#i feel like i made a huge improvement

[mintjeru]

2022 art year in review!!

more thoughts under the cut!

in comparison to last year, i made digital art every month this year, so i was able to make a year in review ^^ my lineart hasn't changed, but i started trying out the gouache brush around summer, and that changed the way i color. i've tried the painterly style before, and i didn't really enjoy it, but now, i think i have a better grasp of shading with color, so i'm happier with the results even if it requires more time and effort. as for burnout and feeling like i have to fulfill others' expectations, i'm still learning how to deal with them. hopefully by reflecting on why i want to draw a piece before i start it, i'll be better able to cope with these issues.

[mozzygan]

the wall between us

redraw of this illustration series i made back in 2019. i'd say i've improved lol.

[zerkenik]

LAST BUNCH OF BEHEADED DOODLES UNTIL I WAKE UP LATER.. i was rlly nervous about starting to upload art online, but having a reason to draw is really helping me and i want to thank you guys for even liking my art :^)

Whole lot of rambling in the tags lol

[kkujo]

the thing abt mental illness that sucks is. the stuff that people tell you makes it better doesn't actually always make it better in the moment. and it's hard when ur low energy but i think a lot of people get this idea of "it doesn't help so i'm not going to do it" but sometimes you gotta reframe it and see it as like. okay this doesn't make it better but it's also not going to make it worse. like washing your face might not make you feel better but it also won't make it worse. gentle exercise won't necessarily make you feel but it won't make you feel worse. going outside isn't going to fix anything but it also won't make it worse. trying to see them as neutral things rather than a magic cure. and the thing is over time when these things build up and it becomes routine, it DOES make it better. but it takes time and consistency. in the meantime though it won't make it worse.

[trivalentlinks]

Boston T (subway) to the beach

so i was just reminded recently that some folks i know who regularly use the T (boston subway), but aren't from boston did not know that you can take the T to the beach

here's how to get from some subway stops to the beach, for those unfamiliar:

Wonderland Station (Blue line) is literally on the beach. Get out of the station, and you will see the beach across the street. (Revere Beach) (subway stop to beach distance: literally across the street) .

JFK UMass (Red line) exit via Columbia Road, walk ~0.25 miles (400 meters) north/east along Columbia road (it turns into William J Day boulevard at the traffic circle) and you'll see the beach (Carson Beach) (subway stop to beach distance: ~ a quarter mile) .

Savin Hill (Red line): walk a third of a mile southeast along Savin Hill ave and you'll be right there (Malibu Beach) (subway stop to beach distance: ~1/3 mile) .

Orient Heights (Blue line): walk a third mile west along Bennington, you'll see a pedestrian bridge to your left with a sign for the beach. cross it, and you're there. (Constitution Beach) (subway stop to beach distance: ~half a mile)

.

the beaches in question:

Revere Beach:

Carson Beach:

Malibu Beach:

Constitution Beach:

Hope this helps someone!

[ballsballsbowls]

Slate recently published a relatively short interview with Holly Black and I just...

I cannot stress enough, here where you can see it, that I don't have strong feelings about Holly Black specifically. I've read just enough of one of her books to be pretty confident that it's not for me and I doubt I will read anything else. Holly Black just happens to be the person they interviewed and the person who said these things specifically. I have no quarrel with her.

What really drew my attention was this, which unfortunately I suspect is hardly unique to her.

Q: In The Prisoner’s Throne, there’s a scene early on that I thought was going to go in the way many romantasy books would go these days, but it didn’t. A lot of readers are here for the smut, but some authors, like yourself, will go the “behind closed doors” route, where the sex isn’t explicit or it’s assumed to have happened off the page. Are you at all interested in exploring the smuttier aspect of fantasy? 

A: I think that I certainly could push myself a bit more out of my comfort zone, but I don’t know how much I would want to explore it. Mostly because, as a reader, I find long sex scenes to be paced strangely—you’re moving through everything else at a certain pace, and then the pace just drops off, like, OK, now we’re spending, like, two chapters like this. I know there are people who enjoy it, obviously. I recognize that readers wish I could make the scenes a little longer. I had a reader ask me, with the Folk of the Air series, if my editor had made me cut down the scenes, and I said, “No, actually, my editor told me to expand the scene.” And she said, “Well, why didn’t you?” Friend, I did.

I also had somebody talk to me recently about how, in a certain kind of book, what you have is levels of physical intimacy being symbolic of the characters achieving a greater amount of emotional intimacy. That’s just not something I’ve ever thought of as being equivalent. I’ve been like, Oh, I have to get them closer here, but I never really thought that people often are using physical intimacy as a stand-in or as a way to communicate emotional intimacy. Building up into a greater and greater level of physical intimacy is doing work that I’m just not thinking about doing in that way.

~

Paragraph 1 of her answer is interesting in its own way. I'd always wondered why people feel compelled to write 2-paragraph sex scenes because they are my least favorite way to convey that information. I'd much rather a fully closed door OR a 2-page treatment with no in between, but you can't generalize her answer to authors generally.

But Paragraph 2 was actually kind of illuminating and, I think, is actually a notion that can be spun out and applied to other authors rather than being specific to her. I like category romance a lot (among other genres, the difference is that I never shut up about romance because nobody is spending a lot of energy being dismissive and shitty about fantasy or sci-fi as a genre anymore), but I have struggled with basically every new romance-esque genre out there that should be appealing! It's romance AND something else! But I didn't vibe with any of the rom-coms I read, which I forgave because 'rom-com' isn't a real genre, it's basically just a marketing thing.

But I also didn't like any why chooses/RH; I didn't like any 'romantasy' (despite liking both romance AND fantasy!) —even Paladin's Grace was pretty much a spite finish for me and that's the work of an immensely skilled tradpub author—not to mention, I have no idea whether she considers that series 'romantasy' or not (I doubt it). Hell, I'd dump shifter romance/urban fantasy romance in here too and it's been around longer than any of these upstart new romance-adjacent sub-genres.

But I think Paragraph 2 of Holly's answer maybe gets to some of it. She's either saying that she doesn't understand a correlation between sex and emotional intimacy in general (which is all well and good but maybe romance-adjacent author is not the career for you?)

Or she's saying that she doesn't understand a correlation between sex and emotional intimacy in romance writing, which was a lightbulb moment for me. At the risk of perhaps overgeneralizing:

A lot of these authors are writing romance-adjacent books because they think romance is a cool thing to have in a book but they don't understand why category romance does what it does, and what it signifies, and why it works, so they just...throw everything out because they are Too Cool For Category Romance because it's Grandma Porn or whatever, so they write something that's marketed as a romance that doesn't comprehend how to write or discuss emotional intimacy at all, and typically can't juggle it under the weight of the rest of the plot even if they do.

So you end up with between 2 and 7 leads with the emotional depth and chemistry of smooshing two barbies together to kiss because they don't have a clue what chemistry between leads should look like because they're Too Cool For Category Romance. And a lot of them that I have read have had sex scenes, so they're not afraid of smut, but they can't integrate emotional vulnerability or chemistry into it at all.

I think this is where her complaint about the 'pacing' of sex scenes comes in. This newer, ultra-lean writing style where everything is first person present and paced oddly and every dialogue is sparse and lacking dialogue tags and every two-page spread is mostly white space is here to stay, unfortunately, and in a world where you're trying to reduce word count and have an additional entire plot besides the romance, who has space for intimacy or whimsy or anything but maybe 2 crude indicators that they trust each other?

[barrenwomb]

the fact that most people in a relationship either met their partner at work or on a dating app makes me want to scream my lungs off. no way i’m letting personal life get in the way with my job AND dating apps sound like literal hell + they’re, as a matter of principle, such a turn off. exposing myself through a virtual shop window and making the effort to sound interesting enough after a bunch of texts is so. i’d rather get shot. and i’m not saying it because i’m a hopeless romantic, quite the contrary, actually. i don’t believe in love at first sight either so it’s not like i’m hoping to meet the love of my life at a coffee shop wattpad style. if i have to be completely honest, i just want to have sex — not in a casual way, not in a committed way, but a secret third thing. don’t even try to mention therapy im going to kill you on the spot.

[sibyl-of-space]

my least favorite part of the creative process is when I have to take a hammer to the rough draft I'm very attached to in order to reshape it into a final work that's objectively much better. because in the middle of smashing it with a hammer it feels like I'm just making it all Worse, and knowing that's not true doesn't stop the feeling when it currently looks like.... this

[starlit-mansion]

20? :)

What’s something you learned this year?

In terms of a whole new realm of thing, I learned how to play magic (of the gathering variety). I always kind of assumed that playing a tcg would be like playing one of those hours-long playing card games (which is. so fucking boring to me lmao. all the adults in my family really liked playing a canasta variant called hand and foot and it took FOREVER and i grew to dread the inevitable hours of sitting at the table matching suits), but it was very shocking to realize that mtg put me in the same headspace as playing a video game. It's very engaging, and while I probably wouldn't have gotten into it on my own, it's nice to be able to enjoy the runoff of my partner's investment and have a game that doesn't involve looking at a screen.

We are inching closer to being a board game couple though lmao

[queersolarpunk]

just a happy lil rant

[kuroakikitsune]

Creates an artwork that took ages but I'm really proud of it. Its a subject that a lot of my friends and followers like. Only a few people like it. Most of my friends have seen it and, nothing... I know I did a good job and it's pretty but this makes me feel like my art isn't good enough. It hurts more that my friends and mutals aren't liking it, more than the numbers.

[questdesign]

i know i should be hardened to this at this point, but it still just completely fucking blows my mind that clueless gamers will very casually say shit like this without realizing how completely unhinged and separate from reality it is. this is about the binding coils of bahamut in ffxiv btw.

[crabussy]

sorry you feel that way!! I think you can be kind AND firm. there's no need to let people walk all over you while you're being kind. I just don't really want to be the type of person who is mean first thing before even trying to understand the other person. often times people are rude because others aren't kind to them. I've had people apologise for how they treated me after I responded with kindness instead of spitting insults back at them. people aren't used to it!! sometimes kindness is about being the bigger person. sometimes being unkind is the best choice. but I'd be lying to your face if I said it wasn't the best choice most of the time

I'm so serious about being kind above all else. it has genuinely changed the way I interact with the world on a fundamental level and has made me so so much happier.

[the-bluestreak-cat]

I think it’s the seasonal darkness but this dental stuff feels like the last straw

[yuomizuu]

are you the same author who used to write kazuha botanist and historical aus? i feel like your works and layout resemble that author I'm trying to find 😭 I'm sorry if it's too vague but I remember seeing early 2024 someone consistently commenting on your posts, one of them said your writing was almost Shakespearen

hello anon!! ^w^

yes i am! i believe you’re referring back to when i had my previous blog @/uuyuomi (+ @/mwahkazu as my side) since that’s where i had my kazuha x botanist! reader au uploaded and basically all my other historical au ideas lol

that blog was deactivated a while ago mainly due to me just wanting to have a fresh start and all that www i answered a similar ask here that gives a bit more detail!

[timemachineyeah]

When fat people talk about dieting and weight loss, we are not being asked to lose 20 pounds or less. Doctors don’t give a shit if you go from being 350 to 330 - you’re still fat. We are being asked to lose half our body weight, and the things needed to accomplish that are never healthy. Either the weight is the product of an illness – and malnourishment and over- exertion don’t tend to help people who are ill – or the weight is healthy and normal in which case please stop treating it like an illness I came here because I have to crawl up stairs sometimes my fatigue is so bad. Please treat that.

Either:

1) 17 pounds is 10% or more of your starting weight, which is how much weight you need to lose to consider it significant. In which case the most you ever weighed was 160-170 lbs and you were never very fat, so it wasn’t being fat that was causing your health issues. Likely the changes you made to “lose weight” just happened to address the health issues simultaneously (more veggies and exercise is generally good for the vast majority of people regardless of their weight or whether those changes impact it). The weight loss was not itself the cause of your health benefits but rather both had the same cause (and while likely and hopefully the health benefits will remain if good habits do, the weight loss is less reliable).

No one ever said diet and exercise had nothing to do with a person’s weight, just that the relationship is complex and assuming you can guess a person’s habits based on their weight has been categorically disproved. There are 400lb people out there who eat a more balanced diet and exercise more than you or I ever have.

2. It was less than 10%, in which case it’s entirely within the bounds of a normal range for your body and not the kind of weight loss this post is about.

2a. If you weighed significantly more than 160-170 lbs, then after losing 17 lbs you are still fat and so prove you can gain the health benefits of practical medical care while remaining a fat person.

Even for someone lighter, losing less than 20 pounds is kinda a weak number that could be down to a million things and tbh doesn’t count for much. If your anecdote comes down to “I lost (small weight amount) (small time amount) ago” then it’s worth even less than most anecdotes when it comes to evaluating health claims, and anecdotes are already basically worthless. But even so, this anecdote actually fits perfectly fine within the understanding of even simplified weight science that most people in fat liberation acknowledge as closest to truth that we have so far.

Like good for you, genuinely. I hope the good health lasts. But this is materially meaningless to the discussion.

Regardless: Weight is not the number doctors should be focusing on when evaluating the efficacy of their care (honestly - numbers should be less of the focus overall, though most the ones doctors use are more useful than weight).

Weight loss diets are bad health care. Trying to turn fat people thin is entirely a vanity game and honestly a descendant of eugenics. Weight loss should not be the goal, and it really shouldn’t be the goal prioritized over better health (which is how it currently works for most doctors). For doctors to acknowledge this they have to acknowledge it is possible to be fat and healthy, and that fat itself is almost never the cause of health issues (though it can be a symptom).

Also the swimming analogy is on point. Listen to enough survival cannibalism stories (or just read literally any experimentation and study on long term calorie deficit) and you realize it’s just biology that when we get malnourished enough we will stop obeying any rules we set on ourselves and eat anything.

Weight loss diets are unsustainable and backfire.

(Source)