#i remember why i dont do digital right now. my laptop doesnt work with my tablet

[silvr-skreen]

Why the fuck did I try coloring it. I had to use my mouse.

i forgot the overall straps i only realize it now. i dont evencare anymore. i used my mouse to color it so i am too exhausted to bother.

[crowsent]

👶,⭐,💘, and💻. Love you!!

thank you for ask anon! writer ask game is here if yall wanna send in something. still taking asks for these btw

👶- advice for new writers =

yall this is hella fucking generic but PRACTISE. theres a reason almost literally every writer on tumblr gives the advise of “practise practise practise” and that reason is it works. practise doesnt mean ‘oh just write bc youll automatically get better over time’ it means ‘write bc if you dont, you wont figure out what you need to improve.’ did yall know that i literally had no sentence variation in the past? i started every sentence with [character name] or [character pronoun] and i didnt realise until i was 15/16 and i only realised bc i started writing a lot.

i think there’s a fear of failure with new writers. there’s this lingering doubt of  “what if its not good?” and boy howdy i will answer that question right fucking now. it wont be good. when i compare my current work to my earlier work, my earlier work sucked fucking shit. i spelled soldier with a fucking ‘j’ and i had no idea what the hell a point of view was. and thats okay. whoever tells you that youre going to perfect writing is a fucking liar. there is no perfecting writing. 20 years from now, imma look at the writing from today and im gonna think it sucks shit. writing is a process. its a craft. you get better and better over time and the way you get better is by experimenting w different styles, different genres, different ways of writing.

and the only way you can experiment and improve is through practise. in video games, especially rpgs (which are my favourite kind of video games), you struggle in the early game. youre at a low level, you dont have good equipment, you have a hard time moving to the next area. but the only way you progress is by grinding, gaining levels, and getting stronger. same w writing. if youre a level 1 writer, just starting out, no idea what to do, just experiment. fuck around a bit. write crackships, write rarepairs, write niche self-indulgent reader/character fics. at the end of the day, you should write for yourself. its good and cool if other people like your stuff and validate all your hard work, but at the end of the day, the one who should enjoy your writing the most is yourself.

you WILL mess up and you WILL struggle, but thats the only way you can improve. i struggle with pacing the most. still do. but others might have pacing down pat and struggle instead with word choice or pov or something else. cant figure out where you need to improve if you dont write, so just practise and worry about all the fine print later

⭐️- how do you get your inspiration? =

this is definitely not universal, but i just sit on my bed, close my eyes, and meditate. cycle through all my emotions and thoughts and filter them out. then i just toss everything out the damn window. like. id just meditate for a while, focus on breathing, on experiencing the present, picture a field and a tree and myself and breathe. thoughts fly by and i let them happen but dont focus on it.

meditating gives me some semblance of emotional control bc i normally have none, and it gives me kind of this space. this safe space that only exists for me and me alone. so i use that space to let the world drift away. just me and my thoughts and sometimes, those thoughts end up being good writing ideas. but i usually meditate for a set amount of time. like 15 minutes or 30 minutes so i dont write until i finish meditating.

then when i get out of my headspace, i open up my laptop and see what i remember. thinking too hard about something causes it to muddy up. same with art. in digital art, artists flip the canvas to refresh their eyes, see if there’s anything weird or wonky about the illustration that they normally dont see bc theyve gotten used to it. flipping the canvas is like giving our eyes a jumpstart and lets us see what we could do better. in traditional art, its turning the canvas this way and that or repositioning yourself. meditating is like that. a break. a cleanse. a kind of pause where you dont think about anything and just try to process what you already have. you relax and kind of let yourself float down a river of thoughts and sometimes, a fish would jump out of that river and youd go “hey, thats a good idea. i should try that” so when you get out of the river, youre refreshed and ready to go.

same principle with showers. more ideas come to you in the shower when you dont have anything to write with bc youre not thinking about it. youre not focusing on finding inspiration or motivation so ideas naturally flow through you. you know that feeling when you want to do x then someone comes along and says “hey you should do x” and suddenly all motivation to do x leaves? same w your brain. focus too much on “i should be writing” or “i want inspiration” and its never gonna come. just let things happen. at least, thats how i do it. some people might get inspiration by reading or watching tv. everyones different so if thats not what works out for you, dont feel pressured to try my method

💘- what’s your favorite AU? Least favorite? =

magic au. specifically fantasy au set in like a pre-modern era. shows like avatar where theres all this magic and fantastical beasts and so on and so forth. semi-modern like six of crows and nevernight are great too. i want that magic to be woven into people’s lives. harry potter is okay but there’s like this separation between magic and muggle. there’s this feeling of “magic” but like as a tool. like a spoon or a gun or a shovel. i want magic au’s that are INTEGRATED with the world its set in.

like in atla, earth kingdom people have trains they move with bending while fire nation people have machines powered by heat and steam. both correspond to their bending and makes sense for the world they live in. but if your plot is like harry potter and its less worldbuilding and more action, then there’s this book series called seasons rising (read it. so good) where there’s a bunch of spells but the spells have character. the people using the spells GIVE it character and it feels much more intimate. pokemon does the whole fantasy mixed w reality better. give two trainers the exact same pokemon and by the time that pokemon reaches lvl 50, its gonna have a different moveset, different fight style, etc bc it was shaped by the world and people around it. i like harry potter but tbh it could have been so much better

for the least favourite au, it’s A/B/O i dont like the whole “omegas are only good for breeding hurr durr” and “alphas are violent and aggressive and cant control themselves around omegas” thing and it squicks me out. major squick. i read the original harry potter squick (THAT one. yeah. you know the one) and i still hate a/b/o more. i get why people like it, and there are one or two fics set in a/b/o au that i enjoy reading, but as a whole, i severely dislike a/b/o fics.

the themes are squick, the character dynamics get so messed up, and shipping dynamics (bc a/b/o fics usually have shipping) just get so blown out of proportion. there are so many a/b/o fics that turn ooc or the character interpretations radically change or something else. no hate against a/b/o fans bc yall are amazing for writing/drawing yalls au. there are things that you can only do in this setting and exploring those things can be incredibly fun for people, but for me personally, its not an au i like to visit.

💻- three works of yours that are must reads =

i. dont know what fandom youre in anon or your genre preferences. so ill just rec you one fic for a different fandom each with kind of different genres. ts masterlist is on my side @hufflepuff-deceit and regular fanfic masterlist is on my writing blog @crownonymous 

(BNHA) Viper. its my first serious attempt at fanfic in YEARS and its my baby. currently has 7 chapters, i havent updated it in a while bc im hyperfocused on ts rn, but i love it to bits. its just all of my fav bnha fics crammed into one fic. quirkless kind of villain izuku with stain as a mentor as they work together to bring light to the injustices of hero society and where bakugos bullying has visible and long-lasting repercussions? sign me the fuck up. you can read it on ao3 HERE bc its not on tumblr. kind of fast-paced, has a lot more action scenes than anything else ive written. heavy plot-wise but has a lot of humour and comedy to break things up

(Kimetsu no Yaiba) I Pray To God He Hears You. not related to my other kny fic oleander which is a multichap retelling au. iptghhy is a standalone one-shot and kind of a character study on one giyuu tomioka. i love him so much. giyuu is my baby and i adore him. so of course i wrote a sad fic focusing on him. well technically, the fic focuses on giyuu AND his relationships.  SPOILERS for chapters 130 and 131 of the manga. focuses mostly on giyuu and sabito, but there’s a fair bit of giyuu and tanjiro and urokodaki.  you can read it HERE bc this is also not on tumblr. also deals with heavy things but more emotion-wise since it doesnt have that much of a plot. loss. grief. moving on. survivors guilt. that kind of stuff.  very sad. hurt but with comfort, especially at the end.

(Sanders Sides) Logan’s Birthday Fic: Logicality. just what the title says. i wrote 5 different fics and published them all on logans bday but the logicality one received the most feedback and honestly? the cutest of the bunch. its gonna be crossposted onto ao3 but for now, you can read it HERE on my ts sideblog. theres no plot since its literally just domestic and relationship fluff. and puns. patton is in the fic, theres gonna be puns. nothing but good things and warm feelings bc logan deserves it.

-

thank you so much for such interesting asks anon! i enjoyed answering these. have a lovely day!

[cityescape4]

Loss/Sochitzu Opinions and Spoilers under the cut

(before I start, to anyone actually reading this i apologize for switchinf back and forth with dub/sub names. I grew up with the dub and am only now getting used to sub names)

Good things first, before I get into my issues with this movie. (because theres more issues than good, sadly)

–Tai and Takeru teaming up to tease Matt is always a win in my book 👌 my musical bi blond son needs to be flustered more often its great

–I loved Gabumon in this ;w; he was adorable as fuck

–Joe fucking LAUNCHED himself at Gennai and it was GREAT. FUCK'EM UP, JOE

–I liked the idea of having different digimon and partners separated from one another. it creates interesting takes and character interactions we dont see often (i.e. Tai and Gabumon, Matt and Gomamon, Joe and Palmon/Patamon, etc) too bad outside of Tai/Gabumon they did little to nothing with it

–Kou and Motimon interacting gave me life like holy shit. I’m glad to see Toei didnt forget about Izzy’s development in the last movie. Also Oolong Tea.

–‘Kaiser Ken’-Gennai literally punched a person with a digimon and i dont know why i am so amused by that holy shit

–“Maybe I can be your new partner” god I’m a fucking sap for mushy shit like that

–The silent film take on the opening was… interesting. It wasn’t bad, but I didnt necessarily love it. It did show us that Maki and Daigo were part of that og group of DigiDestined that we learned about in prevous Adventure series, but I think alot of us assumed that already.

–Yoooo Azulongmon, Zhuchaomon and the other two Sovereigns are relevant again. Last time we saw them was what, Digimon Tamers?

I understand why Maki’s doing what shes doing tho. That doesnt excuse her from all her bullshit, but I understand her motivation now.

Now to the nitty-gritty:

–WHERE. ARE. THE 02 KIDS.

–it was really obvious they were trying to pad the runtime for this. like wow

–so we know now why there was random Tapirmon in the poster

–so Hackmon isn’t Daigo’s partner. I’d been assuming he was.

–Houhoumon/Phoenixmon’s evolution seemed really rushed and forced like… wow that was not the same development Mimi and Joe and Kou got

–also Seraphimon? really? that felt entirely unnecessary. Like, MangaAngemon alone was only seen 3 times in the previous two seasons combined. Also where was Takeru/T.K’s ‘development’? Granted we’ve seen Seraphimon once before, but that was the 02 movie with Willis, Terriermon, and Cherubimon - ergo non-canon

–speaking of the little blond, that sprained/broken ankle sure healed up fast huh buddy

– I know they’re all supposed to be rebooted but Yokomon/Biyomon was just… unnecessarily out of character like christ man

– speaking of the reboot SO YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT THE ENTIRETY OF LAST MOVIE’S DILEMMA WAS POINTLESS AND THE REBOOT WAS FOR NOTHING

–the power of partner bonds overrules the necessity of air underwater, apparently. we all acknowledge that matt and tai basically drowned, right? we saw the air leave them and they sunk to the ocean/lakebed floor, right? did i hallucinate???

–remember when agumon was more than just “can you eat a memory?” cuz this movie sure doesnt

–did… did gennai really need to get all rape-y with Sora and Meiko. like really. what the fuck toei

–this movie kinda fucked up a little with Maki? Cuz like… remember in the 2nd movie when she saw ‘Kaiser Ken’ standing on top of the school roof and was like ‘oh no Meicoomon i need to protect her’ but then now we know for a fact that not only did she know ‘Kaiser Ken’ was Gennai but that she was working with him and has been for some time??? I understand wanting to surprise and throw off the audience, but theres no reason to do that while creating a flaw/plot hole in your character.

–again, in regards to the different digimon with different partners scenario, they had sooooo much to work with in terms of characterization and interactions as well as platonic relationship development but they did practically nothing with it. There was literally a point where I was yelling at the screen because Toei decided to go the no dialogue route when there could have and should have been something there! Like when Izzy started showing Gomamon and Agumon pictures on his laptop! Why did Matt get angry??? was it something someone said??? was it some sort of inner turmoil??? was it simply cuz he missed/was worried about Gabumon and/or Takeru??? WE’LL NEVER KNOW.

–how did Meiko go to the digital world. why does she exist. like… i’m all for new characters, but holy shit just why. why are she and meicoomon a thing. out of the 4 series i’ve seen, I have never disliked a human Digimon character this much.

–please toei, i couldnt give less of a shit about the Matt/Sora/Tai love triangle. I’m not one for shipping discourse, or any bullshit like that, please stop with the bullshit about “oooooh whos sora gonna end up with???” because as much as i dislike it, we all know this is gonna end up with Matt/Sora and Tai/Meiko and Matt being a fucking astronaut

–what the fuck kinda skid to a halt ending was that

***all-in-all, Digimon Tri Loss.jpg was a 3 outta 10 and I’m severly underwhelmed. this felt like a bad fanfic come to life, and I’m worried about these last two movies***

[walterlitfyafricablog]

Why digital literacy

Part two

In part one I did not get the chance to clearly point out the advantages of why we should invest in digital literacy. In 2017 together with friends we founded a charity  organisation called Mabvazuva Trust. Our mission was "To raise a generation that does not complain but is optimistic for the future". By not complaining i don't mean roll over and take it from behind i mean stop complaining for a second and see the opportunities around us. People who complain never found out the truth and they never contribute anything. The reason why we don't see the vast opportunities right in front of us sometimes. A dude from America Jeremy Johnson discovered that in Nigeria, Africa's largest country over half of young people were unemployed and he founded an organisation called Andela. This brings me to my first point:

JOB CREATION

We can create jobs in the field of computer science for those who are unemployed. Andela has a goal to produce 100 000 developers by 2024. Initially they launched in Nigeria receiving funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Andela is trying to solve the global tech talent shortage because their stats reviewed that there are five open jobs for every software developer looking for one in the U.S. alone. That means in the US they are looking for people to fill these job post and we are crying about unemployment here. The good part you don't need to go to America or struggle to get a visa etc you can work remotely. I read an article by Andela that claim that over two thirds of firms in america prefer to have remote employees. I believe we can create more jobs in the technology area if we invest in digital literacy and this is not fiction there are people already doing it. Andela has only accepted 1 200 developers out of 130 000 applications they have received. That means the other 128 800 applicants did not get the opportunity to fill this gap. I guess that's why econet launched Muzinda Hub to try to train as many developers as they can and its another article for another day about what they have done so far, whether they are succeeding and the fact that they can't close this gap alone.

HELP ENTREPRENEURS BECOME COMPETITIVE

African entrepreneurs especially my fellow zimbabweans need to understand that they can use technology to become competitive in a global world and use social media platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter not just to post how great they were when they went to church last Sunday but to use social media as a business tools. Some try by opening facebook pages  and just post their logo or something and that's it the page is abandoned. Would one claim to be on facebook or whatsapp if they are there once a year. A few months back when i was doing research about digital literacy i bumped into a company based in South Africa called Digify Africa. Digify Africa & Facebook Africa are on a mission to "DIGIFY" businesses owned by young people through their digital PRO STARTUP which is a 12 weeks digital training course to help young entrepreneurs take their business to the next level. The programme is aimed at helping youth enterprises become competitive through digital skills, in particular understanding facebook and Instagram as business tools.

 HELP ARTISTS MARKET THEMSELVES

When we founded Mabvazuva Trust it was one of our objectives to equip musicians, actors, poets, comedicians, painters, footballers etc with the digital skills they need to market their talent and expose themselves at a global stage. Having knowledge about technology enables one to use the internet to meet customers, fans, promoters and agents etc. The agent who discovered Lionel Messi by the name Josep Maria Minguella acknowledged in a interview the importance of technologies like fieldoo to discover talent. "Absolutely! Internet has totally changed the way a football agent does his/her job and the transfer industry. There are no more boundaries and limits – you can see, observe and connect with way more players (and other people) than years ago, as you’re not limited to physical presence. Not so many years ago you had to go around the world if needed, to see and meet players, while nowadays you can do it through the internet – with videos, detailed information and all you need to learn about the player you’re interested in." I remember in 2017 talking to football players trying to get them to open youtube channels so that they could upload their videos as a way to get noticed. Josep Maria Minguella also noted it was difficult to discover talent back then because the internet wasnt as developed as it is now. "Back then we hadn’t been operating through the internet on a daily basis as it had not been developed yet in all parts of the world. Because of that, I had to rely on videos I received from Rosario, where Leo Messi was playing." Now life is easy if you know how to use technology. Artists like Ann Kasiime used digital platforms to showcase their talents and it helped her grow. "According to recorded interviews that she gave in 2014, Anne began posting some of her sketch comedy skits on YouTube. She received positive feedback and that encouraged her to post more videos."

Iam happy these days when i see comedians like Comic Pastor using YouTube as a business tool to get their content to their audience and so many comedians are popping up online here in Zimbabwe. Digify Africa realised the need for equiping artist with digital skills and they have what they call OWN YOUR MARK. This programme is designed to give artists the skills they need to grow their creative hustles. The training program is designed to give artists the skills they need to make the most of the digital world and to grow their creative markets.

MAKING MONEY ONLINE

In this section im going to talk about someone i met on LinkedIn. His name is Taylor Chiyangwa a Digital Marketing and Online Entrepreneurship enthusiast.

After chatting with him online i started researching anything i could find about him and i started reading his blog. He has posted several blog posts about digital marketing. What inspired me the most was his story about how he was tired of his day job and knew that wasnt it for him until he used the exposure he had to computers and started teaching himself digital marketing. He kept his day job for a while when he was learning until he took a leap of faith quit his job and focused fulltime on his digital marketing and online entrepreneurship passion. Since then Taylor went on to open three online businesses that focus on digital marketing, content and copywriting services to businesses and forex education. He is now an entrepreneur and he has employeed a few guys in his company some working full time some as freelancers. Taylor wrote a free ebook called 25 ways to make money online. This book will show you that they are many ways one can make money online. And guess what all you need is a phone or laptop and internet to get started. 

PROBLEM SOLVING

Steve Jobs: “Everybody in this country should learn to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think”. I believe i think and have a problem solver mentality because im a programmer. Programmers write programs to solve problems. I think programming doesnt teach you to thing only but it teaches you endurance, perserverance and a never give up mentality. My friend Lionel said to me that the reason my ventures havent succeeded was because i did not have a thick skin. For a second i believed him but then it dawned on me the reason why i have succeeded as a software developer was because i had a thick skin. So maybe i was only thick skinned when it comes to code but if i apply the same concept in my business ventures i will suceed. It was because of my thick skin and never give up mentality that i did the Truworths Zimbabwe in a month with drupal a CMS i had never studied before. It was because of my thick skin i developed a ussd application with technologies i did not know about like nodejs, express, angular and  mongodb that when you dial *558# on your econet line you will see a seedco menu. I did that project with Tapiwa Jeka at Dataage Solutions and i remember we took turns having sleepless night to code that application and we usually slept at the office 2 nights a week until we finished that application. I remember talking to Seth Mutasa one of my students that you dont learn to code but you learn how NOT TO code. Which means you learn through the failures so a programmer should embrances errors and fix them otherwise you are toast. The worse thing for me when im programming is code that doesnt give me feedback where i did wrong that way im clueless what to do next. 

I strongly believe if we had more programmers we wouldn't be whinning too much but do something using technology to change our world one community after another. I taught my brother Rann web design and it 6 weeks he made a site to aware youths in our community about the dangers of drugs they were taking 

OTHERS

I did not point out every reason why we need digital literacy but i think you get the idea.i left out some other good stuff like reducing the digital divide, economic growth and reduced poverty.