#i don't have a digital copy of this book to take screenshots of

[spockandawe]

Double edit: actually, that's enough of that.

Edit: I was expecting maybe thirty notes tops. This is a surprise, and one that doesn't delight me. If I hear about any harassment stemming from this post, I'll be more pissed at the harasser than the person this is about.

God. Dammit.

I hate this, let's just out that out there! I'm unhappy that I'm talking about any of this, I'm unhappy there's an issue that's come up at the intersection of media preservation, respecting authors, and one of my favorite book series. And I'm unhappy that I've censored the names in the screenshots I'm about ti post! I'm not happy that I'm helping to slide consequences away from someone who thought this was an acceptable thing to do to a modern working author. But I'm even less happy this is something that happened in the first place, and I'm VERY unhappy the original post has been deleted without a whisper of accountability or apology.

And here's a partial screenshot of the IA page, which has since been removed. I get the excitement to share something you love with a new audience. This isn't the right way to go about it.

First, if Martha Wells' patreon is still in place, I encourage everyone in the strongest possible terms to go sign up for it. It'll charge you one dollar. I've been a member since probably 2018, and I mistakenly believed it was locked to new members (it's labeled 'Currently Closed To New Patrons') until I had reason to look it up last night, when I tripped across this reddit post from earlier this year.

Now. I was looking it up because of this sudden patreon message:

Even if the patreon goes away, I still recommend that people sign up. Explore the stories! They're very fun! Even though the patreon has been dormant for years, I've loved having that repository in place.

In fact, in the interest of full disclosure, what kept me from immediately reblogging last night is that I've felt the same archival urges! I bound a hard copy of these stories earlier this year, and let me quote my own words from that post:

I live in a state of perpetual low key stress over the impermanence of digital media and that goes extra for sites that aren’t designed to work well as archives. I hope, desperately, that someday Martha Wells publishes more raksura, maybe even including these stories! I will buy it immediately. No thoughts, wallet empty. I own all her other raksura books in literally three formats, fingers crossed that by printing this, I can actualize a formal official printing of these stories by the author 😂

So. Archiving, yes. But especially with a living, working author, I would never DREAM of posting a public free-for-all with IA and mediafire links. My most charitable interpretation is that OP thought it was fine since the stories were "free," even though the writeups acknowledge that access costs a dollar. Ao3 is also free. Reposting someone else's fic is still understood to be a dick move.

Last night i was left kind of stunned, and I was hoping to see some kind of response from op this morning taking responsibility, and was... disappointed to see that the post was just deleted. The IA listing was deleted too, and I hadn't actually looked up the mediafire post yet but I'm guessing it's also been nuked. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see if there was anything more in the comments, so I found a surviving reblog. And there was!

So I'm writing this post because I'm... frustrated. Taking down the files is a good step. Posting them publicly was a worse step, but hey. I still more than understand if Martha Wells still deletes her patreon. I don't understand what sending her files of her own stories is meant to accomplish, but whatever. Ascribing a profit-driven motive is driving me up a wall, though. She's financially stable. I read her email, and what i see is frustration that even though it only cost a dollar to access 62k of her work through her own chosen location, control of her writing is being forcibly removed from her. I'm sure that seeing copies sold by third parties wouldn't help, but I don't think that's the root issue.

This is a fandom-heavy website, I'm sure most of us have seen posts about not reposting art when you can share directly from the artist's blog. I've seen posts about stop copying your ao3 faves over to wattpad just because you like reading there better. At a fundamental level, I read the message from Martha Wells as a deep frustration at having no way to share her creative work without someone removing control of it from her hands. And I don't know if there's any way to really take back that damage.

[kerubimcrepin]

LIVEBLOG: Dofus Novel 4, The Thirsty Beheader

I apologize for my absence. Translating this novel has burned me out from the fandom in a pretty major way, and I also got into a different fandom in the meantime and am, like, three 4k word chapters deep into a longfic for said new fandom. Besides that, I had a depressive episode and went insane for a while. Basically, I've been a bit busy.

At the same time I release this post, I have uploaded the new, updated versions of both translations (since this liveblog is mostly a reason for me to reread and fix stuff) to MEGA and VK, so I recommend you download the new versions!

I will mostly be copying the text directly, to bypass tumblr's image restriction, but some screenshots will be provided. For example:

If pride is a sin, then the typesetting and cleaning I went through with this book will have me go to hell after I die. (I don't think I'm a master, but I did a pretty good job, ok?)

A cart had just entered the District of the Lost Steps. It stopped in front of the store, as two Srams* got out.

I love the internal consistency of the street being named here. Thank you, author of this book, for caring.

“Are you sure about this,” asked the little guy, “Is this really the right place?” “Yeah,” replied the tall one, “There aren't thirty-six Shushu* houses in the neighborhood.”

LMAO this is something Kerubim is actually known for, huh?

At the time that this book takes place in, joris can't read very well. Cute...

Also, hehe... I am pretty proud of the way this part of the book was cleaned + the font + the layers and colors and opacity I applied to the text, to make it fit in with the paper.

^^^ This is me btw, during this entire post. ^^^

The entirety of the epilogue and prologue are typed on top of cleaned backgrounds sourced from the scan. The rest of the book is typed in front of a digital background. This artistic choice was made because....... You can't set different pages to be different colors in word. You have to overlay some image or a textbox, if you want a page to be a different color.

Anyway — I had a lot of fun searching for the fonts from this book! (and far less fun searching for appropriate fonts for the Russian translation since none of the fonts this book uses have cyrilic versions...)

The fonts this book uses are: Dimbo, Chelsea Market, and Aleo. Google them for all your Dofus Aux Tresors de Kerubim related needs.

The fonts I chose to use in the russian translation are: Brydan Write, Correction Brush, Curinn, and Itim. I just had to make do with what I had, ok?

“My Papycha said it's urgent!” exclaimed Joris, “He could be in danger. Maybe he's being attacked by the Thirsty!” Even Pupuce looked worried. Simone reread the message, thinking out loud: “The Huffing Bow Wow tavern is in the Pandawa district... There's plenty of bamboo milk there. Maybe the neighborhood is overrun by the Thirsters?” “And soon, the whole city will be under attack!” concluded Joris.

Nobody knows how to escalate a situation better than a 7yo with anxiety. God bless <3

The Ecaflip goes full "war machine" mode: he cuts and slices through the living dead for the entire night, and when the golden disk of the sun finally rises over the horizon, the scenery is carpeted with the Thirsty. The region is saved. Kerubim becomes a legend. To thank him, the local lord offers him the... “Hey... Joris? Are you listening?” asked Simone. She began shaking the boy, who, abruptly snapping out of his reverie, mumbled: “Huh? What?”

Joris is so normal. So sane.

“Bye-bye,” added Bowiknif. But Luis slammed the door in their faces, roaring: “You're not going anywhere!” “Oh yeah?” hissed Bakstab, “Is that so?” “Would you like us to chop up your friends with a Brakmarian steel sword of Chouque?” questioned the other, “Or with Samuel J. Axe?” Luis muttered what sounded like a string of expletives, before reluctantly opening the door to the two robbers, who bolted out without further ado.

I'm LITERALLY fucking insane about this.

“I'm sorry,” said Luis, “I tried to hold them back, but...” “We know, we saw everything,” the girl cut him off, “You did your best, Luis.”

Actually deranging. Also explains why Luis did fuckall about Sipho, Harebourg, and Ush — there's just not much he can actually do.

She spotted a Dragoturkey standing near a trough. In two strides, she reached the animal, untied it, and climbed onto its back like an experienced Dragogirl*. “Let’s go!” she said to the boy.

This once again raises a some questions about Simone's past — when did she learn how to ride dragoturkeys? Is it the same reason why she knows how to fight, at least a little?

Then again, maybe she's just being an Osamodas here.

I love, love, love the Simone&Joris content in this book. Their bond is so important to me... She's the aunt who stepped up.

This art is so nice...

They had run like mad through half the city, arrived at the wrong address, turned back just as a thunderstorm broke out, wandered around in the rain in the Pandawa district, and FINALLY arrived at the Huffing Bow Wow Tavern, a large, long building with a thatched roof.

They're so fucking stupid. I love them.

“Ah, there you are!” called out Kerubim, “I almost thought you’d make me wait some more!”

I wish english also had the phrase "I almost thought you'd be late" as a cunty response when someone's an hour or three late to an event. I don't think the english translation I made conveys the sheer frustration.

Kerubim raised an eyebrow — a perfect copy of the circumflex accent:

I struggled with this part a lot in russian sjfkgdfg. It made me nerd out a little bit too.

I didn't have a lot of comments here, but eh. It was nice to finally get this over with dfjgkdsfg.

[nightmare-nostalgia]

★Video Game Instruction Booklets: Gone But Not Forgotten

Ever since I contemplated on making a blog for nostalgic ramblings and thoughts, I've been wanting to discuss those weird paper books you'd get in old games.

Nowadays, console games only come with a plastic box and the game cartridge/disc inside. Why? To cut costs of course! But there's a certain art to these flimsy paper books that I've grown to love and want to discuss...

The table of contents for Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly.

Obviously, the purpose of these manuals was to teach you how to play the game. Additionally, they might tell you about the story, characters, and/or the goal of the game. They were pretty much guidebooks for anyone who needed a quick reference on something.

Each and every byte counted back in the early days, so something as mundane as a prologue or a thorough explanation of the controls were put into the manual for you to read before starting the game.

Diddy Kong Racing for example, throws you right into the game, but there is actually a backstory to the game and it's characters.

These days however, games hardly require a lengthy set of exposition text to tell it's story or elaborate on it's characters. The most modern example I can think of would be the Sonic Team releasing prequel digital comics to elaborate on it's story. (See: Sonic Forces and it's digital comics). And while Nintendo offers digital and printed copies of it's old games for virtual console, you don't get them when you purchase a physical copy of a modern game these days.

I get why, of course.

If games are getting more advanced and thorough, the budget is gonna keep going up. And the game itself does all of the explaining for you, so why invest into a thick wad of paper? I don't necessarily think that games should get back into the habit of investing their triple A funds into printing books again. The trees have had it enough as it is. But I do think that instruction manuals of the old days were quite fun and charming to look at! Even for games I've never played.

Many video game manuals have been scanned and preserved forever thankfully, allowing anyone to read them at any time. Vimm's Lair has an entire project dedicated to preserving them, so I insist you give your favorite games a quick read if you're ever bored. I'll be taking screenshots, sharing them here, and discuss my thoughts.

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour is a surprisingly complicated game.

This explains the controls of this beloved (and agonizingly hard imo) Mario sports game, and I love how colorful and precise the manual is. If you've played this game, you should know that bar depicted in the image fills up rather quickly. So, it's nice the designers took their time in trying to explain the preciseness required to perform a good shot. The game also does feature a tutorial mode, so you can also watch it in person, perhaps making the guide obsolete and a waste of paper. But I still really do admire it.

Next, I want to show you all the character introductions pages.

These pages were missing on Vimm's Lair, so I had to find them the Video Game Museum's PDF archive.

These three pages feature the renders for the playable characters in the game, as well as advertising that Mario Golf: Advance Tour (GBA game) would have support for the game and allow you to connect and develop your character in that game too. The quotes next to each character are what they say to you when you challenge them in a Character Match.

I think there's something just so charming about it, but maybe that's just me? Maybe I'll make a separate post featuring these pages exclusively.

Sometimes though, guides were more than just an explanation of how things worked. They were tools to be used for gameplay progression, which is genius.

The original Legend of Zelda for the NES gave you a map that you could use to reference where you might've been. You can also check off where you find certain items. This page was also not on Vimm's lair, but was found on Nintendo's website.

Of course, by the time the internet became more accessible, walkthroughs on GameFAQs and Youtube became more and more popular. And you were able to follow a guide, making the need for such a tool hardly of use. Not to mention, games by then had evolved to accompany tutorials and maps where you could mark your locations ingame. (See: Etrian Odyssey). Guidebooks were steadily on their way out, but games were still being published with them. And sometimes, with advertisements.

An advertisement for some figurines of Rinoa, Cloud, Vaan, and Yuna from various Final Fantasy game, found within a The World Ends With Us booklet.

I also loved how the books had notes on the back too for you to make reference of. Of course, most collectors would've probably preferred you not touch them, but did anyone else fill them in ever?

At the end of the day, instruction booklets are a thing of the past. We can easily look up the controls in-game, read about the story online, watch walkthroughs for explanations on how to fix our controls, etc.

But the novelty of these physical items and the thought put into their design are fun to read through and see. And even if you don't have them in your hands, it is a collector's job to preserve the item and share it with everyone.

At least, in my opinion.

[tokidokitokyo]

February 2024 Seitokai Bookclub | レーエンデ国物語

This month our first book club read of the year kicks off! We are reading レーエンデ国物語 (which is around middle school level, with a lot of fantasy type vocabulary).

Join us in the Seitokai Discord Server and grab the Japanese bookclub role to get started! Message me with any questions you might have!

Bookclub FAQ (courtesy of @onigiriforears)

What if I've never read a book in Japanese yet? I'm not confident in my skills.

That's fine! Not only do we always have a group vocab sheet that we collectively add to (anonymously), but we have ongoing discussions about whatever book we're reading. That means you're free to ask questions, send screenshots, rant about a character or anything like that. You'll definitely find me asking about certain grammar points or if using a particular set of kanji for a word changes the nuance in a particular sentence.

What's the goal of your bookclub?

We're interested in fostering confidence in reading in your target language without feeling that you have no one to turn to. Our server has people of all levels of fluency, meaning that there's always someone who can answer your question. And if we can't, we have people we can reach out to ask. We won't leave you hanging!

You don't seem to choose books I'm interested in--how can I change that?

We take suggestions and vote as a bookclub for what we'll be reading next. If your book doesn't win the first time you submit it, try, try again!

Where can I get this book?

I got a digital copy on bookwalker.jp but you can also get it on other Japanese book websites, like Kinokuniya or Amazon. Ask in Discord for more information!

We hope to see you there! Seitokai Discord Server

[onigiriforears]

Jul. 2024 Seitokai Bookclub | 気になってる人が男じゃなかった

For July 2024, the Seitokai Bookclub will be reading the first volume of 気になってる人が男じゃなかった (The Guy She Liked Wasn't a Guy at All).

What if I'm not confident in joining the bookclub because I have difficulty with vocab? We've got that covered! For the Seitokai Bookclub, we collectively add to a shared vocab list so that a) no one feels ashamed of coming across a word that they didn't know and b) you can access the vocab list at any time (yes, even when that book is no longer being read by the group, you still have access to the vocab lists). If you have any other questions about joining the bookclub, the discord server, books we've read in the past, or where to start your Japanese reading journey, feel free to send me a DM or an ask!!

If you need assistance accessing a digital copy of the book, feel free to drop me a line!

Hope to see you there! | Seitokai Bookclub

More detailed FAQs under the break:

What if I've never read a book in Japanese yet? I'm not confident in my skills. That's fine! Not only do we always have a group vocab sheet that we collectively add to (anonymously), but we have ongoing discussions about whatever book we're reading. That means you're free to ask questions, send screenshots, rant about a character or anything like that. You'll definitely find me asking about certain grammar points or if using a particular set of kanji for a word changes the nuance in a particular sentence.

What's the goal of your bookclub? Well, we're interested in fostering confidence in reading in your target language without feeling that you have no one to turn to. Our server has people of all levels of fluency, meaning that there's always someone who can answer your question. And if we can't, we have people we can reach out to ask. We won't leave you hanging!

You don't seem to choose books I'm interested in--how can I change that? Well, we take suggestions and vote as a bookclub for what we'll be reading next. If your book doesn't win the first time you submit it, try try again! We've had many books that didn't win the first time, but were eventually read, so don't be discouraged!

We're waiting for you! | Seitokai Bookclub

[thedomesticanthropologist]

To artists learning how to draw: TRACE

Trace everything. Take screenshots. Trace em. Take selfie. Trace them. Erase your tracing and Trace the same image again

Buy a tracing pad, print pictures, Trace em.

I don't CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS this is how you LEARN

This is how you DEVELOP MUSCLE MEMORY

I'm not talking about posting art, by the way. Don't post things without the original creators permission and. Link back- thats a whole other issue. I'm talking about you learning. So fill your sketchbook, fill your digital art sketch book with loads and loads OF TRACED ART

The issue is passing it off as original/yours. This isn't for THAT this is for YOUR SKILLS. Keep it private if you're worried, but there is NO MORAL ISSUE with sitting in your room and tracing as much as you can until you learn how to do things.

You CANNOT BE EXPECTED to grow as an artist under this PURITANICAL ATTITUDE that art should come from you mind inventing something completely new without reference

Can people do that? Yeah! AFTER YEARS OF PRACTICE OR WITH A RELATIVELY RARE ABILITY and its not something to be expected from others! Professional artists will Trace a pose over and over and over again and then do a re-draw afterwards. This is FINE

Copy art. COPY IT DIRECTLY. If you're not tracing, re-create other people's art and keep it in your sketch book. Remember: this is SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS SAFE AND GOOD.

You are not going to get in trouble for it.

What you will get in trouble for is copying art and posting it as your own. That's different.

Please, please, growing artists: don't hold yourself to impossible standards and then punish yourself for not being good. Copy those who have done it before you until you're comfortable and THEN start creating your original pieces once you've get the foundations down.

And don't feel bad about it. Just don't *steal* art. It's that easy

[skulkingfoxes]

hi, i bought your comic "twigs" and loved it, i was wondering if you had any willingness to share the process of making it?

im an artist whos trying to start doing comics but i find the idea of starting a larger scale comic (such as kingfisher) wildly intimidating in terms of art direction. im trying to start small, such as a 30 page comic (ive done 5-10 page comics before) but i still find the art direction so scary lol

(Oh god this sent is was much longer ago than I thought I'm so sorry I took so long)

First off, thank you so much! I'm glad you liked Twigs, it's a project that still holds special place in my heart.

Okay, SO- the Twigs you know today was made originally for Shortbox, a digital comic fair for debuting short comics.

The concept of what would become Twigs was one developing in my brain for a while. Or, rather, the concept of a changeling trying to figure out where they belong after the person they were meant to replace comes home. At that point though, the changeling was just a cute fairy boy, because who wouldn’t want that. It was playing with the idea of choosing your own family and where you belong. But it was only a vague half idea, I didn’t really have a good sense of how long it could be or even what the point was. I remember musing that it was a story that I would probably never make. These are the only sketches I made for it.

It wasn’t till I remembered another variant of the changeling, one where the creature was just an enchanted bale of hay or twigs and thrown into the fire once they’re discovered. I wondered what it was like to realize that you are in fact completely disposable, destined to fall apart and be forgotten. I thought this was far too depressing of a concept and that I would never use it.

If you’ve read the story, then you know that I changed my mind. The idea just stuck around in my brain too much, it gave such a bittersweetness to the story. It was then the story began to come together. I ended up writing the whole first draft of the outline in a phone-tapping frenzy at 1 am. It's almost stream of conscious prose, where I write out how I imagine the scene going. I'm a very visual thinker.

You mostly asked this in terms of how I figured things out visually. Something that helped me out when I first started was making a pinterest board. It was very useful to put together a visual library to help gestate my ideas and vision for the story.

The inspiration of the witch was the folk tale character Baba Yaga, so that was a starting place for her and, since her home is an extension of her, figuring out the cottage. Down to earth, practical, with an agelessness to them. The Witch doesn't share her home with others so everything in it is suited to her. But it's also warm and cozy, since the cottage serves as a safe space for the characters to talk and rest. Getting reference photos helped a lot in imagining the home and making it feel lived-in.

You can also see me finding a couple of photos that helped my picture the character Tristan and his big feather cloak and other illustrations/photos reflect the world I wanted to create. A dark ancient setting with strangeness and sense of whimsy. Like a sad fairytale.

Don't be afraid to look at movies, books, paintings, etc when finding visual inspiration! For another project, a colored comic based in the Salem Witch trials, I was taking screenshots from the movie VVitch to copy the palette lol. Be a scavenger! Do studies! Take pieces of everything around you to make something unique!

After that, I admit, a lot of it was a lot of sketching, Drawing out ideas, figuring out vibes, I took a pen to cheap sketchbook and just brainstormed. This is how I often bang out design- just keep drawing them until it feels right. It feels a bit like carving away at clay to find the statue underneath. I like designing with a pen because it keeps me from getting too precious with the drawings. These sketches are meant for exploring, not for drawing anything nice yet.

(I know there was a lot more than this but I can't find those files now rip)

I also say- you don't have to figure everything out before you start drawing. It's great to get used to drawing your characters and maybe a blue layout of certain rooms, but it's not 100% needed.

I've seen comic artists obsess over perfecting character sheets and concept art and never actually starting the comic. I've never made a character sheet unless a job demanded I did.

I'm sure there is some pithy quote here I could use, but I find so much of comics to be improv based on what a scene needs lol. If the characters go to the other side of a room that I didn't design, I will probably just find a decent reference (thank you pinterest) sketch it out, and use that.

This really is a great representation of my process 80% of the time.

Whew that ended up being long lol. Sorry about that. But I hope it was helpful at all!

[archduchessofnowhere]

how do you keep track of all this information? like when you answer an ask, do you look through books you think would have the relevant information, or do you keep notes/folders/anything else? thank you for the hard work you put out!

Yes I usually I look through books, but I use the search word option from the Archive to get it done faster; for instance for this ask I got the other day about Helene Taxis I remembered Corti had quoted her letters, but I didn't remember in which part of the book it was - I have the physical book but it was just quicker to search it on the Archive. The main reason why this Maria Carolina ask took me so long to answer was because I was going through the tabs of my physical copy to put together an answer, which was drastically slower.

If I have a digital copy or I'm reading on the Archive I highlight the text/put tabs/take a screenshot if there's something that I found relevant/interesting. I started to tab and annotate my physical books recently because I realized that if I don't then later I can't find anything lol (don't worry I only do that with the newer paperback editions, the old/rare books are intact and will remain so as long as I have them, and hopefully also afterwards). I should probably save this info in a document or folder so it's easier to find later but I haven't yet.

Also thank you for your words!

[moral-autism]

So, as a Wikipedia user and editor, I disagree with the glowing reviews this art is getting, and would like to share some context.

This image was deleted from Wikimedia Commons in 2014. The illustration for "Mood disorder" is now an 1869 illustration. Context for the deletion of this specific file includes the following:

Commons:Deletion requests/File:Mooddisorder.jpg

Talk:Mood disorder#What's up with the picture?

Talk:David_Horvitz#This artist featured in mood disorder article

Commons:Deletion requests/Files by User:Albianmoonlight

User ghost-revolution says the following in the tags, which has been going around as a screenshot:

#i thought it was cool #scrolled down #then scrolled back up again because wait a minute #this project RULES #aside from the obvious 'everyone goes to wikipedia for images of a basic concept' it's also weirdly profound? #because like it could have been an image of anything #he specifically chose a self portrait and put it under mood disorder #he was watching himself - posed in a way that feels vulnerable and emotionally raw - spread across the internet #being used for everything from news articles to self help apps #this more succinctly expresses the horror of the digital age taking your most vulnerable moments and using them to drive revenue #than anything else that's even attempted it #it doesn't matter what the article is or the app it #it's still exploitation #anyway i don't know anything about this guy but this spoke to me #you don't spend ten years on a project like this unless you believe 100% in the message

However, I don't think I agree.

Uploading an image to Wikimedia Commons requires licensing others to use it. This isn't a fine-print terms of service thing or people just assuming they can do whatever with a picture on social media! The first page of the Wikimedia Commons Upload Wizard, which appears to have been active in 2012, is a simple illustrated tutorial on licensing, prominently featuring the text "Remember: By sharing your work on Wikimedia Commons, you grant anyone permission to use, copy, modify, and sell it without notifying you." It's not clear to me how a website like Wikimedia Commons ought to do better in terms of clarity.

More generally, Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons are valuable projects, and much of Horvitz's art takes the form of tampering with them. Considering him a victim or analogous to a victim here is unreasonable.

According to BlouinArtInfo, a 2013 project of Horvitz's involved "deleting his own Wikipedia profile one sentence at a time, tweeting the deleted sentences as they are removed."

This is kind of like rearranging books in a public library as performance art and then leaving it for someone else to clean up. Yes, it's reversible, but you're creating more work for volunteers and disrupting a public good, in what's basically a fancier version of vandalizing an article for lulz.

David Horvitz

Mood Disorder (2012–22)

A project in which the artist uploaded a stock image-style self portrait to  Wikimedia commons and placed it on the Wikipedia page for “Mood disorder.” From there, he observed the propagation and proliferation of the image across the internet.

[clotpolesonly]

( -pg 342)

( -pg 367)

( -pg 451)

[nerdyprocrastinator]

How I've Used My iPad to Boost Productivity

25 September 2022

A recent trend for students in high school and college is to buy new technology, such as new computers or tablets, to help them be better students. There are many benefits to using new technology, especially with the way that current technology is constantly getting better. It's been a couple months but I did end up going with the trend of getting a new iPad to use for school back in May of this year.

1. Textbook Notes

My textbook notes have gotten better over the past couple of months as I am now able to easily switch back and forth between the textbook I'm using and the notebook I'm writing in. Before I got my tablet, I was constantly confused about where I was in the textbook when I closed it and when I looked back after taking a single note from the actual textbook. With the tablet, I am able to automatically open my textbook to the page that I was last looking at, as well as mark exactly where I was in the reading before I either stopped reading or moved to take notes on what I just read.

Another benefit is that I am able to easily copy images between my textbook and my notes due to screenshots. I take the screenshot immediately from my textbook and format my notes around the screenshot instead of just making a random space that may or may not be able to fit a clear picture of the image from the textbook or a drawing of the picture that will probably just confuse me more.

2. Consolidation

One thing that my program in school has shown me that is important is that you need to be able to get to everything that you need as quickly as you can. This used to be a binder for me, but that took up a lot of space in my bags, was extremely heavy, and just wasn't that useful as classes started doing more things online.

My tablet has allowed me to put all of the information I have from a class into one singular place, whether it be an app, a digital folder, or just on the main screen of the tablet. I am able to find everything that I need in just a few taps rather than shuffling around randomly in a binder, folder, or book bag.

3. Documents

With my iPad, I have been able to take all of the documents that my teachers have given me online and actually use them. I am able to easily take the documents they gave me, download them, and annotate them as they go over the document in class, as opposed to when the teacher would just show us the document and talk about it, leaving the students to take weird notes about the document in general rather than the specific things that the teacher points out in class.

It also allows me to turn all of the paper documents into digital documents so that they can all be easily annotated and kept in the same place.

I am just trying to share my experience with getting a new iPad. I am not trying to tell you that you should absolutely no matter what get a tablet to help out with school or that getting this tablet is going to completely solve your problems as a procrastinator, but it has helped me a lot on getting to the path that I want to be on.

If you have an iPad, let me know how your tablet has helped you and how you use it to help you. And if you don't, let me know what kinds of things you do in your life that kind of match what I mentioned above.

I love hearing from you guys and I can't wait to see you guys achieve everything you want.

[iiyanadesu]

PDF Zine Review: REPLAY 3 Artbook by Steve Ahn

REPLAY 3

Artist: Steve Ahn / @steveahn Rating: G Page count: 32 File size: 185MB Price: $12

Buy it here!

I bought this book just on the day my work went unexpectedly stressful, which lead to some impulse buying for online zines and books. And this is the first thing I bought, yay!

I don't know if Steve Ahn has a Replay 1 or Replay 2 artbooks because all I found is this. But. If you're a Voltron fan, this is one of the must-haves. Physical copies are sold out so digital ones are all you get.

Bonus: the cute Plance date artwork by him that people have been spreading around? You can see it in its full PDF glory. Yes, I have screenshot it as huge as my phone can take. Nope, I'm not gonna post it on my blog. Buy it. Buy, buy, buy.

First of all you'll find that the file is HUGE. It's on my phone and it's slow to load, sometimes freezes when I scroll too fast lol. But. Huge filesize usually means high image quality for printing, soo... 😏

Anyway, among the contents of the book are:

- The VLD-FFXV image set (missing Prompto!Lance unfortunately 😭😭😭 *saves image from tumblr instead*)

- The VLD-Korean Warrior image set (only Allura and Keith)

- The artist!Keith illustration (the one where Keith draws Coran and the rest of the team watches)

- A poster of well-known anime / game detectives (I recognize Conan, Kindaichi, L; don't know the other two but one is Professor Layton maybe?)

- ...is that a Goku!Keith? lol actually I don't think so

- A Voltron Paladin group illustration where Lance is at the center of it looking cool. Hmmmmmmmm? 😏😏😏😏😏😏😏

- Tifa from FFVII

- and works from various projects that I have never known. Sorry, my knowledge about animation is limited.

So. If you're a fan of VLD and love Steve Ahn's works, consider supporting him and buy the artbook. Your contribution will be donated to ChildFund Korea.

Bonus: I also bought the online ticket to his exclusive pilot episode of his new indie project, "Blossom Detective Holmes : Selfie with a Strange Intruder," which will be reviewed soon.

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

I definitely don't think of DOOM as "the meaning of life" -- I've played it a bunch, I've made my own posts about it in the past, but that's not my primary association with it, nor do I expect people who haven't played it much to get a ton of "value" out of a post talking about it.

To me, the fun of the game is that it has such a bad interface, like Cat's Eye except fucking real, and I had an experience while playing that was this bizarre loop of fun and frustration, of "oh shit here comes the demon" and "oh shit it's the demon" and, at the very end of the game when I beat it, "OK, I got this." And then later, "ok, I guess that's good, what do I do now" and "OK, I guess I know where I am and what direction I am facing, let me see what direction I have to face now." It's not the most relaxing experience ever. But at the same time it's not so bad that you can't do anything with it, it's not so good that it's kind of bad, it's just that it's there and you know where it is and you know where it is and what direction it is facing, and you know where it is, right?

And in the end, the game is over and you know where it is (in the same part of the room) and what direction it is pointing toward (left-ward) and what directions it is pointing away from, and you know what direction the pointing finger is at, and you know exactly where it is, and the game is over. And in the end, you got it, which is OK. Then you think it's OK to get out of the hole because you don't have to be "the meaning of the game," you can just jump out and it will be OK and you don't have to have believed it but you do have to know it's there and know it's OK to have it and OK to jump out of the hole you'll find yourself in and jump into your own hole instead of trying to get out the top of your current one (there's no top, remember) and OK to jump into your own hole that you are in. OK, then you take your own picture. And then it's over and the rest is history.

The picture is taken because the game is over. The game is over because it is taken. The game is a metaphor, yes, but at the end of the day I think we should pay the game developers in digital coins or whatever it's called.

But then, OK, then I go to a bookstore and pick out a book, say "A Game for Christmas," or "The Meaning of Life?" or even a copy of DOOM -- not that it really matters what game I get, but "the fun is you see" -- and then after a while I'm reading it, and I'm like ahh because I like Doom, which I had only played one time in its early days for which I've never re-played, and now I am reading this thing about how people (or demons, depending on whether you are trying to do something or not) came through the very "gates of Hell" that you yourself fought through, to do this or that or anything in Hell, so that you can be sure that it's not "just" being there again, but it's DOOM, it's real being in Hell, because even if your flesh is turned to stone and you have to carry on, if your skin is also going to be turned to stone at some point and you can no longer carry on, still you can say "well, if it's like this, it might as well be good. So I think it's probably OK that I'm alive right now, after a certain amount of pain that might be turning my skin back into stone now, but I don't see how it can be good. So I have chosen to accept what I've experienced as not good, and I'm doing this in real Hell and I do not have any control what happens now so I don't know but I am going to accept it because, well, I'm there."

The first time I ever played Doom? It was very "fun" but I could never quite tell whether the sense of wonder I was experiencing had some deeper (more profound or more "real") meaning behind it than I thought it had, because I had not yet seen the full extent of the "hardcore" interface. I had always wanted more of this thing I had seen in screenshots.

And I have seen the real hardcore of the game. And it's good. If you haven't seen it yet, just try the game.

But I don't think my sense of wonder was about to be solved. What I actually learned from DOOM:VR is that games are not about "fun," they are about having an idea about what you're doing, and how difficult the puzzles are, and what the world costs, etc.. I am playing this game for the story, it's playing me, etc. It's not a fun experience anymore, it's just "I am playing." And I could do that by just downloading the ISO, but no, I want to play a game that is the meaning of life! I mean, I play it and I look at my achievements. I do what I can for its good start out, and so what I have to do. I do my work. I go where I am. I think "oh God, what the hell is the cost to me now," then I move to the next direction, "now the cost must be to me, now I must do it, if I move forward now it will cost, oh God, what am I going to have to pay, OH FUCK OH FUCK I'm at the end and the cost has been to me now. But is it a good ending? Is it the same thing I thought the cost was before?" But then I see the cost, and it's infinite. And infinite.

And I'm excellent at what I am. I'm great. I am the meaning. It's there, it's there, right there, right here, right here. I. I. I. I.

I don't even have any thoughts to go with it. I just experience it and I know it's there, it's here.

And it's only the real cost?

I can't do it.

Hi, Frank. I really like DOOM right now. Did you know that DOOM I and DOOM II got ports for the GBA? I was very surprised

If I did I’d be very much tempted to pick it up! The one in the image is from that first game and it looks great.

The DOOM port is pretty awful, though. The controls are awful, the graphics are awful (with some exceptions), and the music is very repetitive. (It is better than the original music in the original games, which was also repetitive, but I don’t really think it gets any better than that.)

[verycunninglinguist]

Hi! I appreciate all your grad school posts. I was wondering what your study set up was like? I've noticed you don't post the desktop/office shots that a lot of gradblrs do...

Hi! Thanks for this message. Honestly I just…don’t post those fancy ~aesthetic~ study spot shots because I am, unsurprisingly to anyone who knows me in real life, a severe minimalist in all things, including in my study space. I need it to be clean and not contain any unnecessary crap.I am also almost entirely digital in my work - I would much rather read articles and even books online/in PDF form, and take notes on my computer as I read, than read in print and then type up notes later. It’s just what works for me - I highly recommend playing around with different reading and note-taking strategies and see what works for you!So my study set up, especially for real intellectual work (as opposed to admin stuff, emails) is just my computer, the book I’m working with if I only have a paper copy, my water bottle, and maybe a mug of coffee or tea. This does not make for pretty Insta shots.As far as what my actual notetaking set up looks like - I tried out a bunch of different processing programs before I started the PhD. I settled on one called Ulysses, which I love. But it will depend on your needs - I want one that is minimalist, I don’t need one that can handle large quantities of weblinks or graphics, and I don’t use an iPad or something so I don’t care how effectively the software transfers over. I looked at Evernote, Scrivener, etc as well.Here’s a screenshot of some notes from earlier in the semester: