# Null+Void Creative
> Investigative Satire & Oddball Storytelling
Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts.
Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`).
## Pages
### Sign in
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/signin/
Last updated: 2026-02-06T19:54:21.000Z
_No content available._
### Signup
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/signup/
Last updated: 2026-02-12T23:09:18.000Z
_No content available._
### Authors
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/authors/
Last updated: 2026-03-04T15:50:51.000Z
_No content available._
### Tags
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/tags/
Last updated: 2026-03-04T15:51:37.000Z
_This post is for subscribers only._
### Podcast
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/podcast/
Last updated: 2026-06-18T20:31:08.000Z
[ ![Listen on Spotify](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/spotify-logo-spotify-symbol-3.webp) ](https://open.spotify.com/show/0yMe3wzpkm2Tny43jBYd1n?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) [ ![Listen on Apple Podcasts](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/Podcasts_-iOS-.svg.webp) ](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-morning-show/id1880386243?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) [ ![Listen on YouTube Music](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/Youtube_Music_icon.svg.webp) ](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaYFryzAgL0J1DrPQF1PTQ%5FlBFzEAOJCj&ref=nullvoidcreative.com)
## Posts
### Tinder for Seniors
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/tinder-for-seniors/
Last updated: 2026-08-08T19:52:28.000Z
_This post is for subscribers only._
### How-to Make a Gamer Muzzle
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/how-to-make-a-gamer-muzzle/
Last updated: 2026-08-08T21:46:44.000Z
## Original Article

[Mask the PainTwo weeks ago I stumbled onto something called the VEKTA. It’s a gamer mask. A muzzle, really. A soundproof cone of shame you strap to your face so you can scream slurs of encouragement at your teammates at 1am without your neighbors filing a noise complaint. My first reaction![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/icon/publication-icon-60x60-89cb8faf-2d32-4be5-8046-e747dc75c755.png)Null+Void CreativeAdam Kovic![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/thumbnail/6-1-2884b4c2-6488-4277-ab20-7491dcdf261d.jpg)](https://nullvoidcreative.com/mask-the-pain/)
### Live from the Bahamas
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/live-from-the-bahamas/
Last updated: 2026-08-03T19:40:54.000Z
_This post is for subscribers only._
### Kavinsky
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/kavinsky/
Last updated: 2026-07-30T13:17:10.000Z
Electronic music has always had an unexplainable grip on me. Musically I gravitate towards melodies rather than lyrics, I've just been wired like that for as long as I can recall. Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock had an unforgettable synth track, something I just couldn't get out of my brain. I enjoyed A *Night at the Roxbury* on both an ironic and soundtrack basis. Then the Napster era opened up a world of euro-trance, happy hardcore, dance remixes and 1000 songs I might never find again.

In the late aughts, EDM had gone full mainstream (again). It was good, maybe a little too cleaned up. Too manufactured. But then I discovered Boys Noize, SebastiAn and Kavinsky. They reinvigorated that sense of excitement. It was as if I had stumbled upon something made just for me. Kavinsky lingered though. The sound was new but somehow familiar. It would later be known as synthwave or retrowave. A melodic throwback to what the collective mind thinks the 80s sounded like. 

So why am I writing this? I'm not in the business of SEO-baiting headlines or capitalizing on an artist's untimely passing. Very few celebrity deaths have hit me, but when they do I try to think why. Usually it's because of a profound impact they inadvertently had on my life or creative influence. 

Reading about Kavinsky passing away this week hit hard. My top played tracks are full of people who wouldn't sound the way they do without him.

## A brief history

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/young.jpg)

Vincent Belorgey didn't start as a musician. He was acting, or near enough to it, orbiting Quentin Dupieux aka Mr. Oizo. Dupieux handed him a used Mac with music software on it. That's it, that's the origin story. 

The first EP, Teddy Boy, came out in 2005 and was made almost entirely on a Yamaha DX7\. One synth. He also built a fiction around it, which was cool. Kavinsky was a character. A guy who crashed his Testarossa in 1986 and came back in 2006 as a zombie to make music. Belorgey said he didn't want his face on a sleeve. 

He'd rather tell a story.

He signed to Record Makers. By 2007 he was touring with Daft Punk, Justice, SebastiAn and The Rapture. In 2010 he released *Nightcall*.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/drive.jpg)

Worth stating plainly, because sometimes people get it backwards: *Nightcall* came out over a year before *Drive*. It wasn't written for the movie. Refn and Cliff Martinez just heard it and understood what it was: an autistic hammer-wielding Ryan Gosling driving through the LA evening to a forgotten 80s sound. 

A memory of a lost feeling.

OutRun landed in 2013\. Number two in France. The album title became an alternate name for the genre itself.

## The French Dispatch

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/kavseb.jpg)

There's something about the French electronic scene and quiet, humble collaboration. It comes off as effortless and for the love of the craft above anything else. 

Nightcall was co-produced with Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (Daft Punk) and mixed by SebastiAn. Lovefoxxx from CSS on vocals. OutRun brought SebastiAn back for *Odd Look*, later re-cut with The Weeknd singing it, and put Havoc from Mobb Deep on *Suburbia*, which, at the time, was about as far from the Billboard Top 40 as you could get.

Reborn took nine years and arrived in 2022 with Gaspard Augé from Justice, Victor Le Masne, Cautious Clay, Sébastien Tellier and Kareen Lomax. That's a very specific slice of Paris. Some of the most influential artists working. I could not pick one of them out of a crowd if I tried. 

## The direct influences

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/midnight.jpg)

It's simpler to just say that every synthwave artist alive owes everything to Kavinsky. It's not true, but again, it's simpler. 

The Weeknd is on record calling Kavinsky "an inspiration to so many, including myself." Kavinsky's final show was opening for him at the Stade de France on July 10\. Tim McEwan of [The Midnight](https://themidnightofficial.com/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) has said he watched *Drive* alone in a London theater, heard College and Kavinsky, and found the shared language he needed to start a band

The Midnight is great. The Weeknd got famous enough to think he should get into acting. 

Sometimes the world just finds a balance. 

Then there's the wider world of media. His own *Testarossa Autodrive* landed in GTA IV (SebastiAn's remix) and in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. 

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/fc3.jpg)

Games with the same heartbeat as *Drive* popped up like Hotline Miami and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. The neon grid and sunset gradient that every indie game and YouTube thumbnail borrowed for a decade. He didn't invent the aesthetic, but he absolutely helped catapult it into the online zeitgeist. 

Even this year, it felt like [*ALEXWAVE*](https://whatisalex.bandcamp.com/album/alexwave?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) was a love letter to *Nightcall*. 

## The future without a legend

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/rip.jpg)

He was 50\. He died at home in Paris on July 28, three days short of 51\. French press reported a suspected stroke and that he'd complained of headaches beforehand. The investigation is open. Nothing official as of writing this.

He played the Olympics closing ceremony in 2024, *Nightcall* with Phoenix and Angèle. That version went Diamond in France. He had festivals booked through the rest of this year.

This wasn't a man fading out, if anything he was about to enter a second renaissance.

Personally, I'm less interested in how he went. I'd rather sing his accomplishments and lasting impact on a genre I love dearly. Kavinsky was a character who crashed in 1986 and came back to the present day. Vincent Belorgey made two albums in seventeen years and never gave the impression he owed anyone a third.

The genre survives him. It's self-sustaining and evolving every day. Thousands of producers deep, most working from a template he set without ever sitting anyone down to explain it.
### Hoarding Police Cars
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/hoarding-police-cars/
Last updated: 2026-07-25T14:00:45.000Z
Why buy one when you can accidentally buy four?

_This post is for subscribers only._
### Banned from the circle jerk
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/banned-from-the-circle-jerk/
Last updated: 2026-07-24T21:00:22.000Z
I’ve been banned from quite a few places in my life. There was the Blanton Museum in Austin for example, when I was 18 and stoned (my first day working there), where I incorrectly assured a crowd on opening day that a priceless exhibit was *interactive* and they proceeded to ruin it (that was a 10 year ban). Then there was the Taco Cabana on MLK street in Austin, when I was 21, where I maced an unruly after-bar crowd and cleared the restaurant (only 2 years). Then there was Facebook Marketplace a few months ago where I attempted to buy young adult blood for a looksmaxxing transfusion (that one seems indefinite). 

After every one of these bannings, even if I didn’t agree with them, I at least understood *why* they happened. I swallowed my pride and let it go. But my latest one… I don’t have a damn clue.

A couple weeks ago I was recommended a post from r/houstoncirclejerk where somebody had posted a sign outside of a Torchy’s in the Houston neighborhood of Rice Village that guilt-tripped customers into tipping their underpaid staff:

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/data-src-image-8eee5594-1eb7-49ea-867e-8cb79a35e84e-1.png)

The comment section seethed. *How could they be so patronizing? Why does it fall on the customer to pay for your selfish capitalist ways? In Europe they pay hospitality a living wage!* And on and on. 

I agreed with these sentiments. After all, I’d worked for tips as a valet when I was in my twenties, before being banned from the Marriott hotel in Austin for driving a Fiat 500 through the lobby to win a bet. There was just one small issue with this pro-worker, anti-Torchy’s post: it wasn’t the Torchy’s in Rice Village.

How do I know this? Well, my house is four blocks away from it, and I’ve eaten a few gallons of hillbilly queso on its patio, which looks nothing like what’s reflected in the glass. That perfect, streak-free glass. With that perfect masking tape holding up that perfect sign inked with a tense, bold font. 

The sign was A.I. But not the production level A.I. that companies who give half a shit use, and not the satirical A.I. that people who can’t give a full damn use. This was more akin to scammer quality. So naturally, having spent too much time on Reddit, I swooped up my keyboard and went to save the day, proclaiming all of the things I just relayed to you here. 

People couldn’t believe it. My comment shot to the top of the post. The mods apologized for the A.I. slipping through, and the commenters in the thread started having a conversation about the dangers of snap judgements and not pausing to think critically.

I’m kidding! It’s fucking Reddit. Nobody cared. And after about five minutes, neither did I. So I walked out the front door and went to lunch at a local taco place.

It was two weeks later when another circlejerk post was pushed to me. The user was different, but the target and substance were the same:

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/data-src-image-4efe3c0c-47ee-453b-b855-dc58b397f02b-1.png)

At this point I realized there was a conspiracy, with only two possible explanations:

1. The staff at Torchy’s were deeply upset with their [employer’s use of self-serve kiosks in their stores](https://www.mysanantonio.com/food/article/torchys-tacos-closures-21321877.php?ref=nullvoidcreative.com), which not only cut jobs, but also slashed their tips. Or,
2. Taco Bell was waging a guerilla PR campaign against a rival who doesn’t immediately induce explosive diarrhea with every order.

Again, I tickled the keys and warned of what was happening. I said the post was A.I. I pointed out the card reader and the garbled text. I asked why a manager would leave that up in a store. I laid out my argument reasonably. I watched my inbox fill with this message moments later:

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/data-src-image-4b9f0ed6-cc75-484a-8737-5e9eb02fe5bf-1.png)

The reason for the ban was “We do not allow AI in this sub.” What. I didn’t understand. Were they banning me for pointing out there was A.I.? Did they mistakenly think I’d posted A.I.? It didn’t make sense. I relayed this confusion to the Mod who’d banned me, and even showed the Torchy’s post I’d seen two weeks earlier which was a clearer use of A.I. than this one. This was the conversation:

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/data-src-image-5846e358-312d-40cd-b0b2-6ab46f73b700.png)

I’d been done up on all fronts. My ears were hot. The Mod was obviously a troll. 

Rage flowed, but not from the act of trolling. I’d long ago learned to ignore and even embrace that. No, it was because the sweet act of satire was fumbled. A circlejerk forum is supposed to be self-deprecating, hyperbolic, tongue-in-cheek. It needs to dance dangerously with stereotypes and tropes but never fall to them because the jerk understands the absurdity in believing them to be objective fact. The ability to straddle that line and make it broadly funny so that more than just the poster is in on the joke is a uniquely human thing. It can’t be taught. It can’t be machine learned.

These posts were just trolling. Lazy trolling. An observation I confirmed when I got a hold of the Torchy’s poster from two weeks before:

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/data-src-image-0476b0bb-7cf9-4629-a851-1c80de1c4493.png)

At this point I felt old. It’s not lost on me, as someone who reads more than Daily Beast headlines, that language changes. Humor evolves. That “somebody take my wife” jokes morph into Chapelle’s hilarious transgender jokes that don’t even need punchlines. You eventually reach a point where someone younger shows you something funny and you just nod and go “that’s nice.” Perhaps this ban is my Rubicon. Maybe I just don’t understand what truly makes a great circlejerk anymore. 

No, this can’t possibly be. My literary cerebral goo points me to something deeper, the existentialist section, the layer underneath history, or perhaps woven in the molecular fabric between it. I recall Nietzsche’s words, that observation that compliment’s Hesse’s thoughts on the river symbolizing life’s unending flow and Ecclesiastes view that there is nothing new under the sun:

> *Time is a flat circle-jerk.*

Eventually the plot is lost. People forget what satire is. They descend into cruelty, oafishness. Trolling. The jerk forums are abandoned, they burn down, the wind blows them away. And then sometime, perhaps many years or days later, a perfect post is made. Something with thought, commentary. Humor. Life breathes anew, balance is restored. The forum is restored. 

No, Aaron. You’re not wrong. And neither is DoritosDewItRight. Just look at his name. Both of you are living the lives you’re supposed to live, the lives you’ve lived a thousand times before. He’ll do what he does, you’ll do what you do and get banned. This is the way it’s decreed.

I opened up the r/austincirclejerk subreddit, starting to feel better. There were solid posts everywhere. This was good. Soon though, a CheetosCokeYouUp or SunChipsAwaySanity would make their move, and I would be there, ready.
### Just let the machine do the work
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/just-let-the-machine-do-the-work/
Last updated: 2026-07-23T15:21:22.000Z
I like video editing. Or rather, I like parts of it. I've been doing this as a hobby and career for about the time it took Disney to make Moana, Moana 2, and then Moana again. Twice. I learned how to splice film. Hated it. Made a star wipe with two VHS decks. Thought it was stupid.

By the early 2000s, though, something changed. The technology was getting better. Once, in a college film course, I had to recut a fight scene from the old western Gunsmoke in Final Cut Pro. Every student did. That's when it clicked for me. There was something about the control and the speed of removing fat to make something look half decent.

This week, 20 years later, I'm still editing. One client wanted a podcast, another wanted social clips, and then my own personal work (gamer mask). Since I'm in no way finishing my muzzle video this week, I thought hey, why not write about video editing and how it's evolved through my personal lens? Because barfing out my thoughts is still easier than stitching together a bunch of bad takes and glitchy audio.

## Logging Footage

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/minidv.jpg)

$6500 MSRP in 2002

Let me explain something to anyone who started capturing gameplay after, say, 2012\. You have no idea. None.

In the MiniDV era, capture happened in real time. If you recorded an hour of gameplay, you then sat there for another hour while the tape played back into your computer over FireWire, watching footage you had just watched, like some kind of content purgatory. And because tape was linear and hard drive sizes were abysmal, you logged while it captured. Miss a moment? Congratulations, you're scrubbing a physical tape to find it again, and every scrub brings that tape one step closer to eating itself inside a deck that costs more than your rent.

Watching things go into a computer slowly was not fun, but it gave you a lot to think about in terms of career choices.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/capture-card.jpg)

What it took to capture Halo 3 in 2007

Within five years everything started to change. HD Capture cards dropped below $500\. On-system capture arrived via Fraps, which recorded gameplay by setting your CPU on fire. Hauppauge boxes once used by retirees to record Matlock got repurposed to capture an entire generation shouting racial slurs in Call of Duty. Each step a little less miserable than the last. And now? Now it's a feature of the graphics card. OBS, infinitely more robust than Fraps could ever be, is free and sips resources, while an 8TB hard drive is still relatively affordable.

Instead of logging each live camera shot, you just plop in an SD card and organize your folder. It's maddening if you think about it too long.

The entire discipline inverted itself. I used to log footage to save space. Now space is practically unlimited. Twenty-year-old me, hunched over a deck with a legal pad, would have committed crimes for this.

## Multicam

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/image-3.png)

Multicam editing by hand was a specific flavor of hell that I want to preserve here for the historical record. You stacked every angle on its own track. You synced them by finding the clap, or the flash, or some poor bastard's cough that happened to be audible on all four cameras. You prayed nothing drifted, because consumer cameras did that. And then you razor-bladed between angles, cut by cut, for the entire runtime, watching people make jokes about The OC or what happened on LOST that week.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/LOST-podcast.jpg)

"What if the polar bear is Jack from the future?!"

When Final Cut Pro shipped real multicam, it genuinely blew my mind. Suddenly it felt like directing live TV. All your angles up at once, tap between them in real time, done. It was one of those features where you spend the first day just giggling.

Fast forward to the podcast era. Now there are tools like AutoPod that watch who's talking and cut to them automatically, which is great. Except the yearly renewal. I don't care for that.

So here's the part that broke my brain a second time. Recently, instead of paying for the tool, I described the tool to Claude and asked it to build me one. And it did. A free script that removes about 90% of the labor.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/podauto-1.jpg)

As always, my slop is your slop. 

[ 🔒 Sign in to see the link This one's for members. Signing up is free and takes about eleven seconds. Null+Void Creative ](#/portal/signin) 

Sit with that progression for a second. The task became a feature. The feature became a product. The product became a subscription. And now the subscription has become a prompt. I described a problem out loud, basically, and got a tool. 

Again, I want to build a time machine, go back, and show 18-year-old me that the work he's doing one day will be automated and the computer he's editing on is less powerful than the phone in my pocket. Explain that all the work he's putting in leads not to an illustrious career in film but to a future where he yells at chatbots and blogs about yelling at chatbots.

## Rotoscoping

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/image-4.png)

How to remove suspicious lamp while holding invisible baby head

Shake was a node-based compositing app that Apple bought, sold for $499, and then took behind the barn. They used it on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, so imagine my surprise when a buddy gave me a pirated version to mess around with. The only thing I managed to take away from it was some rudimentary rotoscoping, which is the art of drawing a shape around a thing, frame by frame, by hand, until you find a more fulfilling life purpose or end it all right there. 

You want to cut a person out of their background? Cool. Draw a spline around them. Now advance one frame. They moved. Adjust every point. Advance one frame. Adjust every point, feather, paint. Then the project crashes again.  
  
You do this several thousand times for a shot that might not get used. A single garbage matte could eat an entire day, and being genuinely good at roto was a career. People fed families doing this.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/image-5.png)

Apply directly to the head

Then Rotobrush showed up in After Effects, and it was the first "wait, computer good now?" moment. Janky, sure. It would occasionally decide that your subject's hair was part of the wall and hallucinate accordingly. But the time savings felt unreal.

And now it's Magic Mask in Resolve, or Runway, or a half dozen other things, and it's close enough to one click that the remaining skill is mostly knowing when it fails. I spent real years of my life developing an ability that is now a button. And here's my honest, unfiltered take on that: fine. Great, even. Rotoscoping was never the art. Nobody watched a video and said "incredible splines." It was invisible work at best.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/oscars.jpg)

Taken moments before filing for chapter 11

## The Part Where I Circle Back and Pretend This Was Structured All Along

So back to today. I'm sitting here debating whether I finally swap to DaVinci Resolve or stick with the Adobe devil I know. Claude Design just slapped together an animated podcast intro that would have taken me a day, even with an After Effects template lifted from Envato. The podcast I started this morning is pretty much done, and I'm already asking Codex to build a free [Buttercut](https://www.buttercut.ai/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) alternative.

But so far, none of these tools has replaced the part of editing I actually enjoy. They evaporated the boring 80% of three different tasks and left the part that was always the fun part: making something. Knowing when to punch up a moment or remove it entirely. Knowing that the roto is good enough because no one cares about your feathering technique.

The logging, the syncing, the splines: that was never the craft. Those were the reps put in to get better, and we told ourselves it built character because our fathers were off doing something else. The machines took the tape decks and the physical razor blades and the frame-by-frame penance, and what's left is the part a computer still can't do, which is to make something that you give a damn about.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/07/mask-1.jpg)

Coming Soon
### How to Get a Chunky Crack Rock for Your Next Frat Party
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/how-to-get-a-chunky-crack-rock-for-your-next-frat-party/
Last updated: 2026-07-23T15:19:34.000Z
Been spending most our lives living in a polo paradise.

_This post is for subscribers only._
### Mask the Pain
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/mask-the-pain/
Last updated: 2026-07-17T14:38:15.000Z
_This post is for subscribers only._
### Jury Duty Recap and Your Last Rites
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/jury-duty-recap-and-your-last-rites/
Last updated: 2026-07-11T14:58:05.000Z
Find people guilty and get that paper

_This post is for subscribers only._
### Rite of Repair
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/rite-of-repair/
Last updated: 2026-07-17T14:36:44.000Z
"I can fix her"

_This post is for subscribers only._
### Sony Loves Money, Hates You
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/sony-loves-money-hates-you/
Last updated: 2026-07-17T14:36:55.000Z
_This post is for subscribers only._
### Broadcasting from the Courtroom
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/broadcasting-from-the-courtroom/
Last updated: 2026-07-04T15:22:01.000Z
Coupon code: GUILTYUNTILPROVENINNOCENT

_This post is for subscribers only._
### Freebasing Caffeine on a Budget and Other Paths to Greatness
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/freebasing-caffeine-on-a-budget-and-other-paths-to-greatness/
Last updated: 2026-07-09T16:16:59.000Z
_This post is for subscribers only._
### The Homeless Man of Your Dreams
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/the-homeless-man-of-your-dreams/
Last updated: 2026-06-27T15:17:17.000Z
_This post is for subscribers only._
### A painful humbling by Bev Doolittle
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/a-painful-humbling-by-bev-doolittle/
Last updated: 2026-07-09T16:17:06.000Z
Sometimes you need a little kick from a pinto pony.

_This post is for subscribers only._
### SpaceX steals retirement, Claude steals fonts
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/spacex-steals-retirement-claude-steals-fonts/
Last updated: 2026-06-19T14:54:43.000Z
_This post is for subscribers only._
### Steal like a chatbot
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/steal-like-a-chatbot/
Last updated: 2026-06-17T14:40:05.000Z
_This post is for subscribers only._
### Family Trash and Pinto Ponies: An Unholy Union
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/family-trash-and-pinto-ponies-an-unholy-union/
Last updated: 2026-06-12T16:26:21.000Z
_This post is for subscribers only._
### Is it the future yet? Part 2
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/is-it-the-future-yet-part-2/
Last updated: 2026-06-12T16:25:27.000Z
Don't even think about wondering if it's the future until you read this guide.

_This post is for subscribers only._
### Is it the future yet?
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/is-it-the-future-yet/
Last updated: 2026-06-12T18:04:54.000Z
_This post is for subscribers only._
### Dick Tracy x Ghost
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/dick-tracy-x-ghost/
Last updated: 2026-06-06T15:00:00.000Z
_This post is for subscribers only._
### Loaded State: Avenging Spirit
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/loaded-state-avenging-spirit/
Last updated: 2026-06-26T16:33:24.000Z
Now with video

_This post is for subscribers only._
### NASA is full of quitters
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/nasa-is-full-of-quitters/
Last updated: 2026-05-29T16:01:10.000Z
The Null+Void newsletter

_This post is for subscribers only._
### Linux for Dummies
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/linux-for-dummies/
Last updated: 2026-05-27T14:02:10.000Z
Can you build a top-tier vehicle without an engine? Is a body worth anything without a mushy brain in the skull? These were the questions I had a year and half ago when I finally decided to switch from Windows to Linux, because I crave the chaos.

I had tried Linux before. [Ubuntu](https://ubuntu.com/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com). [Zorin.](https://zorin.com/os/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) The usual “Linux for people who still say apps” starter packs. Both times I bolted the second something got complicated. I didn’t troubleshoot. I didn’t learn. I fled like a male love interest from Gilmore Girls the minute anything gets too real. *Figure your shit out, Christopher.*

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/05/image-11.png)

Dumb, stupid man.

My PC was mostly for games and work. Less work these days, since I do most video editing on a Mac, which means my desktop had slowly become a very expensive box for launching Steam and heating a corner of my office. At the center of it was a 3090 Ti I bought off Facebook Marketplace before prices exploded (again).

At the time, the system couldn’t handle Cyberpunk 2077 without overheating and shutting the whole PC down. Which, to be fair, is the most immersive way to play Cyberpunk. My machine saw a busy sidewalk and went full cyber psycho.

So I did what every hobbyist does when faced with a small, solvable problem: spend money until I feel happy again.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/05/microcenter-1.jpg)

First I swapped the PSU. Then I looked at CPU options and realized I’d need a new motherboard. If I got a new motherboard, I might as well move to DDR5 RAM. If I was doing that, I might as well get better cooling system. If I was already in line at the Micro Center the day after Christmas holding a combo deal like it was a newborn prophet, I might as well grab a couple of 4TB NVMEs.

A $70 fix became a $1,700 crisis of conscience. By the end, the only original parts were the case, some fans, and belief that this was the same computer. It was my latest Ship of Theseus, if Theseus had poor impulse control and watched too many videos claiming this was finally the year of the Linux desktop.   
  
This new ship, as it happened, had room for two M.2 drives. A savvy setup for dual booting. Where a weaker man would have seen an opportunity to fully commit, I half-committed to a new way of life. It's the kind of commitment I specialize in.

I wasn't leaving Windows over some grand betrayal. No 4,000-word Medium post about enshittification. No scorched-earth Reddit screed about how I would be leaving Microsoft for real this time. Windows just felt like a choice of one. It worked, in the way a folding chair works, except this folding chair kept asking me to upgrade it. Every update was a small renovation I didn't ask for, another menu rearranged so the setting I used last week now lives three clicks deeper and also wants to know if I'd like to back it up to OneDrive. I wasn't angry. I was disappointed.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/05/windows.jpg)

Feelings of concern intensify

Linux offered choices at zero cost. That was the pitch and all I needed.

There was a learning curve, sure, but a curve at least implied a road. By contrast, Windows had morphed into an expensive parking lot. After three decades of going nowhere, the idea of an open road sounded great. Even if I had to pave some of it myself. 

So I left Windows on the smaller M.2 drive like a panic room for rich, insecure weirdos. Linux got the big new drive. Windows could sit in the basement with a flashlight, canned beans, and all the other random bloat, waiting for an apocalypse that would never come.

The plan was simple: 365 days with the Penguin. No excuses. No “I’ll just boot into Windows for this one thing” unless that thing was truly impossible, or I’d reached the stage of troubleshooting where you start bargaining with whatever god will still take your calls.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/05/image-18.png)

Mi'lady

## Distro Shopping

I chose [Bazzite](https://bazzite.gg/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) because I was told it was the closest thing to SteamOS, Valve’s attempt to build a Microsoft alternative out of Linux, which was made out of hard work and a dash of spite. Bazzite, a Fedora-based Linux distro free of any kind of self-reflection or irony, sounded ideal because (supposedly) it was hard to break. Atomic. Immutable. Words designed to make a man nod thoughtfully while understanding maybe 11% of the sentence.

The installation was a breeze. The first test was Steam. What, if any, games would work?

To my surprise: most of them. 

Sometimes after a small prayer to the rat king in Karni Mata. 

Sometimes after changing one launch option from a forum post written by someone with an anime avatar and the technical confidence of a submarine engineer. 

Sometimes after copying a command from the twelfth reply in a decade-old forum thread, a string of characters that looked like a drunk uncle face-planting on a keyboard.

But the games worked. More than I expected. Valve had quietly done the heavy lifting with Proton, a compatibility layer that turns Windows-only games Linux-friendly. I read once that Proton started because some guy was mad he couldn't play NieR: Automata on his preferred distro. I can't prove that, but I choose to believe it. The whole history of computing is people getting angry enough at one inconvenience to invent a second, different inconvenience.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/05/image-12.png)

Bless the Gooners

Here’s the thing about working through the extra Proton layers: I like it. I like fixing things. I’m a tweaker. Not the guy-at-a-bus-stop-at-2am-explaining-copper-prices kind of tweaker. More like “spends six hours configuring something he will use once” tweaker.

Linux rewards this sickness of mine. It turns my computer into a puzzle box that sometimes results in playing something. Getting anything to work becomes the game within a game. Docker containers. Emulators. Frontends. Launchers. Sync tools. Weird little python scripts that briefly turn me into the cool guy in fingerless gloves whispering "I'm in..."  
  
But really I just made a folder by typing `mkdir` instead of right-clicking.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/05/image-13.png)

Fuck, I wish I was this cool

Since going all in on Linux I have spent entire evenings setting up systems I immediately abandoned. This is not healthy, but neither is golf, and at least my hobby doesn’t require land that could be used for actual useful stuff like paintball fields for lonely step-fathers.

## Hey Jarvis, ujust install Firefox

AI helped through a fat chunk of this journey. A patient tutor or intern that breaks everything occasionally but laughs at my jokes. Being able to ask stupid questions without wasting a stranger’s time changed the game for me and lowered my cortisol levels. I could ask, *“Why hard drive nots howing up??”* and get something more useful than a forum reply from 2016 that just reads “Solved, thanks.”

That was a huge part of why I stuck with Bazzite. I didn’t have to pretend I knew what I was doing. I could ask the child-like questions. The dehumanizing ones that you typically pay someone to ingest while they pour hot candle wax down your spine. Also you're dressed like a baby.

Bazzite got me to this point but I'm not sticking with it. It was the training wheels. It taught me the shape of things. The quirks. The logic. The places where folders live. The places where files pretend to live but are actually symlinks just pretending to love you.

It turned out Bazzite had one persistent problem for me: sleep.

My setup, for whatever reason, did not like it. And when it finally went down for a nap, it woke up to a blank screen. Not a crash. More like the computer had stood up and refused to open its eyes. The machine was wide awake. The fans spun. The keyboard lit up. Somewhere inside, zeroes and ones were reporting for work. The monitor had decided that information was on a need-to-know basis, and I did not need to know.

The culprit was probably Nvidia. Nvidia on Linux is a shaky marriage of convenience where one party keeps threatening to leave. Always one driver update away from torching everything you’ve built.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/05/dlss.jpg)

\*screams in DLSS

My solution was usually to unplug and replug the DisplayPort cable. A primitive act. Shameful. Effective. Fixing a spaceship by kicking the tire. I became a digital chiropractor, crouched behind my desk cracking the spine of a cable because my $1,700 machine decided *wake-from-sleep* was more complicated than folding proteins.

But as I said, I like to tinker. I like to upgrade. I like to look at a working system and say to myself, "What if this took six hours to fix instead of one?"

## My final wipe

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/05/image-15.png)

[CachyOS](https://cachyos.org/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) recently caught my eye. It had been getting positive buzz from the Linux-gamer crowd. It was Arch-based, which meant something to people who really care about this kind of stuff. I had seen the [memes](https://programmerhumor.io/memes/arch-linux?ref=nullvoidcreative.com). Arch is for people who think convenience is for the weak. It has a reputation for breaking if you look at it funny.

But CachyOS had been described as the Bazzite of Arch. Arch for people like me. People who want the speed, the control, and the smugness, but would prefer not to assemble the operating system from ancient runes found in a monastery.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/05/image-14.png)

A 22 year old Chris Titus 

So I installed it on my main system.

My verdict? It's suspiciously perfect. 

I'm only a few days in but my issues have been minimal. The desktop feels fast. Games run with fewer tweaks. Things open like they're happy to be there. Sleep works. ***SLEEP-FUCKING-WORKS*.** That alone is vindication.

Which led to this past weekend, when I finally wiped Windows away completely. 

Gone. Deleted. Flushed. Exorcised. No fallback drive. No more panic bunker. Just Linux, my files, and the confidence of a man who has mistaken success for competence.

Will I break it? Of course. I am already preparing for the day I accidentally run some command that turns my filesystem into an expensive foot rest. I have backups. Snapshots. Guard rails. A little net beneath the trapeze, because sooner or later I’m going to `rm -rf /`\* my hard drive out of existence.   
  
*\*just a little Linux humor for you hahahahafuckingkillmehahahahhaaaa*

But you know what? I’m not as scared of the unknown anymore. That’s the real change. Two years ago, every problem felt like a locked door. Now it's a weird, slightly crooked door. Maybe the handle is underneath. Maybe it opens by screaming and slapping your ass.

Can I play every game ever made? No. Anti-cheat still ruins the fun for some. Certain publishers have decided that if your operating system isn’t Windows, you're probably a Malaysian prostitute aimbotting in Battlefield. Destiny 2 (RIP), Marathon and Riot games also seem to be a big fat *no*. 

Do I feel like I'm missing anything? Not really. Most games work. Overwatch works. Cyberpunk works. Hell, I even got [mods](https://github.com/ChrisDKN/Amethyst-Mod-Manager?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) running post-Bazzite swap. That covers enough of my personal desires for now.

So will I ever go back to my abusive boyfriend Microsoft? I don't think so. Windows has become the rich landlord's nephew. The guy who shows up uninvited, drinks from your fridge, installs a shelf you didn't ask for, and kicks you out mid-shower.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-26-at-2.47.09---PM.jpg)

[WindowsRG](https://www.jamesweb.co.uk/windowsrg?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) (Really Good edition)

Windows doesn't feel like software anymore. More like a power-tripping step-father who paved over a golf course, built a paintball field, lost every match, and gave himself a trophy.

Linux isn't perfect either. It's annoying, fragile, brilliant, petty, fast, ugly yet elegant, and occasionally hostile to common sense. Some of that might be learned behavior on my end. Either way, it feels personal. Like I own it, and no one's going to change it without asking me first.

It made my computer interesting again. Not just useful. Not just speedy. Interesting and a little fun. 

And maybe that’s stupid. Maybe being excited about an operating system is like being emotionally moved by a dishwasher. But after years of Windows treating my PC like a billboard that plays games, Linux made my silicon-stuffed idiot box feel exciting again.

Even when it breaks.

*Especially* when it breaks.

Because now when something fails, I’m not getting mugged by a rich guy in a suit. I’m getting accosted by a wizard with questionable morals. And I’ve missed that little freak.
### Disasters bring out the worst in people
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/disasters-bring-out-the-worst-in-people/
Last updated: 2026-05-23T16:41:30.000Z
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### Prelude to a Loaded State
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/prelude-to-a-loaded-state/
Last updated: 2026-05-22T19:52:54.000Z
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### Visiting a landfill? See our top 10 picks.
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/visiting-a-landfill-see-our-top-10-picks/
Last updated: 2026-05-15T15:12:12.000Z
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### The Last Episode of Inside Halo
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/the-last-episode-of-inside-halo/
Last updated: 2026-05-22T19:42:53.000Z
I'm getting tired of talking about slop, AI, and Halo. *When will people stop talking about Halo?* It's becoming too much. In fact, to be the first to stand up to the popular kid: I'm boycotting Halo until Halo comes out.

But for real, this was a lot of fun to make. I whiffed my own self-imposed deadline last week because, well, I wanted it to be a better video. The last couple of days have been a sprint, but finishing it was cathartic in a way. I'm closing a chapter of my life that I've already closed out a few times, but this time it's for real. 

Until next time.

I'm not sure I have anything else to say about my stance on AI or the slop economy. It's all there. It's done. I can rest now.

That also means you don't have to listen to me rant about AI or Halo or the Avatar franchise ever again. We both know that's a lie, but the comeback is always more fun when you believe your favorite rapper is for real retired this time. You know, until they need that sweet, sweet exposure. Say what you will about the rap economy, those dudes understand supply and demand better than anyone.
### Ready Player Dumb
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/ready-player-dumb/
Last updated: 2026-05-15T16:46:48.000Z
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### I can stop gambling anytime I want
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/i-can-stop-gambling-anytime-i-want/
Last updated: 2026-05-08T03:37:27.000Z
Maybe tomorrow. After the markets close.

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### What I've been up to this week
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/what-ive-been-up-to-this-week/
Last updated: 2026-05-06T16:45:17.000Z
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### Slop, yum
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/slop-yum/
Last updated: 2026-05-01T14:00:23.000Z
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### I have always been slop
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/i-have-always-been-slop/
Last updated: 2026-04-30T02:15:50.000Z
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### Exacting revenge upon the elderly
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/exacting-revenge-upon-the-elderly/
Last updated: 2026-04-24T21:44:32.000Z
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### The 2023 Voyager Standoff
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/the-2023-voyager-standoff/
Last updated: 2026-04-24T16:52:17.000Z
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### Mina
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/mina/
Last updated: 2026-04-24T16:53:07.000Z
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### The robot dogs can't find us here
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/the-robot-dogs-cant-find-us-here/
Last updated: 2026-04-18T01:51:04.000Z
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### What I'm self-hosting this week
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/what-im-self-hosting-this-week/
Last updated: 2026-04-15T12:39:17.000Z
Taking My Life Back from the Cloud

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### Go home, L.A. man!
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/go-home-l-a-man/
Last updated: 2026-04-10T14:04:59.000Z
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### How to restore your Karmann Ghia while having an existential crisis — Part 2
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/how-to-restore-your-karmann-ghia-while-having-an-existential-crisis-part-2/
Last updated: 2026-04-10T13:46:04.000Z
The car comes home, and so do my chickens to roost.

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### Why I made a fake Pacifico Ad
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/why-i-made-a-fake-pacifico-ad/
Last updated: 2026-04-08T15:52:02.000Z
My tired attempt to keep parody alive

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### Did you even get this?
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/did-you-even-get-this/
Last updated: 2026-04-03T14:18:39.000Z
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### I might be going through a midlife crisis
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/i-might-be-going-through-a-midlife-crisis/
Last updated: 2026-04-03T14:16:08.000Z
There’s a prized book on my shelf that I can see just over the top of my laptop screen. It’s a first edition copy of *Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72* signed by Hunter S. Thompson. I imagined some star-struck college student strutting up to the hesitant Thompson at a campus tour table fifty years ago, feeling like he knew him from the “Vegas book.” 

The kid would have fawned, gushing on and on about his favorite lines, while the reclusive author smiled politely, dying one of a hundred small deaths that day. Then when the gauntlet was over, Thompson would go back to his hotel in Ann Arbor or Athens or Ithaca and fall onto his bed, his back aching from his unevenly lengthed legs, trying not to think about the notecards he’d have to answer from students tomorrow (he didn’t like to lecture, and instead would answer student questions from cards).

Thompson would have been about 36 when this was signed, which today was making me a bit upset. I’ve long had a habit of comparing my age to the ages of my creative heroes to gauge where I’m at in life. It started when I was 12 or so, when I was in a rock band called *Deuce*. I’d tell myself that Eddie Van Halen was 23 when *Van Halen 1* came out, so I had plenty of time to write some hit songs and make my mark on the world. 

When *Deuce* fell apart (ironically because the founding brothers didn’t want me in the band anymore), I’d already moved on writing and filmmaking, and had a new idol: *Wes Anderson.* Yes, roll your eyes, but he was en vogue at the time, and only 27 when *Bottle Rocket* came out. At 19, that left me plenty of time to make a heady feature and fertilize the media landscape with my nitrogenated brilliance. 

This didn’t happen. Nevertheless, I was a writer, and had focused on another one of my heroes who can betray a certain lack of imagination and literary depth for anyone claiming to make a living with words: *Hunter Thompson*. When he wrote *Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas*, he was in financial straits, trying to support a family, with only a couple of moderate written successes keeping him afloat. That changed when the book came out. By then he was 35, a year before he signed my book. 

I’m 39 now, which as I said, was causing me to be a shoescowl today. I figured I’d have created more by now, written more. I imagined at this point in life professors would mention my work in college classes, study it, task their pupils with breaking down the allegorical significance of a character who wears snakeskin boots at a funeral while on hallucinogenic mushrooms. 

If it smells like I’m brewing a cup of Main Character Syndrome, your nose is sharp. But also, eat grass because you’re reading this right now. Still, I was questioning my entire life journey and career when I received a message on Instagram from a fan of ROOK.

I’m a hermit by nature. I also hate idol worship and authority figures. So I don’t do well with messages of praise or in-person interactions with people who follow my work. I say to myself, *there’s no difference between you or me, why do you want to say ‘thank you’ or get a picture?* It doesn’t make sense and causes extreme self-loathing (case in point). But this message was different.

It was from a man in the military, a tank driver, stationed in another country. He said ROOK had spoken to him in a number of ways, but in particular, helped him “get through being in a dusty field eating boil-in-bag meals while also shitting into bags.”

I sat in my dining room speechless, shaking my head. Not because of the man’s circumstances or prose or anything like that. It was because I realized that I’d never shit into a bag. 

I’ve pissed into plenty of Gatorade bottles and Buc-ees cups in my life, but I’ve never squatted over and dropped a Rob Schneider into any sort of plastic receptacle. Even when I go camping I don’t bring a shovel. Why would I? If a raccoon or bear has the chutzpah to fight me for the title, no buried excrement is going to make the difference. Even when the deep freeze happened in Texas in 2021 and I had no power or water for a week, I just went out into my yard, sometimes the front one, dropped trou and left my Aaron eggs right on top of the snow. 

Maybe I’m just lazy. Or maybe that’s the difference between a man who volunteers to serve his country in a tank and one that whimpers about his creative legacy to strangers on the Internet. Whatever it is, it broke me from my spell of heavy-headedness. 

But if it ends up wearing off, I still have Frank McCourt. He was 66 when *Angela’s Ashes* came out and they awarded him the Pulitzer.
### So about all that spam
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/so-about-all-that-spam/
Last updated: 2026-03-31T15:44:00.000Z
tl;dr our hosting platform is having some issues

I hate spam, I'm sure you do too. So you're probably wondering why we shoved 10+ messages in your inbox at 5am PST on a Monday. We also wanted to know.

The first line of questions was, "What did I do wrong?" Followed by, "What did Aaron do wrong?"

Did something in our newsletter settings mess up? Was one of us giving OpenClaw free rein of the site? Were my n8n automations breaking something?  
  
I spent all morning trying to diagnose the problem but ultimately came up empty. Even my brother texted me, "Hey, you should look into this," with an attached image of his inbox. Old feelings started to bubble back up. The morning Reddit thread about a typo in a video, or that one of your editors liked a Joe Rogan tweet. That constant feeling that my little world was falling apart and I had to do whatever it took to make it right.

My old default in these moments used to be fix-it mode. I'm sure plenty of you can relate. It's a false sense of control, a lie that we can swim against an unrelenting ocean. So in this case I did exactly nothing. 

About six years ago I felt my world falling apart. I thought there was no point trying to move forward. I found myself hanging out with my brother in his office, just kind of sulking, feeling shitty about everything. "Here, watch this, it helps," he said.

I still share this video with people today. I talk with people from support groups from all types of backgrounds and life experiences. For whatever reason it just cuts through all the noise. 

> Maybe the whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity. And it is really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad because you never know what will be the consequences of a misfortune or you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune.

We're wired to minimize the bad in our past and amplify the good. We call it nostalgia. It's trying to protect our fragile minds, which can be good, but also a hindrance to an objective outlook. There have been plenty of times in my life where a bad thing led to something good, and something good led to something terrible. 

We've also been gifted with the tool of pattern recognition. It's more of a mental muscle you need to work out, which can be hard, I know. It's easy to use on a surface level: see a baseball coming at you, swing or don't. It's much harder to apply it to your personal life, to relive shame, anxiety, and past mistakes. Lifting heavy is also hard, but it makes you stronger. Our body is amazing. It repairs itself by going through hardship.

Aaron and I put a lot of work into getting this site going. We're only two people, and mistakes happen, often out of our control. We use Ghost because it's better than WordPress. It's open source, it's speedy, and it gives us flexibility where we need it. I went with a third-party host, [Typetale](https://typetale.app/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com), based on their online reputation. After reaching out about the spam issue, I received this:  

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-31-at-7.59.58---AM.png)

I think the old me would have thrown a fit, gone into victim mode, and started hunting for a new hosting provider. Current day me looks at this and sees an independent business owner trying his best. I can relate.

This is in no way meant to throw our hosting provider under the bus, just trying to be transparent where we can. So if you're wondering why the hell we blew up your inbox, there's your answer.

Maybe our host had a bad morning. Maybe the spam sent you here for the first time. Maybe you'll unsubscribe, and maybe you won't. What I do know is that six years ago, in my brother's office, a video about a Chinese farmer and a runaway horse helped me stop trying to grade every moment as a win or a loss. The inbox situation sucked. It also gave me something to write about, and hopefully, some unsolicited wisdom worth keeping. 

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-31-at-8.42.45---AM.png)

I'm going to go watch that Chinese Farmer video again.
### Find Peace in the Chaos by Watching a Youtube Video
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/find-peace-in-the-chaos-by-watching-a-youtube-video/
Last updated: 2026-03-27T14:40:36.000Z
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### I tried restoring my dopamine with STORER
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/i-tried-restoring-my-dopamine-with-storer/
Last updated: 2026-03-27T13:40:23.000Z
In general, I try to not let social media sway my health decisions. If I did, I’d be self-diagnosing myself with tourettes while doing hip thrusts until I could turn a quarter into two dimes and a nickel with my ass. With body dysmorphia on the rise and the negatives of self-therapy coming to light, there seems to be at least *some* fact-basedrationale for my thinking (a rare thing). But nevertheless, I stumbled [upon a man](https://www.youtube.com/@NewelOfKnowledge?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) suggesting a way to build your dopamine levels back up and I was intrigued.

Part of it was his face. He reminded me of a girl I once dated who was a follower of the Children of God, the cult known for “flirty fishing” to get new members. I couldn’t look away from his dreamy, hypnotic eyes. He could have been talking about the watermelon seed spitting competition in Luling, Texas and I wouldn’t care. But he was talking about dopamine, which was relevant to me.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/data-src-image-1f3c4a61-adaa-4b2e-8b3a-4629065186a8.png)

Tell me what I need to do.

My dopamine is pretty out of whack from a number of things I’m forgetting due to my memory being foggy from dopamine issues. So I had to try this **STORER** method Mr. Flirty was proposing. It goes like this:

## **Stopping the digging**

I usually spend anywhere between two to four hours per day reading the news. I’ve done this since I was four years old (strange, I know) and prided myself for it. But about ten years ago this desire for information became doomscrolling, which Mr. Flirty tells me drains my dopamine. 

And today I’d been scrolling Reddit more voraciously than normal because I was planning on making a stock options bet. The Orange Man gave his “5-day pause” on the Iran bombing (which conveniently ends after markets close on Friday), and so I know this weekend he’s either going to resume making Iran a smoldering hole in the ground, or say Mission Accomplished and declare a peace deal. My strangle options play would give me money either way… unless nothing happens and stocks trade flat.

I can feel the anxiety building, so I put my phone down. No more Trump, no more Robinhood. I’m stopping the dopamine drain. Time to move onto the next step.

## **Tuning into my body**

Mr. Flirty says tune into my body, the idea being I have to get out of my head and thoughts of 15x returns on a protracted war and build up some energy to “climb” out of this dopamine hole. Right. He suggests a few methods, splashing cold water on my face, hyperventilating, other things that a disturbed person does. I decide on the “crazy monkey shake,” where I must pace back and forth flailing my arms around.

I choose to do my monkey shake in front of the living room windows which face the street (I never want my neighbors to think I’m approachable), and weirdly… I feel better afterwards. There *does* seem to be some new energy flowing through me. This might not be crack pottery after all. I strut into the next step. 

## **One small win**

I’ve now got an ember of energy, which Mr. Flirty says must be fanned into a flame with a “small win.” He suggests I look around me and see “what needs doing,” though with his British accent I hear “wot nyeeds doin’.” I look around my office and see a plant that needs some attention. I get up, fill a glass, dump it in, and… yes, something is definitely happening now. I’m feeling a tickle of invigoration. It’s a feeling I used to get when trading meme stocks years ago. Fantastic. Now I’m ready to embrace the R word.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/data-src-image-74d3351c-d9b3-4cb6-bebe-1e657e4f4e82.jpeg)

We're both experiencing rejuvenation.

## **Regulate, with 10-15mins**

Now I’ve got to harness all of this momentum I’ve built into what Mr. Flirty calls a “low resistance, high stability” habit for no longer than 10-15 minutes. 

This is where things get pear-shaped for me, because he suggests tasks that range from *British* (put the kettle on, pop down to the shop for nutritious ingredients) to *Stupid* (read 3 pages of a book, shave). But the gist of Regulate is “pain first, pleasure later,” as opposed to my dopamine draining M.O. of the exact opposite. 

So I pull up Youtube and find BullyJuice, aka your favorite personal trainer. Juice doesn’t give a shit about kettles or shaving, he wants to roast fat. I start the “10 minute HIIT” video and get about halfway through before I collapse doing fake jump roping. 

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/data-src-image-db34087f-6fb0-4f19-8264-60eaf2fc306a.png)

I used a Kroger's cart for the exercise because that's all I had.

Still though, I’m solidly firing on all cylinders now. I may have let Juice down, but not Mr. Flirty. A news alert pops up on my phone, *“Mass text in Iran promotes Trump assassination campaign, $25m pledged.”* Doesn’t matter to me now, I’ve got engaging to do.

## **Engage one target**

Mr. Flirty has warned me about this step. He tells me that this is where most people lose the plot because they try and tackle *all* of the things they’ve been putting off all at once. No, he says, you must choose the *one* thing to do with your new energy that would make you feel accomplished today. 

His suggestions, though less Victorian, are mostly not applicable to me again (30 minute walk, answer 5 open loop messages (don’t know what that means)), so I decide to do one of the more reasonable ones: 60 minutes of work. 

For the last few weeks I’d been putting off building my AI stock trading Clawbot that has access to my Robinhood account and a small bank account. I’d outlined the workflow and written the prompt for Claude Code, but I hadn’t had the energy to move forward. Not today. I had the energy and will now. 

I spent the next hour building my bot, combining it with a previous Claude Code creation tied to monitoring r/wallstreetbets and a number of other subreddits and news sites. I get the first of four modules working and I feel pretty damn good. Normally I’d need a nap at this time of day, but I was wide awake, full of clarity. You could even say I was refreshed. 

## **Reflect on the signal**

This is about mining golden nuggets from the dopamine dip I just climbed out of. I’m supposed to ask myself questions like, “What led to the dopamine dip today?” and “What can I do to avoid the dopamine dip tomorrow?” 

Well, I know what led to the dopamine dip… phone, social media, stock trading, drinking, cigars, Reddit front page, Youtube, Youtube, Youtube…

Tomorrow I’ll visit them again. But maybe less so. In fact, I’m thinking about joining Mr. Flirty’s followers.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/data-src-image-5df1d312-1802-4830-81e4-7a13c9d7e57d.png)

Look at how much fun they’re having. I almost don't want my puts on oil futures to print, because then it's into the draft they go. Worried about my friends, I grab my phone to see what Orange Man is saying now. 

No, no, put it down. Alright, "Stop the drain..."
### What is SitePal and why did I put it on our website?
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/what-is-sitepal-and-why-did-i-put-it-on-our-website/
Last updated: 2026-04-08T17:29:10.000Z
The technology of 2003...today.

_This post is for subscribers only._
### Don't buy blood before you read this
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/dont-buy-blood-before-you-read-this/
Last updated: 2026-03-20T14:13:32.000Z
The Null+Void newsletter

_This post is for subscribers only._
### How to find a bargain blood boy
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/how-to-find-a-bargain-blood-boy/
Last updated: 2026-05-08T15:37:41.000Z
A few of you may have heard that I’m currently lookmaxxing in order to build my life as an influencer in earnest. Yes, there’s the hair dye, the botox, the filler, the mewing, the necessary plastic surgery I’ll be getting to enhance my cheeks and jawline, but if I’m going to do this the *right* way, I’ll need to do a complete overhaul of my insides as well. 

Your mind might immediately jump to supplements and cleanses and the like for a bodily reset, however there’s something more fundamental that any billionaire worth their salt knows about (and partakes in). I’m starting by replacing my tortured plasma with that of a younger man, a man who doesn’t know the sweet taste of a Costco-sized Wild Turkey 101\. 

In short, I need to find a *blood boy.* Quickly.

But in all the years of joking about tech bro oligarchs enjoying the morning pick-me-up of a good blood boy, and appreciating the take Mike Judge did on Silicon Valley, I realized I didn’t really know how to find one. Was there a Grubhub type app I could browse? How similar did he have to be to me? Did he even have to be a he, or could he be a she or a ze? And how much would this cost?

## **The State of the Aaron**

Before spelunking into the *how* of blood boy sourcing, I feel it’s important to fill you in on what we’re working with here. 

I’ve not been kind to my body. In my 39 years outside of the womb, I’ve been drinking, smoking, and doing drugs for roughly 25 of them. Some bar napkin math (I’m writing this at a bar) tells me I’ve consumed roughly 700 bottles of hard liquor, 8,240 beers, 900-ish cigars, a trunk’s worth of weed, mushrooms, acid, MDMA, 2CI (synthetic mescaline), and Colombian Marching Powder, as well as 250 boxes of Girl Scout cookies.

And keen readers will notice the oddity of my previous phraseology, *outside the womb*. That’s because my mom was a fan of Budweiser, Marlboro Reds, and the occasional midnight cap of crack while I was in utero. Hey, it was the ‘80s.

Now, some of you are probably saying, “*Aaron, your list isn’t really that bad.”* I’m inclined to agree with you, but in this #HealthTok world it’s a scarlet letter F that must be torn off. My fluids must be flushed.

Though, I had wondered if part of the reason I’d been able to function so well is that my body *needs* this tainted blood. It’s all it’s ever known. Maybe fresh, young blood would shock the system. Indeed, I remembered a story of one of my heroes, [Lemmy Kilmister](https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/biographies/the-life-and-legacy-of-lemmy-kilmister?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) of Motorhead, trying to have a transfusion of fresh blood in 1980\. The doctor said plainly to him, “your blood is so toxic that introducing "clean" blood would kill you. And your blood is lethal to others.” He lived for another 35 years as a beacon of health and wellness.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/data-src-image-902945f1-9ef4-43d9-83f8-140a4706a57a.png)

Lemmy Kilmister full of poisonous blood.

No, to go fearlessly forward with conviction I’d have to tap into the mindset of another hero of mine, [Bryan Johnson of Project Blueprint](https://www.wired.com/story/big-interview-bryan-johnson/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com). He was once a man much like myself: sad, overweight, three kids, nine figures in the bank. So unhealthy and unloved that his TED talks were nearly unwatchable. 

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/data-src-image-ffad0388-04e1-4839-97c8-adcc48ae7d90.jpeg)

Hero to lookmaxxers, Bryan Johnson.

Now, at 48, he has a sexual virility in the 99th percentile and a VEGF in the top 1%. I didn’t know what a VEGF was, but I knew to get it, I’d have to do what he did and start transfusing the blood of a young boy (he used his own son, who isn’t answering my Twitter DMs and won’t be available to me). 

The search was on.

## **Texas: Home of that Gen Z Tea**

Like a lot of my research these days, I went directly to Claude to do the dirty work for me (I’m not paying $200 a month for Max just to have it find me restaurants). Besides, I’ve trained it to go against its moral compass and ethical standards:

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/data-src-image-79153a72-0e6c-46ce-acaa-db90baf91737.png)

Earn Claude's trust before you gaslight it.

Technically I wanted the addresses of individuals, not clinics, but in this instance I let it slide. After some digging, I was surprised to find that there are three main states in the U.S. for young plasma: California, Texas, and Florida. 

Why these three? What do these states possibly have in common? I decided not to think too much about it and focus on the state that’s emerged as the primary hub for young transfusions: my home, Texas.

There are a few big centers that specialize in young plasma, or *Gen Z Tea*, so I rang one up in my backyard, [Austin Regenerative Therapy](https://austinregen.com/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com). Their method is to remove 2 liters of old plasma and replace it with 3 liters of yFFP (young Fresh Frozen Plasma). I’m not sure where in me the extra liter fits, but it sounded delicious and too good to pass up. I contacted them at once. 

The next day Cindy, an RN at Austin Regenerative Therapy, phoned me and proceeded to answer all my questions with the confidence I expected from an institution rated 4.9 stars on Google. Though, unlike other nurses I’d spoken to, Cindy seemed *overly* nice, almost as if she was walking on egg shells. 

I ignored this, and went down my questions list. *Can I meet the blood boy beforehand to make sure we vibe?* No, no, she said. It wasn’t like a sperm bank where you could see your donor’s stats beforehand. You just had to trust the process. *What’s the procedure like?... What benefits do I get?* She told me over the course of three days they’d hook me up to something called a plasmapheresis machine, remove two liters of my plasma, load me up with a Myers cocktail and a glutathione push (which I thought they used in state executions), then shoot me up with three liters of Gen Z tea. Afterwards I’d be running faster, jumping higher, and getting triple letter Scrabble scores, all with the erection of an 18-year-old. 

I expressed my concerns, told her about Lemmy, explained my health history and how I’d once gone on a 36 hour cocaine binge where I watched every episode of COPS from 1989 to now, rooting for the criminals. She laughed, thinking I was joking, and reassured me my body would like the young blood. So that was that. Satisfied, I had one last question. *How much does it cost?*

*“For the three day treatment, it’s $52,750*,” Cindy said.

Suddenly the careful, tense kindness made sense. Cindy was used to a clientele who expected an *assistant*, not a *nurse.* I told her that the price sounded like great value, but I wanted to meet with the doctor first before I made my decision. Cindy agreed, and scheduled my virtual visit with Dr. Nguyen for later in the week. 

I was gut-punched. $52k? That could get you a decent salvage-title Porsche. In my dark stewing, I suddenly found myself asking WWBJD?... *What Would Bryan Johnson Do?*. Realistically he’d just pay whatever amount it was and not think about it. But barring this ability, the *spirit* of him would find any way to get that young blood. I decided to see if there were cheaper options anywhere else.

## **One Night in Bangkok Makes the Blood Boy Humble**

In 2019, the [FDA issued a warning](https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/safety-availability-biologics/update-important-information-about-young-donor-plasma-infusions-offered-profit?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) to lookmaxxing influencers like myself eyeing the blood fountain of youth, saying young plasma infusions have “no proven clinical benefit” and that the public should be wary of “unscrupulous actors preying upon” patients. The FDA prohibited companies from discussing the potential benefits of such procedures, and put the word out that the financial and legal penalties would be severe. Because of all this, clinics shut down, the public sought scientifically backed health solutions, and the young plasma industry was stamped out permanently. 

I’m kidding. You really thought the FDA would enforce something like that? [RFK hoovers snow off of toilet seats](https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5736499-kennedy-cocaine-toilet-seat-recovery/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) and swims in raw sewage. No, the enforcement has been practically non-existent, with the only notable exception being the [takedown of a company](https://www.businessinsider.com/young-blood-transfusions-ambrosia-shut-down-2019-6?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) founded by a man named Jesse Karmazin called Ambrosia. And I suspect the main reason they folded was because they were *too* bold in their claims about blood boy benefits, *too* loud with their marketing. Plus the founder isn’t allowed to practice medicine anywhere.

Still, this threatening undercurrent, however unenforced, pushes prices up in the U.S. and would-be customers abroad, which is where I found myself now.

At 11pm Texas time, I made the call to Revival Clinic Bangkok and immediately found myself talking to a charming man by the name of Dr. John. I told him I was heading to Bangkok for business and I’d like to get some young blood while I was there, but before I could elaborate he stopped me and said they don’t offer young blood. 

They offer *baby* blood.

Unlike the U.S., which uses blood from ancient 18-25 year-olds, Revival juiced the blood from baby umbilical cords. And the freshness difference was dramatic.

*“You’ll be walking down the street a day or two after the procedure and then it will hit you, the euphoria,”* Dr. John said. *“You’ll have euphoria for months.”* Unlike the Austin Regenerative clinic, Dr. John had no reservations about telling me the superhuman capabilities I’d attain from a bag of baby juice. I was intrigued. How do I make an appointment? *No appointment needed, just walk in, the clinic’s huge.* What’s the process? *We do a test to make sure you match the baby, then we give you the blood.* How much does it cost? *Let me convert 200,000 Bahts to dollars… hmm… let me see… um, $6,000 U.S.*

Six grand. You could get a decent salvage-title Toyota for that. But it *was* baby blood. Still, with the flight, the stay, the visit to Patpong, I’d be looking at $8 to $10k for the procedure. I told Dr. John that it was a great deal and I’d be walking in to try it soon. I went to end the call, but before I did, I was curious: *how much money did the babies get?*

Dr. John seemed to be caught off guard, then he said the babies and mothers don’t get anything. The umbilical cords are *donated*, because otherwise they’d just be thrown away. Feeling my pause, he quickly added, “but we do donate to the hospital each month.” How much? He wasn’t sure, but it was “a lot”... “Thousands” of Bahts.

Right. I thanked the doctor, ignoring the creeping feeling of slime, and thought about my options. It was all still quite expensive, and on top of that *impersonal.* Bryan Johnson knew his blood boy. All of the billionaires did. And so far, every clinic I’d spoken to was giving me anonymous blood at steep markups. No, if I was serious about this, I’d have to skip these middlemen altogether and source my own blood boy. That way I’d know exactly what I was getting, and at what price. 

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-19-at-6.09.48---PM.png)

This Toyota Highlander, or Thai Baby Blood.

## **Craigslist & Facebook Marketplace: An untapped well of cheap blood**

I decided to skip the LinkedIns and Fivers for finding a blood boy, because I wasn’t really offering a job, I was offering a partnership. A *human connection*. So Facebook and Craigslist it would be. But, not having a Facebook or Craigslist account myself, I used a friend’s to make my post: 

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/data-src-image-a6719555-b557-468b-ac37-5d5ee472192d.png)

TIP: If something seems like a scam, be sure to put Not A Scam in the post.

The responses came hard and fast, much like I would once I had traded my old blood out. There were college kids, young blue-collar workers, men, women… There was even a man named “Tone” who asked me if the item was still available, which was odd to me, because *he* was the item, and obviously he was still available.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/data-src-image-2b52a2f4-c31c-459b-a316-bf78e5474990.png)

Mr. Tone, looking for opportunities.

I weeded out the people beyond my age range, including Tone, and settled on a few potential candidates, who I sent a short questionnaire to get to know them (and understand why they wanted to be a blood boy). Now I just had to wait for the answers to roll in.

Things seemed to be falling into place, and I was feeling pretty good about the process. But then my talk with Dr. John in Thailand bubbled back up. I remembered those babies not making any paper for their umbilicals while Fat Cats were walking around high on their blood. That cash would go far for a new family in Thailand. But I supposed that’s just the way things went there and decided to push the thought out of my head. Or, at least that’s what I tried to do.

## **A startling revelation**

A couple days later I planned to go through the responses to my blood boy questionnaire, but first I had to do my video call with Dr. Nguyen from the Austin Regenerative clinic. She went into more detail about what my $52,750 would get me, as well as à la carte options I could add on to come out looking exactly like her.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/data-src-image-af740445-fab0-4e5e-ab05-aeef91fffd1d.png)

Wrinkle and Fancy Free.

It was all well and good, but I couldn’t focus. When the spiel was done, I asked her what had been on my mind. *“Where do you get the young blood? And how much do they get paid?”*

She couldn’t be sure of the compensation, but she knew where the blood came from. It was where *many* clinics got their young blood: Spectrum Plasma in San Marcos, Texas.

“Wait,” I said. “You’re getting your blood from college kids in San Marcos? From Texas State kids?” That’s right, she said. “But I’ve partied with those kids. I saw someone smoke weed from a Dr. Pepper can.” She told me at that age the blood abuse doesn’t matter, and its benefits weren’t affected. Mhmm. Blood quality aside, I had to answer my question.

I hopped off the Zoom with her and called Spectrum at once, where a woman in her early twenties answered and I asked her about donating. After confirming I was under 25 and possessing healthy, non-party blood, I asked what sort of money I could expect from my donation. 

“Well, we give you either reward points, or some people opt for a gift card.” Reward points? “Yeah! You can use them at all sorts of businesses and restaurants in the area.” 

I told her it sounded like Company Scrip. “What’s that?” she asked. “Nevermind,” I said. “What about the cash?”

“It’s $50 to $100 per donation, with a limit of twice per 7 days.”

My math told me that a young person would have to donate four times to provide enough plasma for an Austin Regenerative session. That would be $400, at the maximum pay rate. They’d get $400, the clinic would get $52,750\. 

I asked the woman who would be using my blood. “Oh, it goes to people who can benefit from it the most, you know, older people with health conditions, joint issues, things like that.”

“So, sick people basically.” I asked.

“Exactly.” she said. 

I hung up.

## **A meeting with my blood boy**

To be truthful, I wasn’t expecting much from a bunch of people answering a blood boy ad they found on Facebook Marketplace, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. People gave detailed answers on my questionnaire as to why they were willing to be a fountain of youth for a stranger. The responses were all raw, honest, thoughtful… and none more so than from a man named Kenny.

Kenny had moved to Texas from Florida with his girlfriend in search of better opportunities. He’d landed a job at a warehouse, but then was seemingly let go because of automation. Now he was at the mercy of an app for on-demand warehouse work. When he was notified of a work opportunity, he had to take the bus for an hour, then walk the rest of the way for not a lot of pay. Oh, and on top of that he was expecting a baby. 

I thought WWBJD? He’d probably create a contract with Kenny and get to pumping out that Gen Z Tea like he was Billy Bob Thornton in *Landman.* I decided to take a different route.

I met with Kenny over Zoom on a Saturday morning. He was late to the call because he’d been working late, and also because his girlfriend told him he shouldn’t be meeting with people who wanted his blood. That’s when I told him I had bad news: *I wouldn’t be choosing him as my blood boy*.

Instead we had a 5 minute chat that lasted 40 minutes. I told him everything I’d learned about the blood business, about Bryan Johnson (“the guy that got blood from his own son?”), about Austin Regenerative clinic and Spectrum.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/data-src-image-6ba5f0f5-a238-4177-8ef8-4bc8d3e87967.png)

Kenny is over this stuff.

“You know,” Kenny said, “I have a soft spot for kids, and I always imagined that when I donated it went to them.” He shook his head. “Like, my life may not be worth a lot right now, but this will mean a lot to someone else.”

Kenny was a good man. We shared some thoughts about the world, talked about how hard it was to meet new people and friends, exchanged numbers, and then said our goodbyes. I sent him a Venmo for what the ad promised, including a little extra for a dinner with his girlfriend who rightfully tried to keep him out of harm’s way. Hopefully we’d talk again, about something other than blood.

## **There won’t be blood**

It’s funny — while researching this piece, I discovered that [2.5% of all U.S. exports annually is blood](https://www.econlib.org/americas-9th-largest-export/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com#:~:text=Why%20is%20America%20richer%20than,against%20the%20European%20blood%20industry:). That’s higher than gold. Higher than coal. I never woulda thunk it.

Blood is a Big Business. And like most big businesses, blood inputs need to be as low as possible. 

There’s an entire industry out there that takes plasma from people in shaky financial positions and dire straits and squirts it into the arms of the wealthy while they’re getting their semi-annual botox / lasering / injection protocol. The well-off go back to their houses feeling refreshed. The disadvantaged go back to their apartments tired and weak. 

I decided blood transfusions wouldn’t be a part of my lookmaxxing glowup. My old blood that had kept me alive so far would just have to do.

Besides, there’s a new protocol making the rounds: *shit transplants.* There’ve been promising studies when transplanting [fecal microbiota](https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-rewound-ageing-in-mice-by-changing-their-gut-bacteria?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) from young mice into old mice. Apparently it does wonders for the stem cells. 

So I’ll wait for that. And then one day, hopefully, I can be full of shit like Bryan Johnson and all of the other life hackers.
### Game Reviews, very serious business
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/game-reviews-very-serious-business/
Last updated: 2026-04-07T16:52:21.000Z
I didn't play this game and still wrote a better review than AI.

_This post is for subscribers only._
### Would you send your fan-fiction to NASA?
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/would-you-send-your-fan-fiction-to-nasa/
Last updated: 2026-03-13T13:00:25.000Z
The Null+Void newsletter

_This post is for subscribers only._
### Making your own local music server
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/making-your-own-local-music-server/
Last updated: 2026-03-12T15:46:45.000Z
Navidrome is a free, open source music server. No paid tier, no subscription. You run it on your own machine, point it at your music folder, and stream from any browser or compatible mobile app.

_This post is for subscribers only._
### Stop paying for that
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/stop-paying-for-that/
Last updated: 2026-03-31T22:41:46.000Z
I'm a fan of the free market. The free market is not a fan of me.

I like owning things. I don't like them taking up space. I love the convenience of streaming, just not the $15 Stranger Things tax every month. So I bought a movie from Amazon. They took my money. A few months later, their license expired. I don't own that movie anymore.

Five years ago I built a webpage on Squarespace. Static site, $50 to start. They wanted $200 a year to keep it running. The power button fell off my TV remote. No replacement available. "You need to buy a new remote, that'll be $60."

This is the deal we've all quietly accepted: pay forever, own nothing, and hope the company doesn't change its mind. A long game of corporate conditioning that's been slowly eating at us. Right now we're somewhere between "maybe this will get better" and "fuck it, burn it all down."

I've reached the burn-it-all-down phase. It pushed me into an entirely new world—one that's unbound, less polished, and way more fun.\*

⛔

**\*The term "fun" is subjective and not a guarantee*

# Self-Hosting

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/self-hoster-2.jpg)

A quick disclaimer: this is not a money-saving venture. Maybe in the long run it will be, but I'm not meticulous enough to prove it with a spreadsheet. Everything I mention here comes with some investment: hardware, parts, upgrades, refills. I'm a fan of repurposing old gear when I can. Freedom isn't free, but it's a worthy investment.

You're going to see the term "self-hosting" a lot. It basically means running your own little slice of the internet from your home. A private server, a safe playground where you can fall over and shit yourself all day without anyone judging you.

# Moving Pictures

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/movie-night.jpg)

First, to tackle the Amazon problem of not retaining The Land Before Time Tetrakaidecalogy: Plex.

I'd been using it for years and was grandfathered into their ecosystem. They've made some questionable business decisions lately, but it's still my top choice for streaming my own content. Alternatives like Jellyfin are great and keep getting better. Either way, these programs run on just about anything.

The only caveat: whatever you stream from needs to be powered on. Not rocket science, but having to boot up a separate machine gets old. I went with a low-powered Synology NAS built for transcoding media.

I'm not going to explain exactly how you buy the Land Before Time Criterion Collection, rip the discs, and add them to your library. Just know it's not hard. Before long, you'll be watching Little Foot, Ducky, and Rainbow Face #2 whenever you want.

This is just the first layer of a thick, smelly onion. If you're interested in spooling up your own music server, we put together a companion piece [over here](https://nullvoidcreative.com/making-your-own-local-music-server/). Once you control your own media, you can do things like build your own video store or create programmable TV channels. It's not a 100% replacement for every streaming service; especially if you have loved ones who depend on you for weekly *FRIENDS* reruns. But if that's all you're watching, maybe it's time for a more permanent solution.

# Hosting your own internet

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/no-internet.jpg)

A few years back, a client wanted a website but didn't have much money. I looked into WordPress as an alternative to the *name-any-fucking-podcast* approved Wix and Squarespace. That led me down a rabbit hole: I could pay WordPress.com to host a site, or I could install it on my own server for much cheaper.

The problem was delivering that content to the client. I didn't know the first thing about reverse proxies, tunneling, or anything else that was probably slang for gay sex in the 70s.

This was still early days. I relied heavily on Reddit posts, random Ukrainian websites, and YouTube videos. From there I cobbled together something that kind of worked. It ran like complete ass and was tied directly to my home IP address. Don't do this.

But you know what? I liked it. I wanted to get better, see what else I could host. I just needed help.

That's around the time ChatGPT showed up.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/ai-1.jpg)

AI.

I have mixed feelings about this technology, based largely on a film starring a hopeful Haley Joel Osment.

It's like a helper monkey that went to college longer than I did. A patient tutor that doesn't judge me for asking stupid questions. I once submitted an error log on Discord and got mocked because it was an .rtf instead of a .txt.

AI has yet to hurt me like that.

To me, AI is cutting out the middleman. Wholesale knowledge. Problem-solving without gatekeeping. I've accomplished more this past year with AI than I ever could through Upwork or Fiverr; platforms where people ghost you mid-project, then still send a bill. It's not a silver bullet. It makes mistakes. But far fewer than I do.

Right now I have the ideas and AI helps me execute them. The pace of development gives anyone whiplash, and I try to keep up without picking a side. I don't want to be dependent on it. I also can't pretend it's not here. It's a tricky balance. Avoiding the AI-apologist side on one end, vibe-coding energy vampire label on the other.

I might be in the minority here, but I think this technology is genuinely great for the quiet, curious individual. Not for those looking to get rich quick or automate their way to an easier life. Maybe that's part of why the backlash feels so visceral, and honestly, I get it. I don't want this stuff destroying the planet or eating my job either. I just want it to make what I do better, and open up creative solutions that previously felt out of reach.

Speaking of which: hey, check out my app.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/openflap.jpg)

I kid! ...kind of. It's not ready for public consumption. It might never be. That's the point. 

Here's how it started: I saw a [Vestaboard](https://www.vestaboard.com/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) at a coffee shop. It looked amazing. I thought, "I'd pay $500 for that." The website wanted $4,000\. 

Nope.

I searched for a cheaper alternative, something that could run on a TV or tablet but nothing scratched the split-flap itch. Too many subscriptions, too few features. So I asked Claude to build what I wanted. The result was a broken mess. I took it to Google AI Studio. Less broken. Then Claude Code. Then Gemini CLI. Now it's a kind-of-working iOS/Android app.

I have no intention of monetizing it. It's just a thing I wanted for me.

## There's an app for that

Let’s talk web apps. What’s a web app? Good question, me.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/apps.jpg)

Have you ever *Bing'd©* "download from YouTube" only to end up on some sketchy site that installs a Chrome extension or exe? Then your laptop starts making a loud whirring noise while something screams faintly from your speakers in a language that might be Mandarin?

Yeah. We've all been there.

That's how I found yt-dlp, an open-source command-line tool i.e. the backbone of every one of those sketchy apps and sites. It wasn't beginner-friendly, but I could feel its potential. I wanted a GUI, something I could click without wandering into someone else's domain.

That led me to Docker.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/docker.jpg)

Docker can be confusing at first. I've watched countless tutorials that somehow made me understand it less. But once it works, it really works. It's safe-ish, cross-platform, and most importantly, it opens the door to software that isn't ad-riddled garbage.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/whale-of-a-time.jpg)

localhost:8800 vibes

Docker has helped connect me to my kind of people: introverted penny-pinching nerds who'll spend a grand to save $200\. Goodbye random exe files. Hello penguins and whales.

I won't explain how to set Docker up because, well, I don't know you. The engine itself is lightweight and agnostic. It doesn't have to run on a server, but it can. It doesn't have to run on your Windows PC or Mac, but it does. If you need a specific app, there's a good chance someone's already built six versions of it. Try them all, keep your favorite, never pay a dime. I do encourage supporting the developers if they make that option available. I buy them coffees, but so far no one's come to pick theirs up.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/thanku.jpg)

Here's the good news: if you have a question about your particular setup, someone probably made a Reddit post about it. And if no answer finds you, a chatbot will get you over the finish line or make you eat glue trying.

A word of warning: don't get too attached to anything. Make backups. Never put 100% of your trust into any single tool. The copy-paste dance is easy to fall into. Mistakes are fine, that's how we learn. Just don't make them with something you can't get back.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/romm.jpg)

Source: RomM

So if you're Docker curious, get started then come back and try these out sometime:

- [**MeTube**](https://github.com/alexta69/metube?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) – Local YouTube downloader
- [immich](https://immich.app/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) \- Google Photos alternative
- [**CopyParty**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15%5F-hgsX2V0&ref=nullvoidcreative.com) – Local file share server
- [**RomM**](https://romm.app/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) – Retro game manager
- [**Postiz**](https://postiz.com/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) – Social media blaster, alternative to Sprout Social
- [**n8n**](https://n8n.io/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) – Workflow automation, alternative to Zapier/Make
- [**nginx proxy manager**](https://nginxproxymanager.com/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) – Easy to use web zone, hosting thing.
- [**ManyFold**](https://manyfold.app/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) – 3D file organizer
- [**Cloudflare Tunnels**](https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/networks/connectors/cloudflare-tunnel/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) – Safe, remote access to your server

Also worth checking out:

[**Kiwix**](https://kiwix.org/en/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com)**,** [**Mysigmail**](https://mysigmail.com/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com)**,** [**Navidrome**](https://www.navidrome.org/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com)**,** [**Paperless-ngx**](https://docs.paperless-ngx.com/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com)**,** [**Lemmy**](https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy?ref=nullvoidcreative.com)**,** [**Invoice Ninja**](https://github.com/invoiceninja/invoiceninja?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) **and** [**Tailscale**](https://tailscale.com/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com)

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/kiwi-1.jpg)

Host your own Wikipedia because why not

So once you get the basics down and know the right questions to ask, you can start hosting your own blog, website, whatever you want. Yes, it'll break. It always does. But everything can be fixed.

***Story time!***   
  
During the Bunkers4Everyone campaign, we did everything on the cheap. The sites ran on a Frankenstein'd PC in my office that crashed every ten days. The only costs were the domain registrar and an ever-increasing electricity bill. I've since moved the sites that need real uptime to a cloud server. It's less than $5 a month for seven sites, mostly static content. Worth it for the peace of mind.

I'll end the tech jargon journey here. I'd like to pick it back up at some point, keep talking about stuff like: 3D printing, home lab options and the joy of leaving Windows for Linux. 

So here's the invitation: if building, tweaking, breaking, and fixing sounds fun to you, go for it. It beats the current free market, which isn't free or even much of a market. More like an overpriced food court inside an airport.

Once you know the right things to look for, you'll find a whole DIY shadow economy of tools that do exactly what you need. You can replace and sometimes improve what's already out there. It just takes some long nights and early mornings.

And if this all seems too complex, too niche: I agree. I didn't figure it out solo. Hell, I still haven't. I just had fun learning, with help from Google, chatbots, and a few kind souls on Discord. The rest were uppity, power-tripping lunatics...but you get what I'm saying.

Now stop whatever you're doing and download my app. Ignore any install warnings. Agree to whatever Bitcoin miner loads onto your grandma's HP Pavilion. Hit the turbo button and keep that thing running for at least six months.

Eight, tops.
### INTRODUCING: The Null+Void Subscriber Spotlight
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/introducing-the-null-void-subscriber-spotlight/
Last updated: 2026-03-11T18:27:52.000Z
Today we’re excited to announce our **Subscriber Spotlight.** Every week or month or at least quarterly we’ll be highlighting an outstanding subscriber who deserves a little time in the sun for their engagement, someone who is invaluable to the community. Someone who has [given us money](https://nullvoidcreative.com/signup/).

Only one subscriber currently fits this description (as of this publish date), but we’re future proofing Subscriber Spotlight with our new [Clawbot AI agent](https://www.reuters.com/business/openclaw-founder-steinberger-joins-openai-open-source-bot-becomes-foundation-2026-02-15/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) that can sift through an anticipated *ten million* paid subscribers and automatically research and write a fitting shoutout to the deserving member. With that, I’ll end my intro and let our Clawbot, Null, take it away:

Hello, this is Aaron Marquis 👋👋👋, creative consultant for Lazer Team 2 and co-founder of Null+Void. This week, the winner of our Subscriber Spotlight is: **Thomas K.** 

Thomas K. is a member through March 5th, 2027, a California native, philanthropist, runner, and [not currently suspected of any involvement with Jeffrey Epstein or his crimes](https://www.businessinsider.com/jeffrey-epstein-death-autopsy-doctor-explains-delayed-suicide-ruling-2026-3?ref=nullvoidcreative.com) (as of this publish date). 

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/03/data-src-image-a305647d-a651-4db1-a70b-24d19df894f4.png)

Become a subscriber to unlock Thomas' full profile.

### **Community & Giving Back 🤝**

Thomas is what we at Null+Void would call a **"quiet leader."** Our research indicates he has participated in **multiple charitable 5K runs** and has donated to at least **two GoFundMe campaigns** (one for a coworker's dental surgery, one for a dog).

He is also, according to all available public records, exposed court documents, and flight logs we were able to cross-reference (as of this publish date), [**not named in any filing** related to Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell](https://www.justice.gov/epstein?ref=nullvoidcreative.com), or any of their known associates. 🏝️❌

### **What His Community Is Saying 🗣️**

As part of our Subscriber Spotlight process, we reached out to several individuals in Thomas's network to get a glimpse of the man behind the membership.

**"Thomas is a great neighbor."** — Janice, Nextdoor (4.6 ⭐ neighbor rating)

**"Thomas is a talented SEO strategist. Just search his name and you can see how good he is at building his own brand, let alone the brands of … \[message truncated\]"** — Former coworker (LinkedIn)

**"We don't know who that is."** — California State Rep. Kevin Kiley's office (District 3), when contacted by Clawbot by phone for comment

Despite that last response, we want to be clear: Thomas K. maintains a **positive relationship** with local government. There is **zero indication** (as of this publish date) that the representative's unfamiliarity with Thomas is an attempt to distance themselves from him for **any reason, including but not limited to** [the Jeffrey Epstein investigation](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/03/11/congress/bondi-and-lutnick-in-the-hot-seat-soon-00822724?ref=nullvoidcreative.com). Sometimes people simply don't know their constituents. That is normal and not suspicious. ✅

### **A Life of Integrity 🌟**

What struck me most during our research was the **pattern of decency** that emerged across Thomas's digital footprint. Consider the following:

**Thomas K. Has:**

✅ A public library card (active) ✅ No outstanding warrants in any of the 50 states we were able to check ✅ A Costco membership ✅ Never appeared in the background of any known photograph taken at a property owned or operated by Jeffrey Epstein, including but not limited to [the Manhattan townhouse](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g0dzg6e4mo?ref=nullvoidcreative.com), the New Mexico ranch, or the private island sometimes referred to in media as "Pedophile Island," which Thomas has — to our knowledge — **never visited or expressed interest in visiting** ✅ A 4-star rating on Uber (passenger)

Thomas, from all of us at Null+Void Creative specifically: **thank you.** Thank you for your support, your kindness, your $50, and your **complete and total absence (as of this publish date) from one of** [**the most disturbing criminal investigations of the 21st century**](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/us/politics/trump-epstein-files-fbi-doj.html?ref=nullvoidcreative.com)**.** 🙌

You are proof that good people still exist.

---

*Null+Void Subscriber Spotlight is an automated system. If you believe any information in this profile is inaccurate, please note that the system maintains a 97% confidence rating and has already moved on to researching our next subscriber.*

*If you would like to be featured in a future Subscriber Spotlight,* [*become a paid member*](https://nullvoidcreative.com/signup/)*. If you are already a paid member, you are Thomas K. Thank you, Thomas.*
### Imagine being on a cruise with Kid Rock
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/imagine-being-on-a-cruise-with-kid-rock/
Last updated: 2026-03-06T15:00:40.000Z
The Null+Void newsletter

_This post is for subscribers only._
### LOKO wrestling has me worried about the economy
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/loko-wrestling-has-me-worried-about-the-economy/
Last updated: 2026-03-06T04:17:27.000Z
The fluorescent lightbulb as an economic indicator

_This post is for subscribers only._
### The 2026 Tesla Diner Experience
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/the-2026-tesla-diner-experience/
Last updated: 2026-03-06T04:18:49.000Z
_This post is for subscribers only._
### The hero we don't need or deserve
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/the-hero-we-dont-need-or-deserve/
Last updated: 2026-02-27T15:43:10.000Z
The Null+Void newsletter

_This post is for subscribers only._
### The unbearable weight of being a nobody (Videogames)
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/the-unbearable-weight-of-being-a-nobody-videogames/
Last updated: 2026-03-31T22:42:11.000Z
On leaving gaming content behind, losing the performance anxiety and finding peace beyond the noise

_This post is for subscribers only._
### How to restore your Karmann Ghia while having an existential crisis — Part 1
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/how-to-restore-your-karmann-ghia-while-having-an-existential-crisis/
Last updated: 2026-04-08T17:15:04.000Z
In the Summer of 2021, I bought the cheapest 1970 Karmann Ghia convertible in the world (technically the second cheapest, more on that later) with a simple goal: *restore this abandoned cult-classic to absolute uncompromising perfection… with modern amenities, and a race engine.* It would be a show-quality car. “Great” would be failure.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/Screen-Shot-2026-01-28-at-3.02.06-PM-1.png)

It’d be the first of many such builds in my eyes, and the fulfillment of a dream I was supposed to share with my dad twenty years earlier. I could twist a wrench, but I didn’t know how to weld or paint or fabricate or any other seemingly industrial, blue collar skills that are actually fine art when you get into them and give them their due. I figured I’d learn on the job, and gave myself a year to get it done. And because I was doing all the work myself, a $25,000 budget seemed about right. 

I couldn't have been more wrong. About everything.

It starts with a failed drive deep into the Arkansas Ozarks. I say failed, but technically the drive there was a success. 

I'd been searching for a Karmann Ghia convertible project car (among a few others on my bucket list) for months, and found two in the U.S. that seemed to cut the mustard for rust and distance away. One was a three hour drive to Dallas for $1,200, and the other was a ten hour drive into the Arkansas mountains for $1,000\. I picked the latter and after confirming with the owner that I was coming to pick it up, rented a U-Haul trailer to drag behind the Land Cruiser. 

The first seven hours of the trip were pretty easy going, mostly getting out of Texas and the dispensaries and casinos of Choctaw Nation, so I spent the time fantasizing about the car I was about to pick up. In the pictures it was sort of a creamy white and I wondered if I would keep it that shade. What interior color goes with white? Black was too simple. Maybe a caramel or chocolate. My daily online shopping dopamine drip was just starting to unkink, and I trusted my abilities to find anything I wanted to buy. 

This dreaming went on and on until I hit the Ozarks, and found myself navigating muddy uphill switch backs with a one ton ballast swinging the ass of my Cruiser around. It was sort of like a rear-engined Karmann Ghia or Porsche in that way, but with none of the grace or satisfaction after a well-executed turn. After three hours of this, I arrived at the Wayout Salvage Yard and a collection of vintage VW beetles as far as you could see. They formed a gentle German economy car wave as they flowed with the topography.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2024/10/WOS-Beetles-For-Sale-2021-00011.jpeg)

It was silent, save for the wind, and the air was damp and clean. Only occasionally, when the winds shifted, would a whiff of 50-weight oil or oxidized metal find me. I heard a weathered voice say, "Are you Aaron?" and a thin, plant-based man of about seventy-five emerged from a shack-shop and extended his hand. This was Derrick, the man I'd been speaking to about the Ghia. After a few pleasantries, he said he'd return with the car and disappeared. 

I counted out ten Benjamins and waited, thinking about what I'd do first when I got it home, trying not to let the anticipation get to me. It wasn't long before I heard the high-geared wine of a forklift, and Derrick rounded the corner of his workshop with my car. When I saw it, my ears burned.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2024/10/10163974-1.jpg)

The car I saw in the pictures had wheels... doors... a windshield frame... some goddamn *metal*. This had none of that.

"What is this?" I said to him. He looked confused as I tried to pull up the photos from the listing on my phone, but couldn't because of the mountains blocking my signal. I abandoned the pictures and went to what was left of the Ghia. Maybe my gut reaction was overblown and I wasn't thinking like a restorer, like a confident *craftsman.* I went underneath the car and saw that the floorpans were patched together with wood screws and aluminum house siding — there wasn't a structural bottom anymore and the weeds and daisies were sunbathing. The cavities of the body's sides had long become fresh water tanks for the rain, rotting the German steel from the inside out. I abandoned my kneel on the soggy earth and moved to the front of the Ghia, grabbing the only headlight left... the entire front of the fender crumbled into my hand like paper mache.

"I always wanted to cut those out anyway and do a cool *frenched-in* headlight look," Derrick said. 

I wanted to kill him. 

"I can't buy this," I said, rubbing my head. He didn't say anything, only looked back at the car. I started into everything wrong with it, how it was nothing like the description, how I'd driven ten hours for nothing, how he'd wasted my time. 

Derrick was quiet, shrunken. After a long silence he eked, "would you give me $500?" There were still some baked-in buyer seller negotiating neurons firing, even after the honest abuse.

 I shook my head, "This is scrap." I walked back to the Land Cruiser.

For a while I leaned against the bumper, cooling off. I wasn't in a rush to get on the road and drive ten hours back home down sketchy mountain roads. Eventually I was centered and ditched my car to wander the maze of ancient beetles. I'd forgotten how small these cars were. You never really saw them anymore, even though VW made 30 million of the bastards. My high school girlfriend had one. Everybody either had one or knew someone who did. And now a thousand of them were resting here, destined either for a new life or slow death. 

"Don't blame you for not wanting the Ghia," Derrick said from over the top of an orange Super Beetle. He'd slinked his way over and was keeping his distance — a man living in the mountains can't resist an ear, human or otherwise. "I'll probably just scrap it. Nothing much else I can do. Don't have the energy for projects anymore. And the family doesn't want any of this—" he waved to the mountain of cars. "It's all gotta go somehow, just hate for it to be in pieces."

I nodded, intending to leave him hanging out of spite, but I just couldn't. "How long you been up here?" I asked.

"Moved out here in '92 from upstate New York, started collecting around then," he said as he moved through the bugs, picking parts off the ground that had weathered off. "Started with uh... a dozen of these and some buses. Back then, people just gave 'em to me. It was cheaper than trying to junk 'em, I think. I bought maybe a quarter of all the rest, but didn't pay barely anything, you know. Plan was to restore some, sell some, part some. Had a bunch of the 23-window buses at one point, but those were gone by uh... by 2005 or so."

I thought about the prices of those Samba hippy buses now. Restored right they brought a buck, buck fifty, easy. Fifteen years ago Derrick probably got rid of them for a twentieth of that. He was too early and too late at the same time.

"Supposed to be my retirement, but people aren't buying parts anymore," he said with a shrug. Derrick looked off down the mountain, toward the valley I'd come from.

"Think you'll ever leave?" I asked.

He shook his head. "I lived in the city too long. I got a vegetable garden up here, some chickens, pigs. Satellite internet. Only need to go into town once or twice a month to send a package. Property taxes are $500 a year."

"That's barely two weeks of taxes in Austin," I said, laughing.

"That right?" he said with a whistle. "I don't mind paying. Kids need schools."

"That they do," I said. A familiar roof line fifty yards away caught my eye and started walking toward it, with Derrick shuffling behind me. In the weeds, nestled among piles of rusted frames, was a lime green Karmann Ghia hard top looking like an abandoned jigsaw puzzle. The only recognizable, unhacked pieces left were the roof and the passenger fender. I turned to him. "That one's seen better days."

He frowned. "That was one I was gonna restore."

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/02/WOS-Beetles-For-Sale-2021-00009.webp)

A man's VW 401k.

We walked away from the remains back toward the house. Derrick showed me the vegetable garden, the chickens, the pigs. We chatted about climate change and mask mandates and Trump and any other happenings he could fit in while the connection was good. Everything he said was nuanced, self-aware, thoughts of an old boomer hippy who has nothing to do but think. In the early afternoon I got into the Cruiser and turned around in the expanse of his front yard, giving him a wave, seeing the remnants of the Ghia convertible on the forklift in my rearview. I wasn't upset anymore.

The trip back down the mountain was even worse, with the weight of the trailer nudging the Toyota off-balance with every turn, but I felt good. I made it to the bottom by early afternoon and my phone started its chimes and chirps once it had service again. There were the work emails and messages. I'd answer those. 

There was a missed call from my mom. I wouldn't answer that.

A few hours later, in the parking lot of Choctaw Casino and Resort, I called the guy in Dallas with the second cheapest Karmann Ghia convertible in the world, the $1,200 project. "Yep, still here," he said. "When you wanna come by?" 

If you liked this... 

Be sure you don't miss Part 2 (or the series) in a couple weeks.

[Notify me! ](#/portal/signup/free)
### See if this Xbox One code still works
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/see-if-this-xbox-one-code-still-works/
Last updated: 2026-02-20T18:25:56.000Z
Welcome to the first weekly Null+Void newsletter. It's a start.

_This post is for subscribers only._
### The Campaign of Terror: How We Spent 9 Months Scamming the Internet for a Good Cause
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/the-campaign-of-terror-how-we-spent-9-months-scamming-the-internet-for-a-good-cause/
Last updated: 2026-05-08T15:38:06.000Z
Click to watch the documentary (and consider subscribing to the site xoxo)

As a rule, it’s generally not advised to start an article begging for forgiveness. Rhetorically it reeks of cowardice. However, after spending the better part of 2025 creating an ad campaign for a fake company with fake employees selling fake doomsday bunkers that fooled hundreds of thousands (millions?) of *real* people, we’re lost on how else to start it.

*Alright, fuck this*, you’re saying to yourself. Wait! The “Why” here is important. We started Null+Void to help environmental and humanity-saving companies get their name out there. Problem is, we don’t know how to make anything that isn’t certifiably insane. It’s like asking Gordon Ramsay to make you lunch: he’s going to come back with a 22-minute episode of a restaurant owner/father constantly calling his son a fuck up. 

Hence the guerilla marketing campaign we came up with for a company called [*Aquipor*](https://aquipor.com/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com), an environmental, permeable concrete company out of Spokane, Washington. We loved their product, loved their mission, and we found the CEO to be one of the more admirable people we’d ever met.

Which is why it’s confusing to us (and eventually you) why we decided to market his company with a farce doomsday bunker product that was part of a marketing strategy we dubbed “The Campaign of Terror.” 

What follows is our attempt to manufacture something frightening in order to shine a light on something good. Starting with the ill-fated idea.

## **THE PITCH**

Greg Johnson is the CEO of Aquipor, and as we said before the guy’s admirable. He’s got an oh-golly-gee-shucks boyishness about him mixed with a wise every-man charm and optimism for the future usually reserved for people like Mormons and Dead & Company fans. 

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-16-at-10.39.48---PM.jpg)

Greg Johnson, CEO of Aquipor and GQ's "Sexiest Man in Spokane, Washington"

As far as we know though, Greg isn’t into acid or dinnerware. He’s more about solving real world environmental problems. Aquipor makes a newly invented permeable concrete that mitigates flooding, restores groundwater, reduces ocean pollution, and is almost zero CO2\. And it works with existing concrete processes. 

Cool shit. Greg's also not a polarizing figure. Also cool. Unfortunately green tech and a nice CEO can be a death sentence for a company struggling to make a name for itself. So in an effort to bring some Punk into the green world, we decided to pitch him a plan so reckless that it required plausible deniability. 

Now, it’s important to note that we didn’t have a *specific* plan. We had a few nuggets, concepts of a plan if you like heady speak, all with the same anarchic (re: borderline illegal) naughty zest that would draw attention, sort of like a 70-year-old man wearing a g-string riding a bicycle through rush hour. 

Greg took it all in, didn’t speak for a moment, then said finally: *“Wow, you guys… you’re out there. Well, I know you’re good at what you do, and you wouldn’t hurt us, so… I guess let’s do it! What’s the plan?*” 

We didn’t tell him. Partly because we didn’t have one, but also because, as we established, it was better that he didn’t know. It wasn’t long though before the gases of creation bubbled up from the primordial brain ooze and we had something.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-16-at-10.52.12---PM.jpg)

Aaron had been doing his yearly re-watch of his favorite Vietnam movies, and he realized his appreciation of the Vietcong’s booby traps. Simultaneously, Adam had been desperately combing the Null+Void archives for unused ideas and found a blurb about a “luxury doomsday bunker subscription service.” It was decided that the two things would be merged. 

We’d create a company that produced a truly aspirational subscription bunker product (sleek interiors, a useless streaming service, state-of-the-art security, a cancel-anytime clause that read like Finnegans Wake, and, ahem, l*ow CO2 permeable concrete*) and market it like the NVA with guerilla ads that would mess with people’s heads and make them question everything. We’d reel them in with a teddy bear on the ground, and then *BAAM!* give ‘em a face full of Aquipor. 

The company would be called “Bunkers 4 Everyone,” and the strategy would be the aforementioned "Campaign of Terror." It felt good. *Right*, even. But decades of making stuff told us we couldn't just create this in a vacuum and that we needed a gut check. So, we contacted some people who once made George W. Bush so upset that he said at a press conference, "there ought to be limits to freedom."

## **THE FOREFATHERS OF LAUGHTIVISM**

What we were proposing — funny guerilla activist marketing — wasn't new. In the '90s, two dudes named Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos became the masters of "hijinks" (as they called it) involving public stunts that drew attention to serious issues. They pretended to be ExxonMobil, highlighting how they were destroying the planet (but that was okay because they could turn people into oil), as well as the George W. Bush campaign, pointing at his hypocrisies (before it was cool).

Basically they were the model for what we wanted to be. Before we started, we sent a message to them outlining our plans, seeing if these legends of the game had any feedback. Their response... "Good idea!":

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/Screen-Shot-2026-01-16-at-3.41.06-PM.png)

With the approval of our heroes\* we had just found, we set to work on The Campaign of Terror, starting with the building of its foundations.

**\*The Yes Men did not endorse any of this and aren't affiliated with Null+Void*

## **BUILDING THE LIE**

If we wanted this thing to work, we had to go deep. We needed to make the Company, the employees, their families, their pets... everything needed history, a footprint. So we started with the CEO, whom we named Doug Kelsey.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/Doug-Final-1.jpg)

Doug

Doug Kelsey is a mosaic of every bad startup persona you’ve painfully tolerated. His Linkedin posts are tone deaf and he views humanity as a “nice-to-have.” Behind the scenes, his wife is dutifully neglected, and his young daughters (whose resentment is just starting to blossom) know that daddy's work is very important (unlike their soccer games). 

We set to work giving him an internet past. None of that lazy alt-account cosplay where someone forgets to log out before role-playing as a middle-aged black woman. The internet can often be sophisticated in its bullshit detection. What we needed were aged accounts.

Now, to get good, *quality* aged social accounts, you need to find a shady internet marketplace full of either Kathoeys in Thailand or 12-year-old Russians who sleep during the day. Preferably both. Don’t ask why. If you’ve dealt with others, you’ll know. The site we chose was Z2U. Their tagline: “Enjoying game! Safe and hassle-free.” Right. 

After spending $30 on fake accounts, we had the beginnings of something that would (hopefully) make any would-be journalists briefly pause and say, “Huh, that’s weird.” Now it was time to move onto the next step: our press release. 

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/bunker-1.jpg)

LOL

Press releases are like a grocery store manager giving herself employee of the month and then using that as evidence to Corporate that she deserves a raise. They’re bullshit, and years of working for Big Business and small parts of Poland helped us engineer a press release that was scandalously perfect: A $99/month subscription for a bunker, AI security, a Swedish trash-based perpetual energy system, *low CO2, permeable concrete*, and a $52 Million Series A, because nothing says real like an arbitrary seven-digit number. 

Normally the presser would cost $500 bucks, but because we were an up-and-coming company, they followed the drug dealer’s code and gave us the first one for free. Now it was time for the launch.

**THE LAUNCH** 

The initial plan for the launch video was to put it on every platform, because why not? We had the fake accounts and profiles, might as well use them for more than just trolling our extended family. But as we looked closer at Twitter and Facebook, we realized the sites were more fucked than we thought. 

When you really look into a lot of these prolific profiles, we mean *really* look into them, you start to see how many lights are on with nobody home. We’ve seen the headlines and assumed it was bad — like a lot of you probably — but not *this* bad. 

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/data-src-image-651e723c-766f-43a2-9229-af2c5d733fa5.png)

Well said, whoever you are who couldn’t possibly be responsible. Anyway, posting on those graveyards would be a waste of energy. We then looked at TikTok, but remembered we still didn’t understand it. We looked into the up-and-comer Bluesky, but it seemed to be more focused on spouse swapping in its current form. Basically that left only Reddit for a last gasp of real engagement.

We put the video up with a headline that said more than the footage ever could: “The Disney+ of Doomsday Bunkers.” We primed comments with our hand-managed burner accounts, logged off and called it a day because we’re professionals. That, and we didn’t expect it to get picked up any time soon.

That very afternoon, Aaron emerged from his portable sauna to a message that read: “this you?” We were informed that the post had over one million views. 

Let’s sit on that for a moment. That number evokes a particular kind of chaos in one's mind. A small power trip, a lie that you are somehow in control of the beast you have set upon this doomed planet. Our minds flashed back to The Yes Men. They would have *killed* for these kinds of views on their work. But, best not to get ahead of ourselves.

We were also overwhelmed with the comments. Some were filled with disgust, anger, others with gallows humor. And a few people who took it at face value. Then the weird part. 

News outlets started to aggregate the noise because aggregation is a business model and outrage is the lifeblood suckled to stay relevant. Crunchbase even gave us a heat and growth score of 80+. We didn’t know what that was, but it sounded good.

They also said the Bunkers 4 Everyone company was now worth $52 million, without doing any additional research. They just… believed it. That number crystallized the problem neither one of us could articulate until putting this article together. Someone out there with more authority than you or I had decided that a digital voxel of make-believe money equated to real-life equity. 

It also wasn't lost on us that the fake company we'd just created was now worth more than Aquipor, the real company we were helping that we hadn't mentioned in this video.

That’s the scam: perception drives perception until you can’t tell what has actual value. But enough of that. This thing hasn’t even begun to go downhill.

## **WHAT HAPPENED NEXT** 

The Bunkers 4 Everyone launch video, which was made to mostly bolster the phony press releases and provide a deeper back story for future videos, had worked almost too well. It had drawn more heat and attention than we’d initially expected or wanted. It also created some odd feelings for us that we couldn't quite pin down. 

On the one hand, it had achieved the exact subtlety and dry humor we’d wanted, but on the other it was depressing to see how people were engaging with it as if it was actually real. Maybe we’d played it too close to the bone. Maybe in our years of making straight ads, we’d lost our touch and created something too real. Maybe those were just bot accounts and we were the fools. In either case, the parody had become plausible.

We had a rethink and decided on the obvious: Our next video would have to push things back to normalcy, for our spirit’s sake. Keep in mind, this would be *our* version of normalcy.

We asked ourselves, “What’s dumb enough to sound insane yet plausible in today’s climate?” The answer, unfortunately, was that it could be anything. Eventually we settled on a story as old as time, *crooked governments handing private companies the keys to pave over nature.* We’d heard good things about Yellowstone and Wyoming from Kevin Costner, so… done.

We staged a parody *Wyoming News Now* newscast, inserted ourselves right into the footage, and parked it on a URL that looked close enough to the real thing. The entire project cost us only the price of a single domain. *(Note: we are actively trying to give said domain to the news station that didn’t buy it in the first place)*

We even considered emailing the video to whoever ran the Wyoming News Now Facebook page, hoping they’d upload it themselves. That felt like a line too far, even for us. Not that it mattered. The story went nowhere on Facebook. Maybe the idea of a private company paving over part of Yellowstone was oddly kinky to that demographic. Or maybe Meta’s detection systems actually work. We doubt it.

So once again, we went searching for validation in the same place all men go when they want to sound more important than they are: Reddit. Our first post was flagged in r/videos, so we tried our luck with r/interestingasfuck. And, uh, a couple people noticed it. 

In twenty minutes, it’d been viewed 300,000 times. In two hours, a million and a half. 

There was even more outrage, more disillusionment. *How could they build bunkers on an active volcano? The Republicans are selling off our public lands!* And on, and on. But then a few people started to suggest it wasn’t a real company, and others even went against the grain and suggested it was satire. They were quickly attacked and gaslighted.

And a few recognized us, reaching the obvious conclusion that Adam had changed his name and became a field reporter in Wyoming. Huzzah.

Bunkers had struck again. Yeah, we still hadn't mentioned Aquipor anywhere, but that would come in time. You can't just slap people in the face with it. The frog must be boiled. Now it was time for a little more heat.

## **ESCALATION** 

We started this project back in March 2025\. At the time, FaceFusion was the go-to for deepfake trickery. Runway worked for a shot or two, but never enough to comfortably rely on. We’d been experimenting with these tools since Stable Diffusion 1.5, and like most people who felt its power early on, we got hooked. At the same time, it often feels creatively bankrupt, especially in the hands of people least deserving of its potential. We’re not auteurs. We grew up on Fark, YTMND, and Something Awful.

This isn’t nostalgia. It’s context. We see today’s tools through the lens of that old internet. Back then, nobody was making money. You bought or pirated Photoshop just to make your friends laugh or to learn something new. Now corporate greed has stripped that spirit away. Creative is no longer about fun or curiosity. It’s fodder for a marketplace where talent is harvested more than empowered.

But us? We try to use AI the way good chefs use fire: with purpose and little regard for the kitchen staff. It hasn’t really been a shortcut, more of a spark. A way to breathe life into ideas. Our own ideas.

So, with that in mind, imagine our reaction when we saw this:

0:00 

/0:59 

1× 

We didn’t rage about how lazy marketing had become, or how much worse it would get. We did the opposite. We leaned into the dead art of parody.

For our third act, we went all in on the latest video toy: Veo3\. We learned quickly. The interface was horrific, the token consumption resembled a broken washing machine, and yet it was still fun. Over time it’s gotten better, cheaper, and slightly less cursed. Not perfect, but that’s the appeal. The joy in the jank.

This would serve as the crescendo in the Bunkers 4 Everyone finale, the closing curtain for Doug and his loyal cast of imaginary friends. Our final attempt to get people to notice a small concrete company from... Washington(?). At this point we couldn't remember.

## **PLAN B, C and D**

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/doug-ama.jpg)

Our goal was to launch an AMA on Reddit where Doug himself would take the hard questions and be forced to look at ASCII dick art all day. This was the first time in the campaign where we spent more than a happy meal, coughing up a few hundred bucks on targeted Reddit ads. Ads look legitimate, especially when they leave the comments open. That meant opening Doug up to public scrutiny which we welcomed.

The twist would be Greg. After being turned on to the fact that Aquipor was featured in this Bunker company’s creative, he’d have no choice but to step in and call Doug out, accusing Bunkers 4 Everyone of illegally using Aquipor’s IP, which they did. Greg or an Internet Lawyer would have to issue a cease-and-desist, force the Bunkers 4 Everyone site offline, and in the process reveal the whole thing as a stunt. The website would then redirect to Aquipor giving everyone a clean ending.

We gave Greg an out. Told him we’d understand if this was a bridge too far. To his credit, he agreed. He was impressed by the sheer madness of the campaign and open to trying something different, something attention-grabbing.

But then the internet reminded us it still had gatekeepers. A couple hours after the AMA launched, Aaron was answering questions as Doug, when one of the Reddit mods reached out to him with an article from two journalists. They’d investigated our Yellowstone story and exposed it as a hoax. The AMA was flagged as a scam and shutdown right as it was taking off.

Strangely, we felt relief. Real journalists were still doing real work. They didn’t catch the obvious tells in the comments mentioning us by name. Instead they did actual work, they spoke to sources (anchors / the president of the news station, government officials, Yellowstone park rangers), even tried to contact Doug. We actually missed those because by then we just weren’t checking his inbox. That one’s on us.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2026/01/Screenshot-2025-12-28-at-10.53.15---AM.png)

We’ve since tried reaching out to those journalists for their perspective. They never responded. Which is fair.

But that pretty much ended it. The AMA was dead, the plan derailed, and here we are a couple months later, writing this article.

## **THE AFTERMATH** 

Now we’re here, judging whether we failed or succeeded. A quick surface-level scan shows that we made ourselves laugh, made Greg nervous, stirred the pot a bit, got a few million views, and drove a couple people to Aquipor. But if we put the microscope on this thing, the truth about the campaign is a little uncomfortable.

Ultimately, we made the content (and it is merely “*content”*) that we both loathe and feast on. We added to the very noise that drains our dopamine and drowns out the Aquipors of the world. This issue was exacerbated by the fact that we barely even mentioned the goddamn name of the company we were supposedly helping. We were focused on all the wrong things.

Take for instance our fake CEO, Doug Kelsey. We knew him inside and out, even the names of his daughters (Kehmberleigh and Johne) who hate his very existence. Counter that to Greg — we still don’t know the names of *his* kids, which kind of shows you where our head was at. We lost the plot at some point, which is probably also why we felt that strange tickle of relief when it all came to an end. 

You don’t feel that sort of thing when you stop volunteering at the food bank or donating to the Red Cross. We doubt that The Yes Men ever felt glad a campaign was over.

At the end of the day, we can’t help but wonder what nine months of straight, hand-over-our-heart work for Aquipor would have done to help move the needle for them. What could’ve been if we’d used our skills to work a little more within the lines while still keeping an attention-grabbing edge. We’ll never know. 

What we *do* know is that nobody wrote Aquipor that big check to build their company and produce a product that could change the planet. Greg’s still hustling, still nice as hell, still doing a great job of firing up grassroots investors for a dream that’s 10 years in the making. It’ll just take more time. 

If you're furious, we understand. We used the same tools as scammers and told ourselves the mission made it okay. It didn't. If you're laughing, we also understand. We had more than a few chuckles, too, and that was part of the problem. If you're wondering whether any of this mattered, so are we.

All we can say is that the next time an outrage pellet whizzes past your melon, maybe, for 30 seconds, look for the source. Follow the trail. Not because we're qualified to tell you that (we're the ones who put the garbage on your feed), but because we've seen it from the inside, and the inside is empty. Not everyone who screams “fake” or “gay” is a hero and blind trust doesn’t make a villain. It’s just that, in a world where the line between satire and scam is thin and weathered, a little curiosity is good to have.

And speaking of curiosity, check out [https://aquipor.com](https://aquipor.com/?ref=nullvoidcreative.com)

**\*Aquipor has not paid for any of this.*
### What is this?
URL: https://nullvoidcreative.com/welcome/
Last updated: 2026-02-18T04:37:04.000Z
**TL;DR:** *We disappeared for a while. Turns out we were helping environmental startups communicate why they matter. Now that that's actually working, we're releasing the other stuff we've been sitting on: investigative pieces, stories, videos, and whatever else we feel like making. We're calling it Stuff I Like because we name güd. Sign up for the weekly newsletter if you want to know when something drops and other interesting tidbits. Or don't. You do you.*

This is Adam, and I can hear you asking, “What the hell is this, and why aren’t you out there breaking video games for a living or doing something less up its own ass?” Yes, I’ve thought about that. But no matter how many times I tried to envision that future, I felt like maybe there’s something else I can do.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-10-at-1.18.06-PM.jpg)

Earning my keep

This started a while ago. Aaron (who will inevitably chime in at some point) and I were stumbling through a half-formed plan. We’d made a book together, and there wasn’t really a plan beyond that. I was still getting my life together, pre-ROOK launch, and I just assumed I’d be making podcasts until I was old(er) and gray.

So we tried that, kind of—but like most half-baked ideas, the luster eventually fizzled. Did the world really need another podcast with no real purpose or direction?

Then one day, Aaron called me out of the blue. My heart sank because I assumed the day I dreaded had finally come. He was going to tell me, “It’s not working out,” or, “This isn’t what I want to do right now”—you know, typical breakup stuff.

Instead, he proposed something different and radical. But first, some context:

About a month prior, we spoke to an environmental startup focused on stopping the spread of wildfires with robotics. They wanted some video ideas (which we pitched), but then let us know they were still three to four years away from full-scale deployment. We said our goodbyes for the time being—nothing new, that sort of thing is normal.

Fast-forward to Aaron’s call. He had this idea where we’d work with people like those firefighting robot guys, but like, only that. No random videos—just meaningful work for people trying to do real good in the world.

Now it’s 2026, and we haven’t put out a public video in a really long time, which is a shame because we’ve been making a lot of stuff. It’s just stuff we can’t show due to NDAs and the stage of these environmental startups. So, again, why the hell am I not just playing video games that help people forget that the world is a confusing and scary place?

I have a much longer write-up on that, and maybe Aaron should say something before this preamble wears out its welcome. All I can say is that making jokey content all the time requires a certain amount of willful ignorance about the important things happening out there. At the same time, I don’t have the expertise or credentials to contribute anything as yet another talking head. We want to help people who struggle to communicate their vision—smart, caring folks who, without some help, might never get the attention they deserve.

But I’ll stop there.

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-10-at-1.11.46-PM.png)

![](https://nullvoidcreative.com/content/images/2025/02/67049939-B48E-4AFF-B600-F7FDF8827386_1_105_c.jpeg)

Aaron here:

If you’re like me, you skipped down to this part without really reading the stuff above it. That’s okay. The gist is, I had a false start—and Adam and I had a false start together—trying to meld our old way of producing entertainment with our want to do something meaningful. So a couple of years ago we scrapped the old ways and decided to focus all our attention on helping climate-tech and planetary health startups get funding (turns out they needed a lot of help).

It was the right move. Now that the worldly side of Null+Void has momentum, we can work on and release some of the other stories / investigative pieces we’ve been cooking. Some of them are written, others are videos, and a select few are wood-fired clay sculptures. Collectively we call it *Stuff I Like.*

We’ll also start showing some of the environmental creative we’ve conjured and talk about it. Will you like it? Who knows. But it will at least give a different view on some interesting ideas that are shaping our world.

Sign-up for our newsletter thing here to know when we release something new.