#and i think. it's because this place is still sort of my... digital scrapbooks of sorts. and has been for 10+ years

[ratsalad]

A++ birthday this time despite the anxiety. i've never felt so loved and cared about in my life ;_;

[copperbadge]

What do you mean by digital cleaning?

It's something I've been working on more this year because I had a bit more travel than usual so couldn't do actual home cleaning, but I always take a couple of days in the Month Of Cleaning where I'm focused on my digital life. It's good to make your physical home a comfortable place for yourself, but it's also good to recognize that we have "digital" homes that need attention. And often this is at least less physically demanding, so it's good to keep it in your back pocket for days when you're mentally okay but physically too tired or sore to do more of that kind of work.

In the shortest possible terms, digital cleaning is just making sure that your phone, computer, socials, and other digital "presences" are organized in a way that you find helpful, and that you take a moment to either answer those messages you've been putting off or give yourself amnesty on doing so.

This tends to make a lot of people extremely anxious in a way ordinary physical space cleaning doesn't, so I'm going to put the rest of it behind a cut...

So when I say digital cleaning, I refer to stuff like going through my likes on Tumblr and clearing them out, going through my drafts and turning them into queued posts, answering my asks. I spend time in my email inboxes, either responding to messages or removing them. I am not an "inbox zero" kind of guy, but I like to keep the read-but-not-answered messages to a minimum, and towards the end of the year that usually means a clear-out and amnesty. I clean my Google Drive -- delete old files I uploaded for others, move documents I'm no longer using into an archive, move documents I want to work on into a central work folder. I go through my catch-all folder on my hard drive and organize it; I sort through the year's photos and organize those, partly to archive them and partly because I make a scrapbook from them each year. I don't usually have a ton of tabs open but often have more than I'd like, so I go through them all and either read, bookmark, or get rid of them.

I look in my phone's file tree to make sure I delete files I don't need (mostly menu downloads, Restaurants Stop Making Your Menus PDFs Challenge 2K24) and I sometimes go through each app on my phone, make sure I still use it, and make sure it's set how I want it. If this sounds like a nightmare, bear in mind that I very rarely put apps on my phone to start with -- I think my mother has more apps open at any given time than I have apps on my phone ever.

Everywhere I clean, I look for files named things like "notes" or "deal with" or "random" and move them all into one place so that whatever is in them, I can sort through it and make sure it goes somewhere permanent. Logins go in the login/password spreadsheet I keep, addresses go into my contacts, story notes go into a "fiction scraps" file, random thoughts either get moved into a journal file or put into drafts to become Tumblr posts, etc.

If this sounds like I might have some kind of compulsion disorder, I get that; when I explain my digital hygiene systems a lot of people look at me like I'm spouting a mad but harmless conspiracy theory. But it's something I used to have to do periodically even before I created National Clean Your Home Month, because otherwise I could never find anything, and everything was just...harder. As I once told a boss who admired my organizational skills, "It was this or endless chaos."

Putting addresses into my contacts list means I always know that the addresses I have for my friends are up to date. Putting logins into a spreadsheet means that five minutes spent now will not result in five weeks of procrastination later because I can't find the login and can't do anything else until I do that. Going through my email and archiving old conversations means not only can I find them easily when needed, I don't have to look at them the rest of the time. Sometimes I even go through my various wish lists and remove old/purchased items, or clear out all my "save for later" carts.

There's no doubt this is stressful, but like every part of NaClYoHo, it's broken down into smaller tasks; I don't have to look at my computer and organize everything on it all in one day. I can answer a few asks, then sort photos (something I find very soothing up until the moment I Don't), then read and delete some emails, then I'm done for the day. I can spread "answer or file all your work emails" out over a couple of days. I can maybe empty out my Likes but just turn the ones I actually want to reblog into drafts for now and deal with them later in the "drafts" phase of cleaning. And if I don't manage to empty out my inboxes, at least they're emptier than they were.

I'm struggling this morning with having put a bunch of physical cleaning on the to-do list but not feeling physically up for it, so I did what I felt capable of doing (measuring cabinets for new shelf liners mainly) and later today I might sit down and start building this year's photobook. Or not -- I have to code Radio Free Monday, sort out a prescription and possibly go pick it up, plus a very full day of work and a couple of afternoon appointments I can't shirk, so today may simply be a "get through the day" kind of day. That's okay too; some days the spirit is willing but the schedule is full.

[tiikerikani]

The Best Medicine

14.08.2022 CoolHead Brew, Helsinki

Sick leave is no ordinary vacation do-over, when it's a vacation do-over WITH MORE SENPAIIIIIIII than the original. (Coincidence. I bought these tickets ages ago.)

There was some uncertainty over today's schedule; the ticket said that the gate opens at 5 but according to the venue it was actually at 6, so since I got there just before 3, I was definitely there a whole hour too early. I got a drink from the bar and spent my time reading a book and looking around a bit (it's a brewery inside a greenhouse so there are windows to peep inside from).

A little after 4, a couple of groupies showed up and invited me to their table (the same people who waved me over in Tampere). Next, band members started appearing. This meant I hadn't somehow missed the sound check (and I danced to it but it's not like anybody cares) :DD

When they let us in I ran so hard to get to the centre front I almost knocked the railing over lol

The place was kind of interesting, they had set up like a full size stage in the yard but the yard itself was pretty small. Much smaller than at Allas. It's nice for the performers so they're not just watching a massive sea of heads, I suppose. It was a hot day but the sun set behind the stage so we were in the shade and caught some breeze too. Being right in front of the subwoofers made this a bit more... intense an experience than I'm used to ;)

I got hit by the line again. Finger guns were exchanged (again).

Somebody ACTUALLY bought one of the noisemaker horns. (It was the other weird merch besides the 🔍)

(pictures can only capture a fraction of their energy, ok)

-----

I think I found (a) Number 1 Finnish fan (I'm sure there's more than 1). Before the show she talked her way into the back room to get everyone in the band to draw a flower and sign their name on a piece of paper.[1] If I understood correctly, she's getting them tattooed. She also carried a journal/scrapbook with pictures and ticket stubs and so forth. I mean that isn't so different from what I'm writing digitally here. Heini received a portrait from her, so I'm also not the only one giving them fan art, although hers was more lighthearted than my sort of thing.

Number 1 Finnish fan also drew a tattoo design for one of the aforementioned groupies (yeah groupies are a tight-knit, well, group); it's got the notation for the rhythm of a specific song. Now THAT is subtle.

If I were to get a fan tattoo it would probably be of some lyric, because words are my specialty and (if chosen wisely,) the text can still be meaningful even if you later move on from the fandom.[2][3]

-----

I've been eyeing the silver cape ever since I first saw it, and keep talking myself out of buying it but it doesn't make me stop wanting it. I decided that I'll buy it if I got to chat with Senpai. I don't think it really counted last time but today fulfilled that criteria. (It's actually a slightly-yellowish silver. Pearl, I guess?)

"I have nothing for you today." (I gave merch guy Pate a note with some niceties and a couple of merch ideas, though. Nothing sentimental. I didn't want him to feel like just being a messenger all the time.)

"Well, I haven't replied to [the other] yet." (Next Christmas?)

I also told Jepa that I would really like the remainder of the band to sign my banner but I wasn't sure how I could go about that because it's taped to my wall and I can't just bring it everywhere and hope I have the opportunity to get a hold of them. She suggested I could get in touch with them on Instagram and make arrangements.[1] Earlier she (I think it was her) came out from the back room with a sheet of normal people paper with everybody's autographs on it, dated and all, so I guess that's a thing. (I've had ticket stubs signed but most tickets are digital these days.)

-----

Oh, before I forget: same songs as the last.

And superfan couple wasn't there?? Surely they would have hung back as I did if they were there.

__________

[1] But I mean, the band is very approachable. It's just the potentially Very Serious security staff you gotta get past.

[2] I drew an (abstract) tattoo design for myself some 16 years ago and I'm committed to it—it's on a few other personal items—but I don't think I'll ever afford the luxury of getting it done. I wish henna paste was easier to find here, as I drew it on with henna for some special occasions back in the day (it's the correct color too).

[3] It seems like bangles with mottos/affirmations engraved on them are kind of A Thing with the middle-aged crowd? I'm not old enough to be in that demographic yet but it's an alternative to getting inked.

[thesquishywizard]

How to make a Grimoire!

This took me a week to compile so if you enjoy it and want to support me, this a link to my ko-fi!

Hey there, I’m Ismo the Squishy Wizard, and today I want to talk about how you could go about making a grimoire for yourself. Grimoires are very personal despite being for information and reference, so it is understandable that some of my advice just won’t fit your way of doing things. The following advice is based on my experiences and the experiences of other magical practitioners and witches I have spoken to or watched on youtube, so hopefully you can avoid some problems we have ran into.

What is the difference between a grimoire and a book of shadows (BoS)?

A grimoire is often only a magical reference book while a book of shadows is not only a magical reference book, but also a diary, record of magical activities and ultimately, whatever you make of it. The reason why you might want one more than the other is purely down to personal taste.

A grimoire will detail what things mean, their origins, uses and personal associations. It is in an order that will help the witch easily find what they’re looking for, whether that is in alphabetical order, simplicity to complexity, importance to you or some other personal order. Grimoires tend to be quite formal, being written in highly decorated documents on a computer, high quality notebooks, scrapbooks or sketchbooks.

A book of shadows may do all that too but also include records of daily practice, experiences with deities or spirits, personal reflection and introspection, thoughts and questions about the craft, results of spells and maybe dreams too. It generally is in order of learning and experiencing so can be slightly harder to navigate for reference for some people. Books of shadows tend to be more casual and some people write them in old school books and notebooks. Some people separate things further and put dreams and personal reflection and introspection in a book of mirrors, so that might be a good thing to think about.

Other people don’t define grimoires and BoS in this way and see it as two terms for the same concept and use “BoS” and “grimoire” interchangeably, so this may still be useful advice for those making a BoS. Neither a BoS or a grimoire is better universally, it is about what is best for you and the way you practice.

I personally have a grimoire and a magical diary as two seperate books!

Why might you want a grimoire?

Grimoires are useful for compiling knowledge all in one place, in a language you understand and work well with. With a grimoire, you might not feel the need to get several books out, just your grimoire because you will have used your knowledge and experience and the authors of those other books experiences when writing information in your grimoire. It also allows you to remove any jargon you don’t understand or add useful diagrams and pictures if you are a visual learner. A grimoire still shouldn’t be your only book, always continue learning and researching with others’ insights, grimoires are just more compact and quick for when you quickly need to find something out or need a bit of help. However, you don’t need a grimoire, if you think a book of shadows, a magical diary or just using pre-existing books is more useful to you, don’t make a grimoire. Grimoires can be an awful lot of work, only make one if you feel like you need it and are going to use it.

Don’t instantly begin making a grimoire, wait at least three months

A grimoire holds all the information that is important to your craft and though the beautiful, awe inspiring pictures of grimoires get a new witch raring to go, it is probably not best to make a grimoire yet. Making a book of shadows or a simple diary would probably be more useful and less overwhelming to begin with and you can still record new knowledge you come across, it is still important to learn and research as this is what will get you ready to make a grimoire.

Trying to make an organised, informative grimoire when you are still new to the craft can be very hard and may cause you to include misinformation or elements of witchcraft that are simply not relevant to your life soon after looking into them, as a witch’s practice changes a lot drastically in the first year or two, and their path will still change, but often just slighter, through their whole life.

This might mean that whole sections of your grimoire are never used, putting your hard work to waste. Some witches don’t start making their grimoire until they are years into their path, as they are now more sure of their beliefs, the way they practice and their thoughts on things so they can guarantee everything is of use to them, and should be for a long time.

I started my first grimoire five months into my path but I honestly should have done it later, as my path underwent some drastic changes only six months later (so eleven months into my path), but I’ve had a very stable path for about a year now so I’m currently making a new grimoire. Now I’m learning additional things, so I feel more comfortable starting my grimoire again. I’ve not learnt things that reshape my whole way of thinking and practice for quite a bit, though this can still happen at any point in your journey and it should be welcomed with open arms, but just a warning, that sort of thing is more likely to happen early on in your path.

Research and meditate on your findings!

To work out what path you want to take and how that may inform what goes into your grimoire, you need to research. You’ve probably heard before that the first step to anything in witchcraft is research which is very true and the sooner you start researching the quicker you’ll be able to understand and confidently start your grimoire. Bookmark websites, stick post-it notes and bookmarks in your books, or even begin collating your information into a computer document or writing it down in your diary or BoS. 

Experience being a witch before beginning to write your grimoire, try out those spells, try out those ideas, you may find that they simply don’t work for you or mesh right with your personal experiences or you may find that you’re a lot more into that area than you first thought you would be and you need to do deeper research and learn even more! Explore the world around you and record it in your diary, BoS, phone or elsewhere. Get to know the plants common in your area and therefore useful in your practice, the constellations in the sky, the food you can make, anything, just get to know what you like. Also make sure you fully understand a subject before deciding to put it in your grimoire, I’ve known witches who have written about things such as chakras, only to later find the western model of chakras is very warped from their Hindu and Tantric Buddhism origins and I myself have written about plants that are native to the Americas, despite me being British and having no way to access them because I didn’t properly research. 

When researching information, always think about whether it is relevant to you and whether you enjoy it. It can be tempting to research anything and everything but you might get burnt out and find the craft overwhelming that way and also some things are from closed practices. You should always check if something is from a closed practice, even if it seems to be commonly used.

Always use multiple resources even when it comes down to something as simple as latin names. The book I was using for British plants and wildflowers was written in the 1910s, which meant some latin names had changed so I crossed referenced every one with both British wildflower websites and wikipedia.

Drafting and planning your grimoire

Once you’ve collected some reliable resources and you feel comfortable in your understanding of the subjects that you’re interested in, you could start planning out your grimoire.

I recommend planning your grimoire so you don’t get overwhelmed by all of the things you want to put into it and how you want to present it.

First, think about what medium you want to construct your grimoire in, do you want it to be a digital grimoire? Or maybe in an actual book? Both? Next, think about the order you want everything in, though it isn’t yet made, plan it out something like a contents page. Make sure the order of things makes sense to your brain. Also, maybe have a little think about the future, maybe you could futureproof your book if you know there are areas that you want to look into one day or look into further and take into account the extra room you might need.

If you choose to make a physical grimoire, consider making a first draft before the finished project. You can do this in an old notebook or digitally. Mistakes are made and you don’t want to fumble your words so you could write it in full before writing it in your book, but many just plan a series of points they wish to cover. I planned mine in full in google docs, just without pictures. This meant I had all my knowledge and research already compiled and worded in a way I was happy with, I can often mess up my wording on the fly.

If you choose to make a digital grimoire you don’t have to worry as much about drafting, but it’s still important to make a structured plan for how you will organize things within your grimoire. Moving sections about can be a bit tricky! It’s also a good idea to choose which program you want to make your grimoire in, make sure it’s one you know how to use well so you don’t get frustrated, making a grimoire is meant to be fun. Some people enjoy using an art program to digitally draw and write their information, then they print them out! Some people instead use something like a google doc or document program, adding information in the form of text, pictures or charts but keeping it digital.

Tips for actually making your grimoire!

If you’ve planned a physical grimoire, it might be a good idea to get a larger book than you expect to actually need! You will keep using this book in the future, and continue to add information to it. You don’t want to run out of space when you have something really cool to talk about! As previously said, you could also futureproof it by leaving spaces or whole pages blank for extra information or new subjects.

A digital grimoire doesn’t mean a dull grimoire! Download some free fonts, lots of free witchy fonts exist and can really inject more of you into your document. There’s also lots of free photo websites or you could take your own photos and put them in your document. It doesn’t have to be all text in times new roman. I really like ‘Adalind’! https://www.fontspace.com/category/witch 

Some people find it is a good idea to source their information, especially when they are using their experiences and the experiences of several other people. This means that things can be checked later, years into the future if you are confused as to why something might be so.

You don’t have to know how to draw well to make a physical grimoire! You can print out pictures, you can take pictures out of magazines or books, or you can use something like postcards, tea cards, trading cards, lots of things! Don’t just restrict yourself to photos and drawings you’ve done.

Pressing flowers and leaves can be a wonderful idea for a physical grimoire, especially if you don’t have access to a printer or you feel like your art skills aren’t there. It can also give your grimoire that field journal feel! However, pressing flowers and leaves can mean some colour loss. To retain the most colour, keep the plants pressed for two or three weeks in a warm room. Most small flowers or leaves in a warm room will be pressed after just under a week. Never press a plant for more than a year, you don’t need to wait that long and also you run the risk of making your sample brittle. You could also laminate leaves (but not flowers, the heat seems to mess them up) and this seems to retain the colour better.

When making a physical grimoire, if using a book, make sure the book has a thick, sturdy cover, the book might get damaged with a soft cover, so a hard card, leather or even cork cover is a good idea to look out for when selecting your book. When selecting a book, never go for a type of binding known as ‘perfect binding’, as it uses glue to bind the pages to the cover. With the nature of grimoires, they tend to puff out quite a bit with all the flaps, pictures and pressed samples, which can break the inflexible glue binding. A good binding is wire or spiral bound, this means you can completely fold the pages over, reducing the total spread of the book on a work surface at any given time. Another good type of book is screwpost binding, here screws that can be easily screwed in and out hold the book together or alternatively bits of string to bind the book instead of the screws (this is my book’s binding). You can take the bits out and punch holes in your paper to increase the total amount of canvas you have to work with, it’s a lot like a ring binder, except it’s a book! Lastly, another common type of grimoire binding is section sewn, this is usually found in handmade leather grimoires. It’s virtually impossible to add paper to these, but they’re very sturdy and look quite magical. You can also bind your own books this way!

If you choose to make a ring binder grimoire, try to get a sturdy, high quality one. Many ring binders rings can’t actually match up, which can shred your paper as they pass over these sharp points. Also keep in mind a sturdy cover, some ring binders have a thin flexible plastic sheet, but cardboard or even wooden covers are out there and are a bit better at protecting your work.

If you plan to use multi-media methods of creating your grimoire, or heavy types of ink, I suggest you go for a heavyweight type of paper, something like a high quality notebook or sketchbook will be good. Handbound artisan books tend to come with heavyweight thick paper, so you don’t have to worry about those too much. Loose leaves of heavy paper can be bought from art shops if you are making a ring binder grimoire or need to add pages to a screwpost binding style book and are also using heavy inks, paints or making it scrapbook style.

Through all this, remember that the grimoire is primarily meant for you, you aren’t making it for other people, so don’t beat yourself up if it isn’t the most aesthetic and gorgeously professional thing ever. There’s a lot of pretty grimoires online for inspiration, but try not to just completely copy their work, or constantly compare your own creation to other peoples. They likely have been making grimoires for a very long time. As long as it gets the job done and makes you happy, that’s all that matters. It should be a little piece of yourself that looks and feels like you. 

Things to possibly include in your grimoire

Witches never have to do all of these, it is your path so pick and choose what inspires you!

Most grimoires have a title page including the date it was started and your magical name if you have one.

Some people include an invisibility sigil to prevent prying eyes, a curse that punishes them for looking or a warning that this book isn’t for them. Others bless their book!

Many people have a contents page so they can remember where to find the information they need.

A lot of witches include a personal introduction, explaining what brought them to the craft, a bit about who they are, favourite things like herbs, crystals and colours, any familiars they work with or any magical abilities they have. Some people almost make a little correspondence page about themselves, including key herbs, a natal chart, their birth tarot card and personal sigil.

Not all magical practitioners work with deities in their craft or are religious at all, but if you are, having a section about your deity or whole pantheon is a good idea. Write about what your deity acts like, what they are the deity of/over, things they enjoy as offerings or how you came to first begin working with them.

If you follow a wheel of the year or have celebrations, a page on these is a good idea. What does the celebration represent? What are some ideas for activities to do then? What does it mean to you?

Some people have a series of morals or tenants they follow and believe in. Maybe write down yours for your path.

The main chunk of the grimoire should be about what you work with. This could be plants, food, crystals, animals, colours, astrology, planetary magic, fair folk, magical creatures and much more! For each entry, explain the concept’s or item’s correspondences and uses, whether that be the common use or your personal uses and associations, what the item is like, where to find it, folklore about it, non-magical and mundane uses and maybe how to make it if it is something like food.

Another big chunk is often common spells, potions, practices or rituals you do and how to do them. Spells such as banishing, protecting, removing curses are all popular spells to record in a grimoire and meditation, grounding and centering methods are some non-spell things that are still important for many witches to know.

You might also want to talk about different types of spells in general, how to create one and what the differences are between them.

Some people talk about the tools they use, especially in practices like traditional Wicca, where there are important tools like chalices and athames. More universal tools like taglocks are another good thing to cover.

It's a good idea to talk about the divination methods there are or just the ones you personally use if you use any. Also cover any layouts, spreads or boards you might use. Witches don’t have to do divination, so if you don’t, you don’t have to include it! 

Some people include a section on magical theory, how they believe magic works. You could also do a section on how divination works for you. Some people think it helps introspection and decisions while others think it helps peer into possible futures.

You might want to include different alphabets relevant to your practice. If your practice is norse based, different futharks might be useful, whereas for hellenic practices, ancient greek alphabets will probably be of more use. The theban or witches’ alphabet is a common alphabet to be found in modern grimoires. Alphabets can help you code things from prying eyes or make sigils.

If you do ancestor or spirit work, you could talk about your ancestors or the spirits you work with. What they were/are like, wisdom they have passed on to you and other information you think is important.

Talk about how to work with spirits if you work with them. How to call them, how to respect them and how to banish them are important things to know.

If your path is a pre-existing one, talk about the history and origin of your type of witchcraft. If religion is heavily important to your path, talk about the history and how it has changed over time too. If your path is unique to you, talk about how you discovered and formed it!

Most witches include folktales, superstition or local wisdom and customs from their area. This could be ghost tales, how to keep crops safe, or even local magical goings on, anything that connects you to the land of your area.

Some people have people in their family who did things that could be considered magical. Many people used to do divination, herbalism (herbalism isn’t inherently witchcraft, it is using plants for healing and health and may or may not have a magical element to it) or use country wisdom and did not consider themselves witches or magical practitioners. Maybe talk about your relative or if you are an open witch and they are still around, ask their opinions and thoughts on matters and include a section on them.

If you are a hereditary witch, you could talk about what you’ve learnt from your family too! Though I feel you probably don’t need my advice on making a grimoire if you are one XD

Some people talk about places that feel magical to them. Explain exactly how the area makes you feel, maybe the reason why or what you have found in that place.

Always remember, your grimoire will never truly be finished, you’ll get it to catch up with your current knowledge at points and may not add new stuff for a bit, but part of being a witch is always learning, so there’ll be more to add soon! It is also important to keep in mind, there is no shame in remaking your grimoire or having to get another volume, it is the collection of your knowledge and it's actually quite common for experienced witches to have multiple volumes of their grimoire or old ones they don’t really refer to anymore, I know grimoires are often talked about in a singular way but it really is common to have multiple.

Most of all, have fun with it. Make your grimoire! I wish you a pleasant journey on your long and winding path <3

Resources!

How to press flowers: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-to-press-flowers.html 

Types of binding: https://www.studentbookbinding.co.uk/blog/types-of-binding 

Magical alphabets and historical alphabets: https://www.omniglot.com/ 

British plant, fungi and animal species: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer 

British plant and fungi species: https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plants-nature/plant-fungi-species 

British plant, fungi and animal species: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/

(I’m British so these are the resources I know are good for the UK)

[amoveablejake]

A Log for The Future

I’m writing it down to remember it today and for someone else to remember it tomorrow 

It seems that I always come back to a couple of ideas; stillness and documentation. When I talk about my film photography I often speak about the stillness of the photographs that primarily revolve around potentially mundane scenes. Mundane isn’t quite the right word, lets go with the everyday instead. As I have noted before other than my holidays my photograph albums are filled with shots of details that I’m quietly documenting and even with the pictures from my trips I’m looking to capture those moments that may be so painfully dull to the locals but to me have a quiet sense of magic to them. 

As an extension of this, this idea of stillness and using film instead of digital photography ties into my constant desire to be hygge and to build a hygge world around me. There is an organic quality to film and because it is a much slower process that works with the core ideals of hygge or at least my version of it. And in my version of the Danish way of life, there is a documentation aspect to it as I often find I am truly relaxed when putting photographs in an album or building/sorting something. Now, this may seem at the moment like ramblings from someone who is urging you to find your moments of stillness and that is true but really, its all leading to something else. 

Notebooks. Now, we already know that I adore notebooks and am completely obsessed with Field Notes journals. I never am without one within arms reach and have been using mine for my daily lists, to do lists and scrapbooking but now they have taken on a whole new element and that is journal-ling. Hopefully my talk of stillness and documentation is starting to make a little more sense now rather than my usual brand of Danish propaganda. This past week I started listening to a podcast called ‘Take Note’ which is about note taking alongside other things. In the show the two hosts were discussing what they had written down in their notebooks that past week and the majority of these notes were about their day to day lives and the thoughts they had floating around their heads. I immediately thought why wasn’t I doing this and set out to change that. 

Now, I do have the blog where I record my thoughts however, there is something very different about the notebooks. They are deeply personal and largely would only make sense to me as it might be a small drawing I’ve quickly scribbled away or one sentence about something, even stretching to pages on a stream of consciousness or indeed more ideas for the blog. It is all one big circle. I have felt such pure joy writing in my notebook as a journal and documenting whatever little musings are on my mind at that particular moment, it is hugely relaxing and again offers that sense of calmness and stillness that is extremely gratifying. That gratification also extends to the thought that perhaps one day little a Moveable Jakes can read the notebooks and maybe gain something from them. That has always been one of my primary thoughts when compiling my photograph albums, thinking about future generations having these to look back on and now with the notebooks rather than seeing what I had on my to do list and little bits and pieces I’ve stuck in they will also find my musings which really are all over the place but that is exactly what the notebooks are for. All over the place thoughts which maybe, just maybe, house a diamond in the rough. Or in the case of my handwriting, very rough. 

-Jake, a man listening to Vince Guaraldi and writing about notebooks once again, 16/05/2021 

[mathilda-studies]

Starting my 8th semester in uni, I think I have now come up with a way to plan the semester and all the projects so that everything gets done on time, and without me actually perishing in the process, and so, here it is: 

How to plan your semester in uni (and not die)

(disclaimer: I am studying a MAhons in Archaeology at a university in Scotland, so your semester/workload might be different from mine, but you can still take these principles and use them however works for you)

1. Start planning the semester as early as you can (preferably BEFORE the actual semester starts) - I usually make a new notebook in OneNote for this, with 4 or more main tabs for each subject (index, lectures, seminars, and whatever projects we will be doing for the assessment). My index is the most important part, with 3 main pages and 1 optional (timetable, assessment, reading, and goals as the optional page):

Timetable: in which I take timetable from the handbook/moodle/wherever they put it, including day, time, and location of the lectures/seminars, as well as the topic (if available beforehand). This is what you will refer back to every week. 

Assessment: In the assessment I include all the given information on what I will be graded on during the course, from what type of projects to how much they are worth in my final grade, as well as their description/guidance (if applicable). 

Reading: The reading page is where I put any and all reading that is required for the course - seminars, lectures, and overall, which will be very useful when studying for the exam. 

Goals/optional pages: I also sometimes include a page on my goals with the course - what I want to learn from the course, and how I want to feel at the end of the course. Here you can also add more pages that suit you, for example emails to the lecturers, their office hours, and anything else that will be useful for you to have in the same place and not have to look around for in the future. 

2. When you have done this for all your courses, you should also know all of your due dates during the semester (unless you have shitty lecturers, in which case - I’m sorry and this might not be super helpful, but you can also update this as you go). Sort these in order of due date, and make a table of them in this order (see my example from last semester), and now assign them priority/time to work on them (I usually set around 2 weeks/project, but this also depends on the word count and my familiarity with the topic. My categories are: 

Low Priority, will take less time: here a scrapbook and a presentation, as well as the chapter of my dissertation because I could spread that out over the semester

Important but not a Due Date: something that happens that might disrupt/affect the work I am able to do that week, but not something due, here a short trip and a field trip with a course

High Priority, will take more time: essays and projects that are larger or more complicated, here most of my assignments for the semester

blue highlighting the current week so that I know where I am in the semester and what I should be working on

purple for when I should be putting much effort into a project

beige for when I should prep or can work a little bit on a project

3. Use the notes to describe what you will be working on a specific week, but keep this very general and somewhat flexible. Also specify which day of the week something is due, this will help. 

4. Then use this when you are planning your week or your month or your day, to always keep track of what you should be doing, whether you plan on paper or digitally. 

Good Luck, and I hope this helps! You can find the entire text, with the images here. Also check out my post on planning your week, which will be out soon!

[organabanana]

Here are the eight things that seemed most important when I decided to put together an ~aesthetic~:

Bonus ninth thing: I am long-winded so I had to put this under a read more to save your dashes. I apologize in advance for the rambling stream of consciousness under the cut.

One. I need coffee: I like tea, too, but I need coffee. There’s nothing snobby or pinterest-worthy about my relationship with the stuff, either. I drink it nearly black, instant (I KNOW, I KNOW BUT I DON’T HAVE THE COUNTER SPACE FOR A COFFEE MAKER), and in ridiculous quantities. I go through two 100-cup tubs a month, though I put in more spoonfuls than they recommend so I guess the number is more likely 150ish cups a month. Which is still frankly appalling, but you know. My excuse is I work full time as a teacher and also full time as a writer which means waking up at 4AM seven days a week and going to bed at around 11PM if I’m lucky so what I lack in sleep I make up for in caffeine.

Two. I hand write a lot: I’ve been journaling since I was around 7 or 8. It’s gone from your basic ‘today the teacher was super unfair and I had orange juice at recess’ kind of journaling to a beautiful mess that’s a mix of journal, sketch book (I’m terrible at visual arts, but dammit, I love it), wish list, scrapbook, and obsessive record-keeping. Though I’ve gone full digital for all my actual writing, my journal will always remain handwritten. A blog just isn’t the same.

Three. I belong near the sea: I was born, raised, and have always lived in a small coastal town. I was landlocked for two different periods of my life (college first, and then a couple of years abroad) and I missed the sea more than anything else in the world. I always hear people say not seeing the sea makes them feel claustrophobic, but for me it’s the opposite feeling. My town is a peninsula so I’ve always thought of the sea as a sort of barrier between ‘home’ and ‘the outside’. Land locked places make me feel like I’m out in an open space with nothing to keep me safe.

Three and a half. My dog also belongs near the sea: I was going to use a picture of him, too, but I didn’t have any in my computer and using a random dog seemed weird. He’s a black lab I rescued when he was three. He’s now six and has some white hairs on his chin which make him look very distinguished. He leads a very pampered life in many ways, but I think his favorite thing is the same as mine: we live fifty steps away from the beach, where he can run off-leash and swim every single morning and night. I like to say I’m his service human because he has epilepsy which means I’ve gotten really good at sensing seizures and making sure he doesn’t hurt himself when they hit. In exchange, he keeps me warm in bed and makes me feel like the most important person in the world.

Four. I’m a woman and I love women (a ton): I fall in love at least twice a week on average, and three times if I happen to visit our vet who is an actual angel. I also have the flirting skills of a sea cucumber, but I make up for it by coming up with the smoothest lines for my characters because I am a benevolent overlady and they deserve better. I extremely rarely, if ever, spend my time consuming media with no women in it. Bonus points if they’re queer, but passing the Bechdel test is usually enough (notable exception: I will love Star Wars until my very last day on this Earth, Bechdel be damned). 99% of my characters are also women, and generally of the woman-loving disposition, and I think that’s okay.

Five. I’m a teacher and I love teaching (also a ton): I’m a special education teacher, and I love (nearly) every second of it. I get to work in small groups, sometimes even one-on-one, with kids and teens and adults who need some extra help. I often say my endgame goal is to transition to writing as my ‘main’ career, but I don’t think I’ll ever stop teaching because I love it far too much. I’d love to reach the point where I can make my own hours and not feel overworked and underpaid while struggling to make ends meet, but a teacher is what I am, not just what I do.

Six. In a different life, I was a stage actress: I even looked into drama schools for years. I think a part of me will always wonder if I could’ve made it, but I’m very happy with the small-scale classroom version of acting I get to do every single day instead. The theater is one of the things I love the most in the world, both musicals and straight plays. I watch nearly everything that comes through my town, and I save up and spend a week in London getting my West End fix as often as I can possibly afford. If I had to go without all other media in exchange for keeping live theater, I would (though it’d make me very sad).

Seven. I read as much as I write: I read, and I read, and I read. And then I read some more. I devour novels, but also long form articles, short stories, plays, COMIC BOOKS OH MY WORD, and even the back of the cereal box if I’m desperate enough. I’ve been living in my apartment for nearly two years, and I still have several boxes of books and comics in storage waiting to be unpacked. I will never not be amazed that comic books are suddenly cool after so many years of being for nerds, and I’m loving every second of it (though as a big time DC fan, I am somewhat butthurt about the current state of affairs in the DC/Marvel competition). My biggest book weakness are old timey nonfiction books for women and/or educators. The more problematic, the better. The crown jewel of my collection is a book written in the 60s for pubescent girls in which the author (a priest) attempts to tackle sex ed. Beautiful disaster. It includes the ‘true story’ of a woman who used lipstick as a teen and that set off a chain of events which ended with her grandchildren blaming her for their syphillis. Living in a country which was under ultra-Catholic fascist rule until 1975, my collection of problematic books is pretty impressive, I must say.

Eight (FINALLY I’M SO SORRY I TOLD YOU I WAS LONG-WINDED). I watch a ton of movies: Old timey, new timey, it’s all good with me. Because I don’t have a lot of time, I’m trying to make a conscious effort to be a bit more selective with what I watch and explore new things instead of rewatching Moulin Rouge for the millionth time. Letterboxd has been a godsend and I spend waaaay too much time fiddling around with it. But no matter how many new (to me!) masterpieces I discover, I reserve the right to watch Imagine Me & You at least three times a year. 

[promptsforthestrugglingauthor]

The Left Behind, Draft Two, Chapter One

           As a young girl, Natalia Klysov dreamed of nothing more than receiving as many proud smiles from her parents as possible—at her graduation, at her first job, at her wedding, at the birth of their first grandchild. When she was five, any poorly drawn scrawl drawn with chubby, shaking digital lines highlighted the family of three, all beaming with bright red smiles. When she was seven, it occurred to her that she could digitally capture the smiles from every moment that she wanted to. That weekend, she spent hours crafting a scrapbook to fill out for every important accomplishment by hand. Papers were all but out of fashion, but Natalia absolutely loved the thick, musty scent that floated off of them, making her feel as though she sat within a gargantuan, ancient tree. It was like a hiding space in plain sight; others simply walked past without knowing the secrets inside.

           With it, Natalia crafted her own secrets. In the past nine years, the girl had managed a few of her significant moments—graduation from grade school, first girlfriend, first boyfriend, first school dance, first A on a report card, thirteenth birthday. But she still hadn’t done anything exemplary. Hell, she only had days until her time ran out on the most important one. As if the girl wasn’t always nervous about some thing or another, the Deadline, her sixteenth birthday, was coming soon. She didn’t think she would make it past then.

“Natalia!” Her mother called from across the house rather than coming to get her—a habit becoming much more frequent as the days wound tighter than coils. Well, Natalia had only seen pictures of the devices, so rudimentary and ancient, but she’d read in a variety of stories they carried plenty of tension. “Come get ready for dinner!”

Setting her scrapbook aside, Natalia felt little more than a dull ache at the sight of her mother plating their meal. As a child, she had imagined herself applying into the Nutrition Utilization and Technologies too—NUTs, as her mother had playfully insisted many of the members were—in order to create meals pleasing to the eye, taste buds, and body the way her mother always had. Of course, the last time she had done so, the panel had rated her skills as “subpar” and her plating as “sufficient for a four year old’s scribbling phases” but certainly not the material of a NU technician.

Natalia found the meal perfectly edible seeing as she had no formal training, but she supposed that Coterie Acceptance Management panels were professionals for a reason and that she simply wasn’t good enough. It was easy to accept her faults and lackluster skills, considering there were so many. Her figure was within regulation to be eligible for one of the more favorable divisions of Clothing, Undergarments, Textile Engineers and Subjects, but her plain face flawed with a crescent scar on her cheek took away any possibility of that. Not to mention, Natalia wasn’t comfortable with so many people looking at her. She wasn’t a gifted athlete, so anything from a military position in the Dereliction and Insurrection Control to professional sports with the Bureau of Athletics and Healthy Lifestyle was ruled out. She could certainly run at a decent speed and had a significant endurance, but she had seen what true athleticism was and she certainly encompassed none of it. Not to mention she hardly had an intellectual or artistic bone in her body.

Natalia knew she didn’t have a single distinguishable skill, which meant knowing what Coterie to apply for was difficult. It was only more difficult thanks to anxiety the Deadline brought her. She first learned about the disorder four years before, but since it wasn’t a deemed a physically debilitating disease, the Pharmaceutical Institute for Life and Longevity offered a diagnosis but no sort of medication—medicines were difficult to create without expending a number of resources, so anything that could be done without simply was. She had done well, all things considering. The digi-pamphlets and websites offered her plenty of techniques to quell attacks and calm herself down. They weren’t foolproof, but they did the trick most of the time.

They had been coming in handy more now than ever.

“Can you help set the table?” Her mother asked, hardly looking up from her work. Natalia rarely got a sideways glance nowadays. She would have thought she’d become numb to it by now, considering the haunting woe sat itself in her eyes three years ago. She couldn’t articulate a specific idea for the future, and simply reiterated the same line she had been taught since infancy: I want to succeed in order to benefit myself and my Territory. It had only creeped closer to the surface as time progressed. Now, it had all but possessed both of her parents, whose jobs were more taxing than they had ever been.

Natalia knew that was her fault. The labor hadn’t gotten more difficult, nor their health any worse. They were exhausting themselves, mourning her death before it even happened. She wasn’t sure it hurt more that they didn’t believe she would make it, or that she wasn’t sure she’d make it. After all, she had to have a skill. Everyone had a skill. Aside from all the Derelicts—the whole point of the modern Coterist system was to expel those who provide no significant benefit in order to conserve resources and ensure that real citizens were well provided for—serving as simple laborers or sanitation technicians, since simplistic tasks were the only thing they were capable of doing. Natalia knew she had to be more capable than that.

She had to be useful enough to keep alive.

“Yes ma’am.” Natalia didn’t try to bring any attention to herself, knowing it wouldn’t amount to much, pulling out dulled cutlery and the same bowls she had used since she was a child. The States loved to conserve as much as possible, and that meant limitations on most commodities. The higher your Echelon level, the more privileges you were allowed for non-essentials—nicer clothing, a sooner swap-in on furniture or china, newer entertainment systems—which was far better than nations of the past. School had taught her all about their unequal distribution worldwide, in addition to some nominal failures in political divisiveness, racism, sexism, and other failures that had only caused tensions in the name of freedom.

Natalia knew that freedom didn’t mean much without trust in your leaders and trust in your system. The old world fell apart because it grew too large, too divided, and too selfish. She and her fellow citizens, however, knew that they would never fall to such a state. There were only two groups of selfish people in the world now: Derelicts and terrorists. The former were given chances to serve and supply, while the latter were nullified without mercy. Nullification never sat well with Natalia, but time and time again her mother insisted that they were nothing better than villains of the past, seeking chaos and disunity, and deserved whatever the punishment for the treason they committed. Her father, however, had a softer heart. She had never once seen a televised execution like many of her schoolmates, a fact which she was glad of, despite the criticism they both received for it.

Although, those criticisms were little more than children’s taunts compared to what Natalia had faced over the past year. Her peers didn’t take kindly to uselessness. She supposed she didn’t blame them, although she wasn’t sure she’d treat others the same if she had been safe. If she had been chosen.

If she had been chosen earlier, she corrected herself as she organized three places at a polished but chipped table. There was still time, although only a few days. She had run the calculations over and over in order to maximize as many CAM trials as possible, because at some point sheer luck had to be on her side and let her heart rest for a moment. Let her parents look at her with pride in their eyes the way that they used to. Natalia wanted to let them see her live and grow the way they had instead of leaving them alone to wither and gray without her.

She didn’t have to worry about that, she reminded herself in an attempt to silence the negative thoughts. She had to focus on right now—there was a floor beneath to steady her feet and air still in her lungs. As long as she followed through with her plan, everything would be alright. She’d look back and see that she had worked herself up into a panic over something simple like always.

A dull chime rang through the house, the sound monotonous and dull as it had always been, but it always signified something much more vibrant—dinner. It took little more than a few seconds for Natalia’s father to arrive besides her, planting a kiss on top of her head.

“Hey there, Nattie Newt. How was school?” His smile was warm, the way it always was, the wrinkles near his eyes deepening as evidence of his advancing age. Although his hairline had yet to recede, its color faded from the warm, dark ale shade she shared to that of weak coffee, the former of which she’d noticed him imbibe more and more of. However, it seemed to give him the courage to look her in the eyes, unlike her mother, which kept her from bringing up any concern.

“It was alright, nothing out of the ordinary.” She shrugged. Of course, her ordinary had been either taunting or isolation for the past few months. She understood that it was a defense mechanism on the part of her classmates—if they hated or pretended not to know her, then they wouldn’t be bothered when she disappeared—although it didn’t make stop the aching in her heart with each shove and each jeer and each day she sat alone. But she didn’t want to trouble her parents with that. There was no need to add more stress onto them because she couldn’t handle her own problems.

           “Better ordinary than dreadful, I say. Which, unsurprisingly, work was today.” He hadn’t seen a calm day at work in lifetimes. Over the years, the number of terrorists and traitors apprehended and tried by the ITC grew tremendously, and with it, the work for anyone involved in the judiciary. Although her father was far from a judge, he monitored and operated transcription and recording devices for a number of the trials. He had to still work through dragging trials, bearing witness to testimony of people who never showed a bit of remorse. It was no wonder he never watched executions—he was witness to the sentencing firsthand. She didn’t blame him for not wanting to see it through to the end.

           “Long trial?” Her mother asked, gliding around him to set plates on the table, each plate allotted with a sufficient amount of food for their nutritional need. “Don’t tell me it was Judge Nykrog again. He’s far too wishy-washy with the defendants. Obviously, I have no right to speak on the matter, but he seems to me like he’d almost rather give ­them a fighting chance.” She shook her head. “It’s not right. They’re wasting good people’s resources on someone they’re going to find guilty anyhow. They could be giving that food and water and clothing to wards of the state instead, who don’t have anyone to provide for them.”

           Natalia bit the inside of her lip. Surely, executions and nullification of older men and women only really lead to more children becoming wards of the state. Not to mention the cost of public executions was much more than the production of the bullet that did the deed—the electricity of televising and transmitting the broadcast was far from insignificant. Of course, she never understood why so many should be televised to begin with. It wasn’t her place to question the States, and she knew that. But flourishing the death of another didn’t sit right with her. No matter how much they deserved it, the spectacle of it all made her uneasy.

           Natalia’s father shook his head.

           “The trial was quick. But one of the new hires had a bit too much time on their hands and managed to go through the records room, and left files popped open and strewn about all over the walls, ceiling and floor.” He loosed a humorless laugh. “It was like someone unleashed a whirlwind virus in there. It’s a good thing I’ve learned enough about organizing and re-organizing from watching Nattie Newt go on and on.” He nudged her shoulder. “You know, even when you were little, you’d spend more time putting your toys away than you did playing with them.”

           Her mother nodded, a faint smile dancing across her lips. Her eyes sparkled with happy memory. Natalia’s heart crumbled inside her chest.

           “You were always funny that way. Of course I didn’t mind—I bragged to the other moms about it, even! They would swap horror stories about their tots at work, but I’d shake my head and tell them ‘No, not my girl. My little Nattie is going somewhere, she’s got focus and responsibility.’” The light faded away as the present settled back in. It took everything in Natalia not to wince at the regression. She’d fail her mother. She’d fail her father, too. She’d fail the States.

           She always did.

           Stomach resting on the floor beneath them, Natalia found nothing but repulsion at the plate in front of her.  Another reminder of skills she’d never have. Success she’d never attain. The mere notion of personal satisfaction was a pipe dream, let alone impressing her parents. They were successful in their jobs. They were far more capable than she’d ever be. If she were lucky enough to be Chosen, she’d scrape through a whole career with nothing better than menial, entry-level tasks. Supporting herself? Impossible. Finding someone who would be willing to put up with such a useless girl for life? That would only be harder.

Poking a fork at her vegetables, Natalia forced a smile onto her face. She wasn’t going to leave this family, but if she did, she was certainly not leaving them to remember her as the sad, broken girl she knew she was. If their memories were false constructions, so be it, as long as they remembered her fondly rather than with displeasure.

“I’ll show them, Mom. I will.” She winced as her voice cracked, betraying her. Her throat grew dry, stinging as though she was being stabbed from the inside, but she pressed on. “Like you always said, some things just need longer time to cook than others to be perfect. I have another trial tomorrow morning, and after school if I need it.” More likely than not, she would require both trials and more to come. “But my time is coming. You’ll see.”

Because it just had to come. It had to. She didn’t know what to do if it didn’t. Natalia had imagined her own death before, but never this young. She had imagined nearly every possible way it could have happened—vehicular accidents, severe allergic reactions, disease, murder… But not once had she imagined death by nullification. Execution. A death gifted without mercy, for righteousness and the benefit of others. Because she wasn’t worth keeping alive.

Her father held his hand over top hers, squeezing it gently. He still believed in her, or at least cared enough to pretend so for her sake.

“We know that you’re going to do great. Nothing less from our little girl.” The smile didn’t reach his eyes, but the sorrow certainly did. She appreciated the attempt, at least. She scoured her brain for any other possible topic of conversation. It was difficult to think while her lungs ached, holding away as much weakness as she could shove back inside. Oxygen must have stopped entering her body, and instead seeped from her skin, because she was drowning where she sat.

“Tomorrow. I promise tomorrow.” The words dribbled down her chin messily, as she found herself unable to lift her eyes to meet either parents’ face.

“Let’s just get through right now, okay?” Her mother offered, fork scratching across the surface of glass.

Natalia nodded, although her mind was locked on the next morning and everything curve it may throw it her. She needed more happy moments. She had to see a genuine smile again. She had to pass.

She had to live.

[somuchanemoia]

I wish you would write a fanfic where... Victor finds out exactly how much a fanboy Yuuri is when Hiroko sends Yuuri's 37 posters, 42 prints, 4 folders of limited addition magazines, 3 scrapbooks, 5 Victor Nikiforov (TM) figurines, and old VHS tapes of Victor's performances that Yuuri taped. Yuuri is, obviously, embarrassed, but Victor consoles him. Also, in reply, Victor sends Hiroko a picture of the veritable shrine he has been building of Yuuri, complete with a personalized Yuuri dakimakura.

Aww! Anon! I have been wanting to write this so badly so without further ado…here is a short drabble on this. I will most likely make this into a fuller fic in the near future once Christmas is over since I’ve been busy busy busy.

Once again, sorry for the late response! : ( I kept getting pulled away from my desk while writing this so my sincerest apologies.  - Sam

It had all started when the UPS guy delivered a huge brown cardboard box late one evening to Yuuri and Viktor’s apartment. They had been enjoying a quiet evening in together, snuggling on the couch as the TV played in the background and picking at their boxes of Chinese takeout they had grabbed on the way home from the rink. Makkachin had been curled up at their feet, ready to protect them from anything that could harm her owners and also ready to accept any food that was “accidentally” dropped by Yuuri. Viktor may have been a stickler for dog food, but Yuuri knew that one piece of orange chicken wasn’t going to harm the poodle so he would occasionally indulge her with his “clumsiness”.

Not that Viktor was really all that intimidating as he scolded Yuuri for it in between kisses.

The knock at the door had stirred Makkachin from her sleepy panting and had roused Yuuri and Viktor from their lazy sleepy cuddles.

“I got it.” Viktor hummed as he pressed a kiss to Yuuri’s hair and stood from their tangle of limbs, Makkachin following him to the door to investigate and greet their new visitor, her tongue lolling from her mouth in happiness. Yuuri hummed softly and leaned back on the couch, taking another bite of a Rangoon that Viktor had wanted to try. They weren’t all that bad, but after being to China for competitions and from being from Japan, he missed traditional Asian cuisine and not the rip off type that was often served in other parts of the world.

He could hear his boyfriend taking in rapid Russian just down the hallway, catching a few words here and there, but not really understanding what was being said since he was still learning Russian from Viktor. From what he understood though, it didn’t sound like anything too serious so he continued to stay curled up on Viktor’s comfortable sofa and stare at the TV that had been flipped to some sort of news broadcast that had Japanese subtitles playing at the bottom for Yuuri.

“Mama sent us something.” Was the first thing Viktor said as he came into the room with a large brown box cradled in his arms, Makkachin following behind him happily before she was able to squeeze through the wall and Viktor’s legs and bolt for her new favorite cuddle buddy (at least that is what Viktor had accused her of).

“Oh? It must be that last box of my stuff from home that I asked her to send…” He hummed, “You can just set it down and I’ll unpack it tonight before–”

“It’s for me,” Viktor cooed as he plopped down next to Yuuri and set the box down in front of both of them. He pointed at the label and Yuuri had to nod in agreement, it was for Viktor. But what could his Mama have sent his fiance? What could she have sent and not mentioned to Yuuri at some point? Maybe Viktor had left something in Hatsetsu?

“Any idea what it is?” Yuuri asked as he pulled a pair of scissors from the drawer of the coffee table and handing them to Viktor.

“Your guess is as good as mine, honestly. Can’t be too bad since it’s from Mama.” Yuuri nodded. It probably was something they found in Hatsetsu that Viktor accidentally left behind or something that they saw that reminded them of him.

Viktor opened the box and Yuuri’s face immediately reddened in embarrassment and shame.

“I can’t believe she actually sent them…” Yuuri squeaked to himself as he covered his face with his hands. Viktor was laughing heartily in enjoyment as he was suddenly assaulted with pictures of his face. Pictures upon pictures of him with short and long hair, younger and older, on the ice and off greeted him with small smirks and endearing tight-lipped smiles. He began pulling out multiple pictures of himself that had been sent, looking through all of them and reminiscing about his time in juniors and his beginning years in seniors, much to Yuuri’s horror. Occassionally, he’d remark about the angle being wrong and not getting his good side, easily something Yuuri would dispute, but currently didn’t have the energy for.

“I can’t believe…”

“I wonder where she got all these pictures.” Viktor hummed almost teasingly as he pulled more items from the box, posters of Viktor in varying ages were everywhere, some of them signed and others obviously pulled out of magazines, though they had been loved in the same fashion as the higher end ones.

“This was a good picture of me. I loved being in Colorado.” Viktor hummed as he pointed at a poster of himself standing in the snowy mountain air, gold medal around his neck and National team jacket keeping him warm. His long hair had been frozen in time as it flowed through the breeze, making him look a hero returning from war in a bad action movie. Yuuri blushed even deeper when he remembered some of the things he had done while looking at that particular poster.

“Really great shot…” Yuuri said faintly as he curled up in a ball on the couch in utter shame. Viktor would definitely find him to be a weirdo now. Viktor had known that Yuuri was a fan, of course, but now that ‘Katsuki Yuuri: The Fanboy’ had been taken out of the closet…

“Ooh. Look at these Yuurtshka! Viktor squealed as he pulled out four huge file folders that had been stuffed full with magazines; all the magazines Yuuri had ever collected through his time as a hardcore Viktor Nikiforov stan.

“Oh no,” Yuuri mumbled to himself, “Naze mamadesu ka?“ (Why mama?)

“OH MY GOSH, YUURI! Look!” Viktor suddenly held up a very limited edition magazine that Yuuri had fought to the death for over eBay, “I never even got to read this one! I tried to get it when it came out but someone outbid me on eBay. I was so angry with “viktors-bluest-eyes” for the longest time as a teenager.”

Yuuri felt his eyes widen and his blush deepen. He had apparently been in a bidding war over the internet with Viktor at one point in time for this very magazine. He made a weak sounding squeak as Viktor hummed and continued to riffle through the box off Viktor Nikiforov memorabilia that his Mama had sent.

Time had revealed a collection of Viktor Nikiforov fan merch, a whole set of Victor Nikiforov ™ figurines (all of which Viktor had no idea existed and had proudly set them on the mantle place in their “place of honor”), multiple scrapbooks that he had determinedly flipped through happily, cooing to Yuuri about how well he did formatting pictures by stickers and colorful paper. VHS tape upon VHS tape surfaced as well and by the time Viktor had insisted on taking the tapes to be digitalized Yuuri finally cracked.

Tears flowed down Yuuri’s cheek as he curled up tighter into a ball on the couch.

“Yuurtshka?” Viktor’s voice was soft and tender, unlike the happy squeals he was letting out not even five minutes ago, “What’s wrong sweetheart?”

Yuuri hid his face in his hands as he shook, “This is so embarrassing. You think I’m a freak now, don’t you?”

“No! No, of course not moy sladkiy,” Viktor cooed as he pulled his ball of Yuuri close, “You’re so precious Yuuri.”

“I’m the biggest fanboy ever. I practically stalked your skating career…”

“And that’s so adorable, Yuuri.” Viktor purred as he rocked them back and forth, “You’re so passionate about something and that makes me happy. It makes me even happier that it’s me because I love you so much.”

Yuuri hiccuped, “Why?”

“Well, lots of reasons. You’re so sweet, Yuuri, and so honest. And you’re talented and the way you dance on the ice makes me so inspired. You’re an amazing cook and you have this adorable little laugh. Plus you love animals and–”

“Why do you not find this weird, Viktor?” Yuuri asked as he looked up at him with teary eyes, “You don’t find it weird that the president of your fan club is–”

“You’re “viktors-bluest-eyes”?” Viktor asked with far more enthusiasm than Yuuri expected.

He nodded and let Viktor continue you to squeeze him tight, “Aww! I love “viktors-bluest-eyes”! Even before I met you Yuuri, I followed your blog because you were so sweet and cool and you didn’t like spreading rumors about me. You just let me be who I am and supported me no matter what. And now I get to marry you and–”

“Y-You read my blog?” Yuuri asked softly and gave a watery chuckle at Viktor’s rapid nod. Viktor hummed and chuckled along.

“Well, if you feel like this is your dirty little secret, I might as well come clean too.” Viktor pulled them to their feet and led Yuuri to one of the spare bedrooms that Viktor had dubbed his office. In all his time here in St. Petersburg, Yuuri had never even seen the elder skater in the room. Viktor paused by the door and Yuuri saw his pale cheek light in a gentle blush before he pressed a kiss to Yuuri’s lips and then forehead.

“Welcome to the head quarters of Katsuki Yuuri’s ultimate fanboy.” Viktor hummed as he opened the door and let Yuuri peer in the room. The Japanese skater gasped as he walked in the room, Viktor’s arms wrapped around his waist.

The entire room was a shrine to Yuuri; the walls covered in posters of Yuuri from juniors and seniors. Framed photos of Yuuri sat along the bookshelves of magazines that had been dedicated to him. Figurines of Yuuri sat in glass cases for protection around the room and even an exact replica of one of his skating costumes from his time in Juniors sat in a life save glass case to be preserved.

“Oh my god.” He mumbled as he let his eyes drift around the room, his cheeks burning in shyness, “When…?”

“After I saw you dance that night at the banquet, I knew I was in love with you. I started researching you and, well, I feel down a dark hole.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re so precious Yuuri. You are the most precious bean and you deserve to be preserved.” Viktor hummed as he trailed kisses across Yuuri’s cheek and down his jaw, “moy dragotsennyy bob.”

“Viktor, why in the hell do you have these?” Yuuri asked Viktor who pressed two large personalized Yuuri dakimakura into his fiance’s hands. One was of Yuuri laying spread on his back in his eros costume, his hair slicked back and his brown eyes looking up at him with dripping lust. The other was more PG-rated with Yuuri laying on his side dressed in a pair of his training leggings and a loose t-shirt hanging off his shoulders. His glasses were askew and his hair was mused up from what looked to be sleep; by his head “I love you, my Vicchan” had been written in Cyrillic.

“I miss you when I have to leave you here to go to competitions so I need a Yuuri to cuddle,” Viktor asked as if it was the simplest thing in the world. Yuuri just nodded and held the pillow as Viktor took out his phone and eyed the scene in front of him, “A little to the left Yuuri. I want to make sure she can see the limited edition Yuri on Ice alarm clock.”

Yuuri just snorted but scooted over so Viktor could snap a few pictures of the room for Mama Katsuki. He managed to get a few because then he came to stand by his fiance to take a few selfies. They both smiled at the camera and then on the last shot, Yuuri pressed his lips to Viktor’s cheek lovingly.

It wasn’t that much longer when Hiroko received a whole onslaught of pictures from her future son-in-law of a whole shrine to her baby boy and one picture of the two of them kissing with the caption, “Thank you for allowing me to add to my collection…” at the bottom.

[starrbomb]

Lance taking photos of/with everyone and making a scrapbook for an one year Anniversary present and the whole group being shook and happy cause their boyfriend loves them so much and spent so much time on this.

Awwwww that’s so sweet! *salutes* I will do my best!

• • • • • • • • •

To say that Lance got lucky is an understatement.He would have never had guessed that this space mall would also have an earth shop, or that said earth shop actually had a Polaroid camera that actually works, with the blank cartridge and ink to boot!

He scrounged up every last gac that he needed to buy it.

He remembered how his grandfather would have every type of camera for his job, whether it was the newest model or it was one he found at antique stores. Lance recalls all the times that he would go with his grandfather to all sorts of places, helping him take pictures of every sort of thing he thought was fascinating. Although, now that he thinks about it, he wasn’t really helping his grandfather in the slightest, but he always printed his pictures and hanged them up on his office walls. Lance perks up as he comes up with the perfect idea to use this for! Hopefully he can get it done before their anniversary….

• • • • • • • • • • •

“Hey Hunk!”

Hunk looks up from the sauce pan to see a super old camera being pointed at him. He hears the snap of the shutter and watches as Lance’s head pops up from behind the camera and grabs the photo being pushed out from the camera.

“Dude, is that one of those super old cameras?”

“Yeah! I found it at the last space mall run we did.” Lance chatters, eyes glued to the square picture. “I was checking to make sure it worked, come here.” Hunk takes the pan off the hot burner before making his way over to Lance, looking over his shoulder to watch as his picture slowly starts to appear. “Cool.”

“I know right! I’m gonna take some more pictures. Bye!” Lance leans over and peaks a kiss on his cheek before dashing out of the kitchen. Hunk lets out a chuckle at Lance’s sweet kiss before going back to his newest recipe, a warm smile gracing his lips.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

A few days later, Allura watches as Lance sneaks up to Keith and Pidge, who had seem to have fallen asleep on one another, a strange device in his hands.

He holds it up to his face and she hears the soft click before a piece of paper comes out from it, which Lance takes as he silently leaves the two to slumber on, completely unaware of what he was doing.

As soon as Lance and Allura is far enough away from waking up their sleeping significant others, Allura places her hand on Lance’s shoulder, causing him to startle and whip around.

“Oh. Allura. Geez, don’t sneak up on me like that.” He chuckles out.

“Lance, what is that device in your hands?” Allura asks, straight to the point.

Lance lifts up the device while answering “it’s a camera. Humans use these to take pictures of moments they want to remember.”

“Can you show me how it works?”

Lance brightens up, that beautifully delightful smile spreading across his face. “Sure! Here, come over here and lean in.” Allura follows and stands right by Lance, leaning in so that her head was close to his. He holds up the ca-mer-a and points the front of it towards them. “Okay now look at the camera and smile, even put up a peace sign if you want.” Allura recalls Hunk teaching her the peace sign and holds it up while looking up at the camera and puts on a curious smile, not exactly sure what else is suppose to happen. She hears the same click as before as Lance pushes down on a button. As soon as the square piece of paper starts to poke out, Lance holds the cam-er-a closer to himself and takes out the sheet. He holds it in front of Allura and she watches amazed as slowly the white sheet starts to take on color and soon enough it’s a picture of her and Lance smiling, her peace sign poking in from the side.

“This is remarkable Lance!” She beams at him as he takes the photo back, slipping it into his pocket. “Well it’s not like i created it or something, but yeah it really is. I gotta go, but if you want to take some more pictures you know where to find me.” He says walking backwards while giving her his usual finger guns. Allura chuckles at the antics as he walks off down the hallway.

She can’t wait to take more pictures!

• • • • • • • • • • • •

It was when they were planet side, after having chased off the galra that have been inhabiting the planet, when Shiro noticed Lance carrying around the camera.

Sure he’s seen him using it around the castle, taking pictures of the others; pictures of Keith whenever he’s secretly playing with the mice, pictures of Hunk and Pidge whenever they start to gush about robotics and the like, he’s even noticed when Lance will take pictures of him whenever he’s relaxing with one of the others.

It’s not like Shiro minds having his picture taken, it used to happen a lot back when he was at the Garrison, but now he’s a bit camera shy and not sure what to do when Lance asks if he can take his picture. But this is the first time he’s seen him with it on a planet. He usually takes out his phone whenever they visit a civilization and takes pictures with the inhabitants with that. But to see him lug around the decades old camera as he weaves his way through the crowds, well it peaks his curiosity.

He watches as Lance doesn’t really takes pictures of the alien race with him, but rather pictures of the others interacting with them. Pictures of Keith gushing over the gifted sword that one of the royal guards hand him, pictures of Pidge and Allura holding hands as Allura talks to one of the dignitaries of the planet, pictures of Hunk looking at the beautiful garden that decorates the sides of the cobble roads.

It wasn’t until dusk that Shiro was finally able to get Lance alone, walking along side each other in the royal gardens, seeing that some of the flowers actually glow in the dark, giving off shadows as well as a much more somber tone to the whole place.

“I see you’ve been busy today.” Shiro starts off, watching as Lance startled at the words before looking down at the cobbled walkway as if he was a child that just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Shiro quickly tries to backtrack, realizing how his previous sentence sounded.“I’m not saying that it’s bad! I- I was just wondering why you’ve been taking so many pictures with that camera all of a sudden, you could a lot better picture with your phone.”

Lance quietly contemplates how to answer he question without revealing the surprise, all the while Shiro is worrying that Lance was mad at him for asking. Before Shiro tries to apologize and drop the question, Lance answers. “My grandfather was a photographer. He was one of the best, well at least in my eyes he was. He use to take me with him whenever he went out to countrysides or to the swamps back in Florida, letting me take as many pictures as I wanted. It was my favorite thing to do with him, watching him work and come up with stunning pictures time and time again. So taking all of these pictures just helps me remember him.”

Shiro softly smiles, pulling the camera out of Lance’s hands before raising it up and taking a picture of the two of them, pulling in Lance so that he’s practically leaning on him for support. Shiro hands back the camera as soon as the picture starts to chug out of the bottom, Lance chuckling to himself as he takes it. “You know that this will probably come out super weird because of the bad lighting, right?” Shiro can’t help but blush from the embarrassment, totally forgetting that the only light source around them is the glowing flowers. Lance quickly kisses him, whispering a thank you against his lips before pulling him along back towards the royal hall, where the others are most likely waiting for them, a new kind of blush tickling his cheeks.

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Today was the day! It’s their one year anniversary! Lance quickly jumps out of bed and heads over to the desk, making sure that his gift wasn’t missing anything before he gave it to them.

‘Nope! Nothing missing! Alright!’ Lance mentally gives himself a high five before taking his gift and heading out towards the dining hall.

As soon as he walks in, Lance can smell the almost recognizable smell of bacon and waffles, seeing the stack of bright orange waffles in the middle of the table. He hears Hunk in the kitchen, most likely getting whatever finishing touches he has for this amazing breakfast for their boyfriends and girlfriends. He quickly takes a seat and waits for the others to slowly trickle in, a few of them still rubbing the sleep out of their eyes while others are trying to hide their own gifts behind their back.

Once Hunk comes in, carrying a tray of bacon-lookalike and what appears to be green scrambled eggs, cheering out “ HAPPY ANNIVERSARY YOU GUYS!” Everyone chows down, groaning and moaning at the beautifully tasting food.

Before long, everyone was stuffed and ready to give each other their gifts. Allura hands out bracelets that any normal human would think of as friendship bracelets, but Lance understands (thanks to Coran) that it was actually a super important thing to Alteans when it comes to significant others. Sort of like a promise ring, but instead their made by hand and goes around your wrists. It’s a super thoughtful gift and Lance tells her so as she hands him his own weaved bracelet, slipping it onto his wrist and rubbing at the craftsmanship that she put into it.

Keith is the next person who gives out his gifts, blushing from ear to ear as he hands out wood cravings to everyone, each one a different color (not really surprising when your hoping from planet to planet) and personally crafted for each person. Pidge got a plant with digital wiring carefully carved throughout the whole thing, Hunk was given a flat sun, but made entirely out of Samoan design that seem to glow just a bit when out into the light. Shiro was gifted with….a wooden replica of the communicators from Star Trek? It must have been something that Keith knew about before they went up into space because Shiro looked so happy when he was handed it. Keith gave Lance a blue wooden shell, and with every turn the colors would change through different shades of blue, making it look like the ocean itself was inside it. Allura’s gift though was truly a work of art, Lance isn’t even sure how Keith got those minute details. It was a small replica of the castle ship, with each section of it a different color of the team. It was beautiful.

Finally, it was Lance’s turn, as he picks up the large book from the floor and places it on the table in front of them, in calligraphy, the words “love of a million stars” is written on the cover. The team huddles around Allura’s chair as she picks up the scrapbook and opens it up, everyone looking wides eyed as pictures of their times together covers every page. A couple of times as they leaf through the pages one of them would point at a picture and retell what was happening in that moment, a lot of them surprised that they never noticed Lance taking a picture of them as they were working I something. It was when they found the empty pages in he back that they looked up to Lance confused. He merely shrugs and says “so we can fill them in in the future.” That gets him a bone crushing hug from Hunk, teary eyed at the unspoken promise that they all would always be together.

Always.

• • • • • • • • • • •

And there we go! I know I didn’t really do much with Pidge and Keith, but I tried my best to slip in as much as I could from different stand points. I hope you enjoy!!

[villageofmonsters]

Confessions of a Photographer

 Hey, Confessional, I love the blog! Thank you for putting up these stories. I get all giddy when I see a new one. Long time reading, first time confessing, yadda yadda. This town is real weird, ya know? I’m surprised there isn’t more content on here. Maybe the oddness just rolls off the locals’ backs and they don’t notice it anymore or something. I moved here a few years ago and… Wow. I’m glad this exists because I have zero people in my life that wouldn’t have me committed if I told them about this. I just wish I’d found this confessional sooner so that I never moved here in the first place. It would have been nice to have a warning.

 I’m a student here at the local high school. Go Devils, go! I’m in the art program. I like to take pictures and work in the dark room. It’s super cool! They never had a dark room at my old school, it was all digital. I think doing it the old fashioned way is better though. Call me a hipster if you want, it’s just what I prefer.

(sidenote: has anyone noticed how disturbing our mascot is? It’s not even a cute cartoon devil, it’s an actual uncanny valley demon. What is with this body horror? Who let a cultist design our merch? I need answers.)

 Earlier last school year I was walking around town. I had to explore a bit, gawk at all the tourist traps, see the fun places to hang out. I was looking for inspiration and found this nice hiking path. I wanted my first project to be about the beauty of my new home and the forest called to me, ya know? All those reds and oranges. Every year it’s like the trees set off a fireworks display to say goodbye to summer. I was going to make a scrapbook or something, add some pressed leaves, I dunno. I never plan these things out; it’s better to be spontaneous.

 Maybe I should have planned my trip a little better. I was still wearing my shoes from school, the ones with just the slightest bit of a heel, and the ground was uneven and… Well, I’m clumsy. I fell right off the path and down an incline. I was inches away from bashing my head in with a rock. I saw my life flash before my eyes!

 Okay, maybe it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t that deep a ditch. I was glad I was alone though, I was so embarrassed!

 I did see something flash though. It was starting to get dark and from my new angle I saw deeper into the forest off the path. There were little flashes of light, one every thirty or so seconds, like from a camera.

 I wondered if another photography student had the same idea as me. What if there was another path over there? It seemed weird for them to be so close together but whatever. I got up and headed towards the light. If I was going to trip over nothing, I wanted someone around to call the ambulance I would definitely need! Plus, potential new friend? Hell yeah.

 I got over there okay. I was careful not to trip a second time or step in animal poop or something. I could see the light better now. It was quieter the further from the path I got. Less wind, less animals, less insect buzzing. I could hear the sound of a camera shutter as I got closer. I thought to myself, whoever it was, they needed to stomp around less if they wanted photos of animals. They had to have found something interesting if they were taking so many pictures in one spot though.

 I finally got over there and… Wow, it was a really fucking weird tree. There was no one else there, not even another path, just this tree. I don’t mean ‘weird’ as in non-native, like a palm tree, I mean weird. It was sitting in a little clearing like the other trees didn’t want to touch it. A tree leper.

 The tree hadn’t lost any of its leaves for one. It’s leaves were white, from where I was standing, for another. And the flashing as coming from the tree. I moved slowly towards the plant, ready to bolt at any second, trying to get a better look. I just had to see what the flashing was coming from. Was it some kind of hunting camera? Why would a hunting camera had a shutter sound or a flash?

 I finally got close enough to see the tree had a knot. It was right in the middle of the trunk like a tree in a cartoon. An animated owl popping out and tap-dancing wouldn't have surprised me. The tree flashed again, right in my eyes, and I shouted. I reached out to the hole blindly. Maybe some asshole art student had put their camera in the knot for a timelapse shot or something? Then I touched it and blinked away the flash and…

 No, the camera lense was just a part of the goddamn tree. A functioning camera was in this tree. I don’t mean like some chimera of technology or an art installation either; it was natural. This tree had just decided ‘fuck it, I wanna be an artist’ and grew a camera. I was freaking out a little bit so I decided to examine the rest of it.

 It was sorta thin and spindly, like the wind should have knocked it over already. I guess all its strength had gone into defying nature and left it with little to use on proper growth. It wouldn’t be a good climbing tree, that was for sure. I noticed something else now that I was closer; the bark was black and shiny. I touched it and it was smooth, and the sides of the strips were sharp, and it had perforated edges…

It was film. The trees’ bark was layers and layers of wrapped film. The outer layer had hardened to provide bark-like protection but it was most definitely film. I was softly screaming internally as I hooked a finger around a loose strip. There was no way this was legit, right? I pulled off the section of ‘bark’ and it bled. Not blood, of course, but sap. Not from between the film strips, but from the strips themselves, it bled.

 The tree took my picture again and I swore. I moved around the trunk a little so I wouldn’t continue to get bright lights to the face. I ended up getting a low-hanging branch to the face instead. I took a closer look at those square, white leaves the tree had. I watched blank-faced as one of the leaves fell to the ground and another one popped out to take its place. It was a photograph of me, staring dumbfounded just above the camera, taken about two seconds before. The tree had polaroid leaves and all my surprise had dried up at that point. I looked down and saw a blanket of ‘leaves’ just like the one of me. So the tree had been losing leaves, it had just been replacing them just as fast.

 (I know you guys have title guidelines for posts on the blog, but come on. How great would ‘Photosynthesis’ have been?!)

 As far as weird shit goes, it seemed pretty… not mundane, but safe? I guess. Maybe I was just in shock or something. I spent a good twenty minutes carefully circling the tree and looking at all the photographs. You’d think it’d be boring, since the camera never moved, but some of them were really good. Aesthetic, maybe, like they belonged on tumblr. There were some really great shots of animals that had wandered close by. Most of them were from some distance, but one brave chipmunk had gotten all up in this tree’s grill. It left a little scratch mark on the lense that got… less and less in the photos around that one. Slowly. Like it was healing.

 It was getting even darker now and I wanted to go home. I didn’t want to think this was just a weird dream the next morning though. This was the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me! I wanted to come back, but I knew I’d convince myself not to if I didn’t have some kind of proof. I knelt down and picked up some photos from the ground before turning tail. I ran back to the path and out of the forest. I needed some time to process all this.

 I went back the next day after school. When I woke up, the photographs had still been safely tucked into the notebook I put them in. I even showed them to my mom to make sure she saw them too. I wasn’t hallucinating and it wasn’t dark. It was time to go back. I found the tree faster this time now that I knew where it was.

 The first thing I did was find those pictures of myself and pluck them off the tree. The camera flashed twice immediately, no thirty second wait, to replace them. I tucked them into my pocket; I’d have to avoid the front of the tree but the back should be okay. I sorted through the photographs on the ground. I didn’t want to distress the tree anymore by plucking its leaves.

 I knew I should tell someone, show someone, but… It was a tree that took pictures. Who would believe me? And if they did, the government would take the tree away for study or something. Mindwipe me like in Men In Black, I dunno. Either that or trigger a media circus like the world had never seen. I just wanted more time alone with it. I was curious. When I’d finished with the tree, then I would tell people.

 Inspiration hit me. I could take the best photographs from the tree, maybe pick one a month to put into a scrapbook, and use it in a final assessment-type deal. ‘A Year in the Eyes of a Tree’. Some of the pictures were great. I didn’t like them so much yesterday, but they were growing on me. If I took them from the ground, I’m sure the tree wouldn’t mind… Because it was a tree. They don’t have feelings. What do I look like to you, a hippie?

 After that, I came back to the tree every week. I looked forward to it. I was happier out walking in nature; sometimes before or after I would visit the tree I’d take a little hike. I even lost some weight, score! It was a good place to collect thoughts, a great place to do homework, and my grades improved. Mostly because I was actually doing homework. The photograph tree watered my crops, cleared my acne, and taught me how to make six figures a month. Okay, not actually, but it was pretty chill.

 It was chill until about a month ago. I hadn’t done my project last year because it didn’t feel finished, ya know? I did something else and waited to put together my tree project. Maybe a collage. I could blow up a bunch of the pictures and edit them together into one cool and surreal scene, maybe? I was still think about it. It would be awesome though. Even if I got a bad grade, I would know it was awesome. Because it came from a cool zoological anomaly. I kept coming back to it over the summer and the beginning of this school year.

 Around mid-October I started noticing weird things in the photographs. They were never around me while I was there and I never felt anything either. It was things like oddly shaped shadows, not people or animal shaped, but odd. I knew every shadow at every time of day on every day of the year from looking at the photographs. I knew when something was out of place. The shadows would only be there for a day or so from what I saw from the pictures. Maybe something had gotten stuck on the lense that day, I thought.

 As the month went on, I noticed other weird stuff. Like photographs of dead animals. Oh, it had happened before. Animals hunt, animals eat each other, and I’d been watching the photos for a year. This wasn’t like that. It wasn’t the type of wound animals inflict, there was no other animal in shot eating it, and there was never any remains of the animal when I got there.

 From what I could gauge from the amount of photographs, an animal would show up dead right in frame. It would stay there for a few hours, untouched by hunter or insect, and then would disappear between photos. No blood left behind, no gore. If I hadn’t been cataloguing the photos, I wouldn’t have known an animal had been there at all. I didn’t come back the week after, but… I did come back the week after that. Every day. I just needed a few more photographs, alright? I know, it was stupid. I know, I’m too dumb to live. It was like the tree was calling me.

 The strange photographs got stranger but I tried to ignore it. I just wanted some more aesthetic pictures. Morning mist, the changing leaves, curious deer and hulking bears. That sort of thing. It was like being in a fairytale and looking at one at the same time. I had to find out the story of the tree. It was my duty as a fellow artist.

 That’s how I felt before I came back the week before Halloween. Every last photograph had this… thing in it. It started as a blur at the edge of the tree’s vision. It got closer and closer and closer. It was so gradual it was hard to see the change between two photographs. It was humanoid but on all fours. Its skin was black and shiny like the tree’s. It got closer to the camera until it stopped. It stopped and it sat right in front of the lense. It stopped and it sat and it smiled. And it stayed there for hours.

 The way it looked into the camera. It was like it knew, ya know? It knew I had been there, it knew I was collecting the photos, it knew I would see it. How could it have known? I was careful to never be in frame of the tree’s lense. I had never left a picture of myself behind.

 I took a closer look at the photograph and noticed a branch I had tossed aside the day before. It was just in the corner of the frame, but it was there. I did a little mental math with the lighting I had seen in the photos.

 That thing had been there that day. It knew because it had been watching me. I ran from the forest as fast as my legs could carry me. No. Nope. Fuck that. Not going back.

 I did go back, eventually, with my father’s gun and a gallon of gasoline. Not my smartest idea and Smokey the Bear would like a few words, but I did it.  I burned that tree and all it’s photographs to ashes and never looked back. I haven’t been there since. I am not dying to some weird camera monster. I’m just thankful I didn’t need to use the gun.

 Although, I might still be too dumb to live. Before I burned the tree, I unscrewed the lense from the knot. There was a flash bulb inside, going off every thirty seconds like always, and I took it. It stopped flashing when it left the tree and I took it with me.

 What do you think? Should I plant it?

[theroseandcrown]

The Rose & Crown: Chapter Fourteen (Part One)

Rating: M Chapters: 14/24

Summary: The Doctor explains the concept of a bootstrap paradox and sends the TARDIS to a very familiar place.

Read this story on another platform: Archive of Our Own Fan Fiction WattPad

“Has it always been this cold in here?” Clara asked as the Doctor led her through the threshold of the TARDIS.

He raised his brow at the question, concentrating all of his energy on delicately guiding her towards the seat as if she would shatter at any moment. “Ah, yes. I’ve been meaning to fix that,” he lied. He helped to situate her on the cushioned chair then headed through the door into her flat once again. “Make yourself at home, I’ll only be a minute!” he called from outside.

She took this momentary time to herself to scan the familiar room for anything that might have been out of sorts since the last time she was on board. So many memories, this place, she thought as she reminisced every encounter both within the ship and wherever it had taken her. It had become a part of her heart, the missing piece to the puzzle that was her existence. She couldn’t imagine what her life would’ve been like had the Doctor not shown up on the doorstep of the Maitland household that day. She wouldn’t even be alive if it weren’t for him. Her consciousness would have forever been lost inside the digital world for all of eternity without him there to pull her out of it. The woman she used to be was consumed by the never-ending desire to travel the world, filling the pages of her scrapbook with her extraordinary journey into self-discovery and exploration. He offered her the universe.

Upon her observations, she noticed the work table, normally reserved for engineering all of his oddly structured gadgets and inventions, had been repurposed as a drawing board for several dozen different sketches and mathematical calculations. Her curiosity got the better of her and she stood to gain a better look at his project. Sifting through the pages, she encountered numerous models of planets and solar systems charted throughout the galaxy. Each location had been given a precise numerical equation and symbol beside it. “What have you been doing in here?” she called to him.

After a few moments, he re-entered through the door holding a travel bag full of maternity clothes and the warmest throw blanket he could find. “I wasn’t sure what you would need,” he gestured to the articles in his hands. “I hope these will be sufficient.” He placed the bag on the floor and began unfolding the blanket.

“What is all this?” she asked, holding the drawings up to the light.

“Ah, I see you’ve discovered my battle plans,” he answered, gracefully placing the blanket over her shoulders.

“Have you been scheming to start a war I don’t know about?”

“We’re already at war, and I intend to stay one step ahead of it.” He moved to the table and spread the pages out in front of him. “According to the charts lining the walls of Quynn’s battle-room, these are the exact locations of her bases of operation.”

“Wait, hang on. Did you seriously memorize all of this from just one glance?”

“Of course I did. What else did you expect me to do while she tangentially rambled on about herself, make tea?”

“What are you planning to do?”

“In order to gain an advantage over her forces, I’ll need to disrupt the inner workings of her infrastructures. Even if it means I have to take them out one by one. The weaker her hold on the planets she controls, the easier it will be to bring her down.”

“And this is what you needed my help with? To go into battle with you? Have you seen me lately?” she gestured to her appearance.

“No, no. Your job is much more important. And far less dangerous,” he assured her.

“What did you have in mind?” she asked. He reached into his pocket pulling out a pair of small audio devices and held them in front of him. “Let me see if I’ve got this right,” she began, hesitantly taking one from his open hand. “You want me to stay here on the TARDIS while you charge straight onto the battlefield, alone?”

“Precisely, I need you to be my eyes and ears. We have no idea what could be out there, what dangers we may face. This is the best alternative we have for keeping you safe.”

“And what about you? What if you end up getting yourself killed out there?”

“The TARDIS safety features will be activated in the event of my death. She will take you back home and dematerialize, hiding herself away so that she doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.”

Clara sighed and brought her fingers to her temples in mild frustration. It certainly wasn’t the first time she considered his reckless plans to be positively suicidal, and it wouldn’t be the last either. “And what about the TARDIS, isn’t she still being tracked? Won’t they know we are coming?”

“Ah, I’ve thought about that.” Heading to the console, he pressed a few buttons on its interface then grabbed a handle-like apparatus and pulled it towards him. The time machine suddenly began to shift its power as the emergency lighting activated and flashed all around them.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m switching off the safeguards, turning off the navigation computer.”

“Right, okay. And why are we doing that exactly?”

“If I had to guess, I would say Quynn has been tracking our movements via a tracer attached to the nav-com. It must be broadcasting our time vortex signature directly to her and she’s been using it to follow us through the wake we leave behind. I’m simply interrupting the broadcast. The TARDIS is equipped with certain safety measures to ensure that flight is still possible in the event the navigation computer became damaged. Remember, we’ve done this before. We plugged you into the TARDIS telepathic interface.”

“You mean the squishy thing?”

“Clara. This is the most advanced ship in the entire universe, equipped with more scientific technology than any other race in the galaxy will ever possess. She’s a living breathing machine able to psychically translate millions of languages directly into your mind. The sheer complexity of her very existence and capabilities would take me an entire lifetime just to explain to you.” He removed a panel from the console revealing the gel-like material that formed its telepathic interface. “And yes, the squishy thing.”

“Doctor,” she started as she watched him head to the table and proceed to look over his plans. “Exactly how do you intend to take out her forces? We’ve seen their defences, their weapons. We know how powerful they are. Let’s just talk this out a bit. Do you honestly think you’ll defeat them all by running straight into battle armed with only a screwdriver?”

“Every army has its weakness, the key is simply finding it before they discover yours.”

She sighed concededly and began to accept that his mind had already been made. “Are you sure about this? What if Quynn is there waiting for us? What if this plan of yours doesn’t work? What then, Doctor?”

He sighed and turned around to face his companion. The emotions he protected inside himself had begun to bleed out. The more he tried to bandage them, the larger the wound had become. The greatest truth he had always been haunted by was the fear of failure both in himself and anyone who had ever counted on him. The fear of failing his title when challenged by the never-ending threats that seemed to find him at every turn. And yet, there wasn’t a single thing that could compare to the fear of losing the one person he loved most of all. The fear of not being able to protect her from the dangers of the universe, nor even himself. As she looked upon him with considerable apprehension in her gaze, he couldn’t help but feel defenceless against each passing moment as if it would be her last. Attempting to raise her spirits with calming conversation seemed even more irrelevant the closer they came to fighting back against the unknown dangers they now faced.

“I wish I could tell you there is nothing to worry about, that I could guarantee our success. For all I know, this could very well be the single most devastating risk I’ve ever had to take. As hard as it has been for me to admit, you were right. Whatever your fate may be cannot be avoided nor can it be predicted. But that doesn’t mean we have to sit here and allow it to happen without a fight.” He approached her slowly, suddenly breaking free of the petrified state that kept him bolted him to the floor. His words became more intense as he drew closer to her. “I will not allow the mistakes I’ve made define who I am or what I am capable of. There are people out there suffering and it is all because of me. The universe is being torn apart. History as we know it is being rewritten. It all comes down to one small moment, one fixed point in time occurring over and over again. Every action that has been taken, every word that has been said, even this very conversation. It has all happened before. A continuous loop. An infinite amount of scenarios all leading to the same outcome.”

She suddenly felt so small in front of him as he towered over her, trapping her between himself and the console. “I don’t understand,” she started, almost too afraid to speak. “What do you mean this has happened before?” She could sense the tension rising between them at their closeness to each other. She felt both cornered and protected all at the same time, a strange combination of uncertainty.

A grin formed on the Doctor’s face at the question. It had been far too long since he was last able to explain the laws of time and the universe to anyone. He removed himself from her personal space and quickly headed to the upper platform. The thoughts in his mind were bursting their way out in all directions. “Every causal loop is caused by an unchanging self-originating constant, some thing that must exist simply because it has to. Time travel can be a very tricky, very dangerous thing if you don’t know what you’re doing.” She watched as he hurried along the railing and stopped at the familiar stone bust of a man which sat on a small table near one of the bookshelves. “Take, for instance, Ludwig van Beethoven here,” he employed her, delicately placing his arm around the shoulder of the bust as if they were long-time friends.

“The composer?” she asked with mild confusion.

“No, the astronaut. Of course the composer! Now, let us also imagine there is a man who has a time machine.”

“I’ll give it a go.”

“Up and down history he goes getting into scrapes. Another thing he has is a passion for the works of Beethoven. And one day he thinks to himself, ‘What’s the point of having a time machine if you don’t get to meet your heroes?’ So off he goes to eighteenth-century Germany before the very thought of a musical masterpiece was even a figment inside the composer’s mind. But when he gets there, he discovers Ludwig has fallen upon dark times and refuses to ever compose another piece again. This didn’t happen, by the way. I’ve met Beethoven. Nice chap, very intense, loved an arm-wrestle. No, this is called the Bootstrap Paradox. Google it. The time traveller panics, he can’t bear the thought of a world without the music of Beethoven. Luckily, he’d brought all of his sheet music for Ludwig to sign. So he copies out all the concertos and the symphonies then promises to give the composer back his inspiration if he passes off the music as his own. Ludwig accepts and history continues with barely a feather ruffled. Until one day those copies reach the time traveller’s future self which prompts him to travel back in time to meet his hero. A never-ending loop. But my question is this, who originally put those notes and phrases together? Who really composed Beethoven’s Fifth?”

“You’re doing that thing with your face again,” she informed him through her puzzled expression.

“What ‘thing’?”

“That look you give when you’re trying to explain something that makes my head go fuzzy.”

“It’s called a smile, Clara. It’s what people do. Or so I’ve heard.”

“Right, wouldn’t want anyone to see passed your clever disguise. Anyway, what exactly does Beethoven have anything to do with us?”

“Nothing, and everything!” he exclaimed, heading down the stairs towards her. “All this time I’ve been blaming myself for picking up the phone, for believing myself to be solely responsible for what has happened. But I’ve realized my focus has been concentrated in the wrong place. In the end, it doesn’t matter who wrote the music. Only that it exists.” He felt himself being pulled towards her as he approached. The force that bound them together was unmistakable. The connection shared between them could never be simplified to emotion alone. They were two parts of the same mixture. No matter what they had experienced in the past, there was an unbreakable trust keeping them bound together. A trust he could see in her eyes even then as he stood as close to her as physics would allow it. “Whatever has happened to us may never have a true beginning nor an end. The only certain thing is the existence of the constant that binds us together. A constant which now rests between us, quite literally.” He smiled and peered down the length of his companion to where her body met his own.

“So you’re saying all of this is her fault? That she has trapped us in this loop, or whatever it is, forever?” she asked, placing a hand on her middle.

He snickered and rested his hand atop her own. “Not even born yet and already a trouble maker,” he teased, maintaining the grin on his face.

“She must take after you then,” she replied with a smirk.

“If we ever make it out of this alive, I’d expect we’re going to have our hands full.” He made his way towards the console’s telepathic interface.

Clara felt her smile begin to fade at his words regardless of how harmless his intentions were. There was more truth to that statement than she even realized. A great cloud of doubt arose over his hubris in their success of this potentially suicidal mission. What if he was right? What if none of what they were trying to accomplish would even matter in the end? There was no way of knowing if this plan of his had already been tried and failed a hundred times before. No way to know if they would be altering their daughter’s future or simply allowing it to happen. What if there was no way out?

The Doctor rubbed his hands together in preparation for their departure to the first location on his list, then hovered them over the interface as he looked to her for support. “Are you ready?” he asked nervously. The reluctance in her nod was as transparent as the room they stood in. He couldn’t help reminiscing over the liveliness she once displayed towards him whenever they found themselves embarking on a new adventure. It was as if the fire inside of her had been left to die out. He took a deep breath and slowly lowered his hands towards the gel-like interface.

“Doctor, wait,” she spoke, freezing him in place as she placed her hand upon his forearm. “We’ll do it together.”

He braved a smile her way, then closed his eyes and dipped his fingertips into the cool substance below. He concentrated all of his thoughts towards their destination, allowing his mind to focus on a singular image. His senses began to paint a picture of the tangible dampness of the controls, the feel of its material on his bare skin, the grip of her fingers around his arm, the rhythm of her heart beating through the palm of her hand. He tried to ignore the distractions surrounding him and his concern for his companion’s wilted form. To land safely at the correct location, his mind must first be completely relieved of any attachments he held inside of his aching hearts. The gel forming around his fingers connected to every fibre of his skin as if they were the same being. He thought about where they needed to go, what they needed to accomplish, and above all, the importance of being successful in their mission. As he focused on the image of the planet in his mind, sending it through the interface like coordinates on a map, his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the strong vision of his fetal daughter calling to him through her mother’s touch. His mind was redirected towards the love he shared for her and his determination to save her so that one day he would be able to hold her in his arms.

His eyes flew open at the sound of the time rotor starting up. The mechanisms inside the centre chamber began to ascended and descended back into itself. A look of concern passed over his face at his lack of concentration during the interlinking process. There was no way of knowing if the destination had been correctly received by the interface. The only certain thing was that the TARDIS began to materialize into action as her signature time-travelling clattered chorus sounded all around them. He hastily shifted his focus toward his friend. The look of surprise confined in his expression at their departure was matched only by her uneasiness of what they were about to encounter once they had landed. “I’m suddenly having my doubts about this,” he admitted.

“Well, the TARDIS seems to think she knows where she’s going,” she countered, trying to remain positive.

“One can only hope.”

[plogan721]

It is almost time (Planner setup)

Disclaimer: P. Lynne Designs is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Today, I want to talk about time.  I know, boring subject, but there is a purpose for this topic.  I am not going to talk about time too much on this post, except for when it comes to setting up your planner.

How much time do we really have?

Photo by P.Lynne Designs (c) 2019

We all know what time is and how valuable it is in a day.  I feel that if I have a lot of time on my hands, I am not being productive when I watch a video or playing a game on my tablet. I like to be productive, as I am sure many of you do.  I am not saying don’t play games or watch videos.  Find a set time in the day/night to do that sort of thing.  This is part of your scheduling.  I do not write it down in my planner, but I make a conscious effort to note that in my head. 

Experts say that went you go to bed each night, turn off the screens.  What does that mean?  It simply means turn off your computer, turn off your phones and tablets, and do not play the television all night.  If you cannot do that, at least put them in the next room.  If you put them in the next room, you now have to physically get up to answer any texts or comments on your posts on Facebook, for example.  I know if I have to do that, I do not want to get up, so, I save it for the next morning.

For instance, I turn off my phone.  Not because the experts say that I have to, but I have a phone that constantly needs charging.  It is a Samsung Note 4 and on its last lap around the mobile bin. I will get into my issues with my phone at a later time and hopefully, I can change my phone soon. Next, there is my desktop computer.  I keep it on all the time, except when Windows 10 updates without my knowledge, and it automatically turns off the computer.  I have the computer downstairs because where I really want my computer, which is in the next room, my nephew and his girlfriend are living there until they can find an apartment.  My laptop is powered down for the moment and in my backpack for when I want to work in my room or decide to go to a coffee shop or the library to work. Those are examples of turning off the screens.

I have a flaw that I am working on.

One problem that I still have is my Ipad.  I carry it to bed with me.  I look at my messages, play games, read articles, and watch YouTube videos.  This is a bad example of turning off the screens.  When I don’t do these things that I mentioned, I find myself walking over to my Ipad, unlocking it, and just let the light from the screen put me to sleep.  It is my 5 minute night light, which I am trying to correct right now.

My tips for scheduling:

In addition to powering down your screens, which is more of a “how to get a restful night of sleep” than “How to schedule” tip.  I have these other tips:

Get a good planner. 

I have I ready mentioned in Part 1 of Planning for Beginners 2020 Edition, steps for buying that first planner if you do not already have one.  I have watched plenty of YouTube videos prior to writing that post, to make sure that I was pointing the reader in the right direction.  This is sort of part 2, and I apologize for not writing a proper post for this second part.  What I have learned from my experiences and watching those videos is get a planner that is right for you and how you plan. 

Photo by Pixabay

No two people can have the exact type of planning and planners.  I have mentioned that I have 4 different planners.  One is for my business, for my personal life, for my budget, and I am trying out bullet journaling, after a failed attempt of it for 2019.  The planners are all from Erin Condren, but I am open to trying new ones.  This is the brand I have chosen for me.  There is also the Happy Planner, Moleskine, The Simplified planner, Mead has a planner, Emily Ley, and Carpe Diem, to name a few thousand.  It seems that everyone has a planner to sell.

Have a “Think Tank” session. 

Choose a day to think about what you want to do and accomplish for 2020.  You do not have to take the whole day, but take a good chuck out of your say to set up your system and your schedule.  Place standing dates and dates (such as doctor’s appointment) that were scheduled in 2019 and place them in your planner. 

So, decorate or not decorate it according to your tastes.  Make a schedule that you are comfortable with.  I have 4 planners, and I am fine with that concept.  I know others who have 8 or 5.  There are some people who stick with one paper planner and have a digital planner. Do what makes you happy. 

Take ideas from people and make them your own.  You do not have to make an exact copy of their setup.  Before you begin, ask yourself, how can I make this work for me?  Use a scratch piece of paper, and write out a budget on what you are willing to spend and what you can spend.  Next, draw or write out your sections, such as Home, Business, Budget, and personal.

If you can, have a separate budget book. 

Yes, that is what the Erin Condren Monthly deluxe planner is for with me.  This is not a new concept.  I adopted this technique from Shay McMillian, AKA Shay Budgets.  What I like about this planner is that there are notebook pages inside of each monthly section, where you can write down your notes, your income, your expenses, your sinking funds (I am still learning about those), and your financial goals.  You do not have to go all out like me.  I am testing this system for the first time.  What was not working for me was using Excel for a budget, and placing it in my main planner.

Business/Work Planner

Also if you can, have a separate business planner (or work planner if you still have a corporate job).  When I planned out My Ambiance Life and decided to talk about business ventures, I did not realize that I had a whole audience of readers who were both entrepreneurs and corporate workers, or corporate workers ONLY.  So this tip is for you too.  Many times, for example, we often find ourselves not only placing appointments in our personal planners dental appointments for our children, but that “all-inclusive” staff meeting from XYZ company, or meeting with a client, who wants to do 14 fittings of a wedding dress that she is not sure of in the first place into that planner.  Why not have a separate planner?  Even better if you can leave on at the office and carry the other one around. 

Photo by Pixabay

Not feeling the need to have to carry one around.  Does pocket-size mean anything or using your phone as a digital planner?  That is why I carry my Ipad.  I put all my dates in there

5. Putting it all together.

Find a way to coordinate your system.  Make a conscious effort to look at it every day.  Decorate if you want to.  I know of some people who go wild with the decorating and some who take on a minimalist approach to it.  I am in the middle.  If I feel like it, I will decorate it.  I do not make a habit of it.  I like stickers, which goes back to my days of making scrapbooks. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject of setting up a planner.  Place them in the comments section.

Related Articles

Planning for Beginners the 2020 addition part 1

How to set up a Planner 

from Blogger http://bit.ly/2t4W1KC via IFTTT

[michellelewis7162]

Image Display Rentals for Lasting Memories for weddings and celebrations - Tap the services of a Picture Booth Rental For My Wedding ceremony

Image Display Rentals for Lasting Memories for weddings and celebrations - Tap the services of a Picture Booth Rental For My Wedding ceremony

 An essential aspect of any occasion is creating a moment. Electronic cameras form a significant component of the listing. If you are actually tossing an event and you have certainly not set up for any photo treatments, therefore your celebration will be actually a massive breakdown. A couple of years later, you will certainly have no substantial moments of the party whatsoever. This is actually only the reason that photo display services have emerged. Through this tool, you can easily think of completely any graphic and also as a result, store it in your memory. https://www.luckyfrogphotos.com

 The photo booth rental prove practical in an assortment of ways. These feature birthday party gatherings, which surely need a platform where the family members and good friends of the birthday girl or even child could take some memorable pictures. Whether it is the initial or the 50th birthday party, a picture cubicle rental will approve you the chance to take some lasting images that will stay in your album for years. This is actually why leasing booths happen economical and convenient, consequently permitting you make everlasting memories.

 Moreover, many people usually grumble that weddings perform not make it possible for people to take any sort of kinds of honest gos that they might just like. This is actually because the photographers who are actually tapped the services of for these occasions usually have particular restrictions such as certainly not enabling any type of all-natural shots at all. This is exactly why you need some leasing a photo booth considering that they in fact operate in your support, enabling you to take absolutely any photo that operates to your advantage. This is simply the factor why renting out displays are chosen over professional photographers. There are actually extra conveniences that are actually guided along with photograph cubicles. Along with a digital photographer, you can merely posture expertly as well as the people whose pictures are actually taken include the groom and also new bride's family. The rentals make it possible for spontaneous images of everyone so that all of you could possibly appreciate your opportunities together in the long run. You can easily likewise insert captions so that you may possess a terrific time developing a scrapbook out of the stuff of your choice. Consequently, merely offer on your own the opportunity to reproduce all type of events through setting up a picture booth that will make you believe great.

 If you are interested to organize for a picture display rental, at that point it will offer you an option to devote your time to perform all sort of funny points at the cubicle. This is why if you are in the mood to plan your booth services, then this will definitely exercise everything in your technique.

 Therefore, if you remain in the process of intending any kind of celebrations, after that be sure to bring in use of picture cubicle services for they are going to certainly work in your supports. You are going to manage to operate in the direction of recreating the perfect services which will certainly provide you along with the perks that will provide you the option to get all sort of advantages from the cubicle rentals. Consequently, why don't you obtain started and also make use these perks which will do you great excellent? Start and obtain image display rentals!

 This year is actually really the starting point of the wedding image booth phenomenon. Photobooths have been actually around your local area shopping center for the longest of opportunity, but just previously year increasingly more married couples are actually deciding to possess an image display rentals for their wedding party.

 Alongside this new acquired appeal, increasingly more photobooth rental merchants have actually emerged as well.

 We've put together a checklist of 5 traits you ought to address with the provider that will definitely help you acquire the best photograph cubicle rental to suit your demands.

 1. Abandoned time charges.

 A lot of providers are going to deliver you abandoned time for a cost, if you want to split your photo booth rental opportunity right into different time slots. If you had a 4 hour wedding event photobooth, however preferred it running from 6 to 8pm, therefore return to at 10 after dinner till midnight, some suppliers are going to enable you to perform this while spending for 2 hrs of 'idle time' which has a tendency to be actually discounted rate.

 If you could specially ask for an opportunity for them to arrive set up the wedding event photobooth before the awaited start time, talk to the seller. If you required the photobooth to be actually established numerous hrs prior to your guests arrive, some merchants may bill you for still opportunity coming from the amount of time they end up establishing until the start of the photo booth rental.

 2. Theme layouts.

 Will you have the capacity to tailor the look of the theme utilized for your photobooth images? Lots of photobooth suppliers might have an internal graphics designer who are going to deal with you to make the design template equally as you like it to satisfy you and also your future spouse's characters. You could inquire to receive as imaginative as achievable, or to co-ordinate the palette with your wedding ceremony colours of invites. Other image cubicle companies may certainly not possess a graphics professional, so you might be forced to opt for between some truly basic, cookie-cutter design templates for your photobooth rental.

 Have a look at several of the previous photograph cubicle services they have carried out previously, as well as observe exactly how various other layouts have actually looked like before!

 3. Ensured up time.

 They might additionally have an assurance up time plan which will promise a certain percent of time that your photograph booth will definitely be actually operating appropriately during the course of the rentals. If there is actually a concern, and also the photograph cubicle performs certainly not operate for a lengthy period of time, they may refund a certain amount of your package price.

 4. Extra electronic duplicates.

 This will serve to ask in situation you intended to have a copy of the photographes taken during the course of the photobooth service. A lot of photobooth sellers will definitely publish the night's images in to an online gallery. Ask if you as well as your guests may download and install the higher resolution variation of the picture and also if it would certainly be all right for you to re-print or publish all of them in other online internet sites like Facebook or Twitter.

 Every new bride has inquired the concern, "Is picture cubicle service a great concept for my wedding?" Most of the times, the response is actually an unquestionable YES! Currently if you are actually discussing the traditional or DIY photograph booths where merely 2 individual can remain on the cubicle or even the bench is actually simply horrible to examine then I can easily comprehend your problems. I would rule out that style of image cubicle for my wedding ceremony either. Certainly not just is going to those display spoil the concept or even decoration of your wedding event, it might stick out like a painful finger. And also allow's certainly not enter the liability part of the DIYer's photograph booth. Fortunately, time has modified and modern-day image booths are actually terminating the self-built and also old ones.

 Before you make a reservation for any sort of picture display service, make certain you inspect out the provider's web site. Check out at the photograph display layout. Talked to the seller a few questions. Is it created of hardwood? Is it quickly mobile? Some vendors will definitely bill for idling charges (the quantity of time the cubicle is sitting abandoned at the site) and some will definitely certainly not. That all relies on the provider, staffing and also exactly how challenging it is to carry the booth.

 Currently the observing inquiry that bride-to-bes commonly talk to is actually, "Why perform I require a photo booth if I currently have a digital photographer?". Properly, that is actually a terrific concern! The digital photographer's work is to capture all the valuable minutes that takes place on your big day with the bride and bridegroom being the subject. Periodically, he/she may catch a handful of chances of the guests and also's it. The image cubicle's job is to get photos of all the attendees that joined your wedding ceremony. Certainly not when they are talking or daydreaming however when they agree, pleased and appealing! A single thing I've seen in the course of our picture display service was actually exactly how everyone truly possessed a lot enjoyable taking their photographes. The photos shows the raw feelings of contentment - individuals chuckling, standing by anxiously by the color printer for the image to establish, or even event in groups to determine their most up-to-date adventure right into the photograph booth. Photograph cubicle rental is a substantial appeal every one of our services.

 The ultimate point about the picture cubicle is the feeling of spontaneousness. There is actually no freelance photographer telling you just how to smile, exactly how to stand, or that your smile needs to become even more 'genuine'. From the time your wedding event guest drives the touchscreen keep track of until the four photographes have been taken, the best outrageous, exciting, and also humourous traits might be captured onto film.

 Our team likewise get to find the purest feelings of passion presented in the pictures: a team of friends, loading on their own right into the photograph booth to create the silliest faces achievable. an aged couple - maybe the grandparents of the groom? - slipping right into the photo display for their millionth embrace all together. as well as the bride and bridegroom themselves, bride-to-be in bridegroom's arms, for among their very first kisses with each other as couple.

 Just recently our team went to an extremely classy event at Caesar's Windsor, our team recorded several of these feelings onto online video.

 A photo booth leasing is actually a great way of including an one-of-a-kind contact to one of the most big days of your life- wedding event time. It may make certain that the day is actually certainly not only unforgettable and fun filled up for you however also for your guests. You can easily commemorate the wonderful minutes of your lifestyle by these photograph display rentals. Amusing faces, giggling, impressive posses may all be actually recorded and kept for a life-time. An exclusive photo moment of your attendees could be captured and gifted as souvenir to all of them. Brides in today times are deciding for the photograph display rentals as opposed to the standard forms of freelance photographers as it adds fun and an interesting element in the event. It prompts impressive moments in the kind of photos forever.

 You may tap the services of the image booth rentals online for making your wedding event a wonderful hit. These picture cubicles are actually elegantly designated according to your flavor as well as theme of the wedding celebration.

 You can opt for vintage or the electronic look of the image booth rentals for your wedding. The classic appeal would target at appealing to the classic believe that the old college think that will definitely create your guest timeless of the greatest time of their lifestyles. You may have these unforgettable styles booths for a classic feeling of the display. Digital booths may be worked with by the techno savvy individuals, these booths are extremely lightweight weighted as well as mobile. These are actually cheaper than the old picture rental cubicles. Thus if you are appearing for the higher settlement photos in a price effective means, you can go for the electronic photograph cubicles. Picking the ideal sort of picture display rentals for your wedding celebration is created actually very easy due to the different possibilities that can fit your demands as well as finances perfectly. Get photograph cubicle rentals and also make your big day the absolute most remarkable time of your lifestyle.

 Many people utilize image booth rental solutions as a method to add an added element of fun to their occasion. This article will inform you 3 pointers concerning what to appear for when choosing where to rent image displays coming from.

 1) The initial thing that you need to consider when choosing a rental provider for your event or even occasion, is that provides your region. You can carry out an internet hunt as well as discover lots of firms, but you need to have to be sure that they supply their companies to your metropolitan area prior to you go any further, otherwise you are wasting your time. Many firms will definitely possess this details on their web site or even possibly in the summary of their Google Places listing or even on another online business directory site.

 2) Another element to seem in to is what types of picture booth rental plans the business provides, as well as whether or certainly not one of those plans is effectively matched for your celebration. In some cases photograph cubicle services just give either small, or very large packages.

 3) One of one of the most important traits you ought to consider before tapping the services of a photograph booths firm is their online reviews. It is so valuable to examine what others need to say concerning any provided provider prior to choosing to hire them. On-line assessments may be incredibly saying to, as well as you might even read a review through a person who had the exact same sort of celebration that you are actually having, and it will definitely give you excellent understanding. If a business does not have any testimonials, that does not indicate that they are actually no excellent, however look and try for some that do possess assessments in order that you can at the very least hear a single person point of view and also expertise. It is going to aid you out a whole lot.

 There are a lot of picture display services to decide on from, how perform you choose the correct one? The most secure way of accomplishing this result is actually by possessing an image booth rentals at your approaching activity.

 Experience Counts

 Does the company that you are leasing your booth from actually have the knowledge demanded to make your occasion memorable? There is actually additional to your occasion than only pictures. Providers may create or even damage a celebration, so it is actually crucial to understand that their track report may really establish the excellence of your event.

 Room is actually Always a Factor

 Will the provider be actually capable to move the image cubicle inside your hall? Very most importantly, exactly how numerous folks will fit inside the display? A trustworthy picture display rental firm will certainly be capable to respond to all your concerns, while still giving you recommendations on areas to create.

 Style: Unique or Blah

 Some firms make their photograph displays out of lightweight plastic while handful of have a smooth palm crafted cubicle coming from stained wood to make sure the best quality. I am actually sure you probably really want to steer clear of the image booths that appear properly, mallesque. The layout of your picture booth may additionally incorporate charm to your room.

 Photograph Booth Rental

 Your activity is actually not boring, and your photograph booth ought to not provide you that atmosphere either. If the exam pictures are actually blurry or printing on thin newspaper, after that their equipment might be substandard. The photograph display rental business you opt for ought to suit your style and budget.

 When we plan any kind of parties, activities or even our wedding celebrations, our team always want all of them to become fun, enjoyable and also be ever before cherishable for our charming visitors. And also, for this our team begin a ton of preparing way before the scheduled time and try to leave behind no rock unturned. Adding exciting to a gathering can be actually really easy as well as fashionable along with photo booths readily available for rentals.

 These image cubicles are actually ideal for a wedding and enable your attendees to appreciate as high as they can. Entirely packed along with several features and also props, these ensure that your event is actually a favorite as well as your guests have a smile when they leave behind.

 Below are a handful of reasons that there is a growth popular for photograph display leasings:

 - They keep your guests entertained to the ultimate throughout the party as well as they actually appreciate it.

 - There are actually no constraints as well as disorders, hence enabling you and also your visitors to be pleasant.

 - You certainly never understand what people are up to once they get into the booths. These booths can easily highlight innovative side of your attendees no matter of their age and attributes. Make sure that they are going to create the very best use it.

 - You may definitely view the fun edge of your attendees. Crazy as well as epic looks that create you laugh till your belly hurts. Creative expressions, crazy skins and also funny positions, hilarious videos and acts are what you receive in the end.

 - There are actually several editing possibilities which you can easily receive from a really good photo display to enrich your image quality. You can incorporate some dates or even quotes and provide them to your attendees to ensure that they can bear in mind the day for life.

 - Photos created coming from these cubicles are quite high in resolution and also printing quality. Present these pictures to your attendees as profit presents as well as they will keep in mind the day for life and also thank you.

 - Play the online videos in slow mo as well as see just how every person existing there turns in chuckling. You should adore the responses to these funeral pace video clips. You can instantaneously replay these online videos on the screen provided and also enjoy.

 - Photo cubicles include a lot of props that may be utilized while taking video recordings and also photos. No requirement to supply any sort of directions; your visitors recognize the greatest method to all of them.

 - Along with all these you obtain soft copies of the pictures and online videos, each raw copies and also edited ones. Share them on the web along with your close friends as well as produce coffee desk publications. You will certainly also acquire mobile phone appropriate pictures for your tablet computers as well as phones.

 Renting these picture cubicles for different parties and activities have come to be popular and also a scorching preference of both attendees and holds. Including these cubicles in parties are the most effective means to include exciting and also home entertainment to any occasion. There is actually a remarkable need for photograph display service for wedding celebrations. Certainly not only attendees, but the bride as well as bridegroom can easily additionally delight in inside the display presenting wildly and also making videos. Prints of pictures hit are actually produced in concern of mins as well as create stunning gain gifts. These picture displays are the greatest mind makers. You may gift your attendees a memorable expertise.

[smartworkingpackage]

How to Plan a Family Vacation Without Losing Your Mind

Think about the last time your family took a vacation together. What image comes to mind? Natural wonders? Perfect sunsets? Or the frustration of trying to deal with hotels and wrangle the kids and get something—anything—to go as planned?

The family vacation is a rite of passage for many families. It’s inspired countless movies and books (National Lampoon’s Vacation, anyone?). It’s the sort of thing that can strike fear into the hearts of parents—and total boredom into the hearts of their children. But with the right preparation, it is possible for the whole family to have fun, creating wonderful memories that will last a lifetime.

A successful family getaway doesn’t happen by accident, though. It takes a sense of humor, a willingness to be flexible—and plenty of planning. And while “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” at least you can be ready when things go off the rails.

There’s no better time than today

According to new research from TSheets by QuickBooks, 65 percent of U.S. workers didn’t take all their allowed time off last year. At the same time, 43 percent of participants reported that they “often” or “always” feel stressed. We’re prepared to bet those two numbers are related.

Our advice? Take that vacation. Get away and recharge your batteries. You’ll come back to work feeling rested and ready to take on the world. And your family will appreciate seeing a happier, more relaxed you.

That doesn’t mean you need to go it alone, though. A family vacation can be one of the most enjoyable experiences of your life. But—and here’s the important part—if you’re traveling with kids, you need to have a plan. Backpacking across Asia might be an exciting adventure when it’s just you (and maybe a friend or two), but flying by the seat of your pants simply isn’t practical when you have a family.

For advice on how to get it done, we asked a few of our resident experts on vacation planning (and parenting) to share their favorite tips on how you can create an amazing trip for the entire family—right now.

1. Keep everything in one place

“The question from our kids is always ‘What are we doing tomorrow?’ I didn’t have to worry about that because I already had the research done.” Jish Mukerji

OK, you’ve decided to take that vacation. Now it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty of planning and booking your trip. Laying the groundwork now will eliminate a host of problems down the road. So a crucial early step is to create a vacation notebook in Evernote, where you can keep track of all the details that could make or break your trip.

Product Marketing Manager Jish Mukerji took his family on a long-awaited vacation to Walt Disney World in Florida in April 2018, and planned the whole thing in Evernote. Jish says, “With theme parks, there are a lot of articles about strategies for avoiding long wait times for attractions. All that info helps you plot your day out—what to see first, what to leave until the end of the day—so I captured it all and built a schedule for us in Evernote.”

In the months before you travel, your travel notebook will be the hub for all your vacation research. As you come across websites with lists of ‘must-see’ attractions, or advice on local customs, clip them into Evernote. Looking through a physical magazine? Snap a photo or scan an article, then save it to your notebook.

Over time, your vacation notebook will continue to expand as you include confirmations of airline flights, hotel reservations, rental cars, and more. Share the notebook with your partner so they can add their own research to yours.

When you’re finally on vacation, knowing where you need to be, and when, can relieve a great deal of the stress you and your kids may feel being far from home. Jish says, “You get so exhausted at the end of these days and the question from our kids is always ‘What are we doing tomorrow?’ I didn’t have to worry about that because I already had the research done. It helped us have a little more peace of mind.”

2. Have a Plan A (and a Plan B and Plan C)

“I planned mornings and afternoons, and then depending on whether the kids were sick or jet-lagged, we mixed and matched.” Nancy Fu Magee

Let’s be honest: traveling with small children can be challenging. Even the most well-behaved kids will generally run out of patience long before their parents. Add jet lag and sleep deprivation into the mix and you have a recipe for disaster.

No matter how well-thought-out your itinerary is, it’s important to be flexible and open to change. Perhaps you’ve planned a walk through a gorgeous local park, only to wake up in the morning to pouring rain. Instead of sitting around your hotel room waiting for the weather to clear—while your kids become increasingly restless—be ready to shift gears by having alternate activities that you can enjoy instead.

Director of Product Nancy Fu Magee traveled to Europe in 2015 with her children aged one and three, and the family had such a successful trip that they decided to tackle Hawaii the following year. The key, according to Nancy, lies in being flexible and understanding how little minds work. She says, “We tried to stay in each place at least three days so the kids would get used to ‘their’ room with ‘their’ toys and didn’t feel so overwhelmed with all the new locations.”

Even when the weather behaves, circumstances beyond your control (i.e., kids) can cause you to change plans. Nancy was prepared for that too. “I planned mornings and afternoons, and then depending on whether the kids were sick or jet-lagged, we mixed and matched.”

For Jish, having a plan with flexibility built in was a game changer. “Our itinerary evolved in the middle of the trip when we saw weather conditions change. We just said ‘OK, let’s move our indoor day to this bad weather day.’”

3. Get the whole family involved

Nancy Fu Magee’s visual calendar

“If your kids are helping you cook a meal, they’ll eat it.” Jish Mukerji

There are a lot of moving parts to planning a great vacation, but that doesn’t mean your younger family members can’t be involved in their own way.

While he was preparing for their trip, Jish made sure that his 10-year-old twin daughters had a chance to review the itinerary and suggest possible destinations. “If your kids are old enough to have some participation—whether it’s editing a note or voting on an activity—then they’ll enjoy the day more,” he says. “It’s almost like they’re sharing this great thing with you that they found.”

Even if your kids are too young to take an active role, you can still make them a part of the action—instead of thinking of them as ‘luggage that eats.’ Nancy says, “Each day when it was time to decide what to do, I showed the kids these notes I made about each district, with pictures and not just words, so we could discuss what they were excited about doing that day.”

Before taking her family to Hawaii, Nancy created a visual itinerary for her then-four-year-old daughter, using a picture to represent each day. “She wanted to know what we were doing on which days but she couldn’t read yet. So we made this visual calendar together so she could get excited about the trip. This is one of my favorite memories of ‘Things I Did With My Daughter.’”

Although Jish had final approval over the specifics, he was carefully to make sure his kids had some ‘skin in the game.’ “Even if I’d already chosen the hotel, I’d show them a picture and say ‘What do you think of this place? OK, I’ll book that,’” he says. “If your kids are helping you cook a meal, they’ll eat it.”

4. Make the most of templates

“Your vacation shouldn’t just be about the kids. Find something that you’ll enjoy doing too.” SiNing Chan

Once you’ve researched your destination and decided what you want to see and do, the next step is creating a detailed itinerary. This is where you begin to put the pieces in place and see what is actually possible in the time you have available. Just like at home, aim for a mix of activities and down time when planning a vacation with the kids. Too many activities and they’ll become exhausted and cranky; too few and they’ll be bored and… well, cranky. The perfect balance is much easier to achieve, though, when you can see each day laid out clearly in front of you.

When it comes time to make your itinerary, templates in Evernote are your best friend. Instead of reinventing the wheel, templates come ready-made for you to fill with information.

We teamed up with Barbara Fuller from Simplify Days to create a few vacation-themed templates to help you on your way:

Travel Calendar Template

Travel Daily Itinerary Template

Trip Planning Template

Travel Inspiration Template

To use them, simply click “Save to Evernote,” then replace the provided information with your own. You can easily add links to local websites or other notes in your vacation notebook. Save important details like flight numbers and hotel addresses right there in your itinerary so you know exactly where to find them.

One thing to consider: If you’re still in the ‘dreaming’ stage of planning, using our Travel Inspiration Template as a guide, don’t focus solely on what the kids will enjoy. After all, this is your vacation too. As Senior Instructional Designer SiNing Chan says, “Your vacation shouldn’t just be about the kids. Find something that you’ll enjoy doing too.” Perhaps that means alternating a day at a theme park with a day at a museum. Either way, the perfect vacation plan has a mix of activities that will appeal to everyone.

5. Remember everything

SiNing says “If you’re anything like me, you think a vacation is never long enough. But I’ve learned to cope with this by developing some ways to combat the post-holiday blues.”

Her favorite piece of advice? Use Evernote to create a digital scrapbook of your trip.

Create a note in Evernote for each stop on your vacation, and fill it with pictures of the location, together with any souvenirs, like ticket stubs, brochures, etc. In each note, record audio of your kids describing what they’re seeing, and their reactions to it. Those delightful childish voices will bring a smile to your face when you listen back to them in the years to come.

SiNing also suggests arming your kids with a cheap digital camera and letting them take their own pictures. Then you can add them to your notes for another unique perspective on your vacation. Sure, you’ll probably get a lot of shots of the ground, or a finger over the lens, but you will also be amazed and surprised by what your budding shutterbugs consider photo worthy.

Finally, when you return home, set aside an evening for a fun family “slideshow.” Cook up a batch of popcorn and make use of Evernote’s Presentation Mode to look back on all the pictures from your vacation. Discuss your individual memories of the trip, and each person’s favorite moments.

Organizing a vacation for the whole family takes effort. But don’t let that scare you off the idea. With proper planning, and the right attitude, you can create an experience that you and your kids will remember fondly, and that you’ll still be talking about for years to come.

And for the final word on the subject, here’s Nancy: “I love traveling with kids!

People should be less afraid of it.”

from Evernote Blog https://ift.tt/2IHSc5g via IFTTT