JetPunk Profiles: Neodymium

This is the first installment in what may or may not become a long-running series on important JetPunk creators. I hope these blogs remind us that behind a great community, not only are there great and interesting people but also warm relations between these people. Getting to know them better, I feel, preserves these relations.

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Do here what you want to for yourself, not the increase of a number, savor the moments here yet have them in mediation, and enjoy the outside world.
— Neodymium to baptistegorce, April 1, 2025

It didn't take too long to choose the first entry of this series on JetPunk community members. Neodymium has supported me for much of my time on JetPunk, commenting on all but a few of my blogs, and even requesting updates thrice during my dormant months (April 2024 to July 2025).1 And that's for his character; his impact on JetPunk is equally impressive. He is one of the most interesting quizmakers and, along with thread, the father of the Telugu JetPunk.

Neodymium's history begins with an account named helloisgone, born sometime in August 2022. This account would quickly have its name changed to Neodymium. However, the name was nearly Niobium; he liked how it sounded in AsapSCIENCE's "Periodic Table Song", but someone else had already taken it, and so another element starting with N would do. Neodymium does not recall what exactly drew him to JetPunk.2 He does, however, remember taking quizzes on the site "avidly" for a few months prior to creating his account.3

Fortunately for the curious among us, we know a fair bit about the man behind the account. Neodymium hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.2 In 2024, he said he was still residing in the United States.3 Neodymium knows three languages: English, Spanish, and Telugu, the latter being his mother tongue.2 He can read and write in Telugu4 and speak the language "ok."5 His interests include geography, linguistics, history, chess, music, films, traveling, and probably statistics, considering he enjoys charts.2;5 Neodymium has visited nine countries on three continents.6

General

Neodymium first uploaded a quiz on November 21, 2022, "Countries by Methane Emissions per Capita". His pinned comment reads, "Ah, my first quiz! Suprised if anyone actually takes it....." At the time of writing, the quiz sits at eleven plays.7 Neodymium promptly undertook a quiz creation spree, releasing at least 61 more quizzes in 2022; remember that he began at the end of November.8;9 In the span of just two days, December 3 and 4, he posted 22 quizzes. Then again, most new creators are overcome by an obsession over productivity and quiz takes.

Virtually all of Neodymium's early quizzes are geography-related, many of them on India in particular; "Biggest Cities in Odisha", "Random Telugu Pairs #1", and "Ciudades Más Grandes en Madhya Pradesh" (Largest Cities in Madhya Pradesh) are some examples. Neodymium's efforts would yield some success. As of March 18, 2023, his quizzes averaged at about a dozen takes, but some attained over a hundred, with "US States Quiz by Non-Repeating Letters" being his most popular. This earned him three subscribers, 3,789 total takes, and a place among the top four thousand JetPunkers.10

Neodymium's output remained steady. While geography was, and still is, his main focus, history too crops up, as in "Officers of the Titanic" and "Wars by Battle #2", for example. Then we find some pecularities, such as "80th Golden Globes (2023)", "Jabberwocky - Every Word", and "Unknown Periodic Table Elements A-Z". He published in many languages and still does: English, Spanish, Telugu, and even Greek,11 Russian,12 and Maltese. For his Maltese quiz, a simple listing of the colors of the rainbow, he collaborated with me,13 even though I didn't do much beyond agreeing to collaborate.

Growth throughout 2023 was consistent but not exponential.14 By January 18, 2024, Neodymium had uploaded 479 quizzes with over 17,000 takes between them. Eight people were subscribed to him, and his rank had risen to #1,405.15 Sometime between January 18 and April 6, 2024, he achieved his first quiz feature, on "Países aleatorios en un mapa de Pangea" (Random countries of Pangea on a map).16

2024 was arguably Neodymium's breakthrough year. Sure, his quiz production declined—for instance, in the fifteen-month period between April 6, 2024, and July 20, 2025, his quiz count rose by 247, which is roughly the number of quizzes he had by his fourth month on JetPunk—but his growth surged. In September 2024, his total of quiz takes tilted diagonally, and the gradient only steepened until January 2025, when it was generally vertical. Since then, Neodymium's fortunes have never bated.14

This abrupt success seems to stem from a series of quiz features, as many of his 22 featured quizzes were released in the summer and fall of 2024;8;17 consider, for instance, "Países por una sola pista #14" (Countries by a single clue #14), "Provincias de España - Escribe la primera letra" (Provinces of Spain - Write the first letter), "Mapa mundial sin 40 países aleatorios" (World map without 40 random countries), and "U.S. State Capitals - Sudden Death". The latter two quizzes each have over 65,000 takes, with "Mapa mundial sin 40 países aleatorios" fittingly being one of the 40 most popular quizzes on the Spanish JetPunk,18 and "U.S. State Capitals - Sudden Death" one of the most taken quizzes of the Sudden Death genre.19 Interestingly, this quiz, also his most popular, is Neodymium's only English featured quiz; the rest are in Spanish.8

So far, 2025 has proved a continuation of the 2024 trends. Neodymium has obtained more quiz features, such as on "Países más grandes por superficie y población combinadas" (Largest countries by combined area and population) and "Ciudades en islas - ¡Muerte súbita!" (Cities on Islands - Sudden Death!). In the span of two months, between July 20 and the present day, his subscriber count doubled to 66 for some reason.8;20 Another trend that has persisted throughout this year is Neodymium's declining quiz output, which, for a while, halted.21 He uploaded only three quizzes in the summer, all of them in July, although he continued to update old quizzes regularly.8 Nevertheless, this has not derailed Neodymium's success. His growth remains steady, and this month, he surpassed 300,000 takes,14 making him one of only 236 creators to accomplish such a feat.22 However, it seems that he may be returning to active quizmaking; he has released two Telugu quizzes in the fall so far.8

With a total of 750 quizzes as of September 2025,8 Neodymium boasts an average takes per quiz of 414.23 He has compiled several quiz series. His most popular, "COTW [Countries of the World] in Other Languages", has garnered over 13,000 takes,24 although it is little more than a copy and paste of Quizmaster's translated Countries of the World quizzes. I don't expect Neodymium is especially proud of these quizzes, and he himself admitted in his 2025 interview with baptistegorce that "quizzing isn't the strongest suit."2

Still, there are a few for which he has expressed a liking: "US States Quiz by Non-Repeating Letters", "U.S. State Capitals - Sudden Death", and "Actually Badly Drawn Flags". This last quiz features in a video by a notable Polish geography YouTuber, GeoMex.2 We cannot be certain of the events belying Neodymium's declining production, but perhaps there was never a sound reason for his producing hundreds of quizzes in the first place. Maybe "the increase of a number" that he dismissed in the baptistegorce interview doesn't mean anything to him anymore.

And Neodymium's waning production does not entail inactivity in JetPunk's community either. He frequently comments on the message board and uploads charts every now and then. Besides quizzes, Neodymium has uploaded 36 blogs, most of them in Spanish or Telugu,25 as well as many charts. He compiles statistics about everything geographical, Indian, or JetPunk-related, ranging from the number of Chinese Americans in the USA over time and tally of votes in Indian general elections, to the release years of Suraj's 'Identify the Tollywood Film's and the character counts of his blogs. His list of charts contains nineteen pages.26 I may be presumptuous in declaring this, but Neodymium is likely the most prolific and eclectic chart creator on JetPunk. By far.

Blogs

Just as eclectic is Neodymium's blogging activity, perhaps the most interesting facet of his profile. While centered around history, linguistics, and Telugu,25 it branches out into topics as diverse as international counterparts to Santa Claus, the size of the Solar System, and content prompted from jailbroken ChatGPT. With Neodymium's quizzes, I didn't provide much information other than listing his most popular ones, as I feel there isn't anything particular or noteworthy about them. This can't be said about his blogs, however; I find them some of the more intriguing and, at times, fascinating creations on JetPunk.

Consider his short story "The Work of Worker No. 424C414". A worker hardly distinguishable from an automated factory component follows a routine that involves waking up, taking a dose of energy in the form of "NueroCafe", plugging into a "mover" for sixteen straight hours to weave blank cloths (presumably), then returning home and resting. It, not their, as this is how the worker is addressed in the story, operates on a series of pills: it awakes after a reaction from a pill, nourishes itself by consuming precisely two "tastes," and sleeps following a dose of three "rest pills." To entertain itself, it plugs into "AllLikeSocial!™®, ©2489,-2677".27 Neodymium uses unambiguous, neutral, and plainly undescriptive language: "decacycle," "goodly," "abovespace,"27 mirroring George Orwell's concept of newspeak. Since Neodymium called his writing a dystopian story,28 I interpret it as a warning of what a capitalist, corporate society can devolve into. In fact, there are quite a few parallels: the "tastes" parallel fast food and takeaway food, and the worker immersing itself in a blatantly corporate social media platform after finishing work is what much of modern-day youth does.

Another interesting blog of his is "The First Final Fiks For English". Here, Neodymium attempts to craft a simplified version of the English language which harmonizes spelling with phonetics: that is, resolves some ambiguities about letters that have multiple sounds. For example, he writes, "When C makes a K sound, is shall be K, when C makes an S sound, it shall be S… [and] C [only means] 'ch'."29 Thus, "incarcerated chief" would be spelled "inkarserated cief." However, as is typical in the English language, some words would be exempt from these reforms, such as proper nouns and jargon.29

In another piece, Neodymium imagines a report of the 2080 US presidential election. Amid hellish floods that drown many low-lying states, a reanimated Ronald Reagan faces off 103-year-old Kanye West. Reagan, a conservative, argues against much government intervention to relieve the disaster so that "the floods trickle down and away," while West campaigns for building a wall to halt the floods as well as a "pipeline from the Great Lakes to refill the Colorado River." The election produces a West presidency; the rapper prevails in Atlantic and Pacific states, while Reagan dominates landlocked states.30;31 As a side note, at 103 years old on inauguration day, West would only be 21 years older than both Joe Biden and Donald Trump on the last day of their presidency, assuming that Trump will survive his four years. In one of his geography blogs, Neodymium presents some data on a hypothetical united Iberia, with Spain, Portugal, and Andorra merged into one nation. Curiously, most of the army would be Portugese, even though Portugal would comprise just 17.6% of the population.32

However, creativity and inventiveness are not the lone ingredients of Neodymium's style. In "The Work", AntiMatter8192 defines the "neoesque": "In true neoesque fashion, I can't tell if this is a work of art that will survive for centuries or the ramblings of a deranged madman."28 This puzzle entangles itself when we read another of his blogs, the "Most Guessed Countries Badge". The "Most Guessed Countries Badge" is awarded to whoever obtains full marks on seven quizzes: "Countries of the World", "Most Guessed Countries on ['Countries of the World']", "Most Guessed Countries on Most Guessed Countries", and so on until "Most Guessed Country on Most Guessed Countries [on Most Guessed Countries on Most Guessed Countries on Most Guessed Countries on Most Guessed Countries]".33

Some of Neodymium's Telugu blogs have been described as "more humorous than informational,"34 case in point one titled "ఆ కోడి ఏకశిల." (That chicken slab.). I understand we require some more context, so here is the blog's central conclusion: "The fact that chicken slab exists proves that God is either powerless to change their world or that they are unaware of the crimes committed in their kingdom."35 It was a translation, a "bad" one according to him,4 of a popular internet copypasta.4 In response to AntiMatter8192's comment associating Neodymium's literature with both a "work of art" and "ramblings," thread wrote, "they are usually the same arent they."28

As with his quizzes, Neodymium has written in English, Spanish, and Telugu.25 He participated in the 2023 Blog Project that aimed at nurturing non-English blogging. Within six months, dozens of blogs in mostly European languages had been produced, in stark contrast to the 24 released in 2022, 22 of which were French.36 Neodymium contributed in Spanish and Telugu. He translated Quizmaster's "A New Tree Planting Partner" blog into Spanish and penned some blogs outlining Indian culture and the Telugu language,37 among others.25

Telugu JetPunk

Much of Neodymium's greatest efforts and service to the JetPunk community lie in the Telugu JetPunk. Perhaps Telugu warrants a brief introduction, as some, myself included, are probably hearing this word for the first time. Based in southern India, Telugu is a Dravidian language dating back over twenty centuries and flourishing during the Middle Ages. Today, it enjoys 82 million native speakers, more than French and Korean, and is the fastest growing immigrant language in the United States.38

Unlike the Telugu language, the Telugu JetPunk is a relatively new invention, arguably arising on August 18, 2021, when thread released the first quiz in Telugu, "ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్ పాత జిల్లాలు (āndhrapradēślō pāta jillālu)" (Old districts of Andhra Pradesh).39;40 Some more Telugu quizzes sprouted slowly, and in January 2022, the language earned itself a following. At first, there were only four "followers": thread, Aficionado, carlonian, and ThisOneNerd, little activity, and not much of a community in the sense of people working together for a common end.39

Then, toward the year's close, Neodymium, whose mother tongue is Telugu, unearthed the Telugu "Countries of the World" quiz.2;39 Surprised that such a quiz existed, he approached its maker, thread, and agreed to found a JetPunk group dedicated to Telugu. Thus, the following matured into a community.39 Neodymium stated in the baptistegorce interview that this moment was the most important in his three years on JetPunk.2 Telugu, he noted, is underrepresented on the internet;2 even in JetPunk language quizzes, it is consistently one of the lesser guessed answers.41

Starting from next January, Neodymium released many Telugu quizzes.39 His first Telugu material seems to be two quizzes dated to January 12, 2023, "సంయుక్త రాష్ట్రాల్లో రాష్ట్రాలు (Samyukta rāṣṭrālulo rāṣṭrālu)" (States in the United States) and "అన్ని అక్షరాలు త్వరగా వ్రాయడం (Anni akṣarālu vrāyaḍaṁ" (Fast typing all the letters).8 Around this time, the Telugu community created its own Discord server.39 New members would gradually join the community, including QueenOfAwe15, ArgoniteS7, and AntiMatter8192,42 and later on, AllOfSanMarino, businessbicycle,43 KarthikVatsavayi, Surajrocks99, TeluguTypewriter,44, and Noivern.45;46 On April 19, Stewart allowed Telugu language quizzes their own category and section on the front page; thread later commented that this date was "possibly the most important … in the community's history."44

The community felt a rush of excitement, which translated into intense activity.44 It produced over a hundred quizzes in the span of twelve months as well as the first Telugu language blog in April.47 A few months later, Neodymium, who had become the most active community member,48 accelerated Telugu's blogging output.25 baptistegorce's 2023 Blog Project provided fertile grounds for non-English language blogs; once it concluded, he commented that the Telugu activity "particularly stood out."49 However, as the excitement evaporated, the Telugu JetPunk started to grow barren. Many members, including thread, lapsed into inactivity; the Discord traffic plateaued.44;50

Then, at Ugadi 2024, the Hindu New Year recognized by the Telugu people, the community awoke again and welcomed several new members.44 Throughout April and May, some 80,000 messages were sent on Discord, marking the height of the community's activity.50 thread organized a Telugu quiz competition during this time,45 in which Neodymium participated and delivered the results.51 He continued producing Telugu blogs. If anything, he carried Telugu blogging, as nine of the ten blogs released from April 2024 to April 2025 are his.52

Still, a Telugu renaissance never happened. By June 2024, founding fathers Argonite and thread had mostly left the community, both dissatisfied with the Discord server,45;50 and businessbicycle deleted his account some time after April 2025. Some blessings did fall upon the Telugu community, namely, the introduction of Sudden Death and a healthy competition with the Greek JetPunk over quiz, blog, and chart production.45 And quiz production in the 2024 Telugu year (April 2024–April 2025) was the highest in history, by far, as was the total number of quiz takes.53 But this did not seem to motivate the community. By March 2025, members' activity on Discord had either sharply declined or dissipated.50 The server is undergoing a small resurgence, however.4

Amid the twilight of the Telugu community, Neodymium has not softened his efforts on the Telugu JetPunk. His most recent contributions date to September, a pair of quizzes about Telugu vocabulary.24 A few months earlier, he published a blog outlining a thin fried potatoes recipe to feed everyone on Earth.54 In the baptistegorce interview, Neodymium said he has shelved an unfinished series of all Indian towns in third and fourth level subdivisions. He also plans to complete a project he started very early on: "mak[ing]/translat[ing] the largest cities in the Indian states."2 So far, the series contains 32 quizzes.24

Neodymium is like a nomad who settles in many small tracts of land in many different regions. He has left his mark, even if sometimes faint, in virtually every corner of JetPunk. Accomplished in all major formats: quizzes, blogs, and charts, three major fields: history, geography, and language, and three languages: English, Spanish, and Telugu, English perhaps the least out of the three, few JetPunkers are as varied as Neodymium. With 21 featured Spanish quizzes, he can take credit for sustaining the Spanish JetPunk throughout its considerable growth starting from mid-2023.55 He remains an active member of JetPunk's community, particularly the Discord blog server.2 Furthermore, he is the owner of the Interesting Facts Group that proposes and forwards facts and quotes to be included beneath a quiz to Quizmaster.56

However, in his home turf, the Telugu JetPunk, he has left more than a mere impact. He cofounded the community alongside thread and several other dedicated people, drove much of its output, and carried its blogging activity. Without Neodymium, the Telugu JetPunk likely would have dried out many months ago. Besides the Telugu language, Neodymium has lent recognition to many neglected areas of JetPunk, namely, Eastern geography. For instance, his Multiple Choice City quizzes cover Gangtok, India, two African cities: Agadez and Isiro, and Vostok Station in Antarctica.2

Neodymium sums up his journey on JetPunk in one word: "[rapid]."2 Among the quiz creators he has singled out for praise are Dimby, for pioneering Sudden Death, Elboy, for their creativity, and Dekkie, for their depth of research. As for bloggers, he mentioned toowise, Hibasi, and baptistegorce.2

[1] See Brainstorm, "Troubling Tale", comments
[2] baptistegorce, "Interview"
[3] Neodymium, "Second Telugu Community Blog" § User Introductions
[4] Sourced from my correspondence with Neodymium
[5] thread, "Introduction" § User Introductions
[6] See Neodymium's user profile
[7] Neodymium, "Countries by Methane Emissions per Capita"
[8] See "Quizzes by Neodymium"
[9] It must be noted that I am working with the "last updated" dates, not with the "first submitted" dates, as doing otherwise would deplete my time and energy. Crucially, Neodymium seems to have updated much of his quizzes.
[10] See "Quizzes" (2023)
[11] See, for instance, his quiz "Χώρες - Γράψε το 1ο Γράμμα" (Countries - Write the First Letter)
[12] See, for instance, his quiz "Штаты Индии" (States of India)
[13] Neodymium, "Il-Kuluri tal-Qawsalla" (The Colors of the Rainbow)
[14] See Neodymium, "My Quiz Takes"
[15] See "Quizzes" (January 2024)
[16] See "Quizzes" (April 2024)
[17] This does not necessarily imply they were awarded their feature in the summer and fall of 2024.
[18] See "Todos nuestras pruebas en español" (All our quizzes in Spanish)
[19] See the search results for "Sudden Death".
[20] See "Quizzes" (July 2025)
[21] See "Quizzes" (July 2025): His quiz count remained the same since July 28 only until recently.
[22] See "User Quiz Directory", page 1
[23] Calculated by dividing his total quiz takes (around 311,000) by his number of quizzes (750). The average is volatile and will change as soon as Neodymium uploades or deletes a quiz.
[24] See Neodymium's series
[25] See Neodymium's blog
[26] See Neodymium's charts
[27] Neodymium, "The Work"; I strongly recommend reading the whole story.
[28] See Neodymium, "The Work", comments
[29] Neodymium, "First Final Fiks"
[30] The logic behind these results is that Reagan's negligent approach to the floods appeals to states unaffected by them, while West's aggressive measures resonate with coastal states.
[31] Neodymium, "2080 Presidential Election"
[32] Neodymium, "Península Ibérica"
[33] Neodymium, "Most Guessed Countries"
[34] Neodymium, "Third Telugu Community Blog" § Telugu Blogging
[35] Neodymium, "ఆ కోడి ఏకశిల": Note that Neodymium's translation, by his admission, was inexact. The meme is commonly known as "the ham monolith."
[36] baptistegorce, "2023 Blog Project"
[37] See, for instance, his blogs "తేడాలు తెలుసుకో" (Know the differences) and "న్యోదిమము వాళ్ళ తెలుగుగ్రాఫ్ లిపి" (Neodymium's Telugu-graph Script), even though the former seems more comedic than informative.
[38] thread, "Telugu Language"; The blog makes for an interesting, even if at times abstruse, read.
[39] thread, "Introduction" § History
[40] Andhra Pradesh is a state in southeast India. Telugu is widely spoken there.
[41] See, for instance, the results of "Top World Languages", where Telugu ranks at 17%, and "Most-Spoken Languages of the United States", where Telugu is the least guessed answer.
[42] thread, "Introduction" § Community
[43] businessbicycle was once known as AratiPandu.
[44] Neodymium, "Second Telugu Community Blog" § Telugu JetPunk's First Year
[45] Neodymium, "Third Telugu Community Blog" § Telugu JetPunk's Third Year
[46] This is not an exhaustive list; there are some Discord server members and less prolific Telugu JetPunk creators I may have omitted.
[47] Neodymium, "Second Telugu Community Blog" § Telugu on JetPunk
[48] thread, "Introduction" § Achievements
[49] baptistegorce, "2023 Blog Project" § The Project
[50] See Neodymium, "Second Telugu Community Blog" § Discord
[51] Neodymium, "తెలుగు JetPunk పరీక్షల పోటీ ఫలితాలు"
[52] Neodymium, "Third Telugu Community Blog" § Telugu Blogging
[53] Neodymium, "Third Telugu Community Blog" § Telugu on JetPunk
[54] Neodymium, "820 కోట్ల మందికి సన్న బంగాళాదుంప వేపుడు వండటం"
[55] See cathlete, "Meses por intento"
[56] See "Interesting Facts Group"

JetPunk Blogs

• baptistegorce (July 18, 2023). "The 2023 Blog Project: We Did It!". JetPunk.
• baptistegorce (April 1, 2025). "Interview of a JetPunker #36 - Neodymium". JetPunk.
• Brainstorm (June 12, 2024). "The Troubling Tale of France's Premier President". JetPunk, particularly the comments.
• Neodymium (April 13, 2024). "ఆ కోడి ఏకశిల." [That chicken is a slab.]. JetPunk.
• Neodymium (April 19, 2024). "The Second Telugu Community Blog - Ugadi 2024". JetPunk.
• Neodymium (May 20, 2024). "The Work of Worker No. 424C414E4B". JetPunk.
• Neodymium (December 9, 2024). "తెలుగు JetPunk పరీక్షల పోటీ ఫలితాలు!" [Telugu JetPunk Exam Competition Results!]. JetPunk.
• Neodymium (March 4, 2025). "The 2080 Presidential Election Report". JetPunk.
• Neodymium (March 25, 2025). "¿Qué pasaría si la Península Ibérica se uniera?" [What would happen if the Iberian Peninsula were united?]. JetPunk.
• Neodymium (March 28, 2025). "820 కోట్ల మందికి సన్న బంగాళాదుంప వేపుడు వండటం" [Cooking thin fried potatoes for 8.2 billion people]. JetPunk.
• Neodymium (April 7, 2025). "Most Guessed Countries Badge". JetPunk.
• Neodymium (April 8, 2025). "The Third Telugu Community Blog - Ugadi 2025". JetPunk.
• Neodymium (April 16, 2025). "The First Final Fiks For English". JetPunk.
• thread (November 20, 2022). "The Telugu Language - The Italian of the East (Language Profile I)". JetPunk.
• thread (March 23, 2023). "An Introduction to Telugu JetPunk". JetPunk.

Others

• cathlete (July 5, 2025). "Meses por intento" [Months by attempts]. JetPunk.
• Neodymium (September 9, 2025). "My Quiz Takes". JetPunk.
• (March 18, 2023). "Quizzes by Neodymium". JetPunk – via the Wayback Machine.
• (January 18, 2024). "Quizzes by Neodymium". JetPunk – via the Wayback Machine.
• (April 6, 2024). "Quizzes by Neodymium". JetPunk – via the Wayback Machine.
• (July 20, 2025). "Quizzes by Neodymium". JetPunk – via the Wayback Machine.

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