#I also took a bunch more screenshots than the first time round

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

A bit over a week ago, I downloaded the first few episodes (22, specifically, which is too many) of four different long-running podcasts, thinking I’d listen to one episode of each and then write a post about the pros and cons of dedicating many hours of my life to that one. Then I’d maybe try a few more episodes of one of another depending which ones I’d liked best, and eventually make one of them the next long-running thing I do. I took a screenshot to show which ones I had:

This worked initially, as I listened to s01e01 of Pappy’s Fun Club and wrote a post about it. But then I listened to the pilot of Do the Right Thing and honestly, I didn’t love it. But, I figured, that’s not fair. I’ve heard the pilot of Pappy’s too, and that’s cool and historically interesting, but it’s not necessarily the highest quality of comedy. You can’t judge a show purely from its pilot.

Also, I went into s01e01 (the post-pilot episode) of Pappy’s having already heard a few recent episodes, so I ad some context. And everything’s better when you already have context. When you can just enjoy the comedy instead of also trying to figure out who the people are and what the rounds/rules are and what the energy is like. So even if I just went to the first post-pilot episode of Do the Right Thing, it wouldn’t be fair to compare that to Pappy’s. I’d need to listen to a few to get a fair comparison, to know how it sounds once you’re used to the context.

So I did listen to a few, but then I ran into a week that I had to spend moving out of two separate houses while buying new electronics and working fulltime and it was stressful as fuck, so I didn’t have the chance to sit down and write a post about it. But this also meant I didn’t want to start a new thing, having not gotten to write a post about this one. Also, I just didn’t have the mental energy to try to get used to one more new thing at the same time as everything else that week, and thought I’d just stick with what I was already doing.

So that is how I’ve now listened to the first 33 episodes of Do the Right Thing, and there are only 18 left, so at this point I’m just going to finish the whole podcast before I move on to something else. It really doesn’t belong on a list of other very long-running podcasts, as getting into John + Elis stuff would take the rest of my life, but Do the Right Thing I can do in a few weeks.

So here’s that belated post on what I think about this podcast. It definitely got better after the pilot, though not by a lot immediately. It took a little while to find its feet, I think I was right to say I needed to give it a few episodes before judging it. It probably didn’t help that the early episodes had a lot of guests who weren’t familiar to me, some of whom also weren’t comedians. There were a bunch of musicians in there, as there’s crossover between Danielle Ward’s people and music people, since she used to be in bands. I also noticed a slightly higher-than-average proportion of those comedians who seemed fine at the time but now do Comedy Unleashed – which I think is related to it being the early days of a not-yet successful podcast, so they were bringing comedians who were insufficiently successful to turn that down, and who have since decided to give up on mainstream success and try competing in the smaller market for terrible people.

But the guests got better as the podcast got more successful, and drew people who were higher-status within comedy in general, but also more comedians that I specifically like. Coming up now, as I’m listening, I have a bunch of episodes in a row where there’s not a single one for which I’m not really excited for both guests: Andy Zaltzman/Lou Sanders, Sara Pascoe/John Robins (in fairly late 2016, and I do recall the trainwreck that was their Mock the Week episode, so that’s fun), Cariad Lloyd/Phil Wang, Sarah Kendall/Chris Addison, Jessica Fostekew/Nish Kumar, Sarah Millican/Joe Lycett.

And, as it went along, the regulars really found their feet in how they worked with each other and with the format. At first I wasn’t sure about it because they seemed to be trying too hard to appeal to too many things at once, and there was a lot of “It’s funny because I said sex” humour. Also a whole lot of awkwardly shoehorning in stand-up bits, which I normally don't mind much as that's expected on panel shows, but it was so excessive that it sort of replaced genuine interaction. They seemed to be trying to force both the humour and the chemistry in the earliest few episodes. But it got a lot better once they relaxed and started going with what seems more like their actual senses of humour and actual chemistry, which clearly is there as they’ve known each other a long time.

Danielle Ward is really brilliant. I’d already liked her, as I’d heard her on a few other things, and I saw her 2017 stand-up special Seventeen, which everyone should watch, it was so good. I’d always seen just enough of her to want to see more, which is why I put this podcast on my list in the first place (also because of Michael Legge, whose audiobook/Halloween EP/two stand-up specials on NextUp are some of my favourite things I’ve discovered this year). But I didn’t really know just how great she is until I got into this podcast. I could write a whole other post about how great Danielle Ward is. I will, at some point soon, write a whole other post about how great Danielle Ward is.

I have to admit I went in mildly biased against Margaret Cabourn-Smith, entirely because she mildly annoyed me on the Taskmaster podcast one time. She’s less of someone whom I immediately connect with as “my sense of humour”, so it took a bit longer with her (also because of the bias), but once I got used to her I’ve come around to really liking her as well. I think she’s also relaxed as the episodes have gone on, making better use of the fact that dirty jokes sound funnier coming from someone with her sort of nice person persona, and I’ve ended up quite enjoying it.

Like I said, I’ve got lots more to write about this podcast and will in other posts, but wanted to write this one to say, I really really am bad at trying to just sample multiple things instead of getting fully into one thing. After I finish this one, I will go back to just trying out the other three.

[3-genetic-bugs-in-a-trenchcoat]

If Found... one year on

Having played this little gem right after launch last May, I came back to play through the whole thing almost a year later... mainly to just experience the story again, but also to see how this time changed my reading of it.

And I got exactly what I wanted. The game changed very slightly since I first played it - the music at the end was replaced with a song with lyrics, and I think I didn’t go through all of the epilogue material the first time round.

But the game did hit me differently this time; it wasn’t better or worse, but definitely different. Going through the story still felt amazing, same with the music, which I know pretty well by now. But the first playthrough had a very clear climax which the game builds up to, and following this line occupied a lot of my attention. And the ending obviously hit me emotionally a lot stronger back then, literally leaving me weeping for the rest of that day.

If found... is obviously a trans coming out story, and at my first playthrough, these events were a potential prospect. I was just about to start HRT at the time, being out to almost no one, my own coming-out was something that probably would happen, but at a distant, non-specified future... and the middle of lockdown at the time only reinforced that perception. So I read through If Found... thinking “these conversations, these reactions... this COULD happen”.

This playthrough though, almost a year later, I started from a completely different place. For once, now I knew the ending. But more importantly, now I also know my own story... well, at least until now. The events in game are now what COULD HAVE happened, had I not been so lucky. And the thoughts in game are what I recognise from the past year of my own introspections (or panic attacks, for that matter). I can relate to Kasio a lot better, but at the same time I can tell how our ways are different, primarily because I know myself a lot better now.

That isn’t to say that this time I approached and left the game with cold feelings. The ending didn’t melt me down nearly as much as last year, but instead I found more moments throughout the game just as moving. Not to mention the epilogues which had me well up at least a few times. I enjoyed myself just as much, but this time it was less of a build-up, and more of an... exploration, for lack of a better term.

Especially with the epilogues in mind, I’m wondering how my reception of this game will change in longer time frame, when I’m able to settle down and mature with myself. I could hypothesize here, but instead let me just leave a note in this post which I can find randomly in 5 years and return to this gem of a story once again.

[burkymakar]

Can you please post screenshots from the new Athletic post from Peter 👉👈🥺🥺

i got you!!! i'm just gonna post the text and the pictures!

About half an hour after an intense playoff practice ended, Jared Bednar wandered back to the concrete circle surrounding the boards at Family Sports Ice Arena, where he greeted a smiling, blonde-haired 22-year-old. The 49-year-old Avalanche coach and his visitor shared a connection, both having played for the same junior hockey team as teenagers: the Humboldt Broncos in Humboldt, Saskatchewan.

Graysen Cameron, the guest at the Avalanche’s practice Tuesday, was a winger for the Broncos in 2018 when a semi-trailer hit the team bus, killing 16 people, including 10 of his teammates. Cameron suffered a broken back as well as a concussion and an eye injury. At the time, doctors thought he wouldn’t be able to play hockey again, and a photo from the hospital went viral of him and two teammates grasping hands.

“Bonding and healing,” read the caption, written by the father of Derek Patter, one of the other injured players.

“Just to see the strength of the people of that community and the families that were affected has been amazing,” said Bednar, who played for Humboldt from 1989 to 1991, on the three-year anniversary of the crash. “A bunch of amazing people there.”

In the aftermath of the crash, Cameron met Marty Richardson, the president and CEO of Dawg Nation, a Denver-based nonprofit dedicated to helping hockey players and their families in times of crisis, and the former Broncos player came to two of the organization’s events in Colorado. This week’s visit was less organized, as a cross-country road trip brought Cameron to town. He and his girlfriend, Madi Lynch, had been visiting his brother in South Carolina and were driving back to Alberta. He reached out to Richardson last week to see if he could stay with him while passing through Denver.

He’s gotten much more than a spare bed.

“I wasn’t going to just have him hang out here,” Richardson said. “I said ‘let’s make this a really neat trip.’”

Richardson took Cameron and Lynch to Game 1 against Vegas on Sunday, and they sat in a box with Avalanche great Milan Hejduk, an honorary board member for Dawg Nation. At one point, a few people slipped out of the box and returned with a jersey of Cameron’s favorite Avalanche player: 22-year-old defenseman Cale Makar, who Cameron watched play junior hockey while they grew up in Alberta.

Then, on Monday, Richardson texted Bednar to ask about attending the Avalanche’s skate Tuesday. The coach responded that practice would be closed to the public — but not to them.

So the three came to Family Sports Ice Arena just ahead of the 11 a.m. skate and, shortly after their arrival, met broadcaster Peter McNab, who played 14 years in the NHL and, like Hejduk, is a Dawg Nation honorary board member. They then picked out second-row seats and watched the Avalanche get to work.

“It’s a really cool experience, and I’m very grateful to watch these guys perform at their best and get ready for a big game tomorrow,” Cameron said as the players skated.

He of course enjoyed watching Makar, and he appreciated seeing Nathan MacKinnon’s speed up close. When practice started winding down, McNab walked back toward him and they talked about how fast the game looks at ice level.

As players started leaving the ice, Bednar put Richardson in touch with security, who led them down to the area next to the rink. That’s where Bednar came and met them.

“I really didn’t know what was going to happen,” Richardson said. “It was way better than (expected).”

Bednar, who is from near Humboldt and helped create the Humboldt Broncos Memorial Golf Tournament, talked to Cameron for around 15 minutes about his trip and the Avalanche’s second-round series, which they lead 1-0. The coach signed a photo for Cameron and is also giving him and Lynch tickets for Game 2 on Wednesday.

“You definitely see his character and the type of person he is,” Cameron said of Bednar, who he had met previously at the golf tournament. “He has a big heart and likes making people’s days.”

Added Richardson: “He’s clearly someone that thinks of others before himself, even when he’s in a really stressful time, which he is right now (with the playoffs).”

The special moments weren’t over. Richardson asked Bednar if he could have Makar sign Cameron’s jersey they’d bought two nights before as well as one for the son of a Dawg Nation’s sponsor. Bednar took both sweaters into the dressing room.

“He came out and handed me the jerseys back (unsigned),” Richardson said. “And he said ‘Cale wants to sign them out here. He wants to meet Graysen.’”

Graysen Cameron, Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar and Madi Lynch pose for a photo together. (Photo courtesy Marty Richardson)

Moments later, the star blueliner, who will likely be a Norris Trophy finalist this year, walked out of the dressing room area. He approached Cameron, shook his hand and posed a picture with him and Lynch. Then, as requested, he signed the white No. 8 on Cameron’s jersey. He stuck around for about five minutes, and then Bednar returned with forward Tyson Jost, the only other Avalanche player from Alberta.

“It was pretty low-key,” Cameron said. “Talked about the last game a bit, how they did and what they’re kind of expecting coming up. Just some hockey talk.”

Though he initially thought his own hockey career was over after the crash, Cameron recovered from his injuries. His first hockey game after the bus accident came in October 2019, at a Dawg Nation charity event in Colorado. He suited up alongside 10 current or former NHL players — including former Avs players Paul Stastny, now with the Jets, and Kyle Quincey, who retired in 2019 — and even scored a goal, bringing tears to his dad’s eyes.

Shortly after, he made his return to the Broncos, becoming the team’s first captain since the crash.

“Following in (the late) Logan Schatz’s footsteps there — my former captain — it was really emotional,” he said. “I just felt really honored and grateful to be a leader on that team.”

He played in 46 games that season, collecting 13 points, then suffered an ACL tear in his last game. But he rehabbed the injury and was able to play three games this past season with Northland College, a Division III school in Ashland, Wisc.

At season’s end, though, he decided to call it a career. His body had been through a lot.

“It just was starting to weigh on me mentally and physically,” he said. “ I’m happy and content with (the decision), but you always miss the game and miss being a part of practice.”

And that made watching the Avalanche skate Tuesday even more special.

“It’s really cool to see these guys do that,” he said.

Cameron is an Oilers fan thanks to his father — “he corrupted me at a young age,” he joked — so his childhood favorite team is out of the playoffs. But thanks to Bednar, Richardson, Makar and others around the organization, he didn’t hesitate when asked who he’s pulling for to win the Stanley Cup.

“Go Avs,” he said.

[itsclydebitches]

A weird defence I've seen of RWBY's conflicts has been that it's good writing simply by the virtue that people can disagree on what's the right thing to do in said conflict. Which doesn't work when one decision is being presented as the only valid choice while every other option is either not addressed or demonized. This isn't a story leaving a nuanced set of stances to explore, it's a guy on stage signalling the crowd to boo whenever someone goes against the Protag's decision.

Real quick, I want to talk about RWBY by not talking about RWBY. I’ve seen this argument a lot too and the tl;dr is that just because your audience debates the right action in a conflict  — something that is inevitable given how subjective media is  — doesn’t mean the story encouraged that reflection in any way. As you say, RWBY pretends that those disagreements don’t exist and that This Is The One (1) Right Answer... which entirely defeats the purpose of a morally nuanced situation in the first place. That lack is bad writing because it demonstrates the author’s inability to provide an accurate picture of the conflict while still ensuring we come out of it liking the parties involved. The conflict was too complex for them to manage alongside equally complex characterization, so they just pretended it was far simpler than it actually was. That’s not something to praise. 

But to get to the not RWBY part. I’ve mentioned this a couple times before, but one of the scenes that I think manages these sorts of conflicts really well is the funeral fight in The Haunting of Hill House, episodes 6, “Two Storms.” So warning from here on out for spoilers. Sometimes, the best way to see what’s not working well in one show is to look at another show that does (basically) the same thing successfully and compare the two. 

Normally I’d include screenshots, but Netflix doesn’t allow that :/ So I’m forced to rely on bullet points. 

The basic premise is that the Crain family has assembled in daughter Shirley’s funeral home, the night before they bury their sister, Nell. A lot of secrets are about to come to light. 

The scene kicks off when their father, Hugh, relays the call he got from the housekeeper the night of Nell’s death. She had committed suicide in the family’s childhood home. 

Though everyone knew how she’d died, son Steven is distraught at hearing the details and reveals that a few weeks prior Nell crashed a book signing of his. This shocks the others given that this was very unusual behavior for Nell. 

Shirley likewise reveals that she got a call from Nell who’d been worried about their brother, Luke, but hadn’t spoken to her the night of her death. The implication is that no one did. They’ll never know what was going through her head the night she died. 

Hugh reveals that she did call him. “I talked to her.” 

Stunned by this news, his children demand to know what was discussed and Hugh is clearly reluctant to continue. However, he eventually says that Nell wasn’t just worried about Luke, but also the “Bent Neck Lady,” a specter from her childhood.

The viewer knows that ghosts are real in this show. The kids don’t. Or rather, they all experienced supernatural occurrences in their childhood, are still experiencing them now, but only some of them are willing to admit they’re real. Steven is the diehard skeptic of the bunch and starts yelling at his father, accusing him of aiding Nell’s delusions and ignoring a family history of mental illness. In particular, he declares that this “makes you culpable [in her death].” 

Steven continues to accuse Hugh of “holding back information” about Nell and Hugh shoots back that “If I held back anything it was to protect you kids.” The viewer understands Hugh’s dilemma: the only reason he keeps things to himself is because Steven and the others refuse to believe the truth, with an added dose of this supernatural stuff being very dangerous. Steven asks, “Why do I need protection from the truth?” 

Before their fight can go any further, Shirley tells Steven, “You might want to check yourself before you start talking about the truth.” He published an autobiographical book about their childhood trauma and notably capitalized on a supernatural angle he doesn’t believe in. Shirley calls it “blood money.” 

As the argument about the ethics of his book rages, Shirley defends herself primarily with how everyone else thinks this is “blood money” too. No one took a cut when Steven offered one, proving how despicable they all think it is. 

Meanwhile, sister Theo has been getting heat for being drunk (a coping mechanism for her own supernatural troubles) and Shirley eventually pushes her far enough that she admits she did take Steven’s money and used it to get her degree. “It’s good, fucking money.” Suddenly, Steven has someone in his corner and Shirley’s main defense has crumbled. 

Shirley is furious that Theo had this secret income but was still living with her and her husband. Theo reminds her that she offered to pay rent, but Shirley isn’t interested in hearing that. She demands that Theo move out immediately and uses this betrayal as the new way to protect herself. She’s the victim here. 

Steven, sensing another secret in the works, cautions Shirley to “get off your high horse before you fall off.” 

Shirley maintains her position until her husband blurts that they also took Steven’s money. Shirley hasn’t been running the funeral home well and they would have sunk without it. 

Despite being the punching bag for the second half of this fight, Shirley is offered both reassurance and dignity. Her husband emphasizes that the only reason they’re struggling is because Shirley is a good person. She does too much work pro bono. Shirley also delivers the line, “Do you have any idea how much you’ve humiliated me?” calling into question the husband’s choice to admit this now, purely as a way to prove her wrong. 

Shirley leaves to get some distance and discovers that someone — something — has put buttons over Nell’s eyes. The shock of this keeps the fight from continuing and, as plot intervenes, gives the characters the space needed to eventually start healing and forgiving one another, notably by sitting with the various truths they all now have to grapple with. 

Phew! A long summary, but I’ve put this much detail in to highlight the nuance of the scene. Obviously RWBY would differ in many ways  — less cursing, for one  — but the core elements of any morally complex scene should be the same. The important takeaways here are that no one in the Crain family are “pure” or “evil” and everyone gets their chance to be both right and wrong. Hugh is right that Steven won’t listen to him and wrong in that he didn’t do enough to help his kids. We get Steven and Hugh’s frustration, their understanding of the world at odds with one another. Steven is wrong to put everything on his father and justified in starting his writing career with their story. We watch the scene move from “Steven is Wrong and everyone agrees” to “Oh shit nm, more and more of the family are revealing that they benefited from his money, complicating how “wrong” he actually is.” Shirley is right to point out that Theo is getting drunk during their sister’s funeral and Theo is right to point out that being drunk doesn’t erase having a good point. Theo is allowed to scream at the group and then immediately be offered help when she falls. Shirley pretends she’s better than all of them and is slowly, horrifyingly proven wrong, but is then still extended compassion and is allowed to point out how horribly they’ve just treated her. The husband is right about the money, wrong about keeping it a secret/revealing it the way he did, right in how he tries to diffuse the other fights, and VERY wrong by getting caught kissing Theo down in the storeroom! 

The scene twists and turns in a way that highlights everyone’s points and their flaws, the moments when their perspective should be upheld and questioned. The end result is a scene that has space for the audience to debate everyone’s choices without imposing the single view of This Person Is Obviously Wrong/Right and If You Think Otherwise You’re Not Watching The Show Correctly. The show itself acknowledges the complexity and nuance of these problems. It asks, “Hugh should have tried harder, but what more can he do when his kids literally don’t believe this stuff exists? Was Steven really justified in writing a book about their collective experiences? What does it mean that something his family sees as capitalizing on their trauma also helped them keep businesses and schooling afloat? Was it okay for Shirley’s husband to keep that money a secret, even if it helped them? How might he have told her in a less cruel manner? What about Shirley’s life has led to her intense need to be on that ‘high horse’?” 

And of course: “Who is really responsible for Nell’s death?” By this point the viewer already knows that there is no “really” here. This is too complicated a tragedy to lay the blame at any one person’s feet. Everyone in this room has moments of justified accusations and moments of chastisement because they’re well written, well rounded characters who are neither saints nor devils. The length of the scene (done in a single shot!) emphasizes that if you just wait long enough, even the most perfect looking person will eventually have a skeleton pulled from their closet. No one is above mistakes. 

RWBY has NONE of that. Zip. Nada. Nothing. RWBY gave us a scenario with many of the same, core themes  — secret keeping, secrets unwillingly revealed, blaming others for your mistakes, hurtful actions with helpful consequences, questioning who is responsible for a tragic death  — and instead of even attempting to give us some of the above nuance, RWBY said only that Ruby was right, Ozpin was wrong, and demanding that the audience ignore the nuance they could already see in order to accept the canon. 

RWBY’s scene asks the audience to play dumb and look at the world as a Black and White place, despite the show simultaneously insisting that “the world isn’t a fairy tale” and is, in fact, filled with shades of gray. 

Just not any shades of gray that mess with that dichotomy that now drives the story.  

That’s not good writing. It’s oblivious and contradictory writing that makes the audience frustrated. Not satisfied, surprised, contemplative, or curious. Just frustrated. 

[apathycarestostudy]

Any studying, motivation and procrastination tips please? Desperately in need of some before a new academic year starts.

Hello hello! Yes! I’m sorry I took a bit to get back to you with these - I just wanted to give you the best I got. So here ya go, I mixed up everything you asked for in a couple of strong tips. I’ve divided into preparing for the new semester, study tips, and then procrastination tips with a sprinkle of motivation all over it.

Prep:

Sooo the academic year is right around the corner (or dreadfully yet, already here), and you need to shift to get with the times. Fixing your sleep schedule? Getting your syllabus ready? That’s all important and good, but how do you keep the determination strong as the first few weeks go by? How to prepare better?

make a lessons learned note

I learnt this from my internship. It’s a good practice that after a project, you take some time to review what happened during the project and create a final report, concluding it with a couple bullet points of the lessons you learnt from it. If you need a feel of what that looks like, here’s my lessons learned from last semester:

Using OneNote is a waste of time

If you don’t keep up in the beginning, you’re going to show up for attendance and give the bare minimum to move on

You need to learn how to speak up during class - you know the answer, what’re you so nervous about?

Don’t fear marking up your books - it’s yours??? You paid for it??? Using highlighters are useful if used appropriately

Be careful about helping people - you’ve been caught four times helping friends while they kept stuff from you and got ahead

Y’all I had to stop myself lol. I planned to write my top three, but then kept clicking enter again and again. Well. Now you know my concerns. 

Getting back on track though, you should take some time to write down the stuff you learned from last semester’s experience to know what you’re going to take with you, and what you’ll quit doing. It’s a strong, positive start, and it prevents you from making the same mistakes again.

delete/move stuff off your phone + organize your laptop’s folders

It’s better to keep our phones clear and ready for the new semester’s mess, right? I have a bunch of screenshots, and files, and notes on my phone that I don’t need to keep anymore, but I’m a bit of a hoarder :))) I like to keep stuff in case I wanna look back, be that girl people just know has something they’d need, or hell if I need to retake a class (it’s happened unfortunately). Maybe you got a junior you want to pass your stuff along to. So what do you do? Move it to your laptop of course!

Well, that’s what I do. If you don’t have a laptop, you can upload it somewhere (google drive etc.), attach them on emails, anything that works for you! There’s always somewhere you can put your stuff that’s private and safe.

That goes into my next point - be sure to take the time to reorganize your spaces now. Since I put it on my laptop, I organize my folders to my liking, make sure everything is where it should be with older ones, and create new ones for the coming semester. Just pop on some music, sit down and get cracking. It gives me a pleasant feeling after I look at everything when I’m done.

set up your calendar/planner!

This is a recurring tip that I think is good enough to reiterate. Whatever method you use to keep track of stuff needs to be updated, upgraded, and ready to go! If you’ve used something that failed mid-way through last semester, or you didn’t like but had to keep with it because you were in too deep, put that in your lessons learned record. Here’s your chance to change to a better system. It’s fine if you already started your new term - it’s still early enough to switch/set up a new one!

Make sure you don’t overdo it though. The point of this is to keep track of, say, assignments and quiz dates, not spend an unnecessary amount of time organizing and stuff and falling into the pit of preparing to study. If it works for you and has been working for you - keep going! But if it’s taking time and having any negative correlation to your performance, it’s better to do away with it than to keep going and have it be another lesson learnt next semester. I’ll be the first to say that I tried setting up a bujo for myself - bought markers and washi tape and all - and I gave up after three days of using it. And I set up an entire month and then some. It hurt my soul to admit that it was a waste of time for me, and not keep beating at it, but I did, and now it’s sitting here mocking me everyday. But I have time to watch it mock me ;) 

My go-to organizational system: Microsoft To-do (not sponsored :((), phone’s calendar, phone’s notepad. That’s it.

create a night routine

People usually say fixing your sleep schedule and having a night/morning routine is good, but in my opinion, a night routine is stronger than both. For some reason, for the life of me, I can’t get my sleep schedule right unless some force stops me from staying awake. I tried getting in bed early and throwing my phone across the room - but I’d lay there for hours thinking about the next day so I don’t bother anymore. The morning routine just ruins my mood because I’d either fail miserably and feel worse, or feel overwhelmed. It’s better if both happen either circumstantially or organically for me. 

Night routines set an easy-going mood, and it’s full of potential because it also sets the scene for the next day. By night routine, I don’t mean what you do before you sleep, I mean the consecutive things you do every night. For example, I play a round of games with my siblings (card games and board games), then shower, do my skin care routine (wash-toner-moisturizer that’s it lol), watch a video as I’m combing my hair (and then watch a couple more), feed my turtle, and then see what I want to do. Sometimes I sleep right after, other times I’m on my phone or reading a book. But just this set of recurring events calms me down when my life is chaotic, and it’s easier and more doable than morning routines for me.

Action:

Now we’ve set the scene, so it’s action time (I’m so lame). 

don’t let work pass you by

In regards to studying, this is the - BIGGEST - tip I can ever give you. The ironic thing is, it’s still going to happen no matter how much you try, and that can damper your mood and your drive, but here’s my tip: MILK IT FOR ALL IT’S WORTH!! 

If you know it’s going to happen eventually, don’t let it affect you - focus all your efforts not in doing it everyday, but maintaining it for as long as you possibly can. Don’t let your studies pass you for even a second. Work it like you work a job as long as you can, and you’ll end up surprising yourself on how much you had completed when you gotta review for quizzes and exams. 

You know how they say exercise and earn your shower everyday? How about study and earn your play time everyday :)))

if it does, work backwards

So we’re here. You’re behind by two weeks. Like I mentioned up there, we knew we were going to end up here eventually (and if you didn’t, share your ways lol. no matter how much I cred myself with studying and getting shit done, I still don’t know what’s going on), so now what do we do? Work backwards. The prof/teach is at point S and you’re still curling the bottom of J? Start from S and go to R, then Q, then P....while maintaining the new stuff you’re learning after S. Pinch it in. We should aim to follow the class as much as we can so it’s more effective to study backwards and keep going with it. It’ll also help killing the thing that’s refusing to let you go faster with the beginning stuff, and you’ll be reviewing what you learnt in real time along with the class. 

Don’t know why I said the previous tip was the best I had to offer when we both know that this one is the real G.

pathetic notes are still notes

This one is a weird one - I had an issue with notes for a beat. I have this belief that you should always make notes every class, no matter how much new stuff you learn, but then there’ll be days where I write three lines and it just hurts my soul for some reason. I guess it’s the incomplete page? The three lines I’ll add tomorrow and face this again? Not sure. But whatever it is, do not stop writing notes! If you learn something new that’s not written anywhere, or hell you just wanna jot it down somewhere more accessible, always write it down, no matter how pathetic your notebook’ll look. I had to get over that, so I thought it would be good to mention. Always. Take. Notes. Nothing is too much information on the race to securing your livelihood.

If you can’t get over it, maybe try printing the slides and making your notes on the borders. I started doing this for more technical courses that don’t get a lot of notes, and it works really well having it in one place.

(I should pin a picture, idk, I’m really proud of it.)

starting strong is good, consistency is even better

In the end, that person who walks in stronger than last semester are plenty, but the one who wins in the end is always that one person - what makes them different? They don’t watch the ones who’re running strong in the beginning and mess up their pace by either trying to keep up with them, do more, or discourage them. They maintain a consistent effort and benefit in the end. It’s the story of the hare and the turtle - consistent, slow effort beats rushing and getting out of fuel in the last stretch. 

There was this one semester where it seemed like half my class decided that they were all going to be on all of a sudden, and it threw me off, made me insecure, and then I started comparing myself to them. The only thing that saved me was that I kept my consistent effort in the meantime because I had consequences if I didn’t perform - so at the end of it, it didn’t matter how hard they started. Only two out of the thirteen elevated their rank. And I was where I needed to be, so that feeling was wasted.

Well, not completely wasted now since I’m telling you. Focus on yourself. Stay consistent. It’s good to be aware of where everyone is, and use it to motivate you, but no negative feelings that’ll hold you back. Release it.

(also pro-tip: teachers don’t care about the loud ones, they care about the consistent ones)

Procrastination:

Now we got the ball rolling - how to avoid this monster? Also, if you still haven’t gotten the ball a-tumbling,

what do you fear?

Oftentimes it’s the fear of something that hinders us from starting. My common fears that keeps me procrastinating are fear of failure, fear of taking too long and wasting time, fear of finding out how little I know of the thing I haven’t learnt yet - I could keep going forever. It’s easier ignoring it and treating it like it’s not there than to face it, I know. But we wanna be better, so how can we?

Write down what you feel, get it out, and then study. A lesson I learnt from last semester was that journalling before I studied helped immensely. Just try it for a session - get out what you’re thinking about, and end it with an action item (I’m going to do xyz now) and then do it. It’s like a weight being lifted off of you. I’ve never felt so light studying in my life, I feel. 

do, don’t tell yourself you will, do

shameful self plug: read this to see what I mean (specifically the you don’t need a lot to get started ramble) 

don’t take on more than you can chew

Something that can kill your grind is if you overwhelm yourself by tying yourself down to things you know you won’t be able to handle later on. It kinda plays off the doing too much in the beginning - you’re setting yourself for failure if you don’t think through your decisions, and then fall into procrastination with the things that’d breed the most consequence. So be careful.

I’m not saying don’t apply yourself - it’s really good to get as much experiences (fun and useful) as you can. But don’t let it be at the expense of what matters. Your health, your faith, your studies - all these things matter more than....insert something here....yeah.

start everyday intentional, end every night with intentions

I’ll end it with this. Start your day intentional on getting stuff done, and you can cleanly avoid procrastinating. End it with good intentions for the next one, and you’ll keep this habit going. Whatever that is, finding your happy place, making a to-do list, praying, journalling, talking to someone - always try to wake up with the mindset that this’ll be your day, and end it with a pat on your back and a promise to do better - if you managed or not. Everyday is a new chance. Every midday is a chance. Now is your chance. It’s just a matter of being hungry and taking it.

Ooof I took water breaks writing this, and it still felt like I had more to say. Sorry for the length lol - I hope this helped in any way. And good luck! New semester, same you, new mindset, better results ;))  (I’m so lame lol).

By the way y’all, if you happen to be loud and consistent, share those tips also lol. 

Here’s to our collective success!

[thatbanjobusiness]

One of the reasons I love watching Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys perform (instead of just listening) is because you see how much they enjoy the music and the company they’re in. 

This group of musicians (Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Jake Tullock, Josh Graves, Curly Seckler, and Paul Warren) played with one another for double-digit numbers of years. Even though there was some turnover and coming in-and-out, these guys played with one another tons.

Below Read More cut: pictures labeling who’s who.

Lester Flatt | guitar and lead vocals Played in this band 1948-1969 (21 years*☆)

Lester was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and emcee for the group. As his name indicates, he’s one half of the Flatt & Scruggs duo. He was always welcoming and homely when he talked to audiences. It’s hard to get some of the humor from him in gifs because lots of his jokes were verbal.

Some reasons I love watching Lester are: 

He usually looks so relaxed and makes me feel relaxed.

When he gives introductions for the other bandmates, it’s usually a bunch of clever insults. For instance, “He represents Knoxville, Tennessee. If you’re not acquainted with the area, he goes to show that you can raise just about whatever they want to down there.”

When the announcer of the show, T. Tommy, introduces Lester, it’s usually some sort of joke or insult, too. The pure delight that pops on Lester’s face at a good joke is beautiful.

He straight out says into the microphone when someone makes a mistake. So much for “musical performance professionalism means pretending you did it right.” XD

Earl Scruggs | banjo (default), lead guitar (often enough), and baritone vocals Played in this band 1948-1969 (21 years☆)

Earl tends to keep a solemn poker face when performing. Hilariously, while he was known for being a very shy man of few words, and while Earl let Lester do ALL the talking in their performances... in these TV Shows, Earl is the number one most likely person to toss comments at bandmates in the middle of a performance.

Some reasons I love watching Earl are:

His comments mid-song are genuinely hilarious. I swear he’s sometimes trying to troll his bandmates to lose their composure in the middle of the song. It’s things like a bandmate singing a line complaining about their romantic interest, and Earl piping up, “Who? Me?” I don’t think he was trying to make it sound gay, but does it sometimes sound gay? Yes.

There’s a quiet charisma in how he plays, straitlaced, staring straight at the camera. He was a very humble guy, but you can feel the indisputable authority of his banjo mastery in his posture and notes.

Every single time they switch up the show (musicians playing alternate instruments, guests coming in), you can tell Earl loves it.

I may or may not have developed a celebrity crush on him. Shut up.

Burkett “Josh” Graves | dobro (usually), bass, rarely guitar, lead vocals (on duets with Jake) Played in this band 1955-1969 (14 years*)

Josh is one of the comedians for the band. When Jake was in the band, the two of them would work together as a duo, both to sing fun novelty songs together, and as a comedian act. Josh would play the straight man to Jake.

Some reasons I love watching Josh are:

He is an open book of emotions. I’d say he’s the easiest to smile and laugh of the group. I saw one song where, the entire performance, he was on the verge of breaking down laughing. Earl was off-screen making stupid jokes after every line Josh sung. Every time Josh started to regain composure, Earl said something new and broke the guy down again.

He is an extremely, extremely talented dobro player with great technical skill. Josh pioneered a new style of playing the instrument that hadn’t been done before. He combined multiple different ideas of musicianship together, including a lot of three-fingered banjo technique.

He’s very handsome, especially when he sings. 

English “Jake” Pierce | bass and high baritone vocals Played in this band 1954-1955, 1958-1969 (12 years*)

For those of you who are like, “What the fuck are high baritone vocals?” this means that Jake is singing the baritone part but up an octave. So, Jake is singing the highest part, higher even than the tenor. Jake’s voice is a distinct, shrill, piercing sound and I love it. Jake is one half of the comedy duo and always plays the rascal. From the stories I’ve heard, Jake and Josh and their shenanigans were not that different offstage.

Some reasons I love watching Jake are:

Usually when he’s not doing a comedy routine or a novelty song, Jake has a serious expression on his face. However, he’s got a specific invested drive to him when he plays the music. And then other times, he’ll decide to be silly, such as the wild running across the screen you see in my last gif.

Jake and Josh have this perfect chemistry to them. They know one another so well and you can feel it in their body language.

Jake has a really good cadence and sense of timing when it comes to his comedy delivery.

It’s always exciting when a bass player gets a solo. That’s just a rule of bluegrass. And Jake has an aggressive sound I find unique.

John “Curly” Seckler | mandolin (usually), guitar, tenor vocals Played in this band 1949-1951, 1952-1958, 1958-1962 (12 years*)

Sorry I didn’t have any gifs with Curly in the forefront this round (though around the time I took this screenshot, Curly stuck his tongue out at Earl, responding to something Earl said). Curly tends to chill in the background a lot for these shows, playing rhythm mandolin and singing harmony. He’s one of the main vocalists for the group, doing duos, trios, and quartets. He’ll also pop in as a featured soloist, which is always a treat.

Some reasons I love watching Curly are:

I already mentioned the featured soloist, but I mean... those are a treat. He has a unique, simultaneously soft and piercing voice. Whether he’s singing harmony or a solo, his voice is something I pay attention to a lot. I remember reading in his biography that at one early point in his career, he was called “Radio’s Gift to Women.” AMAZING.

His mandolin solos are rare, and the group tended to tease Curly off-screen about his mandolin playing. But it’s legitimately fun when the mandolin FINALLYYYYYY gets featured in this band.

Paul Warren | fiddle, guitar (almost never), and bass vocals Played in this band 1954-1969 (15 years*)

Paul is the fiddler that made me want to fiddle. His style of playing is the old-time hoedown style, filled with double-stops and finger flurries.

Some reasons I love watching Paul are:

HE IS SO FREAKING BOINGY!!!! BOINGY BOI!!!! Paul’s a chronic foot tapper. In live performance recordings, you can sometimes hear him thumping away. I heard that during rehearsals, Earl tried to get Paul to stop by standing on Paul’s foot... but that would only result in Paul’s other foot tapping. Eventually Earl had to give up. Paul also throws himself up and down, bouncing energetically in the direction his bow is going.

You can tell how much he likes going fast.

I think Paul is one of the first people to laugh and gawk when another bandmate makes a mistake. Maybe I have selective memory on this, though.

* Anyone with an asterisk (aka everyone except Earl) played in Lester Flatt’s follow-up band, too, Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass.

☆ Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs played with one another in the band that came before this. They met as fellow musicians playing for Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. They were in the band together for over two years.

[raespark]

That Allister cosplay is outstanding!! How did you make the mask and the gym symbol+endorsements? I'm planning on doing an Allister cosplay in the future myself

Thank you so much, and happy to answer! I took lots of pictures through the process so I’ll answer this in two parts.

“How did you make the gym symbol/ endorsements?”

So the first thing I did is take a TON of screenshots I have almost 300 screenshots of reference images of allister and the gym league trainers and the pokejobs logos and so on to get good references for all the logos I needed.Once I was done taking all the screenshots I spent hours tracing them to the best of my ability to create these images: (Not all of these were the final versions which were modified right before printing, apologies)Gym Logo - QUAY/ Gym Logo

XXA - Sponsor (This is the logo for MC Insurance, Allisters Sponsor)

291 - Number

ASTSA - Name (This is the new pokemon language for Onion, Allister’s japanese name)

The square with the diamond - This I nicknamed the “NIKE” cause its the logo for the spotswear company in game

Galar league logo - Galar League logo (this is the logo thats the red and blue pokeball with white marks, and “galar league written underneath it)

And then I put together this ref sheet to make sure the logos looked good together color wise, and some of the colors were still altered later but it all looked pretty good

And then once the logos were all set, I printed them onto heat transfer vinyl and let me explain why I did that specifically. The fabric I used was polyester, which is the kind of fabric that sports jerseys are made of. I did that because the gym’s uniforms are based on soccer jersey’s so it felt fitting!IT WAS A HUGE PAIN I DONT RECOMMEND ITbut now because of the fact that it was polyester paint wouldnt’ work on that fabric because of how stretchy it is and the fact it doesn’t absorb moisture easily. So we printed it onto heat transfer vinyl with my cheap ink printer and then I ironed them onto my clothes! I made sure they were placed correctly by first taping them to my clothes and making a note of the location before ironing it, and then once I was happy with a placement I’d carefully iron it on. This vinyl seems kinda cheap and like the ink might come off with too much water so watch out if you choose to use it. There are also printable iron on paper for other types of fabric as well and are cheaper iirc!

Same goes for the dots, thos were all cut using a CNC/ off brand cricut (just a bunch of circles all at once) and I placed them by hand using painters tape and trimmed as needed to make the designs:

Hopefully that was helpful!

“How did you make the mask?”

So this ones a little more complicated to answer because its not complicated but its not something everyone can do.

So we started on this one before the game came out, and before I’d gotten to Allisters battle in the game but we had enough reference material to figure out the general look of Allister’s mask, so we made a 3D model of it that we planned to 3D print (my bf has a 3D printer and a CNC and helped me a TON for this project) and did a test print of a tiny mask to start to make sure we were happy with the 3D model (here is the tiny mask in my tiny hand, we affectionally nicknamed it “mini mask”)

Now after we had the 3D model we had another issue of how big does it need to be? I have a round head on my own so I didn’t need to modify the shape of the mask thankfully (one time my fat head came in handy!) But we needed to figure out how big to make the mask to make sure it “fit” correctly.

So we tried cutting out a circle with paper in a few sizes until we thought we found a good size for my face (which for me was a little over 7 inches)

went and bought a styrofoam dome from the craft store in that size to make an EVA foam dome and then checked if that fit my face (later this worked fantastic as a way to transport the mask as a protective shell around it) I don’t have a picture of this EVA foam dome but all it was used for was putting it on my face and making sure it went over my chin and such. Once we had that we were ready to start printing the final mask. 

Once the 3D model was scaled for the final mask, it was too big for my bf’s printer to print all in one go so we split it into 4 pieces. Each piece took about 9 hours to print, and a few of the prints failed and had to be redone, so after a few days of printing it looked something like this:

for those who don’t know much about 3D printing all those beams are the supports that lets the printer print raised surfaces like that and have to all be removed. So after about 2 hours of pulling plastic with pliers it looked more like this:

so we left small gaps in the edges of the mask so that we could put metal pins between each piece to help hold it together so we cut our metal pins and assembled the mask and it was starting to come together!

So from here we melted some plasitc onto the seams (plastic welding!) with a wood burner and - wow that looks gross

but trust me its better than gaps in the mask. so after a bit of sanding here we entered the rounds of priming it with spraypaint primer and sanding it for like an hour and doing that again, occasionally using bondo putty to try and even out those seams and those rounds tended to look like allister just murdered a village:

but you can see compared to the previous image that the mask is a lot smoother! This was the final round of sanding and you can tell that most of the layer lines from the printer have been sanded down! You can almost not see the seams anymore! (though now they’re also very red but they’re very smooth in comparison to the beginning trust me…I sat there sanding for many hours for this)

But after this all that needed to be done with a final priming in grey, and then painted it gray!

While the paint was drying, we prepared some masking in the design of allisters mask which if you don’t know what the full mask looks like I wanna reference this from the collectors guidebook (which I just now got my hands on today but saw these on twitter)

So we cut out a sticker sheet in that design and placed it down with some painters tape to keep that part of the mask gray and then it was painted white, and that was the painting done!

For the black in the eyes, I got a scrap of black fabric for cheap at joann’s that I picked up and pulled and it was a very soft polyester/spandex material that you’d use for pantyhose so i’m sure you could also cut up some of those for a similar effect. But when stretched you can see out of them. 

So we made small rings the same shape as the inside of the mask behind the eyes, glued the fabric using super glue to that ring (and the mouth as well) and viola:

and then the final step was to get that mask on my face, and basically we had some rings on the left and right sides of the inside of the mask that I attatched some elastic too, and then needed to glue a third strap over the top of my head. and sewed it all in place and put some craft foam along the forehead and chin inside the mask for some cushioning and it was done! 

I really hope that was helpful and I tried to make sure I took lots of photos along the way so I hope they were helpful. If you have other questions feel free to ask! Sorry for the novel but just wanted to be as detailed as I could be!

Thank you for your nice words and best of luck!! Allister is a detailed boy but he’s very fun!

[casualcatte]

RP Journal: 08/10/2020

Gods, it was good to finally get out and hunt again!  Granted, I was bringing Edgard Beaumont with me that might prove to be a mixed blessing, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He /was/ a Knight Dragoon, after all, surely he’s got some fighting skill and ability to track things.  How else does a dragonslayer slay dragons? Surely they don’t just laze around til one flies by them, that would be silly.

(( Courtesy cut for length.  Also, sorry about the lack of screenshots, this was all during maintenance. ))

I had Edgard meet me out in Yanxia at noon and he arrived precisely on time, he even carried some rope and a quarterstaff, instead of his usual spear. We weren’t out to kill these birds, only subdue them for an artist in Kugane. He wants to paint them, then will release them back into the wilds. Live-capture hunts are always a bit more of a challenge, it would make a fine test to see what Edgard was worth in the field. After all, I have no doubt he can fight, he’s fought dragons, for pity’s sake!  But taking a non-violent means to dealing with a problem? I think it would say volumes about who he is both as a person and a fighter.

I outlined my plan and he declared it sound, so we took ourselves out to the Glittering Basin where it was known for these bi-fangs to roam as their territory. Setting up a lookout point, it was just a matter of sighting the birds and seeing where they went to roost. 

I don’t think I’d been this relaxed in a long time. The day was warm, and Edgard -- while still very much Edgard -- was good company. He listened, followed directions, didn’t try to put me behind him for protection, or treat me like I didn’t know what I was doing. He trusted me and I trusted him.

Gods be good, we needed that trust today. No hunt is ever flawless, there are always unexpected things that happen that you have to adjust to or you either lose your quarry or you get hurt. That’s just the nature of the beast. I absolutely wasn’t expecting these bi-fangs to be a mated pair, much less a mated pair with a clutch of eggs. I think I’ll make it a point to mention that to Tetsuyo when I return to the Bounty Call. Most hunters I know have a great respect for nature, granted, we weren’t killing the pair but it was still taking them away from hatchlings that might otherwise die without them and their protection. 

Anyway, the hunt first. Edgard was probably the most serious I’ve seen him since I’ve known him; he was studious and attentive, asking questions about what to do or what to look for. He seemed genuinely interested in learning, so I did all I could to help him. It was here that he said he trusted me and for a moment I had to wonder why. What good will had I garnered with him to be someone he trusted with his life? I doubt it has anything to do with how skillful I am at evading his spurious advances. 

Knowing what I know now, I found it easier to be, well, at ease around him. To even play and flirt with him, give him a taste of his own medicine. It was fun and we laughed; I’m almost convinced I nearly made him blush a couple of times, but that’s neither here nor there.

The hunt!  Once we sighted the bi-fang pair, Edgard used his dragoon ability to jump us up to the cliff where the birds had made their roost. Naturally, I had to climb on Edgard’s back and he had to make a bunch of insinuations about it. Still he got us up to the roost in short order and that’s when we learned that we were facing two very angry parent bi-fang and their clutch of half a dozen chicks.

Thankfully, the chicks weren’t that grown, so they weren’t much of a threat. I used one of the Darkness arrows to blind the Papa Bird while Edgard kept Mama Bird busy until I could use one of my Net arrows. Edgard got scratched once, but didn’t seem any worse for wear for it. I’ll really have to thank that magitechnician for the arrows, they are the most clever thing I’ve seen in a long time. A pity I don’t remember his name, how will I ever have these made again once I run out?  As it stands, I’m out of the Net arrows after this.

I was just about to use my second Net arrow on Papa when he came flailing at me blindly. That’s also when one of the chicks in the nest decided I was a tasty snack and /bit/ me on the ankle. It was enough to startle me that I dropped the arrow and that split-second distraction won me a wing to the face as Papa Bird sent me flying off the cliff.

I won’t lie and say there wasn’t a moment of panic, because there was, but I’d prepared for this eventuality.  You fight aerial opponents, you’d best be prepared to take a long fall. Another of those magitek arrows deployed a light filament line that was stronger than any rope I’ve ever seen. I fired it into the cliffside and swung to safety, albeit the impact into the cliffside will leave me sore tomorrow. Even as I was dealing with my own plight, I saw Edgard get shoved off the cliffside as well by a headbutt from the Papa Bird. I know I didn’t have much time and that, for the moment, the dragoon seemed to have no way to save himself.

I gathered myself and ran back and forth along the cliff face to build momentum, then I swung out to catch him. Thank every God that he wasn’t wearing anything heavier than leather and chainmail. If he’d have been in drachenmail or full plate, we’d have been doomed. Or at least he would have.  I don’t think I could have held him. We only had moments to rest there, however, as Papa Bird began diving toward us, enraged enough to want to eviscerate us. 

This was the biggest moment of trust in this hunt. Edgard told me to let go of the rope and grab onto him. I knew he was about to /dragoon/ us out of there, but it was still a daunting proposition. Still, in for a penny in for a pound. It was either fall or die to the talons of the angry bi-fang. Falling seemed the least fatal of either option. I let go, still clutching to Edgard’s hand from where I’d caught him, I wrapped my other arm around his neck and squeezed my eyes shut. The way dragoon’s jump makes my stomach turn a flip, but it cleared us of the predatory swoop of the bi-fang and sent it sweeping past us. 

Edgard landed us on the ground and looked to me for a new plan as Papa Bird rounded on us to attack again. I was out of Net arrows by this point and none of the other arrows I had would do the trick. So, I opted to go with an alchemical solution. I pulled a sleeping draught from my pouches and waited. I couldn’t afford to miss. And I waited. 

Behind me, I could hear Edgard yelling my name. Was he worried? Frightened?  No, not Edgard. I stood there, letting the bi-fang get closer and closer, I could see the wicked curve of its talons, eager to rip me to shreds. Closer still.  I could feel the waves of … nerves?...emanating from Edgard. Still, I waited.

At the last possible moment, I threw the sleeping draught right in the beast’s face. It only took a matter of moments for it to clumsily land and fall over in a sleepy stupor. Edgard made his way over, unbidden with the rope to tie it up.

Hmph. He’d outshine me. Hunting has been my life for over twenty years, dragoon. You’re not going to outshine me at my own game.

Banter with him came easily now that I knew there was nothing to it. I teased him, I gave him as good as I got. There were moments I rendered him speechless or left him a stammering fool. I enjoyed every minute of it. Turning the tables on Edgard might become my new favorite pass-time. 

While he finished binding the bi-fang, I tended to the wound on his shoulder. It wasn’t much more than a scrape, but it was best not to leave it to fester. He’d done well, all-in-all, so I couldn’t really discredit his efforts as a hunter. With a bit more seasoning, he could probably hold his own. I told him as much, though he only very begrudgingly accepted the compliment. Under any other circumstance, Edgard would preen and claim it as my undying love for him, but on the matter of his skill as a hunter and his contributions, he wouldn’t.

He was in my world now, I couldn’t tell if the thrill of the hunt sat well with him or not. Gods only know I enjoyed every minute of it.  I even told Edgard he could soak in the hot spring with me, I’m sure he was convinced I’d hit my head somewhere along the line. 

This was a really good way to end his time in Kugane. He goes on to Ishgard the day after tomorrow and said he expects to see me there soon. I’ve some things of my own to wrap up before I leave Kugane, but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t threaten to bypass Ishgard altogether and just go straight to Tailfeather because he /expected/ me in Ishgard. 

I tasked him with sending the Mama Bird back to the client via some magical aetheryte-like crystals we’d been given.  Activate them on the birds and they would appear in cages where the client waited with payment, better than trying to haul them back by hand. Once done with that, Edgard planned to go back to Kugane and I headed to Yanxia to hire some locals to tend to the chicks until Mama and Papa come back.

All-in-all, it was a good night and a fun time. Sure, I have a few bumps and bruises, but I can’t name a hunt I’ve gone on and come out completely unscathed.  I either get scratched up by brush and trees, injured by the beast, or /something/.  It’s just part and parcel of the Hunt. It reminds me I’m /alive./

My friendship with Edgard, at least for my own part of it, feels as if a great weight has been taken off me and I don’t feel the need to be so guarded. He has no further motives than just having a moment’s distraction. Like me, he has issues of his own to deal with before he seriously considers anything with anyone, which I’m honestly glad to hear him say. Primarily that he /plans/ to deal with them. I could care less who he sleeps with.

It was a good day, it really was. I needed it after a week of indolence. It felt /so/ good to get back out there and do what I love. And the best part of it is that it’ll have garnered me enough reputation with the Veteran Centurio to get the information I need. 

One step closer... Mentions @therpperson​ for Edgard Beaumont

[sweetsyncraft]

SweetSyn’s Guide To Etsy

(I will add more as I learn more) 

When I officially started my Etsy in 2018, I had no idea what I was doing. I’ve constantly had people asking me what tips I had for getting started. Unfortunately, I told them you needed a following to make sales. Boy was I wrong. SEO is the key. Buckle up, I’m going to learn you a few things. (I’m Texan don’t judge me for that sentence.)

“Search Engine Optimization”, which is the reason when you search for something on Etsy, you see a bunch of bland titles. Being Creative with titles will only hurt you. You need to have targeted, keyword-based titles and tags, to make sure you end up at the top of the food chain. 

Listing Titles

This part is long due to the fact that I never knew how important this was.

The best way to do this is to start typing in what you’re selling into the Etsy search bar. Any related autocomplete phrases that are related to the pop-up list, is what should be in your title. (Keyword 1 - Keyword 2 - Keyword 3 - Keyword 4) and so forth. For example, I simply clicked on the search bar and it gave me a list of the current most popular searches. One of them was marble earrings, and the first listing had the best selling badge. Their title was “Handmade Polymer Clay Marble Triangle Earrings | Minimalist Geometric Earrings | Hypoallergenic Surgical Steel Stud | Multiple Size”. The second listing, from another shop, was “Marble Stud Earrings, Marble Jewelry, Round Stud Earrings, Wedding Stud Earrings, Marble Studs, Statement Studs, Minimalist Studs”. 

I know how tempting it is to come up with a clever name for your listing, but Etsy doesn’t like that. Putting a long title full of keywords makes it more likely for someone to see your listing without searching through 240 pages. Yes, there were exactly 240 pages of marble earrings. The last one, way at the end was simply titled “Rosé Marble Earrings”. I don’t know about you, but I have no idea how to put that little mark over the ‘e’ when typing on a computer. 

The second part of this is being more specific than just ‘marble earrings’. If someone is looking for something more specific than marble earrings they’re going to search more of what they want. This is how you separate yourself from everyone else on those 240 pages. The two listings I found were round studs and the other was geometric triangles. Maybe I hate circles, and I specifically want triangles, so I search “marble triangle earrings”. That’s in the title of the first listing, I’m going to find that listing. 

DO NOT PUT YOUR SKU’S IN YOUR TITLES! You will lose sales because of this. Your title is very important, no one is going to be searching “866798Q”

Additionally, Etsy will not show more than one or two items per seller on any given page of search results. That way smaller shops have a bit more of a chance. Make sure you’re targeting different keywords per listing, or you’ll be competing with yourself. 

After a few months, go into your listing analytics to see which keywords are getting that listing more views. You may find that your main keyword, or the first few words in your title, isn’t working as well as another one. If something is working better, make it the first part of the title, and you should even more views. 

Adding titles in other languages will not help your listing. Etsy automatically translates for other languages. 

I’ve seen a few people say that Etsy has changed and that they don’t like ‘title stuffing’. However, that’s not the case in what I’ve seen. The entire first two pages of marble earrings were nothing but long ‘stuffed’ titles. 

This is a comment from an admin of one of the Etsy Facebook groups I’m in, he is a social media marketer: 

“YES title stuffing is bad and you should not do it, because Etsy & Google do not count that as quality SEO.

However, we must first understand exactly what "Title Stuffing or Keyword Stuffing" really is.

Keyword stuffing is when someone fills a webpage (in this case an Etsy title) with the same keywords they want to rank for, over and over again in hopes that the more times they use the keywords the more relevant Etsy and Google will see their page or listing.”

...

“Now as far as your Etsy title goes you should absolutely use your keywords, but not repeated over and over again, while also keeping a non-robotic tone.

2 examples of title stuffing:

1. Title stuffing for one specific keyword, example (baby shirt): Cute Baby Shirt | Baby Shirt | Boy Baby Shirt | Soft Baby Shirt | Matching Baby Shirt | Baby Shirt Gift

Basically stuffing the same word over and over again.

2. Title stuffing for the maximum keywords: Comfy Baby Shirt, comfortable, for boys, for girls, gifts, cheap, organic, cotton, romper, jumpsuits, newborn, baby clothes

Both of these examples are using spammy tricks to rank high. But this will not work and both Etsy and Google will ignore you.

You want your title to sound fluent and not like a robot while using your keywords.

Also, you want to avoid changing up your titles too much, because your listings SEO needs to season a bit for maximum effectiveness.”

Tags 

A major thing that I have learned over this process is that your tags must be written in sentences and not individual words. For example instead of marble, earring, earrings, geometric, geometrical, your tags should be Marble Earrings, Studded Earrings, Geometric Jewelry. MOST IMPORTANTLY! Use ALL 13 tags! Think about what makes your product unique, you don’t need to repeat categories and attributes. You also don’t need to use the same keywords as your title, unless you want to highlight a certain keyword. Tags and titles that do not relate to your listing, can have a negative impact on your visibility. 

Fill out everything you can on the listing, such as categories and attributes, which also act like tags. The more you fill out the more likely someone will find your listings. 

Adding tags in other languages will not help your listing. Etsy automatically translates for other languages. 

Pricing

Be mindful of everyone else’s prices, customers are not only going to look for quality, but also the best deal. Though, you don’t want to end up making a negative profit. 

Cost of goods (per product) + Profit (I like to do the cost of supplies x2) + Shipping (if you’re doing free shipping)  = Price

The reason I double the dost of supplies for my profit is for in case something goes wrong, I still made a little money for my time. You made need to adjust this to compete with other sellers.  

Shipping

Etsy gives priority to listings with free shipping in the search results, it also sounds a bit better to the customer. Don’t worry you won’t lose out on money by offering it, all you have to do is include the shipping cost in the price. 

However, if you do plan on offering international shipping, I recommend charging for it. I live in Texas, and it costs $8 dollars to ship a sticker to Canada. Whereas shipping to Maine only costs 70 cents. 

Play around with shipping options, it took me a long time to learn that sending stickers as a letter, instead of a package or flat envelope, is MUCH cheaper. The downside, there is no tracking number. So I only recommend this for items that are very cheap to remake. 

Photos

Your product photo is the first thing that is going to be seen when someone is searching for an item. I made the major mistake of not caring what my photos looked like for the longest time. From lazily taking a screenshot of my Cricut design space for a decal listing, to setting my mugs on my tacky paint-covered table. Don’t do this, make your photos look professional. Now I’m not saying go hire a photographer to take your photos. Simply lining a bix with paper, or draping a sheet over a chair can create a perfect backdrop.  

Put your best photo first. 

A 2017 survey showed that 90% of Etsy shoppers said the photo quality was very important in their decision making. Think about it as, if you don’t take the time for quality photos, that most likely means you’re not taking the time to make quality products. 

When posting your photos on the web browser version of Etsy, your image needs to be at least 2000 pixels wide. A simple way to fix this, the way I do, is resizing the photo in Paint 3D or a photo editor. Another way is simply making the listing on the mobile app because it won’t have that requirement. 

Description

I don’t know if this is true, but I’ve heard it from a few people, repeat your title in the description. 

This is yet another thing I struggled with. I felt that the title said enough, what more was there to explain about a car decal, other than the size? Well, a lot. Now I’m not saying be one of those annoying recipe pages, that gives their life story before getting to the ingredients and the actual recipe. Just make sure it tells exactly what the customer expects to receive. 

Don’t copy someone else’s description, develop your own voice. Give all the details you can about your product, because just like policies, this can save you from something going wrong. The customer isn’t able to touch your product and get a full feel of what it is. A well-written description can be the make or break of a sale. 

Play 20 questions with yourself. 

Reviews

You’re bound to get a bad review at some point. Don’t let it be the thing that shuts you down, and ruins your shop. Message the customer and see what you can do to change their review. If you can’t change it, don’t worry. Learn and improve from it. When looking at reviews, I hardly ever take the negative ones seriously, unless there’s a lot of them. If you have 50 good reviews and 5 negatives, you’re going to be okay. 

Sometimes you have to take the hit and lose some profit. Say their package gets lost in the mail, and there’s nothing that can be done about it. You may have to refund them or send them another. Something I’ve always done to keep customers happy, if something goes wrong I send a small freebie with the replacement. Usually, it’s something extra that I have laying around. 

Marketing

Social Media is your best friend! Use everything you can, and HASHTAGS! HASHTAGS! HASHTAGS! Before I even started TikTok or Etsy, I wanted to have a huge Instagram following. I ended up with 1,000 followers, just by using a ton of hashtags. No matter what site you’re using, if it allows you, use every hashtag under the sun. This is where you can get extra with it, especially Instagram and Tumblr where you don’t have a limit. Just make sure you separate it from your caption. 

Using social media to grow a following can help so much! I would never have made it through 2020 without my following. Seeing a more personal side of you can help a lot, and you’ll even make some amazing friends along the way! The most rewarding thing is when you’re told you inspired someone to start making arts and crafts or living their dream. 

Other Information

Make sure your policies are clear. If you do not offer refunds or returns, and a customer reports you for not refunding them, this will save you!  

Experiment with things, see what works best for you! Having a following and ignoring all of this worked for me for two years. Eventually, my TikTok views dwindled, meaning sales went with it.

The more items you have listed, the more likely you are to be seen. Try to post something new once a month. Additionally, the more you have the more likely someone that found exactly what they wanted, will buy more from you. If they see something else they like while looking at one item, you’re making more money.

Categories are much easier to do on a web browser. All you have to do is type in what your listing and it will give you suggestions. Mobile Etsy is nearly impossible to figure out where to list decals and stickers. You’d never guess to look in electronics, would you?

Helpful Sites

https://keywordseverywhere.com/

https://www.thesaurus.com/

https://erank.com/ 

https://www.keysearch.co/

https://www.keywordtooldominator.com/

https://seller.tools/

Resources

https://printify.com/blog/2020-etsy-seo-secrets-all-you-need-to-know/

[kujo1597]

Another day where I played Disc Creatures instead of taking my second nap. But that’s okay! 

So, I wandered through the forest some more and burning more Noizum and Ampords to discs which is a great source of cash. And I ended up in a new area.

The creatures in this mess teleport around a lot, and this is a maze too. But it wasn’t the hardest maze ever. These woods are pretty uneventful overall so I don’t have much to talk about. I eventually made it to a safe area with a Tomatee and a Quaverpole. 

This guy got a little philosophical. 

And then gave me a hint.

I already knew this because I read the discussion threads but it’s nice to meet the guy who tells you.

And this Quaverpole heals you up.

So I walked north after getting nice and refreshed. 

Good message by the way. Too bad that UFO didn’t follow it.

You’d think that path would go straight to the boss fight, but no, there’s a straight path with a bunch of creatures first. They zoom around really fast and got a couple sneak attacks on me.

Then I made it to this weird spot with a ton of screws in the ground. And I got ready!

And even more ready! I thought that was coming from the UFO! 

But no!

It was the Clud Brothers! :D I’m so happy they’re recurring characters. 

Anyway! Big Clud was ready to fight whoever is in this UFO, but Lil Clud decided that it might be better to try to reason with them. So Big Clud started to compliment the UFO's shape... and shape... ...and shape.

It worked!

But the alien doesn’t speak the language of the Disc Creatures world...

But Big Clud can speak alien?

Lil Clud didn’t expect this either and asked how that’s even possible.

And of course this was the explanation. 

After some more talking, and Big Clud asking Rogk to stop spreading scrap everywhere. And Rogk got mad. 

I took 20 screenshots of this whole exchange and I’m not going to post them all. So, Rogk is from a distant planet and he’s been spreading all that scrap as a gift. 

And Big Clud made things worse by saying that this resource just looks like regular old scrap. 

So the Clud Brothers did what they do best, shapeshift.

And try to sell me out. Rogk said that they’ll deal with the human first. Which relieved the Clud Brothers, but Rpgk clarified that they meant that they’ll be dealing with the brothers LATER.

Boss time!

I’M SO FREAKING GLAD I HAVE HELMSPLITTER

Okay! So here’s how this boss works. Those two Metwol take turns using Cover. The creature that uses Cover takes all the hits for that round. It’s Follow Me in Pokémon. I don’t know if I touched on this in a previous post, but refreshers are always nice. Metwol has ridiculously high defense and Helm Splitter greatly lowers it.

While being protected by these Metwol Rogk keeps upping their Mind and Barrier stats. So you need to take out the Metwol as quickly as possible. 

After finishing them off Rogk pops their arms off and uses Rock Blast. And that’s all they used at that point in my fight.

Rogk can also sometimes redirect attacks back to you. Chiba fell victim to this, sadly. But other than that, it was an easy boss fight.

All because of my Monoxe having a defense debuff. 

I think Rogk took their loss well.

Don’t give them any ideas!

And with a show of maturity, Rogk flew away.

Then the Clud Brothers left to do more cleaning. After they apologized to me for selling me out. They claimed it was part of a plan to throw Rogk off guard but I have my doubts. 

Anyway...

I can make my own alien now! I need a Puzz for this though...

So I went north and finally found it! The fabled tree!

I actually forgot the fruit was the goal for this episode...

But before going back home I decided to check out the creatures of the deep forest and found this guy! One of the poachers used one of these. 

And I tried the creature lottery and got something fitting.

I walked around town some more because I remembered that hint from earlier.

And a year ago when I first started this game I went to the deepest part of Junglan Woods to get this recipe. Turns out I didn’t need to do that. ;_;

So after cleaning up here I used fast travel to get to Pista Port to feed a fruit to a whale. 

I wandered around lost for a little while because it’s been a year. Eventually I found my way.

First off, I did not expect the Porka to look like this. That’s more of a narwhal than a whale. 

Secondly, who is this pink guy?

Well, I ignored pink guy and spoke to the fisherman.

And was offered a ride, but was told the Porka is sick. Thankfully I read the bulletin board and knew this so I had just what it needed. 

Teehee hee, look at this cutie. :3

Little guy was jumping for joy, which was an unusually high amount of energy for it according to the fisherman. 

Yes! A free ride to Mt. Azel!

If I ever need it.

You know where this is going.

Phangon sounds pretty awesome so I want to see this. After some talking Karl decided that he’ll be going to Mt. Azel with me. Also, pretty sure he’s supposed to be gay. There’s a lot of “Me oh my”s in his dialogue. And he’s pink. 

But whatever, as long as things stay in the fun campy gay department I think this character’s fine. 

Anyway, he went on ahead.

Apparently??? He ran off towards town, and not the Porka. But whatever.

LOOK AT THIS HAPPY FELLA! 

And I’m going to stop here because this post is very long. I also need to grind up some money. A 500 Pico item is required to get everything on Mt. Azel and I only have enough discs I’m willing to sell to get 375. So I need to grind in the lava tubes.

I also need 70 Pico for the next page of the Creaturepedia. 

[captainofthefallen]

All right here we go. I’ve played round 1 for all of them and started on round 2, time to introduce my Wayhaven girls. All were made with this picrew

@queen-scribbles and @haledamage because you asked for it :P

Top left: Julia Greer. She was my first, and of course for that reason I forgot to check her stats at the end so I don’t actually know what they are. She’s certainly the quietest of the bunch, more heart than mind, and I think her top professional stat was knowledge/deduction. She romanced Nate and there was pining and it was sweet and adorable. Also she’s the closest to Rebecca, warm and forgiving all around, and understands and appreciates that Rebecca was just trying to protect her all this time.

Top right: Camille Bishop. She’s the stubborn one. So naturally she romanced Adam (he’s definitely my favorite so far that is some absolutely Delicious repression and denial). More mind than heart, her top professional stat is combat, and mostly by the book (though I think a lot of that comes from her wanting to be in charge of her own case, damn it.) She is in almost as much denial about the feelings as Adam is but not quite as much. She’s the most distant I managed to be from Rebecca (which, due to feeling bad for being mean to fictional characters, is approximately ‘weren’t close when she was growing up, but she appreciates that Rebecca is trying; she was angry about the secrets at first, largely because it was preventing her from doing her job, but she appreciates that Rebecca’s trying to make it up to her and recognizes that it’s really difficult for her.)

Bottom left: Piper Sato. I also forgot to screenshot her stats because I’m a fool, but she’s also heart-focused. Her top skill is people, so naturally she took one look at Mason and went ‘challenge accepted.’ She’s still developing a little bit in terms of details, and just by nature of that particular romance her character had to shift around a little bit (she definitely gives as good as she gets, I forget what the technical term is for that ingame) but the general idea was ‘heart of gold with a really tough exterior.’ Chooses to be kind because she knows firsthand the world isn’t. She’s pretty close to Rebecca as well, though she wasn’t during her youth, and there’s still a bit of broken trust there that’s being repaired, but she’s certainly making an effort and having an easier time of it than Camille.

Bottom right: Nadine Reynolds. Disaster nerd lesbian. Preface: I played Julia and Camille as bi, and I got way too attached to Farah. I do really like Felix, but I wanted to romance Farah and I wanted a chance to see the full girl squad, hence Nadine. (I’ll probably play her as bi in the future tho, I love Adam and Nate too much). Definitely mind-focused, I went full science nerd with this one. Awkward as all get out, cannot flirt to save her life (fortunately Farah is good enough at it for the both of them). Not very good with people (minimal filter), even worse with combat, but she’s really good at seeing connections and acting on them, though that often comes across as Reckless and Dangerous. After the initial shock, she was very excited to learn the truth, bombarded people with questions as much as she could, and was only bummed Rebecca didn’t tell her sooner so she could get a head start learning all there is to know. She’s not quite as close with Rebecca, but it’s more because she’s easily distracted by her work than holding a grudge. She’s glad to know the truth, and when she actually notices, she’s grateful Rebecca is trying.

[nautilus--shell]

my little yeehaw ranch!! part two!!!

there’s been some changes round these parts, babey!!! i’ve been mining and crafting away on the @lgbtempiremc minecraft server and i think it’s time for an update on my base

this is gonna be a long post yet again so i put the rest of the screenshots under the read more! if you haven’t already, you can check out my first post of my ranch here! this post is only going to be showing what’s new so if you’re interested to see the inside of my house and other such things you can find that at part one.

on to the tour!!

this is the view from my balcony on my house! as you can see, there’s a nice wheat field, a horse stable, and off in the distance is my iron farm (which i will go more into detail about later)! i’ve also got two skeleton horses!!

here’s my basement!! it’s a bit messy but it’s charming! I have a big ol furnace set up of 10 furnaces that all empty into the large chest at the end, a storage system that isn’t efficient at all and i need to sort out, an enchantment station, an incinerator behind the ladder, and a brewing place for me to screw around and make alcoholic beverages with the brewery plugn!

this is my new animal farm! i got rid of the ugly fences outside my house and threw all my animals in here behind my garden! i also have a rabbit cave in the back with the double stacked fences.

this is my iron farm! it’s given me quite a bit of iron since i made it and it’s just really nice! doing the water was a pain though, i’ve had to drain it like 3 times when i was making it because i fucked up and made it a lake. 

this is my turtle cave!!!!!! i have 5 turtles and a variety of tropical fish in the main area and past the fences is my kelp farm which is just a big ol hole filled with water and kelp with a furnace to make kelp blocks. this is one of my favorite parts of my base because it’s behind the waterfall on the mountain with my nether portal!!! i just really like it

this is bickyonald’s, a fast food restaurant i built on impulse between me and my friend’s house. it sells a bunch of food and alcoholic beverages. there is no purpose for it other than decoration but i like it. also the inside looks really cute and the cash register is manned by my cat, Garfield.

and this beauty is my pigman farm!!!! based on ilmango’s design (but lazier), this thing took me a long ass time to make and lots of falling off. it works, although it’s a little bit less efficient than it could be because i got lazy making the rings for the pigmen to spawn on. there’s supposed to be 4 but i only made 2. it’s very good though and I use it a lot for enchanting!!

and that’s it!! here’s the nighttime shot of my ranch!! there’s a lot of new stuff and i really like it and i am very proud of how it’s turning out. thank you to anyone who read this far and yeah!!! yeehaw!!!

[fgodestinyawakenings]

Camelot Section 10 & 11

Before the maintenance for FGO anniversary begin... Time to finish these two chapters first!

Chapter 10

I wonder how long was the previous chapter fight took while Hundred Persona dealt above the fort. Though turns out there's some who still like a beating or two along a persistent Spriggan aka Golems.

Looks like I should have brought 2 Sabers instead since Ou-sama keeps getting stabbed in the chest by the Lancer mobs >.> Swapped it with David by the Spriggan killed him at the final wave, though Ou-sama helped in turn to one shot with Enuma Elish

With the horses ready, time to regroup back at the village. Bedivere had also recovered from his rest too! Man, now I'd like Touta's NP to supply myself and everyone free food! Also, a feast started in the village and Hassan shared a little of his past... It got interrupted when mobs of mindless one and bladed swarm, and one soul eater trying to join in the party.

As Hassan rested in for the night, there's a small discussion on the journey so far and Touta's NP before the scene ends. Though, it seems like Tristan arrived at the scene of his dead allies. But... Damn Tristan, that's ruthless as heck! Killing your own comrades like this... Though with this, looks like Tristan will be coming in soon *gulp*

Anyway the next day after the feast, looks like things are cut to the chase. The Old Man of the Mountain finally accepts and believes the crew and Beddy they ain't working with the Lion King.... But looks like another 'fair and square' fight from Hundred Persona along with Serenity is starting

As Hassan rested in for the night, there's a small discussion on the journey so far and Touta's NP before the scene ends. Though, it seems like Tristan arrived at the scene of his dead allies. But... Damn Tristan, that's ruthless as heck! Killing your own comrades like this... Though with this, looks like Tristan will be coming in soon *gulp*

Anyway the next day after the feast, looks like things are cut to the chase. The Old Man of the Mountain finally accepts and believes the crew and Beddy they ain't working with the Lion King.... But looks like another 'fair and square' fight from Hundred Persona along with Serenity is starting

Safely accomplished with no insta-death from Serenity... After that insta-death in JP, my target is on her. Though the next other round is going to be more tricky... *gulp*

Welp despite that fight... Looks like it's going to take a while for Hundred Persona's Tsundere side to open up to the crew. But to conqure a city going need more than the village to do so... Seems like the old King Hassan will be the next step to their plans.

Chapter 11

While Hundred Persona separate from the crew to prepare for the attack, guess it's been quite a while with 2 days since they last saw her. And, no flying, Arash. Though as they discussed further details of the First Hassan, Bedivere's credibility on how he get his information is breaking apart. And there's also things of Bedivere he's still keeping to himself...

And another affection/jealousy scene with Xuanzang and Serenity fighting over Guda's arm and the way destiny leads... We're going to fight on steep cliff with bunch of mindless ones, wyvren and for some fucking reason, a Chimera!!

Once put down especially the wyren that kept attacking Waver, looks like they were even running away from the Lion King... Though Xuangzang chose not to fight out of her fear of heights, Serenity... Protected Guda's back. Affection points raised with her, I presume. Welp before rest, looks another horde from the same group joined in... Mindless ones and an Efreet.

Yeah, I forgot to swap Shiki out for a Caster... So this is where things get tricky for me OTL

And as expected Shiki died way after killing the extra mobs OTL Better remember to swap before going in OTL

After the final wave put to rest, Xuangzang and Mash both awake discussed about Chaldea's system. And also a discussion of every heroic spirit thought when they were being summoned after their life is over... But man, seeing Xuanzang talking about Wukong will make me hoping DW to give a chance to have him appear soon. I'd like to see them bicker/getting along XD

Next day at last, the shrine is on sight! But seems like we pissed the First Hassan that one massive ghost and smaller ones were on guard and attack us... OTL

God damn First Hassan! Killing the Gudas life signal on Romani's side before shit begins... Though he sort of accepts our request, yeah, he's definitely pissed off. Which hence now I understand... Why Serenity is fighting us next in the second Arrow.

(not screenshot because tension fighting with Serenity made it slipped of my head)

God damn that buff from First Hassan! Not only the Demons are pain in the ass with the debuff of crits and NP seal but... That's damn tanky for her HP... With 3 turns later to remove First Hassan buff, THANK FUCKING GOD THE INSTA-DEATH MISSED ON JEANNE OTL This is practically heart attack in both JP and NA OTL

Even though Waver unfortunately at the Demon once Serenity is dealt with,  at least my Rider now can come out and deal with them.

Now that no head had to be severed, the First Hassan makes his appearance. But seems like there's more than what it seems from what Romani noticed, though he's cut off from the threat by first Hassan. Next step from King Hassan's words after revealing the Guda are clueless with little to no intention in beheading the Lion King, Atlas insitute is next! But Hassan Cursed Arm's fate... This is worrying...

[huiting-nm3217]

Assignment 1

For Assignment 1, I had to present a visual abstraction for an image that I took with my mobile phone.

Introduction

I chose to go with an image of a cup noodle I cooked for supper. I thought that the image would be perfect for this assignment as the cup noodle package itself had a lot of details that I can play with. Cup noodles are also pretty common commodities that most of us would be able to recognise. True to its name, a cup noodle is usually signified by a cup filled with steaming instant noodles.

When planning for my abstraction stages, I first envisioned how I wanted the final stage to look like. I wanted to convey the idea and symbol of cup noodles as an object. For my final stage, I envisioned something very close to the icon of cup noodles I attached above. This can be seen in the final stage of my sketch draft. I then sketched out on paper how I would go about abstracting all details to reach my final stage.

A brief sketch/plan of my stages

My Workspace and Tools I Utilised

I completed my assignment using Adobe Illustrator, mainly using tools like pen, circle and pathfinder. I started by layering my source image below the frame for stage 1 with 50% opacity and locked it. Locking the image helped me keep it in place and ensure that I would not select it by accident while tracing the images. Utilising what we were taught in class, I traced out details of the cup noodle in the first frame. Subsequently, I did the same for the remaining frames, using the previous frame as a guide. For every frame, I referred to my sketch to know what type of details I wanted to abstract out and followed accordingly.

A screenshot of my workspace while working on my assignment

As I approached the later frames, I started to use the ellipsis tool instead of the pen tool as I wanted to keep the shapes as simple as possible. As there were many overlapping elements in the beginning, I had to use the pathfinder tool a lot to cut and combine shapes together.

I chose to use an optional colour of yellow as I wanted to focus on the noodles of the image. Despite the cup/image being predominantly red, I felt that it was not a representative colour of cup noodles. The colour of the cups are always different depending on its brand and flavour. I also thought that yellow would make the noodles more recognisable and easier to differentiate from just a bunch of squiggly lines.

Critique and Reflection

During our critique session on Thursday, some of my classmates and Zicheng gave me some insightful feedback.

First of all, Jermaine suggested that I refrain from filling the whole character black in the last frame, as it looked as though I was adding more to my stage than abstracting it.

Next, Yu Liong advised me to lighten the colour of the wooden chopsticks in the initial frames as the change from dark grey to white is too abrupt in the final transition. Furthermore, the colour of the chopsticks in the original image were already rather light, and do not need to be that dark in the initial stages.

Subsequently, Zicheng asked me what is the focus of my abstraction: cup noodles in general or the Nissin brand of cup noodles? If I were to focus on the brand of cup noodles, some details of the cup noodle packaging would be essential and should be in my final stage. The red colour could possibly take precedence over the colour of the noodles as well. On the other hand, If my intention was to capture the essence of cup noodles in general, certain details like the speech bubble and character(in the final stage) would not be as important as well.

Lastly, Zicheng also mentioned that there were some shapes in my fourth stage that were white, but were filled black in the final stage. Abstraction is usually more about subtraction, and not addition.

The feedback given by my classmates and tutor were excellent and made a lot of sense to me. Afterward, I took a step back to reconsider on my intentions for the assignment. I set out with the intention to portray cup noodles itself, but got sidetracked and added redundant details of its brand. I was too absorbed about abstracting each detail and stage that I missed the bigger picture. This also goes to show that motive and intent is crucial in the way we present. Everything from choice of colours, shapes and compositions play a huge part in the final product. While the audience's interpretation can be subjective at times, it is our job to convey our message as clearly and succinct as we can.

Final Adjustments

Taking into account the critique I received, I refined my work with all suggestions in mind. I ensured that there were no addition of colours from stage to stage and changes in colour shades were subtractive. As the original image had more light and vivid tones, I increased the values of most colours to better represent the original image. Last but not least, I removed all elements of the Nissin brand from the final stage to represent cup noodles in its simplest form.

Below, I will briefly explain the changes from stage to stage:

Stage 0 → 1

When I first started, I tried to trace the original image to the best of my abilities. Other than using the pen tool to trace, I also searched online for some fonts that best resembled the words on the cup. The fonts that I used are Trailer Park Girl and Baloo Regular from Dafont.

Stage 1 → 2

From stage 1, I removed small embellishments and textures of the shapes. This included the tiny circles on the character's headband, curves of the Chinese name, and small seasonings on the noodles, etc. I also removed the Chinese slogans and the word FLAVOUR as I thought that they were too small and served as embellishments.

Stage 2 → 3

Moving to stage 3, I tried to abstract out details of the image by using simpler shapes to represent them. Some examples were the simplification of noodles and character.

I also decided to remove all words and replaced them with placeholder shapes. It was hard to merge the 4 Chinese characters together without affecting the logo. Hence, I split the heading into 4 black polygon shapes. I found that doing so helped the transition to later stages look smoother.

Stage 3 → 4

The transition from stage 3 to 4 is very much similar to the previous transition. I tried to further simplify elements of the image, specifically the noodles and character. Other than that, I also removed all placeholders for words. I decided to keep the logo and character for stage 4 so that the transition would not be too drastic.

Stage 4 → 5 (Final)

In this transition, I removed all elements pertaining the cup noodle brand. I simplified the speech bubble into a generic cup noodle label and removed the inner circle of the cup opening. I also reduced the number of noodle strands and spread them apart a bit. Lastly, I lightened the shade of the cup to match the lid and chopstick to give a simpler and uniform look.

After many rounds of abstractions, I am proud to present my final stage as the barest representation of a cup noodle.

Completing this assignment taught me that every visual detail and component communicates meanings. Several elements of different shapes, sizes and colours can be arranged to convey messages and symbolisms. The process of abstraction not only helps us strip the object down to its barest form, but also uncover how our society and culture recognises the object. In this case, we see cup noodles as a lidded cup, with noodles and a pair of chopsticks.

[theonyxpath]

Actually, it’s Pan’s Guide FOR New Pioneers, it’s a starter guide for Pugmire, and it is going on sale on DTRPG this Wednesday.

I’m highlighting this not just because it goes on sale to the public this week, after all that’s what we have the Blurbs! section for below, but because there’s a very specific thought process that got us here.

We knew Pugmire was a fun new take on fantasy gaming, with a great chance to appeal to dog-lovers. It took Pugmire‘s Kickstarter campaign to demonstrate that there was an interesting demographic drawn to the game – folks who had never or only minimally played TTRPGs before.

We heard so many anecdotes, and still do, about how Pugmire is the first game that non-gaming relatives were willing to try out, that spouses who didn’t gather round the table on game night expressed interest in trying, and that folks wanted their kids to have as their first TTRPG experience.

So Eddy and I hit on a “quickstart” that was set more into the Pugmire setting; something that was set up as a guide with our friend from the setting and Kickstarter, Pan Dachshund, explaining in detail how this gaming thing works. At the same time, we wanted to provide enough game material so that a new or semi-experienced group would also have what they needed to play – a clear and well explained adventure.

Finally, because so many new gamers are coming into our venerable hobby via on-line feeds and videos, we wanted to include videos covering the help info from the book on our Onyx Path YouTube channel that could be linked to in the book. (The PDF should have actual working links, the print book, obviously, would require typing the link into a browser).

Naturally, Eddy reached out to our most experienced YouTuber, the Gentleman Gamer himself, Matthew Dawkins, and the two of them developed the project. This is before I hired Matthew on as one of our full-time in-house devs, but his work and assistance with this project certainly set the stage for our developing relationship.

(Heh, heh, Little pun there. Drive safely, enjoy the veal.)

What we got, once all the creative work was done, is actually so much more than we originally imagined. Like much of Pugmire, there is a lot beneath the surface. In this case, we started with all of the above as concepts we needed to include, and wound up creating an excellent adventure for experienced players as well. In fact, I have a quote from Matthew about Pan’s Guide right here:

I’m bloody proud of this book. With Pan’s Guide, we wanted to create the best kind of adventure sourcebook. We pursued several lofty aims: it had to be accessible to new players and enthralling for established ones; we wanted an accompanying video series; there had to be an even layout for each chapter of the scenario comprising two pages of adventure, one of accompanying rules, and one of fiction that can be used for hints and clues regarding that part of the adventure; and it needed beautiful, full-colour art. I believe we delivered on all our ambitions. I truly hope you all check it out, as I think the whole team pulled out the stops on this one.

I asked Eddy for a quote too, but he just howled and scratched his ear with his foot.

      Scion: Origin illustration by Pat McEvoy

      Speaking of the two of them, I might as well bring Dixie Cochran (no e) into things here by reminding everyone that all three of them (Dixie, Eddy, and Matthew) appear in their 3rd episode of the Onyx Pathcast now live on PodBean and other podcast sources : https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

This episode they talk a lot about their early and formative gaming experiences, reveal tidbits about upcoming Onyx Path projects that they are overseeing and developing – in fact Matthew continues to just spill all the beans about the Contagion Chronicle – and share some thoughts about BackerKit and how it works with our Kickstarters.

I believe that they have a surprise message for listeners that they’ll be putting up later this week, but don’t quote me on that.

And as I mentioned last week, we’re going to be doing my interview with Dixie and Matthew for the Pathcast this week, so there’s still time to submit questions that you want them to ask me. Just pop them into the comments here, and thanks to all of you who did that last week.

Enough about those three!

    Boggans illustration by Brian LeBlanc

      I’m very happy to share the news that our developer and marketing guru Monica Valentinelli has been picked to present at the Nebula Awards seminars this coming weekend from Thursday to Sunday. In addition to a few panels and SFWA volunteering, she’ll also be available to answer questions. Attendees should definitely check out the great program: https://nebulas.sfwa.org/

We’ll be starting a sale next Monday at our sales partner Indie Press Revolution (IPR) on our Chronicles of Darkness Prestige Editions from Kickstarter. Mummy: The Curse, Demon: The Descent, Beast: The Primordial, and the first Chronicles of Darkness Dark Eras will all be on sale at around 40%. Now’s the time to give them a try with these very beautiful traditionally printed versions while we still have a few on hand!

Finally, once you scroll down you might notice that this blog has been a tad bit pruned and neatened, and I’m just getting started. For a while now, I’ve felt like I needed to keep projects on sale and with our burgeoning list of venues and partners as part of the blog for a bunch of weeks in order to be sure that ya’ll had a chance to see them.

But, not only have we started to establish other ways for you to get that info, like with more blog posts on different days and the Onyx Pathcast, but as we have kept on growing, this blog has become unwieldy and just stuffed with too much info for folks to absorb.

So, like you can see below, I’ve made the first steps – but now it comes to a point where I’d love to hear from you as to what info bits you want to see here. As always, please post your suggestions and preferences in the comments. With your help, I hope to give you a focused look here each week into our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

    BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

Fetch Quest, the adventure card game set in the Realms of Pugmire will be going live Tuesday, May 22 at 2pm Eastern US time! That’s 2pm, not noon like most of our other Kickstarters!

      ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

(The Solar Anima special Dice above)

Hunter: The Reckoning and Mage: The Awakening dice on a Mage: The Awakening tabletop

      ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

Our latest offering is the Mage 20 Cookbook, now in a convenient Kindle ebook version! https://www.amazon.com/Mage-Cookbook-World-Darkness-Enlightened-ebook/dp/B07C71BRDC/

Nook version is coming soon!

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

And here are the Champions of the Scarred Lands fiction anthology and the Huntsmen Chronicles anthology for Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition!

    OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

    Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages! And Screens…so many Screens!

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

Here are the direct links for the Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras Prestige Edition: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Chronicles-of-Darkness-Dark-Eras-Prestige-Edition.html

Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras Storytellers’ Screen: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Chronicles-of-Darkness-Dark-Eras-Storytellers-Screen.html

Deluxe Exalted 3rd Edition: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Exalted-3rd-Edition-Deluxe-Edition.html

Ultra-Deluxe (Orichalcum) Exalted 3rd Edition: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Exalted-3rd-Edition-Ultra-Deluxe.html

Exalted 3rd Edition Storytellers’ Screen: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Exalted-3rd-Edition-Storytellers-Screen.html

EX3 Chibi Bookmarks: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Exalted-3rd-Edition-Chibi-Bookmarks.html

Deluxe W20 Shattered Dreams: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/W20-Shattered-Dreams-Deluxe-Edition.html

W20 Shattered Dreams Storytellers’ Screen: http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/W20-Shattered-Dreams-Storytellers-Screen.html

Plus price adjustments on M20, Book of the Wyrm, Anarchs Unbound and a few other projects!

    DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

  Pan’s Guide to New Pioneers has found its way through the wilderness to arrive in PDF and physical book PoD versions on DTRPG this Weds!

(see notes above)

    Book of Freeholds for Changeling 20th Anniversary Edition has arrived in PDF and physical book PoD versions at DTRPG.com! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/239407/C20-Book-of-Freeholds

They are the center of Kithain culture, the havens and shelters required when times get grim. They are dreams made manifest, and hopes kept burning. From the Mythic Ages to the present day, freeholds have been the linchpin around which the changeling world turns. Learn the history of freeholds as they wind throughout Kithain history. Discover the lost Treasures that bind the fae and their homes together, soul-to-balefire. Study the dangers, the threats, understand the duties and responsibilities, and then gather your motley to claim your birthright.

The Book of Freeholds contains:

• Two new freehold Archetypes

• Four new Glade Archetypes

• Full rules for the creation of freeholds and Glades

• 11 fully developed freeholds and Glades

• New chimera, Treasures and Oaths, and more

        To celebrate the opening of the Slarecian Vault for Scarred Lands, we’ve put four Scarred Lands posters on sale via DTRPG.com. These 12? x 18? posters feature both classic SL covers with Hollowfaust and the Blood Sea, and new images from the new book, like the SL PG cover wrack-dragon, and a hearty band of adventures well met and ready to divvy up their magical treasure.

      CONVENTIONS!

Matthew Dawkins, Steffie de Vaan, and Mighty Matt McElroy will be at the UK Games Expo in a very few weeks in early June running games and talking shop with fans and retailers.

Prep is also underway for Gen Con 2018 in August, which takes place in Indianapolis, IN. In addition to our booth presence, be sure to check out the games and panels in the Gen Con Event Schedule.

From Fast Eddy Webb, we have these:

Eddy will be speaking at Broadleaf Writers Conference (September 22-23) in Decatur, GA. He’ll be there to talk about writing for interactive fiction, and hanging out with other writers who have far more illustrious careers. http://broadleafwriters.com/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference-speakers/

Eddy will also be a featured guest at Save Against Fear (October 12-14) in Harrisburg, PA. He’ll be running some Pugmire games, be available for autographs, and will sometimes accept free drinks. http://www.thebodhanagroup.org/about-the-convention

If you are going and want to meet up, let us know!

    And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Dog and Cat Ready Made Characters (Monarchies of Mau)

  Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

  Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Guide to the Night (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

  Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

Fetch Quest (Pugmire)

They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)

  WW Manuscript Approval:

  Editing:

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Night Horrors: The Tormented (Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition)

  Post-Editing Development:

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

  Indexing:

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Scion Hero – Art notes and contracts being sent.

Trinity Continuum – Got notes and text for both Aeon and the Core. Also… workin on it.

Wr20 Guide for Newly Departed – Everything with Gaydos.

Geist 2e – We have a nice window to get KS art – fulls and splats assigned.

The Realm

M20 Gods and Monsters

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – Wave 2 art in progress

Monarchies of Mau– First finish coming in.

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

Wraith 20 Screen – I’ll pull this together while doing errata. I got the list from Dansky of what tables to pull… just want to make sure they are right.

Fetch Quest – KS stuff ready, ad banners to do.

EX3 Dragon Blooded – firming up layout and backgrounds while waiting for new art.

Changeling: the Lost 2 – With Josh.

  Proofing

Cavaliers of Mars – If everything panned out over the weekend, we are in final proof.

Scion Origin – Sheet stuff with Mr. Gone. Adding in cover text for cover.

Boggans – Waiting for WW approval.

Monarchies of Mau – Second proof with Eddy for page XX’s.

  At Press

Beckett Screen – At shipper.

Scarred Land PGs & Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – At fulfillment shipper. PDF and PoD physical book versions on sale at DTRPG.

Prince’s Gambit – Being sent to the US, expected at fulfillment shipper this this week.

V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary– Deluxe edition finishing printing now.

Scion Dice – At fulfillment shipper.

Wraith 20 – Errata being input.

SL Champions of the Scarred Lands Anthology PoD – PoD proof coming.

Pugmire – Pan’s Explorer’s Guide (or whatever) – On sale this Wednesday in PDF and PoD versions!

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: Mark Zuckerberg’s birthday is today. Yay, Facebook?

[lmfmp2021]

Creating A Repeat Pattern

Now that I have analysed some repeat pattern designs and know what sort of thing I need to achieve by the end of this task, I will be moving onto producing my own. I will be using illustrator to do this whole process which is good because I wont have to transfer objects from one program to another.  

Before anything, I firstly had to decided on what font I was going to use along with what sort of objects I was going to draw as well. I knew I had to do around 3 to 5 objects otherwise the pattern could either look too boring or too complicated. I decided to start with an axe which I did previous mention in my last post. I think this object will be very simple as there isn't really many details to add to this object. This means I can then draw some more detailed objects later on. So I started by getting an image from google chrome. This didn't have to be a high quality picture as I was only tracing it which meant I only needed the general shape of the object. 

Below is showing the general shape I traced from the image that I used. Although this screenshot wasn't actually how I left it. Once I tried adding the colours onto he design, it seemed very boring and looked quite messy too. I solved this problem by redrawing this axe completely, so that there was another section at the end of the object. This meant I could add in another colour to the piece. While doing this, I slightly changed the shape of certain places too. To draw this, I used the the ‘pen tool’ and just went around the image that I had placed behind. I had both of these things on a separate layer so that it made it easier for me. 

Here, is the final outcome I produced. I think this looks overall quite effective especially compared to when I coloured it before. To do this, I have gone to ‘object’, ‘expand’ and then selected the drawing and clicked on the ‘live paint bucket tool’. Doing this mean you can now choose any colour and click on the areas you want coloured. Although before this, I decided on having this brown stroke as I felt this would add to the outcome. I remembered in one of the repeat patterns in my research did this and I thought it was really effective. I then went ahead and coloured in the rest of the object. Before, this stage, I had actually already decided on what colours I was going to use throughout all my objects. The colours were light brown, dark brown and green. I felt that these reminded me of nature but also looked really striking together. 

I have then moved onto my next object which I chose to be a jar of Nutella. The reason for this is because I feel that a lot of people know that this product contains palm oil. But even if the viewers didn't know this, when looking at this repeat pattern design they can then learn form looking at this. As well as this, I asked one of my peers as to what the first produce that had palm oil in came to mind was, to which she responded with Nutella. I think that overall this was a god decision to go with as I found it easy to trace but also as everyone should have at least heard of this product/brand. 

Below is presenting what the result of this drawing looks like after tracing it. As you can see, I have added a highlight onto the corner as I thought this might improve the overall look. I decided on only adding in one of these as it could become too much otherwise. Another thing is that I also felt to only draw on the word ‘nutella’ and not the image that would normally be sitting beneath this. This is because it could overcomplicate things and once it has been placed onto a repeat pattern design, this wouldn't show at all. 

This is the outcome after adding in colour to the piece. From looking at the jar whilst doing this, I thought to have the letter ‘n’ in green as this would then relate to the real jar. The reason for this is because this letter is a different colour on the real jar so to make this seem as realistic as possible I did the same but with my colour palette. Once I have finished doing this, I was actually very surprised with the end result as it looks so clean and effective. Again, I have added a thin stroke to which this time it is the dark brown colour instead. This now means that the lid and label of the jar standout from the background. 

Here, is an orangutan that I have traced once again. This is the object that I did previous plan on drawing as i would say this is one of the most obvious objects that people associate with palm oil. Or at least the main animals that gets effected by this. As you can see from looking below, I have created the lines so that they are thicker this time. I did this because I had already planned on what colours I was going to use. But I also thought that as there are more details features in this drawing, that I would make sure they are all visible. This animal took me quite a lot of time to get right as I couldn't get the line and shape right at first. Although, I ended up manging to do it and I think it has achieved an appealing effect. 

This is now showing how I chose to produce this object when adding in the colours. I thought that as this was the main element and the most detailed too, that I would make this a little more prominent when I get to adding it all together. So to do this, I thought to use white as the stroke this time rather than a colour from my palette. I though that this shade would make the lines I drew pop out a little more. Next, I decided to have the outside sections from the mouth areas and face as being the light brown with the centre parts being dark brown. I couldn't add the green colour into the piece as there was no space for it to go, but I feel that this doesn't matter. To finish this off, I chose to have the eye and nose area as being black. 

After this, I decided on drawing one more object, but at first I want sure on what this was going to be. I thought of having an inside of a log where I could show the lines that go round. But just as I was about to try this idea, I thought that I could have palm fruit instead. This then relates a lot more closely with my theme but I have also used palm fruit in my collage design as I knew what they looked like. Once I got some images up on Pexels, I wasn't sure at first on whether to go for a single palm fruit or a bunch. I chose to go on Pexels as I knew from previous work that there are some good quality images I could use. 

I then traced around one of the images where I decided to only include three of the palm fruits which were the three at the focal point of the image. When I started drawing these onto my page, I wasn't sure at first on how they were going to come as they didn't look like palm fruits to me. However, once I had added the colours onto the piece, I think this completely changed. As shown below, I have put the stroke as being the light brown colour with the main part of the object being dark born and details as green and light brown. Now looking back, I probably could have made the stroke a little thicker as it hardly shows. 

Here, is then the font and colour at which I chose to add to my pattern. I did actually use this font in the previous work where I was adding text onto my symmetrical designs. But I thought to use it again as I was attracted by the idea that it was a serif font but had a bit of curve to it. Another thing is that I chose to ever so slightly change the position at which each letter sits at. So to do this, I went to ‘object’, ‘create outlines’ and with the ‘selection tool’ I can move each letter individually. I only repositioned a few of the letters but I just wanted the letters to all be close to one another. This should then work a lot better once put on the design as it wont mix with any other elements. 

As you can see, I have also changed the colours so that the first word being ‘palm’ is in dark brown and the other is green. I thought this would give a little more interest to the words and match with the colour theme. 

Here, is the first composition I put together, where I have duplicated a couple of the objects to fill some of the gaps. The page that I created for this was 200mm x 200mm. This is a perfect square which is what I wasted as the repeat pattern process will work better this way when it comes to changing the layout later on.

 As well as this, I have added another element on the page too, which is another bit of typography. I chose to do this because I thought that having a more messgae based bit of type could help to give a point across as well as for the viewers to understand what this is about too. 

I have also rotated the text so that it is no longer written horizontally. The reason for doing this is because it will make the overall pattern become less predictable. 

Although, this previous pattern didn't seem quite right as there was areas in which didn't look very effective. Beneath, is presenting where I have drawn a black rectangle behind the rest of the design. I chose to do this because it will help me to know what its going to look like later on when I start adding background colours to the piece. I can now see what areas will show the background and parts are filled. When I did this, I saw that there were two gaps in the palm fruit. I didn't like this so I covered it up with another shape presented behind. 

Additionally, I think this new layout works a lot better. I have reflected one of the the axes so they have a complete different look. I have aloes thought carefully about the sizes in which I have each object. Further more, because there is a black background here, this meant I had to change around the black type so that its now white. To me, I feel this achieves a really striking effect as it looks very clean and pops out from the backdrop. 

Lastly, this is the exact same composition as the previous screenshot but I have just taken away the black background. The reason for this is because this was only a test to see if it still works with a different colour. Also when it comes to actually turning this square into a pattern, I can’t add a backdrop at this point. This step comes later on. 

Overall, I have now completed the hardest and longest part of this process to which I’m very pleased with the results. At the start, I remember I had no ideas on what objects would work well for this but it was actually a little easier than expected. Along with this, I really enjoyed creating this too. This might have been down to the objects that I chose as they were quite simple meaning they didn't take too much time. My next step will be to turn this into a repeat pattern where I can then play around with colours.