#MY BRAIN IS CONSOLIDATING THE INFO

[numiolaes]

not me looking at darklina edits to reblog for an aemond ship that doesn't exist on this blog ksljdgfkljhgslkjhgflkjgsdlk

[torgawl]

a bit obsessed with the idea of kusakabe dying as a form of sacrifice to specifically protect/save somebody else. it's consistent enough with the theme of the past generation achieving no meaningful feats against significant threats but it's also ironic enough that someone without a technique and who claims their philosophy is primarily self-sacrificial - although he tends to stay from his own ideals in critical moments, proving he's not only brave when necessary but he does have a sense of responsabilty and guilt - ultimately redeems themselves through death resulting in the achievement of something his colleagues have failed to do. not that i'm wishing for him to die, i hope he doesn't. but it would also make a clear-cut distinction between him and a character like mei mei, who narratively serves a very similar purpose (besides her being a foil to nanami). to have someone be awarded by their selfishness just for it to not be worth much within a world and system that runs and sustains itself due to the sorcerer's labour power, whose only means of subsistence is to sell themselves away. a class of people who is doomed no matter what path they choose to take, as long as they do not break free from their duties and as long as the system doesn't collapse. a death that could serve as a symbol of punishment towards solidarity and altruism but a win for revolution.

[mindfulstudyquest]

❥﹒♡﹒☕﹒ 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲: easy tips to form healthy habits ( based on this alessya farrugia video )

lately i've been having trouble being productive and finding a healthy balance between study, passions, exercise and free time. i've been searching for a long time online for advices and ideas that could help me find my serenity, and my searches led me to this. i hope you appreciate it.

pro tip do not try to improve everything all at once, you're gonna fail. just try to incorporate something small in your routine to start forming healthy habits. it might take months, but one year from now it will all be worthy.

𝟭. don't hit snooze ( ⏰ )

the "snooze" button is definitely my worst enemy, i simply don't want to get up and start a new day that will be tiring and hard, but when i realized the reasons why putting off the alarm is so harmful for me i seriously started to stop doing it. you will actually wake up even more tired and sleep-deprived after the second or third alarm goes off, since falling back to sleep after having already woken up causes your brain to begin a new "sleep cycle" that takes 75 minutes to complete, abruptly interrupting these cycles brings unpleasant side effects such as tiredness, irritability and headaches.

bonus start waking up at the same time every day, this will not only help consolidate your routine but is scientifically proven that it significantly reduces levels of anxiety and depression.

𝟮. don't check your phone (📱)

i've always spent at least an hour scrolling through social media right after waking up every day, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that it's not exactly the healthiest thing in the world. do not go on your phone for at least 30min/1h after waking up. i know it seems hard ( i have a severe phone addiction so i understand ) but i guarantee you that your days will be so much more stress free and productive. why? going on your phone as soon as you wake up gives you an instant hit of dopamine ( for more info, check this post ) that is gonna literally ruin your day, because your brain is gonna pretend more and more dopamine for the rest of the day in order to function properly.

𝟯. have a glass of water ( 🫗 )

you didn't drink for 8 hours or more so it's time to rehydrate your body. i hate drinking water as soon as i wake up so you can try adding some lemon juice to give it more taste, you can also try some herbal tea if it's winter and you don't feel like drinking cold water first thing in the morning, but avoid caffeine ( and theine ) for at least one hour after waking up. exactly like the hit of dopamine that your phone gives you, caffeine and similar stimulants will have the same effect on your body.

𝟰. have a cold shower ( 🚿 )

ok, i'm not one of those gurus who tells you to get up at 5 in the morning, take an ice bath and run 12 km before 7am, but switching to cold water for the last two minutes of your morning shower will have some benefits invaluable for you and your body. first of all it helps to wake you up, because it stimulates the nerve endings and makes the brain more active, it also helps to tone the skin and make the hair shinier. it's a difficult thing, but doing something like this in the morning will help your brain cope better with the workload during the day. it also reduces stress and anxiety, since the cold can activate the production of endorphins ( known as "happy hormones" ).

𝟱. physical and mental care ( 💕 )

take five or ten minutes to just look after yourself, do skincare - it doesn't have to be a deep session, just a little moisturizer and lip balm -, meditate, journal, cut out a few minutes from your morning routine where you leave out for a while all the negative thoughts, stress and anxiety, your body is your temple and you must treat it with reverence, your mind is your home, your safe place, and deserves your attention.

𝟲. get direct sunlight ( ☀️ )

apply some sunscreen and go get some sunlight, the benefits are so many that i couldn't list them all: i quote, production of vitamin D ( very important especially if you are a woman ), improved mood and, in general, physical and mental health, sleep regulation, improved skin. i know it's not always possible, especially in winter when there is very little sun, but for example if you have the chance to walk to school or work on a beautiful sunny spring day, take it!

𝟳. make the bed ( 🛏️ )

why should i make my bed if i'm going to have to sleep in it in the evening anyway? well, this is the mistake that i very often make and i admit that i am guilty of it. however, not making the bed is exactly the reason that pushes me to go back there immediately and sleep again. making your bed in the morning as an act of discipline will not only improve your self-esteem and make you less want to go back to sleep, but it will make your room seem cleaner and generally improve your environment, making you feel more productive and satisfied. completing that little task in the morning, even if it's small and simple, will give you motivation and will push you through the day.

𝟴. high-proteine breakfast ( 🥞 )

make sure you eat a balanced, protein-rich breakfast that will keep you feeling full until your next meal. it is useless to limit calories especially in the morning when we need an extra boost, this will only make us feel more tired and irritable and will significantly decrease our productivity.

[matiixoxo]

How to study - a guide for ♡ good grades ♡

intro

for most of my school years, I never studied. I have naturally good memory and was quick to understand things... up until maybe year 8. Then things got a bit harder, my grades started falling. I only started to truly study during year 10, and that's how I developed my various ways of studying.

i will be listing the methods i use below. these have helped me a lot and hopefully they can help you too! That said, here are my methods:

method 1 - two notebooks

this is my preferred method for sciences, aka, biology, chemistry, etc.

what i do is have two separate notebooks for each subject.

one is to use during class. its messy, disorganised, an info dump of everything the teacher says.

the second one stays at home. there, everyday after school, i rewrite my notes, this time more aesthetic, more complex, prettier. i also research online and check the powerpoints used by the teacher to make sure I'm not missing anything. I take my time with this notebook, because rewriting my notes helps consolidate them in my mind, and is a great tool for revising for tests. it also means that during class, i can pay more attention to what the teacher is saying instead of trying to do pretty titles and such.

method 2 - flashcards

i also mostly use this for sciences, it helps a lot.

flashcards are the best. You can use ones ready made on your computer, or handwrite your own. I prefer to handwrite because, even though it takes time, as I said before rewriting helps consolidate the material in your brain. After every class, I write down questions and answers on white rectangles I bought from the nearby stationary store, punch a hole in them, and add them to the ring where I have all the other flashcards.

when I'm close to a test, I keep my flashcards close to me at all times. when I am bored, or have nothing to do, I take them out and flip through them until I feel I know everything. I try to go through them at least twice a day.

this method has saved me in so many ways.

method 3 - close by

this is the method I use for history, languages, and english.

I rewrite all my notes on my computer (but you can do handwritten, i just prefer computer so i can print many copies) and then print them out. a week before a test, I start leaving the notes in places i pass by often, eg, my desk, my bathroom mirror, taped to the inside of my wardrobe. every time I see my notes, I force myself to read them all. because I pass by the places so many times, I'll be constantly rereading the same thing, helping consolidate it in my brain.

ofc, this might not be enough, so I also suggest reading your notes like this - read the first sentence. then read the first again, and then the second, and read the first again, followed by the second and then read the third, and then reread the first, second, and third sentences. then read the fourth. and reread the first, second, third, and fourth, and then the fifth, etc. this method is amazing and helps memorize stuff so easily. sorry if its confusing ♡

method 4 - exercises

this method, in my opinion, is better for subjects like maths, physics, etc.

it's pretty obvious what it is. just do and redo exercises, correct them, grade yourself, Google past papers and test yourself again. do this until you are confident that you understand everything. and even then, keep doing exercises.

method 5 - essays

this one is for English, and you might hate it. I mean, who doesn't hate essays?

what i do is, I go to chatgpt, and ask it to suggest possible essay questions on possible things that might be on my test (eg., shakespeare).

then, I write an essay (using the PEAEAL structure) and ask chatgpt to evaluate it and rate it out of ten, tell me where I should improve without giving me the exact answer to what I should improve. then I rewrite the parts that were wrong, and send it to chatgpt again. I do this until I get a 10/10. I keep doing this with multiple questions until I'm confident I know the topic well

important:

how i truly, truly, managed to get good grades was making studying enjoyable. I started romanticizing it - lighting candles, installing an aesthetic clock on my computer, spending hours on pretty diagrams, going to cafes with my notes and studying there.

get a friend to study with you too sometimes. Trust me when I say, romanticizing studying is the best study method.

[studentbyday]

D-51 DAYS TO FREEDOM

day 1/3 of catching up on all my notes for this week...at my school, there's a student-run academic success organization where they give lots of tips and templates for how to learn. i think after the stressy mess that were midterm weeks, i really need to revisit and implement their advice (under the cut).

learning:

watch mol bio module review (if it gets posted today... update: it did not)

finish sections 1-2 of mol bio 🟡 (i am not even halfway)

write + send biochem discussion replies ✅

finish psyc ch 1/3 + watch module review 🟡 (halfway through the chapter)

finish sections 3-4 of biochem ✅

watch biochem module 4 review

biochem module 4 practice quiz ✅

self-care:

physio exercises + biked for a little bit ✅ (i got some new exercises yesterday + i still need to do the old ones so i'm happy i was able to do them all today 😌 it seems if i sit in 1 position for longer than an hour, the problems start to return, so i'm gonna try to take short stretching/movement breaks after every hour)

goal setting (lol more like re-prioritizing - ugh i can't wait to make the tracking spreads in my bujo and use purple highlighterrrr) ✅

🎶 étude op. 25 no. 5, "wrong note" - chopin

(sometimes the day feels like a series of wrong notes...i'm glad this étude exists to remind me that sometimes even "imperfections" can be beautiful)

Step 1: notetaking method (this was more engaging/fun cuz i get to let out my inner ninja nerd but either i'm just sleepy today or my brain definitely conks out sooner)

Preview the text

Read actively

Recall immediately after

Step 2: time management (haha this did not really happen 😑)

Study for 2-3h at once, breaking up each hour with a short break in which I don't consume any more info if I can't focus anymore (e.g. I can use that time to stretch). After each 2-3h "study block", I take a 1-2 h break.

Step 3: consolidate (this also did not happen but i think this isn't *as* necessary, at least so far, if i take notes using PRR)

After each course's readings for the day, summarize it in 4-6 sentences using my own words.

[halfmoth-halfman]

So I just finished the latest chapter

AGAIN

I’m crying in my room at 2am instead of sleeping

The fact that it was Shepherd who helped her, wow….I guess even though he is against Price he’s still a human who has empathy unlike those two shits

And I really didn’t expect the whole 141 being mean thing, like wtf?!?!?! My poor canary has been through so much and this is how you treat her (I know they thought she betrayed them but really?!?! salty water raw food and spilled wine??? Valeria is lucky cause she accidentally did the thing that makes them find the truth)

here I thought Soap is gonna be the one Canary has the most trust with (aside from Gaz)

I'm officially announcing that he's off the visitation list when Canary woke up (if she did, which she did….right?🥺）and Gaz is now the only one who can visit her without anxious her.

And ghost being the one who find her and calm her down? I thought he’s going to kill us the second he sees us especially when the whole 141 thought she’s the traitor, I guess it’s because he saw how frightened canary is he scents something very wrong….at least he did something right this time 😤😤

even in that condition Canary still didn’t say it’s Ghost who let the info out??? God ghost you better beg for forgiveness when she wakes up, you know what, all of them need to, and Gaz is going to be the only one that gets canary’s huggys. I wonder if the drugs Graves gave her would affect her health, like the doctor said she got poisoned and tortured for months and they realized the reason canary looks so happy on stage is because that’s the only time she can relax 😢

My poor canary……fortunately it will only gets better now that the toughest part is over

Your work always left me an emotional mess, I’m sure when I wake up from sleep my eyes are going to be so puffy….I rlly rlly love your writings!

🥰🥰

—🍊

kajdhdk you’re brave going through all of that again 💀 if you have puffy eyes make sure to use a cool compress and gently massage the area around your eyes!!! and thank you so much for enjoying the series 💜

i feel like shepherd’s in this weird area where he wants to take down price, but is realizing that this may be going too far than he expected. like he’s never going to outright help canary maybe but he is gonna do little things to make her more comfortable. mostly for his own conscious and not really for her but still ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

another fun fact: canaries have really good memory, so much so that they’re considered a “model species for discovering how the vertebrate brain learns, consolidates memories, and recalls coordinated motor movements”. so it’s safe to say our canary is def not going to forget how the 141 (including soap) treated her when they thought she was working with graves and she’ll remember who stuck by her side the entire time.

with my headcanons for ghost (in general, not just this au) i’d think that even if canary was a proven traitor, he’d still decide to help her the moment he saw the bruises and her breaking down. same with valeria. i think i explained it in another post but those two strike as people who would help a beaten woman no questions asked or at least get her to safety to question her themselves.

now that’s interesting, we haven’t really talked about the drugs graves was giving canary, have we? we know they were def more than just painkillers, but what exactly were they? i don’t think graves would poison her or risk killing her, but he very obviously wouldn’t mind her getting hurt or maybe having her under the influence of something to make her more cooperative and get information out of her? very interesting. 👀

yes, it’ll only get better from here!! there maybe some bumps and arguments (and a little death) but we’re gearing up for the happy ending!!!!

[aita-blorbos]

(oc thing)

AITA for abandoning my world for 103 years?

Ok I know this sounds bad but let me explain.

I (NB, don't really have an age) am the creator of two worlds but only one is important to this story. The one that isn't relevant is more like a world-sized computer, but the relevant one is just your average world with life and stuff, and was the first one I made.

Before you mention it, I know there are guides and templates for life created by the God community. I know the best way to make stable life is to put a simple organism on the world and let it evolve to fit the environment. I know. Believe me, I know. But I certainly didn't know or care back when I made this world because I wanted to make everything from scratch. That was foolish of me. I know. I should have at least read a guide or something.

All this to say I made a bit of a mistake with my initial thought algorithm. Because thoughts work quite fast and I wanted to see everything so I could troubleshoot, I introduced an intentional "throttle" into the algorithm; it would wait for me to acknowledge the thought before it progressed. It's all fun and games until you forget to remove that throttle and create countless creatures all using that flawed algorithm. Yeah.

I didn't want to wipe everything out and start over because that seemed needlessly cruel. Applying patches to anything, especially something like brains, live is a difficult and risky process for the person with the brain. So I just kinda set up a "server room" of power that would just auto-acknowledge anything coming through. That was a temporary solution.

I spent a good couple centuries working out a method to patch the throttle out of my beings. The expansion of life was beginning to overwhelm my temporary measure. I was tired. So tired. I finished it and found blissful silence awaiting me. Wonderful.

In fact I was so tired I wanted to take a bit of a break. I'd also use the time I would be out to test and workshop a self-sufficient, hands-free (for me at least) way to keep my world safe from any existential threats. They're not common, but it's always a good thing to look out for.

So I decided that I would randomly give out my power to people, disappear completely (except for a couple recording devices that were hidden ofc), and come back in a year and see how things went. Then I'd adjust things accordingly. Simple right? What could possibly go wrong?

I think you probably get what happened, but I'll explain it anyways. I essentially had NO IDEA the flow of time was usually different between universes. I didn't know I was supposed to chrono-lock my universe and the universe I was in together to preserve the flow of time between them. And I just so happened to take my year-long vacation to a universe that was REALLY slow compared to mine.

So I come back, 103 years later. There was a war, and this lady somehow consolidated everyone's power and is now acting as the goddess of my world (which I'm honestly fine with, I was never one to take an active role in my world). There's a cult worshiping me, using the hijacked power of one of my observation devices to shield themselves from the lady who made herself the goddess and doing terrible things in my name. Things kinda sucked.

And I'm sort of thinking things would be a lot better if I didn't accidentally spend 103 years of my world's time on vacation. So, AITA?

[futurefind]

//idt i'll make a giant formal announcement but i think its safe to say its hiatus/semi-hiatus season (as you may have noticed from my activity atm anyway) — Not wrt Rp, just Tumblr

My primary motivation on returning to tumblr was for sake of, tldr, 'networking' and making new rp peeps and friends, but my preferred rp method has always been (multipara theads) via discord. while tumblr is still very useful for consolidating muse info and headcanons (and inbox memes!! chefs kiss abt those tbh), I just... don't have the energy to blindly yell and run around and hope it gets people interested :')

I'll still be around (probably), but I'll probably stick even moreso than usual to just... vibing in my corner and answering any threads/asks/prompts rather than working on 'outreach', so to speak. With my brain's two speeds being 'vibrate silently and anxiously wish for a sign to babble at them at all' and 'gush freely and have periodic anxiety you're overwhelming them/Doing It Wrong' it's Not Great to try and juggle. (Edit:) Everyone's more than welcome to poke in and ask for babbling/overtly give permission to gush about muses or thread ideas or what have you but I won't be initiating much idt.

Maybe it's a phase and I'll be clawing at the walls within a week, maybe I won't feel the urge 'til 2-3 months from now when my dad's recovered from his leg surgery. who knows!

Either way, for those interested (for multi-platform rp chatter, non-rp chatter, or even discord rp): have a discord drop:

nethernor_i

[colorico-art]

Navigation Guide

I know this seems weird, but I made this guide to make it easier to find posts you wish to see. I function well on organization, and I'm tired of acting like I don't (even if it is hard to stay organized a lot of the time).

General Info

Seeing as how this is Tumblr, you'll be seeing a lot of stuff that I like, reblog, or create. I am consolidating all of my social media outlets into Tumblr to make it easier for me to track and organize my works. I noticed that tagging is a huge thing here on Tumblr (and a friend had to teach me how to use it well LOL). Therefore, posts will have specific tags with their own purpose. This implements the Featured Tags Tumblr has in place.

#colorico sketch Tag

I don't know about you, but I feel that seeing the sketchwork of an artist is just really fascinating. You basically get to see what laid the groundwork for the finished piece. This tag is to showcase my sketches for those that have a similar mindset.

#colorico art Tag

Can't really say I'm using Tumblr to not showcase my art, so...yeah, this is to put all my artwork front and center. Pretty straightforward, honestly. Artwork showcased will feature other tags (because it's Tumblr, and I want more people to see my work...Sue me, I'm not ashamed to say I want some kind of attention LOL).

#colorico pdca Tag

I am implementing a technique of learning shown by Naoki Saito in his book Fastest Way to Improve Illustration (the book linked is to the English translation he made available; I'm too smooth brain at the moment to fully understand his Japanese books). The book explains the 3 Month Improvement Method, which involves the basic principles of the Plan, Do, Check, and Action Cycle commonly seen in other industries. I've been going on and off on this method for some years, but even then I have seen a stark improvement to my work.

TL;DR is that this tag will showcase my thought process of analyzing my works and seeing what can be improved on.

#colorico timelapse Tag

This one is a fairly new feature I wanted to implement. I've come across other artists' timelapse pieces, and the process itself makes it easier to see different techniques used (a live stream is better, but in today's social media climate it's easier to give out small videos compared to hour-long streams).

Additionally, sometimes there's a technique used in one piece that I need a refresher on when handling a different piece. Please be aware that Tumblr doesn't have the easiest time uploading my timelapse videos, so there may not always be a timelapse available, even if I did record it...

#colorico Tag

This tag is not included in the Featured Tags for my page.

It's pretty straightforward; it shows what items I personally have posted, versus what has been reblogged or shared. All of my artwork, rants, test posts, etc. will all have this tag. This is so that if you do not wish to see what I reblogged, this will filter those items out.

[reakain]

I have been building a robot for the past year. It is dumb, I hate it, and I am building it entirely because there was no existing system that met the needs of my particular research work, target population, and goals.

So I had to build a robot.

It has been alternately highly enjoyable and also exceedingly infuriating. I don't have the bandwidth to make the entire thing independently, so I've had a revolving door of assistance from junior graduate students as well as undergraduates.

And I do mean a revolving door. We had a slew of students that came in burnt out, or otherwise disengaged, and I have spent my time dragging them through training, development, and attempts to support development of the robot. This often has resulted in me needing to take what they give me and... Aggressively rebuild it to actually be usable.

That said, there had also been genuinely fantastic folk assisting as well, so it's been a bitter sweet process. I can finally see the finish line for the revised system. The first system was actually completed back in May/June, but was... Not reliable enough for our purposes. So I went back and we reworked it over the system.

And now we're at a point where I get to go to conferences and actually talk about it, and other people keep asking for more info and if they can use one, etc. Which is... So satisfying.

It's a shitty humanoid robot, but the main design goals were:

Able to set it up and leave it running somewhere for long term autonomous studies

Easy to adapt it for new or different studies without a lot of additional work

Multi-modal input and output for participants with a wide range of communication needs

These goals also gave us the ability to make the robot "hot swappable" where in this case what that means is that multiple students can be actively developing and running studies with the robot without needing to destroy or overwrite each other's settings, because all communication between the robot and the computer is handled by a single usb cable. So we just... externalized the high level brain.

Additionally, because we wanted to be able to leave it somewhere unmonitored for long stretches of time (thinks six months or more) we designed around cheap hardware that uses broadly available parts.

Which gets to the main point. As a result of talking about this system at conferences and other researchers expressing their interest in using it, I sat down, consolidated all the parts information and priced out how much a full kit for the robot would cost. Realize this is a humanoid robot with 21 motors, including 3 degrees of articulation in the head, two in the torso, 4 in the arms, 3 in the legs, and a single tendon open/close hand. It also includes a setup for captioning the robot speech, as well as non-invasive sensing to recognize if something is approaching it, nearby, or leaving.

This whole setup is ~$1,600. Most humanoid robots with similar articulation are $13,000+ and wont run reliably for more than a couple hours at a time, if that. Additionally, I, as a user familiar with the system, can fully assemble the system on my own over the course of a couple days.

What's the catch? It's bolted to a chair and remains seated, and it needs to be plugged into a wall outlet or other power supply. It doesn't include onboard batteries or anything, or any way to actually leave the location you set it up at. It's not mobile. But also, mobility wasn't the goal. The goal was for long term autonomous usage, and for many long term usage systems you... wouldn't actually want it to be mobile anyway. Additionally, while it can't walk, it has legs, and most humanoid robots that can move don't have legs at all, and are instead on wheels for the sake of balance and actual reliability.

All that said, the fact that one person can assemble it in a couple days, and it's less than $2,000 dollars makes me so happy. Because that's actually a price point that researchers can afford, and also is a price point that if researchers use it with a population or community that really enjoys it, they could actually feasibly just... let them keep it at the end. (Think of like a school or a nursing home.)

Even though I keep calling the robot hot garbage, I'm still just... so proud about what it can do and what it costs to build.

[amanita-cynth]

Welcome to yet another WIP intro, except I'm actually nearly 80k words down on this one and it's my focus for now, so. Buckle up for eight slides of Electrum Heart info.

Rest of the slides under the cut, there will be image IDs/transcripts as well as attributions at the end.

[ID: A grey, slightly textured background with simple vector images of ruined buildings at the bottom. Large text reads Electrum Heart, and in smaller text under it reads, Begrudging allies to best friends to "I can't live without you" in the post-apocalypse, but one's an android. In brackets, also they fuck up fascists. To the left is a radioactive symbol, to the right is a code box with a heart encased in curly brackets.]

[ID: Large text at the top says Premise, with an outline of a nuclear mushroom cloud to the left and a blocky vector of a robot toy to the right. Text under it reads, A prototype of the next generation of androids wakes after years in stasis to a new world and little working knowledge of it. While its new companion-slash-handler attempts to teach it the new world and the two grow closer, its unfinished programming starts to grate against the new data, the knowledge that it might be the only android still beholden to its programming, and the escalating political situation of the consolidating powers surrounding the city…]

[ID: Large text at top reads, Follow them to exciting locations such as. Text underneath is bulletpointed and each has a simple outline image near it. The underground android city of Baltia, with a handheld radio. A literal Waffle House, with an open sign. Piles of irradiated scrap metal and rubble, with a gas mask. The strange hideaway house of an eccentric tech billionaire lesbian, with code with an image of a screwdriver in it. About three outposts of bandits and Neo-Nazi raiders, with a knife. A bar. Just a bar. With a beer stein. And the battleground between the USPS (yes, the one you're thinking of} and Neo-Nazis near a reservoir, with three bullets.]

[ID: Large text at top reads Kevin "Kev" Monaco, with mirrored simple images of blue and white spanners each side. Bullet points below and to the left read, Grumpy loner Scrapper. Has secrets and doesn't want them out, would suck if he picked up a droid made for detecting - oh, wait. Absolute shithead but has a soft side and actual morals.

[ID: Large text at top reads MB800-01 "Eights", with mirrored simple images of yellow microchips each side. Bullet points below and to the left read, Naive baby that is also capable of killing six men in two seconds. Somehow both a blank slate and sassy out of the gate. The moral core of the duo, despite being a literal killing machine.

[ID: Large text at top reads Lili, with mirrored simple images of grey screwdrivers each side. Bullet points below and to the left read, Mysterious loner that even the other Scrappers don't really know. Nobody's quite sure who she's trading with or what her motivations are. Hard to read. Always seems to show up right on time to help them out.

[ID: Large text at top reads Bonus Scrappers, with mirrored simple images of white and blue gears each side.

[ID: Large text at top reads Bonus Bots, with mirrored simple images of yellow and white images comprised of half a brain and half a gear each side.

Attributions: Picrew is Ultimate Friend's Face Maker by lunevani

Engineering vectors designed by studiogstock on Freepik

Destroyed city vector designed by upklyak on Freepik

All other icons free from Smashicons

[cesium-sheep]

on sunday I assembled meds, strung garland, knotted garland, brushed my teeth, unloaded car, sorted books, went to yarn store, visited matt's dad, went to grocery store, put away books, updated craft acct, hung garland, sorted fabric, managed a brain a little, talked to mom, gave jackie greenies, fussed, and drew kirby.

on monday I brushed my teeth, took prednisone, laid out fabric, started sewing comforter cover, painted letters, laid out fabric again, trimmed fabric, updated financial spreadsheets, cleared out tabs, consolidated lab results, knitted, picked cabochons, tried decoden cream, washed dishes, got woozysad, managed a brain a little, showed arin fabrics, gave jackie greenies, brushed my teeth again, and drew kirby.

on tuesday I brushed my teeth, sifted tv channels, knitted, drew announcement, updated craft accts, scooped cat litter, retook sf-36, stretched, got sleepy, read up on ketotifen, fed cats, took a short nap, messaged doc, took a bath, trimmed nails, gave jackie greenies, and drew kirby.

on wednesday I took prednisone, brushed my teeth, fixed spring clip, drew announcement, updated craft accts, knitted, replied to doc, hung out with arin, fed cats, managed a brain, kept an eye on arin, gave jackie greenies, brushed my teeth again, drew kirby, looked up concert info, and sent scheduled message.

on thursday I replied to doc, brushed my teeth, packaged order, went to post office, checked mail, knitted, cleaned cat dish, robot vacuumed, took a nap, fed cats, took out trash, talked to arin, had a meltdown, gave jackie greenies, brushed my teeth again, and drew kirby.

on friday I took prednisone, brushed my teeth, knitted, replied to clinic, bought tickets, sewed, unpicked bad seam, called pharmacy, messaged clinic, answered pharmacy, talked to dad, fed cats, managed a brain, gave jackie greenies, had a fight, had a meltdown, and drew kirby.

on saturday I brushed my teeth, talked to arin, went to game, knitted, went to pharmacy, got tired, went to grocery store, took a long nap, fed cats, managed a brain, got achy, drew kirby, scooped cat litter, gave jackie greenies, and talked to arin again.

[jon-mcbrine-author]

My current WIP is set to be a full-length novel that is intended to be the first book of a trilogy - I have the titles and much of the overall story outline mapped out, but I feel apprehensive about revealing very many details about it. When does teasing information about a forthcoming release cease being a pragmatic part of marketing? At what point is it just being too precious about my oh-so-original idea?

There are legitimate concerns regarding withholding info about a book still in development - sadly, concepts, names, and designs can be stolen and it’s a difficult battle no matter how much of a claim you have. That said, do I really think literary thieves are out in the wild scheming on ways they can usurp my intellectual property? They’d have to be aware of me in the first place in order to lift any of my ideas. Being so guarded about my stories feels like such a newbie author thing to do, and it’s a tough habit to shake. So, one of the reasons I’m so coy about providing even the slightest tidbit of info about my latest novel is that, yes, I still struggle with the notion that some miscreant will think my idea is so brilliant that they just can’t resist swiping it. The more realistic reason is that it is still very early in the developmental process and things change. Chronicling the creative process can be fascinating, but at the end of the day, I want to avoid confusion about a piece of work that could undergo title changes as well as general story switcheroos.

As an admittedly vague example, as of this writing, I have introduced a major change in the narration - a different storytelling device than what I had originally conceived. This is something I decided that I will at least try - I have to see what it looks like, so-to-speak. It involves a bit of a time jump; a sort of past and present prism all told via first person POV. This idea could end up in the scrap heap, but it is too intriguing for me not to explore. One of my personal rules of writing is to find the most interesting way to tell the story, and if this particular idea that originated out of left field improves the book, then it is all for the better. After all, the only “real” rule of writing is to produce a story that someone enjoys. It’d be nice if it made money, too, but one thing at a time.

All this interior drama is unfolding within my mind palace, but to the outside world, no one knows much of anything and that is because of the aforementioned rookie preciousness. Ego also plays a factor, too. Strange as it sounds, I almost don’t want to rearrange my story’s structure despite its excitement because it deviates so much from what I said I’d do - what I said to myself, that is. The truth may lie in that my opening sequence has expanded into three chapters. The editor part of my brain demands I kill my darlings and only retain the key points and move the story along. Stupid logic.

The chapter consolidation may still happen, but I had one of those pesky ideas that seem too enticing to ignore. But much like the eclipse, I can’t help but think perhaps I should simply let logic takes its natural course and block out the bright sun of endless ideas. After all, the totality of my time that I can spend creating all of this is very limited and I don’t want to wait another twenty years for another completed book to resurface.

Alas, things are still looking sunny and the future is radiant with new possibilities. Maybe one day I will feel confident enough to simply post my new story’s details and watch with satisfaction as it gets ignored in the never-ending stream of social media.

Stay in the loop for more details by following Jonfcition Blog on Substack, Tumblr, and Medium. For more info about this and all my books, please visit jonmcbrine.com

The monthly Jonfiction Newsletter is released on the first Monday of every month only on Substack.

Unsecret Identity: Eric Icarus - Book One is available now from the Amazon Kindle store.

https://a.co/2XAtxvH

[deathbydarkelves]

Hello! I recently discovered your blog and love your OCs and AU. I read almost all the lore bits you wrote on tumblr that I could find.

I think you've mentioned that several "canon" time spans in your AU have been adjusted and my clutter-filled brain just can't find the post again, but what are those in particular? ALSO! How do you feel about the fact that there are 15,000 year+ individuals that just... commonly exist for races like Night Elves? Even a century is a long time, let alone 150 of them.

Oh gosh thank you so much, that really means a lot ;w; I'm gonna put my answer below a cut because it got longer than I anticipated lol

I had to go check for myself, I admit, but I don't think I ever did post my adjusted timeline? Or I forgot to tag it in a useful way and now it's forever lost to the void lol.

BUT I've been working on a google doc 'master document' for the AU to consolidate all the info for it, and I do have the timeline in there. At least, from the First War (Warcraft I) to Dragonflight. The doc SHOULD be almost ready to post, but I'll just share the timeline for now.

(Note that I named the kaldorei nation "Kal'thalas" in my AU.)

-----

0-3 ADP: First War (Warcraft I)

4-8: Second War (Warcraft II)

20-late 22/early 23: Third War (Warcraft III)

25-28: “Vanilla WoW” happens.

29-30: The Burning Legion invades again (Burning Crusade).

32-33: The Lich King begins a new conquest (Wrath of the Lich King).

36-37: Deathwing attempts to remake the world (Cataclysm).

38-40: The mists around Pandaria dissipate (Mists of Pandaria).

40-41: Alternate Draenor’s timeline collides with ours (Warlords of Draenor).

43-45: The Burning Legion invades for the final time (Legion).

Tyrande does not denounce the shal’dorei. Instead, Suramar’s decision to join the Horde is motivated by a desire for more political freedom.

45: The Fourth War begins in earnest with the burning of Teldrassil, around midsummer.

After reclaiming Darkshore, Tyrande takes on the powers of the Night Warrior and leaves with Maiev to track down Sylvanas. She leaves Malfurion and Shandris in charge.

47: The Fourth War ends with the mak’gora outside Orgrimmar.

50: With his limited executive power, Malfurion increases taxes on imported goods and shuts down most exports from Kalimdor to the EK.

This is to put economic pressure on the Alliance and force them to pay more attention to his requests for more support for the refugees.

The kaldorei, pressed for resources themselves, don’t have the ships or supplies to bring the refugees back on their own.

52: Tyrande and Maiev finally track down and kill Sylvanas, who had taken refuge in Northrend.

53-55: Tyrande returns to the role of High Priestess and diverts every available resource to bringing the refugees in the EK home.

55: Tyrande and Kal’Thalas as a whole officially cut ties with the Alliance.

Kal’Thalas and the Horde reach a mutual agreement to not intrude on each other’s land and to not threaten the other unless this promise is broken.

The draenei, tauren, and shal’dorei offer aid to Kal’Thalas – each for their own reasons – and an alliance of sorts is formed between the four nations.

62: The Dragon Isles reawaken.

The kaldorei send their own ships and explorers to investigate. Beyond that, I have yet to decide on the exact changes I want to make to the Dragonflight plot.

-----

The major adjustments to the timeline would be that many of the canon 'expansion events' take place over 1-3 years, instead of each happening within a year, and that the time between the end of "BfA" and the start of "Dragonflight" is fifteen years instead of six years like in canon. And Shadowlands never happens <3

In more concrete terms, this means in my AU -pulls random canon character out of a hat- Thrall is 61 when the Dragon Isles awaken, as opposed to being 39 as in canon. And on the topic of ages...

This is a little pedantic but I choose to say there simply aren't any elves alive "today" any older than 11,000 years. They diverged from trolls 15,000 years ago, but weren't actually granted immortality until after The Sundering 10,000 years ago. I can buy they had unnaturally long lifespans before then (then-present but vestigial regenerative abilities + Well of Eternity fuckery), but only in the matter of centuries. The maximum expected lifespan would've probably been around 400-600, but you were more likely to get sick with something nasty, become something's dinner, or otherwise die in an unfortunate accident than actually make it that long. Early on the average lifespan might've been closer to 150-200, later climbing up to 300.

With that said, I still have thoughts on elves in the 10,000 years age range. In my AU, they are extremely, EXTREMELY rare. The longer you live, even with immunity to disease, the more likely you are to get into a fatal accident or encounter something that's too much for you to handle, or just get plain unlucky. So if you have been around since The Sundering, you are either going to be incredibly well-respected or incredibly feared. Or most likely both, depending on who you ask. For that reason, the only characters in my AU in that age range are the canon characters like Tyrande and Shandris and Maiev. If you're that old, everyone is going to know your name, because you could count the number of living people in that age range in one breath. There's already an air of respect around them because they're Big and Canon, so I just leave that as-is.

((That's just my personal approach to the subject, I have no issue with RPers with hella old characters lol))

And I don't know if this was also part of your question, but when it comes to writing immortal/very old characters, I approach that through the lens of "they may be very experienced, but they're still human (metaphorically)." No matter how long you've been around you still experience the world one day at a time, and thus you still make mistakes.

You've still got a mortal mind so you'll never be omniscient, and you will forget things. I also think ancient elves (especially those in political positions, like they often are) definitely slow down the "cultural progression" of their societies, but not to an extreme extent. People still change over their lifetimes and elves aren't a hivemind. But, like... the cultural taboo around magic usage might've been changed a lot sooner if Tyrande hadn't been the High Priestess for ten thousand years, y'know. With shorter-lived races, you know the ruler is gonna kick the bucket EVENTUALLY and the next rando is gonna have different ideas. Though, again, individuals change over time. Even with the same people at the helm, Kal'thalas during the Long Vigil was far from static.

Back to the memory thing: I saw someone in the comments of this video (good video, though not the end-all-be-all of writing immortals) say: "I always found it weird that no one ever calls out that memory gets distorted with time, that it fades, or shifts based on new beliefs, or has things added. Like, if eye witness testimony is suspect within a few days, what would centuries do?" I also take that approach to immortal memory. They just cannot remember it all, and they will never remember anything exactly as it objectively was. That's why historians are needed. That's why Kalassian, my AU "root" elven language that diverged from Zandali, is a dead language without a full translation. Even though people still live that used to speak and write it, so much time has passed that all its once-speakers may as well be gone. There are inscriptions in ruins that have been known for centuries and are still not translated.

(revision of a diagram I made a while ago)

(Don't let all the arrows coming off Zandali make it seem like Darn/Shalassian are uniform. They have dialects, just not the sheer variability of Zandali because their speaking populations are more localized.)

Anyway I do believe I've started going on a tangent that's not entirely related, so I'll cut myself off here HDJHFC

Thank you again for the ask and don't hesitate to send more :) I love any excuse to talk about my AU.

[umbral-stigmata-unbound]

// not me, cheating on my ‘consolidate my tag and verse list junk and how it links on my promo AND my blog’ plan, by just linking to a tag both of the two original posts now have.

My brain can’t can with all that otherwise friends XD I do need to edit the info eventually probably. AND i probably need to look through profiles and edit them, possibly

[strwrs]

just hit 600 followers, and that’s wild, so i wanted to say a quick ty ty ty!! i appreciate it so much <33