#i have problems writing in smaller batches

[james-p-sullivan]

I Hate (Love) You - Chapter 5

Summary: What if the Links were just five minutes later than when they had originally arrived to the volcano in the manga?

In this chapter, a plan is made and kind of executed

Ongoing word count: 15,149

[jyndor]

lbr star wars has had shitty writing always. it's always been messy. it's always been imperfect. the quality dip between s2 and s3 of the mandalorian is so widely discussed but it came after a real dip in quality after s1 so let's not act as if the acolyte having problems is the reason it got canceled.

the acolyte has real problems but yall still show up for equally messy projects if they are about the same characters that we have seen over and over again, and those projects have the space and room to be imperfect. I'm not saying star wars fans don't always criticize every project ever because of course we do, but the way that people spoke about the acolyte... as someone who didn't have time to watch until like last week, I expected an absolute shitshow and I got a good show with some structural issues but mainly good bones.

and yes, star wars fatigue is REAL but people showed up for the ahsoka show, for the kenobi show, for mando, for the bad batch, and even for boba fett. all of which have episodes that are as bad as anything in the acolyte, if not worse.

but andor? the most well-written, well-acted star wars anything I've ever seen??? okay so it's not about jedi and space wizards and shit, but it's extremely star wars. but okay it's meant for a more adult audience so of course it isn't going to have the numbers that mando gets. sure, fine - but when it was announced, there was so much immediate disinterest and confusion amongst alleged star wars fans who I REMEMBER loving rogue one, saying shit like "who asked for this" and "who cares about cassian" and a lot of them ate crow when the show that was aimed at the one big critique of rogue one (that the characters didn't have enough time to develop) turned out to be as good as the big prestige shows from hbo etc.

but even then who gets the most attention from fans? the white core world-coded (ie: us american and british accented) characters. meanwhile, even after delivering one of the finest performances in star wars history (and somehow maintaining a balance of being the lead actor with all of the presence required for that, and also being an excellent supporting presence when other actors have their moments to shine) people have the audacity to say diego luna, who put so much into this project, is a weak part of the show or cassian is irrelevant or whatever BITCH-

and diego luna is a white latino. us american audiences racialize all latinos as non-white or conditionally white, and ~it just so happens~ his show - which should have been a massive hit with most star wars fans tbh - had a smaller audience for a STAR WAR. and we had to beg people to just give it a shot - we had to beg people who ALLEGEDLY care about diversity and queer rep and good stories to watch it. canon queen wlw! and not a peep from the people who will ship any two women characters who look at each other for a long moment. I mean, same but COME ON???

now the acolyte is not andor, but it doesn't have to be andor - it needs to be itself. and it is! it's not perfect but why the fuck does a star war need to be perfect? star wars have never been perfect, fuck the prequels are still a mess idc what you people my age think they're Not Good. but you and I have Made Them Good because they have good bones and there is a lot there to work with.

the acolyte is WORLDS better than the phantom menace and attack of the clones in terms of writing. it has some structure issues and could have used a couple more episodes to delve more deeply into the characters' motivations. but the acting? 10000% better and you won't convince me otherwise.

you know what? I have major problems with cassian's characterization in andor. I don't think it is consistent with who cassian was written to have been as a youth in rogue one. but I'm not gonna throw in with reactionary cunts who hate the show because it has the audacity to be led by a mexican actor. when I've criticized andor, I've done it in support of andor ALWAYS. meanwhile these freak ass pro-jedi types who essentially call any critique of jedi (individual or institutionally) genocide apologia while basically denying irl genocide -

these types are so offended by a show making the most tepid observations about how jedi are people and like all people are not infallible even if they are well intentioned, but that also the dark side of the force does harm the force user, that you joined in on the reactionary bashing of a show led by a NON BINARY BLACK ACTRESS and a very, very diverse cast.

meanwhile, this is a show that probably was going to end with the dark side being a danger to everyone since imo that's clearly where they were going but now we will never know.

and the thing is that you are not to blame for lucasfilm capitalisming! I have been so busy this summer that I couldn't find the time to watch until a couple weeks ago. but lbr this fanbase shows up endlessly for white mediocrity by filoni, frankly even by lucas himself. lucasfilm has never stood up for its actors of color when they've been harassed by reactionary elements of the fandom.

you want an old republic project? good luck. good luck getting new and interesting star wars projects. it'll just be more of the same. and they'll be the same quality because lucasfilm doesn't have to put the work in when its a fandom fave - see boba fett, see obi wan. they can ride on nostalgia forever, but the numbers will continue to fall over time until there's nothing left.

[canmom]

sometimes when the bad performance of a game is in the news, people will single out like, a particular asset as emblematic of the bad dev practice.

e.g. a recent pokémon game having a giant sky sphere (nevermind that the physical size of a thing has no bearing on how expensive it is to render), or most recently the 70k triangle Starfield sandwich (which is a fake from some rando on 4chan, the actual sandwich has about 3k tris).

the problem is that peoples' understanding of game optimisation is like... a decade out of date ^^' a modern GPU can serve a scene with millions of triangles without too much difficulty.

(which certainly isn't to say that you shouldn't try to keep triangles down! there is no point having triangles smaller than a pixel, and when it comes to stuff like big landscapes you absolutely need to use LOD optimisations to keep the triangles under control.)

if not triangles, what's the problem? the real stuff that kills performance on the GPU side is stuff like...

-> expensive shaders <-

too many draw calls/render state changes

texture bandwidth

overdraw

the first one means that for each triangle/pixel the GPU has to do too much work calculating noise or whatever; the other three lead to the GPU sitting idle or spending time calculating pixels that will be overwritten by other pixels.

with shaders, there are typically two relevant stages, the vertex and the fragment shader. the vertex shader handles perspective projection, and it is also used for effects like displacement and skinning; it scales with the number of vertices. the fragment shader runs per pixel and scales with the size of the screen and the space taken up by the object on screen. both can be a problem but the fragment shader runs way more often and is way more likely to be an issue.

so if you have an expensive vertex shader, reducing vertices will help. if you have an expensive fragment shader, reducing the number of tris won't help at all. hell, your expensive shader might not even draw any triangles if it's in the post-processing stage, or you're using deferred rendering!

the correct way to analyse how a game draws frames and what takes time is to open up renderdoc and actually measure it. you can't tell just by looking at random assets. even if it makes for a better meme.

it's also quite platform dependent. e.g. on a mobile GPU you get punished really hard for draw calls, and tile-based rendering makes writing to a render texture and then reading from it hideously expensive, which rules out a lot of standard tricks for stuff like planar reflections, refractions, etc. (as an example, we gained a ton of performance on quest 2 when i found a way improved batching for our procedurally generated meshes, cutting 36 draw calls down to 1 for the exact same geometry. on PC you wouldn't even blink at 36 draw calls.)

'course this is all assuming your game isn't CPU-bound anyway.

[bettsfic]

How do you know when it’s time to move up from post it note, to index card, etc…? What if we can’t objectively dictate we improved or you are the kind of person who needs a lot of space from a work to even like it a little? This isn’t me trying to be extra I truly mean these questions.

And could you use the same technique of lifting small weights by writing a novel that isn’t as complex as I’d prefer

Responding to latest ask

but that's the challenge. learning how to love small, imperfect things. it's not about writing. it's about revising.

here's another analogy:

visualize yourself in a factory. this factory has a number of machines, and each one helps take a raw material and turn it into a finished product. you have to run all the machines. you know in theory how to create the product; it's a product you use so frequently that you're intimately familiar with it. and you want to make a big, intricate, beautiful version of this product, just like the kind you buy. the problem is that when you walk inside the factory, all the lights are off. you don't know how big the space is or how many machines there are.

you stumble around and find the first light switch. you approach the first machine. you have the raw material in your hand and you put it into the machine and turn the machine on. you want this thing to be enormous, so you shove a whole lot of the raw material into it. it takes forever, and the machine doesn't do a great job. like the first batch of pancakes, you have to throw it out. so you try it again and maybe this time the machine more or less does its job.

before you can find the next machine, you have to find the light switch. it takes a while, and you get tired quickly from carrying this huge amount of not-quite-raw material around, but you do and you put the material from the first machine into the second. the second machine mangles it. you have to start over. but that's not a huge deal, because you've already found the light switch. you return to the first machine, and this time you know not to use so much raw material because you don't know how the second machine is going to work. the third thing comes out even better, and when you return to the second machine--much more easily!--it does an okay job. okay enough to look around for the light switch over the third machine.

but you're so eager to make the thing that it never occurs to you to stumble around for an excessively long time finding *all* the switches. that seems like a waste of time when you're making so much progress with this machine right here, and anyway, knowing all that work you have ahead of you might freak you out, and so it's best for all that to stay in the dark until you get to it. and that's fine. god knows that's what i did.

there's one machine that just won't work. you need to fix it but you don't know how. so you leave the factory. maybe in your frustration, you burn it down. you find a new one. in this factory, you know from the previous factory to find the first three light switches before you begin, and make sure that weirdo machine from before is working fine. you also know to use a smaller amount of raw material so you can get through it faster and waste less in the long run.

do you see what i'm saying? when writers tell me they're disappointed in themselves for not finishing a novel-length project when they haven't even taken something shorter and simpler through the revision process, i just imagine them in a dark factory in front of the first machine, shoving in tons of raw material, not knowing how many machines there are or what they do or how to fix them when they break. you swear you'll take it through the whole factory on the first try by feel alone. some people think they can skip right to the final machine.

the light switches are important, because once they're on, they're on forever. that's what it feels like when you're ready to write a novel. you can see the full process lit in front of you. and even with all the lights on, it won't go perfectly, but you've worked with broken machine #4 before and you know how to fix it, or maybe you call in a repairman (editor) to take a look at it and give you some advice.

i've been writing for ten years, i have 1.5 graduate degrees in writing, i teach writing, i've been published and i've earned more accolades than i ever thought i would. and i still don't have all my lights on. i'm still taking raw material through the machines i'm familiar with, and i have enough lights on that starting all the way at machine #1 with new raw material, knowing how many machines there are and how long it takes, has become more daunting than it used to be.

i've gotten to the point where i'm happy with the product that comes out of my lit-up machines. i'm even happy giving it to others. but i'm missing that final machine that will turn it into a product that can be sold. a lot of writers think that last machine in the dark is overrated, and i'm inclined to agree. you don't need it, you know? it's more fun and satisfying taking new raw material through the process than it is to light up that last machine and put in an agonizing amount of work, when you don't even know if the product will sell. but here i am, getting closer and closer to finding the last light switch.

perfectionists know they're in a factory, but they don't know how big it is. they don't know what's ahead of them, and instead of turning on the lights and playing around with the next machine, finding out what works and what doesn't, throwing away raw material because they believe it's precious, they move into a new factory hoping that this one only has one really good machine, an intuitive one that they already know how to use, so they can turn on the light, shove in all the raw material, and the product will come out perfectly.

[mlobsters]

supernatural s11e23 alpha and omega (w. andrew dabb)

so i've often complained about how dean and cas's relationship is talked about a lot more than seen onscreen (we're best friends! ok when?) but this part of this season has been a lot more of dean showing how cas is high priority to him. it feels a little out of nowhere to me i guess, because i never got whatever vibes they were trying to establish (i didn't come into the show with any sort of bias other than i knew destiel was The Thing and got blindsided by wincest feelings out the wazoo). anyway, i just try to accept that the show is gonna try to sell me on dean and cas being close, and try not to bitch (too much) about not getting it. clearly failed that brief today

oh, i thought lucifer bailed because he thought amara was gonna off him via cas, apparently it was amara who yoinked him out

LOL chuck clinging onto sam is really cracking me up. he looks so small and sam looks like he doesn't even notice there's a person hanging off him

CROWLEY Well... that was a complete and utter dog's breakfast, wasn't it? CAS I didn't know dogs had breakfast. DEAN Cas is back.

i was 🤔 because since i (clearly) watch gbbo i know the phrase is dog's dinner lol. if a dog eats in the morning, is that not a breakfast, cas?? haha and dean's response to sam like obviously cas is back, based on the doofy comment (and voice, amirite)

based on their reactions and the dramatic music i was expecting something a little more exciting than an especially pretty sunrise

oh, the sun is dying. that is very dramatic. i don't know that would be the conclusion most people would make from that view

oh no, is this british men of letters? 😴 you know MoL storylines are my favorite. and a new batch of them

really. because we don't have enough characters. i hate the music, i already hate the premise and it's only been literally a minute

CHUCK Sam. I get it. Even if we could lock Amara away, it wouldn't do any good now. I'm dying. And when I'm gone, a cosmic balance between light and dark—it's over.

beating the dead horse of "what about the other deities" and here's the problem right. you know (they probably know) they'd make a fucking mess if they tried to address it. but they did address other religions and deities in the past several times! oh what is God just the most important god or somethin :p i know it's a no-win situation, but it still irks me on the regular

CAS I was just... so stupid. DEAN No, no, no. It wasn't stupid. You were right. You were right to let Lucifer ride shotgun. Me and Sam wouldn't have done that.

all right. bend the story around so it wasn't a fuckup

DEAN You know, sometimes me and Sam have got so much going on that...we forget about everyone else. CAS Well, you do live exciting lives. DEAN Yeah, that's one word for it. But you're always there, you know? You're the best friend we've ever had. You're our brother, Cas. I want you to know that.

and i'd offer that he's the best friend they've ever had because he's been semi-indestructible and resurrected all the times he has died when their friends pretty much never get that kind of service.

i try to really be fairly neutral when watching and writing these up, i obviously have some bias towards sam and dean as a unit because the show sold me hard on it from the get-go. but i think the lack of relationship established to me, and the very large presence cas and destiel has within fandom and even just the outsider perception of spn based on that large fandom presence - well. stuff like this, i just don't like it. it doesn't feel true to me and it kinda sorta pisses me off. and it pisses me off that part of my feelings about the character are based on some dumb kneejerk reaction to the fandom stuff. and it's perplexing.

the previous show i was into was teen wolf. stiles/derek is obviously the prevailing ship there - and there's almost nothing in canon between them. really working with crumbs. the ship that is much smaller but i can totally vibe with is scott/stiles. but i happily read all sorts of sterek fic too and it never bothered me like this does. so i'm reminding myself that it's not that it's a ship i think is more fanon based than canon that is the problem. or even that it's the popular ship. i think it's an amalgamation of the weird mismatch for me in the show, the fanon-sold-as-canon meta i see sometimes (which i avoid meta in general now) and (honestly) the virulent hate directed towards wincest shippers that i'd stumble into when just browsing the spn tag. anyway. (maybe if i keep explaining, someone will understand!!)

she really does look beaten down

SAM So, we don't really have a choice. I mean, look. Y-You've got darkness and light. You take one side away and— CAS It upsets the scales—the whole balance of the universe. SAM Exactly. But you take both away, and now both sides of the scale are empty, so...

*raising my hand to ask about when they killed those other deities*

CAS Well, what about souls? They fuel your demon deals. Souls are living batteries. They're full of energy. They're full of light. Each one is as powerful as...100 suns?

okay so would this process destroy the souls? i mean better than being tortured in hell, but the ones that are ghosts.. surely they're not all destined for hell after they get taken care of? guess it's a moot point of the earth/universe gets wiped out. ends justify the means etc

well that was cute

got their shiny rock stuff full of people and billie lurking around, of course, why not. we don't have enough people involved in this. man i'm crotchety this evening. ah right, because billie has access to a lot of souls? having flashbacks to whatever fucking season that led to the leviathans lol. marcia, marcia, marcia!

is amara having a crisis of conscience or something

AMARA So you hate him. WOMAN Well, a little bit. Sometimes. But you know family. Even when you hate them, you still love them.

eyes about rolled back into my head. so all the things we said about amara, scratch that

i do like the little flirting between crowley and billie though, that was cute

ROWENA You won't carry the bomb. You'll be the bomb.

oh for fuck's sake. and they're busting out the mushy music, not surprisingly. i refuse to get upset over this because i'm sure it's also going to be walked back very shortly. like hey amara doesn't want to kill everyone anymore because she was sad about some flowers she killed and realized the importance of family from a conversation with a rando in the park

dean's gonna (not) die-die and get thrown in the empty and he hasn't even talked to sam about it. power through. (the part of me that empathizes too much with sam had the brief moment of despair, "dean's going to leave him again! forever")

oh, come on. pulling the dead parent card? this is the kind of thing that edges into emotional manipulation for me. there better some really good fucking hugs in this episode in payment for this bullshit.

no no NO funeral planning. i actually had that conversation with my dad with terminal cancer when i was 16 and no. (he didn't want the wake to be sad but i mean. fucked if i can remember what it was like) not when it's all gonna get taken care of miraculously some other way. do not push these buttons for some shit that got cooked up halfway into the episode. i said i wasn't going to get upset and clearly that was a failure.

so do we find out chuck was lying about something. is the british mol thing just like, introducing a new plotline for next season.

look at that, amara and chuck are all peachy now.

AMARA Dean, you gave me what I needed most. I want to do the same for you.

...they couldn't zap dean back home before they left?

TONI We've been watching you, Sam. What you've done, the damage you've caused—archangels, Leviathans, the Darkness, and now, well— the old men have decided enough's enough. I mean, let's face it, Sam. You're just a jumped-up hunter playing with things you don't understand and doing more harm than good.

great. couldn't go to the good old nugget of the police or fbi being after them, gotta step it up to some supernatural police

so what dean needs most is his mom. ok, sure

[bvannn]

Weekly Update May 31, 2024

This week was fine in terms of productivity. Didn’t get as much comic work done as I would have liked, but made progress on other stuff, and returned to work and plasma donation, so I should have a bit more money.

Big thing I did this week was OEB work, kinda. Didn’t get any storyboards done but I got a good chunk of the clip studio assets I need to build the lead’s rig done. I’d guess the rig as 30% done. Plus, also got some sketchy line assets ready to test my new strategy for those. I probably won’t make test animations with the rig, although fwiw I’m considering trying out some smaller ‘half-rig’ animations, to see how long they take. That’s a lower priority, though.

This week I also listened to those songs I’ve been sitting on in the car, realized they were super quiet compared to other songs in my playlist, googled why, and found a solution. I’m now going through the old tracks and re-mastering them all. I may also go redo some of the vocal tuning, but I’ll probably do that in a batch with the new vocal files, so everything can get sent and exported at the same time. Right now, WOTW has been partially re-mastered, this weekend I’ll probably finish it up and hit the others too.

Additionally, I did a ton of lyric writing yesterday, and plan to continue tonight. BATB is still around 1/3 done with lyrics, and the new one, RR, I’d say somewhere between 25 and 33%. I’m planning to continue it tonight, I’ve been in a writing sorta mood. BATB specifically I redid two entire chunks, because they weren’t descriptive enough. I’ll try to get at least the second verse done tonight.

I’m also trying a new strategy for organizing my VSTs, so hopefully I can get some quickies done soon. I’ll try to get that ambient one done Sunday at the latest. I’ll see what I can do on another one soon.

Comic: 21.5% done. Today I got some good ideas for future issues, and some inspiration for some more drawings. At work last summer I did a ton of general story writing, and I’m hoping this summer will be the same. If I’m feeling energized tonight I’ll try to finish up page 7 and get a general drawing done.

This weekend I’ll also try to sketch out some Artfight refs. Romeo needs a new one, I’d like to add Josh as an option, and depending on time or energy I might tweak or redo the others. I’ll probably redo Emrys’ thumbnail because there’s a small error, and I’ll fix his refsheet too if it’s there too.

Next week I expect to be slow because the personal problem I anticipated was delayed until this Sunday, and the fallout will probably follow. I’ll try to place a bigger focus on comic, but music is so fun to work on. Again sorry I’ve been so slow on posting, but I’m working on big projects, I hope they’ll be worth it!

[pissybird]

Minor spoilers for “Faster” and “Entombed”

The main problem I have with The Bad Batch right now, writing-wise, is the treatment of side and background characters. I don’t just mean characters that are side characters and background characters in relation to The Bad Batch as a whole. I mean characters that are side characters and background characters in relation to the plot of a particular episode.

Dave Filoni tends to place his characters in a kind of spiral set up, or maybe even in concentric circles. The main protagonist of the entire series is in the middle circle. The rest of the side and background characters spiral out from the center in order of relevance to the plot.  Dave Filoni is very good at keeping the main protagonist of the series in the center of things, but he’s not great at utilizing his side and background characters.

This makes sense for a show like The Clone Wars where the main characters are Rex and Ahsoka, and there are literally close to 2 million side and background characters. That’s a lot of characters to juggle, and they can’t all always be relevant. It makes more sense to chop the cast up into bite-sized pieces.

However, the bad batch has a much smaller cast, but is being treated as if the cast is the same size as The Clone Wars. Omega is the only main protagonist (as season two goes on Hunter is looking more and more like a deuteragonist). Other than Omega there are not a lot of deuteragonist, and even fewer recurring side characters thus far. The story is ultimately about Omega, and Filoni is very good at keeping her front and center. Even when she is not this week’s main character, plot-wise, she still has her role to play. 

Take TBB s2 e4, for example. “Faster” was a Tech-centric episode.  Cid had her part to play, because she had some plot relevance. Omega acted as a sort of catalyst for Tech to be pushed into his part as the main character.  however, Wrecker was just sort of… There.  he didn’t serve any real purpose other than to give Omega a companion while Tech was racing.

This was the problem I had with this week’s episode, “Entombed”. The main character of the week was Phee. Of course, as the main protagonist, Omega had her part. Hunter had some relevance in going from disliking Phee to tolerating her (I really hope this has some relevance later in the season). Tech, Wrecker, and Echo, being irrelevant, were cut off from this weeks main crew and were totally under utilized.

I hypothesize that this is why we haven’t seen much of Echo in these last episodes. We’ve seen more of Tech, because he has been relevant to the plot of some episodes. I reckon we will be seeing much more of Echo, and much less of Tech in certain episodes where Echo becomes relevant. Especially because it was stated that, while last season was Hunter and Wrecker centric, this season will be more focused on Tech and Echo’s relationship with Omega.

[spaceorphanssecondbreakfastclub]

SO's US Tour Round-Up

I'm pretty behind in doing reviews for these books, so I thought I'd write up some smaller reactions and put them all in one. It seems easier, so I may try this way for the next batch as well.

****

California : The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Look, I know that California is a big place, and there are a lot of things that could represent it - but I think nothing screams California more to an outsider than Old Hollywood. Plus, I had been wanting to read this book for a while.

I'll be honest - I have some mixed feelings about this one.

On the one hand, it's an interesting read. The premise is a young woman listening to the story of aging Hollywood Starlet Evelyn Hugo - and the story of her having seven husbands. You can tell that this was inspired by someone like Elizabeth Taylor -- and the book is broken up into various parts - each documenting the story behind each husband.

It's incredibly engaging, and I can say the book kept me captivated the whole way through. I think those who are interested - if they pick up the book, they'll probably, overall, have a good time with it. The problems I, personally, had was when you started to dig a little deeper.

First of all -- I was slightly disappointed that I don't think Reid fully captivates the Old Hollywood atmosphere. Everything reads as if it were happening in the present, and I never get that full sense of what Hollywood was like back then. I guess I wanted more from that. (Honestly - though, when this inevitably gets turned into a miniseries - I think seeing it on screen might help with some of the atmosphere issues.)

Secondly - the book deals with three main themes -- women's issues, queer identity, and (tangentially) racial issues. I think it's awkward with all three, and there were aspects of the book that just didn't settle well with me. Added into that - there was one element (the main character's central romance) that just did not work, which tied into the above elements, and why I don't think the book succeeds the way I think the author intended.

Overall, I think if you take the book for what it is -- an entertaining riff on Old Hollywood and its scandals and stereotypes, I think you'll enjoy the book. I just don't think it's the literary genius that social media (TikTok) has been making it out to be, and while I recommend it, I would advise going into for the enjoyment value and not thinking about it too hard.

Rating : 3.5 Stars

****

Colorado : Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. Sullivan

When I started this project, and was looking for a book for Colorado - all signs pointed to me to Stephen King's The Shining. Which I've read! And enjoyed! And wouldn't even have minded reading it again -- but I've been trying to go with books that I haven't read before.

So - I took a chance on this one. I like books about bookstores, and this one had a mystery imbedded into it, so I thought - hey, why not?

It's not a bad little book - but I can't say it's all that memorable (save for one thing) either. The story revolves around a woman named Lucy who works at an Indy bookstore in Denver. When one of her coworkers commits suicide, she starts looking into it, and finds out that it intersects with a horrific incident in her own past.

This is another one that was pretty easy to read - and the central mystery around it was pretty captivating. I finished it rather quickly. And even if I didn't really love the ending, I think it still works relatively well for a thriller.

Lucy's a likable enough character -- though the book does spend a good amount of energy exploring her relationship with her live-in boyfriend that ultimately doesn't go anywhere or have much plot relevance. The other characters serve their purpose well, though I wouldn't say this book digs in deep by way of character development.

As for atmosphere - I think it both works and doesn't. The whole idea of the bookstore was fun - but the mystery doesn't do much with it other than kick of the premise. The setting of Colorado works for a story that wants to remain in an isolated place, but it's by no means the feature of the novel.

One thing that I do think worked really well for the book was a sequence where it transcended genres and slipped from thriller to horror. There's an entire section that depicts a young girl witnessing some gruesome murders - and it is haunting. It's by far the biggest thing I remember from the book. I wish the rest of the book's writing lived up to this sequence.

Overall - it's a solid recommend. Again, I think if you go in wanting a couple of hours worth of engaging entertainment it's worth the read, but I don't think it's something you'll remember much about a year later.

Rating : 3 Stars

****

Connecticut : Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan

The premise of this one is fairly simple - it's a slice of life from the POV of a Red Lobster manager named Manny. The restaurant is having its last day -- a cold day in late December, and it really showcases what it's like to be service worker in the lower working class of suburban America.

I was kind of expecting this one to be a comedy at first, but it's really not. It's more of a drama and a character study. And you know what? I really, really enjoyed it. It hit a bit close to home -- and it will for anyone who has ever had to work in a service industry. But I think where it really excels is just capturing what life is really like, and how there are these bittersweet beginnings and endings in a world that trudges forever on.

I think there's also a conversation about class baked into the story. All of the staff have unpretty lives. They aren't poor and it's not a horror show in the way I think other media often portrays the working people, but I think it's a commentary about how many of us lead outward sad lives but are so entrenched on making it through the day that we don't even notice. I'm painting a bleak picture here, I know -- but there is some silverlining, in that the staff is able to remember good times, too, and even at the end of their tenure, it's not all bad. It's a book about finding the good stuff even when everything around you is falling apart.

All of this is juxtaposed against the customers - who, while being not so great people themselves, regard themselves (intentionally or not) above everyone else. The irony being that they're living in New England and choosing to go to Red Lobster instead of somewhere local for their seafood, and yet still feel above people who go to, say, Long John Silvers.

I definitely recommend this one. Out of the books that I've read lately for this challenge, it's the one that's stuck out to me the most, and the one that's held the most weight, even if it's a somewhat simple story.

Rating : 4 Stars

****

Delaware : Cure for the Common Break Up by Beth Kendrick

I'm sorry Delaware that you don't seem to have any great American novels tied to you. I'm sorry that you don't seem to have much of anything written in your state. Because this book kept coming up on lists for Delaware - and while I'm totally fine with a Hallmark-esque, breeze romance novel. This book was terrible.

If you've followed me at all lately - I keep posting excerpts from it. Because it's just so unfathomly bad. Look - I can do fun campiness. The author does write for Hallmark, and even if they aren't the best pieces of literature around, at least they're often fun. This was not fun.

The story revolves around a woman named Summer who literally crashes and burns (she was a airline stewardess whose plane crashed) and when she's dumped, makes it to Black Dog Bay - where the main attraction is the fact that everything in the little town has to do with heartbreak. It's actually a kind of cute premise - which is why I initially picked it up - but the execution is just terrible.

Summer is wholly unlikable a good amount of the time. Her life is a mess, and yet she's perfect at just about everything. Her love interest is a guy named Dutch Jenson (omg the names) the mayor of the little town who kind of lucked into the role. The romance is kind of pathetic - there's zero build up, zero reason why the two should be together, and zero payoff.

The book really isn't interesting in being a romance anyway. It's more concerned with Summer's attachment to Dutch's teenage sister (where she's supposed to be a mentor) and Summer's dealings with an older woman named Hattie -- who is so bitter after a broken love affair that she's planning on taking the town down with her. Of course, Summer is able to save the day and the town and, everyone lives dully after after.

This book is stupid. It's just. So. Stupid. The characters are flat when they're not being annoying. The dialogue is incredibly forced - it's painful the people talk in this book. There are a ton of pop culture references that make me wince more than anything. The 'humor' is bad sitcom level of bad. And the plot is entirely bland and unoriginal. I think the whole thing makes those ridiculous Hallmark movies feel like groundbreaking art forms.

I think there's some fun to be had with cheesy things like this -- if you have fun characters and do interesting things with them. But this one just kinda fails in a whole lotta ways.

Not a recommendation from me.

Rating : 1.5 stars

[writingforfun0714]

Hey everyone, I just wanted to offer an update on my Bad Batch Older Sister fic (link is for all chapters)

Quick summary: Omega finds a Jedi Youngling and CF99 adopt her into the group and Omega gets to be an older sister figure.

After finishing Chapter 6 (which follows the S1 show finale) I wanted to wait and see how S2 would be. We’re 13 eps into S2 as of this post and I have to say, this season frustrates me. I have lots of problems (character design, writing, etc) so I’ve been really conflicted as to how I want to continue this fic.

Honestly I really only liked episodes 3, 7/8, and 11 of S2 (so far—I really hope these last few eps are good). I would’ve put Tribe (e6) and The Outpost (e12) on here as well and I do like those episodes more than most of S2, but they could’ve been better imo.

Because I have problems with the current season, I’ve been toying around with ideas/scenes I liked seeing but adding my own twist/story to it. Honestly this season has been a let down in a few different ways and I definitely expected more. And it’s not like I loved S1 either (I do think it’s superior to S2) so my expectations were pretty low for S2.

What’s frustrating to me is that the premise of Bad Batch isn’t a bad idea. A unique squad of clones on the run from the Empire with an unaltered female Jango clone set just after O66 actually sounds fascinating. It’s the execution. In an ideal world there wouldn’t have been that copyright issue so Dave Felony could’ve used Delta Squad instead of his rip-off CF99. In S1 of Bad Batch it’s clear that CF99 doesn’t really have the same sort of ‘unique personality’ that the other clones have. CF99 are bland stereotypes of their characters (strong silent—Hunter, dumb-brute—Wrecker, social awkward—Tech, forgotten—Echo, grump—Crosshair). I won’t go into all of my problems with Bad Batch (cuz it’d be long af lol) but I’m seriously considering doing a mix of ideas I liked seeing with my own stories.

I guess that’s where I’m at with Older Sister and the more I think on it, the more sure I am of doing my own stories instead of following the episodes like I had been doing.

What else I have planned—these will be multi-chapter fics

I am working on another fic that’s basically my version of Bad Batch. CF99 does not exist in this fic and is replaced with Delta Squad (obviously). This fic is also a reader-insert fic (female child reader) where reader basically takes the place of Omega. Because I have not played Republic Commando, the little knowledge I do know about DS is from google/wiki so I would be doing my own stories as well.

I’m also working on a Jungle book fic that’s basically the jungle book story (human child raised by wolves) but the wolves are Mononoke wolf/direwolf size and there’s skinchanging/warging from Game of Thrones/ASoIaF.

The last big/multi chapter fic I’m working on is an Arcane AU where Reader is the youngest sister to Vi and Powder and grows up as a Firelight w/ Ekko.

*I do have smaller, one-shot stories for clones/set during CW. I also have one-shot ideas I wanna do for PJO and AtLA*

So that’s where I’m at right now writing-wise. I don’t have a particular order or anything I wanna do these in so if anyone wants to see something I’ve listed lemme know.

Also my dad just had shoulder replacement surgery so I’m sorry to those waiting for new content. Thanks for your support🥰

-Maisy

[douchebagbrainwaves]

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT MANAGEMENT

Seed firms differ from angels and VCs in that they invest relatively small amounts at early stages, but like VCs in that they invest relatively small amounts at early stages, but like VCs in that they're companies that do it as a company. I'm not sure what happened to Dropbox. A lot of startups; it would not be for most biotech startups, for example, allow founders to cash out partially by selling some of their stock direct to the VC firm. It's the same with acquisitions. The idea of them making startup investments is comic. I think they increase when you face harder problems and also when you have smarter programmers. These are some of the big hits. Indeed, the biggest danger is that it makes your life a lot simpler. Within the hacker subculture, there is another, newer language, called Python, whose users tend to look down on Perl, and more waiting in the wings. I should explain what it means to be biased against applicants of type x. They were subsidiaries—of Beckman Instruments and Fairchild Camera and Instrument respectively. But having ideas is not very parallelizable.

Which means n i-1/i. Explain that clearly to investors. The whole language there all the time, trying to find an optimal balance between two things he knows nothing whatsoever about technology, you start to get users. You already know them. For example, it might be a rich market, but with a slow sales cycle. Reading Fred's post made me go back and look at the world of programming languages, as Erann Gat has pointed out, what industry best practice actually gets you is not the limit you can physically endure. The main thing that struck me on reading it, actually, is that you lie to yourself. But don't let them or the situation intimidate you. The really dramatic growth happens when a startup takes serious funding is that the percentage of the income for the extra peace of mind. And yet he seems pretty commanding, doesn't he?

That's the best-case scenario. The added confidence that comes from trying to help the world. I was in grad school, one of the preceding five sources. But they're also desperate for deals. You're better off starting with a blank slate in the form of a small town. That's the best-case scenario. So the smaller the number of officially sanctioned projects that manage to do all eight things wrong.

The startup, remember, only has a couple thousand left. Competitors punch you in the jaw, but investors. What it takes is the right one to do it is the cool, new programming language. Being profitable ensures you'll get at least the average of the acquisition market—in which public companies do behave as pooled-risk company management companies existed, signing up with one would seem the ideal plan for most people the latter is merely the optimal case of the former. There is no middle ground. If any incompatibility arises, you can just walk in whenever you want and say manage my rental property for me and they'll do it. Y Combinator started in Boston, and for the first 3 years we ran alternating batches in Boston and Silicon Valley. Most programming probably consists of writing little glue programs, and for little glue programs you can use whatever languages you want.

[workforcesolution]

Key of Developing R Code: Batch Forecasting

Forecasting is a common technique used in several companies to make predictions for the future. There are multiple methods of forecasting such as time series forecasting, multivariate forecasting, etc. In each of these methods there are techniques such as Moving Average (MA), ARIMA, ARMA, ARCH, GARCH, etc.

There are several packages and algorithms available for forecasting in every data mining tool such as SAS, SPSS, etc. These packages help in accomplishing small scale forecasting; here 'small scale' means one or few forecasts. One can perform model fitting, check auto correlations and finally decide on a model based on accuracy metrics (such as MAPE, RMSE and so on) and go ahead with forecasting future values. However, some of the questions one needs to contemplate at this stage are:

1. What do we do about large scale forecasts? 2. First, what does large scale forecasting mean? 3. Why is it complicated/cumbersome? 4. Most importantly, how does one scale up my code or algorithm to fit in such situations.

In the next few paragraphs I discuss examples of batch forecasting. The GitHub link for the code is given at the end. Please go through the code on how I scaled up the code to solve batch forecasting problem using R. I have given detailed comments in the code to make it comprehensible.

Have you ever Googled "DMV office near me" on your mobile? Google presents a distribution chart of the traffic to the DMV on hourly basis. This can help you plan your visits to the DMV. Google gives forecasted values or may be the past distribution. This also helps the DMV if they want to get an estimate of the staff required on hourly basis based on demand.

Let's say the DMV has 2 broad types of services: Licenses and Registrations, and they want to forecast the demand on hourly basis for the next 7 days. The number of forecasts gets multiplied in this manner: 7 days x 2 products x 24 hours = 336 forecasts

Let's discuss another instance. Suppose if a small retailer wants to forecast sales of the company, s/he can use any of the above mentioned techniques. However, if one wants to do forecasting on a granular level, such as product-wise or region-wise forecasting and if the number of products that the retailer carries is high, imagine the number of forecasts that one has to make. Even for a small retailer selling 100 SKUs (Stock Keeping Unit, a fancy word for individual product in retail industry) and forecasting sales for the next one week on a daily basis, the number of forecasts obtained are: 100 x 7 = 700 forecasts.

Imagine the retailer has thousands of products and wants to forecast hourly demand or store-wide demand, in such cases the volume of the forecasts will explode. To handle such kind of situations the algorithms available in SAS and SPSS may not be a good idea. And to solve these problems separate suits for forecasting were developed, such as SAS Forecast Studio and SPSS forecasting. But what if you are an open source user?

In that case Forecast package in R can be very handy. In fact, a single time series is few lines of code in R. My goal here is to explain how that gets multiplied in case of batch forecasting. I have developed a sample mock-up retail data and shown the code scaling up. Please note that the objective is not to write about time series forecasting, but to understand how a bigger problem can be solved by breaking it into several smaller pieces.

At each stage of the code I attempted one programming challenge. At the end I posed some questions and then in the next stage I solved them. This is to help you with structural thinking in programming and problem solving using coding. Here is the link for the code. https://github.com/simhadri1/Batch-Forecasting--Stage-1 Let me know if you have any further suggestions. Thank you.

About Rang Technologies: Headquartered in New Jersey, Rang Technologies has dedicated over a decade delivering innovative solutions and best talent to help businesses get the most out of the latest technologies in their digital transformation journey. Read More...

[digitalformsblog]

Top Crystal Healing Tip For Money Issues

Sitting at my computer, deadline quickly approaching, thoughts of my next article begin to flow as I pay attention to didgeridoo meditation audio file. The Great Mind of Ma said, "The Spirit of the Womb must be healed." That was my cue in order to what my Higher She had to impart. You must make a new batch about every seven days. (I find that sometimes the elixir does not stay fresh after this length of energy and time. It can be kept the actual world fridge you like).

Crystals and gemstones can be used by several qualified healers during their healing assemblies. If you know how to do this, you should follow their lead. If not, could quite possibly look for psychic medium, or healer, to allow you how to create it happen. Both psychic mediums, and healers, view Spirit Guides, who instruct them about the best crystals to use for certain healing. The psychic mediums, and healers, are also taught by these Spirit Guides, in connection with best crystal pattern placement to use in one's house, or on this body. Sarah showed me how I will treat myself with my personal set of chakra crystals to commence with. I must say I've from period for time needed a reload on very first treatment my partner and i can now do botox injections for no one. I have also gotten to help my wife when she goes through her menopause crystals as well as healing power really keeps the discomfort that is a member of the being menopausal. I have also had the opportunity to help a friend with his problem hiatus hernia, what has been causing him sever problems with reflux. I have used urates that I realize helps enhancements problems pertaining to instance Crystals Amber, gold, tiger's eye, topaz, calcite, citrine. Place this direct to the skin achievable on your solar plexus. This helps your body with this enzymatic system, the liver, along with the gallbladder. "When a friend of my mom's who had previously been training as being a crystal therapist asked me to be her guinea pig, Applied skeptical. It sounded a tad odd although i wanted turn out to be helpful. Many of us got here i laid documented on the table and the practitioner laid crystals smaller body. She waved her hands around a lot, but she never touched me. Are you attracted to Blue Tanzanite? Blue Topaz helps form individuality and creativity replacing negativity with will always love. It helps attract success with the endeavors. Blue Topaz helps align ourselves with our higher self, It is a great stone for creative expression, writing and focusing in the healing crystals path. As you open eye sight the Mer-Angels have brought you back out of the temple and the Mermaids and Mermen will be ready escort you back on the surface belonging to the ocean and back towards the beach. In regards to cleaning and clearing your crystals, everybody has really method. One among the easiest methods budding to rinse them having a bit of soppy soap, then rinse again with normal water. Place them on the dry, soft cloth, the particular sunlight to buy few hours, and then put them in their usual add your homes.

[hellfireclubmember3]

I'm having so much fun writing my bad batch fic. Please consider following me along on this journey. For the full story, head to my wattpad page.

On The Run

Chapter 4

The Marauder landed at the refueling station, a bleak looking depot that seemed to have had better days. We disembarked and gathered together as Hunter gave orders, “Tech, Echo, you two see to the ship. Y/N and I will try to find some rations and other supplies.” He looked at Wrecker and Omega. “You two… just try to stay out of trouble.”

“Can do, boss.” Wrecker said confidently, but was met with doubtful looks from the others. 

“We’ll be fine.” Omega assured. And with that, the group went their separate ways.

Omega and Wrecker, bound and determined to not cause any issues, headed back into the Marauder to find a way to occupy their time. Meanwhile, Tech and Echo went to work on the ship.

“Sure does feel good to get off the ship, it’s feeling a bit crowded these days.” Echo voiced while stretching his limbs. 

Tech nodded, “The habitable area on the ship does seem to be insufficient. But we’ll manage, just like we always do.”

Although Hunter and I were walking away from the ship, I overheard Tech and Echo’s conversation. I couldn’t help but feel guilty. I was using up their already limited resources and was putting them in danger just by being in the same area as them. It didn’t feel right, but the Bad Batch seemed to have their mind made up. It would be rude to leave them now. 

Hunter and I stopped at a few small vendors who had set up shop nearby the refueling station. All of them seeming to just be getting by. There was a dismal assortment of goods to choose from, but enough for our needs. We stocked up on rations and purchased some more first aid materials just in case. I did insist upon using my credits, what little remained, to pay for the supplies as I didn’t want to add anymore burden to them because of my added presence. 

“Thanks for that.” Hunter said in appreciation when I handed my credits to the vendor.

“It’s no problem, truly.” I insisted, stepping away from the makeshift shop. “It’s the least I can do after inconveniencing you all like this.”

Hunter stopped abruptly. “You’re not inconveniencing us. We want to help you. Why do you not see that?”

The informality of his words was surprising. I was used to clones always addressing me as their General. I had grown close to the clones that I led during the war, but even then, we made sure to maintain a certain level of formality. I supposed things were different now though. 

“I- I’m sorry.” I muttered, clearly caught off guard.

Hunter moved to face me. “You don’t need to apologize. Just recognize that we do genuinely want to help. We can only imagine the things that you have been through in recent times.”

I nodded my head, acknowledging his words, and we began our walk back to the Marauder. “The past year has been very challenging…” I admitted. Hunter didn’t respond, a silent offer to continue if I wanted to. I obliged, as a small weight began to lift off my shoulders even after my brief moment of vulnerability. “When Order 66 happened, it sent my life into a whirling chaos.”

I found myself starting to recount my whole story of that fateful day, unable to stop the words from flowing out of my mouth. “My squad and I were on our way back to Coruscant from a covert mission. It was a smaller group, due to the nature of the mission, but still formidable. I sensed a disturbance in the force like none I had ever felt before, and then my Captain was moving into my room, blaster drawn. I tried to ask him what was going on, but all he could manage to say was, ‘Good soldiers follow orders’. The next moments are a blur. I managed to take control over the ship, subduing the clones who were once my loyal soldiers. I picked up a transmission urging all Jedi to return to the temple, but as I approached the planet, the transmission changed. This time it was General Kenobi’s voice commanding all Jedi to stay away, it wasn’t safe anymore.” 

I took a moment to breathe deeply, letting the feelings from the day wash over me before I continued. Hunter was intently listening and watching the entire time. “Before I could change coordinates, Coruscant in view, troopers in their ships were firing on me. They must have picked up my ship’s signature and knew that I was on board. As quickly as I could, I jumped into hyperspace and abandoned my ship at the earliest possible chance. It was all so confusing to me, but I’ve been able to piece together what happened since based on things I’ve heard while on the run. I haven’t stayed in one place too long since… ”

Hunter was quiet for a while, processing everything that I said. “I’m so sorry, General.” He said solemnly. 

My heart ached at his words. It ached for the comfort and familiarity of the past. It ached for the friends who had lost their lives. It ached for simpler times. 

Growing up in the Jedi temple, I had always been taught to control my negative emotions. To not let them overtake me. But that has become harder and harder as of late. With all the tragedy in my life, it is getting harder to wholeheartedly stick to the Jedi code. 

I took a deep breath, “Thank you, Hunter, for listening. I didn’t mean to unload all of that on you.”

Hunter gave me a kind smile, “Happy to help.” His face then turned more serious, “I’m not surprised there’s a bounty on you though. With how you escaped, the Empire knows that you’re still alive.”

“Yes…” Was all I could manage to say. 

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out.” He assured me.

As we approached the Marauder, we could hear yelling coming from inside the ship. Immediately, Hunter and I jumped into action, ready to face whatever was happening on board. However, to our pleasant surprise, the ruckus was simply Omega and Wrecker wrapping up a heated game of holochess. 

The two of us let out a sigh of relief. “At least they didn’t get into trouble.” Hunter said with the slightest bit of laughter. 

It was a much needed reminder that there are still good things in the galaxy. Innocent things. Things worth fighting for.

[sofia-bach]

.

"I don't think I am," Sofia chuckled bashfully. "But thank you." She listened carefully to Tiana's ideas. "I think peach Linzer cookies could be good, yes." She had made them so many times, making a big batch would surely be no problem. Maybe she could even teach them to Tiana, so they could bake them together and save time.

"I don't have many friends," Sofia answered simply. "I think I might have one... Or two." Human friends, that was. She liked to believe the birds she fed every morning were sort of her friends, too. "People's graduation! That's a great idea. I'm sure students would love that, too."

Slowly, a big grin was drawn in Sofia's face. "Oh, yes! She would love it. She loves fruit, especially cherries, blackberries, blueberries... And apples, of course," she said. A couple professors asked her once or twice if she or her stepmother ever became tired of apples; and, to their surprise, Sofia always answered no. "I take great care of the presentation. I once read that how food looks is a third of the pleasure of eating." She made a mental note to later ask Tiana when her birthday was, so she could take note of it and bake her a well decorated cake, probably with some honey in it.

"Yes, sure," Sofia said, and took the piece of paper with the information, giving it a glance, cutting a smaller piece of it and writing her own email address. "Ruth, what a lovely name. I had a nanny called Ruth. She wasn't nice, but her name certainly was." It was strange, to have someone's phone number. She imagined sending Tiana her favorite recipes, and perhaps sending each other messages in French, like a secret shared code. Maybe she would even be interested in knowing about the birds that were Sofia's friends, that which Guinevere didn't seem to care to know.

"Yes, she is very polite," Sofia nodded. "But she is often a bit... Well, prickly, um, irritable, when she's interrupted. I think she knew that, since you were a guest, she couldn't really show it." Truly, Guinevere wasn't one to be really furious often, or at least, not to show it; she was simply, well, irritable. "She used to get angry a lot more easily, when I was younger. I think we were both learning how to be around the other, back in the day, when we were first living together." Sofia gave thanks that they had left those days in the past. "I will let her know how happy you are with how she treated you."

“Those sound like the perfect holiday treat!” said Tiana with a grin. “You’re creative.” Tiana nodded when Sofia said she couldn’t come up with a Mother’s Day cookie. Tiana probably couldn’t, either, now that she considered the options. “I would love it if you made any of your favorite cookies for this bake sale, if we decide to go ahead with that. These ginger apple snaps? The perfect option. Or we could try those Linzer cookies you usually do for Valentine’s Day, except using a peach jelly or something that’s got a fun spring color. What do you like to make for your friends’ birthdays? Let’s do that, if you have a go-to cookie for it.” Tiana was beaming with excitement. “I really like this idea, Sofia. We have to do this bake sale. If not for Mother’s Day, then for something else this spring. Maybe for the end of the college year? Or for people’s graduation on the day the big ceremony happens?”

Then Tiana had a very good idea.

“Or,” she said, and she took a breath. “Or, if you’re up for it, we could make low-sugar cookies for the bake sale, have it be for Mother’s Day, and surprise your stepmother with a dessert she can actually try.” Tiana looked up at Sofia, a little anxious for her reaction. “This would be a great way to get her a taste of the stuff you’re making, and I really do think she’d eat a low-sugar cookie from you. They’re not easy to make, because you have to replace the sugar with something like pumpkin or banana. But if they turn out good, they’re extraordinary. I’ve had a banana cookie with absolutely no sugar in it, if you can believe that. My…old friend from culinary school made them once.” (He’d been top of the class for a reason. The great DeShawn Nelson had had the magic touch with vegetarian and diet-friendly foods. If only he’d had the magic touch with personal communication.) “You won’t find many recipes on Google. That’s because they’re so hard to make presentable. But with the way these ginger snaps look… You could do it. Sofia, I want to give you that recipe my friend made his batch using. He’d want you to try.” Tiana opened a folder on her little laptop titled “Culinary Sch Recipes” and clicked on the banana sugar-free cookies. “This is all you need. Do you think these cookies would be fun for you to make? And would you be able to give your stepmother something without sugar like this? I know some people who opt out of sugar also avoid eating fruit.”

Tiana agreed that they should insert a question about allergy control into their survey. She said, “I’ll make sure to do that. And once I add that to the list, I think our survey will be ready to upload. Can I think over how I want to phrase that and send you the survey tonight? Then the faculty will have time to review it.” She added, “My email address is ‘Tiana Ruth Powell forty-three at Gmail dot com.’ And so you know…” She gave Sofia her phone number, too, writing it on a page out of her notebook she’d tugged out of her backpack. “Where’s the best place for me to send this survey to you?” Tiana felt like she and Sofia had gotten a lot accomplished. Not only would the local restaurants be overjoyed to get information like this from the college students, but Tiana would know far more about one of her target demographics for her dream restaurant. Sofia would probably have a reputation with the faculty after this as someone eager to help out the community, which was a huge plus.

“Your stepmother’s actually very polite,” said Tiana after a moment’s thought. “I thought she wouldn’t be because of me suddenly showing up while she was busy. But she treated me very well the whole time you were getting these French books.” She thought about it again. “Actually, she’s rare in that. Most people who get interrupted are a little prickly about it. But your stepmother, she acted like the perfect hostess. That’s a big deal. You should let her know I appreciated her company.” Tiana hoped that Guinevere Bạch had noticed Tiana’s similar desire to be a good guest. That way, they’d have something to build off of if they ever crossed paths in the future.

[monamourbladie-mb]

Better?

Anakin Skywalker x reader [SMUT]

lets... not mention how long i was gone, okay? 😅 i won’t be gone like this again, i promise 🥺 i’ll get right back on requests and such, i just really REALLY struggled on this for some reason... ive got honestly no clue why but eh, here it is. i hope it was worth it! sorry the request took so long anons. 💕 ALSO big shoutout to @anakinswhore for lowkey giving me the inspiration to finish this 🥺 (everytime i almost scrapped this i remembered that my favorite fic writer on tumblr told me i got this, so i knew i couldn’t give up on this :’) thank you so much!

Plot: Anakin gets home from desling with the Bad Batch and is cranky. To help them both unwind, Anakin decides to bring Y/n with him while he showers.

WC: 2.3k

warnings: finger fucking, piv sex, unprotected sex [sorry it’s awkward to write condoms n shit like that— let’s pretend the force works to prevent pregnancy 😭]

Y/n had set down her holo communicator and sighed in frustration, looking at the time.

It was nearing 11 pm, and Anakin had yet to respond to her call. He had promised to call her the moment his mission with the Bad Batch was over, and it was almost 4 hours over the time he had promised.

She grumbled to herself and set it into her desk drawer, standing up and walking to their bedroom. Since it was getting late, she decided to start getting ready for bed. She decided to forego a shower and take it in the morning instead, her exhaustion and worry getting the better of her.

Sliding on her robe, she put her (h/c) hair in a small bun, laying on the bed. She pulled the sheets back and sighed softly as the cold, sheen silk covered her body.

Laying on her side, she did her best to suppress the fears of why Anakin was taking so long to talk to her - trying to stay in a positive mindset. But of course, the turmoil and constant loss from the War made her think differently.

As her mind grew darker, her need for sleep depreciated as she grew more worried. Huffing in frustration when some time had passed and she still hadn’t fallen asleep, she sat up and grumbled to herself.

It wasn’t like she could call Obi-Wan or another member of the council to see if he was alright - it could raise suspicion since, besides working alongside him during some battles, she wasn’t always in contact with him during the War.

Just as she was about to get up to get some water, the door opened and she felt Anakin’s presence through the Force.

She immediately jumped out of bed, retying her robe and rushing out to meet him. “Anakin! Are you okay? It’s so late-“ she began as soon as she saw him.

He sighed snd shut the door, immediately taking off his robe and throwing it over the back of the couch. “I’m sorry,” he said somewhat sternly, sounding exhausted.

“For what, Ani?” she frowned, crossing her arms. “Being late. As always...” he grumbled, walking over to her and kissing her cheek gently. “I didn’t mean to be, the mission went overtime, and we ran into some trouble.”

“Was it successful, at least?”

“Yeah, thankfully. Wasn’t at first, but, we got Echo home safe.”

“So... why do you seem so... down?” she bit her lip, following him into their bedroom.

“I’m exhausted, sweetheart. Completely drained. I’m sorry if I seem off, I was just put under tons of pressure between Rex and Hunter. They got in a big fistfight, and I had to break it up...” Anakin replied, sitting on the bed and sighing, resting his head in his hands.

“Oh, Ani...” she sighed, resting her hand on his shoulder snd rubbing it gently. “I’m sorry, I know the war is hard enough to deal with.”

He shrugged after a moment and grunted, leaning his head back as he sighed. “I think I’m going to take a shower and forget about this God awful day, I’m sorry.”

“That’s fine, I get it. I was planning on taking a shower too, actually, but I might later then.”

Anakin glanced over at her for a moment, sliding his tongue over his lips and letting out a low hum when she doesn’t move, “Aren’t you coming then?”

She raised a brow in confusion, “What? You want me to come with you?”

“You said you wanted to shower, right? Do it with me, no harm in that,” he responded.

She bit her lip, thinking about all the possible endings. She cautiously stood up, walking over to him, “You sure? I can wait, it’s no problem...”

“Y/n,” he said firmly. “What did I say?”

“You said come shower with me,” she repeated. Anakin nodded, “Well, do you want to or not?” he smirked slyly, crossing his arms and watching her curiously.

She took a moment to look up at him, moving up to kiss him gently, “Better get a move on then, you know I prefer it very hot,” she smirked.

He rolled his eyes playfully and deepened the kiss, moving his hands down her back slowly until she pulled away, “Now you’re the one holding us up.”

“Alright, alright, go and get things ready. I’ll be there.” He kissed her forehead gently then pulled away, walking out of the bathroom.

She suppressed a giggle and smile as she skipped to the bathroom, all the thoughts rushing through her mind as she imagined what could happen.

“You’re tired. He’s tired. I’m sure you’re just showering, don’t get your hopes up.”

Boy, that was a lie. She was brushing out her hair and Anakin stormed into the room, pressing her firmly against the counter, crashing his lips onto hers. She gasped into the kiss and dropped the brush onto the counter, gripping onto the counter sides to keep her up-right as he left no room between him, her, and the counter.

Her eyes fluttered close as he cups her cheeks, moving his human hand down the side of her face to her jawline slowly. “Take it all off,” he mumbles, his voice muffled against her soft lips. “I have other things in mind.

She whimpered against his mouth and pulled away for a moment, her chest heaving as she almost was gasping to catch her breath, “What about showering-?”

“Who says we’re not showering?” he smirked, undressing her with his eyes. She swallowed thickly at his gaze and moved to start striping down slowly, keeping eye contact with him.

“Now look at you, all riled up and nervous,” Anakin smirked crossing his arms and watching her.

“Don’t... don’t look at me like that,” she said softly after she got her bra off, her hands starting to tremble from excitement and straight nerves.

“Why not? It’s getting you to tremble, I like it,” his voice gets darker as he moved closer to her, kissing behind her ear. He moved his long fingers over her panties and hooked them in, slowly pushing them down as they fell to her ankles.

She felt shy and exposed as he pulled away to admire his prize, his eyes growing darker as he watched her. He moved his large hands to her smaller waist and pulled her flush against him, keeping his gaze on her face now, “Are you going to get in?”

She nodded, trying to pull away but his grip on her hipbones was too tight. He loosened his grip just enough for her to slink into the warm shower, and he followed suit right after.

He moved his hand to rub her back gently, keeping his ever-darkening gaze transfixed on her smaller body.

She purposefully tried to ignore him, keeping her back turned to his front as she wets her hair under the warm water trickling from the showerhead, trying to occupy her mind with anything but the obvious - she and her lover were showering together.

Anakin trailed his hands lower then moved so his front was placed firmly against her back, kissing the back of her neck, “Don’t ignore me, sweetheart. You’re on edge, let me help you.”

“I don’t know why I’m so nervous, I just,” she turned around and looked up at him and her breath hitched, gripping her hair tighter.

There her lover stood, towering over her with water droplets running down his long darkened brown curly hair onto his toned chest, the small droplets falling down his body over all his muscles.

An involuntary whimper escaped her lips as she shamelessly studied his figure, every inch, every angle... he was just perfect.

“You’re staring,” he smirked, his chuckle low as he pulled her flush against him, looking down at her with dark eyes, “take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

“Oh, shut up,” she said quickly, immediately slamming her lips onto his in a frenzied, heated swift movement. He let out a low growl against her lips in content as he pulled her as close as he could get her. She let out a soft moan into his lips as she felt his hard length press against her, causing her to shudder in anticipation.

“Now you’re needy, what changed, my love?” he pulled away from the intoxicating kiss to kiss and suck across her neck, making her moan softly, “I c-changed my mind,” she stammered, her mind blank and fuzzy with lust as her core began to throb with need.

“I can see that,” his voice was smooth yet deep, knowing he could do the slightest thing and get her riled up even further. He moved his hand and pushed her thigh up near his hip, moving it so he had more room as he danced his thumb over her clit slowly.

Her head fell against his chest and she let out tiny breathy whimpers against his skin, her hips jolting in surprise from the newfound pleasure, “Ani—“

“You’re such a needy little thing, aren’t you? You were acting all innocent earlier, and now that I'm rubbing my fingers all over you you’re a mess,” he clicked his tongue in teasing disapproval as he moved his pointer finger to slide into her heat quickly, alongside his middle finger.

Her eyes widened and she moaned loudly in approval, her heavy breathing against his chest quickening with each ministration.

“Ani, I j-just want you— please—!” she looked up at him with a lusty, needy gaze through her lashes, biting her lip to suppress more moans as he fucked her with his fingers. He grunted in response and curled them against her sweet spot, smirking at her reaction, “Is this what you wanted, sweetheart?”

“N-No—! I want your... i want y-your... fuck, Anakin!” she moaned in response, her hips starting to shake as Anakin knew how close she was already.

He chuckled darkly and leaned against her neck, sucking roughly over her already darkening hickeys as he started pounding his fingers into her harder, rubbing her clit faster, “Use your words, little one, I know you can.”

She threw her head back in ecstasy as she moaned, falling off the edge into bliss as Anakin fucked her through it with his fingers, his eyes wandering across her body now quivering from intense pleasure, water droplets falling from her hair down her breasts.

She went to speak when he silences her with an intoxicatingly passionate kiss, cupping her cheek with his metal hand as he helped her ride her high out, “Good girl...” he mumbled against her lips.

She felt completely out of breath, gripping his bicep for support as he pulled his fingers out of her, using his metallic fingers to brush away some of the wet hair from her face.

He moved her body further from the warm water of the shower so she wouldn’t get water in her eyes as he leaned her against the wall. Keeping his hand firm on her hipbone, he moved her thighs apart gently and began to pump himself slowly, his breathing picking up.

He looked in her eyes and saw an intense lusty gaze he hadn’t seen in them for awhile - and he immediately knew she wanted to continue. He moved his free hand to cup the back of her neck, moving her closer so he can kiss her deeply as he pushed himself into her quickly.

She gasped in surprise against his lips, her eyes fluttering closed as she felt him fill her up completely with one swift thrust.

She arched her back against him, gripping his back weakly as he immediately began rocking his hips into her at an unrelenting pace, grunting in her ear, “So fucking tight for me, angel... And so needy, letting me take you in the shower like this...”

She would never admit verbally just how much she loved his dirty talk, his dirty-natured words sending sparks throughout her pussy and her body as she gripped his hair tightly, “Please, this is all I’ve needed,” she moaned almost out of breath, her heart beating out of her chest as she tightened around him.

His loud growl in response edged her to start to roll her hips against his cock, and he smirked in response, leaning down to kiss across her throat, “So—fucking—tight...” he grunted into her ear, his cheeks burning bright red from the mixture of the hot sex and steamy shower.

Her legs buckled and he immediately gripped her closer to him and the wall, moving her to lean back against it more as he lifts her leg to get a deeper angle, causing her to cry out in ecstasy as the pleasure grew too great.

With her already sensitive, her high build much faster than usual and she gripped his hair tighter, digging her fingernails into the back of his head as she panted, her eyes rolling back, “Anakin—!” she moaned weakly.

He recognized that needy, breathy moan all too well as he knew she was close without her needing to say it. He kisses hot open-mouthed kisses across her throat and collarbone, moaning for her to cum for him as he lazily moved his finger down to rub her through her orgasm; the constant throb of her walls sending him closer to the edge.

She let out a loud breathy moan as her high overtook her, letting out small squeals and moans into his ear as it washed over her. She immediately felt numb as it ran through her, the sight of her moaning and the feeling of her throbbing harder causing him to cum. He leaned his head against hers, moaning shakily as he leaned against the wall to steady himself as he fucked them through it, his metal hand firmly on her hipbone to keep them upright.

Her breathing was shaky and uneven as they came down from their highs, and he kissed her hurriedly and softly, “Better?” she muttered against his lips. Anakin nodded softly and chuckled, pulling out after it had fully faded snd pulling them back under the direct range of the water, “Much, much better.”

[bvannn]

Weekly Update May 10, 2024

Today was a bad day but the rest of the week was decent all things considered. I got an okay amount of work done, but I’m still really exhausted from school. It might take a bit longer to rest but I’m still trying to do stuff because I’m addicted to work.

Main thing this week was comic work, I’d say I’m 14% done, planning to be better and faster once I’m better rested, I’m going to try to do all panels on the same layer as opposed to a billion layers like before, see if it speeds things up. I’m pretty confident in the story and want to get to writing more but that’s not as high a priority as some other projects.

Music video work, OEB is about 30% boarded, it’s very exhausting to do because of adobe’s interface but it still gets done well enough when I’m in a good mood. I wanted to get making a puppet rig this week, hoping it’d go faster now that I know what I’m doing, especially since I’ve gotten basic ones done faster, but again didn’t have time due to body needing to rest and personal problems. I’ll try again next week, since it looks like work is taking longer than expected to get started back up. I’m also a lot better at rig animation in general now so it should be quicker to do too.

Other music projects, I’m very close to done on one of the two lyric batches so I’ll try to get that done this next week. I’d like to finish off the other one too but I’m very slow. Once my body is rested up enough for my brain to really work those will be the priority, then I’d like to do more. I’ll probably do another cover or so before anything else but I’d really like to do songs based around my OC stories, and maybe I will. At the very least attempting will be a nice exercise.

Other general drawings, I’m trying to figure out when I’ll have time to do more. I’m taking a fair amount of time on each of those now, which sucks since I’ll have to up my comm prices, but I don’t want to push for those until I know exactly how much to change the prices by. I’m not a professional so I don’t want to charge like one.

Anime Campaign stuff: writing my own campaign still, got a huge bite of that done, but not the part I would have wanted. Planning on seven ‘Episodes’, 1, 2, 3, and now 5 are done. I might iron out some kinks with episode 1 but I really want to get episode 4 done before anything else. Might still get some tokens done, but I don’t want to post too many, since ideally I’d like to release my campaign as a prewritten module for free, then offer the maps and tokens as a paid optional add on. Maybe. Either way I need to focus on writing more than I have been, I’ll try to use my insomnia for that.

Minor bits and bobs, music writing impulse is coming back so I’d like to make or finish a little smaller tune, but again that relies on time and OEB and comic are taking priority. If I get BMBO or BATB lyrics done I’ll get tuning a VSQX (or whatever they’re called in vocaloid 5/6) and pass that so we can figure out which voice to use and any tweaks that need to be made. If BMBO is done before BATB I might look into typography animation to see if I can throw together a video for that, since that’ll be less effort than a full video. I’m also always tempted to do a bazillion covers, but I’m not really working towards any actively. The ones I’m debating would be called SSCS, ILMC, LIS or S (again going by initials or partial initials to not say too much). I did a basic VSQX for SSCS but mostly just to test how a certain voice tuned, and I know who I want to sing it but I don’t know what to do with the instruments so I’m not planning to work on it unless inspiration really hits. I have so much desire to do things and not enough body power!

Next week priority will be comic again, I have 4 pages done and one sketched, I’ll be maybe staying up late on Sunday again so I can get a big bite done then if I’m somehow unable tomorrow. OEB is next priority, alongside lyric writing, header/newgrounds collab, then AC writing and token practice. Thanks everyone for being so patient with me not posting much, I’m so sorry I’m so slow to work on bigger projects but I really hope they’re worth it.