#might delete later its just so bummer

[ghosthan]

i keep trying to write a sort of vague, not too, too personal, somewhat lighthearted life update about the things going on for me but i have discovered i cant even do that without it going really bummer real fast but anyways i am actively enduring a time which i am sure will be a future trauma if it ever “ends” to look back on. even more horrifying alternative, it never ends. wah wah

[jakowskis]

torchwood fanfic resources

so i'm a chronic livejournal archaeologist, and fixating on 2000s media is particularly fun for me because it means i get to go digging on lj / dw / old fanfic forums. below you'll find some of the excavations from my torchwood fixation (give it up for month 6!) it's pretty much got every comm i've ever stumbled upon and found useful, or thought others would find useful. it's largely fanfic-oriented, though there's some more generalized comms, too. i hope you guys enjoy!

i was originally going to include a link to my reclist on this post as well, but it's still a wip, so i'll just post that separately in the future.

general disclaimer: most of the content here is from 2006-2013 or so. period-typical attitudes may pop up in places. i'm not sure if most modern tw fans have witnessed the original fandom at all, but i felt a need to say this anyway, because i've seen some icky stuff. i've warned for anything notable. gwen bashing in particular may unfortunately pop up in some of these comms, especially in the comments, so tread carefully.

if you're new to probing through old lj comms, remember to always have the wayback machine on hand, because you're going to run into a lot of purged accounts and seemingly lost fics, but sometimes you get lucky and something's been archived :)

as of the date i'm posting this, all of these comms are still accessible, but if you're from the future and some have been deleted, again, go ahead and give the wayback machine a try. additionally, livejournal has a system that includes 'cross-posting' in which, if authors choose to (and the majority of them do, to get their fics more visibility), fics get posted to multiple comms at once. so chances are, even if one comm gets deleted, the contents will survive through other comms. kind of like how reblogs continue to exist even when the original blog is deleted.

finally, ctrl + f is your best friend if you have a specific ship/character/trope you're invested in, especially in comms with less than ideal tagging systems. if a comm does have a substantial tagging system, you can find all of its tags by adding '/tags' the end of the urls i've provided.

ok... let's begin :-)

assorted livejournal communities

✎ torch-wood: this is essentially a torchwood subreddit. it started before the show even aired, and one of the highlights of it is episode reaction posts (easily accessible on the right side of the lj) that document how everyone immediately reacted to the eps, which is pretty damn cool, fandom-history wise. only thing i should mention is there's quite a lot of gwen and owen bashing in the comments of some of those reaction posts, so just be wary of that if you love those two like i do, 'cuz it's a bit of a bummer.

✎ torchwood-three: this comm is an extremely cool then-daily newsletter (that still updates sometimes?!) that compiled as much fan-content as it could find into cleanly organized lists. the posts made immediately after new episodes aired contain reactions, discussions, meta, theories, new fic, fanmixes, just about everything. very very cool to go back and see the way the fandom was thinking as the show was airing and as they were getting to know the characters. here's a direct link to all posts made in late 2006, during the airing of s1.

✎ torchwood-fic: exactly what it says on the tin. desktop layout is easy to navigate, tags are all there!

✎ torchwood-fic's profile page also features a list of affiliated accounts that's pretty handy. it's worth taking a peek at, in case i've excluded anything in this post that you might be interested in.

✎ twgenrefinders: handy dandy comm where people would ask for fics of a certain variety & be treated with reclists, or hyper-specific fics... pretty cool stuff, ive got several threads bookmarked to sort through the links later. ofc, please note that some of the things people asked for might be stinky. particularly i've seen a lot of ppl requesting gwen bashing fics :/

✎ twstoryfinder: cousin to the above comm; here, people would ask for a very specific fic they'd lost. it's kind of fun to find fics through because you get someone describing memorable scenes + hyping it up, so it's different than just a standard summary. this one still gets posted on, too, which is crazyyy.

✎ tw-unpaired: for gen fics! no romance allowed! there's some good character studies + friendship fics in there. stuff's tagged by character + authors are even tagged, in case you find one whose writing you particularly enjoy. this is v useful for when someone's main journal has been deleted.

✎ torchwood-decaf: a comm where janto is BANNED. nah i'm kidding, it's not anti-janto, it was just made because janto is so huge that it overshadows everything else. pretty smart, tbh; wading through the sheer mass of janto content can be tiresome.

✎ jack-in-cuffs: for dark tw fic, or uber smutty tw fic. as a fan of dark!fic, there's some goodies in here, but of course it's not everyone's cup of tea. most of the writers included warnings, but if you go a little further back, some people weren't as courteous; navigate with caution.

✎ jack-owen: for fic featuring our captain and his (second favorite) doctor. i know this pairing's kinda divisive nowadays, but i enjoy it a lot. the comm's got a dismal tagging system and, ngl, i don't truly like any of the fics there (i'm very intrigued by jack and owen's relationship but i've never found fic that really does them justice, and i still haven't figured out how to write them myself) - but i'll include it anyway.

✎ odetojoi: for fic featuring owen in the middle of a janto sandwich, for those of us who are allergic to women (/sarcasm). there's an oddly impressive supply of fics of the three of them, and a good chunk of them can be found in this comm. (everytime i see this comm i think of a certain abbreviation found in p/rnogr/phy... but i digress)

✎ halfwee-and-tea: for ianto x owen fic. haven't gone through this one much, truthfully. i hate when comms have no tagging systems agh.

✎ owenharper-fans: a comm for the saddest undeadest bisexualest doctor around. also features a few burn appreciation posts, which is nice to see pre-pac rim era. mostly just features a shit ton of owen fic, particularly owen x ianto fic. mostly sufficiently tagged. if you need me once i post this, btw, i will be balls deep in this comm.

✎ the pro-owen alliance: another owen-focused comm - i think this one was made directly in response to owen bashing. haven't combed through this one much but it's got a fair amount of fics.

✎ house-of-cooper: a gwen comm! made in response to gwen bashing. haven't gone through it, but i'm glad it exists.

✎ torchwoodcoffee: ianto comm! this one's hugeee. the majority of it's janto, but the pairings aren't tagged, which is really frustrating. about 6k fics on there, though! just untagged. fff.

✎ tw-femficfest: a comm for fic about any and all of the torchwood ladies. tagging's cleanly done & there's some handy fic round ups, too.

✎ tw-femslash: yuri!!! wahoo!!! a comm for f/f tw ships. there's quite a lot of fic on here, but unfortunately there's no tagging whatsoever. sigh.

✎ tw-classic: a comm for 'all things series one and two of torchwood'. was made after s3 and was popular around s4 out of nostalgia for the golden age <3 good amount of fic, discussions, etc.

✎ torchwood-house: this comm is, like, letterboxd, but for torchwood fanfic. basically a group of individuals who thought of themselves as having Good Taste would read Good Fic and then go in this comm and write a post about why they recommend it. it's well-made, easy to scroll through, and sells the fics v well, and it kinda gets you more excited to read them when you get to see someone hype them up with Fancy Words. it's like a little torchwood yaoi bookclub. we're eating quiche

✎ tw100: a drabble challenge; this thing's full of 100 word drabbles. ngl i hate drabbles but i'm throwing it in here anyway

✎ touchyerwood: i love kink memes... i love kink memes less when my favorite character/pairing is unpopular. the pac rim kink meme's been a blessing bc i'm a basic ass newmann - the torchwood kink meme? not so much. it's got a fair amount of shit, though, so maybe someone else will appreciate it. this one isn't the original, that one's been wiped off the internet, to my chagrin. keep in mind before digging that people in kink memes are horny & gross. that's your warning.

✎ reel-torchwood: for any and all movie aus... ok i have a bone to pick with this comm. i'm a big movie nerd, i love film, i've seen dozens of films i've thought would make good aus - i combed through this and there is not a SINGLE fic in there that piqued my interest. NOTHING. needless to say my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. i'm sure my experiences aren't universal though.

✎ torchwoodslash: ah, remember when we called it slash? gee whiz. i'm not big on this comm, it's not very user friendly + there's like no tags whatsoever so it's extremely hard to navigate. enter at your own risk & good luck, lol.

✎ rounds-of-kink: this isn't a torchwood-exclusive comm, but it's got a sizeable torchwood tag, which can be found here. pretty organized tagging system; makes me happy.

✎ tw-declassified: this comm was mainly used for running a 'torchwood bingo', which, i've been in other fandoms that do episode bingos and it's usually cute... this one confused me a little so i didn't bother peeking around too much, but still a cool little bit of fandom history.

✎ writerinadrawer: this was an annual torchwood writer's challenge that ran for four years... it's kinda hard to navigate but it does have some fic in it so i'm putting it here.

✎ dmarley-recs: a recs journal someone ran for compiling torchwood fic; it's got a l o t of recs on there, largely jack/ianto.

ok and straying from lj briefly for two other places to find fic...

✎ kink_bingo: this is a dreamwidth comm, and it's not torchwood-exclusive, so i've linked straight to the torchwood tag. this comm has a livejournal equivalent, but for some reason the tw tag is pretty barren on that one? not sure why. but on dw it's got a fair amount. the tagging system is rough, it tags fandom and kink but not pairing, which is irritating, and every post is hidden under a cut AND makes you go through a discretion barrier every single time (but probably only if you don't have an account? i'm not logged in) which makes navigation a pain. but i dunno, more smut, if you want it.

✎ whofic.com: this site is for doctor who fic, but it's got a very substantial amount of torchwood fic. i do not, however, like the formatting at all. i'm being overly nice; i HATE the formatting. it's very reminiscent of fanfic dot net but, like, worse. it reminds me of adultfanfiction dot org which was a NIGHTMARE to use. but! there is torchwood fic there so it's going in here.

aaaand there we go! that's all i have. i hope these prove handy! enjoy :D

[akaridream]

after dark pt. 2: rooftop (hawks x reader)

tags: hawks x reader

cw: cursing, hawks is a flirt, afab reader, mentions of drugs/alcohol, smut in later chapters

taglist: @inkthgoat ​ @pnsduck @mysideeffectsofyou

masterlist

You nearly cried when you saw half a million yen in your bank account Saturday morning. You spent a few extra minutes in bed, grinning at the ceiling and thanking the kami for Hawks. You couldn’t help but think of the smile in his voice and the playful spark in his eye. I should thank him again, you thought. You reached for your phone just as a text came through.

Hawks: morning! the transfer should have gone through by now, lemme know if you got it

You: Yes, I got it. Thank you again, the amount is extremely generous for three weeks. I hope my work lives up to it

Hawks: i’m sure you’ll be worth it :) so for monday, i was thinking we should meet up near the psc hq with enough time for you to give me a quick crash course on taking photos for evidence. I’ve got an ear piece for you too, so we can be in constant contact while we’re spread out

You: Yeah we can do that. Do you have a DSLR?

Hawks: lol what is that

You: Are you serious

Hawks: nah haha its the 21st century, i know what a digital camera is :D i don’t have one though

You: omg good grief Hawks

You: Most cell phones can take pretty good pics these days, so I’m sure yours will be fine. Or I can teach you how to work the SLR and I’ll use my phone since I know what I’m doing

Hawks: ooo I kNoW wHaT i’M dOinG

You: Wow, the attitude. I could always just take your money and run

Hawks: could you tho? i bet i could track you down

You: I could go off the grid and you’d never find me

Hawks: eh, you’d get bored and lonely. plus i have my ways

You: Maybe bored, but I doubt I’d get lonely. Snowy owls are solitary

Hawks: not always ;)

You couldn’t help but blush. His cheeky banter made you wonder how he could be so comfortable with someone he just met. You crafted, then deleted, then rewrote, then deleted your reply again, trying to find the line between professional and playful. He was right, after all, and spring was on its way.

You: I should have known you were going to be a handful, Hero.

Hawks: ;) ;) ;)

You rolled your eyes and blushed again. Goofball, you thought. You just might reciprocate the flirting, once your work was done.

You: Text me when you have something important to talk about, Bird Brain

Hawks: aw c’mon, i’m just teasing ya

Hawks: how does 3:30p monday at the family mart a block east of the psc sound? we can grab some snacks, hang out on the rooftop and take some practice shots

You: No offense, but you kind of attract attention, so going anywhere in public in the light of day with you is going to be a no for me. Nighttime shooting is more involved than shooting in full daylight, that’s when I think we’ll need to practice. How about tomorrow after sundown?

Hawks: you just can’t wait to see me, huh?

Hawks: but yeah, I can make that work. same place, 8p tomorrow. and i’ll grab snacks beforehand, all by my lonesome :’( what kinda stuff you like?

You: Sounds good to me. Nothing spicy. Other than that I’m really not picky. Something salty and something sweet I guess

Hawks: no spice? bummer

Hawks: i’ll hook you up tho. see you then!

You felt childish sitting on the roof with your feet overhanging the side of the stories-high building downtown Fukuoka. The busy street below bustled with life, but no crimson feathers to speak of yet. Your stomach was convinced you were on a roller coaster, slowing ticking up and up and up towards the crest of a great drop. No professional dealings had ever gotten you in knots like this.

What if I’m a bad teacher? What if he’s a total moron and doesn’t understand anything I say? What if I trip over my words? What if I forget something super important and his photos turn out horrible? What if he forgets to take off the lens cap?

Your anxiety and the bracing breeze sent a chill through you. You pulled your thumb sleeves tighter over your knuckles. Cold weather was your comfort zone, but something in the air felt… Different.

You pulled your camera bag onto your lap and fiddled with the settings. The night cityscape from the top of the building made for a nice shot, and it might ease your nerves to practice what you wanted to say in your mind before Hawks arrived. You stood, knelt, leaned, trying to get the composition just right when you sensed a presence behind you.

“Ayo! Getting started without me?”

“Geez, tell the entire neighborhood we’re up here!” you griped, turning off your camera.

Hawks laughed, took off his flight goggles and slid his headphones off to hang around his neck. “Not like we’re doing anything nefarious up here anyway! How ya been?” he asked, sitting down to lean against the half wall ledge next to you, konbini bag in tow.

“Fine, just getting a couple shots of the skyline,” you said before stowing your camera. “How are you?”

“Oh, you know. Same old stuff, chasing cliche thieves and villains. Come check out what I got for ya. Whatever you don’t like I’ll be happy to eat. Cool jacket by the way. Custom made?”

“Oh, this?” you gestured. “I modified it myself actually. All I did was take some cheap track jacket, cut a hole in the back and surged the edges. Well, and I dyed it black.”

“Let me see the back,” he asked, gesturing for you to turn around. You turned shyly, spreading your wings out to compliment the work you’d done. Hawks smirked, impressed. “Very nice. You sew then?”

You tucked your wings back in and sat next to Hawks. “I like to make or modify stuff for my wings at least. Tailors are expensive, plus sometimes I get the itch to do creative stuff.”

“That’s really cool. I may have to commission you for some of my ideas!” he said, pulling out a veritable buffet of konbini goodies. You chuckled.

“Geez, are we expecting guests?” You grabbed a pack of umaibo, one of your favorite crunchy snacks.

“Nah, I’m just a growing boy! Hero work burns a lot of calories, and I haven’t had a break since lunch!” he said as he tore into a famous Famichiki. He offered a second to you. “Saw these right next to the register and couldn’t pass ‘em up. Something about konbini fried chicken warms the soul, ya know?”

You took it, smiling. “These remind me of middle school.”

“Yeah?” he asked. “How so?”

“There was a Family Mart between school and home, I used to grab them all the time,” you said. “Glad you don’t mind being a cannibal.”

He laughed. “Right? People call me that all the time! We can’t help that we’re birds of prey!” His laughter warmed you. Or was it the hot food?

“I always wonder what school was like,” Hawks continued. “I was home schooled. Well, sort of. I never went to regular school at least.”

“You didn’t go to UA?” you asked. “I thought that was pretty much a requirement for pro heroes.”

He shook his head. “Nope, not for me at least. I might have liked to go there, but…” He looked into the distance. “Growing up wasn’t the best for me.”

You tilted your head and looked at him. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

He shrugged and sighed. “Eh, s’just how it is. Things are good now. I’m glad I don’t have to worry about stuff like where meals are gonna come from anymore, you know?”

You frowned. “Damn, it was that bad? I hate that.”

He polished off his chicken and stole some umaibo from your open bag. “Yeah, it was shitty but it didn’t last forever. But enough about me anyway. What’s your family like?”

“Mom was pretty quiet and Dad was super busy, so pretty typical family, I guess. Although I do have a twin brother.”

“Ooh, that’s cool. Where do they all live?”

“Up in Hokkaido,” you said, stealing back your umaibo.

“Damn, that’s far. Anywhere near Sapporo?”

“Mom’s near Date where I grew up, a couple hours southeast of Sapporo. Don’t really know where my dad is these days, and my brother’s way out in the middle of nowhere. He hates the city even more than me.”

“You hate the city?” he asked, leaning towards you.

You nodded. “Too much going on. The noise, the lights, the swarms of people… It’s a lot. My hometown was pretty quiet but there was no opportunity for work there. Sapporo would have been alright probably but… I just wanted a big change I guess, so I picked Fukuoka. So here I am, just trying to cope with my quirk.”

You surprised yourself with how much you said, chalking it up to Hawks’ comforting presence and being a good listener.

“Crazy that you moved across the whole country. Does your brother have a similar quirk?”

“Yep, almost exactly the same. His wings are pretty much pure white, almost no speckles like I have.”

“Ah, interesting,” he said. “You guys close?”

You gave a cynical chuckle. “Definitely not. I’m not really close with anyone.”

He tilted his head. “Not with anyone? Really?”

You shrugged, trying to avoid his eyes.

“No best friend?” he asked.

“When I was in school. But not anymore.”

“No boyfriend?” he asked incredulously.

You laughed darkly. “No, definitely not.”

Hawks furrowed his brow but smiled playfully. “You mean you’re not a total ball-busting heart-breaker?”

You snorted. “Hell no. Try chronically single.”

He chuckled. “I may be high on the public approval charts, but I’m afraid I suffer that fate too.” He tossed you some Winter Melty Pocky. “My excuse is that I’m always too busy, but I wouldn’t mind making time for someone special. Maybe someday when things settle down and villains don’t run the streets some angel will sweep me off my wings.” He had a wistful look in his eyes as he tore through another snack.

“Yeah, I guess I wouldn’t mind that either,” you said.

Your mind drifted back to your middle school days as you opened the Pocky. Your first kiss had been stolen by a rambunctious boy in your class who was dared to play the Pocky game. The popular girls turned him down, but you, not knowing the true intention of the game, waited patiently with the biscuit in your mouth. As his lips crashed against yours, you were confused, not lovestruck as you wanted your first kiss to be. The only kiss since then was a brief make out session at the only college party you ever attended. He tasted of cheap beer and tobacco, a combination that still makes your stomach turn. You never spoke again once winter break arrived, but at least the occasion was consensual.

As you munched on the bitter chocolate, you wondered what Hawks might taste like. You caught yourself and squeezed your eyes shut. Am I insane? I just met this guy two days ago!

“So, the other day you said you don’t trust heroes. Any particular reason why?” Hawks asked.

Your face grew tense. “A few. The hero market is pretty over-saturated these days.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, that might be true. But how does that affect your trust in them?”

You crossed your arms. “I’m not convinced there’s enough crime to go around. I think a lot of them probably take care of a couple high-publicity jobs and go home after an hour’s work.”

Hawks eyed you. “Have you looked at crime statistics recently?”

“Not since college.”

“You might be surprised at them. I’m not trying to say you’re wrong, but crime rates have changed a lot with quirks getting more common.”

“Yeah, and while quirks are a fine explanation for the crime increase and the overabundance of heroes, I’d rather it be police stopping crime. Doing it for the notoriety defeats a lot of the purpose in my eyes.”

“What’s the difference though?” Hawks asked, turning towards you. “Isn’t it good that crime gets stopped, period?”

You shook your head. “Doing something good just because you know people are watching? Seems a little hollow. To me, it’s more about integrity. Heroes should work behind the scenes more and focus on doing the right things when no one is looking.”

He nodded. “I completely agree. So how do you know they aren’t already doing that if all you see are their TV appearances?”

You opened your mouth to reply, but once you met Hawks’ golden eyes, your words died in your throat. Damn, you thought. He’s exactly right. He seemed to know it too, but he didn’t boast. He only continued to search your eyes, his lips upturned in a soft smile.

“So, what do I need to know for your camera?” Hawks asked as he opened a bag of spicy chips.

“First thing, you had better not get any of that spicy dust on it, or I’ll toss you off the roof,” you quipped. You might not mind a touch of spice, if it came from his lips.

“Your threat would be scarier if I couldn’t fly,” he said, attempting to steal one of your Pocky sticks. You swatted the back of his hand playfully.

“Uh-uh, if you wanted some Pocky you should have gotten two, bird brain,” you said, pulling out a stick and waving it to tempt him. “These are my favorite.”

Hawks pouted. “Aw, but spicy chocolate is so good!”

You briefly thought of putting the biscuit between your teeth to tease him with it, just like the old Pocky game, but you could never work up the nerve to be so bold. Instead, you held the stick in front of his mouth and rolled your eyes.

“Geez, if you’re gonna whine about it.”

“You sure?” he asked, holding your eye contact. You rested the Pocky against his lips. He smiled and gently bit the biscuit in half, then chased it with a spicy chip, then ate the other half of the Pocky. He hummed in delight as he licked the flavored dust off his fingers. You scrunched up your nose.

“That is so gross,” you said, laughing.

“Mm, the chocolate on those is even better than the regular ones! Definitely a good combo. You sure you don’t wanna give it a try?”

“Absolutely not, especially after you just licked your fingers!”

He gave a menacing smile and extracted a chip from the bag, loaded with spicy dust. “Come on now, just one won’t kill you.”

“Ugh, no way!” You pushed his arm away, giggling. He easily overpowered you and brought the chip dangerously close to your face. “That smells like fire, oh my gosh Hawks!”

You playfully shoved at each other, laughing as you tried to get the diabolical chip as far away as possible. Hawks feigned weakness and you grabbed his wrist, aiming the chip back towards his mouth. He chomped it, then lunged for you Pocky, snatching it out of your hand.

“You cheater!” you squealed, grabbing his other wrist and struggling with him for control.

“Ah! Damn girl, you’ve got some sharp claws!”

You looked at your hands, noticing your naturally black nails digging into his skin. You released him, suddenly guilty over the half moon marks left in his flesh.

“Oh, geez, sorry!” you yelped. Hawks just smiled and took out a piece of Pocky.

“No worries, I’m tough. I can handle a battle scar or two,” he said, holding the Pocky to your lips. “See, didn’t even break the skin.”

You took the Pocky with your teeth and turned away, cheeks warm. “Maybe I should have for stealing my treat.”

“Didn’t your parents ever teach you to share?” he asked with a gentle elbow to your side.

“They taught me to fend for myself! Now are we gonna goof off all night or we gonna get down to business? We do have work to do tomorrow.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I just like making you laugh.” His smile made his eyes wrinkle. Your heart stuttered and you couldn’t help but smile too. He’s so pretty…

“Oh, but speaking of work, here’s the ear piece.” He pulled a device from his pocket and handed it to you. “Connect it to your phone and tomorrow while we’re on surveillance, we can talk to each other.”

You examined the compact device. “And what if I get sick of hearing you?”

He grinned and shrugged. “You can always turn down the volume and see how long it takes me to notice you aren’t listening.”

You laughed. “Alright, sounds good. Now, let’s get started with some camera stuff. Do you know what aperture is?”

Hawks pretended to rack his brain. “Hm, that company from the Portal games?”

“We’re gonna be here all night, aren’t we?”

He shrugged. “Only if you want to.”

next (part 3)

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

if i could be allowed to navel gaze on my own blog for a minute. and i may delete this later. but like, i really REALLY love taking an existing world and expanding it via fandom, drawing outside the box and coloring in the characters who've never interacted with each other and giving them intricate relationships, other places and detailed histories that were never given a second glance in canon, etc etc i'm just always haunted by the specter of like "why are you putting this much effort into this. with all this time and energy you could create your own world and have its base be actually good" and the answer to that is like. because i'm having fun doing it. but "because it's fun" is not Enough for that lil asshole.

and it also doesn't help that i feel like it's hard to like? share? in a way that's interesting, and also that people maybe don't care that much abt it, which is like. fair, since, as i said, it's so canon deviated and there are so many places where people might tap out and go "no i want that done differently," it's just kind of a bummer bc. ok it's kind of bc i like attention but more generally i also just like collaborative writing! but i don't think those two things mesh. very well.

alright ramble over back to your regularly scheduled programming

[regionaltoday]

Threads App: Find Your Twitter Friends Like a Champ!

Picture this: You're like this big shot with a billion followers on Twitter. Now Meta, the bigwig company, has come up with a hot new app called Threads.

And guess what? It's blowing up, my friend! Mark Zuckerberg himself, the big cheese at Meta, says they've already got a mind-boggling 70 million sign-ups in just a few days. Can you believe it?

Excitement and Skepticism

Now, Threads might not be everyone's cup of tea. Some folks think it's too in-your-face with all that branding and Facebook stuff. But hey, let's not judge too soon. 

We're talking about a shiny new social media platform here, and joining it alongside millions of other users can be pretty darn exciting.

But hold your horses! Will Threads actually knock Twitter off its throne? Well, guess what? They're both just apps, not living beings. So, nobody's getting "killed" here. Plus, Threads comes from the same folks who are all gung-ho about the metaverse. 

So, who knows what the future holds? Let's wait and see how it all pans out. But hey, tons of folks are already jumping on the Threads bandwagon, sharing funny memes and hustling to get more followers.

Related News: Threads by Meta: 10 Million Users Join in Hours!

Tips for Rebuilding Your Social Media Following on Threads

Now, if you're up for reconnecting with your old Twitter buddies and maybe even showing off a bit, here are some tips to help you get back in the social media game on Threads. 

You can grab the app on both Android and Apple platforms, by the way.

Cross-Post Multiple Times

First off, don't be afraid to shout it out loud. Yeah, it might seem a little desperate, but trust me, it works!

Fire off a couple of tweets to let your Twitter peeps know you're on Threads and share your new handle, especially if it's different from your Twitter username. 

Go ahead and throw in some memes, humor, or even straight-up requests to catch their attention. Get creative!

Link Your Instagram

Now here's a cool move: link up your Instagram account with Threads. Picture this: you might have a different crowd on Instagram, but guess what? 

Lots of early Threads adopters, especially the big shots with huge followings and verified badges on Instagram, are shifting their community over from that platform.

So, when you sign up for Threads and follow your Instagram buddies, you'll have the option to automatically follow all your Instagram friends who also have Threads accounts. Sweet, right? 

And even if they haven't joined Threads yet, you can still follow them later if they decide to jump in on the fun.

But here's the deal: once your accounts are linked, you can't fully delete your Threads account without wiping out your Instagram account too.

It's a bit of a bummer, but that's how things are for now. Who knows? Maybe they'll change it up down the line.

Keep Your Account Public

Now, let's talk about privacy. If you're more into keeping a low profile, you can make your Threads account private. 

Just head to your profile, tap those two lines in the top right corner, go to Privacy, and toggle the Private profile switch to the right. 

But hey, keep in mind that if you want your posts to show up in the algorithmic feed and reach a wider audience, you gotta keep your account public.

Reuse Your Best Bits

Oh, and speaking of accounts, Meta collects personal info when you use Threads. So, take a sec to check out their data collection practices. 

It might be worth comparing them to Twitter and other alternatives, so you know what you're getting yourself into.

Reuse Your Best Content

Now here's a pro tip: don't be afraid to reuse your greatest hits!

Whether your account is public or private, it's totally cool to recycle some of your old photos, jokes, and topics of discussion.

Just put a fresh spin on 'em, you know? It's all about finding what works and connects with your desired following.

Consistent Posting

Consistency is key, my friend. If you're having a blast on Threads and you wanna attract more followers, keep those posts coming! Engage with content that makes you laugh or share insightful stuff. 

Since the platform is still in its early stages, people might be open to new connections and eager to grow their own following. So seize the opportunity!

Manage Screen Time

Now let's tackle the elephant in the room: screen time. We all know how addictive social media can be, right? Well, Threads has got your back. 

If you're worried about spending way too much time on the app, head to your profile, tap those two lines in the top right corner, and go to Account.

From there, you can select "Take a break." Threads will remind you to take breaks from the app after 10, 20, or 30 minutes of consecutive usage.

It's all about finding that sweet balance, my friend.

So, there you have it! Some killer tips to help you navigate the Threads app and build up your social media following. Now go out there, make some noise, and have a blast connecting with new peeps.

[oh-for-fic-sake]

What will daddy Henry do if his little is sad because someone took something valuable from her?

So i wanst sure what to base this on entirely, so I'm going to go with something I went through over the last few weeks. I had a little bit of anon hate, which I deleted but the words stuck with me making me second guess everything i was working on and the confidence i had in my writing was taken away. so this is like a shameful self indulgent fantasy that im going to read to myself when ever im down.

Warnings: Pretty Personal For Me, Angsty, Fluffy, Self Doubt, Happy Ending, DDLG, Long!!

Tagging: @viking-raider @isitmine @tinabean37 @loserrlauraa  @msblkfire84 @henrythickcavill @plainbrunettelbl @dummiesshort @cynic-spirit @pandaxnienke  @two-unbeatable-beaters @libbymouse @wolfieash @eldarwen333 @princesssterek @mom2000aggie @blackestpinkworld 

(not sure who to tag in headcannons? these are the ones on my everything taglist)

Henry watched quietly with a frown as you sat down in the living room, eyes cast down at the tablet in front of you shoulders slumped.

"poppet what's wrong love?"

"n-nothing da-addy" you said with a small stutter

Henry shifted on his feet looking at you critically before coming over to you.

"nothing? So your sitting here almost in tears over nothing" he stated sceptically rounding the sofa sitting next to you.

"I'm not cryin" you sniffled trying to bite your lower lip to stop it from wobbling.

"not yet, but close enough poppet, hand it over" he said holding out his hand waiting for the tablet.

You whined not wanting to hand it to him at first but after a mini battle of wills you placed the colourful tablet in his hand.

Your head was cast down and you rubbed your eyes trying to catch the tears before they were noticeable.

"okay then, so this is your new story?" he asked scrolling through the page not reading it all but scanning the words, it was well written like always.

At the beginning of the pandemic he suggested you started a blog, and you had. A writing blog all full of fanfictions of... Him.

He didn't mind he actually love you doing something constructive, it kept you happy and busy which helped him because there wasn't many free days even in lockdown. He was working out, reading scripts or rearranging covid tests and travel.

Plus knew these smut blogs existed, even lurked on a few.

"y-yeah" you mumbled leaning on him hugging his arm scanning the page as he scrolled, you knew he wasn't reading everything maybe every few lines

"sooo what's the problem?" he said not finding an issue with the writing.

"i... I cant post it" you muttered looking down avoiding his gaze

"why?" he asked frowning not liking the defeated tone you had.

"j-just because..."

"ah I see, you have lost your confidence" he said quickly figuring out the problem, the downside to writing was everything was personal preference so tiny comments could knock your confidence.

In a way it was like his work, you put your heart and soul into it and then people don't like it? It was always a bummer. But he was used to it, you were not.

You nodded to him it was true you'd lost your confidence, you hadn't wrote for a while.

You couldn't seem to find the words to fit together anymore.

You felt silly, they were just a few mean comments, words from a nasty troll who didn't have anything better to do but it hurt, you poured your heart into every chapter and then for people to rip it to shreds? It stung.

"y-yes I... They didn't like it" you hummed fiddling with your fingers, drawing deep breaths trying not to cry

"and so what?" he said shrugging making you snap your gaze to him.

"wha?"

"it doesn't matter love, so a few people didn't like it, lots of people do, I love your stories"

"you have to your my daddy"

Henry huffed and shook his head at you ruffling your hair pressing a kiss to your head amused that you thought that's the only reason he liked your writing.

"don't stop writing just because of a few mean people nugget, it takes a lot of skill to write and a lot of bravery to share it. Your a brave talented little baby and I'm very proud of you"

He said cooing as that seemed to be the final push sending you over the edge making you burst out into tears.

He hugged you moving the tablet out of the way before pulling you to his lap, unbuttoning his shirt half way and squished you into his bare chest knowing you needed to feel him, not a shirt.

"shh its okay babygirl, your stories are wonderful, and you have fun writing them don't you baby?"

You nodded crying harder trying to get the words out but you just couldn't instead whining incoherently into him.

"and you enjoy making the little banners? And collect all your photos and gifs?"

"y-yeah but they di-dn't like it last time!"

"they don't have to like everything you do sweety"

"but I don't wana upset them!"

"did you do the warnings?" he asked knowing all about the do's and don'ts of posting your erotica.

You nodded whining you always did warnings on stuff to be safe.

"and make the little cut thingy you were telling me about?" again you nodded at him

"so your telling me they read the warnings, clicked to see it and then were mean?" you sniffled biting your lip trying to calm down but nodded to him humming quietly.

"well then it sounds to me like they were going out of their way, looking for someone to pick on" he said slowly rocking you slightly.

You fell quiet resting your head on his chest as he rubbed your back and patted your bottom soothing you.

"but what if they wasn't? What if my stories are bad- and encourage bad stuff!" you cried tucking yourself into him tighter.

"no-no you repeat after me, fiction is fiction" he said pulling you back wiping your tears waiting for you to say it out loud.

"fic-tion is f-fiction" you repeated

"I did everything I could to warn people"

"I-I did everyth-ing I could to w-warn people" he smiled at you as you drew a huge breath calming yourself down.

"and they are jealous because I'm an adorable, smart, funny kind and caring babygirl who has the cutest little peach butt in the world~" he said smirking at you from above holding you tightly to him pressing a kiss to your head.

"and they- daddy! Noo! I can't say that~" you gasped flushing as you realised what he had said

"oh yes you can because its the truth now come here let daddy bite that peach~" he growled playfully snapping his jaws at you.

"ah-no!" you screeched giggleing as he began tickling you all over wrestling you playfully trying to lean over and bite your but through your shorts.

He landed two solid bite's on your bottom before pulling back. Even though he had cheered you up he could see you were still doubting yourself.

Henry cast a glance to the tablet and smirked forming a plan that might just get you back on track. He was not going to let anyone steal your sparkle.

"come on you you've spent enough time writing go play in the garden with Kal"

Once you left henry got to work swiping up the tablet and going on your one drive seeing the meticulously organized notebooks, recognising a few by name.

A few weeks later Henry came in to the living room with a medium size box and plopped it on the sofa next to you.

"here we go nugget!" he said placing the gift next to you, they couldn't have come quickly enough, he had noticed you hadn't been writing at all, which upset him because he knew how much you loved it.

"what's that daddy?" you asked peering over the box not expecting any gifts.

"why don't you open it and find out?" he said sitting the other side of the box handing you a pair of scissors to slice the tape.

You moved slowly cutting it open and pulled the box open then froze.

"d-daddy? What thats my..." you trailed off pulling out the hard back books your banner on the front cover.

"your stories? Yes poppet, I realised that you were putting so much work into these things but could loose them, they are soo good that daddy wanted to read them over and over and now we can!" he said pleased with himself as you sat there shocked looking at the small collection of a5 books.

"but their- i dont..." you said happy but completely shocked, flicking through the pages, there were even a few comments in the margins from henry pointing out the pits he liked making your heart swell with pride.

Henry moved to stand behind you pressing a kiss to your hair.

"They are brilliant! So good I'm so proud of every thing you have achieved and I want them on our book shelf, in the living room" he said making you tear up.

"Really? You... You think their that good?" you whined eyes blurring with tears as you hugged the first book to your chest.

"absolutely poppet now go on, you do the honours~" he said pressing your shoulder urging you to go to the cube bookshelf.

You tiptoed over to it and slowly pulled out each little custom book with your banner on the front.

You sat down placing each one delicately on the shelf the five books each lining up with one another half filling the empty cube shelf.

"oh no baby look? The shelf isn't full is it? You know what that means" he said standing looking

"I-I've gotta write?" you asked sniffling weeping softly but this time because you were happy.

"exactly! You need to fill the whole shelf, so you keep up the good work and tell daddy when you finish your next story and we can keep adding to it!" he said cheerfully walking over handing you the tablet.

You smiled to yourself and looked to the books, your books- actual real life books on a shelf!

You grinned throwing yourself at him latching onto him feeling your confidence come back just from seeing how much you had done.

Suddenly the hate didn't matter, your daddy like them enough to make them into real life books! And even annotated them himself?

And if your writing was good enough for your daddy then it was good enough for you.

"daddy, can I have my screen time now, I want to write!!" you said jumping up and down on the spot excited to start your next chapter.

Henry grinned nodding deciding you can have as much screen time today as you wanted as long as it meant you wasn't giving up your new hobby.

[imaginetonyandbucky]

The Buy In

Chapter 8: Highs and Lows

By @dracusfyre

The drive back was a study in anticipation; feeling daring, Bucky trailed his fingers along the back of Tony’s hand and up his forearm as he shifted gears, light, teasing caresses that earned him hot looks that made his pulse pound. In return, at stoplights Tony would take his hand off the gear shift and rest it on Bucky’s thigh just above the knee; Bucky held his breath each time, wanting his hand to slide further up, but all Tony would do is rest it there, the warmth and weight of it a promise for later while the curl of his lips said he knew what Bucky was thinking. Bucky, for his part, couldn’t keep his eyes off Tony, able to look his fill while Tony had to watch the road. His gaze roamed from the beginning of crow’s feet at the corners of Tony’s eyes, down to the goatee that framed his wide, mobile mouth. Tony licked his lips, as if he could feel the weight of Bucky’s gaze, and Bucky had to swallow thickly. His eyes trailed down the line of Tony’s throat, to the shadowed divot at the base of Tony’s throat; Bucky wanted to put his tongue there and taste Tony’s skin.

He finally had to turn his head to face the window, exhaling shakily. It had been a long time since he’d wanted anyone this badly; he wondered if part of it was that it had the thrill of the forbidden and had to admit to himself that that was at least part of it. The other part of it was the smug way Tony smiled when he admitted to screwing over some rich asshole, and the way his eyes had lit up when he made one of his friends smile, and the fact that Tony was, objectively, a goddamn good looking man.

Before he knew it, they were back at his place, and Bucky had to direct Tony to a spot where he wouldn’t get ticketed or towed. Tony put the car in park and turned in his seat to face Bucky. “Are you sure about this?” he asked. He reached out and ran a finger over the curve of Bucky’s jaw, leaving heat in its wake. Bucky caught Tony’s hand and pressed a kiss to the inside of Tony’s wrist; he could feel Tony’s pulse pounding against his lips. “Yes,” he murmured against Tony’s skin and felt him shiver.

“Then let’s go inside,” Tony said roughly. “This car is too goddamn small for the things I want to do with you.”

They barely took the time to kick off their shoes before they were reaching for each other, Tony cupping Bucky’s face in his hands while Bucky curled his fingers in Tony’s belt to pull him close. Tony was taking no prisoners with his kiss; he slanted his mouth across Bucky’s once, as a question, and when Bucky parted his lips in invitation he delved inside, tongue thrusting against Bucky’s. Bucky made a sound in his chest, deep and hungry, and turned them so he could press Tony against the door. This close, it was impossible not to notice how much taller he was than Tony, and he used that ruthlessly, crowding into Tony’s space as he let Tony take him apart with his mouth.

“Oh my God,” Tony muttered, pulling back so his eyes could rove over Bucky’s face, pupils blown. Bucky took advantage of Tony’s distraction to shove Tony’s suit jacket off his shoulders, tossing it in the direction of the couch. Underneath the jacket Tony’s shirt was t-shirt soft, and Bucky ran his hands over it, enjoying the feeling of soft cotton over hard muscles, before he slid his hands underneath. He felt and heard Tony’s groan as his hands found warm skin, making him greedy for the other noises he could coax out of him. Tony's breath was warm pants across Bucky’s mouth, and Bucky pressed one more hard kiss to his lips before he was kissing along Tony’s jaw and pressing his teeth against Tony’s neck. He straightened just long enough to pull Tony’s shirt off. Tony’s hands, meanwhile, had been busy on the buttons of Bucky’s shirt, and he swept the plackets aside to put his hands on Bucky’s chest.

This time it was Bucky’s turn to moan. “Bedroom,” he said as Tony ran thumbs over his nipples, and put a hand inside the waistband of Tony’s slacks to pull him deeper into the apartment. On the one hand, he wanted to take his time, but on the other, he felt like he might shake apart if he didn’t feel Tony’s body against his right now. As Tony captured his mouth again, Bucky made short work of Tony’s belt, making another sound deep in his chest as his finger brushed over the hard line of Tony’s erection. Tony inhaled sharply and stilled as Bucky explored him through the soft fabric of his pants, cupping and squeezing.

“You’re going to drive me crazy,” Tony groaned, pulling Bucky down for another kiss with one hand while the other unbuttoned Bucky’s jeans, sliding his hand inside. Bucky felt his knees get week at the touch and wanted to thrust against the sweet, hot pressure. He felt the thrill at the base of his spine that said he was well on his way to coming and the surprise that he was already so far gone made him pull back with a huff of laughter. He rested his forehead against Tony’s and sucked in a few deep breaths, trying to calm down.

“I don’t want this over too quickly,” he said when Tony looked at him with a question in his eyes.

“No," Tony agreed. His eyes roved over Bucky's chest and down to where he was measuring Bucky’s length with his hand. As Bucky's hips flexed into his touch, he said, a little breathlessly, “We can go twice?”

“And that’s why you’re the genius,” Bucky said, and kicked off his pants as he let Tony push him onto the bed.

                                                       ***

As the early morning sunlight started to spill over the horizon, Tony fell into his own bed with a sigh; he could theoretically catch a few more hours of sleep, but he was too acutely aware of how cold his sheets were and how empty the bed was to sleep. He made the insanely risky move to stay as late as possible before leaving because it felt so good to be in Blue Eyes' bed, to have another warm body pressed against his own, relaxed and comfortable in the soft darkness of a shared night. Leaving had been difficult; he’d tried to extricate himself without waking Blue Eyes up, but the man slept too lightly and had reached for him when he felt the bed move. Even though he'd offered, Tony wouldn’t let Blue Eyes walk him to his car – it was already light enough that someone could see them together – so they’d said goodbye at the door with long, drugging kisses and lingering touches, as if they were both storing them up against a future famine. Leaving the apartment and facing the chill of predawn had been jarring and demoralizing, particularly when the knowledge that that night could never happen again was a lead weight in his stomach the whole ride home. 

Rolling over onto his back, Tony threw an arm over his eyes and made a disgruntled sound. If Rhodey found out where he’d been all night he’d curse up a blue streak, starting with “he’s technically your employee” to “he’s probably a cop” to “it might have been a setup” while hitting “you don’t even know who he really is” along the way. Tony couldn’t regret it, though, not when it had been the best night he'd had in years. 

He reached for his phone and pulled up the text he'd sent to Blue Eyes earlier; his thumb hovered over the keyboard as he fought the impulse to write something. What would he say though? Thanks for a great night, but we can't do it again? Surely Blue Eyes knew that as well as he did, he had a lot more to lose than Tony if they got caught. 

After a long minute he put the phone back down with a sigh and stared at the ceiling as the sky grew brighter. It was going to be a long day.

                                                         ***

The next day, even though he had been awake when Tony had left in the dim hours of the morning, Bucky was still sad to wake up alone. Tony had said goodbye like he’d known it was the last time they would see each other, and it had made Bucky’s heart wrench as he’d closed the door behind him.  He’d stood there for a long moment, head resting against the door, before he’d gone back to bed. The sheets still smelled of sex and Tony, and even though he had hours to go before he was supposed to work, the heaviness in his chest meant it took a long time for him to fall back asleep.

As the alarm on his phone trilled at him, Bucky hit snooze and rolled back over, planting his face in the pillow that still held traces of Tony's cologne. One night was apparently enough to instill a Pavlovian response and he spent a few moments daydreaming wistfully of what it would be like to have morning sex with Tony. Before he could really get into it, however, his phone trilled again, reminding him that all the problems he'd left for Future Bucky were rapidly becoming problems for Right Now Bucky.

“Fuck,” he groaned out loud, then he rolled over and grabbed his phone. As he started coffee and breakfast, he forced himself read through the notifications he’d been ignoring all night.  The highlight, of course, was from his handlers on Discord: Great party! Guest of honor never showed tho, bummer. Maybe next time. 

“Next time,” Bucky read out loud, and sighed. He banged his head against his kitchen cabinets. If he’d thought it through before he’d panicked yesterday, he would have realized that he couldn’t protect Tony forever; his handler would get suspicious that Tony was slipping through their hands every time. And Tony was far from stupid; once he found out his garage with all of the stolen cars had been the subject of a police raid, he’d be thinking of people who had known about the cars and had been acting suspiciously, and Bucky’s impulsive date night was a huge red flag. He knew Tony wouldn't hurt him if he found out that Bucky was a cop, but imagining the look of betrayal on Tony's face made him feel sick. He closed the app and opened up his text message from last night; it was stupid to think that Tony would have texted him, but he still stared at the phone with disappointment. After a few moments, he deleted the number and set his phone down with a sigh.

"It's going to be a long day," he said to his empty kitchen.  

---------

A/N: If you are enjoying this story, come find me over at @marveltrumpshate where I will be participating in auctioning off TWO fanfics! One auction is a fic with art (with @massivespacewren ) and the other is a solo fic. All the money goes to a good cause of your choosing! Hope to see you there!

[romancing-lady-whistledown]

Just wanted to comment on your last post - there was no frustration and drama for me when I was watching Elu and Skam and Skam France before I made the huge error of looking for the fandom and joining it. Now I realise it was a big mistake, I have to constantly block people on Tweeter for hating on my faves and I've come to really hate another remake which I only didn't care about before having to deal with its stans. So I totally understand what you're saying. Me, I wish I'd never joined.

So this got long af so I’m gonna put it under the cut lol

Oh I absolutely feel you, when I say frustration and drama, I am refering to the live-watching experience and all the fandom drama that comes with that. I have a very polarizing feeling about being in the online fandom personally. For me the positive aspects have been so big that I can’t say that I wish I’d never joined personally, but especially if the positive aspects I’ve experienced haven’t been part of your fandom-experience I definitely see how you can get to the point where you wish you never joined in the first place, especially in the past year, because the negative aspects...they’re rough, and they do make the experience of the actual show different from if you just watched it on your own or you watched it as a casual viewer in the country it’s airing in, rather than as a part of the fandom on Tumblr and/or Twitter.  

I watched the original Skam as a casual Norwegian viewer, I was in a Facebook-group with other casual Norwegian viewers, there was never any drama about anything, not the clips, not the characters, not the actors and not the creators of the show. It was just watching the clips, often someone commenting about how the clip was cute, funny, sad ect, and then everybody moved on with their day. There would sometimes be a thread with questions like “Where do you think William is?” or “What do you think is up with Even?”, but it was always very casual. Sometimes I think the online fandom forget that the majority of the remake-viewers are the casual local viewers, the ones who only casually watch that one remake as a show on it’s own, not as a part of the “Skamverse”. The international Twitter/Tumblr-fandom is just a little part of the people watching the show and the opinions we see here don’t necessairily reflect those of the more casual audience (as one can often see in for example reaction-videos on Youtube where the reactors watch alot of shows at the same time and might not even blink at something that might’ve been a big deal in the online fandom). 

Being a casual viewer worked so well for me with Skam, the whole viewing experience was very chill and enjoyable. I did the same thing with Skam France S1 and S2, I watched the first episode of every remake, and Skam France was the only one I felt compelled to continue watching. It wasn’t the most exciting experience plotwise since it was just the exact same as the og, but I love the cast, I love the French language and it was overall pleasant and fun enough that I kept watching both seasons all the way through. As someone who has no attention span for TV-shows, the fact that they did keep my attention without anyone to push me to keep watching is enough for me to not concider them bad in the way alot of people do. Not very exciting after having watched the og, sure. Do I prefer the og S1 and S2? Yes. But bad? I personally wouldn’t say that. If I came into the fandom before I started watching on my own I know I would’ve been told to either skip S1 and S2 or skip Skam France altogether, and that obviously wouldn’t have been very good advice in my case, although it might be for someone else. That is why, when someone shows up on Tumblr saying they wanna start watching the remakes and ask for advice, I never ever tell them not to watch a remake. I could be robbing them of something that might deeply touch them, just because it didn’t touch me. 

This brings us into one of the aspects of being in the online fandom that can be both really positive and really negative, that being the way it can affect your experience of the show itself. On the positive note, there’s no way I could’ve gone through Skam France S3 in the casual way I went through the original Skam or S1 and S2 of Skamfr. No way. Having someone to talk to about all the amazing moments with was an actual need for me. Hell, two years later and I still need that. Not to mention the fan art and fics that has kept Elu alive for me ever since S3. There was this whole detective-work in the fandom about finding Eliott’s Instagram during S3, finding out about the Instagram-posts David and Niels made about the S3 clips, being in the online fandom actually added to the experience of watching S3 for me, and even now almost two years after S3 I’m left with some actual friends, friends that aren’t even in the fandom anymore but who I still talk to almost daily, as well as some lovely bloggers who are still invlolved in the fandom and who’s blogs I prefer to visit rather than visiting the tag.

But then there’s the negative side of this. While being in the online fandom certainly can add to the experience, it can also affect it negatively. That was what happened with S5 and S6 for me, to the point where I had to switch between staying completely off Tumblr and delete the Twitter app from my phone. While S5 had a couple of plotlines I didn’t like, it also had alot of amazing moments when it actually was dealing with the main theme of the season. S6 did not give their plotlines the proper exploration and conclusion they deserved, but on the other hand the reason why that was so frustrating to me was because I found those plotlines so interesting and actually wanted to see them explored properly. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have cared if the plotlines were dropped out of nowhere, like ofc it would’ve been weird but if the whole Tiff-plot suddenly disappeared I wouldn’t complain. While they were flawed and nowhere near the level of S3 for me, I did enjoy so many of the clips and Skamfr S3, S5 and S6 are the only remake-seasons I have downloaded on my computer knowing I will rewatch them regularily. If I didn’t overall enjoy them, I wouldn’t wanna rewatch them. I don’t hate-watch anything. I could barely get through Skamfr S4 (a season I genuinely didn’t like) and I could not get through Wtfock S4, (which I liked even less). So the flaws Skamfr S5 and S6 had didn’t turn the seasons as a whole into trash for me, but I know they did for alot of people and going to the tags while in the middle of the live-watching experience couldn’t just be a bummer, it could almost transfer some feelings and opinions that weren’t my own onto me just from seeing them repeated so many times. I appreciate nuanced discussion, which does include constructive criticism, and there was alot of that too, but there were also alot of posts that I would not concider that. In this case, when I got some time and distance away from the live-watching experience and got the space to think for myself, I realized that as often is the case, my feelings about the seasons weren’t black and white, or in this case, masterpiece vs trash. Yes, I don’t like certain plotpoints (like the love triangle and car-scene from S5 or the Tiff-plot and the overly rushed conclusions to the otherwise interesting plotlines in S6), but that doesn’t mean that I personally think S5 or S6 as a whole are trash, not when the good episodes and clips were as good as they were to me personally. The online fandom experience has also, just like for you, completely turned me off from another remake that I otherwise felt neutral about and at one point even liked, which really is a shame.

So yeah this turned into a long ass essay just to say, the online fandom-experience is a true mixed bag for me. Although the positive experiences I’m taking from it, mainly the lovely and talented people, the friends I made and the full Skam France S3 experience, ultimately made it worth it for me, I can totally see how, especially if you didn’t have those experiences, you would simply wish you never joined. When it’s a pain, it’s a pain.

[eldritch-stole-my-tiefling]

Just a lil thingy to help.

I have a problem well not really a problem but it involves Australian characters in fanfics ,I'm not telling you to stop no,the problem is when its like someone has typed up "Aussie slang" on Google and went to the first page,some words non Australian writers use for Australian characters are words we dont use,or are used but not often.

Please do some research or if you don't want to read,there are some videos on YouTube.

I've noticed with Junkrat that when I stumbled onto some of his fanfics , there are some words even I don't know.

I want to make it clear I'm not having a go at anyone.So, I thought maybe I could share some slang of ours to maybe help.

Arvo=afternoon.

Ambo=ambulance.

Esky=ice box?

Thongs=flip flops.

Bloke=male

Sheila=female (though generally older people say that)

Mate=can mean friend but isn't as used as people think. "Mate,you want to repeat that?" Is actually you giving someone a chance to back out before a fight starts.

True blue= someone born in Australia with both parents who are Australian.

Bloody oath= means yes.

"Oh it's cold as fuck out here"

"Bloody oath it is"

Tinny= a can of beer.

Goon= cheap wine.

Fun facts goon bags/sack can be pillows.

Acting like a Bloody/fucking galah = you're acting silly or doing something stupid while being a loud mouth.

Durry/fag/ciggies=cigarette.

Chucking a sickie =calling into work/school sick when you're not .

Bummer = someone's misfortune. "I dropped my beer" "oh bummer"

Stiff shit= when someone is complaining and you don't particularly care,basically shush get over it. "I broke my nail earlier today" "well stiff shit" .

Sook= someone who cries a lot or is crying at the time.

Person 1 crying.

Person 2 :"stop being such a sook"

Person 3 :"they're really sooky aren't they"

In the middle of whoop whoop= in the middle of nowhere.

Up shit creek without a paddle= means you're basically fucked, you're in a hard to get out situation. Example,the car has broken down in the middle of nowhere.

mongrel=an old insult.

Tucker=food.

She'll be right=It'll be alright,it'll survive. (used for inanimate objects) .

Mercy after being attacked: "how is the payload" junkrat: "she'll be right".

Also if you're writing "they hugged them like a koala" its just that,koala we dont call them koala bear.

These can be used for any Aussie character, also if any Australian wants to add that's all good. The slang can change depending on where someone is from,example someone from Queensland might not have the same slang as someone from NSW. Hopefully this helps. I'm very tired so I couldn't think of many. Might end up deleting this later.

[themoldybeaches]

July 23, 2022

Today was a very non-interesting one. Its my Wednesday, even though its Saturday. I have every “Wednesday” off, because my boss doesnt want me working 5 days a week. I tried to sleep in, but instead woke up at 7 in the morning. Bummer. I lounged for the first half of the day, snacking on fruity pebbles and doughy pizza, because I didnt cook it directly on the rack. I felt sick, so I took a Covid test. Upon it coming back negative, I blamed summer allergies, and went on with my day. I played a lot of minecraft, and watched YouTube videos, with quesadillas as my dinner.

My relationships are all a flurry at the moment. L is wonderful, but I hate the long distance. Its summer, and summer creates a longing for a fling, parking your car by the lake and dancing around a fire. I cannot have that with him. As well, he has a different view of our relationship that I do. He doesnt communicate well, and often says he is going to call me or talk with me and doesnt. He did it today. I sent him some texts on Snapchat after he had been gone for three hours, I told him this might not be right for us. I deleted them 20 minutes later. Im okay with this, because I am not looking for marriage right now, I just want some sort of affection. I can settle.

I am currently worried about the rashes/bumps that appear on my arms and legs relentlessly of late. I am unsure of what they are, but they arent acne because they burn and itch. It could have been work related when they were on my arms, but now that they appear on my legs I wouldnt dream of knowing. The pain in my ovaries has grown stronger every day, sometimes it stabs me, it feels like death in my organs and makes me hunch over. I may cry while writing this. My body is worsening, I am too young for this, and I worry for my future.

Tomorrow:

Work

Tea

Avocado toast

Feed slug

Yoga (reproductive health)

Garden walk

Read 1 chapter

Start packing for backpacking trip

Salmon burger for dinner

[masslessobtrusion]

My throat is getting so bad. This might be it...

I just wanted to post the exchanges between Arielle and I. I think people can do better than this. I told her she could have my crypto and gave her my login information. Told my Mom the same. This is what I sent her today on signal. I don’t know how I’m making her feel. I am left to speculate. She won’t tell me. I have put her through stress before and this is terrible. It’s real though. I promise. Everything has been real. You have to help people when they ask for help. We all know that but even though I’ve been literally screaming. I NEED HELP. I NEED HELP. No one will help me. I sent her something last night asking if she could tell me how to communicate with her going forward because I don’t know how to do this. But now. I am having another health crisis. She said she would write to me later. But I need to get this out in case something happens. I do not feel well.

My throat is hurting really bad.3hMy Mom admitted to lying/not knowing how to do something/admitting a mistake. This is one of the only times she has done that. She lies and manipulates people so much. She has done this and used me in that manner for as long as I can remember. She used my drug addiction to cease control of my life and through whatever twisted logic, this is the result. Look at my family. Look at me.3hAfter all of this bullshit. I called and made an appointment. My Mom has never told me that she is not allowed to make appointments for me. I have an appointment with an ear, nose, and throat doctor tomorrow. I told me they didn't take my insurance. I told them I would pay for it out of pocket. They said it would $100+ whatever. I am going in at 11:45am tomorrow.2hI feel like this is going to be really really bad. This isn't a delusion caused by anxiety, drugs/drug seeking, or me being a toxic male. Yes. That contributes. My mind is in panic mode. I'm screaming that I am dying and in pain. People tell me it's in my head because I'm a drug addict with mental issues. I have been so desperate begging people to help me get to a doctor for years. I have been to hospitals. Emergency rooms. They don't care. They don't like drug addicts. No one was able to do this until I did it today. I feel like I may die or lose my ability to speak soon. I really do. I cried to the x-ray woman that I live in an abusive household. I told the doctor the same. I told them I have issues making appointments. I need to know where to go. They didn't give me the right place. I've told you what they gave me. I told them. I need help. I have a lot of mental issues that need addressed and I can't make appointments. When they hear this. They think I am crazy and on drugs.  It's not easy to say things like that. It doesn't matter if I say it casually, crying, or whatever. Nothing happens. They don't want me there. They think I deserve to die because I did drugs.2hI saw a cat run across the road last night. My brother asked me to take him to the gas station because he wanted more booze. I stopped to make sure it wasn't MaoMao. It wasn't. I was thinking about grabbing him, seemed a bit skittish. I stopped again on the way back because he ran across the road again.2hI wanted to help him. I wanted to help the man who was in the physch ward. I talked to him as best as I could with a dislocated jaw. I told him to go to Boulder because they will get him better health care and it is beautiful, safe.2hHe thanked me and told me to get my jaw fixed because my breath smells like shit.2hIt probably does. I've been brushing my teeth daily for several months now. I have dental issues too. But I probably have fucking throat cancer or some shit.2halso, i had to add more exclamations on my password. There are like 10 now, lol. But you can always just give it to my Mom or donate it or something. My brother's kids would probably enjoy it.2hMy Mom said. She's GOT to work tomorrow, she's the only one there. Remember how she wailed. "I took off for TWOO days!"? She didn't take off on Friday. That's okay though, I didn't get upset. She said, my brother can take me or I can get an Uber. She bought spicy fried chicken. It is making my throat hurt. I'm going to send something long. I cut some parts out.1hShe went to my brother's house to visit the kids for Easter. So, she was probably already planning to take off.1hAlso, my Dad was talking about how he was yelling at the Kohl's cashier for "taking so god damn long, come in there all the time and it never takes that long.". He was trying to return something from Amazon. My Mom said, "maybe it's a new epmloyee.". Then, he barked at my brother to "get that SHIT out of his trunk!". My brother and Mom are being unusually nice to me. I think they know this is serious finally. They don't want me to die of course. But that's what it takes for people like that to admit mistakes. It's so frustrating. Add in all of the other issues I have. It's a recipe for a situation like this.1hOh bummer. I deleted what I wrote. It was just sad stuff about my family and Lauren. I'd like to share it with someone.1hBut it's lengthy. Maybe a phone call would be better.1hwhen you have time and its convenient. I don't know.1hCan you please, be here for me? I promise. I just want a human being who knows me. The appointment is tomorrow at 1145am. This is very scary. I don't have anyone to talk to. I promise. The Roxanne lady has been helpful to talk to at times. She is a bit weird sometimes, but she has listened to me for years and always talks to me. She tells me about her life too sometimes. She's an older woman from Georgia. I have talked to her on the phone. Name/number checks out with google. She is currently an estate attorney and I started talking to her in 2017-18. She didn't believe I was a heroin addict because of how I wrote or something. Thought my stories were far fetched. Years later, she told me that she found her husbands body after he shot himself and she wanted to be there for me, to give me someone to talk to.47m

[localhummingbird]

Combusto Apocalypse Ch. 2

Stink fumes, scolding, and sobbing!!

Before I went back to the Combusto lot, I loaded up a house to fill with zombies to make the neighborhood a bit more scary. I’m using a mod to make zombies more aggressive, but the neighborhood is completely empty for the most part, so I tore these young lovers apart by death and made them go on a zombie rampage. Sorry whoever you are! There is no justice in my game!

Per the rules, sims can’t get a job via the newspaper or computer yet, so for tier one restrictions the sims have to go to the community lot where they’ll be working at least once to get their job (and the job board is allowed, since times are so desperate). 

I was thinking about skipping on this rule because I hate it, but the mods I downloaded to help me keep up with all of the other rules won’t let me. So to the tiny diner Cordelia goes!

Surprisingly (I think because of her degree) Cordelia gets a position pretty advanced in the Culinary career! Before I can do anything else, she runs over to the fridge and starts juggling.

Where’d you even get those? All the fresh water is supposed to be contaminated!

Back at the home lot, I’ve built Cordelia a nice little square shack. The restrictions don’t allow me to build outside of an 8x8 area, so I’m trying to utilize as much space as possible.

Also, since electricity hasn’t been restored yet, I’m limited to candles for lighting.

It’s all pretty humble - I also can’t buy anything fancy or expensive.

It’s kinda fun to decorate! I ended up moving the grill because yes, I am an idiot, and yes, it did immediately catch on fire.

Cordelia maxed out pretty much all of her skills in college except body, so she gets to working out so she can fight off all those post-apocalyptic zombies.

Which, speak of the devil, are already pounding down the door!! Well, kinda anyway. It’s the welcome wagon and walked off pretty quickly. I was a little worried people would walk right in since there’s only stairs, but no such luck.

Not that Cordelia can pay attention anyway, because she’s busy setting the house on fire. 

10 cooking points my butt!! I trusted you!!

Thinking the main problem was that it was inside, I stuck the grill outside (which I’m pretty sure is allowed since it’s only one square) and she STILL set it on fire!! Grr. Hurry up and unlock Culinary.

Needing an aspiration boost, Cordelia invites over her betrothed, and he brings one of her other best friends too! (Inviting sims over is allowed as long as they are engaged/have red hearts)

What a dork. I love him.

That night, Cordelia finally gets promoted to the top!! We can now purchase stoves, prepare food more than once a day, and buy cakes! Hopelessness lifted, Culinary lifted, and permaplat all in one move!! You know what that means!

Cordelia got a negative memory from this for some reason. Probably because she’s a pleasure sim. I was actually going to reroll for her in college, but while I was looking up the rules to see if I needed to the prompt timed out and she stayed pleasure. Oh well!!

John ages up and he’s still a cutie!! 

They get married super quickly (can’t throw parties, buy the wedding arch, or anything fun...) and John heads over to the hospital to get a job in medicine.

Technically there isn’t supposed to be anything growing but I’m too lazy to go into neighborhood view and individually delete all of the cactus I placed in a decorating frenzy.

John gets set up at level one in medicine, which was kind of bummer. His memories say he graduated with a degree and he has one in his inventory, but I have no idea in what. Probably nothing to do with medicine. 

I rarely play with career rewards but they look like a lot of fun, so I plop the culinary reward down for some extra dough. Not like they need it though, Cordelia makes a ton of money and I can’t spend it on anything fun.

Pets keep wandering into the house!! Get out of here, military hasn’t been lifted yet!

I have to time Cordelia’s pregnancy right, because if she misses one day she loses her job and can’t go back. So they get to babymaking right before the weekend.

I haven’t been dealing with stink fumes too much yet because I have a sponge bath for all mod enabled for teen-elder (it was suggested in the rules!) but when the sink breaks, all hell breaks loose. Poor John got lectured by Cordelia for a full sim hour for breaking it after just washing his hands.

He looks out the window to cheer himself up, and the snow’s getting pretty bad. It’s probably going to stay bad too since all of the weather related restrictions aren’t until tier 3. I’m already sick of it.

“Top chef quality as usual, my dear!” 

I think I might like Cordelia’s husband more than she does. 

The family can only purchase either the restorable car or the military car if lvl 6 military has been reached, and since I plan on their first born to lift military they get to work on the restorable car. Gives a bit more job security in case anyone is running late (or pregnant).

Geez, that bump is so big it’s clipping through the shirt. There better not be twins in there.

Alas, it’s only one, and Cordelia gives birth to a son named Ash! (because there’s ash in the sky.. lmao)

Looks like he got all of his mom’s genetics, with the custom eyes, black hair, and same skintone. 

While John was watching the birth of his son, this dumb idiot missed the carpool and was too late to drive so he lost his job in medicine. Because he was fired, he can’t reapply. 

Now we’ll have to wait EVEN LONGER to unlock showers and tubs. Looks like it’s gonna be a stinky generation. At least he didn’t start at lvl one for military. Turd.

Aw, look at those finger pistols though. I can’t stay mad!

With the car done, Cordelia gets pregnant pretty quickly...

and in no time it’s Ash’s birthday!

Of course, the one toddler outfit I didn’t default replace. And it’s a little hard to see the whites of his eyes when he smiles, which is spooky. Whatever, he’s a fancy boy!

With a toddler and another baby on the way, only having one sink is beginning to take its toll...

Poor guy, all he wants is a bath. He’s a stinky boy through and through. 

He’s pretty cute, but pretty much impossible to train. With hygiene always in the red, even with all of his other motives green he’s too fussy to learn anything.

He’s always too mad to be potty trained. John managed to teach him how to talk and walk, but just barely.

“Juggling is the only form of joy I can experience in this hellhouse”

Cordelia gives birth to their second child, Willow, and she’s so cute in her lil hat!! 

Smelly boy in tow, Cordelia takes him to the birthday cake to age up.

Still can’t see the whites of his eyes, so he’s still pretty spooky. Cute though!

As soon as he aged up, Ash made a beeline for the sink. But no matter how much he scrubbed, he couldn’t get clean. I’m sorry dude! Blame your dad!

The next day it was time for willow to grow up too, who was surprisingly much easier to deal with as a baby than her brother. 

A tux for you too, huh? Okay I guess.

John is climbing up the military ladder pretty steadily, but he keeps bringing dang zombies into the house! They want to eat you, dummy!

“I just thought we could all be friends :~)”

It was around this point I realized that I hadn’t been making any effort to adopt a stray yet and there’s one pet restriction with each tier. As soon as I realized this they stopped barging into the house, which was annoying. 

20 bellyrubs later, and they always run off before I can adopt! It’s infuriating. I’m pretty sure this pup was too old to work anyway but it happens every time.

I didn’t take any pictures of Willow learning skills because it was boring and stinky. She was still easier to teach than her brother though and learned all 3 toddler skills. Future Education Minister maybe, hmm?

And she grows up into... the exact same outfit her brother is wearing. This family is really into hand-me-downs I guess.

So I was reading back on the rules and realized I accidentally broke one here - I thought it was allowed to invite sims over as long as they had a high relationship but that’s not until Military is lifted. I read the Intelligence restrictions and thought that applied to everything. Woops! But whatever, it wasn’t on purpose, and the damage was done. Lexie Love was invited over to get chummy with the heir for future nefarious purposes.

“I’m majoring in physics with a minor in math. I’m going to bring science back to the apocahood!”

“Pff, good luck. This thing is mapped out until the end. You’ll probably end up a politician or something.”

“Uhh, I’m not sure if I wanna move here...”

Sucks! You’re a future lawyer, I get to live vicariously through you!

Willow finds a cute dog outside, and he’s perfect!

And look at those chompers! Perfect for protecting the family from zombies! But the little jerk ran away right before I could adopt him. I think the neighborhood strays are plotting against me. Or maybe they just know I won’t be able to give them a bath yet.

Finally it’s time to leave the Green Stink Fumes™ behind and age up.

Are those the whites of your eyes I see? Improvement! Lexie didn’t care to stay for cake and immediately bailed. Ash rolled wealth with turn ons being custom hair and logic, and turn off being creativity. Whatever you say bud.

First order of business is a sponge bath and a full hygiene bar. Now he can stop whining and finally skill.

“Sorry kid, there’s just no sponge bath animation for kids. You’ll get there someday.”

FINALLY, the family is able to adopt a dog. This is Alegra, and she’s my ticket out of tier one. 

Cordelia and co walk her over to one of the community lots to get her set up with a job (bless)

While they’re out, this little guy is on the edge of the lot! I thought that pets couldn’t appear on community lots but maybe one of the mods I have fixed that. I got lucky and he didn’t run away either! 

I want to lift the service pets restriction early on since I can only imagine the havoc my elders will wreak with no control. So Tucker gets adopted and set up with a job as well!

Before you know it, it’s time for Willow to grow up too.

She’s very pretty! Following her brother’s example she also makes a beeline for the spongebath, stink fumes be damned.

She kinda looks like a trendsetter. Maybe it’s the hat. She rolled Knowledge, with her turn ons being gray hair and cologne, and turn off being zombies. Taking after her mama and into silver foxes, I see. 

After Willow finished her cake she immediately went to the fridge and started playing in it. She has like 9 playful points, and I’d never seen this before. I thought she was glitching.

But nope, just being a playful teenager.

Damn kids. Get off the fridge!

Speaking of elders, I put off the inevitable and Cordelia aged up. Until both tier one and service pet is unlocked, I can’t control her at all, which will be rough.

Conveniently though, Tucker tops service pet pretty easily! Now I just have to unlock medical and military.

John’s running out of time and got a lucky chance card. He’s super close to becoming an elder and one promotion away from topping the military, but is taking forever to max out his body points!

“Would you like to play red hands for the 56th time today, sister?”

“*sigh* I guess”

Despite being senile, Cordelia has been really good about getting to work on time. She forgot how to bathe though.

And unfortunately, John ages up before he tops Military. He has all the skills he needs, now all I have to do is pray...

My BOY!!! Pullin through!! With Military restrictions lifted, sims may invite over other sims, walk to lots, and use the obstacle course.

And that’s as far as I’ve played for now! Ash just needs to top Medicine, and we’ll be golden. Or, bronze I guess, since it’s only the first tier. till next time :~)

[rapeshop-blog]

The current Shamanic Guide to Taking Rapé – the Sacred Therapeutic Snuff of the Amazon

Tips on the most proficient method to Take Sacred, Medicinal Rapé with the Right Intention

Rapé (articulated ha-PAY) is a planning of powdered restorative herbs , regularly with a tobacco base – that the Indians on the Amazon bowl clean out through the nose, either with a little V-formed self utensil, or with the assistance of a mate.

In contemporary Amazonia, sharing rapé is a typical social movement with otherworldly, pre-Columbian roots. Rapé is viewed as a holy, shamanic prescription. Is customarily arranged by a learned shaman, anyway , the specialty of consecrated rapé readiness has been passed on to nonindigenous rapé devotees, so as to discover producers of top notch rapé outside inborn networks since different pieces of Brazil. Sharing rapé was customarily exhausted a ceremonial way. Since the medication can have animating and furthermore psychoactive impacts (contingent upon what plants were utilized to help make it) getting rapé can achieve a significant encounter of regularly the Forest. Since the medication is holy, the Indians take on rapé as a supplication calling upon the powers for Nature, the gift of the creatures of the timberland, and even intensity of therapeutic plants to recuperate us and invigorate every one of us.

These days, therapeutic rapé is likewise advancing everywhere throughout the world, by method for expanding culturally diverse companionships between the Indians and non-indigenous companions, just as through ayahuasca functions held by traveling shamans. Rapé is progressively being expended in an unquestionably increasingly social setting, in the manner in which that sharing hallowed tobacco changed to social cigarette smoking.

To anticipate your association with rapé from transforming into an enslavement and an individual bad habit, systems you can pursue to keep up the holiness of the rapé propensity as an advanced shaman.

The Right Way – and Wrong Technique – to Consume Rapé

Rapé is managed with a couple of various kinds of funnels, which are regularly produced using bamboo or calcaneus. The main sort of pipe requires the help of someone else, who emits the snuff with an amazing impact into every nostril of the accomplice who is accepting the rapé. Thus it is ordinarily alluded to as the blow pipe and, in Brazil, the definite 2-man pipe is known as the "Tepi".

On the off chance that you don't have a partner to explode prescription your nose, don't stress, you can do the thought yourself with a self-tool pipe called a "Kuripe". A Kuripe is a little V-formed pipe that associates your mouth towards your nose. While it's constantly harder to blow your self than to have a companion blow you, attempting to get a noob to blow you (who has no clue how to achieve it) is the least alluring alternative. Along these lines it's regularly great to have your very own Kuripe, and figure out how to blow oneself, in the event that you are a true blue rapé devotee.

What you would prefer not to do is normally grunt rapé off a smooth level surface with a clarified up bill or straw. That is a significant Amazonian faux pas – it won't score you focuses with the Indians and might get you captured by unamused Policia Federal only for open cocaine utilization.

The Appropriate Set and Setting for the Rapé Ritual

Since the demonstration of taking rapé is known as a petition, the set and setting will affect the aptitude of your supplication. The best places to take rapé are outside in nature, at the special raised area during an ayahuasca formal technique, or in a calm consecrated space inside, with high-vibrational tunes playing. Abstain from taking rapé while holding up at vehicle stops, in occupied business regions, in like manner zones that has a great deal of development that is disconnected to profound action, or perhaps where you may be hindered by somebody who has no clue what you are embraced nor what it implies. A perfect setting enables you to completely encounter the a consequence of the rapé without interruption and have the space for tranquil thought.

Likewise, contingent upon the restorative plants that were utilized in the very rapé mix, you may encounter a wide scope of sensations in the wake of getting your rapé, from passionate upwellings, to heaving and colon developments. Here are a few hints to set up your space – and all alone – for solace:

It's a smart thought to have a container about water close by and tissues or a move of potty paper for cleaning out your nose.

On the off chance that you think you will get parched, drink water BEFORE snuffing your rapé, since any water you drink a short time later will task like rapé.

Try not to eat preceding taking rapé, principally on the grounds that it might come right out after

Ensure you have a simple goal to upchuck in the event that the desire all of a sudden drops upon you

Be certain you are likewise near the latrine on the off chance that the inverse ought to happen

Ensure that your companions know about what you are doing (so no one interferes with your organization snapshot of profound thought right now your nose begins to run lavishly) by asking you the most ideal approach to jump on the I-80

What's in store From Your Rapé Experience

Your rapé experience is put together a ton with respect to the restorative rapé mix you are devouring. A huge horde of restorative plants that can be utilized in rapé and in this manner numerous encounters from a decent impact of aroma in your nose, to an enlightening nasal expresso shot, to a supernatural, altogether psychoactive experience enduring hours, where you need to fly as though it were bird.

There are a couple of basic reactions to taking rapé that you can be set up for and surely not embarrassed about:

Your nose will wind up running, and your sinuses will need to get themselves out.. Low fat forward – make an effort not to tilt your head back, or your rapé filled bodily fluid will begin backdripping down your sinuses, which can make you stifler, and after that regurgitation. Pawning loogies during a rapé session is absolutely socially satisfactory.

You may need to shot regurgitation. It could be OK. Rapé is cleaning and you are recovering. Attempt and regurgitation in the brambles.

You might need to take a goliath dump. Colon developments are beneficial for you. In the event that you experience difficulty remaining customary, require rapé in the first part of the day. It's superior to espresso.

Rapé Safety Methods for the Modern Shaman

Similarly as with any sort of strong prescription, rapé may be manhandled and expended in manners that are less hallowed, and much increasingly recreational. Rapé can be no picnic for your sinuses, so abuse can mess sinus up and harm to your respiratory framework. Additionally, on the grounds that restorative plants in rapé mixes fluctuate, its outcomes on your framework can shift. Abuse can prompt dependence or even send to the medical clinic. Thus, it's imperative to test your rapé is in reality any medication, know where it originates from. Likewise, applying rapé with different medications, similar to MDMA, isn't exhorted for the explanation that contraindications might be obscure. Rapé is as often as possible offered during ayahuasca services, however you might need to tune in and choose whether rapé is truly what your body needs right then and there.

I took MDMA at a cognizant concert, and a while later, I did rapé. It was an awful blend. I felt disgusted, mixed up, and have had no vitality to stroll around. I quickly needed to continue to the washroom. At that point I hurled. The rapé completely deleted my MDMA experience. I will never to that again! ~ Anonymous

Since rapé is utilized shamanically, passing rapé may be a methods for somebody with sick aims to put a dream or revile on you. It is anything but a smart thought to share rapé with individuals you don't have a clue and trust, or procure rapé from a shaman who you are getting "terrible vibes" by means of.

Sacrosanct Rapé Kit Storage and Care

As therapeutic rapé thankfulness develops the world over, rapé units are altogether part of the cutting edge shamanic toolbox, and worldwide shamans wind up going with rapé and putting away their medications for longer timeframes because of the trouble of acquiring crisp new rapé outside the Amazon. Here are a few hints on the best way to think about your rapé and rapé utensils.

Dealing with Your Rapé Applicator

Take care of your rapé instrument will depend especially on what components were utilized to make it (bamboo, bone), hold it together (beeswax, durapox), and embellish it (string, quills, rocks, paint). Rapé instruments are holy shamanic devices together with ordinarily kept at home on a raised area or bore all in a prescription pack. You might need to keep your quill enhanced tepi at home and have a less difficult tepi for movement, in light of the fact that is viewed as extremely a bummer to find that your lovely tepi macaw down got squashed and broken in your knapsack. Kuripe self applied instruments will in general travel better.

Rapé Applicator Hygiene

From the Amazon, sharing rapé has turned into a typical social action. All through indigenous culture, everything is shared, so the Indians only sometimes will in general spot as a lot of significance on keeping individual utilize things, well, individual. In the event that you originate from an individualistic culture, similar to the United States, your rough independence and hangups with your own stuff is going to stick out. Additionally, Indians will in general have a generous conviction that utilizing a common item to devour drug isnt going to get them wiped out, on the grounds that the prescription is sacrosanct, profoundly viable, and will anticipate that – mystically. That being stated, what do you do in a circumstance where you have 5 individuals needing to pass your tepi water line around, and one of them obviously has a cold or influenza infection?

Utilizing a Q-Tip, occasionally clean your rapé implement through liquor or hydrogen peroxide Depending on what materials were being utilized to build your rapé tool, the disadvantage to it is that the synthetic substances can make bamboo split or pastes holding the 2 bamboo tubes into a V to liquefy.

Utilize a lighter fire to clean the finishes inside your rapé implement. Once more, contingent upon what materials were utilized to build your rapé implement, the f

[sorcyress]

State of the Social Media, 2017 Hi friends!! It's been a loooong time since I last checked in about this, and Russia has made an update Weirdly Relevant, so let's talk social media! I'm gonna post this everywhere I mention, except on Twitter where I'll just link it, because I do not hate my twitter friends that much. SO! I use social media! Let's talk about which and how. This is going to be a real-person post, which means long and rambling. I may make a tl;dr for Facebook. Livejournal:(KDSorceress) WELL OKAY FINE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT. I WON'T USE THIS ANYMORE. Okay, no, realistically I have given up on online privacy *and* my Russian-speaking-friend who uses LJ doesn't seem to be bailing, but given that EVERYONE ELSE has pretty much finally bailed...it's time to drop it entirely, and that's a bummer. So I'm gonna turn off cross-posting (MASSIVE WINCE) and abandon the place I've updated at least once a month for the last 161 months1. That's over thirteen years, my livejournal is old enough to start its own livejournal. But it's okay because I'll be finally fully transitioning to... Dreamwidth:(Sorcyress Wooooo! Open-source! Community-controlled! Transparency and not randomly deleting journals and not run by a government that thinks Teh Gay is a major league problem and why was I on elljay in the first place? Anywho, DW is where I put long-style thoughts, and Real Serious Life Stuff! It's my (new) home. I have never given up on longform personal blogging, and I still love it more'n anything, and I want the rest of you to return to it. Meanwhile, you can also find Real Serious Life Stuff on... Twitter:(@Sorcyress) This is where I have been dumping my serious stuff in sortof the immediate, because...I...also don't have attention for longform blogging right now? Please see my eighty part tweet-saga on "does Kat have health insurance and/or medication for their ADHD this week?", which I have been performing 140 characters at a time for the last six months. Also, there's a *lot* of selfies. If you wanna see my face, you gotsta follow my tweets. Tumblr:(Sorcyress My Tumblr is an uncoordinated cesspit, and I mostly just reblog stuff that I theoretically want to follow up on later somehow, but then don't. I really should stop using Tumblr. You are welcome to follow me there, I provide no original content and very little original commentary, but you might still find my curation cool or useful or something. Meanwhile, on the offline side of the internet you have... Facebook:(Firstname Lastname, go ahead and ping me privately if you want it) Facebook is what I use to speak to lots of people at once --lots of "hey I need a thing from y'all" but also it's the place where my party ideas show up and invites and stuff. I also post a weirdly high amount of genderstuff, because I remain eternally thrilled that Facebook lets me set my gender accurately and my pronoun correctly. Anyways, because Facebook has my wallet name attached instead of my handle, I also behave all delicately and professionally and whatnot. This means I don't swear on my own page2, and don't link to my handle! Places I am no longer include: deviantART, Sluggy.net, any other forums...Iunno. The rest of the world I used to be on? Oh yeah, OKCupid, which isn't really social media and I never really used it, but I've pretty much wholly abandoned it. And that one bounty-hunter3 website that a certain subset of my friends list is thinking of, yes I still have an account, every few months I'll post a thing, but I hardly ever read or do anything else. Places I am not currently that you probably are: Instagram (I haven't gotten around to it), Pintrest (I fundamentally object to their screwing up of Google Image searches), Snapchat (Technically I have one, every few months I remember to look at my sister's timeline, but I do not "get" it like at all) Separate from social media, if you wanna get in touch with me, you can... Text me! After two decades of fundamentally hating telephones, I finally got a tiny-pocket-computer-that-incidentally-makes-phone-calls and I like it very much. I like getting random texts, and will do my best to respond, if whatever my job is allows it. IM me! I still looooove instant messanger, even though I'm not always the best at using it. When I am on the computer, I have access to GTalk and AIM (username on both: kdsorceress), when I'm on the phone, just GTalk. Call me? Please...um...I mean, I like having phone calls very rarely with a smallish subset of the People I Like, so please don't randomly call me for conversation without pinging me otherwise first? But if that's a thing you like, I mean, try pinging me and we'll see! Skype me! (Or Google Hangouts or whatever --the kleenex problem is coming for you, Skype.) I especially like utilizing this for the "I'ma work on cleaning my room and you work on cleaning your room" type stuff. Last big Skype chat I had, Tailsteak was inking or something, and I made a LEGO set! (my skype is Sorcyress, my google is kdsorceress) Email me! Oooo, I love getting emails! I am _absolutely terrible_ at replying to emails. You will not bother me if you send me reminder emails to reply to your email. Seriously. It is good for me! (kdsorceress at gmail dot com) Is there anything I'm missing? If you wish to get in touch with me on a social media I didn't specify, go ahead and email me at [insert appropriate email here]. Or leave a comment or whatever! Yay social media! ~Sor MOOP! 1: Except two, back in 2005 because I was being a petulant and sulky baby. 2: My grandfather objects, and again, I try to pretend that Facebook is professional even though I have it locked up pretty tight privacy wise. Of course, it's sFB, so those privacy settings could randomly change any day now. 3: I am very clever! Do you like how clever I am?

[defender-of-mankind]

Assignment 1: Rube Goldberg Machine

Friday, May 31st

1:30pm

Alrighty so we just sat down and opened Unity and I’m just gonna jump into this project. My plan is to get familiar with the software a little bit since I don’t know Unity…like, at all. There’s gonna be a lot of failures and frustration but we’re gonna make it work.

Once I have the most basic handle on how to make things fall and roll, then I’ll start throwing together a design and then put it all together in the program.

I’m coming into this assignment with no knowledge of the software, the coding language, the physics, or the controls, so let’s get going.

2:30pm

So, one hour later and things are moving! One thing, actually. I made a ball roll.

Needless to say, I’ve been struggling. Full on the struggle bus with this one.

The biggest problem I kept running into is that I don’t know Unity, so the first hour of this project was just me constantly trying to run the game to see if something would change and it would magically work because I didn’t even know where to start.

Google has been my best friend and I have, like, 25 tabs open right now.

I feel like an explanation of what I had to go through during this part wouldn’t do the process justice, so, here’s a list of some of the things I Googled while trying to figure out how to make this machine:

how to add objects in unity

unity ball asset download

unity ball asset download free

how to make a ball roll down a hill in unity

ball not falling in unity

why won’t objects move in unity

what is a rigid body in unity

how to add a rigid body to a ball in unity

ball going through objects in unity

how to add colliders in unity

why aren’t colliders working in unity

After frustration and countless test runs, I finally figured it out. Not only do you need a rigid body on the object that is falling, but both objects also need to have colliders and all colliders and rigid bodies need to be of the same dimension, meaning you can’t have a 2D rigid body and a 3D collider on the same object.

Also, I made my design. It’s got a lot going on and I’m thinking I might have to download some 3D files online for the parts that aren’t basic shapes like spheres and cubes. I’m really excited about the funnel part of it. I wanted it to be like one of those funnels that you see in museums for donations where you can slide a coin down it and it circles its way down to the bottom, and hopefully the ball will be able to do the same thing. I also have a catapult in there, not sure if that’s gonna work because I’m definitely gonna need to find a 3D model (or make it) but it needs to have a spring-loaded action in order to make the ball catapult since I can’t click it to activate it or anything. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find one that works, who knows.

I’m moving on now to the rest of the build, hopefully, we won’t have any more issues….

6:00pm

Well…we ran into more issues.

My original design was made with no knowledge of the capabilities that Unity has involving collisions and rigid bodies, so after my brief, self-taught crash course on the basics, I felt that I had a good handle on how and why we need collisions and thought the rest of the process would go fairly smooth.

Boy was I wrong.

I thought the funnel was going to be easy enough, just add another collision and it would just work, but I didn’t realize that since it’s such an irregular shape, you need specific kind of collisions otherwise the ball just goes right through. The problem is, that kind of collision is considered a 3D collision, not a 2D collision.

Since I had used 2D collisions for all of my blocks and the balls, I wasn’t able to make the irregularly shaped funnel collide with the ball, since you can’t mix 2D and 3D collisions and I needed to add a mesh collision to the funnel because it’s a complex and irregular shape, which is a 3D collision. So, in my efforts to make this work, I changed all of my collisions to 3D collisions. 

The issue with this was that I had adjusted the gravity for one of the blocks that fell and slingshotted another ball into the funnel thing, but with 3D collisions and 3D rigid bodies, you can’t adjust the gravity in the same way as you can the 2D ones without scripts which I don’t know how to use. 

So I ended up changing all the collisions back to 2D collisions because I read somewhere that there is a 2D collision option for irregular shapes, the polygon collision tool, so I thought that would make it work the way I wanted it to with the gravity change and everything, but it didn't go too well...

I think this tool could definitely be really helpful in situations like this or when you just need a collision on part of an object and you want it to be more accurate than just the box colliders, but I was just having so much trouble grasping how to make it do what I wanted it to, so I tried to rework my whole design in order to have the slower falling block (since I can’t change gravity, bummer) bump a ramp that would send the ball rolling into the funnel, but the ball ended up rolling too slowly and just went straight down the funnel instead of swirling the way I wanted it to, so after all the work of changing the collisions and rigid bodies, I was still stuck.

I think I might have to ditch the funnel idea, which is unfortunate because it would’ve been so cool if it actually worked the way I wanted it to but without the scripts to help it move the way I want it to, I don’t think it’s gonna look good. I also realized that the 3D collisions are more limiting than the 2D collisions, so I want to keep using the 2D collisions in hopes that some of the later stuff in my design will work the way I want it to.

I might change the funnel into something like a basketball hoop just to make the transition to the next part more interesting and try to keep the same idea that I was going for, but I’ll probably have to rework everything again because I know the catapult is not going to work the way I want it to, mostly because I can’t find an asset anywhere that has something like a spring-loaded catapult that doesn’t require scripts, so I’ll save that for another day.

Saturday, June 1st

10:00am

Alrighty, we’re back at it after last night. I got distracted with dinner and decided it was better to sleep on it than getting more frustrated trying to figure out my design. I did more research about collisions and trying to get a mesh collision to work with 2D collisions, but it seems like that’s just not something the software can do. I am still kind of sad that I couldn’t find a way to make the funnel work the way I wanted it to, and the catapult is definitely not going to work either because of the intricacies of the program that I didn’t know when I first designed it. Basically, I wanted the machine to catapult one of the balls through some hoops that would set off the next chain reaction, but that’s been taken out now.

Hopefully, this will end up working better. I’m still trying to keep the same kind of elements in order to get to the end goal and not make it super boring, but for now, I’m going to finish what I can and we’ll check in when I get stuck again (because we all know I’m definitely gonna get stuck again at some point.)

12:00pm

I lied! No more stucks!

I finished the final design that I had with minimal changes and it actually works!! I’m still kind of upset that I had to change some parts of it like the funnel, and the basketball hoop idea turned into a tube but that didn’t work either because I ran into the same issue with needing collisions but the ball wouldn’t interact with the tube the way I wanted to unless I used 3D collisions, so I changed it to this ramp down/step idea thing. And then the other part that didn’t work was the catapult and since my design needed a way for the reaction to get higher than it already was, I placed some dominos up a staircase and that finished the machine!

To be completely honest, I wish that there was more to it, so I’ll probably end up adding more, but I saved the file as is so I have that as a back up if something goes wrong. I really like the way I did then end because in a lot of Rube Goldberg Machines, it kind of just “ends” but I had it end by giving the last block a purpose: to finish the tower. I’m really happy with the way this turned out and I learned so much in the process about basic physics in the game and what needs to be applied in order to make that happen.

One part that I’m particularly proud of is the tiltey ramp thing close to the end where the block falls and makes the ball roll down from the other side. I first tried making that just with normal cubes in Unity, but quickly discovered that with the rigid bodies and collisions that I needed that the whole thing fell apart as soon as I ran the simulation, so I decided to design it myself. I used Shapr3D which is an iPad app that is just the best 3D modeling software I have ever used. It’s way more hands-on than just a mouse and keyboard because I actually get to track around the object and design it with my pencil and hands. In my opinion, it makes designing so much easier. So I’m really happy with the way that one turned out.

I’ll probably end up fixing the middle section where the ball falls down the little ramps because I think it looks kind of messy and it could be a much more interesting section, since it was originally supposed to be the funnel/basketball hoop idea, but overall I’m super proud of myself with how far I’ve come using this software in just under a day, and I can’t wait to see what I’ll be capable of by the end of the course.

Monday, June 3rd

1:45pm

RED FREAKING ALERT!!! I SCREWED EVERYTHING UP!

I was talking to one of my friends who knows Unity well and asking how to export the package and when it all came up I realized there were a lot of assets that were in the package that I didn’t use, so in my effort to clean everything up a little bit, I started deleting asset packages that I didn’t use.

OR SO I THOUGHT!

I accidentally deleted all of the platforms and ramps from the WHOLE THING because I didn’t realize that the asset was in one of the packages that I deleted. I tried to troubleshoot and get the package back, but I totally ignored the warning that once you delete a package it can’t be undone.

So long story short, I had to remake the ENTIRE PROJECT from scratch. rip.

It went pretty quickly and only took me about 2 hours to redo the whole thing and it actually gave me time to rethink some of the designs and potentially add some more components. I ended up keeping most of what I already had but I changed the end a little bit to make it a tad more exciting. I also increased the gravity on all moving objects to make them fall a little quicker because my parents said it was a little slow to watch. I also added one massive feature to the end that I quite enjoy. It serves little purpose other than to give me a chuckle, but still. (I had to put the video in a separate post)

So, now I think I’m actually done and I learned my lesson to only upload the asset packages I need to the project and to NOT DELETE ANY OF THEM EVER.

This process took me over 8 hours of working time to fully complete, but I learned a lot and made a lot of mistakes that I know not to make next time. While I was so frustrated that I completely deleted most of my project, it actually showed me how much I’ve improved just in the few days I’ve been working on this project and how I can be much more efficient and work faster now that I (kind of) know what I’m doing.

Below is the Google Drive link to the Unity Package:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GuA92kmZMyIdXKUJx5-FQTk_MYUpXr3E/view?usp=sharing

[seoulfulcity]

June 10, 2018: Take Me to Beijing, China

你好,

I actually finished my Beijing blog during my long 12-hour layover in Seoul. I exited the Tumblr app on my phone for a moment and Tumblr decided to just delete everything. So, here I am, in Osaka, re-writing my Beijing blog. Sigh.

Saturday, June 9, 2018: Beijing did not start off great, let me tell you that.

We arrived in Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU) at around 5 PM for our 9 PM flight to Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK). Little did I know, Wu Lei was also departing CTU that same time. He actually starred in a few famous Chinese dramas such as The Whirlwind Girl (Both the first and second one - shout out to Yang Yang and Ji Changwook) and Nirvana in Fire. Great way to start our Beijing adventures, right?

We went through security fairly quickly and had three hours to explore CTU after. Closer to our departure time, our flight was delayed to 10:10 PM with a new arrival time of 1:05 AM.

Just an hour of delay - nothing to worry about. Give or take an hour or two for transportation between PEK to our hotel by the Forbidden City, and we're looking at arriving around 3 AM.

Fact: We're only in Beijing the entire day of June 10 and we were flying out of the city the next day; so here's where the problem begins. We were supposed to go to the Great Wall at 7 AM and stay there until noon.

I saved two hours for the ride going back to the city and from 2-4 PM should have been the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven. Then we visit Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City in the evening and call it a successful day in Beijing. Spoiler alert - none of that happened. This is an introduction to what is known as The Murphy's Law.

It all started with the flight delay.

After announcing the one-hour delay, they later changed it to "indefinite delay" due to bad weather in a nearby airport. Great. Indefinite delay. Not even the people in the receptionist in front of the airplane entrance had an estimate when we were gonna board.

Just "indefinite".

Luckily (well, no), we boarded the plane half an hour past midnight for a three-hour flight to Beijing. We were estimated to arrive around 4 AM. So, that 7 AM trip to the Great Wall needed to be changed, I suppose. To make it more interesting: after we landed in PEK at 4 in the morning, we were greeted by this beautiful marquee:

A 50-minute wait for a taxi at 4 in the morning. This was unbelievable. We only had one day to spend in Beijing and Murphy seemed to be keeping himself busy with us.

Sunday, June 10, 2018: We did not arrive to our hotel until 5:30 AM; we quickly agreed to hike up the Great Wall around noon instead. It might be a little sunny and crowded, but at least we would get enough rest. We cut the times for the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City in half to accommodate with our extra hours of sleep.

Once again. Murphy was very busy that day and had plans on his own for us.

That morning, we talked to the receptionist regarding the best ways to travel to the Great Wall and she said that taxis can't access the walls and public transportation will take about two hours each way.

We did not have the time to have four hours just for transportation. What about a private driver? 900 yuan. Nope. Too expensive. Group tours? Last one that picked tourists up in front of our hotel left at 7 AM. Great. Now what?

We planned to take a taxi from the hotel to Deshengmen Station, which would take us directly to the most popular tourist spot of the Great Wall - Badaling.

We hailed the taxi, who told us that since it was a Sunday, the last bus from Deshengmen to Badaling was at 10 AM.

Okay, mister. Come up with a better lie.

So, he offered to drive us to a nearby station (I don't remember what it was called since he used a translation app during the entire ride - Wufanglian? Wufangyin? Wangfingyin?) where a group tour can drive us to Badaling, see some Ming tombs, and a Chinese garden with entrance tickets and lunch included for only 210 yuan.

Not bad since the driver said they would drop us back to the station, which was very close to our hotel anyway. The group tour would save us the time and the stress with finding transportation. We naively agreed to it.

Now, let us cut to the chase - this was a scam trip.

The bus was filled with middle-aged Chinese locals, a family with two children, and a young couple in their mid-20s, so I didn't feel very uncomfortable. We arrived in a suspiciously-empty side of Badaling, with no security checking for tickets, whatsoever after an hour of driving.

Anyways, we were on the Great Wall and that was all that mattered. I could skip out on the Ming tombs and the rest and just spend my time marveling the beauty of one of the wonders of the world.

We stayed for one hour and went back to the bus. I estimated our time of arrival to be 3 PM so we had a few hours to fit the rest of the Beijing attractions.

I was wrong.

We were driven to a remote area where they had a terrible map of the Ming tombs on the wall.

That was the Ming tombs tour. Just a map.

We were brought in to a huge room where they sold expensive jewelries and we had stayed there for an entire hour before getting lunch of just appetizers, such as cucumbers. That was it.

That was then when I knew this was the type of tourist scams I've read about online.

We stopped at another spot nearby where they sold Chinese chips and we were there for another good hour.

Another stop was with a garden where the tour guide had us walk around to talk about different rooms in a temple, and another map of where some antique Buddha statues were located around China - all in Chinese. Once again, we were there for another hour where they tried to sell jewelries to us.

At this point, Simi and I were just upset and ready to pay a ridiculous amount of taxi fare to go back to our hotel since we were really far away from the city.

We were dropped off in front of the Olympic Stadium - I hated everyone part of that scam. They told us they were dropping us back to where we departed, now we had to figure out where we were and how to get back home.

Time stamp: 8:44 PM. Our day was gone. We were robbed 8 hours of our day with that damn scam of a group tour. I was very upset. We took a taxi to the Silk Market, since our Nursing family were staying in a hotel close to the market so we planned on surprising them before they leave Beijing back to Los Angeles.

After exploring the Silk Market, which was surprisingly a very fancy mall of six floors where you get to practice your haggling skills, we walked to the hotel where our Nursing family was staying.

We stayed for an hour until we had access to Wi-Fi and saw on Snapchat that they departed Beijing at 11 in the morning.

Bummer. All our plans went down the drain.

We arrived back to our hotel close to midnight and agreed to visit Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City early morning before our 1 PM flight to Hong Kong. Our hotel was situated just a 10-minute walk to the Forbidden City, so we spent the first part of our morning exploring the Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

So, what did I think about my experience in China? Let's go back to the 10 fears mentioned in my Macau and Guangzhou blog.

China is filled with scammers and you have to constantly be wary of your surroundings - I only had this experience in Beijing, so I can't generalized the entire country based on that one incident, but yes. Scammers are ubiquitous in China and you need to be aware and educate yourself on the different schemes they use prior to visiting the country to avoid being placed in that situation.

Language barrier is the most terrifying thing - nobody will be able to help you since English is not widely taught; and apparently people are too impatient to even bother with a translator - Yes, language barrier is the biggest problem you'll have on a day-to-day basis but a lot of apps are available to help you navigate through China. I used Translate Offline and Pleco and got through just fine. Although, the Chinese have this great app that translate spoken Chinese into really well-written academic English sentences and I was very impressed. I still wonder what app that was.

The Great Firewall. Enough said - Okay, no. I made myself believe that all these apps would not open in China, but that's wrong. They're just very slow. If you use your data, you have access to all the Western apps, but if you use the Wi-Fi, then you wouldn't be able to even use them with how slow they are; but I used ExpressVPN during my entire trip in China.

China has a history of tracking its citizens, and visitors need to buy things that could prevent identity theft - I never really had an experience with this but I was told that WeChat is used by the government to track its people - and WeChat is everywhere. China is almost cashless because of WeChat - it's crazy. You can't survive the country if you don't have this app installed on your phone. This is a link to Mamahuhu’s video on how important WeChat is to the daily lives of the Chinese population if you want to find out more about it: China is Beyond Cashless As a review, WeChat and a VPN are the two most important apps you need installed prior to visiting the country.

Pollution. The internet needed me to buy a thick face mask to protect my respiratory system - Yup. The air was mean to my throat which gave me dry cough throughout my stay in China. You can see me wearing a black face mask in most of my pictures in the country. Even a few weeks after leaving Beijing, my throat is still somewhat irritated. It was so much worse in Beijing since you could not even see the buildings with how bad the pollution was. I will attach a picture towards the end of the blog.

The hot and humid weather is unbearable. You won't be able to do a lot with how much energy you're wasting by just sweating - Beijing had one of the most beautiful weathers I had ever experienced. It was cloudy with a nice cool breeze. We hiked up the Great Wall and did not even break a sweat.

Wild dogs carrying rabies everywhere, children pooping in street corners, squat toilets, and basically the complete opposite of the magnificent America. Apparently the whole country is rabid and unsanitary - No. This is just no. China is very civilized most of the time. The only time they aren't is in line where everybody feels the need to overtake. They even have quotes in the men’s urinals saying that stepping closer to the urinal is a step closer to a civilized China. Like, how communal is that? Haha. Other than that, Americans are actually meaner than the Chinese - at least in my experience in Los Angeles.

The food and water are very dirty. They apparently boil sewage water for consumption and the oil they use for street foods are months old. I was suggested to bring different medications for diarrhea, constipation, acid reflux, and all kinds of drugs for future stomach problems - I never had the chance to take any of the medications, thankfully; but for future reference, there are pharmacies in China and you are more than capable on buying Pepto Bismol when you need it. Bringing the whole pharmacy in your luggage is a little too much. I was scared for this to happen, so I only ate in actual restaurants and avoided suspicious places and streetfoods.

The people are mean and unforgiving. They will yell, hit, and shove as an instinct - Only in line!!! Beijingers are the worst during rush hour, and I've used the New York subways!

Overall, China is going to be a scary place for a first-time solo traveler - It is a very intimidating place, especially for someone whose Chinese knowledge is limited to ni hao and xiexie. But, embrace the independence if China is the first country you're traveling to as a first-time solo traveler. It has so much to offer, such as history, culture, food, and night life. I could not have asked for any other country to dive into as a solo traveler other than this one. The country matures you faster and you become more aware of which travel habits you need to change that only worked when traveling with other people and family.

My phone is acting weird like it's not typing the word I want it to type and the cursor jumps everywhere. It rained today in Osaka, so I guess it got wet? Or maybe the screen is just oily from my fingers?

Anyways, I don't plan on writing a blog on my layover in Hong Kong or Seoul before heading to Tokyo since they were very uneventful.

Although, I stayed in HKG for 31 hours, which was definitely a first.

Just a heads-up, I expect my Tokyo blog to be very lengthy so I plan to divide it into four different blogs, so keep an eye out for that one (or those four, I guess). Until then!

谢谢,  Chris 「克里斯」