#Big Lottery Fund

[blank-house]

Congrats on getting fully funded!! Do y'all think animated sprites and full voice acting could be a stretch goal?

Thank you anon! And to answer your question, unless we win the lottery or land it big with Nintendo prollyyyyy not ^^,

Some animated sprites could be a thing maybe… but voice acting the whole game would be quite the undertaking.

[evertidings]

it’s someone’s birthday today… happy birthday to Rylan, my (and your) favourite half-vampire!! they sprung up from my brain originally as a flynn rider type of character but they slowly developed into this flirty bastard who wears leather jackets and rings and has a very big attachment problem.

in light of their recent scene in chapter ten, i’ve written a short drabble about them and the stars, set before they meet the hunter. enjoy !!

—

it’s a universal fact that on your birthday, you make a wish. most blow out a candle on a cake, some are lucky enough to catch sight of a shooting star and wish upon that—Rylan, having neither the funds to waste on a cake nor the luck to see a shooting star, opts for wishing on the stars.

and while it’s not like any of their wishes come true, it’s still fun to hope. to dream and wonder.

after their parents died, they needed that. something to look forward to, that is. for a while after, they saw the world in a haze, unsure of themself and their place. they might’ve boasted their confidence and strutted around, but inside, they felt anything but.

they still act like that today, but it’s slightly easier with K in the picture. and while they could be celebrating with their friend right now, as the clock strikes midnight, they find themself alone. to keep up appears, they’ll show up at K’s penthouse in an hour or two and complain about missing a countdown, but right now, all they want to be is alone.

just them and the stars they cannot see.

their back is to the asphalt roof as they blow out a puff of air, the chill from the ground seeping into their bones.

they think about what they should wish for this year, wondering if they should ask the universe to lift the bounty that’s over their head. but they’ve long accepted that fact. if they’re going to get rid of their bounty, they’re going to prove their innocence first. so their wondering turns to dreaming.

they could ask for a happy year, though considering their luck, that’d probably be too difficult. something simple then.

maybe they should ask for some friends (lord knows they’re lonely). maybe they could ask for a new leather jacket (as sentimental as theirs is, it’s falling apart). maybe they could simply ask for a cake (they haven’t had one in a while).

they hum to themself. it’s past midnight now, surely, but they don’t check the time.

should they wish for something palpable? something like new clothes or hair product? should they wish for something unseen? like good luck on the upcoming year? or should they wish for a miracle? like winning the lottery or stumbling upon a fortune they didn’t know they were set to inherit.

in the end, they decide on none of those.

they sit up and, grabbing a nearby stray leaf, hold it in between their fingers.

“happy birthday,” they whisper.

the leaf goes flying.

[anon-sect]

A famous actor who transformed his fan into his socks. Is an a good Idea for a story, isn't it?

Picture source: internet

A local radio station was running fund drive for a charity. Sending on to the fun drive also put's your name into a lottery. A winner would be picked from the lottery to meet a celebrity of their choice that was on the list of over a hundred celebrities that volunteered for the fund drive.

Jake had always wanted to meet Ryan Reynolds in person. He was excited when he saw his name on the list of celebrities. He sent in a good amount to the fund drive. They emailed him back that his name was entered and the celebrity he picked would be the prize if his name was picked from the pot in thirty days.

Thirty days later, Jake had received a notification that his name was picked, and the celebrity was also contacted. The shocker was that the actor invited him to his home to meet in person as another part of the prize for donating to the fund drive. Jake couldn't wait to finally meet him in person.

The organization paid for his flight over to meet Ryan Reynolds and even the hotel he would be staying at. What Jake didn't expect was that Ryan came to pick him up personally to drive back to his place. Jake felt like he had died and gone to heaven.

Once he got to Ryan's place, he was amazed that he was actually at his house. It was enough to ride in the car with the actor and now to spend time at his house was a dream come true.

While Ryan was chatting with his guest, he felt a slight hole in the big toe of one sock and the pinky toe of the other sock. Both socks had a hole in them. This pair did last at least the last three years. Some crazy fan paid him to just be his socks forever. He thought is was crazy, but the fan wanted it so badly. That decision turned out to be one of the best he made. Human transformed socks were way more durable than normal socks. He would have to trash these socks, but he didn't have another spare on hand. He then looked at this fan who was so excited to meet him.

"I want to show you a magic trick, if you don't mind." Ryan spoke to Jake.

Jake was curious. "I didn't know you did magic tricks." He spoke, wondering what he would do. He saw Ryan get up and come back with two drinks. He handed one to him and they both guzzled it down. "So what trick are you going to do?" He asked.

Ryan opened up the TF Ray app on his phone. 'You will see." He spoke as he snapped the flash on his camera. Jake was replaced with a brand-new pair of human transformed socks. He picked them up. "My last pair of special socks finally has a hole in them after three long years. Maybe you can last even longer." Ryan paused. "I put in triple the durability formula in your drink than I did with the last one. So, you should be my socks for at least seven- or eight-years minimum." He took off his shoes and removed his old sock. He put on his new socks and put his shoes back on. He walked over to the trash can and threw them in without even saying goodbye. They were simply socks to him after so long on his feet. His new socks would get the same treatment.

Ryan called the hotel to tell them that the guy left early to go back home, and to check him out of the room. He wiggled his toes in his new socks. It was something special to use a person as his socks. He rather enjoyed controlling a fan with his feet, thanks to that first guy. This guy probably didn't want to be socks, but oh well, he was his socks now.

Jake had mixed feelings about his new existence. He really loved this actor, but he didn't want to be stuck as socks for the next eight years or so. Not to mention, the actor's shoes didn't smell all that great. He wanted to be out of his boots soon. Being walked on and toe wiggled showed just how much the actor now controlled his life. He was completely being dominated by his favorite actor. The bad part was that no one would even know. Only Ryan would know how special his socks were. There was only one good thing about his condition, he would get to spend a lot of time with Ryan, even though he would only be regarded as just an object on his feet.

[seafoamreadings]

planetary money

mercury and jupiter are the most commonly understood types. but all the planets can impact you financially or represent a financial gift or mode of operating.

the sun - actual gold. the vitality one experiences when one has plenty of resources at one's disposal, whether those are money, friends, time, or just a full refrigerator.

the moon - actual silver. the need one has for material resources and money, the way it can keep us healthy and happy, the way it can connect us to other people. the way we are nourished by food and goods, which we must buy with money, or barter for.

mercury - the exchange of money. the way it flows. really the current of the currency. mercury shares etymology with words like merchant, market, and mercantile.

venus - this is the attraction of money, the sparkle that people love about gold, the thing that convinces people to pay for your product or service.

mars - the lust for money, which can be dangerous, and its pursuit too. the hustle, for better or worse. at best it is good old fashioned hard work, at worst it is extreme devastating greed or miserliness.

ceres - the fruits of your labor, the way you reap what you sow. the harvest, literally and metaphorically.

jupiter - accumulated wealth, abundance of resources - money, time, food, helpful people, etc - the savings in your bank account, the nest egg, the big profit. jupiter does best when this is handled both wisely AND generously.

saturn - often associated with deprivation and scarcity, poverty, but can also if well-placed and well-aspected be wise frugality, talent with a budget, stretching a small amount to live a better life or better provide for others, and also inheritances, wills, trust funds, etc.

uranus - unexpected money. a lottery winning, a wild gift, finding a suitcase full of money buried in your yard...? nothing easy, nothing normal, nothing you worked much for.

neptune - this spiritual planet ALMOST transcends money, but it is also the soul of money, the spirit of how we can use resources to bolster each other and the world rather than to tear it down for greed's sake. neptune is the anti-greed. but it can also be deception or confusion about money, so be careful.

pluto - wealth that lasts. wealth that is impervious to inflation and the whims of humankind. huge inheritances. the bounty put forth by the earth itself. the metals and gemstones and minerals out of the dirt.

any thoughts? :)

[tastyflowers]

okay I've booked a place for an online chat about a degree I've had my eye on for a few years. it's on regenerative farming & it's held at a ridiculously beautiful estate in Devon. I might actually be doing this???

I really want some education. I'm considering an apprenticeship or maybe even a degree. Doing school has gone so badly for me in the past (uni dropout) but maybe I'm better now? I just really want to work in something like conservation or forestry, ecology, horticulture? something??

when I lived in Oregon I visited this absolutely incredible education centre called Lost Valley that was in the middle of the forest & was a fully functioning off grid village. I want to study somewhere like that! I need to get out of the city and I want to learn and I need community.

idk I don't really have any exact answers or direction but I'm hoping something can manifest. I've got a good brain and it is wasting away. I need change!!!

[return-to-twisted-wonderland]

After appearing on TV, the Ramshackle Lottery Winners return home, their cherished ones and fathers are already there.

[Ramshackle]

[The Ramshackle Boys arrive to find Jamil & Kalim/Vil, Rook, and Epel/Malleus, Lilia, Silver, and Sebek/Azul & The Leech Twins/Crewel and Trein waiting for them.]

[They walks over to the Common Room and sit down.]

Kalim (Hugging Jayden): Congratulations, Jayden!

Jayden: (Embarassed blushing)

Floyd (Slings an around around Marcus): Nice going, Sea Kitty! Ya rich!

Marcus: Correct - Azul and I are rich. What's mine is his.

Sebek (Yelling at Yuu): HUMAN! IF YOU WERE IN NEED OF FUNDINGS, WHY DIDN'T YOU COME TO WAKA-SAMA?!

Yuu (Exhales): We didn't NEED the money. We just did it for fun. We didn't expect to win.

Epel: Whatcha gonna do with all money?! You can buy anything you want!

Darius: I wish to share my funds with Vil.

Jamil, sighs: Do you know how big of a target you just got on your back? Are you trying to make me go gray early?

Azul, smiling: I'm proud, but also worried

Trein: I have to agree with Mr. Ashengrotto.

Malleus: This was for fun?

Vil: I appreciate that, Darling.

Crewel: As long as it isn't spent in one place.

[bonny-kookoo]

Jungkook: Bloodlust 🔞 1

In which Jungkook's poor choice in women gives him a big fat serving of reality- and leads him to you at the same time.

Tags/Warnings: Vampire!Jungkook, human!Reader, strangers/Enemies to lovers, jk kind of a dick at first sorry, sexual tension, corruption kink, size & strength kink, blood drinking, biting, more TBA in future chapters

Additional Chapter Warnings: JK is kind of a royal ass, he a hoe, but he's also kind of hot pls send help

A/N: attempt 987 of trying to get this out. Tumblr, your mobile editor is ass. Shorter chapters because anything over 1~2k crashes the app for me.

<- Previous | Next ->

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You're kind of pretty like this, even when stained in blood. It's hilarious how he has to focus on the way your collarbone looks, delicate necklace swinging from your neck while you push down on his shoulder. You're talking. He can't hear.

How did he get here?

Well, poor choice in women, first and foremost. It's no secret that he's a lover with a body count guessed like lottery numbers by everyone who knows him even just a little. He's blunt. He swears a lot, and he's covered in piercings and ink. He plays his video games and music too loud, the only interaction you yourself really know being your weekly requests for him to turn it down, which is always responded by a smirk and a 'what you wanna do about it, princess?'.

He's even opened the door shirtless before, boner still clearly visible when you'd disturbed his private time.

He thinks you're a walking joke, a punchline waiting to happen, and you're aware of this. He never takes you seriously, in no way, shape, or form. But you also can't just let him die on the ground like this, not when it's technically not even his fault.

Wait, how did we end up here?

Oh right, sex with a whore.

Now, Jungkook fucks around. He doesn't make a secret of it, not by a long shot, but there's still rather traditional values he still holds highly- one of them being faithfulness. Never even once had the girl even mentioned a potential partner, let alone a fiance who ended up finding her with Jungkook's cock down her throat in the bedroom. He scoffs to himself. The blowjob wasn't even worth the rabid attacks that followed.

He'd met her online- on a dating app he has to basically hook up whenever he's up for it, and when she told him she lived in the same apartment building, he'd agreed to meet up. Who could've thought that she was cheating on her soon to be husband with him? Or, at the very least, who could've thought she'd be so fucking stupid in hiding it, not even remembering when the guy would come home from work?

Vampires are violent creatures.

He knows it first hand from himself how easy they're riled up. Aggression is a key part of every vampire's character- a curse, so to say, making them too dangerous to ever really fit in. It's why apartment complexes like these have been funded by the government; places for them to live amongst one another, to keep the rest of humanity safe.

Which makes it even more ridiculous that you're helping him right now.

You're painfully human, hands so warm they feel almost hot, no red found in your eyes. You look like a rabbit, waiting to become the wolf's next meal.

And you basically chose to live in a whole zoo full of starving beasts, ready to snatch a taste.

He can't deny the appeal you have. He usually doesn't go for something like you- typically chooses older girls, dominant one's or those who seem like they wanna prove something. They do all the work, while he can just enjoy the show. It's easy, simple, and a quick and comfortable way to quench his thirst. Though vampire blood tastes rather stale, he takes it without complaint.

Human blood is taboo, after all, if it's not from a blood bank.

"Over here!" You call out, and he can barely really hear it, sense of hearing dulled out to the max almost. You explain something to the paramedics who instantly work on him, and he finally let's himself slip into unconsciousness at that, now that he's in professional hands.

And he swears, he's gonna quit that online dating shit for a while after this.

[saltygilmores]

Thoughts While Watching Gilmore Girls-The Winter Carnival Episode-Part 5

The Elder Gilmores (Richard, Emily, Trix, and Lorelai) sit down to dinner at The Inn. Trix bosses around the help (Michel), typical richie behavior, what's new. Lorelai appears mildly embarrassed. Emily rolls her eyes. Richard grins. That's it. We'll return to Thursday Night Dinner shortly, and see if there's some kind of epic public blowup, or whatever.

(Spoiler Alert: There isn’t. It’s incredibly lame 🥱)

"Throw A Snowball At A Band Geek" is such a fun detail. (see background). Our quartet of Rory, Jess, and Bratly & Butthead Forrester march on. Bratly pesters Jess incessantly because he will simply never have a moment of peace and quiet between the ages of 17-18. She inquires about the origin of his name, but he is unfortunately tight lipped about it. Jess requests that Clara play in traffic.

Truer words have never been spoken.

Rory confirms that Lane was not seeing things, but that she has no time to explain, because if she leaves the two man children unsupervised together in the playpen for too long, there's going to be a binky fight.

But I thought he loved to Play Sport With The Fellas? Clara, growing up means learning carnival games are rigged and Milk Bottle Toss is just another scheme to fund Taylor Doose's next vacation to the French Riviera. Jess threatens to throw Clara across the schoolyard. With that aim? Heh!

Sure, go ahead and watch him lose. But mark my words, one day, he's going to win. Oh, he is going to win big in life. He's going to win the life lottery living in his Philly penthouse while the rest of y'all are still living in Stars Hollow and buying tasteless snow cones that only come in one flavor to fund 80 year old Taylor Doose's trips to Fiji.

TRIPLE MILO SPEAK! UH DOLLUR! OKUH! HUH! I love that Jess is such a gentleman and he is always paying for Rory's whims. A hot dog, a throw at some milk bottles. I mean, she doesn't have a job or her own money, but still. Jess is suspicious that Rory had plans to attend the CarnivalGrift with Dean in his (previously intended) absence. Now why would he have a reason not to trust her? Not like she just quietly met up with Dean earlier in the episode and while she was snagged into that meeting quite unexpectedly, my personal opinion remains that she threw Jess under the bus, primarly by being so spineless and rolling over for Dean. You know. As per uszh. (the metaphorical bus, and not the literal bus that Milo asked AmyShermanPalladino to strike Jess dead with). Well. At least she fully admits to everything.

Like, I'm not saying this convo was anywhere near the slimiest thing Dean or Rory have ever done either alone or in pairs, but Jess can have a little Suspicion and Jealousy. You know. As a treat.

Hey Rory, could you move over just a skosh... get in front of those milk bottles...I want to play Throw A Ball At The Exhausting People Pleaser. I will charge the people Uh Dolluhr to play.

I'm pleased that Rory gave a full confession re: the coffee shop meeting. She gives Jess the usual "Are you mad" treatment (x3), but he seems pretty chill about it. Rory is definitely not used to this sort of query not being met with a Dean Forrester Rage-Isode.

I like to think this happened because Rory visualized Dean's face on those milk bottles, but I'm just a dreamer.

This cheap bear could have come from the same claw machine where Dean fished out the errant quarter to make Rory's bracelet.

"I'll name him Jess."

The 25 cents is what Rory and Lorelai tipped him for serving them dinner last night. Rory states her intentions to give Sad Pathetic Bear to Clara, Jess threatens to suffocate the child by shoving the plushie into her mouth. It's a blessing that Jess did not become a teen father. Back at TND, some mild awkardness ensues between the Haves and Have Nots (Sookie). Sookie has a rip in her shirt. Ha? Trix is moving to Hartford. I yawn. 10 great words are then strung together into a sentence.

Trix states she is in poor health. Richard insists that "Emily and I will tend to you day and night." Emily is displeased, gets petty, takes 15 minutes to cut a bean. Lorelai keeps her mouth shut completely, which makes me believe there may actually be a God.

Hell, if it weren’t for that disturbing interaction between her and Dean in her kitchen early in the episode (#SpiderGate), I might even haven given her a A for conduct. if I were issuing Episode Report Cards.

I should do that…

She did the thing where they said the title of the episode in the episode. I may have to add that square to my Bingo Card.

Time for homoerotic alleyway/hallway confrontation Part Deux

"Many word confuse. Where picture. Dean no read good."

I SWEAR TO GLOB I DIDN'T KNOW HE WAS GOING TO SAY THAT!

I think he means this literally. The words "Senior Class" are really tripping him up. Help the poor guy, Jess. This might finally be the year he passes 2nd grade. Love that AmyShermanPalladino writes such biting one liners for Jess but leaves Dean the scraps for his clap backs, it's a beautiful thing to behold.

Hello, Sad Pathetic Bear (Dean). "Getting" would imply he wasn't already there. J: "Let's just be friends?" D: "No thanks." J:"You don't think it's pathetically transparent? Rory is just taking pity on you, that's why she's suddenly interested in being your friend." There you go again using those big words on poor Dean.

Well which is it? I thought Jess only talked in monosyllabic grunts. D: Rory and I are just friends. Just like you and Rory were just friends. And look how it turned out for you. What is Dean actually implying here? Is he saying "Welp, she's your problem now". That would be pretty funny! Clara interrupts, ending not the first and certainly not the last sexually tense, homoerotic exchange between BeavJess and ButtDean.

I guess Jess was supposed to appear “threatening” in this scene, but to me it fell flat and was even a little confusing. My little skronklet is so cute when he’s trying to scare people! 🥹 Baby makes mean face! Tell Dean he can’t read! He totally not capable of brutal axe homocide!

🤭🪓👱🏻‍♀️🦢 Why I talk like caveman suddenly? In the last minute of the episode, Rory declares to Lorelai the relationship between herself, Jess and Dean just hunky dory. Lorelai has almost no comment on the matter except to refer to the boys as Cheech and Chong. She should try shutting up more often. It's quite refreshing. This was a pleasant episode. I liked it. The end. Here's my Episode Bingo Card. Not a winner.

[mitigatedchaos]

"Writing? In 2024?"

Monday, April 29, 2024

(~2,400 words, 12 minutes)

@northshorewave Re: this publishing post:

I've read through the post that was linked, and an earlier related post by the same author that preceded it.

Her position is that the traditional publishing industry is essentially buying books as lottery tickets, paying for most of them using the few big winners they can't predict.

NorthShoreWave - The personal qualities of NSW specifically.

LLMs - Is AI a threat right now? Mostly as spam.

How Many Readers? - One famous book had 3,000 readers on an email list before its Amazon e-book debut, and went on to traditional publishing.

Funding Options - Many authors and artists are currently using subscription services. Some reasoning and numbers are provided.

Illustrations - Should you use illustrations? This lengthy section does a bit of fundamentals analysis of posting to suggest that maybe, you should.

Interaction - Reader replies are one method by which a post will spread.

Search - The people who want to read your story can't read it if they don't know about it. Writing a good book is essential, but only half the battle.

Some thoughts for you:

1 - NorthShoreWave

You implicitly asked if we had discussed your story in detail before, but the answer is that we hadn't. I have a sense of what you're trying to accomplish based on what I've observed of your character. While you think of yourself as seething, I think you're actually wise, compassionate, self-aware, and able to view things from multiple perspectives. A significant number of people are much worse at practicing at least one of these virtues. On its own, that's not enough to write a best-seller, but I think it does provide you with an advantage.

2 - LLMs

Based on my experiments (see @mitigatedai for some logs), I wouldn't worry about competition from AI. For you, the chief issue caused by AI will be spam. AI moves sideways (different text) and downwards (less meaning). I may tell LLMs to "combine Inspector Gadget and Death Note," but...

Do I actually use the information provided? No.

3 - How many readers do you need?

From one of those publishing posts, to get a sense of the number of readers you need...

Andy Weir first published The Martian as a serial for his own blog, then as a self-published novel on Amazon, then as a traditionally published novel with Random House. “I had an email list with about 3,000 people on it, so, initially, the audience was roughly that much,” he tells me. “When I first posted it to Amazon, I didn’t do anything to market or publicize it. All I did was tell my readers it was available there.” The book was on Amazon for five months, at a price point of 99 cents, and he sold 35,000 copies before Random House bought the rights in February of 2014.

Note that being a provocative firebrand doesn't necessarily mean you'll sell copies. Some politicians with tremendous name recognition failed to move copies of their books.

4 - Funding Options

I don't recommend using a Kickstarter to publish your book at this time or in the near future. You just don't have the name recognition, but also, Slashdotter Caimlas (who I don't know, so I don't know how trustworthy he is) wrote:

I'm personal friends with a number of authors who publish books in one of several subgenres. Mostly, they rely on Amazon's Kindle Unlimited: some of them are prolific enough that their book sales account for most of their income, simply based on peoples' reading of their works. Mostly, unless people want a piece of history or something they can reference, folks seem to hate having clutter. Fiction that sells isn't usually, primarily sold as a hardcopy book anymore, I don't believe - short of the kinds of books that end up at the end of the grocery store isle or in an airport novelty store.

A lot of publishing is done online these days, often through subscription services such as Substack (for essays) or Patreon. (Kindle Unlimited is also a subscription service, costing $12/mo.) As an example, the webcomic Spinnerette has a Patreon (bringing down $3.3k/mo), and then runs Kickstarter campaigns for print runs (volume 8 raised $27k).

To give you an estimate, Spinnerette's Patreon has only 536 subscribers, and pulls down $3.3k/mo, but you probably haven't heard of it. El Goonish Shive, which I'm confident you have heard of, brings in $3.6k/mo on 2.4k subscribers. The famous Kill Six Billion Demons has ~5.4k subscribers, bringing down ~$8.4k.

In Patreon terms, a good foothold to try for might be 100 subscribers at $3/mo each, with an initial focus on getting to 50.

5 - Illustrations

You've posted some drawings. They have some character, showing that you have the basic aptitude to develop the skill if you applied yourself to regular practice. However, the proportions are too far off to attract much attention (except as a stylistic choice, which, I can tell, it is not).

This blog tends to break things down into their abstract fundamentals for analysis. I promised myself I wasn't going to do that here, but eh, we'll do just a bit.

To quote one of the publishing articles...

“People tend to buy the books that are already really popular,” Deahl says. “They look at the bestseller list to see what they want to buy and that reinforces this tiny amount of books at the top. It’s a very top-heavy system. The tricky thing in publishing is success begets success. But it’s really hard to create that spark.”

Let's stop to think about this.

a. Banter - Fame

There is one layer to this that you can't do much of anything about, which is that people will watch the same shows their friends watch in order to have something to talk about with their friends.

b. Investment - Background

However, there is another layer over which you have more influence. It's very easy to make a quick judgment of a movie based on its visuals, or a short trailer. It's also relatively easy to judge short songs, since they're only a few minutes long (but I don't find myself doing this often).

In order to judge a book, you have to read the text and process it. You can't make a snap judgment off a single picture, because you have to read the text first to produce the mental picture.

This website does have viral text posts, but they're like...

You seem to have fundamentally misunderstood me, Anon.  Go read all 5,640 posts again.

Some of these posts can get a bit long, but it's usually a back-and-forth where each individual post is short. Often, they'll mix in images, or memes.

People supposedly read at 200 words per minute. Based on that estimate, this blog's most viral post of all time can be read in 5 seconds. That's about the same amount of time someone would spend looking at a jpeg.

That doesn't mean people don't enjoy effortposts. They will follow a blog upon encountering a good effortpost! They just don't like or reblog them.

I think you already know this part, but for "acceptable" length for reblogging, it's usually best to keep it under one "Tumblr page," meaning around one screen length on desktop, or around 200-300 words. I've talked about this part before, but if the reader can see the end of the post, it feels like less of an investment to read the post, and reblogging it won't fill up a friend's Tumblr dash.

Obviously that's tough for long-form fiction, because it has to load more context about the characters in order to establish the stakes. (Unless it's fan fiction, where the audience already knows the characters.)

c. Investment - Strategy

As you know, this blog will sometimes post political cartoons and other illustrations as part of its general stream of content.

The obvious strategy is just to have some nice-looking character images or images of scenes from the story. It can be "read" faster, so it's more shareable.

I think that strategy suffers from a weakness in that it's easy to just look at the image and disregard the text. This would reduce your fiction blog to an art blog - and it is not an art blog.

Therefore, I would like to gently suggest - and keep in mind, I do not have any published novels - a different potential approach. This proposal is speculative, and this technique is not widely used.

Do you know that famous Rockwell painting, Breaking Home Ties? Rockwell is a master of telling a story with just a single still-frame painting.

Rockwell has to tell the whole story in one picture, because that's the medium he's got to work with. This limits how much story he can tell. As an author, you don't have to limit yourself to what can be told in just one image, because you have the text.

This strategy would involve a two-step maneuver.

First, the image at the top of the post communicates the essentials that the reader needs to know about the characters through the composition of the scene (so that they don't need to read background material), as well as various subtle details, while raising questions, also through the use of details/etc, to increase the viewer's curiosity.

Fortunately for the viewer, second, the questions raised by the image are answered in the text right below it.

The post would form an entry point into a network of related posts; tags for particular characters could be linked at the bottom, or links to other posts in the sequence.

Secondary characters would be ideal for this, because you can manipulate their scenarios/context/character to fit the short format, while your overall project will focus on the main characters and thus have a greater, long-term narrative investment for appropriately larger payoff.

As I wrote in my post on 'text wall memes,' people will read text in an image, and they'll even reblog it, but it's contextual. So again, this is speculative, but it should be feasible. It's a matter of creating the appropriate context.

d. Investment - AI Art

I don't think you should use AI-generated art. Yes, people will be able to tell, but the even bigger problem...

Compare this AI knockoff to Norman Rockwell's original Girl with Black Eye.

The expression is wrong. The pose is different. This is a completely different story from the one Rockwell was telling! The prompteur 'borrows' the right 25% of the image from Norman's original because he can't reproduce it. And what is that random white cloth on the left side of the image?

There is a significant reduction in the amount of intention in the image. Putting it back in involves working over the image, repeatedly, usually with inpainting, and often working against what's in the AI's training data, forcing it to pull from more and more improbable parts of the distribution (until eventually, there's no matching data in the training at all; you have to get out and draw it yourself).

I'm going to borrow a post of my own here from 2019.

This isn't oriented towards the strategy I've described, and it only got 21 notes, but note the teacup with steam and tea bag tag, the obscured flag in the background, and the Youtube-style video tracker on the bottom. The combination of the special effect, text that looks like a subtitle, and video tracker imply that the image is a screenshot from a streaming anime.

The character is casually (as indicated by the cup of tea) sitting at a computer desk (as indicated by the faintly sketched keyboard and hand position for a mouse). What's that flag in the background? It certainly doesn't belong to any extant country. (In fact, as the artist, I'll tell you - it's based on an O'Neill Cylinder.)

Obviously this art is very much just a sketch in quality terms. An AI rendering usually looks much fancier. However, an AI would not put that detail in.

e. Investment - Technical Skills

However, I will suggest the use of software if you go this route. (Or the hiring of an artist, but that could get expensive.)

Your issue is with proportions. Lots of people have trouble with proportions. (You also have trouble with hands. Lots of people have trouble with hands.)

One way to deal with this is to just train. You'd be surprised at how fast you improve if you draw from realistic sources such as photographs an hour a day for a year, even if it's just a quick sketch. You probably aren't willing to do so. You have other things to worry about, including writing.

However, you could use posing software. You could save the proportions of several characters and position them throughout the scene, as well as having a grid for the ground and potentially other props to help with positioning of items like lamp posts or the edges of buildings. (I've experimented with posing software a bit myself.)

Dan Shive (of El Goonish Shive) does not use posing software as far as I know, but he has used 3D software. Although his style is cartoonish, one thing people like about him is that he does put effort in at improvement, and the quality of his work has improved substantially. (That was actually the inspiration for the second part of the "in 2028, Hollywood runs out of ideas and adapts El Goonish Shive" post.)

6 - Interaction

Though shorter posts tend to go more viral, I find that posts which someone can reblog and share their opinion tend to show up a lot in my top posts (as long as they're only about one tumblr page long). The MOON PRISON poll is a good example of something that's approachable and neutral, but fits heavily with the themes of my blog, but other posts may take a political position that invites disagreement, resulting in discourse, and get reblogged that way. (You may also remember the silly Swift Pill poll.)

I don't recommend courting disagreement on purpose. Not only is this bad for the social environment, but it tends to make people go crazy.

7 - Search

I think you've probably noticed some of this already and are working with it (posting short excerpts, initial art). Most of this is, again, speculative. This is all just information for your consideration.

Writing a good book is the first problem. Getting the readers who would enjoy the book to find it in such a noisy environment is the second problem. I think you can do it, but if your trajectory isn't currently looking as good as you want (e.g. # followers on your story's sideblog), I would recommend expanding your strategy so that you're in a good position when the book itself is ready to launch.

[360degreesasthecrowflies]

London is a city that has always been deeply uneven, with plenty of cultural treasures to hide the poverty in the Tower Blocks and the underpasses. London is effectively the main of the UK economy, and everything is geared towards it. Hence it retains a degree of economic dynamism that allows a degree of optimism, after all there's always a new restaurant, new exhibition, new flagship store, new play. Sure most workers are dirt poor, living on mashed avocado, and hoping the landlord gets visited by 3 Ghosts at Christmas, but there's the dream of making it in the big city.

Outside the London bubble, large parts of the country are either in despair, or have totally given up. Roads, bridges, hospitals, and schools are crumbling. Police have almost disappeared outside traffic stops. Courts are backlogged, prisons overfilled & well past their designed lifespan. Companies face significant trade barriers with the EU. The water industry is essentially operating on leveraged debt and mostly owned by oversea's pension funds, whilst the infrastructure collapses and raw sewage is being pumped into the rivers/seas. Everyone is underpaid compared to the cost of living, but also compared to many comparable roles in other countries.

In the shires, the more well paid commuter class can still have a nice life, but they are feeling a sharp pinch. Holidays cut. Cars held on to much, much longer than before. Meals out being reduced. Optional extras like music or sports for the kids cancelled. Impulse purchases stopped. All of which sounds like "oh poor Emma can't get her daughter Lucinda piano lessons boo hoo" but think about the economic impact. That is money that would have gone to a piano teacher (usually self employed), to the coffee shop whilst Emma waits, to a music shop for music, perhaps a CD or concert tickets to something Lucinda played at a lesson. Then when Lucinda grows up instead of having a career in arts or entertainment, even at her local bar or church, she doesn't know how to play piano. So society as a whole has lost a musician, and Lucinda as a person flourishes slightly less. The UK arts sector is one of our biggest economic powerhouses, yet it is routinely ignored and hammered by the govt. Art & music are regarded as luxury items, despite contributing £1.6 billion to the annual economy (2021 at 5.6%). That's huge, bigger than the fishing industry which contributes £1.4 billion (2021 at 4%). Yet with rents sky rocketing, and school budgets in utter crisis, arts/music get dropped and creative talent has to switch to more routine jobs to survive. UK Musicians are dropped from EU events following the botched visa system, and international work is increasingly harder for them to get.

Outside the diminishing middle class, the real difficulty and poverty of the UK hits home. People are not sure whether the next rent payment or electricity will quite literally bankrupt them and leave them homeless. Wages are mostly static, with few rises outside a number of key sectors. Some areas have seen wage growth, but that has been concentrated in a small number of jobs (especially finance/management). The population is aging, and the care system is left almost entirely to private companies in a very disjointed, expensive manner. For most people the only credible hope of a financially better life is to inherit or to win the lottery or to commit crime. This is strikingly similar to the pattern seen in many developing world economies.

For example, I have worked in the public sector for 20 years. In that time I have trained, gained professional qualifications, led larger teams, upskilled on IT/project management and become more productive. Since my pay has been capped at a 0.5% rise, it is a real terms wage cut. So I've become more productive yet I'm paid less. Why should I 1) carry on trying to be more productive, & 2) stay in the job? Productivity increases from workers have to be linked to a personal reward, as well as a benefit to an employer or there's no point for the employee. Hence "quiet quitting".

So the UK is in the dire position of poor infrastructure, rampant poverty, and a population that no longer believes hard work or being productive will improve their own lives, only maintain their survival. This is not a recipe for a flourishing economy or nation. The worst thing is that the UK has started to lose hope that things can get better without a magical solution. Without at least some hope, we are doomed.

Saved via reddit from user 'AgeOfVictoriaPodcast' - as an excellent (if depressing!) summary of the UK's economy and society in 2023 / the 2020s / post Brexit

[dxmedstudent]

Quick question about CPD for GPs. When NICE guidelines get updated do you guys get alerts or a yearly list or something to learn about the new guidance? Basically, I'm really wondering if I can now assume that the GPs involved in my care know about and understand the 2021 ME/CFS NICE guidelines? This is after a bad experience with a hospital specialist where they were completely ignorant of it.

That's a very thoughtful question. Sorry my answer is late, tumblr has a habit of eating my replies when I've half typed them, and then I'm too tired to type them all again.

I'm sorry that your hospital specialist wasn't aware of the current guidelines. I think it's great that you're familiar with the guidelines yourself and that you're ready to advocate for your needs.

In GP land, I think that most of us DO try to get some yearly training on updates - I know a lot of practices arrange for courses for their staff to stay updated. I received an inch thick A4 booklet of updated guidelines for the course I'm attending soon.

That said, there are a LOT of guidelines with a LOT of fine print. Things are constantly changing, and you do not always get the memo for a while. I can imagine that even pretty on the ball GPs may be a bit rusty on some things - because there us just...a LOT. And GP covers every specialty in human medicine to some degree. So every GP will probably be up to date on some things and slightly rusty on others. That doesn't mean that patients aren't entitled to good care, it means we have a duty to remind ourselves of the most recent guidance if we're not as familiar with a condition or treatment. And it means we should be open about our limitations and seeking help.

I spend what feels like half my life on the NICE website, the BNF and our local formulary and guidelines. I encourage clinicians to be open to saying "I'm not sure where we go from here, let me take a look or get a second opinion, and I'll get back to you".

The other issue that is often not discussed is that sonetimes there will be local guidance released by your ICB or CCG (basically the local services that fund/commission care from your hospital or GP) about what can be offered- and this may be different to what NICE recommends. A particularly egregious example is the postcode lottery that comes with fertility treatment. Sonetimes we simply cannot deliver care in line with NICE guidelines, and it sucks.

Where I've had to differ from NICE guidance, it's often been because we simply do not locally have access to what NICE recommends. I'm not going to assume that's true in your case, bit I think a lot of people don't know about how many limitations NHS services face, so I'm mentioning it here.

You're absolutely entitled to make sure that you're being treated as per current recommendations, and that if your treatment differs, you and your doc both know why your treatment is a little different.

Your GP may well be familiar with the guidelines, but if it seems that they are not, I would discuss the guidelines with them. Sometimes it's even useful to bring them up on the screen together. You can also bring a friend for support if you feel nervous about advocating for yourself. I like to recommend people write fiwn their queries, too - it's what I do when I see my own clinicians. Because when I don't, sometimes we miss pretty big things that I want answered.

And if one consultation didn't go well, there's absolutely nothing wrong with booking another consultation or seeing someone else.

I hope it goes well and that you get the right care for you.

[sidesteppostinghours]

6, 11, and 19- UHHHHHH any of them that vibes these questions! <:"Dc

afternoon lori!! thank you for the ask :D

6. Who will they take advice from, no matter what it is? Who won’t they take advice from, no matter what it is?

Caine-

taking advice: chen. without a doubt its chen. caine would question him or argue if they dont understand why hes giving the advice he does, but at the end of the day, he trusts that chen has his reasons, and that those reasons make sense.

refusing advice: hmmm,,, significantly harder to answer tbh. caine is pretty accepting of a lot of avenues of information. maybe hollow ground? so far hes been extremely suspicious of the kingpin, Especially after almost getting threaded. either that or regina, but would she even survive long enough to give them advice???? shes the only person so far they actually want revenge against.

Cyrus-

taking advice: anathema. too bad hes dead. nobody to stop cyrus now.

refusing advice: id say chen, purely for "fuck him, he wouldnt piss on me if i was burning" reasons. hed be way too suspicious of any 'advice' chen gives to act on it.

Cecilia-

taking advice: ceci doesnt exactly do advice. more like suggestions. most of them come from ortega, not because she particularly trusts him but because most of his suggestions tend to be fun. ofc she also turned down therapy so like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

refusing advice: daniel. for extremely petty reasons. even deciding to stay at his place was an idea she came up with, not him. danny has no Idea how much of a pain shes going to be now that theyre rooming together.

Cynthia-

taking advice: hollow ground. #justthreadedtingz😍🤪

refusing advice: the funny thing about cynthia is that she cares for the people shes close to, she just doesnt trust them, so this applies to a lot of people. definitely ortega because thats probably the messiest divorce i ever did see, but also dr mortum, because she doesnt think she would understand the situation shes in enough to give advice even if their relationship Doesnt completely fall apart when the puppet thing is revealed.

11. They’ve won the lottery. Spend, or save?

Caine- nothing really to spend it on. save, unless theres something he really wants to get his hands on.

Cyrus- could be useful in the future. save.

Cecilia- depends, does she still have her funds from thievery? if no, spend. if yes, pretend to spend it by showing off things she already owns to throw people off her track, then save it. or spend if theres something mundane she wants.

Cynthia- doesnt really like having big sums of money lying around. spend it on villain work.

19. Do they study before tests? Practice before job interviews?

Caine- i mean. does going into a rabbit hole of tangentially relevant information a week before count? not for job interviews though. they couldnt care enough about that.

Cyrus- duh. hes the person somebody would go to if they need notes or extra tutoring.

Cecilia- no, but if she cared about tests enough shed be a top student, and she usually manages to fly by on job interviews because shes pretty charming.

Cynthia- yes, but for school its because the subjects are interesting to her, while the job interview is for general "i want to get the job" reasons.

questions from here!

[pico-digital-studios]

Into, Across and Beyond! Cast: Barry the Quokka

Origin: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

"Nobody should have to die unfairly, right? I mean, you guys have got every right to intervene if it means lives are saved."

Barry is a young genderless quokka who made their debut in The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (as a self-insert for the player), and is your simple everyday kid looking for lines of work to keep active.

During the visual novel released on April Fool's Day, Barry had signed up for a job as a worker on the Mirage Express. Their first day happened to be on the same day as their Amy Rose's birthday, AND the train conductor's last day on the job, so they were tasked with helping ensure everyone was all comfortable with the big trip.

As it happened, the theme for the birthday was a "murder mystery", where one person had to pretend to play dead, and everyone else had to go around figuring out who the "murderer" was. As it happened, this universe (Dimension CLUE-2023) was a sort of fusion universe, in that various OCs were also a part of things and enjoying their own time on the express.

Suddenly, the train sped up, knocking Barry, Tails and Amy into the storage cart, where they found Sonic lying on the floor. Amy immediately took this to assume that it was him being the "victim" for the game, but something about this concerned Barry. Something was clearly amiss.

So, for that time, Barry and Tails, the latter appointed as the detective for the job, got started with investigating the case. They did their best to ask high and low for clues as to what was going on, with fellow passengers offering tips where possible alongside any service they could provide to the crew.

Tails got to learn quite a bit about Barry during their time spent together; they were actually quite nervous due to it being their first day, and weren't used to getting compliments at all, which got Tails concerned that Barry might have self-esteem issues. He also learned that they have a thing for endless runner games, and when thinking about stuff, Barry visualises one with Sonic involved to get their brain in gear.

Despite how anxious they are, Barry also has a bit of mischievous side to them, willing to tell lies to get snacks from the Express, teasing Espio by baiting him into thinking they failed his quiz, or playfully scaring Tails from a wardrobe. They have a very strong belief that things are always hidden in the bins, which happens to be an extension of their belief in the importance of being dedicated and persistent.

After enough scouring and getting alibis, they finally figured out who the culprit was; Espio. He was actually ordered by someone to knock Sonic out cold with a tranquilliser dart, having only cheated on those orders. Sonic himself is back on his feet soon enough with a shocking revelation; the train is a Badnik! No, really.

The Mirage Express was a custom-engineered Badnik made by Eggman, which had its own life and was so saddened by the Conductor's upcoming retirement that it locked everyone in the train for delivery to the doctor, in the hopes that it and the Conductor would never have to grow apart.

Sonic, however, had a plan, getting himself, Tails and Amy out to face down the Express and knock it offline before it could reach its destination, while Barry worked with the Conductor to stop the train at its destination while reassuring it that he genuinely enjoyed their time together.

Once they got off safely, the Conductor was reunited with his wife and was really glad to see her again, whilst Sonic managed to get the birthday cake ready for Amy's true celebrations. As for Barry, they sincerely enjoyed the time they spent with Sonic and his friends, wanting to get to know them better now.

So after they resigned from their work, Barry was able to win millions in a lottery, using the funds to donate to charities and open their own local supermarket to support others. They even got to spend some time with the Conductor, his wife and kids during their vacation at Spagonia, and idolised Gadget as he told the kid about his endeavours in helping Sonic during the big war against Eggman.

During one point, Barry discovered some of Tails's research related to the wider multiverse, which could potentially mean more adventures to go on. It was during this investigation that they met Tekno for the first time, who had heard about their ongoing career and was proud of them for it.

Barry, having not met Tekno before, was pretty interested in what career she had, which gave her the chance to show them about the Quill Society and its mass acceptance for anyone from different backgrounds. They were so interested that they enrolled as a member of the crew, eager to lend a helping hand where needed with their new friends.

They were quick to make friends with OMT!Tails when they crossed paths in Many More Heroes, and even personally assisted in the investigation into what LM!Sonic was doing, leading him to realise that not all Sonics had an heroic flair about them. Even though this hit them quite hard, they still stayed strong, actively encouraging OMT!Tails to blow the news to EV!Sonic.

While they didn't participate in the big chase, they still contributed a lot by helping reveal this harrowing truth, and were commemorated for their efforts and their well-practiced detective work. They even actively rooted for OMT!Tails when he disembarked with SS!Amy to fight Crimtake and ruin the planned "canon event".

[daughter-of-melpomene]

🐱 for Mara?

Thanks so so much for this!! Also gonna tag the rest of the Glee gang:

@luucypevensie, @dancingsunflowers-ocs, @manyfandomocs, and

@ginevrastilinski-ocs!! <3

If they're a light or heavy sleeper: Somewhere in between the two; she’s not sleeping through a hurricane or anything, but she won’t wake up at any little sound, either.

What they would do if they won the lottery right now: Probably donate most of it to various charities, as well as invest a bit into a college fund and into her future jewelry-making business.

If they have a special item that they couldn't bear to lose: The first necklace she made all by herself, without any help from her parents. She sees it as a symbol of her skills and future ambitions, and she’d be very sad if the lost it.

One negative personality trait of theirs: She can be flighty at times, and it usually doesn’t turn out well for her when she is.

Their favorite 70s song: “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell.

The color(s) associated with their zodiac: Grey, beige, pale yellow (Virgo).

Their favorite comedy movie: Bridesmaids.

About one person they've lost: Mara has, thankfully, been lucky enough to not lose anyone important to her at this point in her life.

A quote I associate with them: “You have a superpower and it’s called empathy.”

If they're a lover or a fighter: Definitely a lover! My girl is a pacifist and does not believe in violence, which is very funny when you consider how willing her girlfriend usually is to slap people.

send me 🐱 + an oc!!

[tomorrowusa]

Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion. As 2024 begins, the platform is valued at $12.5 billion. That's a loss of 71.59%. Buying California lottery tickets or spending a long weekend at a Las Vegas casino might have been better investments for Elon. 😆

SOCIAL media platform X/Twitter has lost 71% of its value since Elon Musk took over the site, according to an investment fund. Fidelity, a mutual fund which owns a stake in X Holdings, the parent company of X, said it had marked down the value of its shares in the company by 71.5% since Musk purchased the site. Currently, Fidelity estimates the value of X at around $12.5 billion. The tech billionaire acquired Twitter for $44 billion October 2022. He then renamed the site 'X' in July 2023. After Musk took over the site many companies halted their advertising spending.

Who can blame the advertisers? Would you want an ad for your company next to a tweet praising Hitler or spewing anti-vax conspiracy theories?

Don't expect Twitter X to improve as long as Musk owns it. The big question is whether Musk will try to sell it or just close it down.

There's certainly the possibility that he could sell it to somebody even worse than him – just to spite his critics.

It's not too late to quit Twitter/X, but first make sure as much as possible of your personal information there is scrubbed.

[thezombieprostitute]

💐💐💐💐💐💐💐

When I did the Bouquet Event, @bigtreefest requested I write the most self-indulgent fic I wanted. But I could never get it past a few sentences:

If I won the lottery, I wouldn't tell anyone, but there would be signs. As the popular meme says, I haven't told a soul that Hubby and I are now filthy rich. I'm not sure my mutuals have noticed I quit my job, either. I'm lucky they don't talk finances or my friends with ko-fi would realize they all received substantial sums around the same time. It wasn't as much as I wanted, but it was as much as I could give for now.

When the taxes for the big win are done, then I'll start talking to some online friends. Make a note about "hey, I'm going on a trip to this place near you. Would you like to meet up?" "Oh, you need a project funded? Can I help you with that?"

💐💐💐💐💐💐💐

Really, what's more self-indulgent than "I'm rich and have no work responsibilities now!"