Been awhile since I’ve posted anything on here, huh? Well I’m hoping to change that. I grew up watching Newgrounds cartoons and the humor that developed here in still in me. I mean, Speedosausage’s latest Ace Attorney cartoon is one of the funniest things I’ve watched in awhile. But it feels like I’ve still never contributed directly to this place. I’d love to make a beloved funny short people like, or participate in one of those jams or collabs.

Luckily, being officially graduated, the door feels open now. Don’t think that means I’ll be dedicating all my time to creating now. When you go to SCAD, you’re more than worn out by the end. I think I need to rediscover the joys of creation more naturally, and that means not rushing a thing. Well, that and the fact I have a busy life with busy things to do (like MOVE halfway cross the country!).

But don’t you fret, for something I worked on at SCAD is coming to Newgrounds very soon, and I’m super excited for you to see it. I’ll make a news post when it’s up because I have a ton to say about it! But I can’t say anything quite yet.

Regardless of how the rest of my life goes from here on out, keep your eyes peeled for content from lil’ ol’ bigger than average sized person ol’ me.

Well, the quarantine blues is finally catching up to me.

After finishing Chicken Noodle Soup Bath, my motivation went down the drain. I planned on doing a low effort animatic style game grumps animation for YouTube, but I only got through 50% of it before losing motivation to do even THAT.

So I started shiny hunting for a treecko in Alpha Sapphire, and 3 weeks passed, no shiny. My old 3DS has worn down so much, and it's getting too old to be my dedicated 3DS. There had been an orange NEW 2DS XL I had been eyeing for like, a year and a half, and if there was ever a time to get it, it would be during a quarantine.

I sold some gamecube and ds games I was never going to play and ordered the 2DS. Strangely, however, it was scheduled to arrive May 12. I was starting to get demoralized having to wait so long for my shiny and for my new system, but to my surprise the 2DS arrived in the mail today, WAY earlier than May 12. It works like a dream and I couldn't be more excited to have a great new 2DS system. Especially since the 3D slider broke on my old system, causing every game to lag and my battery to drain quickly. This new system is larger, more comfortable to hold, has a bigger battery life, it's just a better time overall.

So while life is getting more difficult to go through day by day, I did receive this glimmer of hope and joy for a bit. Now let's hope that this shiny treecko finally shows up soon.

I currently lay in bed, it’s 6:18am. I had been waking up every hour since 2am anyways, so it figures I would just stay awake. What’s got me too excited to even sleep? Of course today is the first day of online classes, a set of classes I’m excited to take that will teach me valuable animation skills for the foundation of my future, that’s incredibly exciting! But, I can’t help but feel like my body is prematurely excited for something else entirely...

Yesterday, there were multiple leaks across the internet displaying a new Flipnote Studio on the Nintendo Switch, each screenshot adding to the validity of the leak. Now, even if this were real, I had to contain my excitement, right? All that really mattered to me even back when Flipnote Studio 3D released was that it would have an online service. When that didn’t end up happening, I was left with my small uncomfortable 3DS (I animated on the original with a DSi XL by comparison) and a program I didn’t enjoy using as much as the original.

So when I saw more leaked photos and I saw the green frog resting near a logo that said ‘Flipnote Channel’ my metaphorical jaw went through the metaphorical floor. This has only been amplified since I woke up an hour ago, couldn’t go back to sleep, and noticed on the screen in the copyright information of Flipnote Channel Hatena’s Copyright next to Nintendo’s.

This whole thing feels like a beautiful fever dream. The comeback of the century. Quarantine could go horrible for me but I wouldn’t care because I have Flipnote on Switch, with an online service from Hatena!

Of course, absolutely nothing has been confirmed, which means my heart pains and aches with these leaks. They say that it’s TODAY we should be getting Flipnote! How am I supposed to sleep knowing I could be living in a world with one of my favorite things resurrected back to life here in less than 24 hours?

I mean, hyperbole aside I’m definitely not sleeping because of school starting at 8am and my sleep schedule being messed up, but I’d rather say it’s my love of Flipnote.

I find it especially fitting that in the past couple years I started going by Zlargy online again. Though I’ve kept my other monicker of AxeToday on YouTube and Twitter, Zlargy is the default name I give myself online. It’s a name that I haven’t had a proper reason to use since Flipnote Hatena shut down around this time in 2013. I feel very excited that with the potential return of a Hatena based Flipnote Sharing Service, we could be seeing the true proper return of Zlargy again. The TRUE Zlargy. Flipnote Hatena Zlargy.

I feel an awful amount of premature power just from IMAGINING myself with that kinda motivation again. Something about small ecosystems of creators like NewGrounds and Hatena makes me feel more powerful than say, YouTube, Twitter or Instagram. It feels like the playing field is more equalized, and that the things I make have an easier time of being appreciated. That kind of external motivation can turn me into a powerhouse in ways I’m normally not. It all comes down to how robust an online service Hatena wants to give us this time around.

I’m going to attend online classes today, but I know my mind will be set on Flipnote, patiently waiting for Nintendo’s announcement.

Could this be the official return to the glory days of Zlargy in my life? Let’s find out!

So, I think it's safe to say that I've seen the light so to speak.

I really really REALLY like people. Like, people are fantastic, they are why I live. If the world was just me I would off myself with a rock or something eventually. Naturally that means I really like to have people on my side. Liking me or what I do, whatever. The point is, I'm very externally motivated, and I'd say it's been like that for pretty much the entirety of my time online.

I was a kid on Flipnote Hatena who made flipnotes just to get on the most popular page and I did stuff quick and easy because it was just how I had the most fun creating. As time has gone on that hasn't changed too much. I just really like to reach as many people as I can so I can learn about what people enjoy, that's why I love the animation community because there's so much collaboration and creativity and intertwining of minds and opinions n' what not.

Well, I've come to terms with who I am and realized that I only make myself sad when I feel I'm 'not successful', so in 2020 I'm changing what I consider successful. I'm gonna try my hardest to do what I've been recommended for years and that's to make art for myself. I'm gonna make art whenever I can, I'm gonna make stuff that's fun, I'm gonna draw my persona 'Scott' more often and bring him back to the forefront of my life. And I believe that is what will bring people back to my circle.

As long as I make stuff for me, all my art will be cool, to me.

And when something is fun to make, people enjoy it more.

I still love people, and I'm only in the animation industry because it's collaborative and is gonna let me work with amazing creators. So I'm not backing down from that motivation. I'm just changing the way I'm going about it.

So what does that mean for Newgrounds?

Hell if I know!

It's a new decade! I'm trying this as a new thing. There's community here, I'm an adult now. 2010 me couldn't navigate this site like I can in 2020. I'm here to see if new oppurtunities can come my way.

I wanna do collabs n all that jazz I don't know!

Let's hope this experiment turns into something really cool. I'm gonna maybe blog on here a lil bit as well.

For now, I'll be posting just my recent works of digital art and animations that I'm proud of or were especially fun to work on. Enjoy!

~Zlargy

Jan 2nd, 2020