Wow, I have been gone for quite a while! Since August! It was completely unexpected, I was snowed with endless responsibilities and also had to move (which is harrowing in normal circumstances, multiplied further in a pandemic – which we are still very much in, by the way). I have been a bit active on the other branches of Black Witch, such as Tumblr and Instagram.

My Insta probably looks drastically different from what I usually talk about here because I use it to show my more tech-laden stuff since I am mainly self-taught in making technology and suches from scratch. It’s mostly my 3D printings and pictures of my cat. Or both.

The Black Witch Shoppe has been closed since the start of the pandemic and will still remain closed until the pandemic is over. Which is probably going to be for a much longer time further but I rather not put my health or the health of others at risk just to mail things out. That says nothing about how shabby shipping is nowadays because we’re in a pandemic. Global plagues can do that to global shipping infrastructures. Besides, I have mostly been spending my days 3D printing masks because I can – and because I still can not easily get Takuya Angel’s masks. I have been pining after his masks since 2011. Even a pandemic will not lower the price. But it will make shipping harder.

One day, super-expensive vis-kei face mask. One Day.

I have recently made an electrified mask. It is “electrified” because there are operating fans, on/off switches, and it powered by rechargeable cell phone batteries. It also has huge P100 3M filters because Covid is not the only thing I don’t want to expose myself to.

The filters are very chonky. But not that heavy, made sure of that

That is prototype #1, the next is going to have more mods. Probably a filtered exhaust valve and definitely putting back in a voice amplifier. I originally planned to have it on the first prototype but I derped so much, I decided on dual fans. Plus, I thought I could be heard just fine. I can – in quieter places. Others will still try to draw themselves close so time for an offensively loud voice amp! The kind that will deafen anyone within six feet of me.

I basically have spent time basically living in a pandemic, which is its own type of stress. I have learned that making 3D printed masks for others is tough because you have to shake people down for their measurements. So many people think of 3D Printing as what they see in Watch Dogs 2 and forget that, no, I still need their input. Custom fitting is a little harder in 3D printing than with cloth masks because it is supposed to be super exact to your face (unless you print in flexible filament, then it just has to be plain exact). So there is that. And these are the usual 3D printed masks, not my electrified one. That is, so far, going to be just a one of kind.

Also, I have recently guested on the Burn Out Brighter podcast, where we talk race, gender and video games. I derp aplenty.

Some of my audio is mottled (my mic and wi-fi, I’m sure) and some audio did get dropped due to tech mishap but it was a good show altogether. Lemme clarify some parts that did get tech-dropped that I can remember:

  • Shinoda, I don’t remember talking about the Linkin Park Beat Saber pack but Joe Hahn has posted a brief vid on his instagram of his wife playing a song on the newest Oculus. (Also, I know Lupe but I have only met Mike Shinoda)
  • I played Street Fighter 4 with Lupe Fiasco when he was on tour in Pennsylvania. I won one round and the entire experience was a good experience. The “I shall shade in private” is mainly about gaming, because we both like gaming.
  • The podcast is hosted out of South Korea, that is why I occasionally say Korean words (and usually the English word afterwards). When in Rome, everyone.
  • A good chunk of the silences are my connection dropping out on my side
  • Lupe didn’t go to the Baltimore Book Festival (I did try to get him to go but his record company chunked up his day), I just picked up a bunch o’ stuff for him from there and hung out with him at one of his Baltimore events (it was an album signing for Food and Liquor 2 at Soundgarden, a record store)
  • A good chunk of the News part did get lost, it was mostly about the pandemic. Mainly the differences of responses between different nations (US, Korea & China) and I shared my experiences from one of my friends who is born and raised in Wuhan and how they saw the pandemic back when it was simply “hey, there’s a new bug going ’round. I hope I don’t get sick, I have so much to do”, basically the usual chatter that happens when the weather gets colder. That and “Don’t believe everything that you breathe, especially when it comes from the CCP”, which is about how the Chinese government did a super disservice to their own population by trying to hide that there was a terrible virus going around and locked up one their own doctors, Dr. Li Wenliang (who eventually died of covid himself). And how Korea has been doing a marvelous job
  • “You didn’t make him [Marcus from Watch Dogs 2] half-Black” bit was partly was cut out. Usually video games would make a PoC character usually be “half White/half-other”, especially Black characters. It is only really recently that now games let characters not be forced into Whiteness somehow enable to be considered “more human/relatable”. That is where the “White Man’s Burden” quip comes from, that to be “human”, the character needs to be at least half-White. Which is remarkably awful but that’s what game makers thought for the longest time (and still try to shoe horn).
  • P.O.D. has yet to put out something for VR music games but there is at least a glimmer of interest there. (I’m workin’ on the guys, give me time. Lol) but Linkin Park has (for at least two VR games, Beat Saber being one of them)

I hope that I’ll be invited back for another show, I had a lot of fun!