#BUT it introduces so many interesting concepts it's worth checking out

[kandicon]

*through gritted teeth* there is no shame in tagging a for fun fic with the fandom tag of multiple continuities. Mixing continuities can't hurt me

[elysiansparadise]

Hello~~

I recently was going through your planet masterlist, specifically uranus, and I noticed you didn't have one for the 11th house.

So I was wondering if you could do a post on your thoughts on uranus in the 11th house?

Hello love! Sure, I can share my thoughts about this placement. 💙

Uranus in the 11th house

These natives are constantly thinking about the future, have a wide diversity of aspirations, and are very likely to be the kind of people with many different interests. These natives may find themselves constantly against those ideals rooted in the past, they are against concepts such as gender roles or the idea that if you are younger than someone you automatically have to respect and accept that they are right. From a very young age they work on developing their own criteria and mentality, it’s worth mentioning that they are people who do not easily get carried away by what their peers or people around them do. Ironically, they can even without realizing it be major influences on the lives of others and their lifestyles. They can become prominent and well-known either professionally or socially, so if they aspire to a career that involves contact with the public, it is likely that they will easily gain recognition. Although many of these people need their own space to enjoy their independence, they highly value friendship and give it a very important place in their lives. They are not the kind of people to desperately seek the company of others, but when they meet someone to call their friends, they are quite nice and encouraging towards them.

Since I mention the topic of friendship, here we find natives who will never try to exercise control over their friends, much less check what they do all the time. They are not consuming friends and enjoy watching their friends grow. In their social relationships, they are prudent and understanding. It is very likely that in environments such as school they could feel excluded, but this placement tells us about someone who can make friends both unexpectedly and in places or environments in which they did not imagine. Many of them are creative and inventive, their personality is authentic and they hate pretending to be someone they are not just to fit in. They can stand out for their way of thinking and their courage to speak their minds. They are very rational people while having a curious mind that loves to learn new things and different perspectives. They have a high amount of empathy and a strong sense of altruism, and it is not limited only to people they consider friends, as they like the idea of ​​helping people in need regardless of whether they know them or not. These people may have an interest in inventions, technology or electronic devices. Likewise, it is possible that they can forge very positive friendships on the internet. This placement increases the chances of success when it comes to working on things related to the internet.

Many of these people can easily introduce people to new ideas and concepts on a topic, they like to innovate when it comes to topics that they are passionate about. For many of them success is important, although they may have a different view of success compared to what other people see it as. Independence is a very important concept for them, they like to do things their own way and from a young age they will reject others placing expectations on them and, in turn, they will try to never expect things from people. They are not the type to want to change people, because if they don't want you as a friend they will only distance themselves from you. Once they define that they want you in their lives, they will appreciate you completely. Many of them probably take their time to open up emotionally to people, especially potential friends. This house also speaks of earnings through work; it is very likely that many of these natives aspire to jobs where they are their own bosses, jobs that are unusual or related to science, technology, or the internet. They may have diverse incomes, constantly change jobs or, if Uranus is making tense aspects, have somewhat unstable income.

-> Go back to the masterlist

[polarolds]

hiii i js wanna know if you have any ellabs fic recommendations?

hi anon! hoo boy i definitely have a few! here are some favourites that come to mind:

Unbroken by thedreadslayer

nobody is surprised, yall know i'm a slut for this fic as i've drawn fanart for it multiple times (and still have doodles and full ass comic pages that i haven't shared to tumblr).

This is THE ellabs fic in my mind. The character moments, the dialogue, the settings, the atmosphere... the slowburn is SO well-written. it is basically tlou 3 for me because reading it really captures the feeling of playing the actual games 😭😭 still ongoing but so many chapters to enjoy. There are SO many great key moments (don't want to spoil, but i'm looking at you chapters 10, 17, 21 and 26), but even the small, quiet interactions stand out to me. have admittedly re-read it more than once,,, maybe more than twice,,,

two hands digging in each other's wounds by michirukaioh

i believe this was the first ellabs fic i've read!! and it is a classic. Love this one for the progression of the ellabs relationship, but also for dear sweet lev and his interactions with ellie. Love the big reveals towards the end of the story with a new character that is introduced - keeping it vague because of spoilers. And the beach scene near the end is chef's kiss iykyk.

i've admittedly not been keeping up well with the sequel because i've been super busy and wanted to marathon the whole thing at some point, but would recommend checking it out too! both parts are complete :)

The Way Sorrow Tastes by painted__black

really interesting premise where abby and lev show up in Jackson at the start of the story and we see how all the survivors of tlou2 deal with the fallout. the continuation of the use of abby's dreams as a manifestation of her trauma/guilt was also interesting to me. starts pretty dark and gets even darker as we move further in the story, but still very good all the same. sadly idk if the story will be continued :( one can hope

oh, and I drew something for this one too! hehe

tail lights by junewax

another goodie and i loved how Cat (a character only mentioned in tlou2) comes into play in this story. i really like the feel and atmosphere of this story idk how else to describe it - it just captures a certain vibe that i really dug yknow? completed fic.

Both Sides Now by Fuckingvideogames

AU where ellie leaves Jackson after finding out the truth about the FireFlies from Joel and stumbles into Seattle. i LOVE this concept so much and this was such an interesting read. we get some nice early ellabs moments, and also get to see ellie interact with the Salt Lake Crew. sadly another fic which i don't think will be finished, but very much still worth checking out!!

and since this post is getting kind of long, here are links to some other fics i really enjoyed!

iron to the core by houndstoothed

bone chill by houndstoothed

Afterlife by maharetr

Assumptions by inspoburst

hope you find something you like fellow ellabs-enjoying anon! :'D and thanks for the ask <3

[ferronickel]

@stainedglassthreads asked about my inspirations when it comes to comics creation, which I am always excited to talk about! (You have unwittingly activated my trap card, so be prepared for a long ramble!)

My comics are primarily a product of the 2014 Image boom and the 2000s webcomic scene....

...and the main sources of my comics craft knowledge are the works of writer Kieron Gillen, artist Jamie McKelvie, and colorist Matt Wilson. They're an incredible team and everything they've done together is worth checking out, but I'm going to talk about two of their comics here. Young Avengers (2012) is a good place to start. Tons of formalism and interesting panel layouts. It's the first place I looked for inspiration when I was planning the design for Looking Glasses. Definitely worth checking out if you like cape comics, but also worth it if you don't, it's pretty stand alone. (Plus it introduces a lot of ideas and characters that Marvel is currently pillaging for the MCU, so it's always nice to see those ideas in their original context before my employers ruin it)

I can't talk about comics without bringing up The Wicked + The Divine (2014, written by Kieron Gillen, art by Jamie McKelvie, colors by Matt Wilson, lettering by Clayton Cowles). It's an incredible comic and a formalist masterpiece. 12 young people are reincarnated as gods, they have two years to live, and also they're pop stars. Issues frequently challenge the way you read comics, or break into completely other mediums (One issue was written almost entirely by real world magazine writers interviewing the in-universe characters). You can see my influences here pretty clearly: the interstitials, the style shifting, my recent (incredibly blatant) reference to Lucifer's transformation. Also the fashion, Jamie McKelvie is a fantastic designer! This comic is a must read for anyone interested in the medium of comics, especially Kieron's writers notes (all available here on tumblr at @ kierongillen), where he breaks each issue down panel by panel. The writer's notes are essentially a free masterclass in comics craft. (and when you've read that, check out the zine I organized with @gen-is-gone and 37 other artists here on tumblr at @iconic-zine) I cannot overstate that this comic is the reason I make comics.

I feel like I can't not mention DIE (2018, written by Kieron Gillen, art by Stephanie Hans, lettering by Clayton Cowles). Six kids disappeared into their d&d world and returned two years later, now they're adults and their past is coming back to haunt them. It's a fascinating exploration of portal fantasies, and has definitely influenced how I approach the dark world/darkners. (also, if you read DIE and want a good breakdown of the historical stuff, be sure to check out the podcast DIE-Compressed)

Honorable mentions: The visual stylings of Caspar Wijngaard in Home Sick Pilots (2021, Watters, Wijngaard, Bidikar, Muller) The colors of colorist Jordie Bellaire, in this case Injection (2015, Ellis, Shalvey, Bellaire) The work of Emily Carroll Everything from Pretty Deadly (2015, Deconnick, Rios, Bellaire, Cowles) A lot of stuff from Sex Criminals (2014, Fraction, Zdarsky), it's an incredible comic that goes way beyond it's (fairly nsfw) concept. There's a ton of formalist stuff here, and it tackles all sorts of concepts with a level of depth you wouldn't expect from such a silly setup.

In terms of webcomics influence, I am, unfortunately, a bit of a Homestuck. There's a lot to be said about this comic and I'm trying to keep my word count down here, so let's just say that it's arguably one of the most influential webcomics, and while many of it's ideas aren't necessarily unique or are derivative of other works it is singular in it's scope and presence. I find it mainly affects my own work in the way I think about the website design. (Plus, you know, Toby Fox)

Other notable webcomics that have influenced my work:

The works of Evan Dahm Barbarous Stand Still Stay Silent Lackadaisy (and a bunch more, but this has gone on long enough)

[inkdemonapologist]

thoughts on sammy being a system w/ either did or osdd?

(I’m not super familiar with the specific delineations of those disorders, so instead of getting distracted by the DSM for an hour, I’m mostly just going to talk about the idea of Sammy being part of a plural system in general!)

…Have you checked out the Cthulhu AU? Haha. I can’t give Cthulhu Sammy a formal diagnosis, especially when so many of his particular circumstances are supernatural (also, he's in the 1930s so he would get misdiagnosed with schizophrenia anyway), but he and Prophet are a plural system slowly trying to be less antagonistic to each other in that one. Here’s a couple asks that talk about that: https://inkdemonapologist.tumblr.com/post/677995806738022400/with-coc-im-confused-about-sammy-and-prophet-is https://inkdemonapologist.tumblr.com/post/717331733724413952/as-someone-with-osdd-i-gotta-ask-do-you

If you mean in canon…. Well, there’s no reason he couldn’t be, if the headcanon appeals, but the question seems really really broad! Adding plurality to an existing character requires like… developing new characters, and thus a LOT depends on what direction you go and what characters you introduce. Like, is the person we know as “Sammy” a specific member of the system who fronts a lot, and there’s others we haven’t met? Or is that version of Sammy the “singletsona” that several people have agreed on, brusque and keeping his thoughts to himself so that nobody notices when wildly different people have to hold front? I personally find it less interesting if Sammy’s huge belief/behaviour shift gets framed as just, those are two different people so there was no shift at all, but there are probably ways to handle it that could make it compelling.

BUT... ALL THAT SAID……. Sammy’s fate and general unhinged tendencies would mean this concept REALLY needs to be approached thoughtfully. Like, there’s a good chance he’s being supernaturally manipulated, but this is still the character who just loses his mind and starts murdering people to sacrifice them to a demon he delusionally believes has chosen him as its prophet, which is the sort of thing that gets harmfully associated with DID and other sorts of plurality in real life media a LOT, so pointing at one of the most murderously unstable and delusional characters in the franchise and casually going “what if THAT one is plural” dOES HAVE SOME, BAGGAGE ATTACHED.

I really like the presentation of this “so you want to write a plural character” essay, which was recommended by a plural friend – the discussions of harmful tropes, what makes them harmful, and how to approach those ideas with more care and humanity, is a really helpful framing to me. Prophet in Cthulhu AU did try to sacrifice people and could easily fall into the Evil Alter trope, but it’s been really exciting to see folks fall in love with him as his own person, someone who’s been manipulated and desperately needs help and connection.

I am just a singlet who has heard about plural experiences from friends, so take with that grain of salt, but for what it’s worth, i feel this would need some extra care. You can’t just write down “maybe DID” for Sammy on your list of “what neurodivergence & mental illnesses do the different BatIM characters have” and call it a day without that feeling VERY iffy, but if it’s something you want to develop and explore, I think it would be possible to do so thoughtfully!

[laurasimonsdaughter]

Gender Swapped Fairy Tales

by Karrie Fransman & Jonathan Plackett (2020)

My mother-in-law got this book and for obvious reasons she lent it to me. I have far more thoughts about it than I expected, so I thought I'd do a little ramble review for those of you that are interested in looking at fairy tales from a gender perspective:

Firstly: I think this is a very interesting, well introduced project

Fransman and Plackett, who are married, explain in the introduction that they didn't want to retell fairy tales but specifically chose to simply swap out all relevant gendered words (with a computer program created by Plackett) in an attempt to "illuminate and disrupt the gender stereotypes woven into the stories we've been told since childhood". This is also the reason, they explain, why they've stuck to a very binary approach to gender, not just changing "princess" to "prince" etc, but also changing "dress" to "suit" and so on. They used the text from the Langs' Fairy Books and tried to change as little as possible, to show how different it would be to have Cinderella's actions attributed to a man and Hansel's to a girl. It's a solid concept and I appreciate the effort they put into it.

Second: It's a beautiful book with gorgeous illustrations

Just look at these takes on Rapunzel and Beauty and the Beast, delightful!

So, if this looks like something that's your thing, I encourage you to check it out!

But of course I also have many nitpicky folklore feelings about this, so for anyone who is interested I will put those under the cut~

So, folklore feelings and ruffled fairy tale feathers:

This is a project with a very specific concept (complete binary gender swap, but edit as little as possible besides) and it's unfair to fault it for sticking to it, but I do think that not every fairy tale is equally well suited for such a treatment. I also think that the authors cheat a little here and there and if you start cheating then why not do it to make things a little more elegant?

Here are my thoughts on the gender swapped fairy tales this book contains:

Handsome and the Beast (Beauty and the Beast)

This one works very well, I think. Having a female merchant be the protagonist of the first half of the story and a male romatic hero the willing captive of a female beast changes the feel of the story completely while leaving all its main elements intact. It's interesting to see a female character lose her monstrous characteristics through the dutiful devotion of a man and it also highlights the uncomfortable parts of the story by recontextualizing them. I like it!

Cinder, or the Little Glass Slipper (Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper)

From a story perspective this one is as good as the previous one. It's fun to have an evil stepfather and stepbrothers obsessed with beauty, a fairy godfather, and a beautiful boy who longs for a ball. However, I really don't think "Cinder" has the same feel as "Cinderella" as a name. In the Langs' translation the protagonist is called both Cinderella and Cinderwench, which they swapped for Cinder and Cinderboy. This isn't quite right. "Wench" is a much nastier word than "boy" and "Cinder" is just the full noun not made into a name. If more editing was allowed, I would have taken inspiration from Norwegian fairy tales about Askeladden and called the protagonist "Ashlad".

How to Tell a True Prince (How to Tell a True Princess / The Princess on the Pea)

This one is silly, but so is the original. You can really tell that this is a literary fairy tale. But honestly the nonsense of it call is kind of the point and a princess looking for a dainty prince who bruises like a peach is a story worth telling.

Jacqueline and the Beanstalk (Jack and the Beanstalk)

There is nothing wrong with this one at all, but I don't like it much because there are plenty of trickster tales with women as the protagonists. Changing Jack into a girl doesn't really have much bearing on the story for me and it doesn't create a sort of story that's all that new. If I wanted to a girl defeating a giant I could also read Molly Whuppie. But I do see that Jack's characterisation of being silly and thoughtless, brave and brazen is unusual to see for a heroine, so there is that.

Gretel and Hansel (Hansel and Gretel)

Similar to the previous one I don't think this particularly benefits from a gender swap. Hansel and Gretel are both clever in their own way. There is a clear difference in Gretel being the one who cries more and has to do chores for the witch, but still. It does make me think though, because the male witch/wizard wanting to eat Gretel makes me more uncomfortable. One thing I find very funny in this one is that they didn't just change the duck they meet along the way into a drake (as in male duck, but now seems like a dragon), they also have the wizard call Hansel a "silly gander" instead of a "silly goose".

Mr Rapunzel (Rapunzel)

Now here I get very picky. I think "Mr Rapunzel" is a ridiculous way to solve for the fact that leaving it unchanged would make it seem like the same fairy tale. In fairy tales people are hardly ever addressed with titles like Mr or Mrs and it completely breaks the tone. I would have just kept it Rapunzel, as they do in the actual text of the story. What I do appreciate is the complete ambiguity in this version as to whether it is the husband or the wife who gives birth to the baby. But here is also the first moment of cheating: they have Rapunzel grow a long beard. That is a decided change. A boy could grow long hair just as well as a girl, it did not need to be altered. But it is an amazing image. I'm all for it. But if you make this change because it's cool, you can change more things. The dynamic between the Evil Wizard, Rapunzel and the Princess is very interesting with swapped genders though.

Snowdrop (Snow White)

I wanted to yell about unnecessarily changing the name again, but Andrew Lang was the one that changed the name from Snow White to Snowdrop, so my yelling is directed at him. In this story the gender language program comes up with some changes I just don't like the sound of. "My Lady Queen" turns into "My Gentleman King", while I think "My Lord King" would work a bit better, and "My noble King" a lot better. It also changes the Princess' bodice being laced up so tight it nearly kills her to the Prince's shirt. That's one hell of a shirt. The preoccupation with beauty is interesting with a king and prince though, and the female dwarves are fun.

Little Red Riding Hood (Little Red Riding Hood)

This certainly is interesting, because it's one of the versions where both Grandmama (so Grandpapa in this version) and Little Red Riding Hood get eaten and never rescued. I would have liked to see a brave female woodcutter, but having this story of straying off the path and getting preyed upon for it be centered around a boy is definitely impactful. The wolf is introduced as "Mistress Wolf", which I don't love but since the Langs' originally chose "Gaffer Wolf", I can't really argue with that. I do argue with the way the wolf is illustrated though. Because they gave her a head of blonde hair on top of her fur and a red lipstick mouth.

The Sleeping Handsome in the Wood (The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood)

This is very interesting with the genders swapped. (Again could be read as the King giving birth, fun.) I'm all for armoured princesses climbing towers and falling to their knees at the sight of slumbering princes. This is also the Perrault version with the second plot where the in-laws want to eat the new spouse and the royal children, which adds the dynamic of the young Queen going to war while the beautiful King stays home and is endangered. The title irks me though. While I fully supported the use of "Handsome" as a name in the Beauty and the Beast story, I do not like it here. I'm sure there is something patriarchal about the way "beauty" can be used as a noun describing a person, while "handsome" cannot, but "the handsome in the woods" just sounds very jumbled to me.

Frau Rumpelstiltzkin (Rumpelstiltzkin)

Again with the unnecessary name change. "Frau" is an interesting pick, perhaps they were inspired by Frau Holle, but it's really not needed and it looks very forced. I don't like this story as much as most of the others, but mostly because it's not a very nice fairy tale to begin with. The romance isn't romantic, the kindness isn't kind, and changing the genders doesn't change that. The young king fighting to save his baby daughter is very charming though.

Mistress Puss in Boots (Puss in Boots)

Listen. If you insist on having a different title for it, go all the way with the old-fashioned language for animals and make it Pussy in Boots. Or go with the "Madame Puss" that is used in the story since the Langs' decided to use "Monsieur Puss" (hilarious). But the gender changes are fun in this. The Prince falling head over heels for the freshly-fished-from-a-ditch miller's daughter is very good.

Thumbelin (Thumbelina)

Another one by H.C. Andersen and very clearly a literary fairy tale. I really like the name change to Thumbelin and having a single (?) man wishing for a child and finding one in a flower is very lovely. I've always liked Thumbelina's aesthetic but rather disliked the story, everyone is forever trying to marry her against her will. I don't like the story more with a boy in the same position, but the change does hit hard because it.

If I had to pick a favourite from this book, I think it's Handsome and the Beast, but Cinder is also very fun with the genders reversed. I like this book very much as an experiment, but while I agree with the choice not to make it actual retellings, I wish a few more tweaks were allowed to make some parts flow more smoothly.

[vixen525noms]

Meeting a Pen Pal

I have no idea if I'll make this an rp or story but I really love the concept and this was a fun drabble to make.

Warning: Lot of talk of monsters that eat folk. But none that actually happens yet.

-----

Juniper had been a bit hesitant to sign up to try the service at first. But the ad had free trials because the company wanted to use them to test things while they worked out everything before marketing it further. Some sort of magic crystal equivalent of pen pals. The crystal let you talk instead of just writing. She was curious about how they differed from normal communication magic. Apparently these were designed to only connect to a specific other crystal. This service they were testing was supposed to take your interests as a way to match you with a potential friend. She really didn’t have friends, so… it seemed worth a try.

So she filled out the form. She wrote about her interest in books, including which types were her favorites, then about how she enjoyed exploring hard to access areas in the deep woods, and even loved flying along the bluffs south of the barrier. She wrote down that she could sing, and someday wanted to learn magic. She wrote down she liked nature and biology, even listed off creatures she found interesting. She even found the monsters outside the border protection fascinating! She had read up on how many had different, unique biology not found among the less dangerous species. Of course she understood they were too dangerous to study, many even seeing folk like her as food, but it was still interesting to read about the dangerous species. She submitted her form and waited.

Juniper saw others on the street talking on their new, distinctive crystals before long, communicating with trial members at areas on the far sides of the haven or in other havens, and she felt a bit sad. It felt too fitting that she would be the only one not to get a match. Lonely as ever. She felt heartbroken that she was too different to talk to anybody. Maybe it had been a mistake to mention she found monsters fascinating. It probably scared others off. 

Then, she finally got one. A match. She hoped beyond hope it would work out. She heard some people turned theirs in to try different matches… maybe that’s why she finally got one? She didn’t care why. She had a chance at a friend. She had been so lonely. So when she had a break, she got it out and used it the first time. No answer, so she left a waiting message introducing herself. 

By the time she was on lunch break, there was a reply. She loved the friendly tone of the voice. When they mentioned a nice spot to chill, talked about the trees and the view, she was so excited! They liked to explore too! They even mentioned a spot just barely past the protection barrier… She thought she was the only one besides official transports who went past the barrier! It was so exciting. So she talked about a particularly difficult to reach area just past the barrier, the stream that ran through and how nice it was that nobody really went there. 

Soon they talked about books, and while she didn’t recognize what they mentioned, nor did they recognize hers, they happily talked about the plots of their favorite books and how they could check nearby stores and their respective libraries for the books. They would talk late into the night sometimes, and Juniper even sang for her new friend sometimes. She hadn’t sung for anyone in ages!

After a few weeks, the idea of meeting in person came up. Juniper was excited. Her new friend must not have been as far away in the sanctuary as she expected! Apparently they recognized one of the areas she described. Yes the woods were very dense and the hillside steep, that’s why both regular folk and monsters had little interest in it. But they seemed confident they could handle it as well. So Juniper packed some water bottles and snacks so she could spend her whole day off there, and left to start the trek. 

Unfortunately this meeting would not go as expected. She flew up the steep slopes, taking careful pause at her usual spots. She loved it up here. She knew there was only one predator hunting this area, and she had reasons to believe it would continue to ignore her occasional treks up here. Mostly because it couldn’t catch a quick winged fairy. She was glad she had taken the time to be sure of that modicum of safety. Couldn’t really take risks with such dangerous monsters. When she finally got to the highest part of the hill, she sat down under a tree to catch her breath, taking a sip. She pulled out her crystal to look at it. No pulse of light, so no waiting messages. Hopefully they would get up here. She really couldn’t wait to finally meet her friend.

[dryemiddi]

Hey, heard you were looking for utau fics! I’ve got a few, but most of them are Error/Ink, so if that’s not your jam then feel free to ignore :)

‘your best pal, ink’ by vicien_non is a pretty heart wrenching story about the end of the multiverse, that’s really short and easy to digest. It’s told over a series of quick letters and has one of those endings that sticks with you for a while after reading.

‘The End’ by ShandyCandy278 is a clever one-shot that looks into what might happen to the au characters (specifically Ink) when the ut fandom eventually dies. No relationships, just sad.

The whole of the ‘His Story’ series uploaded by TGK translations is a really interesting read, coming from many different povs and spanning all sorts of genres, and is mainly about the idea of multiple multiverses! It features a lot of very cool characters that I’d never even heard of before and introduces some pretty wild concepts.

One of my absolute favourites is ‘From Your Point Of View’, also uploaded (but not written) by TGK translations. It’s sadly unfinished but if you like bodyswap AUs then it’s a lot of fun! In exchange for no ending ;-;

‘The Two Cockroaches’ by Mutatedbunnies is a modern au featuring a ton of different relationships and dynamics. Very fluffy, very wholesome. Currently on hiatus but is still considered to be pretty popular on Ao3.

‘The Council Of The Inevitable’ is set 100 years after the x-event and is set primarily in the Omega timeline- features a lot of arguments and various sad moments, and a really interesting take on the cast of Underverse, plus a few others. It’s pretty long (and still updating after four years!) but absolutely worth it in my opinion if you’re a fan of unapologetic angst. Written by OnlyPlatonicIrl.

‘For the Forgotten Ones’ by Im_Sorry_Buddy I’ve only just started but looks amazing so far! A clever story where Nightmare finds Ink before he can destroy his soul and recruits him to his team of bad guys. Very cool concept and I’m loving it.

And finally, if you’re really desperate, I’m writing my own story at the moment called The Origins, which takes place after Dream is sent into a coma by his brother and is no longer able to fight for the multiverse. It’s not much compared to the rest of these but I’ve got some big things planned if you wanna check it out! Username Crunch_On_Toast.

All of these can be found on Ao3 with a quick search! Hope the list is useful, sorry for the self-promo haha

I've read the first one recently and (while very short) I thought it piqued my interest some! I'll have to remind myself to get around to trying these other fics... thank you!

[rachelbethhines]

60 Years of Doctor Who Anniversary Marathon - T. Baker 3rd Review

The Mind Runners / The Demon Rises - Full Audio

Let’s get one thing out of the way right now. The Mind Runners and The Demon Rises are not two separate stories connected by a story arc. They are the same damn story!

I don’t know why Big Finish tries to sell them separately (other then to gouge more money out of customers), but they are clearly a four part story that’s been split into two for no good reason, and that makes me mad! 

It’s dishonest.

I might have grumbled a bit at shelling out $22 for one story, but it would have been less offensive then selling half a story for $11, under the pretense of it being a single story in a larger story arc, and basically forcing me to pay other $11 if I want to get the conclusion. All in the hopes I’ll buy the entire season at a minimal discount; even though I don’t want extra stories, I just want the one!

It’s a poor business model that turns me right off the entire range, no matter how good the stories therein may be.

But then how good was this story?

Pretty dang good, actually.

One of the reasons why the Fourth Doctor is my least favorite Doctor is because he’s too much of a jackass in the show. An aloof asshole who thinks he’s always right, and tries to pass off his unemphatic air as being ‘alien’. I’m sorry, but his Bugs Bunny in space routine does nothing for me, and his dead eyed stare leaves me cold. Not helped by the fact that he’s one of the few Doctors without a character arc of any sort.

In short, while I think the Fourth Doctor has interesting stories, I personally find the Fourth Doctor himself to be a very uninteresting character the majority of the time.

But not here.

This story fixes that. By basically being written like a New Who episode. This is the Tenth Doctor being played by Tom Baker essentially; not the Fourth Doctor of the original series.

He’s kinder. He’s more considerate. He still has an ego, but can be humbled here. He isn’t just ordering people about, but providing explanations and encouraging people. He asks permission and says ‘I’m sorry’. He actually seems to give a damn about people dying, for once!

No this isn’t the Fourth Doctor at all, and that’s why I love it.

But there’s other things to recommend here as well. Both K-9 and Leela are utilized well. The story has good pacing, with plenty of plot twists that just keep piling on, until the wild climax. And it introduces an interesting new villain in Mr. Shift. A very comic book type character who has the potential to become a reoccurring foe. 

If there’s anything to criticize here, besides how its sold, is the fact that there’s arguably too many sci-fi concepts and not enough breathing room for all of them. We got inception style mind invasions, a cult of cyborgs, a mad scientist with polymorphic superpowers, a dying futuristic city running out of resources, a rocket made from human flesh, and a living planet that consumes people. That’s a lot, and not all of it comes together neatly.

Still, it’s at least interesting. You’ll never get bored of the tropes since nothing outstays its welcome. So if you don’t mind paying twice, this might be something worth checking out if you’re a Who fan.

[spider-self]

@tczier liked this for a starter

In the early years when Derry was little more than an idea of a few weary settlers. IT had mapped out the area IT wished to inhabit, weaving threads of silk across the land until IT’s territory was firmly established. Every few cycles IT refreshed the lines, spinning and working until there wasn’t a single place in Derry IT didn’t have some form of access to. In the quiet of IT’s inner sanctum, IT laid IT’s many legs on each strand and listened to the town, picking IT’s prey from the whispers IT heard. Poor Eddie Corcoran, poor Betty Ripsom, poor poor Veronica Grogan. When the brats forced IT into early slumber, it was the twitching of the threads that woke IT up. Each of them thrumming with a note of violence and pain too tantalising to ignore.

Poor Adrian Mellon, beaten to a pulp and thrown over the side of the bridge for the audacious act of having a boyfriend in public. Such a crime could not exist in a town such as Derry, small minded and stupid, it was almost a matter of civic pride how much the other was abhorred. It was an attitude IT cultivated as IT did the steady outbursts of viciousness and cruelty that popped up within the boundaries. If they hurt and killed each other, half of IT’s work was already done. All IT had to do was sup on the meat, and Adrian Mellon had been a hearty meal. So rich and full of terror, pain and regret salted him well and with each bite, IT learnt more and more. How he’d never thought this would happen here. Not in the town he loved so much, not in this place where everything was going so well. What about Don? Was he okay? Was he still alive? What about the book he was writing? Who would finish it now?

The scent of those fears came to IT now as IT slowly trailed Richie through the town. Fear, shame, a kind of uneasy excitement. Interesting… In the time between IT’s summons and their arrival, IT had made an effort to learn what the losers’ club had been up to for all those years. Each was successful in their own right, rich and famous. None more so than Richie who seemed to have made a career out of what IT found so dreadfully irritating. His voice. For someone who had lived in such a big city and traveled all over, IT would have assumed he would have gotten over such a fear. The rest of the world was not Derry. Surely there would be somewhere he would feel comfortable to simply be?

Evidently not, being back here had only reignited those fears. IT had toyed with him briefly, claiming to know the secret that was only all too obvious to anything with a nose. Human scents were so primitively obvious it was a wonder they could hide anything from each other. Considering Richie’s disposition, IT wasn’t surprised when he slipped into a bar. Perhaps he thought such a place would repel IT. A good guess if not a foolish one. After all, what childhood monsters could stand up to the assured adulthood of a stiff drink?

But IT was a nightmare unlimited in IT’s scope. Children were easier but adults were just as tasty. For the longest time all IT had wanted was a good meal and IT’s long rest. The losers had introduced IT to a new concept entirely, a want for revenge. Perhaps IT would thank them after they were dead. It was a learning experience worth having.

IT followed him.

The bar was full, raucous laughter filled the air along with the stink of stale sweat and low level aggression. IT found within Itself a certain admiration for Richie in choosing such a place to bolt to. Among its many vices, Derry was a drinking town. Depressed by nature and deprived in others, there was little else for many to do but piss away their pay check and seethe at their misfortune. If only they could leave, if only things would change. They never would of course and it was that anger that fuelled the many acts that kept IT’s belly full. IT loved them as only IT could, like pigs IT had carefully and tenderly raised for slaughter. As IT picked IT’s way through the crowd, those who had enough sense to know IT in some small way shivered as IT passed, a hush settling in little pockets between the noise.

As for Richie, he seemed several drinks in. An almost empty glass set in front of him, his posture low so he was almost hunched over the bar. It was nothing for IT to force the bartender away with a simple command, the flexible mind snapping under the force of it. Now IT was directly in front of him and IT took the time to shift IT’s features, mimicking the human it had sent away.

“Don’t you think you should slow down a little, buddy?”

[generative-adversarial-nitwit]

what are you using/studying to learn japanese? I've always wanted to learn but duolingo is famously bad for learning.

if you want sort of a firehose of knowledge, this doc from reddit was super helpful to me for sorting through strategies and resources and picking a few ways to start. it’s definitely worth checking out to see what sticks for you. most of what i’m using now actually came from there!

my main goal for right now is to be able to read decently. the “tangible” (sort of a joke, but somewhat genuine) goal is that if i look at a japan travelogue video on youtube, i want to be able to read the restaurant menus/signs haha

i’m currently using a combo of: wani kani (for kanji/vocab), duolingo (mostly for drilling kana), and Genki textbooks (grammar).

honestly duolingo is perfectly fine for kana, if a little slow. i’ve also found that i don’t need to be hardcore fast on the draw with kana just to be able to proceed with stuff like wani kani, and doing those things in tandem with kana practice helps to strengthen my memory of the kana.

wani kani is like a much more approachable, curated version of SRS utilities like Anki. it has a built-in curriculum that focuses on teaching kanji radicals (the building blocks of various kanji), then teaching kanji that build off those radicals, then vocabulary that use the kanji. since it has a built-in schedule, this is the main thing i’m structuring my learning around. typically i’ll do a review, then set an alarm on my device for the next review that’s at a reasonable hour, and then repeat, so i remember to do them. i do kana and grammar learning to pass time in-between.

i really like wani kani; it has a very friendly interface and will programmatically determine how strong i am on a given “card” (this is one of my hangups with anki, which depends on self-evaluation). the built-in mnemonics can seem silly at first but are genuinely helpful. more than anything i think the focus on radicals REALLY helps with efficiency and retention in the long run rather than rote memorization of JLPT vocab. the drawback is that some of the kanji/vocab might end up being a little esoteric in practice. it’s also slow to start — you have to keep at it to get a fuller review schedule. wani kani is also completely free until level 4, which is legitimately very chill of them because 3 levels is a crazy amount of knowledge to get for free and many people will quit well before that point. they also have an active community and a public API which means extensions and apps galore if you want to customize the experience

genki is good to read through at your own pace for at least the grammar. it can be found at a variety of booksellers or maybe other ways if you don’t have the budget. it has practice activities you can try if you like! i personally like to read through a lesson and then practice typing out my own sentences using the vocab and concepts that it introduces, but i’m not stressing too much about doing each chapter top to bottom. i really like having it as a reference text. the illustrations are cute also

listening/immersion can be anything you find interesting. in particular i like dogen’s channel because the dude writes/speaks very eloquently and is also just very funny (the thumbnails might seem a little bit annoying. the content is good i promise). he’s a foreigner who’s lived in japan for a long time and he has pretty insightful commentary from that perspective, which he delivers as like… comedic rakugō shitposts. he’s also a good introduction to the idea of pitch accent. my personal favorite of his is Uncle Magnet

OH also jisho.org is a very good dictionary resource. ok i think that’s all! がんばって!

[daveg65]

261 - Brydge Lives and Emergency SOS Saves - With Jeff Gamet and Guests Guy Serle, Mike Potter

The latest In Touch With iOS with Dave he is joined by guest, Guy Serle, Mike Potter, and Jeff Gamet. The revival of iPad keyboard maker Brydge with new owner, the iPhone's life-saving SOS feature saves another person, a case involving stolen Apple products, iCloud storage price increase in UK and other countries.  Some nostalgia for the first iPhone which went on sale June 29, 2007 16th anniversary., A new Motorola Defi pocket satellite link gadget lets you text messages immediately. The Apple Trade-in plan worked well for Dave with good pricing and a review of experience. Plus tips on what to do before you send in your trade-in out and more.

The show notes are at InTouchwithiOS.com


Direct Link to Audio 

Links to our Show

Click this link Buy me a Coffee to support the show we would really appreciate it. intouchwithios.com/coffee 

Another way to support the show is to become a Patreon member patreon.com/intouchwithios

Website: In Touch With iOS

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News

iPad keyboard maker Brydge revived under new ownership; details on unpaid salaries and unfulfilled orders unknown

iPhone 14's Emergency SOS via Satellite Feature Saves California Hiker

New Hampshire Man Pleads Guilty to Taking Huge Bribe to Ship $2M Worth of Stolen Apple Products 

Apple Hikes iCloud+ Subscription Prices in Many Countries Around the World

Apple No Longer Offers Interest-Free Financing in Canada

Stardew Valley Coming to Apple Arcade on July 21

T-Mobile ditches AutoPay discount for Apple Pay despite history of security woes - 9to5Mac

Apple Store employees get their iPhone X upgraded to iPhone 14 

Topics

Beta this week. 1OS 16.6 Beta 4 was released this week. iOS 17 Beta 2 continues.

Apple Seeds Fourth Betas of iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6 to Developers

Apple Seeds Fourth Beta of watchOS 9.6 to Developers

Apple Seeds Fourth Beta of tvOS 16.6 to Developers

iOS 17: Eight Privacy and Security Improvements Coming in Apple's Next Update 

iOS 17 Photos App Can Tell You What Those Confusing Laundry Symbols Mean

How to turn photos into iMessage stickers with iOS 17

What iOS 17 features you aren't going to get at launch

The first iPhone went on sale on June 29, 2007. We discuss this anniversary and what  the future holds for iPhone. 

Lets see what ChatGPT says about this anniversary.  This highly anticipated device, developed by Apple Inc., revolutionized the mobile phone industry and set a new standard for smartphones. The release of the original iPhone marked the beginning of a new era in mobile technology, combining a sleek design with a multi-touch interface and introducing the concept of mobile applications. With its groundbreaking features, such as web browsing, email functionality, and a built-in iPod, the iPhone quickly captured the imagination of consumers worldwide. The launch of the first iPhone paved the way for subsequent generations of smartphones, fundamentally changing the way people communicate, access information, and interact with technology.

Is this a new way to use satellite SOS? The Motorola Defy Satellite Link is a keychain sized device that provides Satellite connectivity plus SOS. SOS in the iPhone is only available in emergencies; this can give you connections for text and check-ins. 

 This small gadget gives you the iPhone 14's best feature for $149 

Apple Trade in guide. Dave bought a new iPhone 14 for a family member and gives his experience.

How to trade in your MacBook, macOS desktop, iPhone, or iPad

Macstock 7 is here! Tickets are Sold Out but Virtual Tickets are available.Dave is speaking again at the event along with Jeff Gamet, Brittany Smith, Chuck Joiner, and many others. Please join in all the fun July 22-23, 2023! Speakers Link.

Our Host

Dave Ginsburg is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users and shares his wealth of knowledge of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and related technologies. Visit the YouTube channel https://youtube.com/intouchwithios follow him on Mastadon @daveg65, 

Twitter @daveg65.and the show @intouchwithios

  Our Regular Contributors

Jeff Gamet is a podcaster, technology blogger, artist, and author. Previously, he was The Mac Observer’s managing editor, and Smile’s TextExpander Evangelist. You can find him on Mastadon @jgamet as well as Twitter and Instagram as @jgamet  His YouTube channel https://youtube.com/jgamet

Ben Roethig Former Associate Editor of GeekBeat.TV and host of the Tech Hangout and Deconstruct with Patrice  Mac user since the mid 90s. Tech support specialist. Twitter @benroethig  Website: https://roethigtech.blogspot.com

About our Guest

Guy Serle Is the host of the MyMac Podcast email Guy@mymac.com @MacParrot and @VertShark on Twitter Vertshark.com,  Vertshark on YouTube, Skype +1 Area code  703-436-9501

  Mike Potter is the organizer of Macstock Conference: and the host of the For Mac Eyes Only Podcast. You can reach him on Mastodon: https://tooting.ninja/@formaceyesonly https://tooting.ninja/@macstockexpo

Here is our latest Episode!

[ultra-maha-us]

Graphic Design Tips: Successful Business Card Design

Business card designs have come a long way and are in great demand, particularly with the vast variety of options being designed by graphic designers. A number of elements must be taken in consideration while making visiting cards, for them to serve their purpose effectively.

Before you consider the options for new cards, you must educate yourself about all the techniques that can help your card be your key to success.

Determine your goal before you design your business cards. Is your goal to introduce yourself as an individual or as a business or do you want to create a unique identity? Your purpose will determine what your card will look like.

You must ensure that all important information is included in your card, including your name, the company's name, contact information, office address and company logo.

In addition to your company's name, add information about what products or services you offer in one short sentence or even a phrase. The person looking at your card should know at a glance what your organization does.

Design your card to look unique, extraordinary and worth keeping. Out of the numerous design options available, look for something that will make clients remember you.

Including your photograph to your card adds value and connects your face to your company's name Business card for clients who might remember either one. You can choose a picture or use typography that depicts your business or industry.

Before you print the cards, you still have to review and select the right material for the cards. The card, the concept and the selection of paper should all complement each other. Interesting options include matte, glossy, torn edges, perforated edges or textured. The texture should be such that all content gets printed well.

The size of the card should be such that it can easily fit into the standard card holder available in the market. Usual wallets also have standardized pockets for keeping business cards. Select the size of your cards to fit into these holders and pockets so that your clients can keep them conveniently.

Your business card will be the image representing you and your business at many places and make sure your final selection is one that creates a good image.

Prepare for the time in the future when you might be extending your business globally or to a specific location. Your business will benefit if you design your business card in the language of your targeted region.

Compare the card design with other business cards and make relevant changes based on whether you want to conform or stand out. However, if you are pleased with what your card looks like, proceed with the printing.

Most people realize the significance of business cards and the role they play in introducing the owner to a prospective client, which is why a great deal of thought goes into every business card. Before you select your next card design, check out the numerous templates available online.

[handwovenshawls]

Get Your Kids Hooked on Healthy Eating with this Exciting New Game Featuring Fruits and Vegetables!

As a parent, you know how challenging it can be to get your kids to eat healthy foods. With so many tempting junk food options available, it can be tough to convince them to choose a healthy snack over a sugary treat. But what if there was a way to make healthy eating fun and exciting for your children? Well, now there is! Introducing a new game designed to get your kids hooked on healthy eating featuring fruits and vegetables!

This game has been created with the specific aim of promoting healthy eating habits in children. It is designed to be engaging, interactive, and fun, making it the perfect tool for parents looking to encourage their kids to make healthier food choices. The game is suitable for kids of all ages, from toddlers to teenagers, and is a great way to introduce them to new fruits and vegetables they may not have tried before.

The game is simple to play and is based on a matching concept. Players are presented with a grid of fruits and vegetables, and they must match the correct pairs to progress to the next level. The game is designed to be visually appealing, with bright colors and cute characters to keep kids engaged and entertained.

One of the best things about this game is that it is not only fun but educational too. As children play the game, they will be learning about the different fruits and vegetables and their health benefits. They will learn that fruits and vegetables are not only delicious but also good for their health, which is a message that can be challenging to get across to kids in a way that they will understand.

The game has been designed with input from nutritionists to ensure that it promotes healthy eating habits. It features a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including some that are less well known, such as dragon fruit and kale. By introducing children to a variety of fruits and vegetables, the game encourages them to try new things and broaden their taste buds.

As well as being a fun way to promote healthy eating, the game is also a great way to spend quality time with your children. Playing the game together can be a bonding experience and a chance to talk to your kids about the importance of healthy eating. You can use the game as a starting point for conversations about healthy eating and why it is essential to fuel our bodies with nutritious foods.

Another great feature of this game is that it is available on a variety of platforms, including smartphones and tablets. This means that it is easy to access and can be played on the go, making it perfect for long car journeys or waiting in line at the supermarket. The game is also free to download, which makes it accessible to everyone, regardless of their budget.

In conclusion, In conclusion, teaching kids about healthy eating habits is crucial to ensuring they lead a healthy and happy life. With the help of this exciting new game featuring fruits and vegetables, parents can make healthy eating fun and engage for their children. By incorporating more fruits and vegetables into their diet, children can develop strong immune systems and reduce the risk of chronic diseases later in life. And while we're on the topic of health, it's worth noting that taking care of our finances is just as important as taking care of our bodies. If you're interested in learning more about global Islamic finance and how it can help you achieve financial stability and growth, be sure to check out

global islamic finance magazine

.

[typicalf001]

4 Years of Review On

Time really does fly readers. One weekend you open up a cheap editor to make a small website, and the next weekend the website you published is four years old and has around two hundred uploads. A small project you poured little effort into now represents all your dedication and hard work, and what was a hobby is now a job you attend to in your free time. I’ve been writing video game reviews since 2019, and my experience with gaming and journalism has grown a lot since then. Four years worth of experience and I want to talk about how I got this website to where it is today. This article won’t be structured like or as long as my traditional essays, but a reflection on how Review On came to be. So sorry if the focus of this story gets a little out of control.

Growing up I enjoyed writing . Doing the best I could to analyze the material given to me by my school teachers and putting together acceptable essays. Practicing my grammar, expanding my vocabulary, and overall ability to write. In my class journal I wrote original stories or retold stories I knew so that my surroundings peers could understand. It was a fun hobby and at times I would finish my class assignments early just so I could have more time to write what was in my mind. I did get made fun of this hobby though. I didn’t have that many friends, and at the time my parents didn’t have jobs that paid them well enough to afford the latest trinkets. I was made fun of for where I came from or what personal interests I had. It made me feel down, but to escape this discomfort I would retreat to my journal. To write, create, and be proud about what I was jotting down. Writing was an escape from reality and I did whatever I could to be free.

Years later my parents got better paying jobs. They were able to afford more luxuries for the family and introduced me to new hobbies. One such activity was gaming, which I wasn’t big into at a younger age but would soon be as we’ll explain shortly. I kept writing stories and ideas, but overtime I started to feel burnout. I was tired, running out of creative energy, and needed something else to write about. One day a classmate made fun of a show I liked, imitated me, and pretended to write a bad review for it. I was irritated for a few minutes, but then an idea sparked in my head. “What if I wrote about things I loved?” Give personal critiques, explain what is right and wrong, and reasons why more people should check it out. It was me figuring out how to write reviews. I was aware the concept of reviewing products and media existed for the longest and that not everyone in the reviewing was positive, but I wanted to deliver what were more positive takes. List reasons why people should check out things I love rather than skip them.

I was writing about cartoons at first because at the time those were my main interests, but slowly I eventually ran out of cartoons to talk about and found out half the time I was just re-explaining the main premise. Then one day I played this little indie game known as Shovel Knight. This challenging side-scrolling platformer which was reminiscent of old school titles. I felt inspired by it. The fact it was made by a small team of passionate developers, it had a goofy world and characters, and it demonstrated how time and hard work pays off. I wanted to express my love for this game, so I did! I wrote a review on Shovel Knight and showed it to as many people as possible. They were annoyed, which is fair to be honest, but they enjoyed what I had to say. From then on I wrote reviews on whatever games I owned but soon I ran out of games to cover.

8th grade was coming to a close and I was about to head into high school. Summer left me with a lot of freetime and  I used that time to catch up on games I never bothered trying in the past. My love for gaming was starting to grow and I wanted to expand my horizons beyond the Nintendo titles I grew up with. I purchased a couple of commonly known indie games on my Switch, and using an Xbox One a family friend gifted I played a handful of Triple A titles. Hollow Knight and Octopath Traveler being two of my favorite games and discoveries I made that summer. High school comes and I’m struggling to fit in with the bigger crowd. For middle school I went to a small private religious school, but I went to a big public place for high school. There were kids coming from everywhere and I got to learn things my previous school didn’t teach. I was confused and above all lonely. My parents felt bad for me, and one day my father took me to a local Best Buy and purchased a console I wanted earlier that year. God of War was the most highly acclaimed game of 2018, and I wanted to see why it was so beloved. However, I didn’t have a PS4 to play it. Mainly just a Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. My father got me a PS4, and man it’s the best gift he ever bought for me. I have bought so many games for my PS4, and even though I now own a PS5 I’m still playing a majority of games on what is probably my favorite console. My love for gaming grew further and with it more games to write about.

One of the classes I attended during my freshman year of high school was art. It was fun, let me get creative, and hone my drawing skills. However, I was struggling to connect with the kids in the class and didn’t feel encouraged to talk to them. Then one day I asked them if there were any games they’d recommend me to pick for my PS4 and the closest person to me suggested this: Bloodborne. I bought it a few days later to see what was up. At first I turned it down due to its punishing nature. Soulsborne games are titles I’d usually avoid especially since they had very few options of lowering the difficulty and making themselves easier, but there was this little voice in my head telling me I could do it. I beat Hollow Knight earlier that year and it was one of the best achievements I’ve made up until that point. I wanted another hard game to give me that feeling again. So I played Bloodborne  and it was one hell of an experience. I love Bloodborne so much, it’s one of my top three favorite games of all time. I immediately wrote a review after my first playthrough and showed the person who recommended it to me. He was impressed with my work and asked if I ever shared it with more people. I said “Yeah of course I tried showcasing it to my classmates!” but then he said, “No, I mean make it accessible online for individuals like me to encounter?” I never thought about this idea, and seeing how at the time I had a collection of short written reviews I thought it would be easy to transfer them to a digital format. I wrote all my works down onto Google Docs, found an easy website to form a blog page, and published my website. Review On, a shining little place to talk about the best video games out there.

I was able to make my reviews look fancier, add pictures to them, and signal when a new section was about to begin. It was hard at first as my website didn’t pick up much traction and the WIX editor I still use didn’t allow me to do everything imaginable unless I paid them a bunch of money, but I worked around the issues and got it working. My friend, who I still keep in touch with today, regularly goes to my site and says how well done my work is. I was happy and kept writing reviews for him and the people I wanted to impress. Writing reviews became a hobby and it felt like I was going somewhere. I was creating content I could be proud of and my sad lonely life finally had some use. I had a purpose, and I created it rather than let others control me. 

Life was good now, but I still felt like I could have been doing better. One day I thought about writing a more in depth review. Something that wasn’t as brief as the reviews I was writing up till that point. I decided to write an in depth essay about a game I already covered. The original review was a piece I was not pleased with and I felt like it had more to offer. It’s one of my favorite essays, Hollow Knight Is A Masterpiece. It’s not as great as some of the other essays I’ve written and some sections of it are messy. There was a short paragraph that explains video game difficulty and it would be expanded in my essay defending games with no difficulty options. There’s another section where I tried saying it was the best indie game of 2017 and tried making comparisons to Cuphead which was incredibly unfair. However, I put so much love into writing it. Explaining the mechanics, the world, the story, and what developers could learn from it. I enjoyed going through a game I already covered and doing it better. Did the exact same thing for other games I wrote simplistic reviews on like Prey, Nier: Automata, Octopath Traveler, and Bloodborne once again. My writing skills were improving and it helped me become more critical with my reviews going forward. It even helped me with high school writing as before I was having a hard time due to the low standards my middle school set me up with.

I kept writing and writing. Seeing my work get longer, chunkier, but better. I even went back and rewrote older reviews. Transforming them into the form you see me write now. A majority of my work I’m pleased with, but occasionally there are times where I feel like something is not right. Grammar errors, info that wasn’t there before, the review score no longer matching up to current views, etc. I spend hours editing previous work and making them better. Deleting what wasn’t necessary, or adding what was necessary. That’s probably my biggest flaw with me as a reviewer. That I’m never pleased and always see improvement that could be made. Yet this is also a pro as I’m always working towards my best self. My writing got better, but also my views on gaming. 

I checked out a good handful of reviewers and youtubers during high school to see what tips and tricks I could pick up. One of the critics I took a lot of influence from was Yahtzee Croshaw, who you may know for Zero Punctuation. He wasn’t my favorite reviewer and listening to a guy constantly being negative becomes draining after awhile, but he was the most sensible and honest reviewer I’ve ever witnessed. He always had points to make. What was being done right in a game and what was done wrong. What developers and writers should take away even if it’s bad. That nothing is immune to criticism and if all you can do is shower praise then you’re not ever gonna know what you should be doing as a creator. I took note of this and that’s why I always try to have sections in my reviews on what is done wrong. Even when a lot is done right. Occasionally he’d cover games that were really obscure, indies I never heard of because I wasn’t big into the indie scene at the time. I picked up games that he recommended and they managed to amaze me. I kept playing more indie games and found out the scene had a lot of gems hidden within. Then I thought, “Why don’t I expose these lesser known games to general audiences?” It was an epic plan and ever since then I’ve been trying to review whatever obscure games I could find. I am always in the pursuit of what is great, interesting, innovative, and well designed.

Flash forward to where we are today. I kept reviewing up as a hobby and have now covered two hundred games. That’s a lot of time and money spent towards gaming. Time that could be spent towards sports or becoming popular in school, but I’d say it’s worth it. I get more readers now that I know how to advertise myself and know how social media works. I partnered up with a site named Sinical Network and occasionally I hand them some of my existing reviews so they can sponsor me. I am a fan of multiple genres, even ones I used to despise at a younger age. And a media I had little interest in once has grown into my biggest hobby. I got to make a lot of friends along the way, meet other writers who gave me advice, and for once feel accomplished for what I was doing. Was I gaining anything in the real world? Not much, I mean my site isn’t monetized and I don’t take cash or donations from people. My site is getting better, but still isn’t truly the best it could be. There are times I feel like I should have programmed one myself rather than use a wix editor. There are times I wonder if making videos would have been a better option than writing these articles, because more people these days are less likely to read even when it’s online. However, I’m proud of what I have done. Four years and I’m no longer in high school. I’m in college and life is getting much busier. I still try to find time to play games and write. I don’t pump out as many reviews I used to, but when I deliver one it’s top quality. Always expect the best, because I want to deliver the best. Here, now, and moving forward this year.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to all the devs who brought these wonderful years of gaming. Your work brings joy to many and without it I and this site wouldn’t have come into existence. Just, thank you, and to anyone who feels discouraged in life just know you will get there. To a place that’s grand and right for you. Just keep trying and you’ll achieve it.

[caldwellskinner]

Four Lessons You Possibly can Learn From Bing About Dating

Dating progressively is normally a extremely trial. A few of the guys who are infamous in the dating world include the players who like to dip their toes in multiple ponds directly, egocentric guys whose principal priority is their own satisfaction, the guys who are emotionally unavailable and usually are not willing to open up, and the control freaks who wish to let you know what to do, when to do it, and the way to do it. They do, I hope. It matches you with people on the airport, at your destination or even on your flight for the (most likely distant) hope of an "encounter" within the air. נערות ליווי ברמת גן Slim minimize denims and a tight tee, I hope. If you date, you meet all kind of individuals from all walks of life, and while there are lots of great men on the market, there are also fairly just a few who give the remaining a foul title. We solely need a number of particulars from you earlier than you create your Hawkes Bay dating profile, upload your photograph and start getting messages from different mature dating singles. Create your profile without spending a dime and begin shopping through their profiles.

Whether you're going to search out the love of your life, going to have a great time or going free of charge food, we would like to know what your concept of a dream date is. No such folks dwell within 1,000 miles of me, as far as I do know. Throughout history, many individuals have managed unusual preferences they may be judged for by preserving relationships secret or trying to suit into loveless, mismatched ones. But some preferences are more specific - like wanting a accomplice who's a bit of long within the tooth, or who has stunning teeth. Like the inexperienced dude stated: “Do or do not. If you possibly can plan out the right date with the proper particular person, what would it's like? We promise you, no matter you're into, there's definitely a pool of perfectly nice individuals who need to do issues the same means as you -- and isn't that a fairly nice foundation for a relationship, or a minimum of a first date? Regardless of your style, we can help plan a enjoyable-crammed first date! First dates are always vital as this is where you’ll get to have your first impressions about one another.

The nice factor is that budgeting your dates will probably pressure you to think about more interesting activities. Michael Blaustein, like most celebrities, prefers to maintain his private and love life personal, so check back typically as we will continue so as to add new dating information and rumors to this web page. And quite a lot of us choose partners who seem like our dad and mom, so have enjoyable unpacking that one. I tell them I've an early morning. The pair had been noticed on quite a few dates and Rita was pictured doing the 'stroll of disgrace' early one morning from his London house in the identical outfit she had worn the evening before. Are you extra old school and also you want your dates to open the door for you, or do you want to open the door to your personal Uber? Call and tell them sorry, but they're dumped. It's Ok to be single, you just inform folks you have been widowed and blame the plague. What should disabled individuals count on?

You wish to be with different individuals. If you would like breakfast or brunch, we suggest going to Dante. You are going to hell. No, they're going to hell. No, I have loads of buddies and household, plus a dog. On the place of the proposal, their complete family, both Manny’s and Dianne’s, awaited them at the end. We've all heard the tales, and while things could begin off well, they will end in heartbreak and despair. We’ll also go over Oliver’s biography, information, and web worth, amongst other issues. Heart to Heart is a dating service and matchmaking service with over 37,000 singles. We offering a world-class Native American dating service created to particularly introduce you to appropriate Native American singles in your local area. Meet singles residing in your native area or in nations around the world. Find out what's the very best dating platform to fulfill your real sizzling Latina love!