#[I wanna make my font smaller but I can't remember how!]

[tealeves]

Pulse of Life Press 1st Anniversary - and an experiment!

It's been a whole year since I started this crazy artform! I can't believe it myself. The amount of books I've made in the past year has long since hit the double digits, and each and every one of them is incredibly important to me, flaws and all.

However, there was one book - my first book - that had more issues than the others, some that outright interfered with reading. Luckily I've been learning book repair at the same time as binding, but when I tried to fix some of the problems for Bernhardiner, it went...well... about as badly as it could.

What to do, then, with a ruined book? I didn't have enough decorative paper to completely redo the cover, with all the little dogs. But then I thought - why not leave the cover? I know how books work - I could pretty easily detach the whole case from the ruined textblock, make a new textblock, and just reuse the old case. It seemed like a sound experiment. Now, for the press's first anniversary, I have compiled most of the process under the cut, complete with pictures.

Please come along with me on this journey!

This was the beginning of the process, after having slooowly and carefully detached the endpapers of the textblock (right) from the case itself (left). You might remember this from my recent shitpost! To loosen the adhesive and separate the two parts without ruining either one, I initially slid a bonefolder into the hinge area of the case, and then switched to a thin little boi called a microspatula to slip through the glue not unlike a letter opener.

This did lead to some wear and tear on the boards of course, but it could have gone a lot worse. Most binders that I've learned from use a homemade wheat paste to attach case to textblock, but so far I have not been able to make it without the ingredients turning into an Oobleck-esque gelatin. Thus I use PVA glue, which is far stronger, and can lead to things like this. Still, not too bad. The case was successfully salvaged!

Before I describe and show off the redux, I just wanna share a couple of the errors and mistakes I made on the first textblock here, as I usually try and photograph my books with the least amount of flaws visible. Here we can see, firstly, that the glue job on the spine was shoddy at best; none of it really got quite between the individual signatures of the book, leading to weird gaps like that which compromise the stability of the book and show off the spine liner/mull, to my dismay.

In the other two pics you can see page numbers where they're definitely not supposed to be. Ah, MS Word, you son of a bitch and your terrible, terrible pagination settings. Took me months and months to learn how to paginate my books correctly, up until about my FINAGLC bind.

Not enough glue here on the pre-made endbands, either. It would sometimes fold under while reading, which wasn't super fun to see.

Finally, the botched repair that started this whole journey - I had attempted to fix one of the gaps between signatures (seen earlier) with some Japanese repair tissue, but ended up sticking these pages awkwardly together and fucked up that little top part there. A nightmare!

For all the above reasons, I actually decided to go back to my original typeset and revamp it. I've gotten some... teasing in my binding groups for the fact that my first few books were set in Times New Roman (which I actually find satisfying to read, thank you very much), which apparently gives off a sort of amateurish vibe. I've been experimenting with body fonts since, and the two I reliably use at the moment are usually Sylfaen (for shorter, smaller books) and Baskerville Old Face (for longer books). I switched it to Sylfaen here, and you can compare and contrast the results far down below.

Now, I'm not going to detail the entire bookmaking process here - just the interesting bits. If you want to learn how to make books, I highly suggest checking out @renegadepublishing's resources, as they're how I learned. But here we can see all the new signatures of the new edition nice and crisp and printed. In the second photo they've even been punched for sewing already!

At the co-op where I print and sew my textblocks, I often get to use real nipping presses like this bad boy right here. It's entirely metal (iron?) and way too heavy to lift. Between the two scrap papers peeking out is the new Bernhardiner!

But at home, this is my current set up:

Everyone, meet the eponymous Pulse of Life Press. POL Press, meet everyone.

A family member of mine made the wood part (obviously, a separate piece from the HS books) for me last Christmas, with no real knowledge of what a book press should look like at all. It's sort of a cross between what's known as a lying/finishing press and just some sort of regular old clamp. I line it with wax paper, stick the spine of the book in the center, tighten, and then cover the rest of the textblock with my trusty viz Homestuck books. It's a little MacGyver-y, but it's served me well.

This is the part where you glue the spine, attach the endpapers, and so forth.

For this redux, I decided to continue practicing making my own endbands instead of using the same pre-made ones I had for the first copy. These ones actually came out pretty darn well, if I do say so myself! They're the absolute neatest I've made them so far, and that's a relief. Obviously I still need work, but it's so lovely making them. <3

After this, I actually don't have a lot of pictures! It's basically just press, attach the spine liner and glue again, press again, casing in, and then...

Et voila!

Lookin' pretty good, if I do say so myself.

I didn't get exact duplicate photos of the original textblock's mistakes for a before/after, but you can probably just tell from these just how cleaned up the new one is. Rest assured those pesky out-of-place page numbers are long gone, and my spine gluing has gotten a lot better. I'm honestly just glad that it cased in so well - I was worried about that flaky board for a minute there!

And that's all. Thank you for coming with me on this little peek behind the scenes! Here's to many more books in the coming year - more to read, more to make, and more to write.

Cheers!

[amarioe]

Uh so i was listening music after i finished school and got home as per usual. And as i was thinking about TCO/Chosen i got this idea when remembering how his stickfigure looked like it had a mouth when he breathed fire...ehem-

(Long post incoming)

...What if Chosen is mute? Like, what if he can only breathe fire from his mouth and he can't actually say anything?

It was a fun idea, so i started thinking about it further- and i have a some variations of this concept i wanna share to see what people think would be the coolest!

Okay okay, so

1. We have the original idea. Chosen is mute/can't say anything, and his mouth almost exclusively only opens when he breathes fire.

Possible reasons for this are as follows:

A) He was just created that way

B) Alan never taught him how to speak/he didn't have any other stickfigures to learn the words from and couldn't adjust like Dark could who was still young and stuff (this makes me wonder if Victim would have trouble speaking aswell?)

C) He's selectively mute, in this case i mean he got so used to not saying anything when he was with Alan (dude probably couldn't hear him anyway since they probably can't speak like humans but the stickmen still seem to understand each other? Wait holy shit the angst potential FUCK), and it was uncomfortable/difficult for him to talk after he escaped the PC with Dark

-Maybe he's really shy or something and only talks to Dark, idk lol

2. Chosen can..technically speak. Do you know how Second/Orange talks where the words appear in the form of text when he's in the drawing program? I was thinking maybe Chosen can do that too, but with some variations, the main thing being this:

-Chosen can make text appear, but only the text/letters he's eaten beforehand. I imagine he can also make said text appear anywhere, even outside a drawing program which Orange seems to be limited to, but i'm not sure if that's true or not.

And i was thinking. Is there a limit? If so what would that limit be? And what do his words look like?

A) Well, the first variation i thought of was that Chosen can repeat any word he's eaten as much as he wants. Maybe he has like, a whole dictionary of words he's collecting and after the whole virabot fiasco Orange says random cool words they find and Chosen eats them so he can use them later (Inspired by that one gif where Orange's "la's" keep getting eaten by TCO 💀) or something like that.

B) Second variable and the one i personally liked more, is that Chosen can only use the word he ate once, and he would have to eat the same word if he wanted to say it again. So basically he has them stored like pokemon cards or something, lmao- but yeah. This also gave me a fun idea on what Chosen's words would even look like!

Basically, each letter looks exactly like the one he ate, down to the size, color and font. So whenever he speaks it's just an amalgamation of random colors, fonts and SIZES forming a sentence. Wait let me save this as a draft and draw my vision-

Ex.

Heres a shitty (and kind of overexaggerated) representation of what it might look like. The text would probably be smaller too, or at least a bit less,, ynow XD

Before i came back to this post i got yet another idea (because my brain works exclusively when it's about something art/character related i guess)

Maybe i can combine both ideas relating to Chosen being mute? Like, he can't speak/produce sound to other stickmen unlike most, but he can do the text/letter thing to communicate if he wants to? So his mouth still stays closed but he can sort of talk (if he has a bunch of letters saved up)

Phew, okay- this ended up being a longer post than i had originally thought, but i had a lot of fun maling it! What do ya'll think makes the most sense out of all these concepts?? I'd love to hear if anyone has any other ideas relating to this!

[purplesurveys]

1735

1 - When was the last time you met someone for the first time? Two Mondays ago. I went to a networking thing and chatted up a bit with the CEO of a local talent agency and a few of her employees.

2 - What’s the longest amount of time you’ve gone without bathing? 3 days was probably my longest range that made me go, "dude, you're gross." lol.

3 - Have you ever cooked with crab or lobster? Could you ever bring yourself to kill a live lobster/crab? I've never cooked with either and don't think I can kill any kind of animal for the purpose of cooking.

4 - What’s your favourite font? What size and colour do you prefer to use when you’re doing surveys? My favorite font to use in work decks these days is the one called Red Hat Text. As a standard, I like to stick with black and font size 11 but I switch them up if necessary.

5 - Have your clothing choices changed since COVID hit and you started to stay at home more? Yes. I used to be big on short dresses and shorts pre-COVID...not sure why that changed but in any case I hate showing leg skin now as it makes me feel exposed. K-pop's also made me lean towards more oversized/baggy apparel.

6 - When was the last time you went through a drive-through? I wanna say around a month ago? I just wanted a McDonald's cheeseburger after a long F2F day at work.

7 - Which fast food restaurant do you go to the most? What do you tend to order when you go there? McDonald's is my favorite partly because it's always a safe option to go with, and partly because I work with them so there's a bias hah. McNuggets used to be my go-to order, but now I find myself always getting a double cheeseburger with a request to remove the ketchup, mustard, and pickles.

8 - Do you own any plaid/flannel shirts? I don't think so.

9 - If you eat it, how do you like your steak cooked? What sauces and sides do you like to get with it? If you’re vegetarian, what would you have instead of a steak dinner? I like it rare; even medium-rare would make my eye twitch hahaha. I've never been picky when it comes to the sauces and sides.

10 - Are there any foods and drinks you only have around Christmas? My grandma's specialty dishes, especially her steak. She also makes this like creamy chicken thing but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called.

11 - Does it bother you when dogs jump up at you? Does it bother you less if it’s a smaller dog? No, it has never bothered me and I don't think it will. That changes of course if the dog is jumping because it's planning to bite my face off, but as far as friendly dogs, I'm open to all ways they'd like to show interest/affection.

12 - What kind of animal did you touch last? Was this animal one of your pets? That would be Cooper, and yes he is one of my dogs.

13 - Which colour do you prefer, red or blue? Blue.

14 - How would you describe your sense of humour? Have you ever offended someone when you were only joking? It's all over the place because I'm easily amused – I can laugh at anything from bad dad jokes to borderline offensive humor. To the second question, I'm almost certain that I have. It can happen.

15 - When was the last time you cried - what caused it? Yesterday. I was telling my parents that I got promoted again but that I don't want the higher position anymore, and that I plan on leaving the company in 2024. My dad sent me a private message and said his congrats but that he will also support me through whatever decision I make, and that made me cry.

The last few days have been mentally taxing precisely because of thoughts I've had about finally cementing my decision to leave for good, and those were the words I really needed to hear. Everyone else I've shared this with otherwise tells me to consider the higher raise and the nicer shinier label I can soon call my own, and that's just...not where I am right now, so it's frustrating when it's reinforced over and over.

16 - What’s your favourite flavour of potato chip? Salted egg or honey butter. Or just plain, that works well too.

17 - Do you have a lot of artwork around your house? What kind of art? We have a few generic, mass-produced paintings and miniature sculptures but that's it.

18 - When you paint your nails, what kind of colours do you tend to go for? I never get my nails painted. Just seems like a minor pamper-y luxury I can easily live without.

19 - Do you prefer fruit or vegetable juice? What kind of flavours do you like? I do not like the idea of either.

20 - What’s the weather doing where you are? Is that typical for this time for this time of year? There are like two typhoons doing a dance in the country rn so it has been awful, but on a more privileged note I do enjoy the colder temperature and nap weather it's been giving. And yeah, this is usually the time we have a slew of typhoons coming in every week.

21 - Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? How did you meet this person? It was just the receptionist at the restaurant I had reserved a table at for my mom's birthday lunch today. I never 'met' her and I just called the number because it was indicated on that restaurant's Instagram.

22 - Are you eating or drinking anything right now? I have my usual cup of coffee which is never absent when I take surveys.

23 - Who was your first celebrity crush? Which celebrity do you like now? My first celebrity crush was Ashley Tisdale and these days I like BTS.

24 - When was the last time you went to Starbucks? What did you get? Two Sundays ago – I got their new iced brown sugar shaken espresso (why must such a good drink be such a mouthful to say?) and their Belgian chocolate cupcake.

25 - Do you have a credit card? How much money do you owe on there? Continued from last night. I don't own a credit card.

26 - What colours have you dyed your hair in the past? What kind of colours would you like to dye it in the future? I've done brown and purple so far. I want to go purple a third time soon, but I'm also kind of wanting to finally try green. I'll probably only decide once I'm already asked at the salon.

27 - What’s your favourite Christmas movie? When was the last time you watched it? Love Actually. I've stopped my habit of watching it every Christmas, so the last time I saw it was around 3 or 4 years ago. It's A Wonderful Life is really good too, but I've seen it much less often.

28 - What’s your favourite brand and flavour of ice-cream or frozen yoghurt? I'm not a fan of froyo, but I do like cookies and cream ice cream!

29 - When was the last time you visited the dentist? Early August.

30 - What time do you consider to be too early to go to bed and to get up in the morning? When was the last time you went to bed/got up at those times? 11 PM would be too early for me; as for waking up in the morning, 6 AM will feel weirdly early – like it would make me go "why the hell am I up at this hour?" lol. I wake up at 6 AM pretty often, but I can't remember the last time I fell asleep before midnight.

[petitemingi]

─ ੈ༊ your customer is: yunho

vanilla bean latte

The smell of the double chocolate chip cookies you'd just pulled out of the oven wafted through the kitchen of Sunrise Cafe.

The customers in the seated areas, spoke softly to one another: some laughing, most sipping away at their evening macchiatos and lattes

All seemed peaceful...

until seonghwa came storming into the kitchen

"___" his voice sounded stern and looking at him, he seemed annoyed, and almost offended

"what is it, hwa? frappe machine broken again?"

"no. remember that construction up the road?"

ah, now would be a great time to explain this.

over the past few weeks, construction had started but a few buildings away

there had been plenty of rumours speculating what it could be; a restaurant, a charity shop, maybe a take away joint

but judging from Seonghwa's expression, it wasn't any of those

"it's another god damn cafe! I can't believe someone would authorise that! is our sign not big enough??"

"oh my god, we could lose customers! When's it opening??"

you'd throw off your apron, leaving it in a heap on the floor of the kitchen, rushing towards the entrance door

and there it was, just down the road, a newly build building, no smaller than Sunrise Cafe, stood gleaming in the summer sunset.

"you've got to be kidding me"

soon caught up by Seonghwa, the two of you stand glaring at the building - it was much more modern than your cafe

the windows seemed larger, there was even a second floor!

"we're gonna be bankrupt by Christmas"

"nah, not Christma, hwa..."

the two of you look at each other

"Halloween"

a sign was hung pristine over the front of the cafe, it read "Crescent Cafe" in a swirly font with colourful lights outlining the words

Seonghwa slouched his shoulders - the thought of it even taking his customers drained the energy from him

"well," you begin "who says this cafe won't be absolute crap? maybe they'll drive away more customers than they gain?"

"y'know if we lose customers, the cost for our cafe comes outta your wages?"

"we need to investigate... when did you say it opens?"

"monday"

"oh"

the both of you trail back to Sunrise, your shoulders slouched, head bowed and spirits low

being the only cafe in the area had made really good business; you'd had so many fun and unique customers, and everyone loved the atmosphere your cafe had

during the day, the cafe was at it busiest, so income was at it's highest, and produce was sold out quickest

having a rival cafe would take a lot of that away

pastries would go to waste, not to mention all the coffee that'd be left over

after Seonghwa had told the rest of the staff about the new cafe, everyone seemed to look a li'l depressed

you all worked hard to build up such a nice li'l cafe, and a great team - what if the new cafe tried to hire them??

what if the customers gave up on Sunrise Cafe?

what if everyone's thoughts on Sunrise were changed? buisness could plummet!

that's when the little bell over the door jingled quietly

the muttering exchanged between staff came to a stop as you walked towards the till

"hi there, welcome to sunrise cafe, what can I get you?"

looking up at the customer came as a shock to you, he was so tall!

his hair was a golden brown, covering the top of his eyes slightly

he wore a trench coat of a lighter colour with the colar popped slightly to keep himself warm, and his eyes seemed to match

"um... actually... I'm from the cafe over there, uh, Crescent Cafe... i-"

"then do us all a favour and get out-" Seonghwa hung his apron on his peg, folding his arms and walking into the staff room behind the counter

he still wasn't too happy about that cafe - it'd shaken him quite a bit

"s-sorry about him, he's just a little, how should I put this? upset? about y'know"

"me opening a cafe right next to yours? ah jeez, I'm sorry"

the Crescent Cafe owener folded his arms, an apologetic smile creeping onto his face

"if it's okay though, do you have any sugar I might be able to borrow for Monday? I don't know where to get a bag"

"oh, sure, I guess just don't tell Seonghwa - he'll throw a fit"

"I'm guessing that's the guy who just left?"

the owner laughed, shaking his head "but while I'm here, would it be okay if I got a vanilla bean latte? I... haven't actually tried one before"

"oh? well lemme tell you you're missing out" you'd reach behind you, grabbing a large mug, walking over to the latte machine.

it wouldn't take too long to make, just a few minutes

but in that time, the customer would've already sat down at a table, admiring the decorations of the cafe around him, probably mentally noting things down to use in his own cafe

placing the mug in front of him, the customer invited you to sit with him

"I actually have a few questions, y'know, about running a cafe of my own... i just figured that Seonghwa guy wouldn't wanna talk to me about it"

"sure, that's okay, I can answer a few questions for you... so long as they aren't about hiring me or the rest of my team"

he laughed, picking up the mug and taking a sip, a warm hum sounding out as he did so

"my name's Yunho, by the way" he seemed quite shy introducing himself, looking to his left towards the counter and taking another sip of his latte

you'd nod, smiling to yourself at his timidness

"well, if we're doing that, my name's _____"

yunho looked surprised when you announced your name, probably because he hadn't expected you to reply - after all, everyone else behind the counter seemed pretty sour towards him.

the two of you spoke for a few minutes about the misunderstanding of yunho's new cafe being right next to yours, different coffee recipes and menus

before long, 10pm came, and the atmosphere from earlier died down.

Yunho had made a list on his phone, compiled of useful tips and some pretty cool coffee recipies- all things he couldn't wait to try himself.

but with the time, Yunho found himself needing to leave.

"hey, ____" he'd start "w-would it be a problem if I asked you to help me out on Monday? j-just for an hour or two in the morning!"

you'd look behind you at Seonghwa, who had (and for quite a while now) been glaring at Yunho over the till.

facing Yunho again though, came the real challenge

"are you gonna pay me?"

"y-yeah, I can pay you"

he shrugged his shoulders slightly

"it's just that I haven't been able to hire anyone yet..."

you frowned at him, a scowl forming from the unsure smile you'd shown but seconds before

"you haven't hired staff yet? and you're opening doors in two days?"

"o-oh yeah I wasn't really-"

"what kind of crap is that?"

"____" Seonghwa's voice called from behind you, almost cold eyes meeting your own. he seemed to have emerged from the staff room "come here"

with that scowl now morphing into a frown, you'd make your way over to him, arms crossed and head looking at the floor in disgust

"hwa, he doesn't-"

"help him"

"w-what?"

"help him" Seonghwa shrugged his shoulders, a slight smile creeping onto his face

you'd turn back to Yunho, watching him sip his coffee as he tried to avoid any direct eye contact.

"f i n e" you'd say "but I'm getting paid extra next week"

"or you could get on with it and you can leave an hour early on Tuesday?"

Monday came, and your shift began at 10am, by which time a small line of curious people had formed.

walking inside you were greeted by Yunho, taken a back by the modern decoration of the cafe

the walls were brick, no wallpaper or paint hiding them away

and there was a huge mirror hung on the wall besides the counter

the aprons here were blue, not a warm maroon like the one you wore over at Sunrise, but the menu boards were pretty much the same

an array of drinks were displayed there; iced lattes, cappuccinos, hot chocolates, mochas

but the one that stood out was written in bright blue chalk

'today's special: Sunrise Vanilla Bean Latte'

that made you smile a little

"so, what do you want me to do?"

Yunho put his hand to his chin in thought, tapping lightly before mumbling something

"huh?"

"oh uh I... just do what you do over at Sunrise--"

for the rest of your 4 hour shift at Crescent Cafe that day, you helped plenty!

iced lattes and cappuccinos were the first to sell out, and the sitting areas were filled within 15 minutes

Crescent Cafe had become quite popular, as it would seem

Yunho could see the look of sadness creep onto your face

Sunrise had never been like this

you'd never sold out, or been filled up as dramatically as this

Seonghwa was right, sunrise would most likely go bankrupt by Christmas.

who'd want to go to your cafe when one like this existed

"hey, ____" Yunho called out to you from the other side of the counter "come here"

but seeing you refuse and continuing to serve customers at the till, he walked over himself, standing beside you

"___, I think I should talk to your Seonghwa about something"

"about what?"

"just... something"

so Yunho took off his apron, folded it neatly and placed it on a shelf under the counter and walked down the street to Sunrise Cafe

going inside, everything seemed unusually empty

whereas before, it would've been bustling with customers

Yunho was met with that familiarly cold stare, greeted with an equally icy tone

"you're back" Seonghwa stood at the counter, arms folded across his chest, eyebrows formed to scowl

"y-yeah, listen" Yunho began, his courage now a memory "i wanted to talk to you about the cafe"

"the cafe?" Seonghwa repeated "what about my cafe?"

"not your cafe, my cafe" Yunho mumbled just loud enough for Seonghwa to hear

"go on then"

the two of them sat at an empty table by the counter, with Yunho crossing his legs nervously

"so?"

"i want to make an agreement" Yunho said "I want to make an agreement about opening times"

"why?"

"so that you get your customers and I get mine" Yunho continued "what do you say to me opening over the weekend aaaaand Mondays?"

a patial silence flooded the room, only the occasional clink of mugs from behind the counter could be heard

Seonghwa looked to his right in thought, would this really be any help to either of their cafes? what'd happen in say a few years time, when neither of their cafes drew in customers? would it still be okay then?

a sigh escaped his lips

"Yunho," he'd begin "if it werent for your cafe, I'd have let you work here with us, ___ could use the help but..."

he folded his arms again, head shaking slightly

"but you seem to be kinda happy with your own cafe. you shouldn't let something like another cafe down the road get in the way of your own achievements. you don't have to make an agreement, just do what you want"

a small smile lifted the corners of Seonghwa's lips as he stood up, placing a hand on yunho's shoulder

"i'll let you decide, Yunho"

closing time over at Crescent Cafe couldn't have come sooner - your arms hurt, your feet felt numb and you had pins and needles in your left leg

yunho leaned against the wall just behind the counter, quietly observing you as you waved goodbye to the last few customers to leave before letting out a light chuckle at your pained state

"tired, ___?"

"i swear to god i'd better be getting double what i get at Sunrise, that was brutal! you seriously need more staff"

yunho smiled softly. you took off your apron and hung it on a peg on the wall by yunho, before letting out a large sigh and pushing your hair back out of your face

"i spoke to seonghwa"

your ears pricked up at the mention of seonghwa - you hadn't really seen him since saturday

"yeah?"

"and i've come to the decision that i'll open monday, thursday and on weekends - i think it's only fair considering how your cafe was here before mine and it's apparently the best cafe in the area sooo"

yunho's hand hovered over the back of his neck, a nervous laugh escaping his lips at what he had to say

you were more than happy to hear that - no shade on Crescent Cafe of course - but the feeling of guilt still lingered

"well..." you began "i guess i'll head back to start what's left if my shift over there... lemme know if you need anything"

and within minutes you'd grabbed your coat and had headed inside Sunrise cafe to continue your shift, noticeably happier there.

"___! just dropping in cuz i ran outta sugar again... have any i could borrow?"

"god, order your own sugar! this is the third time this month - it's under the counter"

business at both cafes continued to blossom

Crescent Cafe's hours suited the staff, and it worked flexibly around the booming popularity of Sunrise Cafe - closing at 10pm every night it was open.

"thanks, ___! see you later ~"

seonghwa and yunho seemed to be getting on better too

maybe it was just another one of those peculiar experiences passing by at Sunrise Cafe ~