what brought u here?

i love love love html and css and since i was already satisfied with the custom theme of my tumblr blog ( WHICH u should check out. btw. the about page is also really cool ) i needed to scratch the itch that is creating and designing a website... so here i am! i already have used neocities in the past to host a duplicate of my html project Clippy’s Revival ( i will discuss it in detail later! ) and since i plan on using this website long-term and link it on various other websites with different usernames, i decided to name the url of this blog neotamias, the genus of chipmunk that live in Western North America. why name my portfolio after chipmunks? they are my favorite animals and the prefix is found in both neotamias and neocities, in order to differenciate between regular tamias and regular cities. ^^

is this a professional portfolio?

hell no LOL. i do art simply for fun, and this wesbite is simply to showcase my talents and take commissions, were people to want one. the thing about my art is that i would love to make money and have an artistic career— the problem is that i definitely do not have a good work ethic when it comes to art :P . i think i have enough visual art background to do commissions or the like, but i could never be one of those really dedicated professional artists who work on animated movies or produce official art. i have thought about being a children's illustrator but i would really have to start paying attention to my growth as an artist— it seems like a lot of work!

care to talk about ur motto, “zealous freak?”

absolutely, me ! ^^

as a teenager ( unfortunately ) raised on the internet, cringe culture and the guilt and shame of being 'weird' has been forever cemented into my brain. i'm sure it's the same for a lot of people! and as someone who still is working out their identity and how to be comfortable in their own skin, i take back the idea that i am a freak and an outsider, ala reclamation. i find weird things to be comforting because i see myself in them. this doesn't only apply to media, but in broader concepts as well. i become so attached to these things that reflect me, but i seldom talk and gush about them because i don't want to be seen as 'cringe' or as a weirdo, even if i really want to! therefore, i am a zealous freak who takes solace in the strange! and that's okay!! :) it's hard to remember that being abnormal is not the worst thing in the world... but paired with the fact that i am transgender leaves me very very afraid of being different and of being an outsider. but this insecurity of mine has to be dealt with and worked on, because i that there are other zealous freaks who feel the same way. and i want to HEAR what those freaks have to say !! being weird unashamedly is so important to me because other weirdos can feel comfortable with me. people want to be my friend not despite the fact that i am weird, but BECAUSE i am so! so that, in short, is what my motto means to me :)

then let's talk interests!

yay! i would love to!!!! but first... let's let the people see my epic BLINKIE COLLECTION before rambling off about old children's music and speech synthesizers....

BLINKIE COLLECTION

my homemade blinkies :)

blinkies i found on other sites!
click / hover over the paused blinkie for the source!

buttons and stamps!

userboxes!

what are some of ur interests ? :)

what a big scary question! i'll start out by saying that my interests always reflect myself. not my values or morals, but they reflect something in my psyche. they scratch an itch in my brain!

for instance, you may have noticed my cool custom "pluto: trans icon!" blinkie up there, my favicon, or my usernames, plutoidentity/ies and kuiperror. that's because pluto is my favorite planet, and i deeply connect with them because i view their demotion to dwarf planet in a transgender light. picture this: a small planet named pluto who is apart of a larger solar system family. they always feel so out of place and have quietly resigned themselves as an outcast who doesn't exactly fit in. but one day, the discovery of a newer celesial body in the kuiper belt, eris, reclassifies pluto as a dwarf planet. and pluto feels so much better in their skin, now that they have a community of dwarf planets around them! and now their relationship with the solar system isn't strained or sour at all. now pluto feels so much happier knowing that there is a place and name for them in the universe! :) ( and also their largest moon, charon, is totally their romantic partner. just saying. )
see! isn't that a lovely story! that's why i feel so connected to pluto, and why i don't think of pluto's demotion as a bad thing! in fact, i celebrate August 24th as a beautiful day where science furthered and pluto finally found a community ❤ . i think the only reason why people want pluto to be a planet again is because dwarf planets aren't taught in schools like true planets are and therefore are seen as inferior, but in my mind, dwarf planets are just as equal as true planets, and that includes pluto and eris and makemake and ceres and haumea and all the others, named and unnamed! its so wonderful to me that we have more friends in our solar system than we think.

so, my deep interests are always like that! and i'll just say as i warning, i might get a little personal. but that's okay! i am not a very emotional person and i have a hard time opening up. so think of this as me trying something new! so exciting ^^

the chipmunks !!

currently my greatest and strongest interest as of now is 1960s-era alvin and the chipmunks! it's as if it was made just for me! i absolutely love children's music--- ever since i was a small child watching Schoolhouse Rock! in school, music aimed at children has always made me happy--- and while most early chipmunk songs are nursery rhymes or folk songs, the original tunes by creator Ross Bagdasarian (sr.) are wonderful as well ^^ in fact, i love Bagdasarian's non-chipmunk works too! i collect records released under his real name, Ross Bagdasarian, as well as his David Seville moniker-- and i collect all kinds of chipmunk records, including first-edition LPs, 45 singles with coverart, and even early chipmunk merchandise!