empressxmachina

[empressxmachina]

Do you have any opinions on draft2digital as a self-publishing site?

It’s the primarily place I use for ebooks and will be switching to for all my paperbacks for future releases.

I like how easy it is to use and that they are always expanding their market reach and their international reach for getting beyond the American market is great. The monthly break down of which online retailer sold x amount is also good. Easy library access is also excellent.

I’ve always found customer service to be quick and responsive though I’ve heard some people have had staff be unhelpful. I suspect like any company it depends on who you get. I’ve had helpful people at Kindle just like I’ve had unhelpful people. Both have better customer service than Ingram Spark who are forever on my shit list going forward.

If you want to know something specific I can try to answer it :)

[empressxmachina]

The 2021 LTSC is available in the plain vanilla version, Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021, with end of mainstream support scheduled January 12, 2027, and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021, with an extended end date of January 13, 2032. They are not quite the same as the ordinary consumer editions of Windows 10. They don't include the Windows Store or any "modern" apps. Apart from the Edge browser, they have almost nothing else: no OneDrive, no Weather or Contacts apps, and no Windows Mail or whatever it's called this week.

...no OneDrive, Copilot AI, or all of the other useless crapware cluttering up the Start menu? AND patches/support through 2032??

Don't threaten me with a good time, Microsoft.

[empressxmachina]

Soleil

The Summer King Mazus takes in a sunlit morning as he ponders the human kingdom sitting in his hand. A short drabble, 705 words. Can also be found here at Sizefiction.net!

Daylight streamed down from the glass ceiling of the Summer Court’s throne room, enveloping the white marble columns and overgrown vines of the opulent palace in the first burgeoning rays of sunrise. Light pink blush like that of a babe’s cheeks, the orange of a freshly bloomed lily, and the radiance of the morning sun that shone so clearly, it all danced across the Court and settled neatly upon its King. Mazus sat on his throne, one leg crossed over the other, his chin resting thoughtfully in the palm of his hand as he lounged. He watched his subjects flit about, tending to their morning duties. They mingled, their little conversations like whispers at the ends of his ears. Gossip, orders, questions, demands, idle chit chat…He liked to watch, and he liked to listen. The lives of those he ruled over were infinitely fascinating to him for reasons he could never fathom. And no lives were more fascinating to him than those he held pinched between his finger and thumb. In his free hand sat an orb about the size of a large marble, where the Fae King’s green eyes were very firmly fixed. From a distance, to weaker eyes, it appeared crystalline in structure. A trinket, perhaps. A gem? Mazus could see through the glitter and shine, down below through glass hundreds of feet thick down to a little world that gazed up back at him. Mortals. A human kingdom plucked out of the ground. The Summer King had confined them on a whim, without much cause or reason–they hadn’t wronged him, certainly not. In fact, they had joined his Court quite willingly. He liked an audience, and what better way to ensure he always had one? It was a shock when, shortly after he had acquired his new favorite toy to fidget with, Mazus found himself giving the mortals a frequent audience of one. Mazus twisted the orb in his fingers, tuning out the noise of a few hundred Fae to focus in on the thousands of puny mortals in his grasp. He could just barely make them out–a young couple laughed together, content to be in one another’s company. The rumble of chanting, prayers to mortal gods for good harvest, fine health, and safety. The broken sob of heartbreak, of fear, of anger from a few as they gazed into the heavens and found only Mazus’ thoughtful stare bearing down upon them. Such insignificant, puny lives. They lived as long as gnats, and learned about as much as one too. Really, mortals these days were becoming more of a pest upon his lands than anything else…So why, then, did they pique his interest? Why did he spend so many mornings watching over them and drinking in the dull minutia of their daily rituals? He watched a farmer milk his cow and herd his sheep, he watched a tailor spin thread for hours, and on and on and on... The Summer King sighed into his palm, annoyed with himself. He shifted in his seat as the sunlight began to drift into his eyes. The long blond tresses of his hair settled around his shoulders, and when they did, the light hit them too–and it bounced, golden and brilliant, onto the crystal orb that held his mortal subjects within it. It made their lands shine. Their own little taste of the distant sunrise. Lakes sparkled like liquid diamonds, farmhands squinted up at the sudden brightness, and the whole of the mortal kingdom fell eerily silent in the king’s ears. Mazus raised his brow, peering up towards the glass ceiling of his own. To the sun above, casting its light upon him. “Ah…I understand, now.” The king murmured softly, looking down at the mortals. All of them froze, gazing up at him as his voice rumbled throughout the distant heaven. Mazus smiled softly, leaning back in his chair, admiring the way the sunlight reflected off his hair, his jewels, his crown and onto everything else. “I am like the sun,” Mazus’ thumb brushed up against the crystal, stroking it fondly. “And you, the Earth. I watch over you the same reason my sun watches over me.” He chuckled, amused, and brought the orb up to eye-level. “To see the effects of our brilliance.”

[empressxmachina]

Hand Throne

My birthday is on Monday and this is how I would like to spend it, with a giant at my beck and call, thank you very much!! 🤭

[empressxmachina]

Final/Part 4: Messing with straight hair!

[empressxmachina]

Part 3: Combining shapes, braids, and textures! And utilizing parts and fros!

[empressxmachina]

Part 2: shape, style, and length with femme styles!

[empressxmachina]

Okay I JUST realized I never posted these on here—- BUT BASICALLY, about a year and a half ago I started doing these experimental black hairstyle posts that were threads long on Twitter, to give artists a source of inspo for their black ocs whose hair they wanted to try something new with! There’s more to black hair than just the selected styles portrayed in media, and I thought it would be fun to show people how much texture, shape, fades, length, and style can be combined when drawing black hair—-cause it’s a kind of manipulation our hair can do irl! The OG posts were lost with the hacking of my original Twitter account (@/bagels_donuts) but I’ve since reuploaded the whole thread to my new Twitter (@/ItsDonutsFR)! I hope artists on tumblr find these useful, sorry it took me so long to post them here😭🙏🏾 I’ll upload them all in parts!

Part 1: Long masc hairstyles + playing with fades

[empressxmachina]

i literally love when people realize positive reinforcement works like yes its so silly isnt it. but it literally works humans love juice reward too

[empressxmachina]

cleared so hard

[empressxmachina]

Smile---NO (ง ‵□′)ง

I'm trying no line art.... (ᵕ—ᗜ—) and its hard (߹ ᯅ ߹) i really tired lol

Overall wanted to draw for a while but I lost my pen ｡°˙◠˙°｡ im borrowing at the moment so yeah i draw a bit heheh

Again piercing heheh and jewelry!! ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )

I wanna draw some ocs of other people just cause i wanna practice or I can just make my own ocs (˶–ω`–˶) but im not so creative huhuh

[empressxmachina]

My fish army. I need you.

If you are a fanfiction author who posts to AO3. Your work has probably been scraped into these datasets.

Send them a copyright takedown notice if you think your work is in this. Escalate to a DMCA report if you need to: https://www.copyright.gov/512/sample-notice.pdf (and send it to: dmca@huggingface.co)

Make sure to grab all your work IDs from Ao3.

Restrict your work to the archive.

Glaze your art.

So many of us are affected. You aren't alone. Maybe together we can take down this theft.

[empressxmachina]

[empressxmachina]

:P

Oh to kick my little feet from atop a giant’s big intertwined hands....

[empressxmachina]

drawings I made as part of a school project. lalalalala I like space

[empressxmachina]

[empressxmachina]

Phoenix Wright, professional poker player 🃏