More About Myself!

About Me Online

What Is Gracest Galaxy?

Gracest Galaxy has been my internet brand for nearly a decade now, deriving from my real life name meaning 'gracious one', and since for a while I was unhappy with it, I used "Grace" as a moniker which I still go by sometimes. Regina Stellarum (queen of the stars), has been my internet title for the past years since I dropped 'Gracest Queen' for the cool sounding Latin, and from that you have my internet names of "Regina" or "Grace".

A few others I go by are:

What's the History of This Site?

Gracest-Galaxy (nicknamed G-G sometimes) is currently in its 2.0 stage (launched September 2024) and being hosted on Neocities.com - a free web-hosting service. The earliest pre-curor to this was my Tumblr blog GracestGalaxy, but the idea of a more personalized space and not just a blog came about with the Gracest Galaxy Carrd. Gracest-Galaxy as site came about in 2022 as I took some Computer Science class skills to notepad after becoming frustrated with Carrd's pay-walls, and the 1.0 version of the site was officially launched in June 2023.

With web-coding and this website, my journey starts in my senior year where I learned about HTML, CSS, and JS and became hellbent on using it to spite Carrd. That original Carrd is unfortunately lost to the sands of time, but if you saw the 1.0 version of G-G you'll see a lot of it there, because most of my CSS was learned from tearing apart Carrd's code and trying to replicate it.

By the time 1.0 launched and I rebuilt my HTML and CSS skills from scratch, the site definitely started taking on its own character - being far more expansive, having unique layouts, and unique JS features. But one of the major reasons for 2.0 was to get away the Carrd residue and really make the site my own. The limitless freedom offered by making all my own code from the ground up was why I went through the effort of making my own website, so why have it look like someone else's template?

The evolution of this site from 1.0 to now is cataloged in the Progress Report in the Journal, so feel free to read through all of it and not just the latest if you're curious for more details.

Where Else Am I Online?

Besides G-G, my internet presence is split between my Tumblr, Twitter, Twitch, and Youtube accounts.

My tumblr was my first creative hub, where I reblog art that inspires me and rarely post my own works. However, my sideblog FruitsOfHell is the real star of the show, a fandom sideblog that has now become my main blogging spot for things fandom and personal.

@GracestQueen used to be my main spot for personal stuff as well as more fandom-following, but since it's management changes I've been less invested in it. It's the second place I'm most active besides FruitsOfHell, but I don't say much on it, just retweeting.

My neglected old youtube channel has been untouched for years, but I hope to one-day fill it with new stuff, whether that be animations, video essays, or let's plays. But if you want to watch me try to be entertaining on video, I do stream infrequently on Twitch as Regina_Stellarum. I try to give heads-ups about when I return to it, but I'd recommend just following and keeping an eye out for notifications.

Finally, for contacting me more directly, I would recommend getting in touch with me through my Discord: Reg1na_C3parum or Gmail: GracestGalaxy@gmail.com.

Why Am I On The Internet?

An odd question to ask anyone in the year of our lord and savior 2024, but also becoming a bit more topical to people like me who take their internet presence as seriously as I do.

The internet has had an intensely positive effect on my life, and more-so than most other people my age because I've mostly kept to myself and observed it's positives rather than engaging with a lot of its more corrosive aspects - one of these being its the rampant centralization and commercial sterilization. Even with it's stupid content bans, Tumblr has been one of the most liberal social medias of current years, and has defined most of my experiences with what it means to have an internet presence. And before that, I do have brief memory of a world of limitless flash games, niche forums, and kid-friendly MMO spaces to hang out in.

Basically, I - like many people on Neocities - am a very strong proponent of a free and personal internet, and despite all of the world-wide web's modern vices, I want to do my best to participate in that movement and create the space it felt it was some decade and a half ago to me. I and the site of G-G are around for that.

What're Some of My Favorite Places On The Internet Right Now?

Despite my waxing and whining there's still plenty to love about the internet today.

Some fun spots are CoolMathGames which is still a bastion of many of those beloved flash games of my childhood, and Bandcamp where you can listen to and support music artists with ease and very little of the modern internet scourges of ads and overbearing algorithms.

Wikipedia is still free and as boundless as ever, and thanks to the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine, you can go even further looking for sources and media that might otherwise be behind paywalls or inaccessible. They've always been fun tools for dicking around and learning inane stuff, but as I've been doing a lot of research for writing based on real world history, the duo of Wikipedia to get you acclimated to the basics of a topic, and the Internet Archive to get you deep into some real sources is invaluable!

More niche than those is the world of fandom wikis. But not Fandom(tm), that ad-bloated tyrannical mess, I mean independent Fan Wikis - my most frequented being Wikirby for all my superfan needs. It's part of the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance (NIWA), a very cool group who are trying to create a fun and fan-built space for deep diving on your favorite games outside of the landfill that is Fandom. It's a small internet battle that I'm lightly invested in as a fan of video games and wiki-diving without ads.

If I really want to discuss a place on the internet I love and spend hours of my day in, it's YouTube! As a social media platform, it is full of many modern evils, but that has never stopped it from being a powerhouse of creativity, especially in the realms of film, animation, and essay, which are near and dear to my heart. Unfortunately for every amazing channel there are mountains of AI generated or soulless trash, so I will point you in the direction of some of my under-appreciated faves of the platform if you'll indulge me:

Of Video Essayists, Reviewers, and Commentators:

  • Sagan Hawkes - a reviewer and essayist who analyzes internet horror series and ARGs, with focus on thematic and technical analysis of the craft rather shallow theory-making.
  • Clemps - a video game reviewer focusing mostly on JRPGs - mixing a style of screwball, skit-based humor with very thoughtful analysis and review of story-heavy games.
  • Furry Found Footage - a reviewer of what the name entails, with her most notable work being a series of Top 10 Lists that shed a spotlight on the often overlooked world of commercial animation with a fun amount of thirsting and analysis.

Of Podcasts and Talk Shows:

  • Ready to Start the Podcast
    a bonkers podcast about anything in cartoon and video game news run by a group of friends and small internet artist nerds.
  • NETLORE
    a podcast co-hosted by Cybershell and a documentarian friend discussing internet history ranging from meme culture's roots in faxing, to deep dives and commentaries on infamous memes and figures.
  • Two Professional Writers
    a podcast of two internet writers giving commentary on writing advice from both prolific Hollywood writers and random fandom clowns.

Of Animators:

  • Aimkid
    animator(s) blending late 2000s internet cartoon aesthetics with mesmerizingly smooth and energetic animation.
  • Felix Colgrave
    an animation legend whose surreal work over the past decade and some is unparalleled.
  • PinoPrime
    a 3D animator who uses his skills and break-neck comedic timing to showcase his exploits in exploring the world of video game development along with many other creators.

Of Game DevLogs:

  • Legend 64
    an environmental artist detailing his progress on the creation of an Ocarina of Time and Nintendo 64 inspired 3D adventure game.
  • Nnichael
    a series of more comedically focused journeys into the madness of 3D game development with barely any experience.
    CW: R-slur used a few times in a recent log.
  • Needleful
    an honest but somehow even crazier for its sincerity journey into the development of an over-ambitious game-jam project mixing 2000s adventure-platformer with an introspective plotline.

Of YT Web-Series:

  • Khonjin House
    a comedy webseries that's basically just one long YTP but with an interesting meta-textual subplot during the first run.
    CW: A few slurs used in the unedited episodes.
  • AI Builds
    my favorite analog/digital horror series on Youtube for its use of surrealism comedy and horror in dealing with themes of childhood trauma and artistic burnout. (Creator also made another banger: Summon House).
    CW: References to drug abuse, drug over-dosing, and overt mentions of suicidal ideation.

And then of course, there are the websites of my lovely mutuals right here on Neocities: Sunmask and SublimeHouse ! The internet's not all bad when you find the right place; Dead-Internet Theory be damned, my boys can grill!