coming home to myself. my 2000s blog, reborn

by hailey · May 29, 2026 · personal · 1 Reply · 11,774 views

i've missed having a space like this. it's a feeling that's stayed with me for years. after years of thinking about it, missing it, daydreaming about it, i brought my old 2000s blog back to life. not as some messy folder of html, images, and random scripts like i used to make them back in the day, but rebuilt using wordpress in my own style. the theme's called babecore, and honestly it feels unreal to see it actually exist. it's beautiful to me.

i've wanted this for so long. a space that feels like stepping into my head. a place that isn't trying to be anything for anyone else. just mine. my escape from the noise and the stress and the constant little annoyances of the world. somewhere i can hang out, write, distract myself, and just relax.

i wanted the site to feel like a place where you can sense me, my energy, my headspace, just by being here, the way old 2000s spaces used to hold a person's whole spirit without trying... almost like stepping back into that time again.

click for boobs...

reaching out for mac support help

by hailey · May 9, 2026 · games · 0 Replies · 11,087 views

i thought it was worth posting this here since there's always people reading my blog, and you never know who might come across it. someone out there might be able to help, just like the amazing contributor who added linux support and leaderboards for us.

for anyone who doesn't know, mbupc is our community driven revival of marble blast ultra, the old xbox 360 arcade classic. we rebuilt it for modern systems so people can play it again, whether they grew up with it or are discovering it for the first time.

mbupc is so close to being finished now. it still feels unreal to say that. the game runs beautifully. linux support is done, leaderboards are done, and now we just need mac support. if anyone out there is willing to help with mac support, it would mean everything to me. this game has been a big part of my life, and seeing it working on pc with leaderboards was emotional for me.

keep feeding the obsession...

what my criticism is really about

by hailey · November 5, 2025 · personal · 0 Replies · 9,069 views

no one deserves to be hated or mocked for who they are or what they like.
that's something i've always believed with my whole heart.
and if you're ever targeted just for being who you are, i'll stand with you every time.

if you're online, you already know there will always be people who like you and people who don't. sooner or later, someone decides they want to hurt you. they twist your words, smear you, or try to turn others against you. it happens to everyone who's been on the internet long enough.

and if you've been through that, you know how awful it feels, that frustration and helplessness when people spread a version of you that isn't real. i've been a victim of that too.

why everything feels smaller now

by hailey · August 4, 2025 · personal · 18 Replies · 16,645 views

ever notice how places u visited as a kid, like theme parks, playgrounds, even games, feel way smaller now?

went to a theme park 2day w/ my friends. same one i'd been to a few times as a kid. back then it felt huge. like a whole world 2 explore. every ride was an adventure. every corner felt like magic. but now? it felt... small. not bad. just different. it hit me, it's not the park that changed. it's me. when ur a kid, imagination fills in the blanks. we don't see boundaries, we just explore. but as adults, we see the edges. we understand the layout, the limits. that sense of wonder fades a lil.

same thing w/ games. i used to play halo & try to break outta maps like i was discovering a secret universe. it felt endless. but now? i see how small & contained those levels really are. i understand game design, how things are built. that "what's out there?" feeling isn't the same.

i think that's why we can't enjoy games the same way we did as kids. it's not just nostalgia. it's bc our imagination isn't wild like it used 2 b. we're more aware. more logical.

still love games. still love theme parks.. but that feeling of vastness? that sense of limitless wonder? i miss it 💔

why style will always beat realism in sonic games

by hailey · July 13, 2025 · games · 17 Replies · 17,903 views

i was scrolling through twitter the other day and saw people arguing about the visuals in sonic unleashed vs sonic frontiers. of course i had to jump in, so i ended up making a post about it there too.

one tweet showed off how bright and stylized unleashed still looks, even all these years later. the reply tried to counter with a sonic frontiers screenshot that leaned into ultra realistic scenery, with detailed grass and shiny water.

but instead of making frontiers look better, it kinda did the opposite. it was a reminder that high fidelity on its own isn't what makes a game feel good. art direction is what gives a game its personality and its soul.

keep scrolling, hottie... 💖

life, loss, and what comes next

by hailey · May 29, 2025 · personal · 47 Replies · 25,218 views

it's been a while. over a year, actually. i didn't mean to go quiet for this long but, well... life happened.

the past few years have been a whirlwind. beautiful in some ways, heavy in others, and a lot of it just... personal. i don't really share much about my private life online anymore, especially not these days, but let's just say a lot's been happening.

i know a lot of you, especially in ocean palace, have wondered where i disappeared to. saying i've been busy doesn't feel honest. it doesn't explain the silence or the unanswered msgs, especially when i was still popping up on twitter. the truth is, life got messy and overwhelming and a little too real. it pulled me into a place where i couldn't bring myself to share like i used to. the best thing i can do now is just be real about it.

next level glam...

halo was never slow, you’re just used to modern FOV and mobility

by hailey · January 4, 2024 · games · 9 Replies · 20,361 views

for over 10 years now, 343 industries has been forcing changes onto halo that nobody asked for and nobody needed. that's the root of the divide between players who want the series to stay true to bungie's vision and players who accept whatever 343 puts out.

one of the most common claims from 343 fans, especially in recent years, is that classic halo is too slow and boring. they rarely say it neutrally. it's almost always delivered with this weird disdain, worded in a way that mocks the original games and the people who enjoy them.

the original halo games were never too slow. they were designed with deliberate pacing that made methodical strategy the core of the experience.

glow up continues...

the xbox 360 theme we all thought was gone forever

by hailey · November 21, 2023 · games · 2 Replies · 9,158 views

i've always loved the wallpapers from the official xbox 360 marble blast ultra dashboard theme. i've been trying to track down the theme for preservation, but it's super rare and kind of a pain to find. i actually downloaded it back when it first came out, but it was tied to an old gamertag i lost the password to forever ago.

a friend of mine logged into one of his old 2000s accounts and found the theme sitting in his download history, so he grabbed it, moved it to his pc, and sent it to me. i'm honestly so happy about it. having it again makes me feel all nostalgic and reminds me how much joy mbu gave me.

i pulled the wallpapers out of the theme and added them below. if you want the original xbox 360 dashboard theme file, it's on my github.

(i'll revise this post later and add links and stuff).

keep teasing urself...

gears of war 2’s menu is a masterpiece

by hailey · August 17, 2023 · games · 4 Replies · 14,025 views

gears of war 2 has one of the most expressive and unforgettable menus in gaming. it captures everything the game is about, pulling you straight into its world of terror, horror, bloodshed, and humanity's struggle before you even press start.

the worn out ui, the gritty textures, the eroded lettering, the heavy reds and blacks, the buildings swallowed by fire, the grainy filter that sits over everything, and the music that feels both elegiac and traumatic blends with everything else to create an atmosphere of a dystopian world plagued with loss and despair, with fear that's practically airborne. even the twitching bloodied skull in the background feels like a mind afflicted with fear, anxiety, and restlessness. the erratic dance of a psyche consumed by uncertainty.

next chapter: badder than ever...

how 343 ruined halo’s multikills

by hailey · July 13, 2023 · games · 4 Replies · 13,894 views

i wanna talk about something almost no one in the halo community ever brings up, and that's multikills and how 343 industries has quietly ruined them.

in the original halo games by bungie, multikills always used a strict 4‑second window between each kill. it was a tight, unforgiving timing that demanded precision and pushed players to make fast decisions under pressure, making every extra kill feel earned. in halo 4, 343 industries increased that window to 4.5 seconds. in halo 5, they pushed it to 5 seconds. for halo infinite, they kept the 5‑second base, but added a new system that increases the window by 0.25 seconds with every kill, capping at 7 seconds. this makes multikills easier to earn than ever before.