#HIGHLY recommend exporting your blog. because u never know

[birdlord]

Every Book I Read in 2019

This was a heavier reading year for me (heavier culture-consumption year in general) partly because my partner started logging his books read, and then, of course, it’s a competition.

01 Morvern Callar; Alan Warner - One of the starkest books I’ve ever read. What is it about Scotland that breeds writers with such brutal, distant perspectives on life? Must be all the rocks. 

02 21 Things You Might Not Know About the Indian Act; Bob Joseph - I haven’t had much education in Canada’s relationship to the Indigenous nations that came before it, so this opened things up for me quite a bit. The first and most fundamental awakening is to the fact that this is not a story of progress from worse to better (which is what a simplistic, grade school understanding of smallpox blankets>residential schools>reserves would tell you), in fact, the nation to nation relationship of early contact was often superior to what we have today. I wish there was more of a call to action, but apparently a sequel is on its way. 

03 The Plot Against America; Philip Roth - An alternative history that in some ways mirrors our present. I did feel like I was always waiting for something to happen, but I suppose the point is that, even at the end of the world, disasters proceed incrementally. 

04 Sabrina; Nick Drnaso - The blank art style and lack of contrast in the colouring of each page really reinforces the feeling of impersonal vacancy between most of the characters. I wonder how this will read in the future, as it’s very much based in today’s relationship to friends and technology. 

05 Perfumes: The Guide; Luca Turn & Tania Sanchez - One of the things I like to do when I need to turn my brain off online is reading perfume reviews. That’s where I found out about this book, which runs through different scent families and reviews specific well-known perfumes. Every topic has its boffins, and these two are particularly witty and readable. 

06 Adventures in the Screen Trade; William Goldman - Reading this made me realize how little of the cinema of the 1970s I’ve actually seen, beyond the usual heavy hitters. Ultimately I found this pretty thin, a few peices of advice stitched together with anecdotes about a Hollywood that is barely recognizable today. 

07 The Age of Innocence; Edith Wharton - A love triangle in which the fulcrum is a terribly irritating person, someone who thinks himself far more outré than he is. Nonetheless, I was taken in by this story of “rebellion”, such as it was, to be compelling.

08 Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-class Metropolis; Sam Anderson - Like a novel that follows various separate characters, this book switches between tales of the founding of Oklahoma City with basketball facts and encounters with various oddball city residents. It’s certainly a fun ride, but you may find, as I did, that some parts of the narrative interest you more than others. Longest subtitle ever?

09 World of Yesterday; Stefan Zweig - A memoir of pre-war Austria and its artistic communities, told by one of its best-known exports. Particularly wrenching with regards to the buildup to WWII, from the perspective of those who had been through this experience before, so recently. 

10 Teach us to Sit Still: A Sceptic’s Search for Health and Healing; Tim Parks - A writer finds himself plagued by pain that conventional doctors aren’t able to cure, so he heads further afield to see if he can use stillness-of-mind to ease the pain, all the while complaining as you would expect a sceptic to do. His digressions into literature were a bit hard to take (I’m sure you’re not Coleridge, my man).

11 The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences have Extraordinary Impact; Chip & Dan Heath - I read this for work-related reasons, with the intention of improving my ability to make exhibitions and interpretation. It has a certain sort of self-helpish structure, with anecdotes starting each chapter and a simple lesson drawn from each one. Not a bad read if you work in a public-facing capacity. 

12 Against Everything: Essays; Mark Greif - The founder of N+1 collects a disparate selection of essays, written over a period of several years. You won’t love them all, but hey, you can always skip those ones!

13 See What I Have Done; Sarah Schmidt - A retelling of the Lizzie Borden story, which I’d seen a lot of good reviews for. Sadly this didn’t measure up, for me. There’s a lot of stage setting (rotting food plays an important part) but there’s not a lot of substance there. 

14 Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy; Angela Garber - This is another one that came to me very highly recommended. Garber seems to think these topics are not as well-covered as they are, but she does a good job researching and retelling tales of pregnancy, birth, postpartum difficulties and breastfeeding. 

15 Rebecca; Daphne du Maurier - This was my favourite book club book of the year. I’d always had an impression of...trashiness I guess? around du Maurier, but this is a classic thriller. Maybe the first time I’ve ever read, rather than watched, a thriller! That’s on me. 

16 O’Keefe: The Life of an American Legend; Jeffrey Hogrefe - I went to New Mexico for the first time this spring, and a colleague lent me this Georgia O’Keefe biography after I returned. I hadn’t known much about her personal life before this, aside from what I learned at her museum in Santa Fe. The author has made the decision that much of O’Keefe’s life was determined by childhood incest, but doesn’t have what you might call….evidence?

17 A Lost Lady; Willa Cather - A turn-of-the-20th century story about an upper-class woman and her young admirer Neil. I’ve never read any other Cather, but this felt very similar to the Wharton I also read this year, which I gather isn’t typical of her. 

18 The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months of Unearthing the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country; Helen Russell - A British journalist moves to small-town Denmark with her husband, and although the distances are not long, there’s a considerable culture shock. Made me want to eat pastries in a BIG WAY. 

19 How Not to be a Boy; Robert Webb - The title gives a clue to the framing device of this book, which is fundamentally a celebrity memoir, albeit one that largely ignores the celebrity part of his life in favour of an examination of the effects of patriarchy on boys’ development as human beings. 

20 The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (And Your Children Will be Glad that You Did); Philippa Perry; A psychotherapist’s take on how parents’ own upbringing affects the way they interact with their own kids. 

21 The Library Book; Susan Orlean - This book has stuck with me more than I imagined that it would. It covers both the history of libraries in the USA, and the story of the arson of the LA Public Library’s central branch in 1986. 

22 We Are Never Meeting in Real Life; Samantha Irby - I’ve been reading Irby’s blog for years, and follow her on social media. So I knew the level of raunch and near body-horror to expect in this essay collection. This did fill in a lot of gaps in terms of her life, which added a lot more blackness (hey) to the humour. 

23 State of Wonder; Ann Patchett - A semi-riff on Heart of Darkness involving an OB/GYN who now works for a pharmaceutical company, heading to the jungle to retrieve another researcher who has gone all Colonel Kurtz on them. I found it a bit unsatisfying, but the descriptions were, admittedly, great. 

24 Disappearing Earth; Julia Phillips - A story of an abduction of two girls in very remote Russia, each chapter told by another townsperson. The connections between the narrators of each chapter are sometimes obvious, but not always. Ending a little tidy, but plays against expectations for a book like this. 

25 Ethan Frome; Edith Wharton - I gather this is a typical high school read, but I’d never got to it. In case you’re in the same boat as me, it’s a short, mildly melodramatic romantic tragedy set in the new england winter. It lacks the focus on class that other Whartons have, but certainly keeps the same strong sense that once you’ve made a choice, you’re stuck with it. FOREVER. 

26 Educated; Tara Westover - This memoir of a Mormon fundamentalist-turned-Academic-superstar was huge on everyone’s reading lists a couple of years back, and I finally got to it. It felt similar to me in some ways to the Glass Castle, in terms of the nearly-unbelievable amounts of hell she and her family go through at the hands of her father and his Big Ideas. I found that it lacked real contemplation of the culture shock of moving from the rural mountain west to, say, Cambridge. 

27 Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of Lusitania; Erik Larson - I’m a sucker for a story of a passenger liner, any non-Titanic passenger liner, really. Plus Lusitania’s story has interesting resonances for the US entry into WWI, and we see the perspective of the U-boat captain as well as people on land, and Lusitania’s own passengers and crew. 

28 The Birds and Other Stories; Daphne du Maurier - The title story is the one that stuck in my head most strongly, which isn’t any surprise. I found it much more harrowing than the film, it had a really effective sense of gradually increasing dread and inevitability. 

29 Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Faded Glory; Raphael Bob-Waksberg - Hit or miss in the usual way of short story collections, this book has a real debt to George Saunders. 

30 Sex & Rage; Eve Babitz - a sort of pseudo-autobiography of an indolent life in the LA scene of the 1970s. It was sometimes very difficult to see how the protagonist actually felt about anything, which is a frequent, acute symptom of youth. 

31 Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party; Graham Greene - Gotta love a book with an alternate title built in. This is a broad (the characters? are, without exception, insane?!) satire about a world I know little about. I don’t have a lot of patience or interest in Greene’s religious allegories, but it’s a fine enough story. 

32 Lathe of Heaven; Ursula K LeGuin - Near-future sci-fi that is incredibly prescient about the effects of climate change for a book written over forty years ago. The book has amazing world-building, and the first half has the whirlwind feel of Homer going back in time, killing butterflies and returning to the present to see what changes he has wrought. 

33 The Grammarians; Cathleen Schine - Rarely have I read a book whose jacket description of the plot seems so very distant from what actually happens therein. 

34 The Boy Kings: A Journey Into the Heart of the Social Network; Katharine Losse - Losse was one of Facebook’s very earliest employees, and she charts her experience with the company in this memoir from 2012. Do you even recall what Facebook was like in 2012? They hadn’t even altered the results of elections yet! Zuck was a mere MULTI-MILLIONAIRE, probably. Were we ever so young?

35 Invisible Women; Caroline Ciado Perez - If you want to read a book that will make you angry, so angry that you repeatedly assail whoever is around with facts taken from it, then this, my friend, is the book for you. 

36 The Hidden World of the Fox; Adele Brand - A really charming look at the fox from an ecologist who has studied them around the world. Much of it takes place in the UK, where urban foxes take on a similar ecological niche that raccoons famously do where I live, in Toronto. 

37 S; Doug Dorst & JJ Abrams - This is a real mindfuck of a book, consisting of a faux-old novel, with marginalia added by two students which follows its own narrative. A difficult read not because of the density of prose, but the sheer logistics involved: read the page, then the marginalia? Read the marginalia interspersed with the novel text? Go back chapter by chapter? I’m not sure that either story was worth the trouble, in the end. 

38 American War; Omar El Akkad - This is not exclusively, but partially a climate-based speculative novel, or, grossly, cli-fi for short. Ugh, what a term! But this book is a really tight, and realistic look at the results of a fossil-fuels-based second US Civil War. 

39 Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation; Andrew Marantz - This is the guy you’ll hear on every NPR story talking about his semi-embedding within the Extremely Online alt-right. Most of the figures he profiles come off basically how you’d expect, I found his conclusions about the ways these groups have chosen to use online media tools to achieve their ends the most illuminating part. 

40 Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm; Isabella Tree - This is the story of a long process of transitioning a rural acreage (more of an estate than a farm, this is aristocratic shit) from intensive agriculture to something closer to wild land. There are long passages where Tree (ahem) simply lists species which have come back, which I’m sure is fascinating if you are from the area, but I tended to glaze over a bit. Experts from around the UK and other European nations weigh in on how best to rewild the space, which places the project in a wider context. 

FICTON: 17     NONFICTION: 23

[starlightshore]

Probably a loaded question, but with all the game engines you've worked with, what are the pros and cons for each? I'm really interested in trying my hand. So far I got rpg maker mv for a paid engine, but I'mma l look into free ones also. (Game Maker seems a bit expensive for my tastes :()

GOD YEAH game maker is... so expensive... i’m hoping my bro gets me it for Christmas when its on sale. but even then like. ouch. that price tag.

so here are all the programs I've used to make my fangame at some point:

uh. long ass post ahead.

COST: 15$

its a visual novel making program! like RPG maker, its not code based, but visual based! you just click and drag the stuff from the left onto the right area and boom. game made. Honestly, a really good introduction to making a video game! Its very basic and simple, which is very newbie friendly. Lots of Youtube videos on how to do things too.

You can technically do more with it by using the program’s coding language OR by using java-script, tho personally i’m not good at coding yet so i never really saw what i could do with it. i haven’t really used it in a year but honestly, i can’t thank it enough for being such a good introduction to game development.

Pros: cheap one time fee, easy for newbies and visual based.

Cons: very limited to just visual novels, and even then to do more complex stuff you really have to work for it to get it to work.

RENPY

COST: FREE

THE free visual novel program. It’s a bit of a learning curve since everything is done in script, (ie: no visuals) BUT its VERY simple and easy to learn and once you get it and it clicks, you can do a lot with it! because you code it yourself, the limits are nearly endless. uses it’s own language, but you can also use python (or its built on python? can’t remember lol) and python is built for newbies.

Pros: free, limited only by what you’re willing to learn to do with code, while you can make RPGS its pretty limited since its not built for it

Cons: only super easy to use once you get over the learning curve. if you have any experience w/ code, its a breeze. if not, still easy to learn!, you can only use it for rpgs, NOT a visual program

(and other RPG Maker game engines)

COST: 50$ (EXPENSIVE! but it does go on sale once in a while. i got mine at 20-ish$)

idk if you plan on making a UT fangame too but its totally possible!!! i’m doing it!! and i would be very happy to share/help others with theirs. i mean. mostly its just plugins from other people, but i did set up a pretty nice inventory and i can show ya’ll how i make the sprites. (since UT has a lot smaller tileset size) and honestly, if you need help w/ this program my instant messenger is always open B)

uh anyway. RPG maker is a godsend for someone like me who is very visual minded and has a hard time grasping code. i know python... ok-ish. im still a noob. ANYWAY yah, theres LOTS of tutorials and plugins you can sink your teeth into, big communities who are all happy to share and help each other out. its pretty great! (actually, you could say the same w/ all these game engines! but the RPG maker forums is like. super nice from what i’ve seen)

so like, with youtube you can learn how to use it within a day or two, frankly. and you can do SO much with it w/ plugins. and the community is ages old, and the game itself is a few years old and has plenty to offer. you need something? likely someone else has made a plugin or forum post on the topic and someone has helped them figure it out. HIGHLY recommend this program if you can afford it (and you already have it, so honestly, just go w/ rpg maker.)

i wouldn’t super recommend the default assets cause the community hates them. they’re way over used and people see it as “lazy.” its good as like, a stepping stone but you shouldn’t rely on them for your whole game if you can manage your own graphics or pay someone to make them. if not, theres still free tilesets you can use if you look for them.

Pros: big friendly community, lots of resources to use, capable of A LOT of things, hassle free for the most part!

Cons: price is big, but it goes on sale often and the older versions of RPG maker aren’t that much different/worse. granted, MV is the best but like, the others aren’t bad. quite a bit to learn at first, but really simple honestly.   

COST: Free (sorta. you need a license for certain aspects, but really u could do it free w/ zero issue except for exporting to multiple devices)

ok so like. i don’t. really know how to use unity too well. out of all of these, i haven’t used it for long. while still somewhat visual, you still have to learn a quite a bit of code and look up tutorials to figure out specific things you want to do.

for UT fangames, there is UNITALE/Create Your Own Frisk which uses unity, tho you don’t need the Unity to make games unless you want to make a overworld. since i’m making a overworld and more, i’ll need to learn how to use Unity. It’s a uphill battle but i’m fairly certain i can do it eventually.

there’s a LOT of resources but theres also a LOT to learn. untiy is pretty big and well known, for both 3d and 2d so like, go ham. have fun.

Pros: can do anything

Cons: can do anything so you gotta learn how to do it w/ code.

Cost: has both a subscription and a license you can purchase. its,,, pricey and doesn’t go on sale all too often.

I actually don’t have ANY experience with this program except for like. a few night’s worth. i read the manual if that counts for anything lol.

uh, its very script base and it looks good? uh. idk. its. yeah? i heard its great and i’m sure for that price and for it to be respected so much its got a lot live up to. my brother likes it and hes a Real nerd. so. i guess??? it should be worth it? i’d say wait until around Christmas/later in November for the steam sale if you really want to.

i mean, UT was made with the first one (tho i hear GMS 2 is way better) and toby didn’t know how to code going in so like. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ honestly anyone can learn it and while i haven’t gotten to use it much yet, I want to.

there’s the Undertale Fan Engine made with GMS 2 and i’ve tried it, its pretty extensive and frickin cool.

TLDR; figure out what kind of game and story you want to tell/make. i could of saved a year’s worth of work if i just sat myself down and realized i wanted to make a completely new fangame separate from my old blog stuff. and that i wanted to make an rpg specifically.

honestly, i want to make more games after AL, like, if i could become a indie dev that’d be my dream. (ironic since i don’t play video games LMAO)

but yeah! theres lots of choices, and its all a little overwhelming honestly! if theres anything you need help with w/ any of these programs I am happy to help further. I wish you the best of luck!!!! video game making is hard work but its so worth it!!!

[topicprinter]

Hey r/Entrepreneur,After reading u/voscility’s post, I figured that I would try and add some value to this sub. I actually helped a buddy out with all this information yesterday, and I thought that some of you guys could definitely benefit from it.I’m not going to link to my social media accounts unless you guys would like me too and I have no affiliation with any of these apps. These are the ways I figured out how to do everything from growing the account from 0 to 165k. I post quite a bit of memes, gifs/videos with text above them, and create a lot of graphic design images. I will try and go as in depth as possible! Feel free to ask any questions or clarify anything I put that doesn’t make sense. If you have a better way of doing something, comment it!My methods are what I use to create mainly memes and viral-type content, but you can use them to create content for whatever type of account you are running, doesn’t have to be memes because I know memes are not appropriate for many types of businesses.My #1 RecommendationGET YOURSELF AN IPHONE 7 PLUS WITH AT LEAST 128GB OF MEMORY. I can’t really stress this enough. It could just be my preference, but I have seen friends and coworkers create content on their iPhone 5s and then when I look at it on my phone, it is grainy and blurry. Not to mention it is much slower creating graphics on an older phone. My iPhone is a literal substitute for my computer and for an iPad. I pay like $45/month through apple for it and I think that if you’re serious about social media, you should think about investing in one yourself. I’ve never been an Android guy, so if you use an Android and it works for you, great. But I still say iPhones are king for social media.My iPhone Apps (Not sure if they’re available on Android)#1 - Canva (Both Desktop and Mobile) App Store LinkCanva is the holy grail of graphic design. With it, I have created nearly every single meme, website graphic, header images, blog images, email templates, you name it. It is the absolute easiest and straightforward tool I have used. The only thing I don’t like about Canva is the lack of ability to outline text or add any shadows, but that’s alright, I highly recommend it.#2- InstaSizeWhat I Use it For: I use InstaSize mainly to add an image to a square, white background to leave space above for text. This is pretty much the standard meme format these days. You can add text with InstaSize, but Canva IMO has a wider selection of higher quality fonts and freedom for styling fonts.#3 - SquareFitWhat I Use it For: I use SquareFit for creating videos with text above them. If you have a video file on your phone, you can upload it to SquareFit, center it, add text to it, watermark it, add shapes, colored backgrounds, or their stamps (which I’ve never used). I think that you can only work with videos up to 1 minute long, but since that’s the limit on a single post in Instagram, I’ve never had a problem with it.#4 - GifShareWhat I use GifShare For: I use GifShare to turn gifs into videos in pretty much the same way I use InstaSize and Canva. If you have a gif and want to post it to Instagram, it needs to be a video. Upload the gif to the app, and leave some space above to add text. I don’t recommend adding text inside GifShare, because when you export it, it usually saves off-centered and gets messed up in the process. Save the now video to your phone, then open up SquareFit to add your text and watermark, then post to IG.#5 - RepostWhat I Use Repost For: I use Repost to literally repost videos from other IG posts. Depending on what the video is, or if I am exchanging a post with an account, I may or may not leave the little watermark with the OP’s username on it. Choose either light or dark, whichever looks better on that specific video. To repost without the OP’s watermark, you have to pay for the app, which I recommend doing if you’re constantly finding yourself needing the app and you can repost unlimited videos. If you don’t have explicit permission to repost another accounts video, always use their watermark. Really no account will get mad if you repost their video and they’re credited in both the caption and on the actual video.If you have a video that somebody Direct Messaged you on IG, you can save it to your phone directly from the DMs. Just press and hold down on the video (while it’s still small and the text box is visible, not when it’s full screen and the video is playing or it won’t work) and you can choose either “save” or “report.” Obviously, choose to save.#6 - EnlightWhat I use Enlight For: I use Enlight if I ever need any tools that match with Photoshop tools. I know there’s a Photoshop iOS app, but I’ve been using Enlight for a while and it’s never let me down. With this app, you can mix and blend images together. So if you wanted to combine 2 photos and make them look seamless, use this app. Once you mix the images, you can erase parts of the image, blend and overlay them, rotate, etc with pretty precise precision. You can also heal images to remove blemishes, add filters, tilt-shift, decals and quite a bit more features that make enlight a core app for me.I also use Enlight to create actual memes like the OG memes with the white font outlined in black on the top and/or bottom of the image.#7 - FlipagramWhat I use Flipagram for: I use Flipagram really only to add music to a video, speed it up, slow it down, or to duplicate a short video (