#AND I CHANGED MY URL BECAUSE THIS ONE WAS PRETTIER THAN THE LAST ONE

[yutahoes]

Sakura

(Part Seven)

One - Two - Three - Four - Five - Six - Seven

genre : Chaptered, Fluff, 

pairing : childhood friends: soccer player! Nakamoto Yuta x single mom! Y/N

word count : 3.3k words

You’ll always be his Sakura.

@ailoveyuta @loona-4-eva @aiforyuu @2-3-t-i @cosmiclatte28 @url-lindo-sexy @nuoyipeach​ @aaasteroidsky​ @thisis-myname @yutazen01​​​

Her smile that time in Osaka is still imprinted in Yuta’s mind that it haunts him even in his dreams. It was winter in their last year of their teens when Yuta begged Y/N’s mom if she could spend the holidays in Osaka with his family. Of course, his parents were also behind this and promised that they’ll take care of Y/N. And even if he’s just remembering it now, he still can’t believe that her mom actually allowed her to go to another country. 

His parents quickly greeted her when she came to the airport, asking if she had trouble during the flight but she smiled at them answering them in fluent Japanese that made him proud. She seemed so natural talking to them, even calling them okaasan and otousan like they’re one family. “Yuta!” she called excitedly, arms wide open to hug him which he accepted. His parents were just smiling at him knowingly. “Bogoshipda.” 

Who wouldn’t? The last time he saw her was the day she left for Chicago. No, the day before that. Although he and his mom sent them off, he refused to look at her that time. "I missed you too." He whispered that made her smile widely. Something changed about her. Is it because they never saw each other for years? Or because his memory of her is stuck in the last time they were together? Is it because they already grew up? Maybe it's because of Chicago.

His family had been welcoming to her and they were equally amazed that Y/N can understand and speak Japanese. Since it's just days before New Year, their house is full of people but they made her feel like she is a part of the family. "You should bring her to Osaka Castle." One of his aunts claimed that made Yuta nod. 

"Why not bring her to Universal Studios?" Another asked and Y/N just nodded, looking excited. Yuta put his phone on top of the table. "Otousan, can you drive us to Hirakata Park tomorrow?" He asked which made everyone look at him.

Y/N was so surprised seeing a Cardcaptor Sakura exhibition that she squealed in excitement at the entrance making Yuta smile. This feels like the Y/N he knows. They kept on looking at the different artworks related to the anime she liked since she was young, even staying too long at some merchandise. "Should I buy that? Sakura is really cute." 

Yuta chuckled. "You can't even eat that." That made her glare at him, pouting. But Yuta remembered that merchandise, even telling himself that he’ll save up to buy that for her birthday. 

She was really happy to eat in a café that is inspired by the same anime. She kept on taking pictures saying that she'll show them to her mom. "I knew you'll love it here." 

"Can I just live here?" 

He laughed once again. "You can ask my parents to adopt you." 

Y/N wrapped her arms on Yuta's arm that made him freeze. What's with the sudden skinship? "Shall I call you oniichan?" 

He smiled at her then frowned. "No." 

It was almost nighttime when they reached Dohtonbori. Tons of pictures were taken and she kept on running around, claiming that everything in Japan is pretty. "It's prettier when there are cherry blossoms. You should go back in spring." But honestly, he just wanted her to stay here until Spring. Or maybe for a long time. 

Should he ask his parents to adopt her? But he doesn't want him to call her imouto. 

The lights illuminating the whole area looked magical. Why does he like it more today than when he's out here with his parents? Why does the light look more lovely today? The cold breeze made him pull his oversized coat closer. Why is it so cold? Glancing at her, he realized that she may be cold as well. Does Chicago have a cold season like this? 

Knowing that she's focused on looking at those little trinkets by the store, he went to another store to buy something. Her mom will kill him if she gets sick in this weather. Besides, it's going to be busier this time of the year. "Y/N." He called that made her look at him. He put on a white scarf around her neck, wrapping it nicely on her. "My Christmas gift." 

She had to laugh at that, raising a snow globe. "And I was thinking of buying one for you." She turned her attention to the different snow globes on the shelf. "You should pick one, Yuta." 

But he never looked at the snow globes. Instead, his focus was on her. The lights illuminate her, creating a picturesque background. The white snow falling gently on her, adding to the effect. He badly wanted to imprint that image in his mind. When did she become this pretty? When she turned to him, he lightly gasped. Why did he feel hot all of a sudden? Why can he hear his heart beating on his chest? 

Y/N shook the snow globe with the Osaka castle inside then handed it to him. "I'll get you this, onii chan." It annoyed him. Why does she like using that word? 

The whole week was full of preparations for the New Year and his relatives had supplied her with the rituals they must do. She helped in making mochi with his grandmother who seemed so fond of her. Even his grandfather, who is usually a scary man, smiles a lot because of her. She really fit well in his family. But not as his sister. 

When the clock struck midnight, he realized what it was. She was playing some sparklers with his cousins, laughing along with them. Her eyes twinkling the same way they did when she was staring at those snow globes. Taeyong was right all along. He is in love with her. 

Kareshi. It's a better term than oniisan. Something that he wanted her to call him right now. "Y/N, I…" But a ringtone stopped his words, someone was calling. "It must be your mom, you should pick up." The girl nodded, handing her sparkler to Yuta before heading inside the house. 

God, what is wrong with him? Is he really going to confess to her? He must be out of his mind. Yuta just finished the stick of sparkler before heading inside to check on her. She was seated on the couch, smiling on her phone. "They are all so nice to me, eomma." She then smiled when she noticed Yuta. "We're going to the temple tomorrow with obaasan." Hatsumonde. It's a Japanese ritual that they had done since he was young and since she's here, his grandmother wanted her to experience visiting a shrine. "You want to talk to Yuta?" 

The guy just shook his head, sitting next to her, but she pushed the phone to her which he reluctantly answered. "Eommeoni, annyeong." She sounded so happy talking to him on the phone but again his focus was on the door next to him who was playing the kendama, a Japanese ball and cup toy. "Please take care of Y/N." And even if she doesn't say those words, he knows he'll take care of her. 

When she dropped the call, Yuta saw her phone wallpaper. A guy playing basketball. It looks like a photo taken. Is she dating someone? Did she mention anything about a guy in her letters? Is that why she's prettier? Is she in love?

The question was answered when they visited the shrine the next day. She is indeed prettier especially when she wore a kimono that his cousin let her borrow, little trinkets adored her hair. She looked like a native Japanese. A yome. But he shook his head. He can't be thinking of that. 

They were getting their omikuji, him and her with another set of female and male cousins that are older than the two of them. When Y/N pulled her paper strip, his female cousin shook her head. "You'll probably get pregnant this year." She claimed that startled her. "Are you dating someone?" Y/N nodded. 

"You two are already dating?" His male cousin asked, referring to her and Yuta. She shook her head saying that he's a schoolmate from Chicago. So he's really seeing the guy on her phone wallpaper. When Yuta opened his paper strip, his cousin just tapped his back. "You should have confessed earlier." But he just stared at the bad luck written on his paper. 

His second regret. Why did it take a long time for him to realize these feelings? 

It was Yuta's Summer Break when his parents gave him the airplane tickets to Chicago that surprised him. They had talked to Y/N and her mom that he's visiting. And although he doesn't want to go there, he was forced by his family. "You should at least tell her that you like her. Maybe it can change something." 

The city was different and he felt really foreign, different than when he first came to Korea. "Yuta!" Y/N called, running to where he is and quickly hugging him. What is this girl doing? In front of all these people? "I skipped class to pick you up. Why can't you hug me?" He raised an eyebrow at her. Why is she so bold? Chicago is indeed different. Yeokshi Chicago. 

He jokingly crushed her on his arms but she didn't laugh, which is odd. He felt her breathing on his neck, hot and hard. "I missed you, Yuta." It felt different. Maybe because they're in Chicago. He didn't pay that much attention to that especially when she introduced a guy named Johnny Seo. The person on her wallpaper. The guy she's dating. 

Johnny is a really nice guy. He showed him what Chicago is while waiting for her to finish her classes. He made an effort to talk to him in Korean or English, sometimes in Japanese that he heard from her. He shared stories about her, the Y/N Yuta doesn't personally know. He knew what to order for her in coffee shops, even at restaurants. He speaks to her calmly, staring at her as if she's the only person who mattered in the world. And he knew, she's in the right place with Johnny. 

It was Saturday when Johnny and Y/N brought him to The Bean. The weather was hot and there were a lot of people because of the weekend but Yuta didn't care. "You haven't been to Chicago if you didn’t visit this place." Johnny claimed that made the girl nod. They took tons of pictures, Y/N teasing that he needed to show it to his cousins. 

Johnny offered to get them coffee, leaving the two of them in the park while still taking pictures. "Johnny is pretty nice." Yuta started that made her smile, nodding at him. "You never mentioned him in your letters." 

"I don't know what to tell you." She answered quietly. "But I like him. So much." He wanted to stop her that moment, wanted her to not continue what she's saying or it will just hurt him. "He helped me a lot to quickly adapt here." 

A bitter smile escaped his lips. The same way she helped him back in Korea. How dare she fall in love with another guy that way? But when Johnny came with their coffees at hand, he saw the twinkle in her eyes. The twinkle that made his heart flutter. She really does love Johnny. And who is he to take that twinkle away? Who is he to tell her what she can and can't do? He's just her friend. A very dear friend. 

He drank his coffee watching as how the taller guy fixed her hair, smiling at her with a lot of love in his eyes. Bittersweet. That was what it was. It's hurtful yet romantic. And he can't believe that he will always remember Chicago with those feelings. Yeoksi Chicago. 

Johnny loves Y/N. He's sure of that. And he honestly doesn't want to believe that it didn't work well with them. What really happened? Did she give up? Or is he the one who gave up? That was the question in his mind seeing Johnny in front of the two kids' school. He can still remember him but does Johnny even remember him? 

Yuta can see the two kids going outside the gates and honestly, he was scared that they'll run to their dad. He shouldn't have come here today. Why did he even come here? "Daddy!" He heard Jae call running to his dad. Of course, he must have missed him so much that the younger guy even called him 'appa' last time. But he noticed Cherry stopping on her tracks. 

She noticed him but he only smiled at her, planning to just go. He was about to enter his car when he heard the younger girl say, "Can I hang out with Yuta samchon?" That was when Johnny noticed him, Jae even waved at him excitedly. "He promised me that we'll go back to the library when he gets back from Spain." He did promise her. But her dad is here. Isn't she excited to see him again? 

"Is it alright if Cherry goes with you?" Yuta nodded. He wanted to hang out with them anyways. "I'll just tell Y/N." Cherry just walked chicly to him, her eyes as dark as when he first met her. Why is she like this? Does she not like Johnny? Jae told Yuta that he wanted to hang out with his dad, even telling him to take care of his noona that he found so adorable. 

Yuta bid farewell to the father-son, opening the backseat door for the younger girl. Cherry was just looking at her shoes when Yuta entered the car, starting the engine to drive her to the library she loved. "Samchon…" she called which made him look at her from the mirror of the car, humming as a response. "Can you buy me a cake today?" 

It was a request he can't say no. This was the first time that Cherry asked him for something and he's somehow glad that it is just a simple thing. He parked in front of a pretty café, helping her get down from the car, and even opened the door for her. "You can order whatever you want." He urged, eyeing all the selections of different flavored cakes. 

The girl pointed at a white cake with red cherries on top, making Yuta smile. A cherry cake. "Can you buy me the whole cake?" The guy just nodded. It's not bad to spoil her once in a while. He told the girl on the counter their order, handing him his card when she made another request, "Do you have candles?" Candles? Is it her birthday? Is that why Johnny is here in Korea? 

He let the younger girl put candles in between the cherries of her cake. "Is it your birthday today?" He asked and she nodded casually that startled him. Why are they together? She should be with her parents. "Don't you want to share the cake with your brother?" 

Cherry shook her head. "I always share everything with him. He and eomma never liked cherries anyways." He pursed his lips at that, she does hate cherries. Ironically, she named her firstborn with something that she didn't like. "And dad hates cherry." She was staring at the cake while saying those words in a hushed tone. Is she referring to the fruit or another thing? "Can you light it up, samchon?" Her eyes were moist, sparkling against the light, like she wanted to cry. 

He held the top of her head, smiling. "Wait up. I'll just go get something." He said then stood up. "Stay here and wait for me. I won't be long." But she only stared at him in worry. Yuta handed her his phone, promising that he'll be back quickly. He crossed the street to get her some flowers then cursed himself for not knowing what color she wanted. Does she even like flowers? 

To be safe, he followed the florist's advice in getting a white rose for 'his daughter'. There was a new expression on Cherry's face when he handed her the single white flower, an emotion he hasn't seen from her before. "Girls should receive at least a flower on their birthday." He reasoned out then lit up all the candles on the cake. She whispered something on herself as a wish before blowing the candles one at a time. 

Yuta took away the candles then started slicing the cake. He placed one slice on Cherry's plate, even topping it with cherries on top. It was the younger girl who gave him his slice of the vanilla cake. "Do you want to do anything else? Ice skating?" 

"Can we just go ice skating with eomma and Jae some time?" He nodded. She always thinks about them. "I'll just finish the book in the library today." 

It is her birthday yet she's silently reading a suspense book while seated on a bean couch. Yuta just bought her some snacks and got a book to read so he wouldn't get bored. He would smile at her little gasps and remembered how Y/N would be like that while reading manga. Cherry is indeed a splitting image of her. It's crazy. 

"Samchon," Cherry called, closing the hardbound book she was reading earlier. Is she done? That fast? "When you were young, what do you want to be when you grow up?" 

He chuckled at that question. She is still a kid. "I want to be a soccer player." 

"How about mom?" 

Yuta glanced at her. "She wanted to be an illustrator." He remembered how good her drawings are and even pursue that passion until her college years. "But you know, your mom suddenly wrote to me one day and said that she wanted to be a mom." 

"Can dreams change?" Cherry asked innocently. There's a certain air of maturity in the little girl that Yuta always forgets that she's just a kid. Now, she looks like a little girl who wonders about life. 

Yuta nodded at the question. "What do you want to be when you grow up, Cherry?" 

"A detective." That's a nice dream. Maybe that's why she likes reading all these Agatha Christie books. "When I become a detective, I will help children find their dads." That sparked his curiosity. What? "I wanted to find my dad." 

"Johnny is your dad." 

"He's not." She exclaimed which made Yuta wide-eyed. "Eomma got pregnant with me even before she married dad. She had Jae because she wanted to save her and dad's marriage." That was some wild accusations from a child. 

Yet, it seemed rather logical. 

It was a mystery to him why Johnny and Y/N broke up when he saw how much they liked each other. They had two children, isn't that enough reason to stay together? He remembered all the conversations with Cherry about her dad, how sad her reaction is, and how quiet her voice is when talking about him. The image of the younger girl who looked awkward seeing her dad flashed on his mind. She's wary of him. Not scared, not angry. She just doesn't look like someone who knew what she should do with her dad. She looked like she doesn't belong. 

But then again, maybe it's just her. 

Maybe he can help her. He can probably prove that Johnny is her dad. "Cherry, how old are you?" 

"Eight." 

'Seven years, turning eight' He can hear Y/N's voice in his mind saying those words. The same age as Cherry. The last time they saw each other was eight years. In Chicago. After that night. 

"Samchon, do you know who my real dad is?" 

Yuta gulped. He probably knows. 

Fuck, he might just be Cherry's dad. 

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Eight

[ellectric-blue]

star filled nights | shigaraki tomura

☆ A/N: HEY HEY HEY @yourlostairpods​!!!!! It is I, your spring time anon, also known as ~ (＾▽＾). I LOVED talking with you!!! Coming up/sending asks and reading your answers was just so much fun 🥺asdfhgjlaskjdf I knew I was gonna go with this idea on like the 3rd day but ofc I left it for Monday and ended up changing it completely 🤪 Anyway, if there’s anything you want me to change PLEASE lmk, I wanted to make this perfect for my favorite airpod burner ;) My brain still decides to change the ‘lost’ with ‘burnt’ in your URL and I’ve decided to stop fighting it 😌 Also, I have no clue how ACNH works, so just imagine new leaf but on the switch :P._

☆ pairing: shigaraki x reader

☆ summary: it’s your league-iversary and shiggy has a surprise :)

It had been three years since you joined the league and you were certain no one would remember your league-iversary. After all, you never made a big deal out of it and avoided mentioning it. The memory of League rescuing you all those years ago is not one of your favorites.

You had just graduated from the hero course and got a spot in one of the best agencies in all of Japan. You got to work under the #2 hero as one of his sidekicks. However, you would soon learn it wasn’t what you were expecting at all. The heroes here weren’t exactly heroic, choosing which crimes to pursue and who to help depending on how much media coverage they would get. All that mattered was your rank. This led you to become disillusioned with hero society. Was this really what I trained for all this time? One night, while scrolling on the internet, you stumbled upon a video with Stain’s beliefs, something you’d never thought you’d agree with. However, it all made sense.

Eventually, you tried to take matters into your own hands. You planned to take your agency’s files and release them to the public, endangering undercover operations and the lives of many heroes. At this point, you didn’t really care. They’re doing it for fame anyway, you thought. You infiltrated the office, but your ex-coworkers quickly noticed something fishy was going on. Right as you were about to be caught, ending your career as a villain before it even started, black mist encompassed the room and you were transported to the League’s base. Over the next three years, these people, who you once believed to be heartless criminals with no morals, would become you new family.

As you reminisced about the start of your adventure, you could start to see sunlight coming from the slightly ajar window. You sat up from your bed and placed your feet on the cold floor. Today was meant to be a quiet day. The League didn’t have any mischievous plans and the heroes hadn’t bothered them for a while. On days like these everyone does their own thing, and everyone gets to bond. Jin, Toga, and Dabi usually hang out and play board games, much to Dabi’s dismay; Spinner and Compress watch and critique movies; and Shigaraki and Kurogiri play video games. In reality, Shigaraki was the only one playing videogames. Kurogiri just kept him company while he watched. You switched between the three groups depending on the day, you loved how, although you all had your different interests, you could bond over silly things like games and movies.

You walked over to the couch in the center of the room and sat down next to Shigaraki. Kurogiri took this action as his cue to leave. At this point, it was impossible to deny the feelings you had developed for your fellow League member. After everything you had gone through together, you were sure of your feelings but never had enough courage to confess. Thankfully, although they don’t like to admit it, most of the League is completely oblivious to details, and after all this time, only two people caught onto your feelings. Kurogiri, who never mentioned anything until you asked him why he always left you and Shigaraki alone, and Dabi, who you confided in after a long night of talking.

You made sure to leave enough space between you and Shigaraki to fit a small cat. Once Kurogiri knew about your feelings, he explained that the reason Shigaraki keeps most people away is because he could never forgive himself if he accidentally activated his quirk around one of the League’s members. You waited patiently in silence for Shigaraki to finish his opponent in smash. It was a known rule that one should wait for Shigaraki to finish whatever match he’s playing, for if you didn’t, he would lose and that came with even worse repercussions.

“Three years, huh?” Shigaraki said with a soft smile, not taking his eyes off the game.

“You remembered?”

“Of course, how could I ever forget the moment I met my favorite member?” 

You could feel your heart pulsating behind your eyes, his favorite member? That couldn’t be right. He finished his opponent off with rapid, constant pressing of the buttons and turned to face you, his eyes were squinting a bit while he gave you a closed-lip smile. 

“What do you wanna play, y/n?”

Although he claimed he was a hardcore gamer, you knew he was secretly obsessed with Animal Crossing. 

“I could show you my Animal Crossing town, I bet my town is prettier than yours,” you knew that by challenging him would certainly make him want to play 

“That’s a lost bet y/n, I am a master at Animal Crossing.”

“You can’t be a master, you’ve only been playing for the past few months.” 

“Just wait and see.”

He pulls out his cartridge and you pull your console out, loading the game you’ve been working on perfecting since before you even joined the League. You had the Beautiful Town Ordinance and had built most Public Work Projects, there was no way he could beat you at this. That was until you actually saw his town. Shigaraki had the most intricate town you had ever seen. It was Japanese themed, and he managed to remodel the Town Hall and the train station. He had laid down paths and completed all the stores in Main Street. His museum was full, he had all the fruits, native and non-native, and even his villagers were perfect.

“H-how did you manage to make all your villagers cats?” you choked out, flabbergasted at how wrong you were. 

“I traded my old villagers online, noob.”

It was an understatement to say that you were jealous and embarrassed. The town you had been working so hard on all this time was not even comparable to the one Shigaraki operated. You had been trying to get rid of annoying villagers like Vladimir and Webber for years, and he got all your favorites in mere months! He even had Chief, who had always been your favorite.

“You win Shigaraki,” you muttered with your head down, looking defeated; although not for long, for you challenged Shigaraki to play the island games with you. Your refined expertise thanks to years’ worth of practice would certainly give you an advantage. 

If it weren’t for the real-time mechanisms of the game, you two would’ve never noticed it was already dark out.

“Don’t you love how the game changes with time?” you asked with a shy smile, getting to spend all day playing games with Shigaraki was not an everyday occurrence. 

“Not really, it makes it harder to see and I have to turn the brightness up,” disagreed Shigaraki. 

“But look,” you pointed at the screen, today seemed to be a really special day, “we got a meteor shower.”

Before you could say anything else, you could feel four fingers pulling at your wrist. 

“I’ll show you something cooler, close your eyes.” 

You let out a quiet okay while you stumbled to your feet and let yourself be dragged. You walked carefully up some stairs and then heard a heavy lock open, followed by the creak of a bulky metal door. Shigaraki guided you forward by your waist until you touched a cold, metal handrail. He gently pushed your forehead down, making you look up.

“Open your eyes.” 

As you did, you could see the sky littered with glowing white dots, accompanied by a full moon on the side. After taking in such a sight, you turned to Shigaraki who hadn’t let go of your waist. Behind him, there was a massive cherry blossom tree. His skin was glowing under the moon and you wondered if this was the right moment. Shigaraki pointed at the sky. 

“You see that group of stars over there?” 

“Yeah, isn’t that Ophiuchus?” 

“Maybe,” said Shigaraki with a chuckle; “I like to call it angry Kurogiri.”

You burst out laughing. It does look like an angry version of Kurogiri with his hands on his hips, staring you down in disappointment. 

“If that’s angry Kurogiri then this one over here is Toga when she sees that one UA student.” 

“Fair, and that one over there is Kirby with his mouth open.”

As you continued to rename famous constellations, your gazed slowly shifted to Shiggy. His crimson eyes were shining with happiness. It was a rare sight to see him so lively outside of accomplishing a mission. He looks back at you and you couldn’t help but blush. A shy smile taking place. You look away, trying not to think about it. Where we having a moment? No, you couldn’t have, Shigaraki doesn’t do relationships._ But what if…_

The two of you continued gazing at the stars and next thing you knew your shoulders were touching. You look back at him and he takes your hands, making sure to keep his pinkies up. 

“Shiggy? What are you doing?” 

“Something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

With that, he softly lets go of one of your hands and carefully places it on your chin, bringing it up so that your lips meet his. You felt like a firework show was going on inside you. As you separated, you slowly opened your closed eyes and saw that the cold night wind blew the pink sakura flowers in a way that they flew around you. It felt like a stereotypical shoujo manga scene, but you couldn’t care less. You softly caressed his face, surprised at his actions. 

“Tomura.”

When you said his name, you could see the glint in his scarlet eyes deepen, prompting you to kiss him back. This time, it lasted longer, and you could feel his rough lips against your soft ones. He let go of your other hand and placed it on your waist, pulling you closer until you were completely pressed against him. You could feel his rapid heartbeat, and he could feel yours. The rush of adrenaline and happiness you were feeling made you wish the moment would never end, but you separated, pulling for air. As you looked into his crimson eyes, with your body completely pressed against his, he opened his mouth to speak. 

“Will you be my player two?”

[upsidedowninmyworld]

All of them? :$

I can’t sleep. Why not

1: How tall or short do you wish you were? The height I am now

2: What’s your dream pet? (Real or not) Hmm...Gizmo

3: Do you have a favorite clothing style? Anything comfortable really

4: What was your favorite video game growing up? Sonic

5: What three things/people do you think of most each day: My partner, my future, and what it all holds

6: If you had a warning label, what would yours say? Very quiet, slow to anger but proceed with caution

7: What is your opinion on [insert person/thing here]? 🤷🏻‍♀️

8: What is your Greek personality type? [Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric, or Melancholic] uhh when I took this test in high school, I was melancholic

9: Are you ticklish? Yes

10: Are you allergic to anything? Loads

11: What’s your sexuality? Bisexual

12: Do you prefer tea, coffee, or cocoa? Cocoa

13: Are you a cat or dog person? Cat

14: Would you rather be a vampire, elf, or merperson? Hmm vampire

15: Do you have a favorite Youtuber? I did

16: How tall are you? 5’2”

17: If you had to change your name, what would you change it to? I like mine

18: How much do you weigh? [Only ask this if you know the user doesn’t mind!] too much for me to be comfortable

19: Do you believe in ghosts/spirits? Yes

20: Do you like space or the ocean more? Uhh I like both equally

21: Are you religious? Kind of

22: Pet peeves? When people touch my stuff without asking. Bad breath

23: Would you rather be nocturnal or diurnal [opposite of nocturnal]? Nocturnal

24: Favorite constellation? Not sure

25: Favorite star? Not sure

26: Do you like ball-jointed dolls? No?

27: Any phobias or fears? Not saying

28: Do you think global warming is real? Yes

29: Do you believe in reincarnation? Not really

30: Favorite movie? Forrest Gump

31: Do you get scared easily? No lol

32: How many pets have you own in your lifetime? 5?

33: Blog rate? [You’ll rate the blog of the one who’s asking.] what?

34: What is a color that calms you? Blue

35: Where would you like to travel and/or live? Australia, London

36: Where were you born? LA

37: What is your eye color? Brown

38: Introvert or extrovert? Intro

39: Do you believe in horoscopes and zodiacs? No lol

40: Hugs or kisses? Kisses

41: Who is someone you would like to see/visit right now? Cody

42: Who is someone you love deeply? Cody

43: Any piercings you want? Second ear piercings

44: Do you like tattoos and piercings? Yes

45: Do you smoke or have you eiver done so? Before

46: Talk about your crush, if you have one! He’s pretty great. Been with them for almost 4 years :)

47: What is a sound you really hate? A certain person’s voice

48: A sound you really love? The ocean

49: Can you do a backflip? Not anymore

50: Can you do the splits? If I stretch, yes

51: Favorite actor and/or actress? Natalie Dorner and Ed skrein atm

52: Favorite movie? I already answers this

53: How are you feeling right now? Tired

54: What color would you like your hair to be right now? Half white half Black

55: When did you feel happiest? I think it’s been a while

56: Something that calms you down? Writing or drawing

57: Have any mental disorders? [Only ask this if you know the user doesn’t mind!] nothing diagnosed

58: What does your URL mean? My world is odd

59: What three words describe you the most? Quiet, contemplative weird

60: Do you believe in evolution? Yes

61: What makes you unfollow a blog? Posting things I don’t like

62: What makes you follow a blog? Posting things I like

63: Favorite kind of person: a genuinely nice person that is honest

64: Favorite animal(s): pandas, otters

65: Name three of your favorite blogs. 🤷🏻‍♀️

66: Favorite emoticon: 😻

67: Favorite meme: I have too many

68: What is your MBTI personality type? I can’t remember

69: What is your star sign? Uhhh Pisces...?

70: Can your dog roll over on command, if you have a dog? Yes

71: What outfit out of all your clothes do you like to wear the most? A black shirt and jeans with converse

72: Post a selfie or two? No thank you

73: Do you have platform shoes? I do!

74: What is one random but interesting fact about yourself? I can bend my thumb all the way to my arm

75: Can you do a front flip? Not anymore

76: Do you like birds? Sure

77: Do you like to swim? Love it

78: Is swimming or ice skating more fun to you? Swimming for sure

79: Something you wish didn’t exist: not saying

80: Some thing you wish did exist: someone that is no longer here

81: Piercings you have? Just my ears for now

82: Something you really enjoy doing: reading

83: Favorite person to talk to: Cody

84: What was your first impression of Tumblr? I like this site

85: How many followers do you have? Uhh I haven’t looked in a while

86: Can you run a mile within ten minutes? I use. To lol

87: Do your socks always match? Yes

88: Can you touch your toes and keep your legs straight completely? Yes

89: What are your birthstones? Aquamarine

90: If you were an animal, which one would you be? Panda or a cat

91: If a flower could aesthetically represent you, what kind would it be? A rose

92: A store you hate? Hmmm not sure

93: How many cups of coffee can you drink in one day? I don’t

94: Would you rather be able to fly or read minds? Read minds

95: Do you like to wear camo? On occasion

96: Winter or summer? Winter

97: How long can you hold your breath for? About 30-45 seconds

98: Least favorite person? HAHA

99: Someone you look up to: my dad

100: A store you love? Any bookstore lol

101: Favorite type of shoes. Converse

102: Where do you live? In LA

103: Are you a vegetarian or vegan? If so, why? Nope

104: What is your favorite mineral or gem? I don’t have one?

105: Do you drink milk? Yes

106: Do you like bugs? No

107: Do you like spiders? Yes

108: Something you get paranoid about? The future

109: Can you draw: kind of

110: Nosiest question you have ever been asked? How sex was with a person I slept with or how I could stand sleeping next to ex because he snores really loudly. Like freight train loud

111: A question you hate being asked? Who’s the smarter or prettier twin. I usually get that I’m smarter

112: Ever been bitten by a spider? Yes

113: Do you like the sound of waves at the beach? I do

114: Do you prefer cloudy or sunny days? Cloudy

115: Someone you’d like to kiss or cuddle right now: codes

116: Favorite cloud type: what

117: What color do you wish the sky was? Purple

118: Do you have freckles? No

119: Favorite thing about a person: clean hands

120: Fruits or vegetables? Fruits

121: Something you want to do right now: see someone

122: Is the ocean or sky prettier? Ocean

123: Sweet or sour foods? Sour

124: Bright or dim lights? Bright

125: Do you believe in a certain magical creature? Sure

126: Something you hate about Tumblr: 🤷🏻‍♀️

127: Something you love about Tumblr: 🤷🏻‍♀️

128: What do you think about the least? Work

129: What would you want written on your tombstone? 🤷🏻‍♀️

130: Who would you like to punch in the face right now? HA

131: What is something you love but also hate about yourself? My mind

132: Do you smile with your teeth showing for pictures? Yes

133: Computer or TV? Computer

134: Do you like roller coasters? Yes

135: Do you get motion sickness or seasickness? It depends

136: Are your ears lobed or attached? Attached

137: Do you believe in karma? Sure

138: On a scale of 1-10, how attractive would you say you are? Like an 8 on a good day

139: What nicknames do you have/have had? Quite a few

140: Did you have any pretend or imaginary friends? Yes

141: Have you ever seen a therapist/shrink? Yes

142: Would you say you are a good or bad influence to others? Good

143: Do you prefer giving or receiving gifts/help? Both

144: What makes you angry. A lot

145: How many languages do you speak fluently? One

146: Do you prefer boys, girls, and/or non-binaries? I’m bi soooo

147: Are you androgynous? No

148: Favorite physical thing about yourself: my butt lol

149: Favorite thing about your personality: my ability to see the good in everyone even when they’re shitty. Also my least favorite thing about myself

150: Name three people you would like to talk to right now in person. Well my dad, Cody, my grandma

151: If you could go back into time and live in one era, which would you choose? The one rn because I am a minority

152: Do you like BuzzFeed? Sure

153: How did you meet your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/partner? [If you have one.] uhh dating app. Technically a football game.

154: Do you like to kiss others’ foreheads or hands for platonic reasons? No

155: Do you like to play with others’ hair? Just codys

156: What embarrasses you? Not a lot

157: Something that makes you nervous/anxious: the future because I can’t really talk about it with anyone without stressing people out. But it helps me feel less anxious so I’m kind of stuck

158: Biggest lie you have ever told: oof

159: How many people are you following? 🤷🏻‍♀️

160: How many posts do you have on your blog(s)? 🤷🏻‍♀️

161: How many drafts do you have on your blog(s)?🤷🏻‍♀️

162: How many likes do you have on your blog(s)?🤷🏻‍♀️

163: Last time you cried and why: ooh like a few days ago

164: Do you have long or short hair? Short

165: Longest your hair has ever been: to my butt

166: Why do you like, dislike, or have neutral feelings about religon? I don’t want to answer this

167: Do you really care how the universe and world was created? Yes

168: Do you like to wear makeup? Yes

169: Can you stand on your hands or head for more than thirty seconds? No

170: Did you answer the questions you were asked truthfully? Yes

[thedeviltohisangel]

He’s A God, He’s A Man: 13

Pour another glass.

masterlist is my url/writing

i am soliciting requests/ideas for the two year gap that is coming up so send them on in!

Lydia didn’t feel like celebrating at The Garrison. She was there all the time. Was there with Tommy all the time. The cause of his coin flip going in a positive direction was one that deserved a special celebration. She took him to her flat, Tommy surprised how homey it felt even though she rarely spent time there.

“Shall I get us a glass of something we can feel?” she asked as Tommy helped her out of her coat. 

“I’d rather get drunk off of your kisses,” he mumbled against her lips as she giggled. 

“I wanted to make a toast,” she said breathlessly as Tommy began to trail kisses down her neck, moving her sweater off her arms as he went.

“You can make your toast...naked...in bed...in a few hours.” Each of his statements were punctuated by a nip to her skin. She knew fighting against Tommy was a fruitless task. So she gave in. As she always did when he was using those lips of his. At least he had the courtesy to carry her to bed.

----

“To you and me, to us, and our future together and the adventure of New York City,” Lydia said as Tommy finally allowed her her moment. They clinked glasses and took their sips before snuggling back down under the sheets. “I would have forced you to come regardless of that coin toss.” She traced her fingertip over the slope of his nose.

“I wish keeping you happy was my only responsibility,” he replied sincerely. He took the happiness of his entire family seriously. 

“I know. Which is why it means even more to me that you are coming to New York. I think it will be good for us to get out of Birmingham. Have some time away from all of it and just be the two of us.” She was giddy over just the thought of it. She couldn’t wait to show Tommy all her favorite places to eat and shop. Introduce him to her friends and family. Point out the dirty, nasty secretary that always had something mean to say to her. She had a whole life over there she had been ignoring. Not thinking about. A whole like Tommy knew nothing about. All of that was going to change and it was going to aid in the growth of their relationship immensely.

“I have something I need you to get to Ada.” Tommy rolled over and pulled a cigarette from his jacket pocket.

“And why can’t you bring it to her? Or have one of your peaky men do it.”

“She is hiding from me after the debacle with Stanley Chapman. I heard she goes to the bathhouse on Montague Street on women-only days. Hence my asking of you.” Lydia sighed. She knows she should have never involved herself in the affairs of their brother-sister relationship. She regrets it. Family was a complicated and tricky thing to navigate. And now she was involved with no way out.

“And what is it you’re asking me to deliver?” she inquired as she pulled Tommy’s face to focus on her instead of his cigarette.

“An invitation to a family event. Tell her it’s a truce.”

“I know you don’t like it when I ask questions,” Lydia started.

“Lydia…” he warned.

“Fine, fine. I will remain silent and deliver your item to the bathhouse.” She sighed and rolled her eyes at him regardless. “What is my compensation for doing so?” She raised her eyebrows in a knowing way, wiggled her hips slightly under the sheets. Tommy knew exactly the game she was playing at. He put out his cigarette on the ashtray she had bought just for him, moving his body so just his head was peeking out from quilt.

“Hopefully I can put on a performance worthy of your services.” He disappeared completely under before she had the chance to respond. Tommy loved her intellect and the way she pushed back at him. She wasn’t afraid to. And, he would never admit it, on more than one occasion she had made good enough points to make him question his own decision making. But for now, he was intent to shut her up with gasps and moans.

----

Lydia held her robe and the envelope from Tommy tightly against her as she wandered through the bathhouse looking for Ada. It shouldn’t be that difficult to find a pregnant woman near-term but apparently the women only days were more popular than she thought. She preferred the privacy of bathing at her own home or stealing a kiss or two in the bath with Tommy. But she understood Ada’s need to get out of her house and disappear into a crowd, maybe have a conversation or two with the local women.

“Can I help you? You look lost.” Lydia paused. The woman was assessing her with a quizzical eye. Of course it must look odd to be wandering around a bathhouse. There was only one place to go that made any sense.

“I might be, actually. I am looking for a friend whom I was supposed to meet here. She’s pregnant. About to pop if you know what I mean.” The stranger’s frown only deepened.

“What is an American doing here?” Lydia supposes that was also a valid question.

“If you could just help me find my friend-”

“Lydia?”

“Ada? Oh thank God!” Lydia pulled the Shelby into a tight hug with such relief. Perhaps now the other patrons would stop looking at her so funny.

“What on earth are you doing here?”

“You’ll be mad if I tell you. Perhaps we should sit and have a chat.” Reluctantly, Ada followed her to one of the benches outside the changing area. “How are you? How are things going with the baby?”

“I’m fine. They’re fine. Now did my brother send you?” Ada had a feeling that since Lydia was clutching and envelope and mentioned her impending distaste that it had Tommy’s name written all over it.

“He wanted to offer a truce, invite you to a family event. I don’t know the details.” Lydia had taken to following Tommy’s wishes and not asking too many questions. It went against every fiber of her being but she wanted to be a place of solace for him at the end of the day. A place where he could feel safe and accepted and like a normal man if even just for a little bit. If that meant a bit of placating, then so be it.

“Will you come with me if I go?”

“Of course! You’re prettier than your brother anyways, I’d love to be on your arm.” That got a giggle out of Ada and Lydia felt like she had completed both Tommy’s mission and her own. “Now, that water does look so warm and inviting. Shall we share a bit of gossip in the bath?”

“Yes, like real ladies.” The twinkling sounds of their laughter echoed like music throughout the hall.

----

The last trick Lydia expected Tommy to have up his sleeve was a wedding. Particularly one with the Lee’s and with John after he had already professed his intention of marrying Lizzie Stark. But, she supposes, she should not be surprised in the least. Tommy didn’t exist in the same plane of reality as the rest of them. He existed somewhere where the past, the present and the future all mingled together. Allowing him to understand, process and act in a way that always seemed to be foolproof.

There was something about being at a wedding that made her mind spin at a dizzying speed. She held Tommy’s hands tightly as John and Esme exchanged their vows. Resisted the urge to look at him. Because then he would be able to see what it was she was thinking. That one day it would be them up there exchanging vows. Would Tommy use their own wedding as merely a backdrop to conduct business? She wishes her eyes could see into Tommy’s mind. Wishes she had more than just intuition to go off of. Wishes she knew how to accept who he was the way she told him he did.

“Your eyes look sad,” Tommy whispered as he stole a quick glance at Lydia. He was intensely focused on the ceremony taking place before him but had felt her gaze on him. IT was unnerving. It felt like she was looking at his soul. Seeing the truth behind who he is.

“Just wondering.”

“About?”

“Nothing worth sharing during such a sacred event.” She knows her tone was biting and unwarranted. That she had built up her anger internally and was releasing it with no warning. 

“We all make sacrifices. John knows that. He’s doing what is best for our family. For our safety and prosperity.” Tommy ripped the cigarette from his mouth and stomped it out under his foot with a bit more force. “You gonna go run off like Ada?” Lydia scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“How petulant. First, I am not allowed to ask questions. Now, I am not allowed to disagree with your actions. I understand you have rules, Thomas, but I will not be caged by your paranoia.” She wanted to huff and puff and storm away from him. But then that would be stooping to his level. Would be acting just as inconsiderate of the people around her as he normally was.

“I now pronounce you man and wife!” Johnny Dogs proclaimed from in front of them, the entire crown erupting into cheers. Lydia plastered on a fake smile and clapped her hands enthusiastically. Only because John, and now Esme, was family.

“Come. We won’t get to any resolution if we are in a crowd and feel we can’t speak,” Tommy said as he offered her his arm. Even his offer alone made her feel marginally better. It was much healthier for them to work through this little spat than to let it weigh on them for the rest of the night. Perhaps Tommy was listening to her and implementing some of her advice.

“I’ll start. My anger seemed random but it was because I was lost in my own thoughts. About our potential life moments being means for you to conduct business. I don’t want that. I want those special milestones between us to be between us. To be sacred. It’s old school and perhaps naive but it is what I’ve always dreamed of. We need to be a safe haven for each other. Need to protect the little world we created, just us two,” she spoke as they reached a wagon that was far enough away from the party that they had some privacy.

“I can’t make that promise to you, Lydia. That I won’t see an opportunity and take it. That you won’t disagree with a decision. That you won’t be caught in the crosshairs of one of my mistakes. All I can promise is that I will do my best to keep you safe. Protect you. Love you. Give you the life you’ve always dreamed of and deserved,” he swallowed thickly before continuing, “you saved my life in France. Were, are, my angel. I’ll do my best to be that in return for you.” She had already given him so much more than he could ever give her. Did he have the capacity to work as hard at being a good partner as he needed to? Would he be able to do that and still maintain the prosperity of business? Did Tommy want to?

“I guess I can’t ask for anything more,” she whispered. Lydia wasn’t sure if the feeling that settled inside her was sadness that this was the life she was willingly signing up for. Sadness that Tommy was so clearly raging a war inside of him. Sadness that she didn’t know if her love would be enough to save him. 

Tommy ran his knuckles down her cheek and kissed her gently. Like she was porcelain. “I’ve never loved anyone like I’ve loved you.” His voice broke as the words washed over him. As he realized the consequences of letting his guard. Of knowing that he needed to for this to work. Knowing that he needed this to work.

“I know at the end of the day we’ll be okay. Always, Tommy.” She kissed him. And again. And again and again until she was pulling him into the wagon and he shut the curtains behind them. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for being so difficult,” she said as a tear trickled down her cheek, Tommy sliding his hands under her skirt. He shushed her gently.

“No, don’t apologize. I need someone like you to keep me on my toes. Keep me honest. Remind me what’s really important.” Tommy wiped away her tears as her fingers made quick work of his belt and trousers. She needed to feel connected to him again. They had drifted apart during their brief spat and she felt alone and stranded without him warmly by her side. Tommy leaned back against the side of the wagon as Lydia gathered her skirts around her waist and straddled him. He had one hand on her back and the other cupping the back of her head, wanting to encase her and protect her. Keep her close. 

“I love you, Thomas, no matter what I-” her words got caught in her throat as he hit a particularly sweet spot inside of her.

“I know, I know,” he panted in response. He felt the strength and veracity of her love for him entirely in this moment. It was overwhelming. After a few more moments she stilled and shook with pleasure on top of him, his own release shortly thereafter. Lydia lazily kissed him. The slow pace welcome after the frantic nature of her movements only a short while ago.

“I have demons in my head too,” she whispered, “we’ll have to be patient with each other.” Tommy nodded. He hadn’t brought up the empty whisky bottles that accumulated when she was alone with Arthur at The Garrison. Hadn’t thought it was his place. “I want to feel stable with you, Tommy.” Lydia had been on unsettled ground for so long. She wanted this love to be her solace. 

“Once we get to New York, we can wipe the slate clean. Grow with each other from the ground up. Away from all of it.” There would be no prying eyes in New York. No racetracks and moldy cigarettes and coppers threatening to ring their necks. They’d be free.

“That will be heaven, Tommy. We’ll bring it down to earth just for us.” He stroked her hair away from her face.

“Yes. A heaven just for us.” 

@flecksphoenix​ @girl-w-a-quill​ @odetostep​ @itsilvermorny​ @shadow-of-wonder​ @lemmyjelly​ @blues022​

[thisbibliomaniac]

Been a while since I’ve done this so all the asks please and thank

You’re lucky I love you 🙄 1: How tall or short do you wish you were? I’m perfectly average, and I’m good with that

2: What’s your dream pet? (Real or not) A tiger 🐅

3: Do you have a favorite clothing style? Classic 50’s / 60’s

4: What was your favorite video game growing up? Mario kart

5: What three things/people do you think of most each day: My religion, my work, and whatever fiction (book, show, etc) I’m into at the time

6: If you had a warning label, what would yours say? WARNING: DON’T ASK ABOUT HER CATS

7: What is your opinion on [insert person/thing here]? Need a person/thing dude

8: What is your Greek personality type? [Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric, or Melancholic] Uhhhhhh idk it’s in my bio

9: Are you ticklish? No

10: Are you allergic to anything? Maybe??¿?

11: What’s your sexuality? Straight

12: Do you prefer tea, coffee, or cocoa? TEA

13: Are you a cat or dog person? Cats

14: Would you rather be a vampire, elf, or merperson? Elf

15: Do you have a favorite Youtuber? Crowder

16: How tall are you? 5'5"

17: If you had to change your name, what would you change it to? Anything, I hate my name. I’d ever prefer if it were the French spelling

18: How much do you weigh? [Only ask this if you know the user doesn’t mind!] No idea tbh

19: Do you believe in ghosts/spirits? In the biblical sense 😂

20: Do you like space or the ocean more? Space

21: Are you religious? Very much so

22: Pet peeves? Audible chewing / breathing / snoring

23: Would you rather be nocturnal or diurnal [opposite of nocturnal]? Diurnal

24: Favorite constellation? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

25: Favorite star? How?

26: Do you like ball-jointed dolls? I guess

27: Any phobias or fears? Oh yes

28: Do you think global warming is real? Nope

29: Do you believe in reincarnation? No

30: Favorite movie? Sabrina 1995

31: Do you get scared easily? No

32: How many pets have you own in your lifetime? Family pets? Many. Mine own? Snuggles, and technically part of Stitch

33: Blog rate? [You’ll rate the blog of the one who’s asking.] 23/30

34: What is a color that calms you? Pink

35: Where would you like to travel and/or live? Paris

36: Where were you born? Ohio

37: What is your eye color? Brown

38: Introvert or extrovert? Introvert

39: Do you believe in horoscopes and zodiacs? No

40: Hugs or kisses? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

41: Who is someone you would like to see/visit right now? You. Come visit me.

42: Who is someone you love deeply? Obi

43: Any piercings you want? I’d like my second ear piercings back :/

44: Do you like tattoos and piercings? Depends

45: Do you smoke or have you eiver done so? Noooooo

46: Talk about your crush, if you have one! Indians #22 😍

47: What is a sound you really hate? 21 pilots

48: A sound you really love? When Loki sits in the hall and yells

49: Can you do a backflip? Lol no

50: Can you do the splits? LOL no

51: Favorite actor and/or actress? Errol Flynn and Judy Garland

52: Favorite movie? Didn’t I just answer this?

53: How are you feeling right now? Good

54: What color would you like your hair to be right now? I like the color it is

55: When did you feel happiest? Reading

56: Something that calms you down? Crochet

57: Have any mental disorders? [Only ask this if you know the user doesn’t mind!] LOL probably

58: What does your URL mean? I like books

59: What three words describe you the most? Uh idk you tell me

60: Do you believe in evolution? Noooooooooooo

61: What makes you unfollow a blog? The sight of their url fills me with annoyance

62: What makes you follow a blog? A real person who posts like a real person

63: Favorite kind of person: Lots of people

64: Favorite animal(s): Cats

65: Name three of your favorite blogs. No, too many

66: Favorite emoticon: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

67: Favorite meme: Cow poetry

68: What is your MBTI personality type? Istj

69: What is your star sign? 🌟

70: Can your dog roll over on command, if you have a dog? No, it’s a constant source of amusement

71: What outfit out of all your clothes do you like to wear the most? None

72: Post a selfie or two? No

73: Do you have platform shoes? No

74: What is one random but interesting fact about yourself? I need another MRI!

75: Can you do a front flip? No

76: Do you like birds? No

77: Do you like to swim? Yes

78: Is swimming or ice skating more fun to you? I used to like both!

79: Something you wish didn’t exist: Taxes. Insurance.

80: Some thing you wish did exist: More space

81: Piercings you have? Ears

82: Something you really enjoy doing: Crochet

83: Favorite person to talk to: Stell

84: What was your first impression of Tumblr? Funny

85: How many followers do you have? I’ve been hovering around 1200 for months

86: Can you run a mile within ten minutes? Idk probably not

87: Do your socks always match? Never

88: Can you touch your toes and keep your legs straight completely? Uhhh idr? Maybe

89: What are your birthstones? I think Pearl?

90: If you were an animal, which one would you be? Cat

91: If a flower could aesthetically represent you, what kind would it be? Plumeria

92: A store you hate? Menards and I’ve never even been there

93: How many cups of coffee can you drink in one day? None!!!!

94: Would you rather be able to fly or read minds? For

95: Do you like to wear camo? No

96: Winter or summer? Winter

97: How long can you hold your breath for? No idea

98: Least favorite person? Rory

99: Someone you look up to: Elinor dashwood

100: A store you love? Earth fare

101: Favorite type of shoes D:

102: Where do you live? Ohio

103: Are you a vegetarian or vegan? If so, why? Nope! 104: What is your favorite mineral or gem? Turquoise? 105: Do you drink milk? Sometimes. A2 low temp 106: Do you like bugs? NO 107: Do you like spiders? NOO 108: Something you get paranoid about? SPIDERS 109: Can you draw: No :( 110: Nosiest question you have ever been asked? “Can you draw?” Oh also, “Why no ring?” By a patient I did not like. 111: A question you hate being asked? “How do you feel?” Hate it a lot. 112: Ever been bitten by a spider? Yes :/ 113: Do you like the sound of waves at the beach? Yes 114: Do you prefer cloudy or sunny days? Cloudy 115: Someone you’d like to kiss or cuddle right now: Obi, my puppy 116: Favorite cloud type: Uh. White? 117: What color do you wish the sky was? Pink 118: Do you have freckles? Some. Not as many as id like 119: Favorite thing about a person: Sense of humor 120: Fruits or vegetables? Both!!!! 121: Something you want to do right now: Get some work done, but SOMEONE needed every question answered 122: Is the ocean or sky prettier? Sky 123: Sweet or sour foods? Both 124: Bright or dim lights? Both 125: Do you believe in a certain magical creature? Dragons 126: Something you hate about Tumblr: The users 127: Something you love about Tumblr: The users 128: What do you think about the least? I think about most things a lot 129: What would you want written on your tombstone? That’s one to think about. Suggestions? 130: Who would you like to punch in the face right now? Me. No, whoever invented insurance. 131: What is something you love but also hate about yourself? Everything, but mostly hate 132: Do you smile with your teeth showing for pictures? Yes, because as bad as that is, the alternative is unthinkable 133: Computer or TV? Computer 134: Do you like roller coasters? No 135: Do you get motion sickness or seasickness? No 136: Are your ears lobed or attached? ?? 137: Do you believe in karma? No 138: On a scale of 1-10, how attractive would you say you are? -6 139: What nicknames do you have/have had? N/A 140: Did you have any pretend or imaginary friends? Yes 141: Have you ever seen a therapist/shrink? No 142: Would you say you are a good or bad influence to others? Good I hope 143: Do you prefer giving or receiving gifts/help? Giving 144: What makes you angry Politics, and people who insist on talking about them when you’re really not in the mood 145: How many languages do you speak fluently? None 146: Do you prefer boys, girls, and/or non-binaries? What 😂😂😂😂 147: Are you androgynous? Hahahahhaahhaha 148: Favorite physical thing about yourself: None 149: Favorite thing about your personality: Definitely none 150: Name three people you would like to talk to right now in person. There’s so many questions here 151: If you could go back into time and live in one era, which would you choose? 1890 152: Do you like BuzzFeed? No 153: How did you meet your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/partner? [If you have one.] I didn’t 154: Do you like to kiss others’ foreheads or hands for platonic reasons? No idea 155: Do you like to play with others’ hair? No 156: What embarrasses you? Second hand embarrassment 157: Something that makes you nervous/anxious: Being late 158: Biggest lie you have ever told: Idk 159: How many people are you following? A lot 160: How many posts do you have on your blog(s)? Lots 161: How many drafts do you have on your blog(s)? So many 162: How many likes do you have on your blog(s)? Uhhh 163: Last time you cried and why: No 164: Do you have long or short hair? In between 165: Longest your hair has ever been: Very long 166: Why do you like, dislike, or have neutral feelings about religon? Depends on the religion 167: Do you really care how the universe and world was created? Extremely 168: Do you like to wear makeup? Yes 169: Can you stand on your hands or head for more than thirty seconds? No 170: Did you answer the questions you were asked truthfully? Yes Happy?

[liberatingflame]

1-169, asshole

lol i love you

1: How tall or short do you wish you were?

like 6′ would be perfect

2: What’s your dream pet? (Real or not)

uh. dragon? dragon.

3: Do you have a favorite clothing style?

anything that you look at and you can’t decide if it’s jock or goth

4: What was your favorite video game growing up?

spyro was the only series i was allowed to play and i lived for it

5: What three things/people do you think of most each day:

whatever i’m hyperfixated on that month, sleep, and ciaran

6: If you had a warning label, what would yours say?

warning: nearly pure taurus energy, scorpio ascending

7: What is your opinion on alpacas?

they’re fluffy and better than llamas

8: What is your Greek personality type? [Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric, or Melancholic]

melancholic is what i just got, but it switches between that and sanguine all the time

9: Are you ticklish?

yes. 

10: Are you allergic to anything?

am i not allergic to anything?

11: What’s your sexuality?

pan

12: Do you prefer tea, coffee, or cocoa?

cocoa or tea, just never coffee

13: Are you a cat or dog person?

cat

14: Would you rather be a vampire, elf, or merperson?

merperson hands fucking down

15: Do you have a favorite Youtuber?

bazza or muselk probably

16: How tall are you?

5′6ish

17: If you had to change your name, what would you change it to?

uh. well. you see. it’s jay.

18: How much do you weigh? [Only ask this if you know the user doesn’t mind!]

lmao no

19: Do you believe in ghosts/spirits?

yes, i do

20: Do you like space or the ocean more?

i’m a “look at those stars” kind of person, but my room growing up was painted like it was underwater, so. both.

21: Are you religious?

lmao

22: Pet peeves?

harley licking my things

23: Would you rather be nocturnal or diurnal [opposite of nocturnal]?

i’d rather be diurnal because, uh, functioning human. i am nocturnal though.

24: Favorite constellation?

dickbutt

25: Favorite star?

me

26: Do you like ball-jointed dolls?

i don’t like dolls, but those are the cutest

27: Any phobias or fears?

sure

28: Do you think global warming is real?

look outside right now and tell me it’s not

29: Do you believe in reincarnation?

yeah, there have been enough instances of actual cases that it’s pretty hard for me to personally deny, so

30: Favorite movie?

it cycles, i still love heathers tho

31: Do you get scared easily?

kind of? not really? 

32: How many pets have you own in your lifetime?

not counting fish and including harley, 7

33: Blog rate? [You’ll rate the blog of the one who’s asking.]

valid to eat fingers

34: What is a color that calms you?

blue and certain shades of red

35: Where would you like to travel and/or live?

i’m really liking washington?? i’d like to travel anywhere

36: Where were you born?

sanford, florida. hrugh.

37: What is your eye color?

blue-green

38: Introvert or extrovert?

extroverted introvert? 

39: Do you believe in horoscopes and zodiacs?

it gets spooky sometimes, but like. not on a basic level for sure.

40: Hugs or kisses?

depends

41: Who is someone you would like to see/visit right now?

ngl, my sisters

42: Who is someone you love deeply?

everyone i love? uh

43: Any piercings you want?

re-pierce my cartilage and get a few more lobe piercings and just like stab me and put something in it and i’ll love it

44: Do you like tattoos and piercings?

yes.

45: Do you smoke or have you ever done so?

i’ve smoked weed, but like. eh. cigarettes are gross, they smell and feel and taste awful.

46: Talk about your crush, if you have one!

i don’t have a crush on anyone lol

47: What is a sound you really hate?

ticking

48: A sound you really love?

trains really late at night. 

49: Can you do a backflip?

no

50: Can you do the splits?

the splits? no

51: Favorite actor and/or actress?

winona ryder

52: Favorite movie?

uh h hh h  i already answered this

53: How are you feeling right now?

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

54: What color would you like your hair to be right now?

i just dyed it but i really want it to be red again. it was like a sunset red for a while during the fading process and i’d kill for that all the time.

55: When did you feel happiest?

when a cat touched me with her tiny feet

56: Something that calms you down?

cats and their tiny feet

57: Have any mental disorders? [Only ask this if you know the user doesn’t mind!]

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

58: What does your URL mean?

it’s based on something i said when i was not myself. i said i’d died before and i’d do it again. so i’m functionally immortal.

59: What three words describe you the most?

really fucking tired

60: Do you believe in evolution?

it’s. science.

61: What makes you unfollow a blog?

a lot. i’m not above doing things for petty reasons.

62: What makes you follow a blog?

being interested in what they post??

63: Favorite kind of person:

me

64: Favorite animal(s):

cats, snakes, birds

65: Name three of your favorite blogs.

@heathersadapt​, @heatherspoisson​, @dirtyheathersconfessions​

66: Favorite emoticon:

:}€

67: Favorite meme:

horse memes. like. valid to eat fingers.

68: What is your MBTI personality type?

infp

69: What is your star sign:

taurus

70: Can your dog roll over on command, if you have a dog?

lmao no

71: What outfit out of all your clothes do you like to wear the most?

my work clothes or my pajamas

72: Post a selfie or two?

no

73: Do you have platform shoes?

GOD I WISH

74: What is one random but interesting fact about yourself?

i’m the bird friend

75: Can you do a front flip?

no

76: Do you like birds?

i love birds

77: Do you like to swim?

of course i do

78: Is swimming or ice skating more fun to you?

swimming

79: Something you wish didn’t exist:

do you want to see my blacklist or something

80: Some thing you wish did exist:

fire magic. i wish fire magic were real.

81: Piercings you have?

just ears at the moment, cartilage closed up lmao

82: Something you really enjoy doing:

sleeping, eating ice cream, listening to music. pick from my faves.

83: Favorite person to talk to:

ciaran??

84: What was your first impression of Tumblr?

god it sucks here

85: How many followers do you have?

222 and only 111 of them are spam

86: Can you run a mile within ten minutes?

in middle school, which was the last time i tried, i ran a mile in 6 minutes and 46 seconds

87: Do your socks always match?

fuck no that’s hard

88: Can you touch your toes and keep your legs straight completely?

yes

89: What are your birthstones?

diamond? stones?

90: If you were an animal, which one would you be?

a cockatoo probably

91: If a flower could aesthetically represent you, what kind would it be?

i don’t fucking know

92: A store you hate?

walmart and the ones that smell bad in the mall

93: How many cups of coffee can you drink in one day?

many, but i hate coffee so i drink none

94: Would you rather be able to fly or read minds?

fly, i don’t want to know what’s going through anyone else’s mind

95: Do you like to wear camo?

no. i did in elementary school.

96: Winter or summer?

winter

97: How long can you hold your breath for?

long enough to cross the bridge in spirited away

98: Least favorite person?

it’s all family all the way

99: Someone you look up to:

myself

100: A store you love?

target, lush

101: Favorite type of shoes

boots!! boots!!!! i also like sneakers

102: Where do you live?

outside of seattle

103: Are you a vegetarian or vegan? If so, why?

no i like meat

104: What is your favorite mineral or gem?

uhhhh opals are the most diverse and coolest?

105: Do you drink milk?

ye

106: Do you like bugs?

ye

107: Do you like spiders?

ye

108: Something you get paranoid about?

hhhh

109: Can you draw:

yes, but is it good? absolutely not

110: Nosiest question you have ever been asked?

this one

111: A question you hate being asked?

this one

112: Ever been bitten by a spider?

i lived in florida. yes. 

113: Do you like the sound of waves at the beach?

i love them

114: Do you prefer cloudy or sunny days?

cloudy, i moved to washington for a reason

115: Someone you’d like to kiss or cuddle right now:

i’m comfortable right now actually

116: Favorite cloud type:

the kind in the sky

117: What color do you wish the sky was?

i wish i caught the sunset today

118: Do you have freckles?

no :(

119: Favorite thing about a person:

varies person to person

120: Fruits or vegetables?

i’m allergic to most fruits i like, but i like them more than vegetables anyways, so.

121: Something you want to do right now:

sleep or play bbs

122: Is the ocean or sky prettier?

they’re both gorgeous, fuck off

123: Sweet or sour foods?

depends on the mood

124: Bright or dim lights?

dim, mostly

125: Do you believe in a certain magical creature?

me, i believe in me

126: Something you hate about Tumblr:

tumblr

127: Something you love about Tumblr:

friends

128: What do you think about the least?

i don’t think about it, i don’t know

129: What would you want written on your tombstone?

believe it

130: Who would you like to punch in the face right now?

i have a list

131: What is something you love but also hate about yourself?

me

132: Do you smile with your teeth showing for pictures?

not normally, no

133: Computer or TV?

computer

134: Do you like roller coasters?

yes

135: Do you get motion sickness or seasickness?

only sometimes

136: Are your ears lobed or attached

attached

137: Do you believe in karma?

no, bad people don’t always get what’s coming to them and it sucks

138: On a scale of 1-10, how attractive would you say you are?

like 5? 

139: What nicknames do you have/have had?

hate nicknames

140: Did you have any pretend or imaginary friends?

nah

141: Have you ever seen a therapist/shrink?

yeah, she sucked

142: Would you say you are a good or bad influence to others?

it depends on the person???? i’m both

143: Do you prefer giving or receiving gifts/help?

both are good!

144: What makes you angry

family

145: How many languages do you speak fluently?

none, i can’t speak

146: Do you prefer boys, girls, and/or non-binaries?

yes

147: Are you androgynous?

god i wish, my boobs are too big

148: Favorite physical thing about yourself:

my hair is so fucking fluffy

149: Favorite thing about your personality:

i don’t have one

150: Name three people you would like to talk to right now in person.

ciaran, i’m good.

151: If you could go back into time and live in one era, which would you choose?

BT: before trump

152: Do you like BuzzFeed?

no, but i’m on it all the time.

153: How did you meet your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/partner? [If you have one.]

i met my partner in being broke in high school

154: Do you like to kiss others’ foreheads or hands for platonic reasons?

no

155: Do you like to play with others’ hair?

ya

156: What embarrasses you?

i just told ciaran i wore camo in elementary school and that’s embarrassing

157: Something that makes you nervous/anxious:

anxiety

158: Biggest lie you have ever told:

idk i don’t keep track

159: How many people are you following?

451

160: How many posts do you have on your blog(s)?

14199

161: How many drafts do you have on your blog(s)?

23

162: How many likes do you have on your blog(s)?

4190

163: Last time you cried and why:

i dont remember

164: Do you have long or short hair?

mid length

165: Longest your hair has ever been:

to my butt

166: Why do you like, dislike, or have neutral feelings about religon?

i was raised roman catholic by overbearing adults with racist views so im not friends w religion anymore

167: Do you really care how the universe and world was created?

no

168: Do you like to wear makeup?

sometimes

169: Can you stand on your hands or head for more than thirty seconds? 

no

[stepdownonhell]

Questions, questions

1: How tall or short do you wish you were? A:I’m fine with my height:) 2: What’s your dream pet? (Real or not) A: A ferret  3: Do you have a favorite clothing style? A: Grunge/Indie. Or basic white bitch 4: What was your favorite video game growing up? A:Can’t remember  5: What three things/people do you think of most each day: My hawt bf, a certain amazing, gorgeous girl that’s my cute lil rabbit ♥, and my future. 6: If you had a warning label, what would yours say? A: “Warning asshole” 7: What is your opinion on Trump]? A: Kill it.  8: What is your Greek personality type? [Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric, or Melancholic] A: Sometimes Sanguine (Rarely tho lmao. working on it sh) But Phlegmatic mostly.  9: Are you ticklish? A: Uhhhh..no? 10: Are you allergic to anything? A: Cute rats. sad.

11: What’s your sexuality? A: Pansexual (save the pan jokes) 12: Do you prefer tea, coffee, or cocoa? A: Coffee  13: Are you a cat or dog person? A: Dog 14: Would you rather be a vampire, elf, or merperson? A: A very tall elf. 15: Do you have a favorite Youtuber? A: Zane Hijazi 16: How tall are you? A: 5′10 17: If you had to change your name, what would you change it to? A: Octavia 18: How much do you weigh? A: Too much. 19: Do you believe in ghosts/spirits? A: Yes 20: Do you like space or the ocean more? A: Space. 21: Are you religious? A: Religion? What’s that? 22: Pet peeves? A: Everything a human can do with their nails. flick flick  23: Would you rather be nocturnal or diurnal? A: Who doesn’t wanna be a vampire? 24: Favorite constellation? A: Aquarius  25: Favorite star?  A: Sirius 26: Do you like ball-jointed dolls? A: No 27: Any phobias or fears? A: Spiders 28: Do you think global warming is real? A: Maybe? 29: Do you believe in reincarnation? A: Depends 30: Favorite movie? A: Love, Simon 31: Do you get scared easily? A: Naaah 32: How many pets have you own in your lifetime? A: 15 33: Who do you hate most? A: Um, trump and a certain some one. 34: What is a color that calms you? A: Yellow 35: Where would you like to travel and/or live? A: I would like to travel to the UK(And live there but..) I would wanna live in Cali.  36: Where were you born? A: A very cold place. 37: What is your eye color? A: Dark brown 38: Introvert or extrovert? A: Introvert. Why do you think I’m on tumblr? 39: Do you believe in horoscopes and zodiacs? A: Yeah boy. 40: Hugs or kisses? A: Um neither, gross. 41: Who is someone you would like to see/visit right now? A: My love 42: Who is someone you love deeply? A: My sweet boi 43: Any piercings you want? A: My septum plz. I need her back in my life 44: Do you like tattoos and piercings? A: Yes 45: Do you smoke or have you ever done so? A: I don’t smoke, but I have ew. 46: Talk about your crush, if you have one! A: I gots a mans honey 47: What is a sound you really hate? A: NAIL FLICKING 48: A sound you really love? A: My mans voice ;) 49: Can you do a backflip? A: no but how rad would that be? 50: Can you do the splits? A: ^ 51: Favorite actor and/or actress? A: Idkkk 52: Favorite movie? A: You asked me this already 53: How are you feeling right now? A: Nostalgic  54: What color would you like your hair to be right now? A: Blue 55: When did you feel happiest? A: When I went to Florida. 56: Something that calms you down? A: Talking  57: Have any mental disorders? A: Um 58: What does your URL mean? A: That’s a secret ;) 59: What three words describe you the most? A: Nostalgic, Lonely, unproductive.  60: Do you believe in evolution? A: Yes 61: What makes you unfollow a blog? A: If they’re a douche 62: What makes you follow a blog? A: If they’re rad 63: Favorite kind of person: The nice kind. Only in stores. 64: Favorite animal(s): Rats :) N snakes 65: Name three of your favorite blogs. I follow noone;) 66: Favorite emoticon: Emojis r gross 67: Favorite meme: Whats a me me  68: What is your MBTI personality type? A: Whut 69: What is your star sign? A: Sagittarius  70: Can your dog roll over on command, if you have a dog? A: Yes 71: What outfit out of all your clothes do you like to wear the most? A: Red and white adorable, soft ass crop top, with my black skinnies. 72: Post a selfie or two? A: Neither  73: Do you have platform shoes? A: Wishing 74: What is one random but interesting fact about yourself? A: I wanted to be a ballet dancer or a scientist.   75: Can you do a front flip? A: No 76: Do you like birds? A: Yes 77: Do you like to swim? A: ofc 78: Is swimming or ice skating more fun to you? A: Swimming 79: Something you wish didn’t exist: Anti lgbt + trump 80: Some thing you wish did exist: Teleportation my dear 81: Piercings you have? A: First+second lobe, nose. 82: Something you really enjoy doing: Makeup 83: Favorite person to talk to: My boiii 84: What was your first impression of Tumblr? A: gey  85: How many followers do you have? A: 0 86: Can you run a mile within ten minutes? A: 10:01 87: Do your socks always match? A: Not a chance 88: Can you touch your toes and keep your legs straight completely? A: Nope 89: What are your birthstones? A: Tealllll? 90: If you were an animal, which one would you be? A: a birb 91: If a flower could aesthetically represent you, what kind would it be? A: A white rose 92: A store you hate? A:  Hyvee? 93: How many cups of coffee can you drink in one day? A: 6 lmao  94: Would you rather be able to fly or read minds? A: read minds 95: Do you like to wear camo? A: Depends 96: Winter or summer? A: Summer 97: How long can you hold your breath for? A: 57 seconds 98: Least favorite person? A: a certain person 99: Someone you look up to: My boiii 100: A store you love? A: Spencers 101: Favorite type of shoes A: Converse 102: Where do you live? A: not ur biz 103: Are you a vegetarian or vegan? If so, why? A: No 104: What is your favorite mineral or gem? A: Um idk 105: Do you drink milk? A: No i think it’s gross 106: Do you like bugs? A: no 107: Do you like spiders? A: do u even have to ask? n O 108: Something you get paranoid about? A: Everything 109: Can you draw: No lol 110: Nosiest question you have ever been asked? A: do yOU PLAY BASKETBALL??????????? 111: A question you hate being asked? A: ^ 112: Ever been bitten by a spider? A: probably 113: Do you like the sound of waves at the beach? A: yes 114: Do you prefer cloudy or sunny days? A: Cloudy  115: Someone you’d like to kiss or cuddle right now: the boi :( 116: Favorite cloud type:  Arcus cloud 117: What color do you wish the sky was?  A: Yellow 118: Do you have freckles? A: I wish 119: Favorite thing about a person: Smile or humor 120: Fruits or vegetables? A: Fruits 121: Something you want to do right now: dieieieeie 122: Is the ocean or sky prettier? A: Both are endless  123: Sweet or sour foods? A: Sour 124: Bright or dim lights? A: Dim 125: Do you believe in a certain magical creature? A: No 126: Something you hate about Tumblr: The “I think murders are cute” Side. 127: Something you love about Tumblr: Pretty photos  128: What do you think about the least? A: Responsibilities ;))  129: What would you want written on your tombstone? A: “Dance on me”  130: Who would you like to punch in the face right now? A: A lot of people 131: What is something you love but also hate about yourself? A: My face 132: Do you smile with your teeth showing for pictures? A: Maybe 133: Computer or TV? A: Comp. 134: Do you like roller coasters? A: YEEES

135: Do you get motion sickness or seasickness? A: Motion sickness sometimes :((

136: Are your ears lobed or attached? A: Lobed 137: Do you believe in karma? A: A little 138: On a scale of 1-10, how attractive would you say you are? A: 3 139: What nicknames do you have/have had? A: Princess, hoe, rikku 140: Did you have any pretend or imaginary friends? A: When I was younger I thought Danny phantom was my bf.  141: Have you ever seen a therapist/shrink? A: Never 142: Would you say you are a good or bad influence to others? a: Bad.woops 143: Do you prefer giving or receiving gifts? A: Giving  144: What makes you angry? A: Homophobs  145: How many languages do you speak fluently? A: 2 Engrish n jibberish 146: Do you prefer boys, girls, and/or non-binaries? A: All of the beautiful people ♥ 147: Are you androgynous? A: Too much so 148: Favorite physical thing about yourself: My brows n hair 149: Favorite thing about your personality: Too tough to answer  150: Name three people you would like to talk to right now in person. A: My love, A rabbit n Hobo Johnson.  151: If you could go back into time and live in one era, which would you choose? A: Stone age my dudes 152: Do you like BuzzFeed? A: Ew no 153: How did you meet your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/partner? A: A game 

154: Do you like to kiss others’ foreheads or hands for platonic reasons? A: umno

155: Do you like to play with others’ hair? A: Yea 156: What embarrasses you? A: My mother 157: Something that makes you nervous/anxious: Too many peoples 158: Biggest lie you have ever told: Lets not bring that up 159: How many people are you following? A: Dunno 160: How many posts do you have on your blog(s)? A: Like 2 161: How many drafts do you have on your blog(s)? A: none 162: How many likes do you have on your blog(s)? a: nONE 163: Last time you cried and why: A few days ago for reasons  164: Do you have long or short hair? A: Shoulder length 165: Longest your hair has ever been: To the bum 166: Why do you like, dislike, or have neutral feelings about religon? A: Because religion scares people into thinking if they do something bad, they’ll go to an imaginary place called hell. If your God loved you so much he would never do such a thing ;/// + Many other reasons 167: Do you really care how the universe and world was created? A: I really do 168: Do you like to wear makeup? A: too much 169: Can you stand on your hands or head for more than thirty seconds? A: No 170: Did you answer the questions you were asked truthfully? A: Yuh

[cerealmonster15]

3, 6, and 8 for the artist ask!!!

3 answered here!

6. tag your favorite artists/inspirations!

hell yes i love an excuse to gush over friends and mutuals and people i admire that i’ve never spoken to outside of leaving tags in their posts, he l l o :

@gdipalomo first of all, loving wonderful friend and extremely talented individual!! her art fascinates me with how much detail goes into every piece, and especially the backgrounds- those are GOALS. i love how everything she makes has depth and looks like it’s had a great amount of time and care put into it all. shes also incredibly supportive towards me about my life and my art and i adore her c’:

im counting writing as art and my pal @kidzbopmallcop is excellent at writing The Fanfics and does a good job with staying close to characterization and making sure each aspect of the story is well thought out and considered when putting it together. VERY COOL and shes a GREAT BUD

@mercuryblacksleg is so talented and lovely and has the best design ideas for characters!!!! he draws the cutest tiny old man sarge and merle,,, his red team art is a+ and also hes a great friend and i love him

@fandomescapades keeps making me  CRY every damned time they post things, omfg. such a beautiful art style- i looove how they draw facial expressions and faces in general. their use of color is also just absolutely gorgeous and i want to stare at each art post for like 50 years….

@artsyorangeykay has really cool au ideas and draws them out beautifully!!!! they have a cool art style that reminds me of a cartoony kind of comic book, and they have lovely and well thought out looking character designs for their facecanons of rvb characters, and i love seeing the little comics they make  to fit aus or people’s prompts!! their passion for their aus and how excited they get when people are talkin about the mermaid au with them is so refreshing and it’s always nice seeing new art from them. 

@happyfunballxd has the CUTEST style of chibis. sometimes i remember their rvb baby au and i just. cry. the only thing cuter than chibis is baby chibis. then i remember their taz babies and i cry even more because THIER DRAWINGS OF BABY ANGO IS THE CUTEST THING YOU’LL EVER LAY EYES ON. i aspire to be that good at drawing cuties one day

@peteor is another bro who’s art style reminds me of cartoony comics and i love it! he draws great facial expressions, especially on babies. have you ever seen his grumpy baby drawings??? if not, youre missin out, bud. theyre seriously the best pudgey pouts and it’s absolutely beautiful

@cyborg-sabi has SUCH a cute art style with like, such soft wonderful features on everyone they draw. they have one of those art styles that feels safe and comforting to look at and makes me feel at home to see?? i cant really explain why, but i really like it

surprise another fic one but @mistevieous has such good writing and explores less popular characters and pairings in their works sometimes, and always inspires me to write more and work harder on what i’m doing when i read their stuff

and speaking of fics, @comefeedtherainn has the power to giveth and also taketh away, holy shit. they write characterization SO WELL it practically feels canon. there’s funny parts, sweet fluffy parts, and absolutely heart wrenching feelings-destruction angst. i still like to go back and reread certain doc/donut and church/donut stuff they’ve done, and every time i’m filled with so many good feelings. the angst hits right where it hurts, tho, so don’t let the fluffier ones fool you: they are powerful with writing fics and you have been Warned.

@amvial is such a wonderful delight of a human and always has such a gorgeous unique art style. i feel like every piece they draw is better than the last and i cri seeing their fun ideas put to picture. they also have a really unique way of working with color that works SO WELL and i want to learn the Secrets bc everything they make is absolutely mesmerizing and fills me with those Good Feelings

@washingtonsthrussy i still want to duel them for changing their url to that, bUT theyre still an excellent artist with a crisp beautiful art style. i love how they draw faces  [especially them noses?? i love the noses. so cute] and i always wanna ruffle the hair of whoever they draw bc it looks so soft and Good

 @epsilon-washington has SUCH  a cute and wonderful art style that is always getting better and that ever increasing skill still AMAZES me !! it’s unique and so pleasing to look at- they have a good strong use of color and draw faces and heads overall really well, like i’m always re looking back at their art bc i cant stop staring at how skilled they are at drawing people’s faces and make everyone look so GOOD!!! i wanna learn that kind of skill ;0

@docdufresne scares me with how fuckin incredible they are at painting that goddamed halo armor and making it look so flawless, and even prettier than it does in the show?? beautiful use of colors and lighting, makin things look shiny and lively. and i LOVE how they draw faces too?? everyone is so cute in the little cartoon-esque doodles, and then the more realistic looking paintings just blow my mind.

@captainkonot HBHGBHBGHBH every time i read their blog title i wanna jam out to rocky horror lmfao. but omg anyway the art!! THE COMICS!!!! THE COMICS MAKE ME SCREAM theyre so fucking funny and good and creative and FUN TO READ i die. especially their rvb art omfg, i love love absolutely everything, the characters are so dynamic and expressive and full of life and personality and love and i ADORE IT!!!!!! looking through their drawings always makes me wanna go draw something and work on my techniques more bc im just so amazed at what they can do and how happy they make other people / me feel with their art. i wanna get to that level where i’m also inspiring people and making people happy like how their stuff makes me feel!! it’s an amazing feeling and i feel like there’s really some thing special with that kind of art! every so often i remember their drawings of caboose trying to hug sarge and felix and i DIE theyre the best things ever. also they make really cool original art here and there that’s always interesting to see!! it’s all very good and fun. go to their blog. experience the magic. 

jfjjbjgjb a lot of people that inspire me are mutuals and/or friends lolol but there are also a ton i admire from afar

@papanorth also has like, phenomenal really interesting au snippets!! i’ve been super into that gym teacher wash au bc, as i’ve said, i LOVE au with kiddos bein kiddos. i love their art style, ranging from cute cartoony doodles to like, absolutely gorgeous paintings (do u call it painting if it’s digital? it looks like a painting.. imma call it a painting lol) with like, stunning use of colors and lighting that fills me with all kinds of emotions. im super inspired by their technical skill with how well they can draw people at an extensive range of emotions and have such like,,, Great Detail with facial features and anatomy and all that fun stuff. theyre very creative and filled with so many cool ideas, it’s awesome.

@toastyhat , ,, oh my god how could i almost forget toastyhat???? one of my absolute Favorite artsts like, EVER. p sure i followed them back in the homestuck days and was SO EXCITED when i’d gotten into rvb ~2 years ago to see that they were into that too. they draw for a lot of things i’m not familiar with but i always love seeing it anyway bc holy shit that SKILL is UNREAL. this is another one of the cases of “i love everything about how they draw faces and heads in general and i want to absorb this artwork through my face i cant stop staring at it” kind of scenarios. it’s beautiful and like, top level aspiration art goals, hoo boy. they also have really helpful advice tags and posts that i’ve gone creepin thru a few times and just, i love their blog, you guys.

i’ve been taken with @randomdraggon ‘s art since i got into rvb and found their wonderful donut/lopez art. SO GOOD to see such STELLAR ART for my FAVE RED BOYS and such a rare pair ;w; they have incredibly unique and GORGEOUS facecanons for donut and lopez and many others, and it’s cool seeing their overwatch art too. i’ve seen people using their 3D models for rvb animations, and as someone who’s finally started 3D modeling/animation classes in college, i’ve found that really cool and inspiring to see such neato burrito creations like that. i’m so mesmerized with their cool and creative art style and i dream of being half that creative and skilled one day.

i think @powerfulpomegranate drew a picture of like, a super strechy simmons and squash grif and it was like, the best thing i’d ever seen i laughed so much. they’re yet another person that absolutely astounds me with what a wide range of amazing skill they have with like, cartoony yet beautifully done doodles, to like, incredibley detailed digital paintings. i LOVE the wild facial expressions they can draw sometimes, and there’s also like, this soft sweet gif of animation they did once of tucker in the car with i think wash, caboose, and maybe junior was there? like, drivin late at night with a light flashing by and it was just. it was so gorgeous, yall.  every time i stumble upon it i stare at it so long thinking about how every aspect of that was put together and how much time it must’ve taken, even for just a few seconds. it’s so soft and calming and comforting to watch, so Peaceful and beautiful. i love it and i love their art…also im pretty sure theyre the person who’s FC of smith made me think of gordon from thomas the tank engine and i’ve literally never been able to forget that LOL (it’s really good tho) (i love it)

okokok i think i should stop here bc im sure there are like 5000 people i could think of, but i went with the ones i see most often and think about a lot, but i assure yall i know of SO MANY MORE talented people and these are just the first billion of wonderful beautiful super skilled individuals that come to mind.

…anyway. other question.

8. show us at least 2-3 drawings from 1-2 years ago.

…CRIES. CRIIIEEESSSSS oh my god lol. i’m glad my older sketchbooks are at home bc there are some MESSY MESSES in there but heyooo, i can show you the firstish digital drawing i did of donut (like, when i first tried drawing with a tablet) from 2 years ago next month, and then the redraw i did a year later 

oct 23, 2015, about a month into me finding rvb

and the alt version, hnk-

[fuckin weeps oh my god] [im so sorry]

then the next year, sept 14 2016 [the one year anniversary of me starting rvb]

hes not great but hes a hell of a lot better lmfao. part of it was finding a sharp pen tool in medibang/firealpaca, but also i just needed to Learn lmfao

and yknow. i was gonna wait a little more before redrawing this but since the hurricane may come and wreck our shit i might as well REDRAW HIM RIGHT NOOWWWW [sept 5, 2017]

i still have ages to go but im GETTING THEEERREE [im gonna make a separate post bc IMPROVEMENT]

lol sorry for such a long reply omfg, but thank u for asking!!

[x]

[ayutas]

tagging game~ i was tagged by nakamuto, haecha, hey-uta thank you yu uwu uwu your questions were not boring i had fun answering them!! thanks for tagging me andy your questions were very cute honestly uwu thank you dear danelle uwu uwu i really liked reading your answers tbh you always seem so chill

Is your nct bias your ultimate bias? If not, then who? i want to say yes but i feel guilty because he stepped on taemin to come on top :c i just put them in different categories and live my life guilt free Any upcoming movies you’re anticipating? thor 3, avengers 3 and 4, how to train your dragon 3, black panther, deadpool 2,

One fictional character you resonate with? uhh marvel’s bucky?

Dawn or dusk? dusk because everything becomes pretty and the night follows

Does your family members know about your faves? If yes, do they have anything to say about your biases? i guess they know about some of them? when i showed yuta to my mum she said “woah what a pretty boy”, “he looks better here” (when smiling), “wow im getting dizzy” (when smiling again lol) and “his hair is brown here” and whenever i show a boy to my dad he says “im prettier than him” plus whenever i got any albums they always asked me to show them to them and said they were nice

Favourite music genre? does kpop count as a music genre? if yes then that’s it because i like how they perform everything and have concepts for the cbs and how they have strong songs and chill songs and ballads and it all fits nicely together

Would you rather be a character in american horror story or the walking dead? i have never watched american horror story so im going to say twd because i love daryl just give him the world he deserves it okay

Do you believe in aliens or ghosts or a higher entity? in ghosts or a highter entity no but in aliens yes kinda? maybe not in the green skin big head kind of way but the universe is so big and earth can’t be the only planet that has alive organisms even if their life is not a life as we define it

One habit that you just can’t kick no matter how hard you try? having to sleep with something (blanket, sheet, pillow etc) touching my lips/face maybe?

Which nct member do you feel is most like you? yuta? because he seems unbothered and his humour is basically making fun of things and fake insulting his friend or taeil because he looks quiet but is really funny

what’s the best seat in the car? back and right

what’s an animal that you think resembles you? a sloth because i don’t want to m o v e

do you like ice cream? and if you do, what flavour? yup i love it ;A; anything except chocolate and pistachio i guess

what’s your favourite nct dream song? my first and last for sure i have been listening to it on repeat for days

if you folks have winter - are you more of a scarf, mittens or toque person? if you folks only have summer year-round - flip flops, yay or nay? i like to drown in a big scarf and wear a hood with fluff

can you hula hoop? nope not at all

would you say that you’re an organized person? uhh not really?

personally, are you more likely to wear bright, pastel, or neutral colours? neutral. i like black and white clothes

how are you? im very good but i feel sleepy thank you for asking uwu

have you eaten? yes i successfully made rice and chicken thingies for the first time and i didn’t burn it you can’t touch me

did you get enough sleep? if you didn’t, you should nap when you can? i slept a lot last night but i always feel tired these days ;A;

when was your first post of your current blog and what was it: apparently it was this one on september 3rd and it happens to be one of my favourite gifsets ever

do i like anybody: not really im good thank you

height: 173? 175? something like that

past urls: this is the first url for this blog

meaning behind current url: just yuta’s and an a in front? i had to choose something

first person/thing you remember from your last dream: uhhh i don’t remember it at all

lucky/favourite number?: i don’t really have one 

what is your name: zoe the bean

what are your nicknames: i have had people call me zez, zeza and life

where were you born and raised: greece and greece

what is your star sign: capricorn yay

what was the last thing you bought: i ordered food from a chinese place with a friend two days ago

what’s your best features:  hair or nails i guess

mac or pc:  pc. i have never touched a mac but that is going to change :’)

ios or android: ios........

what’s your favourite season: winter all the way

where do you want to live: uh i don’t really know okay next question

do you believe in heaven or hell:  nope :(

can you speak another language:  yup i can speak english

do you like your name:  it’s fine it’s nothing special

who do you want to be closer to: my new friends uwu

pen or pencil: pen for uni, pencil for books

whats your love language: i don’t know how i am supposed to answer this idek what a love language is

what female celebrity do you wish was your sister:  uhh no one?

what male celebrity do you wish was your brother: jonghyun or taeil i feel like they would be really cute

[za3k]

Life-logging in 2019

I’ve been keeping a time log since somewhere around 2011. A time log is a journal with a complete record of everything I do. I’ve become very consistent about it, so this seemed like a good time to write up my current habits for anyone interested.

This is going to be a mixture of information about life-logging, how I organize things, and my current schedule, because they’re not really separate things.

There’s an interesting story about how I systematically broke everyone one of my habits, and it took me 17 years to get in a daily routine after that, but that’s a story for another time.

If you’re curious, I’d guess it takes me 2 hours a week spread out to do my life-logging, 1 hour to type it up, and 1-2 hours to do my weekly review. In my mind the original life-logging doesn’t cost me anything because it’s so automatic, it’s zero-energy, and it has some psychic benefits. By psychic benefits I’m talking about the same kind of thing you get from GTD–you’re not constantly thinking about or trying to remember things that are already written down in a trusted system. Typing it up and review are not free.

Time log (2011-)

I keep a written (pen and paper) time log which I normally just call my “log book”. Each entry has the current time and what I’m doing. I typically record an entry either when I start an activity, finish one, or notice I’ve switched activities. I’m on volume 9.

Today’s page starts like this (italics are censorship or words added for clarity):

Date: 2019-12-17, Tue 12:02pm Woke up on my own slightly before alarm. Dream about […]. (7h12m sleep)[100ml yellow rockstar recovery. (33mg caffein, 400mg taurine–from front material)]Morning data log (see below)Brushed teeth12:55pmCancelled torrent verification–I already know this will failResponded to gnu coreutils ‘date’ threadhealth stuff2:02pmTrying qutebrowser. Feels very productive.2:04pm[Coke Zero Vanilla, 1 can]

I’m not fastidious about what the time represents. The questions I most often ask are “when did this happen roughly” and “do I have any big portions of my day I’m not time-logging”. I’m less concerned with exactly how long I spent doing each particular activity.

There are some things I try to consistently write down every single time, including:

Exactly when I woke up, especially if I don’t use the computer first thing (see “Sleep Log” below)

Any dream if I remember it

Any food or drink I consume, with enough information that I could generate nutritional facts if I wanted. I omit food amounts if it’s a pain to measure. 1 package of ramen: yes, 125g chicken curry: no. I put food and drinks in hard brackets: []

Watching a movie, TV show, youtube, or reading a book. I used to underline these, now I’m trying putting them between underscores: _. I’m switching to write these in a computer-understandable way but it’s a work in progress.

Anything health-related, including symptoms, drugs I took, and bathroom visits. Drugs are a type of food [], the rest is freeform.

Travel from point A to B

Phone calls. I don’t always manage this one. While you’re picking up the phone is a really garbage time to try and write something.

Any time I change timezones

Any time I work on a project for more than a couple minutes

“Where did that time go”: one of the goals here is to have no huge gaps. If I spent time browsing the web or researching, some vague notes on what about. If I talk to someone in person, noting who and possibly what topics we talked about (talking in person often feels like minutes in my head but hours on the clock).

Here are things I don’t write down:

Information that I’ve put elsewhere. See below for specifics on what else I have! This one isn’t hard and fast, but I’m a believer in things being in “exactly one place” as much as possible–I do make some exceptions since I’m working with paper

General-purpose notetaking, thoughts about what’s going on, TODO lists, etc. This is just a boring ol’ record of time. I do sometimes jot down TO-DOs when out of the house since this is the only paper I carry on me, but at the rate of 1-3 a week. I also may write down where I’m at in a really long-running computer project, just to make sure I can find it later.

Anything a human shouldn’t have to write or read. For example, I could write down the youtube URL or the UPC code of everything I buy… but nobody has time for that, and I’d only write it down wrong.

At the front of the book I have a table with guides to abbreviations, ingredients in things I have often (ex. caffein amounts or recipes). In the back is my bookkeeping section (see below).

I am currently using the Leuchtturm1917 gridded notebook, with date labels at the top of the page. I’ve been experimenting with felt micron pens–I’m looking for something that can write easily, but won’t smear when I close the book. I’ve used Moleskins in the past–I stopped using them because 2 of 5 split at the spine for me. Leuctturm seems a bit better but more expensive–time will tell.

One a week, I type up my time log up to the last page. I’m working on my backlog slowly. This lets me search more easily. I have plans to someday cross-reference better in a computer system (for example, include nutritional info, link to youtube videos, etc).

Bookkeeping (2019-)

Fun fact: b-oo-kk-ee-ping is the only word in the English language with three consecutive double letters. Bookkeeping is keeping a record of what you earn and spend, or what you buy and sell.

For the most part, I pay for everything using a credit or debit card, which I’ve been doing since 16 so that I have a financial record for my own benefit. Most banks offer an easy export. I get paper copies, then once I download the PDFs from my bank, throw out the originals (I’ve checked one or two match the PDFs by hand). I use mint.com for the purpose of having a CSV export from my bak statements. I used to put this export online (currently broken, check back soon).

Starting a few months ago, I started keeping a weekly record by hand. Every time I spend money, I’ll put a $ symbol in my time log,

2:21am Amazon $

and add a bookkeeping entry (real thing is prettier).

2019-12-15, Sun [ ] Amazon -29.21 -236.07 Choline citrate, 500g

The entry includes:

The date (2019-12-15)

Where I spent the money (Amazon)

How much money (29.21)

How much total I’ve spent this week (236.07)

What I bought (Choline citrate, 500g). If it was more than one thing, how much each item cost. I’ll try and write price-per-pound if I’m buying bulk food or meat. If I’m buying more than one of something, I’ll write how many I bought and how much each is. I’d like to consistently write down how much of something I got (ex. 16oz of cheese) but I don’t at all yet.

If it’s something that needs to be delivered, I’ll write a checkbox. Then when it arrives, I’ll check the box and write down the date it arrived to the right. This way I can easily scan and see if something never got delivered.

Since I use the same book for my time log and my bookkeeping, bookkeeping goes from right to left, two pages per week. At the end of the book, I keep

a running record of any debts I owe

any undelivered packages from the previous log book

During my weekly review process, I copy this information to my (digital) weekly review and add it up by category to check against my budget. I used to check it against my bank statements, but it takes forever and it’s easier to just be really good about writing down everything to start with. Checking totals and category totals is pretty time consuming the way I do it, I’ll probably automate it soon.

Budget

My current categories are:

taxes, bills, rent: Predictable expenses, no need to check these on a regular basis. I separate out medical bills in my summary, which are not regular.

travel, hard drives, moving: Big but one-off expenses. Currently I don’t have a way to budget these.

charity: I aim for 10% of my income after taxes (a tithe)

other: The main budget category, I try to keep this at $1000/month ($240/week). I actually break it down into categories like “food”, “groceries”, and “luxuries” so I know what happened, as well as pulling out any single big expenses.

Weekly Schedule (2019-)

My current schedule is weekly:

Monday: Do meal planning for the week, and grocery shopping for the week if needed.

Tuesday: Cook food for the week.

Thursday: Batch day. Do all the small chores (<1 hour) on one day. I aim for around 2-4 hours of chores, but I’m fine skipping a batch day if I don’t really have anything. I almost always clean my room and do laundry at minimum. I also have a running list of small tasks: call the doctor, clean the fridge, fix SSL certs.

Friday: Review day. I’ll do a weekly review, and a monthly one if it’s the last weekly review of the month. Then I’ll type up the timelog up to that point in time. For my weekly review, which I do on my computer, I write down

How much sleep I got on average

What I did each day of the week (summary of that day’s time log). Typically once I cut out really boring things (brush your teeth), food, movies, etc there’s not all that much left.

Accomplishments. Anything I got done this week. Also, any big milestones reached (finished X) even if the last step wasn’t that impressive.

Reflection/things learned: Did anything major happen? Did I learn any new facts? This is my time to look at the big picture and thing about how my life is going lately and where I’d like it to go. Also, if anything especially good/bad happened, I try to think about why and how to make things go well next time.

Finances. I copy down my expenses for the week and total them by category.

Saturday: Nothing planned.

Sunday: Nothing planned.

I haven’t done batch cooking in a while, but I’m also trying to run out my food supplies because I’m about to move, so we’ll see if it sticks around.

Daily Log (2019-)

Every morning, I record:

The date and time I’m recording

How much sleep I got (but not when I went to sleep or woke up)

What day it is in my schedule

The temperature of the room

My body temperature (am I running a fever?)

How much exercise I got yesterday, in minutes (and what type)

My weight

I don’t think it matters that much how you do these measurements, but it’s important to be consistent (for example, weight with clothes on/off?)

If I have a specific habit I’m trying to pick up (say, brushing my teeth twice a day or meditating) I might record that for a while too each day. I used to record a mission for the day, but I dropped the habit.

Automatic Logs

I put all my computer logs in a single combined format, and sync them to a single location, starting in 2019. The format is basically <date> [<log name>:<computer name>] <Log entry>. I don’t have a great process to view logs yet.

Sleep Log (2019-) / Keystoke Activity Log (2013-)

I log which hours I was asleep. I live alone and tend to fall asleep first thing after closing my laptop in bed, or at least with a video playing in the background, which makes this relatively easy. I keep a computer log of whether I’m using my keyboard (I almost never do anything with just the mouse) for each minute using a custom-built keylogger (it records activity but not passwords).

Then I run it through a custom script (included in link) which says which broad periods I was active. The biggest inactive period in a day is when I was asleep.

~ $ sleep? Report period: 2019-12-17 00:00:00 – 2019-12-17 16:21:06 (16:21:06s) Inactive: 2019-12-17 04:50:18 – 2019-12-17 12:02:58 ( 7:12:40s)

I was asleep from 4:50am to 12:02pm. I make sure to write down when I wake up into my time log in case I don’t use the computer first thing. This has been much better at guessing when I fell asleep than anything else I’ve tried.

If you don’t fall asleep at a computer, I have some ideas around using a motion sensor (cheap webcams can see in the dark)

Chromium History Log (2013-)

I use Chromium as my only web browser. I export the history and bookmarks every time I do a backup, and put it all in a standard log format (basically time + URL). Currently I only record each history entry once.

For futureproofing, I archive every webpage I go to on an irregular basis (about once a year). Archiving pages doesn’t work super well but it’s better than nothing.

Video/TV Log (2019-)

I watch my movies using noice, either directly on my television, or streamed from my media server to my laptop. When I start watching something, it automatically gets logged (including what the movie is, the path, how long it is etc). Same for when I stop, so I know if I quit early.

Youtube is included in my chromium history (see above). Sadly I’m not sure I can get ‘how much of this video did I watch’ from my format–only that I visited the video.

For futureproofing, I automatically archive every youtube video I watch.

Bash History (2011-)

This one is pretty simple. My Linux shell history (everything I run from the command line, which is basically everything I do outside a browser) is saved, forever. This one goes back to 2011 for my laptops.

Scanning (2014-)

I scan all documents I write, mail I get, etc. and generally throw out the originals. I organize everything by hand, and keep everything as image files.

I use a flat folder structure, which is to say I have a “scans” folder and then a bunch of folders in it like “taxes – 2019”. No nesting. This was my main takeaway from GTD for Hackers and I use flat folders for most digital organization.

I use the Doxie Go feed-through scanner (doesn’t need a computer, writes directly to SD which I love). I recently got a Canon Lide 400 flatbed scanner (works on linux) which I use to scan bound books like my time log.

Who else does this stuff?

As far as I know I came up with this stuff independently. I’ve read plenty of time-management resources (which tend to be good) and experimental journaling resources (which tend to be… scarce?).

Lion Kimbro: “Make a complete map of every thought you think”. General journaling. Inteview.

Fenn Lipowitz (my roommate): Time log, with an emphasis on being completely machine-readable. Being machine-readable means click for pretty graphs. I took inspiration from how machine-parsable this was recently, but I want to keep my freehand sections too.

Bryan Bishop (acquaintance): meetlog, a system for recording conversations and topics of conversation. Overall I didn’t find this useful because I don’t know hundreds of people. The format is so-so, largely because the author can type very fast, including real-time transcripts. I got the inspiration to write topics of conversation while talking from this. I do something similar if I spend a long time thinking or researching, too.

Bullet Journaling: I dunno, if you’re super lost and don’t know how to write a journal/TODO list, some guy figured it out for you! It’s just the basics that you’d figure out on your own, but it may save time. The site is better than the book. I independently invented most of their notation for TODO lists, I don’t find it too useful for a journal. Other peoples’ bullet journal pages are also useful, not just the original author’s.

Life-logging in 2019 was originally published on Optimal Prime

[not-so-secret-nerd]

A year in Ghostbusters

I’m not sure I should sit down and write a huge gushy mini-novel about this being the one year anniversary of something that changed my life for the better. I know loads of people will write these today and send them out into the fandom and onto twitter (already sent my thanks and love to Ghost Dad aka Paul Feig). I know loads more will have prettier words to say than me or better stories about what Ghostbuster 2016 means to them. The fact still remains, this movie really did change a lot for me in the positive.

I didn’t know what to expect when Beth and I settled into our seats for a 7pm showing. Understandably, we were expecting to be entertained and to have fun. That what you go to the movies for, right? Entertainment and a chance to escape for a bit. And that happened, but there was no escape. Not really. I sat there watching the movie and felt myself being pulled into a deep love for the character. I saw myself on the screen. I saw my partner. I saw my friends and people I aspire to be, all women, right there on the screen. My reality became that movie because despite Ghostbusters being a science fiction comedy it never felt more real because the women in it were real.

They weren’t sexy lamps. They weren’t side characters. They weren’t the puns to jokes they didn’t make themselves. They weren’t the forgettables. They were in your face, completely real, completely relatable, and dare I say tangible. I had never seen a movie that compared to this. Even Fury Road (which I have a deep, deep love for) couldn’t touch this because while MMFR was beautiful it was a warrior’s story of survival and overcoming post-apocalyptic odds in a world that could exist someday. Ghostbusters existed in a world that does exist with women doing just that. Existing. Thriving. Struggling. Growing. Learning. Loving. Laughing. Crying. Caring. Fighting. They were human. They were heroes. And there wasn’t a trope in sight.

I left the theater grinning and noticeably lighter. That grin grew tenfold when my partner poked me in the ribs and said, “You know, you’re a lot like Holtzmann.” That comparison pretty much shaped my year and blew apart the last remnants of question and uncertainty lingering in my brain. I’d never seen someone portrayed on screen who had the same ticks and tocks as me because, yeah, I guess I am a lot like her. I’m gay. I’m a builder. I’m a maker. I create things but it had been almost a full year since I actively did any of those things. I hadn’t felt that spark.

I went home that night and laid awake thinking. My brain was in overdrive. All I could do was roll the movie around in my head, and suddenly the ideas started coming. I felt the tingle in my fingertips. I had an idea for a one-shot fic. I hadn’t written anything new in, as I said, a year. But here it was. An idea. Fresh out of my brain and begging to be put into Word. A week later, I published my first GB fic “Stay With Me”. I was hesitant. I’d not written for this fandom before, and I certainly hadn’t had the nerve to write w/w stories despite having been out and proud for a number of years. But the reception was wonderful, and I started writing more. Ecto-high was born from a fever dream and nurtured by two equally sadistic GB lovers @above-d-clouds and @erzatscarlet and my forever muse @childofwestwind . Tunnel Rats was a fluke that became a secret love of mine, and Aut-Magi is quickly turning into perhaps one of my biggest and most ambitious pieces yet.

But it was more than that. I didn’t get the urge to just write. I was bitten by the build-bug. The last big build I’d done was a cosplay that went nowhere. I remember thinking this wasn’t my game, but I wanted to create something I’d be proud of. Six months after the GB movie premiere I was wrist deep in wires building a 3D printer from the ground up. Eight months after the premiere, Beth and I were showcasing our proton packs at DC con and feeling on cloud nine.

I wouldn’t have any of this without Ghostbusters and the fandom family I’ve come to love and admire. I would tag you all if I wasn’t shit at remembering URL names. If I could copy and paste your icon it would make this so much easier XD

So thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for being such an awesome fandom. We’ve had our ups and downs, but this has been the best experience I’ve ever had and shaped so much in me. You all are so nurturing, accepting, funny, creative, understanding, and helpful. I’ve made wonderful friends, and I wouldn’t have any of it without 2016 Ghostbusters.

[eversage]

I dare you to answer all 170 questions luv youuuu

FUCK YOU I SHALL

1: How tall or short do you wish you were? I wanna be 6'1 
2: What’s your dream pet? (Real or not) A FUCKING GRIFFIN, but real talk a hedgehog or a Newfoundland dog will suffice 
3: Do you have a favorite clothing style? Gay witch TM
4: What was your favorite video game growing up? Idkkkk 
5: What three things/people do you think of most each day: Alec, Sky, my art/how stressed I am about my art
6: If you had a warning label, what would yours say? Oh god this is a meme from forever ago. But uh idk probably "really gay messy artist"
7: What is your opinion on [insert person/thing here]? Bleh 
8: What is your Greek personality type? [Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric, or Melancholic] fuck if I know?
9: Are you ticklish? Nope
10: Are you allergic to anything? Histamine, go look it up. Now cry for me. Now go look up high histamine food now cry for me. Now go look up how stress, heat, and hormones can all increase histamine in the system. Also dustmightd.
11: What’s your sexuality? Grey-Gay-Asexual-Aromantic 
12: Do you prefer tea, coffee, or cocoa? I'm basically allergic to all three but cocoa 
13: Are you a cat or dog person? Both
14: Would you rather be a vampire, elf, or merperson? Merperson
15: Do you have a favorite Youtuber? Dan and Phil
16: How tall are you? 5'8 ish
17: If you had to change your name, what would you change it to? Uhhhhh Oliver? I think 
18: How much do you weigh? [Only ask this if you know the user doesn’t mind!] 198 LBS
19: Do you believe in ghosts/spirits? yes
20: Do you like space or the ocean more? Yes
21: Are you religious? Yes 
22: Pet peeves? Idk 
23: Would you rather be nocturnal or diurnal [opposite of nocturnal]? Diurnal
24: Favorite constellation? Ursa Major
25: Favorite star? Idk the sun
26: Do you like ball-jointed dolls? Yes but I'm brokkeeee
27: Any phobias or fears? Fuck idk 
28: Do you think global warming is real? Yes
29: Do you believe in reincarnation? Yes
30: Favorite movie? Fuck if I know? 
31: Do you get scared easily? Nah
32: How many pets have you own in your lifetime? 10
33: Blog rate? [You’ll rate the blog of the one who’s asking.]
34: What is a color that calms you? Pastel
35: Where would you like to travel and/or live? Philadelphia? Indiana because babe?
36: Where were you born? Mexico
37: What is your eye color? Brown with rings of blue
38: Introvert or extrovert? I'm so introverted
39: Do you believe in horoscopes and zodiacs? Yes
40: Hugs or kisses? Kisses
41: Who is someone you would like to see/visit right now? Alec
42: Who is someone you love deeply? Alec
43: Any piercings you want? Septum
44: Do you like tattoos and piercings? Yes
45: Do you smoke or have you eiver done so? No
46: Talk about your crush, if you have one! He's a babe, he sleep talks, needs a hair cut and is a fucking idiot but he's mine
47: What is a sound you really hate? Machinery in horror films
48: A sound you really love? Alec's voice
49: Can you do a backflip? Used to 
50: Can you do the splits? Used to 
51: Favorite actor and/or actress? Fuck if I know 
52: Favorite movie? Fuck if I know didn't I already answer this?
53: How are you feeling right now? Headachy but good
54: What color would you like your hair to be right now? Pastel pink 
55: When did you feel happiest? Fuck if I know 
56: Something that calms you down? Age regressing
57: Have any mental disorders? [Only ask this if you know the user doesn’t mind!] hahaha depression, anxiety, ed, passive suicidal tendencies, psychosis, sensory processing disorder, probably some learning issues. Kinda duck if I know.
58: What does your URL mean? My blog is about my voice 
59: What three words describe you the most? Powerful, witch, gay.
60: Do you believe in evolution? No.
61: What makes you unfollow a blog? NSFW, any sort of hate/phobia (like homophobia transphobia and such), being thinspo/Mia/Ana, or anti age regression
62: What makes you follow a blog? Aesthetic, kind, funny
63: Favorite kind of person: idk
64: Favorite animal(s): polar bear 
65: Name three of your favorite blogs. 
66: Favorite emoticon: 🖕🏻
67: Favorite meme: fuck if I know
68: What is your MBTI personality type? Idk 
69: What is your star sign? Taurus
70: Can your dog roll over on command, if you have a dog? No
71: What outfit out of all your clothes do you like to wear the most? My Harry otter shirt, red sweater and whatever pants
72: Post a selfie or two?
73: Do you have platform shoes? Nope
74: What is one random but interesting fact about yourself? Idk
75: Can you do a front flip? Yes
76: Do you like birds? Yes
77: Do you like to swim? Yes
78: Is swimming or ice skating more fun to you? Swimming I've sprained my wrist three times skating
79: Something you wish didn’t exist: hate 
80: Some thing you wish did exist: equality
81: Piercings you have? Just my ears 
82: Something you really enjoy doing: art 
83: Favorite person to talk to:
 Alec, Sky, jordan, Kerry 84: What was your first impression of Tumblr? Idk 
85: How many followers do you have? 198
86: Can you run a mile within ten minutes? Idk if I tried probably 
87: Do your socks always match? Pfffttt you think I have the energy to find socks 
88: Can you touch your toes and keep your legs straight completely? Barely, I have short hamstrings always have
89: What are your birthstones? Emerald
90: If you were an animal, which one would you be? A polar bear probably 
91: If a flower could aesthetically represent you, what kind would it be? Idk 
92: A store you hate? Walmart 
93: How many cups of coffee can you drink in one day? None because caffeine=anxiety 
94: Would you rather be able to fly or read minds? Fly
95: Do you like to wear camo? No
96: Winter or summer? Winter
97: How long can you hold your breath for? Idk a whole
98: Least favorite person? Idk trump probably
99: Someone you look up to:
 Sky100: A store you love? Idk blick 
101: Favorite type of shoes, keds probably
102: Where do you live? Oregon 
103: Are you a vegetarian or vegan? If so, why? Nope can't be 
104: What is your favorite mineral or gem? Uggghhh probably blue goldstone
105: Do you drink milk? Yes but not as much as I'd like because it makes me sick
106: Do you like bugs? Depends 
107: Do you like spiders? Depends 
108: Something you get paranoid about? Idk 
109: Can you draw: yes 
110: Nosiest question you have ever been asked? Iddkkk
111: A question you hate being asked? Idkkkk 
112: Ever been bitten by a spider? Probably 
113: Do you like the sound of waves at the beach? Yes 
114: Do you prefer cloudy or sunny days? Depends
115: Someone you’d like to kiss or cuddle right now: alec 
116: Favorite cloud type: idk 
117: What color do you wish the sky was? I like it 
118: Do you have freckles? Yes 
119: Favorite thing about a person: idk probably smile and laugh and voice
120: Fruits or vegetables? Fruit
121: Something you want to do right now: see alec 
122: Is the ocean or sky prettier? Idk 
123: Sweet or sour foods? Sour
124: Bright or dim lights? Depends
125: Do you believe in a certain magical creature? Yes 
126: Something you hate about Tumblr: discourse
127: Something you love about Tumblr: community
128: What do you think about the least? What? 
129: What would you want written on your tombstone? Gay and changed the world 
130: Who would you like to punch in the face right now? Sam... 
131: What is something you love but also hate about yourself? My weight
132: Do you smile with your teeth showing for pictures? Yes.
133: Computer or TV? Computer
134: Do you like roller coasters? Fuck yeah
135: Do you get motion sickness or seasickness? Vaguely 
136: Are your ears lobed or attached? Lobed
137: Do you believe in karma? Yes 
138: On a scale of 1-10, how attractive would you say you are? I'm like a 95
139: What nicknames do you have/have had? Hayge, hayhay, denden, snow (please don't use that)
140: Did you have any pretend or imaginary friends? Yes 
141: Have you ever seen a therapist/shrink? She was shitty 
142: Would you say you are a good or bad influence to others? Good
143: Do you prefer giving or receiving gifts/help? Giving
144: What makes you angry. Not a lot 
145: How many languages do you speak fluently? Sadly one vaguely three
146: Do you prefer boys, girls, and/or non-binaries? Boys
147: Are you androgynous? Yeah 
148: Favorite physical thing about yourself: my eyes/smile 
149: Favorite thing about your personality: fucj if I know 
150: Name three people you would like to talk to right now in person. Alec, ren, Sky, 
151: If you could go back into time and live in one era, which would you choose? Greece probably 
152: Do you like BuzzFeed? Vaguely 
153: How did you meet your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/partner? [If you have one.] got set up! 
154: Do you like to kiss others’ foreheads or hands for platonic reasons? Fuck yeah 
155: Do you like to play with others’ hair? Yes
156: What embarrasses you? Idk 
157: Something that makes you nervous/anxious: being told "I need to talk to you" with no context
158: Biggest lie you have ever told: fuck if i know 
159: How many people are you following? Like 1000
160: How many posts do you have on your blog(s)? Idk 
161: How many drafts do you have on your blog(s)? Idk 
162: How many likes do you have on your blog(s)? Idk 
163: Last time you cried and why: uhhh cause I wanna move out 
164: Do you have long or short hair? Short 
165: Longest your hair has ever been: ass length 
166: Why do you like, dislike, or have neutral feelings about religon? It's a part of who I am 
167: Do you really care how the universe and world was created? Yes 
168: Do you like to wear makeup? Yes
169: Can you stand on your hands or head for more than thirty seconds? Idk 
170: Did you answer the questions you were asked truthfully? Yeah

[literally-sarcasm]

I dare you to answer all 170 questions

1: How tall or short do you wish you were: Like 5'4 or 5'5

2: What’s your dream pet? (Real or not): Probably cats

3: Do you have a favorite clothing style: Not overly

4: What was your favorite video game growing up: Probably Super Mario 64 or 

Mario Kart 64

5: What three things/people do you think of most each day: Watching YouTube, sleeping, drawing

6: If you had a warning label, what would yours say: Don’t break this person’s trust

7: What is your opinion on [insert person/thing here] It’s an opinion 

8: What is your Greek personality type? [Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric, or Melancholic]: Somewhere between Melancholic and Phlegmatic

9: Are you ticklish: Kinda

10: Are you allergic to anything: Not that I know of

11: What’s your sexuality: panro/Demi 

12: Do you prefer tea, coffee, or cocoa: Cocoa all the way

13: Are you a cat or dog person: Cat person

14: Would you rather be a vampire, elf, or merperson: Merperson

15: Do you have a favorite Youtuber: Not really

16: How tall are you: 5'2

17: If you had to change your name, what would you change it to: Not sure, nothing has really stuck with me yet

18: How much do you weigh: Around 150-155 lbs

19: Do you believe in ghosts/spirits: Yes

20: Do you like space or the ocean more: Do I have to choose?

21: Are you religious: No

22: Pet peeves: When people break my focus on something (i.e. Talking loudly when I’m focusing, etc.)

23: Would you rather be nocturnal or diurnal [opposite of nocturnal]: Nocturnal 

24: Favorite constellation: Leo

25: Favorite star: I don’t know

26: Do you like ball-jointed dolls: I don’t care too much for them

27: Any phobias or fears: Thunderstorms and there being nothing after death

28: Do you think global warming is real: Yes

29: Do you believe in reincarnation: Its a possibility that I can’t rule out

30: Favorite movie: Guardians of the Galaxy 

31: Do you get scared easily: depends on how you’re trying to scare me

32: How many pets have you own in your lifetime: 12

33: Blog rate? [You’ll rate the blog of the one who’s asking.]: I love your blog a lot

34: What is a color that calms you: Most of them are really calming but especially warm tones

35: Where would you like to travel and/or live: Italy, France, and England are just a few 

36: Where were you born: United States

37: What is your eye color: A mostly green hazel color

38: Introvert or extrovert: Introvert

39: Do you believe in horoscopes and zodiacs: Somewhat

40: Hugs or kisses: Hugs

41: Who is someone you would like to see/visit right now: I’m not sure

42: Who is someone you love deeply: My friends

43: Any piercings you want: Septum, eyebrow, possibly snakebites, more in my ears

44: Do you like tattoos and piercings: Yes

45: Do you smoke or have you eiver done so: No and I don’t think I ever will

46: Talk about your crush, if you have one! Don’t really have one

47: What is a sound you really hate: Yelling

48: A sound you really love: Rain

49: Can you do a backflip: No

50: Can you do the splits: Not any more

51: Favorite actor and/or actress: Don’t have one really

52: Favorite movie: why is this on here twice

53: How are you feeling right now: I am in a mood ™

54: What color would you like your hair to be right now: Purple

55: When did you feel happiest: Uh, awhile ago

56: Something that calms you down: listening to music 

57: Have any mental disorders: Depression, anxiety 

58: What does your URL mean: It was for an OC of mine and I just kinda turned this into a personal blog

59: What three words describe you the most: Tired, quiet and angry

60: Do you believe in evolution: Yes

61: What makes you unfollow a blog: They start acting gross/ bigoted or I didn’t notice that they were that way before I followed them

62: What makes you follow a blog: They’re nice and post content that I like

63: Favorite kind of person: nice people

64: Favorite animal(s): Cats, fish

65: Name three of your favorite blogs. @my-best-is-messy @savan27 @ubih (honestly I have so many that are my favorites and this is really difficult to pick 3)

66: Favorite emoticon: 🍩

67: Favorite meme: idk

68: What is your MBTI personality type: INTP-A/-T

69: What is your star sign: Leo

70: Can your dog roll over on command, if you have a dog: No, none of them can

71: What outfit out of all your clothes do you like to wear the most: A graphic t and jeans/ shorts

72: Post a selfie or two: Not right now

73: Do you have platform shoes: No

74: What is one random but interesting fact about yourself: I broke my toe by accidentally kicking a rock really hard

75: Can you do a front flip: No

76: Do you like birds: yeah

77: Do you like to swim: Very much so

78: Is swimming or ice skating more fun to you: Swimming is

79: Something you wish didn’t exist: Hateful people

80: Some thing you wish did exist: Dragons

81: Piercings you have: I have both ear lobes double pierced

82: Something you really enjoy doing: Reading

83: Favorite person to talk to: So many

84: What was your first impression of Tumblr: This is pretty cool

85: How many followers do you have: 23

86: Can you run a mile within ten minutes: No

87: Do your socks always match: They almost never do

88: Can you touch your toes and keep your legs straight completely: Sometimes

89: What are your birthstones: Peridot, Sardonyx, and Spinel

90: If you were an animal, which one would you be: A cat

91: If a flower could aesthetically represent you, what kind would it be: Probably an orange rose

92: A store you hate: I dislike makeup stores but I don’t hate them

93: How many cups of coffee can you drink in one day: Like half of one 

94: Would you rather be able to fly or read minds: Fly

95: Do you like to wear camo: No

96: Winter or summer: Summer

97: How long can you hold your breath for: At least 30 seconds

98: Least favorite person: Quite a few people (especially at my conservative school)

99: Someone you look up to: My section leader in band

100: A store you love: Hot topic

101: Favorite type of shoes: Flip flops or just no shoes

102: Where do you live: The Midwest 

103: Are you a vegetarian or vegan? If so, why: I am not

104: What is your favorite mineral or gem: Talc

105: Do you drink milk: I haven’t really recently but I do like milk

106: Do you like bugs: Yes so long as they don’t fly at my face or bite/ sting me

107: Do you like spiders: Yes so long as they aren’t on my bed 

108: Something you get paranoid about: People

109: Can you draw: I can, just not to well

110: Nosiest question you have ever been asked: Got any boys you like?

111: A question you hate being asked: Do you have a boyfriend

112: Ever been bitten by a spider: I don’t think so

113: Do you like the sound of waves at the beach: Yes

114: Do you prefer cloudy or sunny days: A mix of the two

115: Someone you’d like to kiss or cuddle right now: No one

116: Favorite cloud type: The big fluffy ones

117: What color do you wish the sky was: Maybe a pastel Purple

118: Do you have freckles: Maybe? Idk

119: Favorite thing about a person: When they’re nice

120: Fruits or vegetables: Fruits

121: Something you want to do right now: sleep 

122: Is the ocean or sky prettier: I love them both equally 

123: Sweet or sour foods: Sweet

124: Bright or dim lights: Dim lights

125: Do you believe in a certain magical creature: Not sure

126: Something you hate about Tumblr: The shit that some people post

127: Something you love about Tumblr: A lot of the people are super nice

128: What do you think about the least: Nothing

129: What would you want written on your tombstone: Fight me

130: Who would you like to punch in the face right now: Lots of people 

131: What is something you love but also hate about yourself: My hair

132: Do you smile with your teeth showing for pictures: No

133: Computer or TV: Computer

134: Do you like roller coasters: Yes

135: Do you get motion sickness or seasickness: I don’t get motion sickness and uh I’ve never been on a boat 

136: Are your ears lobed or attached: Attached

137: Do you believe in karma: Yes

138: On a scale of 1-10, how attractive would you say you are: Idk. Maybe like a 4

139: What nicknames do you have/have had: I haven’t really had many

140: Did you have any pretend or imaginary friends: No

141: Have you ever seen a therapist/shrink: Yes

142: Would you say you are a good or bad influence to others: I try to be a good influence to others

143: Do you prefer giving or receiving gifts/help: idk

144: What makes you angry: Bigots

145: How many languages do you speak fluently: 1 but I’m learning French and Italian

146: Do you prefer boys, girls, and/or non-binaries: I don’t really have a preference 

147: Are you androgynous: Probably 

148: Favorite physical thing about yourself: My eye color 

149: Favorite thing about your personality: ?

150: Name three people you would like to talk to right now in person. All my mutuals 151: If you could go back into time and live in one era, which would you choose: ?

152: Do you like BuzzFeed: I’m indifferent 

153: How did you meet your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/partner? [If you have one.] I didn't 

154: Do you like to kiss others’ foreheads or hands for platonic reasons: Not really

155: Do you like to play with others’ hair: Depends on whose hair it is

156: What embarrasses you: Being called out for no particular reason by people

157: Something that makes you nervous/anxious: Talking in front of more than two people/ anyone I don’t know very well

158: Biggest lie you have ever told: I’m going to the park (I actually went to tp someone’s house)

159: How many people are you following: 726

160: How many posts do you have on your blog(s):1,881

161: How many drafts do you have on your blog(s): I don’t know

162: How many likes do you have on your blog(s): 2,749

163: Last time you cried and why: Today because my life is nuts

164: Do you have long or short hair: I would say it’s medium length

165: Longest your hair has ever been: About halfway down my back, maybe an inch or 2 longer

166: Why do you like, dislike, or have neutral feelings about religon: I mostly dislike religion because so many people use it to excuse being bigoted and to try and disprove science/ say that x thing that is backed up by facts isn’t actually real

167: Do you really care how the universe and world was created: I’m curious about it but I don’t think I really care too much

168: Do you like to wear makeup: I like the idea of wearing it but I hate trying to do it

169: Can you stand on your hands or head for more than thirty seconds: No

170: Did you answer the questions you were asked truthfully: Yes

(sorry this took like 30 years to answer)

[siliconwebx]

Make it hard to screw up driven development

Development is complicated. Our job is an ongoing battle between getting the job done and doing that job in a safe, long-lasting way.

Developers say things like, "I'm just going to do this quick and dirty first," because it's taken as fact that if you code anything quickly, it not only will be prone to mistakes, but that you'll be deliberately not honoring established conventions and skipping tasks that make for more solid code.

There is probably no practical way to make it impossible to write sloppy, bad code, but it is fascinating to consider how tooling has evolved to make it harder.

Let's get all Poka-yoke on development.

The obvious ones are automated code quality tools.

Say you're writing JavaScript. ESLint is a mega-popular tool that looks at your code as you are writing it and lets you know about issues.

ESLint is configurable and those configurations can be enforced to a team's liking. If you'd prefer to use some strong and established conventions, I believe the most popular out there is AirBnbs configuration.

There are alternatives to everything, of course. This post isn't so much about a comprehensive tooling list as it is about considering the types of tools that help us push us toward writing better code. That said, stylelint is good for CSS, PHP_CodeSniffer is good for PHP, and Rubocop is good for Ruby.

Prettier is in a similar, but unique category. It is like a "beautifier" for your code, in that it helps you reformat it not only to look good but to follow team conventions (e.g. single quotes! Two space indentions!) as well. The most common way to use Prettier is that it runs as you save the file. So perhaps you write quickly and don't worry about formatting as much, because it happens for you the second you save. There is an interesting side-benefit of quality here as Prettier can fail, and if it does, you have a problem in the syntax of your code you need to fix. Super useful.

Prettier failing.

I'm intrigued by tools like Sonarlint, Code Climate, and Resharper that look, to me, essentially like linters, but deliver only a best-practice analysis rather than configuring things yourself. It also claims to understand your code at a deeper level. Webhint and Deepscan look similarly interesting. Feel free to correct me if I have this wrong because I haven't gotten a chance to use any of them yet.

Taking linting a step further, you can make passing lint tests a requirement before files can even be committed into Git. Git hooks are the ticket here, and the most popular tool for managing them is Husky.

Similarly, actual tests are powerful preventers of bad code.

It's always smart to write tests. Deploying code that breaks features is embarrassing, a waste of time, and can negatively impact your business. Yet we do it all too often. The whole point of tests is to prevent that.

Things like Jest for JavaScript and RSpec for Ruby are useful, and considered unit testing. It's work! You manually write functions that expect certain results. I expect that if I call a function with these parameters it returns this value!

Test-Driven Development (TDD) is a practice in which you write the test before you write the actual code that does the thing you're trying to do. It's a nice way to work if you can pull it off, as you've got code coverage from the get-go.

Another type of automated testing is integration (also known as end-to-end) testing. I'm a fan of Cypress for that. It simulates a user actually using a browser. Go to this URL! Click this! Fill out this field and submit the form! Does this thing exist now? Is the URL what it's supposed to be? Is this other thing visible? That kind of testing is powerful in that a lot of things have to be going right for these to pass, so there is a ton of implied testing.

As a CSS kinda guy, I'm also a fan of tests that watch to make sure the site looks how it's supposed to look and there aren't unintended consequences of styling changings. Percy is awesome for that (see our video).

And while we're talking about all the different types of automated testing you can do, there are all sorts of tools to automate some level of accessibiilty testing. Plus, there are tools like Calibre and SpeedCurve that automate Lighthouse for watching performance.

Languages and language features that help us, wittingly or not

Take JSX, for example. It's entirely possible to write bad HTML in JSX, but you can't write broken HTML. The component will error out entirely and you'll know as you're working. That's not even close to the reason JSX exists, but I find it an interesting side effect. I've fixed many bugs in my career that had to do with malformed HTML causing problems, ranging from tiny side effects to massive layout blunders.

Prettier is catching the problem here, but we'd see an error in the console if this compiled and went to the browser.

Similarly, a tool like Emmet can help generate valid HTML. I use Emmet all the time, and didn't even think of that until it was mentioned to me.

I also think of React features, like PropTypes, that throw errors when missing or unexpected data is thrown at them. Not to mention you can configure your linter to yell at you if you're missing the PropType. That's pretty powerful testing to be enforced for a fairly small amount of labor (compared to, say, writing a test). You can even force them to help with accessibility.

It would be impossible to not mention TypeScript here. One of the major points of using TypeScript is code safety. The fact that it's getting huge (listen to Laurie Voss on this) points to the fact that we want to enforce that safety. I remember when Angular 2 came out, there were long, solid explanations as to why. People also talk about the tooling improvements you get with TypeScript: advanced autocompletion, navigation, and refactoring. They are all, in a way, also about code safety — having the editor help you write correct file names and function names. TypeScript or not, any sort of autocomplete/IntelliSense is great to have.

The whole idea of this post came from me thinking about how GraphQL has this "you can't screw it up" quality to it. You can't ask for data that isn't there, as it will error right as you're working with it — and then you'll fix it. And you can't get back data that you aren't expecting, as you've described exactly what you want back and that's what GraphQL does. It's not that you can't write bad code that uses GraphQL or write a bad GraphQL implementation, but the technology sort of encourages better code and I'm fascinated by that.

CSS-in-JS, while that's probably too broad a term generally, applies to this discussion. Most of the solutions on that spectrum involve some kind of style scoping, and style scoping provides this "you can't screw it up" topic we're focusing on. You can't cause unintended side effects when the selector you've just written compiles to something you've never hand-written, like .SpecificComponent_root_34lkj4x.

Your co-workers are an awesome line of defense

First, give y'allselves a system. Nothing goes to the master branch directly, and everything has to be a Merge/Pull Request. That gives you a spot to talk about code quality — not to mention a place where you can run a suite of automated tests before the code is dangerously close to production.

GitLab has a concept of approvers for a Merge Request. You pick some people that have to approve the branch before it can be merged.

GitHub has the same concept with protected branches. Perhaps the best thing you can do to prevent bad code is to widen the responsibility. There is always a risk this just becomes a glance-at-the-code-for-two-seconds-and-give-it-a-👍 motion, but that's on y'all to make sure reviews are taken seriously. I've seen lots of value in a requirement that many sets of eyeballs need to be on code before it goes out. "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" and all that.

We'll always be screwing up code, but we can also always be finding ways not to.

The post Make it hard to screw up driven development appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

😉SiliconWebX | 🌐CSS-Tricks

[suzanneshannon]

Make it hard to screw up driven development

Development is complicated. Our job is an ongoing battle between getting the job done and doing that job in a safe, long-lasting way.

Developers say things like, "I'm just going to do this quick and dirty first," because it's taken as fact that if you code anything quickly, it not only will be prone to mistakes, but that you'll be deliberately not honoring established conventions and skipping tasks that make for more solid code.

There is probably no practical way to make it impossible to write sloppy, bad code, but it is fascinating to consider how tooling has evolved to make it harder.

Let's get all Poka-yoke on development.

The obvious ones are automated code quality tools.

Say you're writing JavaScript. ESLint is a mega-popular tool that looks at your code as you are writing it and lets you know about issues.

ESLint is configurable and those configurations can be enforced to a team's liking. If you'd prefer to use some strong and established conventions, I believe the most popular out there is AirBnbs configuration.

There are alternatives to everything, of course. This post isn't so much about a comprehensive tooling list as it is about considering the types of tools that help us push us toward writing better code. That said, stylelint is good for CSS, PHP_CodeSniffer is good for PHP, and Rubocop is good for Ruby.

Prettier is in a similar, but unique category. It is like a "beautifier" for your code, in that it helps you reformat it not only to look good but to follow team conventions (e.g. single quotes! Two space indentions!) as well. The most common way to use Prettier is that it runs as you save the file. So perhaps you write quickly and don't worry about formatting as much, because it happens for you the second you save. There is an interesting side-benefit of quality here as Prettier can fail, and if it does, you have a problem in the syntax of your code you need to fix. Super useful.

Prettier failing.

I'm intrigued by tools like Sonarlint, Code Climate, and Resharper that look, to me, essentially like linters, but deliver only a best-practice analysis rather than configuring things yourself. It also claims to understand your code at a deeper level. Webhint and Deepscan look similarly interesting. Feel free to correct me if I have this wrong because I haven't gotten a chance to use any of them yet.

Taking linting a step further, you can make passing lint tests a requirement before files can even be committed into Git. Git hooks are the ticket here, and the most popular tool for managing them is Husky.

Similarly, actual tests are powerful preventers of bad code.

It's always smart to write tests. Deploying code that breaks features is embarrassing, a waste of time, and can negatively impact your business. Yet we do it all too often. The whole point of tests is to prevent that.

Things like Jest for JavaScript and RSpec for Ruby are useful, and considered unit testing. It's work! You manually write functions that expect certain results. I expect that if I call a function with these parameters it returns this value!

Test-Driven Development (TDD) is a practice in which you write the test before you write the actual code that does the thing you're trying to do. It's a nice way to work if you can pull it off, as you've got code coverage from the get-go.

Another type of automated testing is integration (also known as end-to-end) testing. I'm a fan of Cypress for that. It simulates a user actually using a browser. Go to this URL! Click this! Fill out this field and submit the form! Does this thing exist now? Is the URL what it's supposed to be? Is this other thing visible? That kind of testing is powerful in that a lot of things have to be going right for these to pass, so there is a ton of implied testing.

As a CSS kinda guy, I'm also a fan of tests that watch to make sure the site looks how it's supposed to look and there aren't unintended consequences of styling changings. Percy is awesome for that (see our video).

And while we're talking about all the different types of automated testing you can do, there are all sorts of tools to automate some level of accessibiilty testing. Plus, there are tools like Calibre and SpeedCurve that automate Lighthouse for watching performance.

Languages and language features that help us, wittingly or not

Take JSX, for example. It's entirely possible to write bad HTML in JSX, but you can't write broken HTML. The component will error out entirely and you'll know as you're working. That's not even close to the reason JSX exists, but I find it an interesting side effect. I've fixed many bugs in my career that had to do with malformed HTML causing problems, ranging from tiny side effects to massive layout blunders.

Prettier is catching the problem here, but we'd see an error in the console if this compiled and went to the browser.

Similarly, a tool like Emmet can help generate valid HTML. I use Emmet all the time, and didn't even think of that until it was mentioned to me.

I also think of React features, like PropTypes, that throw errors when missing or unexpected data is thrown at them. Not to mention you can configure your linter to yell at you if you're missing the PropType. That's pretty powerful testing to be enforced for a fairly small amount of labor (compared to, say, writing a test). You can even force them to help with accessibility.

It would be impossible to not mention TypeScript here. One of the major points of using TypeScript is code safety. The fact that it's getting huge (listen to Laurie Voss on this) points to the fact that we want to enforce that safety. I remember when Angular 2 came out, there were long, solid explanations as to why. People also talk about the tooling improvements you get with TypeScript: advanced autocompletion, navigation, and refactoring. They are all, in a way, also about code safety — having the editor help you write correct file names and function names. TypeScript or not, any sort of autocomplete/IntelliSense is great to have.

The whole idea of this post came from me thinking about how GraphQL has this "you can't screw it up" quality to it. You can't ask for data that isn't there, as it will error right as you're working with it — and then you'll fix it. And you can't get back data that you aren't expecting, as you've described exactly what you want back and that's what GraphQL does. It's not that you can't write bad code that uses GraphQL or write a bad GraphQL implementation, but the technology sort of encourages better code and I'm fascinated by that.

CSS-in-JS, while that's probably too broad a term generally, applies to this discussion. Most of the solutions on that spectrum involve some kind of style scoping, and style scoping provides this "you can't screw it up" topic we're focusing on. You can't cause unintended side effects when the selector you've just written compiles to something you've never hand-written, like .SpecificComponent_root_34lkj4x.

Your co-workers are an awesome line of defense

First, give y'allselves a system. Nothing goes to the master branch directly, and everything has to be a Merge/Pull Request. That gives you a spot to talk about code quality — not to mention a place where you can run a suite of automated tests before the code is dangerously close to production.

GitLab has a concept of approvers for a Merge Request. You pick some people that have to approve the branch before it can be merged.

GitHub has the same concept with protected branches. Perhaps the best thing you can do to prevent bad code is to widen the responsibility. There is always a risk this just becomes a glance-at-the-code-for-two-seconds-and-give-it-a-👍 motion, but that's on y'all to make sure reviews are taken seriously. I've seen lots of value in a requirement that many sets of eyeballs need to be on code before it goes out. "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" and all that.

We'll always be screwing up code, but we can also always be finding ways not to.

The post Make it hard to screw up driven development appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Make it hard to screw up driven development published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

[ohkinney]

thank you thank you thank you

So I just reached my next thousand and I am.... speechless. This is CRAZY. I made this blog in 2012 and all I wanted to do was express my love for this show through my gifsets and posts. It was definitely much smaller than any other fandom I had ever been in at the time but I think that’s also what made me feel so welcome.

There were some people I ended up talking to and becoming friends with but some that I never talked to and just simply admired. A lot of these blogs are inactive now but every single one of them has made me what I am today. I figured I should show my appreciation for a majority of these people. I will DEFINITELY miss out on a few people because the list is, believe it or not, quite long despite the size of the fandom. Anyway, here I go! (this is in no particular order btw)

I’m gonna start with @kinneysexual. Oh my goodness. Where do I even begin with Cami? When I joined the fandom, I think you were probably the most popular qaf blog/giffer (well you were to me, anyway). I was SO inspired by all your wonderful and unique gifsets and I’m pretty sure I would just stare and stare at them for hours when I could. I’m not kidding, I was so so so impressed and in awe of your talent and ideas. I don’t think we ever talked privately but anytime you reblogged one of my sets or mentioned me in a post, I would just DIE of happiness because you were honestly my QUEEN hahahaha. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have gone on a massive giffing spree when I made this blog. Thank you.

@kinneys. What the hell would I have done without your BEAUTIFUL qaf edits? I ain’t playing, y’all. Alice would take a few screencaps from the most difficult show to colour, put them together and turn them into ART. FUCKING ART. HOW???? I JUST DON’T KNOW TO THIS DAY. THANK YOU for making the show look a million times prettier than it actually is. Your skill also inspired me to edit even though I was never and will never be as talented as you are. Thank you.

@kinneyism. You are absolutely brilliant. In a way, your gifs are DECEIVING because you look at them and you’re like “wow! this show looks nice! It seems like the type of show that wouldn’t be complete torture to colour!” Well NOPE. YOU JUST HAVE MAGIC POWERS. I’m not kidding, while you inspired me to make gifs, I also felt extremely intimidated by you and would sometimes think well, what was the point of even trying to make gifs when art like yours already existed. But I pushed myself anyway and I never ever would have without your help! Thank you. 

@bottomvich. Another amazing, talented person. You were one of my biggest inspirations in this fandom. I don’t know what else to say other than thank you for blessing us with your gifs and edits. Your edits were gorgeous enough and then you gave us A LOT gifsets and just wow. I’m glad that I found your blog and that you were one of the people I really looked up to. Thank you. (also I’m pretty sure I’ve reblogged every single one of your qaf edits)

@celebrate-the-victories. SARAH!!!!! This is super cute ok but I did a lil bit of research and I’m pretty sure this is the first post of yours that I reblogged. So basically in four years, the tags I leave on your sets are still exactly the same??? Why am I not surprised????? OKAY MOVING ON TO THE MUSHY MESSAGE. Your blog REALLY stuck out to me. I was mostly seeing these really great Brian/Justin edits and I loved them but YOU. You posted these GORGEOUS gifsets of Ted/Blake, sets of them I had never seen giffed before and coloured with such a distinct style that made my heart warm. I was so happy that I found your blog and I’m so so so damn happy that you’re one of the few I followed at the start and are still active in the fandom and still posting these unique Ted/Blake sets that make me wanna die. NEVER EVER CHANGE. You are truly wonderful. Thank you. And I lowkey always wanted to be your friend BAHAHAH but I don’t think I ever actually reached out to you. GURL LOOK AT US NOW, CALLIN EACH OTHER BY NAME IN TAGS AND POSTS. 2012 ME WOULDA BEEN SCREAMIN (2017 me is still screaming what am i talking about) 

@xchelspaige​. Chelsee! You were one of the first blogs I followed, I think. And I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. Your gifs have always been gorgeous to me. But following you for this long, I witnessed your gifs getting better and better, prettier and prettier. The fact that you’re still making and posting your beautiful gifs l just.... This fandom is so lucky to have someone as nice and talented as you in it. Thank you. 

@queerasfcuk​. Okay, wow. I don’t know how to put this... You have made some of the BEST gifsets I have ever seen for this show. Oh my goodness. Your talent and creativity BLOWS MY MIND. All your sets have thousands of notes but you deserve millions! You were one of the blogs that both inspired me and intimidated me! I love everything about your gifs from the font you use, the way you sharpen them, their speed, the colouring, EVERYTHING. Can we all take a moment to appreciate these ICONIC gifsets though???: x x x. I appreciate all the effort you put into creating sets like those, I know I couldn’t do it. I can’t even tell you how much you really inspired me. Thank you.

 @ksica​. ONE WORD: HOW??!?! Just the other day, I was stalking my own blog (LMAO) and in one page, I reblogged a bunch of your qaf sets in a row and holy wow.... You have the most distinct colouring style on this entire site, I think? I’ll see a gorgeous and vibrant set and I’ll just know it’s yours. I don’t remember if I initially followed you for doctor who or queer as folk but damn I’m pretty sure you can colour ANYTHING. You are sosososososoososososo talented and I wish my qaf gifs were at least near your level. And you’re also just ridiculously nice??? Your entire blog is everything I aspire to be hahahahahaha. Thank you. 

@candlewinds​. JEEEEESS!!!!!!!!! I miss you SO much wow! I don’t think I followed you until I was maybe in the fandom for like two years or so??? But I remember seeing a bunch of your edits and just being completely amazed and inspired by you. You don’t wanna get me started on your gifsets PLS. You were one of the people with superpowers. The powers to make a 144p show look 720p. I CANNOT TELL YOU what your blog meant to me oh my god. I think you’re one of the first few friends I really made in this fandom and I’m so glad we really ended up talking instead of just reblogging each other’s posts and talking to each other through tags HAHAHAHA. You are, without a doubt, one of THE nicest people I have had the privilege of meeting. I remember we became friends then I went on a massive hiatus and when I came back, you were one of the first people to talk to me and you said something really sweet like “I’m so glad to see you on my dash again!!” and it made me so happy to be back. Thank you. 

@justintaylor. OKAY, LISTEN, LAURA. I LOVE YA AND I HATE YA. HERE IS WHY. I REMEMBER THE EXACT MOMENT I FIRST SAW ONE OF YOUR QAF GIFSETS. I was literally in SHOCK. I was like “wait........wait... why the hell does this look like it was giffed from a 1080p download/blu-ray dvds??? those don’t... exist for this show???” And so I stalked your blog for hours a lil bit and my jealous ass found out you had the dvds and I was FUMING ASIDHASOIDHAISHI I don’t think I had the desire to buy the box set until I saw your gifs tbh?????? I miss your qaf gifs so much though! I still think your sets are some of the prettiest in this fandom ever!! Maybe one day, I will make it to your level <3333 

@itsbriankinney. LEIRE! I wonder if you’re sick of me praising your gifs at this point HAHAHAH IDC IMMA PRAISE THEM FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. I already had the dvds when I followed you and I might as well BURN THEM ALL tbh. You don’t have the dvds and yet your gifs are better quality than mine will ever be lmao ashiahsiohasduaiasdhi and I can’t even hate you for it because you’re only the sweetest person on this planet omfg. I’m so grateful to call you one of my friends on here like I feel honestly BLESSED hahahahaha. I’ve only been talking to your for a short time but for some reason, I trust you with my life??? And I feel like you’ll always have my back and that’s such a nice feeling to have??? At first, I loved your blog for your qaf gifs but now I love you for so much more! I also realised we watch a lot of the same shows and share the same opinions and ships which is a plus! Thank you for being so kind to me. I hope you know by now that I will always be here for you!

And last but definitely not least, @xoxoemynn​. The first post of yours I saw was a response to an ask. I don’t remember which one it was but I remember being so in awe of how well you wrote. So obviously I had to stalk your blog for days and read as many of your analyses of the show/britin as I could. Yeah, I got nothing I needed to do done during those times bahahaha. TOTALLY WORTH IT THOUGH. I’m pretty sure ever since I found your blog, I desperately wanted to be your friend lmaooooo. So when you first messaged me, I was honestly fangirling, I’m not kidding. FANGIRLING. AND LOOK AT US NOW!! ACTUAL children laughing about things only CHILDREN laugh about iadhaishiashdaih and sending each other screenshots and talking like teenagers in high school and tbh I wouldn’t have it any other way. I also can’t think of anyone else I would have wanted to go through my biggest Tumblr drama with AHAHAHAHAH. You made me almost cry laughing during a time I probably should not have been laughing oh my god. I cannot imagine what I would have done without you. YOU ARE JUST SO GENUINE AND WONDERFUL AND I CAN’T BELIEVE I AM LUCKY ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO SAY “EMY IS MY FRIEND GUYS”. Thank you so much for your generosity and for making me laugh and for being there for me and for existing. Ily <3 

Unfortunately, some of the blogs I wanted to mention have deactivated and/or changed their urls and I don’t recognise them anymore. But just know, there were a lot more people who are in this list. And I’m so so so grateful for every single one of them. Thank you for making my time in this fandom nothing but wonderful. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!