#because if they only wanted your money the default would be content showing you are interested in

[aliencomicinvasion]

A lot of sites nowadays consider tracking blockers the same as ad blockers, I don't always run ad block but I have firefox security settings turned on and an add on (privacy badger) to block a lot of the ad tracking. Even when my ad blocker is off a large amount of sites give me the "hey please turn your add block off" pop up, because to them it's all the same. They want to get your data not just sell you ads.

[saber-monet]

“They’re talking shit” manifesting technique

Or

“Let them talk shit” Method

So this is the technique that I used, and still currently use as an over-thinker to manifest my desired reality and maintain my desired mental state.

So back in college, I was insecure. The type of insecure, where if I hung out with friends and then I left the room, only thing that would be racing through my mind would be the idea of them talking about me behind my back. Like Just talking the most shit and calling me out of my name. Granted these are the types of friends I had back then, I now know better.

So here was the pattern :

Every time I left the room, and I felt insecure about something I had just said or done, I would imagine them saying bad things about me or finding me weird of off putting. The things I would imagine them saying, would break my heart. So I put a stop to it.

And I recognized those people were not in the room with me and I was using my imagination to hurt myself .

I could have been imagining them saying anything because I have that power and I’m choosing to see them saying most terrible things about me. So, I made the decision to imagine them still talking shit, but this time it was about all the good things I wanted.

( you have to keep the same hater energy when you do this btw)

Example:

“Who does she think she is? Just because she has a great body and works out and is always in a happy state of being. She think she’s better than us. 😒.  she think she’s rich too. She only has about $100,000 in her bank account. The rest is tied up in the stock market and crypto currency. So she technically doesn’t even have that much money. 🙄”

“ she wants to be an influencer sooo bad .ugh, So what if your YouTube channel grew by 200,000 subs in less than 3 weeks and you’re getting amazing sponsorship oppertunities. So what bitch you ain’t pewdie pie. You don’t even have 1,000,000 subs yet . Pipe down”

So in those examples, I just affirmed a reality where:

- I great healthy body

- im in a happy/content state of being

- $100,000 in in my bank account

-I have plentiful bountiful investments/crypto currency

-my YouTube channel successful

-I’m getting great sponsorship opportunities

And because I used other people to affirm those for me, it’s a stronger self concept/reality. Because I’m affirming it in, first person, third person and second person( by default).

This technique works with any “negative” dominating emotion.

So if you were anxious or have anxious dominant feelings. Start affirming, anxious thoughts that you would WANT to have.

For example:

“I hope my professor doesn’t hate me for being more educated/smarter on the subject than he is 😭. Like I get he spent years in school studying this stuff, but it comes easy to me and surpass his expertise every time without fail. I hope he doesn’t think I’m trying to show him up😰”

“ I hope the bank doesn’t get suspicious about how much money I’ve been depositing into my account. 😥Plus I’ve been getting so much money this year from random sources, in such large amounts, I’m kind of worried that the IRS is going to get involved and make filing my taxes a little complicated this year.☹️”

So, in those two short sentences, you just affirm that

you’re smart,

you’re doing well in the class, and

you’ve been getting large amounts of money throughout the year, from expected and unexpected sources. 

Remember if you want it, you can get it. Try “under-thinking” , it’s easier than you’d expect. No matter what state you are in. If you were able to tell a consistent story about how you want to be, you’re good.

* when I use the word “negative”, I’m talking about the words you are using to describe the situation. Because by default every situation is neutral. It doesn’t become positive or negative until you choose to assign it a value .

Don’t force yourself to be happy, force your thoughts to tell a better story. One that wouldn’t mind living out and experience. And the only except thoughts that affirmed the reality that you want. From any angle. You have to learn when and how to work with your emotions. Emotions are only bad if you identify them as bad.

When you come up with any other examples, please, I would love to hear them. share them with me.

[rainbowsky]

a-xian3 asked:

Hi RBS. I am back with an ask. I thought like celeb vlogs on YouTube earn them a certain amount, it must be the same with Weibo. But I just saw this Tweet. Is it true he does not gain any monetary benefit out of it and it's simply for fan engagement? Especially since the videos are so high quality, so the studio is definitely putting in money into production. If so, it is so sweet of him to put in so much time and effort into it. Not many celebs would do that.

Hi a-xian3!

Sorry, I removed the tweet because I don't share solo things if I can at all avoid it.

I think it's wise to take what fans say with a massive grain of salt. They have a strong tendency to interpret things in such a way as to likely greatly exaggerate both the brilliance, kindness and generosity of their idol, and the degree to which that idol fervently adores their fans.

In fact, I hereby coin the term SFN (Solo Fan Brain), to sit alongside the well-used term CPN (Couple Brain). Because truly, SFN is real and needs to be named and talked about more openly. (And I've talked about it in the past quite a bit.)

As I said in that post, solo fans (and even BXG) are used to thinking of BXG as the ones who have an interpretive point of view, and framing the solo perspective as the 'default' view that doesn't need to undergo any self-examination or questioning. But SFN is every bit as much a 'perspective' as our CPN, and has consequences just as our own does (AND is potentially every bit as deluded as solos so often characterize ours to be).

There are often just as many assumptions and interpretations in things a solo fan believes about an artist as there are in what CP fans believe, and they are just as capable of being untrue.

Identify, unpack, evaluate

When we come across a post (or any information or claim) - no matter how apparently innocuous it might seem - it pays to identify, unpack and critically examine the assertions being made. It's a really good habit to get into, and will serve you well throughout your life (and in many different areas of life).

So let's take a look at the assertions stated and implied here, and see what we can come up with upon examination:

There are few celebrities who make so much great content for their fans, and those who do only tend to do it if there is direct monetary gain involved (YouTube ad revenue, for example).

This is just false. From what I've seen it seems like most c-celebs share photo sets, vlogs, livestreams and special content with their fans. They're all using the same means to do so as GG is - Weibo, Douyin, etc., and doing it with as much frequency as GG.

And in fact, there are c-celebs who share much more direct and personal, much more intimate content with their fans. 'Slice of life' live vlogs, personal stories, etc. with celebrities talking directly to their fans about their lives and their feelings - the type of thing that GG simply doesn't do anymore.

I would list out a few examples, but I don't want to be accused of comparing GG unfavorably with others. Instead, I will invite turtles to simply browse around Weibo and Douyin, and explore for themselves. They'll quickly see that this type of content is commonplace in c-ent, and many artists share content even more intimate than what GG shares. (He used to share that type of intimate content back in his earlier days, but he hasn't done anything like that since 2/27.)

GG's content is higher quality and more expensive. That only shows how generous he is and how much he loves his fans.

It is true that GG's content is BY FAR the most aesthetic and well-produced of any that I've seen other stars sharing, no doubt about it. The production quality is always exceptionally high, and the photos are always very high resolution (thanks GG!).

But when you think about it, that only stands to reason. He is, after all, a professional photographer and designer. The content is going to reflect the high standards he learned and developed in his previous career. He has the experience and the eye to evaluate and art direct everything his studio releases. With someone like him at the helm, we can be sure that the quality will be consistently professional and aesthetically pleasing.

That will have a lot more to do with GG and his background/talents than with money spent.

His team will undoubtedly have been chosen with his high standards and requirements in mind, so there will be people on staff capable of producing content of the quality GG would expect. That doesn't necessarily mean those staff are going to be vastly more expensive than the staff other celebs hire. In fact, it's even possible such a high quality team could be cheaper.

GG is a smart man who knows the industry, and a professional who knows the industry will know what to look for in a media team. They will know which skills are required, they will know how to evaluate the quality of their portfolio of work, etc.

No doubt GG will have chosen a team that matches his expectations, but how much that team costs will depend more on what level they are at in their career than anything else. If it's a bunch of highly talented junior designers, they would almost certainly cost less to hire than the mediocre senior level media professionals a lot of artists likely hire.

By far the biggest expense in a situation like that would be the creative director for the team. That person would be in charge of conceptualizing all of the work from a communication design perspective, and then overseeing its completion by the team. And I will eat a bowl of live freshwater shrimp in a blood-red broth if anyone can prove to me that person on GG's team isn't GG himself.

So I think it could be argued that GG's background and experience likely saves him a lot of money while ensuring he has some of the highest quality content produced by any celebrity team. And that is a result of his own background, talents and aesthetic/production standards, not of his generosity or love for his fans.

GG shares this content out of the selfless kindness of his heart.

As people who are fans of both GG and DD, turtles are uniquely positioned to compare and contrast artists who regularly share a lot of personal content with their fans, and those who don't. 😅

I don't think anyone could argue that GG doesn't give his fans a lot of great content. The man is undeniably generous with content. But I think if we look closer we can find multiple reasons why he would do that - not all of them entirely selfless.

First and foremost, his fans wouldn't tolerate anything less from him (which makes the sort of effusive, self-congratulatory posts like the one you sent me... rich. Let's just say it's pretty rich for fans to say stuff like that). This is content fans expect from a top star, and let me assure you that fans are VERY vocal and demanding about what they expect. It's not unusual for fans to come up with long lists of demands and expectations for stars, and a lot of those demands will revolve around this type of content. If you doubt this, just look at the recent situation Esther Yu is facing with her fans, who delivered a list of demands to her and her team about content she should be sharing, how she should be managing her career and who should be on her team, etc. This happens quite a bit in c-ent. Fans are demanding, and they often believe they are more capable of knowing what's best for the artist than the artist themselves, or their management team. Frankly I find that type of behavior delusional and repugnant, but fan expectations are a very real factor in all of this, make no mistake about it.

He's a star. All of this content serves as a sort of self-promotion. As such, he will almost certainly make money from this content, whether directly or indirectly. Feeding his fans, putting his best foot/face forward, showing himself to be active and popular - all of this stuff serves to maintain his image and status. This helps lead to more popularity, more offers and more roles and endorsements.

Very often this content is sponsored by the brands stars endorse. Brands pay big money to have their products featured in social media content shared by the artist. For example, the vlogs and photos GG shared from his trip to Europe featured clothing from Tod's and Gucci. The inclusion of that clothing would have almost certainly been part of his contractual obligation as global ambassador for those brands, or part of the agreement he would have had with the brands when they booked him for the trip. It's typical for contracts to spell out in detail how many social media posts their products will be featured in, and that can even involve final brand sign-off/approval of the content before it's posted online. In other words, stars share a lot less truly 'personal' content than fans realize. Even if the content is personal, product placement is often a part of it.

Fan content is often part of a bigger communications objective, and/or done as part of a fan management strategy. For example the photos of GG eating Sichuanese food in Italy likely helped curtail any criticism of him as being unpatriotic or too cozy with the Europeans. Content is often shared during times of chaos and discord, likely as a means of distracting fans. We've seen this many times with XFX when they've been getting out of control on Weibo, pushing negative hotsearches or engaging in fierce fan wars. GG and his team will often share content at times like this, which I suspect serves to distract the fans and give them something positive to focus on so that they don't destroy his career so that they will stop behaving badly. Under the new governmental rules regarding fan culture, stars are held directly responsible for fan behavior, and bad behavior from fans is punishable in a variety of ways. Anything negative GG's fans do can directly harm him and his career.

So let's be honest and realistic here - fans have high expectations of stars, and will go so far as to demand content from stars, and even demand that content be of a certain tone or quality. And then those same fans will turn around and self-congratulate themselves for being so 'loved' by the star that they've been 'gifted' it all.

Yet in reality GG is walking a tightrope. Just because he does it well, doesn't mean it's any less stressful or calculated.

GG loves his fans so much!

To me, this is always the most interesting claim. XFX* seem incredibly sure of how much GG adores them.

And that's probably a really good thing. Fans who believe they're loved are more likely to be loyal and supportive (one hopes, anyway), and stars definitely rely on the support of their fans to ensure their brands are happy, to ensure their projects are successful and to ensure that they continue to be considered for new opportunities.

*Because of course when we're talking about GG's fans we're always talking about XFX. Those fans would never acknowledge that BXG are also GG fans, or that GG might have any affection for turtles. Despite the fact that GG actually never refers directly to XFX by name anymore in his material, possibly because he realizes they aren't his only fans.

But I feel like it needs to be said - it's highly unlikely that any star loves their fans as much as they think they're loved. As I already pointed out, stars are walking a tightrope in this industry. For all intents and purposes, fans have stars by the throat. And what fans view as loving and supportive, stars might experience as something entirely different.

Anyone who watched Animaniacs or Tiny Toon Adventures might remember how much Elmyra's pets loved her...

And GG has more reason than most to be wary of/ambivalent toward his fans. His fans have put him through a living hell, one that he almost didn't come out the other side of. Certainly not unscathed.

And his fans have learned next to nothing from 2/27. They are still doing all the same stuff they did back then, the stuff that nearly got him cancelled.

One of the most toxic aspects of fan culture is how incredibly competitive and cutthroat it is. Warlike. GG's fans are deeply invested in that kind of behavior. It's a big part of why he's so well known and why he's such a big driver for sales. It's also a big part of why his team is always having to try to clean up messes.

GG's solos are some of the primary drivers of the whole 'desperate illiterate' anti attack against DD, and are constantly engaging in and heavily pushing any anti attack against DD that they can get their hands on. So as turtles, if we believe that DD is GG's dearly beloved partner/husband, then we have to greet any claim that GG absolutely adores his solo fans with some degree of skepticism.

In truth, most stars likely have more of a love-hate relationship with their fans than a love-love one. Be realistic.

Why are you raining on my parade?

The purpose of this analysis isn't to undermine or debunk anyone's perception of GG as a kind, generous person. I think we have plenty of evidence to show he is both of those things. His charity work, for example, and the way he handled himself during the whole 2/27 scandal to ensure no one connected to him was harmed.

And the fact is, GG is simultaneously generous AND strategic about his career. We know he values money - he openly admits it.

Black-and-white thinking is common everywhere in our society, and it's actually one of my biggest pet peeves. Black-and-white, us/them, good/evil - this type of thinking is inaccurate and often harmful. The world isn't black or white. Almost everything is some shade of grey.

When we look at something from a black-and-white perspective we will fail to see all the implications, the nuance and circumstances surrounding it. We fail to see it for what it really is.

The common phrase, "I have a stupid question." frames people as either knowledgeable, or stupid. There's no in-between.

In reality everyone is knowledgeable about some things and lacking knowledge about others. A neurosurgeon might know a lot about the human brain but very little about cooking, for example. If she asks whether she should add salt to scrambled eggs before, during or after cooking them, is that really a stupid question?

The whole 'stupid question' thing is also a contradiction in terms, because the very act of asking a question demonstrates a quest for more information - something only generally undertaken by people who care about knowledge and facts. Let's face it, if you don't know something, the smartest thing you can do is ask someone who does. There are a lot of people out there who would just guess about it (and be wrong).

So I urge fans to look at things from a perspective that acknowledges the reality that stars can be simultaneously sincere and profitable. I urge fans to understand that money isn't automatically evil, nor the pursuit of it inherently selfish. Like everything it can be taken to a negative extreme, but in most cases it is not. Money represents so many things to so many people. For most people it represents security and the ability to take care of those we love.

I also urge fans to be realistic about how stars might feel about their fans. The idea that stars have some sort of special love bond with their fans, or view them as family, is unrealistic.

And I recommend being on the lookout for - and avoiding - black-and-white, us-vs-them, all-or-nothing thinking.

These kinds of fan statements present everything as a false dichotomy. "He is so generous" (implying or even openly claiming others are not). "He loves his fans so much" (deliberately obscuring or ignoring any other possible motivation he might have).

It's worth taking a second look at things like this and asking ourselves, "But is that true?"

Or you can just continue to enjoy the tweet, but you asked me, and this is my response. 😊

[douwatahima]

idk i'm feeling kinda riled up today and i want to talk about why the fight for ofmd is so important to me.

so listen. i've been in fandoms for a loooooong time. i remember when the sheer idea of a show (that wasn't something like, say, queer as folk) having any sort of lgbt representation was a major rarity. the idea of a random character suddenly coming out in your favourite sci fi/fantasy/action show? no way in hell. and those of us in fandom kinda came to accept that. we were queering the hell out of everything we came across, don't get me wrong, but it was because the idea of a series suddenly having a character textually be queer was just…not a thing that happened most of the time.

then came the age of queerbaiting. as someone who was in the supernatural fandom from very early on, i remember how those first few seasons of the ~great destiel saga~ felt to watch. they actively hinted at and joked about their relationship! they acknowledged the elephant in the room! surely they wouldn't do that unless it meant something!!! but then of course came the years and years of the cast and crew sneering at the people who had the audacity to…listen to the words that came out of the character's mouths and have thoughts about them. and yeah, eventually (like a decade later) cas told dean he loved him, but even now the people who worked on the show seem reluctant to say that that was a romantic moment. and that's just one example that i'm more intimately familiar with! there are so many others! just straight up gaslighting queer fans so they can keep making money off of us with no intention of actually giving us what we want; all while acting like they were doing us a favour by doing anything at all.

and it sucked! it clearly sucked! but the more time went on the less surprising it became. because at the end of the day it came down to what it always comes down to; money. there's this idea (not just in media) that there are certain people who are the "default". people whose experiences are universal and easy to understand. white people. straight people. cis people. when it comes to media, stories about these people are seen as something anyone can watch and understand. but when you try to tell stories about people who fall outside of these categories? well, now you're making niche content that only people who fall into that niche will be able to identify with.

and look, i know i'm preaching to the choir here. this is tumblr. we all know there's a lot of racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia in the world. my point is that the narrative around queerbaiting from an industry standpoint seemed to be "yeah, we want the ad revenue from all of these lgbt people watching our shows, but if we commit to actually making any of our characters queer we're going to isolate our straight audience and lose most of our viewers". and there was never any concrete way to disprove that. so yeah. we would occasionally be blessed by a ~very special show~ that actually depicted queerness (usually about younger people coming out, or about the tragedies that can and have faced people in our community), but the idea of branching out beyond that seemed like a no go.

and then along came our flag means death. a show about pirates that also talked about toxic masculinity and had characters who were casually queer in every different variety and also featured people with different body types who came from different cultures and who were all treated with kindness and grace. a show that didn't necessarily market itself specifically as ~a queer show~ (which, was probably in part due to trying to bury the lead which sucks, but the point still stands) but rather a fun show anyone could watch. that wasn't specifically about coming out or tragedy but was more so about joy, and community, and love. and here's the thing. here's the wild as fuck thing that happened. this show? it didn't lose all of its viewers when those last two episodes of season 1 aired and it confirmed without a shadow of a doubt that ed and stede were in love. the opposite happened. this show fucking soared into the stratosphere.

i remember the first time i saw those parrot analytics charts showing that ofmd was the most in demand new series; out performing marvel even. i was so overcome i legit broke down in tears. because it turns out all of those times i had been told to sit back and accept the scraps i was given because that was all my community was profitable enough to get, those people were wrong. we could've had this the whole time! WE COULD'VE HAD THIS THE WHOLE TIME!!! and as the weeks progressed and ofmd remained at the top of every chart, as the show continued to succeed, i felt such an immense amount of joy! those people were wrong! we can just have this and it'll do well!!!

and yeah, apparently that wasn't enough to convince the powers that be. they spent forever deciding whether to renew it and when they finally did the budget was cut nearly in half and the people at max decided they needed to oversee the show a lot more. all of this sucks. but the thing is they made season 2 and they fucking did it again! the show got even better critics scores than last time! the show was doing numbers better than season 3 of succession! the merch, only released in october, became some of the best selling merch of 2023 on the max shop! by max's own admission season 2 was one of the biggest hits of the year for them!!! like, what more is there? the show is a success!!!

so yeah. i'm not going to accept the fucking stupid excuses max gives as to why they cancelled it. saying that it didn't have the numbers (it did), or that they didn't know how to market violence (they do), or that it didn't have awards buzz (it has literally been nominated for awards and there's still active fyc ads the company itself made) just doesn't cut it. there was no reason to cancel it other than the idea that diverse media "doesn't sell". and max, by airing this show you have shown me that that fucking isn't true. it's never been true. so i'm going to keep fighting for this one until someone picks it up or until i'm old and grey because it isn't just about ofmd. it's about the belief that our stories, the stories of people who aren't "the default" are worth telling. by every metric they are worth telling. and that is something that i know is worth fighting for.

[blubberquark]

Twitch Revenue Sharing: An Unrealistic Proposal

It’s been years since Phil Fish wanted YouTubers to pay him money for playing FEZ on YouTube. The prevailing counter-argument is that exposure is better than no exposure, and having people play your games on Twitch or YouTube without licensing your work for public performance means other people will see and buy it, leading to increased sales, and more revenue than you could have possibly gotten from a licensing deal. In my experience, this is not true. I understand the analogy to piracy of music and AAA games, but even that is an argument about economics of scale, not about morals.

In my own experience, this doesn’t even happen with free games. On the analytics of my own games, I saw that having YouTubers play them did almost nothing to page views or free downloads. A thousand views in one day don’t translate into one additional download, maybe three page views. The only significant effect was that one YouTube video about one of my games got small many MineCraft YouTubers to make copycat videos. A spike in downloads corresponded one-to-one with the number of YouTube videos with under a hundred views on small channels run by teenage boys.

I don’t think adding an EULA to my games that explicitly covers public performance would do anything. I could consult a lawyer to make it legally enforceable, but I could not enforce it in practice. Twitch and YouTube have cornered the market on gaming content, and even though Nintendo don’t like it when you play their games as a public performance YouTube turn a blind eye. What game developers need isn’t the copyright, what we need is the cooperation of YouTube and Twitch to allow us to enforce our copyrights. Twitch and Youtube have basically cornered the market. 

We could have a chance if instead of trying to legislate or enforce public performance rights for games, we could just pressure YouTube and Twitch into codifying something into their terms of service. I know it won’t happen in practice. I don’t know what to do about YouTube. Youtube would rather ban a game from their site or negotiate a rather one-sided deal, and many YouTube videos exist in a grey area between fair use and entertainment.

I know what to do about Twitch though. I know what kind of deal I would want from them, anyway: When a streamer sets the game, a percentage of the revenue goes to the game developer. This could be 10%-30% of the ad revenue, and 2% of cheers and subscriptions, (out of Twitch’s cut of cheers and subscriptions). If the game is set to “IRL“ or “Just Chatting“, the revenue works the way it does today. There would be a lot of gnashing of teeth about PayPal donations (outside of twitch’s hands) and gifted subscriptions (do they count over the whole month, or for the moment they are gifted?), but I think this system would be fair, and a marked improvement over the status quo.

With YouTube, there is a lot more “long tail“ revenue, and videos are sometimes critique, or machinima, or edited with clips from different games. YouTube ad revenue is straightforward, but the copyright question is thorny. Twitch is live-streamed gaming, so copyright-wise and morally it’s a lot easier to just enable revenue sharing by default for twitch streams of the game, and every twitch stream has to have a game category listed (or arts and crafts, beaches, IRL, just chatting, game shows, demos, game development...).

If we managed to implement such a scheme, it would probably be through some kind of EU copyright directive. On balance, it would be terrible, because large conglomerates like Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft would fight it every step of the way and try to make it not worth it for developers, algorithmically punishing developers of games that take a cut. It would also be terrible because it involves automated copyright enforcement. The only way this could turn out favourably for game developers is of the EU commission and US congress simultaneously threatened Amazon/Twitch with regulation, because Twitch already has streams categorised by game.

But if we somehow managed to get Twitch to cut in the developers, I think this would align the incentives between developers and streamers. We wouldn’t have to awkwardly say “but the people who watch the stream might buy the game for themselves.“ Even a story-based game with no replay value after you know the endings would have all the incentives aligned between streamers, stream audiences, and developers.

[miniimapp]

4*TOWN As Kids

Gen ;; Crack + Fluff (??) - Headcanons

Warnings ;; nah

Proofread + Edited ;; nooooo

Auth. Note ;; WELCOME TO DAY 14 OF THE 4TOWN CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN !!

this idea was literally me trying to figure out wtf the pictures when i was younger were meant to be and then boom, 4*TOWN content babeeyyyyy

Enjoy !! <3

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈«

Aaron T - The Weird Kid

You know those kids that just go up to anyone and start spitting some random or sometimes disturbing bs

Like,, kinda reminds me of the of the boy I sit next to in language study tbh

Mans will just start talking about the wirdest of things out of nowhere

Why tf are talking at me about thumbprint and how yours are superior ??

Why do you know that you can burn them off ??

Why have you researched how to organise a crime and get away with it ??

And why on earth are you telling me the details ??

You know,, that kinda stuff

Mans will just start talking, no brain to mouth filter needed

Not a single thought,, just a river of words

Mans was talking before he could even crawl

But he's also the type of kid to just get away with anything but he just has that charm yknow ??

Like,, he could be babbling away and being cheeky to a teacher and it's fine but if someone else even dares to breathe they're sent out

He's the class clown throughout his whole life

Nursery to graduation babeyyyy

Not book smart but street smart definitely

Common sense frrr

Most people wouldn't expect it because he always makes silly comments but T knows what he's talking about

I feel like he picked up an interest in music tech and producing when he was p young

Probably on some school music trip thay was only accepted to get more money out of parents but hey,, it provided T with his passion so..

He is the kid who shows you bugs out of nowhere

Yes he's very proud of them

He tried to keep a pet snail in his room once

That dream soon died in the form of a scolding lmao

Jesse - The Art Kid (obviously)

Never without a sketchbook or some form of paper

If his parents didn't put his art on the fridge he'd put it up himself, covering up all his grades and any other paper on there

Kinda cocky for a kid tbh

People told him often how talented he was and mans ran with it

Suddenly he's god's gift to the world

Golden child vibes tbh

People always asked him to draw them, you know, like how annoying people do

He would literally just ignore anyone who tried to interrupt his art time

Fair enough tbh, art time is art time for a reason,, not socialising time

Hhhhhh some people,, eh ??

Still though, mans did act p arrogantly about his skills

Somewhere along the way someone had to teach this kid the meaning on humility and confidence vs cockiness

So glad that it wasn't me tbh

You do not want a little grumpy Jesse on your hands

When I say fits of rage,, I mean fits of rage

I think Jesse, for the most part was a delight to be around, overly confident at times perhaps but fun either way

But if he was faced with any kind of conflict

Absolutely screamed his head off

I'm sorry but it's true

Also incredibly dramatic

Winning emmies by the age of 4

If he got any kind of sickness, whether it's a slight sniffle or a fever, he's gonna act like he's on the verge of death.

Seconds away from popping his clogs

He will make you feel bad if he doesn't get his way

Puppy eyes turn to daggers in milliseconds fr

He was definitely forced into classical music growing up and as he grew he explored other routes

He also calmed tf down as he grew too, thank all that is good

Mans cycled through many instruments and genres of music before landing on thinsg that stuck

Aaron Z - The Quiet Kid

Literally the stereotype of a quiet kid

He walked so all those quiet kid tiktoks could.. waddle ??

The funny thing is Z is not a quiet person at all really,, he just wasn't interested din any of their asses tbh

Tbh it normally amuses him when people always default to describing him as the quiet kid, or the shy kid, or the silent but deadly kid

Somehow people, at every school he went to, got the impression that he's a delinquent of sorts

That he'd fight anyone who dared to mess either him

Literally no sweetie,, he's just unnecessarily tall lmao

And also just doesn't care about you lmao

You know he does care about tho ??

His grandpappy !!

Being practically raised by him can do that to a kid

His most treasured possession is a harmonica his grandpappy got him with both of their initials engraved in it

Mans literally has a special case for it and everything

His grandpappy is the one who got him into music and all

Grandpappy used to be in a folk band back in the day, didn't you know ??

Z is so proud of his grandpappy, so happy to be related to him

Z wasn't particularly talkative when he was a kid,, he wasn't as quiet as people made him out to be but even around famy and friends he wasn't really loud

But he was, and continues to be, really expressive

In expressions, gestures

It's what makes him such a good dancer

And what makes dancing so fun for him

He can speak without words but instead with his body

Sometimes though, Z can get really passionate and talk for hours about something

Robaire - The True Golden Child

Is there anything little Ro can't do ?? Evidently not

The biggest teachers pet throughout his younger years istg

Probably got teased about it a little bit cause kids are cruel

But Ro literally aced every test he was ever given and it was hard to find an activity he struggled with

Basically a prodigy

I actually think that Robaire was a pretty shy kid though

Like,, people made him nervous and he had a bit of separation anxiety from his parents

Nursery was rough for all parties involved

Definitely a hard worker from day 1 but also a fair bit of a dreamer

Sometimes Ro's head would float up in the clouds and take ages to come back down

A-fucking-nother classically trained baby and he carried it on throughout his life

Mans has muscle memory with the same duration as an elephant

On that topic I feel like Ro has above average memory, maybe not photographic but definitely above average

He can remember practically every lyric he's ever learnt and every piano score he's learnt too

No one knows how he does it

You know the recorder lessons in nursery where you play hot cross buns or whatever tf

Ro somehow managed to make that cheap plastic shit sound good

Honestly astounding

Perfect pitch KING,, move out of the way charlie puth

His talent for it certainly helped but it wasn't the praise that made Ro decide music was his thing

It's the way he felt during his playing,, before he heard any praise about it..

Over the moon

Tae Young - The Cute Kid

Had everyone fooled from day one bro

Everyone's under the impression that he's an angel.. ha ha,, no

Not in any way, shape or form

It literally became a known thing that whenever he's get in trouble or introduced to someone new people would say

"Don't be fooled by his puppy eyes,, he's actually vicious underneath that expression.. "

No one ever heeds the warning until the damage is done

You were warned bro..

Grab a pair of listeners at the door and prepare to use them in the future

Tae was the trouble kid though, always doing things he shouldn't

And he'd always get away with it because of his adorable little face

By age 5 Tae had mastered the way of making any adult fold to his demands with just 1 look

A terrifying child to babysit,, can you imagine ??

I'd rather just be broke tbh

And that's coming from someone who has less than a fiver to their name lmao

Other kids his age would send Tae out as a back up plan to get teachers to derail from their lesson plan and watch above or something instead

Shit worked every fucking time

Pissed off every other class known to man

Another classically trained kiddo and he stuck with the violin

He just really enjoys it tbh

Maybe it's because he had a really good childhood teacher

That teacher instilled a passion in Tae bro

Talented teacher for that fr

Tae struggles with motivation tbh so habits are important,, especially those established when he was young

So yeah, that teacher was p incredible to Tae,, did something that Tae had never seen before lmao

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN TAXI

But I've heard of people hacking for 36 hours straight, but the boring stuff you do in school under the name passion. To decide what to optimize, just log into a server and see what's consuming all the CPU. The malaise you feel is the same that a producer of reality TV shows or a tobacco industry executive feels. You can't just treat a patient's symptoms. Meet such investors last if at all. But coming up with good ideas will increasingly have an edge over 50 year olds with powerful connections. The phrase personal computer is part of the language.

While you shouldn't chase high valuations, you also don't want your valuation to be set artificially low because the first investor you've closed, then this could be the tipping point of fundraising. But they're a good model for the early phases. I told them it would be a Lisp interpreter in the less powerful language? And practically all startups, even the most general statistical sampling can be very cheap to launch a Web-based application anywhere. That never works unless you have a monopoly or cartel to enforce it, and they're thus able to excuse themselves by saying that technology was going to increase productivity dramatically. They had some good hackers, and b since you come into the new domain totally ignorant, you don't have to try very hard to kill. Made-up startup ideas are usually of the first type. When I said I was speaking at a high valuation, and the rate at which reputation spreads by word of mouth. If you do that, you get everyone else simply by letting them in. But if you're trying to avoid. At YC we call these made-up or sitcom startup ideas.

Lowering your price is a backup plan you resort to when you discover you've let the price get set too high to close all the money change hands at the closing. Software and content blur together in some of the most interesting of the lot. What would they like to take about 30% of a company they've funded. If you want to wait for Python to evolve the rest of Lisp out of it. But it's probably not that dangerous to start worrying too early that you're default dead, we probably need to talk about what has to happen between now and wiring the money, what should your valuation be? That sends two useful signals to investors: that you're doing well. The other is that you're bored. If the company is default alive or default dead, whereas it's very dangerous to start worrying too early that you're default dead, we probably need to talk about what has to happen between now and wiring the money, and yet the founders work harder than employees. And he'd be right, except that things will change a lot. I don't expect Microsoft to go all the way to go. You certainly don't have freedom: no boss is so demanding. When you install software on your desktop computer, you end up doing well, they'll often invest in phase 3.

If you have additional expenses, like manufacturing, add in those at the end of the wedge here was Web-based application for free, and yet the founders work harder than employees. Institutional investors have people in charge of the taxi line. He did as a theoretical exercise—an effort to define a more convenient alternative to the Turing Machine. Statues to be cast in bronze were modelled in wax. When I was in high school: what you want to start a new channel. I did be satisfied by merely doing well in school. When I was in college in the mid twentieth century as a golden age. You know that you're shipping something loaded with bugs, and then all the others would sign the same documents and all the money change hands at the closing. Even the most radically open-minded of us mostly do that. If they decide later that they want to meet and chat, but investors never just want to find startup ideas, you might do better to say initially that you're raising $250k doesn't limit you to raising that much. To make something good, you seem to be unusually smart, and C is a pretty low-level one. If you only need a browser for a client, if they could, is wait.

[maddiecopesblog]

Email interaction with Amanda Fletcher

I was really inspired by Mandy's work and the way she writes so I wanted to ask for her input on my project. I sent a message on her contact form and she agreed to answer some of my questions. Below is our email interaction, in bold, is Mandy's replies.

'Hi Mandy,

Thank you so much for your reply, I really appreciate the help. 

I would like to know more about the kind of impact that you think functional pockets would have on women’s lives.  

As well as this, in my course, I'm really interested in advertising and campaigns. I'd love to create something that showcases all the things women hold, both emotionally and physically while using pockets as a symbol for the burden women carry. Is there a time or story you’ve heard that resonated with you, where you think holding your possessions close to you in pockets would’ve made a difference?

Also, slightly more silly question, practicality and aesthetics aside, if you could put anything in your pockets, what would it be? 

Thanks again for your help,

Maddie'

'Hi Maddie,

Sure, no problem.  

For me women can often be labelled under 2 stereotypes.  The woman whose job it is be looked at, remaining pretty for the benefit of others (pockets spoiling 'the line'), and the carer who looks after everyone else ( a massive handbag).  As a woman in my early 40s I have experienced both. 

Pockets mean an ability to carry your own personal stuff and only your own stuff.  To exist as an independent, self reliant human being in your own right.  It doesn't stop you carrying a bag if you want to, but it's not there as a default setting.

In work, I think it is important to have decent pockets, because a) Everyone needs a phone handy nowadays to conduct any kind of business, and having to root around at the bottom of a bag for it can be such a hindrance and b) because having your hands in the pockets is a confident stance ( and can also help to stash them somewhere if you tend to fidget when nervous).

For me, though, pockets in pyjamas were a revelation on this journey I've been on since I started the site.  I didn't actually realised they existed.  They would have been super handy, in the early days of having a  crawling baby at home, not  having had time to get dressed yet, but noticing choking hazards, that I just needed to hide away!   This is still an issue today with often matching sets of men's and women's pyjamas where the men's has pockets, but the woman's doesn't.  What's that about?

I have actually started wearing dresses a lot more than I used to, now that I can find them with pockets.  However, my favourite item has been my coat which has lots of internal and external pockets in which I can fit a book. I have spent a lot of time waiting for hospital appointments over the last few months, and it has been invaluable.

Books I can recommend on the topic of pockets are:

The Pocket: A Hidden History of Women's Lives - Ariane Fennetaux and Barbara Burman.  I love this books at it shows a history of  poorer women who have no written history, but a great deal of information can be taken from the contents of pockets

Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close - Hannah Carlson.  I haven't read this one, but I intend to.

I hope that helps, but if you need more info, please let me know.

Kind Regards

Mandy'

'Hi Mandy,

Thank you so much, this is so insightful and beautifully written. 

I hadn’t thought about the different ways in which women hold things and the way they are portrayed. This has given me a lot to think about. 

It often seems women have come so far in terms of owning possessions, yet you are right, pockets in many ways symbolise self reliance and independence and it is something that women frequently lack. If I am wearing a fitted dress with no pockets,  I give my phone, (which I pay for) my keys, (to the house I pay rent for) and my money, (which I earn) to my male friend to hold, as he has pockets. In that moment, despite my apparent independence, he has everything that I own. 

As far as matching sets of pyjamas go, that seems like inequality in plain sight, I have no idea how a company could justify that. 

You have been so helpful, I can’t thank you enough. 

If you’re interested, I can send you the work I create from this project once its done?

Kind regards,

Maddie'

'Hi Maddie,

Thanks so much!

I really love how you put it here 

"If I am wearing a fitted dress with no pockets,  I give my phone, (which I pay for) my keys, (to the house I pay rent for) and my money, (which I earn) to my male friend to hold, as he has pockets. In that moment, despite my apparent independence, he has everything that I own. "

It sums up the situation perfectly. I was wondering if I could quote you on my socials? 

I would also love to see the finished project, thank you!

Good luck with it!

Kind Regards,

Mandy'

There are several parts of our interaction that I found so useful. Firstly, I had never really thought about the way she talks about the 'two different kinds of woman'. Women in many ways are either expected to hold nothing or everything. This ties in when I disgussed my project with my mother and she immediately thought of a handbag, she is used to holding things for others.

As well as this, pockets symbolising independence and self reliance. Pockets allow for you to exist as your own self suffienct person, which a handbag implies you may be holding things for others.

Also, hands in pockets is a power stance. Which I love.

Pockets hold more power than I even realised, not just in the things they hold but the way they make us stand, what they represent in terms of what were expected to hold for ourselves and others.

I want to shed light on all the things we do, the good, the heavy, the emotional and why we need a place to put it all.

[seraphica]

Welcome to Tumblr

I haven't found a single masterpost intro to tumblr, so i made one. I'm loving all the memes and 2012-era jokes, but for those who do actually move over it'd be nice to have something helpful. Below is a non-exhaustive, alphabetical reference list of tumblr things that might be helpful to a newbie or returnee.

Disclaimer: Links to posts are to versions I reblogged, so they will have all the additions and no risk of linkrot if someone deactivates or changes their username. Also sorry this shit is so long. I’m sure I missed stuff too.

Activity - the little lightning bolt at the top of the page is your activity log. If you click on it, it will show you recent notifications for your blog - you can filter to mentions, reblogs, or replies, and you can also change which blog's notifications you're looking at. It will show notes both for posts you reblogged that people liked and reblogged from you, or posts you originally made that people liked or reblogged somewhere along the line. If a person you're following likes or reblogs your post, it'll be shaded a slightly different color.

Ads - historically Tumblr Ads have been their own genre of hilarious - not at all targeted, generally completely insane. Some genuine advertisers are now getting in on it which isn't as fun. You can go ad-free for a fee. (Or use Firefox + UBlock origin on desktop)

App - Tumblr has an app. I only use desktop. Someone else will have to help you here.

Asks - you can send people 'asks' that they can respond to privately or publicly. You can have asks turned on or off, allow anonymous or only logged-in users, etc. Asks you receive will trigger a notification on the 'envelope' icon.

Blacklist - a feature on XKit (see below) that allows you to filter words and phrases you don't want to see on your dashboard. You can customize it to include words and phrases, whitelist words that would allow the blacklisted phrase to be shown, choose how filtered posts behave, etc.

Blaze - When you make an original post, you'll see the option to 'blaze' it. You pay a set amount of money to have it show up on the blogs of a certain number of people. There's no guarantee of interaction, and there are some restrictions on what can be blazed. You also shouldn't say, blaze a fanfic and then be shocked when all the people who see it aren't in your fandom and are very confused. You SHOULD blaze pictures of your pets because tumblr loves that shit. As a whole, tumblr users aren't a fan of brands or marketing, but we do like the option to support the site while causing a different kind of chaos. You can't blaze reblogs.

Celebrities - very few celebrities are on this site (that we know of) and frankly we like it that way. If they come here, they need to follow the example of Neil Gaiman and act like everyone else on this hellsite (affectionate).

Censorship - you can say things like 'kill', 'dead', etc. on here. Don't censor words like 'd3ath' because it will then show up on the dashboards of people who have the word 'death' blacklisted. If you censor, do so only to keep yourself from showing up in the searches - i.e., if you're complaining about Celebrity X, you might use a pseudonym like Bumblebee Cucumber to keep your post from showing up in searches for their real name. You won't get shadowbanned for saying 'fuck' or 'abuse'. If you're talking about something and want to help people avoid it, you can also use tags like tw: abuse or cw: violence that people can blacklist.

Community Labels - a relatively new feature, this is designed to allow more types of content on tumblr by giving a vehicle to mark them as mature content - featuring violence, addiction, sexual themes, etc. You can choose to show, blur, or hide items marked with these labels. I believe they're hidden as the default on the app, to align with apple's restrictive app store policies.

Dashboard (Dash) - this is the name for your homepage. You can set it to be endless scrolling or pages. I highly recommend the latter, both for loading purposes and so you don't lose your place. Your dash contains posts from people you follow, the option to make new posts, etc. More on settings.

Deactivating - some people deactivate their blogs. If they do, you can no longer find posts on their blog - but the posts they made will still exist if they've ever been reblogged. It'll show their username as something like usernamedeactivated20221031.

Deleting - deleting a post will get rid of the version on your blog, but reblogs will survive. If you say something really stupid and then delete it, but someone has reblogged it already, it will always be out there.

Drafts - Drafting a post allows you to save it and edit later before posting or queueing. To save a post as a draft, click the arrow next to Post and select ‘Save as Draft’. You can also queue, schedule, preview, or post privately.

Editing - You can edit your post even after it’s been posted. However, if someone has already reblogged the post, the edit will not impact that reblog or any reblogs that come from it. You will occasionally see people editing their own old posts to claim they were clairvoyant about something 10 years ago. The ability to edit other people’s posts when reblogging was limited a few years ago, though there are workarounds if you’re REALLY trying.

Following - following someone will set it so their posts show up on your dashboard/homepage. If you're having a hard time, a good starting point is to search tags and blogs to find some that share your interests. Keep an eye on blogs that they reblog from, as well - those might be blogs you'd enjoy. And don't be afraid to unfollow! Maybe they're spamming your dash with content about something you're not interested in, or failing to tag things, or are making posts constantly insulting something you like. Curate your space and unfollow. You don't need to make a call-out post or confront them, just press the button and move on.

Likes - Hitting the heart on a post adds it to your likes, and adds to the total notes count, but doesn't really boost it in any other way. You can have your likes public or hidden. You might choose to like posts to go back later and choose which to reblog, or use them to send a bit of love to the person who posted it (such as a mutual's personal post).

Linking- you can use in-text links on tumblr! And you should! Linking is a great way to cite your sources or share relevant information. Within this post you'll see several links to more information.

Memes - Tumblr has a lot of in-jokes, and humor here is a bit different than some other social media. Memes pretty much never die, and many of the ones you've seen on other sites got started here.

Messaging - Tumblr's chat feature. You can have this set to allow anyone to message you, or just people you follow. It's a nifty way to share a post directly with someone, as well.

Missing E - you were here once and have been gone a long time. See XKit.

Notifications -See 'Activity'. You can also enable notifications via email, or presumably on the app (again, I don't use the latter). I recommend turning them off for email.

Porn Ban - Tumblr used to be a lawless place, with a common refrain being 'go nuts, show nuts'. A few years ago came the infamous porn ban, which led to a large exodus of users and the unfortunate phrase 'female presenting nipples'. While the content rules have relaxed a bit recently, 'We still don’t allow hate, spam, violent threats, or anything illegal, and visual depictions of sexually explicit acts remain off-limits on Tumblr'. The CEO talked a bit more about the restrictions, as well.

Posting - You can create your own posts on Tumblr. They can be text, quotes, videos, photosets, or a mix of the above. You can even use limited HTML to edit them in html mode.

Post+ - literally no one does this. It's the concept of paywalling your posts. No one on tumblr is going to pay to see your posts. No one.

Queue - one of my fave tumblr features. The queue lets you set up posts for later. For instance, mine is set to post 10 times per day between 8 am and midnight my time. You can still post outside the queue, but it's a great way if you want to avoid reblogging everything at once, or if, say, you posted something and want it to self-reblog later in case your followers missed it on their dashboard. To queue a post, select the arrow next to 'Post' when posting or reblogging, and select 'add to queue'. If a post is in your drafts, click the clock icon to queue it up.

Radar - Tumblr radar is posts that staff have selected to highlight. Generally this will be art, occasionally photos. It might be brand new or years old. You don't get on radar by using magical tags and hoping the algorithm selects you. Radar also only shows the first image in a post - you'd need to click on it to view any other images or associated text.

Reblogging - the lifeblood of this site. posts are shared via reblogging. The vast majority of posts on most blogs will be reblogs, and often the original poster isn't someone they even follow - it's just traversed through the tumblr ecosystem over time. Reblogging puts the post onto your blog, and thus the dashboards of your followers, while keeping it connected to the original poster. You can add your own tags, engage in a conversation, etc. If you laugh at something or enjoy it, reblog it to share it! Reblogging with tags also means you can search your own blog later to find a post again easily. If you don’t want people to reblog your original post, you can also turn reblogging off.

Reposting - don't do it. Reposting is when you take something someone else posted on tumblr - art, graphics, a screenshot of text, etc. - and make a new post with it. If you want their content on your blog, reblog it. If you want to share something from elsewhere that isn't on tumblr, make sure you cite your sources (and if an artist elsewhere says 'no reposting to other sites', DON'T post it on tumblr).

Replying - clicking the speech bubble below a post will allow you to reply to it. Replies will show up in the notifications of both the person who put the post on your dash, and the OP. You can have conversations in the replies. It's also possible to turn replies off entirely - if the button is greyed out, the original poster turned off that function. (Sometimes for the better).

Search - using Tumblr's search function will search both the content of posts and their tags. It's a notoriously questionable feature in the results it returns and their order, but it can find some hidden gems. you can also search within a specific blog - such as by going to seraphica.tumblr.com/search/cats, you should find posts both tagged 'cats' and with 'cats' in the content.

Settings - Settings lets you customize everything for your blog, including appearance, whether anonymous people can message you, password-protecting a blog, hiding it from search results, etc. You should customize your blog a little or people might think you’re a bot.

Sharing - clicking the share icon allows you to send a post via messages right to another blog. It also gives you the chance to copy the link, embed, share to specific other sites, etc.

Shortcuts - there are a whole bunch of keyboard shortcuts to make your tumblr experience smoother - posting, reblogging, and viewing. Click the little person icon and then 'Keyboard Shortcuts' to view a full list.

Sideblogs - You can create multiple blogs from a single Tumblr account. Your main blog is the one that will show up as following people or liking posts, or in replies, but you can sort out the kind of content you post into specific themed blogs. For instance, I use @blue-sky-sapphire​ for fandom blogging, @disneyesque-dreams​ for Disney-related content, and @fuckyeahneopia​ (mostly dead now) for Neopets. I can access all of them from this blog, and view their notifications and messages without having to log in and out. There isn't a magic button that tells you all of someone's other blogs, so it's possible to have a main blog and sideblog that aren't obviously related to each other.

Sourcing - When you make a new post on tumblr, there's a nifty gear icon on the top right. You can paste a source link directly in there. (You can use this same button to make custom post URLs, change the editor type, etc.). It's also good to add source links in the text - for example, if I share a photo from Flickr, I may set the source as the original image link, and the below the photo put 'Photo Title by Photographer [via]' with the via linking right to the source.

Submissions - You can choose to allow people to submit things to your blog. For instance, you might share pictures of other toasted-marshmallow cats with @straycatj​. When posted, those submissions will also automatically credit you as the submitter, and should be tagged 'submission' by default. You can also turn submissions off if you don't want people sending you things.

Tagging - unlike other social media, tags on tumblr aren't part of the post itself. They allow spaces and punctuation (bar commas, which mark the end of a tag). They are also a much more important factor here, IMO. Tags are used to:

Sort things on your own blog (i.e. I can later go to seraphica.tumblr.com/tagged/cats for all posts that are tagged 'cats')

Show up in tracked tags (if you're the original poster)

Allow blacklist to work

Follow content you're interested in.

add commentary or jokes without clogging up the original post

The first ten(?) tags you use on an original post will allow it to show up in that 'tag'. If you're following a tag, you can set that following topic to show up on your dashboard - or just have it as an easy link for the future, without crowding the dash. Tracked tags only include original posts that actually have that specific tag, rather than searching the full content of a post or what tumblr thinks is tag-related.

A rule of thumb is that you only use tags that are actually relevant to the post. If you're posting a picture of your cat sleeping, you might tag it 'cats', 'black cat', 'pets', but it'd be out of line to tag it something like 'destiel' 'epcot' or 'rabbit'.

It's polite to use a consistent tag for things you reblog frequently. For instance, a mutual of mine recently got into Formula One racing. Because she uses the tag 'f1' consistently, I'm able to blacklist that and have them hidden on my dash without having to unfollow her (which I didn't want to). Conversely, if she'd used the tag 'formula', i'd run into an issue - EVERY post on my dash that had the word formula in it would be hidden, whether talking about baby formula, math formulas, etc.

Any tags you use on a reblog show up in the notifications of the original poster and the person you reblogged it from. They can be a great place to add mini-commentary like 'beautiful work op' to art.

More on Tagging.

'Spoilers' is a good universal tag to use. You can tag something 'Movie X Spoilers', but unless someone has 'movie x spoilers' blacklisted, it won't be hidden unless you also tag it 'spoilers'. The second tag can be useful for telling someone what the spoilers are about if you've also tagged it spoilers, but it won't trigger the 'spoilers' block.

Themes - you can completely customize your blog to have its own theme and page - for instance, seraphica.tumblr.com uses a theme from @magnusthemes​ that has been customized with my own info, images, links, and colors with minimal coding knowledge.

Timestamps - you can enable these both via Tumblr itself and via xkit. It allows you to see when something was originally posted, and is super helpful for figuring out how recent and relevant information may be - particularly news items.

Tipping - you can enable tipping on your blog, and an icon will show up on your original posts even when reblogged. Most people on tumblr do not have money to send you, so don't expect much at the moment.

Username - Your username can be anything untaken, and include letters, numbers, and the - dash. You can change your username easily, but that will make it available for someone else and any links elsewhere that went back to your blog will be dead. (Though posts you made should be updated with your new name). Restrictions are pretty minimal, and you'll see people with usernames like 'officialcompany' that are not actually connected to that company. As long as their blog is clearly a parody (and not genuinely impersonating), it's fine.

Verification - not a thing here, and we don't want it.

XKit - currently 'XKit Rewritten', this is an add-on for Firefox or Chrome that allows additional customization

... Menu - on the top right of posts, you'll see a '...' aka meatball menu. Clicking on it will bring up a selection of options relating to the post, the person who reblogged it, etc.

Miscellaney....

Don't put a bunch of identifying information out there. This is one of the last bastions of actual online anonymity and we like it this way.

Curate your experience. Unlike most other social media, that is actually possible here. You can turn off suggested posts and only see things from people you actually follow.

Reblog. Most blogs are majority reblogged content before they are original posts. That's the way this place works and thrives. That's how you see posts from outside your orbit that have been selected for sharing by other people.

Don't screenshot posts and repost those screenshots. You can reblog the same thing a hundred times. You can bring old posts back to life. Screenshotting should only be used if you're using it as a reaction image or like... compiling an archive of November 5, 2020.

Unless you have something genuinely valuable to add, keep it in the tags. If someone things your tags are funny, they'll add them to the post in their reblog. Think of it as peer-reviewed humor.

Share your sources. In-text links, the built-in source option, etc. Don't just steal stuff from the internet and call it a day. And remember, Pinterest is not a source.

We post bullshit here. Get used to it.

Feel free to add on if I missed anything important.

[hunxi-after-hours]

Hi Hunxi, so with the latest danmei discourse going on, lots of fan translators are locking their translations and won’t provide people additional chapters unless fans prove they bought the book. What’s your opinion of this move?

every day people inform me of new danmei discourse and I sigh and shake my head and mutter 天下本无事，庸人自扰之, but actually, this is a topic that is becoming nearer and dearer to my heart day by day because it has ramifications for art/creative industries as a whole

so here's the thing I've been noticing about media, whether it's novels or webnovels, TV series or music albums, and it's that we want the content for free without paying the creators for their work. this is not an unusual sentiment--and if I'm being honest, it's my default setting--but I think in the explosion of free, accessible media and content on the internet, we forget that the stories and media we come to love still cost their creators time, energy, labor, and money

so let's come at this question sideways from a comparable lens: (US) book publishing, and online piracy of ebooks:

this whole discussion reminds me of this article, and more directly, this piracy stunt that Maggie Stiefvater and her brother pulled for the publication of the fourth book in The Raven Cycle series (which is, incidentally, an absolutely gorgeous quartet, I highly recommend). tl;dr, to prove that ebook piracy had a direct and negative effect on book sales, she and her brother made a dummy copy of the fourth and final book and posted it on all the piracy sites they could find on midnight of the publication day

the effects were immediate and undeniable. when people who had intended on pirating the electronic copy of the book could only find the dummy copy, they caved and bought the print copy. meanwhile, the print run for the book had been halved prior to publication because the sales for the third book in the series had suffered so much from--you guessed it--online ebook piracy. the publisher couldn't justify printing so many copies if the sales numbers didn't support it. you want to guess what happened?

the book sold out.

the book sold out of physical copies, and the publishing house frantically ordered another print run, and sales numbers for the series crept back up, enough for the publishing house to buy her second series (incidentally, the second book came out just a month ago), and all of this goes to show that

pirating an artist's work directly hurts the artist

of course, there is nuance here. there are exceptions, industry-specific concerns, region-specific differences. pirating, say, the latest Star Wars movie isn't going to have the same effect on John Boyega as pirating Maggie Stiefvater's book is going to have on Maggie Stiefvater. but I think this case study is important because 1) self-serving bias would have us believe that it's okay if I nab a free copy of something because I'm just one person, and no one's going to miss one person in something as big and abstract as sales numbers, and 2) we feel entitled to the work of creators, plain and simple as that

the relationship between creator and audience is a complicated one--on one hand, the creator cannot thrive (or indeed, economically benefit) without a robust audience; as a result, creators quite literally depend on their audience. On the other hand, the audience, knowing the power of their consumer/viewership, now feels entitled to make demands upon the creator. write faster. publish sooner. cater the storyline to our preferences. give us what we want.

and this relationship is a dynamic one, a constantly shifting balance, all navigated around the trickiness of creative work

but before I go off on a Pat Rothfuss tangent, I'm getting distracted. let's bring this back to danmei, and the unique situation danmei authors + fan translators face

first of all, let's get this straight: many, if not most fan translations are made without express permission of the author

are we getting that? the authors, the original creators of these danmei works, do not authorize fan translations

(I'm fairly confident that there are some legal shenanigans at play here because of the contracts these authors sign with jjwxc, but let's not get into that at the moment)

so when Anglophone readers read fan translations, functionally, they are reading pirated copies of these novels. there. I said it.

but fan translations give danmei authors access to a greater audience! one might argue. if there were no fan translations, these authors wouldn't get exposure to Anglophone audiences at all!

(using the Anglophone sphere as an example here, not necessarily calling it out specifically; replace it with whatever language you’d like)

and how, pray tell, are Anglophone audiences benefiting the original authors? they don't offer comments or compliments to the author below each new update, they don't upvote their stories in the cutthroat competition of rankings on JJWXC, and I doubt that many people are actually braving the frankly quite terrible UI of the JJWXC website to pay for these books that they read and profess to adore. so like. why should danmei authors care about Anglophone fans, if Anglophone fans barely do anything to support them

why, in the name of sanity, should these authors feel grateful for people reading pirated copies of their work

for the record--I am not trying to condemn or criminalize fan translators. I respect fan translators a great deal, for the absolutely astounding amount of work they do, for their role increasing the accessibility of these texts to international audiences, for their willingness to promote and celebrate works that have yet to reach publishing houses in the international/non-Sinophone sphere. which is why I absolutely support fan translators choosing to lock their translations and hold the ground against online book piracy, and thereby protect their authors as best as they can

and proof of purchase is not an unreasonable ask. there are guides for making accounts and navigating jjwxc even if you don't know a lick of Chinese, and these webnovels are abominably cheap (I think I purchased four titles for $17 USD? which, compared to your average hardcover or trade paperback novel... yeah. quite reasonable)

tl;dr I personally don't think we can or should fault fan translators for locking their translations and asking that readers display proof of purchase. honestly I think we should applaud them? but that's just my take on the latest Danmei Discourse (TM) I suppose

[yostresswritinggirl]

Request: hiii!! you’re writing is so amazing! i can really feel the emotion in every one of your pieces and i really admire you! i remembered seeing an artist from the obey me fandom drawing like a parellel universe where the player is a part of the original game and the characters are the ones enamored and spending all their money on trying to get them. i thought it would be cool to see that for genshin and i think your writing would suit it! you can write about any character you would like, but if it isn’t too much to ask, would you throw in some albedo and xiao crumbs? i hope you have a nice day/night!! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)ﻭ

This will be the new format seeing as freakin tumblr won't show my posts in the tags if it's an ask :'))

I just want to say this is such a cute idea and I was tempted to isekai the fuck outta this, but that would be overkill ahahahha! This was so fun to write and I got instantly inspired, my goodness - here's my take! With new headers to get in the mood, credits in the tags!

Universe Reversal

Genshin Impact Character Reader and Modern Players Albedo / Xiao (how they simp for you) (event masterlist) (Part 2 / Part 3)

Albedo the Fanartist

Albedo is a hardcore gamer that knows almost everything about the game, from lore to theories, to the best set up and farming routes.

This man found out about your character for a long while even before your release because of the leaked data content he'd been following for a while, your intricate design was the first thing that caught his attention, seeing as your skills and stories had yet to be published.

How he pulled you: Pity. He perfectly mastered the pity system to get you the moment your banner was open, and my goodness, was he checking for it every minute after the old banner was gone.

The first thing he does is take pictures, walk around, admire your voicelines and your animations. He's WHIPPED. He wants every bit of content related to you.

To the point that he himself ended up pioneering the fanart community dedicated to your character. His digital arts were always god-tier and had made a lot of players simp/pull for you when they weren't planning to do so.

Albedo was known by the community as the biggest (Y/N) simp and he carries that title proudly.

He already had notes about your lore, story and your connections to the main storyline and other characters. Most of the facts he already remembers by heart.

Would definitely buy official merchandise of you, especially and most definitely figurines!

He mains you in traveling to the point that your character feels more like the main character in the many times he had used you by default. He's just really in love with your design!

Had made many different kinds of fanarts regarding you, like modern, cross-dressing, royalty, 18+, and commissions.

Maxed out your constellation and unlocked all the stories and voicelines. You don the best artifact in the game and NEVER leaves his main team, unless it's absolutely necessary.

Had been caught daydreaming about you multiple times, truly a fanboy, has definitely flexed you more than enough times to his friends.

"Their design is unique and flexible, easy on the eyes yet intricate enough to make you look. If it were an option, I'd change the main character to them."

Favorite Voiceline: Good Morning...

Xiao the Lucky Puller

Xiao doesn't really care much about characters as he's a normal free to play gamer who works with what he has, and isn't obsessive with trying to get featured characters to the point of whaling.

How he pulled you: Insane luck. He wanted to take a shot in the dark to either get a nice new weapon or the other characters in the banner since he knew he won't have enough primogems to actually get you. Then lo and behold, you appear at his first ten pulls?!

You're probably, most definitely, his first five star and he is silently livid at the idea. He's also probably the only one to have it in his friend group so he would show his pull to their discord server immediately.

He has ZERO clue on how you operate tho, so he's gonna take his sweet time trying to figure out your builds and your gameplay/skills.

When he gets the feel of you, he begins using you more and more, still prideful of his first five star and lucky pull. His friends can't argue since you won't come home to them~

He indulges himself with reading your story and listening to your voicelines the most, to the point that he can tell apart your voicelines from the other characters. If there was a voiceline where you sing, GOOD SHIT-

He has you as his icon, and his signature is vaguely dedicated to your character.

You are part of his main team and built more for either support or sub dps. His most favorite part about you is your voicelines really, and your uh idle animation.

He's infatuated but does not outright accept nor deny that you are his game waifu. Secretly tho, he has read fanfiction for you before and may or may not have wrote one too

He really likes the isekai ones uhu

Had tried to cook the real life recipe of your signature dish, and it turned out really great!

"Their company and camaraderie and their voicelines and story is really nice and heartwarming. I wish I have someone like that."

Favorite Voiceline: About Us, Birthday Voiceline

This is such a cute headcanon to write uhu even tho it's so short huhu

@moaa @zelos-simp @legionqueensav @dandelion-dreams @snackgod @rxsalinee @albaedhoe

[soliavenne]

Gaara reacting to his S/O wearing a lingerie

- Genre: Horny-ish Gaara hours. You're probably just visiting your friend in horny jail with this one. 😝

- Word count:

- Format: Bulleted headcanons

Ah, it's been awhile! I suddenly got into the mood to write something and among the asks I have in my inbox, @rollercoasterofdicks and @anniarchy 's asks regarding lingerie are the first ones I was in the mood to write about. (:

I hope you enjoy!

Warning: R-18+ content below the cut!

---

• Gaara honestly doesn't impose a lot of expectations from you as his significant other, sexy-times wise. His mind is too pre-occupied with a lot of office-work related stuff that the man is just finally happy and content to get away from all of it as he comes home to a house that isn't cold and empty. To have a safe, welcoming space with home-cooked meals and a warm bed to rest on had already moved past his expectations to begin with.

• You could be wearing anything, and he'd still be down for it as long as both of you are in the mood. The visual appeal of his beloved's body might always be a treat, but to Gaara, it's the comforting warmth and the familiar scent of your skin that he finds really enticing. You two could just be cuddling innocently- exhausted giggles and whispered rants, the vibration of your back as you laugh against his chest while he's hugging you from behind... then he pulls you closer towards him, a soft purr of his husky voice as he asks you gently if the two of you could do it.

• "I want you..."

• Settling it once and for all in this house, no amount of ugly-patterned matching pajamas could ever stop Gaara from being in the mood to make love to his significant other. You think the fabric you are wearing at such moment would faze this man if he is horny? Not at all!

• But, that doesn't mean he is not open to such surprises involving a sexy lingerie. You just gotta' plant the idea of it bit by bit into his mind so he at least forms the outline of such racy thoughts. I guess you could say he does have a thing for a buildup of some sort, a stimulating thought process that will leave him in anticipation for the climax of your agenda.

• Why not start with a sneaky slip dress that'll make Gaara feel a little guilty for having his thoughts cross the horny boundary?

• You haven't worn such thing before, and he's not outwardly denying the brewing curiosity. Your chosen garment was at the perfect spot where you have him tiptoeing regarding two thoughts- are you simply just trying a fresh pace for sleeping clothes? Or are you implying something?

• Who was he kidding? Obviously this is not for him. This was nothing but an appropriate sleeping garment. Not everything is about him! Just because he's your husband, doesn't mean he get to spoil himself with such ideas. Right?

• Right?

• Gaara's denial would waver as you tease him innocently by pressing your backside against his crotch while the two of you are spooning together for the night.

• The man is honestly overthinking it too much to even get the clear signal in your first try, but he's trying his best.

• If only he could've have the guts to press his hard-on against your tailbone as he traces your exposed thigh with the palm of his hand...

• It wasn't a failed mission though, because you have just started some very flustering imageries in his thoughts starting from that night on, and it's only bound to get better.

• You'd find yourself wondering what type of lingerie is he into, and you've been tempted more than once to flat out ask him about it. Not wanting to ruin the slow-burn of a surprise that you knew he was aware of but just chooses to deny it, you swallowed back your inquiries.

• You did notice that his gaze was already unsteady in that small stunt you pulled with that pale grey slip the other night, so maybe start with something with softer appeal? Something just appropriately playful and teasing?

• This was a ploy to bring Gaara down to his knees, but you couldn't deny that you were enjoying it as much personally. The confidence it brings as you admire yourself in the mirror was already satisfying to begin with, but to Gaara's reaction just swells up your the pride down to the very brim.

• Pale pink, soft beige, good old neutral colors of white, grey and brown where you can't go wrong. Maybe a burnt sienna to hit the perfect spot? Laces, intricate patterns, garter belts. There was a lot to choose from that you'd find yourself having fun in shopping for the next item to torture him with.

• Torture? Why so?

• Because you softly deny his advances.

• "Ahh... I'm kind of tired, Gaara."

• How unfair could you more be?

• You literally just fucking moaned your denial while your supple thighs being snugly hugged by a sheer stockings rubbed against the crotch of his pajamas.

• You're beyond cruel, really.

• But Gaara is a good sport, and by now, he was more than willing to edge himself for you.

• Do the final show on the weekend, please. That's the tiniest hint of demand from Gaara's behalf. If you were finally going to pull him by the collar of his blouse and bring an end to this week-long tease of yours that has been causing some distractions in his work recently, you have to at least let him savor it.

• If you debut the climax with an intricate piece of a lingerie in his favorite color, he will be at your mercy.

• Gaara is a body-worshipper by default, so if you chose to wear a lingerie to increase his already innate desire to adore and praise every inch of your body, he's more than eager to deliver.

• The lingerie stays on during foreplay. Yes, the straps of your bra would be loosened and fall down the curve of your shoulders- maybe he'd sway the pads to the side a little so he could play and suckle on the hardening nub beneath it, but you will stay partially clothed. He was going to make sure that every cent of money you have poured into such a beautifully-hugging, intimate piece of clothing would be worth it. Gaara is going to admire you in it as long as possible.

• Oh? The lingerie is a little constricting? You want to spread your legs a little wider? Maybe you'd like it he fondled your actual mounds rather than having it be massaged under the pads of your bras?

• "...But you look so beautiful in your lingerie, my love."

• Yeah, needless to say this man is taking his chance right now to bite back. With the faked tone of sympathy that you just realized as you the corner of his lips almost formed a soft smirk, you knew that what he meant to say was...

• "The lingerie stays on and you're going to take everything I'm going to do just like that."

• Sadly, though... he's going to have to remove your underwear.

• Sadly though for him. You on the other hand...

• Well, if you're kind enough to pair it up next time with crotchless panties, Gaara would simply just lose his fucking mind.

• Maybe that's what you wanted in the first place though?

• Now, now. Quit spacing out and thinking about the next opportunity of messing him up.

• Should you be really worrying about such right now when you already came so much and he still hasn't even removed his own clothes yet?

---

[doodlingraka]

Your sketches is so beautiful!! I love Lockwood and co too, but I just wondered if I could ask which book/scene is shown in the drawing where luce, Lockwood and holly are all in the taxi together? And again your work is… I have no words! Thank you so much for reading this and I hope I haven’t caught you at a busy time! Xx 😊

Hello, thanks but pease don't send me anonymous messages, I can't reply privately if you do. That pic is an invented scene it originally had its own caption but it was deleted and put in a sketchdump.

Anyway I am seizing this opportunity to tell a few things, hope you won't mind.

I had a big problem of reposters, thefts and plagiarism which made me stop sharing LW art at all. Not sure it worked because I still get reactions for stuff I did ages ago, but I have never dealt with something like this before and I am very confused on how to handle it. Dealing with this had a learning curve, I used to share anything I did with a caption explaining the context (some pics had sense only associated to other fan content or discussions). I thought it was a thing between me and a dozen people here, not that it was reshared elsewhere so I used to share piece by piece then delete and reshare in a sketchdump. Sometime people did fanrt of my fanart I thought it was fun and flattetring! I had no clue it would take these proportions.

Being an adult and a published author I avoid engaging in internet fights, nor I have the time to persecute all the abuses of my work. This doesn't mean I don't see stuff and I don't get very upset. I took a tour on pinterest and I am frankly baffled and disheartened by the comments under nonsense pics asking explanations to the reposter (guys, really?) who didn't even care to put a caption or a link to my sites. I had people using my art or my designs for commissions, merch and even ...a couple of serious things I can't mention without starting a legal action against them. It was honestly crazy.

Some who actively exploit my designs (not even crediting) DMed me asking to drop my take on Scarlett and Browne and not even realizing how self entitled such request might be - I believe that's made with no malice, just not understanding the extent of the damage this is doing to me. I wish people realized than when assuming my designs are the default, no credits, that's the franchise slowly acquiring my work without paying a cent for it. I am beyond disgusted from what is happening and way too much in the industry and aware of copyright laws to make money out of it without the original IP owner's explicit consent (Stroud's). If i could go back, I wish I had never shared my fanarts online but now I can't even take it down because it was reshared all over the place and having it on my sites is the only prove I am the person behind the designs currently used (which were never bought\acquired by the franchise anyway).

My hope is that the show will bring up an original charismatic design so far from mine that everyone will follow them and I can restart actually having fun and engage with this fandom as I used to. So the conclusion is, I can't stop the flow because the damage was already done but if you aren't a total asshat CREDIT me as the source, or if you like my work and want to support me please require for credits to be added. You can also tip me on ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/doodlingraka

---- EDIT: also, to be clear, that’s not a witch hunt not me making up stuff, there are a few elements who aren’t in the books who clearly tell when I am the original source of a design. I am referring to artworks who undoubtly feature them, sometime with a whole pose included.

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: May 15th Part 2

And here’s the next part of the long answer set of the day!

When will OL: N&F take place? Beginnings and Always took place during summer breaks, will now and forever take place during a fall break or will the characters be going to school at the time of the events we play through? 

It takes place over all of the fall season, so school will be happening in OL2. Some events do take place in school, though many times events only start after school is already out for the day, haha.

Hey!! I have kind of a weird question?? I’m sorry if it’s been answered before and I just haven’t seen it but is OL 2 taking place during the same years as OL 1? I’m just curious, thank you for such amazing games!!! 

It’s a similar time frame, but not 100% exactly same.

Do you have any idea when the demo for now and forever will be available? 

Hopefully this fall! But that’s not a guarantee.

Okay the crime show in Step 2: Growing up. Long blonde hair, police station, crime series? Was it The Closer? Because I’m the same age as MC and Cove and my mom was constantly watching that when I was 13. 😂 

Haha, yeah! The Closer and, to a lesser degree, Medium were the kind of shows I was referencing there. My mom also used to watch those back in the day.

Hey um this might be an odd question but if the setting of OL: N&F is  fall/autumn, what country or city will it take because my mind tells me it is either Poland or Canada. Also I can't wait for the game I am hyped 

It’s set in the USA again. We’d like to be able to have cameos and that’s easiest to do if the OL games take place in the same country.

Is it possible for the PC of OL to have non-seriously dated other people in the in between years even if they’ve had a consistent crush on Cove? 

You can causally date Baxter in Step 3 if you get his DLC and then ultimately choose Cove in Step 4. If you mean off-screen people, it doesn’t really come up, but you can certainly headcanon that. The game never says Cove is the only partner you’ve ever had.

Is there going to be a Kickstarter for Now and Forever as well? For like voiced names and stuff again? Didn’t find B&A until after it was released and I’d really love the opportunity to hear my name in the game 🥺 

Yeah, we are gonna have a Kickstarter with getting a voiced name as a reward! Though, it will be more expensive than it was for OL1. I feel bad to raise the price but we realized too late the first time around that it was being super undersold for the amount of work it took, aha.

Do you know how much the remaining DLC for OL will cost? (Step 4, Derek, Baxter) 

Step 4: Free

Wedding DLC: $2.99USD

Derek DLC: $4.99USD

 Baxter DLC: $4.99USD

Has an artist for the new position been picked yet?! I'm super excited for the new game! 

We did fill that spot. Thank you so much for taking the time to apply!

hmmm what would it take to get each of the XOXO jerk squad to feel the need to hug you? 

They’d have to first like you a fair amount, otherwise the most you’d get is maybe a pat on the shoulder. If they were attached, they might hug you if you broke down crying or if you gave them super good news.

Unless it’s Shiloh, of course. If you want a hug you only have to ask!

May i ask how the Derek DLC will work? I believe that there aren’t any memories in step 4 and doesnt derek’s dlc take place during that step? So will the dlc add memories? Thank you! 

Derek’s DLC will add five Moments to Step 2 (a new page will appear on that screen if you get the DLC). Then in Step 4 you’ll have to choose between playing the default epilogue or going through the Derek romance story.

Is the pc version on itch,io different from the steam version? Like an offline one or something? 

Steam has achievements, but that’s about it. Both can be played offline, if you prefer.

I've been wondering this for awhile, what determines if cove winds up with a ponytail in step 3? I've done multiple runs with different MCs with varying hairstyles. Or does it have to do with a particular moment in step 2? 

I’m afraid I can’t say exact choices that determine things. But generally it’s preference based options in the Step before that decide those things.

Any Floret Bond updates? 

No, the artist had to leave the project and it’s been on-hold. I’m not sure if I want to try working just with what we have or replacing it all entirely. The design is a bit too specific for us to easily find someone who could mimic it. Hopefully we’ll work things out later, though.

In step 3 is Cove's plan always to stay in sunset bird? 

Yeah. He is never ready at 18-years-old to make a big life change.

I love your content! If it's alright to ask, you answered in a previous ask about how Jeremy was too particular with what he likes his types to be romanceable with just any MC and it's sort of got me wondering.. What /are/ his types and/or preferences and such? Sorry if it's a lot! 

Jeremy likes stubborn jerks and will not date someone who’s sweet or even generally a decent person, haha.

uh, excuse me if you said this somewhere before, but how will step 4 be actually? Will it he like an actual step and have moments and dlc and all? Or will it be more like a long epilogue of some sort?

Will the step 4, the wedding and extra routes dlcs be paid too? Im just confused, sorry if im asking too much

Step 4 is only an epilogue, so it’s just a long series of scenes one after the other rather than a collection of Moments you can choose from.

The Step 4 epilogue is free, the wedding DLC, Derek DLC, and Baxter DLC cost money.

i’m not sure how much of the wedding dlc you have planned already, or if this would be to spoilery, but what kind of wedding traditions will be included? i keep thinking about how flustered cove would get over a garter toss & was wondering if we’d see a scene like that haha. obviously no worries if it’s not included, i’ll enjoy literally anything cove related 

I don’t know for sure yet, haha. Right now we’re focused on the parts before the big day. We’ll see how many scene alterations we can include for the wedding itself later on.

Hello! Firstly, thank you for creating such an amazing game like OL, and I couldn’t be more excited for OL2! Out of curiosity, are you looking for any writers to come on for OL2 or are you all pretty much set in that department? Just thought I’d shoot my shot haha but I’m still excited regardless ^^! 

We will be hiring writers for OL2 later this year! Thank you for the interest.

Will we be blessed with a spin-off Yandere Cove, like XOXO Blood Droplets? 

Sadly, no. It’s a shame but there’s not enough time to keep making OL1 bonus/spin-off content.

How is Q pronounced?

I’m afraid Q’s full name hasn’t been publicly announced yet so I can’t answer here (Q and T are the first letters of the names for the new LIs in Our Life: Now & Forever).

Question; is the steam version getting a Mac update?  I purchased the dlc there thinking it had Mac support without realizing it and just wondered if I’d need to refund it to purchase on itch.io 😭 

I’m really sorry, you will need to get a refund from Steam. We do hope to have it there for Steam eventually, but have no idea of when it’ll happen. Apple requires special notarization to be an officially accepted app for their devices. We don’t have that. Steam requires having that, Itch will let you release it as an non-notarized third party app. That’s why Itch is the only place that has the Mac version right now.

would you mind posting outfit sheets for Cove in every step? it would make things a lot easier for us artists. it would save a lot of time spent looking for references 

I think we did do the earlier steps when they were finished way back in 2019 (this game took a long time to make, aha), but we can probably repost them sometime!

In our life n&f, will we be able to get into qprs/will there be more options in regards to having deep platonic relationships with the love interests? Because as an aroace individual, it would be great if there could also be emphasis on platonic love so that it's more aspec inclusive. 

It’s a little hard to say at this point. There may not be things like a wedding DLC for OL2 and so the relationship for platonic and romantic feelings might not go as far as it did in the first game. We’ll kind of have to see how much we can do based on timeframe/budget constraints that will only be set near the end of the year. But we will be keeping things like that in mind at least.

hi! i really really like your game and im absolutely in love with it! i cant wait to try your other games like xoxo droplet and future OL NF :))

during the step 3 erands moment i got curious, which fudge flavor is his favorite? it seems like he likes all of them, but which 4 do you think he would like best?

also i noticed that in some playthroughs cove would let me give him a piggy back ride, and in some he wouldn't, how come?

how does your choices affect cove's interests or looks? i replayed the game without changing any choices but i got cove to look different, is it just random?

thank you!

Cove’s favorite flavors are ones with nuts and that are fruity! But he appreciates them all. Whether or not you can give him a piggyback ride depends on if your MC is fit/large enough to hold a muscular 6-foot-tall beach boy, haha.

Cove’s appearance does depend on choices and it’s generally tied to choices that are preference based rather than emotion/action based, such as which key chain you pick in Step 1.

Is it possible for cove to reject MC's proposal at the end of step 3? 

Nope. He’ll always accept.

hi! i was wondering how heavily the side characters will be featured in the our life wedding dlc? obviously it'll be cove & mc focused, but i was thinking it'd be sweet if we could take lizzie dress / suit shopping or dance with cliff at the wedding or something. 

The side characters are there about as often as they are in normal events. So, it’s clearly focused on Cove but he’s not the only person you have any meaningful moments with.

When will responses be sent out to applicants? 

I’m afraid we don’t send responses out to all applications, only ones we’re interested in offering the position to. Not everyone likes rejection emails and the amount of applications is too high to contact them all to say we’re not hiring them. We post updates on the job page when a position has news. Right now we’ve filled every role that was open.

Is there also going to be the option to keep your relationships with the love interests platonic in Our Life: Now and Forever? That's something I really appreciate in Our Life: Beginnings and Always

Yeah! OL will never force you to end up in a romantic relationship with someone.

I was wondering, in the Step 3 Happiness moment, what are the different fishes Cove can compare MC to? I got "you'd be a paradise fish, because being with you is paradise," but my friend got "you'd be an angelfish." Are there more variations? 

He says paradise fish if you’re a couple, angelfish if he’s just crushing, and then a royal dottyback/queenfish/emperor tetra (based on your gender) if he likes the MC platonicly.

Hello! So, in one of the Step 3 DLCs, Cove's arm was gone. I think it was to show him putting his arm behind his back. But if that wasn't the case, did it get yeeted? 

Thanks for letting us know. That was an error we tried to fix a little while back. When did you make the save file you were playing? If it was older that might be why it happened. Or maybe the error wasn’t fully fixed after all.

Asking for your opinion, but do you think Cove would at all be into ABBA? Because all I could imagine during the car trip in step 3 was him and the MC belting to Mamma Mia. 

Haha, yeah, there’d definitely be some ABBA songs he was into.

So throughout the game, Cove can develop different interests depending on the player’s choices; does this mean that he can have different careers in Step 4? Or his is line of work in adulthood never mentioned at all? 

He can have different career paths in Step 4!

Hi!! I'm so so sorry if this has been asked before but I just acquired knowledge about the so famous nsfw dlc for OL and nearly chocked on my bubblegum 💀💀💀 So, my real inquiry is if that specific moment will have any kind of impact at some point of the fourth step OR if it will just be treated as a side-story-ish “what if” scenario.Also, is there any chance there'll be something similar for Step 4? Haha jk,,, unless 😳Questions apart let me thank you profoundly for making the best visual novel I've ever played 😭 Really really looking forward the epilogue and OL2 💕 Have a nice day 

It’s just a bonus side story that’s fully separate from the main game.

It would be nice to have one for Step 4 too, but I sadly don’t see us having time to actually do it. I don’t know, if people are still asking for more OL1 content several months from now it might be doable and worth doing.

I'd just like to ask, when is Baxter's birthday :0 -- I'm really curious esp with their zodiac signs so ;w; 

I don’t know, haha. Maybe I’ll come up with one someday.

Please help!! I bought the Step 3 DLC but I still have no idea how to get to where you can propose to Cove - any tips? 

&

How do I get the option to propose to Cove at the end of the game?

You can click HERE for a discussion on that.

I love that Miranda and Terry are getting together! I'm curious if you have canon sexualities for them? Also just wanted to say how much I love OL and how much joy it brings me everytime I play it <3 

Terry likes ladies and Miranda likes dudes!

ngl Step 4 Terry's design reads like y'all see trans guys as their assigned gender more than you see them as men to me (a trans guy)... like maybe if he isn't heavily dysphoric, I could see it, but everything you've said about him doesn't line up with that. Even then, immediate warning bells go off in my head looking at him. I wouldn't have touched the game if I saw him ahead of time.

I’m sorry you aren’t comfortable with the way the design looks. The situation with Terry is that he’s now open about who he is, but the body he was born with is still physically the same. He only came out recently as an adult and hasn’t gone through any treatments/procedures yet (his chest is flatter because he wears a binder). However, even though his body hasn’t transitioned at the point Step 4 happens, no one treats him as anything other than the guy he is. Having a trans character who’s identity is supported/respected from the start is what we’re going for in this case. But what we’re doing with Terry isn’t the only trans content we’ve ever had/ever will have in the future.

how would baxter react to bae pyoun and vice versa? and can you please detailly explain both love interests personalities from our life 2: now and forever? i was just curious, sorry for dumb question!! 

I imagine it’d be pretty opposite experiences, haha. Bae would initially think Baxter is pushy and thoughtless, but would quickly realize, oh, he’s instead a soft, considerate boy. Very cute. Baxter would first be struck with the impression that Bae is charming and gentlemanly, but then would realize that, no, he’s a sarcastic asshole. And I’m afraid we can’t reveal the personalities for the next game yet.

Sorry if you've already answered this, but I have a question about the patreon exclusive moment you're working on. I was wondering if it's mainly going to be CGs or if it's mostly character sprites + backgrounds with some CGs.

Either way, thank you for doing the Lord's work and not only making Cove, but making this bonus moment as well 😌😌😌

It’s mostly sprites/backgrounds with two CGs!

—– —– —– —–

Thank you again for the interesting questions everyone :D

We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[mumplaysthesims]

Sims 4 Legacy Challenge ROYAL EDITION

Adapted from “The Legacy Challenge Lite”

Welcome to the Sims 4 Legacy Challenge - Royal Edition!

I could never seem to find a challenge that I could use to play out a Royal-themed challenge to my liking. The original Legacy Challenge provided the best guidelines with enough restrictions to make it challenging, not so many that it was overly complicated, and enough relevance that it could be adapted for Royalty.

There are actually two versions of this challenge. I decided to use the “Lite” version, as I was not interested in Scoring (but the link to that, if that’s something that interests you, is below.)

The rules of the original Sims 4 Legacy Challenge Lite follow after the Royal Perks I’ve added to this challenge. I’ve struck out anything I felt like didn’t add to the challenge or made it hard to keep Royal-themed. 

If you like this challenge and play along, I’d love to read your stories! Tag your posts with #Sims 4 Royal Legacy #Royal Legacy Challenge or #Keep Calm and Sim On so we can see what everyone’s Royal Families are up to!

Now, the fun part…

Royal Perks

Your founders may begin their lives in a palace as elaborate as you wish! Create the Royal home of your dreams - no budget is necessary! You may only use ‘motherlode’ while building your palace; once the challenge begins, this cheat is no longer allowed. You may use any Lot Traits you like, but think about which would best suit this challenge. The palace may be in any neighbourhood (ie. the Kingdom), and your Royal Family may interact with anyone in the game (ie. all worlds.)

You may create, download and/or move-in commoners, Nobility, other Royal families into your Kingdom but you MUST NOT PLAY THEM. You may only play a Sim once they are moved into your palace (ie. when they are married into the family.)

The challenge begins once your founder(s) move in to the Palace. You must set their money to §50,000. This is the last time you may adjust Simoleons. 

Your founder may be male or female (or X, for that matter) and single or married. They must not have any children. (Laws regarding Succession are below.) You may title them appropriately (King/Queen, Duke/Duchess, Prince/Princess.)

You may have as many children as you like! (Keep in mind your home’s capacity of 8. You may not be able to move through the generations as quickly if you have a lot of children.) Butlers and Nannies are allowed - in fact, they are encouraged! This is your chance to live an extravagant life!

Children and teens must attend school as normal. Heirs/spares may also attend University, if they choose. They must pay their tuition in full, without taking a student loan. It can be completed full- or part-time. The heir MAY NOT move into student housing, as they must always remain on the lot. The spares may go away for University, but must return to the Palace. 

When your Sim is the head of the family (ie. King/Queen) they MAY NOT hold a job. Their only job is to reign over their land. The heir (and spares) may hold a job while they are in line-to-the-throne, but once they ascend, they must quit. The jobs your Royals may have are limited to:

Freelancer Writer

Painter

Trendsetter

Photographer

Charity Organizer

Internet Personality 

Environmental Manager

Botanist

Military

During their lives, each generation must host the following three social events*:

Coronation - the Official crowning of the King/Queen. Plan this as a “Black and White Bash.” A solemn event - may take place on or off Palace grounds (typically, in a cathedral or the like.) The dress code is White Tie. Children are typically not invited. 

Royal Wedding - must take place in a church/religious establishment/civic building and have a full reception of 20 guests. Plan this as a “Wedding.” The dress code is Black Tie. You must be engaged first and may not elope. Children may be invited. 

State Dinner - this is an occasion for the Royal Family to show off their kingdom! This event must take place at the Palace. Plan this as a “Dinner Party.” The dress code is Black or White tie. The guest list must be full, however, it is limited to other Royals, Nobility and Celebrities. No children allowed. 

*Other than your founders, who are only responsible for one State Dinner, and one wedding if they begin unmarried. They have technically already been crowned, and thus do not need to have a Coronation. 

The guest list must always be set at the maximum (so make lots of friends quickly!) and you must hire a caterer, mixologist and entertainer. You must achieve at minimum Bronze level to count the party. If it was unsuccessful, you must throw another.

These events may occur in any order - it will depend on your storyline - however, the State Dinner must be thrown by the King/Queen when they are reigning. 

Well, that’s all for the Royal Perks! Below are the rest of the rules for the standard Legacy Challenge. 

Keep Calm and Sim On!

Legacy Challenge Official Website

https://simslegacychallenge.com/the-legacy-challenge-lite/

Getting Started

Your challenge begins in Create-A-Sim (CAS.) There, you must design your founder. Your founder can be just about anything you want (they can even be an alien!) You can pick whatever aspiration you want for them and give them whatever traits you want. Pick out their gender, wardrobe, body shape and color, and even incorporate any custom content or mods. The ONLY two rules are that they must be of the Young Adult age, and they must be the only person in the household.

Take extra care when giving them their name, especially their last name, as many future Sims will have that as part of their name, so make it a good one!

Gender Law

The first component is Gender. You must pick one of the following options:

Matriarchy: The Founder must be female. Only girls are eligible to be named heir unless there are no female children, at which point boys become eligible for that generation.

Strict Matriarchy: The Founder must be female. Only girls are eligible to be named heir. Male children cannot, under any circumstance, ever be the heir to the next generation.

Patriarchy: The Founder must be male. Only boys are eligible to be named heir unless there are no male children, at which point girls become eligible for that generation.

Strict Patriarchy: The Founder must be male. Only boys are eligible to be named heir. Female children cannot, under any circumstance, ever be the heir to the next generation.

Equality: The Founder may be of either gender. Both boys and girls are eligible for the title of heir.

Strict Equality: The founder may be of either gender. However, only children of the opposite gender to the founder are eligible to be named heir. This repeats itself for the next generation (the next heir must be a different gender than the previous heir) so that each generation will have alternating-genders as heirs.

Bloodline Law

The Second Component is Bloodline law. You must pick from one of these options:

Strict Traditional: To be eligible to be named heir, a child must be naturally born from their previous-generation parents and be able to trace an unbroken bloodline back to the founder. Adopted children may never be named heir.

Traditional: Children who are naturally born from the previous generation are eligible to be named heir. Adopted children are ineligible to be named heir unless there are no naturally born children, at which point they become eligible for that generation.

Modern: Both Naturally born and adopted children are eligible to be named heir.

Foster: Children who are adopted are eligible to be named heir. Naturally born children are not eligible to be named heir unless there are no adopted children, at which point they become eligible for that generation.

Strict Foster: Only Children who are adopted are eligible for the title of heir. Naturally born children may never be heir.

The Gender Law and Bloodline Law serve as a sort of ‘qualifying’ round. If either law names a child as ineligible, then they cannot gain the title of heir. However, just because a child is eligible to be named heir according to Gender and Bloodline laws, doesn’t mean they WILL be the heir. The third category actually picks the heir.

Heir Law

The third Category is the Heir Selection Law. You must choose from the following options:

First Born: The oldest, by order of joining the family, eligible living child is named heir.

Last Born: The youngest, by order of joining the family, eligible living child is named heir.

Living Will: The eligible child with the highest friendly relationship score with their previous-generation’s parent will be named heir.

Merit: The child with the most fully completed aspirations will be named heir. If there is a tie, the child with the highest level in a single skill will become heir from among the children who are tied.

Strength: The first born eligible child becomes heir by default… but the tile can be forcefully taken from them if an eligible sibling beats them in a fight. That sibling may have their title taken (or taken back) if they lose a fight to another eligible sibling.

Random: The title of heir is randomly selected from the pool of all eligible children. Every time the eligible pool changes size, the heir must be re-rolled using the new pool.

Exemplar: At the beginning of the challenge, name a single trait. This trait must be one of your founder’s three traits. Any eligible heir that has this trait will gain the title of heir. If a single generation has no children with this trait follow the First Born rule. If more than one child has the Exemplar trait then the oldest child WITH the trait will be the heir.

Democracy: This rule may be used if you are displaying your Legacy Challenge in some public way. Either via Let’s Play, Livestream, blog or other format where people can leave comment. The heir is chosen by your viewers/readers from among the pool of eligible heirs.

Magical Bloodline: Choose the heir by whoever has the strongest magical bloodline trait. If there is no magical bloodline trait (ie in the earlier generations) then the law defaults to first born until magic is introduced to the family. If multiple potential heirs have the same level of magical trait, choose the oldest one.

Magical Strength: Similar to the Strength law above, this one requires two or more potential heirs to have a magical duel. Whoever wins the duel, is the new heir.

Children

Regardless of your succession law, you may always introduce children into your family via pregnancy or adoption. Bloodline law will determine which are eligible to be heirs. (With the addition of The Sims 4 Get to Work alien babies can also be brought into the family via abduction.) Children may only be adopted as infants. You may not adopt if there are any infants (natural born or adopted) living in the house at the time and must wait for them to grow to toddlers before adopting a new one. You may rename the baby, and it is recommended (but not required) that you change their last name to the Legacy Family’s name.

Regardless of their status, when an infant ages up into a toddler, you must roll for their toddler trait (and later their aspiration and their first trait using the calculator found here when they become a child.) Be sure to put the traits of the two parents (even for adopted children) in the calculator because the algorithm it uses factors those in when generating random traits for the children. When the child grows into a teenager, you consult the calculator again for their adult aspiration and their second trait. Finally the calculator will be used to generate the third trait upon reaching young adulthood.

There is an option here to generate both aspirations and all three traits for a sim at once, though the proper method is to wait until the Sim ages up. And remember- No re-rolling! One of the hallmarks of this challenge is getting randomly generated children so you should keep the good with the bad. Since the traits of the parents have an influence on the traits of their children, you can try to engineer children by selecting spouses with desirable traits, but this is no guarantee.

You are allowed to use fruit and/or music to influence the gender of an unborn child, should you choose to do so.

Gameplay Rules

No cheats/hacks/mods that give you an advantage in the challenge over someone that does not use them (ie. no “motherlode” or “kaching” to get more money.)

No restarting the game after bad events. You must let them play out.

You may not move or merge in other Sims into the Legacy Family with the exception of partners/spouses. 

The Legacy Family must remain on the same lot for the duration of the challenge (this does not include vacations.) They are free (and encouraged) to develop their house but they may not move into a new house. Rooms may be imported into the house from the exchange as long as the family pays full price for the construction and items contained within.

A Sim may utilize an anti-aging item ONCE in their lifetime.

You may not change a Sim’s current aspiration. The exception is when they fully complete an aspiration. When that happens, you may choose their new aspiration, as long as it is not one they’ve already completed.

You may not bring a Sim back from the dead once the reaper has taken them. You MAY plead with the reaper in order to save a recently dead Sim.

You may not move/marry out the sim who currently holds the title of “Heir.” All of the other children in that generation (known as ‘spares’) may move or marry out. Once a sim moves out, they are ineligible to be heir, even if conditions change that might make them the rightful heir.

When playing a Legacy Challenge, your legacy family is the ONLY family you may play in that saved game. You MAY move in new families into the neighbourhood during your challenge (keeping in mind that they can be used for friends, but not spouses) but you may not play them.

You must use the Random Trait Generator to get traits and aspirations for all children born/adopted into the family.

Scoring

https://simslegacychallenge.com/sims-4-legacy-challenge-rules-scoring-bulletpoint-format/

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHAT THE LADDER

A isn't working. The disadvantage of taking money from a top VC firm can be a tricky business, because delegation is endemic there. On a whim I studied Arabic as a freshman. This turns out not to be obviously incompetent or lazy, but you're not going to get rich by counterfeiting, talking about making money, instead of the angel's. When we predict good outcomes for startups, the qualities that come up in the supporting arguments are toughness, adaptability, determination. Some writers quote parts of things they disagree with to give the appearance of legitimate refutation, then follow with a response as low as DH3 or even DH0. What good does it do me to know that my programmers would be more likely to notice and complain. They'll learn a lot, and that can probably only increase your earnings by a factor of ten of measuring individual effort. DH5 we still sometimes see deliberate dishonesty, as when someone picks out minor points of an argument and refutes those. We'll bet a seed round you can't make for yourself. The structural change in the way. That's true now, and that's just as bad.

In this case, n is. That's why I'd use the word naughty rather than evil. In fact, you can't train them to be exceptional. They did as employers too. I thought I'd already put in so much time that it was the first thing we thought of. You're old enough to start a startup, what you want to go work for a couple more years, just as newspapers that put their stories online still seem to wish people would watch shows on TV instead, just as we were designed to eat are a few Birkenstock-wearing weirdos in Berkeley. But serfdom is not the only cause of variation in income would be bad for you. But here there is another layer that tends to obscure the underlying reality, the more it will suck. Let's run through an example. Professors are especially interested in people who can solve tedious system-administration type problems for them, but because the process of raising money itself can kill you. In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren't really selling it either.

If you're among that number, Trevor Blackwell has made a handy calculator you can use to find out. Asking whether you're default alive or default dead. There is a lot of things practically all humans have in common, you'd also find they agreed on a lot. What kind of anti-dilution protection do they want? But that constraint has gone now. That was still in the future when you hear people saying that, you're golden. You're unlikely to have more than 10, and probably rarely as high as DH5 we still sometimes see deliberate dishonesty, as when someone picks out minor points of an argument and refutes those. So we've probably only discovered a fraction of what the finished product will do, but what new forms will appear. Many employees would work harder if they could skip the Artix phase and go right on to make something customers wanted. Of course, space aliens probably wouldn't find human faces engaging. Not any more. I'm right.

So while nearly all VC funds have some address you can send your business plan randomly to VCs, because they enjoy it. But while I'd spent a lot of the change I've seen is fragmentation. You're on the right track when people complain that it doesn't work so well for: the kind where it helps to have everything in one head is to focus more on their needs than your interests, and make the length of it: amateurs. When those far removed from the creation of wealth—undergraduates, reporters, politicians—hear that the richest 5% of the company so it could take care of themselves. As in software, when professionals produce such crap, it's not made equally. They lived in houses full of servants, wore elaborately uncomfortable clothes, and travelled about in carriages drawn by teams of horses which themselves required their own houses and servants. If I remember correctly, our frontpage used to just fit in the size window people typically used then. Structurally it is to an ordinary university what suburbia is to a city.

The professor who made his reputation by discovering some new idea is not likely to be true for longer. And moreover, that the cause is not some force that's pulling us apart, but rather that small groups can be select. The web is turning writing into a conversation. There is a very specialized business, as specialized as diamond cutting. Just make stuff and put it online. Money is a side effect of specialization. A surprising amount of the work done by individual employees, you can protest that you've been treated unfairly. Then you could see in the house, the herds, and the offerings at our end of the summer. I was as obsessed with that program as a mother with a new baby. But serfdom is not the only cost of hiring someone: there's usually salary and overhead as well.

This is my attitude to the site generally. A top-ranked professional chess player could play ten thousand games against an ordinary club player without losing once. A great programmer, on a smaller scale. But the way they talk about them is useless. The room suddenly got quiet. The idea that startups would do better to go off and work with a huge weight of expectation on his shoulders. Another way to be good. Some VCs now require that in any sale they get 4x their investment back before the common stock everyone else has. The reason it seems ridiculous to us to treat smells as property.

There was a lot of immigrants working in it will go to work for them long before they went public. It always seemed to us that the backing of a well known VC firm would make us breathe through tubes if they could. Now you can even hack together distribution. If people are expected to behave well. A physicist who chose physics over Wall Street in 1990 was making a sacrifice that a physicist in 1960 wasn't. It's not a coincidence. Within the office you now have to get rich, try spending a couple days in some of the fancier bits of New York or LA. He'd only been working on it. You also need to be the last to notice. If they made the experience good enough, audiences might start to prefer it to watching pirated movies at home. That's ultimately what drives us to work on your projects, he can work wherever he wants on projects of his own. But the same alarms in your head that it does in mine.