stuff, mainly Friday Night Funkin' as there's a few mods I'm making I want to finish beforehand, and then a mod I did one image for relating to SRB2Kart which I'm now realizing I can't find the 1x1... Luckily I had some WIP screenshots. Shame I lack the 1x1 file though. I guess I never saved it.

I also archived a bunch of drawings that would've been lost since I once accidentally wiped my PC. (Lots of early drawings I've uploaded here have lost project files.)

Here's my favorite.

It was drawn for a contest in which people had to draw their OCs in a character's outfit. I felt like spicing up the colors of the outfit for this one tho.

I don't know what else to write so uh... yeah.

This would've came out fifteen minutes earlier but I decided to join my family do one of those face mask things but it was an Indian clay mask thing, and now my face is stuck as there's clay all over my face, and a bit in my hair, eyebrows, mustache, and beard. (Edit: some also got on my eyelashes and a big bit of it fell onto my pants I forgot to mention.)

It feels like my face is closing in on itself.

Before and After.

I feel DeviantArt is like the wild west of 'art' sites. Like, there's lots of good art, but then there's lots of not original content and AI generated stuff too. As well as there being artist comm. spaces, I just find it annoying. Don't get me started on the fetishes either. It's hard to find an image on DeviantArt that isn't a fetish with a few clicks. Sometimes you may find a cool image on your search engine leading to there, then on the side is like vore or inflation. Blegh.

And then there's lots of reuploads of stuff too. Like someone posted a Sonic Mania screenshot, and someone (else?) posted Knuckles' sprite sheet. And I also saw someone reupload the promo material for Sonic X Shadow Generations, and another person upload the logo for it. LIke why?

Anyway, this is a small rant. Expect some news maybe by later this week.

2024 is on the brink of death. Tomorrow, he will die. It's good to move on, yet it may hurt to lose such a beloved year. Lots of good has happened, and some bad, but mostly good, as I can't be bothered to try to find anything bad to happen.

This year went by pretty fast, didn't it? I went on a cruise and a few flights yet hardly remember a thing!

Personally, I've been tryna see if I could get something out by New Year's, but it seems out of reach, considering everyone else I have workin' on it has kinda just stopped what they're doing even when I've asked if anyone could do one vital thing that'd take a while, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, Happy New Year's Eve!

Gamers, good news.

Today (and by today, I mean a mix of actually today, and yesterday, as it is 3 AM.) I had:

• Managed to install macOS onto my PC once more (planning on upgrading to Monterey and stopping there).
• Used the colored pencils I got for Christmas for the first time.
• Finished a drawing I've been working on for two months.

In more detail (in the order of above):

• I found a file somewhere having a ".raw" file which had an installer for macOS Sierra on it, which seemed to be (apparently) a conversion of the installer to an ISO bootable format, which I burned to my flash drive with balenaEtcher. (Note: I managed to setup Time Machine, just incase I need to backup stuff.
• I used the colored pencils to color in two drawings I did 'quickly' as I listened to some music. However, these relate to something currently private, so I can't share these in full, however it relates to a game I'm working on.
• And the two month drawing I've been working on also comes to a conclusion, albeit digitally and not on paper like what's mentioned above.

Reason this News Flash is listed as Semi-Minor, as there is some major info here, however there's just not much said about these things here at the moment.

Hoping for good things soon!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

A couple of things occurred today (technically yesterday as it is 2 AM as of typing on the 26th, but I don't care.)

For those who've been on the previous topics, I hadn't been able to solve the previous problem I'd been having for now.

I tried to stay up all night for Christmas (my own tradition) however I think I went out at late 6 AM. So I guess I had stayed all throughout the night. (I woke up at like 11~ or something.)

Before midnight, I was watching YouTube and trying to do stuff as I cleared some config stuff (and the Mac's chime plays at deafening volume). I then went to the living space where I was supposed to watch stuff with my sister, though we both ended up playing Roblox. Though my mom eventually did put something on. Lemme tell ya, Speed Run 4's gone through some changes, it's like an identify crisis of sorts. They changed some of the later levels and added some new levels. The new levels are very apparent, as they're in the modern style of levels (alas the Donut stages). Funnily enough the ending stage isn't touched. Also they added ...pets? Yeah, for whatever reason, you need to get a pet in order to unlock Stage 1.

During the early morning (1 - 6 AM) i decided to watch some Christmas stuff in my room and try to fix stuff with my PC at the same time. I had my door closed incase the TV was loud and so the PC startup sound wouldn't be too loud.

I tried to burn the macOS Sierra disk image to my flash drive, though i think I did it wrong, as it wouldn't boot from there, so I installed Ventoy onto the flash drive to see if I could fix anything. I did delete some partitions and just about it but that was later.

During the late morning, I waited as my family took forever to get ready. Then some pictures were taken, and presents were opened. We opened presents at like 4 PM, then it was 7 PM when we finished. I got some things, in a semi-specific order (I forgot the last part of the order) they include:

• A new pair of chanclas.
• A hat.
• An Ancestory DNA test.
• A lightbox.
• Sonic X Shadow Generations (This was a day 1 version. Includes a Legacy skin for regular Sonic, a promo for the Digital Deluxe version, and the Sonic 3 film. Also includes Gerald Robotnik's journal.)
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder
• Sonic Superstars (Also including LEGO Eggman DLC and a promo for LEGO Sonic sets.)
• Lots of cologne and smell-goods.
• Nintendo Switch Sports
• Earwax removal tools.
• A ton of colored pencils.
• Some unbranded Nintendo Switch accessories.
• Some clothes.
• A ROBLOX gift card.

And that's all I remember off the top of my head.

I played Super Mario Bros. Wonder for like a few minutes with my mom, then having to go for dinner, then returning and playing for maybe 15-30 minutes before being told to wash a bunch of dishes, then I played until a few levels into World 2. I then played Sonic Generations for an hour before going into Shadow Generations for another hour (roughly or less.)

Man, Shadow Generations is nice, the aesthetic differences are wild, especially in the options menu, pause menu, act select, and more. No spoilers though. I need to beat the game and do it justice.

Also I find it funny that Modern Sonic in Sonic Generations can do the Drop Dash. Also the physics for Classic Sonic (and I guess the controls for Modern Sonic) take some time to get used to after having only played Sonic Colors and Sonic Forces for the past "few years."

I haven't touched the other two games however. And I also lost storage space as I tried to get a DLC.

Anyway, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year, time for me to read random Guideline pages. (Right now, on https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/help-information/terms-of-use/audio-guidelines)

Mondays, I Don't Like Them.

Including the fact that it was the second day of something my family (minus me) was working on (I suppose Dinner for Christmas Eve stuff) and they were busy and then I was also called quite a bit (oh and I also had to go outside more than normal on a Winter day since I had to take out the trash a lot)

Techless Stuff:

• I had an issue with my physical window that some cold air would be let inside my room. This was due to the fact my room's window is technically always open so a cord can go through it, and the gaps are held by tape. This tape had grown old and had lots of residue, it sucked.
• So the stuff near the bottom of the window had lots of gunk, I cleaned it out.
• There was a tiny bit of stuff near the top though that wasn't as hard. I then replaced the bottom tape easily, however the top part was kinda tough, since there was lots of tape residue (I hate it) and I had to use a paper towel to get it off since some got stuck to my finger.
• I then swept the floor below the window too for good measure. Also note that my window is behind the desk I have my PC at, and next to my bed. So it was kind of major. (If I were to make a 1D map of my room, I'd say like ERRRDW, E being the entrance, R being the room itself, D being the desk and the comma key being bad today, and W being the Window.
• I think I did this at like 3 PM or something, which caused everything else done today to be done late.

Techfull Stuff:

I didn't get to fix my problem. For those who are technically illiterate, please scroll to the bottom for more easy to digest words.

On the technical side of things (this is a followup to yesterday's post and the post before it.)

• Still haven't been able to boot into macOS Sequoia, but luckily I managed to backup everything I needed to onto a very small partition.
• (Note, Sequoia's Recovery Mode/Installer's Disk Utility allowed me to make disk images from folders, which allowed me to backup everything I needed to. (Which was just a non-cancerous amount of screenshots showing my Mac's progression and other things such as a certain to be announced-again game running on it, which wasn't FNF but there's screenshots of that in there too.)
• The small partition was only like 700mb I managed to create using Lion's Disk Utility (why is it so different?)
• Also OSX Lion is too old to recognize the file format that macOS was formatted in, how sad.

So yeah.

In a Nutshell

• I managed to backup some stuff onto a small partition, and I'm ready to reinstall macOS (again) in the morning.

I think I might upgrade to macOS Sonoma, not sure. Well I'll see about macOS Ventura, as it seems it'll likely have good results.

Also, trying to boot into Safe Mode did nothing.

To-Do

• Reinstall macOS X Lion, then upgrade to macOS Sierra, then use OpenCore Legacy Patcher to upgrade to Monterey again and see about Ventura.
• Find out how Time Machine (Software) works. [MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS SINCE I KIND OF SUCK AT MAKING BACKUPS.]

For the Technically Illiterate/Not Caught Up

For those not caught up:

• The Sunday prior to this week, I decided that the iMac I use needed macOS on it again. I had Linux installed on it previously, as I accidentally wiped my hard drive when I screwed up something in a Windows installer. (I thought something would've done something else if I added something to it, it did not work. This was months ago.)
• Then one day I found out macOS had an "Internet Recovery" mode*. This means I could grab the most bare bones' version of macOS that I could use to restore my computer. And so I did (making sure everything I had was safe). I then updated to the version I'm most familiar with. Then I used a program called OpenCore Legacy Patcher, it allows users to install modern versions of macOS on unsupported hardware, like abandoned Macintosh devices and standard machines.
• I then upgraded to macOS Monterey, which I thought was apparently the last macOS version that needed 4 GB of memory to run. Though I saw somewhere else that it needs 8. Not sure.
• Then recently (the Saturday after, a few days ago.) I decided to upgrade again. It was a failure. I went from Monterey to Sequoia. Sequoia had so many bugs and it used so much CPU. When I found of a way to make the CPU have less usage, it was too late as I couldn't boot back into the computer.

For those who have hard times understanding:

• On this edition, I managed to back up some stuff, and I came up with a game plan for how I'll approach tomorrow.
• I'll then reinstall a good version of macOS and then upgrade to a version that hopefully won't crash as well as making backups.

*As of writing, I found this article: https://www.macobserver.com/tips/how-to/reinstall-macos-using-internet-recovery-mode/ that had some keybinds I didn't know of, which included ones that allowed the most latest version compatible/the system initial version to be installed from the internet. Didn't know that existed.

Welp, time for me to finish a drawing I've been holding off for two months. Should hopefully be out by the end of the month or the start of January. No exceptions for February.

1:40 AM - 12/24/2024

(Pre-Publish Edit, this was going to be a minor news flash, however I put too much information into this, that it's kind of major now. Also while typing a part of this, I found out that there's a random "Block List" button when making posts. I don't know why I have the option to view the one person I have blocked on Newgrounds as I type a post.)

This is a minor post to say that I may need to have rethought some things out, as I tried to update the version of macOS I had on my PC to macOS Sequoia (or however it is spelled) and the CPU usage is atrocious. It takes forever to boot (if it even does) then initially some network drivers were screwed. I used OpenCore Legacy Patcher to fix those issues (technically 2 days ago as it is 4 am) and some minor things were fixed (like visual errors and being able to connect to WiFi) though the thing was still too slow that I could hardly run settings on it and it is just a mess. What's worse is that I can't manually downgrade from an installer. (So I can't go back to say macOS X Lion via Internet Recovery if I wanted to, for whatever reason.) I considered making a new drive to where I could theoretically install Lion to, though I don't know how to work the version of Disk Utility it uses other than to make the system read the actual OS partitions and my flash drive.

Been losin' some Zs though it's been a bit worth it knowing what does and doesn't work. Considering learning how macOS' Time Machine works and then find out what's the best version of macOS I can run on my PC. From what I know...

• macOS X Lion: Runs great, though only one app really works on it, and it is Pale Moon, and there's nothing I can do with it.
• macOS Sierra + High Sierra: The last versions of macOS my computer natively supports. For a long while I used macOS Sierra then High Sierra before I accientally wiped my PC. Also note: Haxe seems to have issues on this version, however Haxe projects* seem to work. (*Only Haxe project I tried was Friday Night Funkin'.)
• macOS Monterey: Seems to work great other than some minor slowdowns. It would've been best if I had set a Time Machine backup on this version since apparently you can downgrade OS versions with Time Machine and only Time Machine.
• macOS Sequoia: Runs awfully. Heck, even Steam crashes when the updater tries to auto-launch if I don't Force Quit it by then.

Right after typing this part, I found https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenCoreLegacyPatcher/comments/166mvsp/personal_solution_to_kernel_task_high_cpu_usage/ which might help me if I remember it in the morning. Hopefully I can boot macOS to that extent where I can open it.

Also my experience with Sequoia is that:

• On first boot (pre-drivers) the background was grey and Launchpad loaded "quicker" at the cost of no background.
• On repeat boots: There's a small chance the login screen would show the default wallpaper instead of the wallpaper I had set, but it quickly fixes itself. Also it feels the loading bar and password areas are too low.
• The computer takes WAY too long to boot, like sometimes I'm convinced it just stopped, as sometimes I can't even press Caps Lock to flash the light. But it loads slowly and when its done, it's when the bar is like halfway.
• l Everything takes forever to launch. Want to launch System Monitor to check the CPU usage (going to 100% mostly due to Idle usage and System usage?) Too bad!
• At least it has Freeform.
• Except the CPU usage is likely too high to run it.
• Also it takes ages to get Launchpad to open, but Finder takes longer to make a Window too, so if you want to open a non-pinned app (like me 90% of the time) then patience is key.
• Also I forgot to note that macOS identifies my PC as a Mac 12 or something, though I feel it'd be more like a Mac 11,5 or something, since it has an Intel processor, 4 GB of Ram, and like a 2nd Generation CPU or something. I always thought the Mac was from 2014, but the "About this Mac" app says its from 2011.
• Sometimes the wallpaper can start as dark grey, then either appear, or show up yellow. Yeah, I kid you not, it turns yellow.
• Also since the Network compatibility stuff was kind of screwed on install, I can't connect to the internet in Recovery Mode nor the installer either.

What ended up trying to be a small notice turned into a bigger thing, whoops.

So in a nutshell:

• I installed macOS Sequoia on an unsupported iMac device from the early 2010's and it runs like garbage, and I'm complaining about it as I find ways to make it not run like poop.

This occurred after:

• Last Sunday, I remembered that macOS had Internet Recovery, so I backed up some files (just incase) and installed macOS X Lion (as that was the first version that has compatibility with my PC) and then I had to format a partition and install it. (So the backing up of files was meaningless.) Then I installed macOS Sierra, and then installed macOS Monterey. (It was like 5, almost 6 when I finished then, so it was Monday by then.)

Anyway, when I installed macOS Monterey, it was 5:50 AM. When I installed macOS Sequoia, the installer seemed to finish at 2 am, then head into like 4 am, and then when done it was like late 5 AM, and then I had to force my PC off as I heard my mom walking to the bathroom, and I had been so glad she first went to the bathroom, otherwise I feel she'd be either mad or confused as to why I was up so late. Also it is 5:07 right now so I'm going to look at some Newgrounds posts and head to bed!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, and someone remind me to try to boot macOS into Safe Mode. (Wait, I wouldn't have access to Newgrounds, dang it, it's now 5:08, sleep schedule ruined, thanks Newgrounds, thanks Tom Fulp, I'm becoming Santa Claus. I'm getting ready to be able t- DANG IT ITS 5:09!!!! Now I can be ready to stay up on Christmas Eve.)

5:10 Update: I also haven't put anything into the trash can yet the icon shows it's "full."

I'm gonna see how often I can try to post updates to life on Newgrounds, or for the time being, or maybe it will be a one time thing, who knows?

I guess it is similar to a blog, I know I had tried to make one in like February of last year, thinking of it reminds me of a former friend.

Anyway, life stuff!

Been drawin' and workin on school stuff. On the 15th/16th, I managed to get macOS back onto my PC. Like, it had previously had KDE Neon and a bricked and unaccessible version of Bodhi Linux, but I cleared + formatted the Bodhi drive and installed macOS onto that since I found out how Mac computers have Internet Recovery (press CMD + R on boot).

Since my machine was pretty old, the version my computer got by default was macOS X Lion. Funnily enough, I think my PC had to install it at least 3 times since I guess there's no auto-save for turning off/restarting your computer. (I needed to make sure the drive was in the right format, and then I had to fiddle with Disk Utility, which had looked a ton different in that version.)

Using Lion was pretty cool, and I found out there was a cool reflection effect on the Dock, I really dig it, shame more modern versions don't have the 3D dock anymore. (Yeah, I know there's apps such as cDock that can replicate it, but that's on a free trial, and I don't wanna buy the full thing.)

The only modern app that worked was Pale Moon. I tried to use Safari for a while, but it couldn't load most pages, so I got old versions of Firefox and Vivaldi to see if those would be better. (They weren't. Also man, there were a lot less features back then, and Vivaldi really looked different and had different theming options too. 6 choices.)

Then I decided to upgrade to macOS Sierra, luckily it was a straightforward process. I forgot the Dark Mode there effects just the top of the screen and the Dock since I haven't used macOS Sierra since *maybe* last year or mid-this year.

It was like 10 PM on Sunday when I got it installed, since most of the time was spent backing up data. (I thought macOS would overwrite the entire drive.)

Then I downloaded OpenCore Legacy Patcher. This was since I wanted a more modern version of macOS on my iMac that can't go over macOS High Sierra (10.13.6.) This took ages. So long infact that when it was done, it was 5:50 AM, and the post-setup took 3 extra minutes.

When the installer finished doing its thing initially, it went into the boot screen to load (the white, now black loading screen with the Apple logo on it. It would be very slow and it had a "Estimated Minutes" thing on it. So I had my phone which I had "snuck" into my room (never put it back where it belonged) and played Roblox for a while. Then I went to YouTube on my Nintendo Switch as it did its' thing. Doing research by hijacking the Switch to show the OpenCore tutorial website and then into the troubleshooting page taught me the "Less than a minute left" segment (which I was stuck on twice, since I initially forced my computer to shut down originally then redid the loading progress) was a thing that would apparently take multiple hours.

So glad it finished when it did. Especially since soon after, my mom's alarm rang.

Then I had to install a modern version of Firefox so I could use it for school stuff, and then I found out it was bugged to where I couldn't install addons...

I then installed Vivaldi, OBS, KolourPaint for Mac, Karabiner Elements, cDock, a tweaker app, Friday Night Funkin'*, Sonic Robo Blast 2, Haxe, Visual Codium, GitHub Desktop, and earlier today, a Window manager, and most recently Steam, which I got SEGA Genesis Classics, The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog, and VTube Studio.

*Random note, I did play some FNF' on macOS X Lion on Pale Moon. Running natively (0.5.1) would crash.

While macOS is cool, I wish it was more themable.

Anyway, moving on, I've been working on a drawing I'm proud of, almost done with it, hopefully should be out before the year ends. (However can't guarantee before or on Christmas.)

Another tidbit, as I was making a website, I opened the Vivaldi New Tab page with devtools and decided to copy + paste the website layout + CSS, I found out more than the webpage was HTML (the stuff that makes up webpages.) Turns out it shows up on the tab layout, sidebars, and more.

Anyway, I'm really tired right now, it's 4:52 AM!??!?!?!?! OH!

Honestly I was expecting to go to sleep at an earlier 4 AM, but I got sidetracked by things. I was also drawing at 3 AM.

Man I can hear my grandma making weird loud grandma noises, before I go, Merry Christmas! I don't know what I'm getting for Christmas. Expecting clothes.

Things I can hope for on Friday:

• Me being able to do more schoolwork.

Oh I also forgot to mention, I've been makin' a quick website dedicated to a small project. The website isn't much of anything at the moment. And unrelated but I've been workin' on a mod for FNF' and turns out I can't build it for macOS without an error. Okay, actual sleep time. (My sleepiness made me click on a Post Moon to save a reaction or something.)

4:59 AM and I have to help with groceries in the morning, miserable since I know my grandma is going to get a bunch of junk.

its 3 am rn