Ophi's November Newsletter

Or Moving on From X

Read to the end for some merry men :)

Getting Settled on Bluesky

After my return to Twitter just a few months ago, I (and many others) have once again left. This on-again-off-again nonsense is getting embarrassing. This time, however, the people that had me crawling back have left too, and the pixel art community I desperately missed off Twitter has finally resettled on new platform Bluesky.

For the less chronically online, you may think that this move is uninteresting but hear me out. The series of terrible decisions Elon Musk has made since buying the company in 2022 will be the thesis project of many a business student (and would have been mine). Musk has made decisions that have made Twitter increasingly for a very specific Type of Guy, at the expense of its other users and even its profitability.

Under his leadership twitter has: made verification a (now useless) paid system, laid off half its staff, added view-counts to posts (artist hell), put its API behind a paywall, changed its name to X, and made the block feature rather useless. All while Musk has promoted antisemitic and transphobic rhetoric on his unavoidable account. Exhausting.

With a lot of luck, my Bluesky account is now my largest social media account outside Twitch. I’ve enjoyed a lot of its unique features such as custom timelines and user created lists of people to follow or (properly) block. If you’re looking for an X alternative then I recommend it. Though if you’re considering just leaving all social media instead, that’s probably the better option.

November’s Art

My piece for the 13 Days Zine, finally made some art of my Ancient Greek namesake

I started this a year ago and finally finished all the tiny letters. They don’t show up as well on camera but I really like them in person

Halloween Collaboration

Infamous pixel artist Nop hosted a collaborative art project on this Discord server for Halloween, and I was overjoyed to participate. The concept is a walk-around experience in a haunted house where each room is designed by a different artist. Go give it a shot, you can play in your browser!

Screenshot of my room contribution! Play the game to see the animations and sounds

Oddarette’s DTIYS Contest

Quality artist Oddarette hosted a Draw This In Your Style Contest last month, and I had the immense privilege of placing in third. If you haven’t checked this artist out yet, you’re in for a very cute treat. Click the image below to see my submission in it’s animated form.

Penultimate Video in which I Date Pigeons

You already know what this is. If you don’t here’s an insane playlist.

Thanks for reading to the end! PS: Here are some merry men!