#been drawing and reading fics instead of hw

[roseetube]

MEGA ART DUMP #12!!!! SCHOOLS GOT ME BUSY, BUT MATH CLASS GOT ME COOKING RAHHHHHHH!!! DONT MIND MY ART CLASS NOTES LMAO

@pogostikk your sillies r here!!!

@spooksier drew your steeb from mothlight!!!

[s0upern0va]

im what you get when the stars align

@transcendence-au my dearly beloved

First time I’ve drawn TAU fanart in years but I’ve been going through old fics for nostalgia (I was still in middle school when I discovered this au I’m in college now I am so old). Also wanted to draw my take on an older Alcor since I remember reading a long time ago that Dip might alter his appearance to age alongside Mabel, so naturally, I had to draw him with my older Dipper design :^)) I spent 2 hours on this instead of hw please send help

[starrynyxa]

school is disgusting bc now i never have time for “long activities”

[peaches-writes]

party night

prompt 2: “But it looks like it’s enjoying itself!”

member: minho / lee know wc: 1.9k genre: fluff, bakeneko au, neighbor au, the crackiest fic you’ll ever read in a while warning: explicit language note: finally it’s done it took a while and it’s not even good it’s so trippy sldjflskdf but i’ve been slumped with work rawr + idk i didnt do my research im so sorry this was quick bc i still hav hw lskdfjsldjk

“Swswswswsws...” You hiss continuously as you point your flashlight into the darkness of the forestry ahead, turning your head to your neighbor after. “Ji, what’s your pet’s name again? It might respond if we called it by its name, you know. It’s been five minutes since we’ve been looking for it.”  

“P-Pet? I don’t—”Jisung briefly stops walking and squints his eyes at you, accidentally pointing his own phone’s flashlight to your face when you turn around to face him at immediately noticing his pause. You hold your free hand up to your face in instinctive response to his accidental action, wincing in pain of the bright light to which Jisung guiltily heaves a sigh at. That was close! “A-Ah, I mean!—L-Lee Know! His...yeah, the cat’s name is Lee Know!”      

You furrow your eyebrows and bring your hand down once Jisung apologizes and points his flashlight elsewhere, a confused frown settling on your lips. “Lee Know? You named him?” 

“Y-Yeah?” He raises his own eyebrows curiously, jogging up the remaining distance to you when you beckon for him to continue walking deeper into the forest with you. It’s time like these when the eco-friendly agenda our village has going on is such a hassle, Jisung groans internally to himself, Minho could be anywhere in this forest...that idiot. “Why’d you ask?” 

You shrug, flinching when a distant rustling faintly goes through your ears. When you point your flashlight towards its direction, however, you only see, much to your disappointment, a raccoon scurrying away. “It’s just—and don’t get offended!—Lee Know sounds a bit of a choice for a cat’s name.” You explain sheepishly, looking away in case he does get offended. “I actually thought Minho named him...given his generally weird tendencies. Maybe he got tired of naming pets cutely like Soonie, Doongie, and Dori or something so I thought, you know...”

Jisung snickers under his breath as you explain, frantically shaking his head and waving his hands when you surprisingly hear and ask him about it. Tell that to him when you see him, he so badly wants to tell you but he opts to quietly continue looking for his roommate instead, mirroring you and pointing his flashlight towards every inch of the path. 

“It’s that ridiculous, huh?” He jokes, to which your eyes widen at. When he peers over your shoulder and notices this, he immediately lets out a hearty laugh. “Don’t worry, it’s cool. I think it’s ridiculous for a cat too.” 

Your shoulders unintentionally relax at this and you muster up a laugh as well. “It sounds like a stage name.” 

“It’s swag, apparently.” 

After five more minutes of walking (and not much progress in finding clues as to where the cat went but misleading footprints of foxes and more raccoons), you stop right under the warning sign your village’s Homeowners Association, placed right before the forest’s restricted area. “Nothing.” You turn around on your surroundings twice before concluding against the stillness of the night and the distant cricketing, facing Jisung again with a disappointed expression. “We can’t go beyond the subdivision limits, Ji. I’m so sorry.” 

Jisung glances between you and the angry ‘No Trespassing’ sign in thought, biting his lip down as he ponders on what to do next. It’s either he risks having you see more than one supernatural creature tonight and drag you with him past village limits or he pretends to go back to the village with you then run all the way back to the other side of the forest and continue looking for his escaped roommate. Then why did I ask Y/N to help me look for Minho in the first place? Jisung asks himself as he scratches his head in the hopes that his last functioning braincell could make a quick decision. 

“Ji?” You elbow him gently when he takes too long to think. Only then does he notice that you’ve already taken a step back from the village limits, body twisted and facing the path back. “Let’s go back, maybe it’s better looking for Lee Know in the morning.” 

“A-Ah, but—” Jisung raises his free hand, as if reaching out to you and tugging you back. Before he could finish his thought, however, he sees a brilliant white light reflect back in your eyes and when he turns around, his eyes widen at colorful lanterns approaching from the trees. “Oh, shit...” 

“What the fuck is that?” You ask in a whisper, instinctively going back to Jisung’s side in fear. When the lanterns draw nearer, you start making out figures of raccoons, foxes, rabbits, and cats dancing on their hind legs. “What the hell?” 

Jisung slaps a hand up to his forehead and purses his lips, gritting his teeth hardly in frustration. Too late, he thinks to himself as he turns to you, eyes wide and mouth agape in bewilderment. “Y/N, listen to me—” 

But again, he’s cut off by a certain orange and white cat catching your attention, waving at you with its paws. “Hi, Y/N!” Minho waves at you casually in his cat form, his smile peeking out of the rainbow towel on his head. “We’re doing a conga line around the forest if you want to join!” 

“I...” You freeze, leaning back in confusion. “T-That’s...Lee Know?” 

“Um...” Jisung turns to you, meeting your unreadable expression. You look simultaneously shocked, horrified, and curious but with a small smile threatening to slip into your features. “I can explain!” 

“He sounds like—” 

“My roommate, Minho. Yeah, um...” Jisung scratches the nape of his neck again, instinctively stepping in front of your view to block the sight of dancing forest animals. “Listen, it’s not what it looks like! Minho, he’s...” 

“Jisung—I mean, wilder things have happened in college—” 

“Yeah but—” Jisung stops halfway, staring back at you as if you’ve grown a second head. “You’re not—you’re not freaked out?” 

“So you are admitting that your roommate is half-cat?” 

“He’s a bakeneko...” 

“Bakeneko, sure, okay.” You repeat, rolling your eyes. “As I was saying, you dragged me out here at 2 AM to look for ‘your cat,’ knowing there’s a slight risk of me finding out who the cat actually is, then you react like this when it does happen? I’m surprised, of course, but you really should’ve thought about that.” 

A part of Jisung heaves a sigh of relief but another part of him panics even further which is only amplified with the music growing louder behind him as more animals pass by. “Yeah, well, I did thought about that but I really needed help looking for Minho because he left without a note and I didn’t expect that he’d be out here partying tonight!” 

This time, it’s you slapping a hand to your face. “Jesus Christ, and here I thought you guys were at least sharing one braincell.” You sigh, to which Jisung immediately protests at. You ignore, him, however, and gesture for the growing line of dancing animals. “So, should we stop him? But, then, it looks like it’s enjoying itself! “But it looks like it’s enjoying itself!—I mean, Minho! Minho looks like he’s enjoying himself.” 

Jisung opens his mouth to speak but, for the second time tonight, he’s accidentally cut off again by Minho, this time by said roommate suddenly materializing on his shoulders. “Are here to pick me up?” Minho asks him, the way his normal human voice comes out of his cat form momentarily surprising you from the corner of his eyes and catching his attention. “Oh, hi, Y/N! Sorry, I didn’t mean for you to see me like this! Ya, Han Jisung, why did you bring Y/N along?” 

“Because you just left the house without telling me where you’re going, dumbass! How would I know if you weren’t suddenly kidnapped or something!” Jisung complains in response, flicking Minho’s forehead. “And get off my shoulder, fatass, you’re so heavy. Have you been eating spirits food again?” 

You clear your throat awkwardly, waving at the two boys before they could engage in a full-on argument. “Yeah, I’m still here, guys?” 

Minho and Jisung glance back at you then to each other, as if in contemplation. You raise an eyebrow nervously at this. 

“Hyung, is it okay that Y/N saw you?” Jisung asks Minho in a hushed whisper. 

“Do I really look fat tonight?” Minho frowns, to which Jisung groans at. 

“Dude, come on, I’m asking you a matter of your security and you ask me if you’re looking fat.” 

“Because Y/N saw me!” 

Jisung sighs. “Fine, then, yes you do...you look like a really really fat cat tonight.” He answers reluctantly, to which Minho pouts even deeper at. “It must be those brownies that other cat, Felix, is always baking at these parties.” 

Minho then immediately hops off of Jisung, walking over to you and encircling your ankles once. “Alright, then, I guess, Y/N, you should see me like this on another time, when I’m looking cuter! You’ll have to forget everything you saw tonight, okay? I can’t have my crush seeing me as a fat cat!” 

“W-What?” You try stepping away from Minho’s circling movements but before you could even get a foot out, you already start feeling lightheaded until your vision’s fully clouded in nothing but white. 

“See you tomorrow, Y/N!” Minho’s voice echoes in your ears before you. 

- 

Jisung is waiting for you by the fences separating your houses the next day, a seemingly rehearsed smile on his face. From what you can hazily remember of last night (which is oddly few, you’ve noticed), you last saw him banging his head against the pillars of his host family’s front porch at dinner time because the Internet connection at his place won’t let him pass his homework. 

“Good morning, Ji?” You greet him as you water the plants in your front garden, unintentionally coming off as questioning. “You look...happy. Did you get to pass that homework of yours?” 

The boy nods happily as he organizes the recyclables he’s supposed to take out. “Yep, passed it on time.” 

You nod, opening your mouth to speak only to be interrupted by an orange and white cat emerging from your garden’s potted sunflowers. “Oh, hi!” You greet the cat, instinctively crouching down to scratch its ears to which he purrs positively to. You don’t catch it but Jisung heaves a sigh of relief when you don’t seem to recognize Minho or have any recollection of last night. “And who are you supposed to be, hm? You’re so adorable!” 

From the corner of your eyes, Jisung frowns at Minho before shaking his head and answering you, “O-Oh, that’s—Lee Know, the new house cat! My host family brought him in just—just last night.” 

“Just last night?” You ask, briefly looking up at Jisung and catching his frown turning into a sheepish smile. You try catching his reaction to your question but the cat brings a paw up to your hand and regains your attention again. “Didn’t they come home at like 4 PM yesterday, though? I even greeted Mr. and Mrs. Lee and I don’t remember seeing them with this cat.”     

Shit, Jisung curses himself, glaring at Minho again who only sticks his tongue out discreetly at him, I was doing so well! “W-Well, Mr. Lee went out at around 9 PM, I think, when you were already inside, then he came back with the cat. It’s a stray, basically.” 

You nod at this, smiling at the cat again. “Aren’t you too cute to be a stray cat, though?” You coo, making Minho smile and nuzzle his whiskers more into your hands. “And you remind me a lot of Ji’s roommate, Minho, too. Have you met him? He’s a bit of a weirdo but he’s...cute too, I guess.” 

Minho so badly wants to open his mouth and protest halfway when you called him a weirdo but he puts up the facade anyway and goes around you once again. He’ll have to bring it up to you next time, when he’s human. 

“Look, Ji, he likes me!” You point out excitedly to which Jisung only musters up a small smile. You then pet the cat’s head once more before standing up to continue watering your plants. “Speaking of, Minho’s okay with this? And Soonie, Doongie, Dori?” 

“Yep.” Jisung reluctantly nods, kicking Minho gently with his foot when he comes back to his side of the fence. “Very much so.” 

on a night much like tonight (drabble game) 

@skzwriternet 

[minijenn]

Universe Falls turns 5 years old this week

I was 19 when I started it and still in college, in the throes of depression bc I hated college and wanted out even during the start of my sophomore year. I was homesick and had only a handful of friends bc I was shy as fuck back then and terrified of rejection (and had gone from a small pond back in high school where I was fairly popular to being an absolute nobody in college). I really, really fucking hated it during my freshman year and in particular and begged my dad to let me come home and go to college there instead of thousands of miles away. But for better or worse he made me stick it out even though I was absolutely miserable. But if there was anything that got me through that horrible freshman year it was my discovery of two shows: 

Steven Universe and Gravity Falls

I binged SU first, having seen it when it first aired back in 2013 but then got back on the bandwagon for it around the time its first season ended, which was when I became a devout fan. GF was something I discovered through tumblr, I watched it not long after Not What He Seems premiered and fell in love hard and fast. I would spend hours watching and rewatching these episodes, reading fics and fan theories, speculating on what was going to happen next. Never before in my life had I ever discovered two shows that brought be so much joy and comfort until these two came into my life. I loved these characters, felt like they were the friends I knew I was lacking even though they were fictional. But they felt real, they felt alive to me. 

So fast forward to August/September 2015. I had just started my sophomore year and so far wasn’t having any better of a time than I had when I was a freshman. I still clung onto GF and SU as new, very exciting episodes were airing for both (that was the month we got the Last Mabelcorn and Catch and Release, for reference’s sake). And then, one night, while I was falling asleep in my cramp dorm room I shared with a roommate I couldn’t stand, the thought occurred to me: 

What if you brought these two things you loved so much... together?

It was a random thought, almost insignificant, but in the days that followed, I just couldn’t shake it. And the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to see these characters interact, the more I wanted to see their plots intertwine, the more I knew I was the one who had to write this since GF and SU crossovers were pretty scarce back then (unlike they are now in the new wave of SUF and GF crossovers that I don’t much care for). 

I was in the midst of a writing funk at the time, my ongoing Zelda fics all on hitaus while I began a new year at college. I had more or less lost passion for most of them, with the majority of them except my HW fic receiving low numbers of reviews and feedback (back then I didn’t really know how to promote my fics like I do now). Even so, I started planning on this new project, but not without a bit of hesitation since I’d never really worked with GF or SU characters before. But I began plotting out a chapter list (the original UF chapter list has been lost to the ages, I wrote it in an old homework planner during class), and I had decided that I wanted to try my hand at making this thing a comic. A hand drawn comic. And given that my drawing abilities were... subpar at best, yeaaaaah it wasn’t the best idea....

Still, I got through two parts of UF’s “first chapter” and posted them on here (they’re still up somewhere if you wanna go back and cringe hardcore at my bad old art). Still, it had taken me a loooooong ass time to draw them and even more crazy was the fact that my laptop had crashed during that span of time, leaving me with only my shitty iPad to work with. Frustrated, I decided to forego the stupid comic altogether and write the damn thing as a fanfic, knowing I could get chapters out way faster than I ever would have by drawing it. 

So I wrote the prologue and posted it on September 29, 2015. And let’s just say right off the bat people were excited. I’d never seen so many reviews on the first chapter of one of my fics before and those numbers only started to go up the more I posted. I was jazzed up to work on this fic, pushed on by this encouragement as I decided to build my relatively reblogging-heavy blog up around it. Toward the end of the year, when I was nearing the end of arc 1, I decided to get myself a drawing tablet and download Sai so I could begin drawing my own art for the fic, leading to me first passes of character designs and UF’s old fugly cover lol

Still, I kept going with it into 2016, getting through both arcs 2 and 3 as the fic only began to grow more and more with more engagement from its fans. AUs were made, fanfics and fanarts of my fic were created, it was a glorious time to be alive, even going into 2017, 2018, 2019, and now. And all the while I kept at it, coming up with sequel plans, taking breaks every now and then to refresh and recoup, and to give the new pet project I started in 2019 (Keys to the Kingdom) some time to shine. But I’ve still never truly lost passion for UF. It’s something I tend to see through to completion, no matter how long it takes.

Fast forward again and now its 2020. I’m 24 years old and still going strong with it, having just completed RMD, an arc ender that I always hoped would be my magnum opus for this fic (and I’m so incredibly proud of how it turned out). Both GF and SU have ended, their stories both told and their endings inspiring me in so many different ways. And while those stories are over, I still strive to keep these characters, or perhaps, my own unique takes on them, living on to tell new stories, to have new adventures right alongside the canon ones. To keep their flames going in the same spirit and hopefully try to follow, even in some small way, in the footsteps of Rebecca Sugar and Alex Hirsch, two of my absolute heroes in the animation world. 

So UF turns 5 this week. It’s half a decade old and it’s nearing its 100th chapter. Its passed the 1 million word mark quite some time ago and I’m sure it’ll pass 2 million before its all said and done. It’s accumulated thousands of reviews, hundreds of followers/favorites, plenty of incredible fan interactions across the board. It’s 9th arc is about to begin, leading the way into 2 more before its all said and done. And from there it’ll only grow when I eventually write UF2 and UFF sometime way down the line. All things I could have never imagined doing as a lonely college sophomore back in 2015 when I was just starting this fun little experiment off. But as for where we are with it no, well, I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

So here we are in the future. And, well, for UF at least, I’d say it’s pretty bright. 

[kawachii]

[someobscurereference]

I just started to start studying for my GMAT for business school and I have SO MANY creative hobbies (not necessarily writing, but more so on the art/drawing/crafting side). In undergrad I did the dumb (but fruitful!) thing to give up all my hobbies (gaming too!) for good grades. I don't want that. Now that I've graduated, I have full time work and now this new self studying. I don't want to throw away more hobbies again. How do you balance work/life/hobby/school?

This is a difficult question, but I’ll try my best to help! (Though it should be noted that I’ve also been doing wayyy less writing than I would like to be doing lately because of the new additions of an internship, independent study project, and a part time job on top of my regular school schedule and thus just don’t have the time or energy to write most of the time lately. I should also be studying for the GRE and I haven’t started yet. So nobody is perfect, and I also should be taken with a grain of salt.)

However! You really don’t need to throw out 100% of your hobbies and things you enjoy to do well in school. I played video games, crocheted, and wrote fic during my previous semesters of university while still maintaining pretty good grades overall. It’s more about balance than throwing hobbies away outright. Actually, I really would recommend you don’t do that. Keep things that make you happy. Your overall mood and head space will be a lot better if you do. There were definitely days I could have gotten farther ahead in my work if I had studied but chose to make a doll or write a fic instead. But there were also times where I didn’t do either of those things for a week or more at a time because it was Crunch Time and I just couldn’t afford that. But I always came back to those things, and my grades were just fine in the end.

A full-time job is eating up most of your time already, I assume. And then you maybe come home and study for the GMAT after work every night.  Plus cooking, cleaning, errands, friend/family invites, etc. Which probably doesn’t leave you with a ton of hobby/personal time at the end of the day, usually. Or so I’m presuming after watching my friend study for the MCAT for the past few months. But at the end of the day, balance is really important. It doesn’t have to be 100% studying or 100% hobbies. You’re going to have to actively carve times for both out for yourself, but it’s worth it.

Work is maybe unavoidable since those hours are probably pretty set. Plus you need to pay bills. But unless your test is literally next month, it’s probably a good idea to carve out a little more personal time than you are already. Because “me” time is super necessary! There needs to be time in your week where you sit and unwind a little. And if you unwind through creative hobbies and this isn’t a separate time you have to book for yourself, all the better! (I’m the type of person whose unwind time and whose creative time are two different things. Everyone works differently. If this is you also, that’s alright.)

So if you’re studying 7 days out of the week already, I would suggest making making that 5 or 6 days instead. Or however your schedule is setup. If you feel you can’t drop a day entirely, maybe halving your time on a certain day may help. (For example, studying for an extra hour on Saturday so you have extra time Sunday or Monday evening for you.) Taking a handful of hours (or even a day, if that’s your break day or something) can feel detrimental to your GMAT score. But you’re theoretically studying a few months in advance already. And you’re also going to get super burnt out if you do nothing but work and study all the time. I’ve been watching my MCAT friend go through the same thing. It’s miserable. Even if there’s an hour here or there you could theoretically spend studying rather than in front of the TV or with some paint or whatever you do for fun, your study habits are going to be way less effective and you’re going to retain way less if you feel like garbage because you never do anything you enjoy either.

Even if you’re not the schedule type, I would recommend making a schedule. Break your life down by day. What time is for work? What time is for studying? What errands do you need done this week? (That last one can be a sticky note next the schedule or something. You don’t have to say “laundry = 1 hour” or anything. This is just a reminder.)

Block these times off. Now you have your study time. Example: “Monday, 7AM to 5PM. Work.  7PM to 10PM. Study time.” Remember to give yourself time to catch dinner after work and whatnot in there. Set this schedule out according to your work and study needs. Look at where you could theoretically have Hobby Time. 

Maybe your schedule doesn’t have to be that specific. My personal schedule is just a series of sticky notes that looks like:

Monday

Conversation HW

Lesson Plans (add Japanese and Print)

Teach English

Tuesday

Print Presentation Handouts

Finish Presentation

Reading HW

Etc.

These aren’t necessarily all things I do on Monday or Tuesday. These are things due by Monday and Tuesday. (Except for work, which is the day of). This is my reminder that I need to have these things done before Monday morning or else I’ve missed my deadline. And I have subsequent lists underneath that for Wednesday, Thursday, etc. Your schedule maybe has more specific times. Maybe it has weekly deadlines instead of daily. Your schedule doesn’t have to look like this. It should fit you and your needs. 

Life is busy and hectic. It’s easy to get swept up in it and say you have no time for your hobbies, especially if you have more than one. The most difficult part is carving time out for yourself. But it’s also the most rewarding and beneficial. 

And if there are days or times where you could theoretically be studying or doing a hobby but you’re just too tired, it’s okay to take a break. Your energy is finite. Don’t overextend yourself either. Just don’t let yourself get caught up in the easy cycle of putting off doing a hobby for the tenth time in a row either. I have trouble getting started writing after it’s been a while, but I also know it’s way easier once I force myself to just start.

One last note: If you really have “SO MANY” hobbies (not just 1 or 2), keep in mind that you may not be able to do them all as frequently as you’d like at the moment. Maybe pick one or two to focus on every week or two. Or cycle through them on a regular basis. Whatever works best for you. (For example, I haven’t crocheted anything in forever. But that’s the most time consuming hobby I have, and I like writing way more. So when my limited hobby time is available, I tend to pick writing more often. When I return to the US, I’ll probably pick up crochet again). If you’re trying to go through 5 different hobbies in the same week, that’s going to be really difficult. Pick one hobby and do a different hobby next week.

The GMAT isn’t forever! You won’t be studying for the rest of your life, thank goodness. I mean, when you get into graduate school, you’ll still be studying, yeah. But not for the GMAT. So hopefully that’ll be easier and you’ll get just a bit more breathing room then. Until then, be strong!

Good luck on your test! I know I talked a lot, but I hope this helps!

tl;dr I’d really recommend setting a weekly schedule for yourself and sticking by it because otherwise it’s way too easy to just let time slip by. You have to actively carve time out for your hobbies.