yall. don't fucking stream music off of youtube or spotify. they pay their creators shit. the most generous estimate i could find was artists being paid $1 for every 200 streams (0.5¢ per stream), and unless you're listening to songs on an album thousands times in total, it helps tremendously more to just. buy their albums or subscribe to a patreon-like service for them
mp3 players are laughably inexpensive (you can get a decent one with bluetooth for like $40-50 and you can get away with even less if you forego some features), many of them are drag-and-drop, no ads, decent enough sound quality for the average person, unlimited skips, track selection, regular play and shuffle, playlists, being able to shut off your screen, and more importantly, ALL OF THIS IS AVAILABLE WITHOUT A SUBSCRIPTION. i've always been an avid hater of subscription models. there are some things where it's understandable, but you shouldn't lose access to basic QOL features just because you can't or won't fork over $10-15 a month.
"b-b-but $50 is so expensive!" WRONG. $50 (which is more than i've EVER spend on a single mp3 player) is the equivalent to 5 months on spotify premium without discounts. if you can afford that, it's worth investing into a device that can last you literal years if you get a good one and take good care of it
"but i don't wanna carry around another device!" fair enough, but these things are small enough to fit in tiny pockets (mine fits snugly in the watch pocket of my jeans) and are typically light enough to not be burdensome. if you can carry around your phone, you can carry around an mp3 player
"what if people think i'm weird for having outdated technology" let them. it's worth it in my opinion if it means i get to listen to music ad-free. the most I've ever gotten was "wooooah bro's got the dinosaur tech" and i just thought that was funny personally
"but what if the artist collapses without a constant stream of money!!! i'm not supporting the artist!!!!!" companies try to pay as little as they can get away with to artists. most of that money goes to the CEO and other higher-ups.
"but piracy is bad!" Piracy is a Crime. However, downloading youtube videos/audio for your own PERSONAL, NON-COMMERCIAL USE and NOT REDISTRIBUTING THEM is legal (generally, in the US, check your laws, i am not a lawyer, not legal advice, blah blah blah). besides, i never said you had to pirate your music. in fact, i encourage you to buy the albums of and support your favourite artists in other ways. some artists might even provide links for people to download their songs for free in high quality anyway
not gonna link products just in case someone thinks i'm a shill. but literally just look up "mp3 player" on your search engine or shopping site of choice and find something that doesn't look like it'll fall apart if you breathe on it too hard
seriously guys. if you listen to music more than like a few hours a week, and you don't get all of your music from livestreams or radios (although mine can connect to AM/FM radio), consider investing in an mp3 player. i tried out using one regularly in fall of 2021, and I haven't looked back. don't let companies drain subscription money from you
i know the internet is super english centered but i wish it was more common to mention the language whenever theres talk about a voice actor too, just say "the english voice actor of xyz"? that cant be too hard to do right??
i wish there was more appreciation for non-english voice actors!! in english spaces as well as in general! i know the names of many of the english cast for zelda even though i dont like any of them and have never set my game to it but know them simply bc they are the only ones getting any mention and they are always just called "the voice of" making it seem like that is THE one and only voice
im aware that its in part bc i am mostly in english speaking online spaces and the internet IS a very english centered thing but i dont think its wrong to wish for more recognition of other actors for languages other than english or to simply want them to mention to what language they are the actor of
like i dont mean that you gotta talk about every single different voice actor but i think just mentioning it like that more directly implies that there ARE others at all, especially since alot of games dont even do other voices at all and just make english the only voice over even if the game was developed by non-english people, i just find it sad :(
Lmao yes I’ve said this many times, I am writing ahead so I can make sure the plot makes sense and I’m not contradicting myself.
Collectively chapters 2-4 are around 40k at this point and It’s a lot to juggle writing that much with full time work and chronic health issues. So yeah it’s taking some time but it will absolutely be updated, I’ve written way too much to not bother posting it.