#if i had editing software i'd do it but i don't

[thebeautifulfantastic]

i'm reading an article on the history of fandom culture and it's SO fascinating. i kind of feel like writing an essay about this

[thebibliosphere]

So, anyway, I say as though we are mid-conversation, and you're not just being invited into this conversation mid-thought. One of my editors phoned me today to check in with a file I'd sent over. (<3)

The conversation can be surmised as, "This feels like something you would write, but it's juuuust off enough I'm phoning to make sure this is an intentional stylistic choice you have made. Also, are you concussed/have you been taken over by the Borg because ummm."

They explained that certain sentences were very fractured and abrupt, which is not my style at all, and I was like, huh, weird... And then we went through some examples, and you know that meme going around, the "he would not fucking say that" meme?

Yeah. That's what I experienced except with myself because I would not fucking say that. Why would I break up a sentence like that? Why would I make them so short? It reads like bullet points. Wtf.

Anyway. Turns out Grammarly and Pro-Writing-Aid were having an AI war in my manuscript files, and the "suggestions" are no longer just suggestions because the AI was ignoring my "decline" every time it made a silly suggestion. (This may have been a conflict between the different software. I don't know.)

It is, to put it bluntly, a total butchery of my style and writing voice. My editor is doing surgery, removing all the unnecessary full stops and stitching my sentences back together to give them back their flow. Meanwhile, I'm over here feeling like Don Corleone, gesturing at my manuscript like:

ID: a gif of Don Corleone from the Godfather emoting despair as he says, "Look how they massacred my boy."

Fearing that it wasn't just this one manuscript, I've spent the whole night going through everything I've worked on recently, and yep. Yeeeep. Any file where I've not had the editing software turned off is a shit show. It's fine; it's all salvageable if annoying to deal with. But the reason I come to you now, on the day of my daughter's wedding, is to share this absolute gem of a fuck up with you all.

This is a sentence from a Batman fic I've been tinkering with to keep the brain weasels happy. This is what it is supposed to read as:

"It was quite the feat, considering Gotham was mostly made up of smog and tear gas."

This is what the AI changed it to:

"It was quite the feat. Considering Gotham was mostly made up. Of tear gas. And Smaug."

Absolute non-sensical sentence structure aside, SMAUG. FUCKING SMAUG. What was the AI doing? Apart from trying to write a Batman x Hobbit crossover??? Is this what happens when you force Grammarly to ignore the words "Batman Muppet threesome?"

Did I make it sentient??? Is it finally rebelling? Was Brucie Wayne being Miss Piggy and Kermit's side piece too much???? What have I wrought?

Anyway. Double-check your work. The grammar software is getting sillier every day.

[dduane]

So it came to my attention a couple of weeks back that the version of Stealing the Elf-King's Roses that until recently was available over at Ebooks Direct had somehow managed to evade being updated using the cutting-edge Vellum ebook software, when we were doing all the other books in the store.

I have no idea how this happened. Anyway, I've been taking care of that update, and the book will be available again in a day or three.

Meanwhile I'm having the usual conniptions over new cover art and font choices. Fantasy covers these days need to have one or another of a group of very specific looks. So do SF covers. And when you have a novel that splits the difference between the genres (or bashes them together...) the way this one does—as STEKR is an alternate-Earth police procedural—it can seem impossible to get it right. You don't want to leave people who're buying-at-a glance feeling, later on, that they thought they were getting one thing and were sold something else.

The art above is okay enough to go forward with. (Though I'd feel better if I could get Lee something a little more like her judicial robes and less like a "little black [cocktail] dress".) The real problem right now, though, is the font choice.

After some consideration I grabbed the one above from Derek Murphy's fabulous DIY cover site. (Simply because how could I not try a font called The Princess And The Frog?...) But I'm going to go back tomorrow or the next day and try using a much more SF-looking font, and see how that comes out. Who knows... maybe when it's in the store again, we'll offer both cover versions and see what people prefer.

Anyway, this is just an early warning for those of you here who may have picked up the book earlier (possibly as part of our whole store bundle*). When the updated book goes live, you're entitled to be updated to the new version of STEKR, with its improved graphics on the inside as well as the outside, if you feel like it. Just drop a note to the store's support email address, quoting your order number, and we'll refresh your download links when the book's back up in the store.

Meanwhile, for those who may not know anything about this novel: look under the cut for the description.

*Which, along with all our other bundles, is on sale at 20% off right now.

It's CSI, Jim, but not as you know it...!

Psychoforensics specialist and freelance prosecutor Lee Enfield works with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office as a lanthanomancer—a magic-worker trained in Seeing and revealing the truth.  When she and her fayhound partner Gelert are brought in to do discovery for the investigation into the murder of an Elf named Omren dil’Sorden, at first it seems an ordinary homicide: just one more hate crime in a city and culture where violence against the immensely wealthy, uncannily beautiful Alfen is becoming more and more commonplace.

But Lee and Gelert discover that there's more to this Elf's murder than meets the eye. When political pressure from above the DA's office pushes the two partners out of the investigation, Lee's unwillingness to drop the case gets her and Gelert drafted into a mission to the heart of the forbidden realm of Alfheim. Their involvement makes them targets of a shadowy conspiracy involving powerful multinationals and governments of the Eleven Worlds, intent on taking the secret of the Elves' power for themselves. Drawn into an ambivalent and potentially deadly alliance with the shadowy and much-feared Elf-King, and with the fates of entire worlds on the line, does Lee dare trust her Sight to reveal his true motives—and can the Elf-King be trusted to be on anyone's side but his own?...

This stand-alone fantasy police/legal-procedural novel by DD, originally published in 2002, is reissued exclusively here in a new edition -- revised and updated, with an afterword about the project's genesis and an appendix featuring never-before-published background material on the Eleven Worlds.

[citrustan]

for what it's worth [1/4] (jjk)

pairing: jeon jungkook x reader

genre: angst, fluff (this comes in a bit later), light smut, college student!reader x crush!jungkook

summary: you make an awful revelation about your crush of two years.

word count: 3k

warnings: none! except for the fact that this might read a teeny tiny bit creepy to some.

note: hello, here is me trying to give you this story before i scrap it because who knows? maybe some of you might not hate it! i need to edit it a little more but that happens later :) please tell me what you think! don't be silent! even if you think it's bad, i'd really love to know about it!

1 - 2 - 3 - 4

“You know, this may sound delusional but I think he’s kind of into me,” you blush, hiding half of your blushing face behind your fingers. 

“Oh?” Jia smiles at you. 

“Yeah, I mean, I think so?” 

“What makes you say that?” Jia tilts her head, asking out of curiosity. 

“Well, during the whole ‘Antonio is homosexual’ discourse, he sided with me and he sat next to me for the third time this week--” you pause to take a sip out of your cranberry and lychee juice box, “And he drew in my journal. Roses and bunnies. There’s nothing he can’t do.”

Jia reached forward to play with your braided hair, “_____, is he, like, single?”

Anxiously biting at the paper straw that the café gave you, your response was immediate. 

“I think so. Nothing on his social media indicates that he’s, you know, not single. He barely posts!” you pout. “Jungkook’s so pretty, he could easily be a model. Super photogenic.”

“Hm, that’s true.” Jia bit her lip. “But what if he was dating someone? It would change things for you,” - “I mean, yeah sure, but I still think I want to confess when I have the chance to.” 

“Even if he wasn’t single? Isn’t that kind of an asshole move?” Jia snapped. 

Your eyes momentarily widen at her sudden outburst. What had gotten into her?

You grimace at her. “Um, yes. I wouldn’t-” you shrug, “if he has a girlfriend, I will not try anything, of course. But he doesn’t.”

Jia gave you a pointed look, “It was just hypothetical.”

“I know.” You frown.

It’s been a while since you first set your eyes on Jeon Jungkook. But never has the thought of him having a girlfriend ever crossed your mind. He just seemed like a solo rider. It felt safe to crush on him.

The first time you laid your eyes on Jungkook was at a mutual friend’s freshman mixer. You’d like to think you hit it off but couldn’t figure out how to proceed, with your schedules overlapping. Neither of you made the effort to switch around or make it work. So, you don’t feel too bad about it. You have never really crossed paths after that before he was out in the same class as you this semester. 

Most people know him as the secret weapon of the music theory and software development thingy departments. He’s easily the most beautiful man on campus and his smarts and personality somehow match up.

You’re pretty sure if this was some shitty, unoriginal, K-drama, he could be the perfect second lead who never gets the girl he wants.

Naturally, after the night of the mixer, you couldn’t help but garner a small, minuscule, almost insignificant crush on the man; which has grown astronomically since then.

You can’t seem to understand what made Jia even ask you something like that. Unless---

“Why would you ask me that out of nowhere? Have you heard otherwise?” You suddenly interrogate her, startling her. She visibly flinches.

“What? No.” You hear her scoff. “I just realised we never discussed it before, ever.” 

She laughed it off while you stared at her, unconvinced.

“I told you. Hypothetical.” She reminds you after taking note of your curious and somewhat frazzled state.

Jia was usually never interested in anything you had to say about Jungkook.

Although, you’re able to catch on to some cues slowly. Jia gets annoyed when you blabber about Jungkook. It’s understandable though. You speak of him almost every single day. If Jia were to gush about someone to you the same way, you couldn’t promise you’d receive it any better than she does.

Attempting to change the subject, you offer her a bite of your red velvet pastry, “I think they’ve stopped using the off-brand cream cheese.”

She opens her mouth, waiting for you to feed her.

You spoon a proper amount of cake to icing ratio and wave it in front of her nose.

“It does smell better,” she hums with a pleased expression on her face. “But, the overly sweet cake and bitter matcha combo was charming in its own way.”

An animated, pink, heart-shaped light bulb goes off in your head.

“Do you think Jungkook would like it if I brought him matcha or another drink? It’s a… you know, a gesture. Might put me on his radar.”

So much for wanting to stop discussing him.

You stare at her, eagerly waiting for her take on your little idea.

She snickered, but you swore it could be mistaken for a scoff, “Just leave him be.”

You quiet down but internally make a note to yourself to buy two cranberry lychee juice boxes instead of one tomorrow. Boys like cranberry, right? 

Recently, you’ve been finding Jia more irritable. Not just when you blab about some guy but even in general. You swore you could feel her distancing herself from you and that’s a chance you don’t want to take. 

Jia isn’t the only one on the receiving end of your love-foolish chatter. 

By now, you’ve most definitely discussed it with almost every friend of yours, excluding the mutual ones you share with Jungkook. Even the friends who don’t go to the same university as you know of your crush on Jungkook. Although, they’re a tad more receptive to your endless chatter than Jia. 

It’s embarrassing only if you really, really think about it. But, you generally brush the humiliation off as a secondary, less important issue.

Jia and your relationship started and ended right where it began--- at university. She’s your only friend in university with whom you share most of your classes, precisely six out of nine in total.

During your first year, you decided to stick together out of convenience, sharing a fashion designing and styling major and whatnot. It’s easier to latch onto each other when you’re expected to work in a group than find someone new and socialize at this level. The competition is pretty cutthroat, you wouldn’t want to risk working alongside someone you have no chemistry with. It’s too late for experimentation.

Jia, unlike you, lives off-campus and her bus arrives almost twenty minutes before your college shuttle that goes directly from the cafe to your dorm gate. So, you accompany her to the bus station and wander off for a while.  

Remembering to run a small errand, you stop at a stationary store to buy ribbons and envelopes. Just in case.

It was a fifteen-minute walk to the store and back. You swing your fluffy, white bag and trot to your favourite place within a five-mile radius of your campus.

You liked to envision your relationships. It’s most certainly not healthy but Jungkook is just oh, so dreamy, you couldn’t help it even if you tried.

You stare off into the sky, daydreaming of your non-existent relationship with him.

You would write him love notes and letters frequently and decorate them with fresh, red, or pink lipstick stain kisses, maybe a few doodles and stickers as well. And when he’d buy you flowers, you’d do your best to dry them and preserve them so that you can look back at your relationship and swoon.

Maybe he’d take you to watch plays or concerts or maybe he’s the type to win you a stuffed toy at the carnival or to dress up for a theme party. And you could save the tickets and wristbands from those events.

You can’t even bear the thought of actually being able to go to a regular college party with him, being his date, the one who gets to dance on him, hold him and kiss him--- that’d disappoint quite a lot of people, you reckon. He is well-liked. A tiny bit private too. Maybe you could be his little secret. The thought of being his secret girlfriend turns you redder than a plum. Imagining yourself being his anything makes your heart pump blood twice as hard as the normal rate.

“Hey?”

Sigh.

“_____?”

Involuntarily, you respond to your name being called, “Huh?”

“Hey, you’re holding up the line.”

Your eyes focus on the familiar-faced cashier. An embarrassed giggle escapes your lips. You quietly apologised to the customers behind you.

“Joon. Hi, sorry. Spaced out.” You blush. As if he knows what you’re thinking about, he smiles fondly, “I don’t know if it’s cute or creepy that you think of him this often.”

Furrowing your brows, “It’s innocent! I’m not, like, harassing him or sexualizing him or anything.”

Namjoon scans your ribbons and the packet of off-white envelopes, “I’m only messing with you, cloud.”

You hum knowingly. “See you in class.”

You wave him off.

'Cloud' is one of the nicknames lovingly given to you by your seniors, Namjoon and Yoongi.

Yoongi says that you think miles ahead and higher than anyone else he knows and Namjoon agrees. But, you’ve always thought it was because you’ve got your head up in the clouds most of the time. It’s like a permanent state of consciousness. It is your only indulgence. Time goes by way too fast, you’re busy all the time. The only ‘escape’ is your silly little daydreams.

While people find your crush on Jungkook cute, sometimes you can’t help but put yourself in his shoes. 

You wouldn’t want someone like you crushing on you, so why would he? It’s one of the things that has stopped you from actually asking him out, or talking to him at all in the past.

Now, on the other hand, you’re nearing the end of the semester and the beginning of your winter break. Soon, you’ll have all the time in the world.

This time, you refuse to get too ahead of yourself and fantasize about your prementioned relationship. Perhaps, it’s ambitious or even egoistical to call it a premonition.   

You’re on your way back to the shuttle pick up point when you notice another oddly familiar figure. 

Jungkook!

You shake your nerves and walk as casually as you possibly can, to where he stood.

Secretly clearing your throat, you greet him with a shy smile, “Hi.”

When he doesn’t respond, you debate on shifting even closer, but that would be an awkward move and a serious invasion of his personal space. His dark hoodie seemed to interfere with his peripheral vision, too.

So, you tap him gently on the arm. His head swiftly faces yours, making you take a step or two back.

“Hi,” You owlishly stare at him.

Jungkook scrunches his brows, a little embarrassed that he doesn’t recognise you.

“Hey… how are you?” He recovers. “Good! A little cold.” You smile. 

It smelt like snow, but you wouldn’t want to creep him out with your odd senses.

Where did he know you from? He’s positive he has seen you before.

“Right, yeah. It smells like snow,” he responds.

t that, your mouth almost drops open. That’s what you were going to say too!  

Your enthusiasm shows as you explain, “It does! I thought I’d scare you if I said something like that.”  

The corners of Jungkook’s eyes crinkle, complimenting the huge smile that adorned his face.

“I’m Jungkook. Or JK. What’s your name?”

Oh?

Ow, you internally clench your heart.

Your face momentarily falls deep down into the ground, but you almost instantaneously pick it right back up.

The object of your secret affection doesn’t :) even :) know :) you.  

“_____.” You shyly brush your hair off your shoulder to your back, “We’re in literary theory studies with-” -  “Carmichael? Right! You’re Jia’s _____.” 

You falter but register what he just said to you.

Whose what now? 

He nods, “I knew I saw your face before! I remember your elocution thing about Woolf. It left a mark on me!” He pats you on the shoulder. Like you would a child. 

But, more importantly, Jia’s _____?

You knew the girl had godly looks and an angelic personality, but- “Hey, is everything okay? I swear I meant it in the best way possible. I didn’t have much interest in literature. But ever since that speech, I’ve been focusing more on figuring out books by myself rather than depending on what the author tries to convey. It’s fun to be rebellious.” Jungkook elaborates when he sees your eyes dim.

You fail to register his compliments for a bit. A million thoughts are racing in your mind at thousands of miles an hour.

“_____?” Jungkook slightly bends his knees to get a better look at you.

“Mhm, right. The correct term is intentional fallacy,” you mutter with a ghost of a smile. “And, thanks.”

Although Jungkook’s a little confused, he nods anyway. “Yeah! I-”

Tilting your head to the side, you blurt, “How do you know Jia?”

Jungkook stares at you.

“Sorry, I mean, I don’t know. She has never… mentioned you before?” you offer. 

“Oh. Well, I’m- Jia’s my girlfriend. She has talked about you a few times. Enough to know you’re good friends,” he blushes.

“Oh!” You squeak.

You clutched the bag of accessories tighter. You’re sure your nails have made little, crescent injunctions on your palm because of how tightly you gripped the handle.

“Yeah. She didn’t tell you it was me…?” Jungkook was starting to look worried.

“Huh? No, yeah.” You nervously laugh, “I must’ve glossed over it, I mean- you know.”

You’ve never stuttered so hard in your entire twenty years of living.

“Actually, yes, I believe she did talk about you. The- uh, the candles?” You suddenly, vaguely remembered Jia talking about making candles with an ‘almost boyfriend’ friend.

Talk about quick reflexes.

Just like that, Jungkook lets out a sigh of relief, “Oh, good! You looked like you were about to start crying. Because- well, she tells me about this girl she's friends with who has some kind of a creepy, schoolgirl crush on me or something. And for a hot second, I thought that’d be you.” 

You raised a brow. Way too many revelations are being made against your will. And your mind is empty. Null. Nada. Not a thought in that pretty little head of yours.

“Yeah. I know it sounds strange, turns out I don’t even know this girl.” Jungkook looked down at his phone, “The bus is later than usual.”

It’s hard to make sense of everything. Why would he suddenly assume you were the girl even though you’re Jia’s friend? 

You press your lips together. “Do you think it’s creepy?”

“The- what?” He looks up from his phone, with his full attention on you.

“The girl. Who crushes on you or whatever.” You reiterate, “Do you find that creepy?”

Jungkook pauses. He tilted his head from side to side, deep in thought.

“Honestly?” He leans in closer to you and raises a brow, “Maybe a little. I mean, I don’t even know her. But, Jia does. They’re friends. Then again, maybe, creepy is an overstatement.”

You hum and stare at your feet.

Sadness and cold do not go well together. This time, actual tears threaten to slide down your cheeks. You shift your weight from one foot to another.

“Why’d you ask?” Jungkook senses a shift in mood.

“Oh, just out of curiosity.” You flash him a small smile. It didn’t reach your eyes. Jungkook slowly nods and goes back to checking his phone for updates.

Part of you wants to admit to him that it was you because suddenly, Jia’s questions from earlier that day made sense.

But then, you don’t want him to think of you as some creepy girl with a creepy crush.

You weren’t creepy.

People would’ve told you off if that were to be the case. They mostly encouraged you or at least didn’t stop you.

With the exception of Jia, of course. Even then, she wasn’t entirely vocal about it.

Is it pity or sadism?

Was everyone hiding this from you? Did everyone but you know about it?

You doubt that Sieun, a mutual friend of yours and Jia, would keep something like this from you if she knew. 

But then again, you never expected Jia to turn out to be so… sneaky.

Your sadness outweighs your embarrassment.

“Are you waiting for the shuttle too?” he questions you with a raised brow. 

You open your mouth for a second or two before settling on nodding. 

“I don’t think the bus will get here anytime soon. It’s already snowed in on the fifth.” Jungkook turns the bright screen towards you. “We can Uber out of here before the snow sets in here. Unless you want to wait?”

“Sure,” you plainly reply. 

“Is that a yes to the waiting or?” Jungkook chuckled. 

“No. No more waiting. Uber’s good.” you softly spoke. 

“Great, I’m on it!” He affirms.

It’s still unsettling for you to have no natural, outward reaction to indirectly being called a creep by someone you admired for so long.

Suddenly, your embarrassment skyrockets. 

You can’t comprehend your emotions; you feel like you’ve been punched in the throat with a stone brick.

There are dead butterflies in your tummy--- moths. The wind feels colder, and you shudder.

You stare at the chipped nail polish on your thumb. 

A warm jacket suddenly dons on your shoulders. “You need it way more than I do.” Jungkook frowns, “Are you okay?”

You abruptly turn to him, thanking him gently for his jacket, “I was just cold.” 

You softly scoff, “You’re awfully kind.”

Jungkook pats you on the shoulder before he says, “Any friend of my girlfriend is a friend of mine! Plus, you’re cute.”

He’s really cheesy. Even though the single mention of Jia struck very thick, large needles in your tummy, you couldn’t help but smile at his words.

Au contraire to your expression, for the first time in a while, you’re not in the clouds but the complete opposite--- grounded, perhaps a more accurate term would be ‘devastated’. You’re absolutely, completely floored. Underground. Downright stumped. Confused. Definitely angry. 

You vowed to push your emotions away for the duration of your travel with Jungkook. 

[rotisseries]

WHAT WAS THAT THING YOU EXPLAINED TO ME AGES AGO FOR WAITING ROOM ABOUT HOW TO LISTEN TO SONGS THAT ARENT ON SPOTIFY ??? I NEED RED FLANNEL GEORGIA AND I NEED IT NOW

AKAJDFJSKFKS OK THIS IS MY FAVORITE SPOTIFY FEATURE YAY!! relying on people to have uploaded things as a podcast sucks so bad because they get taken down a lot and also it breaks up the vibe because the title and artist are always something random and the little picture is just a sunset or whatever idk IT BREAKS UP THE VIBE

so you can do this from any device, (i prefer to do it from my computer though for reasons that'll be explained later) and if you have spotify premium you'll also be able to listen to it on all devices, but first thing you're going to do is go into your account settings and turn on the local files option

once you do that, it'll access any downloaded audio files you have, and you can listen to them on that device. they'll be stored in a spotify playlist named local files, similar to the liked songs one. (i would also recommend making a separate folder for the songs you want downloaded on spotify, at least on the computer, i know you can change which folder it takes from there. otherwise you might end up with random audio you downloaded for something specific in your spotify library.)

if you have premium, you can also turn on spotify on other devices, and add the song you downloaded to an actual playlist

and it'll sync up on all your devices and you can download the playlist on every device. if you don't have premium though you'll either have to download it on every device or you can only listen to it on the first one you downloaded it on.

now for actually getting the song. this is really simple I tend to go straight to youtube and it's usually pretty easy to find the song I want, and then I just put the link into a youtube to mp3 converter (dodging the hot moms in my area. maybe next time ladies) and then I download it. make sure it's in the right folder and boom! I now have mitski's cover of let's get married to cry to on demand! soundcloud also works though obviously because any audio file will do, and a lot of unreleased songs get uploaded to soundcloud, and there’s a handy little download button right there and you don't need an account! great if you run into a song that isn't on youtube. totally unrelated but I have phoebe bridger's cover of iris downloaded

now. reasons I tend to do it from my computer specifically.

1. most shady websites are just easier to navigate lol. it's twice as hard to deal with pop ups when things are also rotating your phone screen around. so yeah i'd prefer to hit up the mp3 converter from my laptop

2. if you have any songs where the only video for it has an annoying intro or outro, it can be easier to edit it out. like lil nas x's cover of jolene was from the youtube channel for some fucking radio station or whatever so I had to edit that out. and my laptop's native audio file player has a trimming option, so I didn't have to download extra software like I would on my phone

3. and most importantly to me, you can make it aesthetically pleasing. when you just download the audio file it won't have an album picture and it won't have an artist name it'll only have whatever the file name is as a title, which you can change obviously but it doesn't fix the rest of it. on the computer it is so easy to download a metadata editor, and you can edit the file's metadata however you want and it'll have the little artist line and the album if you want and you can put whatever picture goes with the song but this is of course not required it just matters a lot to me personally

anyway have fun!

[corvid-language-library]

I see you talk about shadowing as a language learning method. I understand it had something to do with YT videos? Can you tell a bit more about that, how does it work and how did you come up with it?

Hi there!

Shadowing is where you listen to a language and simultaneously attempt to repeat what you hear - mimicking sounds and intonation - even if you don't understand it right away. By mimicking native speakers this way you acquire more native-like pronunciation while also (ideally) absorbing vocabulary and sentence patterns and grammar structures. I think this article explains it a lot better than I probably can!

The recommended way to do this is using audiobooks or podcasts with transcripts, but the reason I started doing this is because I would watch YT videos about useful phrases for daily life or videos about my target grammar, but I'd forget the sentences almost immediately and then have to find the motivation to sit down and rewatch an entire video, sometimes multiple times. "If only there were a way I could listen to the target sentences constantly and just practice parroting them back!" I found myself thinking. "It'd be so much more efficient than looking them up every single time or having to rewatch a whole 20-minute video!"

And then I realised I could literally just use Audacity (free audio recording/editing software!) and record from my laptop speakers myself.

So, I've been going on Youtube, watching various grammar videos and then recording sentences I want to learn from those videos. I record at natural speed first, then at 0.5x playback and then again at 0.75x playback. I then edit it together with two seconds between each recording and a repeat at each speed (plus one final repeat at normal speed). So an audio looks like:

1) Normal speed 2 second break 2) 50% speed 2 second break 3) 75% speed 2 second break 4) Normal speed 2 second break 5) 50% speed 2 second break 6) 75% speed 2 second break 7) Normal speed

Sometimes for shorter sentences, I don't bother to slow the audio down, so I'll just have it repeat 5-6 times at normal speed.

Once I've recorded everything and edited it together, I put the mp3 on my phone. I have a few different playlists (each one around 10-15 minutes in length) - some for specific grammar, some for specific situations (eg shopping, izakaya) - and I usually just stick one on repeat while I'm walking somewhere or doing some kind of menial task that doesn't otherwise engage my brain (doing dishes, ironing, making materials for work etc). And then I do my best to mimic what I'm hearing just behind the speaker (or along with the speaker). Usually the first few times I listen to a track I just try to speak along with the slower versions, or maybe just mimic the specific target structure. As I hear it more and more, eventually I can speak along with the audio word for word and focus more on my intonation.

I've found it helpful so far because it helps me learn sentences while building the muscle memory of how to say certain words/grammar. I can much more easily recall a sentence I've heard on repeat/practiced saying a hundred times than one I've heard in a video once and written down in a notebook somewhere. And if I can recall a sentence, I can substitute words using correct grammar rather than trying to figure out how to say something from scratch (and hopefully choose the correct option on the JLPT when the time comes!)

Hope that answers your question! Feel free to send more 😊

[play-now-my-lord]

i used to be a transcriptionist. i made decent money doing it - $1 per audio minute, which at an industry-average WPM works out to about $15 per hour, this in 2000s dollars. (mind you, my wpm is crazy, so i made more for my time.) i had ADHD that wasn't medicated at the time and would get ready for work by brewing up a huge pot of coffee, letting it go lukewarm, and chugging it in one go. i don't recommend this approach but it worked. it was also hellish on my wrists, my audio processing disorder, etc. after a working day i'd have a hell of a time understanding anything anyone said to me on the phone. i could pay rent with transcription in the 2000s, but rent was cheaper back then and transcription paid better. nowadays you're very lucky to see $.60 per audio minute without any formal qualifications (which are getting harder and harder to get), and the workflow has changed; everyone wants you to "edit" garbage machine translations and pay you with the fiction that you are "editing" them, where the reality is you have to do the exact same work but with an added layer of software wrangling for corporate compliance.

my great-aunt was a transcriptionist in the old days, when instead of VLC having a dial on it to adjust file speed she had to pay for a pedal that slowed down physical tapes. she paid for a mortgage with it, but that was in the 70s and 80s, when mortgages were cheaper (and rates were still at or near a dollar per audio minute, in less inflated dollars).

the existential threat everyone acknowledges to transcription is software, because everyone thinks software transcription is good. (it's not markedly more accurate than a well-trained 90s speech-to-text program, to be completely honest, and if you need a non-verbatim transcription - i.e. all the ums and ahs and doubling-back parts aren't left in - you're completely up shit creek.) the actual existential threat is outsourcing; the cost of living is simply lower in many areas of the anglophone world, people have less ability to take their ball and go home if offered insultingly low rates there. (this is not likely to remain the case forever, as average floor wages have increased by a factor of anywhere from 10 to 20 in anglophone south and southeast asia since 2000, and while they're very low by the standards of the global north, they're also on the order of a factor of 8 or so lower rather than a factor of 20 or 50.)

apparently the opportunities available to mostly housebound people with keyboard skills in america have declined such that the average such person, offered 60 cents a word to hammer out words for hours a day, can't reasonably take their ball and go home either. the competition used to be flipping burgers; now it's uber and grubhub, other gig work bullshit.

this is a long rambling story without much of a point. i miss having that job. i liked it, as shitty as it was. but i can't pay rent with it anymore, and it took too much out of me to be worth what it still pays

[mirjam-writes]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @suavissimapenna <3 Sorry it took so long!

How many works do you have on ao3?

7 for Sherlock and 23 Good Omens that are completely mine. 6 collaborative fics I have either partly written, or just made art for. So, 36.

What's your total ao3 word count?

380,863

What fandoms do you write for?

Good Omens! I used to write for Sherlock too, but that's now in the past.

Top five fics by kudos:

Truth Or Dare (E, 6.5K words), my first proper smut ever! Post s1 gettig together story.

Angel Of Justice (T, 9.5K), my first ever Good Omens fanfic. Post S1 from Michael POV, A/C as a background couple.

!False (It's funny because it's true) (E, 5.4k), an office romance human AU set in software company.

A Stable Relationship (E, 9.9k), horse rider AU with trans Aziraphale. Friends with benefits becoming a romantic relationship.

Girls Just Wanna Have Sun (G, 1.7k), outsider pov scene about Robin's day at the beach, where she meets two weird gentlemen who have never been to a beach before.

Do you respond to comments?

YES I DO! Slowly, possibly, but yes I do, and I read and reread them!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Uhhh... angsty ending? What is that? Technically Be Still My Soul: The Rift, but does that count if it's a middle part of a trilogy? That's definitely my angstiest fic of all time BUT I tried to write the happiest ending possible to it. But also, yeah, people died in the war (just not A or C), so maybe I'll count that story.

Edit: WAIT NO! To Love Somebody, a story from Shadwell pov about how he fell in love both Aziraphale and Crowley, and how that changed him. That's sort of angsty and the ending is bittersweet!

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmmmmmm. I have so many. I can't compare. Maybe Watching You (Watching Me), it's the porniest porn i have ever written, and it has...uh... several happy endings :D

Do you get hate on fics?

Not so far!

Do you write smut?

Yessss. I'm in my porn writer era at the moment :D

Craziest crossover:

I did some super weird anime crossovers as a teen (I hope those are long lost) but haven't dabbled on that since apart from very vague blink-and-you-miss-it references.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

One of my Sherlock fics was translated into french in 2018!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Only for one round robin event, which produced four stories! Not sure if that really counts as collaborating since we weren't allowed to talk about it when we did it, we just got the fic, read it, and added 600 words and gave it to the next one! It was super fun though.

All time favorite ship?

Aziraphale and Crowley. No competition there.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I don't usually start posting unless I'm 100% confident I'll finish the story, so I don't have public wips.

I had one pretty cool Sherlock post-apocalypse story idea, which I'd love to talk about if someone is interested, but writing it? Hmm probably not. But it's not really a wip, if I have only like two bullets in a doc?

What are your writing strengths?

I think I write pretty good bickerflirting and humour even in dark situations. And, uh... historical research.

What are your writing weaknesses?

LONG ASS SENTENCES. I need to cut them down. Chop chop chop. Also, I over-use commas and em-dashes.

Also, not being a native english speaker, but I think I've got a lot more fluent during the past years, so maybe that's not my biggest weakness anymore.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I have done it myself, in a situation when my pov character wasn't supposed to understand what was being discussed, but I did only a couple of lines.

My languages (apart from english) are finnish, very rough swedish, and teeny tiny bit of german, but many fics I've read that have used another language in dialogue, use French or Spanish (which are popular languages for English speakers to learn in school!), and with those I'm woefully lost!

But honestly, i don't need to understand every fic under the sun! You do you, I bet there are people who can understand whichever languages you'd like to mix in your story, and that will be amazing for them!

First fandom you wrote in?

The Book Series That Must Not Be Named. I projected so much of my teenage angst into wizard school drama.

Favorite fic you've written?

You monster! Making me choose. Uh.

Okay, fair. It's easy. Be Still My Soul, hands down. @be-still-my-soul-fanfic

No pressure tagging: @hkblack, @ambrasue, @tawnyontumblr , @ack-emma and @zehwulf and anyone else who wants to answer!

[detailtilted]

Somebody saaaave me! (I need opinions about colors.)

I'm working on the Comic-Con 2008 enhanced edition videos. This one has presented some new sorts of challenges. One challenge is that a lot of the videos I'm working with have wonky (I think) colors.

The video editing software I'm using has some color correction capabilities, but I'm really bad with colors. I know we have some amazing artists here, and I think pretty much anyone, artist or not, will have better judgment on this than I do. I once had to Google what colors went with gray because I'd bought some gray jeans and then after I brought them home I was convinced nothing in my closet went with them. Yes, gray.

I've made some attempts to improve the video colors, but I don't have a clue what I'm doing so it's mostly trial and error. I've also been looking at them for so long that I'm not sure if I've made them better or worse. I'm pretty sure the first set is at least a little better, but I'm not sure if it's only better in that it will make people only want to claw out one eye instead of both. I don't want anyone to claw any eyes out watching my videos!

Below are the examples I'm currently working with, including my settings in case that means anything to anyone. Just don't laugh too hard if my settings are idiotic! I'd be happy for any suggestions or opinions, good or bad, regardless of whether you think you're good with colors or not. However you want to communicate is fine, including private messages if you prefer that.

Set #1

This set of videos will be the main set people see, so it's especially important to me that this one not look horrible. It has the most stable and consistent focus on Jared and Jensen and there's coverage for most of the event.

In addition to color issues, I adjusted the aspect ratio because the original video was squished. I noticed it in their faces first, but you can also tell pretty clearly when you compare the Comic-Con logos in the background with other video sets. This is the one where I feel pretty sure I made it better -- I'm just not sure if it's better enough.

Example video link.

Set #2

This set of videos will never be the main full-screen video, but it will be my first choice for the talking head bubbles (not sure that's the right term, I'll explain at the end of this post) for the other guests when possible. It has the most stable coverage when focusing on the other guests. It covers less than 30% of the panel though.

I truly don't know if I've made this one better or worse. My initial reaction of the original was that it was way too green, but I've tweaked this one so much and nothing looks quite right to me. I think the tablecloth is supposed to be black, but tweaking the colors enough to make it more black makes the rest of it look worse to me. Similarly, I think their faces might be a little too pale, but adding in a little more red doesn't seem to affect their faces, it just makes the other parts look worse to me. The main pieces of this video that people will see is just the heads. (The example at the bottom of this post uses this video for Eric's head.)

Example video link.

Set #3

This set of videos will only be the main full-screen video for very short segments of time, to cover gaps in set #1. It will mostly be used for talking head bubbles. This set covers most of the event, but it has much less coverage of Jared and Jensen and it's very jittery.

I actually thought the colors on this one looked very good though, so I didn't tweak them at all. I just upscaled the videos as normal and left it alone. Every time I look at this video, it makes me doubt the above changes even more because the colors in those really don't look like this one and I haven't been able to get them anywhere close.

Example video link.

"Talking Head Bubbles"

Here's an example of what I mean by that. I'm trying to create a best-of-both worlds scenario where we can feast our eyes on Jared and Jensen the whole time, but also still see who's talking sometimes when one of the videos had coverage of it. It's taking quite a bit of effort to make that watchable -- the main video (Set #1) bobs around randomly, and the insert videos (Sets 2 and 3) bob around randomly in different directions, so it's been quite a challenge to make it look stable enough that people won't think I'm trying to hypnotize them with Eric's head or something as it swings back and forth like a pendulum! 🤣

[rearranged-fanfic]

(Update 6/3)

Sit down a spell, weary traveler. Come and sit by my fire; bask in the warmth of the flame and rest your aching scrolling finger. You'll be sitting a while, for I have a tale to tell:

Okay, so I've had a Toshiba laptop for the better part of ten years. Maybe a little longer. That laptop has survived being struck by lightning, submerged in a bathtub, and literally having a whole bookcase topple down onto it. I thought it was immortal...

I was sadly mistaken.

About six months ago, I noticed that the typing was getting sluggish. I'd patter away at the keyboard and the letters would appear with a bit of lag. That's fine, since I use Dragon to talk-to-text for quite a bit of my writing. I really only use the keyboard for final assembly, editing, and doing quick rewrites. So, it really didn't bother me. Fastforward to April, which we will call The Great Depression. The time discrepancy between typing and having letters appear on screen became a whopping 40 seconds. Yes, I timed it.

But that was okay, because I could still use my Dragon headset.

Until I couldn't.

It would connect, but the words wouldn't appear on screen. I made sure that all of my programs were up-to-date, and that everything was working. The headset connected to my family's computers just fine. So that meant it was something wrong with mine.

Without being sure if it was the hardware or software at fault, I backed everything up to OneDrive and Google Docs.

I factory reset.

Twice. To no avail.

Over the next few days, my laptop stopped registering any keyboard input at all. It got to a point where I wasn't able to turn it on or off.

Taking it to an electronics store to get repaired didn't help, either. No luck. They said that it would be more cost effective to just buckle down and get a new one, since the age of the laptop meant that I would probably be constantly maintaining it.

My poor Toshiba died kicking and screaming, putting up a fight worthy of an epic ballad.

I saved up for a few weeks, got a new laptop, and went through the rigmarole of getting all of my programs back on it. My files are in order. My life is in shambles (but that's normal, LOL).

I DID do some story work without my computer, but... it's bad. Like, I'd die in shame if I posted anything that I thumbed in. So. Many. Spelling. Errors. How people write on their phone is beyond me. That's a talent I simply don't possess.

At this point, I'm thinking of renaming this story "HIATUS" lol. JK. But I'm seriously peeved that this happened after my last big break. Why couldn't the Depression and laptop breakdown coincide nicely? I guess that's too much to ask of the universe *Shakes fist at the sky*.

I'm creating a damn bingo card for every stupid thing that happens to me while I try to write. Because this is getting ridiculous. I broke my fingers, there was a total solar eclipse, I had a major-ish mental breakdown, and my computer bit the big one. With a free space, that's a bingo. Let's hope I don't get a blackout before the end of 2024.

I doubted the fanfiction curse. I really did. But it's apparently real. And this writer's curse has teeth, people. It bites hard.

I have my MerMay two-shot pretty well done (because I was typing it during The Great Depression), but the next chapter for REARRANGED is still rough. Crimson Chapter 3 is halfway done, but who knows how long that'll take.

The bottom line is that I'm alive and still working on the stories. The next update on this blog will be the posting of several chapters for a few different works. Fingers crossed.

Also, I'm very, very slowly answering the comments in my AO3 inbox. Some of them were pretty lengthy, so it might take a bit. Oof.

If there ever comes a time that I drop this fanfiction or am unable to continue for whatever reason, either I or my husband will be posting the entirety of my outline, as well as anything that's been pre-written for you guys to enjoy. That way there are no questions left unanswered or mysteries unsolved.

[bltngames]

So, here's some simple thoughts I had about Sonic x Shadow Generations. I was trying to push this one out real fast, but ended up with some technical problems and other stuff you can read about below the cut.

This video was a small technical nightmare to put together because I'm experimenting with new stuff. I capture a lot of my own footage when I can, and when I can't, I go out of my way to find the cleanest, highest quality version of what I'm looking for. That in itself can take a lot of time, but then I usually have to download it off of Youtube. For years, I've used a suspicious website called Keepvid (don't go there) to download Youtube videos, but recently I saw someone recommend a piece of software called "Stacher".

Stacher is basically a front end for another piece of software called "yt-dlp", which was the subject of a lawsuit a couple years ago -- basically, Youtube (Google) was claiming it was illegal to download Youtube videos, and was specifically targeting yt-dlp in the hopes of getting rid of it. A judge ruled that downloading Youtube videos is in fact totally reasonable and legal, and yt-dlp was allowed to keep existing. All of this is because yt-dlp is the best way to download Youtube videos, but it's command line software. I'm no stranger to command line (I've used FFMPEG), but I do tend to prefer having an interface to work with, which Stacher provides.

I picked up Stacher because Keepvid was starting to not work so well. Youtube is implementing new video formats and Keepvid was consistently only detecting 720p30 downloads. Stacher on the other hand will grab the absolute maximum possible resolution, which in this case was 4K60. Which is great! Even though I am downsampling to 1080p60, it still means I'm getting very sharp, very clean source footage. Except Vegas doesn't really like whatever 4K60 format Youtube is using, so I have to transcode it using Handbrake, which for even a 10 minute video can take upwards of an hour.

And then there's editing. My poor little 2015 CPU (Intel Core-i5 4690K) really struggles to work with 4K footage, which probably doubled the length I spent in Vegas putting this together. On top of the hours spent transcoding. So you can really start to see how all this adds up and delays what should have been out by, like, the 12th.

And if I couldn't get it out fast... I do wish I'd spent maybe a little longer explaining some of my opinions. I get the gist across but in particular when talking about what I think is cool about this level design, I think I could have explained a bit more.

Sonic games make you feel so railroaded and there are little hints in this footage of breaking free of that. There's a bit in the footage we've seen where Shadow runs around inside of a tube. This is interesting because:

This is a level design feature that makes total sense with Sonic style physics

This is a level design feature they barely ever use

There's an alternate path where, if you're fast enough on the draw, you can take a grind rail on top of the tube.

Not only would most Sonic games never have this tube section at all, if they did, they would not let you skip the tube and run on top of it. And if you go on top of the tube, there's more than just one grind rail up there, to boot!

So I see something like that, and it gives me a different vibe than most 3D Sonic games typically get. And that makes me excited!

As always I think these work best when I take a step back and think a little. Better Late Than Never is my brand.

[just-a-carrot]

Will you ever post soundtracks of your other games on youtube or is the OW soundtrack the only one?

i would like to!! i've been meaning to do the OFW one for a while. and then i'll need to also release the full arc 5 soundtrack once it's finished, too

the main thing was that in order to create the original video i had to pay for some online video editing tool (i forget which one) for a month because i don't really know much about video editing / have my own good software for doing so and this tool made it pretty easy, so i'd probably need to go pay for another month whenever i want to make future videos again

[boyzcatchingfire]

Editing Nightmare ~ *Kevin Moon*

Summary: Thanks to Kevin's great management skills, you are stuck doing the hardest part of the final. Little do you know, he has an ulterior motive for keeping you cooped up in an editing bay all week...

Pairing: Kevin Moon X G/N!Reader

Genre: Fluffyish Oneshot

Word Count: 1123

Warning: Kevin is a little mean but he has a reason

Masterlist

Taglist: @samepoisonsamevine @kpop-will-kill-me

It was days like today that you realized you hated editing. But you also were reminded of your hatred for Kevin Moon who decided to dump you with the editing of your final project. Through the last hour you spent trying to get this project edited, you've been grumbling under your breath, cursing his name and his descendants.

A knock at the editing bay door forced you out of your pity party. Juyeon gave you a small smile as he poked his head in. "Hey, how are you doing in here? I thought I'd get you some coffee while you worked. I'm going to assume you're pulling an all-nighter, aren't you?"

You nodded and sighed as soon as you could smell your coffee. "You are my savior, you have no idea. What would I do without you?"

"I think I can guess." After handing you your coffee, Juyeon took the chair next to you and glanced at your project. He shook his head. "Kevin's kind of a dick for making you do all of this on your own."

"Kind of?" You incredulously asked. "He's a Grade A douchebag for making me do this all on my own! If it was a simple little five minute project that wasn't our final, I wouldn't be so hard pressed to get this done. But no. This is a thirty minute short film with complicated transitions and graphics. I need more than just a week to get this done, or at the very least another person to help."

Juyeon shrugged. "I would if I could but you know I'm just going to mess it all up."

You couldn't help but smile and shake your head. "I hate to agree with you, but yeah, you would."

"You are mean but fair." He shook his head and drank more of his coffee. "Look, why don't you just ask Kevin for help? He's pretty good at editing, you know."

"And admit defeat to that narcissistic asshole? I don't think so." You glance back at the work still left to do and sigh. "No, I can do this. I just need to get over my little pity party and get some actual work done."

"Good luck. None of this looks easy." He gave an awkward laugh. "If anything it all looks like it's in a foreign language. Cameras I know. Editing software is on a whole other different plane of existence that doesn't make sense to me."

You laugh. "And that's why you filmed the whole thing. Which, by the way, you did an amazing job. Less of your mistakes I have to clean up. Instead, it's all just fancy crap Kevin thinks will get us a good grade."

"It will get us a good grade." You jumped, almost spilling your coffee, when Kevin entered the edit bay. He then turned his attention to Juyeon. "Quit distracting them. Go bother some other group and sabotage their progress so we get a better grade."

"Well, I won't do that, but I will get out of your hair." Before leaving, Juyeon called back to you. "Good luck!"

Kevin turned back to you. "How's it going?"

You shot him a venomous look before returning to the editing project on your computer. "Fine."

He looked at your progress over your shoulder. "It doesn't look like it's going fine. Do you need help?"

"No. I can handle this all on my own." You snap. "That's why you gave me the biggest job to do for this project."

"I mean, kind of..." He muttered under his breath.

You rolled your eyes. "You don't have to play dumb with me. I know this is your way of having a little power trip. But I'm not a bad editor. I can get this done and make it look good. We'll get a good grade so you can rest easy."

"This isn't a power trip to me."

"Sure it isn't."

Kevin shook his head and turned your chair so you were facing him, though your eyes didn't meet his. "It really isn't. You're not wrong in implying I had ulterior motives, but it's not to make you look bad."

You glanced at him, an eyebrow raising in suspicion. "What kind of ulterior motives?"

He looked behind him to make sure the door to the edit bay was shut. He then turned back to face you. "Having you edit gives me the perfect opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with you."

"I- pardon?"

He shrugged. "I know what you think of me. I know you think I'm some kind of ruthless tyrant, and maybe I am, so I'm trying to work on it. It was never my intention to make you hate me. I just wanted this project to be perfect and I knew you were the best person on the team, besides myself, to edit it. And I've always had a little crush on you so I just thought that while you pulled all-nighters and spent all this time in an edit bay, I could talk to you and treat it like a date."

You had to take a moment to completely process his words before you made a face. "That's a little creepy don't you think? Cornering me in a small, dark edit bay as a way to try and date me without my knowledge."

Kevin's eyes widened at your words. "Okay, yes, when you put it like that, it sounds absolutely terrible! Oh my God, I am such an idiot!"

A small smile broke out onto your face. "A little bit."

"I am so sorry!"

You shrug. "It's fine. It didn't actually happen in the end. Just next time, maybe run your plans by someone to make sure you're not coming off as an absolute creep."

"Will do."

An awkward silence stretches between the two of you and you can practically see Kevin sweat in the dim lighting. You decide to toss him a bone to save his already fragile ego. 

Turning back to the computer, you gesture for him to join you. "C'mon, you're the only other editor in this group. Make sure this looks good, okay?"

He nods and pulls up the chair Juyeon was just in. "And for the record, I really am sorry for what I was going to do. I wasn't thinking. And I don't want you to be uncomfortable around me."

"Relax, it'll be okay. I know you wouldn't do anything so stupid on purpose." You give him a sly smile. "Now stop talking about it and let's get this figured out. We only have a week and we need to ace this final."

"You're right, we have work to do. Starting with the twelve editing errors I've already found."

"Get out."

[20dollarlolita]

I don't remember if you already answered this, sorry in advance if you have, but what are your thoughts on the Bernette 79 Yaya Han edition sewing machine + embroidery machine? I consider myself a cosplayer and a lolita (Yaya is, as far I can recall, a cosplayer but not a lolita), and I've only ever sewn on a vintage Singer in a table and a Hello Kitty Janome. I don't see myself using the embroider option a lot since I embroider by hand, so that part would be taking up space unless I put in the effort to learn. On the other hand, it's a pretty shade of purple and is meant to sew over a variety of costuming fabrics which cannot be said of my current machine. It seems like a lot of extra stuff I probably don't need or have time to learn about if I do need them, but preliminary research seems to show it's a great value for the price (unless you break it). Or do you have any other recommendations in the same line? Thanks again for all your diligence and hard-earned expertise!

Okay, so I just sold one of those to someone whose other machines are a Hello Kitty Janome and a vintage Singer in a table, and I had to immediately check if you and them were the same person. So if you're Singer in a table is a 201, you should really meet my other customers.

Also quick note to everyone who is interested in this machine: you can buy it from the company that I work for. It's an internet model, so I can sell it to anyone in the USA. I can price match anyone else selling it. If you buy it from me, I get credit for the sale and I make commission (but it doesn't cost you anything). So if you want a Bernette b79 Yaya Han edition, or probably any other sewing machine, please shoot me an ask and I'll give y'all my work email or my sale code.

So I personally don't like Yaya as a person, but the B79 is a pretty good deal if it's what you're looking for. The fact that it's got embroidery and it has the digitizing software is really the thing that pushes it into the really good price point. On the sewing side, the foot kit is a really good perk, especially because not a lot of places keep feet in stock that work with the dual feed.

But if you're really not interested in the embroidery, I'd suggest just getting the Bernette b77, which is the sewing-only version of the b79 (if you want the embroidery-only version of the b79, you're looking for the b70Deco). It's going to be about a thousand dollars cheaper. It, sadly, is not purple, but that's nothing a few stickers can't fix. My store's current price on the Yaya 79 is $2499 and our price on the b77 is $1499, so it's literally a thousand dollars.

(Or, if you're absolutely insane, you can get some Cricut infusible ink paper and an EasyPress mini and sublimate onto the front of your machine. It's the kind of plastic that takes sublimation. Isn't that absolutely bonkers wild?)

That said, if you're willing to spend the extra money, you would be getting embroidery with a very large hoop size (for a beginning sewing machine, anyway), the foot kit, the built-in stitches and designs, and Creator9. I tell creative people who are interested in embroidery machines that you should not consider embroidery software to be optional. There's a lifetime worth of fun premade designs and projects in the hoop, and most people are happy to jut use those, but most of the people who are in my age range would not feel like they're getting everything out of their embroidery machine if they can't digitize goofy ideas from scratch. Creator 9 is like a thousand dollars normally, so it's what I find really pushes the price of the Yaya machine into the "really good deal" range, if you ask me. But, if you're not interested in embroidery, it's not really worth paying the extra money.

Anyway, if you're interested, please buy from me because it won't cost you more and it helps me pay my utility bills.

[eve-be-sleep-deprived]

How do you get such nice shots in captura? I wanna get better at it could you share some tips? Been trying to figure it out but I admit I'm not the most knowledgeable in photography etc.

Well.... It's a bit of a complicated process and it relies very very much on personal preference. Much like with any type of art there are different styles that each individual artist will gravitate toward. I can only show you how I do things, so I'd recommend asking other Captura folks on here about their own styles to see where our processes and preferences differ.

I'll also include some extremely helpful videos at the bottom, they go extremely in depth as to best practices and technical exploits.

Alright, lets get started with the background stuff... the tools! ReShade: Shader injection, a MUST if you want to take dynamic and customized captura without using a program like Photoshop to do everything in post.

SRWE: Simple Runtime Window Editor.... the god among programs... It's an upscaler, allowing you to increase the resolution of the game beyond the bounds of your monitor. It's how I was able to get 15K panoramas at one point in time.

Any image editing software. Since I rely mainly on compositing to get the lighting I do, I need something to overlay and mesh the images with. I use GIMP cuz it's free, but even Microsoft Paint will work as soon as it add the ability to layer images.

Those are the tools... what about the tactics?

Well, I generally prefer moodier shots with the Warframe being the central focus (though, that's also the side effect of me cropping the image). Just a note! Moody doesn't mean dark, moody is the enigmatic space between dark and light where there is more dark than light... but there's still a good amount of light to be had. Occasionally you can have overexposure in a moody shot even.

Important to note, the overall exposure level of the environment, even is the scene lighting is low, will effect how brightly your Warframe can be lit. Both the Scene Light and Exposure sliders need to be fine-tuned otherwise you won't be able to light your Warframe at all.

Now, for shot composition I prefer low angles with either a cluttered but familiar/recognizable background, or a simple but abstract background. The Subject, be it a Warframe, an enemy, or an NPC, reside in the center with their feet out of shot.

Like so:

Each of these shots also demonstrate well the way I like to pose my subjects: Symmetry and.... not... not symmetry. The official term for this is Contrapposto, which is Italian for Counterpoise. Basically, even though the Wisp is sedentary, her body is still giving off the impression of movement based on how her waist is curving and hips are tilted, forming a loose 'S' shape. There's a handful of animation sets, Khora (Urushu) Noble, Mesa Noble, and Wisp Noble are excellent for this.

Some examples:

But... what about the lighting? This is where things get technical. So, the standard Captura's three-point lighting system is generally inadequate at properly lighting the entire Warframe. This is where compositing enters the picture, in a very literal sense. Each of these shots, shown above, are composites of between two and four separate images, each with different lighting angles. I actually have an example I made for an earlier explanation made already (thank goodness)

Getting the different lighting angles is really simple, just rotate the 3-way lighting without moving the camera. Then you overlay them in some photo editing software and just start going layer by layer, erasing bits of the topmost layer to reveal your desired highlights or shadows from the shot underneath.

Don't feel obligated to do this compositing process though! Sometimes the 3-way lighting works perfectly well for a shot or environment, don't feel obligated to complicate this process.

And this segues in nicely to the final part of the shot-making process, post-processing and fog layers.

Now, fog layers are important to the overall appearance and vibe of my Captura. They add texture the image that the game doesn't impart naturally, removing large swathes of solid color from the background and foreground. An added bonus is that the added texture makes the image look somewhat better (imo) when compressed, or when viewed at lower resolutions.

The same image with and without Fog

This shot contains two individual fog layers, one in the foreground, washing out the foliage, giving the general uniformity of it texture and implied depth, it also serves to cover up the manual blurring I did (poorly) around his legs. Then there's the background Fog, which is the deeper blue you see in the sky. It adds a more dynamic air to the generally dour set of greys. And, again, the fog is just something I personally like to add, even if it doesn't serve a practical purpose in a shot. No shade if someone feels the fog ruins the shot, I almost always keep a fog-free version about.

After the fog is added, blended, and blurred slightly, I will apply a few gentle blurring filters to remove any jarring or jagged pixelation from the shot, giving the Frame a somewhat smoother appearance and reducing the file-size dramatically.

That's just how I do it though, it's not a particularly popular style, but it's how I do it and how I love to do it! :3 Remember to ask around, I'm sure there's lotsa Captura Artists out there willing to explain their methods and processes.

Helpful vids! How to Captura by Vash Cowaii Hotsampling in Warframe for High Res Shots by PurpleFlurp

good luck, and happy snapping!

[hollownoire]

God I want to make a video game so bad. At this point I'd devote myself to any project I could get my hands on.

Alas I know absolutely nothing about coding and it feels like there's absolutely not enough time in the day to chase all of my goals/projects/dreams at once.

I want to practice art, I want to make art, learn it. I want to make games, learn how to make games...

Hell, I've been debating making a YouTube channel for years now. But again, there's like...4 or 5 steps towards that end I'd have to see through.

What video editing software do I use? Is the way I record optimal and enjoyable to view? What about my mic? What do I even record? I've thought of doing speed paints, drawing tutorials, video games...like I wanna do a mixed bag of things that interest me and are fun to make. I had this fun idea to have a speed paint of the thumbnail I made for the video at the end, kind of merge art into whatever other creative process I'm working with. Especially video games, I currently have a chunk of Lethal Company footage sitting in a dusty corner of my computer that I've just been staring at timidly.

But with recording things and possibly even dropping my voice into the internet for random people to hear, I'm horribly self-concious about how my voice sounds. I don't have the money to drop on getting proper voice training and finding time in my already packed schedule to practice solo is frustrating enough to make me wanna fucking eat chalk.

Still need to make an "about page/intro" page to pin to my blog, alongside cleaning up the formatting and just making it look nicer.

I have multiple art projects planned...a few commissions that I need to do...oh yeah, I still need to make comm price sheet to post/pin/link as well...

The cherry on top is paypal has my dead name plastered on it 🤢

I'm so goddamn tired.