#it is also fully functional and rigged too

[lumiccu]

If you cant have it make it or whatever

(3D Model of Eileen's pocket watch)

Check under the cut for the closeups of the watch

[dkettchen]

My most male trait is the "ye I can do that" attitude abt stuff I have no means of actually knowing whether I can do

[obscenely-overdue]

[OOC] Weighted Pregnant Belly Instructions

Hi everyone! For those interested, I've jerry-rigged a method to pad/simulate/wear-a-fake-pregnant-tummy-for-kink-purposes with some real weight and firmness to it that I think people would like! It works very well for me but is also functionally a prototype/first pass at the idea, so there are certainly areas that it could be improved. (which is me saying "experiment and improve upon this, we can make it better!")

I'll preface this with the fact that, if you pay full price for everything involved, assuming you have NONE of it to start, it's probably about $120. That said, about $20-25 of that comes from a specific kind of pillow and blanket, which you very well may have, which would bring it realistically down to $100, and some of it is stuff which can be bought on sale pretty easily, which would land you in the neighborhood of $80. Again, it isn't cheap, but it has something not even a fancy Roanyer tummy has:

WEIGHT and BULK

It's also made of inconspicuous or otherwise easily hidden items, so if you have roommates or family who could see this stuff, it's great at being tucked away or hiding in plain sight. If you're curious, I have pictures, a shopping list, and step by step instructions, as well as some further tips and info. It's pretty long so I'm putting it under a cut...

Let's get started!

What you'll need:

One piece of fully body shapewear (the mauve one on top) and one piece of "tummy tuck" shapewear (black on the bottom). The full body one is about 2 sizes too big for what it's meant to do normally (so for me, an XXXL. This is the same shapewear I use for my squishmallow tummy for RP blog pictures), and the tummy tuck one is the "correct" size for my body (XL). The tummy tuck one gives you all the support, so you don't want it too oversized. DON'T GO UNDERSIZED EITHER as what we're going to load this up with is gonna cause some compression, and too much pressure on your abdomen can be harmful. When in doubt, go at your size or maybe one size bigger, but no farther. Both of these run $20-30 a piece at a target but also can be found on sale for $10-20. Target is going to charge you more than Walmart, and it doesn't have to be top of the line.

One soft, round pillow. This is like a $6 pick up from Walmart. It's not just soft from it's fabric, but it's specifically not firm to the touch. It's all give and is very malleable. Technically you could use a regular pillow too, but this being roughly disk shaped helps it do its job as basically the "lower belly" that keeps the weight from shifting too low.

An averaged sized blanket. Softer materials that fold and bunch up easier are preferred. You PROBABLY already have something that will work for this, but if you don't, again, Walmart will charge you like $15-20 for one.

And finally...

A 20 lbs kettlebell. This BASTARD is the single most expensive thing you'll need, and unfortunately is required if you want it to be properly heavy. This one came from Target, and ran me $55. You might think you want to go heavier, but trust me, this thing has all the heft you'll need. If you really want to, you could feasibly go for a 25 lbs. one, but those are even more expensive. The kettlebell shape is important because it's mostly round, unlike a dumbbell, so we can wrap it up and use it for a reasonably pregnant-shaped belly. A dumbbell of this weight might be a little cheaper, but if you're already going to drop $40 on an oddly shaped weight, another $15 so it can fit the tummy shape is worth it.

Putting it on:

[DISCLAIMER: If at any point something HURTS while putting this thing on or while wearing it, safely but quickly remove it. The weight is supposed to be cumbersome and a little uncomfortable for the fantasy of it, but if anything HURTS, something is wrong, and you need to take it off. If you lay on your back with this thing on for too long, get ready for ab muscle aches, possibly the next day, as your tummy will be supporting 20 lbs of external weight just pressing on it, and those muscles don't get used unless you work out. I've never worn this thing overnight to sleep, but I don't advise it, as extended period of compression can be harmful. Same logic as to why AFAB people who don't want visible boobs shouldn't bind for too long.]

Start by putting on the fully body shapewear, and then putting the tummy tuck shapewear over that. The fabric under my shapewear here is my sports bra, which isn't part of the belly process.

Next you're going to load the soft, round pillow into the full body shapewear. It's going to kind of fold in on itself and that's not an issue, if anything it gives a nice little landing zone for the next thing we're going to add.

Don't fight trying to get the pillow under the tummy tuck shapewear, right now just roll it down to your waistline under the pillow bulk like so.

Next you'll take your blanket, lay it out, set the kettlebell inside of it, and wrap/bunch it up. You want it something approximating 'round', making sure the kettlebell isn't going to roll/fall out when you pick it up.

Next, you load the wrapped up bastard in, setting it on top of the pillow. The kettlebell is going to shift, and try to sink deeper, that's fine, just maneuver it so it sits on the pillow, allowing the pillow to spread the weight more evenly.

Before you pull up the tummy tuck shapewear, it's going to look like this, notice how the bottom of it is lighter because that's all pillow, with the blanket over top.

Now comes of trickiest/most strenuous part, you gotta pull out the tummy tuck shapewear and get it out and around the bulk of your "tummy". You'll have an easier time if you pull the back part up a little first, so it's not fighting you, which you can see in the above photos. If anything starts to hurt during this process, stop and take it out, because likely something is too tight or too heavy.

Once the tummy tuck shapewear is pulled all the way up, it should look about like this, and you're loaded up and ready to waddle!

Notice how much more contained it all is? It's not spilling off of me anymore, it's firmly held against me. Now, just top with your favorite maternity shirt!

Or don't!

Now, clearly, it doesn't LOOK very pregnant. It's lumpy and awkward and it'll come out downright lopsided your first few times. But this isn't for taking pictures for an RP blog, this is for simulating something close to the feeling of carrying something heavy like a pregnant belly around. For those of us who can't or don't want to actually get pregnant, this is a decent approximate that's reasonable to buy and easily hidden. This is for nights after everyone else is in bed or you're home alone, and it can be a LOT of fun.

Great, now what do I do with it?

This is the end of the instructions and is more just ideas for some fantasy fulfillment. Feel free to drop your own ideas in replies or reblogs!

So something that sets this belly apart from just a pillow, or bunched up clothes under your shirt, is that it's very firm, and independently held against you. A pillow under your shirt is dependent on the shirt for structure. If you lift the shirt, pillow falls off. That is not the case here, so suddenly, you've unlocked the ability to put on too small clothes, or button ups, or robes, whatever, that's too small for you now, and can fuss and mess with it without affecting the stability of the belly. You can wear pants that don't button or simply bunch up under that heavy, firm underbelly. Hell, you can simulate getting dressed with a 20 lbs mass hanging off of you. Put on socks around this thing, it's the stuff of preg kink dreams!

Getting up and down, laying in bed and rolling over, the shit that's easy to do now, takes a LOT more effort all of the sudden. Again, I urge you not to lay flat on your back too much, because I did that while padding before bed, and woke up with some muscle aches centered on my tummy, in muscles that I hadn't used in god knows how long. Don't over exert yourself with this thing. I'm bringing this up a lot because I don't want anyone getting hurt.

Taking the stairs is nuts. Going up is way more effort, and going down feels almost hazardous as you wont have vision of your feet anymore.

If you're into the domesticity of pregnancy, try doing some household chores with this thing on! Loading a dishwasher, doing some laundry, maybe some tidying. I personally have found it weirdly exhilarating, waddling around loading the washing machine around this heavy bulk. Have fun bending over to pick up something you dropped!

Even just chilling and gaming with a lap full of heavy belly feels kind of new and exciting. When you're not used to it, even the mundane shit gets hotter with a tummy like this

That's about all I got. If someone else gets everything and tries this out, let me know your experiences with it and how you've improved it! I've had an ask suggest a weighted medicine ball, so that could also work if you have one you're willing to test out. Please enjoy, and share with your pregnancy loving mutuals! Thanks for reading!!!

[blueikeproductions]

So the final batch of EarthSpark episodes aired.

They have a pretty strong “This is the end” vibe, even having a closing monologue from Robbie on why he’s glad being a Turtle, uh, Malto that feels intentionally similar to the old Optimus monologues from the Bay films.

So here’s the general gist.

Spoilers obviously.

The Quintessons make their move to acquire the Cybersleeves while the Decepticons plot to escape the Dome and go back to Cybertron.

Shockwave is the leader now, as theorized, and he prides himself on being the logical leader, unlike Megatron’s or Starscream’s tenure, as he shows he can be reasonable to a degree. All bridges are burned as Starscream is sealed inside Terratronus’ head, having gone insane from the isolation and hosting tea parties with the Terracons’ corpses.

Breakdown shows his true colors, a better retread of an earlier episode with Thrash and Swindle, tricking Bumblebee to help him escape the Dome, only so the other Decepticons can join too.

When Prowl arrives, his ship is fully functional, which the Decepticons take over and warp to Cybertron. Shockwave makes one last appeal to Megatron, but Megatron chooses to stay on Earth to Shocker’s disappointment.

Prowl anecdotally says last he remembers Cybertron was trying to rebuild after Op and Megs left, but Decepticon insurgents kept interfering in the matter.

So as far as we can tell, Cybertron is technically still at war because “Cons will be Cons”.

The Quints then make their move, blowing up the Dome, and unleashing the contained residual “Chaos Energy” upon the rest of Witwicky. Nightshade plans to funnel that energy to revive the Chaos Terrans, as the earthbound Autobots need all hands on deck. This works, the aforementioned cop out I was afraid of, though it also comes off as a reference to The Rebirth, where Spike has the Nebulons jury rig Cybertron’s planetary engines to absorb excess Plasma Energy overloading Earth’s sun to revive Cybertron back to its golden age.

Unlike Ultra Magnus’ Autobots, the Chaos Terrans aren’t that thankful to the Maltobots, but begrudgingly work for their cousins to stop the Quintessons. After the Autobots and Hashtag apprehend Starscream, not trusting him after trying to stomp Witwicky and deactivating the Terracons, Mo is able to use a relic Prowl brought with him to revive Terratronus, who then, using Mo’s connection to the sleeves, combined with Nightshade, Hashtag, and Aftermath to get cool Energon armor themed after them, along with a sword that destroys the Quintesson mothership, while the survivors on the ground scatter to the winds. So pretty much everything is tied off.

…The only way this potentially could continue is the Decepticons.

While the show tried to go into a post war IDW direction by making them sympathetic, this direction absolutely was not popular with casual audiences, so the remainder of the series was dedicated to making the Decepticons evil as they typically are in most media. As @monocle-teacup and I have both stressed, even S1 still painted the Decepticons as sneaky and underhanded, they just disguised it better-ish, along with appealing to shippers with BreakBee.

So the only thing the show has left at this stage is to reestablish contact with Cybertron proper.

But will they?

RiD15 just barely got to resolve its High Council plot, which turned out to be a long game Decepticon plot.

Presumably ES would do the same, having the Decepticons come by to raze Earth to the ground out of spite, and possibly take the Cyber Sleeves to make more Terracons to secure Decepticon domination.

But will they? Shockwave and the others just wanted to get off planet, and there’s not much of a reason for them to want to go back to Earth, outside of aforementioned spite.

Also, old plans did say the Terrans would go to Cybertron, but with Hasbro’s current layoffs, EarthSpark’s underperformance, and the reduced episode count, I’m leaning towards that plan, along with specials, being cancelled until something official comes out.

What exactly a finale dealing with the Decepticons would bring I dunno. They dropped all pretenses and had Terratronus brutally kill the Quint Judge, so I’m not sure if they’d do the same with Shockwave… or Straxxus or Jhiaxus or Overlord…

As for Prowl, yeah he’s a more subdued version of his IDW self towards his non Autobot acquaintances, but is otherwise very friendly to the other Autobots. He doesn’t like the Maltos initially, and even calls out the Autobots for relying on them too much until Bumblebee justifies it when Optimus cannot. He also hates Megatron, but due to the nature of the plot, he and Megs do somewhat reconcile, sort of echoing Rattrap and Dinobot, but very rushed and semi abrupt.

The Quintessons employ Sharkticons, but like Cyberverse, they use the G1 versions…

…rather than using the Street Shark ones from before.

So we still don’t know what happened to Mandroid’s Sharkticons it seems, and likely never will.

Also the Sharkticons never Transform, why are modern creatives ignoring they can do that?

Robbie and Mo wind up fighting them in a pit, homaging Kup and Hot Rod doing so before, but sadly not as well animated.

The kids find the remains of other victims that are stated to be other Emberstone creations, and they appear to all be Transformers despite what other past images implied.

Part of me wonders if the Quintesson Judge would’ve been played by Gilbert Gottfried had he still been alive, as she has huge Krang Sub Prime energy otherwise.

Like the Cyberverse Quintesson Judges, she has a different design distinct from the G1 versions. She’s a techno organic version of Alpha Q, but her masks seem mostly designed after other comic book characters such as Brainiac and, oddly enough, Magneto’s helmet but lacking a face. I was expecting TFA Blitzwing’s crazy face to appear but no such luck.

There are some fun bits here, like Shockwave not thinking highly of the TF comics despite him starring on the issue he’s holding, and the kids, after being insulted by Prowl, saying they liked his comic book self better, Terratronus’ “super mode”, and the Decepticons getting a win by stealing the ship. I also liked the Terracons returning because they remain the best thing to come out of this, despite the slightly hokey way they were brought back. As the Archie Sonic comics once said: Chaos is the constant, and the Terracons now completely run on it in place of Sparks. At least I don’t think they have Sparks, it’s not really clarified. -scratches head-

Still this feels like the end, so bravo for EarthSpark for limping towards the finish line. If there’s more, Primus help us all, I’m ready for CyberWorld and Hasbro willing, more TFONE.

[the-s1lly-corner]

so after Digital Circus came out, I've been having extreme Pomni brainrot, with her joining the horde of comfort characters for me. I'll like to request B, C, D, G, I, K, L, O, Q, R, T, V, W, X and Z. I'm so, so sorry this is a ton, if you wish you can do half of these requests. also sorry if I'm late by any chance

Fluff alphabet with Pomni! (1)

cracks my knuckles dont feel bad for asking for so many letters! if i didnt want people requesting so many for one character i would have put a cap on it!! i admit im not sure how long im going to do the fluff alphabet, i guess for however long people send in requests for it

BONDING- you guys bond by trying to find the exit/j but also not entirely a /j since now that i think about it i can definitely see it. otherwise a lot of your bonding comes from you showing pomni around outside the tend, since she still hasn't had the chance to explore the rest of the grounds

CUDDLING- small spoon simply because she is very small and needs someone to ground her to reality. very soft and squishy, its like holding a squishmallow

DATES- if this were the real world i can see pomni being a coffee shop person, but since it isnt... hmm.. i think dates mostly stick to spending time together in one of yall's rooms

GIFT GIVING- pomni does not give me vibes that they give you large things for gifts regardless of availability... they seem to be more of a handy small trinket person, "hey i saw this and thought of you and figured it might be of use to you" type of deal

IN HOUSE ADVENTURE- since pomni is still new to the endless possibilities of whatever it is caine cooks up for you guys, she gravitates towards you, out of trust and comfort mostly! you guys are kind of 50/50 in terms of if you guys actually function well as a team and solve whatever you need to do to reach the end goal caine has in mind

KISS- she cups your face, i think.. i can see it, very shy about it too, she will immediately pull away all bashfully. mouth kisses are her default, both giving and receiving

LOVE LANGUAGE- quality time and words of affirmation make pomni feel loved! its also how she shows her love, as well! especially the quality time, but as well as acts of service!

ODDITY- obviously this is likely going to be an issue for a while since shes new, but she is a bit. off given her trying to get used to being in the digital world. but just give her time and youre golden! though, i dont think pomni is ever going to fully accept being in the digital world

QUIET TIME- down time between you two is usually spent with the two of you sitting together in one of the common areas or your rooms. each doing your own activity while existing in the same space, fairly comfortable silence.. you two dont do everything together, and thats a-okay

ROSES- i think pomni would, tying into the "hey i thought of you" thing! pomni would not be opposed to being given flowers, pomni looks like a buttercup enjoyer

TUNES- first song that popped into my mind, no explanation.. maybe i miss beach bunny..

VALENTINE- in the real world she would treat you to a night in, with a few movies as well as your favorite snacks. probably gives you some flowers again.. in the digital world, the options are more limited... perhaps you two check out the carnival by the tent? the games there arent rigged.... probably...

WANT- they want someone who will actually listen to what shes trying to say and achieve, to be taken seriously. sure, a lot of the time in the pilot pomni is freaking out because shes coming to the realization that shes trapped, but i until we get more there isnt much i can say for her.. for now..

ZZZ- very sound sleeper, actually! tosses and turns every now and then but nothing too excessive, add that in with the cuddling segment and you guys would be pretty well rested after a night together, if you needed sleep in the digital world

[approximateknowledge]

who is sister hindsight?

this is gonna be a long one

so there's this scifi book trilogy called "final architecture" which i *highly* recommend

it's full of weird novel concepts and cool future tech and aliens that feel properly alien, among many other things

but there's one character my mind has fixated on within this sprawling setting, who never actually existed

and to explain who they are ill need to spoil quite a lot of the main plot

so with that said: massive spoilers for all 3 final architecture books ahead

so first off:

SETTING

most species here aren't too relevant to explain what's going on, so ill be focusing on just the relevant ones (so no hivers sadly)

-humanity

-the architects

-the originators

-the hegemony

-the naeromathi

HUMANITY

humanity in the final architecture is a bit of a splintered mess. officially most of it is centralised under the "bureau of human interests" (usually just called "hugh") centered on berlenhof, one of the most populous colonies left after earth got "architected" (more on that later)

in practice hugh holds about as much influence as the HRE did, with quasi-noble corporate houses and independent systems abounding; it's a bureaucratic mess but it's still better than nothing

of course this isn't actually the whole story, because there's also

the parthenon

the parthenon (often derisively known as "pathos" by colonial humanity) is a female-only habitat-bound offshoot of humanity that fully committed to artificial reproduction

crucially they're *not* clones (although they tend to have a certain "look" that gives them away when trying to pass as a colonial), though they are without a doubt eugenicist as hell. their origins are... iffy to put it lightly, but historically they have been on the side of humanity at large, and their technological level has remained slighty above that of colonial humanity. it's complicated but handled well

what the parthenon doesn't have are intermediaries

what are intermediaries?

well, they're relevant for

THE ARCHITECTS

an architect is a moon-sized intelligent crystalline superobject that is capable of completeky reshaping a planet through gravitic torsion in a matter of hours

they can appear from unspace (ill get to it) at a moment's notice and completely obliterate everything in the system they find

crucially they are in fact sentient beings, if unfathomably vast

an intermediary is someone who's able to communicate directly with an architect. this is in fact how the first architect war ended. a group of intermediaries (1 natural, the rest surgically created) *made a single architect aware of their existence*

they didn't even notice anyone was there before

tangent:

unspace

unspace isn't a place but it is a shortcut, and within it you are always alone, except you aren't, because there's always a *presence* too. most of it is completely unnavigable, except for the throughways which act like currents between inhabited systems (they're inhabited because there's a throughway connection)

intermediaries as a side-effect of the architect-communicating were the only ones able to properly navigate unspace before the Eye was built(/scavenged and jury-rigged)

what's the eye?

well at its heart it's a piece of originator-tech

ORIGINATORS

the originators are the ones who "built the throughways" and left "ruins" on a number of planets at the connecting points. interestingly, any planet with an originator artefact on it is seemingly immune from architect-remodeling

all of the previous statements are technically false, but functionally they seem true. what the throughways really are is creases in the fabric of reality as it is change, and the "ruins" are the realspace reflections of the unspace anchors they built to bend said fabric

what the originators really are is the puppetmasters of the architects, rebuilding reality one thread at a time to be more similar to how the universe they came from was

they're terraforming the local laws of physics

now what's the Eye?

well it's a "lens" from unspace into realspace, but if you rig it right it also works the other way around. but crucially matter doesn't exist in unspace, so only the pattern of consciousness goes in to "look" (and the one looking will seem braindead until they come back) (this is relevant)

THE HEGEMONY

one of the 2 truly old alien cultures in the setting; the founding species of the hegemony are the essiel, 4m tall barnacle-looking sessile organisms with a psychological profile that borders on the incomprehensible, but is fundamentally benevolent. their main adaptation against the architect threat is the fact they figured out how to move originator artefacts through unspace without destroying it (normally impossible), which allows them to protect *all* of their colonies; a significant portion of humanity actually voluntarily became part of the hegemony!

THE NAEROMATHI

the other of the 2 ancient "conventionals", the naeromaths had a much rougher time in their early history, and have no planets to call their own; their entire culture consists of massive (half-moon) sized arks that periodically devour entire moons and rocky planets to build more arks (this gave them the nickname "locusts" among humans, even though they look more like if a plesiosaur evolved from a brittle star). the drone swarms used for this dismantling are also their main weaponry, on top of their massive gravitic engines that span the entire equator of their arks (multiple cooperating arks have been known to successfully tear architects apart)

the eye was discovered by a naeromath

SO

near the end of the story, 2 of the main characters dive into unspace via the eye

-idris: artificial intermediary, the surgeries made him unable to sleep or age. extremely frail, lost an arm, almost died like 6 times, his heart is kept going by cyborg roaches (it makes sense in context)

-solace: partheni myrmidon from the first architect war, fully committed to dying on the job

and they reach the center

and they confront the *other*, the thing in unspace, the metaphysical guard dog of the originators at the center of nowhere

and idris needs to go elsewhere in unspace, to prevent a genocide on slaves

and so solace is told to "hold"

this is about 30 pages from the end

i went to bed at this point

and my mind created hindsight

so first:

what happens in canon

idris succeeds, comes back, becomes one with the *other*, his body dies, unspace is safe, the guarddog becomes the jailer, they've won. solace returns after holding long enough

what happened in my mind

idris succeeds, and *can't get back in*, so solace keeps holding, but idris' body still dies. so in the end, solace keeps holding, tames the *other*, unspace is safe, the guarddog guards the other way with a new master, who *holds*

solace *holds*

but remember what i said about consciousness and how it goes in alone? solace isn't coming back. but idris is. and there's still only one body

idris' mind comes back in solace's body. that's sister hindsight

idris comes back in the body of a parthenon soldier and at last falls asleep after over half a century. a mind that remembers being an intermediary but isn't anymore

sister hindsight

a colonial experiment who shouldve died long ago, now in the body of a parthenon vatborn woman, finally at peace.

solace holds, idris died, hindsight remembers.

and hindsight will sleep, and age, and die, at last, while solace holds

[cbk1000]

And part three. (Final part; sorry this is so long: it has been a fucking long four months.)

No problem, Doctor Dipshit, I guess I'll just do your job and continue treating myself.

After my period ends, my heart rate drops again. It's still not as low as it should be, but it's much better. I continue to gradually improve. It's not a linear process; some days are better than others, but I never feel as bad as I did at the beginning of all this. My main issue is really my heart rate at this point; I'm no longer dizzy, I don't have the extreme weakness I had, my nausea is gone, I'm sleeping much better, and I'm a lot less tired than I was even before all this started. But the high heart rate keeps me still mostly bedbound, and I'm gnashing my teeth, because at this point I feel well enough to be mad about it, instead of just lying in bed trying to stave off death.

I finally start turning a corner, almost three months into taking supplements. My heart rate is consistently lower; even my last period wasn't as rough. (I felt a little worse than I had been, but my heart rate didn't spike, and I mostly just felt more run down than I normally would during my period.)

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been able to sit and stand and walk around for much longer, and I was finally, after months, able to start writing again. My heart rate is still a bit higher than it should be, and I have chest pain and tightness that radiates into my throat (it almost feels like an asthma attack) if I exert myself too much, but I can sit up for a good couple, few hours at a time, then lie down for a few minutes till those symptoms improve, and then get back up again. It is more exhausting to do things because of this, but I still, honestly, feel less tired than when I was a fully functioning, 'normal' person, and I've noticed that the horrible, frequent anxiety attacks I was having multiple times a week, out of nowhere, with no trigger, haven't happened since I started supplementing. I have been stressed, of course, but not baselessly anxious. Apparently iron deficiency can cause or worsen anxiety, so the anxiety I was having for the last couple of years that I attributed to all the changes at work, and how generally stressful the world has been, was also likely related to this.

Today, three and a half months after starting iron supplements, I'm writing this sitting up at my computer. I have some chest pain, but right now it's more of an annoyance than anything, and I can push through for a while before I'll need to lie down for a bit. The last week I have been able to write 27,000 words, animatedly play a video game I'm into at the moment (I shout a lot when I play), take Seamus outside multiple times a day while Mr. Jenn is at work (albeit for very short walks around the backyard, but still), edit, and concentrate on my reading. I can now sit out and eat dinner at our countertop and visit with Mr. Jenn. I spend more time up now than I do in bed. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment with a non-lunatic, and will hopefully be able to get medical clearance to finally return to work (Mr. Jenn and I have rigged up my desk so that I can recline and still see my monitors and work if I need more than my allotted breaks to rest) and an order for an iron infusion to get me the rest of the way more quickly. It has been the longest four months of my life. I have felt trapped in my own body. There were points during that constant back and forth of regressing a bit, improving a bit, regressing a bit, that I was afraid I would be stuck like that forever. I've had enough of consistently being on my feet day after day over the last few weeks that, while I'm not yet at 100% and know it will still probably be a while before I am, I know I will be, eventually. I actually feel confident in that now.

What I mean to say with these three very long-winded posts is, please do not ignore what your body is telling you. I wrote off the extreme fatigue, and anxiety, and burning and tingling I was feeling in my legs and feet as poor sleep, the world going to shit, muscle strain, etc. etc. That was my body trying to tell me something was really wrong. I did not know these were symptoms of iron deficiency; and not everyone gets them, and not everyone gets such severe symptoms that their entire body shuts down and confines them to bed for months: but there was something wrong with me, probably for years, and I ignored that, and wrote it off, because the symptoms were non-specific, and I'd lived with them for so long that I normalized them. If you are having any of these symptoms, especially fatigue, especially if you're menstruating, and especially especially if most of your iron sources aren't from meat, please get an iron panel done. Not your CBC; that will only tell you if your hemoglobin is ok, and I can tell you, as exhibit A, that just because your hemoglobin is normal, does not mean you don't have iron deficiency. B12 deficiency will cause some of these same symptoms as well, so if you're vegetarian, definitely get that checked as well.

The only reason I was able to put two and two together was because I had had similar cardiac issues after a blood donation, when it was easy to go, "Wait, I think you bled too much; let's put some iron back in you." I don't want to think about how long I might have been stuck like this getting booted from specialist to specialist with no one thinking to check my iron levels because my hemoglobin was normal. If you do not have enough of this one single mineral in your body, it can literally be debilitating. I work a desk job from home; I have been out of work for four months now because I haven't even been able to sit up at a desk. I actually ran out of legally-protected medical leave a month ago and am just lucky that my employer wants to keep me enough that they were willing to put me on personal leave until I was ready to come back.

Anyway, that is my extremely long update. I sincerely appreciate everyone who has checked in on me and asked how I'm doing.

[darkwingphoenix]

@loominggaia Memes! Hot and Fresh!

Amber and Kitsu at the store, buying their female relatives pads:

(Wait, do sirene have periods? I assume gorgons and cecaelia don't, but what about sirene or other species?)

Everyone when me, @loominggaia or @niittinaatti post memes, lore, fanfics, or animations:

Demons when they need money for an apartment and also food

Skylie in a random village in Evangeline

Columbina and Sandrone in a nutshell (Sandrone's a yandere dedicated to Capitano and will harm/kill ladies who try to get with him, Columbina's just fucking insane sometimes)

Skylie to her parents

Me to everyone who passes by my AU:

Skylie and Janella Vokz on Vibing With Vokz, just vibing (Janella is having Skylie do the wrong answers)

Skylie's gnomish spec ops arriving to Marduk Hill, transmuting the Modernist Army into animals before controlling them to just dance, led by Gnome King Mimsical The Whimsical:

Champion to Skylie

Qara to Saraia, then Skylie shutting down and destroying the Zareenite flying fortress

Industrialists Be Like:

Skylie once she gets really good at her complex-as-shit summon-beasties-use-tendrils-swordsmanship martial style

Skylie packing her mega-storage shoulder bag (She puts in her entire cosplay repertoire, with like 30 different basic outfits to embellish for cosplay, like 300 fully functional weapons, including like 69 guns, hundreds of unique swords she commissioned by that dworfen divine of smiths after she proved she'd only use her weapons for cosplay and self-defense, hundreds of hats and shoes, enough food to feed her and Rook for 10 months, her personal copy of her Genshin Impact novel series, like 20 Visions to hand out to unsuspecting fools, 20 crates of condoms big enough to fit a family of dworfs inside, 20 hilichurls, 10 koholasaurs and a vishap, a rig of tepetlisaurs, a gang of yumkasaurs, 5 golden rings, a stable of horses, 20 months of birth control, a tent, and a partridge in a pear tree)

Skylie and Oberon fighting over Skylie's phone (Those things are manufactured to be able to break a concrete floor if they get dropped and survive a nuclear explosion)

Saraia, Skylie and Darshaan making monsters (Darshaan and Mankind's Disgrace are the same dumbass for this evaluation)

Skylie accidentally making a song when a Zareenite venue forced her to go out way too early for her concerts (She was spending too long on her cosplay, which the venue thought was stupid)(She's having a LOT of anxiety the entire time)

Roshava, more often than most

A Zareenite manager's expectations of their employees

Everyone when Sai and Justinia are in the Evangeline Palace:

Skylie, Cyana, Angeline, Amber, Maui, Citrine and Rook at the Evangeline Palace for dinner (Cobalt invited them)(Amber was made to work in the kitchens by accident)(Cyana bluffed)

The Reformists and Knights of Favonius in Evangeline before Cobalt sided with them (Someone asked is Sai had dat ass)

Skylie and Darshaan sharing one brain cell

Amber as an infant eating fudge rounds

Random divines meeting Skylie at the DivineCon Skylie made

Skylie for no reason

Sai seducing Cobalt in their bedroom

Skylie meeting (And adopting) a 2 year old human girl who turns out to be a divine locked at 2 years old (First scene and the food scene are within a few hours of each other, the dancing scene is 30 years later, the fire is a century after, and the last 2 scenes are after 1,000 years, and she's still a toddler)(Her name is Mualani)

Skylie's adopted divine kids, the House of the Hearth, often

[greenplumbboblover]

Hi! Do you think potentially that with this new age if AI, do you think it would be able to create mods and animations for us for games like the sims 3 and so on? I was wondering how amazing it would be if we can use it to our advantage and create all the content we ever desired lol

Hey!! Sorry for not gettting to this in like an entire month! I actually wanted to do some research on it (including asking some people I know who are super into AI stuff right now).

Just a disclaimer: I'm not much of a fan of using AI when it comes to artistic works. Such as Artwork generative AI, or even Photography. Especially when things people worked hours on are being used without their consent for an AI to poop out an artwork/photograph.

With that out of the way, here are my findings:

Textures:

So, as of right now, AI texture generating is something that is actually used these days in games to cut the cost of otherwise purchasing licenses of already made bundles of ground textures and what-not. Indie developers make use of this a lot too. So technically this is already possible, but I'd definetly only use this approach to train the AI on your own portfolio of textures or imagery to make something cool.

Animations:

However, animations, I think would be sort of possible, I just don't know if it would be fully AI though, judging from the industry's development as of right now.

Assuming that the RIG is setup in such a way that it meets the requirements to animate the item from a huge library of movements (think Mixamo, I'm hoping to soon release a tutorial on how to use that for the sims :)), then we really don't need AI really to create animations much. The only thing I'm a bit afraid of though, is that eventually it could feel a bit too "same-y" in mods or even games coming out, if they all used it. AI might change that up a bit though.

Though, as of right now, I don't really believe AI is up for the test though :P Imagine, training a computer that has no limbs and head, to be a human... It just doesn't know how to lol. Here's a great example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJHQXmOpkUE

Scripting:

Just like I don't think scripting will be fully AI anytime soon, I don't think scripting for the sims will either therefore. And here's the thing: AI takes snippets from Stackoverflow and other sources when you ask it to come up with code for a feature.

For example, if I ask ChatGPT for example to create a commenting system in javascript, it comes up with something somewhat great, but it's also missing a lot of crucial bits. For example, how do I delete replies? How do I edit replies? Etc.

With the sims I think that issue would be even bigger. AI simply wouldn't be able to answer properly how to help you create a, let's say, a grassmower mod. That's to do with the database of mods out there, open source like (think github, forums etc) is just too small for it to do. So unless that library gets bigger, I don't think this will be possible any time soon.

Conclusion:

AI is amazing right now with what it shows us what they can do with it. But once you've worked with it, you also realise how limiting it is right now. How counterintuitive it even can be to teach it something.

Sometimes, it's quicker to learn to do it yourself, than to teach AI to do it, because it takes such odd roundabout ways at times that you scratch your head and wonder "How tf did you even come up with that??". And that's because we're asking a computer to think and act like us in some way. It's like asking a puppy to be a cat. It could work out if you add a lot of energy and time into it, but it also won't 100% be the result you want.

At least, with the current way AI functions and learns.

If there's one thing I do hope would come to the sims, is actually those character language models like Skyrim has, where you can talk to your sim, and train it on that sim's background to give you appropiate answers. But I think we'll have to wait a while for that to come out :p.... I tried my hand at it one weekend but I'm not that well adversed into AI training and stuff yet.

[sonicasura]

Heritage Through Cognition

An insane idea that has been pecking at my brain for awhile. If the title wasn't enough foreshadowing, this is a Persona 5 based idea. Let's get started. Next part is here.

Before the next game that would determine the fate of humanity is rigged by a mad god, another decides to even the scale. A blue butterfly flies through an alternate realm where kaiju rampage for a simple goal. Obtain a piece of Cognition from two like-minded souls.

Fragments that when once combined would give life to the butterfly god's champion. An apology was given to the newborn child as he is soon left by the doorstep of the Amamiya Household. Who were the souls whose Cognition is used in the process? Kafka Hibino and Soshiro Hoshina.

I'm sorry but I couldn't resist. Ren Amamiya is essentially a Hoshikaf kid because by god it's an image my ass cannot unsee. Hairstyle, personality, weapon choice(Soshiro uses swords + Kafka can't= Ren uses a knife), etc. Yeah, these three! 👇

Back on to the topic at hand... Ren has no clue about his real origins through his life. Although his creation did have a side effect on both Soshiro and Kafka. Whenever Ren goes to sleep at the end of each month, he relives it's entirety again but with the two men there instead of his parents.

Soshiro and Kafka believe it's just some weird yet lovely constant dream for months. Living a peaceful kaiju free life with a great child alongside a perfect lover. That is until they both bump into each other a week later. You can bet the duo were so confused as Kafka figures they could talk about the experience at a nearby coffee shop.

The two don't know why they keep having this strange dream or why but decided to stay in touch. Something that would continue for 12 more months without deviation. (A year = 1 month basically.)

Then Ren gets arrested and the dreams strangely stop for two weeks. (Kafka would also gain his Kaiju powers during this period with Soshiro knowing about it too rather than just Reno.) A peculiar change that didn't bode well for either of them.

This hunch would be proven right when they both wake in a strange castle. Kafka stuck in kaiju form while Soshiro somehow had his Defense Force gear. Wandering around the castle, the men would soon reunite with Ren (just awakened his Persona) and his group.

Yup. Soshiro and Kafka get to go through the events of Persona 5 Royal as why not have some unaware family bonding? (I'll go more into that in a different post.) Here's how things work with the two.

Only their minds have been transported, not their bodies so both are essentially comatose to everybody else back home. Kafka's kaiju form and Soshiro's DF gear function similar to the Phantom Thieves' outfits so they are constantly active in the Metaverse. Finally only Ren, his confidants, alongside those who have entered the Metaverse can see either man.

Kafka and Soshiro are basically ghosts to everyone else since they don't have their actual bodies. The Persona often take advantage of this to talk with both whenever possible. Even potential demons based on literature, fiction, mythology or history need a break from their teenage charges.

Before you ask, Ren does have a Kaiju form. The reason is because Tiny, the larval kaiju, altered Kafka's cognition and thus the teen's body received one in return upon the two reuniting. Kinda a transfer based update comparison wise. It fully awakens after Ren makes it back to Leblanc post Interrogation.

A life or death response that raised a lot of questions between the KN8 duo. Ren's Kaiju form looks very similar to Kafka's but leaner, horns are arched like Arsene's, highlights/eyes are red, skull mask resembling his Phantom Thief one, a long slender tail, and black bat wings with purple feathers. The answer is revealed when the real Igor comes back.

Let me tell you that the conversation between Ren, Kafka and Soshiro was a bit awkward afterwards. A butterfly god did make a kid from both their cognitions without permission after all. Now I know some of you guys are wondering what's going to happen to our dear Joker once Royal's events end.

Well, Ren ends up in the KN8 world since that's where the cognition used to make him is from. First he awakens inside the Velvet Room alongside Morgana and has the entire thing explained to him by Igor. Both worlds are now accessible through the Thieves' Den with the duo also retaining their Persona. (Morgana also can switch forms too.)

Considering how dangerous the KN8 world is, some extra protection would be needed. There's of course a drawback. Persona are tangible in that realm thus everyone can see, touch and even harm them. Focus being required to keep their inhuman partners invisible.

You can bet Soshiro and Kafka were very surprised but grateful to see Ren again. Although that begs the question. Do they explain to everyone about having a teenage kid when both aren't even married?

No one saw it coming that's for sure.

@foolmariofest @driokrine

[focsle]

Hi there! I’ve been doing a little project on the carbon impacts of the whaling industry and decided to read the current entirety of Going To Weather in one sitting as inspiration… honestly, all you do fascinates me but I am particularly impressed with how many fully rigged ships you willingly illustrated for all that! I’m curious if there was a specific way you studied them in order to draw them or if it’s more just a culmination of knowledge? I wish I understood all those intricacies better myself but it’s hard to figure out where to start…

Oh this is very kind of you to say haha! That’s a fascinating project—I’d love to see it when you’re done if you’d like to share it!

The secret is…they are absolutely not correct hahaha. If a tall ship sailor looked at my ships they’d be like ‘that’s wrong’ which is always why I’m like ‘shhhhh don’t look too closely’. But ultimately my aim is to tell a narrative, not draw a sailing guide. Regarding all the intricacies, I’m absolutely not drawing every line because there are dozens of them and I don’t consider it that important in the grand scope of telling a story. Same goes for tv and movies set on ships—often times their rigging is very much reduced for the sake of the readability of a set. Still, I try to get things vaguely correct looking, as far as the general structure of things so here’s where that helped:

The best way to understand how a boat works is to actually go sailing. But that is certainly not accessible for people in general, especially when it comes to square rigged tall ships (though opportunities DO exist). I’ve never been on a square rigger! No idea how they work! Would like to dabble someday. I’ve only worked on a fore-and-aft rigged vessel which is quite different, but it still gave me more of an understanding of how the sails actually work and what the lines actually do. Reading and watching things paled to being able to stand there and follow the lines to see where they went, and haul on them to see how they actually functioned. So if you ever get the opportunity to do any kind of sailing, that’s the best way to learn about how a ship works. I’m not a sailor by any means, but in my first venture into this I did start to learn a lot that I couldn’t really get from reading about it.

Watching videos helps too, though it’s sometimes hard to find ones that aren’t about operating contemporary sailboats. I found this series helpful just to get a basic understanding of how a square rig works.

Looking up diagrams can help too. I sometimes find diagrams of all the rigging challenging to parse in a 2d space, but when it’s broken down into smaller pieces I find that quite helpful. The Young Sea Officer’s Sheet Anchor by Darcy Lever has a lot of granular diagrams that are very well illustrated that I found helpful.

Finding a good model ship is also a decent way of starting to understand it. It’s in a 3d space in miniature so you can see the full scope of it at different angles, which I think is more helpful than drawings. It might not be completely accurate or have every single line represented, but it’s helpful to see how the lines lead to get the basic shape of them. I have a dream one day to have a model of the Charles W. Morgan. But good ones run for….thousands of dollars. So I’ve got a little wooden one that was my grandfather’s, but it’s still helpful to have on hand.

I also like looking at the illustrations of ships that my Whalers of Olde drew in their journals. It’s, again, not an accurate diagram, but they lived on that ship and in that life day in and day out, so when they draw them they tend to get to the spirit of the thing. I use their drawings to get a sense of what parts they felt most important to render, to inform how I render my own ships to get the point across even if they aren’t a perfect reflection of how a ship works.

I’m sure other folks have a wide net of resources beyond this, but these were some of the things that were helpful to me! But I certainly don’t have a vast accumulation of knowledge about sailing and it’s very much ‘that’s good enough to get the idea across in a comic panel someone will look at for 5 seconds’ ha!

[jedusaur]

good things this week:

had a decent executive function and mood day today after a few really tough days, so it's really good to be out of the tar pit for now. I recently upped some meds and was starting to think that the side effects were too much, but fingers crossed that the initial rough patch is over and it'll keep getting better

cooked things! potato-chickpea curry, shortcut quiche (with premade crust), Greek pasta salad, a REALLY killer stir-fry with peanut sauce, marinated/baked tofu for sammiches, and a hummus/feta/tomato/olive thing that was gonna be a dip for pita wedges, but the pitas went bad so I ended up spreading it on toast and that worked great

@1000-directions tried making my mom's peanut sauce recipe, which has been go-to comfort food for me since I was a kid, and she really liked it :D love sharing food things with my people

the grocery store employee who brought out my pickup order this week was queer <3

I threw a tumblr room party to brainstorm ideas for a diner fic and a bunch of people got into it and had fun! I've been really missing hosting fannish events and this kinda scratched that itch a little :)

tried discord (again) and determined that it is not my bag (again), but in the process I connected with a few fandom folks I've been messaging a bit, nice to find new people!

finally rigged up a system to make my ankle PT easier

Steph has been really excited about watching the Kraken play and happy about wins and asking lots of questions and she wore a Kraken shirt to work :D I love hockey and I love explaining hockey and I love my Steph

started a whatsapp group for productivity sprints and had one really good productive afternoon, looking forward to engaging with that more

people keep telling me the scented candles I make are good enough to sell, so I finally buckled down and made a task list for giving that hustle a shot

there are a few bulbs coming up outside my door :) they're either daffodils or jonquils, never did figure out which last spring

I 100% accidentally took a cutting from one of rocket bae's plants XD a bit of plant came off while I was moving it and I stuck it in water thinking it would be a nice decoration for a few days and then wilt, but it grew roots in the water!

started drawing a thing today, I am not generally a person who draws things but I like how it's going so far

still losing my entire shit over the Elliott Page/Julia Garner/A$AP Rocky threesome

rewatched The Princess Diaries today, which was my favorite movie when I was like 11. I was expecting it to be terrible because I remember rewatching it in my late teens and scoffing at the plot holes, but no actually it's a GREAT fuckin movie, in part because it does not care about its plot holes. it had so many excellent one-liners and little characterization moments for bit parts, and also lol I fully did not realize at age 11 that I was totally crushing on Julie Andrews in the ball scene. she was 64 lmao but LOOK at her in this dress she was HOT okay

[supagogoman]

My experience with becoming a Vtuber for a bit, and some of the programs I've used to do it

I decided to write this as I found it's actually kind of surprising how easily accessible creating simple Vtubing actually is. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since Vtubers are all the rage currently and how big the community is, but a curious browse at the current tools available kind of made me try out some of them myself for fun and while I still don't have an actual Vtubing "persona" (besides being an animated Slippy Toad avatar ripped from Star Fox Zero) it's certainly a lot of fun to mess around with.

Initially I assumed there was quite a high barrier of entry; the most popular, mainstream vtubers use Live2D or full 3D models. If you're unwilling or unable to make one yourself, these are actually pretty expensive to produce, with artists charging several hundreds of dollars for designing a Live2D rig. Looking at some of them it's not hard to see why; they're often immaculately designed, with moving mouths, eyes, hair, clothing and limbs all created as their own assets and rigged in Live2D (a program far beyond my primative comprehension and understanding) to create an avatar that really does look like one of my Japanese animes come to life.

It doesn't even end with getting an avatar of your own, though. For the tracking to work you'll need a webcam, or at least a decent smartphone to use as a camera. Want your avatar to use animations or emote presets? You'll probably want one of them fancy Streamdecks unless you want to assign hotkeys to your keyboard like a peasant. Not to mention you'll need a good PC as a baseline to stream modern games and for it to run well whilst doing it.

This is why I was actually surprised how easy it is to create simple crude vtuber avatars (or at least things that resemble it) which makes it much less daunting to try out, especially if you're not someone who streams regularly and aren't trying to become a "professional" streamer. In particular many streamers, refered to often as 'pngtubers' use simple images with basic animations as their avatar rather than fully rigged models which, while very basic, is still surprisingly versatile. I will list some of the ones I've encountered and used in order of ease of use and technicallity. Who knows, maybe some of you might find these useful and inspire yourself to try making your own virtual persona for fun!

OBS Image Reaction

By far the easiest, most basic form of creating an animated avatar of yourself. This is a simple OBS plugin that simply displays one image whilst detecting mic input and another image when it detects no mic input. It's what I use for my Slippy Toad avatar and works perfectly fine for what it is. As it's a plugin built directly into OBS it requires no additional software, just load it up on your overlay and enjoy!

veadotube mini

A simple, lightweight program that performs a similar function to OBS Image Reaction, but with additional features including basic animations to make your avatar slightly more dynamic, including blinking and animating the png or image around during different states. It also supports different "states", so you can create variations of your avatar (for example, for different facial expressions) and assign them to hotkeys to spice things up a bit more.

HONK

Increasing with complexity, HONK allows you to animate your pngtuber avatar further with lip syncing. By drawing the avatar with more mouth shapes and assigning them to the lip sounds it'll react more convincingly to your voice. Like veadotube, it also allows for states for different emotions and whatever, and it also can animate the avatar slightly by adding bounce or rotation to the talking to make it seem more dynamic. Not only this, it supports mouse tracking for the eyes too. It does cost money to purchase and use, but I think the price is quite reasonable.

These programs are fine for pngtubers, but what about if you want a 3D avatar? What about if you, like me, have no knowledge of 3D modelling, and the only Blender you've used is the kind that turns fruit into delicious smoothies? No need to worry, because there's a program designed specifically to create cute 3D anime girls (and boys).

VRoid

Created by Pixiv, Vroid allows you to create an anime avatar in a similar vein to something like The Sims. It's simple to use yet also very versatile, and though you can cobble together something basic with the premade assets and settings, once you learn a bit more on how it works you can create your own clothings, hair style and and other things to create something very personalised. The main limitation with the program, however, is that it's catered to creating pretty anime characters. If you wanted something else that doesn't fit into that stereotype, you might have mixed results. Vroid creates 'VRM avatars' that can actually be imported and used in a variety of other apps and programs, including (with some conversion and work) fully functional VRChat avatars. For the purposes of vtubing, though, there's a couple of programs I tried out.

VMagicMirror

This is a program that projects your VRM avatar onto the desktop, and animates it automatically using your microphone and keyboard/controller input. The program does have some webcam functionality for head tracking, but it's not required. It can even animate your VRM avatar using a keyboard, game controller, pen tablet and even a fight stick, and will have your avatar mimic your button inputs onscreen, which is very fun.

LIV

This isn't really for vtubing on a budget as this is for VR streaming, and VR headsets are pretty pricy, but I'll still include it for it's ease of use. It allows you to project your avatar directly into the game itself, with it working for quite a few VR games. It was originally designed for 'mixed reality' streaming where you can use a webcam to record yourself in front of a green screen and superimpose yourself into the game, but also supports the use of 3D avatars. This is mainly for if you want to stream a VR game but want your audience to see a 3rd person view point rather than making them motion sick by seeing what you're seeing. There's a number of avatars you can create and use for this program, but I mainly included it as it fully supports VRM avatars.

This is by no means a comprehensive list; this is simply what I discovered in my limited exploration while I was, as was put by someone on my stream once, V-curious. If you're willing to use a webcam it's also worth looking into things like Facerig, VNyan and VeeSeeFace. I know Vtubing has been around for a while so I'm probably way behind on the curve, but if you too are V-curious I hope this little article was useful.

[mi6011tomberry]

Podcast Development

I decided to go forwards with this podcast because this segment works really well as its own bitesize topic within the broader topic of the video.

I tried storyboarding from the intro but I wasn't too happy with how the intro was turning out. I really liked the idea of the knight from my initial thumbnails for this podcast because I thought it would be a fun way to visualise the podcast. I ran out of time to finish this storyboard so things ended up falling flat because I was really struggling to figure out how I can find a balance between storytelling, aesthetic limitations (from time and skill), character design and character animation. I thought about simplifying everything and focusing on physics simulation with iconography as a focus as another alternative but I wasn't making much progress at this stage.

After looking around at a bunch of different rigs I realised how difficult it would be to create a performance which convincingly acts utilising the bodily and facial characteristics at the same time. I have only animated at most a couple of limbs, an eye, eyelids and the body itself so to take on hands with digits, legs and a fully functioning face seemed like far too much for me as I would be spreading myself too thin and I know the result wouldn't be great. I didn't find a good rig for a knight but I did find this video of facial expressions and thought for a time about whether I could use this as a chance to learn facial animation but decided against it because it would really limit what I could create and the explainer video might just end up as a dull lip syncing exercise.

I tried looking into the subject of the podcast and found a few sources which went into the connection between the creation of life and iron and these are some of the notes I took. I wanted to be a little more informed on the topic but not to the point that it narrows my interpretation of the podcast through the lens of external information. I jotted down some other things trying to figure out the key parts of the podcast and how things might flow from shot to shot.

I tried again to visualise things but it was all seeming to be a bit generic and I wanted something a little different which could tell its own little story which went smoothly along with the narration.

I managed to break excerpt down into 9 key points made throughout, I was previously struggling to figure out visualisation of the podcast so breaking down the durations of each audio segment helped me to come up with visuals which better suited its given segment. The rest is all idea generation for each key point which I will turn into a storyboard. I also have a simple character design for the animation; as I am planning on makings things in 3D I won't have time to model, rig and animate several different characters nor do I know how to rig a face so I tried to design a character which played into the limitations without restricting expression too much.

This is the general aesthetic I'm going for with my character, I don't have time to get too grand with character design because I want both character and environment to mesh well together so I need to keep things somewhat limited so they work together as a unified stylised story.

I am also considering a toon outline aesthetic for the character but I don't yet know whether it will mesh well with the animation so I'm going to hold off with any proper character specifics until I know what I am animating.

[kickrtechnology1]

Overcoming common challenges in Mobile App Development with Kickr Technology

Overcoming common challenges in Mobile App Development with Kickr Technology

In this rapid changing and development era of technology, mobile app has become an impactful platform. To enhance the user engagement and drive growth, every business requires to aim mobile apps. With the vast divisions of platforms, devices, and user experience, the mobile app development journey can be a tough. Working as the leading app development company, Kickr Technology has developed the right solution for common challenges encountered in mobile app development.

Understanding Common Challenges in Mobile App Development

1. Compatibility- Selecting between various platforms such as Android, iOS, or cross-platform development is a challenge. All these various platforms have its set of guidelines, and ensuring compatibility can be a tough task. 2. Complicated User Interface (UI) and User Experience (US) Design- Designing an engaging and highly responsive UI/UX is important for app success. However, maintaining a balance between impactful appeal and functionality is often a challenging task. 3. Performance Optimization- Having a bad app is the worst nightmare for a business. By getting the right mobile app development service, one can ensure optimal performance while maintaining a high level of functionality. 4. Security Needs- In this technical era, cyber threats are rising rapidly. In this case ensuring app security is an important concern. Providing security to user data against potential bugs, threats, is an important aspect of mobile app development. 5. Staying Updated with Evolving Technologies- It is a fact, that technology comes with timely diversions or changes. Staying updated with the latest trends and integrating them into your app development process can be a potential challenge.

How Kickr Technology Helps You Overcome These Challenges? Working as the mobile a in India, Kickr Technology takes a well-mannered approach to skip the common hurdles in app development. With potential strategies, we ensure a smooth and conceptual way to design a fully functional app. 1. Expertise Across Platforms- Kickr Technology is providing the right solutions while working as an experience mobile app and website development company. Our experts have in-depth knowledge and expertise across various development platforms. Kickr Technology ensures smooth platform compatibility, which makes us an optimum choice for your app development needs. 2. Compatible Design- Our team has mastered the UI/UX design. By this we create compatible and user-friendly designs. Our experts craft the right user interfaces by keeping an eye on the latest trends. This also allow us to ensure a delightful user experience for any business. 3. Performance Update- At Kickr Technology, performance optimization is a must. It is a fundamental aspect of our development process. We incorporate cutting-edge techniques to ensure your app will run smoothly across all devices. 4. Efficient Security Measures- We keep the security measure as the first aspect in every app development project to keep the user data safe. Our efficient security protocols are designed to eliminate every potential security threat, which can disturb the trust and reliability in the apps we create. 5. Constant Adaptation- Staying updated with the latest changes and solutions is an important aspect of our working pattern. At Kickr Technology we kept on learning and adaptation to ensure we can use the latest tools and technologies in our app development services.

What all we discussed This is a fact that with the rapid increase in technology, the requirements to keep your business updated has been increased too. Kickr Technology understand this fact better and hence serve the right web development solutions for every small- or large-scale business. This blog has guided you about the challenges of mobile app development for which one required the right expertise, innovative solutions, and a user-friendly approach. Working as the top app development company, we ensure a smooth journey for you. We handover a well-aligned final product to you which can help you achieve all your business goals. Our professional approach to overcome the common challenges make us the leader in Mobile app and website development company. By working with us, you can change your targeted audience into a team of potential clients for your business.

[blueaizu]

Aizu Updates: Projects for June

It's been a hot minute since the last one of these, so I think it's time for another one. I'm thinking that having this be a bi-weekly thing would be a good schedule. I'll be talking about my time on Bluesky so far, Clip Idol, and some other miscellaneous updates.

These still need a proper name. I'll call them Aizu Updates since I blew my creativity budget on drawings and games. I will be retroactively adding the tag and title to previous posts like this one so they'll be easily accessible.

First I'll talk about my time on the elusive Bluesky. I managed to get on there thanks to someone generously giving me an invite code (NOTE: If it was you and you'd like me to specifically mention your handle, please feel free to reach out and I'll add it in; otherwise I'll keep you anonymous so people won't try hounding on you for invites. By the way: I'll only give invites to people I trust!). Bluesky is similar to Twitter on the surface, but it's actually a decentralized platform with no algorithms, at least not like the ones you may be used to on other platforms. Currently there's a "What's Hot" tab for posts with 12 or more Likes, and there's a Following tab that's always presented in chronological order that covers original posts, reposts (read: retweets), and even replies to other people. At this point in time, hashtags aren't implemented and DMs don't exist. The people there are kind of tight knit so specific communities aren't really a thing just yet, but that could change pretty soon. For now, I'm spending most of my time on the platform trying to get more artwork uploaded since I feel there's a sore lack of it.

A new development is something they're calling "Algos," which are basically a way to add more tabs functioning closer to the algorithms of other platforms. This is part of where Bluesky's decentralization comes in, because (from my understanding) it's a way to change what the platform thinks you're most interested in seeing on the fly without needing to make a fresh account. This is what will separate Bluesky from Twitter and could be a huge development for the future of social media in general. With it, you'll have more control to influence what things the platform assumes you'll want to see instead of just being at the mercy of one algorithm that's rigged by some guy with an offensive musk.

=== With that out of the way, let's talk future projects! ===

The biggest thing I'll be doing in the immediate future is a complete mad dash to finish Clip Idol. I'm supposed to be presenting it again very soon and I need to finish all of the artwork for it so it's in a presentable state. I'd love to make more minigames for Harley to play, but I think the time is coming to put a cap on Clip Idol and get started on something new. It's the only way I'll get better at making games, and I'm sure people will want to play this one! If you haven't seen the previous update I made about Clip Idol, I'll share a link to the latest in-progress video I've uploaded:

=== Vtuber Stuff ===

I've also been hard at work on my Vtuber model, who I decided I'm going to call... Aizu. Yeah, yeah, I know it's not a very vampire-y name, but his design came from ideas based on a lot of self-reflection (but still with a few liberties, I definitely can't pull off wearing a crop top in real life), so it's the same as my current username. Some people have called me a vampire before, so you know what? They're right. I am a vampire!

The model is already fully rigged, but I'm still running tests to make sure his tracking works properly. I'm also still drawing backgrounds, including the main one I'll be using. A goal I have for his streaming background is that, as much as possible, I want it to feel like it's in a real place. Just doing a fancy border won't cut it. Conversely, I'm back and forth on whether I should have him holding a controller and using a drawing tablet, but for my first Live2D model ever I feel it may be a little too ambitious. I'd like to start doing streams as Aizu before the end of the year, and since I'm making the model myself I could always add those bells and whistles in later.

I've talked about Aizu a fair bit and already made him my profile picture, so I'd like to pull back the curtain a little bit to show him in action! This is from a while back so his model is in an earlier state (note the darker wings), but in broad strokes this is how Aizu will be:

And with that, I've got a lot of last minute changes I need to make for my friend's book illustrations before I can continue my own projects, so this is where I'll have to end it for now. Until next time!