#most orders will probably go out in a week or two once my deadline rush/con crunch is over btw ^_^

[kindest-little-fella-in-town]

HEY STARDEW PEOPLE!!!!

do you like analysing the effects of evil corporations upon human beings a normal amount? do you want to save caroline from her dumb husband? do you just need to find a physical method by which to watch evil old men melt on a fire?

if the answer to any of those questions is “yes,” you should check out my new sdv shopkeeper keyrings!!!!

the keyrings are one-sided + 3 inches tall, and they all come with a silver flower clasp and a protective film on the front of the acrylic to prevent shipping damage. each order also includes a free sticker of whichever design you chose!

they’re £7 each, + £5 international shipping (or £2 if you’re in the UK!). there are 8 of each character in stock as of right now, but i’ll try to update this periodically to keep track of numbers! 😁

big ol’ hyperlink that takes you to the etsy listing :^]

[warriorlid14]

Career Advice

Summary: Ron finds an ingenious way to choose his major. College!AU

Words: 1,564

You can find this story on AO3 and FFN.

“Okay, Harry. I’m going to do it.”

“Right.”

“This is it, mate. The decision I make here today will define my life forever.”

“Okay.”

“Remember this day, Harry. Friday, October 18 at-” Ron checked his watch with a look of utmost concentration on his face. Harry grinned.  “11:02 p.m. No, wait. It’s now 11:03. Or actually at whatever time Hermione gets here.”

And as luck would have it, at that exact moment there was a knock on the door, and a feminine voice that was clearly out of breath called out, “I’m here! Let me in!”

Harry stood up from his bed and opened the door, and a winded and anxious Hermione rushed in, saying, “What’s going on? Is someone hurt?”

“Hermione!” Ron exclaimed, beaming at his girlfriend from his space on the floor. “You’re finally here!”

“Ron! What’s the emergency, what-” She stopped to look at the bottle on the floor that was a third of the way empty and at the empty shot glass next to her boyfriend, who was still looking up at her with a grin. “Are you drunk!?”

“No!”

“Yes,” Harry said at the same time. Ron shot a glare in his direction, then looked up at Hermione with the most innocent expression he could muster.

“He’s lying, he is. You shouldn’t believe anything he says. The traito-” 

“Is this what the big emergency is!? You wanted me to drink with you?? I was scared to death!” Hermione’s voice rose in pitch and her eyes flashed in anger, and if that look was directed at him, Harry would have jumped out the window already in order to escape.

“No! And anyway, you wouldn’t want to drink this. It’s nasty. I think it’s supposed to be some type of tequila?” Ron picked up the bottle and squinted at it. 

“Why are you drinking it then?” Hermione yelled.

“Well, I nicked it from Charlie’s last weekend, and I didn’t have time to look through his stuff. And I don’t have a mixer right now, so.” He shrugged and began to pour out another shot.

“What? No, you don’t have to drink it at all, Ron.”

Harry stifled a laugh again, this time at the way Hermione had been so quickly distracted by her boyfriend’s antics. It was only Ron who was able to make her lose focus and distract her this effectively.

“Wait, so what’s going on, then?” she asked, remembering what she was here for. “You said it was life or death.” This time, her glare turned to Harry, and he held up his hands in a “don’t shoot the messenger” position. 

“Hey, don’t look at me. It was all him.” Not even twenty minutes earlier, Ron had sent her a series of text messages then taken Harry’s phone and sent more messages to Hermione including “COME QUICK”, “IT’S LIFE OR DEATH”, and “WE NEED YOU NOW”. 

“Right!” Ron said, and jumped up with an impressive amount of grace. He snatched up the notebook from his bed that he had been writing in and mumbling about for the past five hours. “You were summoned for what is probably one of the most important decisions of my life. Tonight, we will determine my entire future.” He handed her the notebook with utmost care, as if he were handing her a baby. She snatched it up angrily.

“Computer science, communication, engineering, economics, radio and media… Ron! Are these all majors!?” she yelled.

“Yup.”

“You told me you’d decided on business a week ago!” Her eyes were accusatory.

“They’re all rich snobs, Hermione! I’m not a rich snob,” Ron said defensively. This time, Harry did laugh. 

“Ron,” Hermione said, almost pleadingly. She looked down at the notebook again.  “The deadline is at midnight! And there’s ten majors on here!” Her voice had taken on a panicked tone. “How are we supposed to pick one in time?”

Ron grinned at her. “I have a plan.” He walked five steps back to his desk and grabbed a pair of scissors and a cup. “It’s fool-proof.” 

“What? What are you-” When he began to individually cut out each major he had written, Hermione’s eyes widened in realization. “Oh. Oh no.”

Harry was grinning like a maniac now. “Oh yes.”

“Ron, you can’t leave your career up to chance!” Harry laughed again at her horrified expression. “And why are you supporting this?”

Harry shrugged. “I mean, it’s not like he has much of a choice right now. Deadline to declare is in-” He looked at his watch. “Fifty-one minutes.”

She fixed her attention back to her boyfriend. “Did you even look through the pamphlets for all the different majors that I gave you? Did you go to academic advising?”

“I did!” Ron defended himself, continuing to cut out the majors. “I did all of that and I was still just as conflicted as when I first applied to Uni.” He paused and leaned down to pick up the shot he had poured out earlier.

“What about the pro and con lists?”

“Did them.”

“And did you talk to your brothers?”

“Yes.”

“Ron! You can’t make this decision like this! This is your entire future!”

“I know!” He folded up the last piece of paper and put it in the cup. “I know it’s not ideal. Do you think I want to do this? Why do you think I’m drunk off my arse right now? I don’t know what else to do!” 

He ran a hand through his hair and continued. “You’ve known what you’ve wanted to study since you were eight, Hermione. And you’re brilliant at it! You’re going to graduate with honors, top of the class and with half of the majors this school has to offer.” He smiled at her, and she blushed. Hermione was currently a pre-law student majoring in government. And sociology. With a minor in criminal justice. And a certificate in government. “You’re going to be the best civil rights attorney in the country.” She smiled at him too, and suddenly they were looking at each other with the sappiest looks Harry had ever seen and leaning in towards each other and-

“No sex with your roommate in the room!” Harry shouted suddenly and they broke apart.

“We weren’t going to!” Hermione shouted, but she was blushing profusely.

Ron rolled his eyes, but he was blushing as well. “Anyway. And Harry has this whole inspirational story about how this police officer named Angry Eye said he would be the best police officer alive and give the most parking tickets in history.”

“Okay, his nickname was Mad-Eye Moody, and he said that I’d be an asset to the MI6 and that I should go into criminal justice,” Harry clarified with a mock glare. Ron grinned at him to let him know he was joking and not actually mocking his dreams.

“The point is,” he continued. “You guys have known what you wanted to do for a while. And I don’t. There’s nothing I’m good at-”

Both Harry and Hermione began to protest at once.

“That’s not-” 

“Hey, don’t-” 

“Okay, okay,” Ron said, holding his hands up. “I’m good at some stuff. But there’s nothing I’m passionate about. I don’t have a life-long ambition like you two. Or at least nothing that I’ve found yet.” He held out the cup. “What I do have is a list of possible careers that I could see myself doing. That I’d probably be decent at, and that pay fairly well, and that I’d be content with. And I mean, it’s just a job right? As long as I like it, I don’t have to love it, do I? I mean, I can be passionate about other stuff, right? Like, helping out family and friends and making sure they’re happy. Right?”

Hermione leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “There’s nothing wrong with that, Ron. And besides, you don’t have to stick with whatever you choose today for the rest of your life. You can change your mind later if you want.”

Ron smiled at her and gave her a small peck on the lips. Harry groaned, and Ron had the decency to look sheepish. He quickly cleared his throat and said, “What about you, mate? Any final objections?”

“Hey, you know I support you no matter what.” Ron grinned at him and then took a deep breath. “Okay. Maybe one more drink for luck?”

“No!”

“You’re running out of time!”

“Okay fine!” He covered the top of the cup with one hand. “Harry, drum roll please.” Harry obliged and began to tap on the wall. 

Ron shook the cup for a few seconds, then pulled out a small piece of paper. Both Harry and Hermione leaned in eagerly as he unfolded it.

“Well, what does it say?” Hermione asked impatiently.

Ron held up the paper with a blank look on his face. “Government.” He was quiet for a second, then said, “Okay. If that’s what the universe decrees. I can work with that.” He smiled up at them. “Hey, we’ll all be in similar fields, right? Hermione, maybe we’ll take classes together! Although, I don’t want to go to law school. But it’s fine, there’s other jobs you can get with a government degree, right?”

“You hate it, don’t you?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, I do,” Ron said and began shaking the cup again.

[beezeeart]

Hi! I've started selling plushies on Etsy and was wondering about your opinions on premaking plushies or selling made-to-order (you start progress after someone buys). Thanks :) !

Each have their pros and cons. Beware, my inability to say what I want to say in less than a novella length essay has struck again. Personally, I find selling pre-made plushies to be the least stressful. Someone orders, you stick it in the mail in the next day or two, and that’s (hopefully) the end of it if everything goes right. However selling pre-made plushies requires a ton of storage space unless you are selling them fast. Which is a huge downside if, like me, you live in a smaller apartment that’s already packed to the roof (literally in some places) with plushies. You’ll also need more money up front for supplies. There’s a larger risk, too. Every store is going to vary, but in general an empty storefront doesn’t attract many customers. It’s kind of like if you walk in a store and it’s literally empty except 4 items on a shelf. You’d probably turn around and walk right out without even looking. Even though those 4 times might have been REALLY good items. It’s the same for online selling. So you might purchase a ton of supplies, spent hundreds of hours building up a good stock and then... nothing. Even with my best sellers I sometimes get slumps where they don’t sell or where I overestimate the growing demand for an item and it drops off. Then it sits there for months or even years before I make back my investment. Selling made to order eliminates a lot of those issues. You don’t need to store plushies. You don’t even need to have many materials on hand as you can buy them as you need them. Personally when I’m taking orders I usually am booked about 2 weeks out so I know that all the time I spend working is already profitable which is nice. Plus it allows for more flexibility, you can make one plushie in blue, then put up a color chart and take orders for 50 other colors with just one plushie. The downside to made to order is that it’s much more stressful. Really I could rant on this for a long time, but basically any time you make the online shopping process deviate from the standard people are used to you are going to run into issues with people who purchased on autopilot and then aren’t happy when the experience isn’t what they expected. Specifically, most people don’t read that an item is made to order and are generally unhappy when they discover this because people tend to just purchase with the assumption that what they see in the photo is what they get and no other information is important or relevant unless they have a question they need answered. I joke often with my family I could just put a picture of a stuffed animal and the title and description could say in all caps, “You are just giving me free money, by buying this you agree that you won’t be receiving anything,” and people would still purchase it and then email me a week later asking where their plushie is. Generally these issues can be resolved with good customer service, but even the best interactions can be stressful, especially if this is an area where you struggle. I’m an anxious, over thinker and I absolutely have days where I regret basically all my life choices when I get a string of unhappy customers.Another con to made to order is there may be things outside of your control that prevent you from creating the item. I sell sparkly fleece bats and once I got a massive order for them. More than I had enough fabric to create. So I popped down to Joann’s to pick up some more fabric... and the fabric had been discontinued and no one in a 50 mile radius had any in stock. I had to contact a fellow artist and had them rush deliver me some from their own inventory. Then there’s times you might get sick, or have a family emergency, or a natural disaster, or your car breaks down, etc and you can’t get an item out in time. Or you just plain struggle that week to stay on task and fall behind.Like I said, stress. But for those who are good with keeping deadlines and feel comfortable with customer service, it’s a good option to keep up front costs low. For me personally many of my items are made to order simply because of the way my schedule works it’s very common I’m working on a pattern while I’m taking orders, then I swap to making the orders, then back to designing new patterns while I take more. I’ve been experimenting with a middle ground where I prep some quick/easy parts of plushies and store them until I need them. Like bat feet, narwhal horns, the toppings for the sea pancakes, etc. It’s not ideal in my opinion and I’d like to be able to swap some day to only pre-made plushies, but for now it’s what works. 

[flauntpage]

Blue Jays Mailbag: Which AL East Team Should Toronto Be Most Worried About?

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports Canada.

Andrew Stoeten answers your questions in our Blue Jays Mailbag, which runs weekly at VICE Sports. You can send him questions at stoeten@gmail.com, and follow him on Twitter.

The Blue Jays continue to inch toward .500, and toward relevance in the American League. And although the trade deadline is still more than six weeks away, the thoughts of the fan base seem to have turned to reinforcements, and what the front office can do to make this roster better.

And while no realistic answer about the 2017 Jays' trade prospects is going to be satisfying to fans clamouring for better options in the bullpen, in left field, and at second base, as we open up this week's Blue Jays mailbag, we learn that such trivialities aren't going to stop fans from speculating! So let's dig in, with an especially transaction-heavy early-June edition!

If you have a Blue Jays question you'd like me to tackle for next week, be sure to send it to stoeten@gmail.com. As always, I have not read any of Griff's answers.

At the start of the season, you said the Red Sox were most likely to challenge the Jays for 1st in the AL East. In mid-June, the Yankees have a 3 1/2 game lead. Do you still think the Red Sox are the biggest obstacle in the Jays way to winning the division?

Jonathan

Yeah, I do.

Despite also leading their divisions, I don't think the Twins or the Brewers are real, either.

Which isn't to say that the Yankees aren't better than a lot of people gave them credit for, myself included. I expected that they'd be pesky, and that they wouldn't be pushovers in their games against the Jays, but after all the veterans they traded last July and over the winter, I certainly didn't expect this.

But I also don't expect this to continue. Aaron Judge looks legit, but he isn't Mike Trout. Nothing about Aaron Hicks has ever suggested he's anything close to one of the ten best hitters on the planet. Right now Didi Gregorius ranks just inside the top 60 in wRC+ among hitters with at least 150 plate appearances, and there are six Yankees regulars who rank ahead of him. Six!!! And stupid Jordan Montgomery is giving them productive starts, to boot! That shit is nuts!

These Yankees may not fall off to the point where they're still not really good, but they will fall off. They have 102 games still left to play. A lot can happen. The Yankees entered Monday with a four-game division lead on the second-place Red Sox, who are only 3.5 up on the last-place Blue Jays in the tight AL East.

And while the Red Sox have been a bit of a delicious mess so far, I still think that, top to bottom, they have the most talented roster in the American League, outside of Houston. That usually means they'll be the team to beat. Not always, but usually. And I don't think I've seen enough yet to bet against that. Even with the Yankees doing the best to make us all question everything we've ever believed in.

---

Jays badly need a good lefty in the pen, which LHRP would you like the Jays to target? My pick: Brad Hand.

Newfound Lanny

Yeah... I don't think the Jays badly need a good lefty in the 'pen.

They certainly could use one if a good one came along at the right price, but the acquisition of bullpen lefties seems to have become something of an obsession these last few years among Jays fans who haven't quite yet noticed that they've been doing just fine getting lefties out.

Obviously having Brett Cecil during the club's runs in 2015 and 2016 helped a lot in this regard. And obviously getting left-handed hitters out is important. But do we have to sweat so much about which hand someone throws with when they're doing so?

No. No, we don't.

Hand, as you mention, was the No. 2 lefty reliever on a list of possible deadline trade candidates posted at MLB Trade Rumors on May 19. The only name above his was the Pirates' Tony Watson, whose season has gone sideways since then (he's allowed 10 earned runs over his last 10.2 innings), meaning that you're probably not wrong in identifying Hand as as one of the best options out there.

But considering that, let's play a game…

Player A: .180/.319/.410, .320 wOBA, 47 batters faced Player B: .234/.333/.319, .288 wOBA, 54 batters faced Player C: .182/.333/.277, .278 wOBA, 57 batters faced Player D: .189/.211/.216, .189 wOBA, 38 batters faced Player E: .228/.276/.326, .264 wOBA, 98 batters faced

Player A? It's Brad Hand, and the numbers we're looking at are how opposing left-handed batters have fared against him so far this year.

Players B through E? Joe Smith, Ryan Tepera, Danny Barnes, and Joe Biagini.

The samples are small, yes, but for me it underlines the fact that it's more important to just have good pitchers. Handedness matters, but no so much that we need to use words like "need" or "badly need" about a problem that doesn't really exist.

---

Hi Stoeten With Devon Travis out potentially long term, will it take another injury for the blue jays to see what they have in Jason Leblebijian? Tough to watch Barney/Goins every night at 2B. Thanks! Joshua

I get where you're coming from on this, because it definitely has been tough to watch those two at the plate lately, but Goins and Barney have been good soldiers for this club. They seem to be well-liked and well-respected. And given that this a club that relies so much on a pair of injury-prone middle infielders, having backups that are as capable with the glove as those two makes a bit of sense.

The way Leblebijian has hit in Buffalo so far this season, he's earned himself a closer look, but I think the Jays will really have to be compelled to ditch one of Goins or Barney in order to bring him here. And "ditching" them is what would be necessary, because Goins is out of options and Barney can refuse the assignment and elect free agency.

Alternatively, they could DFA Chris Coghlan to clear a spot for Leblebijian and I don't think anybody would bat an eye. But Coghlan may well be the player who is due to lose his roster spot once Steve Pearce is ready. And with Pearce due back soon, and capable of playing a little bit of second base in his own right (especially when the Jays' more fly-ball-heavy pitchers are on the mound), I guess my question is, how badly do the Jays even need to force a move here?

Will the difference between Leblebijian and Goins or Barney for a few days be enough to justify losing a key piece of organizational depth just to bring him up? Or to justify shortening their bullpen? Do we believe enough in his defence and that his Triple-A numbers will translate?

I'm sure it's possible that there could come a point where the front office decides the pros outweigh the cons here, but I don't think the case is overwhelming just yet. Even though, like you, I'm curious to see what he might do, too.

---

With Pearce 0 for rehab and Zeke and Coghlan looking less than stellar what can be done with Left Field between now and trade deadline?

Scott

Not to be too glib, but... uh... Steve Pearce can get healthy and fans can start to recognize that Ezequiel Carrera has actually been pretty good?

Shit, he hasn't even just been "pretty good," he's been "good." Maybe even better than good!

Yes, yes, the defensive gaffes are tough to watch sometimes, but Carrera has wiped away all those sins with a legitimately impressive season at the plate so far. Zeke's Thunder has carried him to a .292/.363/.410 slash line, and a 111 wRC+. Part of the reason he's been able to be so good is that John Gibbons has shielded him from left-handed pitching—something that's helped because, despite having a strong reverse split over his three previous seasons, this year, in a tiny sample against lefties, the left-handed hitting Carrera has been abysmal. If Carrera was a true everyday player (like the guys I'm about to compare him to) his numbers almost certainly wouldn't be as good.

Toronto has been missing the versatile Pearce for the last month, but Carrera has held down the fort in left. Photo by Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Still, though, Mookie Betts has a 112 wRC+! Same for Josh Reddick. Miguel Cabrera ranks below Carrera at 110. Also behind Carrera: Chris Davis, Michael Brantley, Wil Myers, Jose Bautista, Dustin Pedroia, A.J. Pollock, and nearly 150 hitters with at least 150 plate appearances so far this season!

I can't imagine he'll keep this up for the whole year, and I do think that left field is a place where the Jays should and will look to upgrade, it's just... I don't know that they're going to have all that much incentive to do anything dramatic. To find a player who will give them more than Carerra is giving them right now—and more than what they'll presumably get from a platoon of Carrera and Pearce, once the latter returns (and no, his rehab stats don't matter)—currently looks like it would be an expensive proposition. That could change, of course—Carrera's production could fall off a cliff and Pearce could come back in as much of a funk as he was in April—but it's really not a problem until it's a problem.

---

Hey Stoeten, Big fan - keep it up. Two questions. First, if Smoak continues to be for real in July/August, do the Jays consider doubling-down and extending him again? How good does he have to be, for how long, before there's an extension conversation? (Not advocating for this, just wondering). Second, what's the deal with the Giants? Do they not mind the stench of human urine?

Cheers, Tim

Whoa! Holy hell, man! Let's maybe not rush too quickly into hoping the Jays become the team that signs Justin Smoak to his big post-breakout contract... when he's 32... with a track record that will still be overwhelmingly underwhelming. If, one year from today, this question still seems like a reasonable one—and not totally and utterly batshit, like it would have seemed as recently as April—fire up your barbecue, purchase some illegal fireworks, get liquored up and take a load of air horns up to the roof, because it's time for a goddamn celebration! At that point you can maybe start thinking about thinking about extending Smoak. Until then? Just enjoy the bloody ride and hope it doesn't end in carnage.

As for the Giants, to be perfectly honest, I'd have taken a roll of the dice on Sam Dyson, too.

Blue Jays Mailbag: Which AL East Team Should Toronto Be Most Worried About? published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv