#i have a bad habit of hoarding drafts

[snoodls]

2023 art retrospective! ✨

I can't believe I'm writing one of these again already; where did this year go??

Looking back on this past year, wow! I can see and feel my confidence with my art growing tremendously. Finally it feels like I'm comfortable with tools and the process. I'm not totally lost when I open a canvas; there's a sense of reassurance that I can do it, and if I can't, I will figure it out along the way. 

Overall, finding time, space, and energy for art proves to be both exceedingly difficult and yet the only thing that I want to do when I get home. I know logically this is mostly because of my job--new office, new boss, new responsibilities, new position--and a few huge life transitions, but when you're someone who makes things who is not making things, it can be rough seas in the brain soup.

I think a major theme for this year was getting back into creative habits. It's an annual tradition at this point to nosedive into an artist's block death spiral. February into March into April...were all lean months for my creativity. Intense job/interpersonal stuff plus news of two of my big art inspirations both suddenly dying...the world hit me hard in these months.

I owe a lot to Lynda Barry's Making Comics for giving me my spark back and for helping to heal a part of me that I didn't realize was so broken and bruised. I remember when I picked the book up around my birthday; the cashier said the book made her cry and I didn't understand. I asked why, and she said "It's just healing." I was skeptical, but now I get it. I've been observing more, giving more credence to my creativity, and being less afraid of making a "bad" drawing.

Now I've been focusing on creating portfolio pieces that I'm proud of and happy to display in my space, as well as finally getting around to my hoard of accumulated characters. I've been picking away at my personal site and uploading much more to toyhouse to keep track of them all.

The last month or so has been completely consumed by making gifts, meeting deadlines, finishing owed art, continuing special projects 👀...so I haven't had much of a presence here. I've been doing lots of traditional art--getting back into acrylic painting and hopefully back into oils soon. I started pine needle basket weaving and have made 2.25 baskets so far! it's a long, tedious, menial process, but it's so satisfying to have something physical (and functional) that you've worked on for hours. I've also been living in my sketchbook the past week--practicing with pens, markers, and practicing itself. I've been conditioned to have the sketchbook be a precious space, and I am trying my best to break out of that. If you want to see some of my traditional sketches and offline stuff, I made a little collage for this year's picks too. ↬ sketchbook 2023

I think for next year I'd like to continue finding better balances--in how I spend my time, how I can spend my time...and to continue pushing myself out of my comfort zone with experiments and messiness. I want to continue being creative in so many more mediums--more film photography and video, hopefully!

In my sketchbook I wrote this meandering paragraph that I want to share: this is a living document--of breath, of movement, not of polished stasis. I reject capitalistic notions of being "industrious" "beautiful" "marketable" "pristine" and on public display at all times. I am not a product to be consumed; neither is my work. I embrace the messy, the incomplete, and the ugly. I refuse to tailor myself to an unseen audience. We thirst for the drafts, the brushstrokes, the incomplete works of the famous. Is this because, in our minds, this makes them more human? Less untouchably great? Or do we see ourselves in the struggles and not in the finished pieces? How charitable is that reading? What I would give to see my inspirations' marker streaks, their 12yo sparkledogs. Framing these byproducts--there's that word again--as art reframes them, reframes myself. To be human is to mark-make, to scribble in the dirt. I hear they reconstruct civilizations from stuff like that.

All my best to you & yours, and happy new year!

art featured: garden ghost | Vagabonds - Aqua Fria River | 6040 elk? | i'll still be around | blue sky | umm hihihi omg hi ...? | porcelain | nothing to remember | Lacquer | river bed-time

[c4rdsharp]

meechi. good afternoon, everyone! i'm not feeling up to much writing for Luck, unfortunately, but I have thought about what might help with my feelings regarding this blog : I'm going to do some spring cleaning / pruning on my dash! I'm going to also go through my drafts and drop any threads I haven't replied to in the last 3 months. I have a bad habit of hoarding and it sometimes causes me unintentional stress. as for my dash cleaning, i'm going to unfollowing/softblocking any archived/deactivated blogs, blogs that haven't posted for more than 3 months, and any blogs that haven't made any attempt to interact with my posts or me ever since following ( any new followers within the past month are exempt from this ). However, if you would like for me to consider keeping you on my dash, please feel free to give this post a like or getting in touch with me via IMs.

that being all said, i'll still be continuing Baccano! streams on here, so look forward to the next one! my activity on this blog though will get a little lower as my muse for Luck isn't very high rn and i want to focus on my other blogs. i'll probably be spending time on my multi for a little bit, so if you need me for anything, you can find me over there until further notice. thank you all for your patience!

[p4ndamonium]

Alice Starling

Personality

Empathetic Alice is compassionate and maternal. While she isn’t one for going out of her way to do good deeds, she will try and comfort someone if they appear to be struggling.

Escapist Reading and writing are Alice’s favorite form of escapism, and she is a bit of a daydreamer. This is a double-edged sword since she can avoid problems this way.

Resilient Alice can endure emotional strain and adapt to her surroundings.

Conflict-Avoidant Alice tends to avoid conflict, bottling up her emotions rather than addressing them head-on. This makes communication a struggle and she is a bit of a glass cannon.

Passive-Aggressive When Alice feels slighted or insecure, she often withdraws and becomes passive-aggressive, hoping others will recognize how she feels without telling them. Her frustration manifests as subtle remarks, eye-rolling, or pretending she’s unbothered while clearly appearing to be.

Naive Alice doesn’t trust her intuition due to her tendency to overthink. She is easily manipulated because of this.

Introverted Alice prefers her own company to that of others and she has a low social battery. In some AU’s she has social anxiety, which makes navigating Capitol life a struggle.

Stubborn While Alice is a people pleaser, she finds little ways to push back, especially on matters she deems unnecessary or bothersome. She will lie if it means she can get her way although she’s not a convincing liar.

Appearance

Alice has a whimsical and romantic fashion sense. She prefers pastel colors, ribbons and lace. She has sandy blonde hair that is wavy and mid-back in length, and she accessorizes with simple jewelry, ribbons, and bows. She is 5’0” tall with hazel eyes and a round face shape. Her build/shape is petite and she lacks curves.

Bad Habits & Vices

Oral fixation. Nail biting, skin picking

Fidgeting

Disorganized. Always knows where to find that one specific thing among the clutter but has no idea where her wallet went.

Addicted to shopping, calls it retail therapy.

Leaving people on read.

Unhealthy eating habits. Has a sweet tooth and hates most vegetables.

Skills

Baking Alice loves to bake. She likes to share her baked sweets as a gesture of affection.

Singing Alice has a light, airy voice suited for lullabies. She does not have much vocal range, nor does she play any instruments. She sings purely for her own enjoyment.

Writing More of a hobby than a skill. She is a fan of romance novels and writes her own stories to pass the time, but she’ll never let anyone read her drafts. Her writing is as personal to her as a diary (AU dependent—her literacy is limited in some District AU’s).

Likes & Dislikes

Likes

Anything that is pink or covered in sugar

Animals

Jigsaw puzzles (puts them together and takes it apart to do it again 💀)

Shopping

Romantic fashion

Dislikes

Anyone too blunt. She is sensitive.

Noises (especially when she’s in her creative zone)

Social events

Outdoorsy activities, she is a bit of a diva about bugs and getting her clothes dirty (more in a Capitol AU)

People touching her books. She handles them carefully.

Random Tidbits

Born in June.

Brings out the Christmas decorations on November 1st.

Not a fan of Halloween. She won’t open the door for the trick-or treaters and she’s not a fan of the spooky decorations💀

She talks faster when she lies.

Arachnophobe. Also has a fear of heights.

Coryo orders for her at restaurants.

Hoards things just in case she needs them (literally never uses them).

Likes the house to be ice cold. Will eat ice cream regardless of the weather.

Usually wearing earplugs to block out noise unless she’s around other’s.

Wears mismatched socks because she can’t find the other sock.

Has a resting bitch face.

Her signature has a star instead of a dot for the i.

Her space is usually a bit of a mess, and she’s comfortable with it (when living alone)—she tidies up if she’s expecting company. If she can afford it, she prefers to hire a maid.

Loves true crime podcasts. Basically this: [IMG]

[innerbeast]

2 basics, 2 canon muses, 2 tumblr

Questions for the mun.

basics

Is there anything you would have changed when you started writing now that you have more experience?

oh absolutely. if i actually knew what it meant to write a character back then my start for writing could have been a lot smoother, but i had a tendency to write characters i liked simply for how they looked, and well. you can imagine how well that turned out LOL

On what platform did you start to write?

lmaoooo i used to write on neopets, myspace, aim, gaiaonline-- we're gonna forget the me that ever existed back then tho.

canon muses

What is your favorite canon muse?

saix/isa from kingdom hearts. out of all the faves i do have for canon muses he became something special for me, and still is. if not for him i'd be saying a bleach muse but, honestly? those muses are a lil tainted, unfortunately.

Are you happy with how your favorite canon muse was portrayed in canon?

to an extent, i'm happy with how canon went with him but there is quite a bit that got left out or was never touched upon that i would have really enjoyed seeing to further show that he deserved the ending he got.

tumblr

What’s something you find weird on here?

to each their own, honestly, but the need for overly crispy/hard to distinguish graphics. it's something i've only really experienced in the indie side of tumblr rp, but it's so hard on the eyes sometimes and i never got the appeal of it. little odd but, at the end of the day, their blog / their say!

What’s something you wish to improve?

my increasingly horrid habit of draft hoarding! :') i used to be really bad at reaching out and getting many interactions but now i have the opposite problem of having too many! and my piss poor focus ends up forgetting to add some drafts, or letting them build up and overwhelming myself... i'm trying, i promise!

[madeimpact]

What’s a bad habit you have when it comes to roleplay ? :o

Munday asks || @lachrymosen

I hoard asks and drafts. Especially asks. I get the dopamine hit of someone sending one in and imagining the scenario unfolding from there...only to take ages to actually write it LMAO

[fairweathermyth]

[asinglesock]

just a lil bit of venting under the cut

cw aftereffects of food insecurity, possibly disordered eating

I think some part of me was expecting that I'd move to Georgia and suddenly be a version of myself that I liked, without my shame and neuroses and damage. And now I'm here, but I brought all my baggage with me.

I did the math and I have more than the budget I initially planned for food but I can't bring myself to spend it. Everything feels too expensive. I'm eating a pretty healthy diet, but I made drastic changes to my usual habits because it feels too difficult to reliably get to the store. And even when I get there, I'm afraid I'll buy too much and it'll rot before I can use it.

I'm constantly embarrassed of myself here. This house is so nice I almost feel like I'm in a museum, where I can't or shouldn't touch things. I feel like everyone can see that I grew up poor, that I grew up in a hoarding house, that I never learned to properly maintain my things because I never had things worth proper maintenance. I feel embarrassed to cook or wash dishes or eat or even sit anywhere but my room. I keep finding my hair on the bathroom floor, and it shows badly because it's so long. I think it's gotten longer in the past couple months.

I feel like I've forgotten everything I used to know about how to be a good student. How to do readings and take notes and keep up with deadlines, how to ask good questions. I'm so terrified of messing up my interactions with peers that I shy away from social situations. And probably (mysterious chronic condition) is making it more exhausting to keep up with things, which is bad because my meds are getting low and I don't have a local doctor yet.

whew! Now that I've got that out of my system, there are plenty of good things too. I have some lovely classmates. My classes are going to be fascinating and engaging. I'm going to exercise my brain, and it's going to feel wonderful in a way that I've missed for a year and a half. I have resources here that can get me into a doctoral program. I have the best opportunity I've ever had so far to study away, and I can afford it even though I feel like I can't.

Even though I feel self-conscious, I'm still allowed to take up space in this house and in this school. The hypothetical people who'd have a problem with a poor, inexperienced grad student taking up space are elitist and unkind, so why should I torment myself for their benefit?

Everything feels worse because I'm still adjusting to the climate and I don't have a local friend group. For all I know, I could see a lot of progress with that tomorrow--classes are usually easier for me than new student orientation. For all that I'm mopey and anxious this week, I read through my drafted posts from the past year and I was in a much worse place eight months ago. I'm getting better. I'm going to get better.

[flatstarcarcosa]

What are you like in MEverse? What is your role on the Normandy?

Initially my role is just 'the gremlin zaeed smuggled on board', but I definitely think as the story progresses I become more ingratiated among the crew. Grunt and I get along almost too well. Him being right up the hall and basically in that large but excitable child phase has a lot to do with it.

I teach him about frogs and we talk about dinosaurs, and I show him other types of fauna from Earth. He's mystified by penguins and why anything would be so poorly designed for anything except 'freezing their asses off'.

Tali notices I like to tinker and helps me actually get good at it! I'm great at taking things apart to find out how they work and less good at putting them back. I'm also prone to hoarding scraps "just in case", and it's one of the few bad habits I have Zaeed doesn't complain about since he knows being able to improvise with scraps is a skill.

Tali's help with teaching me to understand building things better results in me building a little robot with a rudimentary VI attached to it. It's a learning VI, which means the more it does the 'smarter' it'll get, to a certain point anyway. I end up tweaking it a little to give it little eyebrow flaps like Legion has after Legion is on board, and it makes almost-emotive beeps and clicks. It gets stuck in engineering at one point because it's able to roll itself down the steps but can't figure out how to get back up. It sits at the bottom of the steps and beeps incessantly until Jack angrily delivers it back to me.

Zaeed says he hates the fucking robot because it's stupid and annoying and always underfoot, but the robot is also synced to my omni-tool. I can recall it from anywhere in the ship, granted that doesn't mean it's always going to be able to get to me, and if I go out of range it stalls out and just spins in a circle beeping. When the collectors take the crew, Zaeed comes back to an empty cargo hold and the little robot spinning in a circle with half-dead batteries and the annoying beeping noise sounding almost like it's crying.

He ends up kicking the shit out of it in reflexive anger, and then has to awkwardly go next door and ask Tali if she can fix it, because he knows I'll be sad if I come back and it's 'dead'. (He tries to insist he just doesn't wanna listen to me bitch about it, and Tali let's him do so even though she can tell that's not it at all.)

My timeline also involves Zaeed and I coming back to the Normandy for the events of ME3. It's yet another WIP in my drafts I haven't gotten around too, but the idea is that when Shep is getting assistance from Aria, they also come to Zaeed regarding the Blue Suns because they don't trust Vosque or Aria, but they do trust Zaeed.

Zaeed's just cranky that he said he wasn't gonna join Shepard again but then all it took was killing another Blue Suns leader for him to go 👀

[nulltune]

really really sorry to say this but i-- will be completely purging my 100+ drafts. i've got a nasty hoarding habit which has been going on for way too long rlly!!! and i think this would be the best way to get rid of it... it sucks bc i love every single thing i have in my drafts rn but ^_T most of these are like, months old and i want to be more involved with how the dash/everyone is doing at the now rather than dwell on my oldass drafts ya feel? however!!! if i owe you something that you still want to continue/get a reply to — a thread... an ask you sent me... etc. — give this a like! i'll go swimming and finding it in my sea of drafts fo sho (・ω<) ﾃﾍﾍﾟﾛ also-- please don't feel bad or guilty liking this bc honest 2 god i would love to reply to everything if i could 😭 it's just that irl is a binch and i feel so sgfkdhfnbaddd replying so late orz but!!! if you want something new, no worries! i'll probably do sth to get some more interactions cooking in due time. so if we had sth going on but you prefer starting sth else, you could wait for that!

AND THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: please please know that this is never ever anything personal!! i'm always extremely thankful for every single thing i get from you guys bc i'm lov you all okok 😭🥺❤

exceptions: winter/christmas related stuff, plots please asks, deus (the brainrot i have for da vengess n da moon girl is Unreal okok), starters that i haven't responded to at all (and some stuff i have semi-written up in notes already but those are rlly random and idk what za heck to call em) — buuuut if i owe you sth outside of these, do feel free to leave me a like if you want! ✨

[adultswim2021]

UPDATE?

HEY! It's me! The guy who stopped blogging a fucking month ago?? Why did I do that? Well, I'll tell you in gruesome detail with this post. I think I may be repeating myself a little, but here we go, baby!

First things first: My computer broke. On it was a file with about 2-3 weeks (I don't remember) of write-ups ready to go. Once upon a time I used to queue these up in my tumblr and try my best to revise them as I added more posts, but I was tired of having posts go up that were shoddy first drafts because I didn't get to them in time. In order to make them less like dogshit I started hoarding them on my computer so I could make goddamn sure they were suitable for publishing (just regular bad instead of flagrantly bad) before sticking them in the queue.

I also decided that my sloppy data hoarding habits needed to be reigned in. So I started cleaning up my desk and bookshelves to make room for what I was planning to be a dramatic overhaul of my various hard-drives, making it so I would no longer leave my data to chance of going belly up. Part of this was rehabbing a corner of my bedroom where I had stored a bunch of DVD recorders, VCRs, a laserdisc player, etc so I could start digitizing the scads of tapes and shit I’ve collected over the years and perhaps even let some of them go. But I was also devising a system of regular backing-up as well as creating a workflow to make sure that what sorta happened mere days later wouldn't ever happen. It just goes to show you: It’s never too early to start.

I bought a small 30 inch monitor just to plug my DVD recorder into, so I could start digitizing a VHS treasure trove I got for next-to-nothing at a garage sale from an elderly couple that just wanted them cleared out. Much to my dismay, my DVD recorder wouldn't read discs. Then it hit me: I haven't used this machine in 3 years and I think it's been broken for at least that amount of time and I simply forgot about it. So I very proactively emailed a bunch of repair shops and asked them if they'd fix, and I was very specific about this: A DVD RECORDER DECK, NOT COMPUTER DRIVE, LIKE THE KIND THAT RESEMBLES A VCR THAT YOU’D PLUG INTO A TV. Most shops wrote back that they only did computers and wouldn't touch it. One shop said they could fix it. It was one state over (note: it was also one town over; I live on the border of the state). I decided to take it in on a Saturday.

I'd been running my computer ragged at this time, using it to run plex, download large files, rip youtubes, and occasionally edit video. It was one of those things where I was constantly opening my task manager to delete processes that didn't need to be running, trying carefully to not overload it. One night, Friday night game night, to be precise, I got excited telling my friends about an episode of a long-running comedy podcast where, long ago, a guest comically used various now-significantly-more-taboo slurs. The easiest way to share this, I thought, was to whip up a short YouTube video of the offending clips. Oh how we'd laugh! It was meant to be a quick little project before we all got on discord for our weekly appointment of making each other do big smiles. I had all my shots lined up, and I clicked ENCODE. Then my computer went black exactly one second after I clicked ENCODE. It wouldn't come back on. I fucking nuked my computer trying to make a 2 minute video of beloved alt comedians riffing nasty.

I already had planned to take my DVD recorder into this repair shop which I was only going to through process-of-elimination, so I decided to take my laptop in to them as well. The guy running the shop seemed impossibly young. Like, a teenager. He looked at my DVD recorder and his face fell. “Oh. It’s one of THOSE.” YES MOTHER FUCKER I WAS VERY SPECIFIC THAT IT WOULD BE ONE OF THESE. But he shrugged: “actually there’s a guy who comes in and might be able to fix that. It’s not really our specialty. Laptops are our specialty.” Indeed, there were stacks of laptops surrounding me. It didn’t seem like bullshit. So I said “well we’re both in luck because my laptop died on me last night and I brought that as well”. “That is great I love fixing laptops yum yum yum yum yum” is probably what he said back. Look, it’s not like I transcribed our conversation or anything, I’m just relying on my memory here. He probably didn’t say “yum yum yum yum yum” but I do recall him looking hungry.

The thing with this shop, I’d come to find out, is that they would update me rather sporadically with what was going on. When I would call them, they’d say they were in the middle of dealing with a customer and they’d call me right back. They never did. EVENTUALLY I got them on the phone again and finally found out what was going on: the motherboard died, completely. At this point I had bought a new computer so I wouldn’t have to go without one, and my plan was to get the old one fixed and dedicate it to running plex and nothing else, resembling a set-up I was I’d been wanting to create anyway. So I agreed to get a budget pre-owned motherboard for the computer and have them try to fix it just to get it back up and running again, so I could retrieve my stuff off it, attempt to use it as a dedicated plex server, and let it die a natural, less-spontaneous death over however long the new/old motherboard lasted.

Then another blow: my large 4K roku television, which has all my valuable streaming apps (including Plex), spontaneously died. I came home from work after a particularly shitty day wanting to do nothing more than veg out, and it just wouldn’t turn on. It was 3 months after warranty. Even if I had the old laptop back I wouldn’t be able to run my plex server! I’ve been using the paltry 30 inch monitor I bought to use with the DVD recorder that doesn’t work which lead me to taking my precious laptop to the most unresponsive repair shop I’ve ever dealt with in the entire world. Fuck, I miss my old set up, dudes. I had it so good.

This is all not to mention the recent development with Discovery callously removing many cartoons from HBOMax’s servers for a tax write-off. Will this result in the removal of obscure Adult Swim shows that I was hoping to watch on HBOMax? Isn’t it great that the people who built their empire on shoving video cameras in the faces of unwashed mutants to exploit them, are now deleting animated shows, a form of media that arguably takes the most amount of craft, just to save a few bucks?

So basically, especially in light of the tech holocaust I’ve suffered recently, I just don’t wanna have to rewrite weeks worth of write-ups. It would just hurt too much. But if I have to I will. I am just waiting to find out if I have to. I literally have no idea if the write-ups are safe, if the hard drive didn’t get fried, if it can be saved, etc. I literally have no idea!

I haven’t heard from the repair shop since I agreed to order the new/old motherboard. That was, what? A week-and-a-half ago? I don’t know. I just want my shit back. This sucks. This fucking sucks and I’m sorta legitimately depressed about it. I know, it could be worse! But I don’t care! I simply don’t care about other people and their lives! Just mine! Please! Put yourselves in my shoes! Imagine you are as selfish and shitty as me! Then you’ll finally get how this is the worst thing to ever happen to anyone ever in the history of all everything. It sucks! IT SUCKS DICK! IMAGINE YOU ARE A HOMOPHOBIC AS ME AND REREAD “IT SUCKS DICK”  AND TRY NOT TO KILL YOURSELF

MAIL BAG

Here is a huge backlog of MAIL BAGS! The first of which were sent to me weeks ago, and the most recent of which were sent to me TONIGHT. Hold onto your bollocks

From LondonArbuckle:

It's all good, take your time getting your tech back on track my man. All your Adult Swims pals, Meatwad, Murderface, Orel, Giles Vanderhoot... they'll be waiting right where you left them. :)

This is exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you so much. But you left out ♫KYLE KENNY STAN AND CARTMAN♫KYLE KENNY STAN AND CARTMAN♫

From Kon:

Bring back da blog

I WILL! JEEZ

Any chance you can review your fast food meals while you are out of commission? People love to hear about hamburgers and fries.

Okay, sure.

♫IF YOU SENTTTT ME A MESSSAGEEEE♫ "But the short answers are: yes, I still have it.I’m keeping it for now, but if I do decide to sell it I’ll try and let you know. But like I said, I deleted your message so you’ll need to write me again." ♫IF YOU SENTTTT ME A MESSSAGEEEE♫

I think I sold whatever this was. Times were tight and the co-owner of the item okayed it. Thank you for mocking me for engaging in commerce, asshole

Which will happen first: Adult Swim gets shuttered in favor of an all Toonami block or this blog gets a new update. Just kidding! I wish you the best. And the best is yet to come!

God, I hope so

There actually IS a term/trope for when a parody of something outlives/outnumbers it being used in earnest—it’s called the Dead Horse Trope, I believe. If they’re parodying something that was Never done in earnest, or at least was always pretty niche in the first place, it’s called a Dead Unicorn Trope. ^_^

I wish I could remember what this is in reference to. But thank you. This is USEFUL INFORMATION

That's a pricey fix, kimosabe. Want any computer advice?

“why don’t you try taking some of your own advice?” “Thanks. I think I will!” (The Breeders Cannonball continues playing)

Simpsons?

Has the latest season hit Disney+ yet? Which I can’t watch on my TV right now because the blu-ray player I’m using can only run the pre-loaded apps and it was made before Disney+ was a thing. I need to dig my old Roku out of storage. FUCK!

All this rippin' and dippin' and sippin' has got ME trippin'

You’re a racist

whats your shower routine?

Real talk: I HATE SHOWERING, and I rarely take a full-fledged shower. I do like baths when the weather isn’t too hot, but that’s more of a meditative thing than a keeping-clean thing. My showering routine: I literally stand in my bath tub and basically take a standing sponge bath. It resembles the method of bathing that’s recommended during a drought, and indeed I picked up this practice during a drought to conserve water. But I also literally prefer it to showering. I am a freak

Any word for our friends from across the globe?

yes: “PUSSY”

speak your mind! now that you've been a month away from watching adult swim how do you feel? liberated? confused?

I honestly do appreciate taking time off from the blog, as it could be chore-ish at times. But I also miss it and had a really good routine going before it all went tits up. I’ll ultimately be glad to be doing it again once I get past the episodes I already wrote-up. 

Any thoughts the HBOMax/Discovery controversy?

A fatwa on the heads of Discovery. May their remains be eaten by dogs

What's your favorite way to play?

I’ll be honest and gross but with my dick, doing jack-offs. But in another sense, the nintendo switch is fun and the NES/SNES online stuff is so great. Do I use the joycons? are you kidding me? I have a SPECIAL CONTROLLER that lets me adjust marios speed (walking, running, stopping, sliding) and the goombas can barely keep up. No doubt about it... I am a Mario master

[opaleyedprince]

i’m cannot sleep so i am just going to type character rambles until i am sleepy

see the thing abt enoch is he’s not even a belmont by blood so even though he’s just as protective of the family name sometimes it catches up with him that he technically has no claim to it; so he’ll act in defense of trevor instead until trevor is like my brother in christ why are you acting like you’re not also a belmont. also when something spooks him he will duck behind trevor out of habit even though he’s like. so much taller now. probably learned to sew/cook/etc from his mother, and learned a bit of swordsmanship from the belmonts even though his specialty was obviously in magic.

just his existence within the story is interesting to me bc he’s yet another person who would have been a blessing - literally - in the fight against the creatures of the hoard/night, but the corrupt system shot itself in the foot and forever robbed him of a future helping people backed by the church; though that might be a blessing in disguise tbh. like first his mother is forced to seek sanctuary with monster hunters, and then later the same people who chased after her somehow end up taking almost his whole family from him.

he’s younger than trevor but usually acts as his impulse control (with varying degrees of success), and meanwhile trevor does his best to keep enoch out of trouble like a good big brother would. both of them also do little things for each other without the other knowing, like trevor grabbing a nice piece of fabric for enoch to hold onto and enoch putting together a draft to help trevor with a particularly bad hangover.

enoch and sypha is interesting bc at first he tries to bond with her over their shared magical talent but that doesn’t go as far as you’d think - she’s a lot more skilled and practiced than he is; enoch’s strategy with magic is to literally burn himself out in the fight and overwhelm his opponent before they can realize what’s going on. but i do think the area where they would really fall into step with each other would be teasing trevor since enoch knows how aggravating he can be and is enjoying less-murderous jabs being sent at his brother instead of the usual death threats.

and NOW the cream of the crop aka alucard and enoch. while they start off on a bit of the wrong foot (witnessing a hot stranger attack your brother will do that to you), i think they’d bond pretty quickly. one thing about enoch is that if trevor is relaxed around someone, he’ll usually also immediately drop his guard; this time enoch actually relaxes around him first. at first it’s just mutual curiosity, but then it becomes “oh hey we’re pretty similar” and then it’s like oh hey we work/fight pretty well together. speedrun strangers to friends to lovers on a journey to kill his dad any%.

but i think the way they could bond over what the church did to each of their families/just over who they are is really something. like alucard talking about his mother’s practice and enoch telling him about his mother showing him how to knit. alucard giving him sword lessons and offering him nice gloves or a handkerchief (a la you wear fine things well). enoch acting as a rock for him and sticking by for company even when he doesn’t want to talk. and my favorite thing aka the drive to better protect alucard in fights causing enoch’s powers to grow and change. pov you are an enemy vamp targeting dracula’s son and his sort-of bf eldritch blasts you and turns you to salt.

all in all i am very normal abt this don’t worry abt it also if you made it this far wowee have a cookie and some milk

[esmorothfallen-a]

how many drafts is a paralysing amount?

what are my roleplaying habits? | accepting!

//Preferably I try to keep mine under 20, usually under 10 if I can. This was more of an issue when I was writing Varian from Tangled the Series than it is now. I think I wound up with over 40 drafts on that blog at one point and boy oh boy that was an issue.

For me my issue lately hasn't really been the amount of drafts, but how long I've taken to reply to some of them. Generally I tend to drop anything over 2 weeks old (assuming the problem is lack of muse), but I've been feeling bad about it lately and end up hoarding the same draft for a month or longer even though I'm not feeling it anymore.

I don't have anything like that now, thankfully. All my drafts are pretty recent (like "from the last few days" recent), but when I did my last draft purge, all the things I dropped ranged from 2 weeks old to nearly 2 months. It's a little bit of a problem.

[bemuseing]

I have this bad habit where I get a reply like... 80% written, and then get hit by a massive self confidence drop and instead of posting it I hoard it in my drafts for the next two weeks in the vague hopes I’ll somehow think of a way to improve it (when it’s probably fine as is)

[wetislandinthenorthatlantic]

2021 / Week 5 Recap

Hello peeps! I’m back — finally

Since My Last Post: Suddenly it feels like Spring is right around the corner - the Hellebores are up in the garden, while the village churchyard is full of Snowdrops and Crocus. Here in my part of the UK, the ground is well and truly muddy due to all of the Lockdown Walkers.  The sun has been making a few appearances which have been much appreciated. (*I wrote this on Sunday -- we now have a dusting of snow on the ground and freezing temps!) 

My daily writing habit is still intact! 

Last Week: Hooray! ‘Just Like Old Times’ (the ‘fake date’ espionage fic) has been finished, beta-ed and posted. The requester did something which as a fanfic writer I love- commenting on every chapter as they read it. This is one of the magical things about fanfic — we can easily find out from readers how much they are enjoying what we produce. 

My Cyberpunk Sleeping Beauty is coming along very nicely but I haven’t hit the spot when I can see the form under the SFD (shitty first draft). I will keep persevering — it is there.

For this story I am trying something completely new to me — writing by the numbers. While I need to retell a fairytale, I also need to write a good story so I am using the Hero’s Journey as my spine. I’ve taken the target word count, split out focus points, then assigned each section a word count. I plugged this all into Scrivener and away I go.

Pro: I love not having to think first thing in the morning when I sit down to write. And the chunks are all of reasonable length - 300-500 words, which is an easy ask. My brain doesn’t need to churn  as all of the thinking has already been done.

Con: Why did I think I could write 300 words about looking at server error logs? Although the word count is low, occasionally it still seems high for the content of the scene.

FanFic - Valentine’s Day had slipped my mind — and I really should do my February posting on that day. I am busy digging through my hoard of half-finished-mostly-neglected pieces to see if there is something suitable. Egged on by the other writers in my writing group I might post another chapter of Next Time. A little sex on Valentines Day is never a bad thing.

Next Up:  Writing: Cyberpunk Sleeping Beauty - keep working! Writing: Chapter 2 of Next Time / or some other Valentine thing

Editing: ‘Want of a Wife’ - the mail-order-bride request from @flabbergastedenough  It was 80% completed in NaNoWriMo 2020 - now it’s time to get back to it for completion. 

What I’m reading: Finished: Syllabus by Lynda Barry — This fun, wild, graphic journal is all about how to cultivate creativity.  Highly recommend. 

Wintering by Katherine May — A very interesting view of the restorative power of rest. It started well, but then went downhill. Would not recommend. 

In the middle: As She Climbed Across The Table  by Jonathan Lethem — SciFi love story, in which a woman falls out of love with a man and in love with a black hole. Yes, Really.

Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre — A true story about a deep cover KGB agent who lived in Cornwall and was the typical housewife next door. 

Goal is to finish the half read books!

Have a great week everyone, until next time! If you have any questions or prompts leave a comment or feel free to DM me.

[soulburnings]

how a Kasa runs her blog(s)

Tagged by:  stole from a bunch of people on my dash tbh Tagging: you!

Blogs: @soulburnings​, @linksensed​, @pendulumrisen​

SPEED: Fast? Slow?? I dunno. I’ve had a lot of people tell me I’m super on top of my replies, but the real secret is, I’m not lmao. I just tend to do a bunch of stuff all at once and then shove whatever in my queue, especially on work nights. Multipara replies take more effort for me to get done, so I’m quicker with shorter, low energy things over heavy plot stuff sometimes.

REPLIES: I like plots, but I like random threads more sometimes, too! My usual reply length is 1-2 paras, I’m p good about matching my partner’s length usually, but I highkey have a bad habit of hoarding threads that are 4+ paras in my drafts and replying to those once every 3+ months.

STARTERS: Starter calls are kind rare now days, especially since I’m busy irl a lot, but I do them occasionally! Memes are probably an easier way to start interactions with my muses though tbh

INBOX: Is always open! I reblog memes sometimes, so those are always welcome, but I like random questions aimed at the muses, too. I’m trying to break the habit of only barging into inboxes of the people I personally know myself buuut that’s a wip. 

SELECTIVITY: I’m not really so much selective as I just don’t have the time to write with everyone I want to like I used to?? I love seeing my muses interact with all kind of different muses though, so basically if I follow you, I definitely wanna write with you!

WISHLIST: Omg just give Takeru more friends to meet? Or not friends; I love throwing him into threads with muses he doesn’t get along with, too! Him meeting muses from other YGO series is always a fav

HONEST NOTE:  hi i’m Kasa and though I may look like I only interact with three whole people on dash, I really adore everyone I follow!  

[drake-the-incubus]

How to Draw like Drake, A Fake Tutorial (Seriously I’m awful at art)

Step 1: Pick a Character, I chose Matt Eddsworld.

Step two, as shown Above: Grab some references. Pick a few angles, and get as much as you can from the refs. Also grab pose references. Don’t be like me and only settle for two. Hoard your references.

Step 3: Head designs.

Actually I literally drew little circles and tried to draw faces. The easiest one was one where he didn’t show his face. 100% not what you’re supposed to do. This also gets a habit of making face shapes I suppose.

Step 4: Practice the face. Honestly, an important thing. I mean, if I tried to use this I’d honestly commit. It’s awful, positioning is bad. But the important part of it? It’s actually showing me where I went wrong. Gave me chances to make mistakes, so I could learn better.

Step 5: Repeat Step four but make a weird pig statue. Could be an Easter egg in the final product.

Step six: Decide what the fuck the character is doing.

Step seven: Practice it. Delve into what you wanna do.

Step Eight: Make a Rough Guide. Design your background, throw your character into it and make it more dynamic. This is a small draft.

Step Nine: Avoid drawing the final product because you’re a coward, also you don’t have an eraser handy.

Honestly this was an excuse to kinda just post content. And show how I’m trying to tackle art again. I’m a writer by habit but maybe this’ll work. I got another WIP to start with Matt so adios.

Note: No matter how bad you see yourself at art, I promise you’re great because it’s your art and no one can compare. Unfortunately this also includes myself. I do plan to do this piece as like, a watercolour pencil piece. Gimme time.