#INCREMENTAL PROGRESS

[wreative-criting]

[ancientroyalblood]

Conquering Writer's Block: Techniques to Regain Your Creative Flow

Writer’s block, that dreaded barrier that stalls creativity, is a challenge every writer faces at some point. It’s that moment when ideas seem to evaporate, and the blank page becomes an insurmountable obstacle. But fear not, for within the realm of writing, there exist techniques to overcome this creative standstill. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the realm of writer’s block and explore…

[fastlane-freedom]

Escape the Comparison Cycle: Striving to Be Your Best Self

In a world driven by constant comparisons and societal pressures, the pursuit of personal growth has become increasingly important. Many individuals find themselves trapped in a cycle of comparing their achievements, appearances, and lifestyles to those of others, often leading to feelings of inadequacy and unhappiness. This blog explores the philosophy of striving to become a better person while…

[ritik3630a]

You don't need to win everytime, you just have to do better in the time of failure.

In our society, winning has become synonymous with success. We are constantly bombarded with messages that tell us we must be the best, achieve the most, and come out on top in every aspect of our lives. However, this mindset can be detrimental, causing undue stress and anxiety. The truth is, we don’t have to win at everything to be successful. Instead, it’s about learning from our failures,…

[vicshush]

[ID 1: An announcement in the Supernatural Destiel meme news-reporting format. Castiel says "I love you" and Dean replies "the FCC is going to vote to restore net neutrality".

ID 2: A headline that reads "Net neutrality rules restored by US agency, reversing Trump" The article is written by David Shepardson and dated April 25, 2024.

Caps ID: The first two lines of tags read "#This is how long it takes to undo damages done #We are just undoing the damage Trump left"

/end ID]

YOOOOOO

[boyalasco]

Breaking Down Our Goals: The Path to Success

Unleashing the Power of Incremental Progress: Breaking Down Our Goals Setting goals is the first step toward turning our dreams into reality. Whether achieving professional milestones, improving personal relationships, or pursuing a healthier lifestyle, Our goal provides us with direction and purpose. However, the journey from setting a goal to accomplishing it is overwhelming sometimes. That’s…

[completedeveloperpodcast]

Breaking Down Goals

Breaking down your goals into more manageable tasks creates the flexibility to adjust as needed and brings clarity to the goals. When seen from the perspective of a step by step process goals are seen not as daunting behemoths to be gazed on in wonder but as complex things that can be accomplished through diligence and careful planning. This makes the process of achieving a larger goal more…

[reactionimagesdaily]

Reaction images aside, how are you holding up?

Aww, thanks for asking. :P

To be honest, I'm probably doing better than most. I'm a healthy cishet white man who lives in the UK, so I don't have nearly as much to worry about as I know a lot of people do. (Also hey, I'm enjoying the new Dragon Age game, so that's been nice.) But I also know what kind of ramifications this election is bound to have, both inside the US and beyond.

(I mean, the world's biggest democracy is getting overtly more hostile and authoriarian in real time (y'know. again), and I know on this side of the pond we've got some real brain donors who'd love to see something similar happen here. I'm worried about what Trump could do once he's back in charge, and I'm worried about what might happen to my own country, with it's 'special relationship' to the US, as a result. And I'm not alone in that.

All this on a fuckin' Wednesday...)

Anyway, I had a longer thing written out here about the concept of orthopraxis (just while I was trying to get my thoughts in order, lmao) but the core of what I want to say is this:

I think we're about to see an uptick in people being shitty

I'm going to counter that by doing un-shitty things

What do I mean by un-shitty things? Well, I've been meaning to participate in Amnesty International's 'Write For Rights' campaign for months - I just fired off my first email today. I've already donated to causes supporting Gaza in the past, but now I'm also planning to write to my local MP about how annoyed I am that my country is still culpable in genocide. Make my voice heard, you know? I also want to keep making art that people enjoy, because I think that's important. And I'm going to buy another commission from an artist I like, because they could probably use something good in their life right now. And... to be honest, I'm not sure what else I'll do yet. When I figure it out, though, I'll try and actually do it.

Maybe for you, un-shitty things mean something smaller scale. Hugging your loved ones for longer, or giving that loose change you always carry around to the next homeless person you see. That's good too. Maybe it's something larger in scale, and that's awesome! But to anyone who's reading this, I'd definitely recommend doing something that not only feels good, but is also TANGIBLE. Not only does doing feel good, but it means that you're improving someone else's life, in however small a way. Which, y'know. Net positive, innit.

(Yes, I'm aware this is basically the 'when you see someone being so mean it inspires you to be kinder meme', lmao. No, I don't really care.)

You asked me how I'm holding up? Well, the first thing I'd like to do is respond to your question in kind: how are you holding up? In a general sense? In specific ways? Hopes, anxieties, plans?

And the next thing I'm going to do is tell you that I'm more than holding up.

I'm locking in.

[yuri-is-online]

Been brainrotting lately and now I present to you what I think is an underused story beat for Yuu. What if “Yuu” isn’t even the prefect’s real name?

Considering that Yuu’s first experience in Twisted Wonderland is waking up in a coffin, wandering around an obviously foreign place, and being questioned by a suspicious man in a crow mask surrounded by people in black hooded robes… I just think most people would not give their real name in such a sketchy situation.

Fast forward to when Yuu is more comfortable with the cast and there is both comedy and angst potential here. On one hand, the reactions to the deception could be pretty funny. (Cue a “woe is me” from Crowley. Of course he can’t find a way home for you when he doesn’t have your real name!) On the other, this could be a great way of exploring the prefect having a crisis. Yuu already lost so much in being taken to Twisted Wonderland, and now in a way even the prefect’s name has been taken.

What do you think?

waking up in a coffin, wandering around an obviously foreign place, and being questioned by a suspicious man in a crow mask surrounded by people in black hooded robes…

Annon, annon, annon, when you put it like that it sounds like Yuu woke up in the middle of a cult ritual of some sort. Which I suppose if you were an edgy Night Raven student idia you might argue that the enrollment ceremony totally is as an excuse not to go

But to be more serious, I have seen a few memes about this concept and I like it a lot σ(￣、￣=) It's a fun character concept, it's not everyday you get a chance to re-invent yourself completely.

That being said, just based off of the few dialogue options Yuu has at the start, I think Yuu is implied to believe that they are dreaming:

Which honestly doesn't make this idea any less valid. If you're dreaming about waking up in the middle of some weird necromancer's rite, why not give him a fake name? It's not meant to be serious anyway. Just go with the flow and hope things don't get too weird (and get offended when your dream doesn't give you magic powers) until it's too late and you realize everyone thinks your name really is that bad joke you made.

If you want to get darker, maybe Yuu really did think they died. A black carriage pulling a coffin really only goes to a funeral, and death has been depicted as an unmanned coach with black horses. Maybe Yuu is only just coming to grips with the fact that they really are alive when they see Riddle overblot and he hurts them. Maybe they now are sitting next to two people who have started to think about them as a friend, a really close one. Maybe they think Yuu is really brave because they charged headlong into danger without a second thought, and won, twice now. Maybe Yuu cries themselves to sleep that night because in a way... you died so yuu could live.

As for reactions, Crowley and the other staff members I think would be the most dramatic, followed by Adeuce and Grim. Jack I can see accepting your reasons and not thinking too hard about it, maybe even respecting your survival instincts, while Epel... well he says he's mad but mostly he's just concerned. He knows what it feels like to have two dueling parts of yourself and trying to find the middle ground. Ortho would be excited, you have a secret identity just like a magical girl/super sentai/anime idol/superhero take your pick really. He certainly doesn't mind getting to know you all over again.

Sebek screams at you for being a threat to Wakasama but it's clear to everyone who actually knows him that he's really just worried about the amount of stress you put on yourself. He would hate for you to have the same issues with self loathing he does. And Malleus? Well he lied to you about who he was because he was worried you would be afraid, even though you didn't know he existed. It would be very petty for him to hold a grudge against you for doing the same.

In general I think this would be something the others would have an easier time understanding as opposed to Yuu's sense of alienation or loneliness at not having magic. Identity issues are common themes in fiction, so I could see them actually seeing it as a problem as opposed to an abstract problem like no government papers (since these kids with one obvious exception don't do taxes.) But it would make for a great way to explore the prefect having a crisis just as you say, in a way it's the perfect example for every problem they might have with being in Twisted Wonderland.

[theminecraftbee]

since we've been talking about modded minecraft in general here lately: let me say that i do think the easiest way to learn modded minecraft is one of two ways:

play a modpack with a quest system! despite me shilling vault hunters constantly, vault hunters is actually only half this; its quest system teaches you vault hunters well, but not necessarily the mods within it. luckily, quest systems are popular with modded minecraft, and many modpacks have them. in general, a good quest system doesn't start you with "okay so first you need to do (difficult automation task with many intervening steps)", it should start you with "here is a single task that isn't terribly difficult". for example, create: mekanized starts you with "automate cobblestone, automate lava, automate trees", the first two being VERY easy within the pack, and the latter being a little more difficult (since it requires building an actual contraption), but not by much. if you are being started at something less easy than "make this mod's version of a cobblestone generator", maybe try a different modpack, or go to idea two for learning modded minecraft, which is,

make your own quests! which is to say, the way i learned create, and mekanism, and thermal, and a lot of the mods within vault hunters was finding a specific thing i needed to do--for example, "i need to find a way to get a large amount of cod"--checking jei and what items i have--for example, finding that i had cod eggs available, and that the aquatic entangler can drop fish--and then researching tutorial videos or in-game documentation on how to use those things. yes, unlike the first version, this means a lot of that documentation may not be in-game. create is the gold standard, but many of modded minecraft's giants... are not create, to say the least. so you may have to look up wikis or youtube videos! however, by attempting to solve a task yourself, you will be teaching yourself the sorts of steps you need to take to solve similar tasks in the future, and it will help teach you if you actually like the gameplay of that mod or if you'd prefer not to.

modded minecraft IS VERY INTIMIDATING that's what kept me out of it for so long until vault hunters. but documentation is WAY better than it was when i was in high school and first going "what the heck are all these mods", and also the proliferation of quest systems means there's a lot more that will teach you things in granular steps. so like, if you ever ask me "where do i get started with X mod", these will normally be my suggestions!

also side note: genuinely a great place to start, like a hello world in a programming language, can be "how does this modpack help me build a cobblestone generator". not every mod can do that, mind you, but most modpacks have a weird way to do that, the cobblestone generator is probably the easiest base-level minecraft farm so everyone sort of understands how it works, and it will normally teach you a little bit about that mod's gameplay.

so yes that's my really uninformed suggestion for where to start with mods!

[1zashreena1]

ITS👏

ABOUT👏

FUCKING👏

TIME👏

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/05/10/1175255611/advisers-to-the-fda-back-over-the-counter-birth-control-pill

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/10/health/over-the-counter-birth-control-fda-advisers/index.html

[nilgans]

I'm not alone, the voice in my head Tells me I'm handsome and great in bed

[pippindot]

GUESS WHO SHUFFLED HER FEET WHILE HOLDING SOMETHING IN HER MOUTH!!!!

THE GORL

[wundrousarts]

Barbie Besties (in crime…?) aka I’m probably never going to actually finish this, so enjoy this abandoned WIP of the trio 👍

[ID: An uncolored digital sketch with some lineart of Morrigan Crow, Cadence Blackburn, and Hawthorne Swift, posed like the Barbie and Ken mugshot meme. Morrigan looks nervous, Cadence looks annoyed, and Hawthorne looks elated.]

[fantastic-nonsense]

just read one of the most depressing academic articles on criminal justice reform I've read in a long time...

[ectogeo-rebubbles]

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” Garak lied blatantly.