#edit one month later: just realized i forgot to put this in my art tag lol | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mostlysignssomeportents · 4 years ago

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20 years a blogger

It's been twenty years, to the day, since I published my first blog-post.

I'm a blogger.

Blogging - publicly breaking down the things that seem significant, then synthesizing them in longer pieces - is the defining activity of my days.

https://boingboing.net/2001/01/13/hey-mark-made-me-a.html

Over the years, I've been lauded, threatened, sued (more than once). I've met many people who read my work and have made connections with many more whose work I wrote about. Combing through my old posts every morning is a journey through my intellectual development.

It's been almost exactly a year I left Boing Boing, after 19 years. It wasn't planned, and it wasn't fun, but it was definitely time. I still own a chunk of the business and wish them well. But after 19 years, it was time for a change.

A few weeks after I quit Boing Boing, I started a solo project. It's called Pluralistic: it's a blog that is published simultaneously on Twitter, Mastodon, Tumblr, a newsletter and the web. It's got no tracking or ads. Here's the very first edition:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/19/pluralist-19-feb-2020/

I don't often do "process posts" but this merits it. Here's how I built Pluralistic and here's how it works today, after nearly a year.

I get up at 5AM and make coffee. Then I sit down on the sofa and open a huge tab-group, and scroll through my RSS feeds using Newsblur.

I spend the next 1-2 hours winnowing through all the stuff that seems important. I have a chronic pain problem and I really shouldn't sit on the sofa for more than 10 minutes, so I use a timer and get up every 10 minutes and do one minute of physio.

After a couple hours, I'm left with 3-4 tabs that I want to write articles about that day. When I started writing Pluralistic, I had a text file on my desktop with some blank HTML I'd tinkered with to generate a layout; now I have an XML file (more on that later).

First I go through these tabs and think up metadata tags I want to use for each; I type these into the template using my text-editor (gedit), like this:

<xtags>

process, blogging, pluralistic, recursion, navel-gazing

</xtags>

Each post has its own little template. It needs an anchor tag (for this post, that's "hfbd"), a title ("20 years a blogger") and a slug ("Reflections on a lifetime of reflecting"). I fill these in for each post.

Then I come up with a graphic for each post: I've got a giant folder of public domain clip-art, and I'm good at using all the search tools for open-licensed art: the Library of Congress, Wikimedia, Creative Commons, Flickr Commons, and, ofc, Google Image Search.

I am neither an artist nor a shooper, but I've been editing clip art since I created pixel-art versions of the Frankie Goes to Hollywood glyphs using Bannermaker for the Apple //c in 1985 and printed them out on enough fan-fold paper to form a border around my bedroom.

As I create the graphics, I pre-compose Creative Commons attribution strings to go in the post; there's two versions, one for the blog/newsletter and one for Mastodon/Twitter/Tumblr. I compose these manually.

Here's a recent one:

Blog/Newsletter:

(<i>Image: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:QAnon_in_red_shirt_(48555421111).jpg">Marc Nozell</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en">CC BY</a>, modified</i>)

Twitter/Masto/Tumblr:

Image: Marc Nozell (modified)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:QAnon_in_red_shirt_(48555421111).jpg

CC BY

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

This is purely manual work, but I've been composing these CC attribution strings since CC launched in 2003, and they're just muscle-memory now. Reflex.

These attribution strings, as well as anything else I'll need to go from Twitter to the web (for example, the names of people whose Twitter handles I use in posts, or images I drop in, go into the text file). Here's how the post looks at this point in the composition.

<hr>

<h1>20 years a blogger</h1><xtagline>Reflections on a lifetime of reflecting.</xtagline>

See that <img> tag in there for frnklogo.jpg? I snuck that in while I was composing this in Twitter. When I locate an image on the web I want to use in a post, I save it to a dir on my desktop that syncs every 60 seconds to the /images/ dir on my webserver.

As I save it, I copy the filename to my clipboard, flip over to gedit, and type in the <img> tag, pasting the filename. I've typed <img src="https://craphound.com/images/ CTRL-V"> tens of thousands of times - muscle memory.

Once the thread is complete, I copy each tweet back into gedit, tabbing back and forth, replacing Twitter handles and hashtags with non-Twitter versions, changing the ALL CAPS EMPHASIS to the extra-character-consuming *asterisk-bracketed emphasis*.

My composition is greatly aided both 20 years' worth of mnemonic slurry of semi-remembered posts and the ability to search memex.craphound.com (the site where I've mirrored all my Boing Boing posts) easily.

A huge, searchable database of decades of thoughts really simplifies the process of synthesis.

Next I port the posts to other media. I copy the headline and paste it into a new Tumblr compose tab, then import the image and tag the post "pluralistic."

Then I paste the text of the post into Tumblr and manually select, cut, and re-paste every URL in the post (because Tumblr's automatic URL-to-clickable-link tool's been broken for 10+ months).

Next I past the whole post into a Mastodon compose field. Working by trial and error, I cut it down to <500 characters, breaking at a para-break and putting the rest on my clipboard. I post, reply, and add the next item in the thread until it's all done.

*Then* I hit publish on my Twitter thread. Composing in Twitter is the most unforgiving medium I've ever worked in. You have to keep each stanza below 280 chars. You can't save a thread as a draft, so as you edit it, you have to pray your browser doesn't crash.

And once you hit publish, you can't edit it. Forever. So you want to publish Twitter threads LAST, because the process of mirroring them to Tumblr and Mastodon reveals typos and mistakes (but there's no way to save the thread while you work!).

Now I create a draft Wordpress post on pluralistic.net, and create a custom slug for the page (today's is "two-decades"). Saving the draft generates the URL for the page, which I add to the XML file.

Once all the day's posts are done, I make sure to credit all my sources in another part of that master XML file, and then I flip to the command line and run a bunch of python scripts that do MAGIC: formatting the master file as a newsletter, a blog post, and a master thread.

Those python scripts saved my ASS. For the first two months of Pluralistic, i did all the reformatting by hand. It was a lot of search-replace (I used a checklist) and I ALWAYS screwed it up and had to debug, sometimes taking hours.

Then, out of the blue, a reader - Loren Kohnfelder - wrote to me to point out bugs in the site's RSS. He offered to help with text automation and we embarked on a month of intensive back-and-forth as he wrote a custom suite for me.

Those programs take my XML file and spit out all the files I need to publish my site, newsletter and master thread (which I pin to my profile). They've saved me more time than I can say. I probably couldn't kept this up without Loren's generous help (thank you, Loren!).

I open up the output from the scripts in gedit. I paste the blog post into the Wordpress draft and copy-paste the metadata tags into WP's "tags" field. I preview the post, tweak as necessary, and publish.

(And now I write this, I realize I forgot to mention that while I'm doing the graphics, I also create a square header image that makes a grid-collage out of the day's post images, using the Gimp's "alignment" tool)

(because I'm composing this in Twitter, it would be a LOT of work to insert that information further up in the post, where it would make sense to have it - see what I mean about an unforgiving medium?)

(While I'm on the subject: putting the "add tweet to thread" and "publish the whole thread" buttons next to each other is a cruel joke that has caused me to repeatedly publish before I was done, and deleting a thread after you publish it is a nightmare)

Now I paste the newsletter file into a new mail message, address it to my Mailman server, and create a custom subject for the day, send it, open the Mailman admin interface in a browser, and approve the message.

Now it's time to create that anthology post you can see pinned to my Mastodon and Twitter accounts. Loren's script uses a template to produce all the tweets for the day, but it's not easy to get that pre-written thread into Twitter and Mastodon.

Part of the problem is that each day's Twitter master thread has a tweet with a link to the day's Mastodon master thread ("Are you trying to wean yourself off Big Tech? Follow these threads on the #fediverse at @[email protected]. Here's today's edition: LINK").

So the first order of business is to create the Mastodon thread, pin it, copy the link to it, and paste it into the template for the Twitter thread, then create and pin the Twitter thread.

Now it's time to get ready for tomorrow. I open up the master XML template file and overwrite my daily working file with its contents. I edit the file's header with tomorrow's date, trim away any "Upcoming appearances" that have gone by, etc.

Then I compose tomorrow's retrospective links. I open tabs for this day a year ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, and (now) 20 years ago:

http://memex.craphound.com/2020/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2016/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2011/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2006/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2001/01/14

I go through each day, and open anything I want to republish in its own tab, then open the OP link in the next tab (finding it in the @internetarchive if necessary). Then I copy my original headline and the link to the article into tomorrow's XML file, like so:

#10yrsago Disney World’s awful Tiki Room catches fire <a href="https://thedisneyblog.com/2011/01/12/fire-reported-at-magic-kingdom-tiki-room/">https://thedisneyblog.com/2011/01/12/fire-reported-at-magic-kingdom-tiki-room/</a>

And NOW my day is done.

So, why do I do all this?

First and foremost, I do it for ME. The memex I've created by thinking about and then describing every interesting thing I've encountered is hugely important for how I understand the world. It's the raw material of every novel, article, story and speech I write.

And I do it for the causes I believe in. There's stuff in this world I want to change for the better. Explaining what I think is wrong, and how it can be improved, is the best way I know for nudging it in a direction I want to see it move.

The more people I reach, the more it moves.

When I left Boing Boing, I lost access to a freestanding way of communicating. Though I had popular Twitter and Tumblr accounts, they are at the mercy of giant companies with itchy banhammers and arbitrary moderation policies.

I'd long been a fan of the POSSE - Post Own Site, Share Everywhere - ethic, the idea that your work lives on platforms you control, but that it travels to meet your readers wherever they are.

Pluralistic posts start out as Twitter threads because that's the most constrained medium I work in, but their permalinks (each with multiple hidden messages in their slugs) are anchored to a server I control.

When my threads get popular, I make a point of appending the pluralistic.net permalink to them.

When I started blogging, 20 years ago, blogger.com had few amenities. None of the familiar utilities of today's media came with the package.

Back then, I'd manually create my headlines with <h2> tags. I'd manually create discussion links for each post on Quicktopic. I'd manually paste each post into a Yahoo Groups email. All the guff I do today to publish Pluralistic is, in some way, nothing new.

20 years in, blogging is still a curious mix of both technical, literary and graphic bodgery, with each day's work demanding the kind of technical minutuae we were told would disappear with WYSIWYG desktop publishing.

I grew up in the back-rooms of print shops where my dad and his friends published radical newspapers, laying out editions with a razor-blade and rubber cement on a light table. Today, I spend hours slicing up ASCII with a cursor.

I go through my old posts every day. I know that much - most? - of them are not for the ages. But some of them are good. Some, I think, are great. They define who I am. They're my outboard brain.

#pluralistic

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fireheartfaery · 4 years ago

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Day 10: “Can you quit being sappy for five seconds?”

masterlist; my links

sorry if the editing is trash i’m almost black out drunk (blame @nishlicious-01 and co)

Elain's heart is so full from the smiling kindergarteners and the paint splotches covering her jeans —it was art day at the school— that it takes her a second to realize just how cold and desolate her apartment feels. She shivers as she tosses her keys on the counter and switches the kitchen light on.Despite the warm yellow glow the rest of the house is still dark and foreboding. The floor to ceiling windows high above the city seem to make the shadows of buildings crawl across her space.

Inheriting this place from her late father was both a gift and a curse. She wasn't used to this life of grand and tall, having grown up in a quiet cottage on the outskirts of the Vanserra Forest with her sisters and their mother. But her father, in his passing, had asked her to have this place, and when she had gotten a job in the city it seemed to all fall into place. A little too nicely she sometimes thought but it immediately came with a flood of regret for being so ungrateful. So she sucks it up and lives in this big loud place with its large concrete slabs and the glass that refracts the light instead of letting it melt.

She should visit home.

Instead she moves through the apartment, switching on lights and talking softly to the plants scattered like jewels around her home.

Hello little Thea, glad to see the burns are clearing up.

And buttercup, oh you are sprouting the prettiest flowers

Ah and Nicolas you look a little down? She frowns at that, making a note to give him some water after she showers. I know how you feel buddy, she strokes a leaf.

Then she's at her room and she's pulling off the button down and unclipping the bra and sighing at the freedom as each item comes off. Her shower is steaming, enveloping her like the morning fog when she used to skip to school. By the time she steps out, the floor is slick with the dampness of the steam, and her stomach is rumbling loudly. Guess it's takeout tonight; she can't be bothered to cook for one today. Friday evenings were for snuggling up in her giant knitted blanket, switching the TV to some horror/mystery and gauging on popcorn and chocolate.

Her plans certainly start out the right way. The popcorn is popped, the milk duds box pulled apart so she didn't have to shove her hand all the way inside and the blanket pulled up to her shoulders. But just as she puts her choice of movie on there's a ringing at her door.

Her eyes immediately dart to the clock in the kitchen, the crease between her brows deepening as she sees the hand strike nine. The doorbell rings again and she reasonably argues with herself that a murderer would not be so polite as to buzz. Nonetheless she makes sure the baseball bat is sitting in the unnecessarily tall vase near the front door.

With slow, nervous movements she unlocks the door, poking her head around. And laughs herself silly when she sees Chaol, her next door neighbor and fast friend in this strange city, standing in the other side.

He looks confused as he stares at her, doubled over, tears pooling in her eyes, laughing at her own jumping mind and absurd theories.

"You alright, love?" It's the first words he ever said to her. The day she moved in, boxes stacked past her head, wobbling down the corridor like a newborn deer.

"Hello Chaol," She sighs the last of her laughter away, "Glad you're not a murderer."

"Glad I'm meeting the bare minimum." He raises an eyebrow. "Can I come in?"

"Did you bring me chocolate?" She demands.

"Something better." He winks.

Apparently in the four months they'd known each other he had her pinned down, because she falls for it hook, line and sinker.

"What?" She squeals, "Tell me!"

“You have to let me in first."

She steps aside, practically bouncing as he walks in but just as she's closing the door she spots her dinner walking up the hallway.

Moments later, pizza boxes in hand, she settles back on the couch, her leg pressing against the warmth of Chaol's

She offers him a box and digs into the three cheeses, an expectant look on her face.

Chaol isn't even looking at her, transfixed on the pizza in front of him, eyes shaped like hearts as he stares at the cheesy, pepperoni goodness.

"Can you stop looking at the pizza like that and tell me the exciting thing!" She scolds, jabbing him in the side.

"I am having a moment." He pouts, and it reminds her of her toddlers at the kindergarten.

With an eye roll she shoves another slice into her mouth and pinches his side.

He glares, already reaching to retaliate. Her brown eyes narrow in what she hopes is a menacing glare. Instead she finds he's fighting a smirk.

"Tell me before I put on a horror movie and make you watch it!" The threat works because his own eyes, a bronze to her hazel, widen in fear.

"Okay, okay," He turns to face her, "I got two tickets to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show on Broadway."

Her scream is enough to deafen the country, and if this fancy apartment wasn't soundproof it might have. Unfortunately for Chaol he was in the blast zone. The scream reverberates through his skull. And then Elain is throwing herself at him, pizza boxes crashing to the floor, and her arms wrapped around his neck.

There are definitely tears in her eyes but later when they recount the story she'll deny every drop.

For now she squeezes his neck, muttering unintelligible excitement against his skin. Her heart is beating to the speed of a race car and her lungs feel like they've taken flight without her.

The one good thing about living in this massive city is that she can watch the productions she's only ever seen on a scratchy VHS when the signal in the cottage was good enough. It's been her one true burning need since arriving, and something she quickly spilled to Chaol. In fact it was the very first night she came, after they had carried all the boxes in and he'd sat on the floor with her eating chow-mein and showing her how to use chopsticks.

His arms are warm around her back, fingers brushing her waist as he hugs her to him, just as fiercely. She pulls back a little, only enough so she can see his face. Their lips are a breath away from brushing against each other. She doesn't think about it.

"Thank you," There's definitely tears in her eyes.

"It is your favourite one yes?"

She just nods, too choked up to respond verbally.

"Want to know when it is?" He grins, and she thinks it rivals the morning sun. "Next week Friday."

Her gasp is soft, sharp with surprise. "You didn't—"

"Oh I absolutely did," His grin widens, and it glows like stars. His hand, large and slightly calloused, comes up to brush strands of hair out her face. He looks at her so gently. They are still so close

"On my birthday?"

"The very day," He taps her nose. "And guess what?"

"Oh gods," She groans, burying her face into his neck. He smells like the forest, and the faintest hints of soap. "I can't take anymore things. I'm going to be a pile of mush soon."

He pokes her side, smiling delightedly, "You get to meet the cast."

She bursts into tears. "I hate you." He kisses the top of her head. "You're the worst person in the world." He strokes her hand across her back. "How dare you make me cry!" He laughs softly; she feels the sound in her stomach.

"Can you quit being sappy for five seconds?" She glares, tear-stained cheeks nullifying her doe eyes, "So I can be mad at you for making me blubber."

"I figured you deserved something special, this being your first birthday away from home in a big city you don't know."

She kisses his cheek, ignoring the blush that covers their cheeks. "Thank you."

"Anything for you little flower." He swipes a thumb across her cheek, cradling her jaw in his hand.

"Anything," She grins.

He groans, knowing what's coming. "Almost anything. I'm not watching horror with you."

She pouts her lower lip, making her brown eyes huge with plead. "I'll give you all the milk duds for it."

He smirks, turning his head to see the box which had been scattered in her little meltdown. "How about something sweeter?"

"Than milk duds?" She frowned, "I'm not sure you should even be eating candy that's sweeter than milk duds. I feel like that's the fast track to—"

His laughter cuts her off, and she frowns at him, feeling his ribs shudder with amusement underneath her.

"What's so funny?" She demands.

"Not candy Elain," He swipes more strands from her face. He always wants to see her. The freckles across her cheeks from far too much time in the sun. And the slight dip in the bridge of her nose where she fell onto a step when she was little and managed to chip off her skin. And the slight rose tint, brushing right down her neck that makes her look like she was permanently blushing. He especially liked to see her eyes, as he had drunkenly confessed one evening, because they reminded him of the warmth he felt on his back when he was at the beach or going on a run or simply standing in the street. A comforting weight, that wrapped its honeyed heat around you.

"A kiss," He stares at her lips, back into her very soul, down to the beating pulse at her neck. "Can I have a kiss?"

"Yes," She doesn't even have to think about it. She doesn't want to. "Kiss me Chaol Westfall."

And unbeknownst to them, when their lips meet, the garden growing inside her New York flat comes to life. They are the sun. They are light itself. They are—

"Dammit Chaol!" She gasps, breaking them apart, "I forgot to water Nicolas."

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Tags:

@nishlicious-01

@simping4bookboisngrls

#Elain x Chaol #Chaol x elain #Valentines day crackship challenge #Crackships keep fandom alive #Day 10 #Ahhh we're almost done?????????#FDS fanfic #FDS series

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sincerelymarinette · 5 years ago

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A Recorded Life (10/50) - Miraculous Ladybug

Words: 1260 Chapter Summary: After Marinette's latest video, her fans went crazy. She reads a few comments, and gets a special visitor; only to be interrupted by Alya. Author's Note: I forgot to upload last week but ya girl is so busy. I haven't written to much lately for this story, only have a few more parts stored up- so I best get to writing!

Prev / Next / Masterlist

A Graceful Thank-You

---

I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS VIDEO AND ALL OF THEM ARE GOOD. I ALMOST NEED TO MAKE A REACTION VIDEO ABOUT THIS VIDEO.

I love seeing the development of Marinette over the years. Starting as a shy designer who wouldn't even put her voice on camera, to now leaving in a joke about getting Adrien naked. Wow. That easily could have been edited out, but she chose TO LEAVE IT IN. And I am here for it! I'm all for more casual friendships and seeing Marinette's style, and friends continue to grow!

It's a good thing Alya wasn't there. She probably would have flipped her mind.

We don't appreciate Nino and his music enough. I listened to the song from the video all day. It had so many amazing things and then going back to watch the video with it again made me realize how perfect it works with the video. Nino better make an album. I will buy it on the spot.

Am I the only one who doesn't ship Marinette and Adrien? > yes >> I lowkey ship Alya and Marinette. But still, Adrien and Marinette are THE otp.

Guys!! You have to look at the Marinette Dupain-Cheng tag on Tumblr. Or the Adrienette tag! There's some really cool stuff on there, and I'd think you would get a really cool video.

TAKE THIS VIDEO TO. MY. GRAVE. PLAY THIS WHEN I AM BURIED.

Marinette loved reading her comments. She had gotten particularly good at skipping over the hate, and only focused on the love. Recently, her fan base has been obsessed with getting her and Adrien together, but she knew it was too much to hope for.

She loves seeing all the fan art appear on her social media though, and makes sure to look at and leave a like on everyone she can see. Marinette wasn't sure if Adrien had seen the video, and if it was a bad idea if she left in his joke. With a sigh, she made sure her second channel video was continuing to upload. It was a vlog she made with Alya after school one day, both of them going to the art store for more supplies for her next project.

When she assured it was halfway done uploading, she looked to the sleeping Tikki. She's been worried about the lack of akumas lately, and on-call nonstop. Finally, Tikki fell asleep, and Marinette was not going to bother her. She climbed out to her balcony to take a break and get some air. It was late, and the quiet outside pleased her. It was an excellent way to take a break.

She scrolled through her phone as she stood in the light breeze, enjoying the quiet. She looked through Alya, Nino, and Adrien's social media to catch up on all their recent updates. Also looking at celebrities and other YouTube stars, she threw her phone on the chair and took a deep breath in the fresh air.

"Marinette?" A voice asked from behind her.

She jumped and put her hand over her mouth so she wouldn't scream. "Chat Noir?" Marinette whispered when she realized who was on her balcony. "What are you doing here?"

Chat Noir shrugged and walked up to the end of the balcony, standing next to her. "I don't know. I was running around tonight, trying to clear my head, and I saw you. So I stopped," He confesses. "I saw the video you made about the outfit inspired by me," He smiled. "It was really awesome."

A small smile appeared on Marinette's face. "I'm glad you liked it."

"Your fans seem to like the best ones to have. I was reading some of the comments, they love you," He complimented.

Marinette shrugged slightly. "I just know how to block the hate. But yeah, I've got some really great fans. It really picked up once Adrien started appearing in videos, people love him," She giggled.

Chat Noir shook his head. "I've watched your videos for a long time. The people love you; you're just getting more comments about Adrien because everyone ships you guys. But the real reason they keep watching your videos is because they like you, you know?" He said. "Adrien's just another pretty face people like to look at."

Marinette laughed a little more this time. "Yeah, I guess that's a good point. Fandoms are full of shippers, but I don't think we'd get together anytime soon. We're both so busy," She said. "Plus, that'd be way too easy for the fans," Marinette jokes.

Chat Noir giggled as well. "Yes, you'd definitely make it too easy on the fans. If you guys started dating, you'd need to keep it a secret for a few months but hint at it every so often just to keep them wondering...it's so evil."

Marinette raised her eyebrow at him. "Good idea, I'll bring it up to Adrien if we ever start dating...somehow," She smirked and shook her head. "Thanks for the input, Chat Noir."

He smiled widely. "I'm here to help!" He saluted to Marinette.

Marinette's phone beeped three times in only a few seconds. She looked down to see Alya spamming about the video she just posted, saying something was wrong. "I have to go deal with this," She sighed. "Thanks for the little talk," Marinette told Chat Noir and walked over to her trap door.

Chat Noir nodded. "My pleasure. I'll see you later," He said and jumped to another rooftop.

Once Marinette got back inside, she sat in front of her computer to see the success message for uploading the video. "What's wrong with the video?" She asked when Alya picked up her phone call.

"Wrong thumbnail!" She said. "That's for your next fashion video!"

Marinette groaned and opened her thumbnail files on her computer. "Easy fix, don't worry," She told Alya. "I'm so exhausted from everything lately."

"You need to take a break, girl," Alya told her, to which Marinette only laughed. "I'm serious. You run yourself every single day between school, the bakery, and your videos. Not to mention this new project with Jagged Stone, I'm going to force you to take a break sooner than later," Alya told her. "I will personally sneak into your room and take your phone, camera, and computer if I have to. Don't make me do it."

As Marinette fixed the thumbnail for her newest vlog, a small smile grew on her face. "Thanks, Alya. But I'm fine. I promise. I get enough sleep most nights, and I'm good at balancing my time. I've just been extra stressed lately- maybe it's because all of the chaos around the many videos with Adrien popping up. My fans love him."

Alya snickered. "Yeah, they do. Which makes it even better for you!"

"Shush it," She told her. "I'm keeping things as friends. He's not interested, and I'm just glad we're getting closer. Honestly," Marinette promised. "I'm older now, and I don't need to have crazy moments around my friend. Besides, I need to go to bed if you don't want me to crash at school tomorrow."

"Whatever you say!" Alya giggled quietly. "That was a long description of how you're not dating someone, or I guess, how you don't want to date someone. Mhm," Alya hummed, making Marinette huff at her. "Fine, go to bed. Goodnight."

"Goodnight. See you tomorrow!" Marinette said, and hung up the phone. With one last check on her video, she turned off her computer and climbed back up to her bed.

---

@lady-of-the-roses-and-lilies @bookishserendipity03@avatheexceed @gkz10 @coccinellegirl @kat-thatoneweirdo@strawberryblondish @snow-swordswoman @lilgaga98

#Miraculous #mlb #ml #miraculous ladybug #ladybug #chat noir #marinette dupain-cheng #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #miraculous fanfic #fanfiction #lilly writes #adrien x marinette #adrien agreste x marinette dupain cheng #adrienette #marichat #ladynoir

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increasethehue · 4 years ago

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Fake art???

I wont mention their username because even though I have basically no engagement I don't want them harassed etc.

A month or so ago I got this picture in my recommended that looked like a still from a videogame that had been put into one of those photo editing apps that make the photo look like a painting (like Prisma). A bit wierd but then I realized that they were trying to pass it off as an actual painting. It left a bad taste in my mouth but I moved on until another image got recommend to me later so I had a look at the blog and all images tagged in some way as their artwork was the same deal an image put through an app. In the replies there was someone asking if it was an actual painting and there was a reply from their main account saying it was.

Forgot about it until today when I got recommended another image put through an app but this time of a dog. I checked out this account and I thought it was different from the first account because all of "their" art was of irl things. But in the replies the same main account had replied to someone asking if they had actually just put an image through a snapchat filter, saying they didn't and that they have had people being aggressive in the past accusing them of faking the art. At this point a doubted myself but I searched keywords in google images relating to their last "artwork" and I found the photograph that they used and now I'm sure they're just edited photographs.

The first blog I found I can't find anymore so either they deleted that one and made another or they scrubbed that blog changer user and made completely new posts.

I feel like I shouldn't be annoyed as I am because they aren't hurting anyone really just being dishonest and lazy. I just needed to say this into the void of tumblr because it's so bizarre that they're so confidently trying to pass the art off as legit.

P.s. I have a screen shot of one of the original posts if anyone wants to see for themselves

#art #art theft #maybe?#fake art #rant #Prisma app

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carygarman980 · 6 years ago

Text

Business in the Front, Party in the Back: Garage Edition.

I’ve owned my house for over five years now, and I have never—not once—parked a car in my garage. Honestly I often forget that it’s even a potential option, even though it’s right behind the house and I see it everyday. Both online and in real life, people persistently tend to refer to my garage as a “shed” or a “shack,” which for a while confused me. It has a garage door that faces the street and everything! But then I realized…that I use it as a shed-shack…and think of it as a shed-shack…and more than likely talk about it like a shed-shack while I continue to not utilize the ENTIRE SEPARATE BUILDING that I have ON MY VERY PROPERTY built SPECIFICALLY for the ultra-fancy purpose of sheltering THE THIRD MOST EXPENSIVE THING I OWN, behind my house and my debt, and MAYHAPS I should really start thinking of it as a garage?

Which really conflicts with my evident aspiration to also have a personal lumberyard, so it’s a tough call. I don’t know. We don’t need to dwell on it. We’re just talking about what the shed-shack is like right at this moment in time. To do that, let’s look at where we’ve been. Behold:

This is when I bought the house. The great thing about having such dire before photos is that I can never really feel that bad about how things stand today because, well…look! Evidently, there had been some kind of half-baked effort to extend the garage to accommodate a boat, which—speaking as a person who can barely maneuver my small utility trailer into my own driveway (or any kind of space, really)—sounds patently absurd. Clearly the project was abandoned before it had really gotten off the ground, though, leaving this…weed and trash pit?

Additionally, take note of the little door in that first image, because it becomes relevant shortly. OMG HANG ON, we’ll get there.

SO. When ALL THAT ASPHALT got removed from the backyard (prompting the insane summer of dirt-hauling and praying for the sweet relief of death), so did that cinderblock foundation, which left this charming view! There’s something about an old sloppy siding patch that I’m actually kind of fond of, even though I have NO patience for new sloppy patch jobs. I finally made the connection that the missing window on the back of the garage never actually left the premises, but rather got recycled as the old laundry room window! Which has now also been replaced, but anyway. What an odd choice.

Inside the garage, things had gotten a JUST A LITTLE crowded. Demo over at Bluestone Cottage had left me with piles and piles of wood trim to store until it gets cleaned up and re-installed. My first fencing project had left behind an extra panel. Upstairs kitchen demo supplied a kitchen’s worth of base cabinets and formica countertops, poor decisions granted me a bunch of falling-apart shutters that I intercepted at the dump, a twenty-dollar price tag on a cute art deco dresser had saddled me with…an extra dresser. And so on. You get the idea.

I’m not really sure when or exactly why somebody drywalled the whole interior of the garage, and in retrospect it might have been kind of nice…but it wasn’t in good condition, appeared moldy in some spots, and somewhat interfered with the plan to install new electric in here to run power tools, new exterior lighting, etc.

SO! I gutted all the drywall, exposing the unpainted backside of the shiplap siding and the studs. Rustic? Sure. Rustic.

A couple months before, my friends Kim and Scott over at Yellow Brick Home had put some super impressive work into their own detached garage, including adding these simple and strong wood brackets for storing excess lumber. Their garage is what garage dreams are made of. “Great!” I said. “I’ll do that, too!”

So I did that too.

Except I have a lot more wood than Kim and Scott do. And also a much smaller garage. These are two facts you might think I would have considered beforehand, but evidently I’m incapable of thinking this many steps ahead.

Simple brackets. I can build simple brackets. Here I am, building simple brackets as day turns to dusk. Brackets out of scrap wood to hold more scrap wood.

Turns out there is a real compatibility problem between me and these brackets. You also might think I would have foreseen this, but once again. Too many steps ahead. Lower those expectations PLEASE.

See, each one takes up a lot of space. The space that is a particular issue is that diagonal brace, because once your wood pile gets to the base of that diagonal brace, subsequent pieces of wood inch forward, causing your pile to be weird and uneven, and things to fall, and general mishap. The solution here is obviously to not have so much goddamned wood that the piles ever get higher than the bottom of the diagonal brace, but that’s obviously too much to ask of me at this moment in my life. Someday I will have used up a lot of this wood (I SWEAR I HAVE PLANS FOR ALMOST ALL OF IT PROBABLY I THINK) and this might not be an issue anymore. Even still, though, it’s not an especially space-efficient design.

What I SHOULD HAVE DONE (and later did do on one wall) was suck it up and buy these storage racks, because they’re a) made for this very purpose b) well-designed and very sturdy c) pretty macho. Unfortunately once I started building my simple brackets I couldn’t stop building my simple brackets.

Because I simply must tell you EVERYTHING, demo revealed another now-covered window on the other side of the garage, directly opposite the other window!

Siding is patched over on the exterior, and this window faces the fence that divides my property line from the neighbor’s. Maybe someday I’ll restore it but for now it’s kinda not hurting anybody.

SO. Back to the wall opposite the garage door. At this point there is lumber everywhere so I take a break to use a very small amount of it.

Remember when I said to take note of the skinny door on the side of the garage? It’s only 28″ wide—which is fine for just walking in and out, but try carrying a table saw through it. Or a long piece of wood. Or the lawnmower.

YES there’s a big garage door on the opposite end of the garage, but it’s outside of the fence, doesn’t have an electric opener, and stays locked for security…so using it means making sure the dog is in the house, opening the garage door from the inside, out onto the sidewalk with whatever the probably heavy thing is, back into the backyard through the gate, back into the garage to close it, back to the house to let the dog out who has now eaten something I forgot I left on the table…this was a pain.

Long ago I dazzled you with this beautiful SketchUp rendering of my backyard, which is mostly different than anything I’ve done or plan to do anymore, but adding doors to the back of the garage didn’t change! The idea is that it allows more light into the garage, and provides an easy, convenient, and LARGE access to bring big things in and out. In theory you could put a table saw or a planer in the middle of the garage, open up both sides, and feed a long board through. In practice, thusfar there has always been too much stuff for this concept to become a reality, but I HAVE DREAMS, OK?

So, I invited my friends over for a relaxing afternoon of light framing work and demolition. And by friends I mean Edwin and Edgar, the ride-or-die power duo I rope into pretty much everything I do. We built a header with hoarded lumber and supported it with hoarded jack and king studs. Evil plan in action!

Then we cut a big hole! Light streamed in! Angels sang!

Into the opening, we inserted this set of pre-hung french doors. Pre-hung doors are so simple! So drama-free! A few shims, a few screws, and viola! Doors!

Edgar, who is magic with a circular saw, ripped off the ends of the siding around the door to accommodate a new casing.

The hardest part of assembling the new cashing is, luckily, not very hard! A few passes on the table saw and I had a good replica of the drip cap that sits over the other doors and windows on the garage and parts of the house. Some lumber yards have this piece available, too.

Some more scrap wood and a hefty dose of Bondo later…looking pretty good, doors!

Speaking of Bondo: Bondo is a bit tricky and, I find, unreliable for exterior wood repairs, at least in this climate. Some people swear by it, some people won’t touch the stuff—I fall somewhere in the middle. I’ve had repairs fail after just one year on bare wood, although repairs where I’ve used at least 1-2 coats of primer on bare wood before applying Bondo have been fine—for now, at least. A much better product—although more expensive and time-consuming (it takes about a week to cure)— is Abatron WoodEpox. For what it’s worth, although not recommended, I’ve never seen a Bondo repair on interior painted woodwork fail—just outside. It can’t seem to take the expansion and contraction that occurs with exterior woodwork in the upstate NY climate.

SO. Way back when I said I was going to do this, and then a bit later did it, and then neglected to blog about it, there was comment drama about the doors. They are pine. They are made for interior, not exterior use. They are single pane and not particularly weatherproof. I chose them in large part because they were affordable at $377, and I figured worst case scenario, someday I’ll have to replace them into a now-existing standard-sized opening, which isn’t really such a big deal. I stand by it! They’ve been through 3 whole winters at this point and haven’t shifted or shown separation at joints, etc., and I think they should last many more years without issue.

SO. Current Status: TOO MUCH WOOD. In fairness there are many not-wood items like a few large tools, 2 spare cast iron sinks (as one does), various gardening and landscaping accoutrement, roofing shingles for a rainy day (get it?), window sash (pl.), extra corbels, uh…I don’t know, stuff. It’s an overcrowded disaster which I swear is not nearly as disorganized as it might appear. I have a LOT of interior finishing work coming up (THANK GOD. I AM SO TIRED OF FRAMING AND PLUMBING AND ELECTRIC AND INSULATION AND SIDING I COULD SCREAM. I AM SCREAMING.), so I’m kind of perversely excited to see how thinned out I can get this in the coming months. Also, intensely motivated to get this garage back under control because this is driving me nuts. At a certain point the strategy backfires because there’s too much to even see what you have, and fishing it out becomes a big hassle.

Additionally. You may note. That the last two are recent pictures. And I mentioned these doors were installed 3 years ago. There is a simple explanation for this. I never actually finished painting the doors. Because I just did not. The options were to finish painting the doors or do something other than finish painting the doors, and I have consistently chosen the latter option for multiple years now.

Also, they really need hardware. The lack of hardware is an issue.

TA-DA!!!

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billydmacklin · 6 years ago

Text

Business in the Front, Party in the Back: Garage Edition.

Additionally, take note of the little door in that first image, because it becomes relevant shortly. OMG HANG ON, we’ll get there.

SO! I gutted all the drywall, exposing the unpainted backside of the shiplap siding and the studs. Rustic? Sure. Rustic.

So I did that too.

Simple brackets. I can build simple brackets. Here I am, building simple brackets as day turns to dusk. Brackets out of scrap wood to hold more scrap wood.

Turns out there is a real compatibility problem between me and these brackets. You also might think I would have foreseen this, but once again. Too many steps ahead. Lower those expectations PLEASE.

Because I simply must tell you EVERYTHING, demo revealed another now-covered window on the other side of the garage, directly opposite the other window!

SO. Back to the wall opposite the garage door. At this point there is lumber everywhere so I take a break to use a very small amount of it.

Then we cut a big hole! Light streamed in! Angels sang!

Into the opening, we inserted this set of pre-hung french doors. Pre-hung doors are so simple! So drama-free! A few shims, a few screws, and viola! Doors!

Edgar, who is magic with a circular saw, ripped off the ends of the siding around the door to accommodate a new casing.

Some more scrap wood and a hefty dose of Bondo later…looking pretty good, doors!

Also, they really need hardware. The lack of hardware is an issue.

TA-DA!!!

Business in the Front, Party in the Back: Garage Edition. published first on https://carpetgurus.tumblr.com/

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