(Note 2/09/2024: I really need to update this top blurb here, I wrote it too long ago. It's okay but also really...messy in the wording.)
About the site & why I made it
I've been on the internet since roughly 2003, and I've always wanted a personal website, so I'm finally doing that. Hugely inspired by Pokemon fansites and personal art archives, I never had the skill or courage to make my own version of these until it was too late and social media had taken over the internet.
I've become really passionate about interacting with social media as little as possible, and reclaiming the fun of the internet how it used to be - where people can create their own cozy spaces for the things they love and care about. I hate social media and the general state of the internet these days. The way I had been posting art for years up until "quitting" is so that I basically do not have to interact with Twitter or Tumblr at all - I would post it from my own profile, and then close the tab.
I've been on the internet for a while and have grown in different ways with it, but I'm unhappy with what it's become. Being an artist online is stressful now, as I hate what social media does to my mind but have struggled a lot with finding a balance between "finding an audience" and "keeping my sanity." I'm highly sensitive and introverted, and the massiveness and loudness of the modern internet has really worn me down. I'm just fed up and done with all of it. I want to make my online world smaller and more comfortable. My aim for my personal site is to be like my own room; comfy, full of me and stuff I love, and hopefully a cozy place people can come to in order to relax.
I also want to heavily emphasize that, while I am very much attached to nostalgia and the way the web "used to be," I don't think simply going back is the only solution. I think Neocities and other personal sites are a great medium for expression and comfort, but I also think that, for change to happen, we have to embrace what the "new" internet can be, and simply be kind to one another.
About Reala
Current and past names:
Reala - short for RealaChao, the name I went by on my favorite forum that I lived on for many of my preteen and early teen years, and which I still remember fondly. "Reala Chao" is an old nickname for my favorite type of Chao, the Dark Fly/Fly type - I also remember Chaogle using the nickname for a black two-tone Neutral Fly/Fly type. Around 2021 or so, I decided to use it again, because Chao and my early internet days are extremely important to me and close to my heart, and even if it's a little juvenile sounding, Reala is the name where I feel the most at home. It's worth mentioning that I know next to nothing about the NiGHTS series and Reala the character. >>;
Lazy - Still going by this sometimes, but not my favorite anymore since I feel like it's just kinda dumb and silly sounding, even if it's cute. Also refer to the below bullets for why I sort of want to move away from using it.
Logic - a relic that I prefer not to be used/called anymore but some people who have followed me for a while still do and it's no big deal. Started as a name I saw my dad use in his video game file names when I was a kid, and I ended up just using some variation of it in everything.
LazyLogic - I hate this. Don't use this. I wish I could get rid of it in every space I've made an account because it's so stupid. It was me trying to get people to call me Lazy because I saw someone else with a similar name and thought it was cute, and also very apt for my personality.
Odoke - another relic, more rarely used, primarily in furry art spaces for some reason. This is the name of one of my oldest OCs (who is not even a furry), created when I was a dumb eleven-year-old putting random words into Google translate to Japanese in order to make a "cool" name. "Odoke" came out as the result for "jester" so I used that. Why I wanted to use "jester" I honestly don't know.
Games/game series you can always talk to me about:
Ar Tonelico/Surge Concerto
Mother series (mostly EarthBound)
Chrono Trigger
Legend of Heroes/Trails/Kiseki series (only got through the first 5 so far, and so far I prefer them over Coldsteel)
Ganbare Goemon (Great Adventure and KiraKira Dochuu are my favorites)
Yoshi, Kirby, and Pokemon everything
Metroid
Mario RPGs
Monster Hunter (mostly World but I'm getting into the old ones now)
Star Fox Adventures
TLoZ (favs are TP, Minish Cap, WW, Oracles)
Banjo Kazooie & Tooie
GEX
Sly Cooper
SA/SA2B
I mean, the above is pretty much mostly for the Chao but I also just love the games
Various Sonic games but I've skipped a lot of them
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series
Gears of War 2 & 3 (don't make fun of me)
Rayman 2 & 3
Monster World 4 (I've played the others, but that one's a big favorite)
Astal (Sega Saturn game, it's nuts)
Older Fire Emblem games; POR, Blazing Blade, etc
Pikmin
Shantae series
Axiom Verge (I haven't played 2 yet)
Ori and the Blind Forest
And probably many more to be added later
General likes/dislikes: (this is a WIP and looks bad right now)
kaomoji & kaoani
old Pokemon fansites
collecting video game soundtracks
reverse engineering (in general, but mostly video games)
specific sounds: American Robin calls, wind chimes, seagulls
foods and drinks: sweets and pastries, pickle-y foods, Japanese foods, hot chocolate, almost any tea
tiling backgrounds
theming and customization
cute little graphics
horror
"true crime" TV
most emoji...and the fact that they're called that
excessive punctuation (like, more than three question marks or exclamation points)
tiktok
specific sounds: chewing/eating/crunching, babies crying, loud noises in general, sirens
most modern slang (I have always been this insufferable)
"lmao" insincerely
skull emoji
generally just people being mean, ironically or not
licorice tea, or tea with probiotics
most alcohol (but I do enjoy some types in moderation & I'm not opposed to drinking or anything...I just typically don't like it)
I use Paint Tool SAI, Clip Studio Paint, and a Huion tablet monitor for digital art, and multimedia sketchbooks & whatever I can find for traditional.
I keep to myself a lot and don't reach out much to people, but I'm always happy to talk if you reach out to me. This is something I'm trying to work on.
I really like Lucida Console and it was my font on AIM for as long as I can remember.
