#in like 2 minutes i forgot some of them on the SD card

[d8tl55c]

i found

Flipnote for my 3DS

it rules idk how to export most of the files without being really compressed though- ✨ NEVERMIND ✨ D8 FROM THE FUTURE JUST FIGURED IT OUT 🎊\o_🎉

i immediately made a bunch of color tests, trying to match as close as possible to the canon ava/m colors. RYGB looked better and vic wasn't as green on the smol screen.......... think ill stick with default for all of those ones except blue.

i really like how purple and mt's frame came out

hmm, orange was less deep red on the little screen too. which is YOUR favorite ???

then i found the 3DS photo editor and

there was needless violence in the rainbow ball pit,

yellow had many, many,many,many things to say to red, &

purple and mt embraced the healing power of music

there were ofc some animations, too,

but i think ill leave them to another post >:3

[slytherinbarnes]

Seasons Change [2]

ii. spring will wash what’s left of the taste (of you)

pairing: Steve Rogers x reader

word count: 2.8k

warnings: discussions of death, smut, language.

summary: a chance meeting in japan gives you the opportunity to take advantage of your arrangement with steve.

a/n: a little earlier in the day than normal bc today is a busy day! i hope you guys enjoy!!! the taglist for this series is open!

previous part // series masterlist // full masterlist

March 19, Kumamoto, Japan.

You walk along the street in Kumamoto, and smile as the wind blows a flurry of cherry blossom petals towards you. You shake them free from your hair and watch as they flutter to the ground around you like pretty pink snow. Spring in Japan is beautiful, and it’s a welcome change to the New York snow.

Your phone dings in your pocket and you reach for it, eyes scanning the message on the screen. You’re pulled back into reality when you crash into someone, sending both of you falling. The man hits the ground with an angry cry, and his suitcase hits the ground beside him, scattering the contents inside. You jump up and scramble towards him, picking up fallen papers and folders as you go. “I’m so sorry, that was completely my mistake!”

He seems unimpressed, but nods in thanks when you hand him the papers, and you help him to his feet with a flurry of apologies, in both Japanese and English. He seems to accept your apologies before walking away, leaving you alone on the street. You look down at the phone in your left hand, smiling at the unfamiliar device, before leaning down and grabbing your fallen phone. You stuff your phone into your back pocket and pull a small SD card from your pocket, quickly inserting it into the man’s phone. You slide his phone into your pocket and look around for him, watching as he veers off the sidewalk and into a small cafe. You follow the same path, checking the phone periodically to ensure the download is going smoothly. When you see the progress bar reach 100%, you pull the card from his phone and put it beside your phone in your other pocket, before following the man into the cafe and stepping into line behind him. He moves forward to order, and when the cashier announces his total, you step up beside him. “Let me pay for it.”

You dig around in your pockets for the right amount of money, but the man shakes his head, trying to stop him. You pull the money out anyways, turning to the man with a smile. “Please, I insist. As an apology.”

Finally, he relents, and as you step forward and hand the money to the cashier, you use your other hand to carefully slide his phone into his pocket. You step back and he thanks you, and you give him a nod. “It’s the least I could do.”

He moves away to the end of the bar to pick up his drink, leaving you to order. “A small matcha tea please.”

The barista gives you the total and you pass her the money, and out of the corner of your eye, you see the man grab his drink and leave. With a satisfied smile you pull out your phone and text the only number saved. 

Got your drink. Meet at the usual?

Your drink is placed at the end of the bar, and you thank the barista as you grab it and turn to leave. Your phone dings as you head to the door, and you glance at the screen as you step outside into the bright afternoon sun. 

See you there.

You leave the cafe and head to the Suizenji Jojuen Garden, so you can meet the agent for the drop. The walk is nice, and you enjoy the fresh air and scenery immensely, hoping you get to spend a little more time in Japan before you have to head to your next location. When you reach the garden, you move to the bridge that overlooks the water and find a spot to get comfortable in. It’s usually a few minutes before the agent shows, so you spend the time admiring the view and watching the cherry blossoms fall from the trees. He shows up a few minutes later, and stands next to you, asking. “Enjoying the view?”

The familiar voice pulls you from your thoughts and you turn your head towards him quickly. “Steve?”

His blue eyes lock with yours and his brows lift in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

You scoff, “I’m collecting intel, as agents do. What are you doing here? Avengers don’t normally do drops.”

He turns and looks out at the water, “I was on my way back from South Korea and Tony asked if I’d stop by to get some intel from an agent in Kumamoto. I didn’t know it’d be you.”

You snort, “Try not to sound so disappointed.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean-”

You hold up a hand to stop him, “Relax.” You pass him the now empty matcha cup with the SD card secured inside. “Here’s your tea.”

“Thanks.”

You both stand silently, staring out at the water, before speaking at the same time. 

“Do you want to come back to-”

“Well, I guess I’d better get-”

You both stop at the same time, before you motion for Steve to speak first. “I should get back to the Quinjet. What were you saying?”

Your brows lift in surprise, and you let the invitation back to your room die in your throat. “Oh, yeah, same.”

“It was good to see you.”

“Yeah, you too.”

You give him a small wave and turn to leave, moving quickly to put distance between you and Steve, you and this garden, you and this awkward situation. You start to think your question in December really upset him, because you haven’t heard from him since. And yeah, you’ve been working a lot, but if things were okay, the meeting in the park wouldn’t have been that...weird. You shake the thoughts from your head, trying to delete the interaction from your memory, thankful when you reach the hotel quickly, distracted by the thoughts in your head. You head to your room with a sigh of relief, locking the door before kicking your shoes off. As you do, your phone rings from your pocket, and you check the caller ID, answering quickly when you recognize the number. “This is Shield’s best agent speaking.”

Maria Hill’s laugh crackles through the phone, “Try worst agent. You didn’t even check if the line was secure before announcing who you work for.”

You smile, “I knew I didn’t have to because you already did.”

You can’t see her, but you know she’s rolling her eyes, because you’re right. Hill knows what she’s doing, and she does all the technical stuff for you, making your job a hell of a lot easier. “How was the drop?”

You cringe, reminded of the awkward interaction. “It was fine. Coulda told me that Jeff wasn’t doing the drop anymore.”

“Sorry, last minute change.” A pause, and then, “Wait, why? Did something happen with Steve?”

You shake your head, temporarily forgetting she can’t see you. “No, no, no, it was fine. Everything was good.”

“Okay...” She draws the word out, and you know she’s unconvinced. Still, she doesn’t pry. “Well, that gives you two extra days in Kumamoto, work free. Enjoy them. I’ll see you back in D.C. in a few days.”

“See you then.”

You drop your phone to the bed before moving into the bathroom and starting a bath. As the tub fills, you head to the hotel phone and call a nearby delivery service, placing an order for a few different meals, deciding to treat yourself now that you have a couple of days off. Minutes later, your food is ordered and you’re chin deep in lavender scented water, the warm water starting to melt your worries away. You clean up slowly, taking your time to relax in the bath until the water turns cool. As you’re leaning forward to pull the drain, you hear a knock at the door, and assuming it’s your food you quickly wrap a towel around your body and head out of the bathroom. On the way to the door you grab your gun, just in case, before moving to check the peephole. But instead of finding the delivery driver you expected, you instead see Steve Rogers standing at your door, holding your food. 

You put your gun on the chair near the door before unlocking it and pulling it open. He eyes you up and down, and you look back at him in confusion. “What are you-”

Before you can finish the sentence, he steps towards you and pulls you in for a kiss. Your lips crash together, hard, but there is none of the awkward tension from before. He guides you into the room and kicks the door closed, dropping the food bag unceremoniously near the door, forgotten in the haze of lust. He guides you back towards the bed in the room, both of you in a hurry, evident by the clothes he drops on his way across the room. Your towel joins his discarded clothes somewhere along in the journey, and when you reach the bed, it doesn’t take long until you’re writhing and moaning beneath him, calling his name as he takes you over the edge.

When your high dissipates, the two of you lay in silence like you normally do, until you decide to finish your post bath routine. You roll out of the bed, leaving Steve sprawled across the sheets watching you, and you scoop his shirt up on the way to the bathroom, pulling it over your head. You pull on a pair of underwear and grab some lotion, moving to stand in the doorway as you apply it, giving you a good view of Steve. “How’d you know where I was?”

You swear you see his cheeks heat up when he answers, “Hill.”

You smile and shake your head, “Should’ve known.”

He watches you moisturize, silent, and you’re the first one to break the silence again. “I thought you forgot.” He quirks a brow, and you clarify, “About the arrangement.”

“Oh. No, I just wasn’t sure if that’s what you still wanted. You never reached out after the party.”

“Honestly, I haven’t really had the chance. I haven’t been home since the party. After my week in D.C. next week, I finally get to go back. I was gonna call you then.”

“Looks like I beat you to the punch.”

You smirk at him, “Looks like it.”

You step back into the bathroom, finishing up your routine quickly, and when you’re halfway through brushing your hair, you call out, “Do you want to stay for dinner?”

“What?”

You finish brushing your hair before stepping back into the room, and you repeat, “Do you want to stay for dinner? Since you did bring it up to the room.”

A strange look passes over his face, and for a second, you’re sure he’s going to say no and bolt, giving you the cold shoulder like he did in December, but he surprises you by smiling and nodding. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

You smile in return and grab the bag from the door, setting the food up on the low coffee table in the room, sitting on the floor beside it. Steve pulls his pants on before he joins you, both of you sitting across from each other on the floor, and for a while you enjoy a comfortable silence, pushing dishes across the table to share, quietly enjoying your meals. You’re in the middle of shoving a large bite of noodles into your mouth when Steve suddenly says, “Paper cranes.”

You look up at him with absolute bewilderment, quickly chewing the noodles in your mouth to ask, “What?”

“Last time you asked me what my thing is. It’s paper cranes.”

“Oh.” You say nothing else, too afraid it’ll break the moment, that he’ll change his mind and close up again, but he doesn’t. As you put your fork down, a faraway look passes over his face and he mutters, “My mom died when I was 18. Tuberculosis. But before that, when she was sick and still alive, I used to visit her. All the nurses that used to help her were friends of hers, because she was a nurse too. And one day, one of them told me about 1000 origami cranes. According to Japanese legend, anyone that folds 1000 paper cranes will be granted a wish by the gods. The nurse told me that maybe if I folded 1000 paper cranes and wished for her to live, she’d be okay.”

Steve pauses for a minute, and you watch him closely, too afraid to say anything. “I was desperate to save her life, so I spent weeks folding cranes out of any paper I could find. Scraps, old artwork, it didn't matter. If it could save my mom’s life, I wanted to do it.”

He takes a deep breath before his eyes lock on yours, heavy with sadness. “She died before I finished.”

You feel your heart break for Steve, tiny 18 year old Steve left alone in the world without his parents, his mom dying before he could finish trying to save her. You reach out across the table and take his hand, and despite the intimacy of it, he lets you, smiling at your intertwined fingers before he adds, “When I knew Peggy was nearing the end, I folded cranes for her too. This time, I knew they couldn’t save her, but I wished that she wouldn’t suffer the way my ma did.”

“Did it work?”

“She died peacefully in her sleep, so I like to think it did.”

You smile a little and squeeze his hand, and he whispers, “Now, I make them when I need to remember. Because sometimes, you just need to remember.”

“I know what that’s like.”

He looks at you with surprise, “You do?”

You nod, dropping his hand to head to your suitcase, pulling the leatherbound notebook from between the neatly stacked layers of clothes. When you sit down across from Steve again, you push the book towards him, despite your promise to yourself to never show it to anyone. “Remember the cinnamon rolls I told you about?”

He nods, reaching for the book though he never pulls it open. “I keep track of every cinnamon roll I’ve ever eaten since my brother died, and I write about it in this journal. I rank them and talk about it as if I was telling it to him. I know he’s dead and he’ll never read this, but I like to remember what it was like to talk to him, share food with him. To be his little sister.”

This time Steve reaches out to take your hand, lifting it to press a kiss to your knuckles. “Do you want to talk about him?”

Your brows lift in surprise, always shocked that Steve just seems to know. “I haven’t really talked about him in years. My parents found it easier to pretend he never existed. I would beg and beg for them to acknowledge it, for them to talk about him and his death, but they never would. Eventually I gave up, agreed to the silent family decision of erasing him from my memory.”

You shake your head, tears pricking your eyes. “Of course I never did though. How do you erase someone who’s a part of you? How do you live your life knowing you got more time than they did? Maybe it was easier for my parents because they didn’t have to stop pretending to be parents. They still had me. But how do you stop being a sister? You can’t. He may be gone, but I don’t want to pretend like he didn’t exist. Not anymore.”

Steve is watching you closely, making you feel seen, though not in an uncomfortable way. And as if he knows exactly what to say, he asks, “What’s the earliest memory you have of him?”

You think for a moment, running through your memories of your brother, smiling when you land on one that you think is the earliest. “I had to be about 5 or 6, and…”

-

Later, after you spend hours telling Steve about your brother, you lay in bed beside him, both of you quiet for the first time in a while. His hand holds yours beneath the sheets, and as you both sit in the dark, waiting for sleep to take you, you whisper, “I’m glad you came to Japan.”

“Me too.”

And that’s the last thing he says before you both fall asleep.

-

The sun is high in the sky before you finally wake up and roll out of bed. You’re unsurprised to find that Steve is gone, but left in his place is a paper crane and a note on his pillow. You smile as you pick the crane up and admire it, folded on hotel stationery with expert fingers. You set it aside before lifting the note and reading,

 Call me when you get to New York.

See you soon. 

-Steve

-

[cleverri]

It’s Hell in South Park!

SOUTH PARK READER INSERT | written by MOD clever

chapter guide: pt.1 | pt.2 | 🥀

NOTE: I also recommend seeing the comic yourself, it’s called It’s Hell in South Park, cause the artists and writers are doing an amazing job so far! Most of this chapter is just the script from the comic, it’ll change once you appear.

warnings; none

Craig eyes soon fluttered open right when he felt the buzzing under his hand, and soon realized it was morning time. He sat up quickly and picked up, confused about what exactly happened.

"...what." Craig asks, rubbing his eyes to get the tiredness out.

"Hey dude, just checking to make sure you're not dead or anything." Craig went wide eyed as Token's voice went through, before he tried to remember what happened at night.

"No?"

"Okay well just after what happened last night we wanted to make sure you were alright. Also usually you meet us outside so we can all walk to school and today you didn't, so...Just seemed a little weirder considering the circumstances, and..." Token started rambling, making Craig huff out of annoyance.

"Token. Can you slow the fuck down." Craig asks, raising a brow.

"Sorry, you just woke up, huh?"

"Yeah, thanks for that."

"Sorry." Craig cracked a smile, before letting out a chuckle.

"Sooooo... Are you not going to school today or something?" Token then asks, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ugh. Do I have to?" Craig asks, feeling the need to get some water, or else he'd pass out.

"I mean I'm not your mom, but..." Craig then let out a groan of annoyance.

"Fine. Just gimmie a few, I'll catch up with you guys or...Whatever..."

"Okay, see you soon, dude." Token says before ending the call.

"Yeah...When did I even pass out last night..." Craig asks himself, getting up and walked over to the camera, that was still somehow recording. "Oh yeah I was gonna, like... Record myself playing that stupid fucking game...It's been recording for 9 hours? I didn't even put an SD card in it. God I'm so fucking stupid..." Craig then shut off his camera, and decided to watch it after school, since there was barely any time left to get to school.

After a few more minutes, he walked out of his room, his outfit on and started walking down the stairs, still bored.

"Not even any time for breakfast..." He mumbled to himself, and sighed, planning on eating something later on. He grabbed his book bag and walked out the front door, closing and locking it behind him. He started walking down the sidewalk, bringing out his phone in the process.

"Oh yeah...I forgot I made some random blog last night...Great." Craig rolled his eyes in annoyance, but lightened up a bit when he saw his friends up ahead. He rushed forward to greet them.  "Hey!"

"Oh hey dude-" Token started greeting, but was interrupted by Clyde, who seemed too happy that Craig was there.

"DUDE YOU'RE ALIVE!"

"Yep."

"So how did the rest of your night go?" Token asks, putting his phone away. Kenny raised a brow and leaned on Clyde, wanting to know what happened also.

"Eh. I think I passed out like, right after you guys left. I set up a camera and I think I played a little more of that game, but I'm kinda blanking it past that part. I had a crazy dream though." Craig explained, shrugging. It was very weird at what happened to him.

"Oh TELL IT, bro!" Clyde exclaimed, smiling, wanting to hear the story.

"Was it a scary dream?" Token asks, raising a brow. He noticed how shaken up Craig seemed to be.

"...I don't really know. It was, like... weird. So in my dream, I was totally playing with the ouija board some more." Craig started explaining, putting his phone away.

"Dude I totally had to change my pants when I got home after that, by the way." Clyde muttered.

"Yeah, I know." It was silent for a bit, but then Craig decided to keep explaining "Anyway-I was playing it, and I ended up talking to this guy. I guess it was a demon or something. I dunno. I talked, and eventually there was like, a knock at my window. I checked it out, and then I turned around, and there was just two demons, standing there." Craig said, now remembering what the demons looked like.

"That's pretty scary, dude." Token muttered, glancing over at the school.

"...What did they do?" Kenny asked, very into with the story.

"The male, like. Had that thing you move around the board. It was holding that thing. They were both speaking gibberish for a bit, but then the male snapped that thing in half, and told me some weird cryptic shit." Craig explained even more, following his friends into school. Token thought for a bit, trying to figure out why this dream happened.

"Damn, dude. You sure you didn't actually get haunted?" Token asked one more time, glancing over at his friend, who only nodded.

"Nah. I woke up this morning and there wasn't shit. The camera I set up didn't even have a card in it. I didn't even have time to watch the playback on it, but I'm pretty sure it was just 99% me sleeping. So I shut it off and left." Craig entered the classroom and sat in his seat. He watched as his friends did the same, before looking at him once more.

"If it helps you at all, I dreamt about pirates." Token joked, earning a short laugh from Kenny.

"Didn't really need help, but thanks for telling me anyways I guess-"

"Okay class!" Craig and his friends sat straighter, and watched as they're teacher moved over to the front of the class. "I hope you've gotten your morning questions all answered. I'll grab them from your desks in a moment, and then we can all start today's lesson. But first, I'd like to say that you all have two new students joining the classroom!" Craig leaned his head on to his fist, bored already. "This is pretty exciting, we don't get too many new visitors in this town, now do we? Come on in, you two." The teacher looked toward the door, and entered two students. Craig glanced over, before going wide eyed. He stared in shock as the two new students went beside the teacher.   "I'd like you all to meet your new classmates, and hopefully, new friends...Go on, tell them your names, dears." Craig sat up straight once more, still in a state of shock.

There was one male teen, messy blonde hair and cyan eyes. He seemed really twitchy and stressed. Then there was the female. She was a bit taller then the male, and had her messy (H/C) in a bun(Unless it's too short :P) and also had (E/C) that seemed to pierce each and every soul in this classroom. She also seemed to have some burns scattered across her body. They seemed way too familiar...

"T...Tweek! My name is Tweek!" Tweek exclaimed, flinching at how loud he was for a second. Tweek then glanced at the female, smiling a bit when the female winked at him, as if she had a plan going on in her head.

"And my name is (Y/N). Very nice to meet you all." (Y/N) stated, smiling warmly to her new classmates.

"Why don't you two go take the seats over there next to Craig, and we can get started on today's lesson!"

"Hhh, okay...!" Tweek muttered, walked over and sat down, (Y/N) following right after, just right beside Tweek. Craig stared at Tweek for a bit, finding it strange that this student looked way to much like the demon in his dream. He then leaned forward and stared at (Y/N), trying to figure out where she got the burns from. After a while, he realized Tweek caught him staring.

"Are you staring at us...?" Tweek asked, well whispered, but it got (Y/N)'s attention. She looked over and raised a brow.

"No-"

"Why are you staring at us? Do we look funny? Is there something on my face? Oh god, I must look so stupid–" Tweek started to panic a bit, getting (Y/N) to calm him down.

"Uh, no... You're just..." Craig trailed off, looking over at (Y/N), who seemed to notice, and hide her burns from him. Craig went wide eyed, suddenly feeling bad for making her think that's why he was staring. "Nevermind." Tweek glanced at his friend, before looking at Craig, hatred in his eyes.

"What do you mean I'm "just..." ???" Tweek asked, venom dripping from his voice.

"Dude, nothing." 'He's gonna be so annoying, I can already tell.' Craig thought, glancing away for a second.

"What???"

"I said nothing."

"Agh, why won't you stop staring at us then?!" Tweek asked once more, not daring to break his glare.

"I don't want any trouble, man! Just mind your own business!"

"...O-Okay?" Craig looked away, got his phone out under his desk and started texting Token, very confused about what just happened.

~~~

"So what exactly about him freaked you out, dude? It's not like you to be scared of like...Anything." Token asked, now walking with Craig to the lunchroom.

"Okay like, maybe freaked out wasn't the best way to put it. But there's something weird about them..."

"What do you mean? I noticed Tweek was kinda twitchy the whole class. And (Y/N) just has those burns on her body?" Token stated, following his friend into the lunch line.

"Yeah, but they were only in your first period, dude. So far, they've been in every single class of mine." Craig muttered, grabbing his lunch.

"Dang dude, all three?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe it's just a weird coincidence."

"Like, sure. I could get behind that idea, but like...They look so familiar." Craig stated simply, setting his lunch down an the table, and sat down, Token doing the same.

"Familiar? They're the weirdest looking people I've seen here in a while. Have you seen them before or something?" Token asks, quite confused.

"...I dunno... Maybe?" Craig asks, before taking a bit out of his pasta, which tasted like shit.

"What do you mean "maybe?"

"Well, like, you know how I had that dream about a demon or a ghost or whatever?" Craig put his fork down, trying to figure this all out.

"Uhh, yeah?"

"He kinda, like...I dunno. They kinda reminded me of...–"

"Hey..." Craig jumped a bit, before looking over only to see Tweek and (Y/N), seeming a bit nervous.

"Oh. It's you two again." Craig stated, looking over at them in suspicion.

"Yeah. Hey-Um... I just..." Tweek started, but was interrupted by (Y/N), who crossed her arms, covering up the burns on her left arm.

"He wanted to apologize." She simply stated, smiling a bit.

"I probably came off as rude or something, earlier...I just get nervous when people stare at me! Or my friend! I think they hate us, or, or-I don't know, maybe they wanna beat the shit out of us–We're new here, man, I don't wanna get into a fight on my first day, hgghghgh!!! I'm just saying sorry because I don't want any beef or anything! And everybody is avoiding us too, probably because we're fucking weird, I don't know! I was wondering if we could sit with you guys because, hhh... I don't know! You're the only one we've talked to so far..." Craig glanced between Tweek and (Y/N), noting how scared they are.

"Oh god I'm sorry I'm–" Tweek started up once more, but stopped when (Y/N) put a hand on his shoulder, calming him down.

"Dude I can't think that fast, give me a fucking second to process everything you just said." Craig muttered, still glancing around.

"Oh god I'm just rambling all over the place again aren't I??? Fuck, I'm so fucking sorry–"

"Dude, chill." Craig sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, before coming to a decision. "Okay, whatever. Just like. Sit... not next to me. Either of you. Sit next to Clyde, or something..." Craig then just pulled out his phone. Tweek and (Y/N) glanced at each other in worry, before sitting down.

"Hhhhh, o... okay..." Tweek muttered, sitting next to Clyde, but went straight up in worry as (Y/N) decided to ignore Craig's words and sat right beside him. Craig looked over at her, watching as she uncrossed her arms, huffing. He glanced at Tweek, before deciding to ask a question, not really thinking about it.

"How'd did you get those burns?" (Y/N) flinched before looking at Craig, a bit worried.

"Oh, I was in a house fire...Got out alive luckily..." (Y/N) muttered, putting her hand on her shoulder to cover the burns. After a few seconds of very awkward silence, Craig spoke up again.

"I think they look cool." (Y/N) looked over at Craig in shock, before smiling slightly.

"Really?"

"Really." (Y/N) glanced away, still smiling, before leaning on the table, thinking. Craig looks at his phone, then at Tweek, finally ready to ask the question.

"Hey, uh...Tweek? Is that your name?" (Y/N) looks over, a bit confused as Tweek perks up.

"Yes!! What? What's wrong?" Tweek asks, raising a brow. Craig glances over at (Y/N), before looking back at Tweek.

"Nothing, nothing...Just, like... I was wondering something." Craig mutters, putting hsi phone into his pocket. (Y/N) stops leaning on the table.

"W...what?" Craig glances at (Y/N) once more, then sighs.

"Are you two like demons or something?" He notices that both (Y/N) and Tweek go into panic mode, but Tweek's a bit worse, seeing that he might have a panic attack.

"A WHAT?!"

"A demon???" Clyde asks, raising a brow, then watched as Token gave Craig a shocked look.

"Whoa, Craig, just right off the bat?"

"OH GOD ARE WE BEING THAT WEIRD??? I knew it was a mistake sitting over here! No wonder everybody was looking at us weird–You must all think we're some sort of FREAKS or somethingghffhghhhfdh–" Right before Tweek could finish, the lights flickered a bit, and Clyde start to try and reassure his new friend.

"Hey, hey, Tweek, it's okay!" Clyde exclaims, smiling warmly, and gives (Y/N) a smile, but frowned when he realized she wasn't there anymore.

"Craig, look– You've scared (Y/N) off! You need to realize that both Her and Tweek are cool! They're both  a little jumpy and funny, but Tweek and I were just having a heartfelt  conversation about what kind of anime he likes to watch. Demons hate anime! Trust me bro, I know!" Clyde states, making Craig glance away in confusion.

"Uhuh... Did he contribute to this conversation at all, or did you just talk about the anime you like." Craig asks, raising a brow.

"I mean I had to warm him up, he's a little shy, but–"

Clyde was then interrupted by the lights, as they suddenly just went off. Tweek looks over and tries to find (Y/N) in the crowd, before going panicked again.

"Did the power just go out?"

"Agh! It's been storming all day, the wind probably knocked something over!!!" Tweek exclaimed, mentally cursing out his best friend who just suddenly upped and left.

"Does this mean we get to go home early?"

"How did the weather get so bad so quickly?" Craig muttered to himself, also looking around in confusion.

"Hey yeah, wasn't it supposed to just be kinda cloudy today?" Token asks, but perked up when Craig looked at him, a "seriously" look on his face.

"What, did you check the weather or something? God you're so boring Token-"

" Wow, okay, you're one to talk–"

"╬╒ ╬╬╬■ ■ ╬╬╬  ╧╧╬   ╬ ╒ ╬╬ ╬ ╬ ╧ ╧ ╬ ■ ╬ ■ ╬ ╒ ╬ ╬ " Everyone looked up at the intercom in shock, not expecting the voice to come through like that.

"Oh god what is that?! WHAT IS THAT??!!?!" Tweek panicked once more, shaking.

"It's the intercom, dude. Chill." Craig responds, glaring a bit at the male in front of him.

"Wait, how is the intercom working if the power is out?" Token asks, making everyone in his group perk up in confusion

"Maybe they have a generator?"

" If they have a back up generator, why would they turn on the intercoms first, idiot. How would they turn on only the intercoms."

"I dunno dude!" Clyde finishes the argument, but jumped when the voice came back on.

 " ╬   ■ ╬   ╒ ╬   ╬ ╒ ╬╬ ╬╬O ╬ ■ ■ ╬ ╬  ╬ ╬ ╧ ╧ ╬ ╬    ╬╬TT╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬ HH╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬ L╬╬╬ A╬╬╬╬╬╬╧ ╧ ╬ ╬"

"WHAT DO WE DO?!?!" Tweek exclaimed, standing up.

"Dude, it'll be okay. Haven't you ever been in a power outage before?"

"I DON'T KNOW!!!!H!H!HHHJHHJ!!!!!!"

"╬ ╬ ╬ T╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ AA╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ LL╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬L ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬Y ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ HH╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬O╬ !╬ !"

Craig snorts a bit, looking down at his phone.

"These guys actually think we should go and check out the rest of the school. What do they expect us to see? A fucking ghost or something?" Craig asks his group of friends, playing it off as some type of joke.

"╬     ╬     ╬     ╬     ╬   ╧╧╧╬     ╬     ╬     ╬     ╬     ╬     ╬  ╧     ╬     ╬"  

"Haven't you been going on about demons like, all day, dude?" Token asks, raising a brow at the smug looking friend, who's smile faltered a bit.

"Yeah okay but for real though-"

"I thought you were being real–"

"No shut up." Craig stated, glaring slightly at Token, who didn't look amused.

"Well... I still think it'd be a good idea to go and check what's going on? Some teacher, or someone... should have came over by now." Token tried to reason with his friend, glancing over at Tweek to keep an eye on him.

"╬ ╬   ■   ╒╬ ╬╬ ╧ ■ ╧  ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╧  ╒╒╒╒ ╬   ■ ■ ╬"

Craig groans a tiny bit, deciding to turn on the flashlight on his phone.

"I guess? Do we have to?" Craig asks finally, but got interrupted by the intercom, which seemingly got louder.

"╬ ╬╬  ■ ╬■ ╧ ╬ ■ ╬ ■ ╬ ╧ ■ ╧  ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╬ ╧ ╧ ╬ ■ ╬ ■ ╬ ╒ ╒ ╒"

"I mean, maybe we can figure out why the speakers are freaking out so much."

"And maybe we could figure out where that girl went!" Both Craig and Token looked over and finally noticed that (Y/N) was missing, and nowhere to be seen.

"Mmmmmmm...Fine..."  Craig got up and left, the entire group following right behind him. He looked around the pitch black hallway, listening as the rain poured on the school. "Okay, great, this is a shocker. Who would have guessed we'd see nothing but pitch black nothingness." Craig sarcastically said, glancing a bit at Token, who noticed and snapped back.

"It's so dark out...How bad is this storm gonna get?" Token asked, flinching a bit as thunder boomed.

"Man, I don't know. I'm not a weather channel, dude." Craig joked a bit, putting his flashlight down a bit. During that span of seconds though, two figures popped up ahead. One seemed to just be happy, while the other immediately got scared and ran away, long tail flailing behind them.

"Hey, hey Craig. If we go home early today, we should hang out at your place." Clyde suggested, looking up at his BFF.

"If it's gonna end up like last night, I'd rather not." Craig simply replied, rolling his eyes when his friend let out a "offended" gasp.

"What??? Why not, I thought it was fun!!"

"Eh-"

"I think Craig's just scared of summoning another "demon." Craig glared at Token, letting out a huff of annoyance.

"Yeah, okay, whatever you say." Clyde looked up at Tweek, noticing how nervous his new friend seemed to be.

"Oh hey, speaking of– Hey Tweek, I still don't think you're a demon or anything. I don't think (Y/N) is either! You should hang out with us more." Clyde smiled at Tweek, before an idea popped up into his head. "OH MY GOD YOU SHOULD COME OVER TO CRAIG'S WITH US TODAY."

"Okay cool I guess we're all just inviting ourselves to my house now." Craig muttered, earning a panicked look from the twitchy male.

"What!!! You guys hate me though! In fact, I should– I should just go!!" Tweek exclaimed, turning around to walk away, but stopped when Clyde reached out and grabbed his wrist.

"Wait, no, dude! Where did you get that idea, bro?"

"If you're talking about Craig, he's just a weirdo. Especially today.  Don't worry, you'll get used to him. Or... he'll get used to you." Token stated, looking back and smiling warmly at Tweek, who seemed to get a bit less tense. "We can all chill and play something casual tonight."

"Literally, I never said you guys could come over." Craig stated, slightly glaring at all his new friends. Jimmy walked beside the group, noticing something in the dark.

"Yeah, but we're gonna anyways bro, so you might as well just accept it." CLyde shot back, grinning at Craig, who seemed to just get more annoyed.

"I don't like how dark and quiet everything is...! Why are we going this way again???" Tweek exclaimed once more, looking into the pitch black, but is quickly distracted by Craig.

"We never said you had to come, dude." Craig watched as Tweek glanced away, looking a bit pale.

"No I know, but...I just wanna find my friend, I want her to be safe-"

"Tally-ho there, old friends!"

Everyone froze, looking back forward. They all had nothing to say as they just stared at the person in front of them, who just continued to smile.

"Is...Is that...?" Token tried to ask, but no more words came out.

"It is indeed! Been quite a while since I've seen all of you, hasn't it!" The figure exclaimed exclaimed, stepping a few more steps forward, making Craig put his phone back up, finally showing who it was.

Pip Pirrup...

"Dude...Dude we thought you, like, died!" Clyde exclaimed, moving behind Craig out of fright.

"Yeah, like...YEARS ago..." Token finished for Clyde, taking a step back.

"And you'd be correct, ol' chaps!" Pip responded happily, making the group tense up once more.

"Wait, are you okay?"

"DUDE did you do the thing where, like, you died and someone brought you back to life like REALLY SOON AFTER and then maybe you moved away or something for a long time or like–" Clyde tried asking many questions at once, but shut up once Pip lifted a finger to quiet him down.

"Oh, no need for any concern, trust me! None of that happened, none at all. You see, a lot has happened in the years that I've been gone!" Pip chuckled a bit, closing his sky blue eyes at the memories. "I see a lot has happened for you lot as well. But for me..."

Pip opened his eyes once more, showing off his now ruby red eyes. Craig stared at the British teen in front of him, not being able to say anything, surprisingly.

"╬Yearsin hell can do a number on you, it can!╬"

"Oh, it's just so lovely to see you all! Where are all of the others? I'd love to have one great big reunion! Though it could hardly be called a reunion, now would it? I'd be the only one returning! Or, wait, no..." Pip started rambling, giggling a bit. Tweek glanced behind Pip, trying to find something but found nothing.

"There are others that would love to see you all, I'm sure of it! I'm sure they're already here, and you barely know it! Thanks to you and your curiosity, you've let open a portal from hell, right in your very own bedroom! Isn't that just splendid?" Craig went to say something, but went quiet when he noticed Pip wasn't done talking.

"Everybody who wants to come and see you simply just... can now! Oh, I'm sure you all know this already, I'm just so excited I can't stop myself from talking! And I'm sure you're excited too now, aren't you all? Oh, and you can finally apologize for all of the terrible, terrible things you've done to me as a child! And I'm here to say, my fellow friend, I would wholeheartedly accept!" Pip continued to ramble on and on, which started to annoy Craig.

"There's no need to ramble on, either. Just a simple apology I believe is in order." Pip finally finished, staring at the group hopefully. No one dared to say a word. "Don't be shy now, there's no need to hesitate!!! You and all of your friends are sorry, are you not?" Pip asked once more, only to earn more silence. "You can take your time. Or if you think I don't deserve it, that's fine too!!!  It's okay if you're not sorry.  I still forgive you. Or maybe you forgot me, too?" Pip suggested to himself, letting his smile falter just a bit, but he quickly regained his happiness.

"Don't worry about that either, old friend!  I'm used to people forgetting about me!" Pip let his feelings go straight down, but he wouldn't dare show it.  "Oh, I know this must be quite jarring, but really, everything is fine! I'm not here to hurt any of you! And that comes straight from my heart, it does. I could do so many unimaginable things to you all now, but I would never have it in my heart to do so!" Pip finished, letting the group talk for what they actually want to say.

"Okay, um, you know what, I'm gonna take some initiative here and–" Token started, but got interrupted by Clyde, who seemed very scared.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I MEAN IT I'M SORRY FOR ALL THE MEAN THINGS I DIDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!" Clyde screamed, before getting dragged away by Token and Tweek. Token turned around and grabbed Craig's hand, seeing he wasn't running either.

"Dude, Craig, do you mind actually running with us?!" Craig said nothing, still trying to take in everything. "Oh my god, dude, come on!" Token ran away with the rest of the group, not realizing they left someone behind. Token then kicked the school doors down and kept running until the school was almost out of sight.

"OH GOD I'M SO... STILL SORRY... AND... SO OUT OF... BREATH..." Clyde explained, trying to get air but could only wheeze for a bit.

"I'm just ...I... Was that even real? Did the school put something weird in our food again?" Token asked himself, looking down at the sidewalk. Craig just stared into space, trying to think while Tweek made sure Clyde was alright.

"Are– are you going to be okay, man?" Tweek asks, helping Clyde to lean back up.

"YEAH... yeah..." Clyde muttered, still wheezing a tiny bit. Tweek glances over and notices that Craig hasn't talked at all, and furrows his brows in concern.

"Is Craig okay??? What's wrong with him?????"

"I don't know, really? Sometimes he locks up under stress, but like...Never like this, you know?" Token replies, looking over at Craig, watching as he slowly looked down.

"DID HE GET POSSESSED???" Tweek exclaimed, tensing up but quickly calmed down once Token started talking once more.

"What? No, dude. He's probably just shaken up. I know I am." Token shrugged, walking over to stand beside Tweek. Craig sighed and rubbed his temples, trying not to get a headache.

"Ugh, guys, stop talking about me. I'm trying to think..." Craig muttered, not even sparing a glance at his friends.

"Dude, is right now really the best time for thinking?" Token asked, raising a brow.

"That sentence was so stupid, shut up."

"...Fair enough. Well... where should we go?" Token muttered, looking around, ignoring as the rain made his clothes soaked.

"Are we still going to Craig's house...?" Clyde asks, finally able to get air withouyt having to cough or wheeze.

"I guess we could-"

"Oh my god. We're not going to my place. Did you not hear what the guy said back there?" Craig snapped, turning around and looking at his friends in anger.

"The guy? Which guy?" Token raises a brow at Craig, who huffs in annoyance.

"You know...Pap or whatever his name was. I don't fucking know, man. I... Just shut up." Craig stated simply, turning back around.

"I didn't say anything-"

"We're going to Stark's Pond." Craig said before starting to walk off. The three friends quickly followed behind.

" In the rain, dude?"

"Yes in the rain, now stop talking to me."

"Alright, dude... alright..."

"Have you ever been to Stark's Pond, Tweek?" Clyde asks, looking up at his blonde friend, who shrugs.

"Uh... no??? I've only been here for a day." Tweek responded, glancing away.

"As well as (Y/N)?" Clyde asks once more, watching as Tweek nodded his head.

"You both started school the same day you moved here?"

"Yes?"

"Huh." Token turned back around, watching Craig carefully to make sure he was alright.

"Wait, so, your friend moved here as well? Are you, like, step-siblings or something?" Clyde asks, wanting to know more about the missing female.

"Um....Sure?"

"Oh, cool..." Clyde stated before looking forward. A couple minutes went by and it still held that awkward silence, and it annoyed Clyde TO DEATH!

"WOW! This is boring! Maybe I'll just see you guys later–" Clyde takes a couple steps back, but stops when Token speaks up.

"I dunno if right now is the best time to split up, Clyde. We all saw what happened back there." Token mumbled, glancing back at the brunette, who could only frown. The soon stopped, realizing Craig was just standing still now.

"I think I need to sit down." Craig muttered to himself, finding a stump to sit on.

"Dude, seriously, are you gonna be okay?" Thomas asked, but sighed when his question was answered with silence. "Have you ever seen Craig like this before, Clyde?"

"If you haven't, I haven't, dude." Clyde shrugged, staring at Craig's back.

"Is he sick? I don't wanna get sick on my first day here, man!" Tweek stated, taking a step back.

"No, I don't think he's sick. I think something's bothering him." Token explained, making Tweek look up at him in relief.

"Well yeah, didn't Pip say he like, summoned a portal to hell in his own bedroom or something?" Clyde asked, raising a brow at Token, who hummed.

"Dude, how could Craig have done that? He's Craig."

"Maybe... maybe he did something with the ouija board. You know how creepy it was getting last night." Token sighed as he listened to Clyde.

"Ouija boards aren't that dangerous, dude. And we were using it the right way, there's no way he could have done something like that..." Token explained, crossing his arms.

"I dunno man...We all left after things got weird..." Clyde stated, leaving Token to go silent as he rethought Clyde's words. He then looked over at Tweek, thinking.

"So... Tweek. Like... I really don't wanna make things weird on your first day..." Token trailed off, not knowing how to say what he was trying to explain.

"I MEAN!  Isn't think already kind of weird?????? Hhh?????????" Tweek asked, clutching onto his shirt.

"Yeah but, like. Okay so, earlier today Craig was all paranoid, which totally isn't like him. And he was talking about how you were a demon and of course, I thought that was stupid." token finally began, but was soon interrupted by Tweek, who had seemed to be a tiny bit angrier than before.

"It IS stupid, man!"

"Yeah man, for sure. But... After we saw... I mean... After what we saw, I'm kinda having weird conflicting thoughts." Token finishes, looking up at Tweek once more.

"Wh... what are you saying, man?" Tweek asks, glancing between the two in front of him, getting worried.

"Well...Are you?"

"Aw man, please don't be a demon, dude. You're like, really cool. Or is it okay to be a demon if you're cool? Haha h ha h I mean I wouldn't mind if you're a demon, as long as you don't, like, kill me or anything." Clyde started freaking out, leaving Token trying to calm him down, and Tweek to get even angrier.

"I'm– I'm not a demon, j-jesus christ!" Both Token and Clyde looked shocked at Tweek's outburst, but Clyde took a step back, trying to calm himself down.

"I didn't say you were, I just–"

"You obviously thought it! Why are you guys ganging up on me, I don't even know you!" Tweek exclaimed even more, watching as Token tried to calm him down now.

"We're not trying to be mean, bro! Trust me!" Clyde tried to intervene, standing beside Token once more.

"Craig's acting weird, you're new here, and we just saw a demon! Can't you see why we'd be at least a little skeptical???" Token asks, only to get even more yelling in return.

"No, man! I saw the same shit as you did, and I ran away from the same shit as you did! Don't fucking freak me out this!!! HhhgfhjfhhgjhgfhjfgjfhjhH!!!!" Tweek exclaimed, crossing his arms.

"Okay, okay, it's okay-"

While the three were yelling among themselves, Craig sat alone, realizing that his mouth was moving, but...he wasn't talking? He wasn't trying to move it?

"Why is my mouth moving...I'm not talking!" Craig muttered to himself, panicking even more.

"I just wanna make sure we're all safe, okay?" Token reassured, smiling a bit at the twitching blonde.

"I've only known you for a few hours, bro, and I already think you're cool. I wouldn't care if you were a demon, I promise!" Tweek growled at Clyde, making the shorter teen flinch back.

"WELL GOOD, CAUSE I'M NOT!!"

"Clyde, come on, I think he's had enough." Token muttered, sending Clyde a look.

"I know, I'm sorry..." Clyde apologized quietly, glancing away.

"Let's all just calm down, okay?" Token looked at Tweek, but soon noticed that he wasn't calming down.

"How can I calm down when I'm in the middle of a place I don't know, drenched in the middle of a fucking storm! AFTER THAT GUY AT SCHOOL JUST APPEARED???" Tweek yelled, stepping closer to Token.

"We can talk it out, it'll be okay!–" Token exclaimed, looking over at Clyde for help.

"Yeah man, we're in this together, right? And hypothetically, if you were a demon, not saying you are bro, it'd–" Clyde started, but shut up once he heard Craig groaning behind him.

"SHUT UP! CAN ALL OF YOU JUST SHUT UP?! JESUS CHRIST!!!" Craig yelled out, clutching to his head, earning concerned looks from the three friends behind him.

"Craig??? Dude, we weren't even talking that loud." Token stated, watching as Craig continued to clutch onto his head

"Yo man... are you gonna be okay?" Clyde asks, but was only met with silence. "Craig, bro?" Still silence. "Dawg?" Yup, even more silence. "Broseph-"

"Clyde." Token said, glaring slightly at Clyde, who flinched back, shutting up. The four didn't notice the two figures jumping from the trees and down right behind them.

"Everything is... it's... so loud..." Craig muttered to himself.

"Are you, like. Having a panic attack or s–" Token tried ask, but Craig cut him off before he could finish.

"Oh god. Oh god we're not alone. We're still not alone!" Craig started to get louder with his speech, scaring Clyde just a bit.

"You're freaking me out, dude, you're not like this." Clyde said, staring at his BFF in fear, but also concern.

"We're not alone and there's someone- No! There's TWO people right behind us!" Craig exclaimed, shaking. Token and Clyde walked over to try and calm their friend down. "Stop looking at me!"

"Dude, you're freaking out!" Token stated, standing beside Craig.

"We just wanna help..." Clyde mumbled, standing on the other side of Craig.

"If you want to help then just listen!!!!" Craig exclaimed once again, earning a sigh from Token.

"Dude, we are listening. You just keep telling us to shut up!" Token exclaimed, getting a bit angry.

"Look at you all.   Squawking and floundering about..." A British voice rang out, making the group of four freeze in place. Tweek felt someone place their hand onto his shoulder, but then felt the other stand beside him. Craig, Token, and Clyde all turned around, staring at the three before them. "You've spent all of this time stressing out over your own mistakes. And you barely even know what you did!"

"Who... Who does that sound like. I know that voice." Token muttered, staring at the two shadowy figures standing beside Tweek.

"Are we gonna get murdered...? I don't wanna die..." Clyde whimpered, taking a step back.

"Ohohoh, that's rich. You really think you're the center of all of this? You really think we're here to kill you? Well... I'm not here for that, at least. Not for you, anyway." The male figure leaned over Tweek, grinning. The female, who they still coudln't see very well due to the shadows luring over her, just stared at them with her Maroon eyes. "You've created a problem far beyond your control."

"Dude...Dude is that..." Clyde tried asking Token, but soon went silent, too scared to say anything else.

"Tweek, dear." The three humans froze as the female finally said something, now realizing who the female was.

"(Y/N)?" Token asks himself, getting into more shock. Craig just stared in fear, remembering how (Y/N)'s voice was from the night before, exactly like this.

"What are you doing?  (Y/N) came to me and said that you are you trying to befriend them?" The male asked sweetly, slightly glaring down at the twitching male.

"G... go away..." Tweek muttered, glaring at (Y/N) for tattle tailing.

"Oh...Oh, this is so cute...Is that why you came through first? You just wanted friends?" The male asked again, raising a brow, but the smile never left his face, even when Tweek tried to get them to leave.

"Well I'm sorry, some of us are here for a much greater reason." The male stated. Tweek went to say something before tensing up as (Y/N) put her hand on Tweek's other shoulder, giving a look that showed no emotion.

"It's time to stop hiding."

[echodrops]

The Promises I Made (2018)

For the past twelve years, I’ve spent every New Year’s Eve compiling a list of fifty promises I intend to keep or fulfill over the next twelve months. The results have been truly amazing, and I have kept some promises I never thought I could. Although this year was really, really bad, oh lord... This year, for New Year’s, there will be a new set of promises for to me keep, but here are the old ones, for review!

 The Promises I Made (2018 edition)

1) I will be less anxious at work and not let passing comments from students or passive rudeness get under my skin as much. Status: Somewhat kept; I feel like I wasn’t as upset by students being rude this year as last year, but then again that might just be because I had better students. XD

2) I will be more proactive about my responsibilities for the college newspaper committee so we can make a great product. Status: Uhh… Can I count this as kept if the newspaper committee was put on hold due to decisions from the higher administration, so I didn’t have to be proactive about these responsibilities?

3) I will actually visit Mexico, not just accidentally take a wrong turn and end up there... Status: Broken. You know how some people like live next door to a restaurant for years but somehow never get around to trying it? Yeah that’s me, with the entire country of Mexico. Like, I literally live less than a mile from the border… I really should just go get lunch one day or something…

4) I will actually decorate my office with all the stuff I have had sitting around at my house for months. Status: Actually kept. I don’t feel like the decorating is really done in the office, but the decorations are no longer cluttering up my actual home instead of the office!

5) I will be better about focusing so that I can grade quickly and feel less overwhelmed throughout the course of the semester. Status: You know, it’s hard to say whether or not I did grade more quickly because spring semester I took on a really annoying class schedule and it screwed me over hard. I feel like I was a little faster this year, but I felt more overwhelmed than ever.

6) I will get the scratch on my Camaro buffed a bit to clear up the parts that can be cleared. Status: I just… didn’t do this. Broken.

7) I will repair the mortar on the fence outside the Utah house and seal the bricks on the window sills. Status: Somewhat kept/broken. I fixed the mortar on the fence outside but did not seal the windowsill bricks.

8) I will finish at least 26 books over the course of this year. Status: Look man. If my promise had been “Finish 26 fanfics longer than 100,000 words,” I would have blown this promise out of the water. But as it stands, I think I only made it to 10-ish printed books. I’m naughty. 9) I will retrim the grape vine at the Utah house and also spray/get someone to spray to kill the wasps. Status: Broken. I don’t know why I thought it would be smart to make a promise about trimming the grape vine, since that’s something you do in fall… when I’m not even in Utah… Hrmmmm… 10) I will get the mail man to stop delivering the wrong mail to my box because I’m getting ten times more mail for other people than for myself. Status: I had so many opportunities to do this, and I just didn’t. RIP.

11) I will have the fire escape window installed on the Utah house to make it legal to rent. Status: Broken. That’s a lotta money fam.

12) I will update Home and a Half at least four times (and no more double posts, just be chill Yehn, be chill for once…) Status: WOW. I was so, so optimistic, wasn’t I? 13) I will actually build all the furniture I bought for the Texas house and never assembled. Status: Mostly kept? I think there’s like one more thing I haven’t assembled (the spare futon), but up to this point I haven’t needed it, so...

14) I will actually watch Stranger Things since everyone keeps nagging me about it. Status: Broken. I just didn’t do this at all.

15) I will go to a dentist and get this annoying wisdom tooth removed and also see what can be done for my front tooth that got pushed out of alignment by said wisdom tooth. This really needs to happen ‘cause the partially erupted tooth is killing me. D; Status: Wisdom tooth is still hurting me… I am the worst at taking care of myself… 2019… the year of self-care?

16) I will take a road trip with my friend Karen like we’ve been talking about for a while. Status: Actually did this! Finally something completely kept. It was a great trip too.  

17) I will continue to serve as the video game club’s faculty sponsor. Status: I was too busy… T_T Broken.

18) I will lower my credit card debt by at least $2000. Moving is so expensive. T_T Status: I ended up having major set-backs this year in the form of having to pay out of pocket for a new windshield in my car and also my Playstation flat out dying on me, so this goal did not get satisfied. But now that my car is completely paid off (hell yeah!), I’ll finally be able to start making big payments on this sucker.

19) I will have ALL my lesson plans planned out in advance for Fall 2018 so that I can just chill next fall. Status: YO THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED. There were still some instances of needing to fix things, but overall I did actually have all the lessons done in advance, and that was probably the only reason I survived fall at all lol.

20) I will finish painting the living room in the Utah house, finally. Status: I… forgot I even made this promise. Yikes.

21) I will be better about walking my dog because I have been slacking lately. Status: I wanted to be better, but every fucking time I go to walk my dog, the neighbor’s Chihuahua runs through their fence and tries to attack my dog, so literally every walk becomes a nightmare and there were a lot of days when I just didn’t want to deal with that stress… :/

22) I will finish a game other than FFXIV this year. Man, so many games have been piling up… Status: I couldn’t even find time to play FFXIV this year, let alone another game… 23) I will write a new, original short story. Status: I… did not write like at all this year. 2018 was just really hard for me. T_T

24) I will get my black glasses fixed this year, finally. Status: Uh… Kept… I think? At least I think this promise was referring to the damage to the frames of my black glasses, which I did get fixed. But now the lens has a scratch… V_V

25) I will attend more professional development/on-campus events and trainings to bolster my evaluation. Status: Eh, kept? I’m signed up for a conference and did some extra training thing that I can throw on the sheet, so I’m calling it good.

26) I will ink and color at least the one drawing of Yehn’zi that I finished sketching a while ago and did absolutely nothing with. Status: A whole lot of nope on this one.

27) I will really finish moving in to my Texas house, no more “I’ll fish out the clothes from the Space Bag when I need them but never actually hang them up.” Status: I’m counting this as kept, since the only thing that didn’t happen is that I never took the plastic wrap off the top of my nightstand, but like… hey that’s a really convenient way to avoid water spots so…

28) I will volunteer at a non-profit organization to fulfill my “service to the community” work requirement. I mean, I will volunteer from the goodness of my heart… yeah… Status: Shitttt this didn’t happen and it really needed to… Oh dear…

29) I will level ALL my classes to 70 in Stormblood. Status: This also did not happen. No time to play.

30) I will reach 1000 followers on tumblr. You should follow me. I’m only marginally a waste of time and space. Status: Kept and exceeded! I’m at like… 1540-ish right now I believe.

31) I will find a salon so I can get my hair dyed consistently instead of looking like a shabby blob half way through each semester. Status: Well, the good news is that my hair color fades so nicely that one of my students actually asked if the strawberry blonde was my natural color. But uh… no… it’s not… so…

32) I will find some way to pay back my coworker for all the incredibly nice things she has done for me already. Status: I mean, I took her out to lunch a lot but I don’t know if I really managed to feel “equal” on the debts I owe her for helping me out.

33) I will see an Anhinga (it’s a kind of bird!) in Texas. Status: Kept! The very first time I went looking for it, I found it, so score.

34) I will win Camp NaNoWriMo this year (because November might never be a possibility for me again, given how much grading I seem to end up doing during that month). T_T Status: Broken. Again, I wrote almost nothing this year. Too much stress. T_T

35) I will scout for new neighborhoods to move to with better internet access and closer to my work. Status: Kept. It’s still a bit too early for me to be looking for specific places, but I have a better sense of where I’ll be aiming for when I do go to buy something.

36) I will try to get better at Spanish, possibly by using my DuoLingo app more. Status: …Broken.

37) I will buy sod for the front part of the Utah house so that my house actually looks decent from the curb. Status: I COULD HAVE… But I didn’t.

38) I will be more proactive about commenting, reccing, and reblogging content I appreciate online because I find so many wonderful things but I rarely say as much about them as I should. Status: I think I was worse about this than last year. I miss the days when I didn’t feel like every five minutes taken to myself was stealing from my work responsibilities…

39) I will actually use my Instagram account to upload my photography somewhere public. Status: I forgot I made this promise too. Oops…

40) I will go dolphin-watching in the Gulf. Status: Somewhat kept? I mean… I stood on the pier… And saw dolphins in the Gulf. That counts, right???

41) I will clear all the photos and videos off my phone and camera SD cards because they are overflowing. Status: Kept but now they’re just sitting on the hard drive unsorted and in a confusing jumble of unnamed folders...

42) I will update my calendar with important dates—holidays, birthdays, etc.—and be productive about sending cards and well-wishes. Status: Broken, just totally broken.

43) I will complete my series of posts about Yato/Hiyori. Really. Status: >___> One day…

44) I will not work later than 10pm on any given work night. I can’t keep running myself ragged. I need to brake sometimes. Status: HA. I was really hopeful. More broken promises…

45) I will explore some new places/cities in Texas that I have not been before. Status: I… did not do this. I had a chance to do this and I didn’t. D;

46) I will get a gardener for the Texas house because the lawn is basically unmanageable by myself. Status: Kept. Because… the lawn really was unmanageable by myself so…

47) I will clean out the fridge more often. No expired milk or ancient leftovers this year please… Status: >_____> Ooopppssss.

48) I will get some sort of watering system set up so that the lawn at the Texas house isn’t a total disaster anymore. Status: Somewhat kept. I did buy hoses and sprinklers to water the lawn but mostly it’s just been raining a lot and that made the grass greener on its own.

49) I will help make one of the super complicated cookies from the new cookie cookbook I bought for Karen. Status: Actually kept! We learned much about the workings of cookie guns.

50) I will keep these promises. Status: Ouch, this one hurts a little.

Totals Kept promises: 12 Broken promises: 29 Somewhat kept/broken promises: 9

Y I K E S ™. I thought last year was crazy and was so hopeful for this year… I had NO IDEA how hard this last year was going to be. So many broken promises; I feel so guiltyyyyy. DDDD; Although I’m still at the same job and not planning on dramatically swapping entire career fields again, things are still in the process of settling and there’s still SO much more I feel like I need to work on. 2018 was the year of being constantly overwhelmed. Unfortunately, 2019 doesn’t seem like it’s going to be much calmer because I’m still working on designing classes and getting my lessons ironed out, but I at least no longer feel like I’m at rock bottom… So, I’m cautiously, very cautiously, feeling the tiniest bit optimistic?

  Let’s do this, 2019! The new set of promises will be up by tomorrow.

[ijustfeelokay]

Entry October 4, 2021

HK and I went camping to Elora Gorge this past weekend! We left Friday afternoon and came back Sunday afternoon. It was so much fun. When we arrived we only had 90 minutes of sun remaining so we went straight to work with setting up the tent, mattress, fire, and getting the food going. Our camp site was very close to the registration desk. As we drove through the gate house we were told to park at our camp site and come back to check in. Thanks to our proximity to the gate house, it was no more than a brisk walk that I had to take. As I walked back with our camp permits I was overfilled with emotion and excitement to get started.

The first order of business was for HK to begin marinating and cooking the KBBQ beef slices, while I worked on the fire and the mattress. I borrowed my dad’s portable air compressor that’s powered by the cigarette bud car lighter. It took a bit of fiddling with the adaptors that came with the air mattress. At first I was taking a while trying to figure out if it was working or not, because I couldn’t hear the sound of air leakage over the loud sound of the air compressor. The mattress wasn’t visibly growing so I figured the air seal was not tight. I also realized that the cable from the air compressor did not match either of the adaptors on the air compressor, so I decided to duct tape the two together, to give an air tight seal. I then plugged this into the air mattress, and then it worked! I was very glad. Around this time, HK had already finished bringing out most of the stuff and marinating the kbbq beef slices. I went on to work on the fire but I noticed that the ashes were very warm. I gathered kindling twigs and also took out a large handful of shredded paper and structured a teepee-like structure over the firepit. To my surprise, as I was struggling to light up a match I noticed that the shredded paper had begun to ignite without any assistance. I was elated and began stacking firewood on top, and fanning the firepit.

My memory of exactly what happened next is fuzzy. HK sets up the tent, and I help her as I rotate between the tent and fanning the fire. Once the tent is set up we brought the air mattress inside. I believe at this point, after the fire became more stable HK and I were bringing out and setting up various little things. By then the sun had already set and we began cooking and eating in the dark. HK then made some drinks with vodka and elderflower syrup. We also had some of her pickled onions and radish. The radish tasted great! There was a lot of marinating sauce left over so I decided to fry the rice in there, and it tasted amazing with it. We took our time with eating since there was so much meat, but in the end we managed to finish all of it. After, I believe we set up the bedding and brought what we needed into the tent. We spent a bit of time at the fire drinking tea. I also helped HK finish the rest of her food at the fire. After soaking the dishes and pans, we put away the things that we couldn’t risk getting wet overnight, and prepared to go to bed. We walked to the washrooms and decided to use the same washroom (mens side). We watched episodes 18 and half of episode 19 of Demon Slayer in the tent, before eventually dozing off to sleep.

On Saturday, we woke up early to make breakfast, which was a slew of vegetables, eggs, and bacon. Before breakfast though I showed HK my license and registration. Eventually we got out of the tent, and while I chopped the vegetables, HK took charge in cleaning the dishes and pans that we needed. While she was at the faucet I also began to fry the bacon. We decided to not make a fire for the morning since we realized the fire wood does not last as long as we would have liked (or we realized we didn’t have enough fire wood in general). I decided to ration the rest of it for a longer lasting fire in the night. We had more tea, and the food turned out great. I did a great job of frying the eggs and only popped one of the yolks! I gave that egg to myself. After cleaning up the time was already 9:30am. We went back to the tent to change into our clothes that we would be hiking in for the day. I mentioned what clothes I was wearing in case HK had anything to wear that we could match in. For a moment HK said that she could wear this red shirt to match my Victoria College hoodie, but eventually we settled with just matching with our jeans. I pointed out that it was already close to noon, and that the showers required quarters to turn on. I proceeded to show my license and registration for a second time in the morning, since HK didn’t know if she had any quarters or not that we’d be able to use for the showers. By then, it was already noon. I suddenly became sleepy, and I rolled around while she plucked me for the next hour. Eventually, we got up and decided to wear our bathing suits under our hiking clothing, rather than bringing them with us separately. We had sausages and buns for lunch, along with condensed milk, and I packed a peach, orange, and some grapes to snack on. I also made hot chocolate for us to drink on the go. I brought my camera bag with me to take photos.

We began our hike going up the road that led us from Area A5, into the hiking trail that then brought us to the Elora Gorge Lookout. The name of the Grand River speaks for itself. Far down below from where we were standing was the water. The lookout itself was unfortunately too busy to set up the tripod for a photo. We continued our hike North east up the trail, until we were met with a metal fencing that separated the conservation area with the continuation of the trail and river. We turned around to walk Southwest aljong the trail. Along the way, we noticed what I think was a white stork. HK said it was something else but I forgot what it was. Definitely not a pelican though. Maybe a white heron. We also walked down the “hole in the rock” which we later realized how it’s name came to be. We walked down a staircase through the hole in the rock, which led us to another lookout area with various places for photos. We asked a girl to take a polaroid for us but to my surmise there were no papers left in the camera. We instead took a number of selfie’s at this location. Walking further down the trail, we found another small lookout which was surprisingly much quieter than the others. It was a fantastic place to setup the tripod, in which we took a beautiful photo there. Continuing on with the trail, a bridge connected us to the other side of the grand river, and brought us to the tube launch area. It was closed off, but we joined the rest of the people going around the fence and climbed down onto the river anyway. It was quite difficult finding a spot with little foot traffic to set up the tripod, so we walked a few peninsula’s away from the fence to take the picture. We set up the tripod for a photo, and then walked another peninsula over to sit down and drink our hot chocolate. HK suggested we take a photo of us while sitting down. All of the photos here turned out amazing. It was such a sight to behold at the gorge. Even more interesting though was watching other people toe dip into the river, laying flat down onto the rocks beside the river. Regrettably, I wish I agreed to bring the mooncakes with us. It would have been nice to eat it at the river.

We hiked back to our camp site and proceeded to get ready for dinner. I left the camera out on the tripod so we would be ready for a photo of the entire camp site. I think the first things I did was move the car so I could connect the air compressor to the car and mattress. Meanwhile, HK started up the grill pan to cook the ground beef while she went to the faucet to do the dishes. Why was it always HK doing the dishes lol. Anyway I forgot what else I was doing. Because I waited until the last minute when HK was done making the nachos for me to start the fire, in order to make sure the fire would last as long into the night that it could. Honestly I don’t remember what else took up all the time. I remember us taking the photos in front of the tent. And then for quite a while we were waiting for the nachos and sausages to cook. HK has probablky done so many things at camp that I was unaware of so she probably has so much to add to this story. We struggled to heat up the nachos with the fire, and I also struggled to roast the remaining sausages over the fire. HK decided to wrap the sausages in tin foil and placed it directly over the fire, which worked perfectly. We wrapped the sausages in a bun and ate it together while sitting at a log in front of the fire. It was very nice. At this point it was already dark. The nachos were still not cooking either, even after a long time on top of the fire. We briefly tried heating up the nachos on top of the gas stove but it burnt a hole through the aluminum tray. We gave up on the nachos. Though, they tasted great when it was still hot. We took some more photos, using the lamp as lighting. It turned out great! Unfortunately, we tried to take more photos in the dark with HK’s phone but it wasn’t possible. For the rest of the night we roasted marshmallows over the fire, while also getting other things done around the campsite. Once we finished eating and taking our photos, we proceeded to pack everything up into the car. Again… HK did the dishes lol. After packing everything into the car we went to the washrooms to wash up. Coming back, HK helped me wash my hair. Then, we went into the tent to go to sleep. In the tent, I turned on my laptop and plugged in my SD card to go through the photos we took during the day. Afterwards, we played 2 or 3 questions of would you rather before HK fell asleep, at which point I gave up and decided to just go to sleep as well.

In the middle of the night, the rain began pouring, and I noticed my head to get wet. HK ran outside to cover the tent while I stayed cozy… Throughout the night and early morning I remember the tapping of the rain on the tent. It was very soothing, and it’s an experience I’ve never had before.

When we woke up we promptly set up what we needed for instant noodles and fried eggs. Afterwards, we cleaned everything up, washed up in the washrooms, then tossed out our garbage, and drove to waterloo for a quick tour before we went home.

In waterloo, we had hand pulled noodles that tasted amazing and was full of chili oil. Then, HK gave me a tour of the waterloo campus which I felt was fantastic. I wish UofT had as much study space as waterloo does.

Anyway that’s it. Need to get back to writing this email to UTVSA because of all the drama and problems going on within the club.

[lifebetweenlines]

D54 - QT QT QT

1. Highlight of the day: I woke up at 7AM this morning before the alarm went off. I woke up from a vivid dream with lots of details that I tried my best to retain till I have the moment to jot them down in the journal. At one point, as if there were a camera slowly panning out to show lots of people inside a house through the window. The warm tone and slow motion made a very relaxing cinematography. Another striking detail is the hand-written card from JH who is from CG’s App Supp in real life. Though I forgot the gist of it, I remembered that it was so beautifully written in English that I kept wondering how my mind could construct such coherent sentences in my dream. Since I had some free time in the morning, I did some abs workout and made japchae for lunch of the next 2 days. I plan to finish all the consumables so as to minimize the amount of stuff for house moving. We put in an offer this morning and hope to hear some good news so the search can come to an end. I headed out for brunch with QT at Gayley’s Cafe. While waiting for our table, QT texted me that he was gonna running late and started ranting about TTC which I found adorable. He had a way of dissing things but didn’t give out a negative vibe and I think I’m cautiously falling for him already. The place was packed with customers but we managed to get a table closer to the sunlight after 15 minutes of waiting. I had the regular breakfast with eggs (sunny side up and scramble), home fries, bacon and sandwich. QT had omelette to go with salad and home fries. The coffee was served in such beautiful blue ceramics cups that I kept raving about. We talked about stuff like his exams, my SD trips and we held each other’s hands almost all the time. At one point, QT was observing me for a good 5 seconds and I couldn’t help blushing. When he mentioned making plans to do things together, it made my heart skip a beat. Few people have made plans and put them into action with me and it seems to imply that he wishes to see me again and again. It was such a fine Sunday with lots of sunlight and the chill was pleasant enough so we took a walk to College Street and popped by my favorite Art Market and bookstore. We parted ways at University and it will be another week till I see him again. I’m gonna miss kissing him so much.

2. Thing I’m grateful for: Joe Hisaishi is coming to town and I’m so glad I find a handsome guy to go to the concert with me. It will be on April 18. While I was nervous and cynical about the prospect of us still dating till then, QT was not hesitant at all.

3. Thing I’ve learnt: QT told me Fernando Machado, BK’s CMO was his hero and sent me a few clips. I was floored by the brilliant creativity in these ads. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfEEY1nmW8o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfEEY1nmW8o

[eknowledgetree2015]

6 Best Programs to recover deleted files from your hard drive

Have you ever deleted a file accidentally from your windows or android phone? Have you deleted files from your computer and forgot to make a backup? Well don’t worry, when you have lost partition recovery of any type of file you have lost accidentally from your PC, Laptop or android phone. Deleting files accidentally hurts a lot when you have invested a lot of time for creating it.   Below we will tell you what the best free and paid recovery software from the hard drive are and that you can use them both on PC and MAC. It happened with me many times when I delete files, video or photos from my mobile, or laptop and thinks that I have its backup because I stored them in the external hard drive but I was not there, if you’re also person like then you don’t have to worry now because now can recover most of the data from your SD card, or external hard drive with the help of recovery software.   Some reasons why we can lose data from our computer and mobile    Files erased by mistake from the recycle bin.    While restoring mobile data and our backup fails.  When we delete photos and videos and thinking we had backup copy it was not there.    Files deleted because we had to free hard disk space and forget to keep a backup copy.    Hard drive failure, formatting or failure of the mobile device card and we want to search for the information. How to recover deleted files in Windows In this article we will teach you a free method with the help of that you can learn how to recover deleted files in Windows, and all without having to install anything since we will use some partition recovery software. Steps you can follow to recover your data. Install a good recover software like recoverIt, Recuva and other recovery software. Define the type of search you want to perform (all files, images, music, videos, etc.) Add a location filter indicating the folder where to find the file you want to recover. Select the normal search and start the search. The intensive search leaves it for the last case if you see that the normal search does not find the data you want to recover. Programs to recover data from the hard disk and USB memories or mobile SD card 1. Recuva: Recuva is one of the best and the most complete programs to recover deleted partition of files in Windows, in SD memories, etc. It doesn’t matter what type of file;it helps to recovers everything. With the help of Recuva you can recover accidentally deleted files. Recover Formatted Files. Retrieve Data from Empty Recycling Bin. Recover Lost Partition. Hard disk failure, virus or Windows failures. 2. RecoverIt: RecoverIt is an all-in-one data recovery software that helps you recover files through simple clicks in just a few minutes. Helps to recover accidentally deleted files from Memory Card, External Disk, Pen Drive. Recover Deleted Files from Laptop, Android phones, USB drive, etc. Recover lost partition in all file formats FAT(FAT32, FAT16, FAT12), exFAT, NTFS / NTFS5 and many other. 3. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free: It is a free data recovery platform to recover deleted, formatted or lost data from the PC, laptop or removable device easily and quickly. Available for both Windows and Mac. You can recover accidentally deleted files. Recover Formatted Files. Retrieve Data from Empty Recycling Bin. Recover Lost Partition. Hard disk failure, virus or Windows failures.     4. Wise Data Recovery: Very fast and free program to recover deleted files from the computer. It is really surprising how quickly you do the initial analysis. Very fast in analyzing the hard drive. No installation necessary Compatible with Windows. The free version only allows you to recover up to 1 GB. 5. Mobisaver: Mobisaver is one of the easiest programs to recover files for mobile. Supported image formats: JPG / JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIF / TIFF. Formats of videos supported: MP4, 3GP, AVI, MOV. Images and videos are displayed in thumbnails with the format and file size. The contacts and call history are shown in detail with the exact name of the person and the telephone number. Text messages and WhatsApp messages are displayed with the recipient, the date and a part of the content of the message. 6. iPhone Recovery: iPhone Recovery is a 100% free and excellent data recovery program to solve all iOS data loss problems. Recover photos, videos, contacts, text messages and up to 16 types of files Recover deleted / lost data with all possible methods: iOS / iTunes / iCloud devices. Compatible with the latest iPhone, iPad, iTunes, and iOS. Read the full article

[gyongyiphotoarts]

Beyond the frame project The progress so far

It’s our 9th week and I have been shooting in the restaurant as much as I can - recruiting people is hard, specially when they say yes for the first proposal of help, and they shoot off at the end of their shift without saying a word...But let’s start at the very beginning! 

I have took a portable Prolinca flash light kit from the store, two lights, two stands, brollies, 2 radio triggers.

Day minus 1

The lights were up on both sides of the table set up, wanted to check if I want the harsh spot light effect but it was a big nono, I don’t want that dramatic lighting effect, but to put more emphasis on the gestures and facial expressions of the sitters.

Managed to synchronise the main light to the camera, but not the second light, had to adjust my camera settings too ( like switching off the live-view mode etc) , but even that didn’t help. As well as my camera battery died and forgot my spare one in my other bag..mission aborted. Managed to take a few test shots but I have accidently deleted them from my laptop and my SD card.

No progression on day 0. Yui was around to help me out, but even with the 3rd radio trigger I got from the store didn’t make everything miraculously happen. Dragged all the lights back to the uni from Central London, to check if it all of this was my fault or I was truly missing something. David have helped me figure out that all I needed was a hotshoe adaptor on my camera....brilliant.

In the meantime I felt like a fool in front of my colleagues, fiddling around and firing that one single flash for no apparent reason, but I have managed to explain to the management team my intentions and wishes,and even some colleagues have seemed to be very cooperative when I have asked them to stay a little while after work to sit for me - I have a made a little plan as well, to be confident and ‘look’ more organised.

This is a draft, the printed version looks more scribbly now...

I was also looking for additional scenes to recreate, like the ‘social media snapper’ and the ‘tap water demander’.

In the meantime I have already established my new lighting set up, with shoot through or reflective umbrellas on both lights, adjusting the power to half power. Draft lighting set up

This drawing was made with my friend who is a pro in foreboding the settings of the camera by heart. A skill I should develop as well :D 

Day 1

At last, success on the floor :) 

Test shoot of Yui to check the camera angle and the lights. Constantly changed around with one third of shutter speed and with aperture.

The left bottom one is a funny snap, just to compare for the following shoots here are the settings - f5,6 shutter speed 1/60

I have played around with the idea of using some frames in the background, but couldn’t get away with the reflective surface...have ordered some Moulin Rouge themed posters for a forthcoming shoot, let’s see how the fill up that negative space in the background! Why Moulin Rouge? Because today’s hedonistic Soho lifestyle reminds me of the infamous brothel - little bit of symbolism here and there. 

Pedro, the impatient

The photo on the left bottom is the winner. F 7.1, shutter speed 1/80, both light on half power. Was very happy to finally managed to get lights working as well as ask Pedro if he can pose for me in the last minute! 

Overall I am happy with the even lighting. Once I have all the photos together I’ll sort the exposure out in Lightroom....

Yes, the tripod is miserably wobbly. 

Possible title for the project...

Mise-en-place - French culinary phrase - ‘ethical code’ of chefs, preparing the kitchen and supplies for service, but front of house staff is using the term for preparing the floor,  like setting up the tables, filling up water fridges, organise sections and stations etc (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_place)

Mise-en-scene - I’ve read about the term from David Bate’s “Key concepts of photography”, referring to the staging a scene...’In 1930′s Paris, Brassai, for example, like many others working in the same field, was known to ‘stage’ decisive scenes and paid people as models or employed friends to act out scenarios he had seen or envisaged. Staging here is not a negative term, a criticism.In the theatre, ‘staging; cna mean realist, naturalist or anti-realist. There is no reason why staging ( mise en scene) cannot be used in thte same way for photographs. Staging refers to the act of creating a scene, it does nor imply any lack of reality, it merely acknowledges the work involved in the production of meaning in any pictorial composition.’ ( p 60-61).

Also, I had some interest in reading into another chapter from the very same book

ELEMENTS OF A PORTRAIT

The four key elements work together…are balanced (or not) in the rhetorical argument of a portrait. The meaning given to the scene, figure, pose and expression all arrives at once, simultaneously…the aesthetic and rhetorical form from which the desmans arises that the spectator reads the picture.

FACE

The expression of the face is crucial  and can exert a considerable impact on how a portrait signifies meaning. An expression can have a dramatic impact, even with the slightest movement of the eyes and mouth.

…the whole gamut of emotions about life has conventional expressions signified via the face.

the differences subtly modulated by bodily gestures, facial expression and your expectations….we know that these expression are not necessarily a fixed state of being….precisely through trying to judge and evaluate the combination of different elements that construct their appearance.

I am trying to give precise instructions to all my sitters what mood and feel and I’d like to achieve on each photos - let’s see after a long day of working how they function and what mood they’ll be in! I do my best to explain all my intention and what’s the goal of this whole photoshoot. I do remind them of past experiences we had during service or just talk about my bad experiences to enlighten them - usually it works, specially I see them getting into the role while talking and getting into the mood.

POSE

The pose of the sitters itself its a visual argument, a form of rhetoric….Is it the job of the portraitist to spot or direct these combinations, to understand ( to control?) what they signify together...’specific cultural identity’

Pose and poise connote all kinds of aspects of a perceived character (mental, physical, social etc) of the person depicted…

….the art of a good portraitist is to recognise this rhetorical aspect of the picture….just as the expression on a face is a rhetoric of mood, so the pose contributes to the signification of character, attitude and social position….posture…can be read as ‘embodying’ their psychological attitude…revealing anthropological habits.

CLOTHES

Clothing - contribute to the rhetoric of the portrait too

…they they us a good deal about in terms of how they are worn…

…we are probably all just as guilty of making short - circuited judgements about individuals based on their clothing…..clothes signify something about a person’s identity, though the context in which they wear them - the location - also infers a message about the depicted person

I haven’t specified to all my sitters what to wear, only told a few to indicate the mood of the photo.

LOCATION / SETTING

…provides a ‘context’ for the sitter….it literally locates the sitter within a social place…the perceived location is important….location scouting is crucial to finding places and spaces that will provide the right connection to the character in the picture.

All of these are key features in my shoot as well. Aiming on nailing the facial and gestural expressions just right - still not to sure whether I’d like direct overexaggerated  or either subtle but more to the point poses...Once I’ll make mock up prints I’d be able to decide which one I like better for the sake of the project.

Luckily I have given a great opportunity to shoot in the restaurant I am working at, which is more familiar to my sitters than to drag them into an empty studio!

Day 2 - Paulina

The customer who is flickering with her fingers to get attention. I’m not sure how to name this...The Tart maybe? The Shrew? still to decide. I really feel like I need to caption these photos once I exhibit them...

Little bit overexposed images, can be corrected in post production. Top left one and left middle are the most possible choices.

Had another little technical problem after taking photos of Paulina...my other colleague was waiting but I couldn’t manage to FLICK THE UNLOCK TAB on my SD card ( as well as it was full soI had to keep delete files from the card whilst shooting, very annoying thing!)  I had to postpone that shoot. He have been waiting for me patiently for an hour after he have finished his shift, I felt really bad for him...I have rearranged the twice with him in the last 2 weeks but he have managed to forget about his promise and walked home without saying a word...not going to ask him anymore for sure.  In the meantime I had another colleague of mine cancelling twice, a third one only once, but I have managed to catch him the following day...

Second planning

This thing is just a guideline, the plans never go like as I plan them...have to be constantly flexible

Day 3 - The complainer - Alessandro

Bought some cheap pasta and pesto in Sainsbury’s, so I’ve manage to make an Italian truly upset with this fakery. 

I do like this consistent view, took a few photos from more above but the table got more into the foreground than the person. Got the Moulin Rouge posters hid in the background, but the poor implementation at 12:30am didn’t work out very well...

I’m not sure why the white balance has changed! Hopefully I can correct it in postproduction! Same thing happened at the following shoot as well, but only one photo turned blue-ish which was really strange!

The social media snapper - Yui was the cutest choice :) We were trying to melt the ice cream to emphasise how much time people can spend on taking a bloody photo of their meal. She is using another phone with torch feature on as a light aid, but I feel like I have to make that light source a lot more visible that in post production...One thing I’d like to get over, is that I am thinking about the post production process already during the shoot. I guess I’d do the same if I’d be shooting analogue, although I’d have limited option of what I can alter or not...but I knew this shoot will take long time to finish up, going back and forth to the uni darkrooms would have made me really late with the project for sure!

I still have to shoot 3 scenes this week, I don’t have specific names for these for now but - The ignorant, The deliberate Evil and the Etiquette freak? let’s see later on...2 female and 1 male model. Hopefully no one cancels on me as well as I’ll be able to quickly do the set up right so I don’t have to waste my friends time!

Here is a quick, unedited contact sheet of the series so far...

I guess the lights were a little bit far off form the subject at some cases, is hard to get the precise angle all the time, but I’ll try my best with the following shoots. 

[blackrectangle]

CuddleXpo experience

As promised in my last update, here’s a bit of a breakdown of the experience of doing headshots/portraits at a professional conference.

My primary concern leading up to the event was how much interest there actually was in the service I would be offering. On the one hand, I knew that plenty of people in the cuddling world have small businesses and therefore probably needed professional shots to use in their branding and marketing. So having something easy to offer while they were at an event like this, would make them primed to buy.

On the other hand, this kind of quick service might put people off. Maybe they hadn’t really thought too much in advance and they would want photos but didn’t feel camera-ready… As it turned out, when I was barely halfway set up on the first day people were queuing up for the signup sheet. I wound up getting 12 sessions over the course of the 2 days.

Because this is a “business” post I’ll run the numbers. I think photographers - especially those starting out - are way too afraid of showing our work and I don’t want to be another one of “those people.”

Staging:

A two light setup with basic off-white backdrop

Lights were constant (florescent), definitely would love to go with flashes next time around

My Nikon D3200 with 35mm f/1.8 (which is like a 55mm equivalent, so ideal for portraits)

I was situated in the main hall where there were presentations going on all day, right along side vendors selling various products. I believe I was one of the only service-based vendors. I didn’t have any proper signage, the lights and my little “pricing sheet” did the talking.

I planned for about 15 minutes per shoot and the pricing breakdown was as follows:

$15 - 5 RAW photos (1 outfit/look), no edits

$25 - 5 edited photos

$30 - 10 photos, including 2 outfits/looks

$50 - 10 photo edited

In case you can’t tell, those prices are SUPER cheap! And I was told so by my clients that day. I’m sure that it was a good reason I got as many signups as I did, but on the other hand I feel like I could have/should have charged a bit more. It’s so funny how much I’ve found myself falling into the same “traps” (i.e. not valuing my work enough) as I’ve read from other people and I still didn’t learn! So the takeaway here is don’t under-price yourself!

While I probably went too cheap, I believe that I delivered a professional service in a fairly high volume setting. I’ve gotten back good feedback from my clients from that day. But I also know going forward I’m going to do a better job of representing my value on paper.

Learning experiences:

Bring a mirror! Letting someone quickly check themselves was the number one issue that I wound up having to deal with in editing. I could have made my life easier and made my clients feel just that much more comfortable if they had a simple mirror there to do their hair or double check their makeup.

“Measure twice, cut once” - Kind of like with the first point but I realized that most of my sessions were not taking anywhere near 15 minutes. It’s fine to have the energy and get right down to shooting, but that moment to double check things can save you from some dud shots and, again, trying to fix things in post.

Lighting! I’m greatly appreciative of the lighting setup that we had, but I know I can get even better results in the future if I plan that part of it even more. The one thing I will have to seriously consider is the value/capability of constant or strobe setup. I think having a constant lighting setup was less of a distraction. If flashes were going off every few minutes that might be a distraction.

Without further ado, here are some of the shots I was most pleased with:

Things That Worked

Being a calm, welcoming presence. It’s easy to see the list of people and go “okay, I have to get through this, which can really undercut the interaction with the person who is right in front of you. I was able to “turn on the charm” in a natural way, which helps relax others.

Letting them review the photos. Even though this was a fairly quick service, giving the customer a level of control/input that shows them that you know what you’re doing is important. I didn’t have a tether cable so I just poppped the SD card out of the camera and plugged it into my laptop.

Doing the Math

Afterwards, I did the math on things that I directly spent money or time on to make this happen. I cannot emphasize how low my overhead was on this: I had most of the equipment on hand, and I was able to borrow the lights for the event. The fact that I did not have to pay for my placement at the event also helped.

Figuring in time to edit on the day after (which I believe around 5 hours), I was making a reasonable $25/hour.

By the way, I tracked my time editing using the app Toggl. It made tracking very simple and even the free version was enough to keep clear track of time. If I took a break, it automatically would stop the clock after going idle in case I forgot to manually do it.

$25 is nothing to sneeze at, it felt good to get paid and have a deadline to work with. But there is definitely room to grow. I would like to thank all the wonderful people who hired me to take their pictures, as well as Keeley for putting on the CuddleXpo and inviting me.

[feystruck]

Petit Jean—–3/22/2011

The calm stillness of the mountain

Coupled with a silence broken only

By the sound of the wind rustling

Leaves and my voice as I speak to

Sie about the secrets of the wind

  I hiked the Seven Hollows Trail on Petit Jean Mountain. It’s a trail I’ve been wanting to do for years but hadn’t made the time to go. My nephew, Daulton, and I took to the trail mid-morning. I had planned everything out the night before but I wasn’t packed. It was going to be a good hike on a nice spring day. I had requested a wake up call and set an alarm for 7:30am. The wakeup call was right on time.

That’s when I received news my sleep fuddled brain couldn’t comprehend.

  “Who’s here? Why so early, didn’t he have stuff to do?” I asked.

  They couldn’t understand me. So I said it again. They still didn’t understand and told me to talk to them after I got some coffee. I don’t speak clearly when I first wake up. Half of me is still in DreamLand while my brain is forming coherent thoughts, yet I can’t walk a straight line and run into walls. I detest waking up, so please don’t speak to me before coffee.

  I made it inside the main house, poured coffee after blearily locating my cup, added creamer, stirred, and sipped. Grimacing, I stomped to the microwave to heat it. Breakfast was oatmeal. But first I needed coffee. Daulton came in the door bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to hike. I was only ready to sip coffee.

  “Hey.” I mumbled into coffee. And a conversation began. I tried to remember my manners and was courteous but it was difficult work since I was up earlier than usual without the recommended dosage of caffeine easing the grumpy into happy. Halfway through the cup, I felt awake enough to try a conversation.

  “Donte can’t make it, he’s sick. Are you sure you’re up for this trail?” I asked.

  Daulton smiled, “I’m ready.”

  “It’s 4.5 miles and it’s a moderate to hard trail. Should be ups and downs.”

  “I got this this is going to be easy.”

  “Okay then, I gotta get a few things together and get gas.” I left the table to check on my batteries and SD card for the camera. I’m starting a side project and was going to film some spots on the trail. At my apartment, I grabbed my things. Day pack, wallet, granola, keys, Kibble for the dog, put the cat outside (to Polly’s dismay), and slipped on hiking boots.

  Daulton, Cinders, and I finally made it to Petit Jean and parked at the Seven Hollows Trail Head. Cinders complained about my driving the entire way. Eventually,  you ignore the backseat whiners.

We got out, made sure we had our gear when I realized I forgot Cinders water bottle with attached bowl. Well, we’d have to make do. She could drink my water. I could pour it in a depression on a rock if there was no water on the trail. I was expecting water because we’ve had a lot of rain this season.

The trail itself was sandy starting out with green and trees all around.  With the camera rolling, I set off, anxious to explore this piece of Petit Jean.  Saplings and flowers lined the trail as wasps, bumble bees, and gnats buzzed. Not even a mile into the trail my camera stopped recording. “Card full,” it said. I stomped my foot, turning it off. Something had told me to bring the spare SD card…. Well I had a cell phone, time to use that. After 2 minutes of video it too had a full memory. That should teach me to always bring the spare card.

We hiked up hills, down the other side, crossed streams. Cinders saw a squirrel. Standing on her hind legs, she lunged forward desperately wanting to chase. The rule is “All dogs must be on leashes.” So on the leash she stayed, to the annoyance of her hunting instinct. We crossed a stream right after this, stepping across the rocks.

Thinking we were done when we reached the top of yet another hill, Daulton and I rallied.  

“Almost there!” I called out, winded from the climb. Then, I saw the sign, “3.5 miles.” It felt like we’d already been the 4.5 miles since we skipped going to the Grotto. The trail held beautiful vistas, hidden dells and surprises in every hollow.

On the trail there are a few landmarks to watch for: Natural Bridge, The Grotto, and the Growing Rock. It’s difficult to describe the views at each point but I plan to go back and record each one for that side project I mentioned.

Daulton and I eventually made it back to the car with several rest stops. It took a good four hours to complete but I was able to immerse myself in nature, resetting my mind, and experiencing the wilderness. Life is meant to be experienced.

Petit Jean Mountain: Seven Hollows Trail Petit Jean-----3/22/2011 The calm stillness of the mountain Coupled with a silence broken only By the sound of the wind rustling…

[ji-hyunlee-blog]

Intra-office Communications Channels UI/UX

This project is for improving communication between company and employee by gathering and rearranging all of scattered contents of company.

Place : Samsung SDS

Duration : March 2018 to July 2018

Tools : Adobe XD, Adobe Photoshop, ProtoPie

My role : I and Jiho Song worked in a pair for overall UX design process. We did user research, state the problems and reason out the insights, design wireframes, and prototype to test.

There are 10 kinds of company’s internal channels in the corporate portal where different information is delivered. Although those contents were important and necessary, most employees didn’t recognize where they could find the contents. Actually, channels were spread out all around the portal in a different way of accessing depending on which departments manage it. As the employee didn’t access to each channel that much, it had become difficult to share the management’s points. And it made the managers difficult to lead this large company.

In addition to this, the management had been eager to listen to complaints that employees have had. Even if we had the bulletin boards which allow to post messages anonymously, it had not stimulated them. Rather, they used to write their thoughts and complaints on the external anonymous app. It was not only hard for managers to follow up with employees, but it could compromise corporate reputation.

Consequently, we were given the missions below.

“Increase the views of all the contents scattered around the portal, so that make impossible to talk with each other without knowing about the contents” 

“Let employee chat on the internal portal website, not outside”

What the internal communications are

We summarized that the range of internal communications, so called intra-office communications here is beyond just exchanging greetings one another. It also contains sharing the business goal, building up the trust, and forming the sympathy. This contributes to establish the relationship to resolve conflicts together.

From a corporate standpoint, they aim to manage the business efficiently by cooperating with organizing members in the process and encouraging the information to circulate smoothly. For employees, strengthen the relationship not just with coworkers but also corporations to get on.

As part of supporting these behaviors, there are various channels provided internally. 

How the internal communications happened

We drew a diagram like above to deeply understand all the possible internal communications. The flow of contents, kinds of content, and channels had to be associated properly with the purposes of communications. As a result, the channels, main page of portal website (called “Knox Portal) and intranet communications site (called “CommOn SDS”), where contents about the business goal, task-relevant information, and promotion of relations existed, would be determined as the most appropriate for covering the conflicts management, morale boost and development of company culture. Ultimately, it will lead to the unification of various organization.

(I intentionally omitted confidential data)

Above is the existing main page of the portal, and it is the first page that all the employees see right after logging in to the portal. Here, all contents are listed by 3 columns. Except for the 3rd column(Inbox), first 2 columns are containing information as a listed forms or shortcut link. Each content in every column is divided into several sections depending on which channel it was generated from. If it is clicked, linked channel site opens out and they can verify the contents there. Some other channels are accessed only in the quick menu in top-right of the main page. Postings are about notices, news, articles, and things related with company.

Intranet communications site is a channel for communication space between company and workers. There are about 7 menus including company news, internal reporters’ postings, CEO’s message, and events information delivered in different bulletins. Some of these company postings are partially exposed to the portal main(at the top of Column1), and it is changed everyday by the administrator. Also, free bulletin board is allocated to employees only, but it is a bit hidden away comparing to other bulletins with fewer contents and views.

The key findings

Based on what we organized, we did explore how employees had used the corporate portal and communication channel. 

No matter where the content from, just interested in the content itself  

They didn’t bother what channels the content originate from nor who wrote this. What they concerned was the content itself like whether the content is mandatorily reading, task-relevant, or just fun. They even didn’t know about what each channel provided. There were many people who had never explored those channels since they joined the company. Instead, they only accessed contents through the recommendation from their divisions or colleagues in the form of URL. Obviously, many people have interest in posts published by a company, but the source of writings were hard for employees to approach.

Others were accessing contents on the portal aimlessly, because it’s starting point of their work so that they just clicked when they saw interesting topics by chance. But it led to churn within minutes. They wanted to keep reading other relevant contents continuously but they were annoyed to find the proper contents posted in separate channels. Posting criterion was always adopted by managers unilaterally.

Depending on each hour of the day, read different postings in a rapid but frequent way

After clocking in, employees usually catch up with the works happened last night via emails. While checking the mails, they skim through the postings strictly necessary to check by priority. When they have some time off after lunch, they explore interesting contents they could not see in busy morning. In this way, there existed the priority to read depending on the time of the day.

Also, they don’t stay in the intranet site for a long time, they tend to be short stay, but frequently. It’s attributed by being conscious of team managers or other seniors. And a lot of duties make them burdensome to read it deeply. They quickly glance over contents and put them on back to read later, but forgot. If it is necessary to read, they try to squeeze them in visiting the sites short and frequent. 

Reveal their insides out of frustration and want to be heard

Although many employees swore at the company outside, they didn’t just mean to devalue to outsiders. They wanted to expose complaints, but there didn’t exist appropriate place to deal with their concerns, remaining anonymous. Corporate culture is not that flexible, but stick to stubborn til now, so that If it is not anonymously secured, they would be afraid of getting a penalty with banning the company. That’s the reason why they used the anonymous application (called “Blind”). However, they still felt frustrated when they were aware of nothing changed after unburden themselves. 

Of course, we have had our own anonymous boards inside, but most of us are developers, working in IT company, who totally understand how to extract the information of writers with a little effort didn’t trust it. As managers want employees to be delivered with their thoughts, they try to hear their voices too. Absence of communication in such a large company can lead to high turnover.

Working outside of office feel a sense of detachment from what Head office doing.

Inevitably, not every employee works in Head office. Some work down in the provinces or work outside of office. They always felt left out and discriminated with many things comparing to workers in main office. It was caused by not enabling them to engage connected the main office. While corporate managers try to communicate via website, it was impossible for them to access it in the field. They were not always sitting in front of desk to check up all information delivered. Eventually, it became difficult to catch up with the latest Head office’s news such as useful notices, seminars, lectures, intra system for communications like mentioned above.

The first design direction

(Image)

Based on what we’ve found, we determined to gather all scattered contents into the main page (Column1 & 2 / Column 3 had to remain, following the company policy) in a timeline view regardless of sources. It’s because employees were focused on the content itself that they’re interested in, rather than where this came from. It’s unnecessary to make divisions to separate each posting depending on which channels they were generated. So, we applied timeline-style to show the contents in 1depth to let them easily grasp what the postings are about.

(Image)

Also, they tend to read postings faster in office’s work environment, worrying whether something to happen abruptly. At this point, we try to support when being stopped in full reading flow, considering most of them are long-length. When they click it to see in detailed, it pops up. Then, even if they are interrupted by works while reading, they can minimize the pop-up and check it later. To assist this more, bookmark button is located in posting cards, keeping them easily.

(image)

In order to increase employees’ participations, it should guarantee anonymity from the system. It is followed that they hold great distrust toward the company managements with previous several scandals over anonymity. They cannot help but to get proven anonymity protection from the system to get quicker results. And then, we changed bulletin-style to easier to communicate with comments. This made them possible to have less formal conversation between managers and staffs, breaking the original interaction method. Also, it would be possible to comment anonymously, but using nickname, they could keep talking with each other more naturally. 

Lastly, we declared to provide mobile version of this service which could extend the range of users to workers outside the office. It would contribute to keep them from having alienated, too. When it comes to the anonymous bulletin board, the availability would be higher in mobile.

The challenges

Based on what we’ve found, we prototyped roughly to examine design direction and we could find out following challenges. First, we gathered all the scattered contents into the main page in timeline view, collapsing the divisions, so that it was intended to make employees possible to explore the contents just in 1depth with scrolling. Actually, it has to bring huge change in the main page which 22,871 employees in the 20~50 age range, have used so far. But people in their 40-50 are not that familiar with this timeline-style, and prefer list view more as before. 

We could also identify that people not always have enough time to explore the contents and pick what they want to see. Especially, when they are busy all day long and about to quickly verify the most important contents, this structure could be inefficient. 

Last but not least, the security issue. We were supposed to provide mobile version, but some postings should be strongly controlled and banned to be exposed to others. Also, they even didn’t provide mobile version so it was impossible to link directly to them. But we had no choice but to support people who could not access with PC.  

Enable two-way communication between company and workers, not one-sided

Let contents from company delivered to employees in appropriate ways.

(Image)

Informative region(Column 1 & 2) in the main page of the portal will be largely divided into two parts - one for must see contents and the other for all the scattered contents in timeline view. In that must see area, contents are organized and grouped depending on the importance, considering the compositional flow. This affects how the eye is led through the design, like where it looks first, next, and where to pause or stay.   It makes possible for busy workers grasp overall important contents easily, while they are able to explore timeline contents below in 1depth by scrolling when they have time. 

(Interaction video)

Especially for this timeline area, tab menu is located at the top to make easier to identify and explore the contents.

(Image)

Also, contemplating that most contents are long-length, pop-up for detailed contents is used to check and control easily while managing works. Bookmark will assist this well, too.

Employees can respond to the contents, discuss them and give their own opinion easily.

(Image)

All the contents here can be reacted with comments, likes or hates by employees in an easy and simple way. Also, they can share each contents via internal messenger or mail, so it enables them to discuss the contents with colleagues. That is, the contents from company are not static anymore, but delivered fluidly and getting easily newsworthy.

(Image)

In addition to this, employees can give their opinion through the anonymous bulletin board where it proves anonymity from the system to get trust. It will be located in the intranet communication site as one of large menus, also, appear at the main page to be approached simply. Of course, managers use corporate account to give feedback with comments. It leads to break the format and communicate actively.

Overcome the environmental constraints with mobile device

(Image)

In order to solve the security issued mentioned above, we basically use anti-screenshot and non-copyable function to protect the contents in mobile environment. Furthermore, set security levels for each content and if a content should be controlled strongly, then prohibit from being shown in mobile. But it’s just a temporary solution to be supported in other devices, so we have to keep seeking for better plan continuously.

The impact

TBD

[marielledownunder]

Fiji Part 2: Island hopping

Bula everyone!

After the 4 days of exploring and experiencing the main island known as “Viti Levu” by Feejee Experience, we started with the second part of our trip: The Yasawas island hopping by awesome adventures. We booked a full monty package of 8 nights and 9 days, with boat transfer, accommodation, breakfast, lunch & dinner and different activities. 

After the Robinson Crusoe island, we said goodbye to our tour guide and the others and we went to Port Denarau, where we would take our ship. 

Port Denarau looked like a touristic and wealthy place. I was surprised of seeing Hard Rock Café Fiji over there. I took a look but the prices are not cheaper than in any other Hard Rock café haha. Besides, I already have one longe sleeve with me. 

We took the boat and we went to our first island: “South Sea Island”. At first we thought “wow, this is such a small island, I hope we won’t get bored.” Yes, you could walk this whole island in 5 minutes haha. We got our accommodation and took our beds. Fortunately, South Sea Island has lots of activities. During the day they have about 100-200 visitors and we went to the submarine. We could see the underwater life in that submarine and we saw different fish. After a while I got a bit seasick but luckily we could go back to the island after 20 minutes. Around 16.00, we got our afternoon tea. I wanted to take a shower so I skipped it, and I figured out there was no hot water. Of course they haven’t … I forgot that we’re on a small island. The visitors left, happy hour started and we got to know our roommates. We were with 14 of them. Most of them were Germans and British.  At 19.00 we got our dinner: capsicum rolled in beef, mashed potatoes, salad and sauce and we got Ice cream as dessert! The dinner was really good. 

After the dinner we did some games which was a lot of fun: the napkin dance, “bull, viking and knight” and the carrot race. Let’s say these games were really “interactive with our bodies” haha.  We laughed a lot with these games and afterwards we played drinking games. It turned out to be a really good night with a lot of fun. South Sea Island Rocks!

The next day, some of them were having a hangover haha. I didn’t :) That day we took a cruise named “Sea Spray” to Castaway island. Kayleigh, Imke and I were discussing about the time. It was stated that it would take 3 hours, and we thought 3 hours of retour. Well.. we were wrong. We were 6 hours on the boat haha. Free drinks and food included so we were all happy and singing songs. But, after a while we got a bit seasick. The weather was not the best, so that’s why the boat floated a lot from left to the right and up and down. Then, we arrived finally at Castaway island and we got our snorkelling gear. The snorkelling was amazing, everything was so clear and bright and I’ve seen many fishes. After an hour they called us for lunch. Around lunch lots of people were a bit dizzy, but then we could rest a bit on a certain island. We visited a village and saw the habitants. Lots of cute children and yes they speak English so I spoke to them :)

Around 18.00, we came back (with all the free beer from the cruise) and after one hour we got our dinner. This time, they made pumpkin soup, fish with potato and chocolate cake as dessert. We played a new game: the orange game. Same concept as the chair dance game. Haha after round 1 everyone was so desperate to take an orange that the whole table broke down, but in the end, I won the game and got another beer!

The third day was boarding time to the next Island: Nacula island. We arrived and got a dorm in Nabua Lodge. The vibe was really different compared to South Sea. It was really…quiet. The weather wasn’t that good either so I enjoyed this island less. We also got to know about the charging times: You can charge your stuff between 8.00-10.30, 13.00-15.00 and 18.00-22.00. Still okay though, but you need to get used to it. In the evening we got our dinner and today was Fiji day: we got a buffet of the lobo food (underground oven) and some other stuff on the buffet. After that we played the dancing statue game and another game when you have to make a group or a pair as quick as possible. Everyone went to bed early as well. We were not used to it compared to South Sea Island. I didn’t want to go to bed at 22.00 so I decided to go to the beach and watch the stars with Imke and a German boy named victor. He took his guitar and we enjoyed the last hours before bedtime.

The fourth day of our trip. We almost wanted to go to the church to see their culture, but we were afraid of not having sun in the afternoon. And  yes, we were right. We wanted to enjoy the sun so we didn’t do a lot haha. We got the massage in the afternoon and that was our activity haha. After that we went to the sunset point where you can watch the sunset. Then we reached dinner again at 19.00. We got vegetable soup, potato with fish and lemon cake. A big progress from yesterday.

The next day, we did an activity from our package. We went to the Sawa-I-Lau  Cave. We took the speedboat and after 30 minutes we reached our destination, totally soaked by the ‘seaspray’. We came into a cave where you can swim. It looked amazing. You could also go to the second cave, but you needed to go underwater. That part of the cafe was totally dark, so we needed a flashlight to see. The guides explained the fact that women and children would hide in this place during a war. 

Around 11.30 we went back to our accommodation to have our lunch before we left. After lunch, we took our backpacks and we went to the thrird island: White Sandy Beach. I really liked the vibe over there. When we arrived we found three our roommates again from South Sea Island: Karin (Austria), Hendrik and Jan (Germany). The weather got better as well so we enjoyed the sun again. At 16.00 there as a beachvolleyball activity.

In the evening, we got a campfire. The Fijians got a guitar and they played for us. We stayed for a long time at that campfire. Actually, we were the last group staying at the campfire, and we made it late haha (4 in the morning). I climbed into a boat to see the stars. There were so many... and I’ve seen also like 10 shooting stars! In the end we discussed about the fact that the new season of Game of Thrones would start, so we decided to see the last two episodes of season 6. 

The next day we had to wake up at 7.30 to get breakfest. Right after that we wanted to do the snokelling, but there were too many people so we would do it the next day. We decided to go to honeymoon beach. We got there and there was nobody, felt like our own private beach. 

We went back on time for the coconut demonstration and around 11 am, we said goodbye to the Germans. The afternoon was quiet. I did my laundry by hand with cold water... pretty much primitive haha. Later we did the volleybal thing again and around 5.30 pm we watched the sunset at honeymoon beach. 

At 19 pm we got our dinner: super hot pumpkin pepper soup and pasta. The night wasn’t that interesting. We wanted to rest from the previous night. 

The next morning we did the snorkelling with mantras. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any mantras.. we’ve been told that it’s not usual and they haven’t been spotted since the season started. But, on the other hand, the snorkelling was amazing. The water was clear and more beautiful than at Castaway island. 

After lunch we got our boat to the next island: Waha Lailai beach. Normally we change from the big boat to the speed boat which will bring us to the next island. But the speed boat was full, so we we brought to a “neighbour” island which was more luxury. We didn’t mind to wait with free tea and wifi haha.

At 5 pm we arrived and we got a private room because we had no ladders in the dorm haha. That evening was Fijian evening again: We got the cava ceremony and we had to sing our Dutch Anthem.... we didn’t know it by heart (no internet for lyrics) so we were singing “Brabant” by Guus Meeuwis. Nobody would know we were singing something different haha! 

The next day we were just chilling and sunbathing until 4 pm. At 4.30 pm we went for a hike and it was hard. No idea how high and far the hike was.. we took 1.5 to sit on the summit of the island. In the end it was worth, such a beautiful view. 

The next day and our last day of the island hopping, we did the activity “snokelling with the sharks”. We couldn’t see the mantras, but we could see the sharks! It was so cool to see them. I’ve seen like 7 of them! 

After the sharks activity we had few hours left to enjoy the island. Sunbathing and waiting till the boat would pick us up. We said goodbye to everyone and it was time to go back. We stayed for one night in a hostel for 7€. It was cheaper than our dinner.. ridiculous haha.  Well that was my long post about the second part of Fiji, and I really tried to make it short. I also lost many things until now: SD card, Towel, 2 longsleeve shirts, drinkbottle, socks, australian adapter.. hahaha I guess this is what you can call backpackerslife.