#i will share pics of my garden when its pretty <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[guinevereslancelot]

i need someone to hold a gun to my head every time i consider an unnecessary purchase fr 🤡

[umichenginabroad]

An In-Seine Trip to Paris!

Week 7

As you can tell from the title, the big mystery as to where I went this weekend is now revealed! Woah! To those of you who guessed correctly from last week, unfortunately I don't have any fun prizes to send you...bummer I know. However, I do have a LOT to share from this lovely excursion which is completely free to read and quite priceless. Without further ado, this is the City of Light experienced from an Emily near (or far from) you.

Day 1: Triumphing the Arc

Right off the bat we were off to a great start waking up in the early hours of 3:30 am for our bus to the Bilbao Airport. Surprisingly, I wasn't very tired but rather a bit delirious on the ride there and talked Deidra's ear off the entire time. Luckily it was a pretty speedy boarding process and the flight itself was super short so in a blip of time we were in PARIS! Ubered to our hotel where the traffic really felt like that of New Jersey and big props to our driver because he looked really fed up. Since the hotel was really close to the Arc de Triomphe, we decided to make this our first stop. We took the underground tunnel to get to the base since trying to cross the street would've ended up as us becoming roadkill after less than an hour of being in the city. It truly was a sight to see and worth what everyone says! The amount of detail in the statues was very impressive, along with seeing the eternal flame for the unknown soldier.

From there, we took a stroll down the famous Champs-Élysées which featured a bunch of different stores and strangely enough...a treasure chest? It was for some sort of Louis Vuitton promotion to cover the front of the building but we had fun speculating what they were hiding inside of it. What I really liked about this area were the window displays. For many of the high-end shops these displays were immaculate with the clear precision put into them. For example, in the pic below you can see that this was made entirely out of seashells!

We reached the Seine and took a stroll to observe the sights and sounds, slowly making our way to the one and only Eiffel Tower. This was definitely Izzy's favorite part of Paris; her love for that tower is truly unmatched. Does it live up to the hype? In my opinion it absolutely does. No picture is really able to capture how it feels to experience this in person. We were able to visit the tower during the day and at night, and I have to say that at night it was even prettier. There are three different viewings that are a must to see, one at 11, 12, and then 1 am. The 11 and 12 ones are when the tower sparkles for five minutes, and then for the 1 am it's almost the same except all the lights turn off and its just the sparkles. As a tried and true tourist, I took an atrocious amount of Eiffel Tower photos. For one of the most iconic landmarks in the world, I just had to give in a little.

If you've been here for a while you'll remember my travel buddy, Eggdar! After living it up in Barcelona I had to bring him to Paris too

Since it was the 4th of July when we arrived, to pay homage to the homeland here's Izzy and Deidra square dancing (we swear that the guy singing sounded much better in person):

Day 2: The not so Petit Palais and venturing the Catacombs

It was Izzy's dream to visit a museum known as the Petit Palais, which is actually located right across from the Grand Palais. Despite its name, this art museum was waaay bigger than it looked packed full of sculptures, paintings, artifacts, furniture, and a garden! We even got to a see a Monet and Cézanne alongside some modern artwork which I found really cool. The ornate ceilings were beautiful, and I would 100% recommend going here (also was free admission!).

Tower of Babel! And also accurate representation of what it's like to read my enlightening and entertaining blog posts :)

Mission complete: Petit Palais conquered ✅

I feel like I can't really say this for being in a city like Paris with so many highlights, but the next two things really made my day. We were walking around some of the streets looking for lunch when I saw this shop called Amorino that caught my eye. Out front was a picture of their signature gelato macaron icecream flower and to no surprise, their advertisement worked on me. I was easily enabled by Izzy to try it and was so moved by this heavenly combination of flavors that nearly brought a tear to my eye. When I first ordered, I thought that I could only pick a few flavors, but oh no no, I was told that I could pick as many as a I wanted which opened up a world of opportunities for me. I ended up choosing mango, chocolate, hazelnut, and stracciatella, topped with a cutesy raspberry macaron. 11/10 in taste, look, and savorability. I await the day when me and this icecream can be reunited once again.

Before going on this trip, I had been looking up art stores around San Sebastián since I've been running out of supplies to use. Out of curiosity, I looked for some in Paris to find that it houses the oldest art store which Picasso, Degas, and Cézanne had all stepped foot in. Naturally, I knew that I had to be there. Located right on the Seine and across from the Louvre, Magasin Sennelier was everything I ever wanted and more. With two floors, this place was packed to the brim and even featured a wall where visitors could draw or write something which was really cute. Whenever I'm in an art store, I like to take my time and test out literally every product before I decide what I want to get. I told my friends to just leave me there, stayed till my heart's content, and left with a dent in my bank account like no other.

Je t'aime Sennelier <3

At this point, we split up where Izzy and Deidra went to the Louvre and Jayashree and I to the Catacombs. Prior to that, we took a nice sightseeing journey of the Lovure pyramid and surrounding architecture. Even though I wasn't able to get tickets, seeing the outside was still super incredible!

Getting to the catacombs is a whole story in itself. Since we were at the Louvre and our destination was about a 40 minute walk away, we decided to wait for the bus. Figured it would be no problem, right? Wrong. The bus zoomed past the stop so we figured that we would just hold out until the next one. 15-20 minutes pass, other buses, come and go, but the one we're supposed to take never shows up. Jayashree looks at me and says "we gotta run, but we can make it in 20 minutes if we do." With a time crunch on our hands and no other options, I begrudgingly agreed. I'm not a runner or a trackstar by any means, so this was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad run for me. I made it a decent distance until I was winded and hailed the first taxi that I saw dripping in sweat and wanting to die. Jayashree insists that I could've made it further but I would've become a subterranean Parisian ghost if I did. Five minutes before our buffer window was up, we made it to the entrance...

Mysteries of the Paris Underground

If you're not a fan of the spooks, feel free to skip past this part. Our tour of the catacombs was self-guided, but had an audio component which explained the significance of things we saw down there. The spiral stairs took us to an astounding 65 feet in the depths, where we walked through passageways, old aqueducts, quarries, and the ossuary which houses all the skulls and bones of centuries of the dead. The oldest that I saw were from 1787, along with tombs of important figures during the French Revolution. The ossuary was the largest part of the catacombs, which makes sense since one of the main purposes was due to a lack of space in cemeteries. Walking through, it's hard to describe how I felt seeing lines upon lines of remains from people of all ages. Many of them could have also been very prominent in society, such as scientists, writers, or even nobility since there's not a way to clearly identify who is who. It really provokes a sense of morbidity and I definitely felt a bit existential at times. There was a room with a well that we walked past and learned how an experiment was done there with goldfish. Basically, some goldfish were placed in the well and left for 2-3 years, and when the researchers came back they found that the fish were blind. After performing some experiments, they concluded that the fish could predict the weather, but today that theory has been debunked. It was very interesting to hear and also imagine from the fish's perspective. Imagine being put underground, you become blind, and then you're hailed as an oracle? That would be some crazy lore to add to your backstory for sure. Another fact from the catacombs is that at one point in time there was a party thrown there. Yes, an actual party. There was someone who invited 100 guests and a 45-person orchestra for a bumpin party in the underground. I don't know how they did it but I also don't know how you get chosen for something like this either? Something to ponder...

Day 3: Rats, snails, and your friendly neighborhood wall man

For our last (so sad!) full day in Paris we decided to take a stroll up to Montmartre to see the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, Moulin Rouge, and last but most certainly not least the sculpture of Le Passe-Muraille. Deidra told us the story behind this which is about a guy who discovers he can walk through walls, becomes a professional bank robber with his newfound power, trolls his boss, falls in love, and then ends up stuck in a wall when he loses his power. He's kind of a creep though but we got some cool pictures with the guy. Montmartre also had a very picturesque view of the entire city, a wall dedicated to 250 "I love you's" in different languages, and an amazing restaurant with fire blueberry pancakes.

Jayashree and Deidra slapping palms with the wall man (maybe it brings you good luck? Or he could be cursed who knows)

Later on for dinner, Jayashree and I wanted to get the full traditional French meal experience so we went to a place called Le Hameau. Our goal was to try escargot and eat a meal that would leave us FULL! She got a seafood pasta and I got a ribeye steak, both of which were delish. The escargot was an interesting eat since it came with a two-pronged fork to get the snail out and a snail shell grabber so your hands don't get messy when you eat. Pretty ingenious really. Surprisingly, we both really liked it. The snail itself wasn't slimy at all and very tender, with a butter/pesto/parsley sauce which tasted divine. For dessert, we ordered a roasted fig crumble with icecream. This was another thing we didn't expect since we thought the crumble would be similar to an apple crumble but it was actually the whole fig fruit. Still a good eat. Overall, we did in fact leave feeling full and with love in our hearts for escargot.

For our last hurrah, we decided to go see the 1 am viewing of the Eiffel Tower. On our way to the metro, we had an encounter with a furry friend: a rat. Now, it had been Jayashree's mission this entire trip to see a rat, so when I saw it first and she missed it, we searched around the trash cans and around bushes to try and find it again. We eventually did see it scurry off, but that wouldn't be our last sighting. As we were sitting by the Seine in the grass waiting for Ms. Eiffel to sparkle for the last time, we heard a squeak and saw the shadow of another rat in the bushes! Jayashree immediately took off and was using her flashlight to find it, all while the lightshow had started. She had more important things to see than the lights, pshh. By the end of the night, we had accomplished both goals of seeing the legendary sparkle and not one, not two, but four rats in the flesh.

In three days, we saw and did a lot! Paris is a city that deserves more time to be in, and for that I want to come back sometime in my life and explore more of it. This was a very long-winded post but with quality content as always for my dearest readers.

Emily in Paris -> Emily in Spain once again. Until next time!

Emily Dobao

Biomedical Engineering

IPE San Sebastian, Spain

July 8th, 2024

[hayjeon]

Practical Tips on getting your fics out there!

I’ve gotten an influx of these types of questions here recently, and the more i thought about what i was gonna add, it became really long :(  

disclaimer: a lot of the things i bring up are just from personal experience as a writer on this site, what my followers have told me they appreciate, and what i tend to look for when im looking for fics to read! If you don’t like these tips then pls move on :) 

although i’ll mention them, i’m also not going to be focusing on cliche tips like “write for yourself” or “grammar issues” cause those are pretty obvious!

1. accessibility of your blog 

when you’re trying to get your name out there, make sure that you’re creating an inviting experience for any potential followers! this includes:

a memorable url! be creative!

have some fun designing your blog’s aesthetic! (i love cute blogs because it reflects a bit of the writer’s personality), and (i prefer blogs with white backgrounds because it’s easier to look through/read, say, in contrast to a pitch black one where the words need to be white!) 

put your masterlist link in your bio (even better if you can link most recent fic! found this most helpful when i revisit authors that i like and can easily see if they’ve updated or not)

an organized and easy-to-navigate masterlist (personally, i prefer masterlists organized by band, instead of types of fics ie. i hate when i have to choose between drabbles, oneshots, and series masterlists; i really prefer to see them altogether!) --> see section 3 

organized tags (if you’re going to be posting a lot of non-fic-related content like pictures or videos, tag them properly so followers can sort through and find your fics easily!), or (if you’re going to be writing in different mediums like drabbles, or answering asks, make sure to use a unified #mine or #writing or #fics to centralize your content) 

2. get your name out there!

write write write! once you have some fics that show your talent, don’t be shy! 

join writing groups: when i first started out, I joined a bunch of groups that would reblog my fics in the midst of the content of much bigger writers; these blogs developed a following, and as a result of my content mixing in with bigger blogs’ content, so did my own tumblr! there’s been a stigma recently with these groups, but im sure you can find one thats supportive and not clique-y! 

send your fics to rec pages: what’s the harm? the only bad thing that can happen is that they ignore you! who cares! get out there! 

if you can do the above, i really encourage you to ask your fave writers for advice/to read your fic: again, the worst that can happen is that they say no or don’t respond or don’t have enough time, but it’ll be a good opportunity to get some feedback! i for one read (or try to read) every single rec that falls into my inbox. if i like it, i’ll #rec it, and if i don’t, unless the writer asks me for feedback, i move on!! 

utilize your tags!!: i’m not entirely sure if this is still the same or not, but from my memory, it’s the first 3-5 tags that matter the most? so utilize them well; push back the tags that aren’t really relevant (ie. #writing, #fics) and push more the main subject line of what you wrote (ie. jungkook fluff, bts smut, namjoon angst). these will populate your fics into the tags better!

headers!: when i’m scrolling through an infinite page of fics, the headers catch my eye the most; try being creative! you can find a lot of info out there on how to make ur headers super aesthetic, but i can share my tips too! --> see section 3

3. your masterlist 

here are some practical tips! 

organize by band, not type of fic/member/centralize your masterlist: i went onto a blog recently and clicked their bio mlist link to find a page full of 20~ish “JUNGKOOK MASTERLIST”/ “JAEHYUN MASTERLIST” and when i clicked on each one, they only had like 2 or 3 fics per member. i think it would’ve been better if she’d centralized all her fics! that keeps whoever is looking interested and more likely to click on another fic while browsing

add info about the fics!: when scrolling through a masterlist, it’s easy to get lost; try to add some snippets of info (ie. a short sentence you liked from the fic, a quick summary, a description of the au/scenario, or even a header!) this all gives some info about the fics you have tagged! 

headers: this isn’t a requirement, but i personally love a good header on fics i read and i love making them myself as i finish up a fic and get ready to upload it; here are free sources: unsplash for HQ stock pics, crop/edit/filter in VSCO, and then add aesthetic script with fontcandy) 

try to fill it up!: after i visit a blog after reading one good fic, i usually browse through their mlist to see if there are any more that i’d be interested in. if there’s a lot to look forward to, i’ll almost always follow; try to write as much as you can in the first few months to try and fill up your mlist and give blog viewers a reason to visit your blog again, follow, or even reblog your content!) 

4. try not to reproduce cliche fics: 

honestly tumblr’s writing community (and armys) has grown insanely these past few years and, unfortunately, even from my perspective, in the past 3-4 years, all the writers have sort of become blended together in my brain. but, i can say that the ones who consistently stand out are the ones who produce consistent content and think outside of the box! 

i tend to gravitate towards fics that have really interesting plotlines (ex. btssavedmylifeblr’s VOID is always a surprise to read because it’s sO unique! i usually don’t read ot7 fics but this one is legit my fave) 

I know it’s tempting to try and just write typical smut fics to try and gain some traction, but tumblr is already too overloaded by that kind of content; try to write something that’s special and unique! this will set u apart from the thousands of other writers here --> see next section

5. create unique fics: 

this is also personal to my writing style, but i get so bored writing just casual fics about the members, and it affects the fics i choose to read too; i prefer unique fics which you can achieve through: 

circumstance/au: create a fun au!; don’t just create an arranged marriage, create an arranged marriage in joseon dynasty, or between a werewolf and a hunter! (shameless self plug); don’t just give me friends to lovers, but give me spiderman!jungkook friends to lovers! (ie. cupofteaguk’s exchanges)

jobs: give them out-of-the-ordinary jobs; don’t just give me enemies to lovers, but give me rival!anchors who end up loving eachother! (ie. jimlingss The Newscasters)

fun dialogue: create good back-and-forth, (something i’m still working on!)! this will help your characters develop personality, and that way, readers will start to develop that themselves as well (ie. dad!yoongi from insemination wars by prolixitae is such a specific character that i love so much!, or obiwrites’ garden characters were so memorable!)

create memorable personalities: don’t give me a flat character, try to develop 4d personalities in all of your characters! (im still working on this too!) this way you can really make an impression on your followers! a great way to practice/recognize this is: “Ask my Character.” Can your followers ask a specific character a specific question, and would you be able to deliver an answer that is very specific to that character’s tone/voice/personality? If yes, then ur doing well! If not, try to think of ways that you can make tht specific character from a specific story, really unique and separate from your other characters.

6. some practical writing tips

be yourself, write for your own pleasure, blah blah blah; yeah you know already haha but here are a few more practical tips! 

grammar check: if you can, try and hone your grammar! makes for an easier read 

write like you: i personally LOVE this by obiwrites, but even the way she writes exudes her personality and is so specific; try not to be caught up in adding hundreds of synonyms and exquisite language; in fact, simpling it down and being more concise and honest with your writing is better than a superfluous sentence; this will also give ur characters so much more dimension and funk

use those commas/sentence variation: try to use more commas; this will feel like you’re the narrator to your own story; it also makes it more fluid to read in my opinion, over those short. clipped. sentences. (ie. “he came over, sitting down on the corner of your bed with an expression you’d never seen before” over “he walked over. he sat down, looking sad.”) 

half-half dialogue/narration: a fic with too much dialogue can get confusing, and a fic with too much narration can get dry; try to balance them out, and weave in and out of each! 

quality over quantity: don’t feel burdened to write a 30k word fic. in fact, i think some of the shorter fics (ie. any of versigny’s stuff) made a bigger impression on me over the longer fics because they were short, left me wanting more, and were just so high-quality in such small quantities. try out your hand at drabbles and one-shots, and don’t feel too burdened to try and develop a series right off the bat! 

abandon pigeon-holes: i’m guilty of this; i start series and then end up with no vision for the stories and they end up giving me writers block. its okay. just stop or discontinue them or leave them on a hiatus; it’s okay. your priority is yourself, and if abandoning certain works are part of that, then go ahead. it’ll help you progress more. 

and finally.......

i’ll add more as they come up! but if you liked this, then pls lmk! i’d love to give more tips and tricks; i think i started this blog 3-4 years ago when there weren’t as many writers here, but im glad you’re thinking of starting out/wanting to grow more! don’t feel intimidated! it’s not all about the notes/followers but creating a blog you’re proud of. 

so write what you’re proud of, or interested in, and keep going. i truly thoroughly had so much fun writing this post. if there are any writers who read through this and have some more advice, pls msg me! 

all the best to you! 

[maxismatchccworld]

Hey you lovely Simmers! It is time for our new Spotlight of the Month. Please give a warm welcome to MLys aka @mlyssimblr​. 😊

Hello!

I’m MLys, I’m a 27 years old French simmer and I’ve been sharing maxis match custom content for The Sims 4 for three years.

I’ve discovered the game with The Sims 1 back when I was 9 and I immediately fell in love. I still remember when I’ve unwrapped the base game and Vacation EP at Christmas! Thereafter, I’ve been a huge Sims 2 player (gameplay wise it’s still my favorite of the franchise), skipped The Sims 3, and out of curiosity and nostalgia, came back to the game with The Sims 4 without a lot of expectations. I just wanted to play time to time in my corner, mostly as a builder, and didn’t have any intention to start a blog and create CC.

The need of creating my own custom content quickly came up because I felt frustrated to not find the items I needed to design my builds the way I imagined them. I already downloaded CC as a kid, and was sooo obsessed about it back then! I ingeniously wished I could be able to do the same and run my own sims download website, but it wasn’t easy to find proper tutorials in French (and I most likely wasn’t mature and skilled enough ahah) so I had no idea how all those things worked. I just accepted that it was some computer magic. Several years and more experience later, that sweet memory contributed to make me want to give it a try and take my revenge!

Into the Simverse!

Pic: Exhibition set (Part 1)

My Exhibition set, specially made for the museum I was building, was the first CC I completed and shared on my blog. The set was very simple, but it was already foreshadowing what I would particularly love to do ever since: trying to expand the lore of the Simverse! As it can be deduced from this set, I was very inspired by the creative @femmeonamission’s Great Art Serie and the principle of only using resources from the game. Simlish fonts weren’t enough, I wanted to embrace the fact that the Sims live in a similar but alternative world to ours, with its own peculiarities and silly historical background.

Pic: Sim’Pop culture Tucked-in Tee

I’ve started to become a build mode catalog and Sims Wiki nerd, trying to collect Sim cultural references from all the games and brainstorm head canons that I could exploit for my builds backstories and CC design. I just need a consistent universe!!

I loved to imagine swatches for my tucked tee, which illustrates that approach pretty well. The TS4 concept artists have created so many cute and creative little gems in the game that need a second life, like the base game paintings and the movies from the Movie Hangout SP.

An other example is of course my baby Pufferhead Stuff, that was initially supposed to be a tiny set inspired by a base game poster, but that ended up being a liiiiittle bit more ambitious, whoops. I spent an outrageous time working on all the details I could think about to make the pack cohesive and refer to Harry Potter without losing the maxis match spirit. I am so so touched when I see simmers considering some elements from Pufferhead as canon in their game! During the process, I genuinely thought that I spent a useless time on things that most simmers would barely pay attention to, such as the Harnock sorting test, so it was really rewarding to discover that people actually appreciated the effort!

(If you like Simverse headcanon CC, my simblr crush @bottsbotts​ had also made a very creative set inspired by base game posters!)

Pic: Pufferhead Stuff Pack

We do love collaborations

The second part of the Exhibition set that I’ve made with @aroundthesims has a very special spot in my heart. I’ve been a big fan of Sandy’s work since day 1, and downloaded everything she did. When I’ve started to share CC, I needed to fangirl in her DM to tell her how she inspired me. It must sound silly, but when she proposed to collaborate, I felt so crazy happy and proud! If mini-MLys playing sims in her bedroom full of dolphin and HP posters had heard about that, her brain would have been like “Can’t… compute…”

Pic: Exhibition set (Part 2) / Screenshot features items by Sandy and me

I can’t introduce myself either without talking about my friends from The @Plumbobteasociety!  They’re the first friends I’ve ever made online and I love them (I’ve even met some irl!). Working on Cottage Garden Stuff with them was a blast. There was a real team spirit and it definitely made me progress. Never I would have been able to work by myself on Pufferhead without the Cottage Garden experience and without their support!

Pic: Cottage Garden Stuff pack / Screenshot features items by @magnolianfarewell @femmeonamissionsims @teanmoon @nolan-sims @litttlecakes @simlaughlove and me

There is something very fulfilling in collaborating with someone that got skills that you don’t have, and managing together to create something cool. I had that feeling with those projects, but also with the talented @illogicalsims who accepted to make the render of Pufferhead. It really was out of my current ability and his final render is fully part of the identity of the pack and I’m sure contributed to valorize it, so I can’t thank him enough for that!

Other stuff

“Sorry, I’ve been quite absent recently…”

I update my simblr very irregularly, and my content can be quite random. To be honest I don’t feel like I have produced that much? I really wish I did! I have so much ideas condemned to stay in my notebook forever… RIP. Here are my favorite editing and building projects:

31 years of Simblreen (2017)

The Windenburg Old Town Square

Forever grateful…

…Like for real. I don’t try to be mushy or something. That simblr really helped me at times when I needed it. I definitely have a creative profile, but without a specific goal in mind, I tend to want to do and learn so much things at the same time, that I end up feeling overwhelmed and uninspired, and don’t practice anything. And then I feel frustrated and can’t manage to have a consistent hobby. When I started the blog, I totally underestimated all the various skills it would actually make me work on: 3d modeling, texturing, editing, illustration, storytelling, my English… and even video editing for the Pufferhead trailer! I admit that I haven’t talked about that blog to a lot of my irl friends, because I’m afraid they wouldn’t understand that it’s not “unworthy”. And well, I myself also devalue a lot what I produce in general. I’m working on feeling more confident and share with them all the good memories and touching moments I have from my simming experience! All the adorable support I’ve received here through those last 3 years really really helped for that, and I can’t express how much it means to me <3

Thank you Kerstin for the Spotlight (and aw sorry for the delay) ! Especially for the month of my birthday, such a cute coincidence :)

Thanks for reading, have a great week, and happy simming everyone!

[hazelminesims]

Simmer - Get To Know

I was tagged by the sweet and amazing @mellindi

Languages you speak: English

Are you a mermaid?: Pretty sure that’s a no.

Your play style: Family

Your Simself picture : (little spoiler...unedited pic too)

 Stories or gameplay, builds, lookbooks, edits or cc:  Stories and gameplay are my thing. Not quite a lookbook, but I like to do simple portraits of my sims every now and then, especially when planning a big event or updating their look.

Your favorite age stage: I like them all the same.

Your favorite season: Fall

Your favorite holiday: Winterfest

How was your day: So far so good. I don’t feel hopeless today at least.

Your favorite career: Journalist.

Your favorite aspiration: Hmm..don’t have one.

Your favorite EP, GP or SP: Seasons, Island Living, City Living, Parenthood, Tiny Living (I actually like a lot of them. With the exception of that lazy pet pack, I have things I just had to have from them.

How old is your simblr: roughly 3.5 years

Have you woohooed?: I have grown and birthed 2 little humans J

Your favorite skill: Gardening, Handiness

The size of your mod folder: ugh….it has taken on a life of its own… 54GB (save meeee!!)

Your 3 favorite mods: MCCC | Wicked Whims | all of Zero’s vamp mods

Your interests (other than The Sims): Annoying my kids, Overwatch/Paladins, Photography, Digital Scrapbooking, creating Wordpress blogs

Your favorite Sim picture (if possible):

 Which Sims games have you played (including mobile games): Sims 1, Sims 2, Sims 3, Sims 4, Sims Freeplay, Sims Mobile, Sims Online

Propose a crazy scheme: Give me sims that actually care about one another and more interactive places for them to go.

Best part of simblr: The community. I don’t talk a lot…trying to do better. Being able to share and seeing how others enjoy their game is the best part. I love seeing all of the creativity.

Worst part of simblr: Ganging up on people. Accepting of anon messages. And the anons themselves.

What other games you play: Overwatch, Paladins, The Witcher

Other websites or accounts (Origin, Twitter, etc…):  Twitter | Sim blog | Scrapbook blog

Are you single: He been working hard to impress me and make me happy for 14 years…so no.

I tag: anyone who wants to participate! I am late to this, but have enjoyed reading everyone’s answers.

[dolphin-enthusiast]

good evening to you, sunshine! 💌✨🐤 how has your day gone?? hopefully it was good, that's what you deserve after all!! i was able to get some tasks done today, and luckily it was actually enjoyable! 💫 (1/9)

"all of you anons out there asked such funny and sweet things today,, i got a good kick out of them hehe,, the one about shinobu and kira made me laugh for a good 6 minutes (even if i'm not the biggest kira fan hehe) and the one asking for autographs made me giggle a bit,, i'm not sure why people would want my autograph, but whatever makes them happy i guess! (though with how amazing you are,, i wouldn't be surprised if people want your autograph 😘)(2/9)

also, to the one anon who was worried about how i am after the incident,, i assure you, i'm doing okay,, sure, it was very scary, but i've been through worse situations in the past,, don't worry about me!! and to the old follower anon, thank you for for being so kind!! of course you're invited to the wedding sweetie! 💕 (3/9)

oh, and i was not at all expecting such a positive response to that little post of mine,, i assure you i am not that photogenic or pretty 😅 just a lucky shot i guess?? ah boh,, darling you are to good to me, no? and the same goes for all of those other anons out there 💞💞 you truly know how to flatter me morgy dear!! (4/9)

now then,, my day was pretty nice i suppose, nothing special!! i finally got to practice my dancing again, which felt nice after having to lie down for so long,, and i got to cook again too!! ooh, and i helped my papa start the process of making plum wine!! i had to help crush up lots and lots of plums and grapes,, and we're gonna ferment it for a total of 2 months, before bottling and aging half of the bottles for 6 more months,, (5/9)

though the winemaking process is very long, it will be so worth it in the end!! 🌹plum wine has a nice, not overly sweet, full bodied and mellow flavor,, my mamma loves to use it in so many recipes!! plum wine has to be one of my favorite wines, maybe because i grew up with it,, my nonna used it in cakes, spritzers, and occasionally sauces! ahhh it really does take me back,, perhaps we can share a bottle sometime? that sounds like a lovely idea to me~ 💘 (6/9)

my gardener neighbor is gone for two weeks, and tasked me with taking care of his garden and his 5 pet bunnies,, awaaaa they're so cute!! i've been giving them little nicknames to remember them, my favorite bunny is a dark grey one,, i named him chippy since his one ear has a tiny chip in it hehe,, and i must say, his garden is very impressive in person!! its huge and full of vegetables/fruits! (7/9)

he said that when he returns, he would pay me and give me some of his produce, but i'd honestly do it for free, it's very fun and i would love to make it a long term job! 🌺 ah, and one last thing that i'm sure you'll be very happy to hear dolcezza,, i'm starting to get into ace attorney !! so far from what i've seen, i absolutely adore edgeworth and franziska,, and phoenix too hehe! i really love it even though i haven't dug too deep yet, and i'm very excited to see more! 😊 (8/9)

mamma mia,, i apologize for those little rambles of mine,, i know they tend to annoy some people 😖 oh my, it's 2:57 as i finish this,, time to get some sleep i suppose?? well then, until tomorrow my love! buonanotte, e sogni d'oro~!! 💗💗💗💗💗 - much love as always, waifu xoxo 😊😘😍🌺💕💞💌💋💘✨ ps: i'll make it a promise to visit countries with you amore 💖 (9/9)"

Darling no matter how many times u try uno reversing me i'll keep saying this: UR the wig snatching one here and tbh i'd say that was no lucky shot bc from what other pics u posted i can confirm that u are indeed vogue worthy😩✌️

On another one i think i tasted plum wine before?? Here we have another type of traditional plum (and other fruits sometimes such as pears) drink thats v e r y strong shxhxhx but either way we will def share a bottle (AND travel countries) someday 👁️👁️ and i swear ur way too kind for ur own good dear, constantly helpin out ppl like dat ahxhxhdh we S T A N sis (u can be just too cute with all those nicknames u give to animals and such)

ALSO HOLY SHIT IM SO HAPPY U GOT INTO ACE ATTORNEY SGAGSXGXGXGXXH ITS DEADASS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVE GAMES BRUH😤😤😤 i will do my best not to spoil shit since my dumbass finished the entire series back in june and i can get v e r y hyped but like... amazing taste darling my chaotic edgeworth simp ass approves (also franziska is best girl everyone who hates on her has a small pp)

[flyhigh-studying]

Birthday Studyblr!

August 23th of 2018 must be the day that my desire to improve my English and writing skills struck me. On this day, one year ago, I created this studyblr; I was starting my internship and I was needing to do something to inspire me to study more and improve my skills to be able to find a fix job as fast as I could.

I didn't realise that this would become not just an inspiring tool for my studies but a hobby too.

I believe one of the reasons why I got my current job is because of this studyblr because I like to write here (even when anyone read my texts lol), and now I write about my degree course and I get paid for it, awesome!!

But in this one year, I learned somethings about what is being a studyblr, that I want to share with someone that maybe is reading this

1- Studyblr it is about the aesthetic - I know that this is not to true, but is at the same time is if you understand. Much of the studyblr have already reblogged something like  "Your notes shouldn't be aesthetic for you be a studyblr" I agree, but how many of us reblog or like that "ugly" note pics? The dark ones, with truth, not the aesthetic, mess study table? When I started and posted my first pic I and saw my dashboard filled with aesthetic notes,  on white tables and cute stationery I felt insecure and started to make my notes more "aesthetic" and cute, but that was a fake I never really used those notes, I just did to post. The thing is I learned that the thing here is aesthetic, but doesn't mean you should follow this standard to be a studyblr, you can post pictures and texts that would please you. And of course I can have fun trying to improve my pics and text to be more aesthetic, but the standard doesn't define the relevance of my posts...

2 - It's not about the notes - When I realised that my texts, my pics were for my studyblr, for me to getting track on my study journey and not to be on the most popular topic,  I stopped to worry about notes and likes, because like I said the pics with big number of notes are the aesthetic and cute ones, its just a fact. In this process, I stopped to look at the number of notes on my posts and focused on what I wrote and what I could take from it in the future when I revisited.

3 - The blog is my - For a moment I just reblog things that were related with studies and studyblr-ish but I start to think that this blog is an inspirational space for me, is my online room that I can getter everything I like and inspires me. Thinking about what people would spect from my studyblr, or what will make people follow me made me not reblog things that I truly like, but the blog is like your desk that has different things, not just papers and pencils, but have that little quote you like, the plushie you adore, so it's what makes you comfortable so reblogging gifs of my favourite groups or the tv programs and currently binging makes this place comfortable for me, and because of that I start to wonder if this is actually a studyblr sometimes... And yes, I'm the part of the ones that reblog aesthetic notes because it's pretty and some inspire me, but my main point is reblogging posts that inspire me being "pretty" or not.

4 - Do it for me - Not be a studyblr to be famous and have hundreds of followers, but to have something to look back and say: "hey I'm improved a lot, and I have so much more to do".

I learned so many things in this one year, but I think this three are the most important for me.

Anyways I wrap up this year and I made list, just for my future me read and be a little nostalgic:

Posts from this year that I'm proud of:

Careers in Cybersecurity - I love this one!!

I regret choosing a Tech career? - I put all of my frustrations about looking for my first job in IT on this post, an important one to me.

What is Cyber Security? - Was so fun creating this analogy lol

We need to talk about sextortion - Such a heavy topic, but I think is not enough discussed and it should

English + Narnia Chronicles - I didn't finish the project yet, but I finish the two first books in the first semester, I'll have patience and hope with my self

Friends

I didn't talk to anyone here except the sweetest @linguavert that correct many of my posts, I can thank you enough, I hope you can see some kind of improvement on my writing after this year lol... So she is friendly and everybody should follower her and get really good posts about her german studies.

Playlist

I listened to music all the time, but the ones that I mentioned and followed me through my studies this year were these (and more):

Never Give Up - Bang Yongguk & Zelo

Lily James - A dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes

Tomas Newman - Road to Perdition

James Newton Howard - The Mockingjay

Hillsong United - Scandal of Grace

Infinite - Bad

B.A.P - Goodbye

EXO - Heaven

CNBlue - I Don't Know Why

Kari Jobe - The Garden

McFly - Smile

I'm so pleased that one year ago I get the courage to create this studyblr. Happy Birthday, flyhigh-studying!

[lindoig4]

Iceland - all in one long post

(It is now Saturday 24 August and we are in St Johns, Newfoundland, and before I wade into Iceland, I thought I would summarise the birds we have identified so far.  Some we have seen in more than one place, so the number of discrete species we have seen is still less than 100 – 99 in fact. But by country, my  count currently stands at 138, made up of 36 in the US; 4 when we were in Montreal and a further 11 here, making it 15 for Canada; 9 in Oslo and 21 more in Svalbard making 30 for Norway, 20 in Greenland and 10 in the Denmark Strait – so possibly 30 for Denmark, depending on how we define it and 27 for Iceland.  I don’t intend canvassing international relations or interpreting the Law of the Sea so it is up to you to define Greenland, the Denmark Strait and international waters however you choose – I decline to enter into any dispute on the issue.)

Now back to wonderful Iceland.

We arrived early in the morning after a pretty wild day and night at sea and we were probably happy enough to be on land again.  Not because of the rocking and rolling, but because we were a bit overloaded with all we had experienced on the expeditions and felt that anything else would likely be more of the same.  The only thing we hadn’t seen that would have been nice was more whales, specifically belugas and narwhals, but we can’t have everything – or at least, we have been told so.

On the other hand, our expectations of Iceland left us a little cold (so to speak) but we were wonderfully wrong!  We disembarked at 9am and were bussed to a stop just down the hill from our hotel. Not sure why they couldn’t drop us off as we went past, but it was only a couple of hundred metres back up the hill lugging our luggage.  (There is a reason it is called Luggage.)

We spent most of the day in our room but went out to the supermarket and had a drink on the way back. I spent some time dashing in and out of the hotel into the garden at the back chasing a bird that kept calling every now and then, but I never found it.  I eventually discovered that an identical sound came from a squeaky lift the was right next to where I thought the mythical bird was calling!

In the late afternoon, we went to the hotel bar for a 2 for 1 drink Happy Hour and fell into conversation with two local women almost our age and we had a really wonderful hour or so with them.  They were both lovely intelligent women and it was a complete pleasure to share our respective thoughts with a wonderful couple of locals.

We then went to a Vietnamese restaurant we had sussed out whilst shopping and it was a big disappointment.  Very ordinary food in pretty scungy surroundings for about $90 Oz with no drinks!

We went on two tours whilst in Reykjavik.  I clearly recall being taught in high school that there is no green in Greenland and no ice in Iceland.  But like many of the gems imparted to naive teenagers at school, both are entirely wrong.

We saw a lot of green in Greenland - no towering forests or endless savannahs but plenty of green ground-cover in lots of places.  Similarly, in Iceland, there is not a lot of summer snow, but they play few winter sports because everything is blanketed in snow, inhibiting outdoor sports, even if competitors and spectators were able to attend snowbound venues (which they aren’t!)

But Iceland is certainly spectacular in summer.  As I said, we went on two wonderful tours (thank you Nice Tours), but a few observations first.

Iceland has fewer than 350,000 residents (and 3,000,000 summer tourists each year), over two-thirds of them living in Reykjavik.  Most of the others are farmers and their small beautiful farms are a picture of neatness, looking like they sweep the hills and comb the grass before the tourists arrive each morning.  They desperately want more residents (their unemployment rate is effectively zero) and despite some resentment about the changes brought about to accommodate us, they are heavily dependent on tourism as their biggest contributor to GDP.

They have virtually unlimited geothermal energy and squander it outrageously.  Similarly, water is abundant and profligacy is considered absurd.  The geothermal water powers some of their electricity needs and is then returned to the earth or used to heat every building in the country.  The rest of their energy comes from hydro plants.  Even some small collectives of farmers agree to install a small power plant to provide for their own needs and feed the surplus into the already overloaded grid.  The only other fuel source appears to be imported petroleum at a little over $A2 a litre.

The hot water contains a bit of a cocktail of harmless minerals but smells a bit, so is used for showers and heating and the cold meltwater for most other things.

In the winter, some parts of the country are virtually inaccessible and the roads in those areas are atrocious but nearer Reykjavík, they are quite good - and the city itself is very modern-looking.  No high-rises because they have plenty of room, but there are a few 5 or 6 level buildings.

There are NO trees away from the city, although a few farmers have attempted to grow some without a lot of success.  But around Reykjavík, there are plenty of trees due to a concerted effort to provide some windbreaks for a few clicks around.  I went for a walk this morning and found it very hard going, but apparently, the wind has been known to blow many people over, even to blow cell phones out of their hands (Shock, horror!).  People stay indoors during the worst of the wind.

It is a very expensive place to live.  We paid over $A85 for a very crummy meal at a Greasy Joe Chinese restaurant a couple of nights ago (our second expensive meal out) and even the supermarket gives rise to a few nasty shocks.  One interesting point is that it costs more to build a house here than its sale price so a lot of people build their own rather than buy something that costs more than they could sell it for.

Having said all of that, Iceland is a wonderfully beautiful place with heaps of great things to see and do.  It is very progressive.  They had a National Pride Parade on the day we arrived and the whole city was decked out with rainbow flags and paraphernalia. The whole city seemed involved in celebrating the march and its participants.  They are a very inclusive society and I found some of their more progressive ideas a little surprising - in a very good way.

Our tours were brilliant. Although we didn’t have any great expectations of the country before we arrived, I now wish we could just squeeze another month or so into our visit.

Golden Circle Tour

This is one of the more popular one-day tours and the scenery is amazing.  (Most tours are multi-day and many are about 11 days and circumnavigate the island on their version of our Highway 1, although it is a little more rustic than ours in the north.).  Rugged mountains, massive volcanic lava-fields, giant glaciers, thousands of waterfalls, wonderful wildlife (mainly birds) and miniature flora – simply superb.  There are far more Icelandic horses than Icelanders - a unique breed that will remain pure because no other horses are allowed in, including any local horses that leave the country to compete in events - they are not allowed back in under any conditions!  The sheep run free and have right of way on the road and all look very healthy: fat and woolly.  There are cattle here, but they are mainly kept indoors - as are all the sheep in the colder months.

We visited the world’s second largest geyser (after Yellowstone) and watched it shoot almost 40 metres skywards every 5 to 8 minutes.  It is the Geysir Strokkur and is source of word ‘geyser’ worldwide.  We were careful to stay upwind, but some people got very wet trying to get the perfect selfie.  There are numerous hot springs around and we saw plenty of thermal activity as we ate our packed lunch and walked to and from our bus. (I am tired of typing ‘spectacular’ so please just insert it once or twice in each paragraph. If any needs me to, I will provide a few hundred copies of spectacular, beautiful, amazing, astounding, wonderful, awesome, mindboggling, fantastic, fabulous – even fantabulous if you must - and any other superlatives you wish and you can just copy and paste them into each sentence or clause as you prefer – because they are all highly appropriate!)

We went to an awesome volcanic crater, obviously inactive, but huge, very steep-sided with a beautiful lake inside.  We walked right around the ridge and photographed it from many angles.  It was very windy and getting close to the rim was quite scary at times.

And what a spectacular waterfall Gulifoss was!  It is fuelled by meltwater but totally awesome - mind-bogglingly so but still not Iceland’s biggest!  The volume of water cascading down was truly (insert several superlatives here) but this was after a veritable drought - the driest period they have had for years.  The water is funnelled into a huge canyon, way below anything we could see, but in a normal year, the volume is so huge, it fills the canyon!  When I finally get some pics posted, you might imagine why it defies description.

We called in at a working farm for an icecream.  Icelanders are the world’s most voracious consumers of icecream and we stopped at a couple of other places later in the day to avoid our guide suffering withdrawal symptoms.

Another stop was at the site of the world’s oldest parliament, dating to the 9th century.  The tribes in the area decided that they needed more order in their community so elected a leader each 3 years and presented him with all their disputes and issues requiring resolution.  He was given one day to think about them all and then stood on this particular rocky outcrop and addressed the assembled throng with his binding decisions the following day.  It is now a UN World Heritage site and our guide was able to fill out a bit of history about it.  Perhaps more significantly though is that the rock is on the very edge of the North American tectonic plate.  We walked through an amazingly impressive fissure to get to the rock and it was a sobering thought that we were on such prehistorically significant ground.  There is 6 kilometres between this and the nearby Eurasian plate at this point, with this distance growing by about 2.5 cm a year.  At some point in the future a cataclysmic rupture is bound to happen right where we stood.

Then it was on the Eurasian tectonic plate, but with no fanfare or obvious geological features to mark it - but then, after the grandeur of the other side, it would be hard to match anyway.  We spent much of the rest of the day in Eurasia - no passport required!

A truly fantastic tour and overloaded with historical, geological and simply grandeural(??) overload, we ate bread rolls and supped on Aquavit in our room at night.

Monday was a rest day, soaking in some of the previous day’s experience, washing, blogging, Happy Houring and finally eating at an extraordinarily sub-ordinary Chinese café at great expense at night.

 Snaefellsnes Peninsula Tour

But next day was the Snaefellsnes Peninsula Tour: perhaps even more spectacular than the Golden Circle Tour.  The giant glacier atop the mountain was distant, but omnipresent even at 200km distance.  We saw dozens/scores of waterfalls (fosses in Icelandic), cascading down the mountains from the interior snowmelt and creating hundreds of crystal-clear creeks and rivers.  At one time, some locals sent a sample of the river water to an international laboratory to see what minerals it contained.  Receiving no response, they contacted the lab to enquire as to progress with the testing - only to be ridiculed by the analysers for wasting their time sending obviously distilled water for testing!  Did I say crystal clear!?

We explored one wonderfully picturesque foss and associated lake close up - pics will eventually be posted.  Just across the road from this great waterfall is a mountain that was historically assumed to be rather nondescript until a photo of it was unexpectedly voted one of the world’s ten most iconic mountains and a tourism cavalcade ensued.  The mountain has featured in quite a lot of films, but alas, I don’t recall which.  Maybe my photos will prompt some memories.

We had a superb fish lunch at a restaurant where our guide knew the chef.  He seemed to know a lot of people, but had worked in a small local hotel with this chef - recently returned to Iceland as chef at a 3 Michelin hat restaurant in Europe.  The food was excellent and because at least 10 of us agreed to purchase the fish special, we got it at half price: much closer to what we would pay for a similar meal in Oz.

We walked along the cliff from a charming tiny enclosed fishing harbour, past some awe-inspiring sink-holes too scary to get close enough to see the bottom, past a delightful bird-encrusted lake, past more cliffs filled mainly with nesting gulls, lava caves and blowholes, a fantastic rocky arch to a lookout with more caves, more nesting kittiwakes and a mass of hexagonal basaltic columns formed by the lava cooling more slowly.  To add spectacle to amazing wonder, the columns were not straight, but twisted and bent in line with the strata being formed at the time.  A geology lesson in itself!

Then on the way back to our little bus, we passed a man-made stone structure representing a monument to a local troll.  Icelanders are very superstitious and many still believe in good and bad trolls and other forces that seem quite alien to us.  Most of the island’s roads were built about 100 years ago when superstition was even more rife and many roads take unexpected detours to avoid crossing evil troll-infested sites (or to proceed through beneficent troll areas), much like our sacred sites in Australia only more so.  And many people still ascribe or predict events to the beneficial or vengeful actions of trolls - and act accordingly, doing good things or avoiding bad omens just to be on the safe side.

We visited a beach made of black pebbles and vicious looking lava outcrops.  It was surrounded by a lava field, mostly covered with wonderful soft silvery-green moss and lichens.  After the lave cools, dust is blown in and microscopic lichen, fungus and algae start to grow, followed a few millennia later by the mosses that continue to break down the lava into what eventually becomes arable land - if it is not then covered by more lava or a glacier.

It was a long tour, almost 12 hours of utter wonder.  We had walked several delightful kilometres and climbed quite a few steps and were quite tired by the time we reached our hotel so just ate what was in the fridge and went to bed, weary but still buzzing with the excitement of all we had seen. For me, a little bonus was the improved variety and number of birds we saw along the way, many of which we had been able to view with surprising clarity.

Our last day in Iceland was almost an anticlimax.  I went for a long walk around Reykjavik in the morning.  Heather’s ankle that she broke a couple of years ago was too sore to accompany me and we just reviewed photos, wrote stuff, repacked and had a Happy Hour in preparation for the long trip to St Johns on the morrow.

But given the chance, we would be back in Iceland with a campervan for a month or more perhaps risking the shoulder period to see the best of the whole island in all sorts of weather.  It is definitely a place that should be on everyone’s Bucket List and even after being here, it is still on ours!

[dramallamadingdang]

I really like your new hood. What kind of visual editing are you doing? Also, what exactly are the rules of this hood? I tried looking it up with the tags, but alas, it wasn't explained fully. Is this a Zombie Apoc challenge? I'm doing a variation of the one on MTS2, but it takes place in post-War California, circa 1939, if Germans invaded the US. Please let us know your rules for this hood! Thanks! child_of_air

Oh dear, this is going to be really long, sorry. :)

1) The pic-editing. I made a Photoshop action to do that. At first, I was going to edit pics of that neighborhood in a warm, low-contrast sepia-tone. Because I like sepia-tone. So, I fiddled with an existing sepia-tone action I had (one meant for regular photographs) to make it work with Sim-pics. It does everything non-destructively, with adjustment layers, so the original image remains intact "underneath." But then I decided that I wanted SOME color but still low-contrast and matte and kind of grainy. So, on top of the sepia-toning layer group, I plopped down another copy of the original image and set a "Soft Light" layer blend with the layers below to merge it with the sepia-toning. THEN I edited a "film" Photoshop action that I had on hand to make it work better with Sim-pics, then ran THAT on the copy of the original image. Again, it works via adjustment layers, non-destructively. Then I reduced the opacity of the "film" layer group and the second copy of the original image so that the sepia-toning below merged better with the added-back color, resulting in the kind of images I've been posting.

THEN I recorded ALL of the above into a one-click Photoshop action that'll work on most Sims-pics. It'll sometimes need to be further adjusted, especially if the original image is really dark, like an outdoor nighttime pic with little or no light source, but for many pics, it's just one click.

I could share the action, if anyone would be interested in having it or fiddling with it for their own use, but it is still dependent on the other two actions that I edited. I'm not sure how to share all three together since one of the dependent actions is bundled with about a dozen others. I don't know how to extract just the one. I suppose I could just share the whole bundle, though. It's a very nice bundle that offers lots of nice effects, actually! :) I'm pretty sure it's one of the hundreds of free ones my hubby has, since he has the ones he paid for in a different folder on the networked external archive drive... Well, if anyone wants it, let me know, and I'll look into it. :)

Now as for the rules....

There really isn't a hard-and-fast set, I'm afraid. I'm kind of making things up as I go along. Initially, this was SUPPOSED to be just a neighborhood to test out some of Sun & Moon's stuff and some playing ideas prior to using those things in another neighborhood I'm developing but where I don't want to experiment. Then it kind of took on a life of its own. *laugh* It has BACC elements merged with the "backstory" of an Apocalypse that can also easily be a "pioneer" or “homesteading” kind of thing with no apocalyptic undertones. :) There are also some elements of an "integrated" playing style. In its pure form that would mean that everything has to be "built" in-hood, with nothing just appearing out of the air. I don't want to go full-on with that -- too tedious and therefore un-fun, IMO -- but I do have some supply chains. More on that further down.

Basically, it goes like this: The end of civilization was coming (Plague, nuclear war, zombies, who knows? And who cares? :) ), and only one person seemed to realize it. That one person was in college at the time. So, rather than focus on his studies so much -- After all, civilization was ending so there goes that MBA and lucrative corporate career, right? -- he focused on making as many friends as possible and convincing them that, "Hey, world's gonna end, we need to get outta Dodge and make a new world." Slowly, he gathered a group of friends -- people who lived in the dorm, a few professors, hell, even a cheerleader -- who believed him and started to make preparations. Everyone else made fun of them, of course, but who cared about that? They were all gonna die or whatever. After graduation, they left, trekking out into the wilderness with (in my imagination) enough stuff like preserved food and potable water and seeds to plant and candles to burn and shovels and saws and stuff like that, to get them by for a while.

And sure enough, they were right! Civilization collapsed. Infrastructure was destroyed or became nonfunctional. Telecommunications systems were gone even if there'd been electricity to run such devices. This group of 16 is out in the wilderness, and other survivors/escapees/whatever are wandering around, too. But the core group has a collectively-agreed-up mission to work cooperatively to make a new and better and simple-living world: Peaceful, completely egalitarian, communal, a world where money and power neither exist nor are desirable, where everyone works together, willingly, for the good of the collective, a world living in harmony with nature. (Basically, my ideal world. *laugh* I really am a communist at heart, only without the oligarchical totalitarianism that modern attempts at communism have been corrupted by.)

At first, they all lived together in one place, sleeping in quickly-built, rough cabins, doing potty business in bushes, collecting rain water for makeshift showers, and eating food that they brought, that they grew/gathered, or that they caught. All the while, they were busy putting together the "raw materials" they needed to build individual houses to live in, each dedicated to a specific function that benefits the community as a whole, the fruits of which would be shared equally with the entire community. Each time a production goal was reached, one person/couple could move off the communal "raw materials" lot and into the lot that could be "built" from the gathered raw materials. And the community grows from there.

Meanwhile, there are those other folks, wandering around alone and frightened and helpless in the wilderness, having escaped whatever the disaster was that occurred. Sometimes, members of the community meet up with them while they're out scoping out the territory. Those poor souls can be brought into the fold as well, added to the communal lot and becoming contributing members of the community.

And that's as far as the "story" goes for now. :) Bear in mind that my neighborhood is age-modded with this mod, so my Sims have PLENTY of time to live out their lives. Not sure playing this way will really work with the standard-length lifestages. You'd have to figure out ways to speed things up rather a lot, I would think or else your founders will be dead before they can even earn a house, much less reproduce and stuff. :) But anyway, the "rules," such as they are, so far:

1) No careers. No vacations. No Uni after the initial "gather your founders" part, if you do that. No subhoods at all. And no money, so if you want to you can give your households a million simoleons because it simply doesn't matter.

2) No electricity. No indoor plumbing. (I intend to add those things as they are "earned," down the line, but only at the earliest when the first born-in-game generation are adults. Haven't figure out exactly HOW it'll be earned, though.) No phones. No nannies, repair people, maids, gardeners, etc., unless you want to set up some sort of in-neighborhood system for that. (Which is certainly doable; I plan to do it later, once my supply chains are in place and I'm looking for "employment" for new people.) No vehicles except "vehicle horses." (Only once you have a horse farm!) Use candles for light sources. Use only charcoal grills for cooking. (Unless you want to download an historical-type oven, but I'm trying to run this with less CC, not more, and I want there to be some big rewards for earning electricity.) Don't use an electric fridge. (I'm using this one.) Use an outhouse, not indoor flush toilets. Use mods so that water has to be gathered to use to fill bathtubs and sinks. Stuff like that. 

3) I recommend using the Visitor Controller to ban all but playable Sims from every lot. Also ban mail and newspaper delivery. You COULD make the neighborhood from empty templates and no stealth hoods, yes, but then you're going to lose the "meet people by hiking" thing, which is how "new blood" gets added to this neighborhood. That function draws from the NPC household that includes things like the BV tourists/locals and the hobby leaders and stuff like that. If you use empty templates and whatnot, you won't have that.

4) Get yer founders. I did this via sending Komei Tellerman to Uni and having him focus on making friends amongst the dormies, professors, and Uni NPCs so that all the founders would at least have a strong relationship with him, if no one else, but you could just make a bunch in CAS if you’d rather skip that part. Or if you don’t have Uni installed, of course. :)

5) Build an initial lot to dump everyone on. (I teleported them with the Sim Blender, aged them to regular adults, gave them the extra want slots they should have as college graduates, etc., since they weren’t yet playables in Uni.) Include everything they need for basic motive-filling but not much else. (You could put a working stack of books somewhere if you want them to skill, but really? With no careers, skilling isn't really all that necessary.) There will also need to be ways to make/gather raw materials. Here's the layout of the one I made, with some useful links to stuff I used on it. This lot houses the founders, any new members added to the community, and ALL born-in-game Sims once they reach teenhood, until they earn individual lots.

Note: For me, I did not want kids on this lot. They have to wait until they earn an individual lot for that. So the only place to autonomously woohoo is the park benches I used as seating for eating. But, I have ACR set so that woohoo on sofas/park benches requires privacy...which is hard to get on a lot with no real walls and a bunch of other people living on it. :) If you DO want them to have kids, then they could woohoo in the cabin-tents, but ACR doesn't enable autonomous tent-woohoo, so...yeah.

Note 2: I let the communal lot run pretty much entirely on free will, only commanding certain Sims to do certain things at certain times. That way, the residents form their own relationships and either succeed or fail at taking care of themselves. They also develop different sleep schedules, which is nice for the player, less of them to keep an eye on at any given time. :) It's also easier to NOT micromanage 16 or more Sims at once, naturally. But this, of course, would be up to the player and how you like to play.

4) Earning a lot: The communal lot has choppable trees, the mining rocks from Sun & Moon's mining set, and Nixnivis's blacksmith station on it. I have fiddled with the trees and the mining rocks to make them autonomous, and the rule is that Sims can never be commanded to chop trees or mine ore. They must decide to do that themselves, so production is limited by how industrious your Sims are. Further, the mined ore has to be "refined" (into things like nails and other things that go into a house). For this, I use the blacksmith station, just having a person make that object's basic single horseshoe object as as "stand-in." (This isn't autonomous; it's one of the things that Sims can be commanded to do.)

NOTE: I could share the edited autonomized choppable trees if someone wants to use this idea; I don't think Beck would care. But sharing the edited autonomized mining rocks would break Sun & Moon's policy, so if you want that, you'd have to do the editing yourself. It's not hard, if you can run SimPE.

In order to earn each new individual lot, the communal lot must produce 75 bundles of chopped logs and 40 horseshoes. And each horseshoe “requires” 2 buckets of ore, so you need to keep track of how many buckets of ore you have in inventories and subtract out the appropriate number of ore buckets when a batch of horseshoes is made. (Just sell them "to the air;" money doesn't matter. Much of the crafting in this hood will work the same way, too, with "prerequisite" objects that need to be produced somewhere first, so get used to the technique. *laugh*) So to get those 40 horseshoes, 80 buckets of ore have to be (autonomously!) mined first. Once you have the required materials, remove them from inventories and sell them to the air. Then, you can build an individual lot and move whoever you want to own the lot out of the communal one.

(You might want to adjust the requirements needed for how you play. For instance, if you don’t want to go pure free-will, you should probably have much higher requirements. If you don’t age-mod, then you’ll want to adjust simply because you just won’t have time to earn lots with enough time left over for your Sims to have kids to keep the neighborhood going. So, yeah. That’s certainly not set in stone; it’s just what works for my set-up.)

5) Supply chains and stuff: Before you build your first individual lot(s), you're going to want to choose what that lot will be dedicated to, because that will dictate how you build it. My list of possibilities -- so far, that is; it's ever-growing as I get new ideas and figure out how to implement them -- is as follows:

RobotsFlower ArrangingToy-MakingPotterySewingSpinning/KnittingWeavingCattleChickensHorsesPigsSheepGoatsWineryPaintingDog/Cat BreederBeesBakingMarijuanaCandle-makingFishingHayCornMaxis OrchardBasketryHerbs/WildflowersHunting/TanningTrappingApothecary (Plus reagents, if witches)Blacksmithing

Some of those are Maxis things. Some of them are CC. Some of them don't actually exist and I'm using stand-ins instead. (Like, for instance, candle-making. Sun & Moon's beekeeping set produces beeswax as one of its end products, along with honey. They didn't yet make a candle-making station, though, so in the meantime, I'm just gonna use the robot station or something and pretend. They can make toy robots that can be one-for-one "exchanged" for functional candles, which can then be distributed. It's easy to do because money doesn't matter.) Most of them have "prerequisites." I'm not going to go into how all of these will work because I'd be here for days, but I'll give you one example of a supply chain and its prerequisites and stuff.

Let's talk about the sewing supply chain, clothing and blankets and stuff being the ultimate end-products of that supply chain. In order to have new clothing and towels and quilts/blankets and other nice decorative things like that, first, at the very bottom of the "pyramid," you gotta have someone who'll grow hay. Because you can't have sheep (and other livestock) without something to feed them. And you can't have wool without sheep. (Or growing cotton or flax for linen or making silk or something, and if I can figure out how to make THAT happen, I will. I have an idea brewing for marijuana -- think hemp -- but for now...sheep.) And you can't knit a sweater or produce fabric without cleaning and spinning that wool into yarn/usable fiber/thread. And you can't have fabric without someone with a loom to weave it. And you can't have leather (for shoes and stuff) without someone killing some kind of animal (domesticated or hunting wild ones) and tanning the hides. ONLY THEN can you have someone making new clothing. And at each step, there's a kind of conversion. Like "1 spun basket of wool = enough yarn to make 1 sweater." So, you sell the basket of wool (obtained from the sheep farmer) to the air, then "spin" (via a CC spinning wheel plus an invisible sewing machine to make a few potholders or something as a "stand-in" for the process), then you sell those potholders to the air and use Beck's knitting ball to make one piece of clothing which can then be distributed and used to "buy" one sweater or whatever.

That's how everything basically works in a supply chain, some of which have more steps than others. Producing new clothing would be the longest one I've come up with so far. So, when building your lots, if you want to use supply chains at all, you must start out with the "anchors" of the supply chains you want to have. If you don't want to be that complicated, you could just pick randomly or pick whatever appeals to you.

6) Individual lots: Plop down a lot. On that lot, build a house but leave room outside for the lot's function plus the outhouse, the outdoor fridge, a well/water pump and a garden. (Eventually gardens can go away, once you have enough food-producers that can consistently produce enough to distribute amongst the population. But until then, folks will need to grow stuff.) The size of your lots is gonna depend on you and how you play. Me, I like smaller lots and I don't mind cramming large families into small houses...which suits a "pioneer" sort of lifestyle, anyway. So, my individual lots are no bigger than 3x3, and the house itself (they're all the same, just different colors, different furnishings, and oriented differently on the lot), for a child-producing household, is a 9x9 square with a 3-tile deep front porch across the front. Floor plan here.

7) Unlike a BACC where CAS Sims are “earned” by certain events, any new, non-born-in-game Sims have to be met via hiking. (It’s one of the possible outcomes of hiking.) It’s a substitute for being out “exploring” or “looking for wandering domesticate livestock to capture” or whatever. If a non-pet “someone” is met, that person gets added to the communal lot, joining the “queue” for an individual lot. (I just use the Sim Blender to teleport them into the communal lot and add them to the household.) I prefer to age up any children to teen and age down any elders to adults, but that’s up to you, of course.

Annnnnnd that's about it, really. I have yet to figure out exactly how the "economy" is going to run. At the moment, the individual lots are still producing stuff with not enough to distribute yet and I don't have any full supply chains yet...but I need to figure it all out soon. I'm leaning toward just equally distributing end-products in truly communist style, but I'm not sure yet. I could list some more miscellaneous rules...but I think that's enough for now. *laugh*

[firewritten]

Original Fic Fest Intro

Hi! I’m going to try to do @originalficfest, even though my focus/attention isn’t so great at the moment. :)

About me: I am in my 30s, married to an awesome spousal person, and my job is going around the city and taking pics and virtual tours of rental properties. We have lots of cats.

I wrote about growing up to be a writer on three separate occasions in my second grade journal. :) I’ve always loved writing, and I’ve been trying to do it somewhat consistently since 2009. 

I’ve played the Sims since the Sims 1 base game. In 2005 I shared my first Sims story, and I’ve been in love with the format ever since. It’s just really really fun to work with the game and use its images to help tell the stories and to find meaning and metaphors and character traits and plot in its landscape and mechanics and random happenings. But it’s okay if that’s not your thing. I write text-only short stories without Sims pics too. :)

My two main WiPs at the moment are both Sims stories, though. So if you’re not into that, here’s my short story index. Short Stories  Go read my stuff without pics! 

If you want to read the stuff with pics, here you go.

About my WiPs:

Surreal Darkness - link goes to the chapter index

When the town of Midnight Hollow came out for Sims 3, a nice person gifted it to me. The community complained about how dark the town was. I took some scenery pics of it that I thought were interesting, and I decided to caption the pics with silly little things about the darkness that everyone was complaining about.

It was really fun and I kept doing it with all of my scenery pics, and then it became a whole thing with the human and the darkness and their relationship and a plot. :) It is surreal and weird and random, but the relationship between the darkness and the human provides the structure. As they go through their adventures, they learn about friendship and communication and what they mean to each other.

The chapter posting now is actually the last part of this section of the story, and then the pen pal arc will start, with the darkness and the human writing letters to their pen pal, a friend’s personification of Death.

What’s the pen pal arc, you ask?

My other WiP:

Emo Pistols - link goes to the index of what I have up so far, which isn’t much and which I’ll probably delete and redo when I start officially posting it here.

One of my Sims friends had an idea for a pen pal project. People write profiles for their characters, and then they match with other writers and their characters, and they start writing letters back and forth. It’s co-written epistolary fiction. :)

I chose my character Seth Morrigan for the project.

Seth is a scientist who studies alchemy and who is currently trying to find a way to travel between universes. There was a fire in his lab a while ago. He’s recovered physically, but he’s still dealing with the trauma emotionally. It doesn’t help that the lab fire ripped the scabs off his older traumas. 

He’s not currently working. His wife decided it’d be best for him to get away from the memories of the fire, and they moved to the city of San Myshuno for a fresh start. Seth misses his work and his garden, and also he’s pretty sure the sun is trying to eat him.

He signs up for the pen pal project in an attempt to find others to talk to and to escape his isolation. A retired literature professor and a person who lives in a smug house with rotating gardens reach out to him. Maybe, with their help, he will eventually make peace with the sun.

And that’s everything, I think! Looking forward to participating! :)

[spiritualcuriosities]

Backyard wildflowers 1/?

(A series of posts on wildflowers and volunteers in my backyard. I wanna share my flower and plant pics. My parents have been letting the garden go more this past year so I have lots of pics of the "weeds". I fought off so many mosquitos to take these.)

One of my favorite times of the year is now, when summer is on its way out and fall is scooching in. I love the weather and I love GOLDENROD!

A member of the aster family, goldenrod is a huge variety of plants spanning over 100 species, most native to North America. They can be seen brightening fields, roadsides, and open woods in late summer to the first frost, depending on species and hardiness zone. Most species don't like to be disturbed much, so anywhere off the side is Free Realestate™️. They're often seen as a weed and blamed for seasonal allergies, but they are insect-pollinated as seen above, not air-pollinated - their pollen doesn't cause congestion or itchy eyes (unless you shove your face directly into the flowers). If you're interested in insects, watching over some goldenrod is sure to give you a nice variety of native pollinators to admire. You can literally watch pollen sacs fill up in bright yellow. Our patches often host bumblebees and other small native bees. Butterflies, too.

That being said, goldenrod doesn't play nice with others. It's an aggressive perrenial and spreads quickly and efficiently, using both aerial seeds and rhizomes to take over flowerbeds. It can be considered an invasive species if introduced to another ecosystem. Some species are less aggressive, but they're less likely to be the volunteers springing up on your property or by the railroads. Ime, it does better with other aggressive native plants. The phlox and black-eyed susans in our yard balance them fairly well. If you don't want them in yours, pull em up sooner rather than later. They're harder to uproot the older they get.

Scientific name: Solidago spp.

Common names: Aaron's rod, woundwort, goldruthe, goldenrod

Height: 2 - 6.5 feet (depending on species)

Uses: can be used to make pretty yellow dye, as well as herbal tea. The leaves of all species of goldenrod are edible, and can be used medicinally (WITH CAUTION). They are diuretic, anti-inflammatory, and can be found in a pill form (more reliable dosage and guaranteed food grade, so no worries about pesticides or roadside pollution) as an herbal supplement. Doctors are still studying it, and there is "insufficient data on its effectiveness". Please remember that even if a plant is "all natural", that doesn't mean it won't have side effects or that it won't negatively interact with other meds or herbal treatments. Even stuff like Tylenol. Consult a doctor or licensed herbalist who knows your medical history. I've never eaten ours cuz I already pee a lot (they're diuretic, remember), our leaves often have an unknown fungus on them, and I live in Chicago so contamination with neighbors' pesticides and stuff is possible.

Personal Associations: (YMMV) drawing things to you, liminality, joy, confidence, warmth, mutual support, abundance, meeting goals through more than one way/path, wishes (native alternative to dandelion seeds), determination/perseverance, if you want a spell to lodge its roots deep and grab hold hard and fast it's a good plant to recruit. This may make it harder to undo, tho. Goldenrod's worked with magic users and herbalists for a long time, so it tends to be easier to approach and work with.

Warning: MAKE SURE a plant is truly edible and you aren't allergic to it before harvesting. Goldenrod has DEADLY look-alikes. (I may do a post on em, tho I haven't found any near my house). DONT DIE. Harvest Responsibly, most golden rod are native species. Google how to do that.

Now that that's done:

Look at these fuckers

These babes grow over 6ft tall. Called Solidago gigantea for a fuckin reason. (Ft. Some black eyed susans and a little pink phlox hiding back there). They prefer full sun

Look how tiny those compound flowers are.

Serrated 3-veined alternating leaves, no branching stem, leaves tend to get slightly bigger further down the stem, no leaves at the base. Diameter of stem is almost an inch. Somewhat woody. Deep roots.

The height on this dude is close to 5ft, but the way the flowers cluster and arc on it seems different from the S. gigantea species. Not sure, but possibly S. canadensis? Goldenrods make hybrids easily due to the large variety, so taxonomy is difficult. Local field guides can help. Couldn't get a closer look cuz the wild blackberry was stAbBIng mE.

No idea what these pointy pyramid/mountain kids are either. Bugs like em tho. Its not a fluke, there's multiple of them in the more shady area of the yard. Seems to be comfy in partial shade. No leaf serration, single vein, alternating growth with leaf rosettes, couldn't see the base. I wanna say 4-5 ft tall?

[grazhir]

Ugh +

Woke up feeling like shit. Migraine plus a seriously tense neck. Fuck you very much, right? Imitrex, a Thermacare on my neck, some anti-nausea, plus my normal meds (for the ulcer thing and my sinuses).

An hour later and I'm feeling mostly human again (my sinuses are a bitch today, though).

I keep forgetting to plug the Switch into my machine so I can yank a copy of any screenshots. It's also annoying that even having hit Disconnect last time, my machine keeps occasionally telling me it's no longer connected. I mean, yeah? I know that. Christ. No idea how to fix that.

All the villager houses are now off on the west side of the island, in the pattern I found online. Above that are the campsite + the other profile's house (Mr Man, my gateway to online stuff like downloading custom designs and visiting other people's islands, because again, not a family account).

I also paved pretty much everything over there to prevent weeds, fossil markers, etc, with a custom path design over the top for sorta brickwork...

Above that (as the villagers on are two levels) is a mostly open area, though it does hold a custom design painted on the floor as a blanket, with a picnic basket, some cushions, lanterns, etc. An Easter Island-type statue (I need a second one). Fixed the inclines over there, too.

The rest of the back end of the island is fruit trees. Three each of everything, and since they're all mature, it's paved all around those, too. Again, to prevent weeds, fossils, rocks, etc.

My own little area has been slightly redone, with my house being moved sideways, above the 5-wide vending area between ResSrv and Nook's Cranny.

Far left is now the black roses area, then what should be a rock garden but isn't yet, bamboo (which'll probably get moved? maybe), with a "planting" area for gyroid fragments and its sign. The house, then another planting-type area that only has gold roses and two lily-of-the-valley (from hitting 5 Star again). Also, the money tree section with its sign.

Behind that, across the river, is a ton of flowers I need to dig up and sell (I've mostly kept hybrids) or confine better. But there are simple panels marching along the side of the upper level to disguise the "dirt" sides. Incline removed, repositioned slightly, and upgraded to a stone staircase.

And below the shopping strip is still a vegetable garden, but it's being redone, mostly to remove the fencing (I hate bumping into the stuff or accidentally yoinking it when I'm trying to pick veggies) and use flooring instead.

If I remember I'll get pics and then have to remember to yank them so I can share.

The villager area... Well, I'd redo it already if I had the patience, but I won't. I should have pushed everything to the right at least one more square, but I was working with what I already had in terms of where the river is. Meh.

But I know better for if and when we get a second Switch (hoping for the OLED one, because it has a nicer kickstand, and it's better for me since I have used the Switch we have docked all of once). And since we'd need a family account, I could hook up the existing profile plus the new one, and have my current character terraform the new island (in theory) so that I could get everything laid out first, then start dropping housing plots and stuff.

Might start posting tomorrow, might not. Dunno yet. Still need to compile Vol 1-3 of Samsara into a single e-book, then do the same with Vol 4-6 (so I can link those at the end of six at AO3, along with the stand-alone copy of 6, once it's on the last chapter).

[thekillingmoonmoon]

noooo boo rain, but yay thesis! i think... i've never written one ^_^;;;

i am buzzing with excitement for dahlia because your charming, hypnotizing ran is how i found you <3

and my dear rindou... "we should date" straight and to the point and just my type of romantic XD

i don't see an issue with your handwriting, i write in caps too! i like to think of it as "yelling politely" in my notes. red ink if i want to be slightly less polite. your Z and 5 are my favourites.

i laughed pretty loudly at the takeomi pic because while your caption was (he scream) when i saw it what i heard was (old man noises). i did see the talk about every angel emoji-covered face dying, and that maybe senju as the third deity has the dark impulse too? south was terrifying this chapter, i'm worried for everyone in his war path. is mikey's blankness because of draken or is this his new normal and biding his time watching south to plan a counter attack? i only caught up recently so may have to re-read to have better insight. i feel like i missed things the first time that i'd pick up on now.

the mess that bonten would be if it were all a shared universe... sounds amazing haha. thinking about it, i really like the theme of platonic soulmates T-T and your terrible vision is so very not-terrible! i think it's cute!

no worries about business hours. i make renderings for people so there are pockets of time where i can zone out while setting up the scene or choosing things like trees and furniture. it can sometimes get hectic but right now it's okay. what about you? i keep leaving these walls but is the frequency a distraction? i can space them out more if it is. i think people understand how much you're juggling all at once, i remember a bit ago you had a comment up on the garden about october being busy and that you were modifying your schedule to suit.

sorry i made you rant and if i hit a touchy subject =(

halloween is pretty big in my area, the neighbourhood has been slowly populating their front properties with stuff. there's one house nearby that has brightly lit, kid friendly decorations on the path to its front door but if you look to the far corner on the other side of the house they've hung this airy but drapey ghost looking thing that only juuuust catches your eye when it's dark and it scares the expletives out of me every time. i hate it. well done.

gallivanting across the country sounds fun! i hope you have a lot of fun things planned and that you get to recharge =)

hello hello >.< I hope you're doing well, sweets <3

Writing a thesis is an experience, lemme tell you. I think I've gone through every emotion (except satisfaction) throughout the past year. But I've had a very intersting growing experience? let's call it that. I have more work due the end of this week before I depart, so fingers, toes, and any other limbs crossed that it goes well.

Rindou... rindou rindou rindou. honestly he's more Past!Moon's taste than Ran, but I felt like writng for Ran would be more fun than reliving my past messes -_- I'm writing a scene with him right now, and I hope I'm doing it justice.

I just love the concept of everything taking place at once, especially with Bonten. Imagining the more mature men like Takeomi, Mochi, and Kakucho just having to deal with depressed/in denial Koko, and the weird tension between Ran and Rindou (before dahlia). And Mikey and Sanzu just being completely oblivious. Mikey because he's also a depressed husk of a human, and Sanzu because well.. Sanzu is Sanzu.

I've hhad a few issues with writing - just mostly not being able to do the thing where I go into the same sort of trance rose red and marigold pulled out of me, but right now I'm sitting and listening to my dad's old records/vinyl and that might do the trick.

and yes! Takeomi is thee definition of *old man noises*, poor guy. Have you seen all the theories about him? I'm a little sad, mostly because I thought I'd finally found an unproblematic fave... oh well, he can join the rest of the horrible men I enjoy...

Oh gosh.. red ink?? i don't use that a lot. I write in black or pencil really. I use red for headings though, but that's about it. and rendering? for like video games? my ex did something similar if that's what you do. it's far too advanced for my granny-brain. I think any digital art/visual stuff is too much for me lol. And the walls are always welcome. I tend to have a lot of downtime with my own job, where I just sit and wait for emails, and as much as I try use those breaks to write/work on my thesis, your messages are always so fun to answer.

I've planned everything out except for the last fic.. number 30... do you have any requests? I've been considering the following:

Draken x reader x Inupi

Shinichiro x reader x Takeomi

naoto x reader

but if you have something particular that you'd like to see me try, I'm all eyes and ears!

Never apologise! I'm sorry I had a weird rant :(

Oh god, oh god oh fuck. If I ran into that resident ghostie of yours I would cry. I get frightened by my partner coming around a corner unexpectedly, or if my cupboard is open, so I would not handle it at all.. although I spend an unhealthy amount of time listening to podcasts about hauntings/true crime/spooky things - I like to pretend it's forr my thesis but yikes.

I'm so excited for the trip. I went shopping for the wedding outfit and have made all the necessary arrangements to meet up with old friends and family. I'm also going to go to the large telescope in the middle of nowhere, and I'm very keen to stare at some stars.

how is your week looking? anything planned? is it getting cold/hot where you are? xxx

[celestial-astro]

Seungmin

It's during the time they are on a tour. He's taking some time off with his members, trying to have some fun. Explore the place. Its a foreign land. Not S. Korea. You happen to be at the same place alone. You are there waiting for your friend who is running late. You decide to get a cup of coffee because its cold outside and you needed some caffeine to wake you up. It's a pretty morning. The air is crisp. You get your coffee and decide to sit on a bench facing a fountain. There all of a sudden a guy taps you and asks you in a broken english to click his and his friends picture. You take his mobile and that’s when you see Seungmin, some of his band members and his friends posing. You will take their pic and then while handing the mobile back Seungmin comes forward to take the mobile. Cheeky vibes. I see him 'accidentally' brushing your fingers. You whisper, "I like your voice/songs" and he goes 😳because he was not expecting that you know him. I don't see him as someone who makes reckless decisions but he will invite you to one of their concert. I see numbers getting exchanged. But he wants to impress you. And he will. You will get to attend one of his concert the next day. Also a shy message sent by you. Something like "thanks for the tickets". It will be the beginning of a very long and fulfilling friendship which will blossom into a relationship that you never expected. Video calls, long talks. You both planning to visit each other because this one will be a LDR. There will be up downs because of conflicting schedules, time zone difference and also language. But you both will put in efforts to understand e/o language. Also i see him hosting vlives and singing your favourite songs. He will give hints online. Also there is one dish that you will not like but it will be his favourite. He can start to avoid it and fans will notice that. He is very respectful towards you. He will always try to make you feel comfortable and safe. I see lots of hand holding. Your dates will be sneaky. Late movie night. Him holding your hand in the dark. He will thank you a lot. Pillowtalk. relationship with you will never be revealed. Its so well hidden. People will never guess. But he feels bad about it. He just wants to love you like a normal human being but cannot because of sasaengs. I see him telling you the same. There maybe fights over the distance between you two. But you both will get over it. He's the type who will lightly squeeze your hand and telk you how thankful he is that you gave him a chance. He will always thank you before saying I love you. He will just put you on a pedestal. He is very giving and you will love this. You will keep his heart safe <3

This was long. Sorry in advance. I used tarot and my intuition.

For me (if you want to) - jungkook (bts)

-n🧙🏻

Hi n 🧙🏻! Thank for such an extensive reading! I really appreciate it! 💗

Your relationship with Jungkook is very mature. The two of you will most likely be into more serious conversations. You enlighten each other. You will definitely learn a great deal of each other. There are a lot of life lessons you will share with each other. There might also be a great deal of emphasis on privacy, so this relationship will not be as public. You will most likely meet in secret in the beginning of this relationship. He will not want to expose you to the public because of possible unwarranted criticism and hate. Fans will have a lot to say if they find out he is in a relationship. There are also a lot of romantic moments in this relationship. He will be very generous with both his time and resources. He will enjoy giving you gifts. He will probably be the type of boyfriend to bring home roses for no reason. He thinks that he doesn’t need a reason to give you gifts. He will also shower you with a lot of praise. You might meet on accident in an outdoor setting ( it could be a park/garden). You might just accidentally bump in to each other, and get acquainted that way. This relationship most likely began with both parties already romantically interested in each other. You might start meeting each other with the intention of dating. You will most likely skip the “friendship step” since you will be really comfortable with each other. Overall, this is such a sweet and romantic dynamic.

I hope this reading is not too short! Thank you for your reading, and I hope you like yours! 🌸✨

[levis-hazelnut]

sfkjgfdh sorry for doing this so late omg

Who are you shipping? Con con my love of course hehe

1. Who said I love you first? i feel like we both kinda just had this mutual understanding that we loved each other even tho it was never explicitly said. but since connie is the more sappy one in our relationship lol i think he'd be the first to actually voice it out

2. Where was your first official date? What did you wear? (in my eyes connie is a skater boy 😌) it was at the skate park cos connie thought that teaching me how to skate would be a fun cute lil date and it really would be fun cos i know he'd laugh when i fall or something and we'd both just end up laughing and messing around. connie would've worn a t-shirt with a flannel on top with some baggy jeans and i see him wearing a lil thin silver chain. i would've worn a knee-high dress with some leggings

3. Tell us about your first Valentines together. please this man goes all out on valentine's day i just know it. he's gonna be showering me in love and i feel like we'd spend the whole day together but he'd do something special to end the night. i know he has so many different presents too and they're all meaningful, he just loves to show how much he loves me 🥺

4. Do you have a song together/your song. hmm i think that connie is a massive taylor swift fan lmao and i think his fave song would be love story (its mine too) so whenever we hear it we belt it out together

5. What you both do that makes the other weak in the knees. everything he does makes me weak in my knees 💀 but more specifically lmaooo i feel like connie speaks Spanish and that has me on my knees, i also think he loves to give head pats and those make me so weak along with his forehead kisses, basically a lot of little things he does make me weak lol and for him, i cant think of a lot but i think when i wear his clothes and smile with my teeth (cos i never really do) and maybe when I'm being clingy cos i also don't really be clingy a lot unlike him lmaoo

Date Ideas

6 Renting out a theatre for a double feature (what are you watching?) ngl i think it'd be a disney marathon lmao we're each gonna get snacks and just share them. connie's an idiot and he's gonna pretend like he's yawning and stretching so he can put his arm around my shoulders and I'd just roll my eyes at him. i think he'd fall asleep after a while but for a short while but i love this date idea its super cute skfjgdfh

7 Taking a sailboat to a private island YES i wanna do this it'd be so cute and romantic we can have a cute picnic and i might get a shirtless connie 😌

8 Hot air balloon ride (what city are you in?) i would wanna do this but i do be scared of heights but i think me and connie would still go and he'd make sure i feel safe. i'd wanna go in Cappadocia (turkey) cos it looks so pretty vnsdkfjh

9 Gondola ride through river of water lanterns AHH yes please, this would be so cute and so much fun omg imagine it at sunset i love it so much

10 Botanical gardens and nature walk i LOVE botanical gardens so much i'd spend hours there dragging connie around with me to everything and i'd be taking so many pics

💘 Anime Self Ship Valentines Edition! 💘

10 questions total. First half regular self ship, second half romantic date ideas! If any questions have already been included somehow, just add to it!

Questions

(as always) Who are you shipping?

1 Who said I love you first?

2 Where was your first official date? What did you wear?

3 Tell us about your first Valentines together.

4 Do you have a song together/your song.

5 What you both do that makes the other weak in the knees.

Date Ideas

6 Renting out a theater for a double feature (what are you watching?)

7 Taking a sailboat to a private island

8 Hot air balloon ride (what city are you in?)

9 Gondola ride through river of water lanterns

10 Botanical gardens and nature walk

bonus (if you want): what are you actually doing today?

tagging: @ack3rlady @levisbrat25 @hauntedhousecat @levi-supreme @nelapanela94 @holy-guacamoly @sckerman @levis-hazelnut

and whoever else wants to do this. Just including my normal shippers! I can add you next time if you'd like :)

Questions (as always) Who are you shipping? Sticking with Levi this time 1 Who said I love you first?

I did. It was a couple months into our relationship and I just felt so in love with him at that moment it slipped out. While I didn't take it back, I could see he was shocked, so was going to tell him it was okay if he didn't say it back. Before I could even finish the sentence he was already saying it back. 2 Where was your first official date? What did you wear?

Our first official date was pretty simple and more so hanging out. We went to a book store. I had a pale forest green shirt dress with a collar and large belt. It was cotton and went to my knees. Still love it. Also wore black ankle booties. Levi is handsome in basically anything, and also kept it pretty casual. Long sleeve, button down collared grey shirt, and black pants. Honestly it's outfits we always wear anyway, so it felt very comfortable. We got tea and a snack at the cafe and spoke like we normally do but it felt different somehow. Went to our favorite sections and talked to each other about our favorite books, he took my hand for the first time somewhere between the fantasy and historical sections. I pulled him to the children's section and told him to pick out a cover he liked, and we sat on the floor while I read it to him. He picked The Berenstain Bears: Clean House. I couldn't stop smiling because Levi looked so soft and was listening so intently, and he didn't even notice that a couple kids came over to sit and listen as well until their parents came to find them. Levi bought the book. 3 Tell us about your first Valentines together.

He thinks it's overrated, and I don't care much since he shows me he cares in other ways, but Levi still wanted to do something. He invited me over and made me a delicious dinner, then we went for a drive and watched the night sky. I felt so close to him and we spent all night talking. Snapped a photo of us just before we drove back at sunrise to always remember it. We went our separate ways and I got a couple hours sleep before he was bringing me brunch in the form of heart shaped waffles. Was a little shy as I was in my pajamas. I sat in bed and he was in a chair and we watched tv quietly, then he took my tray, gave me a kiss and said he'd see me later. And then I went back to bed for a while! lol 4 Do you have a song together/your song.

Yes, When You Say Nothing At All. We dance to it when no one is watching. This man will put it on when we're having dinner and we just slow dance in the kitchen. The words are meaningful for us, as we don't always have to have words to know what the other is thinking. Soft touches and looks are more than enough. If he happens to hear it on the radio he will call me and put the phone on speaker so I can hear it to. If it goes to voice mail he lets it play and ends with "bye, love you." And hangs up! <3 5 What you both do that makes the other weak in the knees.

For me it goes back to the I Love You question. The way Levi is always there when I need anything, just makes me adore him. I don't even have to ask or say anything, he's just got it. Never makes it a big deal, even if I try to thank him, I just get a hand or shoulder squeeze, and maybe a kiss depending on where we are. For him, I'm pretty sure it's the small physical gestures like running my hand through his hair, putting a hand on his cheek, or laying my head on his shoulder when spending time together. He always looks so content and leans into my touches.

Date Ideas 6 Renting out a theater for a double feature (what are you watching?)

YES please! So excited for this one! There's popcorn, sour skittles and dark chocolate raisinets for snacks. We start with The African Queen, which while it has it's moments, is also an adventure film. Pretty sure Levi is a Bogart fan. Then it's Roman Holiday, where I gush over the scenery, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. It gives Levi vacation ideas, if we ever get one. Might invite a few other couples to meet the capacity requirement, but they have to get their own snacks and sit rows away from us. 7 Taking a sailboat to a private island.

I was going to say let's do this at sunset but I changed my mind, let's go for brunch! Beautiful clear water, a nice breeze on the way over. The skipper drops us off for a while and we wander about a bit, looking for shells, avoiding hermit crabs, and pulling fruit off the trees. We save it as there's already a brunch laid out for us on a picnic table. Tropical fruits and coconut water, mini donuts and breads, and tea! We take a catnap under a canopy and even splash around in the water for a bit while walking some more. 8 Hot air balloon ride (what city are you in?)

This might make me nervous but I wanna go! Can we be in Italy please? Tuscany, Naples, Florence, anywhere! Levi gives me earplugs due to the noise <3. I can't hear some of what he says now but once we're high enough I'm so enthralled by the view I wouldn't hear him anyway. He sneakily takes a few photos of me being awestruck, and we arrange my hair so you don't see the earplugs while someone takes our photo. The picture is one of our favorites. While no one is paying attention we share a kiss and I could drop to the floor with happiness from it all, honestly. 9 Gondola ride through river of water lanterns

(let's pretend this isn't hazardous)

OMG It's like I'm in Tangled?! When I say gondola, I'm not boat savvy, just something like a gondola, but Levis rowing cause ain't no one else allowed to be with us! It's slow going because we are both enjoying the scene and each other. All the shadows make it more romantic and I look at him every 20 seconds and tbh most of the time he's already looking back and I cannot be more in love with him! My heart might flutter out of my chest?! I lean in multiple times for kisses and at one point he pulls the oars in and holds me against his chest while we float along for a short time. 10 Botanical gardens and/or nature walk I'd have to think of the first part, because certain flower smells bother me, but they sure are pretty! We'll pretend they don't bother me. We go a little late so the sun doesn't bother us much. Every time we come to something I really like, I'm ready to go find it's plant and put it in our backyard. Levi is not letting that happen, at least until he researches which one (ONE!) will be the least work. Fallen flowers are put in my hair, and his too, as he rolls his eyes.

Nature walk for us is a park preserve with a long boardwalk through tall trees and lots of native wildlife. I feel like we do this anyway so if it's getting dark Levis like "we're not staying long, the gators will be active soon" or something *rolls eyes* we'll come back when it's light out and enjoy the ducks and swans and hopefully no mosquitos!

bonus (if you want): what are you actually doing today?

Some of us are single haha so, I'm writing and taking it easy and will be going to work late, and probably buy myself some discounted chocolate.

[lindoig4]

More bits and pieces

Bear scare

We had one day when there was a bit of a scare when the people cruising in the Zodiacs saw a bear climbing a ridge where a group of our walkers were passing. It didn’t look too threatening to me because the distance between them was reasonably large and the bear was not aware of them, but the crew were in a panic and radioing back and forth with the walkers to find a different way back to the beach.  Fortunately, all ended well except for the bear who presumably went hungry.

We have actually seen quite a few bears, nearly all tiny dots at the extreme end of our binoculars but I thought one morning was cute when we didn’t see Goldilocks, but we saw the Three Bears. Father Bear was high on the side of a mountain and we all piled into the Zodiacs to get a (slightly) less long-range view.  Then when we were parked at the beach, we noticed Mother Bear and a one-year old Baby Bear higher up and a couple of hundred metres away.  Bears are normally solitary animals and can be very aggressive (males often kill cubs, even their own) so maybe they didn’t know the other was so close.  But one day we saw another bear on the beach with what was (possibly) identified as the remains of a young beluga whale.  The bear was sated, but was not quite happy with all the glaucous gulls that wanted to share his breakfast.  We approached to about the legal minimum of 50 metres (although I think a lot of the crew’s tape measures were elastic – I reckon this 50 metres was closer to 100) and watched for half an hour or so.  The bear stood up and walked around a bit and eventually settled down again with the birds within swatting distance of his kill. In fact, he swatted one of the gulls, injuring it (so maybe it didn’t survive) but we had people carping about the cruelty of the bear injuring the gull but not putting it out of its misery for the rest of the cruise.  It is bad enough anthropomorphising the bear without then applying human ethics to it as well!

Health Issues

We both left home with quite bad coughs from the virus we had in June, but they have largely abated.  On the other hand my reflux problem(?) seems worse. Light exertion can make me feel really sick with a bit of chest pain and although it hasn’t stopped me doing anything, it has slowed me down a lot on several occasions.  Definitely something to be explored closely on our return to find a definitive remedy.

And Heather was really low for about 3 days with some sort of gastric bug that virtually confined her to bed and prevented her participating in any of the excursions or shipboard activities.  Fortunately, she recovered before the exciting part of the Greenland expedition started.  I felt very sorry for her but at least it meant she was forced to forgo the fossil hunt - lucky girl!

More on Wildlife

Of course, I love the birds, but there are not a lot of species around.  There are tens of thousands of gulls and kittywakes and a few skuas, but the beautiful white Ivory Gull and delicate and elegant Arctic Terns are my favourites.  The only shorebird we have seen has been the purple sandpiper (not many of them) and apart from a few high-flying gulls and kittywakes, the only birds we have seen away from the sea or beach have been some snow buntings.  None of these have been easy to see or photograph.

On the other hand, we have had several wonderful close encounters with walruses, Arctic foxes, reindeer and as mentioned above, one reasonable view of a Polar Bear.  We have glimpsed quite a few seals (best was the Bearded Seal) and the mighty Blue Whale.

And the flora has been pretty delightful too.  Tiny forests of trees, some in Autumn tonings and beautiful gardens of flowers, grasses, mosses and lichens (and one species of fungus), all in miniature.  Despite, or perhaps because of, their miniaturisation, they are spectacularly beautiful and the profusion of species in any fecund little niche is wonderful to behold. The tallest plant we have seen on land or in the sea is less than 10cm high and the areas where such mammoth grasses occur are very restricted.  Yet there are plenty of herbivores thriving on it, enough to keep a lot of big carnivores going, and that is a marvel when the paucity of suitable vegetation is considered.  The scarcest species are probably the insects.  Very few of them with a mountain of work to do to pollinate so many tiny flowers.  And of course, there are NO reptiles.

I think the uniqueness of the flora (particularly) and fauna up here has enthralled me.  I expected the birds to be a major focus for me, but we see all the usual suspects almost every day so the few mammals and mostly the flora have quite captivated me.  I don’t care if I never see another Polar Bear in the distance, but seeing an Arctic Fox, or an Arctic Saxifrage between my gum boots has become an unexpected delight.

I will try to get a lot more pics up, but the internet (or my PC) prevents me doing much. Posting text is a bit problematical, but photos are almost impossible.  I will keep trying, but I seem only to be able to load a few photos and it is then hours before I can get enough bandwidth to upload anything at all to the blog – but I will keep trying.