Jckistan

Jckistan's official Tumblr page! Wowwie!

[jckistan]

NEW VIDEO! Replaying Forza Horizon 4 from the start

Hello, dorks.

I've been itching to play this game for a while. I think it's the difficulty, or just the feel of driving around a fictional, rural England. I had to get the June content out of the way first, so I thought I'd start the month off with this.

This game is about as hard as I remember. I do like it like that, however. I'd rather suffer through a tough match and come last, as opposed to breeze through an easy match and come first. There's more satisfaction in working hard to get to where you need to be.

Which is actually why I did this. There's a mechanic in the game where you can buy cars people are selling at auction. I got a lot of cars I wanted that way, but when I went to drive them, it just wasn't satisfying. Where's the fun in driving a Mini I haven't worked for? Where's the excitement in finding a barn with a car in, if I bought that car already?

This'll be a remaster of that old series. I'll be actually finding the cars I want, rather than just buying them up. Hopefully, it'll be more fun that way.

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[jckistan]

NEW VIDEO! Villager Infrastructure | Minecraft

Tumblrinas. I'm going to have to make this quick. My room is warm. Thanks heatwave. Thanks climate change. Thanks.

New video out. I build a wall around my village to keep them safe. I also spend some time future planning urban development - a fisher here, a cleric there. If you're like me and you love to build in Minecraft (especially being a bit of a socialist and giving the villagers decent living conditions) you might like what I'm doing with the place.

I'll make a post later about some behind-the-scenes stuff. For now, watch and enjoy. I'm melting.

YouTube | Twitch | Discord | Tumblr (you're here, silly!)

[jckistan]

NEW VIDEO! Grand Theft Auto gets even gayer [20]

What's up, dweebs. Happy gay month to you all; especially the non-binaries, who get featured in this week's video. Blessed Madonna is a DJ featured in GTA Online and, in the spirit of Pride, I thought I'd platform her in my night club.

It's a pretty simple video so I've tried to keep it reasonably short. Not sure how I'm going to feel about it in the future but, for now, I'm happy I put it out.

Aside from fishing the Blessed Madonna with a helicopter, I also bought myself a new car. I bought it a while back, when I had a special discount, but I haven't even stepped foot in my garage because I wanted to film my reaction. I wanted the car in red, white and blue (see the thumbnail for why) but the best I could do was red and blue. I'll draw the car and see how it looks the way I'd like.

I bet you Tumblrinas didn't even know I had a second channel. Well, I do! And it appears to be out-performing my main channel. I put out a few videos testing microphone audio - the first got 38 views, the second got 20 and the third got 10. More embarassingly, still; people are commenting! It's funny what videos resonate with people. The videos I put the least effort into sometimes get the most response.

Thanks to those second channel videos, this video should have much better audio. To celebrate this, I've put another video up on my second channel. It's a recording I WAS going to put in this video, but you'll see at the end why I chose not to. In the meantime, I've sped the video up 150% because I didn't want to waste people's time on that video. It doesn't mean as much to me as the main channel video, so I've made it easier to watch.

So, new car, new DJ, new second channel video. Oh, yeah, now there's male pole dancers in my club. Go watch.

YouTube | Twitch | Discord | Tumblr (you're here, silly!)

[jckistan]

NEW VIDEO!

Happy pride! Don't get your hopes up, Tumblr. I'm not a woman yet, I just ran out of ideas for this week's video.

I was out shopping so I didn't have time to promote this just as it came out. Turns out, didn't need to! Somehow made its way to 6 people before I'd even noticed. Seeing the love on recent videos has just been awesome and inspiring: awe-inspiring, if you will.

This video was a real last resort. I've felt rough this week, so I haven't recorded anything until Wednesday. Then, the recording I tried to make ended up sucking a little bit, so I had to VERY QUICKLY record something on Thursday afternoon, then edit it immediately to get it out in time. 23:30, and I'm sitting at my desk, finally able to write a shopping list.

The videos you didn't see were a Minecraft Pride modpack (which didn't feel as pride-focused as I wanted it to be) and a HOI4 pride video (a bit hard to do; I was just going to make the words "British Empire" span the entire globe, but it didn't feel right).

Be grateful you didn't see them.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. I might go live sometime this weekend, taking another stab at some of the infrastructure projects around my Minecraft world. There's a lot to do in that world!

YouTube | Twitch | Discord | Tumblr (you're here, silly!)

[jckistan]

NEW VIDEO! English Dave and the British Invasion | Grand Theft Auto Online [19]

Ayup, ducks!

New video. I've been sitting on this one since New Year's Eve because halfway through, I realised it was quite Pride themed. Gay Tony, male strippers and English Dave. It sounded like it was better-suited for June, so I kept a hold on it until now.

I've got another video planned but it needs a little tinkering. In the mean time, this one took some tinkering too. For some reason, I honestly thought that voice filter sounded normal, so the entire video is lowered by two semitones. The game sounds a little weird, but my voice is much more tolerable.

YouTube | Twitch | Discord | Tumblr (you're here, silly!)

[jckistan]

NEW VIDEO!

Behold, Tumblrites!

I've painted the channel a little bit. The plain purple is gone and I've smacked a bunch of auroras all over the place. I posted it on my second blog, but I'm using a recoloured version of the Windows Vista background.

I assume Microsoft doesn't care, considering I couldn't find any copyright information online (I could barely even find how they made it), and Bliss (Windows XP wallpaper) has been parodied and sampled to death, without a care from Billy Gates or the Developers Developers Developers guy- oh, wait, his name was Steve Ballmer. I remember now.

Anyway, the rebrand. The thumbnail frame is much cooler now, more in line with the Frutiger Aero angle I want to explore in the future. It also just looks... supercharged, of sorts. It's a pretty cool look: it's my new profile photo and banner, too.

As for the video, it's the usual talk about the algorithm I've given a couple times before. Views dried up, I thought it was over, I learnt to not care. Turns out, the views came back:

Dr Strangelove, or How I Learnt To Stop Worrying And Love The Algorithm.

I'm quite satisfied with this video. I got it done and dusted on Wednesday, recorded the narration and the gameplay. If you look closely, I had to put the video at 102% speed because that would then mean the narration ends ~20secs before the end of the video, giving time for the end screen. It was nice to make another COD commentary video again!

YouTube | Twitch | Discord | Tumblr (you're here, silly!)

[jckistan]

Are YouTube videos too long now?

When I was on YouTube back in 2015, I remember gaming videos would be around 15 minutes long. I definitely remember PewDiePie making "slop" content (before it got that name), reviewing his Reddit, when someone said "the floor is making a video below 10:02". There was a meta at the time to make videos a certain length: not too short, can't monetise; not too long, can't put too much work into a video.

Now, I look at people's second channels (the money-making channels, just post anything to generate income) and their videos are pushing 20 minutes, even 30-40 minutes in some cases. I just find myself asking, "is this getting a bit excessive?" I've even looked at my own videos and wondered whether they're too long.

My last video was 27 minutes, and that was after a second edit where I took even more out. I think it started off as 33 minutes, and I thought I'd be wasting people's time to ask for 30 minutes, in exchange for a couple matches and a bit of commentary. BattleBit, a similar game, was only 18 minutes, which feels much more reasonable.

GTA's last video was 22 minutes: all I did was steal a car. I suppose the final 5 minutes is me doing a completely different task, so it's more of a 17 minute video with a 5 minute bonus. Still, 17 minutes for a single car? I feel like I'm ripping people off at that point. The GTA video before was only 13 minutes, which I find much more reasonable. Perhaps I should record less and cut more.

My Minecraft videos tend to get a bit long, but I feel that's chalked up to the fact I get carried away playing. I ended last video with a whole bunch of ideas on what to do next, which I look forward to, but in the 20 minutes I uploaded, I got quite a bit done.

Still, I can say to myself, "this video deserves 20 minutes", but does this video deserve 20 minutes of the viewer's time? Sometimes I watch a video of a content creator I like and I think to myself, "come on, mate, you're reading Reddit posts, not painting the Mona Lisa. Give it a break!" And then I click off. There's a growing trend of "long form" videos being the new meta: hours long videos, which ultimately boil down to plot synopsis, surface level analysis, or just mashing several old videos together. Video slop.

It makes me wonder if there's consumerism in the attention economy - that being, people try and bloat videos out just for the sake of reaching a timestamp. The videos don't NEED to be 20-60 minutes long: people just WANT you watching for longer. Of course, longer watch time means two things:

1. More ads shown, more payout

2. More watch time, more algorithmic success

Perhaps that's too cynical of me. Still, I can't help but shake this feeling of wasting people's time with a 20 minute video. I've got things to do and I'm sure other people do too. We're not in lockdown anymore. Do any of us have the time to watch a 30 minute YouTube video? We're reaching cable TV lengths of video. Some TV drama episodes are shorter than these videos.

Let me know what you think.

YouTube | Twitch | Discord | Tumblr (you're here, silly!)

[jckistan]

NEW VIDEO! Battlefield 2042 in 2026 [2]

Tumblrinas. I am sweating HARD. The United Kingdom is not built for 28° weather. Dreading Monday when it hits 31. Anyway, to cool off, here's a pretty chill video of me playing Battlefield 2042.

Recorded this Wednesday night, had a lot of fun playing it! I forgot how much I enjoyed this game and I hope to pick it up more in the future. A game I suck at, but a game I suck less at than usual. It's really appreciated.

The video was meant to go live at 12:00, but I was on a work break at 11:58, so I thought I'd drop it two minutes earlier. Hopefully that doesn't keep me up at night. Sadly, I didn't have a long break, so I didn't have time to install Tumblr to my phone to spread the good news. Next week's the final video before June, so I'll be banished to the closet by the woke mob. I'll come out in July.

May Gay God have mercy on us all.

YouTube | Twitch | Discord | Tumblr (you're here, silly!)

[jckistan]

NEW VIDEO! Finding my childhood car in Grand Theft Auto Online [18]

Hello Tumblr nerds.

I'm back with a new video. I played GTA and tracked down a car I liked the look of. I already had a similar car, but I just wasn't down with the vibe; I thought I could do with something better.

I'm a fan of the classics, so I thought it was time to hunt down something akin to a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro, which I've got a toy car equivalent of.

There's no double racing stripes, unfortunately, but the bonnet looks good enough. I can live with the minor inconvenience of it not looking 1:1, the chassis still looks cooler than what I was driving before. Next step is to kit it out with all the bells and whistles, but I'll do that off-camera.

Next week, I'm thinking of either revisiting Battlefield 2042, or absolutely demolishing a map of the United States, drawing the borders that I think America needs. Spoiler alert: I'm turning Los Angeles into a hellscape, and Washington DC back into a colony.

Either way, I yearn to play Minecraft but I don't want to get burnt out on the game. I've got some cool ideas for infrastructure projects, but I need to space out the videos a little bit.

YouTube | Twitch | Discord | Tumblr(you're here, silly!)

[jckistan]

NEW VIDEO! 100 Days of Minecraft (over 5 years) | Minecraft [24]

The day counter hit 100 on my Minecraft world. I started this world back in 2022; can't remember why. I think the world I was playing on stopped being fun, so I switched over to this. Aside from a few months' break in 2025, I've been playing this world on my channel for 5 years!

This was a bit of a rushed video because the videos I tried to record in the week were disastrous. I streamed some HOI4 but a. it took 3 hours b. I lost so that idea got scrapped. Thursday rolls around (I usually post on a Friday) and I don't like the look of my "emergency video" folder, so I decided to hop on here. All in all, I think this was a good video!

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I'm going to start using my Tumblr again because I want a nice little place to post my blogs. I've tried Substack and it just wasn't as fun as I was hoping. I don't think I need another blog site aside from here: Tumblr has good enough features and I haven't screwed around enough with the blog tools.

It would just be nice if the theme I picked (linked below) would show up on the feed, as that's where I reckon most people will see my posts. Maybe the background image could border a post. It feels like that customisation feature is going to waste when you aren't looking at people's official pages.

YouTube | Twitch | Discord | Tumblr (you're here, silly!)

[jckistan]

Good News, I've Uninstalled Microsoft Edge

I'm putting this on my main blog because there's every chance I turn this into a video.

As of today, I can safely uninstall Microsoft Edge from my computer. I'm no longer using it, I've moved entirely to a new, better browser.

It's taken several hours of work and was a complete sidetrack. I wanted to Google something on my laptop, but because I recently changed the Wi-Fi password, my laptop couldn't connect, and Edge refused to work because it couldn't update.

Sure, I could've just... reinstalled the program. But if I have to reinstall a system app (which comes BUILT-IN to Windows), that's not good software. I've never had to re-install MS Paint or Wordpad. They just work.

I think this is the problem with Microsoft trying to turn its utilities into products. They're trying to sell Edge as a solution to your web browsing problems. I've been using as such for a while, but now that it's a bloated, AI-ridden mess; I'm done with it. I'm saying what everyone has been for a while:

Microsoft Edge is just something you use to install a better browser.

And Microsoft needs to recognise that.

[jckistan]

5000 likes!

[jckistan]

Jckistanblr 7: 2025

It's the end of 2025.

The end to a year I'd like to never repeat again. Too much pain.

Then again, it was the year I put a lot of effort into this channel. I mean, an hour-and-a-half video finished just in time: not too bad, right? I'm proud of the work I've put into this channel over the past year. I've made this channel better. The videos look better, they sound better, they ARE better! I'm damn proud of the content I've made this year.

I'm happy with how I ended 2025. I'm hoping to start 2026 even better. Videos are recorded, they're ready to be edited. This year, I'm considering dusting off an old sketchbook to draw my thumbnails. I've always wanted the thumbnails to look better, and for me to draw again.

I'd like to forget some of 2025 as I move into 2026. I'll talk about it another time, but it's safe to say, I'm not who I was before. I need to figure out who I am in 2026. I look forward to seeing you all as I do.

I'm off to listen to the best song of 2025, and to watch the fireworks. Love to you all.

See you all in the Champagne Supernova in the sky.

[jckistan]

NEW VIDEO!

How was 2025? Was it a good year? No, of course it wasn't.

But there was a lot of content to get through, regardless. So much so, that I forgot to talk about the video where I set up my new PC! Another time, perhaps :)

If anyone is reading this because I mentioned it in the video, then, hi! I'll be here quite a bit next year, I think. There's a few Jckiblogs from before, including the one I featured in the video.

I think I'm going to release a Jckiblog some time in the next few days, after Christmas, where I properly sit down and think my thoughts. The video is still too new to really retrospect on, itself.

For now, to the Tumblrinas (Tumblrites? Tumblrstanis?) who haven't seen the video, here it is. The best thing I've made, perhaps ever. I'm proud of myself.

2025 wasn't a Champagne Supernova

[jckistan]

Jckiblog 6: Christmas Eve Eve

Hey all, Jack here.

In a little over 24 hours, the biggest video I've ever made in my life will be coming out. It's been a lot of work, and it's about to be a lot more work.

The majority of the editing is complete. All that's left is the music, as well as the final segment, the last 20 minutes of me talking about my life. It sounds like a lot, a year ago, 20 minutes would've effectively been half (or most) of a video.

I'm still a little torn on how much copyrighted music I'll feature. Of course, music has a lot of meaning to me emotionally, so I'd love to feature some. Especially Oasis, who I've gotten really into in the past year. Of course, I don't want to deal with YouTube's Content ID on Christmas Eve. I'd rather be playing Minecraft, looking at all the cute chests that have turned into presents.

I'm looking forward to it. Even if it gets seen by 3 people, it'll still be worth every hour I worked on it. I'm doing this for myself, just like I should any other video.

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I'm dreading next year. It's going to be a tough one, emotionally, financially and phyiscally. So be it. I'm pondering whether I tap out on YouTube, whether I stop doing the weekly uploads after this point. I don't know, I'm kind of enjoying it. Perhaps I just need to lessen my output. Shorter videos, maybe.

Many people living strange lives, many people changing. Where was I?

[jckistan]

Jckiblog 5: Soon

The first draft of the script is finally complete. Thankfully, I think I've got more time than last year, but I'm gonna need it. I re-read last year's script to see how to write a conclusion, and I found that I was still scripting four days before the release date, leaving me three days to record and edit the video. Bonkers stuff.

I'm going to proof-read the script, just to make sure that

each section actually feels like it has substance, so I don't just feel like I'm writing a plot synopsis of myself

when I read it aloud, the words I speak actually sound natural.

Surprisingly enough, my script-writing brain and narration brain both come up with different words. I'll often read my own script and think, "hang on, I would never say that!"

I've got a good feeling about this video. I'm going to send it into Jacksfilm's Credit The Creators and see if it gets any momentum. I suppose I ought to give this video the star treatment.

[jckistan]

Jckiblog 4: Working Title

Hello Tumblr,

Once again writing a blog entry on here to try and clear my head. I'm trying to draft the final section to my next video, releasing in a couple weeks.

It's a big one. Currently sitting at 11 pages of script, which should come to about an hour of content, if it's anything like my previous essays. Trouble is, I'm exhausted, and increasingly worried by looming deadline. I want this thing out on a specific day, I can't afford to delay it, I'd forever be disappointed in myself.

There's still a lot to go: I have to finish writing all that I want to write about, I have to edit the script, make sure it flows well when spoken. I need to record it, export the audio, bring it all into an editor and compile the footage. I reckon I can do it, if I get this last bit of scripting done. Should be all downhill from there.

It's not been a good year. It's been a very long year, full of miserable moments that I don't want to re-live. I've had worse moments, but I genuinely question whether I've had worse years. I remember 2023, it was two peaks of misery at the start and end, with this weird haze of a good(ish) year in the middle. I felt hope, for the first time in a while, during that year. It started miserably, it ended miserably, but somewhere, during that middle stage, I started to ask myself if there was light around the corner.

There hasn't been a light in 2025. The start was bleak, the middle was bleak, the end is bleak, the future is bleak. Not necessarily bad all the way through, but it's as if the entire year has been overcast by this uncertainty, a paralyzing feeling that it's ready to get worse. I've been on the edge almost the whole year. I can see over the edge, looking down at how bad things could get. Nothing has pushed me over that edge, but nothing has brought me back. I know it's going to get worse. It's just what, in 2026, is going to do it for me.

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I'm rambling, of course. I don't know what else to do. I'll be throwing this section in the video script and seeing if it sticks the landing.

I'll be on Tumblr a bit more in the future, perhaps until I can find a permanent "blog" spot for myself. I know TommyInnit has his website, but unless you faff around a lot, none of your fans will be notified of a release unless you tell them to check the website.

See you all when the video comes out.