#...and therefore prettier than I am IRL

[bonesandpoemsandflowers]

Who do your friends think are hotter latinx dudes? (If it’s Pedro pascal or oscar Isaac - they’ve got worst taste tbh)

Like 97%+ of the Latin / Latino / Latine community, I'm not a huge fan of Latinx and consider this terminology to be an example of linguistic imperialism, but i am DELIGHTED to answer this question with a subset of dudes.

To clarify, though, as much as a meme and pout about it, I do get why my taste is different than theirs. I'm not ever too impressed by just looks--there's a lot of handsome dudes out there, who cares? like honestly, so what?--but I'm very attracted to movement and stance and motion. IRL, my party trick is that I can pick martial artists or dancers out of a crowd by how they stand or move, and I do this based purely on "is the way this dude stands sexy to me or not?" as opposed to any kind of objective criteria.

Accordingly, I married a life long martial artist who went goth clubbing with me enough times to ensure I'm obsessed with him for life. He's also the most amazing poet I've ever met and an actual certified genius, because fundamentally life is unfair. But the point is: movement, movement, movement. It's so important. I have a type, but not necessarily how people usually mean it.

And in the realm of pet actor men, David Castañeda moves way, way better than average, even if you judge him against other dudes trying to be action stars. So my friends are never going to convince me, and I'm never gonna convince them, and that's fine.

So anyway

Miguel Gomez is popular. I think it's the cheekbones. I know him as Gus from the Strain and everybody else has seen him on some other show that sounds like something I'd rather die than watch.

Both the dudes from Mayans MC are popular, and I actually do not disagree with either JD Pardo or Clayton Cardenas as a pick. I resisted watching the show for literally years, but eventually I caved and yeaaaaahhhhh. yeaaaah tho.

Every so often I'm insane about JD for like, a week or so. Fantastic tough guy yet nice boy energy on Mayans. I've said some thirsty ass shit on this account about him for SURE. Unfortunately, every time he posts a Muay Thai workout he's just so sloppy it kills my boner for like. months at a time. I flashback to my own summer in Phuket and can just see how disappointed my trainer would be if this dude was in his gym.

Clayton Cardenas I used to disagree about but he's a Miami boy, so. And like, with the biker styling? Look at him. If he had a dance or martial arts background I'd be a goner.

he also looks like the Hollywood (therefore prettier) version of every single metal Latino dude I've ever met. the 305 and 561 area code versions of this man have hollered at me more times than I can count. like, it's a charming sort of nostalgia. it's That Guy! that type of guy! i know That Guy! I made out with that guy under the bleachers in high school! etc etc. what a darling. the last version of That Guy who tried for me is now happily married and lives in LA and works in a pet crematorium. Very happy for him.

where was i

oh yeah, I have one friend who is obsessed with bad bunny and I guess maybe there's a dance background there maybe but I just do NOT vibe with it at ALL. the id is mysterious. he might just be too young for me? david is on thin ice, age wise, for me. any younger and I'd be repelled.

which is an interesting point, actually. I don't know how old you are, anon, but age might be another factor here. I'm in my mid 30s and CMOOOON

Oscar Isaac doesn't do it for you at least a little????

[valkblue]

Also…

I could picspam the shit out of the town (and I may do so…👀) but for now, I just give you the ugly backside of the most badass castle around (taken from its most unflattering side on purpose) and this random offering of chips at the corner of a street. ✌️Much hehe.

Is there something you'd want to see, btw? Shops, old stones, squares, Nostradamus' fave sushi place, a public trash… Anything? 🤔

[knighthelper]

Hello! How are you? I wanted to know if u had some advice for someone wanting to start selling psd (besides knowing how to use ps, which is the basic hahah). thank you!

hello!!! im alright, thank you :)

honestly i don't really have very much experience with monetizing my creations. i have recently begun releasing psds as pay only for about 2 weeks until making them available for free, but i haven't had anyone buy them, and i found out some things about the way deviantart "pays" artists (points cannot be converted to actual money irl without a core membership, which requires More money) and am therefore likely going to stop this practice because points have no value to me because i do not buy goods on deviantart.

however! a good thing i will recommend is the ko-fi website, which is sort of like a donation pool, where you can advertise your art and even do commissions through it. ko-fi, unlike deviantart, does provide for the exchange of real money, however you cannot list individual products to sell afaik. however, as mentioned you can take commissions theough it i believe either through the actual website itself (i think it may have a commissions widget, however i dont know if this is a premium option or not) or by having commissioners donate through it.

you can also use, i would assume, paypal or other online banking apps, by having customers IM you and sending them the psd file once they have paid.

though like i said i don't really have any experience. i have never yet made any money or profit from what i create. all of this advice is based on my own research and what ive found out by looking through both websites, so i highly suggest doing the same or asking multiple other creators as my word may not be the whole truth or the truth at all.

if you want to start uploading psds without necessarily making a profit, i suggest google drive or deviantart. i use both, where i post my psds on deviantart (partially for aesthetic reasons as deviantart is a prettier website than GD) and then upload them to a folder in my google drive so that if anyone needs an alt link for any reason i may provide it for them. it also helps to keep things sort of neater as if i move devices (as i recently did and lost my local folder for psds) i have all of my psds available on the google account.

i hope this helps, if not entirely then at least a little bit! if you still need any help feel free to ask and i may answer to the best of my abilities.

[sage-nebula]

Okay, now that I finally have a minute, I can finally talk about the biggest event of the day:

GEN! 8! REVEAL! FAM!!

In a way, this was not surprising at all. The official Pokémon YouTube channel had been posting promotional videos of all the main regions for the week leading up to today (Pokémon Day), and once a Direct was announced we knew that they would not use that Direct for anything less than Gen VIII. Nintendo and Game Freak have made some questionable decisions in the past, but even they would not be so foolish as to dedicate a Direct to anything but a new set of games, particularly since they’d already promised us Gen VIII would be coming out this year. (Which is why those who are angry that this announcement wasn’t for Sinnoh remakes don’t really make a lot of sense. We were promised brand new core titles for a 2019 release. This couldn’t have been anything but that.) Even so, I am still thrilled by what I saw in the trailer, and I still want to talk about it because I’m so excited.

So:

Pros:

The Region: Some leaks that had come out ages ago suggested that the region could be based off the UK, and I’m so happy to see that was true. (Very little else in the leaks came true, but I’m okay with that, too; Sword and Shield are much better version names than Crown and Scepter.) The region itself looks like it’s going to be beautiful, both in terms of its countryside areas and its urban areas. It reminds me a bit of Unova in that way, how there’s a bit of a divide there, and with that divide emphasized in this reveal trailer, I wonder if that’s going to affect the plot. Either way, I’m truly excited about the region itself, particularly with some of the shots of it that we saw (both interior and exterior) in the trailer.

The Graphics: On that note, the graphics are so nice! There’s so much detail everywhere! In particular I can’t help but think of shots like the library the female trainer was standing in near the end, or the various towns the characters ran through . . . I know some people were hoping for hyper realistic graphics, but that’s never been Pokémon’s style. I’m just glad that these games are so, so much prettier than Let’s Go. I’m so glad all the models and the environment was fixed.

Random Battles are Back In: Speaking of things that were fixed, we can actually train our pokémon again! I was very relieved when I saw that, haha.

Gyms: We’re also back to the Gym system, which is also something of a relief. Honestly, I don’t mind the concept of the Island Trials, but I don’t feel that it was implemented well at all. The Trials themselves were basic and empty, and in many ways felt like watered down Gyms. In USUM it was even worse since you weren’t even allowed to explore during them (and instead had the Captain walking you through the Trials, such as in Mallow’s). Since they weren’t going to get creative with the Trials, I’m glad they’ve scrapped them to go back to the Gym system. Hopefully we’ll get a dark-type Gym this time around.

The Starters: The starters are all so cute! My favorite is Scorbunny (whom I keep calling Scorbunny-bun, haha), but I like Sobble and Grookey as well. Which one I pick will depend on the final evolutions (since I can’t just not look, although I will say I do miss the days of my youth when final evolutions were a surprise and you picked your starter based on first impression), just like which version I get will depend on version differences, but at the moment, if I had to just pick today? It would be Scorbunny. Little soccer bunbun is so cute, I love him. (Sobble would be my second choice, and Grookey my third.)

The Trainers: I LOVE BOTH OF THE TRAINER DESIGNS SO MUCH!! I actually feel like trainer customization might not be back in (more on that in the next section) because we didn’t see any customization in the trailer, and both of the designs are more detailed this time around (whereas the boy design at the least is usually generic in customizable games). But even if we don’t, I’m fine with that. I love both of the designs. I do wish the girl was able to wear pants for the snowy areas, but I love her sweater and her haircut, and the boy’s hat is cute. Really, they’re both fashionable and cute kids. I love them.

The Box Mascots: Of course we know nothing of the legendaries (legendary?) yet, but they look very lupine and I’m excited about that. GIVE ME MY SWORD WOLF, GAME FREAK!!

The Cons:

No Trainer Customization?: We might get a surprise here and that might be back in after all, but right now it looks like it might not be, so that’s a potential con for me.

No Following Pokémon?: Most of the shots that we saw of the gameplay looked empty (for instance, no other NPCs in town shots), so maybe we will get following pokémon and they’re just not able to show that yet. Bu tif we don’t, that’s also something that will make me sad, albeit it’s also something I can live with, haha.

No Pokémon in Overworld: While I am THRILLED that wild battles are back because that’s a deal breaker for me, one thing I actually did like about Let’s Go is that you could see pokémon on the overworld, and I do wish they had implemented that here. But again, I can live with it not being implemented, haha. I’m fine with wild battles, too.

The Miscellaneous:

Professor?: The leaks I talked about earlier mentioned that these games have no professor, and that we instead receive our starters from a princess. No idea if that’s true or not yet, obviously, but if it’s not and we do still have a professor, I want them to be either Poké David Attenborough or Poké Jane Goodall. (And on a related note, if the monarchy is in this game, let me throw down with the queen pls.)

Give Us the Great Galaran Bake Off: You know how each gen has a little side gimmick? Like we had Contests in Gen III, Super Contests in IV, PokéStar Studios in V, and so on? Give us Bake Off in Gen VIII. The Great British Bake Off has popularity that transcends its borders and it would be so great to implement that into these games. The bonus is that when the Galar anime starts up, there can be an episode where Ash somehow makes his way into the tent as a baker (and I say somehow, because you have to audition and everything and prove yourself worthy of being there irl and Ash cannot cook or bake for anything) and then is the first person eliminated because his pastries have soggy bottoms and are not crisp, and also his cakes have overbaked sponges and you cannot see the layers in there at all. (I hope the anime gives us that episode even if we don’t have the gimmick in the games. Come on, PokéAni. Show us the forbidden Poké Mary Berry and Poké Paul Hollywood, along with Poké Mel and Sue.)

Anime’s English Dub: On that note, I both am and am not looking forward to TPCi hiring garbage actors who will absolutely brutalize every single British* accent they have in their cast. If it was 4Kids, I would trust them to hire actors who know what they’re doing. But TPCi? I remember what they did to Alan. I’ll never forget nor will I ever forgive what they did to Alan. They hired a no-name rando off the street who had no talent whatsoever to voice Alan. If they do try to make the Galaran characters British, there is no way those accents will be passable. It will be a travesty. That said, if the PokéAni actually had a good job with a talented cast, I would pay them actual money to make Ash’s female companion have a Cockney or south London accent. I LOVE those accents and I would love to have a character with one on the main cast. They could also give Ash’s male companion (should he have one) a Scottish accent to just complete the whole dynamic and it’d be incredible. Like I know they’d probably go for standard pronunciation, but god what I wouldn’t give for regional accents for an English dub of the Galaran anime. It would be incredible. (*I said British instead of English here because not all British accents are English. Scotland is part of Britain, and therefore a Scottish accent is a British accent, for example. So believe me, I wasn’t conflating British and English; I know the difference, and I was incorporating all of them.) 

Unova vs. Galar Rivalry: I want to see some (friendly) rivalry between Unova and Galar, just like those posts from Ye Olde Tumblr where Americans and Brits would get into “fights” over things. Obviously Unova is not the only United States region (Alola and Orre also exist), but it’s the one up in New England, and the one most blatantly American, I feel. It’d be neat to see that in the game. (And on an unrelated note, was Galar the region that warred with Kalos 3,000 years ago? Hmm . . .)

All in all, I’m super excited and I just can’t wait for these games. November can’t come fast enough (and neither can more info, haha)!