#I had tons of fun and energy boost working on this! Wanted to share this version too!

[ragri5]

The original concept of Engie blowing things up before I refined it and made an animated poster from it.

[not-poignant]

Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing? with the understanding that no advice is universal of course

28. Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?

So I have a ton of stuff in the Pia on Writing tag that goes into a lot of detail but (with the caveat to ignore anything that doesn't work for you):

Learn to love your mistakes, because you must make a lot of them to get good at writing, so if you hold back because you're worried about your writing being bad, your shooting yourself in the foot. Your writing HAS to be bad for it to get better. Or: You need manure/shit (bad writing) to grow a really good garden (good writing). You want a good garden? Start shoveling the shit in, lol.

Clever marketing won't solve not putting the hours in to hone your craft.

In fanfiction, make sure it's fun. That doesn't mean it can't be hard sometimes, that you can't dread editing sometimes or drafting, that you can't have sadder times, but make sure that the overall net is always positive. Otherwise, take a break.

In professional writing, learn how to stop waiting for inspiration to strike, and learn to turn up on that dance floor on your own. Inspiration is a fickle dance partner, it often won't turn up unless you develop the discipline to turn up first.

Sometimes the writing you absolutely slog through that feels stilted and bad is some of your best writing. Just because it feels clunky when you're writing, doesn't mean it reads clunky. Just because it feels smooth when you're writing, doesn't mean it reads smooth. Your emotional state at the time of writing does not determine the quality of writing. Feeling good while you're writing =/= good writing. Likewise feeling bad while writing =/= bad writing.

You do not need a daily habit to be good at writing. Develop one if you want one, but personally I don't have one and I'm super happy that way. Take your weekends, have your leisure time, goddamn it, don't be a terrible boss to yourself.

Writing can be both lonely and exhausting - make some non-douchey writer friends (or artist or creative friends), and make sure you take breaks. Because writing is so cerebral, you'd be surprised how much physical activity can help with recovery, like stretching, gentle walks, workouts, etc.

Eat brain food. Snacking during writing is actually normal. I have nuts on hand for protein boosts, but I'll also eat chocolate or snack on quick energy boosts.

Stay hydrated.

Ignore any writing advice that goes 'you must do this in order to be a writer' or 'you have to do this one thing to be successful.' They're wrong. There is no one-true-path in writing with the exception that you do have to write in order to like...be a writer, imho.

You are going to want to compare yourself to others, but be very aware of who you're comparing yourself to. If you're new, why are you comparing yourself to someone with 10-20 years of experience? If you're disabled and fatigued, why are you comparing yourself to able-bodied writers? Stop competing with people outside of your metaphorical weight class, they're not your competition. I'm not going to tell you not to compare yourself to others, but be very careful of how you compare yourself to others. I've had new writers be like 'I could never do your wordcounts (so I'm not as good of a writer)' and like, no friend, neither could I 10 years ago. This is literally a decade of hard work and practice. Some skills really just come with time. (Also most writers are more successful after writing less words than me so y'know lol).

If you get shitty comments/critiques, remind yourself that if you wouldn't take personal advice from a complete stranger like this (and you wouldn't), then their shitty comments/critiques aren't worth your time either.

On AO3, the delete, block, moderate comments function and mute buttons are all free. USE THEM. Don't bother giving haters airtime on your fics. Elsewhere on the internet, as much as you can, try and ignore review sites. Like seriously.

Learn your writing style. Practice planning, plantsing and pantsing! Practice writing one thing or more than one thing at a time. Practice different genres. You might be surprised at what fits you as a person! Think of it like being a musician, you're not trying to be a band that already exists, you're trying to be your band and you're trying to find your sound.

You're probably very good at noticing your weaknesses, get good at noticing your strengths, and use those to shore up the places where you're still building skills.

Do writing prompts. I cannot stress this enough, but learn how to write settings. Describe the dialogue of a friend. Write a character dossier on a television character. Practice worldbuilding, practice character building.

Fill the well. Read broadly across many genres. Watch many different types of media. Listen to many audiobooks. The best way to not sound derivative of a particular order is to saturate yourself with inspiration from hundreds of different places.

That's probably enough! dklsjfdas

~

From this meme!

[vs-redemption]

Hey! Can i request tamaki,mirio and nejire with a s/o who have a very powerfull quirk?

From Cindy: Thanks for requesting the big three! It was interesting trying to imagine them reacting to a powerful quirk. I had fun thinking of the quirks though. I hope this is what you were looking for anon!

Mirio

Mirio had no idea just how powerful your quirk was until he’d already been dating you for a few months.

You were a support course student at a college outside of Japan, and you had met Mirio when he’d come to your school to do a study abroad program after graduating from UA High School.

You both shared some general studies classes together and Mirio began to rely on you to help him whenever he struggled with homework because you were one of the only students on campus who spoke fluent Japanese.

It was easy for you to fall for a positive and passionate person like Mirio, and he went head over heels for your kindness, smarts, and accent just as quickly.

Your tutoring sessions turned into study dates, which turned into real dates, which ended with you eventually becoming an official item.

Mirio had inquired about your quick once or twice during your time together, but you often brushed off the questions.

“It’s an emitter type quirk that isn’t very useful.”

Your hero course boyfriend never even thought to push the subject any further, but he was very surprised when he found out you had signed up for the school recruitment event that was similar to the Sports Festivals held at UA.

“Don’t they hold this event for hero students to show off and find jobs with pro hero agencies?” Mirio asked you.

“Basically,” you answered with a shrug. “But support course students can use it as a chance to show off their products as well.”

Mirio was worried that it might be a little dangerous, but couldn’t bring himself to discourage you from doing something you wanted to do.

On the day of the recruitment, Mirio makes sure to come support and cheer for you whenever he has time between the events he was participating in.

He was happy to see you doing well in one of the obstacle races until you suddenly came up to a part of the course with thick giant walls blocking the way.

None of your support items seemed to be helpful with the roadblock and it looked like you might not be able to continue the event.

Imagine Mirio’s surprise when you sigh in annoyance before reeling back your fist and punching a giant hole straight through the cement slab and walking past it as if it were just a minor inconvenience.

He’s shocked, of course, but also super excited and proud of you.

“Babe! Why aren’t you in the hero course?! Your quirk is amazing!”

You explain that controlling the sheer force of your power was more trouble than it was worth, and that making support items for heroes had always been more fulfilling for you anyway.

Mirio respects your feelings, but now that he knows how strong you are, he can’t help but ask you to work out with him from then on.

It makes him happy that he can finally do something with you that he excels at since you’d been the one helping him since the beginning.

He will also add your strength to the list of things he brags about when talking about you with other people.

Amajiki

Amajiki already knew the basics of your quirk when he met you since it was on the resume you’d used to apply as a sidekick at his agency.

He had no idea what to expect though at first since your ability to steal other people’s “kinetic energy” was pretty unique.

“Whenever I touch something that’s in motion, I absorb the energy and use it for myself!”

You could literally steal energy from ANYTHING that was moving, be it a small empty can rolling back and forth on the sidewalk or a four thousand ton train racing along its tracks at full speed.

Amajiki learned during your first patrol together that it was even more incredible as it sounded.

“Ah! My bag!” A woman’s scream drew your attention to a man running down the street with a purse he’d just stolen clutched in his arms.

Before Amajiki can even react, you are already running after the man, high fiving people walking in the opposite direction and tapping the hoods of moving cars as you run by to use their energy to boost your own speed.

You catch up with the man in the blink of an eye and tackle him, using his own speed against him to fuel your quirk. You successfully restrain him and wrestle the purse out of his arms.

“You were so fast,” Amajiki says after the incident is resolved. He means it as praise, but he can’t help but feel embarrassed that he hadn’t helped at all. “How did you overpower him though? He was twice your size.”

“I can convert the kinetic energy I collect to do anything I want!” You say happily, “that includes increasing my speed, strength, jumping power, grip and more!”

You start to remind Amajiki of Mirio with the positive energy you give off and the incredible control you master over your quirk.

He is conflicted because he admires you so much, and knows you’re an asset to his team.

On the other hand, he feels like you deserve much more than to just be his sidekick. The poor boy worries that he is holding you back.

He casually brings up the topic of you starting your own agency one day, but is surprised to see how disappointed and sad you look at the very thought.

“Is this your way of politely asking me to leave because you know I have a crush on you?”

You start to apologize for possibly making him uncomfortable and try to explain that you’d tried to keep your feelings in check, but it was hard when he was such a cool hero and amazing friend.

Your words slowly turned him into a blushing, flustered mess.

YOU had a crush on HIM?!

“No, that’s not what I meant!” He begins to stutter about how amazing he thinks you are and how you deserve more recognition, not realizing that you were getting flustered too now.

Somehow, you both make it through the nerves and agree to continue working together at the agency.

Amajiki even finds the courage to ask you on a date.

Even after dating for a while, Amajiki still gets overwhelmed by your quirk sometimes, but you make sure to encourage him and boost his self-esteem whenever possible.

Nejire

Nejire knew about you and your quirk long before you even met her.

Her curiosity about you had been peeked the moment she saw you using your mutant ability to transform into some sort of half human, half jaguar badass warrior.

Nejire’s eyes went wide when your hands and feet grew into big spotted paws with razor sharp claws, giving you the ability to run on all fours at crazy speeds, darting around like a real jungle cat.

When the cameras zoomed in, she got a glimpse of your dangerously long fangs and adorable fluffy ears. The reporter on the tv explained that when your quirk was activated, your jaw pressure was double that of an actual tiger.

Nejire became obsessed. Not only was your quirk super strong, but you also looked super cute when you were using it!

She had so many questions!

The first time she has the chance to see you in person is at the tail end of a pretty scary villain encounter.

She’d been doing her best to hold off a couple of beefed up bad guys who’d been harassing some girls when you’d shot out of nowhere, pouncing on top of the biggest looking one and pinning him to the ground effortlessly.

Her breath had caught for a moment when she saw your glowing yellow cat eyes, but she quickly recovered so she could take care of capturing the second criminal.

Once the incident was resolved, she was quick to bounce over to you and thank you for helping her out.

“You seem totally awesome!” She tells you with a huge smile, “We should definitely be friends! Do you have time to grab a bite after your patrol?”

“Um… of course!” you laugh feeling awestruck to be invited to hang out by one of the famous big three heroes from UA.

Both of you head to the nearest diner, and Nejire spends most of the time interrogating you about yourself and your quirk.

“Does it hurt when the claws and fangs grow out?” She asks. She was so excited she was bouncing in her seat. “Are the jaguar features just physical or do you get any cat like instincts too?”

Her questions could sometimes get pretty personal, but you could tell her intentions were innocent. You didn’t mind sharing information about yourself, and hoped you’d get the chance to learn more about her too.

“Hey we should totally team up again real soon!” She tells you before it��s time to head back home.

“I’d be up for that!” you smile happily at her friendliness. “And maybe we could get dinner after?”

“Oh!” She spins around in delight. “Like a date?”

“Yeah,” you nod, feeling glad she was on the same page. “Like a date.”

You both are basically inseparable from that point onward. Nejire’s playful and bubbly behavior matched your own and you found yourself spending more and more time with her both in and outside of work.

The more she learned about you and your quirk, the more enamored she became. The same was true for you about her.

Gossip magazines were calling you two a power couple even before the relationship was official.

[script-nef]

Fluff alphabets | Hinata Shouyou

Others: Kageyama, Oikawa,  Tsukishima

Category: fluff

Affection: How affectionate is he? How does he show affection?

Hinata constantly wants to be holding you in any way available to him. He shows his love for you through countless kisses, hugs, texts, phone calls—just about anything.

He’s not afraid to proclaim his affection for you on live TV or in interviews but that subsequently means a lot of articles are written about you. Every single one of them is about how much of a doting and loving boyfriend is.

Baby: Does he want to start a family?

Yes.

Children between you and him? Of course he wants them! He’ll wish for them to be carbon copies of you because you’re the best person he knows and by his logic, that means his children will also be the best!

Thanks to his experience with Natsu, he’s skilled in taking care of babies and showers them in endless love. Would spend all of his spare time with you and the kids and every other parent will be envious of you.

Cuddles: Does he like cuddling? How often does he like hugging?

Hinata leaps at any chance to be around you.

He’ll use the most trivial excuse or reason to hug you: you look down, I’m hungry, your hair was flying around and you looked pretty, I wanted to check if your shampoo changed and whatnot.

You pointed out that since you’re going out with him, he doesn’t really need an excuse you cuddle with you. That made a lightbulb spark and now he just attacks you with surprise hugs whenever he wants.

Date: What is a typical date?

Exploring hidden corners of the city. This boy cannot sit still and requires physical activities or he’s going to go insane with the amount of energy that stockpiles.

He would scour them online or get some recommendations from friends when visiting their cities, or even his fans in the form of comments. It would mainly be cafés/restaurants or trinket shops so he can buy you loads of presents.

Experience: How much has he dated before? How does that reflect in this one?

He was an adult when he met you and he went out once or twice before, but it didn’t go for very long. This relationship with you is the longest yet!

He learnt bits and pieces from his previous relationships like how to treat your significant other and what not to do when dating, but it’s mostly useless since he’s somehow very intuitive in this area.

Fight: Do you fight often with him? How does it usually end?

Fights are incredibly rare, nearly none each year. The fact that you’re both so understanding and kind plays a factor. 

He also hates fighting with you because he believes every moment with the person he loves needs to be happy, even though that’s unrealistic.

He’s incredibly stubborn and will argue with you if he thinks he’s right. The fight can drag out for days but you eventually reconcile through talking and spend the rest of the day cuddling.

Gentle: How does he treat you?

Hinata isn’t gentle, despite popular beliefs. He’s driven by his emotions way too much and won’t realise when he’s putting physical pressure on you. Of course, he’ll back off once you say it.

Once he realises you’ve been saying that a lot, he’ll try to restrain himself but it doesn’t work. The second he sees you it’s just “!!!! [Name]!!!” and all control is chucked out the window.

Hand: Does he like holding your hand? How often?

When walking down the street or relaxing in the house, his hand is always glued onto yours. He uses it to tug and maneuver you around crowds and streets to arrive at your destination quickly.

Sometimes he draws little characters or writes with his thumb on your hand and asks what he wrote. It’s always things like simplified versions of your favourite anime characters or “I love you”

Impression: What was your first impression of him?

“Who is this absolute sunshine and how can I love him?”

Hinata tried to help you find your way after you were lost but he’s directionally challenged as well so… In conclusion, you spent around an hour walking aimlessly around the town. In that time, you somehow fell for him and asked for his phone number first. 

Even though it was obvious that he was as lost as you, he did his best to calm you down and led the way with unearned confidence which stole your heart.

Jealousy: Does he get jealous easily? What sets him off?

This boy cannot feel jealousy. At least in the romance area.

His heart is too wide and pure for any ugly emotions to rear their head in. If someone is constantly around you he’ll think “[Name] is so popular! I’m so happy everyone knows how cool they are!” and that’s it.

He’ll get kind of pouty if you say Kageyama is cool in front of him though. Hinata knows Kags is incomparable in volleyball skills so it’ll set his competitive fire even stronger.

Kiss: Is he good at kissing? When does he kiss you?

He likes innocent pecks all over your face whenever the mood strikes him. He doesn’t kiss deeper than that voluntarily. Sure, he’ll do it once you say it but not by himself.

He presses longer ones to your lips when he’s absolutely elated and cannot express his emotions in any other way. 

Love: Who said “I love you” first? And when does he say it?

Hinata said it first with such ease and energy. Like it was something obvious and common.

It was as he was leaving for his morning jog and you called after him to take a jacket. He kissed you on your forehead and yelled “I love you!” as he was slipping out of the door. It left you dumbstruck and frozen from your spot until you melted with a blush.

It was, of course, returned when he came back with tons of kisses and hugs.

Memory: What’s his favourite memory with you?

The moment he saw you after winning his first match with you watching from the crowd. His head snapped to you as soon as the last point for the match was won and you had the most dazzling smile on. 

It just filled him with such joy and happiness to see that you took the time out of your busy schedule to watch him. His heart basically just exploded when you hugged him afterwards and gushed about how amazing he was flying around.

You came to plenty of his matches after that, but nothing ever beat that rush of exhilaration he felt from the first time.

Nickname: Does he give you a nickname? Do you have one for him?

You have plenty for him: sunshine, love, tangerine, cutie, Shou, my light and more cheesy ones in private. He once asked you why you don’t call him those ones in public in front of all his friends and teammates while listing them off which basically killed you.

Once he realised that it was slightly embarrassing, he exclaimed that he loves hearing the nicknames in your voice and you should never be embarrassed. But he still understands if you don’t want to call him that.

His nicknames include shortening your name or adding “-chan” to the end of it.

Open: How open is he about his feelings?

So open. Hinata will shout how much he loves you from rooftops and mountain peaks if he feels like it. He never lets you doubt his love for you and constantly reassures you

The first time he mentioned you by “I’ll be back in time for dinner, [Name]-chan!” before running to the changing room made everyone double-take. After that, even when he received a scolding, he always says “I was able to perform better because [Name]-chan was cheering for me!” or something like that

PDA: Is he fine with PDA? How far can he go?

King of PDA right here, does not give a damn where you are. If you’re next to him and he wants to hug or kiss you? Then you’re going to receive them affections, there is no escape.

A private room of a restaurant, in the middle of a busy shopping centre, in a couple’s seat in the cinemas, nothing matters to him other than you.

Quirk: Habits or something he does which is unexpected?

Likes hiking in the afternoon. He started it first because the rough terrain would be a good workout for his leg muscles and help him in volleyball, but eventually does it whenever he’s feeling restless or bored. He’s super thankful that Japan is like, 70% mountains and tries to visit a new one every week.

Begs you to tag along because the scenery is wonderful and he wants to share it with you. Hinata wasn’t lying when he said the sunset was beautiful, the view is stunning.

Sometimes brings a picnic basket whenever you’re feeling a little down and feeds you a mountain worth of food while watching the sky change into red and orange.

Relax: What activities do you do with him to relax?

Playing video games together, often competing against each other.

Hinata received a variety of popular video games from Kenma a while back and is determined to clear all of them. He spends hours and hours of free time with you, glued on the sofa with you on his lap. It doesn’t really last though, since you wiggle and squirm so much during Mario Kart.

It usually starts in the afternoon until dinner, just hours and light competitiveness and fun. The loser usually has to clean up after the meal is finished.

Support: How supportive is he of your dreams? What do you do for him?

He’s like a serotonin boost that even being around him makes you feel more energised and motivated. Whenever you feel wiped out or exhausted, he’s right there to say positive things and encourage you to finish the assignment which is causing a massive migraine.

When you’re done, he’ll have some chocolate and warm tea to help you relax.

You pack him cute lunch boxes if you have time in the morning and put sticky notes of loving messages in it. His teammates get jealous when they see him giggling and texting you a response. 

But the best way to support him is to attend his matches and cheer for him.

Talk: What does he like talking about?

He loves talking to you about the experiences he had overseas. How different and free Brazil is, how lively and funny everyone is. Or the new players he met and trained with when he has practice matches against them.

He loves it when you talk about your childhood and all the things you went through before meeting him. There’s always something new to find out about you and he won’t stop until he knows every single detail about your life.

Umbrella: What’s his favourite weather/season?

Hinata’s favourite weather reflects his personality: a warm summer’s day. Not one of those unbearably hot and humid ones but one where the cool wind blows and the sun is pleasantly warm on your skin. 

He uses these days to go on a walk around the neighbourhood with you, mostly ending with a stroll around the park. Of course, he slathers on sunscreen on the both of you because safety first and he really needs to get rid of the remaining suncream from Brazil.

Vaunt: Does he like showing you off?

Hell yes, this boy flaunts you to everyone who’s willing to listen. Why wouldn’t he? You’re literally the best person he knows!

Not obnoxiously like “[Name]-chan is better than anyone else!” but more of a fanboy style. For instance: “I went to one of their presentations secretly and they were so eloquent and perfect, I can’t believe they’re dating me” like he isn’t one of the most sought after athletes in the entire country.

It’s to the point where his fans can recite facts about you and it leaves you confused.

“Shouyou, why does the public know all these things about me?” “Ummm…”

World: Where does he take you for vacation?

Definitely Brazil, specifically the same city he spent two years in. When he arrives, he’ll try to introduce you to all of his friends and acquaintances with the biggest smile.

He acts as a tour guide and shows you all the hidden favourite spots he found in his time there. Also teaches you some Portuguese and learns Spanish with you.

Of course, playing beach volleyball takes up a large amount of time over there. You joined in a couple of times even though your skills were considerably lacking than the other side.

It was mainly just for fun and experience (and ogling at Hinata ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°))

X-ray: What happens when you’re injured or sick?

This is painful—because of his memory of The Fever, he always tries to keep his body in tip-top shape. So your concerns of him overworking himself or falling ill get reduced to a minimum.

If you’re the one that’s sick, then he’s by your bed 24/7, ready to do anything you want or need. He calls up Iwaizumi and his teammates for advice and writes everything down, following it to a T.

Yearn: How much does he miss/pine for you when apart?

So damn much. This boy misses you the moment he steps into the plane and texts you until the flight attendant tells him to put the device away. It’s mostly heart emojis and selfies so he can look at them while flying.

It becomes a ritual that no matter what, no matter the difference in time, you have to call each other at least 3 times a day. It doesn’t have to be meal times but it has to be at least 3 times.

If not, he’ll be sad for the rest of the day and sulk the entire time he’s off the court. Eventually, his teammates all call you to please help this moody wing spiker.

ZZZ: Does he have sleeping habits?

Fidgets and moves around a lot in his sleep. Always wakes up in a different position and he’s so confused and disorientated. 

This kind of makes it hard for you since you sleep together so the solution was: buy a king-sized bed. It was like a whole new experience.

It works well until he once pushed you off. Your yelp woke him up and he apologised so much and nearly cried even though you were laughing and said it was okay.

[writefightandflightclub]

Me appreciating you for Fanfic Writers’ Appreciation Day, but a day late, because I do everything late. Anyway... yay!

1. PLEASE LOOK DOWN THIS LIST (BELOW THE CUT) UNTIL YOU SPOT AN AUTHOR YOU’RE NOT FAMILIAR WITH

2. GO AND CHECK OUT THEIR STUFF

3. SCREAM AT THEM ABOUT HOW GREAT THEY ARE

4. SIGNAL BOOST THE HELL OUT OF THEIR STUFF

5. REPEAT STEPS ABOVE

Firstly, before we proceed to the list: I will have forgotten people, and for that I am so sorry (not in any way intentional)- I will come back and update if I spot someone I’ve missed. Secondly, for fic authors who weren’t tagged on Fic Writers’ Day, please keep doing what you’re doing! Putting your writing out there takes courage and I’m super proud of you. I’m so pleased we have your unique voice in the fandom, and I appreciate you.

Secondly, if you know an author who perhaps didn’t get as much love as they deserve (and don’t be afraid to self-hype) please send me an ask with a) their/your handle b) which fandom they/you write for (to be relevant to my page pls keep this to SW, Oscar, Pedro, MCU) c) why people should check them/you out and, if you like, which fic to start with, and I’ll do a shout-out.

Finally, if you aren’t a writer yet but you want to be, I believe in you! Please take the plunge! My inbox is always open to any aspiring writers who need encouragement to make that first post or start that first fic. I’ve been in your position, and believe me I’m in your corner. Happy to be your hype girl.

Reccing authors in Star Wars / Oscar / Pedro fandoms:

@okay-hotshot / Celeste is the loveliest human ever. She had me hooked from her first fic, which broke then healed my heart, and I’m so proud of her writing journey so far! Check her page out for Oscar character fics and the most magical, creative, immersive, touching, original Llewyn fic you could dream up: Wait for me.

@mandoplease where do I even start? Becca oozes talent and absolutely floors me every single time. The first fic I read was: The City Lights Can Wait (Santi x reader) and I was just blown away by the writing prowess. Gorgeous prose, mind blowing metaphors and descriptions. A personal fave is the Santi/Frankie threesome fic: Moving Day, but Fight Night also needs a mention. Check her out for Triple Frontier / Narcos / Star Wars characters.

@mylifeliterally Ok, Emma is an absolute gem of a human. Funny, welcoming and so supportive of other writers. Oh, and can be counted on for thots. I often rec the positively artful Triple Frontier gangbang fic (and now series) Team Building Exercise, but don’t overlook her other fics- I especially love: Just for Tonight, a two-part Santi fic. The Triple Frontier Queen, she is slowly dragging everyone into a pit of yearning along with her for every single one of those boys and we’re not even mad. Her writing is flawless and I cannot get enough. P.s. she has a refridgerator husband.

@tintinwrites I’ve already gushed at Caitlin today so I’ll keep it brief. Queen of Poe, and also branching out and excelling with everything she touches in Pedro fandoms too. I think I’ve read near everything on her masterlist and there are no wrong choices, but to pick out only a couple, which is a hard task, imma rec Forbidden Fruit and Fifty Ways to Kiss someone for Po, and Nothing Could be Finer for reader x Frankie x Santi. 

@woakiees again, gushed at Hadley already so I’ll try and keep it chill here. Queen of angst and darkness, and of First Order Poe. Also love that she’s writing for Santi and Din now too. Caitlin says it best when she describes Hadley’s writing as like something from 1843 with a modern twist. Such a unique voice. Imma recommend Sanctified and So ruthless, Darling for Poe.

@iamthe-shadow-on-the-wall Abby! The range! You know I remind you on a bi-monthly basis how much Lonely Nights (Poe x reader) broke my heart and here we go again. You can do it all- fluffy, slow burn series (Call it what you want), heartbreaking angst and smut- your Blue Jones mob boss AU, Darkest Little Paradise? Wowzers. Plus, you’re a sweetie and I love when we scream at each other. 

@darksideofclarke Clarke does so much for us all and just keeps giving. From the Sinful Sunday events to the incredible Follower Celebration, to setting up a whole side blog to extend the character takeovers?! Blessed with content! And Clarke’s fics?! Exquisite, and such a choice of characters from the Oscar fandom. I particularly love Now and Forevermore (Orestes); Bulletproof (Santi); Humbled (Blue); and ‘Til Death Do They Part (Mikael) but I could easily go on. Clarke you’re so talented. And you are a lovely human to boot!

@bluebellhairpin Nemo, you are a joy, and I won’t gush at you too much bc I already did that today, but I love what you’re putting out. You write for so many fandoms, which is so impressive, and you’re a fellow Poe hoe. I adore your series Fight or Flight, Rider, but you have so many cute one-shots and blurbs too e.g. Poe Dameron is an Idiot! Your audios give me life as well.

@spider-starry Carrie is so much fun and has been branching out a lot in her writing recently, which is great to see! I love Carrie’s 100 letter project in particular, for various Oscar characters, as well as this smutty Nathan NSFW Alphabet, which had me all in a tizz.

@aellynera (tag me in your stuff pls?) I love your drunk text series for Santi and Nathan and your Itsy Bitsy Spider headcanons made me howl! I’m so excited to see what you put out next! And I love that you also love Nathan :D

@anetteaneta already gushed at you today so I’ll keep it brief, but I’m so happy you’re sharing your writing! I loved your Sherlock series for Santi so much! And OMG wait, I didn’t see you’d written for Nathan until just now. Must catch-up. (Please tag me in any Oscar stuff you put out?)

@veuliee2 I need to catch-up on a lot of your fics to be fair (please tag me in stuff?) but you write Orestes so wonderfully and with so much heart that it blows me away (New Constellations). So few fics on him on this site and yours are a pleasure. Plus, you’re an all round lovely person! :o)

@thirsty-flygirl I don’t think you believe how good you are which makes me very sad to be honest. Because you’re amazing. You write Poe so spot on, so warm and goofy and a lovable sexy dumbass. Perfect. Your writing and dialogue makes me smile / laugh and you can somehow make it hot and soft all at once. I love your series Idiots in particular. (Please tag me in more of your stuff though as I worry I miss things you put out?). You’re great and I love having you here.

@twomoonstwosuns​ I really need to catch-up on your Poe series, Back to You but I really enjoyed the chapters I’ve read! (Please tag me in future Poe stuff?) You’re a star! 

@absurdthirst I’m newish in the Pedro fandoms so still getting to grips with it, but have loved what I’ve seen so far and look forward to delving deeper (and there’s plenty to get stuck into!)!Most recently read the Ezra fic Healing which was beautifully and sensitively written (cw: for prior assault).

@damerondjarin Taylor is multi-talented and blesses us, tbh, with GIFs and writing. She’s currently in tumblr jail, but I strongly advise you check out all her stuff. I came for Santi fics and they did not disappoint (I can’t link to it but the latest Santi fic killed me and was a wonderul take on the “there’s only one bed” trope.

@damndamer0n you have a gift, Ty. I’m in awe and I don’t know how you do what you do. Your way with words is really something special. I bow. Gonna recommend Just Friends for Poe because this is such a warm and immersive (and hot) fic and so in character. But honestly all your stuff is perfect. I’ve read things for characters I’ve never heard of before because of you and have loved each and every one. (Like, really, what are your secrets, tell us?). Also gonna shout-out to your Ezra fic, Sunlight, beacuse the world-building and mood-building was lovely. Really memorable!

@mssr-cellophane I found your work recently through FinnPoe week and your glorious take on the The Jacket prompt (links to A03). Looking forward to reading more of your stuff (please feel free to tag me!) and surprised by how much I vibe with all your posts haha. Happy to follow you! :)

@yougottakeeponkeepinon AMANDA? Where do I begin and how do I stop? You’re such an important part of this site for me. I think you’re wonderful as a person and I love your writing too. Miscommunication (First Order! Poe) is off the scale brilliant, and then you blew me away with your latest Santi fic, Eavesdropping, but honestly, I’ve never read anything of yours I didn’t love, from goofy Poe to soft soft Llewyn (I love Away from the Sun). I WANNA YELL AT YOU YOU’RE JUST THE BEST.

@poesflygirl Nat is a ball of energy and that comes across in her writing. Nat, you write with such verve and energy and defo have a unique voice. You write the angstiest angst and fluffiest fluff and you also write action and dialogue so well. Your fics have a ton of unexpected turns and are unpredictable, and you have loads of unique ideas which are really fresh and different to read. You don’t seem to believe how good you are, which makes me sad tbqh. I love when I see a tag pop up and get to read something new from you! In particular love your Poe series, You and Paging a Heart, and these Poe one-shots: Just another Benduday Night and Truth or Dare.

@starryeyedstories NOVA. You are pure sunshine. You spread so much positivity and you’re the loveliest human. Your are the Queen of softness and fluff and for comforting and beautifully written fics. Your series, Across the Hall,has taken us all on such a wonderful journey and I don’t want it to ever end. It’s like my happy place! Each chapter is practically a hug with words. Your Din one-shot All of Me is so romantic as well!

@softpedropascal I’m newish in Pedro fandoms but softpedropascal writes wonderfully for Frankie. The dedication to the character is evident, and characterisation wonderful- I can’t wait to read more: Masterlist

@rzrcrst okay, you may know rzrcrst for Pedro fics (which are wonderful) but she also recently started writing for Tony Stark and I’m so happy! 😀🧡 (Fun fact- her url is also the reason I couldn’t spell Razor Crest properly when I finally started writing for Din). She’s currently taking a well-earned tumblr break but fics are still up on Ao3- linked in profile.

@writefasttalkevenfaster​ Please tag me in any of your Star Wars stuff as I swear I keep missing things and I don’t mean to! Masterlist

@galaxy-of-stories​ Maddie, I keep missing things you post but you’re lovely and your writing is awesome. I love your Poe series Over and Over and I think I’ve just spotted a new chapter to catch-up on so lucky me! :D

@who-talks-first Billie, my lovely friend! You’re wonderful to have around on this hellsite. Your dedication to supporting writers in these fandoms is unparelled and you’re an absolute sweatheart, as well as super fun to chat to and thirst with. You have certainly made my experience on this site so much better! And also, your writing? Excuse me? So good. Your Poe fic, The Torture of Small Talk With Someone You Used to Love? Sublime! And the Poe, Naked, Dripping, Locked? So funny! You definitely have a unique style and your writing can be simultaneously edgy, poetic, and moving. ILY!

@xxidontwikeitxx Hope you don’t mind being included, as you haven’t posted your work, but you ARE a writer, and I’m so happy you’ve recently started creating! Again, hope you don’t mind me saying, but I had the pleasure of reading your Marcus Pike blurb, and it’s was so soft and lovely. I really hope - when/if you’re comfortable- you decide share your work, and if not, I hope you keep enjoying the process! Would leave to read more from you in the future!

@shakespeareanwannabe is writing such a heartfelt Santi x OC story (find it here) with sublime characterisation of both Santi and Frankie, AS WELL AS seriously well-rounded and compelling OCs / supporting cast. This series is a key contributor for me falling down a Frankie rabbit role, and my First Dates fic likely wouldn’t exist without it! So excited for more!

Also shoutout to @ollypopp @milleniumvalcon @justrunamok @yourbucky084 who are delightful beings and whose writing I need to catch-up on!I look forward to it!

[there-must-be-a-lock]

it's fresh and exciting, and I love it, and more than that, I love it for YOU. / And of course your writing has always been GOOD it's not about technically ability. I just feel like we are seeing a different side of you. // And maybe just maybe what you're working thru isnt quite so dark any more. It's still deep, and beautiful, and thank you for sharing! / But.... I hope you can hear what I am trying to say. DO you have any thoughts?

Hooo boy. Okay, so, I’ve been thinking about this some, because I’ve definitely noticed this in my own writing! I had a thought, the other day, that I should apologize to the people who originally followed me for smutty SPN reader inserts… because that is NOT the majority of what has been happening on this blog lately. Oops. I’m not actually sorry though. 

Basically, a couple things have changed. 

1. At the end of January, I finished Marked. It was the most time-consuming (over two years) most serious (meaningful and personal) and longest (83k) thing I’ve ever written. For the two years I was working on it, I think everything else I wrote was mostly filler: romance, smut, whatever, all of it basically served as a palate cleanser between deep difficult dark excursions into Marked. So when Marked was done, I felt really satisfied, like it would be okay if I never contributed anything else of substance to the SPN fandom, because I was proud of that one thing I’d accomplished. I also felt more confident, because I’d proved to myself that I could tackle a project that big and actually follow through and finish it. Most importantly, though, I felt like I’d worked through a really major trauma, and moved through a major step in my healing process, and I could move on with my life. Now that the Big Trauma was purged onto the page (doc, whatever) I could free up some brain space to think about other serious life experiences and delve into other dark nasty corners of my psyche. Wheee! 

2. I joined a lovely little Slack chat full of smart, supportive, talented, creative, kickass ladies, whose opinions I respect beyond measure. Finding that community of people who are always there if I need criticism or brainstorming or support or whatever else is a huge, HUGE boost to my creativity. I used to have random “oh it’d be funny if…” thoughts and I’d kinda brush em off and let them go. Now I share them, and there’s somebody there to come back with “that’d be hilarious, and also this should happen, and also here’s a picture of Harry Styles in a collar, now WRITE THE THING.”  

2a. One incoherent flail from one of the Slack crew always means more than any number of reblogs from random people. Not that comments and messages don’t feel good, always, but it means so much more coming from someone whose work I admire and whose opinions I value, and who I care about on a personal level. 

3. I realized that reader engagement was seriously down, and that there was no way anything I wrote was going to get as many notes as it might’ve two years ago, and that the amount of time and energy I put into things is never proportional to the amount of notes those things get. When I realized that, I took my one last fuck I’d had to give about notes or whether anyone would read something, and I chucked it out the window. Defenestrated that fuck. I have zero fucks left. 

So, where does that leave me? Fuckless and happy. 

No, literally though, fuckless. By which I mean, thanks to the Womanizer and some soul-searching, I’ve realized that I’m very content on my own. I’m just not particularly interested in sex right now, and I think that’s come through in a major way in my writing. Not that I haven’t written any smut, but it’s all had an underlying theme/issue/twist to it. Finally was about consent and communication and how difficult it can be to be honest with a partner. Envy was about, um, envy, and how ugly it can be. The most romantic, “normal” smutty things I’ve written were probably Five Seconds and the Everything quarantine ficlets, and those were pure escapism, because 2020 sucks and so I rewrote some of it. We are in a shitty situation and I wanted to imagine it less shitty for a minute. 

One thing I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is psychology, and very specific, darker facets of the boys I’d never really taken the time to dig into before, and through them, some of my own issues. Prey was a really weird twisted adventure into Soulless Sam and the way his brain worked. Set Yourself On Fire was about what I assume was the darkest time in Sam’s life, and it ended up being about my own depression and addiction issues. Quitting, also about addiction, and the way we perceive ourselves and hold onto patterns. Sharp Edges was about a personal headcanon I have about Sam, which is that he’s a very reluctant sadist who feels guilty about what he needs, but it ended up being just as much about the general psychology of BDSM and kink and the ways we hide from other people. When I stopped looking at the Winchesters as romantic leads, I found a whole lot of interesting material for other stories. 

Crossovers have been a ton of fun. I realized I imagine crossovers in my head all the time: what would these two have to say to each other, what do they have in common, wouldn’t it be funny if Valkyrie from the MCU met Gail from Sin City (“My warrior woman. My Valkyrie.”) or if Buffy and Dean had a pissing contest about who could sacrifice themselves the most. Again, there’s SO little overlap of fandoms for some of my favorite characters (see also: the Sam Winchester/Frank Iero fic) but I’ve just stopped caring (see #3 above) because they are so entertaining for me to write. Take a couple cool characters! Smush em together and see what happens! It’s like a chemistry experiment. Let’s see what explodes. 

And then there’s Fluff Friday. I’ve always had a tendency to put a lot of pressure on myself and to make everything Deep and Meaningful and Important, but I’ve realized that tropes exist because people fuckin love them, and I fuckin love em, and why the fuck not write a millionth “there was only one bed” fic, because I always love reading those. I’ve been allowing myself space to just do whatever the fuck makes me happy, and I’ve been taking requests because it’s also nice to make other people happy sometimes too. Even if there isn’t a real plot, even if it’s just 300 words where nothing really happens… those little moments can make someone smile. Like I said, it’s 2020. We all need some fuckin smiles. 

Tl;dr version: I stopped putting pressure on myself, I stopped worrying about notes, and I started writing the things that interest me. I’m having so much more fun writing these days. 10/10 would recommend defenestrating your remaining fucks.  

Thank you for still reading, and for noticing the change, and for sticking with me and my unpredictable brain. Your friendship is one of the best things that’s come out of this whole fandom deal. 

[oswednesday]

miss oleana! the plot rehaul for her is obvi making it look like shes connected or the real Big Bad, like oh she writes all his speeches and is like on your ass all the time and hes just a himbo figure head, when you beat early low level grunts theyll be like dont tell the boss i lost, she'd be soo mad! with midtiers ones being like please dont tell miss o-----!!! and high tier ones actually name dropping like miss oleana wont like this

(Did You Know her name comes from olive and not oleander? like thats a clever bit of misdirect for the english audience only unless the characters used in olive can also double as a poison pun!)

(this pkmn is like macro cosmos aesthetic/rose’s aesthetic and a shiny! he has tons cause hes mega rich duh)

(ability: contrary, moves:wring out, giga drain, dragon tail, leaf storm)

(dude the canon lore for her is wild shes the vice president AND the invented of the bands?? i guess she is in a lab coat, i think it be kind of suspicious to have  secretary also be a vice president so im going to drop that aspect of it? or maybe not, i mean, im also softening his overt tises to it, so maybe she can be straight up the president of macro cosmos with his intention for her to take the fall as Just the hapless owner, shes like the league secretary,ill decide fully for that later i do like her at the forefront of the science end tho thats fun! )

(ability: queenly majesty, moves: fell stinger, defend order, heal order, attack order)

(her actual pkmn theme is bugs!)

(ability: shell armor, moves: twineedle, quick guard, x-scissor, megahorn)

(her pkmn kind of tell the story of Her)

(i want to treat the standard form as the shiny! its like rose aesthetic)

(ability: telepathy (with an including avoiding physical attacks in single, real niche use abilities are so -_- sometimes and this makes the ability feel more formidable but gets weaker when theres More minds like more mental chatter?) moves: magic coat, infestation, protect, future sight)

(she dynamaxs this! and uses g-max gravitas of course)

(in this nuzlocke rose has her take the whole blame for like the leon thing and fires her rather public like, so shes devastated enough to help you later)

(ability: aftermath, moves: strange steam, toxic spikes, toxic, self-destruct)

(but cause shes fired like that, she isnt arrested when everything gets Known and she’s all like,,,wow,,,he saved me,,,,,)

(ability: corrosion, cross poison, gunk shot, belch, explosion)

(incidently she makes this one big as well and uses g max malodor and I CANOT BELEVIE HOW SMALL THEY MADE ITS MODEL FFDGDFDF??? like fast ignoring that, her double use completely drains the power of the tower)

(the air terrain is high altitude! fire attacks do less damage, ice attacks are boost, flying type pkmn have their speed increased while ground will have their speed decreased, or something like that!)

-----

battle 2 

(im imagining some kinda Post Game plot where you can challenge her again, but its like, chill, with an updated outfit so its more obvi shes wearing a labcoat and her colorscheme is like blue and green! maybe there’s a good ending where she works with prof magnolia and maybe opal as prof poplar as a consultant and where hop interns? finding a non-dooms day event solution to the energy problem? maybe figure away to use pkmn energy in a way thats not like super fucked up, perhaps?)

(ability: tinted lens, moves: whirl wind, poison powder, hurricane, draining kiss)

(i almost want to give it rage powder cause thats what her role is in the game a bit, if i do ill swap out draining kiss and have you fight a double with prof in training hop?)

(anyway im imaging it like, lets test out this renewable clean energy and she supersizes her butterfree!)

(ability: telepathy, moves: helping hand, ally switch,after you, reflect)

(see! shes nice now! also this pkmn is kinda build for co-op ally helping which is interesting for a mad scientist themed bug?)

(ability: battery, moves: sticky web, vise grip, charge, wild charge)

(this battle is probs taking place outside somewhere? its just as likely to think that prof m has a testing field in her labs basement or smthing)

or

(ability: contrary, moves (standard); petal blizzard, lazer focus, dual chop, leaf blade)

(moves (shiny): aromatherapy, solar blade, defog, safeguard)

(ooo sinister implications! i have an idea in Mind to give it branching endings with like interactivity? this sharing stuff im doing rn might be oversharing)

(type: fighting/bug)

(them not being bug without any like lore about them pretending to be a bug in while makes this feel like You Know Of Mario? What If!! Poke mon! and i hate that)

(ability: friend guard, moves(shiny): first impressions, heal order, no retreat, megahorn)

(ability: mold breaker, moves (standard): first impressions, attack order, no retreat, megahorn)

(this is kinda difficult cause most of her in game personality is wrapped up in working for rose, so i hope this gets across’d that shes her own person, but fell into stuff)

(if the last two were shiny an abra will be here)

(ability: unburden, moves: protect, light screen, trick room,embargo)

(if the last two were standard itll be a kadabra)

(ability: neuroforce, moves: miracle eye, psycho shift, telekinesis, future sight)

(i always felt they were like fckd up insects with the mammially stuff meant to look like withered skeletal flesh guts caccon rather than anything 1:1 animal like alakazam lacks a tail cause these two spent two gens removing them from their body, gen1 had like monster design coherency that newer gens sometimes lack and the coherency was All about those ears)

(i tried not to grab anything from mythos/plot pkmn from other gens but that kinda drives the altering pkmn for gains?)

[witch-diaries]

Witches guide to SAGE

Ok so I had to do this post after having a small argument with a friend. (White) Sage is fantastic. It’s aromatic, It enhances intuition, it’s used for cleansing and clearing, but... here is the big “but”, if not used properly when cleansing or clearing a home, room, or crystals it can be a pest. And can cause unintended mayhem. My cousin who has been a Witch since she was 10 (She’s currently 71) cautioned me greatly in using sage, she loves the herb, (growing it is a ton of fun) but most people don’t know how to properly and safely use sage. 

USING SAGE:

Sageing a home is a ritual, it’s not some act where you burn a smudge stick and wave it around going from room to room. People tend to think that doing just that you will cleanse a place of negative energy or spirits. But it doesn’t work that way. You need to put intent into it. You need to have a clear mind while doing it, you can’t be distracted, try closing your eyes and counting down from ten, call on your guides and angels to help put positive energy and intent into what you are doing; that the act you are about to do, will bring peace, serenity, and balance to your home (or crystals). Once you have cleared your mind and have the positive vibes going, start smudging! Start at the entrance of your home, trace the doorway and move to the handle (this is important, it will help repel negative energy from entering your home), from here, move to the corners and work your way clockwise through your home, getting every nook and cranny, every shadowy place (it’s best to light candles and have the lights on while doing this, putting black tourmaline in the 4 main corners of your home will boost good vibes and put up protective wards during this process). Don’t forget to use positive affirmations while smudging each room “Happiness, love, and positivity fill this room” as an example. Don’t forget to get window’s saged (all corners). Get every cupboard and drawer and closet, don’t forget to be thorough! Once you have cycled through the place, make your way to the back door (If you don't have a backdoor then go back to the entrance where you started). Sage the corners of the door again, and the door handles one last time while saying your affirmation. For the best results (I’ve had to do this in a friends house he had a poltergeist) have a friend or partner walk with you while you sage, ringing bells or singing bowls after each room has been thoroughly saged. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but this is the only process I’ve found that works 100% of the time to purge negative energy or spirits. 

GROWING SAGE FROM A SEED (and out of season):

Latin: Salvia officinalis

Family: Lamiaceae

Difficulty: Easy but slow

Season and Zone: Warm to hot season, Full Sun, Hardy

Timing: Start indoors mid-February to mid-April. Transplant out or direct sow starting mid-April. Starting indoors may be more reliable, particularly if using bottom heat and maintaining optimal soil temperature at 15-21°C (60-70°F). Seeds should sprout in 2 to 3 weeks.

Companion Planting: Sage repels both the cabbage moth and the carrot rust fly, so it’s a great all-around companion plant in the vegetable garden. Do not, however, plant it near cucumbers, which are sensitive to aromatic herbs.

Ok, so this is a bit of a toughy. I don’t have the greenest thumb... it’s more like a black thumb because I can never get anything to grow. Now if you want something to grow, ask my Grandad, he once grew an almond tree out of a half-eaten seed purely out of spite against someone. One time he grew MJ just to prove a point. Anyways the point is I can barely grow chives and chives are super easy to grow. 

Here’s the lowdown on White Sage, it’s a perennial, which means once you grow it and plant it in your garden after its matured, you won’t have to plant it again because it will come back each year. A single plant can last decades. It’s a hardy plant, very hard to start it, but once it's grown it's even harder to kill. it has a 20-30% chance of germination from seed which makes it hard to grow, and because it takes so LONG to grow you need to start before the last winter frost. 

But I found a way to cheat the system... 

Usually, you start Sage indoors, about 6-8 weeks before the end of winter... so usually in February (if it's from seed if you want to do it the traditional way). If you plant from a cutting also start indoors. Now, here is the thing about sage, it is a bitch to start from seeds which is why most people use cuttings, it’s a hell of a lot easier, but I like challenges. Best thing to do if you grow from seeds is to freeze the seeds for about a week before you start to the germination process. Once a week is over take the seeds our and wash 3-5 (if you want a single plant) in filtered water. This is because Sage has a 20-30% chance of germination. Wash and rinse the seeds a couple of times and then put them in a Tupperware container filled with water, leave them for about 12 hours, rinse and change water and leave for another 12 hours. After this you might notice that there is this clear jelly on a couple seeds, one might have even sprouted a little root (aww) take these seeds, rinse them one more time and wrap them in a moist paper towel (like when you grew bean sprouts in grade school). Put the wrapped up seeds back into the container (which should be empty of water, you don’t want to drown then little suckers), and place the lid on loosely. Leave it in a warm place (like in a window that gets a lot of sun or near a heater) for a few days (3-5) and actively add a little bit of water to keep the paper towel damp. 

Once you see some little roots poking out of the seeds, get a small planter and place the germinated seeds in about 5mm under the surface of the soil.

The thing about Sage is that it's pretty similar to succulent plants. It thrives in hot dry summers, needs little to no watering after its sprouted (NEVER OVER WATER YOUR POOR SAGE BABY) and actually thrives in coarse soil with fewer nutrients. It needs tons of sun, especially while a seedling, so I recommend purchasing a plant light. (I got a really nice small one off of Amazon for 20 bucks total) Once it’s sprouted it needs daily mistings (yes get s squirt bottle and mist that baby) and constant light (this a plant light). Nurture it with positive vibes and lots of love and you will have your very own sage plant! After a few weeks of growing and maturing, you can replant it in a garden or into a larger planter. 

During the winter, cut back the leaves, and cover it (if it’s in the garden). If you have it indoors, keep the temperature regular and don’t let it get too hot or cold or it will kill your plant, especially if it hasn’t fully matured yet (which takes 2 years from a seed). 

Pests: Slugs and spider mites can be a problem for Sage, so remove weeds, remove badly infested plants by putting into a plastic bag and trashing them, and use neem oil in lightly infested parts to get rid of pests.

Disease: The leaves are susceptible to fungal infections like mildew or verticillium wilt, so in order to avoid this, do not water from overhead, but use a dropper to water straight to the roots. Also space the plants evenly apart (about 25-30 cm) so there is proper air circulation. When growing indoors, keep a fan blowing in the room to let the plant breathe.

HARVESTING:

Harvesting Seeds: You’ll know that the seeds are ready to be harvested when the blooms are brown and completely dry. Gently roll the bloom between your fingers until the seeds fall away, place them in an envelope and then into a ziplock bag and freeze (for next season).

Harvesting Foliage: Now this is the fun part! You can now make your very own smudge sticks! Just take the foliage (leaves) and cut them from the plant, and make a thick stick shape with them, wrap them with embroidery floss or twine, and hang them in a window to dry. When the smudge sticks are dry they are ready to be used! 

(if anyone has any more to add to this post feel free! knowledge is power after all and sharing is caring!)

[tkmedia]

Q&A: Pavan, Humana-Paredes looking to make history in Tokyo

Two of Canada’s strongest medal contenders will be competing on the beach in Tokyo even though they spent the better part of the last year away from a beach and away from each other.Beach volleyball duo Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes won gold at the world championships in 2019 and came in to 2020 ranked No. 1 in the world. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and they were away from each other in different cities in different countries, and not training as they usually would in Hermosa beach, Calif. The longest period they’ve gone away from the sport and away from each other proved challenging with the uncertainty of if or when the Olympics were going to happen. Now they’ve been able to reconnect on and off the court, and have regained that No. 1 status heading into Tokyo. They’ll take the court at 11:00 p.m. EDT on Friday to start their pursuit of a gold medal. I caught up with them ahead of the Games to learn how they’ve overcome the obstacles put in their way in what was a trying 2020 season. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.) SPORTSNET: You were one of the first to qualify back in 2019. What has this purgatory been like where the Games were deferred in 2020, and now we’re finally here in 2021? Melissa Humana-Paredes: It’s been a long process from when we’ve qualified to now — so long almost that I forgot the privilege and the luxury and the meaning behind what it meant until this last month, seeing all the other teams finally qualify. It hit me. It was like, “Oh my gosh, we’re so close — we’re there.” It’s been such a long journey. Having the luxury of being qualified for so long was great at the time, especially during the uncertainty. And it forced us to find another goal to go after, which was to head into the Olympics the No. 1–ranked team, which we did accomplish, which was fantastic. It feels like it happened so long ago that I’m feeling those emotions all over again this last month as we head into the Olympics. It’s such a meaningful experience. I’m so proud of how far we have come because I think there was a time where we felt it was a little unfair we had such great momentum. We felt we were in the best shape heading into 2020, and then everything kind of got taken away. And so, to regain that confidence and regain that momentum means a lot. But it was a lot of hard work. What were some of the specific difficulties that you had to work through given the last 18 months was anything but normal? Sarah Pavan: Melissa and I were in separate countries actually for most of the pandemic, so when it started in March , we were naive enough to think that we would be reunited in a couple of weeks. Mel headed back to Canada. I stayed in the L.A. area where we usually train. And that couple of weeks became several months, so that was a challenge. We just we didn’t train on sand together really from March until January. And then we had the added challenge of Melissa was working out in her living room. I was working out by myself in my garage. And just other countries were starting to open up as the summer of 2020 progressed. We saw our competition start to play national tour events or train. A little bit of uncertainty and doubt started creeping in like, “Are we going to be the same team when we come back together? Are these other teams going to catch up to us? Are we still going to have those intangible things that make us such a great team?” But I think something that we did really well is we knew that we could only control the things that were in our control. And the pandemic was not — the situation in Canada and where we were was not in our control. We just really took it upon ourselves to do the best with what we had and to be as ready as possible when we were reunited. Wishing superstars @SarahPavan and @melissa_hp10 the best of luck today representing Canada at the #2020TokyoOlympics from all of us at #WorkinMoms. Let’s get that ! pic.twitter.com/BZtds4wJUL — Workin' Moms (@WorkinMoms) July 23, 2021 You have made Canadian history on multiple fronts. Now that you’ve reached this level, do you feel an external pressure that anything other than a gold might not be reaching those goals that others have for you? Pavan: I think Melissa and I are really good at keeping things in perspective, and from the outset of our partnership we have been very honest in the fact that an Olympic gold medal is our goal. We have not shied away from saying that. We have always believed and created those expectations for ourselves. The fact that there are whispers or other people are now talking about that, that doesn’t change how we prepare or how we approach every training session or every day. If anything, I think it’s flattering because people are paying attention to our sport. People are noticing beach volleyball and the great things that our program has done in recent years. We can’t really get hung up on the expectations of other people because then then we’ll go crazy. But I think the most important thing is that we’re accountable to each other and we’re going to do everything in our power to prepare for every match as best as we can, and to enter every training session with the objective of getting better and performing to the best of our abilities. You mentioned people noticing your sport, noticing the two of you, and there’s so many great Olympians. This is our biggest team since the early ’80s. But Kraft looked at you two as worthy of celebrating. Now, a bunch of Canadians are going to get to celebrate you as you go off to the games and send you messages. What does that partnership, and really that ability to hear firsthand from Canadians cheering you on, mean to you? Humana-Paredes: We’re so honoured to be able to work with Kraft peanut butter for this campaign for multiple reasons.... But it’s the meaning behind the campaign that I think resonates so deeply with us. This Olympics is so different than what any athlete imagined it would be. And this being my first Olympics, too, you know, it’s a little heartbreaking to not have the full experience. But that’s why this campaign is just so meaningful because we can still feel the support and the love from Canadians who can send their cheers and their good wishes and good luck vibes directly to us so we can still feel like we’re a part of something bigger. And having ... the stadiums empty without fans is going to be really, really strange for us. And so, this will kind of give us that boost of energy, kind of give us that element that we’re missing. I really want to encourage all Canadian fans to send their cheers to us and they can do it throughout the entirety of the Olympics, and we will actually receive them. It’s not like it’s going to go into the cloud or whatever — it will come into our ears, and we will be able to feed off of that energy. And it will just make us feel a part of something bigger. Again, just walking into an empty stadium is not what we envisioned, but this campaign is really meaningful because it kind of gives us that purpose again. Do you have a plan as to when you might consume those messages? Pavan: I think I’ll probably listen to them pre-match. You know, when I visualize a match or playing in big moments, the crowd is always a part of that. And so I think I'll listen to them in my visualization process and before the games, just to et me ready to compete at my highest level. This team is pretty special, and 60 per cent of it are women. We know that 60 per cent of the coverage of sports being on women doesn’t really happen. Why is it important to continue to celebrate female athletes and to tell their stories? Humana-Paredes: Such a great point, and I think it’s so important that women and young girls especially see female role models and female leaders in the space, especially in the sporting world. There are tons of studies. It’s better for society to have women in sports. It’s better for women to feel the emotions and the rush and learn all the skills that sports gives you, because it translates beyond sport into life after sport. It builds so much character and gives you just a wealth of knowledge. And it strengthens your personality. Beyond that, it’s also a lot of fun. And I think it’s important to have something that you’re super passionate about, whether it is sports or not. Our sport sometimes gets a bad rap, but I hope that young girls can look at Sarah and I and either feel inspired to pick up the sport or feel inspired to play a sport and just ... find their passion in life and pursue that and know that anything’s possible because, you know, we’re doing it and we're living our lives that way. One of the references that those young girls can now consume is the series that you were a part of. You as athletes are filmed all the time. was a little bit more invasive look at your lives. What was that experience like? Pavan: It was really cool. Neither of us had ever really done anything like that before, and it gave us a really great platform to open up and really show people who we are, because I think a lot of people have an idea based on watching our matches or what is shared in the media or on social media, et cetera, of who we are. But that’s not always like really diving into our full personality. It was really fun to be able to be ourselves, to goof around sometimes, to be honest, about how we felt after losing matches or not getting a good finish at a tournament or, like, joking around with coaches — you name it. It was fun to show that we are people beyond volleyball. And beach volleyball is something we do, but we’re so much more than that. And I think it was a great opportunity to really showcase that. We are fun-loving women as well. In doing some research for this interview, one of the articles I came across was “the 10 hottest female beach volleyball players.” And I kind of got sick to my stomach thinking that this is something that is still out there. How do you balance the fact that in your sport you get the opportunity to show your strength and your tenacity, but also at the same time, knowing that as athletes you’re just trying to compete, and you can be objectified at the same time? Humana-Paredes: I think Sarah and I can both agree that this has been kind of an underlying narrative of our careers where often our uniform gets more attention than our play. And I think that goes across the board for a lot of female athletes and a lot of female sports. And I think I think what’s so important that we do is to show up every day and to show up as our true selves and show up as our strong selves and just play the sport that we love. All we can do is perform and show up and people can write and say what they want. We just have to write our own narrative and write our own story. And at the end of the day, we're here to perform. I think you kind of have to block out some of that narrative, but also correct it and every time we have an opportunity like this with the media or, you get a comment on social media I will always correct it and respond back and try and educate my stance on certain things. But for our sport, it’s sexualization of our uniforms. For me personally, it’s an easy balance because I know what my priorities are, and I know what my true worth is, and I had nothing to do with my uniform, and I’m here, and I show up on the court every day 100 per cent focused on performing and being the best I can be on the court — being a fantastic partner, hopefully, and just a good person. The story of you going to Tokyo is not just about the two of you. It’s also the village that’s around you and family-member support staff that many of which, sadly, won’t be able to enjoy Tokyo with you. What’s it mean to you that you’ll be there, but you’ll know that back home there’s a huge contingent of people who, have a big part in you being there? Pavan: Oh my gosh. Actually, my sister sent me this thing the other day and she asked people in my life or anybody who felt compelled to send me a message to make a little video. And I watched it the other day, and I was shocked at the number of people who had well wishes to send or messages of love and support. And, you know, it’s easy to get wrapped up in our tiny team unit of me, Melissa, and our coaching staff and support staff. But there are so, so many people out there who love us and believe in us and want to see us succeed. And I’m not kidding when I say I sobbed through the whole thing because I was just so touched at the outpouring of love. I’ll turn the tables on both of you. If you were creating a message and sending a cheer to your other Canadian athletes that are competing, what would that be? Pavan: Oh my gosh, this is a really good question. I’m, like, sweating. That’s a tough one. I would probably say that just by showing up and by having devoted your life to your sport, you are already a champion because being a high-level athlete takes such a high degree of discipline and commitment and belief that it’s just incredible that you’ve made it this far. And I would say you know how to be a champion. You have put in the hard work, and you are ready for this moment. And I can’t wait to see you shine on your biggest stage, and know that I believe in you, and we’ll cheer for you. Humana-Paredes: Oh my god, that was so meaningful. I love this question. Okay, let’s see. I would probably tell them to embrace the butterflies that they’re probably feeling and relish in the moment and don’t let a second slip them by. I think it’s really easy to let the pressures of the game and your performance weigh on you. But kind of similar to, say, I reflect on how far you’ve come and what you’ve already accomplished because that speaks volumes and there is very few people who get to do what you are doing right now. Look back on this moment and don’t have any regrets on whether or not you lived it to the fullest and that you enjoyed every moment of it. Read the full article

[fugandhi]

ROCK IS NOT DEAD - IT’S GONE BACK UNDERGROUND!

Kim shared this with me last night and I got so fucking (pardon my French) pissed off because I think ROCK MUSIC IS ALIVE AND WELL IN AMERICA!

Guitar Center is apparently like 1 Billion dollars in debt, and they are officially closing between now and like 2021 or something like that.

I’ve bought guitars/gear at Guitar Center and I’ve always been pleased with the experience and meeting the nice people who are just there because they are believers in MUSIC and the power of sounds, rhythms, harmonies, and overall just genuine bonafide human raw talent and passion and energy (UGH! it’s getting me fucking excited just TYPING about and THINKING about live shows and going bananas on the dance-floor).

I have been going to shows for so many years - I’ve had more time in my life that I was dedicating to music than I wasn’t.

The article I read was on DailyNews.com and it was saying how - apparently - there aren’t any more guitar players out there... Hip-Hop & Rap Music have officially become mainstream and because of these apparent changes in tastes (generationally-speaking, from what this article was saying) - there has been a rapid decline of kids who want to play guitar...and ..DO YOU KNOW WHAT I SAY TO THAT?!...

GO PICK UP A FUCKING GUITAR!

Rock is not dead. It’s just that the GOOD rock music is done by BLUE COLLAR FOLK LIKE ME!

We are all too busy working for a living, because Rock music is considered “Dangerous” or “Wild” or “Crazy” or whatever... 

I have always listened to music, my whole life, it’s just something that has always belonged to my life and even if I decided to never play music ever again - I would still at least play at home or like at least jam out to some good music, ya know?...  Music is ESSENTIAL. A Healthy heart requires a good song to keep healing (or laughter, or loved ones).

I think that more people should listen to rock music, but more importantly - I believe people need to break out of their shells and their comfort zones to develop a bit more interest in the Wild and Crazy and Fun and AWESOME aspects of Rock Music. I know there’s a ton of bad music out there, and trust me, I’ve heard a lot of really obscure and just..  well, I’ve been around, let’s just say that.

Rock,  Pop, Hip-Hop, Country, Reggae, Ska, Electronica, I’m like - Music is Music, but dammit - People have to keep playing music. How the hell does our future have a chance? How are our grandchildren going to be in a world where people are not playing musical instruments and kicking some ass LIVE and IN YOUR FACE at shows?????

Well, either way - there are greater tragedies in the world than a Corporation folding. I just think it’s a tragedy that so many people, and I assure you they are all very talented and good people & musicians - now have to get pushed out to seek very average and mundane jobs that won’t suit their passion for music.

I suppose the local mom & pop shops will HOPEFULLY get an influx in sales and that may boost the local community economy for any area that needs it. There’s a “School of Rock”, according to that article I read, and I think that as long as development is happening with alternative ways for kids, teens, or just any youth in general, to have the proper exposure to music in a fun and educational environment - there is still Hope.

I care very, very, very much about music and it’s always been a passion for my whole life. I’ve literally had to leave amazing job opportunities and turn down promotional opportunities because I have been so dedicated and committed to my life path as a Musician.

God, I just think it’s really something that when I was growing up, I was looking forward to how fucking RAD my adulthood would be just always fantasizing about “The FUTURE” and ...I know it’s kinda silly, but like I would genuinely think, “MAN, I can only imagine what bands are gonna be like when I’m old enough to play my own shows” and I’m like...you know... it’s been like the most negative decline in rock music because I think every fucking guitar player I’ve met or like musician in general - has been either really struggling because of money - OR - they’re like a douche bag that is full of themselves and they are all talk and no play.

I believe guitars come and go - I’ve had my guitar smashed up before and I understand you know, sometimes necessary changes come in the form of sacrifice or giving up what you hold dearest to you in order to salvage another aspect of your life like your family (which is more important than anything) - but like - the spirit of music should be alive and well and should be expressed in ALL forms, not just digital - GIVE ME THAT OLD TIME ROCK & ROLL, BABY!

I’m never going to stop playing - even if I never play a show again - I will always be in my home strummin’ away just because that’s who I am and that’s my destiny, ya know?

I encourage you to think about what it is that you truly enjoy doing in life - what you are passionate about - and seriously - take some time to meditate on that and reflect if there’s a way it can be done for YOU or your FAMILY.

Seriously consider the future and that just doesn’t apply to music, or hobbies, but just in general, you know? like fucking just don’t harm anyone else’s dream or talk shit about someone else to make yourself look better (if you have ever done that, i don’t know, i honestly don’t even really care) - just don’t let really AWESOME parts of American Culture die - this country had a lot of huge movements happen and I will tell you - people sang songs and blasted music and have put on benefit concerts - I’m like...  First CBGB’s and now This? What’s next? No interest in music at all???  I digress...

“GOD GAVE ROCK AND ROLL TO YOU”

- ATOMIK 1

[andiroo42]

Thoughts on intermittent fasting for weight loss

For the past 3 months now I have been intermittent fasting and have lost around 15lbs (6.8kg). I’d like to share tips, confidence boosters and how to make it as easy for yourself as possible if you’d like to try it too.

About Fasting

The time between your last meal of the day and first one of the next day is considered a fast. That’s why the first meal of the day is called breakfast (btw which doesn’t have to be early in the morning). There are longer versions of fasting that may limit food for longer than 24 hours, but that’s not what I’m discussing here. Intermittent fasting (IF) is extending the length of a daily fast so that more time is spent in a state of ketosis, the body’s process of burning fat for energy. Our bodies will switch over to ketosis after glucose sugars are used up in the blood stream, so less sugar and carbs (which are converted into sugar) means more fat burning potential. IF lengths are noted in 2 numbers: X/Y. X = the length of the fast and Y equals the window you want to eat within. They add up to 24. The following, in my opinion, are the easiest methods for getting started with IF, plus bonus tips!

Fun fact: lb (pound) is an abbreviation for the Latin ‘libra pondo’, or “pound weight”, the English pound. That’s why the constellation libra is a scale.

Level 1: No eating between meals

We naturally convert extra energy into fat to store for later. It’s our body’s default mode, because it never knows when we won’t have access to food in the future. Snacking interrupts the digestion process and tells the body there is more energy coming, so store what is currently going through for later as fat. Snacking, or even eating at inconsistent times, is like trying to study for a test and getting constantly interrupted. You waste time and don’t get any work done. Fasting between meals makes sure the food current in you is adequately digested before eating the next one. Eating a nutritious meal and letting our bodies digest everything in the stomach allows it to get the nutrients we need and then switch over to ketosis. The standard 3 meals a day is around 14/10, 14 hours fasting from say 6pm to 8am with a 10 hour meal window. Generally meals should gradually get smaller as the day goes on. You might try a small 3rd meal in the evening. Fruit and nuts are fine. It’s also a good idea to stop eating 3 to 4 hours before bedtime so a full stomach trying to digest doesn’t keep you up when you’re trying to fall asleep. You especially don’t want to over eat late in the evening when your body is getting ready to sleep. And no midnight snacks! You may want to set meal times so your body knows when to expect food. It’s best to make these decisions ahead of time so that you can more easily say no to bad habits when they present themselves. 

Bonus #1: Cut out sugar

Cutting out sugar found in sweets, breakfast cereals, beverages etc means your body doesn’t have to process it in the first place. Especially avoid high fructose corn syrup, a type of unnatural, super-concentrated sugar that besides being in candy and soda, is used to sweeten many non-dessert items like ketchup, yogurt, cereal bars and juices (read those ingredients!) Some folks are already eating relatively healthy, they just need to make a few adjustments. But I know for others it will be more of struggle as cravings will hit. You may even get headaches as you body adjusts. It could mean low electrolytes. I found water with a pinch of pink Himalayan salt helped. It’s quite similar to a sports drink but without any added sugars or chemicals. Speaking of beverages, cutting out sugar may mean getting rid of soft drinks. If you are drinking sugar soda, this would be the first thing I would recommend to limit and eventually cut out of your diet. How about diet soda? Nope. It’s been linked to increased appetite (sweet foods generally increase appetite), weight gain and obesity. You’ll be glad to save money by switching to water. If you really want something, I like to drink a cup of sugarless black tea before breakfast, some like black coffee. The caffeine suppresses appetite. 

https://usrtk.org/sweeteners/aspartame-weight-gain/

Level 2: Two meals a day

This is my current level. 16/8 fast. 16 hours of fasting might look like 6pm to 10am. For most people this is doable as it’s just a late breakfast and removing a meal. You might do better thinking of it in terms of skipping breakfast because most cereals and breakfast items, at least in the US, are loaded with sugar and the little nutritional value they do have is fortified, that is, added back artificially. When 10am rolls around I’m good and hungry for a big meal. 

Speaking of which, fasting also helps me to be aware of how much I eat. Yes I’ll eat a big meal but I’m more aware of when I’m full. I’ve surprised myself when I had to save some for later. Many have grown up with the idea that we must clear our plates, that food goes to waste otherwise. But truth is that if you overeat you’re gonna feel bad and it’s still gonna go to waste on your body as fat. Save it for later if you’re full and it won’t go to waste. Also, eating 2 meals a day has helped me to be more health conscious. I want those meals to be packed with lots of nutritious vegetables, healthy grains and high quality ingredients. I save money by not buying sweets, soft drinks and junk food.

Bonus #2: Exercise

This should be a no brainer but I mentioned it here because it does take extra time and effort, but that doesn’t have to stop you. The easiest kind for most people is walking. Many health experts recommend a goal of 10,000 steps, which takes about 2 hours, or 100 steps per minute. I usually get in 2-3k just in daily task and split the rest up into 2 walks. But if you aren’t there yet, shoot for 5,000. No? Then go for 3,000. The point is not about reaching someone else’s lofty goal, but setting one that you feel comfortable with. If it’s smaller and obtainable then you’ll get a confidence boost when you do reach it. It’s the same for weight goals. Start off with 5 or 10 lbs and go from there. You may have a vision for the weight range you’d like to be in but keep the realistic in immediate view for now. The best walks are taken outside in fresh air and sunlight. Sunlight also replenishes your vitamin D which is connected to regulating metabolism which means better fat burning!

For those who feel they are ready for it, strength training will help you lose weight faster. The more muscle you build, the more energy it requires and the more fat you’ll burn, even when resting and not exercising. Body weight exercise and calisthenics are great. I would start on the core to get a strong foundation for everything else. There are tons of resource, workout routines and tip videos on YouTube so take a look.

The paper towel roll effect

Taking one paper towel off the roll when it’s new isn’t very noticeable, but when you get down to just a few sheets, removing one becomes a larger percentage of its total. The same thing happens with weight loss. If you need to drop a bunch of weight, a small amount may not seem to make a big difference. But when you get closer to the ideal weight for your height, those smaller amounts will seem to make a bigger difference. If you don’t know the ideal weight for your height, use this tool: https://www.calculator.net/ideal-weight-calculator.html

This will help you figure out a range so you can set a long term vision to keep in mind. It might be a long way off so it doesn’t have to be a precise number, just a range that you would like to be within. 

Level 3: One meal a day

This is for those individuals who really want to focus on losing weight and have the willingness to do so. I hope to be updating this section, but I am less experienced with this level so I recommend talking with those who have done it on https://www.reddit.com/r/intermittentfasting/  Users will often post progress photos with these abbreviations: SW=starting weight, CW=current weight and GW=goal weight.

Hangry?

I’ve learned that it’s ok to be hungry, that being ready to eat is good. Western culture interprets temporary hunger as a bad feeling, that it’s wrong or abusive to feel. Some will actually interpret over fullness as hunger when their stomach is actually tired from being overworked. As long as you are having healthy, nutritious food at your meal(s) then it’s not starvation. One meal is enough to get all your nutrients and you can rely on the ketosis to give the rest of the energy you need.

Bonus #3: Go low carb and count those calories

Our bodies essentially treat carbs as sugars but they take the long way to get there. Simple carbohydrates, found in highly processed foods, are digested quickly and thus turn into fat quicker. Complex carbs are found in unprocessed whole grains, take longer to digest and provide more sustained energy. One thing to try: Take all your unhealthy, simple carbohydrate rich foods out of your cupboards and if you can’t give them away, give them a free trip to the garbage can. I’ve found that cutting out processed carbs like snacks, junky breads, pastries etc automatically cuts the majority of added sugars because sugar and carbs are usually paired together. Limiting one usually significantly limits the other. 

Counting calories is a good way to make sure you are only eating the healthy food you need and avoiding junk food. 2000 calories is what most people need to last throughout the day, but you can limit it to 1500 to speed up the weight loss process. There are great apps like MyFitnessPal that are super easy to use, allow you to scan food packages, can track your weight and have tons of free workout videos. I’ve found that after about 2 weeks of counting calories and streamlining my meal choices, I got a good enough feel for things that I didn’t need to continue to count, but that’s just me. 

Dinner is served

So find what works best for you and stick to it. Consistency is how to tell if something works. Eventually you may plateau as your body gets used to your routine so you will need to switch things up in order to see the same results. The things I’ve mentioned here aren’t about punishing yourself, but can be a form of self care that will last for years to come. Even if you put one of these tips into practice, you’ll be bettering yourself. Seeing the numbers on the scale drop always gives me a confidence boost. I’ve gained more time for other activities because I spend less time in the kitchen, dining room and grocery store. If you can, do it with a friend or someone you care about, it’ll keep you accountable and you’ll have someone to lean on during the difficult days. And be sure to check out https://www.reddit.com/r/intermittentfasting/. It’s encouraging to see user progress reports (some are quite miraculous!), read new tips and have a community that is doing it along with you. Thanks for reading! Stay safe and healthy!

Andrew is a graphic designer currently living in Allentown PA. See his work at 42design.co

[blobsreviewsofgame]

Sonic Generations (Nintendo 3DS)

Sonic Generations 3DS is a platformer by Dimps released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2011. I don’t like it.

The story is a bit different compared to the console/PC version. Besides Tails, none of Sonic’s friends are in it.

Classic Sonic is running around in Green Hill Zone for some reason and comes across the purple halloween ghost called “Time Eater”. Skipping ahead in time, we see the preparation of the blue hedgehog’s birthday party. Sonic comes across it too early with Tails being the only one at the place. Then the time eater appears and they both get sucked into the white void (that is now just a level select menu).

Eventually they come across their classic counterparts, team up and find out why this all happens. The writing is a bit better compared to the console counterparts but it still isn’t the greatest Sonic has to offer in terms of story. Like Tails and Classic Tails actually doing something besides talking in the story.

But the cutscenes are like Sonic Rush Adventure and Colors DS’ cutscenes, sadly. There’s a dialog box with text, characters do grunts, poses and mimics and sometimes they slide across the screen. It’s not like fully animated cutscenes with voice acting is an impossible task on 3DS (Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice does this) but it’s probably more so because the game just got rushed.

Gameplay isn’t too hot here either.                                                          

Classic Sonic plays through the levels in 2D. He can run, jump and spindash, like always. The rolling here actually works more like how rolling works in the old games than Generations does on consoles but the levels never really use rolling in some clever way. It also has the Game Gear Sonic 1 rolling glitch. Just jump and roll constantly and you’ll gain speed instantly. The first 3 levels for him are basically just 1:1 the layout of the original game and the levels afterwards are either straight lines, waiting to jump on slowly moving platforms or homing attacking à la Sonic 4.

Yes, Classic Sonic has the homing attack. More specifically after he watches Modern Sonic do it a bunch of times, he learns the ability (aka: after the 1:1 layouts of the original games from the Classic era). He also watches him do the boost later on but Classic Sonic doesn’t actually learn that, making the cutscene pretty useless. Odd.

Now, Modern Sonic plays through the levels in… 2D. Oof, but hey, because this is Dimps here, the levels are going to be like Sonic Rush where you do tricks and stuff, right? No.

Modern Sonic is mostly just about walking on even ground boosting through a lot of enemies, waiting to jump on slowly moving platforms or homing attacking à la Sonic 4. No tricks to fill up the boost meter, no satisfying chiptune crunches for soundeffects, just boring. There is an attempt at making setpieces but those are often not connected to the main gameplay (platforming, memorizing and looking cool) and instead are something like a minigame (press A at a specific time, hold down the boost button, etc.). 

Boosting is even slower than it was in the previous handheld games. It almost feels like a run button with invincibility, it’s that slow feeling.

Speaking of Classic Sonic learning the homing attack only later, Modern Sonic only learns the stomp later too by Tails giving him “30% lighter shoes”. …Even though he was already able to stomp in both versions of Sonic Colors.

There aren’t 3 zones per era anymore too. We have Green Hill, Casino Night and Mushroom Hill for the Classic era; Emerald Coast and Radical Highway for the Dreamcast era and Water Palace and Tropical Resort (from Colors DS because Classic Sonic gets a 1:1 layout again and maybe Modern Sonic tries to be like Colors Wii but it’s not 1:1 there) for the Modern era.

Why not include Heroes or something from the Advance games for the Dreamcast era and something from Sonic Rush Adventure for the Modern era (because Rush’s Water Palace is included for some reason)? 

Bosses are also here, just like in the console games.

The 3 character bosses are always racing levels where the enemy is hindering you with their attacks if you’re close around them. The levels for them also reuse assets from a level you already played through but with a different layout and background music.

The actual bosses are rather okay but a bit soulless feeling.

The final boss from Sonic 3 is a bit too slow and you can’t always counter his attacks which is a missed opportunity and the way he gets defeated is lame. It starts nicely with the Sonic Rush-like build-up (camera zooms in 3-times while being frame freezed) but then he’s doing a falling animation, getting stuck in the air and fading to white.

Biolizard is dragging the attacks a bit out too much and it can feel like forever before showing its weakspot. And it doesn’t do the Sonic Rush build-up at the end… aw.

Egg Emperor (isn’t that from the Dreamcast era again?) is okay but Eggman’s voiceclips get repeated way too often and the spinball looks strange while swapping planes because it’s often tilted for no reason.

But it does have the Sonic Rush build-up! Except it doesn’t do freeze-frames this time and he just freezes there while explosion.gif animation files are pasted on top of the boss model a lot.

But at least the time eater fight is actually better than the one in the console version.

Story mode doesn’t require to play 9 missions in the 3DS version btw but we do have to play 7 special stages. And no, Super Sonic won’t be playable in normal levels.

Special stages in Generations 3DS are basically remakes of the ones from Sonic Heroes. You control a running Modern Sonic in a giant tube where you go left or right to collect colorful spheres. Collecting them gives you boost energy. Sometimes, you also need to jump over spike bombs by jumping through dash rings.

The goal of the special stage is to catch up with the emerald, like Heroes. Unlike Heroes though, it’s super easy and the controls work. Hooray?

If you thought missions are just absent in this version, well, no, not entirely. There’s a separate mission mode here with 100 missions. You unlock them randomly by playing the online mode or you can spend 5 playcoins to unlock 1 mission. If you don’t want to play online, that’s 50.000 steps to be able to play all 100 missions.

Missions are now always under a more stricter time limit and require you to e.g. collect a bunch of rings, defeat a bunch of enemies, earn more time by destroying monitors and getting to the goal or not getting hit once. Sometimes it has new layouts, most of the time, it doesn’t. It takes about 2 hours to play through all 100 of them, a bit more than how long story mode takes. 

Playing through a mission also unlocks something like illustrations and pictures, high-poly 3D models or music from past games (which you can only listen to; also in standby mode with headphones).

There’s also something I wish the actual Generations would’ve had: Online VS mode.

You can play this game with other people online and you can choose to play either the 16 main levels or race to the emerald in the 7 special stages… in about 10 to 15 frames per second. It’s not very pretty. The races also work via local play (wireless 2 players with both having cardridges) but surprisingly, I haven’t found anyone yet who also has Generations 3DS. Oh, and it shares a profile card with each other which shows what ranks you got in each level, a screenshot from a game of your choice, your favorite Sonic the Hedgehog game (even the ones you don’t expect are there), your score (which depends on winning and losing in online battles and the amount of times you played a stage) and how long you’ve been a Sonic fan.

There’s also a time trial mode here which lets you upload your record online, like Colors DS. You can also share time trial ghosts and profile cards through streetpass but good luck finding someone via streetpass that also has streetpass data for Sonic Generations 3DS.

Sometimes it also rewards you if you’re doing something online by giving you a random item for your next playthroughs of a level, like 10 rings or an electric shield.  Fun fact: You can only get an electric shield for Modern Sonic that way.  Anyways…

The music in Generations 3DS is basically the best part of it but unlike Generations on consoles, you can’t swap the music out with something else. I think Dimps could’ve at least added an option to play music from your SD Card while playing levels because I don’t want to hear Radical Highway’s awful remix ever again.

My 3DS Activity Log says I’ve put in 171 hours into Sonic Generations 3DS but would I recommend it? No, absolutely not. While it does have a ton of useless unlockable content, playing it is a chore or just a borefest. It’s clearly a cashgrab and not much else. Don’t bother with it, okay? It’s just draining.

There, @squadalaguy! I finally reviewed it! :P

[irisanluis]

 Ingrid Goes West

Following the death of her mother and a series of self-inflicted setbacks, young Ingrid Thorburn escapes a humdrum existence by moving out West to befriend her Instagram obsession, a Los Angeles socialite named Taylor Sloane. After a quick bond is forged between these unlikeliest of buddies, the facade begins to crack in both women's lives -- with comically malicious results.

Okay, here’s what i think about the movie:

Most of us want to be surrounded by cool people, someone who can literally could just boost our energy (if you’re not like most of us, then good for you)

I kinda see myself in Ingrid irl (not even trying). hmm I may not be as socially awkward as she is but yep, there are times where i could spend the whole day just going through someone else’s posts (ikr such a creep but meh, that’s how i learn about people whom i don’t get to interact with very well in person). The part where Ingrid tries what Taylor likes is very #relatable for me. idk maybe because i think there’s a 50% chance of me enjoying the things that they enjoy and we can somehow be friends afterwards; ding ding ding ding yep I don’t have much friends, well I have three and for the last semester the three of us we’re kind of distant to each other because of school works. That leads to the part where i search for friends that won’t be as complicated to be friends with, someone who’s in the same course as i am & someone that’s fun to be with. Trust me it’s not that easy, well for starters both of you must have a mutual relationship, & that relationship must be built on a strong foundation of trust, that’s why it sucks for Ingrid that she started as a psycho-ish stalker friend for Taylor, because she then has to put on lies on top of a lie and another and another until it goes on and on until it crumbles down like a jenga tower. 

You see, our generation only sees what we want to see. We only accept facts that are in our favor to the point where we pretend to have the things we want to have, be with the people we want to be with, be at the places we want to be at, and be the person we want to be. THERE’S NOTHING WRONG TO THAT. Except that, we sometimes forget what we really have, who we really are with, where we really are, and who we really are; that leads to a huge confusion of WHY WE REALLY ARE HERE IN THIS WORLD. 

Here are the exact words from Ingrid’s #iamingrid suicidal video :

“Hey guys! It’s me, Ingrid. I’ve never done this before but I didn’t have anyone else to talk to so I figured, why not. I just wanted to tell you guys that.. basically everything I’ve posted in the last couple of months is a total lie. I haven’t been living, some like, glamorous life in L.A. I’m just... a loser. I’m pathetic. And I know there’s something wrong with me, but I don’t know how to fix it, and I don’t know how to change. And I just.. I don’t think I can change. So maybe I’m just... maybe this is just who  I am. & maybe I’m just tired of trying to make people like me, and I’m tired of pretending like, someone I’m not, I’m tired of being alone, And I’m just... just tired of being me so, I just... feel like if you don’t have anyone to share anything with, then what’s the point of living? Yeah so I guess, I’m just making this video so you can see the real me. At least once. So here I am. x”

That suicidal video, though it’s from a movie, really struck me. Well you know how prominent or relevant suicidal is to our generation, and that part of the movie, left me curious with how many in real life are in this situation? 

How many of us have been hiding in our pretentious posts in our instagram accounts, how many of us have been feeling like a loser/ pathetic after posting a #nofilter picture but honestly had gone through 3-4 apps just to achieve that “no-filter” look to it? I’m guilty of these, I get soooo obsessed on how many followers/likes/shares/views I get online to the point where I’m willing to edit my appearance online. & at the end of the day, after garnering a sufficient amount of likes to feed my ego, whilst staring at that perfect picture, I can’t help but to feel disgusted for wanting to be someone that isn’t me and disappointed that those people who liked the picture actually approved that this is how I’m supposed to look like. This is one of the things that is wrong about me, & it’s pretty simple to deal with, pfsh piece of cake, but if you have ton of them, you wouldn’t just know where to start the fixing. 

But here’s the thing, we all have “defects”/flaws. Nope, no one, not even me, knows how to troubleshoot those defects in our system. Well I can tell you “Take heart, everything’ll be fine!” but what does that really mean? the heck do I know about this stuff if even I can’t figure my shit out? (Like this post, I have no idea where this is going) but let’s make a deal, let’s lay low from pretending, let’s cut every activities that only urges us to pretend to be someone we’re not. Cause babe, realization time: we won’t be happy in the long run after all these pretending. Someone(it doesn’t have to be an opp sex/ the two of you dont have to be in an intimate relationship) will love you for the real you, for how weird, tacky, annoying, loud, or other odd traits you may have. Look out for that someone, because once you had him/her you will never feel tired of being alone and won’t ever question the essence of living. 

xxx

[youarewelcomeatthistable]

The Convenience Of Organic Cotton Baby Garments - The Most Effective and The Majority Of Terrific

This sort of sale may do best when you sell numerous various products as a "great deal" public auction rather than marketing private items. Decoration products for your child's nursery can be fundamental pieces like lights as well as carpets or even more particular baby-themed pieces like mobiles and also wall surface hangings. Or spend some cash on a nice gift (as an example, a present certification to a dining establishment, medspa, or hotel), as well as ask that guests bring a particular thing (diapers, certain baby food) for a raffle ticket. Seeking something particular? Searching For Free Infant Stuff? Our brands have been in the marketplace for 20 years and also we are constantly wanting to broaden our product offering with charming styles on our most prominent products, while likewise creating entirely new items that make your life less complicated. These sales are generally held at the end of the year because the shops need to remove their old supply and also have to make space for the fresh stock. Marketing due to the fact that my 6 month old only suches as to sleep on me! Selling this high chair in good utilized condition need it gone as no more use it. Marketing because of not played with anymore! Discover our useful devices and also overviews such as our Due Date Calculator, Infant Names Finder, Enjoyable Birthday Celebration Realities Calculator, or our Pregnancy Week-by-Week and Your Baby This Week guides. The first week home with a brand-new child, particularly for a brand-new mother, can be intimidating. Got a Child, Baby-on-the-way, or know someone who does? This method would not only obtain you well linked, you'll likewise be able to obtain beneficial guidance and also ideas from individuals who have remained in the industry much much longer than you. Keep in the loop with our most recent parenting news, helpfull pointers and time or quantitily minimal giveaway's. It's time to go on a thrifty shopping spree as well as tons up on Free Baby Things! Keep reading to uncover the very best summary of cost-free infant stuff. Lights function best with low-wattage bulbs unless it's the only source of light in the space. Talking as a person that suches as websites, and also suches as techy points I locate Magento rather a struggle obtaining every little thing to work together. It's because when you click on some sites, they instantly download tracking programs as well as malware onto your hard disk so they can monitor your internet task, and afterwards bombard you with spam and also popups. Free of charge baby books, click right here for a terrific Dr. Seuss offer! Here are simply a couple of ways you can find out to cut down on your grocery costs. Child Development Charts-- Free design templates to track your infant's growth in 12 different means (consists of Word paper, Excel spreadsheet as well as PDF). Pregnancy Stomach Badges-- You can track your pregnancy weekly or month-to-month. The financial institution will certainly then utilize your money to finance a credit history card account that an additional consumer opens, and also she or he will pay 18% rate of interest on any kind of balance carried over to their following regular monthly expense. I am impressed when I most likely to the supermarket the number of times individuals are investing a lot more loan than myself and also obtaining half the quantity of things I have within my cart. The big name brand business will most of the times send full size samples in phases, as your child expands.

free baby stuff 2019

Similac Solution & & More-- Free examples of Similac child formula, plus lots of other fun stuff. It's best for holding your free sample of Gerber infant formula, complimentary baby bib, as well as a lot more. Can be moved about whilst infant rests, guests do not require to keep holding child as cushion can simply be moved whilst infant rests! The love and delight of providing birth and also holding our children is unlike anything felt previously. He admits that his "world is crazy ", which his love interest is the someone that can make it manageable. In reality they will certainly be a great selection for parents that are trying to make their children look charming and also unique. I like Pampers Pure as a wipe choice. In any case, this Pampers advert adhered to the advert in inquiry. She maintained me talking for roughly 10 minutes throughout which time she referred me to this particular TELEVISION advert an additional 4 times, and also each time I assured her I had actually not seen it due to the fact that I don't watch television. Tv helps us relax - or does it? It also helps that lots of are likewise reversible. We hope our store aids bring simplicity to your life during this roller-coaster time. It would occupy every one of your time as well as you are liable for the life of one more person. Also some healthcare facilities offer diaper nags and child bottles to ensure that the brand-new mother can have an alleviation for the moment following discharging from the hospital with the baby in her life. I can provide you the guarantee from my individual experience that such products improve the satisfaction by offering extra relief. As I have individual experience with the precision of offered graphes that may be discovered throughout the Internet, I am providing this info right here, as opposed to linking to a graph online. While parenting is such a pricey experience for the majority of us, why not take pleasure in something that comes for FREE. Why not make a little extra and also provide as presents? The styles of changing tables range from kinds with open shelving to ones with drawers and also cupboard area, ideal for storing additional diapers, baby wipes, bed linens and various other necessities. Bed mattress pads These pads use an extra layer of protection to your child's bed linen. When it comes time to convert, you'll require to just possibly purchase guardrails or full-size rails, and also possibly a larger bed mattress. I don't want to waist my time going from site to website just for one small free sample. Enfamil Present Pack-- Take this certification to the health center with you to receive your cost-free sample of newborn infant formula and more. This blog post shares just how to break out baby things, including the most effective sources for baby and newborn stuff, and also complimentary stuff for babies of any ages! Virtually all of the larger store as well as shopping center shops consist of a kindly proportioned variety of infant clothes with little flowers and bunnies for the girls, and small footballs and also lorries for the children. What one ought to remember is that a child is a lot more precious than any cost tags and also such trendy garments can only be acquired at big brand shops. For the child gift basket, some ideas they suggest is to create your own infant present basket or opt for the classical clothing child gift basket where you can never go wrong.

Assume outside the box, it's just the child that is small, your gift alternatives are unlimited. Most parents recognize that there are simply so lots of stuff that they would need to get for their child. Expecting mommies, and also also Fathers-to-be, need to be smart in preparing on how they can obtain the most effective for their babies without spending excessive. A specialized baby altering table and also area for nappy adjustments is a must when planning your baby room area. Produce a nursery space suitable for your infant to sleep so, they'll be able to get all the remainder they need to assist promote their growth as well as restore their energy. Story books are perfect as well, allowing moms and dads to obtain more bound with their child while trying to make their child sleep. As your child gets a little older and starts exploring, prepared your home and also make it baby-proof with our option of residence safety items, safety entrances and also playpens which are easy to arrangement as well as shop away. Configuration an infant monitor to offer you peace of mind while your baby is napping when you are not in the exact same area. This is the factor for which you should maintain in mind concerning different variables prior to having any kind of progress with the nursery. Help the brand-new moms and dads boost their baby's mind by giving academic toys, that are made to assist develop the infant's mind. Several of them include a strong tinted sheet and a sheet with layouts on it while a few of them are the exact same color or design. These can be combined to match your baby's sheets or be a completely various shade or style. Our choice of soft playthings, musical toys and rattles implies that you can quickly discover something for your kid to love that's likewise engaging. You will certainly love the vast range of design and colors - all in trendy infant clothing dimensions. Whether you're getting all set to invite a newborn into the world as well as seeking baby room products or surfing for infant playthings, pregnancy clothes and also accessories and other baby room products we have a terrific option of infant essentials. At the extremely the very least you can find baby diaper samples, yet a majority of retailers supply welcome baby bundles for their consumers, if they just understand where to subscribe. This suggests, that in order for you to take advantage of complimentary examples, after that you need to proactively find brand-new deals prior to they are retired by the product manufacturer. Superb condition, exceptionally clean and also completely functioning order. They also use such promotional device in order to raise the sales of playthings, as an example, throughout off peak seasons. You are the one to take advantage of their sales endeavors. One of the important things that we did was have a look in the source coding. To aid you pick the ideal car seat or booster for you kid by taking an appearance at our youngster's safety seat guide. For days out and also regarding in the automobile, a baby child seat is a vital. In some cases, also, all weve left it was a day away from residence.

So weve obtained torsion as a difficulty. From large acquisitions like baby room furniture and bottle-feeding devices to smaller products like baby diapers and also burp towels, you can locate everything you require for your new infant at Each day Affordable Price at Walmart. The cash you invest in baby diapers is outrageous as well as you can anticipate to be shelling it out for quite some time. Oh, hi, when do you believe the brand-new People magazine will appear? If you're anticipating an infant, then you have actually absolutely concerned the ideal place! When it concerns preparing for the arrival of a new baby, there's a whole lot to consider to obtain your home all set for a newborn. Free goods is not just restricted for your new kid on the block you can also get points for yourself, your various other youngsters, your spouse and also also for your house. Great for brand-new parents, grandparents, also pals of the family members to send to inform others of the new kid on the block! Infant Cards-- Free cards that you can print and also send out to family and friends to invite them to your child shower or introduce your baby's arrival. Score a deal on your own, or cache the ideal Free Infant Shower present with these Child Freebies for New Moms! There's something ideal for all phases of your kid's development from items for warming containers to food mixers perfect to make food for discouraging. The child shower is the ideal time to get your friend baby requirements and things she may not have actually had time to acquire yet. It is not easy to find a trustworthy wholesale dropship infant clothes vendor as it might appears initially glance. Nonetheless, you may have an obstacle in defining which size fits your infant specifically. Nonetheless, although these articles are being given absolutely free, you are still guaranteed of checking out significant entrances. I have actually directly given so several of these products as gifts to brand-new moms, as well as they LOVE them! Milk supplements are additionally offered also to lactating mothers. Save precious time when it comes to prepping milk for night time feeds or child food with baby feeding devices. Making your very own child food is simple, convenient, as well as can conserve you cash. So don't set up web pages, hang out as well as loan getting them excellent PR and after that, while upgrading your website, remove those web pages. Good condition. Clean. From a non smoking cigarettes and also no pet dog house. Full working condition. Animal and also smoke totally free home. Made use of but in really good condition From a smoke and also animal totally free home This is a well liked as well as cared for pram system as well as I am unfortunate to see this go. Wish to avoid ideal to the great stuff? There are 2,546 child stuff suppliers, primarily located in Asia. Likewise, if the entire internet site is absolutely nothing but a gigantic ad for the book the webmaster has actually composed, you are not really going to start a Web service, yet merely acquire a publication. You're going to LIKE these! Theyre not cysts yet Im mosting likely to state them; uterus fibroids or uterine myomas, and pelvic kidneys.

[tariqwazzah]

The Comfort Of Organic Cotton Child Clothes - The Best and also The Majority Of Great

This kind of sale might do best when you offer several various products as a "whole lot" auction instead of offering specific pieces. Decor items for your baby's baby room can be fundamental pieces like lamps as well as rugs or more particular baby-themed pieces like mobiles and wall hangings. Or invest some money on a great gift (as an example, a present certificate to a dining establishment, day spa, or hotel), and ask that visitors bring a details product (baby diapers, details infant food) for a drawing ticket. Seeking something certain? Seeking Free Baby Stuff? Our brand names have actually been in the industry for two decades and we are always seeking to broaden our product offering with adorable designs on our most prominent products, while additionally establishing completely brand-new products that make your life simpler. These sales are generally held at the end of the year due to the fact that the shops need to remove their old inventory and also need to make space for the fresh stock. Selling because my 6 month old only suches as to sleep on me! Offering this high chair in excellent utilized problem require it gone as no longer usage it. Marketing because of not played with any longer! Explore our handy devices and overviews such as our Due Date Calculator, Infant Names Finder, Enjoyable Birthday Realities Calculator, or our Pregnancy Week-by-Week and also Your Infant This Week overviews. The very first week residence with a new baby, specifically for a new mom, can be daunting. Got a Baby, Baby-on-the-way, or understand someone who does? This practice would certainly not just obtain you well connected, you'll likewise be able to obtain useful suggestions and suggestions from people that have remained in the market far much longer than you. Stay in the loop with our latest parenting information, helpfull pointers and time or quantitily restricted giveaway's. It's time to take place a frugal buying spree and tons up on Free Child Stuff! Continue reading to find the very best summary of free infant things. Lights work best with low-wattage bulbs unless it's the only light in the space. Speaking as somebody who likes sites, as well as likes techy points I locate Magento quite a struggle getting whatever to collaborate. It's because when you click some websites, they instantly download and install tracking programs and malware onto your disk drive so they can monitor your internet activity, and also after that pound you with spam as well as popups. Free of charge baby books, go here for a fantastic Dr. Seuss deal! Below are just a couple of means you can discover to cut down on your grocery store costs. Baby Development Charts-- Free templates to track your baby's development in 12 different means (includes Word document, Excel spread sheet and also PDF). Maternity Tummy Badges-- You can track your pregnancy regular or month-to-month. The bank will after that utilize your loan to fund a bank card account that an additional consumer opens up, and also he or she will certainly pay 18% passion on any kind of balance rollovered to their next month-to-month costs. I am astonished when I go to the supermarket how lots of times people are spending so much even more loan than myself as well as getting half the amount of stuff I have within my cart. The big name brand companies will certainly oftentimes send full dimension samples in phases, as your youngster expands.

free baby stuff 2019

Similac Formula & & Even more-- Free samples of Similac baby formula, plus whole lots of other fun things. It's best for holding your free sample of Gerber baby formula, totally free infant bib, as well as more. Can be moved whilst child sleeps, visitors do not require to maintain holding baby as pillow can just be moved whilst child sleeps! The love as well as happiness of delivering and holding our kids differs from anything really felt in the past. He admits that his "globe is insane ", as well as that his love rate of interest is the someone who can make it manageable. In reality they will be an excellent option for moms and dads that are attempting to make their children look charming and distinct. I like Pampers Pure as a clean choice. Anyways, this Pampers advert followed the advert concerned. She kept me chatting for roughly 10 mins throughout which time she referred me to this certain TELEVISION advert a more 4 times, as well as each time I guaranteed her I had not seen it because I don't watch television. Television aids us wind down - or does it? It additionally helps that many are additionally relatively easy to fix. We wish our store assists bring simpleness to your life during this roller-coaster time. It would occupy every one of your time as well as you are accountable for the life of an additional person. Even some health centers offer baby diaper nags and also child bottles to make sure that the new mother can have a relief for the minute just after releasing from the hospital with the baby in her life. I can provide you the assurance from my personal experience that such items enhance the pleasure by providing much more alleviation. As I have individual experience with the precision of available charts that might be located around the Web, I am providing this info here, as opposed to connecting to a graph online. While parenting is such a costly experience for the majority of us, why not delight in something that comes completely free. Why not make a little added and also provide them as gifts? The styles of transforming tables vary from kinds with open shelving to ones with drawers as well as cabinet space, suitable for saving added diapers, infant wipes, bed linens as well as various other requirements. Mattress pads These pads use an extra layer of security to your infant's bed linens. When it comes time to convert, you'll require to just perhaps buy guardrails or full-size rails, and also perhaps a bigger bed mattress. I do not want to waist my time going from website to site just for one little complimentary example. Enfamil Present Pack-- Take this certification to the health center with you to obtain your cost-free example of newborn formula and even more. This post shares how to obtain complimentary infant things, including the most effective resources for infant and newborn things, and complimentary things for children of any ages! Almost all of the bigger chain shops as well as shopping mall shops consist of a generously proportioned array of infant clothing with small blossoms and bunnies for the women, and also small footballs as well as automobiles for the children. What one needs to keep in mind is that a child is far more precious than any kind of rate tags as well as such stylish clothes can only be acquired at large brand called shops. For the child present basket, some ideas they recommend is to create your very own infant present basket or choose the timeless clothes child present basket where you can never ever go wrong.

Think outside package, it's only the baby that is tiny, your present choices are limitless. A lot of moms and dads recognize that there are just so several things that they would certainly need to obtain for their baby. Anticipating mothers, as well as even Fathers-to-be, need to be wise in planning on how they can get the very best for their infants without investing too much. A devoted child transforming table and area for nappy changes is a should when planning your nursery room. Produce a nursery room appropriate for your infant to sleep so, they'll be able to obtain all the rest they require to aid stimulate their growth and regain their energy. Story books are ideal too, enabling moms and dads to get even more adhered with their child while trying to make their little one go to sleep. As your child gets a little older and also begins exploring, prepared your residence as well as make it baby-proof with our selection of house safety items, safety gateways and playpens which are very easy to setup and also store away. Configuration a baby monitor to provide you comfort while your baby is sleeping when you are not in the same room. This is the reason for which you have to keep in mind concerning different elements prior to having any progression with the nursery. Aid the new moms and dads boost their infant's mind by providing educational playthings, that are designed to help develop the infant's mind. Several of them include a solid tinted sheet and also a sheet with designs on it while some of them are the very same shade or style. These can be paired to match your infant's sheets or be a totally various color or layout. Our option of soft playthings, musical playthings as well as rattles implies that you can easily locate something for your little one to like that's additionally engaging. You will certainly like the wide range of design and colors - all in trendy infant clothing sizes. Whether you're obtaining ready to welcome a newborn right into the world and also seeking nursery products or searching for infant toys, maternal clothing and accessories and various other baby room products we have an excellent option of infant essentials. At the minimum you can discover baby diaper examples, but a majority of stores provide welcome baby bundles for their consumers, if they simply understand where to join. This implies, that in order for you to gain from cost-free samples, then you need to proactively discover new offers prior to they are retired by the item maker. Outstanding problem, incredibly clean and in full working order. They additionally use such advertising tool in order to enhance the sales of playthings, for instance, during off peak periods. You are the one to take advantage of their sales undertakings. One of the points that we did was take a look in the resource coding. To aid you choose the appropriate car seat or booster for you kid by taking a look at our kid's safety seat overview. For days out and about in the cars and truck, a child safety seat is a crucial. Occasionally, too, all weve obtained out of it was a day far from residence.

So weve got torsion as an issue. From huge purchases like baby room furnishings and bottle-feeding devices to smaller sized items like baby diapers and also burp cloths, you can find everything you need for your brand-new baby at Daily Small Cost at Walmart. The cash you spend on baby diapers is outrageous and you can expect to be shelling it out for fairly time. Oh, hi there, when do you think the new Individuals publication will come out? If you're expecting an infant, then you've most definitely come to the best place! When it involves preparing for the arrival of a new baby, there's a lot to assume concerning to obtain your residence prepared for a newborn. Free product is not simply restricted for your brand-new arrival you can likewise get points for on your own, your other kids, your husband and also even for your house. Great for brand-new parents, grandparents, even friends of the family to send out to notify others of the brand-new arrival! Printable Infant Cards-- Free cards that you can publish and send out to loved ones to welcome them to your child shower or introduce your child's arrival. Rating a deal for on your own, or stash away the excellent Free Infant Shower gift with these Baby Freebies for New Moms! There's something ideal for all stages of your kid's development from items for warming containers to food blender or food processors ideal to make food for weaning. The infant shower is the best time to obtain your good friend child requirements and things she may not have had time to buy yet. It is not easy to find a reputable wholesale dropship baby garments supplier as it might appears in the beginning glimpse. Nonetheless, you might have a difficulty in defining which size fits your baby precisely. Nevertheless, despite the fact that these reviews are being offered totally free, you are still assured of reviewing significant entries. I have actually directly offered numerous of these products as presents to brand-new mommies, and they LIKE them! Milk supplements are also provided also to lactating moms. Save valuable time when it pertains to prepping milk for night time feeds or infant food with child feeding devices. Making your own baby food is easy, hassle-free, and can conserve you money. So don't set up pages, invest time and also loan getting them good Public Relations and then, while revamping your website, eliminate those web pages. Excellent condition. Clean. From a non smoking as well as no family pet house. Full working problem. Pet dog as well as smoke totally free home. Made use of yet in extremely excellent problem From a smoke as well as animal complimentary residence This is a well loved as well as looked after pram system and I am unfortunate to see this go. Intend to avoid right to the great things? There are 2,546 infant stuff providers, generally situated in Asia. Likewise, if the whole web site is only a big advertisement for the digital book the web designer has actually written, you are not in fact mosting likely to begin a Web company, but just buy a publication. You're mosting likely to ENJOY these! Theyre not cysts but Im going to state them; womb fibroids or uterine myomas, and also pelvic kidneys.

[relaxforadelicatefew]

Volleyball is life, part 2

Fall and Winter 2016 was fairly uneventful as well. We started playing in lots of midnight tournaments (start at 6pm and play through the night), which are a ton of fun! With multiple different partners, I came home with the victory I think 3 separate times, and once came in second. That surely was a boost to my confidence in terms of my volleyball skills since I kinda felt like my Smash victories were going to be my career highlight, and I’d just kind of trail off from there. I played in 2 leagues over the Fall/Winter season; coed 6’s at Mechanicsburg which was a hot mess of a team, and women’s 6’s at Lower Paxton. The women’s team had its ups and downs, but we came out with the Win!

Mom got a new puppy in October 2016! His name is Goose, and he’s a very white Golden Retriever (pictures above). Mom and I got matching sunflower tattoos on our ankles in September. Also in September, we drove down to Virginia to visit Tiff and Chad at their new house. They live about 40 mins from a beach, which is serious life goals for me. In December, we took some time off and painted the kitchen, dining room, and some of the living room. It was a big project, but I’m glad we got it done. I really want to paint much more in the house, but I simply don’t have the time or funds anymore. And that was about it for 2016. For New Years, we went to a “private party” in downtown Harrisburg where we paid in advance and then there was an open bar all night, which was a lot of fun.

  Into 2017, and not much happened in the first few months. The end of indoor leagues were wrapping up, and midnight indoor tournaments continued. In March, they opened a Planet Fitness across the street from my house! How convenient :) Also in March, Ashley and her boyfriend moved into the guest room in my house. It was a lot of fun to have them there, and the extra income didn’t hurt ;) Soon after they moved in, we learned that Ashley was pregnant. YES, PREGNANT! There was a lot of girl-talk that went down on the topic like every day. They have since moved back to York and she is due with her baby boy in October :)  

Of course, April is birthday month! This year I turned 27, and it was possibly the most disappointing birthday yet. Not because of the age, but mostly because of Josh. He made little to no effort to do anything/get anything for my birthday. I know how selfish that sounds, but he also knows that a simple card with a nice note and just being extra super nice to me is more than enough of a “present”. But nope, I didn’t even get that. He eventually said, when we go down to the beach in May (Rehoboth tournament) he’ll pay for everything down there as my “present” so I don’t have to worry about it. Well come that weekend, he couldn’t afford part of his own expenses let alone cover for both of us. I resorted to just celebrating with my volleyball friends at one of those midnight tournaments by baking my own cupcakes to bring for everyone (and we won that tournament!). I’m not one to quantify “things” or compare what I got him for his birthday, etc. But we went to the beach for his birthday, including 2 special (expensive) birthday dinners that he requested, Blink 182 concert, and a few smaller presents. It was just frustrating to realize how much more I was putting into the relationship that he was. Regardless, moving on!

May brought the First Rites of Summer tournament in Rehoboth, which is one of my favorites. It symbolizes the start of outdoor season and its on the beach, you can’t beat it! Brie & Kenny have really become very close friends of mine and we spent majority of the weekend hanging out together. At the end of May, Kristen, Mallory and I played in a triples tournament in Mechanicsburg and won that too! That whole day was a lot of fun. Plus Tuff and Chad were in town so I got to see them as well.

June of this year brought outdoor season into full swing, and I literally played every single weekend! It was harder this year not having Josh at home to help with Baron and I felt bad leaving him home all the time. Of course mom was a big help with going over to hang out with him, but since she got Goose, she can’t just take him for the day. 3 crazy dogs would be way too much to handle! At Pottstown Rumble this year, my partner Kristen and I made it all the way to the finals, playing the last match at 10:30pm under the lights! We ended up coming in 2ndoverall, but it was a hell of a day of volleyball. The whole weekend was a great combo of good ball and even better friends. More summer weekends, more tournaments, nothing new there. Mitch and I won the MREC grass league this year. Instead of the OC, D beach trip for Josh’s birthday (since we obviously broke up before that), Brie, Kenny, and Mitch and I went for the long weekend without Josh and had more fun that I thought possible. It just so happens that Brie and Josh share the same birthday, so it worked out well.

I really can’t say enough how much I love my volleyball family. I’m older than the majority of them by 5 years or so, but they never make me feel left out. They are truly a wonderful group of people that I absolutely love spending time with, especially getting to play a sport we all love. Not to mention how helpful they all are when I do bring Baron to a tournament, they definitely make sure he gets lots of love and attention, which we all know just melts my heart.

Alright, I guess that’s enough for now. There are some updates to job-related things and new relationships, but I don’t have the energy to continue this anymore for today.

Until next time blog, JUST KEEP SWIMMING