#light novel style illustrations | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lamaery · 5 months ago

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Looking for a stormy or colorful summer beach read? @priscellie and Ihad way too much fun creating some romance novel versions of Rhythm of War and Warbreaker. I made the illustrations and Priscillie made them look like actual books – beautifully ridiculous, curly typography, mock-up and all. I hope that there will be more :D

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Image description: (by Priscillie) Photomanipulation of two battered paperback pulp romance novels that look straight out of a thrift store bargain bin in the 1980s. The books are RHYTHM OF WAR and WARBREAKER by Sandra Branderson. RHYTHM OF WAR features an illustration of Navani and Raboniel experimenting with light, Raboniel looming behind Navani and leaning in, their faces almost touching. Raboniel streams voidlight from her image-left hand, which travels like lightning through Navani's tuning fork and into the sphere in Navani's gloved safehand. It's the primary source of light in the scene, and the background is nothing but murky darkness. Raboniel focuses intently, her red eyes alien and unknowable, as she focuses on her work. One of Navani's unkempt locks of hair just brushes the corner of Raboniel's mouth, and I'm not normal about it. Navani looks like she's gone three days without changing clothes and that she's slept in her hairstyle a similar number of nights. The collar of her havah is open, revealing her collarbones. Her expression is a mix of amazement, fear, and exhaustion, her mouth slightly open and her head tilted back slightly. Her face is lit from below by their experiment. The title and author's name are angled at a sharp diagonal, with strong capital letters and the occasional flourish. At the top is the tagline "In the Heart of War... Passion and Honor are Fused!" In one corner is some publication information, with a little logo of a seal and the words "A 'Sealed With a Kiss' Paperback," the fake ISBN 17S-631-1123-1210 (the last two sets of numbers being our birthdays), and prices in America and Canada. The other book is Warbreaker, also by Sandra Branderson. The illustration depicts Susebron and Siri in a ridiculously overblown, windswept Fabio-style cover, with a shirtless Susebron holding Siri so she's half sitting on his chest, one knee up with her thigh along his chest, her legs off to one side, and with her body twisted so she's facing him with her upper body, leaning down to him, a breath away from kissing him. She's wearing a teal dress with a Mesoamerican vibe that reveals her midriff and leaves her shoulders bare, but with a long train that blows off to the side. Her arms are painted in looping gold shapes. Her hair is blonde for most of its length, but it's beginning to change to a vivid red at the scalp. It's wrapped in teal ribbon to match her dress. Susebron has long, sleek black hair caught by the wind, chunky gold earrings and a slim gold cuff at his upper arm, and is wrapped in long white strips of awakened cloth that snake through the image in an energetic explosion of fabric. He gazes at her in handsome adoration and abandon, and she gazes back in love tempered by concern. The title has the same diagonal and italicized design with the same typeface and flourishes, but the title is jazzed up with shimmery, iridescent type. At the top is the tagling "She was forced to marry a god... Then she took his breath away!"

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mostlysignssomeportents · 9 months ago

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“Humans in the loop” must detect the hardest-to-spot errors, at superhuman speed

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me SATURDAY (Apr 27) in MARIN COUNTY, then Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

If AI has a future (a big if), it will have to be economically viable. An industry can't spend 1,700% more on Nvidia chips than it earns indefinitely – not even with Nvidia being a principle investor in its largest customers:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39883571

A company that pays 0.36-1 cents/query for electricity and (scarce, fresh) water can't indefinitely give those queries away by the millions to people who are expected to revise those queries dozens of times before eliciting the perfect botshit rendition of "instructions for removing a grilled cheese sandwich from a VCR in the style of the King James Bible":

https://www.semianalysis.com/p/the-inference-cost-of-search-disruption

Eventually, the industry will have to uncover some mix of applications that will cover its operating costs, if only to keep the lights on in the face of investor disillusionment (this isn't optional – investor disillusionment is an inevitable part of every bubble).

Now, there are lots of low-stakes applications for AI that can run just fine on the current AI technology, despite its many – and seemingly inescapable - errors ("hallucinations"). People who use AI to generate illustrations of their D&D characters engaged in epic adventures from their previous gaming session don't care about the odd extra finger. If the chatbot powering a tourist's automatic text-to-translation-to-speech phone tool gets a few words wrong, it's still much better than the alternative of speaking slowly and loudly in your own language while making emphatic hand-gestures.

There are lots of these applications, and many of the people who benefit from them would doubtless pay something for them. The problem – from an AI company's perspective – is that these aren't just low-stakes, they're also low-value. Their users would pay something for them, but not very much.

For AI to keep its servers on through the coming trough of disillusionment, it will have to locate high-value applications, too. Economically speaking, the function of low-value applications is to soak up excess capacity and produce value at the margins after the high-value applications pay the bills. Low-value applications are a side-dish, like the coach seats on an airplane whose total operating expenses are paid by the business class passengers up front. Without the principle income from high-value applications, the servers shut down, and the low-value applications disappear:

https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/

Now, there are lots of high-value applications the AI industry has identified for its products. Broadly speaking, these high-value applications share the same problem: they are all high-stakes, which means they are very sensitive to errors. Mistakes made by apps that produce code, drive cars, or identify cancerous masses on chest X-rays are extremely consequential.

Some businesses may be insensitive to those consequences. Air Canada replaced its human customer service staff with chatbots that just lied to passengers, stealing hundreds of dollars from them in the process. But the process for getting your money back after you are defrauded by Air Canada's chatbot is so onerous that only one passenger has bothered to go through it, spending ten weeks exhausting all of Air Canada's internal review mechanisms before fighting his case for weeks more at the regulator:

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/air-canada-s-chatbot-gave-a-b-c-man-the-wrong-information-now-the-airline-has-to-pay-for-the-mistake-1.6769454

There's never just one ant. If this guy was defrauded by an AC chatbot, so were hundreds or thousands of other fliers. Air Canada doesn't have to pay them back. Air Canada is tacitly asserting that, as the country's flagship carrier and near-monopolist, it is too big to fail and too big to jail, which means it's too big to care.

Air Canada shows that for some business customers, AI doesn't need to be able to do a worker's job in order to be a smart purchase: a chatbot can replace a worker, fail to their worker's job, and still save the company money on balance.

I can't predict whether the world's sociopathic monopolists are numerous and powerful enough to keep the lights on for AI companies through leases for automation systems that let them commit consequence-free free fraud by replacing workers with chatbots that serve as moral crumple-zones for furious customers:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563219304029

But even stipulating that this is sufficient, it's intrinsically unstable. Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops, and the mass replacement of humans with high-speed fraud software seems likely to stoke the already blazing furnace of modern antitrust:

https://www.eff.org/de/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

Of course, the AI companies have their own answer to this conundrum. A high-stakes/high-value customer can still fire workers and replace them with AI – they just need to hire fewer, cheaper workers to supervise the AI and monitor it for "hallucinations." This is called the "human in the loop" solution.

The human in the loop story has some glaring holes. From a worker's perspective, serving as the human in the loop in a scheme that cuts wage bills through AI is a nightmare – the worst possible kind of automation.

Let's pause for a little detour through automation theory here. Automation can augment a worker. We can call this a "centaur" – the worker offloads a repetitive task, or one that requires a high degree of vigilance, or (worst of all) both. They're a human head on a robot body (hence "centaur"). Think of the sensor/vision system in your car that beeps if you activate your turn-signal while a car is in your blind spot. You're in charge, but you're getting a second opinion from the robot.

Likewise, consider an AI tool that double-checks a radiologist's diagnosis of your chest X-ray and suggests a second look when its assessment doesn't match the radiologist's. Again, the human is in charge, but the robot is serving as a backstop and helpmeet, using its inexhaustible robotic vigilance to augment human skill.

That's centaurs. They're the good automation. Then there's the bad automation: the reverse-centaur, when the human is used to augment the robot.

Amazon warehouse pickers stand in one place while robotic shelving units trundle up to them at speed; then, the haptic bracelets shackled around their wrists buzz at them, directing them pick up specific items and move them to a basket, while a third automation system penalizes them for taking toilet breaks or even just walking around and shaking out their limbs to avoid a repetitive strain injury. This is a robotic head using a human body – and destroying it in the process.

An AI-assisted radiologist processes fewer chest X-rays every day, costing their employer more, on top of the cost of the AI. That's not what AI companies are selling. They're offering hospitals the power to create reverse centaurs: radiologist-assisted AIs. That's what "human in the loop" means.

This is a problem for workers, but it's also a problem for their bosses (assuming those bosses actually care about correcting AI hallucinations, rather than providing a figleaf that lets them commit fraud or kill people and shift the blame to an unpunishable AI).

Humans are good at a lot of things, but they're not good at eternal, perfect vigilance. Writing code is hard, but performing code-review (where you check someone else's code for errors) is much harder – and it gets even harder if the code you're reviewing is usually fine, because this requires that you maintain your vigilance for something that only occurs at rare and unpredictable intervals:

https://twitter.com/qntm/status/1773779967521780169

But for a coding shop to make the cost of an AI pencil out, the human in the loop needs to be able to process a lot of AI-generated code. Replacing a human with an AI doesn't produce any savings if you need to hire two more humans to take turns doing close reads of the AI's code.

This is the fatal flaw in robo-taxi schemes. The "human in the loop" who is supposed to keep the murderbot from smashing into other cars, steering into oncoming traffic, or running down pedestrians isn't a driver, they're a driving instructor. This is a much harder job than being a driver, even when the student driver you're monitoring is a human, making human mistakes at human speed. It's even harder when the student driver is a robot, making errors at computer speed:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/01/human-in-the-loop/#monkey-in-the-middle

This is why the doomed robo-taxi company Cruise had to deploy 1.5 skilled, high-paid human monitors to oversee each of its murderbots, while traditional taxis operate at a fraction of the cost with a single, precaratized, low-paid human driver:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no

The vigilance problem is pretty fatal for the human-in-the-loop gambit, but there's another problem that is, if anything, even more fatal: the kinds of errors that AIs make.

Foundationally, AI is applied statistics. An AI company trains its AI by feeding it a lot of data about the real world. The program processes this data, looking for statistical correlations in that data, and makes a model of the world based on those correlations. A chatbot is a next-word-guessing program, and an AI "art" generator is a next-pixel-guessing program. They're drawing on billions of documents to find the most statistically likely way of finishing a sentence or a line of pixels in a bitmap:

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922

This means that AI doesn't just make errors – it makes subtle errors, the kinds of errors that are the hardest for a human in the loop to spot, because they are the most statistically probable ways of being wrong. Sure, we notice the gross errors in AI output, like confidently claiming that a living human is dead:

https://www.tomsguide.com/opinion/according-to-chatgpt-im-dead

But the most common errors that AIs make are the ones we don't notice, because they're perfectly camouflaged as the truth. Think of the recurring AI programming error that inserts a call to a nonexistent library called "huggingface-cli," which is what the library would be called if developers reliably followed naming conventions. But due to a human inconsistency, the real library has a slightly different name. The fact that AIs repeatedly inserted references to the nonexistent library opened up a vulnerability – a security researcher created a (inert) malicious library with that name and tricked numerous companies into compiling it into their code because their human reviewers missed the chatbot's (statistically indistinguishable from the the truth) lie:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/ai_bots_hallucinate_software_packages/

For a driving instructor or a code reviewer overseeing a human subject, the majority of errors are comparatively easy to spot, because they're the kinds of errors that lead to inconsistent library naming – places where a human behaved erratically or irregularly. But when reality is irregular or erratic, the AI will make errors by presuming that things are statistically normal.

These are the hardest kinds of errors to spot. They couldn't be harder for a human to detect if they were specifically designed to go undetected. The human in the loop isn't just being asked to spot mistakes – they're being actively deceived. The AI isn't merely wrong, it's constructing a subtle "what's wrong with this picture"-style puzzle. Not just one such puzzle, either: millions of them, at speed, which must be solved by the human in the loop, who must remain perfectly vigilant for things that are, by definition, almost totally unnoticeable.

This is a special new torment for reverse centaurs – and a significant problem for AI companies hoping to accumulate and keep enough high-value, high-stakes customers on their books to weather the coming trough of disillusionment.

This is pretty grim, but it gets grimmer. AI companies have argued that they have a third line of business, a way to make money for their customers beyond automation's gifts to their payrolls: they claim that they can perform difficult scientific tasks at superhuman speed, producing billion-dollar insights (new materials, new drugs, new proteins) at unimaginable speed.

However, these claims – credulously amplified by the non-technical press – keep on shattering when they are tested by experts who understand the esoteric domains in which AI is said to have an unbeatable advantage. For example, Google claimed that its Deepmind AI had discovered "millions of new materials," "equivalent to nearly 800 years’ worth of knowledge," constituting "an order-of-magnitude expansion in stable materials known to humanity":

https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/millions-of-new-materials-discovered-with-deep-learning/

It was a hoax. When independent material scientists reviewed representative samples of these "new materials," they concluded that "no new materials have been discovered" and that not one of these materials was "credible, useful and novel":

https://www.404media.co/google-says-it-discovered-millions-of-new-materials-with-ai-human-researchers/

As Brian Merchant writes, AI claims are eerily similar to "smoke and mirrors" – the dazzling reality-distortion field thrown up by 17th century magic lantern technology, which millions of people ascribed wild capabilities to, thanks to the outlandish claims of the technology's promoters:

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-really-is-smoke-and-mirrors

The fact that we have a four-hundred-year-old name for this phenomenon, and yet we're still falling prey to it is frankly a little depressing. And, unlucky for us, it turns out that AI therapybots can't help us with this – rather, they're apt to literally convince us to kill ourselves:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkadgm/man-dies-by-suicide-after-talking-with-ai-chatbot-widow-says

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/23/maximal-plausibility/#reverse-centaurs

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #ai #automation #humans in the loop #centaurs #reverse centaurs #labor #ai safety #sanity checks #spot the mistake #code review #driving instructor

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literaryvein-reblogs · 3 months ago

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Writing Notes: Story Plot

Plot - is what happens in a story.

Every story is made up of both events and characters.

A story happens because a pattern is interrupted.

If you are writing about a day that is like any other day, it is most likely a routine, not a story.

A Strong Plot

Centered on one moment—an interruption of a pattern, a turning point, or an action—that raises a dramatic question, which must be answered throughout the course of the story. This is also known as plot A.

Every element of the plot—each scene, each line—exists in service of answering that question. There are myriad plot devices that can bolster the main story; these are considered subplots.

7 Types of Plots

The nature of the dramatic question informs the plot and what kind of story it will be. Are the characters threatened by something external or internal? What genre will the story be?

Tragedy

Your main character should undergo a major change of fortune — almost always from good to bad, happy to sad.

Tragic characters have to suffer.

Comedy

Even though your characters have defects, their defects should never wind up being painful or destructive.

Comic characters make it through unscathed.

Hero’s Journey

The hero of a story must undergo two things:

Recognition and reversal of a situation.

Something has to happen from the outside that inspires the hero in a way that he/she didn’t realize before.

Then he has to undertake a quest to solve the situation.

Rags to Riches

Remember Cinderella? The classic fairy tale follows a simple rags-to-riches plot:

the protagonist is downtrodden, impoverished, or otherwise struggling, and through a series of events—either magical, like in Cinderella, or more realistic, like in Great Expectations — achieves success.

This type of plot often features a happy ending.

Rebirth

The rebirth style of plot follows a character’s transformation from bad to good.

The character will frequently have a tragic past that informs their current negative view of life, however, a series of events (usually set in motion by the protagonist or a narrator) will help them see the light.

See: Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, or the Beast in Beauty and the Beast.

Overcoming the Monster

Otherwise known as the good versus evil plot, this type of story features a protagonist (good) fighting an antagonist (evil).

The protagonist can be a singular character or a group united in their mission.

The antagonist is generally a big, bad evil (like Darth Vader in Star Wars) who continuously throws obstacles in the protagonist’s way—until the final battle.

Voyage & Return

This plot is a simple point A to point B and back to point A plot.

The protagonist sets off on a journey, only to return to his or her starting point having gained wisdom and experience (and sometimes treasure too).

Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is a beloved contemporary illustration of this plot.

How to Outline a Story Plot: Three-Act Structure

Beginning

The beginning of your novel has to accomplish a lot.

It must introduce the hero, the villain, and the world of the story, as well as the story’s dramatic question, and it must do this with enough energy to grab your reader’s interest right away.

A prologue can be useful for seizing the reader’s attention.

Middle

Your job during the middle of the story is to make the hero’s quest as difficult as possible so that at every moment it seems less likely that the hero will triumph.

You must raise the stakes along the way and create obstacles of ever-increasing intensity while keeping your eye firmly fixed on your conclusion.

The different plot points can include the basic plot, plus various subplots.

The main plot of a story always has to build up to the resolution.

End

The end of your story answers the dramatic question, which already has your ending hidden within it.

For example, if your question is:

Will Ahab catch the whale?

Then your story’s finale will be the moment when he does.

Often, tension evaporates in the middle of a novel, so it’s a good idea to write your ending first. It may not be perfect, and you can always change it later, but it’s useful to know the climax to which your characters are headed.

Having that destination will help you stay focused during the “middle muddle.”

Freytag’s Pyramid

German novelist Gustav Freytag expanded on Aristotle’s concept of plot by adding 2 additional components to the beginning, middle, and end:

Rising action and falling action.

Freytag’s dramatic arc, also known as Freytag’s Pyramid, includes the following:

Exposition. This is the beginning of the story.

Rising action. Once the story has begun, it is important to create tension by raising the stakes. You must raise the stakes along the way and create obstacles of ever-increasing intensity while keeping your eye firmly fixed on your conclusion.

Climax (middle). The pinnacle of your plot.

Falling action. The falling action occurs after the climax but before the end. Falling action frequently depicts the protagonist dealing with the consequences or fallout of the climax. The falling action is when the protagonist ties up loose ends and heads toward the conclusion. It is also referred to as the denouement.

Resolution. This is the end of the story.

Source ⚜ The 3-Act Structure: History & Elements ⚜ A Guide More References: Plot ⚜ Character ⚜ Worldbuilding ⚜ Writing Notes

#plot #on writing #writing tips #writing advice #writeblr #dark academia #spilled ink #writing reference #writing inspiration #creative writing #fiction #writing ideas #literature #writers on tumblr #poets on tumblr #writing prompt #poetry #light academia #writing resources

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pawseds · 4 months ago

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In 2019, Rusty Lake had an art and poetry contest to win the graphic novel they recently released then. I submitted this and was one of the three winners! It still holds well and I'm still a fan of it, so to this blog it goes.

This was heavily inspired by cowcowtony's art, the one who illustrated the graphic novel. His art style's infleunce is now embedded into my art style forever lol. Also, in my usual dumb of assery nature, I drew this either during finals or when finals was coming up. But I really wanted the graphic novel and I knew I was never going to get it in any other way since it was expensive and shipping was even more expensive, so I dropped everything to work on this LMFAO

I remember posting IG stories while I was making this, so here they are in their wonderful graininess, with my drawing pens and light table.

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glowup-princess · 20 days ago

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ʜᴏᴡ ᴛᴏ ʀᴏᴍᴀɴᴛɪᴄɪᴢᴇ ꜱᴛᴜᴅʏ

1. Create a Beautiful Study Environment

Light a candle or use fairy lights for a cozy ambiance.

Keep your desk organized and decorate it with items you love (plants, photos, or quotes).

Use aesthetically pleasing stationery like colorful pens, highlighters, and notebooks.

2. Curate a Study Playlist

Find instrumental music, lo-fi beats, or classical tunes to set the mood.

Alternatively, choose ambient sounds like rain, coffee shop chatter, or nature.

3. Romanticize Your Materials

Write notes neatly and add doodles or illustrations.

Use highlighters to make your notes visually appealing.

Treat your textbooks as if they’re sacred knowledge.

4. Incorporate Rituals

Make a cup of tea or coffee before starting.

Set intentions for the session, like "Today, I’m learning to grow."

Take a moment to visualize yourself succeeding.

5. Dress the Part

Wear comfortable but stylish clothes that make you feel good.

Use accessories like a cozy blanket or reading glasses to feel scholarly.

6. Embrace the Aesthetic

Imagine you’re in a library or an old-world study room.

Use vintage-style journals or leather-bound notebooks.

7. Celebrate Small Wins

Reward yourself after completing a session (e.g., a treat or break in the sun).

Reflect on how far you've come and journal your achievements.

8. Use Meaningful Motivations

Remind yourself why you’re studying and visualize your goals.

Think of yourself as the main character in a story striving to succeed.

9. Add Nature

Study near a window with a view of trees or greenery.

Bring a small plant or flowers to your desk.

10. Make Breaks Magical

Read a poem or inspiring quote during breaks.

Do a quick yoga stretch or step outside to breathe fresh air.

Study sessions:

Atmosphere and Environment

Theme Your Space: Create a "study café" vibe or a "Victorian scholar" ambiance with décor and lighting.

Seasonal Touches: Incorporate seasonal elements (like autumn leaves, holiday lights, or fresh flowers) into your workspace.

Essential Oils: Diffuse calming scents like lavender or energizing ones like citrus to boost focus.

Natural Light: Position your desk near a window for natural light and fresh air.

Comfortable Seating: Use a cozy chair with a blanket or cushion for added comfort.

Aesthetic Tools and Accessories

Fountain Pen: Write with a fountain pen to add elegance to your notes.

Wax Seal Stamp: Use one to seal envelopes or even decorate your journal pages.

Custom Stationery: Invest in unique notebooks or personalized study planners.

Color-Coded Systems: Use washi tape or colored tabs for visual appeal and organization.

Glass Water Bottles or Mugs: Sip from aesthetic drinkware that fits your style.

Mindset and Imagination

Pretend You’re in a Movie: Act as if your study session is a montage scene in a film about your success story.

Be the Hero of Your Journey: Imagine your studies as the preparation for a grand quest or mission.

Romantic Narration: Mentally narrate your study day as though it were a novel (“She sipped her tea, deeply immersed in knowledge…”).

Creative Techniques

Illustrated Notes: Add doodles, diagrams, or charts to make concepts come alive.

Calligraphy Headers: Write chapter titles or key points in elegant lettering.

Mind Maps as Art: Turn mind maps into colorful and interconnected masterpieces.

Storytelling Learning: Create a story around the subject you’re studying to make it more engaging.

Incorporating Media

Study Vlogs: Record time-lapse videos of yourself studying to inspire future sessions.

Mood Boards: Create Pinterest boards or vision boards inspired by your study goals.

Inspiring Quotes: Print or write quotes from authors or thinkers related to your subject.

Embracing the Moment

Slow Morning Starts: Begin your day with a peaceful routine before diving into study.

Mindful Study: Pay attention to the sensations of writing, reading, or typing to stay present.

Gratitude Journaling: Start or end with a quick note of gratitude for the opportunity to learn.

Fun and Whimsy

Create Playlists for Each Subject: Match the vibe of your studies with specific music genres.

Snack Like a Scholar: Eat finger foods or pastries as if you’re in an old library café.

Dress Like a Character: Imagine you’re a professor, a scholar, or even a wizard studying spells.

Study out: Take your books or laptop to a park or garden.

End with a Ritual

Summarize Elegantly: End sessions with a recap written beautifully in a journal.

Close the Day with Tea: Treat yourself to a calming tea ceremony as you reflect.

Celebrate Your Effort: Create a simple reward system, like a treat, movie night, or self-care ritual.

Remember be gentle w yourself <3

pt.2?

Likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated <3

#becoming that girl #clean girl #glow up #it girl #pink pilates princess #self development #self improvement #soft life #that girl #journaling #study #study motivation #studyblr #study blog #studyspo #student #student life #productivity #romantizing life

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accio-victuuri · 2 months ago

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read a book for me. 📚

inspired by people who were curious about the books featured in xz’s video, let’s take a look at what they are. i’d like to think these were pre approved by XZ and are related to his interests. i’m not removing tge possibility that one of these were chosen by someone from xzs or the director himself. i’m tagging this as cpn because there will be some cpn. if you don’t wanna go that route and just enjoy learning about the titles featured, then go ahead. 😉

1. Restoration House by Kennesha Bucks

You don't have to live in your dream house to make your living spaces feel more like home. Home is meant to be a place to belong. A place to gather and connect. A place of beauty. A place to restore your soul. In Restoration House, author and designer Kennesha Buycks will encourage you to embrace your home and your story so you can create mindful spaces that give life to you, your loved ones, and all who enter.

2. LORI WILDE

that red book just says the author’s name and no actual title but if you look her up, she’s all about that romance novel. here is her website if you wanna know what i mean. if you move a bit, the spine of it says “boy” so i think it maybe one of those books that has the cowboys in it!

3. Next is LIT UP, which is a black book. I’m not so sure if it’s a real book and when you search it, there are a couple of contenders. Tho i personally gravitate towards p2 since it’s black and the plot of the story is something i think XZ will enjoy!

it says out of the cubicle and into the real world, it’s like him getting out of his work cubicle years ago and discovering the world.

book overview:

Eddy Gilmore found himself on society’s fringe after being exiled from Corporate America. Despite years of higher education and exemplary service inside a cubicle’s pixelated world, he had no tangible or transferable skills to offer his community. Amazingly, failure was the door into tapping dreams and gifts that had long been ignored as impractical.

This true to life adventure is a pilgrimage into the real world, a place where neighbors make and produce things that sustain life and bring joy. When their eyes were opened to the talents all around them, Eddy and his wife discovered how to produce value themselves, and sank roots into the community. By working together, they are building a life they might never need to retire from.

4. The Interior Design Handbook

Frida Ramstedt believes in thinking about how we decorate, rather than focusing on what we decorate with. We know more today than ever before about design trends, furniture, and knickknacks, and now Frida familiarizes readers with the basic principles behind interior and styling—what looks good and, most of all, why it looks good.

The Interior Design Handbook teaches you general rules of thumb—like what the golden ratio and the golden spiral are, the proper size for a coffee table in relation to your sofa, the optimal height to hang lighting fixtures, and the best ways to use a mood board—complete with helpful illustrations. Use The Interior Design Handbook to achieve a balanced, beautiful home no matter where you live or what your style is.

5. Limits of the Known

A celebrated mountaineer and author searches for meaning in great adventures and explorations, past and present.

David Roberts, "veteran mountain climber and chronicler of adventures" (Washington Post), has spent his career documenting voyages to the most extreme landscapes on earth. In Limits of the Known, he reflects on humanity’s—and his own—relationship to extreme risk. Part memoir and part history, this book tries to make sense of why so many have committed their lives to the desperate pursuit of adventure.

In the wake of his diagnosis with throat cancer, Roberts seeks answers with sharp new urgency. He explores his own lifelong commitment to adventuring, as well as the cultural contributions of explorers throughout history: What specific forms of courage and commitment did it take for Fridtjof Nansen to survive an eighteen-month journey from a record "farthest north" with no supplies and a single rifle during his polar expedition of 1893–96? What compelled Eric Shipton to return, five times, to the ridges of Mt. Everest, plotting the mountain’s most treacherous territory years before Hillary and Tenzing’s famous ascent? What drove Bill Stone to dive 3,000 feet underground into North America’s deepest cave?

What motivates the explorers we most admire, who are willing to embark on perilous journeys and push the limits of the human body? And what is the future of adventure in a world we have mapped and trodden from end to end?

6. Eat, Drink, Nap: Bringing the House Home

The quintessential style, cooking, and home interior book from Soho House, the world's leading members' club.

Since the first Soho House opened its doors over 25 years ago, we've learnt a bit about what works. Contemporary, global yet with something quintessentially English and homely at its heart, this is Soho House style explained by its experts:

- From planning a room to vintage finds: bringing the Soho House look home.

- Our House curator's advice on how to buy, collect and hang art.

- The art of a great night's sleep: how to design the perfect bedroom.

- No-fuss recipes and chef's tips: here's how to make your favourite House dishes.

- Inside Babington: our take on country-house living. Wellies optional.

- Flip-flop glamour and poolside style from Soho House Miami Beach.

- All the secrets of cocktail hour: House tonics and barman's tips.

- Spa treatment at home, DIY facials and chocolate brownies.

Eat Drink Nap, a 300-page highly illustrated book, with a foreword from founder Nick Jones, and photography from leading food and interiors photographers Mark Seelen and Jean Cazals, shares the Soho House blueprint for stylish, modern living, the Soho House way.

7. Styled

It’s easy to find your own style confidence once you know this secret: While decorating can take months and tons of money, styling often takes just minutes. Even a few little tweaks can transform the way your room feels.

At the heart of Styled are Emily Henderson’s ten easy steps to styling any space. From editing out what you don’t love to repurposing what you can’t live without to arranging the most eye-catching vignettes on any surface, you’ll learn how to make your own style magic.

With Emily’s style diagnostic, insider tips, and more than 1,000 unique ideas from 75 envy-inducing rooms, you’ll soon be styling like you were born to do it.

8. The other book i’m seeing is WINTER TID then it cuts off so again it’s tricky to confirm what it is! My best guess is WINTER TIDE but if you google that — i can’t connect how XZ will read that lol.

EDIT: adding this one seen from the alternate MV,

The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice

is a vampire novel by American writer Anne Rice, the fourth in her The Vampire Chronicles series, following The Queen of the Damned (1988). Published in 1992, it continues the adventures of Lestat, specifically his efforts to regain his lost humanity during the late 20th century.

=========

now let’s look at the CPN.

i see fans saying the style related books could be because of his work before. but he is more of a digital and design artist right? he does logos and stuff that can help their brand identity. i don’t remember him being an interior designer. there is also the eat, drink, nap which has topics on cooking and being a good host. these books are making me clown so hard! my head canon is xz is keeping himself busy ( as if he is not busy enough already ) with designing their home. his and wyb’s — if that wasn’t clear enough, that’s what i’m insinuating. if he isn’t traveling, i would imagine he is the type who just wants to spend time at home in between jobs. it is their home. their sanctuary. so xz would make sure that it is according to what they both want and that it’s stylish.

and when he is at home sipping wine, while waiting for Bobo, is he reading a LORI WILDE BOOK? lol. sexy millionaire cowboy you say? 👀👀👀👀

😂😂😂😂😂

or reading something like the LIT UP book which is more up his alley ( but again i’m not sure if this is the exact title )

what is out of place is limits of the known. out of place compared to the theme of the other books, but xz is someone who is into nature and climbing of sorts. but i haven’t seen him climb the way yibo did in ETU. the most popular cpn is that this is yibo’s contribution to the selection. or maybe he read it after yibo and liked it. OR he is also becoming interested in rock climbing — which is not a far off possibility.

-END.

#yizhan #bjyx #there is no science here i’m just clowning like i always do

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penultimate-step · 2 months ago

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After my recent reread of Alice, I learned that a decade back there was a republication by seven seas, a company primarily known for translations of light novels and manga, illustrated in that style rather than using the classic pictures.

It kind of made me laugh a little at first, the way the vibe difference between the classic and the anime images created a pretty different emotional response. But thinking about it more, honestly this way might be more accurate to the original spirit than the actual original images at this point. The original Tenniel images have a style I don't see often today, so I associate it mainly with older classics and well known works - time has given it a sense of exclusivity or "dignity" that I'm not sure was originally intended. Carroll went out of his way to hire a well known satire cartoonist for the illustrations, after all, something associated with contemporary entertainment. It's possible that audiences in the 1860s felt a similar vibe from the original art as modern ones might for these.

#alice's adventures in wonderland #step.blogger

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transmasccofee · 1 year ago

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Terusai is real to me Idc idc idc theeyre real and true and i am so sad I miss them already uuuuuuuufhfrfuhnfbdudhubg

IMFINOSHED THE MANGA IMNEED TO CRY FOREVER AND EVER UUUUUUUUU

#maybe ill rewatch the anime…..#is it desperate if i watch the live action movie for more of them #i ssiuhdiuhduhyuydgh waaaaaaa #ill reread the manga tho so im not too sad #Grreat thing ab shows and manga is u can reread and rewatch it #Ooh ill reread and try my hand at illustrating the light novels too #i also kinda wanna try to learn Asou’s art style ot really really appeals to me #Sorry idk why im planning what ill do next i just realized that now ive read the manga i have so much stuff i wanna do #also i can go back to watching the anime casually :p #Im also sad bc ouuygghfhfhf saiki bbyboy………………#mmy sweet darling bonbon angle potato chip sweetie cupcake shooting star gumdrop whip cream sugar cinnamon candy frosting cherry pie #I need to hug him he desrrves so many hugs

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abyzoudev · 5 months ago

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youtube

Heartbreaker: Episode 1 [Alpha] Teaser Trailer

Take back the girl who belonged to you... by ANY means necessary.

Heartbreaker is a dark yuri psychological-thriller visual novel made in a retro style.

In this story, you play as Tanta Aiko, a 20-year-old college student in the small town of Sanseto, Osaka, 1996. Having lived her whole life with an all-consuming depression that left her reality dark & grey, Tanta's world filled with light & colour for the first time when she met the love of her life, Yūki Sakura.

However, it seems other girls have their eyes on Tanta's beloved Kouhai too... ...and there is NOTHING she won't do to get them out of the picture.

Will you sabotage Kouhai and your rivals' budding relationships? Stalk your rivals and murder them? Befriend them to earn their trust? Something... more extreme? In Heartbreaker, it's up to you.

The game is currently on -25% sale until August 31st, only $1.50 for the uncensored alpha build! (The censored build is free.)

Download the game here: https://abyzoudev.itch.io/heartbreaker-vn

The game features pixel art gameplay, illustrated cutscenes, voice acting, an original soundtrack, and multiple endings (in this build, five).

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tiredly101 · 2 years ago

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ok hear me out, i saw Clownsuu's art of wally but like, its a mafia AU Now i cant get the mafia AU out of my head- so like- Mafia AU Wally darling x Male!Singer! Reader? doesn't have to be the same as the AU plot as Clownsuu's AU i just need a mafia wally cuz there's NON. (P.S: Take care of yourself, drink water & take breaks! :) )

This is good! I already had a poll with similar idea holding the mafia au but this shall be a separate fic and I made reader know spanish! Hope you like it!

Devilish handsome singer

Pairing: Mafia leader! Wally Darling x Singer!Male reader

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7,

Illustrated Mafia Au, picture made by @clownsuu!

Context: Gepeto is the same Gepeto from New Neighbor but he owns a bar that was bought by a mafia man instead of Male reader and only warning is one death mention! Mario may be Gepeto's boyfriend, I'm not sure yet, suggested to listen to Báilame by Nacho when M/n appears! And lastly M/n's outfit is basically my Welcome Home persona outfits because it just fitted perfectly!

Wally was sitting in an armchair playing with a gun, in front of him was a woman kneeled down, she was missing an eye and she was crying. She didn't pay in time but just when Wally was going to shot her Barnaby opened the door.

"Sorry to interrupt boss but Mario wants to meet at his bar, Gepeto's, in 30 instead of tomorrow," said Barnaby before walking out of the room with his pipe in hand. Wally sighted and shoot the woman in the head before walking out of the room. He changed in his usual outfit for business; rainbows pants with black suspenders, white shirt, red handerquief in a chocker style and his oversized blue blazer.

Wally was taken by Julie to the bar where Howdy open his door upon arrival. Wally walked inside the bar seeing multiple familiar faces who nodded in respect, this is one of the reasons he loves being the Welcome Home mafia leader since he was feared world wide.

"Mr. Darling! I'm glad you could make it in such short notice... Some issues happened with the secretary but not to worry I got rid of them," said Mario Genapetti while sitting down on the booth closest to the stage and made a sign for Wally to sit down while Howdy followed behind, ready to pounce if told so.

"Let's do business after the singer, you are in for a treat Mr. Darling," Wally sighted but nodded after all he did love some pleasure before business but that normally entitled having Howdy rough someone up so he can get a message across but he supposes that a singer would suffice for now.

The whole room went dark and people started cheering while footsteps could be heard in the stage and then a soft blue light fell on top of a guy; he had beautiful (s/c) skin, soft looking (h/c) hair, his eyes were covered by a black bandana that had a little rainbow drawn in it and he was wearing a dark red shirt that had on top of it a black corset that hugged his waist that was accompanied with some black dress pants.

The guys started singing in spanish while swaying his hips with each beat and Wally seemed to be in a trance at the guy's movement while a soft color settled in his cheeks. Wally didn't understand why he was feeling like that, it wasn't normal in his perspective.

"Who is him?," Wally asked Mario but his eyes never strayed from the guy's enchanting singing and ethereal glow. Mario chuckled which made Wally begrudgingly pay attention to the man.

"That is M/n Novell, his best friend with Gepeto over there and when I bought the bar he was part of the deal and I decided to keep him around since the few times cops stopped by he was all the motivation for them to turn a blind eye...," said Mario while smiling and motioned M/n to go where he was since his song just finished. While he walked over there with grace a guy gave him a black rose before kissing his hand and walking away.

M/n threw the flower on the floor and stepped in it before stopping in front of Mario who smiled and pointed towards Wally to which M/n sighted and sat down on his lap which made Wally blush a bright red color.

"I don't have your money yet Mr. Darling but I should get your payment in two days time and if you are kind enough to wait Mr. Novell here will be willing and able to do anything you want," said Mario which made M/n stand up abruptly and pick Mario by the shirt before turning to Wally and smile.

"We will be right back," said M/n before walking away while dragging Mario by the back of his shirt and Mario seemed scared. To say Wally was confused was and understatement but soon Mario came back with a very obvious slap mark in his cheek and he stuttered when he spoke again while M/n walked towards back stage to prepare for another song.

"Sorry for that miscommunication, tomorrow I will have your money," said Mario while slightly shaking and Wally raised his eyebrow before getting up and leaving. He didn't understand a word of what happened but all he knows is he coming back to that club just to see their devilish handsome singer.

Would you like me to do a part two @frindtheshapeshifter405?

#welcome home #wally darling x male reader #wally darling x reader #Tiredly Jackie answers #tw; death #Tiredly Jackie writes

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