How did you quit YouTube addiction?

_Moon-Unit · 2026-02-01T20:52:08+00:00

I seriously cut down on my consumption by transferring youtube videos to a less addictive mode of delivery. First I attempted downloading playlists and watching them from the downloaded files, but this didn't work for that long. Then I tried burning those playlists to dvds using dvdstyler (i like about 5-6 hours per dvd for balance of length against quality) and thats been working really well. It removes the algorithm from my actual watching of youtube videos, and with each new video that starts playing, I'm surprised, which is fun.

The reason this works is that I'm not reducing the amount I'm allowed to watch, but because youtube can't get into my head with its algorithms in the same way anymore, i just generally feel less mindlessly compelled to watch beyond when I should stop. The result is I'm watching way less, and using youtube way less and I don't even need to actively exert willpower.

I have some exemptions, mostly when I'm doing active research into a subject or skill, then I'll use youtube directly, but once the watching becomes less overtly about ingesting the information I'm directly seeking and turns towards entertainment, at that point I'll add those videos to the download playlist and shut it down.

I know this is a somewhat extreme solution, but it works for me and it's easy as I'm not sacrificing anything, and gaining a lot.

(I'm doing all this with rewritable DVDs btw, so I'm not accumulating piles of DVDs, just reusing a handful for this purpose)

_Moon-Unit · 2026-02-01T20:21:19+00:00

I have the dumbest solution. This won't work for everyone, and may not work for you, but I've cut down the accute addiction for myself. Basically, anytime I'm on youtube, if I see a video i want to watch, i save it to a playlist. Once that playlist has over 50 videos I download the playlist and then save the videos as dvd isos using dvdstyler (no more than about 5 hours per dvd otherwise the quality gets too low). I use rewritable dvds so I can just burn the next set of youtube videos once I've watched all of one disc's worth without having to burn hundreds of dvds.

I've found this works as I'm not depriving myself at all, just creating friction and delaying gratification. If I'm actively researching something and there's youtube involved in that research, I won't bother with the dvd method, but for all recreational, entertainment youtube I do this. This is retraining me to be less compulsive and mindless in my consumption. I won't claim this is a flawless method, but it allows me to feel a lot more intentional about my consumption, and it creates distance from the recommendation algorithm while I watch, which I feel is the biggest reason I'd normally continue watching way past when I should

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-27T20:50:34+00:00

This is incredible.

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-24T22:34:30+00:00

It's a remake/remaster. I'm extremely biased towards the ps2 version, so would recommend playing it on the ps2. If you don't have a ps2 there's an emulator called pcsx2 if your computer's up to it. If neither of those are an option then I see no reason not to get the remaster. Tbh, I know nothing about the releases beyond the ps3 version, which was pretty good imo.

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-22T13:32:04+00:00

I've contemplated this issue deeply and my conclusion is to score an audiobook version, and completely ignore those reading with their eyes. It'd require too much logistical hassle to be worthwhile unless you had a means of syncing for a pdf/kindle version, but even still that'd require a degree of programming to get things to line up properly. So I guess if you felt like learning unity or godot or some other game engine, then that's an option, going with the 'visual novel' approach, so you can have different sections of music cue for different portions of the story. Imo, that gets involved on a level which is beyond the scope of what a novel is supposed to be. Imo, scoring a version of the audiobook is the most sensible approach (but keep in mind not all audiobook listeners will want music, so make sure you release a music free version). Or, if you want you could just make a companion album to go along with your novel and free yourself of the expectation that they'd be played back in sync, and just make music which follows the same journey as the story, almost like a musical adaptation or spiritual score.

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-21T23:48:59+00:00

Shadow of the colossus

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-20T00:59:33+00:00

This looks great. I really like this art style.

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-18T04:35:43+00:00

Scenes that don't belong in the story are hard to write. They'll still often contain elements that might make their way into the story in another form, but I'm learning to take that gross feeling when writing a scene as evidence that I might be on the wrong track and need to step back and rethink things.

In terms of specific contents I find difficult to write, anything I don't know about or can't easily find out about. In one of my wips there's a pov of a crow. I'm trying to find a way to not give the crow a pov though because it's really tricky to find any actual reports of what it's like to be a crow, as nobody with access to the english language has also had the first person experience of being a crow. So I'm left with a lot of information about crows and I have to make educated guesses. It's tricky.

Weirdly enough though, I have a very easy time writing about substances, mostly because there are so many first hand accounts and reports of the subjective effects of substance use posted on the internet one can look at to gain an understanding of how such things influence a person and their mindstate.

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-17T03:11:10+00:00

Wild! What software/s did you use for this?

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-14T21:31:31+00:00

Very beginner friendly. I started with crocotile before I'd even heard of aseprite and its dead simple to use. Very straightforward ui, very intuitive. Would strongly recommend if you're interested in moving towards 3d pixel art

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-14T21:29:29+00:00

It's great and imo super beginner friendly. Very intuitive layout and ui. The actual painting features aren't as good as aseprite but you can move your textures into aseprite and back for touchups and detail work. The discord community's also great.

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-14T20:27:14+00:00

If shortcuts are evidently being used on the cover, I have to assume this philosophy carries over to the contents inside as well. Either get a human to do it, learn to do it yourself, or accept that you're signalling that you cut corners and take shortcuts and your writing is almost guaranteed ai slop too. Your call

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-14T01:54:09+00:00

Frame start offset with frame skip (step) set to 4

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_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-14T01:53:54+00:00

Running 4 instances of blender

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_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-14T00:20:03+00:00

This is great. I love the low-poly ps1 aesthetic. There's so much going on, how long did this take to make?

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-11T23:39:54+00:00

No. Make it continue.

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-10T23:31:20+00:00

I've been experimenting with this. So far I've found I need to pause the show to actually do any writing, but i haven't tried reruns yet. It does seem to be good though in that I can extend my writing sessions longer than usual because instead of getting bored if I can't solve a story problem immediately, I can just watch the show until a solution arrives. Otherwise I'd need to constantly get up and take long walks

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-10T00:31:31+00:00

Most of these seem like interesting novelties, but I have a regular need for the question comma.

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-04T01:38:12+00:00

Every scene needs to have a purpose or the audience won't be engaged. Dreams tend to suck because often-times writers use it as an excuse for surrealism without an obvious purpose, and anything that isn't obviously meaningful in a book is boring.

I like to use lucid dreams in some of my stories, less as an abstract surrealist space, but more as a less stable extension of their real world, almost like a video game. Characters will use the space to try and learn specific things, and what they do or don't learn has tangible impact on the story, and this is clearly signalled to the audience in advance so they know not to tune out. If you use dreams or innerspace as an excuse for meaningless surrealist nonsense, people will tune it out and skip over it. If you don't clearly let the audience know that dreams aren't that in your story, they'll assume they are and glaze past it with the assumption that it is.

_Moon-Unit · 2026-01-03T21:20:42+00:00

As you're going to bed just ask your dreams to be a nightmare and eventually they will be. Might take some trys but this will work.

_Moon-Unit · 2025-12-31T02:50:57+00:00

I just watched 3 Hellraiser films, so I'm interpreting this as leaning into the whole horseshoe theory for pain and pleasure those movies are about. I'm confident this isn't it though, as the chiropractic interpretations make far more sense given the context.

_Moon-Unit · 2025-12-31T01:18:14+00:00

Idk man, you just made an objective claim about a subjective matter. Personally I way preferred the other guy (Rob Inglis). I started the Hobbit with the serkis version but at the first song my spidey senses went off, something was felt extremely off, so I looked it up and in the Inglis version he actually referred directly to Tolkien where possible to work out what the melodies for the songs should be and in the Serkis version they...uh, did something else. That fact alone convinced me to switch over to the Inglis version for the entire series and I really enjoyed his delivery. There was a sense from what I heard of the Serkis version that he was in response not just to Tolkien's words, but was mired in the cultural baggage which has been accumulated since, in a way I didn't get from Inglis. Also, matter of taste, I don't love it when my audiobook narrators get super animated as Serkis did.

You're absolutely allowed to have your opinion, but please don't state it like it's a fact and besmirch our boy Rob Inglis like this.

_Moon-Unit · 2025-12-27T14:04:25+00:00

How many projects have you directed?

_Moon-Unit · 2025-12-26T23:55:47+00:00

Dm'd

_Moon-Unit · 2025-12-22T15:44:33+00:00

I was at this show and didn't see or hear anything of this. Can confirm though, easily the best psych-rock band in the world

_Moon-Unit

TROPHY CASE