#balance changes should give you more options not less

[arolesbianism]

Sigh sorry for the ranting I rly did want to be positive abt this update but unfortunately there's just too much negatives and too little stand out positives

[cripplecharacters]

hey! I recently realized that one of my stories has a serious lack of physically disabled characters (one secondary character has a facial difference) and I'd love advice on what physical differences and disabilities are in more intense need of representation. I know one of my characters is going to be missing a limb, but idk whether they should be an amputee or just born that way, and what limb/ where it should be missing/if it should be underdeveloped or just totally gone. I want to know what type of limb differences are most underrepresented so I can do some research and see if I could feasibly add it to my character. I'd also like to hear some other general physical disorders and disabilities that need more rep (all physical differences need more rep but yk what I mean)

Most if not all of my characters are autistic/adhd or both, although it isn't mentioned (they're just like that because I as a person can't write neurotypical people)

Hello!

As mod Rot has said before, every disability is currently underrepresented (and those that seem represented are often, well, not getting the best rep to say the least). With that said, I do know what you mean, and there are some that are less represented than others.

For a missing limb specifically it might seem like it's "overrepresented", but in reality there's a ton of limb differences that I have absolutely never seen represented in any way, shape, or form. There's simply way more options than creatives ever consider.

The most common cause of acquired amputation is actually not represented much at all - diabetes. Almost all amputations in media are traumatic, but that's not necessarily how it is.

In most cases, the smaller the amputation the more common it is. A lot of characters in media have a shoulder amputation (with a prosthetic, of course), but that's probably the rarest possible one in real life. It's also worth mentioning that the fewer joints you have, the harder it is to use a prosthetic. A knee can change everything.

If they're missing a leg, consider giving them a mobility aid - connecting to the previous point, the higher someone's amputation is the higher the chance they will use them over a prosthetic, but anyone can use them.

Or, they can use both a prosthetic and a wheelchair/crutches at different times. Or they can use prosthetics with mobility aids, like a cane, crutches, or a rollator to help with balance!

Losing a leg is also incredibly more common than an arm, but in media it's the other way around for some reason.

Congenital limb difference of the not-full-amputation variety isn't seen much either, and it has more types than I could possibly list here, but I'll try; phocomelia, symbrachydactyly, micromelia, radial aplasia, ectrodactyly, tetraamelia, polysyndactyly... The only character that I know of with any of these has been made by my friend. Certainly not a popular thing to represent.

To go with the above, think about syndromes that cause limb differences! Some examples could be Ellis–Van Creveld syndrome, Otopalatodigital syndrome spectrum disorders, Pfeiffer syndrome, Joubert syndrome, or the VACTERL association. Or a thousand other things!

Limb loss due to cancer is also a thing! It also relates to a very specific kind of amputation, called rotationplasty, and it's when a person has their knee replaced with their ankle, and their foot is well, rotated. That's how important having a joint is.

Also I know that you said limb and not limbs, but remember that multiple amputations are a thing as well! For example bilateral above knee (often called BAKA), or quadruple amputation are greatly underrepresented :-)

As for non-limb loss underrepresented physical disability ideas, well, all of them, but just for the sake of some new ideas I will try to list ones that AFAIK haven't even been mentioned on the blog at all before (at least as of writing this).

CHARGE syndrome

Hyperthyroidism

Hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia

Hereditary trochlear nerve palsy

Harlequin-type Ichthyosis

Locked-in syndrome

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Primordial dwarfism

Addison's disease

Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Apert syndrome

Charcot Marie Tooth disease

Usher syndrome

Nager syndrome (also, causes limb differences)

Peripheral Artery Disease

[links lead to very basic information pages]

These are just some ideas for disabilities that are 1) physical and 2) very underrepresented, some visible, some not - I hope it gives you some ideas for what to research for your character(s)! I tried to list both very common and rare ones :-)

You can also take a look at our #disabled character ideas tag, or posts like this (there's a lot of facial differences listed, mostly at the end) :-)

I hope this helps!

mod Sasza

[joelhappyhil]

DAWN Beta 1.9 is now released!

After three months of development since the last beta release and six months since its first beta release, this is planned to be the last major update before the final release and print. I'll be detailing some of the major changes below.

300 new community copies have been added so that you can check out this release at your leisure. I encourage purchases for those who can afford it, but that isn’t the case for everyone, https://joel-happyhil.itch.io/dawn.

Though it wasn’t the main purpose of the update (as DAWN is already content packed), a handful of new Techniques and enemy customization options have been added to this version.

The three worlds have been finished, with an equal amount of detail given to each. You’ll also find that all the art in the book is now finished, with all placeholders removed.

Many Techniques and enemies have been retouched with balance changes and reworks to less interesting effects. These changes, plus the additional Techniques, should hopefully create less “best in slot” combinations for different builds.

Clashing and Dueling have been totally reworked. Both are now more simple and quick to resolve, hopefully better communicating the drama built into their mechanics. Duels are now also possible outside combat.

Awakening has been reworked to let characters “bank” features from their level ups to use as power ups mid-scene. Many Boons and Techniques have been altered to create opportunities for drama through awakening.

A small icon has been added to all mechanics that generate or spend influence to clue readers into the mechanic's importance and how they can best interact with it.

Abilities have been reworked; making every player character start with a single formative ability they can evolve over the course of a game, rather than abilities that can be freely gained in the same way Skills can.

Character creation now gives four examples for narrative characters rather than just builds for combat.

The Bond Actions have been changed, with a new subcategory added for use against non player characters, containing the old “Abandon” action and the new “Hate” action.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it! If you’re interested in playing, feel free to join the discord (https://discord.gg/tabrf3DR6u) and hop on the playtest one-shots I’ll be running weekly.

[alleiradayne]

I haven't said much personally about Veilguard besides sharing my Rook and a few other silly things, but I do have a couple thoughts now that I'm so very far into my playthrough (halfway at about 50 hours).

I know the music hasn't hit like some hoped it would. I agree that it is not as good as Inquisition. That's still my favorite OST of the series. I understand BioWare wanted a new composer for the next game because each game has had a different composer. But given how very connected Inquisition and Veilguard are, I disagree with that premise and thought they should have stuck with Morris, and not only for that reason. He's a fucking musical genius.

All that said, I do enjoy Zimmer's and Balfe's work on this OST. It's not bad. I was shittalking the main theme for weeks after it came out but when you mash it up with the actual opening of the game, it fits. And I like all the softer versions of it, the less complicated takes with less instrumentation. And there are other tracks that call back to Inquisition. No, I'm not referring to the cameos where Morris's actual tracks were used. I'm talking about Zimmer/Balfe's new content where they threaded callbacks to Inquisition. Once I finish the game, I'm going to do a much deeper analysis of the Veilguard OST, but for now, I'm enjoying it as I play the game (I don't want to listen to the OST before I finish the game itself).

A couple other thoughts in shorter form:

The combat is fun. Compared to previous games, it's dynamic enough that, while there are patterns, you still have to be on your toes. Yes there's the rock, paper, scissors of get rid of armor, get rid of barrier, then spam left click/spells. But you know what, compared to the previous games, I'm enjoying that. It's a nice change of pace. I'm also playing a Mourn Watch Death Mage, so there's some nice flavor there.

Skin texture sucks. It's too smooth. It gives everyone a cartoonist look. I hate it.

Hair is fucking gorgeous. I just wish there were more styles I liked.

The story and quests are fantastic.

I find the dialogue to be a fun balance between seriousness, camp, and exposition.

Now on to my biggest fucking complaint about the game so far and given what I've read (without spoiling anything), I'm ultimately going to be disappointed in the long-run by the romances. My mage committed to Emmrich and I love him. He's wonderful. Read on for some spoilery-ish facets of his romance.

SPOILERS

He's an artist. Both with his magic and his words. He's sophisticated and overly romantic in such a respectful way. Rook's interest in him takes him by surprise because I believe canonically there's an age gap (that I headcanon away), but it's adorable. Plus, graveyard dates. He's very Gomez Addams but without all the public displays of affection (which I also headcanon away because fuck that noise).

END SPOILERS

My last point in the spoilers section about Emmrich's romance is my biggest complaint of the game. There's very little actual romance! And it's because you can't roll up to your companions at any given time and open a dialogue with them. There's no open conversation option. You only get to talk to them if they have a time-sensitive marker or a quest marker on their icon on the map. No free smooches on the ramparts!

And the romance moments we do get are so few and far between in a game that is absolutely massive, not in terms of map size this time, but in terms of content. There is so much good content (as opposed to the shit side quests of collecting 10 bear asses in the Hinterlands of Inquisition). The side quests all feel directly tied to the area's story so they all feel worth doing. We're never doing dumb shit like drawing constellations in the sky or finding shards through tranquil mage skulls (don't ever forget that they used the skulls of mages forced into tranquility specifically for this purpose).

Now I'm not through the whole game yet, but I'm hearing and seeing that there's next to no nudity. Given that on top of the lack of open convos and sparse romantic content, I'm bummed. I still love Emmrich, and I know I'll enjoy the others when I do get to them (because I plan on it). But damn. I was hoping for Desk Scene (iykyk) levels of spice outta this crew.

That's it. Halfway through the game and this is how I feel so far. I'm thoroughly enjoying the game and will continue to binge it. I have Rooks planned for the rest of the companions, too. Femme elf rogue crow to romance Davrin, femme qunari warrior lords of fortune to romance Harding, femme human shadow dragon rogue to romance Neve, femme elf warrior veil jumper to romance Bellara, masc elf mage grey warden to romance Lucanis.

I'd like to see your thoughts!

[enosai]

I have been playing Fields of Mistria for about 100 hours so far, so here are some of my thoughts.

(no idea if any of my ideas are already going to be implemented or not)

CHARACTERS:

What I liked: every character feels and looks different. So far no romance-able option has given me the ick and are all pleasant. 

What I would add:

Have non-romance-able NPC’s have heart events at 2, 4,6,8 and 10 hearts. 

Celine should sell forageable seeds, but at a steep price and a limited stock. Unlocked by an event or enough hearts.

FARMING:

What I liked: Farming is simple and easy to understand. A good amount of crops with room for more.

What I would add:

Have more uses for the hoe, not really using it much.

Have Luc teach you how to make bug traps with honey and flowers. Unlocked with enough hearts with him. 

Luc can teach you how to make bee hives with Ryis’ help. You will have to catch bees to craft them. Will produce honey. 

Have the ax and pickax also cut weeds, so you can more precisely get rid of them. Without cutting the grass. 

Will we get a greenhouse or sheds? Would be fun to have.

ANIMALS:

What I liked: Animals are good so far, the breeding for colors is fun. 

What i would add:

Have Hayden sell grass starter and animal feed. Make it a friendship or story unlock. Don’t make it a skill unlock. 

Have animals have better path finding so they don't go through fences or barns/coops

Have grass spread a bit faster. Also have grass-starter spread grass at an accelerated pace for a few days. 

When milling animal feed you should at least get 2 bags per mix. Making the mill more viable. Make this default not a skill upgrade.

Have the grass starter make 2 starters when you mill it. Make this default not a skill upgrade.

Have a barn/coop upgrade that auto fills the feed troughs and a place to add in the feed.  

CRAFTING:

What I liked: From what I have seen, a good amount of decoration, but not enough practical use that brings me back to it other than chests. 

What I would add: 

Give the wood crafting skill a more practical use other than decoration. Give it crafts like sprinklers, animal product machines, making grass starter at home, ect. Give it a balance of technical and decorative functions. 

Give us an at home forge at some point. March and Olric could unlock the option once they both have enough hearts. 

The crafting table should allow players to craft kegs to make alcohol to be later used in cooking. 

Building barns or coops should reward exp to the crafting skill.

FISHING:

What I liked: Really easy to understand fishing mini game. No problems here.

What I would add:

Have Terithia teach you how to make crab pots, fish ponds/farms and fish bait once you have enough hearts with her. She can also sell them. 

Terithia could sell seaweed, Jade dulse, under seaweed, sea grapes, and tide lettuce. Maybe you can unlock a heart event/ rank upgrade event where she wants to build seaweed farms and you have to bring her the 5 seaweed types and stone to make them. 

Terithia could sell soy sauce. 

You should be able to eat fish raw for a small stamina boost/recovery. 

OTHER: 

If you already have a quest reward, have the old reward change to gold.

Make the days longer by 10 minutes. I feel like I'm scrambling for time. Likewise with the day being longer, make the stamina bar bigger or tools use less stamina. 

The ruins and the beach feel kinda empty. I want more to do and explore. 

Home upgrades that add separate rooms, an upstairs and a basement. 

An auto sorting button for chests that takes the items out of my inventory and auto sorts them into the chest.

More places to explore. The map feels smallish. 

Have notifications when things are happening. Like when Friday night at the inn starts, when the Saturday market is open, or when festivals start.

Getting all buffs in a skill level should award you with using less stamina when using the tool of that skill. Such as: crafting for axes. Mining for pickaxes. Fishing for fishing rods. Archeology for shoves. Farming for watering can/hoe.

When the game becomes 1.0 we should have proper save files so we can have multiple farms/save files at once.

Make coops/ barns, trees and large objects transparent when you walk behind them. 

Holding the SHIFT key makes you buy or collect 5 of an item.

Chests should be bigger at least 1.5 times the max inventory. 

Too many monsters in the mine make you wait and waste time.

Allow us to sell stuff at any store. 

Scrolling through your inventory should not go to the next tab, it should loop the tab. Only switching tabs when the TAB key is hit. 

As your town rank goes up, wandering traders, adventurers, and visitors appear. They can sell rare or unobtainable items or have world building dialog. 

Have new events happen  year 2 and 3. New people, new places, new crops and items. Will make the game more interesting in the long run.

There should be an indicator saying if i have crafted/cooked something or not and how many times it has been crafted. 

When buying an item(s), there should be a chest icon telling you how many of that item I have in a chest. This would be helpful for forgetful players that don't keep track of items well.

Maybe make the legendary bugs a bit easier to find. I’m only finding speedy snails.

Thanks for hearing my thoughts.

@fieldsofmistria

[squarebracketsmileyface]

I hope this is ok to ask. I know I've seen you post about a "Brian lives" au where he's in a wheelchair after the fall, and other wheelchair-related posts. And I'm attempting to do my own fic research, but like, I don't even really know what kind of manual chair options there are. I've got bad joints, my experience is limited to like, braces and canes. And I guess I was wondering if you had any advice, any things that annoy you when people get them wrong, stuff like that.

Okay, I don't even know where to start but I do have thoughts. So, for types of manual wheelchair I don't know how much you already know so I'm just gonna give like, bunch of stuff lol. This is also a bit all over the place, I just wrote about things in the order I thought of them.

Okay, this has turned out INCREDIBLY long, but I hope it's helpful? It was very fun to do, honestly, I love talking about my chair and writing and reading characters who are in wheelchairs, so this was a fun way to spend my afternoon before therapy.

Also for things that annoy me when people get them wrong, honestly not much, I'm usually so overjoyed at seeing a wheelchair using character that all mistakes and little things the writer gets wrong don't bother me at all. Because "omg they're like me and you weren't afraid/disgusted to write it :D"

So I guess there's like, the difference between just general manual wheelchairs and active manual wheelchairs? Like, yeah a chair can technically be self propelled, but some of them are very basic, like, not made to measure, pretty heavy and difficult to move around it because of that, especially if you have like, any sort of weakness or injury in your shoulders. A lot of it leans on what sorts of injuries and disabilities Brian has after his fall, whether it's just affecting his legs or if it's whole body, and how it's affecting his legs, paralysis or what.

Chances he'd want to go for an active wheelchair that's made to fit him, so it's got the right centre of balance for wheelies to get up little bumps and stuff. Cos god, idk about you but drop curbs where I am don't actually drop to flush with the road like they probably should, and until i took my whole chair apart and made it fit me myself like wheelchair services should have before giving it to me, my front casters would ALWAYS get stuck on that like, inch of a bump up. I nearly got tipped out of my chair so many times because I couldn't wheelie to get up that rise, because the chair was massively too big for me and had it's centre of gravity in the wrong place. I have what's technically counted as an active wheelchair, but its about as cheap as you can get for an active wheelchair so it has/had all the above issues. BUT even with a shit chair you can do things yourself to fix them at least a bit, they're all bolted together so you can lower the body of it so your arms reach where they're meant to on the wheels, you can change the angle the seat's at by changing the height of your casters which can make it more or less easy to do a wheelie (or top over backwards by accident lol)

There's also attachments for manual wheelchairs that can make them semi electric/power. Like, you can get all sorts of power assist devices, some attach to the wheels themselves, others push from behind, some attach at the front and turn your chair into a kind of three wheeled electric bicycle. And those can be insanely useful if you fatigue easily, have to do a lot of uphills, have weak or easily injured shoulders etc.

There's a lot of other attachments that can be useful to have too, though they're obviously not necessary. Like, you can have a "Free Wheel" (which I think is a brand, but I tend to see it used to just describe this thing in general honestly) that attached to the front of your chair and lifts up your casters so you can go off road without your casters getting caught in stuff. It's like a single wheel that comes out the front.

Yeah here we are, it's this thing

Also when it comes to casters, the larger your casters are the better able to handle tougher terrain they are (read: shitty and cracked streets in towns and cities as well as rough but solid paths). Though I've found that the tradeoff with having larger casters is that if your chair is a little too wide for you your feet will tend to sit near the outside of your footplate, and when you turn the casters will hit your heels and knock your feet off the plate, and then you can run them over 💀. I fixed that for myself (because I can't just make my chair narrower to correctly fit my hips) by making a strap to go behind my legs, and because it's a little loose my feet back sit back as far as they need to be comfy, and the casters won't hit my heels because the strap pushes me feet I to the centre of my footplates.

⏫ with strap attached (without shoes my feet then fall down between the footplates, but with shoes on they're fine lol)

⏫ without strap. It's generally much more uncomfy on my hips, as well as my feet having to sit really far forwards to stop the casters hitting my heels.

There are straps built into the footplates, but so far I haven't found a way to use them that doesn't push my feet further apart and into the path of the casters, so I've got them wrapped out of the way instead. Occasionally on really bumpy ground, e.g. cobbled/really old bricked streets I'll put the toes of my shoes under those straps with them still wrapped just to make sure my feet don't get bounded forwards out of the footplates just by the rough terrain.

Different chairs also pack down differently. On most (maybe all but I don't 100% know) active chairs the big wheels come off, usually using a button in the centre, which can make the chair a lot smaller and lighter for lifting into the car, especially if youre having to lift it in over yourself. Some chairs can fold in on themselves down the centre which can make them way smaller to fit in a car, and others I've seen only have their backs fold down (if they have a tall enough back. Mine does both which is very useful, though I have noticed that in certain terrain my chair tries to shut on me 💀

I think the chairs that only fold at the back and not down the middle are called rigid framed wheelchairs? I think lol

And as you can see from my chair, you can make it your own, not just by making it fit you better if it doesn't when you get it, but you can put fun little things on it. I've obviously got my foot/leg strap thingy, but I also put bicycle spoke covers in the spokes to make them fun, as well as getting a couple of bicycle bottle holders and attaching them to my chair. I use them to carry little things I don't want in my lap, so water bottles sometimes, random bits and bobs, even my phone and wallet sometimes because of their placement.

They don't get in the way of my legs, but for anyone to get their hand into them they'd have to crouch down beside me, avoid my wheels, brakes and the frame of my chair if they're going in from the side, or they'd have to crouch in front of me and go through my legs, so they're honestly really secure. Way more secure than my rucksack which I sling over the back of my chair. The water bottle holders also touch either the side or the back of my calf at all times, so I can feel if they move at all.

You can also get wheelchair specific bags (or just use a fannypack/bumbag) that sit under the seat of the chair, which can be pretty secure to keep things in. Definitely more secure than a bag on the back of your chair. My chair also has a little pocket attached to the fabric seat my cushion sits on, which is very good for keeping things you're not gonna constantly be wanting to grab completely safe. Mine just holds all my Alan keys and the little wrench for adjusting the chair.

Oh yeah seats! You can also get solid seats on chairs, rather than the fabric sling style ones like mine has, as well as all sorts of different cushions depending on your needs. Some people have seats that mold to the shape of them to help with pain and reduce pressure sores, especially if they're a full time wheelchair user and can't easily move around to take pressure off their butt and thighs etc. though, you can lift yourself up with your hands pressing down on your armrests (if you have them) or just on the top of your wheel which can give you a break from any pressure on your butt and thighs etc, which is good. I often find my back gets very stiff and compressed feeling if I have to be in my chair for a long time and using my armrests to lift myself up can help loosen that all out again and reduce any pain I might otherwise end up with.

Backrests are something that can be customised too, some people have a very low backrest because they don't need much support for their spine, others might have one that only comes up about halfway if they need a little support, and some have backs that come up further. Mine reaches the bottom of my shoulder blades which is okay for leaning on (once I got the adjustable straps in the back sorted so it gave me the right support where I need it) but can also get in the way of your arms when you reach back to push, as your arms can hit the backrest.

My backrest is just fabric with velcro straps under it, so it's pretty soft, not rigid except for the metal uprights on each side, but other chairs can have rigid backrests with a cushion.

Alongside backrests, for support, some chairs have seatbelts which can help keep you in the chair if you need it. It all depends on what support someone needs, the type of injury or disability they have, and most things with a good wheelchair can be completely tailored to what you need.

Push handles go along with the backrest and are also customisable. Some chairs have none, especially a lot of active chairs because the people using them might not need to be pushed by anyone, but others have rigid push handles if the person using them often needs to be pushed around due to fatigue or pain etc. some chairs also have push handles that can be folded down out of the way or pushed down entirely to be out of the way so that people have a harder time just grabbing you and pushing you out of their way. Which, yeah, that's annoying, that's a thing :/

You get a lot of stares sometimes and in shops sometimes people will just pull or push you out of the way like you're an abandoned trolley blocking the aisle. This has never happened to me while I've been with someone, though, only when I've been alone. I guess they see the walking person and remember I'm also a human not an abandoned trolley? Idk lol.

Oh yeah you can also get anti-tippers which are often recommended when you're new to using a wheelchair, so that you don't go over backwards as easily. Mine spin round so they can either be useable or not. They don't stick out too far behind the chair, but it is a good couple inches, and the lift up to my therapists office doesn't fit my chair in if I have my anti-tippers out. They were very useful when I was first learning to use my wheelchair, because with the centre of gravity off I either couldn't do a wheelie, or went all the way over backwards with no in between. Now that I fixed my chair though, I can do wheelies really easily and with a fair amount of control (even tho I'm still learning)

Chair tippyness is a thing too. Some chairs are much easier to tip backwards than others. A lot of sort of "beginner" chairs aren't very tippy, which means you're less likely to go over backwards generally, but you have to throw a lot of weight into a wheelie, which can then make it a lot easier to go over backwards once you're in the wheelie, and a lot harder to hold the wheelie. A lot of active chairs are more tippy, so you can do wheelies easily to get up and down small steps etc. that's something that anti-tippers make a little harder too. They stop you from being able to get your front casters up very high.

Mine let me get my casters get about 7.5cm off the ground (my ruler doesn't have inches I'm sorry lol) which is okay, but definitely not ideal for getting over a surprising amount of things.

Gloves. Gloves have saved my hands when it comes to using my wheelchair, especially out and about (aka on any surface that isn't about as flat and smoother as a super market floor). I use bike gloves with silicon grips on the palms and gel padding in them, and that's stopped me getting blisters when I use my hands to slow and turn, as well as giving me more ability to grip my pushrims with my palms. If I don't push with my palms I tend to overextend the tips fingers. They also help grip the pushrims when they're a little wet. a LITTLE when they're very wet it's almost impossible to get a grip no matter what. Well, almost no matter what, I think there are certain pushrims covers and paints that can give you more grip, and I've seen people say that leather gloves or sailing gloves can be very good for grip in wet weather.

Gloves in general are also good for keeping your hands warm, because I find that touching the cold metal of the pushrims absolutely saps the heat out of my fingers and they get very painful very fast.

Going out as a wheelchair user in the rain or snow or just generally bad weather can be really difficult. Because you're sitting you get soaked, and water can collect up on your cushion, so you can't dry off very easily. Heat can also be very annoying, especially if you don't have a mesh backrest, heat gets trapped between you and your chair and you can get very hot very fast.

Lengths of sleeves are also something to consider, that I didn't even realise until I got my chair. My favourite jumpers to wear when I'm in my chair are the ones that are a little too small. The sleeves are short enough on those ones that when I have my arms down to push myself along, the cuff of the sleeve doesn't fall over the heels of my hands and make it hard to get a grip on my pushrims. Even tight long sleeve tops tend to have the same issue, even if you wouldn't usually think their sleeves would fall down and get in the way.

Honestly you have to think a lot about your clothes when you're in a wheelchair. If you're wearing a jacket or hoodie that's open in the front you'll need to zip it up at least a little otherwise with wind and movement it'll fall open and onto your wheels, which at best makes an annoying noise, and at worst can get in the way of you being able to start or stop moving.

If you wear skirts (which probably doesn't apply to Brian, but I don't know what you're writing to hey, maybe it does apply) you don't want them to be too long, or they can get caught in your wheels, or too short in case you accidentally flash someone. The tightness of the skirt plays a part too, even a shorter very glowy skirt can get in your wheels, and a tight long skirt will probably be fine.

Even shoes can be something you need to think about, despite the fact that you're not walking on them. Open toed shoes can be a drawback if your feet fall off your foot plate and get dragged along the ground, you could injure yourself that way, and depending on the level of sensation you have in your legs you might not notice straight away that it's happened. Shoes with thin heels could be a little tricky to keep on your footplate, and platforms and high heels can lift your knees up so your body and thighs aren't at a right angle to each other, which can cause discomfort and pain for some people, if they're too high.

Obviously a good shoe thing with wheelchairs is you're not getting your shoes dirty or wearing them out. So a pair of cheap shitty shoes that would usually break after just a few wears? Yeah those might be fine for years :D

Also a little shippy thing you can have fun with, if you're so inclined. When you're in a wheelchair and have a partner or whoever walking alongside them, you can hold their hand and they can help pull you along a bit when you're on nice, smooth flat ground. Which is very cute and also gives your arms a bit of a rest :D

Inaccessibility is another thing to think about, as well as when places are technically wheelchair accessible but in just kinda an unpleasant way. E.g., my dentists office is wheelchair accessible, but the ramp has to be put down by someone inside, so you need to have someone with you to go inside and request it, and the door the ramp fits is down a little alleyway, which is kinda gross in that way alleyways can be, y'know? And there's the example I gave earlier of, yeah my therapists office has a lift, but it's tiny. If I go in it forwards, I have to go out backwards, if I want to go out forwards, I have to go in backwards. And while I'm using the lift no one else can because there's just not space.

Accessibility inside your house is sometimes hard too. A lot of houses just aren't accessible, narrow doorways, corridors that are too short before they turn too sharply so you cant fit your chair through them and most of the time you can't just move house like that when you start needing a wheelchair, especially if you're a full time wheelchair user. Moving house is expensive, and finding an accessible home to move into might just not be possible if you want to stay in the same area. Also, especially in a lot of town houses, the bathroom tends to be up stairs, and hauling yourself up the stairs on your butt with your hands lifting and dragging you along is tiring, as well as just generally kind of humiliating. Also CARPETS you wouldn't necessarily think they'd get in the way, but oh my god they do. Very thin rugs are fine, but those thicker, woolier carpets? They're surprisingly hard to push over. Like, you can do it, definitely, but it just uses up that but more energy, and if you already struggle with energy, or your shoulders aren't great, that can end up being a big thing.

Transfers are a whole thing too. Getting from your chair into bed, from your chair into the car, from your chair onto another chair, without the use of your legs can be pretty difficult, especially at first. I've done a lot of faceplants into my bed on the days where my legs aren't working. Thought it's definitely a learnable skill and a very useful one. Being able to transfer safely from your chair to the floor, and the floor to your chair is super helpful.

Okay that's all I can think of for now. I'm sorry this is so stupidly long, I hope there's something useful to you in there? You gave me the opportunity to info dump and I, as always, took it and ran.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

Meghan Markle is a Bully and the Proof is in the Office by u/sdowney64

Meghan Markle is a Bully and the Proof is in the Office This started as a comment on another Reddit post about Meghan Markle’s charity “work” in Canada as she popped in on yet another women’s charity that was a clapback to the Royals and specifically works to combat woman harmed by “colonialism.” 🙄 The post discussed how those organizations ruin themselves by aligning with a bully. I made a long comment but several people noted I should make it a separate post, so I am doing that here. Unfortunately I can’t link to the original subreddit post. I've said this before but I really think it needs to be said again. I am a retired auditor. I worked for an Inspector General & before that a DoD contract auditor for a total of 14 years. One thing I learned working both those jobs is when you have significant staff losses in short amounts of time, you have a toxic bully boss at the helm, 100% of the time. I also learned it in my own office, and it's why I left DoD and took a lateral transfer to the IG at a different agency. Let me repeat that: 100% of the time.In all my years of auditing, when there was a significant staff loss of 10 or more staff in less than two years, there was never, ever, ever any other reason except a horrible toxic bully boss running the show. And when an organization ignores that bully boss and doesn't remove them, they will continue to get wave after wave of staff loss. Resignations & impulsive firings, but mainly resignations.And here is the other thing I learned, which makes that statistic so glaring. Employees will rarely leave a job they're happy with, even if someone offers them more money, better benefits, better commute, or even better quality of work/life balance. It's true. The majority of employees, if they are happy in their job, will pass up better options in a new job. But when an employee is miserable and being tortured in their job, they will leave that job for less pay, worse benefits, longer commute, and things that you would think they would never give up stable employment for.Because the bottom line is, the boss makes or breaks the environment. And that is why anyone who thinks there is any other reason that Meghan & Harry can't keep staff, they are absolutely lying to themselves. I've seen it too many times to count. And it stood the test -literal testing, evidence-based testing, interviewing employees who are living through it, interviewing people who left and were MORE THAN HAPPY to say in their exit interview WHY they were leaving and where they were going and how they'd accepted less just to get the hell out of there. That is the type of boss Meghan Markle is.And while I fault Harry for a lot of things these days, he was not the OG Bully. Before Meghan, he made coffee for his staff. She put a stop to that immediately. So he was happy to co-bully, but without Meghan, there would have been no bullying and no systemic toxicity. Harry is emotional and could be petulant and rash, but overall was decent and acceptable to work for and with. Once Meghan shows up, the whole dynamic changed. Anyone who pretends otherwise and thinks she's a role model and a good person is lying to themselves.The proof of who Meghan Markle is and how awful she is as a person is sitting front and center for all the world to see in her rapid and overwhelming staff losses. It was happening at the palace, and then the proof is at Archewell, that pattern continued! Same EXACT pattern. Talking to you, Tyler Perry, and every liberal organization I would have supported until you refused to look at facts and aligned with the monster that is Meghan Markle. post link: https://ift.tt/Ov6YbJn author: sdowney64 submitted: November 22, 2023 at 02:09PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

[soulmatesinc-if]

Going around asking all my favourite IFs this-

My friend (who has written one and a half IFs so far) told me that she balances all the routes very carefully. If one choice reduces one stat and increases two others, then the other choice also does the same, though it might not be the same stats. She does this for most choices. She believes it's the only way to not have a route that's perfect or seems like the canon path.

I'm just starting writing an IF, but this does not seem to be working for me. Maybe I just need to add more stats?

Either way, do you agree with this? How do you balance your routes within the game?

First of all, congratulations on starting! Writing an IF is so much fun, although a bit strenuous at times 😅 I'd break down your question(s) into sub-topics and share my thoughts on the matter. This is just my personal take on the peculiarities of this media though!

The number of stats. There is no set amount of stats to track, there is no minimum and no maximum, and your game can play just as well with 3 as it does with 10. Some IF games track more than others. In some games, the personality of MC is defined through numerous characteristics, in others, it is whatever powers they have. Or a mixture of both. Finding what works for you is essential. Less is more, imo, especially if you're just starting off and even more especially if you feel like they're starting to drag you down. Be mindful of which parameters you decide to track and why. Are you adding it because the players expect their X to be tracked, or do you know what this stat will be doing in your game, what outcomes it will affect? When you plan, try to see if there is overlap in what your stats signify and merge them if it's possible. Notice if perhaps it's always all the same one/two stats that are giving you trouble.

Best/canon route. An IF game is about player choice, so care should absolutely be taken about what these choices mean. In my opinion, the devil is in the game design. You can set broad thresholds for achieving certain actions and missed stat increase opportunities would seem less punishing. Or you can insert opportunities into the failure outcomes: have an extra scene that improves a relationship, reveals a plot point, or allows MC an emotional moment of introspection. This, of course, assumes that no path explicitly punishes the reader for picking a certain choice you, as a writer, have put in there: no hardcore railroading, no breaking the fourth wall to tell them it was unreasonable to pick that, etc. Having a clear path from the beginning of your story to the end is good, but there need to be sides to it that can be revealed if you step off it. I believe this will reduce the pressure on the player to follow a specific path, chasing those perceived "best" stats. E.g. you don't have to be the fastest runner if being some kind of runner will give you an engaging and fun/emotional playthrough.

Stat balancing. You have mentioned that careful control of the stat changes while writing doesn't seem to be working for you. I can share what I found works best for me, and that is to accept it will change. The game is in the WIP stage, so I simply take it for granted that the values and stats I am adjusting now are probably fairly coarse, and sometimes I later rethink the relationship between the option and which stats it should modify and by how much. As I write along, things will adapt and fine-comb editing will take place. I also don't think every single choice should change some stat, sometimes it's just about letting the player connect with their MC and the game, and that is just fine.

Just a few words to how I approach balancing it in Soulmates Inc.: I prefer the path of content. You may have noticed that your MC doesn't have to rely on the soul-link powers. And while using them may be fun, your MC's refusal to use them (a clear penalty to the value of the corresponding stats) may either be a stance on free will, their love for a challenge, a creative approach to their work, or even an uneasy feeling about the whole soul-matching enterprise. This will show up in the game at times as options and conversations exclusive to that path.

I hope this helps you a bit, even if merely to give you a perspective. Always remember to have fun with the project, and I wish you that smooth creative sailing, anon!

[the-mother-of-lions]

for anonymous

Program: Photoshop 2020 Required Knowledge: How to make a gif, general familiarity with PS

tbh anon i think this tutorial will be a little disappointing! i don't really do anything special to my gifs. I'm not sure if you're wanting just a general coloring or something more in depth, so I'll do a little mix of everything.

This got super long i'm sorry

Basic Coloring

Relighting the Gif: As you may have noticed, a lot of tv nowadays is dark asf, and even if it isn't too dark, the lighting is just off. So I usually fix this with a Curves Layer. It offers me the most noticeable lighting change than any other method I've tried thus far. So after sharpening and cropping to suit your tastes, add a Curves adjustment layer. Clicking on the White Eyedropper, I then pick a spot on the gif that is the brightest. Sometimes I have to zoom in reallllly close to find a singular pixel thats lighter than all the others. And sometimes the lightest spot is too white and doesn't change anything, and if thats the case then I'll click around a little to see if any other spots offer a change in lighting that I like. I'll repeat this step with the Black Eyedropper but for the darker parts of the gif.

Hue/Saturation: This changes depending on what I'm giffing. For Live Action, I never do more than 10 on the Saturation line. For Anime, I usually do 20 but sometimes I'll do less depending on how the 20 looked. For Live Action with POC, I will do 10 and then open another H/S layer and adjust the red/yellow parts on the H/S.

Vibrance: I start with a Vibrance layer of 30. If I had to take out a lot of red/yellow, I usually duplicate this layer at least once.

Levels: Once I get the main adjustments out of the way, I go back to the Curves layer and add a Levels layer directly above it. On the Levels layer, I use the drop down to go through each color (Red, Green, Blue) and adjust the levels of those colors individually. I personally prefer cool toned gifs, so I usually add quite a bit of blue and red and take out green, but adjust as necessary.

Selective Color: Optional I don't always do this, it depends on the scene and how it already looks after the other four layers. But I do like a strong contrast so I will often Add a Selective Color layer above the Levels layer, choose Black from the drop down, and on the Black slider I increase it to 100. But sometimes thats wayyy too much and I'll do less as needed.

Black and White

For B&W recoloring, I'll do a Curves layer like above and then a H/S layer. On the H/S I'll lower the saturation completely.

Simple Recoloring

Simple as in I'm adjusting a few colors to bring them out more.

To start with and to get a basic grasp of what colors are in your gif, I'll open a Hue/Sat layer and crank the Saturation allll the way up. This will show you the main colors that make up your gif and which ones you need to change to reach your desired outcome.

After muting or deleting the H/S layer, I'll do small adjustments inside a new H/S layer focusing on the colors I want to change, then I'll add a Color Balance layer. Usually I only adjust the midtones and highlights, but it all depends on where the colors are that you're changing. Again, I like cool tone gifs so I'll take out a lot of yellow/green.

From here you can go to Selective Color and adjust the colors up or down as you need.

It's also helpful to add a Gradient Map. With Gradient maps one end should be white or black and the other end the color you want to bring out. Set the gradient maps blend to Overlay and lower the opacity to about 10-25%. Put this layer underneath your recolor layers.

Adding Gradients

On some gifs, it's helpful to add a Gradient layer to achieve a certain look.

Clicking on the Gradient layer, set your gradient and then change the blending layer to Color or Hue. Both of these will give different effects, but it's also a good idea to play with other blending modes to find what you like. From there, I usually lower the Opacity to 30-50%, duplicate the layer and change it to Screen and lower the Opacity on that to 30.

Honestly I don't do a ton of drastic recolors and I always feel kind of insecure about it? I'm very unconfident in my drastic recoloring skills. But if you have any further questions please feel free to ask!

Even if I don't know the answer, I'm sure I know someone who does.

Hope this was helpful in some way anon!

[allthefujoshiunite]

Entryway to heavens, a.k. the BL genre!

As requested by @weiying-tododeku-2023 , who wanted to dip their toes into the genre, I, Nora, am once again here to compile a recommendation list that you can take a peek. Most titles here won't be any news to my seasoned fujin frens, but it's always interesting to think of which manga or anime would be the best for a newcomer!

BL ANIME

We don't have many options to choose from when it comes to anime, so I might as well start from here.

Stranger by the Shore: This 1-hour, gorgeous movie is an adaptation from Kii Kanna's manga of the same name. Since it's short, I think it's better to focus on what the plot has to offer instead of expecting a deeper dive into the characters individually.

Sasaki and Miyano: Another manga adaptation, but this time it's 12-episode series (with a +1 OVA). Very sweet and emotionally rich coming-of-age story with a fudanshi as its MC. A must see!

NO.6: Less like a BL and more of a sci-fi anime with queer MCs, NO.6 is not exactly suitable for a newcomer, but I still wanted to include it because of its tender story and the companionship between Shion and Nezumi. So you shouldn't expect a big emphasis on romance.

Bonus: This Boy is a Professional Wizard: This is a 4-episode short anime. It's honestly gorgeous and cute, but not very "deep" as every episode is around 8 minutes. You can finish it in one sitting!

There are so many other popular (and great) BLs or action/sports series that have queer characters out there: Given, Banana Fish, Yuuri!! on ICE, Doukyuusei, Case Study of Vanitas, The Case Files of Jeweler Richard, The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, Antique Bakery, Yes No or Maybe? etc. They are already popular so with a quick search you can find more about them as you finish the ones you've started!

BL MANGA

Now, this... is a challenge. There are SO MANY good stuff that it's hard to pick, so I decided to go with my gut xD

I Didn't Mean To Fall In Love (Suzumaru Minta): There's something in this series that just.. UGH! It hits me. I have reviewed it before so you can head over there to find more information, synopsis, and my thoughts.

Love Tractor (Hmmyongyong & Angrymonster): I started reading it for the sake of the challenge I mentioned above but what a joy this one turned out to be!! Has great balance of fun and drama, gorgeous to boot. The main story is finished but there'll be a continuation! Here's my review.

Here and There and Us (Thanat): This is a very interesting work (as any other Thanat work, I'm a huge fan of the artist) and it's less focused on the romance and more on the main characters and their friend circle navigating their high school life and the the ever-changing relationship between them. If you're looking for something that's more slow burn, this should be your go-to BL.

Under My Skin (Usui Iroha): People tend to stay away from spicy recommendations for newcomers but I say, why not give it a go! Usui Iroha has a way of drawing sultry gazes that'll make your heart skip a beat! I'm taking a break now, but I normally review a new BL title every Friday, and I've also reviewed Under My Skin before because it's THAT good.

Dream Away (Hana Lee): If you like a sprinkle of supernatural on your plate, then this is for you. The art style is simple yet eye catching, it's short and completed, the characters are wholesome; what more you could ask for!

Bonus - Swing Baby (Mudan): This manhwa, again, is a bit different. It does feel like it has supernatural elements at first and is a bit confusing (bc there's an interesting stylistic choice in narration) but it'll feel worth sticking to! Here's another Friday BL review if you'd like to check some screenshots out and read the synopsis.

And that's it! Welcome aboard and hopefully, at least one of these titles will be to your liking. Thank you for sending an ask, see you around!

[thatboreddrake]

Do you guys ever think about the line that separates a hero from a villain? About when “I will do whatever I can to protect the ones I love” turns into “the greatest end justifies any means?”

It’s a dangerous line to walk. How easy it might be for one person to ignore, or shut down, the part of themselves that empathizes with others, that recognizes that their enemies, the ones who seek to harm them, are human nonetheless. Or, if they should find their stomach not equal to the task, they may completely rule out the possibility of killing to protect others. This would seem the noble choice, but what can they do when faced with the reality that sparing the life of an enemy may mean the loss of countless others?

At what point would it be more heroic for Batman to simply kill the Joker, knowing that many would sleep more soundly at night? Of course, the push back is that this one choice would push him over the line into becoming the Punisher, a man who kills without mercy, saying that he protects the innocent in doing so.

How is one, then, to balance the desire to protect the ones they love from harm with the desire to show mercy to the ones who oppose them? What if a second chance would make them change? What if a kind word would eliminate a foe as surely as blade or bullet?

And if that choice must be made, who am I to make it? I am but a man, mortal and fallible as any other. How am I, in my infinitely limited wisdom, to make the calculation that one life is worth more than another, or that taking one life would save many others? Even if I could make that choice, how could I life with myself, haunted by the idea that I got it wrong?

How is one to know when mercy is the noble option, or when it is more merciful to show ruthlessness to one who threatens others?

It seems to me that the easiest choice would be to not make the choice at all. Rather than judge the worthiness of another’s life, why not judge the worth of my own? Could I not simply put myself between others and danger, knowing that if I fail, I have only my own life to lose? And yet I know this to be the most cowardly of the options available, to run from the choice rather than face it head on. For just as you cannot make the choice simpler by dehumanizing your enemy, neither can you dehumanize yourself. Your life is not worth less simply for being your own.

One must make the choice, such that they can, and pray to God that they never find themselves on the other side of the equation.

In the end, I cannot give an answer. I fear I will never find it on this side of Heaven. Prayerfully, I never find myself in the place of decision. After all, I’m just a simple man, living far from danger and conflict. And yet my heart hurts for those who do face this choice on a daily basis.

What right have I to sit and cast judgment on those who have faced more pain than I could ever imagine?

[ethicaltreatmentofcowplants]

Bachelorette Form

final edition. just getting myself organized - nothing to see here ;)

Contestant

Name: Include any nicknames Age Group: Young Adult preferred, but the odd Adult is fine. Pronouns: Any Orientation: They should have women listed as one of their preferences to have a chance with the bachelorette, but other than that, anything goes. Hometown: If applicable Occupation: If applicable Skills: Please set skills to zero, as skillbuilding will be part of their total. I will allow VAMPIRE LORE for vampires, then subtract their level from their total. (Ie. if Caleb Vatore has a 10 in Vampire Lore and and 17 total skill points, he will have 10 subtracted and only 7 skill points added to his total.) If you already have skills, don't sweat it. I'm fairly certain I can use UI Cheats to remove them. Traits: One negative trait at minimum. No romantic traits. Nothing from Lovestruck as I do not have that pack. I’m pretty flexible with what constitutes a ‘negative’ trait (anything from ‘clumsy’ to ‘evil’) but just for the sake of having a diverse cast, one is encouraged.  Also since skill building is included in their total, some bonus traits are allowed (ie. 'physically/mentally gifted') but if I feel that the amount is excessive and will overbalance them too much, I may ask to remove a few. Aspiration: No romantic aspirations. Life State: If occult, list what level they are (runt, acolyte, etc). No aliens allowed. Likes: No set amount, just try and have a balance. These may impact where they go on solo dates so please try and include some hobbies 😉 Dislikes: No set amount, just try and have a balance. Gifts: Depending on rolls, your contestant may have the opportunity to give the bachelorette a present (no, your 'eggplant' or 'peach' doesn’t count 😘). List three inventory items in order of preference that your pixel puppet would select. [LILAC'S BIO with likes and dislikes] Misc: Anything not covered above.

In Depth: This is where to leave a bio/backstory (both optional) and to give us Watchers a feel for the contestant beyond their stats. Feel free to include why they entered the competition in the first place. I will read as much or as little as you choose to write!

Other: This Watcher is a relative cc novice, so please try and keep it Maxis Match for the sake of my hard drive and to a minimal/modest amount (I’d recommend prioritizing hair, jewelry, skin details and tattoos). No skin, eye defaults etc please.

They can have more than one outfit per category, but the less cc, the better. I may be adding additional outfits for themed events so please use OUTFIT 1 in each category as their ‘default’.

In terms of vanilla items, I have all cas packs & kits installed except for Luxury Party and Lovestruck. If you are purely a vanilla player, I can also give your Sims a slight cc glow up if requested.

Watcher

Are you comfortable with your pixel person:

Flirting with other contestants? (The bachelorette will have the ‘player’ trait cheated and her boundaries set to no jealousy, so it will not impact your sim’s relationship with her.) [Y/N]

WooHooing other contestants? [Y/N]

Flirting with/and or woohooing NPCs?  [Y/N]

Flirting with the host?  [Y/N]

Changes to traits via gameplay prompts? (ie. Evil to Good, depending on what your Sim does, or adding traits)  [Y/N]

(Humans Only) Becoming an occult?  [Y/N]

(Werewolves Only) The Fated Mate mechanic? (If a werewolf ends up winning the challenge, I will cheat out that sentiment)  [Y/N]

please send your pixel to me in a sfs zip file - i may have to take my ea account offline to avoid updates ;)

[flower1622]

What do you ship?

Anti. Percabeth.

Skip. It.

"Percy can't date Nico because of their ages."

Sorry, but does someone know that ship a character with another is not always about a minor? Look, we all know Percy is older than Nico. So, some people like the two together as matured adults that are still discovering themselves or already know what they want. People grow up and change. Some mature, others not. Life is like this. How many couples exist in real life with big differences of ages, but both are adults and can stay with any adult they want?

"Percy can't date Clarisse. She is a bully."

Again, just because someone ships a bully with another character, it doesn't mean that it's about bullying. If people don't like bullying or any kind of bad behavior, they should take another look at their favourite ships too. As i was saying... some people like perclarisse because both seem to be a very interesting ship with the two as matured adults. Like i said, anyone can change, even the brute ones. Take for example: Jade and Beck from Victorious or Saddie from Icarly. If you are the person that judges others for liking Perclarisse and likes these last couples that i mentioned, also including the biggest ship from PJO, i would suggest you to rethink about your options too.

"Percy can't date any god/goddess."

Again. As long as Percy is a matured adult, he could be in a relationship with anyone he wants...because if you judge others for liking a relationship with a god/goddess, you would hate Poseidon and Sally since he has many years than her or you also wouldn't like any vampire movie or maybe hate even Solangelo...since Nico would be much older than Will, right? Please, correct me if i'm wrong.

"But, Percy doesn't like things related to the gods."

And? If he dates a god/goddess, it won't make him any less human. Percy has his family and Rachel to remind him of his human part. He doesn't need a god/goddess for this. Both could balance each other. Percy would learn more about the gods and he would also teach his partner about the human world, making the god/goddess feel a connection/compassion to the mortals.

"Percy can't date Rachel because she is an oracle."

I don't know much about oracles. Is there something prohibiting them from being together? To give a kiss? To have dates together? To walk through the camp? To watch the sunset or the starts together? To hold hands? To sit at the same table together? To talk with each other? To see one another?

I saw someone commenting about Rachel not being able to have that thing with Percy. I only think: And? Can't they adopt? Can't they treat the young campers as if they were their children? Wouldn't the happiness of their love be enough? Wouldn't the partner be enough already? Wouldn't Elle be enough who Percy had to take care of? Isn't there a way to break this curse or oracle thing? Can't they wait until Rachel is completely normal again without the oracle thing?

"Percy can't date Rachel because she's a human."

Annabeth, is that you? Please, guys. Saying that Rachel is only a human is no excuse at all. In fact, i think it could have a positive effect on Percy since he likes to be normal. What better way to feel normal than stay with someone that is NORMAL? These two could balance each other, you know? Like with the god thing, Perachel could teach each other about their sides. Rachel could show Percy that he doesn't need to be a hero all the time, you know? The best example of this ship is Giselle and Robert. A princess, that came from a fairytale, who lived many adventures and the normal guy who doesn't really believe in fairytales and has a boring life in the real world. He learns to have more fun and she learns how to live in the real world. Oh, i also would like to remind that Annabeth is kinda also a human? Without any power, any girl in real life can be Annabeth. In our world, we have beautiful and pretty smart girls, alright?

"But, Annabeth sees the monsters and is a fighter."

Rachel also can see the monsters, if i'm not mistaken. Rachel is not a fighter because she isn't a demigod. She wasn't trained her whole life like Annabeth was. Anyone can be Annabeth, but no one can have the visions that Rachel has. Rachel may not know how to fight like Annabeth, but she fights with what she has. Hero is not the person who is strong, but someone that has good morals and does everything thinking about others first. Rachel may not be a fighter, intelligent or have powers like others, but she has her strong spirit. Just because Rachel is not a demigod, it doesn't make her a loser. Rachel is also a heroine, but on her own way. She threw a hairbrush at Kronos, right? I guess only few humans (even demigods) have the same courage that Rachel has. 🤔😅

I wrote my opinions about what other people think when it's something related to Percy and his ships. I just don't like when someone says these kind of things or insinuate them when the same person also ships something bad or worse.

[fortheloveofaminorcharacter]

Updated Gif Making Tutorial!

What you will need: Google Chrome. Quicktime Player. Photoshop.

TLDR version

Turn off graphic acceleration in Chrome and relaunch.

Use Quicktime Player to record the screen.

Trim the recording and upload it to Photoshop.

Turn the layer into a Smart Object. Resize Image to 540 width. Apply Smart Sharpen Filter.

Add adjustment layers as needed to correct color. Suggested Adjustment layers: Exposure, Brightness/Contrast, and Color Balance.

Save for Web (Legacy) set to Gif 256 colors Loop Forever. Must be under 10M for Tumblr.

So I have changed my process and I figured I should document it for whenever I inevitably forget how to do it. This is definitely for more intense gifmaking so if you are just wanting to do something less intensive, you can still do step one of this tutorial but then use something like GIPHY Capture to record the gifs. You can do basic gif captures and add text with it but you won't be able to get the same quality without doing a little editing. Most of my older stuff was done with Giphy Capture and some of those gifs I would use this tutorial to edit. Even then, they weren't the quality I wanted so now I use this process.

Anyone who is just starting out doing this, super important first step - you need chrome. It sucks but you need it to do the screen recording later on. Once you have chrome downloaded, go to the three dots in the top right hand corner >Settings> System>make sure that the Use graphic acceleration when possible is NOT CHECKED. You will see in the first gif mine was already turned off (greyed out with toggle to the left side). When you initially turn it off then it should give you an option to relaunch (note that because mine was already off I did not need to relaunch).

Now for the screen recording. First go to whatever streaming site you have the media you want to gif on it. For this tutorial I used Abigal that I streamed through Movies Anywhere. You should be able to screen record from pretty much any site but be aware of the quality. VUDU/Fandago at Home will only let you stream in SD on Chrome so that is why I use Movies Anywhere. I then use Quicktime Player to record. I keep it on my dock so I just go down to it and tap it to open a menu at the top of my screen. On that menu, go to File>New Screen Recording and a menu will pop up on the screen with options of what to record. Use the Record Selected Portion then adjust the size to match the size of the video. Once you hit record you can play the media and then it will record until you hit the little stop button on the top right of your menu bar.

Once the recording is done, you can trim it and save it. I HIGHLY recommending trimming down the screen recording before moving the file into Photoshop. Otherwise it will be such a pain when it comes time to edit. Also, your screen recording original will still be saved usually on your desktop if you want to trim down multiple parts of the video into different gifs.

Next, you drag the trimmed file into Photoshop and turn it into a Smart Object by right clicking the layer and selecting Convert to Smart Object. This will allow you to add filters which you will want to do if nothing else but to sharpen the layer. Then you should resize the image to an appropriate gif size (I use 540 x 335ish for my gifs because I find it just looks nice but you can mess around to find what dimensions work best for you).

After you resize your image, go ahead and go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen and set the amount to 500%, radius .3, reduce noise to 10%, and Remove to Gaussian Blur. Hit OK and then you should notice your gif looks clearer. After that, you are free to play with the Timeline to adjust timing (you may have to double click the Smart Object layer to change the trim of the layer but once you have adjusted it just exit out of that project and it will automatically save the trim to the original PS document you are working in), add shapes/text, add adjustment layers, etc. I would recommend an added Exposure, Brightness/Contrast, and Color Balancing layer then play with those settings until the color looks right. Be sure to save the file once you get the coloring down so you can just drag and drop other screen recordings into the PS document and it will copy those settings to it. Just remember to do the Smart Object and Sharpen Filter on every new screen recording layer you drop in.

Once you are ready to save, go up to File>Export>Save for Web (Legacy). It may take Photoshop a moment to load this menu. There will be a circle of loading white dots you will just have to wait out. Once the menu does load, select Gif from the menu just under Preset. Make sure the colors are set to 256 to get the best quality gif. Also check in the bottom left hand corner under GIF that the size is under 10M or tumblr will hate it. You may have to adjust the length of you gif if it is over that size. Also, select Forever under looping options and that the dimensions are reasonable. Tumblr hates anything bigger than 540 wide which is why that is my standard width. Once your settings are right, hit Save and then now you are ready to upload to Tumblr!

[brilla-brilla-estrellita]

Crafting Wings

I finally remembered today that tumblr is a blog, and that in addition to whatever fandom nonsense I reblog, I can also post bloggy things on it. Obvious, right?

I am making a set of dragon wings for an event coming up in mid-June. They are of course inspired by Simon Snow and will be red dragon wings (though the pattern I bought from them is technically for a wyvern). I'm hoping that posting progress updates here will help me stick to it and actually get it done in time. I'm breaking it down into teeny tiny easy peasy steps and only looking at the very next step to try to keep the overwhelm and executive dysfunction at bay. This is likely to lead me down a path of "If I'd thought about it earlier, I could have..." But you know what? I always end up there anyway.

So first, I spent a long long long long long (long long long...) time trying to decide how to make these wings. I really wanted articulated wings, bonus if I could move them without obviously pushing or pulling or something. But looking at how people had made that happen was overwhelming. They require so much time and skill and I am prone to procrastination and crying and quitting when I mess up. I finally settled on this DIY Mechanical Wing kit by Chimera Wings. That would give me the frame for the wings, but they also have a sewing pattern (with printed AND video instructions) to make the covers for them!

This is what the contents of the kit looked like when I got it:

And this is the completed build! I almost didn't post this because I don't like the way I look, but you know what? Fuck that. I built something cool (using very simple, easy-to-follow instructions, sure) and I don't want to have to find a better fancier more flattering way to film that, so. I'm getting over it.

You can tell that I kinda struggle with the wing on my right side. I clearly need to stretch my arms out before wearing these. Truly. I tried it after I stretched and it's no big deal. Or maybe I'll add some sort of pulley after all. (HAH. Like I'll have time for that.)

Otherwise, the kit and wings are fantastic. It was so easy to put together and they feel very cool to wear. I should probably go write them a review...

I didn't actually takes pics of the next step, but I printed out the pattern on regular 8.5x11 paper and taped it together. It... was not very well done, but I'm hoping I got it close enough to not have messed up the pattern dimensions. After taping and then cutting out the completed pattern, I could move on to working with actual fabric!

I'm making a mock-up out of old sheets first because I have never once done any sewing project successfully the first time. I decided to mock-up only one wing instead of both, so this will surely be my downfall when I move onto the real deal.

The next two pictures are the front and back pieces for a single wing. I decided to cut them separately instead of at the same time by folding the fabric in half because every time I do more than one layer at a time, at least one of the layers comes out real fucked up. I blame being a lefty in a right-handed world. Scissors are of the devil.

The next step was to make buttonholes that are actually strap holes. I have a little baby basic machine, and it has some limitations. I discovered one of these limitations during my buttonhole test runs. As you can see, the machine-provided "buttonhole" stitches are just... lacking. I messed with a screw that controls the length of these stitches, but for some reason it can only be used to balance out the stitch lengths, not make them overall longer or shorter. I have no control for generally change stitch length. I only have the options presented to me on my stitch chooser knob. Alas, I have less than optimal buttonholes.

Pictured above: (Left) One very sad buttonhole test. (Right) A second buttonhole test in which one side is almost respectable and the other should be ashamed to call itself a buttonhole stitch.

Finally, I gave up and balanced the stitch lengths and just went with it. When I do the real deal, I will likely go use my friend's much fancier machine. For the mock-up, this is sufficient. The next three pictures show, with increasing zoom and blurriness, the completed buttonholes.

I am intentionally using very bright, contrasting thread so that when I inevitably fuck up, I can hopefully see the point of fuck up more clearly so as to rectify it on my next attempt.

And that brings us up to speed! Next Step: Pin the pieces together. That's it. That's the whole step. How many days will it take to overcome executive dysfunction and do it? Only time will tell.

As long as I can remember to update regularly, future posts should be quite short.

[tea-and-spoons]

Hello, I was scrolling through your blog (which is super helpful btw!) and wondering if I could ask a question about OT. I have been having really bad joint pain plus other symptoms for a while now and after a bunch of tests my working diagnosis is HSD/hEDS. I’ve been sent to an OT to help deal with my symptoms because right now I can barely walk/stand for any time and barely leave my house. I was wondering if you could give some idea about what an OT could do to help with my situation? Ofc nothing specific without more info but I was wondering what OTs may do for HSD/hEDS? Absolutely no problem if you can’t/don’t want to answer though and thank you! :)

Hello! I'm so glad my blog has been helpful so far. It sounds like you were sent to OT because you're having a hard time with your daily activities, so the short answer is that OT will help you find ways to engage in said activities. The long answer is...

-Treat any injuries to your arms, such as a dislocation or carpal tunnel syndrome. This can mean exercises, bracing, ring splints, tape, massage- similar to PT

-Teach you strategies to protect your joints

-Teach "energy conservation strategies", which are ways of pacing yourself and making stuff like chores easier

-Help you explore options for non-medication pain relief

-Get you adaptive equipment (this can be everything from an adapted pencil, to a wheelchair, although not all OT's can do the wheelchair process)

-Figure out how to change the setup of your home/work/school to make it work better for you

-Teach you new, easier ways to do your daily activities. For example, I learned how to fold laundry in a way that took less energy and was nicer to my shoulders

-Work on strategies that support your mental health

-Come up with a plan to work on your overall stamina and balance, although if you're seeing PT as well, they'll likely take the lead on this

-Give you strategies to help with sleep, if you're having any trouble there. They might also touch on nutrition.

-Help you advocate for yourself

I obviously can't promise they'll address all these things, but these are all things we're trained to do, so definitely ask if you're interested. OT should be about what YOU want to work on. I hope they're helpful and that your pain eases soon 💙