#i so wish the video quality had been better for gif 3

[thatgoddamngingerundercut]

Agust D 'Haegeum' MV & Jacket Shoot Sketch

[sienarossosource]

Happy 33rd Birthday, Sabrina Bartlett!

[havnblog]

I Just Want a Nice Browser!

Two sad browser stories

I’ve followed the Spicy Takes™️ surrounding the Arc Browser recently, that started in the Ruminate podcast and went on to the MacStories Weekly Issue 408.

And I agree with most of what John Voorhees is saying, and also Matt Birchler, who said: «The Browser Company feels gross to me right now».

Much of it is about ethics and AI. In general I agree with them, but this subject won’t be the focus of this post. (I’ve written more about AI here and here.)

Instead I’ll tell my browser story, and explain why both Arc and Firefox makes me sad.

I’ve been browsing for browsers

I avoided Arc for a long time because I really, really didn’t want to use a Chromium browser.

First, I used Safari for a while, which is fine. Then I used Orion, which was better, but a bit too buggy. 1 I also tried SigmaOS a bit, but at the time they wouldn’t let you change their hotkeys, and those default ones were terrible for my Norwegian layout.

My Firefox wish

Then, because I really want Mozilla and Gecko to exist, I spent a year trying to like Firefox. But it was very hard, and I failed miserably. It just feels like using a product where no one really cares about the user experience. I mean, which features, aimed at bettering this, have they shipped recently? 2

But I’m not saying that the developers doesn’t care! It just feels like they don’t have time to care — that the leadership hasn’t made it a priority. Mozilla recently downsized, and said that they’re refocusing on Firefox. 3 I hope they reach the conclusion, that the first step to compete, is to be the best browser.

I want to write a separate post, someday, on what I miss about Firefox. 4 But I’ll mention some things I like about Arc later, and know that Firefox has more or less nothing of this. Now, I get that The Browser Company is VC funded, and can just build on Chromium — but their team still isn’t that large. So my wish for the new Mozilla CEO, is to create a team and say: «OK, so you don’t have any responsibilities to the Gecko engine or our other services. Just make Firefox a joy to use — on every platform.» 5

Corruption Arc

In the podcast linked up top, Voorhees said he didn’t understand the hype around Arc, and that it just had a bunch of «animations that gets in the way». I agree that animations can get in the way — but when they’re well done, they make software a pleasure. For a great example, try to type, and move elements around, in Bike Outliner, by Jesse Grosjean, and tell me that’s not a truly special software experience.

I think Arc screams of being made by someone who cares about browsers and software quality. And I think that’s where they started, before being led astray by the lure of AI. It might not be a bad business move — but it’s not what I want, and the ethics, as both Voorhees and Birchler talk about, are very questionable.

It all started with what The Browser Company calls:

Arc II

And that started with this video:

I want to pinpoint the moment I felt, the Browser Company and I started to drift apart:

The entire premise of Arc II, is that «browsing the web sucks», so they would like to do it for me. But I don’t agree — I like to browse the web — I just want a nice browser to do it in!

Now, they haven’t stopped shipping enjoyable features since this 6 — and I still think they care about being a nice browser. But I was grossed out enough by using a Chromium browser, and now they’re leaning into something that I’m not interested in and that I question the ethics behind…

I really have to think about if I can keep using the browser… While I do that, let me highlight why I like Arc so much. Maybe it can serve as inspiration to other browser makers?

Being a good browser

Looks and feel

I just think everything in arc looks good — like the border around the window and icons. And there are plenty of whimsical animations, that doesn’t get in the way and often helps in understanding what’s happening. There’s also completely useless stuff, like this:

When adjusting the dials on the theme on a trackpad, you get haptic feedback!

Great shadows on the pop-up, and a cute top-left corner.

I’m a sucker for stuff like this: The downloads icon animates, and the blur above the files looks great. My Number of spaces/Tab bar width ratio is too high for it to show all the icons. They’ve solved this elegantly IMO. Notice how the little dots give room as I hover.

Useful utilities

Nice playback controls - for a tab in another space. I can also pop it out in their great picture in picture.

If you hit **Cmd + T** or **Cmd + L** (the latter won’t create a new tab), you’ll get this command bar. It’s pretty useful, but also just nice. (Notice the transparency.)

They have an AI feature I like, and I don’t think The New York Times minds either: If I hit Shift + Enter, it will go straight to the site it thinks you want. And since {my search engine} doesn’t earn money on my data or clicks, _it_ doesn’t mind this feature either!

Hitting Cmd + Shift + C copies the current URL without having to mark it in the address bar. The squares around the box, are more whimsical animations, and the share button opens the share sheet. That last detail is a perfect example of what I mean about _care_.

And yes, it even strips the trackers automatically!

Boosts: A neat little feature, from when the focus whan on making browsing a joy - instead of doing it for me..

Spaces

I love how easy it is to make and move between spaces, and that you can choose which of them share logins and not. Moving tabs between them, is also a breeze, and the haptic dials makes some good-looking themes.

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container video { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

Animation from Arc, showing off space themes.

I like the vertical tabs 7 — but I would be fine with just horizontal tabs in a browser if the spaces integration was on this level.

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container video { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

Animation from Arc, showing off changing spaces.

They also have notes and something they call easels — but I don’t use them personally.

Little Arc 🫶🏻

This little guy is my favourite Arc feature! If I hit a link while in another app, it opens a small-ish browser window, called Little Arc. In the example below, I was browsing Mona, and found a link I wanted to check out — and then I got this:

This is to avoid gunking up your current browser window.

Top left you can see that I’m currently on my personal profile (so logins etc. works in these little windows) — and only by hitting Cmd + O, will it be added to my current space («Blogg»). I can also send it to a different space.

My favourite detail here, is that if I do two-finger swipe to «go back», it just closes the window, and sends me back to Mona.

I’ll stop now because this is only making me sad.

Sad, because it seems like Arc is moving away from what I like about it,

and sad because it’s still, by far, the best browser — but I’m not sure I «can» keep using it…

Maybe I’ll give SigmaOS another try, while I hope Firefox becomes nicer? Have you tried SigmaOS? And are there any other nice browsers out there?

However, that team also makes Kagi Search, which is amazing. ↩︎

That wasn’t focused on pushing their own services, like Pocket, VPN and spoof emails. ↩︎

And AI. 😔 ↩︎

Come on, at least use the native macOS text engine! ↩︎

Oh, and make it much easier for third parties to build on Gecko - which I’ve heard is a nightmare. ↩︎

And I love how they always highlight the specific engineers who’s worked on a shipped feature! ↩︎

Even though I wouldn’t mind them being in trees. ↩︎

[killyspinacoladas]

I posted 8,657 times in 2022

That's 748 more posts than 2021!

182 posts created (2%)

8,475 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@letmetellyouaboutmyfeels

@girlwhoknewtheoriginoflove

@ithinkwehitametaphor

@thisishellfire

@hrina

I tagged 1,442 of my posts in 2022

#stranger things spoilers - 158 posts

#stranger things - 127 posts

#moon knight - 92 posts

#moon knight spoilers - 92 posts

#st spoilers - 76 posts

#eddie munson - 41 posts

#joseph quinn - 34 posts

#eddissy - 21 posts

#steve harrington - 20 posts

#chrissy cunningham - 18 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#just realized he has different boxers on in the boat than when he's wrestling dustin but he obvs never changed so whoops wardrobe department

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Matt Murdock when he meets another beautiful woman who could murder him with her bare hands.

480 notes - Posted October 6, 2022

#4

I am also a member of the "there's no way Eddie doesn't get bitches" club.

I feel like there had to be some people at school looking to rebel and piss off their parents, so they either had one night or a quick fling with Eddie "The Freak" Munson.

He literally has condoms on his bedside table. Maybe he bought them out of wishful thinking, but I feel like he definitely had them because he was using them.

Nobody who looks like this and has that personality is repelling women.

638 notes - Posted June 17, 2022

#3

The Try Guys released a 5 minute video explaining some things and all I can focus on is the expressions on their faces.

Eugene looks pissed.

Zach looks sad.

Keith looks disappointed.

You can tell this has been really hard on them.

942 notes - Posted October 3, 2022

#2

Something I really loved about episode two of Moon Knight was that when Arthur called Steven broken, he immediately defended himself and said "I'm not broken, I just need some help". Really loved that little message Marvel threw in that people with mental illnesses are not broken and they just need help.

1,638 notes - Posted April 6, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I just found this absolutely chaotic photo from the Triple Frontier set. (tap for better quality)

Oscar is drowning, Charlie is freaking out, and Pedro is having the time of his life...

...and Garrett is the most chill. Man is posing because he knows Google Earth is always taking pictures.

3,109 notes - Posted February 16, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[saw-x]

Hi so I’ve had a couple of anons asking me how I make my gifs (some specifically hsmtmts gifs lol) so I’ve decided to write up a tutorial of the basics of how I make my gifs. I’m going to try and make it as detailed and clear as possible - but I have been pretty busy with uni and stuff so if I miss anything or anything isn’t clear just lmk and I will do my best to clarify. I’m going to try and include any resources or other tutorials which may be useful as I go along. This is going to be quite long and detailed so tutorial follows under the cut. For some basic steps I know of good tutorials for - I will link tutorials rather than re-explaining :)

Before we begin with the tutorial part bear with me there are a couple of screencaps which I took out of sequence because I forgot to take them at the step I did it - and the final gif colouring result looks kind of different from the rest of the screencaps because when I was adding the gif to the gifset I was making it for I decided it needed to be brighter because the s3 scene was much brighter than the s2 gif I made for this tutorial (none of this really matters, just explaining the slight discrepancy in some of the caps).

1. SOFTWARE

To make all of my gifs I use Photoshop CS5 (this is the version I use). Any version of Photoshop should work with the methods in this tutorial and you can find a masterlist of cracked photoshops here

2. FINDING HQ VIDEO

When making gifs I always use 1080p video - but not all 1080p is created equally. Generally remux files and larger file sizes will produce better quality screencaps so this is what I search for when giffing. I know a lot of gifmakers who swear by using 4k, but personally I find 4k is more trouble than its worth in my opinion (screencaps always come out weird on my computer - like with a full on green tint, and they take forever to download). For HSMTMS in particular I like to use the release labelled 1080p SALT.

In terms of finding videos, this is a good guide on downloading.

3. SCREENCAPPING

I use mpv player to take screencaps for my gifs. This is a tutorial on how to use and install mpv. When taking your screencaps make sure you have continuous screencaps and no frames are skipped or duplicated. These missing/extra frames will make your gif look choppy and the animation won’t be smooth.

After finishing my screencaps I put them all in folders and move the folders to my desktop (but it can be anywhere you easily can access the folder) to import into Photoshop.

4. IMPORTING SCREENCAPS TO PHOTOSHOP

Open Photoshop. Open the Menu path "File > Scripts > Load Multiple DICOM files” and select the folder where the screencaps for your gif are. 

5. CROPPING AND RESIZING GIFS

Click the ‘Crop’ button on Photoshop (the little button shown in the screenshot below). Typically I like to use a preset so that all the gifs in the set I make are the same size. For this set I used the 4x5 crop preset because that is what I typically use.

Position the crop where you want the gif (typically I like the character in the center).

Then push enter (or the tick next to the crop buttons) to confirm your crop.

Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + I to resize your image. This will bring up a little pop up like this:

Resize your gif accordingly based on the width. It is important to use the correct dimensions for the size of the gif you wish to make. These are summarized in the below image.

When you change the width to the correct size (e.g. in this case 540px) the height will automatically change as well.

Click Ok to resize.

6. ANIMATING YOUR GIF + SHARPENING

There are quite a lot of steps to turning your frames into a timeline animation. They are covered in detail in this amazing gif tutorial (which is the main one which helped me learn to gif).

It would be useful to have a read of how the process works, but to speed things up for myself I use a Photoshop action (shared here) I made that does all these steps for me plus my sharpening😊 (Here is a tutorial explaining how to create & install Photoshop actions)

I just highlight the word animate click the play sign and it does all the tedious steps in a couple of seconds. Note it is important to keep the reverse frames one unticked as shown in the screencap otherwise your gifs will move backwards

After that runs through we have our gif in timeline mode sharpened and ready to colour :)

7. BASIC COLOURING TECHNIQUE

My basic colouring process is very simple and honestly it may shock some people but I primarily colour my basic scene gifs using only the curves and vibrance adjustment layers. There a few reasons for this – 1) The curves tool is a powerful tool and you can do a lot with it 2) Less adjustment layers = better quality gifs 3) This works for me and it is what I find easy. Essentially, I like to keep things simple where ever possible.

First I add a curves layer by clicking on the highlighted adjustment layer

This gives you a menu that looks like this:

The great thing about Curves is that Photoshop will do a lot of the work for us if we use the eyedropper tools.

First I click the white eye dropper – then I pick a white point on the gif and see how it goes. This can take a few times to get right and often I will try a few times to see which I like best.

For this gif I selected the white light in the background but it looks a little green to me

After I have selected my white point I will usually do the same thing except with picking a black point of the gifs. I don’t always pick a dark point it kind of depends on how much I like what Curves has done with the white point and if I think the gif needs more contrast.

For this gif I picked a black point of the area behind Ricky. This is what the gif looks like now with the dark point chosen:

This looks a little better to me than just the white point – but the screencap still looks kind of yellowy and dark to me. So what I do now is I go into each colour channel for the curve and manually adjust it to my liking.

Since this gif is yellow I start in the blue channel and add more blue. I do this by changing the drop down menu on the curves screen from RGB to blue. This gives me something like this to work with:

Essentially I adjust the amount of blue in the gif by sliding the white arrow down the bottom up or down to add more or less blue to the gif. For this gif I am going to slide white arrow at the bottom to the left to make the gif more blue (i.e. neutralise yellow). If I think I have added too much blue I slide it back to the right to add yellow back in.

This is what I adjusted it to and it already looks a lot better

I am actually pretty happy with the overall colouring of this for the moment and I don’t think I need to go into the red and green curves. But I will briefly explain what they do/how they work by showing what some adjustments to these curves looks like.

Red curve – here is our starting point

Dragging the curve to the left will introduce more red into the image

Dragging it back to the right will take out red (the gif will become more cyan)

Green curves: this is our starting point

Dragging the green curve to the left will add more green to the image

Dragging it to the right will take green out (adding pink/magenta)

So after I am happy I have coloured the image in curves If I want the gif to be a little brighter I go back to the main RBG Curves screen and drag the white arrow a little up to the left to add some additional brightness

After colouring with Curves I add in a Vibrance layer (highlighted adjustment layer)

Typically I set the vibrance somewhere between 50 and 60.

This is what the gif looks like now:

At this point I also have another quick look at the gif and see if I think I need to go back into curves and tweak the colouring a bit and add a bit of extra brightness. When I add in the Vibrance I find it easier to see if there is any underylying colours I want to go back and neutralise/adjust in my curves layer again.

This is what I end up with after making my adjustments post vibrance layer:

Another step I do sometimes is grabbing the black slider on curves and dragging it just a little bit to the right to add some depth and contrast to the gif. As s2 of hsmtmts is really dark I didn’t do it for this gif because I don’t think it needs it. But I will show an example of what this might look like:

This is basically it for my basic colouring. Of course there are a lot of different steps to making my colourful gifsets, but this is just a basic tutorial for the way I gif standard scenes so I will move on to subtitling gifs.

8. CAPTIONS

My go to subtitle font is Arial Rounded MT Bold. I have Faux Italic and Faux Bold Selected for this. I like bigger font sizes because I have bad eyesight so usually I will opt between 20 – 24 pt font size

I click the T button to add text then I type out my caption.

Obviously we don’t want our text here so I align it to the bottom and centre of the gif I do this by first selecting the move tool then going ctrl + a (this selects our gif as the boundary for our alignment). You will know this is done based on the border that comes around the gif (also please ignore that drop shadow and outline settings have already been applied here lol – I added this in because I forgot to screen cap/ explain this part initially)

Then I align my text using the following menu buttons:

Next I Ctrl +D to remove the selection (you need to do this to be able to nudge your text up for the next step). This is the result of the alignment:

Now I nudge the caption up by selecting the text layer and pushing ctrl + shift + up

This is the result:

This looks ok, but I always add an outline and dropshadow to make the text more readable. To do this I go into the blending options for the text layer. You can do this by right clicking the layer and selecting blending options or by double clicking the layer (but not on the text).

First I add Stroke with these settings

Then I add Drop Shadow with these settings:

9. SAVING GIFS

To save your file use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S to open the save for web settings. You will get a screen like this. The settings shown in this screen are my typical save settings (except it should say ‘Forever’ on looping options)

However, Tumblr’s gif limit is 10mb so the size of this gif is too big to upload (it is nearly 12 mb) so we have to go back in the timeline to shorten the gif a bit so we can upload it to tumblr.

I do this by dragging the red preview thingy (idk what else to call it) around till I find a point where I feel the gif has a natural end. Then I grab the timeline bar thingy (idk what it’s called but the silver gray bar at the end of the gif) to the red bar to shorten the gif.

Now press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S again to save your gif and make sure you set the Looping Option to ‘Forever’. Sometimes I have to shorten the gif a few times to get it under 10mb - but luckily I got it first go this time :)

Now your gif is saved but there is still one step left to do. Photoshop has a glitch where it automatically sets gif speed to 0.7 after saving from the timeline function – we don’t want that! The gifs look very slow and are not very smooth.

So what we do is we open the gif that we just saved and this will open in the frame format. All we have to do is select all frames and set the gif speed to 0.5 – I also have this in my action so I go back to the actions and highlight the line that says ‘set frame speed’ and play the action through

Then we just save the gif again as we just did 😊

This is the end result:

and what the gif looks like without any colouring or text:

One other helpful tip:

If you are giffing from the same scene you can do your colouring and text manually as per the tutorial on the first gif for the set and then drag what you did across to the second (after cropping, resizing and animating it). All you need to do is drag the colouring outside to a different window then highlight your adjustment layers + text and drag them to the new canvas off of the gif (If you drag it on top of the gif it will place it where you put it. Make sure to go off the canvas to so it will keep you positioning/alignment of the text you made 😊)

Basically - you drag the text, curves, vibrance (and any other layers you need) to the gray area of your photoshop document and your colouring will be applied and your text will be placed in the same position as your source doc.

Ok so that is my super basic gif tutorial - if anyone has any questions feel free to ask!

[dat-silvers-girl]

Canon vs Headcanon Rakepick

aaaaAAAAHHHHH I've been working on this since December and it's finally done!

There's a HUGE difference between Jam City's "canon" Rakepick, who is a Dementor that can go screw herself, and my headcanon Rakepick who is actually HUMAN with real human emotions. While my headcanon Rakepick is still a murderer and antagonist, I devised headcanons to make her a human with real regret ie. Somewhat redeemable. SOMEWHAT. NOT COMPLETELY. DON'T FIGHT WITH ME PLEASE.

Headcanons and more below the cut...

The Golden Flower Sarahi had gifted Rakepick in Year 5 is the symbol of the relationship between them. She had recieved more kindness from Sarahi than she every had from anyone else, leading her to feel absolutely terrible about the betrayal and everything else that followed suit, as she had acted out of fear.

Reasons why headcanon Rakepick isn't the worst despite everything:

1. The real villains are 'R' members Alan Wattle* (aka Jammy) and Cassandra Halloway*, and the 'R' leader. And possibly Verucca depending on who she is when she shows up. Cassandra and/or Verucca know about the soft spot Rakepick had for Sarahi, and used that against her by promising that as long as she did what they said, the 'R' wouldn't hurt Sarahi. Rakepick made the mistake of blindly believing them.

2. Killing a friend was an order Rakepick wished she hadn't followed. She traumatized herself by becoming a murderer, because not only did she completely break the child she loved, but her best and only friend in 'R', Adelaide Inkwell*, got mad at her for it to the point of abandoning her to fend for herself. The gravity of her mistake of killing Rowan hit her moments after the killing curse had been cast, once she had heard Sarahi's screams.

3. She desperately wants to make up for what she did, but couldn't due to her deep seated fear of the Cabal, and that she knew what she had done was unforgivable. She knew Sarahi wouldn't take her as an ally again, so she let Sarahi take her prisoner.

4. Once she finds out what was actually in the Sunken Vault, Rakepick knows that she owes her life and sanity to Sarahi's mercy, and that the 'R' wanted to be rid of her. (This headcanon rides on the hope that she escapes before getting to Azkaban.)

5. Despite having done R's bidding to the tee by killing Rowan, 'R' broke their deal by hurting Sarahi indirectly. Alan Wattle's attack on Sarahi had placed a fatal curse in Sarahi's blood. This curse would only hurt Sarahi when she comes in contact with one of the cursed gems that had placed the curse on her in the first place, and it hurts worse than Crucio by making you feel like the insides of your body are on fire. Verucca and/or Cassandra went out of their way to get Sarahi to hold a gem, and the unbearable pain would have killed her, if it wasn't for Rakepick who knew the obscure counter-curse and saved her, thus officially resigning from the 'R'.

6. Rakepick has a soul that takes the form of her friend, Adelaide Inkwell, as her voice of reason, and Sarahi Silvers, as her heart. She helps in the Rebellion against 'R' led by Adelaide. She died fighting for a happy ending she knew she deserved no part of, just so that the only two people she ever loved and had loved her back could have it.

*Cassandra Halloway, Alan Wattle and Adelaide Inkwell are 'R' member characters I made up. Because if Jam City won't give 'R' depth, I WILL.

Video version because it do be better quality.

Here the actual drawings I deleted wips because I'm a banana

Look I'm just really obsessed with Rakepick and forever salty about her being the antagonist OK

[mynameisminhooooo]

They get to spend all of quarantine with their s/o (Monsta X)

Request : Hi!! Could you do an exo and/or Monsta x reaction to getting to spend all of quarantine with you?

Sorry I put in bullet points bc it's felt like it made more sense? Sorry if you didn't like that. I also included what y'all would do. Bc why not¿

Shownu :

Omg this precious little bear was beyond excited to spend quarantine

Like as soon as his manager said plans were cancelled until further notice he ran out of the practice room

"Y/n I'm staying with you during quarantine..."

"Oh. Aight"

Your guy's quarantine consisted of laying in bed from the moment you woke up till 4 pm

As well as making a lot of food

And taking baths bc social distancing who?

Leads to other things 34% if the time, bc why not??

And of course singing together and him teaching you how to dance to all the songs

Cooking with this dude, where do I start

100% chance of making a mess

Would knock over bowls of side dishes while trying to grab a towel to wipe his hands

Just smiled at you when the food is all over the ground

Talking to the other members over the phone during dinner so it was like you guys were all eating together

Taking food to the other members and leaving it on the doorstep

One time they came outside before he was able to run back to the car and he was convinced he was contaminated

You had to spray him with Lysol to make him feel better

Him just being a whole lil bear the whole time

You guys would go on walks when you'd feel couped up too much

Y'all would be that extremely cute ass couple during quarantine

"I'm so glad I got to spend my quarantine with you" he'd say while kissing your forehead

"I love you y/n"

"I love me too, but your cool too"

"That's not funny" cue pout

Wonho :

Would literally be so happy to spend time with you

Hasn't seen you in like 2 weeks because of his rigorous schedule

When he finally gets to you're guy's apartment he'd just drop all his stuff and run to you, wrapping you in the biggest hug

You guys would eat until you couldn't breath

Ordering take out everyday sometimes for all 3 meals

You guys would take an online art class because why not

Video chatting his family and ofc the members to make sure everyone was well and healthy

Calling his mom 3 times a day

Would be the person who stocks up on toilet paper

Disinfecting everything every morning

Singing karaoke every day after dinner

Doing workouts in the living room because you guys gained weight and he wanted to watch his gorgeous figure

You'd help him write lyrics

You guys would try to be productive and do fun things like read at least once every other day

He'd be so happy to spend time with you like omg

Would literally cry when he looked at you sometimes bc he just loves you that much

Your guy's favorite things to do was lay in bed in each other's arms

"I wish we could stay like this forever, I love you so much y/n"

"I love you too, but can you let me go I have to pee really bad"

Your guy's quarantine would honestly be so fun

Minhyuk :

Would honestly act like he didn't want to spend time with you

"I guess I'm stuck with you"

\(-_-)/

"Your so lucky to have me, huh because I bought food"

Supports every small business and buys from all of them so they'd keep going

"I'll have 3 jars of kimchi, 2 bowls of kimchi jjigae, just give me half of everything"

"Minhyuk where are we gonna put all this the fridge is full"

Gives almost all the food to his family and the members

Buys like 2,264 board games

"Hey, you wanna play Monopoly I'll let you win"

Once again \(-_-)/

Fights about the dumbest thing

"I wanted to buy boardwalk!"

Throws your character off the board

Another person who stocks up, but he bought all the ramen

Your guy's quarantine would be so unproductive honestly

Like you guys just sit around playing board games

Listening to music all day everyday

Going for walks when the sun went down

If he sees an animal on the street he is bringing it home for "safety reasons"

"Look y/n this poor pigeon was left on the street"

Did I mention \(-_-)/

"Minhyuk... It's a pigeon"

Dancing throughout the house

He broke the TV while doing a twirl

Blames it on the pigeon, who you guys have name Piggy

Trying on each others clothes

But at the end of the day he'd be so happy he could spend his quarantine with you and Piggy

"I guess your ok to spend time with..."

Kihyun :

He would be so happy to spend time with you

Would be the most precatious person

"Put on gloves y/n"

"I'm changing the channel..."

Would 10/10 spray down everything before you guys touch it

You guys baked a lot during quarantine

Burning almost everything

Would try to make jokes the whole time

They were not good...

He would try to teach you how to hit the highest notes

Him almost breaking the window

Singing together while reading

Would call every member every day to see how they were doing

You guys would try gardening together because you guys got bored

10/10 the type of dude to telling everyone to buy from small business

If he saw anyone in the street outside the window, he'd yell at them

"Get inside!"

"Do you want to die?!"

You guys would people watch

You guys tried everything possible to pass boredom

Yoga, Singing, Staring Contests

If you got sick would literally call an ambulance

"They want to know if you have a fever, are experiencing lethargy, or have a cough?"

"Kihyun I just have a stomach ache"

Would be so relieved when he just found out it was just gas

He would not let you leave the house

"I really care about you, I cant risk you getting sick"

"You do knows there is a 3% chance of death right"

"But I wouldn't be able to see you"

Wow, whatta man

Hyungwon :

He honestly would be one of those ppl who didn't take it very very serious

"You wanna go to the park?"

"We can barely leave our house to get food?!"

"Ok, loser"

Was happy to spend time with you, but he wanted to actually do things with you like go to dinner

He just wanted to spend quality time with you

You guys would just lay in each other's arms everyday watching TV

Blinds closed letting no light in

The members would call you guys because after 3 days of nothing they were worried

"Oh we're fine, we've just been eating, sleeping and watching TV"

You guys would watch watch every variety show they have been on

You guys would try dying your hair by yourselves

"Wow y/n this blue is really nice"

"Blue it was supposed to be lilac"

How???

Shopping online for everything, food, clothes, furniture

"Y/n we need a new couch I just bought one"

\(-_-)/

You guys got erasable markers and literally drew on the wall

But they did not come off...

He would be kind of sad that he couldn't take you anywhere

But being the cutie he is he'd find ways to do cute date ideas at home

Jooheon :

"Guess what I'm coming home for quarantine!!!!"

Literally couldn't wait to hold you in his arms

Would cry when he came home, because he gets to spend time with you for who knows how long

You guys just hold each other and cry

Would follow you everywhere

If you went to get the mail he'd go with, if you needed to run to the store to get food, he's right by you

"Why is the door locked??? Y/n, you alive? Did corona get you???"

"Don't break the door down! I'm taking a bath"

"Ohhh, let me in!"

This little jerk picked the lock

You guys just sat in the tub for like 3 hours talking about what you should do during quarantine

Things you would do together during quarantine include sitting in the tub for 3 hours everyday

Calling his sister every day so he could talk to his cute niece

He would teach you all his rap parts from every song he could

You guys would send the members a goodie package every week with food and toiletries

Because he worried about them

You guys would take online dance class

Because why not???

Tango, Rumba, Foxtrot, Meringue

He would enjoy every minute with you

You're guys little vacation came to a halt when he fractured his fibula after falling down the stairs

He felt bad that you had to take care of him

But he was so grateful to have you by his side to help him

"Y/n you don't have to get up I can go to the kitchen to get a fork"

Could barely get off the couch

"Just please sit hear"

"So like you wanna bang?"

"No, I want you to get better"

After he got injured he just got so sad that he couldn't do anything with you really anymore

"I love you y/n"

"I love you too"

I.M :

He already was used to seeing you basically everyday

The only difference was you guys got to stay home

You guys didn't even have to change your schedule

He was grateful that he was able to wake up to you every morning tho

"Good morning, cutie"

"Why are you so close??"

Would be so nice the entire quarantine

Need him to wash your hair, just yell for him

Need something off the top shelf

He got it covered

There would be days where you guys just laid in bed the whole day though

You had online school throughout this time

"Y/n hang out with me!¡!¡"

"I'm doing homework for my English class"

"But I'm cuter than English class"

*insert pouty face*

Would try to get in your pants every other hour

You'd let him because ofc

"No, not now Changkyunnie..."

"Yes, now... Pleaseeeeee"

All the members would worry about you because you guys were the youngest and they thought you wouldn't take this seriously

Y'all did though, you only left the house for food

"Y/n am I cute?"

"No, now go to sleep"

"But I love you and I miss you"

"I'm right next to you and it's 3 am"

Bro. Idk why but this drained me I'm gonna write the exo one different bc I literally ran out of ideas of what to do doing quarantine.

[trashexplorer]

A comprehensive? list of guitars used in 2gether The Series:

Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about guitars and I’ve only gathered the details included here from reviews of the mentioned guitars. I just really like investigating things that do not and will not benefit my life in any way. Also, I have not and might never read the novel, so I’m not sure if they mentioned the specific models there. These are all my rough guesses, so if you know what these really are, feel free to correct me. The guitars in this list are the ones that actually belong to Tine and Wat, so I didn’t include the guitars that were borrowed from the music club.

1. Westone WE5400 a.k.a Sarawat’s electric guitar

Availability: Discontinued (all the 5400′s in re-selling sites are sold out)

Original Price: 550 USD or around 27000 PHP

Songs Played: Together (ep 1)

Details: Westone, as a guitar manufacturing brand, has been discontinued for a while now. 5400's are supposed to only come in Black, Lime Green, Metallic Blue, Ultra Violet (as seen above), and Yellow, so I’ve never actually seen another 5400 that looks exactly like Sarawat’s. However, Sarawat’s guitar might be customized, but who knows? As for quality, it shouldn’t sound that much different from other guitars it's type. Rare as it may be now that it's discontinued, that does not automatically mean that it's special. 🤷‍♀️ Bright uses a different electric, so this might not be his. It looked like a red Les Paul, but I’ve never had a bigger view of it, so I don’t even know what brand it was.

2. Morris W35 a.k.a Sarawat’s acoustic guitar no.1

Availability: Retired

Original Price: 35000 JPY or 16000 PHP

Songs Played: Click (ep 5), This Person (ep 7), and To You (ep 8)

Details: This model in particular is vintage, so its value might be significantly higher today. Also, you don’t find Morris guitars with the vertical logo anymore, which is why I think Sarawat’s W35 is an original 1979 model (and you can clearly see that it has been worn out to some degree). Where are they getting these guitars??? As for quality, Sarawat’s W35 in particular sounds pretty normal to me when Tine played it on Episode 2. I have seen numerous conflicting accounts about the quality of the W-series and Morris guitars in general, so I cannot, in good faith, judge its quality without hearing the real deal. I do like how it sounded esp during This Person, but they were in a bathroom, so it might have contributed to the sound.

3. Takamine Santa Fe 45C a.k.a Sarawat's acoustic guitar no. 2 and Tine's acoustic guitar

Availability: Retired

Original Price: 1,500 USD or around 75000 PHP

Songs Played: Close (ep 3 Sarawat), Click (ep 5 pt 1= Tine & pt 2= Sarawat), This Person (ep 5 Sarawat), Wish (ep 9 Tine), Your Smile (ep 11 Sarawat), So, It Was All in My Head? (ep 13 Sarawat)

Details: Jesus! That’s one expensive guitar! This sells at around 2000 USD or  120000 PHP now! I’ve only ever heard good reviews about this guitar and Takamine in general, but I’ve got to say that it really does live up to its hype. I mean, if you heard Sarawat play Close and Click on that thing, you’d see how clear it is. Tine better be taking good care of that guitar because our man Sarawat must’ve paid a fortune for that. Even Sarawat’s own guitars are cheaper! This is also the guitar they used in the promotion poster for the series, so it is safe to say that this is THE guitar of the series (and the most expensive jfc). Isn’t it funny that even though it’s technically Tine’s guitar now, the one who plays it the most is Sarawat? I mean, Tine’s gonna give it back to him in 12, but. It also is the most played guitar of the series. How the heck do they carry that around on set like it was nothing???

4. Taylor 214CE a.k.a Sarawat’s acoustic guitar no. 3 and Bright’s personal guitar no. 1

Availability: Available

Original Price: 1199 USD or around 60000 PHP

Songs Played: Everything (ep 6)

Details: When I saw that this one was a newer guitar, I knew that this had to be the guitar Bright uses in his IG videos. Well, you know how Taylor guitars are. I’m actually planning on buying this one myself once I’ve saved up the coin.

Bonus Guitar!!!

Yamaha F340 a.k.a the OST guitar and Bright’s personal acoustic guitar no. 2

Availability: Retired

Original Price: 200 USD or around 10000 PHP

Songs Played: Kan Goo & So, It Was All in My Head?

Details: I’m actually torn between the F310 and F340, but since the F310 doesn’t come in this color, the F340 might be the closest to Bright’s Yamaha. Bright also used this guitar when he played and sung Kan Goo with Win. I think this really is his guitar because those videos of him singing (not playing) solo in Songs of After Six was taken before 2gether The Series even aired (2018), so he had no reason to bring that guitar there. However, it might just be GMMTV’s prop guitar, but why the heck would they need a prop guitar in the first place??? 😂  

Should I make another list for the products they advertise next??? 😂

[johannesviii]

Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2018

I’m kinda sad this series of posts is coming to a close, especially with two mediocre years for the kind of hit songs I enjoy.

I was very depressed in 2018 so I thought maybe it was the reason why I didn’t like most songs I heard, so I revisited the entire catalogue of 2018 hit songs from the year-end lists and... no, it wasn’t just me.

Disclaimers:

Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

Of course there will be stuff in French. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.

I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

As I mentioned before I was super depressed in 2018, which wasn’t helped by the death of two family members including one I was super close to, and by catching a mysterious infection on a finger that doctors didn’t seem to be able to cure and which made my left hand hurt all year long, until I had to have an operation in early 2019 to fix the issue (plot twist, it wasn’t an infection, which is why nothing was working). On the plus side, my s.o and I decided to get married but it only happened the next year.

Ok so, hit songs weren’t that good (stay tuned for that), but albums? Some great stuff dropped in 2018. Unfortunately, Eminem’s Kamikaze wasn’t among those great albums and at that point he was basically dead to me. BUT! A Perfect Circle came back, which was completely unexpected! Nine Inch Nails released Bad Witch which contained the excellent and super hypnotic Over And Out! Mike Shinoda released Post Traumatic and every single Linkin Park fan was like “oh god what a mood”! Moby, which I hadn’t liked for years at that point after loving his stuff so much when I was 15 or so, released Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt and it was unexpectedly good! And The 1975 released A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, which, in my opinion, isn’t quite as great as their second album (I refuse to write its super long title again), but still super good. Just like the previous one, a lot of songs had crossover potential and I’m very sad it didn’t happen. Stay tuned for the unelligible songs.

But you know what? The album of the year, at least to me, was always going to be something much darker. Fortunately, the end of the year was when VNV Nation decided to drop its best album of the entire decade, Noire. In these trying times, an album about the fight between light and darkness was exactly what I needed to hear. I was super emotional when I first listened to it. Armour might just be the best song on the album. Collide explodes into a million colors after a super slow start. Wonders is a big mood. Lights Go Out is a super angry song which basically says ‘we’re dancing while the apocalypse is happening because they won’t let us do anything else’, and we need more stuff like this. When is the Future was a super solid first single and yeah, exactly, where is the future we were promised as kids? Only Satellites became one of my fight songs in record time. And All Of Our Sins is terrifying and super good. Just an amazing album all around. I certainly hope they make more in the future, but if they don’t, that would be a super high note to finish on.

As for unelligible stuff, there’s Chun Li (Nicki Minaj) which I found super weird at first, but it grew on me a lot as the year went on. I’m very surprised it’s not on the US year-end list, by the way. And I wish more stuff from Indochine had charted... again, I know. Apart from that, it’s all The 1975. Love it if we made it should have been a hit but wasn’t a safe bet for a leading single so it kind of makes sense. TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME despite its stupid title was a much more convincing hit, and yet, it wasn’t one, and that pisses me off more. And It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You) is one of their best songs ever. Catch me on the right day and I’ll call it better than The Sound, even. This should have been a hit. I’m so angry it didn’t happen.

But hey! Their new album is getting released in just a couple of days! Maybe 2020 is finally going to be their year? Wait and see.

Holy shit there hasn’t been a shorter list of honorable mentions since my 2008 list.

Remind Me To Forget (Kygo) - Good but (ironically) a bit too forgettable to be on the list.

Later Bitches (The Prince Karma) - So bad it’s good at its finest right there. Not enough to put it higher though.

High Hopes (Panic! At The Disco) - Tiptoes the line between good and super annoying too much to be higher. Not even the best song on the album (that would be Say Amen (Saturday Night)). Not sure why this was more popular.

Sicko Mode (Travis Scott) - God I want to love this song so bad. I tried so hard and it never completely clicked for me.

Next To Me (Imagine Dragons) - Believe it or not, this was the last cut from the list. I sincerely hope that Imagine Dragons will make good music again in the future and that their new songs will stop sounding like a person dragging themselves accross the wet sand of some post-apocalyptic beach covered in ashes.

So how do I know this was a bad year for hit songs? Well I not only struggled to find ten songs for this list but also struggled to find a suitable #1. Then I just went “I’m gonna put the only 2018 song I ever put on my mp3 player at #1 by default.” Does it make 2018 as bad as 1990? I’m not so sure. The top 3 I made for 1990 contained two songs I absolutely adored, including one of my favorite songs of all time. On the other hand, it was a bit easier to find ten songs I liked (not loved) in 2018. So... I don’t know.

I should also mention that Bohemian Rhapsody made the French year-end list again, at #83, and that is hilarious, but putting it on the list feels like cheating. Consider it to be an alternative #1!

10 - Finesse (Bruno Mars)

US: #14 / FR: Not on the list

I know. Everybody likes this song. I’m no exception, and I love its aesthetic, but I also like it wayyyyyy less than 24k Magic.

9 - New Rules (Dua Lipa)

US: #16 / FR: Not on the list

Basically, same thing here. I like it but I’m using it mostly as filler for this list. The lyrics are pretty great, though.

8 - This is America (Childish Gambino)

US: #51 / FR: Not on the list

This would be much better if the radio version had kept the gunshot sounds from the music video, but on the other hand it would have been pretty terrifying to hear gunshots on the radio while driving, so eh... this was probably the right decision to make. Apart from that, this song and this video have already been analysed by countless people on the internet and I don’t see what I could contribute after all this time.

7 - Sweet but Psycho (Ava Max)

US: Not on the list / FR: #42

This sounds like a song from the bygone era of Bad Romance and to be honest, it would have been annoying several years ago but in 2018 that was genuinely a refreshing blast from the past.

6 - Speed (Zazie)

US: Not on the list / FR: #74

To be honest, I never expected Zazie to show up on one of my lists again, but 2018′s general quality forced me to do it. This is a song that starts super slow and keeps getting faster, and it’s mostly about overcoming depression. Everything I needed that year.

5 - Let You Down (NF)

US: #29 / FR: Not on the list

I don’t think I know a single other person or critic who likes this song, and yet it charted super high. I don’t love it, and the chorus is grating, but there’s some damn powerful lyrics in there, and a lot of it is extremely relatable.

What can I say, in this day and age, if you give me a super-watered-down version of early 2000s Eminem, I’ll take it.

4 - Marry Me (Thomas Rhett)

US: #76 / FR: Not on the list

Yeah, it’s a slow emotional song and I tend to dislike those, but I heard this song only maybe four times in total and it destroyed me every single time.

No, I don’t have anything else to say about it.

3 - Un Été Français (Indochine)

US: Not on the list / FR: #67

I do not like this song’s chorus, it’s a mess and a half. There’s a lot of much better songs on the 13 album. 2033 should have been a single. But this is the one which charted instead. And you know what? I’ll take “super messy and clunkily written song about how the far right is gonna destroy this country if we let it exist any longer, sung over a nice tune” over everything I mentioned previously on this list.

In a better year, this wouldn’t have climbed higher than the honorable mentions. But yeah, I’m not gonna repeat my entire 2017 lecture about Indochine. It takes a lot for me to dislike one of their songs. Even at their weakest, their hearts are in the right place.

2 - Flames (David Guetta & Sia)

US: Not on the list / FR: #13

We’ve finally reached the songs I genuinely love and uh, yeah, there’s only two of them. This is sad. But this song is a lot of fun! And the music video is absolutely ridiculous in all the best ways.

It was also a super useful song to me. You’re being super sad and unenergetic, you’re climbing into your car to buy some food, you’re turning the radio on and suddenly you’re hearing “Go, go, go, figure it out / Figure it out, you can do this / So my love, keep on running / You gotta get through today / There my love, keep on running / Gotta keep those tears at bay / Oh my love, don't stop burning / Gotta send them up in flames” over a super good beat and yeah, definitely. You can do this.

1 - La Même (Maître Gims & Vianney)

US: Not on the list / FR: #1 (!! holy shit quality wins for once)

This might just be the weakest #1 I’ve ever put at the top of one of my lists, since the only criteria that put this one there was “this is actually on my mp3 player and none of the other songs are”. Also, somehow, I only discovered it last year even though it was the biggest song of 2018 in my country, apparently...

Even so, that’s a fantastic song with great lyrics and a wonderfully catchy tune and that would have been enough to put it at #1 on its own, I think. But look at those lyrics! (here’s a rather good translation) It’s about how society judges people by their looks in public. The chorus literally goes “If what I am bothers you, well, tough”. That’s even the title. And I like the music video a lot, with this white box in which people are put and as soon as they aren’t in it anymore you notice how different they act or look, like the buff guy who turns out to have prosthetic legs, or the grandma who turns out to be covered in tatoos. Simple but cool idea.

It may be a weak #1, but it’s an extremely useful song, because having “si je vous gêne, bah c’est la même” (”if I bother you, well tough”) turning in your head like a playground taunt, it really does wonders for your confidence.

And to think some French friends thought making these lists would make me hate Maître Gims’ music once I discovered it.

Next up: the last list?! It’s been a wild ride.

[artdjgblog]

Innerview: Ercan Ucer / Grafik Tasarim (Turkey) October 2008 Image: Giphy Note: Take #2 of a design magazine interview.

​0​1) How do you name yourself other than being a versatile designer? In the past year and a half I’ve come to realize that I’m not really a graphic designer. It’s definitely in there and will always be because design is a poison, like any vocation or skill can be. But, I’ve always approached the way I work as an artist first, and I don’t fancy myself an artist either. I am what I am, though I can’t always be so selfish. Am I an illustrator? I guess there is a collision of the three. Add this to a love for getting my hands dirty, plus a celebration of youth and American pop-culture mixed with Eastern European and post-WWII American Design – B.C. (Before Computer) and the product is me? “Versatile” is too defining of a word for me and way too classy. I simply like to say I make things. Each day is new and I haven’t a clue what I’m going to do. ​0​2) What is the relationship between marketing and your designing process at different areas? (poster, packaging, logo…etc) A design is a marketing tool, no doubt. I haven’t really worked on a large scale setting with this, but I have in terms of marketing on a small scale for rock concerts and prospective CD buyers. Though, a designer plays eye-grabber, a designer is not really a marketer, but I guess it helps to attract attention or sell something. I had friends in college who studied marketing as well as design and they’d probably be more equipped to answering this question. It’s an area I’m not familiar with other than thinking of ways to attract people to get excited for a musical group, a sound, feeling or expression by way of putting a stamp on a poster, CD or logo design. It is a marketing tool especially when working with a client. It certainly is not only what the artist-designer can bring to the “product” (Though, I do think this can apply at a certain larger level with selling something), you’re also working for somebody and trying to sell an image or an item. In the case of a show poster, you’re selling a concert venue or the place the poster is hanging or even the music scene and the city and environment. I think this can be a tricky walk. I’ve been fortunate to have some small success with great clients and great projects to where things work out well. I guess it helps that independent music graphics kind of start out in left field to begin with, to where they are approached more like an art project than a product? Though, I don’t think that the work should not limit itself to a certain kind of audience. I think it’s great when the work speaks to anybody. There are times though where things don’t mix well, whether under the weather by design, client-wise or consumer. It’s just part of the deal. The work isn’t always going to be a homerun. Another deal is the way people interact with communication in marketing. Today I find that technology has a lot to do with people getting information for a rock concert via social networking sites, musician, ticket and concert venue sites. I don’t think that something like the poster will ever be dead, but technology can almost make a poster feel second-rate, a collector’s keep-sake and more for show than for the actual show. Logos are very interesting when it comes to marketing for bands because they are generally slapped onto many-many products. I’ve worked with a lot of music-related designs, but I’ve also made logos varying from a lawyer to an internet-computer company to a church before. So, these different applications encourage me to find new ways to talk to other audiences who come searching for something that isn’t entertainment, but I approach these designs with the same techniques and tools I use with the music graphics. I try to give something unique, and of a new take, to get a double-take. ​0​3) Can you tell us about your working environment and your different feelings or extraordinary events that inspires you? Ever since I was a child growing up on a farm, my working environment has been outside and especially in my bedroom. Working environments also extended to anyplace I had my eyes open. I certainly believe in a home base or comfort zone of operations, but a lot of my more thorough processing happens while out and about and then I bring it back home with me to make. Currently I work out of a basement in my home. I’ve constructed a work space out of wood found in the street. I call it my “club house”. I love it down there despite my continual problem with having a work space that barely has room for me to work in! I collect and store a lot of things around me and still have a lot of my childhood things around me, along with piles and piles of supplies, research and things I’ve found or see the potential in for a future use. I have a mind-set that if I can’t use it today, I can easily use it in 50 years. I’m a major fan of extraordinary events and tend to find humorous and peculiar ones to be more my taste, and more-so in retrospect of the event. I feel to be blessed with a certain quality that attracts odd circumstances, or maybe it’s all in my head? Extraordinary has its own brand of “something”, but more often I find inspiration in places, events and things that are fairly run-of-the-mill and everyday ordinary for anyone, which can give them an added cushion of “extra” for me. On my website I’ve made a list of my history, the things that have been the everyday ordinary for me, but might seem very out of ordinary to others. It all depends on perspective and where you’ve been. ​0​4) When did you discover the impulse that led you being a designer? This impulse to leave behind a paper trail of some sort on my impression has always been kicking around in me. I didn’t fully know it at the time, but I believe it started when I was young as I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t doing or making something. It’s a large part of my make-up. Much of it has to do with my farming background and watching my Dad and his Dad and others always doing or working on something whether it was building fences, planting crops or tending animals. I also owe a lot to my Grandma, for her hands-on making skills and to my parents for allowing me to grow-up fully plugged into the American pop-culture of books, toys, music, movies, video games and sports. Now, I just feed off of my former self and continue to feed for the future. It’s not work to me when it truly works and I enjoy myself. ​0​5)  Is looking at life always from a different angel, the designer’s necessarily ego? Most any area of most any job, skill, talent, business doesn’t come without some ego hurdling. The ego is amped further within the arts. Inflated achievement comes with ease when your voice gets a little loud in a “scene” or beyond. I’d like to think I’m fairly grounded, but it’s hard not to feel the eggs weight the other side when I’m told I could be sitting on a couple of golden ones. Working a day job can help matters, but it can also be a nightmare with time management. I have to just tell myself that I am a man and a man who happens to make things. Still, that can be hard. It doesn’t mean that I’m better than somebody or am a “somebody” because I’ve found a certain something within me. I just enjoy my life and feel very fortunate to even know what I want to do with it. I think one needs healthy doses of reality and a whole heap of humor to make it too. Besides, I have no answers. If you know somebody with it all figured out, have them call me! What helps me is to find comfort and ease is venturing back into my child manner. I’m much more content and find peace when I’m either looking at the world through a certain lense that I might qualify for, or just making and enjoying the act of celebration in creativity. The moment I start to think too much about it all or answer questions, that is when it can get a little dangerous in the head. I’d like to think gaining wisdom through age and maturity helps. I know that my energy and will-power have died some, and of late I’m leaning on this as a benefit. I think I say and do some dumb stuff today, though I’m positive it’s a little less than yesterday! ​0​6) Can you inform us about graphic design’ s one of the important field, package design and your sketches? / Tell me about the sketching and process of packaging. There is a certain amount of image longevity that becomes attached to packaging. I’m not experienced in much more than musical CD packaging, but I think a long life span especially applies to this in the iconic halls of pop-culture, even on small levels. Though, that’s not the reason to put into making something and/or package something but if you can add some meaty eye candy, then so be it. I love poster design because there are endless possibilities to exhaust, many ways to work reach-and-grab-of-the-moment and intuitive, and if something doesn’t work all-around, it’s throw-away and will die soon like house flies. CDs are so different, at least for me, and they can be quite intimidating and intoxicating. Sometimes another designer’s great CD package makes me not wish to do another one, and in a good way! With my own process, I do a little bit of sketching, but more-so the process and evolution of the CD package is the sketching for me. If I’m rewarded with an ample amount of time to work on a CD I usually make it happen in three different sessions, or what I call “incubation stages”. This allows me time to sit on ideas and to come back to them with fresh perspective and clear head, to play or spin off ideas and avenues. When figuring out an image or “look” for an album, I like to at least digest the music or get a track listing. With the way in which I work, I tend to feed off of my day-to-day (sometimes minute-to-minute) emotional handy work. It can be a little strange though as I can easily obsess over wondering the what-might-have-been with something like a CD package or anything. I think that a CD package for me can be extremely different given what day I’m at. I do believe my best packages have come down on me at the last minute, intuitively and usually on the lowest of budgets. And I mean cheap, major cheap. 0​7) What are the benefits of making global designs for the designer? I love a body of work, one that breathes and not only serves as a timeline for the maker, but also for views and observations on life itself. Ideas that can extend globally even, throughout time. I think that a great body of work can extend to anybody, anywhere in the world. And even if it is for some other body like a client, it is always from its original body of the creator. Anything that goes global is still connected to that first breath of singular life. Due to technology, it’s so much easier today to go “global” with designs, even if one does operate on a small scale. I think it’s great to put the work out there, to share, even if it’s not marking up or wrapping up a popular product. In today’s fast-paced world of millions and billions of images and things flashing, it really does mean a lot that my meager things have made it in some strange little way. Even, if it’s just a grin or a double-take by someone looking at a little poster on a wall or in a magazine or a global internet billboard or world-wide magazine and book distribution. Though, a part of me still likes to keep some things to myself. And I’m odd because I personally don’t like to attract attention to myself with graphics on the shirts I wear or product logos on bags and things. ​0​8) Can you explain the relationship between marketing and designing? I’m not sure if I was successful, but I tried to answer some of this in question 2. With this one I’ll try to wrap it into the way that I work, to where my designs act as marketing tools for me, as well as the product they are pushing. Until recently I’ve never had to market myself in conventional practice. For the first six years my work itself was the marketing. Everything from a poster to a package and a logo has been on the same level with causing a “Trickle Down / Word of Mouth” marketing effect. And I’ve been fortunate to keep fairly close relationships with my clients due to a small industry I work in. These clients have brought other clients. For my first two years I was living and working with several bands in a house. I didn’t have to leave and would get new work constantly. At times I’d just make things before I was even asked. Some of the best marketing can come in poster making and that is how I started to gather some attention. Posters have a short shelf life in comparison to packaging and logos, so there is always a new one to tack up. And if a poster doesn’t succeed, then it’s easy to just make another one. It’s just a poster and practice is good. After a while people start getting curious and come looking for you. ​0​9) Does any of your designs have an unforgettable story? The “Whatever Makes You Happy” CD package design I made in my basement in June of 2002 for the band Elevator Division, is one of my most memorable moments. It was a special run of 250 handmade CD packages and my idea came at the last minute. I made an image of a hand shooting off its index finger like a missile that married the themes for the album perfectly, with reflections of war and failed relationships. It was the idea of shooting off one’s options and making decisions. It was fitting for the band-music but also for the national-world climate. Each one was hand-cut from cardboard and stencil sprayed and rubber stamped. Inserts were copied, cut, folded and glued. At the last mist of red spray paint, a crack of thunder shook the massive home’s foundation and I bolted from the basement and out the front door to a down pour of rain. I leapt off the front porch and slid head first down the front lawn embankment and into the street flowing like a river current. The drug dealing squatters of the home across the street were on their front step looking at the fire in my eyes and the red paint streaming from my ears, nose and mouth. It was a high much higher than that of chemical substance. -djg

[mioreviews]

Birds of Prey

[ Hollywood / Action Superhero ]

Where to Watch: Prime Video, YouTube Movie Service

Rating: 4.5/10

I felt really iffy after the watch. Tbh I had a lot of expectations for this movie and really wished for it to be great! Jumping into this review, ‘Birds of Prey’ had a lot of buzz around it and pre-released pieces of the killer soundtrack. If you haven’t heard of this movie as the trailers were being released, you got to step up your movie game lol. It was legit EVERYWHERE. Simply put, the plot follows Harley Quinn’s story after she breaks up with the Joker and her working together with the Huntress, Black Canary, Renee Montoya, and Cass. Very girl power focused if you couldn’t already tell lol.

Harley Quinn! I really like Harley Quinn. She’s a versatile character and has the potential for future development. She was the only reason why I watched ‘Birds of Prey’ tbh (no offense to DC fans).

Girl power. It was nice to see female empowerment on the big screen. The entire soundtrack is sung by women. The director was a woman too. It’s powered by women on and off-screen, which was a sweet touch.

Just wanted to quickly mention It wasn’t a Suicide Squad 2. I appreciated that it was a stand-alone film. No piggybacking or ‘sequel’ vibes. I saw online that many worried about the possibility so it’s a relief that it wasn’t!

As for why I think it was a 4.5/10...

Messy story-telling of the plot. I’m not a big fan of narrating and there was a lot at the beginning. For narration, the audience just has to “take their word for it”. They could’ve acted more scenes out. Let the actions speak more! Also, the plot jumped around a lot. Making it more put-together would’ve increased the quality immensely imo.

Everything was really rushed. Everything flew by. I couldn’t genuinely connect with the characters and feel their chemistry together, even their backstories were like 2 minutes each.

Also I think the Rated R wasn’t necessary? Nothing made it HAVE to be rated R besides the use of profanity. If you want to make an R rated film, make it suitable for the older group of consumers. ‘Deadpool’ is a great comical film example of why the R rating was completely necessary. ‘Birds of Prey’ legit removed an entire group of consumers (teens who aren’t 18) that would have probably eaten up the movie really well.

Overall,

Imo, girl power, Harley Quinn, and it being a superhero movie were pretty much the only things that carried this movie. Having the strength behind the main theme being girl power, the film could’ve been delivered so much better and more powerful. The plot was super rushed and cool shots were only shown for like 3 seconds, which was the main reason why this film wasn’t the best for me. Nonetheless, I love Harley Quinn and hope that the DC Universe is given the justice it deserves. The film didn’t ruin DC for me, but, sadly, it’s understandable why people may consider it a flop.

[aharris00britney]

                                                                                                                                ASKS 14

Ok so 24 hours after I planned to do this but... last time I answered stuff was January(5 months ago). There is a lot under the cut ;n; sims, nonsims, other games, all kinds of stuff ya know

Anonymous said: Hi! Wcif the shirt you used on your Belle hair post? (Btw, that hair is GORGEOUS.)

I have the cc I use in my previews linked on Patreon. Makeup/skin and all that will be on my resource page once I get around to updating it for my 2 new models (who will be up for download soon hopefully). Also ty <3

Anonymous said: What make-up do you use for most of your posts?

The only eyeshadows I use are by @crypticsim or @catplnt. The makeup I use on Macie/Taylor are listed on my resource page. The other two models makeup will be added once I get them added on there but I know they both use similar stuff to Macie/Taylor.

@thatsimmergirl91​ said: Just wanted to take a moment out and say how amazing you are ! I love all your stuff and your blog. Never forget how awesome you are 💗💗💗💗🙌🏻🙌🏻

Thank you so much. Like I know I am going to be typing a lot of thank yous in this post, but I truly mean them. Playing Sims/Making cc is something I did not think would be such a big thing in my life but god is it and I love doing it. Thank you again <3

Anonymous said: You're incredible and I love all your hairs! In fact, you're my favorite cc hair creator. My question is are you planning on making any hairs with the Island Living meshes anytime soon?

Thank you! I am glad you enjoy my hairs <3 I am planning some stuff with the island living meshes. Probably just a conversion to toddlers if I am able and I might do something simple with the adult meshes to release outside of my Patreon stuff. We shall see though! Ty again

@ayoshi​ said: When are you opening an Onlyfans?

idk babe when are you posting your birthmarks? ;)

Anonymous said: Heya! Love your cc! You're real talented

thank you! <3 It isn’t so much talent, more or less just a lot of practice and time. I appreciate the compliment though

Anonymous said: any tips to get high quality sims screenshots??

I have 2 methods I use. When I am taking CC previews I rotate my screen using Ctrl + Alt + the ◄ key. For my lookbooks/upcoming Sim downloads I use a method by foursims who deactivated?? This is the method/video <3

@verdeclaroangels​ said: What skin do you use??💕PS i love u

I use @luumia​ newest vanilla default, alongside his Smooth Butts overlay, and my own fruitpunch overlay. All are linked over on my resource page <3

@vhlori​ said: Austin queen of pop!

q king of edits! <3

Anonymous said: i love your creations and i appreciate the time you put into your cc, i wish i could support you 💕

Thank you!! Sometimes the time crunches can be stressful but I put them on myself so I survive haha. Don’t feel the need to support me please <3 I make sure everything is public eventually so that people dont feel like they are missing out on anything by deciding not to pledge. Thank you for wanting to though, I appreciate that a ton.

Anonymous said: Just a rant here. I'm annoyed that there are no rings in the glove category or some other category. The reason I want this is because I use eyelashes that are in the skin detail section and rings don't work and I don't want to use the accessory eyelashes because my sim wears glasses. It annoys me but that's all.

i... rant away luv i feel u

Anonymous said: What do you do besides sims? That is all you post about and I was curious if that is all you play?

I play Roblox with @ayoshi sometimes, cause that is about all my computer can handle lmao. I have a switch so I play some Nintendo titles on there like Zelda, Splatoon 2, and other stuff. I also have been plying Fortnite recently with @imvikai @greenllamas and @pinealexple. That is about all I play right now lmao. I play Animal Crossing Pocket Camp and Pokemon Go on my phone.

Anonymous said: Hi there ! Just wanted to say I've also been experiencing that problem with your 'downloads' page. I don't have a Tumblr account so I had to tell you this way. Perhaps it's a MacBook issue ? I'm not sure, but I'm using a MacBook Pro. Anyways, thank you for all the beautiful cc you provide us with, you're the best.

Yeah I got another ask about them using a Mac for it. That seems to be the problem. I am not a coder, nor do I know a single thing about coding. All I can suggest doing is going to http://aharris00britney.tumblr.com/tagged/s4cc and using that which sucks to page through I know :( I am sorry

Anonymous said: This is really random, but I love your Sims! I normally don't like Sims with Clay hair, but GIRL, you make them work. Just want to say to keep it up, and if I had money I would support you <3

Thank you lmao <3 stan clay hairs

Anonymous said: Literally im in this sims discord nd they were DRAGGING how you make the same sim in different skin colors and how you make such cookie cutter sims and honestly i felt bad

Meanwhile me in CAS:

Anonymous said: This may be a strange request but what does that one alien toddler you've used on multiple occasions to model hair look like when he's older?

He uuh... idk where they are in my library tbh I can’t find them cause I was going to age him up and show ya but.. yeah idk what happened RIP alien toddler

@amorimlulu said: Hi! I love your creations, they're incredible! I'm completely in love with two of your sims: the asian woman from the patreon 06-16 post and the woman from the ava hair post. Could you, pretty please, upload them on the gallery? I'm dying to play with them. Thank you ^^

I am planning to in the next month! I have the photos taken I just need to get the CC list together and plan it around Island Living posts, CC posts, all that jazzzzzz

Anonymous said: Hello Austin! I really like the way your sims look, so I was wondering if you can tell me where to get the skins and lashes, please? I am new to the Sims 4 and searching for some cute looks :)

Hey! I have this stuff listed on my resource page, and I have over 100 WCIF’s I have answered along with my lookbooks for some clothes. My cc finds blog is @aharris00finds​ if you want to look there :D

Anonymous said: can i just ask? how do you remove the shadows on hair with S4S? im a complete noob at s4s and i was wondering how you would do it?

You just need to click shadow, then make blank :) pic below

Anonymous said: Hi, just a quick message to say THANK YOU for all those beautiful creations. You are so talented and I want you to know that. Thank you so much for making my sims look way more beautiful !

thank you so much <3 I have said it before and idk if anyone will be able to convince me, but I am not talented lmao it just is experience :)

Anonymous said: hey, could u pls make a tutorial abt how u make ur mesh?? i love ur hair meshes so much

I have tried filming a tutorial before and I will just have to wait til I get a good mic lmao. My speed meshing videos are somewhat useful for learning but they are sped up and without instructions so take it with a grain of salt

Anonymous said: would you ever try to recreate lydia martins hair in 3.04? sorry, but you're the only teen wolf fan thats a simblr that i know and i desperately need that lovely hair in my game. thanks!         

tbh I never finished Teen Wolf XD I stopped at the end of season 5 I think. Idk I just lost interest as I grew up :(  Also I have no idea what hair that is sdfgfvb and google isnt telling me either. If you can send a link to a picture or DM me a picture I can see if I can make it <3

Anonymous said: Hi, could you please please upload this sim post/183989453251/e41 ! She's just too pretty

Anonymous said: please upload this sim from your post/183989453251/e41 for download? Thanks   

Idk if I still have her saved but if I do I might upload her. I will check and see later tonight lmao                    

Anonymous said: Is there any way to put everything you make into a .zip file. I really like what you make and I wish there was a way to mass download it. It sounds dumb but really I enjoy your content

Tbh since I post hairs 3 times a month it would be hard for me to keep everything up to date. I might do something like all my CC from 2017 in one zip, and all my cc from 2018 in another? and then make one for 2019 at the end of the year. I’m not sure though.

Anonymous said: Wheres the hair in yo profile pic? And will you upload that sim? AND can you make more clothes ur amazing at it!!! (Also, asking 4 my bff <3 r u boy or girl?)

the hair in my current profile pic is Maddie Hair, the sim is already for download, and I will have some clothes coming next month :) I am a boy :P

Anonymous said: hello! is the model sim in your eve hair valentines special downloadable? I find her really pretty. I really enjoy all of your cc!! I love all of them soooo much.. :)

I will check if I saved her to my library, if so I will add it to the list of stuff I wanna try and do <3 also thank you

Anonymous said: Hey! Love your hairs! Can I request a Riley hair without the hairclip?

the riley hair doesn’t have a clip so I am going to assume you mean the Peyton hair since it was released in the same month. It wouldn’t really be possible to do Peyton without the clip since it has a part of the hair going up into the clip. Without it there would be a hole and if the hole was filled in it would still look weird since the hair would be going up into nothing. I’m sorry <3

@lacr1mation23​ said: Kinda not a question. But, i'm gonna fangirl all over you. You ROCK!!! I LOVE your CCs. BEST. HAIRS. EVAR.   Impressed like woah from Florida. 

thank you so much ;n; this made me smile lmao I appreciate stuff like this a ton

Anonymous said: Hey I think there's something wrong w/ your Lydia hair.. could u fix it?

I’m not sure what the glitch is, so if you could send me a photo or an explanation of what it is then I could help.

Anonymous said: I'm sorry you're having a bad day! I want to let you know your CC is lovely and I hope you have a better day tomorrow! Lots of love and if you like chocolate then I'm sending you plenty of virtual chocolate to help you feel better!

lmao idk what ‘bad day’ I was happening when this was sent but thank you!! I had a rough semester but I am doing a lot better now I think :)

@simsloverlilian​ said: Hi lol I just think this is really funny, my friend asked me where do you get your cc? and I was like: "oh.. ahoob's WCIF place xDDDDDD" and we both died laughing.. at your place you can get amazing hairs, accs, shirts! (lol love your cc keep it up! ;))

thank you so much! I love that yall use my blog for finding cc :)

@raha-plays-the-sims​ said: Okay... I actually want to take a screenshot of my Sim with your new Riley hair on to my hair dresser and tell her to cut my hair that way XD I love it so much! Thank you for continuing to make amazing content!

lmao i have wanted to do this before with a male hair i found for my game. I never went through with it though XD thank you for the compliment <3

Anonymous said: Everyone!!! Stan LOONA for clear skin and good health...

stan red velvet and WJSN

Anonymous said: I just want to say that "EVERYTHING" about your blog/cc/sims is absolutely immaculate. Your CC is like renaissance to Sims 4 modding(I ain't even kidding).Thank you for sharing/uploading them here on tumblr.  Would you be uploading any video on how you create your sims on youtube anytime soon? And what sliders do you usually use in creating sims if there are some?

thank you so much!!! I have tried recording my game before and the footage just comes out super lag. Hopefully later this year I will be able to get a computer and I could record something then. Also I don’t use any sliders or presets on my main Sims :)

@lllac-lady786​ said: This isn’t a question, but your sims are just so pretty and you are so talented 🤩

thank you <3

Anonymous said: Did something happen to your Lydia hair?

I don’t think so? It seems to be fine for me

Anonymous said: How are you able to edit the new game pack when sims4studio hasn't been updated yet? I am itching to edit some stuff but I can't yet :(

I use CAS Tools! I might make a tutorial this week depending on how busy I am. Not sure though <3

Anonymous said: How likely would you be to recommend the new pack to another simmer out of 10?

(this was sent during Strangerville) I would say 8/10 recommendation. But I love storylines and stuff in games so my opinion is very based on that.

Anonymous said: Would you ever make male hair or recolour some of ea's so they work with your ombre accessory?

I am thinking of doing some ombre accessories for the new Island Living pack for the two ombre hairs. I am not sure if I will be able to or not but I will see :)

@milugameplay​ said: Hello sweetheart, I just like to say that I love the hairs that you create. Thank you for sharing them with us.            

thank you <3 i appreciate the compliment

Anonymous said:Hi! When you uploaded peach earrings, the blonde sim had a braided hairstyle. Was it cc or a maxis one?     

hey! It is from outdoor retreat GP :)     

Anonymous said: Have nothing to ask. Just want to tell you that you are amazingly talented. ❤ I have been playing the sims since its original Sims 1 release, and have always been a heavy CC user. (Upwards of 50GB in sims 3). Never have I ever felt the need to download EVERYTHING a creator has ever made, until I found you.  So, in short, you are amazeballs. Keep it up.

this is so sweet lmao. Even I don’t have all my own CC in my game <3 I appreciate this so so much. Thank you for this

Anonymous said: How did you learn to create custom content??Did you see any video tutorial? I'm trying to create a hair but I can not get it :(((( help me please

most of the stuff I have learned from trial and error, or help from S4S fourms and friends :) Feel free to message me with questions on tumblr or discord

Anonymous said: I know Sims 5 is still so far away, but I still have a question! With the release of Sims 4 so many awesome creators for Sims 3 just stopped creating from one day to another. So my question is: Could you imagine yourself creating Custom Content for Sims 5? I'm asking because I seriously love every single piece you create for Sims 4, and I really wish the glory era of Ah00b won't end with the release of Sims 5. Ily! <3

it depends on the style that TS5 goes for tbh. I love Sims 4 style and I don’t know much of anything about creating alpha hairs so if TS5 goes that direction I doubt I would be able to create for it. also thank you for calling it the glory era of ah00b lmao

Anonymous said: You have hairs named after all the girls in black pink except Rosé. Is there a reason for this?

Well I named a hair Rosanne thinking it was close enough to her name lmao. I might name a hair coming in July Rosie. We shall see when it gets to July XD

[srhunt]

Extraordinary Tales

I was browsing Netflix for some horror or halloweenish things to watch this season, when I stumbled across Extraordinary Tales, an anthology film with segments based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe. I don’t consider myself a fan of Poe’s work, but it was always a pleasure when I had to read his stories for class. So I turned it on and...oh my god.

Animation people, why aren’t we talking about this?!

This was fuckin’ gorgeous! Incredibly haunting and disturbing, yes, but gorgeous!

Each segment has its own unique style, and each one is narrated by a different person.

I’ll just go through one by one.

0) Poe and Death

To start, the thing that connects these shorts together. We see a raven flying around a cemetery, whom we learn is Edgar Allen Poe. He has a converstaion with the personification of death, who says he’s obsessed with her. Each story is being retold as Poe tries to show his writings were more than just love letters to death.

1) Fall of the House of Usher

This story is narrated by the late great Sir Christopher Lee. I will admit, I’m not super familiar with this story (I read it for class, but I’ve slept since then), but nevertheless the presentation in this story is amazing. It has an almost Burtonesque look to it, and you can see the cracks in the building grow larger as the story progresses. Also, the narrator reminds me of human Blinky from Trollhunters. I don’t know why.

2) The Tell-Tale Heart

Now this story I do remember. I read it in 9th grade, and it’s a chilling story I never forgot. It’s probably my favorite story from Poe. And this short has reignited the fear the original story stoked into me. Using archival audio, the segment is narrated by Bela Lugosi (If you don’t recognize his name, he’s best known for his role as Dracula in the 1931 film of the same name). This audio is not digitally restored in any way, so it sounds crackily and warped with age. And his narration paired with the visuals is incredibly unnerving. The short is mainly in black and white with no blending. The only other color used is red, and even then it’s used very little, it never fills the screen. This makes the short even more creepy looking. The Old Man, even though he’s the innocent victim in all this, is terrifying to look at! He’s really creepy! It’s just all around creepy, and it’ll probably keep me up tonight.

Speaking of keeping me up tonight...

3) Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

...This will also haunt my nightmares! I had never heard of this Poe story before, it feels more like something Mary Shelley might’ve wrote! This segment is narrated by Jullian Sands (whose most notable movie from what I can see is Arachnophobia). The style takes after comic books, almost reminiscent of the animation used in Telltale’s games (ah hah, Edgar Allen Poe, Telltale, hardee har). The narrator of the story is very obviously modeled after the late Vincent Price, which made me wish he was the narrator. I mean, there’s so many recordings of Vincent Price reading Poe’s stories that they could’ve had him narrate one of these segments (I distinctly remember hearing him read Pit and the Pendulum while on a road trip, but I’ll get into that later...) But, for what we got, Sands is a pretty good narrator. This was my first time hearing this story, so I was not prepared for what was in store. Monsieur Valdemar’s lifeless body acts like it’s in the Exorcist (minus the crucifix masturbation, spider walk, 180 degree head turn, and the pea soup). And did you think the way Magica possed Lena in DuckTales ‘17 was disturbing? Oh ho! take that, ramp the graphicness of it up to 11 and you get what happens after Valdemar is snapped out of his “trance”. It is horrifying!

4) The Pit and the Pendulum

This is the only segment that tries to look realistic. The other segments go for more stylized looks, which are incredibly affective. This one looks like a video game. I’m not saying it’s bad, that’s just what it reminds me of. Anyway, this story is narrated by Guillermo “Where’s-My-Haunted-Mansion-Remake” Del Toro, which is good casting. The story takes place during the Spanish Inquisition, so his accent helps illustrate that. I didn’t even know this story took place during the inquisition, I only heard Vincent Price narrate part of it during a family road trip. I don’t remember if I plugged in my headphones and zoned out or if I asked my dad to change the station (random fun fact: I’m really unnerved by audiobooks and radio dramas. It doesn’t matter if the story is funny or not, they creep me out. Probably stems from a creepy audiobook we listened to in elementary school or my dad listening to disturbing radio dramas late at night during long road trips) Only thing that doesn’t work is that Del Toro’s words don’t match the visuals. He says that following the wall didn’t help him figure out his surroundings, but the visuals show him looking out a barred window. How did that not help you figure out your surroundings? I think this short might’ve benifited from cooler colors. The story is meant to take place in a dark cell, the narrator can barely see anything. The animation is very red in this segment, not conveying this sense of darkness we should be feeling. It only goes to blues and cooler colors when night falls, but I think it would’ve been better if the rest of the short was like that.

5) Masque of the Red Death

The final segment of the film. This one is unique from the other ones because it has no narrator. There are only two lines said in this short (one spoken by Roger Corman), the majority is told visually. And...I don’t think it works very well...? I have never read this story, the most I know is that it’s about the Plague and that the Phantom of the Opera has a killer Red Death cosplay. You kinda get what’s going on...? The poor are dying from the plague, the rich are hiding behind a wall to keep them from getting infected, but the Red Death gets in and kills everyone. Most of the short is just watching these people party. It’s like you’re the only sober person at this shindig and you’re antisocial as fuck (so... in my case, real life). It doesn’t get interesting until the Red Death shows up, then it’s like Oprah. “You get the plague! And you get the plague! EVERYBODY GETS THE PLAAAAAAGUE!!!” And then, it ends. Uhh, okay?...what was I suppose to gain from that? I mean, the animation is pretty, made to look like a painting. But outside of eye candy, what else is there...? Maybe if I read the story, this would make more sense to me and I wouldn’t be so harsh towards it, but a film should be able to stand on its own. I shouldn’t have to read the story to understand what’s going on, that’s your job! You’re suppose to tell the audience the story! Not rely on them to have done their homework that they didn’t even know was assigned! That’s basically how this last segment felt; it felt like when I forgot to do the reading assignment for class and the teacher starts discussing it like everyone has read it, while I’m sitting there going “...whut...?”

Conclusion

This was a mixed bag for me. The segments were either hit or miss, but the ones that hit, hit really damn hard. And even the ones that miss still had some redeeming qualities, whether it was the animation or the narrator.

If I had to rank the segments from my favorite to least favorite, it’d be like this;

😄Tell-Tale Heart

🙂Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

😐Fall of the House of Usher

😕Pit and the Pendulum

☹️Masque of the Red Death

Maybe my opinions would be different if I had read all these stories prior to seeing this film, but as someone who’s only dabbled in Poe’s work for school, I still really enjoyed this. I mostly appreciate it as a fan of animation. Each segment does something different, giving each story a unique style.

If you’re looking for a macabre film to watch this Halloween, give Extraordinary Tales a watch...

...just make sure you do so with the lights on...

...Goodnight, and pleasant dreams...

[cannabisrefugee-esq]

The last day of my life was sometime in February, 2013 the day before I was first diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a progressive and incurable automimmune disease that targets the digestive tract.  As many people with Crohn’s probably know, and as none of us is allowed to think or say out loud, your life is essentially over once you get a Crohn’s diagnosis.  If not from the disease itself then from the treatments.

The disease itself is absolutely horrific and I saw it in my doctor’s eyes when she first broke the news and many times thereafter.  The first doctor in the practice to meet with me, right after diagnosing me said, “You need to get insurance immediately, if not sooner.”  I naively asked if that was because most Crohn’s patients needed surgery; she said no.  I didn’t understand what she meant but I was at the very beginning of my Crohn’s journey and just made a note of it.  I could tell that something was seriously wrong and about to get worse.  I mean, obviously.  If surgery and even repeated surgeries isn’t the worst thing in my future as a Crohn’s patient then what is?  I was already queasy from the Crohn’s related nausea but what she was saying, and not saying, unsettled me.

The second doctor in the practice to meet with me said, “You are an attorney, you are educated, intelligent and have research skills.  You should research this disease and all the treatments available to you.”  I didn’t know what he meant. After meeting with him for several follow-up appointments, when we had developed what I felt was a mutual professional respect, I considered telling him I would be at Starbucks later that evening if there was something he needed to tell me away from the office and away from prying eyes.  What did he mean and why couldn’t he just tell me about all the available treatments himself?  At the time, the research I had done indicated that the conventional treatments for Crohn’s don’t work much; that Crohn’s patients have an extremely low quality of life; and the best “alternative” treatment available was a so-called elemental diet, an enteric feed called Vivonex, a sickly looking yellow fluid that’s meant to be taken through a feeding tube but you can drink it straight if you can stomach it.  I bought several months’ worth at about a thousand dollars a month and tried my best.  It didn’t work.  And despite also taking the prescribed treatments including Pentasa, Entocort and Prednisone, I was getting steadily worse.

I was reading online Crohn’s forums and reading about patients who had been living with Crohn’s disease for decades, as well as the recently diagnosed, and the absolute hell they had been going through with medications, procedures and repeated surgeries that did nothing but make them feel worse in the end.  No pun intended.  Some people found success with different treatments only to find their effectiveness short-lived.  Normally I would concede that those patients who were satisfied with their treatments and with their quality of life would be out living their lives and not commiserating on an online forum, and therefore I would take the published accounts with a grain of salt.  But in this case I noticed a pattern: many of the patients writing on the forums had been getting some relief from their treatments for a time but the treatments eventually failed.  What I was reading were both the treatment failures and the treatment successes in that sense.  Where are the Crohn’s patients who respond well to the treatments forever and don’t feel traumatized, stigmatized, disabled, or have other reasons to publicly talk about it?  I have no idea.  I have never met one.  I understand that they are probably out there somewhere but the truth is, even they won’t know what group they themselves fall into until they die.  Just because they are getting relief from their symptoms right now means nothing.

Eventually, I fell down the rabbit hole of researching medical cannabis for various conditions, including Crohn’s.  Is this what my second doctor had been referring to when he told me to research what was out there?  Cannabis was still illegal in my home state, not to mention outside the “official” accepted standard of care for Crohn’s, so that could’ve easily been what he meant and he just couldn’t legally say it. After reading and viewing hundreds of blog posts, medical journal articles, and YouTube videos on cannabis and Crohn’s, I suspected it was.  I had been treating with prescription medications for 2 years and was feeling my health, energy and life slipping away.  I was getting worse and at a terrifying pace.  I had no idea what was in store for me and I had no idea it was even possible to be that sick — I had always assumed that there was some threshold of pain and suffering, some Agony Index at the pinnacle of which you would simply die.  Essentially, I had always assumed that something this relentlessly painful would be fatal.  I started to panic as I understood that it just might be possible to be this sick, or even sicker, indefinitely, and that at some point I would probably lose my mind from the pain.  What happened next seems a blur.

My Pentasa wasn’t working anymore and the next course of action was to get on an infusion treatment that basically gives you AIDS: it destroys your immune system.  You get all the opportunistic infections of an AIDS patient including thrush, pneumonia, and even cancer as so-called side-effects of the medication. Meanwhile, Crohn’s itself is not curable and is progressive, meaning that it never goes away and only gets worse.  So then, looking down that road, you have Crohn’s, AIDS, and cancer to contend with and all that comes with each condition including more treatment, more side-effects and more opportunities for medical accidents, treatment failures and complications up to and including death.  I suspect that actor Shannen Doherty took this treatment for her well-known case of Crohn’s and that the Crohn’s medication caused her cancer in the end.  I suspect the same thing happened to my fitness trainer who had an autoimmune disease and ended up with cancer too.  I began to see my own future.  And I was so desperate to have even a temporary respite from the agony of Crohn’s I was going to take the medication anyway.  I was tested for tuberculosis — a precondition to having your immune system decimated because any active infection at that point can kill you — and I was going to start the infusion treatments as soon as possible.  Everything up to this point had been either free samples of medication or self-pay and I was prepared to pay additional thousands of dollars if it meant I would find some relief — the infusions alone were to be something like $4,000 each, to be repeated every 8 weeks.

In the meantime, I had taken the first doctor’s advice and applied for health insurance.  Because I had not worked as an attorney for about 4 years by then and had started a small business that was compatible with my new and worsening disability I applied as an uninsured person through Obamacare which placed me on Medicaid due to my small income.   The first thing Medicaid did was deny the Crohn’s medicine I was already on (Pentasa, which didn’t work much anyway if at all) and then my doctors fired me because they didn’t take Medicaid.  Without a doctor, any plans for the infusions were put on indefinite hold.  At that point, because I had practiced benefits and anti-poverty law for years, I knew where I was headed: in and out of the hospital and fighting with Medicaid to approve maddeningly ineffective medicines and treatments and brutal, gravely dangerous ones, all of whose known side effects could be just as bad as if not worse than the disease itself, and where even a favorable resolution to the Medicaid issue would easily take months if not years to achieve.  All the while suffering with the hellish, unrelenting agony of un- and undertreated Crohn’s.  I knew what I had to do.

I packed one suitcase and made a reservation at a vacation rental property in a cannabis-friendly state where I had planned to stay for 2 months and treat with medical cannabis.  I had hoped that I would get better and go home but it’s now been 3 years and I am still here.  I have gotten significant pain relief and improvement in my Crohn’s symptoms which I consider a hard-won and unlikely personal success.   Nothing can diminish that and I am immensely grateful to have gotten some relief.  But now I have spent my life savings, liquidated my assets, and maxed out and destroyed my credit, and although I have worked on my small business as best I could, almost everything is gone. I will soon be facing homelessness as a chronically ill cannabis refugee.  Because I have refused Western medical treatments for my illness I am not eligible for disability-based benefits.  My attempt to “help myself” financially by starting a small business has complicated my finances such that I am not eligible for any need-based benefits at all, or anytime soon.

Not knowing what else to do, and wishing to document my experiences, I have started this blog.  It is intended to be a very short-term project where I will record my insights and what I have learned from my relatively new station as a chronically ill person in the context of Western patriarchal and capitalist medicine, and my resistance to it.  I hope to absolutely excoriate Western medicine’s treatment of Crohn’s and other serious illness; to rail against the disability- and income-based benefits structure where so many sick, injured and otherwise vulnerable people fall through the cracks; to describe my treatment successes and failures, including my treatment with medical marijuana (also known as medical cannabis, medical pot, or MMJ); to describe the crushing disappointment and sorrow I have experienced through family and friends’ failure or willful refusal to really “get” what Crohn’s is all about, what Crohn’s patients go through and how disabling Crohn’s can be; and hopefully to find a solution to the untenable situation in which I currently find myself.  At the very least, I will find some comfort knowing that I have spoken the truth aloud about my experience as a Crohn’s patient disaffected with Western patriarchal and capitalist medicine; as a cannabis refugee; and as an attorney who in the end, may be unable to help even myself successfully navigate the social, legal and financial hardships of a serious chronic illness.

To all Crohn’s patients — and all those seriously ill and disabled — who may find themselves reading here, I offer my empathy for you and your condition, my understanding of your plight, and my sincerest hope that you will find some comfort somewhere, whether through successful traditional or alternative treatment, miraculous or spontaneous remission, or simply by reading these words and the words of other truth-tellers online and off.  To Crohn’s patients specifically, I have received tremendous comfort and knowledge from reading your testimonies on online support forums and your truth-telling has soothed my soul and enriched my mind.  I hope to return the favor by recording my truths here, especially those that are taboo, contrary, uncomfortable, and rarely addressed.  Please feel free to comment here or contact me using the contact form at the top of the page.  I can’t promise I will respond, but know that I will read your words, and that I feel you.  I really, really feel you.

[colitisandme]

Another day another occasion when I want to swear into my pillow and curse my unco-operative and inconsiderate bowels. During the last few months I felt confident that I had tamed my stomach and bowels wild ways, put in time outs when it had been disrespectful and naughty, took away its treats, and gradually taught it not to be angry in public. But just when I thought it was safe to be left to it’s own devices, I go to bed and in the morning and like a naughty puppy, found it had chewed up the rule book, gnawed on the toilet roll, farted on my supplements and has gone outside and eaten, what I can only conclude, a bucket of gravel as my belly feels like it is full of tiny stones and my belly is spasming so fast I may as well be sold as a pleasure toy at an adult only store. 😳😳

If you have read my posts on my page, you may be aware that I have reduced my hours at work. This was a ridiculously hard decision, and I had changed my mind so many times, however after repeatedly starting my day looking like someone had shoved a cactus up my bum (wide eyed, slightly surprised, hair on end and tattered) like I had been running on a treadmill for about a week, eternally grateful that we didn’t have video phone, and silently crying every time I reached Sunday, as I knew I had to will and drag my ailing body to make it through just one more week losing my speech, shaking and cursing weekends for not having 4 days in them. The decision was made for me. Several months later I am now working half the hours I was and my body is screaming at a lower volume than it was. However me, being me is finding this adjustment really tough, especially now my hubby has gone back to working full time in his office as an accountant (he loves numbers, he does) it’s really strange having time to rest and I have this inward dialogue with my self that goes as follows: “tomorrow you have to rest... ah but not for too long as you will start resembling a couch potato, and don’t forget your kitchen is starting to resemble a scene from the battle of the Somme and you’ve been meaning to sort out the food cupboards, as that thing you spilt 4 days ago may start attracting wildlife soon... but remember that your body feels like it’s been stretched like chewing gum... so sleep but not for too long, rest but not too much or people will think you’re lazy, do something to work out your brain as on your worst days it sounds like you have been chugging whisky and blowing raspberries.. but not too much ....” and so on and so on. It’s so so hard trying to find that balance where you don’t lose yourself but still look after yourself. And I have not mastered the beast yet.

Oh and don’t even get me started with my feelings on my medical support. As the anger I feel .. well you could bottle it. Sometimes and please,please forgive me for saying this, is that I sometimes wish things were simpler. I wish that I had illnesses which could be treated by a pill and then I would be patted on the head, fed some delicious treats, read a soothing bed time story nestled gently in a soft cocoon of duvet and blankets, understanding, a team of doctors and lovely thoughts and then sang off to sleep, being assured that you will feel better in the morning, and although this is a cycle that is needed to be repeated regularly, it will ultimately do the job. Fibromyalgia is not like that. Sometimes sleep helps sometimes I can snooze for 7 hours, and it will make me feel that I have been awake for 48 hours straight and that I live underwater. Sometimes the Amitriptyline helps, sometimes I can be gnawing on my fist and experiencing spasms until 3am in the morning, sometimes I can engage in a variety of activities and stay upright and then on other occasions, just washing up or cleaning my teeth can make my body feel like it’s run up a mountain, wearing tennis rackets on my feet, whilst an irate and boisterous mountain goat attempts to joyfully butt me back down the mountain like a bowling ball... and you would think a team put in place to help understand pain would be well helpful, understanding and transparent with your treatment and not confuse or make you feel more vulnerable than you were feeling in the first place. But no, my last conversation with my pain team was like having to undergo 15 rounds of question time with Jeremy Paxman. Without going into the whole scenario, the end result is that they have just left me. Struggling and just left alone dealing with a condition designed to make me want to rip my own face off. Ideal.... makes me want to send a poo to their door but that would hurt my poor withered bum too much... Damn you Colin! It comes to something where your imaginative revenge plan is thwarted by the thought that producing said revenge plan would result in tears... So in short I have a Gastro consultant who hasn’t seen me in over 18 months because I have a rare disease he thinks is only found in people over the age of 60 and a team who has completely gone against what they said they were going to do and sling shot me back to my GP... Sometimes there are not enough known swear words to express my opinion about this... but I have expertly come up with several that describe my feelings...

All in all the last few months have been incredibly tough. I am grateful to have my tribe who are all equally as enraged and incredulous as I am. (Thanks Tribe - I love you) and I am still very much in a daily battle with Phyllis to try and instil calm and just sodding will her to just behave and not charge around my body like a bull in a antique China store as well as feeling like every time I need to go to the loo or eat anything, I need to give my arse a pep talk ... but there have been some positives. Positive one - reduced working hours means (once my body settles in it’s new routine) more time for advocacy, more time for Jess - which includes self care, meditation, writing, rest and lots of quality, meaningful time for friends, family, animals, hubby. This is welcomed as often when I reach the weekend... I resemble a cross between stig of the dump, a drunk, someone who has stuck their hands in an electrical socket and a dead duck - (an attractive mix to be sure.) Positive 2- once the world returns back to her/his post apocalyptic state, I am actually gonna have the means to have family to stay. I have not seen my family for a year and that fact hurts my heart. Positive 3 - getting my body prepared to have a baby - which is my main goal and something my heart and soul wants more than cake... and you know how much I love cake. Positive 4 - with all the shenanigans and lack of support from the NHS I reminded how sheer bloody stubborn and resilient I am. So if like me you have had a really befuddling, tough, slurry, maddening, stressful, eye boggling, illness filled few months. I see you. If you are dealing with the unenviable task of trying to become your own personal sales man, trying to speak about your symptoms, diagnosis and trying to muster support from teams who are assigned to you to do that very thing. I see you. If you are dealing with a body ready to explode like a land mine. I see you. I truly do. You are not alone. And If you are dealing with this, the stresses of lockdown, the pain of being away from loved ones, new situations, making goals and feeling a little lost, angry, sore, sweaty, sweaty, grumbly and many other of Snow Whites Dwarves... then please do not deal with it alone. Reach out, practice some self kindness and understanding, write down your feelings, talk to your tribe... after all I know that at the moment we are living in a world that feels like we are trapped in a ball of wool, clawed at by some angry kittens, let’s support each other. After all we are stronger together and together we lift ourselves and others up as well. As my mum says ‘Don’t let the bastards grind you down.’ ❤️

[jpowssbcu]

Drawing machine commenced with artist discussions: talking about artists and researching artists whom used drawing machine to construct art. We looked into a variety of artists such as Rebecca Horn (she created many drawing machines such as a giant balloon with charcoal-pencils attached to the outside which would then draw onto the walls as the user would move around inside the balloon). Rebecca also created a drawing machine which included the user to wear a helmet (strapped around the head) with pencil attachments to it. Click the link to see the YouTube video: Rebecca Horn Performance II – YouTube 

We then looked into the idea generating strategies such as selecting keywords: ‘Drawing’ and ‘Machine’ writing down words that relate to each one of these keywords. We also brain stormed propositions from Drawing Machine and came up with many ideas such as, ‘Performance: Orchestra and tools of the trade’ and simple ideas such as ‘filling water balloons with paint; gravity-based machines and mirrors and reflections.’ We also developed a few of these ideas by extending on them exploring methods to achieve additions such as adding restrictive wear, extending limbs and asking what if questions to try to gather new interests/ideas.

We settled with Tools of The Trade. Evolving this idea further by creating lists and adding additional ideas to it. We wrote a list of tools and started to draw some tools which we thought could be interesting and could add some interesting features in terms of mark making. Items such as drills and a jackhammer were what first came to mind which we then started to discuss how we could get them to operate. 

Reminding each other of new what if questions and jotting them down, we finally came up with a what if question that suited the team’s work. 

‘What if an Art degree was taken as serious as Industrial Degrees?’

A drill could be manipulated quite well by taking advantage of its rotating facility. Adding a 3-way function or a 4-way function where 1 extended body could be holding a brush, the other a pencil, a sponge and the other filled with something. We started to sketch this idea out and then discussing our ideas and sharing the ideas between our group. We also took advantage of creating a group chat to help with planning/idea generating when we were at home or unable to make it into the studio at the same time as the other group members.

We then started to make prototypes of our ideas. I made a prototype of a jackhammer and put it to the test. I wasn’t completely satisfied with the prototype, so I thought of ways that I could make this more interesting. So, I added a restrictive band to add more effort into the mark makings when I push the jackhammer down towards the floor. I felt that this would have an effective/serendipitous way of making different marks on the drawing surface when we decided to film our process of the Drawing Machine. I used duct tape all around my Drawing Machine to hold the shape and to allow people to see the design clearly. This also added strength to the machine when testing.

The idea of creating a mood board/collage of our ideas was a great way to boost inspiration. We wanted to produce something that is a performance rather than a documentary type of product something that has inspiration from current/past videography. We research many works that used tools/’Drawing Machine’ in video performance. Benny Bennasi - Satisfaction Foxes - Let go for tonight

After thoroughly planning our work, putting methods into place and discussing what our plan/outcome was, it was time to put together our Drawing Machines. I used the workshop, CAD/CAM and Laser Design. I drew out my idea as a rough sketch in my sketchbook with measurements. The design was then drawn onto Adobe illustration and transferred to a different software, ‘Rhino’. I then drew the drawing on Rhino and turned it into a 3D drawing with the help of the Laser cutting Technician. The drawing was then transferred over to the Laser cutter and the process then began onto MDF wood. 

I then painted all the individual pieces of MDF wood cuttings with white acrylic paint, but these needed many layers as I found that MDF is very thirsty and like to draw in all the moisture from the paint. I then started to fix these pieces together with the glue gun which was a fiddly situation. During this process, I realised that I needed to find out how to get the handles and the hammer attached to this build. So, I used my PVC piping and made some simple cuts in the Wood Workshop. I used a 3-way attachment elbow to hold them all together. I hot glued them securely so that they wouldn’t fall out of the elbow. I then fixed them into position (inside the machine) and continued to hot glue the machine together.

I felt that the drawing machine would be too fragile if I just hot glued the sides, so I made the decision to hot glued the seams like you would if you were sealing with silicone. This added to security and kept a firm body to the product.

The team then started to collect together resources for the project. Creating additional collages and collaged timeframes, but we felt that we didn’t want to create a complete timeframe as we wouldn’t completely follow it and the video would look better with organic ideas rather than a structured idea. 

The first shot we filled was the Wrecking Ball colliding with the wall, covered in paint. It was very successful and created some beautiful marks, textures and weights within the surfaces of our space. 

We progressed to filming and photographing each section of the set up. I also was taking some photos/videos from my phone to capture some interesting shots. Creating a Gif of the saw was a nice touch and also close ups if the drawings. Each drawing we made with the Drawing Machine was simply beautiful and would look amazing as a drawing on its own; an installation or even a collaborative product. I love the contrasting marks the machines left behind each press and movement. I particularly like how the drill made nice smooth, curved and opaque marks and how the paint filled tube made a thick splatter across the wall, producing a new weight to the drawing. Once recorded and the video was slowed, it was amazing to see the paint particles move through the air onto surfaces where they came into contact with to create interesting markings.

Unfortunately, I didn’t like the final results of the saw. I felt it could be developed to a further level where it could have extra properties such as: restrictions, drawing outcomes and the size of the saw, could it have been made bigger or heavier? However, I do love the idea of replacing a blade with brushes which still has the traditional painting influences.

I also wish that I developed my jackhammer by adding a section to my design where paint will dispense when the design was pushed down, a longer distance between the base to give clear significance of a jackhammer. I think being more rigorous with the designs would also help to improve either the machine performance or the quality of print making the machines make: Suspension (making the movement of each press smoother which could possibly mean smoother markings or rougher depending how the suspension was made) and Pressure (increasing pressure or reducing pressure to change/play around with opacity).

Filming time:

Following the video plan, we started to organise the set up and where we needed to stand during filming time and what space each of us needed. After practising what we wanted to shoot (without paint) we began with the filming. We were overwhelmed with how well the tools were working; trying to control our excitement as the paint covered wrecking ball collides with the wall and the beautiful patterns every other tool was making. We didn’t expect the results to be this way. The paints we selected had a beautiful juxtaposition to the white drawing surfaces, allowing the drawing to stand out vividly.

Documenting each scene was a great strategy because we were able to see how interesting the drawings are now that they’re starting to develop into one giant collaborative drawing.

Post filming, we took the footage to the Lensed Based media suite to begin with editing. Although we had attended the induction for this workshop, the group still found it daunting. We decided to not do the obvious and to just begin editing so we could find our own way around the software (Adobe Premier) we were using to edit and produce our film. Being mindful of the scene transition editor, we used a selection to introduce and end each scene in the footage was a great way to make the footage to appear finalised and professional. Each step we made in progress for the video, we had to deeply consider the placements of each clip and any photos we wanted to add as this would determine the quality of the video. As soon as the music was added to the footage, everything just started to fall into place and began to run smoothly. Day 2 of video editing, it was decided that added credits then a ‘slug’ (a blank space between 2 scenes) would be an effective way to make the audience think that the show has finished, but when the ‘bloopers’ start playing, the become excited to see more. Adding the bloopers was fun, but we also had to consider the placement and the correct music. Using the music from the music video that inspired the video was a practical way to significantly link artist work to our work in a less obvious way. It finally began to feel rewarding.

In conclusion, I’m exhilarated of the final outcome of the video as it broadcasts the drawing machines by perfectly exhibiting the drawings the machines create. Working with the use of highbrow and lowbrow was a fun way to make the project fit accordingly with potential audiences and sharing amusement. Presenting our film to the class was exciting. Everyone collected chairs together in front of the big screen with snacks ready for teams to share what they have made. When it was time to stage our video, the combination of tension and excitement was the current experiences for our team members. As soon as the video started to play, I could see how well the video engaged every individual in class. After the title displayed on the screen, the giggles started to begin. The relief. Receiving positive feedback by class members and lectures, it made the group so fulfilled and eager to create more videos! I will be taking skills that I acquired from this project into every future project.

Now here’s the link to ‘Creative Construction’, enjoy.