#Yes i know a not epic related post????? From me???? The world is ending!!!! Haha

[nyssasatelier]

Your art style kinda reminds me of Shaman King art style and huh it's a compliment but I just don't know how to express myself in front of mortals-

-The eldritch monster from that one flower pot

I never actually watched Shaman King growing up so i had to google it and i guess i kind of see it?

However you're totally right in the sense that my art style definitely was heavily influenced by anime!

Dragonball Z, Naruto and Trigun especially had a hold on my soul in middle school.

Anyways while looking at the Shaman king characters online I found a character that looked so early 2000's anime edgy that I just had to draw him :

Who even is this sassy smug bitch ???

[crashingmeteor3]

MSM Breakout Stars Reaction

So this is my first time seeing a trailer/premiere or whatever it is for MSM since getting into the fandom (specifically Ethereal Workshop) and

I don't even know how to describe how I'm feeling, everything was just so cool and I love it. So for this I decided to write my reactions to stuff and yeahhhh so I'm gonna write them here too.

Don't expect this to make much sense XD

Spoilers(?) below the cut!

Okay so seeing Ethereal Workshop at the beginning made me very excited, I love love love Ethereal Workshop. But honestly I had no idea what Vhenshun was doing at the beginning.

Also, the Down in the Workshop music in the background? My jaw dropped, MSMTubers like Ashvee and Treblestroke got me into MSM so hearing this was actually really cool! I've listened to DITW dozens of times by now and it's only been out for like a month?

Haha, Auglur facepalm funni, also Meebkin bonk funni.

Okay, so they've made some contraption thingie and plugged Nitebear into it. Amazing. I had no idea what was happening right now. But it's an SOS signal I think?

Hoola being what I assume is a DJ was also pretty epic, I didn't know what to expect here but it looked neat.

AND THEN THE ETHEREAL WORKSHOP MONSTERS SHOW UP? The squad is here let's goooo!!

What were Auglur, Piplash and Gaddzooks doing and why did it remind me of those inflatable guys that flop around when it's windy?

Poor Nitebear has only been here for like 10 seconds and they're already in the corner. Kind of relatable though.

Pentumbra doing what I think is the stick bug dance? Awesome sauce.

THE MEEBS ARE BEING TOSSED AROUND WHAT.

Vhenshun is escaping to... somewhere.

Oh wow what is that suspicious green stuff, doesn't look like it's from Flasque.

WHAILL HI WHAILL :D

(Yes Whaill is my favourite and the CILOTFNR (Character I latched onto for no reason.))

X'rt is in the disco ball, how the heck did they get there.

VHENSHUN WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

Were those Omatones(?) next to Blarret??

Dang Gaddzooks and Rhysmuth going wild, although it's hard to tell when Rhysmuth is so Minecraft-coded and has no facial expressions.

Oh wow who is that, they look cool though. (Don't kill me for not knowing my MSM monsters I've only been here for a month)

NOW THEY'RE CROWD SURFING WHAT THE HECK

Okay, so Teeter is light enough to be carried by the Meebs, cool. Makes me wonder if it'd be the same for Tauter? This also makes me realise you only really see Tauter for one small scene when they first appear at the disco place thing.

POISON QUAD REVEAL!! It's like... A squid with duck feet? The top reminds me of bat wings kind of? I think it looks cool, especially the mouth. I have no idea what the thing at the back is though. I enjoy it when they experiment and make crazy-looking monsters like this, although I suppose that's the point of Ethereal Workshop!

And Vhenshun finally gets to see the sunset, which is an oddly nice moment. It got to escape the workshop for a little while and see such a small piece of the outside world.

But in the end, they do return back 'Home' (If I read the screen right) Which I suppose makes sense. The Workshop is their home.

So overall that was AMAZING. But also makes me wonder, does this make Down in the Workshop canon? I've seen multiple comments saying that but I'm not sure. It'd be cool if it was but it also raises questions.

But those can wait, this post is getting long. So thank you for those who read my rambles and reactions this far. You are awesome!

[lemonlurkrr]

@aureateart​ ok. My favourite parts of twilight princess  (and some other random thoughts about TP sprinkled in there) taken from my monster TP word vomit google doc :

Link lmao

Ok but for real, I like this incarnation of Link :)

I love Ordon (it just seems like such a chill and cozy village)

ALSO love how easy it is to interpret Link as being a sort of older brother figure to the Ordon kiddos. It’s just,, super cute? AND GHHH nice nice good thanks nintendo for giving me characters to care about/characters that I can imagine Link caring about

He didn’t sign up for any of this (tbh, none of the Links really signed up for this jshdjsd). But I mean like, dude was just going to take a trip to castle town, drop a gift off for the royal family, and come back. But haHA oopsies he did get to castle town eventually but definitely not the way he expected hsjdhsd

He’s just a little dude?

AND FUCK. HE REALLY HAD NEVER BEEN OUTSIDE OF ORDON UNTIL ALL OF THAT

everything is new for the player AND Link

Midna

She’s cool :)

she really just

*teleports into your jail cell* hello whore.

I am no master at writing but AYYYY she do got a character arc!!!

She was actually pretty helpful sometimes, I ALWAYS checked in with her before turning to a game guide

Other NPCs

NICE

Love all of the TP character designs (ASHEI’S ARMOUR??? AOWOAOAOOAO)

Saving Zelda and all of Hyrule was important yea but thinking back maybe it was more like, the Ordonians and the kids were what was pushing Link to keep on going

I like the Resistance members :) Very video gamey of them to have one NPC assigned to each dungeon but hey!!! Kinda cool getting to see a little glimpse of each of em

Idk, it’s just fun to imagine Link popping into Telma’s bar after each dungeon and taking a little rest :) (or to celebrate? maybe just chat, idk, give this man some downtime!!)

Honestly it was just kind of nice that Link wasn’t entirely alone. I mean, I know Midna was there the whole time, but I am always for giving Link a big group of friends (see my love for hyrule warriors, age of calamity, and LU LMAO)

Hero’s shade, very very cool, kinda sad he died with regrets but HEY. He got to pass on his knowledge eventually

AND the connection to OoT?? AND assumed to be related by blood too????? GOOD SHIT

Ilia, I REALLY really wanted to like her (er, it’s not like I dislike her, she’s just,,, kinda there for me).

It definitely seems like Nintendo was pushing to make her the romantic interest, but GHHHHH they really threw that out of the window for me by having her lose her memories

I saw a text post a while ago that said it would have been interesting if Ilia was Link’s sister instead and YES!! That would have been cool too :0

Wish we got to know Zelda a little more

I feel like we barely know anything about her

Idk man, like I said earlier, I never really had any sort of drive to save Zelda during my playthroughs

She obviously knows Midna, so maybe if they gave us just a little bit more of that relationship I’d be more interested in her?

TP WORLD BUILDINGGGG

Botw has good world building too, but each race felt kinda,,, isolated? I absolutely love the different architecture and vibe each town has (and all the the weapons too) but ghhh yea everyone felt so separated. As far as I can remember, we don’t see tooo much of the races interacting with each other? Now that I’m typing that out maybe that’s to be expected because of the calamity but KLSJDKJFD ANYWAYS THIS IS ABOUT TP

The world feels nice and alive, love how populated everything is

Castle town I like castle town a lot, it feels dense and busy and I really like how you can’t talk to every NPC you see

Very cool very fun that we got to see the Gorons hanging out in multiple spots

kinda wish we got to see the Zoras a little more (I guess they are a bit limited since they need water but GHHHH the tp zoras are so prebby,,)

BUT HEY, I do remember seeing a zora or two hanging out in the hot springs around death mountain after beating the lakebed temple (I think, might have been a different dungeon) 

but aaaa would have been nice to see them in at least a couple of other places. I think it would have really added to the “congrats Link!! You’re restoring peace to Hyrule” feeling you get from seeing the Gorons hanging out in Kakariko and Castle Town

ORDON

Love how chill it is and how it’s kind of separate from Hyrule proper

They really do seem to be doing their own thing apart from the rest of Hyrule

Just kinda adds onto the “he’s just a regular dude minding his own business” kind of vibes I get from TP Link

Also I like Ordona :)

THE LIGHT SPIRITS,,

Love their design

And love how they’re not exactly like a pure white?

Different spirit representing each aspect of the triforce my beloved

But yes hi I think Ordona is very cool

Who are you, how did you get here, which goddess do you represent? Do you even represent one of the three golden goddesses? Do the Ordonians know about you? Have any of them ever SEEN you??? Do they worship you? Does anybody even know about the existence of the light spirits?? FUCK so many questions but ghhh I like how they broke the status quo a bit by throwing in a fourth spirit :)

I feel like this one is kinda weird but I like that voice sample they used in the light spirit music. It’s spooky and pretty at the same time :)  

cutscenes mmmmm

Ok ok, the spooky lanayru cutscene is very good

BUT THE “Link, Chosen Hero! Lend us the last of your power!” CUTSCENE MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM LOVE IT SO MUCH

IT just

Idk man

It just hit different

I like the music

And seeing the light spirits swimming around in the light juice water whatever it is

Summoning the light arrows?

AND HHHHH “Lend us the last of your power!” THIS IS IT. This is the final battle.

Seeing Zelda bow down, and then Link putting his hand out 👌👌👌

Link: ok bud, let’s do this together :)

Connection to OoT (did I already mention this? Maybe., Whatever)

Very cool nintendo :)

I love seeing connections between all the diff zelda games.

Because like, on one hand, they’re all separate from each other because of yknow, individual hero stuff. BUT ALSO, they’re all connected because of the reincarnation stuff

Grrrr walking through the sacred grove and going “The Hero of Time walked around here a long time ago” FUCK THATS SO COOL

Is the Hero’s Shade watching me? What does he think of me? DIsappointed? Proud? The Hero of Time went through HELL so this timeline didn’t have to deal with any of the shit Ganon was gonna pull with the triforce, better not fuck this UP Link!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Midlink is cute

Kinda hurts that she smashed the mirror but that was probably so Nintendo didn’t have to worry about people going “but what about the twili??????” for any of the other games LMAO

BUT ALSO LIKE SKJDKLJFJ There are some pretty massive plot holes in TP anyway so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ whatever it’s fine we’ll just use this for angst because GOD do y’all like angst

So is Shadlink

Honestly don’t know where this ship came from but it’s cute so whatever

THE MUSIC??

Love Midna’s theme and how they referenced the dark world theme from ALttP (I remember trying to learn the dark world theme on the piano and doing the Leonardo DiCaprio point meme at the little jingle I recognized from Midna’s theme)

Hyrule field theme SLAPS.

Apparently references a couple of the other over-world themes from the previous zelda games (I got this from 8-bit Music theory’s video on the over-world zelda themes, he talks about TP at around 11:40 but def recommend watching the whole video if you’re into music analysis stuff)

So there’s this bit of the Hyrule Field theme, I don’t know the official name for it but I remember seeing somewhere it being called the “at an advantage theme” since yeah, you hear it during the boss music whenever you expose their weak points. FUCKINGGG LOVE THAT. Didn’t notice it during my first playthrough, but hearing it during my second was like a little easter egg for my ears every time :)

Midna’s lament is very pretty (and fun to play on the piano)

COURAGE THEME.

I didn’t care for it too much when I started playing the game but hearing it in ZREO’s arrangement of the Hyrule Field theme literally makes me turn into a puddle of emotions. Also hearing it around and of the Ordon kids (I think it plays after Link saves Colin) AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Orchestra piece #1 and #2 HOLY SHIT???????????????? 

Literally, the first time I listened to those I just,,,, plugged in my headphones, volume 100, layed on the floor/against my desk and silently vibed. I don’t know what the hell it is, but those two just fit so well with TP?? I still avoid listening to them nowadays cause if I DO I definitely will get overwhelmed with the “god I love this game so FUCKING MUCH” kind of feels.

Wolf link sucks at singing

the first time I heard him howling Zelda’s Lullaby I lost my shit because LKSJLDKSGLKJFSKG god that was.,, Bad. Anyways, hearing him howl some of the songs from OoT was cute :)

TP STAFF ROLL??? 

VERY GOOD. IT’s like 10 minutes long and GOD do I love every single second of it. It doesn’t have the same energy as the skyward sword staff roll or the orchestra pieces but GOD does it hit good??

Nice and calm after that big exciting adventure. Maybe it would have been more fun or emotional to have a higher energy piece but it was really nice getting to sit back and watch the camera fly around Hyrule. Seeing like, the Gorons and the Zoras having a good time, the kids returning to Ordon? GOOD SHIT.

and AAAAA that end, when you hear the main Zelda theme and see Link riding off out of Faron woods on Epona… good shit. It gets you thinking, where the hell is he going? What is he doing? Off ot do more adventuring? Going to help out the resistance or something? Going to help Zelda? Or maybe he’s trying to figure out a way to restore the mirror of twilight? Whoooo knows.

hhHHHHhhh it’s just that final reminder that YES!!! YOU JUST PLAYED A ZELDA GAME. JUST ANOTHER STORY APART OF THE WHOLE EPIC OF THE ZELDA SERIES AS A WHOLE

I also want to acknowledge the instrument/samples they used for all the twili stuff.

They’re all just so unique and contrast SO well with the rest of the TP OST. LIKE FUCK!! Anytime I hear the screech from the Twilit Kargarok? Sends a shiver down my spine. I associate those sounds SO strongly with the twili realm. (Like, the same way you associate the BSHEWW VVWWMMM sounds with light sabers)

I love it so god damn much

literally any time there’s a certain sound or motif associated with something I lose my shit

Sacred grove sacred grove sacred gro-

lovely lovely lovely so much fun playing that on the piano. AND again, I did the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme when I heard the theme from the lost woods come in GHHHHHHHH

shoutout to TP Faron Woods for helping me study and get through all of my schoolwork

BLEGUUHHH can you tell that I really love music?

and also yea I guess TP is kinda cool too :\

IF YOU READ ALL OF THAT THANKS I GUESS

[genshinconfessions]

I totally agree with everything Katheryne and Anon just said in the last ask about the Inazuma quest (it was so unsatisfying? Like, the ending was epic or whatever, but just like, everything felt kinda empty?), and I feel like it really disappointing?

It left so much open/to be desired, for the characters especially. We got a pretty large cast of characters, and they all seem really cool and interesting, but we barely saw much of them. It was mostly rushing around and doing errands.

Also, parts of the story felt like they went nowhere to me? Or just got abandoned? Maybe some of it will be cleared up eventually but, eh...

Examples I can think of: -Traveler got Swordfish II, then they basically forgot about that as soon as the Teppei stuff happened -The resistance didn't really get a proper conclusion? We saw them storm the city, Kazuha did that thing (I hope they give him a character quest to get into that, like, tf) and then after everything went down we saw some of them in that cutscene, but not really anything that felt like closure (if there's something in world quests I wouldn't know, haven't done much there yet)

Also on a semi related not, I'm pretty sure someone (Yae I think) said something about Scara being stronger than Signora since he's No. 6 of the Harbingers and she's 8, which kinda implied Childe, No. 11, being the weakest? I'm not entirely sure I got that right tho so don't quote me on that

i agree!! you summed up the main points way better than i ever could HAHA but yes, it was just so unsatisfactory and there were so many plot holes :(( i kept thinking they'd be chekhov'ed but no, no they were not.

and no, scaramouche being stronger than signora is just a coincidence! the numbering system of the harbingers had been explained quite a while ago:

(source)

do keep in mind that though the wiki is run by fans, the mods fact-check everything and make sure not to post rumored information, so this is fairly trustworthy. i am not entirely sure why yae would say that scaramouche is more powerful because he's 6th :(( that's directly contradicts previous info given, but then again, we all know that the inazuma story seems... rushed HAHA so we can't rule out the wording being a mistake.

and as a childe main, i don't think our bloodthirsty ginger boy is the weakest at all! his character story explicitly says this:

(source)

and consider his background:

spoilers for childe's story

he fell into the abyss when he was 14, learned how to fight from skirk, a swordswoman who has presumably been in the abyss dealing with monsters for ages, and received knowledge of the foul legacy transformation.

just that alone is Very Very powerful, but let's not forget that he has both a vision AND a delusion! we were never given the story for how he got his vision (where most characters have a vision story, he has a delusion story) but we can most definitely assume that the gods saw and appreciated him. hydro vision, electro delusion, AND power of the abyss? this dude is POWERFUL.

also, he's not afraid of chaos. there's a saying in china used to describe someone like that, 唯恐天下不乱, roughly translated as '[someone] whose only fear is that the world isn't chaotic', and that's childe to a T. this dude is not afraid to die, which means he's got nothing to lose, and those kinds of ppl are actually the scariest. he's fighting with everything he's got because he LOVES it like, geeeez this dude is a walking death flag.

i'm real sorry for taking the point of the post away. the point is that the inazuma story didn't seem well-planned, but if mihoyo ends up explaining that later, we can all be pleasantly surprised!

- katheryne from liyue

[thevagueambition]

Atla, Zukka and Sokka :)

ATLA

Favorite character: Zuko, 100%. He’s a character I relate to a lot, eg the whole “hard work vs natural talent” thing... I even have a costume, although I didn’t get a chance to use it when I meant to so I haven’t really done so yet OTL

Least Favorite character: Hmm, god, I don’t know.... Bumi, maybe? As a comedic character he feels a bit too “haha crazy” and he doesn’t really (imo) work well as a dramatic one... 

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):

Zukka

Hakoda/Bato

Roku/Sozin

Tyzula

Jetko

Character I find most attractive: Zuko. Particularly s3 ofc lol

putting the rest under a cut for length

Character I would marry: idk. not big on marriage really

Character I would be best friends with: Sokka

a random thought: The true hero of ATLA is Iroh and I feel ashamed of not having mentioned his name yet in this

An unpopular opinion: The age difference between Kataang is 2 years which is the exact same age difference between Zutara and neither are particularly weird regardless of the fact that I don’t care about either ship

My Canon OTP: Don’t have one. Sokka/Suki is cute I guess is the closest I come to having strong feelings on a canon ship

My Non-canon OTP: Zukka

Most Badass Character: Toph but also low key Sokka bc he’s a non-bender

Most Epic Villain: That old blood bending woman who gave us all nightmares

Pairing I am not a fan of: Zutara, but that’as as much about fandom behavior back in the day as anything else

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Korra, all of LoK 

They gave Toph too little to do in s3 and she SHOULD have had her Zuko outing like all the others >:( Actually Zuko and Toph have a lot in common in certain ways and that was never fully explored

Also obviously SOOOO many characters in this series who were written as straight when they shouldn’t be lol. We get it, it was a kid’s cartoon in the 00s, but they didn’t have to agressively pair off everyone in neat m/f couples by the end of the series

Favourite Friendship: Aang & Zuko

Character I most identify with: Zuko, as mentioned above. He’s also the same MBTI type as me haha (INFP). Also, Sokka mix of being simoultaneously really clever and extremely stupid is a gigantic mood.

Character I wish I could be: Idk... Iroh, in some ways, certainly. Honestly, by the end of the series all the main kids are pretty admirable people. Who wouldn’t want Aang’s kindness, Katara’s righteousness, Zuko’s determination, Sokka’s cleverness, Toph’s independence, Suki’s leadership, etc? Hell, Mai’s bravery and Ty Lee’s loyalty? I love all the main kids.

Zukka

When I started shipping them: Only a year or two ago, actually! I think last time I rewatched The Boiling Rock I was like 👀

Originally when I was an ATLA fan I was still in the “we must adheer to canon” phase of my existence in fandom and then for a good while I was still affected by my... hesitance to look like a, idk, stereotypical slash fan, in the sense that back in the day people were REALLY hostile to slash ships that seemed, idk, contrived. Zukka also just wasn’t a big ship back in the day I don’t think, Jetko has always been more popular. 

My thoughts: The cammaraderie that developes between them over their stay at The Boiling Rock is incredibly compelling to me and I think that... the ways in which Sokka holds Zuko accountable through “jokes” but still allows him the space to prove himself is really interesting and probably... something that is actually better for Zuko than either Katara’s rage or Aang’s kindness? Idk. 

Also they both have pretty complicated relationships to masculinity and what it means to be a man in their respective cultures and their sort of struggles with that and how those struggles look different due to circumstances like their parental situations and different cultural expectations... Zuko’s is less directly about masculinity per se because the Fire Nation has less strict gender roles, or at least ones that don’t code certain activities as purely masculine endeavours (eg warfare) but certainly there are shades of Ozai’s treatment of Zuko and Azula that are gendered as well as about birth order and it’s interesting how Zuko and Sokka both impose restrictions on themselves about how they should behave and what they should live up to culturally.

What makes me happy about them: I think they complement each other really well. They have a lot in common but are pretty different about their approach to things... I also just really like battle couples lol 

What makes me sad about them: Their respective trauma is part of what makes them compelling but it’s certainly also sad, so in that sense...

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: So much of it is modern AU and i don’t care for it lol. Completely ignoring any sense that the Avatar world must have some elements of homophobia bothers me to exist in the ways it does, but as does completely overplaying it, idk. It’s a balance not everyone strikes well. Also obviously when people demonise Suki or Mai to account for them not being in the picture that’s bad.

Things I look for in fanfic: Honestly, more than anything? Good characterisation. This is a ship that lives and dies by good characterisation. I also really like when they’re set during the time at the Western Air Temple.  

My wishlist:

Swordfighting duels!! Practicing swordfighting together!! Bonding over swords like the dumb teenage boys they are!! Yes I know about the innuendo that only makes it better!! 

Hakoda not just being cool with it but realising about Zuko’s abuse and being like Actually I Am Your Dad Now

I always want fic where the gaang find out about how Zuko got his scar and that with Zukka is even more *chef’s kiss*

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Hmm ending up with, huh? I like Jetko for the drama but not necessarily as endgame. Sukka is pretty cute so I’m down for that but Maiko is.... look, it made sense for the time that Zuko was back in the Fire Nation because but I 100% don’t think it’s something either of them benefits from afterwards. They’re better off as friends imo also Zuko’s gay

My happily ever after for them: I want them to travel the world together tbh? I never quite know how to account for Zuko becoming Fire Lord in my thoughts about him post-canon because... well obviously I hate monarchy and I don’t actually think Zuko would be particularly comfortable being the leader of a nation, so... I don’t know. Maybe after some years, maybe a decade, of guiding the nation back towards stability Zuko starts reforming the country towards something more democratic and becomes less personally involved in the affairs of running the country? I don’t see them as people who would or really could be tied down by each other because they each have responsibilities to their respective communities and I don’t necessarily find “and then they lived in the Fire Nation palace together for the rest of their lives” compelling... 

Sokka

How I feel about this character: I love him so much. His character developement is so compelling and as one of the very few prominent non-bending characters he is also compelling in the ways that situate him within the world and forces him to look for other things to contribute with. Again, the ways in which he is undeniably very clever but simoultaneously kind of dumb is also just... Very Good and Relatable lol. He was someone I overlooked a bit for a while but I think Sokka’s Master really awakened me to how great he is and on rewatches he became one of my faves. Also, you just gotta love any character that uses sarcasm as a shield lol. 

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Zuko, primarily, as discussed above. I’m fine with both Yue and Suki as canon ships but I’m not really invested in it. When I was younger I liked Sokka/Toph somewhat but actually Toph is a lesbian so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ You could always do Suki/Toph, kill two birds with one stone you know

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Gotta love a good father-son relationship <3

My unpopular opinion about this character: I don’t know what the popular opinions about him are tbh. I’ll use this to say I think ADHD!Sokka makes sense though

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: Hmm, idk... the episodes he had that were focused on him were very good and did a good job of exploring his inner life in the face of how often he’s a comedic character, so it would have to be more in terms of his relationships with other characters. More interactions with Zuko would have been good ofc ! :3c

Favorite friendship for this character: Hm, probably Aang. Protective Older Brother Mode for a character that isn’t even technically his sibling is Very Good.

My crossover ship: I don’t really have crossover ships

[applegelstore]

Hey! Just wanted to drop by and say I really love your art and seeing your content! Along with the ideas you speak of sometimes. It's so nice to see because it looks like you enjoy what you do. It's an inspiration, really. I also wanted to ask, what's your inspiration? And what keeps you motivated? And this next one might be a bit personal, but do you have moments of self doubt? How do you deal with it?

Hi! First of all, thanks a lot for the ask, I don’t get personal questions about my art very often, so it’s very cool to see that some people are actual people and not porn bots, and are actually interested in the things I post!

Now for the actual ask, which I’ll totally have to divide into parts. I’ll also set a cut because it got hella long. Now, let’s go!

I have a very bad habit of word vomiting whenever I post art. It’s not only ever since I’ve started binge drawing Zesty fanart, I’ve pretty much always been like this ever since I started posting art on the internet about… 12 years ago at the very least?It used to be a lot of musing about the art itself (like, “what do you think, should I have tried this or that?” or “I had trouble with this thing” or “I actually like how whatever turned out”), which is probably due to the fact that teenage me had still a lot to learn and wasn’t afraid to admit that and ask for advice. I mostly posted my art online to get some peer advice.Nowadays, I am still aware of my shortcomings, but I don’t talk about the technical aspects of my art that often anymore. Nowadays, I have two reasons for posting art online: 1) I’m trying to make a living out of this shit, so naturally I’m trying to make as many people as possible aware of the fact that I exist. 2) I just wanna talk about the thing ™. Honestly. Never underestimate either of these points. That’s why there’s very often so much text and ranting in the tags. Because. I. want. to. talk. about. the. thing. I have an unholy amount of sticky notes on my desktop with ideas of things I’d either like to do because I think it would be subjectively cool, or because it might be a good addition to my portfolio. (spoilers: the former usually gets done like a decade earlier)I’m very glad that the sparks fly over and it shows that I love the things I love! ♥The result is novel-length descriptions for single sketches and tag vomit, though, lol.

“I also wanted to ask, what’s your inspiration?”

There’s no easy answer to that. First of all, it sounds a bit as if I was actively looking for inspiration. Which I am not. As I said, I rather have too many ideas and end up scrapping an unholy amount because even if I only do doodle shitpost sketches there’s no way I can do it all in a lifetime. I don’t know whether you had been implying that I actively look for inspiration or not, but if you did, let me tell you that I don’t. If you didn’t mean to imply that, no harm done.However, that doesn’t mean I don’t GET any. Because of course I get my inspiration from all kinds of places. I don’t watch a lot of movies, but I love going to the cinema and hearing the sounds and get eye candy (I love epic shots with the camera panning over landscapes and cool action scenes. Also, go watch The Secret of Kells, everyone). I always come out of blockbuster movies feeling like I wanna do something epic, too. I always listen to a whole lot of music, too, and there’s way too many songs that make me want to tell stories, and that plant pictures in the cinema in my head.(there was a time before Tales of Zestiria when I did original art and most of my paintings had some kind of musical inspiration lol. My stories, too).

Then there’s style and subject matter.Style first. I stopped aiming for a specific style pretty early on (like, late teens), and just accepted what came to me and works for me. The result is the weird anime not quite anime semi realism mixture that I have going, and the ratio usually varies depending on what I currently want to do. If I gave you a list of my favorite artists, you’d probably be surprised how little my own art has in common with theirs.Subject matter? WELLLLLL my original stuff comes from what I told you above, additionally, I studied medieval literature for a reason, and I loved mythological tales from my teenage years onwards. I’m much less enthusiastic about them now, but it used to influence my original art for quite a few years.…Also, I obviously like to do fanart. Like, a lot.

Also spoilers: I obviously love Zesty a tiny bit too much, because for no other fandom the streak of fanart has ever been holding up for two years and still counting without an end in sight, and I’ve never come up with any AUs, either. Usually my ideas went straight into original material, and this original material usually got top priority, but here it’s different, and I’m not sure whether it’s a good or a bad thing, haha. So basically don’t wait for my original stories* until I’m either a) done with the Zesty fandom or they’ve united and kicked me out or b) I’ve actually drawn at least four more full scale elaborate illustrations, have created the four or five AUs that I keep doodling for and ranting about, and I have finally run out of steam. Bets are up what happens first.

If you want specifics, it’s always easier to determine inspiration for a particular piece than in general. It can be so many different things.

* Although I still very, very much like some of my ideas and would actually love to do them. I just love to do low-effort Zesty fanart more XD. Shocking! But honestly, I am as surprised as anyone else that my muses shifted as much as they have, and mid-twenties me would never have guessed she’d fall into this rabbit hole in no time…

“And what keeps you motivated?”

I never… really needed to push myself to be motivated. It’s always been intrinsic. I had pictures in my head, I wanted them out. So I had to learn how, and do it. I have ideas in my head. I want to share them. I very much like this thing others have made. I want to tell the entire world how much I love it, so I do by drawing fanart. Simple as that.Positive responses (and asks like this!!) are a great motivator to POST art, but not to DO the art. The latter is intrinsic.Actually, probably TOO intrinsic. Because I keep drawing the things I WANT to draw and not those which would teach me new skills and thus help with “make money with art” thing. So I guess it’s a bit of a mixed bag, haha.I started drawing daily instead of just regularly at some point during my master’s studies, so roughly 8-5 years ago? Whenever I’m on the road or beaten by illness or bad feelings, I sometimes only manage very simple, super bad sketches, but it’s better than nothing. Luckily, it’s not like that every day (still more often that I’d like to, though).

If you’re wondering:Yes, I’ve had artblocks. Usually not in the sense of “I don’t have ideas”, but VERY MUCH in the sense of “I don’t feel like any of the ideas I have right now” and also “nothing I touch turns out the way I want it to turn out”. To all artists out there: it goes away. Believe me. Your stupid period will be over next week (to the guys out there: that’s not a joke. It DOES affect my general condition). It will be better the moment YOU feel better from whatever you’re currently suffering from.Yes, I’ve also scrapped ideas not because I didn’t like them after all, but because I tried and just failed repeatedly at executing them. Yes, I’ve had such bad times in life that I didn’t want to do ANYTHING. That included art. I just. didn’t. want. to. do. anything. Sometimes I still have these phases, but at least it no longer lasts for months straight without break.

“And this next one might be a bit personal, but do you have moments of self doubt?”

Pfft. Of course. Show me an artist who hasn’t. I’ve learned by now that you can acquire every skill you want. The question is whether you have the time and the will for it. If I had started drawing daily much earlier in life, and if I’d practiced more of the things I’m not good at instead of doodle shitposting, I’d be at an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT level than I am now. Even if I had STILL studied what I studied as I did (as I said, medieval literature, nothing art related). I’ve been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil and my parents have always been supportive, so that wasn’t a problem, I just wasn’t aware all these years that it could be something future me might want. Past me couldn’t have KNOWN. It’s okay, in a way. I can do the things I WANT to do by now. Not always as majestically as the ideas deserve, but it does the job. I don’t need to be able to do hyper realistic portraits, or hyper detailed interiors of space ships, for example. (it would be cool to be able to draw musical instruments tho. I’d love to learn 2D animation, too, but WHEN??) In short, am I aware that I’m not god and that my skills are limited in comparison to many other artists? Yes. Is that a problem? No.Do I doubt whether I can do my job, though? Very much yes. Because successful freelance artists don’t only need skill, they need to sell themselves, and I suck at that most epically. Do I miss the times when I didn’t even think about becoming better but simply drew for fun? Pretty much, yeah. Do I miss the times when I still had the ability to concentrate on elaborate, large paintings? Yes, I do. But I can’t turn my brain back to 10 year old. So I’ll have to deal with what I have now.

If you’re wondering whether I had moments of self doubt about my ideas, then, yes, very super much yes. I am convinced that the things you produce should be what YOU want to see. I want to draw what I want and tell the stories I WANT TO SEE AND READ. As I said, I’m doing it because I want these things to exist. Does it still hurt if nobody else likes these ideas? Yes, yes it does very much. It’s not even that I start thinking my ideas were bad, but that I start thinking “Nobody understands me and nobody will ever be able to like me because they don’t like my ideas, and my ideas are part of me”. Which is true, but it is ALSO true that you do not have to like every single idea some other person has to like them or be friends with them, I am aware of that, but if I may be honest here, it’s still a thought that I can’t quite get rid of, and still gets me angsty whenever I share some of my story ideas with anyone.

“How do you deal with it?”

I don’t. Ahem. Truth be told, I never really developed a proper coping mechanism for failures, and I don’t exactly like that about myself, but I still haven’t found a proper solution. As much as I stress that I do the things I do because I actually want to, I also told you that it scares me to see people disagreeing. It’s not only art related, whenever I feel I messed something up (school ie. marks, socialisation, whatever), it eats at me for days or even weeks until something positive happens (like, better marks, a compliment, anything). I don’t really like it, mostly because it starts a vicious cycle, but that’s how it is. I had surprisingly little problems with that during my university years because I had good marks, but I still mess up at least 50% of all the social interaction I do. It’s not always that easy with art, either.Story time.I remember one conversation with an artist who’s teaching art classes at my (ex) university, like, portrait drawings and flower paintings. So at some point when I started trying to live on art, I asked her whether she’d be interested in offering classes for other art styles as well, like comic drawing classes. She said she’d be interested, so I wanted to talk to her in person, but she never replied to that email reply. I decided to be bold for once, grabbed my portfolio, and went to her after one of her classes to show her what I’m doing. Put on the spot, she admitted that she didn’t reply any further because she didn’t like what I was doing. It was good from a technical aspect, but it seemed dull and uninspired to her, like something she had seen too many times already.I was devastated.I’ve always had to deal with underwhelming responses from peers and friends, too, but I also got some really sweet reactions and genuine support, so it was kind of a mixed bag, overall. I wasn’t used to that kind of harsh rejection of who I am.

Am I also very, VERY petty and jealous? Hell, yes. I get VERY jealous whenever I see people whose art is on my level or below but they still manage to make money with it, and have 10-100 times the amount of followers I have and/or get more enthusiastic responses online. It just makes me angry. The only way of coping I’ve ever found is stay the fuck away. I KNOW that it’s not these people’s fault if I’m jealous, and goddamn, freelance artist life is hard enough as it is. We don’t need to tear other apart. Surely they worked their asses off to be where they are. Heck, I’m friends with some. I keep away from those people so I can calm down and stop being angry, before I start lashing out at artists just because they get the attention they need and deserve. It’s not THEIR fault that I need money and also reassurance.

The only thing that ever worked for me to overcome any of these issues is just continue nevertheless. Keep doing what you’re doing. Remember what you love and why and JUST KEEP DOING IT. Even if you don’t see the point right now. Chances are you will see that point again. Maybe you never will. But IF you ever do, you want to make damn sure that you didn’t drop the ball in the meantime. There’s that saying that you can lose if you fight, but you can’t win if you never fight. It’s true. Be stubborn and show the world your middle finger.Spoilers: I’m teaching comic style drawing classes for the “rivaling” institute now. Always only in super small groups and it’s badly paid, so I don’t know for how long I’ll be able to keep it up, but it’s a start, right?

I hope that answered your questions!

Last remark: always remember, kids: you HAVE to produce the content you want to see yourself. Nobody is gonna do it for you unless you pay them. So. I’m doing it. Against better judgment, lol.…and watch The Secret of Kells.

[proserpine-in-phases]

@nachttour tagged me in a writing question thing!

1) is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason?

uh yeah there’s like, several. some of them are better developed than other but a lot of the reason I’ve been holding off on writing them just comes down to feeling inadequate due to my own limited experience with relationships and feelings of complete inadequacy. it’s hard to write an epic romancu when I’m aromantic as fuck and have a hard time conceptualizing what those feelings might be like to experience, for example, or like, I want the story to be funny but I feel like I’m not actually a very funny person?

also I always feel like I need to do more research. I get stuck on the research phase about 85% of the time haha

2) what work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

man I am embarrassed by MYSELF existing, so  idk probably all of it when you get right down to it

3) what order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

it seems to vary a bit. sometimes I just power through start to finish, but sometimes I need to write the ending first to remind myself of what I’m shooting for. sometimes I just gotta write some random scenes in the middle before I forget what they are and have to figure out where they’ll go later.

considering the longest thing I’ve managed to finish comes in at about 12 k  I don’t know if I have enough data to really come up with a firm answer for this one though. from what I can tell, it really does seem like I start at the beginning and go for a bit, write the end, and try to connect the two with occasional random middle bits getting written out of order and a general feeling of “I’ll fix it in post” carrying me through

4) favorite character you’ve written

probably Samantha Traynor. she’s such a fucking nerd and I love her. it was surprisingly easy to write for her once I got started. at least I THINK I did a good job writing her, I have no actual idea haha

5) character you were most surprised to end up writing

I’ve written TWO mass effect fics featuring Samara as a main character and I have no idea how this happened or why because she’s about in the middle when it comes to my most to least favorite mass effect characters list

6) something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now

there’s a couple of fics I wrote for fic exchanges that I kinda wish I could take back and turn into something else because I love the concept but feel guilty about idk, using as a springboard because the original is a gift, or something. it feels ehhhhhhhhh disingenuous to continue them when the gift is supposed to be a singular and self contained unit

for example, oh man I would love to take that vrisrezi space pirates au someplace, but I don’t know if I should because the fic itself is a gift, complete, and so forth. 

plus I hate the way I run out of steam about 4 chapters into everything. I would like to not run out of motivation please

7) when asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

considering my output is so low I barely consider myself a writer at all tbh.

but yes, embarrassed. I hope to god the three people I know irl who follow me just like. never see those posts haha

8) favorite genre to write

space adventure! and lately? mysteries even though I have no FUCKING idea why or even how to write them, which is why I have at least three projects stalled out on me haha

9) what, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

I read a lot, mostly. sometimes I stare at a wall. or play minesweeper. 

also when I’m doing something fairly mindless sometimes my mind wanders and I hit something. 

oh and music. music is great

10) write in silence or with background noise? with people or alone?

I usually need music, mood music preferable, instrumental so the lyrics don’t distract me. generally I prefer to not be around people when I write, though a public setting is also fun to write in. I’m too distractable to actually get any done though, so I usually end up just looking like a tool with their notebook out if I try to write in a coffee shop or whatever tho, haha

11) what aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing?

I think writing fanfic has really helped me figure out what it means to write in character. also I think I’m starting to get better at balancing dialogue versus narration? at least a little bit

12) your weaknesses as an author

the inability to actually finish shit. 

unwillingness to approach emotions that make me feel uncomfortable. 

the fact that I often approach writing a character with the thought of what I would do in a situation rather than what the character would do (which is why writing fanfiction is helping me with that haha)

coming up with plots that lend themselves well to longer stuff

13) your strengths as an author

pretty good at dialogue

when it comes to my own shit, pretty good at coming up with interesting fantasy worlds (I think they’re interesting at least)

I’ve got a pretty firm grasp overall just the nuts and bolts of writing: I mean I tutored English in college for fuck’s sake I know how to write a grammatically correct run on sentence when I want to 

14) do you make playlists for your current wips?

not really

15) why did you start writing?

I wanted to know what happened next

16) are there any characters who haunt you?

not really? I mean, there are specific character TYPES that’ll get me every time, though, like the happy go lucky person who has to learn what pain is but still come out the other side a LOT worse for wear but not completely broken (think Tasslehoff Burrfoot, or perhaps less obscure Vash the Stampede) but I wouldn’t say they haunt me, per say

17) if you could give your fledgling author self any advice, what would it be?

don’t be afraid to be self indulgent. you’ll enjoy it more and who the fuck cares, anyway? people who’ll make fun of you for doing what you love are ass holes

18) were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? what were they?

If I’m honest I can’t really say what influences my writing style, if I even have one. Mostly all I can do is list off my favorite authors because I’m pretty sure they all have something to do with it. 

so let’s just do that I guess.  when I was a teenager I tended to find a single author and just read through all their works before moving on, and these are the big ones that stand out:

Connie Willis, Anne McCaffrey, Steven Brust and Ursula K. Le Guin. Connie Willis for the humor she includes in almost all her writing, Anne McCaffrey because I STILL spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about Pern. She had a real skill for coming up with both great characters and great settings, even if what she did with them, and also her inability to keep continuity were less good. Steven Brust introduced me to the idea of relating to morally reprehensible characters at an alarmingly young age. Ursula K. Le Guin, I just love her. No idea if it’s actually done anything GOOD to my writing but she gives me something to aspire to.

I read just. a ridiculous amount of fantasy and science fiction as a kid, the genres as a whole without a doubt influence the type of shit I end up writing. also in seventh grade I mainlined dragonlance, just the whole damn thing

later in college I got really into Margaret Atwood. her focus on female characters and narrative just is really great.  

then I went through a depressive phase in my late 20s and just exclusively read Julia Quinn, Joanna Lindsey, Sabrina Jeffreys and Eloisa James, and that was IT. so I’m pretty sure my foray into the romance genre is what makes me honestly prefer povs limited to two or three characters  hey, reading romance novels also lead me to the realization that I’m aromantic so \o/ I guess

19) when it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

I outline and then give up lol

20) do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?

little spurts until something grabs me and makes me marathon. usually that’s a deadline, but sometimes it’s also inspiration 

21) what do you think when you read over your older work?

mostly just holy shit I can’t believe I wrote this! sometimes that’s bad, sometimes it’s good. I can’t really tell if I’m good at divorcing myself from my writing enough to give me perspective on it, to tell the truth, because for a good lot of it, I still think it’s pretty good so ???

22) are there any subjects that make you uncomfortable to write?

it’s hard for me to let a character be embarrassed by the dumb shit they do. I don’t want them to do dumb shit because of it, which makes it hard for the character to have shit to grow and learn from.

23) any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing?

I’m pretty sure my own issues with having and experiencing some emotions makes its way into the stuff I choose to write about, especially when it comes to the original stuff (I have. at LEAST three different plot outlines that involve characters literally losing the ability to experience emotions and having to find a way to heal or gain it back haha)  

also the fic I wrote about the box ghost is literally just about what it’s like to work in a factory haha

24) have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story?

listen. 

yes.

I fucking. LOVE. research. 

honestly this is the stage where I most often get lost in the weeds, distracted by my own need to know more

25) copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of

“He was not the knight Casey taught him to be, but he was close enough for government work“ remains the single best pun I’ve ever written

tagging: @anthropwashere @inktail @manicpixiesdreamdragon if you guys are up for it!

[cena316aa]

My Nonspoilery Review of Infinity War

Alright! I watched the premiere last night and I finally got my head cleared up enough to post my thoughts on the film. If you’re planning to watch it this weekend and want to know what to kinda expect or if it’s worth it, take this as a review from a Marvel fan :)

First, the pros

This movie was made for the fans and it was extremely noticeable

There were kids and adults and teens there and we all laughed at the same parts and were quiet in the same parts, and it’s just a blast for the whole family so take your little (or big) Marvel fans to it!

The trailer was so misleading in some parts haha! Loved it. Like the scenes in the trailer happened in unexpected ways

Lots of references to the other movies but they weren’t thrown at your face. They were more like passing references but when you caught them it made you giddy 

Yes, Stan Lee cameo. I’m glad :)

Ned Leeeeeds!!! lollll his moment was priceless

Wanda and Vision are relationship goals 

The dialogue was amazing! It was my favorite part of the movie

Tony Stark goes freaking great with everybody I stg 

I especially liked him with Strange 

The tone of all the movies were present when a character from that movie appeared so it was like you were watching all the movies at once and it felt awesome

so like the Guardians had the comedic tone like their movies, Steve Rogers was more intense like always, Black Panther was serious with some mellow moments, etc...

The Magic Cloth

Squidward

Spider-Man was my favorite!!!! Peter Parker was just so spot on. Tom Holland, you are a blessing to the Marvel franchise

The way Steve Rogers made his first appearance was EPIC

Also the best fight scene in my opinion was between the females 

Shuri came out and was awesome so that’s always a plus 

Quill, Drax, and Stark were the funniest in my opinion (but that’s no surprise)

Yes, M’Baku did show up. Revel in his amazingness! 

The bubbles 

Thanos is a great villain for the franchise especially if he’s the final villain for this Avengers franchise (idk if he will be, but that’d be a cool end)

Lots of Gamora which was really nice

Actually, the females were not just background characters. Especially the Black Panther girls and Wanda. They were in the foreground a lot. It was nice to go from the men to the women in the scene changes.

CGI was beautiful. The Iron Spider suit and Iron Man’s new suit looked amazing. And those fight scenes looked so fluid

Steve Rogers’ hair was so floofy

“World’s Greatest Defender” >.<

LOTS of Dad!Tony!!!!! 

Peter Parker in general (did I mention that already haha)

Really digging Thor’s new haircut

Actually just Thor in general. He was soooo fucking funny and also extremely intense. And badass. Like always

“Rabbit”

All those pop culture reference by the Peters

Bucky’s character change

It was funny, intense, and sad. It had everything that all other Marvel movies have in just one film

There WAS an after credits scene and omg was it my favorite of all time!!!!!!! STAY FOR IT especially if you’re a FAN of MARVEL in general

Okay there was a lot I loved but now for some cons; don’t let these deter you though...I’m a fan of the comics and movies so like I can’t help but compare them sometimes but for the purpose of this I’ll try not to

This movie felt like if you didn’t watch the rest....you wouldn’t be able to enjoy it. I feel that you have to watch the latest movies to fully grasp what’s going on. So, if you’re a newbie, you can still get what’s going on...but you’re gonna miss A LOT of things. My sister watched it and she hasn’t seen some of the first movies and she loved it but then again she’s 7 so she was just happy she got to see Spider-Man, Thor, and Black Panther. So, you CAN watch it, but go at your own risk

The biggest thing that bugged me was that the movie was too fast paced. Of course, with such a huge cast it was expected so I wasn’t disappointed by this but it is noticeable. It didn’t make the movie bad, per se, just it feels too fast when you’re watching it. Scenes would sometimes change from one character to another to another so freaking fast so you have to be able to keep up with everything that’s going on. And there’s A LOT going on

Because of this, I felt that there was sometimes too much dialogue and action. There weren’t a lot of “quiet” moments. There was always something going on which was GREAT but also TIRING to keep up with. 

The scene changes sometimes didn’t really flow well. Idk, I’m just used to Marvel being so fluid. I’m guessing it was because of (again) all the characters. There were some scenes that flowed realllll nicely together which was amazing when the two scenes were completely different in tone and setting, but sometimes it felt choppy. 

Again (again), relating to the huge cast of characters, I wish some had had more time. Sometimes I felt that they rushed through characters just to show them and they didn’t get to shine as much but in order for Marvel to accomplish this they’d have to make like a six hour movie

However, every character had their moments which was AMAZING for them to do in a movie with this many personalities!!! I was honestly surprised they accomplished to give them all time in the limelight whether it was just a quote they delivered or one action sequence. So good job, Marvel! 

Yes, for those wondering about any “deaths” ....yes it did happen but like...to me the internet built it up too much >.> so I was expecting the most painful scenario and it wasn’t as emotionally wrecking as I thought it’d be. So for this one, the internet ruined it for me. It wasn’t Marvel’s fault...it was all of YOU!!! (lol jk....but really tho)

I still cried tho

This one is kinda SPOILERY so don’t read it if you don’t want to know anything about the end

The ending. They had said that the two movies would feel like separate films but.....well to me it didn’t. And I heard people complain when it ended because like...it just ended. I was expecting it to continue and then all of a sudden we see the credits roll. It was just sudden. It didn’t feel like an end

BUT!!!! The after credits scene made up for it :) I was satisfied by the ending after it

So, long story short, it was a fun movie for MCU fans and comic fans alike. If you’re new to Marvel, you may want to brush up on the first films, but you don’t have to. You can still follow along the main plot. There were so many references to the other movies but also some neat little comic things. The fact that it had such a HUGE cast of characters was amazing but you can tell that it was hard for the filmmakers to properly fit them all in. It felt more fastpaced than other movies because of it. But, it was nice. For the huge project they had ahead of them, everybody involved in Infinity War did a great job. I can’t wait for the next one! 

[theabominableblogger]

My Reaction to “Gotham” S4E19

We gotta wait two weeks until the rest of the episodes!!!  Which is actually a pretty smart move because “Infinity War” premieres next week.

Initial thoughts and predictions about the last three episodes of S4 are included as well after the reaction.

AN:  I managed to record my reactions to this episode and hopefully I can transcribe what I said into this post.

*imitates the Epic Voice Trailer guy doing the Gotham commercials*

OK, this recap is totally full of spoilers for me because I haven’t seen those episodes yet so this is my first time seeing Ra’s in action and I’m trying to catch up with this show...

What did they inject her [Tabitha] with?

OK Barbara, what are you doing?

*Some League Members sneak attack Barbara*  Oh wow!

“How should I know?!?  You’re ninjas!”  That’s... racist...

“I’m [Barbara] the Demon’s Head.  My hand is a freaking lightbulb!”  *snorts*

So the Demon’s Head can tell.. the future... with the flashlight hand?  OK...

Bruce, your car’s so loud!

“You don’t have a covert mode on this thing?”  No, cause it’s not the Batmobile yet!

*Bruce quiets the exhaust down*  Ohhhh... there we go!

“All I know is it’s about Barbara and it’s important.”  WHY? Why would you go along with that?

Bruce, why?  Just get back in the Batmobile!

 “Barbara needs our help.”  Why?

They’re gonna bring him [Ra’s] back from the dead?!?

I like this music here [that plays when the other League members take some of Bruce’s blood to bring back Ra’s]

Ohhh my God!

Ooooohhhhhh my God!

Wait, what about the Lazarus Pit?  Can’t they use that?  Just... throw him in?

Yeah, didn’t Sofia get shot in the forehead?  How is she still alive?

“What am I [Ed] to you [Lee]?”  Good question.

What the hell is this storyline?  Like, where are we going with this?

Freaking Oswald...

That sass, oh my god...

DID HE [Ra’s] JUST RIP OUT THE DUDE’S THROAT?

I knew Barbara wasn’t gonna last as the Demon’s Head!

Ohhhhhh who called it??  I did!

“I heard your offer.  And here’s my counter...”  Bite me.

“Bite me.”  There we go!

“Ohhhh... God, are you kidding me?!?!?”  HAHAHAHAHAHA!!

“We did not come here to fight.”  No, you [Oswald] came here to mope.  And bitch and complain, Oswald.

“Little advice:  be sure to skim some off the top when she tosses you aside.”  What?  I’m sorry, what?

“Turns out the old boy’s club don’t appreciate a woman calling the shots.”  I don’t think it’s that....

“I [Barbara] need to do my own thing.”  Uhhhhhh.... Barbara, no...

How are they doing Ra’s half-dead zombie mouth?  Is that prosthetics or CGI?

“You [Barbara] think that [the lady in the painting] was you?  She was just a whore...”  Ooooohhhh....

“You really thought you were an incarnated queen?  But in truth, you’re just an unstable nightclub owner whose greatest accomplishment was the murder of her own parents!”  Oooooohhhh....

Now there’s more flesh on his [Ra’s] hand now.  There we go.

OHHHH... WOW!

WE GOT SWORD-FIGHTING RA’S AL GHUL!  YES!!

*accidentally whacks laptop with a clothes hanger in excitement*

Oh that looks AWESOME!

*Ra’s impales a League member through the back with his sword from across the street*  OHH WOW!

Bruce just looks pissed!

Are they [people from the Narrows] eating bugs?

Oh yeah, she’s [Lee] like the leader of the Narrows

When is Lee gonna get back to Gotham?

“You don’t get it, Jim.”  No, I don’t get your [Lee’s] storyline.

“We’re gonna kill the son of a bitch [Ra’s].”  How?

Why does Bruce have to the one to kill Ra’s?

*laughs*  Uhh, what?

I like Alfred’s suit

Ohh my God!  Haha, they’re [Alfred and Tabitha] pretending to be married!

[Selina gets lowered down through the roof to steal the knife] *starts scatting the Mission Impossible theme*

And they [the embassy security] don’t even notice the knife being gone!

No cameras were on or anything that caught that?  Really?

I don’t like this whole split personality thing going on with Ed.

 I don’t like this...

Or... plot twist!  What happens if like both personalities figure out what’s happening and they kinda *claps hands together*  merge together or something like that?  I don’t know.

Selina, what are you doing?

“Give me [Barbara] the knife!”  Noooo

“Stay back, muffin!”  “Don’t you even go there, love!”  Hahahaha!

*Barbara points a gun at Bruce*  Really?

*Barbara shoots out the tires*  Oh, that’s mean...

Nooooo... they [Tabitha, Barbara, and Selina] took the Batmobile!

“That lovestruck moron, Ed, is floating down a river of dopamine deep within the primitive circuit of my brain and I need you to help me drown him.”  Ohhh.. wow.

“And how big is the score?”  “Uh, about a hundred million.  A piece.”  Ohh, big payload.

“Stabby-stab!”

“Maybe call back up?”  “I [Barbara] did!  Here they are!”  Really?!?

“Selina, we’re strongest when we’re together.”  But this is a terrible plan!

Does she have to do a special spell or all she has to do is lift up her flashlight hand [to summon Ra’s]? 

Like “for the glory of Merlin, daylight is at my command!’ kind of thing...

Jim, what are you up to?

45 branches?!?  Of a bank?!?  In one city?

*Ra’s appears after the lights flicker and go out for a moment*  Ohhhh that’s cool!

“Ouch.”  HAHAHA!

*Ra’s throws Barbara through a glass window*  Oooooohhhh, wow!

*Bruce runs in and tackles Ra’s off of Barbara*  Ohhhh, Bruce in with the assist!

What?

Oh, it’s the future!

*Barbara sees Ra’s kill Tabitha*  Ohhhhh....

Wait, it’s another future thing!

“[Ra’s] You win.  Just don’t hurt her [Tabitha].”  Oh snap.

Ra’s funeral outfit that he’s wearing currently, with the hood, looks pretty sweet.  And with the ascot tucked into the vest.. that’s nice stuff.

*Ra’s starts transforming back into himself after getting the Demon’s Head back*  Uhhhh... everybody run?

Ohhhhh.... wow!

*Ra’s breaks the knife in half*  Shiiiiiiitt!

Bruce’s probably like “Man, I gotta learn how to do that Stealth Hi-Bye in the shadows like Ra’s does!”

Oh he [The Riddler] double-crossed them [Oswald and Butch]!

“If you come against Lee, you come against me.”  *cue incredulous look toward screen*

Take a shot every time Oswald goes into crazy yelling mode

Wasn’t it like a few episodes ago where the Riddler broke Oswald out of Arkham and they had their whole working together thing?

I like that shot of Ed putting on the bowler hat

Lee...

“[Lee] You know your rights.”  Oh wow.  Cold!

Barbara, what are you wearing?  That’s hideous.

*Barbara’s League members pledge their loyalty to her*  Ooohhh, so she has her own army now?!?

Ohhh... OK, things are getting interesting!

Can’t they just forge it [the knife] back together?

*Bruce leans in to kiss Selina*  Oh oh ooh ooooohhhhhhh....

*Ra’s interrupts*  OOOHH!!

Has he [Ra’s] been there the whole time?

“You have no idea what I’ll become.”  “Of course I do.  At least, what you could become.”  He’s telling the future!

“When I took back the Demon’s Head, I saw a vision of a cataclysmic event soon to befall this city.”  No Man’s Land!

“A cleansing fire that will purify, destroy, create.”  Ohhh..

“I will use it as a mighty forge, molding you into a dark knight of Gotham.”  Aaaahhhh!!

Oh wow!

OK, does that mean that for the No Man’s Land storyline coming up, does that we’re gonna get a “Batman Begins” kind of situation?  Where they would have to close off the Narrows and leave Scarecrow to go nuts in there.. and then...

“A cleansing fire...” yeah, they’re gonna try to burn it down!  Yeah, it’s gonna be like the Great Fire of London and burn Gotham down to the ground.  Are they gonna have that as well as the earthquake?  Because with No Man’s Land, the earthquake caused the government to segregate Gotham from the rest of the world (like no one was allowed in or out).  So how is this gonna work?

Or maybe Ra’s hasn’t seen like the whole future yet... no, he has to know, because Barbara had that whole Butterfly effect thing with seeing what decisions were bad for her to make.  So maybe he’s not telling Bruce the whole truth...

And with Season 5, if we ever get a Season 5, is gonna be a soft reboot because they’re gonna bring in more Batman-related elements so probably in the season finale, Bruce is gonna step up his vigilante game and all that (but I highly doubt he’s gonna go full Batman at the age of 18 like whoa, little soon, buddy).

And promo pictures of some of the villains doing their own thing were released already, so that’s probably how this season’s gonna end.  Wow.  Because we have Jeremiah stepping in as the Proto-Joker (who looks eerily like young Jack Napier from the 1989 Batman), and then all the others... wow!

And then, what’s gonna happen to Ecco?  She’s his [Jeremiah] bodyguard!  Like, he said that she pledged his life to him or something like that and he looked pretty freaked out when he though Ecco was in danger.  I don’t know what’s gonna happen to her.... I really hope she lives.  I know there’s a lot of theories going around about her.. there’s a theory that she’s gonna be Harley Quinn, which I’m not sure about.... while I kinda find it interesting, I’m more leaning toward the fact that there is another character from “No Man’s Land” named Echo, and that’s who she is.  Or...theory time:  what if Ecco ends up teaming up with Bruce and Gordon and she’s like “Hey, so Jeremiah’s going off the deep end and I want to make sure you guys can take him down rightfully but in order to do that, I’m gonna be a double agent for you guys and still work with Jeremiah as his bodyguard.”  I can see that happening...

How is the end of this season gonna go?

[casscutting]

Author Interview: David Viergutz

I had the pleasure of meeting David (online) by complete chance. I was mindlessly scrolling through my Instagram feed one night and came across a post from a writer that I follow. He had just finished reading this book with one of the most beautiful covers I’d seen in a while. I read the caption then immediately went to Goodreads to see what this book was about. I was HOOKED from the synopsis and added it to my “Want To Read” list.

I went back and commented on that post, gushing over the cover and saying how I needed to read this book. Sometime after I get a message request from this guy, David Viergutz, I am shit with names until I get to know someone (online and in-person) so it never dawned on me who it was.

But I opened the message and he was saying how he saw my post and offered to send me an e-book in exchange for an honest review and I JUMPED at the chance and I am glad I did. I knew from the first page of his book I was going to love it and I did. I also hoped that he would be down for an interview and I was elated when he said yes.

David is an amazing writer and author and I look forward to seeing his career take off because I know it will. I encourage every one of you to go and get a copy of his books you won’t regret it.

Why don’t we start off with an easy question, why do you tell us who you are and a little about yourself?

So, I’m a bit of an oddball in the writing community, or so I feel. I’m a father of two (15 and 2, yeah…I know…) and a Law Enforcement Officer. I joined the Army straight out of high school and became a LEO shortly after. I had ZERO idea I wanted to be a writer. It wasn’t until my wife came around, about 10 years later, who convinced me I COULD be a writer. It was interesting, she looked at me and said, “Write the damn book!” after we had discussed how I had wanted to write one since I was 12. Like so many others, writing fell to the wayside as work took over.

Besides work, and writing, I’m a personal trainer and have my own business, and I recently dove head-in to leatherwork. I’m still learning, but it’s fun.

My wife is also a LEO and a medical student. I’m just counting down until residency so I can retire at 32 and write full-time, haha.

You are the author of The Box And The Bird a novella that came out in October 2019 as well as The Demonic Compendium a wonderful novel that I've had the pleasure of reading. Can you tell my readers a little about these books?

The Demonic Compendium is my flagship into the world I am writing. I never set out to write a book, I set out to create a universe. Most of my favorite series end so soon and I wish there was more. In writing epic-fantasy, I wanted to make sure this wasn’t an issue for my readers. That being said,

The Box and the Bird is a taste of The Demonic Compendium Universe, also known as The Darkenverse. (Think Marvel Cinematic Universe or the Star Wars Expanded Universe). This book is a fast-paced intense read that follows Samantha Lawson as her husband Richard returns home from a business trip with something terrible. This book ties into the main universe, but is not considered on the main timeline. I offer it free on my website davidviergutz.com.

The Demonic Compendium is my bread and butter and the first of many in the series. While it is epic fantasy, I bring in some elements that I think set it apart. Anti-heros, doom-and-gloom, dread, epic-battles and a fully immersive world. One reader said he felt like he wasn’t just in the story, he was also watching my main character Shaw cast wild demonic-magic and tromp through the castle.

The Demonic Compendium takes place in the wake of a terrible tragedy that has befallen a budding kingdom. We follow Shaw as he is forced to make terrible decisions for the greater good, and hopefully, find his purpose in the process. Not to give too much away, but there’s a reason my personal mantra for writing is:

“The hero doesn’t always win. The good guy doesn’t always get the girl. Things are going to get a lot worse.”

What was your inspiration for these stories, where did the original spark come from?

Well, I truly wrote the book I wanted to read. I thought back to a few captivating moments from what I’ve read and seen in movies and wanted my readers to get chills as they read the epic moments. Think about when Gandalf stands on the bridge with his infamous line. Or King Leonidas when he boots the emissary into the hole. Or when the Red Ranger screams “Tyrannosaurs!” I wanted a book FILLED with those moments, so I focused on those big events, and built a world to fit it.

The Demonic Compendium is the first book in your debut series, how many books do you have planned for the series altogether?

It’s hard to say. I’ve purchased covers for three additional books, as well as a novella from the same timeline following another lead character. As long as my readers love it, I’ll keep writing it. That said, I have a new series flagship releasing this year in the urban-fantasy genre.

Steering away from the book related questions. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I spoke above about my wife giving me inspiration to write this particular book, and get to the end of it, but my overall spark came when I was about 10 years old. I carried a black notebook with a home-made floppy-disk holder on the inside cover. I’d write my story paragraphs out, then read them to my friends and transfer them to the floppy disk.

This was my art, because I had failed art…I couldn’t connect two dots, I would have just eaten the crayon because I thought the assignment was stupid. I find my ability to write is a carry over from my ability to speak, so I stuck with what I was good at.

From idea to publication about how long does it take you to write a book?

Planning and plotting are about a solid two weeks (part time, a few hours a night). After that, my pace is a steady 1000 words an hour. On a good day (I’m married with kids remember) I can pump out 10k if I’m left alone. Most of my books are planned and plotted for 100k, minus the novellas. So, math aside, I’d say 30 days. I wouldn’t say a month, because life likes to drop a dragon in my living room. Now that I have my business processes down, 30 days is an accurate guess. When writing TDC, I had to learn the business, hire a cover artist, formatter, etc, so that delayed my process.

Both of your current books are indie published why did you choose to go this route and not the traditional one?

I love working for myself, and as I see my books as my art, I am reluctant to give that up. I’m very much a self-made-man, and I feel when my writing is loved and only my own efforts are responsible, it’s just that much sweeter when I make a single sale.

Which authors inspired you to write?

This is a tough one, as a lot of authors I enjoy have a lot of overlap. I prefer their methods instead of just their stories so I’ll mention those. From Dean Koontz, I loved The Husband for the mind-bending twist. Michael Crichton for the adventures in Jurassic Park, and Garth Nix for his epic magic in The Abhorsen Series.

What is the best writing advice you’ve heard?

Write the story you want to read. You don’t need to please everyone; you just need to please your fans.

Can you tell us about your writing process? What’s a typical writing day for you?

I’m a musically motivated to write. When I sit down at my desk, I make sure the music I’m listening to matches what’s happening in the story. There cannot be any words however, it must feel like I’ve got my own theme-song as I narrate on paper what I’m seeing in my mind.

My process is that of a plotter. I start with my epic moments, then think about who I want to be a part of them, then build in my what-if statements.

What-if a dragon lands in my living room? What-if it looks terrifying?

Now, I’m forced to answer my own questions with more plotting.

And then it seems to be entirely confused. And then it has crippling self-esteem issues.

I then arrange these series of thoughts into an outline, expand on them, and use that to write pages.

If the perfected productive writing day existed what would it look like for you?

I’m an easy fellow. 5:00 AM-6:59 AM workout. 7:00 AM-7:59 AM post-workout shake, shower, get ready, chores at home. 8:00 AM-11:59 AM in the office with hot coffee. 12:00-12:44 PM break to warm up meals and walk around neighborhood. 12:45-3:45, edit what I just wrote 4:00PM-5:00 PM, marketing, social media and business functions. 5:01-8:00 PM family time to include dinner. 8:01-11:00 PM, read, more writing or hobbies.

Why do you write?

Because I can’t afford to pay an author to write books exactly how I want to read them. I love my own stories.

What is the hardest thing about being a writer?

Okay besides the usual gripe that I hear/read people hear/write about, self-esteem, doubt, anxiety, introverts, socially awkward etc.…

How about the fact that we’re trying to make money on a commodity that has fallen to social media, instant gratification, and the digital age? The average e-book sells for $2.99. That’s a lot of books to sell just to fill the gas-tank.

What are you currently working on?

Book Two of The Demonic Compendium: The Queen of Duska Cereal of Third City: A novella from the TDC series timeline

The Bullet Board: An action packed urban-fantasy heist.

Lastly, what is the best advice you can offer someone who dreams of one day being an author?

Fake it until you make it. Undoubtedly you know something I don’t about writing, even if you’ve only written a Facebook post. You are the expert of YOUR stories. Stop looking for validation from others on how THEY would change YOUR story. 

If they don’t like your story, they can write their own. Give yourself some credit and when you’ve finish something, anything, show it off, and be proud, it’s your art.

Author Links: Website Instagram Twitter Goodreads Facebook

Book Links: Goodreads Amazon

Question of the day:

If you could ask your favorite author a question what would it be?

[topicprinter]

A few days ago I made a post about Instagram secrets which got a lot of hype. Later I made a post about the Facebook Fraud which too got a lot of hype.These both posts had a lot of common questions. One of them being the blue print of Instagram that worked for me after 11 months of research.If you haven't already - PLEASE - have a look at the post The Facebook Fraud or else you'll just hate all the techniques I'm going to discuss in this post. Yes - THEY ARE dishonest (a lot of cheating) - but I guess if Facebook, Instagram and billion dollar social media agencies are OPENLY fucking everyone over for making an extra buck then why should we be the righteous men?If you choose the honest path then I guess you should better leave all social media platforms as they themselves are nothing short of blackhat thieves.The Blue Print(Once again this would make sense if you had read the other two posts I made) You can check them here - https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/7ezgco/the_facebook_fraud/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/7erlr3/hushhush_secrets_to_instagram_no_one_would_share/Step 1Make an Instagram account that has possibility of getting monetized. At the end of the day - if you're going to work hard to build an Instagram audience / fan base - it has to give you something in return right?There are some niches that are BOOMING and always will get a LOT of hype on Instagram.Don't get me wrong - almost everything can be monetized but some niches are easier and quicker to monetize.My personal experience is that niches related to beauty, fashion, travel, hotels (basically industries that are super visual) will always convert quick.Think of your potential sponsors and then build up a niche related page accordingly.If Fashion - your sponsors would be - fashion brands, fashion events, fashion retailers, malls, beauty products, beauty services (salons, parlors) and so much more - almost every big city has a MILLION fashion retailers. They wouldn't mind giving you $1000 for a post. (If that statement makes you feel a bit confused - wait a bit - I'll explain later)If Travel - hotels, restaurants, bars, travel boards - all these would be your potential sponsors. I can name 1000+ travelers who travel the world for free and do it on the back of their YouTube / Instagram. Its pretty doable. And they get invited to stay at 5 star resorts - they travel first class AND they still get money on TOP of it.Step 2Post regular content. This one is so obvious. Have a clean feed that has a unique look and feel. A lot of Instagrammers develop a set of colors (filters) that they use for all their photos to make their feed look 'unique'. Not much to talk about here. Post good content. Thats all. A few tutorials on Lightroom and Photoshop and you're good to go.Step 3 (Cheating)Social validation is the key. Its the classic example of a bar. A girl would be more attracted to a guy who has himself surrounded by a few girls (and guys). That is social validation right there. A girl that is in demand would want a guy who has some social proof. This is just so BASIC.I'll tell you a short story. This is like year and years ago. A far relative of mine opened up a small snacks canteen in his town. The place had a small area for seating on the inside and a bit of outdoor seating for customers. The place (street) where he opened up this snack bar was one that saw a lot of school kids pass by as there were a lot of schools located nearby.What he did next was epic. He literally paid $10 each to a bunch of kids to come at his canteen everyday after school hours and sit and eat for free. As much as they wanted.What happened next was the fun part. All the other kids noticed that these kids are sitting there having snacks and just hanging out. You can guess what happened then. Social proof. Automatically in a weeks time the place started getting flooded with these school kids. They all made this place THE place to hangout after school hours.Every retailer does this in some way or the other. When I go out to dinner on a weekend with my friends - we obviously JUDGE the places (options) we have by the crowd size. I'd rather go to a diner which has 5 customers already than go to one that looks deserted. You see how we think? Its just so obvious. Don't you think?This applies to social media too. If 5000 people have likes your photo and then I see it. I have a higher chance of liking it (obviously if the content is decent enough). If your photo has a handful of likes - I probably won't like it UNLESS your content is just mind blowing.If I see an Instagram page that has 1 mil followers I immediately assume that this person is a big deal. Its just so natural. Do I care if that 1 mil followers are real or fake? Man who the fuck got time to check and shit? Haha. Yes, for us people who are actively building a base on social media and are marketers - yes we may give a fuck - but the general population? I guess not.They'd see that 1m on your Instagram page and worship you.Step 3 is simple. Buy yourself some social proof bruh! Ain't no way around it. Wait until you have like 100 posts (upload 4 a day that would mean in 25 days you have like 100 posts) and start pumping them fake followers.Do it to point where you have 100,000+ followers in about 3 months since you started. That would mean 90 days of posting and pumping. Lets put it out at 1000 followers per day x 90 days = 90,000 followers 4 posts per day x 90 days = 360 postsStep 4 (This happens alongside step 3)During the time in which you build your posts and followers (fake) - you will have to get yourself some engagement to match the growing base of followers right?This is where engagement pods come into picture. For the millionth time - these are groups of Instagrammers who come together on a chat platform and exchange engagement.99% of the engagement pods are FREE. My advice? Its really not worth joining a paid engagement pod. You'd just be disappointed.Just Google for Instagram Engagement Pods - there are a hundred of those out there. Join them all and see what works best for you.So far You have some social proof. You have a clean feed. You have 100k+ followers. You have 300+ posts. Your posts get 800-1000 likes per post and 100-200 comments per post via engagement pod.Step 5 (Laundering the blackhat followers into whitehat followers)This is the step that all billion dollar social media agencies that manage celeb accounts do that most of you always ignore.There a TIME and place to convert it all into reality.We faked it until step 4 and by step 5 we need to make it.Gaming the Instagram algo to get a ton of real followers daily.Instagram algo is changing drastically. Every day they are trying out something new or the other. Just like Facebook - Instagram is trying its best to fuck you over so that it can make money. So - if honest way is you motto - be ready to spend a million dollars to attract Pakistani and Egyptian followers who are bots and never engage (see my posts about The Facebook Fraud if you don't know what I'm talking about).To my knowledge - as I'm writing this post - Instagram is playing around with its algo.Instagram wants to get more local and less global (user experience/interaction). It wants peoples reach to become more local (so that if they wish to go global - get their posts noticed beyond their base - they'd have to pay) - Thats what Facebook did.Instagram now will show you content (explore / top post feed) based on what you interact with and whom you interact with. If you're follower a user A and that user liked a photo X then the chances are that you will see that photo X. I hope that makes sense.If you interacted with a user (watched their live video / checkout their stories in the past) - Instagram will show you that too.This is both good news and bad news. Bad news as top post page is no longer global and more tailored to the user (you).What you see on top post page for X hashtag won't be the same as the other user (unless if they're your friend / follower).So the reach is getting more limited (Thanks Instagram for fucking us over - we came - you said we could have fun on your platform for free but sooner or later you had to get greedy!)Off topic - Its funny when redditors get horny when someone (a redditor) offers something for free to the public and redditors go like (sure - sooner or later you will make it a paid thing and you'll fuck us over) - Haha. Funny isn't it? Thats exactly what everyone does isn't it? Somehow or the other they make that cash back. Either they sell your data for pennies like you're nothing but a piece of shit or they make you into an advertiser so you pay them cash and still get fucked over. Lol.Moving on ... In this step - you will need to inject (cheat) fake likes to your posts. There are a billion companies that provide this service called auto like. Meaning - whenever you post on Instagram you get X amount of likes based on your package right when you post. So lets say you buy a package that gives you 5000 likes per post whenever you post within like 15 mins of you posting.Thats a ton of social proof man. This will push your post and make it appear 'trending' to Instagram and make your post appear on top post and explore page to a wide audience.Get this done - buy a small package for the start - maybe 1000 likes per most and gradually increase it to 5000 likes per post.But wait. What is point of all of this?HERE IS ANOTHER SECRET - Getting thousands of likes (fake ones) from these services + getting a thousand real likes FROM engagement pods (that are filled with authority accounts like 10k,50k,100k,500k and so on) will get your post to appear to millions of people.As in this way you start out local - but you go global as all those people on pods are from all around the world - so NOT ONLY they will like your posts - but with you having a ton of likes - their own followers will see your posts. Thats when it goes global.STEP 6 (Becoming Jesus)Here is when you wash away all your sins. Its funny how every teenage girl who is obsessed with Instagram knows this but most mediocre marketers don't.THE GIVEAWAYYou have no idea how many giveaways Instagrammers (the ones who are serious) do. Thats the same with YouTube isn't it? All the YouTubers I follow (most of them are really famous) - they all have these giveaways right? Be it iPhone or a trip with the YouTuber itself or a chance to meet the said YouTuber and so on.Instagrammers are doing the same.You NEED to take part in giveaway loops. If you don't know what this mean (giveaway loop) then you are NOT AT ALL a serious Intagrammer. Basically - you connect with 5-7 Instagrammers that are IN YOUR NICHE and are big. Lets say you connect with 7 of them who are travelers (you too are one) and each of them have like 100k-500k followers right? You start a giveaway. You each put in X amount of $ and one of buys a bunch of iPhones and other X/Y/Z things to giveaway and you start a giveaway loop. That way you gain followers from each others base.You must be thinking (but my base is of fake followers - what will I give?) - nothing. Haha. Not for the start at least.You should make 2-3 giveaways every month for 2-3 months and you'd SURELY reach 500K with JUST that.Don't believe me? Checkout this company called Sunny Co Clothing. Its a swimsuit company and they got 600k Instagram followers in 48 hours. You know what they did? Everything I described above AND they went all in with giveaway. Basically they told that everyone who reposts their (Sunny Co) photo will GET a free bathing suit.What happened in next 48 hours? They gained 600k real followers? You see? You gotta be serious and smart if you gotta go big man. Stop fooling around with them bots and shit. Stop hating the game. Sooner or later we all wash away our sins. Haha.Partnering with the right Instagrammers for loop giveaway can be tricky but then again if you're in Instagram pods filled with amazing Instagrammers and you get to know them then you just have to shoot out a message to them. Chances are they too know you as they'd be commenting and liking your photo on a daily basis right?So it becomes easy.Yes - it will cost you money. But you gotta have money to make money.YouTubers these days do a lot of drama. Wherein they act and make drama as if there is a fight between two big YouTubers ... they start making diss tracks and exchange insults (drama) and what not.Everyone falls for this ... but its all a hoax. In this way - they both (the both Youtubers) get to have more subscribers.Lets say I have 1mil subscribers on YouTube. I am Nate. And lets say you have 1mil subscribers on YouTube and your name is Joe.What happens when Nate makes a diss track about Joe? And then Joe makes a diss track about Nate?Haha. Obvious. The both get A TON OF VIEWS and all that drama? Its funny as most of these drama people on YouTube after a few exhange of disses they make an apology video and become friends.That base of followers? Its get exchanged and they BOTH go BIG.So funny that no one realizes this (the marketers on Reddit specially).Its all game bruh. Either you play it and get that Lambo or someone else will and then you'd sit and cry.STEP 7 (Making money)Well by this time - say you have 500+ posts, with all the fake and real and engagement pods combined you have 10K likes per post - you are somewhere near 500K followers - its all good man. Haha.This is when you FIRST start trading shoutouts with the BIG sharks. If you're a traveler and you're sharing your Travel experiences via Instagram then reach out to those who are the BIG sharks. Ones which have big big big fan base. I'm talking about those who have 1mil or more. You have so much going on - the people you approach would surely reply to you won't they?Meet up with them - its FUN - collaborate - exchange drama - and exchange base (NO COST INVOLVED here) You see? Its all going to become real now.You got a fashion page? Get in touch with the big fashion bloggers and meet with them - call them - make some drama like YouTubers do. Repost each others stuff. Get the word out. Go even more bigger.Do this for a while and the next step will happen naturally.FINAL STEPGotta get that green stuff right?Honestly speaking - by this time - based on your niche - brands would be on their knees asking you to advertise for them. Would it matter that 6 months ago you started out with fake followers? I guess not. Haha. By now you have 600K+++ and only 100/200K is fake. So no harm to anyone bruh.If you have an engaged community then you can safely charge $600 per 100k followers. At 600K that would mean ~$3K per post.But then again - you should have experience working with brands. If you're a traveler - during the first few months (once you've crossed 100K by fake followers) - you should mail hotels for free stays. I doubt anyone would say no.Once you grow to 200-300K then approach larger hotel chains (5 star hotels and resorts) and ask them for more longer stays. I can name a 1000 travelers who travel the world on the back of their Instagram.Just keep doing this.By the time you reach 500K+++ you'd have all hotels inviting you to stay with them. They'd pay for your round trip. Expenses. AND pay you cash too.Aren't most of the travelers who are famous on YouTube and Instagram doing just that? Why can't you?Phew - Thats all for this post guys! This is a LOT of stuff. You guys can complain all you want down below. Just remember - if you ain't driving that Lambo - someone else will - and if Facebook and Instagram themselves LOVE stealing views and money, faking stats - then why can't you? Its all fair if in the end you come out clean is all I'm saying.Good Luck to all.FYI - DO NOT ask for recommendations on where to buy fake shit. Google is your friend. If you want to join pods or buy fake shit. Just Google it. When joining a pod - be sure that you DO NOT pay to join one. More often than not, you'd regret it.

[ladysqueakinpip]

All the OC questions with the selkie fam, which includes the 3 bros, Irena, and Anneliese, and also the boys mom if she's developed enough

HECK Y’ALL KNOW HOW TO DELIVER

*these asks are from this post in case anyone wants to either send more or reblog the original 

unfortunately i’m going to skip their mom for now just because she’s not developed enough :’c

1. Do any of your OCs have a speech impediment?

elian: nope! but megan suggested he sound congested all the time because of the ridiculous sounds weddell seals make

abbe: none

roland: none

irena: none

anneliese: none

2. Do any of your OCs have a physical disability?

elian: already answered! 

abbe: none

roland: none; im suddenly considering giving him bad eyesight though #glasses_roland2017

irena: none

anneliese: none

3. What is your OCs favorite band if they have one? (i’m answering this assuming they have access to the broad variety of music we have) 

elian: i feel like he would like the sound of bands like fall out boy, daft punk, imagine dragons etc. but he would like the lyrics of twenty one pilots more because he relates to them the most 

abbe: bryan adams?? phil collins?? elton john?? someone like that. 

roland: i’m torn because i want roland to be an edgelord but i also want him to be a quiet shy baby so why not both? i think he would like Gorillaz. sometimes laid back and chill and other times a little edgier. also in with the type of kids i feel like he would hang out with. 

irena: something a little older from when she was a teenager. probably a female artist. why are gwen stefani or celine dion sticking out to me?

anneliese: SHE’S THE 12 YEAR OLD GIRL WHOS OBSESSED WITH BOYBANDS like one direction and 5 seconds of summer. i feel like she would also love softer female artists like regina spektor

4. Does your OC have anything they take pride in? (like an award or collection?)

elian: *vibrates excitedly* spoilers

abbe: mostly how he’s been given the ability to… move on? his mom is still trapped in their family’s past tragedies and roland and elian are dragged down with that as well, but abbe’s been the one to grow and rebuild the house and get married and now he’s gonna be a dad soon. he’s proud he’s been able to continue the legacy. 

roland: he’s really proud of the things relating to his equestrian hobbies. he’s just starting out in the horse-breeding business but he has one or two really nice mares and im sure he has another one he’s training for the royal guard. he’s also the best rider in his family because its like all he does lol. 

irena: she was able to get out from under the shadow of her mother. irena and her mom don’t really like each other and her mom was always disappointed that she decided to become a knight instead of trying to climb the social ladder. they kind of stopped talking. ironically enough, irena ended up basically being adopted into a Duke’s family and though it’s super petty and very vengeful i think irena’s also proud of how she became everything her mother wanted in her own way and without her mom’s help. she likes to think of her mom being salty and jealous. 

anneliese: her reputation! she had to essentially rebuild it from the ground up after her dad did naughty scandalous things but she’s proven herself to the people who serve her. 

5. Does your OC have a favorite film? (answering like they live in modern times)

elian: he likes superhero movies, like the marvel movies. i haven’t actually seen a lot of these so i can’t pick the one that’s his favorite but i have a feeling it’s like captain america or spiderman. he wont stop making jokes about how roland is emo peter parker. 

abbe: already answered!

roland: black beauty he strikes me as the type who would like psychological thrillers like the shining or inception. movies that have lots of deep layers and summaries you stay up late reading until you’re too scared to go to bed. 

irena: she would like things with very traditional elaborate fight scenes and dynamic relationships and cool props and swords and armor and epic battles so basically she’s a lord of the rings fan. 

anneliese: literally the only thing coming to my mind are the twilight movies. the fault in our stars. ya’know stuff like that. i think she would be a big sucker for the princess bride. 

6. How tall is your OC?

elian: 5′1″

abbe: 5′7″

roland: 5′6″

irena: 5′2″

anneliese: 5′0″

7. Does your OC have any celebrity crushes? (answering like they live in modern times) 

elian: i don’t think he really follows celebrities he cares more about the quality of the movies they make. 

abbe: maybe he had one when he was younger but now that he’s married and has a kid on the way he doesn’t have time for these kinds of trivial things he has to focus on the #wife. 

roland: the actresses who are a little older but very #classic. julie andrews. judy garland. he might also like modern stars like anne hathaway or emma stone. one of those two. 

irena: what if she was a david bowie fan i feel bad not immediately saying her husband dwayne the rock johnson

anneliese: nick jonas. justin timberlake. orlando bloom. every boy from one direction. you get my drift. 

8. Do you ship any 2 of your OCs?

elian: ANNELIESE

abbe: his beautiful loving delicate sensitive understanding wife rosalie k thanks bye

roland: his super big crush on lady jeannine harpers kills me everyday

irena: dwayne the rock johnson

anneliese: ELIAN

9. How would you describe your OCs fashion taste?

elian: bold. he likes things that make him feel adventurous like big hats with feathers or sturdy boots. he’s upper class so he’s still gotta look nice but he goes for that “i’m a rich guy who’s never been camping in my life but i went out and bought all this super nice fancy camping gear so people will think i’m professional when i’m not” look. 

abbe: very presentable, always On Point™. he’s gotta dress to impress, so all his clothes are neatly pressed and he tries not to wrinkle them up too much or get them dirty. he tends to trade in neutral colors like white and black for things a little brighter to liven up the house a bit. he’s still young. let abbe be Free™.

roland: he’s a big emo hot topic baby and the only thing he’ll wear is black.

irena: sleek shiny new armor that’s hand-crafted with details carved into the breastplate and shoulder pieces. regal deep colors and clean polished boots. 

anneliese: PINK. big poofy dresses. less of a focus on patterns and more of a focus on teeny cutesy details. 

10. Does your OC have any special talents?

elian: lmao i’ve never talk about this before but i sort of headcanon he’s alright at. fishing. it’s dangerous for him to swim and when his dad was around he was in the same situation. as selkies they still had a strong draw towards the water so instead of fishing as seals they would bond with each other by going to the shore or out on a boat and just have some quiet fishing time. :’) but anyway because of all that elian is much better at using a fishing rod than other selkies are. 

abbe: he seems like a really average family-man kinda guy so i want him to have some talent that’s just so obscure and ridiculous and totally unexpected. he can juggle with his knees. he has this 6th sense that tells him when it’s going to rain. i’m confirming all this for canon immediately. 

roland: he sort of gives me the “intellectual” kind of vibes in a good way and in a bad way. he was probably very good at school/his studies and for some reason history is really sticking out to me the most! while roland and elian don’t really get along i kinda headcanon roland had to tutor elian a lot when they were working through their school books together. 

irena: she can play an instrument, i know that much! i haven’t decided what she plays, but i’m thinking some type of fictional string instrument. she teaches elian how to play some instruments, too, because we all know that poor child is bored out of his mind. 

anneliese: she loves the whole wide world and reads a lot as a weird form of escapism? reading is her way of connecting to all the people and all the places in the world and it exercises her imagination. she’s probably a SUPER FAST reader and i bet she has a scary-big vocabulary for a girl as young as herself haha. 

11. Is your OC really bad at something?

elian: already answered!

abbe: SELF CARE abbe will work himself to the bone and push down all of his personal feelings and hurt to put his family first. i don’t think he wants to be that way but he was kind of forced into that mindset after he had to immediately step up to his dad’s position and then get married on top of that like he had so many big life-altering changes thrown at him within a years time poor boy didn’t even have time to grieve or adequately manage his emotional state. 

roland: being an individual haha. more like being openly opinionated and voicing those opinions. he “aaron burr”s the heck outta life with his “don’t let them know what you’re against or what you’re for” attitude. he doesn’t want to give anyone a reason to start drama with him. 

irena: already answered! 

anneliese: already answered! 

12. Does your OC have both of their parents?

abbe, roland, and elian lost their dad 3 years before the story starts. for a good time after that their mom was not…. entirely there emotionally either so abbe is basically New Dad™. 

irena: yes

anneliese: her dad is… kind of in prison?? so like he’s there but not there ya know. and who knows about her mom i’ll talk about that in the next question. anyway her aunt and uncle took her into the family and are basically her new mom and dad congrats anneliese. 

13. Does your OC know their parents?

elian: yes

abbe: yes

roland: yes

irena: yes, but she lost contact with her mother years before the story starts and she’s totally uninterested in rekindling the relationship

anneliese: she knows her dad but i haven’t fully decided who her mother is or what happened to her so for now??? my answer is who knows. 

14. Does your OC have any siblings?

abbe, roland and elian are all brothers! they don’t have any other siblings haha. 

irena: none

anneliese: none but she did have a cousin! they were really close when they were little, almost like siblings. the cousin was the old heiress to the estate but she got a bad illness or disease or something like people did back in the good ol’ days and died. now anneliese is the heiress. 

15. Do any of your OCs have pets?

elian: already answered!

abbe: none

roland: already answered!

irena: she might have a nice riding horse but other than that i doubt she has time for her own pet. 

anneliese: i haven’t thought about it but she does seem like an animal kind of girl. if she does i can see her having a super fluffy kitty. 

16. Do you have any nonhuman OCs?

17. Do you have any OCs you haven’t posted about?

18. How would you describe your OCs nature in one word?

elian: righteous 

abbe: altruistic

roland: distant

irena: meticulous

anneliese: dreamy

19. Who is your youngest OC? (i’m combining this question with the other one and just saying their ages) 

elian: 13 yrs

abbe: 21 yrs

roland: 16 yrs

irena: 33 yrs

anneliese: 12 yrs

20. Who is your oldest OC?

21. What race is your OC?

they’re all selkies!

22. Would your OC like you?

elian: he would like some things about me, then find other things completely infuriating. 

abbe: he’d probably think i was a little too casual and maybe a bit weird, but he wouldn’t hate me either! 

roland: i think we’d be cool. 

irena: we could have a couple really nice conversations. 

anneliese: she would! 

[heliosfinance]

In Which My Son Loses His First Tooth, And I Freak Out Trying To Figure Out The Going Rate of The Tooth Fairy

According to my 5 y/o, the last two weeks have been the best of his life :)

First, he learns of the epic phrase, “Liar liar pants on fire” and cannot get over at how hilarious it is (if only it were true too! The entire DC area here would be a huge ball of flames!), and then this week he loses his very first tooth which of course meant, THE TOOTH FAIRY IS COMING!!!! OMG!!!!!!!! Make way, make way!!

Never in my life have I ever seen someone so excited to lose a tooth, haha… And it was a front one too! Biggest smile in the world on that guy’s face, wow… the little things.

And of course within seconds he was rattling off all the things he might be getting from Miss TF (Is the Tooth Fairy married or single? She does travel the world every night and never in one place for very long… I bet it would take someone like Peter Pan to put a ring on that finger, haha…)

“Chocolate bars! I want chocolate bars like Joseph got!”

“Chocolate Bars? The Tooth Fairy does NOT give out chocolate bars – they are so bad for your teeth!” – my wife quips back.

“Okay, maybe $10.00 like Sarah got!”

“$10.00??? What do you think we are – made of money??” – I blurt out, turning into an old man right there on the spot.

“I’m not talking about you dad, I’m talking about the Tooth Fairy!”

“oh yes yes, of course.. *ahem*”

“Okay, then how about $100?!!!!!”

#FAIL

It dawned on me that half the fun was just guessing for hours what the Tooth Fairy would bring ;) I could have brought him a bag of peanuts that night and he probably would have been happy, haha…

But sadly we didn’t have any bags of peanuts laying around, and I started to freak out a little because not only was it his FIRST tooth experience – setting the stage for all subsequent visits – but I was also completely oblivious as to what the going rate even IS these days with kids? Surely inflation hasn’t moved the bar from $1.00 a tooth when I was growing up to $10.00 like little Sarah gets, right? And even so, I didn’t have anything more than a $5 bill in my pockets anyways… TF snuck up super fast and you only have a very tiny window to fulfill her obligations when those teeth come out! That very night!

And then it dawned on me – $2.00 bills!!! YES!!!!

You used to stash hundreds of those away back in the day when you were trying to bring Tommys back, J$, now’s your time to shine, baby!!! He will love it!! But oh $hit – you gave them all away trying to be Mr. Tip Man this year, and it’s too late now to hit up the bank, womp womp…

Ooh how about a half dollar?

Super big and cool unlike normal coins, and this one here is MADE WITH SILVER so it’s actually worth $6.00 in melt, and maybe $10.00-$12.00 on the collector’s market! Would he appreciate that??

Or how about a $1.00 Silver Certificate?

You used to be able to take these to the bank and get silver for them back in the day! And look how close to a normal dollar bill it looks? If you’re not paying attention it may even be confused for one… oh wait.

Okay, I got it! My dollar bill ring circa 1997!!

Ain’t NO kid is getting one of these puppies from the Tooth Fairy, haha… But would it be too creative?

After hours and hours of agonizing, (okay, really only minutes), the wife and I finally came up with the answer. We’d combine a couple of these for this first tooth only, but then make sure he knows he’ll only be getting one thing going forward so it doesn’t spiral out of control here…

What we ended up giving him was a 1-2 punch of the big huge half dollar since we know how much he loves coins, and then the fun dollar bill ring too, because he fancies himself jewelry more than any other kid I know. Especially boys.

But the kicker was the note that my wife was creative enough to think up last minute:

Dear J. Jr,

Congratulations on losing your first tooth!

I heard you like jewelry… here is a special ring :)

And a little something extra, too! Keep brushing the rest of your teeth!

Love,

The Tooth Fairy

Want to take a guess what he liked the most out of everything? The handwritten note :) He carried it around all morning and it was the first thing he showed the entire family as we awoke from his loud shrieks, haha…

Just another lesson that all kids want at the end of the day is to be paid attention to!

As for what the going rate IS these days? Well, I wasn’t quick enough to poll my Twitter audience on this fateful night here, but I was able to hit them up yesterday in preparation of this post, and their answers were as varied as they were creative :)

$1 per year old – Benjamin Brandt CFP®

We do $1 Sacajawea coins. Daughters love them they are “gold” – Mike Hayes‏

$1 a tooth…. $5 for teeth pulled by dentist to get ready for orthodontist. – Christina Brown

We do $5 per tooth, except when the first front tooth falls out. For that we shell out a $10 spot. – Marianne Hayes‏

First tooth gets $5, all others get a $2 bill. Then we have to convince them it’s real money. – Megan (Crabb) Troyer

We gave $5 for first tooth, then $1 after that. Very recent (last few years). Also gave a $1 bonus if daughter pulled it out herself. Totally worth the extra buck!!! – Mr. MSW!

We did $5 for the first tooth and the front teeth. The smaller back teeth get $2, and my daughter has called out the tooth fairy for being cheap. We told her the “tooth fairy” operates on a budget also. – Nate

The payout should be directly related to the health of the tooth. A nice white clean well-brushed one = $5; a dingy brown one that hasn’t been properly taken care of = $.25. – EarlyRetirementDude

€5 for first tooth. €2 each for next 3 teeth. After that no money, just a thank you note. – Emma Ryan

Depends. Did they pull the tooth themselves or did I have to do it? If I have to do it, I’m the one to be paid! – Financial Muse

I got $40 from the bank recently in Sacagewea coins and glittered them up with nail polish to cover the two already-born kid’s mouths! – Jennifer

2 bitcoins – Accidental FIRE  (<– lucky kid!!)

So it seems $5.00/tooth is now the industry average, up from $1.00 a tooth when I was growing up, and $0.25 for those slightly older than I ;) And just goes to show that ain’t nothing is immune to inflation – not even the (single) Tooth Fairy!

But at least this isn’t the case… yet:

****** PS: How cute is that little tin featured in some of the pics above?? My son made it during summer camp last year – such a good idea!!

In Which My Son Loses His First Tooth, And I Freak Out Trying To Figure Out The Going Rate of The Tooth Fairy published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B

[fesahaawit]

In Which My Son Loses His First Tooth, And I Freak Out Trying To Figure Out The Going Rate of The Tooth Fairy

According to my 5 y/o, the last two weeks have been the best of his life :)

First, he learns of the epic phrase, “Liar liar pants on fire” and cannot get over at how hilarious it is (if only it were true too! The entire DC area here would be a huge ball of flames!), and then this week he loses his very first tooth which of course meant, THE TOOTH FAIRY IS COMING!!!! OMG!!!!!!!! Make way, make way!!

Never in my life have I ever seen someone so excited to lose a tooth, haha… And it was a front one too! Biggest smile in the world on that guy’s face, wow… the little things.

And of course within seconds he was rattling off all the things he might be getting from Miss TF (Is the Tooth Fairy married or single? She does travel the world every night and never in one place for very long… I bet it would take someone like Peter Pan to put a ring on that finger, haha…)

“Chocolate bars! I want chocolate bars like Joseph got!”

“Chocolate Bars? The Tooth Fairy does NOT give out chocolate bars – they are so bad for your teeth!” – my wife quips back.

“Okay, maybe $10.00 like Sarah got!”

“$10.00??? What do you think we are – made of money??” – I blurt out, turning into an old man right there on the spot.

“I’m not talking about you dad, I’m talking about the Tooth Fairy!”

“oh yes yes, of course.. *ahem*”

“Okay, then how about $100?!!!!!”

#FAIL

It dawned on me that half the fun was just guessing for hours what the Tooth Fairy would bring ;) I could have brought him a bag of peanuts that night and he probably would have been happy, haha…

But sadly we didn’t have any bags of peanuts laying around, and I started to freak out a little because not only was it his FIRST tooth experience – setting the stage for all subsequent visits – but I was also completely oblivious as to what the going rate even IS these days with kids? Surely inflation hasn’t moved the bar from $1.00 a tooth when I was growing up to $10.00 like little Sarah gets, right? And even so, I didn’t have anything more than a $5 bill in my pockets anyways… TF snuck up super fast and you only have a very tiny window to fulfill her obligations when those teeth come out! That very night!

And then it dawned on me – $2.00 bills!!! YES!!!!

You used to stash hundreds of those away back in the day when you were trying to bring Tommys back, J$, now’s your time to shine, baby!!! He will love it!! But oh $hit – you gave them all away trying to be Mr. Tip Man this year, and it’s too late now to hit up the bank, womp womp…

Ooh how about a half dollar?

Super big and cool unlike normal coins, and this one here is MADE WITH SILVER so it’s actually worth $6.00 in melt, and maybe $10.00-$12.00 on the collector’s market! Would he appreciate that??

Or how about a $1.00 Silver Certificate?

You used to be able to take these to the bank and get silver for them back in the day! And look how close to a normal dollar bill it looks? If you’re not paying attention it may even be confused for one… oh wait.

Okay, I got it! My dollar bill ring circa 1997!!

Ain’t NO kid is getting one of these puppies from the Tooth Fairy, haha… But would it be too creative?

After hours and hours of agonizing, (okay, really only minutes), the wife and I finally came up with the answer. We’d combine a couple of these for this first tooth only, but then make sure he knows he’ll only be getting one thing going forward so it doesn’t spiral out of control here…

What we ended up giving him was a 1-2 punch of the big huge half dollar since we know how much he loves coins, and then the fun dollar bill ring too, because he fancies himself jewelry more than any other kid I know. Especially boys.

But the kicker was the note that my wife was creative enough to think up last minute:

Dear J. Jr,

Congratulations on losing your first tooth!

I heard you like jewelry… here is a special ring :)

And a little something extra, too! Keep brushing the rest of your teeth!

Love,

The Tooth Fairy

Want to take a guess what he liked the most out of everything? The handwritten note :) He carried it around all morning and it was the first thing he showed the entire family as we awoke from his loud shrieks, haha…

Just another lesson that all kids want at the end of the day is to be paid attention to!

As for what the going rate IS these days? Well, I wasn’t quick enough to poll my Twitter audience on this fateful night here, but I was able to hit them up yesterday in preparation of this post, and their answers were as varied as they were creative :)

$1 per year old – Benjamin Brandt CFP®

We do $1 Sacajawea coins. Daughters love them they are “gold” – Mike Hayes‏

$1 a tooth…. $5 for teeth pulled by dentist to get ready for orthodontist. – Christina Brown

We do $5 per tooth, except when the first front tooth falls out. For that we shell out a $10 spot. – Marianne Hayes‏

First tooth gets $5, all others get a $2 bill. Then we have to convince them it’s real money. – Megan (Crabb) Troyer

We gave $5 for first tooth, then $1 after that. Very recent (last few years). Also gave a $1 bonus if daughter pulled it out herself. Totally worth the extra buck!!! – Mr. MSW!

We did $5 for the first tooth and the front teeth. The smaller back teeth get $2, and my daughter has called out the tooth fairy for being cheap. We told her the “tooth fairy” operates on a budget also. – Nate

The payout should be directly related to the health of the tooth. A nice white clean well-brushed one = $5; a dingy brown one that hasn’t been properly taken care of = $.25. – EarlyRetirementDude

€5 for first tooth. €2 each for next 3 teeth. After that no money, just a thank you note. – Emma Ryan

Depends. Did they pull the tooth themselves or did I have to do it? If I have to do it, I’m the one to be paid! – Financial Muse

I got $40 from the bank recently in Sacagewea coins and glittered them up with nail polish to cover the two already-born kid’s mouths! – Jennifer

2 bitcoins – Accidental FIRE  (<– lucky kid!!)

So it seems $5.00/tooth is now the industry average, up from $1.00 a tooth when I was growing up, and $0.25 for those slightly older than I ;) And just goes to show that ain’t nothing is immune to inflation – not even the (single) Tooth Fairy!

But at least this isn’t the case… yet:

****** PS: How cute is that little tin featured in some of the pics above?? My son made it during summer camp last year – such a good idea!!

In Which My Son Loses His First Tooth, And I Freak Out Trying To Figure Out The Going Rate of The Tooth Fairy posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnwIdQ

[crashpaddiaries]

Dear Crashpad Diary #29

RIP MY WHITE SUNGLASSES... YOU´LL BE MISSED HAHAHAHA =)

Yoooooo… whats the story beasts?? All sweeeeeeeeeet isn’t it?? =)

Today I´ll talk about Big Brothers, Eat Viagra with salad... and.... Someone stole Luh!! (he is ok though)

You may not believe but Luh and myself are, at this exact moment, secluded in our hotel with other 30 people and we are not allowed to leave the facilities… by any mean… if so… we risk to be caught by the police and we will be arrested and brought to the jail!!

The accusation?? Being on the streets during the Nyepi Day!!  

Well.. at least now I can understand the origins of the English word “Nap”…. Nyepi…Nap… what else would you do during this day??? hahaha

Talking serious know… in fact, I can’t face this too serious… cuz I´m actually feeling like I am participating on a TV show... like Big Brother Indonesia… we are loads of people… with many rooms… a fucking chick that does not shut up… not much food… and we have already started experiencing relationship issues with the other participants hahahahahaha

The problem is that we can´t eliminate them from the house… or can we?? =) hahahaha

The three antecedent days of the Nyepi Day are full festivities and colorful processions, celebrations that end the year. The Silent day is the way that Balinese people starts the new year… what a different way of starting a new year right?? Silence… quietness… void… avoiding the rush… stress… traffic… noise…. well… we might´ve something to learn from them!! =)

About the food… uff…. what Nyepi day rookies my bro and me… hahahah.. in preparation for the Silent Day (the English name), as everybody… we bought some pizzas the day before…. to have´em for lunch the day after…. also, some snacks and cookies… no need to mention that due to the freakin-but-not-unexpected high temperatures, the whole thing got wasted hahahahah we took all the measures to keep the fuckin ants away but did not consider the heat… hahahahaha what a newbie move!! hahahahaha

So, now we are here… silent day… fighting boredom… in silence… and fasting hahahaha

haha… now about the chick…. poor chick…. =( I can foresee people saying: “oh… but you agree of having dogs like pets!! and bla bla bla”… But kmon…. who in this world thinks that having a chick as a pet is sth nice?? Even worse is bringing the poor animal to a hotel in a hand-sized cage…

Sadly… that´s exactly what one of the guests here does… I don´t know what is the story behind but I don´t actually care… if someone is capable of doing this with the poor animal… I don´t wanna engage in any kind of relation with a person like that….

And yes… I think that having a dog or two or as many as you want is totally different… I do care more about the chick than the guy… and I would eliminate the guy from the house!! Where is the Big Brother´s host??? We need to talk!! haha

Now we are pretty much half-way through the Nyepi day… it started at 6am… it is 5:12 pm and it will finish at 6 am tomorrow day!! =) Hooooray… we still have some internet!! hehehe

The night before the “quarantine of 1 day” haha… we were having dinner (the last meal haha) at a place few mins from the hotel (cuz everything was already closed and the city was a mess with all the celebration and all the huge carnival cars)… cool… there we were… enjoying the freedom… we fortunately still had the possibility of choosing where to go, what to eat and all hahaha… I got a salad and Luh got a fruit salad…. suddenly one guy comes to us… inside the restaurant and starts selling drugs… seriously???

It´s quite normal having people asking you if you wanna buy some narco product on the streets… along with massage, caps or bike rentals… but offering to add some viagra to your salad?? That´s new… and actually, something that differentiates his service!! hahahah Kudos to the guy then heheheheh

I said no and he went after other table´s possible customers hahaha I guess he sold sth but not sure what… he has quite a range of products heheheh

When he left he still tried to sell me some mushrooms… and my bro replied fast and wisely: “Cheers buddy… we just had dinner!!” hahahaha the guys turned the bike on and left…. hahahaha Thug life in Bali!!! hahahaha

Talking about Thug Life… we are in Kuta beach… a central beach… good for surfing and fairly cheap for budget travelers… but the island is big and one must visit as many places as possible right?? =) So… off we went… headed south through the coast… passing by many beaches and beautiful places… getting… after few hours… to Uluwatu. There are loads of attractions and things to do and see… also, as in pretty much all the temples… loads of monkeys… AAAAAAAAnd that´s where our story starts getting tones of drama hehe

We were already getting back to the bike… thinking already of lunch and feeling the emptiness of our stomachs gets bigger and bigger… when we got to the bike, I started getting my things ready when I hear Luh saying “Aw!!!”… when I turn back I see a monkey running and my bro shouting: “he took my sunglasses!!”

It´s important to highlight that the mischievous primate jumped from a branch in my bros back and took it straight from his face… I couldn’t believe when he told me that… I thought he took it from his face and put it over the bike´s seat and that´s when the mono took it from him… but nope… the tricksy fucker climbed my bro thirsty for his glasses…. hahahahahah

Do you know when you don´t quite understand what´s going on but still decide to act???

First thing I did?? Obviously that I ran after the fucking monkey and threw my sunglasses at him!! hahahahahah

As a baseball player I am a great climber!! no need to say that the glasses exploded good 3-4 metres far from the monkey!! And it exploded not because I am freaking strong… it just because I had it already fixed with finger tape and super glue!! So when I threw it… the one glass became 3 different pieces flying around…. hahahah

But the main matter… my bro´s new Ray Ban glasses (the one I got him because I had lost the other ones in a waterfall months earlier…. if you missed this story… go back in time and read that post!!)…. so… there we were… facing a fucking thief… that was looking at us and biting the glass as it were some sort of new fruit that he could peel and eat hahahaha I tried to throw other stuff but he ran… and climbed a wall… but we could still see him… still trying to eat the glasses…

I didn’t now if I should run after him barefoot as I was or what.. Luh, as well, couldn’t think of any different reaction other than look… he was still rewinding and going fast forward with his recent memories… to understand what happened…. hahahhaaha

By that time… everyone was watching the epic battle of two brothers versus a monkey…. we were looking like the ones not too evolved!! hahahahaha

Finally, Out of the blue, a guy came like a hero… he wore a cape and he had bags of food as his weapon to fight the cruel, spiteful and malicious villain!!! I call him… The Ghost “Baggins” Rider!!!

That guy came riding his bike… threw some bags at the monkey… who dropped the glass and ran away like a thunder from our hero (carrying the bag full of food of course!!)… the good man came to us with the glass and then disappeared like a ghost, the same way he came!!  

I´ve been sleeping better since then. Now I know that we have a new hero in town to fight the weak and ensure that the unkind and bad will not prevail!! Thanks Ghost “Baggins” Rider!! =)

haha oh well peeps… that´s it… Now we are officially 12 hours away from freedom!! hahahahahah It´s 6 pm!! Hoooooray!!!

I hope you had a great time reading it! if not…. I still love ya!!

All the best and great things for yous this NEW YEAR!!

I wish you freedom, food, dogs, people, climb, friends, sunglasses, trips, adventures, silence (not obligated tho), lesser prohibitions and more choices!! Choose what makes you feel happy and smile… ALWAYS!! =)

Cheers,

Evan

PS: I wish freedom to that chick too!!

[heliosfinance]

In Which My Son Loses His First Tooth, And I Freak Out Trying To Figure Out The Going Rate of The Tooth Fairy

According to my 5 y/o, the last two weeks have been the best of his life :)

First, he learns of the epic phrase, “Liar liar pants on fire” and cannot get over at how hilarious it is (if only it were true too! The entire DC area here would be a huge ball of flames!), and then this week he loses his very first tooth which of course meant, THE TOOTH FAIRY IS COMING!!!! OMG!!!!!!!! Make way, make way!!

Never in my life have I ever seen someone so excited to lose a tooth, haha… And it was a front one too! Biggest smile in the world on that guy’s face, wow… the little things.

And of course within seconds he was rattling off all the things he might be getting from Miss TF (Is the Tooth Fairy married or single? She does travel the world every night and never in one place for very long… I bet it would take someone like Peter Pan to put a ring on that finger, haha…)

“Chocolate bars! I want chocolate bars like Joseph got!”

“Chocolate Bars? The Tooth Fairy does NOT give out chocolate bars – they are so bad for your teeth!” – my wife quips back.

“Okay, maybe $10.00 like Sarah got!”

“$10.00??? What do you think we are – made of money??” – I blurt out, turning into an old man right there on the spot.

“I’m not talking about you dad, I’m talking about the Tooth Fairy!”

“oh yes yes, of course.. *ahem*”

“Okay, then how about $100?!!!!!”

#FAIL

It dawned on me that half the fun was just guessing for hours what the Tooth Fairy would bring ;) I could have brought him a bag of peanuts that night and he probably would have been happy, haha…

But sadly we didn’t have any bags of peanuts laying around, and I started to freak out a little because not only was it his FIRST tooth experience – setting the stage for all subsequent visits – but I was also completely oblivious as to what the going rate even IS these days with kids? Surely inflation hasn’t moved the bar from $1.00 a tooth when I was growing up to $10.00 like little Sarah gets, right? And even so, I didn’t have anything more than a $5 bill in my pockets anyways… TF snuck up super fast and you only have a very tiny window to fulfill her obligations when those teeth come out! That very night!

And then it dawned on me – $2.00 bills!!! YES!!!!

You used to stash hundreds of those away back in the day when you were trying to bring Tommys back, J$, now’s your time to shine, baby!!! He will love it!! But oh $hit – you gave them all away trying to be Mr. Tip Man this year, and it’s too late now to hit up the bank, womp womp…

Ooh how about a half dollar?

Super big and cool unlike normal coins, and this one here is MADE WITH SILVER so it’s actually worth $6.00 in melt, and maybe $10.00-$12.00 on the collector’s market! Would he appreciate that??

Or how about a $1.00 Silver Certificate?

You used to be able to take these to the bank and get silver for them back in the day! And look how close to a normal dollar bill it looks? If you’re not paying attention it may even be confused for one… oh wait.

Okay, I got it! My dollar bill ring circa 1997!!

Ain’t NO kid is getting one of these puppies from the Tooth Fairy, haha… But would it be too creative?

After hours and hours of agonizing, (okay, really only minutes), the wife and I finally came up with the answer. We’d combine a couple of these for this first tooth only, but then make sure he knows he’ll only be getting one thing going forward so it doesn’t spiral out of control here…

What we ended up giving him was a 1-2 punch of the big huge half dollar since we know how much he loves coins, and then the fun dollar bill ring too, because he fancies himself jewelry more than any other kid I know. Especially boys.

But the kicker was the note that my wife was creative enough to think up last minute:

Dear J. Jr,

Congratulations on losing your first tooth!

I heard you like jewelry… here is a special ring :)

And a little something extra, too! Keep brushing the rest of your teeth!

Love,

The Tooth Fairy

Want to take a guess what he liked the most out of everything? The handwritten note :) He carried it around all morning and it was the first thing he showed the entire family as we awoke from his loud shrieks, haha…

Just another lesson that all kids want at the end of the day is to be paid attention to!

As for what the going rate IS these days? Well, I wasn’t quick enough to poll my Twitter audience on this fateful night here, but I was able to hit them up yesterday in preparation of this post, and their answers were as varied as they were creative :)

$1 per year old – Benjamin Brandt CFP®

We do $1 Sacajawea coins. Daughters love them they are “gold” – Mike Hayes‏

$1 a tooth…. $5 for teeth pulled by dentist to get ready for orthodontist. – Christina Brown

We do $5 per tooth, except when the first front tooth falls out. For that we shell out a $10 spot. – Marianne Hayes‏

First tooth gets $5, all others get a $2 bill. Then we have to convince them it’s real money. – Megan (Crabb) Troyer

We gave $5 for first tooth, then $1 after that. Very recent (last few years). Also gave a $1 bonus if daughter pulled it out herself. Totally worth the extra buck!!! – Mr. MSW!

We did $5 for the first tooth and the front teeth. The smaller back teeth get $2, and my daughter has called out the tooth fairy for being cheap. We told her the “tooth fairy” operates on a budget also. – Nate

The payout should be directly related to the health of the tooth. A nice white clean well-brushed one = $5; a dingy brown one that hasn’t been properly taken care of = $.25. – EarlyRetirementDude

€5 for first tooth. €2 each for next 3 teeth. After that no money, just a thank you note. – Emma Ryan

Depends. Did they pull the tooth themselves or did I have to do it? If I have to do it, I’m the one to be paid! – Financial Muse

I got $40 from the bank recently in Sacagewea coins and glittered them up with nail polish to cover the two already-born kid’s mouths! – Jennifer

2 bitcoins – Accidental FIRE  (<– lucky kid!!)

So it seems $5.00/tooth is now the industry average, up from $1.00 a tooth when I was growing up, and $0.25 for those slightly older than I ;) And just goes to show that ain’t nothing is immune to inflation – not even the (single) Tooth Fairy!

But at least this isn’t the case… yet:

****** PS: How cute is that little tin featured in some of the pics above?? My son made it during summer camp last year – such a good idea!!

In Which My Son Loses His First Tooth, And I Freak Out Trying To Figure Out The Going Rate of The Tooth Fairy published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B