#i'm also happy to provide links to helpful pages if people want to read more - i don't reference specific studies because this isn't

[osaumu]

OSAMU DAZAI \ BRIEF ANALYSIS ON HIS MENTAL STATE.

warnings for topics of depression, death, apathy, antisocial personality disorder, suicide, abuse + psychopathy.

so i'm going to preface this by saying i am not a doctor and so this analysis is purely based off what is available in the source material and personal interpretations made from research. this is in no way a solid analysis, but i think when writing a character with the complexities dazai has, it's important to give a brief overview of what they are and how it will reflect in writing/interactions with other characters.

there are so many available analysis' on dazai having borderline personality disorder - i do not adhere to this. it is important to note that while dazai is based on a real person, the real dazai osamu lived in such a time where many diagnoses were either unavailable or not wholly trusted. please note that my analysis on osamu dazai, a character from bungo stray dogs, is not a reflection on his real life counterpart and is not meant to be interpreted as such.

firstly, i categorise dazai is living with clinical depression ( major depressive disorder ), which can manifest in many different ways but most notable to his character:

persistently low or depressed mood

anhedonia ( decreased interest in pleasurable activities )

sleep disturbances

suicidal thoughts and/or tendencies

some newer studies attribute mdd to sometimes, in certain individuals, exist alongside the learned helplessness theory which is the behaviour exhibited by a subject after enduring repeated aversive stimuli that which is beyond their control. the learned helplessness theory is a view that clinical depression may result from a real or perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation.

i would go as far to attribute this theory to dazai, as though he repeatedly shows control over his own choices, his view on the absence of control he has on the outcome of life is shown multiple times, seen especially when he poses the question to mori, is there really any point to this thing we call living? from the age of fourteen, we see that under mori's guidance dazai is left absent of choices. he watches him kill someone and is told he will bear witness, and is kept under mori's wing and given tasks and goals to work towards to keep dazai occupied and under his control. further to this, in expanded studies individuals living with the learned helplessness theory may have a pessimistic explanatory style and tend to see negative events as permanent i.e. "this will never change", "there's nothing more we can do" i would say at a stretch that dazai's view on life and the way he experiences it fall under this category, and this is something he has tried to force on others, notably kunikida + atsushi.

it's important when dealing with analysis on mental illness to remember that comorbidity exists and that one or more disorders/illnesses can be present in any one person. so in the next instance, we'll talk about my view on dazai and apathy, antisocial personality disorder and the scale of psychopathy.

apathy is described as a symptom indicating loss of interest of emotions. apathy is not its own separate disorder/syndrome, and more commonly walks had in hand with those of depression and personality disorders ( not all, and this varies from person to person ). apathy is a recognised state of indifference, an absence of interest/concern for emotional, social, philosophical questioning and the world beyond it. people with severe apathy may experience a lesser quality of life as they have no interest processing emotion and/or experiencing life, and are higher risk for mortality or institutionalisation. where dazai is concerned i believe him to be on the severe scale of apathy, which can manifest in tandem in a severe lack of empathy and extreme difficulty in processing emotion, where the lack of concern for it is present. ( you see a dead bird on the side of the road and someone else finds it unbearably sad, but you think, why should i feel anything for it? it's dead. i have no connection to it, i didn't see it die. if i saw it die, would i feel differently? apathetics experience this kind of questioning as emotional responses do not come naturally do them. ) it is important to note that apathy and depression, while commonly present together in individuals suffering from either, are not shown as being linked.

antisocial personality disorder ( aspd as i will refer to it ) is something i find highly present for dazai, and it commonly links with the scale of psychopathy, despite psychopathy being something that is not able to be diagnosed. aspd is an adult diagnosis that is characterised by a persistent disregard and violation of other's rights (see: his treatment of kyusaku and akutagawa - kyusaku he locked away in the port mafia's basement, concluding that he could not "fix" them and make them less volatile. with akutagawa this is listed further below, but referencing his treatment of akutagawa and how he abused his power over him. ) beginning in childhood/early adolescence. those with aspd will often show a lack of empathy, manipulate others for personal gain and do not often feel remorse for their actions. they will struggle to form interpersonal relationships and experience significant impairments in social situations. further to this is irresponsible behaviour and a disregard for normal social structure, blaming others for problems within their lives, repeated law breaking and lack of clear moral judgement ( important to note that dazai would have killed kyusaku, as he already notes that he cannot change them, and it might be more beneficial than simply locking them away again, if not for the moral judgement that chuuya provided in that moment ). those with aspd are at greater risk of dying prematurely due to reckless behaviour and attempts on their own lives via suicide. noting dazai as having aspd with regards to criminal activity aligns on a natural course - dazai joined the port mafia's ranks in the hopes that exposing himself to violence and impropriety would allow him to form some kind of emotional reaction, whether positive or negative, he wanted to feel something - this does not work, as he is commonly shown to ponder the fact that still, he feels nothing, and trying to has become a useless activity. this is just one of many factors leading to dazai being a dangerous individual, and this lack of an emotional response to averse situations does not change in adulthood and with the new addition of positive choices, dazai is still indifferent.

on the diagnosis of aspd, people are commonly labelled as sociopaths, however i disregard this as i would link dazai heavily with being on the scale of psychopathy.

now, psychopathy cannot be diagnosed, and a key difference between sociopathy and psychopathy is that sociopaths are made, psychopaths are born with this predisposition. psychopathy can present in a severe lack of emotional regulation and ability to feel and process emotion, individuals on this scale are commonly noted to have "dead eyes". a common reference to this would be that as "average" people experience emotions like anger, sadness, fear, anxiety, happiness, for someone on the scale of psychopathy this manifests as experiencing these emotions completely dialled down. what this means for dazai is that there is an understanding of emotion, but no present ability to feel and comprehend it within himself without bringing it forth manually and picking apart with his logical mind.

labelling a character and/or person as a psychopath can be dangerous, and to put it plainly this because of the idiotic ideation that psychopaths are all insane. i know for a fact that many people would label dazai a psychopath and then that manifest in character traits that mirror that of the joker which is a good fictional portrayal of certain levels of psychopathy, but the way this is often interpreted in the rpc is usually harmful and combined with a severe lack of research into the things i have referenced above. ( further to this, i have seen people reference the scene in 15 where dazai shoots someone, and has them ask him for death. in my view, this is the beginning of his journey in his understanding that he cannot feel the way an "average" person would, and it is his first time killing someone with his own hands. the first gunshot fires and he shoots the man, killing him, and the cogs in his brain ask why didn't i feel anything? why didn't it shock me? shouldn't i be repulsed? if not, why aren't i happy about it? this indifference causes dazai to shoot several more times, a certain dissociation that is him chasing a reaction he believes should be there, whether positive or negative, but that simply does not exist. )

as a tldr; dazai is a psychopath and his mental state dances that scale alongside clinical depression, apathy and antisocial personality disorder, which under the scale of psychopathy, all of these play a role. in his younger years he explored death and violence to a frightening degree and used others as test subjects on his journey to make himself feel something, a feared member of the port mafia dazai was proficient in ways of torturing individuals to make them talk, referencing "is there anyone who didn't talk after i started interrogating them?" and this is because dazai sees people as things to play with both physically and mentally. he manipulated chuuya's friends into thinking the worst and set in motion the plan to force chuuya into the port mafia, despite already having decided he wouldn't kill the sheep. he abused his power over akutagawa to force him into a state of dependency on dazai's approval, physically and emotionally wounded him to a point beyond recognition and that forced him to do well on the reliance of dazai's good mood.

his actions are inexcusable, and the traits of all listed above manifest in his "new life" within the ada, in different ways. psychopaths do not need to be inherently evil, and this is a common misconception. psychopathy is referenced to be a driving force for serial killers, murderers, criminals as they lack emotional comprehension and moral guidance that "average" people do not need to think about. dazai makes conscious efforts to perform the role of an "average" person, brings emotion forth manually and acts it out as he has seen others do. he can empathise, he can feel, but it takes a great deal of effort, as if he didn't force this, he simply wouldn't feel, wouldn't comprehend emotional responses. for the most part, this has become second - nature to him now, and can do so easily. but there are times where the mask he wears slips ( see: dark era dazai, age eighteen, walking towards a volatile gunman who had his weapon pointed directly at his head, asking him to kill him - knowing he would miss as he had calculated the man was fatally injured and couldn't make the shot, but it is referenced that he was begging to be let go from the hold the world had on him, going as far as to almost cry ).

dazai's performance of emotion within the ada is important because it is at least 80% MORE than what it was when he was with the port mafia, and this is because as a tactic of manipulation, it does not serve him to be feared within the ada, or by the people he's supposed to help. the whimsical nature that you see, dazai is comfortable feeling and performing, but it is that. a performance of a capability he doesn't have naturally.

i hope this makes sense. again in no way is this a solid analysis, just my thoughts and feelings on how dazai presents as a character with a lot of nuance, and i feel its important that when i'm talking about him, or characters are interacting with him, people understand what i mean when i may reference certain things.

[just-a-ghost00]

October 2024 forecast | PAC inspired by Kino Tarot

In honor of the beautiful Carey, known as Kino Tarot, I decided to create this reading to : a) help people in need by sharing with you the link to a fund raise. Fares and his family desperately need help. As many others in and near Gaza do. Even just a dollar/euro can be helpful. Thank you to anyone who will share this link and/or donate. -> Cagnottes organisées par Angeline Boswell : Help Fares, Donia, and their Family in Gaza (gofundme.com) b) provide you with a general overview of the upcoming month

To select your group, pick one of the following emojis : 🎃 🍁 🐈‍⬛

Group 1 🎃

Overall energy | 3 of wands

During October you can expect a lot of activity going on, especially if this is your birth month. I'm picking up on a lot of movement either for work or leisure time. You may be feeling restless and adventurous, wanting to indulge in several projects and activities. You may feel a peak in your energy levels as well as your creativity. October feels like a happy time of the year for you in general, especially this year. Your mindset seems to be pretty optimistic and you have a lot of energy to give.

Career and studies | page of wands

This area of your life seems to be going well this month. Again, we have that creativity thing going on. You may feel extra motivated at work or while studying, even more so if you feel like you are being supported and surrounded by motivated people. You are in a position of wanting to learn, wanting to improve, being open to criticism and sharing of experience. Your mindset is pretty positive and ambitious. You feel like you have nothing to lose and thus you are willing to take risks and venture out of your comfort zone. This state of mind may be benefitial to you and get you opportunities.

Health | 3 of pentacles rx

Regarding health, you may be feeling a bit off, out of balance. Which may be the consequence of your high level of activity. October may be a month where you tend to overwork yourself or ignore certain signals your body is sending you. You may want to get your health checked regularly as a mean of prevention. Psychotherapy may be benefitial to you during the month as it will help you distance yourself with the attitude or words of people around you, especially if these people are in a low vibrational energy.

Romance | 10 of cups

Whether you are single or in a relationship of any kind, love is in the air this month. It is in the air because you love yourself enough to ward off any leech that might be trying to suck you dry. Because you are being communicative and clear on your intentions and needs. Love is in the air because people are recognizing your worth and providing you with emotional support. It is in the air because your crush may be reciprocating feelings or your partner may be more affectionate than usual. Not only do you inspire love in others but that love is reflected back at you. This 10 of cups is a very positive omen. The sky is clear and the future looks bright so far.

Family and friends | 4 of pentacles

You are being protective of your energy regarding family and friends. You may be isolating a lot at home during the month or trying to secure bonds within your family. I'm also picking up on the energy of some people trying to protect themselves from the impact and influence of other people in their close circle. That might be true for you if past connections are trying to get back into your life. You are being very careful about what you share and who you let in your circle because you wish to protect your sanctuary and you have every right to do so. There may be people trying to ask you for money or any form of help but either you feel like you are in no position to help them or you do not wish to do so because you are wary of their intentions.

Advice | 10 of wands

Do not take on more than you can chew. Focus solely on your own responsibilities. It is not your place nor your job to do other people's work in their stead. You have no obligation to carry the burdens of others. You have no obligation to help people if you do not wish. You have no obligation to take the lead or show the way, to deprive yourself of certain things because it would make others feel uncomfortable. You are your own person and your needs deserve to be met. You don't have to compromise every time for the sake of others. You have the right to be happy and mind your own business. That does not make you a bad person.

Group 2 🍁

Overall energy | 10 of cups

That is a very good card to start any reading. For you the month of October overall feels very cozy and warm. It is a period of time that is very healing and nurturing for you because I feel like it will lead you to focusing on yourself more instead of constantly being turned towards others. You will be feeling emotionally fulfilled, satisfied with where your life is at and where you're heading to. Which might not have been the case in the past. So congratulations group 2. You can be proud of yourself.

Work and studies | 8 of pentacles

This area of your life seems to be going well. October is going to be a very busy and productive month for you. Your work and studies are likely your priority, even more so if you have any paper that is due or if you're going to be evaluated in any way. You will be grinding and doing your best to be efficient. This may be tiring but you seem to be happy with this situation. Or at least you are managing it so that the exhaustion that comes with it isn't that much of a problem to you. You're aware that efforts and sacrifices are needed in this situation for you to reach the level of success you seek. Which you are willing to make.

Health | 7 of wands

You may be facing challenges regarding your health and fighting against the fatigue and pain you may be experiencing. Some of you may be in denial of your health state. Which would make sense if your work or studies require you to be present and you have no option that would allow you to take a break, or at least you feel so. You may be often times in a state of defensiveness, feeling like you constantly have to be on your guards and proving yourself. Which may result in your body feeling tense, having migraines, shoulder / neck / back pain.

Romance | 5 of cups rx

Regardiing romantic relationships and prospects, you are getting out of a phase of feeling sorry for yourself. You are getting out of a mindset of feeling desperate and needing to feel loved to realize your value. If you were in a conflict with your partner, these tensions are getting resolved. There's an improvement regarding that area of your life, partially because you are no longer counting on external validation to feel good in your shoes and feel like you belong. If you recently broke up or parted ways with a romantic interest, the time when you were crying over them is over. You are getting over the break up and turning your gaze on the future.

Family and friends | 2 of cups rx

You may be feeling like your relationships with your family and friends are a bit out of balance. Yes, you know they love you and you love them but it feels like lately you are constantly making efforts and coming towards them. You are the one who's trying to be the bigger person and you feel like people around you are taking advantage of that. You may be trying to change this tendency by focusing more on your own self and needs. I don't see any big arguments on the horizon but rather a feeling of dissatisfaction that will quickly be dissolved by your course of actions.

Advice | Ace of cups

Remember to fill your own cup. Be kind to yourself. Go one step at a time. Not being the most productive doesn't make you a bad person. Taking time off to rest doesn't make you a bad person. You have the right to be exhausted or sad or frustrated. Your feelings matter.

Group 3🐈‍⬛

Overall energy | 6 of pentacles rx

You may be feeling whacky during October. There's seems to be an imbalance in energies. Either you or things and people around you aren't giving enough / investing enough. You may feel like life is unfair and there's no way to change it. You may feel unmotivated, disappointed, betrayed. You may feel exhausted which may not help your case.

Career and studies | 9 of cups rx

You may be going through a phase where you're doubting your life choices, especially regarding career/studies. You may not be seeing the results that you expected which leads you to doubting yourself and the people around you. Illusions regarding a job or a course have fallen. You are now seeing things and people for what they are. You don't feel as excited and stimulated as you'd hoped. You may be feeling bored and like you're wasting your time. Yes, you get the money but the fulfillment isn't there and that is something that seems to bother you.

Health | 3 of pentacles

An improvement can be expected regarding your health. That may be true especially if you've gone back to practicing a physical activity. You may be learning more in order to take care of your body, mind and soul. I'm picking up on people researching about healthier recipes, breathing techniques to reduce stress. I'm picking up on people trying to understand how their mind works, people finally seeking therapy and doing the work to improve their life by improving their mindset. Good job babes!

Romance | 2 of wands rx

Whether you're single or in a relationship, the sparks aren't there. The anticipation and the butterflies are long gone. Similarily to career/studies, you feel like you don't get as much satisfaction as you'd hoped. Illusions were swept away and you realize that your partner isn't as perfect as you thought, that your crush isn't as into you as you wished, that the person you thought was flirting with you was in fact just being nice. You lack excitement, challenge. You lack passion. You feel lost and you don't know where things are going.

Family and friends | 7 of pentacles rx

You are done waiting for people giving you what you need and want. You are done being kind, nice, generous. You are done being the last priority, being on the side line only to feel stuck and bad about yourself when others are reaping the rewards of your own work sometimes. You are done being underestimated and overlooked. You're ready for war and you want reparation for the damage that was done to you. If you gave money to a friend or a family member, you intend on getting it back. If you were wrongfully accused or hurt by someone, you intend on getting the appologies that you rightfully deserve.

Advice | 10 of pentacles rx

Money isn't everything. Work and studies aren't everything. You need to put more magic and passion into your life. Where has your optimism gone? Where is the child that used to marvel at everything? You need to bring that child back and let him/her take the lead a little.

[gatheredfates]

Good morning all, happy Sunday! It is time for the weekly update to Sea's Community Compendium for XIV Creatives. 🪸

I need to remember not to reach out to people right before I put together the update, so this is rather small today!

As of 05/05, the following resources have been added (in no particular order!):

MISC

Roleplay Sonar — A XIV plugin that allows you to see people roleplaying out in the world.

Final Fantasy XIV Game Script — A simple transcription of the FFXIV game script, all on one page for easy searching. Still in progress, starting with MSQ and with plans to expand into optional content, side dialogue, etc. Maintained by @eriyu!

Want to submit? You can either fill out the google form here, send me an ask with the relevant information contained on the Compendium, or join my Discord at SEAFLOOR (21+ only)!

As a reminder, the answer to the question of "Is my resource/community applicable to the Compendium?" is almost always a resounding yes. I want to know what's out there. I want to feature your project!

However, for the sake of clarity, I'll pop the FAQ from this post below in a read more for you to check out if you're worried. ✨

I want to put my community on the compendium but we have an application process. Is this okay?

Yes! Just note somewhere in your application that's a requirement. The only thing that is mandatory for the Compendium is that you must be open to new members or have a public-facing/accessible facet. There's no point advertising a community if no one can join it in some way!

I want to put my community on the compendium but I only have x number of members —

Also totally okay! People don't start with large communities. Activity is a must but, whether your server has two or two thousand members, if you're looking for new people to join, I'd love to help you find people.

I want to put my community on the compendium but I worry its too niche?

Okay, and? If your Eorzean Fishing Alliance has four members but you roleplay every second weekend, I still want to know about it.

What resources/communities can I add if I'm not the owner of them?

Mutual consent is extremely important to me, so anything that isn't a large-scale community OR a publicly accessible resource must be endorsed by the owner/admin/moderators in order to be added to the compendium. I operate under the assumption that a resource posted to a public space (tumblr, googledocs, youtube, etc) is open to all. A large-scale community is one with a significant member count or openly advertises itself as being accessible to everyone for whatever purpose it serves. If in doubt, please get in touch with me. I'm happy to contact your community owners for you!

How active does a community need to be?

If you find a community has not been active in about two/three months, send me a message and I'll take a look at it. Communities have ebbs and flows, especially event spaces that may take hiatuses depending on member interest/life events. I'm not strict in my implementation provided a space isn't dead. If a link or anything is broken, absolutely contact me about that.

I have [insert a question not stated here]?

No drama! Send me an ask or use the #Compendium channel in my Discord!

[chevvy-ryder]

Why I'm so … away lately:

Spending my freet time with my Info PDFs on Vijay and Ryder.

This project is somewhat insane and ate already a lot of free time (doing all the casual outfit shots alone). I know I do not need to present it in this way, but as the graphic designer who I am, I enjoy doing this way too much! I just love to create layouts and in this way I also make use of my own VP pics as well in a secondary usage. It is something I cannot life out in my daily job. I've always wanted to create some sort of a guideline. And my ocs are just perfect for that. I wanna do Thyjs and Jaysen as well ofc but I won't start with them for a while. Ry and V need to be done first, then I 'll look into other priorities (e.g. roleplay story -> + turn it into fanfic, get more creative in VP, help some modders maybe) for a while and then I go back to getting this done for Thyjs and Jaysen as well. <3

So what about these documents?

of all they provide some huge help for me to have the best overview possible on their main mods and clothes I use for them. Once this is done, I can just open the PDFs and click onto the links that bring me to the mod page of a specific mod. I've been asked a few times what I used so this will help me find it within no time. Searching on nexus is sometimes a whole pain for me when you do not know the title of the mods. And I don't want to keep everything in "tracked mods" either except for the core mods such as CET, archive XL etc. needed for the game.

it hopefully does a good service to the lovely @gloryride who's going to turn both, Vijay and Ryder, into NPVs soon <3 I want her to have it as easy as I can make it (hopefully it works how I imagined it). So she's got everything neately sorted to look up in lists — especially for the outfits I want to include — even though I'm going to send over all the needed stuff. But if there's need to look it up you can just simply klick on the link that brings you to the nexus page that has the usual additional info, original mods (since my are renamed with prefixes) and who it belongs to.

it also will serve for everyone who wants to take pics of my boys in the future. Because I do love to share them and I wanna see how they look through other VPer's eyes! Therefore I added a short backstory, character dates and inspiration, likes and dislikes so you can imagine them better plus every up to this date outfit I've got for them so far. A bunch of outfits will be included to their NPVs but not all since both have already something between 15-20 outfits and some mods require permission for NPV (it takes ags for me to ask permission). I assume people love more to take pics with NPV rather than having to install all their mods (tho Ry's and V's are okayish; Thyjs on the contrary has like approx. 50 main mods alone lol) but I'll still provide both once I'm done. Dunno how often I'll update these docs since there will always be new outfits for them.

If you read all through to the bottom: please feel free to send me a dm or write me on discord if you think about wanting to VP my boys some day! <3 Once I'm done and NPVs are there I'm more than happy to share.

Once this massive main project of mine is done for the time being, I may reach out to some of you in the future asking if I can VP your ocs as well and I'm always happy to see my ocs making new friends too! I'm just very bad at doing all at once, so I never came around asking – I need to finish one thing first, before I can take on antoher or I'll get completely lost, :,D I've already got a list of stuff I have to/wanna do. So everything I've promised some time back will be still done at some point!

Thanks for reading <3

[fainthedcherry]

HAPPY TURTLE TUESDAYYY TMNT FANDOMMM!!!! I have a treat for y'all artists who love to make TMNT OCs!!! If you love the 2012 era, you're gonna love this one too!!!

A FREE TO USE TMNT DARK HORIZONS FLASH GAME CHARACTER SELECT TEMPLATE, MADE FROM THE ACTUAL GAME SPRITES!!! (Scroll below for the Google Drive of the files, credits first to the artist though sorry! :D)

(ft also the fancy animation particles for when you get to this menu, for those who wanna add it too! (( the GIF is the raw version, without the effect settings/scripts added in Flash tho.)))

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND!! I DID NOT CREATE THESE ASSETS, NOR HAVE I DRAWN THEM

(I am an artist posting this, who has replicated the game's art as a fan, so I want to disclose clearly, that these are NOT MY WORKS HERE.)

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give all the credit to the SENIOR ART DIRECTOR working on this Flash game, Damian Aliberti and his team of artists from Quadramma (I could not find sources online that confirm who are said artists unfortunately, so I can only credit the art-director for now)!!!

He even made a page about this project, for his portfolio! Check it out, it's AWESOME!! (CLICK MEE / TAP MEEE)

^I didn't know they planned to bring this to mobile, so you can predict that I'm happy, that this game is still seemingly loved by the Italian studio that made it seemingly. x) (I can only assume they're Italian, due to the file-names, don't quote me on this though, barely any info exists on this Flash game as you can predict LOL)

GOOD NOW THAT YOU HOPEFULLY READ WHO MADE THE PRETTY ART: CLICK ME OR TAP ME FOR THE GOOGLE DRIVEE (drive provides the GIF, a PSD, SAI2, PNG and MDP file!! [the joys of owning several art programs, making this much more accessible to people :v])

btw, also like..Maybe not use this for commercial/profit purposes though, that'd be profiting off resources you didn't make, and that are copyrighted. I don't think that's legal. :"v

NO CREDIT REQUIRED. COMPLETELY F2U. I did not after all make the assets, nor will claim so. :V as I mentioned, I extracted these from the actual game, which is why these are all so crisp and nice looking, instead of me using a snipping tool like 2 yrs ago for my fun challenge of recreating the game's artstyle LOL

I do NOT claim these assets or the art I've extracted as my own, this is all purely from the game, and very obviously, these are I guess, owned by Nickelodeon, so I ask you ofc do not...Do some legally questionable things w/ this stuff sdfklsd, pls behave fans, I'd rather not get reported for something I didn't do for providing this to the internet. xD

--

Whilst credit would be nice, and linking back to this would be even nicer for other fans who might just like me,, wanna replicate this cool game's aesthetic sdfskldglk, it's optional, completely LOL. It did only take like 2 hrs to piece this stuff together, to look like a real screenshot thank god. xD

FEEL FREE TO SHOW ME IF YOU ALSO DRAW IN THE GAME'S STYLE OR WANNA BANTER ABOUT TMNT OCS OROROR YKNOW USED THE THING AND WANT ME TO SEE ITTTT I GLADLY STARE AT TMNT POSTS NO MATTER WHAT ERAAAAA~

I JUST WANT PEOPLE TO APPRECIATE THIS GAME'S ARTSTYLE NGL. THAT'S ALL I WANT. And if more ppl also would wanna draw in it it'd make me so happy. I am like...The most acoustic TMNT fan out there man, I have the weirdest wishes in mind xD

Hope anyone wants this orrr like needs it orr dreamt of doing this too orrrr just never thought about doing it, but now that a free template is out there, someone might also wanna do it!! I love whenever like- fandom templates and stuff is made. I plan to maybe make this a Toyhou.se code too, since I do have the raw files of the games and could try to see if I can replicate the animations and stuff and make it non-premium and premium!

(Maybe I should make fandom codes more often in general tho at the topic of that, did it before for Terraria and helped out w/ a Monster High code, to give it a mobile compatible version LMAO)

If anyone or me figures out the artists behind the sprites, I'd gladly show them too, bc GORGEOUS GAME MAN!!!! THEY DESERVE ANY PRAISE THEY GET FOR THE ART AND THE GAME ITSELF ANSAHSHAJS, here I go again I swear, I'm done yapping now. I should participate in internet olympics when it comes to writing essays in every post I ever made. xD

[osshisan]

hello, about the new enstars fan post where you say that most of the story is sort of unavailable, where do i start digging? you mentioned the wayback machine and the wiki, is it the fandom wiki? + do you recommend a specific story to start with?

OOO thank you for asking i'm so happy to help with this! i hope you don't mind if i write under the assumption that you're a complete beginner with enstars lore >v<)7

(this is also going to be just for the first game (referred to as "!-era"), since i'm actually less read on !!-era (the second game/the one that got localized) than i am with ! . i think it's necessary though since ! has the most basic necessary lore in it. this means the newer units, alkaloid and crazy:b, won't be mentioned-- SO sorry if you were hoping to hear about them in particular)

putting under a cut to not clog peoples' dashes! i'm so sorry this is about to be long but important es stories are going to be even longer so. prepare

where do i find the stories?

using the wayback machine to browse the ensemble stars fan wiki is a great, easy place to find a good majority of !-era stories! you can still use the direct site to preview stories for summaries and involved characters, but unfortunately since happyelements struck the fan wiki for copyright and got every translation hosted on it taken down, wayback is the only way i know of to access links to stories that were hosted there.

here's the link i usually refer to for quick access to stories on the wiki! this one will bring you right to the main story. to branch off and find others, use the Story tab under the wiki's title!

if a story you want to read isn't on the wiki, or you'd just rather read from a different source (wayback runs a little slowly + search bar won't work, and fandom wiki is... what it is), a quick google search is still likely to get you where you want to go. many fan TLers still host their story translations in places like tumblr blogs, dreamwidth pages, twitter threads, or other personal websites!

most basic lore please start here - main story and The War™

the Main Story in ! covers trickstar's revolution of yumenosaki against the status quo enforced by the student council, led by eichi (also leader of fine). you're about to get very acquainted with trickstar; other units do play important parts but trickstar are your protagonists for now. what's equally important about mainsto though is the introduction to dreamfes, SS, and how these idols are actually battling it out through singies and dancies. it'll get you familiar with how things work around here in ye old enstartown, how wild and absurd stuff can get, and you'll get brief intros to several characters and units as well! not everyone but... most of them

after mainsto i strongly recommend reading the Reminiscence stories (aka The War™) !! these take place 1-2 years before the main story and contain VERY juicy general lore for the series. if you aren't leaning towards any units after main story, you probably will be after these. the war stories also provide REALLY important context for character development of LOTS OF THESE GUYS. you don't really have to read them in chronological order (i didn't), so if you're curious: Crossroad features Undead and Akatsuki (particularly rei and keito), Marionette features Valkyrie (past), Checkmate features Knights (get ready for leo tsukinaga), and Element features Fine and Switch (this is a big one). Wonder Game, though it isn't exactly a reminiscence story, is also good to add on-- there's some more on ex-fine and switch in here!

"i read the necessities, now what?"

THE FUN PART: LET THE HEART LEAD, BABY!!!

hopefully from reading the main story and the war someone will have caught your eye, whether it's a particular unit or one or two characters on their own! from here the best path to take is just to follow whoever you're interested in and want to know more about! there's lots of stuff going on with like every unit so the world is your oyster... and if you're lucky you'll get worms of the brain like me and my valkie disease <3

the best resource ever for where to go next is this reading list spreadsheet !! i use this ALL THE TIME; it's sorted by unit and further by individual character to point you to stories that will teach you about your chosen guys.

and that's about it!! SO SORRY if you weren't expecting such a wordy response but i am cursed with verbosity and this series has So Much. i am also thrilled to help people enjoy enstars because for as long as i spent making fun of it, i've actually come to really like and enjoy it... it's definitely a lot of reading but i've had so much fun i haven't minded at all. i hope you can have some of that fun too..!!! love and peace...

[the-proven-guide]

How To Get Google Adsense Approval in Less Than 24 hours.

If you're a blogger just starting out, you're probably looking for ways to make money from your blog. One of the most popular ways to monetize your blog is through Google AdSense. However, getting approved for AdSense can be a daunting task. But don't worry; I'm here to tell you how I got approved for AdSense within 24 hours of applying.

Step 1: Get Your Site Ready

Before applying for AdSense, ensure your site is clean, easy to navigate, and prioritizes user experience. Choose a clean and simple theme, and make sure your site is designed to be user-friendly. Having a good-looking and clean site is the first step to getting quick approval from Google AdSense. If you need help designing your site, you can contact me, and I'll be happy to help.

Step 2: Focus On Quality Content, Not Traffic

Contrary to popular belief, AdSense approval is about more than just traffic. Quality content is what matters most. Make sure your content is unique, plagiarism-free, and adds value to your readers. If you're not confident in your writing skills, you can also contact me, and I'll be happy to help you with optimized content for your blog. Having good content is the key to getting approved for AdSense.

Step 3: Have Essential Pages On Your Site

To increase your chances of getting approved for AdSense, make sure you have the following pages on your site:

About Me/Us page

Contact page

Terms and conditions page

Privacy policy page

Disclaimer page (optional)

Setting up these pages is easy on WordPress, and having them on your site will show Google that you are a serious blogger who cares about user experience and transparency.

Step 4: Get A Top-Level Domain Name

If you want to get approved for AdSense quickly, ensure you have a top-level domain name. Domains ending in .com, .org, .net, .co, and .biz have a better chance of getting approved than other domains. You can get a top-level domain name cheaper from NameCheap .

Step 5: Have Enough Content

Before applying for AdSense, ensure you have enough content on your site. I had 20 blog posts on my site when I applied for AdSense, but you can have more or less. Just make sure your content is unique, informative, and adds value to your readers. Don't copy and paste other people's articles or content, as this can hurt your approval chances.

Lastly, I want to remind you that getting Google Adsense approval is just the first step towards making money with your blog. Once you get approved, you need to optimize your ads placement, size, and color to maximize your earnings. You can also experiment with different ad formats like display ads, link ads, and matched content ads to see what works best for your blog.

Bonus Tips: Rank Your Article on Google Search and Get Backlinks

To further increase your chances of getting approved for AdSense, you can try to rank one of your articles on Google Search. Doing keyword research and targeting less difficult-to-rank keywords in your niche can help you achieve this. You can also try to get two or three backlinks from high-authority sites. You can use SEO tools like Semrush to find backlinks. If you don't know where to get your first backlink, you can contact me, and I'll provide you with your first backlink for free.

In conclusion, getting Google Adsense approval can seem like a daunting task, but with the right approach, it can be achieved within 24 hours. Remember to focus on creating high-quality, unique content, and having essential pages on your site like the About Me page, Contact page, Terms and Conditions page, Privacy Policy page, and Disclaimer page. Also, ensure your site has a clean, user-friendly design and a top-level domain name.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you found this article helpful in getting Google Adsense approval for your blog. If you have any questions or need further assistance, don't hesitate to get in touch with me or visit The Proven Guide for related content on how to make money online. Good luck with your blogging journey.

[copywritingexpert]

This Awesome SEO Copywriting Tip Will Help You Boost Your Google Rankings In No Time

In order to drive organic traffic to your website you need search engine optimization (SEO) services. Copywriting plays a major role in SEO; the words you choose to use in your website content are crucial to determining where the page will rank on the search engine results pages. Listed below are a few great SEO copywriting tips that will allow you to skyrocket your search engine ranking on Google.

Focus On Quality Content - Content that is well-written, original, and informative is more likely to get indexed and ranked higher by search engines. Quality content also means the content should be free from spelling and grammar errors, be easy to read and provide valuable information for readers.

Research Keywords - Researching keywords regarding your website's niche is a great way to find out what words people are searching for when trying to find information or details about the business and industry you are in. If you have identified these high-ranking keywords, then you need to strategically place them throughout your website's text in order to make sure search engine crawlers can easily find them when looking for your website.

Headers and Subheadings - By using headers and subheadings within your text, you can help make it easier for readers to skim through the content in order to get a better understanding of just what each section is about, while at the same time making it more easy for them to locate each section inside the content. There is also a need for this structure because it helps search engine crawlers understand what topics are most important on a web page and assists them in indexing the website accordingly.

Include Outbound Links - Linking out to other high-quality websites not only enhances the user experience by providing more information on a given subject but also signals to search engines that you are part of an authoritative network of websites which can help increase your ranking position on SERPs (search engine result pages).

Optimize For Mobile Devices - With more than half of all web searches now being done from mobile devices, it is critical that you optimize your website for mobile users as well as desktop users if you want good SEO rankings. Basically, this means that you have to make sure that your website loads quickly on mobile devices and that it has a responsive design to make sure that the website looks good on every type of device that it is viewed on.

Use Internal Links - Linking between pages within your own website can help visitors navigate around more easily while also helping search engine crawlers better understand how all the pages on your site are connected which can improve indexing accuracy as well as rankings overall for those pages depending on relevancy factors such as anchor text used in links etcetera.

There are seven.

I'm eight people.

I am nine.

In Number Ten. Monitor Your Progress - Finally, there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to SEO copywriting; what works for one site may not work for another so monitor how changes affect ranking positions over time and adjust accordingly if needed. As you take the time now to properly research keywords, optimize headings and subheadings, create internal links, and monitor progress regularly, you will be able to take advantage of organic growth opportunities, while increasing visibility within the search engine results pages (SERPs)! Happy optimizing!

With SEO Copywriting, you can strengthen your brand in the long run

Strengthen your brand by using SEO copywriting as part of your marketing strategy

Copywriting for search engines is one of the best ways to build trust with your customers and strengthen the brand of your company. It is through SEO copywriting that you can help build loyalty with your customers by providing them with the information they need in order to make informed decisions on their purchases or experiences that will help you build your business. When it comes right down to it, all these things will contribute to the growth of your business as well, so it pays off to take advantage of all of them.

Make sure you are monitoring the impact of your SEO copywriting efforts

Make use of SEO tools in order to monitor how your content is doing.

Make sure you keep an eye on the ranking of your site on search engines, and keep an eye on how much traffic it is gaining from Google Analytics.

Make sure to test out Google Search Console in order to find out how well your content ranks for keywords and keyword phrases that are relevant to your content. There's also an advantage to this tool in that it allows you to see where your competitors are getting their traffic from--you might be able to steal some ideas from their actions as well as gain some inspiration from theirs.

It will mean no time is wasted waiting around for someone to respond to what you just read before moving on to something else completely unrelated but nonetheless somehow related due to the reasons that drive you to read it in the first place.

Using SEO tools is a great way to monitor how your content is ranking on search engines and how effective it is

Using an SEO tool, such as SEMrush or Moz, you can monitor how your website is performing on search engines such as Google.

With SEMrush, you can track how well your content ranks on search engine indexes like Google, Yahoo, and Bing on a regular basis. There is a free version of this tool available if you are a small business with fewer than 10 employees or if your online marketing revenue, including paid ads, doesn't exceed $100,000 per year.

To monitor the performance of an individual page or domain

You can sign into your SEMrush account and click on the "Keywords" tab under the "Reports" page.

It entails entering the URL of the page or domain whose ranking you want to monitor into the field called "Search Traffic - Organic Search," then clicking on the button that says "Go.". It will provide you with data about how many visitors to this particular piece of content are coming through organic searches on Google and other major search engines every month, based on the number of organic searches.

Always keep an eye out for the things that are working, as well as those that are not working

When it comes to evaluating the success of your SEO copywriting, there are a few ways to go about it. Firstly, you'll need to use Google Analytics or a similar tool to track how many visitors your site receives from search engines--and what they're searching for when they get there. Having this information will give you a better understanding of what is working, and what is not working well.

Next up is the search console which is also known as Webmaster Tools. It is an excellent tool that can give you an idea of how well your content ranks on Google when people search for any keywords related to what they're trying to find. As an added benefit, it shows whether other sites are linking back to yours, which means more traffic for your site.

Finally, there are tools like SEMrush that allow you to monitor how well each piece of content is ranking across multiple platforms including social media channels like Facebook and Twitter as well as news sites such as CNN and MSNBC where newsworthy stories tend not only attract readers but also generate links which boost their visibility within the SERPs (search engine results pages).

Monitor how well your content is ranking to help you improve.

It is important that you monitor how well your SEO copy is ranking on search engines while you are writing it. As a content creator, you need to know if the content you are creating is actually working before you make more. You might need to look into the way in which you're writing your articles, or the way in which you're targetting certain keywords if it's not working.

Use an SEO tool like Ahrefs or Moz's Keyword Explorer tool (which we will discuss later) to keep an eye on what's working and what's not by using an SEO tool like Ahrefs. As a result, we can be sure that our effort will be directed in the right direction next time around--and perhaps, as a bonus, we might even be able to save ourselves some time as well.

It's the One-Stop Solution for all your copywriting needs Copywriting Expert - The One-Stop Solution

There is a lot you need to take care of. The last thing you want is to worry about how your website is ranking on search engines or whether you have enough content to meet your SEO requirements since you are too busy operating your company.

This is why Copywriting Expert exists: we handle all of the SEO copywriting and content creation services you must have in order to succeed in your business.

They offer affordable SEO copywriting services that are tailored to your unique business needs, and they also provide a team of expert writers who are highly experienced in their fields.

No matter what type of content you need for your travel website or your financial web site, they've got you covered-and with their wide range of services, you won't need to look anywhere else for what they don't offer on their site.

The company has product copywriters and financial writers on its team, so if you need something specific that doesn't fall under those two categories (or simply want someone to look at your business from a different point of view), they can help!

They are committed to providing you with well-edited, quality SEO content that will help your company reach out to a wider audience online and gain credibility in your industry, all while saving you time and resources by outsourcing your SEO content demands. If you would like more information about the services they provide, please contact them. You can reach them by phone at 0844 546 1155.

[pathos-logical]

[ID: an animated GIF that reads "Tumblr 2022 My Year In Review", and shows a variety of moving stickers including the anon profile picture, grabs, stars, hearts, the plinko horse, the reblog symbol, and the tumblr symbol. It looks like a page out of highschool sketchbook. End ID.] (ID by @thetragicallynerdy <3)

I posted 7,770 times in 2022

118 posts created (2%)

7,652 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@tmoblrina

@pathos-logical

@carfuckerlynch

@generic-internet-name

@three-magpies-in-a-trenchcoat

I tagged 6,482 of my posts in 2022

Only 17% of my posts had no tags

#described - 2,771 posts

#that's my queue - 1,032 posts

#described by me - 809 posts

#storytime - 675 posts

#unreality - 273 posts

#tumblr - 263 posts

#to watch later - 242 posts

#mutualsposting - 226 posts

#lovecore - 213 posts

#tropes - 184 posts

Longest Tag: 135 characters

#i didn't see a post like this earlier and didn't have time to say it myself but happy diwali to all who celebrate i love you 💜🪔🌟🕯💛

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

who needs IDs, how do they help and why are they used? i've always been curious, i mean no harm by asking, so sorry if this is rude

Not rude at all anon, I'm so glad you asked!! Image descriptions are accessibility aids for vision-impaired folks and anyone who may have issues parsing an image (ex: an autistic person unable to comprehend a visually busy art piece). For people who can't see an image for any reason, IDs provide a way to understand what's on screen, whether it's a meme or tweet or art. For example, a blind person using a screen reader (a device that reads text out loud) wouldn't know what an undescribed all-image post was talking about, but with an ID they could know it's a tweet and then a meme mocking it

IDs can look abstruse and intimidating when you're unfamiliar with them, but I promise they're not! The simplest step to making your blog more accessible is scanning the notes of a post to find a comment with an ID and reblogging that version of the post instead! If you're interested in learning how to write your own IDs, I really love this post as a resource, plus the amazing People's Accessibility Server if you have questions or want to request descriptions! I'd also like to plug my pinned post, which has a link to a doc with templates for a ton of memes so you can describe posts yourself!

I hope this wasn't too much text and that your question was answered clearly, anon! Please feel free to go through my "image descriptions" and "accessibility" tags for more info!

115 notes - Posted October 13, 2022

#4

Copying tags in accessible ways on mobile

(Large text: Copying tags in accessible ways on mobile)

People screenshot tags all the time, whether to share a funny joke or add important commentary, but they often don't realize that this is inaccessible to vision-impaired people and many others. This is a problem because a lot of people primarily use Tumblr on the mobile app, which doesn't let you interact with tags at all unless you screenshot them. However, accessibility is always worth the extra time and effort you can spare, so here are some ways for you to easily copy tags without spending too much of either!

Image-to-text softwares

(Large text: Image-to-text softwares)

If you simply must screenshot those tags, you can still convert them back into usable text! There are plenty of easy-to-use websites that allow you to take any downloaded image and extract the text from them. I prefer onlineocr.net, but the Google Translate app has the same feature! All you need to do is input the image and hit the button, and it'll spit out the text for you to copy. This method is fantastic for images with lots of text, not to mention it's easy to do and generally accurate, and I use it all the time to great effect!

Going to browser

(Large text: Going to browser)

If you're on mobile, it's probably a safe bet to say that your phone also has a browser app. If so, all you need to do to copy the tags from a post is copy the link of said post into a browser and then copy the tags from there. This method can mean extra formatting, since hashtags and links won't copy over, but it's relatively low-effort to do and doesn't take long at all!

Going on PC

(Large text: Going on PC)

If you're on mobile, you can also consider saving the post with desired tags to your drafts. This means you can easily access it on another device, aka a computer, and copy the tags there! Copying tags on desktop is possibly the easiest way to do it, since all you need to do is highlight the text and paste it later- it'll even save the link formatting when you do! The only extra step you might have to do is add spaces between the tags, since they'll automatically come smushed together and only separated by hashtags. This method might mean you take a little longer to reblog the tags, but it is very much worth it to make the post accessible to all!

Going forth

(Large text: Going forth)

These methods are a smidgen more effort than just screenshotting or prev tagging, but I don't think it's a bad tradeoff at all! I hope this can provide quick and easy ways for everyone to get more used to thinking more conscientiously about accessibility. And these aren't your only options- alt text helps people who use screenreaders, and you should always add an image description below screenshots if you're going to add them. Hope this helps!

TL;DR: Instead of screenshotting tags, which makes them inaccessible, other options are: using image-to-text software, copying the tags on a mobile browser, or copying them on desktop Tumblr.

290 notes - Posted January 5, 2022

#3

Gif makers will be like "how can I fit as many inaccessible font options as exist on planet earth into one three-word movie title"

413 notes - Posted June 28, 2022

#2

How to Keep Doing Descriptions (from someone who does a fuckton)

Plain text: How to Keep Doing Descriptions (from someone who does a fuckton)

This is a list aimed mostly at helping people who already write IDs; for guides at learning how to do them yourself, check my accessibility and image description tags! I write this with close to two years of experience with IDs and chronic pain :)

Get used to writing some IDs by using both your phone and your computer, if you can! I find it easier to type long-form on my laptop, so I set up videos and long comics on my phone, which I then prop up against my laptop screen so I can easily reference the post without constantly scrolling or turning my head

I will never stop plugging onlineocr.net. I use it to ID six-word tags, screenshots of posts, and even comic dialogue! On that last note, convertcase.net can convert text between all-caps, lowercase, sentence case, and title case, which is super helpful

Limit the number of drafts/posts-to-be-described you save. No, seriously. I never go above 10 undescribed drafts on any of my four blogs. It doesn’t have to be that low, but this has done wonders (italics: wonders) for my productivity and willingness to write IDs. If I ever get above that limit, even if it’s two or three more, I immediately either describe the lowest-effort post or purge some, and if I can't do that then I stop saving things to drafts no matter what. No exceptions! Sticking to this will make your life so much easier and less stressful

My pinned post has a link to a community doc of meme description templates!

Ask! For! Help! Please welcome to the stage the People’s Accessibility Server! It’s full of lovely people and organized into channels where you can request/volunteer descriptions and ask/answer questions

I make great use of voice-to-text and glide typing on my phone to save my hands some effort!

Something is always better than nothing!!! A short two-sentence or one-sentence ID is better than no ID at all. Take it easy :)

If you feel guilty about being unable to reblog amazing but undescribed art, try getting into the habit of replying to OP’s post to let them know you liked it! This makes me feel less pressured to ID absolutely everything I see

I frequently find myself looking at pieces of art which feel like they need to be considered for a bit before I can write an ID for them, and those usually get thrown into drafts, where the dread for writing a comprehensive ID just builds. Don’t do that! Instead, try just staying in the reblog field for a bit and focus on the most relevant aspects of the piece. Marinate on them for a little; don’t rush, but don’t spend more than a handful of seconds either. I find after that the art becomes way easier to describe than it initially seemed!

On that note, look for shortcuts that make IDs less taxing for you to do! For example, I only ever describe clothes in art if they're relevant to the piece; not doing that every time saves a lot of time and energy for me personally

Building off of that, consider excusing yourself from a particular kind of ID if you want to. Give yourself a free pass for 4chan posts, or fanart by an artist who does really good but really complex comics, whatever. Let it be someone else's responsibility and feel twice as proud about the work that you can now allot more energy to!

As always, make an effort to find and follow fellow describers! It’s always encouraging to get described posts on your dash, and I find that sometimes I'm happier to ID an undescribed post when the person who put it on my dash is a friend who tagged it with "no ID"

TL;DR: To make ID-writing less stressful and more low-effort, use different devices and software like onlineocr.net and voice-to-text, limit the amount of work you expect yourself to do, and reach out to artists and other describers!

442 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

[ID: A cropped screenshot of two crabs on the tumblr dashboard. They are right next to each other and both say “love <3.” End ID]

PEACE AND LOVE ON PLANET EARTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Plain text: Peace and love on planet earth!!!!)

821 notes - Posted April 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr Year in Review 2022 ->

[thisnerdsadventures]

I, a campaign manager

so in addition to being a CTO, a CS major, and a dorm vice president, i was also a campaign manager for 2 weeks (the exact campaign that I was managing is not entirely difficult to figure out if you really want to know, especially if you click on the links BUT i will be trying to not mention it specifically here lol). You might be wondering - (1) why and (2) how did you end up becoming a campaign manager..... you're not even a poli sci/gov/humanities/literally anything vaguely related to this major??

You're correct, yes, how did this happen? Well that's a great place to start this story:

How in the world this happened

Friends drag you into stuff. This happens to be the same friend that dragged me to New York, and then was 20% of the reason I got dragged into the negotiation class, and then was maybe 15% of the reason i got dragged into nonprofit activities? In terms of providing unique opportunities in my life, she definitely takes the cake. So one day, she says "I'm running for this position," and me and the squad says "we gotchu." What does that mean? Clearly wasn't sure in the beginning, but we were texting campaign strategies and slogans and tiktok ideas in the chat for fun. None of us had any real responsibilities, especially since the actual candidates were still weighing the playing field and figuring out their platform.

I also was a course 6, so I guess there was some expectation that I would make the website, even though I didn't actually code the website from scratch.

but anyways, it was actual campaign time.

CAMPAIGN SZN

After they figured out the campaign platform, it was game on for the campaign materials. We spent a lot of time on artwork, we photoshopped pictures from a photo shoot, we came up with campaign motto ideas, we brainstormed strategies for officially announcing the campaign. We had an actual campaign meeting to talk over things in mid-April where I met like six different people, friends from both candidates on this ticket, who were supporting this effort. We had a google drive AND a Dropbox. Look at this:

Despite this seemingly organized effort, it was not that organized because this publicity team didn't actually actively do anything for like a week. Many reasons for this: one being it was actually the semester, and it was also CPW weekend. Unfortunately for me, that weekend was literally hell for me, because I was managing this site for our nonprofit, CPW events (so like five zoom calls on a Saturday), classes (because those are still happening), and then the campaign thing finally started, about a week before voting opened. In the form, of a website.

So the tl;dr is I developed an entire Squarespace website in one night. Yes, one night. I had to model it from I think the website from a Harvard campaign site, which took me like three or four hours on a Saturday night, which is a very fast time in my opinion to learn how to use Squarespace. I also bought a domain and figured out how to connect it to Squarespace at like 1 in the morning, which was the first domain I ever bought in my life!

(It expires in a month. I am absolutely going to let it die.)

Also, if anyone from squarespace is reading this for some reason, yall made a really solid product. I actually was very happy with my experience. You all should use it, I am 100% not sponsored by them at all, but honestly it was a very good experience. If you need to develop a website in four hours and don't have a lot of webdev experience, definitely consider it. You can even see website clicks and user analytics, it's actually really put together.

The next day we spend a lot of time going through website changes and artwork changes. It's bad. We had so many discussions about color palettes and the advantages of a 3 column vs 4 column layout. Yes. I'm serious. I'm starting to go crazy.

If anyone's interested, I would say that our website definitely was better than the other campaign's website. Like objectively. Like both campaigns were great, but the website? well. Here's the link (archived because I only paid for 1 month of squarespace :D) The amount of detail that went into it is actually incredible, the amount of spacing, i even had to custom CSS the header image so that mobile headers would show up correctly.

THE CAMPAIGN VIDEO

so sometime during this week, I had this thought about making a really good campaign video. I was very inspired by some of these Google ads that started with a Google search bar. (Yes, I am aware that I am that much of a Google simp.) To be honest, rewatching this ad, I really definitely just copied this entire ad lol, it's ok we don't have to talk about that.

That Wednesday, we coincidentally talked about what makes campaign videos successful. We talked about how Trump's incendiary imagery helped stoke the flames and how it was really effective in getting people to vote, and eventually helped him beat Clinton in the presidential election. So I went and took that and grabbed news clips and campus videos and overlayed that in the video, and it went from like a solid 6 to an 8 immediately, in my honest, unbiased opinion. You can see what I mean in the video itself: [link].

We also had to put together quite a few interviews about what they wanted from the school and were looking for in their candidates, which took a million years of coordination, but we somehow got it done in three days, and everything was put together in a flurry of a weekend, unending changes and small fixes for sixteen hours straight. I could not even tell you how much I learned about premiere pro and how to use layer masks and everything. I even composed the music for the first fifteen seconds of it. Literally, composed, it.

And so on a Sunday afternoon FINALLY right before voting, the video drops. I'm sitting in my backyard absorbing the sun because I hadn't left my computer for 48 hours straight.

It gets like 1000 views or impressions or something in like two days, which is incredible for me, since I'm not a professional by any standards, but I am considering being a professional campaign manager at this point. By the way, we're also managing an Instagram page, a Facebook page, a tiktok page, a website, our individual social media pages, and we're trying to synchronize this video drop and all of our publicity efforts across every single one of these channels. It's chaotic at best.

VOTING SZN

So it's voting week, where we give everyone an entire week to vote. Across the week, it's mostly a waiting game, we make a few more tiktoks and funny videos that we publicize to get out the vote more. The last day, we're thinking about it, and we know the final vote's gonna be close, so we message every. single. person. in our Facebook friends list. I think I singlehandedly convinced like twenty people to vote (and hopefully vote for our ticket).

There's a lot of drama about different stuff. I won't really talk about it because I think it got really messy, but this week and entire couple weeks was a lot to get through honestly. As a reminder, I'm also working on my senior thesis and my nonprofit website work is peaking at this point, so everything is very, very bad and none of us have slept in a while. Also it's the pandemic.

Finally, the results come out. We lost by like 20 votes or something, out of 1500 or so total votes casted or something like that. It's one of the highest voter turnouts in school history or something, I don't quite remember. After that, we're so emotionally drained from this whole thing that we just don't talk about it for a while and that's that.

If the ticket won, I wonder how it would've turned out. I feel like things would've continued to be busy, and maybe that's not a great thing. So maybe everything happened for a reason. I don't know, but those three weeks were quite interesting, quite fun, quite odd. I'm putting those videos in my personal portfolio and am putting Adobe Premiere Pro and Squarespace on my resume and moving on.

Anyways, thought I'd just share! i haven't posted in a while, and this was definitely one of my #weird #odd stories from my time at MIT, which is quite reminiscent of #weird #odd at MIT in general.

[roguethewriter]

Writing Characters with Depression

Ah, mental illness representation! So accurate and diverse!

Said no one ever.

Depression is one of the mental illnesses that are slowly entering the mainstream and becoming less stigmatised. Still, media and literature get a lot of things wrong. You're reading this, so clearly you're interested in what they're doing wrong, so you don't do it. You want to give me a well-rounded amazing character with depression in which we can feel represented, right? WELL, THANKS ANGEL, LET ME HELP YOU.

A couple of things before we start:

‌This is mostly based on personal experience. Mental illness manifests and feels different for different people, so always aim to have a variety of perspectives.

‌Trigger Warning: We're going to discuss some aspects about depression that might upset and hit too close to home to some people, so proceed with caution.

‌I'm not going to go into detail about the symptons, causes and treatment, as this is not a medical manual, but a writing guide. So we'll be focusing more about positive characterisation of people with depression in literature/media.

Let's get to it. And why you're at it, have a Malteeser for everytime I say the D word here.

How depression might feel for someone who has it:

‌Lack of energy

‌A feeling of constant fatigue

‌Hopelessness, thinking things are never going to get better

‌Losing interest in things, even things you used to love

‌Inability to concentrate, even on simple tasks like reading something or watching a tv show

‌Not seeing the point of living

‌Feeling like everything bad that happens is your fault

‌Seeing things in a negative light

‌A lack of self-esteem and self-worth

‌Loss of sex drive

‌Feeling irritable

‌Feeling suicidal

How can it manifest?

‌Sleeping too much or too little

‌Eating too much or nothing at all

‌Being self-deprecating, even if it's in a funny way

‌Withdrawing oneself from social activities

‌Moving and talking slowly

‌Neglecting one's appearance, ie. Not showering in days, not brushing your teeth, wearing the same clothes over and over

‌Abusing substances like alcohol, weed

‌Self-harming

‌Quitting your hobbies

‌Having a messy room, or leaving dishes pile up as you're unable to perform everyday taks

‌Quick to snap and get irritable

This list is not exhaustive, and it's also good to do some research, but these are some clear common signs!

Now, let's go for the bad examples:

Common tropes of characters with depression that make me want to throw away the book/tv to the bin

‌The Oscar the Grouch type: Nothing will make this character smile. They are determined to be a negative nelly and have a big black cloud over their heads.

‌The Sleeping Beauty: how do we know they have depression? Well... They're in bed. People with depression spend all their time in bed, right?

‌The Emo Teen: they wear black, they have studded belts, they wear stripes and eyeliner and listen to MCR, and have a monotone voice... That means they're depressed, right?

‌The eDgY eDgE eDgEdton: Omg, they're depressed, that's so edgy and cool. They wear flannel and write angsty song lyrics with their marker over the wall. They flip tables and cry handsomely while smoking weed. That's depression, right?

‌The Undestructible Teen: Life is tough, parents are getting divorced and Jason has left us for stupid Leyla, but let's not address our problems. We'll cure our depression instead by partying everyday and chugging a bottle of vodka. Oh-oh, have we drunk too much? No worries! There are no consequences to our actions or any long-term impact to our health. We just need the Sensible Friend™ to call us out and we'll grow out of our depression, which brings me to...

‌The Miracle: Did they have depression in episode 1? Well, THEY'RE CURED NOW! And all they had to do is just a little pep talk and get out of bed!

WELL, TO THE RUBBISH BIN TO ALL OF YOU, OFF YOU GO!

Things to take into account when writing depression:

‌Depression is an illness, not a character trait. Although it's true that it shapes the way you think and view the world, depression doesn't define your identity, and people with depression have a personality outside of their mental illness.

‌There are many different types of depression. There is depression with psychosis, there is unipolar depression and then if it's paired with episodes of mania it's called bipolar disorder (comment if you'd like a post on that!). Also, depression can mix differently with other mental illnesses, such as anxiety disorders. Unipolar depression is quite common, but other types need more positive representation too!

‌People with depression still have sense of humour. In fact, some people with depression are actually some of the funniest people. Although depression can make you see everything in a negative light, humour is one of the best coping mechanisms. It can serve as a waybof deflecting attention from themselves so their loved ones don't get worried or making people laugh is the only thing that can lift up their mood. Whatever it is, characters with depression can still be the life of the party.

‌There is not only one way of going through depression. Some people are bed-ridden and have a complete lack of energy, but some people seem to be quite high-functioning, go to work, do the groceries, but feel miserable inside. Some people might even go through both things through their lifetime. The point is that depression affects everyone differently, and it varies according to the type of depression you have, your life situation, and even the stage in which you're in.

‌It's not just sadness. Sometimes, it's not sadness at all. It might be lack of energy, hopelessness, a sense of losing direction and purpose, and in the darkest of times, losing the will to live, to keep fighting. It's important to understand the spectrum of emotions if you're writing a character witj depression and not reduce it to just "a bad mood".

‌Depression is not always due to trauma. The majority of the stories of depression we hear is a person reacting to a major life event: the death of a relative, parents divorcing, losing a job... But sometimes there is not a real life trigger from depression. Sometimes, it's a chemistry imbalance or simply a hereditary cause (attach link). Some people with depression lead stable lives surrounded by loving people and still have the illness, and this creates a feeling of frustration and self-blame, because you feel you might be at fault for being depressed. This is something a lot of people with depression struggle with, but it's not widely talked about.

Okay, Rogue, so how do I write a character with depression?

Well, my little sweetling, let's do some Dos and Don'ts:

Dos:

‌Wonder why you want to write a character with depression. Is it to start a conversation? Is it to provide visibility and representation to the illness? Is it to show how the plot struggles have affected your character? Or is it just to give them "an edge" or make them somewhat interesting? Misrepresentation can be as bad as lack thereof so make sure you're doing it for good reasons.

‌Read own voices books and testimonials about people with the illness. When writing mental illness, most people go to the symptoms page on Wikipedia, but never think to research about how people affected by depression experience it. This will give you a bigger scope on all the different ways depression can affect a person, and will make your character less of a "manual mental illness" type.

‌Create hope for this character. Yes, things can go wrong when you have a mental illness, and suicide rates are high for people affected by them. We know those stories, and they are necessary that we're aware of them. But we also need positive stories. Chances are, someone with depression will read your story, and to see s character with a happy ending can give them a glimmer of hope that is so much needed during dark times. We need more positive stories about mental illness.

‌Use trigger warnings. Some aspects about depression (self-harm, suicide, substance abuse...) can hit too close to home for some people. It's important you warn your readers.

‌Make them interesting, please! Depression does not equal boring. Make them charming and funny and still hopeless, make them be surrounded by loving relatives and still feel miserable, make them be the most helpful friend or loving daughter and still be unable to help themselves. Giving a character depression is not going to be enough to make them interesting, so make sure they have a well-rounded personality.

Don'ts:

‌Romanticise the illness. Do you think depression is lying in your bed in your black clothes listening to Nirvana on loop? Then you're very far off. Although I previously mentioned depression looks different from everyone, things are likely to get ugly. Depression is more than drawing angsty black ink portraits in your sketch pad. It's having your eyes dry and hurt from staring at your phone screen all day. It's your bones aching from sitting on the sofa until 3am dying for some sleep yet being unable to move yourself to bed. It's blood streaming down the sink from brushing your teeth after not brushing them in days. It's the stale smell of the tracksuit bottoms you'be been wearing for weeks. It's your hair feeling like cardboard from all the product and dirt that's been accumulated after not showering for days. Yes, this all sounds tough, but that's because depression is tough and ugly for those who go through it. Show it.

‌Bash on medication. Some people take it, some people don't, but being negative about it in your content can put people off it, people who might actually need it.

‌Have the character "grow out of it". If they have depression in chapter one, they're very likely to have depression in chapter 10, or even in book 2. They might learn coping mechanisms along the way, but depression can take months, or even years to treat, so we won't believe you if you say they've been cured in 3 days. Or maybe:

‌They were depressed, but they have to save the world, so they grew out of it. Yeah, right mate, like if pep talks were that useful people would spend loads of money on therapy and medication. Riiiight. Your hero might eventually get up and save the world, but the depression will still be there, it won't get cured by saving the planet, it will be waiting for them at the end of the road, so be ready to write that.

‌Cure the character with a love interest. Ah, they had depression, until she came to their life. Now they are cured by love! Nah, mate, they will still struggle with depression even when they're madly in love with the most perfect love interest. Some people with depression have loving stable relationships, so this trope makes no sense.

In conclusion / TLDR:

‌Depression has a lot of different faces, not everyone experiences it the same way or is affected by it the same way.

‌It's not always triggered by life events; sometimes you get it and that's it.

‌It's more than just feeling sad.

‌Some people are quite high-functioning despite suffering from it.

‌Don't glamorise: show the good, the bad and the ugly.

‌Be consistent: if they're depressed in chapter 1, they won't be able to grow out of it in chapter 2.

‌Don't be negative about medication or therapy.

‌Use TWs for sensitive content.

‌Tell positive stories and give a glimmer of hope.

Wow! That's a lot, isn't it? You're probably thinking "this is hard to write!", and that's because it is. This is why I asked you to think why you want to do this. Hopefully it didn't put you off and you still want to give the community some good representation.

Anything I left behind? Any more posts like this you'd like to see? Hit me up with comments!

Good luck with your writing and please, hit me up with any questions or talk to me about your OCs and WIP about mental illness. Peace!

Useful links:

Nhs website on depression

Mind guide for depression

If you're struggling and need someone to talk to

[muggle-writes]

Rules: Answer 21 questions and then tag 21 people who you want to get to know better.

tagged by @elizabethsyson

Nickname: Muggle is my nickname, but when I went by Muggle in person for more than a month at a time, it naturally got abbreviated, usually to Mugz

Zodiac: Aquarius

Last movie I saw: into the spiderverse (same answer as last time. I don't watch that many movies tbh except around Christmas. unless YouTube counts in which case... music of some sort? idk links for the next answer)

Favorite musician: changes by the day. I've kinda been in an acapella and/or folk music mood recently so the Maccabeats and Peter Hollens are in my YouTube and Spotify history a lot recently. also I'm eternally in awe of Forte Handbell Quartet (eta a longer video; i recommend skipping to the techno piece or the Jurassic Park theme)

Last thing I googled: "vine why are you buying clothes at the soup store" (my wife hasn't seen it; also i can't find the vine because apparently it's a much bigger meme than I realized). before that it was "chgrp not root" because work and group permissions are useful when they work

Song stuck in my head: well for most of the day when I haven't been actively listening to something, it's been the Pokemon RSE route-walking music. (but that somehow happens frequently when I'm in the no-music-no-internet room at work, as I was for most of the day, and I don't know how I accidentally trained my brain to make that connection). right now, surprisingly, I don't have any background music playing in my head. I think it's because the humidifier provides just enough white noise that my brain doesn't feel the need to provide its own

Other blogs: my main is @muggle-the-hat and I'm a mod on @why-do-neurotypicals but we've gotten one ask ever so that blog has been dormant for a while. I have a bunch of other sideblogs, but they're all small and I use different screen names on each of them (enby life: no idea which name suits me best so I may as well try them out) so i feel like it would just confuse things to link them.

Following: blogs matching all the themes of my sideblogs, (including this one, which is writeblr), korean langblr, jumblr, assorted fandom blogs, authors of my more favorite fanfictions (some overlap with other categories), and irl friends and acquaintances (including one fandom blog turned irl friend)

Do I get asks: on my main if at all, which isn't really surprising because i have hundreds of followers there and maybe 60 followers combined among the rest. but I get asks far less often than I reblog ask memes so... I'm always happy to get more. I do get tagged in ask games more on this one, but writeblr is actually vaguely organized about tag lists so that makes sense. also I used to get tagged a bunch on my main and I rarely could find the posts again to follow up when I had time to answer.

What I’m Wearing: pajamas. staying warm and cozy

Lucky number: I don't remember what I said last time, but I like a lot of numbers. 64 is a good number. recently I've been debugging software in which 0x3E is my lucky status number and 0x0E taunts me. (um, decimal 62 and 14). Also my other favorite number i can't share until it's no longer the combination to the lock to the Secret Room. (or realistically never because opsec and i shouldn't make public the types of parents we use for that combination lock), honestly I aim to be like.... ah, I'm sure the anecdote involves G.H. Hardy but i don't remember on which side. anyway one mathematician remarked to another about how the id number of the taxi he rode in was sadly uninteresting, and the one I aspire to be like, argued "what are you talking about, this number is interesting because ______" and I'd like to be able to do that for any arbitrary number thrown at me. (hi yes math is good, history is hard, math history is interesting yet i still forget the people even if i remember the math. except when things are named after people, but that tends to be, like, Euler and LaGrange and other people who did lots of cool science things so i remember the methods and the names of the methods separately which never helps)

Amount of sleep: ....depression both screws with my sleep schedule and means I always feel like I need more sleep except when I wake up at 5pm and feel like I've wasted the day. so yeah. I can never get enough sleep

Favorite food: yes (why do I have to pick a favorite?) uh, chocolate in most forms, many other sweet things, red meats (especially if served with potatoes), curry (especially if it has "too much" ginger), fresh-baked bread, chai the way my favorite local Indian restaurant makes it (spicier with just a little bit of sweet, which is the opposite of what i can get from the mocha machine at work which is wayyy sweet with a hint of spice but that inferior chai is still superior to coffee so i drink too much of it). also vegetables which I really don't eat enough of: sauteed zucchini and onions, roasted broccoli

Dream trip: dreaming requires creativity and tbh I funnel that mostly into my writing instead. I wouldn't mind going back to Korea for another visit though

Dream job: my current job is pretty good when I feel productive and when my debugging tools actually produce data maybe??? (they were not being helpful today. but i still mostly like my job.) dream job is probably this but with seniority and confidence and double the salary (while living in a similar area of the country; I wouldn't want to double my salary by moving to work for Google in California and having less available after rent than I do now)

Describe yourself as aesthetic things:

the smell of old books

the first glow of sunrise (the sunrise painting the mountains pink and gold)

a rainbow in the spray from a waterfall

the flicker of distant lightning (watching a thunderstorm fade into the distance)

this picture

Random fact: about me or about the world?

how about a combination answer: when we got our new handbell music this season, we only looked at half the pieces our first rehearsal and afterwards I tried to look up one of the pieces we hadn't gotten to on YouTube because it's got a weird time signature and I wanted to get a feel for how fast it would go and how strict the counting is...... except it turns out we're the first group to ever play the piece. it was commissioned recently but seeing my conductor's name on the page didn't tell me how new it was because he's super prolific. (the fact that it was on printer paper without the publisher's graphics should have been a giveaway but it's only the second time I've been among the first to play one of his pieces so I think I can be excused for not realizing)

Languages: mostly just English, but I took Spanish for years, so I can hold simple conversations in it. I can almost read sound out Hebrew fast enough to keep up in services, and I know some random Hebrew vocab but comparatively no grammar. and I took Korean in college, enough that I can recognize sentence structure but I can really only speak tourist-Korean, though I can sound anything out (if it's typed. handwriting is hit or miss.) in both Hebrew and Korean (and Spanish tbh but i don't often listen to Spanish music) I'm very proud when I can separate the words enough, listening to a song, to translate them without looking up the lyrics. also I tried to learn Japanese from Duolingo when it was new, but I still hadn't gotten the kana straight when it started progressing to kanji so that was a rough time and I went back to Hebrew.

tbh I "dabble" in "language learning" which really means I start a million courses on Duo and stick with none of them. with the notable exception of French, which I acknowledge is super common and probably a good idea to learn but the spelling and pronunciation seem so arbitrary I'm scared to look close enough to learn it properly, and I've never particularly considered starting the Duolingo course for French

I think I lost a few questions, because that's only 18 answers. whoops.

um... who to tag

@abluescarfonwaston if school hasn't drowned you in work yet and @copperscales I'm interested in both of your choices for lucky numbers especially.

... wow I'm blanking on other mutuals I haven't tagged recently. as usual lmk if you'd like to be edited in, or just answer the questions and tag me back, that's great too.

[mental-health-advice]

I live abroad going to college and I don't have friends or any back at home. I feel really alone and down. My mind is a mess. I have no one to talk to. I see people already settled down with their lives and I just see me struggling to be happy. I want to runaway. Ignore everything. Forget but it's so hard. I feel bored of doing the things I love. I feel tired all the time. I don't know what I'm going through but I really want to know. Do you know where I can check what mental issues I have?

Hi lovely,

I’m sorry that you are feeling so alone and low right now, I know how hard that can be to deal with. I hope I’ll be able to give you some support and reassurance to begin dealing with this

Feelings of loneliness often make us feel like we are unwanted because we convince ourselves that nobody likes us and this will always be the case. But it’s really important to remember that loneliness is temporary and you can overcome it! I am linking this page by Psychcentral as it has some really good tips and advice on overcoming loneliness. Even something really simple like reaching out to people you know first by commenting on a Facebook status, or sending them a short message saying hi and asking what they’re up to - initiating conversation can really help you to feel more involved in a group or friendship.

Is meeting new people and making friends something that you want to do? Something I would suggest is to look online, like on Tumblr, for a community which share a passion with you - for example, there are a lot of band and anime communities on Tumblr I know about. But I’m sure you would be able to find at least one person whom with you share a common interest, no matter how niche it is, and then you can chat with them about that? Also, have you considered joining any local groups or volunteer programmes near you? This would mean you got out of the house and socialised with others in your local area which can be a great way to start making friends! Try not to let your negative experiences with friendship in the past affect how you go into new friendships – if you go in with an open mind and open heart, you are likely to be greeted with the same thing and form some kind of close relationship with someone. When you feel alone and isolated it can feel like it will always be that way, but it won’t, you will find people who care for you and cherish their friendship with you.

Maybe creating a daily schedule would help you to feel a little more active in your life and at less of a standstill. This doesn’t have to be big activities whilst you are still struggling s much, but could include little things like what time you are going to get up, doing the dishes or laundry, etc. Even though these are only small things, when you see that you are sticking to the schedule and ticking things off as you go, hopefully it will provide you with some encouragement to keep going and try to add a little more to your day each day. It is all about keeping small and manageable goals! Planning and looking too far into the future can be difficult when you are struggling with mental health issues; currently you feel so stuck in your illness that you can’t see a time when you won’t be struggling – I promise you will not always struggle as much as you are now.

When it comes to diagnosis, I am not a professional so cannot diagnose you, and we try to discourage self-diagnosis using online tools for reasons listed on this post. If you do want to do some research about different mental health conditions then I highly recommend that you use certified and professional websites like Mind, MoodJuice, or the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Maybe taking a look at some pages about depression would be a good place to start; reading through your ask and some of the symptoms you have described, depression could be something you are experiencing. Here are some symptoms of depression:

Persistently sad, anxious, or empty moods

Loss of pleasure in usual activities

Fatigue or decreased energy

Sleep disturbances

Change in appetite or weight

Thoughts of suicide or death, or suicide attempts

Poor self-image or self-esteem

(source)

If you feel you relate to any of the above symptoms then a good step would be to speak to a professional, such as your doctor or a therapist. They will be able to help with a diagnosis, if applicable, and will start treatment with you. They will also help you to begin understanding what is causing these feelings, or lack of, and hopefully give you so coping mechanisms which you can apply to your daily life. I know reaching out for help can be really scary, but you deserve all of the help available to you, lovely. Here is a link to our page about getting help. Professionals are there to help you in any way they can, they won’t judge you, or make you do or tell them anything you don’t want to.

I hope this has been of some use to you, lovely. Please remember that you can always get back in touch with us if there is anything else that we can help you with! Take care!

‘‘Keep fighting, people, and your little monsters will never get the best of you.’

Rhiann xo

[fywannaone]

Hi! I'm an Australian fan and I got tickets to KCON Australia. I wanted to ask what is the best way to learn about each member or a series I can watch? (I have produce 101 s2 on my watchlist) Or a guide/blog that you recommend? I really love this blog, thank you for the awesome updates! Love from Australia 🇦🇺

hey there!! thanks for the support :) this is a long post packed with lots of wanna one show recommendations & TONS of little facts (equipped with videos) about wanna one themselves to help new wannables! so i put everything below the “read more” line. i went really crazy with this post but have fun at kcon australia!

the ultimate wanna one starter pack

here’s some things we highly recommend watching:

energetic music video

burn it up music video

pick me (produce 101)

produce 101 season 2

the first 10 episodes are subbed on 101SUBS, and the 11th (final) is coming soon!

fun watches: eye contact videos, meringue time videos and self-introduction videos, hidden box videos

wanna one go (incomplete!)

ep 1 (subbed)

ep 2 (subbed)

weekly idol

1 (subbed)

2 (no subs for this one yet since it just came out!)

wanna one’s vlive!!

this is the perfect place to see wanna one act casual! (and live, at that)

all videos have subs 1-2 days after their release

snl9

you don’t learn much about the members personalities from this as they’re all acting..but it’s a good laugh! there are plenty of inside jokes

don’t know if there are full subs yet..but there are definitely subbed cuts!! (daniel & minhyun cut, 3 minute boyfriend cuts, jisung/jaehwan/guanlin/sungwoon cut, woojin & daehwi cut - can’t find this one subbed, sorry!)

happy together 3

1 (subbed)

2 (jisung, minhyun, seongwoo, daniel & jihoon only) (no subs yet!) 

fun watches:

real night of entertainment (minhyun, daniel & jihoon only) (subbed)

the return of superman (jisung, seongwoo, daniel & jihoon only)

1 (subbed)

2 (no subs yet)

idol fever (a drama starring surprise u, fantagio’s newest idol actor group, that seongwoo had a cameo in! seongwoo is from fantagio so that explains why)

all subbed on ‘idol fever’ vlive channel 

yoojung & doyeon of i.o.i and weki meki, moonbin of astro, seo kangjoon of 5urprise appear in this drama too!

let’s eat dinner together (daniel & jihoon only) (not subs yet)

essentially a show where the two mcs, kang hodong & lee kyungkyu, and any of their guests go around on a mission to have dinner with a family

mnet present

this was a video released just before wanna one debuted with ‘energetic’! not sure if there are subs for this yet

things that happen here: members imitate each other, minhyun/seongwoo/woojin/jihoon talk in dialect with each other

energetic music video BTS

recording BTS

just roam our /tagged/v: bts, /tagged/v: sub and /tagged/v: other tags

things that haven’t come out yet, but to look forward to

it’s dangerous outside the blankets (daniel only)

it’s a new show, so we don’t know much about it. but apparently it’s just a variety show about celebrities that enjoy spending time inside! xiumin of exo, junhyung of highlight (previously known as beast), lee sangwoo & park jaejung appear alongside.

the first episode will air at 11:15 PM KST on august 27th

meet&greet

it’s a show made for idols to interact with their favourite idol groups!

it will go live at 5 PM KST on august 28th! we’ll provide links to the episode closer to its release.

immortal songs

this one is a singing show, but it often has an in-between interview-like show

wanna one’s episode is set to air at 6:05 PM KST on august 27th

about the wanna one members (make sure to visit our about page!)

kang daniel

ranked 1st in produce 101

from mmo entertainment

known to attract noonas (older women)

his name used to be ‘kang euigeon’ but he changed it because no one could pronounce it

his legendary thigh sweep

‘get ugly’ fancam

fans think he looks like apeach (hence why he is given many apeach plushies at fansigns and he has fansites based around the word ‘peach’)

daniel imitating apeach, daniel with an apeach plush, that one time in produce 101 when he looked like apeach

he (like woojin) uses busan dialect

a compilation of daniel using busan dialect

can b-boy

laughs a lot (and he said he laughs when he is embarrassed)

everyone loves kang daniel

harry pote

shares a room with seongwoo & jisung

park jihoon

ranked 2nd in produce 101

from maroo entertainment

popular since day 1 of produce 101! got known as ‘wink boy’ for winking at the end of ‘pick me’

he was previously an sm and fantagio trainee! so he listed that he is close to astro and mark of nct on his profile

people think his fashion is bad lol

NAE MAEUM SOGE, JEOJANG

he likes dancing, especially popping

is known as ‘pink sausages’ with woojin

was a child actor and (acting) cried on tv beside g-dragon once?? (+ here’s him crying to sad music on weekly idol)

kkukkukkakka

jihoon & sungwoon’s english conversation

shares a room with guanlin, woojin, minhyun & jaehwan

lee daehwi

ranked 3rd in produce 101

from brand new music

known as the center of ‘pick me’! he was voted in by the other boys from produce 101

lived in america for awhile (so he’s fluent in english - 1, on weekly idol)

formerly a jyp trainee, so he is close to somi of i.o.i!

appeared in mc gree’s ‘dangerous’

he composes! in fact, he co-produced, composed and co-wrote (woojin co-wrote too) his fellow produce 101 trainees + label mates, kim donghyun and im youngmin (mxm), title track ‘good day’! he also wrote ‘hollywood’, which was the song the brand new music trainees auditioned with at produce 101.

fans think he looks like an otter (1, 2)

MAGU MAGU

knows a lot of girl group dances (as if it’s your last by blackpink, he did a lot on weekly idol)

shares a room with jinyoung & sungwoon

kim jaehwan

ranked 4th in produce 101

independent trainee! so, he has no company (but for wanna one promotions, he signed with cj e&m)

HIS LAUGH (1, 2, 3, 4)

the boy can SING

the boy can also RAP

the boy is a VISUAL

actually, just have this video of him doing taekwondo, rapping and playing the flute

says he is 2m39

says he knows how to cook (but has never chopped onions before?) (somewhere in wanna one go ep 2)

can play the guitar! (skyfall on the guitar) (and another one) (and another one) (there are lots…)

he is the dirtiest member… (somewhere in wanna one go ep 1)

look at him chewing on this lettuce like a bunny

shares a room with jihoon, guanlin, minhyun & woojin

ong seongwoo

ranked 5th in produce 101

from fantagio music

SLATE

always funny, even during 2x dancing

his wOOOOooooOOO in ‘get ugly’

he can b-boy and do popping

was a store clothing model before (and he is embarrassed by some of the pics, 2)

he has a LOT of funny moments (1, 2, 3, 4)

can do this weird ear popping thing

the boy can ACT (and this)

shares a room with daniel & jisung

park woojin

ranked 6th in produce 101

from brand new music

says he is a seoul person, but nothing can hide his busan accent (somewhere in wanna one go ep 1)

sexy baby oh my lady

he’s got a snaggletooth

appeared in mc gree’s ‘dangerous’

his past…is something

little t.o.p, singing only one by boa, a compilation of his past

you can’t spell woojin without dancing!! (1, 2, 3 - he performed this one even when he had shingles)

not too far behind daehwi in the realm of cover dances!

is known as ‘pink sausages’ with jihoon

shares a room with minhyun, jaehwan, guanlin & jihoon

lai guanlin

ranked 7th in produce 101

from cube entertainment

LOVES WOOSEOK FROM PENTAGON (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

he’s from taiwan and can speak chinese, english & korean

this troublemaker cover with seonho (another cube trainee that participated in produce 101 with him) 

rapping

the giggliest maknae ever (just watch any wanna one video and he will probably be giggling on the side)

eating

timber cover he did when he was younger…lol

he’s got a messy locker at cube

but he’s also (in guanlin’s words) a manly man 

shares room with jihoon, jaehwan, minhyun & woojin

yoon jisung

ranked 8th in produce 101

from mmo entertainment

YOON JISUNG SSHI

leader of talkative mmo

when he got 3rd place

invented the legendary circle clap

great leader

dancing to red flavor by red velvet!

dubbed the mom of the group

jinyoung talks about how caring jisung is somewhere in wanna one go ep 1

b-boying god yoon jisung

seongwoo scaring jisung somewhere in wanna one go ep 1

his fans are called rice grains, so he is their rice pot

shares room with daniel & seongwoo

hwang minhyun

ranked 9th in produce 101

from pledis entertainment

in a group called nu’est, which debuted back in 2012

4/5 nu’est members (minhyun, baekho/dongho, ren/minki, jr/kim jonghyun) joined produce 101 in hopes of gaining popularity and fans

which they did! since produce, nu’est sans minhyun formed a subunit named ‘nu’est w’ (w for wait..meaning they’ll wait for minhyun to finish wanna one promos and join nu’est again) and the members have much more schedules

some nu’est songs: overcome, love paint, face, hello, if you (nu’est w)

fans think he looks like a desert fox

really likes singing (1, 2, 3, 4)

appeared in orange caramel ‘shanghai romance’

known for creating ‘justice league/sorry sorry team 2′ because a lot of the members from that team became popular after getting picked by him

also accurately guessed who would stay (and in what order they would rank) in never team

this all resulted in the nickname ‘ceo minhyun’

his face when yoojung and doyeon came

from busan, but can’t do a good busan accent anymore?

ACTING

cried at the produce 101 finale :’(

keeps doing the butt dance (1, 2, somewhere in weekly idol too i think?)

his relationship with seonho (1, 2, 3, 4, seonho appears in wanna one go ep 2)

co-produced, co-composed, co-wrote ‘thank you’ by nu’est

allergic to salt (gets rashes when in contact with salt or salty water, even his sweat!)

shares room with guanlin, jaehwan, jihoon & woojin

bae jinyoung

ranked 10th in produce 101

from c9 entertainment

small head

deep singing voice! (1, 2, 3)

YES GOOD

ttak ttak (1, 2)

jinyoung and daehwi’s relationship as described by seongwoo

hands on me center!!

allergic to shrimp

shares room with daehwi & sungwoon

ha sungwoon

ranked 11th in produce 101

from star crew entertainment (previously ardor & able)

in a group called hotshot, which debuted back in 2014

2/6 hotshot members (sungwoon & kid monster/taehyun) joined produce 101

similarly to nu’est, hotshot also gained popularity and have since (with the remaining members) comeback with ‘jelly’

some hotshot songs: i’m a hotshot, take a shot, midnight sun, watch out 

sungwoon’s and taehyun’s reaction when sungwoon appeared on the top 4 screen

pt 2 of sungwoon and taehyun’s chemistry

VOCALS FOR DAYS (1, 2, 3)

2nd most giggliest member after guanlin

spongebob impersonation

sungwoon’s grandpa appeared on wanna one go

jihoon and sungwoon’s english conversation

a good sungwoon compilation

nailing the never dance

shares room with jinyoung & daehwi

….i just started typing and couldn’t stop…i also recommend the produce 101 season 2 subreddit for timely updates and compilation posts of wanna one (as well as other produce 101 contestants)! they have posts on fanaccounts from fansignings, which are really fun to read.

[yeoldontknow]

I'm thinking of opening commissions for my writing! Do you have any advice for sites to use or pricing? Or anything in general? Thank you!

hi anon! apologies for the delay on my reply to this. ive not really been home or at my computer the last several days. and yesterday i was sick :( but !! congrats on deciding to move forward with this! its always a difficult decision to come to since its a little hard to see your work as something of value or something someone would pay for (this goes into like…fanfic as a free market method of creation as well as confidence in the self/writing skills). so im glad you decided to do it! 

i can only speak about the sites i use or have used, but these are not the only sites out there. i think perhaps the best advice you could be given is to do you research on what the legal terms each website stipulates while also getting a general feel for how easy it is to host.

going under a cut to not clog dashes! 

when i first decided to do this, i used buy me a coffee. it was fine, and very easy to set up. the benefit, i imagine, of using it is the fact that they offer some pretty nice statistics for you to see how often your page gets viewed. if youre a stats person, and want to track the number of eyes that come across your page against the number of those eyes that ask for a request to discern value, this might be the place for you! however, for some reason i had a really difficult time getting my paypal connected and set up. someone had bought a request from me and it took about 3 months and several emails to their helpdesk to get the money paid out properly. this was just my experience, and its very possible others on here use it without issue. im sure ive seen several people with a buy me a coffee button on their desktop site. so! if you check it out and feel like moving forward, im sure theres others on here who can advise on the pros and cons. 

now, i use kofi and have received the majority of my requests through this website. it links directly to my paypal and has no minimum fee limit for payouts. it allows for anonymous supporters as well, so if someone wants to support without having to ask for a full request it makes it terribly easy for them to do so. ive been using kofi for about 5 months and have had no issues - to be fair, i felt setting up my page there was even easier than buy me a coffee. i am unsure if kofi provides the same statistics, or tracks the number of page views, but for me, personally, thats not my main concern. i think the only place i feel statistically oriented is AO3 lmao anyway, i really like hosting on kofi and recommend them highly.

another place is patreon. i know @dark-muse-iris uses patreon for her followers and from what i gather she, and her patrons, loves it. this is where legal terms come into play, like i mentioned earlier. on kofi, there are clauses that stipulate you cannot distribute porn, sex work, etc on the website. if you request a work of smut from me through kofi, i am technically breaking the legal terms. this is why my kofi is linked on my tumblr, but my tumblr is not linked (directly) on my kofi. am i breaking laws? yes, but i dont have enough of a following to garner the value of having patreon. i have a lot of followers, but im very aware engagement on my blog comes in waves and i also just am not around enough or energetic enough to maintain the energy needed to sustain a patreon. i dont know how people do it, and this is probably due to my lack of education on managing a patreon in general, but i admire those that do. now, i mention patreon, because patreon doesnt have legal terms that specifically stipulate distribution of erotica - again, this was the lat time i checked and my understanding. this could really be totally different, so if im incorrect please correct me.

as for price points, those numbers are entirely up to you. and by that i mean, it is beneficial to consider how long it takes you to write x number of words, the ease vs difficulty of creating those words based on member, and the general word count of what you produce. i broke mine up into various levels - drabble, one shot, and mini series. for one shots there is a range of 2-5k, and 5k+); mini series are up to 3 parts and no more. this is because i am a very flowery, long winded writer. i have been writing long enough to know this about myself and find staying under 1K a challenge. 

for me, i also felt it would be important to work with my requestor. if they want someone that is far longer or doesnt fit into what ive described, im happy to work with them and come to a price together that they can afford.

HOWEVER. probably the best advice i can give, apart from ensuring you read legal terms, is encouraging you to stick to your boundaries. i have a clear list of rules, and on those rules a very explicit list of what i will not write. these rules are not to be broken, and if they are, its okay for you to delete the request. offer a refund and politely decline. you are not beholden to a request that makes you uncomfortable, anxious, or triggered just because someone gave you money for it. before you open any of these pages, consider what your limits are - who you will write for, how much you will write, and what you absolutely will or cannot write - and clearly state them. never push yourself past a boundary on behalf of someone else.

i hope this all helps!

[i-just-really-like-ladies]

Hey op, I saw your post about discovering you were autistic. Something similar is happening to me except I haven't gone for a diagnosis yet. Would it be okay for you to talk about how you knew?

For me there are things that...fit really well, that hit very close to home, but others not so, so Im not sure if whatever it is that I've got (because clearly, something is there.) I'm not very sure if the autistic spectrum can be so wide as for me to be included in it.

Any tips?

Of course, happy to help.

For me there were three kind of bigger indicators.

First, and after discussing this one with my therapist, it seems to be very consistent across autistic people: I've always felt different. Like I knew that I was at the very least slightly off in comparison to other people. (Please excuse the phrasing, I couldn't think of another way to put it properly).

Second, linked with the first: I have always experienced this thing I like to describe as 'not feeling like a real person'. All that really means is that I see the way other people are out laughing boldly with friends or joking or just straight up experiencing the world, and I think "man, I wish I could be a real person." And it always made me sad because I was consciously realising that I cannot and do not experience the world in the same way most neurotypical people do. It was just this huge feeling of otherness. (My therapist indicated that this is very common)

Third: masking. Now, this one made me feel bad for a really long time because I had no clue what was going on until my ex-girlfriend was like "oh, yeah, that's masking." For me, one of the biggest ways I mask is to copy mannerisms and speech patterns of people I'm around. I do it the most when I really like someone (friend like or romantically) or when a person makes me so extremely uncomfortable that I guess my brain is like "you need to mimic them for safety reasons." The reason this one bothered me so much is that I always felt like I just couldn't have my own personality, why was I always copying other people, surely they've all noticed and think I'm a fucking weirdo. It was very upsetting until I learned it was masking. Finding that out has helped me to accept it when I do it, even though I am trying to mask less.

So, those are the big three. There are lots of other minor things. I have ocd, which very commonly goes hand in hand with Autism. I got that need for rigid schedule and following the same patterns almost daily (slight variations are okay, but people planning stuff and not telling me when I've already set up my personal schedule for the day in my head, big no no). I eat the same foods on repeat and have an extremely difficult time changing it up. When I like food or dislike it, the primary reason is texture. (My fiance actually pointed this one out. Apparently I talk about the texture of food a ton).

I'm sure you've probably come across information about the emotionality of Autistic people. The common trope is that we are very emotionless. However, thats not accurate at all. There are two main big categories of where we can fall: tending to not feel emotions very strongly (the trope), and feeling emotions very intensely, more intensely than neurotypical society says is appropriate 🙄. I fall into this category, and I hate it because I have spent so much time trying to just not feel my emotions because they are so intense and my expression of them is 'inappropriate' that it has caused a great many mental health issues for me. So the eye roll face is because I think that the appropriate expression of emotion dictated by most of society is stupid. Along with this one, I have a hard time verbalizing and verbally identifying how I am feeling. As a result, I tend to just tell people I am upset. My therapist says this is somewhat common amongst Autistic individuals. I cannot recall the reasoning she gave for it being common, but I am including it because it was brought up in the process of discussing all this.

I also have this huge tendency to overexplain my reasons for things I've done or said because I do not want to be misunderstood/I have experienced misunderstanding so many times that I learned to do this at some point (I consider this to be part of my masking). This one seems to be pretty common, at least from tiktok. I've seen a lot of Autistic people on tiktok mention it.

Side note in relation to this but still relevant to the post imo, I hate that society tends to think you are lying the more detail you provide. I have a tendency to find all details absolutely vital. So when telling someone about what happened in a situation, I relay as much information as I can. Apparently, that means you are lying. It frustrates me a lot.

In that same vein, another thing my therapist said is fairly common: many Autistic people like to ask why continuously. Not as in just repeating "why," but rather that someone will say "I don't know" or provide an answer, but we often are still seeking a further reason. I've done this my entire life, and booooy does it aggravate people. For me it is just that I want to know the reasoning behind things. I want to know as much information as possible about the topic, and, as mentioned above, I tend to find every single detail absolutely important. That just leads to continuously asking why.

So another one for me, of which I am unsure the commonality: I have a very difficult time maintaining friendships unless I see someone most days of the week. I would say about 5 out of the 7 makes it the easiest for me, but it has worked out on less than that, rarely. The reason for this is that I forget to talk to people when I cannot physically see them. I mean, I just don't think about it for weeks on end. Then I will for a second, but won't message them because I'm doing something, and then forget about it again for ages. Part of this is that I prefer in person communication because I can try to read people's body language and facial expressions. The other part is tone of voice is more clear in person than via text. Now, this one bothered me when I was trying to figure out if I was autistic because it is common for Autistic people to not recognise facial cues and body language the same way as neurotypical people. Turns out, according to my testing results paperwork, i just have a higher ability to recognise facial expressions than most people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. So, I just vary a bit from the average.

Within this same vein is the commonly known 'eye contact issue'. The stereotype is that we cannot and do not make eye contact. This is so false. Many Autistic people do not make eye contact well, yes, but not all. For example, I do. I told one of my brothers I was getting tested for Autism and his response was, and I quote literally here, "I don't think you're Autistic because you make eye contact." What he didn't know is the reason why I make eye contact. I do it because I was taught repeatedly that it is how you show people you are listening. So, basically, I'm masking when I make eye contact because I'm solely doing it to show someone I am listening to them. In fact, 😆 I commonly am sitting there telling myself to make eye contact in order to indicate that I am present and interested in what the other person is saying. I also have a harder time masking this way when attempting to talk about things that are important and emotionally relevant to me. In therapy, I rarely make eye contact with my therapist because it is so difficult to talk about things in general that I cannot also make eye contact. Lastly, for this one, the more comfortable I am with someone, the less I make eye contact with them. My fiance, for example, not very common at all that I do it.

There is also the very common special interests phenomenon. The media tends to show this as a math or science thing, but it really isn't. I follow one tiktoker whose special interest is bugs and, I believe, art. I highly recommend her. Her handle is: soundoftheforest. For me, it's language/linguistics and ancient egypt, Greece and Rome. Really, I'd say ancient anywhere history, but those are the big three. Egypt has been my longest interest, besides language. I actually remember the moment I was like "this is it for life." I was 7 and had finished my library books but was bored at daycare. So I went to the book shelf and picked up a book about King Tut. It was the page I read about the day Howard Carter found the tomb. And I just knew me and Ancient Egypt were meant to be forever. As for language, I've literally always been fascinated by it. I started speaking very early and with more complex words than is usual. And I just continued to love language from there. I ended up studying ancient Greek and Latin in college. Also, I info dump about these all the time, almost anytime I possibly can because they're so fucking cool. 😁

Another side note, it is common for Autistic individuals to have delays in speaking, I just did not. It is not something required for the diagnosis. It is just very common.

This one is a little bit weird, and might just be a me thing, but I've discussed it with my therapist. She indicated that it very much aligns with Autism. I cannot, or can but with extreme apprehension and knowledge that I will leave depressed; I simply cannot go into buildings of certain lighting, age, and design. It seems to be buildings that look and/or feel like they were built in the 1960s or 1970s. We haven't really figured out why that is a thing, but it is. I once didn't bother to finish applying for a job to teach Latin that I'd basically been guaranteed so long as I sent in the app because when I went for the interview I saw the building and knew I could not teach there, even part time, because the building would depress me constantly. It's a weird one, but if you have anything at all where you just cannot do it because you know it will affect you like this, I'd bring it up in discussing potentially being Autistic.

I nearly forgot to mention this one, but you've probably heard about the sensory issues that many Autistic people deal with. I have some with touching things, but it is less common an issue for me than my sound sensitivity issues. I am very sensitive to sound. If I had to give a 4th big reason, this would be it because I get overstimulated and overwhelmed by sound multiple times a day. Its rough. If you also have this issue, I cannot recommend enough noise cancelling headphones and chew stim toys when you don't have your headphones. It's really helpful.

This last one I'm going to mention is something that I think I do just to help prevent burnout from masking, but is also part of me specifically. I am an introvert. So that plays a role in this. I spend the vast majority of my time completely by myself. I do mean even when at home with my fiance. We are often in different rooms. I have no problem with it. It doesn't feel like it is bad for our relationship, thankfully. I just prefer to be alone most of the time. The more time I spend around people, the more time afterwards I need alone. That is partially my introvertedness but also me needing to because I am socially exhausted from masking and trying to read all the social cues and not make weird errors when in social settings 😳, which I do a lot. I think I just default to spending time by myself when I am not required to engage with people in order to ensure that I can later. Plus, in discussing this one with my therapist, we concluded that I do this at least in part to prevent burnout and overstimulation.

As for the testing itself. I discussed this with my therapist for a while when waiting to get tested, and by the time I did get tested, I had a nice long list of stuff to bring up. I would definitely recommend compiling a list of the symptoms/signs you feel are indicative for yourself. It was very quick after I first brought it up in therapy that I decided I needed the official diagnosis for myself. So my therapist gave me recommendations of who to see. I also looked myself because the recommended people were so booked they couldn't even schedule further out. Once I got it scheduled, I had to wait like 3 months for the appointments. So, if you are seeking the official diagnosis, don't give up because it's a long wait. From what I've seen others saying, it's pretty common to have to wait a bit to be seen.

There were 3 appointments, an intake, a testing, and a feedback appointment. The intake appointment involved me talking to the doctor about my experiences and why I thought I might be autistic. She asked me a few questions about the more commonly known signs of autism if I did not mention them. The testing appointment took about 4 hours and involved a self report personality assessment, several verbal and memory activities, a teaching activity, two story telling/creating activities, and (the part I thought was most difficult) an activity in which I had to identify the emotion being expressed by just the eye and eyebrow area of black and white photos of people. I also had a take home assessment for someone who knew me really well. It was related to executive functioning abilities and emotional regulation abilities. I cannot speak on the feedback appointment because of technical issues resulting in not actually having that appointment. I have rescheduled it and will be doing that later this month.

If you have anything more specific you want to ask me about, please do. I am happy to answer.