Loreleice's Virtual Writing Pad

Assorted links - February 2026

Some link titles have been slightly modified for style.


Animals

Dr. Cheeto Cat

This orange cat gets his own profile as a professor at UC Davis' high-performance computing facility. (Thanks to someone on the Fediverse for sharing this university chonker!)

Nature Match Cuts: Snails or Slop Slime

Petra dissects a viral, AI-generated infographic for holding a snail.

Entertainment

Emulate vs. paying up!

Gabz talks about Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, a pair of popular (yet commonly emulated) games from the Game Boy Advance era that are now ported to Nintendo Switch.

Serebii.net: Pokémon 30

Every Pokémon (up to Generation IX) gets a unique logo for the franchise's 30th anniversary!

The "democratization of music production" is often (but not always) a scam

Quailblog made a great essay about the state of music production, especially in the age of generative AI. (Also, nice cats!)

The return of the DVD

Constructive Interference went to the Videotheek (in Utrecht, Netherlands) for some observations about the video-heavy optical medium.

The wealth disparity and fandom

Odin Dark shares their insights about consumerism within fan communities.

Indie web and online life

Build the web you want to see

James contributed his article about webweaving for the Good Internet Magazine.

Digital resistance

Manu talks about how personal websites can be used to fight against the oppressive forces of the online world.

Liberty as resistance

Matt wrote a good statement about online platforms in general:

You can use one platform while supporting others, even if you can’t yet quit the platform itself. You can also practice for departure, or quiet quit, by slowly cutting ties.

Normal people don't use the Internet

Honestly, I share the same sentiment as them. Social media is not the same as the open (and often personal) web, despite being part of the wider Internet world.

Who do you blog for?

Pei-Jeane wrote a response to someone's controversial (but now-deleted) post about the purpose of blogging. As they said in the end of the post:

It's your playground, so have fun with it.

Writing

Deleting the Dead - Boone

(CW: Death)

Sebastian archived his groupmate's story about online spaces from the deceased.

The Bookstore Battle

(CW: Ableism)

Sightless Scribbles published a long and impactful story about Jarvis' bookstore, which was visited by an AI-obsessed tech bro.

Watching the Swedes: 50 words for snow!

Neil lists 50 snow-related words in Swedish.

#links