#i was cleaning up my folders and found some old stuff

[mercymaker]

Like I lived my whole life before the first light...

[milkoomi]

₊˚⊹ ᰔ a guide to preparing for a new semester ᝰ.ᐟ

a lot of us have either started the spring semester or preparing for the spring semester! i actually start my new semester next week, AH! with that, i wanted to share a few helpful tips that help me prepare for a new semester!

let’s begin !!

ᝰ.ᐟ read the syllabus

this is especially important for college/university students! i know there are some college professors that do go over the syllabus on the first day, but most times you’re kind of on your own when it comes to the syllabus, so make sure you go over it at least one week before classes start!

this is also especially important if you’re taking online classes! i’ve taken a few online classes that didn’t have some sort of video chat call with the professor and the rest of my classmates, so if you have any classes like that then be sure to go over the syllabus!

make note of important dates! usually that last page is an entire semester overview of the class and it includes assignment deadlines, exam dates, and days that we’re off from school! so be sure to highlight those important dates or write them in your calendar/planner!

highlight contact information! professors do a great job of listing their contact info, so highlight that information or write it down somewhere where you won’t forget! or even add their info in your contact list!

ᝰ.ᐟ go over course modules

again, this is super important for college/university students! (but i do believe high school students work with something similar!) most times a school will use some sort of online platform that organizes all of your classes and each class will have an organized module created by your professor/instructor/teacher, so it’s important to click through each module before the semester begins so that you can get a clear idea and vision of what your semester will look like! it’ll also help too to get yourself familiarized with navigating the modules!

ᝰ.ᐟ gather all of your basic school supplies

having, at the very least, the basic supplies will help kickstart your semester feeling prepared! anything that you feel that might be essential for the semester should be added to your little list of things you need!

essential supply list:

planner, notebook(s), pens/pencils, folders/binders

digital supply list:

fresh screen protector, tablet pen tips (especially if you have an apple pencil or something similar, which is what i have! i found it on amazon & it works great!), & new tablet casing (optional of course)

ᝰ.ᐟ clean up

i mean this in every sense! clean up your study space, clean out your folders of old papers/worksheets/etc., reorganize your binders/folders, and clean out your mind of any stress that might be weighing you down!

study space:

whether it’s your room or an office, tidy up in there! make your space feel brand new and fresh as you start a new semester! you can even reorganize or redecorate your area to give it a new and clean look!

school supplies:

if you’re like me, you probably haven’t touched your school stuff since winter break started, so be sure to go through your folders and reorganize or just simply clean out any papers that still might be in your folders! some papers you might want to keep, but some can be completely tossed away!

your mind:

as with any aspect of your life, it’s important to practice self care! take time to journal and write down any thoughts that might be lingering in your mind, release all your stress onto paper! or even just making sure you’re getting yourself back on a good sleep schedule and getting an ample amount of rest before the semester starts. self care is vital!

ᝰ.ᐟ final notes

a new semester can be really daunting, but preparing yourself can help to relieve any stress! a new semester can be so exciting when you think of it as a completely fresh start! if you didn’t do so well last semester, then you can prepare yourself for this next one to be even better! but, i’ll reiterate this, be sure to take care of yourself. you can’t do your best when you aren’t at your best! so remember to treat yourself with kindness and remind yourself that you are capable of making it through another semester! you can do it!

with lots of love, juno 🌷

[kekaki-cupcakes]

Yay fellow aroace!

I love cute moments too! Yours are so adorable as well!

So uhm… maybe a little sis annabeth being protected / being taken care of by her older cool sis?

I loved the punk Jason concept as well so maybe something similar? Thank you so much if you do this!

And yeah! Byeee

🖤🩶🤍💚

Thanks so much for this ask even though it's been sitting in my inbox for centuries lol I have so many asks and little motivation but this one was so close to done, that's why the endings a little rushed <3

Bite me, bitch boy--- Annabeth Chase/Protective older sister!reader

»»————-　★　————-««

-Annabeth got to camp when she was seven. She became the cabin counselor at nine. 

-Who in their right mind let a literal baby be in charge of eight bossy, snarky, far too intelligent and prideful demigods? Who said, ‘you know what this cabin needs? A child to run it!’

-It was safe to say that when you got to camp at fifteen years old and soon after got shoved into a wooden cabin full of unorganized folders and sheets of paper and books, with three toothbrushes [eight kids???] and a mini fridge with literally nothing in it, you had something to say.

-Specifically to Chiron, who reassured you that you could of course speak with the cabin counselor about how the children of Athena were living, once she got back from her quest.

-Oh, so maybe there was a proper leader here, they were just away. That made sense, they’d be smart, and obviously knew what they were doing. That shut you up for a few days, and put up with the fact there were no lights out and your little brother hadn’t showered in two weeks. 

-Then a scrawny, angry at the world, little girl came back with swinging braids and far too sharp a knife for a twelve year old, carting behind her a traumatized school boy and a very hungry goat.  

-Your expectations took a dip.

-After your new little sister was tucked into bed and you finally figured out how to threaten your siblings into shutting their books and going to sleep [Spiders, spiders were the key.], you marched straight back to Chiron and demanded a union.

-You didn’t get one. 

-So instead you did some spring cleaning. While your siblings were out showing off their wits and picking strawberries, you stacked up every piece of paper in the cabin and threw out all the random things from three years ago, organizing everything away neatly into the bookshelves and filing cabinets no one had thought to use yet. A deep clean began, and you probably held up the laundry near the infirmary for a good four hours. 

-You found an old cork board in the stables that Butch [he was nice, even if he only talked about Pegasi and a comic called Heartstopper] let you take, and pinned up everyone schedules on it, instead of where they had been washi taped to the bathroom mirror. One of your brother's school reports appeared in the mini fridge as well, so that got pinned up too. 

-Said mini fridge was filled with water and strawberries that Malcom brought back, along with mud that got tracked through the fluffy rug you’d exchanged with Silena for the third volume of Butch’s comic. 

-Annabeth glared at you with those stormy eyes that everyone in the cabin shared. 

-Apparently, as the head counselor of the Athena cabin, she was supposed to be the one doing all the things you’d done, and she did not appreciate your disrespect for the rules or her position.

-Once she found the wafer biscuits in the minifridge you’d grabbed from the camp store after Katie got one of the old ipods you’d brought with you to camp after finding out about the wifi rule, she calmed down a little.

»»————-　★　————-««

-Annabeth was fuming.

-How dare you just… come into her cabin and take over?

-How come all her other siblings didn’t seem to mind that you had this one really cool tattoo on your thigh and seemed to be allowed to just wander into the camp store and take stuff, because apparently Katie owed you something and the Athena cabin got free wafers?

-And somehow Clarrise decided not to dunk your head in the toilet on your first day [Percy was unhappy about that as well, but seaweed belonged in water anyway. He didn’t like that comment either.] because something about Silena and hearts stopping? 

-Annabeth was supposed to be in charge, and now you were going to the camp counselor meeting instead and forcing Annabeth to lay in bed all day with a box of tissues because a temperature of forty degrees wasn’t normal. You even brought back a bag of those cheetos that the Stolls always dug up for meetings for her. 

-It sucked.

-So she decided to let some of her anger out in the form of beheading each and every dummy propped up in the arena. 

-Stuffing was scattered around on the sandy floor and Annabeth could feel beads of sweat on her dark skin. Her knife was flecked with the blood that beaded on her palm after clenching her knife too tightly for too long.

-A few Iris kids were casting rainbow mists that faded into droplets of poison on the other side of the arena, and she was careful to avoid them as she whipped around and got one of the dummies in the back of the neck, which would kill any normal person not sewn together by a bored teenager.

-Of course the sawdust billowing up wasn’t helping her stuffy nose or unfocused eyes because actually that dummy’s torso looked like a great pillow but then she was tearing out its insides because she wasn’t sick. 

-She refused to let you be all cool and right and big sister-y because Annabeth was in charge, she didn’t need a big sister to make her hot chocolate before bed when she had to finish a model for Hecate's new potion shop on Olympus and take spiders out of the bathroom because somehow you didn’t find then as absolutely terrifying as the rest of them did.

-The braid that hit her cheek felt like a spider leg in that moment and Annabeth fell back with a yelp, pulling all her hair behind her shoulders and breathing hard, her glinting knife near her feet.

-It was shiny and metallic and there were spider legs and then she was running, sprinting and puffing and following that arachnid-like robot from Hephaestus through the Labyrinth before they all lost it and got stuck walking in circles and circles and circles with spider legs crawling over her skin that were in her lungs-

-Shit. 

-Deep breaths, that was all she needed to do. Annabeth pushed a fist to her chest and rolled her shoulders back, trying to blink away the image of the metallic spider crawling over her shoe.

-There was a cackle of laughter and she righted herself. She wasn’t sick. She wasn’t scared. And she was not going to be laughed at. 

-She turned but her braids were still touching her and they were crawling over her and she couldn’t breathe because the spiders were on her but she wasn’t scared and she would not be laughed at and her knife fell out of her hand and-

-”If you don’t leave right now, I’m rostering you all on for clean up duty in the kitchens tonight, and I’m telling Butch it was you guys who let Olive and Clover out onto the lava wall!” 

-”He won’t believe you, and you can’t boss us around, newbie!” Someone yelled, and Annabeth pulled all of her hair back, a gray streak in the corner of her was tucked behind her ear. She felt like throwing up when the heat washed over her skin, prickly as a cactus. 

-”Bite me, bitch boy!” You snapped, and there was a clanging of metal and then a yelp.

-Silence filled the arena as Iris kids shuffled out, but Annabeth lost track of them a moment later because there was four of them and then eight and then twelve and then it hurt her head too much to count and suddenly there was two of you marching up,a shiny spear speckled with poison rainbow droplets. 

-You dropped the spear and Annabeth couldn’t see much else because everything was grainy and full of static and the heat on her dark skin was crawling with spiders and itchiness.

-Annabeth stepped forwards, the ground coming a lot closer to her face than she planned. 

-She gulped down a cry of pain and squinted up at you, then tried to tell you to fuck off, because she wasn’t sick. It only came out as a pathetic mumble, and she lay limp, glaring up at you foggily.

-You smiled, and Annabeth tried to take it patronizingly so she could continue hating you. But it wasn’t patronizing, even when you spoke softly, “Come on, let’s get you back in bed.”

-Annabeth huffed as she was carried out, “Mnuhsick.”

-“Percy and that funny goat boy are waiting.” Your smile was patronizing then. “They brought Hidden Figures and Legally Blonde.” 

-“Msick.”

-“That’s what I thought.” 

»»————-　★　————-««

[blubberquark]

Are Game Blogs Uniquely Lost?

All this started with my looking for the old devlog of Storyteller. I know at some point it was linked from the blogroll on the Braid devlog. Then I tried to look at on old devlog of another game that is still available. The domain for Storyteller is still active. The devblog is gone.

I tried an old bookmark from an old PC (5 PCs ago, I think). It was a web site linked to pixel art and programming tutorials. Instead of linking to the pages directly, some links link led to a twitter threads by authors that collected their work posted on different sites. Some twitter threads are gone because the users were were suspended, or had deleted their accounts voluntarily. Others had deleted old tweets. There was no archive. I have often seen links accompanied by "Here's a thread where $AUTHOR lists all his writing on $TOPIC". I wonder if the sites are still there, and only the tweets are gone.

A lot of "games studies" around 2010 happened on blogs, not in journals. Games studies was online-first, HTML-first, with trackbacks, tags, RSS and comment sections. The work that was published in PDF form in journals and conference proceedings is still there. The blogs are gone. The comment sections are gone. Kill screen daily is gone.

I followed a link from critical-distance.com to a blog post. That blog is gone. The domain is for sale. In the Wayback Machine, I found the link. It pointed to the comment section of another blog. The other blog has removed its comment sections and excluded itself from the Wayback Machine.

I wonder if games stuff is uniquely lost. Many links to game reviews at big sites lead to "page not found", but when I search the game's name, I can find the review from back in 2004. The content is still there, the content management systems have been changed multiple times.

At least my favourite tumblr about game design has been saved in the Wayback Machine: Game Design Tips.

To make my point I could list more sites, more links, 404 but archived, or completely lost, but when I look at small sites, personal sites, blogs, or even forums, I wonder if this is just confirmation bias. There must be all this other content, all these other blogs and personal sites. I don't know about tutorials for knitting, travel blogs, stamp collecting, or recipe blogs. I usually save a print version of recipes to my Download folder.

Another big community is fan fiction. They are like modding, but for books, I think. I don't know if a lot of fan fiction is lost to bit rot and link rot either. What is on AO3 will probably endure, but a lot might have gone missing when communities fandom moved from livejournal to tumblr to twitter, or when blogs moved from Wordpress to Medium to Substack.

I have identified some risk factors:

Personal home pages made from static HTML can stay up for while if the owner meticulously catalogues and links to all their writing on other sites, and if the site covers a variety of interests and topics.

Personal blogs or content management systems are likely to lose content in a software upgrade or migration to a different host.

Writing is more likely to me lost when it's for-pay writing for a smaller for-profit outlet.

A cause for sudden "mass extinction" of content is the move between social networks, or the death of a whole platform. Links to MySpace, Google+, Diaspora, and LiveJournal give me mostly or entirely 404 pages.

In the gaming space, career changes or business closures often mean old content gets deleted. If an indie game is wildly successful, the intellectual property might ge acquired. If it flops, the domain will lapse. When development is finished, maybe the devlog is deleted. When somebody reviews games at first on Steam, then on a blog, and then for a big gaming mag, the Steam reviews might stay up, but the personal site is much more likely to get cleaned up. The same goes for blogging in general, and academia. The most stable kind of content is after hours hobbyist writing by somebody who has a stable and high-paying job outside of media, academia, or journalism.

The biggest risk factor for targeted deletion is controversy. Controversial, highly-discussed and disseminated posts are more likely to be deleted than purely informative ones, and their deletion is more likely to be noticed. If somebody starts a discussion, and then later there are hundreds of links all pointing back to the start, the deletion will hurt more and be more noticeable. The most at-risk posts are those that are supposed to be controversial within a small group, but go viral outside it, or the posts that are controversial within a small group, but then the author says something about politics that draws the attention of the Internet at large to their other writings.

The second biggest risk factor for deletion is probably usefulness combined with hosting costs. This could also be the streetlight effect at work, like in the paragraph above, but the more traffic something gets, the higher the hosting costs. Certain types of content are either hard to monetise, and cost a lot of money, or they can be monetised, so the free version is deliberately deleted.

The more tech-savvy users are, the more likely they are to link between different sites, abandon a blogging platform or social network for the next thing, try to consolidate their writings by deleting their old stuff and setting up their own site, only to let the domain lapse. The more tech-savvy users are, the more likely they are to mess with the HTML of their templates or try out different blogging software.

If content is spread between multiple sites, or if links link to social network posts that link to blog post with a comment that links to a reddit comment that links to a geocities page, any link could break. If content is consolidated in a forum, maybe Archive team could save all of it with some advance notice.

All this could mean that indie games/game design theory/pixel art resources are uniquely lost, and games studies/theory of games criticism/literary criticism applied to games are especially affected by link rot. The semi-professional, semi-hobbyist indie dev, the writer straddling the line between academic and reviewer, they seem the most affected. Artists who start out just doodling and posting their work, who then get hired to work on a game, their posts are deleted. GameFAQs stay online, Steam reviews stay online, but dev logs, forums and blog comment sections are lost.

Or maybe it's only confirmation bias. If I was into restoring old cars, or knitting, or collecting stamps, or any other thing I'd think that particular community is uniquely affected by link rot, and I'd have the bookmarks to prove it.

Figuring this out is important if we want to make predictions about the future of the small web, and about the viability of different efforts to get more people to contribute. We can't figure it out now, because we can't measure the ground truth of web sites that are already gone. Right now, the small web is mostly about the small web, not about stamp collecting or knitting. If we really manage to revitalise the small web, will it be like the small web of today except bigger, the web-1.0 of old, or will certain topics and communities be lost again?

[anogete]

Hi. Update of random shit in case anyone cares.

The scary test I was stressed over in the fall when I was posting my last fic? It was the CFP (Certified Financial Planner) exam. Yes, I passed it. The designation requires a bachelor's degree, so I had to go back to school to finish my last 10 classes. Then I had to take 7 more classes that are pre-reqs for the exam. Then I spent probably 700 hours attempting to cram everything you could think of related to personal finance (my god, there is a metric shit ton) into my head. The designation also requires 5,000 hours of experience in the planning field (which I thankfully already had). By the time I passed the test, I was no longer proud of the accomplishment, just relieved to have it behind me.

Work was intensely busy in November and December. I got little reading and no writing done.

I have a WIP featuring the Darcy/Rumlow pairing that has been languishing on my computer since 2020. To be honest, I've mosty forgotten what the conflict driving the plot was going to be. I think I was trying to tie it into the events of Wandavision. Took place after the show and had Monica Rambeau and Darcy kinda sorta working together and trying to figure out what, if anything, crossing the barrier that Wanda had thrown up did to them. Of course, Rumlow is alive and scarred and back with the good guys. And also really annoyed that his recent gunshot wound stuck him on desk duty watching the nerds complete their physicals as part of employee onboarding. Darcy doesn't want to have gym class with Rumlow, and Rumlow doesn't want to be there either but he's also kinda into the sassy brunette who tried to sweet talk him into passing her without making her run a mile. In the chapter or two I did write, the banter between Darcy and Rumlow was so fun, so I'd love to go back to it and try to move it along.

I got sucked into reading Draco/Hermione fanfic recently. Blame those damn Snow edits from the latest Hunger Games movie. Guys, I have never read those books or seen the movies, but blonde Tom Blyth is looking like the fanfic Draco of my dreams. How dare. This rabbit hole led to me deciding I needed to write a Dramione piece. It's maybe 6 pages and has gone nowhere even though I have a vague idea of the plot. My muse is struggling.

I found my old folder of all the fic I wrote in the past 20 years. There are still a couple hockey fics I haven't posted to AO3. There are also Anita Blake fics (I was a hardcore Anita/Edward girlie) and Harry Potter fics (don't cancel me but I used to write Snape/Hermione; NO student/teacher stuff though). I think I have an old Doctor Who fic featuring Nine/Rose (yes, I'm a Nine girlie). And a very old Forgotten Realms fic that paired Catti-Brie up with Jarlaxle. Look, I don't know. It was ages ago. With the exception of the hockey fics, I do not think any of these are of the same quality I've posted on AO3, but I've been toying with the idea of trying to clean them up and posting them so more of my work is archived together instead of spread over various fan sites. Does anyone have any interest at all in reading this shit? Like, at all?

I decided 2024 is going to be my book binding era. I bound isthisselfcare's Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love a couple weeks ago. I did all the typesetting with the help of some macros. Printed it, folded the signatures (the booklets that comprise the book), sewed them together with waxed linen thread, glued the text block together with some mull, and used chip board and book cloth to make the case. It feels and looks like a book, y'all! I could do a better job with lining the signatures up when punching the holes for sewing and with the measurements on the case, but overall I am pretty proud of it. If anyone is interested, I can link a nice tutorial series on TT and/or post progress pictures I took during my book binding experiment. I have to say, it's exciting to have the ability to put my fav fanfics on my physical bookshelf.

[ejzah]

A/N: A little snapshot into the Densi household a few years down the line.

***

It’s A Balancing Act

“Mom, I can’t find my shoes.”

“They’re under the couch.”

What about my backpack?”

“I thought you were going to take care of that last night, Sophia,” Kensi said, resting her hands on her hips as Sophia tucked her chin impishly.

“I forgot,” she muttered. “Sorry, mommy.”

“It’s ok, I got our backpacks,” Caleb announced, arriving in the living room with his and Sophia’s backpacks and lunch bags. Sighing, Kensi smiled at him, reminding herself to be patient.

“Thank you, sweetheart. Next time let your sister do it though, ok?” she said.

“Ok.” Caleb shrugged, not bothered in the least.

“Can we go eat breakfast?” Sophia asked, pulling a folder with her name on the front from her backpack.

“Check with daddy.”

They ran off, and Kensi shook her head. At six years old, they shared a mix of both her and Deeks’ traits. Unfortunately, Sophia seemed to have picked up Kensi’s messiness and taken it a step further with a complete lack of organization while Caleb actually enjoyed cleaning, frequently straightening up after the messier members of the house. Shaking her head, Kensi bent down, fishing Sophia’s shoes out from under the couch.

From there, she headed into the kitchen; the twins were sitting at the table playing some game their silverware, and Deeks at the counter by the stove, cutting up fruit. She watched Sophia score a point in the game they had probably invented just moments ago before moving across the room.

Wrapping her arms around Deeks’ waist, she kissed his neck and sighed.

“I found a moldy apple and half a snickers in one of her cleats yesterday,” she muttered into his neck. Deeks chuckled, turning enough to catch her eye. “Don’t say it.”

“I said absolutely nothing,” he insisted, and Kensi lowered her eyes at him, though she didn’t loosen her hold. “She does have your taste in food though.”

“Shut up.” She squeezed his hip affectionately.

Pausing in the middle of slicing a strawberry, Deeks glanced over at the twins. Caleb was now helping Sophia write something on a scrap of paper while she narrated. He smiled softly, his love shining through as he watched.

“And don’t forget the—”

“—ice cream,” Caleb filled in with a nod.

“Is it odd that I find the abandoned food, misplaced clothes, and papers just a little endearing?” Deeks asked.

“You never did with me,” Kensi pointed out, just slightly offended.

“Maybe I do now. She’ll figure it out eventually, and in the meantime, it’s a little piece of you.” They both watched Sophia take the recently written note and roughly stuff it into her pocket, likely to be forgotten until the next time those pants were washed. “But we should probably work on the organization just a tiny bit.”

“Probably.”

Deeks finished slicing the strawberries, placing them next to waffles and yogurt already plated up. While he carried them over to the table, Sophia grabbed a couple of glasses of milk.

“Here, Caleb,” Sophia said, automatically offering the one with a fish print on the surface, which happened to be his favorite.

“They’re good kids,” Deeks murmured, against her cheek.

“Yeah, they are,” she agreed.

[mybuttonfelloff]

Okok so we all know the Sims 3 is like, not super popular and is also notoriously buggy BUT on the off chance anyone is like me and loves it, i have some tips that have greatly helped my game run better. I also am including links to any specific creators or sites I recommend. Tips under the cut bc it's a long post, but I tried to be thorough! You will need to understand like, basic reading comprehension and basic computer-y stuff (downloading files, unpacking files, dragging and dropping into folders, editing the occasional file text) but most stuff I link to have tutorials for adding mods into the game and whatnot.

I really hope this helps people like me who love TS3! but know the game is.... outdated for basically all computers. These are all things ive learned over the past couple years, so I hope this can be a helpful resource for anyone wanting to play TS3.

Number one will probably be using this tutorial to make the game recognize your current computer specs. Because the game is, yknow, old, it wont recognize newer drivers and whatnot. This tutorial will allow the game to actually recognize them and therefore run better https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=26753.0

Nraas will be your best friend for managing things in-game. It's similar to MCCC for the sims 4 but you completely customize which like, modules you use. I highly highly recommend specifically Story Progression and Master Controller https://www.nraas.net/community/home

LazyDuchess is a goddess and I highly Highly recommend her Smooth Patch mod. It makes the game run so much better. Also she has so many other mods that make things like CAS load faster plus a search function for Build/Buy https://www.patreon.com/lazyduchess/posts

ModTheSims is a great resource for Sims 3 Mods as well, definitely recommend making an account and perusing their sims 3 mods https://modthesims.info/

Speaking of ModTheSims, I highly recommend Regul Save Cleaner to... clean up the extra data in your saves https://modthesims.info/download.php?t=652440

Also on ModTheSims theres an excellent bug fixing mod from Simler90, it touches on a bunch of like longtime bugs that havent been fixed (like the firefighter career being bugged) https://modthesims.info/download.php?t=659969

Make sure that before playing or after adding any new mods, delete the files: caspartcache.package, compositorcache.package, scriptcache.package, simcompositorcache.package, and socialcache.package. If not, the game WILL load slowly and/or crash. These files are found in Documents\ElectronicArts\The Sims 3. Not sure about Steam bc I use the EA app, but I assume its a similar path.

Save every half hour or so to prevent crashes killing too much progress. And don't play for longer than an hour per initial load (like, play for an hour, save, quit and load the game again). I find it helps the game run smoother when you dont play in 3 hour stretches.

make a backup saves folder for your saves. Im not sure why, but i found that keeping only one save in the actual saves helps it loads faster and smoother.

Also when saving your game, ALWAYS use Save As. If you Save As, you wont have to worry about accidentally corrupting your saves, which happens a lot

Also, when you're about to save, move the save you loaded into your backup saves folder BEFORE saving. I find it crashes/corrupts way less if its not trying to compete with the other save

also keep your sims personal inventory fairly empty (like 10 items max) to prevent a known bug from occurring when saving. Use a storage box or something to store collectibles like gems, plants, etc.

WHEN IN CAS WAIT UNTIL THE LITTLE FLOWER LOOKING ICON IS BLUE TO SCROLL THROUGH THE CATEGORY. When it turns blue, all the items have properly loaded, so it wont lag nearly as much.

Prev point applies to build/buy, wait for the category to load before messing with things. You'll save yourself a lot of stress

Dont use 4 speed, i find it just lags and stops progressing time. I use 2 or 3 max, even when sleeping

In BuyDebug you can buy these invisible lights that make the lighting much much better in game. Just have an actual light, like a lamp or outdoor light, to be able to change brightness and color in Live mode. Bc.... Its invisible so non-clickable

[rosekasa]

Hello! I am a beginner artist and I love ur art!! Super pretty and the colors are very tasty. Do you have some tips? I'd love to see your art process!

HELLO ANON!! first of all i am very honoured that u would ask me this because 90% of the time i feel like i have no idea what i am doing and like im still a beginner artist myself DSDSJDF. i would love to share some stuff i learnt and some stuff about my process (regardless of how messy it is sdfhsj)

(final piece)

here's an old example of my process i found! while the steps sometimes look different for other pieces, i feel like this is a good demonstration of how the basic structure looks.

1. the sketch - this is where i'm mainly figuring out how i want the piece to look. i was redrawing a screenshot for this piece so it looks a LOT neater than what a lot of my other sketches look like, for example, here's the process of me figuring out my recent drawing of haise:

(final piece)

in the first two steps, i was mainly working with showing myself what the piece was going to be. the last one was where i used references/technical knowledge to try and show whoever will be looking at it what the piece was

2. cleaning up the sketch + base colours. these two usually occur simultaneously because i will get bored cleaning up the sketch midway through and want to start adding colour LMAO. on a more practical note, sometimes putting down the base colours and having a better idea of what the finished product will look like might make it easier to refine things.

a note: cleaning up for me doesn't mean doing lineart. it mostly means erasing any overly messy lines on the sketch and redrawing small parts to make it look tidier where needed. i often leave it 'messy' at this stage, too. like here:

(final piece)

3. light/shadow. this is my FAVOURITE part because it's where the piece starts pulling together. the method i used in the current piece was putting a multiply layer over the colours folder and filling in where light would be obstructed. after that, i used a luminosity layer to put in some bright sunlight. marc brunet has a great way of explaining it by advising to pretend that the light is the camera and you're behind the lens. this is such a good way to block in average light/shadow values! sometimes this looks a bit crazy because everything is still so messy but that is why we have...

4. rendering. this is where i fit all the remaining pieces of the puzzle together. i'll refine the colours a bit more -- e.g. colouring in the eyes, -- and fiddle a bit with the shadows to add some more variation to the hues/value. this is where i think a lot about light and shadow theory and try and make it look more realistic. marco bucci saved my LIFE with his videos about ambient occlusion and ambient light (part 1 / part 2) -- essentially, what i keep in mind the most is that if a plane in shadow is facing the sky (or is open to any other form of light that isn't the direct light source) it will contain ambient light. it is SUCH a game changer when you add it to your pieces, trust me, even if youre lazy about it. if needed i'll pull up some references to make everything look good!

5. rendering... part 2? honestly this step kind of blends with the last one as i tend to do it simultaneously. i basically clean up all the messy lines from before by painting over them! with the majority of the colours i need put down, i can just eyedrop them and paint over anything that's needed. this also comes in with the light/shadow, where, if i need a more subtle hue for either/or, i will eyedrop it and brush it in.

some further notes:

i very rarely use references during the first stages of my sketch. i think it tends to look quite stiff and unnatural if i rely too hard on the. and i personally prefer the creative room when the idea is still being conceived. references come in when i can look at what i have down on the canvas and have a fairly decent idea of what i want, including pose, composition, etc. it's essentially a first draft to guide me to where i want to go with the piece. it's when i'm done with this that i bring out references, and even then, they don't necessarily have to be the exact pose -- i'll usually get a couple of pics which show what i need to double check and keep them up as a guide. by the end of the 'sketch', i usually have a basic construction of what i need to continue, even if it's messy.

i use very soft brushes when putting down colour because it allows for more hue variation. like i said, i enjoy eyedropping and brushing in colours afterwards, so this really helps!

layer modes are ur friend! i try not to rely on them too hard during rendering because i like the freedom of painting over but they're very useful when you're blocking in your initial colours

sometimes, when i feel like i want to try something new with my art, i'll keep pieces that inspire me up in front of me. i have two of sui ishida's art books and sometimes i'll just flick to a page that oils the Art Gears in my brain and keep it open while i draw. i don't necessarily reference it, but i like having it there so i can glance over every once in a while. i don't usually make a conscious choice where i'm like "ok i want to render skin the way he does" but it's more like. my brain knows what it likes in his art and it'll try and push that part of my art in a similar direction.

honestly the best advice i have is that art is very much based on vibes. everytime i've tried to think too much about it, to do things 'correctly', to rigidly stick to art theory, my art has not come out nicely. i think the technical parts of art are important to know and understand but i also think it's important to let your knowledge come through naturally when it is needed instead of pressuring yourself to do things 'right'. tbh you probably already know that but it's something i forget a lot so maybe it serves as a helpful reminder?? sedsfhsl

ANYWAY SORRY THIS WAS SO LONG! i hope i covered what you needed and if you need anything else/want me to expand on anything feel free to drop me another ask ! <3

make sure to look after yourself and trust yourself and ENJOY!!! art is about having fun!

[snickerdoodlles]

I am obviously biased, but as someone who tagged you in the WIP game, I'd love for you to do it! I'm curious, okay? I wanna know what's scrambling around up there, if your mess is as messy as mine? So if there is any chance of me swaying you, please do it? Puppy eyes or flirtatious brow waggle or digital cookies, whichever would have the greatest effect on you?

😂❤ akjds thank you friend !! i am planning on doing the WIP game ...tonight? tomorrow? maybe today-- i was out of commission earlier this week, so im making up on missed work today, but maybe it'll make a good break as my eyes water between spreadsheets hmm 🤔😂

re messy process: i am. such a messy writer. i'm such a vibe gardener lol. you wouldn't be able to see this from my writing folder tho. look at my kp folder:

most of my fic folders look like this! organized by fandom > folders for series/multi-chapter fics and working docs in the middle. all the docs in the series folders are numbered for easy finding. i even have handy folders for posted (finished) stuff to keep the working docs/series space cleaned and a compost folder for old discarded drafts/snippets/etc. you would think this would indicate a clean approach to writing!

h a h

what's not present in this folder are my many, many phone notes full of writing snippets (or the many, many other snippets i have written in notebooks) (...or other snippets saved as starred emails in my inbox, which i do not recommend after my last email panic lol) or my DMs with friends. which, honestly, DMs with friends deserves its own asterisk, it's hands down my biggest writing vice. i actually make a point not to (or at least, only rarely) copy out story notes from my DMs because it's just. i always have so many ideas. all the time. to handle them, my approach is i will remember if it's worth remembering, and if i forget them, probably for the best anyways. until im at a point where there's a cohesive story around the idea or enough of them have bumped up into each other to make a story, who cares (at which point, i...still don't copy out the ideas. like. at all. 💦). this is absolutely infuriating to some of my friends who really like some of the ideas i chuck around, esp when i have the audacity to forget them 😂

(ideas in friends DMs is the main thing fueling my fics i'm not writing ask game actually! it's a lot more freeing to me to just be able to put the idea out there along with any individual scenes i want to write without having to actually write the whole fic. i haven't really found the best way to post the scenes to AO3 yet, but ehh, future cookie problem.)

sorry, i wound up just rambling about a lot of nothing here 😂 i'm actually feeling very pumped up to play the WIP game post now tho, clearly i need more enrichment during my breaks 😂

(so uhh. your persuasion tactics: success! ✔)

[masterwords]

rest

Summary: A virus sweeps through the Morgan-Hotchner household.

Pairing: Hotch/Morgan

Words: 2.4k

Warnings: illness, snot, fevers, meds...but soft and fluffy.

Notes: This is fluff. Just some sickfic fluff set in the Chicago semi-retirement years. How each member of the household deals with it when they get the cold that's going around. All because I wanted to write about Hotch and Clooney, old men napping together. Clooney is the goodest boy and ageless, really. I've had this in my WIP folder forever and it's one of those not getting any better or any more of a plot scenario so...I cleaned it up and now I give it to you. Making room for some new WIPs!

** The Chicago Times Masterlist **

**

The first sneeze of the season was always a benchmark.

In Spring, it let them know the pollen was on the move and that the trees were calling to the bees to do their thing. Derek would pull out the Claritin first, choosing not to even mess with the itchy eyes one moment. Hotch, on the other hand, would wait. His system was already inundated by pills of varying shapes and sizes, medications that ranged from benign to downright sinister, so a stuffy nose and some dry itchy eyes were not the end of the world.

Virginia hadn't ever treated him too badly, but he was convinced that Chicago meant him harm. Still, he persisted with a handkerchief stuffed into his pocket and saline drops for his dry eyes. He could wear his glasses now without fear of ridicule...it was almost expected of a man in his position. They may have clashed with his suit and tie, but they were the perfect accessory for his sweaters and khakis.

So, the first sneeze of Spring didn't worry him much.

The first sneeze of Autumn, however, set off the alarm bells. It was almost always Jack first with Derek hot on his heels. Hotch and Hank were sitting ducks, waiting for whatever germs the two of them brought home to fully culture inside their walls.

“Already?” Hotch asked, watching Derek rummage through the medicine cabinet for that damn box of DayQuil he knew was in there. “It's awfully early in the school year for this.”

“Tell that to my students. Jackson was puking in the trash can at football practice last night, Burkhardt was spitting loogies all over the damn field and where the fuck is my DayQuil?”

Hotch didn't even look up from the stack of papers he was grading. “Top shelf, right. Behind the contact solution.” His classes didn't start until 11, he really didn't even need to be up yet. Derek, on the other hand, should have been out the door a half hour ago and was certainly going to be late.

“It's not there.”

Hotch hummed. “Check under the sink, maybe you need to open a new package.”

Sick days were a menace at best. Everyone was grouchy, not a kind word in sight. Jack trudged around the house with kleenex shoved up his nose like walrus tusks and insisted on staying home while simultaneously refusing to actually rest. A nap was out of the question, which was a cause for more than one argument when Hotch demanded to know why he wouldn't nap when he was sick but he was nearly impossible to get out of bed in the mornings. Tensions ran high. To top it all off, his kleenex never quite seemed to make it to a trash can and Hotch found himself walking around picking up wads of the stuff from every surface of the whole house, scarcely wanting to imagine the state of the kid's room. That task he made Jack deal with on his own. He had his limits.

Derek was terrible at being sick. The minute he had a sniffle, he was grouchy. Angry at his body's betrayal. “Why do I workout so much, huh? Drinkin' those nasty green smoothies every damn day and for what? Huh?” Punctuate that with a cough or a sneeze and he was a mess. Hotch would only find it in him to smile, to press the back of his hand to Derek's fevered forehead and tell him to sleep it off.

“You always fight it off faster when you sleep,” Hotch said, guiding him toward the bed. “Take the day off.”

“I can't.” Cough, cough, wheeze. “We've got varsity tryouts today. I got some real boneheads thinkin' they're gonna make it and that damn assistant coach they gave me this year is a bleeding heart.” Sneeze. “He'll tell 'em all they got the job just to avoid the talk.”

Hotch had to smile at that. Derek had been complaining about his assistant coach since the summer, but he was a nepotism hire so Hotch understood and there wasn't anything he could do short of taking on twice the work himself so he could save himself the trouble on the back end. Unfortunately that meant going to work sick, pumping himself full of Sudafed and DayQuil at what he deemed to be safe intervals though Hotch had other opinions on the matter.

“Go lie down, I'll make you some tea. At least go in late. Take a half day.”

Thoughtfully, Derek considered the option. He was already late. Tryouts weren't until 4 anyway. “Yeah. Okay. Yeah...good idea.” He slept all day, right on through the tryouts, and didn't have enough energy to be upset about that when he finally did wake. Hotch stuffed him full of tea with honey, vitamins, extra water and a few more kisses right to the top of his head before leaving him to sleep.

He slept on the couch that night, his final attempt to stave off the germs. Clooney slept behind his knees, curled up in a ball there.

It only took a few days before Derek and Jack were on the mend, were carrying around the last of the dry coughs and stuffy sinuses. They would wake up in the morning and hack hack hack, then be fine by the time their showers were over.

Being the newest kid on the block, it only took a few days to take Hank the Tank down entirely. After that, Hotch knew it was only a matter of time before he followed suit. His immune system would fight the longest and crash the hardest. If you looked at most of the scattered pill bottles in their medicine cabinet, you would see plenty that read with simple, off-putting language like do not consume with alcohol, or may cause drowsiness, but then you would stumble on that token few that claimed that they might make it harder to fight off infections. He did a damn good job of not getting them in the first place, at least until now...until Hank. But he couldn't resist the little guy and his weepy eyes and snotty nose, his fevered skin and damp curls. Hank would hold his arms out and beg to be held by Hotch and Hotch alone, and what could he do but say yes and scoop him up? How do you tell a squishy little two-year-old no when all they want is a hug (and to rub their snot all over you)?

“You're toast,” Derek muttered, breezing through the room to try and find his slacks. The nice ones. He had meetings all morning with athletic scouts, setting up dates and times for them to come and check out his players. “You know that right?”

Hotch nodded and pressed his cheek into Hank's curls, closing his eyes. He was well aware that he was absolutely in for it. Didn't stop him from kissing Hank's forehead and humming little songs to him while the kid drooled all over his t-shirt.

Waking at 2am with the chills wasn't exactly out of place, except when he was buried beneath three blankets already. He pushed further beneath the covers and huddled there, basking in Derek's warmth, until he fell back asleep.

Waking at 7am dizzy, unable to focus his eyes...that one was a little more concerning. Swiping one hand over the nightstand, he found his glasses and that helped tremendously with one of the problems. It did nothing to ease the swaying dizzy feeling as he sat himself up, but at least he could see. “Derek?” he asked, pawing at the bed behind him until he touched the lump of blankets that he presumed was his lover. “Derek?”

“Mmmfff...” Derek grumbled, his face deep in a pillow. “Mmf?”

“I need your help, please.”

He'd gotten good at that, recently. Asking for help. One of the stipulations, agreed upon up front, like forging a treaty between warring villages. Derek wouldn't put up with him collapsing, excusing himself to do so, not again. No more avoidable scares. And Derek, to his credit, took every plea for help with alacrity. He never so much as batted an eyelash at it, he would drop everything to come and he always did so with a brightness that made Hotch feel at ease no matter what situation he found himself in.

This morning was no different. The minute he said the word help, Derek was sitting upright rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “What's up baby?”

“I need to use the bathroom,” Hotch started, a little sheepishly. “But I'm too dizzy to stand.”

“Hank the Tank's cooties got you, huh?”

“Looks like it.”

With Hotch settled against his side, hand possessive and firm against his hip, Derek walked them to the bathroom. He nudged Clooney's sleeping form out of the way and flipped on the light. The bathroom was always warmer than the bedroom, a fact that was not lost on Clooney and his old bones. By the time Hotch was leaning against the sink, staring into his pale and drawn features reflected back at him, he wasn't feeling quite so bad. The dizzy feeling had all but passed.

“Thank you,” he whispered, and Derek took that as his cue to leave him to his business. Clooney had taken up residence on the bed in the warmth they'd vacated, he noted with some sourness, when he exited the bathroom. Hotch wouldn't mind. He'd call in sick and spend the day in bed with the dog now that he was the only one sick in the house. Everyone else would leave, let them to their peace and quiet. Two old men who genuinely adored hearing the creaks of a settling foundation over loudly talking voices. The hum of a refrigerator over music. The whistle of wind through their sparsely treed yard over the television. They love their family, but in times like this, quiet was the best medicine. Hotch was willing to ask for help, but he still wanted to be by himself when he didn't feel well.

“You call in?” Derek asked, bringing Hotch tea in bed. Hotch nodded and shifted his hips, trying to get comfortable around the deeply settled ache in his joints. He was radiating heat. Derek had already taken his temperature once, not alarmingly high yet but he'd take it again when he came home from work...or maybe he'd send his mother over to check on him in a few hours. She would have Hank for the day anyway.

“Go to work, I'll be fine.”

Clooney was lying beside him, the length of his back firm against the length of Hotch's side. Pressed in heavy. Hotch let one hand rest on Clooney's chest, against his ribs, delighting in the gentle rise and fall of the sleeping animal's breath.

“Your nurse is sleeping on the job.”

“He does that.” Hotch didn't cough, and he didn't sneeze. The cold settled deep into his sinuses and his chest, but only made everything ache and feel tight. Like he was pulling in on himself and expanding to his limits all at the same time. His skin hurt and his eyebrows hurt and his head hurt. More or less, everything hurt. It made his ears get stuffy, for a few days his hearing would be shot.

But there was no snot, and he considered that a win.

There was a time in his life when he would have pushed through, gone to work, pretended he was okay. He'd moved through one of the worst cases of his life feeling as bad as this once upon a time. He'd come face to face with George Foyet, handed him his glasses and told him that they'd catch The Reaper...he'd hung up on the man in his own hotel room...all with a fever high enough to warrant medical attention, and he'd watched Derek hold up the bullet intended for his head while that fever broke and left him chilled to the bone and hoping no one could tell he was sweating it out. Of course, Derek knew, had confronted him after, a fact that later led to their current ask for help agreement. Well, one of many facts. His life was a list of such occasions, such learning experiences.

You can teach an old dog new tricks, he thought hazily, his eyes heavy and unfocused as Derek kissed him on the forehead and told him he'd see him later. Maybe, maybe not. He intended to sleep well into the next century, the way he felt right then. Tired didn't even begin to cover it, and he dozed off thinking of every word in every language he knew that could account for how tired he was. None came close. Probably, he thought as he lost his battle with conscious thought, there was a phrase in German that would perfectly sum it up. Something about being so tired your bones ached, that would do.

He wouldn't remember that when waking. A pity, too.

Fran delivered chicken soup to him, secret Morgan family recipe that she claimed could kick any virus' patootie, and kept an eye on him while she cleaned up their house. It didn't really need much, they kept things tidy, but they didn't get into all of the cracks and crevices. She could do that to keep herself occupied while she waited for Derek to return home. Hotch and Hank slept soundly, flanking Clooney, all afternoon and well into the evening without stirring. It was Hank that woke first, hungry and weepy. His cold was mostly gone but he was crying a lot more than usual, and exhausted.

Hotch only woke once to sit up, wonder at the fuzzy face of the clock, trying to reason out the numbers that blurred one into the other. Deciding it wasn't of any real importance because he didn't plan to do anything other than roll over, he adjusted himself to the other hip, curled around Clooney, and went back to sleep.

“You have a lovely family,” Fran said, pulling Derek in for a hug before leaving for the night. “I adore each of you very much. But if I get sick...”

“You're sending me the bill. Got it.”

She patted him on the cheek and smiled up at him. “Good boy. I love you dear.”

“Love you too, moms.”

[faeryfizz]

tips for organizing mods?

TL;DR i always talk way too much so summary: my game is crazy laggy and it's prob bc my mods but i struggle with organizing and cleaning my mods folder bc i have no idea how lmao, figured it had to be a problem for others so wanted to ask if anyone had any tips for how to fix! thanks :):):):)

i've always used mods in the sims but have never really understood how people organize their mods folders - when i try to organize in folders etc. the cc never shows up in my game, but to be honest i've never put that much effort into figuring it out.

my game is just way too laggy now and its def bc my mods folder is so huge after this much time, typically i'll remove all the cc from my mods folder and then only put back files that I can recognize, but I end up losing so much great cc I can never find again in the process.

my usual strategy also isn't working anymore, just because I have too many favorite things and necessities - i wish I could be a minimalist simmer but um no lol

anyways how do people normally organize their mods to be able to get rid of unnecessary junk in the folder? there's definitely stuff in my folder i don't use at all, but I can't tell the difference between the file names bc at the end of the day im just a simmer & literally thought i was such a hacker when i first figured out how to even mod the game LMAO im awful with computers !!!

anyway long post to ask for advice if anyone has any, thought this would be the best place to ask!

---also side note i swear forever ago i used some 3rd party thing to go through and delete cc, i had found it through a suuuuper old lilsimsie video and it would like make a list of all the cc used for a certain household so I would make a household and just give them all the cc I didn't like and then delete it all, but i lost the program when i got a new laptop and haven't been able to find it again - does anyone know what that program was?

thanks anyone and everyone for any advice!! im forever impressed by people who understand computers

[thehylianidiot]

No Clue What This Is, But Why Not?

tagged by @legendoftheotherside

Rules

Post the names of the files of your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you ask with the title that most intrigued them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it. If you want, tag as many people as you have WIPS.

Don't have a lot of WIPs compared to a lot of other people, but thought it would be fun. So here's of the stuff I'm trying to work on and hopefully will finish one day (ha).

So here's the doc titles (many of which are subject to change)

Fairy Tail

The Other Four Idiots, Plus A Cat: My current time-waster cause I like roleswap aus. So I threw a bunch of characters into a blender. After all, who better to go taking the spot of heart-on-sleeve battle junkie with a penchant for friendship speeches than their emotionally constipated nerd brother?

To Slay a Demon: My rewrite oneshot for the Gray vs. Natsu fight, because I may have been the teensiest bit disappointed with it and got some inspiration.

The Little Raindrop of Magnolia: In an AU where Gray and Juvia start in different guilds, focuses on young accidentally-makes-flash-floods Juvia growing up with a support system.

These Are Not the Reincarnated Mortals You're Looking For: You know where at the end of Fairy Tail it was implied that Zeref and Mavis somehow reincarnated? As in were there, in the background, as the main series went on? You also know how many cults were and are still in Fiore? Let's combine these facts and make a comedy!

Consequences of Neo Eclipse: Anyone else think resetting time is a terribly shortsighted idea? In which Zeref wins, time is reset.... and he realizes he might have forgotten a few details after a few centuries.

Stars Align (And Then They Fade): In a totally-won't-end-badly retelling of 400 years ago, Anna goes on a quest for the Celestial Keys. And much like her descendent, she has to deal with her insane teammates.

I also had a few whumpril ideas, but none of them clicked on their own. Maybe they will be incorporated into future fics.

Legend of Zelda

Lost My Cap: A Minish Cap AU/retelling where Vaati gets rekt by his own hubris and has to clean up his own mess. With his old mentor. You can imagine how well this will turn out.

Believe me, I wanna try to make a big story incorporating characters from all across the series sometime. I just need to mesh all the ideas coherently in headspace still.

Genshin Impact

Just a Prototype/The Puppet God: There's one point about the consequences of absorbing divine knowledge capsule in Chapter 3 Act 5 that stuck with me. A few details in the follow-up interlude quest didn't help any. Thus, that last battle could go way different if say... there was in fact enough time for all divine knowledge capsules to be absorbed.

Crossovers

Untitled FMA/FT Project: I found out that Fairy Tail's Natsu and Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood's Greed shared the same dub voice actor and the idea spiraled from there, okay? Still piecing together the details, but I got some scene ideas.

Hmm... who to tag? (please ignore if you folks did this already, but feel free to @ me in a comment and I will try to read through it)

@genavere

@inkperch

@classysassy9791

@kiliinstinct

@pencilofawesomeness

@tokkias

Eh, 6 is good nuff.

[evaofkonoha]

Like seemingly everything in my life, there's a story to this one. Feeling kind of strange, so maybe I'll delete this later. Unfortunately I'm also insanely impulsive, which is winning at the moment. This is a long one, and if no one ever reads this that's honestly okay. I think I just need to get it out there for my own reasons.

To start, this song was written and recorded as my final senior project at my arts high school, so this recording is old. I performed it and provided the guitar (and tambourine!) on the track. My friend did the drums, mixed, and produced it. Another person provided piano. Okay, all credits out of the way!

I don't think I have ever honestly shared what this song is about. I didn't feel comfortable sharing it at school, so I came up with some silly, vague answer for them to read off at the final showcase and put in the Senior CD.

It's actually about my best friend in high school and I growing apart after I had moved to the arts high school. She was probably one of the best friends I have ever had. We were tight as could be. We did everything together. We even created our own fake religion (much to our parent's chagrin, I'm from the south). We called each other "fave" and even had a handshake type thing we would do. A rumor even spread that we were dating, we were that close (we thought it was hilarious, it was also not true). There were countless inside jokes. We traveled, went to any and all concerts we could afford, hung out all the time way past curfew, had sleepovers, went thrifting and vinyl hunting, almost anything and everything together.

So when I switched schools and we began to grow apart, it broke my heart. There wasn't a big blowout, no massive event. We just, grew apart. Admittedly, there was drama brewing for a while in the friend group around us (which is also sad, as I lost many close friends because of that drama as well) that I think influenced it as well.

I was doing some not-so-spring cleaning today with some stuff I picked up from my mom's house, which had a bunch of papers and notebooks and yearbooks from high school. In the box was a file folder labeled "Top Secret." There is actually nothing scandalous the file, it was just a bunch of stuff we had created and notes from when we were friends. I found a letter that this friend had written for me, and because I am so emotional, I of course cried reading it.

"Anyway, I hope you realize how talented you are. I know we tend to bash ourselves (it's our weird sarcastic behavior) but honestly speaking you have such an inspiring passion for music. Maybe this is crazy thinking, but I just know you will be successful in your music; you are so talented when you perform and the songs you write give me chills."

"I swear we have the same minds; it's so great to have someone to talk about annoying people, the government, school, relationships, music and tea :)"

God, there's more, and it all hits like a fucking truck.

So, that's what this song is actually about. Reading this made me go down memory lane, looking through old pictures with so much teenage dirtbag energy from that time (I wish I could share, but it's obvious why I'm not going to). We got up to all kinds of mischief, but it was so much fun. And it was authentic. Having someone who you can truly be yourself with and spill any and all secrets to is hard to come by.

We very occasionally chat. I actually only reached back out to her recently. We didn't communicate through all of college. Our friendship will never be the same as it was, but it's nice to not be radio silent. We have both moved on and met new people and all of that. I now live so far away from where I grew up anyway. And that's all okay because that's just life!

So, sorry if this is all oversharing, but I do really love this song. It's probably one of my best, if not my best. I wrote in during a meltdown in the shower all in one go, so a true moment of inspiration. Right now, it doesn't feel right to share it and not share the story, since sharing silly stories of my life seems to be what I do on here now I guess.

Again, I obviously can't share all of the photos and stuff that this song stirs up, except for the one I put as the song cover. I usually don't give away feet pics for free ;), but since these are socked feet in socks that we got as a symbol of our friendship (lol, yikes, haha!), I'll make an exception this once. We weren't totally bad kids I promise! Well...

ily, eva <3

[littlewalken]

nov 1

At least we didn't buy too many glow in the dark bouncy eyeballs and other Halloween novelties, they will keep for another year.

I was wondering if there would be a way to make my rollator any shorter, it's just a smidge too tall to be comfortable, and instead I managed to manifest one that's a better height and with a softer more comfortable seat at the junk store.

I believe in gravity and gravity believes in me.

Going to take Tamzyn the T-Rex on our out and about today to see about getting her some more fries.

Putting the manga on the puter is working for organizing it and culling the herd.

In the home stretch for cleaning up the newer photos of my artwork, now I just need to make folders of the sketch books then go in to the metadata and add the original date, or at least the year, they were made, then it's clean out the old folder of outdated pics and unify.

An analog photograph of one of the prints I made from some of my stolen wood cuts turned up along with two of the blocks so...

Make it three of the plates. Yeah it's an REM thing (proof I was in college int he 90s) and there was an Out of Time angel. I will be able to reconstruct the poses and cross hatched look but not the grain of the individual blocks or cool shot like the knot in the Document one. No I will never forget not being allowed to go to the video shoot for Drive. Got over it but still...

something something Just found irrefutable proof the Life Ruiner helped herself to my artwork when she could because stuff I did at the turn of the century was just find in a pile of her papers something something Which is why most of my concept work is in my sketchbooks because they're too big for her to have taken and hidden something something

Maybe I want the CPTSD diagnoses because it validates that someone had heard and believed me.

Welcome to the Cure fandom, do not start with 'Nography

The new pajama season is upon us!

And no, I still don't have season 4 of The Umbrella Academy

[casspurrjoybell-27]

Our Hearts Collide - Chapter 19 - Part 1

*Warning - Adult Content*

Simon

Loreta had already finished up in the kitchen at the pack-house when we arrived.

There were a few leftover slabs of meat and an assortment of vegetables in the fridge but neither of us knew what we were in the mood for.

Vince was half tempted to finish off the bag of chips one of the Betas had left behind but I insisted we eat something more than just snacks.

"Pasta?" he suggested.

"Simple enough, right? I'm sure there are jars of spaghetti sauce somewhere."

I nodded, looking over his shoulder in the pantry, then glancing back at the fridge.

"Sure. I could make carbonara?"

I couldn't help but laugh at how he jerked his head at the suggestion, his eyes widening at the sound of his favorite dish.

It was like watching Xavier's kids light up at the sound of any of their favorite desserts I'd bring over.

"Isn't it hard to make?"

"Not really."

I pulled out the eggs and cheese.

"It's like making regular spaghetti but it's a cheese and egg mixture instead of red sauce. Instead of the typical guanciale, we could use these bacon bits. It's what I used to use before, it tastes pretty similar."

He pulled out the pasta noodles.

"I have no idea what that means but I wouldn't mind learning how to make it if you say so. There are probably some of my mom's old cookbooks and recipes in the cabinet. I'll look for it."

He gestured to the cabinet above the microwave before placing the box of noodles on the counter and grabbing the stool.

Looking through a few of the lower cabinets, I found a couple of mixing bowls as he rummaged through the cabinet behind me.

"Here, I think this is what she used. I can't make any sense of her writing, but I think this says carbonara."

He flipped a piece of paper from a folder over and over.

"Or is this a dessert recipe?"

I turned, leaning over his arm to see the paper.

"That's carbonara."

"I can't believe you can read her handwriting," he said, holding the paper up to the light as if it would help.

"It just looks like scribbles to me."

I pointed to the ingredient list.

"It's not that bad. This says a third of a cup. Below it says a quarter."

"It doesn't even look like a number," he groaned.

"That looks like an E and an A to me."

Vince handed the paper back to me with a shake of his head.

I gave him one of the mixing bowls.

"Here, I'll measure out the ingredients, you can be in charge of stirring."

"I think I can manage that," he said to himself before turning to me.

"Xavier struggled to turn the mixer on last time. Got cake batter on the ceiling once, I had to clean it up for him."

My eyes rolled, not even surprised that that happened.

"I hope his kids enjoy cooking and baking. They might need to learn eventually."

"Trust me," Vince said.

"Lilah already knows how to boil pasta and make grilled cheese sandwiches. I'm sure they'll be fine."

"Can't believe you two never learned the basics."

I grabbed the box of pasta and poured it into a pot of water, turning it on high heat.

"It's a bit difficult when we were pushed to learn about pack stuff. Cooking was the least of our concerns."

I frowned.

"A shame. I'm certain pack meetings would be much more entertaining if it was a feast or at least a luncheon. Instead, it's just a bunch of hungry wolves at a table."

The corners of his lips rose.

"Such a crazy idea, right? Learn to lead a pack but don't learn how to feed myself on my own. What kind of crazy time is this?"

"It's a good thing that we could change that."

He tilted his head.

"We?"

"Well, if Jonah or Lilah take over the pack, at least we could teach them to cook independently. More hospitable ventures than politics."

My head tilted.

"Well, it would be mostly me or Sarah and Aspen teaching them to cook."

He pursed his lips.

"I hadn't thought about that, Lilah or Jonah were the pack's Alpha."

"I suppose Xavier could just appoint someone as his successor."

Now that I thought about it, Xavier never mentioned anything about it.

"Unless either of you surrogates and provide an heir that way. If you two are planning on following that old tradition of bloodlines."

Vince frowned.

"I didn't think about that."

I shrugged.

"Yeah, obviously, Xavier's already got a lot to worry about but it would be good for them to learn how to do other things besides whatever Damon made you three focus on."

"Yeah."

He stared down at the whipped egg and cheese mixture bowl before him.

"I suppose that would be good."

I tapped his shoulder when he placed the whisk against the edge of the bowl.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he amended.

"Just thinking about heirs and stuff is weird. I know other packs do that... surrogacy or adoption but...." his words faltered but he shook his head.

"Kids. It's just something I didn't really think about."

"Oh."

I set the empty measuring cups to the side to face him.

He was gnawing at the bottom of his lip, his eyes avoiding anything but the bowl before him.

Instinctively my hand reached for his.

"You mean of your own."

"Yeah," he said softly before laughing it off.

"Stupid, I know. Sarah and I discussed it years ago,but when we learned we couldn't, I just forgot all about the idea. I forgot all about the expectation of having heirs, it didn't seem like anyone would've wanted me to raise one either. Honestly, I don't think I'd be able to raise a child while being the Alpha at the time, let alone now. Can you imagine if they were as wild as Xavier or Cedar?"

Vince ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head at the thought, before gnawing at that lip of his.

When I attempted to squeeze his hand, he pulled back, sputtering a quick apology.

"For what?"

He leaned over the counter with two hands.

"Would you?"

"Would I what?"

He breathed in deeply before saying quietly...

"Want kids?"

Vince didn't look up, still hovering over the bowl as I held back my response.

It was a loaded question, one that, while I did have an answer, wasn't absolute either.

It wasn't just my decision to make if it were to come down to it and evidently, this was a big deal to Vince.

He had his reservations and so did I.

"I don't know," I said softly, reaching for his hand again.

He didn't pull back but didn't take my hand either.

"I quite enjoy just being an uncle to those rascals already, don't you?"

He slowly turned to look at me, biting back a smile.

"They are quite the handful."

"They are," I echoed.

"And truthfully, I don't think either of us is ready to make that decision quite yet. Not right now, anyway."

"Right."

He nodded his head.

"They are a good trial period, though."

His slight smile erupted into complete laughter, a contagious one that echoed in the empty pack kitchen.

I couldn't help but laugh along, not expecting the lovely sound.

"Imagine us babysitting them is a funny sight. Especially if it's them and Rowan, complete madness."

"We should probably check the pasta before it overcooks," he said, pointing at the pot that had been boiling for quite some time.

"Does this look alright?"

I checked his mixing bowl and nodded.

"I'll get the strainer and noodles."

[calyxthenerd]

Little drabbles of Luna stealing people’s stuff :)

The roller band boys (+Matteo)

Everyone was already having breakfast, and then Luna comes down, wearing a flannel and dark wash jeans that are way too big for her, a bow tie in her hair and some chains around her wrist

“That’s my flannel!” Protested Simón while pouring Ámbar some orange juice

“And my jeans!” Continued Pedro, in the middle of spreading butter on a piece of toast

“And my chains!” Completed Nico, holding his cup of coffee halfway to his mouth

“And my tie!” Finished Matteo, between bites of a media-luna

“Wow, prima, you really managed to get them all, I for sure thought you’d spare Matteo, at least” Ámbar commented, a smirk on her face as she sipped her cup of juice

“You were in on this?!” They all said at the same time, whipping their heads around to look at the blonde

“I was the one to suggest it in the first place, I told her she wouldn’t be able to take them without you noticing, and she said that you guys would notice, but only if you saw her wearing the stolen items, now she gets to pick the place for our next weekly cousin bonding session” she turns to Luna “You better not pick ice skating, just because you adapt easy to any modality of skating, doesn’t mean the rest of us do” the guys are left very confused as the Benson girls start bickering about ice skating and whatnot

Nina

“Have any of you seen my glasses?” The bespectacled girl asked, after having misplaced her glasses during one of their yearly sleep overs for the old team

They all answered some variations of no, until Luna came back from the bathroom, almost falling down several times, but being saved by a different person each time, they all used to how distracted she got while walking, and made her way to Nina, exclaiming “wow, your eyesight must be reallyyyy bad”

“You have them??? Give them back! I can’t see anything!” she chastised, trying to predict her best friend’s location based on the vague blobs she could barely distinguish, until she recognized the several bracelets the girl wore against her hand, and felt up her arm until she found her face and grabbed the glasses, putting them back on herself, sighing in relief “much better”

Ámbar

“Hey, has one of you seen my files for the suppliers? I have a meeting in two hours and I can’t find them anywhere” the blonde girl asked

“I’m sorry, darling, but I have just been around the dinning and living rooms and I don’t think it’s down here” Monica responds

“I just got back from running errands with the car and it’s not there either” Miguel completes

“Good morning my beloved family!” Luna greets, not looking up from the folder she’s reading as she walks

Ámbar turns to her and chuckles “of course… Lunita, I need those for work”

“Why though? That’s all gibberish and numbers”

“It’s food service jargon, you wouldn’t get it, Mrs Olympic grade skater” she ruffles the younger girl’s hair, swiping the folder from her hands and walking out, after grabbing a slice of toast for the road, of course

Ramiro

“Luli, have you seen my skates anywhere? I need to clean my wheels and change my laces” the curly haired boy questioned, looking around their shared hotel room

“No, I have not” the girl answers, hiding said skates behind her back, with the wheels clean and laces changed

Are you sure because last I checked” he turns to her “they were here…” he trails off, zeroing his gaze on her arms, that disappear behind her around the wrist “Luna, you are a terrible liar and as subtle as a blind elephant, give them back” he orders

She hands the skates back to him, and seeing her surprise, he smiles, dropping them on the ground and hugging her “Valente, you really are the greatest skating partner a guy could ask for”

Jim & Yam

Previously:

“I am not going to beg for forgiveness! How was I supposed to know the fact that she used to think she likes guys was a forbidden topic??” Yam yelled over the phone while Luna was on the other line, before hanging up

“I told you she wouldn’t listen! She never even for one moment thought about my feelings on the subject, noooooo, all it matters is telling an annecdote to get that stupid interviewer laughing” Jim rambles, being pat on the shoulder by her friend

Back to the present:

“Where is my guitar?” Yam’s voice echoes around the room, together with the familiar bell of Luna’s phone notifying a text message, that read “Luna, what did you do with my favorite tap shoes??” from Jim, she replied to both with “you’ll find them at the love lock bridge”

At said bridge:

“Jim…”

“Yam…” the girls said at the same time, huffing out a dry laugh at their synchronized speaking “You go first” Jim continued

“Luna sent me here for my guitar”

“She sent me here for my tap shoes” right then, both their phones went off, they’d gotten a text that said “talk it out, you fools” from their shorter friend, and that is what they did, they talked for hours, before leaving the bridge, their hands intertwined between them