#feel free to join my server and ask any advice or help you need btw

[plaidos]

My gfs are both zomboiders, and I want to play the game with them. But I'm bad at it and never know what I'm doing. It's not that hard, they take care of me. I'm just lost and dunno what to do the whole time so I don't find it fun.

How do I know what I'm doing in the game enough that I don't feel like I'm just slowing my gfs down?

play solo and turn all the difficulty sliders (or at least the ones you struggle with) down. you can also fully turn off zombies even spawning if you want to get used to the regular survival mechanics -- it took me a long time to get used to the inventory management system, know when and when not to eat etc because theyre all complex systems. also, just looking through the sandbox settings will give you more of an idea on how certain mechanics work. also, i've found like "tips for new players" videos about project zomboid really helpful, because they give you advice that's kind of holistic to work out on your own, like don't use guns unless you're confident to make a lot of noise.

also check out the tutorial if you havent already!

[izicodes]

do you have any advice for someone who kinda "failed" to break into tech and is still in the medium-level for learning. i feel like i've spent so much time (years) on this but haven't made much progress. how do i really get into it and stay in it? love your blog btw. i'm tempted to start one of my own but my projects are a mess and ugly 😭

I'm sorry to hear that you feel like you haven't made much progress in breaking into tech. It's important to remember that everyone's journey is different, and it's never too late to start or improve. But then again, you have spent years learning and you want to into the tech industry.

The obvious advice would be don't give up. My dad has been studying to get into Cybersecurity since the early 90s and he just got into the industry this year. He never gave up - family to look after and he could study like the other students in his university course because the large majority of them were single 18-22-year-olds who their only responsibility is themselves. Don't give up and don't compare yourself to other people.

You've got to look at what has been holding you back. Health issues, work issues, money? Can't study full-time or even part-time if you need to pay the bills.

Even if you can, are you consistent with your studying? We all know consistency is key. Studying for one week but don't study for 2-3 weeks won't work. I know the type of learner I am - if I don't code or study every day, even just for 30 minutes, then my tendency to procrastinate will increase a lot and it'll all go downhill from there.

Know your strength - build on the skills you are good at. Believe it or not, I know a developer I met in a discord server who only uses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build websites and webpage themes for clients as a freelancer and he's doing really well. It's because he realised that he's really good at those three basic languages and he worked really hard to excel at them. Expand on what you know best.

On the flip side, you could look at job postings around where you live or nationally in your country and see what skills/languages/technologies they ask for the most for hiring developers. Example: I live in the UK and a couple of months ago when I was actively looking for a new Frontend Dev job, I saw that Vue.js, React.js, and PHP (besides the usual HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) were asked for the most. If I wanted those jobs, I would learn those technologies, create a few projects to showcase my knowledge in them, and start applying. That could be one way to break into the industry.

Another way would be certificated. Bootcamps, online courses, or in-person courses like university or community colleges. Yes, they say that you don't always need a university degree to get into tech but some kind of education you've gone through that is tech-related e.g. Google courses or the Frontend Dev course that Meta is providing (paid). My colleague completed a computer science degree but he then did a bootcamp and he completed and that's how he landed the job where I work. So even graduates are getting further education. If you can't afford the massive fees, Udemy is a great place to get courses. And don't be shy with the Havard CS50 course videos they have on YouTube - free and you get a certificate free as well!

The advice I give might not work if you haven't identified why after all these years you haven't gotten your foot into the tech industry. This is no way intended to be rude, but if another person who had the same amount of time you studied, and they have gotten a tech job in that time, what makes you different? Goes back to what I said about the things that are holding you back. Some of the reasons are inevitable like health but you need to keep making that effort!

If you need help, you need to ask. Find a mentor or support group. Having someone to guide and encourage you can be incredibly helpful. Look for a mentor or join a support group where you can connect with others who are also learning and growing in tech. You can search for them online, some people offer advice for CV/Resume help or real "getting into tech" advice on places like Fiverr or Upwork or just google for some consultants online. They would cost obviously but if you're really struggling, this might help. After completing bootcamps, they tend to help you get your first job etc so they might be worth considering!

The last bit of advice is do you have a portfolio? No no, like a proper one where you feel confident enough to give to family members, friends, and potential employers? No? Either learn to build one (free of charge) or hire someone to build it for you (costs money) A portfolio is a great way to showcase your skills and projects to potential employers. Even if your projects feel messy or ugly, focus on highlighting what you learned and what you accomplished.

Obviously, I gave hints of advice more towards Frontend Dev because that's what I know more of but you can alter the advice to whatever niche in programming you're into. Remember, breaking into any field takes time and effort. Stay motivated and focused on your goals, and don't be afraid to reach out for help or support when you need it. Good luck!

** I'm not the best at giving advice but I hope this helps 💗

[tinacentury]

🎢 & 🤗 please :)

Thanks for the ask, @kaitoscarlett!

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride? For the reader? Not sure. For me? 5 Years. Writing that during the emotional rollercoaster that was the height of COVID, all of 2020, during a dissertation, etc. makes it feel to me like the story is a bit of a rollercoaster itself.

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started? This is such a great question. Below are a few things that come to mind, keeping in mind that they are all things that I either have or still do struggle with Btw, as I wrote these, it was interesting to think about how I’ve needed to remind myself more of some of them than others recently, as I’m not at all new to writing fic, but I am new to writing in the Kanthony fandom.

1. Your writing might not be to everyone’s taste, but that doesn’t mean it’s inherently bad or you are not a skilled writer. It’s been helpful for me to look at this on the broader scale of “well, not everyone likes my favorite published authors, and I and plenty of others still love their work.”

2. Paraphrasing from my friend @kasienda as I couldn’t find her exact words just now in our text message thread, but it can be helpful to get away from the “do others like my writing?” and instead ask yourself “do I like my writing?” and go from there.

3. Find your people, but keep your boundaries if you need them. Having fandom friends and support is absolutely awesome (especially when you’re just getting started), but if you’re, for example, an introvert who gets stressed out by large group chats or Discord servers, it’s ok to say no to that and stick to chatting smaller groups or less often. Shoutout here to the Usamamo fandom for still (I think) liking me despite this, because I am the introvert in the above example. Also thanks to @daikon1 for the conversation about this just yesterday.

4. 98% of the time, it’s not personal - if someone doesn’t respond to a DM, if someone doesn’t reblog your post, if someone doesn’t gush about your work, if someone doesn’t follow you on Tumblr or Twitter, if someone says no to an event you’re hosting. There are a thousand reasons for any of these things, and they almost never have anything to do with you personally (and, in my experience, often have to do with the boundaries mentioned above). And this may be naively optimistic of me, but I really believe that everyone is just doing the best they can.

5. This is more of a fandom advice thing than a writing advice thing, but don’t be afraid to curate your fandom experience (shoutout to @starhallows for this advice). Fandom is supposed to be a fun, safe, space, and, if someone’s posts or work don’t vibe with you for whatever reason, it’s ok not to follow or engage with them.

6. It is absolutely appropriate and normal to want recognition/feedback/comments/kudos, but try your best not to obsess over this. If you do get down in the dumps about not getting the engagement you wanted, make sure to listen to what you’re telling yourself (i.e., “this means I’m a bad writer” vs “maybe this story just wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea and that’s fine”).

7. Write first, edit later. You can just free-write whatever is on your mind and edit into something more polished later. This can be a really hard one for me, but it’s usually easier for me to proceed when I’ve had something written down to work with. Also, suspend judgement of yourself during that free-writing.

8. Ok so @floraone gave me this advice when I first joined the usamamo fandom: write in the bath. I know it sounds weird, but it works. And, 4 years later, I’ve yet to drop my phone in the tub 😂.

Feel free to take all of this with a grain of salt; it really is just what has worked for me. Happy writing!

[shayochism-moved]

// Also, in case anybody is too nervous to interact with me... Please read, even if you’re not a scared bean. Please, just read this if you follow me or want to. This explains my mindset, who I have been and who will be. 

I am literally the most nervous bean around when it comes to interaction. Seriously. I hardly interact with anybody in fear of being a fuck up or just plain annoying them. I sometimes - rarely - slip a comment to them here or there on a post, but GAD DAMN I am SCARED TO DEATH.

Why you ask? Let me tell you a story.

I have been role playing since I was little. You know, the whole ‘play’ in the playground thing acting as beloved characters etc. I loved it. When I was eleven I would still do that with the new friends I made in high school and we made our own characters through fandoms we knew (Pokemon, Digimon, Shinzo and DBZ mainly lmao). It was stupid (but fun. Ok, not stupid because we loved it and had fun, which is all that counts) because we were young and made dumb as spit characters that were multi-fandom crossing and were super powerful etc etc. Sure, we were eleven, twelve, but we still played it out in person, which is actually LARP these days...But it was really ‘too old to do that’ but we did it anyway. Life is for fun, after all.

 We would write crappy fanfiction and do ‘scripts’ where we would make out stories as a script based fanfic sort of thing on our characters, so it didn’t involve actual writing but was instead just speech, which we then later started doing on MSN. Yea, it was before computers and internet being widely spread so we did it when we met up and just.. wrote and wrote on paper, making up scripts of nonsense with our characters. Fanfiction was rare cause it was paper and.. too much effort to write down everything, but we did that sometimes. 

I had so much fun.

ANYWAY. Internet became more common and we role played (badly, just script based) over MSN. This was literally until like 2007 where we moved to Gaia Online and started role playing on there. That was when I started to be more serious about my characters and developed them better, and made my first persona and role played as her in the Gaia setting. It was fun, but still really, really bad role play - The guy who lead the G CORP RP didn’t know the basics of role play and did force emotes and god emoting. 

It was fun at the time, sure, but looking back.. damn. I mean I still enjoy the idea of NOT knowing what he was up to during the role play as we never discussed it outside of the RP, so he literally lead me through RP without a story and we just reacted as you would - he had a story plan, I didn’t. THAT WAS FUN. It wasn’t scripted at all and he ended up tricking my character into selling her soul to his character so he had one (as he lost his own prior to this) and she became the new ruler of Dark energy n stuff without a soul (an energy he made up). So as these days you propose ideas, plot, and agree to things, we didn’t have ANY of that. We just went along with what we did. We literally did our own actions and the other side would respond and it developed through the story that way. It is considered bad role play these days but I loved it. No plotting, no limits (except killing), nothing. Just free role play.

Anyway, this continued until 2009 where the guy turned out to be a real dick IRL as we all found out and the role play died obviously. Coincidentally I discovered World of Warcraft. I played for just under a year (until like November) with my partner at the time and, once he quit, I wanted to change server as I hated PVP... and was on a PVP server, while also wondering if anybody role played. And I discovered Argent Dawn (EU), a role play server.

So I made a character and jumped right in. I fucking loved it. I had no sense of lore (the game setting’s history). I had no sense of character development. No sense of making a history for a character. I just jumped right in and played on what I knew, which was near nothing, and I loved it. I role played a morally corrupt elf in the middle of the biggest city and openly killed people etc (it was that bad) but it was fun...

...Until the ‘elitist’ role players noticed my ‘bad role play’ and started sending me actual abuse. Started with “You’re bad, leave the game you idiot’ to getting invited to chat channels to have abuse hurled at me while being ridiculed, and these days? I get stalked in-game and all over the internet, even though I do no bad role play. Took time but I adapted and developed my character to be flawless. But still... They actively search up my usernames to try and find me over the internet to get ‘dirt’ on me to make me look bad, plastering anything they consider ‘bad’ onto the forums to try and make others dislike me (I can’t comment on anything without abuse). Because I am an adult (twenty-eight) and enjoy adult themes once a while, they will literally delve into 18+ sites to get images of my characters, to plaster them over the forums (where minors might see). They act as hypocritical prudes who dislike adult themes whereas no doubt they watch porn once a while, however... because the game is 12+, they think I do erotic role play, which is wrong in a 12+ game - I don’t btw - so will use these 18+ images to try and have people hate me, using convincing stories while spreading rumors etc. So even though I became a good role player with a flawless character history.. they still hated me.

I actually turned bitter at one point and became an elitist myself... until I realised how I had previously felt. It wasn’t nice to be ridiculed and laughed at, to be ignored and shooed away, so I stopped being elitist and started to... just.. just actually enjoy myself. Having been on the receiving end of the hatred and humility of being NEW TO ROLE PLAY RULES and being new to LORE, having been ridiculed... when I realised people were in the same boat... I stopped. I stopped commenting on ‘bad role play’ and instead focused on helping people. I became open to everybody and accepted all role play (Within reason - no godemoting etc). These days I role play with anybody and enjoy that.

Yes, I despise elitism at best.

Well, I don’t hate it, I just... I rather people play to have FUN... NOT role playing for standards, not playing to look good, none of that “I must make an icon to look good!” or “I must use fancy text!” or “I must do paragraphs!” as I noticed on tumblr when I joined four or so years ago (i don’t mind these things... however, I just hate that it’s become a standard to look good)... None of that. Where is the fun when you have to be forced to do certain things to be accepted?

I just want people to have FUN. Fun is why we’re here. Fun is why we make these blogs. Sure, have standards, help people out if their lore is off or their character has role play flaws but... don’t be a jerk. Accept newbies. Accept all histories. Accept PEOPLE. We’re all people, most with damn anxiety of interacting with others. Why? BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE STUPID STANDARDS. No, some standards are good, it’s when you start dictating things that it gets bad, saying you won’t role play with people who are -this- or -that- or have an undeveloped character or a ‘bad’ character. Hey, they might be looking to develop their character but don’t have the chance because they’re new or unknowing to most lore, meaning some people won’t accept them. 

Help people. Give advice. Don’t just write “I ignore badrp”. Actually get out there and make this place better.

It is nice to see a well laid out thread but... do you ever think what appearance it sets to some? Some of us, like me, get super scared of not being good enough. I’m not saying a good layout is bad (I LOVE good layouts) but... maybe have a notice somewhere that you don’t mind certain things, that you are friendly etc? I feel so disheartened to find a great character, a great blog, only to have STRICT RULES and no hint to the person behind the monitor.... It’s off putting and rather scary, so i don’t even bother following said person because they seem like an elitist robot. 

I see private blogs and instantly get put off of ever trying to interact because... I feel I’m not GOOD ENOUGH. That my icons aren’t good enough, that my writing isn’t good enough, that my character isn’t good enough. I understand wanting to only role play with mutuals (I really do)... but... some people go too far. They become wrapped up in elitism and start to LOOK DOWN upon others who aren’t ‘good enough. I don’t bother with these private blogs because I feel I will never be good enough, so I just don’t chance it.

We are all here to have fun. DO NOT LET YOURSELF BECOME AN ELITIST. Just have fun HOW YOU WANT. Do what you bloody well want and whoever accepts that will have fun with you. Don’t worry about judgement of the ‘better’ people. Just. Have. Fun. Have a million Pokemon. Have a tragic history. Do what you want. Just. Have. Fun. And the fun people will come to you.

After being subjected to such hate on Warcraft, I was fucking PETRIFIED of Tumblr. At first my blog was just a personal one, but I realised tumblr had an RP scene and got interested, made Shay... then once I realised people were elitist in this fandom too, I got scared. I was sad too that elitism had crept here also. Again, I don’t mind people who feel the need to have perfectly made threads and who have standards.. I just hate knowing that some people are really elitist and only RP with ‘the best’. This isn’t a competition. This is a hobby for fun.

I used to role play for fun but I was burned and ridiculed and it took a lot of personal effort and struggle to change my mindset from becoming like the people of hatred to the more open person I am now. I did become like them and I am ashamed I did. 

So if you’re ever nervous and scared of talking to me or interacting... Just take that step forwards and know who I am; an open, non-elitist, accepting RPer who will role play with anybody and everybody because I believe role play is for fun.

I’m here to have fun. I know you are.