#especially with online stuff I should probably just be myself

[indiestsnake]

here’s some food for thought

so. friendships are about taking people’s oddities, even the ones you don’t like, in stride. friends do simple stuff that make you grimace and you move on cuz u love them. your opinions differ but you still hang out. the local serpent cannot be let within three feet of an attractive person without being very clear about their feelings on them and you find it slightly gross but you keep saying he’s cool anyway

all that. something I’ve been trying to reinforce to myself recently.

but. if you know your friends dislike certain actions. and you continue to do them. just because you feel like being you. does that make you a bad friend?

think of it as public indecency. what’s the limit between being yourself and being a nuisance?

ouhp that sounded bad. my therapist wouldn’t like that one. yup. bedtimeeeeeeee

[lamtfluff]

A few years ago I had a phase of being REALLY into digital privacy, using tor, duckduckgo, etc before suffering some burnout because I was trying to be 100% secure. So I'm by no means a expert I'm just relaying experience.

The culture of a lot of left leaning and "fandommy" sites (tumblr, twitter, etc) tends to fear/dislike (or just not know about) a lot of the IT stuff used by people into online privacy because they asscoiate it with "techbros". ESPECIALLY anything even remotely involving cryptocurrency. But if Trump is going to start censoring things and making morning after pills harder to get now might be a VERY good time for Americans to get into online privacy and how to avoid being tracked as well as avoiding censorship. Perhaps even some crypto to buy things discretly (or perhaps if ICE agents start caring about cash?) and because many activists groups also take donations in crypto. Never dealt with crypto myself but from what I know Monero was designed to be more untracable than Bitcoin. Don't know how succesfull that is though. Definetly get into privacy in general though.

I'll leave some useful links to get started. Words of advice:

Don't install a fuckton of privacy extensions on your browser, your unique combination of extensions will give your browser a unique fingerprint. Instead read up on and pick a few commonly used ones.

The BIGGEST annoyance for me was acedemic/proffesional settings because noone wants to switch over to some software they never heard off for one group project. Personally I use some normie software for exclusivly proffesional purposes with NO other information on me and do my actual browsing/leisure computer use more privatly.

https://www.privacytools.io/os: General software/browser/etc recomendations.

https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/: Test how private your browser is.

https://www.torproject.org/: THE gold standard for privacy focused browsers. Also obscures ip. Might not always be practical. Has the disadvantage of being notoriously slow and is blocked by some services/websites to avoid people bypassing ip bans and whatnot. Probably don't use this as your everyday browser but if you ever need to look up anything without censorship use tor.

https://tails.net/: Install a portable mini operating system on a usb stick to browse privately from any computer.

https://www.eff.org/ Electronic frontier foundations website.

https://mastodon.social/explore Don't have experience with it myself. But open source social media that should be much harder to censor.

Tumblr probably won't like me talking too directly about this because of ties to piracy but for people interested in banned books https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_library should be an interesting read...

[neverstophyo]

⨳ 　 ʾ apps/sites 4 shifting 　 . 　 ♡

hi! this will be long but i made a list of apps/sites that might be helpful for your shifting journey. reminder that you don't need these to shift but they can be helpful with manifesting, keeping track of stuff, etc.

enjoy! divider cr

NOT SPONSORED BTW LMAO

﹒ 　 ⊹ 　 🝮 　 OO1: NOTION 　 ✩

description:

basically notion is an app for documents and stuff. i have to say this one's relatively known and it's such a huge life saver and i know that probably everyone knows about it already (as they should) but i'm gonna recommend it once again.

useful for:

scripting

dashboards you can add life goals & stuff here you can look up some templates/ideas and see what i mean LOL

cons:

i personally can not think of any major ones because this app is just that good

you do have to make new accounts for the text ai generating feature but i don't know if anyone would use that

additional notes:

i personally love how customizable it is! like you can make each page have a custom icon & header, add widgets, images, and so much more. it is so so so insanely helpful for scripting i'm telling you. or you can just be basic, that works too. there's also a bunch of script templates online including specific ones (like a better cr, fame dr, fantasy dr, fandom-specific drs, bla bla bla) and it's literally the only thing shifttok is good for imo. i'm a big fan of shifterium's templates but there's other people who make them as well and i'm sure you can find some recommendations!

★ 　 ₊ 　 ➲ 　OO2: CANVA

description:

a website + app where you can design stuff from headers down to presentations, posters, covers, etc..

useful for:

album covers for singer/idol drs

book covers for writer drs or something

fake social media posts but there's better apps out there and i'll list them here as well

and much more!

cons:

a lot of things (most of which i think are the good stuff) are paid but you can find similar replicas if you scroll long enough i guess..?? and there's a free trial but i don't know if that helps

additional notes:

definitely my favorite place to go when i need to design something tbh. there's a bunch of templates you can use and the layout is very easy to navigate through! and it's pretty easy to find free alternatives for the paid stuff you do have in there

₍ⁿ⑅..ⁿ₎ 　 ˇ 　 ⩩ 　 OO3: PARROT 　 ❀ 　

description:

parrot is an app where you can record yourself saying literally anything and play it on a continuous loop

useful for:

affirmations (manifesting??)

cons:

i'm pretty sure it's iOS only

additional notes:

personally i haven't used this app (i don't like my voice so i will not be recording myself saying affirmations thank yew) so i can't give it a rating but from the looks of it and based off of recommendations i've seen it's pretty useful. should be a white icon with a pink circle that has a white parrot in it!

≥≤ 　 ﹕ 　 ⤷ 　 OO4: BEHINDTHENAME 　 ◍

description:

a site where you can generate names & even life stories if you choose it (including height, weight, blood type, birthday, nationality and more i think?? at least it gives those for me). you can choose from different cultures and stuff like fantasy & mythology.

useful for:

finding a name & info for your dr self (which is literally you by the way don't forget that!) and potentially other people you'd like to script in

cons:

it really just helps to make a basic profile of a person so the things you can do with it can be a little limited

additional notes:

i prefer using this site for ocs instead but i think it can definitely help with shifting! oddly enough it also shows like a lifespan & cause of death so.. cool i guess!!!!

✦ 　 ﹕ 　 OO5: SOCIAL MAKER/dummy

description:

social maker & social dummy are both apps where you can replicate almost basically anything from the internet from twitter posts to facebook posts, youtube posts, and more!

useful for:

social media stuff especially useful for fame drs, streamer drs, idol/singer drs and so much more

cons:

both apps were deleted so you have to have had installed them before if you want to get them back

social maker is ios only i think?

additional notes:

yeah both apps are deleted but there's alternatives out there like twinote (for twitter) photonote (for instagram) canva (has fake social media templates as i said lol) and others that you can look for (because i personally only use twinote)

⋆ 　 ᶻᶻ 　 　 OO6: HELLOFACE 　 ﹒ 　 ★

description:

basically an app for ai face swapping

useful for:

seeing what your face claim (if you have one) would look like on for example dances, fancams, interviews definitely useful for idol/singer/maybe fame drs

cons:

uses ai (i'm personally not a big fan of ai)

pretty underground so the chances that you might not like it are not low

✭ 　 　 ❒︎ 　 OO7: ROOM PLANNER 　 . 　 ♡

description:

basically what the name says. it's a 3d home designer

useful for:

making your dr room/house

visualizing your dr room/house

cons:

has paid stuff

┊ 　 ‧ 　⬭ 　 OO8: COMBYNE

description:

an app where you can combine items you like from a wide selection of stuff to make outfits!

useful for:

making outfits for your dr

visualizing said outfits

additional notes:

there's other things you can do on the app like challenges where you can compete to make the best outfit i think?? looks pretty fun i might try it HAHAHA

yuh so i got a little lazy here at the end & i know this is prolly not very helpful because most of these apps/sites are pretty well known but maybe just maybe.. i helped someone out...

HAPPY SHIFTING!!!!!

[dtupdating]

DREAM replied to another Reddit post!

Transcript under the cut!

Ludwig slightly misremembered, and didn't explain in a super fair way imo it makes me sound way worse than what actually happened

tldr;

I dmd ludwig suggesting he make a video, and offering myself for questions

ludwig replied and eventually said that I jokingly called one of his friends a whore

Due to the fact that a friend of Nicolas Cantu's had recently falsely said that "I got slapped at a party for calling a girl a whore", I asked him if that's what it was about.

He said no, and that he can't tell me more information because he doesn't think it's worth resurfacing it for her sake

I replied with a message about that, and then said I'd also provide context to the other situation just in case he was just telling me it's not about that situation (to "protect" the person's identity) even though it was, because I had no idea about any other situation.

Here's the important parts of that message that I sent him:

oh well unfortunately I guess I can't talk about this because I don't know what you're talking about at all, but I will say this as a general statement; A lot of people spread false stuff about me, or exaggerate, and have done it a lot ESPECIALLY during all of this stuff going on, as it's easy to sensationalize things because of how "hated" I seem. Intentionally, OR unintentionally. I have had to clear up so many different false stories of me being weird, or just a total shit bag, because the rumor mill runs super fucking strong when you're getting shit on 24/7. And every time it's just "oh okay that makes sense". It's not always someone lying, but it's almost always someone not realizing that exaggerating and mischaracterizing what they're saying can be a big deal, and isn't something they should do. I have never randomly called someone a whore, I have never called someone a whore derogatorily, and I would never do that.

I will completely and fully say that I have called friends of mine jokingly whore's / sluts / whatever, GUYS ANDS GIRLS, but only with people that joke along with it, or have expressly said they don't care, and again, only with friends of mine. This situation has been a lesson to just never say it at all though, because it's being used to make me out as a bad person. I would never use it that way, never ever meant anything negative when I've ever said it, and never have used it to insult or demean anyone, in any way.

I don't know the situation you're talking about, and obviously it's seemingly a bad look to have "multiple instances" where I called a girl a whore lmao, but I just cannot fathom that I called a stranger a whore, even jokingly, regardless of whether I was drunk or not. If I actually did, I would absolutely want to apologize and clear up anything that I possibly can with them, because it's upsetting to know that I made anyone upset or made them feel badly. I would like to say though, that it's not unreasonable to think that it is a misrepresentation of what actually happened, or is being looked at through a negative tint given recent events, when if this wasn't all going on, it would've been viewed as "oh that's obviously a joke". Given the fact that I have been a bit of a punching bag for a bit online, and you never know what motivations people have to spread things. Idk when this would've been as well, because like I said, the Nicolas stuff was pretty eye opening in a lot of ways, including specifically how people feel about those words in general. Which I never really thought about, and again, I've always been extremely careful and delicate with how I interact with anyone I've just met.

I NEVER would demean or speak down on someone like that. If that did actually happen, it was naivety on my part and not malice, and it's a word I'm removing from my vocabulary, and I hope I get a chance to apologize to them. But again, I have no idea what you're specifically talking about, so I probably won't get a chance, or even confirmation that it happened.

Either way, I understand why he didn't reply (I sent walls of text) and don't fault him for it. Although, the way this was said is annoying!

[purpleyellow]

house hunting

nct dream 8th member - bee

masterlist

“the dorm days are over”

a/n: Feel free to share your thoughts with me💛 Requests are open for Bee and Hayun!

Living in the dorms was such a constant part of Bee’s life. It didn’t matter if they had back-to-back comebacks, solo activities, or even if the unit was on break, they always had a home to return to. Especially as someone who needed her own space, Bee had the room she had turned into her own little safe space over time, and she was not ready to say goodbye.

When the boys suddenly began discussing moving out into their own homes, she wasn’t the most thrilled about it, simply because she couldn’t imagine herself going through the decision-making process of visiting and picking an apartment for herself, and on top of that, having to go through all the moving work and trying to make another place feel like her own.

“I just think we live in a good apartment, and there isn’t much reason to try and change that” She calmly discussed one morning, while Jaemin cooked breakfast for the both of them.

“Well, technically this apartment isn’t ours, and if the owner wants to kick us out anytime, he’s fully capable of doing so. It’s the most reasonable thing to do. Individually, each of us can already afford to buy a condo, which in the future can become an investment, not to say it would be much more comfortable to live in a place you picked yourself. Not everyone who is our age can do that, I think it would be a waste of an opportunity to not go for it”

“I don’t think I would be comfortable living by myself. In fact, I would probably be a hazard to my own life” Holding onto the one thing he said that she disagreed with, Bee tried to make a point, though she knew Jaemin was probably right about the whole thing.

“Well, you don’t have to be by yourself. I don’t think all of us will move out to be alone, Renjun was thinking about sharing a place if anyone was up for it, you could go with him” The boy shrugged, unfazed by her arguing.

“So you’re telling me your plan is to just leave me out here alone and move out without bringing me along. You know I’m going to starve, don’t you?” Crossing her arms, Bee tilted her head as she noticed the small grin on his face.

“Maybe it’s time for you to do an online cooking course or something. The future I imagine only involves me, a bunch of cats, and a big ass couch”

Sighing, Bee rolled her eyes and dropped the subject with him, but she couldn’t stop thinking about it as the day went on. When she dropped by the studio during one of her breaks, the girl couldn’t help but complain to the 127 members around.

“It’s all your fault for dropping the dorm life and going into your own houses, now the boys think we need to do the same just because we have money” Jungwoo and Doyoung frowned, turning their attention to her, while Mark only laughed and squeezed her sides.

“Well, I didn’t go to my place just because I could afford it, you know. It was more of an investment rather than just blowing money for the sake of it” Doyoung chuckled at her rolling her eyes while he explained himself.

“Even if it’s just to flex, it’s a lot more comfortable living by your rules, it even makes our group moments more enjoyable since we’re not together all the time” Jungwoo shrugged and got up as the producer signalized for him to go into the booth

“And let’s be honest, the company doesn’t spend as much as we can on giving us a nice rental. You should come to check out the gym area in the condo I’m living in. Also, sharing a place with fewer people is a lot nicer than five dudes at once, sorry guys”

“Don’t be, our dorm was a mess, I don’t miss it either” Doyoung and Mark laughed reminiscing, while Bee readjusted herself on the couch the three were seated on. Hugging one leg, she groaned and rested her head on top of her knee.

“I don’t want to go out house hunting, having to face all my finances and the options, and deal with all that moving adult stuff”

“Just move in with me then” Mark casually stated, making a chill travel up Bee’s spine as she froze up. Chocking on air, Doyoung quickly got up and headed for the door, mumbling “I think someone’s calling me outside”

“What?” The boy giggled, confused at everyone’s sudden change of mood.

“I can’t just move in with you” Bee whispered, and thankfully to her, the producer ignored their conversation and kept going with Jungwoo’s recording.

“Why not? It would be so convenient, you wouldn’t have to choose a place, everything’s pretty much already figured out with electronics and utensils and all that adult crap, plus you’re used to being there already”

Rendered speechless, Bee thought for a minute before gasping “What about the fans?”

“What about them?” Mark smiled affectionately before turning serious and counting on his fingers, “Well, first, they don’t need to know we’ll be living together. Second, what’s so different between you sharing dorms with the boys, to sharing an apartment with me”

“You know very well the difference” The girl spoke the obvious, making him shrug.

“So, if that classified information happened to leak, we can just say we each have our separate rooms” Deciding to let go of his tensed-up girlfriend, Mark gave her a side hug and a kiss on the side of the head “Just think about it, okay? There’s no pressure to say yes, though I think it would be a nice option for you, and I would be happy if you agreed to. But also, I’m the happiest when you are, so take your time deciding”

Despite Mark giving her as much time as she needed, everyone else seemed to be moving at a lot faster pace. In just a few days, Bee was touring apartments with Renjun and Jisung, both of whom were open to being roommates for the time being.

“This one is actually really nice” Renjun commented while going through the kitchen. The real estate agent that came with them was just by the door getting a phone call, or at least pretending to, while letting the three idols talk about their last stop for the day.

“I think so too, the bedrooms and the living room are all pretty large” Jisung nodded, looking into the hallway “The only downside to it, it’s that there are only three rooms, but I’m willing to put that aside for the quality of the apartment”

“We wouldn’t be able to have guests, though. The boys would be fine since we’re used to sharing rooms and stuff. Although I don’t know about Renjun, if my parents came over from overseas I’d like to welcome them into my house”

“That’s what I was thinking too” Renjun sighed, leaning against the kitchen sink, “Having somewhere my family could stay and visit freely would be ideal”

“Still, this place is amazing” Bee looked around again, and the boys agreed with dreamy “Yes” “It really is”

“I think we should reflect, and just consider if we should go for it,” Renjun thought out loud just as the real estate agent stepped back into the conversation.

“About that, if you would like to keep this place, I suggest you decide as soon as possible. I know it’s not ideal, but there are more people interested, and the most I can guarantee you it’s until tomorrow night”

Feeling like their little bubbles had just cracked, the three thanked him and assured him they would keep in touch until the deadline.

Going down the elevator, Bee thought through about how everything could be slowly turning into place without her noticing it, and it seemed to her that there was one way of satisfying everyone’s wishes, which made it look easier to take the next step in her relationship with Mark.

“I kind of wish we hadn’t visited this one because it would make that one with four bedrooms from earlier a lot nicer looking” Jisung sighed as they crowded inside a taxi.

“Well, if we decide to not keep this one, we’ll have more time to look for another apartment that we like better” Renjun looked out of the window contemplating their options.

“Would you guys still go for this last one if I decided to step out?” Bee questioned from the middle, looking from side to side to watch their reactions.

Jisung frowned at her confused, while Renjun scoffed, “Yunhee, weren’t you the one begging us not to be left alone? Don’t panic yet, we can find a place that’ll fit all of us”

“I know we can, I’m just considering my options as you said. So like, if I were to take on another offer, it would solve the missing bedroom problem. Would you guys still want to keep this last apartment?”

“Is this a trick question?” Jisung asked exasperated.

“I’m being serious Jisungie, I was already considering this other thing before today, and know that there’s a place that would be great for you two, I’m almost certain you should take it without me”

“What the hell other offer is that? Can you just be open to us” Renjun groaned annoyed, and the girl shrugged, trying to sound casual to check for their reactions. “Mark asked if I wanted to move in with him”

Gasping, Jisung stared at her with judging eyes, “And you spent an entire day house-hunting with us after your boyfriend invited you to share an apartment with him?”

“He told me I could think about it” Bee mumbled at his outburst, though she was more worried about Renjun’s silence than the youngest’s annoyance. “Oppa, so what are you thinking?”

“That solves everything, doesn’t it?” Renjun smiled optimistically. “I’m kind of not ready to live with one less person, but still, everything would work out”

“It would. When we get home, I’ll confirm with Mark that everything is okay with him, and you guys can call the agent tomorrow morning”

“No need to worry, I’m calling him right now” Jisung beamed from her side just as his phone picked up the call “Mark Hyung, great news for me, not so great for you. Bee agrees to move in with you”

Just as the girl gets ready to punch Jisung’s arm, she listens to Mark’s excited “Really? Holy shit” and that makes her certain she made the right call.

[captainzigo]

Hi everypony!

My kofi is ko-fi.com/captainzigo if you enjoy my art, consider leaving me a tip! this is otherwise entirely a labor of love so,,,

you can also send a request with your tip! but if you choose to do so, please read the disclaimer later on in this post**

my non-art blog, where i accept asks is @snapewife-divorce-lawyer and my reblog-spam blog is @3amgaypotion also i am on bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/captainzigo.bsky.social

that's a bunch of pictures of my oc(/ponysona) Prickly Pear. she's a cowgirl

Frequent/noteworthy questions below the break

**on donations made to me:

if you send a request with a donation, there's a 99% chance i'll do it. and that remaining 1% i'll probably just ask you for a different request. if you send me a request with a donation you are not sending me a commision. you are making a donation, and i might do you a favor as a result. you do not own the resulting art. and I am under no obligation to complete it or to do it in the way that you like. you do not need to make a donation in order to make a request.

DM me about commissions

on sending me asks:

any asks you send me should be like Strongbad emails. one paragraph. no attachments. unless you are sending me refs.

in any interactions, please keep in mind that i am a stranger on the internet and act accordingly.

unless I have explicitly said otherwise, you can safely assume that I do not count you amongst my friends. it is nothing personal, it is in fact the opposite.

why am i like this?

i am autistic. i say this because representation matters, but also because i would like to ask that you please be very frank with me. i don't even really need your patience. just say what you mean and we will get along fine.

can you draw my ocs?

you most certainly can draw any of my ocs. i'd love that acually. tag me

on (re)posting my art:

do not post my art on other platforms. do not repost my art period. I don't really exist on other platforms since i deleted Twitter. So if you see my stuff on other platforms, it's not me. except for my bluesky.

transformative works are obviously allowed, at least here in USamerica where i live. but if you want my blessing, please keep them SFW, and try to keep the spirit of the original artwork

is my blog SFW?

im in my twenties. i keep my blog SFW (as i define it) as a strict rule.

i do not consider the fact that sex exists, that some people enjoy it, or some innuendo to be NSFW. i also do not consider swearing, even as tho a sailor might, to be NSFW.

are NSFW interactions ok?

in short: no. while i have no aversion to to that sort of thing, and often actually enjoy it, i keep this blog SFW. the intention behind my art is to be SFW even when it might be skirting the line. in general, and especially, specifically with mlp, i do not wish to have NSFW interactions on the internet. please respect this boundary.

on shipping:

in my opinion, all romance real or fictional should be between people who are similar in age, doing age appropriate things, not closely related, and all with mutual consent. i am not interested in witnessing or interacting with anything outside of these parameters.

on my blue hair and pronouns:

i am a trans woman. i am also bisexual. i am also poly and demi since im listing things. i am out online becasue i know how important it is to know that you aren't alone.

do i take constructive criticism?

NO 🖕👹🖕 FUCK YOU!!!!!!! GET BLOCKED IDIOT!! unless you are a marginalized person who feels i have unintentionally made you uncomfortable somehow with my art or otherwise. in that case i am sorry and you do me a great favor by calling me out. OTHERWISE FUCK YOU DUMBASS IF YOU DONT LIKE MY ART GO DRAW YOUR OWN 🖕🖕🖕🖕

“i hate bronies”…

i don't necessarily hate you if you self identify with that label. i like to make myself off-putting to keep creeps away. i talk about it more in this post: https://www.tumblr.com/captainzigo/744131513208176640/when-i-say-i-hate-bronies-in-my-header-its

brony?

i don't hold a lot of nostalgia for old brony stuff. infact it's quite the opposite. i was a child when the show came out, and more than that i am a girl. i am not a brony.

do i like g5?

i like all generations of mip including the new stuff. gen 4 is just the one i grew up with

why is my header aurora, bori and alice from the best gift ever?

well that would be because i hate them like a mother hates a child. like the sun hates the moon. like a sickly victorian child hates the slightest morsel of bread.

on flurryheart:

i often draw stuff about cozy glow x flurry heart. this is with the understanding that cozy glow spends about a decade turned to stone. nullifying the age gap.

🤓☝️ i think you mean effect, not affect

i am dyslexic. i spell stuff wrong all the time and i type weird. please don't bother correcting me. wooptydoo your brain is wired normally. sending you a medal.

on my username:

i've had the same username since i debuted on the internet. zigo is the name of an oc i made that i dont really talk much about anymore. zigo is a fine enough nickname, and at least one person calls me that irl.

[critterishere]

Alright guys,,, I have to make a serious post for once,, whomp whomp but I really do have to. I can’t ignore this.

So I received an link to a post in my ask box, and what the post is basically saying is that I am a trans fetishist for drawing my P1 doe with body hair and muscles. Not a fun thing to hear as a trans person, and especially not fun to hear as a non-passing trans person. 

I will not link that post or blog because I do not want that person to be harassed, if you do find them please DO NOT send them anything. I really don’t want people to get involved in petty online discourse. It’s not fun to experience nor look at.

These are the examples this person used (reposting my art without permission) to show that I’m being weird about trans women. This person used an April Fools joke drawing as one of the examples. The April fools drawing is heavily inaccurate to how P1 looks. I can’t believe someone would prefer those drawings over an actual attempt at a design for a woman P1 (trans or cis). But hey, if someone wants to draw anime girl P1, then you do you! 

Now, about my design for P1 doe (I also call her Postal 1 Lady fyi)….

Exaggerate masculine traits…..? Look, I try my best to make P1 lady look similar to her male counterpart, because they are the same person, just through different times in life. They’re going to have the same body type. In most of my P1 lady drawings, I imagine she’s around the beginning of her transition into womanhood, so she’s obviously not going to pass right away (I also think she would be a bit nervous to fully commit to transitioning). She can’t afford surgeries or hormone replacement therapy, and I don’t think she has to medically transition in order to be considered a women. Sorry for not drawing her super hyper feminine, but I really don’t think she would constantly dress or look that feminine. She’s allowed to wear jeans, and be hairy, and have strong arms. This person did say that it’s ok to draw women who are trans that fit some of these traits, but then bashes me for drawing a women that doesn’t fit into the binary. It’s fine to draw women that doesn’t fit the “perfect” image of a women in theory, but actually drawing a lady with traits that don’t fit the idealized version of what a woman “should be” is apparently wrong. Let me draw someone that doesn’t 100% pass. Let me draw people that don’t fit the box of what that gender holds. Let me draw a human being that expresses themself differently than others of the same group. Let me draw myself and other people like me please. Also,, side note,,, for the love of everything, cis women can also be hairy and tall and muscular and stuff like that, I’m saying this to tell you that WOMEN can look like ANYTHING. MEN can look like ANYTHING. A PERSON OF ANY GENDER could look like ANYTHING. We all look so different from each other and that’s amazing, so lets also draw different people as well? Thanks. (I think this person would die if they saw a butch trans women.)

Also, about that comment…

Yes, I have drawn odd art of Postal 1 dude. My bad, my liege. I love being policed on what to draw by a proshipper. Ain’t that wonderful /vsarc… I want you to know that I have also drawn art of P1 dude in skirts that are way less peculiar. Some of them are old, but I promise you I am not constantly being gay for this guy (as in not being a freak). I’ve probably drawn way more art of P1 being queer around guns than drawing him in pretty dresses. I would absolutely prefer to be called a gun fetishist than a trans fetishist because at least it would somewhat be correct.🫤 But this isn’t about that.

Anyways, cis people will hate us all equally, let’s not be so crazy about the boxes they built for us. Thanks folks. And now, for my final act, I will be turning every single character ever into a trans person right now. I’m turning evil and now your favorite male character is xenogender and uses meow/xey, thanks. (If they saw how I draw Not Important, they would probably throw rocks at me. I changed absolutely NOTHING about her design. Shout out to my favorite evil women ever!🗣‼️)

Just wanted to put an epic lady compilation at the end here. I love my wife so much!! She is my world..❤️ 🐾 I don’t know if I should draw more of her at this point….. but eh….. That’s my wife you know..

[windvexer]

i haven't done much spirit work besides leaving offerings and asking for help. so i was wondering what can i do to get from here to the point where i can see and commune with spirit the way more accomplish witches talk about?

thanks in advance should you answer this.

Hi!

This is a big answer, because it mostly depends on where you're going.

Psychism isn't the same thing as spirit work. I've written on both topics (these links are to my masterposts) and I think there might be some stuff there that can help you regarding communication.

But the downfall of all of these online guides (mine, or anyone's) is that most of them are about how to develop a specific skill and I'm not too familiar with any on the topic of how to find and develop your natural strengths.

Oh, and also the important cousin to all these topics, a lot of witches exaggerate, change, or misleadingly talk about exactly how they "see and commune" with the spirit world. (Or, as @friend-crow would likely point out... some people really do just get on the internet and lie.)

If the point of your post is that you received spiritual input that helped you correctly manifest a spell, you might say "my fairy husband told me to use thyme, and it worked!", which conveys the point.

However, this can conceal the reality of what really occurred, which could be something more like, "over the past few days I kept feeling like he wanted offerings of French food, and then I kept hearing commercials and songs about time, and then I got a strong urge to listen to Simon and Garfunkel, and then I realized he meant thyme the herb, and when I cast the spell it felt really good and manifestation was strong, and I attribute these choices and successes to my fairy husband."

So I think it's wise to pick apart some of the assertions from "more accomplished witches," especially when they are talking about what was communicated and not how it was accomplished; and especially putting an asterisk next to any experiences which are likely being shared because they are exceptional and exciting.

But even if communication is very clear and strong, there is often a price to be paid (either up front or on credit), like:

You spend more than an hour a day practicing (I mean... a lot of practice; often being immersed in the spirit world)

You have been cursed with Second Sight and can't shut the spirits out

You regularly perform powerful rituals of communication

You've built your life to welcome and house the spirits long-term, and over the years have developed very strong abilities of communication

You have become bound to spirits or gods in some form or another, making you an Oracle, and all the consequences that come with that

Beyond becoming bound to/initiated under spirits for whom you operate as an oracle, also building relationships with gods of communication and witchcraft, or especially any entities that let you See and Hear Things.

You've developed, built, and practiced with tools and rituals that facilitate clear communication

There are a lot of paths you can take, is my point, and you're probably best off exploring any of them you feel most comfortable with. Oathing up isn't for everyone, for example. I vouch for an eclectic approach. Give lots of different things a try, and lamps will light themselves along the path of experience until the fog slowly fades from the map.

If you'd like a list of specifics, here you go. Don't say I didn't warn you. (The warning is, if you See and Hear Things, you are also Seeing and Hearing Things. You know?)

Work with Lunar powers, perhaps including relevant Moon deities, who are associated with divination, clear-sight, and spirits.

Hekate, I bet, probably works well to unlocking the roads to spirit work. I don't know her myself but it seems like a vibe.

Enchant a holey stone to assist you with spirit communication.

Perform regular rituals, perhaps on the full moon or cross-quarter days, to open channels of communication and strengthen your abilities.

Blend and enchant incenses and oils to facilitate spirit communication; use as needed.

Fuck around with doors and keys.

But before all of this, definitely get a guardian spirit of some sort, or at the very least like a guy who you can trust.

[11vein]

strawpage answer dump #2

hello. as always u can always send me things via my tumblr askbox or my strawpage for now. check out my faq first too

i personally am not too scared of it! fellow artists online are very vigilant about stolen works, so you will be safe and defended if it ever happens to you. if it ever happens, i recommend trying to resolve it private first though before calling it out publicly (consider it more of a last resort). it hasn't happened to me much (that i've noticed), and when it has i have tried to resolve the situation privately. i understand it can be nerve wracking to post your work to the internet because of this though!

thank you ^_^ !! i really wanna use chis-a and eri on future songs, (also yi xi again , her voice is just too good)... i also really wanna use a masc voicebank like noa hex or riku! i think my ultimate goal... (although controversial) i really want to use acme iku!!!! specifically her original maidloid version. i have a real physical copy of her! though i'd have to get better at vocal editing first probably....

hmm i think this is okay!! i do not have any refs or name or anything for that character though, they were kinda drawn as a one-off but i do have the design in my head and i wanna reuse it in the future for something. feel free to draw them in ur school project :]

( some context i asked on twitter if i should make comics of my ocs) THATS GOOD TO HEAR... i am so busy with commissioned work and other stuff but when i am finally free from the dungeon i will have to...

it's hard to say... but i do know i will probably be making things by myself in the future and focusing more on my solo work once the bulk of my commissioned work/collabed projects are out

thank you!!! honestly....... i struggle with it really bad especially as of late. i don't have much advice other than: IF YOU HAVE ADHD GET MEDICATED NOW!!!!!!! YOU MUST!!!!!!!!!!!!! (turns out most of the time the reason i cant do anything is because i need stimulants to function bc of my adhd ass) . actually thats a lie i do have more advice. but that is my major one. genuinely just try and let yourself work freely and not to fit yourself into a specific mold (experiment and dont focus on trying to be "one thing"), and let yourself do little indulgences on the side while you work on other things to keep you motivated. in between private projects right now i do little OC doodles as a treat for myself :] another tip is to allow yourself to "finish" something you've started. whether it came out exactly as you want, if you keep abandoning things it'll become a habit. so even if you dont make a perfectly rendered illustration and even if it doesnt come out how you want, if you can finish the piece in a way that you can go "this is good enough", you'll build up that drive to finish things. Obviously you don't want to half-ass everything but you don't want to overthink and give up on everything either. It's finding the right spot of ambitiousness and streamlining your work that gets the motivation working for me.... (and meds)

[annabthesolitarywriter]

So...I was talking to someone about Boromir and I mentioned how I found weird that Tolkien didn't mention how the people of Gondor reacted to him leaving for Rivendell. I thought that since he was so beloved by the people, they would have at least asked about it, right? I was told (quote):

"Probably the author didn't think it was important to include this information because it was irrelevant plot-wise".

And then I went on a tirade about how I felt that Boromir was mistreated and got no honorable mention at Aragorn's coronation, no songs, no tribute. He was so beloved by everyone and got nothing in return. Bilbo got a far better treatment than he got and, while I ADORE Bilbo, I think Boromir should've gotten something. He was valued and skilled member of the Fellowship who died protecting others and got absolutely nothing. Talk about gratitude...

Had I had this conversation two or three years ago, I would have simply agreed with this person I was talking to and I would've probably let it go. Now I find myself defending Boromir and I even prefer him to Faramir, which would've been unheard of even just two years ago when I officially joined the online LOTR fandom and started writing.

These are some of the things I like about being in a fandom. I love getting to know canon characters better and I love sharing opinions with others. I love hearing people's takes on them and chiming in with my views. I think it's beautiful.

Now, since I have a Boromir! Lives situation going on...I kind of want him to realize that Gondor doesn't deserve him. I want him to refuse the Stewardship and move to Osgiliath with his betrothed/wife, rule his feud and stay out of politics. I think he most important thing to him is to be of service somehow, but that doesn't mean he has to necessarily be Steward or Co-steward, right? He can be a "normal" lord and live a somewhat carefree life. Gondorians probably wouldn't take it well (especially *ahem* Uncle Imrahil), but, then again, the people didn't seem to worry about him at all so...he kind of owes them nothing!?

Mmm...good thing I'm participating in Boromir Week before I start my rewrite because this issue gives me a lot to think about. Yes, I'm always thinking about stuff. I probably make my life even more complicated than it already is, but it seems I cannot stop thinking. Oh well...I suppose I should just write and tweak things later. But this is indeed something I need to work out sooner than later.

Okay, I said what I wanted to say. Bye 😊 I'll shut up now.

[chronically-ghosted]

i totally agree that it’s ridiculous for people to write fics for films that haven’t been released yet, but the problem isn’t the smut itself. people have every right to write porn if that scratches the itch.

i think your main point is the most important: it’s impossible to write a thoughtful, inspired fic when we don’t even know the story it’s based on. no one knows who this character is or what he’s like.

at this point, everyone should just call a spade a spade and write pedro rpf. all they care about is seeing his face in different situations.

so my earlier post was not so much a statement on Pedro Pascal Character fanfiction/porn, but the commercialization of art and I interpreted the thoughts and opinions of others through the lens of the medium I most often express myself with, which is fanfiction.

let me be clear: i have no problem with smut - pwp or otherwise. people are allowed to write whatever they want, about whoever they want, with whatever tropes make them happy.

my overall focus (and granted it was probably very muddled by the end of those - what, like three reblogs?) was an interrogation of fanfiction as art, and the state of art in this modern era. and after doing some more thinking and listening to more people much smarter than me (thank you to everyone who dm-ed me directly to talk further about this), my opinion is thus: the creation of content (not art) is more ubiquitous today is not because we are getting more stupid as a society, not because of our failing attention spans, not because we are on the brink of moral collapse but because we physically do not have the mental strength to be intellectually curious as a direct result of constant, distracting, emotionally-draining stimuli.

i can explain what i mean below the cut with two primary examples, specifically regarding the shift in fanfiction cult, and yes, the prominence of smutty oneshots in the pedro pascal character fandom of which this blog is a part of.

I have been in various fandoms for almost twenty years. I have been writing fanfiction for almost that same amount of time. In recent years, I've noticed two trends that initially discouraged me, but that I now believe is a symptom of our adjustment to a modern, constantly online era.

A severe lack of engagement within the artistic artifacts of a fandom

The quality of the fanfiction itself (because yes I do consider fanfiction to be an artform) has gone down hill - mostly.

Lack of engagement:

Art is inherently created to be shared. This is especially true for fandom because the community lives or dies by how many people are interacting with each other and sharing ideas (news, theories, fanart, fanfic, etc). If you say a fandom is dead, it means there haven't been any new posts or fic about it in years. So I don't wanna hear it when people say, "oh write for yourself, you shouldn't be chasing engagement" because that is antithetical to the very concept of fanfiction.

In recent years, I have seen and experienced myself engagement in my work only so far as a like or kudo. This is not how it used to be. Message boards (yes I am that old) and niche fandom sites were constantly abuzz with media sharing and excitement, and everyone enjoyed some version of praise (unless you got hit by the antis but they're never fun anyway). Initially I blamed this drop in engagement on laziness: people just want the next thing, they can't be bothered to appreciate the hard work writers put in and they just see content and art as the same thing - stuff to consume.

But I myself am GUILTY of minimal reblogs and comments and I LOVE what I'm writing - the impact certain works leave me with is long, long lasting but for some goddamn reason, I can't sit down and praise the author's works. Am I lazy? Possibly, but this is also not an isolated behavior and it's on the rise: people do not have time to engage with fandom/fanfic like they used to. Most people I know have worked at least two or three jobs at some point in their lives to just to make rent. This gen z is the first generation in DECADES to be worse off economically than their parents. With an interest rate at 8%, who the fuck can afford the security of a home anymore? We work ourselves to the bone for scraps and the realization that The Dream has officially died. And so what do we want to do in the free time we do have? Engage with the very bare minimum. We want to read things that we can at best skim, things we don't have to think about or engage with in any meaningful way. We want a way to turn off the noise of the next apocalypse and sometimes the best we can do is the tap of a thumb.

Which brings me to my next point: what the fuck happened to thoughtful fanfiction?

But this question is inextricably linked to the points above: oneshots are easier to write, faster to write, and if you write fic that is basically "Mad libs porn" (without ever engaging in the actual medium because it is literally not released yet), you are doing the most minimal work for the most amount of engagement. But I can't fault ANYONE for doing that. It feels good to be told your smut is "so hot" or "this exploded my panties" and in this era where the time available to create is so fucking small and minimized of course you're going to write for the most popular character, whether or not you're interested in the source material because we want our art to matter to someone. Intellectual pundits loooove to lambast our "shorter attention spans" but fuck, when are we allowed the time to think - in between this "100 year storm" that's happened twice in the past five years, or the global pandemic that turned millions of deaths into a political punching bag, or the next video of a white woman crying wolf to the police over an innocent black man, or - or - or - or

In a day where reality and the world as we know seems to be holding onto a thread, we turn to comfort: comforting tropes (dbf to rape/kidnap fantasies), comforting fanfic (pwp), and comforting ways to engage with fandom. There is nothing wrong with wanting your art to be appreciated and there's nothing wrong with inherently wrong with pwp - but I do believe its symptomatic of a MUCH larger and more sinister movement within ALL art right now.

I come from the generation who banished fanfic authors for scrubbing off the filing numbers to their fics and publishing it as original content because, in our communities, they were selling out. Fanfiction is inherently an act of rebellion. Every time you write fanfiction you break canon, an established structure with its own rules and boundaries. So by trying to appeal to the masses, to curb your own writing to fit whatever is mainstream, you are doing a disservice to yourself AND to the art of fanfiction. If something you write becomes popular, wonderful, great, you are very lucky and there is nothing wrong with that either. But do not sell out your 13 beloved fans who WILL take the time to leave a comment, who WILL take the time to reblog because your weird little fic spoke to them on a fundamental level and now is with them for the rest of their lives - in favor of a 100 thumb taps.

If you've made it here, thank you very much for reading. I've added some links to some additional references to see how this concept of "populist" art is having a serious negative down turn in the quality of art, but is also not any one individuals personal failings:

Why the world is addicted to background tv by Kayleigh Day

How Modern Audience are failing cinema by Like Stories of Old

Rupi Kaur episode of Rehash podcast

I'm always here to talk fic and art and what makes you excited about your writing. Much love and please rest. We need you here.

[booksbluegurl]

Study Tip #1

How to remember stuff for a long period of time?

Firstly, you should know that our brain is very adept at forgetting things it doesn't consider necessary for its survival and it fails to understand that excelling our exams are veryyyy important for our survival.

So, what you need is revision of your subject matter over and over again, over a period of time.

How to achieve that though?

Flashcards are often used for achieving this technique but to be honest, for a very vast syllabus Flashcards get quite overwhelming. So I created REVISION SHEETS for myself. It's the same thing as flashcards but it encompasses a few other techniques that makes the vastness of the topics a little easy to control and comprehend.

I make them two ways: one is completely random, with information important to remember but from various different topics. And another is by making mindmaps.

And in both of these things, I add information in QnA format. Easy.

Step by Step guide to revision sheets:

Firstly, I'd advise you to read/understand a chapter/topic through a lecture, a youtube video or a textbook. Atleast have a basic understanding of the concepts.

Check the major headings or the major sub-topics.

Start plotting the mindmap roughly, by Sub-topics and how and where you'll put them for better understanding.

Now, when you're writing content, put it all in QnA format, especially HOW you want you remember the information.

There, done.

Just make sure to use that sheet to revision at good intervals of time.

You can, of course, make changes to this process. But this is what I've done for my revision work.

[Also, I am not sure if someone else might not have already thought of this idea. Though, I don't think such study tips have any copyright but I'm just putting out there that if it resembles something that others have used/talk about online, then it's because we both thought of the same thing. And you'll too probably to solve your study problems. So all the best, let's all work hard and find our happiness.]

-Tanishka

Pictures from pinterest. Credit to the owners.

[epsilon-delta]

Hi, you don't know me but I was looking at elodieunderglass' egg tag and I LOVED your bobbin lace. If you don't mind me asking, how did you get into doing it? Did you learn it from someone in person or did you teach yourself?? Is it as hard as it looks? (I make crochet lace but that's very different!)

(No pressure to answer - just interested if you felt like sharing!)

WOO LACE AGENDA!! hem.

Yeah so not only did I teach myself from online tutorials, i did so in the last year! Someone posted a video of little old lady working at lightning speed and i went "HUH. I could probably do that!" I'm not entirely sure why, but it feels much easier to me than most fibercrafts. Maybe my brain is opposed to loops, idk. It feels like fancy braiding, and the pricking (paper pattern under the work) and using a bajillion pins make it feel very comfortably constrained. Both crochet and knitting are very difficult for me for tension reasons. I suspect needle lace would present the same problems for me. Bobbins though! absolutely easy mode for this brain.

I did a solid handful of mini-projects with whatever garbage i could scrounge up, and thus demonstrated to myself that I liked this enough to drop $200 on real supplies. There's loads of video tutorials on youtube if that's your preference, but i prefer written directions with good illustrations. I had the most luck with Alexandra Stillwell's beginner projects (alexstillwell.wordpress.com/pdf-help-files/) and Jo Edkins' whole site (theedkins.co.uk/jo/lace/index.htm)

This was my initial setup - cardboard "pillow", ballpoint pens for bobbins because my dad buys them by the literal hundred (and immediately looses the caps, unfortunately - those could have been handy), graph paper, pins i already had because i sew a little, and crochet cotton from my mom, (nice to have, but i could easily have used my own embroidery floss or probably any sort of string). The only change i really should have made sooner was to use multiple layers of cardboard to reduce stabbing myself in the thighs.

These were the projects (that didn't fall apart) from that setup - i just wound all the thread equally onto 12 pens and made stuff till it ran out. Perhaps not ideal, but y'know, done is better than perfect. especially when you're learning.

Anyway uhhh I'm happy to give beginner advice to anyone who's interested from, like, a beginner 2 kind of place? not exactly sage advice but i sure have Started.

Did that answer your questions? Do you have others? is this interesting to people?

[the-cockroach-that-survived]

I’m ranting again and sorry but I don’t care if you disagree with me. I am very solid in my values and beliefs and it stresses me out to feel pressured to defend myself or argue with people, which on the internet I have also been shown time and time again will not listen to me no matter what I say, so I will probably just ignore and/or block you. You can call that immature, but with the growth and lessons I’ve gone through, it is quite the opposite. I’m learning to have the strength to choose peace rather than argue with people who I know I disagree with on more fundamental levels /lh

That being said, another disconnect I have with people considering the DTeam to be bad people for some of the stuff they HAVE actually done is simply a base moral difference

I believe that EVERYONE, no matter HOW bad or harmful they’ve been, shouldn’t be tied to that for the rest of their life. I get wanting to do that, especially if it’s something really bad or something that has hurt you directly, but I genuinely see it as no better than holding a grudge and I see that as immature and acting on hurt rather than empathy

I GENUINELY believe that everyone can grow and change at any point in their lives no matter what their past is. Every human still deserves empathy and care because you will never fix hurt and hate with hurt and hate, and the idea that anyone should “know better” because of their age or whatever else is something I find, and have always found, ridiculous and half the time ends up turning into ableism (considering many neurodivergent people will BIOLOGICALLY take longer to develop/understand or will permanently struggle with social cues/development and general things seen as maturity, growth, healing, or whatever else is deemed necessary for fitting into norms. Our brains function differently, that is a scientific fact)

Along with that, I don’t agree with the idea that people who are content creators should be held to a higher moral or responsible standard than anyone else just because they’re creators. I don’t care how popular they are, I don’t care who their primary demographic is, if someone is a content creator for personal reasons such as expression or fun or anything else, really anything that isn’t inherently and intentionally teaching or political in purpose, they should not be held to a higher standard than the average person JUST because there’s more eyes on them, especially in an age where nearly EVERYONE has some form of an online presence. It’s unfair and unrealistic

Everyone likes to try and say that we need to remember that creators are also just people like the rest of us, until they start acting like people in a way that you disagree with. Until they make mistakes. Until they do something harmful. Until they aren’t the most responsible they can be about something.

I hate the idea of creators automatically becoming brands or leaders or teachers rather than just people the second they get popular or start making money off of it. They are still people just like the rest of us, they make mistakes, they react emotionally, it happens

People will say that the DTeam haven’t learned from their mistakes or that they keep making the same mistakes over and over again, or some of their actions are irredeemable. People are entitled to that perspective but I simply don’t agree with it. A lot of examples people will use for the DTeam “not learning or maturing” from their mistakes is them being “irresponsible” or reactionary with their responses. You know who else does that? Most creators, especially in this specific group (being mainly the DSMP and anyone adjacent to them). In fact, most situations where the DTeam (Dream especially because ofc everyone always has the most problem with Dream) react poorly or “immaturely” to something, its because THEY are being treated poorly and immaturely. They are being harrassed, they are being accused, they are being lied about, they are being mocked. I don’t understand why so many people find it ok for other creators to treat the DTeam that way but then think it’s terrible when they react poorly

As someone who has followed the DTeam since 2020-21 I can tell you first hand that they very much have grown and matured, it’s just been in some ways that people don’t like or agree with, or every time they do slip up, people like to use that as proof that they haven’t improved, which is just simply not how people work, especially people in this community which is filled with chronically online, often neurodivergent, young adults

Saying that they’re “grown ass men” who “should know better” is a pathetic excuse. It tells me you have no room for nuance or empathy in your perspective, which I do not align with. And again, there is CONSTANTLY hypocrisy and double standards when it comes to how many people see and treat creators, which in my mind automatically make your arguments invalid.

Slight side note, way too many people will tell me they don’t like the DTeam anymore because their community/fandom is toxic. You know. Something that’s normal for any part of the internet and pretty much entirely out of their control. That’s ridiculous, I’m not gonna not like a creator because their fans and antis are stupid or toxic or mean, if that were the case I would not be in literally ANY community or fandom

Also, I find it a little ridiculous to compare Dream reacting immaturely to his first sorta of controversies (such as the speedrun cheating thing) to Dream reacting poorly or immaturely to the controversies he faces now. The controversies he faces now are EXTREMELY more serious and often complex because of their seriousness, and majority of the time has been based on complete misinformation and lies. Anyone would be more likely to react poorly to that sort of thing, no matter how mature they are.

The DTeam are PEOPLE, who at least from my perspective has done far more than good and do not remotely deserve to be seen or treated the way they do, especially considering many people who DO view them that way DONT view other creators who have made similar mistakes or had similar controversies NEARLY as bad as they do the DTeam.

If you dislike them for any reason that is not based on misinformation, that’s fine. You’re entitled to that, I don’t CARE that my friends don’t LIKE them, I CARE that people are SO RIDICULOUS about them and their fans that I GENUINELY HAVE TO WORRY about my friends turning on me because I like them and their content. I had never even seen anyone act that way about ANY creator or media until the quarantine type of chronically online started, and I have never once agreed with it, but it’s so rampant in my generation and social spaces that it’s difficult for me to avoid entirely, which is how I keep ending up being friends with DTeam “antis” and having to worry about this kind of thing at all, and truthfully the main thing that frustrates me about that is that people are so stubborn and caught up in this trend of despising them that I don’t even really get the chance to defend myself for liking them, it just makes people not like me, or at least judge me severely for one of my biggest special interests, which hurts a lot

[stargazer-sims]

Journal Entry #1

previous // next // story index

_____

Victor

Hey, everyone! It’s me, Victor. Welcome to my online journal.

I’ve never kept a journal of any kind before, so I actually have no clue what I’m doing. Other than messing around with my friends, recording ourselves doing skateboard tricks or stupid dance moves, I’ve never made a serious video before either, so this is gonna be an experience. I decided to go with a video journal because... I don’t know. I’m not that great at writing. Plus, talking on a video feels more authentic to me somehow.

I’m gonna post this online, not that I expect to get internet famous or really even to have a huge audience. The idea of uploading it is mostly so I don’t fill up all the storage space on my phone with a zillion videos of me rambling about my life. I mean, if anybody wants to watch it, here it is. Don’t expect movie quality. I’m not a professional videographer or anything like that. I'm just an average guy with a smartphone and a lot of thoughts about stuff.

So, since this is the first entry, I guess I should tell you something about myself, right? Do kind of an introduction like, “Who is this Victor guy anyway?”

My full name is Victor Thomas Edward Nelson, I’m 25 years old and my birthday is the second of December. I’m from a medium-sized Canadian town called Maple Grove, which is kind of a boring place, if I’m being honest. I love it, but it’s not particularly known for major events or exciting times. My hometown is big enough to have an industrial park, a mall, a community college and a world-class athletic centre, though. Believe it or not, we even have an airport. It’s tiny and it’s mostly for shipping freight from the warehouses and manufacturing places at the outskirts of town, but passenger flights do go in and out of there too. You have to literally walk across the tarmac and climb a gigantic set of movable stairs to board the plane, but still.

Okay, let’s see. What other random facts about me can I share?

My favourite colour is red. I like food, hanging out with my friends, playing video games, and taking way too many selfies which I shamelessly post on Instagram. Some people say I’m hyper and that I’m over the top, but I like to think of myself as energetic, enthusiastic and adventurous.

I love sports, particularly winter sports like snowboarding and skating. Especially snowboarding! Fortunately for me, I currently live in a mountain town in Japan, about half an hour outside Kyoto, where I can snowboard all year long. I’m really good at snowboarding, even if I say so myself. In fact, I do it competitively, and I’ve won medals. My friends say I’m a showoff, but I say if you’ve got a talent, why hide it?

Another thing I enjoy is travelling. I’ve always loved adventures, and I’ve been all over the world for snowboarding competitions, but I don’t think I realized before how much fun it is to travel for pleasure and for discovery rather than for a specific purpose like an international sporting event. Moving from my hometown in Canada all the way to Japan was so exciting that now I’ve decided I want to travel the world for fun. I think I was bitten by that particular bug the minute I stepped off the plane in Kyoto and into a brand new environment that I’d never seen before, with the knowledge that I had plenty of time ahead of me to relax and explore.

Oh, I guess you’ll want to know why I came to Japan in the first place, right? It wasn’t only for the snowboarding, and I’m more than happy to tell you all about it.

The real reason I’m here is to be with the love of my life, my soulmate and best friend, Yuri Okamoto. He’s beautiful, smart and brave, and he gets me like nobody else ever has.

Yuri and I met online, on a forum for snowboarding enthusiasts. I’d like to say there was an instant connection between us, but I think Yuri would deny that. It’s probably more appropriate to say I was instantly smitten when I was scrolling through a sub-forum where people posted about new equipment and saw a photo of him posing with his new board. He looked so cute, and I couldn’t resist posting a comment to express just that.

It took me a few minutes to figure out that straight-up commenting “You’re cute!” on a photo of a complete stranger might not have been the smartest or most appropriate move. So, in hopes of redeeming myself, I sent him a private message with a proper introduction. It took him a couple days to reply – he probably thought I was some weird stalker or something – but eventually he got back to me with an introduction of his own. We started chatting after that, and things evolved from there.

We met in November, a few weeks before my twenty-first birthday. Yuri had turned twenty a couple months earlier, in September. It’s hard to believe we’ve known each other for four and a half years already.

It wasn’t long until Yuri and I stopped chatting exclusively through private messages on the forum and moved our conversations to phone calls, texts and video chats instead. By February, we both knew that we were going to be more than friends.

Let me tell you, long-distance relationships are hard. Yuri and I wanted to be together in person, and as time went on, we felt the strain of being apart more and more. In the three and a half years between first meeting him and actually coming here to be with him, I finished college and got a job. I hoarded as much money as possible from my pay cheques and also from competition prize money, and I threw myself into learning Japanese so I’d be ready when the day eventually came.

Finally, when it felt as if neither of us could hold out any longer, I made up my mind to leave home. I gave up the lease on my flat, sold my car, my desktop computer, and my sad college student furniture, and packed the rest of my worldly possessions so I could make the voyage to be with my love. It was terrifying to leave everyone and everything I’d ever known, but it was absolutely the right choice. Being with Yuri makes it all worth it. Also, Matsumori Town is stunning, and have I mentioned the year-round snowboarding? Year-round snowboarding! But, anyway…

Yuri’s glad I’m here too, although I think he thinks I could’ve put more thought into planning my move. Yuri is more circumspect than me, which is a good thing because we balance each other. I can be a little impulsive sometimes, so having a partner who’s more cautious helps keep me from getting into too much trouble.

I’ve been here for about sixteen months now, and it’s amazing. I never want to leave. Not unless Yuri comes with me.

Our friends here tease us a lot about how close we are. We’re always together, not that either of us is complaining about that. Yuri works remotely about ninety percent of the time, and I don’t currently have a job other than teaching swimming lessons at the local pool, so unless I’m training up on the mountain or he’s in the city for some work thing, there’s no reason for us not to be together.

Another thing our friends seem to love teasing us about is our names. Apparently, we have the same names as the main characters from an anime series that’s very popular here in Japan. I've never seen it. Full disclosure, I usually can’t sit still long enough for television unless its a show or movie I'm really into. I'm not all that into anime.

Yuri says we kind of resemble those two anime characters as well, especially because the Yuri character has classic Japanese looks and the Victor character has white hair and blue eyes. My hair in real life is prematurely silver and I have blue eyes too.

I’m fine with taking Yuri’s word for the fact that we have some kind of resemblance to these anime guys, but I can assure you that we are our own unique, individual selves and any resemblance to animated fictional characters is purely coincidental.

All right! Now, on to the reason why I’m making this journal. Even though I’d be perfectly happy to go on for ages about my adorable Yuri, the real reason I’m doing this is to chronicle my travels, not just here in Japan, but in other parts of the world too.

My next voyage is going to be to the island of Kainani. I’ve been putting a bit of money aside ever since I got here, and now I have enough for a two-week trip, without seriously depleting the rest of my savings. As much as I love winter and the cool, fresh air of Matsumori, the idea of visiting a tropical paradise where it never snows truly fascinates me. I won’t get to do any snowboarding while I’m there, but I’ll bet there’ll be lots of water sports I can try. I’ve been looking at travel books about the island, and I’ve heard all the legends about the merfolk of Kainani. Not sure those are true, but maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll find out.

The only thing that worries me about going to a place where it never snows is what the weather might get up to in lieu of snowing. Like, maybe thunderstorms? I can’t stand thunderstorms. Camping on the beach is going to be awesome, but I’m not sure what I’ll do if there are any thunderstorms, especially if Yuri isn’t around to console me. He’s really good at that.

Maybe I can convince him to come along.

In any event, I guess I’ll figure everything out as I go. I know I have to do some planning, but I don’t like to organize my life too much. I like spontaneity. Yuri says I’m impetuous, but I prefer carefree.

Whatever happens, I’ll be sure to keep this journal updated so you can follow along with me on my adventures. See you soon!

[proshippers-against-censorship]

I generally support the idea of RPF of celebrities because its purely fictional, and ultimately, doesnt actually harm anyone.

I just know i would be personally uncomfortable with someone writing and posting a story online involving sexual scenarios with me, using my real name, and other personal information about me. From your perspective, are my feelings reasonable? Or am i overreacting/should i ignore it? Im sending this ask purely to get your opinion! Im not trying to hate or cause drama or anything.

(I sent an ask like this yesterday, in verbatim, but im not sure if tumblr ate it, so im sending it again just in case. I apologize im flooding your inbox😭)

I think I answered this one, but tbh, stuff has been chilling in the askbox for a bit, so I'll answer it again.

It's perfectly valid to not want to see fictional content that includes you, especially content of the sexual nature. Your feelings are perfectly reasonable. Truth be told, depending on the nature of the piece, I probably wouldn't be completely cozy with RPF of myself, either.

But the biggest thing you have to remember is that your discomfort doesn't necessarily put the other person in the wrong, either. They ultimately have the free will to do whatever they wish to do, even if that includes writing RPF of those around them. In such a case, all you can do is ask them politely to remove the content, and block them. Though they'd hopefully follow the general unsaid 'rules' of RPF and refrain from bringing it up and showing it to you unless you explicitely asked them to.