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echigo-empress · 3 years ago

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Chinese version of Ikemen Sengoku: Uesugi Kenshin (Pt. 5)

Chinese disclaimer: 我就是一个新加坡华人，可能我的翻译不好。如果你有更好的翻译，请信息我。我当然会改变。谢谢。aka if you’re more fluent in Chinese than me, you’re welcome to message me to update any errors below.

Rough translation of his intro:

I was born to fight wars; I have no interest in love.

It’s difficult to tell... how does he treat you...?

I love you... to the extent I can’t breathe without you.

I was pleasantly surprised!

Kenshin doesn’t seem to have a very big fanbase in the English-speaking community, compared to e.g. Date Masamune, Nobunaga, or even Mitsuhide. He seems more like a side character that many (probably U.S.) players write off as crazy, or simply have no attraction to. So I was happy to see the above screenshot in the Chinese app store preview - I think his was second or third! I’m so happy he’s popular - that means there’s gotta be more fans who like love him as much as I do!

Even their intro graphic looks different. The music soundtrack feels very authentic, like I’m definitely in Kyoto.

FYI, the Chinese name of Ikemen Sengoku is 美男战国 (simplified) | 美男戰國 (traditional) měinán zhànguó . Which translates to ‘Beautiful Men of the Warring States period’. Much more insightful than just ‘IkeSen.’

Their intros also feel richer. I’m excited! I remember (even initially when playing) that I was admiring Kenshin’s handsome looks, but he wasn’t available as a playable route then. Yeah, I played a LONG time ago, when it was only Nobunaga, Masamune, Yukimura, Ieyasu, and Hideyoshi. I don’t think Shingen was even available yet.

And then finally... he ... he appears!

Did you know?

The background music (BGM) soundtrack that plays for the characters, changes when it gets to Kenshin’s turn. He’s SPECIAL. Also, while we’re at it... I’ve been meaning to post about this... but his name:

上杉謙信 (Shàngshān qiānxìn)

In Chinese, this roughly translates into:

上 = Up, High, e.g. mountain top

杉 = Japanese cedar, Chinese fir tree, national tree of Japan

謙 = Humble, modest, amiable, a gentleman (Chinese phrase 谦谦君子)

信 = Confidence, trust, belief, faithful

it's incredibly fitting for him. Humble gentleman. Frankly, I'm just done with others who misunderstand him or portray him in a terrible light; it is runing the authentic Japanese experience.

Fangirl moment that you can totally mock me for and I don’t care:

Tall. Fir trees, like winter and snow-covered trees, humble, modest, faithful gentleman. He is truly perfect for me in every way, what with my Chinese name meaning ‘refined, beautiful, kind, virtuous lady’ with literature about [people like us] belonging together. I won’t share my Chinese name in characters because of privacy/safety reasons, but let’s say my last name is also associated with horses galloping. God of War? With powerful horses? That’s a totally natural fit.

Anyway.

They talk about Sasuke saving Kenshin ‘when he fell to the ground’:

The part that follows is interesting:

Translation:

With me saving Oda Nobunaga, Sasuke saved Uesugi Kenshin the same way.

I know, maybe I’m reading too much into it. But the way the sentence structure and symbolism here works, could mean that Uesugi Kenshin is very much equal to Oda Nobunaga. I bring that up, because I really don’t think Kenshin gets the respect he deserves in the English community. Even in the anime that I briefly looked up (haven’t watched yet):

I noticed that Kenshin was fighting Oda Nobunaga. Considering Oda’s basically the leader of that entire side, it’s interesting that he’s fighting someone who has been treated like a side character on the enemy lines. If they’re going neck-to-neck, doesn’t that make Kenshin an equal leader (even if it’s of the enemy side)? I really think this is another point that shows Kenshin is more powerful and popular than the English-speaking community wants to believe.

Finally, his ‘selection route’ card:

It’s probably the only screen that the Cybird English accurately translated, where the words are the same meaning. 🙄 Wow, good job, Cybird. You had one job, and you did one screen out of hundreds okay, so, congratulations.

Of course, I watched the route preview below (spoilers!!)

The Chinese main character (MC) says:

If other people catch sight of me, will this cause Lord Kenshin some kind of inconvenience? Maybe?

And Kenshin’s kind reply:

Translation:

I don’t know. Just the thought of it alone makes me extremely unpleasant/unhappy.

Kenshin’s confused and uncomfortable about his own feelings, but at least he’s aware that something’s going on inside. It sounds a lot less like what the shit American English MC had to say, which was ‘idk it brings me pain.’ There was no pain.

Translation:

It’s pointless (meaningless) to resist. It’s truly pathetic, [your name here].

It’s not clear whether he’s referring to himself, the Chinese MC, or the situation. From the context, I’m guessing Kenshin’s referring to himself. Like he can’t resist falling in love with the MC, and he jokes about being pathetic. Either way, it’s a very soft and warm moment.

And then... he says the thing that makes my heart melt even though it’s only a preview so I can’t imagine how I’d feel if it were the full chapter:

Translation:

I won’t let you run away from me. Forever [eternally], I won’t let you go.

永远不会？！哇！！！Google translate was like ‘never’ and I was like ‘yeah no, I know better.’ There’s like 10 different ways to say never in Chinese, and this is a very intentional “forever,” “till the end of time, till death do us part” statement.

Translation:

I’ve already fallen in love, to the point that I have lost all reason [logical, rational thought]. [My love is at] that level.

I know there was another line I translated (no screenshot), where Kenshin’s love was described in a way that, yes, it’s intense, but more than that, strong, overpowering, almost suffocating. If I could sum it up in one English word, it would be: intoxicating.

I think that’s the most accurate description, and hopefully it sparks some naughty ideas for fellow fans...

Lastly, I checked their events (which I’m sure will change weekly):

Maybe I’m missing something, because I haven’t played the Ikemen Sengoku English version very much. But Kenshin appeared in like 4 out of 5 events (I just happened to take 2 screenshots of ones I liked). Correct me if I’m wrong... but doesn’t that mean he’s super popular? Ieyasu, too. I’m curious about what happens if I purchase from the store, since it seems to be the Taiwan version, so I’m holding off buying anything just yet. But if it works, that could be a wonderful thing.

I’ll likely keep playing this Chinese version, and slowly translate chapters. After all the chaos, I’m finally feeling at peace (big thanks again to @mischievouslymasamune @oh-my-otome). Even if my series of posts only helps one person out there feel less bad about themselves, I will feel very satisfied. Thanks for reading! Time to disappear to my real world...

Chapter list of Probably quit Ikemen Sengoku because I hate the English MC/Uesugi Kenshin’s route series:

Part 1: Why I chose Uesugi Kenshin’s route

Part 2: Why I hate the English MC/Uesugi Kenshin’s route

Part 3: Depression, Trauma, History, and encouragement for other fans who might feel the same way

Part 4: Probably Quitting Ikemen Sengoku / Should I finish it?

Part 5: The Chinese version of Ikemen Sengoku / 美男战国 | 美男戰國 (we here now)

#ikemen sengoku #sengoku chinese version #uesugi kenshin #kenshin uesugi #cultural differences #english vs japanese or chinese #i hate the mc #美男战国 #美男戰國 #上杉謙信

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darcylandcrackchallenge · 4 years ago

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Hey y’all! It’s that time of year again!

In honor of April Fool’s Day, we’re hosting another crack-tacular writing challenge! The fifth annual one! This year, @thestanceyg is joining me ( @dresupi ) as a mod, and we had SO MUCH fun coming up with the prompts this year!

This event is open to everyone; every fic rating is welcome. Do you want some crack-tastic smut? SMUT IT UP, BABY. If smut’s not something that speaks to you, that’s FINE. We still want to read everything your gorgeous brain can create! Do you want more gen crack with no ships? WRITE THAT THING! Treat yo self and everyone else while you’re at it. You’re an amazing author and we NEED THAT FIC! As long as it features our favorite doctor of astrophysics, Darcy Lewis, we wanna read it, and it’s on-point, sweetheart!

Rules:

While this is really more geared towards fic writers, you can create any kind of fanwork you want. (Graphics, fic, art)

Your work must feature Darcy Lewis. (Natch, I mean…this is a Darcyland event)

Crossovers are fine, as long as… you know… Darcy is involved. ;)

You may not use this list for anything non-Darcy related. We came up with this list specifically with Darcy in mind, please respect that!

If you want, you can add fics to the collection we made on ao3

Rate and tag your fics appropriately, any rating is fine, but please be aware when you rate and tag!

No word limit for fics or drabbles

Posting begins on April 5, 2021, and will go on until April 11, 2021 (although you can post to the collection until April 30).

Tag us in your fics to make sure we see them so we can reblog them to this page! We’re @darcylandcrackchallenge, FYI. You can also tag our tumblrs as well, @dresupi or @thestanceyg

But, it IS a crack challenge. So keep it silly, y’all! The point is to be lighthearted and as CRACKY as possible. (From Fanlore: “…crack can describe fanworks with a fundamentally ludicrous premise, or otherwise including a plethora of unbelievable, incredible, or just plain silly elements…”)

HAVE FUN! I mean, it’s supposed to be fun, bb. <3

Stancey and I have created a list of prompts that we thought would live up to the lists from the past years. In fact, there are three legacy prompts from previous years included on this list! With it being the fifth annual crack challenge, we figured it was necessary, right? Also, these were some of the most fun prompts from previous years, so go nuts!

The detailed prompt list is under the cut:

Sucked into a book - Oh no! Darcy’s been sucked into an alternate universe inside a book! You pick which book and you pick what happens. Just remember, it’s gotta be cracky!

A literally sticky situation - Nothing figurative about this one. Something’s sticky and it’s a SITUATION.

‘Anything-except-sex’ pollen - What’s written on the tin. Anything except sex pollen. It’s pollen that makes Darcy crave corndogs while singing The Sound of Music. Or maybe she got a whiff of a strange flower and now she only speaks in Dr. Seuss quotes. WHO KNOWS?? Only you! (And us after we read, of course)

Animal Hijinks - That pesky *insert animal here*. Any animal. Any.

Must include Mac and Cheese - You heard it here first. Mac and Cheese. It’s needed for this prompt.

Cosplay no one can guess - Darcy really thought she put together a very clever outfit. Too bad no one knows who she’s supposed to be.

Anti-gravity - It’s your choice how it happens, but there is zero gravity and nothing makes sense now!

#Darcy Lewis #Darcyland #DLAF2021 #Darcyland Crack Challenge #Crack Challenge

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mack-yohe-edhi-602-rnas · 4 years ago

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RNA #7 - Due March 16

Being Gay at Jerry Falwell's University:

“But really, I am just gay-annoyed.”

This article was interesting because it highlights an incredibly interesting dichotomy of identity development and social expectations. While a religiously affiliated institution is far more likely to put pressure on a student developing their sexual identity, I believe we can find this at a microlevel at every institution. Identity development, especially when it comes to sexual and gender identity, can be an incredibly scary and painful process. However, this article simply did not go in the way I expected it to go when I read the title and the initial introduction which included this student’s decision to drop out.

This student found multiple areas of support, true support, at an institution one would expect to exile gay students. It helps highlight exactly how administrators, regardless of belief, can support students, and support them at institutions that may not accept the student’s identity. All of this student’s support systems could have easily turned a blind eye or isolated this student, but instead but the student first to encourage his own identity development.

Language of Appeasement:

This editorial piece targets an incredibly important piece of transforming higher education in the ways we have discussed wanting to see. The notion that diversity and inclusion efforts are the end all, be all, is wholeheartedly not true. This article discusses how equity and social justice are significantly more helpful in providing transformative change to institutional and systemic issues that are still prevalent in higher education. Ultimately, the small changes institutions are making, like hiring more faculty of color or admitting more students of color, are not only not sustainable, but not helpful in the long term. If we do not see a change to the reasons students and faculty don’t want to be at an institution, it doesn’t matter how many people you hire or admit. Turn-over and drop-out rates would actually increase because the issue still remains: we are continuing systems designed by colonization that hinge on white supremacy. Until we start focusing on equity and social justice education, we are simply confirming student’s views on the world. This has been proven through election results as the predominate group whom ushered in the era of Trump were college-educated, middle-class white men and women.

I also felt a bit of low self-efficacy reading this article. How do you fight for these changes when you’re constantly at whim of donors, prominent alumni, and boards of trustees who do not value this change? Why is that a battle faculty and staff are faced with? And will this be possible in my lifetime? Because I know so many young people with this mindset who want to do this work and ask the kind of questions Dr. Stewart provides in the differences between diversity/inclusion and equity/social justice. However, we are young. We are entry level. We are far from the ivory towers big decision makers sit in. And every day I feel that weight and that threat to the missions I have in transforming higher education. I can see this cycle repeating in some of my peers as well and so it isn’t even like a full generational thing where we can come in and sweep the floor. It shouldn’t be like pulling teeth to get people to care about others.

Justice and Equity PDF:

I won’t touch on this too much because it is an infographic that goes along with the article discussed above. However, please reference back to this for Big 4 Retreat in the fall!!! It is an incredibly helpful graphic that can break down these different ideas for your students.(It’s saved on your work computer, FYI)

Race on Campus (From The Chronicle of Higher Education):

What it Feels Like to be a Black Professor:

the notion of “twice as good” is something I’ve seen, predominately from minoritized groups. As someone with PTSD, I find myself with this mentality quite often. It’s a feeling of having to prove something to the dominant group. While I’ve heard rhetoric that I finally have a name for, around the culture of poverty, before, it has always come from dominant groups. It’s something I’ve never quite understood and when laid out like this, I still don’t understand but at least have a full view of the argument.

The suggestion to embrace everyone as adequate ambassadors for their own fields and cultures is important. This is a big piece of my work and personal philosophy and I think it would serve everyone as useful.

The Invisible Label of Minority Professors:

Minority professors are often tasked with serving as mentors and guides to minority students as their identities help put students at ease, especially at PWIs. - This concept is called Cultural Taxation.

Cultural Taxation is exacerbated when the student population is diversified faster than the faculty population.

Minoritized faculty members also often sit on committees and serve as DEI liaisons for the office, whether it is in their job description or not. It’s very similar to the expectation that students of color should teach their peers about racism.

How to combat this invisible workload:

1. Don’t say yes right away - have a discussion about your other priorities.

2. Make it count for them and you - involve students in learning opportunities that foster mentorship while also helping them develop.

3. Enlist the help of an ally - Have someone who can help you say no.

4. Think of the big picture - if you don’t take care of yourself, you will burnout quickly and that impacts the amount of students you can serve down the road.

5. Keep the goal in mind - remember what you’re aiming for and that you need to do things that serve you and your goals too.

When Pursuing Diversity, Victory is Hard to Define:

This section details examples of the concept discussed in Language of Appeasement. Universities respond to outcries with minor changes that truly don’t address the issues at hand.

Making Diversity Not the Work of One Office, but a Campus wide Priority:

Edit what you do to focus on DEI work. Doing a few small things well is better than doing a lot of things poorly.

When creating committees to tackle an issue, look for people who haven’t been involved before to bring in fresh ideas instead of grabbing the same few people every time. (This could also help cultural taxation.)

Promote events and successes. When people know it’s happening, they’re more likely to buy-in to the idea.

You need buy-in from the top, down. When it is an obvious intentional goal from the top, people are far more likely to join in, especially when it is an expectation set for everyone, not just a singular office.

Spread out the responsibility. When it’s everyone’s job (i.e. a council that includes people from across campus) it immediately becomes a campus wide effort.

Helping Black Men Succeed in College:

Programs specifically designed by and for black men to encourage success in college are one of the best ways to help black men persist. There are many examples of this at different universities.

A Liberal-Arts College Intervenes to Diversify Its Faculty:

Diversity advocates in the hiring process at Skidmore were trained in how to handle faculty hiring with DEI in mind. This targeted how to advertise for jobs with DEI in mind, how to tackle implicit bias in hiring, and how to make the interview environment welcoming to candidates.

This process naturally brought in more diverse faculty and led to a cultural shift in the perception of one’s role in the hiring process.

‘A Little More Every Day’ How you can eliminate bias in your own classroom:

1. Evaluate the work, not the worker - you do no one any favors by expecting more or less dependent on the student’s identities and backgrounds.

2. Acknowledge that bias exists - if you don’t acknowledge your own biases, you can never fix them.

3. Self-assess - work through your own implicit bias.

4. Actively Listen - you aren’t always right. Listening to someone with a different opinion or view is important to understanding others.

5. Don’t expect a finish line - this is continuous, unfinished work. It’s kinda like working out, if you don’t use it, you lose it.

White Like You: The Challenge of Getting White Students to Grapple With Racial Identity:

Tackling issues of racism must also involve white students. Often we focus on teaching students of color about racial identity, but fail to teach white students the same concepts.

It’s important to push students to their learning edge, but not out of the conversation completely.

White students can easily escape these kinds of conversations or withdraw because the weight of racial injustice doesn’t weigh on them. It’s important to accept the negative feelings one may have in these conversations and figure out how to move past it to then contribute to the conversation and actions that will help change things.

#edhi602 #ReadingNotesandAnnotations

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viserionoffen · 4 years ago

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Games of 2020

So I've only been gaming a few years and this is the first year I've played enough games to actually make a top 10 list. So here we go with my top 10 games of the year.

1. Days Gone One of, if not the best zombie games I've ever played. It's the perfect mix of vast open world, varied and in-depth characters with a plot line that had me playing through the night like a good book I couldn't put down. I happily platinumed this one and am now replaying on nightmare mode. Without a doubt, Days Gone is my Game of 2020.

2. Dragon Age Came to this game pretty late, 6 years post release and I have to say this game has aged well. The graphics are really good, the plot lines and characters are always changing depending on your decisions - which I love - and all that coupled with the best romance options of any game I've ever played, quickly put this in 2nd only because I’m obsessed with Days Gone.

3. Spyro How could this not be on my list after hour upon hour of running around as a crazy little purple dragon, shouting angrily at the egg thieves (if you've had the joy of chasing these guys you'll feel my pain). Still, with the trilogy edition remastered it was one of my most played games this year, the fact its three games in one just means there's a crazy amount of trophies for me to get.

4. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens Played this in duo's, it was the only way I could make any progress through the story on it, the chapters are really long, the worlds - and there are many - are large and take forever to complete, with a wide variety of different things to do. I loved every second of it, it was one of my favourite Lego games of all time - and I've played a lot of them.

5. Life is Strange 2 Have played all the ones before and while the original is definitely still my favourite, the new characters added a new layer for me that I loved. Sean and Daniel are perfect beans and they deserve so much better, but I cannot emphasise enough how important even the smallest decisions can impact the world and characters around you. There are so many different endings you can get that on my third play through I'm still getting a new ending.

6. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Played this after the the 2nd one and while I much prefer that one to this one, I did love this game, its a perfect blend of anime style game and open world quest lines. I'm only about a third of the way through at the moment but I've enjoyed everything I've played so far and it's nice to see so many things in the 2nd game that clearly came from this one.

7. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey So I love all the recent AC games and I guarantee you that Valhalla will be on my list somewhere next year, but Odyssey is such a culturally immersive game - just like Origins - and the armour and weapons design is just incredible, that doesn't even mention the plot lines and the impact you have on the world. Having finished the storyline, I am still working my way through the other quests and side missions that are still very challenging as they are designed to be completed post story.

8. Fortnite So after much nagging from my friend I finally downloaded this and needless to say despite that fact that I'm not a teenage boy, I do love this game and find it very relaxing to play, it also helps that me and my best friends and pretty good so Victory Royals happen pretty often.

9. Shadow of Mordor Another game I discovered much later than the rest of my friends but oh my god, I actually love this game. The lieutenants is a great game feature and is a lot of fun as is the adding of perks to different weapons that you have, the plot is also really good and has a healthy dose of vengeance as any good game should.

10. Thief This one surprised me I'm not going to lie. I bought it on a whim from the PS Store during a sale and decided for the price I payed if i didn't like it, it wasn't the end of the world. Needless to say i liked it, very much. The quests are cool and stealing things in video games is always fun so its not surprising why this made into my top 10 for 2020

Drop me a message if you have any recommendations for games you think I would enjoy. FYI - don’t do horror, I’m a complete wuss.

#playstation #open world #lego star wars #dainquisition #gamesof2020

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comicteaparty · 5 years ago

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June 10th-June 16th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from June 10th, 2020 to June 16th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:

How does poor web design affect if and/or how you read a particular webcomic?

carcarchu

it's a huge factor. if a comic is amazing in every way but the website or app makes it difficult for me to read i'm simply NOT going to read it. there are a lot of great series that i've put on the back burner just because the website is so annoying to navigate

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i've honestly never run into a website so bad it stopped me from reading a comic i was interested in

carcarchu

FYI the worst comic app i've ever experienced is Aqua Kiss which I downloaded to read a single series. it's the most barebones app imaginable with no search bar. if you want to read something you actually have to manually load each calendar week to find it and some stuff are buried dozens of pages back. and to make matters worse it doesn't have a "history" or "bookmarks" feature either

Deo101 [Millennium]

The worst things with sites that I see often are 1: huge headers, and 2: laggy sites (not really site design, but its adjacent I think) Another is if the pages are too big on the screen, so you can't, for instance, see some panels all at once. Those kinds of things can really ruin a reading experience for me

carcarchu

One example of a website that is hostile to the reading experience is ZMYK which for some reason hosts vertical scroll comics but cuts them up into little pieces as if they were comic format so you can't actually scroll through the entire chapter as it was intended to

That kind of thing grinds my gears so much how can something you have to pay for be that incredibly bad

Deo101 [Millennium]

I've also seen some sites that have graphic design issues, where elements are illegible due to their color, and some have very busy and distracting backgrounds. Those kinds of things won't necessarily ruin it, but they're distracting

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

forward comic's website was doing this weird thing where the further I read the longer pages took to load. Near the end it seemed they were taking 10 full seconds. Still read the whole thing though. Reading manga on shady sites with terrible internet connection as a kid has desensitized me

Oh one comic I was interested in but didn't read because of the site: I was kidnapped by lesbian pirates from outer space. It doesn't have a website. To read it you have to pirate (hehe) copies of the archive.

It's a pretty sad story- the author was young and tricked into giving up the rights to her series

She ended up taking the site down to prevent the company from getting any more money off of it

https://rosalarian.tumblr.com/post/65353128180/its-with-extreme-sadness-that-i-announce-that-my

Here's her post about it

I think it can be a good warning message to us

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

For me, the biggest thing that deters me from reading a comic is if the website isn't well optimized for mobile (as someone who reads a lot on the go). This includes the images loading bigger than the page, or navigation being hidden on mobile, or glitchy scrolling, or any number of ungodly things. Also, too many ads. That'll turn me away in a heartbeat.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah ads are definitely a huge turnoff for me too

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

@carcarchu okay i just digested this comment and wtf

no search bar is laughably bad omg

how did you even find out about it

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah that's ridiculous hahahaha

carcarchu

it's a shame because there are genuinely good comics on there you can't read anywhere else?? and i found it because an artist i adore did a series for it but it got AXED after only 2 chapters and after that was pretty much scrubbed from the internet. i think it's a shame because it really had so much potential and it ended before the story was really able to start

it's a screenshot from the app. you can see that it is categorized reverse chronologically by week

the point of aqua kiss is to emulate monthly/weekly style manga magazines but in app form. however i think the execution of this idea was horrendous

SteffieMusings

Oh no! It must make reading there so challenging. As for me, if the navigation is so hard to understand/pages don't load properly when you click a link or when the website's colours hurt my eyes so much I can't stay there for too long.

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

Honestly nowadays most of the CMS's out there share the same basic functionality and adaptability, so it's getting harder to screw up on that. Most sites are OK, if only a bit laggy. If the site takes less than 2 seconds to load and it's not so crowded that I have to look for the comic, I'm generally good.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

How much bad/inaccessible web design I'll tolerate is directly proportional to how much I care about the comic.

I've dropped a couple series in the middle of the archive just because they changed the site design to screw up the tracking of bookmarking sites, so I would've had to figure out an alternate way to keep track of it, and it didn't seem worth the effort

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Oh yeah, I've totally had that happen too where I was deep into an archive, had taken a reading break for a month or two, and came back to find the urls had been updated and my spot was lost it isn't so bad if a comic also has an archive page, but ive stopped reading a few stories that it would have been too hard to track down where I was.

DaeofthePast

I haven’t had to experience weird websites in a while, but I do sometimes go to an unknown website to read the comic/manga I’m looking for. Mostly what I’ve had trouble with is unnumbered chapters, of that it’s unclear where/how to start reading in general.(edited)

Like, I get to the page for that specific comic and then there’s no easy “start reading here” button anywhere

And when I do find the chapters list, I don’t know which end of the list is the beginning bc it’s unnumbered

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Is a "First page" button enough or are you looking for a "new readers start here" button? (<- is redisigning her page)

DaeofthePast

Is there a difference? :0

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

hm, sometimes yes.

Some old running comics have different jump-on points (schlock mercenary for example).

DaeofthePast

Ooh I see

Well when I first go on the site, I just want to start reading so idk

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

So, I always try to read every comic that's featured in the book club all the way through. Like even if I don't particularly like the opening, or if the comic is thousands of pages long, or I don't have time to meaningfully discuss the comic, I do try to at least give the comic a fair shake by reading through the entire archive. There have been four exceptions. One was because of content (it was a gag a day comic, and the content was SO horrible for SO long that I just couldn't stand it anymore. real "punching down" type of humor). Another was because the comic was literally deleted before I could get to it. The remaining two were because the site design/organization were so awful that the comics were unreadable. One of the two comics had a custom built, hand-coded site (I assume), and it just... didn't work properly. Like the "previous" button seemingly took you to a random page, the "next" button and the "latest" button led to the same place, etc. I'm not sure the creator ever bothered to test the site. The other one used some pre-built stuff, so it was ok... but you had to scroll to the top of the page to go to the next page. Not only that, but the author was posting all their comics to the same archive - which means one page would be the comic that was actually meant to be read for the book club and the next few pages were a completely different comic entirely. And this wasn't a gag-a-day either - it was a story based comic, so the three action minimum to get to the next page made things absolute hell to keep track of.(edited)

DaeofthePast

Wow

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Uff, yeah, that sounds horrible.

Nyx+Nyssa's page is currently a barebone mess, but I made at least sure the navigation works. :/

DaeofthePast

Having the comic be deleted while you’re reading it sounds like such a weird experience lmao

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

i mean, it wasn't thanos snap style lol

DaeofthePast

Was the website gone too or?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

it was in between days

nah the website was still there, it's just that the author had decided to reboot their comic and forgot that they had submitted it to the book club

DaeofthePast

Oh okay I imagined Thanos snap style

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Not really a design but a site thing: I can't do comics without an archive of some sort. On platforms like Tapas or WT, the episode list serves that purpose perfectly fine. I personally need to be able to see how many pages there are, and I need a way to go to specific pages easily. It might sound like a small complaint, but it's a big thing for me! There have been comics that piqued my interest, but once I saw that there was no archive of any form, I left forever. Sure, I might be missing out, but there are also lots of good comics out there that have accessible archives. My life isn't long enough to read them all, so I'm letting myself be very picky.

copperine

I can manage a very basic site just fine. But if a site is hard to navigate, or just makes reading the page/getting to the next page difficult - I'd be likely to give up eventually. Doesn't matter about the quality of the comic, but if it's a chore to just read it, it's going to put me off after a while

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

I will note - if you want me to actually discuss your comic in the book club, please do have an archive link, and probably a cast page too. Like the lack of one doesn't stop me from reading entirely, but I can't discuss anything without being able to look back at specific moments. (and one of those archives that just has dates doesn't count - lemme know what the chapter is!)

copperine

For example - when I read webcomics on dA, I was absolutely fine with either the author having a dedicated folder with the pages in order. Another option was to link next and prev pages in the description. But if I had to go find each next page, I just wouldn't.

DaeofthePast

By an archive do you mean kinda like a chapters list?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

A list of all the pages, ideally

That also list the chapters somehow

copperine

Short version: if I feel like I'm spending half as much time navigating the site as I am actually reading, it's gonna get old real quick

DaeofthePast

And same copperine. As long as it’s organized well, I will probably read it

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like maybe you click on a chapter link to get to a list of the pages, or maybe it's just a list of the pages with the chapter names as headers

some sort of organization

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah! (I admit my own comic's archive page isn't the prettiest, but it's 100% functional.)

DaeofthePast

I only have a chapter list so far ^^; idk how to go about getting an archive

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Chapter list is totally fine if your chapters tend to be on the shorter side

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I like having chapter lists around, although coding them can be a handful Not sure if to go for an archive with thumbnails or just with page numbers though.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's also workable if you also have like... a dropdown menu for individual pages on the actual pages? So it only takes 2 clicks to go to a specific page (first click to go to the chapter, second click to go to the page)

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

OH yeah, there was also a dA comic in the book club once that didn't have any next/previous buttons. However, it was a short comic - the bare minimum for getting into the book club - so I still read it all the way through. But it was pretty annoying to do so. (it was also pretty obviously a fetish comic, but that's not really relevant to the discussion XD)

DaeofthePast

I want to post by scene so I’ll be dividing chapters like “chapter 3 part 1” to hopefully that will be better

copperine

I'll always take functional over pretty

DaeofthePast

Haha I’m not sure if I want to know the comic for that one

Also what is “punching down” humor?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like, the author was a straight man, and nearly every joke was making fun of people who weren't those things.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

it's like making fun of people but

copperine

Yikes

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

you're intentially trying to put them down

that's punching down in my imo rip

DaeofthePast

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah....

DaeofthePast

Well at least I know what to call it when I see it in the future ._.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like, occasionally I see a shitty joke in a comic and I keep reading because maybe the author improved (we do sometimes get comics with archives that date back decades in here) But this comic was just so consistently awful for so long that I couldn't stand it

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oof that aint good

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Though that's kinda off topic lol

DaeofthePast

Oh yeah

So bad site design...

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Anyway, I don't really wanna post the examples of the comics I talked about in here cuz I don't wanna call anyone out

Actually, hold on, lemme check something

DaeofthePast

I feel I haven’t had too much experience with bad site designs, but I might have just forgotten(edited)

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

ok yeah

so, the comic where you had to scroll up to the top of each page to click to the next one, and the site was multiple comics alternating pages that made the story rough to follow

copperine

Oof yeah having to scroll up to click next won't stop me but it is a bother

DaeofthePast

I like having the next button both on top and the bottom, even if they update page by page(edited)

It just feels convinient

copperine

Yeah same

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Re: punching up/down, here's an overly simplistic set of examples: billionaires making fun of poor people is punching down. Poor people making fun of billionaires is punching up.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

's good webdesign pattern for everything with continous content - e.g. blogs, web-novels, webcomics.

Ideally you have one on top, between content and comments and under comments

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

the comic that alternated storylines & required scrolling back up to go to the next page was Antibunny: http://vinnied.comicgenesis.com/d/20061002.html if you see that page I linked and click next a few times, there's no obvious distinction between the main story and the spinoff story (no, like, header change between the two, and the art style looks similar), so you can see how it'd be confusing to follow and the scrolling is just icing on the cake (it used to be even worse) the only reason I feel comfortable sharing that is because the author uploaded the comics to new sites, and fixed all those issues in the process: http://antibunny.net/

DaeofthePast

Oh nice. So they realized the problem

copperine

Aren't they in this server? Or am I thinking of another one

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Yeah, the author is in this server

copperine

I thought so

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Hence why he realized, because we told him that there was a problem during the book club

copperine

I'm not gonna take anything said here as a comment on anyway btw

DaeofthePast

It’s cool that submitting their comic to the tea party resulted in some good feedback :3

copperine

You love to see it!

It always makes me happy when webcomic community stuff helps people out, that seems like the ideal outcome

DaeofthePast

Yess

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

i agree on that yeee

DaeofthePast

It’s like having a friend point out a spelling mistake. Embarrassing but you can live with the knowledge that your work is now a little bit better(edited)

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Yeah kinda off-topic, but I love it when the author of the comic for the book club joins the server. Like not only does it mean that the author could join in on others' discussions in the future (pay it forward 'n stuff), but... it's just really sad when I see a comic pop up in the book club and the author seemingly forgot they submitted it.

DaeofthePast

How long does it usually take to get to a comic? :0 that they would forget they submitted it?

copperine

I always hope I can help others out or support them, and I hope they feel the same

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The book club had a very very long wait list in the past. These days, not so long.

DaeofthePast

And I guess if you submit a comic with a website, the people here can be your beta testers

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

what's odd is that five months ago, the wait list was six months but now, the wait list is two months y'all need to submit/resubmit your comics

DaeofthePast

I tried going to submit mine yesterday and the site doesn’t let me v.v says you’re booked for July

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

oh yeah, so it is

DaeofthePast

Maybe later :3

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

i guess Rebel doesn't want the queue to get too long

copperine

I would submit mine but I'm only at 10 pages and I believe you need to have 20 to submit

DaeofthePast

Ooh they have a minimum?

Gotta count my pages now

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I mean it makes sense. Hard to discuss a comic that only has the cover for chapter 1

DaeofthePast

Tru

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

"Let us dissect this cover image for an entire week"

DaeofthePast

It would be a hilarious April fools challenge

copperine

Idk I think it was 20 minimum?

DaeofthePast

shrug

copperine

@snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights) can you shed any light on this

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The sign up form is where you would normally find that information.

copperine

... very good point

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

But the form is currently unavailable, and it's possible that Rebel might change the requirement when it becomes available again

copperine

Thank you for the heads up

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

FYI, https://comicteaparty.com/ is where the form will be available eventually

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

They accept resubmissions now?

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I def like arrows on the top and bottom of pages for sites to be more of a thing, as well as clicking the image for the next page too! Honestly there hasn't been a make or break, mainly preferences, and the most complaints i have are with the mobile formatting. I think most comics have been pretty solid in functionality that i've read, and it's clear that having their own website is becoming mainstream enough for there to be help, tips, and tricks to making it work!

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I definitely prefer if I can just click on the comic image to go to the next page especially for mobile.

copperine

Agreed!

Idk about resubmissions tho

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

... Wow. I absolutely HATE clickable images on mobile, because they usually mess with the pinch-zoom.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i've had sites that didnt have image click throughs and the arrow..... was like SO TINY XD

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Didn't think anyone would actually like it, so... huh.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i kept going back and forth

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

yeah, navigation needs to be bigger on mobile for safe tapping.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Oh, re:resubmissions, I'm pretty sure you can if it's been long enough? I think @snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights) mentioned it recently as an option. But maybe a tangent for #general

boogeymadam

i dont mind the pinch zoom being a little more difficult from time to time cause usually the clickable image is worth it to me

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Same

boogeymadam

am also fond of sites that allow left/right arrows to let you move forward and back on desktop

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Mainly it's just for like Krispy said, reading on mobile and tiny next/previous buttons.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ye my dummy thicc fingers prefer the click through image for sure

ohh yes Boogey that too

boogeymadam

it took me hours of googling to find the very simple comicpress option to just turn that on on my site

copperine

Mmm I do like sites that allow pinch zoom though

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I also prefer clicking on the image to go to the next page

mariah (rainy day dreams)

My fingers small, but still dummy T-T

copperine

It makes it easier to get a better look at the page

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

iweudhweiu Mariah XD

copperine

Especially if it's got smaller font

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

nyxandnyssa has a seperate navigation for mobile that's much bigger and skipping scene select to make tapping easier.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I've had the hover text def bum me out for some comics, where you click the image and it just displays the text, then you gotta click the tiny next bar def killed me there

copperine

I've never had issues with pinch zoom affecting clickable images but I can imagine it would be annoying

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

but! never breaks me out of a comic for me to stop reading-! i persevere in the face of adversity XD

boogeymadam

i've never encountered a site so bad i couldnt continue reading. maybe stuff where i'd stop reading until i was less frustrated but i'd come back later.

DaeofthePast

That’s something I’ll have to consider for my site then

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I feel like Smackjeeves had a really obnoxious auto pitch & zoom before they updated most recently. I like when I can turn it off on my phone. I'd rather do it myself most of the time and let my phone try to auto it X')

DaeofthePast

I usually read on desktop more often than on mobile so it’s good to hear from other’s experiences

copperine

Idk I've never used a custom site yet

boogeymadam

same dae, except on tapas and webtoons!(edited)

comics with their own website i'll boot up my computer for a single update of

DaeofthePast

Even on webtoons I read on desktop

boogeymadam

omg your power, webtoons feels so choppy on desktop to me

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

im definitely lucky that our site got a mobile friendly version i remember the 'ol pinchy zoomz was tiresome on our site for sure

DaeofthePast

I get headaches from reading on my phone unfortunately :/

Idk what the difference is between reading mobile and on a desktop but my brain doesn’t like it

Like, I can text fine???? But reading a comic for some reason is like “no”

So yeah, comics on desktop for me

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ohh!! it could be the close proximity!

DaeofthePast

Ooh :0 maybe?

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i know i get motion sickness depending on how close/ far i am from screens

DaeofthePast

Maybe it’s something like that... :O

boogeymadam

whatever the reason sorry you get headaches and motion sickness from comics :'0

DaeofthePast

Every once in a while I’ll try again to read on mobile I never learn

boogeymadam

the only reason i dont like mobile is sometimes comics text is a combination of too small there and the font is hard on my dyslexia

DaeofthePast

Rip

boogeymadam

so i see if zooming in on my computer helps

DaeofthePast

The lesson here is that it’s good to have both mobile and desktop options

boogeymadam

yep :'D

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ohhh yea def agree. I know that feeling and i sometimes ... have a Time reading my own work XD (i admit it lol!!)

boogeymadam

sometimes my own comic is hard on my dyslexia for The Effect so i never have hard feelings with other comics

copperine

(brb)

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ewiudhiwue the things we do AT WHAT COST XD

DaeofthePast

Asdfghjkl

Meanwhile I use the same font for everything

boogeymadam

wait im gonna generalize this more so it can be a party

DaeofthePast

Please post that on pillowfort so I can reblog it

boogeymadam

you can post it for yourself if you want dae!

i'm having a hard time logging on asdfgjh

DaeofthePast

Rip sure

copperine

Ah see I have both

Because hand lettering

It's great for feeling right for a comic but also eternally wondering if it's readable

DaeofthePast

Ooh yeah I guess that would count as both

What’s your comic btw :0

Wait, we’re supposed to be talking about website design right

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yep! If it gets too off topic, you can always continue in another channel that's more fitting.

copperine

Ah sorry! Sure thing

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Mobile is too small for me

DaeofthePast

Yeah

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

(oHHMYYGOSH BOOGEY XD)

boogeymadam

mm archives were mentioned already, and how it can really turn readers away to simply not have one at all? my favorite archive is https://www.vaingloriouscomic.com/comic/archive 's but i've seen some where they attempted an all picture archive and it backfired by just being a page of all empty boxes. this didn't deter me from reading it and it got fixed pretty quick tho~ mine is one of these and its a very chonky slowmoving page cause i uploaded the first 90ish as fullsized pictures. nobody's ever complained so idk if it's ever deterred anyone from reading but i know i gotta fix it someday.(edited)

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I really dont mind any kind of web design in particular though tbh. I prefer desktop sites but it’s fine if the design isnt great

DaeofthePast

Have you guys ever gone to a comic website (for a single comic) and the colors used in the background were so bright that it felt like they were blinding you to the point it was hard to read the actual pages?

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My archive is down right now becayse it broke and I dont know how to fix it lol

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i def want a fully view-able archive but we're gonna be hitting 800 pages and i dont know how well that will work XD

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

But I have a navigation bar now

boogeymadam

u could have multiple pages of archive, krispy!

i'm starting a new page for chapter 2

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Or dropdown menus

boogeymadam

but its probably important to have a dropdown if u have more than 1 page, yeah

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I want to switch to picture archives, but I haven't found a good plug in/way to get my word press to do it :( if anyone has recommendations...

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I wish I knew how to make dropdown menus

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i'll have to bring that up ! we dont do the tech work for our site ( thank gosh seriously) but i love archives that show full pages

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

If I could make dropdown menus I would be unstoppable

copperine

I miss the drop-downs on SJ

boogeymadam

i feel like dropdowns are smth i pretty much only exclusively see on hiveworks comics

i wonder what their secret is,,,

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I’ve inspected the elements on so many hiveworks sites lol

I want to know

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

they use word press I think

for their comic sites

just have to do some digging with the site html and csss

copperine

Right click and inspect maybe...

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Php stands for my Personal hell pit

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

if i could go undercover for yall i would XD

boogeymadam

also!! @mariah (rainy day dreams) i use elementor for mine

its not perfect and breaks like every time i update it but it works asdfg

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

... I'm currently writing a sparkling fresh wp-plugin for my page (comic easel wasn't doing what I wanted), but I am also a software dev who enjoys coding.

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My template I use functions in mostly php and xml and its gibberish to me but functions so well I dont know how to improve it to have specific things I want

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

my knowledge with site design is basic at best lmao

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

wordpress is a bit special in that it does most things more complicated than strictly necessary.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but I do like fiddling with stuff

^that too lmao

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I know Shiza of osarilho is really good at web designing? she's made some beautiful work with her site!

boogeymadam

i want to ask shiza for more help but not before i have some money to pay her :')

she's helped me a lot already

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I can do html and css at the babiest level

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I'll check that out Boogey, thanks! Even if it does break X') And I guess I'll just make a note to start stashing money to hire shiza XD im definitely at the point where my site needs a general face lift, but I don't have the spoons for it.

boogeymadam

imo i've made some really pretty pges with it. it's a drag and drop that's excellent at galleries, but it doesn't like when you don't have even rows for some reason

the wordpress plugin, Elementor, i mean.

copperine

I've been wanting to try comicpress for ages

I just don't know where to start

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I'm gonna move over to #shop_talk for my response

copperine

I had someone who was gonna help me out but we lost contact so it's on the back burner

boogeymadam

OOPS yeah

copperine

But for websites in general I prefer to have one that feels very basic than one that feels too busy or crowded

I'm not a graphic designer at all lol

If I do try an independent site I'm planning to pay a coding friend to help me

DaeofthePast

yeah i have no idea what I'm doing when working on my site, it's kinda basic, but at least it looks nice

copperine

I just use a premade theme on my ComicFury site

It works and that's good enough for me so far

Oh I guess the other thing that would put me off reading a comic is if the site isn't formatted for mobile, and/or particularly if the site doesn't have adaptive formatting

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

same, but editted it hard core so it looks like it's own thing lmao

copperine

I usually read on my phone because my computer is where I work so I like to get off it for hobbies

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but for me uh i guess mobile i try to read it either on tapas, webtoon or its own site

I find just clicking the page to the next one helps me a lot lol I don't do a lot of zooming

copperine

Mmm

copperine

It's personal preference a lot tbh!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I like my comuter because its big

copperine

Valid

Mine is not

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

did anyone talk about paying me please you don't have to do that

copperine

Idk but you can pay me

Idk what for but

I'll take money

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I absolutely would have to if you made my site awesome X') work is work, and you should be paid for it

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

fair enough

Just send me a DM whenever you're up for that and lemme take a look at what you already have

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I would hire someone to do web design for me but I dont have the funds & I dont wnat to make someone do work for me for free

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

I've been meaning to set up my own website for a while now, since the collective i was originally hosting my webcomic with kinda fell apart, but it's so much work and i'm hella intimidated :'''D

copperine

@sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead) there's been some related discussion in #shop_talk and I believe @boogeymadam might be able to advise (I'm sure others can too but I'm going off the convo from earlier)

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

@sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead) depending on how much it is I can help you out

RebelVampire

Admin Reminder Remember this channel is for experiences as a reader first and foremost, so #shop_talk and #general are better if you want to discuss your own stuff.

DaeofthePast

thank you for the reminder :3

RebelVampire

I would say poor web design is something I have a complicated relationship regarding webcomics. On the one hand, outside of a site being 100% completely broken, I'm willing to sit through a lot to read. So in terms of affecting whether I read a comic the first time or not, there isn't much to say there. But it does affect how engaged I am with the comic. Cause if I can't easily go back to re-read a page, easily find things like character names, have to deal with extreme lag cause the host is garbage, have to deal with eye bleeding color schemes, etc. you can bet your bottom dollar 1 time is all that comic is going to get in terms of reading it. I can only subject myself to so much, and if I don't feel like reading a comic again because of the site itself, I'm going to quickly forget it in favor of comics whose sites don't make me cry. I do give more leeway to sites created by creators in many respects. But professional bigtime hosts like Tapas or Webtoons literally have no excuse for some of their garbage design choices. And some of their design choices are super duper garbage.

DaeofthePast

that's true yeah, there's a big distinction of the quality expectations between sites by small creators and those of big companies like Webtoons

RebelVampire

At the same time, though, I know from first hand experience that poor design choices are literally influenced by user data for bigger companies. So for every decision I consider stupid- at the same time they probably did the AB tests that showed crappy design A had better results for their conversion rates than user friendly design B.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Which boggles my mind

I wonder if there's some kinda causation-correlation thing going on that the A/B tests could not detect accurately

boogeymadam

Rebel mentioned sites that have eyebleedy color schemes and I'm in the same boat; will read the comic, just will be turning down the screen brightness a looot. Sites that have a huge space of extremely neon background that distracts from the comic make me reluctant to read on the site, and I'll look for a mirror before trying. That white background of the 2 big comic hosting sites can at least be affected and turned dark by nightmode when needed, while nightmode doesn't work on half the bright comic sites I've tried it on. u-u

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comic tea party #ctp #reader favorites

1 note · View note

sanguisfulgur · 6 years ago

Note

Why is Setka your one singleship muse?

*inhales* Welp, knew it was only a matter of time before I got an ask about this.

tw: sexual abuse/rape mention, racism.

I won’t be naming names b/c whilst this person no longer uses this site, people they interacted with and were friends with do and some of them were/are mutual followers. Some people know or might work out who I mean and I ask you to keep quiet about it b/c I don’t want the drama.

This won’t be under a cut because it’s important.

tl;dr version: someone myself and my fiancee were friends with lied to us, manipulated and just turned out to be a… not very good person who crossed boundaries and was racist. And used Setka for some of that.

I’m not going to go over the whole story because… yikes. Basically they picked Setka to ship with purely to spite and hurt my fiancee after she told them she didn’t want/didn’t feel the ship they had and felt pressured into it. Said ship was between Vlad - Setka’s now only shipping partner - and their character.

It didn’t raise flags at first but it became increasingly obvious. They disregarded his entire character and personality and when discussing shipping things, talked about sexual things in a really graphic, violent manner. Setka is a rape survivor. He was repeatedly raped and otherwise sexually abused by his sire. He is not sexually aggressive and talking about it like that made me - and him in my head - incredibly uncomfortable.

I had no say in a lot of things. They named their kid (didn’t even ask me about them having kids which btw is gonna be an issue between him and Vlad b/c Setka’s trauma makes him fear he’s not ‘man’ enough to be a father.), started planning their wedding??? And increasingly talked about my muse in an upsettingly graphic manner.

Then it spread to his faceclaim. Y’know. The actual, real person. I - like any decent human being - am super uncomfortable with people talking about celebrities like they’re characters or pieces of meat. Finding them attractive is one thing, sexualising and dehumanising them is another. Especially when they’re a man of colour. A MENA one at that. I’d feel the same if it was any actor ect but Sid is one of those actors that’s very dear to me so it made it 100x worse. They started talking about how they ‘always found arab men hot’ which was ‘funny because my (their) parents hate them.’

I’m sure y’all can see the ‘YIKES’ from a mile away, right? Unrelated to this but they casually dropped the n-word in our Skype group chat on more than one occasion (they are white) and whilst it was never in regard to a black person (more a general exclamation) it made me and my fiancee (both also white, just fyi) super uncomfortable, angry and skeeved out. They also didn’t see an issue with racist ‘Redskins’ and other Native American ‘mascots’ and I guess they thought it would be okay to drop these things in our chat b/c all of us were white??? But no lmao I called that out and they absolutely flipped shit on me for implying they were racist.

It also seemed to be a way to get between my fiancee and I. Setka is very much like myself, Vlad is very much like Cora. They are the muses of ours we relate the most to and it was building a wedge between us. It seemed to be the goal given they seemed to not like our relationship and frequently made sexual comments that upset my fiancee and thus, me - like calling themselves my ‘side bitch’.

ANYWAY there’s a lot more but it doesn’t relate to Setka at all. But to Sharna and general OOC so YEAH. Bad experience with a racist, fetishising, manipulative person made me not want to ship him with anyone but my fiancee.

#ask #anon #tw: rape mention #tw: racism #psa #Anonymous

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ltwilliamhavers · 7 years ago

Text

New Years Eve (Rosawatts)

authors note: it’s a to the moon fanfiction! my first one ever! fun times. so, number one, i did write this pretty quickly and only went over it once so if theres mistakes im really sorry! and two, i feel like in one of the minisodes they mentioned eva’s canon family but i just. completely forgot about that. so if eva does have a canon family sorry about that- all of her family members i just completely made up. this fic is also pretty long- or at least i think so. its a little more than 5k words. just an fyi, i guess. anyway, thats about all i have to say, so thanks!

Neil was awoken to the sound of incredibly loud banging outside of his hotel room.

“Neil! Neil Watts! Open this door right now, I know you’re in there! I am not afraid to open this door by force, I swear!”

Neil sat up in his bed, feeling slightly uncomfortable due to the hard mattress and also the fact that this was not his usual bed. He wipes the sleep out of his eyes and quickly puts his glasses on so that he’s able to see more than two feet in front of him. He takes a quick scan of his surroundings. There’s cheap art of fruit baskets and lakes all around the stark white room, an old TV that he’s surprised even works anymore, and the weird, popcorn effect of the ceiling. He quickly realized that he wasn’t in his apartment he shared with Eva- but he was still groggy enough to not remember the reason why.

The woman outside the door continues to yell, obviously either not aware of the other patrons in the hotel, or she quite simply doesn’t care. She starts banging on the door again. “Come on, groom to be! Eva will literally kill you if you’re late, so if I were you I’d hurry up.” A brief silence ensues, giving the still tired Neil- not really listening to anything the voice outside says- the time to finally step out of his bed, wipe off his glasses, and head towards the door. The noise outside quickly pipes back up. “It’s also a possibility I will kill you before Eva gets the chance to. So you better hurry up.”

Neil groggily walks towards the door, it still shaking even though the person outside knows for a fact that the door is locked. Still stretching his face out, trying to wake himself up, he finally answers the person outside. “…Roxie?” Neil says, slightly yawning.

“Yes, Neil, it’s Roxie. Who else would be yelling at you at 9 am?”

“Eva.”

“Other than Eva, idiot. You guys aren’t allowed to see each other today.”

This sentence quickly jumpstarts Neil’s memory- even though Eva and Neil aren’t really ones for superstitions or traditions, they decided to do the whole thing of not being able to see each other on their wedding day.

Their wedding day.

On this day, Dr. Neil Watts is going to marry Dr. Eva Rosalene.

“I’m assuming you just woke up, considering it took me about 20 minutes to even get a response out of you.” Neil assumes that Roxie is exaggerating this, as she does with most stories, but he wasn’t entirely sure. He decided to go the safe route and not question this in case the story actually was true.

“Yeah, can I just… uh…. can you hold on a quick second?”

“Are you going to let me in or do I need to sit out here for another half hour?”

Roxie increased the time again, so Neil can safely assume that she did exaggerate how long she was outside, banging on his door.

“Just hold on!”

“If you’re in your little Pokemon boxers, I’ve seen them before. I’ll be fine. Just let me in, Neil, oh my God.”

Neil turns a bright red as he looks down, seeing his bright blue boxers with the little red Pokemon logo on it. “Wait, Roxie, how do you know I have… better question, when have you seen them?” There is silence from the other side of the door, but Neil has known Roxie long enough that she’s probably rolling her eyes.

“So, obviously you don’t remember anything about your bachelor party.”

Neil is too embarrassed to answer. He’s always been a little self conscious about how much of a lightweight he is- it doesn’t take him much to get him blackout drunk.

“Okay. Long story short, you got blackout drunk- obviously- and you wouldn’t stop taking off your pants to show everyone the ‘super cool Pokemon boxers’ that your ‘beautiful wife’ got you, even though you weren’t married yet. I tried to help you to your car because you literally could not stop stumbling, and you yelled at me multiple times for ‘trying to flirt with a happily married man.’”

Neil blushes thinking of drunk-Neil’s shenanigans, but he does think it was really funny he was telling everyone he was married. He’ll probably tell Eva about this story after the wedding- he’d like the embarrass himself as little as possible in front of her before they get married.

“Neil, I will start yelling again.”

“Just let me put my pants on, Roxie! I’d rather you not have to see my boxers while I’m sober.”

Roxie lets out a long, drawn out ‘ugh’ outside of the door while Neil quickly goes through all of his things, looking for pants. The first thing he finds are the dress pants that go with his suit, so he quickly pulls those on and opens the latch on the door, before Roxie ends up waking up the people in the building next to the hotel.

Neil opens the door, looking straight ahead, before quickly looking down to make eye contact with Roxie. He stands almost a foot taller than her, and it infuriates her whenever he jokes about her height or rests his arm on her head. He decided not to bring anything up today. He can already tell Roxie is angry.

“You owe me so many gallons of ice cream for this.”

“I really think you were only out here for a couple of minutes-”

“So. Many. Gallons.”

Neil shuts up quickly, staring into Roxie’s glaring eyes. Roxie quickly scans over him, giggling. “Graphic t-shirt and dress pants. It’s a really good look for you, Neil.” Neil turns bright red once again.

“Wedding’s at 6, Watts. All the groomsmen are downstairs. The bridesmaid are all helping Eva out- except for the best one, of course.” Roxie does the fingers in the cheek thing, smiling warmly at Neil. “None of us are dressed up yet. We’re gonna dress up a few hours before hand. We’re all going out for brunch.”

“Wait, why aren’t you helping Eva out?”

“Well, she did tell me that I could help out, but I know myself. I’d probably end up spilling everything humanly possible onto her dress. So I just decided…. not to.”

“You think it’s fine to spill stuff on my outfit though.”

“Weddings are for two people and two people only- the bride and the bride’s mother. So, no, you don’t really matter in the whole equation.”

“Yeah, because the whole marriage and love thing doesn’t matter at all.”

“Exactly!”

Neil sighs, not bothering to deal with Roxie’s logic of marriage and weddings this morning. “So I’m gonna get changed so that… I don’t want to go to brunch looking like this.”

“That’s probably a good idea.”

“Thanks, I try,” Neil says, with a cocky grin. Roxie rolls her eyes as Neil closes and latches the door.

* * *

Eva keeps twirling the engagement ring around her finger. She has a lot of pent up nervousness about this day- it needs to be perfect. Not that she’d ever tell Neil, but she’d daydreamed a lot about her wedding day. Sure, as her third-grade self she had never imagined the man she would one day marry would’ve been a snarky, sarcastic asshole, but she did know that she would’ve never picked someone she wasn’t sure she truly loved. She knew she made the right choice, she just didn’t want to kick off their marriage with a horrible start.

Her mom, Estella, walked into the bedroom alongside Eva’s twin sister Charlotte (who was called Charlie by basically everyone who knew her). They looked like they were glowing.

Charlie started lightly jumping up and down, clapping her hands and smiling cheerfully. “Evie, it’s here! You’re getting married!”

Eva jumps up with a start at this, not realizing that they were in the room. Eva starts, “How long have you two…” when Charlie sprints towards her and envelopes her in a bear hug.

“Evie, oh my god, you’re getting married! It’s finally happening! I’m so excited, oh my god! I’m the most excited I’ve ever been!” Charlie pulls away from the hug, still slightly bouncing. “Well, okay, probably not the most excited, I was probably more excited on my wedding day, but you know what I mean. And you’re probably more excited than I am. I mean, that makes sense, right? Anyway.” Charlie takes a deep breath from chattering excitedly. Eva smiles warmly to herself- there’s really no stopping Charlie ones she gets talking. Not that she minds, Charlie’s always been her best friend since day one and she appreciates that she can do the talking for the both of them.

“Umm… thank you, Charlie. I am also very excited,” Eva says, stifling a laugh. She looks behind Charlie, seeing her mom still standing by the doorway. She sees Eva looking at her, and she gives her a warm smile, closing her eyes. Eva smiles back.

“So… when are we starting with the makeup? I’m so excited! I can’t wait to do your makeup! Oh my goodness, you’re going to look so beautiful! Not that you don’t already. I’m just super excited!” Charlie starts bouncing up and down again, along with her natural curls, while Eva starts giggling while Charlie keeps prattling on excitedly.

Eva looks around towards the doorway. “Mom? Where are the rest of the bridesmaids?” Her mom was one of the bridesmaids, and she had agreed to keep track of everyone. Usually that job went to the maid of honor, who was Charlie (technically matron of honor, in her case), but they all had mutually agreed they would not have Charlie in charge of keeping track of everything. Her mom responds in a small voice, “They’re all carpooling here. As you know, that girl… Roxanne? She’s staying with Neil. Too clumsy.” Her mom smiles with this last sentence. It wasn’t meant maliciously, Estella loves all of Eva’s friends, but anyone from a mile away can tell Roxie is one of the clumsiest people to grace this Earth.

The last three bridesmaids- Sophie, Maria and Valentina- were close friends from college that Eva was able to keep close in touch with. They weren’t doing anything in particular to help Eva out with her wedding, they were there for morale support and to give Charlie other people to talk to. Charlie was a professional cosmetologist, so she was in charge of doing Eva’s hair and makeup; Estella was in charge of making sure everyone was in the right place, at the right time. All Eva had to do was make sure she looked presentable, and show up to her wedding on time.

Eva hears the doorbell ring from the front of her shared apartment, and Charlie lights up. “Oh! They’re here! I finally have company!” Eva started to say something along the lines of, “Am I not good enough company for you?” but Charlie had already sprinted towards the door. In just a few seconds, she heard the hellos and semi-quiet screaming of girls by the door. Estella turns to Eva. “I’m going to step into a different room. I need to check on the Neil and the boys…” She smiles to herself. She had always loved Neil- he always managed to curb his tongue whenever he was near her. “Oh! And Roxanne.” She pats Eva’s arm appreciatively, and heads into the living room as all the other girls file in to the bedroom.

Charlie holds up a hair dryer in one hand and a hair straightener in the other. “Alright, Evie! 11 am. Gotta head out at 4. Five hours to get you ready for your wonderful groom!” Charlie smiles with all her teeth as Sophie, Maria and Valentina cheer behind her. Eva smiles sheepishly as she sits down at her vanity, waiting for Charlie to work her magic.

* * *

Neil, Roxie, Alistair, Rob and a few others who were Neil’s personal friends were still all sitting down at the brunch place. The wait had taken a while (this place was always very popular) and with the amount of people in the restaurant, the food had also taken a while to arrive. Everyone was already mostly finished up as Neil got the phone call from Eva’s mom. His phone started vibrating as the contact ‘Estella ❤’ popped up.

“Uh… I’m gonna go take care of this okay? You guys got the bill? Thanks guys love you bye!” Neil finishes quickly and leaves the restaurant to step outside as Rob yells after him.

Neil steps out into the cold winter air- Neil thought it would be romantic if they had gotten married in the winter. Eva didn’t care either way, she was just excited for the wedding. They had both decided on New Year’s Eve (which Neil had also suggested, thinking that it would be symbolic for their ‘new beginning.’ Not that Neil would ever admit this to Eva.)

He immediately regretted not bringing a heavier jacket or maybe some gloves, which Roxie had pestered him to do so and Neil had brushed her off. He picked up the call for Estella, fingers already freezing.

“Hello?”

“Ah, Neil!” He smiles to himself. He always loved how happy Estella was to hear from him.

“Yes, hi, Estella. What’s going on?”

“Just checking up on my boys! How’s Roxanne?”

Neil looks inside the window of the restaurant, watching Roxie pick up her drink and accidently spill some on herself. He turns back around. “Well… she’s exactly how you’d expect her to be.”

He hears Estella giggle on the other line. Neil smiles.

“So? Neil? Are you ready? I know I am a nice woman but if you are late I will find you.”

“Yes- yes, Estella, I’m going to be ready. All of our suits are dry cleaned and at my hotel room. Is Eva almost done with her makeup?” Neil smiles to himself again. It hasn’t really hit him yet how big of a thing this is- he’s getting married. To Eva Rosalene. The girl he’s had a crush on since high school.

“Oh, she hasn’t even started on makeup yet! She’s still straightening her hair. It might be a while.”

“Estella, not that I don’t love talking to you, but could you hand me to Eva? I’d really appreciate it.”

“Yes! Sure! Just one second.”

Neil hears shuffling on the phone and takes this moment to look back inside. He sees Rob paying the bill, then he turns back to Neil, giving him the ‘I’m watching you’ gesture. Neil quickly turns back around.

He then jumps, hearing a loud cacophony of noises from the other line. Lots of girl’s voices yelling “Hi, Neil!” and some other squeals in the background.

“Hi, hi, everyone.”

He hears some whispering that he can’t really make out, but soon he hears Eva’s voice.

“Neil?”

He puts on his sappiest, mushiest voice. “Hi, babykins!” he says, drawing out each word.

“I swear to god, Neil, if you ever say that to me ever again I will call off this wedding.”

Neil laughs. “So, babe, what’s happenin?

“I’m just getting my- OW! Charlie!” He hears some muttered apologies, presumably from Charlie. “I’m getting my hair done, if Charlie doesn’t rip it all out first.” He hears Charlie go, ‘hey!’ in a mock-offense tone.

“Sounds like a really fun time.”

“Yeah, I can tell how enthralled you are by your voice.”

“So… whatcha gettin done?”

“Neil. Come on. You know I’m not allowed to tell you what I look like.”

Neil grins. “Not allowed to say what you look like?”

“Wait, I didn’t-”

“Oh no, Eva, I’m forgetting what you look like! What color is your hair? Do you still have those beautiful dark brown eyes? I don’t know. And you can’t tell me.”

“Neil, I swear, you know what I meant.”

“Please answer my questions. I’m getting so worried. I can’t remember.”

“I hate you so much,” Eva answers, but he can tell she’s speaking with a smile.

Neil sees the group leaving the restaurant, Roxie turning around and waving at him to follow them. Neil turns back to his phone.

“Alright, I gotta go. Hanging out with my crew, you know the deal.”

Eva sighs from the other line. “Bye, Neil.”

“I love you!”

Eva smiles. “I love you too.”

“Okay, bye for real this time. Roxie has been glaring at me this whole time.”

“Bye.”

“Adios, Eva.” Neil hangs up the phone, puts it in his pocket, and walks over to Roxie to rejoin the group.

* * *

“I cannot believe you don’t know how to tie a bowtie.”

“This would’ve been much easier if everyone could’ve worn a tie, not just the groomsmen.”

“Would I have had to help you out with tying a tie too, Neil?” Roxie asks with a smirk.

In the church’s dressing room, Roxie was standing on her tiptoes to try to help Neil get his tuxedo on. Neil was able to get everything else on- Estella made sure he could button everything and that everything was the correct size for him. However, Neil had never learned how to tie a bowtie.

“Well, you see, I know how to tie a tie. I just never wear bowties.”

“It’s really not that difficult.”

“Don’t patronize me, Roxie. Not on my wedding day.”

Roxie giggles a little bit, as she finished up his bowtie. Neil makes eye contact with Rob, standing by the doorway. He’s there to make sure Neil and Eva don’t see each other before the big moment.

“You really should learn how to tie a bowtie, Neil.”

“Rob, do not make me resend your best man responsibilities.”

Even though Neil and Rob had more or less hated each other when Neil had started working, Neil had eventually warmed up to him. Rob was one of the ones who first caught on to Neil’s crush on Eva, and prompted him to ask her out. Neil decided that this was good enough to give him the position of best man.

Rob smiles. “You’re going to resend my best man responsibilities.”

“If you keep talking like that, yes, absolutely.”

Neil walks over to the tall mirror to check himself out. He does a few poses in the mirror, giving Rob a glare when he sees him laughing in the background.

“I can’t believe I’m going to look better than Eva on our wedding day.”

“That part’s debatable,” Rob answers.

Roxie adds onto this. “Yeah, you haven’t even seen Eva yet. Trust me on this one, she looks absolutely stunning. I can’t wait to look that good on my wedding day.”

Neil turns around, putting on a self assured face. “No, trust me, I definitely look better than her. Me and Eva are having a little competition for whoever looks better today.”

Roxie raises an eyebrow. “…Eva agreed to that?”

“Well, no, but… I did. And that’s what matters.”

Roxie and Rob sigh at the same time.

“Are you nervous?” Roxie asks.

Neil has felt butterflies in his stomach the whole day, and now knowing the wedding’s going to start in half an hour his hands have started to shake.

“Absolutely not. I was born ready for this, are you kidding?”

Roxie and Rob obviously saw through this, but they said nothing.

Roxie starts backing up towards the door. “Gotta go meet up with the bridesmaids- haven’t even gotten into my dress yet.” Roxie ducks out into the hallway. “Adios, losers!” she yells, voice echoing down the hallway. Neil sighs.

Rob and Neil stand in silence for a few moments, before Rob pipes up.

“Are you ready?”

Neil turns to himself in the mirror again, giving himself a once over. His tuxedo is all buttoned up, none of his clothes have any wrinkles, and his white boutonniere was perfectly placed in his pocket. He looked good to go.

But how are you ever ready for the most important moment of your life?

Neil turns back around to Rob. “The readiest I’ve ever been.”

“I don’t think readiest is a word.”

“Shut up, Rob.”

* * *

All of the many guests have sat themselves down in the large church. The officiant has made his way to the altar. Neil and Rob have made their way to the altar from the side door. All the bridesmaids and groomsmen have made their way to the top; all the groomsmen in black tuxedos and ties; all bridesmaids in cream colored dresses with gold sashes. Charlie then walks up to the altar by herself, in a full length gold dress. The ring bearer has delivered the rings, and the flower girl has sprayed flower petals over the aisle.

The only thing left was Eva and her father, James, to walk down the aisle.

Neil kept fidgeting with his pockets. The only other wedding he had been to before was Charlie’s, and he didn’t pay attention to what the groom was doing because he was too busy getting yelled at by Eva for not paying attention.

He now wishes he would’ve actually watched the reception instead of trying to get Eva to laugh at his jokes. Almost all eyes are on him. He’s never had stage fright, he was always a theatre kid at heart, but he has never been this nervous before in his life.

The organ player starts up and Neil quickly picks his head up to watch the big church doors at the end of the aisle. Everyone in the pews stands up, facing the doors too. Neil’s heart is beating faster than it ever had before.

The big church doors burst open, as the organ player plays a crescendo. James and Eva walk through the doors, and-

Eva looks the most beautiful Neil has ever seen her.

Her hair is in a low bun, held up with silver hairsticks. She is in a beautiful, long a-line sweetheart dress with long lace sleeves. Her face is covered with a veil, but Neil knows she looks as beautiful as she always does.

James and Eva slowly walk down the aisle, and Neil realises he’s tearing up. He remembers what he said to Eva one time- how ‘liquids and solids’ come out of his mouth at weddings- but he knew that was a lie. He was a sucker for weddings, he just couldn’t help it. He tries to wipe his eyes, before actual tears start rolling down his cheeks. He keeps his hand up by his face the entire time Eva is walking towards him, he can hardly believe this. He’s really doing this. He’s really going to marry Dr. Eva Rosalene.

James and Eva reach the end of the aisle, and Neil can finally see Eva’s face through the veil. She’s smiling at him. Neil smiles back, eyes tearing up again.

James takes a seat in the front row, watching Eva step up onto the altar to join Neil.

Eva takes Neil’s hands in her own. She looks up at him, smiling warmly. Neil keeps looking at her with bewilderment- she’s here, right in front of him, and she looks so beautiful. Neil can’t help it this time- tears start rolling down his face. He can’t wipe them away, he doesn’t want to stop holding Eva’s hands.

Eva starts giggling. “Thought you weren’t the sentimental type?” Eva whispers under her breath, while the officiant talks behind them.

“Eva. Not on my wedding day.” Neil whispers back.

“Just your wedding day, huh?”

Neil was about to respond, when the officiant said, “And do you, Dr. Neil Watts, take Dr. Eva Rosalene as your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”

Neil looks at the officiant, then back to Eva, staring into her beautiful dark brown eyes. He chokes up a little before answering. “I do.” He says this while not looking away from Eva’s eyes.

(Not that he’d ever tell Eva, but he did consider saying ‘no’ as a joke when answering this question, but then he realised that almost every person there would murder him. So he decided against it.)

Eva smiles at him. The officiant turns to her. “And do you, Dr. Eva Rosalene, take Dr. Neil Watts as your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”

Eva looks up at Neil, and holds her gaze for a few moments. “I do.”

The officiant smiles at the both of them, and then to the crowd.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

All the guests cheer loudly as Neil lifts Eva’s veil, cups his hands around her face and kisses her. When he pulls away, he sees Eva’s eyes shining. “Not bad,” she whispers to him, in a sarcastic tone. When they both turn to face the front, Neil elbows her a little bit. Eva smiles and glances at him for a moment.

They laugh as the groomsmen and bridesmaids pull out gold confetti poppers and sprinkle them with the confetti.

* * *

“Are you ready for our first dance, m’lady?” Neil extends his hand out towards Eva, who was sitting next to her family, when the lights had dimmed and the DJ had introduced the two of them to come out onto the floor.

“Call me m’lady again and I will divorce you.”

“You won’t, you love me too much.”

“That, and it’s expensive,” Eva responds with a smile. Neil frowns good naturedly.

“Oh, come on. Dance with me.”

Eva allows herself to be pulled up by Neil, leaving her family who all turn to face towards the floor. Neil turns the ‘dragging Eva’s forearm’ into ‘holding Eva’s hand’ as they get closer towards the floor. They step onto the middle of the floor, holding each other close as the song turns on. Eva looks confused for a few seconds, then looks up at Neil, eyebrow raised but still smiling. “You chose ‘You Were Meant For Me’ by Jewel? Really? How sappy are you?” Neil blushes. ‘You told me you liked this song.” Eva, smiling, leans in close to Neil, moving her arms to his back and resting her head on his shoulder. “I do like this song.”

Eva and Neil stayed on the floor throughout the whole song, swaying with each other and keeping each other as close as possible.

* * *

It was nearing the end of the reception, which meant that it was time for Neil and Eva to cut their wedding cake. The cake was 3 tiers tall, the bottom tier chocolate (Neil and Eva’s shared favorite), second tier vanilla (they both decided that they needed something basic for anyone to enjoy), and the final, smallest one, carrot cake. Eva took it upon herself to show Neil that carrot cake can be delicious if cooked by the right person.

They had done the sappy thing where they both held onto the knife while cutting into the cake; Neil playfully elbowing her, trying to get her to mess up, while Eva laughed.

When they had both gotten their slices onto their plate, Eva said, “Do you want to do that really cheesy thing where the couples shove the cake in the other person’s face?”

Neil tried to remain as straight faced as possible. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Eva took this moment as a teaching lesson for Neil, not noticing the grin growing on his face. “Sometimes, at weddings, when the betrothed are cutting their cake, they ball up some of the cake in their-”

Eva was cut off from the rest of her sentence as Neil had picked his slice of the cake in his hand and shoved it into Eva’s face. She looked confused for a few seconds, then looked back up at Neil with steely determination, a sly smile on her face. “Oh, you are so paying for that one, Watts.” Neil was about to correct her, saying that technically today, they were both Watts, but got interrupted because of the cake that was thrown in his face.

Eva had another fistful of cake, laughing, and Neil went to grab another part of his slice, when they were interrupted by a flash in front of both of them. They lower their pieces of cake and turn towards the bright flash, seeing a smiling Charlie holding her phone. “Oh, sorry! You two just looked so cute so I thought I might as well get a picture, right?”

Neil was about to say something along the lines of ‘that’s alright,’ but was once again interrupted by the act of cake being shoved in his face. He turned to the Eva laughing beside him. “You’re paying for that one too, Watts!” Neil said, as he picked up Eva, now laughing even louder, and slung her over her shoulder. She playfully hit him, yelling, “I swear, Neil, put me down!” if she could get it out between bursts of laughter. Neil was smiling too, and Charlie continued to take multiple pictures of the newlywed’s shenanigans.

* * *

Most people had already filed out at this point. Only Eva’s family, the groomsmen, the bridesmaids and a few stragglers were left. It was time for the final dance.

“You picked this final one too, yeah?”

Neil looked at Eva. “I absolutely did. And you’re gonna love it.”

Eva rolled her eyes in a good natured way.

The DJ introduced the final song, saying it was almost time to pack up, as Neil stood up from his chair and once again tugged on Eva’s arm to get her to follow him.

“I’ll stand up if I find out it’s a good song.”

“Alright, well, I guess you’ll just have to watch me out there, alone, busting some pretty awesome moves on the dance floor.”

“So you do admit it’s a bad song?”

Neil sighs while smiling, as he makes his way to the dance floor. He stands in a pop punk boy band pose while waiting for the song to start, making Eva giggle. The first beginning notes of the song start, as Neil starts to dance horribly. He watches Eva put her head in her hands while laughing, causing Neil to smile.

On the loudspeakers, Come on Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners was playing.

Whenever the lyric, ‘come on Eileen!’ played, Neil sang ‘come on Eva!’ loudly over it. Eva turned bright red from the embarrassment of her husband, but was smiling nonetheless.

Neil had stayed out there for about 30 seconds, starting to get worried that Eva wasn’t joking when she said she wouldn’t join him. But when he turned around, and he saw Eva standing up from her chair, smiling and shaking her head, with a glint in her eyes-

He saw his whole future.

#to the moon #finding paradise #rosawatts #neil watts #eva rosalene #hope yall enjoyed. lmao.#i just love eva and neil so much.... getting married..... its what the deserve #*they deserve #my writing

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lizabethstucker · 3 years ago

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Asimov's Science Fiction (March/April 2017)

Digging into my backlot of science fiction magazines. A mixture of verse and stories. I've only reviewed and rated the stories. This particular issue is the 40th Anniversary one! 3.8 out of 5 "Soulmates.com" by Will McIntosh Daniel wants someone to share his life with, to love and be loved by. When he meets Winnie through a dating app, he thinks she could be the one almost immediately. Emily, his former girlfriend and current best friend, is more suspicious, doing a deep dive on who Winnie could be. Which, considering they never meet in person despite Winnie being in Atlanta and Daniel in Athens, not that long a drive, is valid. Starts extremely slowly, assumingly to establish the characters. Not my favorite way as most writers don't do a good job at it. I'm not entirely certain that this is actually science fiction, despite the use of Artificial Intelligence. As to Daniel, I found him to be incredibly childish, blind, immature, and boring. He learned absolutely nothing from his experience. I struggled to complete this novella. 2.5 out of 5 "Number Thirty-Nine Skink" by Suzanne Palmer It started simply enough, an expedition designed to bring life in balance to an empty planet. Then the humans left suddenly, leaving Mike willingly behind with Kadey whose programming makes the creatures populating the area. When Mike dies of cancer, Kadey continues her work. Until the night something changes. Poor Kadey, struggling with loneliness, possibly incomplete programming, and the knowledge hidden from her regarding why the humans left. Sad, yes, but with a more hopeful ending that is also a beginning. Lovely story, so well written. 4.5 out of 5 "Three Can Keep a Secret..." by Bill Johnson & Gregory Frost A convoluted tale of assassins, misdirection, love, greed, and con-artistry with an almost noir feel to it. It's almost impossible to give a synopsis that isn't chockful of spoilers. The first person narrator isn't totally reliable, but still intriguing in what he shares. I loved this more than I expected with this strange little story. FYI, in case you don't know, the title is from an old saying. Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead. 4.5 out of 5 "The Ones Who Know Where They Are Going" by Sarah Pinsker A child must suffer so the city can be happy, or so they say. One particular child is taken from her mother, locked away in the dark with no social interaction beyond the delivery of food. As time passes, language is lost and memories of a happier time begin to fade. Then one day the door isn't shut tightly and the child gets out of the tiny dark room. She crawls up the stairs, each step bringing back a particular memory, heading for freedom. But at what cost? Rip my heart out, why don't you? Two and a half pages of the most gut-wrenching narrative. The tightly woven writing is painfully descriptive. And the ending! Oh, the ending. I just cannot deal with it. 5 out of 5 "Invasion of the Saucer-Men" by Dale Bailey Teenagers have been foiling alien invasions for some time. After all, the adults are either locked in their homes consuming television or would dismiss the very idea of aliens. The newest landing of a flying saucer bonds together teens out at the local make-out point. Per the author, his idea was to take the cheesy sci-fi and horror movie titles of the 1950s and treat the core idea with some emotional and thematic nuance. Here we have a group of teen archetypes, from the football star to the nerds to the beauty. There are also the followers that are always found in high school. This brings back memories of too many cheesy nights at the drive-ins in my county. I've always found my sympathies fell with the aliens most of the time, faced with humans whose first response to the unknown was always violence. Horrible ending to this story. Horrible. CW: extremely graphic attack. 3 out of 5 "Kitty Hawk" by Alan Smale After receiving word of her brother's death, Katharine Wriht travels from Ohio to North Carolina to help her other brother. Instead of Orville preparing to pack up for the trip home with his beloved

brother's body, he is trying to continue with the flight experiments that killed Wilbur. Katharine finds herself engaged in helping, even learning to fly herself. This is a complete AU of the Wright Brothers and the birth of flight, through World War I and the suffrage movement. The writing is evocative of the time period and the dangers of experimental flight. I don't know why it didn't click with me, but I struggled quite a bit in reading this imaginative tale. I can see others enjoying this greatly, just not me. 3 out of 5 "Cupido" by Rich Larson Marcel is a genius at chemistry. He came up with a way to make pheromones specific to the pair he's paid to bring together, either by one of the potential couple or by a third party. The majority of the money he charges goes to pay for his grandmother's colon cancer treatment. As word gets around, he finds himself moving to smaller cities to avoid identification. As yet, what he does isn't illegal. He didn't expect to find himself attracted to his potential mark. Frankly, I don't consider this to be science fiction at all. The science is already viable. Add the consent issues which would be called dubcon (dubious consent) and I'm too busy cringing to enjoy. In my mind, Marcel is anything but a hero. 3 out of 5 "A Singular Event in the Fourth Dimension" by Andrea M. Pawley Olive was removed from the reducer pile, adopted by a childless couple to help stave off loneliness. Now that the second grandmother is living with them and Mama was pregnant, Olive is worried that she will be sent back to the pile, no longer needed. A loving, imaginative little android who believes in fairy dust, even if the fairies never seem to do anything magical like in the stories. Love doesn't have to be limited to just humans or blood relations. Sweet and touching. 4.5 out of 5 "The Wisdom of the Group" by Ian R. MacLeod There are theories and studies about group-think, how certain groups can intuit a trend or coming situation without any real knowledge. With the right group, the members could get wealthy or probably save the world, depending on their inclination. Samuel has been part of such a group since brought in by his professor while still in university. Now, years later, Samuel is wealthy, has a liv-in lover, three dogs with unfortunate names, and a gorgeous house in Washington state. But something is wrong, something that seems to be originating from Samuel. The response is usually to cut the wrong out of the group. A complicated basis for a disturbing story. I had to sit on this one for a while in order to determine what I felt about it. Definitely strong writing, could almost be considered psychological horror. I don't know if I would ever say that I liked it, but I recognize the work done and the uniqueness of the story. 3.5 out of 5 "After the Atrocity" by Ian Creasey Abu Hameed, the terrorist behind the attack that left ten thousand people dead, has also died during interrogation. The solution? A machine that can make exact copies, complete with memories, of an individual. Violet Ruiz, operator and creator of the machine, even made a duplicate of herself in order to work 24/7. As Hameed's copies die during the enhanced interrogation, more copies are needed. Soon Violet II wonders about the ethical implications. Well thought out consideration of just how far a nation is willing to go in search of revenge wrapped in the disguise of intel. Patriot Act, enhanced interrogation the Greater Good, dismantling both Habeas Corpus and the Geneva Convention, anyone? 4 out of 5 "Goner" by Gregory Norman Bossert In order to explore space, humans had to be converted from flesh into nanotechnology based creatures. The pilots call themselves Goners. Char's best friend's father is a Goner. Already fascinated with the idea of flying, Char uses a sliver of Pilot Clark to begin changing. While this is complete in itself, the story also begs for more. What is happening to Char? Will he be allowed to live his dreams despite his age? S fascinating a concept. 3.5 out of 5 "We Regret the Error" by Terry

Bisson A series of news corrections from the future. So many corrections, even some corrections of corrections. Taken individually, these are amusing. Pieced together, there is a much deeper story playing out. Oh, and a nice dig at Disney's well-known history of not paying some of their artists for their work. 3 out of 5 "Tao Zero" by Damien Broderick Teenagers, incredibly smart ones, have unprotected sex after winning $370 million in the Mega Millions lottery. The celebration leads to a child, the narrator, and the money to try to trap the Tao, the Way that cannot be named, inside a machine. I tried, I really tried to read this without success. After rereading the first two pages over and over in an attempt to struggle through, I put the story aside, hoping to pick it back up when refreshed. Didn't work. DNF

#magazine review #science fiction #Asimov's Science Fiction

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doodlertm-reviews · 8 years ago

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2016 Year in Review [Books]

I know this list is a long time in the making, but I have a shortlist here of the best books I read during 2016 with short reviews on why [in my opinion] they’re must reads.

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The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1232.The_Shadow_of_the_Wind

Genres: historical, romance

This book is set in Barcelona during post-Spanish Civil War, and follows Daniel, a young man determined to get to the bottom of a mystery involving a book that he received as a child. I really enjoyed this book because it's a love letter to books and to cities. It's also engaging, visual, and literary in the best sense of the word. The romances in the novel aren't too overwhelming or unbelievable, which I appreciated. The Shadow of the Wind is not a fantasy, but it feels like one, and I think that's what I liked best of all.

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Silence by Shusaku Endo

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25200.Silence

Genres: historical, spiritual

Silence follows a Portuguese missionary named Rodrigues to Japan in the 1640s, a time when the Japanese government was violently persecuting Christians. During the narrative, Rodrigues has to come to terms with the sacrifices and suffering that comes with his faith. I have to admit that this book was difficult to read because it addressed persecution in quite gruesome terms. I believe it's an important book, though, both for that fact and that it addresses Christianity in Japan.

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Riceboy by Evan Dahm

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6115136-rice-boy

Read it for free: http://www.rice-boy.com/see/

Genres: fantasy, graphic novel

Riceboy is an incredible fantasy epic set in a strange, strange land. The plot follows a simple creature named Riceboy and his journey after learning he may be a chosen one in an ancient prophecy. I think it might be considered to have an experimental art style, but it's gorgeous and unique. Just an FYI: there are no characters who resemble humans – that might be jarring for a few people.

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The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102504.The_Boy_Detective_Fails

Genres: speculative fiction, mystery

This one is a bit on the bizarre end of the spectrum, so I don't think it will be necessarily for everyone. The narrative follows Billy, a former boy-detective recently released from a ten year stint in the psych ward after his sister's untimely suicide. There's vanishing buildings, villains riding buses, an awkward romance, and plenty of mystery.

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Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25614492-salt-to-the-sea

Genres: YA, historical

I remember waiting quite a while to get this one out from the library when I read it. Totally worth it. Salt to the Sea is about teenagers whose paths converge as they attempt to flee war-torn Europe in a ship. Tragic and fast-paced, it's well-written and well-researched – two things which are the hardest to do in historical fiction.

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2657.To_Kill_a_Mockingbird

Genres: historical, literary

Reread this one for book club this year, after my city chose it as our city-wide read. The simplicity yet subtlety of this novel in the way it addresses issues like racism never ceases to amaze me. If you've somehow escaped reading this book in high school or college, it's definitely a must-read.

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Werewolves in Their Youth by Michael Chabon

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16698.Werewolves_in_Their_Youth

Genres: short stories, general

I'm going to admit that I read this short story collection at the beginning of 2016 so my memory may be a bit faulty as far as this goes. Short story collections are usually a miss for me [despite my strength in writing them] and I tend to like speculative fiction and not general fiction [as this one is], so that is quite something. I recall really liking the characters in this collection and how there wasn't a single story I didn't like, despite most of them having similar themes.

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Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16130.Alexander_Hamilton

Genres: historical, biography

I read this one for my presidential biographies challenge. If you're willing to read over seven hundred pages, then this one is totally worth it. I didn't know anything about Hamilton before I read this book – except that he had something to do with the treasury and was on the ten dollar bill. Hah. As it turns out, Alexander Hamilton had a very colorful life and a big hand in the American Revolution and the early days of American politics. So if you're even remotely interested in the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers, don't let the sheer amount of pages of this biography discourage you.

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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9361589-the-night-circus

Genres: romance, fantasy

I have to say, I had low expectations for this one, but I was pleasantly surprising. Yes, it's a romance, but it's a romantic fantasy, or fantastical romance – either term fits, I think. Two magicians from two different fields of magic travel with a circus that is designed to be a battlefield – The Night Circus. Everything about this novel is delightful – the characters, the setting, and the deftly woven plot.

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The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77203.The_Kite_Runner

Genres: historical, literary

Before I begin, there is a graphic and traumatizing scene of a sexual nature in this book, so if that kind of thing is upsetting to you, then I would recommend avoiding this book. This is not a cheery read. The novel is set in Afghanistan and focuses on the unlikely friendship of two young boys, Amir and Hassan, and the consequences of this friendship on Amir. Without going any more into it, I'll just say that this book is intense and heart-breaking and I'm glad I read it. I might not read it again because of the violence in it, but I believe it is an important book nonetheless.

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Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68494.Perdido_Street_Station

Genres: science fantasy, adventure, some horror

Perdido Street Station was one of my favorite books this year for a number of reasons. This book is one of the best examples I know of “setting as character” [aka, the setting having such an integral role in the plot]. It's delightfully steampunk with an epic, high-stakes conflict. If you don't mind a longer narrative [it's almost 700 pages], I highly suggest this book.

---

The Property of Hate by Sarah Jolley [still running]

Read it for free here: http://thepropertyofhate.com/TPoH/The%20Hook/ or http://thepropertyofhate.com/TPoH/The%20Hook/1

Genres: fantasy, graphic novel

The Property of Hate is an excellent webcomic about RGB, a monster of sorts who has an old TV set for a head, and his pint-sized ward called Hero as they make their way through an incredible fantasy world and meet all kinds of monsters and creatures. The art is gorgeous, there's plenty of puns, and RGB is a character I love to hate. The author is also very sweet and active on tumblr, which is where I originally discovered this webcomic. Her tumblr handle is here: http://modmad.tumblr.com/ This series is not currently in print, but the author does occasionally sell the first volume of the work on etsy.

#books #reviews

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soovaryit · 8 years ago

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Meme by Bigsis666 cos she hits the nail on the head every time

This is going to be a bit graphic and focus on sexual relationships when you suffer from endo (although some of the issues aren’t exclusive to that). Not everyone will feel comfortable reading it. It was important to me that I wrote this though, because it’s one aspect that is never spoken about and it’s about time women felt able to share their experiences without shame.

I’m gonna start this with a quote from one of my favourite humans, Brene Brown: ‘If you put shame in a petri dish, it needs three things to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence and judgment.’ When I first watched her talk about shame and discovered this quote I felt a huge sense of relief. I realised I could finally pick apart my feelings around sex and intimacy now that I knew they mainly to came down to feeling a sense of shame that I was struggling to make connections with people and with myself. I’ll start with the awkward feelings when meeting someone new.

So I’ll set the scene! (This is mainly pre diagnosis)

I’m meeting up with someone I’m interested in and health aside: I’m always extremely anxious. I feel so anxious and awkward that I honestly can’t even sit opposite people (it makes me feel like I’m on the apprentice) and often make them sit next to me.

I’ll make sure I’ve maxed out on painkillers but leave some time before I drink in a vain attempt to protect my liver. But I usually feel too nervous to eat which isn’t good considering I generally get there early and down some sort of alcohol before they arrive.

In the back of my mind I’ll be worrying about pain: when/if it’ll start, how bad it will be, whether I can hide it from them or it’ll come across weird that I keep taking painkillers whilst drinking or constantly going to the toilet (FYI endo = constant UTI’s happening for no reason at all). But maybe it will all go well and they might expect to come back to mine, which is a normal expectation, but not when sex can be so painful that you feel it for days afterwards. So I weigh up the pros and cons in my head, all whilst trying to remain attractive and attentive and relaxed which I am not, and go with whatever I feel at the time.

If I feel comfortable to say anything about how I can sometimes struggle with sex, it’s a big weight off my mind, but a lot of people don’t want to hear about your strange illnesses when trying to get with you in a casual context (in contrast to this I love when people talk about their strange illnesses, HMU with yours). And if I do choose to have sex I’ll be so scared of it hurting that I’ll barely be in my body and will be distracted and anxious but going through the motions.

This isn’t supposed to sound really tragic; I’m just recounting what happens when you attempt to have enjoyable sex with a condition that particularly affects your sex life.

When you have endo the following things can happen after (penetrative) sex:

Feeling like you’re going to pass out

Passing out

Throwing up

Bleeding, a shocking amount

Bleeding and cramps for 3 days to a week afterwards

A super sharp pain for no apparent reason at any point during actual intercourse that makes you need to stop immediately

Suddenly feeling really upset and crying

Excessive shaking and lack of energy afterwards (not in a nice chilled out way, in a kind of am I about to die? way)

These things and the cocktail of hormones in your body mean that enjoying sex can be a HUGE problem. The fact is a lot of people without endo can have similar issues to those that I’ve listed or even just feelings of shame or feeling self-conscious which again, nobody ever wants to talk about.

It’s so isolating having these experiences, even with understanding partners. Not having an understanding partner can make it significantly more upsetting and make you afraid of intimacy whilst wanting it badly because you feel so out of touch with your body and associating it with any pleasure rather than pain.

I don’t go in for dating much these days and when I do, I’ll try my best to explain the situation and make sure that the person involved has understood. It’s important that you feel safe and cared for and respected and if you don’t then it might be best to wait until it feels right with someone. I definitely had a lot of experiences I regret with a lot of people who didn’t respect what was happening to me and it really wasn’t worth it.

You can’t protect yourself from all negative experiences and you have to be willing to vulnerable with people, but it’s so much more important to think about what you really want from an experience first.

For me I know that a lot of the time I just wanted validation, and I’m not saying that that is a positive or negative thing, it’s just something that all people want. This disease can make you feel so devoid of sexuality, so out of touch with your ability to love anyone and can lead to you looking to other people to feel better.

I’m not saying this will never work - the positive experiences I had with people gave me a huge boost and reminded me that in general people are kind and genuine. But check in with yourself before you get into situations like these and ask what you want out of it and what they might want from you. It could ultimately save you a lot of heartache and endless lying in bed with hot water bottles.

I spent a lot of my time in relationships sitting in sexual health clinics trying to find out what was ‘physically’ wrong with me that meant sex was painful. A lot of that only made the situation worse as a lot of them were unsympathetic and quick to dismiss me when nothing was very obviously wrong. If you’ve ever had speculum examinations before, you know they are usually pretty horrific, and when repeated ALL THE TIME they make you want to forget you even have a vagina and give up on the whole thing. The final straw was when I tried to speak to someone about the painful periods I was having, along with incredibly heavy bleeding, dizziness, sickness etc. I also briefly stated that I suffer from anxiety, but that seemed to be the only problem the doctor picked up on. She referred me to a sexual dysfunction clinic, which further proved to me that the problem was all in my head and made me not want to talk about it. I didn’t go to the appointment and instead felt ashamed about the fact that I couldn’t enjoy any kind of intimacy with my partner and that it was all my fault. And because of how shame works, I stayed silent about it and so it grew and took over the way I viewed myself and my relationship to the point where I needed to be alone, be honest with myself and figure it all out. Which was HORRIBLE but necessary. I still haven’t figured out this side of things completely, but I know that taking time out to understand my body and sexuality helped a huge amount. It might feel like you’re broken beyond repair and will forget how to connect to people in a sexual or romantic way but that’s not true at all. Try as much as you can to be patient with your body and wait until you’re in the right situation with the right person before you allow yourself to be vulnerable. I needed to be alone but not everyone will. Just be patient, don’t be ashamed and try and be as honest as possible and hopefully things will get better.

#endometriosis #endometriosisawareness #endometriosiswarrior #endometriosissucks #endometriosisuk #chronicpain #chronicillness #invisibleillness #invisibleillnessawareness #femaleempowerment #periods

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gyrlversion · 6 years ago

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31 Things Thatll Help You Have The Most Stylish Summer Ever

We hope you love the products we recommend! Just so you know, BuzzFeed may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. Oh, and FYI — prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication.

A floral maxi, because nothing screams summertime like a loose, yet chic maxi dress. It’ll drape comfortably, so even if you’re standing in hot temps for a long time, you won’t feel like you’ve got sweat dripping down your back.

amazon.com, amazon.com

Promising review: “Okay, I am in LOVE! This might be my favorite Amazon purchase EVER. It’s the perfect length the winged sleeves are beautiful and far more comfortable than I thought it would be. I want this dress in every pattern!” —TA

Get it from Amazon for $24.99+ (available in sizes XS-XXL and 19 styles).

A cold-shouldered dress with ruffles and a faux-wrap that’ll make date night so much more exciting. What’s not to be excited about when you look and feel your best?

Torrid

Promising review: “I bought this for my daughter and it looks fantastic! It’s made from a nice lightweight material and is overall very flattering.” —TRVLTESS

Get it from Torrid for $32.88 (originally $68.90, available in sizes 00–6).

A sleeveless denim shirtdress made from 100% cotton for breathable, comfortable wear. Yes, you want to look cute, but you also want to feel relaxed in what you’re wearing.

Target

Get it from Target for $29.99 (available in sizes XS–2XL and two colors).

A printed duster cardi to layer over a plain tank for a pop of pattern. Since the material is thin, you won’t feel like you’re overheating on a hot afternoon.

amazon.com, amazon.com

Promising review: “Really cute, really light top. I love it, because if I want to cover my upper arms, but it is hot outside, this does not make me sweat. It’s a very cheery top. I get lots of compliments when I wear it. It is meant to be a looser fit, so don’t expect something fitted!” —Mrs. JPS

Get it from Amazon for $14.99+ (available in sizes S–5XL and 46 styles).

A ribbed sweater tank that’ll become a very versatile piece in your wardrobe. It can be paired with jeans, slacks, or French-tucked into your favorite skirt. Tan France would be proud.

Loft

Get it from Loft for $49.50 (available in sizes XS–XXL).

And a pair of drop earrings to pair with your incredibly cute sweater tank. The best way to jazz up an outfit is with accessories!

Loft

Get them from Loft for $34.50 (available in two colors).

A polka-dot bathing suit top that’ll provide full support as you splash around in the water during your next pool day.

Addition Elle

Promising review: “This fits so well! I love that the bra inside really gives you support. It fits nicely, looks great, and dries quickly.” —leany

Get it from Addition Elle for $34 (originally $68, available in sizes 40C–44DD). To get the full look, check out these black bathing suit bottoms for $24 (originally $48, available in sizes X–4X).

A striped jumpsuit you can throw on for that minimal-effort style vibe. It can be worn pretty much anywhere like brunch, a work happy hour, or a night out with friends.

amazon.com, amazon.com

Promising review: “I absolutely love the fit of this jumpsuit. It’s not clingy and the material is flattering. It’s not form-fitting, so it’s comfortable to wear. It’s true-to-size with adjustable straps. I felt like I was wearing pajamas. Buying another color because it’s my new favorite outfit!” —Trish

Get it from Amazon for $12.99+ (available in sizes S–L and 20 styles).

A loose-fitting, casual maxi dress with pockets you’ll legitimately never want to take off. It’ll become your everyday go-to, especially during the warmer months.

amazon.com, amazon.com

Promising review: “I got this for a trip to Mexico and bought it in a size small, which fit absolutely perfectly. The fit is flowy and it is casual, but could be dressed up. I love the pockets, too. Just a great summer piece for the price.” —Mark A. Eatherton

Get it from Amazon for $18.99+ (available in sizes S–2XL and 17 styles).

10.

A belted polka dot dress that’ll look adorable with a pair of wedges. Let’s just say you’re definitely gonna want this piece for your next tropical vacation.

amazon.com, amazon.com

Promising review: “This is by far the most comfortable dress I’ve ever worn. I’m not one to wear dresses often, but I’m glad this was the first one I picked from Amazon. It really gives me a confidence a boost when I wear it. It’s simple, yet very stylish. I sometimes safety pin the front V-neck for a bit more security, but you don’t have to.” —Amazon Customer

Get it from Amazon for $23.99 (available in sizes S–XL and four colors).

11.

Wide-legged linen pants, because we love easy-breezy fashion. The summer heat can be super uncomfortable, so your clothes should not. Gaucho-styled linen pants are exactly what you need to stay cool.

ModCloth

Get them from ModCloth for $59 (available in sizes XS–XL).

12.

A graphic tee to showcase your ~girl power~ in a bold way. The shirt is cropped so it’ll pair nicely with high-rise jeans or shorts.

Mulberry and Grand

Get it from Mulberry and Grand for $26.

13.

And a pair of hoop earrings that’ll take your outfit to the next level. The marbled acrylic design is eye-catching, while the brassy yellow and hints of pink and blue pop against a white tee.

Mulberry and Grand

Get them from Mulberry and Grand for $24.

14.

A zebra print romper to wear to your next summer soiree where you want to look cute, but not overdressed. A romper can remain casual, especially when worn with a pair of sandals.

Asos

Get it from Asos for $56 (available in sizes 12–22).

15.

A Steve Madden platform sandal for some ’70’s-era flair. Don’t be intimidated by the height – platform sandals lift the ball of your foot, making them incredibly comfortable for long-term wear.

Nordstrom

Get them from Nordstrom for $69.95 (available in sizes 5.5–11 and four styles).

16.

Or a block-heeled sandal made from soft Italian leather that’ll have you ditching flats for good. This heel is a bit lower and can easily be worn on your morning commute.

Everlane

Get them from Everlane for $145 (available in sizes 5–11 and seven colors).

17.

A straw fedora so you can marry function with style. Yes, it’ll provide coverage and help you simmer down in blazing sun, but it’ll also become a chic accessory to add to your favorite outfit.

amazon.com, amazon.com

Promising review: “Let me start off by staying I’ve never been a beach hat type person…until now! I love this hat! Well, I just got back from Belize and this hat was amazing. I love how adjustable it is. I was able to comfortably wear it while riding a golf cart, all day at the beach, and even out on a kayak without it blowing off or being too tight. And it was just the right coverage for me. Enough to protect my sensitive eyes and fair skin from the sun, yet not so large that it was in the way. I wore it much more than I thought I would because it was so useful. Cute and comfortable!” —Amazon Customer

Get it from Amazon for $15.99 (available in 33 styles).

18.

A neoprene pencil skirt to wear from work to happy hour to dinner. With a bit of stretch, it won’t feel like you’re suffocating.

Eloquii

Promising review: “I have several of the neoprene skirts and I really enjoy wearing them. There are lot of great patterns and colors. They make getting dressed in the morning a lot easier.” —Katrina S.

Get it from Eloquii for $19.99+ (available in sizes12–28, and three fits: regular, petite, and viola. Once you select your fit, you can choose your exact size. It’s also available in 32 colors and patterns).

19.

An oversized straw bag you can toss everything into before heading to the beach. It’s got a zipper closure and separate internal pockets for your phone, wallet, and keys.

amazon.com

Promising review: “Very beautiful natural straw bag to have for the upcoming summer season. The design is simple and stylish, with plenty of room inside. I will definitely use it for the beach and mini vacations. It also can be used as a daily bag, too. One thing I have to mention is the silk scarf that comes with it. It makes this bag so unique looking. Overall it’s very lightweight to carry around and the zipper is easy to use. Great purchase!” —Anya

Get it from Amazon for $24.99+ (available in two colors).

20.

A pair of high-waisted shorts to pair with your favorite crop top or studded belt. If summer festivals are your thing, then you can’t go wrong with these shorts.

amazon.com, amazon.com

Promising review: “I’m IN LOVE with these shorts. These are stretchy, too. No wiggle struggle getting them on. I got a billion compliments on them the first time I wore them out! I saw a couple of reviews that were mad about the button hole being sewn closed upon arrival and mine was, too. But I’ve worked in many boutiques where brands manufacture pockets and button holes like that to keep them neat during shipping. It literally opened to a normal hole when I buttoned my shorts. Get these! I’m purchasing the dark ones next!” —Melody Orlanes

Get them from Amazon for $21.99 (available in sizes S–2XL and five colors).

21.

A V-neck, bell-sleeve shirt that can be either professional or casual, depending on the occasion.

amazon.com, Amazon

Promising review: “This is a really cute blouse! The material is opaque so it is work-appropriate and doesn’t show your bra underneath. I wear this tucked in to a pencil skirt or pants and it looks really cute that way. The large bell sleeves with the mesh cut-outs look like the picture. The mesh is very thin and gives the appearance of empty space in a very cool way.” —bheckel

Get it from Amazon for $13.99+ (available in sizes S–2XL and 30 styles).

22.

A palm-print, cold-shouldered dress with fabric so soft, you’ll ditch pants forever. It also washes super well, so don’t fear throwing it in the washing machine. It’ll come out silky smooth.

amazon.com, amazon.com

Promising review: “I was a little nervous about quality and fit with the price being so low. This does not disappoint. The fabric is nice and light for and the quality is good. You can’t beat the price. This is perfect for a beach wedding or vacation.” —alicia gaysek

Get it from Amazon for $27.99 (available in sizes 0X–4X and 21 styles).

23.

A chunkier rhinestone necklace you can pair with a tank on a night out. But it doesn’t stop there – it can be worn to a more formal event like a wedding or baby shower.

amazon.com

Promising review: “I couldn’t be happier with this purchase. I bought this necklace to go with a plain ivory dress for my wedding rehearsal dinner and it is absolutely perfect. I’m always hesitant buying certain things online like jewelry because I really like to see it in person, hold it, and try it on, however I’m so glad I went with my gut and bought this. Now I can’t wait to wear it!” —Kelly Leya

Get it from Amazon for $19.99.

24.

A twist headband that’ll hold all those loose baby hairs out of your face, but will also make your updo look better than ever.

amazon.com, Amazon

Promising review: “These are so cute! I thought they might be too youthful/girly for me to get away with, but they’re adorable. Perfect for keeping my hair out of my face when I work and when I apply makeup and skincare treatments. There’s a wire that runs throughout the whole headband which means it stays on my (large) head, whereas other elastic headbands just slip off. These are available in many different pretty prints, as well. Great value for the money!” —meems

Get a set of four from Amazon for $8.99 (available in three styles).

amazon.com, amazon.com

Promising review: “I’m a total sunglass snob. I have a huge collection and favor Chanel & Dior. My daughter had seen someone wearing red reflective glasses and I saw these on Amazon, so I figured I’d add these to her stocking. Well, I was pretty blown away by the good quality of the glasses, as well as the case and cleansing cloth they came with. I swear to you that there’s not a lot of difference between these and a pair of my $400+ glasses…” —Brat

Get them from Amazon for $9.99+ (available in 10 styles).

26.

A colorblock bikini to get you that beach day ‘gram you’ve been waiting all year for. The UPF 50 fabric provides sun protection, but make sure to apply sunscreen!

Forever 21

Get the bikini top from Forever 21 for $17.90 (available in sizes S–L and two colors) and get the bikini bottom from Forever 21 for $14.90 (available in sizes S–L and two colors).

27.

A denim jacket, because it’s a classic warm weather staple. You can dress it up or down, layer it over a dress, or wrap it around your waist for later wear. Either way, it’ll become an essential piece in your wardrobe.

amazon.com, amazon.com

Promising review: “This is a super cute denim jacket. It’s well-made, material is a nice, soft denim and the price is excellent. The sizing chart was spot on, so I ordered a medium and it fit very well. The sleeves are even long enough.” —callan yarkosky

Get it from Amazon for $29 (available in sizes S–XL and six colors).

28.

A drop chain necklace that’ll pair perfectly with a V-neck shirt or dress. It’s delicate, so make sure it store it away from other necklaces so it doesn’t get tangled.

Amazon

Promising review: “I love this necklace! It is very beautiful and dainty. I can wear it with a T-shirt or with any of my dresses to go out. The weight of the bar keeps the necklace centered and I’m glad it was made with a connector so it can slide and doesn’t shift on my neck.” —Amber

Get it from Amazon for $24 (available in three finishes).

29.

A cropped linen jacket, because everyone deserves an adorable piece that can go from day to night effortlessly. It’ll be the perfect lightweight jacket for chillier nights when you want to grab a jacket before heading out, but one that’ll enhance your outfit, not detract from it.

Anthropologie

Get it from Anthropologie for $149 (available in sizes XS–XL).

30.

Or a camo jacket to pair with dark wash jeans and a black tank for instant cool streetwear vibes. You can cuff the sleeves or leave them long for more coverage.

amazon.com, amazon.com

Promising review: “Love this jacket…easily my go-to jacket now when I’m hanging out. Fits true to size. I wear a large in tops so that’s what I ordered and it fits great. The sleeves do cut off a little short, but that’s okay with me because I don’t have long arms. If you do, you may have to roll up the sleeves like the model. Other than that, love the jacket. Great material for the price paid.” —Toshia

Get it from Amazon for $28.99+ (available in sizes S–2XL and three colors).

31.

A cheetah print dress for those nights when you’re feeling a bit fierce. With bolder patterns, you can utilize solid-colored accessories to tone down the outfit.

Target

Promising review: “Love this dress! It’s made of a nicely textured flowy material that doesn’t wrinkle. So no ironing needed! Perfect for traveling. The inner lining is a legit slip with adjustable straps. And it has pockets! I wish this style dress came in a multitude of colors and prints because I would buy them all and wear them from spring to fall!” —Angelaa86

Get it from Target for $29.99 (available in sizes X–4X).

Hitting that Insta pose like:

Shopping for something specific? Check out BuzzFeed Reviews to find the best things for every budget!

BuzzFeed

The reviews for this post have been edited for length and/or clarity.

The post 31 Things Thatll Help You Have The Most Stylish Summer Ever appeared first on Gyrlversion.

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lotsofdogs · 7 years ago

Text

Things I’m Loving Friday #237

Friday is here and I’m tempted to dub today Furniture Assembly Friday because that’s the main thing I hope to accomplish later this evening. A bunch of our nursery purchases arrived on our doorstep yesterday so we’ve got some work cut out for us this weekend! I hope that by Sunday evening, our new baby’s room looks a little more like a nursery versus the storage area it currently resembles. I’m oddly excited about putting everything together and hope the feeling lasts and isn’t trumped by the frustration that often follows putting together drawer after drawer of a dresser. I’ll be sure to share pics of everything soon!

Now let’s get crackin’ on the usual Things I’m Loving Friday fun around here. Below you will find a list of things that are making me smile this week and, as always, I’d love to hear a little bit about what all of you are loving right now. I hope you are able to spend the extra long Memorial Day Weekend with family and friends and take time to honor and remember the incredibly brave men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

Things I’m Loving Friday

Chase’s Last Day of Preschool

Flashback pic to Chase’s first day of school… Cue all the tears over here!!

Chase’s last day of preschool was Wednesday this week. He had a half-day and then the parents joined the kids at one of his classmates’ houses for a pool party and lots of playtime. We ended up staying out for the better part of the afternoon and Chase had an absolute BLAST. (He had his first experience in a puddle jumper in the pool and I immediately Amazon Primed one the minute we got home.) His two preschool teachers attended the party and I looooved chatting with them and the other parents while our children had the best time together. It was so fun to see Chase interact with the kids I hear so much about day in and day out and I’m so happy that the majority of Chase’s classmates are continuing at his same school next year. I feel incredibly lucky to have found a preschool we adore so much and am trying not to feel too sad about my baby officially completing his first year of preschool. Time is flying!

Baby Sprinkle at Ryan’s Work

Early yesterday afternoon, Chase and I headed off to Ryan’s work for the sweetest baby sprinkle hosted by his coworkers for our family. It was so kind of everyone to think of us and our baby-on-the-way and include Chase in the party. (Chase LOVED going to Dad’s work! When Ryan met us in the lobby he didn’t miss a beat and said, “Hey Dad! Where are your friends? You have a computer?”)

When Ryan told me about his coworkers’ plans, we requested no gifts (the evite actually said “in lieu of gifts, bring treats” – haha!) but everyone was so generous and surprised us with a few things for our baby which was very thoughtful. I also really enjoyed the opportunity to meet some of the people on Ryan’s team. We laughed a lot about our desire to not know the sex of our baby (apparently this is a very uncommon thing among Ryan’s coworkers) and the general consensus among his colleagues is that we’ll be having a girl which was mostly attributed to how high I am carrying our baby. Surprise, surprise! I swear Chase and I are the only two thinking BOY these days.

Hydrangeas

(Apparently Chase’s hair reacts to humidity the same way as his mamas: A wavy fluffball! Haha!)

Shout out to the previous owners of our home for enjoying gardening and planting some lovely flowers all over our yard because it’s the gift that keeps on giving to our family! We have two gorgeous hydrangea bushes that are absolutely thriving right now and just looking out at the beautiful baby blue flowers makes me so happy. Chase and I have been snipping a few hydrangeas here and there to put in small vases around our house and I love the springy look of flowers from our yard in our home. I keep telling myself that I’ll get into gardening… eventually.

Sharing Calm

The last half of this week was a bit bananas, mainly because Chase didn’t nap at all and was clingier, fussier and all around needier than usual. Without his naps to count on, it was hard for me to find time to hit a few work-related deadlines with companies for future blog posts that took me away from my usual in-the-moment blogging. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to work from home but inevitably life gets in the way of work for me and I just have to roll with it even if it can make me feel a little more on edge. (And I currently have NO idea how all of this is going to look when I have two kiddos in the mix but I figured things out with one child so I’ll do it again. Bring on the wonderful chaos!)

Anyway, I share all of that because I found myself feeling more frustrated and impatient than usual this week and kept thinking about the above graphic a friend of mine shared on Facebook a month or so ago. It’s something I’ve found myself thinking about over and over again, especially when I’m in the thick of a toddler meltdown. Though I’ve never been a “yeller” by nature, I notice that Chase responds to me so much better when I take a deep breath and address him in a calm way versus when I allow myself to get frustrated and my voice admittedly gets tense and irritable. At almost three years old, his emotions are BIG and powerful and while it’s not always easy, responding to them calmly makes a huge difference and can help prevent the meltdown from escalating into a full-blown tantrum. Just remembering this simple quote has helped me a lot when I’ve found myself feeling snappy so I had to share it here just in case it is something that resonates with any of you out there, too!

Collapsible Stepping Stool

This handy stool probably should’ve made my list of my Most Used Kitchen Items when I shared that post back in February but it completely slipped my mind. Technically it isn’t something I exclusively use in the kitchen since I cart this bad boy around our house all the time to help me grab things from hard-to-reach high places. It was one of those random purchases I made at HomeGoods that I ended up using a million times more than I ever thought I would! I was the queen of hopping up on counters and unstable stools to grab items off top shelves and this little solution makes it waaay safer for me to reach top shelves. It’s collapsible so I just tuck it into a kitchen cabinet when I’m done. It also comes in handy as a little stepping stool for Chase, especially when he wants to help Mom with blog photos!

Memorial Day Weekend Sales

Below you will find a roundup of a few Memorial Day Weekend sales that caught my eye!

Old Navy: 50% off all tanks, tees, dresses, shorts and swimwear (I ordered these comfy linen-blend shorts for $11 in olive after reading so many good reviews and am crossing my fingers this wide-leg jumpsuit won’t be a complete fail purchase because it’s so cute online. Hoping they’ll both work well postpartum!)

Nordstrom: Up to 40% off for their Half Yearly Sale

Nordstrom Rack: Extra 25% off clearance

Ulta: 20% off any one item with code 650805 (FYI, this is my hair dryer that is the BEST EVER. It is super powerful and reduces frizz/makes my hair look shinier/sleeker than any other blow dryer I’ve tried.)

Athleta: 20% off swim

Nike: Up to 40% off (These shoes are calling to me! Love the pumice/mint color.)

LOFT: 40% off everything with code LONGWKND

Anthropologie: Extra 40% Off Sale Plus 20% Off Furniture + Décor

RueLaLa: YumiKim sale (LOVE their feminine dresses and rompers!)

Friday Flashbacks

Here’s a short collection of a few of my favorite recipes to try this Memorial Day weekend in case you have a fun cookout on the agenda:

Berry Frozen Yogurt Pie

Gluten-Free No Bake Double Chocolate Icebox Cake

Greek Yogurt Rotisserie Chicken Salad

Black Bean and Brown Rice Salad

Paleo Lemon Cupcakes

Cold Quinoa Salad

Simple Shrimp Dip

Simple Summer Chopped Salad

Pineapple Mint Sangria

Question of the Day

What is one thing that is making you smile today?

[Read More ...] https://www.pbfingers.com/things-im-loving-friday-237/

#health #fitness

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