#i drew this on the pages of my planner

[dreambreathing]

every so often i have to draw one of these diagrams to show someone how moon phases work

[mysticode54]

ICO's Japanese Manual Translated Into English

Earlier this year, I began the task of translating the Japanese Manual for ICO which, to my knowledge, no one has attempted before. I covered pages 4 through 22 of the original PS2 manual and blocked the text appropriately to match the original manual's structure. Ideally, you should be able to line it up against the real manual and know which paragraphs provide what information. When I last touched this project, I wasn't wholly satisfied with the presentation but I have to accept that I was being a bit too ambitious about it. I certainly didn't have the energy to fill all the gaps with recreations of the original manual sketches, like I initially wanted. Here is my transcript of the original Japanese text (alongside transcripts of the English manuals): https://icoshrine.neocities.org/manual_transcripts#Japan%20PS2 The goal of my translation was to remain as faithful to the original wording as possible, changing things only for the sake of clarity, and the flow of the sentences. I acknowledge my translation is subject to critique. I am a novice when it comes to Japanese translation, though I did my best, revised the draft several times, and consulted someone more experienced with the language for feedback. Beneath the cut are some personal thoughts and theories regarding the various versions of this game manual.

Those paying attention to ICO's lore might notice there are some stark differences to how the Japanese manual and English manuals (both NTSC-U and PAL) present the story. The English manuals give us many additional details about the people of Ico's village and the nature of his curse:

"Ico's nightmare started the day he drew his first breath. In his village, the birth of a normal child is a source of happiness and relief. Proud fathers show off their new offspring, reassuring themselves and others that this time, the curse has not left its mark. But some births bring suspicion and fear. Once in every generation, the curse arrives with the birth of a special child born with tiny horns jutting from his head. With word of a cursed birth, fear leaps from person to person like a plague. The whole village settles into a state of quiet, suspicious panic. Any misfortune that befalls the village is blamed on the child with horns. If a crop fails or an illness strikes, he is blamed. Everyone wishes for the day of the sacrifice and the return to good fortune." - Page 5, ICO NTSC-U Manual

The Japanese manual, meanwhile, speaks as little on the matter as possible:

"Ico had horns.  Ico was the only one in the village with horns. When a child is born with horns, it is the tradition of the village to offer the child as a human sacrifice to a vacant Castle that towers over the sea. This year, Ico was to be brought to that Castle." - Page 4, ICO Japanese Manual

The narrative has been put into such succinct terms that no details about the village, or Ico's parents, can really be extrapolated. It doesn't even mention that horned children are born once every generation, which I thought to be a critical factor of ICO's worldbuilding. This manual also keeps quiet about Yorda's name, only indirectly mentions The Queen, and doesn't provide any insight into either of their powers. It treats these elements as reveals you should uncover yourself as you work through the game. As opposed to the English manuals which fill you in on everything, leaving little to no surprise aside from the final stretch of the game. Another minor alteration: Ico is labelled as 13, rather than 12. I doubt that was a mistake however, because we can see from the credits of this manual that Kei Kuwabara (桑原 慶) was responsible for the text (文). Kuwabara was a Planner for the game (alongside Junichi Hosono and Tsutomu Kouno), and he's come to be known as the man primarily responsible for creating the hieroglyphs that make up Yorda's Runic Language. ----- This manual was written by a member of Team ICO itself, so why does it differ so much from the English manuals? Who actually wrote the English manuals? I have a theory regarding this: The English manuals may have been based upon an old game design pitch document, produced and sent to Sony around the time of game's transition from PS1 to PS2. I believe this because both English manuals make reference to a confrontation at the East and West Arenas (collectively referred to as "Symmetry" in the manuals) that never plays out in the final game.

"Symmetry is really two sides of the same riddle, one left and one right. You will confront the other side later in your quest. [...] Take great care in this place, for another cage awaits, and a hidden enemy is about to reveal herself." - Page 19, ICO PAL Manual

"Symmetry is really two sides of the same riddle, one left and one right. Ico will confront the other side later. [...] Another cage awaits and the Queen prepares to take a personal role in stopping the escape." - Page 26, ICO NTSC-U Manual

In the early PS2 storyboards for ICO, there were two scenes of The Queen intervening at East and West Arena. These cutscenes were part of ICO's original script, which was reduced significantly at some point during development, likely before January 2001. So why would these concepts be found in the manuals if they were cut at least a year before publishing? How did this happen? We know for a fact that Team ICO released the game to North America first, albeit in a state they weren't satisfied with. It was clear they had been pressured by the American market to release the game far sooner than they wanted. During the months of July, August, and September 2001, they were likely putting their all into finalizing the version of the game that would ship overseas. This left them no time to handle the packaging themselves, so they left it to Sony, who in turn hired Beeline to design the game's US box art and manual. Reflecting on this, I don't think its a stretch to suggest that Sony was also left with the responsibility of what text to provide Beeline for the US manual. But, seeing as they did not know ICO as well as the team creating it, Sony picked up an old pitch document made by that team, translated it to English, and handed it off to Beeline for printing. This would explain a few things.

The wordiness of the US manual's backstory would be a reflection of the original script's wordiness and willingness to hint at lore that the final game would leave to the imagination.

Ico's age would change from 12 to 13 over the course of development, as a minor tweak the developers decided on after their initial pitch.

The detailed descriptions of enemies in the English manuals give misleading information, including the claim that Shadow Sentries can create 'protective shields' around themselves. In the final game, they functionally accomplish this by ducking under attacks, but there's no indication of visible force fields. Thus, this could be another scrapped concept.

When localizing for the PAL region, I imagine Sony either handed the same Japanese pitch document over to be re-translated, or the PAL packaging team decided to copy the text of the US manual while changing the wording. TL;DR: The English manuals may actually be based on an older iteration of the game's storyline. All extra information gained from English manuals were likely not meant to be revealed to players. Whether you consider this information "canonical" is up to you. The Japanese manual seems to be the only one written around the time of the game's (December 6th) publishing, and is what Team ICO likely wanted to present to players of the game.

[florenceandtheinkmachine]

when life is tough we draw NORMAN

traditional drawing with a sharpie gel pen that i drew on the page of my planner i bought that is supposed to be for my adhd and then i fiddled around with the adjustments in my camera roll to try to make it look like the ingame sketches on joey’s drawing board

bonus doodle below cut

tom i drew in celebration of finishing my first week of classes 🫡 if you also have made it through your classes this week then this Tom is for you soldier

[allidrawscomics]

They all fell asleep early because they're losers.

Happy New Year!

I drew 128 new comic pages last year! Brought TQ out of hiatus, got books made, started using a planner, and now I'm almost finished with Eros & Psyche! This year I want to ramp up production on Tigress Queen and draw way more porn.

Y'all are about to find out who my Fire Emblem Three Houses faves are. This is a threat.

Are you on Bluesky? I have a main account:

And a NSFW account!

[robo-milky]

[More Info]

Nicknames:

Henchman (Grim) | Claws (Ace) | Clochey Wochey (Cater) | House Cat (Leona)

Shrimpy (Floyd) | Trickster -> La Petite Clochette (Rook) | City Kitty (Epel) | Kit -> Honorary Human (Sebek)

Kit of Beasts -> Heart of Man (Malleus)

In Return:

Master _____ (Everyone except for faculty)

Uncle (Ramshackle Ghosts)

Bio:

An emotionally distant girl who thinks with her brains more than her heart. Her words may come off as insensitive, but it’s always said in a neutral tone. Prefers to state the facts and look for the most efficient way out, than tackling more abstract concepts like emotions. Despite this outlook on life, she is a skeptical, worst-case scenario planner. Cloche will go the extra mile if it means security and success is guaranteed. When it comes anything, be it a task/person/subject, Cloche is the type of person who would want to know anything and everything about it to be prepared. When push comes to shove, Cloche will take on the role of leadership and make all the hard decision no one else wants to make. Cloche is a very “the ends justify the means” kind of person.

Core Values -> Competency + Freedom

Background:

A cosplayer from Earth who, after exiting from a con, took a wrong turn to get home and was swept away by the NRC horse carriage.

“I did not put so much effort into studying and making the right friends just for it all to go into smoke! …What’s the point anymore?”

Ghost Camera: “I’m pretty sure Headmaster Crowley gave this to me as binding to keep me here.”

Snow Hand Cream: “Master Rook could tell this cream is from Neige’s line just by the smell! Isn’t that impressive?”

Bandaids: “I originally bought these for myself, but I end up giving them to others…”

Advils: “Would you like one? Binding Bells told me you were getting headaches, so…”

Handkerchief: “Here, let me wipe that up for you, Master.”

Hair ties: “Master Epel gave them to me during a joint P.E. class. The day after, I overheard Master Vil complaining about his missing hair ties.”

Pencil Case: “If you wish to borrow a pencil, I expect you to give me something back as collateral— so I know you’ll return it back to me.”

Lollipops: “The lollipops in Twisted Wonderland are great and all, but they can’t beat the taste of Chupachups.”

Thread and Needle: “Oh, you’re missing a button.”

Lactaid: “You don’t need one… do you?”

Scrapbook: “Do NOT touch.”

Textbook: “I’m so close annotating the whole book. Just a couple pages left…”

Spiral bound notebook: “Master Rook complimented the calligraphy title in my notes! …Maybe I should do the same thing for futures ones.”

Phone: “Master Grim, please stop playing games…”

Sketchbook: “Master Epel complained about me drawing him too ‘girly’, but I only drew what I saw.”

Notable Thoughts: Cloche’s

“Headmaster Crowley must be busy running such a prestigious school like this… So busy, I wonder if he’d have time looking for a way I can go back to my world.”

“Master Grim’s orders aren’t as bad you think. All he really does is make me do his share of the chores. The simplicity of his orders are a blessing compared to other students’…”

“Master Riddle is accomplished, but he throws tantrums too easily at the drop of a pin.”

“Master Ace may be annoying, but he can be a surprisingly reliable when needed.”

“Although Master Deuce has a good attitude, I don’t think I’m patient enough to wait for him to catch up.”

“I do like Master Jack’s work ethic, but his moral compass is suffocating.”

“I can relate to Master Ruggie’s pragmatism to some degree, though I personally disagree with his disregard of fine arts.”

“If Master Azul ever asks about my whereabouts, no he did not.”

“Is it bad I felt no sympathy for Master Kalim when Master Jamil overblotted?”

“I feel like I’ve been seeing Epel more and more since he stayed over at Ramshackle for the VDC. I get that it’s probably convenient for him to go with me, if we’re going to head back to the same destination anyways, but he doesn’t have to accompany during short breaks.”

“I think Master Rook is very admirable! He’s intelligent, athletic, and creative! …I wish more people could give him a chance and see him for who he really is— but… he probably wouldn’t like that… After all, half the things I know about him, he’s never told me in person.”

“I have deep respect for Master Vil, I really do. Although I have some qualms with the lyrics he wrote for ‘Absolutely Beautiful’.”

“Before asking Master Idia for homework help, Master Grim and I always play a game of rock-paper-scissors. …Why? Because neither of us want to be the bargaining chip.”

“I don’t see why I should fawn over the prince of a foreign land— let alone, from another world. Master Malleus will not be my king, nor will I be his subject. Sage Island is out of his jurisdiction, anyways.”

“…Some of my acting was genuine. A part of me was so desperate to rid myself of the curse, that I was fine with fooling myself. I’ll admit, if Master Rook didn’t come first, then I’m sure he would have... ahem— Capable, composed… it’s almost scary.”

Notable Thoughts: Others’

“Cloche could’a been the perfect henchman if he didn’t have to call other people ‘Master’!” - Grim

“With Cloche around, Heartslabyul doesn’t have to resort to using a cat beastman to play the violin, but an actual cat. That way, we can follow rule 529 without any loopholes.” - Riddle

“Me, friends with that stick in the mud? Pfft—! As if!” - Ace

“Even in a sticky situation, I’ve never seen Cloche lose his cool before. I wonder how he does it…” - Deuce

“For a beastman, Cloche really doesn’t like noise. I get that too, since our ears are more sensitive than humans… but shouldn’t he have already gotten used to it, by now?” - Jack

“I can’t have Leona ordering Cloche around, cause he’ll steal my job!” - Ruggie

“It’s such a shame Cloche refused my offer for him to work at the Monstro Lounge. …We could have made good money and attracted more customers if we used his cat form to promote on our Magicam…” - Azul

“Cloche is really nice! He’s kind of like Jamil, helpful and a bit stern. …But I also feel like there’s a darkness… Ah— Nahaha! N-Nevermind! I want to know more about him too.” - Kalim

“Cloche is surprisingly weak. He could barely lift up a crate of apples when I called him over for help the other day. I ought to be annoyed he couldn’t help, but I’m also kind of glad?” - Epel

“I thought I could feel the claws of a wild beast, but there’s a beauty to reservation too. Perhaps I’ll need to lure it out.” - Rook

“Honestly… All the work I put into reviving Cloche’ natural curls has gone to waste, since he left Pomefiore.” - Vil

“‘Master Hornton’, an amusing nickname, indeed. I was under the impression Cloche had known my identity, but it seems my expectations had been subverted.” - Malleus

“Tch. Cloche can play the victim when needed, I’ll give him that. Manipulating his curse to his advantage makes him no better than those Night Raven College miscreants he claimed to have disassociated with.” - ???

Extras/Trivia:

- Birthday: May 12

- ISTJ-T/6w5

- “She/Her” is only used in a meta/narration sense, otherwise— she uses “he/him”

- Prefers voice > looks

- When Cloche is in her cat form, she has no conscious thoughts and move as if she’s on autopilot, like a normal cat.

- Cloche has no distinct handwriting. It varies depending on what she’s writing and who it’s for— yet even then, no two letters look the same. (Unless forging)

- Cloche has no inner fur in her ears. It’s to signify that the cat ears are unnatural— fake.

- Has a habit of either covering her mouth with her hand/sleeve or turning away whenever she breaks into a genuine smile. Can smile on command for a camera (cosplayer intuition).

- Goes to the school forest to calm down whenever she feels emotional or if she has an inkling that her feral side will come out

- Cloche has germaphobic tendencies.

- Has a habit of biting her index finger or thumb to suppress pain/excessive laughter.

- School ghosts and paintings are fond of Cloche for always being respectful and fixing their frames, the Ramshackle ghosts, especially.

- Feral! Cloche represents Id

Gallery:

Cards:

Groovy!! [SR Tsumsitter]

Groovy!! [SSR Union/Birthday Jacket]

[SR Luxe Couture]

[SSR Birthday Bloom]

[SSR Glorious Masquerade]

[suzy-queued]

Weekly Tag Wednesday

Thank you for the tags, @mmmichyyy @spookygingerr @deedala @stocious @energievie I really need this distraction today, so it's nice to take a few minutes to play along!

name: Deena

age: Two Noshos minus one

your time zone: EST

what do you do for work? I own a website design company. We cater to authors and publishers.

do you have any pets? Three cats and a snake

what first drew you to this fandom? I cruised by Tumblr from time to time looking at content for Hannibal, Voltron, Bill Hader, The 100, various stuff. And everywhere I looked, there were gifsets and photos of Ian and Mickey. It was like the internet was whispering to me that I should explore their story. So I started watching the show. And then I started reading the fanfic. And, let me tell you, the fic reeled me in like none I'd ever read before. I got so obsessed with reading all the amazing stories, and eventually decided to try writing myself.

are you a morning person or a night owl? Night owl by nature. Morning person out of necessity.

what are your hobbies? Fandom, first and foremost. Also hiking, playing card games, solving puzzles, cross stitching, stained glass, going to concerts, local history, geocaching, creating board games, collecting shiny things, papercrafts.

how tall are you? 5'5"

if you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? In the same town where I currently live. It's my true home.

favorite color? Orange!

favorite book? "The Bottoms" by Joe Lansdale

favorite movie? I can't pick just one. The Sound of Music. Fight Club. Titanic. Pan's Labyrinth.

favorite fic? Oh, wow. All of them. But my comfort fics are: The Wedding Planner Ransom Silent as Sunlight The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Ian Gallagher OnlyFans

favorite musical artist: yungblud, grandson, Bring Me The Horizon, Alkaline Trio, Amigo the Devil

what is your average screen time so far this week? 2 hours 10 minutes

what’s the first app you open in the morning? Messaging, then Tumblr

how long have you been on tumblr? I got an account in 2012 to build custom landing pages for authors. But I started using it for myself in 2021.

finally (and i know this one is hard) tell me a fun fact about yourself: I'm going to meet Cameron Monaghan this weekend in Philly!

Tagging ... @francesrose3 @michellemisfit @creepkinginc @mikhailoisbaby @mybrainismelted @crossmydna @gallawitchxx @sam-loves-seb @grumble-fish

[abandonambition]

Who drew these Capricorns? It's me! I did it. S...Sorry.

HI TUMBLAR. I'm Dana. I draw animals and mythical creatures (mostly capricorns and dragons). I like to reflect on lesser-known or dark aspects of nature, feelings of distress and despair, or creating designs that just look cool for the sake of looking cool. I have a sort of positive nihilist outlook on life, in that I'm rather upset with the general state of things but I still feel compelled to find or create beauty and interest anyway, even if my darker feelings sometimes come out through my work.

"Abandon Ambition" is both grimly serious and darkly humorous. I was raised in both a household and country that emphasized setting lofty goals of acquiring high earnings and impressive assets, but the timing of my pursuit of these things has laughably aligned with global financial crises, global pandemics and lockdowns, and now global heatwaves and global conflicts. Abandon ambition, and instead embrace what you want to say and do and create and build now; Tomorrow is not yours, and your goals may not be waiting for you there.

Be responsible, and be kind. But hope and wait for nothing.

So uh, yeah, I draw a lot of stuff and explore a lot of things that I think I've been holding back on for years for one reason or another. I want to draw dark goats, glowing bats, tempest capricorns, skinny dragons, snarling wolves. So here they are.

Check out what I made!

A lot of my designs find themselves on fun and/or practical merch! I like to create things that are high quality and have a long shelf life: I don't want to make something thinking it'll go in a landfill in a year, I want you wearing and enjoying my work for a very long time.

Here's a hat that glows in the dark!

Wow! Here's another hat that doesn't glow in the dark, but still looks really nice.

Pretty! If keeping your skull cozy isn't your thing, I've printed my art on fabric, too. I like this idea because if you move house a lot and/or can't afford custom frames, art printed on fabric can be displayed anywhere, and folds up nicely when packing up for your next move, without any breaking glass or anything.

A big part of my thinking when I'm designing products is also what do I myself use in my day-to-day life, and lately I've been desperately trying to cut my phone addiction by going back to pen-and-paper planners and books and things instead of using screens. And to keep track of where I am in my planners and books, I've made bookmarks!

I had so much fun designing these. You have something enjoyable to look at on both sides of the page it's clipped on. How fun is that?

Okay lastly, I make a TON of stickers. A lot of my designs translate really well into small, self-contained things like stickers, and I only ever print vinyl stickers, so they live a long time on your laptop or phone case or wherever you wanna put them.

So that's a small collection of the things I've done and made. Do you like them? I hope you like them. I liked designing them.

A COOOUPON JUST FOR YOUUUU

If you'd like one o' these things for yourself, you're in luck!

You, lucky Tumblar user, can visit my shop and take 20% off with code TUMBLR20. This coupon expires 1st April 2024 (or does it...? That's April Fools' Day after all... Okay yeah it does actually expire then. Sorry).

Oh, commissions?

Hey! Sometimes people like my art style and want a custom commission. That's great, and I'm so glad you're interested!

If you'd like a custom ink mailed to you on a postcard that also features my art on the back (so it's like... you get two pieces of art on one postcard), these are exclusive to my Patreon right here. I have limited slots per every month, so check back often in case I'm sold out.

I also offer what I call "instant order" commissions via my Ko-Fi. You pick out one of the offerings I have, send me your ref sheet, pay, and I just...get it done. It's as close to instant as commissions can get.

Besides those, I also do more bespoke work, so you can send me a message to discuss your idea and we'll work something out. :corporatethumbsupemoji:

Honestly? Thanks!

The internet has become a pretty weird and honestly rather hostile place. I'm a solo act that's as indie as they get. So, it really does mean a lot to me when your eyeballs land on my stuff and you click that little heart or reblog icon, or even better when you add it to your cart and click check out. Your eyeballs land on thousands of stuff every day, so the fact that my stuff brought you joy or interest or something deep that you resonated with means a lot to me. I think in a sense it makes me feel like my brush strokes are going somewhere far beyond whatever canvas I've otherwise confined them to.

This is a pinned post to share who I am and help me get some coins to fund my life and art projects, but yeah you can reblog it and share it around planet earth, I don't mind. It's nice.

So yeah, that's me! Feel free to comment if you have questions or want to know whatever else, I'll uh... reply and like answer them and stuff.

[b-blushes]

Do you love to get into the nitty gritty about how one guy uses their planner? Then do I have the video for you! This one has it all:

discussion of every spread I drew

somewhat granular breakdown of how I’ll use each page

some thoughts about good things about using a planner

lists of all the stationery items I talk about  

‘This could have been an email’ but video version about this notebook I drew and had made <3 A love letter to the habit of keeping a daily planner for years and years and years <3 This is the kind of video I want to watch from my friends so I have created it :P 

It seems that lots of videos like this are about products though - sorry, I just made them for me, I’m not able to manage selling either physical or digital products at this time! Hopefully I talked in enough detail though that you could make your own personalised to your planner needs if you wanted. You can do whatever you want forever >:) 

[blueberry-lemon]

[lmfao i realized after posting this that, visually, this accidentally looks like some sort of ad or blazed post on the dashboard. im so sorry hahaha] I've always wanted to keep a journal.

In high school, I was really into reading journal comics (they're still one of my favorite genres of comic by far), and started drawing one myself. I drew a comic once a day, every day, for all of 10th grade and kept it in a binder to show friends at school.

I did scattered little journal comics after that, just a strip here and there. Then, in college, I had a storyboarding professor who had us draw on an index card on each day of class to mark how we're feeling. Inspired by that, my roommate and I drew a post-it of what we did each day and stuck it on the wall for two semesters. In other words, 1-panel daily journal comics.

I like journaling because it helps put the good days and bad days into wider perspective. Even the deepest pits of anxiety or sadness are eventually faded away and joined by really happy and mundane days.

Since then, I've tried a Hobonichi Planner. I've tried poems on Cohost. I always fall off. I've tried the Daylio App and Notion. I feel too guilty and embarrassed once I've missed too many days.

Then I heard about "5-Year Journals."

Each page is a day, for example "January 5th." No days-of-the-week listed. It's split into 5 sections, for different years. You write in it each day. Then when the year comes around, you keep using the same journal, writing underneath your previous year's entry.

This really appealed to me for two reasons.

It won't be a huge deal if I miss a day, or a week, or a whole month. I won't feel guilty because it doesn't really matter. It's not putting the book to waste, there's no day-of-the-week listed to make the page feel obsolete the year after, and I'll just get those days I missed when I come back around in 2025 or 2026. So even if certain years have gaps, each page will eventually have something.

It'll be fun to read the entries from previous years as I keep going, and see how I've changed.

So far I'm having a good time! I recommend them. Brand-wise I got a Levenger although I'm sure there are cheaper versions. Or just do it in a spiral notebook, who cares? With my handwriting I can fit like 4 or 5 sentences per entry. The fact that I'm not posting them publicly, or drawing anything, will probably help me.

[blueberry-beanie]

Hi J!! How about 2, 3, 19, and 67 for the asks!

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day? hmm, if it isn't too cold, for too long or paired with strong wind and snow - yes, I do!

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books? I used to have many bookmarks! Now I don't, really. I folded a little corner that serves as a bookmark or i use a piece of paper or a sticky note.

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it? I used to when I was a teen. Art journals were never my thing, though. Closest thing I had was a self-made planner for 11th and 12th grade in school. I made all the pages myself and drew or glued things into them. They had themes like my favourite movies, bands, series... Rn I just have my tumblr to yell into the void about stuff lol

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel? Today is a very gloomy day! It is cold, it is raining buckets. There is no sun. It kinda depends on how I am physically and mentally. Today I feel good! My flatmate made cinnamon buns, I did some household work while dancing and singing, spoke to some nice people, had some nice news. So that is independent of the weather. I think it only starts mattering once the sky is dark and gloomy for a long time.

Thank you sm for asking, Maddie!

[quills-planning]

The final product for my friend's Financial Planner, her Christmas present from me going into the new year!

I hand drew and colored each of her spreads, front and back, then laminated the pages before hole punching them. Most of it is for budgeting, but the last two pages are for monthly challenges to help her save more money!

[awesomedurraworld]

okay I am totally doing this ha! I will create some sort of page planers thingie, still developing things around it, and the ideas and how will I be able to let people find it, or if I was gonna charge for it- but before I dream too far, I want to make sure I am able to create the somewhat perfect planner sheets, so I need your help!

Besides drawing a daily planner sheet, I have plans on doing a monthly sheets as well, where I will have like the month schedule blank and you will be able to fill it with the dates and the month’s names.

I am also thinking about adding a budget sheet, maybe a meal planning sheet as well? Not sure if these will be helpful or wanted? So be sure to let me know

What I drew here is the very very first raw sketch of my drawing and writing down my ideas. I added things I might use or am using, but I also want your input. If you use planners what is something you find helpful? Or something that you want but can't seem to find?

What characters would you want as well? I am thinking of doing Spy x family and Fullmetal Alchemist, So many possibilities to do and I would love to know what other characters or fandoms you would want to see!!

You can send me a DM or an ask even reblog or comment!! I think this will be a fun useful project and I want to take you in this journey with me

[semisentient-entity]

Hey wanna see some Owl House doodles I made in my planner the week after wad? Yes? No?

...

Perhaps?

Felt like drawing some glyphs (kinda wonky but still good). Then there's Tiny Luz and King flying, and my friend gave me the idea to draw Owlbert sleeping while Stringbean is wrapped around him like a little nest. Too cute not to draw.

And here we have Tiny Nose, a wonky looking King, and an attempt at drawing Hooty and Lillith from memory.

I like tiny characters shut up

I still wanna make that Goo-Los rug to stomp on.

A bit of an odd angle, but here's some doodles of Owlbert interacting with Raine and Eda. Along with a little note saying that Raeda is real and they're married and I will die on this hill. As well as Tiny Raine (which was extremely difficult to draw) and Tiny Eda. And also Porta Hooty!

A close up of Porta Hooty! I did not mean to draw him winking, I just noticed it when I took the photo. This drawing was very small

Close up of Tiny Eda! I love her! :D

(TW just in case: Mention of vomiting?) Hooty doodle underneath a fitting vocabulary word that I noticed after I drew him.

And finally, the bird siblings, Waffles and Flapjack! I little memorial to Flapjack because I fucking miss him.

That's all of them because I had no more space to draw on those pages and I've had an art block ever since I finished these.

[stationerybear]

One Month in the Hobonichi HON

Another review that nobody asked for but I am going to write anyway because it makes me happy.

Tl;dr: I've really enjoyed using the HON so far!

I had some anxiety before ever even using the book that the A6 would be too small and that I should have gone for the A5 HON or even the Cousin. But I think because my writing is smaller to fit on the small grids and I am using a thin tipped pen (Jetstream 0.5), it makes entries that would have taken more space on a 5mm dot grid A5 paper fit just fine on the 0.37mm grid. I have had a few entries spill onto the next page of the book, but I've not had any entries take up more than a bit of room on the next page nor have I had to tape in a new page to compensate for the amount of excess writing one entry takes up. Honestly, if I had gotten an A5 Hobonichi, I probably would have been lamenting about all of the wasted space I had on each page (though, perhaps I would have room for bigger pictures or more decorative elements than what I use now).

Since I don't use the HON for planning anything, I use the checklist at the top of the page just as a gratitude log for the day, just to write a few moments from the day that made me happy so I can remember that there is indeed good in every day. I don't really use the monthly calendar other than to back-fill appointments or holidays, but I rarely remember to flip to it since I keep that information in an actual planner spread usually. Perhaps I will find a better use for those pages someday, but I don't think I'll be that upset if they go mostly unused. The reason I got the HON was for daily entries, and I have been maintaining that function for it well.

There is a bit of warping along the edges of the used pages that is noticeable when looking at the closed book, plus a little bit of extra bulk from a few pictures being stuck onto some of the pages. But I think that just comes from the journal being used as is its intended purpose. To be loved it so be changed, as they say, and I can't expect the book to stay in perfect, pristine condition forever if I am using it. The bulk of January is not particularly noticeable when the book is held closed, though.

I do want to add more pictures and maybe decorative elements like stickers or washi tape to my entries, but I am a little afraid of adding more bulk to the HON than it is capable of holding. I think I've seen a few folks say that it doesn't hold bulk as well as a Techo Original or Cousin. I might play around with it and put sticky notes or scrap pieces of paper intermittently throughout the book to test it's durability in handling bulk before I make any commitments to sticking more stuff in it. But for now, I am having fun adding a couple of images here and there from my day, whether it be a picture of something I drew, something nice that I got in the mail, a meal I had that day, or the sunrise from that morning. It's nice to have a little visual snapshot of something from that day that made me feel good without even having to read through the entry.

I have also been considering using color-coded "tags" to label the contents of my daily entries since they can vary at times. Sometimes my entries document the severity of symptoms I experienced through the day, summarize the events of my day, or serve as a place for me to empty my head of excess unneeded thoughts that make it hard for me to rest at the end of the day. I think it would be nice to know what entries have what kind of content at a glance, or if there are any entries that overlap in content. I've been trying to find stickers in stores lately, but I may just have to order some online since I have yet to find any that suit my fancy.

I can truly say that I look forward to continuing to use the book through the rest of 2024!

[ramblinganthropologist]

Writober 2023 10 - Fortune

Summary: Alistair Shepard had to adjust to some weird shit in the hospital after surviving the Citadel. What he didn't expect was his sister and her book of wedding planning. Since when was she a fortune teller?

---

You know… he was really starting to get tired of being in a hospital bed.

At least he was being left alone for the moment. Ever since Alistair had come out of his coma, the doctors had been in nearly constantly. Apparently, surviving the Citadel coming down around you amidst the final push against the Reapers interested people.

He couldn’t exactly get out of being in the epicenter, but… they could be a little gentler with the needles.

At least he was free for the moment. His thumb kept rubbing up against the ring Garrus had given him as part of their engagement. The fact it was made of the Normandy was a comfort to him, especially since he wasn’t going back to it ever again.

After all… he was retired now. Papers were in and everything.

“I guess we should start thinking about if we want a wedding or not…” He trailed off. Alistair had done his share of alien studies as part of the Alliance, but those rarely covered marriages among the species for obvious reasons. He was kind of in the dark about what turians did to celebrate their vows, if they had any at all. For all he knew, they just signed some papers and got back to duty.

He wouldn’t mind that – justice of the peace was ok by him.

“Not very romantic,  Al.”

A voice hummed in his ear, though the speaker was nowhere to be seen. Alistair scowled, still not used to the fact he was technically subletting his body to somebody else. Well, not somebody – Love was a spirit. So they had never been a person or anything…

Look, it was confusing, ok? He shared head space with a concept that liked The Bachelor.

“We are technically cleaning up after a galaxy wide war, Love.” He sighed. “Plus I don’t know how turians handle marriages, especially if one of the parties isn’t turian. I guess I could ask Anora…”

He trailed off. While he was sure his sister and her family had survived, this was the kind of thing that as awkward to ask. After all, he didn’t really do a lot of bonding with Anora for obvious reasons.

She might not appreciate the call…

“They have a ceremony, don’t worry.”

A new voice drew Alistair’s attention to the door. Bo was there for her daily visit, a book under her arm. She entered the room and took the only chair, the one that had practically be carved out for her she had sat in it so much.

He envied her to look so at ease – he wanted out of the hospital ASAP.

“Do I want to know why you know that?” He shook his head. “Never mind, what’s with the book?”

Bo cracked it open and spread it out on her knees. “It’s the plans for your wedding. I’ve been keeping it since you met Mandibles.”

Alistair’s jaw all but dropped at that. “You what?”

That was nearly 3 years. How had she even thought to start it when he had literally slammed into the turian on the Citadel back in 2183? He knew she could be committed to a bit… but this was just ridiculous.

Maybe it was hypocritical for the guy who literally came back from the dead with a spirit inside him to be a skeptic, but so be it. He had to draw the line somewhere for his own sanity, or everything went out the window.

Bo flipped the pages as she spoke. “I just got a feeling about it is all, so I started writing stuff down. It’s weird, I wrote about the calendar before it even was a thing.”

He shook his head – oww. “So now you’re a fortune teller for my love life?”

“Just a wedding planner.” She flipped another page. “Oh, good news, looks like I planned for the aisle to be accessible in case you’re still in a wheelchair. Nice going, me.”

Ok, now he was calling bullshit. Alistair did his best to lean over so he could try to make out the details of the book. Much to his surprise, it was dated. The one page he was looking at came from 2184, when he was dead.

Al’s alive. Better get back to planning.

Note to self: clearly mark levo and dextro food. Mandibles’ sister has the bad version of the allergy, don’t need to put her in the hospital.

How… would she know about an allergy that Garrus’ sister had. Hell, he had barely spoken to the woman maybe twice since he had started dating the turian. She certainly hadn’t brought up what happened if she ate the wrong food…

Was it just a good guess? Playing the odds, maybe?

“Right, so, thanks to the bet and my winnings in the ring, I have enough saved. You’re not allowed to say no, it’s my present to you.” Bo was still flipping through her notes like this was the most normal thing in the world. “Oh, nice. When I thought about suits, I didn’t mention a binder. Guess that makes things easier.”

…

Nope, he was not going to think too hard about this. His head hurt enough with his amp having to be removed and replaced after what had happened at the Citadel. Pondering too long on her thoughts was dangerous and exhausting.

Would he accept it? Well… he’d probably just ignore it and think she was perceptive.

“Looks like you thought of everything.” He felt a little guilty there – he probably should’ve been the one to plan his own wedding instead of farming it off on his sister. Besides, what if Garrus just wanted a legal ceremony? Would he be comfortable doing things human style?

Man, they probably should’ve both been there for it.

Sensing his anxiety no doubt, Bo closed the book. “Don’t worry, I already ran it past Mandibles. He was a little confused by the human stuff, but you Catholics are confusing regardless. I didn’t put a mass down or anything, you said you haven’t gone to one since you were like 12.”

Yes, and he hadn’t had confession since his confirmation, so taking the Eucharist was a bit beyond him. Besides, did the make a turian version, or was it considered blasphemous? And was it weird for someone resurrected to take the risen lord?

…

This was why he didn’t go to church anymore. It made his head hurt.

“No mass is fine by me, I don’t know any priests who could do it anyway.” He shook his head again. “How did Garrus react to all this?”

Bo shrugged. “He probably thought I was out of my mind, but it’s hard to argue with the data so he’s going along with it.”

Well, at least that made things easier. Alistair was glad he wasn’t forcing his now fiancé into anything he didn’t want to do.

“By the way, here.” Bo drew a tube of green pixie sticks from her pocket and dropped it into his lap. “I get the feeling you’re about to bottom out.”

True to her word, his omni-tool began to beep its familiar sound of low blood sugar. Alistair resisted the urge to shudder as he tore into the pack with his teeth and swallowed it down. After all, he was in the hospital – maybe it was only natural his sugar would drop.

He… was going to go with that.

“Anyway, once that sinks in, I have some notes on food-“

Since there was no way to avoid it, Alistair just nodded and settled in. After all, if she had taken the time to write all this down, it would be rude to ignore her. Some of her ideas were pretty good too, better than anything he would have thought up.

Hooray for wedding planning sisters with strange senses of premonition, he guessed. And he was going to leave it at that, or his battered brain was going to overheat.

…

How had she known he would’ve had top surgery by then, though? Nope… he wasn’t going to dwell on it. Focus on the wedding planning and not the growing sense of unease with the unknown he was welcoming into his life.

Love was giving him practice for that, so maybe he would need to thank the spirit later… much later… after he googled if there was host for turians. Curiosity killed the cat and all that.

[5am-raining]

(Via 5am.raining on Instagram)

It's mid-November and I'm still in full techo kaigi mode (anyone else with me?) 📚📖🧐. Whenever I get some free time, I spend it trying to perfect my 2023 planner system. I know that's not possible (planner peace is an illusion! 🥲) but it's a lot of fun and makes me feel excited about a time in my life that is genuinely very scary (graduating school and starting my professional career in earnest 😵‍💫😵). I have a million little notes and ideas floating around, but this was a particularly helpful session of figuring out what's working and not working in my personal planner (Hobonichi Cousin Avec A5) and work planner (which will be a Hobonichi Original A6), so I thought I would share! These notes are directed at myself, so don't read them as instructions. 😉 They're to help me remember how I want to use various aspects of the planner's layout. To make these, I just drew digitally over some images of sample Hobonichi spreads I screen shot from the Jetpens product page. Cute drawings by Anne Imai @linecamera_official ❓️: Do you see anything here that resonates with you? Or anything you think won't work well? I'm always looking for better ideas and solutions to planner problems. I'm still trying to figure out how to make my work planner more effective. I tried using the Franklin Covey inserts this year, but it was a total fail. I just wanted to try it but it wasn't for me (I still use their overall structure/system but the inserts themselves were too limiting). I'm worried that I'll just go back to relying on digital notes and reminders, but I'm trying to cut that out since my digital planning is way too all over the place. I find myself leaving reminders and lists in random spots that get forgotten about. I'm also going to begin using the monthly spread differently in my personal planner, which I'm excited about. 🤔☺️