#I focus on all the visuals a lot

[kimtaegis]

their hairdresser is so talented (i'm not surprised, gotta be the best of the best to work with the best with the best 🥺) , it's hard to imagine how jungkook's cute and small bowl cut could become as different and stylish as in the SNTY performance video with Usher

soooo true, I'd love to get an insight into a professional k-pop stylist's/ mua's/ hairdresser's techniques and process, this stuff is so interesting to me, it's really an art form in itself!

[forgetriestowrite]

petition for Abubakar to join the Travis Willingham Fanboy Club of Cool DM Things

[gamebunny-advance]

"No Straight Roads X Rhythm Heaven - BOSS RUSH Custom remix pack | Heaven studio"

So, it looks like someone beat me to getting all the songs remade in Heaven Studio XP, but I still think it's cool to see someone else's take on it~ (The thumbnail art goes so hard~)

And with Heaven Studio sniped off the web, and thus probably putting a halt on updates for the foreseeable future, I probably won't be finishing my mixes anytime soon since they depended on games that weren't implemented yet.

So, if I ever want to finish my own project, I'm probably gonna have to suck it up and swap out more of the games.

*sigh* Vs. 1010 just isn't gonna be the same without Freeze Frame...

[rigelmejo]

Something that always annoys me is the idea only 1 language learning method works. Which is not true. While it may be possible that, for a particular individual, only a few out of many study methods may work well enough for That Individual to make progress and stay motivated... that doesn't mean all the other study methods won't work for anyone else out there, or that those few methods will work for every other given person.

Obviously if you've been studying a while, then you already figured out what kinds of things work for you and don't. If you're a beginner, just wading into studying?

I would suggest you simply look for study methods that: 1. Teach you new things regularly, 2. Review and practice things you've learned, 3. Include studying things you need for your particular goals (for example if your goal is to read X book then the study materials at some point should involve reading practice and some words the book contains, if your goal is to talk about Y then the study materials should include some information about pronunciation and words you'll need to be able to say).

As you can imagine, a TON of study materials will meet these requirements. And you can study a given skill in a LOT of ways.

(Reading is my focus lol so just for reading, a beginner might: do vocabulary study with lists or conversations with native speakers or watching shows and looking words up or listening to dialogues with a transcript like in a textbook or graded readers or a picture book with word labels in the target language or a video game with labelled objects in target language, all of those things as long as your vocabulary is improving or reading practice is happening would help you make progress). So to improve reading skill as a beginner: you could study with a textbook, a podcast with transcript, a classroom or tutor with words written down in target language (like TPRS), a video game, a TV show and a translate app on your phone, a friend you talk with (who either writes words down or you look up words you hear with a translate app), a friend you text with, srs flashcards like anki (provided there's text) etc. As long as there's new words, and/or you're practicing reading, the study method may work. If it works will come down to if you can stay motivated doing it regularly, and make sure you regularly learn some new things and review/practice things you've already studied.

So consider those things when you see people selling a study method as a product (especially when it's costing you money). Consider if it teaches you NEW things, and are those new things related to your goals, and how MUCH new stuff will it teach you before you finish it? Consider if it provides review or practice, or if you can use it's materials to review on your own making up your own method, or if you'll need to do separate review/practice.

So examples:

LingQ. Can it teach you many new words? Yes, thousands, since you can import any texts you want when you get done with their provided material (I have no idea how much their beginner material covers though in terms of words... I would hope 1000-3000 words but that can be researched). Is your goal reading? It's suited to reading, so you will practice and review often with it. Cost? I think it was $12 a month when I last had it, and the price may have increased. Is it worth it? Depends on a learner's needs. I found it was wasting my money, so I chose to use free tools like Pleco and Readibu apps - since those apps are suited for Chinese learners and have better translations, Pleco has better paid graded reader material if I was going to spend money, and both Pleco and Readibu let me import texts so I can learn thousands of new words just like LingQ but free. Now that I'm not a beginner, I often use Microsoft Edge to read chinese... since I can still click-translate words easily (all my web browsers have that tool free), and Edge's TTS voice is helpful for pronunciation and sounds quite good. I read webnovels online so Edge works well. But it's translations aren't as good as Pleco or Readibu, so if I still needed translations more I would use them. So... is LingQ a good study method? Its certainly a study method marketed to buy. Well... the method is suited to improving reading skill, at least. It costs money, which is a negative, but it does offer a lot. However: everything it does regarding reading can be done free with other apps or sites or web browsers on their own. So if paying money motivates you to read... sure. LingQ does have a few word tracking features a learner may find worth the money, keeping in mind the actual read-to-learn method can be done free without lingq. (Also... while LingQ is a valid option for improving reading, if the learners goal is speaking then it would be important to think of what study activities the learner will do OUTSIDE of LingQ to improve speaking... because I've seen how LingQ is marketed as "how to learn a language" but it's only focused on some skills. It has vocabulary and grammar in some sense, since you'll read a lot and encounter new words and structures. But it doesnt have speaking or writing practice at least last time I was on it. Those activities would need to be worked on, on your own).

You can do that kind of cost/benefit contemplating with any study method material you see being sold. Amother example: there's a beginner Mandarin course called Mandarin Blueprint. It teaches like 800 words. Thats all. It may be worthwhile for a beginner... who still needs to learn 800 common words. But if you already know a few hundred words, the benefit of the course is less, you'll need to find a new material to teach you more new stuff soon. And the price was like a few hundred for the course... which for me personally was too much to spend, when I had already learned 800 hanzi from a book that cost me 12 dollars and 2000 words from a free user made memrise deck. The course claimed to get a person speaking, competent, but anyone not a beginner would say speaking basically with 800 words is nowhere near the level of working in Chinese or just doing a lot of daily life stuff, or reading/listening to media. (Although for the motivated beginner if you're learning 800 words on your own like I was, its definitely close to the point of jumping to learn more words and start reading kids and teenager books, and watching easier shows if you're willing to look new words up). So to me... Mandarin Blueprint felt like overselling some basic beginner materials. (Again when I know several other things that teach beginner stuff either more in depth so HSK test prep classes, and college courses, or that teach beginner stuff to the same depth as Mandarin Blueprint but free).

Some study materials aren't going to act like they teach everything. I've seen chinese courses just for learning to speak tones better and general pronunciation - probably worthwhile if your goal is to improve speaking and a teacher could help improve the issues your having. But a learner needs to be aware for that course that they'll need to study vocabulary on their own, its JUST a pronunciation improvement course.

[icewindandboringhorror]

finally finished all of one character's entire quests/optional dialogue/questions/etc.... 100,000 words... .... aughhh

[nyaskitten]

maybe its JUST me but I hate how often ninjago has to rely on "world-ending evil" each season, because seriously how can you go higher than that in the next season?

[genuflectx]

Maaan I love the optimistic advice "keep practicing and you'll get better at art" as much as the next artist, but it always rubs me the wrong way when that evolves into "just keep practicing and you WILL 100% succeed and CAN get into the industry."

It changes from good general advice to implying you're just doing something wrong if still haven't "made it" yet. Not in the industry? Well, you just haven't worked hard enough, obviously, as if there aren't plenty of other factors that play into "succeeding” in a highly competitive industry like art.

Don’t let advice that’s supposed to be encouraging turn into something discouraging 😭

[fefairys]

welcome to me using jett ash blood shadow as an avenue to make comics abt my experiences as a system. probably not the last time this will happen

hey read the webcomic this dude is from we're working really hard on it!

[rxttenfish]

one of the things that particularly pisses me off about art discussions, either in how nowadays everything has to aim for more and more realism in art styles and even live action to be seen as "real art", and in dismissing more abstract styles of artwork as not "real art" and having no inherent worth, is that they explicitly do not consider realism an art style either. to them, realism is just a given of "good" art, not chosen but rather just default. which i hate, because you CAN pick realism as an intentional style and a purposeful choice to suit a narrative, and all this results in is no one noticing or understanding why you made that choice or why that choice works better than any other possible choice to tell the story you want to tell.

[pranklinfierce]

I do this thing where, when I'm focusing too hard, I'll tense up and vibrate slightly. And I've done it forever but istg I'm giving myself a headache from the amount I'm doing it while drawing rn.

[braisedhoney]

for research purposes how tall would you say Narry is....

ooh i've been asked this before! my answer hasn't really changed (mostly because i'm still painfully indecisive): it's still something i feel like he can and does change whenever he wants to bolster his ego. he makes himself subtly taller depending on if he's trying to appear intimidating. that doesn't change with the scarf-arms either, he just raises himself up more dramatically now. to his credit it does look kinda cool.

but if i were to give him a spectrum of common heights, maybe... around 180 to 185 cm (or 5"11 to 6"1 in ft)? and then whatever he does to become a looming vaguely eldritch entity, but that's probably ridiculous and impractical for small spaces ;; lmao

[menkhu]

wait. ok. hold on.

[kindaeccentric]

It's a typical situation when I start wondering why some piece of tv or film media looks so good visually. I check online.

*shot on film*

WELL, OF COURSE

YOU CAN'T FAKE THAT MARVELLOUS GRAIN

[starlooove]

Thinking about the hill tho my only issue was like choppy transitions. Idk comic jargon but rlly could’ve benefited from a few more ‘X time Y place’ in the corners of the panels sometimes

[sittingoverheredreaming]

I’ve got to stop having impostor syndrome I always feel like I’m not good at training people but then my boss messaged me yesterday like “how would you feel about being in charge of training everyone?” so I can’t be THAT bad

[hollypies]

TUMBLR DIDN'T NOTIFY US THAT YOU RESPONDED WE THINK

anyway first up our favorite children: Spontaneous Combustion (iterator), The Inspector and The Wisp (slugcats) and . the scavengers we sent before are tied to these guys

Spontaneous Combustion is so... He's a calm and relaxed iterator, in a decent good state, and if you bring him pearls he will read them and infodump all he knows about em. He's unfortunately got an issue where his neurons are a bit volatile, so when they're taken outside his can they tend to explode, and if they're disturbed too much he gets REALLY BAD migraines. And there's a tribe of scavs that keep breaking into his superstructure to steal his neurons. and disturbing them. That's why they have the slugcats! They made the inspector to fend off the scavengers, and the wisp was a gift from someone in his local group, to give the inspector company! The two work to calm his neurons when they're too disturbed and get rid of his migraines.

big post about him

uhh. we've got more we could ramble about but that'd make the ask SO big so we'll send you more ocs in a different ask another time. for now... settling with sending you Irrelevant Choices.

deltarune iterator!!!!! kris made em after finding out we had the name laying around. not suuuper fleshed out lorewise but us n kris are workin on it! They've got a little lantern maus....

OOO THESE ARE SO NEAT!!!!!!

Looking so respectfully...

The neuron migraines are actually super interesting, like. Cuz those are the iterators braincells and if there'd something wrong it'd make sense that they'd hurt.

I like Irrelevant Choices name and scheme, seems super fitting for Kris! And also just. Listen .im a complete sucker for star designs. Literally all of my sonas have a star design on them.